It was a little annoying to figure out how to login to IEEE Xplore using Harvard Libraries access.

(At MIT, so long as you are on “MIT SECURE” wireless network, you can go to http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/home.jsp and you will be automatically logged in under MIT Libraries).

The best method I found is that, after the domain name, but before the rest of the path, add in

.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu


For MIT Libraries, the equivalent is
libproxy.mit.edu

For instance, to access an IEEE Xplore article, I would put that snipped after the “.org” and before the forward slash.

Original URL
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7487538

New URL (HARVARD)

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/abstract/document/7487538/

New URL (MIT)

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.libproxy.mit.edu/abstract/document/7487538/

The URL will redirect you to login using your HarvardKey or MIT Kerberos if you’re using the libraries access for the first time.

In short:

Find the inkscape source, and an example page (in PDF) you can print, at github.

github.com/nouyang: Dot Grid Paper

preview

example notebooks

just stapling ~15 pages together at the top. the issue I found is not being able to tell which way the notebook flipped, and it being hard to flip through pages fast. Also, at 15 pages, I started accumulating “notebooks” really fast, and it wasn’t always very obvious the chronological order. The idea was to detach them, three hole punch, and stick them into a binder. I haven’t gotten around to that yet, and probably won’t ever since the semester is almost over…

using manila folders I found lying around, and a somewhat-industrial stapler across ~25 pages. i haven’t used this enough to think about pros and cons.

the overall con, though, is that now my notes are spread across five different notebooks…

before & after comparison

in detail

i reformatted to properly use clones and the clone tile factory in inkscape; and additionally, I decided on a different formatting for the “darker” lines (before, they evenly divided the page into 4 sections vertically).

Using the clone factory I thus just have two sizes of dots: small and large. And I can change opacity, color, size, stroke, etc. for *all* dots just by choosing editing those two “source” dots. If you’re having trouble finding them, just click on any dot and “shift+d” to find the source dot.

• http://www.linuxformat.com/wiki/index.php/Inkscape_-_cloning_and_tiling
• http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Tiles.html
• http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Clones.html

double-sided

pdftk tiled_clones_30.pdf tiled_clones_30.pdf output merged.pdf

printing notes

Print at high resolution (600×600 or greater), and the only b&w printers tend to have aliasing effects — and old toner cartridges tend to produce blemishes across the pages. Print with “no scale / no shrink to fit”.

example notebooks

just stapling ~15 pages together at the top. the issue I found is not being able to tell which way the notebook flipped, and it being hard to flip through pages fast. Also, at 15 pages, I started accumulating “notebooks” really fast, and it wasn’t always very obvious the chronological order. The idea was to detach them, three hole punch, and stick them into a binder. I haven’t gotten around to that yet, and probably won’t ever since the semester is almost over…

using manila folders I found lying around, and a somewhat-industrial stapler across ~25 pages. i haven’t used this enough to think about pros and cons.

the overall con, though, is that now my notes are spread across five different notebooks…

before & after comparison

29 Jan 2018 edit: I can confirm that, despite JP Licks being an ice cream store, the one in Harvard Square does indeed stock challah, and it’s the sweet and dense one that I like!

harvest co-op in central square used to (for many years) stock a type of challah i really enjoyed, up until the end of 2016.

but for a long while, they haven’t stocked it. i even went so far as to ask when it comes in (wed afternoon), but never saw it again.

it’s this very dense and sweet type of challah, and pulls apart nicely (though still produces lots of crumbs like all challah, and probably all baked goods). i don’t particularly like non-sweet challah.

i finally decided to look up what i had and where else i might find it. inspired by a recent trip to NYC (brooklyn, to visit my awesome cousins). there i found in every corner store some challah — specifically “egg challah” and “raisin challah”. I knew it was the right kind when I saw that the second ingredient, right after flour, was sugar. :]

after some digging in my google chats history… i found this

which i then cross-referenced against “best challah in boston“. although the text is illegible in my picture, the brand / logo was easily recognizable as the first name in the list:

http://cherylannsbakery.com

now, i need to find it in another store. ideally somewhere conveniently located — there’s one next to the target near union square, i guess. also, ideally, not $7 a loaf… the challah in NYC, while not as tasty, was $4. which is good considering that i can go through three loaves in three days. (it’s less dense, aka less moist. it’s probably just as sweet though).

now, challah dipped into a cup of chai… heaven.