Issue #212 / Jul 2018

Can 10 heads in a row really occur in a coin toss? Or, can the lucky numbers in the lottery be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6? We investigate the law of large numbers.

In sys admin columnist Charly's case, no fumbled system startup goes undetected. This was already the case with SysVinit and has not changed with systemd. In terms of the his analysis tools, no stopwatch goes unturned.

The new Raspberry Pi 3 B+ stands out from its predecessor in many respects. Our tests show what the new model can do.

Throw out the cumbersome pencil and paper; you can design, draw, and test digital circuits with Logisim.

Finding ergonomic open source software and hardware can be difficult, but it's becoming easier.

Transfer the contents of audio CDs to your PC and convert the contents of music folders with soundKonverter and fre:ac.

Mermaid lets you create diagrams from simple text-based statements.

Graham explores GnuCash 3, Kawaii-Player 3.3.1, tig, HandBrake 1.1.0, GameMode, XLEngine, and more!

Even in the age of cloud computing, personal computers often hold thousands of files: text files, spreadsheets, word processing docs, configuration files, and HTML files, as well as email and other message formats. If it takes too long to find the file you need, chase it down with the Recoll local search engine.

Minetest is much more than a clone of a certain popular proprietary game. It offers infinite customization that allows you to create blocks, objects, fun educational exercises, and even games within the game, dishing up features well beyond those of any other closed source alternative.