Geek Stuff category archive
The Snaring Economy 0
Philadelphia takes Silicon valley scofflaws to court.
Plus the New York Times Sunday business section had an interesting exploration of Uber, the aforementioned scofflaw, its history of questionable workplace conduct which led to its dumping its CEO and founder, and its IPO.
Aside:
This fits right in with the Bret Stephens column that I cited earlier today.
Geeking Out 0
Windows 8 running in a VirtualBox virtual machine on Ubuntu MATE with the Fluxbox window manager on a Zareason Mediabox.
Aside:
I had a hardware issue with the Mediabox. It was still under warranty and Zareason stood behind their product like Hank Aaron stood at the plate.
Since a freak lightning strike on a nearby tree blew away my Lenovo graphics tablet, all three of my computers–two desktops and a laptop–are now Zareasons.
“Phubbed”* 0
Martin Graff explores why some persons fall into their “smart” phones and ignore the world (and the people) around them.
_______________
*”Phone Snubbed“
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 (May 2, 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.
The Misinformation Highway 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Ira Hyman wonders whether we will be able to save ourselves from drowning in falsehoods. A nugget:
I’m optimistic because people in various disciplines see and understand the problems of misinformation in social media and the news.
(snip)
But I also remain pessimistic.
Follow the link to learn why his emotions are mixed.
Geeking Out 0
The Fluxbox window manager on Ubuntu MATE. If you seen some of my other screenshots, you already know that I like an analog clock in the upper right and GKrellm in the lower right.
The New Overseers 0
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the spread of an Amazonian tyranny of quotas in the workplace. A snippet:
- At the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, housekeepers can’t go home until they clean a predetermined number of rooms, even though, housekeepers say, rooms vary in cleanliness depending on factors like length of stay and whether guests declined service during their stay.
- At retail chains, workers say they have to convince a certain number of customers to share their email addresses or open store-brand credit cards, or else face a cut in their work hours.
- UPS uses sensors to track its drivers’ stop times, backup speeds, and seat belt use. The company is not allowed to fire workers based on these numbers but only because the Teamsters, the union that represents UPS drivers, fought for that language in their contract.
It’s All about the Algorithm 0
Youtube’s algorithm can’t tell Notre Dame from the World Trade Center.
Remember, “artificial intelligence” is not intelligent. It’s just fast.
It can be fast and wrong just as easily as it can be fast and right.
Facebook Frolics 0
Facebook, connecting the world to you.
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.