Threema: yet another instant messaging application for smartphones

Threema - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Desktop versions of Threema (e.g. for Windows or Mac OS X) are on the long-term plan.

Looks like security is  a main goal, unknown protocol used – that's definitely not a plus.

GOCR – Jörg Schulenburg's GNU licensed OCR software

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOCR
• comes with gocr.tcl

"GNU Ocrad" – GNU licensed OCR software

www.gnu.org/software/ocrad/

"WhatsApp Messenger" does not want to run on my Android tablet

• WhatsApp Messenger - Android Apps on Google Play
• www.whatsapp.com/android/ : "Tablet devices are not supported" – no explanation / justification found
• Q: And what's their business modell at all? A: [link] It is the 2nd largest selling app on Apple Store …

No Starch Press: Book of GIMP

http://tinker.tv/gimp

Whether you're just getting started with GIMP or working to master GIMP's more complex features, you'll find the answers you're looking for in The Book of GIMP.

read more

Chrome refuses connection to certain local ports

Chrome verweigert Verbindung zu bestimmten Ports | c't (in German)

# how to unblock by starting on the command line:
$ google-chrome --explicitly-allowed-ports=6000,6667

how to make Microsoft Outlook to not send winmail.dat as attachment

Winmail.dat sent as an email attachment in Outlook 2007 and 2010

Mac OS X "Quick Look Preview" vs copy+paste

• http://heise.de/-1869627
• http://www.heise.de/ct/hotline/Textpassagen-aus-Quick-Look-Vorschau-kopieren-1869627.html
• c't-Archiv, 13/2013, page 158 "Textpassagen aus Quick-Look-Vorschau kopieren" (in German, for subscribers only)

(I only quote this reference to give them some honour.)

$ defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE # activate!
$ killall Finder # only a Finder started after the last command will obey
$ defaults read com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection # so what's the current value?

Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel Peace Prize: ‘Heroic effort at great personal cost’

‘Heroic effort at great personal cost’: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel Peace Prize — RT News

NSA scandal delivers record numbers of internet users to DuckDuckGo (The Guardian)

NSA scandal delivers record numbers of internet users to DuckDuckGo | World news | The Guardian

turning an "ext2" or "ext3" file system into an "ext4" one

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext4
• ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Ext4_Howto#Converting_an_ext3_filesystem_to_ext4

root# tune2fs -j /dev/sdXY # add an ext3 journal, if we start with ext2
root# tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/sdXY
root# e2fsck  -f /dev/sdXY # maybe you want to add …
                           # "-C 0" : progress bar
                           # "-p"   : automatically repair!
                           # "-D"   : optimize directories

To be worked on …

Rick Sladkey's NFS utility "showmount"

• linuxreviews.org/man/showmount
• Rick Sladkey and Linux NFS [oreilly.com/openbook/linag2/book/ch14.html = Linux Network Administrator's Guide, 2nd Edition]

showmount is quite useful, if you want to examine the properties of NFS shares instead of just mounting it. I used it, when I found it troublesome to mount a share from a (Linux) virtual machine behind a NAT router (actually a VirtualBox VM host).

NFS mount behind NAT (virtualbox)

NFS mount behind NAT (virtualbox) | The GNULinux Community Portal

The situation and trouble described there is rather similar to my set-up (VirtualBox + NAT + Linux guest), just that my NFS server is a Synology DiskStation.

I added "insecure" to the options of this share, switched off "Enable NFS" on the DiskStation, made sure the option is still there, enabled NFS on the DiskStation again, finally mounted the share again, and it was there – what a surprise!!!

I still have a UID mapping problem with this set-up.

the CPU usage of my openSUSE VM seemed abusive, elimated "Nepomuk Semantic Desktop"

I don't think, I do make the intended use of the Nepomuk Semantic Desktop, so I prefer to switch the entire thing off.

I couldn't find the cause through "top", but "pstree -p" showed a lot of processes with "nepomuk" in their names. A KDE search (KDE Start button, "Search") for "nepomuk" helped.
"Nepomuk Server Configuration", toggled "Enabe Nepomuk Semantic Desktop".

Right, maybe I switched exactly off: the KDE search. Well, how bad! But I simply don't like any such thing ("desktop search pre-indexing") beyond the UNIX locatedb. I like it "cheap" and lightweight.

InoReader is the best Google Reader replacement I came across

It resembles Google Reader really, really a lot.

• InoReader.com
• InoReader.com/forum
• the RSS Subscription Extension (by Google) (a Chrome / Chromium browser extension) lets you add a subscription to your InoReader

the Fink project

• Fink - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• fink.sf.net – I assume the best available link for downloading …
• www.dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Mac_OS/Software/Open_Source/

packages I use:

• coreutils
• wget
• xv
• xpdf

upgrading to Mac OS X Mountain Lion

• starting with Mountain Lion X11 for Mac OS X is available on a separate website: xquartz.macosforge.org, support.apple.com/kb/HT5293
• RCS binaries get provided in /Developer/usr/bin, but e.g. "rcsdiff" makes use of a hard-wired "co" by the full path of /usr/bin/co; my fix for this: I symlinked ../Developer/usr/bin/co to /usr/bin/co.
• you need XCode of course
• as a Fink user, you need to (re-)install Fink from fink.sf.net (coreutils, wget, xv, xpdf)

downloading Apple's Xcode from the "Mac App Store"

Xcode Downloads and Resources - Apple Developer

• You decide, you need XCode,
• you are going to the Mac App Store,
• you are pressing the Install button,
• going to download 1.65 GB,
• and the only feedback you are getting for quite a while is the button saying "Installing".

Mac OS X "Mountain Lion", X11, the XQuartz project

• support.apple.com/kb/HT5293:  About X11 and OS X Mountain Lion
• starting with Mountain Lion X11 for Mac OS X is available on a separate website: xquartz.macosforge.org