Linux

Managing cookies in Firefox

maggie

Firefox, by default, allows cookies to be set by all websites. We advise installing the “Cookie AutoDelete” extension so that you can control which websites can save their cookies on your system. You only really need to allow cookies from sites that you want to interact with, such as sites that you need to log in to for shopping, banking, webmail, for example.

Installing Cookie Whitelist
  •  Open Firefox
  • Tools > Add-ons.  Then choose Extensions from the left hand side.
  • In the Search box on the top, right of page – type “cookie autodelete”.
  • Find “Cookie AutoDelete” (by the CAD Team) and click it Then click the “Add to Firefox”.
  • You need to allow the permissions it asks for;  click the Install button when it’s ready.
  • It will open an info page/tab in the browser (which you can close or ignore).
How to use Cookie AutoDelete

Once this extension is installed, a button is added to the top-right of your browser to allow easy control over cookies.

Click it to open a drop down panel of the controls.

All you have to do here is click the red button on the left which says “Auto-clean disabled”.  When you click it, it will turn green and say “Auto-clean enabled”. You can now close the box (for the moment!) by clicking the top-right button (which will now be red, indicating that cookies are not being stored for the page you’re on).

TO SET YOUR COOKIE OPTIONS ACCORDING TO THE WEBSITE

For each website you visit, the cookies will now automatically be off (red cookie button) so no action needed until you want to whitelist or blacklist a website:

  • In that case, click the cookie button in the top-right of your browser From the dropdown, you can click the appropriate whitelist/greylist button(s).  The button will change colour according to your choice, allowing to to see at a glance your chosen cookie choice for that site.

RED – means that cookies have not been allowed

BLUE – means that you’ve whitelisted the site

YELLOW – means you’ve greylisted the site.  This allows the site to be used for a session, but the cookies will be cleared when you close the tab/page.

It’s also very easy to remove the whitelisted/greylisted sites from the same place so don’t worry if you change your mind about a website!

Skype Alternative(s) – Update

maggie

We recently discovered this great free alternative to Skype which doesn’t need to be installed on your system.  You can access it directly on the web at https://whereby.com.  You can have video conversations with up to 4 people at once and guests to your “room” don’t have to register to join in.

It takes less than a minute to create your room and share the link with someone you want to join you for a video chat.

I suggest you “claim” your room by registering;  this allows you to “lock” your room to stop non-invitees from joining; it also reserves the room for you so that no-one else can claim it. There’s lots of information on their site but essentially it’s a very quick and easy process.

Update: Zoom (https://zoom.us/)

Zoom is a great replacement, not only for Skype, for also for TeamViewer as it can also allow secure remote access for help with your computer!

You need to create and maintain an account via zoom’s web portal. Then you download the app (https://zoom.us/download) and install it into your system – very easy!  The advantage of running the program from your system instead of the via web is that it is much faster than the http(s) protocol, so video and audio work better with less break up.

How to resize/convert images in Debian using ImageMagick

maggie

ImageMagick is a powerful image manipulator, best used in a terminal in Linux.

For complete instructions see:  http://www.howtogeek.com/109369/how-to-quickly-resize-convert-modify-images-from-the-linux-terminal/

In brief, for width (preserving the aspect ratio) (change the 200 for your desired width in pixels):

convert example.png -resize 200 example.png

for height (still preserving the aspect ratio):

convert example.png -resize x100 example.png

It is also possible (and easy) to process several images at the same time. For example, the following command would take all PNG files in the current directory, give the all a width of 600px and save a new copy of each with “-600px” added to the beginning of each file name. The directory will now contain the old and the new image files.

for file in *.png; do convert $file -resize 600 600px-$file; done

For complete instructions see:  http://www.howtogeek.com/109369/how-to-quickly-resize-convert-modify-images-from-the-linux-terminal/ (repeated for emphasis!)

See alsoman convert in your terminal or visit http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/ for a multitude of things that can be done with imagemagick.

Using pacpl to rip CD’s in Debian

maggie

First you need to install pacpl. Open a Terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install pacpl

Any dependencies, as usual with Debian, will also be installed.

Ensure that your CD is in the drive, and decide in which directory you want to put the resulting MP3 tracks – I would suggest your Music directory which will probably be /home/[yourname]/Music.  It’s a good idea to create a directory here with the name of the artist, so the files will be put directly into /home/[yourname]/Music/[ArtistsName] as they are copied & ripped.

Then type:

pacpl --rip all --to mp3 --outdir /home/[yourname]/Music/[ArtistsName]

If you want to check the manual, just type:

man pacpl (q to close it)
or
pacpl --longhelp (q to close it)

Updating and Upgrading packages in Debian

maggie

Open a Terminal

Firstly you have to update the package list. Type:

sudo apt update

Then, when that has run, you need to upgrade your machine:

sudo apt upgrade

Then to throw the wrapping paper away(!):

sudo apt clean

That’s it, although after a kernel upgrade (ie where a “linux-image” package has been upgraded), it’s a good idea to restart your system so the new kernel can be loaded.

Skype on Linux

maggie

Although Microsoft acquired Skype and incorporated it into their Office 365 suite, and since then into Windows 10, it is still possible to download it for Debian here: https://www.skype.com/en/get-skype/. However, it will only work if you have a 64-bit system.

If you’d prefer not to dabble with this installation you can use a great, yet very simple, alternative directly on the web. See Skype Alternative for more details.

If you’re continuing with the Skype download and installation, you need to choose the Linux DEB package (not Linux RPM or Linux SNAP) which will download skypeforlinux-64.deb into your Downloads folder.

Open a Terminal and change the directory to your Downloads folder:

cd Downloads

Then you need to find the file within your Terminal. You can do this by listing the contents of the directory in the order downloaded so that the skype file is at the bottom:

ls -ltr

Now to install it, you need to type:

sudo gdebi skypeforlinux-64.deb (you’ll be asked to enter your password before you can proceed).

You should now find Skype in your applications menu (Debian) or Internet menu (MX-Linux).

Printing an A5 brochure in LibreOffice Writer

maggie

You can print a LibreOffice Writer document as a brochure or a booklet. That is, Writer prints two pages on each side of the paper, so that when you fold the paper, you can read the document as a book.

When you create a document that you want to print as a brochure, write your document in ordinery A4 pages, using portrait orientation for the pages. Writer will apply the brochure layout when you print the document.

To Print a Brochure

Choose File – Print.
In the Print dialog, click Properties.
In the properties dialog for your printer, set the paper orientation to landscape.

If your printer prints duplex, and because brochures always print in landscape mode, you should use the “duplex – short edge” setting in your printer setup dialog.

Return to Print dialog, and click the Page Layout tab page.
Select Brochure.
For a printer that automatically prints on both sides of a page, specify to include “All pages”.

Click OK.

If you print a document in portrait on a landscape page, two opposing sides in a brochure will be printed next to each other. If you have a printer with double-sided printing capability, you can create an entire brochure from your document without having to collate the pages later. If you have a printer that only has single-sided printing capability, you can achieve this effect by first printing the front pages with the “Front sides / right pages /odd pages” option marked, then re-inserting the entire paper stack in your printer and printing all the back pages with the “Back pages / left pages / even pages” option marked.
Note: If LibreOffice prints the pages in the wrong order, open the Options tab page, select Print in reverse page order, and then print the document again.