Some packages
bleachbit imagemagick peek gdebi build-essential dkms needrestart vlc vim exiftools snapd youtube-dl simplescreenrecorder transmission zbar-tools brasero ffmpeg mencoder lame handbrake handbrake-cli rar unrar unrar-free p7zip-rar
file-roller p7zip-full lrzip ncompress sharutils lzop lhasa jlha-utils arj unace gparted curl speedtest speedtest-cli pinta ubuntu-restricted-extras git pavucontrol xchm kdeenlive flameshot cheese wget xkcdpass calibre webcamoid terminator
Bleachbit is a system cleaner that frees disk space and maintains privacy. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install bleachbit“
ImageMagick is a software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install imagemagick“
Peek is a simple screen recorder with an easy to use interface. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the package “gtk-recordmydesktop” which can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install gtk-recordmydesktop“
Gdebi is a simple tool to install deb files. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install gdebi“
Build-essential is a package that includes essential build tools for compiling and building software from source. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install build-essential“
Dkms is a package that allows dynamic kernel module support, which allows you to add or remove modules without rebuilding the entire kernel. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install dkms“
Needrestart is a tool that checks which processes need to be restarted after library upgrades. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install needrestart“
VLC is a popular media player that can play a wide range of video and audio formats. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install vlc“
Vim is a highly configurable text editor for efficiently creating and changing any kind of text. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install vim“
Exiftools is a command-line application to read, write and edit meta information of image, audio and video files. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install exiftools“
Snapd is a package that allows you to install and manage software packages called snaps. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install snapd“
Youtube-dl is a command-line tool to download videos from YouTube.com and a few more sites. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install youtube-dl“
Simplescreenrecorder is a feature-rich screen recorder that supports X11 and OpenGL. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the package “gtk-recordmydesktop” which can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install gtk-recordmydesktop“
Transmission is a fast and easy-to-use BitTorrent client. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install transmission“
Zbar-tools is a package that includes command-line tools for reading barcodes from images or video streams. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install zbar-tools“
Brasero is a disc-burning software for the GNOME desktop environment. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install brasero“
Ffmpeg is a command-line tool for converting multimedia files. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install ffmpeg“
Mencoder is a command-line tool for converting and editing multimedia files. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install mencoder“
Lame is a command-line tool for encoding audio files. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install lame”
Handbrake is a tool for converting video files from various formats to other formats. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install handbrake”
Rar and unrar are command-line tools for creating and extracting RAR archive files. Their equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the package “rar” and “unrar” respectively, which can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install rar unrar“
P7zip-rar is a command-line tool for creating and extracting RAR archive files using the 7-zip format. Its equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the package “p7zip-rar” which can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install p7zip-rar“
File-roller is a tool for creating and extracting archive files. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install file-roller“
P7zip-full is a package that provides the 7z command-line tool for creating and extracting 7z archive files. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install p7zip-full“
Lrzip is a command-line tool for compressing and decompressing files. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install lrzip“
Ncompress is a command-line tool for compressing and decompressing files. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install ncompress“
Sharutils is a package that includes command-line tools for creating and extracting shell archive files. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install sharutils“
Lzop is a command-line tool for compressing and decompressing files using the LZO algorithm. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install lzop“
Lhasa is a command-line tool for extracting files from LHA archive files. Its equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the package “lhasa” which can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install lhasa“
Jlha-utils is a package that includes command-line tools for creating and extracting LHA archive files. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the package “jlha-utils” which can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install jlha-utils“
Arj is a command-line tool for creating and extracting ARJ archive files. Its equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the package “arj” which can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install arj“
Unace is a command-line tool for extracting ACE archive files
Gparted is a graphical tool for managing disk partitions. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install gparted“
Curl is a command-line tool for transferring data using various protocols. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install curl“
Speedtest and speedtest-cli are tools to test internet connection speed and quality. They are equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install speedtest” and “sudo apt-get install speedtest-cli” respectively
Pinta is a simple image editing tool. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install pinta“
Ubuntu-restricted-extras is a package that includes additional software that is not included by default in Ubuntu, such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft fonts, and codecs. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras“
Git is a distributed version control system. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install git“
Pavucontrol is a simple sound management tool. It's equivalent in Ubuntu 22.04 is the same package and can be installed by running “sudo apt-get install pavucontrol“
…TBC
Strip metadata from all formats with FFmpeg
You can use the -map_metadata option in ffmpeg to strip metadata from a video. The basic syntax is as follows:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -map_metadata -1 -c copy output.mp4
This will copy all the streams from the input file to the output file while stripping all metadata. Another way is to use -map_metadata 0 this will copy all the streams from the input file to the output file while stripping all metadata except the global metadata.
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -map_metadata 0 -c copy output.mp4
You can also remove specific metadata by using -metadata flag
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -metadata title= -metadata artist= -c copy output.mp4
This command will remove title and artist metadata from the video. how to strip from all known video formats which are compatible with ffmpeg all metadata To strip metadata from all known video formats that are compatible with ffmpeg, you can use a wildcard in the input file name and a loop to process all files in a directory. Here's an example of how you can do this using a Windows command prompt:
for %f in (*.mp4, *.mkv, *.avi, *.wmv) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -map_metadata -1 -c copy "output_%f"
This command will loop through all files in the current directory with the extensions .mp4, .mkv, .avi, and .wmv, and use ffmpeg to strip all metadata from the input file and save the output as “output_filename.extension” On Linux/macOS:
for f in *.mp4 *.mkv *.avi *.wmv; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -map_metadata -1 -c copy "output_$f"; done
Note that this command will not overwrite the original files, it will create new files with “output” prefix. Also, this command uses the -1 option to remove all metadata. If you want to keep some metadata, you can use -mapmetadata 0 instead. would you further improve this? Sure, here's an improved version of the command that uses a function to check the compatibility of the files with ffmpeg and also allows you to specify the input and output directory:
function strip_metadata {
# check if ffmpeg is installed
if ! command -v ffmpeg >/dev/null 2>&1; then
echo "ffmpeg is not installed. Please install ffmpeg and try again."
return 1
fi
# check if input and output directories are provided
if [ "$#" -ne 2 ]; then
echo "Usage: strip_metadata <input_directory> <output_directory>"
return 1
fi
# check if input and output directories exist
if [ ! -d "$1" ] || [ ! -d "$2" ]; then
echo "Error: input or output directory does not exist."
return 1
fi
# loop through all files in the input directory
for file in "$1"/*; do
# check if the file is a compatible video format
if ffmpeg -i "$file" &> /dev/null; then
# strip metadata and save the output to the output directory
filename="${file##*/}"
ffmpeg -i "$file" -map_metadata -1 -c copy "$2/output_$filename"
else
echo "$file is not a compatible video format or ffmpeg can't read it"
fi
done
}
You can use this function by calling
strip_metadata <input_directory> <output_directory>
This function checks if ffmpeg is installed, check if the input and output directories are provided and exist, and then loops through all files in the input directory. It checks if the file is a compatible video format by running ffmpeg on the file with the -i option and redirecting the output to /dev/null. If it is a compatible format, it will use ffmpeg to strip the metadata and save the output to the output directory with the “output_” prefix. It will also print a message if a file is not a compatible video format or ffmpeg can't read it.
Here's an improved version of the function that allows you to specify the file extensions to process and has better error handling:
function strip_metadata {
# check if ffmpeg is installed
if ! command -v ffmpeg >/dev/null 2>&1; then
echo "Error: ffmpeg is not installed. Please install ffmpeg and try again."
return 1
fi
# check if input and output directories are provided
if [ "$#" -lt 2 ]; then
echo "Error: Please provide the input and output directories"
echo "Usage: strip_metadata <input_directory> <output_directory> [file_extensions]"
return 1
fi
# check if input and output directories exist
if [ ! -d "$1" ] || [ ! -d "$2" ]; then
echo "Error: input or output directory does not exist."
return 1
fi
# set file extensions to process
if [ "$#" -eq 3 ]; then
file_extensions=$3
else
file_extensions="mp4 mkv avi wmv"
fi
# loop through all files in the input directory
for file in "$1"/*; do
# check if the file is a compatible video format
extension="${file##*.}"
if echo $file_extensions | grep -q $extension; then
# strip metadata and save the output to the output directory
filename="${file##*/}"
ffmpeg -i "$file" -map_metadata -1 -c copy "$2/output_$filename"
else
echo "Skipping $file : Not a compatible file format"
fi
done
}
This function now allows you to specify the file extensions to process as an optional third argument to the function. If no file extensions are provided, it will default to processing files with the extensions .mp4, .mkv, .avi, and .wmv. It also has better error handling and provides clear error messages and usage instructions. It also will print a message if a file is not a compatible video format or the extension does not match with the one specified in the function call.
The provided is a bash script. It is designed to be run in a bash shell, and it uses syntax specific to bash such as the for loop and the if statement. This function can be placed in a bash script file and executed via the command line or it can be pasted and run in a bash shell or terminal.
You can save this function in a file with .sh extension and make it executable by running chmod +x filename.sh then you can run the script with ./filename.sh arguments.
Please note that the function I provided is intended to be used on a Unix-like operating system, such as Linux or macOS. It may not work correctly on Windows without modification.
Updated version of the script that includes the shebang and can be executed directly:
#!/bin/bash
function strip_metadata {
# check if ffmpeg is installed
if ! command -v ffmpeg >/dev/null 2>&1; then
echo "Error: ffmpeg is not installed. Please install ffmpeg and try again."
return 1
fi
# check if input and output directories are provided
if [ "$#" -lt 2 ]; then
echo "Error: Please provide the input and output directories"
echo "Usage: $0 <input_directory> <output_directory> [file_extensions]"
return 1
fi
# check if input and output directories exist
if [ ! -d "$1" ] || [ ! -d "$2" ]; then
echo "Error: input or output directory does not exist."
return 1
fi
# set file extensions to process
if [ "$#" -eq 3 ]; then
file_extensions=$3
else
file_extensions="mp4 mkv avi wmv"
fi
# loop through all files in the input directory
for file in "$1"/*; do
# check if the file is a compatible video format
extension="${file##*.}"
if echo $file_extensions | grep -q $extension; then
# strip metadata and save the output to the output directory
filename="${file##*/}"
ffmpeg -i "$file" -map_metadata -1 -c copy "$2/output_$filename"
else
echo "Skipping $file : Not a compatible file format"
fi
done
}
strip_metadata "$@"
This script includes the shebang #!/bin/bash at the top, which specifies that the script should be run using the bash interpreter. This allows the script to be executed directly by running the command ./scriptname.sh inputdirectory outputdirectory without the need to specify the interpreter. You should make the script executable by running chmod +x scriptname.sh before running it You can also pass the file_extensions as an optional third argument to the script. Please make sure that you save the script file with .sh file extension and in a directory that is in your system's PATH.
how to run this script in the local folder You can run the script in the local folder using the following steps:
Make the script executable by running chmod +x scriptname.sh in the terminal or command prompt, in the same directory where your script is located.
Then you can run the script by typing ./scriptname.sh followed by the input and output directories and any optional arguments like file extensions. For example, if the script name is “metadata_stripper.sh”, you can run it as follows:
./metadata_stripper.sh input_folder output_folder file_extensions
Once you run the command, the script will execute and process all the files in the input directory that have the specified file extensions, stripping their metadata and saving the output to the output directory with the “output_” prefix.
It's also possible to run the script by providing the full path to the script file instead of just the script name if you are in a different directory.
If you have any issues running the script, you can check if the file has the execution permission by running ls -l scriptname.sh and check if the first column has x letter. If it doesn't have it, that means you don't have permission to execute the file.
Please note that the script will not overwrite the original files, it will create new files with “output” prefix. Also, this command uses the -1 option to remove all metadata. If you want to keep some metadata, you can use -mapmetadata 0 instead.
Source: https://superuser.com/questions/441361/strip-metadata-from-all-formats-with-ffmpeg/428039#428039
Source for the second method: https://herrbischoff.com/2020/09/how-to-remove-metadata-from-mp4-files/
A good source for further reading: https://freedom.press/training/everything-you-wanted-know-about-media-metadata-were-afraid-ask/
Virtualbox Stuff
If you want to have the full experience of your VirtualBox, follow these steps.
This goes into your Linux host system
sudo adduser $USER vboxusers
After that, you have to log out/login or reboot the system
This goes into your Linux guest system And also install the guest additions into your guest system
sudo usermod -a -G vboxsf "$USER"
Don't forget to install the extension pack into the host system. And control that your extensions pack version is compatible with your installed version.
VBoxManage list usbhost
If you see here an out, everything is alright
Source: https://askubuntu.com/questions/377778/how-to-add-users-to-vboxusers-to-enable-usb-usage
How to resize an image through the terminal?
You have to install this acording to your system: https://imagemagick.org/script/download.php
convert myfigure.png -resize 200x100 myfigure.jpg
Or
convert -resize 50% myfigure.png myfigure.jpg
To resize multiple files, you can try the following command (as suggested by @test30)
find . -maxdepth 1 -iname "*.jpg" | xargs -L1 -I{} convert -resize 30% "{}" _resized/"{}"
Source: https://askubuntu.com/questions/271776/how-to-resize-an-image-through-the-terminal
How to change images from one format to another
You have to install this acording to your system: https://imagemagick.org/script/download.php
mogrify -format tif *.PNG
With this command you can change all .PNG's in a folder from .png to tif. Be cautious .PNG =/= .png Linux/Unix systems are key sensitive.
How to scan QR-Codes in your terminal
Install the zbarimg command line application by running:
sudo apt-get install zbar-tools
Use the program, zbarimg provided by the package to read your QR encoded image
EXAMPLE
from command line:
zbarimg "image-file-name.jpg"
The above will display what is encoded in the image in the terminal.
IF you would like to generate QR code you can install qrencode from the repositories.
< input.txt qrencode -s 10 -o test.png
The above will encode the information in the input.txt file in an image file called test.png.
or you can input text from the console with;
qrencode -s 10 -o ubuntu.png http://www.ubuntu.com
The above will generate a QR encoded image called ubuntu.png with the url http://www.ubuntu.com encoded in it.
Source: https://askubuntu.com/questions/22871/software-to-read-a-qr-code
Further reading for qrencode eaxmples
https://www.cloudsavvyit.com/8382/how-to-create-qr-codes-from-the-linux-command-line/
https://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx https://www.onlinebarcodereader.com/
https://askubuntu.com/questions/22871/software-to-read-a-qr-code http://www.bardecode.com/en1/app/linux/
Websites for data visualization
OpenRefine
A free, open source, powerful tool for working with messy data
Website: https://openrefine.org/download.html Source: https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine
How To Spot Fake News
Critical thinking is a key skill in media and information literacy, and the mission of libraries is to educate and advocate its importance.
Discussions about fake news has led to a new focus on media literacy more broadly, and the role of libraries and other education institutions in providing this.
When Oxford Dictionaries announced post-truth was Word of the Year 2016, we as librarians realise action is needed to educate and advocate for critical thinking – a crucial skill when navigating the information society.
IFLA has made this infographic with eight simple steps (based on FactCheck.org’s 2016 article How to Spot Fake News) to discover the verifiability of a given news-piece in front of you. Download, print, translate, and share – at home, at your library, in your local community, and on social media networks. The more we crowdsource our wisdom, the wiser the world becomes.
https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11174
Here, also a good reference, but this is in german, I'm sorry
Here are some additional sources
https://www.hoax-slayer.net/ https://www.snopes.com/ https://www.klartext-nahrungsergaenzung.de/ https://kit.exposingtheinvisible.org/en/ https://www.politifact.com/ https://www.newsguardtech.com/ https://datadetoxkit.org/en/misinformation/steerclear/ https://toolsforreporters.com/2020/11/11/the-media-manipulation-casebook/ https://expertisefinder.com/ Find some experts and ask them direct https://misinfocon.com/ https://datajournalism.com/read/handbook/verification-3 https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ https://adfontesmedia.com/ https://www.lobbyregister.bundestag.de/startseite https://www.lobbycontrol.de/ https://www.abgeordnetenwatch.de/ https://fragdenstaat.de/ https://www.countrycode.org/ https://der-newstest.de/ https://correctiv.org/en/ https://uebermedien.de/ https://dpa-factchecking.com/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/newsguard/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/official-media-bias-fact/hdcpibgmmcnpjmmenengjgkkfohahegk?hl=en-US
Tabula
How Can Tabula Help Me? If you’ve ever tried to do anything with data provided to you in PDFs, you know how painful it is — there's no easy way to copy-and-paste rows of data out of PDF files. Tabula allows you to extract that data into a CSV or Microsoft Excel spreadsheet using a simple, easy-to-use interface. Tabula works on Mac, Windows and Linux. Who Uses Tabula? Tabula is used to power investigative reporting at news organizations of all sizes, including ProPublica, The Times of London, Foreign Policy, La Nación (Argentina), The New York Times and the St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press. Grassroots organizations like SchoolCuts.org rely on Tabula to turn clunky documents into human-friendly public resources. And researchers of all kinds use Tabula to turn PDF reports into Excel spreadsheets, CSVs, and JSON files for use in analysis and database applications…
https://github.com/tabulapdf/tabula-java/
https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/tabulizer/vignettes/tabulizer.html