Picture our galaxy in your mind. Got it? You probably do. Why? Because every 10 year old is presented with a picture of it early on. It’s one of the things we just know.
Well read this. It is a helpful reminder of the limitations of science, even when it’s conclusions are so ingrained that it has become part of our cultural consciousness. Need more evidence? How about this.
I don’t have an iPhone, but if I did this would be a likely first download. I love access to my documents…
Though I’ve mentioned it several times, it’s worth repeating: the Internet Archive is a truly wonderful resource. It contains a wide variety of legal downloads in the open domain. I’m currently reading a little Origen (disseration work) while listening to recent Béla Fleck Christmas Concerts.
For the latter below, go here or here, or just listen below.
My Google Reader is full of wonderful subscriptions to wonderful web sites. Little did I know that I can subscribe to daily Bible Readings courtesy of ESV. There are a number of different options available on this page. There are a wealth of different options, including a Study Bible option, Daily Reading option, and a Chronological option.You can have your reading program sent to you by RSS (Google Reader or other RSS reader), Emai, or even through your Mobile phone.
The best part: you don’t have to read it at all. There is a “Listen” link on each item. This is a real nice feature, one which I have already praised in my Guide to Using Ubiquity to listen to the Bible online.
HT: Justin Taylor
Well, I’m back after the holidays. Quess what happened on my New Years?
For reasons that boggle the mind, I decided to type in the Linux equivalent of “format c:/”. Seriously. The result? My entire Windows partition is irrevocably gone.
Not a problem. I back up my data. Everything iimportant is safe, and all my dissertation research is secure, largely because of an excellent backup utility called Dropbox. I put all my important files into my dropbox and they are automatically synced accross multiple computers, and online. So after a little drag-and-drop, I’m back to work.
Back up Zotero
As many of you know I am a big advocate of Zotero for research and bibliographic management. It is worth noting that by default Zotero puts all required files in your Firefox folder, which is generally not backed up by most software. You can always add it to your Dropbox, but a better idea is to change your settings. Go into Zotero’s Preferences dialog and the Advanced Settings to set a new location for Zotero files. Put it in your My Documents folder under a subfolder called “Zotero.” Almost all backup software will backup you My Documents folder by default, so this is the safest place.
One Dropbox Limitation
One thing to be noted: Dropbox is not true backup software. True backup software archives your files on a periodic basis. Dropbox does something a little different; it mirrors you files. Any changes you make on your computer are automatically changed in your dropbox. If you overwrite or delete a file, it will be overwritten or deleted in dropbox.
This might be a problem, except Dropbox saves all revisions, so if you do something stupid, and then your stupidity is mirrored by Dropbox, you can “undo” your changes by going to the Web interface and clicking “Restore my files.” That’s what I had to do, and it worked flawlessly and quickly.
Thanks Dropbox!
Make a New Year’s Resolution
I have two suggestions for nerdy New Year’s resolutions: (1) Backup your data, (2) Use Super-User priveledges responsibly.
A pixelated Christmas Tree. Probably EGA.
Merry Christmas from Nerdlets.org.
The ornament was given to me when I was eleven, shortly after my first BASIC program. My nerdiness manifested itself at a young age…
This is a post I wrote awhile back, but now includes a significant update (see below) that makes the whole thing worthy of re-purposing. Windows and Mac users should stop reading now lest their heads explode.
A Great Wireless Card
Switching to Linux from Windows is no longer as difficult as it used to be. I hope to post a full-fledged guide on switching to Linux in the near future, but in the mean time I would like to address one difficulty that has plagued would-be Linux users for some time: wireless cards and driver support. The persistent problem with Linux is that hardware manufacturers only program for Windows. The Linux community, with all its hacker ingenuity, has overcome this obstacle for most hardware, and big companies such as Intel and ATI have recently come-around and opened-up their drivers. Two problem areas remain, however: graphics cards and wireless cards.
The latter has given me a problem for some time, particularly with our old laptop. Built in cards usually work fine, but those PCMCIA and USB cards rarely include native Linux support. So, to cut to the chase, for all those Linux users out there, let me recommend the ASUS WL-107G. It redefines plug-and-play, which is not one of Linux’s strengths. Seriously, I removed my old card, stuck this in its slot, and with every expectation of needing to poke and proud, was sorely dissapointed to discover that the card in question “just worked.” OpenSUSE (and later Ubuntu) immediately recognized the card, installed the driver, accessed my WPA2-AES network, and was up-and-googling within 30 seconds. Amazing. If I hadn’t spend 2 months trying to get my Linksys card to behave, I would have said something like “Let’s see Windows do that!”
In short, the ASUS WL-107G is a PCMCIA notebook wireless card that runs in Linux, Windows, and Mac. It supports WEP, WPA, WPA2, with either TKIP or AES. In short, it will meet whatever security needs you have, in whatever Operating System you run, and for about $40 less than most other wireless cards with these specifications. If you are running a Linux box, and have had trouble with wireless, this is the card for you.
Important Update: Increase your Speed
For this and other cards based on the ralink 2×00 chipset (the WL-107G uses the rt2500 chipset), you may run into slow internet speeds when you first install. I did in Ubuntu. This is because the ralink drivers for some reason default to a 1 mbs data rate. To fix this, type the following into a terminal:
sudo iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M
You should be operating at normal speeds. You can use http://speed.io to test your speeds before and after marking the change.
Lee Irons has been busy. His Syntax Notes of the whole NT are now complete. Everyone interested in the Greek New Testament should download these handy guides. You can find the links on this page.
