Blogs

March 27, 2023

How to reencode H.264 videos to H.265

I had videos in H.264 codec that I wanted to reencode to H.265. The reason is that H.265 (a.k.a. High Efficiency Video Codec, HEVC) is a more modern and efficient format than H.264 (a.k.a. Advanced Video Codec, AVC), which allows to keep the same quality with about twice less storage.

As I make from time to time YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok videos, which I need to backup, it is always good to store your data in the most storage-efficient format.

February 6, 2023

Redirection of stdout and stderr to the same file

Often, when running a program in console, one needs to save all its output to a file. Very often, such a program writes both to the standard output (stdout) and to the standard error output (stderr). For example, by default, in a Python program the print function writes to stdout and the functions of the logging module to stderr. Therefore, one needs to redirect both stdout and stderr to the same file.

December 4, 2022

Get list of open files on external volume in macOS

Sometimes, when you try to eject an external volume (logical part of a disk), macOS fails to do this as some files are still open. Frequently, it is clear what files are open by which program and can be closed. However, not always so.

November 25, 2022

Javascript: control flow

Here we discuss syntax constructions in JavaScript that control the flow of program execution such as conditions for branching and loops to repeat some part of the execution.

November 24, 2022

Javascript: expressions and variables

I was recently studying Javascript out of curiousity as this language is used so much in the current web and mobile development. These are notes on basic Javascript knowledge to better memorize its syntax.

July 3, 2021

How to quickly insert a figure in LyX

I will show one of the user-defined commands that I use in Lyx, a \(\LaTeX\) frontend, to quickly insert figures with captions.

June 28, 2021

Need for software testing

This post discusses how lack of tests can make it difficult to progress in a software project. This happens as at later stages it can become difficult to use components developed earlier if these components are unreliable.

May 15, 2021

Books on writing science

To be successful in academia, it is very important to have a good skill in writing and to write often and productively. Because the good skill in writing is rarely taught, one should learn it from reading books on the topic.

April 24, 2021

Basic terms in the probability theory

Basic terms in probability theory are outcomes, sample space, events, and probability measure.