Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

Some might find it interesting that all of the work to turn a bunch of disparate articles into a properly-formatted book, from the additional writing and formatting work (VIM + LaTeX plugin), digital page proof review (Evince), LaTeX research and integration with the self-publishing platform (Firefox), cover photo tweaks (GIMP), happened not only with FOSS tools, but all on my personal computer, which happens to be a Librem 5 phone attached to a lapdock.

#Librem5 #lapdock #convergence #foss

I worked on my book all weekend. I finished the book layout in LaTeX and reviewed the 200-page digital "page proof" word by word, correcting any formatting mistakes and other errors. I finished my final tweaks to the index and this evening uploaded the completed and proofed PDF, designed the cover, and submitted all of the rest of the information.

The final step before I release "The Best of Hack and /: Linux Admin Crash Course" is printing and reviewing the finished physical product.

#writing

This weekend I managed to climb the steepest part of the learning curve with formatting a book using LaTeX.

Watch this space, as I should be able to complete and publish this proof of concept pretty quickly. If this book works out to be worth my time, you can expect quite a bit more publishing from me soon.

#writing #publishing #SelfPublishing

And both that morning equally made
My book formats in white and black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing the learning curves at play,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two apps to format books, and I--
I took the one that used vi,
And that has made all the difference.

The App Not Taken

Two apps diverged to format books
And sorry I could not master both
And be an expert, long I stood
And tried out Scribus as far as I could
Its GUI promising rapid growth;

Then took on LaTeX, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because of its history and lofty air;
Though with no GUI present there
The learning curve was not the same,

A few months ago our family got a new kitten, which put our cat count at three. Beyond two cats, it's a challenge keeping your house from smelling, so my requirement for the kitten was investing in a high quality automatic litter box.

We had tried cheaper units in the past for vacations, and they never worked well. While it was expensive, we got a Litter Robot and I have to say, it is worth every penny. No smell, automatic, reliable, easy to dump litter, no proprietary consumables.

#caturday

According to Plutarch, in exchange for being forced into marriage with strangers, these Sabine girls were not required to perform any household labor apart from spinning. Apparently this was considered a fair deal, and says a lot both about the sensibilities of the time and how important spinning was!

#spinning #fiberarts #history

I started reading Plutarch's Lives, beginning with Theseus and Romulus. So far I learned that (according to Plutarch) a husband carrying his new wife over a threshold derives from a Roman tradition. It is intended to commemorate a time when Romulus was first settling Rome and needed more wives for his citizens. He lured Sabine citizens to a sporting event, then at a signal Roman men captured all the Sabine girls that were present and carried them away to be their wives.

I've published a full write-up of the inspiration, design, assembly, and installation of my @hackaday inspired knitting clock: Tempus Nectit!

I had to learn quite a few new skills to complete this project from controlling stepper motors with electronics to 3D modeling. I tried to document everything I could so that someone else could follow step-by-step and make one of their own.

https://kylerank.in/tempus_nectit/

#knitting #3dprinting #electronics

My knitting machine clock, Tempus Nectit, is complete! I advanced it to the current time and mounted it on the wall. The white section is waste yarn to cast on, and the red stripe marks Valentine's Day. The shiny metal "tooth" marks the hour hand. Currently it is set to noon. The clock will advance every hour, completing a full circle (and row) every 12 hours, or two rows a day.

Now I have the massive task of the technical write-up for my site.

#knitting #3dprinting #electronics

I really miss writing a column for Linux Journal and would like an outlet for this pent-up writing energy that compensates me for my time. I have many book ideas that topically fall outside the risks tech publishers are willing to take.

For instance, I have a lot of still-relevant LJ articles that I have already curated into a book w/ topical chapters.

Is Amazon really the only game in town for self-publishing w/ print on demand and good distribution? I'd rather avoid self-hosting a store.

The case for my knitting machine clock is complete!

I could hang this on the wall now and start knitting this year's scarf, but I'm going to spend time on the software side. The fact that this has 22 hooks leaves me with imperfect options. Right now I do one stitch per hour, and half stitches at 0,6,12,18 to make one row per day. I *could* simply divide a full day's motion across 24 hrs, or do it in 12 hours (2 rows/day) to mimic a normal clock. Thoughts?

#knitting #3dprinting #electronics

It has been really neat to run into people at SCALE who have been coming for many years. I have had two different people come up to me and reference my SCALE 11x keynote (10 years ago!) and say how it inspired them to take up 3D printing.

#scale20x #3dprinting