Cloudflare offers a range of services to improve the performance and security of your website/web application.

You can protect your networks, secure websites, APIs, applications, or deploy code that runs on the network edge using Cloudflare. Overall, you get access to a Content Delivery Network (CDN), and a Web Application Firewall (WAF) as a part of its offering.

Cloudflare offers a free tier with many essential features, making it one of the most popular choices for webmasters and developers

So, why do you need to look for Cloudflare alternatives?

While it could be an impressive option for free, it may not be the best option for every requirement.

If you're deciding to pay for a CDN, why not seek other options before upgrading the subscription? Furthermore, relying on a single CDN for all your websites may not be a good idea.

Similarly, it is worth exploring options for WAF with various features, and security benefits that could be a finer option for your use case.

See https://linuxhandbook.com/cloudflare-alternatives/

#technology #cloudflare #alternativesto #CDN #websites

This detailed Docker tutorial covers the essential Docker commands, such as how to create a new container, run the container, remove a container and so on. In addition, this guide also explains how to build your own custom Docker image from an existing container and how to remove containers and images.

By default, Docker containers are read-only so to update you just pull a new image and run that. The creation and mapping to volumes allows containers to save user data outside of the container, for instant use with an updated container. This tutorial does not go into the creation of volumes, but there is a link near the end of the article to one which does do so.

I put off learning about Docker containers way too long, and now I'm totally hooked.

See https://ostechnix.com/getting-started-with-docker/

#technology #docker #containers #opensource

A typical computer keyboard has only about 100 keys on it.

Most keys double up on characters, also called glyphs, thanks to the Shift key. Glyphs are frequently used to type letters with accents and umlauts, to produce characters used in mathematic or monetary expressions, or just to add fun emojis. In some regions there are even three glyphs available on select keys.

Regardless of your region, however, some glyphs don't make it onto your keyboard. Fortunately, Linux provides access to these through a compose key.

There's no compose key on your keyboard, at least not by default, but you can designate a key you're not otherwise using as your compose key.

See how for GNOME and KDE at https://opensource.com/article/22/7/linux-compose-key-cheat-sheet

#technology #linux #opensource #glyphs #keyboard

Apple announced that a new security feature known as Lockdown Mode will roll out with iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura to protect high-risk individuals like human rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents against targeted spyware attacks.

Once enabled, the Lockdown Mode will provide Apple customers with messaging, web browsing, and connectivity protections designed to block mercenary spyware (like NSO Group's Pegasus) used by government-backed hackers to monitor their Apple devices after infecting them with malware.

So this moves more towards better security, at the cost of features and convenience, as security and convenience mutually exclude each other.

See https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/apple/apple-s-new-lockdown-mode-defends-against-government-spyware/

#technology #apple #security #spyware

A former Facebook content screener says he was fired for raising alarms about a new company protocol allowing employees to resurrect data that users deleted.

The new protocol allowed members of the social network’s Global Escalation Team “to circumvent Facebook’s normal privacy protocols” by retrieving data from the Messenger app “that users had chosen to delete,” according to Lawson’s complaint. “To keep Facebook in the good graces of the government, the Escalations Team would utilize the back-end protocol to provide answers for the law enforcement agency and then determine how much to share.”

Like many other users who deleted their Facebook accounts, I think we all expected that our data was permanently deleted after 6 months. Now it appears that Facebook is not actually deleting deleted data.

Yes, one may say "what do you expect from Facebook" but I am nonetheless very glad that I parted ways with this number one abuser of everything privacy stands for.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/451632-facebook-violated-privacy-rules-by-accessing-deleted-user-data-fired-employee.html

#technology #privacy #deletefacebook

Although the list focuses primarily on Android, any worthwhile password manager has to be fully cross-platform. There is no excuse today for using the same password more than once across sites, nor for choosing strong unique passwords for each.

Interesting to see an option too for 'travel mode' that removes sensitive data from your device when you cross borders. Many now also offer 2FA along with the password, making 2FA more seamless.

It's worth remembering too that it is incredibly easy usually to migrate from one password manager to another, by simply exporting and importing your password list.

See https://www.androidpolice.com/best-password-managers/

#technology #security #passwords #passwordmanagers

Monitorix is an open-source, free, and most powerful lightweight tool designed to monitor system and network resources in Linux. It regularly collects system and network data and displays the information in graphs using its own web interface (which listens on the port 8080/TCP).

Monitorix allows for monitoring overall system performance and also helps in detecting bottlenecks, failures, unwanted long response times, and other abnormal activities.

It contains generally two programs: a collector, called monitorix, which is a Perl daemon that is started automatically like any other system service, and a CGI script called monitorix.cgi. It is written in Perl language and licensed under the terms of GNU (General Public License) as published by the FSP (Free Software Foundation). It uses RRDtool to generate graphs and display them using the web interface.

Of course, the test is with the eating of the pudding, and how many resources it will chew itself. Glances appears to have fewer features and no nice graphs, yet can chew a good 10% of CPU resources at times. Monitorix certainly also focusses on Linux servers as well with the Apache, Fail2ban, MySQL, etc stats.

See https://www.tecmint.com/monitorix-linux-network-monitoring-tool/

#technology #linux #monitorix #monitoring #opensource

Tecno's Camon Series 19 Pro Android 12 phones have some pretty good specifications, OK not super high-end at all, but certainly good enough for most users, at half the price on an entry level iPhone.

It has a 6.8-inch FHD+ virtually edge-to-edge 120 Hz display, 64 MP and 50 MP cameras on the back, 2X optical zoom, Optical Image Stabilization, 5,000 mAh battery, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and more.

See the review at https://www.techradar.com/news/this-dollar280-phone-is-a-lesson-in-affordability-i-hope-apple-and-samsung-are-paying-attention

#technology #android #affordability #mobile

Driving a BMW iX xDrive 50, the pair left BMW Cape Town City at 19:00 on 28 June 2022 and reached BMW Joburg City at 15:18 the next day (29 June). This means the team took 20 hours and 18 minutes to travel the 1,400 km distance, including time spent charging the car. This trip last week was actually in the middle of quite a crisis for the power utility Eskom, which was forced to implement Stage 4 (4,000 MW) and Stage 6 (6,000 MW) of load-shedding due to several factors, including industrial action by staff over disagreements on wage increase

On the availability of EVs to South African motorists, Visagie says there is a dire need for the efficient energy use these vehicles bring. “The energy cost per kilometre of the fully electric MINI Cooper SE can be as low as Rand 35 cents per kilometre; even less. These days, a fuel-efficient petrol or diesel car burns R1.30 to R2.00 per kilometre. Sadly, EVs are either expensive, in short supply, or both,” he says.

See https://cleantechnica.com/2022/07/04/two-car-journalists-drove-a-bmx-ix-xdrive-50-from-cape-town-to-johannesburg-in-20-hours/

#technology #southafrica #environment #EV