Recent Posts

2501

Living Room / Re: Do it yourself dropbox

« Last post by superboyac on June 20, 2011, 03:05 PM »

^^ Love that movie!  In a similar vein, I just saw Visioneers and thought it topped Office Space.

2502

Living Room / Re: Can anyone show me proper Donald Knuth TeX samples?

« Last post by superboyac on June 18, 2011, 02:02 AM »

Of course, finding examples is hard.  All anyone wants to do online is talk talk talk talk, describe...but nary a sample.  I don't care about any of that.  I literally just want to see samples of Donald Knuth approved spacing.  What I'd love to find is just a page full of images showing all sorts of math symbols, equations, matrices...just every example possible, and I can tweak my programs to mimic that typography.

Any help is appreciated.  40hz??  I'm betting you probably have something already in mind in your knowledge suppository. 

-superboyac (June 16, 2011, 04:31 PM)

Best source is "The TexBook" by Knuth himself.
Meanwhile, I suggest you download this .pdf and browse through it. Here it is.

-cranioscopical (June 16, 2011, 10:52 PM)

YES!!  Thanks cranio, that is better than I could have imagined.
 

2503

Living Room / Can anyone show me proper Donald Knuth TeX samples?

« Last post by superboyac on June 16, 2011, 04:31 PM »

In my search for the perfect math typography (for print), I learned that Donald Knuth is the master of it all.  He created the Computer Modern font, which is used in all those TeX programs the academics love.  I like it also, and I want to change all the math fonts in my books to the Computer Modern font.

So that's easy, I have the font installed.  Now, I'm looking for good examples of the typography details: spacing between elements, sub and superscript relative sizes, what should and shouldn't be italicized, etc.

Of course, finding examples is hard.  All anyone wants to do online is talk talk talk talk, describe...but nary a sample.  I don't care about any of that.  I literally just want to see samples of Donald Knuth approved spacing.  What I'd love to find is just a page full of images showing all sorts of math symbols, equations, matrices...just every example possible, and I can tweak my programs to mimic that typography.

Any help is appreciated.  40hz??  I'm betting you probably have something already in mind in your knowledge suppository. 

2504

Living Room / Re: Friends: Brace yourselves for another economic turn.

« Last post by superboyac on June 16, 2011, 10:54 AM »

http://www.youtube.c...fREUujocYik&NR=1

-Gothi[c] (June 16, 2011, 10:26 AM)

Very cool.

2505

Living Room / Re: Friends: Brace yourselves for another economic turn.

« Last post by superboyac on June 16, 2011, 10:28 AM »

^^^Nice, 40.  That makes sense to me.  I know I talk a lot of doom and gloom, but I also know that I can always find something to get a little freaky about.  But I also agree with Zaine in that no matter how big or small I make it in my head, reality suggests that the next decade is not going to be very rosy, especially compared to what I've been used to in my life.

Yes, if a country like the USA starts feeling a shortage in food supply, that's a pretty big deal.  That's not going to be good for anyone.

2506

Living Room / Re: Friends: Brace yourselves for another economic turn.

« Last post by superboyac on June 16, 2011, 08:56 AM »

Who are you quoting?

-Deozaan (June 15, 2011, 06:38 PM)

One of the doomsday blogs I read:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

2507

Living Room / Re: Friends: Brace yourselves for another economic turn.

« Last post by superboyac on June 15, 2011, 05:18 PM »

i couldn't have said it better:

The entire world financial system is simply swamped with way too much debt.  The world has never seen anything even remotely close to the gigantic mountains of debt that have been accumulated around the world today.

The current global financial system is not sustainable.  More crashes are inevitable.  A lot of people are going to get steamrolled.

2508

Living Room / Friends: Brace yourselves for another economic turn.

« Last post by superboyac on June 15, 2011, 05:13 PM »

I'm probably being too paranoid, but I think another economic dip or badness is right around the corner.  I also think many of my favorite economists agree with this.  Stocks are not doing well for several weeks now, there have been a couple of odd buyouts lately (Skype), interest rates are still low, the president has been really vocal with the doomsday talk about the economy lately, Greece is about to go Iceland on the world, we're spending a lot of money fighting the wars, and adding to it with libya and all.  The Middle East continues to undergo rapid change and reformation.  On top of it all, there have been a lot of big natural disasters in recent years, all needing major recovery.  As a sidenote, California has not had a big quake for a loooooooong time, and I feel like it's right around the corner also, especially with all these massive tectonic movements in Japan, Indonesia.  I think we're on that same "plate".  I remember a researcher investing the quakes in CA when I was still in school, and he showed that a big one occurs pretty consistently every 12 years or so.  Well, it's been a while since Northridge (1994).  A quake right now in CA would be pretty bad.  The state is already financially strapped, all the government orgs are cutting everything...it would be really expensive and ill-timed.

Prices in general are going up, which is also not a good sign in these situations.  I don't know.  Of course, I realize I am normally just a paranoid person, but still.  I mean, I've been watching and thinking about all the hot topics: copyright, technologies, employment...it feels like we're just stuck.

So there.  I apologize for the gloomy talk, that's what I do! 

2509

Living Room / Re: Backup Strategy: "The Threes"

« Last post by superboyac on June 14, 2011, 12:24 PM »

What I really need to do is make a visual graphic of the setup I need.  That will help me a lot, and I'm sure you guys would like it also.

2510

Living Room / Re: Backup Strategy: "The Threes"

« Last post by superboyac on June 14, 2011, 12:22 PM »

Most of the backup solutions mentioned here will work fine.  nice and easy.  There are many ways to go about it, and they will all be robust enough.  Here's where the problem starts:

Amount of data.  When you're data exceeds 2TB (or 3TB now), now it gets complicated.  because now we're talking spanning data across drives.  Then we start talking about imaging, multiple redundancy, versioning...the hardest part in all this is running out of room on the drive.  That's why I've been having a hard time adapting my backup strategy to the amount of data I have now, which is exceeding 2TB, and is going to grow pretty rapidly.

It's at this point that you start scrambling.  You start changing your backup strategy, you start cleaning things out.  you start deleting things that you don't need.  you burn things on dvd that you feel you need, but it's ok if you lose.  So most people would just buy an external hard drive, or another spare drive.  but that gets weird too, especially if you already have a lot of drives connected to your pc.  Then what?  Then you need to re-configure your backup software to work with the additional drives.  it becomes very complicated when your data exceeds 2-3 TB.

Which is why I am now going to get a legit server setup.  I'll have a RAID-5 array setup for the "working" data.  Then I may have another RAID-5 array to backup the working set.  Then, I may also have a couple of non-Raid hard drives there that also have copies of the data.  The purpose of those is that I can pull it out and use it anywhere, without having to worry about RAID setup and everything...i.e. I can just stick it in a USB external enclosure if necessary.

This setup is beyond a normal desktop, so I'm getting a server for it.  it's overkill to some, but I'm sick of my shoehorned backup solution.  I want to be liberated from my lack of space and do it right.  Once it's setup and I have plenty of space, then I can do all the backups I want: RAID, images, file syncing, versioning...the works.

2511

General Software Discussion / Re: Automatic document creation. How?

« Last post by superboyac on June 14, 2011, 10:21 AM »

fox...dog...hayloft.  40, you are classic!

2512

General Software Discussion / Re: Automatic document creation. How?

« Last post by superboyac on June 14, 2011, 08:48 AM »

Thanks John Fred!  Don't go anywhere!  I'm going to give Access a whirl with this, and I'm going to need you around...

2513

General Software Discussion / Re: Automatic document creation. How?

« Last post by superboyac on June 13, 2011, 05:58 PM »

How about this workflow:
1) store all the data in Access (questions, solutions, diagrams, etc.)  maybe even create an input form to add new questions and such
2) export the content in the final structure as xml. (this is to avoid using Access reports as the final product, if it is not as flexible as I'd like)
3) import the xml into indesign, and use indesign to do the final tuning.

How's that?  I think that's a good solution in case access alone doesn't work.

2514

General Software Discussion / Re: Automatic document creation. How?

« Last post by superboyac on June 13, 2011, 05:36 PM »

I sort of understand what is being said, and appreciate it.  But I do think my project is so simple compared to what is being discussed, that many of the points do not apply.  I am inclined to believe johnfred that access can do the job, because even before bringing it up here, I just couldn't see why it wouldn't be able to do it.
But I am going to try the two solutions here that I like:
1) trying to do this in Access
2) trying to do this using Indesign and xml

One of those has to work.  I may be wrong, but the very key issue is going to be the fine-tuning of the document.  Text styles, nudging images around, precision formatting (I'm unreasonably picky).  Plus, we've already done everything in Indesign by hand right now, so I might be leaning towards it.  However, this Access solution has me intrigued.  So much so, I even took a training class two weeks ago for Access.

2515

General Software Discussion / Re: Automatic document creation. How?

« Last post by superboyac on June 13, 2011, 03:17 PM »

Thanks JohnFredC, I will start playing around with that.  Yes, i am not so concerned about kerning, character spacing, etc. right now, but I *may* be.  Is there really no way to adjust those properties in the text?  Even with all those options I see?

2516

General Software Discussion / Re: Automatic document creation. How?

« Last post by superboyac on June 13, 2011, 01:09 PM »

JohnFredC, thanks for explaining, it's really helping.  I need to hear your thoughts on this because most people who talk about access don't really use access.  you do, and that's why i need to hear more from you.  The people I've spoken to TRAIN access users, but don't necessarily use it themselves.  Others KNOW about how Access works, so they say what it can do, what I SHOULD be able to accomplish, but they don't really use it, so I can tell that some of my questions will remain unanswered.

FYI, our product is PRINT ONLY.  I think our information is simple and consistent enough where an access database can be used to hold everything pretty easily.  There are only 4 elements from what I can see, so it would just mean a few tables, some relationships, and that's about it.

I'm also pretty sure it wouldn't be too difficult to make a report that can output the format of the book as it is right now.  The part that's going to be hard (I think) is the fine-tuning and twiddling around the elements to make them look perfect.  I'm afraid there will be a few parts of the book where I'm going to want to manually move this diagram or question a little to the left or something, and I don't know how that kind of fine-tuning will work within the Access workflow.  Can you advise on that?

Jabberwock, I am also currently looking into some nifty xml solutions.  I like xml, and wouldn't mind using it at all, if it proved convenient.  I'm reading a little bit right now about xml and Indesign and what I can do with that.

And as for typography, I still don't really understand what that means exactly.  What does indesign offer me as far as typography that Access doesn't in a report?  Are the fonts, letters, paragraphs going to look better in indesign?  or does it refer to the ability to move things around and place them exactly where you want?  i really don't have a good handle on this.

2517

Living Room / Re: Force USB Drives to use Drive Letter X

« Last post by superboyac on June 13, 2011, 11:45 AM »

As a stop-gap measure, USB Safely Remove or Zentimo.

-cranioscopical (May 20, 2011, 04:12 PM)

This is what I use.  I know you guys want a free solution.  i did too, I tried really hard to make all the suggestions listed here work, but none of them were as nice and easy as USBSR/Zentimo.  Totally worth it to me.  Good program also.

2518

General Software Discussion / Re: Automatic document creation. How?

« Last post by superboyac on June 13, 2011, 08:50 AM »

JohnFredC, thanks for the input!
As an experienced Access developer, do you think my initial idea was a good one?  If I input all the elements of the book into Access: questions, answers, solutions, diagrams...as tables and all that, can I then create a report which would look like the sample that is shown on our website?  I don't see why not, but every time I ask someone who I think knows Access, they look at me like "Why the hell would you do it that way?"...anyway, please take a look at the sample of our book below, and I'd appreciate any comments:
http://www.compleximaginary.com/

2519

Developer's Corner / Re: Apples, Walled Gardens, and Screw Deals - Oh My!

« Last post by superboyac on June 09, 2011, 02:41 PM »

I've thought about this lately, and this is how I justify it to myself.  It's not being on or off the grid that is my end goal.  It's not like I have some psychological problem with technology and I want to clean myself of it.  My problem is the rat race, i don't care for it.  but I also know that I do very much like the modern conveniences like internet, and am dependant on it for just about everything.  My main "fear" is with the global financial system...I feel helpless in it.  If I choose to participate as I'm doing now, I'm just going to go after more and more money, all with the purpose of helping me achieve my true desires ultimately.  But I'm not seeing an end to it.  It's just going to be me chasing after money and all the things that go along with it.  And I don't care for it.

That's why a possible solution is to just go out and live in the middle of nowhere.  Garden for food, work with your neighbors to fill each other's missing needs (i.e. a community).  But for the most part, I'll have financial freedom.  I wouldn't need too much to live that way.  The reason why I need to computer is so I can focus on creating content, learning, exploring, which is a requirement for me.  I can consume the media through the interent, produce my own work on the computer and websites.  If I were to try to do this 100 years ago, instead of having a computer/internet, I'd like to be relatively close to a university.  I need somewhere to get knowledge and explore and communicate ideas to people.  That's why the internet is required.  How's that, 40?

2520

Developer's Corner / Re: Apples, Walled Gardens, and Screw Deals - Oh My!

« Last post by superboyac on June 08, 2011, 05:09 PM »

I just watched an interesting travelogue about Antarctica.

Almost made me wish I pursued that PhD so somebody down there would hire me for either the US or Ukranian station. I'd sign up for the "winter over" shift in a heartbeat the way I've been feeling lately. As long as I had three dozen books, a computer, a musical instrument or two, and a web connection, I'd be happy there. Or pretty much anywhere else, as long as it wasn't hot and humid, and I didn't really know anybody.
 

-40hz (June 08, 2011, 04:58 PM)

Damn...talk about kindred spirits.  Sounds perfect to me.  I've been planning on sort of itemizing the costs of such a lifestyle.  It's really quite cheap.  All I need to do after that is really, honestly ask myself if I can actually pull it off.  i think I can, but I'm also aware of my human condition to be perpetually dissatisfied.  So I don't really know.  not enough to do anything about it quite yet.

2521

Developer's Corner / Re: Apples, Walled Gardens, and Screw Deals - Oh My!

« Last post by superboyac on June 08, 2011, 04:44 PM »

Ah yes, and corporate jerks like Apple is these days is why I've been happy to take my devices to the Linux side. At least there I can choose how deep I want to dive into proprietary hell rather than have it shoved up my arse. (And don't look for politicians to help -- anyone on those relevant committees has already been bought and sold 100 times over to assure enough cash for their reelection.)

-zridling (June 08, 2011, 04:25 PM)

Seriously.  It feels like the whole system is set up to make us just...stuck.  I've been racking my brain recently to figure out how I can live a life where everyone just leaves me alone.  I almost just want a cabin in the woods with an internet connection, and that's it.  no mortgage, no personal ties except for a few close friends maybe, no monthly bills (other than the internet connection).  i really want to get out of this whole system that makes me toil for no real personal purpose...just work, try to get more money...why?  just to pay for everything that I don't really care about anyway.  Easier said than done, that's my little fantasy, though.

2522

General Software Discussion / Re: Zenix is a "fun, fast, different" Linux distro!

« Last post by superboyac on June 08, 2011, 04:04 PM »

This will probably be more of a novelty distribution for me. But what the heck - weirdness and novelty is what it's supposed to be about, right?

For at least part of the time anyway.

-40hz (June 08, 2011, 03:55 PM)

In the words of Rickety Cricket: "Let's get weird, buddy. Let's get weird."
I like the tux, too.

2523

General Software Discussion / Re: Zenix is a "fun, fast, different" Linux distro!

« Last post by superboyac on June 08, 2011, 10:49 AM »

And it probably did sound macish... Yeah... I admit it... I sometimes like shiny things.

-Renegade (June 08, 2011, 08:20 AM)

No crime in liking shiny blingy things. I happen to love the weird, utterly ludicrous retro looks (and equally unique sounds) of guitars built by Mike Eastwood so who am I to criticize. 

-40hz (June 08, 2011, 09:13 AM)

Those are very douchy looking guitars, I must admit!  According to several people, a guitar like that should be played by someone like this:

2524

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10

« Last post by superboyac on June 08, 2011, 09:43 AM »

Are there any xplorer2 users who've tried (or even switched) to DOpus? I love xplorer2 because its design philosophy seems to be built to cater to power users - there are many hidden powerful functions (the help file is daunting) but lots of little nice touches that don't have a wow factor but soon become indispensable. And its fast.

-MrCrispy (June 08, 2011, 02:56 AM)

I used to use xplorer2, but it was a long time ago.  Maybe a year or two after it first came out.  I moved to DOpus after that and have never looked back.  DOpus should be able to do anything you are looking for, but for some very particular things you may need to spend some time configuring it with custom buttons, keyboard shortcuts, and possibly a little bit of dopus scripting.  None of it is terribly difficult, even for someone like me who hates getting into that stuff normally.  At one point, I wanted DOpus to do everything the way TC did, and I spent some time configuring it to be that way.  I'm sure you can do the same to have it mimic xplorer2.
As far as fast, it's fast enough, but will probably be slower than the "lightweight" alternatives like TC, xplorer2, xyplorer, etc.

The only major criticism with DOpus is the price.  That's really the only thing I've ever heard people legitimately complain about.  It's always "Why should I use DOpus when i can use [whatever] for free or for much cheaper?"  Only at that point do people start saying this file manager does something that DOpus doesn't, which I don't usually buy.  It's usually just the price that is prohibitive for most people.

2525

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of an alternative to InfoSelect ...

« Last post by superboyac on June 06, 2011, 03:25 PM »

I gave UltraRecall a try a few years ago. I found it extremely powerful. But something about it didn't sync with how my brain tends to work. It just struck me as being too much app for what I needed it for. But I have no doubt it's a very good app.

-40hz (June 06, 2011, 01:22 PM)

That's precisely how I've felt with UR also.  And I've tried it out at least 3 times.