See also the local file sync tool FreeFileSync for handy local drive copying. Google Drive (GDrive) and other cloud storage alternatives such as Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive all have the serious drawback of keeping one's information in a third party cloud repository. Privacy and security are generally compromised this way, even when paying for storage ... Read more
Firefox has dramatically disintegrated under the so-called leadership of Mitchell Baker, enriching herself to the tune of millions while the market share (and revenue) of Firefox plummeted and 250 employees were laid off. This alone is reason enough to avoid such a toxic software environment. There is no need to coddle multi-millionaires in order to ... Read more
How to manage fonts in Debian (installing/removing/refreshing). See also Fonts, Typefaces, Typography Microsoft Core Fonts Installer Check to see if this is installed via apt-cache sudo apt-cache search ttf-mscorefonts-installer Emoji fonts Yeh, I don't like them but people use them so need to see them. sudo apt install fonts-noto-color-emoji Debian and application fonts There is ... Read more
This is a grab bag websites, books, software, and services which have helped in this genealogical endeavor. DNA Analysis FamilyTreeDNA YSeqDNA GEDmatch I started with FTDNA, and it is difficult working with them to do exports, or really anything that is beyond the basic interface. Also, their prices are high. YSeqDNA is cheaper, faster, better, ... Read more
Current issues The latest version of Inkscape has to be downloaded as an AppImage from the website. An earlier version is available via apt. Interoperability with Adobe Illustrator (AI) still has a fundamental issue with AI using 72ppi and Inkscape using 96ppi (CSS standard). Basically any objects in Adobe SVG files will appear to be ... Read more
ufw is known as a Debian (and Ubuntu) firewall, which is disabled by default but easy to use. There are some GUI front-ends which make it popular for Linux on the desktop. Coming from a CentOS background (RHEL/Amazon Linux AMI), ufw is not as common (as, say firewalld, or simply iptables, to which both ufw ... Read more
This is a terse collection of commands and utilities I find useful for shells. There is little distinction between programs and commands as commands are programs (and are installed or come pre-installed) and programs have commands. Also included is a shell (Fish Shell) and some other shell applications/utilities (Mosh, Nano). bc - basic calculator See ... Read more
scp, the secure version of cp, aka copy, is pretty great, since it is straightforward to copy one or more files or directories from any one machine to any other machine (and the command could be running on a third machine). SCP Syntax Note: it is best to use sudo, and full paths for everything. ... Read more
Note: This started out as a page about MOSH, but I've moved on to AutoSSH, which is way easier without much configuration, and better at what it does. I had not been aware of Mosh (mobile shell), though clearly its own level of awesome is not a reason for that. Basically it replaces SSH, but ... Read more