Geek Stuff category archive
Geeking Out 0
Mageia v. 7 with the QMMP media player with the Chinese Beauty skin playing music that swings, Claws-Mail and Firefox tabbed and shaded, Konsole (also shaded), GKrellM, and xclock. The Fluxbox window manager is using the sunlense theme.
The background is from my collection.
What’s in a Name? 0
El Reg reports on Microsoft’s relabeling its Office 360 (that’s the one in the cloud on somebody else’s computer) update routines. It’s like American cars in the 1950s and 1960s–rearranging the chrome on the same old same old.
Follow the link for the full box of brand aids.
Geeking Out 2
Ubuntu MATE with the Fluxbox window manager using the zimek-darkblue theme, xclock, and GKrellM. The wallpaper is from my collection.
If anyone can tell me what the building in the picture is, I would be most grateful. It seems clearly to be in Germany or possibly Austria . . . .
Geeking Out 0
Ubuntu MATE with the Fluxbox window manager using the Ubuntu Dark theme on a Zareason media box. The background is from my collection.
If you are a regular visitor, you have probably noticed that Fluxbox is my preferred GUI interface. It is capable of all the eye candy you could want, without the overhead of a desktop environment.
Geeking Out 0
The Fluxbox window manager on Ubuntu MATE with GKrellM, xclock, and the QMMP media player playing The Bishop’s Secret by Fergus Hume. Thunderbird and Firefox are shaded in a tabbed window (and, no, you can’t do that on Windows).
Geeking Out 0
The Fluxbox window manager on Mageia v. 7 with xclock and GKrellM. The background (that’s Linux for “wallpaper”) is from my collection and shows Red Square and the GUM department store.
You Can’t Trust Dr. Google 0
Not that that should surprise anyone.
Geeking Out 0
Ubuntu MATE with the Fluxbox window manager using the “mussel” style running the QMMP media player (playing The Bishop’s Secret by Fergus Hume), GKrellM, and Xclock. The wallpaper is from my collection.
You’ve Been Zoomed 0
If you have been using the Zoom app to work or school from home, or even just to talk with friends, you should know that El Reg reports that it’s even less secure than previously reported. Here’s a snippet from the latest (emphasis added):
When reports emerged that Zoom Meetings are not actually end-to-end encrypted encrypted, Zoom responded that it wasn’t using the commonly accepted definition of the term.
“While we never intended to deceive any of our customers, we recognize that there is a discrepancy between the commonly accepted definition of end-to-end encryption and how we were using it,” the company said in a blog post.
If you have been Zooming, you owe it to yourself to read the rest. Then pick up a landline.
Aside:
Zoom’s mealy-mouthing is positively staggering.
Geeking Out 0
Ubuntu MATE with the Fluxbox window manager, xclock, GKrellM, and QMMP on a Zareason Mediabox. The wallpaper is from my collection.
Lurking from Home 0
El Reg reports on the intrusiveness of the Zoom app, which is trending as more and more persons use it to work from home in these viral times. A snippet:
“What makes this extra creepy is that Zoom is in a position to gather plenty of personal data, some of it very intimate (for example with a shrink talking to a patient) without anyone in the conversation knowing about it. (Unless, of course, they see an ad somewhere that looks like it was informed by a private conversation on Zoom.)”
Read the rest, then pick up the landline.
Geeking Out 0
Slackware –Current with the XFCE desktop running in a VirtualBox virtual machine on Mageia v. 7 with the Plasma desktop, xclock, and GKrellm.
Geeking Out 0
Mageia v. 7 with the Plasma desktop running on a Zareason desktop. The running applications are shaded (or rolled up, to use another term). The background is from my collection.
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
At The Seattle Times, Ev Ehrlich recalls the optimism that accompanied the creation and early growth of the internet, the belief that it would become, in Al Gore’s words, the “information superhighway.” He argues that the reality is less than optimal, if not downright dystopian. A snippet (emphasis added):
Dumb Watches 0
El Reg reports that, when it comes to monitoring your health, your smart gadget ain’t so smart. Here’s bit from their story:
However, the technology isn’t foolproof. Like all deep learning models, ECG ones are susceptible to adversarial attacks: miscreants can force algorithms to misclassify the data by manipulating it with noise.
The report goes on to point out that, in tests, properly trained real live human beings did better at identifying and discounting said “noise.”
Left Unchecked 0
I have never used a “grammar checker” in a word processing program.* (I can diagram my own sentences quite nicely, thank you.)
Turns out my instincts were correct. At the Hartford Courant, Mark McFadden explains that automated computerized grammar checkers don’t.
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*I do use spellcheckers, but never the “automatic” ones. Also, do grade schools still teach grammar, or has it gone the way of civics?