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How to Crop Videos
9.8.2019
During a recent episode of the Script and Style podcast, I had noticed that the video recording had showed a bit of our internal chat that wasn’t necessary for our viewers to see. While there’s nothing wrong with giving viewers a peek into the show preparation, presenting the best...
Oil Giant Shell Invests in Startup That Uses Blockchain Tech for Energy Tracking
11.7.2019
A blockchain startup that says it's working to give energy consumers more choice has raised an undisclosed sum from Shell and Sumitomo Group
Fix Touch Bar Volume Buttons
30.6.2019
The touch bar on MacBooks has been a source of controversy since the beginning. Many mourned the loss of the escape key, while others refused to buy a new laptop to avoid the touch bar completely. I’ve not had many issues with the touch bar but mostly because I don’t really use it. One necessary...
Checkout the Last Public Revision with Mercurial
19.6.2019
I’ve always preferred git over Mercurial (hg) because the feature branch workflow makes organizing code and working off of master very easy. You don’t get that with vanilla mercurial — instead, commits can just sort of apply on top of each other, without much organization....
Convert Video to Grayscale
24.4.2019
I’m a JavaScript fanatic but I’ve always been fascinated with media manipulation. Maybe it’s because I’ve secretly always wanted to be a designer, but I’m fine with being able to manipulate art with software instead of create the art myself. One type of art I’ve...
Open FaceTime Call from Command Line
11.4.2019
Communication tools are always associated with UIs, and for good reason — if you want communication to be easy and intuitive, you need easy and intuitive interfaces. We need communication tools to provide the lowest barrier of entry, since not all users will be tech savvy. For tech experts...
How to Reverse a Video
9.4.2019
One of my favorite media utilities is ffmpeg. This command line utility allows us to do some pretty amazing stuff like; Slice videos Convert video formats Modify video speed Combine audio and video Every once in a while I see a meme or funny video that reverses a video for effect. Since ffmpeg does...
Set Branch Alias with Git
28.3.2019
Version control systems can be difficult to use, especially when you don’t use a UI app. Just think about main branch or revision names: svn uses “trunk”, git uses “master”, and mercurial (hg) uses “tip”. I need to switch between mercurial and...
Set Commit Author with git or hg
24.3.2019
Knowing who authored a code patch is a sacred and important practice in the world of software engineering. Knowing the author gives the reviewer an idea of trust level, know who to ask questions about the patch, and gives credit to the genius of an important fix. There have been times when...
How to Set Commit Author
13.3.2019
I’ve worn dozens of hats on a dozen different teams during my time at Mozilla, but none has been as rewarding and challenging as community management. Whether it’s mentoring students, welcoming new contributors, or reviewing pull requests, there’s always so much to be done....
Get File MIME Type from Command Line
28.2.2019
I’ve gotten skilled at shell scripting over the years. I love a good GUI but knowing how to automate makes you a much more powerful engineer. Much of my scripting requires recursing over directories and processing a file if it meets a given criteria, which is often file extension or MIME...
List USB Devices from Command Line
27.2.2019
I was recently creating a Recalbox with my 5 year old son and it was an awesome experience; I saw the excitement and curiosity in his eyes while helping him put together a video game machine. We added NES, SNES, and Nintendo 64 games to the device but it became apparent that the N64 controller...
Set Desktop Wallpaper from Command Line on Mac
31.1.2019
Whenever I need to accomplish a basic task that typically calls for interacting with a UI, I challenge myself to complete the task from command line. After all, most UIs are simply a mask over basic commands, especially when it comes to the operating system. Suddenly I feel like an automation...
Mac Dark Mode from Command Line
30.1.2019
One of the best professional decisions I ever made was switching to a dark text editor theme. I suffered from horrible headaches for years, partially caused by late night coding sessions with blindingly bright computer screens. Recently Apple implemented a dark OS theme which helps my eyes,...
How to Change Animated GIF Speed
29.1.2019
Comedians would tell you that timing is the most important part of any joke. The same could be said about animated GIFs; whether they’re used as a meme or to illustrate a process, the speed of an animated GIF can effect its effectiveness. With that idea in mind, I set about trying to figure...
How to Send an iMessage From Command Line
30.12.2018
As somewhat of a recluse, believe me when I say that text messages, instant messenger, and iMessage have relieved me of loads of anxiety and wasted time with short, meaningless voice chat. It’s been a decade since these communication types have become popular so we’ve moved on from...
Replace Last Command in Shell
26.11.2018
Whether I fat-finger a command or my MacBook Pro keyboard’s keys don’t want to respond like they should, I’m frequently misspelling commands. What’s more frustrating is that many of these commands are long, taking making fixing theme time-consuming. Luckily a Twitter...
Download a YouTube Channel’s Videos
7.11.2018
YouTube is an endless source of entertainment, be it stuff you’re proud to share you like or stuff you would rather others not know about (see: David’s history of watching old WWE Royal Rumbles). I watch a lot of YouTube in hotels and on flights when I don’t have internet access...
Turn Bluetooth On and Off from Command Line on macOS
6.11.2018
Bluetooth has been a revelation in wireless technology: wireless mice, headphones, streaming devices, and a variety of home and office environments. It goes without saying that wireless peripherals are so much easier to manage than wired counterparts, especially mice, that I usually have...
Mercurial: Mass Add and Remove All Files
29.10.2018
While I much prefer git and the GitHub workflow, Firefox’s codebase (mozilla-central) is store in a mercurial repository. There are tools that wrap mercurial so you can use a git-like interface, like git-cinnabar, but my philosophy is to learn the root tool so that I know what’s going...