@gerowen@mastodon.social
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gerowen

@gerowen@mastodon.social

Husband, father, US Army veteran, IT specialist, school bus driver, diesel mechanic, tech, security, Linux and free software enthusiast, gamer, dog lover.

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gerowen, to gaming
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Why fight everybody when you can make them fight each other?

A video clip where I override a Sawtooth and let it kill a couple watchers.

GossiTheDog, to random
@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social avatar

Microsoft's CEO has emailed the company telling everybody to prioritize security. My thoughts, which 4 people will read.
https://doublepulsar.com/breaking-down-microsofts-pivot-to-placing-cybersecurity-as-a-top-priority-734467a8db01

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@GossiTheDog The crazy thing is that the engineers who work on open source projects "seem" to be reasonably talented folks. Like the guy who found the back door in SSH because it took a half second longer than normal to authenticate. When it comes to Windows though it just seems like a complete clusterfuck.

gerowen, to privacy
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

If you use Dropbox you should probably change your password.

Headline: #Dropbox Hacked! Threat Actor Accessed Passwords and Phone Numbers

Snippet: A quick analysis revealed that a threat actor had broken in to access customer information such as emails, usernames, phone numbers and hashed passwords, as well as general account settings and certain authentication information (API keys, OAuth tokens, and multi-factor authentication).

https://www.bitdefender.com/blog/hotforsecurity/dropbox-hacked-threat-actor-accessed-phone-numbers-and-passwords/

#Privacy #Security #Cybersecurity

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@sigh_d It appears so, and as somebody who isn't a DropBox user I'm not sure if "DropBox Sign" accounts are the same as DropBox storage accounts, or if they're separate. I would assume they are the same, so if you had an account with DropBox Sign and it became compromised, that probably grants access to files stored in your DropBox account as well.

gerowen, to Steamdeck
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

I don't think it comes thru in this compressed, tone mapped JPG screenshot, but with HDR enabled on a OLED looks and runs way better than it has any right to on a handheld device. This has got to be one of if not the best looking game I've played on the Deck yet. With the "original" graphics preset (PS4 equivalent?) and HDR enabled on a 90hz OLED display it's holding 50+ fps, looking and feeling great. Really looking forward to this, 🙂

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@marczak I'm gonna try to put my money back to build myself a more up to date gaming desktop for the living room and put ChimeraOS on it. We have a desktop in there at the moment, and although it is more powerful than the Steam Deck, the Deck nips at its heels in a lot of scenarios while drawing a fraction of the power to do it. If the Deck can't handle Forbidden West properly I'll probably just play it on the living room TV.

gerowen, to privacy
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

This is why it's important to use good passwords and not plug things like your camera directly into the internet without a router or other hardware firewall in line.

VPN servers are an easy and secure device that takes minutes to set up and would solve a lot of these problems. Many routers even have one built in.

If you have a device that you need to access from the public internet there are secure ways to do so.

#Privacy #Security #Cybersecurity #Censys

https://youtu.be/QPjeTSFhfP4?si=ItFWzLlDZm5W5JaH

gerowen, to privacy
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Be careful what you post online, especially if you have kids. You might think nobody would target you, but not only is that not necessarily true, it's not just about you, it's about all the other people around you, even if they're just in the background of your photo or video.

Title: What Your Photos Reveal!

#Privacy #Security #Cybersecurity

https://youtu.be/VaUsJvUMUgE?si=7yFNpYxHyhYES4CM

gerowen, to kentucky
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Just captured this in eastern before clouds covered it up.

gerowen, to privacy
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

The project has ended. For those who don't know, this project was a suite of scripts that make it easy to set up your own server.

The good news is that it's basically just a collection of scripts that draws from your system's package manager. If you're currently hosting a VPN that you used PiVPN to set up, I see no reason why you can't just keep using it like normal.

I've cloned the repo for potential future use.

Source: https://github.com/pivpn/pivpn/discussions/1829#discussion-6465928

gerowen, to linuxmint
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Anybody know how financially stable is? I am considering recommending it to people like my mom as support for 10 winds down, but looking at their sponsors page looks like they only bring in between $3k and $4k per month. That's not a lot of money for several developers to maintain an entire operating system. What happens if they lose one of the 2-3 big sponsors they have? Does the whole project cave or just stop getting timely updates?

gerowen, to debian
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Today I discovered the "debsums" package for . If you want to make sure a file hasn't been modified, you can do:

debsums packagename

It will compare the checksums of your local files against the checksums provided in the MD5SUMS file within the .deb file for that package.

It does just use MD5, which is known to be broken in terms of , but it should suffice for most folks who just want to make sure something hasn't become corrupt.

darth, to random
@darth@silversword.online avatar

Is it too early in a day to release a YT video?

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@darth Depends on your target audience. It's 1:39 AM in the US right now so we probably won't see it here for at least another 7-8 hours, longer if we wait until after work to watch it.

darth, (edited ) to Discord
@darth@silversword.online avatar

If we disregard the native "deb" version of , which one of these is better (less issues due to container nature)?

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@darth I haven't tried the snap so I won't vote, but I've been using the flatpak for quite a while with no problems.

gerowen, to debian
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Anecdote: None of my systems are affected since I stick with stable. So if you use any of the services I host on my home server, we're still all good here.

Headline: warns of backdoor in XZ tools used by most distros

Quote: "PLEASE IMMEDIATELY STOP USAGE OF ANY FEDORA 41 OR FEDORA RAWHIDE INSTANCES for work or personal activity," Red Hat warned on Friday.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/red-hat-warns-of-backdoor-in-xz-tools-used-by-most-linux-distros/

gerowen, to random
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Headline: Opinion | Will the #MAGA faithful actually read #Trump’s bible?

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/28/trump-bible-2024-grift/

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@darth I did, and I guess I should stick to less depressing content on Mastodon. It's just hard to avoid it sometimes with the folks that I live and work around being constantly political at every turn, it's hard not to feel sort of anxious about the potential fallout of our upcoming election.

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

Trump is now making "I won't let them take your cars away from you" a major campaign point, playing very effectively into pushback by people who don't want to be forced into EVs by government mandates. The more Biden pushes this, the more he plays into Trump's hands.

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@lauren A problem with EVs is that around here (east Kentucky) it's very common for folks to keep their cars for 10-20 years. Folks are very self sufficient and will maintain their cars for decades. You can even get a brand new engine for a few hundred dollars and keep vehicles going for ages. Besides our considerable lack of charging infrastructure around here, nobody is going to buy an EV and at 10 years old spend more on replacement batteries than the value of the car.

gerowen, to technology
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

I'm at Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY for the state STLP (Student #Technology Leadership Program) championships. Students present their projects which describes using technology in productive and engaging ways.

I made this observation a month or two ago when I taught a class to the STLP kids, but now that I'm here I'm even more convinced that #Microsoft #Windows has lost the next generation. My kids use #Linux at home and Chromebooks at school, and almost every kid here is using a Chromebook.

A poster board from one of the projects after the kids had walked away. It describes how they used technology to make mental health resources available to other students in the aftermath of a student death.

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@marczak I just think it'll be interesting to see things in 10-15 years. If these are the machines the kids are growing up using, then they'll probably want to stick with something they know when they're adults. Outlook runs in a browser, Office runs in a browser, etc., so most office tasks could run on FreeBSD for all they care as long as there's a functional, modern web browser available.

Windows will still have its place, but I don't think most kids today are going to go out looking for it.

gerowen, to gaming
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

You know why people pirate stuff? Because even when you pay for it, you get hit with garbage like this. Was reading thru the EULA for the Master Collection bonus content on Steam, and this little paragraph jumped out at me.

Shit like this is the reason I built my own home server to keep backups of everything, including the installation files of all my Steam games. "No CD" or "No Steam" cracks are a thing, should worse come to worse.

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@gmr_leon After the install I just copy the installation folder to the backup drive; PC game installs aren't encrypted like they are on consoles. For many games it includes just a regular old .exe file that can be executed on its own. These sometimes require Steam all on their own, but sometimes they don't and Steam is just the launcher. For those that require Steam, there are "ways" around that if Steam ever shuts down. Here's the install for my copy of God of War (2016).

gerowen, to Facebook
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

So #Facebook put a little prompt at the top of my page asking me to take a survey to give them feedback. Besides calling them out on removing the option for encrypted messages in Messenger, while at the same time advertising that they were actually expanding E2EE, I gave them this little blurb on the last page.

#Meta

gerowen, to politics
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

This whole "both sides are bad" nonsense is getting really old, and I'm to the point that I'm just done protecting people's feelings on important issues, lifelong friends or not. You have to be willing to stand up for your principles, and this tendency towards fence riding will be our downfall because intelligent people are too afraid of being divisive. Even if you disagree with me, take a position and defend it.

Just posted this reply in a debate about American #politics.

Cont... 1/

#Trump

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

There's an old saying that goes, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."

He's a spoiled brat who is out to destroy America, and pretending he's the lesser of two evils because you don't like Biden is asinine. One of them staged an attempted coups and got people hurt and killed to protect their own ego. The other one hasn't.

:END:

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