sohail.tech


Github Pages Changing

A while back, I talked about changing my blog over to Github Pages. At the time, I started using the redcarpet Markdown engine so I could get prettier GFM markup instead of Jekyll’s standard syntax.

Then this came in the mail.

Starting May 1st, 2016, GitHub Pages will only support kramdown, Jekyll’s default Markdown engine.

Blargh! No!

But good news followed in the next line.

If you are currently using Rdiscount or Redcarpet we’ve enabled kramdown’s GitHub-flavored Markdown support by default, meaning kramdown should have all the features of the two deprecated Markdown engines, so the transition should be as simple as updating the Markdown setting to kramdown in your site’s configuration (or removing it entirely) over the course of the next three months.

I made the changes to config.yml and sure enough, GFM-style code snippets work.

```javascript
var s = "JavaScript syntax highlighting";
alert(s);
```

This renders as

var s = "JavaScript syntax highlighting";
alert(s);

So, you know, yay!


IFTTT and Pinboard (and why I maybe need to learn to code for reals now)

UPDATE: IFTTT responded to all their Pinboard customers (at the bottom)

I’m browsing through emails this morning, and this little gem pops up from IFTTT.

Well that sucks. I pipe all my “Saved for Later” items from Feedly into Pinboard, and I have Pocket send links to all saved articles to Pinboard via IFTTT too.

WTF. The email from IFTTT made it clear that Pinboard was to blame for this.

So I sent off an angry tweet to Pinboard.

Then I went looking for a solution and came across a few tweets from Pinboard that shone some light on the issue.


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Oh Oracle! (I think this is becoming a series)

Saw this beaut today when installing the latest version of Java.

Yahoo now replaces Ask.com as the default adware for Java

Looks like Yahoo! has replaced Ask.com as the default adware for Java installs.

This is not what we meant when we asked you to get rid of Ask.com, Oracle.

Yeesh.


Oh Elasticsearch!

Working on fixing an issue with an ELK stack today and I realized that the folks at Elastic have some pretty interesting names for the shards in the database.

So far I’ve seen:

  • Peregrine
  • Obliterator
  • Amiko Kobayashi
  • Cassie Lang
  • Vakume
  • Mist Mistress
  • Arides
  • Roughhouse
  • Omega the Unknown
  • Martinex

There were a few more; Elasticsearch generates a new shard name every time the service is restarted. I’m almost tempted to restart the service a few more times, just to see what it’ll come up with.

Also, it’d be great if the commands to check the integrity of an index were, you know, simpler.


My New Bliss - Blogging With LightPaper

(Update: I figured out the issue with the rendering error mentioned below: extra “:” in the post title.)

I have a problem. I’m constantly trying to find one new Markdown app after the other. Now I’ve got a new one I’m trying.

LightPaper isn’t without its quirks (trying to figure out why it won’t show my Jekyll header as a table for this post when it does for all the rest, for example), but so far, it’s kind of checking off the most important points for me.

  • Syntax highlighting for GFM.
  • Autocomplete of list bullets and other Markdown elements.
  • Markdown preview (though seriously, what is up with not rendering that Jekyll header??).
  • Support for Jekyll headers (except when it doesn’t work. Maybe I need to publish this first?).
  • Customizable styles for both editor and preview so I can switch to Courier New for typing.
  • Word count.
  • File browser in the left-most pane.
  • Tabbed interface for open files.

The fact that it supports GFM and Jekyll also makes it a viable blog editor/manager for me, and for $10 I get to support an indie developer, which is nice.