The Epistemist » tools

Hacker attack

Epistemist — Fri, 07 May 2010 01:33:25 +0000

Some time last month, my site was hacked by some imbecils for some nefarious botnet malfesance. To add insult to injury, the attack was apparently coming from Russia. Probably some dropout from my old high school in Moscow, with IQ too low to become an oligarch and too high to get accepted into KGB (or whatever they call themselves these days). Google Webmaster Central helpfully flagged the site as malware, but neglected to notify me that it did. I could not even access the site admin panel from FireFox, had to go use a computer with IE which was very nonchalant about allowing me access to malware-infested site. Ughh. I had to rebuild the entire site (and put it on automatic backup).

Critical Battery on Kindle 2: Hard Reset

Epistemist — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:14:49 +0000

My Kindle 2 has run out of power and had a splash screen with this bone-chilling message:

Critical Battery

Your battery is empty.

To continue using your Kindle, connect it to a power source.

It may take a few minutes of charging before your Kindle starts.

It was bone-chilling because I was at the airport and did not have the charger handy, so I was facing four hours on the place with just the Hemispheres magazine… the horror…So I connected the Kindle to my laptop with the USB cable but still the same message. Ughh. But when I got home (after the utter misery of having to read a random paperback hastily bought at a newsstand) and connected with the proper Amazon charger – it still won’t charge!

None of the tips on the Web helped, but I did call Kindle Support and here is what worked (in this exact sequence):

1. Slide the power button and hold it for 30 sec.

2. Release and wait for 20 sec until the screen begins to flash.

3. As soon as it does, plug in the power and keep it connected for 2 hours.

Worked as a charm!

What was disapponting in this whole experience was that the Amazon support agent immediately know what the problem was and had the exact step by step instructions for this process, but it was nowhere to be found on the Amazon FAQ list. Why force the customers to talk to a live agent for an issue that is apparently well known to Amazon???

Tools for research

Epistemist — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:52:54 +0000

I am in my second month of the doctoral program, and still trying to settle on the best workflow and tools to be able to efficiently combine my academic work with my day job and my family life. I am sure it will take me another couple of months to get into the comfortable routine. As of right now, my processes and tools are these:

1. Every book and article that I am using is in EndNote. EndNote is only for actual active material that I have or will be working with.

a. I try to minimize manual data inpit, so I seach for the books I need cited at Worldcat, and if the book is listed there – and it usually is – I can just click on Export to OneNote and I am done!

2. For extended writing sessions, I try to use Dragon Naturally Speaking if the environment is quiet. This is a great time saver because I am not a touch typist. And the quality of speech recognition is very good.

3. I take notes in Microsoft OneNote.

a. I read the book or article and mark important passages with a sticky flag.

b. Print reference from EndNote to OneNote so that I have a full record

c. A link to a PDF is added to the note entry. The PDF is stored in the “Articles” folder on my HD

d. I type or dictate notes– paraphrase in black font, quotes in purple font and quotation marks.

e. When the material is processed, I mark it with a + in the OneNote page.

f. The keyword “notes” is added to EndNote

4. For the overview type books and articles, I take notes in MindManager and then attach the file to the OneNote page.

5. I am using EverNote – to take notes and clippings that are saved to the Web, as a temporary holding area. I use it for recommendations, suggestions, quotes, pointers, quick thoughts – I can email a note to Ever Note from my Blackberry.

6. For articles available on websites, books for future references etc. I use del.icio.us tagging.

7. I list the books I own at the LibraryThing – great way to never to buy a duplicate of the book you own.

LibraryThing.com

Epistemist — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:41:50 +0000

I have been struggling to keep track of my books. My fairly large library was becoming unmanageable. I have books on the shelves, books on the tables, books by my bed, books at work and still more in my car. I was losing track of what I have. Recently, I have discovered LibraryThing.com. You can type on ISBN, import your Amazon order history or digg list, or even scan in the ISBN with a $15 :cuecat scanner. Never again will I buy a book that I already have! As of today, the system has 364,361 users and 23,966,692 cataloged books. I was quite encouraged to discover that Shakespeare is #7 on the list of authors by the number of copies owned – behind J.K. Rowling and Stephen King, of course.

But Jane Austen is # 8! And William Faulkner actually made the Top 75 list.