LJ, Fount of All Knowledge, I Ask Thee

[neadods]

Three questions:

1) I need to learn LINUX in a hurry. Any good books/online classes/websites to recommend?

2) I also need to learn LaTeX in a hurry. Any good books/online classes/websites/freeware downloads for PC you can recommend?

and, now for something completely different:

3) With my parents and I both scaling back on the amount of stuff in our houses, Christmas is going to be more than just "Unwrap presents. Eat." Any suggestions for other things to do on the day?

Comments

[moonpupy.livejournal.com]

3. Unwrap presents. Eat. Get the hell out of my house?

Or maybe that's just my family.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Not gonna work for this case.

[twistedchick]

The new Sherlock Holmes movie opens Christmas Day.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I can't quite imagine my elderly and somewhat conservative parents enjoying that. (Dad's comment on Lord of the Rings was "Too many dwarves.")

I am bringing them Up, which none of us has seen.

[twistedchick]

If my mother were still alive, I would have been taking her to see it -- and she would have been crazy about it. Even my cranky father might have liked it. Which is why I suggested it.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Be warned: Up is a thoroughly depressing film. I came out of the cinema feeling about ready to slit my throat :( Of course, what made it worse is that I'd been expecting something upbeat, more along the lines of Shrek or Monsters, Inc. I had no idea of the plot, so when it turned to heartbreak about ten minutes in I was... WTF?? I don't know whether it's supposed to be uplifting in the end, but it never got there for me.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Really? Everyone has been saying how wonderful it is. I didn't think Pixar did depressing films - although I have also heard that the montage of him losing his wife (I know about that) is heartwrenching.

[ct]

1. No, but if you have specific questions, feel free to ask. My skills about 15 months rusty, but I should be good for the basics.

2. First Steps in LATEX, by George Gratzer. Amazon.com should have it; tech-oriented bookstores might, if you've got one near you. It's aimed at people writing math papers, but it's general enough that between the book and some Googling I picked it up fine.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[j00j.livejournal.com]

I don't really use Linux, so am pretty useless for answering all but the most basic questions, but have a couple of tutorial links.

http://www.linux-tutorial.info/index.php
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/index (specific to Ubuntu)
http://www.freeos.com/articles/3102/ explains the Linux filesystem in a way designed to be friendly to Windows users.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[evil_plotbunny]

I'm mostly self taught, but when I've needed a book, I usually go for anything published by O'Reilly. I haven't done much with LaTeX, but there should be good tutorials out there.

If you need someone to bounce questions off of, I've been using Linux for over 12 years.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Right now I need to get up to speed on the most basic commands ASAP. It's no good to know that I can "man" without knowing what's in the manual to find.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

1. An insanely useful Linux command is "apropos". It will search descriptive text about the various commands on the system and show you all the commands that match. So, for example, you can type "apropos search" and get a list of all commands related to search. You can then use man to get more detail on the commands.

There's a handy Linux cheat-sheet somewhere out there on the 'net that I've pointed coworkers at when they need to get up to speed on the basics fast. I can't seem to lay my hands on the link right now, but I'll see if I can find it.

3. If the weather's nice at Christmas, we all go for a walk together. If the weather's not nice, we watch a movie, or play Trivial Pursuit or another board game.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[evil_plotbunny]

This might help.

I do recommend the O'Reilly "in a Nutshell" books for reference. Lovely if you've got a rough idea of what command you need and just need the syntax.

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Us Jew-types do Chinese food and movies. Passes the day.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The problem is I'm working uphill to change much. But I am doing movies!

[pyrae.livejournal.com]

Re LaTeX: a tutorial from MIT (http://snipurl.com/mit-latex) and a reference guide from Cambridge (http://snipurl.com/cam-latex). Links lifted directly from my prof's site.

What I have found to be a godsend: a LaTeX symbol finder (http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html). You draw the sign you want to make and it suggests the appropriate code.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

FABULOUS! Thank you!

[pyrae.livejournal.com]

No problem! My Math of CS prof this term thought it essential that we do all our homework in LaTeX, so I sympathize.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

cant help you with the "where to learn" but if you dont get what you need, poke me and i will ask my Linux guru friends.

as to item 3.
volunteer at a charity or soup kitchen
clean
carol singing
church
jigsaw puzzle (big one with my dad)
mass baking
go to a Jewish event, there always is one somewhere.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Good ideas, thank you!

About Christmas Day

[tchwrtr.livejournal.com]

The night before: Get in the car and go hunting the most garish lights possible. The Search for Tackianna is turning into a real tradition for us. *grin*

The day of: Sleep in. Wake up, have breakfast. Open presents. Be thankful to each other. Call other relatives/friends/prank calls. Go visit other people. Eat. Play with new toys. Clean up paper after ensuring cats aren't in said paper. Play with cats. Watch PBS/old Christmas movies. Play board games, put a puzzle together...together. Start a new, different tradition.

What do you want to do with your parents? Then do that. It's what the day is for. *grin*

Re: About Christmas Day

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Alas, the cats won't be with me, and the kittens would so love the paper!

I like the light hunting. That sounds like fun. And visiting.

I don't quite know what I want to do or they want to do. I've just been tasked to find another way to fill the day.

[shawan-7.livejournal.com]

Put together a photo album for your parents electronics - pix of the family.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Considering how many hours Mother put into pulling together all of the old photos, I'm not sure there are any left for me to do!

[raqs.livejournal.com]

String popcorn!

Make a quilt block or more out of clothes you wore at special events in your past that you're throwing out!

Scrabble!

we're party animals over here.