Four and a half years after going work from home, yesterday, for the first time, I executed one of my key job duties remotely. Each month I run a process called the “Page & MCBA Number Update.” To describe it briefly, I load all the items in the month’s PREVIEWS catalog (typically about 3,000, plusContinue reading “An Unexpected (Partial) Work-from-Home Day”
Category Archives: Linux
Mixing MATE and the i3 Window Manager
So, I have been tinkering. Back in June, I installed Linux Mint 22, with the MATE desktop to an empty partition on my system and configured it to look like old-school GNOME 2. It’s a nice environment, something to have fun with, like using Compiz to turn my desktop into a cube and then spinningContinue reading “Mixing MATE and the i3 Window Manager”
Trapped in a Past We Never Made
A few days ago the beta for Linux Mint 22 was approved for release, and while it hasn’t been officially announced yet I downloaded it off one of the mirrors to take a look at over the weekend. But not the usual Cinnamon edition, or the XFCE edition (which I use on my Chromebook). IContinue reading “Trapped in a Past We Never Made”
Operating System Archaeology
About a month ago, digging into the drawers of my desk, I found a stack of old Linux install CDs. Mostly Linux Mint — versions 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, a couple of others I can’t remember off the top of my head — and an Ubuntu 8.04 CD. Ubuntu 8.04! The first Linux IContinue reading “Operating System Archaeology”
Revisiting a Retro Linux Desktop
Over the last month, I’ve return to a project I worked on in the fall — making a theme for the CTWM window manager for Linux. I started working on it in October, and reached a point where it looked nice enough, but it wasn’t finished. The config was messy, and I planned to revisitContinue reading “Revisiting a Retro Linux Desktop”
Coding Myself a VPN Toggle
At fifty, I am becoming the Linux nerd I feel I should have been at twenty-five. I had a problem. I wanted an easy way to connect and disconnect from Diamond’s VPN. Yes, I could use the Network Connections interface in Linux Mint, but sometimes it expands while I was navigating to the VPN toggleContinue reading “Coding Myself a VPN Toggle”
Building a Dock in Linux Mint Cinnamon
One of the cool things about Linux Mint is that the Cinnamon desktop environment is built from CSS, and with a little custom code you can do some interesting things, like turn a panel — in Windows parlance, a taskbar — into a dock. Like here! That dock at left? It’s CSS, and not veryContinue reading “Building a Dock in Linux Mint Cinnamon”
Going Retro
As we approach the year 2024, there’s really no need for this. I installed CTWM, an old X11 window manager from the early early 90s, on Linux Mint, and it’s not the first time I’ve done this. CTWM is the sort of thing I read about in Byte in those days and never experienced forContinue reading “Going Retro”
Setting Up a New WiFi Dongle in Linux from the Command Line
I ran into a problem recently. I’d bought a new Wi-Fi USB dongle for my computer. Windows picked it up immediately and connected to my router. My Linux installs did not. Oh, the dongle worked. My desktop and my notebook (a rehabbed Chromebook) could see the router it had connected to before. But I hadContinue reading “Setting Up a New WiFi Dongle in Linux from the Command Line”
Changing up the Desktop
Discovering NASA’s Flickr photo archive this week was nice, as it game me an opportunity to update a desktop wallpaper. Notice the use of a. Manjaro My Manjaro installation probably could have used a refresh. Now it looks like this. It’s KDE with the Sweet Ambar Blue theme, the Candy icon set, and the PlankContinue reading “Changing up the Desktop”