New website - feedback and ideas

[700newtons]

By the way, for interest…

This forum software does have an excellent ‘question/answer’ and ‘solved’ feature which is so far unused. However, the format of the old Drupal techtalk did not allow it to import in that way.

 

[anthony1956]

26 minutes ago, 700newtons said:

This forum software does have an excellent ‘question/answer’ and ‘solved’ feature which is so far unused

Where's that? Sounds useful, happy to give it a try.

[anthony1956]

46 minutes ago, 700newtons said:

Nothing to stop you banging the drum though.

Yes I like my drum 😉

Nooo don't want to change our committee, blood sweat and tears when it to it. 

Yes camels have advantages.

Yes the team can change it's mind.

Yes maliciousness can cause trouble.

Yes I use the site in "my way" and currently it's corrupted because of the blocking of later changes which as far as I am concerned demotivates me from "giving back" at all because of the damage my content suffers as a result. 

Maybe no one is interested and never will be and i am wasting my time?

Most of my BDR peers do not write up things they do or have done (often years ago), but they do help me not least when I am in deep trouble, and it seems only fair to journalise my novice experiences by way of a sort of "thank you". Our/my "Experts" never mention the little "gotchas" and my experiences are replete with those, every two minutes there's something. 

For example I should be now writing up my little story about my inlet manifold, which is real boring if one is not interested and obsessive reading if one is. However, I'm just feeling "meh", because I fear being unable to finish the story which is what keeps happening over and over again - so why bother? Seems to me this is not what the Team wants and we have misaligned behaviours generated by 'corporate policy" that works just fine for those who don't care - i.e. those who are not damaged by the problem have no interest, despite arguing the toss about it.

Anthony

Edited August 17 by anthonym

[700newtons]

6 minutes ago, anthonym said:

Where's that? Sounds useful, happy to give it a try.

It’s not activated, because it doesn’t have a home (yet)

[anthony1956]

7 minutes ago, 700newtons said:

It’s not activated, because it doesn’t have a home (yet)

haha! made me laugh out loud. Yes we had this conversation before. 

Q: I am guessing you do not have the ability to allow blog editing while not allowing Forum editing is that correct?

[anthony1956]

53 minutes ago, 700newtons said:

If there are any that were not actioned

TBH I can't remember. 

[anthony1956]

Heck, you can see by my posting style that I never think of everything all at the same time, and this works over time, long periods of time sometimes. I have had it suggested why don't I write my stuff in an external app and when it is "finished" then post it.

My stuff is never finished. I have no understanding of that as a concept. 

[anthony1956]

or you can just give ME editing rights. You have twenty years of my history to demonstrate how I behave. 

one trick I used to use was to gather my multiple entries in to just one. 

Edited August 17 by anthonym

[anthony1956]

here's an example, I posted this in October 2006 and my last edit was July 2010

and then in 2015 to fix the damage wrought by the then new site and that work has been ongoing but I can no longer do it because I cannot edit the old content. 

Quoting myself from years ago:

 ok so a search on Pyrennees Blatt routes followed by clicking on the user anthonym reveals 152 blat route posts - again the opening posts have all been unformatted by the site upgrade, a shame as these took huge amounts of time to write and share, in real time while on tour - in the days before we had these smart phones.

So I posted 152 blat route posts across Europe before we had GPS. At that time it seemed quite popular for a small following. Can't edit any of it now.

Edited August 17 by anthonym

[anthony1956]

anyway, not to be always negative about site interference with my content, here's something useful for APPLE MAC users. The site massively restricts the use of images in jpeg/jpg format (which I can understand since storage space tends to be money) and it "prefers" the use of images in the webp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebP format. I find it quite remarkably good, but not well supported, except our site.

You will need an app from here

file:///Applications/libwebp-1.3.2-mac-arm64/doc/cwebp.html

https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/docs/cwebp

The/a trick to using the format is to make it easy/fast to convert our jpegs/jpgs to this format. So I have a folder (directory) called "BDR Collection" and an APPLE  MAC terminal command (i.e. unix like) I can copy and paste in without having to pause for thought as follows, you can edit the folder location to suit yourself:

Quote

% find "/Volumes/Data/Dropbox/! Cars/BDR Collection" -type f \( -name "*.jpeg" -o -name "*.jpg" \) -print0 | xargs -0 -I {} sh -c '[ ! -f "${0%.*}.webp" ] && /Applications/libwebp-1.3.2-mac-arm64/bin/cwebp "$0" -o "${0%.*}.webp"' {}

What this means for users is it allows many images in each comment, opening post or blog entry instead of being limited to only two or three.

I imagine there is a Windows version that can be created and there may even be a browser based version meaning no under-the-hood complex command is required.

I use this command for pretty much every post I make and it takes mere moments.

For those of an analytical bent here is the breakdown created by a.i. (which is how i created this in the first place):

=======================================================================

The command you've provided is a more complete and functional shell command. It’s designed to find image files in a specific directory and convert them to the WebP format if a corresponding WebP file does not already exist. Here’s a detailed breakdown of how it works:

### **Command Breakdown:**

```bash
find "/Volumes/Data/Dropbox/! Cars/BDR Collection" -type f \( -name "*.jpeg" -o -name "*.jpg" \) -print0 | xargs -0 -I {} sh -c '[ ! -f "${0%.*}.webp" ] && /Applications/libwebp-1.3.2-mac-arm64/bin/cwebp "$0" -o "${0%.*}.webp"' {}
```

1. **`find "/Volumes/Data/Dropbox/! Cars/BDR Collection" -type f \( -name "*.jpeg" -o -name "*.jpg" \) -print0`:**
   - **`find`**: This command searches for files in a directory and its subdirectories.
   - **`"/Volumes/Data/Dropbox/! Cars/BDR Collection"`**: This specifies the directory where the search will take place. In this case, it's a directory on an external volume called "Data" within Dropbox.
   - **`-type f`**: This option tells `find` to look for files (not directories).
   - **`\( -name "*.jpeg" -o -name "*.jpg" \)`**: This specifies the search criteria. The command looks for files with either `.jpeg` or `.jpg` extensions.
   - **`-print0`**: This option tells `find` to output the file names followed by a null character (`\0`), which is useful for handling file names with spaces or special characters.

2. **`| xargs -0 -I {} sh -c '[ ! -f "${0%.*}.webp" ] && /Applications/libwebp-1.3.2-mac-arm64/bin/cwebp "$0" -o "${0%.*}.webp"' {}`:**
   - **`xargs -0`**: This reads the null-separated file names from `find` and passes them to the next command. The `-0` option ensures that `xargs` correctly handles file names with spaces or special characters.
   - **`-I {}`**: This specifies `{}` as a placeholder for each file name passed by `xargs`.
   - **`sh -c '[ ! -f "${0%.*}.webp" ] && /Applications/libwebp-1.3.2-mac-arm64/bin/cwebp "$0" -o "${0%.*}.webp"' {}`**: This is the shell command executed for each file found. Here’s what it does:
     - **`[ ! -f "${0%.*}.webp" ]`**: This condition checks if a WebP file with the same base name as the current file (`$0`) does not exist. `${0%.*}` strips the file extension from `$0`, and `.webp` is appended to create the WebP file name.
     - **`&&`**: This is a logical AND operator. The command after `&&` is executed only if the condition before it is true (i.e., if the WebP file does not exist).
     - **`/Applications/libwebp-1.3.2-mac-arm64/bin/cwebp "$0" -o "${0%.*}.webp"`**: This part of the command uses the `cwebp` tool to convert the original JPEG file (`$0`) into a WebP file. The output file is named with the same base name but with a `.webp` extension.
     - **`{}`**: This replaces `{}` with the actual file name passed by `xargs`.

### **Overall Functionality:**

1. **Finding Files**: The `find` command searches within the specified directory for all `.jpeg` and `.jpg` files.
2. **Checking for Existing WebP Files**: For each image file found, the command checks if a corresponding WebP file (with the same base name) already exists.
3. **Converting to WebP**: If the WebP file does not exist, the command uses `cwebp` to convert the image to WebP format and saves it with the appropriate `.webp` extension.

### **Conclusion:**
This command efficiently finds all JPEG images in a specified directory and converts them to WebP format, but only if the WebP version doesn’t already exist. It’s a robust and efficient way to manage image format conversion, ensuring that no unnecessary conversions are performed, and it handles files with spaces or special characters gracefully.

====================================================================

I hope this is considered a positive contribution (which took hours originally to create) - to balance my continuous complaint about the crippled edit function.

Regards Anthony

[Andrew 21 Edney]

Do you find -print0 is needed or does -print work just as well? I'd be surprised if you had newline characters in your filenames (not that it really matters, just I hadn't seen -print0 before so had to look it up). 

[anthony1956]

I have no idea Andrew; though that seems to be a parameter within the find command if I recall correctly, I created this ages ago and happily the details are mostly a faded memory 🙂

[anthony1956]

I even had fond ideas of it (the idea) being incorporated in to our site to automatically convert all jpegs, but i i r c we don't have that level of access.

It does impress me when zooming in the lack of loss of resolution.

love this . 🙂

 

Edited August 25 by anthonym

[anthony1956]

ok I couldn't resist, 

 -print  This primary always evaluates to true.  It prints the pathname of

             the current file to standard output. 

If none of -exec, -ls,

             -print, -print0, or -ok is specified, the given expression shall

             be effectively replaced by ( given expression ) -print.

 

     -print0

             This primary always evaluates to true.  It prints the pathname of

             the current file to standard output,

followed by an ASCII NUL

             character (character code 0).

looks like it's more specific being followed by ascii nul with no choices - maybe a.i. thinks it's more reliable as regards known output. edit: as confirmed below

==================================================

and here's a.i.'s explanation:

 

The `-print0` option is used instead of `-print` in the `find` command for several important reasons, primarily related to how file names are handled in Unix-like operating systems:

### **1. Handling Special Characters in File Names:**
   - **Spaces**: File names that contain spaces can cause issues when passed as arguments in a command pipeline. For example, if you use `-print`, each file name is separated by a newline. If a file name contains spaces, `xargs` (or any other command processing the output) might mistakenly interpret parts of the file name as separate arguments.
   - **Other Special Characters**: File names can also contain characters like newlines, tabs, or other whitespace, which can further complicate processing if not handled correctly.

### **2. Null Character as a Separator:**
   - **`-print0` Outputs Null Characters**: The `-print0` option outputs each file name followed by a null character (`\0`) instead of a newline. The null character is used because it is a reliable delimiter that does not occur in file names, ensuring that each file name is passed correctly to the next command in the pipeline.
   - **`xargs -0`**: The `xargs` command with the `-0` option is designed to handle input that is separated by null characters. This allows `xargs` to correctly process file names that include spaces or special characters, treating each file name as a single, distinct argument.

### **Why This Matters:**
   - **Correct File Handling**: Using `-print0` ensures that even files with complex names (containing spaces or special characters) are handled correctly, avoiding potential errors or unintended behavior.
   - **Script Robustness**: By using `-print0` and `xargs -0`, you make your script more robust and reliable, capable of processing any valid file name without issues.

### **Example:**
Consider a directory with files named `file one.jpg`, `file_two.jpg`, and `file\nthree.jpg` (where `\n` represents a newline character).

- **With `-print`:**
  - `find . -name "*.jpg" -print` would output:
    ```
    ./file one.jpg
    ./file_two.jpg
    ./file
    three.jpg
    ```
  - The file `file\nthree.jpg` would be split incorrectly across lines, causing issues in subsequent commands.

- **With `-print0`:**
  - `find . -name "*.jpg" -print0` would output:
    ```
    ./file one.jpg\0./file_two.jpg\0./file\nthree.jpg\0
    ```
  - Each file name is clearly separated by a null character, allowing `xargs -0` or similar commands to correctly identify each file as a distinct entity.

### **Conclusion:**
Using `-print0` with `find` ensures that file names are passed correctly to other commands, regardless of the characters they contain. It’s a best practice for scripts and commands that need to handle a wide range of file names reliably.

 

Edited August 25 by anthonym

[anthony1956]

p.s. created it ages ago, but I use it all the time for pictures on here 🙂

[anthony1956]

current chatter about my timing is here https://www.caterhamlotus7.club/blogs/entry/1084-plugs-firing-in-random-order-2134-is-ok-then-22212/page/3/?tab=comments#comment-1589

interesting, the comment has a number... wonder if we can use those somehow?

[anthony1956]

On 16/08/2024 at 10:04, Ainsley said:

Its more like real life then 🙂  It makes you think twice before typing. 

oh no it does not 😉 I think those that deny editing are denying the existence of those such as me, who are different from them. I HATE to use that word "diversity". But divergent I can sometimes be and being denied the right to be me REALLY pisses me off. As it would those who are exercising this power over others such as me - with no recognition that they have no idea outside their own narrow view of the world.

 

Need I go on? Because believe me and as some well know, I can.

so, back to engine tuning... which blog is being well screwed up by edit crippling.  dragging myself away for this.....

Edited September 1 by anthonym

[anthony1956]

editing: so now we have this

https://www.caterhamlotus7.club/forums/topic/276389-bdr-new-cam-belt-does-anything-have-to-be-removed-first-ans-yes-alternator-belt/#comment-2620489

which I cannot edit to correct it when it is all wrong. 

Check out all my other threads, many at this challenging BDR time, and each one has its solution added to the opening post subject line.. but not this one because of the arbitrary choice of edit limitation.

Anyone following what looks like the solution will be in real trouble.

Edited September 5 by anthonym