Tech
This is probably only of interest to myself and a few others.
I spent more time today to move my Daynotes outline from Dave Winer’s oldSchoolBlog app, which is the blog CMS for Drummer, to pagePark. As I initially reported yesterday, attempts to load my OldSchool site is now returning a “The file name contains illegal characters” message, and the browser terminal shows the web server is returning a 400 status. I strong suspect that the use of my email address in the directory path of the rendered web pages is causing the problem.
To work around this I configured my instance of pagePark to render the original blog public outline but noticed that pagePark seems to have problems rendering nodes with type values. Today I decided to create a new OPML file. I copied all of the January items to it, made it public, and configured pagePark to render it instead. The direct URL is https://info.frankmcpherson.net/Daynotes.opml and I have configured my simpler forwarder URL, http://daynotes.frankm.info to forward to that URL.
In this configuration, my instance of pagePark is mirroring this new OPML file that is stored at drummer.land/frank.mcp… Note that this URL also has a “fully formed” email address in it, and thus my fear is whatever update that may have occurred on the server hosting oldschool.scripting.com might end up on drummer.land and the same problem will re-appear. I think if that happens that may break many publicly shared OPML scripts created using Drummer.
A work around that I have direct control over is figuring out a way to host the OPML file on my own server rather than on drummer.land, but right now I cannot think of a nice automated way to do that. I can download all my OPML files from Drummer to my PC but that requires manual steps. For now I will cross that bridge when I get to it.
Something has happened with the server hosting my Daynotes site, it is running a 400 Bad Request and it looks like there has been a change blocking a GET for a URL with an email address that has been working in the past. The url is oldschool.scripting.com/frank.mcp… I have created a redirect from my own instance of pagePark so that I can access the file and this is only useful for me.
In 2010 I wrote this in reaction to the first iPad announcement. It really didn’t age well.
For myself, I am waiting to learn more about the HP Slate, which HP and Microsoft announced at CES. From what I can tell, it will run Windows 7 that supports touch input, however, what I really want is a slate that supports both touch and stylus (digitizer) input because I want to write notes in digital ink and store them in Evernote.
My First Mechnical Keyboard
I just received my first mechanical keyboard, the Keychron C3 Pro, and this is the first blog post that I am writing with it. It is a relatively inexpensive keyboard, so a good first one to try out. This Keychron has brown switches and what comes to mind when I press them is they feel like I am pressing on rows of blocks.
I have been using the Logitech MX Keys keyboard, which has a much lower profile than this Keychron keyboard and I am starting to notice the difference in my arms. I’ve raised my chair to better position my arms and wrists over the keyboard.
I think I have to give this keyboard a period of time before making a decision about whether I like it or not. It is certainly different, but not sure whether this is a good or bad difference.
Using Obsidian With Viwoods AI Paper Mini
Ever since I got the Viwoods AI Paper Mini I have been developing processes for using it with Obsidian, which I use for my second brain. At present I have Obsidian installed on the tablet but I do not use it for writing on the tablet. I do have Obsidian Sync running on the tablet but not syncing all of my oldest notes imported from Evernote.
Have three Papers (notebooks) that I am exporting from the tablet in to Obsidian and I am doing this in two ways. I am using a Viwoods Sync Obsidian plugin, which is currently in development, to import PNG images of the notebook pages in to Obsidian which I can then view and link to from other Obsidian notes. The plugin uses the Viwoods native .note file as input, creates PNG image files of the pages, and then creates an Obsidian note (markdown) page with the image embedded.
For the second export method I am using the AI Text Conversion function of the Viwoods Papers app to create ASCII text of my handwriting. The AI feature uses the Gemini Pro Version 3 model and I manually select one more more pages for conversion. I find the Gemini Pro does the best job of converting my handwriting. I copy the result to the clipboard, switch to Obsidian on the tablet, open the note in which I am storing the text version of the notebook and paste the text in. After the updated note syncs to my desktop computer I then edit what I pasted to correct what is usually a small number of errors.
Finally, in the correct areas of the text version of the note I insert links to the image file, created by the Viwoods Sync plugin, that is the source of the text. I can then open image side-by-side with the text with a right-click of the link and Split Pane right.
In feedback I provided to the developers of the Viwoods Sync plugin I asked if they could do OCR of the notes as part of the sync process, which they suggest might be a feature they add in the future. The issue for that part of the plugin might be the quality of the handwriting recognition.
Raspberry Pi USB Gadget
Back in 2019 I learned about and testing using a Raspberry Pi as an accessory to an iPad. The idea is useful for people who want a local Linux terminal on an iPad rather than making a remote connection to one on a server. People who use terminal apps like vi or emacs and developer tools are the ones who find this the most useful.
The process involves connecting a Raspberry Pi to an iPad via USB-C cable, and software on the Raspberry Pi make the USB-C connection function like an ethernet network connection. You get an IP address that you can use to login to the Pi using SSH, at which point then have access to all the tools available in the Raspberry Pi OS. If a VNC Server is running on the Pi you can even get a desktop connect using a VNC Viewer.
The instructions for setting this all up,, in which is called USB Gadget Mode, are not daunting but take a little bit of work. Today I learned that the functionality for USB Gadget Mode is now available directly in the Raspberry PI OS.
E-ink Tablet Lock-in
In a YouTube video the developer of My Deep Guide, which is a robust PDF organizer template for e-ink devices, talked about the issue of e-ink device lock-in. The issue is that when you use a brand of device, say Remarkable or Boox, there is not a way to move your data from one device brand to another. The only file formats common to all device types are PDF and ePub but that does not provide for extraction of the information within those file types.
The problem is not just with moving from one vendor to another, but affects searching for one’s writing, which requires some form of indexing of the handwritten data such that a search can be run. I touch on this issue in my recent post in which I describe using Google NotebookLM to search for what I write on my Viwoods AIPaper Mini tablet.
As I understand it, what one writes on the Viwoods tablet is translated to vector graphics data that is stored in a file on the device. Viwoods, like Boox, uses a “.note” extension for these file names and those files even sync to my Google Drive. The problem is, there is no application provided by Viwoods to read those files and thus provide a way to search within the files.
The problem here is very similar to about 40 years ago when word processors like Microsoft Word and WordPerfect were developed and used proprietary file formats. Back then the only way to view and thus search within your writing was to open the files in their original application, you couldn’t read Word files in WordPerfect or vice versa. Years later this issue became moot as application vendors reverse engineered the file formats so that files could be moved between word processor brands. Many people vow to avoid any possible word processor vendor lock in by only storing their writing in plain text that may use markdown for formatting.
I think the ideal for tablets would be a standard data file format for handwritten notes that either the tablet providers used natively or at the very least provided for exporting. PDF exports are the equivalent to printing a document and saving that hardcopy as an archive/backup, it provides a bare minimum but quickly becomes unwieldy as the number of documents and pages within them increase. We really need fully searchable formats to allow us to retrieve information from our writing.
Use Google Drive And NotebookLM With Viwoods AIPaper Mini
I recently started using the Viwoods AIPaper Mini, which is an e-ink tablet with an 8-inch black and white display that is optimized for reading and writing. The reason I bought this device is that I wanted a smaller and more portable tablet for reading and writing than the Boox Note Air 3C I have been using.
The AIPaper Mini, like most e-ink tablets, is designed to provide the ability to write notes by hand in a manner that feels like writing on paper. The handwritten input is usually stored as vector graphics data in a format known to the software on the tablet. Unfortunately there isn’t a standard file format for this data and Viwoods does not provide a way to read those files, which have a .note extension, via a desktop or web application. Fortunately, Viwoods does generate PDFs of notes that reproduces the handwriting as seen on the device display, so exporting or syncing of the generated PDF files is primary means for archiving and retrieving information captured using the device.
Translating Handwriting To Text
The Viwoods AIPaper Mini
I have installed the beta of iPadOS 26 on my 4th generation iPad Air but I have not spent much time with it. What I have noticed right away is that it seems to be much faster or more responsive. Another thought is that I don’t think the UI changes will be useful/visible when not using a physical keyboard and mouse. I wonder what iPadOS 26 will be like on the iPad Mini?
Learned about Widgets for Obsidian via @dhry@mastodon.social and installed on the iPad Mini. Created a widget to create a quick note and another to open the ToDo page in my Obisidian vault.
I wish that my RSS feed reader could filter out items behind a pay wall, or at least flag them in some way. It would also be nice if bloggers either didn’t link to stuff behind pay walls or at least indicate that a subscription is required. I think it is ironic how Dave frequently argues against the burden of pay walls and also frequently shares links to stories that are behind pay walls.
Over the course of my career the company I work for has provided me a number of different computers to do my job, most of them have been pretty cheap devices. However, for a period of time I was provided with IBM Thinkpads including the 701c that had a unique, expanding, “butterfly” keyboard. It has been a long time since I have thought about that computer, but today I read a description of how one was restored. Nobody tries changes to physical designs of computers like they did back in the day.
I learned via HPC Factor that Microsoft’s extended support for Windows CE 8 has come to an end, completing the embedded operating system’s 26+ year life span. Windows CE was the operating system for the Handheld and Pocket PCs that I moved to after Steve Jobs orphaned the Apple Newton MessagePad. The operating system not only powered my favorite mobile devices in the early 2000s but it also was a platform for which I wrote four editions of my books.
I don’t understand why Satya Nadella ever agreed to have Microsoft re-enter the smartphone market. Three years ago they produced the Surface Duo, an expensive dual screen smartphone / tablet that runs Android. Problem was at the time it first started being sold it ran a year old version of Android and never got current. It was clear early on that Microsoft was not committed to it.
Last year I bought a Duo for just under $300, nearly $1,000 less than it first cost. At that price, it’s a nice device though too heavy to be an every day carry. I find it most useful for monitoring my two fantasy football teams on Sundays.
Recently Microsoft announced they will not be providing updates, so its now an orphan.
It has been so long since I have used Google Reader that I have forgotten why it was so valuable. Now I keep seeing the same articles in my feeds, which is why it’s so important for the new stuff to appear at the top.
Putting this here so that it’s not forgotten. Thanks to Patrick Rhone for sharing. Love Notes to Newton - Full Movie - Official - YouTube. The Newton MessagePad was the first Apple product I ever owned, after coveting a Mac for many years, and it had a significant impact on my life including being a published author.
I’ve set up Joplin to be my digital scrapbook / repository to possibly replace Evernote. A big part of the process was getting OneDrive to run in a Virtual Desktop that I can use during the workday. I using OneDrive to sync my Joplin notebooks between all my devices, including Android, iPadOS, MacOS, and Linux.
My virtual desktop has been LXQT on Ubuntu 20.04 in a LXC container hosted by Proxmox, but I can’t get OneDrive to work due to its use of FUSE. Consequently, I built a VM running Ubuntu 20.04 to and got OneDrive and Joplin working. Only problem is that I can’t get TigerVNC server to behave as a service, it seems to lock up the VM after some time.
I’ve tried running TigerVNC as a service in Ubuntu 22.04 and Debian 12 and it won’t even start.
I like sharing pictures on this blog and I wish that micro.blog had a simple way for creating photo albums. I just returned from a trip and I would love to be able to upload pictures that I took during the trip to a separate page that I can just link to rather than post all the pictures to the main blog page. What I desire is to batch upload a bunch of photos, be prompted for a date and place and have the software automatically make a photo page. The only photos plug-ins involve changes to the “default” photos page or converting a blog to something like Instagram.
I am not very sophisticated in managing my photos, they upload automatically to Google Photos and I use Syncthing to make a local backup. I can, and do, make albums in Google Photos, which used to be made automatically but no longer do.