WGU QLT1 Linux Graphing Tools

Quantitative Literacy (QLT1) requires you to demonstrate certain abilities by making graphs accompanied by text, and exporting them as a PDF. On Ubuntu this process can be a bit convoluted, but gets easier with practice.

The tutorial assumes you’ve already got openoffice.org installed, but if you’re somehow on a system without openoffice, you can install it using “sudo apt-get install openoffice.org”.

Prep:

- Install your tools: apt-get install dia inkscape

- Create your basic graph in Dia. It’s got the user-friendliness of MS Paint, but far more power. Dia won’t display the background grid in the finished product. I chose a 20×20 grid which proved sufficient for the assignments.

- Make sure “snap to grid” is turned on using the toggle at the bottom of your work pane. It’s easy enough to toggle on an as-needed basis for other drawings, but for creating the initial grid you’ll want it on.
- Create the x-axis by drawing a line from -11 to +11. Select the line, then right-click on it to give it the properties you’d like (such as arrowed ends, colors, size, etc).
- Create a y-axis the same way.
- Here’s the tedious part. Create grid lines (probably want to use a faint background-ish color for this part) by creating a -10 to +10 line, then copying and pasting repeatedly and dragging them into place.
- Select the axes and use Objects – Bring to Front from the menu to make sure the axes are over the top of the grid lines.
- Save your basic grid as a .dia file as you’ll be wanting to come back and add things.

- Populate the Dia diagrams per the assignment requirements.

- Open the basic graph (if it’s applicable) and create a new layer. The Layers dialogue goes front-to-back, so if the layer is higher up on the Layers list, it’s higher up in the drawing (i.e. closer to the front).
- Save yourself some heartache and un-toggle the button that makes the graph layer editable. Move your new layer to the top of the list, make sure it’s editable and visible, and give it an easy-to-remember label (such as the equation to be graphed).

- Save your finished graphic first as a .dia file (in case your mentor requires revisions), then use File – Export to export your work as an SVG file.

- Openoffice.org may or may not do a good job of importing your SVG. If the SVG imports with poor quality, use Inkscape to fix it.

- Open the SVG using Inkscape.
- Select the entire drawing, then select Transform from the Object menu. Under scale, set Width and Height to 200%, and make sure “Apply to each object separately” is unchecked. Click Apply.
- Save as a PNG file using File – Export Bitmap.
- The new file should be a bit better in Open Office.

- Save your Open Office document as an ODT first, in case the instructor requires revisions, then Export as PDF.

A few key points to remember along the way:
- Save an editable copy in the native format (.dia and .odt) in case you need to make edits later.
- Use the Shift key when resizing graphics so the resizing is proportional.
- Remember to open a terminal window running the “top” utility in the background so your girlfriend sees it alongside the grids and thinks you’re a super genius.
- I’m open to suggestions on ways to make this faster and simpler. Leave comments if you’ve got pointers.

Rooting the Transform Ultra

Since we’re talking about potentially bricking, destabilizing, or infecting your phone, you should probably take a peek at the downloaded files before you proceed. While they were fine ten minutes ago, things can always change, and it’s your pocket change you’ve spent on this fine gadget. Proceed at your own risk. You might improve it, or you may very well destroy it.

This doesn’t flash your phone the way older rooting protocols did. This just unlocks the phone and installs a superuser application. Superuser? Supereasy you mean!

1. Download and unzip: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12510094/Transformdatphone.zip or http://www.forums.acsyndicate.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=420&d=1318793570

(1b. If you’re running linux or mac, update the permissions of the run.sh file to allow for execution: chmod +x run.sh.)

2. Connect your phone using the USB Cable. Prep the phone by going to the home screen, Menu, Settings, Applications, Development, and enable USB Debugging.

3. If you’re in Windows, double-click on PHONETRANSFORM.bat. For linux or Mac, open a terminal, navigate to the transforrrm folder, and run “sh ./run.sh”

4. Sit back and wait for your phone to reboot. It’s seriously that easy.

Remote Files on Android for Ubuntu

This is so easy it’s insane. Now that I’ve figured out how to do it. Use the following steps to browse files on your android device using SSHFS on another linux device. Me? I’m using it to copy files over to my new tablet from computers on my network using SSHFS. You might need an SD card to allow downloads. Your mileage may vary.

(0. Root your device.)
1. From the Home screen, select Settings, Applications, and enable Unknown Sources.
2. Search for “sshdroid apk”. There’s a free version that works GREAT. And by great, I mean perfectly, predictably, and dependably. Download it to your SD card.
3. If you haven’t already, use the market to install a file manager utility. Astro, File Pro and others work quite well.
4. Use your file manager to navigate to the SD Card and install SSHDroid.
5. Connect to your network via wifi. Open SSHDroid. It even tells you the IP of the device on your LAN.
6. Use SSHFS to mount your android files to a local folder. sshdroid runs with username: root and password: admin. I like to use “sshfs root@192.168.0.3:/ /home/username/otherfiles/”
7. Enjoy full-size ooey-gui goodness.

Flipping Burgers for a Living

Much of current American misconceptions about economics can be summed up within the phrase “flipping burgers for a living is just fine.”

Yes, and so is breeding unicorns for a living. What they have in common is that they’re both impossible.

Americans are possessed of an amazing work ethic, one of the principal sources of American success. Where some countries would riot, Americans are more likely buckle down and figure it out. This isn’t to say that there aren’t countries and cultures where folks will work harder and for poorer living conditions. That’s part of what’s undercutting the American standard of living right now, as living conditions equalize to follow the equalization of global wealth.

It’s engrained deep in the American psyche that very little is more undignified than an inability to support oneself financially. So when push comes to shove, it’s expected that Americans will do whatever it takes, even if that means flipping burgers, to make ends meet. But flipping burgers to make ends meet is, in itself, a scary myth, and one that is the basis of huge swaths of government and corporate policy. Ultimately, buying into the myth will destabilize the entire society, and the recent Occupy protests are just the first hint and prologue of what lies ahead. There will never come a day when we look back and say to ourselves “remember that one time when they protested, and then it all went back to normal?”

Burger flipping is a minimum wage job, and the minimum wage is without a doubt at the heart of the recent economic woes, though not in the way many would expect. While the stated goals of minimum wage standards may be unclear, perhaps one of those might be to make it practical for two adults, working full-time, to feed, clothe, and house themselves, and perhaps a single child. Perhaps another appropriate goal might be for a single minimum wage paycheck to support a single person living in a cheap studio apartment and basic living necessities. This fits with the American notion of success, for if one works long hard hours and gives a little extra, they might make a bit more than minimum wage, and enjoy a higher standard of living than what’s technically necessary.

State assistance with childcare might be appropriate for the earlier years, for children who aren’t old enough for school yet. For certainly, whether single parents or married, if both adults are employed full time, it is likely they’ll need some childcare, which itself is a payable job.

The minimum wage does not meet these goals, which is its first fault. The bar is set too low. Even in a poor economy, where every job is becoming a minimum wage job, the de facto minimum wage in the Portland area has become $10 per hour, without any prodding from the state whatsoever. It turns out that with the combination of basic food assistance and long-term unemployment, it’s simply more affordable for folks to stay home than to take a job that pays less than that.

This isn’t due to an unwillingness to work, but rather to the cost of living. A single parent of one, subsisting in a barely-livable apartment, driving no vehicle, and eating poorly, will just barely be able to make do with $10. Two parents working together might see a bit more success once the kids are in school and daycare isn’t an issue, though bigger families require bigger apartments, and so forth. Americans are not too proud. Given a corporation that provided housing, education, and basic living expenses, many Americans would already accept a job offer, even at $2, just to have the basics covered for once.

Make no mistake, the minimum wage hasn’t destroyed American business, either. While many corporate interests might argue otherwise, the minimum wage sets a floor on how little an American worker can be paid, and limits how small the payroll can get before productivity is damaged. The recent economic “recovery” has been one confined almost entirely to the affluent, and without the existing minimum wage, the course of the recovery would include some very strange developments indeed, with the potential gap between rich and poor (GINI index) growing to very bizarre proportions indeed. These are the sorts of imbalances one thinks of in terms of banana republics. Downright un-American.

The solution is actually rather simple, easy to implement, and sustainable in the long term: raise the minimum wage dramatically to meet certain goals (ability to meet the needs of a single adult and single child for example), then tie ongoing, automatic increases to the Consumer Price Index.

But a scene in the recent remake of Mr. Deeds nicely captures why this will never happen. The primary stockholder is in the midst of a hostile takeover. After a very moving show of support for retaining the company from a variety of shareholders, the antagonist states, “Yes, but I’m voting ‘aye.’ 300. Million. Times.’”

Unfortunately, the stockholders in the United States government have already voted against us. Trillions of times.

Time As Money

Sometimes it helps to remember who you’re working for.

When I clock in in the morning, I spend two hours working for the IRS. Can’t help that much. But at my current salary, I spend another thirty minutes working for the electric company, ten minutes for water, and so on. I spend the last three hours of every day working for my house payment. Thirty minutes that I get to keep later if I sell the house, and 2 1/2 hours that I work for the bank that gave me the loan.

There are actually only a handful of minutes each day that I spend working for things that I really want, like new shoes or a laptop.

But 30 minutes of house payment I get back if I sell the house later, 30 minutes that I could be donating to a landlord if I rented. And since there are only so many hours a day, if I bought a car on payments, I can’t afford a car.

But then… some of my money is going to work too. It clocks in for only about 15 minutes every day, but that’s 15 minutes of my life that I get back, every single day. And as time passes, there’s more money to go to work, so it works harder and harder for me. By the end of the year, my money will be working 20 minutes a day. Within a few years, I can send my investments to work in the morning, and I won’t have to clock in at all.

That’s retirement.

Android Battery Problems

Cobbled together from sdx-developers.com and other sites…

I’m as cavalier as anyone on flashing a phone without a full charge. It’s because in the old days I had to worry about a flash failing due to power outage.

It turns out it makes a difference. Flashing a phone erases /data/system/batterystats.bin, and the phone rebuilds the file assuming a completely full battery.

Here’s the solution to longer battery life for free, no magic.

- Charge the battery completely full with the power off. Completely.
- In console (ideally recovery mode) run “rm /data/system/batterystats.bin” to delete system battery data.
- Reboot the phone.
- Run the phone until the battery dies completely.

This should recalibrate the battery, and may even free up some capacity that you didn’t realize was there.

University of Phoenix Email on Android

For the techies, here’s the basic info:

username: username@email.phoenix.edu
pwd: pwd
imap server: imap.gmail.com
security: SSL
port: 993
smtp server: smtp.gmail.com
security: ssl
port: 465

- Open your Email app. Tap Menu, then Accounts, then Menu again, then Add Account.

- Enter your email address: username@email.phoenix.edu. Then enter your password, and select Manual Setup.

- Select IMAP Account, then enter the IMAP server information listed above. Tap Next.

- Enter the SMTP server information listed above, and tap Next.

- Adjust the preferences to your liking, and tap Next. Give the account a name (such as “UofP”) and tap Done.

- Enjoy.

Easy WGU Email on an Android Device

Wouldn’t it be nice (for any number of reasons) to set up your WGU email on an Android phone or tablet with a minimum of fuss? Search no more. And I’ll be using the WGU email for a couple years, so I’ll update it if it changes.

For the techies, here’s the basic info:

username: username@wgu.edu
pwd: pwd
imap server: imap.gmail.com
security: SSL
port: 993
smtp server: smtp.gmail.com
security: ssl
port: 465

- Open your Email app. Tap Menu, then Accounts, then Menu again, then Add Account.

- Enter your email address: username@wgu.edu. Then enter your password, and select Manual Setup.

- Select IMAP Account, then enter the IMAP server information listed above. Tap Next.

- Enter the SMTP server information listed above, and tap Next.

- Adjust the preferences to your liking, and tap Next. Give the account a name (such as “WGU”) and tap Done.

- Get busy! Accelerate your courses!

Am I A Hippie?

Working with a neighborhood association (not to be confused with a homeowner’s association) can be an exercise in management, but a completely different sort of management from the sort exercised in corporate America.

Certainly there are some common elements. With employees and volunteers alike, the primary challenge is one of motivation: finding the motivators and learning how to align them with broader goals. In both settings, there is ultimately no way to compel a positive behavior except to elicit cooperation voluntarily.

But a corporation leaves more room for leadership by directive. Managers are expected to understand broader goals that may not be visible at all levels of command, and clearly articulate those goals to the group, whereas the volunteer-based neighborhood association is led by consensus. In the neighborhood setting, the power structure is (at its most effective) inverted, with those in leadership roles acting as servants to facilitate the wishes of the group overall.

Whereas a manager may keep a position indefinitely without ever earning the respect of those in his charge, volunteer leaders are keenly aware that anything short of respect and gratitude will cause their cadre to evaporate.

Am I a Hippie?

I have found myself espousing ideas of equality and dignity even in a corporate setting, feeling like employee engagement is as important to attracting dollars as community engagement is to attracting volunteers.

And I am not alone in this notion. One of my favorite parts about working with the neighborhood is the long list of people I get to rub elbows with whose sole impetus is to make life better for others. It’s hard not to soak up some of that enthusiasm.

But I continue to run into the more traditional types from time to time, those for whom dissent is an annoyance to be tolerated or removed, but not engaged. How do we “deal with” those who live on Suchandsuch Road and are griping about the new expansion plan?

The obvious, naive solution would be to engage them, and find out what their gripe really is. Long before the expansion goes through. Before the plan is approved. Before the draft plan is even considered.

My simpleton’s thought is that the stakeholders should be consulted. Someone who lives in a neighborhood should be given the opportunity to respond to a proposal. And if they don’t get the memo, is that an excuse to slam the door in their face? Or a sign that outreach could be better?

Right now, there are people who feel alienated when trying to engage with their leaders, not just in the public sector, but at work as well. People whose ideas routinely hit the wall of “that’s not what we’re doing.” Sometimes there’s something sinister going on behind the scenes that’s meant to be kept quiet and out of the light of day. Sometimes, it’s simply an embarrassing oversight. Other times, it’s a simple misunderstanding.

Until we open all of the doors, especially the ones we’d desperately like to keep closed and hidden and inaccessible, public perception will be that things are far more evil and sinister than they really are.

This whole notion of transparency and accountability isn’t just a nice idea, it’s absolutely vital to the success of a group endeavor. I suppose if that makes me a hippie, then that’s what I need to stick with. Command and Control is no longer the fittest, and thus, its days are numbered.

Steal This Recipe: How to Make TVP Act Like Ground Meat

First, grab your 1tsp (15ml) and 1/2 cup (120ml) measurements, and make your Instaburger sauce:

1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1tsp garlic powder
1tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika

Ballpark it. Heap your tablespoons. The minor ingredients are getting WAY diluted by the oil and soy sauce, so don’t waste a lot of time on super-precision.

Now, your Instaburger goes like this:

1 cup TVP
1 cup water
1/4 cup Instaburger sauce

Gives you roughly a pound of ground meat. Here’s the trifecta: when making soups, hamburger helper, etc, TVP works like a dry ingredient. So you can mix your dry ingredients (taco powder, seasoning packets, etc) together to get greater consistency, and mix the wet ingredients all together as well (milk, margarine, water, etc).

- The TVP rehydration and cook time are concurrent, with no thawing or browning of meat. (Advantage: Speed)
- As long as the rest of your recipe is meat-free, TVP will do a GREAT job of being a vegetarian alternative without the saturated fat, steroids, ammonia (yes, they add ammonia), or antibiotics of real meat. (Advantage: Health).
- Rehydrated TVP by the pound costs somewhere in the ballpark of $0.30 to $0.45 a pound versus the going rate for ground meat. Ground-beef grain-fed organic extra-lean top sirloin (decently healthy versus TVP) is in the $4/pound ballpark. (Advantage: Cost)
- TVP requires no refrigerator space or energy, no freezer space or energy, can be bought in bulk, and stored alongside the rest of your disaster readiness supplies. Fewer trips to the grocery saves gas. In terms of actual TCO (total cost of ownership), TVP goes for roughly $0.40 a pound, with ground meat going for ten times that. (Advantage: Cost, Preparedness)