trivial Pepsi broke the contract An API is a contract with the world, and that makes it one of the hardest things to get right in software design.
java Run bash commands from Java You may want to use `ffmpeg` to convert a bunch of videos, or call `ImageMagick` to manipulate some images. Whatever you may need, calling external programs from Java is pretty straightforward.
reviews Sony WF-1000XM4 vs Apple AirPods Pro Sony, a behemoth of the musical industry versus Apple that, since the iPod debut, stuck a chord with the EarPods and subsequent upgrades.
java Java: How to get all implementations of an Interface You've implemented them all. That was the hard part. Listing them should be easy!
utilities AutoHotKey, the magic keyboard As a developer, I'm constantly pushing for automatization. First target? The keyboard.
Don't forget to backup the cloud! By now, it's a given that you're making backups to the cloud. Are you also backing the cloud up?
java DTO, DAO and Repository Patterns The acronyms and some slight overlap tend to raise questions when programmers first start to implement these techniques.
trivial Linux, find and gzip a bunch of files I've been recently asked if you can traverse a bunch of folders and gzip all files that end in *.csv. Sure you can!
trivial Monit, or how to get a grip on those processes Some tools are just crafted to perfection. Monit is one of them. If you're running linux processes that you want checked, don't waste your time on anything else.
trivial Sendmail (or Mail) with subject on a single line Quick reference on how to use `sendmail` or `mail` from the command line to send to multiple recipients, with subject and body in a one-liner.
trivial MySQL server without root Can you install MySQL without admin/root access to your machine? Yes you can!
backup Storage Spaces with parity, very slow writes. Solved! You've set up Windows Storage Spaces with parity only to find that writing performance is ridiculous? It's all in the layers.
utilities HTCondor, install and configure as non-root HTCondor is an incredible job scheduler. It runs on Mac, Linux and Windows and can harness your CPU idle cycles.
hardware Ryzen cooldown, finally! Ryzen is a beast of a processor. This is a rundown of how I eventually fixed its thermal profile, keeping it both hot and cold.
trivial Postfix using Gmail as a relay While you would want to set up a proper email relay on a full-fledged server, for a small home machine, nothing beats the simplicity of having Gmail as the relay. Just add the following lines to /etc/postfix/main.cf: relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]
life hack Infant Optics DXR-8 proper antenna! A Sunday spring breeze. Your toddler just fell asleep. You get ready for some peace and quiet only to find out that the baby-monitor broke. Fix it? Nah. Hack it!
crypto currencies The hitchhiker's guide to NFTs Grimes made 6M in 20 minutes selling NFT art. A couple of days latter Beeple steamrolled it with its 69M sale of "Everydays". NFTs have exploded, but what exactly are they?
benchmark Battle of the Browsers, a benchmark of Brave, Chrome Firefox and Edge If you think about it, the browser is probably the software you spend most time on.
utilities When numbers get too big! Tesla invested 1.5B in BTC. Amazon had 100B profits in 2020. Chuck Norris has an estimated 70 M net worth. When numbers get very large, they become abstract.
crypto currencies Is Bitcoin a store of value? There's been a lot of talk recently over switching to BTC from fiat money as cryptocurrencies are now store of value. Is this actually true? Depends.
crypto currencies Bitcoin, how does it work? The current trend is to dumb down the mechanics of Bitcoin behind multiple levels of abstraction. Here we explore how it actually works without generalizing too much.
hack LG Washer keeps dropping wifi connection, solved! * April 2021 edit (six months without issue) * August 2021 edit (finally crashed!) * November 2022 edit (minor flood) After a dreadful experience with a Bosh dishwasher and a great with an
utilities SystemRescueCD 6.1.x and SSHD Your hard-drive, as soon as it gets out of the factory, it's dying. Bit by bit, sector by sector. It's better to play safe than sorrow with backups, but when disaster strikes, SystemRescueCD may go a long way!
java Java and how to deal with the singular plural form Plurals look easy. One hand, two hands. And then you stumble on apophonic plurals, and one foot becomes two feet.
Google Picasa, if it ain't broke... For my personal taste Google hit the absolute sweet spot with Picasa: * light on resources * snappy * didn’t mess with original images * stored modifications in a sensible way * amazing face detection So much so that I never looked back. I must confess that every