Posts

Queen's Gambit (The Series)

Val Paliy

I’ve watched “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix, and I must admit - I love this chess-themed dramatic series! And I am not alone in enjoying this brilliant show about chess and genius, of course. According to this article in “Business Insider”, and I quote:

Netflix said last week that “The Queen’s Gambit” was its biggest limited series yet and was watched by 62 million households worldwide in its first 28 days, sparking a massive surge in chess popularity and chess set sales (a view is counted if an account watches two minutes or more).

How To Change VSCode Theme By Time of Day?

Val Paliy

Eye comfort is very important, especially to programmers, who spend most of their day looking at code in their favorite editor. This programming productivity tip can significantly improve your coding experience and reduce eye strain during long development sessions.

I’ve already mentioned a few themes I like, and today I am going to teach you how to set your editor up in such away that the theme changes automatically depending on what time of day it is. This developer tools automation can greatly enhance your coding comfort throughout different lighting conditions.

Plans For The Nearest Future Of This Blog

Val Paliy

Quick post on my plans for this blog.

Basically, I am planning to recommend you, the reader, what I use myself - be it a computer keyboard I use, a book I’ve read or a coffee brand I like.

On Coding And Artificial Intelligence

Val Paliy

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is revolutionizing technology and software development at the moment, and to no surprise. AI can help humanity in many different areas, such as diagnosing an illness at an early stage with machine learning, or assisting a driver with direction through GPS navigation, or driving you to a desired destination with autonomous vehicles. The integration of AI tools in programming workflows has transformed how developers approach coding and software engineering challenges.

While it is debatable whether or not we should trust AI to take over crucial areas of our lives (have you seen “Terminator?”), one area I found Artificial Intelligence to be particularly useful in is programming and software development workflows. Using the right AI development tools and code completion extensions, you can save yourself a lot of time while coding with AI enabled. These modern developer tools are becoming essential for programming productivity and efficient software development.

It Is Time To Ditch Google Chrome

Val Paliy

While it is true that Google’s Chrome holds the largest number of users to date, I have recently switched to Microsoft’s Edge web browser as a superior alternative for web browsing and performance optimization.

Edge can now use all the extensions I had in Chrome, and Edge has many great features built in which Chrome doesn’t. Like Web Capture, for example. Edge is also faster and loads web pages when Chrome can’t (this was recently discovered by yours truly when my network connection speed dropped due to technical issues on my service provider’s side). This browser comparison shows why many users are switching to Edge for better performance and built-in productivity features.

How To Get macOS Font Rendering In Windows?

Val Paliy

Tell me something - are you happy with how ClearType, the default font renderer in Windows does its job? If you are like me and have to look at your computer screen for the most part of your day, you might prefer something better.

Let me show you something really quick. This is how the fonts are rendered on my Windows machine:

Let's Talk About Fonts (Part 1)

Val Paliy

Let’s face it - as developers we look at code 90% of our time we spend in front of the monitor. While there tons of fonts available for our favorite text editors, both free and paid, I have found one font in particular to be extremely enjoyable for programming productivity and code readability (and believe me - I’ve tried a few).

That is - JetBrains Mono, a free and open source font from the very same company that brought us tools like WebStorm and PyCharm.

What Have I Been Up To Recently?

Val Paliy

If you’ve been following my blog you might have noticed that I haven’t written anything in quite some time. “So, what’s up?”, you might ask.

Well, long story short - lots of things have happened March through May, 2021. Most of them unpleasant to say the least and personal, so I’d rather not disclose the details. However, I’ve also done a few things related to Information Technologies.

How To Delete Unused Google Profile Pictures?

Val Paliy

Ever since Google discontinued Google+ (its social network) there’s no obvious way to delete unused profile pictures from your account. This guide will help you manage your digital identity and clean up your Google account for better online privacy.

However, there’s a workaround I’ve tested personally.

GNU on Windows (GoW) - Linux Commands on Windows

Val Paliy

For a long time the only way to launch Linux commands in Windows was with Cygwin. But Cygwin is rather bulky and can take a long time to download if you are on a slower Internet connection. This cross-platform development challenge has made many programmers seek lightweight alternatives for Linux compatibility on Windows.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love Linux for its stability and reliability. So I was looking for a simpler way to execute Linux commands in Windows, and found it! This development environment setup is perfect for programmers who need system administration tools across different operating systems.