Setup OpenWRT on Raspberry Pi 3 B+ to avoid data trackers

Posted on Fri 18 September 2020 in security, IT, open source

I am definitely not an expert in networking, so take all of this with some salt. Still, I found it valuable to have my home internet powered by open source software as much as possible, rather than some shitty closed black-box provided by my ISP.

There are already lots of …

A setup for remote piano lesson over Zoom

Posted on Sun 24 May 2020 in tips, IT

First create a new sink:

pactl load-module module-null-sink sink_name=zoom_input sink_properties=device.description=zoom_input

then remap into a Zoom monitor source that Zoom will allow selection of:

pactl load-module module-remap-source master=zoom_input.monitor source_name=zoom_mic source_properties=device.description="zoom_mic"

Then create as many new virtual sources as microphones you need …

Install Windows 7 on a modern, Intel 8th generation computer

Posted on Sun 11 August 2019 in windows, IT

I spent a good week trying to get Windows 7 to work on a modern laptop, having an Intel i3 8th generation CPU and other recent components, such as a NVMe SSD. What I did not know in the first place, is that officially, Windows 7 does not support Intel …

Tasks un-owned are task that go forgotten

Posted on Sat 11 August 2018 in meta, IT

If you are a tech company, and your people commit code, then you probably have some code review policy. And if you do not, you definitely should: you want to have an extra pair of eyes on the code that goes live. You certainly do not want a mistake to …

Numpy histogram density does not sum to 1

Posted on Mon 19 March 2018 in python, IT

During a Computational Vision lab, while comparing histograms, I stumbled upon a peculiar behavior. The histograms pairwise kernel matrix - which is just a fancy name for the matrix holding histograms correlations one with another - did not have ones on the diagonal. This means that one histogram was not fully correlated …

Have I told you we should abolish Facebook?

Posted on Thu 22 March 2012 in facebook, meta, IT

Yesterday it was my birthday.

My family phoned me or just met me. Then there has been a handful of people who texted me on my mobile, mostly in the morning. I do not care how they remembered my birthday's date, what I care about is that they took the …

The fourth way: the digital knowledge

Posted on Sat 24 December 2011 in IT

Amazon.com, great pioneer of the digital book, declared that, starting from April 2011, electronic papers/hardback sales have overtaken the paper ones 105 to 100: small achievements, you will probably grin, but if it is not this that hints us the future evolution of multimedia, what else?

Nowadays, one's …

When YouTube pages load with no CSS: how to solve

Posted on Fri 18 November 2011 in tips, youtube

I have been unable to watch YouTube videos for a couple of months. There were some people on the Google Forums reporting the same problem, also posting screenshots, but no one seemed to be able to fix it.

Finally, checking with despair my Chrome Dev Tools, I found the problem …

How Facebook is killing real relationships

Posted on Tue 11 October 2011 in facebook, IT

I've always had strong opinions about the Facebook phenomenon and all that virtual social stuff, I have always said they are ruining our life and actually destroying our real social interactions. Today I think that's true more than ever, and I will tell you why.

My opinion is that Facebook …

How Windows 8 is the clear proof that Microsoft can't lead

Posted on Mon 19 September 2011 in microsoft, meta, windows

I've just had a quick look at the Windows 8 developer preview. Not screenshots, rumors or reviews around, I've actually installed it on VirtualBox and tried it myself. Yeah, it's still early beta, developer preview, whatever you want... but what a crappy thing!! It's not really up to bugs, instability …