assorted pieces of random gobbledygook

I just spent 15 minutes of my limited life chasing a frigging Safari bug. Apparently on my last logout, Safari didn’t close the PubSub [that’s Apple’s framework for dealing with RSS feeds] sqlite3 database properly. This led to a hang upon the next startup, and every subsequent startup. After a little bit of fun with gdb and lsof, I figured out that it was lock that was held on the PubSub database (located in ~/Library/PubSub/Database). I simply moved that heap of bitrot away and everything is dandy again. As expected, Safari recreated it.

I just ran across the following gem [via BoingBoing, yeah I know it’s old, I just saw it now though]: AirPower, a wiki dedicated to documenting power outlets at airports all around the world. I usually start scouring the airport for power outlets on multi-leg flights once I’ve completed a leg. The scariest story happening to me was circa 1998, travelling back from Melbourne through Hong Kong. Guards/military armed with submachine guns scared me away from the power outlet I was using. I don’t actually know what they said to me as they didn’t speak English, I just unplugged and got the fuck away from the outlet. Maybe it was just a friendly question, I don’t feel like taking chances in the presence of guns though.