Geek Stuff category archive
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.
Geeking Out 0
Testing SolusOS in a VirtualBox virtual machine on Slackware –Current.
Solus is a nice, clean bit of work designed with the home user in mind.
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 (July 6, 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.
Monticello Gets Pwned 0
Computer security always seems to be an afterthought in the enterprise.
The attack was discovered Tuesday, and since then, Monticello has not been able to use its computer or phone systems.
Twits on Twitter 0
Tony Norman visualizes a crisis of conscience.
Disconnected 0
Bruch Schneier reports and Amazon has patented a method to stop you from using your mobile device to comparison shop in a store.
Given that Amazon in the past has encouraged such comparison shopping, hoping that you would buy whatever it was from them, I agree with Schneier that this is all very strange.
Geeking Out 0
Devuan v. 1 with the XFCE desktop environment in VirtualBox on Slackware –Current. Peeking out from behind Devuan is a virtual machine of Windows 7, on which QMMP is playing music from KCEA (KCEA doesn’t rock; it swings).
Click to see the the full image.
Devuan has reached a full release version, though the beta was a darned find piece of work. I upgraded from the beta using the commands
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get autoclean
apt-get autoremove
In case you don’t know (and there is a good chance you don’t unless you are in my Linux World), Devuan is a fork of Debian without SystemD. It still uses SystemV, because many folks have issues (mostly philosophical because SystemD, however annoying it can be, does indeed work) with SystemD.
Give it a try. It installs like butter.
H/T to SystemAU (NSFW–those Aussies swear bigly) for informing me that Devuan was out of beta.
The Sound of My Own Voice 0
I have a new podcast up at Hacker Public Radio.
“Surveillance Capitalism”* 0
El Reg looks at how it works. A snippet:
For example, a person’s mobile phone usage could affect the ability to get a loan. The Cracked Labs report describes how Singapore-based Lenddo calculates credit scores based on online behavior. It assesses mobile data, browser data, application data, transactional data from telecom companies, and web and social network data.
“The company even includes computer mouse click data and data about how people fill out web forms,” the report explains. “In this vein, ‘always running out of battery’ might impact one’s credit score; conversely, an extremely well-maintained smartphone might raise a red flag in the system, too.”
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*What a well-turned phrase.