Tag: technology
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LibreOffice Impress – Change Default Draw Color
(NOTE: The tutorial below is from LibreOffice 24.2.7.2) I have had an issue for a while (since I created my own custom color palette), and I finally found the solution. LibreOffice Impress comes with a standard template with default colors. As a college professor and researcher, I create lots of presentations. Since LibreOffice is my…
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LibreOffice – Create Custom Color Palette
(This is for LibreOffice version 24.2.7.2 on Kubuntu 24.04.) I know I’m weird in a lot of ways (I mean, who still blogs in 2025?!?), but here’s a new one. I create lots of charts and graphs as well as presentations for classes. I tend to prefer a minimalist approach – white background with black…
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AppImage, Snap, and Flatpak on Kubuntu
I’m guessing most people who don’t use Linux have no idea how convenient repositories are. I’m a huge fan of how Linux has managed (and mostly continues to manage) software for quite a while: you open a console or the software manager on your computer, search for the software you want, and install it. The…
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Kubuntu 25.04 – KRunner and iBus issues
Over the last month, I have updated the three computers I use to Kubuntu 25.04. On my laptop, I ran into an issue where Wayland would just periodically freeze. I figured out a solution to that and detailed it here. I finally installed Kubuntu 25.04 on my home desktop, which is the machine I use…
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Convert Text to Audio on Linux – Coqui TTS
In a separate post on my blog, I documented a simple way to convert text to audio using Google’s Text-To-Speech service. This works for small projects. But, during a recent conversion, I ran into an error where my requests were getting blocked by Google for using the service too much. I didn’t realize they capped…
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Best 3D Printed Sunglasses Clip for Car Visor
I’ve needed a place to put sunglasses in my car for years. My sunglasses have typically ended up in one of the cup holders. Recently, it dawned on me that I could print a clip or holder that would attach to my sun visor to hold my sunglasses. I looked at the various 3D design…
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Redacting PDFs on Linux
I had an odd situation pop up where I needed to redact a PDF. It wasn’t anything nefarious or super exciting, but it did involve a complicated PDF that included images and tables in addition to text. In figuring out how to redact the PDF, I ended up learning a few things and thought it…
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Fixing Zotero Corrupt Database Issue on Linux
I use Zotero to manage my references and have for decades since it was first developed. I’m a huge fan and teach all my students how to use it. But I also don’t follow one of the programmers’ recommendations on where to store my Zotero database. As soon as I install Zotero, I change the…
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LibreOffice Calc – Search for Specific Text Across Columns
I have a task I am asked to do fairly regularly that involves searching through a large spreadsheet (around 4,000 rows with about a dozen columns) looking for very specific text. There are, of course, various ways I could accomplish this. But I finally found a solution that speeds this up and want to document…
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Batch Convert MP4 to MKV
I ran into an issue where a number of my MP4 files on my fileserver were stuttering when I tried to play them back using Plex on my TV. After a lot of googling, I found out that this was due to some header information in the MP4 files and that the simple solution was…