Travel, Tech, Thoughts…
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GPRENAME – removing text up to a space using regular expressions
For a recent project, I came into possession of hundreds of photos, each of which was named according to the settings the person who take the photo with their phone had in place but ended with ” – FirstName LastName.jpg.” I wanted to keep the users’ names, but everything before that could go. With hundreds…
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ZFS Snapshot Management
With my new fileserver/NAS, I am using a ZFS raid array for my file storage. One aspect of the ZFS file system that I didn’t really investigate all that closely before I installed it was the snapshot feature. ZFS snapshots basically store a “picture” or “image” of all the files on the system at a…
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PVC paintball gun holder
I play paintball frequently enough that I finally broke down and made myself a paintball gun holder. Is it a requirement for paintball? Of course not! Is it a convenient place to put your gun between games while you fill the hopper and work on it? Yes! I initially tried a different design but didn’t…
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Long Term Storage of Gmail/Email using Mozilla’s Thunderbird (on Linux)
I have email going back to 2003. There have been times when I have actually benefited from my email archive. Several times, I have gone back 5 or more years to look for a specific email and my archive has saved me. However, my current approach to backing up my email is, let’s say, a…
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Linux – Bulk UnRAR
If you’re not familiar with RAR files, they are like ZIP files. RAR is an archive format. I had a collection of more than 150 RAR files in a single folder I needed to unrar (that is, open and extract from the archive). Doing them one at a time via KDE’s Ark software would work,…
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Linux: Batch Convert .avi files to .mp4/.mkv
I’ve been trying to clean up my video library since building my latest NAS. In the process, I found a number of .avi files, which is an older file format that isn’t widely used these days. While every time a file is converted it loses some of its quality, I was willing to risk the…
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HandBrake – H.265 NVEnc 1080p Ripping Chart and Guidelines
With a Plex server, I want my collection of movies backed up digitally so I can watch them when and where I want to. This involves a two-step process. First, I have to rip the video from Blu Ray, which I do using MakeMKV. Since that process is pretty straightforward, I’m not going to cover…
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Hillsborough County, FL – 2020 General Election
Below is the information I found on the various candidates and constitutional amendments for the 2020 general election in Hillsborough County, Florida for my district. You can find your own sample ballot here. I’m politically an independent but registered as a Democrat so I can vote in Florida’s primaries. I generally try not to endorse…
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How to Export Garmin Tracks/Activities to Google Maps
While it’s possible to share your Garmin tracks or activities with people through the Garmin website, I like exporting my tracks to Google Maps so I can embed them on my website. Here’s how I do that. First, log in to your Garmin Connect account. Once you have logged in, click on the Activities tab.…
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Teaching with a Mask – Headset Solution on Linux
My university, the University of Tampa, is doing what it can to continue teaching in-person classes (many are hybrid) during the COVID-19 pandemic. To facilitate that, our IT folks installed webcams and microphones in all of our classrooms. Unfortunately, the classrooms all have Windows-based desktops that don’t include all the software I need for educating…