Complete re-write

Over the years I have tried drupal, wordpress and more recently hugo + ox-hugo and in that category have tried a few different themes, but often came up against an issue after some time. Perhaps a hugo update had broken certain aspects of the theme or to get it to do what I wanted was time consuming so this time no messing, no fancy export requirements just plain emacs, publish and orgmode.

It has to be stated I would not be here without refering to Dan Liden's guide and github info in fact most of this is a copy of what is there but I have modified certain aspects and more recently ran it through chatGPT to only publish if a file has changed which along with a couple of other tweaks seriously increased the file size.

  1:  ;;  org-site/build-site.el
 2: ( defun  my/get-preview (file)
 3:    "get preview text from a file
 4: 
 5: Uses the function here as a starting point:
 6: https://ogbe.net/blog/blogging_with_org.html"
 7:   ( with-temp-buffer
 8:     (insert-file-contents file)
 9:     (goto-char (point-min))
10:     ( when (re-search-forward  "^#\\+BEGIN_PREVIEW$" nil 1)
11:       (goto-char (point-min))
12:       ( let ((beg (+ 1 (re-search-forward  "^#\\+BEGIN_PREVIEW$" nil 1)))
13:             (end ( progn (re-search-forward  "^#\\+END_PREVIEW$" nil 1)
14:                         (match-beginning 0))))
15:         (buffer-substring beg end)))))

 ( defun  my/org-publish-org-sitemap-format (entry style project)
   "Format sitemap entries using #+DESCRIPTION."
  ( cond
   ((not (directory-name-p entry))
    ( let* ((full-path (expand-file-name entry  "./content"))
           (preview ( or (my/org-get-description full-path)
                         "(No description)")))
      (format  "[[file:%s][(%s) %s]]\n%s"
              entry
              (format-time-string  "%Y-%m-%d"
                                  (org-publish-find-date entry project))
              (org-publish-find-title entry project)
              preview)))
   ((eq style 'tree)
    (file-name-nondirectory
     (directory-file-name entry)))
   (t entry)))

 
 ;;          BUILD SCRIPT START
 ;;                 │
 ;;                 ▼
 ;;     Find all content/*.org
 ;;                 │
 ;;                 ▼
 ;;    Ignore sitemap.org/drafts
 ;;                 │
 ;;                 ▼
 ;;  Compare .org → corresponding .html
 ;;                 │
 ;;      ┌──────────┴──────────┐
 ;;      │                     │
 ;;   unchanged             changed
 ;;      │                     │
 ;;      ▼                     ▼
 ;;  do nothing          org-publish
 ;;                            │
 ;;                            ▼
 ;;                       sitemap
 ;;                            │
 ;;                            ▼
 ;;                         RSS

  ;;;  org-website-publish.el --- Build script -*- lexical-binding: t; -*-

( require ' package)

 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  Package configuration
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

( setq package-user-dir
      (expand-file-name  "./.packages"))

( setq package-archives
      '(( "gnu"   .  "https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/")
        ( "melpa" .  "https://melpa.org/packages/")))

 ;;  Prefer GNU ELPA for Org and other packages available from
 ;;  both archives.
( setq package-archive-priorities
      '(( "gnu"   . 20)
        ( "melpa" . 10)))

 ;;  Do not activate a previously installed Org 9.5 package here.
 ;;  Its startup code emits the obsolete Org-ELPA closure warning
 ;;  before we have had a chance to install the GNU ELPA version.
( let ((package-load-list
       '(all
         (org nil))))
  (package-initialize))

 ;;  Refresh on every build so the Org descriptor is current and
 ;;  definitely comes from the archives configured above, rather
 ;;  than from stale Org-ELPA metadata cached by an older script.
(message  "Refreshing GNU ELPA and MELPA package archives")
( condition-case err
    (package-refresh-contents)
  ( error
   (message  "Package refresh failed: %s" err)))

( let* ((org-entry
        (assq 'org package-archive-contents))
       (org-desc
        ( cond
         (( and org-entry
               (package-desc-p (cdr org-entry)))
          (cdr org-entry))
         (( and org-entry
               (package-desc-p (cadr org-entry)))
          (cadr org-entry)))))

  ( if ( or (not org-desc)
          (not (equal
                (package-desc-archive org-desc)
                 "gnu")))
       ;;  A network or archive failure should not prevent the site
       ;;  from being built. Continue with the newest Org already
       ;;  available to this Emacs invocation.
      (message
        "Org was not found in GNU ELPA metadata; using the installed/bundled version")

     ;;  A bundled Org satisfies a plain `  package-installed-p ' check.
     ;;  Compare against the archive version explicitly so the newest
     ;;  available Org package is installed when necessary.
    ( unless (package-installed-p
             'org
             (package-desc-version org-desc))
      ( let ((package-install-upgrade-built-in t))
        (package-install org-desc)))))

 ;;  Org was deliberately excluded from the initial activation.
 ;;  Activate the newest installed Org now that the GNU ELPA
 ;;  installation/upgrade step has finished.
(package-activate 'org)

( dolist (pkg '(htmlize ess ox-rss webfeeder esxml))
  ( unless (package-installed-p pkg)
    (package-install pkg)))


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  Required packages
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

( require ' org)
(message  "Using Org version %s" (org-version))
( require ' ox-publish)
( require ' ox-rss)
( require ' webfeeder)
( require ' esxml)
( require ' json)
( require ' seq)
( require ' subr-x)


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  Site constants
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

( defconst  my/org-site-base-url
   "https://leehalls.net")

( defconst  my/org-site-root
  (file-name-directory
   (file-truename
    ( or load-file-name
        default-directory))))


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  Utility functions
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

( defun  my/org-site--format-iso8601 (time)
   "Format TIME as an ISO-8601 UTC timestamp."
  ( when time
    (format-time-string
      "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"
     time
     t)))


( defun  my/org-site--collect-keyword (name)
   "Return the first Org keyword named NAME from the current buffer."
  ( let ((val
         (cdr
          (assoc-string
           name
           (org-collect-keywords (list name))
           t))))
    ( when val
      (car val))))


( defun  my/org-site--escape-html (s)
   "Escape the HTML-sensitive characters in S."
  ( when s
    (replace-regexp-in-string
      "[<>&\"]"
     ( lambda (c)
       ( pcase c
         ( "<"   "&lt;")
         ( ">"   "&gt;")
         ( "&"   "&amp;")
         ( "\""  "&quot;")))
     s
     t
     t)))


( defun  my/org-site--truncate (s n)
   "Truncate S to N characters."
  ( when s
    ( if (> (length s) n)
        (concat (substring s 0 n)  "…")
      s)))


( defun  my/org-site--abs-url (path)
   "Return PATH as an absolute URL."
  ( when path
    ( if (string-prefix-p  "http" path)
        path
      (concat
       my/org-site-base-url
        "/"
       (string-remove-prefix  "/" path)))))


( defun  my/org-site--file-contents (file)
   "Return the complete contents of FILE."
  ( with-temp-buffer
    (insert-file-contents file)
    (buffer-string)))


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  Additional HTML export settings
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

( setq org-html-validation-link nil
      org-html-htmlize-output-type 'css
      org-html-style-default
      (my/org-site--file-contents
       (expand-file-name
         "assets/head.html"
        my/org-site-root)))


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  DESCRIPTION-based preview
 ;; 
 ;;  DESCRIPTION is the single source of truth for sitemap
 ;;  previews and page metadata.
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

( defun  my/org-get-description (file)
   "Return the single-line #+DESCRIPTION from FILE, or nil."
  ( when ( and file
             (file-exists-p file))
    ( with-temp-buffer
      (insert-file-contents file)
      (goto-char (point-min))
      ( when (re-search-forward
              "^#\\+DESCRIPTION:[ \t]*  \\  ( .*  \\  ) $"
             nil
             t)
        (string-trim
         (match-string 1))))))


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  SEO metadata injection
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

( defun  my/org-site--insert-head-extra (lines)
   "Insert LINES as #+HTML_HEAD_EXTRA keywords."
  ( when lines
    ( save-excursion
      (goto-char (point-min))

       ;;  Move past the initial Org keyword block.
      ( while (looking-at  "^#\\+")
        (forward-line 1))

      ( dolist (line lines)
        (insert
         (format
           "#+HTML_HEAD_EXTRA: %s\n"
          line))))))


( defun  my/org-site--build-jsonld
    (title description canonical published modified keywords image)
   "Build JSON-LD metadata for a page."
  ( let ((obj
         `(( "context" .  "https://schema.org")
           ( "@type" . ,( if published
                            "BlogPosting"
                          "WebPage"))
           ( "headline" . ,title)
           ( "description" . ,description)
           ( "mainEntityOfPage"
            . (( "@type" .  "WebPage")
               ( "@id" . ,canonical)))
           ( "author"
            . (( "@type" .  "Person")
               ( "name" .  "Lee Halls"))))))

    ( when published
      ( push
       `( "datePublished" . ,published)
       obj))

    ( when modified
      ( push
       `( "dateModified" . ,modified)
       obj))

    ( when keywords
      ( push
       `( "keywords" . ,keywords)
       obj))

    ( when image
      ( push
       `( "image" . ,image)
       obj))

    (json-encode obj)))


( defun  my/org-site--add-page-metadata (backend)
   "Add SEO metadata to HTML exports."
  ( when (org-export-derived-backend-p
         backend
         'html)

    ( let* ((info
            (org-export-get-environment backend))

           (source
            (plist-get info  :input-file))

           (title
            (org-element-interpret-data
             (plist-get info  :title)))

           (desc
            ( or
             (my/org-site--collect-keyword
               "DESCRIPTION")

             ( and source
                  (my/org-get-description
                   source))))

           (desc
            (my/org-site--truncate
             desc
             200))

           (canonical
            (my/org-site--collect-keyword
              "CANONICAL_URL"))

            ;;  We deliberately guard this because date lookup
            ;;  can involve the publishing project/cache.
            ;;  This hook only runs during an actual export,
            ;;  after org-publish has established its context.
           (published
            (my/org-site--format-iso8601
             ( ignore-errors
               ( when source
                 (org-publish-find-date
                  source
                  (org-publish-get-project-from-filename
                   source
                   org-publish-project-alist))))))

           (meta-lines
            (delq
             nil
             (list

              ( when canonical
                (format
                  "<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"%s\">"
                 (my/org-site--escape-html
                  canonical)))

              ( when desc
                (format
                  "<meta name=\"description\" content=\"%s\">"
                 (my/org-site--escape-html
                  desc))))))

      (my/org-site--insert-head-extra
       meta-lines)))))


(add-hook
 'org-export-before-processing-hook
 #'my/org-site--add-page-metadata)


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  Sitemap helpers
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

( defun  my/remove-docs-from-sitemap (tree)
   "Remove the DOCS branch from sitemap TREE."
  ( cond
   (( and (listp tree)
         (equal (car tree)  "docs"))
    nil)

   ((listp tree)
    (delq
     nil
     (mapcar
      #'my/remove-docs-from-sitemap
      tree)))

   (t
    tree)))


( defun  my/org-publish-org-sitemap (title list)
   "Generate the Org sitemap."
  (concat
    "#+OPTIONS: toc:nil\n"
   (org-list-to-subtree
    (my/remove-docs-from-sitemap
     list))))


( defun  my/org-publish-org-sitemap-format
    (entry style project)
   "Format sitemap ENTRY using its #+DESCRIPTION."
  (message  "SITEMAP ENTRY: %S" entry)

  ( cond

    ;;  ---------------------------------------------------------
    ;;  File entry
    ;;  ---------------------------------------------------------

   ((not (directory-name-p entry))

    ( let* ((full-path
            (expand-file-name
             entry
              "./content"))

           (preview
            ( or
             (my/org-get-description
              full-path)

              "(No description)"))

            ;;  These functions are called only while Org Publish
            ;;  is actually generating the sitemap, so its cache
            ;;  has already been initialised.
           (date
            ( ignore-errors
              (org-publish-find-date
               entry
               project)))

           (title
            ( ignore-errors
              (org-publish-find-title
               entry
               project))))

      (format
        "[[file:%s][(%s) %s]]\n%s"
       entry

       ( if date
           (format-time-string
             "%Y-%m-%d"
            date)
          "")

       ( or title
           (file-name-base entry))

       preview)))


    ;;  ---------------------------------------------------------
    ;;  Directory in tree style
    ;;  ---------------------------------------------------------

   ((eq style 'tree)

    (file-name-nondirectory
     (directory-file-name
      entry)))


    ;;  ---------------------------------------------------------
    ;;  Everything else
    ;;  ---------------------------------------------------------

   (t
    entry)))


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  RSS feed generation
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
( defun  my/org-site-generate-rss ()
   "Generate an Atom/RSS feed from published HTML files."
  (message  "Generating RSS feed...")

  ( let ((webfeeder-default-author
          "Lee Halls"))

    ( let* ((public-dir
            (expand-file-name
              "public"
             my/org-site-root))

            ;;  WEBFEEDER-BUILD resolves every entry relative to
            ;;  PUBLIC-DIR, so pass relative names such as
            ;;  "docs/about.html", not "./public/docs/about.html".
            ;;  Passing the latter makes it look for
            ;;  "./public/public/docs/about.html".
           (html-files
            (mapcar
             ( lambda (file)
               (file-relative-name
                file
                public-dir))

             (seq-filter
              ( lambda (file)
                (not
                 ( or
                   ;;  Don't include drafts.
                  (string-match-p
                    "/posts/drafts/"
                   file)

                   ;;  Don't include assets.
                  (string-match-p
                    "/assets/"
                   file)

                   ;;  Don't include sitemap.html.
                  (string-suffix-p
                    "/sitemap.html"
                   file))))

              (directory-files-recursively
               public-dir
                "\\.html$")))))

      (message
        "RSS: found %d HTML files"
       (length html-files))

      (webfeeder-build
       (expand-file-name
         "rss.xml"
        public-dir)
       public-dir
       my/org-site-base-url
       html-files

        :title
        "Ramblings of a lost one"

        :description
        "Blog posts and updates from Lee Halls."))))

 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  Org Publish configuration
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

 ;;  Keep Org's timestamp/cache data outside the published site.
 ;; 
 ;;  NOTE:
 ;;  Our custom pre-flight test below does NOT call
 ;;  org-publish-needed-p, so it does not require this cache to
 ;;  exist before the first invocation of org-publish.
 ;; 
 ;;  Org Publish itself will initialise and use this directory
 ;;  normally when publishing.
( setq org-publish-timestamp-directory
      (expand-file-name
        ".org-timestamps/"
       my/org-site-root))


( setq org-publish-project-alist

      (list

       (list
         "my-org-site"

         ;;  -----------------------------------------------------
         ;;  Source
         ;;  -----------------------------------------------------

         :recursive
        t

         :base-directory
        (expand-file-name
          "content"
         my/org-site-root)

         ;;  Don't publish drafts.
         :exclude
         "posts/drafts/.*"

         ;;  -----------------------------------------------------
         ;;  Destination
         ;;  -----------------------------------------------------

         :publishing-directory
        (expand-file-name
          "public"
         my/org-site-root)

         :publishing-function
        'org-html-publish-to-html

         ;;  -----------------------------------------------------
         ;;  HTML
         ;;  -----------------------------------------------------

         :html-preamble
        (my/org-site--file-contents
         (expand-file-name
           "assets/html_preamble.html"
          my/org-site-root))

         :with-author
        nil

         :with-creator
        t

         :with-toc
        t

         :section-numbers
        nil

         :time-stamp-file
        nil

         ;;  -----------------------------------------------------
         ;;  Sitemap
         ;;  -----------------------------------------------------

         ;;  Keep this value stable between runs. Changing it at
         ;;  runtime invalidates Org's project cache and causes all
         ;;  source files to be republished.
         :auto-sitemap
        t

         :sitemap-filename
         "sitemap.org"

         :sitemap-title
         "Ramblings of a lost one"

         :sitemap-sort-files
        'anti-chronologically

         :sitemap-function
        'my/org-publish-org-sitemap

         :sitemap-format-entry
        'my/org-publish-org-sitemap-format)))


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  File modification helpers
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

( defun  my/org-site--file-mtime (file)
   "Return FILE's modification time."
  ( when ( and file
             (file-exists-p file))
    (file-attribute-modification-time
     (file-attributes file))))


( defun  my/org-site--output-file-for
    (source-file base-dir publishing-dir)
   "Return the HTML output path for SOURCE-FILE."
  ( let ((relative-file
         (file-relative-name
          source-file
          base-dir)))

    (expand-file-name
     (concat
      (file-name-sans-extension
       relative-file)
       ".html")
     publishing-dir)))


( defun  my/org-site--file-needs-publishing-p
    (source-file output-file)
   "Return non-nil if SOURCE-FILE needs publishing.

This function intentionally does NOT use Org Publish's internal
cache. It only compares source and output modification times."
  ( cond

    ;;  Source doesn't exist.
   ((not (file-exists-p source-file))
    nil)

    ;;  Output doesn't exist.
   ((not (file-exists-p output-file))
    t)

    ;;  Source is newer than output.
   (t
    ( let ((source-time
           (my/org-site--file-mtime
            source-file))

          (output-time
           (my/org-site--file-mtime
            output-file)))

      ( and source-time
           output-time
           (time-less-p
            output-time
            source-time))))))


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  Pre-flight change detection
 ;; 
 ;;  IMPORTANT:
 ;; 
 ;;  Do NOT use org-publish-needed-p here.
 ;; 
 ;;  org-publish-needed-p depends on Org Publish's internal
 ;;  org-publish-cache having already been initialised.
 ;; 
 ;;  This function runs BEFORE org-publish, so using the cache
 ;;  here causes:
 ;; 
 ;;    "org-publish-cache-file-needs-publishing called,
 ;;     but no cache present"
 ;; 
 ;;  Instead, we perform a simple source/output timestamp check.
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

( defun  my/org-site-files-needing-publish
    (project-name)
   "Return source files in PROJECT-NAME that need publishing.

This pre-flight check deliberately avoids Org Publish's
internal cache. Org Publish is responsible for its cache
during the actual publishing phase."

  ( let* ((project
          (assoc
           project-name
           org-publish-project-alist))

         (properties
          (cdr project))

         (base-dir
          (expand-file-name
           (plist-get
            properties
             :base-directory)))

         (publishing-dir
          (expand-file-name
           (plist-get
            properties
             :publishing-directory)))

         (exclude
          (plist-get
           properties
            :exclude))

          ;;  Only consider Org files.
         (files
          (directory-files-recursively
           base-dir
            "\\.org$"))

         (files-to-publish
          nil))

     ;;  If the project doesn't exist, fail loudly rather than
     ;;  silently deciding that nothing needs publishing.
    ( unless project
      ( error
        "Org Publish project not found: %s"
       project-name))

    ( dolist
        (file files (nreverse files-to-publish))

       ;;  -------------------------------------------------------
       ;;  sitemap.org is generated by Org Publish.
       ;; 
       ;;  It should never cause the pre-flight check to decide
       ;;  that the site needs rebuilding.
       ;;  -------------------------------------------------------

      ( unless
          (string-suffix-p
            "sitemap.org"
           file)

         ;;  -----------------------------------------------------
         ;;  Respect the project's :exclude expression.
         ;;  -----------------------------------------------------

        ( unless
            ( and exclude
                 (string-match-p
                  exclude
                  file))

          ( let
              ((output-file
                (my/org-site--output-file-for
                 file
                 base-dir
                 publishing-dir)))

            ( when
                (my/org-site--file-needs-publishing-p
                 file
                 output-file)

              (message
                "Publish required: %s"
               (file-relative-name
                file
                base-dir))

              ( push file
                    files-to-publish))))))))


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  Publishing
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

( defun  my/org-site-publish ()
   "Publish the site if source files have changed.

This is the main entry point used by the build script."

  ( let* ((project-name
           "my-org-site")

         (project
          (assoc project-name
                 org-publish-project-alist))

         (changed-files
          (my/org-site-files-needing-publish
           project-name)))

    ( if
        changed-files

        ( progn

          (message
            "Changes detected in content files.")

           ;;  Initialise Org's cache for title/date lookups used by
           ;;  sitemap generation, but do not ask `  org-publish ' to
           ;;  iterate over the whole project.
          (org-publish-initialize-cache
           project-name)

          ( let* ((sitemap-name
                  ( or (org-publish-property
                        :sitemap-filename
                       project)
                       "sitemap.org"))

                 (sitemap-file
                  (expand-file-name
                   sitemap-name
                   (org-publish-property
                     :base-directory
                    project))))

             ;;  Regenerate and publish the sitemap, then publish
             ;;  only the exact source files found by the pre-flight
             ;;  modification-time check.
            (org-publish-sitemap
             project
             sitemap-name)

            ( dolist (file
                     (append changed-files
                             (list sitemap-file)))
              (message
                "Publishing selected file: %s"
               (file-relative-name
                file
                (org-publish-property
                  :base-directory
                 project)))

              (org-publish-file
               file
               project
               t)))

           ;;  ---------------------------------------------------
           ;;  Generate RSS after publishing has completed.
           ;;  ---------------------------------------------------

          (my/org-site-generate-rss)

          (message
            "Org site publishing complete."))

       ;;  -------------------------------------------------------
       ;;  Nothing changed.
       ;;  -------------------------------------------------------

      (message
        "No content changes detected. "
        "Skipping publishing, sitemap and RSS generation."))))


 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------
 ;;  Main entry point
 ;;  ------------------------------------------------------------

(my/org-site-publish)

 ;;;  org-website-publish.el ends here

              ;;          BUILD SCRIPT START
              ;;                 │
              ;;                 ▼
              ;;     Find all content/*.org
              ;;                 │
              ;;                 ▼
              ;;    Ignore sitemap.org/drafts
              ;;                 │
              ;;                 ▼
              ;;  Compare .org → corresponding .html
              ;;                 │
              ;;      ┌──────────┴──────────┐
              ;;      │                     │
              ;;   unchanged             changed
              ;;      │                     │
              ;;      ▼                     ▼
              ;;  do nothing          org-publish
              ;;                            │
              ;;                            ▼
              ;;                   Org creates/uses
              ;;                   its own cache
              ;;                            │
              ;;                            ▼
              ;;                       sitemap
              ;;                            │
              ;;                            ▼
              ;;                         RSS

Travel & heatwaves

Whlist the UK & Europe was sweltering in the heat at the end of June I was enjoying a much cooler 2wks in Holland, Michigan working at a supplier site on a new cell.

Grand Rapids/Holland if you have never been I can honestly and thoroughly recommend a visit especially if you like BEER! just a word of warning they have a fantastic range of dark high percentage beer and it goes down easily …. too easily & you'll know about it.

Visit Hopcat or New Holland Brewing to try Dragon's Milk a deliciously dark & strong 11% or the Triple Mash version at a mere 18% Also keep a look out for the wonderfully named Backwoods Bastard! although you may need to drive into Grand Rapids or visit Walmart for that one.

A second attempt

As written here the blackbird's were unsuccesful in raising young, I had thought perhaps they no longer considered the garden a viable safe place but regular watching of it & all the visitors we get I noticed them visiting the willow bush and now both Mr & Mrs visit carefully with beaks full of grubs. They land, scan the area, move in one direction, scan the area then move in another sometimes flying into a different bush first. And if you're quiet & have timed it right you can hear the chicks being fed before they fly off again to fetch more.

The willow is a much denser bush, further up the garden away from the wind that whips around the corner of the house too. Its not possible to photograph them unless disturbing the bush which is not something that will be done.

[2026-06-29 Mon] well after my return from another work trip ( Michigan, USA) the nest is empty and hopefully they managed to raise a family. It's a busy & often dangerous area with magpie's, crow's and the odd raptor visit!

Time & interest

It's June 2026, it's raining a perfectly dull grey sky exists which would seem the perfect metaphor for my current mental state. although the weather as reported using my wttr integration would seem not that bad 🌤️ 🌡️+11°C 🌬️↖26km/h perhaps it is just the fugue of depression, having suffered all week with a bad cold & lost the drive to " do" - everything from updating this blog and other jobs has stalled, the bikes remain in the garage in part because I no longer ride in the rain ( unless caught out) and time ( hours at work & travel) even gaming provides no impetus.

This XKCD comic captures the apathy

But taking some lines from my favourite book & film …

• " But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
• " All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." ¹

It will pass although the frequency of return maybe an issue and so one must fight, fight the darkness within, find the spark and let it shine much easier to write/think than do but you may ask what has this to do with age?

Well thoughts of time passing, taking a view of my internal architecture was never a concept I dealt with before, never considered growing older nor the subject of friends but watching the comraderie and genuine affection seen on Junk & Disorderly ² sparks a little envy. Even riding, in my CBR/ZX days I'd think nothing of getting up leaving Derbyshire and heading to Dracula's landing place via the coast road for a coffee & returning over the moors a full day of riding, now I sometimes struggle to pick a route/destination even though one reason for riding is the cathartic emptiness of my brain - just me, my bike & the road and environment, its a reflective experience that no other form of transportation can give. A long straight road gives you chance to zone out, meditate on self, twisties focuses the mind, the environment impacts more forcefully smells, wind, the heat reflected off the road and yet even this is not enough at the moment.

So internal reflection on my surroundings and the utilisation of time is, I feel, an age related input driven by the loss of people, changes in body and perhaps an ever increasing frustration with the world around and the decline of it.

Spring is coming! & the blackbird is nesting

I've seen them trying to nest in this bush last year;

Once disturbed by the sparrowhawk they never stayed nor did I see eggs, then finally late last year after the season had finished the old nest fell out in the winds of winter so this is a new build. And here she is keeping a watchful eye out whilst sat on the results of her hardwork;

She flies off every so often but never for long which meant I could see into the nest from the bathroom window to capture a photo or two here I only caught sight of the one egg, but last time she flew out I could see two;

I'm keeping an eye her but definitely not disturbing her although the bush is only 1.5m from the backdoor I make sure we're not near her and use the bino's from the bathroom window to check on her. She's doing well, hopefully I'll get to see the family.

[2026-03-14 Sat] sad news, the nest has been abandoned 😫

Had not seen her flying in & out, nor had I seen her sitting on the nest, I suspect the recent high winds which were giving the bush quite a rough ride moved the nest slightly making it more visible as well, when I checked in on her you could see that she was not happy and quite disturbed with her head moving around as the winds blew. A pity for her & me, I was really looking forwards to her success. Still I'll do what I can for the others, keep putting food out, water available and watch them nesting in the trees.

The weather in your emacs journals

Obviously I like journelly and so went on a dive into getting the weather into my other notes and across platforms eventually stumbling upon wttr.in

I've had a few calls to it that have failed, but most of the time it reports back beautifully. So how do we get the weather from wttr into an orgmode file?

On MS Windows I use this snippet

 '# -*- mode: snippet -*-
'# name: Weather today (wttr.in, prompt city)
'# key: dl
'# --
* `(format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M")` $1
:PROPERTIES:
:WEEK: `(format-time-string "WK%V")`
:WEATHER: `(let* ((place (read-string "City: " wttr-weather-default-location))
                  (raw (with-temp-buffer
                         (call-process
                          "C:/Windows/system32/curl.exe" nil '(t t) nil
                          "-s"
                          (format "wttr.in/%s?format=4"
                                  (replace-regexp-in-string " " "+" place)))
                         (string-trim (buffer-string)))))
             raw)`
:MILEAGE:
:START:
:FINISH:
:END:

and the above returns the weather in this format;

although you can also use it in your init.el as a function

 ( defun  my/get-weather (city)
   "Fetch weather from wttr.in and remove the city prefix."
  ( let* ((raw (shell-command-to-string
               (format  "curl -A curl -s --max-time 5 \"https://wttr.in/%s?format=3\"" city)))
         (clean (string-trim raw)))
     ;;  Remove leading 'City: ' if present
    ( if (string-match  "^[  ^ :]+:   \\  ( .*  \\  ) $" clean)
        (match-string 1 clean)
      clean)))

You can tweak the format but as written above format=3 returns something like this;

So happy weather recording!

I'm in the process of re-writing this blog to move away from hugo and stuff I have no time to go and figure out into just a pure orgmode & emacs publish route. One problem I ran into was inserting links via C-l did not export correctly into the HTML.

My folder structure is

 - Top level
   - .packages
   - assets
       - head.html
       - html_preamble.html
       - images
              - vh_001.jpg
              - 
   - content
       - posts
              - vh.org
              - 
   - .build.sh
   - org-website-publish.el

To get them working I wrote a separate insert link function;

  ;;  my link insert
( defun  my/org-insert-image-link (path)
   "Insert Org link with ../images/filename.ext instead of full PATH."
  ( interactive  "fImage file: ")
  ( let* ((filename (file-name-nondirectory path))
         (relpath (concat  "../images/" filename)))
    (insert (format  "[[file:%s]]" relpath))))

• and bound it into orgmode function only on key C-i

  ;;  my link insert
( with-eval-after-load 'org
  (define-key org-mode-map (kbd  "C-c i")
    #'my/org-insert-image-link))

Now in the HTML source my images are coded as <img src="../images/vh_001.JPG" alt="vh_001.JPG"> and when served visible in the webpage 😊

The service is not 100% reliable, I've had a few calls to it that have failed, but most of the time it reports back beautifully.

OrgRoam to cosmascope

Firstly my org-roam db is small, its limited. I cannot quite seem to get my head around the concept but I love the visualisation provided by org-roam-ui it reminds me of when I used TheBrain many years ago.

What this does is converts your org-roam files into a format usable by cosmascope so that you can share them, host them on your site but consider it an experiment firstly in using ChatGPT & secondly to see if it was possible to convert org-roam into a usable graph via cosmascope ¹. This is adapted from Kévin Polisano’s obsidian2cosma.py ( https://github.com/kevinpolisano/obsidian2cosma) which converts your Obsidian vault. It is only the first step, you must then create the cosmascope itself.

Consider this as work in progress and to be improved! There are limitations

• cosmascope will not display images if linked in your text
• the script does not handle internal links well ie in the generated log you may see
  • The following paragraph contains a broken link "[[49F6458C-14AA-4C4B-9F6B-7F007E2199F9|emacs again?]]"
  • I'm sure there will be other issues but for an experiment and a test on a small org-roam data set it worked quite well.

The script is located here on my rarely used github https://github.com/drakxtwo/orgroam_cosmascope

but a copy is also below however only the github one will be updated.

  """
Convert an Org-roam vault into a collection of Markdown notes readable by Cosma (https://cosma.graphlab.fr/en/)

Usage:
  python orgroam2cosma.py -i input_folder_path -o output_folder_path
                          [--type TYPE] [--tags TAGS]
                          [--creationdate CREATIONDATE]
                          [--zettlr True]
                          [-v]

Example:
  python orgroam2cosma.py -i ~/org-roam -o ./cosma_notes --zettlr True --verbose

Author: adapted from Kévin Polisano’s obsidian2cosma.py by ChatGPT
License: GNU GPL v3.0
"""

 import os
 import re
 import platform
 import argparse
 import shutil
 import unicodedata
 import csv
 from pathlib  import Path
 from datetime  import datetime  as dt

 #  ========== Argument parsing ==========
 parser  = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument( "-i",  "--input",  help = "Path to the input folder", required = True)
parser.add_argument( "-o",  "--output",  help = "Path to the output folder", required = True)
parser.add_argument( "--tags",  help = "Filter notes by tags", default = None)
parser.add_argument( "--creationdate",  help = "Use file creation date for IDs", default = False)
parser.add_argument( "--zettlr",  help = "Use Zettlr-style links [text]([[id]])", default = False)
parser.add_argument( "-v",  "--verbose", action = "store_true",  help = "Verbose mode")
 args  = parser.parse_args()

 input_folder  = args. input
 output_folder  = args.output

 def  printv(text):
     if args.verbose:
         print(text)

 #  ========== Helper functions ==========

 def  creation_date(file):
     if platform.system()  ==  "Windows":
         return os.path.getctime(file)
     else:
         stat  = os.stat(file)
         try:
             return stat.st_birthtime
         except  AttributeError:
             return stat.st_mtime

 def  create_id(file):
     timestamp  = creation_date(file)  if args.creationdate  else dt.now().timestamp()
     return dt.fromtimestamp(timestamp).strftime( '%Y%m%d%H%M%S')

 def  clean_filename(name):
     name  = unicodedata.normalize( "NFD", name).encode( "ascii",  "ignore").decode( "utf-8")
     return name.replace( " ",  "-")

 #  ========== Org file parsing ==========

 def  parse_org_frontmatter(content):
     """Extracts title, tags, and id from Org file headers."""
     title_match  = re.search(r "^#\+title:\s*(.+)$", content, re.MULTILINE)
     tags_match  = re.search(r "^#\+filetags:\s*:?(.+?):?$", content, re.MULTILINE)
     id_match  = re.search(r "^:ID:\s*(.+)$", content, re.MULTILINE)
     roamkey_match  = re.search(r "^#\+roam_key:\s*(.+)$", content, re.MULTILINE)

     title  = title_match.group(1).strip()  if title_match  else  None
     tags  = []
     if tags_match:
         tags  = [t.strip()  for t  in tags_match.group(1).split( ":")  if t.strip()]
     id_  = id_match.group(1).strip()  if id_match  else  None
     if  not id_  and roamkey_match:
         id_  = roamkey_match.group(1).strip()

     return { "title": title,  "tags": tags,  "id": id_}

 def  convert_org_links(content, title2id):
     """Convert Org links [[id:xxxx][Label]] or [[file:note.org][Label]] to Cosma Markdown links."""
     def  repl( match):
         target  =  match.group(1)
         label  =  match.group(2)  or  match.group(1)

         #  Org id link: [[id:1234][Label]]
         if target.startswith( "id:"):
             id_  = target.replace( "id:",  "")
             return f "[{label} ]([[{id_} ]])"  if args.zettlr  else f "[[{id_} |{label} ]]"

         #  Org file link: [[file:note.org][Label]]
         elif target.startswith( "file:"):
             file_ref  = Path(target.replace( "file:",  "")).stem
             file_ref  = clean_filename(file_ref)
             if file_ref  in title2id:
                 id_  = title2id[file_ref]
                 return f "[{label} ]([[{id_} ]])"  if args.zettlr  else f "[[{id_} |{label} ]]"
             else:
                 return f "[[{label} ]]"

         #  Normal URL or external link
         elif re. match(r "https?://", target):
             return f "[{label} ]({target} )"

         return f "[[{label} ]]"

     #  Replace all Org-style links [[target][label]]
     content  = re.sub(r "\[\[([^\]]+?)\](?:\[([^\]]+)\])?\]", repl, content)
     return content

 def  convert_images(content):
     """Convert [[file:img.png]] to ![](img.png)"""
     return re.sub(r "\[\[file:(.+?\.(?:png|jpg|jpeg|gif))\]\]", r "![](\1)", content)

 #  ========== Main pipeline ==========

 def  main():
    Path(output_folder).mkdir(parents = True, exist_ok = True)

    printv(f "Converting Org-roam notes from {input_folder}  → {output_folder} ")

     title2id  = {}
     org_files  = []

     #  Step 1: collect files
     for root, _, files  in os.walk(input_folder):
         for f  in files:
             if f.endswith( ".org"):
                org_files.append(os.path.join(root, f))

     #  Step 2: extract metadata and create IDs
     for f  in org_files:
         print(f)
         with  open(f,  "r", encoding = "utf-8")  as infile:
             print(infile.read())
             content  = infile.read()
         meta  = parse_org_frontmatter(content)
         title  = meta[ "title"]  or Path(f).stem
         id_  = meta[ "id"]  or create_id(f)
         title2id[clean_filename(title)]  = id_

     #  Step 3: process and export each file
     for f  in org_files:
         with  open(f,  "r", encoding = "utf-8")  as infile:
             content  = infile.read()
         meta  = parse_org_frontmatter(content)
         title  = meta[ "title"]  or Path(f).stem
         id_  = meta[ "id"]  or title2id[clean_filename(title)]
         tags  = meta[ "tags"]

         #  Convert links & images
         content  = convert_org_links(content, title2id)
         content  = convert_images(content)

         #  Remove Org metadata lines
         content  = re.sub(r "^#\+.*$",  "", content, flags =re.MULTILINE)
         content  = re.sub(r "^:PROPERTIES:[\s\S]*?:END:",  "", content, flags =re.MULTILINE)
         content  = content.strip()

         #  YAML front matter
         frontmatter  =  "--- \n "
         frontmatter  += f "title: {title} \n "
         frontmatter  += f "id: {id_} \n "
         if tags:
             frontmatter  += f "tags: [{', '.join(tags)} ] \n "
         frontmatter  +=  "--- \n\n "

         md_content  = frontmatter  + content  +  " \n "
         out_name  = clean_filename(Path(title).stem)  +  ".md"
         out_path  = os.path.join(output_folder, out_name)

         with  open(out_path,  "w", encoding = "utf-8")  as outfile:
            outfile.write(md_content)

        printv(f "[OK] {os.path.basename(f)}  → {out_name} ")

     #  Step 4: save title→id mapping
     with  open(os.path.join(output_folder,  "_title2id.csv"),  "w", newline = "")  as csvfile:
         writer  = csv.writer(csvfile)
        writer.writerows(title2id.items())

    printv(f "✅ Conversion complete! { len(org_files)}  notes processed.")

 if  __name__  ==  "__main__":
    main()

Journelly your orgmode journal on IOS

For those that know of its existence the combined power of emacs & org mode for everything from simple note taking to complex journal writing, website creation, literate programming and more simply makes it an indispensable tool but its very power comes from its roots which means it is desktop centric and although a lot of my usage is in an MS environment to really leverage the most from the combination it should be in linux environment but getting back to the mobile journal topic - yes there are mobile clients;

of all these I find plainorg the best for viewing existing files it renders images nicely and handles internal links & beorg for agenda functions, at the moment there is nothing close to those two on android but the author of plainorg is working on another app one which allows a journalling experience on iOS and you can read an excellent review of it here https://www.macobserver.com/tips/round-ups/journelly-journal-app-ios/

The app is called journelly and it is effectively a polished front end to keeping a true journal in genuine orgmode format. Each entry is automatically populated with the following properties;

 :PROPERTIES:
:LATITUDE: 
:LONGITUDE: 
:WEATHER_TEMPERATURE: 
:WEATHER_CONDITION: 
:WEATHER_SYMBOL: 
:END:

You do not see these properties when creating an entry but you do see the location and weather as part of the heading

It is out now on the appstore priced at 14.99GBP it might seem a little high but I think its worth it. I've been using it almost daily to capture notes, events and to as the name suggests journal & I instantly have access in emacs.

I've found it that useful that I'm considering a change to my normal journalling method & I'm currently re-writing a python script to plot the journelly recorded locations on a map.

The one thing I am missing is the ability to see a TODO as a subheading, I'm not suggesting journelly become a todo list or task manager but my journal is often the first place a task will land especially if I am out for example on a ride-out I'll make notes, take photos but also possibly add a task to visit a shop when its open, or whatever. Then these tasks in my journals are available in emacs on the desktop, Alvaro and I had a good exchange about this and at the moment sub headings are disabled due to the way it treats all headings as equal. Nevertheless as a standalone application built around orgmode it is excellent.

Location heatmap for Journelly

Following on from a journal in orgmode/IOS I have expertly crafted ( read massively bodged) a python script to create a heatmap of locations using folium.

It simply reads in your Journelly.org file, checks for the lat/lon lines & stores them into a pandas dataframe ( I was thinking of doing more with the df) and updates the folium map object before saving the interactive HTML file.

  import pandas  as pd 
 import folium
 from folium.plugins  import HeatMap

 flag  =  i  =  lat  =  lon  = 0
 # create map object centred around your location & define save location
 map_object  = folium.Map(location  = [52.88489542624623,  -1.42548966136386], zoom_start  = 10 )

 with  open( "/Users/leehalls/Documents/dumpground/Journelly.org")  as file:
   for item  in file:
     if  "LATITUDE"  in item:
         lat  = item[11:20]
     if  "LONGITUDE"  in item:
         lon  = item[12:21]
         i  += 1
     if flag  == 0:
         done  = 1  # create dataframe
         df  = pd.DataFrame({ "lat":[lat], "lon":[lon]})
     if done  == 1:
         if flag  != i:
                 flag  = i
                 data  = { "lat":[lat],  "lon":[lon]}
                 df_new_rows  = pd.DataFrame(data)  # create new dataframe with last values
                 df  = pd.concat([df, df_new_rows])  # add last values to cumulative dataframe
                HeatMap(df_new_rows).add_to(map_object)  # add last location to heatmap

map_object.save(r "/Users/leehalls/Documents/dumpground/map.html")

A thing of beauty

From having these getting back to motorcycling to this;

Thats it - no other words 😍

A lazy day with the camera

Finally some nice weather and I had chance to pick up the camera again whilst sat in the garden, only a short time but managed to get two photos I am very happy with;

orgmode power yet confusion

I'm not a power user of orgmode yet it is a piece of software i use daily. My emacs diary.org file has around 100 sexp entries, plus events, appointments spanning 7yrs. The problem i had was sexp entries show up in the emacs diary but would not show up in any mobile client, as usual with org there are many ways to achieve the same thing. For example a sexp entry could look like %%(diary-cyclic 14 1 10 2025) Blue bin so is a reminder to put the right colour bin out every 2wks works great when in emacs but outside? this entry is better, simpler and achieves the same results;

• <2025-01-24 Fri +2w>

it shows the entry up every 2wks just the same as the sexp but works across the mobile apps as well. Why did i choose sexp in the first place for something so mundane? I guess it was because I just carried over the concept from the anniversary function where i could have the number of years show up since the event ie

• %%(org-anniversary 1969 2 14) Arthur Dent - %d yrs old

of course there is another way to capture repeating events one that allows you to add notes if something unique occurs for the specific repeat entry;

https://karl-voit.at/2017/01/15/org-clone-subtree-with-time-shift/

Lesson learned is that in org there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Lights out

I wrote quite a long post here about light pollution & energy consumption which linked into my assertion that there's not enough backlink "darkness" in the world. The premise of it was, to turn out street lights and it is possibly coming to pass with councils starting to turn lights out. OK it is a cost cutting drive but that was also a major part of my posts and if done right, in the right areas its only going to be a benefit. This article posted on the BBC News website entitled "Why are English councils turning off street lights?" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0mzkgxr22po.amp seems to indicate that councils are either starting to switch off between specific hours or dimming both of which are good. I travel a lot and the number of roads I drive on across Europe which are dark compared to here is incredible. Our world is built on consumption of energy and short sightedly pushing people into electric cars is not the answer for either global warming, light pollution or energy consumption.

Again if we are serious about the planet about making a difference the conversation must widen into more realistic and achievable areas.

Time, broken themes and a rewrite

This post links in with travelling because again it refers to the sense of having no time, but also it shows what happens if you update software without keeping an eye on the changes … the theme I used no longer builds with the version hugo now installed hugo v0.136.5+extended darwin/arm64 BuildDate=2024-10-24T12:26:27Z VendorInfo=brew and there are so many errors and elements broken due to internal hugo changes I'm not even sure I could update it. So either I revert back to level of hugo which works or I try out something new - new it is.

I'm trialling the Today I Learned or Console and both though they are completely different, the TIL theme the author notes is still in the early beta stage but I figured it worth a try as I like the idea of the graph, reminds me of org-roam or obsidians graph something I'm still getting used to but has potential. The title of the TIL theme is true as I have now learned to use hugo specific exports https://ox-hugo.scripter.co/doc/shortcodes/ and this was because the graph uses backlinks to draw itself and the style of those links is {{ < backlink "travelling" >}} which does not translate well so after a little reading I found using~< backlink "travelling" >~ }} @@ did the job however I'm sure there is a better way. One thing I was missing is the gallery element which I used for my photography side though I found this one: https://github.com/mfg92/hugo-shortcode-gallery/tree/master and once added as a sub-module the shortcode is available and working well. Check out his photography here: https://matze.rocks/images/ the one with black squirrel perfectly separated from the background and staring into you is my favourite so far but the one of an ibex? in B&W framed by the foliage really appeals to the old B&W developer in me.

Previously tags & categories provided the interlinking, perhaps the graph can be made to work for them instead of backlinks? though I like the idea of making something specifically linked but there is also the point that it might not be advisable working backlinks into all posts ( you can see in the graph below this post links to the travel one) I like it but perhaps one should learn from the reason for this update, it was simple enough to migrate to this theme but adding the shortcode breaks other themes so perhaps do not use or add that functionality. Maybe the lesson is that unless you take ownership of the theme or freeze at a certain software level then you're always going to face some major changes.

I still haven't decided which one to use, I am slowly migrating content to both themes to see what they're like but for a while I'll trial one and see how I feel.

Limited time lots of travel

Time is a commodity which seems to be scarce at the minute, need it to update my projects upon which some of the content of this website rely and of course my own education but due to various reasons and maybe a lack of drive on my part has meant nothing new has been written.

Plus work travel took a good chunk of time away with among many smaller trips to various locations, a long one of two months based in Silao. Long hours but an awesome set of people helped make the situation weirdly enjoyable despite the circumstances and we achieved a tremendous result given the timeframe.

Still it wasnt all work in those two months as I did get the odd day off … around 4 … but during which I managed to get another tattoo

and visit the beautiful city of Guanajuato

And take one of the most "enjoyable" taxi rides i have had for a long time. With my driver praying to God on the twisty roads as he tried to make up time. He was at times cutting it close, tyre squeal, almost head-on into a bus. Entertaining.

[2024-11-23 Sat] decided to add a zoomed view of one section of the road to show just how twisty entertaining it was;

Using org without emacs

Is it possible to use org without emacs?

For most people it would seem from various internet searches that what keeps them using emacs is orgmode. It is certainly true for me that 75% of my emacs usage is purely org based with the rest being python ( yes i know its not good python), tramp and the odd text edit though i still find SublimeText an easier option for somethings. Though to answer the question posed at the start the answer was always no, yes we have the various mobile options such as orgzly, orgro, metanote, plainorg but some of these have limited functionality and personal opinion ahead … I would say are more an extension of the desktop org allowing you to view your data and capture basic info and for the desktop you needed emacs but

perhaps not anymore ….

As a long time SublimeText user i was surprised i had missed this, previously i had tried orgmode for sublime but then stumbled upon Org Extended https://github.com/ihdavids/orgextended something which looks to bring most of the org\emacs functionality outside of emacs.

Here we have what appears to be as close as possible a fully functional orgmode implementation outside of emacs. It has syntax highlighting, folding headers, tags, links etc and also a reasonably functional agenda. Certainly there is nothing to stop you creating and modifying complex org documents in it even images are shown inine for example;

Which shows SublimeText 4 on a mac editing a long file i wrote about getting gauges working for a home monitoring system.

You can see here the Agenda view with days having activity shown with a red square around them

It doesnt have all the functionality of an emacs based org-agenda for example repeating todo items stored in my diary file show up irrespective that they are not due for another 6months ie

 ++ TODO Kawasaki roadtax :bike:vehicle:
 DEADLINE:  <2023-04-01 Sat +1y -14d>
 :PROPERTIES:
 :LAST_REPEAT:   [2022-03-26 Sat 11:48]
 :END:

and the various entries i have setup using SEXP do not show eg

  %%(org-anniversary 1969 2 14) Arthur Dent - %d yrs old

though I have not spent long looking at all the configuration options nor reading through the quite extensive documentation but on an initial review it looks more than capable and very promising to bring org outside of emacs, well worth a look.

Moving to HomeAssistant

A long time ago i setup & wrote my own home monitoring system using wireless temperature sensors and a current clamp across the incoming feed to the house for electricity monitoring ( take a look at the projects section for flask socketio) Using it i was able to educate the step-son about taking 90 minute long showers without contributing to the bills ¹ i then moved house leaving the current clamp hardware in place duh then what with getting the house sorted, travelling for work and subsequent long hours on my return i never set it up again besides the long shower taker had buggered off saving me loads of cash :-)

Still i had the temperature sensors lying around and the knowledge/program was still lurking so i decided to restart it but then i found HomeAssistant and realised then and there to ditch trying to do it all myself.

Using a raspberry pi, MQTT and HomeAssistant i had everything i had before and much more….

Although I had set the Pi up once more recording just temperatures adding the excellent MotionEye to capture video of movement on my drive/garage the visual interface, graphs, weaather forecast etc was all gone so i was just recording for its own sake. Pretty pointless. But now using HomeAssistant i am once again making use of the data with nice visuals

and much more with all the integrations that the software offers i think it could end up being like an emacs init.el constantly being added to or tweaked for example i have;

• daily report of the cost for gas & electricity
• live streaming of the camera feeds from motioneye
• info on all my hardware (server status, temperature, network and processer loads etc)

• weather forecast
• calendar
• radio (this is work in progress but it will be playing a Polish radio station on command)
• historical data if i want to check

all the above is in a nice interface accessible via web browser with my longer term goal to use an old Android tablet as the always on interface maybe even replacing Alexa. I havent even scratched the surface yet what with scenarios, events, automation theres lots to look into. Dont just take my word for it, a short google search will throw up tons of info and links to other people on their HA journey.

A sparrow for breakfast

I've been lucky enough to see this guy a few times, always a fleeting flutter of feathers and trills and as the others tried to evade, successfully i might add. This time though one was not quick enough but i was with a lot of luck and accidental timing, because i was filling the kettle when the bush infront of the window moved and out flew this fellow;

He sat there for a whilst just seemingly comtemplating his next move before lanching back into the bush which came alive once more with noise and movement before silence …

Out he flew with breakfast

A look around, pluck a few feathers and then off he goes with the prize. I'm not winning any photographic awards here i was just fortunate to have my phone to hand to grab a few shots through hazy windows and thats enough. How many people get to see something like this up close without evening leaving home?

Python export for specific tagged headlines & files

[2022-11-11 Fri] renamed this article because in my mind "parser" indicates something more than this is. This is just a way to read an org file and extract headings identifed with a specific tag and only the linked files for that heading/tag not all the files i have stored in the data directory. The reason this genuine example of poor python exists is because of my workflow … so i keep project notes in org files ( of course!) and any associated files that are linked eg emails or images are saved in the relevant sub-directory eg

 - top dir
  - all orgfiles
  - project_dir_1
  - project_dir_2
  - project_dir_3

However if i want to share specific tagged topics to say handover a part of the project to someone else or perhaps for financial arguments I can export or publish ( in fact i've got quite a good publish.el) but whilst this copies only the nodes that are specifically tagged it also copies every single file that is stored in the project sub-directory. Not good when some topics are private or covered by an NDA nor if i want to keep the size down. I did search and search but came up empty weirdly so as i sort of expected this to be a normal requirement but perhaps thats the point of the emacs\org combination. It is so malleable we can create our own curated libraries hence who is to say what is "normal" thus i created this monstrosity however i may have missed something but in the meantime it is here if anyone wants to try it or if anyone can show me a better way please do!

What is it?

• well it is a python program to take a specified orgfile, parse it searching the headers for specific tags and then only output to the export directory the files specifically associated with those tagged nodes.

What is not good at?

• its crude, the output doesnt consider sub-headings etc so everything is treated with the HTML <H1> tag and images are not re-sized or have size attributes applied or in other words if you've a big image in your orgfile that you resized using the

 #+ATTR_HTML:  :width 200
#+ATTR_ORG:  :width 200

attributes …. well thats ignored.

Also weirdly some links do not have a space applied so the continuation text is immediately after the link, a minor problem but from a visual point an annoying one.

Does it work?

• Yes, i've tested it on macBook air copying across one specific project file and its sub-dir ( data safety!) a file with 1049 lines and with a sub-directory containing >300mB of files and it only copied across those files that were pertinent outputting an HTML file that was if not nice to look at usable.

Is it perfect?

• HELL NO …. did you read my sites intro? i'm an amateur i do this because i find it interesting & could be a lot better at it but because i dont program frequently a bit like language usage ( i was conversational in German, understood a lot of Japanese & Swedish and others) if you dont use it well it dies and you end up remembering only "konichi wa" or "Minä rakastan sinua" if you speak any Finnish.

So on to the code:

First it relies on two libraries the orgparse library which can be found here: https://github.com/karlicoss/orgparse and then an org to html library https://github.com/honmaple/org-python

Import the libraries needed

  from orgparse  import load, loads
 from orgpython  import to_html
 import shutil
 import re
 import os

next we load the file to parse entries for

  root  = load( 'project_340.org')

open the output for file for writing;

  f  =  open( 'export/test.html',  'w')

this is the old function is called to write the headline and raw body

  def  output(hdg,body):
     #  write heading & body to file
     print( 'creating output')
    f.write(hdg)
    f.write( ' \n ')
    f.write(body)

now replaced with

  def  convert(hdg, bodytext):
     #  here be dragons 
     # print(to_html(bodytext, toc=True, offset=0, highlight=True))
     # f.write(to_html(hdg, toc=True,offset=0,higlight=True))
    f.write( '<h1>'  + hdg  +  '</h1>')
    f.write(to_html(bodytext, toc = True, offset =0, highlight = True))

function to identify the filename inside the body text, here we split the entire text into individual words and poll through them to find the relevant text

  #  old function
 def  copyfile(filename): 
     #  here be dragons
     for word  in filename.split():
         if  'file:'  in word:
             fn  = word[7:word.find( ']')]
            shutil.copyfile(fn,  'export/' +fn)

the problem with above function is that i need to re-write my outlook email save macro, currently it saves the filename with spaces so the above will split the filename at the space meaning i may not have the complete filename eg [[file:this_example would be saved incorrectly.msg]] this next function avoids the problem by using regex something which i still even after all these years haven't got to grips with.

  def  copyfile(filename):
     pattern  = re. compile(r '[\[\]]+')
     inputtxt  =  filter( None, pattern.split(filename))
     for dat  in inputtxt:
         if  "file:"  in dat:
             fn  = dat[5:]
             name  = dat.split( '/')
             dir  =  'export/'  + (name[0][5:])
             print( 'filename info',  dir)
            os.makedirs( dir, exist_ok = True)
            shutil.copyfile(dat[5:],  dir  + '/'  +name[1])        

What it effectively does is split the body text identified by orgparse into each word then looks for the keyword file and then we split the first 7 characters from the string to remove [[file: element before using find to identify the position of the square close bracket and so have isolated the filename into the variable fn and this repeated for every file link found in the body text allowing us to copy only the relevant files to our export directory.

Finally the main section parsing the orgfile - note we use format='raw' to get the complete org link

 
 #  traverse through all the nodes/headings
 for node  in root[1:]:   #  [1:] for skipping root itself
     # conditional choose headings which match specific tags
     if node.tags  ==  set([ 'the_tag_i_want']):
         hdg  = node.heading
         bdy  = node.get_body( format = 'raw')
        copyfile(bdy)
        convert(hdg,bdy)

f.close()
 print( '----')

Back to motorcycles

However when the financial crash hit in '08 something had to go and the bike no matter how much i tried to justify its life was just one expense too many, she had to go so with bitter regret my beautiful, sexy ZX6 departed for pastures new and lo as each year passed i'd sit and listen to all those fuckers still riding, the roar of the engine increasing as they perhaps exceeded the A-road speed limit and so it continued year after year until i could no longer stand it.

I spent over a year searching for something often torn between the desire to cafe-racer an old CB750 or similar and the need for speed. I'd mark bikes on ebay or other sites but by the time i had made my mind up they'd gone. In the end i bought something i had not even considered looking at and which neither fits the cafe-racer or need for speed categories;

It is a nice looking bike, gets a lot of questions\comments mostly from people wanting to copy the rear end for their projects plus the fuel tank is massive i was used to a re-fueling stop anywhere between 90-120miles yet this thing just keeps on going.

There are a few shortcomings …

• [1] power is one - yes she is easy to ride, quick to chuck into corners but be prepared to hit the gearbox often unless you dont mind stopping midway through an overtake as the rev-limiter kicks in, treat her a bit like an old two-stroke. That said for a simple cruise with a bit of fun in the twisties she's alright and something I've learned with age its not all about the power, the overtake but enjoying the ride. See the countryside pass by not fly by!
• [2] Dashboard - yes its a nice looking TFT display but there two significant-ish concerns. Firstly it often becomes unreadable in full sunlight and though you are not going to breaking many records i dont think Mr Plod will accept the excuse " i cannae see me dashboard when suns out" secondly perhaps laughably watch what happens when you switch to night riding … the fuel gauge and temperature display swap sides.

Despite those the ride is fun, she looks good, and she was cheap we're talking about 5200 on the road but since the purchase of the Benelli i still kept my eyes on ebay and over a year ago ended up with a second bike, this time a full on cruiser and one from 1997.

She really doesnt struggle with power\torque and to be honest combine a cruiser with an open face helmet, a pair of shades and good weather it is awesome. Yes ground clearance is now almost non-existent and lean angles are not double digits, and yes the suspension may have gone a little soft ( scraped through the exhaust) but it is just so much fun. Makes me wish i had gone this route sooner although there are other issues with owning an older girl …. the new E10 petrol might be something to consider and well …. she broke down on me, leaving me stranded except for a fellow biker who happened to be driving past in his van! Saved me a long walk home.

That decision hasn't been made though but for the Benelli it is time to go, i've had my 3yrs of fun but have reached the limit and it is time to go different though what? Bikes are a personal thing and finding the right one is not so easy the search has restarted…….

Realtime data plot

Following on from my earlier smoothiecharts trying to use smoothiecharts with flask-socketio for realtime data i managed to get an alternative working this time using charts https://www.chartjs.org/ Using this i am now able to generate random data ( in lieu of external input values) and have them graphed in realtime on a line chart created using the api. The main part of the flask-python element consists of the data creation routine

  @application.route( '/')
 def  index():
     return render_template( 'data_acq.html')

 @application.route( '/chart-data')
 def  chart_data():
     def  generate_random_data():
         while  True:
             timestamp  = datetime.now().strftime( '%H:%M:%S')
             tc1  =  round(random.random()  * 100)

             json_data  = json.dumps(
                { 'time': timestamp,  'value0': tc1})
             yield f "data:{json_data} \n\n "
             values  = (timestamp,tc1)
             header  = [ 'timestamp', 'tc1']
            time.sleep(1)
             print(values)

     return Response(generate_random_data(), mimetype = 'text/event-stream')

and then inside the appropriate html file we have'

• the link to the charting library

 < head>
    < meta  charset= "UTF-8">
    < title>  realtime chart demo</ title>
    < link  href= "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/4.3.1/css/bootstrap.min.css"  rel= "stylesheet">
    < link  href= "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/Chart.js/2.8.0/Chart.min.css"  rel= "stylesheet">
</ head>

• then the body contains the div element for the line chart

 < div  class= "container">
    < div  class= "row">
        < div  class= "col-12">
            < div  class= "card">
                < div  class= "card-body">
                    < canvas  id= "canvas"></ canvas>
                </ div>
            </ div>
        </ div>
    </ div>
</ div>

• and the javascript to receive the data from the flask app

 <script src= "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.4.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
<!--suppress JSUnresolvedLibraryURL -->
<script src= "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/4.3.1/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<!--suppress JSUnresolvedLibraryURL -->
<script src= "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/Chart.js/2.8.0/Chart.min.js"></script>

<script>
    $(document).ready( function () {
         const  config = {
            type:  'line',
            data: {
                labels: [],
                datasets: [{
                    label:  "TC1",
                    backgroundColor:  'rgb(255, 179, 179)',
                    borderColor:  'rgb(255, 179, 179)',
                    data: [],
                    fill:  false,
                }
],
            },
            options: {
                responsive:  true,
                title: {
                    display:  true,
                    text:  'Random value'
                },
                tooltips: {
                    mode:  'index',
                    intersect:  false,
                },
                hover: {
                    mode:  'nearest',
                    intersect:  true
                },
                scales: {
                    xAxes: [{
                        display:  true,
                        scaleLabel: {
                            display:  true,
                            labelString:  'Time'
                        }
                    }],
                    yAxes: [{
                        display:  true,
                        ticks: {
                        suggestedMin: 50,
                        suggestedMax: 200},
                        scaleLabel: {
                            display:  true,
                            labelString:  'Value'
                        }
                    }]
                }
            }
        };


         const  context = document.getElementById( 'canvas').getContext( '2d');

         const  lineChart =  new  Chart(context, config);

         const  source =  new  EventSource( "/chart-data");

        source.onmessage =  function ( event) {
             const  data = JSON.parse(event.data);
             if (config.data.labels.length === 100) {
                config.data.labels.shift();
                config.data.datasets[0].data.shift();
            }
            document.getElementById( 'time').innerHTML = data.time;
            document.getElementById( 'tc1').innerHTML = data.value0;
            config.data.labels.push(data.time);
            config.data.datasets[0].data.push(data.value0);
            lineChart.update();
        }
    });
</script>

Adding all this together results in a line graph that is updated every second looking like

with a simple table underneath that also shows the last value received. Currently it shows 100 values on the chart before each one is "lost" like a FIFO system but we can change this by altering the value in the HTML file

  if (config.data.labels.length === 100) {
    config.data.labels.shift();
    config.data.datasets[0].data.shift();
}

So changing the value seen above dictates how many values are plotted on the chart before being moved off it, following the above it should easily be possible for anyone to build a chart with multiple realtime values shown.

Wild Parakeets

I've known for a while now that in the local area we have a flock of parakeets flying free, I'd seen them last year when walking the dog and again this year but this is the first time they've spent anytime actually around where i live. There is approximately 10 to 12 birds and you definitely know when they are around! Communicative squawky little fellows they are too.

This week they've been in the trees at the back of my garden and i was finally home and near the camera when one turned up today.

Orgmode insert image

My workflow relies on orgmode, currently ( may change ¹) all orgfiles for each project reside in a top level folder and then i create a subfolder for each project into which all data is stored (emails\images\project files etc) and the org file links to these eg;

~ top level folder

• project 1 orgfile
• project 2 orgfile
• project _{1 data}
  • email _{1 for project 1}
  • image _{for project 1}
• project _{2 data}
  • email _{1 for project 2}
  • image _{for project 2}

When it comes to image capture i either launch greenshot and save everything to a temporary capture folder or launch the windows snipping tool & then choose where to save the image the issue with this workflow is that its not smooth. After i have captured the image there is another or several steps to insert the image into the main org file and hence become usuable.

Being avid consumer of knowledge i'm constantly searching ways to improve myself and the things i do and have recently been investigating orgroam and so stumbled across nobiot's github blog on emacs in Windows 10 Zero to Emacs and Org-roam aimed at Windows users. In there he has code to launch the snipping tool and insert a link into the org folder although he has it looking specifically for an images folder. The first lot of code worked out of the box but i could not get the folder chooser section at the end of his blog page to work. Probably just me being dumb ¯\ _(ツ)_/¯ but no matter what i tried it just wouldn't gel so i attempted to fudge my own version and ended up with the following;

 ( defun  my/take-screenshot ()
   "Take a screenshot into a time stamped unique-named file in the
 directory of your choice, in my case I use helm to traverse & select then insert a link to this file."
  ( interactive)
  ( let* ((dirname (file-relative-name
               (read-directory-name   "Choose the image directory: "))))
       ( setq filename (concat dirname
                      (format-time-string  "%Y%m%d%H%M")  ".png")))
        ;;  (setq filename (concat default-directory
        ;;                 (format-time-string "%Y%m%d%H%M") ".png"))
      (shell-command  "snippingtool /clip")
      (shell-command (concat  "powershell -command \"Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms;if ($([System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::ContainsImage())) {$image = [System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::GetImage();[System.Drawing.Bitmap]$image.Save('" filename  "',[System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat]::Png); Write-Output 'clipboard content saved as file'} else {Write-Output 'clipboard does not contain image data'}\""))
      (insert (concat  "[[file:" filename "]]"))
  )

So far it seems to work well though i've yet to put it too intensive use. Feel free to try it, i cant take any credit for it as the idea and code mostly came from nobiot.

More garden photography

Everyday a family of starlings raucously visit the garden, searching for the meal worms i leave and taking baths. They often take upto five baths a day!! Fortunately one of the young ones decided to take a break and pose rather handsomely for a wee photo shoot.

VL53L1X & a Raspberry Pico

I've had an idea for checking the height of a equipment during its movement for some time now and thought the small form factor of the pico + the VL53L1X sensor would be an ideal candidate. So after much searching and trial/error it seemed it wasnt possible until i stumbled across a few threads in the micro-python forum and the openmv github site and i now have a working setup;

The sensor is wired as follows;

In order to get it working you'll need to copy the vl53l1x.py file from;

• https://github.com/openmv/openmv/blob/master/scripts/libraries/vl53l1x.py

then edit it and replace

• search & replace all pyb with machine
• search & replace all delay with lightsleep

Or you can download the version from my github page https://github.com/drakxtwo/vl53l1x_pico/tree/main

You can test to see if a device is found by;

  from machine  import I2C
 from vl53l1x  import VL53L1X
 import time

 sda =machine.Pin(4)
 scl =machine.Pin(5)
 i2c =machine.I2C(0,sda =sda,scl =scl,freq =400000)
 print( 'scanning bus..')
 devices  = i2c.scan()
 if  len(devices)  == 0:
   print( "No i2c device !")
 else:
   print( 'i2c devices found:', len(devices))

 for device  in devices:  
     print( "Decimal address: ",device, " | Hexa address: ", hex(device))

Assuming we can found a sensor then the code to read from it is;

  from machine  import I2C
 from vl53l1x  import VL53L1X
 import time

 i2c  = I2C(0)
 distance  = VL53L1X(i2c)

 while  True:
     print( "range: mm ", distance.read())
    time.sleep_ms(50)

with output as follows;

 MicroPython v1.14 on 2021 -02 -05; Raspberry Pi Pico  with RP2040
Type  "help()"  for more information.
 >>>  %Run  -c $EDITOR_CONTENT
 range: mm  174
 range: mm  174
 range: mm  172
 range: mm  172
 range: mm  172
 range: mm  172

Thats as far as i have got, the original pimoroni library allowed for multiplexing the sensors, changing range etc i dont know if thats possible, i'm pleased i got this far!

GPG emacs on Windows 10

I've been using GPG without any dotemacs configuration & without issue or concern on Win10 machines for a long time but recently I started to recieve "no usable configuration errors" now I know its not because I've made changes to the dotemacs file, altered key etc but on checking log files I have updated to version 3.1.15 of Gpg4win as well as switched emacs to 28.0.50 from 27.1 but that change hasnt created the issue (switch back and it still fails) so it looks like the Gpg4win upgrade has altered something on two separate systems with identical results. To get it working again i've had to modify the dotemacs in a similar fashion to how i run emacs on a locked machine which software installs are not allowed and that is by specifying directly the home and program directories;

  ; (customize-set-variable epg-debug t)
(customize-set-variable 'epg-gpg-home-directory  "C:/Users/lhall/AppData/Roaming/gnupg/")
(customize-set-variable 'epg-gpg-program  "D:/Software/GnuPG/bin/gpg.exe")
(customize-set-variable 'epg-gpgconf-program  "D:/Software/GnuPG/bin/gpgconf")
(customize-set-variable 'epg-gpgsm-program  "D:/Software/GnuPG/bin/gpgsm")

Once the above is done I can now once again en/de-crpyt my data. However i did notice two things;

First: making a change to my dotemacs file under 28.0.50 means it fails to compile when re-opening emacs unless i start 27.1 first and then the snapshot emacs runs fine afterwards and on one machine that running ox-hugo export fails with Error: (file-missing "Searching for program" "No such file or directory" "git") ¯\(° _o)/¯ I had been considering a switch at home to WSL which seems to work well which allows the use of mu4e maybe this is the push needed? but as orgmode itself is such a fantastic tool for project & information management that it is emacs for me - it is often the sole purpose of running emacs perhaps some none unix focus would grow its audience?

Secondly: whilst googling the problem i came across several sites complaining that pgp should be shot and from that there is a new apparently easier, less problematic modern alternative to GPG called age that in its own words features small explicit keys, no config options, and UNIX-style composability. It is written in GO and on trying it out seems very quick & simple. Now all thats needed is an emacs interface. Example from age site

 $ age-keygen -o key.txt
Public key: age1ql3z7hjy54pw3hyww5ayyfg7zqgvc7w3j2elw8zmrj2kg5sfn9aqmcac8p
$ tar cvz ~/data | age -r age1ql3z7hjy54pw3hyww5ayyfg7zqgvc7w3j2elw8zmrj2kg5sfn9aqmcac8p > data.tar.gz.age
$ age --decrypt -i key.txt data.tar.gz.age > data.tar.gz

https://github.com/FiloSottile/age

Mouse photography

Still trying to learn the new lense and manual focus (nearly always used autofocus) so with a turn in the weather it was nice to sit outside and watch/listen. Thats when i noticed the resident mouse decide to sit on his doorstep and watch me.

I'm quite pleased with these two photos, handheld at full zoom and manual focus.

Querying the SQL DB

This is taken from a previous website post but the problem still remains, my home monitoring system has 4 zone with a wireless temperature sensor in each. They all wake up individually on a periodic basis and each time one sensor outputs data the main program writes an entry into the SQL database for all zones so only the sensor currently transmitting has new data and the previous readings from the other sensors are stored with the new.

What this means is that for given time period i can have a different number of readings for each zone or put another way my data export is not uniform meaning comparison of time periods is not simple

For example the following SQL select statement

  for row  in curs.execute( "SELECT * FROM home_mon WHERE DATE>(?) and DATE<(?)", ( '2018-12-01',  '2018-12-25')):

counts 6547 rows for December 2018 whilst the same for 2019 only counts 6516 this discrepancy is larger for some other months. So to compare periods i wrote the following to get one value per hour

  for row  in curs.execute( "SELECT * FROM home_mon WHERE DATE>(?)", (yr18,)):
     dat  = dt.datetime.fromtimestamp( int( float(row[1]))).strftime( '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
     hr  =  dt.datetime.fromtimestamp( int( float(row[1]))).strftime( '%H:')
     if dat  >  "2018-12-01"  and dat  <  "2018-12-25":
         if hr  != pasthr18:
             pasthr18  = hr
            data_18.append(row[4])
     if dat  >  "2019-12-01"  and dat  <  "2019-12-25":
         if hr  != pasthr19:
             pasthr19  = hr
            data_19.append(row[4])

     cnt  = cnt  + 1
    x.append(cnt)

The result of this is for the periods 01-12 > 25-12 in both years I get 576 values for both meaning a real comparison can now be done.

Panda & SQL pain

I've left the home monitoring system alone for a few years, its just sat quietly in the garage collating data into an SQL database, the only changes made recently were to move everything onto a Pi4 and add an additional camera into the motioneye system running on the same Pi. So as its a slow day i decided now was the time to update it or rather start work on it. One thing i wanted to do was re-instigate the live readings and an auto graph element and for this i needed to extract data - simple i got my old code somewhere …. somewhere … maybe.

After a bit of searching and playing around i decided to re-write;

Though I spent far longer testing this than i should have. The code when run will sometimes report correctly a full dataframe and yet next time with exactly the same code (no changes) it reports an empty one. Run it > empty > run it > empty > run it > data

Not sure why - yet.

Anyway ignoring why it sometimes works and then others dont for now the code is very simple and it outputs an interactive visualisation like;

You can find the interactive version here:

  import sqlite3
 import pandas  as pd
 import pandas_bokeh
 from sqlalchemy  import create_engine 
 import datetime  as dt
 file  =  "home_mon_db.sqlite"
pandas_bokeh.output_file( 'data_out.html')

 # define time window
 timenow  = dt.datetime.now()
 #  testing values
 now_date  =  '2021-02-11'
 # prev_time = '06:00:00'
 # now_time = '08:00:00'
 #  programatic values
 # now_date = timenow.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
 prev_time  =  str((dt.datetime.now()  - dt.timedelta(hours =8,minutes =0)).strftime( '%H:%M:%S'))  #  defines a window to get data from
 now_time  =  str(timenow.strftime( '%H:%M:%S'))

 print( 'DATE:',now_date, 'PREVTIME:',prev_time, 'NOWTIME',now_time)

 try:
         cnx  = sqlite3.connect( 'home_mon_db.sqlite')
         df  = pd.read_sql( "SELECT * FROM home_mon WHERE DATE = ? AND time BETWEEN ? AND ?", cnx, params ={now_date, prev_time, now_time})
 except  ValueError  as e:
         print( 'failed', e)

 if df.empty  ==  True:
         print( 'DataFrame is empty!')
 else:
         print(df)
         sel  =df[[ 'TIME', 'EXTERNAL']]
         #  sel.plot_bokeh(rangetool=True)  # this i like
        sel.plot_bokeh(
                kind = 'line',
                x = 'TIME',
                xlabel = 'TIME',
                ylabel = 'Degrees C',
                title = 'Sensor inside garage'
        )

 print( 'finished')
cnx.close()

More garden visitors

OK hands up .. these were taken whilst sat inside nice and warm through the window! so not brilliant plus a little poor editing still not bad though

New lense

So a little splurge and finally got a lense that means i dont have to be within 3m of the thing i'm trying to catch an image of! Still lots to learn but first handheld efforts dont seem to bad.

emacs on Windows

Working mostly in the MS Windows environment i keep notes, project records in org and these files have multiple links to documents, images, saved mails etc and most are stored with hyperlinks ( though i may now be migrating to attachments) but when it comes to opening the links then it takes a little extra work. When using helm and initiating links by C-c C-l and choosing file this allows me to select files from a list and use completion support to narrow down the list of files. However the file+sys option does not, so i always chose file, used helm to help find it, insert the link and then edit it to add the +sys part.

Well not anymore, i stumbled upon the following code;

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11553123/linking-to-files-on-windows-network-share

 (mapc ( lambda (file-name-matcher)
    (add-to-list 'org-file-apps
                 (cons file-name-matcher 'default) 'append))
  (list  "\\.doc\\'"
         "\\.xls\\'"
         "\\.ppt\\'"))

adding this to my dotemacs file means files open without the need for the file+sys making my life much easier, my modified version adds more file formats

 (mapc ( lambda (file-name-matcher)
    (add-to-list 'org-file-apps
                 (cons file-name-matcher 'default) 'append))
  (list  "\\.doc\\'"
         "\\.docx\\'"
         "\\.xls\\'"
         "\\.xlsx\\'"
         "\\.ppt\\'"
         "\\.pptx\\'"
         "\\.msg\\'"))

Now i can work with attachments because i've also found out how to add per file folder setting for attachments so by this i mean each org file i have is saved with its project name ie

• project _a
• project _b

before i'd create a directory and then manually copy in my files for linking to, now with this at the end of my org files under the heading local variables;

  # Local Variables:
 # org-attach-direction: "project_a/"
 # end:

if i add an attachment the folder if it does not exist is created and the file is stored within it.

COVID North vs South

Its interesting to me that society or rather the portrayal of modern English society is one where the class system of the Oliver Twist era and before no longer exists or has been eroded to almost non-existence. Bollocks. The number of poorer people going to the alleged " elite" universtities is minimal but I agree that the internet has muddied the water, allowed those with talents to broadcast themselves to a wide audience and earn in some cases significant money but they are still a rarity and have they crossed the divide or simply created another class?

But perhaps if you were cynical an example of class and the truly English North vs South divide you only have to look at the latest COVID19 map to get us out of lockdown from December the 2nd.

OK its not totally and clearly delineated on the historic North v South divide I mean who classes Stratford Upon Avon as the Midlands or Warrington as historically upper class? (they're in Tier 3) but just about everything on initial glances would appear that the old moniker of working class Midlands and North has been left in lockdown only the wording has changed. One suspects again with a rather cynical eye that this proposed Christmas holiday for lockdown was never real but why not man up and just state the science does not allow for Xmas, the virus does not respect borders, time of year etc I guess because that takes balls and its much easier as a politician to pretend you're doing something when really you are not.

Instead we now have a map which on face value allows the southern half ( most of it) to have slightly more openness. Still on the bright side … our political elite are rather an aging bunch and one could hope that a clean sweep of the Houses of Parliament etc would allow for some refreshing younger new ideas without the need for a return of Guy Fawkes. Besides it could be worse, pity the poor Welsh where restaurants, pubs must close at 1800 and cannot sell alcohol at anytime even with food. ¯\ _(ツ)_/¯

Lights out

In light ( no pun intended) of the last post it was quite suprising to see more stories on the subject of light pollution filter into my news-stream, from the effect on cougars hunting in the western US to reduced pollination, affected sleep cycles and more. Although the dark sky movement has been going for a long time and reading through its site you can find out about the effects of light pollution on animals and humans, energy waste and more I guess we need people to stop being afraid of the dark but it would seem there could be a push to make artificial light a form of environmental pollution the same as other forms that we naturally consider to be pollution. For me this can only be a good thing, as i mentioned in my earlier post the benefits of simply turning the lights off could be immense.

A really good way of visualising how much light there really is in the world at night you can visit https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ and generate a map like;

But another interesting site i found is https://www.underluckystars.com/if-light-pollution-cleared just look at how the cities could be if we eliminated light pollution;

I love the dark, as i said there isnt enough of it and i really hope light pollution becomes a classified form of pollution worthy of action/sanctions.

Darkness

I've often been heard muttering the phrase " there's not enough darkness in the world" most who hear it tend to assume i'm talking about we need more death,pestilence, war, famine etc all the "bad" things rather ironic given the COVID situation but i actually mean its too bright. For a man that loves the sunshine i also embrace the night and i prefer working in the dark or reduced light environment not nightshifts though i've done my fair share of those, in the office i'd often be first one in and the lights would remain off until the second person arrived, at home i never turn on the main lights unless there is a need & by this i mean looking for a needle or a genuine situation where light bright enough to blind for a few moments should one care to look directly at it, is required.

Besides i like the romance of candles or low lighting.

But in general there are too many lights, the night sky is no longer lit by stars, the moon loses its majesty and nature pays a price.

There is also the consumption of energy, in these days of global warming, the desire to cut energy usage we still light the night sky like we're afraid of the dark. One rather large gripe i have is that most roads and motorways are lit permanently at night why? i've got headlights? i can drive safely in the dark I'm not afraid of it and i'm quite capable of moderating my speed to suit the conditions. Should there be an accident give the emergency services an override then anyone approaching the lights knows its a good idea to slow down, put them at interchanges/exits but not every 200m or switch every alternate one off. Just think of the power we'd save.

So given the above viewpoint it was quite a surprise to see an article pop up on my news feed about Germany with the headline: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects ok its only a draft law but imagine if it became reality, if every country did the same. The power savings alone could be impressive but if it did have a positive affect on the insect population then woop dee fucking doo dah thats a win in many ways. I know people say things were different in my day and that its a perception rather than reality but in this case its true. Things were different when i was younger, there were more bees and their hated cousin the wasp ¹, more birds & in general more nature ¹. Now i know it is not lighting that is solely to blame and not the biggest contributor to the decline but it is surely one of the easier things we can change without impact on us?

Shouldnt we be doing everything possible in this time? it would seem to me that even picking the easy targets such as lighting reduction would cumulatively yield benefits all around and what i dont understand is why such things are seemingly not on the table, its ok to push for the big things (removal of coal power, reduction in old automotive technology BTW i dont think the push for electric is the way forward but thats a different topic) but these things are not instant wins, they take years if not decades to achieve but in the meantime we could be doing more with simple, easy to change and positive steps.

Fair play to Germany for trying and here's hoping the law becomes reality and its effect is proven.

outlook events for orgmode

If like me you spend all your working life in MS products and yet you still want to or do rely on orgmode to give you some semblance of sanity, then this might help. Its not a bidirectional synchronisation and i only wanted the appointments for today to show. It queries Outlook for any confirmed appointments in the calendar and then outputs a single orgmode file in my main org folder which is automatically added to the agenda. The following code originally taken from https://sukhbinder.wordpress.com/2020/04/08/get-outlook-entries-with-python-3/ then gutted and adapted for my needs queries MS Outlook for the events in the calendar. I've restricted it for one day but changing the variable num_days can output more if you wanted.

  #  taken from https://sukhbinder.wordpress.com/2020/04/08/get-outlook-entries-with-python-3/
 #  modified 2020.08.07

 import win32com.client
 import datetime  as dt

 f  =  open( 'C:/Users/lee.halls/Documents/orgfiles/today.org',  'w')

 def  getEndtime(start_time,org_duration):
     org_duration  = org_duration  / 60
     the_time  = dt.datetime.strptime(start_time,  '%H:%M')
     new_time  = the_time  + dt.timedelta(hours =org_duration)
     return new_time.strftime( '%H:%M')

 Outlook  = win32com.client.Dispatch( "Outlook.Application")
 ns  = Outlook.GetNamespace( "MAPI")

 appointments  = ns.GetDefaultFolder(9).Items
appointments.Sort( "[Start]")
appointments. IncludeRecurrences  =  "True"

 #  define date range
 num_days  = 1
 today  = dt.datetime.today()
 begin  = today.date().strftime( "%d/%m/%Y")
 tomorrow  = dt.timedelta(num_days)  + today
 end  = tomorrow.date().strftime( "%d/%m/%Y")

 #  restrict appointments in outlook to today
 appointments  = appointments.Restrict(
     "[Start] >= '"  + begin  +  "' AND [END] <= '"  + end  +  "'")

 #  loop through appointments
 for a  in appointments:
     # print(a.Subject, a.Start, a.Duration)
     startTime  = (a.Start).strftime( "%H:%M")
     endTime  = getEndtime(startTime, a.Duration)
     #  print ('%s%s%s%s%s%s%s' % ('* ', startTime ,'-', endTime, ' ', a.Subject, '\n'))
     #  print ('%s%s%s' % ('<', a.Start.strftime('%Y-%m-%d'), '>'))
    f.write ( '%s%s%s%s%s%s%s'  % ( '* ', startTime , '-', endTime,  ' ', a.Subject,  ' \n '))
    f.write ( '%s%s%s%s'  % ( '<', a.Start.strftime( '%Y-%m-%d'),  '>',  ' \n ' ))


f.close()

I've set this to run via windows task scheduler every time i unlock the PC.

Beginning email analysis for outlook

[2020-06-24 Wed 22:36] This was originally titled "Outlook email analysis" but on reflection it sounded too presumptious for what is actually shown hence the addition of " beginning" to the title.

Its been a productive week and this morning i finally got around to trying my hand at using python to conduct some simple Outlook inbox analysis. I've wanted for a long time to have more data visualisation and so another journey begins. The following piece of code is simple and needs improvement but what it does is to connect to the outlook mailbox, and loop through all emails to provide a count of emails received against a persons name for today and it creates an org table output

The code is

  import win32com.client
 from collections  import defaultdict
 from datetime  import datetime, date
 import datetime

 f  =  open( "test.org",  'a')

 #  setup connection to outlook
 outlook  = win32com.client.Dispatch( "Outlook.Application").GetNamespace( "MAPI")
 inbox  = outlook.GetDefaultFolder(6)

 #  get inbox messages
 messages  = inbox.Items
 message  = inbox.Items.GetFirst()

 #  define yesterday's date & create dictionary
 d  = (date.today()  - datetime.timedelta (days =1)).strftime( '%Y-%m-%d')
 counts  = defaultdict( int)

 #  loop through all messages and check if yesterday < received time then update dictionary
 for message  in inbox.Items:
     received_time  = message.ReceivedTime.strftime( '%Y-%m-%d')
     if d  < received_time:
         counts[message.SenderName]  +=1

f.write( '%s%s%s%s'  % ( '| ', date.today().strftime( '%Y-%m-%d') ,  ' |',  ' \n '))
 for key  in (counts):
     print( '|', key,  '|', counts[key],  '|')
    f.write( '%s%s%s%s%s%s'  % ( '|', key,  '|', counts[key],  '|',  ' \n '))


f.close()

Next tasks are to have it count all yesterday's msgs, set the script to run first thing every morning or perhaps have it run once a week and compile stats for the week so that there is not too much data.

[2020-06-13 Sat 10:33] now updated for weekly analysis and corrected the misuse of importing datetime as shown in the above example, but also started to play with the xlsxwriter module

  #  -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 #  this collects the names and how many emails i received from them for the week

 import win32com.client
 from collections  import defaultdict
 import datetime  as dt
 from datetime  import datetime, date
 import xlsxwriter

 f  =  open( "test.org",  'w')

 #  setup connection to outlook
 outlook  = win32com.client.Dispatch( "Outlook.Application").GetNamespace( "MAPI")
 inbox  = outlook.GetDefaultFolder(6)

 #  setup xlsx file
 workbook  = xlsxwriter.Workbook( 'outlook_data.xlsx')
 worksheet  = workbook.add_worksheet( 'WK' +date.today().strftime( '%V'))

 #  get inbox messages
 messages  = inbox.Items
 message  = inbox.Items.GetFirst()

 #  get week number
 counts  = defaultdict( int)
 rw  = 0

 #  create header for file
f.write( '%s%s%s%s%s%s'  % ( '| ',  'Mails received in week',  '| ' , date.today().strftime( '%V'),  ' |',  ' \n '))

 #  loop through all messages and check if received this week
 for message  in inbox.Items:
     r  = message.ReceivedTime.strftime( '%V')
     if r  == date.today().strftime( '%V'):
         counts[message.SenderName]  +=1

 for key  in (counts):
     print( '|', key,  '|', counts[key],  '|')
    worksheet.write(rw, 0, key)
    worksheet.write(rw, 1, counts[key])
    f.write( '%s%s%s%s%s%s'  % ( '|', key,  '|', counts[key],  '|',  ' \n '))
     rw  +=1


f.close()
workbook.close()

emacs lisp & yasnippet templates

On my home machines I keep a journal and used some fu to determine which machine the journal entry was written on. I also keep a daily log for work normally this consists of start time, mileage to be claimed so the snippet template resembles

# -*- mode: snippet -*-
# name: daily
# key: daily
# --
** `(format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d-%H:%m" (current-time))`
:PROPERTIES:
:LOCATION:
:MILEAGE:
:START: `(format-time-string "%H:%M" (current-time))`
:FINISH:
:END: 

At the start of everyday when i open up the laptop emacs is always there waiting and in the log for this year i type daily hit tab and voila my entry for the day commences

** 2020-06-05-14:06
   :PROPERTIES:
   :LOCATION: 
   :MILEAGE:
   :START: 14:06
   :FINISH:
   :END: 

Location, mileage and end time are manually entered and normally i keep location as a set of abbreviations that match the mileage to claim this means using dynamic column view i can get a nice table of times/locations such as;

This then at the top of the file gets rendered into a smaller dynamic table so i can see cumulative mileage by month

now i'm working from home due to COVID i got tired of typing "home" everytime but i know there will be site & supplier visits coming up so i didnt want to alter the template and just add the text "home" so back to the point of this post which was to use a bit of emacs-lisp fu to get the snippet template to auto update location but how?

After a little thinking i came to the conclusion the easiest way would be to identify the network address the laptop is currently on, now admittedly this falls down if by some miracle everywhere i go has the same 192.168.1 start for IP address but i'll test that when on the road. I started by reading up on network commands via

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Misc-Network.html

i then searched and found https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/7653/elisp-code-to-check-for-internet-connection and this was discussing auto updating packages if the connection was alive.

A bit of playing around i could see network-interface-list contained the info i wanted

 (print (network-interface-list))

#+RESULTS:
: ((lo0 . [127 0 0 1 0]) (lo0 . [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0]) (eth1 . [169 254 195 98 0]) (eth1 . [65152 0 0 0 2226 39545 32787 50018 0]) (wlan2 . [169 254 127 144 0]) (wlan2 . [65152 0 0 0 20906 64385 58821 32656 0]) (wlan1 . [169 254 218 84 0]) (wlan1 . [65152 0 0 0 12504 37352 2860 55892 0]) (wlan0 . [169 254 231 54 0]) (wlan0 . [65152 0 0 0 41016 7035 59478 59190 0]) (eth0 . [192 168 1 14 0]) (eth0 . [65152 0 0 0 4387 56520 32424 30320 0]))

but then reading the first site also gave me network-interface-info so specifying the wireless network or in this case ethernet ( i'm writing this on my main m\c) gives

 (print (network-interface-info  "eth0"))

#+RESULTS:
: ([192 168 1 14 0] [192 168 1 255 0] [255 255 255 0 0] (1 . [244 77 48 24 93 135]) (dynamic running multicast broadcast up))

ok so i have the data what next? a little trial and error follows;

 (print (network-interface-info  "wlan0"))
( setq x (nth 0 (network-interface-info  "wlan0")))
(print x)
(format  "%s" x)
( if (string-match-p  "192 168 1" (format  "%s" x))
 "home"
 "work")

there's a lot wrong with the above and i've learned a bit more however given i start with zero emacs-lisp fu i think i can be spared a little leeway however it does ultimately work and can be pared down to the following;

 ( if (string-match-p  "192 168 1" (format  "%s" (network-interface-info  "wlan0")))
 "home"
 "work")

All that needs to happen now is for the code to be incorporated into the snippet;

# -*- mode: snippet -*-
# name: daily
# key: daily
# --
** `(format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d-%H:%m" (current-time))`

:PROPERTIES:
`(if (string-match-p "192 168 1" (format "%s" (network-interface-info "wlan0")))
":LOCATION: HOME"
":LOCATION: ")`
:MILEAGE:
:START: `(format-time-string "%H:%M" (current-time))`
:FINISH:
:END:

Basically an hour of research and testing to save me what? 20s per day? thats going to be a long ROI before it pays off but i like learning and how knows what else may now be automated now that i have a little more fu.

Website security

This site already uses HTTPS and SSL but whilst wandering aimlessly through some tech sites i stumbled upon reference to Mozilla's Observatory which states;

The Mozilla Observatory has helped over 170,000 websites by teaching developers, system administrators, and security professionals how to configure their sites safely and securely.

Essentially it scans your site for security issues and gives you a report, hey i thought lets try it so i did and i got an F 🫨 😥 💩

Ouch that was not what i expected. The report goes into detail on what was wrong and my failures were;

The games begin! starting with an epic trawl through documentation and sites on how to improve, during this i stumbled upon three that proved useful, written in a language i understood. Firstly Joseph Earl's post on how to improve netlify static site security and secondly Philipp Häfelfinger's post on migrating from jekyll to hugo

Both proved interesting but on Phillip's he has a section on HTTP headers and using a .htaccess file to improve security. In the interests of full disclosure i copied the lines except the last two re CSP pasted here for completeness;

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains"
Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff
Header always set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
Header always set X-Xss-Protection "1; mode=block;"
Header always set Referrer-Policy "strict-origin"

With the above added to a .htaccess file store this in the static folder such that when hugo is run it copies this to the root of your public_html folder, re-running the mozilla test now gets me

Much better but still not enough, adding the last two lines from Philipp's post but modified for this site;

Header always set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self' https://leehalls.net https://*.leehalls.net https:; script-src 'self' https://leehalls.net https://*.leehalls.net; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' https://leehalls.net https://*.leehalls.net; img-src 'self' https://leehalls.net https://*.leehalls.net; object-src 'self'; script-src 'self' https://leehalls.net https://*.leehalls.net; require-sri-for style;"
Header always set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "https://leehalls.net"

Gets me a more detailed report and a score of B+ so not quite what i anticipated given what i had read and it seems the reason is "Content Security Policy (CSP) implemented unsafely. This includes 'unsafe-inline' or data: inside script-src, overly broad sources such as https: inside object-src or script-src, or not restricting the sources for object-src or script-src."

Obviously a little knowledge is dangerous :weary: more searching and trying to understand what i was doing led me to the third site, the actual Content Security Policy website https://content-security-policy.com/

Here it suggested that default-src 'none'; script-src 'self'; connect-src 'self'; img-src 'self'; style-src 'self';base-uri 'self';form-action 'self' is a good starting point for many sites, so i used that instead of the modified code and now my .htaccess file looks like;

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains"
Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff
Header always set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
Header always set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
Header always set Referrer-Policy "strict-origin"
Header always set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'none'; script-src 'self'; connect-src 'self'; img-src 'self'; style-src 'self';base-uri 'self';form-action 'self';  require-sri-for style;"
Header always set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "https://leehalls.net"

Running the Observatory report again and i get . . . .

I'd say that deserves a 🍺 however I have an A+ rating but when refreshing the site it appears odd, things are not working the way they should a little bit of testing and i needed to add to the style-src section the following as per Philipp's example ~ style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'~ and everything seems to be working ok i just get a recommendation now from the report which states

Almost there!

Your current CSP policy allows the use of 'unsafe-inline' inside of style-src. Moving style attributes into external stylesheets not only makes you safer, but also makes your code easier to maintain.

So that gives me two red crosses with the second being for Clickjacking protection, using frame-ancestors still some work to do and i also want to understand why my modification of Phillip's example failed to gain the same A+ rating and there are other things i do not understand & so my dear Watson the game continues!

HTML/CSS Agenda for emacs batch output

BELOW NOT QUITE ACCURATE!

Success whhooo … seems sunshine might be good for the brain as i finally have an agenda created in batch mode that renders in a modified gruvbox format (i tweaked the gruvbox el file to my liking). The steps needed;

In your working emacs use C-a and bring up your formatted agenda and then whilst the focus is on the agenda M-x and org-export-htmlize-generate-css this will generate a css file containing all the formatting used, note a lot of it you might not need. Now we have the CSS file we need to add the contents to our dotemacs file.

If you open the file it may start like;

 <style type= "text/css">
    <!--
       body {
         color:  #fdf4c1;
         background-color:  #1d2021;
      }
       .org-border {
      }
       .org-browse-url-button {
         /*  browse-url-button  */
         color:  #458588;
         text-decoration: underline;
      }
       .org-buffer-menu-buffer {
         /*  buffer-menu-buffer  */
         font-weight: bold;
      }
       .org-builtin {
         /*  font-lock-builtin-face  */
         color:  #fe8019;
      }

However we cannot just copy/paste into our dotemacs oh no, i'm learning there are always some detours or hurdles to take. The bit we are interested in is everything from body { downwards and not the initial <style type stuff.

So open up the dotemacs file and type

 ( setq org-agenda-export-html-style
 "<style>

<---- paste the copied code here --->

</style>"

What you should see (shortened form shown) is something like;

 ( setq org-agenda-export-html-style
 "<style>
      body {
        color: #fdf4c1;
        background-color: #1d2021;
      }
      .org-border {
      }
      .org-browse-url-button {
        /* browse-url-button */
        color: #458588;
        text-decoration: underline;
      }
      a:hover {
        text-decoration: underline;
      }
</style>"

)

Now when running the command /usr/local/bin/emacs -Q -batch -l ~/.emacs -eval '(org-batch-store-agenda-views)' emacs should output your agenda in gloriously formatted HTML.

Good luck!

batch agenda output via html

Success! Previously I mentioned difficulty in getting the agenda output using the command line in HTML form however now after a bit of baking in today's glorious sunshine i figured it out. As normal i'd overlooked the obvious and discounted all the info i had reviewed.

My old command looks like

/usr/local/bin/emacs -Q --batch --load ~/.emacs --eval='(org-batch-agenda "c" org-agenda-files (quote ("/srv/dev-disk-by-id-usb-Seagate_Portable_NAA570VH-0-0-part1/drakx/orgfiles/")) org-agenda-span (quote week))' > /srv/dev-disk-by-id-usb-Seagate_Portable_NAA570VH-0-0-part1/drakx/orgfiles/agenda.txt

and this is entered into the scheduled job section of the OMV server setup;

It works very well but lacked the formatting of an HTML output, now the new command looks like;

/usr/local/bin/emacs -Q -batch -l ~/.emacs -eval '(org-batch-store-agenda-views)'

and this does have HTML output however it is not achievable without some modification of the org-super-agenda setup in the dotemacs file. As shown on many including the official site there are lines to show what output format we want, i just overlooked it.

The following is a section from my dotemacs which shows the org-super-agenda setup for one command;

 '(( "c"  "Super view"
   ((agenda  "" ((org-agenda-overriding-header  "")
                (org-super-agenda-groups
                 '(( :name  ""
                           :time-grid t
                           :date today
                           :order 1)))))
    (alltodo  "" ((org-agenda-overriding-header  "")
                 (org-super-agenda-groups
                  '(( :log t)
                    ( :name  "family stuff"
                            :discard ( :deadline future)
                            :tag  "family"
                            :order 8)
                    ( :name  "house stuff"
                            :discard ( :deadline future)
                            :tag  "house"
                            :order 8)
                    ( :name  "tech stuff"
                            :discard ( :deadline future)
                            :tag ( "tech"  "emacs")
                            :order 1)

                    )))))
   nil
   ( "~/agenda.html")
   )

The critical part of this for batch processing is;

 nil
( "~/agenda.html")

This tells the batch command how to save and where to save the agenda when it runs from the commandline. At the moment there is no fancy CSS applied but you get basic CSS and this is because quoting: "when you run Emacs in batch mode, it has no display and therefore no colored faces, so that HTMLIZE will pick up simpler versions of the faces and use those." ¹

Now a small modification of Tasker's scene to use a webview box instead of text and voila i now have a nicely formatted agenda on display on my phone.

orgmode, android and Tasker

Yes i know orgzly exists and whilst it is an excellent app it just doesn't feel right or perhaps quick enough for me, I use it but only as a "refer to" method ie a viewer of pgp encrypted passwords or other entries and not as a capture/entry or agenda viewing system and yet because i wanted a way of quickly capturing tasks & sometimes tasks with photos I created several scenes in Tasker which work for me, using these i have to simply click an icon and can have a task populated with the right orgmode format, date etc and ready to enter text. The capture scenes write to a staging_ground.org file which is automagically sync'd via syncthing to my main machine and the agenda scene simply reads the cron-generated text output of the org agenda.

One downside of this approach is that Tasker is no longer available without Google Play so for an alternative ROM you're pretty stuffed :anguished:

from the FAQ of Tasker

Why is Tasker only sold via Play Store now ? App prices have been driven so low that the only way to make any profit is to make an extremely large amount of sales.

Any sales channel that has even a little bit of administrative overhead is therefore out of the question because of the formula

large-number-of-sales x little-overhead = large-overhead A small developer can't handle a large overhead.

  < TaskerData  sr= ""  dvi= "1"  tv= "5.9.2" >
         < Task  sr= "task4" >
                 < cdate > 1586619219286 < / cdate >
                 < edate > 1590482529265 < / edate >
                 < id > 4 < / id >
                 < nme > My_OrgPhoto < / nme >
                 < pri > 7 < / pri >
                 < Action  sr= "act0"  ve= "7" >
                         < code > 101 < / code >
                         < Int  sr= "arg0"  val= "0" / >
                         < Str  sr= "arg1"  ve= "3" > PT-%DATE-%TIME < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg2"  val= "0" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg3"  val= "0" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg4"  val= "0" / >
                         < Str  sr= "arg5"  ve= "3" > 1280x720 < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg6"  val= "0" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg7"  val= "0" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg8"  val= "1" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg9"  val= "0" / >
                 < / Action >
                 < Action  sr= "act1"  ve= "7" >
                         < code > 547 < / code >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > %My_OrgPhoto < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg1"  ve= "3" > %FOTO < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg2"  val= "0" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg3"  val= "0" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg4"  val= "0" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg5"  val= "3" / >
                 < / Action >
                 < Action  sr= "act2"  ve= "7" >
                         < code > 590 < / code >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > %My_OrgPhoto < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg1"  ve= "3" > / < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg2"  val= "0" / >
                 < / Action >
                 < Action  sr= "act3"  ve= "7" >
                         < code > 400 < / code >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > %My_OrgPhoto < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg1"  ve= "3" > orgFiles/staging_img < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg2"  val= "0" / >
                 < / Action >
                 < Action  sr= "act4"  ve= "7" >
                         < code > 47 < / code >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > My_OrgPhoto_s < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg1"  val= "3" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg2"  val= "100" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg3"  val= "100" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg4"  val= "0" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg5"  val= "1" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg6"  val= "1" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg7"  val= "1" / >
                 < / Action >
                 < Action  sr= "act5"  ve= "7" >
                         < code > 105 < / code >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > * TODO %DATE-%TIME - PHOTONOTE
[[file:staging_img/%My_OrgPhoto3]] < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg1"  val= "0" / >
                 < / Action >
                 < Action  sr= "act6"  ve= "7" >
                         < code > 1732635924 < / code >
                         < Bundle  sr= "arg0" >
                                 < Vals  sr= "val" >
                                         < ActionId > & lt ; null & gt ; < / ActionId >
                                         < ActionId-type > java.lang.String < / ActionId-type >
                                         < ActionType > 32768 < / ActionType >
                                         < ActionType-type > java.lang.String < / ActionType-type >
                                         < EnableDisableAccessibilityService > & lt ; null & gt ; < / EnableDisableAccessibilityService >
                                         < EnableDisableAccessibilityService-type > java.lang.String < / EnableDisableAccessibilityService-type >
                                         < FieldSelectionType > 2 < / FieldSelectionType >
                                         < FieldSelectionType-type > java.lang.String < / FieldSelectionType-type >
                                         < IsFirstAction > false < / IsFirstAction >
                                         < IsFirstAction-type > java.lang.Boolean < / IsFirstAction-type >
                                         < IsTaskerAction > true < / IsTaskerAction >
                                         < IsTaskerAction-type > java.lang.Boolean < / IsTaskerAction-type >
                                         < NearbyText > & lt ; null & gt ; < / NearbyText >
                                         < NearbyText-type > java.lang.String < / NearbyText-type >
                                         < Password > & lt ; null & gt ; < / Password >
                                         < Password-type > java.lang.String < / Password-type >
                                         < RepeatInterval > & lt ; null & gt ; < / RepeatInterval >
                                         < RepeatInterval-type > java.lang.String < / RepeatInterval-type >
                                         < RepeatTimes > & lt ; null & gt ; < / RepeatTimes >
                                         < RepeatTimes-type > java.lang.String < / RepeatTimes-type >
                                         < StoredAction > & lt ; null & gt ; < / StoredAction >
                                         < StoredAction-type > java.lang.String < / StoredAction-type >
                                         < TextToWrite > & lt ; null & gt ; < / TextToWrite >
                                         < TextToWrite-type > java.lang.String < / TextToWrite-type >
                                         < com.twofortyfouram.locale.intent.extra.BLURB > Type: Focus
Action : Paste
Is Tasker Action: true < / com.twofortyfouram.locale.intent.extra.BLURB >
                                         < com.twofortyfouram.locale.intent.extra.BLURB-type > java.lang.String < / com.twofortyfouram.locale.intent.extra.BLURB-type >
                                         < net.dinglisch.android.tasker.RELEVANT_VARIABLES > & lt ; StringArray sr="" & gt ;& lt ; _array_net.dinglisch.android.tasker.RELEVANT_VARIABLES0 & gt ; %err
Error Code
Only available if you select  & amp ; lt;b & amp ; gt;Continue Task After Error & amp ; lt;/b & amp ; gt; and the action ends in error & lt ; /_array_net.dinglisch.android.tasker.RELEVANT_VARIABLES0 & gt ;& lt ; _array_net.dinglisch.android.tasker.RELEVANT_VARIABLES1 & gt ; %errmsg
Error Message
Only available if you select  & amp ; lt;b & amp ; gt;Continue Task After Error & amp ; lt;/b & amp ; gt; and the action ends in error & lt ; /_array_net.dinglisch.android.tasker.RELEVANT_VARIABLES1 & gt ;& lt ; /StringArray & gt ; < / net.dinglisch.android.tasker.RELEVANT_VARIABLES >
                                         < net.dinglisch.android.tasker.RELEVANT_VARIABLES-type > [Ljava.lang.String; < / net.dinglisch.android.tasker.RELEVANT_VARIABLES-type >
                                         < net.dinglisch.android.tasker.extras.VARIABLE_REPLACE_KEYS > FieldSelectionType ActionType plugininstanceid plugintypeid  < / net.dinglisch.android.tasker.extras.VARIABLE_REPLACE_KEYS >
                                         < net.dinglisch.android.tasker.extras.VARIABLE_REPLACE_KEYS-type > java.lang.String < / net.dinglisch.android.tasker.extras.VARIABLE_REPLACE_KEYS-type >
                                         < net.dinglisch.android.tasker.subbundled > true < / net.dinglisch.android.tasker.subbundled >
                                         < net.dinglisch.android.tasker.subbundled-type > java.lang.Boolean < / net.dinglisch.android.tasker.subbundled-type >
                                         < plugininstanceid > 931c2a84-a888-45e8-a2e3-8a19eff825e6 < / plugininstanceid >
                                         < plugininstanceid-type > java.lang.String < / plugininstanceid-type >
                                         < plugintypeid > com.joaomgcd.autoinput.intent.IntentPerformAction < / plugintypeid >
                                         < plugintypeid-type > java.lang.String < / plugintypeid-type >
                                 < / Vals >
                         < / Bundle >
                         < Str  sr= "arg1"  ve= "3" > com.joaomgcd.autoinput < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg2"  ve= "3" > com.joaomgcd.autoinput.activity.ActivityConfigPerformAction < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg3"  val= "23" / >
                 < / Action >
                 < Img  sr= "icn"  ve= "2" >
                         < nme > camera < / nme >
                         < pkg > net.dinglisch.android.ipack.bluewhitepearlhd < / pkg >
                 < / Img >
         < / Task >
 < / TaskerData >

  < TaskerData  sr= ""  dvi= "1"  tv= "5.9.2" >
         < dmetric > 1440.0,2792.0 < / dmetric >
         < Scene  sr= "sceneMy_OrgPhoto_s" >
                 < cdate > 1586846659080 < / cdate >
                 < edate > 1590482654993 < / edate >
                 < gridSize > 30 < / gridSize >
                 < heightLand > -1 < / heightLand >
                 < heightPort > 2086 < / heightPort >
                 < nme > My_OrgPhoto_s < / nme >
                 < widthLand > -1 < / widthLand >
                 < widthPort > 1241 < / widthPort >
                 < EditTextElement  sr= "elements0"  ve= "3" >
                         < flags > 12 < / flags >
                         < geom > 32,186,1182,1284,35,1225,1290,977 < / geom >
                         < valueselectedTask > 55 < / valueselectedTask >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > TextEdit1 < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg1"  ve= "3" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg2"  val= "14" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg3"  val= "100" / >
                         < Str  sr= "arg4"  ve= "3" > #FF00FF00 < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg5"  ve= "3" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg6"  val= "5" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg7"  val= "0" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg8"  val= "1000" / >
                         < RectElement  sr= "background" >
                                 < flags > 4 < / flags >
                                 < geom > -1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1 < / geom >
                                 < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" / >
                                 < Int  sr= "arg1"  val= "0" / >
                                 < Str  sr= "arg2"  ve= "3" > #FF000000 < / Str >
                                 < Str  sr= "arg3"  ve= "3" / >
                                 < Int  sr= "arg4"  val= "1" / >
                                 < Str  sr= "arg5"  ve= "3" > #FF000000 < / Str >
                                 < Int  sr= "arg6"  val= "0" / >
                                 < Int  sr= "arg7"  val= "0" / >
                         < / RectElement >
                 < / EditTextElement >
                 < ButtonElement  sr= "elements1"  ve= "3" >
                         < clickTask > 57 < / clickTask >
                         < flags > 4 < / flags >
                         < geom > 1021,25,192,160,472,745,434,775 < / geom >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > Button1 < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg1"  ve= "3" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg2"  val= "8" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg3"  val= "100" / >
                         < Str  sr= "arg4"  ve= "3" > #FF000000 < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg5"  ve= "3" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg6"  val= "0" / >
                         < Img  sr= "arg7"  ve= "2" >
                                 < nme > cuteball_go < / nme >
                                 < pkg > net.dinglisch.android.ipack.ilikebuttonshd < / pkg >
                         < / Img >
                 < / ButtonElement >
                 < ButtonElement  sr= "elements2"  ve= "3" >
                         < clickTask > 58 < / clickTask >
                         < flags > 4 < / flags >
                         < geom > 32,25,186,160,35,1429,205,175 < / geom >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > Button2 < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg1"  ve= "3" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg2"  val= "16" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg3"  val= "100" / >
                         < Str  sr= "arg4"  ve= "3" > #FF000000 < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg5"  ve= "3" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg6"  val= "0" / >
                         < Img  sr= "arg7"  ve= "2" >
                                 < nme > aqua_shutdown < / nme >
                                 < pkg > net.dinglisch.android.ipack.ilikebuttonshd < / pkg >
                         < / Img >
                 < / ButtonElement >
                 < TextElement  sr= "elements3"  ve= "3" >
                         < flags > 4 < / flags >
                         < geom > 298,25,620,173,327,1429,677,190 < / geom >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > Text1 < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg1"  ve= "3" > ORG PHOTO CAPTURE < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg2"  val= "14" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg3"  val= "100" / >
                         < Str  sr= "arg4"  ve= "3" > #FF3EFF00 < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg5"  ve= "3" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg6"  val= "0" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg7"  val= "0" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg8"  val= "0" / >
                         < RectElement  sr= "background" >
                                 < flags > 4 < / flags >
                                 < geom > -1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1 < / geom >
                                 < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" / >
                                 < Int  sr= "arg1"  val= "0" / >
                                 < Str  sr= "arg2"  ve= "3" > #8D000000 < / Str >
                                 < Str  sr= "arg3"  ve= "3" / >
                                 < Int  sr= "arg4"  val= "0" / >
                                 < Str  sr= "arg5"  ve= "3" > #FF000000 < / Str >
                                 < Int  sr= "arg6"  val= "0" / >
                                 < Int  sr= "arg7"  val= "0" / >
                         < / RectElement >
                 < / TextElement >
                 < PropertiesElement  sr= "props" >
                         < Int  sr= "arg0"  val= "1" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg1"  val= "0" / >
                         < Str  sr= "arg2"  ve= "3" > #33FFFFFF < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg3"  val= "0" / >
                         < Str  sr= "arg4"  ve= "3" > Capture < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg5"  ve= "3" / >
                         < Img  sr= "arg6"  ve= "2" / >
                         < Str  sr= "arg7"  ve= "3" / >
                 < / PropertiesElement >
         < / Scene >
         < Task  sr= "task55" >
                 < cdate > 1586900574760 < / cdate >
                 < edate > 1586900574760 < / edate >
                 < id > 55 < / id >
                 < pri > 102 < / pri >
                 < Action  sr= "act0"  ve= "7" >
                         < code > 195 < / code >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > My_OrgPhoto_s < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg1"  ve= "3" > TextEdit1 < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg2"  val= "2" / >
                         < Str  sr= "arg3"  ve= "3" > %orgTXT < / Str >
                 < / Action >
         < / Task >
         < Task  sr= "task57" >
                 < cdate > 1586846843950 < / cdate >
                 < edate > 1586846843950 < / edate >
                 < id > 57 < / id >
                 < pri > 102 < / pri >
                 < Action  sr= "act0"  ve= "7" >
                         < code > 410 < / code >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > orgFiles/staging_gnd.org < / Str >
                         < Str  sr= "arg1"  ve= "3" > %orgTXT < / Str >
                         < Int  sr= "arg2"  val= "1" / >
                         < Int  sr= "arg3"  val= "1" / >
                 < / Action >
                 < Action  sr= "act1"  ve= "7" >
                         < code > 49 < / code >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > My_OrgPhoto_s < / Str >
                 < / Action >
         < / Task >
         < Task  sr= "task58" >
                 < cdate > 1586900945194 < / cdate >
                 < edate > 1586900945194 < / edate >
                 < id > 58 < / id >
                 < pri > 102 < / pri >
                 < Action  sr= "act0"  ve= "7" >
                         < code > 49 < / code >
                         < Str  sr= "arg0"  ve= "3" > My_OrgPhoto_s < / Str >
                 < / Action >
         < / Task >
 < / TaskerData >

COVID19

Currently as of Thursday 21 May 2020 @ 16:09 there has been for the UK 36,042 deaths associated with the virus, 250,908 lab-confirmed cases and for the rest of the world inc UK data its 5,067,579 cases & 332,711 deaths ¹. So its a very real threat and has had a significant impact not only on families but countries with some close to the brink of bankruptcy and being forced to chose letting people live in lockdown and to continue the disease control measures or sending them back to work and possibly die. Despite all this, for me personally, the enforced lockdown has been brilliant.

Perhaps sadly in some peoples eyes I've had to make no changes to my personal life, there has been no loss nor sense of isolation. I've had time to work on my projects, the garden, the house, continue on my own journey of learning as well as become more self-reliant ie no dropbox, reduced google etc

I've never been one for the social scene and am comfortable with the multitude of voices in my head for company so to be shut inside the confines of my home & garden was no trouble. OK i've not been furloughed the entire time and undertook several weeks of working from home supporting both the UK and European operations but with this there was no pressure associated with the smalltalk needed when present with people and definitely no time vs traffic pressure to meet the Victorian workhouse ethic of you must clock-on.

When furloughed properly there was simply no pressure at all.

I still woke before 0700 but the day was mine and there was no time constraints, no rolling of the normally loaded dice to see what the M42, A38 or M6 was going to be like on a journey to a factory, office or airport. I could react and change plans to suit the weather which has been for the most part magnificent. Even when officially working at home i was more productive both personally and professionally but alas slowly like with the rest of Europe the UK is being forced into sending people back to work and my time is becoming shorter and in all honesty i'll miss it. I already see this as perhaps a trial of what retirement could be like should i be lucky enough to last that long and be healthy enough to enjoy it.

COVID19 is possibly here to stay, whether we the general public ever get to understand the real reason for its existence with all the politics and conspiracy theories that surround us I'd say is doubtful, it sure isnt 5G but is it down to the human consumption of anything & everything living, wet markets, biological experimentation? who knows, there are lessons to be learnt though but will we?

Its been an interesting "experiment" civilisation as we have come to it know teeters on a knife edge it's been proven by COVID that it doesnt take much for the veneer of civility to disappear and the true nature of the human beast to be shown or to point our economic frailty. It's perhaps a little ironic that in this time of idiocy with that lunatic Trump and our own Brexit what the world actually needs is more global cooperation not the closing of borders and the introversion of countries.

Still with COVID i'm reminded of something i've long enjoyed listening to & reading - War of the Worlds

“Perhaps I am a man of exceptional moods. I do not know how far my experience is common. At times I suffer from the strangest sense of detachment from myself and the world about me; I seem to watch it all from the outside, from somewhere inconceivably remote, out of time, out of space, out of the stress and tragedy of it all.”

and perhaps there is hope

These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things–taken toll of our prehuman ancestors since life began here. But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting power; to no germs do we succumb without a struggle

For those whom lockdown has been a painful experience

The day seemed, by contrast with my recent confinement, dazzlingly bright, the sky a glowing blue. A gentle breeze kept the red weed that covered every scrap of unoccupied ground gently swaying. And oh! the sweetness of the air!

emacs, orgmode, hugo + ox-hugo

OK so i dont pretend to be an all knowing computer geek in fact just the opposite i'm aging computer enthusiast that grew up in the golden age of electronics and computers but i do have some understanding from starting out with BBC's,Spectrums and hacking high score tables or re-programming the header so the game could run from microdrive instead of C90 tape :wink: through to TCL for aero engine data analysis and then python for a home monitoring system but my decision to start afresh, move to a new domain and use hugo + ox-hugo has had me reaching for a glass of the strong stuff and several relaxing hours getting my arse handed to me on COD!

You may ask Why if you use orgmode already did you struggle with ox-hugo? well despite all the excellent documentation provided by Kaushal and following the example of Ken Grimes it just didnt twig, for me something was missing.

I normally keep one blog post per org file, each one saved with the date as the filename eg 20200508.org but wanted to try and jump to the ox-hugo preferred one file to rule all method because with a file per post i sometimes struggled to link between them and i wanted to use more of orgmode's features. So i tried to take an old post and tweak it, i refactored the tags and categories added export features and jumped right in, needless to say it didnt work.

What i was doing was thinking the top heading was for each post ie

* post 1                                                         :@emacs:org:
:PROPERTIES:
:export_file_name: post1
:export_description: my big dumbass
:END:
 now onto the rest blah blah

* post 2
:PROPERTIES:
:export_file_name: post2
:export_description: my big dumbass
:END:
 now onto the rest blah blah

It was not until i found Shane Sveller's site that the lights switched on, he has a really clear explanation and what did it for me a full proper example page. Definitely worth visiting his site for full details but in brief i should have been doing something like this;

* Posts
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: posts
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :noauthor true :nocomment true :nopaging true :noread true
:END:

** starting afresh
:PROPERTIES:
:export_file_name: 
:export_description: 
:END:

So each blog or post is a subheading of the main and the same goes for pages bloody easy really. OK in my limited defense i was also trying to apply a theme to the posts and getting lost there with trying to tweak the output at the time as well as trying to understand how to "ox-hugo". For example;

A TODO in a post is output by ox-hugo in markdown as;

 # <span class="org-todo done DONE">DONE</span> automatically rebuild my orgmode & sync to my phone {#automatically-rebuild-my-orgmode-and-sync-to-my-phone}

every single theme i tried converts this into MASSIVE text in old HTML terms <H1> or bigger ie

i spent a lot of time trying different themes just to see if they did something different then i tried to edit the CSS files and i know nothing about CSS

After all this i can recommend if you do not want to learn about css, layouts and other hugo terms i'd probably walk away from hugo but if you're already an orgmode user and want a challenge, want the full org experience for your site then pull up a comfy chair, grab a drink and stick on some meditation music and be prepared but you may find the following reading material useful before you start:

• https://www.shanesveller.com/blog/2018/02/13/blogging-with-org-mode-and-ox-hugo/
• https://gtpedrosa.github.io/blog/using-org-mode-and-ox-hugo-to-replace-markdown-in-hugo-workflow/
• https://people.umass.edu/weikaichen/post/emacs-ox-hugo/
• https://www.petercheng.net/posts/website-v2-setup/
• https://joshrollinswrites.com/tags/orgmode/
• https://www.kengrimes.com/ox-hugo-tutorial/
• https://github.com/kaushalmodi/ox-hugo
• https://gitlab.com/kaushalmodi/hugo-theme-refined

Starting afresh

So during this lockdown amongst other things i decided to re kick-start all projects which had either lay in waiting or been put on hold for more time, for example some of what was on that list was

• DONE convert old mac mini to OMV5 server
• DONE install syncthing under OMV
• DONE get my orgmode agenda automatically rebuilt & setup sync to my phone
• DONE setup motioneye on a RasPi to monitor my bike
• TODO re-write dragelec the home monitoring system
• TODO sort photos, improve Affinity workflow
• TODO misc python scripts to mimic a second brain
  • basically these are scripts which pull data from various sources and output to a journal so for example i use Tasker to track start & end of car journey's which gives me time spent plus GPS coords

There are other jobs but one i had been putting off was a new domain as my current .eu one may end up being taken to the bottom of the garden and shot because of brexit, i also wanted a more controllable, more orgmode based blogging experience but a wise man once said "Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving" ¹ and i can fully agree, I started this journey with some knowledge of hugo, reasonable orgmode knowledge and little if any CSS & to be blunt I feel like i've been dragged by my testicles backwards through a privet hedge by a small bearded dwarf with penchant for dense privet, what i thought would be a relatively simple transition turned out to be taking the red pill down a sewer of broken themes, conflicts and my own lack of understanding of both hugo and how to write in orgmode for ox-hugo. So i am back where started, scratched, a little bloody but wiser and with a significant amount of respect for Kaushal who not only wrote ox-hugo but this theme i'm using.

Quick link creation

As the sub-heading to this site suggests this maybe a place to find poor python! I was updating my photography galleries and in doing so creating ox-hugo clickable image links so that the main page shows the thumbnail and a click brings up the main image. Anyway its a pain to go C-c C-l for each and every file so i cobbled together a dirty and quick python script to trawl a directory and create a text file with the necesary ox-hugo links for clickable images.

The ox-hugo format needed for creating hyperlinked pictures has to resemble;

[[file:/img/lifedeath/LifeDeath_002.jpg][file:/img/lifedeath/LifeDeath_002-thumb.jpg]]

My files are are saved as

Name                               Size Type                   Modified  Attr
LifeDeath_001.jpg                460 KB JPEG image      13/01/2019 18:31-------
LifeDeath_001-thumb.jpg         11.5 KB JPEG image      13/01/2019 18:31-------
LifeDeath_002.jpg                464 KB JPEG image      13/01/2019 18:31-------
LifeDeath_002-thumb.jpg         11.8 KB JPEG image      13/01/2019 18:31-------
..
..

The following poor python does the job of creating the links

  import glob

 # oxhugo link format
 #  [[file:/img/colour/C_ART_0052.jpg][file:/img/colour/C_ART_0052-thumb.jpg]] 
 output_file  =  open( "link.txt", "a")

 one  =  "[[file:/img/lifedeath/"
 three  =  "][file:/img/lifedeath/"
 four  =  "]] "

 files  = []
 for file  in glob.glob( "*.jpg"):
    files.append(file)

 i  =  thumb  = 0
 main  = 1
 while i  <  len(files):
     try:
         complete  = one  + files[main]  + three  + files[thumb]  + four  +  " \n "
     except  IndexError:
         print( "finished")
         break

    output_file.write(complete)
     main  = main  + 2
     thumb  = thumb  + 2

The resulting output gives me exactly what i needed.

About Me

Hi, and yes, that fat hamster in a helmet really is me, riding my much-loved Triumph Bobber, captured near Whatstandwell Bridge.

An admittedly expensive set of three photographs was purchased, and this is one of them. Seeing as there aren't many decent photos of me—and this one involves the bike—why not? 😁

Away from the bike, I'm a fan of fantasy and gaming, an amateur Emacs Lisp and Python programmer, and an old-school automation engineer with a background in PLC programming, industrial robotics, instrumentation, controls, and automated manufacturing systems.

I currently work for a Tier One automotive supplier as a Process Engineer/Senior Expert specialising in industrial adhesive bonding and automated assembly processes. My work covers the complete process lifecycle, from early product and process feasibility through equipment specification, development and commissioning, to series-production support and continuous improvement.

A large part of the role involves assessing product designs for manufacturability and bondability, developing robust bonding processes, and ensuring that equipment, automation, material application, surface preparation, process controls, and inspection methods are capable of consistently meeting OEM requirements.

When things don't go according to plan, I also provide technical and problem-solving support—investigating bonding failures, process variation, equipment and automation issues, and generally trying to determine why something that definitely worked yesterday has decided not to work today.

Photography - Black & White

The magic of not knowing how a picture turned out and then in the gloomy darkness lit only by a dim red light watching it slowly materialise before your eyes seemed and still seems magical to me. Ultimately I followed the herd and switched to digital, for me the switch was because the ever present call of computing still serenaded me & promised a match up of photography and computers. It was another mistake. Photography lost its magic.

Photography - Colour

I never really liked colour photography, always thought it became dated too quickly but i know it can have impact and power. So these a are few of my colour images, nothing special but ones i’m prepared to share. Below the gallery i’ve picked out and titled ones’s i thought deserved more detail

Page 2 - Page 3

Page 2 - Page 3

Photography - Colour - P2

Page 1 - Page 3

Page 1 - Page 3

Photography - Colour - P3

Page 1 - Page 2

Page 1 - Page 2

Flask & socketio

  1:  app  = Flask( __name__)
 2: app. config[ 'SECRET_KEY']  =  'secret!'
 3:  socketio  = SocketIO(app, async_mode =async_mode)
 4:  thread  =  None

   1:  def  background_thread():
  2:      """Example of how to send server generated events to clients."""
  3:      ext = fr = kt = bd = elec =0
  4:      while  True:
  5:           socketio.sleep(2)
  6:            ext  = randint( -10,30)
  7:            fr  = randint(10,30)
  8:            kt  = randint(10,30)
  9:            bd  = randint(10,30)
 10:            elec  = randint(0,8000)
 11: 
 12:           socketio.emit( 'my_response',
 13:                         { 'data': 'Values',  'elec': elec, 'ext': ext, 'fr': fr, 'kt': kt, 'bd': bd},
 14:                         namespace = '/carpi')

   1:  mesg  =  'we are here...'
  2:  @app.route( '/')
  3:  def  index():
  4:      speed  = randint(0,133)
  5:      templateData ={
  6:            'mesg' :mesg,
  7:            'speed' :speed
  8:     }
  9:      return render_template( 'trial3.html', async_mode =socketio.async_mode,  **templateData)
 10: 
 11:  @socketio.on( 'connect', namespace = '/carpi')
 12:  def  test_connect():
 13:      global thread
 14:      if thread  is  None:
 15:            thread  = socketio.start_background_task(target =background_thread)
 16: 
 17:  if  __name__  ==  '__main__':
 18:     socketio.run(app, debug = True)
 19: 

   1: <script src= "static/gauge.min.js"></script>
  2: <script type= "text/javascript" src= "static/jquery-3.2.1.min.js"></script>
  3: <script type= "text/javascript" src= "static/socket.io-1.3.5.min.js"></script>
  4: <script type= "text/javascript" charset= "utf-8">
  5:    var  mycount = 66;
  6:    var  myData = {};
  7:    var  testc = 10;
  8:   $(document).ready( function() {
  9:   namespace =  '/carpi';
 10:        var  socket = io.connect(location.protocol +  '//' + document.domain +  ':' + location.port + namespace);    
 11:       socket.on( 'connect',  function() {
 12:            socket.emit( 'my_event', {data:  'I\'m connected!'});
 13:       });
 14:       socket.on( 'my_response',  function( msg) {
 15:           $( '#values').html(msg.count)
 16:   $( '#log').append( '<br>' + $( '<div/>').text( 'Received #' + msg.data +  ': ' + msg.count).html())
 17:    var  elec = msg.elec
 18:    var  external = msg.ext
 19:    var  frontroom = msg.fr
 20:    var  kitchen = msg.kt
 21:    var  bedroom = msg.bd
 22: 
 23:   extGauge.value = external
 24:   frontroomGauge.value = frontroom
 25:   kitchenGauge.value = kitchen
 26:   bedroomGauge.value = bedroom
 27:   elecGauge.value = elec
 28:         });
 29:    });
 30: </script>

 < canvas  id= "external-temp">  </ canvas>

 <script>
   var  extGauge =  new  RadialGauge({
  renderTo:  'external-temp',
  width: 150,
  height: 150,
  units:  "Deg",
  minValue: -10,
  maxValue: 30,
  majorTicks: [
       "-10",
       "5",
       "0",
       "5",
       "10",
       "15",
       "20",
       "25",
       "30"
  ],
  minorTicks: 5,
  strokeTicks:  true,
  highlights: [
  { from: -10, to: 0, color:  'rgba(25,0, 168, .8)'},
  { from: 0, to: 5, color:  'rgba(47, 15, 224, .7)'},
  { from: 5, to: 15, color:  'rgba(47, 15, 247, .6)'},
  { from: 15, to: 18, color:  'rgba(0, 204, 61, .8)'},
  { from: 18, to: 22, color:  'rgba(0, 204, 61, .8)'},
  { from: 22, to: 26, color:  'rgba(247, 151, 7, .5)'},
  { from: 26, to: 30, color:  'rgba(247, 31, 7, .5)'}
  ],
colorPlate:  "#fff",
borderShadowWidth: 0,
borders:  false,
needleType:  "arrow",
needleWidth: 3,
needleCircleSize: 10,
needleCircleOuter:  true,
needleCircleInner:  false,
animationDuration: 1500,
animationRule:  "linear"
})
  extGauge.draw();
</script>

Photography - Life & Death

A year or two ago i was sat in the kitchen when i heard an awful sound from the front garden, I raced to open the door and intervene unsure of what it was and there right in front of me were the two combatants literally right on the doorstep.

At my appearance they momentarily paused combat and both sets of eyes fixed on mine, gingerly I backed away and shut the door leaving them to their struggle. Thinking it was a waste as i had disturbed them mid-fight i raced for my camera, knowing the whole thing could be over in seconds with the escape of one and I was keen to get at least one semi blurry photo its not often you can get that close to nature whilst still being at home, so i swapped lenses and leant out the upstairs window.

The following photos are the best from over a hundred and fifty shots i took spanning a battle which lasted nearly 30 minutes.

The quality is poor i admit but when leaning out of a window on full zoom with no tripod or support for the camera or me! I’m happy with them and they capture a moment i never thought to witness in the wild let alone in my garden.

Logbook

A few pages from 1990 my logbook of apprenticeship days

Projects & notes

A grandiose terms to describe the things I've either worked on ( reactive gauges) or am working on or other topics which require more detail and a permanent home than simply a post.

Photography

A long time ago I fell in love with photography, worked my way through several cameras upto an EOS 1N before finally scaling everything back, a passion which as with a lot of things died overtime. I still pick up the camera and you'll see the results of that throughout this blog but not with the same fervour.

Raspberry Pi snippets & code info

 //192.168.1.1/Drive /media/nas_documents cifs  credentials=/home/drakx/.nas_credentials, sec=ntlmv2, uid=1000, gid=1000, iocharset=utf8 0 0

  username=YOUR_ROUTER_LOGIN
 password=YOUR_ROUTER_LOGIN_PASSWORD

  import ping, socket
 try:
    ping.verbose_ping( 'www.google.com', count =3)
 except socket.error, e:
     print  "Ping Error:", e

Projects & notes

A grandiose terms to describe the things I've either worked on ( reactive gauges) or am working on or other topics which require more detail and a permanent home than simply a post.

colour photo

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