Emacs as my default pdf viewer
In the last week, I’ve switched over to using emacs for pdf viewing (reading) via doc-view because I noticed “C-v” and “M-v” did not do what I want in Document Viewer aka Evince ;). At least with...
View Article(Batch) Amplify audio files from the command line
Audacity is great, but it’s a GUI and sometimes I just want to do basic things like amplify the sound of some mp3 files. Discovered mp3gain from this thread and wrote this script to batch amplify the...
View ArticleBurn dvd from the command line
I recently had to back files from my Ubuntu-based NAS. I initially used xfburn, a medium-weight burning software. It does a pretty good job. However, I decided to burn via the command line to refrain...
View ArticleDissociate C-i, C-m, and C-[ in emacs
Every now and then, I bind functions to keys such as C-m, C-i, and C-[ , but run into issues as these keys are identical to RETURN, TAB, and ESC. See this and the named ascii list for more...
View ArticleBurn CD’s and DVD’s from emacs using dired and dvd+rw-tools
I recently explored burning discs from the command line. To make things even more convenient, I can employ emacs dired to help in selecting the files. That is, suppose I have some files in a directory...
View ArticleSplit, cut, or sample a video file on the command line
There are many reasons to cut or split a video file. For example, one may want to cut a long video into multiple parts to upload to YouTube. I first ran into this and this, which suggests: <pre...
View ArticleBlock/disable transition ads (Ad-brite)
Some sites I go to forces a full page ad once I’m visit a page for a few seconds. After a few additional seconds, I can click on “skip ad”. I find this very annoying as the ad loads whenever I go to a...
View ArticleFile associations in Linux (Gnome and Mailcap)
File associations in Linux can be tricky. On my Gnome-based Ubuntu machine, I can associate a filetype by right-clicking a file in Nautilus, and slecting “Open with”. To modify the defaults using...
View Articleescreen instead of elscreen for screen-like features in emacs
I’ve been using elscreen for screen-like features in emacs the last couple of years. However, I have a few complaints. Elscreen has issues when used with emacsclient -c: a new frame might not be...
View ArticleFoxit Phantom, an Adobe Acrobat alternative, for Linux via WINE
There are plenty of open source tools on Linux that can assist with pdf files. However, sometimes you just have to do something that requires Adobe Acrobat (e.g., editing pdf files). You can’t install...
View ArticleLatest Asterisk on Ubuntu
I recently changed my web server, and had to re-install Asterisk. I wanted to compile from source but I had an “input/output” error, which means either my drive is bad or I’m having issues with the...
View ArticleXterm – Alt key and copy + paste
I recently went back to using xterm as my default terminal since in Gnome-Terminal, Alt-V gets sent to the menu, and not to emacs when it is running. In Xterm, the Alt key did not work immediately; it...
View ArticleAmazon EC2 free hosting (micro instance) for 1 year – Ubuntu + WordPress +...
I use old laptops as web servers at school. However, they really aren’t built to be running continuously; I have disk problems on both of my old laptops. Amazon Web Services offer a free usage tier of...
View ArticleTesting a hypothesis and hypothesis generation
I like this podcast. It discusses some recent findings about genes possibly relating to Alzheimer’s Disease. In it, the guest speaks of not having a hypothesis going into the study. Then the host (or...
View ArticleLPR printing on command line
These days, with Linux distros such as Ubuntu, printing is quite easy. You can add and remove printers and print files just as easily (or even more so) compared to Windows or Mac. Sometimes I might...
View Articlesftp with restricted folder
I recently needed to set up an ftp server (or sftp server) that allows the user to transfer files. I had some restrictions: The account cannot have ssh access since I don’t want an unauthorized person...
View Articlespacing between items in itemize or enumerate environments (lists)
In LaTeX Beamer, I wanted to adjust the spacing between items in an itemize environment. This post shows how to do it for each individual itemize environment: <pre class="src...
View ArticleWriting and publishing books on Kindle
Thanks to the digital book revolution, it is quite easy to publish your work yourself without convincing a publisher to publish them for you or pay hefty fees to have them publish. This post on Linux...
View Articleemacs keybindings in xpdf and xdvi
I’ve been using xpdf and xdvi for reading documents I’ve downloaded or my LaTeX-generated documents on the laptop more and more these days due to their speed. The one thing I require (desire) in all...
View Article