Geek Stuff category archive

The radio talker and occasional newspaper columnist wonders why he is being stalked by the spirit of Ann Richards, late governor of Texas.

It all started when he visited the website of a play about her life . . . .

“The way it often works is this: An advertising network makes a deal with a website (say, that play’s website) to place cookies – little anonymous ID files – into the browsers of the computers that visit the site,” Turow explained. “That same firm has negotiated the same right to do that on hundreds of thousands of other sites. When you arrive at other sites where the network has those ‘tag’ rights, the network’s computer sees its cookie and records that you have been there.

This is one reason I have my browser set to delete all new cookies upon exit.

In the Guardian, Heather Brooke calls out the news outfits who fell for the DDoS that broke the internet story this week.

A lot of people have a lot to gain from peddling scare stories about cyber “warfare”. As with any type of politics it’s important to know precisely who is making the claims and what their interests are.

In whose interest is it to hype up the collapse of the internet from a DDoS attack? Why, the people who provide cyber security services of course. And looking at the reporting, almost all the sources are directly involved and have a vested interest. The claims about the scale of the attack are from CloudFlare, the anti-DDoS firm hired by Spamhaus to ward off the attack. Eschewing subtlety they blogged about the event: “The DDos that Almost Broke the Internet”.

As soon as you have a source with a direct involvement, scepticism should be your guide. Sadly, reporters don’t always have the time or space for scepticism, and increasingly they are judged only on their ability to fill space at speed. In this environment there is no incentive to challenge a good yarn.

The sad truth is that many persons who call themselves “technology reporters,” at least outside the highly specialized tech media world, have no clue how computers work. To them, computers (and smartphones, tablets, what have you) are still magic boxes; the “technology reporters” don’t even know the right questions to ask.

They may know what the newest overpriced hunk of iJunk is, but they couldn’t assign a static IP address to their home computer for love or money. Heck, they probably don’t even know what a “static ip address” is (Google it).

And these are the people shaping tech news for the public.

Follow the link. Ms. Brooke offers a list of questions that you can ask–and that the “technology reporters” did not–the next time a story like this is spawned by the Society for the Full Employment of Security Consultants.

Like, you know, like this explains, like, why you seldom see me, like, log into the Faceborg.

(I’ve mentioned this story before, but Thom presents it clearly and succinctly.)

Sexist twits, reprise.

And, once again, a woman gets punished for pointing out that men are, or at least often are, pigs.

It’s a mad mad mad mad men world.

Sexist geek twits.

A female tech developer who outed men on Twitter for making what she described as inappropriate sexual comments at a Santa Clara technology conference Sunday is being hailed as a champion for women in technology.

But the backlash against Adria Richards has been brutal and swift. Richards, who is based in San Francisco, has been fired from her job as a “developer evangelist” at SendGrid, a Colorado-based email delivery company, according to tech blog VentureBeat. And she has received disturbing comments on her Twitter feed and violent images referencing rape and murder.

There seems to be a certain coterie in geekdom who think that sitting at a console typing code into a text editor is somehow reserved for macho, macho men.

On the way to the MySpace space:

According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, more than three-fourths of teenagers have a cellphone and use online social networking sites such as Facebook. But educators and kids say there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that Facebook for teenagers has become a bit like a school-sanctioned prom – a necessary rite of passage with plenty of adult onlookers – while apps such as Snapchat and Kik Messenger are the much cooler after-party.

More about the shiny new things at the link.

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.

______________________

*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.