Writing a graphic element: exercise

Simulating hand-drawn elements topic on StackExchange
Writing a graphic element using TikZ and PGF:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta} %to get different arrow tips
%%%<
\usepackage{verbatim}
\usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}
\PreviewEnvironment{tikzpicture}
\setlength\PreviewBorder{5pt}%
%%%>
\begin{comment}
:Title: LearningTikz
:Tags: examples
:Author: Me
:Slug: Tutorials
Following Crémer_MinimalTikz_2011.pdf
Note default units are centimetres - scale command overrides for output.
Alternatively go to the command line window and type texdoc pgf and choose pgfmanual.pdf if needed from list if it appears.
\end{comment}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1]
%\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=2.5,yscale=0.5] % alternate scaling options.
\draw[help lines] (0,0) grid (2,3);
\draw (0,0) -- (1,2) -- (2,3) -- (1,0);
\draw (0,3) -- (1.5, 0.5);
%axes decorations
\draw [<->] (0,3) -- (0,0) -- (2,0);
%decorations on line ends
%can also use thickness commands
%ultra thin, very thin, thin, semithick, thick, very thick and ultra thick 
%and [help lines] to highlight special points
%and [line width= 0.2cm] or [line width= 12] for pt or point widths
%and [dashed], or dotted
%and colours like [red] etc.
\draw [->, ultra thick, red] (0, -0.1) -- (2, -0.1);
\draw [ultra thin, dotted, <-] (0, -0.2) -- (2, -0.2); 
\draw [|->, dashed] (0, -0.3) -- (2, -0.3);
\draw [yellow, line width=6]   (0,0) -- (.5,0);

\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture} 
\draw [yellow, line width=6]   (0,0) -- (.5,0);  
\draw [blue] (0.1,0.1) rectangle (1.6,1.1);
\draw [red, ultra thick] (2.2,0.6) circle [radius=0.5];;
\draw [gray] (4,0.1) arc [radius=1, start angle=45, end angle= 120];
\draw [<->, rounded corners, thick, purple] (0,2) -- (0,0) -- (3,0);
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=1,yscale=1]
\draw [help lines] (0.6,1.34) -- (0.6,1) -- (1.05,1);
\draw[help lines] (0,0) grid (2,2);
\draw[orange] (0.6, 1.0385) --
(0.61, 1.06372) -- (0.62, 1.08756) -- (0.63, 1.11012) -- (0.64,
1.13147) -- (0.65, 1.15166) -- (0.66, 1.17074) -- (0.67, 1.18874) -- (0.68,
1.20568) -- (0.69, 1.22157) -- (0.7, 1.23643) -- (0.71, 1.25026) -- (0.72,
1.26307) -- (0.73, 1.27486) -- (0.74, 1.28561) -- (0.75, 1.29534) -- (0.76,
1.30402) -- (0.77, 1.31165) -- (0.78, 1.31821) -- (0.79, 1.32369) -- (0.8,
1.32806) -- (0.81, 1.33131) -- (0.82, 1.3334) -- (0.83, 1.33431) -- (0.84,
1.334) -- (0.85, 1.33244) -- (0.86, 1.32956) -- (0.87, 1.32533) -- (0.88,
1.31966) -- (0.89, 1.3125) -- (0.9, 1.30373) -- (0.91, 1.29325) -- (0.92,
1.2809) -- (0.93, 1.26649) -- (0.94, 1.24976) -- (0.95, 1.23032) -- (0.96,
1.2076) -- (0.97, 1.18065) -- (0.98, 1.14763) -- (0.99, 1.1038) -- (0.991,
1.09836) -- (0.992, 1.09261) -- (0.993, 1.0865) -- (0.994, 1.07994) -- (0.995,
1.07282) -- (0.996, 1.06497) -- (0.997, 1.0561) -- (0.998, 1.04563) -- (0.999,
1.03209) -- (0.9991, 1.03042) -- (0.9992, 1.02866) -- (0.9993,
1.02679) -- (0.9994, 1.02478) -- (0.9995, 1.0226) -- (0.9996, 1.02019) -- (0.9997,
1.01747) -- (0.9998, 1.01424) -- (0.9999, 1.01005) -- (0.9999,
1.01005) -- (0.99991, 1.00953) -- (0.99992, 1.00898) -- (0.99993,
1.0084) -- (0.99994, 1.00778) -- (0.99995, 1.0071) -- (0.99996,
1.00634) -- (0.99997, 1.00549) -- (0.99998, 1.00448) -- (0.99999, 1.00317) -- (1,
1) ;
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[help lines] (0,0) grid (2,2);
\draw[very thick] (0,0) to [out=90,in=195] (2,1.5);
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[help lines] (0, -0.1) grid (4,1.1);
\draw [<->,thick, cyan] (0,0) to [out=90,in=180] (1,1)
        to [out=0,in=180] (2.5,0) to [out=0,in=-135] (4,1) ;
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=2,yscale=2]
\draw [<->] (0,0.8) -- (0,0) -- (0.5,0);
\draw[green, ultra thick, domain=0:0.5] plot (\x, {0.025+\x+\x*\x});
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}[yscale=1.5]
\draw [help lines, <->] (0,0) -- (6.5,0);
\draw [help lines, ->] (0,-1.1) -- (0,1.1);
\draw [green,domain=0:2*pi] plot (\x, {(sin(\x r)* ln(\x+1))/2});
\draw [red,domain=0:pi] plot (\x, {sin(\x r)});
\draw [blue, domain=pi:2*pi] plot (\x, {cos(\x r)*exp(\x/exp(2*pi))}); 
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.5]
\draw [fill=red,ultra thick] (0,0) rectangle (1,1);
\draw [fill=red,ultra thick,red] (2,0) rectangle (3,1);
\draw [blue, fill=blue] (4,0) -- (5,1) -- (4.75,0.15) -- (4,0);
\draw [fill] (7,0.5) circle [radius=0.1];
\draw [fill=orange] (9,0) rectangle (11,1);
\draw [fill=white] (9.25,0.25) rectangle (10,1.5);
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}[>=stealth] %see Reference: Arrow Tips in pgfmanual.pdf
\draw [thick, <->] (0,2) -- (0,0) -- (2,0);
\node at (1,1) {yes};
\end{tikzpicture}

\tikz {
\shade [left color=white, right color=red!50] (0,0) rectangle (4,1);
  \draw [ultra thick,-{Circle[open]}] (0,4/5) -- ++ (3.5,0);
  \draw [ultra thick,-{Triangle[open]}] (0,3/5) -- ++ (3,0);
  \draw [ultra thick,-{Triangle[fill=white]}] (0,2/5) -- ++ (3,0);
  \draw [ultra thick, -{Arc Barb[reversed] }] (0,1/5) -- ++ (3,0);
  \draw [ultra thick, -{Rays[n=9]}] (0,0) -- ++ (2.5,0);
}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [thick, <->] (0,2) -- (0,0) -- (2,0);
\draw[fill] (1,1) circle [radius=0.025];
\node [below] at (1,1) {below};
\node [above] at (1,1) {above};
\node [left] at (1,1) {left};
\node [right] at (1,1) {right};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

APA Title Case Rule

From APA’s Style Blog:

1. Capitalize the first word of the title/heading and of any subtitle/subheading;
2. Capitalize all “major” words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns) in the title/heading, including the second part of hyphenated major words (e.g., Self-Report not Self-report); and
3. Capitalize all words of four letters or more.

pgp gpg signatures and the like

PGP and GPG are, respectively:

• Pretty Good Privacy, an open standard software design and architecture for encryption using the public key / private key model. (link)
• GnuPG aka Gnu Privacy Guard, a Free Software / Open Source implementation of the PGP standard. (link)

The key to it all is key exchange. You may exchange keys in a number of ways:

• By sending it via e-mail to a 'correspondence partner'. 
• By publishing the key on a website for everyone to access.
• By uploading a key to a keyserver.

Q: Someone has sent me an email and it has an attachment 'signature.asc' so that is that all about?
A: A dot '.asc' file simply indicates that the file contains plain (ASCII) text. An ASC file

• A so-called 'inline armour' signature file '*.asc' is a static file containing a public key. 
• A PGP/MIME signature file is a bit like a checksum, it is the result of a unique calculation based on the message content and the sender's PGP key. In this case the '.asc' file contains the output of a function that uses the original document content, the sender's private key, the time etc. This works by virtue of the fact that any particular digital file has a numeric/binary representation, basically a very long number, and can therefore have math performed on it.

Q: You visit a website and where each contact person includes a seemingly random string of 40 hexadecimal characters labelled 'GPG key' otherwise known as the 'fingerprint'.
A: A fingerprint links to a downloadable version of a public key, a file such as 'somefilename.asc' containing more random  letters and numbers e.g. file contents looking somewhat like the following

----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
fall34saLKU877lkdkmQENBE8e3CIBCACeeMFj0mrmp66lKg4u1yBCxZLKd6gbjOjAW6JoCmIBemOnH3yR6f4XQwpO3wcvuK1NAyV6XvjN7kg/eRwjzjKr3Ro9k+l7kk2EuTSAwEX2rudWEXdr5OCFob6ag4osic8+jajM/VAFYw3S1tPW+Jmf8FddcpXyy9yeKsDYDYbFKUPOvNwoH2qHPY4wTVi2QcsDuaHjRCqi
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Q: Can you suggest basic exercises to follow to learn how to use PGP signing and encryption?
A: Try attaining the following goals in order of increasing difficulty...

1. Install PGP / GPG or use webmail extension/add-on like Mailvelope (works for Chrome or Firefox only), you should then be able to verify other people's signatures and collect their public keys.
2. Generate your own key files, and store them locally initially.
3. Sign an email (doesn't encrypt the content) and send it to me (like I did above) so I can verify the signature.
4. I think signing is also a way of sharing your public key via email. After which I should be able to encrypt something intended for you.
5. Practice encrypting/decrypting
6. Publish your public key on a key server to make accessing your public key easier.

Notes:

Using Mailvelope for in browser webmail (Chrome and Firefox).

Springer manuscript preparation for editors

In this example I will configure the templates for a "contributed book", that is, a book comprised of individually authored chapters or sections, compiled by a small editorial team whose names will be attributed to the book itself. A "contributed book" is a kind of collection. Various copyright situations can arise: the simplest where the authors retain copyright of their personal contributions and the editors copyright pertains to the arrangement of the collection; through to a book in which the copyright for the whole and its parts are 'assigned' to the publisher.

First, your authors will prepare individual manuscripts conforming with the specified guidelines.
Second, incorporate the authors' contributions into the book structure.
Typeset/compile and forward to Springer.

The defined templates, for both Word and LaTeX work pretty much as documented!

In order to compile separate bibliographies chapter by chapter I used chapterbib which allows typesetting of separate chapter level references.

\usepackage{chapterbib}

Using the Springer template the following example assumes editor.tex is the organising structure:

\mainmatter %%%%%%%%%
\include{part}
\include{author_01}
\include{author_02}

Run typesetting from the commandline for each chapter as in the controlling editor.tex; you will need to introduce additional bibtex commands to the usual process e.g.:

latex editor
bibtex author_01
bibtex author_02
latex editor
latex editor

Just to note, ensure each author uses different label names for figures, tables, crossrefs etc. to avoid name clashes on typesetting the entire book. Similarly they should use unique bibliography filenames so that these files can coexist in a shared folder. Subfolders for figures etc will need to be accessible at the level of editor.tex.

Further reading
The Springer guidelines

On verifying a signature file...

A detached signature file, as opposed to signatures that are encrypt-signed or clear-signed (link), is a separate file that may be used to verify the associated document, that is, both the signature.sig and the original_document.txt (or other file) are processed for verification. This can be a bit confusing for an email because it may be unclear which text file is referred to; this isn't usually an obvious problem if your pgp/gpg is integrated with your email software.

You will need to have installed GnuPG. Once installed import the signature (command line example)

$ gpg --import GPGTools-00D026C4.asc gpg: key 00D026C4: "GPGTools Team <team@gpgtools.org>" 1 new signaturegpg: Total number processed: 1gpg:         new signatures: 1gpg: 3 marginal(s) needed, 1 complete(s) needed, PGP trust modelgpg: depth: 0  valid:   1  signed:   0  trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 1ugpg: next trustdb check due at 2018-08-19

If you run this more than once you'll see (command line example)

$ gpg --import GPGTools-00D026C4.asc gpg: key 00D026C4: "GPGTools Team <team@gpgtools.org>" not changedgpg: Total number processed: 1gpg:              unchanged: 1

Now verify the signature/file combination (command line example)

$ gpg --verify GPG_Suite-2015.09.dmg.sig GPG_Suite-2015.09.dmggpg: Signature made Wed 23 Sep 18:56:37 2015 IST using RSA key ID 0D9E43F5gpg: Good signature from "GPGTools Team <team@gpgtools.org>" [ultimate]gpg:                 aka "GPGMail Project Team (Official OpenPGP Key) <gpgmail-devel@lists.gpgmail.org>" [ultimate]gpg:                 aka "GPGTools Project Team (Official OpenPGP Key) <gpgtools-org@lists.gpgtools.org>" [ultimate]gpg:                 aka "[jpeg image of size 5871]" [ultimate]

Further reading

gnupg.org and the GPG Suite Quickstart Tutorial
kp.mit.edu
www.openoffice.org

Notes for King Lear

Nature imagery in King Lear

The concept of nature is wide ranging in this drama and this is manifested by the extensive use of nature imagery throughout the entire course of the play's action.
Indeed nature is at the very heart of the 'word world' of King Lear.

Heavenly nature:

The most cursory scrutiny of the play will reveal just how varied is the imagery associated with the concept of nature. In act 1 for instance we find Lear as king swear by the power of light and darkness:

"Lear: Let it be so. Thy truth then be thy dower. For by the sacred radiance of the sun, The mysteries of Hecate and the night, By all the operation of the orbs From whom we do exist and cease to be—" (1.1.109-13)

This is an appropriate approach to nature given the pagan setting of the play. Later in this act, Gloucester claims:

 "Gloucester: These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us. Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide, in cities mutinies, in countries discord, in palaces treason, and the bond cracked ’twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction—there’s son against father. The king falls from bias of nature—there’s father against child." (1.2.99-108)

In essence, the supernatural powers of nature may exert ill effects on the world of man. Here Gloucester refers to the belief current in Shakespeare's day and centuries before, that events in the 'macrocosm'; the celestial spheres, were reflected in the 'microcosm'; the little world of man. Edmund mocks at this approach to nature, dismissing it as mere superstition.

"we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!"(1.2.127-35)

 Lear in referring to "our nature" is obviously commenting on his own kingly nature, together with his instinct for power

That thou hast sought to make us break our vows, Which we durst never yet, and with strained pride To come betwixt our sentence and our power, Which nor our nature nor our place can bear, Our potency made good, take thy reward: (1.1.171-75)

This is obviously not the nature referred to by Lear addressing Regan on the subject of his knights, appeals to her to understand what lies behind his need for his retinue of knights. "Allow not nature more than nature needs, man's life is cheap as beasts" (2.4.264-5).
Nor is the goddess 'nature' invoked by Edmund to be identified with either of the above interpretations; "Thou, nature, art my goddess. To thy law My services are bound." (1.2.1-2)

Perverted nature

Suggestions of the unnatural, the perversion of what is normal or natural is evident in Lear's appalling outbursts when he disowns Cordelia or when he curses Goneril:

Hear, Nature, hear, dear goddess, hear! Suspend thy purpose if thou didst intend To make this creature fruitful. Into her womb convey sterility. Dry up in her the organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honor her. If she must teem, Create her child of spleen, that it may live And be a thwart disnatured torment to her. (1.4.268-76) 

Later, addressing Regan:

You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty, You fen-sucked fogs drawn by the powerful sun, To fall and blister! (2.4.159-63)

Lear calls upon nature's destructive power to strike at the very heart of created matter "Crack nature’s molds, all germens spill at once That make ingrateful man!" (3.2.9-10).

Primal nature 

Storm imagery is used by Lear and those associated with him throughout the storm episodes in act 3.

Gentlemen: Contending with the fretful elements. Bids the winds blow the earth into the sea Or swell the curlèd water 'bove the main, That things might change or cease. Strives in his little world of man to outscorn The to-and-fro–conflicting wind and rain. (3.1.4-12)

Then Lear:

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulfurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Smite flat the thick rotundity o' th' world, (3.2.1-8)

And Kent:

Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder, Such groans of roaring wind and rain I never Remember to have heard. (3.2.45-7)

This imagery of primal nature serves many purposes. Lear's language together with his actions 'minds' the fury of the physical storm, which in itself is a symbol of the tempest in his mind: he is thus himself the 'spirit' of the storm and a reminder to us of the intimate interconnection between the cosmic and the terrestrial, which would have been taken for granted in Shakespeare's' day. The 'storm imagery' insists on man's vulnerability in the face of the fury of nature. In soliloquy with Fool, Lear railing in the storm says:

Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters. I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness. I never gave you kingdom, called you children. You owe me no subscription. Why then, let fall Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand, your slave— (3.2.14-9)

While later Kent seeks to calm and comfort Lear in the storm;

Here is the place, my lord. Good my lord, enter. The tyranny of the open night’s too rough For nature to endure. (3.4.1-3). 

The emphasis throughout is on the destructive power of elemental nature.

Healing nature

Elsewhere however nature imagery is used more positively to suggest the benevolent aspect of the natural world in its influence on man's life. The reference to Lear in his madness, wandering about, crowned with garlands of weeds and wildflowers.

Cordelia: Crowned with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds, With burdocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow In our sustaining corn (4.4.4-6)

This quote is more significant than might at first appear since all the plants mentioned in this catalogue of Lear's garlands have curative properties and were commonly used in the treatment of mental illness.

Cordelia herself, urges the doctor to use all of his powers to cure her father, saying;
All blessed secrets, All you unpublished virtues of the earth, Spring with my tears. Be aidant and remediate In the good man’s distress. Seek, seek for him, Lest his ungoverned rage dissolve the life That wants the means to lead it. (4.4.16-20)

Imagery of spring and of harvest is associated with Cordelia herself, as a means linking her with all that is most positive in the natural cycle, through the symbolic associations of spring with the promise of a world new-made and of autumn's bounty with richness and fertility.

Animal nature

The forces of nature are also present in Shakespeare's use of 'animal imagery'. For example, man is constantly compared to the beasts.

Lear: O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous. Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man’s life’s as cheap as beast’s. (2.4.261-4)

Lear in dialogue with Edgar, seeing that he (Edgar) is barely clothed, living wild 'unburdened by the trappings of civilization', Lear tears at this own clothes:

Lear: Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.—Is man no more than this? Consider him well.—Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! Here’s three on ’s are sophisticated. Thou art the thing itself. Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.— Off, off, you lendings! Come. Unbutton here. (tears at his clothes) (3.4.93-101)

Without his "lendings" the trappings of civilisation, which cushion him against exposure to the "raw nature" of the heath and the storm, man is merely the poor, bare, forked animal (two-legged) that Edgar has become in his role as 'poor Tom'.

Animal imagery is also used to emphasise the horror to which Lear was subjected in the night of the storm;
"The lion and the belly-pinched wolf Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs, And bids what will take all."
Nature as a jungle world where human predators stalk one another in a war of all on all is epitomised in the beast 'imagery' used of Goneril and Regan; "detested kite" those "pelican daughters"; "dog-hearted daughters"; "boarish fangs"; "tigers, not daughters".
Ultimately they become 'monsters of the deep' preying on each other.
This type of 'natural imagery' is intended to suggest human nature at its most 'unnatural', that is at a level below that of the beasts.
Hence, comparisons between the behaviour of the 'derogate' human and wild beasts work to the disadvantage of the former; "whose reverence ever the head lugged bear would lack"; "If wolves had at thy gate howled that stern time, Thou shouldst have said, “Good porter, turn the key,”"

The animal references in the utterances of Poor Tom/Edgar on the one hand, reflect the moral emphasis on the beastal in mankind, already discussed "hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey" but on the other, they simply emphasise the reality of what it is like to live the life of "houseless poverty" at the level of hardest subsistence.

Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the wall newt, and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow dung for salads, swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog, drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipped from tithing to tithing and stocked, punished and imprisoned; who hath had three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, Horse to ride and weapon to wear. But mice and rats and such small deer Have been Tom’s food for seven long year. (3.4.120-30)

The emphasis on man's existence as precarious, exposed and wretched is to be found also in Edgar's speech to Gloucester at Dover in act 4, where he presents what seems a God's eye view of the world;

How fearful And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low! The crows and choughs that wing the midway air Show scarce so gross as beetles. Halfway down Hangs one that gathers samphire—dreadful trade! Methinks he seems no bigger than his head. The fishermen that walk upon the beach Appear like mice. And yon tall anchoring bark, (4.6.12-19)

From this perspective "poor, bare, forked animal" (poor, naked, two-legged) that Lear had found in Poor Tom and by application, also in himself in the course of the storm episodes.

These passages illustrate the extraordinary variety and range of nature imagery and point to the ubiquity their use, the contrastingly vulgar and subtle uses to convey meaning. The dramatic value of Shakespeare's approach is in this knowledge of the world, shared with the audience, of using multi-various facets nature as conceptual dramatic devices in his plays. Nature extends from the sublime and the base; it accounts for and encompasses, yet transcends all points in between.

SHA256 Wha?

What to do if you see instructions like...

 "You can find the SHA256 checksums for xxx online and you can verify the checksums signature file which has been signed using xxx's GPG key"

A SHA is a Secure Hash Algorithm (link), a one-way function of which it is difficult if not impossible to compute its inverse. I think its called an injective non-surjective function.
Anyway, online, we use SHA checksums to verify file integrity.

On Checksums...

For example: from the command line in the folder of the file you need to check thus:

$ shasum -a 256 -c vagrant_1.8.1.dmg
1bda0aed9691145a97cb5a8ae7b3492cc5e15a03  vagrant_1.8.1.dmg

Verify manually by inspection with a published copy of the checksums e.g.

vagrant_1.8.1_SHA256SUMS.txt

Or verify automatically if you have the published copy of the checksums file in the same directory as the file you need to check:

$ shasum -a 256 -c vagrant_1.8.1_SHA256SUMS.txt vagrant_1.8.1.dmg: OK 

Using the example of GPGTools and downloading the GPG Suite for Mac as of today (https://releases.gpgtools.org/GPG_Suite-2015.09.dmg). Without having GunPG installed you need to verify the downloaded file using the checksum and comparing against the published value for that file (as of today) i.e. comparing the published value to that calculated by shasum
SHA-1: f1fd930144720e70bd4c809dd36ac0573b0a7be2

$ shasum GPG_Suite-2015.09.dmg f1fd930144720e70bd4c809dd36ac0573b0a7be2  GPG_Suite-2015.09.dmg

Further reading

gnupg.org
kp.mit.edu
www.openoffice.org

(New Section) Diving into virtual machines with VirtualBox and Vagrant

1. VirtualBox
2. Vagrant

OCS Reviewing and Reviewer Assignment

Reviewer Assignment Notes

(for Springer's OCS)

Assigning reviewers to articles:

You can assign reviewers from two different places using pretty much the same workflow...

Workflow from the main "Paper list" tab (illustrations below)
A. Select an article to assign reviewers to
B. Choose the control widget to manage assignments
C. Select a reviewer and then check the "Yes," box
D. You can now see that your reviewer is assigned.
Your reviewer will then receive a notification message/email with instructions.

A. Select an article to assign reviewers to

B. Choose the control widget to manage assignments

C. Select a reviewer and then check the "Yes," box

D. You can now see that your reviewer is assigned.

Alternate workflow from the main "Assignments" tab (illustrations below)
1. Assign the reviewer by selecting someone from the pop-up list. Then click the "Assign" button...
2. The page reloads with a warning and selection box that you need to check...
3. You then go back to the bottom of the page and click
Your reviewer will then receive a notification message/email with instructions.

1. Assign the reviewer by selecting someone from the pop-up list. Then click the "Assign" button...

2. The page reloads with a warning and selection box that you need to check...

3. You then go back to the bottom of the page and click

Invitation to review:

The message text content is automatically generated and maintains anonymity, figure below.

Reviewer invitation message

Note that the content of the message is not configurable.

The review form:

Note that the review form is not configurable.

Default article review form.

It consists of two criteria and two basic edit panels.
i.) Evaluation (Reject, Weak Reject, Indifferent, Weak Accept, Accept)
ii.) Confidence (High, Medium, Low)
iii.) Argumentation aka the review (freeform plain text)
iv.) Comment to the PC Chair - private (freeform plain text)
You may also upload a written report using the file chooser towards the bottom of the page. If you get lost the cog icons at the bottom of the page will give you access to general functions/commands.

Using sips on MacOS to do stuff with images

I want to rotate a jpg by a set number of degrees...

For tips on using "sips", (link)

And link to smittytone's big bash script for batch processing image files (installed using homebrew). 

You can manipulate images from the command line e.g.

sips -r 359.5  --padColor FFFFFF TheBaily.jpg

Nudges the image 359.5 degrees clockwise (effectively 0.5 degrees anti-clockwise) and fills the empty space white (FFFFFF).

From Stackexchange (link) and the Apple man page for sips (old link, no longer active :-(.

For more tips on doing image editing on Macintosh OS X using the image editor... (link)

I want to bulk resize images

(manual instructions courtesy of Birme.net - link)

Launch Terminal. 

To resize a single image width "sample-image.jpg" into 1200px and save as "resized-image.jpg". 

sips --resampleWidth 1200 sample-image.jpg --out resized-image.jpg

Or to restrict height, change --resampleWidth into --resampleHeight 

sips --resampleHeight 1200 sample-image.jpg --out resized-image.jpg

To bulk resize multiple images, set the input image as a file name pattern, such as all jpg files: *.jpg. Before running the resizing code, create a target folder like resized to hold all the resized images. 

sips --resampleHeight 1200 *.jpg --out resized

You can add additional parameters to set the compression quality of jpeg images like this: 

sips -s formatOptions 80 --resampleHeight 1200 *.jpg --out resized

You can use this parameter convert all png files into jpeg files 

sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 --resampleHeight 1200 *.png --out resized

Activity scenarios for a new research project

Exercises

1. A methodical approach to literature review
...
Under "SOURCES/Internals" create a "new folder" and name it "Reading List" or "Literature Review"
Add new internal source by dragging a reading (pdf or other file type) into the "Reading List" folder
Code the new source "Code>Code Sources at Existing Node"...
In my case I have a reading lists node with three child nodes (below) that I can use to track what I've read and what I haven't read.

Use Node codes to track my reading to-do list

I find it easier on my screen to configure "View>Detail View>On Right" rather than the default "On Bottom".

My preferred layout arrangement is the one on the right...

Then, for each source, create at least one "Memo"; e.g. "Links>Memo Link>Link to New Memo". But the memo can only be linked to one (or none) source. If confused check the NVivo help item with nice diagram (copied below)...

"Each source or node can have one memo linked to it and that memo cannot be linked to any other item. You can also have memos that are not linked to any item" (link).

Listserv Welcome

Hello everyone.

I'd like to welcome new members to the CITO reading list.

As a listserv list you can use listserv commands to self-manage your membership, report format, frequency etc.

The listserv address hosting this list isLISTSERV@LISTSERV.HEANET.IE
You can manage a personal account via the web at https://listserv.heanet.ie
Alternatively you can use the traditional listserv email protocol, i.e. email in the following style
sent to
LISTSERV@listserv.heanet.ie
No Subject Line
Commands in email body
for example, to self-subscribe, send an email to:

LISTSERV@listserv.heanet.ie
No Subject Line
With email body:
SUBSCRIBE UCD-CITO-READING Allen Higgins

alternately, to unsubscribe an email account...

LISTSERV@listserv.heanet.ie
No Subject Line
With email body:
UNSUBSCRIBE UCD-CITO-READING Allen Higgins

Online help for List Subscribers is available at
https://www.lsoft.com/manuals/16.0/onlinehelp/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm

Kind regards
Allen

Journal Counting, Metrics, Ranking.

Journal ranking systems: CiteScore, SJR and SNIP

The most recent 2015 ABS Academic Journal Guide (report on abs ranking 2015) includes a compendium of alternate ranking metrics for the journals considered of relevance to the ABS. The table in the ABS ranking list provides (human) panel ratings (AJG, ABS), and (algorithmic) bibliometrics scores (JCR, SJR, SNIP).

1. For broader topic discovery/occurrence across a wide range channels and public fora (Twitter, news, bloggers, other publication outlets) use the Altmetric Explorer.
2. Run a keyword search on your topic at www.scopus.com
1. Run a keyword search on your topic at https://apps.webofknowledge.com/
3. Check the prestige rank of your sources using https://journalmetrics.scopus.com/. Scopus CiteScore is a journal ranking system based on a metric called the SCImago Journal Rank.
1. And/or use InCites (Web of Science - Web of Knowledge) to compare journals using Thompson Reuters own Journal Impact Factor ranking system.
2. And/or use Google Scholar's reports from records in its index system. It offers its own take on the arrangement of academic fields or categories - https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?view_op=top_venues&hl=en&vq=en Top publications recorded here are sorted by h5-index and h5-median values.
4. For institutional reporting: Elsevier’s SciVal (www.scival.com).

Indices attempt to rank or measure journal prestige without the influence of within-journal citation behaviour. How does it work? The SCImago CiteScore is computed by allocating all journals included in a category (the index) an initial score (i.e. prestige=10). The score is then 'spent' between journals, an allocation of between-journal citations. Think of it as Google PageRank but for journals. We infer a journal is prestigious if its articles are frequently cited by articles from other journals. The value of a citation between journals is further increased if the other journal is also prestigious. 

Covered journals (a subset of all possible published journals) are assigned a calculated SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) number (see http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php). Constituent journals in the SCImago list can be viewed here (http://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php).

Thomson Reuters research reporting services include: ResearcherID, Web of Science (aka webofknowledge.com), InCites Journal Citation Reports, and EndNote.


Myself in various systems
SciVal links with the entry in Scopus

Via Dimensions
Impact through Scholar.Google.com
My ORCID orcid.org/0000-0001-7772-7660
My ResearcherID (aka Publons)

Steps to update your Author Profile to correct or update your results in Scopus 

https://blog.scopus.com

A three panel system for research writing

Notes on using Scrivener's three panel arrangement for "first draft" research writing.
(n.b. this page is not a Scrivener tutorial; I presume you have completed the Tutorial).

The simple three panel arrangement is Binder + split window Editor.
Use the binder to organise "things" and the split editor window to display the fragment being written right now. The second pane of the editor will usually display a research PDF from the research folder.

The default folders in the binder are "Draft", "Research", and "Trash".
These are good names, keep them or change them if you prefer.
The draft folder is a place for writing fragments.
The research folder is a place for other things (PDF files, snippets of text from other sources, images etc.).

A four pane arrangement can also be used if you have screen space. Click on the "inspector" icon (blue circle with white "i") to open this fourth pane. Use the padlock icon to 'sticky' lock the inspector to a particular 'edit' if it is open in one of the 'editor' panes.
The 'index card' view of the inspector is the place for your synopsis of the 'edit'.
The 'inspector' synopsis (or image) is the content that is displayed on the cork board view in Scrivener.

The various open panels can also be re-organised and populated 'on the fly' by dragging objects onto an editor pane's header bar (images, PDFs, text fragments). The editor that has the focus will have a blue header.

Use View > Editor > Lock in Place to make a view in either pane 'stick' to the current Binder item. I use this to keep the Scrivenings view of the whole document in the left pane. I then work with the right pane to edit individual binder items. You can also lock the group view mode too if you like.

Useful pages, pointers and references
The Scrivener tutorial
Organizing Creativity blog
The Digital Researcher blog
Tim Brandes blog
*** JStor article on writing using Scrivener and Zotero

IS&O 2016: An evaluation of conference review systems...

Having reviewed the following:

• Springer OCS: the Online Conference Service - https://ocs.springer.com/ocs/
• ScholarOne (Sage / Thomson Reuter's integrated conference review/publication system). This system incorporates the old Manuscript Central application.
• EasyChair - http://easychair.org/

Conclusions

I recommend going with Springer OCS

1. It is FREE for us to use due to our publication contract.
2. It is linked to Springer's systems for publishing proceedings, 
3. It offers a fully featured call-review-to-publication cycle
4. It easily supports the session structure proposed in supports the "draft conference schedule" with the "Sessions" feature
5. It has standard built in roles (PC chair, PC Member, Author, Submitter, Reviewer, Subreviewer)
• Important: PC chairs have admin rights to the OCS whereas PC Members have access to all content. In general volunteer reviewers should NOT be assigned to the PC Member role.
6. It offers an internal discussion area and internal message system if needed
7. It offers user self-subscription, password reset and fine grained permission control (via roles).
8. Basically we'd be mad not to use it.

For further information on the OCS feature list have a look at:
www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-447109-0

Steps

Assuming we use OCS our committee members will need to register an account in the system.Even if you have another Springer account you will probably need to register for directly to OCS.

1. Register your preferred email/account at
https://ocs.springer.com/ocs/

2. Having done that the current PC Chair will be able to subscribe you to the IS&O 2016 account (ifip_WG8-2_WC_2016).
https://ocs.springer.com/ocs/home/ifip_WG8-2_WC_2016

3. Next step is to discuss and agree conference milestone dates. The following placeholders dates are indicative e.g.:
Phase:____________________ Deadline
Abstract Submission:______ May 11, 2016 (including posters, work-in-progess and position papers)
Paper Upload:_____________ May 11, 2016
Assignment of Reviewers:__ May 20, 2016 (assignment of AEs and reviewers)
Review period ends:_______ Jun 17, 2016
Decisions announced:______ Jul 5, 2016
Final copies:_____________ Sep 2, 2016

Consider working back from the final final deadline on the publication timeline?
For example, the finished manuscript copy for printing must arrive latest at Springer Heidelberg 7th Oct in order to guarantee availability of the books in Dublin, a couple of days before the conference starts.

4. Once members have registered accounts the PC Chair can modify permissions so that the roles are appropriate.

5. Once the conference is live any user will be able to submit a paper, and submit revisions, via:
https://ocs.springer.com/ocs/conference/submitpaperto/ifip_WG8-2_WC_2016

Paper Submission

The OCS enrolment / submission process provides authors with the following messages (email & and internal account message log):

1.  [OCS] Registration of new user account successful

ocs-admin@springer.com 9:45 PM (12 hours ago) Dear Firstname Surname,
A new user account was successfully registered for you. This email address was used:
(an email address)
If you ever should forget your password, you can request a new one here:
( https://ocs.springer.com/ocs/ForgotPassword/)

2. (optional) [OCS] Set New Password

Dear Firstname Surname,
Please follow the link to set a new password:
(password reset url)

3. [ifip82dublin_2016] Please verify post-processed document for [Your Document Title]

Dear Firstname Surname,
Recently a new document was uploaded for your paper        
  'Your Document Title'
In order to enhance compatibility with different PDF-Viewers, the uploaded document has been post-processed.  Please verify the post-processed document here:
  https://ocs.springer.com/ocs/conference/paper/verifydocument/ifip_WG8-2_WC_2016/URL
If there are any display errors or other problems please contact the PC Chair of this conference:
  https://ocs.springer.com/ocs/conference/contactpcchair/ifip_WG8-2_WC_2016

4. [ifip82dublin_2016] Submission received

Dear Firstname Surname,
Recently you submitted your paper
   'Your Document Title'
to the conference        
   'ifip WG8.2 Working Conference Dublin 2016'.
Please follow the link below to view the paper's detail page:
  https://ocs.springer.com/ocs/conference/paper/view/ifip_WG8-2_WC_2016/URL
Enclosed please find a schedule of the conference:
   1. Paper Submission (Until May 11, 2016 23:59 IST)
       Paper Upload (Until May 11, 2016 23:59 IST)
   2. Assignment of Reviewers (Until May 20, 2016 23:59 IST)
   3. Review (Until June 17, 2016 23:59 IST)
       Decision (Until July 5, 2016 23:59 IST)
   4. Final (Until September 2, 2016 23:59 IST)

Roles

The following User Roles are described in the OCS User Guide
The Program Committee Chair (PC Chair): is the head of the program committee of a conference. The PC Chair and all Co-Chairs are given this role. These people have full editorial control. PC chairs also have admin rights to the OCS 
Program Committee Member (PC Member): The program committee is the panel of voluntary users invited by the PC Chair. 

• Important: if reviewers are subsequently chosen out of this committee, they should have their role reassigned from PC Member role to Reviewer role. This is because PC Members have wider access to OCS content. 

Author: Along with the submission of a paper a list of authors is provided. Additionally an author may be marked as a corresponding author, thus receiving all mails sent by the system regarding the paper.
Submitter: In many cases a secretary’s office or another representative submits a paper instead of one of the authors. Therefore the submitter role enables to file a paper for someone else, without having an author conflict with the paper. Since an author is prejudiced against his own paper, an author conflict prohibits that the user can be assigned as a reviewer to the paper, for example.
Reviewer & Subreviewer: These are our volunteers, conducting anonymous reviews anonymously. Very large conferences may also employ subreviewers to cope.

Information on manuscripts and submissions

The LNCS Web homepage that contains the following "Information for Authors of Computer Science Publications":
http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0

There is also a page for volume editors of proceedings volumes:
http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-791222-0
This page contains instructions for a more traditional workflow (read: without usage of the OCS). Nevertheless you will learn something about the overall process of publishing proceedings volumes within Springer's LNCS and its associate series.

The LaTeX support for authors can be found at
ftp://ftp.springer.de/pub/tex/latex/llncs/latex2e/llncs2e.zip

CS Proceedings and Other Multiauthor Volumes - Using Office 2007 Word are supported by
ftp://ftp.springer.de/pub/tex/latex/llncs/word/splnproc1110.zip

Predecessor conference proceedings:
IS&O 2014, held in Auckland, New Zealand (http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-662-45708-5)

Q: Now that we've got submissions what do we do?

Bidding and Assignment
These phases start simultaneously after the abstract submission phase has been stopped. The assignment phase ends after the bidding phase.

Bidding: A Program Committee Member (PC Chair and/or PC Member) bids for or rejects becoming a reviewer of a paper. If he doesn’t express his position he will be marked as indifferent. One way of running this is for the track chairs, associate editors or similar supervisory role to bid first. Then the AE/Chair takes responsibility for assignment of other reviewers (see below). OCS also has the possibility of an automated and market-style mode for PC Members to engage in bidding to review papers.

Assignment: A Program Committee Chair (PC Chair) assigns PC Members to papers. An assigned PC Member becomes a reviewer of the respective paper.

Explore Animation at the UK's NFTS

My notes on the Explore Animation MOOC on FutureLearn from the UK's NFTS.

Week 1:
The animation or film that inspired me?
I'm not sure it's an animation as such but I remember being completely taken in the opening scenes of Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927). The special and visual effects team present us with a glowing misty cityscape of the future; advertisements light a busy scene of towering buildings interlinked by extravagant bridges full of traffic (they still have traffic jams in the future) and aircraft weaving between them in the air. Not quite a tilt-shift effect but it hinted at scale and depth, and definitely appeared to be a 3D space. I guess it combined both models and artwork, probably painstakingly rendered on the film cells or perhaps overlaid with a second strip of film. The effects were compelling, believable, the execution decades ahead of its time until echoed in the beautifully atmospheric Blade Runner (1982).

A definition of animation?
To breath life into an inanimate object/art/model/simulation. Manipulating a puppet or toy for one of my children, I might even be visibly there holding its arms, but its movement draws their eye away from me, the puppeteer, and I know my audience is focusing (knowingly) on the object. There is a fleeting magic, momentary, I can see them believing and I get to believe it too.


Follow up films.

Any Studio Ghibli production.

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
Bagpuss (1974)
The Jungle Book (1967)
Fantastic Planet (1973)

The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912)
Hedgehog in the Fog(1975)