[Mon Dec 30 20:10:36 CST 2013]

If, like me, you like to write a bash shell script every now and then, you should check out David Pashley's Writing Robust Bash Shell Scripts piece. It's a very concise and simple collection of recommendations on how to write better, more robust, shell scripts. A page to add to your bookmarks, for sure. {link to this entry}

[Mon Dec 30 17:45:57 CST 2013]

Someone I know posted a link on Facebook today to a discussion on a Slashdot-like Spanish website about the so-called "freedom 0" in the GPL license. The issue is quite interesting. The original post asks why one would oppose the concept of "ethical free licenses" (i.e., licenses that include a particular clause to limit the use of the software, so that, for example, it cannot be used for militaristic purposes, or by a racist organization). After quickly perusing the comments that readers made, it seems clear to me that most people oppose the idea. I have to agree with them. From the moment that one attaches any such limitation to a free license, it simply stops being free. I just don't see how it could be otherwise. And that's only addressing the issue from a philosophical point of view. Then there is an even stronger pragmatic argument: a world where each and every developer can attach whichever strings he/she wishes to the software would just be chaotic. {link to this entry}

[Mon Dec 30 17:04:18 CST 2013]

For whatever reason, I just remembered today that not so long ago I used to run a very simple Winamp-like music app on Linux called XMMS that is not installed by default anymore on most distros, as far as I can tell. Yet, it was simple, it used little in the form of system resources and, as far as I can remember, it performed just fine. So, searching around for information on it, I noticed that the app is still there, in the official Debian repositories. However, it is now a simple CLI application, it seems. So, where can I find the old GUI? It truly doesn't seem to be easy, judging from the amount of discussion threads I found while searching for an answer. In the end, the easiest was to install Audacious, another open source application that accomplishes the same. By default, it has a GTK-based interface, but it's easy enough to switch to an older looking interface. Just right-click on the app, select View from the context menu, then Interface, then Winamp Classic Interface. It seems to work just fine.

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[Fri Dec 27 20:46:44 CST 2013]

My oldest son just needed to find out how to convert between std::string and integer in C++. The answer can be found in the forum of the cplusplus.com website (an excellent resource, by the way). The following appeared to do the trick:

string str = "123";
int numb;
istringstream ( str ) >> numb;

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[Sat Dec 21 10:33:10 CST 2013]

A friend was wondering if there is a way to configure the fingerprint scanner on the Lenovo T530 using Linux. AskUbuntu has a brief hotwo document explaining how to do this that most likely will work on other distros too. I must say, though, I don't care much for the feature. It's one of those things that looks "cool" but that doesn't attract me at all. I guess I'm too down to earth... or too boring, depending on your point of view. {link to this entry}

[Mon Dec 16 16:57:28 CST 2013]

I just had to investigate why the output of cat /proc/uptime displays two floating-point values. This document explains it pretty well, in case you care. The first value is the length of time since the system was booted, while the second shows the amount of time since then that the system has been idle. So, truly, for most purposes, what you truly care about is the first value. A command such as the following will return just that:

$ awk '{print $1}' /proc/uptime

Incidentally, the value is displayed in seconds. So, you would have to convert it to other parameters if that's not good enough for you. It should be pretty straightforward. {link to this entry}

[Sun Dec 15 21:17:53 CST 2013]

Although I am not into gaming, I must say I found the the article that Wired published on the upcoming Monument Valley game quite interesting. Actually, I may end up making an exception and giving this game a try. It looks quite different.

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[Thu Dec 12 19:02:42 CST 2013]

My oldest son just asked me if there is a way to cross-compile programs for Windows on a Linux box. The answer is that yes, it is possible. You can use MinGW. Find more information here and here. {link to this entry}

[Thu Dec 12 14:01:12 CST 2013]

Since I recently had to search for images that were released with a Creative Commons license, so I could use it for my own purposes, I may as well write about it here. Google Image search already implemented CC license filtering some time ago, but now you can also perform searches from the Creative Commons website itself. That page gives you access not only to Google Image, but also to other resources, such as Jamendo, SoundCloud, YouTube, etc. {link to this entry}

[Thu Dec 12 13:56:34 CST 2013]

Thanks to a co-worker I just learned about an excellent book on the C programming language and functional programming, which is available for free on the Web. Get your copy of Functional C, by P.H. Hartel and H.L. Muller, in PDF format. {link to this entry}

[Thu Dec 12 13:49:06 CST 2013]

Perhaps I'm sort of picky, but I truly dislike those "Sent from my iPad signatures that Apple configures by default in all its devices. Yes, sure, it's a very minor thing. Precisely! Why do they have to shove that down my throat? Why do they have to force me to go around advertising their products without asking first? In any case, turning it off is easy enough. Find the step by step directions here. {link to this entry}