Geek Stuff category archive
No Place To Hide 0
Computer security is always an afterthought when there’s money to be made.
(snip)
. . . US security researcher Matt Jakubowski discovered that when connected to Wi-Fi the doll was vulnerable to hacking, allowing him easy access to the doll’s system information, account information, stored audio files and direct access to the microphone.
Play it safe. Give your kid a Raggedy-Ann, not a Mata Hari Barbie.
Details at the link.
QMMP 0
I have a new podcast at Hacker Public Radio about Qmmp, the Qt-based MultiMedia Player.
Qmmp was inspired by Winamp, the venerable but now defunct Windows player, and XMMS, a similarly venerable and defunct Linux media player. It runs on Linux, BSD, and Windows; I’ve tested it on all three.
If you are an old Winamp and XMMS user, as I am, you can use your legacy Winamp and XMMS skins with it. You can also easily make your own skins with skinamp for Windows.
Qmmp is a nice job of work; I use it daily to listen to streaming audio and OTR (though it can be quirky with URLs that have unusual characters, such as parentheses, in them).
If you’re a Linux or BSD user, it’s in your repos, and, if you are a Slackware user, there’s a Slackbuild. If you’re a Windows user, you can get the install program at the Qmmp website.
You too can podcast at HPR; all are welcome. Contribute a show and join the community.
Gremlins in the Garmin 0
Get a Garmin and see Preitenegg.
Since July, Garmin has received notifications that customers all over Europe, including in the UK, were being advised to divert their route through the small Carinthian town near the Styrian mountains.
Garmin says that they are–er–recalculating.
“The Listener at the Hearth” 0
In The Guardian, Rory Carroll muses on his experiences with the Amazon Echo, which is sort of a stand-alone Siri. He suspects that it is compiling a list and checking it twice. Here’s a snippet:
I am a long-time fan of H. P. Lovecraft. Granted, his plots have a certain sameness about them, but no writer I’ve encountered is more adept at creating atmosphere.
On wonders what horrors he could have imagined had he ever conceived of the Amazon Echo (or even Siri, for that matter).
Nagomatic 0
Reg Henry has a Fitbit fit.
He has a point. Fitbit and the like are stupid tech. Ditch the nagomatic and go for a bicycle ride.
. . . Where Everybody Knows Your Name Everything (Updated)
0
David Shariatmadari suggests that privacy was an ephemeral and transitory concept which is coming to an electronic end.
(Open tag fixed.)
Addendum:
There is an excellent discussion of internet privacy towards the end of this podcast.
Stop Stressing and Take the Bus 0
While Google fiddles about with its driverless car, Switzerland gets serious.
More at the link.
Make TWUUG Your LUG 0
Learn about the wonderful world of free and open source. Learn how to use computers to do what you want, not what someone else wants you to do.
It’s not hard; it’s just different.
What: Monthly TWUUG 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. See directions below. (Wireless and wired internet connection available.) Turn right upon entering, then left at the last corridor and look for the open meeting room.
When: 7:30 PM till whenever (usually 9:30ish) on Thursday, November 5.
Directions:
Lake Taylor Hospital
1309 Kempsville Road
Norfolk, Va. 23502 (Map)
Pre-Meeting Dinner at 6:00 PM (separate checks)
Uno Chicago Grill
Virginia Beach Blvd. & Military Highway (Janaf Shopping Center). (Map)
Join the forums.
Geeking Out 0
Streaming music from KCEA in the Qmmp media player with the Project M visualization plugin in a PC-BSD Virtual Machine running in VirtualBox on Slackware –Current.
What If Someone Proposed a Bill and Nobody Noticed? 0
Everybody’s a narcissist.
“It is completely reprehensible that people were sitting there on [parliament’s] opening day and tweeting,” Kjærsgaard told BT.