Tag archives for tips
Shocked me: I just learned about Cloudflare Workers’ free offer!
Gemini Argon is expensive (it can eat your 5-hour quota in 3-5 questions if you throw lots of code at it), but it can also teach you about workarounds you…
The Big Font Mystery—Solved?
Sometimes, to make me attempt to investigate something that bothers me but does not intrigue me to the point of really awakening my interest, a chain of events needs to…
Debian XFCE: stop blanking my screen and stop locking it!
In three types of Debian XFCE installations, I had different variations on the topics of (1) the screen going blank after 10 minutes, despite the XFCE Power Manager having “Display…
Windows and Firefox colluded to wreck my download speed!
This is an issue I investigated and fixed on August 30. Since Gemini was somewhat confused and proposed some useless changes (no, this had nothing to do with any power…
Woes with Bluetooth and the audio jack in Windows
First, I want to stress that even if the following happened under Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 (Version 21H2 Build 19044.7725), nothing is specific to Windows 10 and…
✍️ LanguageTool alternatives: season finale
I ended my previous post in this series, ✍️ Is there any LanguageTool alternative worth the money?, with a half-hearted epilogue that included the discovery of the fact that LanguageTool…
Anylinux AppImages—or why Windows is superior to Linux
Someone commented on an old post of mine, AppImages: the worst choice in “portability” (with examples), which made me aware of this project: Anylinux AppImages. Some relevant links: Anylinux-AppImages on…
Bypass Paywalls Clean, revisited
I should have written this post a week ago, but it got postponed. Bypass Paywalls Clean v4.4.3.3 introduced the unblocking of HotNews.ro, the only Romanian site with “premium” content that…
A question of time in XFCE
There was absolutely no time synchronization issue in my Debian XFCE installed from xebian-trixie-amd64.hybrid.iso, but I was made aware that in Xebian, trying to use the “Time and Date Settings”…
✍️ Is there any LanguageTool alternative worth the money?
I started this post about ten days ago and posted an initial version on August 16. Meanwhile, I explored a few other solutions and tested the ones I initially considered…
Securitatea Wi-Fi-ului public: mituri vs. realitate
Unii cretini mă iau la pulă (în comentarii pe care nu le aprob) când postez conversații cu chatboți, dar această discuție este informativă și nu am detectat halucinații în ea.…
From whisper to whisper.cpp
I have used OpenAI’s Whisper a couple of times, with satisfactory results. I mentioned my Debian/Ubuntu setup in a post from 16 months ago: python3 -m venv whisper_env source whisper_env/bin/activate…
Maybe I wasn’t wrong to hate PackageKit, after all
I hated PackageKit in 2008, then I got used to it as it became omnipresent, so I just ignored it. Most people have nothing against it (it’s for your security!)…
Is there an ePub apocalypse? A case study and beyond it
A chat with Gemini, what else? ❶ Ludditus: Back in the day, when ePub readers included models from Sony (PRS-300, 350, 500, 505) and many other brands, I was rabid…
AI and Linux: a bit of ranting
From the hundreds of URLs visited per week, here are a bunch of comments based on a very short selection of news from the last 3 weeks. I am unhappy…
Camomile for your Windows laptop (if you really must)
Remember when I wrote Stop drinking Kool-Aid regarding battery life in Linux? Well, how about battery life and laptop's temperature in Windows? Despite using the Balanced power plan, there's no…
File Explorer: less annoying sans Automatic Folder Type Discovery
I prefer all folders to open by default in the compact List view; some other people prefer the Detailed view by default. Either way, only morons need a folder to…
Stop drinking Kool-Aid regarding battery life in Linux
There is an open secret that a laptop’s battery life in Linux is worse than in Windows. At least, this was true for Win7-Win10, because Win11, I'm told, is worse,…
Christopher Barnatt is sometimes useful
I once wanted to write a post about the SMR (Shielded Magnetic Recording), which is one of the worst possible ideas of the 21st century! Some retarded, accountant-minded CEO considered…
A cursory look at WPS Office
Years ago, I quite liked Kingsoft Office. I remember I have used it under Win7 and Android. Since the suite became WPS Office (from Writer, Presentation, Spreadsheets, not from “Wonderfully…