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October 2022

Really Cool Tools!

I began my journey first as an engineering student, then computer scientist, and now finally as a researcher. I have maintained my love for tinkering with new tools, plug-ins, and extensions! It is an ongoing hobby of mine. This is a page to show off the ones that have worked out. I have a love for tools that are: free, open source, and end-to-end encrypted. I hate monopolies, am pro anti-trust and regulation. So, anytime I can supplant a Google/Microsoft tool, I do it! Please reap the fruits of my masochistic relationship with well-meaning but ultimately crappy software that I sift through until I find the gems listed below!

Even though a lot of this stuff is free ***pay the developers!!!*** I list ways to donate/support the projects (I personally support any FOSS projects I use regularly), so if you have the means, please do donate/consider subscribing to Patreons and the like.

Note: Many of these tools are made by smol teams (like 1-10 people), so check your expectations. Google gets thousands of people to work (in)directly on software. So, things will be slower and a bit clunkier.
Note: Use at your own risk. Yadda yadda I’m not liable for things going wrong/being broken.

The List

I will list tools as I think of them and use bullet points to list use cases I find particularly helpful 🙂

Cryptpad.fr (link && Donations) You know the Google Suite? Or Microsoft Office Online? Byeee

    • Rich Text (Word alternative): I collaborate with folks for my academic papers here first!
    • Form (Google Forms alternative): I am using forms for students/mentees to submit questions/concerns/feedback that they would prefer be handled anonymously/securely.

Excalidraw (link && Excalidraw+) A simple whiteboard browser application. It just works and the hotkeys feel very natural. End-to-end encrypted too!

    • I have used this on-the-fly for guest lectures or working through problems on academic project teams.
    • I have also used this to create graphics in advance for presentations (you will see them here and there in my blog posts!)

Signal (link && Donation) Download it. Do it. Now. Yes, it is the go-to end-to-end encrypted messaging app, but checkout the case studies below.

    • I love to use signal as an encrypted file-sharing tool. If you share a PDF or photos or videos between Signal users, boom free private file share!

Dark Sky (link) So, problematic fave? Dark Sky has been my favorite weather app since it launched. It’s minimal , lightweight, and extremely accurate. Unfortunately, Apple has gobbled it up. So, if you are in the Apple ecosystem your default weather app will be Dark Sky. For us Android/Linux folks, well the website is still around (for now).

Crypt.ee (link && Subscription) Ah! I love Cryptee. Not only my favorite note-taking app, but my favorite app to write in full stop. It’s beautiful, lightweight, encrypted, and is a progressive web app (PWA)! Check out this interview with the developer.

    • I write a lot of fiction and poetry. The interface is elegant with an excellent default font option. I find it very pleasing to write in. Also, it is encrypted, so you don’t have to worry about IP issues or leaks (just keep a backup :)).
    • If I am having sensitive conversations that I need to remember details of for later (like issues dealing with harassment or a lack of safety), this is a great place to keep these notes.
    • So, when you install an app from Google or Apple’s app store, you subject yourself to a much deeper level of surveillance (now the app has access to phone functions). This isn’t the case when you are in a browser. A PWA downloads a website and makes it look like an application on your phone/tablet. So, win-win!
    • They are also adding support for photos and videos!

Freetube (link && Donation) If you are like me, then you use YouTube as your primary form of content consumption. I personally hate that Google requires you to be logged in (with a google email) to manage your subscriptions (not to mention all of the data harvesting that is all opt-out). Freetube is a FOSS alternative (and it’s on Linux!!) that: removes ads, lets you have a subscription list *without* logging into anything, and is tracker free.

Feeder (link) So, reading news is great. We love it. However, opening a bunch of different news sites sucks and having a news aggregator that is tracking you also sucks just in a different way. Feeder is based on RSS (which does not have trackers), so you get your aggregated news content without the trackers!

Jitsi (link) If we can take a moment to step out of the shadow of Zoom, there are some really cool alternatives. Many academics are stuck not only with Zoom, but with institutional licenses of Zoom. If you want an external, end-to-end encrypted alternative, here it is! It is extremely light weight, you simply add some unique title after the meeting link, click enter, and voila! An instant video call. Ex. https://meet.jit.si/[your meeting ID here]

When2Meet (link && Donation) Did I mention I like lightweight tools? Well, this is my favorite scheduler tool. Is it pretty? No. Feature-rich? Also, no. Does it get people scheduled with little effort? Yes.

BookShop (link) As academics, we buy a lot of books. A lot us also are reluctant to let go of physical copies. In an effort to not support Amazon, Bookshop.org allows you to buy books from an interconnected web of *local* bookshops around the country. So, try here before you go to Amazon!

VirusTotal (link) Hmmm, what is this? VirusTotal lets you upload files or submit URLs that you think are ~suspicious.~ It’s essentially a browser-based anti-virus! Except it actually uses *70* anti-virus tools at once!!

Internet Archive (link && Donation) Are you ever unable to find something on the Internet? Something that is now in the creative commons or under a free use license? It’s probably here! There are a lot of films/movies/articles that are behind paywalls elsewhere, so always worth checking here.

deturl (link) Hey, sometimes we need the video/audio from a YouTube video. There you go (it also is known to work on other websites!).

aftership (link) So, entering tracking numbers sucks. Enter all of them in this one website! This one is pretty main stream, so if you are super privacy conscious, take a look at the policy here.

z-lib (link) Similar to the Internet Archive, but focused on academic articles and books!

Google Image Removal Form (outdated photo || take-down any content) Do you ever see an image of yourself you would rather not show up in Google Images search results? Now you can send a take-down notice and (hopefully) get it removed. This could be from when you were a minor, perhaps you transitioned, or it could just be that you don’t want that photo searchable anymore.

TechBench (link && Donation) Have you ever needed a deprecated version of Windows? Well, Microsoft used to host older versions of Windows for researchers and enthusiasts, so this is a hobbyist supported version of that.

Bitwarden Password Manager (link && Paid) Truly one of the best steps you can take for your personal security and privacy (and convenience!). It’s the best one, hands down. Free and open-source. Great browser plug-in. Use it, now!

SimpleLogin (link && Paid) SimpleLogin is an email alias generator. Whenever you need to sign-up for newsletters or one-time use services, simply generate an alias and trash it once you’re done! This is one of the best tools to manage your email AND combat things like data leaks. If a company has their customer/user emails linked, you can trash it and be risk-free! They recently merged with ProtonMail, so there are perks there now as well.

Consent-O-Matic (link) Tired of those pesky pop-ups asking for how much of your data you will sign away for using the site? This automatically fills out those forms for the least intrusive experience! Simple browser plug-in that takes care of the hassle.

Aegis (link && Donation) Two/Multi-Factor Authentication is part of our reality. Aegis is a FOSS Android app alternative to Duo and Microsoft Authenticator.

VeraCrypt (link && Donation) FOSS local encryption on all major operating systems! Sometimes you want to add an extra layer of protection to sensitive files or media. VeraCrypt allows you to encrypt and password-protect those files! Here is a tutorial as it can be a bit tricky on the first go.

Linux! Whaaaat? But this is just an operating system. Certainly. I recently switched both my laptop *and* desktop to Linux (PopOS! and Mint respectively). Linux has come a long way. If you want to up your privacy/security immediately and in every way, then this is one of the largest leaps you can make. It’s extremely lightweight and free, so consider giving it a chance :).