For full recipes, please visit our recently launched Egyptian Cuisine Recipes web site.

How to avoid PackageKit consuming lots of CPU and RAM on Kubuntu 14.04

Submitted by Khalid on

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After upgrading my laptop from Kubuntu 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS, I noticed that the laptop runs hotter than usual.

Upon investigating further, I found that PackageKit was the process that was consuming lots of CPU and memory.

For example, here is a sample output from htop, showing packagekitd maxing out one core, and eating up almost a quarter of the laptop's RAM:

How to use strace for a daemon with multiple processes, including children

Submitted by Khalid on

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Sometimes when you are running Linux and have a weird bug, you wish you would know what the process is doing. For example, which files it is opening and such ...

The strace command is very useful.

Use case 1: Simple command as argument

However, its common use cases is when you have a single process running. Usually, you would run strace and your command as an argument, like so:

strace your_program

Use case 2: Tracing a running command

Presentation: OpenWRT, for the KWLUG, August 2014

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On August 12th, I did a presentation on OpenWRT for the KW Linux Users Group.

The slides from this presentation are attached below, and the audio for the presentation is available as a podcast.

Hope it is of use for some.

In that presentation I mentioned wrtbwmon, the bandwidth monitoring script for OpenWRT. You can download my modified version from here.

wrtbwmon: A Bandwidth Monitoring Tool for OpenWRT Routers

Submitted by Khalid on

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Years ago, I wrote about the various tools available for monitoring bandwidth usage for individual devices in a home network.

Now, I have a definitive solution that will help with the questions: wrtbwmon. This is based on several variants that are floating around the internet, each a fork of another.

Here is an excerpt from the README file:

Description
===========

Moving from Rogers Internet to VMedia in Kitchener/Waterloo

Submitted by Khalid on

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This article describes why I decided to move off Rogers for the internet, what options are currently available in the local Kitchener/Waterloo area, and the details on how to switch from Rogers.

Rogers: Good and Bad

Rogers internet service is quite good from a functionality point of view. Their technical support is also acceptable, though sometimes you need to have more than one call to get an issue resolved.

Technical Debt Crisis

Submitted by Khalid on

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Some good points on the state of affairs in the web development world today ...

In the old days there was a respected profession of application programming. There was a minority of elite system programmers who built infrastructure and tools that empowered the majority of application programmers. Our goal was to allow regular people without extensive training to easily and quickly build useful software. This was the spirit of languages like COBOL, Visual Basic, and HyperCard. Elegant tools for a more civilized age. Before the dark times… before the web.

TechFetch.com Millions of dollars for next of kin from attorney of deceased

Submitted by Khalid on

Here is another scam email claiming millions for gullible victims.

Attention please,

I am Mr. azmanbinothman, I was an attorney to a deceased client of mine, who died of a heart attack in 2001, but before his demise, he had a deposit of (US$19,000,000.00) Nineteen Million United States Dollars with a security vault here as a family treasure which I'm aware of as his lawyer.

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How to get Free HD TV using an Antenna in Waterloo, Ontario

Submitted by Khalid on

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This article describes how to install an HD TV Antenna to get free over the air channels, so you can get rid of the cable or satellite subscription.

Here is my TV Fool report. Note that some channels are not listed (e.g. CBC), but it provides you with an approximate list of what channels you can get, what power each is at, and which direction to face.

The nearest intersection for me is Fischer Hallman and Erb St W, in the west end of Waterloo.

Home-made Attempt: Coat Hanger Antenna

Principles of Scientific Rational Thinking

Submitted by Khalid on

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Principles of scientific rational thinking:

Question Authority

No idea is true just because some authority says it is true. That includes you, and includes me.

Think for Yourself and Question Yourself

Don't believe something just because you want it to be true. Belief alone is not a criterion for truth.

Test ideas by evidence from observation and experiments

If a favorite idea fails a well designed test, it is not true. Get over it.

Follow the evidence wherever it leads

If something is proven wrong, then just accept that it is wrong.

And, if you have no evidence, just reserve judgement. You don't have to take a position for or against an idea.

You could be wrong

We are humans, and we may not have all the facts, so we are sometimes wrong. Accept that, and move to more observation and experimentation.

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