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Signal: The Privacy-First Messenger Changing the Game

Messaging apps have revolutionized communication, reshaping our daily lives and relationships. It’s hard to imagine a time without SMS paving the way for near-instant connectivity. Could we even fathom returning to a world where real-time communication wasn’t at our fingertips?

Today, we have a plethora of messaging options. Platforms like Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, iMessage, and Facebook Messenger offer diverse features to suit our preferences. Many apps boast encryption, making users assume their conversations are private and secure.

But how safe are they? Cloud-hosted applications often collect metadata from our interactions. This data—information about who, when, where, and how we communicate—is a goldmine for advertising algorithms. It helps these companies refine their ad targeting, shaping the products and services in our feeds. While these apps may make life more convenient, it’s worth asking: Are they truly looking out for your privacy—or their profit margins?

Signal is advanced end-to-end encryption built on the open-source Signal Protocol. It ensures our conversations remain entirely secure. No one can access your messages or calls. Privacy isn’t an add-on feature—it’s the foundation of Signal’s operation.

I started using Signal a half-dozen years ago when a friend suggested it. I had been looking for a secure messaging system while working on a private estate matter. Signal worked well as I messaged my partner with confidential financial information. It allowed us to send and receive confidential data that was fully encrypted across international boundaries and worldwide.

Signal’s core features are encrypted messaging, voice/video calls, disappearing messages, and group chats. It distinguishes itself from other messaging apps with its commitment to user privacy. There are no ads, no trackers, and minimal data collection. In a world where digital privacy has become paramount for journalists, activists, and anyone who values confidentiality, Signal shines.

Signal’s encryption is powered by the Signal Protocol, a robust cryptographic framework designed to ensure end-to-end security for messages and calls. Signal mobile clients, desktop clients, and server software are free and distributed with an AGPL v. 3 license. Signal is available on Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, and Linux.

You can easily download and install Signal on your desktop or mobile client. Signal currently has approximately seventy million active users, and the app has been downloaded over two hundred twenty million times. Signal is owned and operated by the Signal Foundation, a non-profit organization co-founded in 2018 by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton.

Signal provides excellent documentation to help users get started using the application. The Signal Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. You can support Signal and the important work it does. Developers are welcome.

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Openverse: A Gateway to Openly Licensed Content

Openverse is a powerful search engine for Creative Commons-licensed content, allowing users to explore over 800 million images and audio files across various databases, including significant collections from the Smithsonian, NASA, and more. Initially developed as the CC Search tool by Creative Commons and later adopted by WordPress in 2019, Openverse has become an essential resource for finding reusable content with proper licensing. All Openverse code is open source and can be accessed from their Github repository.

The platform provides easy access to images and audio with simple attribution features, powered by machine learning tags to improve search results. Although currently limited to visual and audio content, there are plans to expand into other media types like 3D models and texts. Openverse’s goal is to make Creative Commons and public domain works—amounting to about 2.5 billion items—freely accessible.

Openverse’s open-source nature means you can host your version or contribute to its development. Verifying licensing and attribution information is essential to ensuring proper use of materials, and the platform provides various filters to narrow down search results by specific license types, including those allowing modifications or commercial use.

You can suggest new external sources by creating an issue in their Github repository or by emailing and sharing what new sources you’d like to add.

Openverse is more than just a search tool; it serves as a gateway to a world of shared creativity and collaboration. By connecting users to openly licensed content from trusted sources, it fosters an ecosystem where creators, educators, and learners can thrive. Whether you’re looking for the perfect image, an inspiring audio clip, or opportunities to contribute to the open-source community, Openverse is an invaluable resource that embodies the spirit of Creative Commons.

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Exploring Openclipart.org: A Treasure Trove of Free Vector Images

I am not a talented artist, but I enjoy using graphics for greeting cards, posters, and occasionally hoodies or t-shirts. When I need an image of a creature such as a cow, horse, or eagle, I turn to Openclipart.org. This unique platform is dedicated to providing a vast collection of free-to-use vector graphics. Launched in 2004, the site has grown into one of the largest repositories of clipart, featuring thousands of contributions from artists worldwide.

Why Choose Openclipart.org?

1. Completely Free and Open

One of the standout features of Openclipart.org is its commitment to open access. All images on the platform are released into the public domain, which means you can use them for any purpose—personal, educational, or commercial—without any concerns about copyright restrictions. This liberating approach empowers users to incorporate visual elements confidently into their projects.

2. Extensive and Diverse Collection

The diversity of clipart available on Openclipart.org is truly impressive. There’s something for everyone, from simple icons and logos to intricate illustrations and themed collections. Whether you’re designing a website, creating educational materials, or crafting a presentation, you’ll find an abundance of resources to enhance your work.

3. User-Friendly Interface

Navigating Openclipart.org is a breeze, thanks to its intuitive and user-friendly interface. The site offers robust search functionality, allowing you to quickly find the perfect image. Categories and tags further streamline the process, making it easy to explore and discover new artwork.

4. Community-Driven

Openclipart.org thrives on community contributions. Artists from all walks of life share their creations, fostering a collaborative and supportive environment. This sense of community not only enriches the platform but also encourages creativity and learning among users.

5. Customization and Versatility

The vector format of the clipart ensures that the images are easily scalable and editable. Whether you need to tweak colors, resize elements, or combine multiple graphics, Openclipart.org’s resources provide the flexibility to tailor images to your specific needs.

Recently I have been looking for a way to give a special birthday present to a friend. My friend lives on a dairy farm. I wanted to incorporate a cow into my design that could be used on a hoodie. I could easily download a vector graphic image of a cow from Openclipart.org. I used Inkscape to add text around the picture, and I saved the complete design as a vector graphic. I love using vector graphics in my designs because they can be easily resized and incorporated into other without danger of pixelation or distortion.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

Conclusion

Openclipart.org is more than just a repository of clipart; It’s a community of clipart and artists willing to share their work so that others may enjoy it too. Next time you’re in need of visual inspiration or an image for one of your own creations I suggest you head over to Openclipart.org to find the perfect image to elevate your project.

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Having fun with Inkscape

Inkscape is one of my favorite open-source graphic design tools. It has an intuitive interface that is relatively easy to master. As I learned to use Inkscape, I became familiar with vector graphics. I appreciated their usefulness in various projects, such as posters, t-shirts, hoodies, and any items that feature graphics. Vector graphics consist of paths defined by mathematical formulas, allowing them to be infinitely scalable without losing quality. It remains crisp and clear whether you shrink an image to fit a postage stamp or enlarge it to billboard size.

One way I like to use Inkscape is to put text on paths in my creations. This is not as intuitive, and I want to provide you with a short how-to to help you get started on your own Inkscape journey to creating creative graphics for your projects.

First you need to install Inkscape on your computer if it is not installed. On Linux, you can do that by entering the following command:

$ sudo dnf install inkscape (Fedora/OpenSuse)

or 

$ sudo apt install inkscape (on Ubuntu/Debian)

You can install Inkscape on macOS and Windows.

Open the application once it is installed, and you will be presented with a workspace that looks like a page.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

I will demonstrate a quick way to put text on a circular path. Once the workspace is open above, I will choose the ‘Ellipse’ tool, the fourth option from the top of the left-hand menu.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

You can see that I have created an ellipse. Now, I am going to use the text tool that is symbolized by the letter ‘A’ about halfway down the toolbar on the left to add some text.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

Now I am going to highlight the text and use the ‘center’ tool at the top to center the text In the text box.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

Now I am going to drag my mouse pointer while depressing the left mouse button to select the text and the ellipse. This selects all the objects. After the objects are selected I am going to go to the ‘Text’ menu on the menu bar and select ‘Put on Path’.

You can see in the picture below that my text has been added to the elliptical object.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

I want to move the text to the top of the ellipse and I do this by selecting ‘Object Rotate’ button at the top menu.

This moves the text to the top of the ellipse.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

If you want the text positioned at the bottom of the ellipse, select ‘Object flip vertical’ to achieve this.

Whether you leave the text at the top or the bottom, you can change the color of the ellipse to white to make it disappear by selecting only the ellipse and one of the light colors at the bottom of the program window.

Be sure to save your work by going to the ‘File’ menu and choosing ‘Save.’ This saves your graphic in the default ‘.svg’ vector graphic format.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

You can opt to ‘Export’ the graphic by choosing that option from the ‘File’ menu at the left and choosing one of the export options displayed at the far right of the graphic.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

Inkscape is a powerful tool; for information and ideas, you can use the learning tools on the project website.

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There is always a tool

Recently, a friend gave me a recent model of a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion laptop. He said, “It turns on but goes off almost immediately. Maybe you could use it?” I gladly accepted the gift and took it home, and it performed as he described. I got CMOS battery errors from the BIOS and decided to take the computer apart. Inspection revealed no separate CMOS battery, and subsequent internet searches revealed that this unit didn’t have a separate CMOS battery but instead relied on the main battery. The battery would not hold a charge and I decided to purchase a new one from an online retailer.

It took a couple of days for the new battery to arrive, and when it did, I removed the cover again and removed the old battery, installed the new one, replaced the cover, and started the laptop with a USB drive with Fedora 41 KDE Plasma. Pressing the ‘escape’ key on the keyboard got me to the BIOS menu, and I chose F9 to boot from USB. The unit has a six core AMD Ryzen 5 with 8 GB RAM, AMD Radeon graphics, and a 497 GB NVME drive. I started the Fedora installation process but was halted with an error message that stated, “Error occurred while activating your storage configuration – device is active.” I restarted the machine and tried again. It’s the same error message.

Internet searches of Fedora forums made me realize that the NVME drive was encrypted with Bitlocker and would not allow me to continue the installation until I could ‘decrypt’ the drive. What was I going to do? I tried to remove the encryption with GParted, Parted, and lost the ability to rebuild the drive with the Windows 11 restore partition. I briefly considered purchasing a replacement NVME drive for the unit. Further internet searches led me to consider using ShredOS. After researching several options, I devised an approach that suggested using the ‘dd‘ command. I used ‘lsblk‘, which lists block devices and solid state drives on a Linux system.

I booted the laptop with a live USB drive, opened a terminal, and issued the following command:

$ sudo dd if=/dev/uvrandom of=/dev/nvme0nX

Be sure to replace ‘X’ with the appropriate drive designation on your system. The process took 7021 seconds to complete, which is approximately two hours. When it was done, the decrypted partition was gone. I used the Fedora41 KDE-Plasma live drive and installed it without difficulty. I learned much from this experience and am grateful for all the excellent resources and tools available for Linux distributions.

Screen Picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

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Ten ways to use open source everyday

Many people don’t realize the abundance of free and open-source resources available online. Here are some of my favorite open-source tools across different categories, designed to enhance your daily life, work, and digital experience.

Browsers

Firefox stands out as a privacy-conscious and open-source browser. Chromium is another open-source browser that was developed at Google.

Web Privacy

To enhance your online privacy, consider using uBlock Origin, an open-source browser extension that effectively blocks advertisements and neutralizes privacy invasion. Privacy Badger, maintained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is another excellent option that automatically learns to block invisible trackers.

Password Management

Secure passwords are crucial for online safety. Bitwarden helps you generate strong, unique passwords for each website and securely store them in the cloud, accessible across various devices via browser plugins, desktop applications, and mobile apps.

Messaging

Signal is a highly recommended platform for secure messaging on Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS. It utilizes your existing mobile number and offers robust encryption to protect your communications.

Office Tools

LibreOffice is a powerful and free open-source office suite that serves as an excellent alternative to commercial options. Available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, it allows you to own your documents without needing expensive software.

Blog Builder

WordPress is a versatile and popular open-source blogging engine suitable for sharing opinions, creating low-cost writing platforms for students, or establishing a business web presence.

Media Repository

When creating content, OpenClipart provides a wealth of images in various formats that you can quickly and legally share. Additionally, Creative Commons Search Portal helps you search CC-licensed works across multiple platforms and offers licensing options that simplify sharing while ensuring proper attribution.

Video Conferencing

Jitsi and Big Blue Button have transformed online interaction and learning for virtual meetings and conferences.

Educational Resources

Open educational resources (OER) such as OER Commons and MIT OpenCourseWare provide openly licensed content for various educational levels. OpenStax offers peer-reviewed textbooks that are openly licensed and available for free.

Podcast Tools

If you’re interested in podcasting, Audacity is a user-friendly, multi-track audio editor and recorder available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux, and other operating systems. It is free and open-source software.. Open Broadcaster Software is another great tool for live streaming and video recording. OBS works on Windows, MacOS or Linux.

Conclusion

Incorporating open-source software into your daily routine can be both empowering and rewarding. These tools provide powerful features and customization options while fostering community and collaboration. By embracing open source, you gain control over your digital experience, support innovation, and contribute to a global movement committed to making software free and accessible for all.

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Unlocking the power of Linux

My initial reaction to Linux was that I did not fully understand its range of tools. At that time, I was the technology director for a small K-12 public school district with limited resources but a growing number of classrooms, learning labs, and administrative offices. I came from a social science background, and although I was willing to learn, I was acutely aware of how little I knew. It did not take too long to understand what powerful tools enabled me to discover our network and learn the intricacies of TCP/IP.

Here’s a list of ten tools that became a significant part of my repertoire. I used them to teach others about network computing and the power of Linux.

The ping command is one of the most frequently used by sysadmins. It utilizes ICMP packets to verify whether two machines are connected.

$ ping 192.168.86.1

I learned that I could also ping a domain. 

$ ping donwatkins.info

The traceroute command displays the route from your current machine to the remote server/system, showing each hop along the way.

$ traceroute donwatkins.info

Traceroute can identify the network path, detect latency, locate network issues, and visualize network topology. Here is the result of the traceroute command:

1   192.168.1.1  1.114ms  0.234ms  0.125ms 
2   67.252.48.1  21.260ms  12.357ms  20.123ms 
3   24.58.217.101  29.425ms  32.921ms  32.608ms 
4   24.58.38.176  10.866ms  11.450ms  10.017ms 
5   24.58.32.62  25.848ms  25.377ms  15.594ms 
6   66.109.6.2  24.275ms  *  30.399ms

The mtr command is a combination of ping and traceroute. It is used to track for packet loss. MTR is a versatile and dynamic tool that provides sysadmins with valuable insights into network performance and helps them identify and resolve issues efficiently. 

$ mtr donwatkins.info

You can use the ifconfig tool to find your IP address. It provides TCP/IP information for all your network addresses, including the loopback address. 

$ ifconfig

The netstat (network statistics) command-line tool provides detailed information about network connections, routing tables, interface statistics, masquerade connections, and multicast memberships on a system. If you want to see all the network activity on your system, consider using the following command. 

$ netstat -a

If you are looking for DNS information, dig is the tool you should use. It is a flexible tool for interrogating DNS name servers. It performs DNS lookups and displays the answers returned from the name server(s) that were queried.

$ dig donwatkins.info

One of my favorite tools for discovering what traffic is coming across my network is tcpdump. It is a powerful command-line packet analyzer used for network traffic monitoring and analysis. It captures and displays the packets being transmitted or received over your network. You need administrative privileges to run the command. 

$ sudo tcdump

The whois command queries databases that store registered domain names and related information. This command is useful if you need information about a specific domain, such as its registrar.

$ whois donwatkins.info

If you are looking for a powerful and versatile tool for network discovery and security auditing, then Nmap is for you. It can discover devices on a network, identify their IP addresses, and collect information about them, creating a detailed network inventory. Be sure to check the Nmap project website for excellent documentation on its use. I use nmap to scan my router to check for open ports. 

$ nmap 192.168.1.1

One of my favorite network monitoring tools is ntopng. It is a web-based application for monitoring network traffic released under the GPLv3 license. Ntopng is the modern version of the original tool, ntop, created by Luca Deri in 1998. It has been significantly improved in performance, usability, and features.

I am a graphical learner, and Etherape helped me visualize TCP/IP traffic across our network. Etherape is easy to install on either .deb or .rpm based systems. 

$ sudo apt install etherape
or 
$ sudo dnf install etherape

Only an administrator can run Etherape, so you must add sudo to your command when executing it. 

$ sudo etherape

Be sure to consult the documentation and Linux manual pages for all these commands to explore all the different options open to you as a Linux system administrator.

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An Introduction to Krita: A Powerful Tool for Digital Artists

Welcome to the exciting world of digital art! Whether you are an experienced artist or a curious beginner, Krita is a name you should know. Developed by the KDE community, Krita is free and open-source digital painting software that has gained immense popularity in art. It has powerful features and is easy to use, with a user-friendly interface and extensive customization options.

What is Krita?

Krita is digital painting software designed for artists of all skill levels. Although I wouldn’t consider myself a well-known digital artist, Krita allows me to easily create high-quality graphics for my presentations. It is available for download and installation on Windows, MacOS, and Linux.

Key Features

Customizable brushes: One of Krita’s standout features is its extensive collection of brushes. With over 100 preloaded brushes and the ability to customize and create your own, you have endless possibilities.
Layers and masks: Krita features a powerful layer system that enables non-destructive editing, allowing artists to experiment and refine their artwork easily. Additionally, masks let you apply effects or adjustments to specific areas without changing the original layer. This level of flexibility is a significant advantage for artists who enjoy fine-tuning their work.
Intuitive Interface: Krita’s user interface is designed with artists in mind. It’s clean, intuitive, and highly customizable. You can arrange your workspace to suit your preferences, ensuring all your essential tools are within easy reach.
Advanced color management: Krita offers a variety of color spaces and profiles for artists who need precise color accuracy. Whether you’re working on a project for print or digital display, Krita’s advanced color management tools ensure your colors appear exactly as intended.
Animation capabilities: Krita provides animation features along with its powerful painting tools. Users can create traditional hand-drawn animations utilizing the timeline and onion-skinning tools.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

Community and Resources

One of Krita’s best aspects is its vibrant and supportive community and excellent documentation. Numerous tutorials, forums, and resources are available to help you get started and enhance your skills. The Krita website is a valuable source of information, providing user guides, tutorials, and galleries that showcase stunning artwork created with Krita.

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Ventoy: The Ultimate Multi-Boot USB Tool

Giving friends and neighbors a bootable USB drive containing your favorite Linux distribution is a great way to introduce neophyte Linux users to the experience we all enjoy. Many people have never heard of Linux, and putting your favorite distribution on a bootable USB drive is a great way to break the ice.

I taught an introductory computer class to a group of middle schoolers a few years ago. We used old laptops, and I introduced the students to Fedora, Ubuntu, and Pop!_OS. When the class was over, I gave each student a copy of their favorite distribution to take home and install on a computer of their choice. They were eager to try their new skills at home.

A friend introduced me to Ventoy, which (according to its GitHub repository) is “an open-source tool to create bootable a USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files.” Instead of creating separate drives for each Linux distribution I want to share, I can make a single drive with all my favorite Linux distributions on the drive!

As you might expect, a USB drive’s size determines how many distributions you can fit on it. On a 16GB drive, I placed Fedora Cinnamon and Fedora KDE Plasma and still have over nine gigabytes free to hold other distributions.

Get Ventoy

Ventoy is open source, with a GPL v3 license, and available for Windows and Linux. There is excellent documentation on downloading and installing Ventoy on Microsoft Windows. The Linux installation happens from the command line, so it can be a little confusing if you’re unfamiliar with that process. Yet, it’s easier than it might seem.

First, download Ventoy. I downloaded the archive file to my desktop. Next, extract the ventoy-x.y.z-linux.tar.gz archive (but replace x.y.z with your download’s version number) using the tar command (to keep things simple, I use the * character as an infinite wildcard in the command):

$ tar -xvf ventoy*z

This command extracts all the necessary files into a folder named ventoy-x.y.z on my desktop.

You can also use your Linux distribution’s archive manager to accomplish the same task. After downloading and extracting, you can install Ventoy to your USB drive.

Install Ventoy and Linux on a USB

Insert your USB drive into your computer. Change the directory into the Ventoy folder, and look for a shell script named Ventoy2Disk.sh. For this script to work correctly, you must determine the correct mount point for your USB drive. 

$ lsblk

The results show that my USB drive is mounted at /dev/sda. On your computer, the location could be /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc or something similar.

Once you’re sure of your drive’s location, run the script:

$ sudo sh Ventoy2Disk.sh -i /dev/sdX

This formats the drive and installs Ventoy to your USB. Now, you can copy and paste all the Linux distributions that will fit on the drive. If you boot the newly created drive on your computer, you’ll see a menu with the distributions you have copied to your USB drive.

Build a portable powerhouse

Picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

Ventoy is your key to carrying a multiboot drive on your keychain, so you’ll never be without the distributions you rely on. You can have a full-featured desktop, a lightweight distro, a console-only maintenance utility, and anything else you want.

I never leave the house without a Linux distro, nor should you. Grab Ventoy, a USB drive, and a handful of ISOs. You won’t be sorry.

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MyTop Five KDE Apps

I’ve been using Fedora 41 KDE Plasma for awhile now and I’ve already discovered some of the great available apps that I use daily. My top five are: Okular, Spectacle, Gwenview, Dolphin and Konsole.

Okular is a versatile and powerful document viewer. It supports many document formats, including PDF, EPUB, DjVu, and Markdown, as well as image formats like JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Okular has great annotation tools that make adding inline and popup notes and highlighting text easy. I can easily add my text to PDFs. Okular can speak the text if I choose that option. Okular is available on other platforms, including MacOS and Windows. It is open source with a GPL v2 license.

Spectacle is a simple yet powerful screen capture utility. I can capture the entire desktop or just a specified rectangle. I can easily copy and paste the image or save it by default to the ‘screenshots’ folder inside my ‘Pictures’ folder. I can also save images in various formats, including PNG, TIFF, JPEG, PCX, WebP, and many more. I can also annotate and edit screenshots before saving them. The spectacle is available on Linux with a GPL v2 license.

Gwenview is a user-friendly image viewer that includes many powerful tools. I can open images with a double-click, rotate them left or right, crop, flip, adjust colors, remove red-eye, and even annotate. I can view pictures in full-screen mode and even create a slideshow. Gwenview has a ‘Share’ option in the menu bar that lets me send images directly to Google Drive, NextCloud, Imgur or via Bluetooth to another device or user. Gwenview is open source with a GPL v2 license.

Dolphin is a powerful graphical file manager. Dolphin is packed with productivity features designed to save you time. With multiple tabs and split view capabilities, you can easily navigate multiple folders simultaneously, allowing for efficient drag-and-drop file operations between views. The right-click menu offers a plethora of quick actions, such as compressing, sharing, and duplicating files. You can even add your own custom actions for additional functionality. Dolphin is open source with a GPL v2 license.

Konsole is a terminal that runs a command shell. It’s easy to use. It supports a great deal of option with a right click that include tabs, multiple profiles, bookmarks support, saving output. It is available on macOS and Windows. It is open source with a GPL v2 license.