509 server response in Integrity / Scrutiny results

I love support calls where I learn something new.

I've never seen a 509 server response before. 500 errors mean that the server was unable to fulfil a valid request, and the 509 means "Bandwidth Limit Exceeded"(not used by all servers).

In this case it meant that Integrity was hitting a site too fast for the server's comfort. Easily solved here by moving the 'Threads' slider over to the left, but if that hadn't fixed it, it's possible to further throttle the crawler by specifying a small delay between requests:

Testing all of the links within an XML sitemap using Scrutiny

I have been recently asked how to do this. Although Scrutiny can open a list of links in plain text or html formats, it won't currently open an xml sitemap file and test the links.

I will write this functionality into Scrutiny but in the mean time, here's my workaround:


2. edit your sitemap file in a text or code editor. Take out the first few lines and replace with:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://peacockmedia.co.uk/displaysitemap.xsl"?>
<urlset>

(in files generated by Scrutiny the <urlset> tag says <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"> - I don't know why the namespace stops this from working but it does)

3. open the sitemap file in a browser. The browser should display only the urls as a list.

4. 'select all' and copy that information

5. paste into a new text document, give it a name and save it somewhere

6. open that file in Scrutiny, check 'plain text mode' and press Go


I'm sure there's an easier way, let me know if you think of one.

Getting started - Hue-topia - Philips Hue home lights controller for Mac

This tutorial is now out of date, and has been superseded by this newer version of the same tutorial.

After following these steps which will only take a couple of minutes, you’ll know how to make and use presets, set your lamps to turn on and off on schedule and set it to listen 

The latest version of Huetopia is available here

1.  If you’ve not already done so, make sure your Bridge and some bulbs are switched on and start Hue-topia. The first time that you start the app it will try to find your bridge and attempt to log in. Finding the bridge requires an internet connection. 

Make and try two presets

2. turn the brightness and the whiteness of all of your lamps all the way up and make sure all are on.

3. Click the [+] button (Save preset) and type ‘All white’ for the name of the new preset. OK that.

4. Turn the brightness and also the whiteness of all of your lamps to three quarters of the way up.

5. Click the [+] button (Save preset) and type ‘All warm’ for the name of the new preset. OK that.

6. You now have two presets and can use these from the Presets button in the toolbar and also from the status bar. Try this.

Set your lamps to turn on and off on schedule

7. Press the Schedules button or ‘Show schedules’ from the View menu (command-2 also shows this window).

8. Press the [+] button at the bottom-left of the Schedules window. 

9. Type ‘Daily’ for the name, select ‘On & Off’, select ‘group: all’, type 17:00 for on and 23:00 for off. Leave all days selected. Click somewhere outside of the small window to save and close those settings.

All lamps are now set to switch on at 5pm and off at 11pm.

Set your computer to listen for sound while you are out and respond by switching on the lights

10. Select t’he All warm’  preset and make sure that the ‘Listen’ button isn’t pressed in.

10. Click the Settings button in the toolbar or ‘Hue-topia > Preferences from the menu bar (command - comma is the standard keyboard shortcut for Preferences)

11. If you make a noise, you should see flashing lights in the level indicator. This uses your sound input source set in System Preferences > Sound > Input, so check there if you can’t see a sound level being indicated.

12. Adjust the slider so that you see red lights if you walk around the room or open a door.

13. Choose ‘All white’ 

14. Close that window

15. Return to the manual control window and click ‘Listen’ in the main toolbar. You’ll see that there’s a delay of 60 seconds which you can use if you are leaving the room or the house.

16 Click ’Start now’. The computer is now listening for sound and will respond by turning up all of the lights if it hears a sound. if there’s silence for 5 minutes, the lights should go back down again.