Geek Stuff category archive
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.
The Watchers 0
A New Hampshire court wants Amazon’s Alexa digital surveillance device assistant to testify in a murder trial. Here’s a bit from the story:
“The court finds there is probable cause to believe the server(s) and/or records maintained for or by Amazon.com contain recordings made by the Echo smart speaker from the period of Jan. 27 to Jan. 29, 2017 … and that such information contains evidence of crimes committed against Ms. Sullivan, including the attack and possible removal of the body from the kitchen.”
The story goes on to say that Amazon is inclined not to cooperate “without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us”* in the interests its customers’ “privacy” (because, I reckon, that belongs to Amazon).
I will be curious to see how this turns out.
But this is certain: So long as persons unthinkingly invite Big Data into their personal spaces and willingly subject themselves to perpetual corporate surveillance, we will be seeing more like this.
Me, I can flip my own damn light switch.
_______________
*Like, maybe, just supposin’ here, a judge’s order?
Scooflaws 0
My local rag reports that Bird, the outfit that’s randomly dropping scooters all over the country, holds itself above the law (that’s my words, not theirs). Here’s a bit:
Bird now owes $362,800 to the University of Georgia and $32,000 to Santa Cruz, California. Virginia Beach has impounded 205 scooters and is owed $1,700, as of Oct. 31.
And that’s just the beginning. Bird scooters have been reported in the cities of Nashville, Cleveland, Denver, Salt Lake City, Ann Arbor and Greensboro, North Carolina, just to name a few, according to news reports. . . .
“I think it’s very difficult to look at one locality and see the big picture,” he (Graham Henshaw, executive director of the Alan B. Miller Entrepreneurship Center at the College of William & Mary–ed.) said. “What they’re trying to do is blanket the entire country in scooters.”
The story goes on to report that Bird does not respond to inquiries from government agencies and doesn’t seem interested in getting its scooters out of impound.
I’m not quite sure how the characterize this, but the phrase, “arrogant, greedy SOBs” comes to mind.
Upgrade 0
I upgraded my Debian box from Stretch to Buster this evening.
Next stop, Sid, aka Debian unstable. AFIC, Debian unstable is more stable than most distros’ stable.
Later the Next Day:
When I went to update the software today (Debian Testing issues frequent updates because, well, it’s testing stuff), I ran into a little problem. Some directories were missing from root’s (that’s the “Administrator” in Linux) path and apt-get complained, then rolled over and played dead.
I was able to fix the problem thanks to this article. I sent the webmaster a thank you email, as I was unable to add a comment to the article.
As an aside, updating Linux is a lot easier than updating Windows. The process is generally transparent to the user and does not require a reboot unless a new kernel has been installed.
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 (November 1, 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.