Why my daily Linux desktop looks like Windows 9x

Note: for even more nostalgia, read this post on tilde.club!

Once, as an April Fools' Day joke¹ I set a Windows 95 theme on my Linux desktop for a screen-sharing session. Like, look at me, calling in from a vintage computer, ha-ha! Haven't changed the theme back since then.

Turns out, the Classic Windows interface is actually a pretty good choice from a practical point of view. In terms of productivity, elements are compact and clearly distinguishable, colors are nice and not distracting, and icons are meaningful. Not that modern flat interface blur.

It also helps to draw a line between Work and Life mindsets. In the home environment, I have a bit more modern theme, so by creating clear visual associations it helps to switch the brain between concentration and relaxation modes.

And, of course, I am nostalgic for the digital aesthetic of the 90s. Not for Windows itself, it's a slow and clumsy OS, but because it was on the first computer I had access to, it brings back fond memories. In fact, some of my most formative memories were made in that clumsy, boxy world. Growing up, I didn't have access to many video games or consoles, nobody had even heard of the internet, but we did have an office computer. With the kind of patience that you only have when you are a child, I would find things to get excited about. I spent hours trying to make sense of system files, imagining what they were for, tinkering with settings, playing with themes and screensavers, breaking things, fixing things. Ultimately, it made me who I am and what I do today.

Nowadays I don't try to reproduce the Windows 95 interface 100%. It is more a mixture of 95, 98 and even 2000. It's a revised nostalgia, a reinterpretation that captures the brightest memories, enchanting the good and minimising the bad. It is also not a step backwards in terms of usability and productivity.

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Organizing Tip

You probably know about SKÅDIS pegboard from Ikea, which makes your workspace more organized by making use of vertical space. If you have lot of random stuff on your table - you definetely need one because it much easier to keep place tidy when each item has it own dedicated place. Plus it looks nice.

But did you know that if you have access to a 3d printer, you can print perfectly fitting holder for literally anything you own? Form any tool to even beer. Just search for skadis on Thingiverse. And in unlikely case you won't find what you need, theres always an option to super-glue a Generic Hook

#Tip #Ikea #3Dprinting

So I had Xenomorph figurine...

So I had The Xenomorph figurine lying around and figured out it fits perfectly in a PC case (huge fans, orange lights, black wires, cooling pipes)...

#Alien #alienmovies #xenomorph

X-Bows Lite — review of reasonably priced mechanical ergonomic keyboard

I have mixed opinions about the mechanical keyboard phenomenon. From one point I can totally understand spending 400+ bucks on a thing you are interacting with 8+ hours per day, every day. It should be nice. From another point, I'm all about sourcing nice things for a minimal price. Also, I have all skills and resources to build one from scratch except for time.

For a long time, I wanted to try an ergonomic mechanical keyboard (real ergonomic means button rows aligned with the wrists' natural position) but was not sure if I'll like it in the end. So it was hard to justify investing much in that experiment.

Recently I found out about X-Bows Lite — an entry point ergonomic mechanical keyboard. I was able to get mine for 55 bucks, and I'm enjoing typing on it since.

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Militarish Pi: Status update 1

I'm building Raspberry Pi Laptop called Militarish Pi, remember? You are probably not interested in the many reasons¹ that stopped me from working on the project, but you might be interested in the status update.

So here are photos from the current prototype. As build is in progress it looks ugly. Still publishing an update as soon as I could because I'm aware of multiple people doing their own great builds based on that. Hope you might find something useful:

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A couple of Laptop Tips

1. If you travel a lot tip

If you work on a laptop a lot, this ingenious vertical stand will save you from the Royal Pain in The Neck™! Because it is much more portable to travel with a light stand and keyboard, than an additional monitor, you know. Answering your potential concern - yes the whole thing is very stable, because of the low center of mass. alexdoit (author) made multiple sizes for different laptops.

As an added bonus, it is a lot trickier (although not impossible) to spill a drink over the laptop when it is in a vertical position.

Speaking about portable keyboards I can't feel more hackery than with B.O.W Folding Keyboard. There are tons of foldable keyboards, but that is the only one that in addition to Bluetooth is recognized as a regular USB keyboard¹! Of course not as convenient as a full keyboard, but the best in cases when portability is preferable. The mouse is generic "Arc Foldable Mouse" btw.

Also, did you know that GaN revolution happened, and you can charge your laptop with tiny (compared with stock power brick) charger (for example Anker 735), simultaniosly with 2 other gadgets?

2. If you do not travel a lot tip

When a laptop is connected to power all the time, you might notice that battery health still degrades over time. This is a pity, especially if you don't use the battery at all. This happens because when the laptop is plugged in, the battery charge cycles all the time to get 100% charge if decide to unplug it². The irony is chasing that 100%, overall battery capacity might degrade much worse than 100%. For some models, this could be solved by installing tlp and changing /etc/tlp.conf:

START_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0="60"
STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0="80"
RESTORE_THRESHOLDS_ON_BAT="1"

This configuration will not touch the battery until it discharges over 80%, therefore prolonging battery life.

#Tip

How to label microSD cards?

Let me give y'all another simple everyday advice! I've almost stopped using USB Drives because microSD cards are much more portable and convenient, especially if you have the right holder and right card reader. The only inconvenience is to distinguish them once you have many.

Recently I've discovered a perfect way to label microSD cards:

1. Using white permanent marker paint one side
   • Best results are if you let it dry for 30 seconds then repeat 2-3 times
2. Using extra fine (0.5mm) black permanent marker label them
3. If you ever need to change the label either:
   • Repaint the new layer with a white marker (step 1)
   • Remove all paint using alcohol pads

This approach was proven much better than correction liquid because it holds and does not crumble over time.

#Tip

Some lesser known items good to have in your travel/emergency bag

I travel a lot. Like a lot lot. I’ve prepared an achievement list to define “a lot”:

• ✔ Visit more than 10 countries (I’m currently at 15)
• ✔ Spend at least 1/3 time abroad (in a years perspective)
• ✔ Fly without ticket back (round trip is for rookies)
• ✔ Buy plane tickets in the morning, fly in the afternoon
• ✔ Get weeks planned trip extended to a month
• ✔️Compelled to stay overnight because of a missed flight
• ✔️Get stranded at the airport for more than 12 hours

Because of that, I need to have my travel-survival bag always ready and with me. As unfortunate recent events taught more people to be more prepared for unforeseen travel, let me share some lesser known items that are good to always have in your bag.

What I'm trying to say, is items I about to recommend are carefully picked, tested and proven to be useful in a different life sutuations.

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Simple way to get rid of code snippet spam (StackOverflow clones) in Google

As if internet is not already full of bad advice about software development, there are always people who will find a way to make situation worse.

Solving programming problems, might be very time consuming, and to waste your time even more, there are many spam websites, that just rehash Stack Overflow/GitHub issues.

Seems that Google can't (or won't) do anything about it. Situation got so bad, that for some queries you get only spam results, Google is unable to find original.

You can easily found a dozen spam sites by searching any StackOverflow question in qoutes.

To save your time, you can use one of browser extensions that block certain sites from search results. But as I've mentioned previously, extensions are probably bad for you. Plus you need to configure and maintain the list.

As the simplest alternative, I suggest a block list (filter list). You probably already have a uBlock installed (or any other blocker compatible with AdBlock format). Or Vivaldi has built-in AdBlocker (Settings→Privacy→Tracker and ad blocking→Manage Sources->➕).

So, to get rid of search spam, subscribe to this list.

UPD exactly at the same time I wrote this post, another filter list was featured on Hacker News. So I'm not the only one who is bothered by this problem. Since it gained more attention, please use it.

UPD2 Neither Google or filter list are able to keep up with the problem. New spam sites keep popping up too quickly. Seems the only way to get rid of it is to use DuckDuckGo.

#Tip

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Tip: make JavaScript errors more apparent, then fix them

A long time ago, if a JavaScript error happened in the browser, a half-screen popup was shown to the user, asking if he wants to continue scripts execution on such a low-quality page. And user had the right to view the page without JavaScript at all, as most websites were functional without it. Tell this to modern frontend developers with their ubiquitous ‘undefined’ Is Not an Object.

Since then, JavaScript errors were hidden far away into developers console, because almost all modern websites are piling with it. The last time errors were visible somewhere in the interface was on FireBug button.

Of course, you are a better developer and can make things better in your own product. Technically you can always test your website with developers console open. But tiny icon in top-left corner is easy to miss.

A more convinient solution would be to install an extension that shows errors and notifications in a clearly apparent place. JavaScript Errors Notifier does exactly that.

If you are like me, and can not install extensions because of security reasons I can suggest a tiny, stripped-down alternative. The codebase is bare minimum and the extension runs only on localhost, to satisfy strict security requirements. The extension is intended to be installed from local disk.

Extension handles both handled and unhandled errors - so will work both with your regular pages and React.

Source on Github

#Frontend

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