From Pine View Farm

Geek Stuff category archive

Meta: No Connectivity Issues Today 0

Also, no clues.

Again, if you experience connectivity problems, please let me know, including the wording of any error messages you get and the time and date. I would love a clue.

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Facebook Frolics, Once More Breached into Dept. 0

The EFF offers advice on what to do if your account at the Zuckerborg was breached.

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Screen Germs 0

Mike Brooks explore the supernormal hold that keeps so many persons glued to their Androids and iJunk.

(Botched link fixed.)

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Facebook Frolics 0

Unpwned millions, but millions still pwned.

Does anyone else have the sneaking suspicion that Facebook’s “engineers” don’t know what they are doi–oh, never mind.

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(Sticky) (Unstuck) Meta: Down at the Farm? 0

(I’m going to stick this at the top of the page until I have a handle on what’s going on.

I shall put this down as one of those things and unstick this post tomorrow. The issue is still occurring intermittently, but, oh well.)

Off and on the past few days, I have been experiencing random time-outs when trying to connect to my website.

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Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam
Spam Spam Glorious Spam
0

I stumbled over this in my AARP bulletin: Pointers on dealing with spam phone calls.

Aside:

I swear the AARP knew when I turned 50 before I did. I joined, because, though I have some grumps with them, I generally support their positions.

Shortly after I joined, I was on a business trip to Princeton, N. J. The young whippersnapper at the front desk of the hotel reeled of the list of discounts they offered and an AARP discount was one of them. I said, “I qualify for the AARP discount.” (I was on expenses which would be billed back to the customer, but why waste money?)

He replied, “Yes, sir.”

I asked, “Don’t you want to see my card?” He declined.

I have never forgiven him.

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Geeking Out 0

Listening to KCEA on QMMP in a VirtualBox virtual machine of Windows 7 in seamless mode on Slackware 14.2 under the Fluxbox window manager while reading a Nero Wolfe mystery.

In the upper right corner of the screen, beneath the Windows menubar, is xclock running on the Slackware host; below it is the GKrellM system monitor with the “Invisible” theme, also running on the host. (I have used both GKrellM and Conky. Conky is a bit more versatile, but I prefer GKrellM because it’s more compact.)

Screenshot

Afterthought:

Fifteen years ago, I would not have understood a word of this except for the “Nero Wolfe” part.

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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.

Tidewater Unix Users Group

When: Monthly TWUUG meeting at 7:30 p. m. on the first Thursday of the month (October 4, 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.

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Facebook Frolics, “No Irish Need Apply” Dept. 0

Pap and Thom discuss the growing number of suits against Facebook for allowing employment ads that violate anti-discrimination laws.

(Embed fixed.)

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Geeking Out 0

Watching cartoons with Xine under the Fluxbox window manager with the peak_ocean theme on Debian Stretch.

screenshote

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Meta: “Add to Any” 0

I realized that, somewhere along the line as I migrated from here to there to my current VPS, I had lost the “Add to Any” plugin. It creates the “Share/Save” button at the bottom left of this post and makes sharing my posts to “social” media easier for the socialites among you, so I reinstalled it today.

It’s my kind of WordPress plugin: It’s simple, it’s neat, and it stays out of the way.

I used to publish my posts on my Facebook page via Facebook’s “Networked Blogs” feature, but that seems to have stopped functioning several years ago. I briefly considered finding a way to resume that practice, but decided it wasn’t worth having the Zuckerborg drop its tracking cookies all over my browser cache (the alternative would be to do all my posting from a “private” window, and I’m just too lazy . . . .).

This is, as I have said, an avocation, not a business.

I welcome and am grateful for all visitors and am most pleased that some folks find my work worth a visit.

I want to reach as many persons as I can, but there are some lines I shall not cross, and running nekkid through the Zuckerborg is one of them.

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iJunkies 0

Two men standing in front of an advertisement for the latest iPhone.  First man:

Click for the original image.

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Geeking Out 0

Fluxbox on Debian.

Screenshot

I find that picture of a lion to be most impressive.

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An Apple for the Teacher 0

North Carolina state superintendent of schools goes on an iJunket.

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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.

Tidewater Unix Users Group

When: Monthly TWUUG meeting at 7:30 p. m. on the first Thursday of the month (Today,September 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.

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Facebook ‘Em, Dano 0

Cop:  Where were you on the night of June 10?  Suspect:  Well, I, uh . . .  Cop:  Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?  Suspect: I . . . I . . .  Cop:  I'm just kidding.  We're gonna do it the easy way.  Your girlfriend broke up with you that day, calling you a two-timing turd.  Your mood that night was angry.  You took and Uber to Joe's Diner and ordered two beers.  THere, you met the other woman, Ashley, who took this photo of you in the stolen car, both of you smillin, which is suprising because neither of you seemed happy at the June 3 Bech concert.  Suspect:  OH MY GOD, SO IT WAS THAT RAT ASHLEY THAT SQUEALED ON ME!  Man pokes his head into the frame:  No, it was me, Mark Zuckerberg.  I know everything now.  (Switch to Rat, Goad, and Pig)  Goat:  Well, this is depressing.  Rat:  And Facebook took over the world,  The end.  Pig:  I pray to Mark my photos to keep.

Click for the original image.

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Geeking Out 0

Fluxbox with the Everclear theme on Debian 9.

Click for a larger image.

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Meta: Well, That Was a Relief 0

Every week, usually on Monday, I perform regular maintenance on the database for this blog. I log into my hosting provider, navigate to CPanel, and do a “check,” “repair,” and “optimize” on the SQL database. I then export the database tables and save a copy on my local computer what I’m typing on right now because there is no such thing as too many backups.

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Happy Birthday to Me 0

From Pine View Farm is 13 years old today.

It’s been a long strange trip, one that I could not have predicted.

PVF started as hobby project to learn more about Linux. Initially I self-hosted it from an old IBM PC 300 (one of the original Pentiums) in my guest room using Slackware 10 and noip.com. Now the website is out there somewhere on a most excellent hosting provider whose tech support is unparalled. And, along the way, I’ve learned a lot about Linux, HTML, and css.

PVF is still a hobby, or, perhaps more properly, an avocation, to which I am deeply committed. I hope to continue shooting my mouth off on the inner webs for a long time to come.

For every time I consider giving it up, something new comes along to feed the outrage.

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Geeking Out 0

The Fluxbox window manager on Debian Stretch. That’s the GKrellM system monitor with the “Glass” theme over there in the lower right corner, and xclock in the upper right.

Screenshot

I don’t have much of a reason for posting this other than I think that the background image is very pretty. I like my pretty pictures.

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From Pine View Farm
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This website does not track you.

It contains no private information. It does not drop persistent cookies, does not collect data other than incoming ip addresses and page views (the internet is a public place), and certainly does not collect and sell your information to others.

Some sites that I link to may try to track you, but that's between you and them, not you and me.

I do collect statistics, but I use a simple stand-alone Wordpress plugin, not third-party services such as Google Analitics over which I have no control.

Finally, this is website is a hobby. It's a hobby in which I am deeply invested, about which I care deeply, and which has enabled me to learn a lot about computers and computing, but it is still ultimately an avocation, not a vocation; it is certainly not a money-making enterprise (unless you click the "Donate" button--go ahead, you can be the first!).

I appreciate your visiting this site, and I desire not to violate your trust.