Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
This is why the apps need to be mentioned. The apps are training wheels until I can move on to the things you're talking about and your website will be much more helpful to people like me.
An article about being a newbie...
- Thread starter KGIII
- Start date
OP
Oh, I do cover GUI things now and again. Sometimes a GUI is better - especially for a new person. They can learn to manage it in the terminal later if they want. Or, they can just use the GUI.
For example, I'd probably never actually suggest using a terminal-based browser. I'd tell folks so that they were aware of them, but I'd never actually suggest switching to a terminal-based browser.
Also, yes, there are terminal-based browsers. They're good for a few minutes of entertainment. I usually check in once in a while to see if Slashdot still works in lynx (an example of a terminal-based browser).
As for the site, it gets a ton of traffic. Thousands and thousands of people visit. I assume they leave happy because I hardly ever get angry comments.
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
@KGIII
I keep meaning to mention this to you. Some I might not to say again...
This refers to my "volumious quantity of words".
When I was in college I had to take a "Business Writing" course. When I write anything, that class is always in the back of my mind. When I'm writing anything important I study what I wrote and edit, edit, edit!
Composition is not my forteit. The English language doesn't make sense to me, logical order is missing in a lot of things. I had to put A LOT of effort into the 'A's I earned. I lost my 'A' in physics when I skipped the final. I got a 'B' instead.
Last edited:
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
This is my impression of you and probably the reason you don't get angry comments.
Reading your articles makes me suspect you are one of those people who knows a lot!!!
When I read articles like yours, I move the tab to a new window while I look up everything you're talking about so I can follow what saying. By the time I'm done, I'm too exhausted to make any comments!
That said, I would come back to ask questions. A lot of questions. I think my questions annoyed some of my professors. It was obviousy to me when they didn't know the answer. The answers gave the impression that they wanted me to think their knowledge superior and beyond my ability to understand the answer.
I had much more respect for the ones who said they didn't know the answer. If talk to Dr. so and so they might be able to tell me.
OP
I did a great deal of writing during my academic days. From research to published papers, I did it all. I spent eight years in academia, going so far as to get my Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. I shared a surprising amount of coursework with the physics people, so I can relate.
For more than the past year, I've used Grammarly in a couple of my browsers. I type somewhere close to a million words per year. I found that interesting. I had no idea that I was quite so verbose.
They say brevity is a sign of wit. Alas, my verbosity indicates my lacking in wit.
I don't mind questions, but I'd prefer that people did:
More often than not, you can find answers to your questions. You won't need to ask me - but I don't mind if people do. I can never be quite certain if I've explained everything clearly and in a way people will understand. I can aim for that and I seem to be doing okay, but I am never truly certain.
I've kept notes since my earliest Linux days. Quite a few of the articles are based on those notes. One of the goals for the site was to get my notes online in a way that can be indexed and searched by other people, as well as for my own use.
I'd suggest doing so, if you've not already done so.
Create a 'notes.txt' document to keep track of things and you may find yourself referring to your notes on a regular basis. I refer to my own site regularly, because I forget the specifics and remember that it was something I've covered in an article.
In the end, it sort of saves me some time. I can often answer a question with a link.
But, no... No, overall it doesn't save me time. I've invested thousands of hours into the site. I used to have a plugin that'd track my time. I removed said plugin after I ticked over the four-digit mark. As someone who values their time, I sure have spent a lot of it on a website.
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
I only ever wrote abstracts for class assignments. I'm glad I did. I actually read the abstracts when I'm reading about health advances in science. Reading information on W.H.O. often leads to this. I've read a lot that were missing controls that I thought were very important. I don't trust conclusions of those abstracts.
You shouldn't tell me this! And you probably won't like hearing this...
I've been working as a substitute teacher for a few years now. The quality of public education had declined so much it's disgraceful. Texas is ranked close to the bottom. By bottom I mean 48th, maybe lower. It's embarrassing.
I was teaching an ADVANCED Algebra class one day. Parabolas and the quadratic equation. I worked out all the math and graphed the parabola on the white board. I went far, far beyond the point they need to go to solve problems. They didn't even need to find coordinates. I think the only thing they needed was at the 2nd or 3rd step. They put that in a calculator that does the rest of the work for them.They don't have to memorize or derive formulas at all. The state has an official cheat sheet for exams that MUST to be given to students.
I tell students that calculators were forbidden when I learned all of that. In fact, getting caught with a calculator was an automatic 'F'. We had to bring our own paper and a pencil. Not a pen, a pencil
Their response is always to tell me how more complicated math is these days, they are learning more than their parents did. I don't bother anymore telling them that what I learned more complicated and I had to learn a lot more. No irrational numbers, logarithms, long division hyperbolas. And don't get me started on geometry and trig...
I graduated from Windows forums a long time ago. I always look for at least 2 articles that say the same thing. I go back every now and then. Most of those people seem no different than those professors I mentioned.
I usually have 2 kinds of questions. Clarification. The other questions have to do with what the material made me wonder about. These are the ones so many professors couldn't answer
You should see the bookmarks in my browser! I'm meticulous about notes, files and organization. Saved my butt more than once.
I will say though that when I'm bombarded with a lot of information, too much to digest all at once, I bookmark the page so I can come back later.
"Keep Notes" on my phone, bookmark in the browser then filed on my PC.
I would leave that out.
It brings you down to a certain level, and it is unfair to the techies.
If it were not for techies, we would not have GNU/Linux.
And if it were not for the untold numbers of dedicated volunteers (mostly), we would not have the open-sourced drivers that have been developed by reverse-engineering closed-source options from commercial vendors who could care less about Linux.
Just my two cents.
Friday in Oz
Avagudweegend
Wizard
OP
There's a lot to touch on in your post, but I don't want to digress too much.
One thing that has occurred to me about medical science (and I'm very much a 'trust the science' type of person) is that rats and mice should pretty much live forever, never have cancer, have cured blindness, can regrow brain stems, etc...
Lab mice have it made!
I'll add to this, though it may have been implied and I overlooked it:
If we didn't also have the techies that consistently, freely, happily give support to this wonderful operating system, the whole ecosystem would fail. It's not just the techies that write the software but is also those of us who provide the free tech support for that software.
To use a car analogy, it'd be like an automobile market but without mechanics.
We just charge less than the mechanics do.
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
"Bash the techies"
I didn't mean it that way. I should have rephrased it so my meaning would be clear. It was in reference to to something KGll said in a previous post, "vs 'here's a slap in the face with the tech' ". I also wouldn't phrase it that way in an article.
First of all, I would leave the 's' off of the word. I think that one letter transforms what I intended (techie things as in plural things) into a group of people. I'm grateful to the techieS!
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
This is in my notes.
OP
I should also mention that breaks are important. If you become overwhelmed, you may lose interest in putting in the work to understand Linux. That's an unfavorable outcome.
I recently watched this (I like this presenter):
It doesn't have to be that but focus on something different now and then. I find all sorts of people revert to Windows because they burned themselves out.
I suppose it's how you're supposed to frequently/regularly stop looking at the monitor so that you can focus on something else for some time, be it a picture on the wall or something at a different focal length. This is not just good for your eyes, it's good for your head.
If we examine game theory, more Linux users mean more eyes on the code - be they you or someone else, it's a reasonable conclusion that more users will draw attention from people qualified to examine said code. As we want to consistently improve quality and variety, assuming racing improves the breed, we can further assume that the more eyes we have the more eyes we'll draw.
So, be sure to take breaks. Let that mind go and explore new things. Linux will be here when you get back and your breaks needn't be that long. Just long enough to focus on a spot on the wall...
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
Is my stubbornness that obvious???
I play a lot of Sudoku. Eventually I start having problems solving the puzzles. I go to an easier level. No better.
I stop to go to the bathroom. Return to my game. Start again with the more difficult puzzles. No problem...
OP
Is my stubbornness that obvious???
Going by your posting frequency and novellas, yes.
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
I promise I'm not working on that trophy
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
OP
PDF works. I just cut and paste it. I'll then apply what formatting I can. WordPress has some wonky formatting but I can usually get it to do something close to what I'm after. It's not all that good at lists - like numbered or bulleted. It will do them so long as there's not a lot of text around them.
I'm sure it's possible to adjust that but my skills are lacking.
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
I'm assuming you have LibreOffice?
I've tried to edit PDF's without an editor. I can be and usually is a real pain. Adobe will convert PDF's to word of ODT files for free (once a day) and there are other place that do it too. The documents always get skewed in some way. It takes a lot of work to reformat everything using word or OTD software.
I'll send it as Libre Doc.
If you're looking for a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat, XODO is the best one I've found. It's not free, but it's cheap. If you have a Google Drive, there's a decent app there. Not the best, but it works in a pinch.
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
Also...
You can create a document exactly the way you want it in Libre. When you're done instead of saving it, look further done, hover over"Export As", then click "Export Directly As PDF". Pick a file, click "Save"
OP
I do.
Indeed. Sadly, none of them align well with the rich text editor (I use TinyMCE). So, it's manual formatting for me. It's all good. I'm used to it.
