Randomized addition worksheets for kiddos using Bash Pipelines

Following up on a prior randomized worksheet for reading, here's a way to generate as many simple addition worksheets as you care to print:

#!/bin/bash
# Print a US letter page of addition problems using numbers 0 through 10.
(
    for i in $(seq 1 26); do
        printf "%2d %s %2d = \n" "$((RANDOM % 11))" "+" "$((RANDOM % 11))"
    done
) \
| column -nxc 36 \
| sed G \
| head -n -1 \
| a2ps -1 --chars-per-line=32 --no-header --borders=no

Randomized Reading Lists for Kiddos using Bash Pipelines

Our kiddo is very good at memorizing stories and word sequences but needs to work on looking at the letters on the page. Simple bash pipelines can produce useful offline learning materials.

For example, print a randomized word list from inline story text for a book your kid loves:

#!/bin/bash
tr -d '",!.-' << EOF                          \
    | tr -s ' ' '\n'                          \
    | sed '/^$/d'                             \
    | sort -u                                 \
    | shuf                                    \
    | column -c 64                            \
    | nl                                      \
    | a2ps -1 --chars-per-line=70 --no-header

The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind
and another
his mother called him "WILD THING!"
...

EOF

Run the script once to produce the word list. Print the source once to have the picture-less story. Carry both in your pocket on the plane/train/etc. After some work on the word list, the kid should be encouraged by "rediscovering" the picture-less story he knows using the sight words he's just practiced. In theory. Still working on the practice.

Another example, print a randomized list of kindergarten sight words:

#!/bin/bash
sort -u <<EOF | shuf | column -c 64 | nl | a2ps -1 --chars-per-line=70 --no-header
a
about
after
again
all
always
am
an
and
any
are
as
ask
at
away
back
ball
be
beautiful
because
been
begin
best
big
but
by
came
can
come
could
couldn't
day
did
do
does
don't
down
each
easy
eat
either
enough
family
find
for
friend
from
fun
get
girl
go
goes
going
got
great
had
has
have
he
her
here
high
him
his
home
house
how
I
idea
if
I'm
in
into
is
it
jump
just
know
last
let
like
little
look
love
make
man
me
might
mom
more
mother
much
my
never
next
no
not
now
of
often
on
or
our
out
over
play
pretty
probably
put
ran
read
ready
run
said
same
sat
saw
say
school
see
she
should
sit
so
soon
special
such
suddenly
take
than
that
the
their
them
themselves
then
there
they
they're
things
think
this
thought
three
through
to
today
together
too
two
under
until
up
us
very
wait
walk
want
was
we
went
were
what
when
where
while
who
will
with
without
yes
you
your
you're
yourself
EOF

Travis-CI config for both recent(ish) gcc and clang

On account of the age of Travis-CI's build images (I hear) getting a new-ish C++ compiler going is futzy. After much futzing, the following .travis.yml file works for an autoconfiscated project:

language: generic
script: ./bootstrap && ./configure && make all && make check && make distcheck
matrix:
  include:
    - os: linux
      env: COMPILER_NAME=gcc CXX=g++-5 CC=gcc-5
      addons:
        apt:
          sources:
            - ubuntu-toolchain-r-test
          packages:
            - autotools-dev
            - g++-5
    - os: linux
      env: COMPILER_NAME=clang CXX=clang++-3.8 CC=clang-3.8
      addons:
        apt:
          sources:
            - ubuntu-toolchain-r-test
            - llvm-toolchain-precise-3.8
          packages:
            - autotools-dev
            - clang-3.8

Dissertation appeareth

My dissertation, Reducing turbulence- and transition-driven uncertainty in aerothermodynamic heating predictions for blunt-bodied reentry vehicles, appeared online today in the University of Texas Library system. Bonus points if you find the typo in the abstract that I accidentally inserted during my final day of editing. Triple word score if you browse through the introductory chapter and ask me questions—my hope is that it is fairly accessible.

Content from Chapter 6, Characteristics of the Homogenized Boundary Layers at Atmospheric Reentry-like Conditions, will be presented at APS DFD 2014 at Stanford in a few weeks. Man, I need to finish those slides...

Very cool is that, as of today, NASA is testing the Orion MPCV on December 4th. That means soon they'll be some real flight data against which my simulation-based predictions found in Chapter 7, Detecting Turbulence-Sustaining Regions on Blunt-Bodied Reentry Vehicles, can be compared.

Happily, the dissertation source code attachments appear to have been preserved too. That said, the GitHub suzerain and ESIO repositories should be preferred over the electronic dissertation attachments for anything other than sleuthing out precisely what I implemented in my thesis. I've already written about the openly available data sets generated for the work.

(Image courtesy of NASA)