Applications & Tools – eirenicon llc https://eirenicon.org Working together for success! Wed, 22 Jan 2025 21:12:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://i0.wp.com/eirenicon.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-eirenicon-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Applications & Tools – eirenicon llc https://eirenicon.org 32 32 61586100 Considering your Internet security (a tutorial) https://eirenicon.org/2025/01/22/considering-your-internet-security-a-tutorial/ Wed, 22 Jan 2025 21:12:27 +0000 https://eirenicon.org/?p=4239

If you are worried about the tracks you leave when on the Internet, and you should be, here are some decent tests to run:

  • Cover Your Tracks: Fast Test, Good details in the results provided
  • Browser Audit: Extremely detailed tests. This tool runs some 430 tests. My latest test on Chromium shows 390 passed, 38 warnings, 3 skipped tests. No critical or failed tests.
  • Browser Leaks: According to BrowserLeaks; [They represent] “a suite of tools that offers a range of tests to evaluate the security and privacy of your web browser. These tests focus on identifying ways in which websites may leak your real IP address, collect information about your device, and perform a browser fingerprinting.”

By way of providing full disclosure, here’s what I run:

  • My OS of choice these days is arch linux (lts-kernel).
    • I do NOT use Apple Products.
    • I do NOT use Microsoft products. Sorry?!?!
  • I employ two different pieces of browser software:

Here are a couple of plugins I run on my browsers to help enhance privacy and reduce load (speed things up).

  • Ublock Origin (full service offering)- To quote their website “uBlock Origin is not just an “ad blocker“, it’s a wide-spectrum content blocker with CPU and memory efficiency as a primary feature.” As you may know, ads are both annoying and consume valuable Internet bandwidth, while increasing your Carbon Footprint. Ads use {waste) electricity. On Chromium based browsers the following note is relevant: “With the advent of Manifest V3 (MV3), many users are concerned about the future of ad blockers like uBlock Origin. Manifest V3 is a significant update to the Chrome extension platform, introducing changes that impact how extensions interact with web content. Here’s what you need to know about MV3, how it affects uBlock Origin, and what alternatives are available.”
  • Browsec Free VPN (no bells or whistles). It seems simple, masks your location and identity all the while appearing to speed things up. Quoting their site: What you can do with VPN. Stay safe when using public Wi-Fi. Hide personal information. Use a VPN to download any content you want.”
  • Privacy Badger– To quote their plugin “Besides automatic tracker blocking, Privacy Badger replaces potentially useful trackers (video players, comments widgets, etc.) with click-to-activate placeholders, and removes outgoing link click tracking on Facebook and Google, with more privacy protections on the way.”

If you are worried about government intrusion onto your home network and devices here is an article (guide) which details what you can do to make your network safer from intruders. There are numerous additional tutorials and guides on the web should you require or be interested.

]]> 4239 Helpful system tray utilities/applications https://eirenicon.org/helpful-system-tray-utilities-applications/ Mon, 28 Dec 2020 17:05:53 +0000 https://eirenicon.org/?page_id=2601

I have been doing quite a bit of research & tweaking of my dwm (debian and arch-based) installations over the past several weeks. In the process of this work, I have made a few interesting ‘finds’. If you are seeking some handy systray applications, these may be ‘just wat the doctored ordered.’

Note: These applications all run with or without systemd.

Among my systray application finds are:

  • udiskie (a small application) which ‘magically’ mounts plugged-in devices. If you activate udiskie as part of your booting process with the -t option (udiskie -t &) you will get a handy system tray icon. This icon lists any mounted usb/sdram/etc devices and also allows you to safely dismount or simply stop mounted drives.
  • psensor is a useful application for monitoring hardware sensors. This application provides a tray icon (with alarm coloring) to help you manage temperatures, fans and memory consumption/ tracking.
  • fluxgui is a day/ night screen color shifting application. It provides the facility for you to easily tweak and tune your screen’s day/night shifts manually via postal code. For those whose auto geolocation is always inaccurate because of your ISP (like me) this is wonderful. Note: Fluxgui is quite similar to redshift.
  • caffeine (caffeine-ng) is an application that temporarily prevents the activation of both screen saver and “sleep” power-saving mode. This is activated via simple mouse click and allows your machine to stay ‘awake’ while you have it performing unattended tasks.
  • xfce4-power-manager offers complete and reliable (to my mind) power management functionality. It includes the option to access the power managemnt functions via the systray for the purpose of such things as adjusting screen brightness, determining battery charge (laptop & mouse).
  • volumeicon is a quick, convenient tool for activating/ adjusting system audio functions (mute, sound level, sound settings, etc.).

Making these applications is quite simple. Obviously they must first be installed. Then, if you are using a window manager (with autostart scripts) or .xprofile or .xsessionrc as part of your desktop autostart/ “system start” routines you can use the following commands (these are the commands I use to invoke the above functions):

# Caffeine
 /usr/bin/caffeine &
# Light shift
 fluxgui &
# set sound functions
 volumeicon &
# power related functions
 xfce4-power-manager &
# Udikie
 udiskie -t &
# run sensors
 psensor &

The ‘ultimate’ beauty of all of the above are that these applications are light-weight (by my definition), portable across arch & debian distros, and easy to use/ access.

Enjoy!

]]> 2601 Podcasting & Videocasting (Applications) https://eirenicon.org/knowledge-base/podcasting-videocasting-applications/ Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:58:38 +0000 http://eirenicon.org/?page_id=1169 The following list of applications represent a suite of useful Podcasting & Videocasting tools:

  • Audacity (synaptic or mxpi)
  • Open Broadcaster Studio– flatpak install flathub com.obsproject.Studio
  • FFaudioConverter– flatpak install flathub com.github.Bleuzen.FFaudioConverter
  • Avidemux– flatpak install flathub org.avidemux.Avidemux
  • Kdenlive– flatpak install flathub org.kde.kdenlive
  • OpenShot Video Editor– flatpak install flathub org.openshot.OpenShot
  • ardour– (mxpi or synaptic)
  • Kazam– available via synaptic or deb download
]]> 1169 Novel & Manuscript Writing (Applications & Tools) https://eirenicon.org/knowledge-base/novel-manuscript-writing-tools-applications/ Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:56:42 +0000 http://eirenicon.org/?page_id=1167 Writing Tools for larger projects such as Novels, Manuscripts

  • manuskript– http://www.theologeek.ch/manuskript/download/
  • bibisco– https://github.com/andreafeccomandi/bibisco
  • oStorybook– http://ostorybook.tuxfamily.org/index.php?lng=en
  • plume-creator– (available in synaptic)
]]> 1167 Distraction Free Writing (Applications & Tools) https://eirenicon.org/knowledge-base/distraction-free-writing-applications-tools/ Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:40:43 +0000 http://eirenicon.org/?page_id=1165 Distraction Free Writing Tools available include:

Traditional applications:

  • focuswriter– flatpak install flathub org.gottcode.FocusWriter
  • ghostwriter– flatpak install flathub io.github.wereturtle.ghostwriter
  • elpa-fountain-mode– https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/fountain-mode.html
  • Text Room– https://github.com/dbuksbaum/TextRoom
  • Write Space– https://www.linuxlinks.com/Write-Space/

Web-based Browser applications:

  • Calmly Writer– https://www.calmlywriter.com/
  • Draft– https://draftin.com/
]]> 1165 Note Taking (Applications) https://eirenicon.org/knowledge-base/note-taking-applications/ Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:39:08 +0000 http://eirenicon.org/?page_id=1163 Note Taking (available via synaptic and MXPI, on MXLinux):

  • Zim (Wiki) (my favorite)
  • Tomboy
  • gnote
  • cherrytree
  • keepnote
  • nixnote2
  • rednotebook
  • xfce4-notes
]]> 1163 Genealogy (Applications) https://eirenicon.org/knowledge-base/genealogy-applications/ Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:36:43 +0000 http://eirenicon.org/?page_id=1160 The following list of tools (apps) are geared to conducting and tracking genealogical research (available in synaptic and MXPI, on MXLinux):

  • ancestris
  • Gramps
  • lifelines
  • geneweb
]]> 1160