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GTD update

goldsmith’s art . . . which has nothing but delicate, cautious work to do and achieves nothing if it does not achieve it Lento . . . for precisely this reason it is more necessary than ever today, . . . in the midst of an age of ‘work’, that is to say, of hurry, of indecent and perspiring haste, which wants to ‘get everything done’ at once [we must seek it] — Nietzsche, Daybreak
As I try to slow down to write my textbook and find a way to bring the
goldsmith's art
to busy teaching and administrative responsibilities, I wanted to write a quick post to share some of the useful programming tools I have been using in the past year. These are not posted in any particular order and the list is incomplete.
Imagemagick
As I usually craft slides in Gimp, I have found Imagemagick is the easiest way to create a slide deck from the .pngs or .jpgs. Also, it is absolutely fantastic for instant image manipulation through a line of code.
Switching from udp to tcp
I was experiencing really bad network connections; making this simple change eliminated frustrating, frequent interruptions.
Using Emacs for grep
I cannot believe that I ever used the command line for grep. Mostly I use
m-x rgrep
but there are other functionalities I use listed here and here.
LaTeX
While Emacs org-mode has lots of support for LaTeX, it has still been helpful to learn some LaTeX commands for more tailored execution.
Syncthing
Invaluable when you have two computers and want to share files. Syncthing is so easy to set up that some family members are now using it.
Guix and Debian
One weekend, I got Debian bullseye with Guix configured just right. But then a reboot messed things up – from what I understood because of firmware blob instability. I am listing this combo because that day I was using the perfect setup was such a fun and happy day this year.
CSS, HTML, static websites
Really enjoying how fun it is to build on CSS, HTML knowledge. I currently know more than I have the time to apply to my sites. Accessibility is something I want to improve. Also enjoying ways to make the most of static websites and need to find time to write about class website innovations this year.
Emacs!
I continue to love how Emacs never blocks my growth but always shows multiple ways of pursuing new areas of curiosity. As noted above: Grep? Emacs does it. Still want to extend LaTeX and not leave Emacs? Just add the code. Etc. Also: has anyone heard of an update on OmegaT/Emacs integration?
The wiki way
Still iterating (Stieglerian, Nietzschean) ways to integrate the wiki way into my teaching. Really enjoyed this Ward Cunningham video. There is something very important about speed vs. wiki: wiki may mean ‘quick’ but because I am using it for classes within a faculty of philology, I also try to make use of it in slower ways. Incidentally, the quote at the incipit is about philology.
Because of the joy of this exploration, I continue to work on ways to include at least rudimentary programming in my courses. I am so grateful to the programmers and programs that are making personal learning and computing possible in the Era of Someone Else’s Machine.

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