Linux on Shared Bits

Short Bits 2026

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2026-09-29

01 - Check the Ingredient List When Purchasing Baked Goods in the Whole Foods Market Bakery (2026-02-06)

Image courtesy of Arturs Budkevic at Pixabay

If you buy baked goods made by Whole Foods Market bakery, you should check the ingredient list. About a year or two ago, I began to notice that Whole Foods Market bakery began using a GMO (genetically modified organism) ingredient in their cupcakes and in one of their pies. I was dumbfounded…Whole Foods Market, who prides themselves for selling organic food, using a GMO ingredient?! A few months ago, I noticed that they are now also using a GMO ingredient in their cookies. As a result, I choose not to purchase the products.

Linux Resources

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2026-09-04

Introduction

I’ve included Linux resources in prior posts. However, I will eventually archive those posts, so I’ve decided to create a separate post to document the resources.

This is not a comprehensive collection of Linux resources. It’s just a collection of Linux resources I’ve come across in my Linux journey that I’ve found interesting or useful.

Books & Magazines

Conky

Conky is a lightweight system monitor for X, Wayland, and other things too.

Shared Bits 7-Year Anniversary

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2026-09-14

Highlights of my life and seventh year of blogging; Oct 2024 - Sept 2025.

01 - Shared Bits

I published 10 posts this year, including this post, bringing total posts published to 82.

Shared Bits visitor count began to increase quite a bit beginning in October last year. Shared Bits reached another milestone this year by exceeding 5,000 visitors per month for four months of the year. For the year, the average visitor count for Shared Bits was 4,053.

Short Bits 2025

Sun, 06 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2025-10-19

01 - Use Honey to Help You Sleep (2025-04-06)

Image courtesy of Sage Ross , CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

I have seen manuka honey at Whole Foods Market for years when shopping there, but I thought it was very expensive. A former dental hygienist tried to get me interested in manuka honey a few years ago, but once again I thought it was too expensive, even if it was beneficial for your health.

Short Bits 2024

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2026-09-18

Image courtesy of FAI

01 - Dalton Thomas Resigns from Frontier Alliance International (2024-02-19)

Updated on 2025-08-18

I was getting ready to contribute to the Five Dollar Monthly Giving Campaign at Frontier Alliance International (FAI) in the early morning of Feb 08. A banner at the top of the organization’s site stated that Dalton Thomas, the founder and president, had resigned .

I loved Dalton Thomas. He was the best teacher of the Bible I’ve ever encountered. I was dumbfounded when I read the details about his resignation. I’m very saddened, hurt, and confused about what Dalton did. How could he continue to falsely represent himself as a man of God and hold the leadership position that he held at FAI while having an adulterous relationship?

Installing and Maintaining Debian Unstable

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2026-09-08

1 - Introduction

Debian Unstable , also known as Debian Sid ( Sid being the Toy Story character who likes to destroy toys), is part of the development process for Debian Stable . Packages typically flow in the following order during the Debian Stable development process:

Experimental
Unstable
Testing
Stable

Approximately every two years, development is frozen and eventually Debian Testing becomes the next Debian Stable release.

While the primary purpose of Debian Unstable is for the development of the next Debian Stable release, it can also be used as a daily operating system. Used as a daily operating system, Debian Unstable is considered to be a rolling release . In other words, unless the installation breaks, you should never have to install it again. However, you need to know quite a bit about maintaining Debian Unstable as it is prone to breaking if you don’t know how to use and maintain it.

Short Bits 2021

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2026-09-18

1 - Burned Three Times on Amazon Purchases (2021-02-08)

Image courtesy of Peter Ziegler at Pixabay

I’ve been burned three times within a four month period on purchases I’ve made on Amazon. The first incident occurred in September 2020. I purchased a 3-pack of Champion boxer style underwear. I didn’t notice that they were size medium and I usually wear a size large. The underwear were sold by a third party vendor in New York city.

Share One Rainlendar Calendar in a Multi-Boot Linux Environment

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Updated 2026-09-11

Introduction

Rainlendar is hands down, my favorite calendaring app under any operating system. I began using Rainlendar under the Microsoft Windows operating system years ago. When I decided to switch to the Linux operating system full time in 2012, I setup a multi-boot environment so that I could still access a few Windows programs when needed.

I didn’t want to have to manage separate Rainlendar calendars under each operating system that I used, so I did a bit of tinkering and I figured out a way to share one calendar with all installed operating systems. In this tutorial, I’ll detail how to share one Rainlendar calendar in a multi-boot Linux environment, but the steps are similar if you use Microsoft Windows in your multi-boot environment.

Logging Linux Package Activity (Installs, Removals, Upgrades)

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2026-09-04

1 - Introduction

I learned the importance of logging package activity when I began using Debian Unstable . Because you can encounter breakage or a problematic package(s) when performing package upgrades under Debian Unstable, logging package activity can prove to be useful for troubleshooting purposes. Logging package activity can be also be useful for reference and historical purposes. In this post I will share how I log package activity, specifically upgrades, for Debian and Solus , the Linux distros I currently use as my daily operating systems. While not covered in this post, I also use the same technique to record manual installs and removals; i.e. I initiate the installs and removals.

Short Bits 2020

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2026-09-16

1 - Shoutout to the Keter Company for Great Customer Service (2020-01-17)

My wife gave me a nice Christmas gift of cash in December. I had been wanting to purchase a plastic storage shelving unit for use in my study. I borrowed two shelves and four posts from a unit in our basement to store distilled water in 1-gal jugs, but I also wanted to store some small kitchen appliances that I had been placing on the dining room table. Now that I had some extra money, I decided to purchase a new plastic storage shelving unit from Home Depot .

Debian With Openbox and Tint2 - Part 2 - Usable System

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2026-09-22

As of 09/12/2025, I am no longer using the Openbox window manager and Tint2 panel to simulate a desktop environment. This post will remain for a period of time for informational purposes, but will no longer be updated except for minor changes.

In part 1 of this series, I provided details on installing Debian , a Linux distribution, using the Network Install method. Be sure to check out that post first if you haven’t installed Debian.

Debian With Openbox and Tint2 - Part 1 - Debian Network Install

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2026-09-16

Over a month in the making and many hours of work, this is part 1 of a 2 part tutorial on using the Openbox window manager and the Tint2 panel as a desktop environment under Debian , a Linux distribution. In part 1, I provide details on installing Debian using the Network Install method. As Luis Fernandes might have said, this is a ginormous post.

Using an Amcrest IP3M-941B IP Security Camera Under Linux

Sun, 20 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2024-12-16

I’ve desired to purchase additional security cameras to monitor the exterior areas of my home for quite some time after purchasing a Sharx SCNC2606 IP security camera in 2011. Although the Sharx IP security camera has been useful, the video quality and resolution of the camera (640x480), the limited field of view, and the lack of some additional desirable features left me longing for something better.

TreePad: A Free-Form Database Program

Sun, 11 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Updated on 2026-09-18

The TreePad database program is no longer available. I’m leaving this post up for informational purposes. Links have been changed to point to collected links on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine because www.treepad.com now points to a marijuana dispensary. Thank you to a reader named Chip who brought this to my attention.

Years ago, at the nudging of a former co-worker and friend, I decided to try working in the IT field as a Lotus Notes developer. About 2 years into my IT career, I determined that I needed a way to store code snippets and tips so that I could have a handy reference that allowed easy and quick retrieval of information for use on any project on which I was working.

Onis 2.5 Free Edition Under Linux

Sat, 01 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Updated 2026-08-30

Introduction

Onis is a DICOM image viewer for the Windows OS. DICOM images are normally generated and provided on a CD when you have MRIs or CT scans performed and sometimes for X-rays. What makes Onis so special? Well, if you have an MRI of your spine, axial (horizontal) and sagittal (vertical) slices (images) will be taken. With Onis viewer, you can open a set of sagittal images in one window and a set of axial images in another window. When you do that, a slice line appears enabling you to know what you’re specifically looking at. Dr. Doug Gillard did a video about using Onis 2.5 Free Edition to read MRIs and explains it much better than can be explained in text.