2 cent tip
Pidgin: change the spell-check dictionary on Linux
The problem: you use Pidgin for instant messaging and you write in different languages but you can spell check only in the language of your operative system.
2 cent tip
Speed-up Firefox browser
Firefox is a rock solid browser, but sometimes can look very slow compared to Chrome or similar browsers… You can fix this, going in config mode and changing some values: in the address URL bar, type about:config acknowledge the warning (you are going to change advanced settings) into the search Read more…
2 cent tip
Version control in Xcode (GIT)
Today I have to fix a bugged program developed with Apple Xcode. Fixing broken code and replacing deprecated functions is a very energy consuming job and having a version control service can relieve the pain. Luckily Apple Xcode can natively work with GIT but this feature is not simple to enable. Read more…
2 cent tip
Use imagemagick / convert to extact a page from a PDF file
Sometimes opening a big PDF file with your favourite image editor (maybe GIMP?) only to extract a JPG of the first page is a waste of time. Using the convert command (from the ImageMagick suite) you can do this task in less time needed to launch the image editor itself Read more…
2 cent tip
Windows 8.1 and Intel USB 3.0 Host Controllers + Intel driver fix
Ok, also with the new Windows 8.1 release, I’m experiencing serious problems with my external USB3 drive. I have found this excellent guide, explaining how to replace the broken “Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller – 0100 (Microsoft)” with the Intel driver: Windows 8 and Intel USB 3.0 Host Controllers Read more…
2 cent tip
Create a video slideshow from series of numerically sequential images
If you have some images with the sequential name (like image0001.jpg, image0002.jpg etc…) and you want to make a video, with Linux is very easy. You need ffmpeg: ffmpeg -r 25 -pattern_type glob -i ‘*.jpg’ -c:v libx264 output.mp4 You can change the frame-rate modifying the number after “-r” (in my Read more…
2 cent tip
LFTP: limit bandwidth upload/download
I use often lftp to move data from server to server/client. I like this FTP client because is small, very powerful to use and present in every Linux distribution. Plus, I can run lftp from the shell (maybe from a screen session) and forget it until the job is done Read more…
2 cent tip
Recuva – Undelete utility from the guys of CCleaner
This is a very fast and great program to undelete files for Windows. It’s powered by a nice wizard (easy even for the average user) and it simply make the job. You can easily recover photos from a formatted SD/CF card. Plus: the base version is also free. Surely you Read more…
2 cent tip
Convert a PDF to black and white version
The problem: you have a PDF with some coloured elements (like some logo, separation lines, etc…) but you need a PDF in B/W. The solution: you can print your file (with a B/W printer) and then scan it 🙂 or, using GPL Ghostscript, run this command… gs -sDEVICE=pnggray -r150x150 -sOutputFile=output-%02d.png Read more…
2 cent tip
Upgrading Windows XP VMs to 2 CPU
Source: Alex Klink’s tech blog: VirtualBox – upgrading Windows XP VMs to 2 CPU. I repost this tip because it’s very useful and I don’t want to loose it if the source blog disappears 🙂 Symptom: If you had Windows XP VM with only 1 CPU created / virtalized earlier Read more…