Syntax highlighting isn’t enabled by default on OS X, though it’s easy enough to set it up, and a few other small enhancments at the same it.

Start by executing this command:

cd /usr/share/vim && sudo vim vimrc

After entering your password press i to enter insertion mode and add the following lines after the line set backspace=2:

set showmatch           " automatically show matching brackets
set binary noeol        " do NOT put a carriage return at the end of the last line
set backspace=indent,eol,start  " make that backspace key work the way it should
set history=100         " keep 100 lines of history
set ruler               " show the cursor position
syntax on               " syntax highlighting
set hlsearch            " highlight the last searched term
filetype plugin on      " use the file type plugins

" When editing a file, always jump to the last cursor position
autocmd BufReadPost *
\ if ! exists("g:leave_my_cursor_position_alone") |
\ if line("'\"") > 0 && line ("'\"") < = line("$") |
\ exe "normal g'\"" |
\ endif |
\ endif

The lines above add syntax highlighting and a few other useful things. The line set binary noeol is very important for web developers. For example if you are programming in PHP and you leave a space outside the closing ?> it will cause http headers to be needlessly sent. That line prevents that from happening.

Well that's it if you press ESC then type :wq you will return to the terminal. Try editing some files again and the highlighting should be enabled.

I have always wondered if it was possible to use a template system with VIM. Whenever I used large editors it was usually because of the default template schemes they allow. I have always preferred using VIM because it’s so practical, and it’s useful to be able to execute commands in-between editing files.

Well anyway here are a few commands to configure a vim template system on UNIX (It should work on both OSX and Linux):

• Download the template system:

  curl -C - -O http://www.vim.org/scripts/download_script.php?src_id=3747

• Open VIM:

  sudo vim

• Source the file you have downloaded from within VIM by typing:

  :source ./download_script.php\?src_id=3747

• Now the VIM template system has been configured. The previous command should output the template directory so that you can create new templates, it differs depending on your OS.

That’s it if you need more info on how the system works you can visit the project homepage here.

This morning on twitter I came across something called The Kember Identity. Elliott Kember seems to have thought of something that simply hasn’t occured to the rest of the world. That thing has been aptly named “The Kember Identity”. It’s homepage is located here.

Anyway the Kember Identity is an md5 hash. Each md5 hash contains 32 characters so the KID is the theoretical hash that when it is encrypted it returns itself. At the moment this is a theory as it has not been proven. So Elliott has started a competition to see if anyone can figure out if the KID actually exists and if so what it is.

I have chosen to enter this competition with a PHP script that I wrote just a few minutes ago. It’s fairly simple and I have added a html table in there to clean it up a bit. Instead of computing endlessly this script displays all failed equations as it goes. When it finds the KID it will stop and show it in bright green. I ran the script for a few minutes and got to 200,000 hashes with no luck. Also FireFox froze a few times while running it. The best thing to do is just leave it to do it’s job and don’t do anything else while it is working!

You can view it here: http://files.macaoidh.name/php/the-kember-identity/md5.php


<?php

?>

This script should, in theory, find the KID. But it is really a matter of time. I am going to keep it running all night tonight and see if I have any luck. Kae is thinking of writing a JavaScript version that will spread the load between multiple computers thus reducing calculation time. So the race is on! I hope that I am the first to find this magical, mysterious number!

I wrote my first Java application today. Ir is traditional to start out with something simple and boy this is simple and it works!

First you need to download and install the Java Development Kit (JDK) from Sun here. Then change directory to your workspace – where ever you want! In my case it was:

cd /home/conor/java

Then open up a new file named HelloWorld.java in your favourite text editor. In my case it was:

vim HelloWorld.java

Now we start the coding:

class HelloWorld{
  public static void main(String[] args){
    System.out.println("Hello World!");
  }
}

This is basically just a class that tells Java to output the words ‘Hello World! Now the code must be turned into machine code so that it is faster to run. To do that simply type:

javac HelloWorld.java

This creates a new file named HelloWorld.class which is written in machine code. If you open this file in your text editor all you will see is a load of gobledeegook. Now the application is ready to run. Type the following command to run it:

java HelloWorld

You should then see Hello World! written on your screen like this:

[conor@host java]$ java HelloWorld
Hello World!

Another one in the bag!