Geek Stuff category archive

Lipstick on a pig (emphasis added):

The company (Microsoft–ed.) on Tuesday gave an early preview of the new Windows 10 software, which it aims to begin selling by the middle of next year. Although the current version is called Windows 8, Microsoft says it’s skipping ahead to Windows 10 to emphasize its effort to move forward.

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, October 2.

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)

BB4Win stands for “BlackBox for Windows.” BlackBox is a venerable window manager for *nix. One of my favorite Linux window managers, Fluxbox, is based on BlackBox. If I can’t run Enlightenment, I run Fluxbox.

I recently installed one of the BB4Win GUI varirants, xoblite, on my Windows 7 box. Unlike the Windows interface, it is highly configurable, in ways other than mucking about with eye candy.

This is what it looks like. In the picture, you can see the xoblite right-click “Start” menu and, behind the browser, the xoblite menu, which is a simple text file, is open for editing. The system monitor that you see in the bottom right of the screen and the weather gadget in the top left are from rainmeter, a Windows alternative to GKrellM or conky (I’ve used both, but I think I prefer GKrellM.

If you wish to investigate alternatives to Windows’s clunky interface, this is a good place to start.

I have not tested this on Windows 8. I have helped a friend with Windows 8. Windows 8 sucks is less than desirable.

Sadly, BB4Win development seems to have stalled. One hopes it will pick up again.

Afterthought:

xoblite almost, but not quite, makes using Windows fun again.

Gina Barreca seems somewhat less than thrilled by the latest addition to Apple’s walled garden.

The “iWatch,” according to the hype, will allow us to put away our wallets because we’ll be able to use Apple Pay to “buy coffee, groceries and more” right from our wrists.

Can you believe it’s taken this long? I mean, the extraordinary exertion involved in reaching for a piece of plastic, not to mention the sheer drudgery of the act of swiping, takes an unconscionable amount of time and is one of the leading causes of muscular cramping of both thumb and index finger in many first-world nations.

Think of the value to humanity: Consider the legions of otherwise-healthy women carried out of Nordstrom’s all over our great nation daily because of their retail-related injuries; imagine suffering that will be alleviated when we no longer have men on gurneys being airlifted from parking lots next to L.L. Bean’s who were tragically brought low by the swift and repeated use of their cards while buying kayaks and Thules.

Mark Goulston tries to explain how Apple’s hype machine works to convince persons to buy admission to Apple’s walled orchard.

Apple’s secret is to rapidly move customers from the dullness of their comfort zone to the thrill of an adrenaline rush and to do it safely where all you have to do is buy their products.

Sadly, he seems to have bought the hype himself; the article takes it for granted that iJunk really is worth the price.

Trumping twits.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Jennifer Golbeck discusses a study of internet trolls. A snippet:

In the same study from yesterday, the authors introduced a measure of someone’s trolliness (that’s my term, not theirs). They call it the Global Assessment of Internet Trolling (GAIT). Subjects in their study were shown these four statements:

• I have sent people to shock websites for the lulz.
• I like to troll people in forums or the comments section of websites.
• I enjoy griefing other players in multiplayer games.
• The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt.

If you are interested in a theory of why trolls troll. follow the link.

ABL wonders whether Twitter likes itself them twitter stalkers.

It’s just an overpriced cell phone, folks.

Stephen Colbert takes on Apple’s new strap-on Apple watch.

Below the fold because it may autoplay, plus it has a trailer for what looks to be an instance of particularly obnoxious cinematic war-wanking* at the beginning.

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Jesse Singal explains how to game the play.

I was disappointed that the Wil Wheaton Project won’t be coming back. The 10-show “season” started slow, but I generally got at least one good laugh and several chuckles from each episode. If you DVRed it and zipped the commercials, it was a nice 20-minute break.

I found it an amusing way to keep up with geek froth, such as over-produced CGI science fiction movies I would never waste my time to see and games I have no interest in playing.

Really, it is.

Want to save money on your phone bill? Make sure you turn off the “autoplay” setting on Facebook videos.

Smartphone users are at risk of maxing out their data plans if they don’t change this default setting in the Facebook app, which otherwise will automatically start streaming videos in the News Feed window.

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, September 4.

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)

Texas-sized twits.

The inventor of the pop-up ad apologizes.

Below the fold because it autoplays.

Read more »