First of all build yourself a decent local file server. Simple PC with two 4TB drives will do. Then load it with FreeBSD and create simple mirrored ZFS volume on these two drives (also have volume for the OS itself). Then share that volume with whatever protocol you prefer (SMB would be OK). Then move all your stuff to this fileserver. Now you have all your data on a self healing volume - this is very important because with few TB data you WILL notice that the data gets degraded over time - you will randomly loose some bits (so also individual photos) here and there.
Now when you have all that data in one place (file server) configure it to archive (backup) the data online to some cloud service like Amazon, Blackblaze or similar.
No. Leave it until it dies completely on the web. Sometime I visit a flash site because I *NEED* to. I like that Chrome comes with flash plugin installed so I don't need to worry about installing/keeping it up to date. Oh and I have all plugins disabled by default via click to play policy.
I don't use credit cards. I live in Poland and actually credit cards are not a good deal here. It is much better to use a card which is attached to your account and is only billable by the amount you have on your account.
As a security measure (minimising risk) I have my cards attached to separate subaccount that I only load with operational cash (no the account I use for savings). I have daily payment limits set up.
Also I have no problem with using wireless payment swiping. It is great and very convinient. In Poland you can only do transactions up to 50z (about $12) without submitting a PIN. And transactions with wireless payment can't be cached (issued off line). So it makes thing pretty secure and convinient.
Also I have my card insured as standard bonus with my account. I think card insurance is somewhat mandatory. So when somebody cheats me I will get my money back.
In my opinion using cards is much safer than carrying cash, doing bank transfers or using something like Paypal.
> I am in the process of reverting the two machines I had already upgraded > back to Windows 7. Regrets, and hope Windows 10 spys are eliminated.
Install GWX Control Panel (disables Windows 10 nagging) and Spybot Anti Beacon (disables Telemetry). After that you will have perfectly working Windows 7 install without all that crap Microsoft is shitting against us.
Well as for your first question I only noted that that is possible to play arcade style games on mobile tablets and smartphones using controllers with physical buttons. With that it is perfectly playable. And I assumed that Nintendo could sell such controller with access to its games library (via Virtual Console system). In my opinion this would make them a lot of additional money without really canibalizing they mobile consoles. Who buys current generation gameboy style device to play oldschool games?
As for your second question I guess that developers who developed for Nintendo platforms do not have rights to release these games elsewhere.
They don't need to port anything. They already have the technology to do it via Virtual Console. They just need to release VC client and allow to purchase and download games to that.
Adding physical buttons to smartphone or tablet is not a problem. I constatnly use my iPega controller with 5,5" smartphone and 8" tablet and it works great. I mostly play oldschool titles from SNES, M.A.M.E. and native ports of games as Metal Slug or similar. I think there is lot of money to make if Nintendo released an attachable controler that hosts the device such as smartphone as its screen with built-in battery. AND also released its vast library of oldschool games on it. They have means to do it via all this virtual console stuff they have on their current systems.
Funny is that now the Leavers from the group you've described (rural, small towns, not educated) will have it much tougher during and after the crisis. The poor will starve first.
It works perfectly for me on Windows 7. And yes I know that all of what it does can be done manualy but these tools do their job and work well so why bother...
> [RMS]: Most citizens of the US live under far more surveillance than > the citizens of the Soviet Union knew.
Technically of course he is right. In Soviet times there was no Internet, no cellular network and no technical means to process all this data. So it is obvious that now the governments have more means to spy on citizens. But staying just on technical merits you could have said that "most citizens of the US live now under far more surveillance than the citizens of the Regan era US knew".
The guy is just wrong. I live in Poland which was Soviet sattelite state (quite autonomous since it managed to free itself from Soviet grip). I remember my father talking about his workplace in communist times. Once on his job he joked about the shape of glasses the general Jaruzelski wore - he said he was a welder (since the glasses looked like welders). He said that in company of three other people in his workplace. Yet the next day he was called before party member who reprimended him. And this is not some unusual story - the truth about communist states is that about 10% of people around you were state agents reporting to security service (by will giving them benefits or forced to be f.e. blackmailed).
And that is how totalitarian surveillance works - it uses people not machines. People who spy on you will always be better than any technology (unless the technology gets somehow intelligent which isn't happening in a few decades).
I respect RMS but in this case he is really wrong.
> What [...] is generally the best way to distribute patches
Patches for what? For PC operating systems? PC software? Embeded computers?
> in a way so customers can download them, considering > that the machines are offline?
Well you can't download anything when you are offline. You mean that customers download the patches, put it on removable media and install them on their machines...
> Are there any software packages (open source preferred) that pretty much > allow engineers to upload a patch with a description to a web server, and allow > customers with credentials that are registered in LDAP to browse and download > them quickly?
Yeah like SFTP server for uploading and web server (f.e. Apache with LDAP modules) for customers?
> I just have a desktop PC which I use for most of the stuff I do (gaming, video, work, etc.), > and it's upstairs. From time to time, I'd like to use it downstairs. Is there a wireless solution > that will let me take control of the PC from downstairs, using the TV (HDMI) as the screen, > and the TV's speakers to replace my desktop speakers?
What you are asking is how to work remotely from TV room to your personal computer.
You haven't specified any essential details so I need to ask:
What kind of stuff you wish to do remotely?
1) Just access photos on your PC and maybe some media (music, videos streaming)?
For that you need just a simple network media player attached to your TV. Also you need a modest wifi connection between your TV and your PC. Anything that has wifi, can output via HDMI, has a remote and plays media files (photos, audio, video) will do.
2) Maybe do some office work on it?
For that you need a thin client. Probably Android based. That can do VNC or RDP. Also some input devices for that box (USB or wireless keyboard and mouse). And a modest wifi connection.
3) Gaming?
If you even think about streaming games from your PC you need a powerful wifi connection (like dual band, N standard, *fast* access points). And some device that can stream games from Steam - even small Raspberry Pi box could do that but network performance is essential.
So given above three points you need to have: - configured wireless or wired network connection between the TV and your PC - somekind of client device at your TV (Android based set-top box or dongle, something like PCoIP thin client, small Linux client (like RasPI)) - some input devices for your TV - depending on what you want - a remote control for media, a keyboard and mouse for workflow, a gamepad for gaming
But the one thing in common is to have network connection (wireless or wired) between the PC and the TV.
> In the US [...] you can sue (not that you'd be likely to win, > but you can sue almost anyone for almost any reason)
That is normal in any sane jurisdiction. In _civil_trial_ you can sue almost everyone for compensation (not for freedom restraints). Please do distinguish civil vs. criminal law. Basically in civil law you can sue anybody (f.e. me) for anything (f.e. for educating you). In criminal law that is the state or the victim that sues and the penalty would be freedom restraint (jail or something similar). In civil right there is compensation for the side suing. Usually sane countries have some protections about bogus claims. For example in my country if you wish to sue somebody on civil basis for an ammount exceeding ~20,000EUR you need to pay in a vadium of about 10% prior. If you win the trial - you win. But if you loose you also loose the vadium and you need to pay up for all associated costs.
> I have always been interested in how and why users break policies, > despite being trained carefully.
Well this is a different question than topic subject about mobile devices. They break it because they can I guess.
> I watched people take iPhones into highly sensitive government facilities on several occasions.
They were not as highly sensitive then. If they were there would be actually some guards at the doors searching people to prohibit bringing in devices such as smartphones.
It is quite easy - you can build a really big fence. Like 20m high but if nobody is going to watch over it there would be a guy with 20m ladder... so I guess you get security wrong. If there is a policy prohibiting iPhones in certain area - do execute that policy and have guards executing it physically.
> That led me to wonder to what extent the same problem exists in the > private sector:
It depends but usually not. If it is concerning REALLY SENSITIVE AND PRECIOUS DATA like medical research, military contractors, finance and so on - then yes the problem exists. But usually in private sector the data is just not so sensitive to protect it with such costly measures.
> Portable Electronic Devices (PEDs) are a huge threat to both security and intellectual property.
Nah. They are not. If they are then you are doing something wrong.
> So, do you use a smart phone or other PED during work hours, > even though you are not supposed to?
No. That is I can use my smartphone whenever I want. No company policy forbids me that and I know nobody that has similar policy in place. In my opinion you have reached a wrong target to ask that question.
Sounds intresting but I hate SUSE. It is not for me - I prefer more basic and barebone distro without UI configuration tools getting in my way. Arch Linux is perfect for me.
I forgot one important thing - before settling on Arch Linux I've tried different distros - mostly mainstream like RHL, CentOS, Fedora, Debian and with their release policy (as opposed to rolling releases) I recall that each time new major version came out I ended wasting entire evening reading release notes, upgrading, fixing things that stopped working etc. Now I prefer to spend few minutes weekly after each update session to act on potential small changes than to waste few hours on upgrade to next major version.
> I make sure I have LVM snapshots between each update > procedure as at least 1/4 of the time something breaks. > I really wish arch didn't use rolling updates, but the vast > AUR repository unique to arch is more than worth it.
I use Arch and I can't confirm it. I've never had a problem with update process breaking anything. For me it just works as advertised. But it is essential to manage the update process. This is IMO the philosophy about Arch Linux that you need to keep control over it. Rolling releases means that there is no promise of API/ABI compatibility and of course there will be some major changes down the road on which you need to act.
When updating Arch Linux you need to read what is going to be updated. Major changes (like package replacements) are higlighted and you need to act on those changes after update. Also you need to look for configuration changes (*.pacnew files) and act if it occurs.
Also it is better to update regulary like once a week than to pile up the updates and do lots of them at once (since you can miss something important). I tend to update once a week and never had a problem. Well once I ended with unusable system after update but it was not Arch Linux related - it was a kernel bug specific to my hardware and configuration (regarding power management on laptop - it can be quite tricky on Linux but hybrid sleep/hibernation is a nice thing to have).
What problems did you have? You are stating that 1 in 4 updates cause problems so you probably can throw few examples?
Or maybe you are reffering to AUR packages breaking during update - well AUR is completely different thing from Arch Linux main repo. Some packages in AUR are of terrible quality (outdated, not working, not tested) so I guess if you have lots of obscure AUR packages installed the update process may break some things but usually it is userland. I wouldn't dare to use AUR packages for core functions of my OS (like kernel and important services).
Home laptop (primary, I also tend to work on it) - I stick with Windows 7. Obviously it is the last sane/usable version of Windows. Skipped Vista entirely. I always tend to use the Good Windows release (95, 98SE, 2000, XP, now 7). Looking forward to install Windows 10 as it looks quite sane and 7 is getting old. I apply patches automagically. With Windows it happens that some patches break stuff but it is easy enough to uninstall them. Also I run Secunia Psi to notify me about outdated apps and it also can update them automagically which is convinient.
Home Macbook (secondary, for fun) - I stick with Mavericks since I don't like the new flat look and basically it still works and apps are working so not a big deal for me. I install patches as they show up.
Home server (router, network functions, VMs for development) - Arch Linux - it is a rolling release distro so I just upgrade everything from time to time when I have security related updates pending. It works - never had broken for me.
Raspberry Pi - I use few for dedicated projects (media player, dedicated retro gaming system). When I set it up and it works I tend not to update it since I don't see the point.
Now for work computers we have strong policy. Workstations and laptops have frozen Windows version (licensing obviously, compatibilty), we push all updates via WSUS on which we accept them. We test updates on selected group of machines (IT staff) before pushing them to all. For servers we also have standardised versions (Windows, RHEL/CentOS). We roll any major upgrade through change management with backup/recovery plans in place (VM snapshots, application backups prior to upgrade i dedicated time windows etc.).
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Pebble Time Steel does all that you've mentioned but it runs 10 days on single charge...
First of all build yourself a decent local file server. Simple PC with two 4TB drives will do. Then load it with FreeBSD and create simple mirrored ZFS volume on these two drives (also have volume for the OS itself). Then share that volume with whatever protocol you prefer (SMB would be OK). Then move all your stuff to this fileserver. Now you have all your data on a self healing volume - this is very important because with few TB data you WILL notice that the data gets degraded over time - you will randomly loose some bits (so also individual photos) here and there.
Now when you have all that data in one place (file server) configure it to archive (backup) the data online to some cloud service like Amazon, Blackblaze or similar.
No. Leave it until it dies completely on the web. Sometime I visit a flash site because I *NEED* to. I like that Chrome comes with flash plugin installed so I don't need to worry about installing/keeping it up to date. Oh and I have all plugins disabled by default via click to play policy.
I don't use credit cards. I live in Poland and actually credit cards are not a good deal here. It is much better to use a card which is attached to your account and is only billable by the amount you have on your account.
As a security measure (minimising risk) I have my cards attached to separate subaccount that I only load with operational cash (no the account I use for savings). I have daily payment limits set up.
Also I have no problem with using wireless payment swiping. It is great and very convinient. In Poland you can only do transactions up to 50z (about $12) without submitting a PIN. And transactions with wireless payment can't be cached (issued off line). So it makes thing pretty secure and convinient.
Also I have my card insured as standard bonus with my account. I think card insurance is somewhat mandatory. So when somebody cheats me I will get my money back.
In my opinion using cards is much safer than carrying cash, doing bank transfers or using something like Paypal.
> Do you have a suggestion for a different client?
Transmission-daemon running on server and any client utilizing transmission API (like Transmission Remote GUI on Windows).
> I am in the process of reverting the two machines I had already upgraded
> back to Windows 7. Regrets, and hope Windows 10 spys are eliminated.
Install GWX Control Panel (disables Windows 10 nagging) and Spybot Anti Beacon (disables Telemetry). After that you will have perfectly working Windows 7 install without all that crap Microsoft is shitting against us.
> I'm guessing that those who choose an "Air" laptop with a big-ass Nvidia GPU,
> don't know what they're doing.
Yeah? Just wait few months for Xiaomi VR system. :) I think they know what they are doing.
Well as for your first question I only noted that that is possible to play arcade style games on mobile tablets and smartphones using controllers with physical buttons. With that it is perfectly playable. And I assumed that Nintendo could sell such controller with access to its games library (via Virtual Console system). In my opinion this would make them a lot of additional money without really canibalizing they mobile consoles. Who buys current generation gameboy style device to play oldschool games?
As for your second question I guess that developers who developed for Nintendo platforms do not have rights to release these games elsewhere.
They don't need to port anything. They already have the technology to do it via Virtual Console. They just need to release VC client and allow to purchase and download games to that.
Adding physical buttons to smartphone or tablet is not a problem. I constatnly use my iPega controller with 5,5" smartphone and 8" tablet and it works great. I mostly play oldschool titles from SNES, M.A.M.E. and native ports of games as Metal Slug or similar. I think there is lot of money to make if Nintendo released an attachable controler that hosts the device such as smartphone as its screen with built-in battery. AND also released its vast library of oldschool games on it. They have means to do it via all this virtual console stuff they have on their current systems.
This phone is basically rebranded Alcatel Idol 4 (which Alcatel itself rebrands from chinese TCL corporation) with custom Blackberry ROM and software.
I would rather buy Blackphone for security.
Well people tried to deal with heat in architecture since like 1000 years B.C.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Just look for clues in architecture of nations living in constantly hot climate.
AC is OK when you need it (in car f.e.) but I do prefer other cooling methods if it can be achieved.
Do you understand statistics in any way?
> 130 million miles have been logged by drivers using AP
Tesla AP was introduced around 2014 (I've used Wikipedia for this - I really have no clue).
> This is the first fatality and there have been zero injuries up to this point.
So this is data from roughly 2 years.
> In addition, a number of accidents have been avoided. So, how does this compare to the average?
Average from what peroid? How many years?
Funny is that now the Leavers from the group you've described (rural, small towns, not educated) will have it much tougher during and after the crisis. The poor will starve first.
Here is some info:
http://en.miui.com/thread-2985...
Single 18650 battery weights about 40-50 grams. Xiaomi states it uses 20 of them so the battery alone is about 1kg.
The bike weight is 14,5kg.
Try GWX Control Panel to disable GWX and OS updates entirely:
http://ultimateoutsider.com/do...
Also Spybot Anti-Beacon which disables telemetry:
https://www.safer-networking.o...
It works perfectly for me on Windows 7. And yes I know that all of what it does can be done manualy but these tools do their job and work well so why bother...
> [RMS]: Most citizens of the US live under far more surveillance than
> the citizens of the Soviet Union knew.
Technically of course he is right. In Soviet times there was no Internet, no cellular network and no technical means to process all this data. So it is obvious that now the governments have more means to spy on citizens. But staying just on technical merits you could have said that "most citizens of the US live now under far more surveillance than the citizens of the Regan era US knew".
The guy is just wrong. I live in Poland which was Soviet sattelite state (quite autonomous since it managed to free itself from Soviet grip). I remember my father talking about his workplace in communist times. Once on his job he joked about the shape of glasses the general Jaruzelski wore - he said he was a welder (since the glasses looked like welders). He said that in company of three other people in his workplace. Yet the next day he was called before party member who reprimended him. And this is not some unusual story - the truth about communist states is that about 10% of people around you were state agents reporting to security service (by will giving them benefits or forced to be f.e. blackmailed).
And that is how totalitarian surveillance works - it uses people not machines. People who spy on you will always be better than any technology (unless the technology gets somehow intelligent which isn't happening in a few decades).
I respect RMS but in this case he is really wrong.
> What [...] is generally the best way to distribute patches
Patches for what? For PC operating systems? PC software? Embeded computers?
> in a way so customers can download them, considering
> that the machines are offline?
Well you can't download anything when you are offline. You mean that customers download the patches, put it on removable media and install them on their machines...
> Are there any software packages (open source preferred) that pretty much
> allow engineers to upload a patch with a description to a web server, and allow
> customers with credentials that are registered in LDAP to browse and download
> them quickly?
Yeah like SFTP server for uploading and web server (f.e. Apache with LDAP modules) for customers?
What exactly are you asking?
> I have a slightly unusual requirement.
Nothing really unusual about this.
> I just have a desktop PC which I use for most of the stuff I do (gaming, video, work, etc.),
> and it's upstairs. From time to time, I'd like to use it downstairs. Is there a wireless solution
> that will let me take control of the PC from downstairs, using the TV (HDMI) as the screen,
> and the TV's speakers to replace my desktop speakers?
What you are asking is how to work remotely from TV room to your personal computer.
You haven't specified any essential details so I need to ask:
What kind of stuff you wish to do remotely?
1) Just access photos on your PC and maybe some media (music, videos streaming)?
For that you need just a simple network media player attached to your TV. Also you need a modest wifi connection between your TV and your PC. Anything that has wifi, can output via HDMI, has a remote and plays media files (photos, audio, video) will do.
2) Maybe do some office work on it?
For that you need a thin client. Probably Android based. That can do VNC or RDP. Also some input devices for that box (USB or wireless keyboard and mouse). And a modest wifi connection.
3) Gaming?
If you even think about streaming games from your PC you need a powerful wifi connection (like dual band, N standard, *fast* access points). And some device that can stream games from Steam - even small Raspberry Pi box could do that but network performance is essential.
So given above three points you need to have:
- configured wireless or wired network connection between the TV and your PC
- somekind of client device at your TV (Android based set-top box or dongle, something like PCoIP thin client, small Linux client (like RasPI))
- some input devices for your TV - depending on what you want - a remote control for media, a keyboard and mouse for workflow, a gamepad for gaming
But the one thing in common is to have network connection (wireless or wired) between the PC and the TV.
> In the US [...] you can sue (not that you'd be likely to win,
> but you can sue almost anyone for almost any reason)
That is normal in any sane jurisdiction. In _civil_trial_ you can sue almost everyone for compensation (not for freedom restraints). Please do distinguish civil vs. criminal law. Basically in civil law you can sue anybody (f.e. me) for anything (f.e. for educating you). In criminal law that is the state or the victim that sues and the penalty would be freedom restraint (jail or something similar). In civil right there is compensation for the side suing. Usually sane countries have some protections about bogus claims. For example in my country if you wish to sue somebody on civil basis for an ammount exceeding ~20,000EUR you need to pay in a vadium of about 10% prior. If you win the trial - you win. But if you loose you also loose the vadium and you need to pay up for all associated costs.
> I have always been interested in how and why users break policies,
> despite being trained carefully.
Well this is a different question than topic subject about mobile devices. They break it because they can I guess.
> I watched people take iPhones into highly sensitive government facilities on several occasions.
They were not as highly sensitive then. If they were there would be actually some guards at the doors searching people to prohibit bringing in devices such as smartphones.
It is quite easy - you can build a really big fence. Like 20m high but if nobody is going to watch over it there would be a guy with 20m ladder... so I guess you get security wrong. If there is a policy prohibiting iPhones in certain area - do execute that policy and have guards executing it physically.
> That led me to wonder to what extent the same problem exists in the
> private sector:
It depends but usually not. If it is concerning REALLY SENSITIVE AND PRECIOUS DATA like medical research, military contractors, finance and so on - then yes the problem exists. But usually in private sector the data is just not so sensitive to protect it with such costly measures.
> Portable Electronic Devices (PEDs) are a huge threat to both security and intellectual property.
Nah. They are not. If they are then you are doing something wrong.
> So, do you use a smart phone or other PED during work hours,
> even though you are not supposed to?
No. That is I can use my smartphone whenever I want. No company policy forbids me that and I know nobody that has similar policy in place. In my opinion you have reached a wrong target to ask that question.
Sounds intresting but I hate SUSE. It is not for me - I prefer more basic and barebone distro without UI configuration tools getting in my way. Arch Linux is perfect for me.
I forgot one important thing - before settling on Arch Linux I've tried different distros - mostly mainstream like RHL, CentOS, Fedora, Debian and with their release policy (as opposed to rolling releases) I recall that each time new major version came out I ended wasting entire evening reading release notes, upgrading, fixing things that stopped working etc. Now I prefer to spend few minutes weekly after each update session to act on potential small changes than to waste few hours on upgrade to next major version.
> I make sure I have LVM snapshots between each update
> procedure as at least 1/4 of the time something breaks.
> I really wish arch didn't use rolling updates, but the vast
> AUR repository unique to arch is more than worth it.
I use Arch and I can't confirm it. I've never had a problem with update process breaking anything. For me it just works as advertised. But it is essential to manage the update process. This is IMO the philosophy about Arch Linux that you need to keep control over it. Rolling releases means that there is no promise of API/ABI compatibility and of course there will be some major changes down the road on which you need to act.
When updating Arch Linux you need to read what is going to be updated. Major changes (like package replacements) are higlighted and you need to act on those changes after update. Also you need to look for configuration changes (*.pacnew files) and act if it occurs.
Also it is better to update regulary like once a week than to pile up the updates and do lots of them at once (since you can miss something important). I tend to update once a week and never had a problem. Well once I ended with unusable system after update but it was not Arch Linux related - it was a kernel bug specific to my hardware and configuration (regarding power management on laptop - it can be quite tricky on Linux but hybrid sleep/hibernation is a nice thing to have).
What problems did you have? You are stating that 1 in 4 updates cause problems so you probably can throw few examples?
Or maybe you are reffering to AUR packages breaking during update - well AUR is completely different thing from Arch Linux main repo. Some packages in AUR are of terrible quality (outdated, not working, not tested) so I guess if you have lots of obscure AUR packages installed the update process may break some things but usually it is userland. I wouldn't dare to use AUR packages for core functions of my OS (like kernel and important services).
Personal machines:
Home laptop (primary, I also tend to work on it) - I stick with Windows 7. Obviously it is the last sane/usable version of Windows. Skipped Vista entirely. I always tend to use the Good Windows release (95, 98SE, 2000, XP, now 7). Looking forward to install Windows 10 as it looks quite sane and 7 is getting old. I apply patches automagically. With Windows it happens that some patches break stuff but it is easy enough to uninstall them. Also I run Secunia Psi to notify me about outdated apps and it also can update them automagically which is convinient.
Home Macbook (secondary, for fun) - I stick with Mavericks since I don't like the new flat look and basically it still works and apps are working so not a big deal for me. I install patches as they show up.
Home server (router, network functions, VMs for development) - Arch Linux - it is a rolling release distro so I just upgrade everything from time to time when I have security related updates pending. It works - never had broken for me.
Raspberry Pi - I use few for dedicated projects (media player, dedicated retro gaming system). When I set it up and it works I tend not to update it since I don't see the point.
Now for work computers we have strong policy. Workstations and laptops have frozen Windows version (licensing obviously, compatibilty), we push all updates via WSUS on which we accept them. We test updates on selected group of machines (IT staff) before pushing them to all. For servers we also have standardised versions (Windows, RHEL/CentOS). We roll any major upgrade through change management with backup/recovery plans in place (VM snapshots, application backups prior to upgrade i dedicated time windows etc.).