Dotan Cohen

What's new:

2015-10-25
After installing Kubuntu 15.10 with KDE Plasma 5 I've encountered very few issues. Click that link to see what they are.
2014-11-10
I just updated the edX bookmarklet page with a bookmarklet to integrate the discussion posts in with the rest of the page.
2014-10-13
I think it prudent to make people aware that today, October 2014, the nations of the world did not find 1 Billion USD to fight ebola to be a worthwhile investment, even as African healthcare workers are leaving the job as they are not receiving pay. That said, when the Palestinians ask for 4 Billion USD, they received 5.4 Billion USD.
2014-10-05
If you happen to be taking a course at edX, then these bookmarklets for collapsing and expanding the navigation sidebar might be useful.
2014-06-06
After only four months, my Spigen case for the Samsung Note 3 broke at the hinge.
2011-10-25
Here is the detailed guide to restoring cards from an Anki backup file.
2011-08-18
Thunderbird 6 has been released! Is this good news? No! Three of my addons are not compatible and have been disabled, including Virtual Identity. Virtual Identity is the only reason that I use Thunderbird, it is my most vital extension. And now this problem is going to repeat itself every three months!
2011-07-28
With the help of Stan Goodman the introduction to typing and using RTL text page has been improved.
2011-07-27
I updated the software terminology page today.
2011-07-24
A space station astronaut took an amazing photo of Atlantis landing, and some fellow in Mexico got shot some video from the other end! There are four humans in that fireball!
2011-07-23
Learning .NET development means that I'm spending a lot of time in Windows virtual machines. I cannot stand the cumbersome, ill-featured, pampering environment that Windows provides so I've written this Windows Cheatsheet to help myself and other *nix refugees cope.
2011-07-20
As I've had to configure two Windows 7 virtual machines in the past few months, I've written a page describing what to do after installing Windows.
2011-07-17
If you need me to log onto your computer temporarily, then use TeamViewer QuickSupport for Windows. If you are not using Windows or if that download does not work, then select the correct application from the TeamViewer download page.
2011-07-15
In an attempt to wildly inflate version numbers, not only did Mozilla skip version 4 for Thunderbird but they are also planning on a new core release of Firefox every three months. As I expect my 30+ Thunderbird and Firefox extensions to break on each release, I've compiled a page that lists them, along with some comments and alternative extensions.
2011-06-28
Thunderbird 5 has been released! However, these extensions are keeping me on Thunderbird 3:
- Compact Menu 2:Tiny Menu may be a viable replacement.
- Quicktext: The dev says that the latest experimental version of the addon works in Thunderbird 5 beta 1.
- Search for Sender: ~~I sent an email to the maintainer, waiting for reply. Additionally, I filled out a comment on the extension's feedback forum.~~ The dev updated the extension on 2011-7-17.
- Slideshow: The original maintainer abandoned the extension and the new maintainers have no available contact information.
- Virtual Identity: The maintainer says that he is releasing a new version in late July.
2011-05-30
It's been asked of me probably more than any other article, so I finally present my introduction to typing and using RTL (Right to Left) text. It is longer than I intened, so there is a TL;DR section at the end. If anything is not clear or you see room for improvement, them please let me know!
2011-05-16
These are the links that you need to watch Endeavour's final launch: NASA TV in HD at Ustream, SpaceflightNow's coverage, and the official NASA feed.
2011-04-23
Frustrated as usual, I am compiling a page of things that one cannot do in Linux. It's sparse for now, only mentioning PDF annotations, but I do have much to add!
2011-03-24
If you're suffereing from the Gave up waiting for root device error, I've found the cause.
2011-03-18
I managed to snap this nice pose of Jupiter and Mercury over Be'er Sheva. This week was the first time that I've ever managed to spot Mercury.
2011-03-01
I have revised my keyboard layout, it is now called the Noah Ergonomic Keyboard Layout. There is now room for all the keys on the standard keyboard, plus ESC. I changed some minor details around to be more familiar to QWERTY users.
2011-02-28
Here is a first draft for a custom ergonomic keyboard layout. The goal is to keep the hands further apart in a more natural fashion, and to transfer some of the workload from the weak pinky fingers to the strong index fingers.
2011-02-21
Here is a short page explaining how to write code. The page does not explain how to program, but rather explains in what order to add new code to the file to build a program. Examples are given in HTML and PHP, but the idea is relevant for almost any programming or markup language.
2011-01-08
I just wrote a page describing things to do after installing Kubuntu. It's mostly for my own use, to have handy after an install until I've configured Zim, but here it is for the community to use as well. Enjoy.
2010-10-21
I just discovered the terrific ZipStream-PHP library. If you need to create dynamic zip files in PHP containing both existing files and dynamically-generated content, this is a real time saver.
2010-07-19
Why shouldn't we trust our data to "the cloud"? Because it evaporates like a g.ho.st, that's why. The cloud computing service g.ho.st just closed shop, with no way for us customers to access our data. From the CEO:
We regret that Ghost is no longer selling its service directly. Ghost's technology is available for purchase or license by suitably qualified companies.
Good thing that I had it all backed up. I think that we had all just better keep our head out of the clouds.
2010-07-01
Thunderbird 3.1 is out! However, these extensions are keeping me on 3.0:
- BiDi Mail UI: I filed a bug, the dev says that the user can manually edit the source code to make it work with 3.1.
- Compact Menu 2: I filed a bug report, the dev claims that she is too lazy to move the updated version out of the "Beta channel".
- QuickText: There already exists a bug report asking for the extension to be updated.
- Slideshow: Abandoned by the developer as he no longer uses Thunderbird.
This is why non-programmers do not use FOSS software. It quickly goes from "free to use" to "Now that you depend on it, continue to develop it yourself".
2010-05-24
This evening I will be giving a presentation at my local LUG entitled "KDE SC 4: The good, the bad, and the broken (ODP, 2.8 MiB)". Also available as a PDF file, 6.3 MiB. The work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
2010-05-16
Palestinians are beaten with sticks and forced out of their homes only to watch as their homes are bulldozed away in Gaza.
2010-03-07
Why does it seem that the more pixels on the camera's sensor, the less detail is apparent in the photos the camera takes? I thought "resolution" was once a measurement of the smallest detail that a device could resolve. My N86 has a whopping 8 megapixel camera, yet the filesize of the jpeg images it produces is just about 1 MiB at the highest quality setting. I'm starting to test my devices, and you can use the test subject as well. Print out my very own Digital Camera Eye Exam and let me know how your device does.
2009-08-27
I managed to get a great shot of the Moon and Mars. As many people know, on August 27 Mars was almost as big and bright as the full moon.
2009-08-23
Beyond Security has proven themselves not only security experts, but community-conscious as well. Give them a try, their website is one of the few in the field that does not seem obfuscated or deliberately confusing.
2009-04-07
Have you ever heard of Emusic? Steer clear away from them. I signed up last year, and very soon I began getting spam the address that I used to sign up with them. How do I know that the spam is related? Those who communicate with me by email know that everyone gets a unique email address for corrospondance with me. This method has two advantages: 1) I can disable email addresses that start getting spam, and 2) I know who leaked my address to the spammers. I should note that the tool which enables me to do this is the terrific Virtual Identity extension for Thunderbird.
2009-03-16
Today I found a tool that will make my life just a bit easier. Open Office now has an experimental Hybrid PDF-ODT extension. This lets the user save a document as a valid PDF file with the original ODT file embedded for editing. This is, in my opinion, the perfect document format: viewable in common software already installed on most desktop systems, and editable in an open source, cross-platform office suite. Furthermore, all the wonderful command-line PDF tools available for Linux work on these documents perfectly. The only thing missing from the extension is better save support, as the user currently must be careful to export (not save) as a Hybrid PDF file. For someone in the habit of hitting Ctrl-S after each sentence, this is quite a limitation.
2009-02-22
As the comment following it notes, every so often a post on Slashdot makes reading the one thousand preceding troll posts worth it. This post was one of them. If you are not into astrophysics, you can safely pass.
2009-02-17
We have a new phone number. Details on the Contact Info page.
2009-02-05
There is a reason that the Linux implementation of Silverlight is called Moonlight. See for yourself what the difference is between Silverlight and Moonlight.
2009-01-14
Want to learn how to identify some stars? Try Quiet Bay's Night Sky Tutorial.
2009-01-13
I restructuring the videos in the Photo Album so if you have any problems with them please let me know.
2009-01-11
Just look at all those poor children in Gaza getting killed.
2009-01-02
My favorite tech blog, Ghacks.net, has put up a compilation of all their Linux articles from December 2008. It is available as a 68-page PDF file.
2008-11-14
I updated the Photo Album a bit. The biggest improvement was the inclusion of Dave Jay's picture frame technique. If you find any bugs (and I know that they exist) then please let me know.
2008-11-02
To go along with the UTF-8 configuration of email clients, I have written an article that explains how to configure e-mail clients to send email in plain text. Right now it only covers Yahoo Mail but I will add Thunderbird and Outlook soon. If you use a different email client then please let me know and I will try to add it.
2008-10-18
We have decided to celebrate our family holidays according to the Hebrew calendar. Here is a Hebrew-Gregorian conversion table for the important dates in our family.
2008-10-03
Welcome Maayan Cohen to the world!
2008-09-18
I have begun using the Zim personal wiki application. This is by far the best hierarchical note manager that I've found yet, and I've tested tens of applications across three operating systems for years. Even at the lowly 0.26 version number, it is fully usable and I have been unable to crash it. Many thanks to Jaap Karssenberg for his terrific creation.
2008-09-17
I am removing the Newest Comments RSS feed from the Photo Album. Please change your subscriptions to the Newest Photos feed only. Thanks.
2008-08-20
What are the differences between the terms "Britain", "England", and "The United Kingdom"? Take a painkiller and read on.
2008-07-17
After coming close to losing some data today, I realized that I really should have some of my notes in a public place. So here are some Linux notes and tricks for me, but available for anybody to enjoy.
2008-07-15
You asked, I delivered. Here is an article about how to configure e-mail clients to send UTF-8 text. Right now it only covers Thunderbird 2 and MS Outlook 2003. If you use a different email client then let me know and I'll try to add it.
2008-07-13
I won a t-shirt! The crazy editor at Ghacks.net decided that I'd look good in this. Thanks, Martin!
2008-05-30
NASA has been really great about keeping the public informed and involved in the Phoenix mission. Here is a nice, detailed explanation of the lander's Robotic Arm End Effector. It looks a little too familiar to me.
2008-05-26
A big congratulations to the team at The University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. These guys took a bunch of spare parts and managed to land them safely on Mars! You guys had me up all night, and I swear I've never been so tense at hearing "2000 meters... 1800 meters... 1700 meters..." all the way down to "30 meters... 27 meters... 20 meters... 16 meters... Touchdown signal detected!" I recommend to all to visit the Phoenix program's websites here and here. I must admit that I honestly did not think that the Phoenix lander would get to it's destination in one piece.
2008-05-23
I am terribly busy with studies, but while researching Middle Eastern maps I happened across the United Nations Children's Fund website which has some nice maps. Then I noticed how Israel is represented in a slightly different fashion than the rest of the Middle Eastern nations. Read more about UNICEF's presentation of Israel.
2008-03-29
The Photo Album got a new feature today, thanks to the hard work of Jeroen Wijering and Ety. Jeroen wrote the Flash-based media player that's powering the new video, and Ety took care of Meirav and the whole house for the full day (and night!) that it took me to modify the photos infrastructure to accommodate video as well. Enjoy it!
2008-02-25
The US Library of Congress is employing Silverlight to power their website. I wrote to them with my concern, and this is what I get.
2008-02-24
As many site visitors still use Internet Explorer, which does not support XHTML, I have moved this site back to HTML 4.01 Strict. If you are still using Internet Explorer, please upgrade to either Firefox or Opera. You are holding back the development of the entire web by using that non-compliant browser, not to mention the security holes it opens up in your system.
2008-02-19
While trying to find Quicken on Linux I ran into quite a bit of frustration. Share the fun.
2008-01-11
KDE 4.0!!!
2007-12-30
Congratulations to the young Cohen family. Jarred and Alexis Cohen
2007-12-10
What do people love? Google it to find out!
2007-12-07
The Photo Album's RSS feeds are being switched over to use Feedburner's services. Expect more reliable, standards-compliant feeds. Hey, if it's good enough for /. then it's good enough for me. Subscribe to the updated Newest Photos and Newest Comments RSS feeds.
2007-11-12
Do you want to communicate with me via email? There are a few ground rules that I'm laying down. I suggest that you obey this advice with all of your email contacts, not just with me.
2007-10-22
Why are the lights in microwave ovens inconsistent with the lights in refrigerators? The light in the refrigerator is on when the door is open, and supposedly off when the door is shut. The light in the microwave is on when the door is shut, and off when the door is open.
2007-08-18
I've had my Dell Axim x50v for about two and a half years now. This is what I think of it.
2007-08-15
As I've got readers all over the world, I've switched the dates into a more international format. Specifically, there's a small country between Canada and Mexico that teaches it's children to write their dates with the day and month transposed. I suppose that digital watches there have the minute shown before the hour, as well. So I've switched to YYYY-MM-DD date format. It's foreign to everybody, everybody can now suffer together.
2007-08-09
I'm putting together a tutorial for those who want to get into The Gimp. As I've been using simple MS Paint - like programs for years, I figured that was as good a place as any to start my tutorial. I hereby present Going from Paint to The Gimp. Note that the tutorial is so far incomplete: I'm publishing it in piecemeal as time permits.
2007-07-20
Think that you are receiving spam from DotanCohen.com? You are not. Some email providers with incorrectly or non-standard email configurations are delivering messages from a spammer that is forging the DotanCohen.com domain name. If you are receiving such spam, then tell your email provider to enable SPF authentication. SPF authentication checks to see whether or not the sender of an email is forging his return address. If so, then the message is almost certainly spam, and should be filtered out before it even gets to your mailbox. I know that Nextel, TMOmail, HiNet, and VText customers have been subject to these forgeries. Contact your providers and tell them to enable SPF. For more info, see the What-Is-What article on What is Spam?
2007-06-15
Due to the amazing feedback regarding my Linux and Firefox Compatibility pages, I've written about how I got into open source software. Read all about garnering support for non-proprietary software such as Linux and Firefox.
2007-06-14
As I've been contacting companies and websites for years regarding Linux and Firefox support, I've decided to publish some of the responses that I've gotten. Here are the pages: Linux Compatibility and Firefox Compatibility.
2007-06-10
Added a Genealogy section. It's rather incomplete, but it's being pieced together. If you want to add something, write me a note in the Contact Page.
2007-05-04
Lots of new features have been added to the Picture Gallery. Tags are now searchable and you can leave comments on photos. Two RSS feeds have been added: one for Newest Photos and another for Newest Comments. As usual, if you find any bugs, please tell me about them.
2007-03-03
I've been writing my own Picture Gallery engine, take a look. It's PHP-driven with a MySQL backend. Lots of new features are in the works, and I plan on adding a photo every day or two, so check back often. I'm aware of some problems with it, but if you come across anything let me know.
2006-12-31
Say hello to Meirav Cohen.
2006-12-27
Ever wanted to add your banking site to Firefox's password manager? Here's how: Add blocked sites to the Firefox Password Manager.
2006-12-2
Major site update. New layout on the English language pages, and I've rewritten a few of the backend scripts.
2006-11-1
Another semester begins.
2006-09-02
One year wedding anniversary. Celebrating in Valencia with Bea and Jose at their wedding... Congratulations to the newlyweds.
2006-08-20
Back from Lebanon, in one piece. Let's see if I can keep this website updated now.
2005-10-31
I started studying at the Technion today.
2005-10-10
Technology Sleuth went Beta today.
2005-09-02
Today, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Ety and I dedicated ourselves to each other at Beth Sha'arim National Park.
2005-09-01
Jarred performed his first rise to the Law today- that"s his Bar Mitzvah.
2005-08-14
Lyrics List has seen some major changes in the past week. Check it out.
2005-06-05
I've been making a lot of changes to LyricsList.com lately. Stop by, check out the Lyrics Forum and tell me what you think.
2005-05-04
Good to be home. Pictures coming soon!
2005-04-21
I have been adding HowTo articles recently. You can see them here. I also updated the pictures section today, before our flight. Flight? Stay tuned...
2005-03-11
We settled on a place, we settled on a date. Ety and I are marrying at Kerem Maharal Beth Sha'arim in the beginning of September.
2005-01-13
The family grew a little today. Say hi to Gush Tzemer!
2005-01-01
I proposed and she accepted! Ety and I are organizing a wedding!
2004-12-14
TerribleFile v0.7 released today. Now it's really coming along nice. I'm also starting to get some traffic from the Free Software Directory for it. Which I know because of my very own TerribleReferrer, which also made it to v0.7 recently.
2004-11-26
TerribleReferrer v0.5 released today. Am I getting carried away?
2004-11-24
TerribleFile v0.5 released today.
2004-11-14
Started studies today. Which probably means less site updates.
2004-10-30
Ety and I moved into our new apartment in Haifa. That means another update to my Contact Info!
2004-10-23
This site is now Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional! And you can check it yourself by clicking on the W3C logo at the bottom of each page.
2004-10-06
Site update. Added pictures of Ety and me. Also lots of backend work and antiSPAM measures. Thanks Broshi for the Hebrew logo!
2004-09-20
Started working today as a guard at the Baha'i World Center.
2004-09-08
Site update. I removed a lot of old content and reorganized. Replaced a lot of old tags with XHTML.
2004-08-11
Moved to Haifa today.
2004-07-28
I left the army today. 27 months of service, finished.
2004-07-04
I met someone today. More details to come...
2004-04-01
This site is back online.