Ryan and Debi & Toren

Category: technology

  • LinuxMint or Ubuntu: Automount Server Share

    (Updated to reflect changes in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS – 5/15/2012) While I’m still not 100% sure how I got my file server to share all the files across the network (whatever I did, it worked; when the server dies, I’ll figure it out and post it here).  Regardless, I recently reformatted my desktop and had…

  • LinuxMint: Keyboard Shortcuts to Move Windows Between Monitors

    If you don’t have multiple monitors hooked up to your desktop computer, you’re really missing out.  Having dual monitors is a delight when it comes to being able to see more than one window and work even faster.  And to make the experience even more enjoyable, Ubuntu variants of Linux, including LinuxMint, my new Linux…

  • Ubuntu: two versions of Firefox at once

    Ever since I switched to Linux I’ve been toying with running two versions of Firefox simultaneously, even though I now use Google Chrome as my primary browser.  Why two versions of Firefox, you ask?  It’s kind of complicated, but it boils down to: I use Zotero for my bibliographic management software but I have too…

  • Ubuntu: keyboard shortcut to switch mouse orientation

    In order to minimize the risk of repetitive stress injuries, I have learned to use computer mice ambidextrously – I can do it either right or left-handed without any problems.  However, it’s a little more difficult to do it left-handed on my laptop.  And since I dock my laptop in my office to use an…

  • Ubuntu: Adequate OCR for free on Linux

    Even though I have mostly switched from Windows to Linux, I do have to emulate Windows for a few things just because the software for Linux either isn’t very good, doesn’t work, or in one case I haven’t learned it (R rather than SPSS).  One of the reasons I would run Windows over Linux was…

  • Android: An e-book reader that copies, pastes, and highlights text

    As my regular readers know, Debi and I recently bought new cellphones that run the Android operating system. For about three years before that, we were running an old Windows Mobile OS (I think version 5). On our old phones, I had installed an ebook reader that allowed me to copy and paste text from…

  • Google Chrome doesn’t work with YouTube?

    I just received an email from YouTube inviting me to apply for “revenue sharing” for one of the videos I posted on that has quite a few views (about 15,000).  I followed the link to apply for revenue sharing and clicked through as much of the process as I could.  But I got to one…

  • Ubuntu: xbindkeys to replace Firefox’s clippings extension

    I’ve been a loyal user of Firefox for years and plan to still use it as my secondary browser (and will use it regularly for Zotero).  But Google’s new browser, Chrome, has really impressed me and I’m going to start using it as my primary browser for email, surfing the web, and every day online…

  • HTC Droid Incredible – additional thoughts

    I posted before about our new phones – HTC Droid Incredibles.  Perhaps I’m just trying to justify the purchase to myself, but I’ve figured out a few new tricks with the phone that are worth mentioning. Perhaps the coolest feature I’ve found recently, which really makes this a smart phone, is what it does when…

  • one phone to rule them all

    While I’m a major geek and I love technology, I’m also cheap.  Ergo, we’ve had the same cell phones for three years: HTC 8125s.  They’ve been good phones, but they ran a very outdated Windows Mobile operating system with limited functionality.  I eventually convinced Debi that it was time to upgrade to new smart/app phones…