On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

About Lebanon For a Moment?

2026-04-13T01:15:38Z

What's going on with Apple Maps and southern Lebanon right now? As of 915 PM EST, this date?

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dewline @ 2023-12-04T21:54:00

2023-12-05T03:00:23Z

Okay, current set-up:

I have a Mac Mini running Catalina. It's hooked up to a Wacom Cintiq and an HP monitor as well. The HP monitor is also now hooked up via the HDMI switch device to a laptop computer loaned out to me by the client of my current employer. (No, I am not explaining that any further.)

It's a simple one-button, three input sources-one output destination device, this HDMI switch. Doesn't even need a wall socket for power.

There's assorted other devices hooked up to the Mac Mini, including an Epson WF-something-something for scanning big art boards as well as printing out stuff on larger scales. And I think I'll stop explaining for now...

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Drupal

2023-09-22T00:13:38Z

Coming back to this topic at the moment, as I'm visiting with a Meetup group called "DrupalYOW" (because Ottawa-based Drupal users), I want to refresh my memory: who in my circles here on Dreamwidth is already familiar with this software?

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Facetime

2023-07-09T19:30:22Z

And now I know for certain that Facetime works on my current computer. Just had a brief and entertaining chat with people on the Pacific coastline.

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ByMUG: Presentations

2023-05-05T01:45:44Z

So I'll be doing a presentation over Zoom this upcoming Sunday.

https://bymug.ca/may-7-2023-meeting-information/

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Checking In - 31 March 2023

2023-04-01T01:52:40Z

And that's another contract job finished. Client-side supervisors are happy with my output. We'll see what comes of that, and how soon. Meantime, I'm going to have to start scrambling again. Oh, and at some point over the weekend, I'll need to migrate files from my current computer to my next one.

More later.

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Checking In - 23 March 2023

2023-03-24T03:05:25Z

Bracing for some more medical stuff, a change-up of computer gear as well (having been gifted some newer second-hand gear this week), and enjoyed Picard tonight.

More later.

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"Not by AI" Badges?

2023-03-19T21:31:07Z

I'm not sure if this is a good idea or a bad one.

https://notbyai.fyi/

Throwing it open to discussion, though.

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SOLVED: Job Search: Spreadsheet Rescue

2022-10-04T00:43:54Z

~~Trying to figure out how to rescue a job search diary created in Numbers (iWork '09) without using Numbers to re-open the file...because when I try, the program stalls.~~

Looks like downloading and using LibreOffice solves the immediate problem. I can then save it as *.xls, and then re-import the file back to Numbers, it seems.

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Semi-Random Items from Other Dreamwidth Users- 21 Sept 2022

2022-09-21T13:46:52Z

1. "BYOD = Bring Your Own Distaster"?

2. Concerns over the consequences of Ukraine further reversing Putinist armed robberies.

3. The ridicule-worthiness of the official Putinist position.

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Art/Tech: Cintiq, Part 5

2022-03-20T02:15:29Z

A bit more progress on this sketch...

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Drivers for Tablets

2022-03-08T02:55:07Z

Hoping I picked the right driver version for the Cintiq to download. Since I'm doing day-job work at the same desk I expect to use the Cintiq with, it's going to be a few more days before I can test it.

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Slowly Wrapping Up January 2022

2022-01-26T12:26:28Z

The shoulder pain from Sunday's vaccination booster went away yesterday. I wasn't thrilled with having that ache renew with each keystroke at my current day job, but that's over now.

(Two more months on this contract, FYI.)

Getting a tablet computer through Air Miles points. Seems like a good idea at this point for several reasons.

Not a fan of the extreme cold situation in Ottawa-Gatineau right now this morning.

Didn't win the lottery last night. *sigh*

More later...

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ByMUG - November 7, 2021

2021-11-07T14:27:59Z

Since it's the first Sunday of the month, my local Mac User Group is holding a Zoom meeting today. As the website notes:

"For November’s meeting we’re going to discuss impressions of the freshly-released macOS Monterey and the MacBook Pro laptops, along with trying to answer any other iOS/Mac-related questions as best as we can.

The meeting takes place on Sunday, November 7th, 2021, at 1 p.m. and we will send the link & instructions out via the mailing list about fifteen minutes before 1pm on Sunday."

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Checking In - 31 August 2021

2021-08-31T20:59:39Z

Things that got done today:

Kept up the job search.
Tried to push onward with CPAP acquisition paperwork.
Mowed the front lawn.
Got some sketchbook time in.
Got walking exercise.
Updated my Affinity design software.
Returned an overdue book to the library without drama.
Stayed in touch with family.
Stayed in touch with friends.

Adding tonight:

Watching an interview of a respected author of political satire (Terry Fallis).

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Okay, So It's August 2021

2021-08-03T03:01:21Z

Yesterday, I went and looked at offers on eBay of used Cintiq tablets that I still dare not accept. I attended the monthly ByMUG meeting via Zoom. And those were, I think, the highlights.

Today, it was back to the job search.

That's all for the moment.

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dewline @ 2021-04-11T00:13:00

2021-04-11T04:14:43Z

Not much to mention today.

ByMUG meeting via Zoom tomorrow.

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Projects

2021-02-15T03:59:03Z

Found a new Air Miles project to aim my points at: there's a monitor in their Dream Rewards catalogue that pivots. Been wanting one of those for three or four years for use with Clip Studio Paint, on comics stuff. I don't know where on my desk I'll put it once I have it, but I expect to make it useful somehow.

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dewline @ 2021-02-07T09:34:00

2021-02-07T14:39:20Z

The bird-feeder hanging in the back yard is getting business. Squirrels are running this way and that, up and down tree branches and across the yards, front and back. At least one cat per month on average is getting the attention that requires "Missing" posters being taped onto community mailboxes. I've got a follow-up dental appointment tomorrow, and probably one more day of data entry work to finish after that's done. Also, I need to talk with my CPAP machine supplier about paperwork I believe I should have signed by now. The job search continues. This afternoon, ByMUG has a Zoom meeting for me to be part of.

Meantime, I have compression socks to take out of the wash to air-dry.

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Speaking of Design Training

2020-12-30T20:11:25Z

I've still got some degree of privilege, despite my financial situation this past year. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to look at those video tutorials. Or, for that matter, read and pass this along:

http://jlord.us/blog/osos-talk.html

Nor would I be able to look at this (and thanks to kiaa for passing it along via talkpolitics):

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/seven-secrets-revealed-by-2020-by-yanis-varoufakis-2020-12

Getting to the point: we still want to leave the Time of Pandemic to enter a newer, better "Normal" than we entered it from. Right?

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JOB SEARCH: Drupal 8 First Look

2020-12-29T19:03:20Z

I started looking at the training videos available via Skillport for that version.

I see from their website that the development teams have already moved onto v. 9 as a stable release, and I suppose I'm going to be playing catch-up for some months if I really want to understand what I can do with this and how to do it...?

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SPACE/MAPS: Gaia Sky 3.0.1

2020-12-10T23:02:52Z

Apparently, there was an OpenGL issue that kept crashing Gaia Sky on my computers every time I tried to launch the program.

That problem is now history with version 3.0.1. It's fixed. It ran slow on my current iMac the first time I used it, but I am inclined to chalk that up to my choosing to download the EDR3 "medium" dataset for use with Gaia Sky. 4 GB to download, it self-extracts into a 14 GB file once it gets to your machine! I think I want to install more RAM to run such a thing with, right?

Lots and lots of stars with only 16-digit GAIA DR#-prefixed catalogue numbers instead of names so far to run around to. Hoping the search function allows for a lot of fun. I would really like for the Gaia Sky and Celestia programming teams to network a bit.

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ByMUG Meeting in Progress Today

2020-12-06T18:11:54Z

From ByMUG.ca:

December 6, 2020 Meeting Information

For December’s meeting will be full of great stuff! Marc will talk about CIRA DNS and their other offerings, Dave will demo how he uses NetNewsWire, Tom will show how he manages Photos and Family data, then we’ll talk about the new Mac mini, MacBook Air, and 13” MacBook Pro, the M1 chip, Big Sur, Hazel 5, and Pixelmator Pro 2.

We will also try to answer any other iOS/Mac-related questions as best as we can.
The meeting takes place on Sunday, December 6, 2020, at 1 p.m. and we will send the link & instructions out via the mailing list about fifteen minutes before 1pm on Sunday.

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Web Design 2020, Part 3

2020-11-16T18:49:48Z

I studied several Skillport video tutorials two or three months ago covering Drupal, PHP and SQL as part of an ongoing process of trying to update and expand what I know of web design.

So when I saw these on offer on trashnothing.com, I figured that - outdated as these books may be - this was a chance to further build on whatever I learned from the Skillport videos.

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A Few Good Things Done Today

2020-09-27T00:06:46Z

1. I actually got some sketching time - with actual ballpoint pen and paper! - taken care of today. It's been weeks since the last such session!

2. Took in several video presentations during Day Three of Typewknd!

3. Did some housekeeping on my new computer's hard drive, exporting files so that I could clear some space. Before, I had 45-50 GB free space. Now, it's 75-78 GB available.

4. I got an hour's walking exercise in today. Half of it via the shopping errand for newspapers and groceries, the other from walking around the block. Usually, that latter was only three circuits around the block. Today, it was four.

5. Celsys has announced that Clip Studio Paint's got a new update, v.1.10.0, to become available to users starting in four days. Apparently, the big thing is import/export ability re: SVG files. They specifically refer to working with Adobe Illustrator, but we'll soon see if any and all graphic designware that can create SVG files can play nice with this. Corel, Affinity, Inkscape, and whatever else is currently in play, hopefully.

6. Solved my Clip Studio Paint brush size menu problem: it was millimetres vs. pixels. I fiddled with that setting and confused myself as a result. Oops.

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