.._________.__ __ .__
/ _____/| | _____ ________/ |_|__| ____ ____ ____ _____
\_____ \ | | \__ \\_ __ \ __\ |/ __ \ _/ ___\/ _ \ / \
/ \| |__/ __ \| | \/| | | \ ___/ \ \__( <_> ) Y Y \
/_______ /|____(____ /__| |__| |__|\___ > /\___ >____/|__|_| /
\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/
.___ _ _ _______ _______ _______ .________
| |_| || |_\ _ \ \ _ \ \ _ \ | ____/ http://slartie.com/
| \ __ / /_\ \/ /_\ \/ /_\ \ |____ \
| || || |\ \_/ \ \_/ \ \_/ \/ \ Giving you the heads up
|___/_ ~~ _\\_____ /\_____ /\_____ /______ / on everything console.
|_||_| \/ \/ \/ \/
===============================================================================
16 June 2013 -- slartie -- Final NEWSLETTER ISSUE 0005
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
WARNING IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD
===============================================================================
If you're easily offended by foul language or views on a particular
matter, which might not agree with your own, you should probably get the
fuck out of this document right now. Seriously.
===============================================================================
INTRO
===============================================================================
Some halfwit decided that summer has arrived. While I like sunshine and
all that nonsense, I really don't care much for the heat that
follows. Especially not when it exceeds 24c. I really ought to find a
location somewhere on the planet, where temperature stays a balmy 22c year
round. Or perhaps I should just move into a climate controlled long term
storage facility. I'm sure there's a bunch of those scattered around in
the landscape.
Not a lot has happened since last week, but I am however working on the
guides. They take a great deal longer than a newsletter. No real surprise
there. I really don't want to fuck up and misinform people. I have no
qualms with that in the newsletter, because I'm an ass like that. Other
than that, the world has been relatively quiet.
I could mention that Manjaro, arbitrarily, is getting close to ranking
higher than its parent distro Arch Linux on distrowatch. Then again, I
could just leave it out, because distrowatch has fuck-all to do with how
popular a distribution is.
With that, welcome to this week's newsletter.
===============================================================================
CONTENTS
===============================================================================
WARNING (It's for your own good)
INTRO (You just came from there)
CONTENTS (You are here)
TOPIC 01: My rant (It's my data)
TOPIC 02: Choice is bad (If you let users choose, the result sucks)
TOPIC 03: A guides update (Because, why not)
TOPIC 04: Links (Places to visit)
CLOSING (Final thoughts)
ABOUT (About the author)
LICENSE (Because we all need one)
===============================================================================
TOPIC 01: MY RANT IT'S MY DATA
===============================================================================
The fight for your data. It's getting ridiculous. Sure, you want to have
your data, and if you want to disappear from the Internet, you should have
a big red button that will do that for you. Well good luck with that.
Well it's a two-pronged situation. Some people simply want a copy of the
data a given site has about them. Others take 'it is my data' very
literally and want to have every bit taken down from any given site, and
effectively deleting their existence from the online world.
It's getting incredibly annoying how people seem to want to have all their
data and still enjoy the conveniences of google plus, facebook, twitter,
gmail, and whatever else. If you want your data (and by extension, your
identity), and not have it floating around on a harddrive somewhere you
are shit out of luck until you go full retard on it! And even then, you
might be surprised to know that your data is still out there, somewhere,
and someone is paging through your life. Tough.
Many sites give you the ability to 'completely delete' your profile,
rename yourself or delete individual posts. Doesn't that just make you
feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Well you don't know if they just hide your
profile or data from view and keep it sitting around somewhere. Storage is
cheap and valuable enough that it's still worth something to advertisers.
So get rid of your 100+ social media identities and follow up weekly and
see if you have started disappearing in the 20 most used search
engines. Good luck.
You may indeed succeed and limit your exposure online to a few places that
refuse to delete / hide your data. You can take it to the courts if you
like, but depending on which country the data is served from, you may be
barking at a wall or the proverbial tree if you like. And again, just
because you don't see your data in the search results, it very well still
might be out there.
Most of those who have been fashioning tin foil hats lately will never go
that far - not even far enough to limit google searches for their name to
less than 10 results. Why? Because we are the borg, and you have been
assimilated. It's just that easy.
Just come to terms with the fact that anything you do online, is going to
leave some kind of trace.
While this site is completely anonymous, you will still be able to find
all my details if you care to. It's not that difficult. I don't live in
the illusion of being incognito whenever I'm online. Hell, if I really
wanted to disappear, it would probably be easier to get a new identity at
the public records office than online.
If you are worried about what happens to your data on other sites, make a
list of them and go through them one by one. See what's open to the
public, read the terms of service, delete what you want to delete if
you're able to. Take a note of which sites you may have to wrestle with a
bit. Check with others to see if they're seeing what you're
seeing. Remember, Google search results vary from person to person. They
tailor / filter search results based on previous searches and some kind of
secret sauce algorithm.
This rant is very stream of consciousness-like, but I may pick up this
topic again in a more coherent way as an essay or similar. Give you an
overview of what's going on out there and why the market doesn't want you
to have control over your data.
===============================================================================
TOPIC 02: CHOICE IS BAD IF YOU LET USERS CHOOSE, THE RESULT SUCKS
===============================================================================
I usually don't engage in comments on YouTube, but recently I watched a
video that supposedly had something to do with how GNU/Linux isn't ready
for the desktop and using the variety and choice in distributions as the
source of the problem. After watching the video, I had a bit of a DAFUQ
did I just watch moment, and I rarely if ever use a meme to further my
point. The video wired me up so much that I had to throw in a few comments
of my own. I kept it civil, but pointed out a few things.
At the core it would seem that the fact we have so much choice (freedom)
GNU/Linux will never, or not anytime soon be the superior user experience
on the desktop. Because as we all know, there are almost no distributions
out there that give GNU/Linux users a good solid desktop experience with
minimum effort. He uses the argument that there are no quality standards
in the GNU/Linux world, or rather that it isn't centralized. Because
surely, we need a central dispatch that tells everyone else what makes a
good distro and what people should and shouldn't do.
I decided to do a little digging after getting my IQ lowered a bit.
What distros did he use to illustrate his point? An OpenSUSE Studio build
called 'CalamariOS' and 'Point Linux'. CalamariOS looks more like a test
of how OpenSUSE Studio works than anything else. You create a profile,
poke around in the web user interface, select the packages you want to
include in your new top notch super duper SUSE based distro, edit a few
scripts if you feel like it, and click 'build'. Voila, a new distro is
born. Point Linux is based on Ubuntu 13.04. When I say based, it mostly
look like a reskinned Ubuntu with MATE as the default desktop. So it's yet
another distro that doesn't want the Unity look that Ubuntu likes so
much. Great. Somewhere, someone had an itch, and he scratched it. How is
that bad or even deserving of ridicule?
Apparently he had a good laugh about the name Calamari. Yeah, that's
hilarious coming from a guy using an OS called Ubuntu, Precise Pangolin. I
can't stop laughing. Oh the humanity. I'm not sure which version of Mint
he's using, but surely a distro using girls names is superior?
So now you have a sense of what this person is using as his reference.
His main gripe is that there is no standardization of quality across all
GNU/Linux distributions and celebrates Ubuntu, Mint and Zorin as the three
shining examples of things done right when it comes to quality control. I
guess he wasn't around when Mint first came out (or Ubuntu before
that). You remember it well, right? The Ubuntu based distribution that
attempted to be the 'we have it all out of the box' distro that was
supposed to be the better Ubuntu. Oh, that's right - it was nowhere near
that. However a community built up around Mint and it eventually became
what it is today. It became so popular in fact, that a lot of custom
development in the distro made it upstream and helped change a few things
as distros went forward.
So the guy in the video likes Ubuntu, a corporation backed distro. And he
likes distros that ride on the back of it. Mint and Zorin are both Ubuntu
based and stick close to the Ubuntu repos.
How about you get your head out of your shit stained asshole and take a good
long look around you. Every new distro has the chance of becoming great. The
quality control comes as the community grows around it.
I'd be a dick if I mentioned that he thinks the poor quality of many
distros and applications are due to a lack of funds (because we all know
people get paid for making a distro, and just about everyone gets paid for
writing GNU/Linux software), lack of intelligence (yeah, he went there) or
lack of common sense (wow).
The intelligence and common sense stabs he aimed at the newest version of
Gnome Shell for GNOME 3.x. Apparently another youtuber called the new
version of the Shell 'still shit' and he had a chuckle about
that. Apparently he doesn't think highly of the semi-democratic process
that goes into the development of Gnome and if he got off his high horse,
he would do a much better job himself. I have no idea if he has even used
the new Gnome Shell, so I will have to assume that because another
youtuber called it shit, he didn't need any more convincing.
This troll is a dual booter and uses Windows 7 as his reference of
quality. When your computer doesn't crash (BSOD) or gets any viruses, it's
good quality according to him. He bemoans the need to maintain Windows,
and with that, apparently, he concludes that Ubuntu is pretty darn
good. At least that's what I took away from it.
I have no idea what goes on in his head, but there's bound to be a lot of
tumbleweed going through there at regular intervals.
If you're curious, the video is called 'Why Windows Users Can't Switch To
Linux'. Yeah, I know the title doesn't really make a lot of sense. I'm not
going to put it in the Links section, as I believe in only sharing links
to sites that deserve it.
===============================================================================
TOPIC 03: A GUIDES UPDATE BECAUSE, WHY NOT
===============================================================================
Yes, the guides are forthcoming, and I will mention them routinely as I
ship out new issues of the newsletter. Within a few weeks, the first
drafts of at least two guides will be uploaded. They should both be in a
usable state(tm).
The first guide that will make it onto the site is about the E-Mail client
called Mutt. A lot of people want to do their E-Mailing from the console,
but have no idea about how to go about doing it, and even fewer take the
plunge and get it set up. The first draft will take the reader through a
step by step process in order to latch onto a gmail account (or any
account really). As the guide is fleshed out more, I will touch on
customizing Mutt to your needs. In fact, I should end up with a very
thorough guide to molding it into just the right E-Mail client for you.
The second guide will be about tmux. Tmux is an amazing multiplexer that
leaves screen behind in the dust in so many ways. The guide will cover
basic setup, keybindings, customizing and things of that nature. I will
probably also cover how tmux can be used for pair programming.
If there's a certain piece of software you'd like to see a guide for, as
always, throw me a line, and I'll see about making one.
===============================================================================
TOPIC 04: LINKS PLACES TO VISIT
===============================================================================
Stuff I've mentioned in this newsletter deserves some link love, otherwise
you'd have to step out of your comfort zone and use a search engine. Where
would we be if that was required?!
This isn't WikiPedia, so I'm only going to link to stuff I think is worth
looking at.
-----------------------------
----- NOTHING THIS WEEK -----
-----------------------------
===============================================================================
CLOSING FINAL THOUGHTS
===============================================================================
After watching the video mentioned in TOPIC 02, I had a few brainwaves
about how many people out there are completely clueless about how the
GNU/Linux world works. I'm sure the guy doing the video thinks he's in the
right, just as I think I am. The difference is that he's a dumbass. So
there.
Then again. No. He's still a dumbass.
===============================================================================
ABOUT ABOUT THE AUTHOR
===============================================================================
````...-------------......````` Slartie has been working
``...-----::////////:::----....```` with open source software
`...---:://+++++oo++++++//::---....`` and the community since the
`..-:://++ossyyyyysssssssso+//:--...` early 90s.
`.-:/+oossyhddmmmmdddddhyoo+//::-----.` `.`
`.-/+osyhhhdddmmmmmmmdhyyssoo++++/:---.`.+:` He's considered a little bit
`-::/+osssyhdmmmmNNmddddddmmmdhs+///---.:+: crazy by his peers. Mostly
`-::+osyyhdmmmmmmNmmNNNNNNNNmyo++oso/::-/s- because he likes working with
.:/oydmNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNmhsoyddmmdhys/:+s. the console so much.
./syhmNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNmddms//syooydds/++`
`:+ossssssyhmNNNNNNNNNNMmmdyo+os//shds//- His day job is (sadly one
:shdhhyoooyhdMNNNNNmdmmmddNmmdhssyhyo/-` might say) working with MS
.sdo+oyyhdhhmmdhdmdhyyhdNNNNNNNdhhhyo/. Windows clients and servers.
```/yysymNNNNNmddyyddyydmmNNNNNNNNmdhhs/.```
`````.`-osyhmNNNNNmmhsymdysydNNNNNNNNNmmdhy/.````` After hours are spent with
`.....--+yhmNNNNNNMmsoymmhssssdMNNNNNNNNmdy/--...- coding, tinkering, IRC and
:-:--://+ydNNNNNNNMy+ohmdyo+oshNNNNNNNNNmds/::--:- generally being a nerd.
::::::///smNNNNNNNMmddNNNNmmNNNNNNNNNNNNNds/::::::
///////++oyNNNNNhsso++yNMNNho++sso+sdNNNmho//:::/:
+++++++++ooymNNs:--...-/++:-...-:::-:omdhs+//::///
ooooo+ooooo+smh/-://-----:::::/+hho/:-/oo//++///++ You can get in touch using:
ssssoooooosooss/-/yNdhhhhhhmmmmmmmy/-...-:/++///++
ysssssssssssso:..:+hdysssss+++oos+/-.````./++//+++ Twitter: @slartie
yyyyssssssssss:.```.-:///:/++/++:.```````:+o++/+o+ IRC: slartie (FreeNode)
yyyyyysssssyys+.`````.-:/oyyo/:-..`````./+ooo+++oo E-Mail: [email protected]
===============================================================================
LICENSE BECAUSE WE ALL NEED ONE
===============================================================================
Slartie.com Newsletter (c) by slartie
Slartie.com Newsletter is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
You should have received a copy of the license along with this
work. If not, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.
===============================================================================
16 June 2013 -- slartie -- Final NEWSLETTER ISSUE 0005
===============================================================================
Created with Emacs - http://gnu.org/software/emacs/