Geek Stuff category archive
Make TWUUG Your LUG–Special Pizza Event 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 (September 7, 2017).
There will be no pre-meeting dinner. Free pizza and soft drinks will be supplied for this meeting.
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 Power of Google, Reprise 0
Several days ago, I noted Josh Marshall’s musings on Google’s dominance of the Inner Webs and his concern that, with great power comes great temptation to abuse that power.
Have Cake, Eat It Too, Bitcoin Dept. 0
If it acts like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, and persons treat it like they treat ducks, why, then, clearly it must be a mongoose.
The Power of Google 0
Josh Marshall has a long and thoughtful piece on the power of Google (and, by extension, other concentrators of influence). The piece was prompted by allegations of Google’s bullying a website the views of which Google found distasteful (no, it wasn’t one of those websites that have been so much in the news lately). Rather, it seems from the context of Marshall’s remarks, which are all I know of the situation at this point (links are in the post) to be a website that questioned the concentration of power in the hands of corporations, including digital outfits such as Google.
I have always found Josh Marshall to be a careful and deliberate thinker and commend the post to your attention. Here’s a bit:
Manage Your Android with AirDroid 0
I have a new podcast up at Hacker Public Radio, this time about AirDroid, an Android application for managing your smartphone from your computer.
Files on phone as viewed in the Konqueror file manager via AirDroid.
“. . . and All the Ships at Sea” 0
Badtux has two posts up about the collision between a USN destroyer and an oil tanker near Singapore.
One addresses the undermanning of Navy ships, a legacy of President George the Worst; the other argues persuasively against the theory that, in some way, the guidance system of one of the ships was hacked. I commend them both to your attention.
Cloudflareup (Updated) 0
Cloudfare pulls its services from the Neo-Nazi website, The Daily Stormer, even as the Cloudfare CEO expresses qualms about his power to do so. A snippet:
“The Daily Stormer site was bragging on their bulletin boards about how Cloudflare was one of them and that is the opposite of everything we believe,” (Cloudflare CEO Matthew–ed.) Prince said. “That was the tipping point for me.”
Still, Prince said he was not comfortable with the way he exercised his power, describing his choice to withdraw services from the Daily Stormer as arbitrary.
“It was a decision I could make because I’m the CEO of a major internet infrastructure company,” he said. “Having made that decision we now need to talk about why it is so dangerous. No one should have that power.”
Follow the link for more details and for the rest of Prince’s quite thoughtful musings on his own action.
This action makes The Daily Stormer vulnerable to DDoS attacks, which can knock it off the internet. (There is nothing particularly sophisticated about DDoS attacks; they work by overwhelming a site with so many hits that the site eventually becomes unable to respond. In other words, they knock on so many doors so rapidly that the website can’t answer them all and runs away to hide under the bed.)
Addendum, the Next Morning:
In a larger article about the pushback against America’s Neo-Nazis, TPM reports that The Daily Stormer has moved to the Dark Web because it can’t find a hosting provider.
Addendum, Later That Day:
There are other reports that The Daily Stormer now has a dot-ru (for Russia) domain. I have been unable to verify this, and I’m damned sure not exploring the Dark Web.
“Error Creating a Database Connection” (Updated) 0
I got the dreaded above-named error tonight. Fortunately, a quick trip to phpMyAdmin at my hosting provider to do a check, repair, and optimize fixed it and all is back to what passes for normal.
Afterthought:
I use GoDaddy. Their tech support is superb, and I say that as someone who wore a headset for six years.
Addendum, the Next Morning:
This morning I got a MySQL socket error. I ended up rebooting the VPS and everything seems to be working again. If you notice any wackiness, please drop me a note via the email link over there on the sidebar. —————->
The Bickersons Go Electronic 0
El Reg reports:
The case, just kicked off in an Illinois district court after six years of wrangling, pits Barry Epstein against his former spouse of 46 years, Paula Epstein, who filed for divorce in 2011. During their separation, Paula obtained, read and used his emails as leverage to get a favorable settlement, it is claimed.
Frankly, I don’t see how the “wiretapping” allegations can hold water between a married couple, even if they were in the midst of a divorce, but I do find it disturbing if, as clained, she shared communications between her husband and his lawyer with her own lawyer. I find even more disturbing that her lawyer didn’t tell her to stop.
Then, again, she may have done none of these things. It may just be the husband flailing about. Lots of flailing goes on during bitter divorces.
More at the link. Learn about and listen to the Bickersons. (Audio is in RealPlayer format.)
Always Wrong 0
Google seems to think it is competent to decide which of the Gmail emails I receive are “important.”
Experience indicates otherwise.
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 (August 3, 2017). 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
Virtual Machines of Windows 7 and SolusOS running in VirtualBox on Slackware –Current.
Political Hacks 0
El Reg reports on how easy it is to hack American voting machines. A snippet:
In less than 90 minutes, the first cracks in the systems’ defenses started appearing, revealing an embarrassing low level of security. Then one was hacked wirelessly.
“Without question, our voting systems are weak and susceptible. Thanks to the contributions of the hacker community today, we’ve uncovered even more about exactly how,” said Jake Braun, who sold DEF CON founder Jeff Moss on the idea earlier this year.
I do not think that the manufacturers are consciously enabling easy hacking. Rather time and again experience has demonstrated that, in manufacturing, security is often an afterthought. For example.
Kate for Windows 0
The KDE Project has released a Windows version of the Kate text editor, my favorite GUI text editor for Linux. If you aren’t sure what a “text editor” is, think Notepad. Then envision Notepad on steroids.
Kate is capable of tabbed editing; can hold multiple documents open and under development simultaneously; can be configured to use various mark-up languages, such as HTML and various Assembler and scripting languages; and much more.
Follow the link above to try Kate for Windows.
H/T to SMLR for this news.
Don’t Get Smished 0
It’s been a long time since I received spam texts on my phone, but, as the number of cellphone users has increased, apparently so to has the problem. Plus, the nature of the spam has changed. It’s moved from unwanted ads to fraud.
(snip)
The scam can reach more people, and the messages look real, so it’s easier to fool them, he said.
More at the link.
German Cops Cast Net over Botnetter 0
A British hacker is on trial in Germany for attacking Deutsche Telekom to establish a botnet.
The Briton told the court he was paid $10,000 (about €8,500) by a Liberian telecom company which wanted to use the botnet to damage a rival company.
Upgrade 0
Mageia v. 6 with the Plasma Desktop and the Oxygen color scheme.
The wallpaper is from my own library.
I spent time yesterday upgrading my laptop from Mageia v. 5 to Mageia v. 6.
