Most of the software I talk about exists out there in server land, but some of it sits right there on your desktop. I’ll talk about them here.
Well, not really. At least not how I tend to think of that word. What really happened is that I found a LaTeX package I like (sim-os-menus) but it didn’t behave the way I wanted it to, so I dug into the source code and figured out how to make it work the way I …read more…
A short time ago I needed to make a calendar in a spreadsheet in which all the months are situated vertically one after the other on the same sheet. There are two possible solutions here: Find a calendar for 2026 and then laboriously type in numbers. (And then laboriously go back and proofread the entire …read more…
Maybe I’m just grumpy but I am sick and tired of seeing ads all over the place. We are constantly inundated with pleas to buy more stuff. I use adblock extensions on my desktop web browser, but that is not an option (apparently) on my Android phone. I try not to spend a lot of time …read more…
One of the most annoying things I run into when using a computer is that I click in a box to start typing, and the cursor is blocking what I’m typing, so I can’t see it. (This also happens at work when I’m Windows 11.) It’s annoying, because sometimes I make a typo and I …read more…
The great thing about using Linux is that you have a number of command line tools that can accomplish tasks and are generally faster than GUI-based alternatives. The Linux tool for manipulating video files is ffmpeg. Its official documentation is here and one version of the man file is here. General Use The format for …read more…
I create a lot of booklets. Usually, this is because it’s a great way for me to put together some files and take them with me. I can slip them in a briefcase or backpack, and pull them out to read whenever I have a few spare moments. I recently had a situation where I …read more…
So I did a thing, and I posted it to Reddit: Most applications in Linux come with a man page—essentially, an online manual. You can invoke this for any installed app with man <application> where <application> is the name of the app in question. I will say that the quality (and size) of these vary by …read more…
I scanned a rather longish document (241 pages), which resulted in a 101.7 MB document. I needed to get the file size down, but couldn’t find a decent way. Finally, after quite a bit of googling, I found this link. I don’t know why, but it worked. It got that 101.7 MB document down to …read more…
How to add aliases to your terminal to save time and keystrokes with your most used commands.
So…I bought a Chromebook. I’ve wanted one for some time actually, because they are small and lightweight, the batteries last forever, and unlike the laptop I do all of my development on, I won’t install any extra stuff, so I can use it to focus just on writing. Because this is basically a glorified typewriter …read more…
Unlike some other sites, everything on this site is provided to you free of charge. But that doesn't mean this site is free. I have to pay for the hosting every month and for the domain renewal every year. It addition, it takes me approximately four hours to research and write each tutorial on average.
If you find the tutorials here useful, and would like to see more of them, you can help make that happen.
You can make a one-time donation via PayPal here:
rbenv
