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I tend to more easily post tech news at GitHub Gist, Google+, and older Google+ now. See also my old snippets and user styles.

My Firefox won't paste text! A workaround using AutoHotkey.

In Firefox I often find myself unable to paste into Facebook or YouTube comment boxes. I've been a Mozilla fan since 3.0, but bugs like these make Firefox a pain. Here's a workaround that works in my 64-bit Windows 7:

1. Install AutoHotkey.
2. Save this script as "type_clipboard.ahk":

   ; http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/76296-type-out-text-in-clipboard/
   ; ctrl+win+v
   ^#v::
       sendraw %clipboard%
   return

3. Run the script and press Ctrl+Win+V to have AutoHotkey type your clipboard text into Firefox.

#TheDress

The dress is Coffee and Cool grey according to my new script:

What's that color?

Try these context-dependent colors: rgb(113,94,58) and rgb(135,154,189)

R:
G:
B:

Cyrillic to Latin

Tired of unreadable Russian characters? Try this JavaScript:

var Cyrillic_Latin = {
 "А":"A", "а":"a",
 "Б":"B", "б":"b",
 "В":"V", "в":"v",
 "Г":"G", "г":"ɡ",
 "Д":"D", "д":"d",
 "Е":"Je", "е":"e",
 "Ё":"Jo", "ё":"jo",
 "Ж":"S", "ж":"s",
 "З":"Z", "з":"z",
 "И":"I", "и":"i",
 "Й":"J", "й":"j",
 "К":"K", "к":"k",
 "Л":"L", "л":"l",
 "М":"M", "м":"m",
 "Н":"N", "н":"n",
 "О":"O", "о":"o",
 "П":"P", "п":"p",
 "Р":"R", "р":"r",
 "С":"S", "с":"s",
 "Т":"T", "т":"t",
 "У":"U", "у":"u",
 "Ф":"F", "ф":"f",
 "Х":"X", "х":"x",
 "Ц":"Ts", "ц":"ts",
 "Ч":"Tj", "ч":"tj",
 "Ш":"Sh", "ш":"sh",
 "Щ":"Sh", "щ":"sh",
 "Ъ":"", "ъ":"",
 "Ы":"E", "ы":"e",
 "Ь":"ʲ", "ь":"ʲ",
 "Э":"E", "э":"e",
 "Ю":"Ju", "ю":"ju",
 "Я":"Ja", "я":"ja",
 "І":"I", "і":"i",
 "Ѳ":"F", "ѳ":"f",
 "Ѣ":"E", "ѣ":"e",
 "Ѵ":"I", "ѵ":"i",
 "Ѕ":"Z", "ѕ":"z",
 "Ѯ":"Ks", "ѯ":"ks",
 "Ѱ":"Ps", "ѱ":"ps",
 "Ѡ":"O", "ѡ":"o",
 "Ѫ":"Ju", "ѫ":"ju",
 "Ѧ":"Ja", "ѧ":"ja",
 "Ѭ":"Ju", "ѭ":"ju",
 "Ѩ":"Ja", "ѩ":"ja"
}

function Cyr2Lat(text){
 var out = ""
 for(i in text) out += Cyrillic_Latin[text[i]] || text[i]
 return out
}

Example:

Cyr2Lat("чем")
"tjem"
Cyr2Lat("форма")
"forma"

Here it is as a bookmarklet that converts the current page (thanks to this snippet):

javascript:(function(){function t(t){var n="";for(var i in t)n+=e[t[i]]||t[i];return n}function n(e){if(e.nodeType==3&&e.nodeValue.trim()!=""){e.nodeValue=t(e.nodeValue)}else{for(var i=e.childNodes.length-1;i>=0;--i){n(e.childNodes[i])}}}var e={"А":"A","а":"a","Б":"B","б":"b","В":"V","в":"v","Г":"G","г":"ɡ","Д":"D","д":"d","Е":"Je","е":"e","Ё":"Jo","ё":"jo","Ж":"S","ж":"s","З":"Z","з":"z","И":"I","и":"i","Й":"J","й":"j","К":"K","к":"k","Л":"L","л":"l","М":"M","м":"m","Н":"N","н":"n","О":"O","о":"o","П":"P","п":"p","Р":"R","р":"r","С":"S","с":"s","Т":"T","т":"t","У":"U","у":"u","Ф":"F","ф":"f","Х":"X","х":"x","Ц":"Ts","ц":"ts","Ч":"Tj","ч":"tj","Ш":"Sh","ш":"sh","Щ":"Sh","щ":"sh","Ъ":"","ъ":"","Ы":"E","ы":"e","Ь":"ʲ","ь":"ʲ","Э":"E","э":"e","Ю":"Ju","ю":"ju","Я":"Ja","я":"ja","І":"I","і":"i","Ѳ":"F","ѳ":"f","Ѣ":"E","ѣ":"e","Ѵ":"I","ѵ":"i","Ѕ":"Z","ѕ":"z","Ѯ":"Ks","ѯ":"ks","Ѱ":"Ps","ѱ":"ps","Ѡ":"O","ѡ":"o","Ѫ":"Ju","ѫ":"ju","Ѧ":"Ja","ѧ":"ja","Ѭ":"Ju","ѭ":"ju","Ѩ":"Ja","ѩ":"ja"};n(document)})()

Useful comments

While the comments in my Assembly post were useful to beginners, experts who can read the code might find them annoying. Here's an example of helpful comments for experienced programmers:

function delete_month(id, index){
 load_branch(id)
 $(".row[id^="+id+"] .cell:nth-child("+(index+1)+")").each(function(i,e){
  if(i==0 && e.className.indexOf("draggable")<0) return  // only change sandbox budget.
  $(this).nextAll().each(function(i,e){
   this.style.left = (parseInt(this.style.left)-mw)+"px"
   cellBlur(this)  // update availability
  }).addClass("changed")
  $(this).prevAll().addClass("changed")  // needed in case there is no next cell.
  $(this).remove()
 })
 //updateTotals()  // too slow here
 btnSave.value = "Save*"
 setBusy(0)
}

Note that i'm describing WHY the code is there, not HOW it works (which should be obvious to any decent JavaScript coder, who also should have an editor capable of wrapping lines to their preferred width).

How to freeze a Google Chrome tab

Chrome cares more about speed than user interaction. This simple bug just hung my tab while hogging one CPU core:

function isOverflowed(element){
    return element.scrollHeight > element.clientHeight || element.scrollWidth > element.clientWidth;
}

function resize_to_fit(el){
 var size = parseFloat(el.style.fontSize) || 55
 log("resizing from " + size)
 while(isOverflowed(el) && size > 8){
  el.style.fontSize = size - 1
 }
}

Press Shift+Escape, sort by CPU descending, and end the offending process to recover. Still better than Firefox.

This is what i meant to write, to resize text content to fit an HTML element like a div:

function isOverflowed(element){
 return element.scrollHeight > element.clientHeight || element.scrollWidth > element.clientWidth
}

function resizeToFit(el){
 var size = parseFloat(el.style.fontSize) || 55
 while(isOverflowed(el) && size > 8){
  size -= 1
  el.style.fontSize = size + "px"
 }
}

How to manually mount a USB storage device in GNU/Linux

After creating a bootable (possibly smaller than 16 GB for BIOS compatibility) USB stick, using Universal USB Installer or equivalent, you may find that some distros, like System Rescue CD do not automount your other/larger USB storage devices.

To solve that, run these commands from your terminal:

mkdir stick
fdisk -l
mount /dev/sdc1 stick

That will:

1. create a mountpoint
2. allow you to find the device that matches your storage size, e.g. /dev/sdc
3. mount the 1st partition of that device on your mountpoint

Before removing the device you may want to unmount it, lest OSs like Windows complain on insert:

umount stick

You can possibly save keystrokes by pressing the up arrow key a few times so you only have to prepend a "u" to the mount command in your command history:

umount /dev/sdc1 stick