Bringing a Taste of Linux to Windows

For a good part of my life, I was a Linux zealot. I preached it like I was preaching a religion. I felt superior to others because I could handle something so daunting and intimidating. I realized that most of my day was spent configuring the operating system rather than actually getting work done. As my responsibilities in life grew and my career as well, I didn’t have time anymore to deal with all the shenanigans and challenges that this operating system brought to my life.

Eventually, I got disillusioned with Linux and was tired of wrestling with it because the new update just borked my GPU drivers once again being presented with a black screen when booting up my system. I had to sift through documentation and wikis for hours to find out a solution and since I only owned one system, I had to relegate myself to my phone’s tiny screen. I was done. I made some backups and wiped everything out for a Windows 10 install.

Linux has spoiled me quite a bit and I got used to some its applications, features and quirks. Moving to Windows created some gaps in my workflow that I felt slowing and holding me down. Going back to Redmond’s offering has forced me to search extensively for software that would fill in these holes requiring quite some experimentation.

(Keep in mind the Headings can be clicked to go to the application’s website)

Windows Subsystem for Linux

The confusing name for WSL made it hard to understand what this feature was for the one who was uninitiated. However, Linux started to become an infatuation at Redmond and they became to embrace it starting with Azure. Windows 10 brought the surprise that I would be finally able to run my favourite Linux tools without needing a virtual machine and complex setup of shared folders. It was light and fast. Basically, WSL is Wine backwards: it runs Linux ELF binaries translating the Linux API calls into equivalent Windows NT ones.

All the beautiful Unix commands were finally available to prune through files easily, automate tasks and of course use magical tools to deal with obscure situations. You could even pick what distro WSL would run. I just picked Ubuntu because it provided a polished bash experience alongside a great package manager APT for pulling in your favourite packages and building your arsenal.

Shortly after, I customized it a bit by installing ZSH and doing various tweaks to make it just perfect for me. However, the built-in Windows terminal emulator left a lot to be desired and have a good solution:

ConEmu

I have no memory of how I discovered this tool however it was quite the revelation. It rendered the colours and symbols that Linux command line tools used. You could choose to start the shell you wanted even in administrator mode. The great Quake-style dropdown was available. And of course, a nice tiling functionality reminding you of your good old days in awesome tiling window managers. Tabs were not left out either.

You can even have ConEmu be part of your context menu so you can launch it straight from explorer.

Admittedly, the keyboard shortcuts are clunky and quite the mess, thus making them harder to remember. There’s so much to customize like colour themes, fonts and way more, but the settings window is a bit hard to decipher and quite difficult to navigate. I guess that’s the price you pay for all that customizability.

AutoHotkey

Linux’s probably most powerful feature is scripting. There are so many command line tools and APIs that you could create the most sophisticated scripts that did exactly what you wanted. Want to download a YouTube video on your hard drive? You’re covered. Need to rearrange displays when plugging in your dock? You got it. What about starting a bunch of applications per workflow? You’re set.

This is where AutoHotkey comes in, bringing the ability to automatic tasks via a huge swath of commands available at your disposal. Whether you want to move your pointer to the center of the screen or have a keyboard command bring up your note taking application. It’s all possible

Just like when scripting in Linux using bash or python, there’s quite a steep learning curve to get a hold of the power of this beast. Thankfully, the official documentation is excellent and like always, there are forums and stackoverflow to save you.

I personally use AutoHotkey to switch between applications and start the terminal. I don’t have ideas yet on what else I can do, but I don’t doubt that this scripting language will allow me to do whatever I need to suit my workflow.

Divvy

In my opinion, the biggest showpiece that Linux has was tiling window mangers. It was a whole paradigm shift from floating windows to making them well organized and neatly stacked. My favourite WM was definitely i3 because of it’s ease of use and intuitive way of tiling windows. It was well tested and easy to configure as well.

When I left Linux land, I had to content with a disorganized mess of floating windows again. There was some honorable attempts (such as b3 and bug.n) at porting them to Windows but they were clunky and often didn’t work seamlessly. The truth is, the APIs on Windows for manipulating windows is quite complicated and often generated inconsistent results. The poor developers had to content themselves with these trying to shoehorn the power of tiling managers into an operating system that just couldn’t accept it and clearly wasn’t made for it.

In comes Divvy, a piece of software a friend introduced to me many years ago. Although it didn’t automatically tile the windows for you, you were able to organize your windows into tiles by selecting the area of the screen you wanted to fill. It’s very intuitive and quite customizable such as adjusting the size of the tiles and their count. You can even have gaps between the tiles. A featured so loved by /r/unixporn users who ran a modified version of i3 called i3-gaps.

Now, my desktop can be organized but unfortunately, I have to do it manually. It’s not bug free either sometimes windows not being moved or resized properly.

Groupy

A feature that I fell in love with was provided by the lightweight window manager Fluxbox. You could merge multiple windows into a single title bar being able to switch them just like you would switch tabs in a web browser. This really helped with the mess experienced by floating window managers and provided more comfort.

I knew Stardock for it’s amazing customization tools bring powerful features to the Windows Desktop. I often kept an eye on their new releases and played around with what they had.

Groupy is one of their more recent creations. It allows Windows to be groups in tabs cleaning up your desktop quite a bit. You chose how you organized your windows whether it was by application type or easy workflow switching.

Unlike many of the other available solutions, Groupy looks clean and professional with a bit of configurability such minor appearance tweaks and keyboard shortcuts. It’s very intuitive: you simply drag a title bar of one window to another and that’s it. You have merged two windows into a tab.

Conclusion

These were a sampling of applications that brought creature comforts of Linux into Windows. I still think that Linux is awesome and use it extensively in VMWare for web servers and deploying software for those I work with. Every year is the year of the Linux Desktop but I don’t think we’ll ever get there. At this point, in terms of the general public, Windows and macOS own 100% of the desktop market share.

One plug and shout-out to AlternativeTo that helped me find equivalent applications for both Linux and Windows.

Please share your ideas on this topic in the comment sections below. Are you still a Linux user who managed to make a living out of it and comfortable with the OS? Or have you moved to another OS?

How to fix a Linux computer according to the Oatmeal

Staying Comfortable in our own (Social Media) Bubble...

It’s pretty discomforting how much various websites keep track of every move as a way to sell that information and make you the product. I have worked on analytics systems myself and it’s jarring how much information is being recorded about you. While some are benevolent such as gathering data to enhance UX and optimize the application for the user, others have ulterior motives. I’m guilty of having extensive analytics on my website as well though I don’t sell it to anyone and it’s only for personal use: keeping track of my traffic. That doesn’t make it a good thing though.

The Bubble

Social media has been using this goldmine to have you more engaged with the content and hopefully click on ads. While when you sign up for the first time, the content is more varied, soon, without realizing it, the content you get is based on your political views and beliefs. If you’re liberal, most of the content you’ll see is posts about liberal politics while if you’re a conspiracy theorist, you’ll find articles that fit your views.

Your hobbies and interests are also taken into account and suddenly the ads will match your automotive passions with ads for selling car parts. It’s scary how websites know what search queries to suggest because of a conversation you had on the platform.

The bubble keeps us comfortable and protects us from content that we find bothersome or even offensive. You’ll constantly see things that match your views isolated from everything else. It’s not a coincidence that social media websites use subtle cues to discover your preferences. Every website has its own metrics and techniques but I’ll keep this outside of the scope of this discussion for simplicity.

Escaping the Bubble

This is the tricky part, you need to start viewing things that you don’t agree with. Visit websites from people with views opposite to yours and follow those with whom you disagree.

I’ll keep my political views aside for now but I noticed that content that seemed ridiculous to me is what others believe in. I used to judge these people but I’m starting to realize that those with opposing viewpoints are actually windows to other people’s minds. The truth is, they are just as confident as I am in what they read. The production quality of popular mediums about any opinion is excellent. So it’s tempting for all of us.

In addition, reading opposing news has made me realize that I could be wrong about something, and maybe, what other people are saying is actually true. It opened my eyes quite a bit and now my opponents sound less crazy.

This kind of behaviour is what prepares you for good conversation and finesses your debating skills. You’ll be forced to listen to the other one say something while you compare it with your own ideas. Just admit it, when watching debates online, you skip the parts of the opponent to listen to your preferred orator.

Minimize Tracking and Ads

With ad-blockers such as uBlock Origin, you can block tracking domains and leave your traces as much as a secret as possible. Almost every website has at least Google Analytics plugged in and it will be made useless for tracking you. Also, the ads will be invisible so you’ll be free from solicitation.

Conclusion

We’re living in a world where specialization in academia is keeping us in a test tube life where you only know what you’re studying. We stay home only knowing our families and nothing else. Our world is becoming more and more homogenized and even worse isolating. Even within our own circles, debates become awkward silence. Valuable conversations become impossible and our selection process becomes tuned to those we agree with.

Our perception of reality is black and white and the nuances won’t appear until you take off your rose-coloured glasses. The world we live in is imperfect and what other way to be mindful and accept it like that is by seeing all the different colours.

Widen you’re breadth and see your views grow, foster and become more varied.

The Sad Demise of Propulsion Controlled Aircraft

Sioux City Crash

In July 1989, a DC-10 chartered by United Airlines, Flight 232, crash-landed in Sioux City after a disastrous loss of all hydraulics rendering the plane uncontrollable. One-hundred and twelve souls lost their lives in that accident considered one of the worst air disasters in US history. The hydraulic fluid, which actuates the flight controls based on pilot input, leaked out after an uncontained failure of the tail engine severing the lines.

The hopeless last moments of United Airlines Flight 232

One off-duty training captain, joined the cockpit after hearing the explosion from the back. Through experimentation, he discovered that by manipulating the throttle controls, he could control the plane slightly and attempt a safe landing. While everything seemed under control, at the last seconds before impact at Sioux Gateway Airport, the plane banked hard and flipped over and burst into flames.

The terrifying final moments of JAL123 recorded on CVR.

Japan Airlines 123 Disaster

Four years before, in August 1985, Japan Airlines 123, was the subject of the world’s worst single aircraft disaster in aviation. An improper repair of the rear bulkhead caused it to rupture after several cabin pressurization cycles over hundreds of flights and slowly tore the rear tailfin. All the hydraulic pipes ran through the tail and their breakage caused again, all the hydraulic fluid to leak leading to the subsequent loss of all flight controls.

Again, the pilots followed the technique of the Sioux City flight. They wanted to fly back to Haneda airport but despite all the heroic efforts to control the plane for an incredible 30 minutes, fate was against them and they crashed into the mountains near Mount Fuji. As the single worst aircraft crash in history, 505 people lost their lives.

DHL Takedown

It seemed at this point that the aviation industry still didn’t learn their lessons after two similar crashes. Years later, in 2003, a DHL Airbus A300 cargo took off from Baghdad, Iraq towards Bahrain and shortly got hit from by a man-portable surface-to-air missile from Fedayeen terrorist group. It struck the left wing causing damage to it and subsequent fuel leak. The hydraulic lines ran through the damaged wing and all three leaked and failed. Again, the pilots lost all flight controls.

Captain Éric Gennote was forced to improvise again using the same technique as in the previous incidents. He managed to turn back to the airport but had to make two approaches because the first final was too close. As an incredible feat of flying, they managed to land the plane safely with a damaged wing, leaking fuel and no flight controls though they went off the runway. It was the first instance of a plane crippled by lost hydraulics managing to land safely at an airport without injury.

Other Incidents of Flight Control Failure

Many more incidents occurred over aviation history counting over a dozen. Wikipedia lists a comprehensive compilation of these types of incidents.

Throttle Only Control

All the pilots in the flights above learned that by controlling the throttles they could slightly control the plane with throttle commands alone. To climb, more power would be needed to increase the speed of the plane thus increasing lift. To descend, the opposite would be done dropping lift. Turning was done through asymmetric adjustment of the throttles while the engine with more power would cause the plane to lift from that side to turn in that direction.

However, despite the effectiveness of said technique, the flight paths tended to be erratic with constant pitching movements would cause a phugoid cycle. The plane would climb until it lost enough speed and pitch down and lose altitude. During the descent, the plane would gather up speed until it started climbing again. This rollercoaster ride made it hard to stabilize the aircraft and be the cause of quite the terrifying maneuvers.  

An amazing demonstration of a flight control-free landing in a simulator.

PSX Simulation

The developer of Aerowinx PSX, a Boeing 747 flight simulator, has created an excellent demo where they manage to control an aircraft with only throttle commands. As seen in the video on the side, we can see the first landing attempt to be aborted (go-around) only to return back for another approach and make a successful landing. While this is only a simulation, it shows that it is possible to control an aircraft without flight surfaces and only throttle control instead.

PCA Tests

Little did these pilots know, there was already software in development that would save the plane in cases like these. In 1993, NASA with the cooperation of McDonnell-Douglas, managed to create a system that would control and land the aircraft safely without any flight controls. It was dubbed Propulsion Controlled Aircraft (or PCA). The principle was similar to what the pilots in the mentioned incidents above attempted to do (by moving the throttles up and down) but done so systematically and automatically. However, since the system was run by software, it could be more precise and generate a more stable flight.

It was first implemented on an F-15 tested in the Dryden Facility and was demonstrated to safely land the plane that looked exactly like a normal landing. The increased stability was dramatic and the increase in control would be impossible to replicate by even the most skilled of pilots. They also tested the system on a passenger MD-11 aircraft with similar results. The MD-11 has its third tail engine set at idle to mimic the more common two-engine configuration found on most aircraft.

NASA’s demonstration of PCA

The system works through the autopilot with the pilots setting the heading, altitude and vertical speed that they desire and instead of manipulating the trim and flight controls, it would send the commands to the engines. No new sensors would need to be installed simply relying on the already existing ones.

PCA had an excellent success rate and landings were not only survivable but looked a lot like a normal landing. In fact, with PCA, I believe that none of the above accidents would have ever happened ending up being but a short NTSB report.

FAA Rejection

To me, the system seemed like a really trivial installation and with the software already developed, not very costly. However, the future of the technology was looking bleak. From Bill Burcham’s rough sketch to a prototype fully developed along with engineer Tom Wolf at NASA, lead to a system that seemed integral to future aircraft. However, that did not happen.

The FAA which oversaw the project concluded that it wasn’t financially worthwhile to implement such system. Their reasoning was that complete hydraulic loss was so rare, 1 in 100 million, that it wasn’t worth installing PCA onto the aircraft of the future. Enthusiasts of the technology such as Dave Hayes, from the Airline Pilots Association, and Dennis Fitch, one of the captains who survived the Sioux City crash, were thoroughly disappointed when this technology was thrown out.

Conclusion

No matter how rare that such incident apparently is, it’s happened so many times in aviation history. We can’t say it’s unlikely anymore. The 632 people who died from said failures certainly agree. Aviation is known to be the pinnacle of safety but recent times have shown that manufacturers have chosen a culture of profits and the consequences might cause even more incidents. Isn’t it enough that I mention the MCAS on the Boeing 737 MAX that resulted in the destruction of two aircraft and hundreds of deaths?

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The above flights have been dramatized by the excellent Mayday documentary series:

• Japan Air Flight 123

• United Airlines Flight 232

• DHL Takedown Incident

Has Social Media Made Us Lazy Consumers?

The subject of the morality of social media has been done to death. We all know that it can help find organ donors but also has increased the incidence of depression and suicide in young people. I have the impression that these avenues have transformed us from researchers and content creators to consumers.

Most of us don’t do fact checking when reading newspapers or scrolling through Facebook feeds. People are vulnerable to believing everything they find as the Internet makes it so easy to not only misinform but also catalyse rumours and even legends. Anyone can write anything on the Internet with just a Tumblr account no matter how untrue it is. It creates the occult to mass hysteria. It’s amazing how mundane things can become viral based solely on drama.

Proper knowledge comes from multiple sources rather than a single individual posting about how Egyptian hieroglyphics indicate that the world is ending next year. Production value is high and an excellent narrator can make anything enticing. People just like to consume and spread facts no matter the fragile the source. I see this all the time with friends and family. Our minds are incredibly naïve and vulnerable to the occult and mysterious.

I’m guilty of this sometimes where I post a question on Reddit hoping to get answers on things that I can simply find with a Google Query, with a list supporting evidence and diverse sources. People do this on all forms of social media rather than do the research themselves. Most people respond with their anecdotal stories rather than posting something written properly with references.

I realized that I don’t want to use these forms of media because they don’t add value to my life or make me more intelligent. My reflections started when a phone company representative trying to sell me an expensive plan with unlimited data. I found myself quickly reflecting on this on a whim and told this person that “I’m not stuck to my phone”. It’s rare that I end up using more than 500MB of data per month and most of it stem from phone calls, navigation, going through my todo-list and a bit of browsing.

This never came to my mind a decade ago that we would become a vacuum for content. On the roads, on the bus, in class and of course on the bed, I saw people tantalized by social media content. From Instagram feeds to endless Tik Tok videos and Facebook. Scrolling, scrolling and scrolling over and over again. I was amazed at how much insipid and honestly useless content that people are hypnotized by.

In the reality we are living today, people don’t verify facts simply spreading them around creating conspiracy theories and even ideas that are quite dangerous. My peers, my friend and family often get attracted to some post with something ridiculous and I have to shatter a video or an article by actually doing some research to see if the claims are actually true. Usually not only do they seem untrue, but the claims are exaggerated and unbelievable to me, in other words, too good to be true.

I’ve been trying to escape these websites but the material is so enticing and it can be consumed endlessly. So much content that you will never be bored. It becomes an addiction finding myself checking these sites over and over again. It’s harder than I thought.

Humans are pretty smart but we tend to believe things that are superficially intuitive rather than the uncomfortable truth. Our dire need to know something means that we make arguments from ignorance. We have high regards to our human biology because the unknown makes us feel queasy. However, the frailty of our species is often forgotten and we realize that we need more effort to make sure our minds is full of useful facts and deep understanding of subjects.

I have seen myself transform from a content creator to an endless consumer. I’m trying to push myself hard to make things again and there’s a lot of learning to do. It’s just we want things presented to us in a Tik Tok videos rather than actually following a proper recipe.

I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

I was watching a video game documentary about the history of the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise, a theme park management game that had both an easy learning curve but with incredibly sophisticated dynamics. What really impressed me however was the origins of the first two titles: written by one man in assembly language.

At that point, I realized how mediocre and untalented I was. Nothing I’m doing in my life are anything that people will remember me for. Throughout my life, I’ve seen many awe inspiring projects done by extremely talented people, way more intelligent than I am, come to fruition. Over the years, I realized how shallow and dumb I really am. I’m uninteresting.

Most of my career revolved around software development, something that I’ve done since I was 17 (now I'm 30) until a few years ago. I found myself writing entreprise software usually in the backend and that’s all I really knew except for some server administration and scripting sprinkled on top. Sat beside me were full-stack developers with expertise in DevOps as well. They knew how to do everything I could on top of so much else. As for me, I can barely write basic HTML pages.

I meet with incredibly smart people with master’s degrees and PhDs knowing so much about their field of expertise while I’m a University drop-out. People who know world history so well while being able to talk about the hard problem of consciousness at the same time. YouTubers and Twitch streamers who are so talented at playing games and entertaining us along the way.

There’s people who have paved the way for innovation and foresight that I don’t have at all. Those who make so much money due to their talents and bringing them to life in this world of ours. I’ve watched so many documentaries about all sorts of people from racing drivers, to game developers, comedians, data science experts, cybersecurity nuts, music producers, video editors, documentaries makers and so much more. These are all things that come to mind thinking that I’ll never be able to do any of that.

I’m mostly a self-taught person teaching myself skills as I go along with my life. I generally don’t pick up much except for a few facts that I can repeat to others. I can barely do derivatives anymore in math or draw like I used to. My talents are shallow and honestly quite useless.

Today, I don’t do much with my life other than binging on YouTube documentaries and reading Wikipedia articles not helping my case. My motivation for learning is shrinking slowly and would much rather stare out of the window while I’m not doing my obligatory 8 hours of daily work.

Now, I’m an unimportant technical writer composing documents for developers and users. There’s no path for career growth if I stay in this specialty. My work doesn’t feel like it takes much talent and I was hired a few times without having any credentials in business writing.

I’ve been told by previous managers that I’m always in “learning mode” and quite “creative” but I can’t convince myself that these traits are actually true. I feel untalented, empty and dumb.

My dreams do exist but they starting to seem more and more superficial. There’s a lot of subjects and activities that I’m really interested of getting into but I can’t just dive into it. I blame it on the lack of time and laziness but I have strong time management skills and can conjure up much empty slots in my schedule.

There was quite a bit of discussion on Hacker News.

Hacker News (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29281468)