The Real Goal Is Not Always the Rule
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A small routine can reveal a large parenting lesson: protect the essential goal without turning every harmless preference into a power struggle.
Blog posts
2026
Structure and Repetition Are Better Than Finding Something to Take Away
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Why predictable routines and delayed optional activities teach responsibility better than taking things away to make a child uneasy.
Household Chores and Proportionate Consequences
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A practical framework for helping children contribute at home when they delay or refuse, without turning chores into a power struggle.
Automatically Share MATLAB Engine and Set Its Startup Folder on Ubuntu
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Automatically share a MATLAB desktop session for Python and configure its Ubuntu launcher to open in a chosen project directory.
Connect MATLAB R2020a to Python on Ubuntu
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Use a compatible Python environment and MATLAB Engine API to connect Python to an existing MATLAB R2020a desktop session.
Waydroid Portrait Windows Without Black Bars
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A Waydroid portrait display and a portrait Ubuntu window are different things. Use the right property for each layer.
Play a Sound When Codex Finishes a Task
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Configure a user-wide Codex completion beep on Ubuntu with notify, a small Python event filter, and PipeWire audio playback.
Chinese and English Voice Input on Ubuntu with Fcitx5-VInput and Alibaba Bailian
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Set up Fcitx5-VInput Lite with Alibaba Bailian’s streaming speech recognition and configure a Ctrl + Alt + Shift recording shortcut through the Fcitx5 GUI.
SSH into a VMware Windows Guest Without Giving It Internet Access
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Use VMware Host-only networking to SSH from Ubuntu into a Windows 10 guest, with an optional NAT adapter that stays disconnected when Internet access is unnecessary.
VMware Freezes After Unpause: Disabling 3D Acceleration Fixed It
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A Windows 10 guest appeared frozen after Unpause. Reopening Workstation restored its display, and disabling 3D acceleration made Pause and Unpause work normally again.
Fix an NTFS Dirty Volume That Won’t Mount on Ubuntu
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Ubuntu refused to mount an NTFS partition because its dirty flag was set. Checking it with ntfsfix and clearing the flag restored access without rebooting into Windows.
A VMDK Passed Its Integrity Check but Would Not Boot: Diagnosing Missing Disk Metadata
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A read-only investigation found surviving Windows file records inside a structurally valid VMDK, but missing partition tables and damaged NTFS metadata explained why VMware could not boot it.
Fix Waydroid ARM Apps Freezing at 1000% CPU: Switch from Houdini to libndk
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ARM apps in Waydroid became unusable with 1000–1200% CPU usage. Replacing Houdini with libndk restored normal operation on my Intel machine.
MATLAB Installation Guide for Control-System Work
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A practical MATLAB installer selection for control, physical modeling, state logic, and advanced control workflows.
Fix MATLAB R2020a Installer on Modern Ubuntu: GLib, Pango, and FreeType
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A local, reversible workaround for the MATLAB R2020a installer failing when its old bundled GLib is mixed with Ubuntu’s current Pango stack.
SV660N + MS1 from Scratch: EtherCAT, ROS 2, and a Smooth First Spin
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Fresh Ubuntu 24.04 to a smooth SV660N/MS1 spin: wire the holding brake 24 V, build IgH with –disable-eoe, ROS 2 Jazzy + motor_drive, reach panel _88rn, run a soft CSP demo, and stop without EE081.
Set Dell Battery Charge Limits on Linux with cctk
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| On Dell Latitude 5501, smbios-battery-ctl can read charge limits but cannot set them. Use Dell Command | Configure (cctk) to write Custom:50-80 to the EC. |
Disable Clash Verge Rev Auto Check Update on Ubuntu
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Turn off Clash Verge Rev update checks by setting auto_check_update: false in verge.yaml — a setting the GUI does not expose.
SV660N Keypad Panel Status Codes
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SV660N 5-digit keypad: decode _28ry / AL blink, and panel-as-read faults (E6200, E6400, EE083) mapped to CoE 0x603F/0x203F.
Why ROS 2 Demands System Python (And How to Fix Virtual Environment Conflicts)
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Standard Python virtual environments hide ROS 2 apt packages from colcon. Use –system-site-packages so pip stays isolated while builds can still import em, catkin_pkg, and friends.