Using CueCat USB barcode reader with Mac OS X

I got it from LibraryThing (also available from Amazon), to ease the task of entering books from my library into the database (presumably LT, but will consider using Delicious Library when it's 2.0 is available).

Unfortunately CueCat spits out encrypted data and needs a simple modification before it sends out any meaningful digits. I followed instruction at this site and it worked fine.

Note that you do not need this modification if you use it only on LibraryThing... it automatically decrypts the code for you.

Web Hosting

I have been planning to migrate this site to a virtual private server (FYI it's now hosted at swishmail.com). Swishmail is not the greatest web hosting service, and I do need full control of my server in order to do some experiments.

Googling around with search phrase like "darcs hosting dreamhost", because I want to use darcs, and someone recommended dreamhost for its price, gave me a link to a blog article. I have no idea whether his case really stands, but anyhow it led me to several VPS services, like unixshell, VPSlink, MEMSET, JohnCompany.

Among them unixshell seems to be good, but as unixshell currently offers no new account, I would take their alternative, TekTonic. One of the features I like about it is their unmetered plan, which does not limit monthly transfer amount, but just limits the bandwidth per second, for example 1 Mbps.

Book collision on LibraryThing

I resumed using LibraryThing recently and added several books more (you might notice books selected from my online library in the sidebar). Among them, the entry for Iwanami Mathematics Dictionary (yes, it's in Japanese) on LT got weird.

The entry got mixed (or combined, as a post in LT group forum told) with some strange manga book which I am never aware of. The post said it was caused by hash collision... what a poor implementation!

Joe Armstrong's Erlang Book

As some of you may know, I am responsible for translating Joe Armstrong's new book about Erlang into Japanese.

Translation is close to finish now, though still I have to do with inputs from reviewers and catch up to the latest version of the original English version. And it's nice if I can include updates from R12B-0 release if any, but that release seems not stable now.

So I am supposed not to make a fuss with Haskell. I know.

Installing GHC 6.8.1 on Mac OS X Leopard (x86)

As reported in glasgow-haskell-users, you need to be a bit careful to use this configuration.

Although I took care of those libgmp and readline dependency thingies, following error was persistent when I tried to build it:

... snipped
installPackage: Multiple files with extension buildinfo
make[1]: *** [install.library.Cabal] Error 1
make: *** [install] Error 2

Under libraries/Cabal directory there was a file named buildinfo2.buildinfo, but no other file with .buildinfo extension... yes, actually there was, it was ._buildinfo2.buildinfo. After removing this file the build was successful.

It was likely that this offensive file snuck into there during preparing the archive. I expanded the archive using tar command on the command line, but I should have used the Archive Utility, which handles those dot-files correctly.

Anyhow, that's how I wasted my precious four nights :-(

The Mysterious ⊥

Searching the symbol ⊥, which is used to represent 'bottom' in Haskell, with Google gave me no answer. I mean, no alternative suggestions, nothing.

Weird.