Namebench: Faster Browsing

Namebench searches for faster DNS for your IP. It will help improve your internet look up speeds considerably. You will visibly see faster browsing speeds. Try it out.

Install:

sudo apt-get install namebench

Then open a terminal to run

namebench

This will take a few minutes (5-10 mins). The results will show up on your browser.

To change your DNS servers, rightclick on network connection icon > edit connections > wireless/wired > your connection name > edit > ipv4 settings > Automatic (DHCP) address only .
Then copy the primary secondary and tertiary DNS ids from the browser to the three corresponding lines in the ipv4 settings menu window.

Apply and you are done.

Now restart network manager

sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager restart

Enjoy faster browsing.

PDFmod

PDFmod is a simple tool with GUI to modify your pdf documents.

You can:

1) Rearrange pages of a pdf file

2) Combine two pdf files

3) Delete pages from pdf file

4) Rotate required pages

For more advanced exhaustive set of tools look at PDFtk (PDF tool kit).

PDFedit is an advanced editor which allows you to edit text in pdf files.

All the above softwares can be installed through package managers.

Safely store your passwords

If you are like me, scared of storing passwords online and looking for a safe way to store (remember) your passwords in your own machine, openssl offers a way.

1) Create a text file (eg name: passwords) with your passwords:

For eg.

google.com abcdef

blogger 123pqr

....

2) Encrypt using openssl

# encrypt

openssl aes-256-cbc -a -salt -in passwords -out passwords.enc

When prompted enter a master password

REMEMBER the master password at all times.

3) REMEMBER to remove the passwords text file !

rm -f passwords

3) Decrypt when needed

# decrypt

openssl aes-256-cbc -d -a -in passwords.enc -out passwords

That's it! Securely store your passwords and never worry about forgetting passwords again.

Don't Trash, Delete

Sometimes you might want to delete a file directly (like command line "rm") instead of moving it to trash.

To add that option in Gnome Nautilus file manager you can goto:

Places > Home Folder > Edit > Preferences > Behavior > Trash > Include Delete option.

Now you will get an additional delete option when you right click on a file/folder:

Gnome Gmail

If you would like to make Gmail your default Email Client in Gnome instead of "Evolution" or "Thunderbird", then you can use "Gnome Gmail"

After installing goto System > Preferences > Preferred Applications > Internet > Mail Reader

You will get a "Gmail" Option:

Now when you click on an email-link, your browser will open Gmail.

Test this link : abc@gmail.com