For years, “just switch to Linux” came with an asterisk the size of a billboard. The desktop environments were clunky, the drivers were a gamble, and every recommendation ended with “but you’ll probably have to fight it eventually.” That asterisk is mostly gone now. Xfce, specifically, has quietly become become Read more
I tweaked my i3 configuration to automate application placement. During this process, I encountered a frustrating issue. LibreOffice was ignoring my workspace assignments. While the main suite started correctly, specific components like LibreOffice Writer refused to land in their designated workspace. The first attempt I originally used the assign directive Read more
But beneath all that, a profound reality is that we’re building tools that can engage in subtle, reflective, and culturally rich conversations.
Volunteer computing is an arrangement where volunteers provide or donate their computer resources to projects. That way, these projects are able to do really advanced and time-consuming computations. Most of these projects are scientific trying to solve different problems. Some are run by universities and other not for profit foundations. Read more
Imagine you have a file with multiple columns and you need to quickly get the total of a column in command line in UNIX. The easiest way is to use AWK in the command line. Let’s take the following file: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2 Read more
I am a big fan of beautiful code, not only in terms of quality of programming but also formatting the code nicely so that it is easy on eyes. If you are using a full-blown IDE, they come with their own formatting facility, but if you are using a multipurpose Read more
If you’ve ever had to deal with PCL (Printer Command Language), you’ll know the pain: there’s no command to center text. Some printers support HPGL commands embedded in a PCL file, but not all. If you’re printing predefined text, you can work out measurements and use absolute positioning. Easy enough. Read more