When I install the Mozilla Thunderbird email client, I like to install some additions and tweak some settings. This list was last updated when I upgraded to Firefox 24.5.
Stephen
79 posts
When I install the Mozilla Firefox web browser, I like to install some additions and tweak some settings. This list was last updated when I upgraded to Firefox 29.0.
I would really like a better DVD player for Christmas. Something with these features:
- Skip all the cruft and just play the movie.
- Remember your place in the last 20 DVDs you have watched.
- Automatically enable subtitles on every movie
W3C Datetime (also known as ISO 8601) is a standard machine readable way of formatting dates. In its most specific form, dates can be printed with time and time zone in this format:
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sTZD
For example:
1997-07-16T19:20:30.45+01:00
It is not as easy to produce dates in this format in Java as it should be. I needed to format dates like this for creating an XML Sitemap file.
My currency conversion website coinmill.com has a subdomain for each language. It supports over 40 languages. The entire domain is tracked in a single Google Analytics account. I wanted to know which subdomains were performing best and which were performing worst, and how that was changing over time. Continue reading
Ubuntu has started to support USB audio. When I plug in a USB speaker or headset (such as my Pyle USB gaming headset), it gets recognized and installed automatically. However there are some bugs:
- The USB sound device does not get selected automatically. This is especially annoying for headphones. When you plug in analog headphones, the sound automatically switches to them and the main speakers turn off.
- The volume settings are turned way up for the device. Ideally it would remember the volume settings from the last time the device was plugged in.
- When the computer goes to sleep, the volume of usb devices gets turned way up on wake.
I discovered that I could address these shortcomings by creating a script.
I try to script everything I can on Linux. When I install something on my desktop, I like to be able to run a script to install the same thing on my laptop. When a computer breaks, I like to be able to run all the scripts to have it set up again just the way that it was. Here is how I scripted the installation of my printer.
This recipe is
- Healthy
- Very fast
- Tasty
- One dish
It is based on a dish that I have ordered in restaurants in New Hampshire. I've adapted it for ease of preparation and left out any cream sauce for use with the South Beach diet.
I got an email from somebody named Lindrian about the article I had written about using regular expressions to find comments in source code.
The wireless network on my laptop has always been unreliable. When I open the lid of the laptop and the computer wakes up from sleep, there is a 10% chance that the wireless network won't be able to connect. In the past, the only thing that works in this situation is a full reboot of the laptop.
I recently re-installed Ubuntu on my desktop computer. It was about 8 years since the previous full install. I'd kept it up to date with latest Ubuntu upgrades. I wanted to change the hard drive configuration and put most of the os on a solid state drive. There was also a lot of cruft that I had installed over the years and a clean slate would get rid of tons of software I no longer use.
The re-install worked very well. The most noticeable improvement was boot time. Partly from the solid state drive and partly from the removal of all the extra software. I didn't lose much in the process. I have a script that installs software that I use that isn't included by default. The script also tweaks a bunch of settings. But, the one thing that I lost was my global key bindings.
I've been using Nedit for at least 10 years as my primary text editor. It has standard features for a programmer's text editor:
- Syntax highlighting
- Line numbering
- Brace matching
There are a few areas in which the authors put in a lot of attention to detail. It outshines every other text editor that I've ever used in these areas.
I have been playing with the Maynard Community Band since 2002.
Every year the band plays several concerts:
- Summer concert series Wednesday night in Memorial Park, Maynard, MA
- Maynardfest in downtown Maynard, MA, midday on a Saturday in September
- Christmas pops concert on a Wednesday night before Christmas as Union Congregation Church, Maynard, MA
- A handful of other gigs at nursing homes, private events, and community activities
Rehearsals are on Wednesday nights, check the schedule of upcomingevents for exact times and places.
I recently started working as a software developer at care.com. It is a website focused on finding babysitters, nannies, dog sitters, elderly care and personal assistants. I am responsible for building features for the site.