Cognitive bias modification

Noting as a part of an audio book I am listening to (Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, by Daniel Goleman)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias_modification

The Three Princes of Serendip

Today I learned...

"The story has become known in the English speaking world as the source of the word serendipity...."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Princes_of_Serendip

So Duh! Root Beer

Heritage Brewing, out of San Jose, California, makes this root beer, which we tried on Dawn's birthday. Moderate kick (in a good way).

http://rootbeerbarrel.com/2013/02/05/hermitage-brewing-so-duh-rockin-root-beer/
http://hermitagebrewing.com/

Frederic Laloux

A friend suggested I investigate this:

http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/

Sutton Hoo

One of my childhood friends, Jason Sutton -- his name may come from Sutton Hoo?

UPDATE

Probably not:

• "Sutton, meaning 'south settlement' in Old English, is a very common place name." (via)
• "The unusual name "Hoo" is a Saxon word meaning the spur of a hill, and is more commonly associated with East Anglia." (via)

Sacramento mopeds - Business deals turn violent

This happened near where I park each morning. Tragic for all involved.

Truck Tub

A wash for commercial semi tractor units, in California's central valley:
http://trucktub.com/

Noticed this the other day.

Relationship advice - Reddit

Wisdom and humor.

What's the best relationship advice you have ever heard? (self.AskReddit)
ckernan2 4726 points 5 days ago

On our wedding night, I told my wife that we now had a 2/2/2 rule. It goes like this:
Every 2 weeks, we go out for the evening.
Every 2 months, we go out for the weekend.
Every 2 years, we go out for a week.
We've stuck to it, and it really has made things awesome. We got married in August and people still ask how long our honeymoon phase will last. I think it'll last as long as we stick to our 2's.
permalinksaveparentreportgive goldreply

[–]tapsllew 3145 points 5 days ago
Oh I follow a similar 2/2/2 rule, but only at I-HOP...

Notepad++ and Geany plugins

Investigating how to port TextFX to Geany

NOTEPAD++
Source Code
Plugins HOWTO
Plugin Central
TextFX official site
Initial release

NOTEPAD++ NOTES

• "This plugin has no maintainer and wants one; please see TextFX's Future"
• "Currently, some plugins are taking over some areas where TextFX is being used:
• Code alignment
• NppConverter
• XBrackets Lite
• Tidy2"
• "The npp-plugins project features the v0.25 sources and the v0.26 binaries ([v0.26] changes are not deemed to be publcly available as sources by their author.)"

GEANY
Plugins
Github

ANALYSIS

So...it seems TextFX represents abandonware, last updated in 2009, and current strategy involves piecing it out into separate plugins. Which seems to imply the same strategy, for Geany.

VERDICT

Wait and see

Debian Jessie Stable

Upgrading to Debian Jessie stable soon. Have downloaded the ISOs for KDE and GNOME...need to decide which to go with.

INSTALLATION LOG

Backed up home directory
Wiped disk during install (/home in separate partition)
Had to use a separate USB to retrieve nonfree wifi for my Lenovo ThinkPad x201:

• Package: firmware-iwlwifi
• File: /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode

Put the USB in when prompted and the install proceeded without interruption.

Rebooted and all came up smoothly

CUSTOMIZATIONS

Google Chrome

Use Iceweasel to download 64-bit Google Chrome deb to Downloads folder

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

This throws errors about missing packages libappindicator1 and libcurl3

sudo apt-get install libappindicator1 libcurl3

This throws errors

sudo apt-get -f install

This closes out the install and gets everything working

Add Google Chrome to Favorites

Geany

sudo apt-get install geany

sudo apt-get install geany-plugins

GCC

sudo apt-get install gcc

Note: already the latest version

Filezilla

sudo apt-get install filezilla

Configure vim  .vimrc

sudo apt-get install vim

From my 2009 post, copied and pasted into ~k/.vimrc .

Historical note: the "rc" in ".vimrc" derives from "runcom", from the MIT CTSS system, ca. 1965.

git

sudo apt-get install git

subversion
sudo apt-get install subversion

gimp extras

Via:

sudo apt-get install gimp-plugin-registry gimp-data-extras

Enabling NTP Support

sudo apt-get install ntp

Activities > Search for Date and Time

Automatic Date & Time: On

Automatic Time Zone: On

Set default editor to vim

vim ~k/.bashrc

Append line: export EDITOR="vim"

Default applications

Via:

Activities, Search for Details

Default Applications

Web: Chromium Web Browser

Mali: Chromium Web Browser

Calendar: Evolution

Music: VLC media player

Video: VLC media player

Compressing/decompressing

Via:

sudo apt-get install unace rar unrar zip unzip p7zip p7zip-full p7zip-rar mpack sharutils uudeview arj cabextract

curl

Via: sudo apt-get install curl

VLC installation and configuration

Note: a bit different than previous upgrades, but mostly the same (answer via)

sudo apt-get install vlc

This installs 2.2.0-rc2 Weatherwax....which apparently still cannot play YouTube

sudo rm /usr/lib/vlc/lua/playlist/youtube.*

sudo curl "http://git.videolan.org/?p=vlc.git;a=blob_plain;f=share/lua/playlist/youtube.lua;hb=HEAD" -o /usr/lib/vlc/lua/playlist/youtube.lua

Start VLC

Tested on video 

It works : o )

Shotwell
sudo apt-get install shotwell

gparted
sudo apt-get install gparted

bleachbit (system cleaner)
sudo apt-get install bleachbit

Screensaver
sudo apt-get install xscreensaver-gl

Note: this seems to need more (?) For example

UltraNav Touchpad

Activities > Mouse & TouchPad
Uncheck "Two finger scroll"
Uncheck "Natural scrolling"
Note: seems this works out-of-the-box, but the two finger scroll got me...used to one finger scrolling, on the right of the TrackPad

Fingerprint reader

Via:

lsusb reports: "Bus 001 Device 003: ID 147e:2016 Upek Biometric Touchchip/Touchstrip Fingerprint Sensor"

sudo apt-get install libpam-fprintd

grep fprint /etc/pam.d/common-auth 

This reports "auth [success=2 default=ignore] pam_fprintd.so max_tries=1 timeout=10 # debug"

fprintd-enroll

Running this prompts "Enrolling right-index-finger finger." and "Enroll result: enroll-stage-passed"

Scanned my finger each time; this ended after 6 times with message "Enroll result: enroll-completed"

Now it works! : o )

clisp

sudo apt-get install clisp

Note: seems like an abandoned package (?) 

Fonts

Via:

sudo apt-get install fonts-arphic-gkai00mp ttf-wqy-microhei ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-mscorefonts-installer ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-dejavu ttf-dejavu-core ttf-dejavu-extra ttf-freefont ttf-liberation

Configure printing

Activities > Search for "Printers"

Unlock, then select button "Add"

On screen "Add a New Printer" select "Network"

Select "HP LaserJet CP1525nw", then select button "Add"

Print test page...prints successfully in color

Configure GNOME 3 Settings

Activities > Tweak Tool

Desktop

• Icons on Desktop: On

Top Bar

• Show date: Checked
• Show week numbers: Checked

Extensions: Looks interesting!

MISTAKES

Forgot to transfer FileZilla site configurations, so manually recreated

May have forgotten to save touchpad settings (?)

UPDATE
Install updated version of libsane

Bathroom grout humor

Noticed this here at UCSC McHenry Library men's bathroom.

For example:
https://mechanisticmoth.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/grout-humor-and-other-distractions/
http://thegroutlands.tumblr.com/

And so forth, and so forth

Wayland

Fun, to me, to learn how people name things:

The name "Wayland" comes from the town of Wayland, Massachusetts. Høgsberg was driving through that town when the concepts behind Wayland "crystallized".

Via

Speeders (Railway)

Saw a bunch of these railway speeders travel by our apartments this afternoon, just before 5:00 p.m.: 

April 25, 26 FULL, WAITING LIST ONLY
PRO is pleased to announce, as part of the California Spring Rail Adventure, a run on the Santa Cruz Big Trees and Pacific on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26. This is in conjunction with the Santa Cruz Monterey Bay run on those same dates. To participate you will sign up with PRO for the Santa Cruz Big Trees and Pacific portion of the run and sign up with MOW for the Monterey Bay portion of the run. You cannot sign up for one portion without the other - they are connected. 

The cost of the Santa Cruz Big Trees portion is $70 per day. You may sign up for Saturday or Sunday or both. In the event one day is over-booked, you may only be able to sign up for one day. We will be coordinating with MOW to compare signup lists. This run has a limit of 30 cars per day.
Via: http://www.pro-online.org/calendar.htm#btrees

NOTES

• California Spring Rail Adventure
• Operated by: Pacific Railcar Operators, a part of a larger organization, the North American Railcar Operators Association
• Railway: Southern Pacific "Coast Line Railroad" (map)

Also

Steve Jobs bio

Listening to an audio version of Walter Isaacson's biography on Steve Jobs (Dylan Baker, Narrator).

NOTES

• Not a fan of Baker's voice
• Dave Winer (some balance)
• "Stross has the advantage of having already written a Jobs bio, while he was still at NeXT. It's the best tech book I've ever read."
• Narcissistic Personality Disorder (Tina Redse's theory)
• Isaacson treats Bill Gates as though he may wish to write his biography someday (?)

Cryptography terminology - Padlock = Public Key

Cryptography simplified--I really like the idea of calling the public key a lock, rather than a key:

"So Alice come out with a brilliant solution. Now, she only maintains one key (private key). She distributes the same padlocks (public key) to her friends. Anyone can close the padlocks (encrypt), but only she has the key to open (decrypt) them. Now, anyone can send stuff to Alice using the padlock she distributed, and Alice no longer have to maintain manage different keys for different people."

That is:

• Key = private key
• Lock = public key 

This seems intuitive and clarifies things, for me.

What would it take to make this terminology  mainstream?

Via (via Wikipedia, it seems?)

Note: origin of the names Alice and Bob: Rivest's original paper

Cajun Power spicy garlic pepper sauce

Hard to see, but on the right-side the label has a cartoon character with a heart above its head!

City of eternal spring

At a hair cut, my barber told me of Subject, another name for Cuernavaca.

Manually adding phone numbers to 2nd gen Toyota Prius phonebook

http://priuschat.com/threads/how-do-you-manually-add-phone-numbers-to-prius.29675/

Hrm...will have to try

UEFI Ubuntu boot on Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

• 128GB SSD as internal primary
• Removed recovery partition to thumb drive
• Shrunk main partition by 20GB, to make room
• Created partition from the free space (I think ?)
• Downloaded Ubuntu Kylin 14.04.2 LTS
• Used unetbootin to burn to thumb drive (another one)
• Installed Ubuntu to the free partition...this went normally
• Rebooted
• No GRUB, went straight into Microsoft Windows 8.1
• Ran the following command:
• bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi
• Rebooted
• Now GRUB appears and Ubuntu loads, but Microsoft Windows 8.1 boot manager failed to boot, with error 0xc000000e

Turns out BIOS was set to both UEFI and Legacy, with a preference for Legacy. Switching this to UEFI allowed Microsoft Windows 8.1 to load.

Loading into Ubuntu and running the following failed, the first time, because I had booted into Legacy mode:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair  
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install boot-repair
• boot-repair 

So, I switched BIOS to use both UEFI and Legacy, but with a preference for UEFI. Then, I booted from the Ubuntu installer thumb drive. I selected Try Ubuntu, ran the above (after connecting to the wireless router), and voila, after following the instructions and using the defaults, a reboot now allows the choice of both.

RESOURCES

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

http://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/installing-ubuntu-on-a-pre-installed-windows-8-64-bit-system-uefi-supported

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/repartition-hard-disk#1TC=windows-7

http://askubuntu.com/questions/235567/windows-8-removes-grub-as-default-boot-manager

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI#Converting_Ubuntu_into_EFI_mode

Train Simple lifetime subscription

Subscribed to a lifetime subscription at Train Simple today, for $79!

Floppy disk drive (USB) + GNU/Linux

Today I used a floppy diskette drive (USB) for the first time in years, to migrate some media I had in long-term storage.

NOTES

• Noises of floppy drive brought a smile -- though I seem to recall if the floppy sounds that bad, it most likely will not last much longer (?)
• Purchased the FDD for ~$15
• For GNU/Linux, I ended up mounting the USB floppy as follows:
• Connect the drive and USB
• sudo blkid -c /dev/null
• This will list your device (for me, it was /dev/sdb)
• Alternatively: 
• udisks --mount /dev/sdb
• Nautilus then displayed the drive
• To unmount, I used Nautilus

Not pretty, but we got there--now I can ditch this old media! Next weekend, I will tackle some old ZIP disks.

Bongo drums

Reminded me of Richard Feynman playing the bongo drums:

"Most of us need our bodies in motion for our brains to reach their highest level of activation. Traditional cultures have understood this. That's why we have beads and wheels, yoga positions, davening, kneeling, prostrations, drumming, and other physical aids to prayer and meditation. We have a shared understanding our bodies need to be engaged to support our attention and focus. Muscle movement gets associated with certain memories in the same way odors or colors do, and assist in the retrieval."

Via

Alien microwave ovens

Fun:

Credit: Katie Mack. @AstroKatie's handy guide to distinguishing perytons from fast radio bursts.

Via:

Origins Of Mysterious Radio Wave Bursts Discovered

New Nintendo 3DS XL

Specs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Nintendo_3DS

• Released to North America region on February 13, 2015
• Metallic Red and Metallic Black (called "New Red" and "New Black" in North America)
• Some bundles, now overpriced

Games:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_3DS_games

• Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (Q4 2015)
• Pokémon Infinity (October 2015)
• ?

Colors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_3DS_colors_and_styles

• Metallic Purple available in 2012

Hotel Pillows

We seem to have had a similar experience as many others while staying at a Marriott hotel--great pillows.

However, upon looking up reviews of the Hotel Touch of Down Pillow on the Pacific Coast Feather Company website, we found many complaints alleging their purchases did not live up to the pillows they had found at the Marriott.

So, what gives (?):

• From one commenter, on October 17, 2012: "The response I got from PCF was that the pillows in the Hilton have been shrunk down from being washed hundreds of times and are more compact."
• Another commenter, on October 28, 2014: "I called customer service (Robin) and she was extremely helpful. The pillow I wanted is not on the website but can be special ordered. It is called "Double Touch of Down" and is the " Old Hyatt" pillow. The item number in King is 33034. When they arrived I compared the tags and there was only a difference of 5% duck feather in the inner chamber and 5% down in the outer chamber."
• Pacific Down Feather Company FAQ:
• The Down Surround pillow is softer than the Touch of Down pillow.
• The Touch of Down pillow is a super standard size, 20" x 28". Some hotels will put this super standard size pillow into a standard 20" x 26" pillow protector. The 2" difference causes the pillow to plump up more.
• Some hotels will even double the protectors on each pillow to reduce the air permeability of the pillow keeping it fluffier throughout the night.
• Hotel pillows are slept on and washed regularly which accelerates the softening process. If the pillow you order doesn't feel as soft as your hotel experience, it might be that you need to wash and dry it a few times.
• Lastly, pillows are made from 100% cotton. Over time, the washing process can shrink the pillow. A pillow that seems smaller than 20" x 26" even with extra protectors, may have shrunk from excessive washings.
• (?)

Suggested alternatives:

• The Company Store
• One commenter writes, "The authentic Marriott pillows can be purchased at ShopMarriott.com"
• The Sweet Home

The last link had this tip:

It’s a minor point, but Breus also pointed out that sleepers have different support needs over the course of the week. “If you’re typing at a desk all week, by Friday, you’re going to need more support,” he said. “If you’re out and about, you don’t need that type of support; your neck is looser.” Swapping out pillows according to the stresses on your neck is ideal, but due to expense and negligible long-term impacts, we don’t think you need to buy multiple pillows with different support unless a doctor advises you to do so.

Pinot Gris versus Pinot Grigio

Pinot Gris versus Pinot Grigio, courtesy of The Katering Show:

• Pinot Grigio - grapes harvested earlier, Italian wine, so fructose-free 
• Pinot Gris - grapes harvested later, so more fermented sugars, so has fructose 

Same grapes.

Natural Bridges State Beach

Walked to Natural Bridges State Beach today and visited the Visitor Center, where we purchased two magnets and learned a bit about monarch butterflies and various marine organisms. Watched two people bodyboarding.

The woman behind the counter mentioned she had recently visited our apartment complex with friends, in an attempt to see if she might personally hear a young coyote howling (evidently, some of her friends had passed along the news). The fellow residents told her, I believe, that coyote howls occur frequently, as coyotes may use the railroad tracks as a vector for traveling to and fro. Dawn confirmed she also has heard the coyotes, occasionally.

Library card

Obtained a library card today from the Santa Cruz Public Library.

The front desk assistant pointed out to us the web site offers several perks:

• Digital media (for example, "Films on Demand", "hoopla", "indieflix", and "medici.tv")
• Free tickets to regional attractions
• Download books to mobile devices

By the staff offices, they displayed several books about librarians:

• How I Fell in Love with a Librarian and Lived to Tell About it
• Due or Die (A Library Lover's Mystery)
• What the Librarian Did

Clos

From Wikipedia:

"Clos, from the French for Closure or enclosed, is a walled vineyard used to protect the grapes from theft as well as improving the mesoclimate. Often founded by Cistercians monks. The word is often used in the name of famous wines even when the wall no longer exists."

 We see this a lot on wine bottles. For example, Clos La Coutale.

Static code analysis

A strong opinion on adopting static code analysis (highlighting added; full article, below):

The most important thing I have done as a programmer in recent years is to aggressively pursue static code analysis. Even more valuable than the hundreds of serious bugs I have prevented with it is the change in mindset about the way I view software reliability and code quality.

…I feel the success that we have had with code analysis has been clear enough that I will say plainly it is irresponsible to not use it. 

-- John Carmack
Co-founder, Id Software; CTO, Oculus VR

(via, via)

Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (Trusty Tahr) to Dell Inspiron 15r

Learned from my experiences last time:

• Downloaded latest Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (Trusty Tahr) ISO from a mirror, using UC Santa Cruz connectivity (1.0GB in ~10 minutes)
• Disk Utility 3.0.2 used to wipe a 16GB USB thumb drive, then reformat the drive as a bootable 2GB FAT16 partition
• Installed unetbootin
• Used unetbootin to write the ISO to the USB thumb drive
• Booted the Dell Inspiron 15r from the USB thumb drive (F12 to select boot device)

From there, I followed the prompts, no problems--wiped the entire drive of Microsoft Windows and the previous Ubuntu install. No need to re-install GRUB. Configured encrypted hard drive and home directory, connected to Wi-Fi, connected to network printer, and so forth.

Success!