725 lines
54 KiB
TeX
725 lines
54 KiB
TeX
\documentclass[twoside]{report}
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% Where are our images?
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% Let's set this as a half-letter sized sheet
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% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/338789/how-to-set-paper-size-to-half-letter-5-5-x-8-5-in-in-amsbook
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% https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Headers_and_footers
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\fancyhead[LE,RO]{\textit{the codex} -- Advanced Reading Copy}
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\fancyhead[RE,LO]{Issue \#002}
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\cfoot{Page \thepage}
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\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0.5pt}
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% Include sections and subsections in the TOC
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% https://latex-tutorial.com/tutorials/table-of-contents/
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% \setcounter{tocdepth}{2}
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% We will probably want some two- or three-column sections
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% Stop resetting the footnote count after each chapter
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% https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Floats,_Figures_and_Captions
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\usepackage{wrapfig}
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% Do we want to include URLs?
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% Yes, but we also want to hide the big red box it puts around them in the pdf. Thanks /u/0b0101011001001011
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\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}
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% Use tab stops when we need to (especially in footnotes)
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\usepackage{ulem}
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% Style a blockquote
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% 2021.11.22 -- Not really sure I need this anymore.
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% See https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/325695/how-to-style-blockquote
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% \usepackage{etoolbox}
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% \usepackage{setspace} % for \onehalfspacing and \singlespacing macros
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% See also https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Typesetting_quotations
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% Make things neater. Thanks /u/-LeopardShark-
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\usepackage{microtype}
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% Put a horizontal rule in an align environment
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% This is just for the page numbers/scanning picture
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\usepackage{booktabs}
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% Use line numbers with code samples
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% \begin{Verbatim}...\end{Verbatim} <-- Note the capitalization!
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\usepackage{fancyvrb}
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\raggedbottom
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% Pictures!
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\usepackage{tikz}
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% Cancel units in math mode!
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% Use nice fractions
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\usepackage{nicefrac}
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\author{Kenneth John Odle}
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\title{
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{\Huge the codex} \\
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{\footnotesize Life with Linux — A Zine \\
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\bigskip
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Typeset in \LaTeX{} \\
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Issue \#002}
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}
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\date{\begin{small}\today{}\end{small}}
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\begin{document}
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\maketitle
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\section*{Impressum}
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All contents \copyright2022 Kenneth John Odle
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Although this is now in your hands, and it's also on the web, so if you really wanted to steal this, I've made it pretty darn easy. I can't imagine why anyone would want to, though. You don't need to, however, since this is licenced under a CC BY-NA-SA 4.0 Creative Commons license. More information is at \href{https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/}{https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/}. \includegraphics[scale=0.35]{ncsa4-0}
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FYI, this is made in \LaTeX \,using the report document class. It then gets exported to a letterhalf (5.5 in x 8.5 in) pdf, which then gets made into a booklet using PDF Booklet (\href{https://pdfbooklet.sourceforge.io/wordpress/}{\texttt{https://pdfbooklet.sourceforge.io/wordp \\ ress/}}).
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I'm pushing this to my own git server as I write this. You can find it \href{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex}{here}: \texttt{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex}. New issues will be pushed after they are complete.
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You can just skip over all the diversions in here if you want. It's just how my mind works. (And yes, there will be politics in this. \textit{You have been warned.}) Also, I use a lot of em-dashes, parentheses, and footnotes because that is also how my mind works. It's just one big long stream of consciousness up in here most days.
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The buttons are from the Button Optimizer website, which is here: \href{https://buttonoptimizer.com/}{\texttt{https://buttonoptimizer.com/}}. I'm not sure if I like this concept or not. We'll have to see.
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\medskip
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\noindent \textbf{Errata:} To err is human, to document those errors is divine. A list of errata can be found at \href{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex/wiki/Errata}{\texttt{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex/wiki/Err \\ ata}}.
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\medskip
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\noindent \textbf{Credit where credit is due:} A lot of people have come forth (mostly from Reddit) to help me out in various ways. See the preamble to this document in the source code to see them. One aspect of our society is that nobody \textit{has} to help you. It is wonderful when it happens, and I am grateful for their help.
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The pictures of a Commodore 64 is courtesy of Bill Bertram. It was published at \href{https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Commodore64.png}{\texttt{https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Commodo \\ re64.png}} where you can also find the Creative Commons 2.5 license it was licensed under. I did slightly crop the top and bottom to make it fit better. LaTeX didn't care. The picture of a Commodore 128 is courtesy of Evan-Amos, and was published at \href{https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Commodore-128.jpg}{\texttt{https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File \\ :Commodore-128.jpg}}, where you can find the Creative Commons 3.0 license it was licensed under.
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\tableofcontents
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\chapter{The Later Salad Days}
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Boring, early life stuff when my world smelled like sweat and disinfectant and room temperature bologna. Feel free to skip this. I wish I could.
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\section{The Joy of Commodore 64}
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The first computer I ever owned (and thus could use whenever I wanted to, provided it did not annoy the adults in the house) was a Commodore-64. (And yes, my use of this machine seemed to bug adults no end, and I have no idea why. I guess the same adults who thought it was a waste of time playing video games simply thought that a computer is another, more expensive type of video game. The lesson I learned here is to try to get some knowledge before you jump to criticism.) The ``64'' stood for 64 kilobytes, which was the amount of memory it had. If you've never heard of a kilobyte before, and are wondering how many gigabytes that is, it's time for some math, and also introductory computer science.
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Hold on. You've never heard of a \textit{kilobyte}? Wow, either we've really moved along, or I'm old, or both. Probably both. My knees hurt in the morning. Yeah, probably both.
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Computers are just a series of switches. Each switch is a \textit{bit}. Eight bits make up a \textit{byte}, which is enough memory to remember a single character.\footnote{ See \href{https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs101/bits-bytes.html}{\texttt{https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs101/bits-bytes.html}} for more information.} Since each bit is just a one or a zero, there are 256 possible different characters you can record in a byte. (Mathematically, it works out to $ 2^n $ possible combinations. Since in this case $n=8$, then we have $2^8=256$ different combinations of ones and zeroes.\footnote{ To see the actual combinations, visit \href{https://user.eng.umd.edu/~nsw/chbe250/number.htm}{\texttt{https://user.eng.umd.edu/$\sim$nsw/chbe250/numbe \\ r.htm}}, and to see which characters those numbers translate to, see \href{https://www.rapidtables.com/code/text/ascii-table.html}{\texttt{https://www.rapidtables \\ .com/code/text/ascii-table.html}}.})
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Time for some math, which looks like this:
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\begin{scriptsize}
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\begin{tabular}{r c c c c c l}
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& & & & & 1~byte &= 8~bits \\
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& & & 1 kb &=& 1,024 bytes &= 8,192 bits \\
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& 1 MB &=& 1,024 kb &=& 1,048,576 bytes &= 8,388,608 bits \\
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1 GB =& 1,024 MB &=& 1,048,576 kb &=& 1,073,741,824 bytes &= 8,589,934,592 bits
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\end{tabular}
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\end{scriptsize}
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\bigskip
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If you don't trust my math, check out \href{https://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/}{\texttt{https://www.matisse.net/bit \\ calc/}}, which is where I did this math. It's actually kind of fun, and they get bonus points for including the source code for the perl script behind this sorcery.
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Anyway, I'm driving a laptop now that has 8 GB of memory in it. (And I've seriously considered upgrading it to 16 GB). A gigabyte is equal to 1,048,576 kilobytes. The math (and heck, let's use dimensional analysis because it's fun) looks like this:
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\[
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8\text{ \cancel{GB}} \times \frac{1,048,576 \text{ \cancel{kb}}}{1 \text{ \cancel{GB}}} \times \frac{1 \text{ Commodore 64}}{64 \text{ \cancel{kb}}} = 16,384 \text{ Commodore 64's}
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\]
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So the computer I'm on now has as much memory as 16,384 of the computer I had when I was 13 years old. If that doesn't seem like a lot to you, I paid \$175 for this computer (used) in 2016, and paid \$200 (new) for a Commodore 64 in 1981. That's \$3,276,800 in 1981 dollars, which is the equivalent of \$8,651,869.50 in 2016 dollars. I didn't have three million dollars when I was thirteen, and I certainly don't have over eight million dollars now. Sadly.\footnote{Check out \href{https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1981}{\texttt{https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1981}} for the actual numbers.}
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\medskip
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\hrule
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\medskip
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\textbf{Oh look, it's a diversion}
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\begin{multicols}{2}
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If you've studied the metric system, you know that \textit{kilo-} is a prefix that means a ``a thousand'' and \textit{mega-} is a prefix that means ``a million.''
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Hold on. (Again.)
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1,024 is \textit{not} a thousand, and 1,048,576 is \textit{not} a million. For my entire life, we've just walked right past this and pretended that we didn't notice. Doing science stuff? \textit{kilo} is a 1,000 and \textit{mega} is a million. Doing computer stuff? Then \textit{kilo} means 1,000\textit{ish} and \textit{mega} means a million\textit{ish}. Move along now, nothing to see here.
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That discrepancy should bug you. It bugs me, but I also have bills to pay, so when someone asks ``\textit{how much} does it bug you?'' my honest answer is that I've worked hard to not let it bug me all that much.
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But still.
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Fortunately, it also bugged the International Electrotechnical Commission (an international standards commission whose job it is to standardize things) enough so that they introduced a few new terms in 1998.\footnote{The standard is ISO/IEC 80000, section 13. This standard is all about the International System of Quantities, and if you're into that sort of thing, it is utterly \textit{fascinating} reading. I'm not being facetious here---humans measure \textit{everything}, and this document describes how we do it.} \textbf{Kibibyte} means \textit{exactly} 1,024 bytes, and not one byte more, not one byte less. \textbf{Mebibyte} is exactly 1,048,576 bytes. And so on with gibibytes, tebibytes, and pebibytes. They are all some form of $2^n$, which means they \textit{accurately} describe just how many bytes we're talking about here.
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The following table is filled with much beauty:
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\vspace{-12pt}
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\begin{small}
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\begin{align*}
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1~kibibyte~(ki) &= 1,024~bytes \\
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1~mebibyte~(Mi) &= 1,024^2~bytes \\
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1~gibibyte~(Gi) &= 1,024^3~bytes \\
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1~tebibyte~(Ti) &= 1,024^4~bytes \\
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1~pebibyte~(Pi) &= 1,024^5~bytes
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\end{align*}
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\end{small}
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\vspace{-12pt}
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I can at last sleep soundly.
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\end{multicols}
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\medskip
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\hrule
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\medskip
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Let's get back to our story.
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I purchased this computer from the back of a K-Mart, in much the same way the men in town went to the back of the video store to rent porn. I guess it's fair to say that I lusted after this computer (although a much different form of lust) so the comparison is apt.
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\begin{wrapfigure}[]{h}{0.5\textwidth}
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\vspace{-12pt}
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\includegraphics[scale=0.25]{c64}
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\vspace{-12pt}
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\end{wrapfigure}
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Unfortunately, when you bought a computer in those days you got exactly that in the box: a computer. There was no monitor, there was no disk drive, there was no printer. You just got a computer in a box with a power cord. I had scrimped and saved forever to buy this, and had fortunately also managed to save enough for a monitor, which in those days was a big, heavy cathode-ray tube device (CRT, for short). One of the selling points of the C-64 was that it was portable. You could just pick it up and take it with you. (It seems like all computers in the movies back in the day either took up entire rooms or buildings---think Hal-9000 in \textit{2001: A Space Odyssey}---or were something you could carry in your hand---think the tricorders in \textit{Star Trek}. We've never managed a happy medium.) The monitor, however, was anything \textit{but} portable. It was heavy, it was bulky, and it was fragile. Slam a lid closed on a modern laptop and everything will probably be fine. Knock a CRT off the table and it's toast. If it lands on your foot, you'll probably end up in the emergency room.
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The second computer I ever owned was a Commodore 128. Whereas its predecessor only 64 kb of memory, the C-128, as we called it, had a whopping 128 kb of memory—twice the memory for nearly the same price. While the C-64 could only run in the 1 Mhz\footnote{megahertz—a measure of a computer's computing speed} mode, the C-128 could run in 1 Mhz mode or 2 Mhz mode, but such were the demands on its resources that running in 2 Mhz mode meant the screen would go blank—it simply didn't have the power to process fast and display that processing on the screen at the same time. For comparison, I just pulled up a cheap Lenovo laptop on Best Buy's website that has an Intel i3 processor with 8 GB of memory and a 256 GB solid state drive and is on sale for \$389. It has a clock speed of three \textit{gigahertz}.
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\begin{wrapfigure}[]{l}{0.5\textwidth}
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\vspace{-12pt}
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\includegraphics[scale=0.13]{c128}
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\vspace{-12pt}
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\end{wrapfigure}
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Unlike the C-64, which was round and bulky, the C-128 was slim and sleek. In fact, one of its selling points was its portability, and I recall seeing a brochure where a college student is walking around campus with one under his arm. What they left out of that illustration, of course, is his friend dragging a little red wagon with a terribly heavy CRT monitor in it, along with an incredibly heavy power source. They were portable in theory, but not in any practical manner. But compared to a mainframe that took up an entire room or building, it was light years ahead of its time. And I \textit{felt} like that, too, like this computer was going to take me places where I would be light years ahead of where I was then.\footnote{It didn't, because you need so much more than just a computer to get ahead. You need resources, you need people who believe in what you're doing and support you, and you need people who can point you in the direction of the next step. If you don't have those things, you're not a visionary with a bright future ahead of him, you're just a nerd with a computer.}
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Like I said, the laptop I am using now has 8 GB of memory, which is a lot more than 128 kb of memory. But how much more? It's difficult for most people to visualize numbers, especially when they are orders of magnitude apart, and looking at raw numbers doesn't give our brains much to latch onto. We need to \textit{visualize} these numbers, which is why I used money earlier. But because I like math and most people like food, let's visualize these numbers a different way: through food.\footnote{A\&W once tried to launch a $\nicefrac{1}{3}$ burger to compete with McDonald's quarter-pounder, the idea being you get more meat for the same price. But it didn't sell because people thought a third of a burger was less than a fourth of a burger. They could get $4>3$, but they couldn't understand $\nicefrac{1}{4}<\nicefrac{1}{3}$. See \href{https://awrestaurants.com/blog/aw-third-pound-burger-fractions}{\texttt{https://awrestaurants.com/blog/aw-third-pound-burger-fractions}} for the full story.}
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Let's assume that those 128 kb of memory is equivalent to one happy childhood meal. Maybe it's your dad cooking out on the weekend, or your Nonna making homemade meatballs, or maybe it's not a childhood meal; it's just you and your significant other sitting on the futon enjoying spaghetti Lady and the Tramp style. Pick whatever meal you love, that you think you could eat every day. That meal is the equivalent of those 128 kb of memory.
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We've already established that there are 1,048,576 kilobytes in a single gigabyte. Let's do some more math.
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\[
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\frac{1,048,576 \text{ kb/Gb}}{128 \text{ kb/meal}} = 8,192 \text{ meals}
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\]
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That means that for every single gigabyte of my modern laptop's memory, you could eat that meal once a day for 8,192 days. Since there are 365 days in a year, we'll do the math again:
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\[
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\frac{8,192 \text{ \cancel{meals}}}{1 \text{ Gb}} \times \frac{1 \text{ \cancel{day}}}{1 \text{ \cancel{meal}}} \times \frac{1 \text{ year}}{365 \text{ \cancel{days}}} = 22.44 \text{ years/Gb}
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\]
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I hope you really like that meal, because you're going to be eating it every day for the next 22.44 years. Oh, but wait, that's for \textit{one} gigabyte. My laptop has eight. A bit more math tells me that you'll be eating this meal for $22.44 \times 8 = 179.6$ years. Oof, not only is it tasty, but it's also life-extending.
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\section{High School Computer Class}
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\chapter{A Scanner Clearly, or More Thoughts on Being an Archivist}
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In the first issue of this zine, I wrote about a basic workflow for archiving books through scanning them into pdf files. While I covered about everything I wanted to cover on the computer end of things, I barely talked at all about the physical labor that goes into scanning a book. For those who are interested, here's what happens behind the scenes before you even get to the computer.
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\section{The Non-Computer Stuff}
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First, you have to cut the book apart, and then separate the pages from the bindings. Older books are generally signature bound, and so it's simply a matter of cutting the backing off the signatures, cutting any strings holding them together, and then separating the signatures. This sounds easy, but it's a lot of work. If the book is perfect bound (i.e., individual pages are glued together, rather than signatures), it's just a matter of separating the pages very carefully a few pages at a time.
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Second, you then have to trim the bound edges, so that the pages are separate. Perfectly bound books tend to have glue creeping up between each page, whereas signature bound books tend to have glue only creeping up between the signatures. I have a paper trimmer that allows me to clamp the pages down so that they don't move as I cut them, and I highly recommend something similar. It also has a measured grid to the left, so that I can ensure I'm cutting all the pages to the same width. (\textbf{Protip:} Put a piece of painter's tape on the grid to make this even easier.)
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\begin{center}
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\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{paper_cutter}
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\end{center}
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After that, separate your pages into groups of equal numbers of pages that you will scan. This should be however many sheets your scanner can handle easily at one time, and will depend largely on the kind of paper the book was printed on. I generally find ten sheets (i.e., 20 pages) work well, and make it easier for me to count. Smaller groups means more work up front, but it also means that it is easier to fix things when (not \textit{if}) something goes wrong.
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Number all of your groups with the filename they will eventually have. I use a pencil and mark this lightly (or not so lightly, depending on the day) in the lower right corner of the first page:
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\begin{center}
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\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{number_your_sections}
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\end{center}
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This is all about workflow for me. Since my scanner (a Brother MFC-J8050DW) scans whatever is facing \textit{down} in the document feeder, after I scan the first (i.e., odd-numbered) side, I should see odd numbers facing up in the ADF. I then know that I need to scan the side that is now facing down, which means that I don't turn them over, I just rotate them 180\textdegree{} in the \textit{xy}-plane.
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Most books have unnumbered pages. This should go without saying, but it's one of those things that you don't think about until after it becomes an issue: \textit{number all the blank pages}. Again, I just use a pencil:
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\begin{center}
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\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{number_blank_pages}
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\end{center}
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Once you do all of this, you're ready to scan. You should have a pile of stuff that looks something like this:
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\begin{center}
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\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{ready_to_scan}
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\end{center}
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As it turns out, if you have a couple of pages that bleed to the middle\footnote{Generally because of a photograph or illustration that continues across both the left and right pages.}, you can pretend that they don't and simply trim those pages the same size as all your other pages. Or, if you want to preserve that bleed, you'll have to remove those sheets \textit{before} you trim the edges, and separate them very carefully down the middle. If you are lucky, they are in the middle of a signature, and you can separate them with a sharp knife. If you are not lucky, they will be somewhere else, and may have glue holding them together, meaning you have to very carefully prise them apart. No matter how carefully you do this, you will inevitably lose some data.
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You will end up with two sheets (i.e., four pages) that are a different size, and which will need to be scanned separately. In which case, it's good to use a cheat sheet to keep track of which groups are which sizes and how many pages are contained in each. I like to just jot this down on an index card, but if the book you are scanning is complex, you'll need a bigger sheet of paper.
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\begin{center}
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\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{cheat_sheet}
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\end{center}
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You can do this math as a check on the final project.
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\begin{align*}
|
|
001-015 &= 15 \times 20 & 300 \mbox{ pages} \\
|
|
016 &= 1 \times 4 & 4 \mbox{ pages} \\
|
|
016-024 &= 8 \times 20 & 160 \mbox{ pages} \\
|
|
025 &= 1 \times 12 & 12 \mbox{ pages} \\
|
|
\midrule
|
|
\mbox{Total} & & 476 \mbox{ pages}
|
|
\end{align*}
|
|
After you are done scanning and combining files, you can open that final \texttt{file.pdf} and you should be on page 1 of 476 pages.
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Now we are \textit{finally} ready to start scanning.
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\section{What Does This Have to do With Linux?}
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You may be wondering why I am spending so much time talking about using scissors and pencils and rulers when this is a zine about Linux. Sure, this is what I need to do to get ready to scan and put all those scans together using the command line application \texttt{pdftk}, but what is the point here?
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If you recall back in the first issue, I said that doing things on the command line makes you think about \textit{outcomes}. Thinking about outcomes doesn't matter just on the computer. Like I said earlier, there is no ``undo'' button in real life.\footnote{Although I sometimes think that lawyers are just rich people's undo buttons.} Once you've cut something apart, there's no putting it back together. You \textit{have} to think about what you want the next step of the process to be so that you don't do something in this step that makes the next step afterward difficult or even impossible. You have to think ahead about what you want to end up with. You have to know what you want.\footnote{And here I readily admit that you are probably going to do this a few times before you figure out a process for getting to that point. The workflow I laid out in section 2.1 took a few books to develop.}
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I sometimes think that a GUI is like the menu at the McDonald's drive through.\footnote{It's no wonder that the menu in a GUI is called a \textit{menu}, when you think about it.} If you are lucky, you are behind the person that knows what they want. They planned ahead. They thought about the outcome they wanted (full stomach, happy taste buds) and chose something ahead of time that would get them to that outcome. But a lot of people (too many people, in my opinion\footnote{Just one of many reasons I don't eat fast food any more.} get up to that order screen and \textit{that's} when they decide to start thinking about outcomes. They are so used to seeing a menu in front of them that they can't even begin making a decision without seeing it.
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And let's face it: the menu at McDonald's has not really changed in years. Yes, they have new things, but they also advertise the hell out of them when they do. How can you \textit{not} know about their new menu item if you watch more than 30 minutes of television a day? But again, a GUI does not encourage you to think. The command line does. And again: most people just don't like to think.\footnote{I admit, I like to think, but I don't like to think \textit{all the time}. Sometimes my brain needs a rest, so I make some popcorn and pull up something corny to watch on television for a while. But then my brain starts wandering, and I know it's time to get back to work.} They like the \textit{illusion} of choice, and that is what substitutes for thinking most of the time. ``What are you getting at McDonald's?'' is too often followed by ``I don't know; I'll think about it when we get there.''
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Of course, if you are thinking about outcomes, chances are you don't eat fast food very often anyway, because the long term outcomes are obesity, heart disease, and hypertension. But damn, those fries are good!
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\section{A GUI Solution}
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For what it's worth, there is a GUI for \texttt{pdftk}. It's called PDF Chain and you can find it at \href{https://pdfchain.sourceforge.io/}{\texttt{https://pdfchain.sourceforge.io/}}.
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Despite all my prattling on about the many advantages the command line has for your brain, I'm not opposed to using a GUI, actually. (I mean, I have Ubuntu installed on two machines and Kubuntu on a third---all GUIs that make Linux easier to use.) A GUI does make life easier in many ways, and what I like about one in a case like this is that if you're someone who has to manipulate pdf files rarely or only once, it's probably easier to just use a GUI than it is to learn the command line. Efficiency plays a role here, as well. If I'm going to use this all the time, it's definitely more efficient for me to learn the command line approach. But once or twice a year? Or only once ever? A GUI is much more efficient.
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\textbf{tl;dr:} If you're only going to use a tool once, there's no issue with using the simplest tool required to get the job done. There's no point in being a command-line ascetic.
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\begin{center}
|
|
\includegraphics[scale=0.47]{pdfchain_-_title}
|
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\end{center}
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\chapter{Make Life Easier with bash Aliases}
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\includegraphics[scale=0.8]{intermediate}\footnote{Why is this here? See the chapter ``What's to Like About Linux?'' later on in this issue.}
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\medskip
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I'm not going to get into the difference between the command line, the terminal, and bash (the Bourne Again Shell, if you are interested\footnote{You may not be, but after all, you are reading \textit{this} so you very well may be. I'll talk about that in a future issue.}) For now, let's just assume that you know about \texttt{ctrl alt t} opening a terminal window to get you access to the command line.
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If you are used to using the command line, chances are that you have a certain set of commands that you use a lot. For example, if you're pushing to your Github repos all the time, you probably are typing \texttt{git push origin main} quite often. You can create a bash alias that makes your life a lot easier.
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Chances are, you will open the terminal in the root of your \texttt{Home} directory. You can tell by typing
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\begin{verbatim}
|
|
$ pwd
|
|
\end{verbatim}
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|
\texttt{pwd} stands for ``\texttt{print working directory}'' and shows you where you are. If you're in the home directory, you'll get something that looks like this:
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\begin{verbatim}
|
|
/home/username
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|
\end{verbatim}
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\noindent{}where ``\texttt{username}'' is your login name. If you're \textit{not} in your home directory, you can get there with this command:
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\bigskip
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% We're doing it this way so we can get a better looking ~.
|
|
\noindent{}\verb=$ cd= $\sim$
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\bigskip
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\noindent{}The $\sim$~ is shorthand for your home directory. (If you are logged in to the terminal as your username, it takes to \texttt{/home/username}. If you are logged in to the terminal as \texttt{sudo}, it takes you to the \texttt{root} directory in the top level directory—where all those Linux directories are that we talked about in the last issue.)
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We are looking for an invisible file, so execute this command:
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\begin{verbatim}
|
|
$ ls -a
|
|
\end{verbatim}
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|
\noindent{}The \texttt{ls} command will list visible files, the \texttt{-a} option shows all files, including the invisible ones.
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We are looking for a file called \texttt{.bashrc}. If you have a lot of stuff installed, you may have to scroll around to find it. Once you find it, open it in a text editor. This is in your home directory, so you can use whatever text editor you want and no \texttt{sudo} privileges should be required.
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If you want, scroll through it. There is some interesting stuff there. But we want to create aliases, so go to the end, and type
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|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
# my aliases
|
|
\end{verbatim}
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|
\noindent{}The \verb=#= means that this line is a comment. We'll add our aliases beneath this line.\footnote{Let's stop and reflect for a moment on how important it is to add comments to whatever we work on. When you come back to this file in six months or two years and ask yourself ``Why is this here? Who wrote this?'' your comment will tell you. I often find it handy to include the date as well, and any url where I found something useful. Check the source code of the preamble to this document for examples.}
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Let's use our Github example. Add the following line:
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|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
alias gpush="git push origin main"
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
|
|
\noindent{}Save the file, and then go to one of your git repos, make some changes, and commit them. Then, when you want to push the changes to the remote repository, instead of typing \texttt{git push origin main} just type \texttt{gpush}. Your terminal will do the rest for you.
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|
You can also execute bash scripts as well. In addition to a local backup on an external drive, I also backup the directories in my home drive to a remote storage location. To make life easy, I created a script (called, naturally, \texttt{backup.sh}) in each of those directories to back them up. To execute those backup scripts, I just need to go to that directory, open the directory in a terminal and type \texttt{./backup.sh}.
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|
The problem here is that a lot of times, I'm not even in those directories when I'm saving files to them. I'm somewhere else. And to open the directory in my GUI and then open it in a terminal, or to open a terminal and then navigate to that directory, is a little \textit{too} much when I want to run that backup script. Remember, you want to back up soon, and you want to back up often. Backing up on that basis is a good habit to have. So let's remove as many obstacles to that habit as possible.\footnote{I am often amazed by how often people (myself included) want to form a new good habit (eat more fruit, get more exercise, etc.) and then put as many things as possible in the way of that habit. Again, it's because we're so used to the old, bad habit that we don't think. Sometimes, we just need to get out of our own way.} In this case, we'll add an alias to run those backup scripts.
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|
|
|
This is what I have in my \texttt{.bashrc} aliases:
|
|
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
alias kdoc="bash $HOME/Documents/backup.sh"
|
|
alias kdow="bash $HOME/Downloads/backup.sh"
|
|
alias kpic="bash $HOME/Pictures/backup.sh"
|
|
alias krec="bash $HOME/Recordings/backup.sh"
|
|
alias ktem="bash $HOME/Templates/backup.sh"
|
|
alias kvid="bash $HOME/Videos/backup.sh"
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
|
|
Let's look at the first one. \texttt{kdoc} is the name of the alias. Since my first name is Ken, I prefix these with the letter \texttt{k} so I don't get them mixed up with something else. \texttt{bash} means to run this as a bash script. \texttt{\$HOME/Documents/backup.sh} means ``go to the \texttt{home} directory, then go to the \texttt{Documents} directory, and run this script called \texttt{backup.sh}''.
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|
We can do other things as well. Log into your webhost via ssh a lot? Try this one:
|
|
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
alias kssh="ssh username@webhost.com"
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
|
|
\noindent{}Replace ``\texttt{username}'' with your actual username and ``\texttt{webhost.com}'' with the actual host that you log into.
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|
The next time you want to log into your host, just type \texttt{kssh} (or whatever you choose to call your command; the choice is yours as long as it doesn't conflict with a built-in bash command), and it will automatically ask for your password, as it has already sent your username to your host. You've now typed four characters instead of 24. Nifty, huh?
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|
|
\newpage
|
|
|
|
\noindent{}This is probably my favorite, though:
|
|
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
alias kls="ls -Ahl"
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
|
|
\noindent{}This gives us a directory listing, but with these options:
|
|
|
|
\begin{itemize}
|
|
\itemsep-0.4em
|
|
\item \texttt{A} lists all files and directories, including invisible ones (but excluding the . and .. directories\footnotemark).
|
|
\item \texttt{h} gives us file sizes in human readable sizes, i.e., ``4.0K'' instead of ``4096 bytes''.
|
|
\item \texttt{l} gives us the listing as a list, because I find that to be more readable, especially with a directory that contains a lot of stuff. I'd rather just scroll up and down than scroll up and down \textit{and} scroll right and left.
|
|
\end{itemize}
|
|
|
|
Again, I'm typing three keystrokes instead of seven. When you spend eight or more hours a day on the computer, whatever keystrokes you can save really start to add up.
|
|
|
|
\footnotetext{If you've ever wondered about what these are, here's a simple explanation. The . (dot) represents the current working directory, i.e., the one that you are in. The .. (dot dot) represents the parent directory, i.e., the directory that contains the directory you are currently in. Whenever you create a directory in a Unix-based system, it is added as a new entry to its parent directory, and these two entries (hard links) are created in the new directory. \\ \tabto{1.9em}\texttt{ls} and \texttt{ls .} are the same command: they give you the contents of the directory you are in. \texttt{ls ..} gives you the contents of the parent directory to the one you are in. It's the same as going up into your parent directory, getting a content listing, and then moving back into the child directory you were just in. And for what it's worth, you can do \texttt{ls ../..} to get the content listing of the grandparent directory. Nifty? Depends on how lost you are. \\ \tabto{1.9em}\texttt{cd ..} will move you up into your parent directory, whereas \texttt{cd .} moves you nowhere, because you are literally telling the terminal to change the directory to the current directory. It's a bit like changing into the underpants you are currently wearing. \\ \tabto{1.9em}Anyway, enough of the stupid human tricks.}
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|
|
|
And that's it. Just about anything you type often on the command line can be turned into a bash alias to save you time. Go for it. It's a great way to manage your mischief.
|
|
|
|
\chapter{What Have I Installed?}
|
|
|
|
\chapter{What's to Like About Linux?}
|
|
|
|
I have an app on my phone called ``The Stoic'' that shows quotations from various Stoic philosophers. As I was working on this issue, this popped up:
|
|
|
|
\begin{small}
|
|
\begin{quote}
|
|
Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
|
|
|
|
\begin{flushright}
|
|
---\textbf{Marcus Aurelius}
|
|
\end{flushright}
|
|
\end{quote}
|
|
\end{small}
|
|
|
|
When I first thought about doing the second issue of this zine, I thought it would be really cool if I included some sort of key to any tutorial that I include, that tells you if this is a beginner level tutorial, an intermediate level tutorial, or an advanced level tutorial. If you peek at the beginning of chapter three, you'll see a button that looks like this:
|
|
|
|
\medskip
|
|
|
|
\noindent \includegraphics[scale=0.8]{intermediate}
|
|
|
|
\medskip
|
|
|
|
\noindent Like it? I have a couple more:
|
|
|
|
\medskip
|
|
|
|
\noindent \includegraphics[scale=0.8]{beginner} \hspace{1cm}
|
|
\includegraphics[scale=0.8]{advanced}
|
|
|
|
\medskip
|
|
|
|
\noindent But the more I thought about it, the more I began to think that this is \textbf{not} a good idea. There are a couple of reasons for this.
|
|
|
|
First, who am \textit{I} to decide if something is beginner, intermediate, or advanced level, especially when it comes to computers? I'm not an expert in all things computers, much less all things Linux. The most I can say is that ``Oh, yeah, this is one of the first things I learned how to do'' which \textit{implies} that it's a beginner level. But it might not be. It's just where I started. Somebody else might start somewhere else, in a place that I didn't bother to get around to for years, and which I tend to think of as intermediate or advanced level. But to them, it's where they started, and so they'll also think of it as beginner level. LaTeX has been around for a long time, but it always seemed very advanced to me. As it turns out, it's not difficult to learn. (Although like most things, learning a thing and mastering a thing are very different activities.) Things can be difficult if you don't have the proper tools for them, but does that mean they're advanced?
|
|
|
|
Second, these words are highly contextual. What does ``beginner'' even mean? Someone who's just sat down to a computer for the first time in their life? Or someone who's been working on computers since they were ten years old, but are just now beginning to learn LaTeX? These words are easier to define in other areas, such as sports or music, where you have to learn to skate before you can play hockey, and you have to learn scales and chords before you can play music. Computers are the great levelers of walls and fences, provided, of course, that you have access to one.
|
|
|
|
Third, people may self-select out of things. Many years ago, I taught computer classes at my local community education center.\footnote{One of the things I learned is that is a right way and a wrong way to teach people how to use computers. I should write about that sometime.} It was a tremendous amount of fun, both for me and my students, who came from all walks of life.\footnote{A bit of a clichè that, I know. But I can't think of a better phrase.} They were \textit{occassionally} intimidated by certain things, but for the most part, they were eager to learn as much as they could.
|
|
|
|
The class was extremely inexpensive, but it was rarely ever full, which made me wonder why more people didn't take this class. There are two answers here. First, this was the early 90s and a lot of people didn't even have computers at home, so what would be the point for them? (You don't need a car if you have no place to go.) Second, a lot of people were terribly intimidated by computers, because they thought you had to be really smart to use them. So they self-selected out of something they were perfectly capable of learning because they thought it was too advanced for them.\footnote{People are really afraid of making mistakes and looking stupid, but that's a by-product of our public education industrial complex. You can't learn \textit{anything} without making mistakes. In fact, people are truly experts about things often point out that they learn as much or more from their mistakes than they do from their successes. But we have turned making mistakes into something to be ashamed of, rather than something which will help us learn and understand things.} Let's encourage people to self-select \textit{in}, rather than out, because once they get here they'll have a lot of fun. Let's not be gatekeepers.
|
|
|
|
Fourth, it implies that there is a hierarchy, which I hate. There are many ways in. Because math is so strongly allied to computer science, we tend to view learning about computers as hierarchical as well. \footnote{I think this is one of the reasons that most people aren't good at math and don't like math. Sure, you need to know \textit{some} algebra to do geometry, but you don't need to be an algebra expert. If you really like geometry, and are encouraged to apply yourself to it, you'll eventually learn all the algebra you need. The same is true of trigonometry and even calculus. You don't need to become an expert in those earlier forms of math; you only have to become good enough at them to move on to the next step. People who write math curricula should take note, but they won't.} But that just isn't the case. I started learning how to write BASIC when I was in sixth grade because that's all that was available to us. But basic BASIC is no different than basic Fortran, or basic Cobol, really. The only difference is that BASIC is fairly limited in scope, which was, sadly, all that was deemed appropriate for kids. It's like giving kids little fake plastic tools when they really want to build something. Give kids real tools and let them experiment with them and figure out how they work. But we never do that.\footnote{This is, coincidentally, the same sort of thinking that doesn't like sex education, despite the many studies that have shown, conclusively and repeatedly, that when kids have access to high-quality, non-biased sex education, the rates of teen pregnancy and teen STDs decrease, often dramatically.}
|
|
|
|
|
|
\chapter{Coda}
|
|
|
|
\section{What I Learned About \LaTeX{} While Creating This Issue}
|
|
|
|
As a big part of the reason I created this was to learn more about LaTeX, I'm keeping up with this running list.
|
|
|
|
\begin{enumerate}
|
|
|
|
\item Need a little horizontal space? Use \verb|\hphantom{<stuff>}| where \texttt{<stuff>} is any standard unit. (I use this down below to separate the two images with borders when they are on the same line.)\footnote{There is more information on spacing at \href{https://latexref.xyz/Spaces.html}{\texttt{https://latexref.xyz/Spaces.html}} and also at \href{https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/74353/what-commands-are-there-for-horizontal-spacing/74354}{\texttt{https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/74353/what-commands-are-there-for-horizontal-spacing/74354}}.}
|
|
|
|
\item Need a box around an \verb|\includegraphics[scale=•]{•}| item? Just wrap it in \verb|\frame{}|. (Ditto.)
|
|
|
|
\item Want a blockquote? Use the \texttt{quote} environment. (I wrapped mine in a \texttt{small} environment to help set it off, as most blockquotes or indented quotations use a slightly smaller font in traditional printed material.\footnote{Yes, it bugs me when people use the word \textit{quote} as a noun, but the usage is here to stay, so I shall learn to live (somewhat begrudgingly) with it.})
|
|
|
|
\item You can draw with the \texttt{tikz} package. You can also draw chemical structures with the \texttt{chemdraw} package. I have no idea how to write about those things on paper in an interesting way, so it may be some time (or never---never is always an option) before I get around to that. But there's an example at the end.
|
|
|
|
\item You can also draw just using the \texttt{picture} environment. \footnote{There is a good tutorial at \href{https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Picture_environment}{\texttt{https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Picture\_environ \\ ment}}.}
|
|
|
|
\item As with most things that *nix-based, there is usually more than one way to get to where you are going. Often, there are many ways, and they lead you down paths you hadn't even imagined. A little research goes a long way. (See the next two sections as examples of this. I had not even thought about this before I sat down to write this.)
|
|
|
|
\item There are ten characters that have special meaning in \LaTeX{}. To typeset: \\ \tabto{3.5cm} \& \% \$ \# \_ \{ \} \\ \\ you have to prepend them with a backslash (\textbackslash). To write \textasciitilde, \textasciicircum, or \textbackslash, you have to use the macros \verb|\textasciitilde|, \verb|\textasciicircum|, and \verb|\textbackslash|.
|
|
|
|
\end{enumerate}
|
|
|
|
\subsection{\LaTeX{} Without a GUI}
|
|
|
|
Despite my blathering on about the benefits of the command line, I'm actually using a GUI editor called Texmaker (which you can find at \href{https://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/}{\texttt{https://www \\ .xm1math.net/texmaker/}}). This seemed the easiest way to learn LaTeX at the time, because all you have to do to get a readable pdf is to press \texttt{F1}.
|
|
|
|
But you don't need to go that route. You can do this entirely from the command line. Simply create a LaTeX document in any text editor, and save it with a \texttt{.tex} extension. From that point, simply run the following command in a terminal:
|
|
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
$ latex file.tex
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
|
|
This command should generate the following files:
|
|
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
file.dvi
|
|
file.aux
|
|
file.log
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
|
|
\texttt{file.aux} contains information your document needs to manage any cross-references in your document. \texttt{file.log} contains information about how your file was processed; if you run into errors, this is a good place to find a solution, or at least to find what to search the internet for. But it's the \texttt{file.dvi} file that we're interested in.
|
|
|
|
\texttt{.dvi} files are device independent files. They're a lot like PostScript or PDF, but without font embedding. To convert this to a pdf file, run the following command:
|
|
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
$ dvipdf file.dvi
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
|
|
This should generate \texttt{file.pdf} which you can read in any document viewer. You may need to install \texttt{dvipdf}---on my system (Ubuntu 20.04) it was not installed.
|
|
|
|
You can also just run \texttt{pdflatex} (which again, you may have to install), which skips over making a \texttt{.dvi} file:
|
|
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
$ pdflatex file.tex
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
|
|
This should generate the following files:
|
|
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
file.aux
|
|
file.log
|
|
file.pdf
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
|
|
I have noticed that when I generate the pdf file using the former method, I get a much smaller file than I do the second time. As an experiment, I ran the \texttt{integral.tex} file I created earlier through both of these methods. Running the file through \texttt{latex} and then through \texttt{dvipdf} resulted in a pdf file that was only 7.0 kb in size. But when I ran it solely through \texttt{pdflatex}, I ended up with a pdf file that was 30.5 kb big. This is most likely due to a difference in compression methods\footnote{See this for more information: \href{https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/38145/why-does-pdflatex-produce-bigger-output-files-than-latexdvipdfm}{\texttt{https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/38145/why \\ -does-pdflatex-produce-bigger-output-files-than-latexdvipdfm}}} so this could make a difference for you if you are working with large documents.
|
|
|
|
Go forth and manage your mischief.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{Custom Page Sizes}
|
|
|
|
Okay, this is important enough that it deserves its own section.
|
|
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Part of what makes \LaTeX{} great is that it's really good at typesetting mathematical formulas, such as
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\includegraphics[scale=1]{pythagorean_theorem}
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Here's the thing, though: I didn't create that formula in this document. It's just an image. I created it in a separate LaTeX document, using a custom page size. This can be handy if you want to use it in something that doesn't typeset math formulas, such as a presentation.\footnote{PowerPoint much? As much as I try to avoid PP, it seems to have gained something akin to Favored Nation Status in the business world. Such is life, alas.}
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The source code looks like this:
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\begin{Verbatim}[numbers=left,numbersep=-2pt]
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\documentclass{article}
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\usepackage[
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left=0.1cm,
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right=0.1cm,
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top=0.1cm,
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bottom=0.1cm]
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{geometry}
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\begin{document}
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\pdfpagewidth=2.3cm \pdfpageheight=0.7cm
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\noindent $ x^n + y^n = z^n $
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\end{document}
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\end{Verbatim}
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That's it; that's the entire document. Let's take a closer look at what is happening here.
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Lines 3-6 use the \texttt{geometry} package to give us some pretty tight margins. This is a good thing, as this is going to be clip art. We could set them to zero if we needed to (and which might not be a bad idea, actually).
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Line 9 is where the magic happens. It allows us to set the actual page size of this example.And yes, I could have just used the \texttt{geometry} package to declare the page size in the preamble. It's what I do with this document. But doing that affects \textit{all} the pages in our document. This lets us handle page size on a page-by-page basis, as we shall see. All we need to do is add a new page and resize everything again. Take a look at this:
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\begin{Verbatim}[numbers=left,numbersep=-2pt]
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\documentclass{article}
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\usepackage[
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left=0.1cm,
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right=0.1cm,
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top=0.1cm,
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bottom=0.1cm]
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{geometry}
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\begin{document}
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\pdfpagewidth=2.3cm \pdfpageheight=0.7cm
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\noindent $ x^n + y^n = z^n $
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\newpage
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\pdfpagewidth=4.6cm \pdfpageheight=1.4cm
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\noindent $ x^n + y^n = z^n $
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\end{document}
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\end{Verbatim}
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I admit, I had to play around with the variables here, and there may be a way to automatically fit the page size to the content, provided I only want to create a single page: use the \texttt{standalone} document class. This source code:
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\begin{Verbatim}[numbers=left,numbersep=-2pt]
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\documentclass{standalone}
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\begin{document}
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\noindent $ x^n + y^n = z^n $
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\end{document}
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\end{Verbatim}
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\noindent gives us this output
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\includegraphics[scale=1]{pythagorean_theorem2}
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We've now managed to do with one line of code what previously took us 8 lines of code. I would call that efficient.
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You'll also notice that there is no border spacing around the second formula. This is handy in the event that I want to drop this into a word processing document. I'll add a box around these images so you can see the actual size:
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\medskip
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\frame{\includegraphics[scale=1]{pythagorean_theorem}} \hphantom{1cm} \frame{\includegraphics[scale=1]{pythagorean_theorem2}}
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\medskip
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\noindent Also, for reasons I don't know yet, the typical way of starting and ending a math environment in LaTeX (i.e., \verb|\[...\]| doesn't work in the \texttt{standalone} document class.. Only \verb|$...$| and \verb|\begin{math}| \verb|...\end{math}| do.
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The \texttt{standalone} class is definitely pretty handy. Now, let's combine this idea with converting \texttt{.tex} documents directly into pdf files without using a GUI. There is a program called \texttt{dvipng} which you should be able to install from the command line, which will convert these \texttt{.dvi} files to \texttt{.png} files just by running:
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\begin{verbatim}
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$ dvipng file.dvi
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\end{verbatim}
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If you need a \texttt{.gif} file instead,\footnote{dude, wtf?} just add the \texttt{--gif} flag:
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\begin{verbatim}
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$ dvipng file.dvi --gif
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\end{verbatim}
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I'm not going to forget about the first method, though. This could be handy if I wanted to create something (such as a business card) that is a standard size that I want to repeat, or if I want to print on a smaller, non-typical format that LaTeX doesn't have a built-in page size for. I have a few ideas where I might use this; I'll try them out and report back in a later issue.
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The obvious advantage here is that it's possible to create a document where every page has a different size. You can use the \verb|\parbox{}| environment to more precisely control where text and images are placed on the page.
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Is this useful? As stated, that's a loaded question, because it's missing two parameters: \textit{to whom} and \textit{in which context}. This isn't useful to me at all right now, but I can imagine in the future somebody might find a way to make an interesting zine in this way and I like that idea, because that's where technology (i.e., LaTeX) and art (zines) intersect, and this is the most comfortable part of that particular Venn diagram for me.
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For what it's worth, I've added a repo of these experimental files to my gitea instance. You can find it at \href{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/codex-latex-experiments}{\texttt{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/codex-latex-experiments}}.
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\section{Why I Love \LaTeX{}}
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I didn't draw this. It's an example I got from \href{https://texample.net//tikz/}{\texttt{https://texample.net//tik \\ z/}}. I sometimes find it easier to learn a thing by finding examples and playing around with the parameters to see what they do. \footnote{If you are interested in drawing in LaTeX, be sure to check out \href{https://texample.net/tikz/resources/}{\texttt{https://texample.net/tikz/resources/}}}
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\bigskip
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\begin{center}
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\begin{tikzpicture}
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\begin{scope}[blend group = soft light]
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\fill[red!30!white] ( 90:1) circle (1.8);
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\fill[green!30!white] (210:1) circle (1.8);
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\fill[blue!30!white] (330:1) circle (1.8);
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\end{scope}
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\node at ( 90:1.8) {Typography};
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\node at ( 210:1.9) {Design};
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\node at ( 330:1.9) {Coding};
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\node [font=\Large] {\LaTeX};
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\end{tikzpicture}
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I am very comfortable living in the center of that Venn diagram. \\ (And yes, I played around with that code to make it a bit \\ smaller---as one does.)
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\end{center}
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\bigskip
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\begin{wrapfigure}[8]{r}{0pt}
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\begin{tikzpicture}
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\draw (0,0) rectangle (1.8cm, 1.8cm);
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\draw (1.6,0) rectangle (1.1cm, 1.3cm);
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\draw (0.8,1) rectangle (0.3cm, 0.6cm);
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\draw (2,2) node{} -- (1,2.5) node{} -- (0,2);
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\end{tikzpicture}
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\vspace{-20pt}
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\end{wrapfigure}
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\noindent Anyway, off to right is the kind of thing I've figured out how to draw using \texttt{tikz}.
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Yeah, I've got a ways to go. (If you couldn't tell, it's a house with a floating roof. If you're wondering why the roof is floating, I am too. Let's just assume it's some modern Swedish design.\footnote{I'm good with this. Let's not make it weird.}) I literally have a dozen browser tabs open just to draw that little Swedish house, and yes, that is how I tend to learn the best: here's the basic idea, here are a bunch of examples (some of which seem to contradict one another), and here's my sandbox where I play around with it until I get it just the way I like it.
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Now that I look at my code, I realize why my roof is floating. Here's my original code:
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\begin{Verbatim}[numbers=left,numbersep=-2pt]
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\begin{tikzpicture}
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\draw (0,0) rectangle (1.8cm, 1.8cm);
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\draw (1.6,0) rectangle (1.1cm, 1.3cm);
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\draw (0.8,1) rectangle (0.3cm, 0.6cm);
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\draw (2,2) node{} -- (1,2.5) node{} -- (0,2);
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\end{tikzpicture}
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\end{Verbatim}
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Lines 2-3 draw the rectangle, and line 4 draws the triangle. Apparently, I resized the house and forgot to resize the roof. If I change line four to this:
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\begin{verbatim}
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\draw (1.8,1.8) node{} -- (0.9,2.5) node{} -- (0,1.8);
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\end{verbatim}
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\noindent We now have a house with a proper (i.e., non-Swedish modern) roof:
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\begin{center}
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\begin{tikzpicture}
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\draw (0,0) rectangle (1.8cm, 1.8cm);
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\draw (1.6,0) rectangle (1.1cm, 1.3cm);
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\draw (0.8,1) rectangle (0.3cm, 0.6cm);
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\draw (1.8,1.8) node{} -- (0.9,2.5) node{} -- (0,1.8);
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\end{tikzpicture}
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\end{center}
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\noindent \textbf{Word of advice:} only change one variable at a time. Anyway, time to stop playing and get back to work.
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\end{document} |