When you have shared Makefiles included across multiple projects in different directory structures, relative includes break. If common.mk tries to include release.mk and both files are in a subdirectory like external/, the include fails because Make uses the current working directory, not the location of the including file. For example, this structure works fine: Makefile…
When you need to combine multiple video files (like video1.mp4, video2.mp4, and video3.mp4) into a single output file, FFmpeg is the standard tool on Linux. It’s faster, more reliable, and better maintained than older tools like mencoder. Using FFmpeg with the Concat Demuxer The most robust approach uses FFmpeg’s concat demuxer, which properly handles file…
When a disk fills up or you’re doing a cleanup pass, finding the biggest files quickly saves a lot of time. Here are the practical approaches on Linux. Top 10 largest files in the current directory du -ah –max-depth=1 | sort -rh | head -n 10 Breaking this down: du -ah shows sizes for all…
Finding large files is something you end up doing a lot — disk fills up, you need to track down what’s eating space, or you’re auditing a directory before archiving. The find command handles this cleanly. Basic usage Find all files larger than 500MB under the current directory: find . -type f -size +500M The…
Broken symbolic links accumulate over time and can cause confusion or errors when scripts rely on their targets. Identifying and cleaning them up is a regular maintenance task. Basic approach Use find with the -xtype l test to locate broken symlinks: find /path/to/directory -xtype l The -xtype l flag specifically matches symbolic links that point…
GNOME Shell in GNOME 3 uses a specific font for the top bar, activities overview, and system notifications. You can customize these fonts using GNOME Tweaks or dconf to match your preferences. Using GNOME Tweaks (Recommended) # Install GNOME Tweaks sudo dnf install gnome-tweaks # Fedora sudo apt install gnome-tweaks # Ubuntu Open GNOME Tweaks…
The default GNOME Settings application doesn’t expose font configuration options. You’ll need additional tools to customize system fonts, but you have several approaches depending on your GNOME version and preferences. Using GNOME Tweaks GNOME Tweaks (formerly gnome-tweak-tool) is the recommended graphical approach for font customization. Installation On Fedora/RHEL: sudo dnf install gnome-tweaks On Ubuntu/Debian: sudo…
Domain registration pricing has commoditized significantly over the past few years. Most registrars cluster around similar price points, and permanent discounts are increasingly rare. Rather than chasing one-off coupons that expire or have restrictive terms, understanding how registrars price domains and what you actually need will serve you better. Current Market Rates As of 2026,…
The passwd command is the standard tool for changing your password on Linux systems. It works across all distributions and doesn’t require administrative privileges for changing your own password. Basic password change Log in to your Linux system and run: passwd You’ll be prompted for: Your current password (to verify your identity) Your new password…
When managing user accounts on a cluster or application, you’ll often need to generate temporary passwords programmatically. Here’s a practical approach using Scala’s built-in utilities. Basic implementation with scala.util.Random For non-security-critical use cases, here’s a straightforward generator: def randomString(len: Int): String = { val rand = new scala.util.Random() val chars = “0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz” (0 until len).map(_…
Writing effective paper reviews is essential work in academic fields like information retrieval, machine learning, systems research, and most technical disciplines. Whether you’re reviewing for a conference, journal, or internal research group, the goal is the same: provide constructive, specific feedback that helps authors improve their work and helps decision-makers assess contribution. What Makes a…
These four languages share functional programming roots but diverge significantly in syntax and design philosophy. Here’s a practical reference for anyone transitioning between them or evaluating which to use. Basic Function Definition OCaml: let add x y = x + y let rec factorial n = if n <= 1 then 1 else n *…
WhatsApp dominates global messaging, but several strong alternatives exist depending on your use case, privacy requirements, and regional adoption. Here’s what’s actually worth considering in 2026. Messaging Apps Built for Mobile Signal The gold standard for privacy-conscious users. Signal uses end-to-end encryption by default for all messages, calls, and group chats. Open source, no ads,…
A4-sized PDFs—particularly technical papers and academic documents—render poorly on Kindle devices. The small fonts become nearly unreadable, and Amazon’s “Send to Kindle” feature often destroys formatting in the process. You need a tool designed specifically for this workflow. Why Standard Conversion Fails Amazon’s email-to-Kindle conversion assumes reflowable text content. Technical papers with multi-column layouts, equations,…
By default, WordPress contributors can submit and edit their own posts, but they can’t upload media files. If you want contributors to attach images or documents to their submissions, you’ll need to grant them the upload capability. Method 1: Using User Role Editor Plugin The User Role Editor plugin is the most straightforward approach for…
This is fundamentally a decision about display technology and your reading habits. Here’s what you need to know. Display Technology The standard Kindle uses e-ink technology with a backlit display that requires external light sources — sunlight, a lamp, or overhead lighting. It’s readable but not ideal for low-light conditions. The Paperwhite adds a front-lit…
When you need to rsync against hosts behind NAT gateways or port-forwarded SSH services, the standard port 22 won’t work. The solution is the -e flag, which lets you specify a custom SSH command with your desired port. Basic usage Use -e to pass custom SSH arguments: rsync -avxP –delete -e “ssh -p 13022” username@example.com:/remote/path/…
Several tools can convert .doc and .docx files to PDF from the command line. Here’s what works in practice. LibreOffice (most common approach) The standard command is: libreoffice –headless –convert-to pdf –outdir /path/to/output/ /path/to/file.docx This works well on systems with X11 available. However, on truly headless servers, –headless doesn’t fully suppress X11 requirements—LibreOffice will still…
Gnuplot can output directly to EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) format, which is useful for including plots in LaTeX documents and other publishing workflows. Direct EPS Output The simplest approach is to set the terminal to postscript with the eps option before plotting: set terminal postscript eps enhanced mono “Helvetica” 14 set output “my-plot.eps” plot sin(x) This…
You’ve accidentally broken a file and need to restore it from an earlier commit without touching anything else in your repository. Here’s how. Restore a file to a specific commit To restore my_file.name to its state at a specific commit: git checkout commit_sha1 my_file.name Replace commit_sha1 with the actual commit hash. You can find it…