linux

06
Apr
2026
Privacy Tools Every Brazilian Activist Should Know

Privacy Tools Every Brazilian Activist Should Know

Privacy Tools Every Brazilian Activist Should Know

If you organize actions or share sensitive plans, start with these three tools. They work on phones and computers common in Brazil and require little setup.

Secure your chats

WhatsApp logs everything to Meta servers. Switch group planning to Signal instead.

  1. Download Signal from the official site or app store on your phone.
  2. Register with your number, then enable disappearing messages for each chat.
  3. Turn on the screen lock inside Signal settings so others cannot open the app without your PIN.
  4. Invite the rest of your group one by one so everyone moves over at the same time.

Real case: A São Paulo collective used Signal voice notes with five-second deletion during the 2023 land rights actions. Police seized one phone but found nothing readable after the timer ran out.

  • Check daily that your security number matches your contacts.
  • Never forward Signal messages to WhatsApp.
  • Use the note-to-self feature for quick reminders that stay only on your device.

Hide your browsing and files

Public Wi-Fi at protests and home connections can be monitored. Combine Tor Browser with a simple password manager.

Tool When to use Quick start
Tor Browser Access blocked sites or read reports without your ISP seeing the address. Download from torproject.org, open it, and type the site you need.
KeePassXC Store logins for activist email or cloud folders. Install the app, create one strong master password, then save each new account inside it.

Carry a small USB with the portable version of Tor so you can plug it into any borrowed computer. Delete browser history after each session if you must use Chrome. Test the setup once at home before you rely on it during an action.

Posted by admin in Guides & Tutorials, 0 comments
12
Oct
2025
Contributing to Open Source Projects from Brazil: A Starter Guide

Contributing to Open Source Projects from Brazil: A Starter Guide

Contributing to Open Source Projects from Brazil: A Starter Guide

You’re in Brazil and want to start contributing. Focus on projects with active maintainers who reply within a day or two, then open small, clear pull requests. This works even with the time difference to Europe and the US.

Pick a project that matches your routine

Look for repos that already have Brazilian contributors or issues labeled “good first issue”. Check GitHub in the morning your time so you catch maintainers online in the afternoon their time.

  • Browse the BrasilAPI repo and translate a missing endpoint description.
  • Fix a broken link in the VS Code Portuguese language pack.
  • Update an outdated example in the Django docs that still shows Python 2 syntax.

Make a short list of three projects you already use. Read their CONTRIBUTING.md once, then pick the smallest open issue that takes under an hour.

Day of week Best window for PRs Why it works
Monday-Wednesday 9am-11am BRT US East Coast is just starting their day
Thursday 8am-10am BRT Europe maintainers still online before lunch

Send your first pull request

  1. Fork the repo and create a branch named after the issue, such as fix-typo-in-readme.
  2. Make the change, then run any tests the project asks for in CONTRIBUTING.md.
  3. Write the PR description in English, one sentence on what changed and one line linking the issue.
  4. Post the PR before lunch your time so replies land while you’re still at the computer.
  5. If a maintainer asks for edits, push the fix in the same branch instead of opening a new PR.

Many Brazilian devs start with documentation or test fixes because those need less back-and-forth than new features.

Posted by admin in Guides & Tutorials, 0 comments
16
Aug
2025
VPNs and Digital Rights in Brazil

VPNs and Digital Rights in Brazil

VPNs and Digital Rights in Brazil

If you want to keep your browsing private from your ISP and reduce tracking under Brazil’s LGPD rules, start with a no-logs VPN that has servers in São Paulo or Rio. This setup hides your traffic from your provider and lets you reach content that local networks sometimes restrict.

Setting Up Your VPN in Brazil

Pick a provider with audited no-logs policies and fast local servers. Install the app on your phone or laptop, then follow these steps.

  1. Create an account and pay with a method that does not tie directly to your CPF.
  2. Connect to a Brazilian server first for lower latency on local sites.
  3. Switch to a server in Europe or the US when you need access to international news or streaming that gets blocked on some Brazilian connections.
  4. Turn on the kill switch so your real IP never leaks if the connection drops.

Test it on public Wi-Fi at a café in Copacabana. Without the VPN your MAC address and traffic stay visible to the network owner. With it active, only the VPN server sees the destination.

How a VPN Fits Brazilian Privacy Rules

LGPD gives you rights to know what data companies hold about you. Your ISP can still log metadata unless you route everything through a VPN first. That single change stops routine collection of the sites you visit.

  • During election periods some regional networks limit certain political pages. A VPN lets you reach the same pages from an IP outside the filtered range.
  • If you run a small site or blog, a VPN masks your home IP from scrapers and hosting logs that authorities sometimes request.
  • Journalists and researchers in Brasília often keep a VPN on when checking foreign databases so their queries do not appear in ISP reports.

Check your provider’s jurisdiction. Servers based outside Brazil add another layer when local courts issue data orders. Update the app regularly so you keep the newest obfuscation options that work on restricted networks.

Posted by admin in Community & Culture, 0 comments
15
Jul
2025
Free Software Solutions for Small Businesses in Brazil

Free Software Solutions for Small Businesses in Brazil

Free Software Solutions for Small Businesses in Brazil

You can equip a small business in Brazil with free tools that cover daily operations, from invoicing to customer records, without paying for licenses. Many of these run on modest hardware and support Portuguese.

Start by replacing paid office suites and basic accounting software with established open-source alternatives. Test one category at a time so you do not disrupt cash flow or daily work.

Core Tools and How to Set Them Up

Focus first on documents, spreadsheets, and simple accounting. These three areas cover most small-business needs in Brazil.

  • LibreOffice handles proposals, client contracts, and NF-e spreadsheets. A bakery in São Paulo switched last year and now exports PDF invoices directly from Calc.
  • GnuCash tracks income and expenses with Brazilian tax categories already available in its chart of accounts. Import bank CSV files each month and generate reports for the accountant.
  • Thunderbird plus Lightning manages email and shared calendars for a team of five or fewer.

Installation order on a Windows or Linux machine usually looks like this:

  1. Download LibreOffice from the official site and run the installer.
  2. Install GnuCash next and open the sample Brazilian company file.
  3. Add the Brazilian Portuguese dictionary in LibreOffice so spell-checking matches local terms.
Task Free Tool Real Example
Word processing & spreadsheets LibreOffice Monthly sales report for a three-person retail shop
Basic bookkeeping GnuCash Tracking supplier payments and client receivables
Team calendar Thunderbird + Lightning Shared shift schedule at a small clinic

Check the local business association or SEBRAE website for community lists of accountants already familiar with these files. That saves time when you need to hand over reports at tax season.

Posted by admin in Policy & Rights, 0 comments
30
Mar
2025
How to Host Your Own Email Server with Open Source Tools

How to Host Your Own Email Server with Open Source Tools

How to Host Your Own Email Server with Open Source Tools

You can run a full email server on a cheap VPS using Mailu. It bundles Postfix, Dovecot, and webmail behind Docker so setup stays simple.

Start with these basics before you touch any code. Pick a VPS with at least 2 GB RAM and a static IP. Point your domain’s A record at that IP. Set reverse DNS to match the hostname you choose.

Install Mailu on Debian 12

Log in as root and install Docker first.

  1. Run apt update && apt install docker.io docker-compose -y.
  2. Create a folder: mkdir /opt/mailu && cd /opt/mailu.
  3. Download the setup script and answer its questions about your domain and admin email.
  4. Edit docker-compose.yml only if you need to change ports or add volumes for backups.
  5. Start everything with docker-compose up -d.

Mailu takes a few minutes to finish. Once it does, open https://yourdomain.com and log in with the admin account it created.

Item Example value
Domain example.com
Hostname mail.example.com
Admin email [email protected]

Check these items right after the containers start:

  • Firewall allows ports 25, 587, 993, and 80/443.
  • SPF and DKIM records are added through the Mailu admin panel.
  • Test sending and receiving with a second address you control.

Daily maintenance means watching the logs with docker-compose logs -f and keeping the images updated monthly. Back up the /opt/mailu directory so you can restore accounts quickly if the VPS fails.

Posted by admin in Community & Culture, 0 comments
27
Mar
2025
The Importance of Open Standards in Brazilian Education

The Importance of Open Standards in Brazilian Education

The Importance of Open Standards in Brazilian Education

You run into file problems all the time. A lesson plan created in one program refuses to open properly on another. Open standards in Brazilian education solve this by letting different tools read and edit the same content without extra conversion steps.

Start by picking formats that already work everywhere

Choose document and data types that follow published rules instead of proprietary ones. In practice this means ODF for text and spreadsheets, HTML or PDF/A for final materials, and IMS LTI or SCORM when you plug in learning platforms.

  • Lesson plans saved as .odt open on LibreOffice, Google Docs, or Microsoft Word.
  • Student records exported in CSV stay readable by any database used by state secretariats.
  • Quizzes packaged with SCORM run inside Moodle, Canvas, or the ministry’s own system.

Reduce license costs in municipal networks

Many city education departments still pay per seat for office suites and learning management systems. Switching to tools that read open formats cuts those recurring fees. One mid-sized São Paulo municipality moved 180 schools to LibreOffice and an open-source Moodle fork; annual license savings paid for new teacher laptops within two years.

Keep materials usable after vendor changes

Proprietary formats can become unreadable once a company stops supporting them. Open standards keep the same files readable for decades. A Rio de Janeiro state archive still opens 2008 teacher training modules because they were stored as ODF and PDF/A rather than an old .doc version.

Check compatibility before you buy or adopt

Use this short checklist when evaluating any new platform or template:

  1. Can we export and import using ODF or CSV without data loss?
  2. Does the system accept LTI or SCORM packages from other vendors?
  3. Will the exported files open in at least two different free programs?
  4. Are the file specifications publicly documented?

Compare common choices side by side

Task Closed format example Open standard option
Lesson plans .docx only .odt + PDF/A
Student grades Locked spreadsheet CSV + simple database
Online courses Custom SCORM lock-in Standard SCORM or LTI

Run a one-week test with two schools. Export the same set of files in both closed and open formats, then open them on the machines teachers actually use. The difference in extra clicks and support tickets shows up fast.

Posted by admin in Community & Culture, 0 comments