Don A week ago, I met Gary at the local library; who was having trouble with his aging Dell laptop that he had purchased from a refurbisher. Troubleshooting revealed that the laptop was fine but needed an operating system. Gary chose to let me install Linux Mint Cinnamon on his computer. A few days ago Gary … Read more
Men truly grasp their masculinity once a daughter enters their lives. My journey towards complete maturity initiated precisely thirty-six years ago today with the arrival of our daughter, Dara Maria. Until that moment, our son had occupied the core of our existence. His birth, a wondrous occurrence, had reshaped our lives, altering my perception … Read more
An urgent plea for assistance reached me from our local library director concerning a patron grappling with an unresponsive Dell laptop. Upon arriving at the library, I encountered the early-morning visitor facing this issue. Activating the laptop, it became evident that it refused to boot, displaying no prompts to access the startup disk via F1 … Read more
In the previous year, I acquired a Hewlett-Packard DevOne to replace an Intel NUC 10, which had been serving as my primary workstation. I set up the DevOne with a docking solution detailed in an article I wrote last year, aiming to replace both the NUC and an older Darter Pro I had been using. … Read more
In the world of Linux, where power and flexibility reign supreme, one of the most valuable tools at a user’s disposal is the command line utility ‘inxi.’ This versatile tool allows users to gather detailed system information concisely and organized, making it an indispensable aid for troubleshooting, hardware identification, and overall system assessment. The ‘inxi’ … Read more
I have owned several MacBooks and purchased one for my wife a few years ago. She’s not a power user, mainly utilizing it for shopping, email, and discovery. As it approaches the end of its life, each new OS upgrade renders it less usable. Although my wife has never used a Linux computer, transitioning might … Read more
Turtle graphics, a popular approach to introducing young learners to programming, traces its roots back to the original Logo programming language. Logo, an educational programming language designed by Seymour Papert and others in 1967, played a significant role in the development of this technique. My personal journey with Logo began during my time as a … Read more
In 1995, an email from my brother introduced me to Linux. Although I had heard of a high school student using Linux to build a web server, my knowledge was limited. Intrigued by my brother’s recommendation, I purchased a copy of Red Hat 5.0 from a nearby computer store. However, my initial attempt to explore … Read more
Everyone deserves an equal opportunity for a good education. But, we all know that some folks have monetary constraints that make those educational opportunities less likely to occur. I taught in a school district with a high percentage of rural poverty and our students did not have access to the opportunities that their urban and … Read more
Open source software is developed and distributed under a license that gives users the right to use, modify, and redistribute the software. When you purchase proprietary software, you don’t own it. In many cases, proprietary software is effectively leased to you for a set period. Many companies force their customers to upgrade to newer versions … Read more
