Geek Stuff category archive
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.
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.)
Afterthought:
Fifteen years ago, I would not have understood a word of this except for the “Nero Wolfe” part.
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 (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.
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.)
Geeking Out 0
Watching cartoons with Xine under the Fluxbox window manager with the peak_ocean theme on Debian Stretch.
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.
An Apple for the Teacher 0
North Carolina state superintendent of schools goes on an iJunket.
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 (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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Geeking Out 0
Debian 9 with the Fluxbox window manager on a ThinkPenguin E-Box.
Debian, for some fool reason, does not include the “Fluxbox Regenerate Menu” script in its Fluxbox package. To regenerate and then customize the menu, I had to copy the script from another instance and run it under Debian.
So you don’t have to go through this annoyance, I have published the “Fluxbox Regenerate Menu” script here.
And in case you are wondering, yes, I do quite like Fluxbox. It combines the eye candy of a desktop environment with the simplicity of a window manager. I’m currently defaulting to it on all of my machines.
“The Suit” 0
My local rag has a fascinating story about the protective gear that bomb disposal techs wear.
I commend it to your attention.
Facebook Frolics 0
Just the kind of guy we would want guiding our children’s educational experiences.
Man, you see stuff like this and can’t help wondering, “Don’t these folks know how to behave in public?” Then you realize that “social” media purposefully lulls its “users” into forgetting that the internet is a public place.
Walking the Walk 0
I think Atrios is onto something here.
How Stuff Works, Everyone’s a Clickit Dept. 0
Sunday’s New York Times offered a detailed exploration of the lucrative business of selling ersatz “views” of YouTube videos, duplicitous “likes” on Facebook, and spurious listens on SoundCloud.