From 4829c89a5d195770bed8bcc07d063e3db1519e7b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Adam T. Carpenter" Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2020 08:30:07 -0500 Subject: added some drafts, finished acrobat reader post --- drafts/dell-dock.html | 54 ++++++++ drafts/home server evolution | 0 drafts/my home server after | 0 drafts/my home server before | 0 drafts/programs i use all the time.html | 1 + drafts/what is a script no really.html | 1 + ...es everyone insist on using adobe acrobat?.html | 69 ++++++++++ index.html | 1 + ...why-does-everyone-use-adobe-acrobat-reader.html | 142 +++++++++++++++++++++ rss.xml | 1 + 10 files changed, 269 insertions(+) create mode 100644 drafts/dell-dock.html create mode 100644 drafts/home server evolution delete mode 100644 drafts/my home server after delete mode 100644 drafts/my home server before create mode 100644 drafts/why does everyone insist on using adobe acrobat?.html create mode 100644 posts/computing/2020-12-22-why-does-everyone-use-adobe-acrobat-reader.html diff --git a/drafts/dell-dock.html b/drafts/dell-dock.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b2526f --- /dev/null +++ b/drafts/dell-dock.html @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +

+ Here's the problem. I have a Dell Latitude E-series laptop running FreeBSD + 12.1-RELEASE. I also have a Dell E-Port II docking station on my desk. I + wanted to be able to take my shut, sleeping laptop and plop it down on the + docking station, hit the dock power button, and have the laptop wake up and + switch over to all of the docking station peripherals. All of the USB devices + did this without any additional work. However, the ethernet hookup, external + monitor, and speakers all required some additional tinkering. This assumes + that you're already familiar with wired and wireless network interfaces on + FreeBSD! +

+ +

Link Aggregation (Failover)

+ +

+ FreeBSD doesn't magically swap from wireless to wired connections by default, + but there's an easy way to remedy this: link failover. I recommend reading the + FreeBSD handbook page on network aggregation + as it's where I found out how to do what I'm about to show you. Basically, + aggregation lets you bind two of your network interfaces together into a + single virtual interface. Failover lets your traffic continue moving as long + as one of the aggregated interfaces has is connected. The steps I had to + follow are as follows: +

+ + + +

All of this is configured in my rc.conf:

+ +

+wlans_iwn0="wlan0" # <- wlan0 device should use the iwn driver
+ifconfig_wlan0="WPA" # <- wlan0 should use WPA (wpa_supplicant) to connect to wireless SSIDs
+create_args_wlan0="wlanaddr 5c:26:0a:06:c1:d6" # <- wlan0 MAC address is set to em0 device MAC address
+ifconfig_em0="up" # <- enable em0 (ethernet) device
+cloned_interfaces="lagg0" # <- create cloned interface lagg0
+ifconfig_lagg0="up laggproto failover laggport em0 laggport wlan0 DHCP" # <- configure lagg0 interface to act as a failover lagg protocol over em0 and wlan0
+
+ +

+ In practice, the preferred device is em0, or my ethernet NIC. + FreeBSD will always try to use that first. If it's disconnected, such as when + the laptop is removed from the dock, the wireless device (wlan0) + will take over. This transition happens instantly, and without interrupting + traffic; active transactions aren't cut short for example. +

diff --git a/drafts/home server evolution b/drafts/home server evolution new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e69de29 diff --git a/drafts/my home server after b/drafts/my home server after deleted file mode 100644 index e69de29..0000000 diff --git a/drafts/my home server before b/drafts/my home server before deleted file mode 100644 index e69de29..0000000 diff --git a/drafts/programs i use all the time.html b/drafts/programs i use all the time.html index b679d4d..fe7e63c 100644 --- a/drafts/programs i use all the time.html +++ b/drafts/programs i use all the time.html @@ -37,4 +37,5 @@
  • vim
  • tmux
  • mixer, mixertui
    • +
  • picom
    • diff --git a/drafts/what is a script no really.html b/drafts/what is a script no really.html index e69de29..9d97844 100644 --- a/drafts/what is a script no really.html +++ b/drafts/what is a script no really.html @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +glues programs together diff --git a/drafts/why does everyone insist on using adobe acrobat?.html b/drafts/why does everyone insist on using adobe acrobat?.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2a5504 --- /dev/null +++ b/drafts/why does everyone insist on using adobe acrobat?.html @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +

    Why Does Everyone Use Adobe Acrobat [Reader]?

    + +

    + This is something that I've never been able to figure out. All through high + school I had to use PDFs. And if you wanted to open a PDF, everyone understood + that you needed Adobe Acrobat Reader. Even web sites where you downloaded PDFs + insisted that in order to open them, you were going to have to follow a + download link to make sure you have Acrobat on your PC. +

    + +

    + Fast-forward a few years into college and I'm using PDFs more than ever. Every + professor ever is scanning and uploading course material, so out comes Acrobat + Reader for literally every teacher and student. At this point I was actually + used to using Firefox (PDF.js) to view PDFs for a couple of reasons. First of + all, Firefox usually opened PDFs faster than Acrobat Reader did. Reader was + getting bigger with every release, and eventually had a monstrous UI to load + up every time I wanted to open a tiny PDF file. Second, Firefox had smooth + scrolling for page-width documents. Reader was getting slower and laggier with + each release, to the point where scrolling through a PDF was no longer buttery + smooth but jittery and stuttery. It also seemed like Reader purposefully + wouldn't slide the page when you used a mouse wheel. It would jump down a few + lines at a time like it was simulating the down arrow. +

    + +

    + By my senior year I had switched from Windows to Linux full-time and it was + then I found out about MuPDF and from then on + things were never the same. It's literally the best PDF reader I've ever used, + and I tried out quite a few. There are desktop and mobile apps. It opens + almost instantly. It lets you easily resize the page with excellent keyboard + shortcuts. There are no giant menu bars on either side of the page to squish + the document down to an unreadable size. Having a dozen of them open at once + doesn't bog down my PC. It's also available for all of the relevant operating + systems I've used (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, FreeBSD)! Oh and password-protected + PDFs are supported as well. +

    + +

    + It's a fantastic piece of software And the best part is it comes with a + variety of tools to edit and manipulate PDFs as well. If the folks I went to + school with thought you needed the free Acrobat Reader to view a PDF, they + sure as heck thought you needed to buy Acrobat Pro to edit one. Some of them + refused to pay for it and used a variety of online services to upload, split + or merge, and download PDFs. I honestly for the life of me can't understand + why. MuPDF comes with mutool, which does all of the things I + would ever need to do with a PDF. It can attempt to convert a PDF to other + formats, like HTML. It can split and combine documents. It can even create + them from scratch and sign them. +

    + +

    + It's also free and open source. Can you imagine that? PDF viewing and editing + being free and open source? It's AGPL (in addition to being commercially) + licensed by the creators. The only slight drawback is the desktop version + apparently does not yet let you fill out forms. Not sure why but this isn't + something I use very frequently. +

    + +

    + It's not the hottest piece of tech out there, but it just plain works and + works really well. Maybe the only reason more people I know don't use it is + because Adobe is synonymous with the PDF format. It doesn't seem like that big + of a deal, but I feel like Acrobat has always been a piece of software that + has frustrated new or infrequent users in computing. And that's just not good. + Maybe the barrier to using MuPDF is the lack of GUI and abundance of + keybindings, but for me that's no sweat. I'd say to anyone to just try it out + and see if they like it. It is free, after all. +

    diff --git a/index.html b/index.html index 597664c..84729c5 100644 --- a/index.html +++ b/index.html @@ -64,6 +64,7 @@