Table of Contents

Welcome From The Chief Editor

Goodbye LastPass, Hello BitWarden!

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Chicken Parmesean Skillet Casserole

Inkscape Tutorial: Chrome Text

Analog Video Archive Project

FTP With Double Commander: How-To

Short Topix: New Linux Malware Making The Rounds

Repo Review: MiniTube

Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

Game Zone: Streets Of Rage 4: Finally On PCLinuxOS!

Beware! A New Tracker You Might Not Be Aware Of

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus: Mongolian Beef and Noodles

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Screenshot Showcase

Welcome From The Chief Editor

Hallelujah! Spring has finally arrived in my neck of the woods. It wasn't even two months ago that Texas, along with much of the central U.S., was plunged into a historic deep freeze. THAT was definitely one for the weather record books!

Now, with warming temperatures, it's time to think about shedding those extra outer layers of clothes. As I write this, it's 72°F (22.2°C) outside. It's definitely comfortable outside with short sleeves. It's time for fishing, lawn mowing and lawn work, and time to start thinking about gardening.

I'll probably just put in tomato and pepper plants (green and jalapeno). I tried to put in broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts last year, but that just became the first place my chickens went when we let them range about the backyard. They thought those were put in to serve as their own personal buffet. It should go without saying that I didn't get any broccoli, cabbage or brussel sprouts from my garden last year. The chickens kept those eaten down to mere nubs. But they left the pepper plants alone, foraging beneath those plants for bugs. And the tomato plants were fenced off from the chickens, for good reason. My chickens LOVE tomatoes!

Unfortunately, the pandemic is a really mixed bag right now. Some jurisdictions are easing restrictions, while others are having to reimpose stronger restrictions. Europe is seeing a resurgence, as are spotty areas around the U.S. Vaccinations are continuing to be administered, albeit at a relatively slow rate.

In the U.S., only about 17 percent of the population has been vaccinated. To achieve the seemingly elusive "herd immunity," infectious disease experts predict that a combination of somewhere between 70 and 95 percent of the public will have had to either be vaccinated or have contracted the disease and gotten over it. The exact herd immunity numbers vary with each disease, depending on how easily it is spread. Measles, which is highly contagious, requires 95 percent of the public to either have been vaccinated or have contracted and gotten over it to achieve herd immunity. In the U.S., infectious disease experts are – perhaps overly optimistically – hoping to achieve herd immunity to the coronavirus by sometime in the Fall of 2021.

Vaccination rates in the European countries appear to be similar to the U.S., with some doing better, and others doing worse, than the U.S. Comparatively, the U.S. would fit in as number 12 on the European list of countries comparing vaccine doses administered. Asia and Latin America (which includes all of South America) are bringing up the rear, lagging far behind Europe and the U.S. in vaccine doses administered. To view the statistical data for your area, check here to see if it is available.

Being frontline healthcare workers, both my wife and I got our first dose of the Moderna vaccine a few days before Christmas, with our second dose administered in January. My 79 year old mother got her first dose of the Moderna vaccine on just April 1, with her second dose scheduled for late April.

Besides limited availability of the vaccines, the other driving force in the slow vaccination rates is people's hesitancy to get the vaccine. That hesitancy is rooted in a number of fallacies making the rounds, such as "it was developed too fast, with not enough testing," that it "alters our cellular DNA," and that it "contains microchips to track people," among others.

No one knows how long the vaccines will impart immunity to the coronavirus. Lasting antibodies don't seem to be the way they work. Instead, the vaccines appear to help teach our immune system's T-cells how to mount an attack on the virus, minimizing the coronavirus's effect on our health, should we later become exposed. So, even if we are required to get regular booster shots, so be it. It will be worth it, not only to protect our own health, but to also possibly protect those around us. Because everything with COVID-19 in humans is so new, that part of the "science" is yet to be determined. What we do know is that the coronavirus is a vicious, opportunistic and indiscriminate killer. So, if you get a chance to get vaccinated, please do so.

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This month's cover is a call out to Leonardo da Vinci, whose 569th birthday is April 15. We decided to make our own version of one of his most famous images, called The Vitruvian Man. He is believed to have made that image sometime around 1490. Our version of The Vitruvian Man, Vitruvian Tux, was created by Meemaw in 2021.

**********

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, serenity, prosperity, and continued good health.

Goodbye LastPass, Hello BitWarden!

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Well ... that didn't take long! To explain what I mean, we'll have to dive head first into some fairly recent history.

Back in 2003, a company was created. It called itself LogMeIn. Over the years, it created such familiar cloud-based programs such as GoToMeeting, GoToConnect, GoToMyPC, Rescue, and of course, the namesake LogMeIn.

In 2006, Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) was created as a bookmark synchronizer for Firefox users. It later expanded to help manage the many unique passwords users were supposed to be creating when logging into websites.

In 2010, LastPass purchased Xmarks. LastPass and Xmarks ran concurrently, until Xmarks was shut down on May 1, 2018. Then, in 2015, LogMeIn, Inc. purchased LastPass for $110 million (U.S.), and added it to their software offerings.

Fast forward to December 2019, when two private investment capital firms teamed up to purchase LogMeIn for a reported $4.3 billion (U.S.). The sale was finalized in August 2020. The latest figures put LogMeIn's annual revenues around $1.3 billion (U.S.) per year, has around 3,500 employees, and approximately 200 million users across the globe.

Below is an excerpt from the press release from Globe Newswire about the sale.

LogMeIn, Inc., a leading provider of cloud services for the work-from-anywhere economy, today announced the completion of its sale to affiliates of Francisco Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital ("Evergreen"), the private equity affiliate of Elliott Management Corporation ("Elliott"), in a transaction valued at an aggregate equity valuation of approximately $4.3 billion.

Founded in 2003, LogMeIn is a pioneer in remote work technologies and the maker of market-defining products like LastPass, GoToConnect, GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, Rescue and its namesake LogMeIn remote access and remote management products. Today, the company's comprehensive work-from-anywhere portfolio makes LogMeIn a preferred and trusted partner for helping millions of customers connect and collaborate from anywhere; support employees and customers from anywhere; manage assets from anywhere; and secure their digital identities in an increasingly virtual world.

The go-private transaction was previously announced on December 17, 2019 and received approval from LogMeIn stockholders on March 12, 2020. As a result of the completion of the transaction, LogMeIn stockholders received $86.05 per share in cash, and LogMeIn's common stock will cease to trade on the Nasdaq exchange.

Obviously, these investment firms see bookoo mounds of money by acquiring LogMeIn for just under four times its annual revenues.

One of the HUGE draws to LastPass was that it could be used by a user on all of their platforms – PCs and mobile devices – for free, and passwords could be synced to all their devices simply by logging into their LastPass account.

That is, until March 16, 2021. On February 16, 2021, the new owners of LastPass announced the imminent end to the "free dinner" of using LastPass for free across platforms. Users who choose to continue using LastPass for free, must choose EITHER the PC platform, or their mobile platform, but not both. To continue to be able to sync passwords across both platforms, users will have to subscribe to an annual plan that costs $36 per year (or $3 per month).

As you can imagine, user outrage was swift and loud. Users started looking for alternatives to manage their massive password libraries, and in the process, leaving LastPass in the rearview mirror. So much for those 2 million global users. They are undertaking a mass exodus from LastPass, and they have found a worthy new home. To say that LastPass users feel betrayed would be a HUGE understatement.

Enter The LastPass Replacement: BitWarden

So how inviting is the new password manager home known as BitWarden? Well, since the LastPass announcement in February, BitWarden's users have increased by five times and are still increasing.

There are multiple wins for LastPass refugees. First, BitWarden is open source, and is hosted on GitHub. Like with all open source projects, anyone can audit, view or contribute to the source code. Second, BitWarden features a nearly identical feature set as LastPass, and works as seamlessly as LastPass. Third, BitWarden is FREE (as in beer), and can be used across multiple platforms (PC and/or mobile devices) ... for FREE! Fourth, BitWarden is available both as a browser plugin AND a standalone desktop program (and the desktop version is available in the PCLinuxOS repository).

BitWarden first appeared in August 2016 on the Android and iOS platforms, and as a browser plugin for the Google Chrome and Opera web browsers. The Firefox plugin followed in February 2017. Since then, BitWarden has expanded to include the following browsers: Brave, Vivaldi, Safari, and Microsoft Edge.

Here is the description for BitWarden, from its Firefox plugin page:

Bitwarden is the easiest and safest way to store all of your logins and passwords while conveniently keeping them synced between all of your devices.

Password theft is a serious problem. The websites and apps that you use are under attack every day. Security breaches occur and your passwords are stolen. When you reuse the same passwords across apps and websites hackers can easily access your email, bank, and other important accounts.

Security experts recommend that you use a different, randomly generated password for every account that you create. But how do you manage all those passwords? Bitwarden makes it easy for you to create, store, and access your passwords.

Bitwarden stores all of your logins in an encrypted vault that syncs across all of your devices. Since it's fully encrypted before it ever leaves your device, only you have access to your data. Not even the team at Bitwarden can read your data, even if we wanted to. Your data is sealed with AES-256 bit encryption, salted hashing, and PBKDF2 SHA-256.

Bitwarden is focused on open source software. The source code for Bitwarden is hosted on GitHub and everyone is free to review, audit, and contribute to the Bitwarden codebase.

Here is a list of the features that BitWarden sports:

Open-source codebase

Biometric Unlock

Cloud-synchronization

Items types such as Logins, Secure Notes, Credit Cards, and Identities

End-to-end encryption of the Stored Vault Data

Password history, so you can see your previous passwords on Logins

Secure sharing of vault items with other Bitwarden users

Autofill login information into websites and other applications

Password generator

Password Strength Testing Tool

Two-factor authentication via authenticator apps, email, Duo, YubiKey, and FIDO U2F

File attachments

TOTP key storage and code generator

Data breach reports and password exposure checks through Have I Been Pwned?

Cross-platform client applications

Self-host the Bitwarden server on-premises

Login with Single Sign-On

Just by looking at the list of features, it's easy to tell that BitWarden will easily fill LastPass's shoes, and is well thought out and implemented.

Making The Switch

Fortunately, you will NOT have to start all over from scratch if you change to BitWarden. All you have to do is export your LastPass database, and then import it to BitWarden. See! It's that easy! Ok. There is a little more to it, but that brief description is fairly accurate. The following description is based on the Firefox plugins, but the process should be very similar (if not identical) in other browsers.

First, you need to export LastPass's database. Click on your LastPass icon in your browser, and select "Account Options" from the first menu (image top left). Then, select "Advanced" from the next menu that opens up (image top right). On the third menu that opens, you will need to select the "Export" menu item (image bottom left). On the last and final menu, select the "LastPass CSV File" option (image bottom right).

Do keep in mind that the exported CSV file can be read by virtually anyone. It will not be encrypted or otherwise hidden from view from any prying eyes. A CSV file can be opened in most any spreadsheet program. For example, I was able to open my LastPass CSV file in LibreOffice Calc easily and effortlessly. Right in front of my eyes is every tiny little detail about every single one of my passwords stored by LastPass, there on my screen. As such, as soon as you are finished with its use, DESTROY IT. If you feel compelled to hang on to it for some strange reason, then at least store it in a tar.gz file protected by a strong password.

Now I just know that there is someone out there reading this at this very moment, saying or thinking "But I'm the only one with access to the files on my computer." While that may (or may not) be true, why let THAT kind of sensitive data just sit around, waiting to possibly be discovered? What if you were sending a file to a client or family member or acquaintance, and because you were tired or careless, you accidentally attached that file to an email? In one quick instant, all of your passwords and login information to all the sites you had LastPass manage for you would be exposed and compromised.

DON'T. DO. IT. Just delete the file, or make it incredibly difficult for anyone to gain any useful information from it by placing it into a password protected archive file.

Similarly, if you had LastPass manage and remember your auto form fill data, and you want BitWarden to do the same, repeat the procedure above by exporting LastPass's auto form fill data to a CSV file. The same caveats and warnings apply to that exported auto form fill CSV file as it does to your password CSV file.

Now, we need to get BitWarden fired up and ready to replace LastPass. This means you will need to set up a free account in BitWarden before you can do anything else. This will include setting up your master password for BitWarden. Once that is done, you are now able to proceed.

Open your browser where the BitWarden plugin is installed, and go to the BitWarden website. Once there, either set up an account, or log in with your existing account information. Because you just created your BitWarden account, it should say that there is no data, or something to that effect. The default view, once you're logged in, should be the "My Vault" page. Select the "Tools" option at the top of the page. Once there, select "Import" from the sidebar that appears at the left edge of the browser window.

In the "Import Data" screen that appears, first choose the format of the Import file. In our case, we're going to select "LastPass CSV" as the format. Second, click on the "Browse" button and select the CSV file that you saved from LastPass. Third, and finally, select the "Import Data" button. The CSV file is relatively small, so in a matter of just a few seconds, all of your LastPass data should be imported into BitWarden.

See! It really is as easy as I said earlier!

Just to be sure, verify that BitWarden's My Vault page lists your accounts and logins. Choose a couple (or a few) accounts that you know the logins and passwords for by heart, and ensure that they were properly imported.

Once you're sure that BitWarden has successfully imported LastPass's database, then you can disable LastPass from your browser. I would mention how to do that, but the process varies, depending on which browser you are using. Plus, if you've gotten this far, you most likely already know how to manage your browser plugins. Never fear, because BitWarden has now taken over the password manager duties in your browser.

Repeat the above steps if you had LastPass manage your auto form fill data, and you want BitWarden to also manage your auto form fill data.

BitWarden does have a "premium" plan that unlocks additional capabilities. At $10 (U.S.) per year, it's a lot more affordable than the $36 per year for LastPass. At the free level, BitWarden allows you to do exactly what LastPass has taken away: the ability to sync your passwords across all of your devices on all platforms. Plus (and to me, it's a huge plus), your $10 goes to supporting an open source project, instead of lining the pockets of the greed-mongering investment firms that bought LogMeIn who are trying to wring every last drop of potential cash out of its new users.

Of course, if you're certain that you are finished with LastPass for good, your best option will be to delete your LastPass data entirely. This will help protect your password data, should LastPass ever experience a data breach, which are becoming increasingly common. In fact, LastPass has experienced some security issues in the past, with Wikipedia reporting four such incidents. Because LastPass holds your login and password information, don't think for a second that its data holdings aren't a highly desirable target for hackers.

Before disabling LastPass (or re-enabling it in your installed add-ons, if you've already disabled it), select "Open Vault" from your LastPass menu. A web page will open. On the sidebar on the left of your screen, select "Account Settings," and you should see something similar to the image above. Scroll about half way down through the settings, to the "Links" section. Select "My Account" from the options.

In the new tab that opens, select the "Delete Or Reset Account" option. This will take you to another page where you can delete your account. LastPass will ask you multiple times if you are sure you want to delete your account data. Respond affirmatively to these multiple prompts, and your data will be (should be?) successfully deleted from the LastPass servers.

Summary

Without a doubt, LastPass users are up in arms over the decision to extract money from them for something that they have enjoyed for free over the years, and rightfully so. But, in the process, they have found an alternative that is cheaper and does everything that LastPass does. That alternative, BitWarden, is also an open source solution. Around these parts, we like to support open source projects.

I wonder how many of those 200 million users that the two investment firms are salivating over remain with LastPass after everything is said and done. LastPass users are fleeing in droves to BitWarden. That $4.3 billion investment may not have been all that good of an investment, after all. If you have no users, it's a bit difficult to recoup your investment.

Sure, there will be those users who just refuse to give up on LastPass. They are reminiscent of the users who won't give up their ancient technology (dot matrix printers come to mind, right off the top of my head), and struggle to keep their ancient peripherals going long, long after they've been replaced by better technology and peripherals. These people absolutely ABHOR change, and resist it at every opportunity.

As I was finishing up the writing of this article, I installed BitWarden on my Android phone, something that I never really did with LastPass. Despite my intention to install LastPass on my mobile device, I never quite got around to it. Already, in the short time that I've had BitWarden installed on my phone, I already feel a positive impact from that decision.

There is no sure way to predict the eventual outcome of all of this. But, we can make some pretty well informed guesses. Without a doubt, the LastPass brand has been severely damaged. Even if the new owners reverse course on their greed-driven decision, they will never get all of their old customers back. The users' trust has been violated and destroyed. I suspect that in the end, LastPass may just gradually fade off into the sunset. Meanwhile, the new owners' actions will be an eventual windfall and win for a worthy open source project: BitWarden. And that is a win for open source overall.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner:

Chicken Parmesan Skillet Casserole

INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup Panko Italian style crispy bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese **
1 package (16 oz) boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in 1-inch pieces, patted dry
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cups Organic tomato basil pasta sauce (from 24.5-oz jar)
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (6 oz)
2 tablespoons thinly shredded fresh basil leaves

** Be sure to use shredded (not grated) Parmesan cheese for this recipe.

DIRECTIONS:

1 Heat oven to 400F (204C). In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium heat. Add bread crumbs; cook 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until toasted. Transfer to a small bowl; stir in Parmesan cheese.

2 Wipe out the skillet. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and salt; cook 4 to 6 minutes without moving, until chicken is browned and releases easily from the pan. Stir; cook 3 to 5 minutes longer, stirring frequently, until chicken is cooked through. Stir in garlic, Italian seasoning and pepper flakes; cook and stir for 30 seconds.

3 Stir in sauce; heat to simmer. Remove from heat; top with mozzarella cheese. Bake 3 to 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

4 Sprinkle with bread crumb mixture. Top with basil.

TIPS:

Can't take the heat? Skip the pepper flakes.

NUTRITION:

      Calories: 510           Carbs: 21           Fiber: 1g           Sodium: 1210mg

Inkscape Tutorial: Chrome Text

by Meemaw

I saw this tutorial a few months ago and thought it was nice. When you get finished, your text should look like polished chrome.

First, open Inkscape and select a font. My example uses "God of War" stretched to 144 points. The original tutorial used Impact. This probably works better on a thicker, poster-type font, rather than a thin, handwriting-type font, but try whatever you want!

The original tutorial put each text clone on a separate layer. Layer 1 will be the basic text. After you get it written, select your basic text and choose Path > Linked Offset from the path menu (the paths tool will have to be on). This will create a 'cloned' offset attached to your basic text. Inkscape will locate the clone below the basic shape. After selecting the clone, fill it with pure white and raise it to the top of the stack. I gave it a hairline black stroke, too, but you do what you want. Cut this object and paste it into a new Layer 2 above Layer 1. Create a three dimensional effect by slightly shifting the white object up and to the left.

Now we'll create a bit more of the 3D effect. Create another Linked Offset from the basic text on layer 1 object already created. Set this object's fill to black, cut it, and paste it into a new Layer 3. You can name your layers to keep things straight if you desire … basic, 3D and 3D2 might work … or stick with 1, 2 and 3. On this layer, you want to shrink your text by applying Path > Inset. If you apply it once and don't think it's enough, apply it again to get the top layer small enough to see the 3D effect.

Now we'll add the chrome! First, we'll create a multi-purpose gradient. Select the bottom layer and open the Fill & Stroke toolbox. Change the Fill from color to Radial Gradient and set the Repeat combo box to Reflected. Click the Edit button to pull up the gradient editing tool dialog. Add two stops by clicking the Add Stop button in the dialog. Choose the Gradient tool from the toolbox on the left to bring up the gradient editor.

At this point you will have the 'L' shaped gradient tool visible. The first stop at the centre will be black – our original fill. Select the second stop from the centre, and choose white. Select the third stop, and choose black. Finally, select the fourth and last stop and choose black again.

Play with the offset of the white stop and the offset of the black stop. Stretch the gradient out so you achieve a smooth gradient across your object. Move the source of your repeated gradient outside of the text. Most of this is a judgement call on your part.

Now you want to select the top layer (where the text has been inset) and apply the gradient to it as well. You can choose the same gradient, but tweak the stops so it's not exactly the same as the other gradient.

Select the top layer and blur it. You will want the gradient to remain inside of the white Layer 2 object. Now, choose the text on Layer 2 and blur it just a little as well.

Using the layer's fill opacity slider, make Layer 3 less visible. Try approximately 40%.

In our final step, we will choose the bottom layer, Layer 1 (unless you named it something else) and apply a drop shadow to it.

Now, the reason we did linked offsets is that all the layers are linked. If we have done it right, we can go to the Basic text (Layer 1) and change our text, and it will change all the layers to match. As you can see, I got layers 1 & 2 done correctly, but layer 3 didn't change.

I'll have to do it again and see what I did wrong. I hope yours works! You can always do this with simple duplicates, but when you change the text, you'll have to change each duplicate or create new text.

Analog Video Archive Project

by tuxlink

Today, modern DSLR cameras shoot video content as easily as they shoot stills. Video data can be loaded directly into an editor like Kdenlive, or Openshot for final preparation of rendering and viewing. However, not so long ago, shooting video meant also using the available media of the day. Back then, that meant plastic magnetic analog tape. At first for consumers, it came in large VHS cassettes, and then later in smaller forms VHS-C and then 8mm. By the time 8mm was popular, here came Digital Video over the horizon.

Most people shoot and record memories on still cameras and video cameras. This process has a habit of getting out of control very quickly. In a few short years, folks are left with more than a few issues about how to easily display and save their precious memories for future generations to enjoy.

Let's first look at the display options. In the past, pictures and photos were either framed and hung up, or they languished in a shoebox until future generations showed an interest in them. Depending on how much effort they want to put into the project, they save some in an album, and either toss the remainder or return them to the shoebox for more time travelling.

Today, with computers, there's many more ways to display and use still images. With video memories, we have the option to connect the camera to the TV for viewing, or maybe saving the data to a networked drive for later streaming, or up to social media.

In my own personal case, I needed to first transfer all of the analog 8mm video tape over to digital and save the data to hard drives for future editing or viewing. I wanted to do this after reading warnings about plastic magnetic tape media slowly decaying over time and in some cases becoming unreadable by the devices that were used to record them. My second fear was the video camera itself becoming old and failing because of age. So the clock was indeed ticking and a course of action was needed to save the precious memories of yesterday.

There are many commercial services available that will take your set of recorded memories and transfer them from analog to digital for a price. After seeing a case on the news about an individual who tried one of these copying services, only to discover the company doing the work had lost the original set of photographs and video tapes, I decided that idea was never worth the risk, no matter what they charged nor how quickly they completed the job. Can you imagine losing years of personal family memories?

For this reason, I decided to take on the project of transferring the analog data from a number of Hi 8mm video tapes that we had accumulated over the past few years. I had been warned that a project like this would entail devoting a lot of time to it. Each tape has about 90 minutes of recording time on it, and while there is not always a full tape of data, you still must sit through each tape and make sure there are no errors in the process. The last thing I wanted to have happen is the whole process being ground to a halt by either a software or hardware error while I was not watching.

So, because of our wonderful Global Pandemic, I suddenly found myself with not only the time to carry out this work, I also had everything I needed to successfully transfer all the data from the tapes to my desktop computer hard drive.

I planned to use the camera I shot the scenes with, to now operate as a VCR while connected to my computer via a Firewire IEEE 1394 cable. I had purchased a PCI Firewire adapter card to fit into my computer. The capture cards run between $15-$60. You can easily find them on Amazon or in most Electronics stores. The Firewire cable cost about $9.99. Make sure you get the right one to fit both your capture card and camera. My video camera is a Sony Handycam and it's dated around the early to mid 2000's. Back then the method of transfer that was popular was Firewire. Today, you can simply use a USB cord to connect most video cameras to computers, or even remove the SD card and have it read in a card reader, either built in, or attached via cable.

So there I was, believing I was ready to get started capturing memories from the tapes. After doing some research about what software to use, and trying some testing to determine which was best to depend on, I opted for a Linux command line program by the name dvgrab. It's a small application that does what it was designed to do, very well. Dvgrab is in the PCLinuxOS repo and has a powerful set of options to use with the basic command.

Even though dvgrab is now a dead project, the website is still accessible here. It was the program I started this project with back in the mid 2000's, and I decided to continue using it because it did what I wanted very well. You can read all about what each option does by invoking dvgrab --h.

Dvgrab was basically designed to capture linear video in either one large file or several smaller sized files. A new file can be created where the stops and starts of the content is located, or a predetermined file size can be set and when that file size is reached, it automatically starts a new file.

As in most Linux applications, there are a lot of features that not every user will use or even need. After some of my initial testing, I discovered it didn't like my asking it to save a whole video tape as one large file, it dropped frames and showed a number of errors, eventually bringing the capture process to a complete halt. I changed the command to save files in chunks sized 999mb's. This it liked a lot better and the process merrily cranked out video files sequentially numbered for easy use in a video editor later.

Let me mention another issue that needed some thought. Transferring analog video to digital data takes up a lot of hard drive real estate. According to Google, you can fit about 1.6-3.6 minutes of video into 1 GB of hard drive space depending on the resolution. So that made it clear to me that my old 350GB hard drive that was only half full, was not going to be half full for very long! Thinking long term, I decided to purchase two new large hard drives. My children are in their twenties now, and I figured in time they'd each need a copy of this archive project for future use within their own families. My goal was to save all the edited video and photos onto a new hard drive that I could hand over to both of my children, so a double copy needed to be made when all was said and done. After a few searches online, I pulled the trigger on two 2TB hard drives costing about $40 each. I installed them, and was cranking out digital video files in no time.

Keeping an eye on the transfer process as files fill the named/dated folder.

I figured there was going to be a lot of files to deal with, so keeping track of everything became very important. I needed a strategy that would allow me to name and date the files. So, I decided to view the first few minutes on each tape and create both filenames and folders based on it, i.e. /Ninja2009/ was the folder, (I used to ride a Kawasaki Ninja 900!). Each file inside was named ninja200901.avi, ninja200902.avi, and so on. This worked well, as each tape yielded a different number of files. The names and dates help with editing and searching in the future. After changing to the empty new folder at the prompt, the command that set it all in motion boiled down to, dvgrab filename -f dv2.

I was able to view the content as it rolled by on the pullout screen of the Handycam, and monitor the progress of the transfer on my monitor. Dvgrab by itself automatically creates a file size of 999mb's. I added the -f dv2 option to create an extra soundtrack copy as I like to add musical soundtracks to my videos, as well as the recorded soundtrack. Finally, when the files were finished transferring, I viewed random files in VLC to make sure they played properly.

Testing video files in VLC after the transferring is complete.

It takes about two hours to transfer a full tape, but I set myself a small goal to get up each morning and set the whole process in motion. That was back in early September 2020, and by November 2020 I was already on the final tape, thirty in all! If you have a lot of video that needs transferring to digital and archiving, I would start sooner rather than later. Time is against you in more ways than one. It was a fun, enjoyable project and one more item I can cross off my list of Honey-Do's. Thank you to those who answered my questions in the forum about various items related to this project.

FTP With Double Commander: How-To

by David Pardue (kalwisti)

Introduction

In light of a recent glitch with FileZilla [ver. 3.52.2] which sent upload attempts into an endless loop¹, I decided to explore other FTP clients as a stopgap. Thanks to a suggestion from Alie in the forum, I tried Double Commander [0.9.10 beta], a file manager with built-in FTP capability.

Double Commander -- package name doublecmd in the PCLinuxOS repositories -- was first released in 2007. It is libre software, licensed under the GPL, and is multi-platform (Linux, Windows, macOS). The program's lead developer is Alexander Koblov, a Russian programmer; he is assisted by Denis Bisson (Québec, Canada).² There is an official forum where users can post support questions.³ SourceForge selected Double Commander as its "Staff Pick" Project of the Month in May 2019.

Double Commander is an OFM (Orthodox File Manager), also known as a commander-style file manager. I was not familiar with the initialism OFM. According to the PCMag Encyclopedia, an OFM is "a text-based file manager that originated in the days of DOS. It featured two directory windows for source and destination files, and a command line."⁴

Despite its spartan, old-school GUI, the program is fast and sophisticated. It incorporates a powerful search tool (Alt+F7). It can perform complex tasks, such as copying files from directories which have a certain extension or file size, or have a certain text pattern in them. Double Commander is also highly customizable. Most functions have a keyboard shortcut to increase efficiency and allow you to configure DC the way it suits you best.

Below is a tutorial on configuring Double Commander for FTP use. In all of the screenshots, I opted to have the FTP activity take place in the left-hand panel.

Add an FTP Connection

After starting the program, go to the Network menu > then select Network Connect. As an alternative, you can click on the "Open VFS List" icon in the Drives button bar. It resembles a networked computer icon.

An FTP icon/listing will appear.

Either double-click on this icon, or right-click on it and then choose Open.

Afterwards, you will see a new directory listing labeled Add connection.

Either double-click on this icon, or right-click and then choose Open. A blank FTP dialog window will open.

Fill in the appropriate/relevant information for your FTP connection, then click on the OK button. The screenshot shows the details I used for my system.

At this point, an icon/listing for the FTP server ("TP-Share") will be added.

To connect to the server, double-click on it, or right-click and choose Open.

A dialog window will appear, prompting you to enter the password. If you are using Anonymous FTP, just leave the box blank. Next, click the OK button.

You should be connected to the FTP server, and will see a directory of the contents.

Although DC's default layout uses vertical panels, if you wish to change to a horizontal panel view, from the Show menu > choose Horizontal Panels Mode. Alternatively, you can type the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+H.

Add a Bookmark (with the Directory Hotlist)

If this is a server you will be visiting frequently, you can save time by bookmarking it, i.e., adding it to Double Commander's so-called "Directory Hotlist."

While connected to the FTP site, go to the Commands menu > then choose Directory Hotlist. Or, you can type the shortcut Ctrl+D.

Next, select Add current dir.

A dialog window will pop open to confirm this. Click on the OK button to proceed.

Choose The Source File for Uploading

Let's now switch to the right-hand panel, and navigate to the location of the file we wish to upload to the FTP server. The quickest way to shift focus from one pane to the other, is to press the Tab key.

In this example, I want to upload a copy of my simple LibreOffice checkbook register to the FTP server. (My checkbook file is located in /home/david/Finances, and I will be uploading it to a folder called Checkbooks on the TP-Share server).

In the right panel, click on the home icon in the Drives button bar:

Click on your /home folder to select it/highlight it. (In my case, it is named david).

To open it, double-click on your /home folder. As an alternative, you can press the Enter key while the folder is highlighted.

Double-click on the Finances folder to open it. As an alternative, click on the Finances folder to select it, then press Enter.

Some Navigation Tips

Here are a few tips that might help you navigate through the folders in your /home directory more effectively.

To navigate to the parent directory of the currently open directory, press the Backspace key. Or, you can double-click the blue Up arrow.

Another method is to click on the designated navigation button ('Go to parent directory') in the top panel.

The current directory bar displays the name of the working directory.

By left-clicking on the directory bar, you can see a "directories history" which allows you to quickly navigate back to previous directories you visited.

Upload File to FTP Server

Now, choose the file to be uploaded (checkbk-register-lo-201906-ff.ods). After selecting, right-click on it and choose Copy. As an alternative, press the F5 function key.

A dialog window appears, asking if you want to copy the selected file. The target destination is shown in the rectangle.

Click on the Start button to proceed with the file transfer.

If the file already exists on the server, a dialog window will open, asking if you want to overwrite the old file with the new one.

In this scenario, I want to replace the old file, so I will click on the Overwrite button.

When you finish with your file transfers and wish to disconnect from the FTP server, go to the Network menu > then choose Network Disconnect.

To completely exit Double Commander, type Alt+X. Or, you can just click on the Close button.

Reconnect to FTP Server via the Directory Hotlist

If you added the FTP site to your Directory Hotlist, it's simpler to reconnect when you start a new FTP session.

From the Commands menu > choose Directory Hotlist, or type Ctrl+D.

Choose the directory name from the list shown. In my case, it is called "G".

The Password dialog window will open.

Type the password – or leave blank if using Anonymous FTP – and click OK.

Double Commander should connect to the FTP server.

If you would like to read in more detail about Double Commander – particularly, how to customize its behavior – Frank Voorburg's PragmaticLinux blog has an article entitled "Getting Started with Double Commander on Linux" (June 16, 2020).

The program's Help files also contain valuable information (which can be accessed from the Help menu, then choose Contents).

----------------------
¹ This problem was fixed in the current FileZilla version (3.53.0-rc1).

² Mr. Bisson has a YouTube channel called "DC [Double Commander] Enthusiasm": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKl7erR71kooMzvqCG60Nzg

³ The user forum can be accessed at https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/forum/

⁴ https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/ofm

Short Topix: New Linux Malware Making The Rounds

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Despite Age, COBOL Remains Productive, Useful

Image: IBM COBOL Compiler Family

Despite getting its start in 1959, the COBOL computer language remains useful and productive nearly 62 years later. Partly based on Cmdr Grace Hopper's FLOW-MATIC language, COBOL (which stands for "common business-oriented language) has found a home on many mainframe computers. But, because of its age, COBOL doesn't attract the developers the way it used to, back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

According to an article on TechRepublic, COBOL proved its value during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally designed to handle large volumes of transactions and generate reports in the business world, its 220 billion lines of code would likely cost at least between $4 and $8 TRILLION to replace. And replace it with what?

Most of the COBOL systems exist in the back offices of banks, insurance companies, brokerages, and government offices, continually churning out massive amounts of transactions quickly and efficiently. Many retail giants, such as Walmart, Home Depot, Target and many others, rely on COBOL running on mainframes to process point of sale credit card transactions. Replacing these massive software systems would be risky, as well. After 60 years, COBOL has these tasks handled. Easily.

The COBOL language is very structured and the machines it runs on are typically fairly easy to maintain. COBOL's usefulness shined through in its use by various government agencies, who still rely on it to process large numbers of unemployment benefits. During the pandemic, the numbers of those seeking unemployment benefits exploded. So, the need for those mainframes that process those unemployment benefits soared right along with the exploding demand for unemployment benefits.

Many of the programmers trained in COBOL are starting to reach retirement age, so the demand for COBOL programmers is rising. The median income for COBOL programmers is just over $92K per year, and those with 10 years or more of COBOL programming experience can expect wages around $100K per year. Those are not-too-shabby wages for knowing how to work with a 60+ year-old programming language.

Remove Your Data From People Search Sites

If you've been on the internet for any length of time, you've undoubtedly come across one of the many "people search" services. These services let you look up people's addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, and for a fee (most of this information used to be free, back in the good ol' days), all sorts of information that is floating around out there on the interwebs.

These sites are great if YOU are the one trying to find an old friend you've lost contact with, or an old classmate from your school days. But it can also be quite distressing to find out what kind of information these services have about you. These services can provide a really detailed image of a person, without express consent or knowledge.

According to an article on Lifehacker, there is a way you can have YOUR information on these people search services deleted. The Lifehacker article covers some of the more popular people search services – Family Tree Now, Whitepages.com, Spokeo, Peek You, and Instant Checkmate – and how to have your data removed from those services.

Your data is priceless. Most of the data, by itself, is innocent enough. But, assembled together with other innocent pieces of data, a pretty detailed picture of you can be painted, and it may include data that you don't necessarily want to share with the rest of the world. Whose business is it, anyways, if you've had any prior traffic tickets? Whose business is it that you once ran afoul of the law when you were a very young adult, even for a minor offense? Yes, you can clean up your digital footprint on the internet. Start with being very selective with what information you share on social media outlets. But, be careful. If you clean it up too much, they may never be able to find you to give you that small fortune you inherited from that long lost rich relative, too. Provided you have one of those.

Want To Travel Among The Stars? Warp Drive May Be Possible, Say Scientists

According to an article in Popular Mechanics, scientists think they have figured out a physical model for a warp drive which will allow humans to travel at faster-than-light speeds. Such speeds will be necessary if humans want to explore other star systems. Even the closest neighboring star to our own is just over four years away – and that's travelling at the speed of light.

The current theory for warp speed dates back to 1994, when theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre first proposed his theory. The method has taken on a life of its own, as the Alcubierre Drive.

Instead of flying in the face of Einstein's theory of general relativity, which imposes the universal speed limit as the speed of light, Alcubierre's theory conforms to Einstein's theory. Alcubierre theorized (PDF) that if you could expand spacetime behind a craft, and contract spacetime ahead of the craft, "motion faster than the speed of light as seen by observers outside the disturbed region is possible."

Scientists in the Advanced Propulsion Laboratory (APL) at Applied Physics just published a new study (PDF) that says warp drive may be possible without the use of negative energy. Basically, this new concept uses floating bubbles of spacetime, rather than floating ships in spacetime.

In a move that's rather akin to having Albert Einstein show up in your physics class, Alcubierre himself has endorsed this new model.

While it will probably take decades or even centuries before we ever see any physical manifestation of a warp drive, this new theory advances the possibilities of faster-than-light travel enormously. It moves faster-than-the-speed-of-light travel from the realms of science fiction to a scientific possibility. Maybe my great-great-great-great-great grandchildren will get the opportunity to travel between worlds and among the stars.

New Linux Malware Making The Rounds

We can list this under reason 4,392 of why you are implored to not install unapproved software from outside the official repository on PCLinuxOS. You just may become a victim of malware.

Windows systems have notoriously been victims of malware threat actors for years and years. But, increasingly, Linux is coming under attack. Because of the way Linux is constructed, with far more security than Windows, Linux malware attacks tend to be quite a bit more sophisticated and harder to detect.

Intezer, who specializes in "runtime protection for your cloud workloads" on Linux, identified a new piece of malware that appears to come from state sponsored threat actors in the People's Republic of China. The new malware, named RedXOR, disguises itself as a polkit (policy kit) daemon (used for allowing unprivileged processes to communicate with privileged processes). It encrypts its internet traffic using XOR, and disguises it as http traffic. RedXOR uses an open source LKM rootkit to hide its processes.

According to an article on The Hacker News, RedXOR "comes with an encrypted configuration that houses the command-and-control (C2) IP address and port, and the password it needs to authenticate to the C2 server, before establishing connection over a TCP socket." The article goes on to point out that "RedXOR supports a multitude of capabilities, including gathering system information (MAC address, username, distribution, clock speed, kernel version, etc.), performing file operations, executing commands with system privileges, running arbitrary shell commands, and even options to remotely update the malware."

It was only a matter of time before Linux garnered increased malware attention. As Linux's market share grows, the threat potential will also grow. Check out the blog post from Intezer for an in depth analysis of this latest threat. Meanwhile, one way to thwart RedXOR should be to install and run rkhunter from the PCLinuxOS repository to ensure that you don't have any unauthorized rootkits installed or running on your system.

RMS: He's Baaack!

After being "canceled" by the ongoing vicious "Cancel Culture" crowd in 2019, forcing him to resign as the President of the Free Software Foundation, the organization that he himself created, Richard M. Stallman is back. This time, he is on the FSF Board of Directors.

For the three people in the entire known universe who don't know who Stallman is (he frequently is known/referred to only by his initials, RMS), he IS the grandfather of the free software movement. He fights for software to be distributed in a manner such that its users receive the freedoms to use, study, distribute, and modify that software. Software that ensures these freedoms is termed free software. He also campaigns against software patents. He is a pioneer in the concept of "copyleft," utilizing the principles of copyright law to preserve the right to use, modify, and distribute free software. Copyleft has expanded since to cover other items typically covered by copyright principles. Stallman is the principal author of the original free software license, called the GPL, or GNU Public License. He is also the creator of the GNU Project, which aims to create a Unix-like computer operating system composed entirely of free software.

It's safe to say that without Stallman and his efforts, the free software ecosystem wouldn't be anything close to what it is today. Without Stallman and the GNU Project, it's likely that Linux wouldn't even exist in its current state. He has steadfastly fought for software free from patents and made of open source code, that can be freely distributed and modified, free of charge.

On March 22, 2021, it was announced that Stallman had been reinstalled to the FSF Board of Directors. Stallman has stated that some may be happy or upset with the move, but that he has no plans to resign a second time. WITHIN two days, a letter was circulating among open source developers calling for not only the resignation of Stallman, but the entire FSF board of directors. As of the time that I wrote this article, the cancel culture gang and/or the virtue signalers have signed the protest letter over 2,800 times. To display support for Stallman, and the entire FSF board of directors, another letter of support appeared only a day later. As of the time that I wrote this article, over 4,100 people have signed the support letter.

While it's looking like the cancel culture crowd hasn't forgotten and isn't giving up (it's part of who they are … they never forgive or forget), the signatories of the support letter currently outnumber the cancellation crowd. But, to maintain that balance, don't hesitate to sign the support letter. For all that Stallman has done for the free software movement, we owe him at least that.

PCLinuxOS Magazine Short Topix Roundup

A U.S. FEDERAL JUDGE has ruled that a class action lawsuit against Google may move forward for collecting tracking information on users when using incognito mode in their web browser, according to an article on Ars Technica. According to the lawsuit, users activating incognito mode on their browser "should also stop Google's server-side tracking and that Google's failure to cease such tracking violates federal wiretap laws." Judge Lucy Koh wrote, "The court concludes that Google did not notify users that Google engages in the alleged data collection while the user is in private browsing mode." Google had attempted to have the case dismissed, claiming that the "explainer" screen when entering incognito mode informs users that "your activity might still be visible to websites you visit." Judge Koh rejected that claim as insufficient. The lawsuit seeks a $5 billion (U.S.) award pool, with a $5,000 award per violation, for "likely" millions of users.

THE WEBSITE POLITICO reveals the contents of 312 pages of confidential internal memos related to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) probe of Google for antitrust violations back in 2012. The memos shine a spotlight on the disconnect between the economists and the lawyers on the FTC investigatory team, on how they got so much wrong, and how the FTC bungled a prime chance to reign in the tech giant. Reading the article will definitely leave you shaking your head in disbelief at not only the missed opportunity, but also the general incompetence of the FTC investigation.

LOU OTTENS, THE PHILIPS AUDIO ENGINEER who invented the compact cassette tape and helped establish CD audio as its successor, died March 6, 2021, at the age of 94 years. While his passing was widely covered in the media, the best post-mortem writeup I found was from The Guardian. First introduced in 1963 at an electronics trade show in Berlin, compact cassette tapes went on to sell over 100 billion units, and found their way into the computing world as an inexpensive storage media for computer software (remember the old Timex/Sinclair TS-1000, Sinclair ZX-81, or the old Commodore VIC-20?). His next feat was helping define the CD, of which 200 billion units have been sold. R.I.P. Mr. Ottens, and thank you for your technical/technological leadership!

RESEARCHERS USED A CT SCANNER to unlock the secrets of "letterlocked" letters from the 17th Century, using a virtual unfolding technique that allows users to virtually unfold a letterlocked letter, and thus read the contents of that letter, all without physically unfolding the delicate and fragile manuscripts. An article on Ars Technica details the fascinating process.

THE WORK-FROM-HOME TELECOMPUTING surge brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has also brought along some bad habits that telecomputing workers admit to doing, according to an article from TechRepublic. The list of "bad habits" exhibited include binge watching shows on Netflix, browsing social media sites, or visiting hair/nail salons (when they should be home working … and where they might actually be open).

MICROSOFT EDGE JUST GOT A KILLER FEATURE that Google Chrome doesn't seem to be able to match: vertical tabs. According to an article at Tom's Guide, the tabs expand whenever the cursor is held over them, and shrinks back down to just a representative icon whenever the cursor isn't over them. I hate to admit it, but the feature does look pretty awesome. But then again, I hate to give Microsoft credit/kudos for just about anything … just because they are Microsoft. Their past transgressions are really, really, really hard to forget or forgive.

Repo Review: MiniTube

by CgBoy

Minitube is a desktop YouTube client designed with privacy in mind, and with the intention of providing a more TV-like experience to YouTube, instead of simply duplicating the regular web interface. No Google account is required for adding subscriptions, and no ads will play when watching videos. Minitube has a well designed interface, making it very easy to watch videos without a lot of distractions.

The main screen you're presented with when opening Minitube is the Search page. Below the search box, you can see the previous keywords you've searched for, and the channels that you have recently visited. From here you can also set the maximum video resolution, enable Restricted Mode to block videos containing inappropriate content, and set videos to only start playing manually, rather than automatically.

On the Browse page, you can find videos by category, such as Most Popular, Trending, News, etc, rather than directly searching for them. Also available is the Subscriptions page, where you can manage the channels you've subscribed to in Minitube, and view all of their latest videos. As I said earlier, a Google account is not needed in order to subscribe to a YouTube channel in Minitube. In fact, Minitube does not actually give you the option to login to your YouTube account.

When searching for videos in Minitube, the search results will all appear in a list on the left side of the screen, and clicking on the thumbnail of a video will start playing it. At the top of the screen, there's a volume control and time seeker, along with the Stop, Pause/Play, Next Video, Related Videos, and Fullscreen buttons. Pressing the Stop button will take you back to the main Search page, rather than simply stopping the video. As with the regular web-based YouTube, clicking on the channel name on a video will take you to the channel's video page. To subscribe to a channel, simply click on the small star above the channel's list of videos, and the channel will be added to your Subscriptions page. Clicking on the magnifying glass in the lower right corner of the video list brings up some options for sorting the videos by relevance, date, duration, and video quality.

Minitube does not show you the video description, nor does it display any comments or likes, or give you the ability to add them to videos. However, if you right-click on the currently playing video, you'll have the option to open up the video's YouTube page in your web browser.

Summary

Although I did encounter a few bugs and stability issues during my testing, on the whole, Minitube played YouTube videos very well, with relatively low CPU and RAM usage. One of the features that I really liked was being able to subscribe to YouTube channels without needing a YouTube account. All in all, I found Minitube to work very nicely as a standalone YouTube client.

Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

Compiled by Meemaw

Furniture Store Opens To Help People Stay Warm

The owner of a Texas-based furniture store chain opened two of his stores as warming centers in Houston to shelter people from the winter storm. The furniture store owner, who goes by the name of "Mattress Mack" opened two of his furniture stores and turned them into warming centers.

Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture, told the news media, "A lot of people are without power. Come see us until the power gets back on."

He stocked the warming centers with food, hot chocolate, sweatshirts, coffee, and blankets. The locations of the centers were advertised so people could go in and get warm while their power was out.

The news story states, "This is not the first time Mack has opened his doors to people in need in times of crisis. In 2017, during Hurricane Harvey, he also opened his doors to those affected by the flooding and ordered employees to pick up people stranded inside their cars and homes."

Boy and Friend's Mom Clean Snow

In the midst of the frigid temperatures and snow in February, Christian Stone and his friend's mom, Abbey, spent several hours cleaning snow off cars belonging to hospital workers in Westerly, Rhode Island. Christian wanted to give back to the hospital workers because they give so much. Abbey said, "It sucked. "I hate the snow but being out here with him, because this is what he's passionate about. I did it because he wanted to do it. It's a good feeling."

Christian said, "I feel like that I've actually liked, helped someone out and that's like a really good feeling when you know someone's been helped out."

Woman Buys Car For Teen Who Walked 7 MIles To Work>

A Cobb County, Georgia, woman first encountered teenager Jayden Sutton when her son recognized him as they drove past one day. "He was walking really fast down the road and my son said I think that's Jayden," she remembered. He was walking seven miles to work after school every day, and seven miles home as well, no matter what the weather. She drove Sutton to work that day, but knew that she had to do something more.

She set up a GoFundMe to raise money within the community to find him a car. While the campaign raised $7,000, it wasn't enough. She contacted the Nalley Honda dealership in Union City, and the owner agreed to lower the price of one of their vehicles to fit the money they had.

When she presented the vehicle to Sutton, he was overwhelmed. "I just want to say thank you. A million times. You don't understand how much," he said, embracing her. "I love her for it. I just want to thank her so much. I don't know how to say thank you."

But she deferred the credit to God, saying "We aren't going to lift my name up, we are going to lift His name up because it's all about Him," she said. We are in the middle of the pandemic and so many people are focused on what's being torn down," she said. Instead, she decided to build something new in the life of a young man: Hope.

Community Helps Family Who Lost Their Home

The Lawton family had been in their Wisconsin home two months when a chimney fire destroyed it. Retired firefighter Chris, wife Stephanie and their children were unhurt, but lost everything. The community has set up dropoff sites and Chris's brother Joey has set up one of the two GoFundMe pages for this family. The GoFundMe donors range from friends to strangers who just wanted to help. As of this writing, the GoFundMe page had raised $6087 of the $10,000 goal.

A local restaurant also had a Giving Sunday fundraiser where they give $2 of the price of their Cheeseburger Baskets sold to a worthy cause, and chose the family as their March 14th recipients.

Joey Lawton, Chris's brother, said, "It brings tears honestly to our eyes because of the support that people are giving without really asking. They are just giving and there is no way to really say 'thank you.' There's no proper way to express how much gratitude there is."

Sanitation Workers Save Kidnapped Girl

Brandon and Dion, Louisiana sanitation workers, were doing their jobs when they noticed that a car back in a field looked like one that had been on an Amber Alert in their area. They started live-streaming their situation on Facebook, and backed the sanitation truck into the driveway in the hopes it would block the car from being able to get out. Then they called 911.

When the police came they found that the car did match the Amber Alert and they arrested the driver. He had kidnapped a 10 year-old girl, who was found safe. The kidnapper was a convicted sex offender.

Retired Military Dog & Handler Reunited

A retired military dog and her handler were reunited after a year. Marine Corps Sergeant Angela Cardone and Bogi worked in Iwakuni, Japan in narcotics detection, safety sweeps, and vehicle searches. Then Cardone was relocated to Hawaii and Bogi was not allowed to go with her.

After a year, she found out that Bogi was being medically retired because of a neck injury, so she called American Humane for assistance in adopting her.

The organization's website reads, "To ensure that all our heroes come home, American Humane is working to bring back retired military dogs and reunite them with their former handlers." In February 2021, Bogi and Angela were reunited at last.

Game Zone: Streets Of Rage 4: Finally On PCLinuxOS!

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

Nostalgia... Ahhh, nostalgia. The whole world looks different with nostalgia glasses. Let's intoxicate ourselves with nostalgia now. Ladies and gentlemen, finally, Streets of Rage 4, review, from the version sold on GOG, running natively on PCLinuxOS!

Streets of Rage 4, a game that took (too) long to come out...

Twenty-five years. This is how long it has been since Streets of Rage 3 (Bare Knuckle 3 in Japan) was released for the MegaDrive. The saga developed its three main chapters in a very short period of time, from 1991 to 1994. From then on, nothing was done, except for the conversions that were made for other systems. Fans of the franchise received a pleasant surprise in August 2018, when DotEmu, a studio specialized in retro titles, officially announced that it was working on a new chapter, Streets of Rage 4.

The Road to Streets of Rage 4

Rumors of a fourth entry in the series had been circulating since the mid-1990s. Following the success of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, a 2017 remake of 1989's Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, studio Dotemu and developer Lizardcube approached Sega about creating a sequel in the Streets of Rage series. Sega agreed and production on the game began in early 2018, with the game publicly announced on August 27, 2018.

The soundtrack is composed primarily by Olivier Derivière, with participation from original series composers Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima, partnered with Yoko Shimomura, Harumi Fujita, Keiji Yamagishi, Scattle, Das Mörtal, XL Middleton, and Groundislava. Koshiro was not part of the project from the beginning, but joined after playing a demo of the game at BitSummit, an indie game show in Kyoto, in June 2019. He cited fan requests and how the game was coming along as reasons for joining. Initially Hideki Naganuma was to take Fujita's place, but in March 2020 Dotemu announced that he would no longer be composing for the game due to scheduling complications.

According to Jordi Asensio, a game designer at Guard Crush Games, Joe Musashi from the Shinobi series was proposed as a playable character, along with other Sega characters outside the Streets of Rage series, but the idea was turned down by Sega Japan.

The Companies Involved

Streets of Rage 4 is an idea from DotEmu in collaboration with Sega. The team worked together with Lizardcube (Wonderboy III: The Dragon's Trap) and Guard Crush Games (Streets of Fury) to shape the new production, in which Sega AM7, the studio that brought the original trilogy to the MegaDrive, had no involvement. Also known as Team Shinobi, the original developer of Streets of Rage, was renamed Wow Entertainment and went through several phases before being diluted as a studio.

Development

Following the success of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, a 2017 remake of 1989's Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, publisher Dotemu and developer Lizardcube approached Sega about creating a sequel in the Streets of Rage series. Sega agreed, licensed the franchise to Dotemu, and production on the game began in early 2018, with the game being publicly announced in August. The game was co-developed by Guard Crush Games, using a modified engine from their Streets of Fury game, with a five-member core development team across the three companies. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in April 2020. Each playable Streets of Rage 4 character has approximately 1,000 frames of animation, with enemies having between 300 and 400 frames each. Seaven Studio ported the game to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch while BlitWorks ported it to Xbox One and Windows 10.

The Linux Version

On November 12, 2020, Lizardcube and Dotemu announced that Streets of Rage 4 is officially supported on Linux (and macOS) with a port made by Ethan Lee, creator of FNA.

Not only is it officially supported, but it is also the 50th port made by Ethan Lee using FNA and brings with it both OpenGL and Vulkan support for the Linux version.

Some Features of the Linux version:

The return of the legendary Streets of Rage series.

Beautiful fully hand-drawn graphics animated by the studio behind Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap.

Clean up Wood Oak City alone or with another friend online! (I have not tested online multiplayer)

For the first time, team up to 4 people offline to take back the city.

Classic gameplay enhanced with brand new mechanics.

Soundtrack by several world-class musicians.

Roast chicken everywhere.

A dozen old Streets of Rage characters unlockable and playable in their original pixel art versions.

Original, unlockable songs from previous games.

12 unique stages.

Fight against your friends in Battle Mode

Or team up to defeat Boss Rush Mode!

FNA, the magic that makes games run natively on Linux

FNA is a completely new open source reimplementation of the Microsoft XNA 4.0 Refresh runtime libraries for Windows, Mac OS X, and GNU/Linux. Originating as a rewrite of the MonoGame desktop platform, FNA features a complete reimplementation of the graphics and audio subsystems, and a dramatic increase in portability on the desktop. With a single FNA binary, it is possible to create for Windows/Mac/Linux without having to recompile for each individual target.

FNA is also a complementary library to the MonoGame project; while MonoGame aims to succeed XNA 4.0, FNA aims to preserve XNA 4.0 with precision and preservation as the project's top priorities. With XNA-compatible code and content, a game can be run under FNA with nothing more than a new project file.

Highlights:

FNA is now officially supported by developers

A free and open source reimplementation of XNA 4.0

Windows, Mac, and Linux support with a single binary

Already used in dozens of Windows/Mac/Linux games

Developed by Ethan Lee, professional video game porter

My Review

After waiting for 25 years, fans of the series had already despaired and created their own sequels. Yes, the creation of the Openbor engine and the Streets of Rage remake was a sign of this desperation.

However, it was Sega's fault that in all these years, they had neglected a fantastic intellectual property with a lot of fan appeal.

But, let's go to the analysis of the game.

Story

The story is horrible: Mr. X's sons, the Y twins (Hahahahahaha), are trying to continue the work started by their father: to control the town of Wood Oak by exercising power in all its spheres: politicians, policemen and criminal gangs. They intend to do this by using hypnotic music to control the citizens of Wood Oak (Hahahahahahaha).

Blaze Fielding then calls in some old favors, to bring down the twins. Joining Blaze are his old friends Axel Stone and Adam Hunter, Adam's daughter Cherry Hunter, and Floyd Iraia, an enhanced cybernetic apprentice of Dr. Zan.

Initially, Adam Hunter is unavailable, but by advancing to the second stage of the game, he becomes unlocked to play.

With a plot as deep as a sheet of paper, the story is just a pretext for the banging that ensues in the game.

Gameplay

Here's a criticism, and a very blunt one: It seems that the developers have unlearned everything that came before SOR 3 (Streets of Rage 3). The characters have lost moves, such as dash, which brings a much faster dynamic to the game. And the worst: It is too difficult. Thanks to the loss of the dash movement, it is now much more difficult to escape from group attacks, which was relatively easy until the third game in the franchise.

Only the character Cherry Hunter has dash, which makes her the best character in the game right out of the gate.

When unlocking the earlier versions of the characters things get better, because they all have the dash move and the game gets easier, but until you get there you will have to finish the game a few times to unlock these versions, and many people may not have that much patience.

Unlockable characters: Axel (SOR1, SOR2, SOR3 ), Blaze (SOR1, SOR2, SOR3 ), Adam (SOR1), Skate (SOR2, SOR3 ), Max (SOR2), Zan (SOR3) and Shiva (SOR3)

Graphics

Here the game shines, with an intensity never seen before. The graphics, all, are hand-drawn, and are all in high resolution. The style follows anime, and is a sight to behold.

Many of the designs are the same of the old games, the locations in Wood Oak City, but have been reimagined in a way that looks truly fantastic. Score 10 with honors.

Music

This is where things get complicated. The game has songs, but they are not even remotely reminiscent of the classic songs. They are not bad, but they are like elevator music: bland and uninspired. Also, I wonder how composers from the old games participated in the soundtrack. Luckily, you can turn on the old songs and listen to them during the game, because the new ones are a disappointment.

As for the sound, it only works with pulseaudio, but if you don't use pulseaudio, apulse solves this problem easily.

Verdict

As I wrote in the beginning, we were going on a nostalgia trip in this review, and, I believe, that many gamers and game journalists were intoxicated with nostalgia to give this game their grade of excellent.

It's hard to badmouth this game. It's very well made, there was a lot of work put into making a competent piece, both visually and sonically, but, at its heart, it's like a wind cake - it's empty. It's empty of what players wanted to see and feel when they bought it, which is to be a sequel to Streets of Rage 3.

Yes, as competent as the production was, the final product doesn't have the feel of SOR, it feels like something else. And, this is also a consequence of the use of the Streets of Fury game engine, which is a parody of beat-em-up fighting games, which belongs to the SOR franchise.

Now, I make this review without nostalgia glasses, but informing what needs to be said: it is a very competent game, but it is not SOR.

To have an experience like SOR, play the games made in Openbor, or the Streets of Rage remake, which is much better than this game, even though it is unofficial. By the way, the fans are making better games than the professionals, and have been for some time.

To Buy or Not to Buy ?

The game has a very large replay factor - to unlock all the characters and game modes, you will be playing for hours, so in that respect, it will have a pretty long life on your computer.

If you are a fan of the franchise, buy it. If you are a casual gamer, I wouldn't advise it. If you are a fan, it will be an interesting piece to have in your collection.

Available at: https://www.gog.com/index.php/game/streets_of_rage_4%20

Price: US$ 24.99

Beware! A New Tracker You Might Not Be Aware Of

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

By now, everyone must be aware of multiple ways and efforts of Big Tech and advertisers to track users across the internet. As they do, they vacuum up all sorts of information about users, such as who they are, who they interact with, what kind of things they like, what OS and browser they are running, where they go (and when), where they live, what ISP they use, their birthdate, and a whole host of other information. Most of the information, taken by itself, is harmless and virtually meaningless. But, when coupled with all of the OTHER "useless, meaningless" data that is caught up in data collection, a pretty accurate picture of each individual user can be painted. And, it can all be done without the end user being aware of the information that is collected.

Today, everyone sends emails. Political parties, retail merchants, Grandmas, Grandpas, you name it. EVERYONE sends emails these days, it seems.

Well, the new exploit I only recently discovered is that there are also email trackers. These "invaders" of your Inbox track and report back on what you do with an email. It reports back that your email was read, what links you clicked on, the browser and OS you are running, when and how often an email is read, how long you have the email open, your IP address, if you downloaded anything connected with the email, and on and on and on. In their simplest form, email trackers allow senders to know when a recipient has received and/or read an email. I truly never knew this was a "thing" until recently.

Email trackers used to be the playground for the marketing guys. But, increasingly, ordinary users are also using them to tell when a recipient has received and/or read an email. And you will definitely be surprised by the very high percentage of emails you receive that have a tracker embedded in them. In my case, over 90% of the emails I receive have embedded trackers. The trackers were so prevalent that I was more shocked by some of the ones that did not have trackers embedded in them, to be perfectly honest.

How They Work

The way these email trackers work is actually quite simple. They (the sender) embeds a small 1x1 invisible (transparent) image into the email. They can embed them pretty much anywhere, but most appear at the end of an email message. This image, when loaded, is linked to some code that sends the requested information back to a server. All of this happens in the background, without you ever realizing it.

How To Stop/Minimize Email Trackers

Users could take the most draconian measure, and just tell the email program to NOT automatically download external images. In fact, that is the default setting in Thunderbird, and should still be set that way, unless you changed it at some point. If you did change it so that external images can be downloaded, it's a trivial task to change it back.

Preventing the downloading of the invisible/transparent 1x1 image in the first place is the best protection. If you use a web based email solution, such as Gmail, you can turn off the automatic downloading of external images. Yes, it will make your email look a LOT more boring, but then you also won't have to worry about the email trackers. They were never downloaded to start with.

Even Gmail has settings to prevent the automatic downloading of external images. Go to the Gear icon in the Gmail web interface, and click on "See All Settings." Under the "General" category, scroll down until you see the "Images" section. Select the "Ask before displaying external images" option. Now, all of the little 1x1 invisible/transparent tracker images won't be downloaded automatically. Just keep in mind that no other images will be downloaded automatically, either.

But what if you want your email to look all pretty with all those bright colors that those external graphics bring? Well, you could go with the next best option, which is a browser plugin that blocks the reporting by email trackers. These work with web based email services, such as Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo! Mail. They block the reporting capability of the email trackers.

One such browser plugin is called Trocker (short for Tracker Blocker). Not only is it open source, but it is free to use. The plugin is available for both Firefox and Google Chrome.

From the Trocker plugin page for Firefox:

Tracking your emails to know if the receiver has opened them or not is awesome, so is being immune to it! Trocker gives you the latter! It blocks attempts by email trackers and won't let them track what you do with the emails you receive.

You will be amazed to see how many of the emails you receive have trackers in them!

…

You can trust Trocker! Trocker runs locally on your machine and does not send or receive any information from the Internet. It needs permission to all tabs in order to be able to detect and prevent any tracking images or tracked links from being loaded from any of the tabs. But it makes absolutely no outbound Internet access and we neither gather nor use any data about you or your browsing behavior.

Trocker is also open source with the source code available at https://github.com/trockerapp/trocker and we encourage everyone to check it out from there or from Chrome Dev tools to confirm that there are no suspicious activities being done.

Trocker keeps you safe in all webmails, including Gmail™, Yahoo! and Outlook.com. It has additional capabilities in Gmail, Inbox and Outlook.com. In these 3 webmails, it has a heuristic tracker detection that detects and blocks almost any email tracking attempt, even from not well-known trackers!

Trocker is very efficient as it only gets activated when a tracker is detected.

Some email trackers track emails by injecting an invisible small image in the mail that is hosted in a specific address in their server. They know when the email is opened by looking at the download requests of the injected images on their servers.

Trocker (as a lovely Tracker Blocker) stops this by simply blocking those image links from being loaded. It finds those injected images by looking at the url and matching the url pattern with the tracking servers that host injected images.

If you yourself are a user of these tracking services (you track emails you send others), your service wouldn't be affected and will work fine. Trocker would only defend you from OTHERS tracking you.

Moreover, some links are click tracked meaning that if you click on them, your clicks are logged and tracked. Trocker tries to bypass those links and redirect you directly to the original target without you being tracked. If not possible, Trocker will inform you that the link you've clicked on is tracked.

No one will be able to know when and if you open their emails, or click on their links if you enable Trocker. In Gmail, Inbox and Outlook.com, Trocker has a heuristic tracker detection that will detect and block almost any tracker, even if it is unknown. This works based on the fact that very tiny images are almost always trackers. After all, if they want you to see the image, they will make it bigger than 1x1 pixel!

One of the settings I recommend turning on in Trocker is the one labeled "Expose Trackers." The little 1x1 invisible/transparent images will be replaced with a "T" graphic, allowing you to actually see the tracker that is hidden in the email. It will also place a "T" graphic at the end of the "From" line. In my installation of the Firefox addon, it was not turned on by default. It makes it much easier to see which emails have trackers embedded in them (which is most of them).

Ugly Email is another browser extension that blocks email trackers. Like Trocker, Ugly Email is available for both the Firefox and Google Chrome web browsers.

From the Ugly Email Firefox addon page:

The #1 downloaded Gmail extension for blocking read receipts and other email tracking pixels.

Ugly Email is an open-source Gmail extension for identifying and blocking email trackers.

Ugly Email scans through your inbox and looks for emails containing tracking pixels. Tracked emails are labeled with an eyeball icon, and the tracking pixel is blocked.

All of the Ugly Email data is stored on your browser's IndexDB storage locally. We do not track, transfer, or store any of your information.

But perhaps the most telling information about Ugly Email comes from the user comments. Take a look at some of these comments dating back over the past couple of years.

Thank you to all users who reviewed this. Thanks to you and your warnings that this extension wants access to all websites visited I changed my mind and did not and will never install this extension. The whole point was to prevent people from tracking you, but not by giving one app unchecked access to all browsing history. Reprehensible.

Another user wrote, "Doesn't work as great as it does on a chrome browser and doesn't track the tracking emails. Plus most of my antivirus have detected this extension as malware and spyware. Can dev see into this and update it? Thanks."

Another user commented, "As far as I can tell, this app should only need access to our data on one domain -- when we're looking at our gmail inbox. Yet it asks for permission for all your data for all websites. (See the difference here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/permission-request-messages-firefox-extensions).

"This is a huge red flag. Unfortunately, until they do something to address this, I'm uninstalling."

I mention it here because if you search for information on email tracking blockers, you WILL see Ugly Email mentioned a lot. But, because of its seemingly intrusive, snooping behavior and desire to vacuum up data from ALL of your open tabs, I cannot recommend it. I won't even install it on any of my computers to just check it out. For me, the risk is just too great.

If you are a Google Chrome user, you have a couple of more options. PixelBlock is one email tracker blocker made specifically for Gmail. The browser extension is only available for the Google Chrome browser. Email Privacy Protector, by CloudHQ, is another email tracker blocker that's also made specifically for Gmail, and is only available for the Google Chrome browser.

Summary

It's your data, and no one is going to protect it for you. Instead, "they" are going to try to mine, steal and thieve all the data you allow "them" to steal. While many who insert trackers into emails feel that they have a "right" to harvest the data provided, it does not supersede your rights to privacy. When so much personal data is harvested from your actions with your emails, it can only invade your privacy.

This never has been and never is about whether you have anything to hide. "They" have no more rights to YOUR data than some stranger has coming into your home and taking a bath.

It's your data. It's YOUR responsibility to do whatever you deem necessary to protect it.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus:

Mongolian Beef & Noodles

INGREDIENTS:

12 oz flank steak
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup carrots, cut into matchsticks
3 green onions, cut into 1-inch long slices on the diagonal
1/2 cup beef flavored broth (from 32-oz carton)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
10 oz uncooked wide rice noodles, cooked as directed on package
3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions

DIRECTIONS:

1 Place flank steak in the freezer for 30 minutes. Cut against the grain into 1/8-inch slices; place in a medium bowl.

2 In a small bowl, beat soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger root, sesame oil, garlic and pepper flakes until sugar is dissolved. Add 1/4 cup of the soy sauce mixture to beef; toss to coat. Reserve remaining soy sauce mixture. Cover and refrigerate beef for 45 minutes.

3 In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Add half of the marinated beef, spreading it out into a single layer; cook 1 minute on each side until browned. Transfer beef to a plate. Add another 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet; repeat cooking remaining half of beef. Transfer to plate.

4 Reduce heat to medium. Add carrots; cook and stir about 2 minutes or until they begin to soften. Add 3 green onions cut into 1-inch slices; cook another minute.

5 Add broth to reserved soy sauce mixture. Beat in cornstarch and water with whisk; add to hot skillet. Cook until the sauce is boiling and thickened. Add beef and cooked rice noodles; toss to coat with sauce, and heat through. Transfer to a serving plate; garnish with 3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions.

TIPS:

Pre Cut matchstick carrots can be found in the produce section of most grocery stores. Freezing the steak slightly helps make it easier to slice the steak thinly, or ask your butcher to slice it for you.

NUTRITION:

     Calories: 530          Carbs: 77          Fiber: 4g          Sodium: 563.3mg

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Sudoku

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Scrappler

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Crossword

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WordFind

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Mixed Up meme Scrambler

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