Archives for June 2004

Subway systems of the world, at the same scale.

Open Cygwin (Bash) Shell Here

24 June 2004

Installing this registry file allows you to right-click on a folder or drive and open a bash shell there. Works with UNC network paths (\\machinename\share), which I've seen similar registry hacks choke on.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\bash]
@="Open Bash Shell Here"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\bash\command]
@="c:\\cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe --login -i -c 'cd \"`cygpath \"$*\"`\";bash' bash %L"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\bash]
@="Open Bash Shell Here"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\bash\command]
@="c:\\cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe --login -i -c 'cd \"`cygpath \"$*\"`\";bash' bash %L"

Hot Cocoa

24 June 2004

As one of my few self-perfected recipes, this has a slight chance of offering information not found elsewhere, unlike most of my collection. It makes a rich cocoa that leaves a pleasant chcocolate film in one's mouth.

Spoon into a saucepan 4 tablespoons each sugar and cocoa, and a pinch of salt, per person. Cover with water to moisten and stir until dissolved. Then heat over a medium-high flame until the mixture begins to bubble thickly (as distinct from the frothy bubbles that form when the cocoa is stirred). Remove from heat and swirl pot to cool.

Then, add as much milk as needed to total liquid enough to fill desired mugs (estimating this correctly is the hardest step of the recipe). Heat until steam rises above the edge of the pot, or the milk hisses when the pot is tilted. Remove from heat and add a splash of vanilla extract per person.

Serve in narrow-mouthed mugs to retain heat.

Eliot and Proust

19 June 2004

From Tradition and the Individual Talent, by T.S. Eliot:

Some one said: ‘The dead writers are remote from us because we know so much more than they did.’ Precisely, and they are that which we know.

From Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust:

It was Beethoven's Quartets themselves (the Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth) that devoted half a century to forming, fashioning and enlarging a public for Beethoven's Quartets.

How to customize context menus in Windows (the menu items that popup when you right-click on a file or folder).

“Pick and Drop”: for copying and pasting between computers with a digital pen

Manhattan Timeformations: beautiful visualizations of Manhattan's topography, skyscrapers, and other urban features through the years.