When you need to browse the web over SSH or in a headless environment, graphical browsers aren’t an option. Several terminal-based browsers exist that actually handle modern websites reasonably well, though with limitations around JavaScript and CSS. Lynx Lynx is the oldest and most established terminal browser, first released in 1992. It’s still actively maintained…
Google+ shut down in 2019, so the original premise of this post no longer applies. However, the broader problem—automatically sharing blog RSS feeds across social platforms—remains relevant. Here’s how to handle RSS-to-social distribution in 2026. Modern RSS Distribution Tools For most technical blogs, you have several solid options: Zapier remains one of the most reliable…
Securing your website with HTTPS is no longer optional—it’s essential for SEO, user trust, and browser compatibility. The good news: Let’s Encrypt provides free certificates, and the tooling has matured significantly. Using Certbot with Nginx or Apache The standard approach is Certbot, which automates certificate issuance and renewal: sudo certbot –nginx This automatically configures HTTPS…
Chrome on Linux sometimes fails to start with the error “Your profile could not be opened correctly.” This typically happens when the browser’s profile database becomes corrupted, often after a crash or unclean shutdown. Quick Fix: Remove Corrupted Web Data The most reliable solution is to delete the corrupted Web Data file from your Chrome…
Filtering RSS feeds lets you reduce noise and focus on content that actually matters. Whether you want to exclude posts mentioning certain topics or only see items matching specific keywords, there are several practical approaches depending on your setup. Using dedicated feed filtering services Feed43 (https://www.feed43.com/) is one of the most reliable web-based tools for…
When backing up with rsync, you often need to skip directories like cache/, node_modules/, or .git/ that appear at multiple levels in your directory tree. Listing every instance individually is impractical, but rsync’s exclude patterns handle this elegantly. Basic exclude syntax The simplest approach uses –exclude with a directory name pattern: rsync -avxP –exclude=cache/ /path/to/src/directory/…
If you’re running Google AdSense on your site, you might want to show ads only to desktop visitors and hide them on mobile devices. This reduces clutter on smaller screens and can sometimes improve user experience—though test your bounce rates to confirm it actually helps your metrics. Using CSS Media Queries The cleanest approach is…
Attaching storage to a running Xen DomU without rebooting is straightforward using the xl toolstack. This is useful when you need to add capacity, attach backup storage, or provision new volumes without downtime. Basic Disk Attachment To attach a logical volume or physical disk to a running DomU, use xl block-attach on Dom0: xl block-attach…
RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol) streams are still used for live broadcasts and on-demand video delivery, though less commonly than HLS or DASH. If you need to capture an RTMP stream, there are several solid tools available on Linux. Using ffmpeg (recommended) ffmpeg is the modern standard for working with RTMP streams. It’s widely available,…
When you need to increase data redundancy or reduce storage overhead on a running HDFS cluster, you’ll often need to adjust the replication factor. Before making changes, understand that HDFS replication works differently than you might expect. How HDFS Replication Factor Works The replication factor in HDFS is determined at write time by the client,…
If you’re syncing emails with tools like offlineimap, you might notice a problem: when an email is deleted from the server, it’s also deleted locally. That’s by design—offlineimap performs synchronization, not backup. For actual backups, you need a tool that retrieves emails without deleting the originals. This post covers the best approaches in 2026. getmail:…
If you want to force HTTPS on your site, add this to your .htaccess file: RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301] The key parts: RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off — matches only HTTP requests ^(.*)$ — matches any request https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} — rebuilds the URL with HTTPS [L,R=301] — uses a permanent redirect (301) and…
To set the number of mappers and reducers when submitting a Hadoop job, use the -D flag with the appropriate property names. The correct properties depend on your Hadoop version. Hadoop 2.x and Later (YARN) Use the modern property names: hadoop jar -Dmapreduce.job.maps=5 -Dmapreduce.job.reduces=2 yourapp.jar The older mapred.map.tasks and mapred.reduce.tasks properties are deprecated in Hadoop…
The most reliable way to download YouTube videos is yt-dlp, a maintained fork of youtube-dl that handles modern YouTube changes and DRM protections. It works on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Installation Linux (Debian/Ubuntu): sudo apt install yt-dlp Linux (Fedora/RHEL): sudo dnf install yt-dlp macOS: brew install yt-dlp Windows or any system with Python 3.8+: pip…
Getting video files from your Linux machine to an iPhone for offline viewing doesn’t require iTunes or complex workarounds. Here are the practical methods that actually work in 2026. Quick Upload via VLC’s WiFi Interface VLC for iOS remains the most straightforward approach for occasional transfers. It’s free, open-source, and handles virtually any codec you…
To mark text as deleted or struck through in BBCode, use the [s] tag: [s]strikethrough text[/s] This renders as strikethrough text with a horizontal line through the middle. Some platforms also support the longer [strike] alias: [strike]strikethrough text[/strike] Both tags are functionally equivalent — the choice depends on your platform’s BBCode parser. HTML Output and…
Direct assignment to window.onload overwrites any existing handler. If a plugin, library, or another script has already set a handler, your code will replace it completely: // Plugin sets this window.onload = function() { initializePlugin(); } // Your code overwrites it window.onload = function() { doMyWork(); } // Result: initializePlugin() never runs This breaks plugins…
X11 forwarding lets you run Chrome on a remote host and display it on your local machine. It’s quick to set up for occasional use, but for regular work or modern Linux systems, you’ll want to know when to use alternatives. Basic X11 Forwarding The simplest approach uses SSH’s X11 forwarding: ssh -X username@remote_host google-chrome…
Flash support ended in December 2020, and Adobe no longer distributes Flash Player. Most browsers dropped Flash entirely. If you’re stuck with legacy .swf files, here’s what actually works. Ruffle: Your Best Option Ruffle is the go-to solution. It’s an open-source Flash emulator written in Rust that handles most SWF files without needing Adobe’s player….
Chrome aggressively caches HTTP redirects—especially 301 (permanent) and 308 redirects—as a performance optimization. The cache persists across browser sessions, which causes real problems when you’ve updated redirect rules and need to test them immediately. Understanding Chrome’s Redirect Cache Behavior Chrome stores redirect information at the browser level, separate from typical page caches. This means: 301…