FlareGet for Linux

A download manager is a computer program dedicated to the task of downloading of various files. There are various download managers in Linux like FatRat, Uget, and multiget. Apart from all these download managers the most widely used download manager of Linux is FlareGet.

Fig1: FlareGet Logo 

FlareGet manger is the full featured manager. It is the multi threaded and multi-segment downloads manager and accelerator. FlareGet provides the following features:

OpenPDroid – Protect your Privacy in an Android Phone

Whenever we download an application from the Android Play Store, it shows us the permissions the applications uses. Many applications access our data like, location, usage statistics, contacts, messages, phone numbers. Even if we don't want to share a particular data with the application due to privacy concerns, the only way not to share data is to uninstall the application. We can also provide fake data to the application. But HOW?

         

OpenPDroid helps protect your privacy by providing real, fake, null or random data based on our preferences. We can configure OpenPDroid for each and every application installed on our device, so we can configure what data to share with various applications. For example, if we have set our preference as to provide location as 'Mumbai' for Facebook app, then even if we are in USA, Facebook will only get location as 'Mumbai'. Fascinating, isn't it?

PDroid Manager Application

         

         

Description of OpenPDroid from the developer:

“OpenPDroid is a set of modifications to the Android framework and libraries which allows fine-tuning of the data which applications are able to retrieve about your device, your account, your messages, and more.”

“OpenPDroid intervenes in API interactions by apps (e.g. when an app attempts to retrieve your location, phone number, or contacts) and provides real data, empty data, fake data or random data, depending on the user setting.”

As OpenPDroid just modifies the data requested by the app without modifying the permissions of the app, there is very less chance of getting undesired effects like Force Close of app, etc. OpenPDroid supports Android versions 4.1.2 and 4.2.1, and is also completely open-source.

Permissions of Google Chrome

         

This actually needs modification of Android framework and hence is hard to implement on a particular Android OS you already have, and is not as easy as installing an app. This mod should be added to Android ROM when the ROM is compiled from source. There also is a tool named auto-patcher for implementing the mod in an existing ROM. The tool is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

         

Though implementing OpenPDroid requires much effort, it is well worth, if you are concerned about your privacy from the big list of permissions required by various apps you use.

For more information, you can refer to: OpenPDroid

BIOS SAYS “NO”, THEN BOOT WITH USB

We always get a trusty bootable USB flash drive with us to solve computer problems, but what if a PC’s BIOS won’t let us boot from USB?  There is a way which will help you to make use of CD to boot from USB drive.

 Fig1: Boot menu

This boot menu, like many created before USB drives became cheap and common place does not include an option to boot from a USB drive. A piece of free-ware called PLoP Boot Manager solves this problem, offering an image that can burned to a CD or put on a floppy disk, and enables you to boot to a variety of devices, including USB drives.

Put PLoP on a CD

PLoP comes as a zip file, which includes a variety of files. To put PLoP on a CD, you will need either plpbt.iso or plpbtnoemul.iso from that zip file. Either disc image should work on most computers, though if in doubt plpbtnoemul.iso should work “everywhere,” according to the read-me included with PLoP Boot Manager.

Put PLoP on a Floppy Disk

If your computer is old enough to still have a floppy drive, then you will need to put the contents of the plpbt.img image file found in PLoP’s zip file on a floppy disk. To do this, we’ll use a free-ware utility called Raw-write for Windows.

Fig2: Ram-write

Booting PLoP Boot Manager

To boot PLoP, you will need to have your CD or floppy drive boot with higher precedence than your hard drive. In many cases, especially with floppy disks, this is done by default. If the CD or floppy drive is not set to boot first, then you will need to access your BIOS’s boot menu, or the setup menu. The exact steps to do this vary depending on your BIOS – to get a detailed description of the process, search for your motherboard’s manual. In general, however, as the computer boots up, some important keyboard strokes are noted somewhere prominent on the screen. In our case, they are at the bottom of the screen.

Fig3: VMware screen

Press Escape to bring up the Boot Menu. Previously, we burned a CD with PLoP Boot Manager on it, so we will select the CD-ROM Drive option and hit Enter.

 Fig4: Boot menu

If your BIOS do not have a Boot Menu, then you will need to access the Setup menu and change the boot order to give the floppy disk or CD-ROM Drive higher precedence than the hard drive. Usually this setting is found in the “Boot” or “Advanced” section of the Setup menu.

Fig5: Setup utility

If done correctly, PLoP Boot Manager will load up, giving a number of boot options.

 Fig6: Boot options

Highlight USB and press Enter.

                                                               Fig7: USB menu

PLoP begins loading from the USB drive.Despite our BIOS not having the option, we’re now booting using the USB drive, which in our case holds an Ubuntu Live CD!

 

Fig8: Installer

This is awesome way to get your PC to boot from a USB, provided your computer still has a floppy drive.