The slightly weird tools on my machine
Published: 2017-03-15 17:15:29

---
title: The slightly weird tools on my machine
published: true
description: A list of semi-obscure gadgets in my day-to-day toolbox
cover_image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Rusty_tools.JPG
tags: 
---

I don't use anything really obscure: most of my favorite tools are quite known or used to be popular. Yet, I really, really wanted to take part in [that discussion about arcane tools](https://dev.to/ben/whats-your-favorite-tool-or-library-that-few-others-have-heard-of), so I've built my list. My platform is Ubuntu but, most of the time, there will be alternatives elsewhere.

For starters, it is not possible to live without a a clipboard manager. Mine is [ClipIt](https://github.com/CristianHenzel/ClipIt). Seriously, [everyone needs a clipboard manager](https://blog.codinghorror.com/reinventing-the-clipboard/).

Terminal multiplexers are another tools that deserves more adoption. I'm a heavy user of [GNU Screen](https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/), other people prefer [tmux](https://tmux.github.io/), but  the concept is what matters. It is like having tons of open terminals but without the tons of windows. It can be useful as a poor man's daemon, too.  And there is no risk of killing processes by closing the window! Once you get used, you can make some nice tricks. For example, I scripted it to set up environment variables when starting different profiles. Quite useful!

As a Firefox user, I find some extensions really useful. [GreaseMonkey](http://www.greasespot.net/) is one of them. It automatically executes JS scripts in any page. It used to be way more popular, I believe it deserve more attention!

Another one is [NoScript](http://noscript.net/), to prevent JavaScript execution on my browser. A lot of JS running out there is basically unnecessary or downright damaging. Selecting what to run can be annoying sometimes but saves a lot of performance and strengthens security and privacy. Also, I find this extension deeply instructive!

![Apparently, a lot of companies have to run code on my computer to display the news.](http://i.imgur.com/GyAt0HA.png)
_A mere Forbes article can execute a lot of code on my machine. What is it all doing?_

(Still regarding Firefox, its profile system can be quite useful, especially when paired with the right extensions. I have talked about it [in another post](https://medium.com/@adambrandizzi/using-multiple-firefox-profiles-70fb22614b3#.yzqcdq1wx), by the way.)

Finally, back to the terminal, I have to recommend [The Silver Searcher](http://geoff.greer.fm/ag/), aka `ag`. I rarely user `grep` (or [ack](https://beyondgrep.com/)) those days in the interactive terminal. After all, `ag` is recursive by default, supports extended regular expressions, have facilities to search only files of a type and, well, is shorter to type. Naturally, `grep` will always reign on my scripts but `ag` proved to be a great alternative.

And you, have you ever used any of those (or alternatives to them)? If no, which less known tools do you use? Let us know in the comments! :)

_(Banner by [Biser Todorov](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Biso) from [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rusty_tools.JPG))_