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Gzip v Zip: Determing Which Type Of Archive

Sometimes it is different to easily tell which type of zipped archive you are dealing with because the zipped archive has an incorrect extension or no extension at all. Here is how to tell which you are dealing with: Zip file header: $ od -h zipped-file |head 0000000 8b1f … Gzip file header: $ od -h zipped-file |head 0000000 4b50 0403 …  

Dual Menus for a GNOME Shell 3.2 Button

This post demonstrates how to create a button on the top panel of the GNOME 3.2 Shell which displays a different menu depending on whether the left or right mouse button is clicked.

Software Craftsman Training

A new academy has just opened in North Carolina which adheres to the tenants of the emerging software craftsmanship movement, a movement that bears more resemblance to building trade school programs than to any academic computer science program. Members of the movement strongly believe that creating software is a craft, and that the best way to learn that craft is through total immersion. The RoleModel Software Craftsmanship Academy is the first of its kind in the USA. According to the website: The focused program will take 8 promising individuals through six months of intense, on-site training from May 14 through

Free Software Customers can be High Maintenance

In a recent blog, Tyler Nichols recounts his experience with his freemium Letter from Santa website. Over 120,000 unique visitors created 50,000 plus free letters to kids. Paying customers received a higher resolution letter, a personalized envelope, and a door hanger. Nichols found free customers were higher maintenance and more demanding than the paying customers. A small number of paying customers asked questions while hundreds of free ones did. And when following up with a email, paying customers never flagged his emails as spam, while many free customers did and actually complained. His experience reflects my own experience with giving

Changing the Activities Button in GNOME Shell 3.2

This post describes a number of ways to modify the GNOME 3.2 Shell Activities Button by means of a GNOME Shell extension. Four working examples are provided.