tip

Maybe you've had the experience of retrofitting your computer to operate quietly? Afterwords you say to yourself, "How did I ever think with all the noise that computer was making?" A small change in your environment creates a shift in your thinking and productivity.

I had the same reaction to the Sublime Text editor. After an hour of use I was loving it. A couple hours later it was customized just the way I like it. The next day I realized I was spending more time getting good code written and less time fiddling around.

Sublime Text Editor

Sublime doesn't have every feature possible, but it does have some imaginative features such as multiselect/multi-edit. Linux, MacOS and Windows are supported. A vi mode is available. It's also incredibly clean and fast. You'll love the way it looks and feels.

There are all sorts of options for customizing the editor. Many plugins are available and it's easy to write you own. You'll also find plenty of assistance in the forums. It seems Sublime is going viral within the developer community.

I like to have the option of playing music on my headphones or outputting to the stereo - it really improves family life when they don't always have to hear my dubstep ;) Unfortunately, the sound cards and devices you have available don't always fit together nicely. For Linux users, ALSA gives you a lot of control and flexibility over audio devices. However, it is usually difficult to figure out exactly what needs to be done.

In my case, I have an onboard audio device with optical digital out. But onboard audio usually receives a lot of noise from the rest of the components on the motherboard - your headphones buzz when a hard drive seeks or you move your mouse pointer. I have broad musical tastes and orchestras sound pretty awful with static in the background. By adding an old-school Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live card, I can get exceptional quality output for headphones.

What caused difficulty was getting audio output to both the onboard and SoundBlaster audio devices at the same time. By default, Linux applications will send audio directly to one specific device. All you need is a properly structured ~/.asoundrc file to configure ALSA.   read more >>

When plotting my typing performance, I wanted to demonstrate my baseline typing performance as well as the number of errors. For this, I discovered some quite useful capabilities in the CRAN package ggplot2.

results<-read.csv("./dvorak_vs_qwerty_typing_test_results.csv", header = TRUE);
png(filename="kinesis_dvorak.png", width=640, height=440, bg="#070707");
ggplot(results, aes(x=Trial, y=Kinesis.DVORAK)) + scale_x_continuous(name="Trial #", limits=c(1, 15), breaks=seq(1,15)) + scale_y_continuous(name="Words per Minute", limits=c(0,100), breaks=seq(0,100,by=10)) + geom_point(aes(x=results$Trial, y=(results$Kinesis.DVORAK + results$Errors)), color="#7b0000", pch=19) + geom_area(color="#004088", fill="#004088", alpha=0.5) + opts(title="Kinesis Keyboard - DVORAK Layout") + theme_bb() + opts(plot.title=theme_text(colour="#ffffff", size=14, vjust=1), axis.title.x=theme_text(colour="#ffffff",size=12,vjust=0), axis.title.y=theme_text(angle=90,colour="#ffffff",size=12), plot.background=theme_rect(colour="#070707", fill="#070707"), panel.background=theme_rect(colour="#666666"), panel.grid.major=theme_line(colour="#444444"), panel.grid.minor=theme_line(colour="#070707"));
dev.off();

Required packages: ggplot2, ggExtra

The idea of bookmarklets is so simple that I suspect many people use them without realizing it. A bookmarklet is basically just a specially-crafted bookmark for your browser which performs special tasks. This can mean performing custom actions on the current page or generally improving your web browsing experience.

Technically, bookmarklets are short snippets of Javascript code which can do just about anything. They've been around for a long time, but I've only been using them a few years. With the increasing prevalence of cloud products and services, I expect their usage will only increase. Bookmarklets make it easier for you to do everything you need to with just a web browser. As such, I'm keeping a list of the most useful.   read more >>

AN Hosting recently relocated to a Seattle datacenter. As part of this process, my site is now running on a much more modern server (AMD Opteron 6100-series Magny Cours vs. Intel Xeon 5400-series Harpertown).

Unfortunately, a new server and new install can mean software changes. AN Hosting has tightened up the security settings on PHP. Better security is always a good thing, but it means the Drupal command line utility drush no longer works out of the box. (For those that don't know drush - please give it a chance. It provides near foolproof Drupal core/module/theme upgrades as well as command-line control of your Drupal sites.)   read more >>

For administrators and power users, it's often useful to log in as multiple users on the same web site. However, you can't normally do this from one web browser - sites keep track of your whole session. Logging in as one user logs you out as the other user.

An obvious, but bulky, solution is to use one web browser for each log in (e.g. Firefox and Chrome). However, I've found that Google Chrome's "incognito" feature works much better.   read more >>

Web browsers have had bookmark bars for years, but I never used them until I switched to Google Chrome. I've always felt that the amount of screen real estate they consume is too great compared to the number of bookmarks that will fit (and I dislike having all my bookmarks in folders).

Google Chrome Bookmark Bar

What made me change my mind was icon-only bookmarks. When adding a new bookmark in Chrome, delete the Name field - leaving it empty. Chrome will insert the bookmark using the favicon provided by the website. As long as these icons are distinct, you end up with a compact bookmark bar.

I recently purchased an HP Pavilion dm1z laptop after reading how many people were thrilled with the small laptop. It's been described as a netbook-killer, and I tend to agree with that sentiment. The dm1z is light, power-efficient, quick and runs Linux well. However, there were a few tweaks I needed to put in place to get 32-bit Ubuntu 10.10 running perfectly.

This post was last updated 2011-09-07   read more >>

Studies have shown that long periods of staring at TVs and computer screens damages your eyesight. You have to be mindful of your working conditions and take an appropriate number of breaks to give your eyes - and your body - a break. One of the easiest exercises I use is to alternate focus between near objects (a foot or two away) and far objects (the next room over or outdoors, if possible).

I've recently learned that there's more at stake - your sleep. Your body's internal clock (circadian rhythm) is primarily regulated by your environment. Stand outside in the sun and your body knows it's day. Sit inside a dark room and your body believes it's night. The quantity and type of light entering your eyes determines your body's response.

Unfortunately, the light emitted by all your electronic devices (TV, computer, cell phone, laptop) is the wrong "temperature". They tell your body that it is still day, even if it's long past your bed time.   read more >>

I've been enjoying Pandora Radio for several years. It has been a great way to discover new artists and even new genres of music. I doubt I'd ever have learned of the existence of Dubsteb without Pandora - see my Music, Movie and Book Recommendations page to hear samples of my latest discoveries.

However, the web client was built on Adobe Flash, which makes it a bit of a CPU hog. I've long known that playing Pandora used up a lot more CPU time than playing other music (roughly 50% of the CPU for Pandora vs ~1% of the CPU for an MP3 or OGG). Thankfully, I have found a way to reduce the CPU load considerably.   read more >>