Geek Stuff category archive

Windows is annoying and clunky.

I have one dual-boot computer, over there, in the corner. For those unfamiliar with that term, it means that, when I power on or reboot the computer, a “boot menu” appears to allow me to choose either Windows* or Linux–in this case, Linux Mint 13, which is a long-term support release.

It had been running under Linux since before Christmas without a reboot,** during which time a number of Mint updates have been downloaded and installed.

I decided to boot into the Windows “side” of the box today to grab all the Windows updates.

Two hours and four–four!–reboots later, Windows decided it was updated.

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*I have not just blown away the Windows install because, from time to time, I might be called on to use some software product that only speaks Windows. Windows is like a snow-shovel; you don’t want to have to use it, but it’s sometimes necessary.

**The longest one of my Linux computers ran with out a reboot was 156 days; it was my webserver back when I self-hosted this site. One of the members of my LUG discovered a server at his company’s data center that had not been rebooted for over 1,000 days; it just quietly served trouble-free services for so long that the staff forgot it was there.

You are what you like.

Research released Monday shows patterns from these Facebook preferences can provide surprisingly accurate estimates of the user’s race, age, IQ, sexuality and other personal information.

The researchers developed an algorithm which uses Facebook likes — which are publicly available unless a user chooses stronger privacy settings — to create personality profiles, potentially revealing a user’s intimate details.

These mathematical models proved 88 percent accurate for differentiating males from females and 95 percent accurate distinguishing African-Americans from whites.

Via Raw Story.

So that Aaron’s place near me, the one that’s closed, was a rent-to-own electronics store.

Looks more like a rent-to-pwn:

At issue is software by Designerware LLC, a Pennsylvania software company that has been forced into bankruptcy. The software was included on laptops and desktops rented from Aaron’s so that the company and its franchisees could recover unreturned computer equipment.

But the lawsuits allege the software was turned on to spy on paying customers — regardless of their rental status — and that more than 180,000 pieces of ill-gotten customer information are being stored on Aaron’s computers.

The captured information, according to the suits, include passwords to emails, social media websites and financial institutions; medical records; and Social Security numbers. They also claim pictures of children, partially clothed individuals and couples in intimate moments were also taken.

The suits seek to get Aaron’s to pay for any adjustments consumers have to pay for repairing credit problems brought on by the alleged activities — including new credit and bank cards — and monetary and punitive damages and attorneys fees. No specific settlement target has been set.

The suits also maintain that customers were never told about the software.

Corporate says that their hands are clean, they had nothing to do with this, it was those dastardly independent franchises, they weren’t even there, they were somewhere entirely other, “look over there.”

Indeed.

If you or someone you know is an Aaron’s customer, do follow the link.

Wait for it . . . .

More information here.

I heard about this on On the Media, where you can also hear the strange history of happiness on a birthday.

El Reg reports on Canadian resistance to the Google Street View Borg.

It’s a growing reality.

After a gee-whiz description of the technology, the Observer’s Evgeny Morozov begins to talk of some of the hazards. A nugget:

But how do we know that the algorithms used for prediction do not reflect the biases of their authors? For example, crime tends to happen in poor and racially diverse areas. Might algorithms – with their presumed objectivity – sanction even greater racial profiling? In most democratic regimes today, police need probable cause – some evidence and not just guesswork – to stop people in the street and search them. But armed with such software, can the police simply say that the algorithms told them to do it? And if so, how will the algorithms testify in court? Techno-utopians will probably overlook such questions and focus on the abstract benefits that algorithmic policing has to offer; techno-sceptics, who start with some basic knowledge of the problems, constraints and biases that already pervade modern policing, will likely be more critical.

Read it. It will make to consider going off the grid.

In which I discuss OTR on the WWW.

“Trending on Twitter” means nothing.

And this surprises us how?

Coming soon to a peephole near you!

Probably not illegal, but definitely creepy.

I am particularly impressed by the whole fake profile thing, which probably violates the TOS of the sites they are using.

Learn about the wonderful world of free and open source.

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, March 7.

Note: Meetings are normally on the first Thursday of each month.

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)

Hacker Public Radio makes it easy.

Read more »

Support the Sonar Project. Please also spread the word. The deadline approacheth has passed.

Addendum:

Take a minute to walk in someone else’s shoes. Listen to Jonathan Nadeau walk Pokey through installing Linux without a monitor, using accessibility features.

Addendum-Dee-Dum-Dum:

The project raised over $9,000, due in large part to a strong last-minute push from the Linux podcasting community.

Unlike a kickstarter campaign, in which a project that doesn’t meet its goal gets nothing, the Sonar Project will receive the pledges. Compliments to all who donated.

Cosmo Boy tries to master technology.

If you can’t beat ’em, fool ’em.

The Pirate Bay today said it filed a report with the Finnish police alleging that an anti-piracy group committed copyright infringement when it created a Pirate Bay parody site.

This follows a threat last week in which the Pirate Bay said it will sue the makers of the copycat website for copyright infringement. The Pirate Bay, of course, is used by many to distribute and download torrents of copyrighted files (it calls itself “world’s largest site for cultural diversity and file sharing”). The torrent site explains that it normally wouldn’t mind copying, but it takes offense because this incident’s perpetrator was the Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC) in Helsinki.

Via GNC.

The San Jose Mercury-News has a long article about Microsoft’s advertising campaign designed to impugn Google’s integrity.*

Given Microsoft’s history of duplicitous, underhanded, and monopolistic business tactics (PDF at link), it really isn’t in the position to impugn anyone’s anything.

But there’s a bright spot.

They’ve hired someone with a proven record of fail to manage it.

Now the Redmond, Wash., software giant is waging a high-profile, election-style blitz against its Mountain View rival — using public opinion polls, for example, to shape rapid-fire attacks — with the help of Mark Penn, a veteran public relations executive and former campaign adviser to former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Penn, who previously consulted for Microsoft, was hired full time last year.

Afterthought:

I seldom use Google. I use Startpage (ixquick in the UK).

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*Not that I’m a big fan of Google, but they do seem to have a shred of integrity, unlike their biggest competitors, Facebook and Microsoft. Google is not a paragon, but neither is it a paragoons.

When iJunk casts its spell (emphasis added).

A cider shop in Norfolk (UK–ed.) has had to change its name after receiving up to 24 phone calls a week from fanbois with computer problems.

Since an Apple Store opened in Norwich, locals have been calling mistakenly phoning the Apple Shop in Wroxham Barns, with their iPhone and Apple-related woes.

Apple Shop owner Geoff Fisher told the BBC: “My telephone number has a Norwich prefix and so people unawares ring up the Apple Shop. All I can say to them is, ‘I’m very sorry, I can’t help you, but please do come along and get some proper Norfolk cider to get over your sorrows’.”

Some persons couldn’t pass a licensing test for driving a computer.

(It’s probably just as well. Apple Computers probably would have sued him. They do stuff like that.)

Aside:

Funny, I thought iJunk “just worked” in a trouble-free starry-eyed paradise sort of way.

I would hate to have to index the blither.

Something’s going on out on the innerwebs.

Akismet has caught over 500 spam comments to this blog in the past 48 hours. That’s about 450 more than the normal crop for two days.

Somehow, the damned cat managed to open the Opera preferences dialog, navigate to the “Advanced” tab, scroll down to “Cookies,” and set Opera not to accept cookies (I keep it set to “Accept only from the site I visit”), thus preventing me from logging in and compelling me to use another, less feature rich, much better known, and somewhat clunkier browser, until an error message from another site (“Hey, we need to drop a cookie, doofus!”) alerted me to what might have gone wrong.

Retiring twits, who manage cover-up–oh, never mind.