Geek Stuff category archive
Geeking Out 0
The Plasma Desktop on Debian Sid, with the GKrellM system monitor, Swisswatch, and the Dolphin file manager (shaded).
To be honest, I posted this just because I like the wallpaper picture.
We Are the Trojans, and We Have Invited a Herd of Horses into Our Homes 0
Bloomberg reports on how Big Data is trying to steal all privacy. Here’s a bit:
In other words, after you connect a light fixture to Alexa, Amazon wants to know every time the light is turned on or off, regardless of whether you asked Alexa to toggle the switch. Televisions must report the channel they’re set to. Smart locks must keep the company apprised whether or not the front door bolt is engaged.
This is not good.
Quick Dial Firefox Plugin 0
Ever since the Opera browser introduced its Speed Dial over a decade ago, I’ve been a fan of “speed dials.” If you haven’t used one, a “Speed Dial” enables you to put links to favorite websites in the “new tab” page of your browser. (I stopped using Opera when it went to the Dark Side.)
For a while I used Seamonkey, because, like the old Opera, it included an email client, an RSS reader, and a newsreader. I quite like Seamonkey, but, since the Seamonkey sync is broken and I use multiple computers, I now rely on Firefox as my default browser.
I recently stumbled over a “speed dial” for Firefox called “Quick Dial” which I quite like for two primary reasons: It will sync in a normal Firefox sync without your having to create some account on somewhereyouneverheardof.com, and it allows you to select a background image from your own images library.
Geeking Out 0
The Atlantis screensaver (an xscreensaver screensaver) running on the Plasma Desktop on Debian Sid on a Zareason Mediabox.
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 (February 7, 2018). 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.
Geeking Out 0
The KDE Plasma desktop environment on Debian 9 with the GkrellM system monitor and Firefox with the Quick Dial speed dial plugin running on a Zareason Mediabox computer.
Aside:
Quick Dial will sync as part of a normal Firefox sync. You don’t have to create an account at somewebsite.com the provenance of which you know nothing.
It allows you to choose a background image from your own image library, but the backgrounds will not sync; they must be selected locally on each machine.
Quick Dial also gives you more options for configuring the appearance of the individual dials than I have encountered with any other speed dial plugin. For example, you can change the labels of the individual dials, as well as the color of their font and background. This is useful when the default title is “All the News You Can Use | Some City’s Newspaper”; that can be edited down to “Some City’s Newspaper.”
I like it so much that I kicked in a small donation to the maintainer and you can too.
Facebook Frolics 0
Clueless frolics.
IoT = “Internet of Targets” 0
In a demonstration of the wonders of internet connected everything . . . .
(snip)
After many panicked minutes and phone calls to 911 and to Nest, the couple learned they likely were the victims of a hacker. And that panic turned to anger when they found out that Nest knew that there had been a number of such incidents — none involving nuclear strike scenarios — but failed to alert customers. Lyons said a Nest supervisor told them Sunday they likely were the victims of a “third party hack” that gained access to their camera and its speakers. The company did not return a request for comment Monday.
One more time, “because you can” is not in and of itself a sufficient reason for doing something.
Much more at the link.
Facebook Frolics 0
Naveed Saleh reports that enthusiasm for Facebook seems to be waning, citing surveys that show more and more persons are taking longer breaks from the Wells Fargo of social media and that a significant number of persons are removing the Facebook app from their smartphones.*
At Psychology Today Blogs, he suggests ten reasons why this might be so. Here’s one; follow the link for the rest.
________________
*Even if you don’t intend to dial back you Facebook usage, not using their smartphone app is a wise choice. It spies on users relentlessly. When I visit Facebook, which I must do once or twice a month as part of outreach efforts for outfits I reach out for–when you do outreach, you have to reach out to where the people are–I use a private browser window, so Facebook cannot continue to spy on me after I’m done with them.
Geeking Out 0
Screen capture of Electric Sheep, a dynamic visual delight, running under xscreensaver on Slackware 14.2:
I took the screenshot by telling Ksnapshot to take a screenshot after [mumble] seconds. Then I put the screensaver into preview mode and Ksnapshot grabbed the capture; I then sent image to the GIMP to crop it, because my monitor is 16:9 and Electric Sheep seems to default to 4:3.
(Note: In the current version of KDE, the Plasma Desktop, Ksnapshot has been renamed “Spectacle” for some fool reason. It seems to work pretty much the same way.)
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 (January 3, 2018). 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.
Digital Door Openers 0
If you are considering getting–or have already gotten–one of those web-based digital assistants and have all kinds of internet enabled gadgets and geegaws, you may want to think again. Two researchers at William and Mary have been investigating that stuff, and what they found is not reassuring. Here’s a bit:
The problem, Nadkarni and Poshyvanyk explained, is that a data store-based system provides hackers the ability to access all devices in the home, from light switches to security alarms. An adversary can compromise one low-integrity product, like a sprinkler or a third-party lighting app, and modify a data store variable that another high-integrity product, such as a security alarm, depends on. This can have a whole host of unwanted consequences.
This example is particularly telling for us, as we just got a new heating system which includes precisely the sort of function described above.
We opted not to get the app. Dammit, we are not so lazy that we cannot walk upstairs and push a button, for Pete’s sake.
Remember, as manufacturers rush to push out new digital gadgets, security is always an afterthought.
How Stuff Works, Truth Overwhelmed Dept. 0
David A. Asch and Raina Merchant detail the erosion of truth as a result of the explosion of “social” media; they identify three factors. An excerpt (emphasis added):
Second is selective deafness. When Walter Cronkite was the “Most Trusted Man in America,” many received their news from that single source. Now, Americans can select news feeds from thinly parsed media channels. It’s only human to want to hear what you want to hear. But what is a good strategy for music is not a good strategy for news. The problem is less that those into homeopathy can subscribe to homeopathy-favorable channels — it’s that they can do so to the exclusion of everything else. Selective deafness creates the “echo chamber” people decry.
Third is that lies are chameleons. Truth comes in only one form, but lies can be shaped to match any taste. The suffering want hope, and those unencumbered by the truth have an easier time giving it to them.
Listen for the Echo 0
Hi! Big Data. Come on in.
After all, what could possible go wrong?
Oh.
The magazine said that the recordings had lots of personal information and that it was easily able to find the person whose data was leaked.
The episode underscores that Amazon stores audio files when you speak to Alexa.
The story goes on to report that Amazon says this is an isolated event, but I frankly find their making and keeping the recordings to be creepy. And expected.