July 2020 - nmglug - lists.coactcloud.com

Tinfoil hat time again: more Comcast paranoia
by Tom Ashcraft 31 Jul '20

31 Jul '20

I think this is not coincidence and should probably make everyone on nmglug(a)lists.nmglug.org angry. Today through my Comcast email account I received a couple emails re Kingston DTL+ USB via the nmglug listserv. That's fine. I LIKE email from nmglug. What I definitely DON'T like is getting this associated email as a consequence: From: news(a)e.benidata.com (arrived 3:02 pm today) Subject: ⚡See Today's Deal of the Day -- Act Fast! $4.95 Kingston 16GB Micro SD Class 10 The operative common term being 'Kingston'. Out of the blue. Three in one day. Out a total of six emails for the day. I have never had any known relationship with benidata.com and I would certainly have deliberately and promptly declined to receive any sales or marketing information from them if I did. And of course I did promptly unsubscribe for further emails from them though I had never knowingly subscribed in the first place. I use only DuckDuckGo for searching. I have Firefox locked down with privacy Addons every which way from Sunday. DoH network setting, strict tracking protection settings, NoScript, Ublock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy Badger, Decentraleyes, Facebook Container--I don't even use Facebook, it's there just in case I change my mind! I virtually never see or hear any adds that aren't embedded directly in streaming podcast or YouTube content (can't figure out how to get rid of that except not to stream.) Almost all of my few online purchases come through eBay and Amazon whom I haven't dealt with for more than a month. No storage media for more than a year. Almost all my emails are personal or related to specific non-commercially oriented subject matter from people or groups who are not commercial entities. A couple of years ago when I got rid of our Comcast wifi-cable-modem-router I went through all the contractual crap and opted out everything related to marketing that we still might be exposed to that I could find. Set up the new purchased wifi-cable-modem-router for Cloudflare DNS. Yet some months ago when I searched around for products related to solar panels, shortly thereafter Xfinity sends me email adds trying to sell me on their own branded rooftop PV electric scam. A couple weeks ago I was shopping for insurance. First time in years. Suddenly Xfinity emails me and wants to sell me their own branded BS home, pipes and appliance insurance because of the extra strain Covid is placing on them. Never had other adds for insurance other than the most rare and minimal for services from carriers we already had relationships with. Now I have this unsolicited add for Kingston storage devices. All too isolated as a class of events and too closely related in subject matter and time to be purely random and unconnected. I think Comcast/Xfinity or some data-broker entity closely associated with them is mining my email account pretty directly.

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Things to do to fill the day
by Brian O'Keefe 31 Jul '20

31 Jul '20

Hello All, I was poking around and looking at a website specifically re: Gnu and the Hurd OS. Hurd doesn't really work much at all but there were 6 OSes listed that were certified FOSS and approved by Stallman. They each used the linux kernel. I downloaded PureOS and installed in as a virtual machine (in the non-FOSS Vbox). After a few tweaks it was up and running and I really like it. I would migrate to it if I had a clue how to keep everything. It's fast and clean, the FOSS browser works perfectly. No issues with sound nor anything else. It's Debian based so its Gnome GUI is very familiar. Just thought that I'd let you all know. Ciao --

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No sound with Ubuntu Studio
by Mickey 23 Jul '20

23 Jul '20

Greetings, I recently installed Ubuntu Studio 20.04 on a Dell Optiplex 7020 Desktop. The sound just isn't' working at all. I need sound for: - playing a video in a browser - playing a video e.g. mp4 from the computer - using Audacity - using Flowblade - using a MIDI keyboard (Akai MPK Mini) - - using MuseScore I originally had Ubuntu 18.04 and was trying to get the sound to work with all these and couldn't get it all to work. It was a nightmare. All in the list above worked individually but fixing one to work would cause another not to work. Then I saw Ubuntu Studio and thought that would be better. So far, it is not. At this point, I'd be willing to remotely hire a Linux desktop consultant to configure the sound. Is it possible to hire someone remotely to do this? Thanks!

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Mini-tower for Ubuntu Studio?
by Mickey 23 Jul '20

23 Jul '20

Can the group recommend a mini-tower that would be well suited for my needs: - playing a video in a browser - playing a video e.g. mp4 from the computer - using Audacity - using Flowblade - using a MIDI keyboard (Akai MPK Mini) - using MuseScore

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MariaDB and WP-CLI
by LeRoy Diener 17 Jul '20

17 Jul '20

Hi NMGLUG folks, I have questions on two topics. 1 Maria DB vs MySQL My web server (VPS) has been running MySQL, but the version is getting old, so I need to update it. I have a choice to update to MySQL 7, the latest, or MariaDB. I did a little research. MariaDB sounds good. Here's an intro https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/website/databases/mysql-versus-mari… written 3 years ago. I've written a lot of code a few years back in MySQL. So, I'm a little apprehensive to change, but it looks like I would be able to write SQL code in the future with MariaDB, hopefully just as easily as with MySQL on the server. Q1 Does anyone have any insight into which would be a better choice for this update, MariaDB or MySQL? 2 WP-CLI I've been working with Wordpress for years to build sites. I don't do it full time or anything close, but I slap things together in wp-admin, use a few plugins, edit the CSS files and edit the PHP a bit. I like WP, but I'm wondering if there's something better, or maybe a better way for me to interface with WP. I just learned about WP-CLI. I don't have any particular need, but it would be nice to know if others have experience and would recommend it. Q2 Does anyone have experience with WP-CLI? Any advice? Thanks in advance. LeRoy -- I am the Love of God, no matter what. LeRoy Diener 213-LEROYIZ 213-537-6949 www.leroydiener.com/

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Thanks for info about IPv6, DNS, etc.
by LeRoy Diener 16 Jul '20

16 Jul '20

Hi NMGLUG folks, I just want to extend thanks to John and others who have provided useful info about IPv6, DNS, etc. I have not yet watched the video about DNS wars, but I will soon. I see there is plenty for me to learn on that topic. In gratitude, LeRoy -- I am the Love of God, no matter what. LeRoy Diener 213-LEROYIZ 213-537-6949 www.leroydiener.com/

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IPv6, cloudflare and related issues
by LeRoy Diener 16 Jul '20

16 Jul '20

Hi NMGLUG folks, I heard that using 1.1.1.1 or 1.0.0.1 offers advantages of privacy against ISPs and occasional faster connections with nameservers to browse the web more quickly. I heard that this is a service offered by cloudflare and that I don't need to engage cloudflare to use it. In my Network Connections, I edited IPv4, adding 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1, and that seems to work well. I edited IPv6, adding* 2606:4700:4700::1111,2606:4700:4700::1001* When I test it at https://1.1.1.1/help it's not working right. I looked at the contents of /etc/resolv.conf It had this: # Generated by NetworkManager nameserver 172.16.0.1 nameserver 1.1.1.1 nameserver 1.0.0.1 After rebooting, /etc/resolv.conf had: # Generated by NetworkManager nameserver 172.16.0.1 nameserver 1.1.1.1 nameserver 1.0.0.1 # NOTE: the libc resolver may not support more than 3 nameservers. # The nameservers listed below may not be recognized. nameserver 2606:4700:4700::1111 nameserver 2606:4700:4700::1001 This may be a clue why my IPv6 is not working. I found https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/28004/how-to-overcome-libc-resolve… This might help, but it has a bunch of stuff in there that I don't follow. Q What is the libc resolver? How can I get IPv6 to work? Is it a good idea to use this cloudflare service? Is this cloudflare service considered to be a good thing by the Linux community? Is there something better? On another note, I just published my first book http://www.leroydiener.com/spirit/christ-seed-book-available-now-christ-see… Thank you to all of you who have helped me with all of my needs. In gratitude, LeRoy -- I am the Love of God, no matter what. LeRoy Diener 213-LEROYIZ 213-537-6949 www.leroydiener.com/

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[ABQLUG] May Meetup is live!
by ABQLUG 07 Jul '20

07 Jul '20

https://live.abqlug.com/JulyMeetup All you should need is a modern web browser. If you use an app on a mobile app, set the server to live.abqlug.com You might have to make sure that WebRTC is enabled in your browser if you have "locked down" your browser. The meetup will likely end around 8pm. See you there! ~ Jared

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Fixed the mic
by Ted Pomeroy 06 Jul '20

06 Jul '20

NMGLugers, I had trouble with my mic in Xubuntu 20.04 during our July 2nd meeting. I have resolved this today, but the route was convoluted so I cannot be sure which step was the most likely single solution. My first choice for the solution is the Pulseaudio mixer where I found the "Input Devices" tab and un-checked the "Set as fallback" choice. As this was the last thing I did before a successful use of the mic to record a short test file I am fairly sure this was it. For the test I used 'arecord -t wav -d 10 testFile' as my command. This created a wave file of 10 seconds duration from the input device, ie, my internal mic. Another item I tried was to install the gui for the Alsamixer and to adjust the "Capture" level. It took a few tries in the Alsamixergui to get the Alsamixer to respond, but this is simpler than manually adjusting the /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf.d files which was one solution suggested on the Internet. The Alsamixer gui only showed me "Master" and "Capture" levels, so not much to worry about. I have also added sox and lame, just to round out my audio capabilities. Now I get a robust response from the mic and will be able to join our meeting on the 16th in full voice with my Xubutu 20.04 install. By the way this is a 32 GB thumb drive so I can carry it around in my pocket. I will keep us posted on any learning I do, but still, I think it is easier for a general user to stick to the LTS version. Thank you, Ted P

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[ABQLUG] Next (virtual) meetup will be on July 7th 2020
by ABQLUG 05 Jul '20

05 Jul '20

Fellow NMGLUGers, ABQLUG will be hosting it's monthly meetup (virtually) on Tuesday July 7th from 6pm - 8pm. If you would like to discuss anything related to Linux, you are welcome to join! https://live.abqlug.com/JulyMeetup If you are on a desktop or laptop you can attend the meetup by using a current version of Firefox or Chromium. If you are on iOS or Android, you can download the Jitsi Meet app from the Play Store, Apple Store, and F-Droid. Or you can Firefox on your mobile device. More information can be found here on how to join: https://www.abqlug.com/attendee/ ~ Jared

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