Long live Serif fonts
As you can now see, I've changed my site fonts to Serif. This may be confusing to anyone who still reads this blog, but allow me to explain......
Converting .pages to .docx with a little help from a VM
In my last post, I discussed how I used LibreOffice and a bash script (co-authored with ChatGPT) to batch convert a bunch of my late professor’s .pages documents. I also noted that there were some files that could not be converted. Notably, more recent .pages files with underlying .iwa...
Converting .pages to .odt (with a little help from AI)
The issue The co-advisor for my MA thesis passed away last year and his widow allowed me to copy some unfinished drafts and documents from his computer for posterity. He was an avid Mac user and every document I ever received from him was a .docx file. So, to...
Burmese IPA Transcription
Despite my best efforts to transfer this from LibreOffice Writer into WordPress (thank goodness I drafted it there and not here), there were issues with the rendering of certain fonts and tables. So, I’m just going to cheat and embed a PDF here. Please contact me if you’d like...
What to do now that Sci-Hub has stopped archiving new material?
DISCLAIMER: This article contains no legal advice. This piece is written for educational and informative purposes only. The author (Tyler Davis) is not advocating for the use of piracy to illegally obtain copyrighted works. If money is an issue, it is best to ask the author of a particular...
My ICSTLL Presentation
My ICSTLL presentation on Ngawn Chin‘s linguistic classification went very well. It was attended by some popular names in Kuki-Chin and Tibeto-Burman linguistics, such as Jim Matisoff, David Bradley, Lalnunthangi Chhangte, Zakaria Rehman, David Peterson, Pauthang Haokip, and Ken Van Bik (whose dissertation provided the proto-forms with which I...
How I got my Google Scholar profile verified
Unfortunately, the neo-liberal age of ranking and statistics is affecting us all, including myself. We all want to be noticed and recognized and we thus give up a chunk of our freedom and privacy to do it. I see this dilemma for what it is and, while I don’t...
Finding inspiration to write about Linguistics again
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to write a book and I often find myself “hiding from it”, as my former advisor used to say. I really want to write this book and I have no doubt that I will be able to write all 200+ pages required of...
Using git as a version controller for books (Part 1)
What’s git? Version control? Huh? Okay. So, let’s say that you’re a software programmer. It’s your job to write the code for this huge program and you need: A way to keep backups A way to manage files A way to restore previous edits Let’s say you’re collaborating with...
Announcement: [IN THE WORKS] A descriptive grammar of Sizang Chin
I would like to announce publicly that I have been given the wonderful opportunity to write a monograph with Brill Publishing. The monograph will be edited by Dr. Paul Sidwell, with whom I’ve become acquainted from Linguistics conferences. Basically, I am to take my master’s thesis (available for download...