Software and services I endorse

I dabble in computers since 1985, when I was 10 years old. I am somewhat of a cowboy coder and I understand a bit of hardware, yet above all I am an “power user”, I know how to hack (in the original sense) and find the stuff that works best and that ends up being more practical. I am also quite conservative. That is, I need to test something for a long time, and be called to attention repeatedly through comments in text or in person, before I switch from a good and proven piece of software to a new one. In other words, I am not a neophile.

Some people ask me why I chose Firefox instead of Chrome — for my personal use, Chrome doesn’t work. I've tried it for quite a while. When many tabs are open it does consume less RAM than Firefox, and javascript is undoubtedly faster on it on any situation, but it seems to fastly become rather unstable with my pattern of use. Firefox on the other hand is better at each new iteration.¹A few years after I compiled these links, this observation holds. Lately I have been using a combination of Vivaldi (which features the Chromium engine) and Firefox. I use Vivaldi for Facebook and YouTube only — and not because they work better on it, but to free resources on Firefox. This way, when one of these becomes unresponsive or is loading something, I just alt-tab.

I use two notbook PCs with Windows and a Hackintosh (which is also a notebook, but without the screen), plus an Android TV box to watch things in the kitchen, a kindle and an Android Smartphone.²A few years back I used to share keyboard, mouse and clipboard between them all with Synergy, but now I use a KMV between the Hackintosh and the PCs. One notebook is for work, the other is a media center for Kodi with a remote controle and torrent download. OSX is clearly superior for two activities only: recording and editing of audio and video.³It also has a superior font rendering engine. And original Macs come with a very good and calibrated screen (with the PC you need to buy a good one a carefully calibrate it yourself; I had to do that for my Hackintosh also). Besides that, for almost any other task, I must say, o Windows (7 or 10) has the edge. In particular the Finder is pure garbage when compared with Explorer: in tasks such as copying, moving etc.—that is, things you do when you have a big collection of files.

If you want to make a suggestion and see if it passes my editorial criteria, write padma.dorje@gmail.com.

Services and websites

XKCD
Geek cartoons.Abstruse Goose
Geek cartoons.
WTF with Marc Meron
In depth interviews with comedians and entertainment people.
Arstechnica
Hipsterisms.Boing-boing
Geek news and novelties.Open Culture
Cult video/audio.Brain PickingsInterestingnesses.Nautilus
Interestingnesses.Aeon
Interessantitudes.Motherboard
Left, activism.Hack a Day
Electronics magazine.Hacker News
Geek news aggregator.
Zennioptical
Prescription glasses directly from Hong Kong.eBay
Tibetan incense directly from Germany, Frankincense from Ciprus.amazon.com
From our Overlord Slave-chief Bezos.Book DepositoryWorldwide free shipping from the Queen Mother.
The Pirate Bay
Still mostly up. Torrents, of course.⁴Access with μBlock Origin.TorrentDay
Torrents, private server.⁵Access with μBlock Origin.Portal MakingOff
Private, artsy and Brazilian movies.RU Tracker
Russian. But you may find things not available at TPB. Mainly FLAC and software.⁶Access with μBlock Origin.RARBG
For TV and movies.⁷Access with μBlock Origin.1337x.to
For when TPB is down.⁸Access with μBlock Origin.Limetorrents
Tracker metasearch, seems to be still working.⁹Access with μBlock Origin.
Libgen
E-books and scientific papers.¹⁰Access with μBlock Origin..Sci Combinator
Most fashionable scientific papers.¹¹Access with μBlock Origin.Sci-hub
Russian-cracked otherwise paid papers for free.¹²Access with μBlock Origin.
IMDb
Internet Movie Database.OpensubtitlesSubtitles. (You can configure it as a service in ).¹³Access with μBlock Origin.
Pastebin
Textos in the cloud.Linguee
Translation.Wikipedia
Best resource, period.ProtonMail
Some problems with it lately, but still better than Gmail.Lastpass
Password manager.

Windows Software

VLC
Media player.Kodi
Media Library and Player for ease of use with a remote control.Handbrake
Video format converter.
QbittorrentBest ad-free torrent client.SoulseekBest music community for downloading that rare flac file you have wanted for years.
Audacity
Sound recorder and editor.CUE splitter
To split those albums that come all in a single file and a cue list.Exact Audio Copy
Lossless audio ripper.Foobar2000
I always end up downloanding and using this software, but right now I am not sure why.
Irfanview
Fast image editor.
Firefox
Best internet browser.Thunderbird
E-mail client (yes, I still use them).WinSCP
FTP Client.WAMP
Apache, MySql and PHP.PuTTY
You feel like a hacker accessing your headless Raspberry Pi.
Sublime Text
Text and code editing.grepWin
Mass search and replace, and you can also use regular expressions, if you dare so.HxD Hex Editor
For those groovy moments when you need to change an executable on the binary level.CPU-Z
Detailed informations about your system (essential for upgrades).
Office 2010 BR
Yes, I still use the 2010 version, because it provides the best grammar revision in Brazilian Portuguese.Houaiss
Portuguese language dictionary.WordWeb Pro
English dictionary very customizable with many dictionaries and jargonOxford English Dictionary
Best English dictionary.
Calibre
Used for reading and converting ebooks and also organizing a library.PDFill PDF Tools
Tools to deal with PDF issues.Briss
Used to crop PDF margins for a better experience reading them on the tablet.Foxit PDF Creator
I sometimes find it hard do install Abrobat downloaded from Russia, so this works instead.ABBYY Fine Reader
Ainda é a melhor ferramenta de OCR.Adobe Creative CloudI use in particular Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere, but also some InDesign, After Effects and Audition.¹⁴Even with subscribtion and extras they work quite will downloaded from Russian torrents.NexusFont
Font browser/manager.
Windows PowerToys
A bunch of must-have tools for Windows, by Microsoft itself. Why aren't they shipped with the OS? We will never know.xplorer²
Windows Explorer substitute.WinRAR
Soon or later you will need it.File Scavenger
Recovery of delete files.Duplicate Cleaner
Used to find and delete duplicate files.Dropbox
Cloud backup. Paid service is not worth it, better to use a cheaper one.ClipClip
Clipboard manager, a must have.
Telegram
I use it in all my devices, and also to send and receive stuff between them.¹⁵Not sure if it is presently commendable, but still better than WhatsApp.

Firefox Plugins

μBlock Origins
Best ad blocker.Kill Fbclid
To remove the ?fbclid= parameter from Facebook URLs.Stylus
Change elements from pages you visit frequently. Also useful to remove certain paywalls. Requires a bit of HTML knowledge.
Torrent Control
Sends the clicked magnets to be downloaded in another computer on the local network..Cast Kodi
Sends Kodi contents to another Kodi device in the local network.Play to Kodi
Sends Kodi contents to another Kodi device in the local network.

Chrome Plugins

μBlock Origin
Best ad blocker.Kill ?fbclid=
To remove the ?fbclid= parameter from Facebook URLs.Play to Kodi
Sends Kodi contents to another Kodi device in the local network.

Android Apps

Free Adblocker Browser
Tablet/smartphone: Melhor navegador e bloqueador de publicidade.Telegram
I use it in all my devices, and also to send and receive stuff between them.¹⁶Not sure if it is presently commendable, but still better than WhatsApp.
qBittorrent Remote
Tablet/smartphone: add torrents and manage downloads in another device in the local network.VLC
Tablet/smartphone/TV box: best media player.Kodi
TV box: not the best for tablet (what to say then of smartphones), but in some circunstances it is convenient on the tablet. At the TV box it is good if you have another Kodi at home sharing its media library.Kore
Tablet/smartphone: Kodi remote control.
ReadEra
Tablet/smartphone: ebook reader.PocketBook
Tablet/smartphone: ebook reader.Audio Book Player 2
Tablet/smartphone: the only thing that works well for audio books and courses.
Chagdud Gonpa Brasil
For all your sacred dates needs.Tibetan Dictionary
Words of the Tibetan language.Tibetan-English Dictionary
Tibetan words, word.
Chroma
Chromatic tuner.Tap Tempo
Counts beats per minute.Sound Meter
Measures ambient sound in Db.
Cat Alone
Amusement for your cat.Cat Sounds
Meows to intrigue the cat.Cat Sounds
Meows to intrigue the cat.
Materialistic
Hacker News app.IMDb
Internet Movie Database.
RealCalc
Scientific calculator.
Dropbox
If you are going to pay, use another app.FolderSync
To transfer files without using the USB Cable.

Mac Software

VLC
Media player.Kodi
Media Library and Player for ease of use with a remote control.Handbrake
Video format converter.D-Vision
Encoder, decoder, joiner.Subs Factory
Subtitle editor.
XLD X-lossless Decoder
Encoder and transcoder for many lossless audio formats.Logic Pro
Favorite DAW. Multitrack audio recording and masterization.Amplitube
Guitar amplifier and effects modeler.Audacity
Sound recorder and editor.
Clover APP
Essential tool if you use Clover in your Hackintosh.The Unarchiver
Smart file compactating-decompactating.Carbon Copy Cloner
Bit by bit copying and other good things.Forklift
Substitute for Finder (the worse!), also an FTP client.
Telegram
I use it in all my devices, and also to send and receive stuff between them.¹⁷Not sure if it is presently commendable, but still better than WhatsApp.

tzal.org

Books I am currently reading

My present focuses of study.

Pinheiro, book recommendations, new on tzal

tzal.org

Patronage

How can you help this website and Padma Dorje's activities.

Pinheiro

tzal.org

Activism: causes and principles I stand for

A list of ideas, institutions and companies I disapprove of and try my best to boycott.

Pinheiro, activism

tzal.org

Books that deeply impressed me

Some books that had an impact on my life.

book recommendations, Pinheiro