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  • Configuring Docks in Gimp by editing the sessionrc config file.

    Anyone who has used Gimp is familiar with the use of the toolbox and the docks that appear on the screen. People naturally have their own preferences about how to arrange these user interface elements. I worked for a long time with screens in landscape mode, with a dock on each side of the screen.…

  • HOWTO: Enable Hibernation in Kubuntu 24.04

    Long-time readers of this blog may recall a similar article about how to enable hibernation in Kubuntu 20.04 LTS. These instructions did not need to be updated for 22.04 LTS because they were the same. For Kubuntu 24.04 these do need to be updated however. Part of the previous post is copied below. Before you…

  • Apple vs Google vs Microsoft vs Samsung vs….etc etc etc…

    So I have listed the names of the world’s four biggest computer hardware / software vendors … or at least the best known, in various different ways. Apple and Microsoft have been the two leading providers of desktop operating systems for decades. Apple and Google are the two leading providers of mobile operating systems. Apple…

  • Escaping The Skylake 14nm Intel Architecture Circus

    Once upon a time, there was the Intel Skylake CPU architecture. Skylake was introduced in 2015 for the sixth generation of the Intel Core CPU. Using the Intel tick-tock cycle, it was the tock component, the tick being its predecessor Broadwell. Broadwell introduced the 14nm process node to the Core architecture and after Skylake, there…

  • StarTech 8U Open Rack

    Anyone who has worked for any length of time in the fields of professional computing or audio is familiar with the concept of equipment racking. The ubiquitous and very common 19″ (48.25 cm) equipment racks used in these fields and many others (in the computing realm, network patch panels as well as servers are often…

  • REVIEW: Ryobi OB18150 150VA 240V One+ Power Inverter

    One of the useful developments in battery operated power tool systems of recent years is that manufacturers have woken up to the merits of having a universal battery system that powers a large range of different tools, ranging from power tools for the workshop to garden tools and even some general domestic devices for home…

  • Setting up a second swap partition for Linux [2]

    In the first post of this series several years ago, I wrote on how to add a second swap partition to increase the size of the swap space, by adding a second swap entry to the fstab file. This is very much the simplest way of increasing the swap space by using multiple disks, if…

  • Hibernation fails with Kubuntu 20/22 on HP computers if Secure Boot is enabled.

    Some months back I did write about how to enable hibernation in Kubuntu as it is not enabled by default like it is in Debian. I have particularly noted that this is an issue on computers made by HP in that following the given instructions still does not make hibernation available in some HP manufactured…

  • Gimp 2.99.12 beta fails to fix major undo bug from 2.99.10

    Currently, the Gimp project is developing a new release, 3.0. The beta version is being produced as version 2.99 with nightly releases having odd subversions e.g. 2.99.1, 2.99.3 etc and the production releases having even subversions e.g. 2.99.0, 2.99.2 etc. The project has now released version 2.99.12. However, a major bug in the undo function…

  • HPM Countdown Timers

    I have used various types of countdown timer for my heaters for years. They ensure the heater will be turned off automatically after a set period, usually two hours, so as not to waste power. HPM used to sell specific mechanical countdown timers, and I had several of these. Unfortunately they all stopped working after…