Small Things Float

clear mac address‐table <shelf/slot> address xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

Handy if you’re moving to a new port on the same TA-5000.

I always forget which file to use when I want to change something in my environment. It doesn’t help that Terminal.app in OS X behaves a little differently than other *nix terminals. Thankfully, John Staiger posted a very clear explanation and a handy trick a few years back.

The short version is this: .bash_profile runs when you log in, .bashrc runs when you open a new terminal window EXCEPT in OS X which treats each new terminal window as a new login for some reason.

Staiger’s suggestion is to keep all your settings in .bashrc and just tell .bash_profile to call .bashrc so you don’t end up managing two files (click through for his .bash_profile contents). This works just fine, but I don’t know that I’ve even run into a situation in OS X where .bashrc would be loaded instead of .bash_profile so it’s probably just as easy to keep everything in .bash_profile and never create .bashrc.

I imagine the trick would be more helpful if you’re working in different distros and want to manage your environment the same way regardless of which OS you’re currently on.

Just some quick thoughts. Here are the services I’m looking at as replacements:

• NewsBlur - Seems pretty quick and full-featured and there’s a social commenting aspect that looks similar to Google Reader of days gone by, but the site has this Java-y non-native feel to it that I don’t like. The interface feels busy, but it might be something that I’ll appreciate for its utility later.
• NetVibes – I tried NetVibes several years ago when I thought that having a personal web portal (or whatever they were called) would be an awesome thing and I wasn’t particularly impressed. The RSS reader seems a bit barebones, but it’s decently quick. It feels more non-nativey than NewsBlur, but doesn’t appear to have the social features or many features at all.
• Prismatic - This might make a good tool for finding the latest news in groups of feeds that I don’t care to read completely, but it seems too magazine-ish for keeping track of sites where I read every post of that don’t post often and I have Flipboard for that.
• The Old Reader - A clone of Google Reader before the social features were stripped out. Looks promising, but has been down more than up since I started trying to use it so I can’t say for sure yet.
• Fever – I almost bought this right when it came out. I like idea of their approach to sorting, and Fever already integrates with Reeder (my RSS app of choice on Mac, iPad, and iPhone), but I’m a tiny bit wary of having to maintain my own installation of it. Costs $30 which is cheap as long as I end up using it.
• Feedly – Looks pretty and I like the versatility of the different web views and the iOS app is really slick. It’s not super intuitive for someone who’s expecting a classic RSS or email interface, but I don’t mind learning a bit. Sharing options look nice.
• NetNewsWire – I’ve tried this app multiple times over the course of many years along with apps like Shrook, NewsFire, Vienna, and I feel like there was one called NewsGator? But I never stick with it. I don’t really want to replace Reeder as my go-to native client.
• Flipboard – I love Flipboard for browsing through high-volume feeds, but I never transitioned into using it for my main reads. I don’t think it’s really built for that.
• I hope HiveMined ships soon so I can check that out, but it’s been a long time coming.

What’s likely to happen is that I’ll just jump on board with whoever Reeder builds-in support for. Right now that means Fever, but that only works on the iPhone app at the moment. Maybe as part of this transition I’ll offload some of my high-volume stuff into Flipboard and trim down my 130+ feeds. Otherwise, whatever holds the status quo will probably make me happy.

I will say that I very honestly miss the social functions in Google Reader. If someone manages to recreate that inside of a quality RSS reader (and I can get the right friends to use it), they will have my attention and my money).

When I think I’ve installed the right package to get this software to work.

“Should this young man . . . have been able to buy guns, ammunition and explosives? The gun lobby will say yes. And the endless gun control debate will begin again, and the lobbyists of the National Rifle Association will go to work, and the op-ed thinkers will have their usual thoughts, and the right wing will issue alarms, and nothing will change. And there will be another mass murder.”

from “We’ve Seen This Movie Before“