DevelopRx

I'm Back - Again!

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been awhile.

About 5 years ago, I converted 99% of the site to Hugo static, but didn’t implement because I didn’t find a good search. So, I started saving how-to’s on my computer (again).

Flash forward. Now, after 6 long days of converting to Hugo, I’m up… and I’ve got a lot to share!

About

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DevelopRx is a place to store walk-throughs, notes, reviews, hacks, rants, and handy hints on a variety of computer-related topics

I started with computers way back when Fortran programming was a thing. I got my first engineering job because I could tickle the keyboard and punch in a bunch of GOTO 10 commands. Nowadays, I only sporadically play with code and I have a tendency to forget exactly what I did a few weeks (or even a few hours) back.

[Rx] How to Convert PDF to ePUB

Sun, 09 May 2021 00:59:47 +0000

Converting a PDF to ePUB format isn’t difficult, but getting quality results seems to be nigh on impossible.

DevelopRx assembled a team of crack engineers (actually just me) to tackle this issue and solve it using readily available open source software (a.k.a. FREE!).

The process described in this article is primarily for text-based PDFs with common headers and footers otherwise known as “books.”

[Rx] How to set the Hugo Favicon

Sun, 09 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Custom Favicon. Put new and improved favicon.ico image into into root > static folder.

[Rx] Update Node.js

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 02:18:00 +0000

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript run-time environment that executes JavaScript. It includes npm, which is the package manager for JavaScript code ( installs programs).

[Rx] Updating Git for Win7

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 13:17:21 +0000

Git is a software configuration management (SCM) program. This is just a fancy way of saying that it’s a software package that tracks and controls changes in the code.

I initially installed Git because I was playing around with Vagrant (local web development). It’s also a safe way to get the nerdy Bash shell (UNIX-like scripting language) for Windows without going into Cygwin .

[Rx] Updating Local Development WordPress Version

Wed, 08 Mar 2017 17:27:31 +0000

Looks like updating Local WordPress version can be a painless. First, fully backup your local WordPress folder. Download the latest version of WordPress. Unzip it. Overwrite the local Wordpress files.

So far, so good.

Your Emails are NOT Safe

Fri, 09 Dec 2016 18:27:42 +0000

The planets aligned and I lost three years of emails. I had backups and, as a last resort, surely my host did too, right? Nope.

It’s too late for my emails. Maybe it’s not too late for yours.

Here’s what happened and how you can keep your emails safe…

[Rx] Basic SEO | How to Write Simple Meta Tags

Wed, 02 Nov 2016 15:31:09 +0000

There was a Kevin Costner movie where he kept on hearing, “Build it and they will come.”

Great for Kevin, not so good for webpages. If you want to be found on the net, you need more… SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

[Rx] FFmpeg | Fix M4A Files That Won't Play

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 14:49:54 +0000

Some audio files in M4A format do not play on some devices.

Remuxing reassembles the data packets of the audio stream and that’s exactly how to fix the problem.

[Rx] Lossless Ripping of Audio from MP4

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:43:03 +0000

I have some video files in MP4 format. I want rip out the audio (.M4a) without re-encoding.

This method uses a command line program and a batch file, but YOU CAN DO IT!

[Rx] How to Trim MP4 Videos

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 16:13:43 +0000

Clean up that M4 Garbage!

Ever been sloppy and left a bunch of junk at the beginning of a screen recording figuring to trim it up later? Easy, just grab a free MP4 trimming tool and clean it up, right? Ah… no.

[Rx] Font Broke? How to Install Semi-bold, Etc. for Word/PowerPoint

Sat, 18 Jun 2016 16:39:59 +0000

MS-Word and PowerPoint recognize only bold/italic even if other styles are installed?

I found the perfect font to use for titles in a presentation, Raleway Semi-bold. I installed it and when I went back to PowerPoint, I had two options: bold and italic. So, where’s semi-bold? A quick search found that it’s a MS-Office problem. A hack around it was to remove all other variations of the bold font, except for the semi-bold. This would be great unless I wanted to use the actual bold font. My solution was to rename the Semi-Bold Raleway font and install it as a “new” font.

What is Grunt?

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 16:33:30 +0000

What the heck is a JavaScript Task Runner?

Grunt is a command line tool that runs on Node.js and automates your JavaScript build process. Grunt is an “easy” way compile coffeescript, sass, compass. It can minify, concatenate, and a whole lot more. Everything is simple… as long as you know what you’re doing.

[Rx] Using Wordpress Duplicator to Restore Local Database

Thu, 12 May 2016 04:06:52 +0000

Duplicator is a WordPress plugin to backup, migrate, copy or clone a site from one location to another.

I wrote a recipe up some time ago to do a localhost database restore using Duplicator, but never prettied it up. Since it might be of use to someone in the future (like me), I’m going to go head and publish it.

[Rx] Customizing Open Live Writer

Sat, 13 Feb 2016 17:37:51 +0000

Way back in the day, Microsoft gave out a very good offline blogging program called Windows Live Writer. It was an offline WYSIWYG blog editor that allowed you to write, save, and post all from the comfort of your local PC desktop and came bundled in an online package called Windows Essentials. The program stalled out on version Windows Live Writer 2012.

Microsoft opened sourced the program as Open Live Writer at the end of 2015. From there, it was ignored and forgotten… sad story.

On the off chance you’ve entered a time warp, and go back to 2015, here’s how to customize Open Live Writer.

[Rx] Trim CSS Fat Using Win7 Grunt

Tue, 26 Jan 2016 18:52:57 +0000

Back in the day, you didn’t have to worry about “devices.” Now, we’re all modern. We have stylish CSS that makes HTML look hipster-good on any screen size you can imagine. To do all this you need css code, lots of code.

You can punch the code-masters ticket and roll your own CSS or you can attach everything to a CSS framework ( Bootstrap, Foundation, etc.).

These frameworks don’t know what you want, so they give you EVERYTHING. You have a screen the size of you large toenail? Not a problem, but the typical websites uses less than 80% of all the framework css code.

The price you pay for a kitchen sink framework is speed. Luckily, if you have a need for speed, you can trim out the CSS fat using unCSS.

[Rx] Install WordPress Theme Unit Data

Thu, 21 Jan 2016 19:32:01 +0000

When you’re in development it’s handy to have Wordpress filled up with dummy data.

In order to test out a theme, you need some basic content. WordPress already has some content available for testing so don’t have to dream it up yourself (Yay!) called Theme Unit Test.

[Rx] Creating a WordPress Undescores Starter Theme

Thu, 21 Jan 2016 18:40:10 +0000

WordPress Underscores is an online tool for creating a starter theme.

It saves a lot of time because it inserts the name of the theme with an underscore in the variable names in a boilerplate theme. If you activate this theme, it’s just basic text and nothing else.

There’s still more to do to create a WP theme, but it certainly is better than rolling your own.

[Rx] VM Virtualbox and AVIRA Antivirus Conflict

Sun, 17 Jan 2016 16:39:38 +0000

Virtualbox (current version 5.0.10) is free software for creating virtual machines, VMs. These are other computer operating systems and programs running in a self-contained window on your operating system.

Avira 15.0.15 is a free antivirus software that I’ve used for years (now using the built-in Windows Defender).

The long and short of this post is that there is a conflict with these versions causing error messages to pop up.

[Rx] Local Web Development - Installing WordPress on UniServer

Wed, 13 Jan 2016 17:00:26 +0000

Back in the day, I was working with WordPress and wanted an easy way to develop locally. I got lucky and found a great piece of software… Uniform Server, an open source lightweight mobile WAMP server that I use as a local web development environment. Version I used back in the day, i was on: 12.0.1_Zero XII. After UniServer, I installed the latest WordPress.

[Rx] Jupyter Notebook - Select Browser

Wed, 28 Oct 2015 15:30:57 +0000

Jupyter Notebook is an interactive computational environment to run code, add rich text, compute mathematics, draw plots, and add rich media–all in the comfort of your browser.

I have a variation of Firefox, Palemoon, running as my default browser. When I run Jupyter Notebook, I wanted it to open in the Chrome browser.

It looked like a simple command line switch would do the job:

Jupyter Notebook -–browser=”chrome”

That doesn’t work. I tried it without quotes and single quotes. I’ve got a bald spot on the side of my head trying to figure this one out. There’s not much on the web. Here is how to do it…

Site Design

Sun, 23 Aug 2015 14:31:43 +0000

Sometimes, a screenshot says it all. My text seems to push to the left and that looks funky. Hmm.

When I made up this little memory-aide site, I wasn’t too concerned about aesthetics. My goals were:

1. Clean/Functional. Easy to write and easy to read. 2. Responsive. Readable on various devices. 3. Spam-less. No spamy comments.

Normally, I use a plain sheet of paper to get the basic layout done. I kind of winged it on this one. Once I get my new local development set up, there are a few things on the to-do list:

Add More Left and Top Margins
Create a Better Instructional Template

No worries. Content is still king.

[Rx] Error with VirtualBox Start-Up File

Sun, 23 Aug 2015 00:19:00 +0000

I downloaded an .iso of Ubuntu Server 14.04.3 LTS for a VM in VirtualBox. After applying all the settings for a new VM, I hit the green arrow Show icon to run on the top menu (with Ubuntu highlighted below). There was a list of OS iso files, but none were the right one. I pressed the little folder icon to select the file and got an error message.

The workaround is to go back into VirtualBox and hit the golden cog Settings icon. Select Storage. There’s a little CD with a down arrow icon on the right. Click that and select you .iso file. Now, everything should work like a champ.

[Rx] Fried Spam with a Side of WP Comments

Fri, 19 Jun 2015 16:43:16 +0000

I had WordPress comments turned on for awhile and had a ton of spam about penis enlargement, Nigerian relatives, and how Candy wanted to make my wildest fantasies come true. I didn’t think these added much value (sorry, Candy), so I found a WordPress plug-in that turned off ALL the comments, appropriately named Disable Comments.

This adds a new item under the WP dashboard settings. I selected to disable comments everywhere. Harsh? Tell me about it.

Okay, I kept this one cause of the art. 🙂

[Rx] How to Create a Screen Readable PDF

Sat, 15 Nov 2014 05:55:48 +0000

AFTER DISSECTING A FEW online magazines, I came up with a reasonable copy for readable online PDFs.

FONTS & FONT SIZES

Title Font: 20th Century MT Condensed Extra Bold, 36 pt, Blue (R68-G84-R106)
Subtitle Font: Arial, 18 pt, Blue (R68-G84-R106), Spacing After 8 pt
Base Font: Open Sans, 11 pt, Black, Spacing: Single

Hello world!

Wed, 12 Nov 2014 23:24:36 +0000

Well, back online again with my blog…

Once upon a time, I wrote up technical stuff so I wouldn’t forget it. I didn’t update my SQL database with my host and lost the original posts. No backups. My bad.

No worries. They were pretty old. Now, I’m playing with all sorts of fun and re-learning how to do things on the internet. It’s changed a bit since my hard coding HTML days.

Oh, did I mention that I use to program in FORTRAN? That’s real street cred… 🙂

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