Geek Stuff category archive
“I Can’t Dance, Don’t Make Me” 0
Alfonso Ribeiro’s dances the legal two-step.
Give a Gift of Privacy 0
The EFF runs down its Christmas list of the creepiest privacy-invading tech gadgets of the season. (Natch, something from the Zuckerborg is at the top of the list.)
Read it and, as we would say on the railroad, be governed accordingly.
Our New Robocalling Overlords 0
Aside:
Unlike Farron’s guest, I do not wonder how Facebook got persons’ cell phone numbers.
If someone installs the Facebook app on their “smart” phone, it will scarf up everything it finds; it’s in the terms of service that no one ever reads.
Heeee’s Back 0
Well, that was fun.
The connectivity issue seems to have gone away on its own and you can’t troubleshoot something that’s not there. One of the truisms of troubleshooting is that intermittent problems are the hardest to track down.
It seems to have been what one tech I met in a previous incarnation called an “FM” problem. If he was at a customer site and the issue he was called to fix mysteriously went away and if the customer asked what it was, he would say, “Oh, that was an FM problem” and hastily make his escape (“FM” loosely translated means “freaking magic”).
The other problem I was dealing with had to do with the new version of WordPress. WP changed the default editor and, since I “upgraded” my WordPress late last Thursday, I have been unable to publish or revise posts. Clicking to publish or update resulted in a “Publishing (Updating) failed” error.
I found the solution at the WordPress support forums. The one I selected was to install the “Classic Editor” plugin, which worked for me because it was quicker than calling my hosting provider to find out how to enable wp-json and I didn’t like that gol-darned newmangled editor anyway.
Now I’m going to run off to recuperate from being in Geek Purgatory for the weekend.
And another H/T to Shaun Mullen for his assistance in working this out.
Afterthought:
Other things I tried, for the troubleshooters out there, included trying multiple browsers; disabling plugins one at a time and trying to post (this excellent suggestion came from a support rep at my hosting provider, as several of the plugins I use have to do with editing; it didn’t fix the problem, but it was still an excellent suggestion, as troubleshooting consists of ruling things out to narrow the list of suspects); and changing to one of the default themes provided by WordPress.
Spreading the Sepsis 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Mike Wood explores how “social” media propagate misinformation and lies. A snippet:
Down at the Farm 0
Earlier this evening, I got the dreaded “Error connecting to database” error.
I logged into my account at my most excellent hosting provider, navigated to my VPS, went to cpanel, opened phpMyAdmin, and ran a check, repair, and optimize on my MySQL database, and all was well again (at least until the next time}.
Electrons are troublesome things.
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 6, 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.
Facebook Frolics 0
Vindictive frolics.
Aside:
I’m not sure I agree wholly with Farron’s comments about how telling lies on “social” media does not constituted “election interference.” Certainly, it’s not the same as interfering with the casting or counting of ballots, but I submit that the line between “election interference” and “electorate interference” is a fuzzy one.
“Do You, Alexa, Swear To Tell the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth . . . .” 0
From the Internet of Things to the Internet that Sings.
Your Private Vehicle Isn’t–Private, That Is 0
My local rag reports that Ford is considering mining customer data for fun and profit. Here’s a bit from the article:
Data mining is a highly lucrative revenue stream.
General Motors recently tracked the habits of 90,000 drivers in Chicago and Los Angeles who agreed to have their car-radio listening habits tracked to assess the potential relationship between what they listen to and what they buy.
Ford CEO Jim Hackett provided a glimpse into what sounds like a potentially massive data mining plan. His remarks were made during a Freakonomics Radio interview for a podcast released Nov. 8.
“We have 100 million people in vehicles today that are sitting in Ford blue-oval vehicles. That’s the case for monetizing opportunity versus an upstart who maybe has, I don’t know, what, they got 120, or 200,000 vehicles in place now. And so just compare the two stacks: Which one would you like to have the data from?” Hackett said, according to the podcast transcript.
Decoding De Code Meets Twits on Twitter 0
El Reg reports:
The accuracy of their model was about 73 per cent, making it better than a coin-toss, but far from foolproof in its evaluation.
More at the link.
Facebook Frolics 0
Nina Jankowicz is fed up. A nugget:
Sadly, I suspect that, as long as Facebook targets users gullibly succumb to Facebook’s alogrithm-driven stroking of their egos, the situation is unlikely to improve.