RNMcLean
Tutorials
| Title | Score |
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Software reviews
| Software | Score |
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| gsmartcontrol "Just installed (GNU/Linux Mint 21) and it runs and displays information without difficulty. Lots of information about which I know little, so I won't be messing about. It does indicate that "SMART" is "enabled", which is what I wanted to know. But what's this "Offline Dasta Collection" enabled for my spinning rust? The more information I obtain, the more I need to find." |
3 |
| meld "The "diff" command drives me bats, compared to the ease of interpreting successful comparisons such as in the supplied example as above. But the GIU interface to Meld (or, meld?) was an obstacle too. The options to select a File or Directory comparison are clear, but I couldn't see how to specify the second file. The frst file was specified in a dialogue box directly below the "File comparison" box that had been selected, but, what of the second file? There is another dialogue box but it is directly below the box for "Directory comparison", which I am not using and so surely is not relevant? Um. But it turns out that this IS the place to specify the second file, and, if a third file is to be specified, its dialogue box is directly below the third option box (to activate "Version control view"). So, a different layout (say, shrinking the non-selected options, or, putting the three under the selected option) would have assisted the easily-befuddled such as me. And why not call the command "compare"? Ah, that is spoken for to compare images. An obviously more common activity." |
4 |
| io.freetubeapp.FreeTube "As per Cross_Dresser_Mary, "Flatpak" does seem better named "Bloatpak" thanks to the protocol including all manner of support software along with the desired item. I'm not at all expert with GNU/Linux Mint, but via https://computingforgeeks.com/how-to-install-and-use-freetube-on-linux-macos/?expand_article=1 I find for "Ubuntu/Debian" (from which "Mint" is derived) the instructions: export VER="0.19.1" ^^^ wget https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/releases/download/v${VER}-beta/FreeTube_${VER}_amd64.deb ^^^ sudo apt install -f ./FreeTube_${VER}_amd64.deb ^^^ where I have introduced ^^^ to mark line splits. Enter these lines one-by-one into a command-line window, and just 65MB will be downloaded instead of 1,000MB. (As I am on what amounts to a metered internet connection, this makes quite a difference) This results in a "FreeTube" icon in the start menu, and the prog. starts - I have yet to test further. To ascertain the latest version number codes, check https://freetubeapp.io/ for the Download FreeTube Release statement." |
3 |
| deja-dup " On the first run (via "Launch") the default destination is "Google Drive", as mentioned by other reviewers, but the other options are "Network Server" and "Local Folder", which last is my choice. The default folder is in your "Home" folder, which means that the backups are on the same (SSD) device as the files being backed-up, which won't be much use if the SSD falters. My choice was to /dev/sdb2, the second partition on spinning rust, set up for this purpose and called LinuxStash. Except, it was not there to be seen. Which was odd, because TimeShift has been using it for months, and has stashed some five milion items! (The GNU/Linux Mint system contains about two million files). Some confusion folows with the "mount" command, then via the Start menu > Disks and the cogwheel icon, I find that I can "Edit Mount Options" and after some more confusion ("Show in user interface"), LinuxStash is shown as an icon on the desktop and is available for selection via "Choose Folder", and the initial backup starts running. Then freezes. It seems that LinuxStash is read-only despite ls -l /dev/sdb2 showing the same rw gibberish as for the other storage options. Ah, the "Disks" > cogwheels offers "Take Ownership" and now the first backup run ploughs ahead. Rather too many files are fingered, so aside from excluding Trash, I add to the "Ignore" list ~/Downloads, ~/Dropbox (about 4GB for me and Dropbox is looking after its copies; later I add ~/.dropbox-dist and ~/.dropbox as Dropbox messes with them itself), ~/.googleearth/Cache (which content Google Earth occasionally declares obsolete so keeping old versions isn't much use) and ~/.mozilla as there's not much point in purging information on visited webpages if the cache is being backed-up, though I can't see how to separate that from any saved bookmark list or whatever. Trials were more confusing due to options being remembered somehow even if there had been a Remove followed by a re-Install via the Software Manager, and the "Launch" option goes straight to starting a first backup as options had been retained and could not now be modified. Calling the system Déjà Dup is cute, and problems caused by spaces in a file name are avoided by the actual name installed being deja-dup (and no capital D neither) as might be invoked from the command line. (This was ascertained via the System Monitor > Processes) Via the Start menu, no such name appears, because the new entry is called ... Backups. I don't enjoy this. There is no name Restore; instead, one invokes Backups and then selects Restore. The Restore process for each backed-up item offers a selection of dates, for every backup run (in my case, daily), even if the file had not been changed between backup runs. I'd prefer such "ghost" copies to appear in grey, with black reserved for those backups that have differences. This might help when trying to recover from a mess... After the first backup, subsequent runs go quite swiftly, though I can't find how the daily runs are initiated. It is not via Start > Startup Applcations - but, I'm not that familiar with GNU/Linux. I just want backups to be available, and this seems to be working..." |
4 |
| chatty "Installed and activated without any difficulty, and thus enabled an advance against another problem. I'm using a desktop computer that occasionally is connected to the internet via a USB device that offers "Mobile Broadband" via the cellphone system at up to 2M bits/sec occasionally but more often around 100K b/s if I'm lucky and slower still with pauses too. So not very broadband. However, it is much cheaper than a fixed fibre-optic connection, and I watch movies on the big silver screen, thanks. The device was supplied by Vodafone some years back, and the account could be managed via its webpage. Then the webpages were redesigned. Recently, Vodafone New Zealand became "One" and there was a new design. The account could be managed via an "app" on the cellphone, except, this is not a cellphone, damnit! A website is offered as a fallback, but to use it, a security code is sent via a txt message to the cellphone, and THIS IS NOT A CELLPHONE, DAMNIT!! so I couldn't see the five-digit number and so couldn't enter it and so couldn't access the account details via the website. (This is a dual-boot system, and on the windows side, I could receive the SMS message thanks to the original Vodafone software, but, the web page wouldn't work!) But now, enter chatty! The SMS ws received, the number was shown, I entered the number to the webpage, and behold, the account was shown by the webpage. So, thanks to chatty." |
4 |
| io.github.cboxdoerfer.FSearch "The rather large flatpak process can be avoided by the procedure outlined on https://github.com/cboxdoerfer/fsearch/wiki/Snap-is-no-longer-officially-supported requiring some 262KB On first activation you will need to indicate the starting point; in my case /home/nicky seemed to be what I might want. Other filespace locations can be added or removed from the scope. By looking in /usr/share/applications an entry for fshare can be copied to the desktop, and poking it with the rodent will activate the window for fsearch - wherein you can initiate a search and mess with the options..." |
3 |
| google-earth-pro-stable "Amazing imagery! (Though, longitude zero does not pass htrough George Airy's telescope at Greenwich, and there can be tears in the image near the poles, and image registration can be a hundred yards off - compare images of the same place at different times) Installation on Mint 21 went fine, but, as with Mint 20.1, the software update process is damaged) and the followng appears: GPG error: http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb stable InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 4EB27DB2A3B88B8BThe repository 'http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb stable InRelease' is not signed. Via the advice of Prsman below, that complaint vanishes while "W: http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/dists/stable/InRelease: Key is stored in legacy trusted.gpg keyring (/etc/apt/trusted.gpg), see the DEPRECATION section in apt-key(8) for details." appears. However, the update manager will now proceed to update Google Earth." |
5 |
| octave "Installation was like one-hand-clapping. Things happened, but, no link to activate Octave was to be seen. From the command line, octave was recognised and a command-line interface appeared. By looking in /usr/share/applications an entry called GNU Octave (with nice icon) could be found, and copying that to the desktop gave a suitable target for a rodent poke to activate Octave's command line, this time opening a graphical style window. The download was about 80MB, but a previous installation via "flatpak" required ~600MB as I recall so that's to be avoided. Starting Octave from that installation was much slower than with the current installation via the software manager. Once figured out. I use Octave to plot data, and good plots result. Text manipulation is maddening, and simple variables being 1x1 matrices is strange. More frustrating is that what should be a one-dimensional array (a "vector") of length N sometimes manifests as 1xN and sometimes as Nx1." |
3 |
| dropbox "The good: updates files with data compression, and only transfers those 4MB blocks that have been changed. Less good: chooses to update itself (~100MB a go) and won't be discouraged. Just now, installation on Mint 21 has been difficult. Via the Software Manager entry, three times the download attained ~90% and then the cpus went busy while memory and swap space was filled steadily until linux killed the process. Separately installing the requested puthon3-gpg stopped the complaint about being unable to verify the package, but, still a crash. Via https://www.dropbox.com/install were two commands for a "headless install" via the command line, and, this worked (yet another download), leading to a sign-in request through Firefox, and all was well thereafter." |
3 |