Exploration of My First IntelliJ Project

We’ll try to stay in the project root if possible.

Find all non-hidden files to know the file structure.

$ find -path './.*' -prune -o -type f -print
./Algo-init.iml
./out/production/Algo-init/fr/eql/ai114/algo/init/demo/_1_HelloWorld.class
./src/fr/eql/ai114/algo/init/demo/_1_HelloWorld.java
  • -prune returns true for the chosen path and prevents find from descending.

  • -o means OR, so the paths matching -prune won’t pass through -o.

  • -type f selects files, not folders.

  • By default, AND is used to connect different conditions.

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Reuse Commands with Shell Arguments

My arguments for arguments, functions and alias

Background

We often want to test the output with different values for a parameter. Here’s an example: we have a parameter that pandoc icon pandoc uses to / compile source code files to PDF / M$ Word / etc.

rm output.html; param=0; pandoc input$param.txt -o output.html; \
echo param = $param

In practice, a parameter can be a font, the font size, etc, and there can be multiple parameters.

[Read More]
linux  tcsh 

Some Public APIs to Be Viewed

API description
JSON Placeholder mock REST APIs for development only
Google Translate generate free translations up to a certain limit
Open Weather Map weather prediction across the world
REST Countries info about the world’s countries
IP API data about IP addresses
Random Data API like the first one, but with a sharper focus on random data
Pokemon API info about Pokemon with recent introduction of GraphQL API

Merge Two PDF to Single Encrypted PDF

Problem

I have unprotected

  1. input1.pdf
  2. input2.pdf

and I want to create one single encrypted.pdf.

My try

I looked up QPDF’s manual and tried the following command.

qpdf --empty --pages input{1,2}.pdf --encrypt upw opw 256 -- encrypted.pdf

but I got this error.

qpdf: unrecognized argument --encrypt (pages options must be terminated with --)

For help:
  qpdf --help=usage       usage information
  qpdf --help=topic       help on a topic
  qpdf --help=--option    help on an option
  qpdf --help             general help and a topic list

Solution

The sentence inside the parentheses says it all.

[Read More]
PDF  QPDF 

Ten Probably Handy Sites

A brief summary of 10 Incredibly Useful Websites on Medium.

Upword.AI (paid)
summarise stuff
Gamma (free trial for the moment)
get professional slides in min, not open source
IMGCreator (free, point-based)
text/img → img, chatGPT powered
Popsy (free to create, paid to publish)
no-code website buider
Visual Capitalist (free)
explanatory charts
TypeLit.io (free for some œuvres, paid for own book)
type classics out to train typing
Zorp.one (free for trial, paid for deploy)
no-code app generator for businesses, e.g. delivery, store management, doc collection
Kialo (free)
repository for debate arguments, with discussion topology
Nomad List (free limited trial, paid content)
good for remote workers, find remote work opportunities, insights into cities, dating app (that I don’t recommend)
SuperMeme (paid)
AI meme generator

Encrypt PDF on Command Line

Background

On M$ Win*, I don’t have dedicated PDF readers like Adobe.

During visioconference, one might want to share some downloaded PDFs. Those documents can be part of an ebook or notes. In some situations, they can provide context to a discussion.

Problem

  1. Under the same folder, you might have
  • downloaded_ebook.pdf
  • personal_info.pdf
  • other_personal_stuff.pdf that you don’t want to expose while streaming.

However, each downloaded PDF usually comes with a name set by others. It can be tedious to rename them according to your own habits. To protect users’ privacy, we can

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PDF  QPDF 

Adjust Git Bash Font and Window Size

Goal

Make the characters larger and more readable.

Solution

The option names might be found in the manual. Sometimes, I find opening MINGW’s settings through GUI helpful.

FontHeight=12
Columns=143
Rows=36

I’ve read Gerald Lee’s .minttyrc. I’ve enlarged the window size so that in the standard output, one line can contain more info.

Fujitsu LH532 Thermal Paste Application

Background

My old laptop was bought ten years ago. I had never changed the thermal paste between its CPU and its fan. As a result, it had been getting hot during my online tutorials.

Photos

thermal paste on CPU

thermal paste on CPU displaced after ten years

thermal paste on fan

thermal paste on fan displaced after ten years

CPU and fan cleaned

dried thermal paste cleaned and removed

with isopropyl and kitchen towel

[Read More]

Removed jQuery Dependency from My Math Editor

Background

jQuery provides many handy functions to speed up the development, for example document.ready(), element.toggle(), element.hide(), etc. My math editor used some of them. However, I replaced them with Vanilla JavaScript at commit 4a35c45b.

Goal

Some users complained about the white background in the past versions of my editor. That had motivated me to refactor the code, so that it would be easier to maintain and to add in new features.

HTML5 input types used

Actual appearance might vary across browsers.

[Read More]