Categories

Post Calendar

March 2024
S M T W T F S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  

Notesnook: encrypted synced notes app for Windows/iOS

imageMessing around with Notesnook for the first time. I like it a lot. Firstly, it has a FREE plan (some other systems don’t have this, I believe EVERYTHING should have at least a lame free tier for individual users). Their free tier gets you encryption, unlimited device sync (screw you, Evernote and Lastpass!), offline access, unlimited notes, and rich text editor with markdown support (screw you, StandardNotes!) and text/background color. Plus checklists, outline lists, math formulas, quotes and code blocks. Pro gets you a stack of other stuff for $50/year, which I wouldn’t use since I already have Obsidian. And yes I could use Obsidian for all of the above, but I’m looking for a cheap and easy replacement for Simplenote and this just might be it. First impression is super favorable! Windows, iOS app or web.

Oh, and you can publish a note to a publically accessible URL – either permanently, or "self destruct on first view". With the free plan! Nice!

https://notesnook.com/

System Informer: Windows Task Manager replacement

For years I’ve used a program called System Explorer on Windows as a replacement for the default task manager. Can be set to replace the default taskmgr completely and has a huge amount of features including an excellent little popup when hovering over the systray area. I never thought anything would beat it, despite it becoming abandonware years ago, but I’ve finally found a replacement which is even better. System Informerhttps://systeminformer.sourceforge.io/ – completely freeware. Looks excellent, AND it’s going to be regularly updated. It’s the evolution of a program which used to be known as Process Hacker. Does everything that System Explorer does and even more.

download 4dfe60eea2297f8e download (1)

Vacation!

Well, I’m on a month-long (!) vacation and FINALLY find myself with enough time to revisit this site and take a look through a few things. Realised that the theme that I was using was outdated and isn’t receiving any updates anymore, so I went looking for one that was similar and failed miserably. I’m going to keep the existing theme for right now, I don’t know if a future WordPress update will break it completely but hey, will cross that bridge when I come to it. Did a few plugin updates and messed with the widgets a little and, well.. it looks pretty much the same as it always did. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Long-overdue site update

Two and a half years since my last update – quite a while! WordPress version was old, I was still running PHP 5.6 (outdated for ages now!). Updated both of those, then found that my main WordPress theme was broken and had to manually update a couple of things there too.

You know, at one stage I thought this site was a pretty important part of me – have always been interested and excited in new software products, wound up working for several software companies, have done software support for most of my life (even before leaving school!) but life’s just caught up with over the years and I find that I have had precious little time to indulge in the hobby. I need to think about what’s next for Dhryland. Maybe I’ll have a revelation or a second wind. We’ll see.

Enabling ESNI in Firefox

imageFor those of you using Firefox, you can make your browsing more secure by doing the following:

  1. Update to the latest version of Firefox.
  2. Type about:config in the URL bar to get to the configuration screen.
  3. Type esni in the search field and look for network.security.esni.enabled
  4. Doubleclick this row to change it to true. What this means is: The Server Name Indication (SNI) exposes the hostname the client is connecting to when establishing a TLS connection. Doing so can compromise your privacy. Encrypted SNI keeps the hostname private when you are visiting an Encrypted SNI enabled site on Cloudflare by concealing your browser’s requested hostname from anyone listening on the Internet.
  5. Type trr in the search field and look for network.trr.mode
  6. Doubleclick on this and change it to 2 – this switches all DNS calls to be made over HTTPS.
  7. Restart Firefox (probably not necessary but do it anyway) and browse to https://encryptedsni.com then click on Check My Browser to test the browser’s security. You can visit this site with your existing browser and test it to see what’s secure and what’s not.
  8. Doesn’t require Firefox -> permanently change your Primary DNS server to 1.1.1.1 and your secondary to 1.0.0.1. On your phone, on your router, on your PC, everywhere. These belong to Cloudflare. 1.1.1.1 supports DNS over TLS assuming you are using a client (like Firefox) to take advantage of that functionality.

I use Chrome and unfortunately this functionality doesn’t exist in that browser at time of writing (although I *am* using Cloudflare’s DNS). But any steps you take to protect your privacy on the net are good steps. Might need to temporarily switch to Firefox until this stuff makes its way Chrome-side. TL;DR: Your ISP and other enterprising internet entities can see every website you look up; using these technologies allows you to shield your activity so The Man don’t see you.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year all. Guess what my new year’s resolution is? Open-mouthed smile

DeepSID: New web-based C64 .SID music player

imageA brand new web-based player for .SID tunes (Commodore 64 music) was created recently by Jens-Christian Huus, also known as JCH, a very famous C64 music composer and software author. It is located at http://deepsid.chordian.net/. The emulation is quite good and the entire HVSC (release 68 at time of writing) is available for playback.

Open Live Writer

imageMan, it’s been FOREVER since I posted on this blog! Really need to get a few things updated on it, life basically took over and I’ve found I just didn’t have the time or motivation lately. However, today I discovered a product called Open Live Writer, basically a fork of the Windows Live Writer code, and that’s what I’m writing this entry with. Looks and works pretty much exactly the same as WLW. “Open Live Writer works with many popular blog service providers such as WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Moveable Type, DasBlog and many more.”

Open Live Writer

Ad Muncher: ad-blocking utility for Windows, now free!

bigcow2I know I don’t post much on this site anymore, but I definitely have some post-worthy news today. Ad-Muncher is now free!

For those who have never used the program before, it’s something that came out about fifteen years ago and has always been a paid utility. It’s an ad-blocker, but it’s a separate utility for Windows – ie, not a Firefox addon nor a Chrome extension. It filters ALL web-based traffic in the operating system which means it works with multiple programs – RSS feed readers, Outlook Express and so on. And it’s extremely small and efficient; I assume it’s written either in C or straight-up assembler. I’d rank it as one of the greatest utilities of all time for Windows. As of October, the developer is now offering it completely free.

Everyone should get this program ASAP. It was worth every cent when it was $29.95.

AdMuncher

DropIt: file automation

imageFound a very cool opensource automation program. DropIt can be set up to monitor different directories on your file system. You then set up rules for different filetypes, such as moving MP3 files to a separate directory or compressing particular files into a ZIP. Then the program can automatically perform those actions periodically on files appearing in the monitored folder. This means you can just drop all your stuff into one folder and have the program automatically sort, compress, delete, move etc in the background. Also has a floating "drop icon" that you can quickly drag files to. Saves a bit of time and is completely free. x86 and x64 versions available.

DropIt

Mastodon - https://techhub.social/@dhrystone