…alternate bursts of action with a lot of bureaucratic somnolence and the filling-out of forms…[x]

Explained in plain English by The Thingiverse in-house lawyer.

[DISCLAIMER] Does not work (yet). Some issues with the PATH. More to come.

Issue: You have scanned a A5 format book flat open on the A4 scanner bed. You therefore have a pdf book of landscape A4 pages, each containing 2xA5 pages side by side. How can you switch to a A4 format with one (book) pageper (pdf) page, and in portrait orientation?

1. install LaTeX (texlive is the package available for ubuntu) latest version (TeX Live 2011)
   

   sudo apt-add-repository ppa:texlive-backports/ppa
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install texlive

2. install PDFjam
   

   sudo apt-get install pdfjam

3. install pdftex
   

   sudo wget http://sarovar.org/frs/download.php/1292/pdftex-1.40.10.tar.bz2 ~/Downloads/
   sudo tar -xvf ~/Downloads/pdftex-1.40.10.tar.bz2
   sudo mkdir /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/pdftex-1.40.10
   sudo mv ~/Downloads/pdftex-1.40.10/ usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/pdftex-1.40.10

4. install eso-pic
   

   sudo wget http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/eso-pic.zip ~/Downloads/
   sudo unzip -d ~/Downloads/contrib/eso-pic.zip

   sudo mkdir /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/eso-pic
   sudo mv ~/Downloads/eso-pic/ usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/eso-pic/

5. install eso-piceveryshi
   

   sudo wget http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/ms.zip ~/Downloads/
   sudo unzip -d ~/Downloads/contrib/ms.zip
   sudo mkdir /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/ms
   sudo mv ~/Downloads/ms/ usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/ms/

6. install pdfpages
   

   sudo wget http://www.ctan.org/pkg/pdfpages ~/Downloads/
   sudo unzip -d ~/Downloads/contrib/pdfpages.zip
   sudo mkdir /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/pdfpages
   sudo mv ~/Downloads/pdfpages/ usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/pdfpages/

7. install pdfnup-gui (1.0.2)
   

   sudo wget http://qt-apps.org/CONTENT/content-files/134874-pdfnup-gui.tar.gz ~/Downloads/
   sudo tar -xvf ~/Downloads/134874-pdfnup-gui.tar.gz
   cd ~/Downloads/pdfnup-gui/
   ./configure
   make
   sudo make install

Also add PATH

Eric Au (a.k.a. metropolicity on EDCForums) is a photographer. Of the fashion and wedding type, but « hell bent on making the most organized and easiest to use photo pack in the galaxy« . Initial results: The Light Side & The Dark Side (which has some analogy with the Combo Blackjack Battery Brick ). He went on with his skills with a sewing machine to develop beltkits, which are described (and, of course, superbly photographed -beats Goruck!), which he calls -and markets- as SKINTH.

When you realize that people are paying, not for the music or the singer, but for the opportunity to be surrounded by thousands of other people who share an interest and have an excuse to enjoy themselves, then it doesn’t seem so insane.

They could honestly be paying $75 a ticket to watch paint dry, as long as there were thousands of other people getting really excited about watching the paint dry too. In pop music, particularly, it’s an event where the quality of the ‘merchandise’ is less important than the culture that surrounds it.

Amanda J in a comment to Every Concert Is A Hologram on MAKE

Meet the tPOD1 – thermoelectric Power On Demand the powers LEDs or USB chargers from tean candles, or even campfire! [Kickstarter]

Why the Arduino Won and Why It’s Here to Stay [Phillip Torrone at MAKE]

The kids I met at Maker Faire (…) have only known a world where a “maker” was always a real thing one can be or do. (…) The average maker isn’t just a 35 year old guy, it’s becoming a 10 year old girl or boy with a 3D printer. (…) These kids are living in a time when there’s $25 Raspberry Pi computer or an Arduino inside of just about anything. (…). Parents (…) talk(…) about how installing Linux on an old iPod or making a TV-B-Gone turned their kid into a different person, more curious about how the world works, and how they went on to pursue art, science, engineering. (…) I think the kids today will (…) “copy” our willingness to share and see the benefits of open source not only for technological advancements, but for social good.

Phillip Torrone in The Maker Movement Belongs To The Kids Now… at MAKE

When you realize that people are paying, not for the music or the singer, but for the opportunity to be surrounded by thousands of other people who share an interest and have an excuse to enjoy themselves, then it doesn’t seem so insane.

They could honestly be paying $75 a ticket to watch paint dry, as long as there were thousands of other people getting really excited about watching the paint dry too. In pop music, particularly, it’s an event where the quality of the ‘merchandise’ is less important than the culture that surrounds it.

Amanda J in a comment to Every Concert Is A Hologram on MAKE

Works out of the box but black TEXT appears blurry (black on pix looks fine). This is Bug #889306 HP LaserJet CP1025 and CP1025nw blurry print 3.11.[7 & 10 & 12] & 3.12.2. Easily fixed by upgrading hplip to HPLIP 3.12.4 (Ubuntu 12.04 ships with hplip 3.12.2). HowTo is here.