Categories
Linux/BSD Software

On how weechat handled a downloading file

Something really interesting happened on one my workstations which had this weechat IRC client running on it.

Weechat is this irssi-based IRC client for use on a Linux console. The features page lists certain interesting ones and while I first chose it over irssi, the compelling reason was proper proxy support (authenticated ones). I had little idea on how the “FIFO pipe for remote control” would be helpful- until this happened this morning:

I’m usually connected to the Freenode and Rizon networks. Rizon is primarily the japanese-animation/drama hub for various fansubbing groups. Mostly used for co-ordinating among fansubbers and providing XDCC leech bots. So, here I was, leeching an episode off of a particular bot, and not realising that the download had completed, I moved (mv) the file from the default download location (~/.weechat/dcc) to the approriate directory (~/Backups/Videos/Film). This I did, on another console within screen, I switched back (C-a C-a) to the console where weechat was running and was surprised to see that the file I thought had completely downloaded still going down around 98%. Shocked, I `ls -l ~/Backups/Videos/Film` and get even more shocked to see that the file-size of this moved file had grown a bit. What was happening here? When my disk is out of space and a download breaks due to that, I’d see a “broken pipe” message in the log window, so what happened here, I think, is what they mean by “FIFO pipe for remote control”. Even after I had moved an incomplete, currently downloading file to a new location, the download continued without any usually expected re-actions one would see with software on Windows or software such as LinuxDC++ (locked files).

That was an interesting experience and an interesting feature I’d love to see in more software. Good job, weechat. Copy-pasting off a weechat window is sort of stupid, though, owing to the nicklist on the right and fancier formatting. Overall, it’s been good.

Categories
Software Worldly Matters

One of those things that annoy the hell out of you

This thing has always been annoying me for several years now. Ever since Yahoo! or MSN started their Indian portals, the most prominent ads that were ever showed on these portals were almost always related to matrimony. It’s as if the the target-audience – Indians – are desperately looking for wives wherever they go, even on the internet. There are little or no ads which go “looking for an adult tonight? ;)” but only traditionally clothed brides smiling “marry me, darling”. Just look at this:

Such ads are an insult!
Such ads are an insult!

First, it’s not even an Indian website. Just because my IP is Indian doesn’t mean I should be bombarded with such crap. Ugh, talking about Indian IPs, things such as Yahoo! videos or Pandora (that music-related Web 2.0 thing) don’t work.

Second, just look at the screen real-estate it uses. Orange, fugly ads on my technocrat website.

Third, I haven’t been noticing this nonsense for two years and guess why? All thanks to this highly recommended addon for Firefox called Adblock-Plus (and I haven’t installed it yet on this workstation). And yes, the reason I don’t use Opera is because their adblock thing comes nowhere close to ABP. If I get a comment such as this for this post – I won’t even bother replying to it.