getmail -rmymail.conf File “/usr/bin/getmail”, line 64 except ImportError, o: ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax It turns out, the service I use to collect my email, getmail, requires python 2; I’d forgotten this (if I ever knew it) and made python 3 my system default (I rebound the “python” command to 3 instead of 2) and so it failed. I didn’t realize this until 16 hours later wondering why I wasn’t getting my mail, and digging into my scripts, evaluating line by line, I finally got the above error.

Flameshot is an excellent new screenshot tool to replace Spectacle, the default KDE tool that served me for years until the latest round of software updates. Suddenly out a screenshot utility for my exwm setup, Flameshot more than impressed me with its rapid editing functionality in addition to the nuts-and-bolts screenshots. Then implementing it into my exwm and binding to my printscreen key was easy: (exwm-input-set-key (kbd "<print>") (lambda () (interactive) (start-process-shell-command "flameshot gui" nil "flameshot gui")))

I was receiving the error “We cannot play the video in this browser. Please try a different web browser.” I noticed they worked in Chrome but not Firefox; in my experience this is because Firefox has some additional protections against non-free software that CHrome doesn’t care about. I identified that my browser was missing some codecs checking youtube and spotting the red-boxes under “what does this browser support?” Looking around I found this solution.

Trying to make the jump to exwm, which is a similar experience (though considerably less documented) than switching to i3wm, there are a number of core laptop functionalities that the heavier-weight window managers take care of for you. I’m using this on a laptop that is often used that way – traveling, connecting to multiple different WiFi networks daily, connecting to docking stations and extra monitors and devices, toggling touch pad, etc.

For quick reference: how do I find my gateway on linux? (Needed to access your router’s web interface) $ netstat -nr Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan0 172.17.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 docker0 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wlan0

I’m running Fedora 20 on an Ultra-book, meaning I am using an external (USB) CD drive. Wanting to reclaim my Mozart, I stuck it in and soon found the K3B tool for burning and ripping (as a KDE user, it was readily available); but to my horror, it was ripping at 0.5 speed. Having 20 minutes of music take over 40 minutes to rip and encode is certainly not viable, so I began looking around and tried a host of different tools.

Things were going great on my Fedora 20 system. My system downloaded a new Shockwave Flash version, which is always good knowing their terrible security problems. But next thing I know my firefox is yelling at me on almost every web page, refusing to start Flash because it’s an old, insecure version. I check my versions and Firefox tells me flash is 11.2.202.438 (sheesh! Adobe is serious about version numbers) when those last digits are supposed to be .

Articles like this recent LifeHacker post point out that the recent flash of big-business password leaks not only indicates smarter hackers, but also more ammunition for the hackers since getting their hands on those passwords gives them valuable intell about what patterns most people follow in making their passwords. In other words, the XKCD methods aren’t good enough anymore. To stay more secure, you’ve got to think about two things: password generation, and password storage.

Particularly when coding and you need to make links to files or libraries, or if you use sym links to streamline your file system, it can be very useful to find the Fully Qualified Path (sometimes referred to as FQP) of a file. This command does the trick: readlink -f ./MyFile.txt

KDE is a particular desktop for Linux, and by far my favorite. One of the sorest grievances I have in other desktops, like Ubuntu’s Unity or Gnome, is the absence of such effective workspace management, like the fully customizable workspace grid. In the picture you see my social media/phone interface in one workspace, my general project list and schedule in the next, another workspace dedicated to the artificial intelligence debugging I’m working on with code, debugger, and accessory programs; my active browser for help lookup in another; and the program manual for said project in yet another work space.