During high school I took a semester of typing as one of my elective courses. (Yes, I am that old.) I only remember a couple of things from that class. First, all the assignments were handed out based on the speed of the fastest student in the class. This meant that those of us who were slower at typing had to really struggle to complete all the required exercises. By the end of the semester I was able to type an entire page at 20 or 21 words per minute (wpm) with only two errors per page. Erasable bond paper was available, but since the ink would rub off the paper with only a little handling the teacher wouldn’t allow us to use it for anything we wanted to hand in for grading.
The other thing I remember was the idea of leaving two spaces after a period. It creates a subtly different visual cue than the single space following a comma or semi-colon. Working with HTML and the Web has destroyed that typographical nicety for me. I have fallen into the habit of leaving a single space after the sentence ending punctuation. For no reason other than it pleases me I am going to try and relearn the double space convention in my typing. Of course postings like this one will be cumbersome to create as the browser wants to strip out “extra” spaces that aren’t explicitly coded. And I’m too lazy to insert the necessary “ ” character sequence to force the spaces to appear after each sentence. So why bother? Because. :)
B9 d+ t+ k+ s++ u F- i o++ x– e- l c
This entry is merely here so I don’t have to try and remember where I wrote it down for the next time I need it.
Problem A directory, A, contains many sub-directories, B, C, D, …. Each sub-directory contains one or more files that you want copied to a new directory without the directory hierarchy. Result will be a directory, A1, that contains just files.
Solution The *nix cp command.
cp -r <source_directory>/*/*.filetype .Copy, recursively for files (little r, not Directories or big R), from the source_directory, searching all folders (/), for all files of a type (/.filetype) to here (.)
Thanks JJ.
Vor dem Tor Vom Eise befreit sind Strom und Bäche Durch des Frühlings holden, belebenden Blick, Im Tale grünet Hoffnungsglück; Der alte Winter, in seiner Schwäche, Zog sich in rauhe Berge zurück. Von dort her sendet er, fliehend, nur Ohnmächtige Schauer körnigen Eises In Streifen über die grünende Flur. Aber die Sonne duldet kein Weißes, Überall regt sich Bildung und Streben, Alles will sie mit Farben beleben; Doch an Blumen fehlts im Revier, Sie nimmt geputzte Menschen dafür. Kehre dich um, von diesen Höhen Nach der Stadt zurück zu sehen! Aus dem hohlen finstern Tor Dringt ein buntes Gewimmel hervor. Jeder sonnt sich heute so gern. Sie feiern die Auferstehung des Herrn, Denn sie sind selber auferstanden: Aus niedriger Häuser dumpfen Gemächern, Aus Handwerks- und Gewerbesbanden, Aus dem Druck von Giebeln und Dächern, Aus der Straßen quetschender Enge, Aus der Kirchen ehrwürdiger Nacht Sind sie alle ans Licht gebracht. Sieh nur, sieh! wie behend sich die Menge Durch die Gärten und Felder zerschlägt, Wie der Fluß in Breit und Länge So manchen lustigen Nachen bewegt, Und, bis zum Sinken überladen, Entfernt sich dieser letzte Kahn. Selbst von des Berges fernen Pfaden Blinken uns farbige Kleider an. Ich höre schon des Dorfs Getümmel, Hier ist des Volkes wahrer Himmel, Zufrieden jauchzet groß und klein: Hier bin ich Mensch, hier darf ichs sein!
Der Osterspaziergang (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust I)
Several times in recent weeks I have been struck by the thought that most people are approaching life from a fear-avoidance stance. Not that avoiding fear is a bad idea, but perhaps one can over anticipate and end up altering their life needlessly in the process.
For example, my current work situation provides me with an opportunity to travel to a different building for some meetings. Parking is usually accomplished along the street at a metered space. The neighborhood is mixed commercial and residential - not a bad part of town, but not suburbia either. When a co-worker discovered that I was parking along the street he immediately had to tell me about all the cars with broken windows he’d seen in the area. Obviously he thought that parking your car downtown was an invitation to being vandalized or robbed. Having had my apartment in suburbia robbed, and having had a motorcycle stolen and a car broken into in a well-lit apartment parking lot I know that crime happens where it happens, not just along some streets. I’ve got insurance so that I don’t have to live in fear of where I park my car.
Another example. I’ve been approached about signing up for a pre-paid legal service. The list of services included is very nice, but my first thought upon hearing about this was that the service provider was cashing in on fear. I couldn’t help but thinking about all the stolen children scares on the news magazine television shows. Most of these cases prove to be a contested child custody matter - a family member “takes” the children. The actual number of true stolen children is statistically insignificant. I’m not trying to diminish the utter horror of a stolen child, it does happen. However, completely turning ones life upside down and sideways to mitigate a faint possibility seems like the cure is worse than the disease.
When I was teaching self defense in the 1990s we talked about being “prepared not paranoid.” Going too far with preparedness can be worse than not being prepared at all. Paying a month subscription against the random chance that you’ll need legal representation at some future date feels, to me anyway, like borderline paranoia.
Perhaps I’ve got my head buried in the sand but I don’t want to live in fear. I do believe in being prepared - I’ve got car insurance, health insurance, disability and life insurance, et cetera. Pre-paid legal just feels like one of those extended warranty deals at the electronics store. By buying that warranty you are gambling that your new toy will break. You are pre-paying for it to fall apart. If I pre-pay for legal services I think there is an aspect of self-fulfilling prophecy in play; next thing you know I’ll be in small claims court needing legal services.
If buying extended warranties, not parking your car downtown, and having someone on legal retainer make you feel comfortable then I am glad for you and I think you should do those things. For me I’m content to be aware of the risks involved in life and in the choices I make. I am willing to accept some risk in order to live my life my way.
When she was first diagnosed with diabetes last September, Nekko started getting two units of insulin twice a day (every twelve hours). Attempts to get her blood glucose level checked failed twice so it wasn’t until late February that we finally got a measurement of her blood sugar (glucose) level.
At 335 it was high, but not extremely so for a cat. The doctor said he’d like to see it lower, but given her age, and the relative difficulty in controlling feline blood glucose levels through injections, he said 335 wasn’t bad. At that time he upped her dosage from two units to three.
It occurred to me as I was preparing the first syringe with three units that this was a 50% increase in insulin. Not, perhaps a lot in terms of volume, but a major increase in daily availability. Almost immediately we noticed an increased activity level in Nekko, and a decrease (perhaps) in urine output and water consumption.
Just a couple of weeks ago, while we were out of town again, Nekko had a second blood glucose test, this time in the 280 range. Still high, but headed in the right direction. Again I was asked to increase her dosage a unit, up to four given twice daily at twelve hour intervals. While it has only been a few days since the dosage was increased we are again seeing an improvement in her activity level, and it seems to me that her drinking is back to normal, and consequently her urine output is more normal as well.
I am pleased that the insulin injections are working, and more pleased that I have learned how to coax my timid cat into accepting them twice daily. It has been supremely frustrating at time, and has impacted our daily lives, but it has been ultimately rewarding. Nekko is happy and healthy again; playful and alive once more.
One of the networking sites I participate in works on the six degrees of separation concept. You contact people you know and add them to your network; they in turn contact their acquaintances, who in turn contact their. The number of people you know plus their contacts, and the third generation of contacts is a surprisingly big number. With only 37 contacts on my list I have a total network size of 1.3 million people.
While I haven’t fully leveraged the site or the potential of all those contacts, I do keep my profile there up-to-date. The old adage about it not always being what you know, but who you know is firmly in mind here. The site provides for introductions between you and your contact’s contacts as well as a job search feature allowing you to locate potential employment opportunities at the companies where these friends of friends work.
Recently I have gotten a couple of “cold call” emails from people I’ve never heard of at my work email address. Both are recruiters who are looking to work with me, and both were found on the fringes of my 3rd generation network. What is obvious to me is that they are trolling the network from their end and guessing at email addresses. I say guessing since my work email address hasn’t been given to anyone, least of all the networking site.
On the surface it should be okay to get emails from people you don’t know but who have something (potentially) of interest to you. However, I find that I am put off by their method. What is the point of the introduction system on the site (the introduction being conducted by someone you know, through someone they know) if over-eager achievers are going to do an end run around the process? The orderly, programmer in me wants to retaliate via the network’s customer support service, and an email to their employing agency. The pragmatic, you get more bees with honey than vinegar part of me says to politely respond asking that they use the established mechanism for an introduction.
I’ll probably just ignore them, Few of these cold call initiated recruiting relationships ever bear fruit anyway.
I used to eat these things as a way around waiting for a “grill order” when I wanted a quarter pounder without all the usual toppings.
Excuse me while I McHurl.