Photos: format your camera rather than deleting individual images - computer systems and deleting directory pointers vs memory chunks

Let’s pretend for a moment that your memory card has a shelf-life of 1,000 uses. Let’s say that you go out and take 500 photos, that’s 500 uses on your memory card. You then upload the photos to your computer, and then individually delete each photo using the delete button on your camera. Deleting each photo individually counts as another 500 uses on your card. So in all, you’ve just spent 1,000 uses of your memory card, leaving you with no uses left on that card. Now, let’s pretend that you’ve uploaded your 500 photos, but instead of deleting them with your delete button, you use your camera’s Format function. Formatting works in a different way than deleting, and only deletes the directory files rather than the images themselves. This then allows the images to be overwritten the next time you take a picture. Because of this, formatting only counts as ONE use of your memory card, regardless of how many photos you’re deleting. So, in the scenario above, you’d have used only 501 of your memory card’s uses, as opposed to 1,000 with deleting manually. Certainly, memory cards available today will be able to handle far more than 1,000 uses, but the illustration still rings true – formatting your card causes less wear and tear on your memory card than other ways of deleting images. Additionally, because formatting only deletes the directory file instead of the images themselves, images on a card that has been formatted are typically much easier to recover (if needed) than those that are deleted manually, assuming that you did not overwrite them by taking more photos. Not a bad trick to have up your sleeve in case of emergencies, am I right?


source: http://digital-photography-school.com/the-best-way-to-delete-photos-from-your-memory-card/

Powerpoint: simultaneously play two videos automatically

Setting video to play "Automatically" in the ribbon sets the videos to play "After previous" by default( ie one after the other.)
Open the Animation pane from ANIMATION tab and set both to "With previous" see if that helps.

source: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-powerpoint/powerpoint-how-can-i-automatically-play-two-video/eb19132f-2f49-48ae-94f6-59c1be8460b2?auth=1

Store Git Credentials

git config credential.helper 'store [options]'

source: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-credential-store

Surface Pro 3 KeyBoard Function Key Toggle

Fn + CapsLock

source: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro3-surfhardware/surface-pro-3-keyboard-function-keys-not-working/3a16eadc-b698-4845-be26-54f6530ab7da

Missing Disk Options When Installing OS X

diagnosis: hard drive crash, and removed partition.

Select the hard drive in Disk Utility on the left; on the right, select the Partiton tab; under Partition Layout, if the box is all gray (meaning there is no partition), then press the + button at the bottom; then hit Apply.

source: http://www.mac-forums.com/os-x-operating-system/283624-disk-options-installing-os.html

Check Device Serial Port on Mac

You can find your Arduino via Terminal with

 ls /dev/tty.*

then you can read that serial port using the screen command, like this

screen /dev/tty.[yourSerialPortName] [yourBaudRate]

for example:

screen /dev/tty.usbserial-A6004byf 9600

source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12254378/how-to-find-the-serial-port-number-on-mac-os-x

Free a Busy TTY Device

From terminal, run:

lsof | grep usbserial

If the port is in use, you will get a response like this (otherwise it will return nothing):

screen    27127 Sefi    5u     CHR               18,0        0t0       605 /dev/tty.usbserial

Note the session number. In my case, it's 27127. Then run:

screen -x 27127 (obviously use your session number from the grep)

It will return you to your previous screen session. Then use ctr-A ctr-\ to close it properly (will ask you to confirm).

source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6078814?tstart=0

Removing Gaps from TIKZ in LaTeX

Removing gaps from TIKZ in LaTeX:

the anchor=north causes that. Try node[coordinate](z){} instead should fill the gap

source: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/175969/block-diagrams-using-tikz

Disable Leap Motion App on Startup

You will find a line item

com.leapmotion.Leap-Motion.plist

Library/LaunchAgents

Just rename from .plist to .bak - incase you would like to auto startup again.

I believe Leap Motion chose to use LaunchAgent rather than 'Login Items' is because they couldn't get it to startup all the time.

source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5295534

Stalled Spotlight Search on Mac

You can try to temporarily disable Spotlight, removing its files and then reenabling it.

See source for in-depth explanation.

source: http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/1082

Google Chrome Helper Process

The quick story is that Google Chrome Helper isn’t really the problem. It tends to go on the rampage when there’s a rogue extension or when Google Chrome’s plug-in settings are configured to run everything by default. There’s a long list of the plug-ins supported by Chrome here, but most users in the Help Center forums seem to run into trouble when it’s working with Flash content.

Disabling Helper’s auto-helping is easy, and it won’t prevent you from using plug-ins. You’ll just have to opt in to view plug-in content on a case-by-case basis. Deactivating it isn’t entirely intuitive, though—there’s no mention of the Helper outside of your Activity Monitor and forum complaints. You’ll have to dig a couple of levels deep into your Chrome settings. First, shut down all your Chrome windows without quitting the program. In the Chrome menu, go to “Preferences,” scroll all the way down in the menu, and click on “Show advanced settings…” The first item in the expanded advanced settings list will be “Privacy,” and click on the “Content Settings” button right under that. About halfway down the content settings list is a “Plug-ins” entry, which will likely be set to “Run automatically.” Instead, select “Click to play.” This is essentially the same thing as configuring email to load images only when you click a “load images” link. Any embedded Flash, Java, Quicktime, DivX, or Silverlight content on a webpage will appear as a grayed-out space until you click on it to load the player and the content.

source: http://www.wired.com/2014/10/google-chrome-helper/

Task View in Windows 10

windows + tab to open task view

Surface Pro 3 Hotkeys

Screen brightness:
Fn+Backspace = dimmer.
Fn+Backspace = brighter.

source: http://www.lovemysurface.net/surface-pro-3-screen-brightness/

Closing a window:
Fn+Alt+F4

source: https://pricklytech.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/surface-pro-3-quick-tip-alt-f4-does-not-work/

Fantastic Tutorial on Setting Up Github Pages and Jekyll Layouts

Really good tutorial on setting up a github.io website, using Jekyll for templates/layouts (built into Github webpages already, so no additional installation), and markdown.

source: http://jmcglone.com/guides/github-pages/

Git: deleting remote file but not local

git rm --cached [file]

Modifying Pixel Dimensions in Mac Preview

While using selection, the pixel size highlighted is shown, so before cropping you can check if you have the right size.

Redirecting Web Pages

HTML:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; URL='http://new-website.com'" />

source & other methods: https://css-tricks.com/redirect-web-page/

View PDF Side-By-Side in TexMaker

In preferences, select "Built-In Viewer".


source: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/36100/texmaker-source-editor-and-embedded-pdf-viewer-on-same-window

Minimize/Maximize Window Keyboard Shortcut in Ubuntu

ctrl super up
ctrl super down

super is the Windows button.




source: http://superuser.com/questions/607637/minimize-maximize-current-window-keyboard-shortcut

Latex Text Gets Cut Off By Page

Modify value here to match your margins:

\setlength{\textheight}{10.25in}

Quarter Increment Volume on Mac

option + shift + increase/decrease

source: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20130309231013323

Popcorn Chicken @ Panda Boba, SF

Obama in SF

Git: Rename Branch for Both Local and Remote Repositories

git branch -m old_branch new_branch         # Rename branch locally
git push origin :old_branch                 # Delete the old branch
git push --set-upstream origin new_branch   # Push the new branch, set local branch to track the new remote

source:  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1526794/rename-master-branch-for-both-local-and-remote-git-repositories?answertab=votes#tab-top

Git: Completely Undo Previous Commit

git reset --hard HEAD~1

    (F)
A-B-C
    ↑
  master

becomes:

 (F)
A-B
  ↑
master

source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/927358/how-to-undo-the-last-commit