Kevin's Social Blog: August 2015

Monday, August 31, 2015

Movies

Today we watched two animated films:

Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2015)
Song of the Sea (2014)

Shirt heart idea

ORIGINAL
http://www.grafolio.com/illustration/26002&from=cr_fd&folderNo=351

HEART SHAPES
One heart (note: recolor, to red?)
http://www.polyvore.com/pink_heart_clip_art/thing?id=77246044

http://www.clker.com/clipart-orange-coral-heart.html

Two hearts
http://clipartzebraz.com/files/3/10783_clip-art-heart.html

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Henry - VR Film

https://storystudio.oculus.com/en-us/henry/

Monday, August 24, 2015

gscan2pdf - Duplex scanning, with OCR

After setting up my Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i on Debian Jessie (stable), I began scanning duplex pages:

sudo gscan2pdf
Place pages into scanner, face down
File > Scan

Select device (in my case, "FUJITSU ScanSnap S1300i")
Page Options Tab

# Pages: All
Source Document: Single sided (note: we select duplex, later)
Select button "Options", for line "Clean up images"

Select tab "Filters"

White threshold: 0.90
Black threshold: 0.48 (note: this currently does not save, for me!)

Scan Mode Tab

Scan Source: ADF Duplex (note: this scans both sides at once!)
Scan mode: Lineart (note: best for scanning text)
Scan resolution: 300

Geometry Tab: accept defaults
Enhancement Tab:

Threshold: 50 (note: this helps cleans up artifacts)

Sensors Tab: accept defaults

Page options > Scan button
Close the popup window
File > Save

If you like, save the Scan Profile.

LINKS

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1681579

Andrew Purchin, Artist

Peet's Coffee, downtown Santa Cruz, features a selection of Andrew Purchin's paintings.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Portal Art Display, Sacramento Ice House Remodel on R Street

Portal: "a 12’ tall mirrored tunnel with programmable LED light panels that will be motion sensitive and respond to social media participation, Borden said."

On the way to work, I saw the FOX40 Sacramento news team preparing for their segment on the August 21 launch. The day before I had noticed the cage and wondered about it. Now it all seems clear.

UPDATE: And, just like that, it's gone. I walked past a party on Wednesday, September 16:

"Portal Finale Event / EDGE 916 / presented by Metro EDGE / Join Sacramento’s young professional movers and shakers for the biggest party of the year as we say goodbye to PORTAL on R! "

On Tuesday, September 15, they had this event, which I also walked past:

"Glow Yoga 5:30PM – 9PM Bikram Yoga of Elk Grove 14th Birthday Block Party BASH! Join us for an outdoor glow yoga class with tribal body paint, a taco truck, NuYo frozen yogurt, yoga demonstrations, music, prizes and giveaways, good company, and more. Tickets in advance are $10 and $20 the day of the event. The first 100 people to purchase a ticket will receive one (1) meal from the taco truck, one (1) drink (water or electrolyte), one (1) glow necklace and bracelet, and one (1) NuYo frozen yogurt."

In partnership with Capitol Area Development Authority (CADA), The PORTAL is designed by Quadriga Landscape Architecture. Programming for the PORTAL is developed, managed, and implemented by Tre Borden. Nice work.

Guzzler Vacuum Truck

Saw a Guzzler vacuum truck near the Sacramento Ice House remodel.

Study tips

http://matt.might.net/articles/college-tips/

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Toto Washlet bidet

The KitTea washroom had a Toto Washlet bidet, a revelation.

I am not sure what specific model, but the arm control panel looked similar to the C100 model:

Heated seat...so nice!
Bidet heated water jets; felt oddly luxurious : o )

Alas, $600!

SF day trip

KitTea

Cats

Dizi
Banjo
Willa
Bonnie
Genie
Tia
Morris
Eric (pending adoption and move to Germany)
Cub
Murray
Gizmo
Colby

Teas tried

Genmaicha
Sencha
Hojicha
Two herbal teas

Food tried

San Francisco Cheesecake Strawberry Swirl cheesecake: "Local organic strawberry preserves, from Inna Jam, swirled into our original style cheesecake."

Shop

Tea cups
Tee shirts

Very positive experience, overall
Well thought out and coordinated experience
Cats provided a lot of interaction
Dawn really wanted to play with Cub, so we went back in for another 30 minutes
However, another couple played with Cub the whole time, so we cuddled with orange tabby Colby

Arizmendi Bakery, 1268 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA

Heirloom Tomato, Red Onion, Lemon Parsley Pesto
Lemony, but not overly so! A tasty diversion
Many consider this the pizza place referenced in the film, Inside Out (Yeast of Eden)

Mount Sutro

Parked on Belgrave Avenue
Walked on Interior Greenbelt steep trail up to Johnstone Drive
Passed by UCSF student housing
Saw the Sutro Tower up close
Behr Avenue to Nike Road
North Ridge Trail with detour to summit, then back on North Ridge Trail to Medical Center Way
Medical Center Way to Fairy Gates Trail
Fairy Gates Trail to Johnstone Drive to Clarendon Ave
Clarendon Ave to Tank Hill Park (what views!)
Back to the car
SutroStewards.org

Haight Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream: Tonight Dough ice cream brownie sundae
Drove up Castro Street

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Linux-friendly cloud hosting (with synchronization)

UPDATE: Trying InSync, to start.

Copy

"you have to manually create symlinks in order to get files synchronized directly in your own file system."
"referral Link you will straight away get 20GB instead of regular 15GB"

SpiderOak

one of the first to support Linux

InSync
Dropbox
Cloudways

They install and manage OwnCloud for you.

ownCloud.org

Lists free providers (?)
https://owndrive.com/

Bitcasa
Seafile

The server is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license and clients are licensed GNU GPL version 3 (only)

Wuala
Box

The java applet works on Linux, but it has limited functionality.

RackSpace

you can mount the storage in Linux using CloudFuse

Crashplan
Amazon S3 with Duplicity
Other

REFERENCES

https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/769023-three-alternatives-to-ubuntu-one-cloud-service

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1fzod1/linux_compatiable_cloud_storage_vendors_lets/ (2013)

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1wu3wr/need_clientside_encrypted_cloud_storage_backup/ (2014)

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3fe4pt/cloud_storage_providers_with_proper_linux_support/ (2015)

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight (2008 film)

Watching the 2008 animated film. Wow. Thoughts after watching just 26 minutes:

The bad news:

The sexism: seems pretty obvious the producers knew they had no chance to pull off their vision of a Lord of the Rings-style epic, so they decided to order the animators to try distracting their target audience, instead...maybe it works, for 12 year-old boys, but wow, so crass it hurts
The made-for-TV animation style: I remember watching films like this 30 years ago...sophomoric...
Artistic style: oy...who came up with the intro idea of flying the red dragon through a brown turd-cloud...I groaned aloud
This film's performance has killed (probably a good thing, from a business perspective) the chances of making the remaining books into films, by the same team

The good news:

It's Dragonlance...I'm like a dying man in a desert...I devoured these books, in high school
I have completely forgotten all the major plot points...I remember the main characters, but much feels new again (for example, Otis' spiced potatoes)
I think this FAQ post sums up the reality of the business side, from Co-Executive Producer Cindi Rice: "...I've seen many deals for Dragonlance come and go, and this is the first one to actually become a reality." Yep. Take it or leave it.

Verdict: The bad points above fatally flaw the film, both in execution and production. Critics have savaged the film, with just cause. Ah well. Maybe someday. Even Frodo had a few mediocre attempts before achieving movie history.

The movie web site FAQ, read in an accusatory tone, produces a laugh: Who is to blame?? ; o ) The movie web site forums had to do damage control.

The IMDB page shows the movie poster, showing Raistlin recoiling in horror, presumably from the film itself.

The movie's home page lists a number of prior attempts to make Dragonlance films into a reality.

Well. Maybe someday. Hope springs eternal.

Dragonlance Movie: War of the Lance

While on the subject of Raistlin Majere, I wondered about the production of a proper movie treatment of the Dragonlance War of the Lance trilogy.

It's already done, with respect to the Lord of the Rings. Selfish, perhaps, of me, to want to see something so influential from my childhood treated in the same way?

Self Regulation by Practitioners

The thought struck me several weekends ago that practitioners of a subject will always represent the most grounded voice in their practice. I wondered about self-regulation, but, upon reflection, think now that more voices than the practitioners have a say in regulation of practices.

Capturing this thought, as it seemed of interest during a long drive, even though upon reflection it seems rather prosaic.

Afton Ink

Saw a business card tacked to a community board, for a freelance copy editor, at Jamba Juice, in Sacramento, on Tuesday:

"They say the secret to happiness is doing what you love and I'd have to agree. Every project I take on–– big or small––is handled with the care, passion and creativity of someone who truly loves what they do. From launching a new publication to finding the right words to represent a business, I've got you covered.

ABOUT JULIA MCCANDLESS

I am proud to lead Afton Ink as a journalist passionate about finding the story and telling it well. I attended UCLA and UC Davis and hold a B.A. in Communications, and a minor in Theater Arts. My background includes working as a staff writer for several newspapers covering stories on education, arts & entertainment and sustainability. I also have experience as an editor with a communications firm in Los Angeles, CA, where I produced and managed print and virtual projects for a diverse client base. Now, I am proud to bring my expertise to my own clients—whether it’s rejuvenating communications for an established business, or helping a new business find its voice. "

Well said! : o )

Raistlin of Ruby

A commenter on Hacker News last week posted their experience with Ruby and I thought I might describe it as "Raistlin of Ruby". 80 hour work weeks, sacrifice of social connections, but paid very well and seems successful.

Mark Twain Autobiography, Volume 1: Memories of childhood

I sat and listened to Mark Twain's descriptions of his childhood home on a Thursday afternoon last week. I had the car windows open and had parked in the shade. A breeze cooled things considerably, making for a very pleasant time.

The following section represents one of my favorites, to date, describing his childhood area:

"My Autobiography [Random Extracts from It]: Paragraph 89," in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1. 2010, 2008. (http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=works/MTDP10362.xml;style=work;brand=mtp;chunk.id=d1e8913#d1e9096)

The Golden Arm

A folktale described by Mark Twain. It ends with a pause prior to the final sentence...if the speaker gets the timing right, it spooks the audience.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Screen door for apartment front door - Keeping cats inside

Would greatly appreciate the flexibility of propping the front door open, for the cross breeze. However, we can't let our cats out.

One comment: "This combine with a baby gate keeps my cats inside the house and insects out".

One comment: "We use a wide piece of cardboard spanning the width of the door and resting on the floor that is tall enough to prevent her from escaping, and that gets in the way for us humans."

UPDATE(S):

#1: we purchased the Bug Off 36 by 96 Instant Screen. We'll try some ad-hoc cat-proofing.

#2: we purchased "Grreat Choice Extra Tall Arched Expandable Metal Pet Gate with Small Pet Door," from PetSmart. These two products work well, together, and, with a door stop, all three allowed us to comfortably leave our door open!

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Storing bicycles on balcony

How to store a bike outside and still avoid rapid decay?

Tarp
YardStash
TidyTent

BIke on porch with cover this winter. Will it rust?

"Moisture respects no covers"
A cover helps quite a bit so there will be less rust on exposed parts.
Even temperature changes during the course of a day can cause condensation to form inside a frame which then leads to rust.
mostly from the temperature swings.
Garages seem OK (note: which agrees with my experience)

Bikes on the balcony?

Plastic sheeting will keep the rain off but makes a noise in the wind.
breathable plastic

Reddit: Is it okay to store bikes on a balcony?

I've seen things get blown off balconies during strong enough storms.
Storing a bike outside, even under a tarp or something to protect from rain, means that it's subject to daily temperature fluctuations. These fluctuations cause the components of a bike to expand and contract as the temperature heats up during the day and cools down at night. Over time, these fluctuations will wear out your bike's components faster than if you'd have just stored it inside in a climate controlled environment. If you have the space, storing it inside is preferred.

ArsTechnica: Storing a bike outside

Disassemble
CycleShell

In other news...if we have not used them in over a year...maybe time to sell (?)

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Something So Strong

One of my favorite songs from the 1980's: Crowded House's 1986 hit, "Something So Strong" (video).

Learned today the drummer, Paul Hester, committed suicide, in 2005. Tragic.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Standing task chair

An idea, for work (?)

Previously

Deep Note

Wikipedia notes: "Deep Note is the name of THX's audio logo, a distinctive synthesized crescendo sound that glissandos from a high pitch to a rumbling low pitch. It was created by Dr. James A. Moorer,[1] then an employee of the Lucasfilm Computer Division, in late 1982.[2] The sound is used on trailers for THX-certified movie theatres, home video releases, video games and in-car entertainment; it debuted in the THX trailer shown before the 1983 premiere of Return of the Jedi in Los Angeles.[2]”

Kevin Braheny Fortune created an album, “Galaxies”, in 1988, which seems to include a nod to Dr. Moorer’s Deep Note...but Deep Note predates it by several years.

Kronos Quartet

Saw the Kronos Quartet on Sunday, at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium: David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello).

They performed a set of pieces labeled, "In the Blue Room":

"...an intimate concert of works that includes a tribute to composer Terry Riley in celebration of his 80th birthday year! They’ll perform Good Medicine from Riley’s epic Salome Dances for Peace, and a new work written by Polish composer Aleksander Kościów, a piece is based on a traditional Polish folk dance, the oberek. A musical gift to Riley, it represents, in the words of the composer, “the human need for pure joy.” The evening also includes a work written for Kronos by Cabrillo composer-in-residence Nathaniel Stookey, and works by Mark Applebaum, Laurie Anderson, and Mary Kouyoumdjian."

NOTES

All wore earpieces
Lighting projected the performers' shadows on the upper walls of the auditorium
We had great seats: Section K Row B, 1 and 2
During an early piece, a dragon fly, attracted to the lights, swirled around and around, above the performers, disappearing into the ceiling, then re-appearing, swirling down closer and closer, until it finally reached the performers and disappeared from view--John smiled and completed the work
Composer Nathaniel Stookey walked out to greet the performers, after they completed his work
A few people walked out of Mary Kouyoumdjian's "Silent Cranes"
I found Kouyoumdjian's work the most powerful and dark piece heard in recent memory...Kronos Quartet members get major props for playing it, in my estimate
Setlist:

Terry Riley / Good Medicine from Salome Dances for Peace *
Mark Applebaum / Darmstadt Kindergarten *
Aleksander Kościów / Oberek for Terry Riley *
Nathaniel Stookey / String Quartet No. 3, “The Mezzanine” *
Intermission
Laurie Anderson (arr. Jacob Garchik) / Flow +
Mary Kouyoumdjian / Silent Cranes *
Two encore songs:

Ralph Carney: "Lament for Charleston" ; Ralph brought out a bass sax, sitting between John and Hank
Baba O'Riley

Étouffée

Dawn and I noticed a food truck with Étouffée:

"Étouffée or etouffee (pronounced: [e.tu.fe] ay-too-fay) is a dish found in both Cajun and Creole cuisine typically served with shellfish over rice. The dish employs a technique known as smothering, a popular method of cooking in the Cajun areas of southwest Louisiana. Étouffée is most popular in New Orleans and in the Acadiana area of the southernmost half of Louisiana as well as a popular dish in the coastal counties of Mississippi."

It was parked at the Cabrillo Festival’s Church Street Fair, in Santa Cruz. Crab, maybe, or shrimp (?)

Pk / Mk Black - Plotter Printer

Noticed color cartridges in a HP plotter printer, at work, had multiple shades of grey and black:

matte black (mK)
photo black (pK)
gray (G)

Clarinet player - Brennen Milton

Dawn and I saw Sacramento clarinet musician Brennen Milton, in 2014, playing outside Karma Brew, near Fremont Park. Never got his name, at the time, but we purchased a CD of a recital and listened to it for a time, to help support his musical trip to Italy.

I ran into him just last week, playing outside his workplace, on J Street. Thought I recognized him, but was not sure, and by chance overheard his name from a co-worker, so Google'd him when I got home, and ta-da! His GoFundMe page.

Codes

Peet's Coffee, Santa Cruz - Bathroom code: 9966; 6901* (as of 8/17)* 8845* (as of 9/20)...from this, it seems staff change it frequently

Verve Coffee, Santa Cruz - Wifi code: streetlevel

Ōoku: The Inner Chambers

Dawn and I noticed this manga, at the Santa Cruz library. Matriarchal.

Sunday, August 09, 2015

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i on Debian Jessie (Stable) GNU/Linux

I purchased a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i and wanted to use it, on Debian GNU/Linux Jessie (stable).

This documents my own experience with getting it to work, on a Lenovo ThinkPad X201 laptop.

TL;DR
Debian Jessie (Stable) ships with an older version of SANE. To support the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i, download, compile, and install SANE from source.

OVERVIEW
Scanner Access Now Easy (SANE) represents a commonly used GNU/Linux package API, which provides "standardized access to any raster image scanner hardware." (via)

Debian Jessie packages SANE into frontend and backend components:

sane - frontend packages, for the user-interface (for example, xscanimage, scanadf, xcam)
libsane - backend packages, for individual scanner support (for example, the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i)

Debian Jessie (stable) seems to ship with the following SANE packages installed:

$ dpkg -l | grep sane
ii libsane:amd64 1.0.24-8 amd64 API library for scanners
ii libsane-common 1.0.24-8 all API library for scanners -- documentation and support files
ii libsane-dev 1.0.24-8 amd64 API development library for scanners [development files]
ii libsane-extras:amd64 1.0.22.3 amd64 API library for scanners -- extra backends
ii libsane-extras-common 1.0.22.3 amd64 API library for scanners -- documentation and support files
ii libsane-extras-dev 1.0.22.3 amd64 API development library for scanners [development files]
ii libsane-hpaio 3.14.6-1+b2 amd64 HP SANE backend for multi-function peripherals
ii libsane-perl 0.05-2+b2 amd64 Perl bindings for the SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) Project
ii sane 1.0.14-9 amd64 scanner graphical frontends
ii sane-utils 1.0.24-8 amd64 API library for scanners -- utilities

Unfortunately, the shipped version of libsane 1.0.24-8 does not seem to properly handle the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i.

FIRST ATTEMPTS
Following the advice of Gavin Carr, from September 2014 (note: Gavin used Centos 6), I first attempted the following steps.

$ sudo sane-find-scanner
found USB scanner (vendor=0x04c5 [FUJITSU], product=0x128d [ScanSnap S1300i]) at libusb:001:009

$ sudo scanimage -L
device `v4l:/dev/video0' is a Noname Integrated Camera virtual device

Note: The results of running scanimage mean Debian did not find the device.

INITIAL WORKAROUNDS

The shipped version of libsane does not seem to currently include support for the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i. That is, Debian does not include the required firmware and configuration lines for it.

Happily, these two steps seem pretty straightforward.

Install firmware file
Copy firmware file 1300i_0D12.nal (hat tip, to Gavin Carr, for providing it along with his instruction steps) to folder /usr/share/sane/epjitsu :

$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/sane/epjitsu/
$ sudo cp 1300i_0D12.nal /usr/share/sane/epjitsu/1300i_0D12.nal

Update configuration file
Update configuration file /etc/sane.d/epjitsu.conf , adding these three lines:

# Fujitsu S1300i
firmware /usr/share/sane/epjitsu/1300i_0D12.nal
usb 0x04c5 0x128d

Retest with scanimage
After doing these two steps, scanimage finds the scanner!

$ sudo scanimage -L
device `v4l:/dev/video0' is a Noname Integrated Camera virtual device
device `epjitsu:libusb:001:009' is a FUJITSU ScanSnap S1300i scanner

SECOND ATTEMPTS
gscan2pdf
Install and run frontend scanner GUI gscan2pdf :

$ sudo apt-get install gscan2pdf
$ sudo gscan2pdf

However, after selecting the scanner, attempts to scan meet with error "Error during device I/O". x_x

scanimage
Additionally, I experienced similar errors, when running scanimage:

$ sudo scanimage -L
device `v4l:/dev/video0' is a Noname Integrated Camera virtual device
device `epjitsu:libusb:001:008' is a FUJITSU ScanSnap S1300i scanner
$ sudo scanimage --test -d 'epjitsu:libusb:001:008'
scanimage: sane_start: Error during device I/O

Note: At this point, I had set environment variables:

$ env | grep SANE
SANE_DEBUG_SANEI_USB=128 (note: "a value of 128 requests all debug output to be printed.")
SANE_DEBUG_FUJITSU=35 (note: "enables debugging output to stderr...useless noise")

FURTHER WORKAROUND ATTEMPTS

It seems, the shipped version of libsane, 1.0.24-8, has a few bugs. Per SANE developer discussions, it appears developers subsequently have resolved the bugs.

I first tried, unsuccessfully, to add developer Rolf's repository. However, when I attempted to pull in updates, "apt-get update" provided an error, which makes sense, given he provides Ubuntu support, not Debian:

$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common (note: this provides "add-apt-repository")
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rolfbensch/sane-git
You are about to add the following PPA to your system:
Ubuntu SANE packages from SANE daily git snapshots (http://www.sane-project.org/snapshots/) or cloned from git (http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=sane/sane-backends.git;a=summary) if SANE daily git snapshot isn't available on the website.
Unchanged SANE daily git snapshots are ignored!
Please send scanner related questions to the SANE mailing list <email address hidden>.
More info: https://launchpad.net/~rolfbensch/+archive/ubuntu/sane-git
Press [ENTER] to continue or ctrl-c to cancel adding it
gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmp069_7hv9/secring.gpg' created
gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmp069_7hv9/pubring.gpg' created
gpg: requesting key B7CC8701 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: /tmp/tmp069_7hv9/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key B7CC8701: public key "Launchpad PPA for Rolf Bensch" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1 (RSA: 1)
OK
$ sudo apt-get update
... *snip* ...
Err http://ppa.launchpad.net jessie/main amd64 Packages 404 Not FoundIgn http://ppa.launchpad.net jessie/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net jessie/main Translation-en
Fetched 127 kB in 3s (38.4 kB/s)
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/rolfbensch/sane-git/ubuntu/dists/jessie/main/binary-amd64/Packages 404 Not FoundE: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Some reading seems to imply this represents an error with attempting to pull Ubuntu updates to a Debian system, which the list post, above, did not immediately make clear. Note: "add-apt-repository" seems to represent an Ubuntu utility.

So, this fails because attempting to lookup Debian system packages on an Ubuntu repository represents a semi-sketchy thing to do. It has risks.

As a test, I did the following:

$ sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rolfbensch-sane-git-jessie.list

from:

# deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/rolfbensch/sane-git/ubuntu jessie main

to the following, replacing "jessie" with "trusty":

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/rolfbensch/sane-git/ubuntu trusty main

Running apt-get update now works:

... *snip* ...
Get:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main Translation-en [1,220 B]
... *snip* ...

However, apt-get upgrade fails:

$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back: libsane libsane-common libsane-dev
The following packages will be upgraded:
libsvn1 sane-utils subversion
3 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,187 kB of archives.
After this operation, 131 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.

I next attempted to install just libsane, however, I received an error, and aborted:

$ sudo apt-get install libsane
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies: libsane : Depends: libjpeg8 (>= 8c) but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

No thanks! Note: I received the same errors with "precise" and "vivid". Some reading suggested running "dist-upgrade" but I am, at the very least, smart enough to not go nuclear to resolve this, yet.

So, backed out the change and removed the repository. Will have to fine something a bit less sketchy.

$ rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rolfbensch-sane-git-jessie.list*
$ sudo apt-key list
$ sudo apt-key del B7CC8701

Backports? It seems Debian Jessie currently does not have any backports, for libsane:

$ sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list
Add "deb http://http.debian.net/debian jessie-backports main"
$ sudo apt-get -t jessie-backports install libsane
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
libsane is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 38 not upgraded.

So. dmesg reports the following:

$ dmesg
[18601.324625] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 9 using ehci-pci
[18601.419949] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=04c5, idProduct=128d
[18601.419955] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[18601.419959] usb 1-1.2: Product: ScanSnap S1300i
[18601.419961] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: FUJITSU

Note: some developers have suggested EHCI versus xHCI (that is, USB 3.0) might represent the source of the problem. This shows I am using EHCI.

COMPILING SANE FROM SOURCE
Uninstall SANE:
http://installion.co.uk/ubuntu/vivid/universe/s/sane/uninstall/index.html

Compile SANE from source:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompileSaneFromSource

The Debian build logs showed this configure command:

./configure --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --build=x86_64-linux-gnu \
--prefix=/usr \
--libdir=\${prefix}/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu \
--sysconfdir=/etc \
--localstatedir=/var \
--datadir=\${prefix}/share \
--mandir=\${prefix}/share/man \
--with-docdir=\${prefix}/share/doc/libsane \
--with-snmp=no \
--disable-locking \
--enable-static \
--enable-pthread \
--with-gphoto2 \
--enable-translations \
--enable-avahi \
--enable-libusb_1_0 \
--enable-pnm-backend \
--without-v4l

make
sudo make install

SUCCESS!
gscan2pdf now successfully scans the document.

LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanner_Access_Now_Easy

http://www.openfusion.net/linux/scansnap_1300i

http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/sane-devel/2015-February/033079.html

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/45879/how-to-add-repository-from-shell-in-debian

https://launchpad.net/~rolfbensch/+archive/ubuntu/sane-git
https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libsane
http://www.sane-project.org/
http://www.webupd8.org/2014/10/how-to-add-launchpad-ppas-in-debian-via.html
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=sane-backends&repeatmerged=yes
https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=debian%40jff-webhosting.net
http://installion.co.uk/ubuntu/vivid/universe/s/sane/uninstall/index.html
https://buildd.debian.org/status/logs.php?pkg=sane-backends&arch=amd64

Saturday, August 08, 2015

Coffee shops opening early, Santa Cruz

Looking for early morning (~6:00 a.m.) weekend coffee shop destinations, in Santa Cruz, with reasonably good wifi:

Starbucks, Mission: 5:30 a.m., daily
Peet's Coffee, downtown: 6:00 a.m., Sat/Sun; 5:00 a.m., M-F
Coffeetopia, Mission: 6:00 a.m., daily
Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co.: 6:00 a.m., daily
Westside Coffee, Mission: 6:30 a.m., Sat/Sun; 5:45 a.m., M-F
Emily's Good Things To Eat: 6:30 a.m., Sat/Sun; 5:30 a.m., M-F
Verve Coffee, downtown: 6:30 a.m., daily
Lulu Carpenters, downtown: 7:00 a.m., Sat/Sun; 6:00 a.m., M-F
Firefly Coffee, downtown: 7:00 a.m., daily
Kelly's French Bakery: 7:00 a.m., daily
Caffe Pergolesi: 7:00 a.m., daily
Companion Bakery, Mission: 8:00 a.m., Sat/Sun; 7:00 a.m., T-F; Closed: M
Cafe Iveta, Deleware: 8:00 a.m., Sat/Sun; 7:00 a.m., M-F
Cafe Brasil: 8:00 a.m., daily

Wednesday, August 05, 2015

Elgin Broom Bear Street Sweeper

The city of Sacramento seems to have one or more Elgin "Broom Bear" Street Sweepers, which I noticed cleaning the streets. I like the alliteration and imagery of the name "Broom Bear".

Early morning coffee shop

Really enjoying the early morning coffee shop window experience, this morning. I have a light rail train above me, which represents a comforting sight and sound. Community of people coming and going, so not lonely. The smell and taste of fresh, hot, bitter coffee, to wake me up. Fast internet, too!

One Wheel Electric Scooter

Occasionally, I see someone going to work on a one wheel electric scooter.

Maybe an AirWheel?

Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Karl Gerhardt - Sculpture of Ulysses S. Grant

http://www.twainquotes.com/Gerhardt/grantbustdetails.html

Listening to Mark Twain's autobiography. They discuss this work. Gerhardt's sculpture represents the last artwork made of U.S. Grant, during his lifetime, and, per the autobiography, represents the best likeness, in the opinion of family and close acquaintances.

Monday, August 03, 2015

Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron

Peter Pan Pop Band & Singers ‎– Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron

My family owned this on vinyl and we listened to it. Apparently it came in two configurations...I believe we had the one with Puff the Magic Dragon.

A1 Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron
A2 Do Re Mi
A3 Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport
A4 Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor
A5 That's What We Learn In School
B1 Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter
B2 On Top Of Spaghetti
B3 The Return Of The Red Baron
B4 Puff the Magic DragonB5 How Much Is That Doggie In The Window

I always wished more songs existed about the battles between Snoopy and The Red Baron.

The song "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" seems a lot darker than I remember...lines like this went over my head, I think: "Tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred / Tan me hide when I'm dead / So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde / And that's it hangin' on the shed!! / Altogether now!"

Good stuff. ; o )

Electric range burner covers

Looking for something to cover the coils on the top of our electric range, to stop debris from getting into the drip pans.

Reviews online seemed consistently disappointed with thin metal covers, as they dent easily and discolor.

Needs:

Sturdy
Will not discolor easily...for example, when setting a hot pizza pan on top
White, if preferable, to match our range

Then, I realized we probably had two problems. I wanted something on which to set a pizza pan, for cutting. Our pizza pan has holes, which means the slicing process makes a mess. So we really needed something to set that on, which did not make a mess over the oven.

I actually like these insights, even if it means more problems to solve...each problem gets a simpler solution. A trivet or silicone baking mat would work, for the pizza pan slicing. A burner cover would work, for general protection from getting dirty. Perfect.

Our countertop needs a 2'x2' mat. We ended up getting Clever Chef Professional Grade Silicone Nonstick Baking Mat - Full Sheet Pan (23.58W x 15.75L).

Sunday, August 02, 2015

Steam Folder Migration: USB 3.0 external storage drive, to internal SSD

We recently complete updating storage on Dawn's laptop, adding additional capacity and modifying partition sizes.

Today, we moved the Steam folder, from a Samsung T1 Portable 250GB USB 3.0 External SSD, to her newly expanded laptop internal SSD, loosely following the instructions on the Steam web site:

Exit the Steam client application
Browse to the Steam installation folder for the Steam installation you would like to move (D:\Steam, for us)
Copy the folder to the new location; for example: C:\Program Files\Steam
Delete all of the files and folders, in C:\Program Files\Steam, except the SteamApps folder and Steam.exe
Rename D:\Steam to D:\SteamBackup
For the first time only, launch Steam via "Run as Administrator", then log into your account

Running as non-Administrator, Steam produced an error which said (paraphrasing): "Could not connect; please connect to a network and try again
Running as Administrator did not produce the error

Verify integrity of game cache(s):

From the Library section, right-click on the game and select Properties from the menu
Select the Local files tab and click the Verify integrity of game cache... button
Steam will verify the game's files - this process may take several minutes
Once the process is completed, the Check Window will automatically exit

Manually update the Start Menu shortcut, for Steam: right-click on the icon, select Properties, then change the location the shortcut points to, so it points to the new folder (for us, we changed it from D:\Steam\Steam.exe, to C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe)

Done.