Service Canada On-Hold Music of 2020

Question:

What's the on-hold music I hear when calling Service Canada?

Solution:

Memento by Robert Michaels is the song many folks "North of the 49th parallel" have been hearing during the 2020 pandemic while on hold calling Service Canada.

Why this post?

During the pandemic of 2020, someone I know needed to call a department of the Canadian government called Service Canada. After several hours of hearing a relaxing tropical-vacation-like song on loop -- and after a phone call with a wonderfully polite and helpful agent we should mention -- this song continued to play inside our heads.

After tracking it down, we saw that several other kindred spirits had also stumbled upon what this relaxing earworm was, which made us smile.

At only 1800 views on Youtube, we realized that more people may have heard this on hold than from the artist, so we wanted to direct a few more eyeballs to his work and level the playing field. So ladies and gents (and all others): if you want to re-live that relaxing, or at least memorable on-hold-for-hours-during-the-pandemic-oh-Canada experience and give kudos to the artist then please have a look at Robert Michaels' Memento -- enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lesCxbFsI0

Notes

This blog post was accurate and verified as of November 2020. Things may have changed by the time you are reading this blog post. If the pandemic is still going on then please stay safe, wherever you are in the world. Thank you for dropping by!

Check Mac fan speed for Mojave in Terminal

Problem:

I would like to check the fan speed of my Mac in Mojave without installing any additional programs. I am already comfortable using Terminal. I don't care much about fan or temperature details, I just want to know if the fan is working. How can I check the fan speed?

Solution:

The following steps below can help you check fan speed in Terminal. This is one of several ways to do so.

• open Terminal
• use the following command:

  
            sudo powermetrics -i 200 --samplers smc | grep Fan
          

If all went well then you should see the fan speed printed to the terminal repeatedly:

References:

• Details of the "powermetrics" command: https://www.unix.com/man-page/osx/1/powermetrics/

Find missing fonts using Inkscape 1.0 or earlier

Problem:

Using Inkscape, how do I find which fonts are missing but needed in my svg project?

I have moved svg inkscape image files from one machine to another and the new machine is missing fonts the old machine has.

Workarounds:

There are a few indirect ways to find fonts that are missing but required by a project in Inkscape. A few of which are shown below. These might not find all the missing fonts, but they should be a good start in your search.

Hopefully these workarounds help until Inkscape includes a feature for this.

1. Text and Font panel

The first way is to open the "Text and Font" panel and have a look at what fonts have a red line through it. Assuming your project has already been opened:

1. Find the "Text and Font..." dropdown menu item and select it 
   
2. In the "Text and Font" panel, have a look at which fonts have a red strikethrough
   

2. List all fonts and then manually check

Assuming that you know what fonts are installed in your system (or how to find out), you can also list all fonts used in your project and then compare them with your known installed fonts.

To find the names of all fonts used in your project:

1. In the extensions menu, navigate to "Replace font..."
   
2. Then go to the "List all fonts" tab and hit "Apply".
   .
3. If all goes well then the fonts should be listed
   
4. Use this list to compare to your system's installed fonts.

3. Click on text that looks incorrect

When you click on text elements that look incorrect because fonts are missing, Inkscape will show you the font name and an icon indicating that the font is missing.

This should work well for anyone with simpler projects, or projects that only have one or two fonts missing.

References:

• Inkscape manual: styling text

Prepend to every line in Visual Studio Code

Problem:

I want to add a string to the beginning of every line in a selection of code or text.

For example, I am reformatting what used to be a liquid templating list to a YAML list, e.g.

From:

item1
item2
item3

To:

  - item1
  - item2
  - item3

One solution - overview:

There are many ways to prepend to code quickly in bulk. One of the more versatile ways is by using the replace tool in Visual Studio Code combined with regex (i.e. regular expressions).

The "find" field will have the caret character ^ which indicates the beginning of a line. The "replace" field will have whatever you want to add at the beginning of lines.

Example:

For example, if I have the code in the screenshot below that I want to prepend the string " - " to:

First, select the code to prepend to:

Then invoke the "replace" tool:

Make sure you select the option to replace in your selection only. Then use a regex search for "^" as the beginning of a line, and replace with what you want to prepend. Do this for each line one by one until you have the results you desire.

After you are done, the lines should now be prepended with the desired string.

Notes:

There are many other ways that you can prepend lines in Visual Studio Code. The how-to above shows the regex replace method because it's a powerful tool that can handle many scenarios, not just prepending to lines.

Other methods may include installing plugins, using Visual Studio's multi-line cursor/select tools, etc.

References:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/using-regular-expressions-in-visual-studio?view=vs-2019

How to fix notch overlap in Flutter Basic Widgets example code

Problem:

I am learning Flutter, and the app bar on top in the Basic Widgets section of the Introduction to widgets section of the Flutter docs is being blocked by the notch of an iPhone or phone simulator, as seen below. How can I fix this?

Notes:

This bug was confirmed in April 2020. It's possible that the Flutter team has updated their documentation by the time you are reading this. (If so, thank you Flutter team!)

Also note that this how-to is just one way to workaround the issue. The later code in the Flutter documentation shows better practices on which widgets to use, etc., to avoid the notch. That being said, this workaround is for anyone who is trying to debug this before moving on.

Workaround:

The workaround is highlighted below, followed by a brief explanation:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

class MyAppBar extends StatelessWidget {
  MyAppBar({this.title});

  // Fields in a Widget subclass are always marked "final".

  final Widget title;

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Container(
      height: 56.0, // in logical pixels
      padding: const EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 8.0),
      decoration: BoxDecoration(color: Colors.blue[500]),
      // Row is a horizontal, linear layout.
      child: Row(
        //  is the type of items in the list.
        children: [
          IconButton(
            icon: Icon(Icons.menu),
            tooltip: 'Navigation menu',
            onPressed: null, // null disables the button
          ),
          // Expanded expands its child to fill the available space.
          Expanded(
            child: title,
          ),
          IconButton(
            icon: Icon(Icons.search),
            tooltip: 'Search',
            onPressed: null,
          ),
        ],
      ),
    );
  }
}

class MyScaffold extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    // Material is a conceptual piece of paper on which the UI appears.
    return Material(
      child: SafeArea(
        // Column is a vertical, linear layout.
        child: Column(
          children: [
            MyAppBar(
              title: Text(
                'Example title',
                style: Theme.of(context).primaryTextTheme.title,
              ),
            ),
            Expanded(
              child: Center(
                child: Text('Hello, world!'),
              ),
            ),
          ],
        ),
      ), // SafeArea
    ); // Material
  }
}

void main() {
  runApp(MaterialApp(
    title: 'My app', // used by the OS task switcher
    home: MyScaffold(),
  ));
}

The above code encloses the other widgets in the example code within the safe area of the device via the SafeArea widget - a class that adds appropriate insets for a given device.

If all went well, your results should now look similar to the image below and you can now move on to learning more Flutter, free from the iPhone-notch-overlap.

If you'd like to learn more, please check out the references below.

References:

• https://api.flutter.dev/flutter/widgets/SafeArea-class.html
• https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/4518 (similar question/issue with more discussion)

Get the sitemap of Blogger and Blogspot blogs

Problem:

I want to get or generate the xml sitemap of my Blogger.com or Blogspot blog.

I am using these sitemaps for Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and other webmaster tools.

Solution:

The good news is that blogger already generates these sitemaps for you. For your own blog, use the following pages at the root level of your blog's domain: "sitemap.xml" and "sitemap-pages.xml".

For example, this blog's URL is grammarofdev.blogspot.com, so its sitemaps can be found at

• https://grammarofdev.blogspot.com/sitemap.xml
• https://grammarofdev.blogspot.com/sitemap-pages.xml

Now that you know your Blogger weblog's sitemap URLs, you can submit those URLs to the webmaster tools of your liking. For example, here's what the sitemaps above look like after being successfully submitted to Bing Webmaster Tools:

References:

• https://support.google.com/blogger/thread/9075673?hl=en

1 way to add vertical rulers in Visual Studio Code

Problem:

How do I add vertical rulers in Visual Studio Code's editor views?

I want to add standard guide rulers at the 80 and 120 character columns.

Solution:

In VSCode 0.10.10 or newer:

1. Open Settings
   (Windows: File→Preferences→Settings; OS X/MacOS: Code→Preferences→Settings)
   
2. Search for "editor.rulers", then select to edit
   
3. Add the number of columns the rulers should be at. For example, the classic standards of 80 characters and 120 characters are shown below:
   
4. You should now see vertical rulers in your editor if done correctly and if your Visual Studio Code version is compatible. For older versions, restarting VSCode may be required to see the change.
   

Notes:

The solution above was tested to work on Visual Studio Code 1.44.0. Your results may vary in other versions.

References:

• https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings (search in the page for "editor.rulers")
• For even more answers, customizations, and suggestions have a look at the answers in this Stack Overflow question

bash scripting reminders of basics

Problem:

I want quick reminders for bash shell scripting because I don't write bash scripts often enough to memorize everything.

Notes:

The following reminders assume you're already familiar with the basics of bash shell scripting and simply need a reminder of more commonly used syntax, etc. These reminders are for myself but I hope you also find them useful.

Reminder shortcuts

As the number of reminders grow I hope this index will help you find what you need. (It certainly helps me.)

• References

• Top of script starts with #!/bin/bash
• Simple variables
• Concatenate strings
• String quotes of bash scripting
• Bash check if directory exists
• Bash for-loop
• Bash if-and, bash if-or
• Bash if directory does not exist
• Bash check if file exists
• For items in bash array
• Command line arguments in bash scripting
• How to check if git repo needs update from remote upstream with bash scripting
• How to check if script is on correct git branch for bash script

Reminders:

Top of script starts with #!/bin/bash

#!/bin/bash

See this tldp.org reference page for details.

Simple variables

Examples of simple variables

NAME="Delta"
echo "Hello $NAME!"

Concatenate strings

HELLO="Hello, "
NAME="Lily"

echo $HELLO$NAME
# output: Hello, Lily

HELLO="Hello, "
NAME="Alex"
GREET="${HELLO}${NAME}!"

echo "$GREET"
#output: Hello, Alex!

GREET="Hello, "
GREET+="Ninja"

echo "$GREET"
#output: Hello, Ninja

String quotes of bash scripting

DIRECTION="Right"
echo "Turn $DIRECTION"  # => Turn Right
echo 'Turn $DIRECTION'  # => Turn $DIRECTION

Bash for-loop

VAR=""
for NAME in 'alpha' 'bravo' 'charlie' 'delta'; do
  VAR+="${NAME} "
done

echo $VAR
# output: alpha bravo charlie delta 

Bash if-and, bash if-or

if [ $FILENAME == 'important.txt' ] && [ -f $FILENAME ]; then
  echo "this is an important file"
fi

if [ $NAME == 'Hector' ] || [ $NAME == 'Miguel' ]; then
  echo "this person is on a hero's journey"
fi

Bash check if directory exists

DIR="/usr/mydir/"

if [ -d "$DIR" ]; then
  echo "directory exists"
else
  echo "directory not found"
  exit 1
fi

DIR="/usr/mydir/"

[ "$DIR" == "" ] && { echo "directory string is empty"; exit 1; }
[ -d "${DIR}" ] && echo "directory exists" || echo "directory not found"

Bash if directory does not exist

DIR="/usr/mydir/"

if ! [ -d "$DIR" ]; then
  echo "directory does not exist"
else
  echo "directory exists"
fi

Bash check if file exists

if [ -f "/opt/myfile.txt" ]; then
  echo "file found"
else
  echo "file not found
fi

For items in bash array

DIR3="/opt/mydir3"
DIRTOCHECK=("/opt/mydir1" "/opt/mydir2" $DIR3)

for dir in "${DIRTOCHECK[@]}"
do
  if [ -d "${dir}" ]; then
    echo "found directory ${dir}"
  else
    echo "did not find directory ${dir}"
  fi
done

Command line arguments in bash scripting

# example: yourscript.sh arg1 2nd-arg

echo "All arguments values:" $@
# output: All arguments values: arg1 2nd-arg

echo "First argument:" ${1}
# output: First argument: arg1

echo "Second argument:" ${2}
# output: Second argument: 2nd-arg

echo "Total arguments:" $#
# output: Total arguments: 2

For more detailed information, please refer to this tecadmin.net tutorial

How to check if git repo needs update from remote upstream with bash scripting

This how-to assumes you already have a git repository installed, a remote upstream setup, and have navigated into the local repository via your script.

git fetch
if [ $(git rev-parse HEAD) == $(git rev-parse @{u}) ]; then
  # add logic for when no update is needed, e.g.
  echo 'already up to date.'
else
  # add logic for when update is needed, e.g.
  echo 'updating to latest.'
  git pull
fi

How to check if script is on correct git branch for bash script

The following example assumes master branch is desired and the script has already navigated to the local repository.

if ! [ $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD) == "master" ]; then
  echo "NOT in master branch."
else
  echo "in master branch."
fi

Why these reminders?

This page is intended to remind myself quickly without requiring too much reading. I hope it's helped you out, too.

References:

• http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-Guide/html/
• https://www.linux.com/training-tutorials/writing-simple-bash-script/
• https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/index.html
• https://linuxconfig.org/bash-scripting-tutorial-for-beginners

Slf4j NoClassDefFoundError when compiling SparkJava sample project

Problem:

When trying out the SparkJava demo for websockets (spark-websockets, "Using WebSockets and Spark to create a real-time chat app"), I get the following compilation error:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/slf4j/LoggerFactory
 at spark.Service.<clinit>(Service.java:56)
 at spark.Spark$SingletonHolder.<clinit>(Spark.java:51)
 at spark.Spark.getInstance(Spark.java:55)
 at spark.Spark.<clinit>(Spark.java:61)
 at Chat.main(Chat.java:19)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.slf4j.LoggerFactory
 at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:381)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
 at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:349)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
 ... 5 more

Workaround:

The following workaround worked as a quick way to try out the demo code:

• Open the project's pom.xml file
• Add the following dependency:

  
  <dependency>
    <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
    <version>1.7.21</version>
    <scope>compile</scope>
  </dependency>
  
  

If this worked, the project should now compile properly.

Notes:

The above workaround is one of many solutions that can work towards a successful compile. Others include adding a JAR file for a logger, for example. This solution was chosen as it is the quickest for a beginner to do while learning how to use SparkJava or while learning programming in Java.

This how-to was verified to work in revision 8cc09e8cea9257a0df3449106a57ad0467faf39b (Sep 4, 2017) of the spark-websockets project. Your results may vary for other revisions.

References:

• https://github.com/tipsy/spark-websocket
• more about slf4j logging https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.slf4j

Meteor VSCode esversion 6 jslint error

Problem:

When using Visual Studio Code to edit my Meteor project, I keep seeing the error:

'import' is only available in ES6 (use 'esversion: 6'). (W119) jshint(W119)

For example:

Workaround:

• To hide the jshint errors: in the main folder of your Meteor project, if the file named ".jshintrc" does not exist then add it
• In this .jshintrc file, add the following text:

  {
      "esversion": 6
  }
  

You may need to close and reopen the project in VSCode. If the workaround is successful, you should no longer see the esversion 6 error.

Notes:

This workaround was verified to help remove the jslint errors while using Visual Studio Code version 1.43.1 with Meteor 1.10.1. Your results may vary given different versions. Please also note that this workaround hides the jshint error from being highlighted, but it won't fix compilation errors if your Meteor project isn't properly setup to compile esversion 6.

References:

https://jshint.com/docs/options/

Catalina Jekyll bad interpreter error

Problem:

When trying to run jekyll in Terminal, I get the following error:

zsh: /usr/local/bin/jekyll: bad interpreter: /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.3/usr/bin/ruby: no such file or directory

I recently upgraded MacOS.

Before you start:

This how-to assumes you already have knowledge of Terminal and the 'sudo' command, given that you've already installed Jekyll in the past. If not, please proceed at your discretion as 'sudo' command can be harmful if used incorrectly.

Solution:

In Terminal, reinstall jekyll via homebrew:

sudo gem install jekyll

Why this works:

The upgrade to Catalina changed key dependencies of Jekyll. While it is possible to manually link them or add them to your PATH, reinstalling Jekyll should provide an easier and more robust solution. You'll likely also need to reinstall any other gems you need.

Disclaimer:

This solution was verified to work in MacOS 10.15.3 with Jekyll 4.0.0. Your mileage may vary with other versions.

References:

• https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/cant-run-jekyll-in-mac-os-sierra/1263/2
• https://muffinman.io/macos-catalina-ruby-bad-interpreter-error/ (useful read if you prefer using the Homebrew version)