Start here tonight

no account, no upload Trending toolMakeUseOf, Sep 15

Stirling PDF is a free, private PDF editor for your own machine, and version 2.0 finally lets you edit the text

The PDF work most people pay a subscription for, done on the computer already in front of you.

Stirling PDF is an open source PDF platform that runs as a desktop app, in a browser, or on a server you control, and its repository counts more than 50 tools for merging, splitting, signing, redacting, converting, OCR, and compression. The official download page offers a standalone .exe for Windows, a native app for macOS, and a .jar for Linux, free for individuals, with no account required. MakeUseOf's Tashreef Shareef reports that version 2.0 adds a text editor and a multi-tool workspace, so pages can be deleted, reordered, split, and merged on one file without uploading it again, with undo, redo, and version history. The text editor is early access: it converts a document to JSON before editing, handles plain letters and resumes best, and still struggles with scanned pages, tables, bullet lists, and multi-column layouts.

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The tool shelf new tonight

Stirling PDF 2.0

Free for individualsDesktop app or your own serverMakeUseOf, Sep 15

An open source PDF workbench of more than 50 tools, merge, split, sign, redact, convert, OCR, and compress, installed as a Windows .exe, a macOS app, or a Linux .jar with no account, and version 2.0 adds a workspace that keeps one file open through several operations plus a text editor that MakeUseOf's Tashreef Shareef calls early access, good on plain letters and resumes and unreliable on scanned pages, tables, and multi-column layouts.

RethinkDNS

Free and open sourceAndroid, covers every appAndroid Police, Sep 15

A DNS based blocker and firewall that filters ads, trackers, and malware across every app on an Android phone rather than inside one browser, with encrypted DNS over HTTPS or DNS over TLS and a choice of more than 190 blocklists, though Android Police's Rahul Naskar notes it claims the phone's single VPN slot, so an ordinary VPN cannot run beside it, and no blocklist stops every ad on the internet.

Syncthing

Free, open sourceWindows, macOS, Linux, moreXDA Developers, Sep 15

Keeps folders continuously in sync between your own computers with no cloud service in the middle and no central server holding your files, every transfer wrapped in TLS with forward secrecy, but XDA's João Carrasqueira points out that two machines only exchange changes while both are awake, which is why he leaves a spare laptop running as an always on relay.

Every shelf item is available today; no waitlists, no vaporware.

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The workflows follow along at home

Excel's LET function names the pieces inside a monster formula, so next month you can still read it

About 20 minutesExcel 365, 2024, 2021, or the webHow-To Geek front page, Sep 15

Name it once How-To Geek's Tony Phillips rebuilds a sprawling salesperson scoring formula by giving each part a name, revenue from SUMIFS, target from MAXIFS, profit from SUMIFS, and rating from AVERAGEIFS, then stacking targetScore, profitMargin, and ratingScore on top of them, which also stops the same revenue figure from being calculated twice, though LET needs Microsoft 365, Excel 2024, Excel 2021, or Excel for the web, and separate helper cells are still the better answer when a middle value has to feed a chart or a PivotTable.

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One renamed desktop folder opens every Windows control in a single scrolling list

About 5 minutesA Windows PCMakeUseOf front page, Sep 15

Rename a new folder MakeUseOf's Suman Biswas right clicks the desktop, makes a folder, and renames it GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}, which turns it into a Control Panel style icon holding more than 30 grouped sections, Administrative Tools, Backup and Restore, Devices and Printers, Power Options, Windows Defender Firewall and the rest, searchable in one list and free of the Settings app's ads, though it wants an administrator account and reaches nothing that Settings or Control Panel could not already reach the slow way.

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Four ordinary habits are burning through your SSD's write cycles, and each one has a quick fix

About 30 minutesA Windows PC with an SSDXDA front page, Sep 15

Four quiet drains XDA's Abhishek Kumar Mishra turns off Fast Startup in Control Panel because every shutdown writes a little data to the drive, keeps 15 to 20 percent of the disk free so it is not endlessly shuffling blocks, sends big repeated writes like downloads and virtual machines to a cheap external scratch SSD instead of the boot drive, and reins in the quiet background writers: search indexing, cloud sync folders, the paging file, and telemetry.

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Waze reads every hazard report aloud, and one settings page turns the chatter down without losing the map

About 5 minutesThe Waze appHow-To Geek front page, Sep 15

Keep the map, mute the voice How-To Geek's Adam Davidson opens Settings, Driving Preferences, Alerts and Reports, Reports, and for a category such as Vehicle on shoulder leaves Show on Map switched on while turning Alert while Driving off, so the warning still appears on screen without cutting into music or an audiobook, with the limits stated plainly: the change applies to every future trip rather than one drive, related hazards are grouped so a pothole cannot be silenced on its own, and undoing it means the same walk back through the menu.

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Mary of Nazareth

Keep and Ponder

The useful work is finished. Keep what is true, ponder what matters, and entrust the rest to God.

Keep

Be still, and know that I am God.

Psalm 46:10, KJV

Ponder

Let one unanswered question be quiet for tonight.

Entrust

God, quiet the noise in me and keep watch while I am still. Amen.

A practice shaped by Luke 2:19Guided by the biblical witness of Mary of Nazareth.

Page notes

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