The last time I was forced to install a fresh Linux system on my old laptop, I had opportunity to learn how to steer GRUB to boot a system using a bootloader located on a USB drive. This little trick saved me dozens of hours – until I tried to do the same with a Proxmox VE image, where it initially failed.

Eventually, I made it work. Here’s a short instruction – for me and for you.

When I clone a new project, I put the proper email address (e.g., a company email) as an author email in the local config stored in the repository. It worked fine until I started working for a client whose project is spread across many repositories that I cloned when needed.

I can’t count how many times I forgot to put the correct email into the local config of the newly cloned repository before committing anything into it – just because I was in a rush. In effect, my personal email (which occupies my global configuration) has been leaking many times into commits, sentenced to last forever in the git history. I’ve probably done it more times than I even realize.

To avoid making these mistakes, don’t use a global git configuration for identity.

Some tasks seem easy when we perform them manually, but new things come to light once we want to automate them. What can go wrong if we remove hard spaces from a text file using a script?

If it’s a one-time operation, we run the editor, use the find-and-replace functionality, and that’s enough. Otherwise, we need to find a more automatic-friendly approach.

Some companies send encrypted PDF documents. If you’re a macOS user, Preview will ask you for the password each time you use quick look or open the document. Moreover, if you print that document, you’ll end up with a blank sheet of paper. At least I got it. So secure.

Almost every modern computer has a dedicated menu to choose from which device the system should boot. If not, there is an option in BIOS/UEFI to change that. But what if both options failed for some reason?