Table of Contents

Welcome From The Chief Editor

How To Use Your Linux Terminal As A File Manager

PDF Part 3A: Manipulating PDF Files, GUI Style

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Homemade Cheeseburger Casserole

A Promising New GDPR Ruling Against Targeted Ads

GIMP Tutorial: Using The Heal Tool

We Need To Talk About Infrastructure

Short Topix: "Pay Phones" Are Making A Comeback In Philadelphia, Thanks To Linux

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus: Sausage And Gravy Pockets

No Nudity Allowed: Censoring Naked Yoga

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Screenshot Showcase

From The Chief Editor's Desk...

New Year's celebrations are virtually synonymous with making New Year's resolutions. Unfortunately, most New Year's resolutions barely last a month, and by February, are a distant memory. According to an article on BestLife, only 55 percent of resolution-makers are still working on those resolutions after one month. An article on Fit & Well paints an even grimmer/dimmer picture of New Year's resolutions. According to that article, most New Year's resolution-makers ditch their “goals” just 17.8 days into January. This is so prevalent that January 17th is (unofficially) known as “ditch New Year's resolutions day.” Wow! They don't even make it three weeks!

Personally, I make the same New Year's resolution every year, and I've got quite a streak going for not breaking it. My annual New Year's resolution is to not make a New Year's resolution.

Wouldn't it be much better to just start working on self improvement goals when you realize the need for them? Wouldn't it be better to be actively focusing on living the best life we can, every single day, than to apply all of that pressure at the same time that all of the pressure from the most pressure-inducing holiday is still all too fresh in our minds?

What's wrong with starting your exercise regimen in March or June? There's no time like the present to start that new diet you have been mulling over in an effort to lose a few pounds. Quitting smoking or drinking alcohol to excess is a good goal any time of the year. Joining a gym and getting into better physical shape is an excellent goal for any time.

So, just why do most New Year's resolutions reside in the dung heap just weeks after being made? All too frequently, the resolutions are poorly planned. They are usually made in haste, often a result of peer pressure to make a New Year's resolution. As a result, there is typically extremely little preparation for the lifestyle changes that most New Year's resolutions require. Other New Year's resolutions aim for exceptionally high and lofty goals that are unreasonable, unattainable, and unsustainable.

So what's your New Year's resolution? Or, will you even be making one?

To be more successful in making changes to your life and/or lifestyle, try setting a series of smaller, more easily attained goals. Once you've mastered one, make a new one that expands on the one you just completed. In most cases, you'll have much more success.

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This month's cover was created by Meemaw, and commemorates Winter, which envelops the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year.

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

Oh ... and Happy New Year! Let's hope that 2023 is all around better than 2022 was to us.

How To Use Your Linux Terminal As A File Manager

by Seth Kenlon
Reprinted from Opensource.com
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License

Here are five common file management tasks you can do with nothing but the shell.

Image by: iradaturrahmat via Pixabay, CC0

A terminal is an application that provides access to the user shell of an operating system (OS). Traditionally, the shell is the place where the user and the OS could interface directly with one another. And historically, a terminal was a physical access point, consisting of a keyboard and a readout (a printer, long ago, and later a cathode ray tube), that provided convenient access to a mainframe. Don't be fooled by this "ancient" history. The terminal is as relevant today as it was half a century ago, and in this article, I provide five common file management tasks you can do with nothing but the shell.

1. Open a terminal and look around

Today, everyone's got a computer on their desk or in their bag. The mainframe-and-terminal model is now essentially emulated through an application. Your operating system might have a unique name for it, but generically it's usually known as a "terminal" or "console".

Linux: Look for Console, Konsole, or Terminal. Regardless of the name, you can usually launch it from your application menu using the key word "terminal."

macOS: The default terminal application isn't open source and is widely considered lacking in features. Download iTerm2 to get a feature-rich, GPLv2 replacement.

Windows: PowerShell is the open source terminal application, but it uses a language and syntax all its own. For this article to be useful on Windows, you can install Cygwin which provides a POSIX environment.

Once you have your terminal application open, you can get a view of your file system using the command ls (that's a lower case L and a lower case S).

2. Open a folder

In a graphical file manager, you open a folder by double-clicking on it. Once it's open, that folder usually dominates the window. It becomes your current location.

In a terminal, the thought process is slightly different. Instead of opening a folder, you change to a location. The end result is the same: once you change to a folder, you are "in" that folder. It becomes your current location.

For example, say you want to open your Downloads folder. The command to use is cd plus the location you want to change to:

To "close" a folder, you change out of that location. Taking a step out of a folder you've entered is represented by the cd command and two dots (..):

You can practice entering a folder and then leaving again with the frequent use of ls to look around and confirm that you've changed locations:

Repeat it often until you get used to it!

The advanced level of this exercise is to navigate around your files using a mixture of dots and folder names.

Suppose you want to look in your Documents folder, and then at your Desktop. Here's the beginner-level method:

There's nothing wrong with that method. It works, and if it's clear to you then use it! However, here's the intermediate method:

You effectively teleported straight from your Documents folder to your Desktop folder.

There's an advanced method of this, too, but because you know everything you need to know to deduce it, I leave it as an exercise for you. (Hint: It doesn't use cd at all.)

3. Find a file

Admit it, you sometimes misplace a file. There's a great Linux command to help you find it again, and that command is appropriately named find:

A few points:

The find command requires you to tell it where to look.

Casting a wide net is usually best (if you knew where to look, you probably wouldn't have to use find), so I use $HOME to tell find to look through my personal data as opposed to system files.

The -iname option tells find to search for a file by name, ignoring capitalization.

Finally, the "*holiday*" argument tells find that the word "holiday" appears somewhere in the filename. The * characters are wildcards, so find locates any filename containing "holiday", whether "holiday" appears at the beginning, middle, or end of the filename.

The output of the find command is the location of the file or folder you're looking for. You can change to a folder using the cd command:

You can't cd to a file, though:

4. Open a file

If you've got a file you want to open from a terminal, use the xdg-open command:

Alternatively, you can open a file in a specific application:

5. Copy or move a file or folder

The cp command copies and the mv file moves. You can copy or move a file by providing the current location of the file, followed by its intended destination.

For instance, here's how to move a file from your Documents folder to its parent directory:

While moving or copying, you can also rename it. Here's how to move a file called example.txt out of the directory with the new name old-example.txt:

You don't actually have to move a file from one directory to another just to rename it:

Linux terminal for files

The Linux desktop has a lot of file managers available to it. There are simple ones, network-transparent ones, and dual-panel ones. There are ones written for GTK, Qt, ncurses, and Swing. Big ones, small ones, and so on. But you can't talk about Linux file managers without talking about the one that's been there from the beginning: the terminal.

The terminal is a powerful tool, and it takes practice to get good at it. When I was learning the terminal, I used it for what I could, and then I opened a graphical file manager for advanced operations that I hadn't learned for the terminal yet. If you're interested in learning how to use a terminal, there's no time like the present, so get started today!

PDF Part 3A: Manipulating PDF Files, GUI Style

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

My original plans were to have a three part article series that covered the creation of PDF files, the editing of PDF files, and finally, the manipulation of PDF files. But when I looked closer, I discovered there are several GUI programs that help with manipulating PDF files, and even more command-line programs for manipulating PDF files. So, I've decided to break the third article down into two related articles. This article, "PDF Part 3A," will deal with the GUI programs you can use to manipulate the structure and orientation of a PDF file. The next article, "PDF Part 3B," will focus on the command-line tools for manipulating PDF files.

Some may argue that editing and manipulating PDF files are the same thing. But, that's not necessarily so. Editing the contents of a PDF file changes the information conveyed in the PDF, while merely changing the page order or page orientation of a PDF file does not inherently change the contents of the file, nor the information conveyed. It's a gray area, but we need to "draw a line" and make a distinction somewhere.

PDF Shuffler

PDF Shuffler really has ONE job, and that is to rearrange the pages of a PDF file. It does this graphically (the same thing can be accomplished with a command-line tool), so the user can see how the page order is rearranged.

In the example above, I used the magazine's December 2022 issue to illustrate. In the version of the PDF that we released, the first several pages go in the order of cover, table of contents, my monthly "welcome" column, my gift guide article, Meemaw's holiday gift guide article, then David's holiday gift guide article. For S&Gs, I used PDF Shuffler to change the page order from mine and then Meemaw's article, to Meemaw's article and then mine (I swapped their order).

Note that the internal links will not (at least on this computer) work properly. Also, the page numbers, which are applied dynamically by Scribus when the final version of the magazine is created, will appear out of order. Even the internal page numbers will be messed up, as evidenced by the screenshot above, which shows page 8 immediately after page 3.

Rearranging the pages is as simple as drag and drop. Drag the page to the new location, and release the mouse button. As far as I can tell, you can only move one page at a time, so you'll have to repeat this process for every page that you want to move. Just pay close attention to where you want pages to appear before dropping them to their new location. Otherwise, things might appear out of their intended order, and that could make for some interesting reading.

PDFSAM

PDFSAM gets its name from its larger function: PDF Split And Merge.

Above is the screen you should see when you first start PDFSAM. The "free" tools are listed first. Scrolling down, you will get a glimpse of some of the features available with the paid version of PDFSAM. You can get an annual subscription for $35 (recurring charge every year), or you can purchase a full license for $59 (one time charge). The former grants you to "forever" updates, while the latter only guarantees you access to minor updates.

Most of those extra "premium features" are also available for free to users via command-line tools (no, not through PDFSAM developers). Just learn to use the command-line commands and you won't have to worry about license fees. Do you want to convert from PDF to MS Word *.docx format? Just use the unoconv command we talked about in the November issue.

Clicking on the "Settings" (little gear icon) button on the left side of the screen brings up the settings for PDFSAM. You may want to "deselect" some of the items under the "Behaviour" section of the window, like "Show premium features", "Check for news at startup", "Show donation window", and "Check for updates at startup." This will help avoid some of the popup distractions from appearing in the "free" version (which is the version we're looking at here).

Above is the window that is shown when you select the "i" icon, displaying PDFSAM's "About" information.

Clicking on one of the big "buttons" on PDFSAM's "home" page will lead you to something like what you see with the image above.

This particular image allows you to set all of the options for the "Merge" function. Most of the options should be fairly self-explanatory.

Below are the other six windows of the "free" tools in the PDFSAM. Just like with the Merge tool, most of the options should be fairly self-explanatory.

PDFSAM Split

PDFSAM Extract

PDFSAM Rotate

PDFSAM Split by Bookmarks

PDFSAM Alternate Mix

PDFSAM Split by Size

PDF Mix Tool

PDF Mix Tool has to be my least favorite tool. It's definitely not user friendly, and the layout definitely leaves something to be desired.

Most of the features of PDF Mix Tool are available in other GUI PDF manipulation tools, so I'm not sure why this one would even have a seat at the table, so to speak.

One concerning thing I discovered while trying out PDF Mix Tool ... if you try to merge together multiple PDF files, it refuses to show the first page of every PDF document in the final merged file. A blank page appeared in the place of the first page of the original document. This happens with every single PDF viewer I tried, so it's not the PDF viewer. The output file is simply not written properly in the PDF format. That, to me, is a total deal breaker, and makes the tool rather useless.

jPDF Tweak

jPDF Tweak is a program written in Java, and it has some pretty cool features. You can put a watermark into the background of the PDF file. You can also insert file attachments into the PDF file, so you can always keep related files embedded into the PDF. You can encrypt and sign PDF files, as well. When you're outputting the newly modified PDF, you can also select options such as compressing the PDF file, or changing the PDF version to accommodate different needs.

Overall, this is a pretty handy little program that (as far as I can tell) does the job(s) it's supposed to, and does them well. The program is very intuitive to use, and it should be self-evident on what to do and how to do it.

Summary

There are more GUI programs in the PCLinuxOS repository than I thought. Most of them are programs that users will find useful, should they desire to "work" with the various PDF files that we all have.

The GUI tools make it easier for command line refugees to use. Yes, I know that there are many users who won't use anything but GUI tools, and avoid the command line like the bubonic plague.

But wait until next month, when I'll cover the command line tools for manipulating PDF files. For the most part, the command line tools follow the Linux philosophy of "do one job, and do it well." (Thankfully, they didn't fall victim to Linus Poettering's "touch," or they'd be linked to a video driver that's linked to an audio driver that's linked to the keyboard driver that's linked to systemd.) The command line tools are, without a doubt, very easy to use. Plus, they are also very, very fast to use ... much quicker than launching a GUI tool and performing the actions there.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner:

Homemade Cheeseburger Casserole

~ The way Hamburger Helper should have been made ~

Serves 4-6     Make in 35 minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb cavatappi or elbow noodles
5 cups beef broth (to boil pasta - optional)
1 lb ground beef (85% lean)
1/2 diced green bell pepper and 1/2 diced red bell pepper (optional)
1 small onion
3 tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes
4-5 strips of thick sliced bacon
1 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella
1 cup Colby jack
1 tbsp garlic paste
1/2 tsp beef bouillon
1 cup beef stock (added to meat mixture)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup ketchup
salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes* *(optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Cook pasta according to package directions, using beef broth instead of plain water.

Dice 1/2 green and red bell peppers, set aside. Now dice up the onion, and set aside. Dice 3 tablespoons of the sun dried tomatoes, and set aside.

Cut bacon into 1 inch pieces and brown in a frying pan. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels. Remove bacon drippings from the pan and brown hamburger. Add seasonings to taste. (salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and smoked paprika) Break up the beef nice and small. When the beef is mostly cooked add in the bell peppers and onions, mix in well.

Add in garlic paste, Dijon mustard, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, sun dried tomatoes, and beef bouillon stir into mixture well. Add one cup of beef broth, mix and bring to a simmer.

Now add the cavatappi or elbow noodles and fold everything together. Once everything has been folded together add bacon and 1/2 of each cheese. Now fold everything in together. Once well mixed, top with remaining cheese and put into the oven at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes or till the top is brown and bubbly. Sprinkle with parsley. (optional) and serve hot.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

TIPS:

Serve with a fresh green salad.

NUTRITION:

Calories: 453           Carbs: 32g           Sodium: 689mg           Fiber: 2g           Protein: 29g

A Promising New GDPR Ruling Against Targeted Ads

by Gennie Gebhart
Reprinted from Electronic Frontier Foundation
Under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Targeted advertising's days may be numbered. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters report that the European Data Protection Board has ruled that Meta cannot continue targeting ads based on user's online activity without affirmative, opt-in consent. This ruling is based on the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This is a big step in the right direction: voluntary opt-in consent should be the baseline requirement for any data collection, retention, or use. And we should take a step further: online behavioral advertising should be banned.

The ruling is not final, or even public. The Board has sent the matter back to Ireland's Data Protection Commission to issue an order, and reportedly to assess fines. Meta can still appeal. If the decision is finalized and enforced, Meta will need to change its surveillance and consent practices, and ads on Facebook and Instagram will start working significantly differently. Meta would have to seek affirmative consent from users before sending them targeted ads based on surveillance of their online behavior. Meta could pivot to "contextual ads" based only on the content a user is currently interacting with.

The surveillance-based advertising in question here involves how people use Meta's own apps. Since 2020, Meta has offered settings to opt out of ad targeting based on information from other apps, websites, and businesses that Meta knows you have visited. Meta tracks its users off-site through tools like Facebook Login, Facebook's tracking Pixel, social widgets such as Like and Share buttons, and other less visible features for developers. But Meta offers its users no similar option to opt out of ad targeting based on what users click, like, watch, and interact with on Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta properties.

The company should be offering all of its users an affirmative, opt-in consent option--and not track its users, either on-site or off-site, unless they opt in. Instead, Meta stuck language about its ad targeting practices into its platforms' Terms of Service. Then Meta claimed that this means that, when someone uses Facebook or Instagram, they've supposedly "consented" to the use of their information to target ads. This sleight of hand takes advantage of the GDPR concept of "contractual necessity," in which the GDPR allows data processors to collect and use information as necessary to deliver services for which the data subject contracted. One canonical example is that if you ask a company to send you a package, it can collect your address and use it to send you the package, even without separate explicit consent.

This week's ruling stems from a complaint filed by EU-based NOYB (short for "none of your business") in 2018 against Meta. At the time, Ireland's privacy regulator sided with Meta. Now the European-wide Data Protection Board has revisited the issue.

This is an important step in the right direction. No company--Meta included--should be able to side-step consent with Terms of Service trickery, and users should be able to affirmatively decide whether or not their information is used for ad targeting. Opt-in consent to collect, retain, or use a person's data is at the core of the GDPR, and of EFF's recommendations for any consumer data privacy legislation.

This is not the only recent blow to Meta's ad business. Last year, Apple introduced AppTrackingTransparency, which requires mobile apps on iOS to obtain the user's express permission before tracking them across other apps. Sure enough, when given a clear choice, most people prefer that their personal devices not enable around-the-clock surveillance of their every click and swipe, and Meta lost both advertising revenue and a source of valuable ad targeting data.

Ad tracking, profiling, and targeting violates privacy, warps technology development, and has discriminatory impacts on users. Online behavioral advertising should be banned outright. Until then, moves like the European Data Protection Board's send a clear message to platforms and advertisers that neither regulators nor users are willing to tolerate this extractive business model.

GIMP Tutorial: Using The Heal Tool

by Meemaw

I still watch tutorials to learn new skills, and came across this one on Davies Media Design's YouTube channel about the Heal tool.

The Heal tool is similar to the Clone tool, but uses a bit different algorithm. While the Clone tool copies the exact pixels selected, and paints them over your chosen area, the Heal tool seems to take the surrounding pixels and imperfections into account as well, making your subject easier to paint (they are, after all, both brushes).

Let's look at the difference between the Clone tool and the Heal tool. If you have the tools grouped in GIMP, they are in the same group. If not, the Clone tool icon looks like a stamp, and the Heal tool looks like two bandages in an X-shape.

The photo I'm using is a nice one I got from WikiMedia Commons. It's a beautiful picture of a mother and child, but the mother has some imperfections on her face.

Now, if I use the Clone tool on her face, I'm seeing a streak right next to the selected pixels, which is where I "painted" with the clone tool. You might not see it very well in this photo, but for others in color, it might be more pronounced.

In this one, which I used for the original Clone tool article, it's not taking the sign post out very well yet.

Let's use the Heal tool and see if it works better.

With the Heal tool, the facial imperfections can be evened out and blemishes can be taken out. The blemishes can be done easily using a brush size only slightly bigger than the blemish.

Now let's try it on the signpost, While even Michael Davies says in his tutorial that darker colors are harder to clone or heal, I think healing has worked pretty well on this. I'll just have to go over it again.

Let's also look at the tool settings for the Heal tool. Since it acts like a brush, most of the settings are similar.

Opacity - While sometimes a more opaque brush works, it's probably not a tool you can use with the heal tool, but it's still there.

Brush - You can pick the brush you use with the Heal tool. I generally use a soft round brush but you could choose something else depending on what you are trying to heal.

Size - As in the paint brush tool, you can resize your brush to fit into any situation. Move the slider left or right. You can also use your bracket keys - [ or ] - to increase and decrease the brush size.

Aspect Ratio - This is the ratio between length and width of your brush so even if you choose a round brush, changing the aspect ratio can make it long and thin or short and wide.

Angle - If you have a round brush, this won't matter, but if for some reason you are using an oblong brush, you can change the angle to make a certain effect or possibly work in a smaller space.

Spacing - The Heal tool takes samples from the selected spot (which you can select by holding the <Ctrl> and clicking in the area you want). As you paint, GIMP takes the samples from your selection and the selection moves with the brush stroke. The spacing setting changes the distance between the samples taken.

Hardness - Here you can change the hardness of your brush without actually changing the brush you are using.

Force - This was explained as most useful if you are using an exterior tablet, like a Wacom, and want to change the force with which you push on the tablet with the stylus.

Dynamics - This setting has a lot of sub-settings for different effects, which may not help with healing a photo. I didn't try any of them, so if you find one that works particularly well, please let me know.

Apply Jitter - This setting does what it says: applies a jitter to the stroke you are painting, which for some textures, may help immensely.

Smooth Stroke - This setting is the opposite of jitter. If you are already shaky for some reason, this setting can remove some of that.

Lock Brush to View - This keeps the brush the same size no matter how far you zoom in or out. The same size means that if it's 5 pixels, and you zoom in, the brush on the picture will be the same size but may only cover 1 pixel now.

Hard Edge - This changes the hardness of your brush to 100%, disregarding the hardness you chose above.

Sample Merged - If you are working on an image with multiple layers, you can check this and the Heal tool will sample from all layers rather than just the one you are working on.

Alignment - This setting has four sub-settings: None, Aligned, Registered and Fixed. This has to do with how the sample lines up with the brush. None moves the sample as the brush moves, then moves back to where you <Ctrl> + clicked. That's the norm for the Heal tool. Aligned moves your sample (after you choose it) right with your mouse. Registered keeps your brush and selection together. Fixed keeps your selection in the exact same spot no matter where you move your mouse, which tends to mimic the clone tool, giving you a streak all the same color.

I've healed the mother and baby photo completely, and the signpost in the barn photo (I hope!)

As with all tools and all images, you should experiment to see what works best. Davies says you can add a transparent layer on top, click on Sample Merged, and do all your work on the transparent layer. That is a cool idea since that layer can be deleted if you feel like you've ruined it completely.

Hope your photos are more awesome than ever!

We Need To Talk About Infrastructure

by Electronic Frontier Foundation
Reprinted under Creative Commons Attribution License

Essential internet infrastructure should be content-neutral. These services should not make editorial decisions that remove content beyond the scope of the law. This is in part because history shows that any new censorship methods will eventually be abused and that those abuses often end up hurting the least powerful.

That's the easy part. The hard part is defining what exactly "essential internet infrastructure" is, and to which users. We also need to recognize that this designation can and does change over time. Right now, the "infrastructure" designation is in danger of getting tossed around too easily, resulting in un-nuanced conversations at best and an unjustified cloak of protection, sometimes for anti-competitive business models, at worst.

The term "infrastructure" can encompass a technically nuanced landscape of things -- services, standards, protocols, and physical structures -- each of which has varying degrees of impact if they're removed from the proverbial stack. Here's how EFF thinks about the spectrum of infrastructure with respect to content moderation in late 2022, and how our thinking has changed over time.

Essentially Infra

Some things are absolutely, essentially, infrastructure. These things often have no meaningful alternative, no inconvenient but otherwise available option. Physical infrastructure is the easiest type to see here, with things like submarine cables and internet exchange points (IXPs). These things make up the tangible backbone of the internet. Parts of the logical layer of the internet also sit on this far side of the spectrum of what is or is not critical infrastructure, including protocols like HTTP and TCP/IP. These components of physical and logical infrastructure share the same essentialness and the same obligation to content neutrality. Without them, the internet in its current form simply could not exist. At least not at this moment.

Pretty much Infra

Then there's a layer of things that are not necessarily critical internet infrastructure but are essential for most of us to operate businesses and labor online. Because of how the internet functions today, things in this layer have unique chokepoint capabilities. This includes payment processors, certificate authorities, and even app stores. Without access to these things, many online businesses cannot function. Neither can nonprofits and activist groups and many, many others. The unique power that things in this layer have over public equity is too much to deny. Sure, some alternatives technically exist: things like Monero, side-loaded APKs, or root access to a web server for generating your own cert with Certbot. But these are not realistic options to recommend for anyone without significant technical skill or resources. There's no denying that when these "pretty much infra" services choose to police content, those choices can be disproportionately impactful in ways that end users and websites can't remedy.

Not really Infra, but for some reason we often get stuck saying it is

Then there's this whole other layer of things that take place behind the scenes of apps, but still contribute some important service to them. These things don't have the literal power to keep a platform's lights on (or turn the lights off), but they provide an undeniable and sometimes important "quality of life."

CDNs, security services, and analytics plugins are all great examples. If they withdraw service the impact can vary, but on the internet of 2022, someone dropped by one service almost always has easy-to-obtain (even if not as sleek or sophisticated) alternative solutions.

CDNs are an important example to consider: they provide data redundancy and speed of access. Sometimes they're more vital to an organization, like if a company needs to send a one-gigabyte software update to a billion people ASAP. A web app's responsiveness is also somewhat dependent on the reliability of a CDN. Streaming is a good example of something whose performance can be more dependent on that kind of reliability. Nonetheless, a CDN doesn't have the lights on/off quality that other things do and only very rarely is its quality-of-life impact severe enough that it qualifies for the "pretty much infra" category we just covered. Unfortunately, mischaracterizing the infrastructural quality of CDNs is a common mistake, one we've even made ourselves.

EFF's past infrastructure characterizations

At EFF, we are deeply committed to ensuring that users can trust us to be both careful and correct in all of our advocacy. Our framing of Cloudflare's decision to cut off service to Kiwi Farms as about "infrastructure," in a post discussing content interventions more generally, didn't meet that bar for 2022.

The silver lining is that it prompted us at EFF to reconsider how we approach infrastructure and content moderation decisions and to think about how today's internet is different than it was just a few years ago. In 2022, could we applaud Cloudflare's decision to not do business with such ghouls while also strongly supporting the principle that infrastructure needs to be content-neutral? It turns out the answer is yes, and that answer begins with a careful and transparent reconsideration of what we mean when we say "infrastructure."

Our blog post raised concerns about "infrastructure" content interventions, and pointed to Cloudflare's decision, among others. Yet what happened as a result of that decision is clear: shortly after Kiwi Farms went offline, they came back on again with the help of a FOSS bot-detection tool. It came at the cost of a slightly slower load time and the occasional CAPTCHA for gatekeeping authentication, but that result clearly put this situation in a "not really infra" category in 2022, even if at some earlier time the loss of Cloudflare's anti-DDOS service might have been closer to infrastructure.

When a business like Cloudflare isn't really crucial to keeping a site online, it should not claim "infrastructure" status (or use public utility examples to describe itself). EFF shouldn't do that either.

Because true censorship -- kicking a voice offline with little or no recourse -- is what we're really worried about when we say that infrastructure should be content-neutral. And since we're worried about steps that will truly kick people off of the Internet, we need to recognize that what service qualifies for that status changes over time, and may even change depending on the resources of the person or entity censored.

Infrastructure matters because it is crucial in protecting expression and speech online. EFF will always stand up to "protect the stack" even if what's in the stack can and will change over time.

Short Topix: "Pay Phones" Are Making A Comeback In Philadelphia, Thanks To Linux

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Monthly Update: Assault On Your Privacy

From the boy-am-I-glad-I-switched-from-LastPass-to-Bitwarden department, LastPass was recently the victim of hackers in another recent data breach towards the end of November. Customer data was accessed in the data breach, according to the company, using data previously obtained by another hack in August, 2022. You can read the LastPass blog about the hack here. Meanwhile, if you haven't already done so, you might want to think about following the guide we ran here in The PCLinuxOS Magazine and switch your password manager over to Bitwarden. Two data breaches in less than three months shouldn't be leaving anyone feeling too secure.

As we come up on the annual tax filing circus season in the U.S., this next news item will possibly send U.S. users into orbit. According to an article on The Verge, "major tax filing services such as H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer have been quietly transmitting sensitive financial information to Facebook when Americans file their taxes online," The Markup has learned. The data, sent through widely used code called the Meta Pixel, includes not only information like names and email addresses but often even more detailed information, including data on users' income, filing status, refund amounts, and dependents' college scholarship amounts. The data is transmitted to Facebook regardless if you have a Facebook account or not. You can also read more on The Markup site, and see the images (proof) on The Markup's GitHub site where data is being sent to Facebook and Google.

Windows spyware traced to North Korean hacking groups has been caught scanning phones that connect to infected PCs, according to an article on PCWorld. Called "Dolphin," the malware is connected to multiple spyware and digital espionage groups believed to be working for the government of North Korea, primarily for the purposes of gathering information on South Korea and other Asian governments and industrial interests. It's being deployed to specific targets. The tool uses fairly standard Python-based methods of searching a victim's machine, then uploading sensitive information like passwords and other security credentials to a Google Drive account, where hackers can easily retrieve it. It also collects keystrokes for passwords, targeted extension files, and screenshots.

The National Security Agency said on Tuesday that Chinese state-backed hackers are exploiting a flaw in a widely used networking device that allows an attacker to carry out remote code execution, according to an article on CyberScoop. In its advisory, the NSA said it believes a Chinese hacking crew known as APT5 "has demonstrated capabilities" against an application delivery controller made by Citrix. Citrix released an emergency patch to fix the vulnerability on Monday and said that "exploits of this issue on unmitigated appliances in the wild have been reported."

According to an article on TechRadar, Xnspy stalker/tracker software has been surreptitiously installed thousands of times on unsuspecting Android and iOS user devices, despite having been banned in the Google Play store in 2020. To make matters even worse, the stalker/tracker software has more security holes than there are holes in Swiss cheese, exposing victim data to third parties, further adding insult to injury.

New Banana-Derived Therapy Is Effective Against All Known Coronaviruses and Flu Strains

According to an article on SciTechDaily, a compound from the banana fruit (H84T-BanLec) is an effective antiviral against all known strains of both the coronavirus and the influenza virus. The compound is from a protein that is isolated from banana fruit. It accomplishes its viral-blocking abilities by binding to high-mannose glycans, polysaccharides that are present on the surface of the viruses, but only very rarely on normal healthy human cells. After binding, the virus cannot enter cells to infect them.

The compound was being studied for use against the influenza virus back in 2020 when the pandemic hit. Their research included looking previously at the compound's effectiveness against the coronavirus, before studying its effectiveness against the influenza virus. The pandemic slowed the publication of the data.

You can read the full study on Cell Reports Medicine online. I'll caution you that the paper is quite technical and full of medical jargon and technobabble. I'm sure our readers here have the mental acumen to understand what they are reading, even if it is made to be quite a boring read.

"Pay Phones" Are Making A Comeback In Philadelphia, Thanks To Linux

Thanks to an amateur phone collective in Philadelphia, pay phones are mounting a comeback there. Behind it all is Linux, according to an article on Make Use Of.

Despite the proliferation of cell phones -- and particularly smartphones -- there are plenty of people who don't have them, either because they can't afford them, or because they value their privacy.

And the price to make a call from one of these "pay phones?" It's FREE, to any number in North America. From the Make Use Of article:

"The heart of PhilTel is a Linux-based virtual private server running the open-source PBX server Asterisk. This server connects the network of refurbished payphones to the public phone network via a VoIP service through some hardware that interfaces the analog phone to the digital network, and then to a router installed at the site which connects to the PBX server. The network traffic is encrypted with OpenVPN.

To ordinary callers, the phones will work the way they did in the analog era, minus the need to insert coins before making a call. There's a special circuit board that takes the place of the coin acceptor equipment. Making calls will be completely free of charge."

Scientists Discover Texts From an Ancient Astronomical Catalog

Fragments of a star catalog written by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus during the second century BC have recently been discovered by researchers from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Sorbonne University, and Tyndale House (associated with the University of Cambridge), according to an article on SciTechDaily. These texts were discovered using multispectral imaging methods after being wiped from a manuscript during the medieval period in order to reuse the pages. The study of these extracts, which was published in the Journal for the History of Astronomy, sheds new light on ancient astronomy.

PCLinuxOS Magazine Short Topix Roundup

Users of touchscreen computers will be happy to note that Linux kernel 6.2 introduces several more touchscreen drivers, according to an article on Phoronix.

Using earth-based telescopes, astronomers spotted the largest galaxy ever, according to an article on Science Alert. The enormous galaxy measured 5 megaparsecs long, or 16.3 million light years long.

An article on Inverse highlights how your flatulence says more about your health than you think, and scientists are now listening.

Two minerals that have never been seen before on Earth have been discovered inside a massive meteorite in Somalia, according to an article on LiveScience. They could hold important clues to how asteroids form. The two brand new minerals were found inside a single 2.5 ounce (70 gram) slice taken from the 16.5 ton (15 metric tons) El Ali meteorite, which was found in 2020.

A recent Tel Aviv University study found that pressure chamber therapy greatly improved social skills and the condition of the autistic brain, according to an article on SciTechDaily. The research was carried out on autism animal models. The researchers discovered changes in the brain, including a decrease in neuroinflammation, which has been linked to autism. Furthermore, the social functioning of the animal models treated in the pressure chamber improved significantly. The success of the research has significant implications for the applicability and understanding of pressure chamber therapy as a treatment for autism.

Google is no longer considering turning off Manifest V2 Chrome extensions in January, as were their original plans in the transition to Manifest V3, according to an article on The Verge. The company is currently reviewing the timeline for the transition. This may have HUGE implications for users of ad block software, since Manifest V3 would render most ad blockers ineffective. They currently rely on Manifest V2 commands, which are inactivated under Manifest V3.

Microsoft announced that a future Microsoft Edge update would permanently disable the Internet Explorer 11 desktop web browser on some Windows 10 systems in February, according to an article from BleepingComputer.

For those relying on Microsoft's exFAT file-system for your SD cards or USB flash drives, the kernel driver with Linux 6.2 is capable of handling much faster file and directory creation than on prior versions, according to an article on Phoronix.

Transportation officials in multiple states are testing whether roads made from grocery bags, juice cartons, printer ink cartridges or other discarded plastic can make pavement last longer, save money and reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, according to an article from The Detroit News.

The NTFS driver adds new mount options with Linux 6.2, according to an article on Phoronix.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus:

Sausage and Gravy Biscuit Pockets

Serves 16

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound bulk pork sausage
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 cups 2% milk
2 tubes (16.3 ounces each) large refrigerated buttermilk biscuits.

DIRECTIONS:

In a large skillet, cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink, 3-5 minutes, breaking into crumbles. Add butter; heat until melted. Add flour, salt and pepper; cook and stir until blended. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; cool to room temperature, about 25 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400F. On a lightly floured surface, pat or roll each biscuit into a 6-in. circle. Spoon 1/2 cup gravy mixture over half of each circle to within 1/2 in. of edge. Wet edge and fold dough over filling; press edge with a fork to seal.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, 12-14 minutes.

TIPS:

Cover and freeze unbaked pockets on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet until firm. Transfer to freezer containers; return to freezer. To use, bake pockets on an ungreased baking sheet in a preheated 400F oven until golden brown and heated through, 12-14 minutes. If desired, brush with additional melted butter.

NUTRITION:

Calories: 313           Carbs: 31g           Sodium: 946mg           Fiber: 1g           Protein: 10g

No Nudity Allowed: Censoring Naked Yoga

by Paige Collings
Reprint from Electronic Frontier Foundation
Under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Most nude content is legal, and engaging with such material online provides individuals with a safe and open framework to explore their identities, build communities, and discover new interests. However, social networks and payment processors are intervening to become the arbiters of how people create and engage with nudity and sexuality--both offline and in the digital space. As a result of this flawed system, a crucial form of engagement for all kinds of users has been removed and the voices of people with less power have regularly been shut down.

One recent illustration is the censorship of True Naked Yoga--a platform providing online naked yoga videos (caution: considered adult content in some jurisdictions). In August 2022, payment processor Stripe banned True Naked Yoga, calling it a "restricted business," which contravened Stripe's service agreement. Stripe gave True Naked Yoga just four days' notice before the account was closed.

Stripe had reviewed the site in December 2021 and did not flag any problems, nor did it give True Naked Yoga any warning that the terms of service had changed. The abrupt ban forced True Naked Yoga to shut down for more than one month until it could find a new payment processor.

Processors are entitled to enforce their terms of service, but this is a shameful way to do it, and a terrible precedent. Payment services provide vital financial pathways for companies and nonprofits. Websites--whether they accept online donations, sell goods online, or simply have a bank account--rely on their financial institutions to ensure they can continue to operate. We've seen many examples of pressure being exerted on a website's wallet to try to shut down lawful speech.

So even when material violates terms of service, it is crucial that payment processors give users ample notice so they can arrange for an alternative. They should also give users the right to appeal.

Speaking to EFF, True Naked Yoga noted that:

"These prudish tactics often do nothing to make the internet a safer place, but instead negatively affect sex workers, people of color, artists, and even naturist communities. Though these terms of service are in place to supposedly create a safer environment online, they consequently create a situation in which pornography has a monopoly over nudity on the internet.

Allowing space for nonsexual nudity in society and online helps to combat stigma and other sociocultural harm, while also encouraging more nuanced conversations that have the power to shape our world in more positive ways."

True Naked Yoga has also been banned from the marketing platform MailChimp for violating its Acceptable Use Policy, which forbids "services with a sexual emphasis or sexually explicit content--including images depicting nudity." At the same time, its accounts on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube have been removed, as well as Instagram deleting the yoga platform's original account four times before a permanent deletion--despite the content uploaded in accordance with community guidelines.

Nudity transcends pornographic content and sexually engaging material. Yet, the actions of social media platforms and payment intermediaries--like Stripe--are arbitrarily influencing what kind of speech and nudity can exist online. It's time for payment processors to stop censoring legal content and grow up.

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