Jeff Garrett Revisited

LaTeX User Script Updates

2012-02-21T21:36:00.000-06:00

I posted a minor update to the LaTeX for Blogger user script to fix it in Blogger's new editor.

Southwest In-flight Wifi

2012-02-05T20:28:00.001-06:00

Posted from somewhere over the Midwest.

Google+ Tip: Hashtags

2011-10-30T21:24:00.000-05:00

If you've ever used Twitter, then you'll be familiar with this relatively recent Google+ addition. Use a pound sign followed by a word to create a hashtag. Use it for common keywords or search terms. Google+ will turn it into a link which when clicked will search for all posts with the tag.

Initially, Google seemed reluctant to add hashtags, with some employees saying that they were unintuitive and a poor replacement for a good search. But people used hashtags on Google+ despite the lack of support and about two weeks ago, Google rolled out an update including improved search and hashtags.

Google+: Full Steam Ahead

2011-09-27T23:17:00.000-05:00

Just two days after I posted I had been waiting for Google+ to leave its invite-only field test before I deleting my Facebook account... it happened. Google+ is no longer invite-only!

I assume the timing is just coincidence.

With the debut of Google+ to the public at large, they also released a host of new features which you should try out:

The mobile applications for Android and iOS were improved.
Hangouts (group video chats) are now supported on mobile devices. On Android, it requires Android 2.3. And on iOS, it requires a front-facing camera. So I haven't been able to use either, but I know a lot of people have devices that fit that bill.
A preview version of Hangouts "with Extras" which include screensharing, a sketchpad, and document collaboration. They only feature of the original not supported by the "extras" version is synchronized YouTube video. Google is really building some tools here that could be useful for business.
More APIs have been released. Start playing. Already there's a third-party whiteboard for Hangouts.
Search! Ironically, Google did not launch Google+ with built-in search but now that's fixed.

Goodbye, Facebook!

2011-09-18T11:22:00.000-05:00

I planned to wait until Google+ is officially open, but enough time has passed. I deleted my Facebook account!

You can find me on Google+.

Facebook intentionally hides away the option to delete your account, but if you'd like to do the same use this form.

Kindle on the Web

2011-08-10T18:28:00.001-05:00

Amazon silently released their Cloud Reader web app, whereby you can read your Kindle books online. There's also a Chrome app for offline access. Cool!

Via: Engadget, VentureBeat, and Lifehacker.

Music Plus

2011-08-04T01:44:00.004-05:00

For Chrome users on Google Music, try the Music Plus extension. Includes: lyrics, last.fm integration, and desktop notifications.

Google+ Tip: Bring +1 with You

2011-07-29T01:46:00.002-05:00

Google's new +1 button is undoubtedly becoming familiar. It shows up next to search results, next to adds, and next to posts and comments in their new social network Google+. It means simply that you approve, like or recommend the site, article, post or comment in question. Google has a description of the +1 button on the web.

It is important to note that if you +1 a site or article on the web (but not for posts and comments in Google+), it may show on your profile. There is a tab devoted to +1's. You have control over whether this tab shows on your profile. Edit your Google profile, go to the +1 tab, and uncheck "Show this tab on your profile" if you want a little more privacy.

The real reason for this post however is that there are a few helpful extensions for +1. Not every news site or blog has the +1 button yet. The Plus One extension for Chrome gives you a +1 button for any website you visit. For those still actively using Facebook, the +OneFB extension for Chrome gives +1 buttons on Facebook. If someone shares a link on Facebook, you can Like it and +1 it. Finally, the 1-Up for Google+ extension for Chrome turns the +1 button on Google+ into a Mario Brothers style 1-up mushroom.

Google+ Tip: Use RSS for Twitter

2011-07-27T08:19:00.001-05:00

My Twitter account languishes mostly unused. It's a funny story. I was stranded in Texas last Christmas trying to make it to the northeast. So I signed up for Twitter to follow the timely news from the airlines. That was immensely useful. Since then a few friends have joined Twitter, but they're mostly on Google+ now. So I asked myself what do I need twitter for?

In fact, there's only one stream of updates I would really miss: NY_NJairports, my favorite source of New York area airport information. I also occasionally find the AmtrakNEC stream useful, but I don't know that I'd miss it.

Here's the trick: you can follow Twitter feeds via RSS. I regularly check Google Reader, so that's perfect!

Google+ Tip: Bring Your Photos

2011-07-25T22:36:00.002-05:00

Do you want to move to Google+ but have a lot of Facebook photos you don't want to lose?

Fear not. Download the Move Your Photos extension for the Google Chrome browser. It gives you the option to download all your Facebook photos to Picasa, from which you can share them on Google+. I have used it and it works well. The only downside is that the extension doesn't download others' photos in which you are tagged.

The other option is PhotoGrabber which has downloads for Windows and OS/X, but also works on Linux. I also tried this, and it does allow downloading all Facebook photos including other users' albums containing pictures of you. You then have the burden of re-uploading them to Picasa. However, there is one caveat: those other users must be friends. Facebook allows others to have you tagged even if you aren't friends, and will happily show you their photos even if you aren't friends. Those photos you can see but PhotoGrabber can't download. This is probably not a burden for most people, but caused me some problems.

If you use Firefox, you may also be interested to know there is this Firefox add-on. I haven't tried it, so I can't share any firsthand experience. However, rumor has it that this extension is slower than the above Chrome extension.

Facebook: A Retrospective

2011-07-12T12:27:00.000-05:00

As we as a society slowly migrate away from Facebook, it is important to remember why we embark on such a large undertaking. If you ever find yourself in doubt, here are some compelling reads:

10 Reasons to Delete Your Facebook Account is a summary of the most important reasons why Facebook is not to be trusted. The company and its executives are unethical and technologically incompetent.
Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline is a timeline of the intentional degeneration of privacy in a Facebook world.

And if you still don't believe it, here are some highlights from Facebook stories over the years:

Facebook tried to start a whisper smear campaign against Google and when finally caught, they weren't sorry.
Accepting unknown friend requests may give hackers access to your Facebook account.
You can get notified when your crush becomes "single" again (not directly their fault, but creepy).
Facebook users had access to other users' account information via Hulu.
Facebook is one of the top 10 most hated companies in America.
Although Facebook wants you to share everything, and is constantly pushing you to do so, they are gun shy when it comes to their own data, even slides from a public presentation.
Facebook, unlike its competitors, is strongly against letting you download a list of your contacts (name and email), because you could then email or chat with them outside the Facebook ecosystem. A developer created an extension for the Chrome browser which downloaded your contacts anyways, and now in the days of Google+, his extension became popular, and naturally Facebook shut it down. Presumably, because Facebook is scared of Google+.
Facebook's latest "awesome" announcement (a technologically inferior implementation of a feature that was in Gmail chat in 2008) was universally panned. Here's a funny CNN video.

A Polynomial Odyssey

2011-07-08T00:40:00.001-05:00

Classify all polynomials with real coefficients which map rational numbers to rational numbers and irrational numbers to irrational numbers.

Why Not Use Flash?

2011-06-10T05:05:00.000-05:00

My last post was a bit whiny, but I'd like to expound on the usage of flash in Google Music, and why it gives choppy music on many of my machines. This is something of a study in why you should avoid flash at all costs...

And really, an oft-quoted reason, the lack of flash support on iOS is not all that good a reason by itself unless the website is targeting mobile platforms. iOS accounts for about two percent of web traffic, so it is entirely possible to ignore them.

I can give you a much better reason. Just read this. That's the reason flash is choppy on some of my machines (and there's a workaround I have been too lazy to use everywhere). The gist is that there is a bug in the 64-bit flash plugin having to do with playing audio (uncovered because other things became less lenient), and resulting in choppy audio. Even though this is a closed product, some very smart people figured out exactly what the problem was, created a workaround, and reported the problem to Adobe. The true fix is literally is as simple as replacing one function call with another similar one.

That was in November 2010. Adobe still has not fixed it. What does that say to website developers? Yes, you are presenting what is at best an irritating experience to people unfortunate enough to come to your site. And yes, someone else already did the work to figure out why. And yes, we can fix it easily. But we won't.

On a more positive note, the workaround does fix it completely. :)

Google Music, More Disappointment

2011-06-07T22:23:00.004-05:00

Time for more bitching about Google Music.

The first and biggest complaint about Google Music Beta was obviously the crappy desktop app that doesn't support Linux, or for that matter Google's own ChromeOS. I guess users must not want to store music locally on a Chromebook.

The second complaint is that some enterprising person figured out how the uploading is done and fixed Google's own problem, only to have the underlying protocol changed out from under him breaking his extension.

But I soldiered on. The Google Music Manager runs under Wine. See this forum. Specifically, download the files, unzip the file, get a recent version of wine:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wine1.3

and finally run from the unzipped directory:

wine1.3 MusicManager.exe

Now I can upload music. This gives me a whole host of new things to complain about, but let's call them feature requests:

One cannot choose the songs to upload in the music directory. It's all or nothing.
One cannot play music in the music manager, say to see if that really is the song you remember it to be.
The website player requires flash. Seriously? As Google is telling everyone else in the world to move to HTML5 and is even moving their own properties such as YouTube to HTML5, they launch a new website which requires flash.
The website player requires flash. This deserves a second mention, especially for the bugs I've encountered so far. On two machines flash audio is currently choppy on some websites, including Google Music, but not Hulu. On another, for some reason the website is completely nonfunctional even with flash -- it can't seem to notice flash is there. Which means, of three machines, the website player currently works on none of them.
The Music Manager only supports a handful of formats, not including ogg. Most of my collection was in ogg format. At least they support flac, so you can use that as long as you have the space.
But wait! When the Music Manager is pointed at flac files, the uploads never finished! I transcoded flacs down to a low bitrate MP3 (VBR limited to at most 64kbps) and only then did the uploads ever finish.
Even then, the Music Manager took most of the day to upload 150 songs. It was mostly idle, and often complaining of connectivity to the Google Music servers. I have a decent internet connection too, by the way.
It appears to be the case that if you upload music and delete it, the album still shows in the list of "New and Recent" albums.
There is no easy way I can find to mass delete many songs or albums.
That is unfortunate, because it seems if you reencode the same song with the same tags as an mp3 with slightly different settings, Google Music cannot tell that it is the same song, so you end up with duplicates. It can tell if it is the exact same file however.
Cover art is found automatically for some albums, but not also for others including very popular music you would expect to be automatically located. You can manually set the album art, but it is an annoyance and I haven't tried.
Google Music allows you to rate music "thumbs up" in which case it is automagically added to a special playlist. The UI for that playlist includes the number of "plays". This doesn't appear to register plays from Android devices as opposed to the website. Unfortunate, since that's the only device that currently works for me (see above).
There is no way I can find to upload playlists.
There is no way I can see to integrate with third party services such as last.fm. I have years of listening data at last.fm. If Google provided integration, they could very easily determine my likes and dislikes more quickly, and at the same time provide my updates back to last.fm.
There is also no sharing I can see built-in. I thought Google was focused on social. There is no friends list, no way to easily share a certain song (which for listening would obviously require the recipient to own it until the music companies come on board). Likewise, there is no "+1". There are no badges to put on your blog to show what you are currently listening to, favorite songs, etc.
There is still no record company buy-in.

With all those negatives, it does seem to work well on Android. It just seems like the desktop and web experience were done by the second string hackers. It is beta remember. :)

I will continue to play with it and let you know how it goes.

Huge Oversight, Google

2011-06-01T23:00:00.002-05:00

Yay, I just got an invitation to Music Beta.

However, they don't support Linux, so I can't use it.¹

I can see the logic behind not supporting Linux. It is only 1-5% of the desktop market. But it is announced at a developer conference, where I'm sure the Linux market share was a bit higher. And among new technology adopters, I'm sure Linux market share is a bit higher. New products need adoption, and you don't really want to prevent that because of what seems to be an oversight.

Google makes plenty of good web apps (and a handful of crappy desktop apps). They couldn't have done this in Chrome?

Their inability to come to an agreement with music labels and their poor choices in implementation do not bode all that well for the service. A lesson for us all.

¹Without fuss.

Further LaTeX for Blogger Updates

2011-04-27T06:06:00.001-05:00

Just threw a few more changes in. Angle brackets should be handled better, and the image src is URI encoded so generally it should behave better around weird input.

Even more, I've thrown up installation instructions on the repository's GitHub wiki.

Supporting Blogger's New Editor

2011-04-27T04:12:00.000-05:00

One of my annoyances with the user script for typesetting LaTeX in Blogger was how it just didn't work with the new editor (otherwise known as issue 7).

No more!

(This post was written in the new editor!)

LaTeX User Script Updates

2011-04-26T04:21:00.000-05:00

Just so you know, I've been able to clean the code for the user script to the point where I think I can easily extend it: in particular, the double escaping is gone and there is much less string manipulation. The script now handles double quotes inside equations properly.

The issues list on GitHub shows what's remaining.

Trying Out GitHub

2011-04-21T17:00:00.001-05:00

I previously wrote about my trivial fix to a user script for LaTeX markup in Blogger.¹ Now that I've explored more, I know more options, but I still haven't found a single solution which does everything I would like.

My primary requirement is to easily typeset math which can be read not only on the website, but also from the RSS feed. To that end, the user script mostly works. However, it doesn't look nearly as nice as MathJax.

So, long story short, I believe there are a few more changes I want to make to the user script. I have decided to explore GitHub for code hosting. It's early yet, but it has a very nice interface.

So if you want to follow along, see my new repository.

¹Clicking on the original link failed to automatically install the user script. I have fixed it.

Review: Getting Things Done and Remember The Milk

2011-04-19T01:13:00.001-05:00

After setting up Gmail to get things done, I spent some time with the book. I may be late to the party, as everyone seems to know the essentials already.

The gist of the GTD philosophy is to always stay focused on the next action which can be done on any given project. Projects are defined liberally to be anything which consists of a series of one or more actions. For example, renewing my driver's license is a project with at least three steps: find out what documents I need, gather the documents, and finally go to the DMV. Since each step depends on those before, at any point in time only one action can be taken. On the other hand, clearly some projects have many actions which can be taken in parallel.

The premise is that it doesn't make sense to keep all those non-actionable items on your mind. They should be waiting in the wings until you can act on them. Once you consider only the actions you can take now, you can stop worrying quite so much.

Getting your projects into the system is a process:

Collecting: Collect every email, piece of paper, magazine, or other object relevant to a project or just reminds you of one into one place, your inbox.

Processing: Determine the projects and next actions associated with each object in your inbox. If there is no relevant project, then the object is trash or should be filed as reference material.

As you process, and also as you regularly review your projects, you can decide among the following options:

Drop it: It's not important.
Do it: If the next action takes under two minutes, just do it.
Defer it: File it away for the future.
Delegate it: Hand it off.

Alternatively, the next actions are noted, and it stays with you.

The natural extension then is to track also the context of next actions. After all, actions may have constraints other than dependencies on other actions. For example, when renewing my driver's license, gathering all the required documents is really something that must be done at home.

I found in my short experience the Gmail GTD solution was inadequate.

First, superstars are not supported in the Gmail Android application. This leaves me unable to process emails as they arise, which is disappointing. Second, my email does not map well to actions or projects. I receive emails from bug trackers, so I may have three different email threads each with useful information, but for which I only have one action. Third, I have a substantial amount of work outside of email. I have to find a way to track that in any case.

I have abandoned the Gmail GTD system, and now use the Priority Inbox. I have resigned to keep track of projects outside of email.

So I have been experimenting with GTD in RememberTheMilk. I haven't strayed far from the linked post, but I will describe what I'm doing.

In RTM, there is an Inbox list, which serves the role of the GTD Inbox. If I cannot process an idea immediately, this is where it waits. Usually the Inbox stays empty.

I have two lists p-Daily and w-Daily where I put actions for projects which only consist of one or two actions. The "p-" prefix is for personal tasks and the "w-" prefix is for work tasks. For example, I have a recurring task in "p-Daily" which reminds me to blog. I also have an "l-" prefix for lists of things which are not in the GTD system, e.g. groceries.

For each project consisting of many actions, I have a separate list. For example, I have a list "p-License" to track the task to renew my license described above. In each of these per-project lists, I create a task with priority 1, which means it shows up at the top and highlighted, saying exactly what the project is. It should be something well-defined (i.e. it should be easy to know when it is done). This project-defining task is treated specially, not tagged. When I complete the project, I remove the priority 1, and complete this task (and archive the list).

For all other tasks, I have the following tags:

na - this is a next action
@computer - this task needs a computer
@internet - this task needs internet access
work - this task is for work
wait - this task is waiting on something

And I have the following locations:

@home - my home
@work - my work

All tasks are be assigned to a location if relevant and tagged with one or more tags. I set time estimates for all tasks. I set due dates for tasks which need to be done in a certain timeframe, or just soon.

Finally, I have some smart lists for contexts:

@Braindead = tag:na AND timeEstimate:<60m (easy tasks)
@Computer = tag:na AND tag:@computer
@Home = tag:na AND location:@home
@Internet = tag:na AND tag:@internet
@NoComputer = tag:na AND NOT tag:@internet AND NOT tag:@computer
@NoInternet = tag:na AND NOT tag:@internet
@Work = tag:na AND (location:@work OR tag:work) AND NOT dueAfter:"2 weeks from today"

And I have some smart lists for reports:

[Overdue] = tag:na and dueBefore:today
[PersonalStatus] = completedWithin:"2 weeks of today" AND NOT tag:work
[Today] = tag:na and (due:today or due:tomorrow)
[WorkStatus] = completedWithin:"2 weeks of today" AND tag:work

And I have a smart list of all actionable tasks:

All Tasks = tag:na

The search operators are very flexible and you can find a full list of them here.

I use the A Bit Better RTM Chrome extension to tweak the web interface which adds a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl-m) for moving tasks between lists, and the RTM Readable List user style which darkens and enlarges the list font. On the go, I use the wonderful RTM Android application.

I've been using this for a few weeks. I think it works. :)

An Easy Classic

2011-04-14T23:00:00.008-05:00

You are given twelve marbles, one heavier than the others, and a balance. Find the heavy marble using the balance no more than three times.

Outsmarting the Wolf

2011-04-11T23:00:00.004-05:00

In order to outsmart the wolf, consider your relative angular speed as you swim along concentric circles. Without loss of generality, we may assume the pond has radius centered at the origin. As you swim along the path , the wolf can cover the same central angle more quickly if , more slowly if , and at precisely the same speed if .

From this, we can develop a simple strategy. Swim out near to but just shy of the circle

. Since we can cover the same angle more quickly than the wolf, we may swim in a circle until the wolf is directly behind us. We can cover the remaining distance of slightly more than in less than the time it takes the wolf to cover its distance of .

To be more precise, we can successfully implement this strategy of first swimming to

exactly when . There is a tradeoff. The smaller the we choose in this interval, the faster we can get to the edge of the pond. On the other hand, the larger we choose , the further away the wolf is when we reach the edge.

Outsmart the Wolf

2011-04-10T23:00:00.003-05:00

Here's a brain teaser (h/t Rob):

You start at the center of a disc-shaped pond. A wolf is at the edge of the pond, and the wolf runs four times as fast as you can swim. He will always run along the edge toward the spot that's closest to where you presently are. How do you get out of the pond without the wolf there to eat you?

Delayed Emails in Gmail with Chrome

2011-03-16T23:00:00.000-05:00

A missing feature pops up every now and again in Gmail. We can't delay emails. There are certainly times when it would be useful to send a finished email not just yet. I may send emails when it is not the best time for the recipient to read or respond. And when they return to their email later, mine will be one of many and not receive all that careful consideration. I think this can be a useful feature.

Boomerang¹ adds delayed emails and much more. For example, it can return conversations to the inbox if no one has responded in some time.

¹This is the link for the Google Chrome extension.

Polygon Labels

2011-03-15T23:00:00.002-05:00

Assign the numbers to the vertices and edges of an -gon in such a way that each edge is the sum of the two adjacent vertices.

(h/t Jess)