Are you seeking
- a phone app
- desktop software
- cloud based program
To solve your needs?
Conversely, do you want to share a cool tool?
Here’s the spot.
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I’m seeking an easy to use software (preferably free) that lets a person embeds a custom glossary in and then hotline terms to the glossary. This is for a friend who is an expert in yoga philosophy who uses Sanskrit for every other word he writes and his writing gets bogged down in definitions. He is not particularly tech savvy.
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Couldn’t you just footnote the definitions in Word, like they were academic citations?
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I’m not sure if he knows how to do that. I think for him a custom glossary would be super useful. Maybe there’s a program that picks up whenever you are using a term in the custom glossary and automatically hyperlinks it.
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Is he using Word to write in? If so, a macro/add-in would be the way to go. There may not be anything that works as one types (that sounds like a performance killer), but maybe a button to click before saving off the final version.
I like @Cynical’s footnote idea as a reader though. A new program or an existing feature: both will require some learning.
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Maybe a text expansion app would help? It would require some initial setup, but if you can get it to do what you want, it will be mostly automatic from that point onwards.
Here’s a couple of older articles to get you started:
And since it seems like some of the recommendations may be out of date, it’s always worthwhile to hit alternativeto.net:
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I was previously using everything and launchy to search for files and launch applications in Windows, respectively. I went looking for a replacement for launchy due to it not handling settings in Windows 10 very well, and came across Listary.
It neatly solves both needs in a single interface, and is very actively updated. It’s commercial, whereas the others were open source, but it is pretty reasonably priced for the time and trouble it saves me.
There is one feature of launchy that I miss. There is a plugin for it called Mathy that gives you a quick/simple calculator that I found myself using often. I’ve switched to using Calculator.NET, which isn’t a direct replacement, but the built-in calculator in Windows 10 is terrible.
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I’m a software developer by trade, so I spend quite a bit of time copying and pasting. 
If you do too, consider using a clipboard manager. The one I’m using is called Ditto. It keeps a running history of everything you copy to the clipboard, and has an interface to let you find and paste items easily. It also has (customizable) shortcut keys that let you easily perform tasks like copying five items to the clipboard and then pasting them back in a different order.
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The issue is that he uses so much Sanskrit that his writing gets bloat with definitions. Some people know the terms and could read faster without definitions. Others could use help. Therefore mouseover help on hyperlinked terms is a good solution. The text expander just would turn his writing into a big bloatfest.
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Depending upon what he’s writing in, the text expansion could replace the word with the code that’s used to display the definition on hover. That way he can focus on writing the text, and the expander takes care of decorating it.
Here’s an example of doing something like this in HTML/CSS: http://jsfiddle.net/AndreaLigios/jtLbpy62/
I could envision adapting this technique so that the CSS is already included in the page being edited. Also, let’s assume that the attribute we use would be something like definition instead of tooltip, for semantic purposes. You could then create an entry in the text expander so that every time you type the word:
doe
it gets replaced with the text:
<span definition="A deer, a female deer">doe</span>
Then, when someone hovers over the word doe in the document, it displays A deer, a female deer in the style of a tool tip.
It’s worth mentioning that it’s probably better to use click instead of hover, a people viewing the document on mobile would have difficulty displaying the definition otherwise, and it’s just easier to be consistent. It should also be trivial to decorate the defined word in some way (like a dashed underline) that makes it clear that it’s a word you can interact with.
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Apps for Nonverbal Communication.
IGrok.
Love this simple UI.
list of emotions (top)
List of needs (bottom)
They both scroll. Emotions are positive at left, more challenging at right
Press the info icon to see some ideas on using these words constructively.
Time for You
Nice UI for self soothing. Expensive and I wanted more. It jumps to an ad for the author’s services. However, useful tool.
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I’m looking to replace the antivirus app on my five-year-old phone (Samsung Galaxy S4, running Lollipop 5.0.1.) I’m leaning toward AVG, as its free version seems to have the same elements I use in my old app: close running apps, RAM boost, junk cleaner. Plus it seems to rate well in the review sites I’ve checked so far.
Is that a pretty good choice, or is there a better option?
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not a huge fan of android antiviruses in general – you’ll probably have better security installing LineageOS on that pupper, but of all the android AV apps, AVG isn’t bad.
tom’s guide recommends Norton as the ‘best freemium’ mobile AV, weirdly
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I’d noticed that Norton suggestion at Tom’s Guide. It’s been probably 20 years or so since I had any experience with Norton, on a PC… but it wasn’t that great… so I’ll probably skip that.
(Though Norton wasn’t as bad as MacAfee. MacAfee was horrible, and removing it from the laptop was worse as it severely damaged two other programs during uninstall. Never again.)
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Personally, I’ve never been particularly convinced that Android phones really need an antivirus. I’ve had an s3 and an s5 in the past, and I now have an s7 with an ailing, unremovable battery that I will be upgrading to a second-hand s9 or s10 after the s20 range comes out later this month. I’ve tried Norton and Avast on the S5 and wasn’t that impressed by the drop in performance and battery life in either case. Avast has some nice remote tracking and alarm features if your phone gets stolen but I never felt like I was actually getting improved security by having either option installed.
As long as you use a secure browser like Brave and only download apps from the Play Store, there’s really not that much risk from virii in the wild on Android under normal usage conditions. The lack of security updates on an unsupported phone should probably be more concerning tbh.
I would definitely second @tinoesroho’s suggestion of LineageOS though; I used its predecessor (CyanogenMod, peace be upon it) on the S3 and switched to Lineage on the S5 once the OS was discontinued. The S4 is no longer supported for security updates on Lineage either (as far as I am aware), but it will have been supported for a while after Samsung ended their official support, so it will be a bit more up-to-date in terms of security hotfixes than the stock rom. It’s also a lot nicer to use than Touchwiz (ugh), more secure, gives you more visibility over what’s running at any one time, allows better control over app permissions and uses less CPU overhead to run, giving you better performance and longer battery life.
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Aaaaiiieeee, someone mentioned the M word. Burn the thread down, it’s irreversibly contaminated.
I used Avast on PC for a good long while, but lately they’ve started seeming desperate to sell paid options that just really bring absolutely no benefit to me. It doesn’t help that I’ve pretty much never actually had an antivirus trigger except on things I didn’t want it to trigger on.
I’ve never used AV on a phone, but I also don’t do a lot of clicking unknown links, or pulling down games & such. There have been malware apps that have managed to get through the approval process, so if someone’s the sort to install random popular apps or do a lot of browsing I could see a niche for it.
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I might be wrong about this but my understanding of the process is that, even if you had antivirus installed, it wouldn’t flag a dodgy app as being malware until the software was publicly exposed as being malicious, at which point Google would pull it from the store and most likely disable it on your phone or delete it entirely.
Again, I might be entirely wrong about this but the only use case that I can think of where phone antivirus would be helpful is if you have a specific need to use Flash or Javascript, and can’t block adverts for some reason. Even then, the chances of someone using malicious code to exploit a bug that hasn’t been fixed at the OS level is pretty slim, unless you’re a particularly high-value target by virtue of being rich, famous or some kind of dissident. In that case, you’d be better off rooting your phone, encrypting the drive, installing a custom, secure, open-source OS, and never letting your phone out of your sight, than depending on your antivirus for protection.
HTTPS stops most man-in-the-middle attacks on unknown networks, and using a properly anonymous VPN for things that need to be kept properly secure seems like basic internet hygiene to me anyway.
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Please don’t use a task killer. Android doesn’t work like Windows. I’m not even sure Windows works that way any more.
I’ll echo most of the other commenters as well. AV is largely unnecessary. If you take some basic precautions, your risk profile should be sufficiently low enough. Security updates will do a lot more to keep you safer. Custom ROMs like LineageOS can be a great way to get support past your manufacturer’s window. According to Wikipedia, the S4 was released on 2013-04-27, which is inching up on 7 years ago now, and although you’re running the latest released version of Android that Samsung released, that’s still 5 major versions behind, and I couldn’t even find information about when the last security update was made. as @Cynical pointed out, LineageOS does appear to support it up to v9 Pie, but may no longer offer security updates.
I think it may be worthwhile to at least entertain the idea of finding a more recently released phone. Looking at a new phone can be quite a daunting experience, since most of them seem to be hovering around a $1000 price, but you may be able to find a used or refurb for a much better price that still has support from the manufacturer.
I’ve heard and read positive things about OnePlus as giving you a lot of value for the price, and I think that would be a viable option if you were on a 12-18 month upgrade cycle since you should pay less compared to other manufacturers like Samsung or LG, but if you’re looking for a manufacturer with long-term support (at least relative to other Android handset makers), I don’t think there is any one with a better track record than Google itself. They offer a minimum of 2 years of OS updates, which is usually 2 major versions, and 3 years of security updates. They are also unlocked (unless you buy through Verizon) and tend to be well supported by custom ROMs which may help extend that window further. I owned a Pixel XL until recently. It was released in 2016 and received OS updates (up to 2019-09) and Security Updates (up to 2019-12) past their promised dates. It originally cost ~$900, but I was able to pick one up for $250 in 2018. I just recently replaced it this month with a refurb Pixel 2 XL which will be supported at least through most of this year (2020-10) and cost me $150 this time. I’m not sure what I’m going to do next, though, as both the Pixel 3 has the dreaded notch, and the Pixel 4 is just generally underwhelming. For the right price, I would probably be fine with either of them.
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When my current phone dies, I’m thinking of picking up a refurbished phone, either a Galaxy 9 or Note 9, which should be enough to do me for a few years. But I’m not ready to let my old phone go just yet, even though it’s old and creaky and low on memory (which is why I’m interested in something with a RAM booster, etc.)
I’m nervous at the thought of rooting my phone. I’m going to have to do some research into that and weigh the pros and cons. If it would let me uninstall some of the 
bloatware the phone came with, that would be a major selling point-- there’s preinstalled apps I never use that are taking up serious system space. AVG says it can do it, but I’m doubtful. I also have to figure out if a rooted/alternate OS phone will play nice with my carrier (Verizon.)
I know the Play Store pulls bad apps-- that’s part of why I’m looking to get rid of my current antivirus. It’s CM Security Master, and Cheetah Mobile just had several apps yanked out of the store for data collection issues. While I’m amused at the thought that they know how much time I spend on the BBSes and Archive of Our Own, I also pay bills online with my phone, and I don’t want that data out there. But AVG is owned by Avast, which also has data collection issues… so I don’t know if I’ll be jumping from the frying pan into the fire with them.
Thanks to everyone for the answers so far, and I’ll listen if there’s anything else I need to know… I think I need to do more research before I take any actions.
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I’ve been very happy with the Asus Zenfone 3 and 4. In our family, we’ve got eight or nine of them right now, mostly a year or so old but a couple more than two. I understand there’s a 5, which we don’t have yet. Cost for the midrange models is roughly $150-200. They work, are very reliable, have enough power, good battery life and decent storage. Dual SIM and microSD card, though the 3s only have 2 slots for the three cards. The do come with some crapware, which is mostly removable.
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