Travel, Tech, Thoughts…
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R – Combining Data from Two Variables
(NOTE: This was done in R 4.3.1 using RStudio 2023.03.0.) Here’s the scenario: I have a variable (V1) from Country A with roughly ~1,000 responses that measures religious affiliation with the following options: To be clear, there are no responses to V1 from the participants in the other country (Country B), only from individuals from…
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ChatGPT – checking for personally identifying information
I recently hired a panel survey company to conduct surveys in several countries around the world. With some of the questions, we gave participants the option to select “other” and then fill in the blank. Given the ethics approval that we have for the data, we are not allowed to retain any data that could…
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ZFS – disk upgrade/replacement
I built my own Network Attached Storage (NAS) computer a few years ago but have been looking for an opportunity to upgrade the hard drives so I have more space. Leading up to Black Friday, I found a deal for 10TB drives that finally led me to pull the trigger (roughly $80 per drive). They…
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NoMachine Freezing on Xubuntu 22.04
I have a headless fileserver that runs XFCE (Xubuntu). I recently reformatted the operating system (transferring my files in a ZFS raid to the new operating system rather seamlessly). But the software I use within my local network to access the fileserver, NoMachine, started having problems. Basically, I could access my machine, but the NoMachine…
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Plex – Video Optimization & Converted Files Permissions
I was traveling with my wife and son, staying at an AirBnB a few states away from home, and wanted to watch some videos from my Plex server (server software version: 1.32.5.7349) using an Amazon Fire Stick on a Samsung TV. When I tried to play the videos using the Plex app on the Fire…
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Taiwan – Yushan (Jade Mountain)
I’ve climbed a fair number of mountains and completed many hikes, but none has been so embroiled in bureaucratic bullshit and red tape as was Yushan (a.k.a. Jade Mountain). Typically, when I write up a description of my hikes, it’s just that – the hike. But I’m going to use this page to detail how…
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Nexis Uni – Date Search Limited to 1 Year, No Issue Browsing, and No Obituaries
I’m a college professor. As a result, I have access to a number of research resources that most people don’t have, including my university’s library, which subscribes to numerous databases to help me and my colleagues (and our students) with our research. I was looking for some very specific information from the Los Angeles Times…
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Prague Day 9 – Debi’s Tour and a “Medieval” Dinner
Debi’s workshop was over and she had one day to see some of the things she had missed in Prague. I had been telling her about my adventures throughout the week. From my adventures, we came up with a list of highlights: Museum of Communism, Speculum Alchemiae, and the Waldstein Gardens. We also managed to…
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Prague Day 8 – Libraries and La Sylphide
This was the last day of Debi’s workshop. I had the day free and decided I’d try to visit two things in Old Town I’d missed: the Idiom art installation in the Municipal Library and the Clementinum library and observatory. Also, this was the first day when the weather was actually summer-like. It was sunny…
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Prague – Walking Tours (free, downloadable guides)
We had a chance to spend just over a week in Prague, Czechia in the spring of 2023. My wife was participating in a workshop and, while I had a lot of work I needed to do while I was there (I was supposed to be on vacation), I did have a chance to explore…