美國鼠談

2024-10-28T01:55:00.004-04:00

Export reference in Word into citation

https://citation-finder.vercel.app/

2024-09-24T19:05:00.002-04:00

Avoid unnecessary hidden files like .DS_Store on Mac

Each file occupies 4k, which can become a lot of waste in disk space and speed.

Based on this webpage, use the following command to disable MacOS from creating those hidden files on network and USB drives:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteUSBStores -bool true

Another elegant way is to use TinkerTool or CleanMyMac.

2024-08-19T02:16:00.005-04:00

Optimize MTU on internet

Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) is a setting in TCP/IP. If not properly set, the internet speed could be slow down. This blog provides details on how to test and optimize the MTU.

2024-07-24T03:18:00.005-04:00

Listing only folders in MacOS shell

On Linux/Unix, one can use "ls -d" to display folders. But somehow this doesn't work in MacOS. Instead, one should use " ls -d */" to display folders.

Install Linux as dual boot with Windows

2024-05-21T00:54:00.002-04:00

Although Windows can run Linux as a subsystem, it may not work properly when GUI is needed. To install Ubuntu as a dual boot system is very straightforward:

1. Download Linux ISO file.

2. Use Etcher to create a bootable USB for Linux. Etcher supports Windows, MacOS and Linux.

3. After using the USB to boot up Windows PC, it allows you to adjust partition of your C: drive to make space for Linux. No need to use other disk partition tools anymore!

After the installation and rebooting, the dual boot menu may not show up and the PC still boots into Windows. Do the following:

4. Go to Setup --> Windows Update --> Recovery, and choose to restart.

5. After rebooting into the recovery mode, choose Troubleshoot --> Advanced --> Repair Disk Image.

Then the system will reboot again. This time the dual boot menu shows up! Done!

Switch off internal display of MacBook when connected to external monitor

2024-05-15T19:29:00.005-04:00

When connected to external monitor, MacBook still has its internal display turned on. This dual display mode consumes GPU power and drags down performance on graphics and games. BetterDisplay is a powerful tool to customize tones of settings, including turning on/off each display/monitor connected.

Monitor Apple M1/M2 CPU performance

2024-03-19T04:05:00.001-04:00

MacBook Air with Apple Silicon CPU is very efficient but it comes with a cost -- reduced CPU performance during heavy-duty jobs. This is due to the lack of cooling fan so the CPU needs to reduce clock speed to prevent overheating.

To monitor this performance change, there are two handy tools:

asitop: use simple ASCII graphics to show CPU/GPU frequency and power usage.
influxDB dashboard: if you like nice-looking GUI, this is your choice.

To overcome this bottleneck, there are a few ways shown by Max Tech on youtube.

2023-07-03T23:00:00.002-04:00

Optimize Java JVM for Matlab

Matlab UI has been very slow and buggy on MacOS due to the default JVM. A fast JVM can be used to fix this:

1. Download and install Azul JDK 8.

NOTE: JDK 11 would also work on latest version of Matlab. Newer version doesn't work with Matlab.

2. Set the new JVM to Matlab using matlab_jenv command:

/Applications/MATLAB_R2021b.app/bin/matlab_jenv /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/zulu-8.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/

NOTE: can also run jenv command in Matlab to assign the path of new JVM.

NOTE: for JDK 11, use /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/zulu-8.jdk/Contents/Home/

3. Run Matlab and confirm the new JVM by 'version -java'

4. To reset to default JVM, use:

/Applications/MATLAB_R2021b.app/bin/matlab_jenv factory

2023-06-11T20:39:00.005-04:00

Useful software on Mac (with native Apple Silicon ARM64 support):

1. Homebrew:

2. Mounty: to r/w NTFS.

* install Mounty by homebrew as it will automatically install ntfs-3g and macfuse:

brew install gromgit/fuse/mounty

3. Skim: lightweight tab PDF reader

* Use "defaults write -app Skim AppleWindowTabbingMode -string always" to enable opening in tab by default.

4. CloudFlare WARP: secure wifi access

5. BBEdit: all-round free editor.

* Add this to make BBEdit as the default editor in command-line:

export EDITOR="/Applications/BBEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/BBEdit"

6. ToyViewer: lightweight image viewer (App Store)

7. RealVNC

Scientific software:

1. FSL: If the installer didn't stop after 100% complete, just kill it by Ctrl+C. It will be ready to use.

2. ANTs (need to compile for ARM64)

* Set the following in .bashrc to enable multicore support:
export ITK_GLOBAL_DEFAULT_NUMBER_OF_THREADS=8
export ITK_GLOBAL_DEFAULT_THREADER=Pool

3. Visual Studio Code: powerful IDE for almost any coding.

4. Julia: super fast Matlab-like software.

* Set the following for multicore support:
export JULIA_NUM_THREADS=8

5. MRIcroGL: powerful Nifti viewer/converter.

6. Xcode command line tools: for compile. Install by "xcode-select –install".

2021-12-02T23:15:00.006-05:00

Replace with formatted words in M$ Word

1. Copy the desired formatted words.

2. Open Find and Replace tool in Word.

3. Type "^c" in the Replace box (note lowercase). This tells Word to replace whatever in the clipboard.

M$ Office High Memory on MacOS

2021-04-26T23:02:00.002-04:00

MS Office (especially Outlook and Word) usually use a few GB ram on MacOS. A simple solution is to run them using Option+Command keys. The ram usage immediately reduces by 10 folds. See other tips here.

Faster DNS

2020-06-19T03:17:00.000-04:00

用ping實測新的DNS，1.1.1.1比Google快一倍！

Google DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) has been very useful but sometimes still not quick. CloudFlare provides public DNS (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1) claiming faster than Google. Just tested by ping, 1.1.1.1 has shorter than 15ms delay while 8.8.8.8 takes longer than 25ms. So it's time to make a change!

Solve WiFi timeout for Apple devices

2020-06-19T03:06:00.002-04:00

最近換了router，結果所有的Apple裝置都上不了網，反而Windows好得很。查了半天原來是Apple不支援舊的wifi，只要把2.4G wifi模式設定成只用802.11g/n就好了。 Recently changed to a new ISP and new router. All of sudden, all the Apple devices (Mac, iphone, ipad) cannot connect to internet. Using ping to a DNS (eg, 8.8.8.8), it turns out that the requests are all timeout. However, Windows didn't have this problem. Tried changing wifi channel didn't help at all. It turns out Apple doesn't support old wifi mode. So just changing 2.4G wifi mode from "b/g/n" to "g/n" solves this issue.

SSH without password

2020-03-19T19:41:00.002-04:00

You can remote login to other servers using a secure key: 1. Use 'ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048' to generate a secure key. 2. just press "Enter" for every questions. Especially, don't enter a passphrase. 3. Use 'ssh-copy-id id@server' to copy the secure key to the remote server 4. Now you can login without password

Fix Matlab issue

2019-05-23T23:02:00.003-04:00

New Matlab version showed errors like path not found or undefined function or variable. Here is the fix. Just run the following commands:
restoredefaultpath
rehash toolboxcache
savepath

NOTE: all the user defined path will be removed.

Replay Gain on Mac

2019-01-31T22:45:00.002-05:00

It is very easy to set and use ReplayGain, which normalizes the volume automatically, for music files using foobar2000 on Windows. But it is a bit of trouble for Mac and iOS.

Here are some freeware:
1. MP3Gain Express: a very powerful tool ported from Windows version. Only for MP3 and AAC.

2. ReplayGain Scan Utility: Since many music players (including Apple's) don't support ReplayGain, another way is change the amplitude directly. So this is the tool doing that.

3. xACT: A powerful tool for converting audio formats. It has a utility that scans ReplayGain for FLAC.

4. XLD: A popular tool for ripping CD or converting formats. It only scan ReplayGain when ripping CD or converting to MP3.

Speedup mobile drive on Windows 10

2018-04-27T08:16:00.001-04:00

Windows 10 is slow again. This time it is slow with transferring files between USB drives (Flash drive, SD card, mobile HDD) even using USB 3.0. This is because, by default, USB drives are optimized for quick unplug.

To solve this:
1. Open "Device Manager".
2. Click on "Disk drive" to show all the drives.
3. Right click on the desired drive to speedup, choose "Property"
4. In the "Policies" page, select "Better performance" and "Enable write caching on this device". Then OK.
5. Reboot to make it enabled.

You will experience at least 20% boost of transfer speed.

How to speedup file exploerer in Windows 10

2018-04-09T07:52:00.001-04:00

The File Explorer in Windows 10 has been terribly slow on opening and showing files in a folder with lots of files no matter on HDD or SSD. It's slower than Win 7 and even WinXP. This is because it tries to read the metadata of multimedia files (video, photo which are big files).

A simple solution is to tell it not to do so:
1. Right-click on the folder and select "Content" or "Property".
2. Select the "Customize" tab.
3. In the "Optimize this folder for:", choose "General items", and tick "Also apply this template to all subfolders".

Then, you can enjoy the real high speed!

Some tips to reclaim TabMix functions in Firefox Quantum

2017-11-15T21:35:00.002-05:00

1. Open bookmarks in Tab:
set browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInTabs to TRUE

2. Open searched result in Tab:
set browser.search.openintab to TRUE

3. Open external link in new Tab:
install add-on: Open Link with New Tab.

Film emulation for digital camera

2017-11-13T22:03:00.000-05:00

Option 1: Customized picture control in Nikon DSLR (free download)

Option 2: Post-processing by Nik Collection (free from Google)

Option 3: Post-processing by DxO FilmPack (cost $50-100)

Option 4: Shoot in RAW and use Camera profile for Lightroom (cost $5)

When Firefox doesn't google

2017-11-09T19:07:00.002-05:00

A problem with some Firefox version is that google site can't be accessed or logged in. A solution is to turn off IPv6: 1. about:config 2. set "network.dns.disableIPv6" to TRUE

Convert PDF path between Windows and Mac in Mendeley

2017-11-05T23:50:00.001-05:00

Mendeley uses absolute path to locate the PDF. This makes it difficult to access the same PDF on Mac and Windows. One way is to edit the database following the instruction here, which can be made quite automatic using the following codes described in the blog:

update Files set
localUrl = replace(localUrl, ‚file:///OLD_PATH‘, ‚file:///NEW_PATH‘);

Location of database on Mac: "~/Library/Application Support/Mendeley Desktop"
Location of database on Windows: "~\AppData\Local\Mendeley Ltd\Mendeley Desktop"

Fix Memdeley issues

2017-07-04T22:15:00.002-04:00

1. Word plugin doesn't work in Mac Word 2016
Somehow Word plugin doesn't work in the new version of Mac Word 2016 (ver 15.35). It shows VisualBasic error code and can't insert citation. Before Memdeley provides a bug fix, the only way is to revert to previous version of Word (eg, ver 15.34). It can be downloaded from Microsoft. **Note: Word ver 15.36 has fixed this issue.

2. Memdeley very slow
Memdeley 1.17.x has some issues with Retina display on Mac, which makes it running slow on Mac. The easiest way is revert to ver 1.16.3. The plugin of this version is also compatible with 64bit Mac Word 2016. Then you can enjoy the speedy search and citation.

Multi-thread setting for Firefox

2017-06-21T21:02:00.001-04:00

Firefox finally supports multi-thread (multi-content) for faster web browsing. The default setting is good for typical PC of ~4GB RAM. If you have bigger RAM, you can increase the number of thread by:
1. about:config
2. set browser.tabs.remote.autostart to True to enable multi-processor support

3. set "dom.ipc.processCount" to 6 or 8 to set the number of process.

iOS Mail slow syncing Gmail

2017-05-30T01:23:00.001-04:00

iPhone或iPad上的Mail在跟Gmail同步時特別的慢，這可能是因為有太多的信件匣要同步，只要到Gmail的設定裡，把Label這個設定頁裡面除了All mail跟Trash之外都不跟IMAP同步，這樣速度就快多了。