Installing Dual-boot Linux on Asus Chromebook Flip C302

[YO! In case you didn’t know, installing a new OS on any computer is always risky. You are likely to lose all your data, brick your Flip, and suffer grievous injury if you follow the steps below.]

I’ve been a big fan of the Flip line of Chromebooks from Asus. It started with the absolutely fun 10.1″, which was a goddess-send on cramped flights (hello, Spirit?). I moved on to the C301, a plasticky thing that was all standard Chromebook and not as much fun. But once I saw the almost identically named C302. an all-aluminum unibody beauty, I knew I needed one.

SSL Certificates with Let's Encrypt

You probably noticed a microscopic difference when accessing the site: suddenly, when you type in mrgazz.com, you get redirected to the secure site, <>. Why, and how?

First the why: Google announced it was going to prioritize search results according to the security of the site. That makes a lot of sense: “secure” sites have a modicum of respectability and require extra work compared to plain HTTP sites. You have to set up a secure server, which means you have to do more than simply point a DNS name to an IP address.

Creating Pebble Apps: A Guide for the Novice (Like Me)

Great News! The intro I had written about smartwatches in general and why the Pebble is better than others is gone! Now more Pebble App Development tips!

Developing for Pebble is fun! No, really! It’s complicated, but it’s fun. It has lots of moving parts, but it’s fun!

I am going to skip the part where I tell you why you should develop for Pebble. Because it’s fun! And that’s all anyone needs to know, really.

Automate Instant Messages with Pidgin and DBus

Despite being an overall fan of KDE, I always preferred the Gnome version of the Instant Messenger, Pidgin. It is really designed for ease of use, it is extensible with incredibly useful plugins, and is available on a ton of platforms. Also, it can be easily configured and you can synchronize the configuration files with no issues, even using OwnCloud or Dropbox.

No surprise then that I would use Pidgin to automate all sorts of tasks. I will send myself a message so I get notified on all my phones, using whatever mechanism I want to use. Pidgin comes with a plethora of protocol plugins. If you need something that isn’t on the list, you can also look for third-party plugins. And you can, of course, write your own. I am doing that as a side project to include small social networking sites that only use a web interface.

Turning a Fixed Width Site to Variable Width Using Web Technology

I love my Y50. The 4k screen resolution gives me both a chance to see a lot more on a single page and much better and crisper text if I want to see it normal size. The only downside? Software that assumes pixel sizes.

It doesn’t really matter what I am looking at: anything that comes with predefined pixels turns into a microscopic smudge. It’s completely impossible to realize what the buttons do in the Gimp, for instance. Checkboxes are so small, it’s virtually impossible to tell whether they are checked or not.

Speedtesting Your ISP, Command Line Version

I currently pay an obscene $66 for 25 MBit/sec Internet. On top of that, I had to pay a mandatory $99 equipment fee for an enormous modem, and another $99 fee for mandatory installation.

Just as I was done with my first year promotional price and things “reverted” to the “regular” price of $66, I received a message. I had been underbilled, apparently, but I was lucky and they were not going to backcharge me. But from now on, I had to pay the “regular” price of $74.50.

Emergency Update

In case you were on here yesterday, for a brief period (a very long hour for me) the site was down. What happened? A confluence of things:

• The main hard drive filled up with an ever-expanding collection of source code
• I split said source code onto several machines, requiring a re-installation of the SCC software
• I ended up with repositories incompatible with the old version of the SCCS
• So I had to update the operating system
• Which updated everything, making my configuration files pretty much unusable

Here is the skinny.

Setting Up Kubuntu on a Lenovo Y50 - Data Immortality Edition

I am the lucky owner of a brand new Lenovo Y50. It’s a screaming fast machine, with a gorgeous screen (despite what naysayers complain about – mostly the yellows and the refresh rate). It’s meant for gamers, but a developer like me can like it, too. It’s just beautiful, and relatively lightweight, and did I mention it’s screaming fast?

But the big question was: How Do I Set It Up Most Efficiently?

HOWTO: Redundant Data Backup in the Cloud for Linux

After the previous article explaining the principles behind this form of “safe” cloud backup, here a step-by-step tutorial on how to make it work. The software used and the commands issued are all for Ubuntu, but you should be able to translate them into any modern Linux variant. On the other hand, much of the infrastructure required works only on Linux.

1. Prerequisites

Aside from the obvious (a modern version of Linux), you will need a series of tools that don’t come installed standard. First the actual commands, then an explanation:

PRIMER: Redundant Data Backup in the Cloud for Linux

Here is my problem: when I travel, I want to have access to my most important documents (like my passport, or my drivers license, or the airline tickets, or a bunch of other things). I want to have access to those documents particularly if I lose my computer and the originals. Imagine I am in Fiji on a surf trip (I wish!) and my everything gets stolen while i conquer Cloudbreak. I come out, have nothing, and have nothing to prove that I once had something.