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Tools & Productivity

The most popular blog posts about tools & productivity on Hacker News. 199 posts.

2017
31

Using tmux properly

In the beginning, it was just me and the (plain) terminal. Then I started using Byobu, because it was company-standard at my first job. Later I installed tmux on my personal computer because it seemed more popular. And every time I work on a remote server, I use Screen. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

35

Terminal and shell performance

There’s a great MSR demo from 2012 that shows the effect of latency on the experience of using a tablet . If you don’t want to watch the three minute video, they basically created a device which could simulate arbitrary latencies down to a fraction of a millisecond. At 100ms (1/10th of a second), which is typical of…

36

How to Report a Bug to Microsoft

So you found a bug in one of Microsoft’s great works of software art. What do you do now? I realized that there isn’t a nice step-by-step guide online, so I will give you the low-down on how this process works. It’s not straightforward — Microsoft is a large company, and has probably thousands of calls or reports each…

37

On Password Managers

It has come to my attention that people are Wrong On The Internet about password managers. This matters, because almost everybody should be using one. Herewith background, opinions, and a description of my own setup, which is reasonably secure.

39

High-Level Problems with Git and How to Fix Them

When Git first came onto the scene in the mid 2000's, I was initially skeptical because of its horrible user interface. But once I learned it, I appreciated its speed and features - especially the ease at which you could create feature branches, merge, and even create commits offline (which was a big deal in the era…

47

Minimal PDF

Most PDF files do not look readable in a text editor. Compression, encryption, and embedded images are largely to blame. After removing these three components, one can more easily see that PDF is a human-readable document description language.

53

Building a Hackintosh Pro

If Apple built a compact, upgradeable tower that could house one or two full-size GPUs, I'd have bought it without hesitation. Sadly, that machine doesn't exist. There's no doubt that Apple has a refresh for the desktop market in the works. I just don't know

59

Glob Matching Can Be Simple and Fast Too

Here’s a straightforward benchmark. Time how long it takes to run ls ( a* ) n b in a directory with a single file named a 100 , compared to running ls | grep ( a.* ) n b . Superscripts denote string repetition and parentheses are for grouping only, so that when n is 3, we’re running ls a*a*a*b in a directory…

60

Papercraft with Blender

Blender version 2.79 incorporated functionality which enables you to fabricate 3D models by folding paper. I decided to try it out. Drawing the model I downloaded a 3D model of a goat and re-meshed…