July 2023 - Talk - lists.gtalug.org

[GTALUG-Announce] Membership Dues
by Warren McPherson 13 Nov '23

13 Nov '23

With the agm coming up, now is a great time to renew membership and make a small twenty dollar contribution to the organization. For those looking forward to the chance to wind their way through the Interac E-Transfer process again here is my summary of how it works. (Actually I forget each time so the novelty never wears off -- luckily it is easy.) Log in to your bank and look for "Interac e-Transfers" you may need to go to the "Transfers" page and then you will see this option. Select "email method" and use the email address: membership(a)gtalug.org Putting your name in the message can be helpful as the notification I get can sometimes be a touch obtuse. Thank you to those who have already contributed! (I know who you are. Ha ha) Thank you, Warren --- GTALUG Announce mailing list announce(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

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OLD Thinkpads, free
by Giles Orr 04 Aug '23

04 Aug '23

2 x T60, 1 x T42 I have somewhat involuntarily acquired these three exceptionally old Thinkpads. None of them are fully operational although all do something resembling booting. None have HDs, and they have other minor ailments as well. No power supplies. My inclination is to rip them apart (I collect old CPUs), but if someone has an actual use for them, we can talk ... You would probably have to come to North York to collect them: I nearly broke my back carrying all three home in my backpack on the TTC. They are not light. These should be considered for parts: they sorta-maybe run, but when I give up on installing Linux on them, you can rest assured they're either badly underpowered or problematic or both. I only ask because I know a lot of people on this list (myself included) really like Thinkpads. If no answer in a week, I'll gut them (and that's fine too). -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr(a)gmail.com

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nice deal on ThinkPad E16
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 01 Aug '23

01 Aug '23

<https://forums.redflagdeals.com/lenovo-canada-thinkpad-e16-g1-ryzen-5-7530u…> - 16" - carefully customize (as outlined) - choose the excellent display option (3560x1500, 400 nits - AMD CPU. Current gen number but 2 generations behind; still good. Note: Rakuten cashback is 12% today, making this an especially good day for this deal.

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Favorite desktop manager?
by mwilson＠Vex.Net 01 Aug '23

01 Aug '23

I just installed Debian 12 on a new laptop and took Gnome as desktop/window manager. I really insist on something more Xerox PARC style. I had been using Xfce, and liked it until (following Debian 10 software updates) it began to act strangely. A few months ago it started to kick up a huge fuss about difficulties starting the Panel after a restart. About 2 weeks back, following an upgrade, the Desktop area stopped displaying anything -- no wallpaper, no icons from the Desktop folder -- just gray. That prompted this move to Debian 12. I might go back to Xfce, and assume my troubles just resulted from being 2 major releases back, but before that, what do other people use and like?

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in defence of GNOME 3
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 31 Jul '23

31 Jul '23

It works for me. Few tasks seem awkward or difficult. The learning curve wasn't bad (unless, perhaps, you are grumpy and resentful). I admit: 1. I like simplicity. Some enjoy the power of a complex interface. 2. the changes have mostly been gradual (cue lobster boiling story) 3. I don't use other desktops often (so I don't know what I'm missing) It is visually simple. Of course that seems to be a common complaint: "GNOME has simplified away my favourite things". It can feel a bit like the novel "The Memory Police". I don't remember a painful learning experience I don't understand how everything is plumbed together (iBus?). That doesn't seem to matter but it makes me nervous. I don't have to use my mouse too often. But that means learning replacements that may not seem obvious or be easy to discover. One goal of the designers is to reduce options (to simplify things). I think they have gone too far in some cases so the first thing I do is install the GNOME Tweaks tool and adjust a few things. - switch to EMACS keystrokes - switch the touchpad to have reserved space for button emulation (although I'm now playing with using multi-finger gestures instead as a personal experiment) - put the day-of-the-week in the date at the top of the screen - display the battery charge as a percentage (that setting has migrated to the standard interface, albeit in a hard-to-find corner) - turn off the setting Windows: "Attach Modal Dialogs" - I don't, but you can add more buttons to window headers (eg. minimize) The key to using GNOME effectively is to know a few things that are not announced with visual affordances. The GNOME intro video presented when you first use GNOME may explain them, I don't know. Describing actions in a GUI, in words, is long and laborious. Sorry. The WINDOWS key is very powerful. - tapping it shows you all your running desktop programs in a matrix of screen images filling the whole screen. + you can choose one of them with the mouse or the arrow keys + you can start typing the name of a program (and some other things) and it will show you likely targets. You can: * hit ENTER to start or switch to that program * hit TAB to switch the selection to the next program in the array * keep typing to narrow the selection + you can switch workspaces (but only if there is a program running in it: you have to select a program running in it) - if you press and hold the WINDOWS key you can switch between running programs using the tab key and the arrow keys. Using arrow keys you can switch between windows of the same program. Sample easy tasks: - ping-pong between the two most recent running desktop programs: WINDOWS-TAB (use the WINDOW key as a modifier or shift for TAB) - switch between windows of a program: While holding down WINDOWS, tab to the correct program, down-arrow (showing each instance), use arrow keys to select the one you want, release WINDOWS. Alternatively, at the top second-from-left position is the name of the currently running program. If you click on it, you can select between instances. - power down the system. + Normal way: click on power symbol in top right corner. From the resulting, choose the second power symbol, choose "power off". Confirm that you really mean it. + mouseless: type WINDOWS, "pow", TAB (to highlight power off), RETURN to select it. Confirm that you really mean it (mouse click OR TAB ENTER) I don't tend to use the mouse to operate the desktop, except for infrequent tasks. Oh, and selecting a different window, if already visible and my hand is already on the mouse) What I'd welcome: some more automated way of configuring the layout of windows. But I don't know what I would actually like.

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Dual boot
by Gron Arthur 31 Jul '23

31 Jul '23

Thinking of buying a Dell 3571 and making it dual boot with Windows and Debian. Main reason for Windows is, I want Nikon's ViewNX software for my DSLR camera and can't for the life of me figure out how to run it off an emulator. Does anyone see an issue with a setting up a dual boot?

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Re: [GTALUG] Mailchannels Vancouver,BC
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 26 Jul '23

26 Jul '23

| From: ac via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> | | It seems that Mailchannels no longer manages abuse, spam, scams and | criminal activity and seems to have become a service provider to | criminal syndicates and other low life, nefarious and scum baggerry | (does scum baggerry have two G's and two R's? or is scum baggery even | a word?) I had never heard of them. <https://www.mailchannels.com/> It seems that they claim to let a client outsource mail handling for a web-site. - they filter inbound SPAM (to your site) - they don't seem to claim to filter outbound SPAM from your site. Looking deeper, they seem to do this if they think that one of your accounts has been compromised. Nothing suggests that they vet their customers. I take it you know that they are knowingly accepting Bad Guys as client and that this is new.

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Re: [GTALUG] Mailchannels Vancouver,BC
by Steve Petrie 25 Jul '23

25 Jul '23

I use SiteGround (SG) https://world.siteground.com/ for website hosting http://aspetrie.net/ and email (POP3 / IMAP, SMTP). While I have found that SG technical support has occasionally seemed to me, to be a little peremptory and almost arrogant, they do know their stuff, and SG's infrastructure has been rock solid and extremely quick-response in real time terms. A while ago SG moved their services over to AWS and so far, SG service responsive time and reliability on AWS has been top notch. My attitude in selecting computing infrastructure providers is DEAD SIMPLE: NOTHING BEATS RELIABILITY IN SERVICES, PRODUCTS AND PEOPLE. So, I will quite happily suck up a little (perceived) arrogance from SG tech support, if the infrastructure being supported comes with rock-solid reliability and snappy performance. Mind you, SG could be considered to be a PREMIUM PRICED SERVICE, but when I have investigated hosting service alternatives, any apparent cost savings seemed minimal, and besides, I prefer to spend my time working on interesting personal projects, instead of posspbly struggling with flaky glitchy cheap / free hosting infrastructure. I happily pay some serious money to SG, to enjoy never regretting my choice of SG. Only problem I have had with SG email spam management, was being unable to use my Firefox browser to whitelist a particular email sender, whose messages were being listed by SG as potential spam. The SG support person showed me THEY could do the whitelisting, and then immediately closed my problem ticket. SG email comes with excellent spam management. I spend a few seconds once a day, dealing with a handful of potential spam candidates reported by SG spam management. Only once, have I ever seen a legitimate incoming email listed as potential spam in an SG spam report. Steve Petrie -------- Original Message -------- SUBJECT: [GTALUG] Mailchannels Vancouver,BC DATE: 2023-07-25 06:09 FROM: ac via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> TO: talk(a)gtalug.org Hi Everyone, It seems that Mailchannels no longer manages abuse, spam, scams and criminal activity and seems to have become a service provider to criminal syndicates and other low life, nefarious and scum baggerry (does scum baggerry have two G's and two R's? or is scum baggery even a word?) They are not a "free" provider like @google (which now, recently and of late again seems to be accepting abuse complaints at abuse(a)google.com) Why is it that the more scummy an org becomes, the larger they seem to grow? I am thinking of names like sendgrid, for example. the more scummy the org becomes the larger they become? Maybe I am just 'late' to see the connection and the "ESP's" already know that, which I am now only noticing. The "ESP's" have this layer or veneer of "decency" and we do no evil, yet, practically, they do evil and it now seems that the more evil they are, while pretending to be sheep, the larger they grow. at the risk of seeming more ranty than shary, I also wonder why Google decided to start managing abuse again via email? I was so surprised a few weeks ago when abuse@google started working again... (does anyone know why?) In closing, has anyone else noticed the link between more scummy and economic growth? And the 'better' the decency veneer, like good abuse response (but no action) etc. etc. the larger the org grows? Andre --- Post to this mailing list talk(a)gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

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Mailchannels Vancouver,BC
by ac 25 Jul '23

25 Jul '23

Hi Everyone, It seems that Mailchannels no longer manages abuse, spam, scams and criminal activity and seems to have become a service provider to criminal syndicates and other low life, nefarious and scum baggerry (does scum baggerry have two G's and two R's? or is scum baggery even a word?) They are not a "free" provider like @google (which now, recently and of late again seems to be accepting abuse complaints at abuse(a)google.com) Why is it that the more scummy an org becomes, the larger they seem to grow? I am thinking of names like sendgrid, for example. the more scummy the org becomes the larger they become? Maybe I am just 'late' to see the connection and the "ESP's" already know that, which I am now only noticing. The "ESP's" have this layer or veneer of "decency" and we do no evil, yet, practically, they do evil and it now seems that the more evil they are, while pretending to be sheep, the larger they grow. at the risk of seeming more ranty than shary, I also wonder why Google decided to start managing abuse again via email? I was so surprised a few weeks ago when abuse@google started working again... (does anyone know why?) In closing, has anyone else noticed the link between more scummy and economic growth? And the 'better' the decency veneer, like good abuse response (but no action) etc. etc. the larger the org grows? Andre

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Dial up modems...
by Colin McGregor 24 Jul '23

24 Jul '23

Toronto Free-Net is downsizing and getting rid of stuff that likely should have been gotten rid of one or two decades ago. With this I've been tasked with getting rid of about a dozen PCI card modems (all used) and about 2 dozen desktop modems (also all used), while hopefully making some $$ for Toronto Free-Net.I have not properly checked the PCI modems, but I would not be surprised if at least a few are WinModems that would require a MS Windows specific driver for some no longer supported version of MS Windows (ie: useless for effectively everyone). Does anyone know of anyone who would be interested in these modems? At this point I see the market for these modems being so tiny as to be effectively non-existent. Still I would like to see the space these devices take up in my apartment freed, I would like to see them kept out of the e-Waste stream a little while longer and ideally I would like the Toronto Free-Net to make a few $.

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