5 Reasons to ditch Windows for Linux!
Porn Studio that sued thousands for piracy now fighting its own lawyer?!
Fedora 24 pushing the boundaries of Linux! Great alternative to Windows!
New Linux Lite 3.0 is a Powerhouse!!
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/New-Linux-Lite-Is-a-Powerhouse-Distro-in-Disguise-83606.html
FCC Wins Major Victory over Greedy Telecoms!!!
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/83607.html Continue reading
Give Linux a try.
At work I support Windows and Mac machines.
At home I use exclusively Linux for the last decade or so, and it has only gotten exponentially better in that period, till today Microsoft is incorporating Linux pieces into their newest versions of Windows, including giving away Windows 10 for free and collusion with hardware vendors in an attempt to make using Linux more difficult.
And despite all that… Linux Distros just keep getting better.
It’s fun. It’s loaded with apps and utilities and the ability to download same for free.
There are tons of tutorials to help you every step of the way.
And did I mention it was fun. 🙂
Now the biggest thing about Linux on the laptop/desktop is which version do you choose.
Distrowatch which has just celebrated its 15th anniversary, is the best place to learn about and find new Linux Distributions.
Two good ones they have recently covered are:
Gentoo Linux’s new LIVE DVD is a great place to start (The livedvd-x86-amd64-32ul-20160514 ISO which will work on 32-bit x86 or 64-bit x86_64 systems)
http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=09415
and
Debian
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=debian
Use the links to try them!
Now, I do think it is a shame that hardware vendors are releasing new laptops, that while they give us a slimmer size, do so at the expense of DVD/CD players and more importantly longevity and stability. I’ve had the chance to support these newer laptops that are coming out and they are almost across the board, ready to fail in the first year.
It’s close to criminal.
In a future update I’ll review some newer laptops that are still worth your money, but honestly get yourself an older generation Dell Latitude 6430 ATG series, wipe it and put Linux on it, and you have yourself a tank in the form of a computer that will last you years. Like a tank it’s not slim and it’s not the lightest, but hey that’s what your tablet is for. However for getting down to work, it is a reliable desktop replacement (particularly when using Linux) in a portable size.
Now that we have the basic of what you should be using, here are today’s tweaks!
Firefox version 46.0.1 is out and I probably do not have to sell anyone on using this browser.
However two features that do not come activated out of the gate that you may find useful are:
1/ The DO NOT TRACK ME feature
https://www.bestvpn.com/blog/8499/make-firefox-secure-using-aboutconfig/
and
2/ Block Tracking Attempts
And beyond those helpful tips, the biggest tip I can give you for security while surfing the web, keep Javascript disabled for all but trusted sites.
Your webmail, bank, paypal, school site, vendors you buy from. Firefox has an exception list you can use to just give Javascript access to those sites you trust, and the rest you let eat cake. Makes a huge difference in your browser’s vulnerability, by closing down the default attack vendor of giving everyone javascript/programming control of your browser.
If you have found this post helpful, pay it forward by supporting the Electronic Freedom Frontier and becoming a card carrying member.
If you use the internet, whether via desktop, laptop, tablet, or your refrigerator, these are the guys and gals fighting to keep your digital and therefore physical world, just a little more free.
I’ve been supporting them for three years now, and it’s every year some of the best money I donate. These people are Daniel’s fighting in numerous Lion’s Dens. They are doing noble work.
You can view and support them here:
Well that’s all for today’s Tech Tips!
Website of the Day: https://www.whatismybrowser.com/
Try it both with and without Javascript turned on and you will see a drastic difference.
Thanks for reading and safe computing!
This exploit affects a LOT of sites. Yahoo, WordPress, bank sites. Unlike many exploits the fix is server rather than client side, which means you have to wait on the site to clean itself up. So slightly problematic.
The thing you can do on the client side is once the websites have patched their vulnerability, change your password, change your password, change your password (did I mention ‘change your password’). Use unique passwords for each site, as well as difficult passwords, and change your passwords often. Every 45 days is a good way to go.
For details on the HEARTBLEED vulnerability go here:
Basic Heartbleed info, what it affects, and what you can do
Heartbleed as it relates to WordPress.com
Some sites for testing Heartbleed as well as other SSL vulnerabiliities!
Linux Outlaws 312 – Bullshit off the Starboard Bow
Linux Outlaws
I’m listening to this podcast at work, and generally I’ve tried this particular podcast show before, and previously it just didn’t engage me.
However this time, this particular episode they are discussing items I’m familiar with such as Linux Mint vs Ubuntu. Cinnamon vs Mate, and the general look at the Linux Desktop options /environment.
Based on their review I’m actually going to download and try Linux Mint after a hiatus of several years.
You can download Linux Mint 15 here. (Going along with my previous post, if you are sick of Windows, then here is another Linux Distro you have as an alternative to Microsoft)
I’m also loving their take on Youtube ‘Youtube is the sewer of the internet… should turn comments off.” as well as their view of Microsoft’s X-BOX “X-Box needs to die”. Viewpoints I entirely agree with, and the reason I don’t use or frequent YouTube or own an X-Box or Wii.:).
And on a funny note… “the house that looked like Hitler”?
Just found this podcast episode informative and even fun listening. Take a listen and see if you agree,
If you’re reading this you probably know VLC stands for Video Lan Client and started out as an open-source project to create a cross platform (ie works under all operating systems, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc), versatile, ‘it just works’ software video player. And I’m pleased to say VLC does what the name says on the tin… it just works.
Get latest version of VLC here.
I say started out open-source due to Microsoft buying their way into all things open-source in the last few years. I remember the first browser wars, when there was tons of variety out there and the big dog on the web browser scene, before ie, was the then, unstoppable, Netscape Communicator.
Microsoft started throwing their money around, and that ended up with Netscape Communicator going the way of the dodo and IE being the only man (web browser) standing when the dust settled. For years before the coming of Firefox, IE was the only game in town.
I see a lot of similarities in Microsoft’s buying their way into open-source projects such as VLC, and various Linux distros. Microsoft has a history of buying things to burgle and then bury them.
So I have my doubts about the future of VLC, though hopefully my fears are unwarranted, but either way that is a story for another day.
So Today I thought I would share my research into better screen captures with VLC.
Well quick searching with your favorite search engine, will suggest using the following kybd combination (for Windows/Mac/Linux) in VLC to take a screen-shot of whatever you’re watching:
Alt+Ctl+S (hold down all three keys, and tada snapshot)
However I find the default command in Linux VLC versions is not the above, but rather:
Shift+S (hold down those two keys, and tada… Snapshot!)
So one of those two should work for most of you using VLC. And of course you can designate/change which keys you use to take screen-captures by clicking TOOLS/PREFERENCES and then choosing INTERFACES and editing the HOT KEYS to your liking.
Okay, that’s today’s Tech Tip!
If you found it of help leave a like! And support this blog by swinging by my WEDNESDAYS WORDS column and purchasing something through the handy-dandy links!
Thanks!
FAVORITE WEBSITE OF THE DAY: CELESTIA
I’m kinda double-dipping here because this is not just my favorite website of the day, it’s one of my favorite programs to use on the computer.
Just addictive as well as being fun and educational. How often does that happen?!
I’m speaking of a mad open-source astronomy project called Celestia.
You can see what I’m going on about here!
As well as here andhere!
It’s like having an endlessly configurable planetarium on your computer. The idea of creating simulations of voyages through the stars, and sampling amazing voyages and scripts that other users create… well all that functionality makes Celestia pretty close to great. 🙂
You can get download links for the program and user created voyages/scripts from the link above. Okay need to go do some Celesting now! 🙂
(Yes. it’s geeky but it’s also pretty… [wait for it]…stellar! You see what I did there? :))
The only problem with that is HTML5 is a cure that’s more deadly than the sickness. It’s all the vile privacy obliterating backdoors and insecurity of Flash, but instead of being built into a plug-in you can disable, it’s part and parcel of your browser and every web-page you visit.
It’s a better way for content providers to control content of what you see, browse, and when you see, browse it, as well as creating detailed profiles to allow better targeted marketing and advertising.
In short HTML5 is a more comprehensive bloated version of FLASH, with no disable or off switch. All control, and all tracking. and no privacy all the time. Only way to defeat HTML5 is for reputable websites to offer basic HTML alternatives (which they should do anyway for backward compatibility) and for users to leave Javascript turned off except where absolutely necessary.
Here endeth the lesson. You can take it or you can leave it alone. But don’t say you haven’t been warned. Yall take care now.
The major one being Linux distros, following in Microsoft’s Footsteps to a degree with the instant on technology, and integration of the web into the desktop experience.
Jumping on the idiotic ‘Cloud’ bandwagon, which is really if you think about it, a process to reduce your desktop to the thin client paradigm of yesterday.
The difference being that rather than trusting a centralized server for serving applications and storage of your sensitive information, the cloud is you trusting the entire internet with access to your desktop and your data. It’s the evolution of this inherently moronic Youtube, Facebook, twitter idiocy where the bulk of people blithely surrendering privacies to strangers at best, and corporations at worst.
Everyone moving to reduce the desktop experience to the same thin client style interface as the mobile experience. Hey it that’s your cup of tea, you want the entirety of your life freely roamed and stored on the internet, well more power to you, though every week brings news of one online database after another being violated and hacked.
Not to say a desktop can’t be hacked, but you’re looking at one point of failure, as opposed to having via peer to peer, and facebook, and gnome, and numerous other sites, now potentially thousands of points of failure, and entry to your sensitive data.
Ubuntu, a great Linux distro, unfortunately is also embracing this ‘no-desktop’ paradigm, as is Gnome with their latest update.
It is not for me.
I want to decide when and if my computer connects to the internet, with this new instant on/cloud push, being shoved down peoples’ throats, you don’t turn on the internet, the internet turns you on… and that is a dangerous and insecure place to go.
Trusted Computing, another Microsoft word game, doesn’t mean you can trust your computer, it means Microsoft and its partners can trust you, because they have every bit of information about what you are doing with your computer.
So Ubuntu, you’re going in the wrong direction. Gnome, you’re going in the wrong direction. And Microsoft … well that goes without saying.
I would suggest people avoiding any version of Gnome later than 3.0, (3.0 has a lot of issues, but it’s a lot to like about it as well, and with a little work you can clean up most of its garbage and built in insecurity) and I do find many Linux distros are heading toward this cloud idiocy, and becoming problematic because of it (example being Opensuse 11.2? very good, 11.3? not so much, 11.4? pretty darn broken. However Gnome 3.0 on top of 11.4 does resolve many of 11.4s issues).
So, in summation, just research your computing options with care, and realize that ease of use, at some point becomes ease of abuse.
Word to the wise.
The snazzy logo courtesy of LinuxBird here.
“The acquisition of wealth is not our prime motivation, we seek to better ourselves.”
That paraphrasing of Patrick Stewart’s dialogue from the film STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT, is central to Gene Roddenberry’s enduring mythos, his conceit of a world… beyond greed.
I think as mission statements go, as core beliefs go… that is as good a one for the human race as I can think of.
“The acquisition of wealth is not our prime motivation, we seek to better ourselves.”
However with the move to an industrial society at the launch of the 20th century, and the gutting of the previous agrarian/barter model, the acquisition of wealth, the consolidation of wealth, became the driving theme of the 20th century.
And it’s no coincidence that the 20th century also became the bloodiest in the history of the world, though clearly the 21st century is on fast track for supplanting it. Never in the history of the world, have so many, died so quickly, from nuclear weapons, to biological weapons, to push button wars, and all of it driven by the 20th century deification of money.
Not to say money is not felt throughout other centuries, but not to the global, and near religious personification, that the pursuit of wealth became with the 20th century, it has become idol absolute of an entire world.
But the 21st century with concepts such as peer to peer, open source, social networking, was poised to create a model for the 21st century. A model that akin to Roddenberry’s dream, could very much usurp the industrial model, just as the industrial model had usurped the Agrarian model.
The age of technology, open technology, had it, and has it in its grasp, to bring us more in line with this slightly Utopian concept, of life lived for improvement and discovery, rather than accumulation and subjugation.
But the dinosaurs, The Microsofts, the RIAAs, the Sonys, the Disneys, have co-opted, and outlawed, and sued, and bullied and terrorized the new hope, all so they may maintain… the old terror.
Scared Dinosaurs, holding humanity back… from visionary new days. Companies,courts, and politicians… and their paid enforcement arms, all working so hard to hold onto the bloody old, all working so hard not to evolve.
Microsoft and their setting up of the DMCA, and their last couple of years of buying their way into the open-source movement, worming their way into ‘helping’ with the open-source movement, particularly Linux, all so they could destroy and extort the movement from within.
You see this on the mobile side, where their various mobile Window initiatives cannot compete with Apple or Android. They now are extorting money from companies that do utilize Android on the basis of ridiculous and innovation killing software patents.
(It’s largely recognized that Software Patents are a lunacy that need to be done away with)
It is the act of a gangster and a thug, and if IBM was allowed to act like this in the 80s there would have been no Microsoft and no Apple, because these actions exterminate free enterprise and innovation.
Microsoft has spent the last twenty years burning every bridge and every freedom, that they themselves utilized in order to be innovative and initially successful, and now completely outlawing those liberties, indeed those necessities, for companies other than themselves.
Microsoft’s time has passed. They are a dinosaur using terror and intimidation to extort customers they can no longer earn with quality. They are no different than a 20th century Capone, selling liquor and protection at the barrel of a gun.
And Windows 7 was an improvement over Vista, they had ‘borrowed’ enough of the concepts and look from other operating systems to make it one. But that said, Windows 7 was and is still inferior to any half decent Linux Distribution.
So just as they are committing extortion against Android on the mobile front, on the Desktop/Server front they are dealing with the brilliance and the growth of Linux, that is now ready for prime-time, ready to be the next big thing, to replace the sick, twisted, decaying, and immoral dinosaur that Microsoft has become…. they are dealing with this fresh beautiful new thing, by basically collaborating with hardware vendors to KILL the very ability to install Linux operating systems on your computer. They are so afraid of Linux they want to make it impossible for you to even install it on YOUR computer.
It is so sad and pathetic, that it is almost funny.
Again what if IBM had done that to them, Microsoft and Apple? We would, as a society, be the poorer for it. And we are going to be the poorer for it if we allow Microsoft to continue to get away with dismantling any innovative idea or company they can’t compete with.
Can you understand? For Microsoft to do this, for a tech, for a software person, for someone with a rudimentary concept of how companies like Microsoft and Apple came to be, it is a betrayal of not just everything that is the technology movement, it is an attack on innovation and free enterprise that must stand as one of the most blatant and disgusting that I have ever witnessed.
It is a crime. As great a crime, in its way, as US drone airplanes killing indiscriminatingly in darker lands, so that a white press can gloat about another bounty collected, another arab, another nigger dead.
Though they don’t dress it, this 21st century crusade, in those crude terms, any more then Microsoft dresses its actions as what it is, a bloody monopoly committed to eradicating your option to choose.
“Pay us or else!” That’s how business talks to consumers in the 21st century. And it is a form of war. Less bloody to be sure, but the repercussions of what it can mean to freedoms subtle and gross… is staggering.
And I… am not having it.
I haven’t used Windows in my personal computer in 3 to 4 years. I fix Windows machines and work on them for other people, but for myself Linux is the only OS/distribution I deal with. I love the freedom of it, the very thing Microsoft is working so hard to legalize and sue and intimidate away.
I’m not going back to Microsoft. And to those companies that they are intimidating, extorting, bullying, I can only tell you what I would tell anyone being bullied… you start letting people push you, and they are never going to stop.
You have to stand against them.
And maybe you win, and maybe you lose. But you teach them to pay for every foot of ground. You give them a bloody nose, and win, lose or draw… it will give them pause.
Microsoft is a pathetic, barren, immoral, and worst of all inferior and scared technology company, and they are standing in the way of a better life…for everyone.
They are protecting the rotting, diseased old, when what it is time for… is the new.
And if you’re a company, and have been on the Microsoft merry-go-round it’s scary to consider getting off of it, but it is infinitely scarier to stay at the mercy of an immoral monopoly.
There are viable open source alternatives to Microsoft’s over priced crap.
Explore them.
Not only for your own sake, but for something companies start out believing in, but lose along the way, for the sake… of progress.
That’s an idea that Microsoft gave up on, a long time ago.
“The acquisition of wealth is not our prime motivation, we seek to better ourselves.”
It’s the only goal, that will save us from all this blood.
If you’re a subscriber to this blog and want help ditching Microsoft and finding something that works for you, reach out to me… and we’ll find an answer that works for you.
We’ll be a new age Untouchables, facing the tyranny that is Microsoft’s Capone.
And maybe we win, and maybe we lose. But my God, we’ll give them reason to pause.
Here endeth the Lesson.
2010 will be remembered as the year when Linux made HUGE inroads into the mainstream. Huge strides into giving people a real player beyond the entrenched forces. On the mobile market Android (based on Linux) exploded onto the scene, creating a platform that quickly rose past Rim’s Blackberry (stupidest name ever for a phone, I refuse to use anything that has such a stupid name) and went mano o mano with the market leader, Apples’ Iphone.
On the server side, Linux continued its march toward adoption. But it was on the desktop side, with distributions like Linux Mint and OpenSuse, that Linux proved itself not just ready for Primetime, but valid, and in many cases preferred, alternatives to what Microsoft was hoping to be their hail-mary… Windows 7.
Windows 7 while a definite improvement over Vista, learning and adopting a lot from both Apple and Linux, still fails in that it carries with it a culture of DRM, locking their users down. Out the box Windows 7 requires lots of expensive software, to do just basics.
Whereas the Linux distros, allow access to opensource repositories, thousands upon thousands of applications, so it’s an operating system that, as long as you have an internet connection, is endlessly adaptable and upgradeable.
I haven’t used Windows as my operating of choice for well over 3 years. And Windows 7, like stated while an improvement in Microsoft terms, in Linux terms it’s just a crippled operating system. And 2010 was the year a lot of people started feeling the same. The three major Linux distros, Ubuntu, Linux Mint (an off-shoot of Ubuntu), and Opensuse released their most amazing and user friendly distros ever.
So in 2010, with Linux making unprecedented strides on both the mobile, server, and desktop markets, why is this article entitled pessimistically and I hope incorrectly The Assassination of Linux? It’s because the entrenched powers that be replied to this abundance of choice, the threat of Linux, the way scared corporate dinosaurs have increasingly responded to valid competition, the RIAa and MPAA way,… by trying to sue it away.
The courtroom has become the new battlefield to stifle innovation and choice. In 2010 lawsuits flew fast and heavy, and this year, we’ll see some of the fallout from those lawsuits.
Even more insidious is Microsoft (or Microsoft affiliated partners) buying its way into fantastic Linux Distributions such as Linux Mint (an Ubuntu distribution) and (to a lesser extent) OpenSuse.
I’m not one who has any particular ax to grind against Microsoft. If you want to use Microsoft please do, my only interest is in insuring Linux Distributions… remain. I just want to have a choice beyond Microsoft or Apple. And the current machinations of Microsoft, are very similar to their past machinations, during the early browser wars, pre-firefox, which resulted in the crushing of competing browsers, such as Netscape Communicator, and a host of others.
And that monopoly remained for quite a while. Until the rise of open-source and firefox.
Choice is a good thing, whether in browsers or operating systems.
Unfortunately the venal, seldom think so.
The monied companies, led by Microsoft, are working hard to in-twine themselves into open-source, and open-source projects, and competing operating systems, and cripple them from within. The whole purpose of much of the DCMA was this crippling of opensource, particularly Linux,
And already you can see increasing actions to patent this, and outlaw that.
Again I’m not interested in Microsoft, I would leave them alone, however with them co-opting open-source and Linux distros, they are making that… difficult.
My favorite distro, before Microsoft bought its way in, was Linux Mint. But with Microsoft as a partner I have fear for the future of that Distro specifically, and open-source in general.
Like I said, I’ve been around long enough to have seen Microsoft do this numerous times. Make friends of those innovations they would destroy.
If you’re reading this and have not tried Linux and would like to, I would recommend trying it… sooner rather than later. A good place to start your hunt is here:
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major
Distro Watch having a great overview of the major players. Ubuntu is a good safe bet for a distro to start with. There is of course a learning curve, with everything, but with most Linux distros it’s a very rewarding curve.
Plus if you’re a subscriber to this blog, let me know and I’ll send you a copy of the Linux Distro I use. You can always download distros for free, the greatness of Linux, but sometimes it’s just easier to have a CD or DVD sent to you, plus I include tips/tutorial that will keep most newbies from pulling their hair out. 🙂
But however you get the Distro, get it, and see what you’ve been missing.
Conveyors of Common Sense...
We are Your Destination for Everything Action!
Reviewing every superhero and comic book movie ever made... eventually.
The observations of actor, author, comedian, critic, director, humorist, journalist, m.c., performance artist, playwright, producer, publicist, public speaker, songwriter, and variety booker Trav S.D.
Comic Books, Horror Movie Reviews, Videos, Podcasts, Words
The Best Deals, Coupons, Promo Codes, & Freebies
Best Tutorials and Buying Guides
Official Site - An initiative of LivingSafely.org™, we report on food, product and vehicle recalls from various agencies in US, Canada, Europe and other jurisdictions.
Smashing System Bias Since 1972...
A look back at some really old comics by an even older comics fan
Music, Movies, and Other Entertainment
Worldupclose is a website, focuses on movies/series, travel tips and relationship/marriage.
Cult, classic and crazy movies you must see, might see and maybe miss
Heroic Times 