When Keyboards Ruled the Earth Unix—the spiritual predecessor of Linux—predates graphical user interfaces. The keyboard was the only game in town, so it was typing all the way. No surprise then, that functionality was soon introduced for the benefit of the computer operators of yesteryear. Features such as the history command and aliases started to appear in Unix shells. Their purpose was to increase productivity by reducing repetition and removing the need to remember obscure sequences of commands....

We, like many Linux geeks, have had some trouble making the transition to Grub2, or for some of us, learning how to configure it from scratch. Fortunately, a new graphical tool has made this process easy and straightforward! Photo by e_monk. Installing Grub Customizer The tool in question is called Grub Customizer, created by Daniel Richter. He’s provided a PPA to make installing the tool quick and easy. Open a terminal window (Ctrl+Alt+T or Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and type in the following commands....

The Windows Event Logs are a tremendous resource as they can not only help you troubleshoot current system issues, but can also provide you with warning signs of potential future problems. So keeping on top of the events your system records can be key to keeping your system running as it should. Unfortunately, sifting through the Event Logs or creating custom views can be a cumbersome manual process. Thankfully, we have a solution which will easily allow you to export and filter Windows Event Log entries and then have them emailed and/or saved to a text file....

When you wake your Nintendo Switch from sleep mode, you have to go through a slightly tiresome lock screen. First, you have to press A to unlock the lock screen, then press any button three times to really unlock the console. The lock screen doesn’t use a password or PIN, so there’s no security involved. It’s just an extra step, presumably to prevent the console from turning on in your bag....

You can now download all of the pictures you’ve ever uploaded to Instagram, as well as all your comments and likes. Having a local copy of your photos is a good thing no matter what, but this is also useful for anyone who might be shutting down their Instagram account. The process is simple: just head to this page using a desktop browser and follow the prompts. Instagram says the process may take 48 hours to complete, but it seems to take more like a few minutes in our tests....

Podman is an OCI-compliant containerization platform that’s often used instead of Docker. Its daemonless model and extensive featureset makes it a good contender for use in development and production alike. In this article we’ll show how to use Podman’s auto-update system to restart your containers when new images are released. Podman can be configured periodically check for updates, pull the latest image, and recreate affected containers using their current settings....

Wireless network settings in Windows 7 are global across all users, but there’s a little-known option that lets you switch them to per-user, so each user has access to only the networks they are allowed to connect to. Here’s how it all works. How is this useful? Maybe you want to prevent a particular user from accessing the internet—if you don’t give them the wireless password, they won’t be able to get online....

To do the task, you don’t have to root your phone or use a third-party app. Simply tap an option in your phone’s Settings app, and you’ll see the password for each saved network. Note that you’ll have to authorize yourself using your fingerprint or PIN to reveal the saved passwords. RELATED: What to Do When You Forget Your Wi-Fi Password View Saved Wi-Fi Passwords on Android To begin revealing your saved passwords, launch Settings on your Android phone....

What is a UUID? A UUID is a string of letters and digits that forms a unique pattern. Your Mac, iPhone, and iPad each have one UUID, and no other device shares it. It’s similar to a serial number in that regard, but whereas serial numbers are used to identify your device by Apple and your cellular carrier, developers usually use the UUID instead. Normally, you wouldn’t need to know (or access) your UUID....

Do you get a “Network discovery is turned off” error when trying to browse your network on your Windows PC? If so, you’ll need to start Network Discovery’s dependency services, allow the feature into your firewall, and enable it. We’ll walk you through the process below. Step 1: Turn On Network Discovery’s Dependency Services A common reason why you can’t use Network Discovery is that the feature’s dependency services aren’t running....

Both the Start button and classic Start menu are gone in Windows 8. If you don’t like the full-screen, Metro-style “Start screen,” there are a few ways to get a classic-style Start menu back. RELATED: Bring The Windows 7 Start Menu to Windows 10 with Classic Shell Note: You can get the Windows 7 style Start Menu back on Windows 10 easily. In the Developer Preview of Windows 8, you could remove Metro by deleting the shsxs....

grep is a Linux tool usually used for searching text files for specific content. However, it’s often useful to search directories for file names instead of file contents, and this can be done with grep and other Linux command line utilities Using find Instead of grep The grep utility essentially takes string input from files or standard input and uses patterns or Regex to search through it and print matching lines....

The Google Play Store is, by far, the largest app store available to those who use Android. It’s also the safest place to download apps and games. However, if your device doesn’t have the Play Store, or you’re just interested in alternatives, below are some other options: Installing any of these app stores on your device is quite simple. The process is called “sideloading,” and we’ll walk you through it....

If you’re no longer interested in being part of a Discord server, you can leave the server to stop further engaging with it. We’ll show you how to do this in Discord on desktop, web, and mobile. In your server list, select the server you want to leave. Next to the server name, tap the three-dot button (mobile) or down arrow icon (desktop). In the options that appear, select “Leave Server....

The Windows 8 desktop looks just like Windows 7, with one exception — no Start button. Losing the Start button isn’t the end of the world — Windows 8 exposes all the familiar options in different ways. The Metro-style Start screen is your new Start menu. The Start screen has absorbed many of the features of the old Start menu, so it’s useful even if you never want to use a Metro-style app....

Apple changed the video calling game with FaceTime, and while there may be plenty of competition around, if you’re in the Apple ecosystem FaceTime is where it’s at. It’s pre-installed on all devices, so if someone has a Mac or iOS device, they have FaceTime, too. That ubiquity is what makes FaceTime so great because nobody has to wonder whether the person they are calling has any particular app installed or not....

Windows 8 opens many types of files in the Windows 8 interface formerly known as Metro by default. If you’re at the desktop and double-click many types of media files, you’ll see a full-screen media viewer. You can easily prevent these media files from opening in the full-screen Windows 8 apps when you double-click them. All you have to do is change your default programs. Set Desktop Applications As Your Default Programs You can change these settings from the Default Programs window....

Have you ever connected your Laptop to a wired network point in your house and continued to get wireless network speeds ? Here’s how you can quickly fix that, the easy way. Giving Your Wired Connection Higher Priority Press the Win + R keyboard combination and type ncpa.cpl into the run box, then hit enter. When the Network Connections window opens you will need to hit the alt key to display the classic menu bar....

Many applications download external dependencies during their build routines. Using those downloads as-is can be dangerous. How do you know the file on the server hasn’t been replaced with a malicious version? This command illustrates the simplest of supply chain attacks. Piping an install script into your shell is convenient but risky. If example.com has been compromised, you’ve just given an attacker unfettered access to your system. File Checksums You can mitigate the dangers of this approach by checking if the downloaded file matches a known checksum....

JPG distortion, tiling, and artifacts can ruin an otherwise great image. While no technique can truly restore and image, here’s a How-to Geek tip on how to remove and repair JPG distortion and artifacts in a few easy steps. Nothing shy of a miracle can recover the image data lost when an image is saved in a lossy format like JPG. But with some clever trickery and a little bit of Photoshop magic, you can fix the worst parts of your image and get a better result in almost no time at all....