Feuerfest

Just the private blog of a Linux sysadmin

Terminal fonts

  • June 20, 2023 •
  • IT •
  • Christian

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/blur-bright-business-codes-207580/

Most fonts, especially the standard ones coming with Windows/Linux are awful for usage in terminal applications like PuTTY, xterm, etc. Or the reading of technical output at all. Most of them aren't optimized to allow the easy recognition of characters and symbols you rarely encounter in a written document. But do so even more in a technical environment.

I mean, when did you ever read a newspaper which had all of these characters printed in one single article?

, ; . : | * ~ ' # < > ` ´ ^ [ ] { }

Additionally, many standard fonts aren't monospaced. This means: Each single character takes the same width. No matter if letter (upper- or lowercase), number or special character. Which gives such a HUGE boost to readability (and therefore performance) that I can't stress this point enough. Comparing output/logfile lines or just spotting anomalies gets significantly easier.

Usually "Which font do you use?" is a good conversation starter (or interview question ;-) ) when your counterpart is a seasoned sysadmin or developer.

So which ones do I use?

Currently I use the INPUT font in monospaced from David Jonathan Ross.

You can get a preview here: https://input.djr.com/preview/ and play around with all the options. Then, choose the one you like and import it into your systems font catalogue.

Sadly I can't use it for this blog. As web usage isn't free. And the offered rates/prices are way too overpriced for a little blog like this. (The cheapest is literally 1000 US-$ per month. Which is absolutely no price range for personal projects..)

Before that I used the Roboto Mono font, but I found some special characters rather hard to read or indistinguishable from another. So I asked around and was recommend the INPUT font, which I now use for some years.

Other fonts I got recommended were:

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Embedding Youtube videos in Bludit

  • June 20, 2023 •
  • IT •
  • Christian

Photo by freestocks.org: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-space-gray-iphone-5-34407/

  1. Make sure your Content-Security-Policy header allows it. This should be enough to see the thumbnail and play the video:
    • In your CSP configuration: frame-src youtube.com www.youtube.com
    • If you want CSS, etc. you may need to configure additional headers
    • If you omit this step and you DO have a CSP in place, your browser will just show a "This content has been blocked by a policy"-message or similar. Open your browsers developer console to check for CSP related errors.
  2. In Bludit, go to: Plugins -> TinyMCE -> Settings
  3. Add media to the "Toolbar top" and "Plugins" fields. Now the button for easier embedding of videos will show up.
    • Of course you can also copy&paste the iFrame-code from the Youtube-Share link and use the source code view (<> Button) to insert it manually.
  4. Profit!
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Windows tools I use

  • June 20, 2023 •
  • IT •
  • Christian

Photo by Nothing Ahead: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-a-keyboard-4567339/

As an IT consultant in 99,5% of all cases I'm provided a notebook with Windows as operating system. As this is (sadly) still the standard, even when you do your work only on Linux machines.. Therefore I do have to use many separate Windows tools..

SSH/RDP (Remote/terminal access):

  • PuTTY & pageant as agent for automatic key based authentication
  • Alternatively SuperPutty works fine if you need to split windows next to each other or have all Putty windows in one application window
  • mRemoteNG also works fine for SSH & RDP as more often than not I also need to connect to servers via RDP too
  • If you only need RDP, have a look at the Remote Desktop Connection Manager from the lovely Sysinternals folks at Microsoft

Texteditor:

  • Notepad++ has syntax highlighting, proper support for all kind charsets AND per-default it saves even the text in windows you haven't explicitly saved. (Useful if you're in a hurry..)
  • Alternative: PSPad

Credentials/Secrets/Passcodes

  • KeePass: The neat thing is, so far it always came pre-installed.

Diffing files/finding differences:

  • Meld (That one is also available for Linux if you need a GUI)
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First!

  • June 20, 2023 •
  • Stuff •
  • Christian

I have to say "Thank you" to that colleague who recommended Bludit to me. It's really a good-looking flat-file CMS.

Picture shows a dysfunctional CCTV surveillance camera in some London underground subway station.
Used with permission, free of charge by the TFL

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