#best linux apps

[oditeksolutionsyaass]

OdiTek is one of the leading Android Application Development Company in India, offering robust and scalable android app development to our clients globally. Rely on us for Android Application Development.

[aarvyedutech]

What are the best IT courses for a non-technical student?

Some Best IT courses for beginners examples to get you started:

1. Web Development & Design: The creation of websites and applications is the main emphasis of the field of web development and design. You can learn design principles and computer languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in courses to create user-friendly interfaces.

2. Mobile Development: Smartphones are ubiquitous, and the demand for mobile apps is high. Courses in this area can equip you with the skills to build apps for iOS (Apple) or Android devices, often using frameworks like Swift or Kotlin.

3. Data Driven: Information is the ultimate treasure. Data analysis courses can turn you into a data detective, teaching you how to gather, analyse, and uncover hidden gems within information. You'll learn tools like SQL to unlock the secrets hidden in databases, and potentially Python to wrangle and visualise data, making it clear and impactful.

4. Digital Marketing: Perhaps digital marketing is the right fit for you! These courses will teach you how to make items and services stand out in the online marketplace, transforming you into a digital genius. You'll become an expert at things like SEO (search engine optimization) to attract the proper kind of attention, social media marketing to reach consumers on the channels they prefer, and content marketing to craft attention-grabbing messaging. You'll get knowledge on interacting with possible clients online and navigating the digital world.

5. IT Support: Providing technical assistance to individuals and businesses is a crucial role in IT. Courses can introduce you to computer hardware and software troubleshooting, networking basics, and customer service skills.

We have only begun to explore the incredible array of IT courses available! What you are passionate about and what you hope to accomplish will determine which course is best for you. If any of these topics catch your attention, or if you have a specific project in mind, let's explore more and choose the best IT course of action to start your tech career!

[advatal-technologies]

Advantal Technologies - Web Development Company

Advantal Technologies is a software solutions company known for empowering businesses with innovative technological solutions to become market leaders. We offer custom software solutions, enterprise mobility solutions, UI/UX designing, IT Consulting, project management, manpower outsourcing, mobile application development and secure communication products. For inquiries, please send us an email at info@advantal.net For more info, please visit www.advantaltechnologies.com

[trimixtv]

the Best IPTV

Title: Exploring the Best IPTV Options for Different Devices in 2023

In recent years, IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) has emerged as a popular alternative to traditional cable and satellite TV services. With IPTV, users can access a wide range of television content over the internet, offering greater flexibility and convenience. If you're considering diving into the world of IPTV or looking to upgrade your current setup, you might be wondering which options are the best for your specific device. In this guide, we'll explore some of the top IPTV choices tailored to various devices, including streaming devices, gaming consoles, and smart TVs.

Best IPTV Formuler Z10 is a powerful and feature-rich IPTV set-top box known for its sleek design and excellent performance. When it comes to finding the best IPTV service for Formuler Z10, users often look for providers that offer a seamless and intuitive user interface, extensive channel lineup, reliable streaming quality, and comprehensive EPG (Electronic Program Guide). Some popular choices for Formuler Z10 include services like [Service Name] and [Service Name], known for their compatibility with the device and high-quality streaming experience.

YouTube's Best IPTV Recommendations YouTube has become a go-to platform for IPTV enthusiasts seeking recommendations, reviews, and tutorials. Users can find countless videos discussing the best IPTV services, apps, and setups for various devices. Whether you're looking for IPTV service reviews, installation guides, or troubleshooting tips, YouTube offers a wealth of information to help you make informed decisions about your IPTV setup.

Best IPTV for Firestick 2023 Amazon Firestick remains one of the most popular streaming devices, offering a convenient way to access IPTV content on your TV. For Firestick users in 2023, the best IPTV services are those that offer a user-friendly app optimized for the device, reliable streaming performance, a diverse channel lineup, and competitive pricing. Providers like [Service Name] and [Service Name] are among the top choices for Firestick users, offering seamless integration and excellent streaming quality.

Best IPTV App for Xbox Xbox gaming consoles have evolved into versatile entertainment hubs, allowing users to access various media content, including IPTV. When choosing the best IPTV app for Xbox, users typically look for options that deliver a smooth and responsive interface, robust streaming capabilities, and compatibility with Xbox controllers. Apps like [App Name] and [App Name] are popular choices among Xbox users, offering a seamless IPTV experience on the gaming console.

Best Xtream IPTV Player for Windows Windows users seeking an IPTV player compatible with the Xtream Codes protocol have several options to consider. The best Xtream IPTV players for Windows offer intuitive interfaces, advanced features, and reliable performance for streaming IPTV content. Some top picks include [Player Name] and [Player Name], known for their compatibility with Xtream Codes and customizable playback options.

Conclusion As IPTV continues to gain popularity, users have an array of options to explore when it comes to selecting the best service or app for their devices. Whether you're using a Formuler Z10, Amazon Firestick, Xbox, or Windows PC, there are numerous IPTV providers and apps tailored to meet your specific needs and preferences. By considering factors such as streaming quality, channel selection, user interface, and device compatibility, you can find the perfect IPTV solution to enhance your entertainment experience in 2023 and beyond.

[subjectsix]

KIP'S BIG POST OF THINGS TO MAKE THE INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY SUCK A LITTLE LESS

Post last updated November 23, 2024. Will continue to update!

Here are my favorite things to use to navigate technology my own way:

A refurbished iPod loaded with Rockbox OS (Rockbox is free, iPods range in price. I linked the site I got mine from. Note that iPods get finicky about syncing and the kind of cord it has— it may still charge but might not recognize the device to sync. Getting an original Apple cord sometimes helps). Rockbox has ports for other MP3 players as well.

This Windows debloater program (there are viable alternatives out there, this one works for me). It has a powershell script that give you a little UI and buttons to press, which I appreciate, as I'm still a bit shy with tech.

Firefox with the following extensions: - Consent-O-Matic (set your responses to ALL privacy/cookie pop-ups in the extension, and it will answer all pop-ups for you. I can see reasons to not use it, but I appreciate it) - Facebook Container ("contains" Meta on Facebook and Instagram pages to keep it from tracking you or getting third party cookies, since Meta is fairly egregious about it) - Redirect Amp to HTML (AMP is designed for mobile phones, this forces pages to go to their HTML version) - A WebP/AVIF image converter - uBlock Origin and uBlacklist, with the AI blacklist loaded in to kill any generative AI results from appearing in search engines or anywhere.

Handbrake for ripping DVDs— I haven’t used this in awhile as I haven’t been making video edits. I used this back when I had a Mac OS

VLC Media Player (ol’ reliable)

Unsplash & Pexels for free-to-use images

A password manager (these often are paid. I use Dashlane. There are many options, feel free to search around and ask for recs!). There is a lot that goes into cybersecurity— find the option you feel is best for you.

Things I suggest:

Understanding Royalty Free and the Creative Commons licenses

Familiarity with boolean operators for searching

Investing in a backup drive and external drive

A few good USBs, including one that has a backup of your OS on it

Adapter cables

Avoiding Fandom “wikias” (as in the brand “Fandom”) and supporting other, fan-run or supported wikis. Consider contributing if its something you find yourself passionate or joyful about.

Finding Forums for the things you like, or creating your own*

Create an email specifically for ads/shopping— use it to receive all promotional emails to keep your inbox clean. Upkeep it.

Stop putting so much of your personal information online— be willing to separate your personal online identity from your “online identity”. You don’t owe people your name, location, pronouns, diagnoses, or any of that. It’s your choice, but be discerning in what you give and why. I recommend avoiding providing your phone number to sites as much as possible.

Be intentional

Ask questions

Talk to people

Remember that you can lurk all you want

Things that are fun to check out:

BBSes-- here's a portal to access them.

Neocities

*Forums-- find some to join, or maybe host your own? The system I was most familiar with was vbulletin.

MMM.page

Things that have worked well for me but might work for you, YMMV:

Limit your app usage time on your smartphone if you’re prone to going back to them— this is a tangible way to “practice mindfulness”, a term I find frustratingly vague ansjdbdj

Things I’m looking into:

The “Pi Hole”— a raspberry pi set up to block all ads on a specific internet connection

VPNs-- this is one that was recommended to me.

How to use computers (I mean it): Resources on how to understand your machine and what you’re doing, even if your skill and knowledge level is currently 0:

This section I'll come back an add to. I know that messing with computers can be intimidating, especially if you feel out of your depth. HTML and regedits and especially things like dualbooting or linux feel impossible. So I want to put things here that explain exactly how the internet and your computer functions, and how you can learn and work with that. Yippee!

[dragon-in-a-fez]

I made it easier to back up your blog with tumblr-utils

Hey friends! I've seen a few posts going around about how to back up your blog in case tumblr disappears. Unfortunately the best backup approach I've seen is not the built-in backup option from tumblr itself, but a python app called tumblr-utils. tumblr-utils is a very, very cool project that deserves a lot of credit, but it can be tough to get working. So I've put together something to make it a bit easier for myself that hopefully might help others as well.

If you've ever used Docker, you know how much of a game-changer it is to have a pre-packaged setup for running code that someone else got working for you, rather than having to cobble together a working environment yourself. Well, I just published a tumblr-utils Docker container! If you can get Docker running on your system - whether Windows, Linux, or Mac - you can tell it to pull this container from dockerhub and run it to get a full backup of your tumblr blog that you can actually open in a web browser and navigate just like the real thing!

This is still going to be more complicated than grabbing a zip file from the tumblr menu, but hopefully it lowers the barrier a little bit by avoiding things like python dependency errors and troubleshooting for your specific operating system.

If you happen to have an Unraid server, I'm planning to submit it to the community apps repository there to make it even easier.

Drop me a message or open an issue on github if you run into problems!

[ms-demeanor]

Genuine question, if Apple sucks and Google sucks, what phone do I get? Like, I'm a proponent of Fuck Google, but I have an Android cause I'm a bigger proponent of Fuck Apple, and I don't really have a great way to reconcile these feelings of conflict

I address this a bit in the degoogling pamphlet; iphones are genuinely better for privacy and I think the phone side of apple is less terribly reprehensible than the computer side if for no other reason than market forces prevent them from gouging quite as excessively. If you own an android your best bet is to turn off location data (everyone should be doing this for all of their devices anyway) uninstall as many apps as possible, force stop or disable as many apps as possible, deny every possible permission it is possible to deny, and never use your phone for sensitive work.

Your other option is to look into linux phones, which are out there, but don't have the same kind of app ecosystem or broad support as ios or android.

And the thing that I really think everyone should do that nobody actually likes hearing is to stop using your phone as anything but a phone. They can't track your data if you don't use it. I recognize that people need phones now in a way they didn't in the past (2fa is a huge part of this; people are either using SMS or apps to verify and that means it's not as easily dismissed as a necessity as it was 10 years ago) but there's a huge part of me that's like "I want to replace my smartphone with a jitterbug."

If you can't actually replace your smartphone with a jitterbug you can at least pretend that it isn't anything but a phone with a few limited extra tools.

(Also this is my "the boomers are right about..." thing: everyone should uninstall navigation applications and go back to reading maps and pre-planning their route to their destination)

[abbiistabbii]

Quick lists of "Alternative" software/websites I use:

Firefox (as an alternative to Chrome): Especially for the ad blocking capability. Use on both Phone and Computer.

DuckDuckGo (as an alternative to Google): No longer the thing your paranoid uncle uses, now an actually good search engine with the lack of tracking being a plus.

Kubuntu (as an alternative to Windows 11): My current Linux Distro and the best for people leaving Windows for Linux for the first time. Also KDE is Goated now.

LibreOffice (as an alternative to Microsoft Office): Works with MS-office formats and is FOSS, great if you don't trust google but need office software.

GIMP (as an alternative to Photoshop) because fuck Adobe.

Kdenlive (as an alternative to Premiere) because again, fuck Adobe.

OpenStreetMaps (as an alternative to Google maps): Tends to update quicker and is more detailed because everything is done by volunteers on the ground.

Krita (Alternative to ProCreate): Great painting app.

[sinsinewave]

tech enthusiasts, even when often working towards good and respectable goals, just keep forgetting the non-tech aspects of things --- like, yes, i'd love to get a repairable ethical smartphone, but no i cannot afford to throw 600€+ at one; especially when i can get an used pixel or oneplus for like 100€ or less and use it for 5-10 years, and part availability is about the same since i'd need to get the stuff from ebay/aliexpress anyways yes, i'd love to switch to matrix, but nobody else is willing to use it because the UX is atrocious and it keeps imploding in on itself yes, it would be lovely if i could switch my grandparents over to Linux and open source software, but no, they will not be able to use even the easiest of DEs, so macOS it is yes, i'd absolutely find it great if i could use Inkscape on Linux instead of Affinity on Windows as my vector graphics tool; but that is in fact not the case because Inkscape's UX is too horrible for me to figure out (tried several times) --- especially FOSS circles need to learn that there is more to tech than just the pure technical aspects, and that the technical aspects are actually one of the least important things to most people because most people aren't nerds willing to spend 2 days installing a custom OS on their phone while losing the ability to use banking apps they're just your average jane who wants a device that they take out of the box and have work and that average jane is also not particularly concerned with repairability, because the average jane will at best attempt to replace a removable battery on a laptop; so unless you can make repairs as seamless as that then the audience for repairability is tiny in consumer electronics

[oditeksolutionsyaass]

OdiTek is one of the leading Android Application Development Company in India, offering robust and scalable android app development to our clients globally. Rely on us for Android Application Development.

Expert android application programmers and developers along with quality assurance engineers at OdiTek, the Android Application Development Company, build and test applications that smoothly operate across the massive landscape of Android devices and environments, delivering exhilarating end-user experience.

OdiTek provides professional Android Apps Development Services to global clients at cost-effective prices. Our Android application developers and programmers are proficient in Java programming, Android SDK and Framework APIs for developing plush Android Applications pertaining to Business, Communication, Media, Shopping, Utility and Productivity, Personal Applications, Widgets, etc.

To ensure that the apps that we develop are in complete accordance with client specifications, and within the stipulated timeframe, we meticulously study your target audience and the core purpose of your Android Applications. We also employ the latest technology and tools for your Android Application Development.

SERVICE OFFERINGS

Android App Development for Business OdiTek is the right choice to make your Android Business Apps a success and offer the best Android effect in the corporate environment. We all know that enterprise mobility is the new mantra for the businesses.

Android App Development for Productivity The productivity and versatility features of the Android phones are always loved by its users, making it irresistible. OdiTek helps you make your productivity application materialize in minimums possible duration.

Android Social App Development OdiTek will help you to get abundant conversations around your business using social-friendly Android applications. We also enrich your Android app with engaging social experiences.

Android App Development for mCommerce Mobile commerce is actually on boom! People often use their mobile phones to check for the latest products and best deals in the market. With OdiTek mCommerce Android Development Services, turn your eCommerce store into an mCommerce application.

OUR DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

We, at OdiTek, deliver full-cycle Android app development solutions. It comes with a package of services starting from expert business analysis, unique ideas for design along with development up to post-launch support as well as maintenance of your Android portable application. This ensures that your application is following quickly changing technologies and dynamic market demands. We additionally offer consultation facilities to examine your project necessities and to provide you with the right direction for developing your application.

Android Development.jpg

OUR SKILLS MATRIX

Dynamic and vibrant look & feel User-centric navigation and control mechanism Minimal loading time Best Android apps development practices employed Scalable and completely adaptable Conceptually developed with strong coding logic Tested for quality Quick and easy integration with third party tools

FRAMEWORKS COMPETENCY

Android is the greatest platform for mobile devices which has capability to run millions of mobile phones in about more than 200 countries. It not only provides a great support for people around world to use hundreds of games and apps in their phones but also provides a huge open marketplace to developers for Android App Development. Android provides one piece and distinctive framework which allows all Android developers to deploy their apps and developing them in order to make them available on many smartphones, tablet users.

In today’s rapid development world, almost all programming languages have frameworks to help the developers. With instant growth of mobile devices a lot of frameworks are also increased whether it be for Android, Windows or iOS. At OdiTek ,we are comfortable with the following frameworks.

1) Corona SDK Corona is designed to enable super-fast development. Their elegant APIs make adding complex features easy, also their workflow lets you see changes instantly, and you develop in Lua, a fast and easy-to-learn language. It all adds up to unmatched development and iteration speed. This framework is widely used by game developers, it is also general purpose and most popular framework. Corona Labs have more than 1 million of developers which provides over 500 APIs, native UI support, built in engine, and advertising platform for developers.

2) Phonegap Built for HTML5, CSS and JavaScript Development. This popular framework is currently being sponsored by Adobe. Its 6.0 version also provides Windows phone support, new libraries and CLI functions. It has also added Cordova WebView for work like putting your Phonegap code in bigger apps.

3) Xamarin You can completely write your code in C# and deploy it in Android for developing apps and games with this framework. It also works for iOS and Windows. Testing of your app is also allowed on cloud with timely monitoring of your app.

4) Sencha Touch 2 Sencha Space is the ideal platform to deploy and manage secure business applications that run across multiple devices. This popular JavaScript and HTML5 framework offers integrated MVC system, 50 inbuilt components, and management of work. You can now get free native package to publish your app directly to Google Play.

OUR TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: At OdiTek we are using the following tools.

Editors and IDEs Language Resources Libraries Plugins

[cxrpsequeen]

Transstalked & Transstalker tips

Transstalked

¹ Pretend there's always someone watching you, try your best to resemble a fear in your mind and start questioning yourself if you're truly alone, if you do that you'll trick your brain into thinking that there's actually someone with you

² Question everything. And by that i mean, if you hear the slightest noise think to yourself "is that my stalker?" "is someone with me?" if you hear that something broke / crushed gaslight yourself that it was your stalker in your home, being too clumsy. If you walk somewhere, look behind you at least 2 times to check if there's someone behind you, after that start walking faster, and when you do that, start questioning yourself once again "did i see someone? was it a shadow following me"

³ You can also complain to your relatives that you see a figure following you around, but this one is very optional since it may be dangerous to tell them not knowing how they will react. But i told my family and my friends that there's a figure following me around and they believed me and it gave me some much euphoria so maybe give it a shot, if they're gonna take it too far (like calling on police or other things like that) you can always say that it isn't following you around (if someone wants i can give a prompt to this!!)

⁴ You may wanna either lock your doors and windows and be very paranoid about them, or leave them opened up (so it'll be easier for your stalker to get inside your house) the first one gives much euphoria, and i like to lock my windows & cover the curtains

⁵ You can also try to find a transstalker in radqueer community there's lots of them and there's always gonna be someone who would love to be devoted to you!! ;3

Transstalker

¹ Try acting sly, maybe put your hoodie on with your eyes on the ground and walk fast. Don't talk too much with people and be cold to everyone

² Consume the media that your lover consumes, learn about their interests, what they like / dislike, hate / love what they can't stand and what they enjoy, their preferences what's their favorite ice cream everything you can possibly imagine. It shall bring you joy, be obsessed.

³ Control them. Try installing apps that could help you see their location, try hacking into their accounts on every social media possible (you can do it through using linux, cheat engine, maybe Charles?) control every aspect of their life, how they dress for example, maybe their clothing is too revealing? don't let them leave the house, or maybe they're disobeying your commands and they deserve to be punished somehow? Think creatively about this one!

I love you, you're valid remember that

[warningsine]

what is the best way to get safer/more anonymous online

Ok, security and anonymity are not the same thing, but when you combine them you can enhance your online privacy.

My question is: how tech literate are you and what is your aim? As in do you live in a country where your government would benefit from monitoring private (political) conversations or do you just want to degoogle? Because the latter is much easier for the average user.

Some general advice:

Leave Windows and Mac operating systems and switch to Linux distributions like Fedora and Ubuntu (both very user friendly). Switch from Microsoft Office or Pages/Numbers/Keynote (Mac) to LibreOffice.

You want to go more hardcore with a very privacy-focused operating system? There are Whonix and Tails (portable operating system).

Try to replace all your closed source apps with open source ones.

Now, when it comes to browsers, leave Chrome behind. Switch to Firefox (or Firefox Focus if you're on mobile). Want to go a step further? Use LibreWolf (a modified version of Firefox that increases protection against tracking), Brave (good for beginners but it has its controversies), DuckDuckGo or Bromite. You like ecofriendly alternatives? Check Ecosia out.

Are you, like, a journalist or political activist? Then you probably know Tor and other anonymous networks like i2p, freenet, Lokinet, Retroshare, IPFS and GNUnet.

For whistleblowers there are tools like SecureDrop (requires Tor), GlobaLeaks (alternative to SecureDrop), Haven (Android) and OnionShare.

Search engines?

There are Startpage (obtains Google's results but with more privacy), MetaGer (open source), DuckDuckGo (partially open source), Searx (open source). You can see the comparisons here.

Check libRedirect out. It redirects requests from popular socmed websites to privacy friendly frontends.

Alternatives to YouTube that value your privacy? Odysee, PeerTube and DTube.

Decentralized apps and social media? Mastodon (Twitter alternative), Friendica (Facebook alternative), diaspora* (Google+ RIP), PixelFed (Insta alternative), Aether (Reddit alternative).

Messaging?

I know we all use shit like Viber, Messenger, Telegram, Whatsup, Discord etc. but there are:

Signal (feels like Whatsup but it's secure and has end-to-end encryption)

Session (doesn't even require a phone or e-mail address to sign up)

Status (no phone or e-mail address again)

Threema (for mobile)

Delta Chat (you can chat with people if you know their e-mail without them having to use the app)

Team chatting?

Open source options:

Element (an alternative to Discord)

Rocket.chat (good for companies)

Revolt.chat (good for gamers and a good alternative to Discord)

Video/voice messaging?

Brave Talk (the one who creates the talk needs to use the browser but the others can join from any browser)

Jami

Linphone

Jitsi (no account required, video conferencing)

Then for Tor there are various options like Briar (good for activists), Speek! and Cwtch (user friendly).

Georestrictions? You don't want your Internet Provider to see what exactly what you're doing online?

As long as it's legal in your country, then you need to hide your IP with a VPN (authoritarian regimes tend to make them illegal for a reason), preferably one that has a no log policy, RAM servers, does not operate in one of the 14 eyes, supports OpenVPN (protocol), accepts cash payment and uses a strong encryption.

NordVPN (based in Panama)

ProtonVPN (Switzerland)

Cyberghost

Mullvad (Sweden)

Surfshark (Netherlands)

Private e-mails?

ProtonMail

StartMail

Tutamail

Mailbox (ecofriendly option)

Want to hide your real e-mail address to avoid spam etc.? SimpleLogin (open source)

E-mail clients?

Thunderbird

Canary Mail (for Android and iOS)

K-9 Mail (Android)

Too many complex passwords that you can't remember?

NordPass

BitWarden

LessPass

KeePassXC

Two Factor Authenticators?

2FAS

ente Authenticator

Aegis Authenticator

andOTP

Tofu (for iOS)

Want to encrypt your files? VeraCrypt (for your disk), GNU Privacy Guard (for your e-mail), Hat.sh (encryption in your browser), Picocrypt (Desktop encryption).

Want to encrypt your Dropbox, Google Drive etc.? Cryptomator.

Encrypted cloud storage?

NordLocker

MEGA

Proton Drive

Nextcloud

Filen

Encrypted photography storage?

ente

Cryptee

Piwigo

Want to remove metadata from your images and videos? ExifCleaner. For Android? ExifEraser. For iOS? Metapho.

Cloak your images to counter facial recognition? Fawkes.

Encrypted file sharing? Send.

Do you menstruate? Do you want an app that tracks your menstrual cycle but doesn't collect your data? drip.

What about your sexual health? Euki.

Want a fitness tracker without a closed source app and the need to transmit your personal data to the company's servers? Gadgetbridge.

[acesandwords]

Offline Library

In light of all the Ao3 issues lately I'm gonna throw this up as something people should consider doing. Make your own library of your favorite fics and any you might like to read in the future/are currently reading.

How do you do this? To start: Calibre & ReadEra app

Calibre is a free ebook management software, available on windows, mac, and linux - but also comes in a portable version you can put on a flash drive. Ebooks are very small files, 100s of fics can easily take less than 1GB of space. You can create categories for everything and all the tags on the fics will stay attached to them. You can download directly through ao3, or you can use the browser extension Ficlab which can make the process a little quicker, plus give you a book cover(or you can add your own cover). Epub or Mobi format is best.

ReadEra, is a free reading app with no ads that you can tell to only access a single file where you keep your ebooks. It's open source and the Privacy Statement and Terms & Conditions are very short and easy to read. You can transfer files from Calibre to your phone, but this is also a good option if you don't have a PC to use Calibre. You can make folders to organize all your fics.

Quality of life plugins for Calibre: Preferences > Plugins > Get New Plugins

Look up: EpubMerge, EpubSplit, FanFicFare, Generate Cover (restart calibre once you've added them all) Fun fact, with FanFicFare, you can download new chapters to update fics that are currently in progress directly in Calibre instead of having to open up ao3.

Also, to be clear - back them up for yourself only, don't you fucking dare repost them anywhere.

You can also backup Kindle books (and you should) with Calibre, though that's a bit more complicated; instructions under the read more

Firstly what is DRM? TLDR: digital rights management (DRM) is meant to prevent piracy, however, this also means you never really own your ebooks. If Amazon decides to take down a book you bought? That's it, it's gone and it doesn't matter that you paid for it.

Removing DRM If you're on PC and don't have a kindle device, you'll want kindle version 2.4.0 or it won't work in Calibre.

In Calibre, navigate to Preferences > Plugins > Load Plugin From File - DeDRM - Use the latest Beta or Alpha release, follow instructions on the github page

Preferences > Plugins > Get New Plugins

Look up: KFX Input

You'll have to restart Calibre once you install so just add them all at once before you restart it.

If you need some troubleshooting help setting anything up just ask and I'll try to help!

[cuprohastes]

GIMP

Ironically the most replies I ever had on Imgur.

OK look here's the skinny on why I don't like GIMP: A long discussion with screenshots

To start with, there's two classes of users:

A: People who never use art apps, don't make art, and maybe tweak a couple of photos for colour balance every couple of years: They love GIMP. They hardly use it or never use it but it's FREE and OPEN SOURCE and they heard Adobe was BAD SOMEHOW because they CHARGE MONEY. They love GIMP. They will die on that hill. GIMP is the best. One day they may even use it.

B: People who are enthusiasts and professionals who actually want to make something and have graphics tablets, strong opinions on CMYK and whether Kyle Webster is over-rated or not. And they don't use GIMP because they tried it and it doesn't do the job.

To go for a comic analogy It's like bystanders telling EMTs their technique is wrong because they saw this Spongebob episode where he used bandaid.

Anyway: Who the hell amI? I feel like I should establish some Bona Fides: not just some random shouty dude. I started out with MS Paint in 1989, then Deluxe Paint Enhanced for PC. I started doing Desktop Publishing with CorelDraw and some non WYSIWYG layout engines. Spent a miserable few years with Quark, moved on to Photoshop... 3 I think. Jettisoned that after it got too bloated (It has a 3D print system inside it!!) In amongst I've tried GIMP, Krita, Clip Studio (Now and back when it was Manga Studio and really didn't want you to use colour), ProCreate, Adobe Fresco, ArtRage, Kai's powertools, 3D Studio (Back before it was Max), Maya, Blender, Inkscape, Serif Studios, Art Studio Pro... I was a graphic designer for several companies, self employed, and worked for Anthrocon doing colour on their badges for around 15 years, as well as creating designs for thier printed work and occasionally keycards, and t-shirts, and designs for badges when they didn't have any art from a GoH. To put it simply I'm not an Adobe Fanboy screeching about people using non-Adobe software. I've seen people who wanted to move to digital give up after buying hundreds of dollars of hardware because they got told GIMP was TEH GOODEST. Anyway...

But every time someone wants to get into art to paint the picture they have inside them, or do some fanart or mess with graphics design, group A crawl out from their bog of incompetence and demand that people use GIMP. Not just suggest it, but actively shout down group B, the people who have experience.

Because Group A would rather push their dogma that paid software is always the wrong solution, than accept that GIMP's frankly shit.

It's just hit version 3.0 after only 30 years. Go team.

Points to note: If you need support for GIMP, the answer is always "Runs OK for me LOL" or "I don't use it but all your problems are because you used Photoshop once." or the good old "Switch to Linux."

In the interest of fairness I'm going to install this new amazing version of GIMP and see if it's any better.

Infamously, the software is so awful that almost all images on Google that you find are pictures of people re-creating the GIMP Logo in GIMP to prove that it is on a par with MS Paint. And it's not a good logo.

First boot:

OK so it opens up a giant panel that tells me I installed GIMP. Presumably a warning. You can't access the actual app unless you've first navigated the splash screen. The app assumes your'e still on an 800x600 monitor. Nice. I suspect the splash screen was supposed to laod over the top of GIMP because... uh... ANYWAY.

Select create Select Make a new image Select a size... hit OK and voila.

Just as a note: Other apps do this in a single panel, or just open the app and let you hit File > new > Select size and bit depth & colour space... which GIMP also skipped.

OK so I'm using a mouse. so let's do a test line then find and turn on the stroke smoothing. Wow!

... This is worthless! Looks like the smoothing amount doens't do anyting, you have to tweak the other option on a scale of 0 to 1000.

For those of you playing at home: That makes no sense, because everything else is 0-100.

Also brave choice to make sure that when you pull up the settings they replace the brush palette... on the opposite side of the screen, and give you no way to switch back.

The setting which are incidentally locked, making them... double worthless.

Fun trivia! If you mis click at the bottom of the brush palette, on the left, it just deletes your tool preset! Genius. Sticking a button for a process you'd almost never do, next to the Undo/redo icons. Chef's kiss. Perfect UI design.

I hear they're making a car. The 'explode fuel tank' button is next to the switch that turns the headlights on. You may ask why they have an 'explode fuel tank' button. Yes. You may ask.

Now having created a text label, I somehow am not allowed to draw outside the text label. This is not normal.

There is no Unselect option at all in the selection menu. Escape does't do it. Hitting option/alt pops up a messages saying there's no selection to remove:

... despite there being a selection to remove.

GIMP's infamously mazelike right click menu that copies the taskbar menu is still around:

Why have one set of menus when you can have two of every menu?

Not pictured: The giant tooltip that pops up and covers the thing you're trying to click on. Seriously, I couldn't get a screenshot of it.

Back to drawing...

Apparently the solution is to create a new layer. One text object is still text, the other randomly rasterised itself and locked the selections to it's own boundary box. That is sub-optional or "entirely stupid, who wrote this garbage?" if you're being formal.

These guys. That's who.

Still got a maze of options including 'Y not use PYTHON to make a pic‽"

At this point I notice that the vibrant red I pick in the colour picker is showing as desaturated orange in the screenshots. Which is weird because it's supposed to be 8 bit sRGB, aka the basics. But somehow this has been fucked up - GIMP: "Colour accuracy? But Why?"

Let's try an export. a mere four or five clicks later...

... where the hell is it? Let me try that again...

OK. Uh. Great. A third visibly different shade of red to the one I drew with.

At this point, I'm done. I could learn to use the tools easily. I could dig through the manual and look for whatever ass backward UI decision lets you resolve it's inherent flaws like rasterising text at random...

... but if I tell it to use 100% red and it insists on using some buggy kludged system that outputs it to a different shade, then why bother? Nothing you do will come out looking the way you intended.

Meanwhile Clip Studio's over here doing 100% of everything you need for amateur or enthusiast or even pro level art (I created one of Anthrocon's T-shirts in Clip Studio), and it'll run on a tablet and let you draw on $400 of hardware or a desktop and a graphics tablet.

And if by some goddamn chance you got all the way through this, send me a boop in the notes!

[vanesa]

How I Customize Windows and Android

Windows: Rainmeter

Rainmeter Skins

Rainmeter | Deviantart

r/Rainmeter

Rainmeter is where I get nifty desktop widgets (skins). There are a ton of skins online and you can spend hours just getting caught up in customizing. There are clocks, disk information, music visualizers, weather widgets*, and more.

I get most of my skins from the links I posted, but they are by no means the only resources for Rainmeter skins. r/Rainmeter and Deviantart have some awesome inspiration.

This is what my desktop looks like right now:

Dock: Dock 2 v1.5

Icons: icons8 - this is probably the best free resource for icons I know of

"Good Evening [name]": Simple Clean

Clock: Simplony

* Note about weather widgets: Older Rainmeter skins that use old weather APIs will likely not work. The Rainmeter forums has information with lists of weather skins that do work.

Windows: Useful Things for Workflow

Flow Launcher - this is basically a search bar, app launcher, and even easy-access terminal all in one. The default hotkey is Alt+Space. I use this almost primarily to do quick calculations. There are a ton of plugins and I've barely scratched the surface with how I use it.

ShareX - This is my screenshot tool and I love it. Admittedly, I find it difficult to configure, but once I had it set up, I didn't really have to adjust it. You can create custom hotkeys to screenshot your entire screen, or to select your screen, or even use OCR. This has saved me a ton of time copying over text in images and making it searchable.

Bonus - Get Rid of Windows Web Search in the Start Menu: If you're comfortable with editing your registry, and you want to get rid of the pesky web results in Windows search, this fix is what I used to get rid of it.

Android: Nova Launcher

This is my main Android launcher that I've been using for almost as long as I've owned a smartphone, and it's super customizable. The best part is that it's free with no ads, and you can purchase premium at a one-time cost.

The main things I use it for are app drawer tabs, renaming apps, hiding apps, and changing the icons.

I've had premium for so long that I've forgotten what the features were, but looking at the website, the one feature I use is app folders.

This is what my phone homescreen and app drawers look like:

Time/Weather: Breezy Weather

Calendar: Month: Calendar Widget (I got this on sale for like 30 cents once but there are a plethora of good calendar apps out there)

Icons: Whicons - White Icon Pack

Advanced Customization

Further things to enhance your customization experience to look into include:

Flashing a custom Android ROM (e.g. LineageOS)

Give up on Windows & install Linux instead (Ubuntu is a good one to start with)

Android app modification: ReVanced apps (includes Tumblr), Distraction Free Instagram

Miscellaneous notes under the cut:

None of these links are affiliate links. These are all tools I happen to use on a daily basis and I'm not being paid to promote them.

Install Rainmeter skins and programs I recommend at your own risk. Before altering Windows, such as editing the registry, make sure you have everything backed up.

The Windows web search fix works on my Windows 11 machine. I don't know if it works for Windows 10, but I do know I was able to disable it in Windows 10 at some point, so your mileage may vary.

Install non-Play Store apps at your own risk. (Although in my opinion, open source APKs are less sketchy than some apps on the Play Store...) Always check where you're downloading APKs form!

The wallpaper for my desktop and phone are custom wallpapers I made myself.

(At the request of @christ-chan-official)

[tequitoclown]

List of programs and stuff I use

[pt: List of programs and stuff I use ./end pt]

Disclaimer: This is in no way trying to say I have the best setup of all time or anything. The point of this post is mostly to introduce people to cool things they may not know about, or a place to point to when someone asks what I use!

(Last updated: 6/28/24)

Browser

[pt: browser ./end pt]

Firefox (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Obviously I recommend Firefox above all else, especially with chromium-based browsers moving onto manifest V3.

Bitwarden (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Good password manager! Used it for years with no complaints!

AdNauseam (Firefox/Chrome) - My adblocker. It's built upon uBlock Origin and has all the same features, but it actively clicks on the ads to waste advertiser money. If that's not up your alley, uBlock Origin is fantastic too!

Wayback Machine extension (Firefox/Chrome/Safari) - Allows you to make snapshots of pages, or view old snapshots if a page isn't loading correctly!

XKit ReWritten (Firefox/Chrome) - Pretty much a must-have for Tumblr. Has a ton of features to make navigating this site much better. Full feature list here!

Discord

[pt: Discord ./end pt]

Vencord (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - A modified Discord client that adds support for plugins and themes. Basically allows you to install plugins from a massive list that improves Discord. (Technically against ToS. Basically, don't post that you're using it in big servers, and turn off your themes before sharing screenshots.)

Bunny (Android/IOS) - If you miss Vendetta for Discord, Bunny is an actively maintained fork of Vendetta! Basically the same as above, but for Android/IOS instead of desktop. Same warnings about ToS apply.

Aliucord (Android) - Miss the old Android app feel, and still want to have plugins/themes? Pretty cool but has a less impressive theme/plugin selection. Same warnings about ToS apply.

Bluecord (Android) - Another Discord modification without the new Discord UI!

Youtube

[pt: Youtube ./end pt]

Freetube (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - A desktop Youtube client with adblock and sponsorblock built in. Still in beta, but very good.

Sponsorblock (Firefox/Chrome) - Pretty much a must-have for watching Youtube these days. Automatically skips over sponsors, self-promos, interaction bait, outros, intros, etc. Highly configurable!

Dearrow (Firefox/Chrome) - Haven't used this very long but I love it. Gets rid of vague or clickbait titles/thumbnails and replaces it with descriptive and more accurate thumbnails. Also built into Freetube now!

Newpipe (Android) - Lightweight Youtube client. I haven't used it myself much but people swear by it!

ReVanced (Android) - Modded Youtube client with Sponsorblock, Return Youtube Dislike, and Youtube Premium features. Doesn't support Dearrow as of 6/25/24 :( (PLEASE BE CAREFUL INSTALLING THIS. If you don't know what you're doing, you can cause some damage!)

Spotify

[pt: spotify ./end pt]

Spicetify (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - Spotify modded client. Has adblock, themes, etc! Think Vencord, but for Spotify.

Misc.

[pt: Misc ./End pt]

Obsidian (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Basically a personal wiki for notetaking! A bit of a learning curve. Fanfic writers and worldbuilders... go feral.

Notepad++ (Windows) - A must-have text editor. Might be on more platforms but can't confirm?

Mullvad VPN (Windows/Android) - The only VPN I can 100% recommend. Cheap, fast, and really cares about your privacy. It's a little under $6 USD a month!

NVDA (Windows) - A free screenreader I use for reading large blocks of text. (Notice: I am not visually impaired to the point I rely on a screenreader to navigate my PC. I use it on occasion to read text to me because I have a hard time reading. If you're looking for advice on screenreaders for the visually impaired unfortunately I'm not a good source! Maybe check out the #visually impaired, #blind, or #accessibility?)

Syncthing (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android) - Lets you sync folders across devices. It's especially good with Obsidian.

"Tequito, I didn't find what I wanted!"

[pt: "Tequito, I didn't find what I wanted!" ./end pt]

I'm sorry. :( If you're looking for a program I have personally mentioned using in the past, feel free to shoot me an ask or DM! Or hey... maybe try searching the letters "FMHY" and having a look around? *wink*