Scrub DRM off Kindle Ebooks with Calibre

Feb 27, 2014 GMT

DRM is a nuisance, no doubt about that. After all, you should be able to use whatever ebook reader application you want to read the ebooks you've bought. If you happen to own a Kindle device, you'll be pleased to learn that removing DRM from Kindle ebooks you legally purchased is a relatively straightforward affair courtesy of the mighty Calibre ebook suite. First step is to install the DeDRM plugin in Calibre. To do this, grab the latest version of the DRM Removal Tools for eBooks, and unpack the downloaded archive. Launch Calibre, press the DeDRM_plugin.zip button in the main toolbar, and choose Change Calibre behavior. Switch to the Advanced | Plugins...

QupZilla: Lightweight Browser

Feb 26, 2014 GMT

At first glance, QupZilla looks like yet another lightweight browser. But it has several features that make it stand out from the crowd. For starters, QupZilla sports a built-in ad blocker. It's enabled by default, so the browser weeds out these pesky ads right out of the box. Ads are not the only thing that QupZilla can block. The browser comes bundled with the Click2Flash plugin which blocks Flash content. Thanks to the built-in RSS reader, you can use QupZilla as a no-frills RSS aggregator. The browser's RSS functionality is decidedly bare-bones, but it can come in handy when you need to check your favorite feed in a hurry. Of course, QupZilla provides...

kpcli: Work with KeePass Databases from the Command Line

Feb 25, 2014 GMT

KeePassX is an indispensable graphical utility for managing passwords, but there are situations, when a command-line tool might be more practical. Enter kpcli, a Perl-based CLI tool that lets you work with KeepPass 1.x and 2.x databases. On Debian and Ubuntu, kpcli is available in the official software repositories, so it can be easily installed by running the apt-get install kpcli command as root. openSUSE users can install the utility directly from software.opensuse.org/package/kpcli. To open an existing KeePass database, use the kpcli --kdb=foo.kdb command. Issue then the help command to view a list of all available commands along with their brief...

Publish Markdown Pages Instantly with NoteHub

Feb 19, 2014 GMT

Pastebin is a handy tool for sharing code and text snippets, but it's less suitable for publishing formatted text. NoteHub provides a solution for publishing Markdown-formatted pages instantly and anonymously.Despite its apparent simplicity, NoteHub offers a few nice touches, such as a selection of themes, the ability to use fonts from the Google Fonts service, short URLs, and rudimentary statistics. If you set a password, you can edit the published note later. NoteHub also features its own API, so it can be integrated into third-party applications and tools.Most of the options in NoteHub are specified using parameters attached to the note's URL. For example, the URL below specifies...

Two Quick Firefox Tips

Feb 18, 2014 GMT

Here are two quick tips that you might find useful. Selecting text in web pages using the mouse can sometimes be rather tricky. For easier and more precise text selection, press F7 which toggles the so-called Caret Browsing mode. With this mode enabled, you can make a text selection by placing the movable cursor anywhere on the page and then using keyboard keys to make a text selection.To close a browser tab, you normally have to click on the Close button. Alternatively, you can close any tab by middle-clicking anywhere on it. This is slightly easier than trying to hit the tiny Close button. In fact, you can remove the Close button altogether. To do this, open a new browser window or tab,...

Using Pinned Records in Pygmynote

Feb 17, 2014 GMT

The pin record feature in the latest release of Pygmynote can be used to pin any existing record, so it appears in the welcome header when you launch the application.This feature can be put to a variety of practical uses. By pinning a record, you are effectively turning it into a reminder. You can pin tasks (i.e., records with dates) to track your deadlines more efficiently. In addition to that, the pin record feature can be used as a simple memorization tool. Pin the words or snippets you need to memorize, and you'll see them every time you launch Pygmynote. Like everything else, pinning and unpinning records in Pygmynote is easy. To pin a record, use the...

Monitor Your server with Linux Dash

Feb 11, 2014 GMT

Linux Dash is a new addition to the growing list of server monitoring utilities. Previously, I covered phpSysInfo and Linfo. Both are decent tools for keeping an eye on a remote Linux server, but there is always room for one more. Linux Dash's claim to fame is its slick and responsive interface that works equally well on large and small screens. This means that you don't need a dedicated app on your mobile device to access the remote server's stats. Similar to other monitoring tools, deploying Linux Dash on a server is supremely easy. Grab the latest release of the application from the project's GitHub repository (or clone it using the git clone https://github.com/afaqurk/linux-dash.git...