Yesterday I learned how to change the margin of the PDF file Pandoc
generates. But I forgot about the paper size. I live in the
Netherlands and A4 is the common format here. First, I wanted to know
how to check the current paper size of a PDF file. This can be done on
the macOS command line as follows:
mdls freecodecamp.pdf |
grep -i page
This reports the number of pages, the height (792 for US letter) and
width (612 for US letter). The values are in PostScript points; 1"
equals 72 points or 8.5" × 11" for US letter.
How to change this? Well, it turns out that with one Pandoc variable
one can control both the margin and the paper size:
-V geometry="margin=1in,a4paper"
So the command for generating the PDF via Pandoc in a Docker container
and viewing the output in the Preview application on macOS becomes:
In the evening I wanted to know at what time exactly I had run a
specific command on the command line of macOS. Could I get the history
of commands entered on the command line with each a time stamp? The
answer is yes, with fc (Fix Command):
fc -li 1
This lists (-l) the history from the start (1) with time stamps in ISO8601
format (-i). Note that without the 1 you get the last maximum 16
commands.
Now I could grep the output of this command. But wait, fc comes with
a match option (-m):
fc -li -m 'docker*' 1
This lists all events in the history that starts with docker and
shows the ISO8601 time stamp.
Today my copy of Effective Python Third
Edition
arrived. The book by Brett Slatkin has 125 specific ways to write
better Python.
Effective Python, third edition.
I browsed the book a bit and it looks very good! I like
how the program listings have colors. After I have finished the Python Certification course on
freeCodeCamp I want either start in
this book or continue with the 2nd edition of Fluent
Python
by Luciano Ramalho. I have reread the first two chapters of the
latter. Quite some time ago I managed to study the book until about
halfway. But I want to redo this.
Yesterday I learned how to generate a PDF file with the official
Pandoc LaTeX Docker image on macOS. The resulting PDF looked good, but
has a huge margin around the body of text. Today I created a
header.tex file with the following contents to be passed on to LaTeX:
Last week I started with the Python Certification course on
freeCodeCamp. I keep handwritten
notes on paper which I transfer later to a Markdown file using vim.
I wanted to convert this Markdown file to a PDF file using
Pandoc. Because I have already
Docker running on my Mac mini I checked if
there was an official Docker image.
I first tried the Pandoc
minimal image. I ran into
an issue: Permission denied. Adding -v /tmp:/tmp to the command
solved this issue, but now it reported 'pdflatex' not found. This
version was too minimal!
So, next I tried the aptly named
latex image as follows:
docker run --rm \
-v "$(pwd):/data"\
-u $(id -u):$(id -g) \
pandoc/latex freecodecamp.md \
-o freecodecamp.pdf &&
open freecodecamp.pdf
This downloaded the image (only the first time), generated the PDF and
opened the PDF file in the Preview application on macOS.
In the evening Esme wanted to watch La Casa de las Flores - La
Película (The House of Flowers: The
Movie). I didn't like the
movie much, probably also because I haven't seen the TV series. I rate
it a 5 out of 10.
A couple (Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani) experiences a defining
moment in their relationship when they are unintentionally embroiled
in a murder mystery.
In the evening Esme and I watched The
Lovebirds. The movie was OK
and I rate it a 6 out of 10.
Three film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to
film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only
their footage behind.
In the evening Jaiden, Alice, Esme, and I watched The Blair Witch
Project. I had seen the movie
many years ago but still liked it and rate it a 7 out of 10.
A group of friends venture deep into the streets of New York on a
rescue mission during a rampaging monster attack.
In the early evening Jaiden, Esme, and I watched
Cloverfield. I had picked the
movie because Jaiden had picked
Backrooms
recently, hoping that she would like the movie, which she did. Even
Alice watched parts. I liked seeing the movie once more and rate it a
7 out of 10.
A young woman is held in an underground bunker by a man who insists
that a hostile event has left the surface of the Earth
uninhabitable.
After watching Cloverfield, Esme and I took Lina the cat with us to get
some candy from a nearby supermarket. On the way to the store Esme
carried Lina in a bag. On the way back the skies turned dark and it
looked like it was going to rain soon. Lina didn't want to be carried
anymore and hissed at Esme so she let the cat walk on a leash. The
last part to the house, Lina ran. A few rain drops were falling.
After this break Jaiden, Esme, and I watched 10 Cloverfield
Lane, another movie I had
picked for Jaiden. And she liked this one even more. I also liked to
watch the movie again and rate it a 7 out of 10.
Centuries ago, a maverick terraforming team played God with a
distant planet. Out of their vanity and spite, something terrible
and unexpected arose.
Generations later, tormented scientist Alis is among the crew of the
research vessel that rediscovers this lost outpost. But Alis wakes
from nightmares of her own making to an all-too-real catastrophe on
board. The rest of the crew has vanished – leaving only Cato, the
belligerent mantis-shrimp captain, and Kern, the ship’s AI.
Searching for their lost fellows, Alis and Cato must venture into
the darkness of the planet below. What did those ancient
terraformers unleash? And will their last surviving crewmate become
a greater threat than the world itself?
In the evening I started in Children of
Strife,
Children of Time novels book 4 by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
After a therapist's patient disappears into a dimension beyond
reality, she must venture into the unknown to save him.
Near the end of the afternoon Jaiden, Esme, and I took a bus to Delft
to watch Backrooms. Jaiden
wanted to see this movie. Originally, we had planned to watch it last
Saturday but we forgot to take Jaidens ID with us; you have to be 16
to watch this movie in the Netherlands.
After we had nourished ourselves we went to the movie theatre only to
discover that our ticket was not valid. It turned out that I had
ordered tickets for the wrong movie theatre! But it was no problem to
change the tickets.
The movie: in the beginning it was very shaky footage which was hard
to handle for me. But then the movie got more steady and became
interesting. In the end, I rate it a 7 out of 10.
A covert team of elite operatives are living in the shadows. When a
ruthless despot steals a billion-dollar fortune, they're sent to
take it back-an impossible heist that erupts into a deadly game of
strategy, deception and survival.
In the evening Esme and I watched In the
Grey. At first I didn't like
the movie much: too chaotic. But then it got better and I even rate it
an 8 out of 10.
The Pnume are native to Tschai, living underground in a vast network
of caverns with their human slave-species, the Pnumekin. Historians
of Tschai, the Pnume collect its past with scholarly disinterest;
they hear rumors of Adam Reith - a man who claims to come from
another planet, named Earth - and they want him for permanent
display in Foreverness, museum of Tschai life! Reith must survive
the Pnume tunnels, if he is ever to return to Earth.
In the evening I started in The
Pnume, part 4 of 4 of
Tschai by Jack Vance. The ebook I had downloaded has cover art
by David Russell.
