@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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GossiTheDog, to random
@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social avatar

For those who aren’t aware, Microsoft have decided to bake essentially an infostealer into base Windows OS and enable by default.

From the Microsoft FAQ: “Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers."

Info is stored locally - but rather than something like Redline stealing your local browser password vault, now they can just steal the last 3 months of everything you’ve typed and viewed in one database.

video/mp4

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@GossiTheDog I forget his name but the guy talking is actually here on Mastodon. He at least was, and I think still is an employee at Microsoft.

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 internet
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Another day, another blatantly misleading and possibly malicious paid advertisement on .

  1. Super Mario 3D World is a Nintendo game. It was only ever released on NIntendo's consoles; the WiiU and the Switch.

  2. The website is not nintendo(.)com, but supermarioworld-nintendo(.)com, which is not legit. The TLS certificate is a free one from Let's Encrypt, while the actual Nintendo website gets their certificate from Digicert. 1/

A screenshot of the web page showing that the web address is supermario3dworld-nintendo(.)com and the download button is linking to a OneDrive address.

gerowen, to random
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

I had to replace the wheel/brake cylinder on my 2002 Dodge Dakota, so I recorded the whole thing and made a video about it. This is the long form version of the video.

https://youtu.be/6-9ZgpG5Mdg

gerowen, to linux
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

So here I am, planning on adding a drive to my server and upgrading the storage, and realizing it's been 2.5 years since I did this last and I don't remember how to resize an encrypted partition, so I'm re-watching my own video on the last time I upgraded the storage in the server, 😛

https://youtu.be/2SsTlR4lFpM

gerowen, to internet
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

So I just noticed last night that @NPR has left after being labeled "state sponsored media" and moved over here to . Pretty awesome to see them here.

gerowen, to LinusTechTips
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Luke (from ) made a really good point that I hadn't considered about the new feature. What about public computers? How many libraries, computer labs or internet cafes are going to be absolute hotbeds for personal data compromise? You know Microsoft will have the feature enabled by default and you know that even if people disable it, they'll randomly re-enable it. What happens on public computers where everyone shares one user account? 1/

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

I really hate to tag an individual who probably has other things to do, but @shanselman , for my own education, as a tech enthusiast, do you know whether or how Recall will affect public machines, say in a library or internet cafe? Will there be group policy objects to forcibly disable it so a Windows update doesn't turn it back on? Will it even run in a setting where the user isn't signed into a Microsoft account? What's the best resource to see updates on this?

gerowen, to eattherich
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

I'm a firm believer that if you work full time in the US you should make enough to not need or qualify for government assistance. Maybe not get rich, but we shouldn't be subsidizing that exploit programs in order to increase their own profits.

gerowen, to Steamdeck
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

I don't think it comes thru in this compressed, tone mapped JPG screenshot, but #HorizonZeroDawn with HDR enabled on a #SteamDeck 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, 🙂

#Gaming #PCGaming #PlayStation

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

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 random
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Holy shit, Tucker Carlson just got fired.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-04-24/tucker-carlson-is-out-at-fox-news

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.

gerowen, to technology
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

I'm at Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY for the state STLP (Student 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 has lost the next generation. My kids use 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.

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.

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.

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 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 #MetalGear 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.

#Gaming #PCGaming #Cloud #Piracy

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 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 .

Cont... 1/

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:

gerowen, to linuxmint
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Giving a spin in a virtual machine because my mom has expressed an interest in migrating to Linux when 10 enters end-of-life. It's actually pretty darn slick and user-friendly; comes with a lot of stuff made by the Mint devs themselves for Mint, and I think it might be the perfect thing to migrate my mom over to. Will probably stick with the based LMDE.

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 #LinuxMint is? I am considering recommending it to people like my mom as support for #Windows 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 #security updates?

#Linux

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.

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