Geek Stuff category archive
Inviting Big Data into Your World 0
The EFF reports that there is a Ring of eyes recording all you do. Here’s an excerpt; follow the link for the rest (emphasis added).
The danger in sending even small bits of information is that analytics and tracking companies are able to combine these bits together to form a unique picture of the user’s device. This cohesive whole represents a fingerprint that follows the user as they interact with other apps and use their device, in essence providing trackers the ability to spy on what a user is doing in their digital lives and when they are doing it. All this takes place without meaningful user notification or consent and, in most cases, no way to mitigate the damage done.
No Place To Hide 0
Farhad Manjoo points out that it can–is–happening here. A snippet:
(snip)
Indeed, because of a dearth of laws protecting our privacy — and almost no high-profile political discussion about the stakes at hand — Americans are sleepwalking into a future nearly as frightening as the one the Chinese are constructing. I choose the word “sleepwalking” deliberately, because when it comes to digital privacy, a lot of us prefer the comfortable bliss of ignorance. As a result, much of the surveillance engine operates underground — just beyond where many of us dare to look.
Speaking of sleepwalking, I was talking with someone this morning–in person, in fact–who dismissed our own corporate digital surveillance society by saying, “Everyone does it anyway.”
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
Follow those internet directions and you may lose your waze.
No Place To Hide 0
At the San Francisco Chronicle, Joseph W. Cotchett note the efforts of Big Data to weasel out from under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Here’s a snippet (emphasis added):
Face, we have admitted–nay, invited–these parasites into our most private lives and now, like electronic bed bugs, they have no intention of leaving.
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*A distinction without a distinction, methinks.
Geeking Out 0
The QMMP media player with the Catubi3000 Winamp skin playing The Broken Rosary from Librivox on the Fluxbox window manager on Ubuntu MATE on a Zareason MediaBox. The wallpaper is from my collection.
Make TWUUG Your LUG 0
Learn about the wonderful world of free and open source. Use computers to do what you want, not what someone else wants you to do. Learn how to use GNU/Linux and its plethora of free and open source software to get stuff done with computers.
It’s not hard; it’s just different.
When: Monthly TWUUG meeting at 7:30 p. m. on the first Thursday of the month (December 5, 2019). Pre-meeting dinner at Chicago Uno, JANAF shopping center, 6:00 p. m. (map)
Who: Everyone in TideWater/Hampton Roads with interest in any/all flavors of Unix/Linux. There are no dues or signup requirements. All are welcome.
Where: Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk Training Room (map). (Wireless and wired internet connection available.) Turn right upon entering, then left at the last corridor and look for the open meeting room.
A Boxing Day Wallpaper 0
Thus endeth the season of self-indulgent screenshots.
Phoning It In–Even When You Don’t Want To 0
I only turn on “Location Services” when I have a positive need, which is hardly ever, but, after reading Zandar’s comments at the end of his post, I explored my “smart” phone and found and changed some privacy settings I was previously unaware of.
