Simple Internet Reading

Simple Internet Reading 

first publish on 3/28/2024

Intent - List of websites with free, online reading with a simple interface. These sources would load up quickly and easily on older devices/computers. And most importantly - they represent what I'm interested in. 😁

Science

Feynman Lectures

https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

Linux

The Linux Documentation Project:

https://tldp.org/guides.html

Linux From Scratch:

https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/index.html

Python:

A Byte of Python (online book):

https://python.swaroopch.com/

Structure and Interpretation
of Computer Programs

https://mitp-content-server.mit.edu/books/content/sectbyfn/books_pres_0/6515/sicp.zip/full-text/book/book.html

Slashdot:

https://slashdot.org/

Find Clarity in Your Life

I. THE CLEAR MOONLIGHT The other night, I walked outside to get something out of the car, in the driveway. The night was very cold and clear. No lights were needed as the moon shined brightly on everything around me. I have always been one to appreciate what nature has to offer, but I really don't take the time to stop and ponder that often. Tonight I did. It didn't last more than a short, few minutes. But it was one of those experiences that left a deep impression on me. I thought about the importance of living life according to a well designed plan. II. CLEAR VISION COMES FROM LIVING A PLAN Everyone has a different view on life. These different views generally come from our personal attitudes and habits coupled with our life's experiences. Some people float through life, mostly doing what it takes to survive and be happy for the moment. Others live their lives as though it were a well-orchestrated symphony with all the parts working together in harmony, contributing to a beautiful masterpiece. Most people are probably somewhere in between. Why should we develop a plan for our life? How can we benefit from this effort? As with many things worth having, accurate results are hard to come by without a good plan. A plan helps us see the end and what we have to do along the way to reach that end. III. LIVING THE PLAN Living according to our well thought out plan can bring many benefits to our life. First and foremost, we can be happy - truly happy. As we life according to our plan we can feel a comfort, strength and purpose in our life. This will come because our very inner self will be telling us that what we're doing and where we're headed is right. We can feel good about the results we find ourselves achieving as we walk along the footsteps laid out in our plan.

Links for Internet Reading

A few of my favorite links for internet reading:

https://www.gpo.gov/
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CPRT-110SPRT44727/pdf/CPRT-110SPRT44727.pdf

http://www.project-syndicate.org/
http://www.forbes.com/
http://arstechnica.com/
http://techcrunch.com/
http://venturebeat.com/
http://www.realclearmarkets.com/
http://m.realclearworld.com/
http://www.aei.org/
https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng
http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/publications/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/few/686
http://writing-speech.dartmouth.edu/learning/materials-first-year-writers/considering-structure-and-organization
http://m.slashdot.org/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/



Text Only Reading:

https://text.npr.org/
http://idlewords.com/
http://www.textfiles.com/
https://www.gwern.net/
https://www.metafilter.com/
http://paulgraham.com/
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
https://www.cronweekly.com/


Misc:

http://thesurvivalmom.com/
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/summary/search/?court=us-9th-circuit&docket=&topic=cs_75&party=&industry=&pubDate=&startDate=&endDate=&search=Search&dateFormat=yyyyMMdd
http://www.dancarlin.com/
http://www.trekearth.com/
http://robertreich.org/
http://caltopo.blogspot.com/
http://www.mars-one.com/
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/1
https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware/f/135081.aspx
http://money.cnn.com/data/dow30/
http://americajanespeaks.net/category/activities/family-home-evening/
http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/
http://www.leocad.org/trac
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/enlightenment/
http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-summer-reading-list-2015-6?op=1
http://www.businessinsider.com/9-brilliant-business-books-you-can-read-in-an-afternoon-2015-6?op=1
http://motivational-inspirational-world.blogspot.com/?view=classic
http://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/valueinvesting/resources/newsletters
http://www.grahamanddoddsville.net/
http://www.techinsider.io/
http://jeffhoogland.blogspot.com/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/10/travel/sr71-blackbird-worlds-fastest-plane/
http://worldwariipodcast.net/
http://thememorypalace.us/
http://www.rand.org/
http://www.connected-earth.com/index.htm
http://www.viperchill.com/
http://jpe.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/07/10/0739456X15591055.full?keytype=ref&siteid=spjpe&ijkey=GwDQ92DI5SVLQ
http://www.nanocomptech.com/
http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/how-to-solve-uefi-boot-and-startup-problems/
http://www.fastcompany.com/
http://freakonomics.com/2008/01/11/is-space-exploration-worth-the-cost-a-freakonomics-quorum/
http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/syndicated-columnists/article52937830.html
http://lowercasecapital.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Sacca
http://athletesgps.com/smartphone-vs-gps-watch-which-is-better-pros-and-cons-of-each/
http://community.runnersworld.com/topic/smartphone-vs-gps-watch
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/16/nsa-phone-surveillance-likely-unconstitutional-judge
http://www.roman-empire.net/index.html
http://www.compositesworld.com/news/virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-completes-third-powered-flight
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2014/01/06/successful-people-the-8-self-limiting-behaviors-they-avoid/
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5imfneEsfsvionDpnUm5xfq55uMQQ?docId=e3336296-1ed1-4960-8020-ad3ed6efaf9c
http://www.rmiguides.com/blog/2013/12/02/mountaineering_training_training_zones_explained
http://mynorthwest.com/
http://www.history.com/topics/american-history
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html
http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/Softshell-Jacket-Reviews


Learning:

http://speeches.byu.edu/
http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=658&tid=7
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wireless-network1.htm/printable
https://www.khanacademy.org/
http://www.skybox.com/
http://www.edutopia.org/
http://www.willatworklearning.com/2006/05/people_remember.html
http://www.casebriefsummary.com/
http://www.constitutionfacts.com/content/supremeCourt/files/SupremeCourt_LandmarkCases.pdf
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00sc-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-spring-2011/index.htm
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-wire-your-house-with-cat5-or-cat6-ethernet-cable-480020760
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1992/02/the-divinely-inspired-constitution?lang=eng
http://inkscapetutorials.org/
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/index.php
http://www.eia.gov/
http://www.cfr.org/
http://www.motionmountain.net/
http://www.lightandmatter.com/lm/
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1971/04/the-king-follett-sermon?lang=eng
http://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/index.html
http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/papers/papers.html#Concept
https://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/rktpow.html
http://blogs.agu.org/martianchronicles/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-google-play-remove-lockscreen-ads-amazon-fire-tablet-without-root/
https://www.startalkradio.net/
http://insideenergy.org/2015/11/06/lost-in-transmission-how-much-electricity-disappears-between-a-power-plant-and-your-plug/
http://insideenergy.org/
http://www.byui.edu/devotionals
https://history.state.gov/
https://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthmag/planetmg.htm
https://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthmag/magnQ&A3.htm#q40
http://www.phy6.org/Education/Intro.html
http://www.phy6.org/Education/Cluster1.htm
http://tandlinstructionalstrategies.blogspot.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-25/millennials-are-driving-the-suburban-resurgence
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-28/how-the-top-1-keeps-getting-richer
https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/30dp4j/rspacex_recommended_books_list_fiction_nonfiction/?st=j6y20iy1&sh=cebede8b
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_Water_Ocean_Topography_Mission
https://mapstor.com/articles/all-about-topographic-maps/the-process-of-digital-topographic-maps-creation.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometric_synthetic-aperture_radar
https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/

My System specs and speed review

A popular topic in the Linux world is how old of a computer can you run . So here are the specs on my computer:
Originally a Compaq Presario desktop

AMD Duron 900mHz CPU
370 MB of PC100 SDRAM - 3 slots with 128 MB each
Hard drive - Maxtor 20 GB D740X-6L
Some sort of network card with a blessed ethernet port - let's me run high speed DSL
CD/RW drive - on old one - I rarely use it

This computer is mainly used for surfing the internet and my boys playing games.

I'm currently running Ubuntu 7.10. My system keeps it up just fine. I don't exactly max it out all that much. I ran the system monitor one day and looked at it closely as I did various commands. I found out that the CPU seems to be the holdup. Most of the tasks I did rarely maxed out the RAM, but the CPU hung at 100% for a bit after almost everything I did.

GIMP - Change Image from Grayscale to RGB

This post is going to take a drastic turn from my other posts to date. I am currently teaching myself how to use the GIMP software. To my knowledge, GIMP stands for:

Gnu
Image
Manipulation
Program

It's an excellent image and photo editor and it's FREE. I've really been interested in the Linux and Free Software movement (call it what you like) in the past few years. One of my reasons for developing this hobby is that I give my entire paycheck away to the wife and children and that leaves about $0 left over for any of my hobbies or side ventures.

But a wonderful thing exists in this world. For one, good people around me who are kind enough to throw out their leftover computer parts and peripherals. From this (free) stuff, I have put together this computer from which I'm writing this post. Another wonderful thing - Linux, GIMP, Blender and all the other free software made readily available for all to partake. It continues to blow me away that so many people around the world would put so much work into something and then give it away for free.

On to the topic of this blog's title. Today I downloaded an image for use on a website. It was an outline of the states of the USA. I wanted something simple that I could fill a select color in select states. When I opened it up in GIMP and tried the Fill command, it kept giving me a gray color. Then I noticed on the header, it said the file was in "grayscale." I did an internet search to figure out how I could fill on this image in color. (Hey, you GIMP experts, cool it and sit down - I'm getting there.) So here's the command of the day that was the solution to this problem.

In the toolbar in the window of your image go to Image>Mode, then change to RGB. In the Mode pulldown menu, you can toggle between RGB, Grayscale and Indexed. Basically, RGB is color. Grayscale is black and white. Indexed is something more complicated. You'll have to search on your own for a better explanation.

Sorry for not citing references. I don't remember where I learned this. It's so elementary, and the GIMP is free, I'm sure it's ok.

But I will say that
http://gimp-tutorials.net/
has been an excellent resource so far.

Don't Dump Your Life on the World; Leave a Legacy of Great Things

I. The Setting

Recently, I was driving my family home from a visit to the Chicago area. We were passing by the southern side of the greater Chicago area during the early morning hours just as the sun rose above the horizon. Looking off in the distance, I came across an interesting site. Perfectly positioned in front a beautiful sunrise, was a dump truck dumping something in a large, open area. The sharp contrast of the dump truck in front of the beautiful, multi-colored sunset shined home a valuable lesson to me.

II. The Lesson

The lesson gave my mind some quick impressions that I pondered over the next few hours of driving (we had a long way to go). I realized that we live in a beautiful world with many amazing things happening all around us. We can see evidence of both beautiful scenery and people making contributions to make the world a better place. Yet, in spite of this, we also see evidence of those who dump trash, both figuratively and literally on this world. The take home lesson of this day: Don't dump your life on the world; leave a legacy.

III. World of Ugliness

We can see evidence of ugliness in many places. In some places, litter lines the street sides. Messes are made and not cleaned up. People do things that are inconsiderate, not thinking of how this affects others. There are even those who seek to hurt their fellow brothers and sisters. Motivation for these actions can vary across different circumstances. But most cases can be traced back to a common thread. These people have a problem in their life that they would dump on the world, rather than keep it inside or even change. For whatever reason, they are driven to do something that degrades the beauty of this world. They dump their problems on the world.

IV. World of Beauty

However, the world is also filled with beauty. As I noticed that morning, beautiful sunrises happen every day, all across the world, for everyone to see. The world is filled with beautiful mountains, valleys, clouds, rivers, countrysides and urban skylines. There are also people of this world who contribute to it's beauty. Many freely give of their time and resources for the betterment of others. Service is rendered every day to make the world a better place in great and small ways. In some cases, there are those who put their own safety on the line to protect others. Whenever the Ultimate Sacrifice is made, some how and some time, the world notices. The beauty of this world is enhanced by people like this.

V. The Solution

Be the kind of person who makes the world more beautiful. Think about what you do each day. Be mindful of how your actions might affect others. But even more important than staying out of others' way, do something each day that makes the world better. Arrange your habits, your mindset and your life so that you can make a positive contribution to the world around you. Don't dump your problems on the world. Do something good for those around you and leave a legacy of beauty and happiness.

Watch What You Say

Today's take home lesson also has to to with conversations and saying the appropriate thing at the right time. We all have opportunities to speak our mind, repeat something we heard elsewhere, or tell a story in the conversations we have with others. Sometimes, there are things we ought to say and others that we ought to keep to ourselves. The take home lesson for today is to watch what you say, when you say it, and who you say it to.

I. What

Watch what you say to others. Try to avoid speaking negatively of others. This is accomplished by putting a positive spin on everything we talk about. It is always easier to speak negatively, criticize, or tear down someone or something. The difficult, yet more productive choice is to speak words of kindness, enhance or build up the person or thing of discussion.

II. When

Watch when you speak in conversations. When speaking with others, there is a flow or a cadence to the conversation itself. Having a conversation with someone implies that effort is put in by all involved. Figure out the "right" amount that you should contribute to what's being said. This is different for everyone and is part of who we are. Some like to talk a lot and others very little. Learn to carry on your side of the conversation. There is definitely a time when we need to speak up. Obvious times would be when asked a question or when a response is directly requested of us. Other times might be hiding in the shadows and require more close attention for us to see them. On the other side of this, we need recognize when to be quiet. Give others a chance to speak. Conversations are much more interesting when there's more than one opinion being expressed.

III. Who

Learn about who you are speaking to. Ask about their interests and make a conversation about them. There's nothing more constructive to a conversation than showing interest in the other person. Typically, this would involve asking a question. There is an art to finding out things about others and we all have our different ways. Find a way that's successful and respectful. Some questions/topics are safe and inviting. The weather always seems to be fair game. Some things are personal and should be reserved for only the closest of friends or those we really trust.

This article isn't meant to cover everything. Paying attention to these three things will help us to learn and grow. This isn't everything, but it certainly is a start. Understanding the what, when and who of our conversations will help us from inserting our feet in our mouths, help others to be happy, and they just might make or lives more effective and pleasant.

Disclaimer: By the way, this post represents a lifelong goal of mine. Many of the ideals I've written are so difficult for me to do all the time that I think I'll be working on these things all my life. This article absolutely does not represent something that I have mastered and seek to teach to others. These things are part of what I continue to work on to become a better person.