Jim Tuttle's Infrequent Blog

DOS Batch script to unzip a ZIP file and then delete the ZIP

2011-05-13T19:14:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure about you, but 95% of the time when I have a ZIP file, all I want to do is unzip. I don't want to browse it in Windows Explorer and I sure don't want to open it in WinZip. When StuffIt Expander was easy to install and use, this tool had an option to do exactly this. Double-click the ZIP, StuffIt would unzip with a minimal UI (if any), delete the ZIP, and then quit. This is no longer an (obvious) option, so I thought, why not write my own script for this?

You'll need to install 7-Zip and include the executable somewhere in your PATH, or update this script to explicitly point to your 7-Zip executable.

@echo off

:FILENAME_PARSING
REM Get the base filename (without extension) and the extension (with the period).
for /f "tokens=* delims= " %%F in ('echo %1') do (
set base=%%~nF
set ext=%%~xF
)

:MKDIR
REM Create a new dir to hold the ZIP file and the ZIP contents
mkdir "%base% folder"
move %1 "%base% folder"
cd "%base% folder"

:UNZIP
REM Unzip the file and then delete the ZIP file.
7za x "%base%%ext%" && del "%base%%ext%"
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 goto COUNT

:UNZIP_ERROR_CLEANUP
REM Something went wrong with the unzip.
REM Move the ZIP file up a level, remove any other files in this dir,
REM then remove this dir.
move "%base%%ext%" ..
del/q *
cd ..
rmdir "%base% folder"
goto END

:COUNT
REM Check if there is exactly one file in this dir.
ls -1 | wc -l | findstr "\<1$" > nul
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 1 goto END

:SOLO_CLEANUP
REM Move the file up a level and then remove this dir.
move * ..
cd ..
rmdir "%base% folder"

:END
pause

SXSW 2011 Wrap-up

2011-03-24T14:27:00.005-04:00

This was our 2nd trip to SXSW, and it's still an incredible experience. This year we saw 57 shows, maybe a couple more.

I'm also very excited about my "Jacket!" jacket (to the right) and listening to all the new music picked up at or soon after SXSW.

Jump to a specifc day: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

There were some bands that I wanted to see, but didn't get to. Still, I'll be looking at getting some of the music, or the latest album for some of these that I already knew:

!!! (pronounced "Chk Chk Chk")
Okkervil River
...And you will know us by the trail of dead
Family of the Year
Charlie Shafter Band
The Devil Whale
Brandi Emma
Inverness
Damien Jurado
Hotels & Highways
Imaginary Cities
James Blake
Saint Motel

SXSW 2011 Day 4

2011-03-22T15:07:00.005-04:00

Here are the bands we say on Saturday (Day 4):

The Level Spirits at Maggie Mae's: This was the first band we saw at the Aussie BBQ. Great band, maybe a bit like a raunchier version of The Beautiful South? I'm going to get their album.

The Snowdroppers at Maggie Mae's Gibson Room: Wow. What an act. Terrific music, although even raunchier than the previous band (The Level Spirits). What is it with these Aussies? I'm going to get their album.

Mother Mother @ Paradise: Another show at the Canadian Blast party. This band started strong, but didn't seem to have enough strong material for a full show, even though they have a few albums I think.

Tapes 'n Tapes @ ACC: We were going to see these guys at Lustre Pearl later in the day, but when we tried to see !!! and And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead at Barbarella's we couldn't see the stage. So, we left and came here instead. I'm sorry I couldn't see those 2 bands, but this was a better venue to see Tapes 'n Tapes. Great show, should get a full album someday.

Little Comets @ Latitude 30 (Yorkshire showcase): we caught the end of this band by accident when trying to meet up with our new friend Sharon, and her friends Mike and Victoria. They were pretty good, and when I got home found that I had their CD in my "swag bag". Must have picked it up at the trade show.

Rural Alberta Advantage @ IFC/Crossroads: Wow. I have both of their albums, and love this band. This was a real highlight, seeing them play live like this. Check out this recording made by IFC. We ended up seeing them again later this day too, and they were still awesome to see. Get yourself one of their albums, probably Hometowns.

Meema @ Hilton: Only saw this band by accident while my friends were using the Hilton's bathrooms. When I heard the band's name (really, the lead singer), I scanned the whole band quickly and saw Fred, the guy with whom we walked to the Lucinda Williams concert (he had told us he played with Meema).

The Just Desserts at Copa: We had originally intended to only stay for the half of this concert, so we get to half of another concert during the same timeslot. We ended up staying for the whole show. The 2 main band members brought up several other musicians during different songs to help round out their eclectic/world/bilingual music. Great fun!

The Fast Romantics @ Speakeasy: a great indie rock band crammed into a tiny stage! I'm going to buy their album or EP.

Veronica Falls @ Latitude 30: This was one of our favorite clubs last year, esp. with all the British Music Embassy parties. We only got to one of the daytime parties here this year, earlier in this day. I wasn't paying attention to the bands then, but we came back for this band. Their hit single "I Found Love in a Graveyard" had me dying to see them! The show was good, although it was hard to hear the vocals and some of the songs started sounding the same. They don't have a full-length, so I just bought the single.

Rural Alberta Advantage @ Central Presbyterian Church: The Veronica Falls concert got over early, so we got to catch the end of the 2nd RAA show today. Really, this band is incredible!

Ezra Furman and the Harpoons @ Speakeasy: This Chicago-based band first popped up at Tufts University. They still look like they're in college and some of the lyrics sound like it too. A fun live band, but I won't be getting an album yet.

Jukebox the Ghost @ Central Presbyterian Church: We really came back to the search to see the next band, but caught the end of this band. They were actually pretty good! One very cool thing they did was bring up some horn & brass players/students from the University of Texas. I guess these guys let the band stay with them, to save the band money and get a chance to play with the band.

Great Lake Swimmers @ Central Presbyterian Church: We saw them play an all-too-brief show on Thursday, but this was the show to remember. We had front-row seats, and the band was incredible. Ed bought an album after the show, and I bought a rare EP/soundtrack too, adding to the album and free singles I already of theirs. This is really an incredible band, and one of the real highlights of SXSW 2011 for us!

Jump to a specifc day: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Wrap-up

SXSW 2011 Day 3

2011-03-22T14:22:00.004-04:00

Here are the bands we saw on Friday (Day 3):

Lindi Ortega @ Paradise: We caught this show by accident, while hanging out at the Canadian Blast party at Paradise. She sings OK country songs and we got a free sample CD at the show.

The Golden Dogs @ Paradise: Didn't really listen to these guys too much; still just hanging out at the Canadian Blast.

Tristen @ Mohawk: for some reason the "March into Softness" party was playing at a metal/hardcore bar. The between-sets music didn't really fit the party! Anyway, Tristen was terrific! I had a couple free singles, but now I'm going to buy an album.

Wye Oak @ Mohawk: You wouldn't know there are only 2 people in the band - they rock! I have a couple free singles, and should get an album.

Glasser @ Club de Ville: We only stopped in for one song. I have an album and think it's great, but we just didn't have time to stay.

Adam Cohen @ Paradise: I have one of Adam's albums from a ways back, and I have almost all of his dad's albums. Adam still isn't a very strong singer-songwriter, but he did play a couple Leonard Cohen songs, which was nice.

Hungry Kids from Hungary @ Maggie Mae's: I don't really remember this band. I think they were decent. We really at Maggie Mae's for the Sonicbids party, and the next band.

Said the Whale @ Maggie Mae's: I have several albums and several free singles from this band. I like the recorded music a lot, but the live show was just OK.

Laura Jansen @ Dutch Impact: didn't really pay attention during this show, so I can't comment on the music.

Foxtails Brigade @ The Ghost Room: a very original band and a terrific show - I need to get their album!

Dolorean @ Rusty Spurs: I have an album and several free singles, and like this band a lot. However, the music was too mellow for a club at SXSW. Would have been better in the ACC or one of the churches.

Bahamas @ Paradise: pretty good singer, but the songs started to sound the same, so we left half-way through.

The Dears @ Mellow Johnny's: We had to travel a long way to make it to this, and it was loud and packed. But, I love their new album and several old singles, so I was excited to see them. Ed didn't enjoy them so much, so we only stayed for half the show.

King Charles @ 512: This guy had a great song on the SXSW website. Not sure if he played it though, as we got here late and were way in the back.

Dreamend @ Skinny's Ballroom: These guys were billed as "folk", but it should have been "psychedelic/experimental folk". I might like listening to an album, but it was a horrible concert. We left, even though we didn't have anything for another hour.

Lucinda Williams @ The Moody Theatre: After leaving Dreamend, we bumped into a guy named Fred who was looking at the Moody Theatre. The location on the printed map was right next to us, but the Theatre wasn't there. Ed realized the address was correct (West 2nd Street), but the map was showing East 2nd. He was going to see Lucinda Williams, so we decided to find it together, and she was great!

Soundtrack of Our Lives @ Cedar St. Courtyard: the best show of the day! The lead singer looks like a Viking dressed as Moses. The crowd went crazy for him, and he was eating it up and showing off. So much fun! I need to get their latest album.

Jump to a specifc day: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Wrap-up

SXSW 2011 Day 2

2011-03-22T13:42:00.004-04:00

Here are the bands we saw on Thursday (Day 2):

Great Lake Swimmers @ Paradise: I have one album of theirs and a couple free singles, and was very excited to see them at SXSW. Their bass player (upright bass) was missing, and they only played for 15 minutes, so that part was disappointing. But they are incredible, and we got to see a full-length show on the last day.

Capsula @ Sounds from Spain: high-energy rock.

Mujeres @ Sounds from Spain: lots of fun, we got promo copies of their CD after the show.

Moondoggies @ The Beauty Bar: great rock from Seattle; I'd like to buy their album soon.

DeVotchKa @ ACC: incredible, versatile band from Colorado that sounds like they're from Russia. I had a few free singles, need to get a full-length album!

Sea of Bees @ ACC: nice folk-rock band.

Lia Ices at French Legation Museum: this was the only completely outdoor concert we saw (only the band was under cover), and it was nice but hot out. I bought Lia's album a couple weeks before SXSW (mellow piano/rock/pop with Lia's voice being the dominant "instrument"), and was excited to see her. Nothing special concert-wise - just beautiful music in a beautiful setting.

Hey Rosetta @ St. David's Sanctuary: unbelievable show with front-row seats. We saw this band last year and I have all their albums, so I was excited to see them again.

The American Secrets @ tenOak: I don't really remember much about this; we walked out pretty early.

Forest City Lovers @ Habana: OK band, but nothing spectacular. Not in a rush to get an album.

Oberhofer @ Bat Bar: pretty good rock band.

Imaginary Cities @ The Parish: I think we only caught 1-2 songs (after leaving Oberfhofer), but they have a great sound. I'd like to get an album.

Lia Ices @ St. David's Sanctuary: we had a gap in our schedule, so decided to see Lia for the 2nd time this day. St. David's was a much better venue, but the concert was pretty much the same (although the band did change clothing between shows, something we had wondered about).

Cold War Kids @ Lustre Pearl: good rock band. These guys were the indie darlings a few years ago, so this show was packed. I have a few free samples, but I'm not in a rush to buy a full album.

J. Roddy Walston & the Business @ Soho Lounge: I love this band's new album, and the concert seemed pretty good. But we were way at the back again and frankly quite exhausted, so we just sat in the back and listened, without being able to see much.

Jump to a specifc day: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Wrap-up

SXSW 2011 Day 1

2011-03-21T13:52:00.008-04:00

My friend Ed and I made our 2nd trip to SXSW this year. Here are the bands we saw on Wednesday (Day 1):

Shilpa Ray @ ACC: Noisy, angry female-fronted rock; might get the album soon.

Ximena Sarinana @ ACC: Terrific bilingual singer-songwriter; will get her new album as soon as it comes out.

Jessica Lea Mayfield @ ACC: Country/rock; already have the album.

Jenn Grant & Buck 65 @ the Canadian BBQ: Great singer-songwriter doing her own stuff .and an incredibly original rapper doing his stuff, and the 2 singing together was even better!

The Traveling Band @ the Hilton Garden Inn: we walked out very early on this show.

The Beat Connection @ The Beauty Bar: electronica, not bad, not great.

Hollerado @ Antone's: fun fun fun! These guys put on a great indie rock show! Got the album at last year's SXSW.

The Black Atlantic @ Esther's Follies: don't remember them much, must not have left much of an impression.

Low @ St. David's Sanctuary: we had to sit way in the back, but this was a beautiful show. I have a couple of their albums and several free singles, but I need to get their most recent album now.

Cults @ Windish Agency House: This band had an interesting sample on the SXSW website, but the concert was ruined by truly horrible sound and an annoying keyboardist.

The Delta Mirror @ Maggie Mae's Gibson Room: They put on a great show, and Ed and I bought the CD at the end of the show. The CD is all electronica though. It isn't bad, but the show was very rock-based, not electronica-based. Don't know if those rock songs are going to end up on an album too.

Jump to a specifc day: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Wrap-up

SXSW 2010 - Intro

2010-03-22T14:53:00.004-04:00

I just got back from a trip to SXSW 2010 with my old college roommate, Ed. Well, not that Ed's old, it's just that our roomie days were so long ago. Which, I guess, does make us old.

Old or not, we had a blast! If we could go every year, we would. Here are some observations about SXSW, to help us for our next trip (or maybe it will help someone else out).

Hotels: We stayed in the Hyatt, just across thee Congress St. bridge from the "real" downtown area. It's a nice enough hotel, but we did wish we had stayed at the Hilton, Marriott, etc., all located closed to the Austin Convention Center (ACC).
Registration: We bought full-access music badges. It was pretty expensive (~$700), but I didn't understand the differences between badges and the cheaper wristbands (<$200). If the badges only get you access to the music industry panels and the trade show floor in the ACC, then it's not worth it. And the Registrants' Lounge (under a tent in Brush Square Park, across from the ACC) with its one-free-drink-per-day doesn't justify the cost. Next time, look into the wristbands!
Day Parties: There were a ton of official day parties, and plenty of unofficial parties too (check out the Austin Chronicle and Do512 for some of these listings). These are usually sponsored by a country, records label, etc., and usually include free food and drinks. As badge holders, we were able to get into plenty of these. We pre-registered for many of them, but they never checked our names against a guest list, so I don't think pre-registration is necessary. Are wristband holders allowed into these parties? If not, it would be worth the badge price to get access to these - they were fun! Apparently, there are "unofficial" parties (and private parties too) that aren't in the official SXSW schedule. .
Night Concerts: Most of the official SXSW concerts occur at night. It turns out that there are plenty of clubs and bands playing in Austin during SXSW that are not officially part of SXSW, just like with the day parties. Check out the Austin Chronicle and Do512 again for these.
Venues: Some of the favorite venues we went to include Maggie Mae's (lots of music under one roof, and even on the roof!), Galaxy Room (the floor rises up in the back, making viewing easy), Billiards (a huge place, with plenty of pool tables and other games), and the Central Presbyterian Church (for the quieter concerts with much clearer sound).

There really is so much to do at SXSW, it's hard to keep it all straight! There is an official iPhone app (my.SXSW) that works with the iPod Touch too (it caches all of the information). You can do this on the my.sxsw website too, but I'm only going to cover the app here. It's great for finding events by day, by genre, by band name, by venue, by time... you get the idea! The biggest drawback comes from if/when you overbook your schedule. It would be nice to assign colors/priorities to the events you want to see. Also, it lists everything linearly, scrolling down the page. So, if one event starts at 11pm and another at 11:30, you might forget about the 11:30 event if you don't scroll down that far.

Thankfully, you can subscribe to your my.SXSW calendar in another tool like Google Calendar. This is a read-only view, and it appears to only get updated infrequently, so it's better for planning things before you get to SXSW, but this worked well for us. Using Google Calendar, you can "copy" your important SXSW events to one of your Google Calendars and using the different calendars/colors to prioritize your events. With only an iPod (not an iPhone), this again is something you need to do before SXSW. But, you can print out your schedule (with events shown side-by-side instead of linearly!) and use that as a preliminary plan. Just be flexible - there's so much that pops up at the last minute, a newly recommended band you just heard about, etc.

Twitter and Facebook

2008-11-19T23:11:00.002-05:00

I just signed up for a Twitter account. I can't say that I'll be updating it that often (heck, look at my blogging frequency), but I thought I'd give another "Web 2.0" app a try...

Visual Basic (VBA) code to find text in any Excel worksheet

2008-07-09T15:27:00.003-04:00

I've always been baffled that Excel's Find function only works on the current Worksheet. How hard would it be for Microsoft to search across all sheets in the Workbook?

It shouldn't be too hard, because I figured out how to do it in Visual Basic. You'll need to understand some VBA to get this inserted into your environment (recommendation: record a macro to your Personal Workbook, open the VB Editor, and then paste this subroutine into the Modules section of your Personal Workbook), but it should work as is. I tested it in Excel 2003 for XP and Excel version "X" for Mac OS X.


Sub FindEverywhere()
   ' Prompt the user for the searchText
   Dim searchText As String
   searchText = InputBox("Find what:", "Search All Worksheets")
  
   ' If the searchText is NOT an empty string, begin the search
   If Not searchText = "" Then
       Dim r As Range
       Dim findNext  As Integer
       findNext = vbYes
      
       Dim i As Integer
       ' Use For loop, not a For Each loop, as it's the only way to handle hidden/macro sheets!
       For i = 1 To Sheets.Count
       ' Loop through each sheet in the workbook.  This does NOT change the activate/visible sheet.
       ' That will come later if we're still searching (findNext=vbYes).  I'd prefer a method to
       ' "break" out of the For loop, but VBA doesn't have one?
           If Sheets.Item(i).Visible = xlSheetVisible Then
               ' This sheet is visible, so let's work with it (you HAVE to skip macro sheets, so just skip all hidden sheets)
               Dim sheet As Worksheet
               Set sheet = Sheets.Item(i) ' don't do this until you're sure this sheet is Visible!
              
               ' The firstFind and looped vars are used to determine if we've looped thru every find on this page.
               Dim firstFoundCell As String
               firstFoundCell = ""
               Dim looped As Boolean
               looped = False
              
               Do While findNext = vbYes And Not looped
                   ' This is necessary to search on the right sheet (?), but it also means we'll switch to every sheet,
                   ' including ones which do NOT contain searchText.  So, if you search the whole Workbook, you'll end up looking
                   ' at the last sheet, whether or not it contains the searchText.  :-(
                   Sheets(sheet.Name).Select
                  
                   ' Here's the search!
                   Set r = Cells.Find(searchText, ActiveCell, xlValues, xlPart, xlByRows, xlNext, False)
                   If r Is Nothing Then
                       ' Nothing was found.  Exit this WHILE loop (the FOR loop will still go to the next sheet).
                       Exit Do
                   Else
                       r.Activate ' Activate (select) the cell that was found
                       ' Check/Set the firstFoundCell and the looped variable.
                       If firstFoundCell = "" Then
                           sheet.Activate
                           firstFoundCell = r.Address
                       Else
                           ' We've found at least one cell already.  Check to see if we've looped back to the firstFoundCell.
                           If r.Address = firstFoundCell Then
                               looped = True
                           Else
                           End If
                       End If ' end of checking for firstFoundCell
                      
                       ' If we haven't looped around, prompt the user to findNext.  (If we have looped, the WHILE loop will finish, causing the FOR loop to go to the next sheet.)
                       If Not looped Then
                               findNext = MsgBox("Find Next?", vbYesNo)
                       End If
                   End If
               Loop ' end of Do While loop
           End If
       Next i
      
       If findNext = vbYes Then
           MsgBox ("No more matches found!")
       End If
   End If
End Sub

As always, let me know if you have any comments or questions!

Make a Mac keyboard easier to use with a Windows PC

2008-04-11T22:28:00.020-04:00

I know there aren't too many reasons to use a Mac keyboard with a PC, but if you're reading this article, perhaps you found yourself in the same situation as I did. I have a dual-input monitor (a rather nice HP LP2065), so I decided to hook my G4 MDD Mac and my Dell D620 laptop up to same monitor. The max resolution on the laptop's built-in LDC is 1440x900, but the external HP LCD gets 1600x1200, so it's substantially more real estate. However, it's just not practical to type on the laptop's keyboard and look over at the HP LCD, nor did I really want 2 keyboards cluttering up my limited desk space.

So, I bought a simple USB switch, plugged the Mac keyboard into the input and the Mac and laptop into the outputs. I press 2 buttons (one on the monitor and one on the USB switch), I can switch between Mac and PC very quickly!

That left me with my next problem, and the reason for this post. While the Mac keyboard can map to all main Windows keys, I was not happy with the default mapping. Take a look at standard Mac and PC keyboards:

The Mac keyboard puts the Alt key right next to the Control key, but a Windows keyboard puts the Windows key (opens the Start menu) between Control and Alt. I'm not really a touch-typist, but this throws me off something fierce. So, I start looking at ways to re-map keys in Windows, and the easiest way I found was KeyTweak. Here's a screenshot (click to see the full-size image):

I won't try to explain all of KeyTweak's features here, but it's pretty easy to re-map "normal" keys like Alt and Windows just using the GUI. If you have both keyboards available (as I did by using the laptop's keyboard), you can also use a "teach" mode to re-map some of the harder keys, like Volume Up/Down, Mute, and PrintScreen (one of my favorite keys - use Alt-PrintScreen to take a screenshot of the active window and store it in Windows' clipboard).

My exact setup is shown in this "raw map" view:

Feel free to download my Mac keyboard mapping for KeyTweak to use as-is or as a starting point for your own custom mapping.

P.S. If you're looking for the opposite functionality, MacWorld has a nice article on using a Windows keyboard with a Mac or you can try DoubleCommand.

A "fix" for the barrage of Deleted Items created by Google's Outlook Calendar sync

2008-03-10T09:59:00.003-04:00

This article was written when Google's Outlook Calendar Sync tool was first made available to the public. Since then, Google has fixed this problem in their tool. I'm leaving the post here, as the general principle of having Outlook take specific actions (that couldn't be accomplished in a Rule) when new items show up in any Outlook location is still valid.

Google's new Outlook Calendar sync is a terrific idea. Unfortunately (but not unexpectedly) it has some problems. The first thing most people notice is that Outlook Calendar items that involve anyone besides yourself (i.e., you Invited others or someone else Invited you) don't show up in Google Calendar. The FAQ is suppposed to contain a "fix" for this, but people don't seem too happy with this.

The other problem takes longer to notice. The sync tool creates TONS of Appointments on 12/31/1979 at 7:00 pm - and then deletes them. When I say "tons", I mean it. At one point, I had >12,000 items in my Deleted Items, most of which were these 12/31/1979 appointments.

I don't know how to stop the sync from making these Appointments (I assume they're used as some temporary scratchpad (or someone really messed up their code)), but I do know how to keep all those items out of my Deleted Items.

This does require that you turn on Visual Basic (VB) for Applications (VBA) macros in Outlook. This is NOT a security risk that I know of, as I think you're the only one you can add macros in this manner.

In Outlook, go to Tool -> Macro -> Visual Basic Editor. In the left-hand column, there should be a hierarchy that looks like Project1 -> Microsoft Office Outlook Objects -> ThisOutlookSession. (If that's not there, you might need to record a macro and then delete it. This should create the ThisOutlookSession item. Click on ThisOutlookSession in the left-hand column, and then paste this into the main window:

Private WithEvents DeletedItems As Items

Sub Application_Startup()
 Dim objNS As NameSpace
 Set objNS = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
 Set DeletedItems = objNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderDeletedItems).Items
 Set objNS = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub DeletedItems_ItemAdd(ByVal myItem As Object)
If myItem.Subject = "" Then
   ' Google's Outlook Calendar sync causes a bunch of Appointments to be create on 12/31/1979 at 7:00pm.
   ' After the sync, they get "deleted", but you can have THOUSANDS of these in your Deleted Items.
   ' This will permanently get rid of them (as well as any other items with no Subject).
   myItem.Delete
End If
End Sub

BTW, the same idea can be extended to create an event handler to handle items getting added to a folder that collects all of your automated or junk email. Add a "Private WithEvents" line, and then add this to Application_Startup():

  Set AutomatedItems = objNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox).Folders.item("Automated").Items

And then add a new handler to do something like:

Private Sub AutomatedItems_ItemAdd(ByVal myItem As Object)
 myItem.UnRead = False
End Sub