Converting LaTeX to single-page HTML Converting LaTeX documents to HTML is useful for web publishing. Two main tools handle this conversion effectively: htlatex and latex2html. Both produce valid HTML output, though they have different strengths and limitations. Using htlatex htlatex is part of the tex4ht package and is generally more robust for modern LaTeX documents….
Converting HTML to text on Linux You have several options for converting HTML files to plain text, each with different strengths depending on your use case. html2text The most straightforward tool is html2text, available on most distributions: html2text input.html The converted text prints to stdout. Redirect to a file if needed: html2text input.html > output.txt…
Setting up ibus for Chinese input in Cinnamon on Fedora By default, ibus isn’t automatically started on Fedora with Cinnamon. You might try launching the daemon manually: ibus-daemon This starts the ibus service and adds an icon to your system tray, but you’ll find that Chinese input doesn’t work even when enabled through the tray…
Converting Unix Timestamps to Human-Readable Dates The Unix epoch (January 1, 1970 00:00:00 UTC) is the standard reference point for timestamps across Linux systems. When you need to convert a timestamp like 1349361711.169942 into a readable date, the date command is your primary tool. Basic Conversion The simplest approach uses date with the @ prefix:…
Replacing GDM with LightDM on Fedora GDM (GNOME Display Manager) can cause compatibility issues with Cinnamon, particularly around graphics rendering and session management. LightDM is a lightweight alternative that works better with Cinnamon and other desktop environments that don’t depend on GNOME’s ecosystem. Install LightDM First, install LightDM and the GTK greeter if not already…
Detecting screen Sessions You sometimes need to know whether your shell is running inside screen or tmux. The most straightforward approach is checking the TERM environment variable. Using TERM When screen starts a shell, it sets TERM=screen by default: [user@host ~]$ echo $TERM screen Compare this to a normal terminal session: [user@host ~]$ echo $TERM…
Installing Cinnamon on Fedora Cinnamon is a modern, feature-rich desktop environment forked from GNOME. It’s lightweight compared to full GNOME installations and offers a traditional taskbar-based interface. Installing it on Fedora is straightforward. Basic Installation Use dnf (the modern package manager) with group install: sudo dnf groupinstall ‘Cinnamon Desktop’ This installs the complete Cinnamon desktop…
Setting VNC Geometry for GNOME 3 When you start a VNC server with the -geometry flag under GNOME 3, you’ll notice the display resolution doesn’t match what you specified: vncserver -geometry 1024×768 This works fine with GNOME 2 and window managers like twm, but GNOME 3 ignores the setting. The actual resolution will be whatever…
Schema Design for Dynamic Forms with Multiple Attributes When you need to store form submissions where different form types have different attributes, you’re essentially implementing an Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) model. This is a common pattern for flexible schemas, but it requires careful design. The Core Problem You have multiple form types (Laptop, Mobile, Tablet) with different…
Counting Page Views: A Practical Approach Counting page views isn’t as simple as incrementing a counter. You need to handle edge cases: duplicate views from the same user, multiple users behind a single IP (corporate networks), and bots. Here’s how to build a robust system. The Problem with IP-Based Counting Relying on IP addresses fails…
Compiling source files to object files Start by compiling your C source files into object files: gcc -c lib1.c lib2.c This produces lib1.o and lib2.o. You can use any compiler flags here—-Wall, -O2, -fPIC, etc.—that match your build requirements. Position-independent code (-fPIC) isn’t strictly required for static libraries but is good practice if you anticipate…
Installing Java plugin for Chrome on Linux x86-64 Note: Java in web browsers is obsolete. Most websites stopped requiring Java applets years ago, and all major browsers removed plugin support by 2016. If you’re here because a legacy application needs Java, consider running it in a containerized environment or dedicated VM instead. If you absolutely…
Delete Multiple Items from Kindle Library Amazon’s Kindle Library web interface forces you to delete books one at a time through the UI. If you’ve accumulated hundreds of items, this becomes tedious. Here are practical approaches to bulk-delete from your Kindle Library. Browser Console Method The most straightforward approach uses your browser’s developer console to…
Setting and Getting Environment Variables in C on Linux Working with environment variables in C is straightforward using POSIX APIs. The two primary functions are getenv() for retrieval and setenv() for modification. Getting Environment Variables Use getenv() to read an environment variable: #include <stdlib.h> #include <stdio.h> int main(void) { const char *path = getenv(“PATH”); if…
Setting environment variables in bash The basic syntax for setting an environment variable is: export VARIABLE=value No spaces around the equals sign. If your value contains spaces, quote it: export PATH_TO_PROJECT=”/home/user/my project” Verify it’s set: echo $VARIABLE Viewing all environment variables Use printenv to list all exported variables: printenv Or filter for a specific variable:…
Setting Environment Variables in csh Use setenv to set an environment variable in csh: setenv VARIABLE value Replace VARIABLE with the name of the variable and value with its value. The variable is immediately available in the current shell and inherited by child processes. Examples Set a simple variable: setenv PATH /usr/local/bin:$PATH setenv EDITOR vim…
Piping stderr to less When you need to page through error output from a command, you’ll run into the issue that less only receives stdout by default. Error messages go to stderr (file descriptor 2), so they’ll still scroll past on your terminal while stdout gets paged. Basic approach: combine stderr with stdout make 2>&1…
IO Manipulators and cout Formatting C++ provides the <iomanip> header for controlling how data appears when printed to standard output. These manipulators give you precise control over formatting, alignment, precision, and radix. Basic Manipulators The most common manipulators are persistent (they remain active until changed) or stateless (they apply once and reset). Width and Alignment:…
Accessing List View in iOS Calendar The list view in iOS Calendar isn’t deleted—it’s just hidden behind the search interface. To access it, tap the magnifying glass icon in the top-right corner of the Calendar app. This opens the search view, which displays your events in a chronological list format rather than the month or…
Tracing Functions in OCaml The #trace directive in OCaml’s interactive toplevel (ocaml or utop) logs function calls and returns, showing you exactly what arguments go in and what values come back out. This is invaluable for debugging recursive functions and understanding execution flow. Basic Usage Define a function and enable tracing with #trace: # let…