XFCE has an ALSA plugin to control audio volume. It can be configured to use a certain device and works flawlessly. But it is not available through Arch's AUR (Arch User Repository) for aarch64. Raspberry Pi 3B and especially 4 support 64bit and therefore require compatible packages. The following sections guide you through the 15min process of compiling the plugin on the target system. More…
Netgear sells many different types of network hardware. Like all modern complex products their switches, routers and access points require firmware updates. Nowadays this isn't something for the average customer without a separate service contract. More…
I really enjoy taking part in other developer's struggles. This includes playing developer's games. One of them is the so called Finding of the Week. The intention is to educate, relief from stress and to remember the early days of programming. A group of developers comes together online. And everyone presents a piece of code and a very (geek) entertaining discussion starts. Once this turned awkward for me and implicitely many others. More…
Eine interessante Studie ist noch eine Eingabe weit weg: E-Mail-Adresse. Jemand bietet etwas zum Download an, aber erst registrieren. Für einen Verkauf braucht man eine elektronische Kontaktmöglichkeit, am einfachsten ist E-Mail. Doch nur eine Adresse ist praktikabel. Was wäre, wenn die eine Adresse viele Gesichter haben kann? More…
Manchmal unterhalte ich mich anderen über die kleinen Ärgernisse der Informationstechnik. Das hat auch schonmal einen Briefumschlag als Auslöser. Meine Umschläge haben nämlich grundsätzlich ein Sichtfenster. Mein Gegenüber wollte wissen, wie ich die Adresse so genau aufs Papier bekomme, dass sie im Fenster sichtbar ist. More…
As an IT professional I have to deal with many different systems and platforms. I run some servers myself and I use different mail addresses. In addition I sign software packages as well as e-mail. There's also a lot of encryption going on. Without a keystore I'd be lost. There is a plethora of passwords, not only to access something but also to unlock encryption- or signing keys. More…
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I've tried many Linux distributions, from early Mandrake to free SuSE and ran Gentoo for many years since its early days. Then I shifted my priorities from building packages to having a life. Recently I returned to Gentoo with a strategy and clear motivation: no clutter, no Canonical and no systemd. After half a year I'm up and running again. A big desktop machine works from time to time through the large tasks requiring processing power. For everyday work I use a laptop, Lenovo G505s and a mini-ITX platform hosts all the important services like a backup RAID, web server, file/ media server and databases (SQLite, PostGreSQL), Gentoo binary package host. The following paragraphs outline the foundation of my motivation, to invest a little more time again, now more efficiently. More…