Make Prism.js show line numbers by default (without CSS classes)

• September 16, 2017

For client-side syntax highlighting with Hugo, I think Prism.js is the best of the many options available to web developers. It’s highly configurable, supports plenty of languages, and produces a very attractive-looking end product. There was one bugaboo bothering me, though. One of the Prism features that really impressed me was its ability to put in line numbers in code blocks. This looks good and makes it easier to reference small pieces of code when writing and commenting on it. Read More

How to view academic journal articles off campus using your library's proxy

• January 7, 2017

If you are a student or researcher, you are probably aware that much of the academic research out there is not free to access. However, if you’re affiliated with a university, you may also notice that you can access academic journals and similar content without any effort when you’re connected to your institution’s WiFi.

Suddenly, at home, the journal websites complain that you need to pay up to see the content. Chances are, though, that you can use your library’s proxy to see it.

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How to deploy a Hugo site to DigitalOcean automatically with Wercker

• December 24, 2016

Getting Things Tech recently switched from WordPress to Hugo, the latter of which is a static website generator. Further, we moved our hosting over to DigitalOcean, which makes things very speedy. As we like to do, it’s time to look under the hood and show you how to deploy a Hugo site like this one to DigitalOcean painlessly, with Wercker.

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A Zotero workflow with ZotFile

• November 21, 2014

I’ve talked before about why you should use Zotero, but for many people, it takes some guidance to get it really working for you. This is especially true if you’d like to use a Zotero workflow that involves managing your documents and research more generally. Here’s our primer on using Zotero to organize your documents in addition to using its citation and bibliography-building capabilities. The Zotero add-on called ZotFile will help out, too.

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How to opt out of ad tracking online: A complete guide

• July 24, 2014

We often talk about privacy here at Getting Things Tech and one of the things we are talking about when we say privacy is the massive data collection that goes on as a means to sell more effective advertising. There are pros and cons to this and we generally consent because we are assured that it lets things stay free.

However, when we know the extent to which the NSA and other intelligence organizations are gaining access to any stores of data, it might just make sense to disallow anyone from gathering personal information online, even if it is “just” to target you with ads.

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How to fix jagged font rendering in Google Chrome

• July 6, 2014

Google Chrome has had an aggravating bug for quite a while now in which certain fonts, including some Google fonts, do not work correctly. That is, the text will have a jagged font that isn’t actually how it should look. There is, in fact, a quick fix for this.

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How to use Google News SEO by Yoast

• July 3, 2014

For those who are lucky enough to get their site accepted into Google News, there are still hurdles ahead before the hordes of page views roll in. One of the biggest of those obstacles is, as always, getting SEO right. Google News SEO by Yoast can make this much easier, but you first have to know how to use it.

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Speed up your Windows PC by disabling Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)

• June 29, 2014

Does your Windows PC (XP or higher) ever suddenly slow down to a standstill, despite the fact that you weren’t doing anything different than before? Well, this can be due to a variety of causes.

One of them is the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (aka BITS). This process will start using a great deal of your disk usage and CPU, seemingly out of nowhere. Let’s look at how to diagnose your problem, disable that process, and get your PC speed back.

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A Blogger’s Guide to Free and Legal Images

• June 28, 2014

Bloggers rarely get images right. Those who are weary of copyright infringement often are unsure which, if any, images they can use. There are others who either are unaware of the possibility of copyright infringement or think that any un-watermarked image will do. I want to help demystify this process.

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Android Customization Toolkit: the apps you need

• June 20, 2014

As we begin to push out some new content to help you customize your Android phone’s look, such as our first official app, we want you to know the basics and have the tools to put together our future suggestions. Let’s check out the Getting Things Tech Android Customization Toolkit.

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