Geek Stuff category archive
Geeking Out 0
KDE Plasma on Ubuntu MATE, with Swisswatch in the upper right, GKrellM in the lower right, and VLC and the MATE terminal shaded on my Zareason Mediabox. The wallpaper is from my library.
Lost in a Lost World 0
One of my friends came over last weekend. He told me that this neighborhood made him start to distrust his GPS.
I told, “I don’t use a GPS. I prefer this new thing. It’s called a map . . . .”
Geeking Out 0
Slackware 14.2 with the Fluxbox window manager. Xclock is in the upper right corner, GKrellM in the lower right, and Sylpheed and Firefox are shaded in a tabbed window (a tabbed window is one in which two or more applications share the same application window; you switch from one to the other by clicking on its “tab”).
One of my favorite features of Linux desktop environments/window managers is the ability to shade or “roll up” application windows.
Facebook Frolics 0
Molly Baker reports on the phenomenon that I might dub “Facebook blinders,” in which persons confuse their Facebook feeds with the Big Wide World. Here’s a bit:
And there’s the disconnect.
Liz Duffy of Radnor recently used the site to let friends know her 92-year-old father had died. “It was very helpful in getting the word out to a lot of people quickly,” she says. “But there were people I would have heard from and didn’t. And that’s when I realized I never told them.”
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 (April 4, 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.
Life in the Bubble 0
Phil Reed reviews recent research as to whether “social” media promotes “digital bubbles” and political polarization.
He finds that the research to be inconclusive but tends towards a yes. Here’s a bit; follow the link for the rest, including summaries of several studies.
Facebook Frolics 0
HUD has filed a lawsuit accusing Facebook of facilitating housing discrimination through the tools it gives to advertisers. Here’s a bit from the report:
HUD also alleges Facebook allowed advertisers certain tools on their advertising platform that could exclude people who were classified as “non-American-born,” “non-Christian” or “interested in Hispanic culture,” among other things. It also said advertisers could exclude people based on ZIP code, essentially “drawing a red line around those neighborhoods on a map.”
The story goes on to report that Facebook is claiming that it has been working in good faith with HUD to deal with these issues.
Eye Candy, Again 0
The KDE Plasma desktop on Debian Sid. Konsole is on the left with transparency enabled, Dolphin is shaded*, Swisswatch is in the upper right, and GKrellM is running in the bottom right. (If you haven’t figured it out by now, GKrellM is my preferred system monitoring application.)
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*Shading or “rolling up” is one of my favorite features of *nix desktop environments and window managers.
Facebook Frolics 0
Farron discusses the new robber cyber-barons.
Methinks Farron has a point when he says that “they don’t know what the hell they are doing.”
They know the tech, but ethics and integrity are concepts foreign to them.
For them, the guiding moral principle is “because I can.”
Facebook Frolics 0
Mark Zuckerberg recently announced efforts to clean up Facebook’s act.
The AP’s Frank Bajak urges us to take that announcement with several pounds of salt. He suggests that it’s Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes for a shifting strategy from the Zuckerborg for assimilating its victims users. Here’s a bit from his report:
Facebook “wants to be the operating system of our lives,” said Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of media studies at the University of Virginia.
Aside:
When have any of Facebook’s promises to stop misbehaving come to pass?
Mark Zuckerberg is the Eddie Haskell of Silicon Valley.
Geeking Out 0
The Hydrostat screensaver (one of the screensavers in the xscreensaver library) on Slackware 14.2 with the KDE desktop environment.
New Twists in Spam 0
Based on what I see in my mail client’s inbox, the latest spammer trick is to send emails with no dates in the email headers.
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 (March 7, 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.
Pokemon Gone Wild (Updated) 0
The stupid. It burns.
Addendum:
At the confluence of Pokemon, prejudice, and stupid, some good news.
