[Wed Aug 30 09:04:06 CDT 2017]

Here is an issue I recently ran into. The company I work for uses Skype for Business as the default messaging app. So, I have little choice but to run Windows 10, even if it's only in a virtual machine with VMware. However, to make matters worse, the IT department decided to enforce the automatic lock of the screen after 10 minutes of inactivity without letting us (end users) the ability to disable that or even change the amount of time. Since I never use the Windows VM (except for calling into conference calls), it is a pain to deal with this issue. Well, NoSleep.exe to the rescue (the software can be downloaded from here, and the source code is available here). The app is a bit clunky, to be fair. I don't see a way to minimize it to the tray, so the window has to be permanently open. However, it does the job that it was designed for pretty well, it seems. {link to this entry}

[Wed Aug 16 14:05:06 CDT 2017]

Here are a the links to a few documents that I found interesting and/or useful. First of all, I needed to edit a video file to remove the first few minutes of a training session that were spent in irrelevant chit-chat. So, I did a search to see how to do that, and came across this tutorial explaining how to use VLC as a video cutting tool. However, a bit later, I noticed that this other method to trim and cut videos also using VLC made more sense. Then, on a totally unrelated topic, about a week ago or so I was going through this list of nmcli examples to control your network settings. Quite useful. {link to this entry}

[Tue Aug 15 11:54:03 CDT 2017]

Here is the page from the Debian Wiki dedicated to the suspend mode feature. The following command disables the feature in Debian 8 (jessie) and it should also work on Debian 9 (stretch):

# systemctl mask sleep.target suspend.target hibernate.target hybrid-sleep.target

{link to this entry}

[Tue Aug 15 11:34:43 CDT 2017]

My oldest son recently shared with me this write-up that tries to debunk the most common arguments around data and privacy that I found quite reasonable. It's one of those topics where I must acknowledge that, for the most part, I behave like everybody else (i.e., allowing all sorts of online companies to use my personal data for the sake of convenience). Yet, I must admit that the author makes a few good points. {link to this entry}

[Tue Aug 15 11:26:48 CDT 2017]

Here is something quite strange that occurred to me last week with my Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone. I always use the phone as an alarm clock. So, a morning last week, it woke me up for work, and I noticed there was more daylight than usual. When I checked the phone to see what had happened, I found this:

Notice the disagreement in the time being shown on the main widget and the top bar. A simple restart did not fix it. I had to open the cover and reseat the battery. {link to this entry}