Ecovacs Deebot OZMO T8 AIVI and Auto-Empty Station: It's the good kind of suck!

I think most anyone who has heard of a robotic vacuum cleaner has heard of the industry leader, iRobot. However, I've noticed that the offerings from iRobot have stagnated a bit and lag behind innovations at their competitors. One such competitor is Ecovacs. During COVID-19, my wife and I decided to add a new puppy (Dexter, cream-colored Golden Mountain Doodle pictured near the bottom of page) to our home after our old dog (Fritz, black-and-white Cock-a-chon pictured at very bottom) sadly passed on. Dexter has been wonderful, but his new limber legs and light shedding has meant more fur and leaves (we have a dog door) collecting each day. So we decided to check out the robo-vacuum market. As a control engineering/AI researcher myself, I was impressed to see vSLAM on most robots mid-range and higher, with some of the non-iRobot varieties incorporating other technology that is awesome to see transferred out of the research laboratory. Here, I take a look at the vacuum we ended up getting (after trying the iRobot version and returning it due to incompatibilities between it and our carpet and a lack of state-of-the-art features).

We bit the bullet and got the premium Ecovacs OZMO T8 AIVI and the corresponding auto-empty station that works with it (and some other models from Ecovacs). Here are links to them:

• Ecovacs Ozmo T8 AIVI Vacuum: https://amzn.to/37Q3EGH
• Ecovacs Deebot 2.5L Auto-Empty Station: https://amzn.to/2OMvcWv

As you can see below, after every vacuuming session, I get a report of where the robot has been and what obstacles it has encountered (so I can go and clean them up). In fact, I can even view it moving around on the map in real time while I'm away. Although iRobot models do multi-floor mapping (like this one), you have to wait to interact with the map afterward (and you cannot see exactly where the robot has been and what route it took). The Ecovacs models allow you to pause the robot in the middle of a session and add virtual barriers and no-go zones.

We set our vacuum to run every night downstairs at 2am, and we have a Hubitat Elevation Hub that ensures that the lights come on then to aid in the navigation of the robot (and turn off after it is done). So far, this has not caused any problems for us (or the dog) sleeping. When it finishes (1100 sq. ft. in about 65–90 minutes), it returns to the auto-empty station and empties its dust bin automatically. We then get told when to change the bag in the station. The nice thing about having to buy the auto-empty station separately is that it means I have a spare charger (that came with the main unit). So I've set that up upstairs. Then, on Saturday mornings, when we take puppy Dexter to training, I place the robot on its spare charger upstairs and let it go. It recognizes that it has been moved to another floor and vacuums according to that map (you can load up to two maps). When we get home, I carry it back downstairs, place it on the auto-empty station, and tell it to empty the dust bin (which would have been done automatically if it had docked in the auto-empty station as it does every night).

The Vacuum also has mopping features built in (if you load it up with water and the mopping pad), and there is an additional extension that you can buy that adds ultra-sonic scrubbing to the mop. I understand the potential downside to that is that it isn't always able to get docked when that attachment is connected. That was OK with us because we really got it to pick up fur, Arizona dust, and leaves brought in by the dog (through his dog door). It works well for that, and it adjusts its thrust depending on the surface it is on (we have carpet and tile) and resistance it feels. So we ended up not buying the extra mopping unit (but might someday try the mopping features of the base unit).

There are some geeky additional non-vacuuming features too. The camera (which faces forward and thus is not useful when the bot is docked) can be viewed from remote, and the bot can be driven around as well. You can even set it into "patrol mode" where it moves around and takes video and stores that video for later viewing. If you manually connect and drive it around, you can actually engage its speaker so you can, for example, talk to your dog while you're away.

You can cover up the camera (they give you an attachment for that, which is a little clunky) in case you are worried about privacy. Like most of these super-smart vacuums, it capitalizes on access to the camera for navigation ("vSLAM"). In other words, despite having LIDAR to find obstacles, it fuses both of them. So covering the camera makes mapping and navigation less efficient. Furthermore, it is best for it to vacuum in at least dim light, which is why I ensure the lights come on while it is vacuuming (as described above).

Zoom Virtual Background for Short/Coffee Breaks ("I'll be right back!")

You might know that Zoom has a non-verbal feedback option under the Participants list that includes a "need a break." You could use this to indicate when you have stepped away, but it is intended to indicate to the speaker that you are requesting a break.

So what is an option to indicate to everyone that you have stepped away and aren't just having video problems? One option is to create a virtual background that includes some status signage (or, alternatively, you can make the signage part of your profile picture that shows when your camera is off). Here is an image I put behind me to indicate to others that I've stepped away very briefly and will be back soon.

You can download and use the image above. You can also download the PowerPoint version so you can make edits to it. Here I am with my virtual background behind me. Of course, normally I would only put this up when I was out of the room. :-)

Another option is to print out a tiny version of the image above and hang it in front of your camera. :-)

UPDATE: Another option for this is to combine Zoom with a virtual camera from mmHmm. mmHmm has "Be right back" options that you can quickly switch on and off with far fewer steps than raw Zoom.

A New Way to Download ePub NOOKBooks from Barnes and Noble

Back in September, Barnes and Noble removed the ability to download DRM'd ePubs directly from their site. If you are still using NOOK for PC or NOOK for Mac, you might be able to use them to download your newly purchased books and then find the ePubs in some obscure directory on your machine. However, that doesn't help Linux users. Moreover, those Desktop apps are not supported anymore, and so it is not an ideal solution.

So what do you do? If you have an Android device (in principle, you could use an Android emulator as well), you can download the NOOK e-reader Android app and, through a few steps, get the same ePubs you used to download. Here's how you do it:

1. Download and install the NOOK e-reader Android app on your Android device
2. Open the NOOK e-reader app and find your library with your newly purchased book
3. Select "Download" to cache the book locally on the device, and wait for the download to finish
4. Once the download is finished, open a file manager application like ES File Explorer and navigate to
   /sdcard/Nook/content
   You should find your NOOK book ePubs in that folder. That is, find the Nook folder in your internal storage, and then find the content folder inside it.
5. You can use your file manager to copy those ePubs out of that folder, or you can "Share" them to another installed app like Dropbox or Google Drive so that you can easily get them on other devices or your Desktop computer

Once you have the ePubs on another device, you can do whatever you used to do with them when you could download them directly from the NOOK library on-line in your web browser.

[ Side note: You might try to plug your Android device into your computer and use MTP to access /sdcard/Nook/content directly from your Desktop and copy files out of it. However, it's possible that the ePubs won't be accessible this way. In fact, the might not even show up in the file listing. So you might be stuck using a file manager on your device. ]

Dollar Shave Club: My review and a cheaper alternative

I recently signed up for the Dollar Shave Club (DSC), which is a site that lets you paying $6 every 1 or 2 months for 4 razors by mail (and you can pause your subscription at any time). It turns out that you can get the exact same razors for much cheaper with no monthly subscription so long as you're willing to buy in bulk. Apparently DSC gets its razors from Dorco USA, which you can buy directly from on-line. In fact, you can buy retail handles with trial razors from Dorco too. For example, for $6, you can try out a Dorco handle and two razors, and then you can buy 36 replacement cartridges for less than $1/razor.

I tried my "4X" DSC (or Dorco USA) razor for the first time this weekend. It was an OK razor. It had a nice heavy handle, but the angle of the pivoting head was not as steep as I'd like, and the moisturizing strip was far too thick. Consequently, it was very awkward to get into small nooks -- like under the nose. The "4X" razor doesn't have a trimming edge either (the more expensive 6-blade "Executive" model does), which would really improve matters. But after the shave, my face felt pretty good. It just took a lot longer to get through a full shave. So I'm not sure I can fully recommend these razors over, say, Schick Quattro Titanium disposable razors, which actually have a trimming edge and are pretty cheap from local stores or from Amazon (around $7/3 razors).

DSC also sent me a tester of their "Dr. Carver's Easy Shave Butter," which actually burned my face a bit as it went on (but I have sensitive skin). My face was fine afterward. But using Nivea For Men Active3 Body Wash for Body, Hair & Shave worked just as well without the sting. So I'm not sure I can recommend the Shave Butter either.

So I'm torn. It's possible that the 6-blade+edging "Executive" unit will be better. Either way, in the long run, it's cheaper to buy from Dorco USA directly, and I like the idea of dropping the subscription service. Dorco USA also sells other razor models and even disposable models. They also sell razors designed for women, whereas DSC just tells women to buy the 4X. The 4X has a handle which is somewhere between what you'd want for the face and the leg, but I think it's biased toward face shaving. So the lady's models at Dorco USA are definitely recommended if you need to shave legs.

So that's my brief review. tl;dr -- Check out DORCO if you like DSC's blades but don't like the subscription service.

References:

• Dollar Shave Club
• LifeHacker: "Forget Dollar Shave Club; Buy the Same High Quality Razors for a Third of the Price" 
• Dorco USA Razors

Looking for a cheap Bluetooth-capable portable MP3 player? Buy a no-contract smartphone and don't activate it!

My father needed a portable Bluetooth-capable MP3 player with large or expandable memory. Portable MP3 players with such features typically sell for $80+ (Trio mini), with the nicest units being at least $150 (iPod nano) or much more. The cheap models have terrible battery life (3 hours for Trio mini). Creative solution? He bought a no-contract LG Optimus Exceed 2 from Verizon Wireless for less than $50 at Best Buy and used a 16GB microSD card that he already owned.

LG Optimus Exceed 2, Prepaid (no-contract) Phone from Verizon Wireless

This particular no-contract phone is fast, runs Android 4.4.2, and can be used without activating. In fact, it is very easy to bypass the initial activation screen with a special key sequence – volume up, volume down, back, home – pressed after restart at the language selection screen. After bypassing that screen just once, the phone is happy to run unactivated indefinitely after that – it will never present that activate screen again. Use airplane mode to prevent phone from looking for a network to save battery, and flip on WiFi and Bluetooth. It's like a $50 iPod touch. Nice deal.

You can get this phone from a number of places, as shown in links below. Of course, there are other no-contract phone choices you could make (check all no-contract carriers – Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile USA, T-Mobile, etc.). If you're willing to compromise on the phone software or other capabilities, you can get decent "MP3 player phones" for $30 or even $20.

• Amazon.com ($50)
• Best Buy ($50) 
• Fry's Electronics ($40)
• Walmart ($50)
• Verizon Wireless ($80 and claims full retail is $249)
• LG Life's Good (info page)

For example, you can get essentially the same phone from Boost Mobile packaged as the LG Realm for only $35 on Amazon right now. It's $40 from other retailers.

LG Realm, Prepaid (no-contract) Phone from Boost Mobile

So that's like a $35 iPod touch. Even nicer deal!

CTAN search engine definition for Firefox

If you're looking for search engine definitions for CTAN that are compatible with Firefox's search toolbar, then visit:

• CTAN search engine definitions for Firefox

While on that page, click on the down arrow in the icon in your your Firefox search toolbar. You should see several "Add" options at the bottom. That lets you add several different types of CTAN search to your toolbar. You can then "Manage Search Engines" and add a keyword to some of them. I use the keyword "ctan" to search package ID's and the keyword "ctanp" to search over package ID's and descriptions. The keyword lets me search directly from the awesome bar without having to use the search bar. [ These definitions were inspired by firefox_ctan_plugins by Martin Engler, but those don't work with CTAN anymore. ]

Bookmarklets for Arizona State University (ASU) library proxy

This message goes out to ASU faculty, staff, and students. Doesn't it make you mad when you're off campus and you want to read a paper and the research database that holds the paper doesn't let you view it because you're not a subscriber? I hate that.

Luckily, the ASU library system provides an off-campus scholarly portal from my.asu.edu (under the "Library" option on the left) that can be used to make your off-campus connection look like an on-campus one so research databases will grant you ASU-caliber access. Unfortunately, if you've clicked on a link to a paper, you have to re-do your search within their portal to get your off-campus access, and that's really inconvenient. So I've come up with a shortcut (similar to my OSU LOCSI shortcut).

Drag the bookmarklet below to your "bookmarks toolbar" (that strip of bookmarks that rides just below the "location bar" in your browser).

• ASU LOCSI ("LOCSI" = "Library Off-Campus Sign-In")

When you're on a page you'd like special access to (e.g., the official site of an academic paper of interest to you), click on the bookmarklet and you'll be transported to that site via ASU's off-campus sign in. You may have to use your ASU username and password to login the first time you click on the bookmarklet, but after that you should be granted ASU-level access quickly.

(feel free to rename that bookmarklet as you wish; the name "ASU LOCSI" isn't important to its function)

I hope that helps.

Printing from your Android device (tablet or phone)

I know someone who recently purchased an Asus Transformer TF300T from MicroCenter in the store for a cool $350, which means that after tax it was still cheaper than it was selling for at Amazon ($384). Strangely, I can find no mention of the TF300T on MicroCenter's website (maybe local store was just clearing inventory and they don't plan on selling them in the long term?). Anyway, this is the first Android tablet this person has ever used, and they were interested in getting the ability to print from it to the printers in their home. Here's how I responded (text copied from an e-mail and then marked up a bit).

    Here are some tablet printing options that I've tried that appear to still be popular. I've put some footnotes at the bottom of this message that are tangential topics that may still be interesting to you. For example, the first footnote [*] is about a way to pick printers in the future that allow for cloud printing without the aid of a PC being on.

    The first two apps I currently have installed on my phone and am happy with. You would probably only need one of them. The third app is one I tried, but I gave up on because I thought the first two apps were just as good or better. I have not used the fourth app, but you should know it exists as it would be handy if on the go and you need a hard copy of something.

1. First, here's "Cloud Print," which is a free app with no limitations but will display ads unless you donate to it:
   
   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pauloslf.cloudprint
   
   To give it the ability to print, you have to also install Google Chrome (Google's web browser) on one or all of your machines. You can get Google Chrome web browser [**] from:
   
   https://www.google.com/chrome/
   
   After you install it, complete these steps to connect your PC's printers to the web where "Cloud Print" can access them:
   
   http://support.google.com/cloudprint/bin/answer.py?answer=1686197
   
   Note that if Chrome is already installed on another computer in the house, and if that person has shared her printers with you, you should already be able to print to printers connected to her computer even if your computer isn't on (but hers has to be on). Once printers are connected to your Google account's Cloud Print, then you can use the "Share" button (it looks a little like a tree with two branches, typically) from any app to export whatever you're looking at to the "Cloud Print" app. That document will then get printed to the Cloud Print printer you choose. Note that "Print to PDF" is always available (and it will store that PDF on your Google Drive, I think, which you can access using the "Google Drive" app I just e-mailed you about). There are competing Android apps to Cloud Print, like "Easy Print:"
   
   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flipdog.easyprint
   
   but I don't think they're as well developed as Cloud Print.
   
   
2. Next, there's "PrinterShare," which has limited printing for free, but unlimited printing if you're willing to buy their premium key for a pricey $12.95:
   
   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dynamixsoftware.printershare
   
   PrinterShare's features largely overlap with Cloud Print. That is, Cloud Print does a couple of things PrinterShare doesn't, and PrinterShare does a couple of things that Cloud Print doesn't. For example, you can use Google Cloud Print with PrinterShare, and so any printer that you can use with Cloud Print, you can also use with PrinterShare. One major difference is that PrinterShare also supports WiFi printing to network-enabled printers (e.g., the HP LaserJet 2055dn) and some print servers. Initially, the support was spotty. However, I'm noticing more and more printers start to pop up on my WiFi list when I check. It's a solid app, but it's a little annoying that if you switch printers frequently, it has to re-download print drivers nearly every time. Downloading print drivers is very fast, and it's not much of an annoyance, but it's a little confusing why it can't keep these installed. Otherwise, it's a solid application that's a tough competitor, which is why it maintains such a high price for it's premium key.
   
   
3. I have also used the "PrintBot" app, which allows for 3 printouts a month unless you pay $4.50 for the full version (which is unlimited). It supports printing directly to a print server (no Google Cloud Print required), but it is not as easy to setup as PrinterShare. So unless they've improved things a bit since I used it last, I don't recommend it. In theory, it may be the only tool that can print to the print server connected to the HP LaserJet 5 upstairs without using Google Cloud Print; however, PrinterShare may have improved to be able to do that natively anyway:
   
   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.jsecurity.printbot
   
   
4. Alternatively, HP and others(?) have apps like this one:
   
   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hp.eprint.ppl.client
   
   that allow you to print to public printing locations, like FedEx Office stores, UPS Office stores, Walmart photo kiosks, hotels, and others. This is a neat idea if you're on the go and need a paper copy of something. The downside is that although the app is free, the place that prints your document may charge you per page.
   
   

    In summary, if you're OK with having a computer on and connecting your legacy printers to the Google "cloud print" service, then give the first free app ("Cloud Print") a shot. If you want the ability to print over WiFi directly without computers being on, then consider the second app ("PrinterShare", which is pretty expensive for an app if you want to print more than 3 things a month). Note that the WiFi option only works if you're on the same network as the printer. You cannot print from remote with PrinterShare unless you're using Google's cloud print service (and thus have a PC turned on).

    --Ted


Footnotes:

[*]: If you find yourself buying a new printer in the near future (not likely), you can choose a "Cloud Ready" printer:

http://www.google.com/cloudprint/learn/printers.html

These printers connect to servers at HP, Kodak, Epson, or Canon that allow access to them from remote provided the correct username and password. Google Cloud print can print directly to these without the aid of a computer being on.

In general, any network-enabled printer will probably have good Android support even if it's not "cloud ready." In fact, some vendors release their own apps to make it simpler to print to them from Android, like Lexmark (but I think generic network printer apps will connect to these too, in most cases):

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lexmark.print


[**]: If you like Google Chrome as a web browser, you can use it instead of Firefox. If you have Firefox bookmarks, Chrome will import them. Also (and this might be interesting to you), you can share your Chrome bookmarks and tabs to your tablet and so you can easily go from one to the other. If you don't like Chrome but like the idea of getting your same bookmarks and tabs on your tablet as is on your Desktop, that's possible with Firefox too. Either way, we should probably install the "Chrome to Phone" app

Cloud Storage Referral Links (and tips on getting even more space)

I like to accumulate cloud storage so I can have redundant backups of my files in easily accessible places all over the Internet. Below is a list of referral links to a few services that I've tried. In each case, activating an account via the referral link will bring both you and me a little extra space (if you need help linking them together, check out Otixo).

All of these services have good Windows support, decent OS X support, and at least a hint of Linux support. Some of them are easier to activate using Windows than other platforms.

• Dropbox, an old standard in could storage. The referral link gets you 2.25 GB of free storage to start with. Make sure you complete at least five of the steps under the "Getting Started" tab to get another 0.25GB. Also, for a limited time, you can use the "Camera Upload" feature of the Windows beta or the Android beta to get up to 5GB more free space (so 7.5 GB total!). Then you can get 0.25 GB more for every new person you refer to the service.
• SpiderOak will give you 3 GB if you join via that link. However, during your account setup, you can then try the promo code worldbackupday to get an additional 3 GB so that you top off at 6 GB total of free storage for the life of the account. In case you already have a SpiderOak account and didn't know about the promotion code, you can still get the extra 3 GB. Just login to the SpiderOak website, click on the "add new space" (it might say "buy new space"), then click to "Change" your account, and then enter the worldbackupday promotion code. Assuming the promotion code hasn't expired, it all should work.
  
  SpiderOak is very similar to Dropbox and yet also very different. It encrypts your files locally so that SpiderOak employees don't even have access to your data. It also does the encryption in a way that ensures that files duplicated across your machines don't take up duplicate space. Plus, you can create encrypted shares where a subset of people have access to storage but no one else. Finally, SpiderOak allows you to select multiple folders to backup on your system rather than just keeping one "dropbox" in sync. You can use it like dropbox by selecting a single folder to be synchronized across your computers, but you don't have to.
• Minus.com will give you something like 10.2 GB for clicking on that referral link. It's a relatively new service, and it has a nice on-line interface with plenty of mobile apps. It's easy to upload large files and distribute download links to people. You can mark entire folders as "Public" or "Private", and you can still share download links to private folders or even individual files inside private folders. Just be careful because the default access level is Public. You can change the default to Private in the settings on the web page.
• Memopal is a little difficult to setup if you use a non-Windows system. In that case, follow the referral link and register your e-mail. Then follow the link corresponding to your operating system and follow the instructions. I think it will say you'll be getting 3 GB for free, but then you'll actually get 3.5 GB because you registered your e-mail as a referral. One plus of Memopal is that you can guy a whopping 200 GB for US$50/year, and that rate gets discounted as much as 60% if you purchase several years at once. Unfortunately, I didn't see an easy way to configure what Memopal backs up. I didn't play with it long, but it may just try and backup every bit of media it can find (and use as much CPU resources as it wants to do so).
• SugarSync gives you around 5 GB at that referral link. For non-Windows users, you should check your e-mail after going to that link and you'll find an e-mail verification link. That e-mail verification link will bring you to the standard login and a Dropbox-like web interface. Moreover, you can find additional software support there. You get extra space for completing tasks like installing the mobile app or going through the mobile app's demo "game" that leads you through sharing files from SugarSync.
• Box.net has no referral links. However, they often offer 50 GB promotions that upgrade your free storage from 5 GB to 50 GB just for logging in in a special way. For example, back in December, I logged into my Box.net account via someone else's iPad and then logged out. That's all it took for me to get 50 GB for the life of the account.
• iDrive will give you 5 GB at that link, but it's easy to add 10 GB more onto that. Just create a fake e-mail account at Aol.com. Then add at least five contacts to the contacts list. Try adding pluses to your own e-mail address username if you want to make sure they're unique. For example, you might use your own e-mail address of joe@schmoe.com as well as joe+two@schmoe.com because most mail servers will omit everything behind the plus sign, and yet it will look like a unique e-mail address. The point is to create what look to be five unique contacts without spamming five unsuspecting individuals. Then log out of Aol.com and go back to iDrive's referral page. It will give you the ability to enter in your Aol.com username and password so it can access your contacts list. For giving it access to your entire contacts list, you get 10 GB of extra storage.
• SkyDrive is Microsoft's cloud storage offering. There are no referral links; everyone gets 25 GB of free space.
• Bitcasa is still in beta, and it won't have referral links because every user gets infinite storage. They use a dubious encryption scheme that prevents duplication across users so they can maximize on storage efficiency in their end while still keeping stuff encrypted.

If you're interested, Dropbox is usually my go-to service followed up by SpiderOak. I've configured SpiderOak to act just like Dropbox, except that SpiderOak is infinitely more secure than Dropbox. Consequently, a few sensitive documents I backup only to SpiderOak. If I ever need more space than I've accumulated at Dropbox or SpiderOak, I'll have to re-think things a bit. Oh, and I also pay for space at rsync.net; the cost for storage is not the cheapest, but it's affordable. More importantly, it's stored on UNIX machines (that support symlinks!) and can be accessed with rsync over ssh. That's worth it to me to pay a little extra. They have student discounts, by the way. If they do ask who referred you, tell them it was pavlic.3@osu.edu.

By the way, if you open up multiple such accounts and want a central place to manage all of your services, check out Otixo which can connect to each of your sharing sites and create shared workspaces bridges across storage boundaries.

Best Idea Ever: "Air Snail" to lock down MacBook Air with Kensington-style lock

UPDATE #2: More competition has come onto the market. Check out the Snake ~ Chicago Snake lock solution. It looks a lot less scary (in terms of potential scratching) than the others, like macBracket. It's $20 and available from Amazon, where several pictures of how it works are shown. You can also find it at its home page.

UPDATE #1: It turns out this is not the only bracket available. As reviewed by MacGirl.net, there used to be a bracket sold on an eBay store that slid up through the MacBook Air. Unfortunately, not only was the locking portion in front of the screen, but it could slide around and scratch the device. Then came the macBracket out of Germany. The macBracket is pretty slick and looks like it is relatively gentle on the MacBook Air. It's a little pricey, but it's not like there's a lot of competition right now.

So if you need a good solution right now, check out the macBracket. Just make sure to order the correct version for your MacBook Air; they have support for new MacBook Airs (MBA). That new MBA bracket will be shipping soon (at the time of this posting), but it's available for order on their website.

I was surprised to hear that the MacBook Air has no Kensington lock slot. It's too small. Apparently, some of the PC ultrabooks also have this problem. Tablets have this problem, but it's easy to take tablets and phones with you... It's a little harder to carry the MacBook Air everywhere.

There are a ton of alarm solutions (like what you'd expect to see in a BestBuy) that rely on USB connectivity or adhesion or something similar. Those aren't really ideal. A lock is what is really needed. I've seen two locking solutions available for purchase, and both of them are a bit ugly.

• The first, from MacLocks.com is a protective case which attaches to the bottom of the MacBook Air with screws. The protective case includes a Kensington lock slot, and so your MacBook Air can be locked down so long as the potential thief doesn't carry around the right screw driver (some sort of security star head or something like that). I suppose they could have used those non-removable screws that only support a driver in the clockwise direction (like in many bathroom stalls), but then you'd be out of luck if you ever wanted to get the case off of your MacBook Air.
• The second, from JKLocks.com, has a few variations. I saw version RL108 on YouTube, but there are other versions on the company website. It uses 3M command strips to attach a Kensington lock slot to the back of the laptop. When the lock is connected, it covers the ends of the command strips so they cannot be removed. Of course, if you ever try to remove the command strips, you have to be very careful the metal base of the Kensington lock slot doesn't go scratching across the top of the laptop (!!).

So neither solution is really that good. But then I saw this YouTube video of the Air Snail, a prototype that was invented before either of those solutions were marketed (I think) and requires no screws or funny adhesives

That's genius! It is just an eared sickle that slides through the hole between the screen and the keyboard; the hinges and lock keep it from sliding out! Unfortunately, the inventor cannot find any partners willing to fabricate it in large quantities and market it. Sure, it would need to be built so it could be tough while not scratching the device (and would need to be fabricated for relatively cheap). However, I think those challenges are not insurmountable.

So do you have some dough laying around and want to market a great idea? If so, contact the inventor and start selling these things! Get them out before there are a lot of ultrabooks on the market -- I'm guessing there will be a demand for this little portable toy!

Meanwhile, you could probably fabricate something similar yourself (e.g., with some coated aircraft cable thin enough to slide through the MacBook Air). It might be hard to make it compatible with a Kensington lock without some fabrication, but you could surely make it compatible with a padlock.

Duplex Printing from the Command Line to an HP LaserJet Printer

My department has several HP LaserJet printers available to access within the department via LPR and SMB. However, if you are working from a personal laptop connected to the university wireless, those servers will not be available to you. Instead, you must print by piping your documents through SSH to a department server that does have access.

Unfortunately, doing duplex printing (i.e., two-sided printing) to an HP LaserJet printer from the command line is not trivial. So, using the GSview documentation as a guide, I put together a small bash script (available for download as hplj_duplex_print) that does the trick.

#!/bin/bash

declare -a input_file
if test $# -eq 0; then
    input_file=("-")
else
    input_file=("$@")
fi

( echo -e "\e%-12345X@PJL JOB"
  echo "@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = POSTSCRIPT"
  echo "<< /Duplex true /Tumble false >> setpagedevice"
  gs -sDEVICE=psmono -sPAPERSIZE=letter -q -sOutputFile=- \
    -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH "${input_file[@]}"
  echo -e "\e%-12345X@PJL EOJ"
  echo -e "\e%12345X"
  ) | lp -d your_HP_printer_spool_name

You should replace the your_HP_printer_spool_name with your printer's spool name. You might want to tweak some of the options (details below), but the general structure will remain the same. The opening and closing escape sequences communicate to the HP LaserJet printer that a PostScript file is coming. Then the setpagedevice PostScript directive instructs the printer to use its duplex module.

Regarding tweaking:

• Again, make sure to change your_HP_printer_spool_name to your spool name. You may also want to change lp to lpr, but you will likely have to change -d to -P then.
• You may want to change the gs (GhostScript) options to suit your purposes. For example, you can change the psmono device to one of the other GhostScript devices like psgray or psrgb.
• The Tumble switch determines whether to do short-edge (true) or long-edge (false) duplex printing, and so this script defaults to the latter case. If you prefer vertical flipping, change the /Tumble false to /Tumble true. You might also make this a configurable command-line switch on the script.

3mindme is shutting down! Old owner recommends NudgeMail

Today I received the quoted e-mail below from David Barrett (@quinthar). His work as CEO of Expensify and some complications with maintaining the longevity of 3mindme have made him decide to shut down the 3mindme service effective immediately. He recommends the very similar but commercially operated service NudgeMail as a substitute. You can find other substitution options at an old post of mine discussing these services.

Hi! I'm David, the guy who made 3mindme. I'm very sad to inform you that I'm shutting down the service permanently, starting immediately. I strongly encourage you to check out a similar service at http://nudgemail.com -- it's essentially the same thing as 3mindme, but better.

Q: What will happen to the emails I've scheduled for the future?
A: After I send this email to all users, I'm going to send all future-dated emails immediately. My goal has always been to return every email at precisely the right time. Unfortunately, I'll need to make due with simply returning them at all.

Q: Can I do anything to convince you to keep 3mindme alive?
A: Probably not. It's been a fun service to operate these many years, but as CEO of Expensify (https://expensify.com - Expense reports that don't suck!) I just don't have the time to devote to 3mindme.

Q: Why now, after years of continuous operation?
A: Spam. I recently learned that many users (myself included) were having their emails silently dropped, meaning they got no error response, but the message was never scheduled for future delivery. Solving this problem is very difficult and time consuming, and I'd rather shut down 3mindme than leave it in a non-functioning state.

I think that's all. If you have any questions, feel free to respond to this email and I'll do what I can to help. Otherwise, give NudgeMail a shot, and keep Expensify in mind for your next expense report!

-david
Follow me at http://twitter.com/quinthar

So that is very sad. 3mindme was a nice server-side mail-me-back reminder service that didn't have the ugly commercial taste of pretty much every other alternative.

So bye-bye 3mindme; we'll miss you.

Delayed reminder e-mails: iTickleMe, LetterMeLater, FutureMe, 3mindme, and Outlook

UPDATE: On August 27, 2011, 3mindme was shut down. See a recent post for more information. The old owner of 3mindme recommends NudgeMail as a substitute.

---

UPDATE: It looks like there has been an update to the original Gadgetwise post. Unfortunately, because it seems like all technology writers are born to disappoint, the author picked a bone-headed client-side solution like the Boomerang plugin for Firefox/Chrome despite so many people pointing out existing server-side solutions. In fact, a bunch of people posted lots of johnny-come-lately server-side applications like Good Todo, FollowUp, FollowUpThen, and NudgeMail. Why you would favor any of these over something like 3mindme baffles me, but I guess it's nice to have options. You certainly shouldn't ever need to use Boomerang though!

This recent NYTimes: Gadgetwise post got me thinking about an old functionality I built into my mail server (using procmail and cronjobs) back before I switched over to Gmail. Basically, I implemented exactly this "delayed reminder" feature in a sort of GTD "tickler file" (43folders) way. I think you could already do something similar in GMail, but you'd still come a little short. Let me explain how my old IMAP-based version worked.

I would send myself messages with a subject like:

tickle10: Ask Joe to return book he borrowed

That is, "on day 10 of this month, remind me to 'Ask Joe to return...'". When my mail server received messages matching that format, it would file them into "tickler files" that were just IMAP folders for each day; each folder had a name like "TICKLE.1" or "TICKLE.25". I then had a script that would run nightly and would move contents of "TICKLE.today_number" into my inbox and mark them unread.

Consequently, this acted exactly like a tickler file with folders. I "drop" a message into the folder for a day later in this month or next month, and each day I empty the folder in the front and move the empty folder to the back. I just had a script do it for me.

You could have GMail do ALMOST all of this for you. That is, you could have it automatically file messages based on subject into tickler folders. The problem would be to automate moving the daily folders back into your inbox. Perhaps you could just manually check today's folder each day. That would be a step in the right direction.

But then I realized that if the NYTimes guy thought of it now, and I thought of it many many many years ago, then maybe other people have thought of it too. So I did a Google search, and it turns out other solutions do now exist. Here's one I just found:

• iTickleMe: http://www.itickleme.com/
  
  iTickleMe lets you schedule e-mail reminders by sending the service e-mails at addresses like INTERVAL@itickleme.com.

Of course, there is more than one way to skin an cat. Alternatives to iTickleMe include:

• LetterMeLater: http://www.lettermelater.com/
• FutureMe: http://www.futureme.org/

But then I found a really simple and elegant non-commercial alternative:

• 3mindme: http://3mindme.com/
  
  which you can find a little more information about at Lifemuncher:
  
  http://lifemuncher.blogspot.com/2007/12/3mindme-reminder-service.html
  
  However, I really recommend you just check out 3mindme.com directly; it's self explanatory. I just hope that 3mindme doesn't go under because it's not commercially supported and the author might eventually lose interest.

Finally, apparently Outlook has the ability to schedule e-mails for later delivery. This won't be an option for, say, GMail users who access GMail through the web... or Thunderbird users in general. Does Apple Mail have this feature? Well, in the meanwhile, the on-line reflector services should work pretty well... and, so long as you can count on the server being up, you don't have to worry about your mail client at home crashing and not sending those delayed e-mails while you are away (plus, do you really need to keep your computer on just as a reminder server?).

So go check out 3mindme. I haven't tried it yet. I hope it still works. Sounds great!

Tools for combining BibTeX, PDFs, and e-Readers

Quick links:

• fix_pdf_tags BibTeX+PDF+e-Reader management script
• bibtex_to_pdf Mercurial repository

UPDATE: If you are looking for a simpler solution that updates PDF's in your BibTeX database with the corresponding BibTeX data, check out updatepdf.pl. Be careful though; the old PDF::API2 module only supports Adobe PDF 1.4 (i.e., compatibility-mode PDF's).

UPDATE: Apparently, you can also manage your Kindle collections efficiently using emacs, using Calibre, or manually so long as you're okay with possibly having to reboot your Kindle after every change. So it would be possible for me to add Kindle collections.json support to my fix-pdf-tags script; I just don't anticipate having the time to do that in the near future (plus, I don't own a Kindle anymore, and so I wouldn't be able to test it).

In trying to migrate to e-Readers, I've been experimenting with both the Amazon Kindle 3 and the Sony Daily Reader PRS-950. They both have nice features... I don't have time to go into a review, but I'll give a teaser...

• Kindle PRO's: It has a nice web browser (that works on 3G too!), and makes it super easy to get new content onto the device. In fact, you can even download PDF's from Dropbox via the nifty browser (although e-mailing to your Amazon Kindle e-mail address is convenient too). Plus, Amazon makes for a nice e-Book store -- lots of the books I would want.
• Kindle CON's: However, PDF's really have to be in compatibility mode (Acrobat 1.4). Otherwise, the Kindle will miss all of the metadata. More importantly, it is basically impossibledifficult to manage collections through the USB. So if you have hundreds of PDF's, you'll spend days tagging them via the clunky Kindle keyboard.
  • UPDATE: Apparently, the Kindle uses a simple SHA-1 hash of the file's full path as a key in the collections.json file that is accessible via USB. Consequently, you can manage your collections data more efficiently. You can do so with an emacs script or with a calibre plugin or manually. However, you may have to reboot your Kindle every time you make a change. At least with the older Kindles, the collections.json file was only read on boot. It's possible that the newer Kindles are smart enough to refresh collections data every time the USB is unplugged (like the Sony does), but I honestly don't know. I have a feeling that Hannes, the author of bibtex-kindle, knows though.
• Sony Daily PRO's: It has the optical touch screen. It doesn't require compatibility-mode PDF's. It has a large screen. It has terrific page viewing options. In theory, the PDF note options are very nice, but e-Reader notes just seem tedious to me in general regardless of interface. More importantly, it is essentially an "open" platform so long as you are OK with a little bit of reverse engineering. It is easy to write a few scripts to manage your XML files, and so keeping your PDF's organized is easy for your average script kiddy.
• Sony Daily CON's: The optical touch screen means the screen is sunk down so far that it the chassis casts a small shadow around the edge of the screen. The Sony case-with-light isn't as nice as the Kindle's case-with-light. The Sony Bookstore doesn't have as many books (or at least the books I care about). The zoom modes leave much to be desired. In PDF's that work fine on the Kindle, trying to click a word for dictionary lookup often leads to selecting a phrase (and there's nothing you can do about it).

And there's plenty more to talk about, but those are the quick things off the top of my head. So it looks like I'm probably going to keep both... so I can have a diversity of e-Books available to me. Plus, the e-Book experience is a little nicer on the Kindle, but the PDF experience might be a little nicer on the Sony. It's hard to tell.

But what this post is really about is a utility I've put together that automatically manages my research PDF collection on either the Kindle or the Sony Reader. In particular,

• It updates PDF's with metatags to match author/editor/title information from a central BibTeX database.
• If you invoke it with a "kindle" argument, it converts PDF's to 1.4 so the Kindle can read the metatags.
• If you invoke it with a "reader" argument, it also automatically generates categories based on file hierarchy (i.e., the folders in which your PDF files live). In fact, symbolic links indicate that multiple tags should be applied to the same file (i.e., the target of the symbolic link).

So maybe that will be helpful to someone (at least as an example to generate some ideas). The project started out as something customized for me, but I've tried to make the documentation clear (see the chunk at the top to start). Plus, most of the important custom information (paths, preferences, etc.) are at the top of the script.

Check out the most recent version of my fix_pdf_tags script; it resides in my bibtex_to_pdf Mercurial repository where you can view its change history.

P.S. I know that Calibre is an existing software package that has very similar aims and a nice graphical environment. However, it really is a poor choice for managing PDF research. Plus, the Calibre folks have basically written off Kindle users as poor schmucks with hobbled readers. More importantly for me, I'm much happier with scripted solutions that can be fired off quickly.

pine, mutt, elm, and mousetraps

The web hosting provider for tedpavlic.com recently upgraded their UNIX boxes to a 64-bit platform, and the websites I host with them had to be moved over. There were a few small hiccups (primarily due to 32-bit apps I built that needed to be re-built), but most of the issues afterwards had to deal with apps that I asked them to install on the old machine that I then had to ask them to install again on the new machine. One of those apps was (al)pine, which is the console-based e-mail client that I use. They installed pine for me, but the guy in charge was curious. Here's a response to a question he had about my request. It's my justification for using pine (and throwing away the mouse).

But I must ask, for the few odd requests I get for pine, I am curious as to if you actually use it on a day to day basis or just for testing. I remember using it back in the day (good ol'e ISDN!), but it seems a bit redundant and quaint now that we have webmail and Thunderbird and such.

Gosh – pine is far more powerful than either of those. For example:

*) Does webmail support IMAP tags? Pine does. Thunderbird just started, and it's support is still limited.

*) When managing large folders of mail, it's often much easier to query and process the messages with pine. I can quickly select a batch of messages, invert the selection, view the selection as its own folder, etc. etc. I have much more efficacy in pine.

*) If I'm at a remote computer, it's much more convenient for me to ssh into gemini and run pine than to use webmail (which is slow and clunky) or setup Thunderbird for my one time use.

*) If I'm at a remote computer *with* pine, if I run THAT pine and point it at gemini's IMAP server, pine will use the pine configuration (and address book) that is stored in a special IMAP folder. Hence, pine is much more portable than Thunderbird.

*) With very few exceptions, I'm much happier with console-mode (or near-console-mode) apps. Similarly, I use vim on every machine I have. Not only does it give me a uniform editing environment wherever I am, but with the addons packaged with any standard vim installation, vim will download, edit, and upload networked files automatically for me without much extra work on my part.

*) Oh, and don't forget that once upon a time you could only get pico with pine. Now, IIRC, nano comes separately.

My officemate uses mutt, and I used to be a major elm fan because it integrated better with vim. I shifted to pine because it's just so very powerful.

Have you heard of Vimperator? It's an add-on for Firefox that makes it act like Vim. The same people also brought out Muttator – it's an addon for Thunderbird that makes it act like mutt.

So there are lots of us out there that are dissatisfied with the GUI. Console-mode developers don't put a lot of time into perfecting the shading of the chrome. Instead, they add features, and they make the apps fast.

(note: applications like Quicksilver, Spotlight, and Microsoft's latest knock-off are bringing people back to the keyboard. People would rather *type* the app they want to launch rather than clicking through folders. Eventually, people will realize where the mouse belongs – dead in a trap stuck in the garbage out in the garage)

Thanks. :) –
Ted

Bookmarklets for OSU Library proxy

FYI, as of an e-mail sent to me on the morning of January 27, the OSU library system is happy with these bookmarklets and may plan to offer their own version of them in the near future. Thanks, again, for your support.

This message goes out to OSU faculty, staff, and students. Doesn't it make you mad when you're off campus and you want to read a paper and the research database that holds the paper doesn't let you view it because you're not a subscriber? I hate that.

Luckily, the OSU library system provides an "off-campus sign in" that can be used to make your off-campus connection look like an on-campus one so research databases will grant you OSU caliber access. Unfortunately, sometimes it's hard to figure out how to get from the off-campus sign-in to the paper you want. So I've come up with a shortcut, and I implemented it two ways.

Drag either one of the two following bookmarklets to your "bookmarks toolbar" (that strip of bookmarks that rides just below the "location bar" in your browser).

• OSU LOCSI ("LOCSI" = "Library Off-Campus Sign-In")
• OSU LOCSI

When you're on a page you'd like special access to (e.g., the official site of an academic paper of interest to you), click on the bookmarklet and you'll be transported to that site via OSU's "off-campus sign in." You may have to use your OSU username and password to login the first time you click on the bookmarklet, but after that you should be granted OSU-level access quickly.

(feel free to rename those bookmarklets as you wish; the name "OSU LOCSI" isn't important to their function)

I hope that helps.

Tedly Quick Searches

If you're not familiar with keywords and quick searches in Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Camino, you should check out "Fifteen Firefox Quick Searches" and "Firefox and the art of keyword bookmarking." Mozilla quick searches and keywords shave hours off each of my weeks (if not days).

I've posted my quick searches, and you can save them and import them into your own Mozilla bookmarks. For instructions on how to do this, see the quick searches post from above. My quick search bookmarks are basically an improvement on the bookmarks given in that post. I've fixed some annoying things about her selections, and I've added a few more.

If you do use my bookmarks, be sure to modify the local one and change the zipcode from 43210 to your zipcode.

Google School: Synonyms and Info

From Google School:

Google School: Rank Wikipedia articles in your results

If you want to get general background on something with Google, append the word "info" or "information" to your search term.

If your words appear in the title of a Wikipedia page, Google will list that article at the top of your results, for a convenient way to search both Google and the Wikipedia at once. --Gina Trapani

Also, from Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day, by Gina Trapani:

Synonyms (Chapter 9, p. 223)

Search for synonyms using the tilde (~) next to keywords. This comes in handy when you are searching for a concept rather than for a specific word or sequence. For example:

• ~nutrition ~information muffins returns exact matches as well as matches on Muffins Food Facts and Muffins Vitamin Information.
• ~car turns up information on trucks and vehicles.
• A search for ~pen yields pencils, graphite, and sketch.

Top 10 Computing Energy Savers

Top 10 Computing Energy Savers

Reducing the amount of energy your hungry computers eat up every day won't only save you money on electricity bills, it will reduce your carbon footprint. If you haven't thought about how much electricity your gadgets use up every day, now's the time. Turns out just a few changes in habits and system settings can save you money AND the environment. After the jump, have 10 ways to reduce your energy consumption and compute greener.

The site lists 10 tips for reducing the amount of energy your computer (and other devices) waste. Each tip has a link giving more information (e.g., what a "smart power switch" is).

OptOutPrescreen.com - stop getting credit card offers!

This was suggested on NPR's Day to Day today to opt out of getting credit card and insurance offers in an effort to save money while also saving paper.

Go to OptOutPrescreen.com to do this. They'll submit your request to the credit bureaus, and eventually that'll stop creditors and insurers from sending you CRAP.