Geek Stuff category archive
Facebook Frolics 0
Zuckerborg assimilation frolics. Here’s a bit from the EFF’s deep dive into Facebook’s proposal for “reforming” the decades old law that regulation the internet; follow the link for the complete piece.
Afterthought:
I believe that law is long overdue for a second look. The central provision currently in question was designed to protect neutral platforms from liability for content posted by users.
At the time the law was enacted, the primary platforms were web hosting providers, BBSes, and services such as AOL and Compuserve.
The era of the algorithm had not yet arrived. I believe that now, in the era of the algorithm, when platforms manipulate content to promote “engagement” and “attract eyeballs,” those platforms are no longer neutral in any sense and should be held accountable for the actions of their algorithms.
But the Zuckerborg’s plan to perpetuate its predominance is not the way to go about it.
Rather, what we need is another Teddy Roosevelt.
Geeking Out 0
The Plasma Desktop on Debian Buster/Sid on my new Thinkpenguin laptop. The wallpaper is from my collection.
Geeking Out 0
I do likes me my pretty pictures.
Ubuntu MATE with the Fluxbox window manager. The wallpaper is from my collection.
“The Siren’s (Telephone) Call” 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Matt Johnson looks at research which indicates that even the presence of a “smart” phone, say on a table or in a hand, can distract persons from their current activity, whether that activity is talking with a real live human being, doing a task, or solving a problem.
He sees attributes this to “counterfactual thinking.” Here’s a tiny bit
Follow the link the complete article.
Geeking Out 0
Listening to Agatha Christie’s They Do It with Mirrors from the Old Time Radio Theater in VLC on Ubuntu MATE with the Fluxbox window manager. The wallpaper is from my collection.
Meta: Blogroll 0
I’ve removed some entries from my blogroll because they have not been updated for some time or are no longer active; I do this from time to time. I shall add some new entries over the next few days.
Geeking Out 0
My new laptop from ThinkPenguin. I selected Debian for the distro, and it arrived in a timely fashion with a clean Debian install from the vendor. It’s pictured running the Plasma desktop environment; that’s swisswatch and GKrellM running on the right side of the screen. The wallpaper is from my collection.
It has an i5 CPU. a 500 GB SSD, and 16 GB RAM and works quite nicely, thank you very much.
Geeking Out 0
I do likes me my pretty pictures. This is Machu Picchu.
Ubuntu MATE with the Fluxbox window manager.
Geeking Out 0
Listening to the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, Clouds of Witness, from the Old Time Radio Theater, with the QMMP media player using the Winamp Catubi_3000 skin, on Ubuntu MATE with the Fluxbox window manager. The wallpaper is from my collection. (One of the things I like about QMMP is that I can use my collection of Winamp skins with it.)
It’s All about the Algorithm 0
The Bangor Daily News has a fascinating article how algorithms, which websites (particularly “social” media) use to promote “engagement” (that is, suck us in and keep us there), can go wrong. Here’s one example that the author gives:
Happily, Amazon’s researchers caught the problem and, when they found they couldn’t fix it, scrapped the algorithm. But how many such situations have gone unnoticed and uncorrected? No one knows.
I commend it to your attention.
Geeking Out 0
My old Zareason laptop started showing signs of age a couple of weeks ago. In particular, the display was going dark unpredictably (not blank–just dark). I’ve had it so long that I don’t remember how long I’ve had it. As my old mechanic in New Jersey used to say, it doesn’t owe me a dime. (Unfortunately, Zareason is no more; it has joined the ranks of businesses that have fallen victim to the pandemic, which is a damned shame, as Zareason was a pleasure to do business with; indeed, I’m typing this post on a Zareason desktop.)
So I spent today configuring my new laptop from ThinkPenguin, which arrived yesterday right on schedule.
I ordered it with Debian, which has long been one of my favorite Linux distros. ThinkPenguin installed Debian with the default desktop environment of Gnome. As I loathe Gnome with the fire of a thousand suns (Gnome spells “simplify” d-u-m-b-d-o-w-n), I installed KDE Plasma (in Linux world, multiple desktop environments can coexist quite nicely on the same machine) and started tweaking Plasma.
So far it’s working like a champ
It’s almost where I want it, and I’ll have it all tuned up in a day or two. The top things left on my list are to configure the hosts* file, install and configure GKrellM, and set up a cron job to updatedb every night.
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*Yeah, I know the link is to a Windows-centric site, but a Windows HOSTS file and a Linux hosts file work the same way, because they both must comply with internet standards. I’ve been using the MVPS hosts file for two decades in my campaign against pop-up windows, and it works quite nicely, thank you very much.
Geeking Out 0
Virtual machine of Slackware –Current running in VirtualBox on Magiea v. 7 using the Plasma desktop.
Hacks at the NSA 0
No doubt you heard the December headlines about a massive cyberbreach of the U. S. government. An article in the Sunday New York Times (yeah, it takes me all week to work my way through it) explores the failure of the United States shore up its cyberdefenses, despite being a target rich environment. Here’s a tiny little bit; follow the link for the rest.
At the N.S.A., whose dual mission is gathering intelligence around the world and defending American secrets, offense eclipsed defense long ago. For every hundred cyberwarriors working offense — searching and stockpiling holes in technology to exploit for espionage or battlefield preparations — there was often only one lonely analyst playing defense to close them shut.
Geeking Out 0
Magiea and Fluxbox. The wallpaper is from my collection (not that that should be a surprise–I do like my pretty pictures).
Geeking Out 0
Tyger, tyger, burning bright! in the forests of Mageia v. 7 with Fluxbox. The wallpaper is from my collection and is one of my favorites. (Blake is also one of my favorite poets.)
