FOSSPicks
bcal
This is another brilliantly useful tool that performs one simple job extremely well – bcal converts between storage formats and performs various calculations. This is important because there's plenty of confusion over what certain numbers represent and how they're valued. GiB is a good example, as this is often used as a replacement for GB representing gigabytes, which itself gets confused for all kinds of values for data across a network. Typing dcal 50 gib
will give the canonical answer – 52428800 KiB, 51200 MiB, 50 GiB, or 4.8828125000e-02 TiB, as represented by the IEC standard (base 2). The SI standard (base 10) is also output, alongside decimal and hexadecimal address values plus both LBA offsets. These details are obviously going to be handy for anyone working with storage, but it's also useful for anyone worried about space or who wants to work out exactly what they're paying for with their latest SSD purchase.
Additionally, bcal can be used for all kinds of representation and conversion. You can show the binary, decimal, and hex representations of a number, for example, using the -c
argument followed by the number. You can convert between logical block addressing (LBA) and cylinder-head-sector (CHS) with -f
, and you can work out storage capacity by adding -s
, followed by a sector size, such as bcal 0xaabbcc kb -s 4096
. Because the values are output all at once, the tool makes it easy to see what the differences are and why there's so much confusion around their use.
Project Website
Screen capture
Peek 1.0
You can't seem to scroll down a news site in peace these days without being bombarded by animated GIFs. These little low-res movies often start without prompting and run on short loops until you either close the tab or relent and watch the full thing. But animated GIFs are an ancient technology, and they can't be all bad if they've lasted this long. They're small, resource light, and supported by almost every platform, from the Commodore Amiga to the iPhone 7, which is what makes their ubiquity part annoyance and part a handy addition to static websites – when used cautiously. And that doesn't mean as a vehicle for memes and the emergence of a meme dialect that will one day supplant traditional languages.
In other places, however, these little low-quality movies are genuinely useful, and one example is as a way to quickly show something happening on screen. This could be because you're writing documentation for a piece of software or sharing a tutorial on how something is accomplished. Or, it could simply be the way you share discoveries on your website. Either way, creating short animated GIFs of your mouse or keyboard interacting with something is often much easier to understand than writing 200 words to do the same thing – which is exactly what Peek does so well. It opens a small window that is used to grab a section of your screen at a predefined frame rate. It's simple, easy to use, and generates an animated GIF instantly. The latest version will even generate WebM and MP4 files too, which makes Peek far more useful as a general purpose screen grabber. If you need a quick and easy tool to grab your screen, much like animated GIFs themselves, Peek is perfectly suited to the task.
Project Website
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
First Release Candidate for Linux Kernel 6.14 Now Available
Linus Torvalds has officially released the first release candidate for kernel 6.14 and it includes over 500,000 lines of modified code, making for a small release.
-
System76 Refreshes Meerkat Mini PC
If you're looking for a small form factor PC powered by Linux, System76 has exactly what you need in the Meerkat mini PC.
-
Gnome 48 Alpha Ready for Testing
The latest Gnome desktop alpha is now available with plenty of new features and improvements.
-
Wine 10 Includes Plenty to Excite Users
With its latest release, Wine has the usual crop of bug fixes and improvements, along with some exciting new features.
-
Linux Kernel 6.13 Offers Improvements for AMD/Apple Users
The latest Linux kernel is now available, and it includes plenty of improvements, especially for those who use AMD or Apple-based systems.
-
Gnome 48 Debuts New Audio Player
To date, the audio player found within the Gnome desktop has been meh at best, but with the upcoming release that all changes.
-
Plasma 6.3 Ready for Public Beta Testing
Plasma 6.3 will ship with KDE Gear 24.12.1 and KDE Frameworks 6.10, along with some new and exciting features.
-
Budgie 10.10 Scheduled for Q1 2025 with a Surprising Desktop Update
If Budgie is your desktop environment of choice, 2025 is going to be a great year for you.
-
Firefox 134 Offers Improvements for Linux Version
Fans of Linux and Firefox rejoice, as there's a new version available that includes some handy updates.
-
Serpent OS Arrives with a New Alpha Release
After months of silence, Ikey Doherty has released a new alpha for his Serpent OS.