Home Document Management System
how do i manage documents at home?
write up how nice it is to use scansnap, acrobat + yep
still need to think about remote access
Tim Booher
Bold Love
Who understands what love is? The ancient greeks used variants of the word for love to denote increasing levels of altruism. Medieval love was said to focus on the suffering that one feels “derived from the sight of and excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex”. Think of the sad, but pure, suffering of the Lady of Shallot as her lifeless and beautiful body floats towards her beloved Lancelot. In modern times, our understanding of love has been influenced by everyone from Bertrand Russell (“love is absolute value”) to Tina Turner’s ear worm (What is she saying there anyway?). Hollywood would have us think that love is an intense emotion that falls upon the lucky and beautiful, but mainstream America sees love in a more benign light that remembers its origins in suffering and altruism. Love is that anodyne influence which empowers us to endure, overlook and accommodate the behaviors of those we have committed to love — our parents, children, spouses, and friends.
Dan Allender couldn’t disagree more. In this book he puts forth his clarion call: love is bold. Bold enough to seek the greatest good, and pursue that good with the deepest passion using all means available. This passion adds an earthy realism to love, removing it from its baroque throne and bringing love right into the middle of our real relationships — relationships where love calls for the insertion of boundaries, and maybe, a little craftiness. To Allender, love does not blindly suffer — forgive and forget — it goes one step further than forgiving, forgetting and acquiescing. Setting aside manners and cultural expectations, through many anecdotes he builds the case that love is cunning, courageous, and, well, bold.
The heart of the book is about what it really means to love someone: from the love of your life, to an abuser, to your greatest enemy. It is a book written by a Christian for Christians and if there is not an orthodox understanding and appreciation of an the nature of Christ, I don’t think a good part of the book will resonate very well. Central to his argument is that God did not give up on creation. He sought after it at great expense to himself. This is what it means to love. Sacrifice and suffering? Yes. But any understanding of the cross, acknowledges Christ’s act to love to be the definitive act which brings victory to His own and defeat to the father of lies. The image of the cross is about as different from the Lady of Shallot as I can imagine.
Bold Love is divided into three sections: The Battlefield of the Heart, Strategy for the War of Love and Combat for the Soul. The first section builds a case for a deeper understanding of love based upon Christian Theology. “Strategy” gets practical — describing the steps toward reconciliation. Importantly all reconciliation needs to be fueled by a passionate hope for restoration, given focus by envisioning the ideal state of a difficult beloved. Allender then teaches how to confront and invoke the deep passions to work for us. In “Combat”, he gets more practical by classifying those who are difficult to love as evil, fools, or normal folks pursuing things wrongly and then provides concrete examples to deal with each.
His message came at the right time for me and has revolutionized the way I love, live, and forgive. A bit wordy in places, there is too much wisdom packed into this book to skip a single page. Often in the most unexpected places, I would be hit by a quote that would leave me speechless, and I would have to close book and just think for several minutes. I most definitely will read Bold Love again and recommend it to anyone who wants to better know the subject and practice of love.
Pullup Bar
In order to do more workouts at home, I decided to put a chin-up bar in my basement. I looked around at amazon and saw three real options: over the door mount, on the ceiling mount or wall mount. Three examples shown below:
| Wall mount | Wall Mount | Ceiling Mount |
|---|---|---|
In a pull-up bar, I value stability. When exercising, I don’t want a single thought that I am moving anything other than myself. The door mount would sway and not have the solid feel I want. The wall mount is best, but I don’t have room for it and I want Chrissy to be able to use a chair at an arbitrary distance in front of her to assist. The ceiling mounted unit was best, but I didn’t want to wait several weeks and pay that much cash. So I designed by own using $12 in parts from home depot which included 36″ long piece of 1-inch diameter threaded steel pipe. I also purchased two threaded endcaps to hold in the bar and six bolts to hold in the assembly. Using SketchUp, you can see the design below. Whole design, buy, construct and build will take ~4 hours, so no money gained, but I have fun building this stuff.
I was inspired by http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/Grunt/Bodyweight.html and the basic design of:
,
but I wanted something more secure, hence my end-caps and rabbet with kreg inset screws which resulted in the following part (x2):
This enabled an extremely strong connection to the joist, and provided me with 11.5 inches above the bar of clearance plus however much the inner joist I am willing to put my head in. We will see how this goes and I will post a final product.
Some pictures of the final product:
One thing I didn’t do was a finite element model of the stress using AutoDesk Inventor. I started down this path — mostly out of a desire to refresh my FEA skills, but I realized that I didn’t have time to study the mesh and learn this new app. Definitely would love to add this tool to the toolbox since Inventor has a great rendering engine. Funny that I have never really used all my structures classes which is something I would like to rectify.
The Next 100 Years
kinda absurd regarding the war
presented an interesting thread through the future — consider it one of many
great strategic thought — didn’t get bogged down regarding people . . .
bismarkian — really seeing nations in conflict
like the idea how unexpected the future is and how we don’t know who our enemies might be — strategic forecasting . . . how hard
The Gamble
interesting how to lead change
crazy number of PhDs — way above the air force (how did the army get this?)
iraq is in trouble — with lots of thorny directions ahead
we really did make some big mistakes in completely misjudging how iraq would adapt — still what is the failure here?
how are we going into the future with this?
Post 9/11 GI Bill Availability
Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs officials are working out the details of a new education benefit recently approved by Congress that goes into effect Aug. 1, 2009.
“The absolute most important part of the new G.I Bill is that none of it takes effect until next year,” said Rita Hughson, the chief of education and training at Bolling Air Force Base, D.C. “No one should make any definite plans until the details are worked out.”
The new education bill, commonly called the Post-9/11 G.I Bill, will govern payment and reimbursement plans for veterans and servicemembers who seek to further their education. The new plan will be open to most servicemembers who served on active duty after Sept. 11, 2001. This includes people who have not been eligible for the Montgomery G.I. Bill, such as Air Force Academy or ROTC graduates, those who declined to participate in the program, and those whose service started before it went into effect in 1985, she said.
According to Ms. Hughson, the implementation of particular benefits and how they will apply to former and current servicemembers have yet to be established. There are, however, a few facts that are known since the bill was signed into law:
TUITION — The Post-9/11 G.I. Bill will cover tuition with payments sent directly to the school. The formula for determining the amount of tuition and fees paid will be based on the highest cost of a state-supported bachelor’s degree program. The tuition amount will be paid directly to the college.
HOUSING — A housing allowance will be made available to prior servicemembers who attend as civilian full-time students. The rate will be that of a staff sergeant with dependents.
BOOKS & SUPPLIES — A maximum of $1,000 per year will be allotted to the member to cover the costs of books and supplies needed for classes. The stipend will be divided by terms, so if someone attends a two-term school, the allotment will be $500 per semester, whereas the student will receive $333 if they attend a three-semester school.
TUTORING — $100 a month for 12 months will be available for tutor programs should the servicemember require extra help outside of his or her studies.
AVAILABILITY — Servicemembers can take advantage of the program up to 15 years after they are honorably discharged or retire from the service.
CERTIFICATION — An extra $2,000 is available to pay for one license or certification test as approved by the VA.
Get an overview of the New GI Bill.
Besides the listed benefits, a portion of the tuition stipend, as well as the tutoring allowance, may be available for servicemembers to transfer to family members. Many of the details for this, however, are still being worked out between DOD and the VA, Ms. Hughson said.
Although the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill tuition benefit will be available to most people while they are on active duty, it is actually most advantageous to use all the benefits after separating, Ms. Hughson said.
“There are so many other educational programs and benefits people can take advantage of while they’re on active duty, like the various free tests for college credit and tuition assistance funding,” she said. “But just like the current G.I. Bill, people will get the greatest benefit if they wait until they are no longer serving on active duty before they begin using it.
“That way they have the option to use all their G.I. Bill benefits for the longest amount of time,” she added.
Once the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill becomes available Aug. 1, 2009, Ms. Hughson expects people who have already elected to participate in the Montgomery Bill program will have the option to use the new plan, if they wish; however, it may be in a member’s best interest to stick with the Montgomery Bill for certain distance-learning programs or if they would prefer money be sent directly to them, Ms. Hughson said.
“Whatever they decide to do, people should do as much research as they can as details become available,” she said. “As is normally the case with legislation, details remain sketchy until implementation guidance is made public, and since nothing goes into effect until August of 2009, people shouldn’t make any sort of determination until then.”
Still confused about the New GI Bill? Get answers to frequently asked question.
Set up Dual Monitors in Ubuntu with Nvidia GeForce FX 5200
First I installed
tim@Lincoln:~$ sudo apt-get install envyng-qt
with all its crazy dependencies. Then I ran lspci | grep VGA to find my video driver.
00:0a.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)
With envyng, I took their recommendation of: 173.14.12-0ubuntu5.1 and installed, restarted.
On restart I had access to the nvidia setting manager, which i started as sudo with:
sudo nvidia-settings &
everything works fine now.
What is a conservative?
From the initial guidebook from Patrick Allitt’s course:
Conservatism is, above all, an attitude about the world, which sees the past as the best guide for navigating our way into the future. It assumes that all the really important questions confronting humanity have already been answered, and that it is generally safest to stick to what is tried and true. Blueprints for transforming society, say conservatives, will not work; they do not pay sufficient heed to the complexity of human nature, and their unforeseen side effects can easily do more harm than the good they intend. Conservatives tend to be skeptical about the possibility of human perfection; even those who are not religious understand the wisdom embodied in the idea of original sin: that we are all capable of evil as well as good. Conservatives think of imperfect human nature as the bedrock of social and political reality; it may seem different under different social and cultural conditions, they admit, but it never changes in its essentials.
Several things jump out at me here. The first is that I strongly resonate with the idea of original sin and how that affects public policy. This is part of why I like capitalism. The basic economic dictum of neoclassical economics states that when selfish, self-interested individuals try to maximize their own welfare in a free market environment they unknowingly bring about a “virtuous” world where everyone becomes materially better-off. Like Adam Smith said,
. . . every individual . . . intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. . . . By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. (Smith, p. 423)
So this is at least one link between my economic, religious and political beliefs, which is nice and tidy. However, I am interested how Allitt’s quote intersects with other conservative beliefs/positions. Choose, for example, don’t ask don’t tell (DADT). The military is about to have a huge battle here as the administration (and congress) will make this a major push (cf. the letter from the president
here) and the Defense Department is ready to go along, at least Adm Mullen and Secretary Gates are. So naturally, this will be an issue with conservatives lining up in (probably weak) opposition. I don’t want to get into the current politics of this, but how does this position mesh with Prof Allitt’s description above? My views on this issue relate to my faith and personal preference. Period. I haven’t had time to consider the public policy, ethical stance on this, let alone think about how issues like abortion, gay marriage and DADT mesh with conservative philosophy. If we stick with the opening quote, is it because “all the really important questions confronting humanity have already been answered, and that it is generally safest to stick to what is tried and true” or simply because many conservatives happen to be Christians who oppose openly homosexual relations in the military because of their faith? (I want to leave room for other Christians to disagree with DADT or support openly gay relations in the military.) In any case, what do you think of the quote above? I really don’t want to debate/discuss DADT here, but how principles in the quote above apply to non-fiscal current issues. Does Allitt get it right or is he mischaracterizing conservative philosophy?
Interior Lighting
The first thing we considered, was the different functions we wanted out of our lighting and how different layers combine in an overall lighting plan. First, we wanted general downlighting with the flexibility to be in full-clean/bible study/game mode (I want to see everything in the room), but also wanted a dimmer discussion mode and a minimal light setting that just accents our art-work. With the general modes defined, we could consider the contribution of each layer. I used several resources on the internet to get a rough feel for how lighting should be arranged, with a focus on recessed lighting since that is the most permanent.
General Resources:
- Recessed Lighting for Living Rooms (suite101.com)
- How to lay out cans (forteelectric.com)
- Plan Recessed Lighting (ehow.com)
- Recessed Lighting Plans (illuminationslighting.com)
- Recessed Lighting Guidelines (illumenate.com)
Due to my lack of experience, I had to create a model to test our ideas and Google SketchUp with the Podium plug-in provided a great opportunity for this. To build my model, I first use my laser measuring tool (critical for rapid drawing) to get quick dimensions of the room and built a mock up that allowed for openings where the sun would enter to allow for an understanding of sunlight and shadows.
Based on the reading above, we built several zones: general task/accent lighting (via lamps), wall washing (to make room look bigger, highlight art, independently controlled) and two zones of downlighting (independently controlled and dimmed). To determine downlighting locations. From the above recommendations, I drew a box 30″ in on all sides that produced a 14′ 8″ by 8′ 2″ box. Using SketchUp’s divide feature, If I wanted symmetry, I had to pick 7′ 4″ apart (too much) or 4′ 10″ (almost perfect for a 5″ light). With the 8′ width, there was a perfect space for two internal cans, which would make up the second downlighting zone.
Since our first wall could be lit by free-standing lighting, we focused on our fireplace and main art-piece from Youngmi Organ. To simultaneously wash these walls, and highlight the art, I drew another line 24″ away from the walls and picked two locations for the eyeball or spotlight halogens. Knowing full well that all this will change when I look at hardware, take account of the ceiling joists and talk to the contractor, you can see the drawing with dimensions below.
So what does all this look like? Let the iterations begin. Again this is just a rough hack, but here are some of the renderings. Regarding podium, I tried to keep the main thing in focus, so I am not looking at diffusion or baffle designs. Just a rough idea of how the lighting will look, so I used circles as LEMs (light emitting materials) along with really course rendering settings. Apologies for the lack of polish, but this is what we are considering now.
Enjoy
Paperless Archive Makeover — ruby and unix to the rescue
I recently had to clean out my digital paperless archive — a task made much more difficult by encrypted PDFs and a bunch of lint in my directory. We have been paperless since 2001 and have many gigs of files in a hierarchical file structure that was becoming difficult to use and maintain. (i.e. Where exactly does that government credit card statement go? Under work or credit cards?) After making symlinks to get around this problem, I started to notice that as I moved from linux, to mac, to windows, back to linux, I was losing the ability to find my files. Also, not only were a lot of my PDFs scattered in deep directory trees, but many were secured in different ways. Some files I couldn’t open at all, helped by a period in my life when I thought all PDFs should be password protected. Other files I could open and print, but not modify in any way. I had to open (de-encrypt) all these files since I am making my paperless storage full-text searchable (using Adobe Acrobat Pro’s batch ocr and PDF optimizer to downsample images). To then find the files I need, I am using Yep on the mac and Knowledge Tree on my file-server to have instant tag-based and full-text access to my documents.
My home file system is divided into two main areas: library and personal. Library contains everything that others have created for the masses and I have generally purchased: applications burned to image, music, online books, etc (> 100 gigs). Personal is reserved for files created for or by me or my family. I generally do this to prioritize my backup strategy where personal files get much more care. Inside the personal directory are directories for photographs, movies, sound recordings, my working directories (one for each person) and my digital archive, the focus of this article.
As stated above, my digital archive needed cleaning. After a good scrub with fslint to remove duplicates/cruft, the first thing I had to take care of was a whole collection of non-pdf files that had accumulated over the years as I struggled to determine what exactly should go in my paperless archive, my online filing cabinet. I have decided that working files can be whatever format they need to be in, but my paperless archive is for static documents in PDF — only. With this decision, files in a format like Excel or Matlab should be moved to my personal working directory, and other static files like gif’s, tiff’s should be converted to PDF. Now all archived documents are searchable with one method and the filing cabinet metaphor works much better (apologies to postmodern abstractions, I am still old fashioned in my metaphors). To do all this, I found the unix find command and some ruby scripting very useful. Before making any modifications, I made a backups to my off-site storage, my raid array, and local desktop. Armed with a good backup, I used find to tell me what and where all the non-PDFs were:
find . -type f -not -iregex ".*.pdf$"which was roughly a gig of tiffs, strange files, and saved web-pages (what was I thinking). These were easy enough to move out of the way with:
mkdir not_pdf
find . -type f -not -iregex ".*.pdf$" -exec cp --parents {} not_pdf/ ;Note the use of –parents to ensure that I didn’t overwrite files with the same name in one big directory. After carefully verifying that I had copied all relevant non-PDF files to the not_pdf directory and moved this directory outside the top-level directory, I ran the (dangerous):
find . -type f -not -iregex ".*.pdf$" -exec rm {} ;Now, to tackle the challenge of encrypted PDFs. My strategy here is to move them from the archive to a stand-alone directory corresponding to their status (totally locked down, or modifications restricted, etc) because I am going to have different scripts/strategies to deal with each of these. The totally encrypted files, will require pdfcrack facilated by a list of frequenty used passwords. The restricted files are from my broker (seriously, why not let me own/modify my documents) and I am going to have to brute force crack them (preferred) or de-drm them via printing/etc. This is a huge annoyance and I hope financial firms will give us documents in the future that let us use them however we like. As it is now, I can’t merge them or search them.) To do this binning of PDFs, I built the following ruby script around the unix executable pdfinfo. It needs refactoring, but got the job done. The difficult part for me was to capture both stderr and stdout since I needed to know if I couldn’t open the document.
#!/usr/bin/ruby
require 'find'
basedir = '/path/to/documents'
my_count = 0
Find.find(basedir) do |file|
if file =~ /.pdf$/
begin
result = {aaa01f1184b23bc5204459599a780c2efd1a71f819cd2b338cab4b7a2f8e97d4}x[pdfinfo "#{file}" 2>&1]
rescue
puts "trouble with #{file}"
end
if result =~ /Encrypted:.*syess(print:(w+)scopy:(w+)schange:(w+)saddNotes:(w+))/
can_print, can_copy, can_change,can_add_notes = $1,$2,$3,$4
if can_print
puts "can print #{file}"
`mv "#{file}" /my_archive/need_to_print/`
else
puts "can't print #{file}"
`mv "#{file}" /my_archive/cant_print/`
end
my_count += 1
elsif result =~ /Error: Incorrect password/i
puts "deal with no password #{file}"
`mv "#{file}" /my_archive/need_password/`
my_count += 1
end
#puts file
end
end
puts "#{my_count} password protected files"
How I deal with these will be the subject of a future post. Please let me know any pointers on any of this.