SMS via Email

Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks? I was vaguely aware that it was possible to send an SMS via Email but I'd never had the need to do so up until today and so I'd never tried. However, being in Indonesia and using a local mobile phone network provider, I found that I wasn't able to send an SMS to Australia for whatever reason.

It was then that I read of the possibility of sending an SMS via Gmail provided one knew the SMS Gateway email address of the service provider associated with the phone number. To find the service provider, I used 160.com.au (the interface is shown in Figure 1):

Figure 1

Once I entered the number, I discovered that the service provider was Optus. It was then just a question of finding the SMS Gateway address of Optus. For this I used email2sms.info as shown in Figure 2:

As can be seen, there's no need for the international code prefix and there's a reminder to add a 0 when omitting this. I then sent my SMS/Email via Gmail and the message was sent. Currently I'm waiting for a reply.

POSTSCRIPT: this is the message I got back from Gmail at 11am today (Saturday 15th of September). The original email was sent on Friday, 14th September 2018 at 10:36:38 (Jakarta time +0700):

Gmail will try for a couple more days but I'd say that the message is not going to go through.

POST-POSTSCRIPT: as anticipated, it didn't make it. Ah well, so it goes.

IELTS and TOEFL

Recently my 15 year old granddaughter, an Indonesian citizen, was contemplating a course that prepared her to sit for an IELTS test. I thought it was time to remind myself what IELTS was all about. The following is copied from the website of the British Council that oversees the testing:

What is IELTS? 

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is the world’s most popular English language proficiency test for higher education and global migration, with over 3 million tests taken in the last year. 

IELTS assesses all of your English skills — reading, writing, listening and speaking, and is designed to reflect how you will use English at study, at work, and at play, in your new life abroad. 

The IELTS test is developed by some of the world’s leading experts in language assessment. It has an excellent international reputation, and is accepted by over 10,000 organisations worldwide, including schools, universities, employers, immigration authorities and professional bodies. 

IELTS is the most widely accepted English language test that uses a one-on-one speaking test to assess your English communication skills. This means that you are assessed by having a real-life conversation with a real person. This is the most effective and natural way of testing your English conversation skills.

This led me to wonder what online resources were available to prepare students for the IELTS test. Not surprisingly, the British Council itself provides copious preparatory material. Here is a link to the site. In particular, there is an app that can be installed on a smartphone:

There are lots of podcasts on iTunes that cater to preparation for IELTS e.g. the IELTS PODCAST. There are also a great many YouTube videos available as well. Here is a relevant video with the highest view count (7.5 million):

There are a plethora of books, downloadable PDFs and websites that are available as well. The problem with the resources supporting the IELTS is not one of scarcity but of largesse. Which of them to choose? Here are links to just two of the many sites that offer suggestions in this regard:

• The best self-study resources for IELTS: recommended book list
  
• 6 Awesome FREE Resources to Help You Prepare for Your IELTS Exam

Again the problem with these sorts of suggestions is that there are just so many of them. However, as the first of the two previous sites explains:

The best place to start studying for IELTS are the Cambridge IELTS series of books. These are past papers published by Cambridge. Because Cambridge designs the IELTS exam, you know the information in these books is 100% accurate, and the exam tasks are similar to the ones you will see on the real exam. 

These books are in a series, from Cambridge IELTS 1 all the way to Cambridge IELTS 11, which was just released earlier this year. Each book contains four complete IELTS Academic exams, each with Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing tests. There are also two General Training Reading and Writing tests as well. 

One of the best parts of these books is the answers to the writing task. At the back of the book there are sample answers for each Writing task. Some of these are high-scoring answers written by an examiner. Others are answers written by IELTS test-takers. These have a band score and comments by the examiner, to explain the score. 

You can buy these at bookshops in most countries or order them online. I recommend that you start with the most recent one–IELTS 11—and work your way backwards. Avoid IELTS 1 – 4. The test has been updated since then. While some of the material in these is useful, other materials are outdated and different from what you will see on the current exam.

Of course, the other popular English test is TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). As its website explains:

The TOEFL® Test Gives You an Advantage: Most Widely Accepted, Most Popular and Most Convenient Choice 

The TOEFL test is the most widely respected English-language test in the world, recognized by more than 10,000 colleges, universities and agencies in more than 130 countries, including Australia, Canada, the U.K. and the United States. Wherever you want to study, the TOEFL test can help you get there. 

So which is to be preferred? The following site offers some help:

The site then goes on to explain:

The TOEFL and IELTS exams are fairly different, and therefore some people will find that they are naturally better suited for one than they are for the other. You probably want to know which test you should study for. But before we discuss their similarities and differences, remember that both IELTS and TOEFL are standardized tests. This means that, with some coaching and practice (like we have in the Magoosh TOEFL free trial), you can learn to do well on whichever exam you decide to take. Let’s talk more specifically about each exam… 

The TOEFL is a language test for non-native English speakers, and is commonly used as an entrance exam at universities and graduate schools. Because of this, the TOEFL offers only academic English. On the other hand, the IELTS offers an academic option as well as a general test; this is generally the preferred test for immigration purposes to the UK and Canada. 

The IELTS academic test and the TOEFL compared to the IELTS general test are both more difficult, but they are usually the only options if you want to study at any level higher than secondary school. No matter which test you take, be aware that the scores all expire 2 years after your test date. (And if you’re curious, you can see how the scores on the two exams compare here). 

When you compare the format of the IELTS with the TOEFL format, you will notice a couple of things. First of all, both of them have four basic sections, each of which tests a basic skill (reading, listening, speaking, writing). But while the TOEFL only tests academic subjects, the IELTS academic option will have academic reading and writing sections combined with general listening and speaking sections. Overall, the IELTS has more of a real-world feel than the TOEFL. Deciding how hard the TOEFL is versus the IELTS truly depends on your English background. 

Moodle4Mac

I finally got around to installing Moodle4Mac (version 3.5) once again on my MacBook Pro as well as the GIT tool for updating Moodle in the future. Using the latter, a double-click is all that is needed to get the newest Moodle without downloading the complete installation package anymore.

I still have my free online Moodle at MoodleCloud although I need to log in from time to time or else I get a warning that the site will be deleted. I've not made much use of it but I still like to maintain it.

I'd like to begin using my Moodle installation as an organisational tool to keep track of various projects that I'm embarked upon. In that way, I maintain familiarity with the interface and accomplish something practical at the same time.

Resolving WiFi Problems in MacOs

This is complete rewrite of an earlier post in which my purported solution to my Wi-Fi woes turned out to be ineffective. The specific problem concerned only certain networks, specifically the Wi-Fi in my Singapore hotel room and the Wi-Fi at Changi airport. The former required a password and my smartphone connected without a problem but my laptop seemingly connected without needing to supply a password. However, while connected to the Wi-Fi, my laptop would not connect to the Internet. At Changi, I likewise connected to the network but couldn't reach required site to insert my 5 digit password.

A suggestion provided on Tom's Hardware site at least solved the problem at Changi. Open System Preferences under the Apple logo and choose Network:

The suggestion was to click on minus sign in the diagram above while Wi-Fi is selected. Once the Wi-Fi option is deleted, restart the laptop and go back to above screen and click on the positive sign. Choose Wi-Fi from the drop-down menu and then try connecting again. It worked for me. This is something that I'd never tried before but I've now added it to my troubleshooting armoury.

Pygmalion

A recent word of the day was pygmalionism, defined as sexual responsiveness directed toward a statue or other representation especially when of one's own making. A biographical note reads:

Greek mythological character. According to the most common version of the myth, Pygmalion was a king of Cyprus and a sculptor who created a beautiful ivory statue representing his ideal of womanhood. He then fell in love with his own creation. In answer to his prayer the goddess Aphrodite brought the statue to life. Source.

Wikipedia goes to say that:

Pygmalion is most familiar from Ovid's narrative poem Metamorphoses, in which Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved. In Ovid's narrative, Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory ... his statue was so beautiful and realistic that he fell in love with it. 

In time, Aphrodite's festival day came, and Pygmalion made offerings at the altar of Aphrodite ... he quietly wished for a bride who would be "the living likeness of my ivory girl." When he returned home, he kissed his ivory statue, and found that its lips felt warm. He kissed it again, and found that the ivory had lost its hardness. Aphrodite had granted Pygmalion's wish. 

Pygmalion married the ivory sculpture changed to a woman under Aphrodite's blessing. In Ovid's narrative, they had a daughter, Paphos, from whom the city's name is derived.

Ovid's Pygmalion has inspired many works of literature and has been the subject of several notable paintings and sculptures. For some reason, the popularity of the Pygmalion myth soared in the 19th century. Two famous works of art related to Pygmalion are:

Étienne Maurice Falconet: Pygmalion et Galatée (1763)

Pygmalion and Galatea by Auguste Rodin
modelled 1889, carved ca. 1908–9

George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion is of course well known and this play spawned two successful film version: the eponymous 1938 film and 1964's My Fair Lady.

A Font Affair

I've long been scrutinising my diurnal age and tweeting my findings. Lately organising information about my daily number in Airtable. Occasionally I've presented my number using an ornate font, such as a made available at sites like fontspace.com. Typically, I'll display the number as large as possible (often 200 point size) and then take a screenshot of it. I'm now considering doing this on a more regular basis and experimenting with a wider variety of fonts. It's a way of adding an extra dimension of interest to the number, rather than focusing purely on its mathematical properties. At the same time, my artistic side gains some stimulation.

Here is what I created today using the KBZipaDeeDooDah font and the Autodesk Pixlr application on my Mac.

This is very simple of course. I just selected a sticker from one of those available in the antique category, pasting and then positioning it as shown. The black and white tone of the original number is preserved and the fob watch reinforces the diurnal significance. I've posted this particular image to Instagram replicating it so that it appears three times in a 1:1 ration image (using an option available under Instagram's Layout App).

ADDENDUM: I've since started an Instagram username of Numbered_Daze where I post my diurnal age daily, using a different font each time. This was today's post (12th September 2018) and the font used is called Gears:

AIRTABLE

I've begun experimenting with a new app called Airtable that promises good things. Here is a August 2017 review from PC News.

Airtable is a relational database tool that doubles as an online collaboration service. Before you brush it off as boring because of the word "database," take a good look at Airtable. It's highly visual and it facilitates meaningful conversation, too. Businesses might use it to manage CRM, and individuals might use it to create inventories of collections they own. Airtable is different from older database management systems because it looks like an app that anyone with an iPhone could use. And because you use Airtable to look at information differently, as you do with kanban boards, it makes the tool suitable for new, collaborative uses. Airtable is the least intimidating database management system I've seen, and it comes with an excellent array of templates to help you understand how other people use it, too. It's the database management app for teams that don't ever want to use the word "database." It still has room to grow, but Airtable is already a great service for teams who need it.

You can use it from within a browser or download an app to your computer or mobile device. The functionality seems the same in either case. I've started using it a way of coordinating the data associated with my tracking the number of days I've been alive and examining the mathematical significance of the number using both WolframAlpha and the Online Encyclopaedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS). I keep track of the days using the calendar on my laptop, examine the number and then tweet about what I've found. The tweet generally contains a link to the relevant OEIS entry as well as screenshots from OEIS or WolframAlpha (sometimes both). If the entry is particularly interesting I might post something to my Mathematics blog.

The advantage of Airtable is that I can set up a table, create a date field and use this as a calendar. I can then add various other fields including:

• a key field called number e.g. 25185 (which is my number for today)
• a multiple select field enabling me to choose from prime, two factors, three factors or four or more factors
• a name field showing the factors if the number is composite or just the number itself if it's prime
• a link field containing the URL of the associated tweet on Twitter
• a link field containing the URL of the associated OEIS entry
• a link field containing any other relevant URL
• a long text field in which information about the number can be included
• an attachment field

A screenshot is included below shows the grid view (but the calendar view just looks like a regular calendar):

The free version allows up to 1200 records per database with an unlimited number of databases. That's over three years of daily entries, following which I can simply duplicate the database, clear it of records and start afresh. What the free plan offers at the moment is shown in the attached graphic. There is a limit of 2GB of attachments per database.

So far I'm quite happy with the interface and its ease of use. One can only hope that the company doesn't change its base tier like Evernote did. It's certainly about time that relational databases were made a little more user friendly. The company has just introduced a new feature called Blocks but this isn't available to free users like myself.

Of course, I've only just started entering records but in time I'll be able to quickly search find all primes because that's a choice in my multiple select field. Similarly, I'll be able to find all semiprimes because that's another choice in my multiple select field. Additionally, I can search by date and by number. Given that the factors are listed in the factor field, I can also search by factor e.g. what are all the numbers with 23 as a factor. All this will make analysis of the data much easier. I'm sure I'll add other fields and modify the database in various ways as time goes by but I feel I'm off to an encouraging start.

UPDATE: as of 22nd March 2018, I'm still very pleased with this app. Today I added a 152 KB PDF file an attachment to my daily record. After all, I supposedly have 2Gb of storage space per base and even uploading an attachment of that size, I would only use up 54 MB of data.