Airtable Script to Convert Numbers into Words (Automation)

When you’re filling out bank forms, the bank documents usually require their customers spell out the amount they put in into words. This is one way for banks to make sure customers really meant the number they put in their forms, and not made a typo. This poses a problem when you’re using Airtable’s Page Designer to auto-populate the bank forms from your Airtable records. Yes, you can type it out in a separate text field, but there must be a way to automate this, right?

Let’s say, you have a field called “Amount Sold” in your base. Go to Automations, and in one of your actions, select Run Script. Add an Input Variable and name it amount_sold , then for the Value select the “Amount Sold” field from your base.

Input Variable in Airtable
Input Variable in Airtable

Now paste the following in the Code area: …

Docker app for generating PDF from Airtable Records

There are several ways to generate a PDF from Airtable records using Docker. One approach is to use a library or framework that can generate PDFs, such as wkhtmltopdf or PrinceXML, and run it within a Docker container.

Here is an example of how you might use wkhtmltopdf to generate a PDF from Airtable records:

  1. Create a new Docker image based on the official wkhtmltopdf image.
  2. In your Dockerfile, install any additional dependencies you need to access the Airtable API and retrieve records.
  3. Write a script that retrieves the records you want to include in the PDF from Airtable, and converts them to an HTML template.
  4. Use wkhtmltopdf to convert the HTML template to a PDF.
  5. Start the Docker container and run the script to generate the PDF.

You can store the pdf in the container and store it or a way to extract it outside of it, with the help of some specific command.

Another approach is to use a pre-built service such as Airtable2pdf that can be integrated with your Airtable bases and generate pdf’s of it.

Note that the above is a basic example and the actual implementation would depend on your specific requirements and use-case.

The above quote was taken directly from the answer of ChatGPT about my query which is the title of this article. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to build a docker image from source, so I didn’t really get the help I needed. Good luck to me and you who are looking for solutions like this.

Laptop trends as per CES 2023

From CNET on Youtube:

From a giant two-in-one tablet to a pen-enabled e-reader to two dual-screen laptops, Lenovo brought its innovative A game to the giant tech show in Las Vegas.

Do consumers really need dual-screen laptops like this? Is this really where the trend is moving towards for laptops?

For me, just give me a laptop with upgradable RAM and expandable storage, that’s all I need. Unfortonately those are rare features, and if ever, are only available for ultra high end, expensive devices.

Cryptocurrencies are not investment products

Bitcoin isn’t really used much as a currency at all.

When people buy bitcoin, they rarely use it to buy goods and services. They’re really buying access to a Ponzi scheme.

Even before the fall of FTX, I share the same sentiment. Bitcoin could probably actually work as a form of currency. Problem is, people don’t use it as such. They don’t exchange their dollars for these coins to buy goods and services. Instead, they buy them in the hopes that some other people will hop on the bandwagon, and they cash-in on its price appreciation.

And scammers flock to this opportunity to take advantage of people who don’t really know how things like these work but gullible enough to fall for their traps.

Black Friday 2022 Shopping Haul

I know there’s no Black Friday in the Philippines, but that doesn’t mean we can’t participate in the Black Friday sale, especially when they’re about online services like web hosting and VPS.

So here’s what I checked out during the Black Friday of 2022:

Racknerd cPanel 100GB hosting

Shared – 100 GB – $15.89 per YEAR!
Great for businesses and busier websites.
100 GB SSD Disk Space
5 TB Monthly Transfer (FREE Double the bandwidth, just comment your order#)
Unlimited Databases
Host 5 Domains
Free SSL Certificates
cPanel Control Panel
Softaculous Script Installer
LiteSpeed Web Server
Free Offsite Daily Backups (JetBackup)
MailChannels Hybrid – Premium Email Delivery
FREE Clientexec License
Available in Multiple Locations (US, EU, Asia)
Only $15.89 per year!

RamNode 2GB OpenVZ VPS

Use code: 2LET22
2GB OpenVZ SVZS – Any region – $18/yr (includes 1 IPv4, /64 IPv6)
2GB RAM
2 vCores (fair usage)
60GB Disk
2TB BW

The problem with the RamNode OpenVZ VPS is I can’t run Docker on it. So I guess it’ll serve as my test box for all bare metal Linux server related apps. Now, I just hope I still have enough money for Cyber Monday.

The aggressive Linode marketing campaign

While listening to your favorite tech podcasts or watching your favorite tech youtube channels, you’ll most likely not miss that Linode ad or sponsor. Linode has been aggressively doing marketing recently. I wonder if it’s the consequence of the Akamai acquisition? More puzzling is how will they recoup those marketing expenses?

Linode, together with some same-tier Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting providers like Vultr and DigitalOcean, brag about their cheap VPS offerings. But they’re only cheap when compared to the big boys like Google Cloud, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft Azure. When you hang around LowEndTalk like I do, you’ll get a better grasp of the real definition of cheap VPS hosting, especially now that Black Friday deals are just around the corner.

My two favorite VPS hosting providers so far are Racknerd and Greencloud VPS.

How Citibank let down clients with Entrego

A few months ago, my Citibank credit card was up for renewal. Citibank sent off my replacement card without delay via Entrego.

First Replacement Card

On the morning of the supposed delivery day, I got a text message from Entrego that my parcel was on its way. The day came and went, I got another text in the evening saying the messenger failed to deliver and they’ll attempt re-delivery the next day or so. The next day, same thing happened. After three failed delivery attempts, the parcel went back to sender.

I had to contact Citibank, and they blocked that card and dispatched a replacement to my replacement card. …

Wesley So on Hans Niemann

He’s disrespected pretty much everybody in the chess world, calling other players idiots and stuff. And also beating the great Magnus… Everybody knows that Hans is probably the most disrespectful teenager in chess.

Wesley So

When NTC becomes the text spammer

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology responsible for the supervision, adjudication and control over all telecommunications services and television and radio networks throughout the Philippines.

The NTC is supposed to regulate the telecommunication companies including the use of SMS in the Philippines. Recently it ordered telcos to block clickable links in text messages.

But looking at my Messages app, it appears they are the ones spamming recently instead:

I know, a lot of Filipinos need reminding about these scams repeatedly. But NTC shouldn’t stop at just sending these reminders, and thus spamming us in the process. They need to do their job and stop these spammers from the beginning.

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