Wednesday weblog: Toots ending 2024-10-09

| review

Here's what I've been posting on @sacha@social.sachachua.com:

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Yay Emacs 5: Tweaking my video workflow with WhisperX and subed-record

| emacs, subed, yay-emacs

I'm tweaking my video workflow. I use Orgzly Revived on my Android phone to write the text, and I use Easy Voice Recorder to record it. Syncthing automatically copies both to my laptop. I use WhisperX to transcribe my recording, and I use a little bit of Emacs Lisp to figure out timestamps for each word. I edit this to fix errors. I can even rearrange things and get rid of umms or ahs or anything I don't want.Then I use subed-convert to turn it into a VTT file. I can tweak the start and end times by looking at the waveforms. Then I add comments with the visuals I want. I can add images, animated GIFs, or videos, and they're automatically squeezed or stretched to fit. I can also have them play at original speed. Then I set up open captions and use subed-record-compile-video. Tada!

Links:

You can watch this on YouTube, download the video, or download the audio.

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2024-10-07 Emacs news

| emacs, emacs-news

Links from reddit.com/r/emacs, r/orgmode, r/spacemacs, r/planetemacs, Mastodon #emacs, Hacker News, lobste.rs, programming.dev, lemmy.world, lemmy.ml, communick.news, planet.emacslife.com, YouTube, the Emacs NEWS file, Emacs Calendar, and emacs-devel. Thanks to Andrés Ramírez for emacs-devel links. Do you have an Emacs-related link or announcement? Please e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com. Thank you!

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Wednesday weblog: Toots ending 2024-10-02

| review
Tech

  • Server upgrade 2024-10-01T19:34:35.535Z

    Okay, my VPS should now be on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Things I bumped into along the way:
    - Had to reinstall MySQL for some reason. Fortunately kept all the data, although I did need to recreate directories for logs and sockets.
    - Reinstalled my Docker images. Fortunately kept all the data on disk, so that was fine. Along the way, upgraded my mongo DB from 4.2 to 4.4 to 5 to 6 to 7.
    - Panicked when gotosocial was taking a while to start up, interrupted it and tried again, ended up with a partially-migrated database and worse problems. Fortunately had a backup of the db, so I restored and patiently waited.

  • Eleventy upgrade 2024-09-30T17:35:26.858Z

    I managed to get my blog upgraded from Eleventy 2 to Eleventy 3.0.0-alpha.20. find-dired and wdired were useful for finding all the .js files and turning them into .cjs.

  • Supernote colour template 2024-09-27T03:05:15.033Z

    I finally got around to checking if the #Supernote can handle colour templates despite only letting me draw in black, white, and two shades of gray. It keeps the colour in the export! That means I can make a template that uses a specific color to make a grid, which is then easy to strip out of it with Python. That saves me 3-6 taps and reduces friction even further. Looking forward to experimenting with that at the next opportunity.

  • Blog tweaks and other code - 2024-09-26T17:02:17.804Z

    A couple of little tweaks:

    - I re-added a "Random" link to my blog header, nudged by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41647654
    - I added a sitemap.xml , so let's see if search engines pick stuff up
    - I wrote some code to move Org properties from a subtree to a parent
    - I changed my code for inserting the latest file from my Supernote A5X e-ink device into Org Mode to also recolor, recognize text, rename, and archive the file

  • Setting up hibernate 2024-09-26T00:08:50.365Z

    I followed the directions at https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2021/08/enable-hibernate-ubuntu-21-10/ to set up a swap partition and enable hibernate. Now I can pause whatever I'm doing in Linux in order to switch to Windows to play Minecraft Bedrock with the kiddo, and then switch back to Linux afterwards.

Life
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2024-09-30 Emacs news

| emacs, emacs-news

Links from reddit.com/r/emacs, r/orgmode, r/spacemacs, r/planetemacs, Mastodon #emacs, Hacker News, lobste.rs, programming.dev, lemmy.world, lemmy.ml, communick.news, planet.emacslife.com, YouTube, the Emacs NEWS file, Emacs Calendar, and emacs-devel. Thanks to Andrés Ramírez for emacs-devel links. Do you have an Emacs-related link or announcement? Please e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com. Thank you!

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Tiny chunks

| productivity, life

2024-09-26-05 Tiny chunks #kaizen #productivity
2024-09-26-05 Tiny chunks #kaizen #productivity

I want to get better at working in tiny chunks. Some of the things I find hard are:

  • getting incomplete thoughts out of my head when the kiddo interrupts so that I don't get grumpy (because of the Ovsiankina effect)
  • managing the stack of interrupting tasks and yak-shaving temptations
  • still making time for larger projects or things with less-immediate or more uncertain payoffs

Some general ways to improve:

  • Reduce friction so that more things can fit in less time.
    • Take notes
    • Improve workflows and tools
    • Create templates
  • Build momentum: focusing several chunks on one project to minimize context switches and make more progress
  • Lower expectations and split things up.
  • Start with a rough cut and then refine.
  • Use different types of work:
    • Organizing information can be easier than thinking up something new
    • Recognizing things from a list can be easier than recalling them from scratch

How can I get better at using tiny chunks in different aspects of my life?

  • Code:
    • Now that I'm on a more powerful computer, I'm looking forward to learning how to take advantage of LSP, completion, and other modern conveniences.
    • I can replace social media doomscrolling with reading APIs, guides, and code samples.
    • I can take more notes and review them.
  • Writing:
    • If I sketch my thoughts, that can help me think through things in a more nonlinear way at the beginning. Mindmaps and sketchnotes might actually be easier than using text outlines, since I can do them off my computer.
    • Dictation might help me turn other pockets of time into writing time, and then turn computer time into editing time.
    • Improving my workflows makes it easier for me to get the text out into a blog post that has a sketch or a video or a screenshot.
  • Drawing:
    • I can ask smaller questions so that I can get to an answer faster. I also don't have to flesh out the full thought in the drawing - I can use dictation or writing to add more details.
    • I can crop the image to remove the pressure to use the full page. I used to draw my thoughts on index cards. That was a good size for a small thought, and they were easier to build up into larger chunks.
    • I can use visual organizers, metaphors, and other structures to help me think through things. That might also give me additional insights.
  • Bigger projects: One of the things that sometimes frustrates me is having bigger projects that I can't figure out how to fit into smaller segments, or that take a lot of setup time and therefore tend to get deprioritized in favor of things with more immediate payoffs.
    • I have a few 1.5-hour chunks of focused time because of A+'s virtual school, and I might be able to reserve more time eventually. It might be good to have that time when I'm not prioritizing short tasks and quick wins. Aside from that, if I get focused time in the evening, the trade-off is usually that A+ binge-watches YouTube videos when I'm not focusing on her. Sometimes I'm okay with this because I really want some thinking time. It's better when I'm getting that focused time because she's off doing something with W-, though.
    • I tend to work on whatever I've been thinking about lately (availability bias), but it might be good to review longer-term projects/interests to keep them on my radar or make peace with archiving them.
    • Even the stuff that feels like very slow progress can be worthwhile.
  • Life:
    • Sometimes I feel a little distracted by things I want to do, but it's worth figuring out how to put stuff aside so that I can play. Bluey has plenty of examples of short games that could be fun to play with A+.
    • There's always time to work on health. Sometimes doing a single pushup makes it easier to do another, especially when the kiddo jumps in and starts exercising too.
    • Similarly, a small chunk of time is great for tidying.
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Using Emacs Lisp to export TXT/EPUB/PDF from Org Mode to the Supernote via Browse and Access

| supernote, org, emacs

I've been experimenting with the Supernote's Browse and Access feature because I want to be able to upload files quickly instead of waiting for Dropbox to synchronize. First, I want to store the IP address in a variable:

my-supernote-ip-address
(defvar my-supernote-ip-address "192.168.1.221")

Here's how to upload: 

(defun my-supernote-upload (filename &optional supernote-path)
  (interactive "FFile: ")
  (setq supernote-path (or supernote-path "/INBOX"))
  (let* ((boundary (mml-compute-boundary '()))
         (url-request-method "POST")
         (url-request-extra-headers
          `(("Content-Type" . ,(format "multipart/form-data; boundary=%s" boundary))))
         (url-request-data
          (mm-url-encode-multipart-form-data
           `(("file" . (("name" . "file")
                        ("filename" . ,(file-name-nondirectory filename))
                        ("content-type" . "application/octet-stream")
                        ("filedata" . ,(with-temp-buffer
                                         (insert-file-contents-literally filename)
                                         (buffer-substring-no-properties (point-min) (point-max)))))))
           boundary)))
    (with-current-buffer
        (url-retrieve-synchronously
         (format "http://%s:8089%s" my-supernote-ip-address supernote-path))
      (re-search-backward "^$")
      (prog1 (json-read)
        (kill-buffer)))))

HTML isn't supported. Text works, but it doesn't support annotation. PDF or EPUB could work. It would make sense to register this as an export backend so that I can call it as part of the usual export process. 

(defun my-supernote-org-upload-as-text (&optional async subtree visible-only body-only ext-plist)
  "Export Org format, but save it with a .txt extension."
  (interactive (list nil current-prefix-arg))
  (let ((filename (org-export-output-file-name ".txt" subtree))
        (text (org-export-as 'org subtree visible-only body-only ext-plist)))
    ;; consider copying instead of exporting so that #+begin_export html etc. is preserved
    (with-temp-file filename
      (insert text))
    (my-supernote-upload filename)))

(defun my-supernote-org-upload-as-pdf (&optional async subtree visible-only body-only ext-plist)
  (interactive (list nil current-prefix-arg))
  (my-supernote-upload (org-latex-export-to-pdf async subtree visible-only body-only ext-plist)))

(defun my-supernote-org-upload-as-epub (&optional async subtree visible-only body-only ext-plist)
  (interactive (list nil current-prefix-arg))
  (my-supernote-upload (org-epub-export-to-epub async subtree visible-only ext-plist)))

(org-export-define-backend
    'supernote nil
    :menu-entry '(?s "Supernote"
                     ((?s "as PDF" my-supernote-org-upload-as-pdf)
                      (?e "as EPUB" my-supernote-org-upload-as-epub)
                      (?o "as Org" my-supernote-org-upload-as-text))))

Adding this line to my Org file allows me to use \spacing{1.5} for 1.5 line spacing, so I can write in more annotations.. 

#+LATEX_HEADER+: \usepackage{setspace}

Sometimes I use custom blocks for HTML classes. When LaTeX complains about undefined environments, I can define them like this: 

#+LATEX_HEADER+: \newenvironment{whatever_my_custom_environment_is_called}

Now I can export a subtree or file to my Supernote for easy review.

I wonder if multimodal AI models can handle annotated images with editing marks…

This is part of my Emacs configuration.
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