Wednesday 21 June 2017

Software tools

Here are some free software tools that I have found useful for work and personal use:
Type Name link Windows MAC Linux
Text Editor Atom https://atom.io/ Yes Yes Yes
Text Editor Brackets http://brackets.io/ Yes Yes Yes
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Video Capture Open Broadcaster Software https://obsproject.com/ Yes Yes Yes
Video Editor DaVinci Resolve https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/# Yes Yes Yes
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Graphic Editor Gimp https://www.gimp.org/ Yes Yes Yes
Graphic Editor Scribus ( inDesign) https://www.scribus.net/ Yes Yes Yes
Graphic Editor InkScape ( Illustrator) https://inkscape.org/en/ Yes Yes Yes
PCB Design KiCad EDA http://kicad-pcb.org/ Yes Yes Yes
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FTP, SFTP, WebDAV Cyberduck https://cyberduck.io Yes Yes No
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IDE Aptana Studio http://www.aptana.com Yes Yes Yes
IDE Visual Studio Code https://code.visualstudio.com/ Yes Yes Yes
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Mind mapping Mindmup https://www.mindmup.com/ Online Online Online
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CADOnshape Free extends fully capable modern CAD tools to non-professional designers. https://www.onshape.com/products/free  Browser Browser Browser
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How to make a USB flash drive Read-Only

a standard USB flash drive.  I decided to look at how I could use a standard flash drive as my old 256mb flash drive is getting old, so I investigated for other possible solutions and I found that the diskpart command line tool that is available on Microsoft Windows computers (and it's FREE) is able to make any flash drive Read-Only, this provided me with what I needed.
Here are the instructions on how to make a USB flash drive Read-Only.
  1. Start by running a command prompt (as administrator)
  2. Type "diskpart"
  3. Type "list disk" and take note of the number for your flash drive
  4. Type "select disk [USB drive number]" e.g. "select disk 3"
  5. Type "attributes disk" to display the settings (see images below)
  6. Type "attributes disk set readonly"
  7. Type "exit", all done you can now test the flash drive to see if you can add or edit the contents of it.
When you need to add files to the flash drive, you will need to clear the readonly flag. Repeat steps 1 to 5 and then type "attributes disk clear readonly" then "exit"

Note: This method has been tested using FAT32, exFAT and NTFS file systems.

DISKPART command showing Read-Only flag is set to No

DISKPART command showing Read-Only flag is set to Yes

Monday 19 June 2017