Tips and Tricks

Main Index

This section holds tips and tricks I discovered that may be of use again in the future.

Gnome Desktop Environment under WSL

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) does not feature a full Gnome Desktop, but some Gnome settings still apply when running graphical applications like Emacs.

Gnome settings can be change by using gsettings or dconf-editor. Examples below will use gsettings.

Adjusting Cursor Size in WSL

To see the current cursor size:

> gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-size
24

To set the current cursor size:

> gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-size <value>

Added: 2025/08/16.

Adjusting GUI Window Button Layout

To see the current button layout:

> gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout
'appmenu:close'

To set the current button layout to show the appmenu on the left and the standard minimise, maximise and close buttons on the right:

> gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout "appmenu:minimize,maximize,close"

Added: 2025/08/16.

Markdown

Supported Languages for Markdown Codeblocks

A list of supported languages for Markdown Codeblocks on Github.

Added: 2025/08/16.

Using yt-dlp

yt-dlp is a command-line tool to download Video/Audio from various sites. The ffmpeg library may be required.

Options I use to:

• download playlist in the best audio in Opus (preferred) or Ogg Vorbis (deprecated) formats, output filename based on playlist index, title and extension and restricted to Windows filenames

yt-dlp -f bestaudio --extract-audio --audio-format <opus/vorbis> -o "%(playlist_index)s-%(track)s.%(ext)s" --windows-filenames <link>

Added: 2025/08/24.

Git Related Tips

Git Cheat Sheet

A Git Cheat Sheet, summarizing ways to execute git for various tasks.

Added: 2025/09/20.

Partial and Shallow Git Clones

You don’t have to pull every revision from a git repository when cloning it. It is possible to work with a local git repository that is a minimal clone of the main git repository.

• git clone --filter=blob:none <url> creates a blobless clone for doing development on the latest version of code on a git repository
• git clone --filter=tree:0 <url> creates a treeless clone for doing a single build from a git repository, but where you still need to access its history
• git clone --depth=1 <url> creates a shallow clone for doing a single build that will be thrown away

This Github blog post gives an explanation of the three options.

Added: 2025/09/07.

Zoom

Fixing Audio Output Issues

Some laptops have Realtek Audio Drivers with noise cancellation. For unknown reasons, the audio driver believes audio from Zoom is noise and cancels it, muting Zoom output. Disabling noise cancellation in the driver fixes the issue.

Fix discovered in this response in a Zoom Community Post.

Added: 2025/09/07.

Computer Related History

Story of Creative Technology

The story of the Singapore company the created the Sound Blaster, Creative Technology, from its beginning to the present day. Internet Archive Link

Added: 2025/09/20.

Nature Related Links

iNaturalist Resources

A link to a list of iNaturalist Resources to reference for introducing iNaturalist to other people, and how to use iNaturalist to make observations and identification of wild organisms.

Added: 2025/09/20.