(Quick-note) How to fix Virtualbox 7 screen turning black when on fullscreen (or above a specific screen size) on Windows 11

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Context

I have a VM (Virtual Machine) with Ubuntu 22.04 running on VirtualBox 7 on Windows 11. Every time I made the VM screen bigger, at some point the whole VM screen turned black. This also happened when on full-screen.

Solution

You just have to increase the memory of the virtual graphic card to 128 mb. For this the VM should be off (no just suspended) You can also activate 3D.

Virtualbox 7 Black Screen Fix

References

Writing useful books (Template)

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As I wrote in the post on Practical Digital Marketing I found this interesting book structure called "Write Useful Books" and used it to write my new book.

Here is the template I am using for my other book projects. In simple words, I just fill this to get an idea of the book scope. If you are planning to write a book together with others, then I would suggest for each of you to fill this and then get some coffee and compare the answers. You will be surprised (and in the worst case you will prevent wasting time by working on the same book with different purposes).

Read more… (estimated reading time: 4 min)

Digital Marketing Playbook

Comments

This is a work in progress and subject to change

I found a great book about writing useful (practical) technical books called Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick and I found the premise fascinating.

The book itself is like a long FAQ, which makes it easier to read (and I love FAQs).

I always wanted to write a book about marketing, and in the last few years I realized that a practical book on digital marketing for those who work with experts might be interesting. There are many who dont want to become an expert in digital marketing. Learning about Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Contextual Ads, Landing pages and so on is not fast nor easy. But many have to deal with those topics on a daily basis and need to know what to ask, what to control and how to use the information realted to those initiatives. Thus this book. I’m using "Write Useful Books" as a guide to write Practical Digital Marketing (of course, the name can still change).

There is a lot of useful information in Fitzpatrick’s book, but the parts that helped me the most were those regarding the structure and scope of the book.

Read more… (estimated reading time: 4 min)

What you should know about Epilepsy

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1 Context

There are more than 50 million people with Epilepsy [1], yet much regarding this conditions is not that well known.

Some key facts from the World Health Organization

Key facts

  • Epilepsy is a chronic noncommunicable disease of the brain that affects people of all ages.

  • Around 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, making it one of the most common neurological diseases globally.

  • Nearly 80% of people with epilepsy live in low- and middle-income countries.

  • It is estimated that up to 70% of people living with epilepsy could live seizure- free if properly diagnosed and treated.

  • The risk of premature death in people with epilepsy is up to three times higher than for the general population.

  • Three quarters of people with epilepsy living in low-income countries do not get the treatment they need.

  • In many parts of the world, people with epilepsy and their families suffer from stigma and discrimination.

Read more… (estimated reading time: 10 min)

How to configure and use a reiner SCT card reader with a german ID in Linux Mint

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IMPORTANT: You need a PIN to use the card reader. If you don't have it, you can get it from the Bürgeramt. Without the PIN, you can't use the card as an authentication method. If you try to force it, you will block the card, and you will need to get a new one. You have been warned.

Context

The German ID card is a smart card that can be used for authentication in many government websites. In order to use it, you need a card reader. You can use a Smartphone as a SmartReader on Windows and macOS. I haven't tried it to do it on Linux. The other option is to use a card reader. I bought a used a Reiner SCT cyberJack RFID standard from KleinAnzeigen.

In this post, I will explain how to configure and use a Reiner SCT card reader with a German ID in Linux Mint. I am using Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon (Vanessa).

Read more… (estimated reading time: 4 min)

How to auto restart command/ process in Linux after specific run time or duration (quick-note)

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Context

You want to auto-restart a command or process in Linux after specific run time, duration or time period.

For this you can use the timeout command in a while loop.

while true; do
    timeout 10 htop --tree
    true # you have to have true so that the while lop doesn't break. You might also do en echo.
done

where:

  • timeout 10 means 10 seconds
  • htop --tree is the command you want to run

You may also use echo instead of true after the command

while true; do
    timeout 10 htop --tree
    echo "restarting process..."
done

References

  • https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/591040/how-to-repeatedly-stop-and-restart-a-command