I use Linux-based operating systems. I have been doing so since 2021. As of 2023, I use Arch Linux as I love its lightweight and do-it-yourself nature. The AUR is also incredibly useful. For my text editor, I use Neovim because I love the plugins that can be used along with it.
-In terms of programming languages, I know Python really well but I am branching off to learning C and shell scripting due to the advantages of each one. C is much faster and teaches you more about how a computer thinks as compared to the easy-going nature of Python. I also use terminal applications which means that I use the terminal a lot. My preferred terminal emulator of choice is Alacritty. This means that a lot of the manual work that I do in the terminal can easily be automated using shell scripting.
+In terms of programming languages, I know Python really well but I am branching off to learning C and shell scripting due to the advantages of each one. C is much faster and teaches you more about how a computer thinks as compared to the easy-going nature of Python. I also use terminal applications which means that I use the terminal a lot. My preferred terminal emulator of choice is Alacritty. This means that a lot of the manual work that I do in the terminal can easily be automated using shell scripting.
-I use Librewolf with two profiles (more details here). One of the profiles is optimised for browsing only and has strong tracking protection and runs in permanent private browsing mode. The other profile is used for accounts and has less tracking protection to prevent site breakage when logging in.
+I use Librewolf with two profiles (more details here). One of the profiles is optimised for browsing only and has strong tracking protection and runs in permanent private browsing mode. The other profile is used for accounts and has less tracking protection to prevent site breakage when logging in.
Just like other people in my field, I tend to use my computer more than my phone. This is because work can be done much more easily on a computer than a mobile device. I use my phone to message close friends and family on XMPP, Session, Signal or WhatsApp (if required). I do not have any productivity apps on my phone except a calendar and a tasks app. I use CalDAV and CardDAV to sync my contacts, calendar and tasks to my phone through the DAVx5 application.
diff --git a/blog/backups/index.html b/backups/index.html similarity index 100% rename from blog/backups/index.html rename to backups/index.html diff --git a/blog/browser-setup/index.html b/blog/browser-setup/index.html deleted file mode 100644 index c8c75ab..0000000 --- a/blog/browser-setup/index.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1 +0,0 @@ -sf.cu > Blog > My New Browser Setup
17 March 2023
2 min
I have a new browser setup on my desktop to increase my privacy and convenience. It is divided into two profiles that perform differently based on what I need to do in the moment.
I use Librewolf as my browser. It is a fork of Firefox that is enhanced for privacy without heavily impacting user experience. I divided it into two profiles:
Let me walk through how each profile is setup.
Firstly, let me talk about common settings between both profiles.
On both profiles, I have my settings to optimize my privacy. On Firefox-based browsers, it is very easy to use these settings because most of them have little impact on convenience. I use Brave Search as my search engine and will switch to my own SearX instance when I get a good server. In terms of extensions, I have the 'uBlock Origin' extension installed setup to block JavaScript and remote fonts by default. I have the default lists along with all the others unchecked by default apart from language lists. I block every single domain from Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other websites which are known for tracking. If a website breaks, I whitelist that website in particular.
My accounts profile is optimized to work well with day-to-day logins and important websites. I use this profile for all websites where I can login like Google or Microsoft.
I use the following extensions:
My browsing profile runs in permanent private browsing mode so my cookies, cache and browsing history are automatically deleted when I close my browser. I use it for general web browsing like watching videos, viewing articles and more. I have most of the content I like in an RSS feed but this profile is useful for some websites which either do not have an RSS feed or I only need to use once.
For this profile, I use these extensions:
This setup has been serving me extremely well. I will continue using this setup and building on it if any specific need arises.
sf.cu > Blog > Keep Crypto Off Exchanges
14 March 2023
3 min Software && Technology
In this article, we will discover why it is horrible to keep cryptocurrency on exchanges. If you do not have time to read this article, please stop keeping your cryptocurrencies on exchanges. If you do, your crypto may get stolen or lost. If you are interested in the details, please keep reading.
When you keep cryptocurrencies on exchanges like Coinbase, they have your private keys. Anyone who has your private keys can manage your wallet as if it is their own. They can send, receive and do whatever they want with your wallet. Even if the exchange you are trading on is trusted, if they shut down, you will lose your crypto. This happened a few times before and thousands of people lost all of their crypto. This is why exchanges should be used for what they are good at; purchasing crypto. Keep exchanges only for one purpose.
Currently, the whole crypto exchange industry has a severe lack of regulation. The fact that exchanges have your private keys means that they can freeze your account which would cut off your access to your own crypto. Governments can request such freezes. This may seem improbable but it happened in South Korea.
Even if the exchange you are trading on is secure, they may store your private keys in plaintext. This happens much more than people think. If this happens, hackers can easily take control of people's wallets and send all the crypto to themselves. If a hack like this happens through Bitcoin, it can at least be tracked. However, many hackers convert their crypto to Monero which cannot be tracked. If this happens, you will never get your money back unless the hacker decides to return the money.
To sum it up, you should never store your crypto on exchanges because you do not own your own crypto. There is little regulation and your account or the exchange can also be hacked. All of these pose serious risks to your crypto. Just get a wallet like Electrum or Monero and start using it.
sf.cu > Blog > Delete Your Discord
22 March 2023
3 min
As mentioned in the title, I have deleted my Discord account. This was obviously not without a reason. There are two reasons due to which I deleted my Discord account:
The most prominent reason is privacy but lack of use compelled me to actually take the plunge and delete my Discord account.
Discord is a hellhole for your privacy. Avoid it at all costs. In this section, I will show you the various things that Discord tracks.
OpenFeint was a mobile social network for gaming. The Founder of OpenFeint was Jason Citron, the current CEO of Discord. OpenFeint received a class-action lawsuit for storing data like:
OpenFeint then revealed all of this data to any mobile game developer who asked for it and advertising networks.
Well, if they collected all of this data, you must have agreed to it, right?
No. The company never asked for your consent. This data collection involved over 100M mobile devices.
So, when you have the CEO of a company that did all of this data collection become the CEO of another company, what do you think he is going to do? The answer is obvious. Of course he will do the same thing.
Let us go over what privacy issues there currently are with Discord.
... this is not all that Discord does. If we know that Discord does all of this, there is obviously more that they are doing that we do not know. You should always assume closed-source pieces of software are tracking you and sending your information to a third-party.
I was not using Discord anymore so I deleted it. The reason is that my previous account got banned for botting when I did not do anything. I made a new account, chatted with three or four of my friends. Afterwards, the CounterHawks Discord server got banned. Due to this, I realized there is no use for my account and that there is no reason for me to support Discord.
I do not use Discord anymore and probably never will. Previously, it was difficult to delete my Discord account but Discord themselves have done all the hard work for me.
sf.cu > Blog > Do It Yourself
-19 May 2023
2 min
-With regards to technology, the average person would rather buy a new computer when their WiFi stops working instead of taking it to a repair shop or fixing it themselves. They would rather buy a new smartphone when their screen cracks than repair it. They would also rather buy a device because of its looks and arbitrary specifications than one specific to their use case and their interests. They focus on the marketing of a company and become 'fanboys' of a specific company, buying nothing but their products, stating that the company in question makes the best products in the world. Self-servicing and repairability are not even factors in their decision to buy a device. -
-As an example, a plethora of technology enthusiasts still buy ThinkPads to this day. When others look at ThinkPads, they think whoever buys them is not making a good decision. They think ThinkPads look ugly. They do not focus on the usability of a device. ThinkPads are used because of their durability, repairability, fast performance, and more. The fact that they are made for businesses means that there is no profit for Lenovo in letting a ThinkPad break early. Instead, they earn money by selling long-lasting and durable devices that last individuals for years on end.
-Instead of buying ThinkPads that function amazingly, people go for looks that impress amazingly. A computer is a device designed to perform computation. If you are shelling out a lot of money, you should have a device that performs fast and can be repaired by you.
-What I have realized is that you should 'do it yourself' as much as possible. This is why my computer is custom-built. Had I bought a pre-built computer, I would have never known what was inside my computer. This is tedious on smartphones since they are becoming more and more locked down. Linux phones are alternatives but they are not great as of 2023. I hope they become mainstream soon because I want to buy one.
-Doing it yourself also helps in terms of software. I used to flash custom ROMs on my old phone and used LineageOS extensively. Now, I use Arch Linux on my computer, which is a Linux distribution that is basically barebones. It has only the packages required to boot up. Everything else is done by you. The advantage of an operating system like this is that you know what runs on your system and there is minimal resource usage. If there is an issue, you can easily find out which program it is from and fix it immediately after gaining knowledge.
-You should try to 'do it yourself'. Take control of your hardware and software and know what you are running. It will not only be cheaper, but it will make it easier to fix issues and learn about computing and technology in the long run.
- -sf.cu > Blog > Use Doas Instead Of Sudo
20 April 2023
2 min
Sudo. It is often used by Linux users to perform commands with root privileges instead of being in a root shell all the time. However, there has recently been a vulnerability in sudo due to which people are switching to doas.
OpenDoas or Doas is a portable version of the doas utility that is used on OpenBSD. OpenDoas can be installed on Unix-like system which includes Linux. It is designed to be more minimal and has less configuration options than sudo. If you are on a personal computer, then I highly recommend you switch to doas because it has a much smaller codebase which leaves less room for error.
However, if you are part of a professional environment with many individuals needing to use sudo, I recommend staying with sudo because it offers more configuration options to be used for groups and users.
Doas is available on almost all major distributions. If your distribution is Debian-based (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Zorin OS), simply type:
sudo apt install doas
If you run an Arch-based system (Artix, Arco, Endeavour, Manjaro), type:
sudo pacman -S opendoas
If you use RHEL-based systems (Fedora, CentOS), type:
sudo dnf install opendoas
Doas should now be installed but it will not work out of the box. There is one line that we need to add to the configuration file.
You have to configure doas as it is not included in most distributions by default but do not fret! One of its plus points is that its configuration is much better than sudo's.
To begin, edit the /etc/doas.conf file as root.
If you are the only user on your system and do not plan to allow other users to use your system, this line will suffice.
permit persist username as root
Many distributions have a group (wheel, sudoers) that are allowed to run sudo commands. If you would like to allow that group to send commands as root, type this:
permit persist :wheel as root
Using doas is incredibly simple. Just type doas instead of sudo. For example, if you usually type:
sudo pacman -Syu
then just type:
doas pacman -Syu
I also recommend aliasing doas to 'doas --' since it causes issues sometimes if you just use doas. Apart from that, this is it for the setup.
If you are the only person on your Linux machine, you should switch to doas. It is much more lightweight and is similar to sudo. It has a smaller codebase which, in my opinion, prevents exploits from popping up as often as sudo.
However, if you are in a professional environment, you should stick with sudo.
sf.cu > Blog > Eid Mubarak!
21 April 2023
Less than 1 min
I would like to wish an 🌙 AUSPICIOUS EID 🌙 to you and your family!
sf.cu > Blog > How To Encrypt Emails
14 March 2023
4 min
In this article, I will show you how to encrypt emails. You can encrypt emails on almost any device. In this article, however, I will be focusing on Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo. I will also be focusing on making ProtonMail encrypt emails with Gmail.
Firstly, let us dispell a few myths. The first myth is a big one.
Yes, you heard that right. Gmail's confidential mode does not encrypt your emails. Whenever I speak about email encryption, I hear something along the lines of:
“Why are you making things so complicated? Just use Gmail's confidential mode! It encrypts your emails for you!”
No, Gmail's confidential mode does not encrypt emails. It simply puts a password on your email.
This is also a huge myth. ProtonMail encrypts emails sent to other ProtonMail users. However, they do not encrypt emails sent to or received from non-ProtonMail users. It collects less data about you and it stores your emails with encryption on their servers but the email itself is not encrypted on the other person's end.
Encryption for non-ProtonMail users works on a user-to-user basis. You have to have the encryption keys of the other person if they are a non-ProtonMail user and they also have to encrypt their emails manually. We will learn how to do this in this guide.
Encrypting your emails online is a simple process.
Mailvelope is a free, libre and open-source browser extension which allows you to not only encrypt emails using public keys but also has a keyserver which has a list of other people who use Mailvelope. Emails sent to other people using Mailvelope will automatically be encrypted.
Open the extension and generate your keypair if you do not have a keypair or import your keypair if you do have one.
Encourage all of your friends to get the Mailvelope extension. Afterwards, you can import their public keys. Henceforth, all emails will be encrypted. Many websites also give their own public key along with their emails so that you can encrypt them as well. If you have friends who use ProtonMail, go to the ProtonMail import section of this post.
Whenever you go to compose an email, there will be a button like the image below. Just click on it and there will be a popup to compose your encrypted email. Just fill in the info and send your email!
Firstly, I would like to give a disclaimer. There is no way to use PGP encryption on iOS. Most encryption that is used on iOS is either paid or unavailable. On Android, you cannot encrypt emails using the native applications for Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo. Even if there is such a feature, you should not use their official clients due to their invasive tracking. To encrypt emails, we will use an email app called K-9 Mail. I believe that everyone should use K-9 Mail even if they are not encrypting their emails. It is a fantastic app.
K-9 Mail is a free and open-source email app that has a lot of features. I believe that no one should be writing emails on their phones but it is a great app to have just to make sure there is nothing urgent in your inbox.
K-9 Mail is on the Play Store, but do not get it from there. Get F-Droid and make it a habit to download apps you use and the alternatives to them through F-Droid. K-9 Mail is available on F-Droid and is a popular app there.
Follow the guide to enter your email address and get it working through K-9 Mail. I have tried Gmail and it works flawlessly. Other email providers will work well but some may not work at all.
OpenKeychain is an app that allows you to import and manage PGP keys. It is also available on F-Droid.
Generate your key by pressing the option to create a key or import the key file.
Go back to K-9 Mail, go to settings, go to your account that you added, go to end-to-end encryption and enable it. Select your key. Turn on autocrypt mutual mode. That is it! You should see a lock icon whenever you are sending an email to someone if you have their PGP public key. If you need to import more keys, just go to the OpenKeychain app and import them.
To export your ProtonMail public keys, follow these steps.
The image below is how it looks like in 2023.
You can now send these keys to anyone to import into their PGP keychain. They will then be able to encrypt emails when sending them to your ProtonMail address!
That is it! You have setup encryption on your emails. This is a great step as email itself is very unsecure, so this will boost your privacy and security by a lot. Sharing passwords through email has never been safe but encryption allows you to do it with a good range of security.
In this category, I post guides about computing and technology.
13/05/23 - Start Using 2FA Properly02/05/23 - Password Systems20/04/23 - Use Doas Instead Of Sudo20/04/23 - Stop Using Social Media22/03/23 - Delete Your Discord14/03/23 - How To Encrypt Emails13/05/23 - Start Using 2FA Properly02/05/23 - Password Systems20/04/23 - Use Doas Instead Of Sudo20/04/23 - Stop Using Social Media22/03/23 - Delete Your Discord14/03/23 - How To Encrypt EmailsYou have read the last page!
You have read the last page!
Read my (mostly) computing-related articles here.
16/07/23 - Why You Should Torrent10/07/23 - Oversimplification Kills02/07/23 - Open-Source Islam Apps?27/06/23 - Keep It Minimal23/06/23 - KeePass + Syncthing01/06/23 - Switching To FFmpeg27/05/23 - Don't Use GitHub19/05/23 - Do It Yourself13/05/23 - Start Using 2FA Properly07/05/23 - Instagram Deleted!06/05/23 - Buy Only Metal USBs02/05/23 - Password Systems21/04/23 - Eid Mubarak!20/04/23 - Use Doas Instead Of Sudo20/04/23 - Stop Using Social Media22/03/23 - Delete Your Discord17/03/23 - My New Browser Setup14/03/23 - How To Encrypt Emails14/03/23 - Keep Crypto Off Exchanges13/03/23 - Why I Use Terminal AppsYou have hit rock bottom!
16/07/23 - Why You Should Torrent10/07/23 - Oversimplification Kills02/07/23 - Open-Source Islam Apps?27/06/23 - Keep It Minimal23/06/23 - KeePass + Syncthing01/06/23 - Switching To FFmpeg27/05/23 - Don't Use GitHub19/05/23 - Do It Yourself13/05/23 - Start Using 2FA Properly07/05/23 - Instagram Deleted!06/05/23 - Buy Only Metal USBs02/05/23 - Password Systems21/04/23 - Eid Mubarak!20/04/23 - Use Doas Instead Of Sudo20/04/23 - Stop Using Social Media22/03/23 - Delete Your Discord17/03/23 - My New Browser Setup14/03/23 - How To Encrypt Emails14/03/23 - Keep Crypto Off Exchanges13/03/23 - Why I Use Terminal AppsYou have hit rock bottom!
sf.cu > Blog > Keep It Minimal
-27 June 2023
3 min
-In technology, you should keep it simple as much as possible. The KISS philosophy and the UNIX philosophy especially must be followed if you want quality software. Most pieces of famous software nowadays do not follow this guideline and it is costing millions of people dearly.
-Simply put, a piece of minimal software:
-Let's expand on the first and second points. Why is minimal software so easy to maintain? Why do developers hate being developers when they are working with bloated pieces of software? Keeping software minimal gives developers the opportunity to easily find code that is slowing down the whole program or is inefficient. It also helps developers find bugs easy. This is because a smaller codebase means that it takes less time to review the code. A group of 10 people can easily perfect a program whose codebase is less than 1500 lines. After that, it is just a work of maintaining the program and making sure that any requests that users have are answered.
-Minimal software runs fast on all devices. It is simply no contest. A 1000-line Python program is going to be much faster than a 100K-line C program even though C is much faster than Python. Inefficiencies and lackluster execution of functions in a program can be spotted much more easily in a smaller program. There is a huge disregard for old computers. People simply cannot use old computers anymore because the software that they use is so inefficient that their computer struggles to do basic things. For example, they use Adobe Reader to open PDFs which is one of the worst things to do. Adobe Reader takes an incredibly long time to open considering the fact that they are the ones that invented PDFs. Another example is Word. Why does Word take long to open and write on? It's code is bloated. Think of Zathura. It is a PDF viewer that follows the UNIX philosophy of doing one thing well. Even on the slowest of computers, Zathura takes milliseconds to open a PDF. Think about LaTeX. You do the writing then you compile the document into a PDF. It does everything from linking, referencing, bibliographies much better than Word. In fact, it is so good that many universities require its use for proper formatting and referencing.
-Minimal software can be extensible as per the UNIX philosophy. Instead of creating a massive program that tries to do everything, minimalist programs create modules for certain functions. This makes troubleshooting a piece of cake as the initial confusion of finding out what exactly causes the error is practically eliminated. For example, if you are making a login page and the authentication does not work, you know that you should look in the authentication module. However, if you make it all in a single program, it is difficult to root out whether an issue is due to an incorrect variable type or a redundant function.
-All of this helps developers to avoid complications. No team wants another error or speed complaint in the middle of another issue. All of the advantages listed thus far help developers have peace of mind.
-Finally, minimal pieces of software can be liberated and made into free software to contribute to the world. Once the initial stages of bug-fixing and optimization is over, it is just a matter of letting the world find ways to make the program better. An inefficiency that no one would spot otherwise can be ironed out by a top-tier programmer who worked in a plethora of huge companies with decades of experience. It also helps budding developers learn about development.
-To sum it up, everyone should use and develop minimal software if possible. This is because minimal software is easier to maintain, debug and optimize due to its smaller codebase. It also runs fast on all devices and avoids complications during development time. Minimal software can also be liberated into free software which will allow talented developers to review the program and contribute to the world.
- - -In this category, I post about tools and information related to Linux.
20/04/23 - Use Doas Instead Of Sudo13/03/23 - Why I Use Terminal AppsYou reached the bottom of your screen!
20/04/23 - Use Doas Instead Of Sudo13/03/23 - Why I Use Terminal AppsYou reached the bottom of your screen!
sf.cu > Blog > Buy Only Metal USBs
-6 May 2023
2 min
You should only buy metal USBs because they last longer. Metal USBs should be used for everything that a USB is used for. First, let me clarify what USBs are supposed to be used for:
-Here is what USBs are not good for:
-For both use cases listed above, disks like hard drives and SSDs are much better.
-Metal USBs are durable. They are not slower than their plastic counterparts and can flash operating systems just as well. However, the real difference appears in its build quality.
-Metal is a superior material to plastic. It lasts much longer and breaks less easily. This is especially important for data transfer and having an emergency drive ready-to-go. If it dies or breaks at an unfortunate time, it can wreak havoc on both you and your sanity. This is why everyone should use metal USBs. They last longer and eventually break even with the price you paid for them.
-You should try to buy thinner metal USBs. This is because a thin USB can dissipate heat better than a thick one. Metal is a conductor of heat. Because of this, you should try to buy a USB that is able to reduce the heat's effect.
- -sf.cu > Blog > Open-Source Islam Apps?
-02 July 2023
2 min
-I have tried finding open-source and free Islamic apps for a long time and it is tiring to do so. Most of the apps are Quran and prayer time apps which are perfect but we do not have apps for other parts of Islam like hadeeths, duas and even Qibla locating. If I do run across an app, its last update is always more than five years ago which is not ideal. There are two Islamic apps that I use on a daily basis that I absolutely love and will never switch from:
- -QuranApp is a spectacular app that follows the UNIX philosophy and is hosted under the GPL license effectively making it free software. It has many features like information on every single Surah, multiple translations, audio, mentions of prophets in the Quran and even has a search option using which you can search for any surah or term to get detailed information about your search query in the Quran. For example, searching about 'patience' brings up ayahs which talk about patience and the rewards that come about from being patient.
-
Al-Azan is another app which also follows the UNIX philosophy and is hosted under the AGPL license also making it free software. It does one thing well - displaying and informing of prayer times. You can adjust the prayer times based on location, offset and even calculation methods.
-However, there is not a single free software or even open-source Hisnul Muslim application that I have noticed. Most Hisnul Muslim apps I have used have the exact same duas since it is based off the 'Fortress of the Muslim' book. Just having a page with all duas with a simple search option and the translation in popular languages is all thats required to get the open-source savvy Muslim community to start using free software for their duas.
-Anyone can take the lead. In fact, this may be the first thing I try when I start developing applications.
- - -In this category, I post about miscellaneous things. These posts may be information related to me or general things which do not apply to my regular posts.
20/04/23 - Eid Mubarak!20/04/23 - Eid Mubarak!You have hit rock bottom!
You have hit rock bottom!
sf.cu > Blog > Password Systems
-2 May 2023
4 min
- -If you find it difficult to maintain strong passwords, then this guide is the only article you need to refer to. In this article, I will talk about an amazing trick to remember and manage all of your passwords.
-It goes without saying that passwords are incredibly important. It is undeniably important to make sure your passwords are:
-However, it seems futile to try using different passwords on every website. It is incredibly hard to remember just one; how can I remember more than 10?
-The solution to this undeniably rampant issue is to use a password system. A password system is a set of rules and guidelines that you make and follow to create your passwords. Using a password system, you need not remember your passwords. All you have to do is string together available pieces of data, and you can remember your password immediately.
-The most common response I hear from people when I ask them to create a password system is:
-"I think using the same password on all accounts is better because I don't have a good memory to use a password system."
-That response always baffles me. The whole point of a password system is not to remember your passwords but to remember a ruleset that will be cemented into your brain after 3 or 4 times of entering your passwords.
-As aforementioned, a password system is a set of rules that you need to remember instead of all of your passwords separately. An effective password system consists of the following elements:
-The main format and order of a password system is completely managed by you. First, let us go over creating a master password.
-I recommend this method of creating master passwords to anyone since the passwords that are created are easy to remember but practically impossible to guess.
-Make sure it is long but easily memorable. The one which pops in your mind when someone asks you to think of a sentence is a perfect choice as long as it is of considerable length.
-Example: I love eating 43 and a half coconuts a day, I am not going to lie!
Take the first letter of each word in the sentence and write it as is. Do not change any characters to uppercase or lowercase or use a symbol to represent it.
-Example: Ile43aahcad,Iangtl!
Take the password you have in the last step and make it stronger in a way that you will remember. This step is the one you have to be the most careful in because making it too strong will make it difficult to recollect in the future.
-Do not use common substitutions like:
-Example: I<3e43&1/2cad,IangtLIE!
Do not proceed to the next section without doing this step. Recall the sentence in your mind and try to write the same password you got in the previous step. Do this at least 10 times. Wait a few hours, then do it again. Wait until you sleep and do it again. This may seem unnecesarry, but most people underestimate the power of muscle memory. If you login to an account regularly, then you type your password without even thinking about it. The same trick can be applied here.
-After a while, you will be able to type your extremely long password without any effort. You just think about it and your mind glides through the keyboard. This is super useful.
-To make your password different for every website and service you go to, there needs to be a service differentiator. A service differentiator is a special combination of characters you add in your password system to make it unique to the service you are on. It is not very difficult to create a service differentiator and it is easier to remember.
-The elements of a service differentiator are the name of the service and length of the name of the service. Below is an example of a name differentiator used for creating a Nextcloud account, Microsoft account and Google account respectively.
-nextcLOUD!999
microSOFT!999
googlE!666
As you can see, I added the name of the service in with the first 5 letter capitalized with an exclamation mark and the length of the service three times.
-By this point, you can make your own service differentiator easily.
-It is finally time to integrate your master password into a password system. It is called a password system, which means that it is dynamic and changes for every website. A sample password system can be the following:
-(SERVICE DIFFERENTIATOR) + (MASTER PASSWORD)
In my example's case, my Google account password would be:
-googlE!666I<3e43&1/2cad,IangtLIE!
The password above is 40 characters, yes 40 characters long. No one will be able to guess it and it will take hundreds of centuries to crack. Best of all, it is different for each account.
-You can mix the order up. Just make sure you don't keep changing the system and use one system. The best part is that if you need to change your passwords, you can just make another system that will work just as well. By that point, the previous system will be embedded into your brain. So, you can remember multiple strong passwords using this step.
-Please note that this is not enough. If you have followed this guide, you have taken a massive step towards protecting your accounts. However, many cybercriminals rely on phishing attacks. Please do not click on random links and please do not enter your information on random websites.
-Congratulations! You now know how to create an extremely strong password that is different on each account.
-sf.cu > Blog > Instagram Deleted!
-7 May 2023
Less than 1 min
- -This post is to inform you that the grace period for the deletion of my public Instagram account has been completed. My Instagram account has been deleted... forever. I highly recommend you do it too. Read this post for more information.
- -sf.cu > Blog > Stop Using Social Media
20 April 2023
9 min
-Digital Privacy.
It is well-known that apps like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and some Google apps collect your data like their lives depend on it (technically, they do). Everything from your name to your IP address and phone number to even the amount of network requests you make or the model of your phone. Not to mention, literally everything you do on the app. This all goes to their servers and is used for more advertisements.
It is pretty safe to say that your digital footprint, as it is called, can be nearly eliminated by deleting your accounts. There are more steps that you have to take to take care of your privacy, but preventing data collection from big corporations is a huge step.
Fake news. It's everywhere. Even the worst social media addict cannot deny it. You see parody pages that copy the design of famous news channels perfectly and post random news. You see people edit images to exaggerate or divert the subject of an article. There is not much that I need to say. You know what I mean.
The blue-light from your phone tricks your brain into thinking it's daytime. So, when you use your phone late into the night scrolling on your social media feed, it makes you feel less sleepy.
When this happens, do you know what most people do? They pick up their phones again since they cannot sleep, thinking that they will sleep in 30 minutes when they are sleepy. This cycle goes on. Many individuals of Generation Z do not sleep the whole night for many days on end and instead take naps in the afternoon. Does this sound healthy to you?
And no, using a blue-light filter does not fix the issue. It only slightly reduces its effect.
When you spend hours and hours a day sitting down with no exercise or action apart from flicking your thumb, what do you think will happen? You may experience the following effects:
Many individuals who use social media are experiencing these problems, which are usually experienced by older people, at ages like 25.
When you are working and are in the zone (a phase in which you do high-quality work without even thinking about it), any minor disturbance will move you out of that state. A notification about someone liking your post can shake you out of the zone. In the long-term, this will waste hours of your time.
So, you are ready. You want to quit social media and break this horrible addiction. You realise the effects it has on your life. However, you do not know where to start. If this is the case, check out 'The AIR Method'. If you would like to read how I did it, please refer to the steps below. Referring to the steps I took may help you understand your weak points and how to combat them.
Make a list of all of your friends and cross out the ones that you know can be reached on other chat applications. Ask the rest for alternative contact methods. This may be through apps like Signal, Session, XMPP, Matrix, or WhatsApp. Just make sure that it is not another social media app.
Download your data to refer to in the future. Most social media platforms include chats along with it so that you can refer back to the chats if needed. A website like JustGetMyData will allow you to quickly get to this section. Most websites place it in places which are difficult to access to prevent people from deleting their accounts.
Quitting social media 'cold-turkey' (abruptly) may work for the first few days but it will cause you to fail completely. It is better to slowly reduce your usage by using healthier apps.
If you haven't already, start using RSS feeds. There is nothing wrong with using old technology. RSS provides you with a similar feed to social media but with content you actually like and want to read. It is managed by you, not an algorithm. You read what you want and stop. There is no algorithm or endless feed that compells you to keep using the app.
I am going to make a post about RSS feeds soon. It will be updated here.
It is also important to announce that you are deleting your accounts. This may not be necessary if you have less than five friends you talk to on your accounts but it is important if you have many friends. This announcement will allow your friends to contact you and tell you their alternative forms of contact. It will also allow people to know that you are leaving for good.
The moment you have been waiting for. Click on the delete button.
This is much easier said than done, however. Most social media accounts have a grace period during which if you login to your account, your account deletion will be cancelled. For Instagram, the grace period is 1 month. To combat this, I did the following:
These steps were drastic but they practically cemented the fact that my account was going to be deleted, no matter what.
There is not much left to say. I am much, much happier without social media. I have more time on my hands and I am still getting the information I want from RSS feeds without an algorithm trying to pull me in. Big corporations have much less data about me, I have a lot of time and have produced a lot of work. In terms of academics, my overall percentage in school has increased by over 20%. I find difficult subjects easier and easy subjects a piece of cake.
All in all, if you care about yourself, delete your social media. It is a hellhole that is getting worse by the day.
In this category, I post new software I find, information about current software or tricks that can be utilised in current software.
10/07/23 - Oversimplification Kills02/07/23 - Open-Source Islam Apps?27/06/23 - Keep It Minimal23/06/23 - KeePass + Syncthing01/06/23 - Switching To FFmpeg27/05/23 - Don't Use GitHub19/05/23 - Do It Yourself13/05/23 - Start Using 2FA Properly07/05/23 - Instagram Deleted!02/05/23 - Password Systems20/04/23 - Use Doas Instead Of Sudo20/04/23 - Stop Using Social Media22/03/23 - Delete Your Discord17/03/23 - My New Browser Setup14/03/23 - How To Encrypt Emails14/03/23 - Keep Crypto Off Exchanges13/03/23 - Why I Use Terminal AppsERROR: Cannot show more posts (EOFError)
10/07/23 - Oversimplification Kills02/07/23 - Open-Source Islam Apps?27/06/23 - Keep It Minimal23/06/23 - KeePass + Syncthing01/06/23 - Switching To FFmpeg27/05/23 - Don't Use GitHub19/05/23 - Do It Yourself13/05/23 - Start Using 2FA Properly07/05/23 - Instagram Deleted!02/05/23 - Password Systems20/04/23 - Use Doas Instead Of Sudo20/04/23 - Stop Using Social Media22/03/23 - Delete Your Discord17/03/23 - My New Browser Setup14/03/23 - How To Encrypt Emails14/03/23 - Keep Crypto Off Exchanges13/03/23 - Why I Use Terminal AppsERROR: Cannot show more posts (EOFError)
sf.cu > Blog > Technology
+sf.cu > Blog > Technology
In this category, I post about tools and information related to Linux.
16/07/23 - Why You Should Torrent06/05/23 - Buy Only Metal USBs14/03/23 - Keep Crypto Off Exchanges16/07/23 - Why You Should Torrent06/05/23 - Buy Only Metal USBs14/03/23 - Keep Crypto Off ExchangesYou have hit rock bottom!
You have hit rock bottom!
sf.cu > Blog > Why I Use Terminal Apps
13 March 2023
5 min
“Ah, yes. Graphical-user interface (GUI) apps. They are so comfortable and easy to use. You just click some buttons and get your computer to do what you want.”
That was what I thought before I learned how spectacular terminal applications are. I do not use a calendar or email GUI app. I use its terminal equivalent. Specifically, I use Calcurse for my calendar/todo, neomutt for my email, sxiv for my image viewing, mpv for my video playing and even Joplin (CLI) for my notes. I am still actively looking for more apps like terminal file managers (lf, ranger, mc) and terminal versions of GUI apps I use (Bitwarden?). What compelled me to switch?
Firstly, I realized that apps that allow me to use my keyboard and reduce mouse usage to as little as possible saved me a lot of time. By a lot of time, I don't mean a few minutes. I mean hours in the long run. Moving your hand to your mouse and clicking a button takes at least three seconds. Multiply that hundreds of times a day and 365 days an year. That leads to a lot of time wasted just moving your hand to your mouse.
The speed of terminal apps have helped me get a lot more productive. Getting myself to start working immediately helped me a lot. I use Neovim for my text editor, and whenever I need to write text, its much faster to press a shortcut to open a blank file in Neovim than to open a GUI equivalent. It is also much faster to press a shortcut than to open my applications menu and search for my calendar app and wait a few seconds for the bloated app to open up. Terminal apps are just more lightweight. As a result, they operate faster and save me more than just a few seconds.
CLI apps are more standardized. With a GUI, the procedure for solving an issue or using the application's functionality is similar to this:
This is the sole reason that you see the terminal being used so much in Linux. It's easier to say “Open your terminal and type this” than to blabber a long list of instructions that will become redundant if the application in question decides to change their UI in an update.
Due to the lightweight nature of the command line, your tools can run on just about any computer. It does not matter if your computer has a Pentium processor or a 12th-generation i9. GUI tools have system requirements and if it is a robust tool with a fancy interface, chances are that the requirements just for the app to look good knocks that tool off your app list on your 10-year-old computer.
While GUI apps are simple to use initially, your speed using the apps remains slow all the time. Sure, you may learn where every button is and be able to open any setting you want quickly, but that speed is nothing compared to one of a command line. With a command line, your speed is slower than a snail at first. However, after some time of using the program, you can do things at a similar speed as a GUI app.
If you daily-drive a terminal program, it takes only a few days for you to become faster at it than using a GUI program. After that, you will be able to understand your most used commands and use aliases to shorten them.
For example, if you view your free space regulary, instead of typing a 50-line command to print your free space, you can just alias that command to 'free-space'. Doing this will make it so that whenever you type 'free-space', it performs the aforementioned 50-line command and displays the output. This will save your more than just a few hours of time.
With terminal apps, you have a plethora of choices. I can almost guarantee that an app with functionality you wish existed does exist in the form of a command line application. There are obscure apps with spectacular functionality which can change your computing experience that you will miss out on if you stay away from the terminal.
When it comes to GUI apps, you have to be honest. They do not have 100% functionality. It is simply implausible to fit every single function in a GUI app. Doing so would result in a lot of code to maintain, an extremely heavy app and a confusing layout. However, with a terminal app, all you have to do is type:
man command
or
command --help
and get the complete functionality of the app, all within less than 5% of the app size of its GUI equivalent.
All GUI apps are basically middlemen for the command line. They essentially use the command line for you. When you ditch the GUI and go straight for the terminal, you talk directly to the computer in a way in which the computer understands.
When people first look at the terminal, it becomes set in their mind that it is difficult to use and that mentality stays for an extraordinarily long time. Due to this, they never experiment or even open the terminal application. If they run into an issue which requires the use of the terminal to fix, they decide to just live with the issue instead of using the terminal. However, if people use the terminal for a few weeks, they realize that it outpaces almost every other GUI app in almost everything.
... including terminal applications. Terminal applications are amazing. They allow me to do so much. However, there are extremely rare cases in which I have no choice but to use a GUI. This is if the GUI application in question requires you to use only their app. There are also some specific use-cases in which GUI apps just make more sense. Video editing, advanced photo manipulation and 3D modelling are great examples.
...terminal applications should be used as much as possible. They are swift. They can be used quickly and also use less resources and space while running on just about anything. They are not as difficult as they look and can be used for uses which GUI apps do not have. They cannot be used all the time because there are rare exceptions in which GUI applications have to be used. However, these are so little that I do not mind keeping GUI apps just for these use cases.
sf.cu > Blog > My New Browser Setup
+17 March 2023
+2 min +
+
+I have a new browser setup on my desktop to increase my privacy and convenience. It is divided into two profiles that perform differently based on what I need to do in the moment.
+I use Librewolf as my browser. It is a fork of Firefox that is enhanced for privacy without heavily impacting user experience. I divided it into two profiles:
+Let me walk through how each profile is setup.
+Firstly, let me talk about common settings between both profiles.
+On both profiles, I have my settings to optimize my privacy. On Firefox-based browsers, it is very easy to use these settings because most of them have little impact on convenience. I use Brave Search as my search engine and will switch to my own SearX instance when I get a good server. In terms of extensions, I have the 'uBlock Origin' extension installed setup to block JavaScript and remote fonts by default. I have the default lists along with all the others unchecked by default apart from language lists. I block every single domain from Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other websites which are known for tracking. If a website breaks, I whitelist that website in particular.
+My accounts profile is optimized to work well with day-to-day logins and important websites. I use this profile for all websites where I can login like Google or Microsoft.
+I use the following extensions:
+My browsing profile runs in permanent private browsing mode so my cookies, cache and browsing history are automatically deleted when I close my browser. I use it for general web browsing like watching videos, viewing articles and more. I have most of the content I like in an RSS feed but this profile is useful for some websites which either do not have an RSS feed or I only need to use once.
+For this profile, I use these extensions:
+This setup has been serving me extremely well. I will continue using this setup and building on it if any specific need arises. +
+
sf.cu > Blog > Keep Crypto Off Exchanges
+14 March 2023
+
+ 3 min
+
+ Software && Technology
In this article, we will discover why it is horrible to keep cryptocurrency on exchanges. If you do not have time to read this article, please stop keeping your cryptocurrencies on exchanges. If you do, your crypto may get stolen or lost. If you are interested in the details, please keep reading.
+When you keep cryptocurrencies on exchanges like Coinbase, they have your private keys. Anyone who has your private keys can manage your wallet as if it is their own. They can send, receive and do whatever they want with your wallet. Even if the exchange you are trading on is trusted, if they shut down, you will lose your crypto. This happened a few times before and thousands of people lost all of their crypto. This is why exchanges should be used for what they are good at; purchasing crypto. Keep exchanges only for one purpose.
+Currently, the whole crypto exchange industry has a severe lack of regulation. The fact that exchanges have your private keys means that they can freeze your account which would cut off your access to your own crypto. Governments can request such freezes. This may seem improbable but it happened in South Korea.
+Even if the exchange you are trading on is secure, they may store your private keys in plaintext. This happens much more than people think. If this happens, hackers can easily take control of people's wallets and send all the crypto to themselves. If a hack like this happens through Bitcoin, it can at least be tracked. However, many hackers convert their crypto to Monero which cannot be tracked. If this happens, you will never get your money back unless the hacker decides to return the money.
+To sum it up, you should never store your crypto on exchanges because you do not own your own crypto. There is little regulation and your account or the exchange can also be hacked. All of these pose serious risks to your crypto. Just get a wallet like Electrum or Monero and start using it.
+ +sf.cu > Blog > Do It Yourself
+19 May 2023
2 min
+With regards to technology, the average person would rather buy a new computer when their WiFi stops working instead of taking it to a repair shop or fixing it themselves. They would rather buy a new smartphone when their screen cracks than repair it. They would also rather buy a device because of its looks and arbitrary specifications than one specific to their use case and their interests. They focus on the marketing of a company and become 'fanboys' of a specific company, buying nothing but their products, stating that the company in question makes the best products in the world. Self-servicing and repairability are not even factors in their decision to buy a device. +
+As an example, a plethora of technology enthusiasts still buy ThinkPads to this day. When others look at ThinkPads, they think whoever buys them is not making a good decision. They think ThinkPads look ugly. They do not focus on the usability of a device. ThinkPads are used because of their durability, repairability, fast performance, and more. The fact that they are made for businesses means that there is no profit for Lenovo in letting a ThinkPad break early. Instead, they earn money by selling long-lasting and durable devices that last individuals for years on end.
+Instead of buying ThinkPads that function amazingly, people go for looks that impress amazingly. A computer is a device designed to perform computation. If you are shelling out a lot of money, you should have a device that performs fast and can be repaired by you.
+What I have realized is that you should 'do it yourself' as much as possible. This is why my computer is custom-built. Had I bought a pre-built computer, I would have never known what was inside my computer. This is tedious on smartphones since they are becoming more and more locked down. Linux phones are alternatives but they are not great as of 2023. I hope they become mainstream soon because I want to buy one.
+Doing it yourself also helps in terms of software. I used to flash custom ROMs on my old phone and used LineageOS extensively. Now, I use Arch Linux on my computer, which is a Linux distribution that is basically barebones. It has only the packages required to boot up. Everything else is done by you. The advantage of an operating system like this is that you know what runs on your system and there is minimal resource usage. If there is an issue, you can easily find out which program it is from and fix it immediately after gaining knowledge.
+You should try to 'do it yourself'. Take control of your hardware and software and know what you are running. It will not only be cheaper, but it will make it easier to fix issues and learn about computing and technology in the long run.
+ +sf.cu > Blog > Use Doas Instead Of Sudo
+20 April 2023
+2 min +
+Sudo. It is often used by Linux users to perform commands with root privileges instead of being in a root shell all the time. However, there has recently been a vulnerability in sudo due to which people are switching to doas.
+OpenDoas or Doas is a portable version of the doas utility that is used on OpenBSD. OpenDoas can be installed on Unix-like system which includes Linux. It is designed to be more minimal and has less configuration options than sudo. If you are on a personal computer, then I highly recommend you switch to doas because it has a much smaller codebase which leaves less room for error.
+However, if you are part of a professional environment with many individuals needing to use sudo, I recommend staying with sudo because it offers more configuration options to be used for groups and users.
+Doas is available on almost all major distributions. If your distribution is Debian-based (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Zorin OS), simply type:
+sudo apt install doas
If you run an Arch-based system (Artix, Arco, Endeavour, Manjaro), type:
+sudo pacman -S opendoas
If you use RHEL-based systems (Fedora, CentOS), type:
+sudo dnf install opendoas
Doas should now be installed but it will not work out of the box. There is one line that we need to add to the configuration file.
+You have to configure doas as it is not included in most distributions by default but do not fret! One of its plus points is that its configuration is much better than sudo's.
+To begin, edit the /etc/doas.conf file as root.
+If you are the only user on your system and do not plan to allow other users to use your system, this line will suffice.
+permit persist username as root
Many distributions have a group (wheel, sudoers) that are allowed to run sudo commands. If you would like to allow that group to send commands as root, type this:
+permit persist :wheel as root
Using doas is incredibly simple. Just type doas instead of sudo. For example, if you usually type:
+sudo pacman -Syu
then just type:
+doas pacman -Syu
I also recommend aliasing doas to 'doas --' since it causes issues sometimes if you just use doas. Apart from that, this is it for the setup.
+If you are the only person on your Linux machine, you should switch to doas. It is much more lightweight and is similar to sudo. It has a smaller codebase which, in my opinion, prevents exploits from popping up as often as sudo.
+However, if you are in a professional environment, you should stick with sudo.
+ +sf.cu > Blog > Delete Your Discord
+22 March 2023
+3 min +
+
+As mentioned in the title, I have deleted my Discord account. This was obviously not without a reason. There are two reasons due to which I deleted my Discord account:
+The most prominent reason is privacy but lack of use compelled me to actually take the plunge and delete my Discord account.
+Discord is a hellhole for your privacy. Avoid it at all costs. In this section, I will show you the various things that Discord tracks.
+OpenFeint was a mobile social network for gaming. The Founder of OpenFeint was Jason Citron, the current CEO of Discord. OpenFeint received a class-action lawsuit for storing data like:
+OpenFeint then revealed all of this data to any mobile game developer who asked for it and advertising networks.
+Well, if they collected all of this data, you must have agreed to it, right?
+No. The company never asked for your consent. This data collection involved over 100M mobile devices.
+So, when you have the CEO of a company that did all of this data collection become the CEO of another company, what do you think he is going to do? The answer is obvious. Of course he will do the same thing.
+Let us go over what privacy issues there currently are with Discord.
+... this is not all that Discord does. If we know that Discord does all of this, there is obviously more that they are doing that we do not know. You should always assume closed-source pieces of software are tracking you and sending your information to a third-party.
+I was not using Discord anymore so I deleted it. The reason is that my previous account got banned for botting when I did not do anything. I made a new account, chatted with three or four of my friends. Afterwards, the CounterHawks Discord server got banned. Due to this, I realized there is no use for my account and that there is no reason for me to support Discord.
+I do not use Discord anymore and probably never will. Previously, it was difficult to delete my Discord account but Discord themselves have done all the hard work for me.
+
sf.cu > Blog > How To Encrypt Emails
+14 March 2023
+4 min +
+
+In this article, I will show you how to encrypt emails. You can encrypt emails on almost any device. In this article, however, I will be focusing on Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo. I will also be focusing on making ProtonMail encrypt emails with Gmail.
+Firstly, let us dispell a few myths. The first myth is a big one.
+Yes, you heard that right. Gmail's confidential mode does not encrypt your emails. Whenever I speak about email encryption, I hear something along the lines of:
+“Why are you making things so complicated? Just use Gmail's confidential mode! It encrypts your emails for you!”
+No, Gmail's confidential mode does not encrypt emails. It simply puts a password on your email.
+This is also a huge myth. ProtonMail encrypts emails sent to other ProtonMail users. However, they do not encrypt emails sent to or received from non-ProtonMail users. It collects less data about you and it stores your emails with encryption on their servers but the email itself is not encrypted on the other person's end.
+Encryption for non-ProtonMail users works on a user-to-user basis. You have to have the encryption keys of the other person if they are a non-ProtonMail user and they also have to encrypt their emails manually. We will learn how to do this in this guide.
+Encrypting your emails online is a simple process.
+Mailvelope is a free, libre and open-source browser extension which allows you to not only encrypt emails using public keys but also has a keyserver which has a list of other people who use Mailvelope. Emails sent to other people using Mailvelope will automatically be encrypted.
+Open the extension and generate your keypair if you do not have a keypair or import your keypair if you do have one.
+Encourage all of your friends to get the Mailvelope extension. Afterwards, you can import their public keys. Henceforth, all emails will be encrypted. Many websites also give their own public key along with their emails so that you can encrypt them as well. If you have friends who use ProtonMail, go to the ProtonMail import section of this post.
+Whenever you go to compose an email, there will be a button like the image below. Just click on it and there will be a popup to compose your encrypted email. Just fill in the info and send your email!
+Firstly, I would like to give a disclaimer. There is no way to use PGP encryption on iOS. Most encryption that is used on iOS is either paid or unavailable. On Android, you cannot encrypt emails using the native applications for Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo. Even if there is such a feature, you should not use their official clients due to their invasive tracking. To encrypt emails, we will use an email app called K-9 Mail. I believe that everyone should use K-9 Mail even if they are not encrypting their emails. It is a fantastic app.
+K-9 Mail is a free and open-source email app that has a lot of features. I believe that no one should be writing emails on their phones but it is a great app to have just to make sure there is nothing urgent in your inbox.
+K-9 Mail is on the Play Store, but do not get it from there. Get F-Droid and make it a habit to download apps you use and the alternatives to them through F-Droid. K-9 Mail is available on F-Droid and is a popular app there.
+Follow the guide to enter your email address and get it working through K-9 Mail. I have tried Gmail and it works flawlessly. Other email providers will work well but some may not work at all.
+OpenKeychain is an app that allows you to import and manage PGP keys. It is also available on F-Droid.
+Generate your key by pressing the option to create a key or import the key file.
+Go back to K-9 Mail, go to settings, go to your account that you added, go to end-to-end encryption and enable it. Select your key. Turn on autocrypt mutual mode. That is it! You should see a lock icon whenever you are sending an email to someone if you have their PGP public key. If you need to import more keys, just go to the OpenKeychain app and import them.
+To export your ProtonMail public keys, follow these steps.
+The image below is how it looks like in 2023.
+You can now send these keys to anyone to import into their PGP keychain. They will then be able to encrypt emails when sending them to your ProtonMail address!
+That is it! You have setup encryption on your emails. This is a great step as email itself is very unsecure, so this will boost your privacy and security by a lot. Sharing passwords through email has never been safe but encryption allows you to do it with a good range of security.
+ + +sf.cu > Blog > Eid Mubarak!
+21 April 2023
+Less than 1 min +
+
+I would like to wish an 🌙 AUSPICIOUS EID 🌙 to you and your family!
+ +sf.cu > Blog > Switching To FFmpeg
+sf.cu > Blog > Switching To FFmpeg
1 June 2023
2 min
+1 June 2023
2 min
I just started using FFmpeg... and it is AMAZING! When I mean amazing, I really mean amazing.
For those of you who do not know what FFmpeg is, it is basically a command-line application that can be installed on all platforms that is basically the Swiss army knife of videos, audio files and images. It merges almost every single codec, encoders and decoders, filters and more in a single application allowing for fast access and modularity.
FFmpeg is one of those tools which have impacted your life without you realising it. Whenever you watch a movie, show or any piece of edited or converted content, there is an extremely high change that FFmpeg was involved.
@@ -22,14 +22,14 @@Most file converters and video editors use at least some FFmpeg. Many websites like YouTube and WhatsApp use FFmpeg directly when they need to compress a video.
The reason I switched is because of its versatility. You can create a single command to record your screen in lossless quality, save the original file in '.mov', the audio in '.mp3' format in another folder, encode a '.mp4' file, transcode it to be played on Android and trim a specific part of the video and send it to a server that you own.
-FFmpeg is a difficult program to learn but the rewards are worth it. I currently have a command that records my screen, converts the audio in the recording from stereo to mono and finally encode it in H.264 for ultimate compatibility.
+FFmpeg is a difficult program to learn but the rewards are worth it. I currently have a command that records my screen, converts the audio in the recording from stereo to mono and finally encode it in H.264 for ultimate compatibility.
All in all, you should learn FFmpeg if you do even a little amount of multimedia manipulation. It will help you out immensely.
-
sf.cu > Blog > Don't Use GitHub
+sf.cu > Blog > Don't Use GitHub
27 May 2023
3 min
-If you are a developer, programmer or a coder who works with open-source software, you must have clicked this post in shock. First off, I would like to state that I am not telling everyone to stop making open-source software. What I am trying to say is that GitHub is one of the worst Git platforms to host your projects. We will cover why in this post.
+27 May 2023
3 min
+If you are a developer, programmer or a coder who works with open-source software, you must have clicked this post in shock. First off, I would like to state that I am not telling everyone to stop making open-source software. What I am trying to say is that GitHub is one of the worst Git platforms to host your projects. We will cover why in this post.
Simply put, GitHub uses non-free software and non-free JavaScript on their website. It is shockingly ironic that the biggest open-source platform for anyone to use is itself a proprietary piece of software. It is also centralised, for-profit and politically active, which are all completely against free, libre and open-source software. These factors make it similar to SourceForge, which was abandoned by most of its users because of this very reason.
-If everyone stops using GitHub and moves to better alternatives like Codeberg, GitLab or even a self-hosted Git instance, then GitHub will fall. Many people may be seething at me suggesting GitLab, but the truth is that GitLab is still open-source and uses free JavaScript instead of non-free JavaScript on their website. It is certainly not the best option, but it is miles ahead of GitHub.
-Codeberg is entirely free software and it is a great option for most people. It works in a similar way to GitHub so it is trivial for individuals to migrate. SourceHut is also amazing. It is just as good as GitHub and much better for your rights. Self-hosting a Forgejo or Gitea instance is one of the best options as it offers complete independence. Git is the underlying technology which anyone can use. Therefore, everyone should be independent in using it.
+Simply put, GitHub uses non-free software and non-free JavaScript on their website. It is shockingly ironic that the biggest open-source platform for anyone to use is itself a proprietary piece of software. It is also centralised, for-profit and politically active, which are all completely against free, libre and open-source software. These factors make it similar to SourceForge, which was abandoned by most of its users because of this very reason.
+If everyone stops using GitHub and moves to better alternatives like Codeberg, GitLab or even a self-hosted Git instance, then GitHub will fall. Many people may be seething at me suggesting GitLab, but the truth is that GitLab is still open-source and uses free JavaScript instead of non-free JavaScript on their website. It is certainly not the best option, but it is miles ahead of GitHub.
+Codeberg is entirely free software and it is a great option for most people. It works in a similar way to GitHub so it is trivial for individuals to migrate. SourceHut is also amazing. It is just as good as GitHub and much better for your rights. Self-hosting a Forgejo or Gitea instance is one of the best options as it offers complete independence. Git is the underlying technology which anyone can use. Therefore, everyone should be independent in using it.
This is the reason I have a website. Everyone should have a website as it gives you independence on the web.
Microsoft's strategy against open-source has always been to embrace, extend and extinguish. They have tried to do it before with Linux when it was being popularized among developers. Now, they are using Copilot to do so, which is an AI tool that can autocomplete code for you. The main issue with it is that they trained it all on open-source code without giving any credit to the original developers. GitHub's Copilot is now being used to help code for-profit and close-source programs.
@@ -30,15 +30,15 @@There are many people who suggest using alternatives to products offered by big corporations and they are mostly right. Big corporations are able to give you free products because they profit off of your data. They are not trying to be kind.
For example, look at Google. They offer a search engine, documents storage, free email, cloud storage, a video site with billions of videos, a meeting platform and much more. They are not doing this to help people. They are doing this to harvest your data and sell it to the highest bidder.
-Microsoft? Windows, Xbox and GitHub are not tools offered out of their sympathy towards you. All of it is for their own profit, whether it be collecting your data in Windows or preventing distribution of truly free software on GitHub.
+Microsoft? Windows, Xbox and GitHub are not tools offered out of their sympathy towards you. All of it is for their own profit, whether it be collecting your data in Windows or preventing distribution of truly free software on GitHub.
GitHub is perhaps the only Git platform that has no option to self-host. You do not know what is running on their servers and cannot know what is happening with your code.
+GitHub is perhaps the only Git platform that has no option to self-host. You do not know what is running on their servers and cannot know what is happening with your code.
Please don't use GitHub. Just use alternatives or self-host it. GitHub does have a lot of projects but if you use it, it brings them closer towards extinguishing open-source.
- +sf.cu > Blog > Instagram Deleted!
+7 May 2023
Less than 1 min
+ +This post is to inform you that the grace period for the deletion of my public Instagram account has been completed. My Instagram account has been deleted... forever. I highly recommend you do it too. Read this post for more information.
+ +sf.cu > Blog > Open-Source Islam Apps?
+02 July 2023
2 min
+I have tried finding open-source and free Islamic apps for a long time and it is tiring to do so. Most of the apps are Quran and prayer time apps which are perfect but we do not have apps for other parts of Islam like hadeeths, duas and even Qibla locating. If I do run across an app, its last update is always more than five years ago which is not ideal. There are two Islamic apps that I use on a daily basis that I absolutely love and will never switch from:
+ +QuranApp is a spectacular app that follows the UNIX philosophy and is hosted under the GPL license effectively making it free software. It has many features like information on every single Surah, multiple translations, audio, mentions of prophets in the Quran and even has a search option using which you can search for any surah or term to get detailed information about your search query in the Quran. For example, searching about 'patience' brings up ayahs which talk about patience and the rewards that come about from being patient.
+Al-Azan is another app which also follows the UNIX philosophy and is hosted under the AGPL license also making it free software. It does one thing well - displaying and informing of prayer times. You can adjust the prayer times based on location, offset and even calculation methods.
+However, there is not a single free software or even open-source Hisnul Muslim application that I have noticed. Most Hisnul Muslim apps I have used have the exact same duas since it is based off the 'Fortress of the Muslim' book. Just having a page with all duas with a simple search option and the translation in popular languages is all thats required to get the open-source savvy Muslim community to start using free software for their duas.
+Anyone can take the lead. In fact, this may be the first thing I try when I start developing applications.
+ + +sf.cu > Blog > KeePass + Syncthing
+sf.cu > Blog > KeePass + Syncthing
23 June 2023
2 min
+23 June 2023
2 min
I have decided to switch from a self-hosted Vaultwarden (Bitwarden) instance to using KeePass along with Syncthing to sync it to all my devices. There are numerous reasons why I decided to make this change.
The offline nature of KeePass makes it so that it is nearly impossible to crack. Connecting things to the internet makes it trivial for a script kiddie thousands of kilometers away from you to attempt to crack your passwords. A password manager is a place where all of your passwords are stored. Due to this very reason, I decided to upgrade my security by moving to a reputed piece of software.
It has a plethora of security features. Firstly, it has the ability to generate passwords of any length. It allows you to choose what characters are allowed. Its generation is so complex and liberating that even foreign characters like Æ, É, or even mathematics symbols and arbitrary symbols that no one would care about can be used. For example, the division sign (÷) or the copyright symbol (©) are included in password generation. Since most hackers try alphanumeric character cracking, KeePass password generation can make your passwords practically impossible to crack.
The encryption algorithm used for your password database is AES-256, commonly known as 256-bit encryption. It is a form of encryption that is so difficult to crack that the only way you can actually hope to obtain someone's password is by phishing them or using external methods. For more information, please watch this video by 3Blue1Brown. It is extremely interesting.
-In fact, KeePass is so secure that even the passwords that are stored in your memory while you are viewing your database is encrypted. That way, even a management engine attack will not work. If you want to try viewing the cleared memory sectors to find remnants of your passwords, good luck. The passwords which are stored in your memory are first overwritten to the point of unrecoverability before being cleared.
-You can even setup a keyfile (a file you need to use to login), a security key, or both.
+In fact, KeePass is so secure that even the passwords that are stored in your memory while you are viewing your database is encrypted. That way, even a management engine attack will not work. If you want to try viewing the cleared memory sectors to find remnants of your passwords, good luck. The passwords which are stored in your memory are first overwritten to the point of unrecoverability before being cleared.
+You can even setup a keyfile (a file you need to use to login), a security key, or both.
KeePass is open-source under the GPLv2 license, which is the best open-source license for people's freedom. That makes it free software.
+KeePass is open-source under the GPLv2 license, which is the best open-source license for people's freedom. That makes it free software.
Along with KeePass, I use Syncthing to sync my database. Syncthing also uses cryptographic encryption. This makes it so that anyone who wants to brute-force my database needs access to both my Syncthing password and my KeePass password.
I use KeePass along with Syncthing for three reasons.
I am probably never going to switch back because this system works extremely well. Syncthing is very fast at staying up-to-date.
- +sf.cu > Blog > Keep It Minimal
+27 June 2023
3 min
+In technology, you should keep it simple as much as possible. The KISS philosophy and the UNIX philosophy especially must be followed if you want quality software. Most pieces of famous software nowadays do not follow this guideline and it is costing millions of people dearly.
+Simply put, a piece of minimal software:
+Let's expand on the first and second points. Why is minimal software so easy to maintain? Why do developers hate being developers when they are working with bloated pieces of software? Keeping software minimal gives developers the opportunity to easily find code that is slowing down the whole program or is inefficient. It also helps developers find bugs easy. This is because a smaller codebase means that it takes less time to review the code. A group of 10 people can easily perfect a program whose codebase is less than 1500 lines. After that, it is just a work of maintaining the program and making sure that any requests that users have are answered.
+Minimal software runs fast on all devices. It is simply no contest. A 1000-line Python program is going to be much faster than a 100K-line C program even though C is much faster than Python. Inefficiencies and lackluster execution of functions in a program can be spotted much more easily in a smaller program. There is a huge disregard for old computers. People simply cannot use old computers anymore because the software that they use is so inefficient that their computer struggles to do basic things. For example, they use Adobe Reader to open PDFs which is one of the worst things to do. Adobe Reader takes an incredibly long time to open considering the fact that they are the ones that invented PDFs. Another example is Word. Why does Word take long to open and write on? It's code is bloated. Think of Zathura. It is a PDF viewer that follows the UNIX philosophy of doing one thing well. Even on the slowest of computers, Zathura takes milliseconds to open a PDF. Think about LaTeX. You do the writing then you compile the document into a PDF. It does everything from linking, referencing, bibliographies much better than Word. In fact, it is so good that many universities require its use for proper formatting and referencing.
+Minimal software can be extensible as per the UNIX philosophy. Instead of creating a massive program that tries to do everything, minimalist programs create modules for certain functions. This makes troubleshooting a piece of cake as the initial confusion of finding out what exactly causes the error is practically eliminated. For example, if you are making a login page and the authentication does not work, you know that you should look in the authentication module. However, if you make it all in a single program, it is difficult to root out whether an issue is due to an incorrect variable type or a redundant function.
+All of this helps developers to avoid complications. No team wants another error or speed complaint in the middle of another issue. All of the advantages listed thus far help developers have peace of mind.
+Finally, minimal pieces of software can be liberated and made into free software to contribute to the world. Once the initial stages of bug-fixing and optimization is over, it is just a matter of letting the world find ways to make the program better. An inefficiency that no one would spot otherwise can be ironed out by a top-tier programmer who worked in a plethora of huge companies with decades of experience. It also helps budding developers learn about development.
+To sum it up, everyone should use and develop minimal software if possible. This is because minimal software is easier to maintain, debug and optimize due to its smaller codebase. It also runs fast on all devices and avoids complications during development time. Minimal software can also be liberated into free software which will allow talented developers to review the program and contribute to the world.
+ + +sf.cu > Blog > Buy Only Metal USBs
+6 May 2023
+2 min +
+
You should only buy metal USBs because they last longer. Metal USBs should be used for everything that a USB is used for. First, let me clarify what USBs are supposed to be used for:
+Here is what USBs are not good for:
+For both use cases listed above, disks like hard drives and SSDs are much better.
+Metal USBs are durable. They are not slower than their plastic counterparts and can flash operating systems just as well. However, the real difference appears in its build quality.
+Metal is a superior material to plastic. It lasts much longer and breaks less easily. This is especially important for data transfer and having an emergency drive ready-to-go. If it dies or breaks at an unfortunate time, it can wreak havoc on both you and your sanity. This is why everyone should use metal USBs. They last longer and eventually break even with the price you paid for them.
+You should try to buy thinner metal USBs. This is because a thin USB can dissipate heat better than a thick one. Metal is a conductor of heat. Because of this, you should try to buy a USB that is able to reduce the heat's effect.
+ +sf.cu > Blog > Oversimplification Kills
+sf.cu > Blog > Oversimplification Kills
10 July 2023
2 min
+10 July 2023
2 min
Oversimplification kills. It is as simple as that. Most of the time, there are simple solutions to a problem that work well which are not used because individuals feel like they need to be more simple.
-If you want to get more technical, think about the over-engineering of website builders. Instead of having a simple piece of software that generates static sites and blog posts based on markdown files, we have ultra-bloated website builders that provide a simple way to make a website at the cost of extremely slow websites and unneeded JavaScript. We also have oversimplified user interfaces in Windows and MacOS. These operating system have made bad and oversimplified interfaces a norm, which makes good interfaces such as ones you can customize on Linux seem too complicated or confusing even though it would be easier for someone with no experience in computing to get started with most desktop environments available.
+If you want to get more technical, think about the over-engineering of website builders. Instead of having a simple piece of software that generates static sites and blog posts based on markdown files, we have ultra-bloated website builders that provide a simple way to make a website at the cost of extremely slow websites and unneeded JavaScript. We also have oversimplified user interfaces in Windows and MacOS. These operating system have made bad and oversimplified interfaces a norm, which makes good interfaces such as ones you can customize on Linux seem too complicated or confusing even though it would be easier for someone with no experience in computing to get started with most desktop environments available.
As Luke Smith mentions in his post, we never thought about using wheels on suitcases until the 1990s even though children in the Incan empire did have toys with wheels. This is one of the examples where trying to oversimplify something by making an all-in-one or a good solution delays progress.
Oversimplification shifts focus away from the main problem. For example, with website builders, the problem shifted away from being able to make websites fast and easily to give the user information in a swift manner to just making your website pretty. With Windows and MacOS, the focus shifted away from making user interfaces that actually make sense for everyone to use to making user interfaces that are familiar.
On the other end of the same spectrum, overcomplication also has a similar result. A technical example of this is software management. Windows and MacOS (at least how most people use MacOS) have complicated software management which results in difficult updates, confusing software usage and an overall increase in storage usage throughout the years. However, Linux has package managers. One command is all that is required to install a package and remove it. You can clear cache, download an older version, update both your system and applications at the same time and even view all installed packages.
In the end, most things are complicated. We can try simplifying them and that is perfectly fine. However, trying to oversimplify a problem and making it a binary outcome does not work in all cases. There are many factors to take into consideration. Oversimplification leads to no problems being solved. If anything, it creates and solves arbitrary problems that are not important.
- +sf.cu > Blog > Password Systems
+2 May 2023
+4 min +
+
+If you find it difficult to maintain strong passwords, then this guide is the only article you need to refer to. In this article, I will talk about an amazing trick to remember and manage all of your passwords.
+It goes without saying that passwords are incredibly important. It is undeniably important to make sure your passwords are:
+However, it seems futile to try using different passwords on every website. It is incredibly hard to remember just one; how can I remember more than 10?
+The solution to this undeniably rampant issue is to use a password system. A password system is a set of rules and guidelines that you make and follow to create your passwords. Using a password system, you need not remember your passwords. All you have to do is string together available pieces of data, and you can remember your password immediately.
+The most common response I hear from people when I ask them to create a password system is:
+"I think using the same password on all accounts is better because I don't have a good memory to use a password system."
+That response always baffles me. The whole point of a password system is not to remember your passwords but to remember a ruleset that will be cemented into your brain after 3 or 4 times of entering your passwords.
+As aforementioned, a password system is a set of rules that you need to remember instead of all of your passwords separately. An effective password system consists of the following elements:
+The main format and order of a password system is completely managed by you. First, let us go over creating a master password.
+I recommend this method of creating master passwords to anyone since the passwords that are created are easy to remember but practically impossible to guess.
+Make sure it is long but easily memorable. The one which pops in your mind when someone asks you to think of a sentence is a perfect choice as long as it is of considerable length.
+Example: I love eating 43 and a half coconuts a day, I am not going to lie!
Take the first letter of each word in the sentence and write it as is. Do not change any characters to uppercase or lowercase or use a symbol to represent it.
+Example: Ile43aahcad,Iangtl!
Take the password you have in the last step and make it stronger in a way that you will remember. This step is the one you have to be the most careful in because making it too strong will make it difficult to recollect in the future.
+Do not use common substitutions like:
+Example: I<3e43&1/2cad,IangtLIE!
Do not proceed to the next section without doing this step. Recall the sentence in your mind and try to write the same password you got in the previous step. Do this at least 10 times. Wait a few hours, then do it again. Wait until you sleep and do it again. This may seem unnecesarry, but most people underestimate the power of muscle memory. If you login to an account regularly, then you type your password without even thinking about it. The same trick can be applied here.
+After a while, you will be able to type your extremely long password without any effort. You just think about it and your mind glides through the keyboard. This is super useful.
+To make your password different for every website and service you go to, there needs to be a service differentiator. A service differentiator is a special combination of characters you add in your password system to make it unique to the service you are on. It is not very difficult to create a service differentiator and it is easier to remember.
+The elements of a service differentiator are the name of the service and length of the name of the service. Below is an example of a name differentiator used for creating a Nextcloud account, Microsoft account and Google account respectively.
+nextcLOUD!999
microSOFT!999
googlE!666
As you can see, I added the name of the service in with the first 5 letter capitalized with an exclamation mark and the length of the service three times.
+By this point, you can make your own service differentiator easily.
+It is finally time to integrate your master password into a password system. It is called a password system, which means that it is dynamic and changes for every website. A sample password system can be the following:
+(SERVICE DIFFERENTIATOR) + (MASTER PASSWORD)
In my example's case, my Google account password would be:
+googlE!666I<3e43&1/2cad,IangtLIE!
The password above is 40 characters, yes 40 characters long. No one will be able to guess it and it will take hundreds of centuries to crack. Best of all, it is different for each account.
+You can mix the order up. Just make sure you don't keep changing the system and use one system. The best part is that if you need to change your passwords, you can just make another system that will work just as well. By that point, the previous system will be embedded into your brain. So, you can remember multiple strong passwords using this step.
+Please note that this is not enough. If you have followed this guide, you have taken a massive step towards protecting your accounts. However, many cybercriminals rely on phishing attacks. Please do not click on random links and please do not enter your information on random websites.
+Congratulations! You now know how to create an extremely strong password that is different on each account.
++
+ +Links to different sections and pages within the website.
sf.cu > Blog > Stop Using Social Media
+20 April 2023
+9 min
+ +Digital Privacy.
+It is well-known that apps like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and some Google apps collect your data like their lives depend on it (technically, they do). Everything from your name to your IP address and phone number to even the amount of network requests you make or the model of your phone. Not to mention, literally everything you do on the app. This all goes to their servers and is used for more advertisements.
+It is pretty safe to say that your digital footprint, as it is called, can be nearly eliminated by deleting your accounts. There are more steps that you have to take to take care of your privacy, but preventing data collection from big corporations is a huge step.
+Fake news. It's everywhere. Even the worst social media addict cannot deny it. You see parody pages that copy the design of famous news channels perfectly and post random news. You see people edit images to exaggerate or divert the subject of an article. There is not much that I need to say. You know what I mean.
+The blue-light from your phone tricks your brain into thinking it's daytime. So, when you use your phone late into the night scrolling on your social media feed, it makes you feel less sleepy.
+When this happens, do you know what most people do? They pick up their phones again since they cannot sleep, thinking that they will sleep in 30 minutes when they are sleepy. This cycle goes on. Many individuals of Generation Z do not sleep the whole night for many days on end and instead take naps in the afternoon. Does this sound healthy to you?
+And no, using a blue-light filter does not fix the issue. It only slightly reduces its effect.
+When you spend hours and hours a day sitting down with no exercise or action apart from flicking your thumb, what do you think will happen? You may experience the following effects:
+Many individuals who use social media are experiencing these problems, which are usually experienced by older people, at ages like 25.
+When you are working and are in the zone (a phase in which you do high-quality work without even thinking about it), any minor disturbance will move you out of that state. A notification about someone liking your post can shake you out of the zone. In the long-term, this will waste hours of your time.
+So, you are ready. You want to quit social media and break this horrible addiction. You realise the effects it has on your life. However, you do not know where to start. If this is the case, check out 'The AIR Method'. If you would like to read how I did it, please refer to the steps below. Referring to the steps I took may help you understand your weak points and how to combat them.
+Make a list of all of your friends and cross out the ones that you know can be reached on other chat applications. Ask the rest for alternative contact methods. This may be through apps like Signal, Session, XMPP, Matrix, or WhatsApp. Just make sure that it is not another social media app.
+Download your data to refer to in the future. Most social media platforms include chats along with it so that you can refer back to the chats if needed. A website like JustGetMyData will allow you to quickly get to this section. Most websites place it in places which are difficult to access to prevent people from deleting their accounts.
+Quitting social media 'cold-turkey' (abruptly) may work for the first few days but it will cause you to fail completely. It is better to slowly reduce your usage by using healthier apps.
+If you haven't already, start using RSS feeds. There is nothing wrong with using old technology. RSS provides you with a similar feed to social media but with content you actually like and want to read. It is managed by you, not an algorithm. You read what you want and stop. There is no algorithm or endless feed that compells you to keep using the app.
+I am going to make a post about RSS feeds soon. It will be updated here.
+It is also important to announce that you are deleting your accounts. This may not be necessary if you have less than five friends you talk to on your accounts but it is important if you have many friends. This announcement will allow your friends to contact you and tell you their alternative forms of contact. It will also allow people to know that you are leaving for good.
+The moment you have been waiting for. Click on the delete button.
+This is much easier said than done, however. Most social media accounts have a grace period during which if you login to your account, your account deletion will be cancelled. For Instagram, the grace period is 1 month. To combat this, I did the following:
+These steps were drastic but they practically cemented the fact that my account was going to be deleted, no matter what.
+There is not much left to say. I am much, much happier without social media. I have more time on my hands and I am still getting the information I want from RSS feeds without an algorithm trying to pull me in. Big corporations have much less data about me, I have a lot of time and have produced a lot of work. In terms of academics, my overall percentage in school has increased by over 20%. I find difficult subjects easier and easy subjects a piece of cake.
+All in all, if you care about yourself, delete your social media. It is a hellhole that is getting worse by the day.
+ +sf.cu > Blog > Why I Use Terminal Apps
+13 March 2023
+5 min +
+“Ah, yes. Graphical-user interface (GUI) apps. They are so comfortable and easy to use. You just click some buttons and get your computer to do what you want.”
+That was what I thought before I learned how spectacular terminal applications are. I do not use a calendar or email GUI app. I use its terminal equivalent. Specifically, I use Calcurse for my calendar/todo, neomutt for my email, sxiv for my image viewing, mpv for my video playing and even Joplin (CLI) for my notes. I am still actively looking for more apps like terminal file managers (lf, ranger, mc) and terminal versions of GUI apps I use (Bitwarden?). What compelled me to switch?
+Firstly, I realized that apps that allow me to use my keyboard and reduce mouse usage to as little as possible saved me a lot of time. By a lot of time, I don't mean a few minutes. I mean hours in the long run. Moving your hand to your mouse and clicking a button takes at least three seconds. Multiply that hundreds of times a day and 365 days an year. That leads to a lot of time wasted just moving your hand to your mouse.
+The speed of terminal apps have helped me get a lot more productive. Getting myself to start working immediately helped me a lot. I use Neovim for my text editor, and whenever I need to write text, its much faster to press a shortcut to open a blank file in Neovim than to open a GUI equivalent. It is also much faster to press a shortcut than to open my applications menu and search for my calendar app and wait a few seconds for the bloated app to open up. Terminal apps are just more lightweight. As a result, they operate faster and save me more than just a few seconds.
+CLI apps are more standardized. With a GUI, the procedure for solving an issue or using the application's functionality is similar to this:
+This is the sole reason that you see the terminal being used so much in Linux. It's easier to say “Open your terminal and type this” than to blabber a long list of instructions that will become redundant if the application in question decides to change their UI in an update.
+Due to the lightweight nature of the command line, your tools can run on just about any computer. It does not matter if your computer has a Pentium processor or a 12th-generation i9. GUI tools have system requirements and if it is a robust tool with a fancy interface, chances are that the requirements just for the app to look good knocks that tool off your app list on your 10-year-old computer.
+While GUI apps are simple to use initially, your speed using the apps remains slow all the time. Sure, you may learn where every button is and be able to open any setting you want quickly, but that speed is nothing compared to one of a command line. With a command line, your speed is slower than a snail at first. However, after some time of using the program, you can do things at a similar speed as a GUI app.
+If you daily-drive a terminal program, it takes only a few days for you to become faster at it than using a GUI program. After that, you will be able to understand your most used commands and use aliases to shorten them.
+For example, if you view your free space regulary, instead of typing a 50-line command to print your free space, you can just alias that command to 'free-space'. Doing this will make it so that whenever you type 'free-space', it performs the aforementioned 50-line command and displays the output. This will save your more than just a few hours of time.
+With terminal apps, you have a plethora of choices. I can almost guarantee that an app with functionality you wish existed does exist in the form of a command line application. There are obscure apps with spectacular functionality which can change your computing experience that you will miss out on if you stay away from the terminal.
+When it comes to GUI apps, you have to be honest. They do not have 100% functionality. It is simply implausible to fit every single function in a GUI app. Doing so would result in a lot of code to maintain, an extremely heavy app and a confusing layout. However, with a terminal app, all you have to do is type:
+man command
or
+command --help
and get the complete functionality of the app, all within less than 5% of the app size of its GUI equivalent.
+All GUI apps are basically middlemen for the command line. They essentially use the command line for you. When you ditch the GUI and go straight for the terminal, you talk directly to the computer in a way in which the computer understands.
+When people first look at the terminal, it becomes set in their mind that it is difficult to use and that mentality stays for an extraordinarily long time. Due to this, they never experiment or even open the terminal application. If they run into an issue which requires the use of the terminal to fix, they decide to just live with the issue instead of using the terminal. However, if people use the terminal for a few weeks, they realize that it outpaces almost every other GUI app in almost everything.
+... including terminal applications. Terminal applications are amazing. They allow me to do so much. However, there are extremely rare cases in which I have no choice but to use a GUI. This is if the GUI application in question requires you to use only their app. There are also some specific use-cases in which GUI apps just make more sense. Video editing, advanced photo manipulation and 3D modelling are great examples.
+...terminal applications should be used as much as possible. They are swift. They can be used quickly and also use less resources and space while running on just about anything. They are not as difficult as they look and can be used for uses which GUI apps do not have. They cannot be used all the time because there are rare exceptions in which GUI applications have to be used. However, these are so little that I do not mind keeping GUI apps just for these use cases. +
+ +sf.cu > Blog > Start Using 2FA Properly
-13 May 2023
3 min
+sf.cu > Blog > Start Using 2FA Properly
+13 May 2023
3 min
If you use any online account, you should use 2FA keys. It does not matter if it is your Google account that has all of your personal information or if it is some random account you use once in a while. You should at least have 2FA enabled in an authenticator app or preferably a 2FA key. Do not use SMS.
Why buy a 2FA key when you can use 2FA codes or SMS for free? Let us start with SMS.
@@ -29,15 +29,15 @@You should also be taking frequent encrypted backups of not only your 2FA codes, but all data that is important to you. Read this post to learn how to take encrypted backups properly. Remember, you should keep your backups as far away from other people's hands as possible. If they have your secret keys, they have your 2FA codes.
Security keys are the best form of two-factor authentication. They are physical keys which need to be plugged in to your computer or smartphone in order to be used. They use NFC, USB-C, USB-A and also the Lightning port. This 2FA method makes it so that it does not matter which person gets your credentials because they need access to your key physically in order to login. One drawback of this method is that, if you lose your key, you cannot login to your accounts. This is why people buy 2 or 3 as a backup. It should be noted that, although other methods can be used alongside security keys, it is not recommended as it is still possible to just use the other insecure methods for a cybercriminal and bypass your security key.
-I recommend Yubico and NitroKey security keys.
+Security keys are the best form of two-factor authentication. They are physical keys which need to be plugged in to your computer or smartphone in order to be used. They use NFC, USB-C, USB-A and also the Lightning port. This 2FA method makes it so that it does not matter which person gets your credentials because they need access to your key physically in order to login. One drawback of this method is that, if you lose your key, you cannot login to your accounts. This is why people buy 2 or 3 as a backup. It should be noted that, although other methods can be used alongside security keys, it is not recommended as it is still possible to just use the other insecure methods for a cybercriminal and bypass your security key.
+I recommend Yubico and NitroKey security keys.
If there is one thing you take away from this post, it is to make 2FA your baseline security protocol. Use 2FA for every account that has it. Do not use SMS, use authenticator apps. If possible, spend money on three security keys.
+If there is one thing you take away from this post, it is to make 2FA your baseline security protocol. Use 2FA for every account that has it. Do not use SMS, use authenticator apps. If possible, spend money on three security keys.
-sf.cu > Blog > Why You Should Torrent
+sf.cu > Blog > Why You Should Torrent
16 July 2023
4 min
+16 July 2023
4 min
I believe that everyone should download most of the files they use through torrents as much as possible. This is because of its philosophy to share and contribute. It has numerous advantages as well.
First, let's clear a few myths about torrenting.
@@ -41,9 +41,9 @@Torrents should be used whenever possible. They are reliable, fast, prevent censorship, allow people to contribute easily, are flexible and cannot be manipulated easily. Just keep in mind to give back to the community by seeding and do not download illegal media.
- +