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Updated: 1 hour 19 min ago

Customizing my Linux terminal with tmux and Git

Thu, 07/02/2020 - 15:02

I use GNOME Terminal, mostly because it is my distribution's default. But what happens inside my terminal is far from "default." Before I get into how I customize it, here is what it looks like:


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6 best practices for managing Git repos

Thu, 07/02/2020 - 15:01

Having access to source code makes it possible to analyze the security and safety of applications. But if nobody actually looks at the code, the issues won’t get caught, and even when people are actively looking at code, there’s usually quite a lot to look at. Fortunately, GitHub has an active security team, and recently, they revealed a Trojan that had been committed into several Git repositories, having snuck past even the repo owners.


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How an open project's governance model evolves

Thu, 07/02/2020 - 15:00

As we continue renovating the Open Organization community, we've been asking hard questions about how we want that community to function. What do we expect of one another, and of the new contributors yet to join us? How will we work best together? And how will we keep one another accountable for achieving our shared goals?


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Install a Kubernetes load balancer on your Raspberry Pi homelab with MetalLB

Wed, 07/01/2020 - 15:02

Kubernetes is designed to integrate with major cloud providers' load balancers to provide public IP addresses and direct traffic into a cluster. Some professional network equipment manufacturers also offer controllers to integrate their physical load-balancing products into Kubernetes installations in private data centers. For an enthusiast running a Kubernetes cluster at home, however, neither of these solutions is very helpful.


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Back up your phone's storage with this Linux utility

Wed, 07/01/2020 - 15:01

One of the great failings of mobile devices is how difficult it can be to transfer data from your device to your computer. Mobile devices have a long history of this. Early mobiles, like Pilot and Handspring PDA devices, required special synchronization software (which you had to do religiously for fear of your device running out of batteries and losing all of your data forever). Old iPods required a platform-specific interface. Modern mobile devices default to sending your data to an online account so you can download it again on your computer.


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How to install Java on Mac

Wed, 07/01/2020 - 15:00

In late May, Java celebrated its 25th anniversary, and to commemorate the occasion, developers around the world used the hashtag #MovedByJava to share their achievements, memories, and insights with the programming language.


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Should API-restricting licenses qualify as open source?

Tue, 06/30/2020 - 22:01

In its 2014 Oracle v. Google decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the method declarations and "structure, sequence, and organization" (SSO) of the Java SE API were protected by copyright.


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Read and write data from anywhere with redirection in the Linux terminal

Tue, 06/30/2020 - 15:02

Redirection of input and output is a natural function of any programming or scripting language. Technically, it happens inherently whenever you interact with a computer. Input gets read from stdin (standard input, usually your keyboard or mouse), output goes to stdout (standard output, a text or data stream), and errors get sent to stderr.


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10 ReactJS tools to boost your web development skills

Tue, 06/30/2020 - 15:01

Did you know most résumés submitted for jobs get rejected with just a single glance? That's a daunting fact if you are trying to get started in web development, but there are ways to improve what you have to offer prospective employers and clients. For application developers, now is a great time to increase your skills, and open source is the best avenue for professional development. You don't need to attend university to learn new open source skills; all you need is a sense of direction and self-discipline.


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The open organization everyone deserves

Tue, 06/30/2020 - 15:00

Let me share an email I recently received. It meant the world to me:


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Using Bash traps in your scripts

Mon, 06/29/2020 - 15:02

It's easy to detect when a shell script starts, but it's not always easy to know when it stops. A script might end normally, just as its author intends it to end, but it could also fail due to an unexpected fatal error. Sometimes it's beneficial to preserve the remnants of whatever was in progress when a script failed, and other times it's inconvenient. Either way, detecting the end of a script and reacting to it in some pre-calculated manner is why the Bash trap directive exists.


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A minimalist Mac terminal for Linux fans

Mon, 06/29/2020 - 15:01

I have a confession to make: I have been a Mac user for more than 10 years now. At first, I felt a little shame, given my strong Linux background, but the Mac gives me a Unix-like shell and a great window manager. Because of that history, I have a mix of features that will run on macOS but feel familiar to Linux users. There's no reason it can't port over to Linux (and it has!).


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Use intent parsers for your open source home automation project

Mon, 06/29/2020 - 15:00

In part 1 and part 2 of this series on the Mycroft open source voice assistant, I laid the groundwork for learning how to create a skill. In part 3, I walked through creating an outline for a skill and recommended creating the skill in pure Python first to ensure the methods work as intended.


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Can open, collaborative tactics help us crack COVID-19?

Sun, 06/28/2020 - 15:00

At least 109 organizations are currently working on treatment for COVID-19. But many researchers believe an approved, effective vaccine against the coronavirus will not be available in 2020.


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An open source browser extension to zoom in on images

Sat, 06/27/2020 - 15:00

Have you ever visited a website and wanted to see the images displayed larger? That happens to me all the time, and it isn't always easy to make that happen.

On occasion, I sift through the source code, use Ctrl + F to search for the image, copy the image source address and paste it into a new window in order to see the image at its full-size glory. Or, the other option is to right-click, copy the image address, and paste into a new tab.


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Advice for getting started with GNOME

Fri, 06/26/2020 - 15:02

GNOME is one of the most popular Linux desktops today. It started as a humble desktop called the GNU Network Object Model Environment (GNOME) and was built on top of the GIMP GTK libraries. Its 1.0 release was announced in 1999, just two years after the project got started.


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Open source tools for translating British to American English

Fri, 06/26/2020 - 15:01

Last Christmas, my wife and I traveled to my hometown of Ft. Pierce, Florida, and frequented a local establishment on the beach. There, we met a couple from The Midlands in the UK. The music was loud and so was the beer, so it was a bit hard to hear. Plus, even though it "seemed" they were speaking English, it was sometimes a challenge to understand what they were saying. I thought my time in Australia would have given me enough linguistic power, but, alas, a lot went over my head. There was more than the usual "soccer is football" or "trunk is a boot" sort of confusion.


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5 modern alternatives to essential Linux command-line tools

Thu, 06/25/2020 - 15:03

In our daily use of Linux/Unix systems, we use many command-line tools to complete our work and to understand and manage our systems—tools like du to monitor disk utilization and top to show system resources. Some of these tools have existed for a long time. For example, top was first released in 1984, while du's first release dates to 1971.

Over the years, these tools have been modernized and ported to different systems, but, in general, they still follow their original idea, look, and feel.


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Make Bash history more useful with these tips

Thu, 06/25/2020 - 15:02

A Linux terminal running Bash has a built-in history that you can use to track what you've been doing lately. To view a history of your Bash session, use the built-in command history:


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Tips for switching your team to a SharePoint open source alternative

Wed, 06/24/2020 - 15:01

MediaWiki is many IT professionals' first exposure to wikis. By virtue of being the platform behind Wikipedia, MediaWiki's familiarity makes it a compelling open source alternative to proprietary technology like Atlassian Confluence, which is common with developers, and SharePoint, the default corporate collaboration platform.


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