ChromeOS – Apps, Config, Utilities

This is meant to help with the conversion from OSX to ChromeOS. For background on ChromeOS and Chromium, see chromium.org. See also a hardware discussion on Chromebooks, Chromebits, and Chromeboxes. What Chromebooks Can't (Yet) Do Note: the Crostini project means that a host of Linux apps and functionality can/will/may be on tap, which can affect ... Read more

WQHD Monitors

Note: 43" 4K monitors are likely taking over this WQHD space. Also beware the VA panels, they just don't perform as well as IPS. Second Note: the problem of using a 4K TV for a monitor is in the viewing angles. Also Chroma subsampling is needed for decent support of text. What appears to be ... Read more

Linux Kernel on the March

As of early 2018, ChromeOS and Desktop Linux have both crossed the 3% threshold. Android is approaching 50% for OS market share, and is in excess of that in terms of new devices. Heady times for the Linux Kernel indeed. While Android uses the Linux Kernel, nearly everything else in Android is customized, and therefore ... Read more

OpenVPN on ChromeOS, Android

See also OpenVPN on Amazon Linux Complexity with a Simplistic Solution OpenVPN on ChromeOS and Android has become a bit complicated, since ChromeOS now supports Android. However, Android seems to live inside its own environment within ChromeOS, accessible to other Android Apps, but without the ability to modify the larger ChromeOS environment. This means that ... Read more

Xiaomi Brand – the Rise and Fall

Note: as of 2022, our household moved from Xiaomi to Samsung phones (similar spying, different government), and ditched the increasingly annoying Mi Box for a Google Chromecast (and Google Nest in a different room). We still love things like wired earbuds and backpacks from Xiaomi, but are suspicious of anything with any greater electronic footprint. ... Read more

Linux Desktop – Apps, Config

This is about linux desktop issues (as opposed to server), and mainly deals with desktop-style configuration. See this post about shell and command-line utilities and environments. See also ChromeOS - Apps, Config, Utilities for the companion article on ChromeOS. Android Apps Android Emulators for Linux This is pretty much unneeded these days. Apps and Utilities ... Read more

Chromebook ChromeOS Devices

Update early 2021 - Apparently ChromeOS outsold OSX in 2020. This makes sense as the strength of the ChromeOS is primarily in the education market, and that market exploded with demand because of Covid-19 school closures and the need for devices for remote schooling. This is an overview of what Chromebooks, Chromeboxes, and Chromebits can ... Read more

Grav CMS on Debian

This post will be frequently (or infrequently) updated. It is meant to help me learn Grav and Gravcart, and in particular migrate off of WordPress and Woocommerce. Related Artices in Debian Services and Applications - Debian on AWS Lightsail - OpenVPN on Debian + UFW Firewall - Nginx and Letsencrypt on Debian - PHP & ... Read more

Amazon Linux First Steps

First steps after logging into an Amazon Linux box: Set up the Name Services (DNS, Hostname) Properly Note there are several places this needs to be set. nano /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 Make this look as follows: DEVICE=eth0 BOOTPROTO=dhcp ONBOOT=yes TYPE=Ethernet USERCTL=yes PEERDNS=no DNS1=84.200.69.80 DNS2=84.200.70.40 DHCPV6C=yes DHCPV6C_OPTIONS=-nw PERSISTENT_DHCLIENT=yes RES_OPTIONS="timeout:2 attempts:5" DHCP_ARP_CHECK=no Note that this fixes the general VPC ... Read more

.bashrc, .bash_profile, PATH

On a new Amazon Linux AMI installation, there is a useful ec2-user account configured. However, in order to make it more useful, there is a need to edit some .bashrc files, as well as create a new user for sftp and scp, as those will produce errors using login scripts that we will set for ... Read more