Writing with open source tools
Aside from my other work, I also teach a few university courses about technical writing. One class I like to teach is about writing with...
Extracting text with awk
The awk script interpreter is a very handy tool for systems administrators, and anyone else who uses Linux at the command line. With awk, you...
My first sysadmin mistake
If you work in IT, you know that things never go completely as you think they will. At some point, you’ll hit an error, or...
A brief history of the Linux desktop
Let’s look back on a brief history of the Linux desktop.
Emulating systems with QEMU
Here’s how I boot other systems using virtual machines in QEMU
Make typing faster with the Keebio BDN9 macro pad
My brother recently gave me a Keebio BDN9 macro pad. It’s a configurable 9-key keyboard that supports all kinds of customizations, including little keycaps that...
Code like it’s the 1980s
Our computers are so powerful today that it’s hard for younger developers to understand what early desktop computing was like. Even more experienced folks can...
Draw in color using Portable Pix Maps
Create colorful images using the Portable Pix Map format.
Grayscale images with Portable Gray Maps
Learn to write grayscale images using the Portable Gray Map format.
Write tiny images using PBM
The Portable Bit Map (“PBM”) image file format was invented in the 1980s as a way to transmit small black and white images as plain...
Get started with FreeDOS 1.4
A lot has happened in DOS since FreeDOS 1.3. Here’s what to expect in FreeDOS 1.4, available now.
Moving from Windows 10 to Linux
Instead of purchasing a new computer just to run a new version of Windows, consider installing Linux.
Connect to a Windows drive from Linux
Here’s how I connected my Linux system to a Windows AD fileshare.
Reading a whole file at once
Two methods to load a data file into memory. Use mmap on Linux sysetms.
Old-school programming with Turbo C
Explore retroprogramming on FreeDOS with this popular freeware IDE.