DEV Community: Christian Ahrweiler

Label AI-Generated Images Across Your WordPress Site

Christian Ahrweiler — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 07:35:08 +0000

AI-generated images are now part of everyday publishing. They appear in articles, product pages, documentation, and social posts — but once uploaded to WordPress, they look just like any other image.

At the same time, transparency is becoming more important. Article 50 of the EU AI Act has applied since August 2, 2026, introducing disclosure requirements particularly for deepfakes and other AI-generated content that could falsely appear authentic.

Not every AI-created image must carry a visible label. But when disclosure is appropriate or required, adding it consistently across a WordPress site should be straightforward.

That is what atec AI Image Label is designed for.

One Dashboard for All Images

The plugin provides its own compact dashboard listing JPEG, PNG, and WebP images from the WordPress Media Library.

Select one or multiple images, choose the badge style and position, and apply the label.

The available options include:

Dark or light badge
Bottom-left or bottom-right position
Bulk selection and processing
Restoration of the untouched original

There is no need to open and edit every image manually.

The Label Becomes Part of the Image

The plugin does not add a temporary HTML or CSS overlay. Instead, it stamps the visible AI badge directly into the selected image files.

This is important because the result does not depend on the active theme or page builder. The label remains visible wherever the image is used:

In posts and pages
As a featured image
Inside galleries
In page-builder layouts
As a background image
Through responsive WordPress image sizes

Public filenames and URLs remain unchanged. Existing pages therefore continue to use the same image addresses without needing to update posts or layouts.

The Original Is Not Lost

Before applying a label, atec AI Image Label stores an untouched copy of the original image.

If the label is no longer needed, the original can be restored from the same dashboard. The public filename and URL remain unchanged during both operations.

This makes the process reversible:

Select an image.
Apply the AI label.
Use the labelled image normally across the website.
Restore the untouched original whenever necessary.

A Practical Transparency Tool

atec AI Image Label does not decide whether a particular image legally requires disclosure. That depends on the image, its context, and how it is presented.

Instead, it solves the practical WordPress problem:

Once an image should be identified as AI-generated or manipulated, how can that label be applied reliably wherever the image appears?

The answer is to modify the image itself while preserving its existing WordPress URL — and to keep the original available for restoration.

atec AI Image Label provides exactly that workflow in one compact WordPress dashboard.

Part of the atec-Plugins suite.

https://atecplugins.com/

Understand Your Network, Not Just Its Speed

Christian Ahrweiler — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 08:39:56 +0000

Foxy Network Diagnostic looks beyond the speed-test result to identify what may be limiting a connection.

A network connection can feel slow even when the internet service itself is working correctly.

A Mac may be connected to Ethernet at only 100 Mbps instead of Gigabit speed. Wi-Fi may be using a weak 2.4 GHz connection. A router may be losing packets, or a VPN may be sending traffic along a slower route.

A conventional speed test combines all these factors into one result. It shows how much data reached the test server — but it cannot explain which part of the connection caused the limitation.

That is where Foxy Network Diagnostic starts.

A Speed Test Measures the Complete Path

A speed test transfers data between a device and an internet server. The result depends on every component along the way:

Mac → Ethernet or Wi-Fi → Router → Internet provider → Network route → Test server

If the result is 90 Mbps when 500 Mbps are expected, the test confirms that something is limiting the connection. It does not show whether the problem is the local network, the internet service, or the selected server.

Running the test again usually produces another number, not an explanation.

The Limitation May Be Local

A slow speed-test result does not necessarily mean that the internet connection is slow.

Consider an Ethernet connection operating at 100 Mbps. That link becomes a hard local limit before any data reaches the router or internet. Due to protocol overhead, practical application throughput will be slightly below the negotiated link speed.

A result around 90–95 Mbps may therefore be exactly what a 100 Mbps Ethernet connection can deliver.

Possible causes include:

an unsuitable or damaged Ethernet cable
a 100 Mbps adapter
a limited switch or router port
failed automatic negotiation
manually configured network hardware settings

Foxy Network Diagnostic makes the local link speed visible and explains what should be checked.

Wi-Fi Requires a Different Diagnosis

Wi-Fi performance depends on more than the internet plan.

Signal strength, interference, distance, walls, frequency band, channel conditions, and the capabilities of the Mac and access point all affect the connection.

The displayed Wi-Fi link rate is not identical to real application throughput, but it provides an important indication of local connection quality.

A weak 2.4 GHz connection may limit performance before traffic reaches the router. A strong 5 or 6 GHz connection suggests that the bottleneck may be elsewhere.

Foxy Network Diagnostic examines the Wi-Fi information available from macOS and presents it in context instead of showing an unexplained collection of technical values.

Testing the Connection in Stages

Foxy Network Diagnostic examines the network as a series of sections rather than as one large data transfer.

It checks the active network interface, available Ethernet or Wi-Fi information, the connection to the router, and lightweight external network measurements.

This allows the app to distinguish between several likely problem areas:

Mac or interface configuration
local Ethernet connection
local Wi-Fi connection
router or local network
internet access or provider
route-specific problem
destination server

The result is presented as a likely bottleneck , together with practical recommendations.

Why Traceroute Alone Is Not Enough

Traceroute can show the routers between a Mac and a destination, but it does not reveal the available bandwidth of every connection.

Some routers respond slowly to diagnostic packets while forwarding ordinary traffic without any problem. Others limit or completely ignore these responses.

A slow response from an intermediate router therefore does not prove that the router is slowing down the connection.

Foxy Network Diagnostic can use path information as supporting evidence, but it does not pretend that every external network segment can be measured conclusively from one endpoint.

The goal is a useful and honest diagnosis — not a misleading claim about a specific router somewhere on the internet.

Designed for On-Demand Diagnosis

Foxy Network Diagnostic is a single-window utility.

It does not need to run permanently in the menu bar and does not continuously generate network traffic in the background.

A test begins only when requested. Passive throughput values can observe traffic already passing through the active interface without creating additional traffic. Lightweight external checks help compare the local connection with the path beyond the router.

A complete internet speed measurement still requires transferring a meaningful amount of data. A tiny packet cannot simply be timed and extrapolated reliably because latency, protocol overhead, connection setup, and TCP slow start would distort the result.

That remains the purpose of Foxy Speed Test.

The two apps answer different questions:

Foxy Speed Test: How fast is the internet connection?

Foxy Network Diagnostic: What is likely limiting the connection?

From Measurement to Understanding

Most network problems become manageable once the affected area is known.

The solution may be as simple as changing an Ethernet setting, replacing a cable, using another switch port, moving closer to the Wi-Fi access point, selecting a better frequency band, or testing without a VPN.

A speed test provides the performance number.

Foxy Network Diagnostic provides the context behind it.

More tools are available at: https://beavertools.app

AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/foxy-network-test/id6799336320

Check Your WordPress Pages for Accessibility Issues

Christian Ahrweiler — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 05:59:26 +0000

Since June 2025, the European Accessibility Act — and in Germany the BFSG — requires many digital services and online shops to be accessible. The rules particularly concern the parts of a website used to find, select and purchase products or services.

For larger businesses, accessibility is now a legal requirement — not merely a recommendation. Official BFSG information

See problems directly on the page

Accessibility reports can be difficult to understand. They identify an HTML element, but often leave the user searching for the corresponding form field, button or image.

atec Web Inspector makes the process visual.

While logged in as a WordPress administrator, open any frontend page and select Inspect Page from the admin bar. The plugin analyses the fully rendered page and marks potential accessibility problems directly beside the affected elements.

It checks areas such as:

Heading and page structure
Images and alternative text
Links and buttons
Form labels
Keyboard navigation
Colour contrast

Errors, warnings and items requiring manual review are clearly separated.

Inspect the real WordPress output

The analysis runs after WordPress, the theme, plugins, page builders and JavaScript have created the final page. It therefore inspects what visitors actually receive — not only the content stored in the editor.

Inspection is activated only on demand and runs locally in the administrator’s browser. Normal visitors see the unchanged website, and no inspector assets are loaded for them.

The plugin does not modify content or claim to guarantee legal compliance. It simply makes potential problems visible where they occur — so they are easier to understand and correct.

Learn more about atec Web Inspector

Reading Server Logs Should Not Require a journalctl Cheat Sheet

Christian Ahrweiler — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:03:03 +0000

Beaver Logs finds the relevant logs on your server and presents the latest entries in a clean Mac app.

A website suddenly returns a 502 error. An SSH login fails. Fail2ban blocks an address, PHP stops processing a request, or a systemd service refuses to start.

The answer is probably in a log.

Finding that answer, however, often begins with another question:

Which log should I look at?

Some applications write to files in /var/log. Others send their messages to the systemd journal. The correct file path varies between Linux distributions, and journalctl comes with its own collection of options.

Then there is the pager.

You run a command, see part of the output, press Return several times, wonder whether you have reached the latest entry, and eventually press q to escape. It works, but it is not particularly transparent.

That is the problem Beaver Logs is designed to solve.

Select a server and scan its services

Beaver Logs connects directly to a Linux server over SSH. Nothing has to be installed on the server.

When you add a server, Beaver Logs can scan it for common services and log sources. It may find services such as:

Apache
PHP-FPM
Fail2ban
Unbound
Other systemd services

It also checks known locations for regular log files.

The result is presented as a checklist. You decide which logs should be available for that server. If the server configuration changes later, an Update button runs the scan again.

Each server keeps its own selected log list.

System journals and regular log files in one place

Linux logs generally come from two different sources.

Traditional logs are regular files, such as:

/var/log/nginx/error.log
/var/log/auth.log
/var/log/fail2ban.log

Modern system services often write to the systemd journal instead. These entries are normally accessed with journalctl.

Beaver Logs handles both.

For a regular file, it retrieves only the latest requested lines. It does not download a potentially multi-gigabyte log file just to show its ending.

For a systemd service, it requests the latest journal entries without invoking the interactive pager.

From the user’s perspective, both behave the same way:

Select a server.
Select a log.
Read the latest entries.

The underlying storage mechanism no longer matters.

The latest entries, clearly defined

One of the confusing things about command-line log tools is not always knowing exactly what is being shown.

Is this the entire log? The latest page? Entries since boot? Is the program waiting for new data?

Beaver Logs makes that explicit.

Choose the latest:

100 entries
500 entries
1,000 entries
5,000 entries

The app shows when the log was last read. Click Update to retrieve its current state.

Beaver Logs is deliberately not a permanent monitoring service. It does not continuously stream logs, run in the background, or build a central log archive.

Open it when something needs checking. Read the relevant logs. Close it when you are done.

Add logs Beaver Logs cannot discover

Automatic detection covers common services, but every server is different.

An application may write to:

/opt/myapp/logs/error.log

A WordPress installation may use:

/var/www/example.com/wp-content/debug.log

Your own server software may run as:

my-service.service

Beaver Logs lets you add custom sources with a readable name and either a file path or systemd unit.

Once added, a custom log behaves like every automatically discovered log and remains available in that server’s sidebar.

A reader made for logs

The center of Beaver Logs is intentionally simple: a large, monospaced, scrollable view.

You can search within the retrieved content, move between matches, copy relevant entries, and wrap long lines at the window edge. Disable line wrapping when you prefer each log entry to remain on one visual line.

There are no pager commands to remember and no need to press Return repeatedly to reveal the next part.

Direct, temporary and private

Beaver Logs connects directly from your Mac to your server using SSH.

There is:

No server agent
No Beaver account
No cloud log collection
No external analysis
No permanent local log archive

Retrieved content is kept in memory for the current session. It disappears when the app is closed unless you explicitly export it.

Not another observability platform

Large infrastructures may need centralized logging, dashboards, alerts and long-term analysis.

Many developers and self-hosters need something much smaller.

They operate a few VPS instances, web servers, mail servers or private services. When something goes wrong, they want to see the relevant entries without first looking up a file path or reconstructing the correct journalctl command.

That is Beaver Logs:

Server logs without the Terminal.

Learn more about The Beaver Tools at beavertools.app.

Download on App-Store.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/beaver-logs/id6798559590

Foxy Browser: A New Browser With Unique Security Layers

Christian Ahrweiler — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 21:52:26 +0000

The web has changed.

A website is no longer just one page from one server.

Behind a normal-looking page, your browser may load ads, trackers, redirects, cookie scripts, CMP banners, suspicious hosts, embedded services, and background domains you never see.

Foxy Browser is built for that reality.

It is a new macOS browser with unique security layers that help you browse cleaner, block unwanted noise, and reveal what is actually happening behind the page.

Security layers built for everyday browsing

Foxy Browser combines a fast WebKit browser with protection and transparency tools that work while you browse.

Protection Layer

Blocks unwanted resources using blacklist-based filtering. Blocked resources are not loaded, which can make pages cleaner and may also speed up browsing by reducing unnecessary requests.

The protection layer also includes a CMP blocklist, which can help suppress many cookie consent banners before they interrupt the page.

Trust Inspector

Shows what a website really contacts in the background. Many pages look simple, but load far more than users expect.

Identity Layer

Shows domain, certificate, issuer, expiry, and encryption details, so the real connection becomes visible.

The result is not a bloated security suite.

It is a browser that protects quietly in the background and reveals what is actually happening when you want to look closer.

Browse faster. Browse cleaner. Browse smarter.

Foxy Browser includes the everyday browser features you expect:

tabs, private windows, bookmarks, history, downloads, printing, find on page, session restore, and page saving.

It also adds practical tools for modern browsing:

PDF printing with clean page breaks,

full-page PNG screenshots,

private autofill,

built-in Web Inspector.

So Foxy is not only about protection.

It is a modern Mac browser with useful tools built in — plus the Foxy security layers that block quietly in the background and reveal what is actually happening when you want to look closer.

Foxy Browser

Foxy Browser runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

No telemetry.

No account.

Local protection.

More information:

https://foxybrowser.app/

Foxy Mail Wire: an open format for compressed & encrypted email

Christian Ahrweiler — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 05:16:45 +0000

Internet mail still moves as MIME over IMAP and SMTP. That’s fine for delivery — bad if you want smaller messages or real end-to-end privacy of the body, without locking the format inside one app.

Foxy Mail Wire is a small, open specification for that: compress and encrypt the MIME payload, leave normal envelope headers alone, and let any client implement it.

What’s in the box

.foxyz / FOXYC1 — ZSTD-compressed message body
.foxye / FOXYE1 — AES-256-GCM + X25519 encrypted body (ZSTD inside)

Compatible clients advertise support with simple headers (X-Foxy-Compress, X-Foxy-Encrypt, and when packing, X-Foxy-Pubkey). Non-aware clients still see a short plain-text notice plus an attachment — they just can’t open the payload.

This is not an IETF draft and not the Foxy Mail app. It’s a wire contract: framing, MIME wrapper, and crypto choices, so implementers don’t have to reverse-engineer a client.

Why publish it

Compression and E2E for mail only matter if more than one product can speak the same bytes. Putting the format on Codeberg keeps it easy to read, fork, and implement — without App Store binaries or a private wiki.

Spec

Full draft (CC0):

https://codeberg.org/DocJoJo/foxy-mail-wire

If you build a mail client (or a library), that’s the place to start. Feedback and independent implementations welcome.

Foxy Browser: A New Smart Browser

Christian Ahrweiler — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 06:41:27 +0000

Cookie banners are annoying.

Some cover the page.

They interrupt every visit.

But cookie banners are hard to block reliably because there is no single standard. Every website can use a different CMP, a different script, a different layout, and a different way to show the banner.

Foxy Browser takes a unique approach to suppress them.

Instead of trying to close or hide the banner after it appears, Foxy can block known third-party CMP resources before the banner code even reaches the page.

When the banner code does not load, the banner never appears.

Block before it becomes a banner

Many browsers and extensions react to cookie popups after they are already on the page.

Foxy Browser works earlier in the chain.

The Protection Layer checks requested resources against its blocklists. If a third-party CMP resource is known and unwanted, it can be blocked before the page adds the banner.

That can make browsing cleaner, reduce interruptions, and avoid loading unnecessary resources in the first place.

See what was blocked

Foxy Browser is not a black box.

The Trust Inspector shows what a website contacts in the background.

You can see first-party resources, allowed third-party resources, and blocked CMP domains in one place.

That makes the difference visible:

the page loads,

the banner resource is blocked,

and the Trust Inspector shows what happened.

More than banner blocking

Foxy Browser is a new macOS browser with smart security layers built in.

It includes:

Protection Layer

Trust Inspector

Identity Card

Link Awareness

It also comes with helpful features:

private autofill

full-page PNG screenshots

PDF printing with clean page breaks

built-in Web Inspector

Foxy Browser

Foxy protects quietly in the background — and reveals what is actually happening when you want to look closer.

More information:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/foxyfy-browser/id6793897472

https://foxybrowser.app/

SSH Without the Heavy Terminal Workflow

Christian Ahrweiler — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 05:36:45 +0000

SSH is one of the most useful tools for anyone running servers.

You use it to check logs, restart services, inspect disk space, edit configs, or simply see whether a machine is still alive.

But on the Mac, SSH often still means a very manual workflow.

Open Terminal.
Type or paste the host.
Remember the right username.
Trust the host key.
Repeat the same setup again tomorrow.

That works.

But if you connect to the same servers every day, it could be simpler.

Plain SSH sessions for Mac

Beaver SSH is a focused SSH client for macOS.

It is built around a simple workflow: save your hosts, open a session, and connect when you are ready.

Beaver SSH supports trusted host keys, multiple tabs, and light or dark terminal style. It can also share hosts with Beaver SFTP, so your server list stays consistent across both apps.

For developers and self-hosters

Beaver SSH is useful when you regularly connect to your own VPS, staging server, production box, Raspberry Pi, NAS, or internal machine.

You still get a plain SSH session.

Beaver SSH

Beaver SSH is part of Beaver Tools, a collection of small Mac utilities focused on solving one clear problem at a time.

More tools are available at:

https://beavertools.app

Beaver SSH is available on the Mac App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/beaver-ssh/id6773857871

An Easy-to-Navigate System Report About Your Mac

Christian Ahrweiler — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:57:02 +0000

Your Mac knows a lot about itself.

Machine specs.

Internal hardware.

Connected USB devices.

Ports and accessories.

The problem is usually not whether the information exists.

The problem is finding it in a clear way.

System Report gives you an easy-to-navigate report about your Mac specs and attached devices.

See your machine and connected hardware in one place

System Report helps you browse the technical details of your Mac in a structured tree view.

You can inspect:

machine specifications,

built-in hardware,

connected devices,

external ports,

drives and volumes,

displays,

cameras,

audio devices,

USB and other attached hardware.

Select an item on the left and see its details on the right.

That makes it useful when you simply want a better overview of your Mac — or when you need to check what the system actually detects.

Helpful when a connected device does not work right

A device may be plugged in, powered, or even partially working — but still not behave as expected.

A mouse lights up, but does not respond.

A drive is connected, but missing.

A camera is there, but not working correctly.

A device behind a hub behaves strangely.

In those moments, the first question is simple:

What does macOS actually see?

System Report helps answer that question.

Export as PDF

System Report is also useful as documentation.

You can export the report as PDF, which makes it practical for:

inventory,

company asset records,

support cases,

device documentation,

technical reference.

That can be especially useful in business environments where machines and connected hardware need to be documented clearly.

System Report

System Report is part of Beaver Tools, a collection of small Mac utilities focused on solving one clear problem at a time.

More tools are available at:

https://beavertools.app

System Report is available on the Mac App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/system-report/id6790204420

Cut Video Clips on Mac

Christian Ahrweiler — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 06:37:09 +0000

A long video is often not the part you need.

Maybe you recorded too much.

Maybe the useful part is in the middle.

Maybe you only want one short section for sharing, saving, or reusing.

Clip Cutter gives you a focused way to cut video clips on your Mac.

Open the video.

Choose the section.

Cut the clip.

Save the result.

Simple clip cutting

Clip Cutter is built for the basic job: turning a longer video into the part you actually need.

No full video-editing suite.

No complex timeline.

No project setup.

Just a direct workflow for cutting a clip and exporting the result.

Use it for screen recordings, camera clips, tutorials, demos, social clips, support videos, and quick edits where you do not need a full editor.

Clip Cutter

Clip Cutter is part of Beaver Tools, a collection of small Mac utilities focused on solving one clear problem at a time.

More tools are available at:

https://beavertools.app

Clip Cutter is available on the Mac App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clip-cutter/id6793620846

The Lightweight Internet Stack for Your Server

Christian Ahrweiler — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 15:36:34 +0000

Running a server often means building a patchwork.

A web server from one place.

A mail server from another.

A firewall tool.

A DNS resolver.

A TURN server.

A CDN layer.

A handful of helper services.

Each part may work, but together they create configuration overhead, dependency chains, and too many moving pieces.

FoxyFy takes a different approach.

It provides a lightweight internet stack from one provider, built around the core services a modern server needs:

web server, mail server, firewall, content delivery, secure DNS resolver, DynDNS, WebRTC network services, and geolocation services.

Built to stay understandable

FoxyFy is designed for practical server operation.

The focus is on small, fast components that are simple to configure and made to work together.

Less mixing.

Less bloat.

Less configuration chaos.

FoxyFy

FoxyFy provides server software, network services, and infrastructure tools for modern internet hosting.

More information:

https://foxyfy.net/

Open ZIP, RAR, 7Z, ZST and More on Mac

Christian Ahrweiler — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:30:19 +0000

Someone sends you a ZIP file.

A software download arrives as 7Z. A backup ends in .tar.zst. An older project is stored in several RAR parts. The next archive requires a password.

You did not choose any of these formats.

You just need the files inside.

The format should not become your problem

Different archive formats serve different purposes.

ZIP offers broad compatibility. RAR and 7Z are commonly used for compact multi-file archives. TAR preserves complete directory structures, while GZ, XZ, ZST, and LZ4 provide different combinations of compression ratio and speed.

Those differences matter when creating an archive.

When opening one, the goal is always the same:

Extract the archive and get the files.

You should not have to research every unfamiliar extension, install another command-line utility, or keep a collection of format-specific extractors on your Mac.

One consistent way to extract archives

unpackALL handles the major archive and compression formats through one simple interface.

It supports:

ZIP
RAR
7Z
TAR
GZ and TAR.GZ
BZ2 and TAR.BZ2
XZ and TAR.XZ
ZST and TAR.ZST
LZ4 and TAR.LZ4

Drop one or more archives onto the app. unpackALL detects the format, extracts the contents, and places the resulting files beside the original archive.

There are no extraction profiles to configure and no format-specific tools to select.

When an archive contains another archive

Some filenames contain two extensions:

backup.tar.gz
dataset.tar.xz
package.tar.zst

These files have two layers.

TAR bundles the original files and folders into one archive. GZ, XZ, or ZST then compresses that TAR file.

Extracting only the outer layer leaves an intermediate .tar archive:

package.tar.zst
        ↓
package.tar
        ↓
package folder

unpackALL can recognize that inner TAR archive and continue automatically. Instead of stopping halfway, it extracts the final files and can remove the intermediate archive afterward.

Multipart archives behave like one archive

Large RAR and 7Z archives are sometimes divided into several files:

backup.part1.rar
backup.part2.rar
backup.part3.rar

These are not independent archives. Each file contains part of the same data.

unpackALL recognizes multipart archives and combines the segments during extraction. Open the first part and the app locates the remaining pieces.

Password-protected files

Password protection is common for private documents, customer files, backups, and restricted downloads.

When an archive requires a password, unpackALL asks for it during extraction.

The archive remains on your Mac. Nothing is sent to an online extraction service, and confidential files do not need to be uploaded simply because macOS cannot open their format.

Open archives directly from Finder

Drag and drop makes it easy to process several archives at once, but unpackALL can also become the default application for supported archive formats.

After the Finder association is configured, opening an archive becomes the familiar Mac workflow:

Double-click. Extract. Done.

It does not matter whether the next file is a familiar ZIP or one of the other major compressed archive formats.

You need the contents, not another utility

The developer, backup service, download site, or colleague creating an archive decides which format you receive.

You should not need a different workflow for every decision they make.

unpackALL opens ZIP, RAR, 7Z, ZST and other major archive formats on macOS.

No Terminal commands. No cloud upload. No format hunting.