Installing a working Android dev environment without installing Android Studio

I prefer to work outside of IDEs for much of my programming, and so I dislike being forced to install Android Studio in order to work on an Android project. Lately this has been especially acute because I'm using gio and writing my Android apps in Go! Android Studio isn't tailored for that. This is… Continue reading Installing a working Android dev environment without installing Android Studio

Terminal Velocity: Work Faster in Your Shell

At All Things Open 2019, I gave a talk entitled "Terminal Velocity: Work Faster in Your Shell." It was all about new tools for terminal productivity, with lots of live demos. It wasn't recorded by the conference organizers, but I was able to combine a screen capture with a recording to the audio to produce… Continue reading Terminal Velocity: Work Faster in Your Shell

Connecting a Sony PS3 Controller to Ubuntu Linux

A dandelion puff

I've been emulating older games on my desktop for a while now, and I like to use a PS3 controller for games that expect the player to have a controller. I feel that I should share the procedure that I use to connect the controller via bluetooth, as I discovered the trick mostly by serendipity.… Continue reading Connecting a Sony PS3 Controller to Ubuntu Linux

Kinesis Freestyle 2 and Linux, Part 4: Automation

Cherry Blossoms, Osaka, Japan

After a few more months of contemplation and some helpful suggestions from Ed Nisley (you can check out his blog here), I have discovered a viable way to automate running the userspace driver for my keyboard when it is plugged in. I've already had to tangle with udev once during this project, so it came… Continue reading Kinesis Freestyle 2 and Linux, Part 4: Automation

Kinesis Freestyle 2 and Linux, Part 3: Permissions

A spiky green plant

In the last post in this series, I complained that the userspace driver needed to run as root in order to open the device files. It turns out that this is relatively easy to fix using Udev rules. Udev is the device management subsystem of many modern Linux distributions. All Debian-derived, Fedora-derived, and Arch-derived distros… Continue reading Kinesis Freestyle 2 and Linux, Part 3: Permissions

Pop!_OS Multi-DPI Support

Small plants wet with dew

The Problem I use a System76 Galago Pro as my laptop. I love it. Their hardware and software play together extremely well, a refreshing change from some of my prior Linux driver experience. I used to use a 2012 MacBook Pro Retina running Arch Linux, and the System76 machine is much nicer (from a driver… Continue reading Pop!_OS Multi-DPI Support

Installing Android Studio on Pop!_OS (Or Ubuntu)

Field of green wheat

Android Studio provides easy downloads for Linux users, but installing that way loses the benefit of being managed by your package manager. I always try to find .deb or PPA methods of installing software (On Debian-derived distros) so that I can manage all of my basic software with one tool. I've found that manually installing… Continue reading Installing Android Studio on Pop!_OS (Or Ubuntu)