Table of Contents

- From The Chief Editor's Desk

1. GDPR: Bringing Privacy To The Forefront

2. Creating A Slideshow In Kdenlive

3. Inkscape Tutorial: Drawing Realistic-Looking Grass

4. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

5. ms_meme's Nook: PCLOS Is A Picnic

6. Stop Autoplay Before It Starts

7. PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: PendragonUK

8. YouTuber - Yet More Tools And Tips For Your Video

9. Tip Top Tips: pmss - Scrot On Steroids

10. Short Topix: Julian Assange Update

11. PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe Corner

12. ms_meme's Nook: Cast His Fate With A Linux Brand

13. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

14. Screenshot Showcase

From The Chief Editor's Desk

Although not in a meteorological or astronomical sense, summer has arrived here. School is out for summer break, and the temperatures are currently in the upper 80s to the mid 90s (Fahrenheit ... that's 35 Celsius). Since school is out, now comes the parental challenge to find things to keep the kids occupied and entertained. Plus, the challenge to mix things up every once in a while so they don't get bored with any one particular activity.

Ryan, at 4 1/2 years old, loves going to school. The highlight of his day is riding the school bus. He just finished up another year of preschool, where they are working on his speech delay. We can't wait to unlock his speech. We know how smart and bright he is. Ryan is very mechanically inclined. Last November, we bought a new meat grinder. He had never seen a meat grinder ever before. Laura had washed it up, and had the pieces sitting on the kitchen counter to dry before packing it away. Ryan came up, briefly looked it over, and reassembled all the pieces in less than a minute. The only thing he assembled incorrectly was that he put the blade in backwards. Sit the child down in front of a kid's 36 piece jigsaw puzzle, and he'll have it assembled in under 10 minutes.

As a parent, it is painful to see the frustration on his face because he cannot communicate his thoughts and feelings. We finally, after waiting on two different waiting lists, are able to get him the extra help he needs to overcome his speech delay. First, we waited over three months to get the initial evaluation. Once they determined that they were able to help him (emphasising language, but also working on speech), we had to wait another two months just to get into the program at a large pediatric healthcare facility in Kansas City. By the time you read this, Ryan will have had his first of two dozen one-on-one sessions with a speech and language specialist. We are excited, because so many of our peers have told us stories about how much improvement they've seen in other children who also went through the same program. It's worth noting that our "peers" are other healthcare workers, since we both work in healthcare.

We've already seen a ton of improvement from Ryan attending the special class at preschool. The look of frustration on his face has become a rarer occurrence, as he is now able to express himself in sentences and to string words together to make a complete thought -- at least enough to make himself understood.

Now Lexi ... she is my little magpie. She talks constantly -- or at least tries to. She'll turn 22 months old on June 12. She's already trying to tell stories. She also loves to sing. The Beatles "Hey Jude" is her favorite, followed closely by "Let It Be" and "Yellow Submarine." She calls "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be" by their proper names, and calls "Yellow Submarine" "We All, We All" (for "We all live in a yellow submarine").

It's amazing how similar and, at the same time how different, each of them are. Lexi loves bread, while Ryan couldn't care less. Ryan loves meat, and Lexi could take it or leave it. They both love cake. But most importantly, they really, really love one another. It's not that they don't have their squabbles, as most siblings do. But you can tell that they really love one another. When Lexi wakes up, either from a nap or in the morning, one of the first things she asks is "Ry-Ry?," which is what she calls her big brother. Ryan looks out for his sister and tries to keep her safe, much to Lexi's chagrin. When Ryan comes home from school and gets off the school bus, one of the first things he does is go over and give his sister a kiss on the head.

We -- their mother and I -- hope that their mutual love of one another and that closeness they have now continues throughout their lifetimes. We will do everything we can to nurture and encourage that bond. Both my wife and I each have siblings who wouldn't know that bond if it bit them, despite everything we've done to accommodate and foster a closer relationship. We know, first hand, how difficult it can be on families, and the toll it exacts.

******************

This month's cover celebrates the 53rd anniversary of Ed White's first spacewalk by an American astronaut aboard Gemini 4, June 3, 1965. White became the second man to perform a spacewalk, following Alexei Leonov's inaugural spacewalk on March 18, 1965. White would tragically lose his life a year and a half later in the Apollo 1 fire on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral. Even though Linux wasn't even a twinkle at the time of White's spacewalk -- Linus Torvalds wouldn't even be born for another 4 1/2 years, and the first version of Linux wouldn't even be available for another 26 years -- we thought it would be fun to put a reflection of Linux mascot Tux in White's visor. The cover image is from NASA, and was "enhanced" by Meemaw. Afterall, Debian Linux replaced Windows on the ISS back in May 2013 to run key features aboard the space station. So, we're sure that if it had been available, Linux would have had a prominent place in the space program of that era.

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

GDPR: Bringing Privacy To The Forefront

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

It's about time someone did something about privacy of user data. And, boy oh boy, how the privacy of user data has been addressed. Starting on May 25, 2018, enforcement commenced on the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, a.k.a. the GDPR. It is designed to protect the data security and the privacy of EU residents. You can read the entire regulation here.

The GDPR was ratified about two years ago, but enterprises were given a two year grace period before enforcement of its provisions. But if you look even casually in your email inbox, you might get the impression that there's a lot of scrambling going on to meet those requirements. It is estimated that only 36 percent of enterprises will be fully compliant with the GDPR provisions by the date enforcement begins, according to an IBM report (registration required to acquire the report).

To say that the GDPR has been the topic of a LOT of talk in the latter half of May would be an understatement. There is a lot of scrambling to fully grasp not only all of its provisions, but also the implications of those provisions. Some of those implications have, or are bound to have, global impact.

So, let's take a look at the highlights of the GDPR, and what it all means for not only internet users, but also enterprises with a presence among users in the EU. Keep in mind that this is only an overview, and not a complete review. Also keep in mind that in no way should this article be construed -- or misconstrued -- to represent "official" legal advice.

What Is GDPR?

The GDPR replaces Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC, which was originally adopted in 1995. It unifies data privacy laws across all EU member countries, applies to all EU citizens, for all companies doing business with EU citizens, regardless of that company's location or country of origin. Before processing any personal data, companies must ask for -- and receive -- explicit permission. That request must be in plain language, specifically prohibits legal mumbo jumbo, and prevents that request from being buried in lengthy terms of service or privacy policy statements. The request, and subsequent consent, must be for a specific purpose, and must be requested separately from other requests. Those found to be in violation of provisions of the GDPR can be fined four percent of their annual global revenue, or €20 million, whichever is greater. From the outset, the GDPR appears to have some real teeth with regards to enforcement.

Who Is Subject To GDPR Provisions?

Any company that does business with EU customers, and who collects data from those customers, is subject to the provisions of the GDPR. This includes companies with an international presence, such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Amazon and many, many more. Thus, to risk non-compliance also risks being subjected to the steep fines for non-compliance. Meanwhile, organizations that "do business" with EU citizens who do not keep, maintain or ask for any user data (such as The PCLinuxOS Magazine), should see no changes in their operations.

GDPR's Key Provisions

Under the GDPR, personal data is defined as any information that can be used to identify a natural person, either directly or indirectly. The format of that data can be a name, a photo, an email address, bank details, posts on social media, medical information, or even a computer IP address.

Those who collect such information, must (under the GDPR) take documented steps to limit access to any such data to only credentialed and authorized employees who have jobs that specifically require access to that data. Any breaches in that security will be met with stiff, heavy fines (as we revealed earlier).

The GDPR also lays out specific user rights that must be adhered to. Let's take a look at those.

Consent: the GDPR specifically prohibits the use of long, chase your tail, terms of agreement statements, and especially those filled with legal mumbo jumbo. All requests for consents, terms of agreements, or privacy statements must be presented in a clear, concise manner, in plain language, without ambiguity of meaning. Furthermore, consent must be as easy to withdraw as it is to grant.

Data breach notification: all companies are required to notify users within 72 hours after a data breach has been discovered. Hallelujah! Gone now are the days where Yahoo! has yet another data breach, but they announce it eight months after it was discovered. Companies must use as many forms of notification as deemed necessary to inform users of data breaches in a timely manner. Those forms of notification include email, phone calls, and public announcements.

Right to access: at a user's request, all companies must provide confirmation regarding if personal information about them is being processed, where it is being processed, and for what purpose that data is being processed. Furthermore, all companies must be able to provide, free of charge, a copy of that personal information in an easy to read, electronic format.

Right to be forgotten: all personal data must be erased by a company when asked to do so by the user. Once such a request by a user has been made, the company must immediately stop all further dissemination of that data, and stop any further processing of that data. Valid conditions for erasure include situations where the data is no longer relevant, or the original purpose has been satisfied, or merely a user's subsequent withdrawal of consent.

Data portability: companies are required to provide a way for a user to receive any previously provided personal data in a commonly used and machine readable format. This essentially means that the data must not be in some proprietary format that is not in widespread or common use. Users can also request that the company transmit the data to another processor, free of charge.

Privacy by Design: To be in compliance, companies must follow Privacy by Design principles. In essence, this means that companies will process only the data absolutely necessary for the completion of its business, and limit access to that personal data to only those employees needing the information to complete the process consented to by the user. Companies must use appropriate technical and organizational measures effectively to meet GDPR requirements and protect the rights of users.

Data Protection Officers: if a company that collects user data a) employs over 250 employees, or b) processes personal data of over 5,000 users in any 12 month period, they should employ a data protection officer. That person's job will be to oversee the collection and processing of that data, and insure that the provisions of the GDPR are being adhered to, as well as protect personal data from misuse, unauthorized access, and other security breaches. If a company meets the criteria, the employment of a DPO is not optional, but a requirement.

Reprinted from XKCD.com, under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

GDPR penalties for noncompliance

As we stated earlier, those companies found to be in violation of provisions of the GDPR can be fined up to a maximum of four percent of their annual global revenue, or €20 million, whichever is greater. Typically, those companies who fail to get sufficient customer consent to process data, or those who violate the Privacy by Design concept, subject themselves to the maximum penalty. Lesser infractions are assessed on a tiered basis. As an example, a two percent fine can be assessed against companies who don't have their records in order, those who fail to notify the supervising authority and users about a security breach in a timely manner, or who do not conduct a required impact assessment following a security breach.

How it's affecting the digital landscape

A lot remains unclear at this time, and we'll ultimately have to wait until the dust settles over the GDPR's enforcement. And, man is there a lot of dust to settle. But some things are quite obviously changing.

At Google, for example, they have completely revamped their terms of service and privacy policies to conform to the GDPR. Additionally, Google has revamped many "controls" and tools for users to manage the data collected about them via Google's services. You can read about them here. There are many improvements coming to Google as a result of the GDPR.

Not everything is completely rosy, though. There are some struggles as companies struggle to comply with the GDPR before the enforcement commences. Even at Google, who appears to be fairly well prepared for the enforcement phase of the GDPR, there are issues. As reported in The Register, those Android app developers who heavily rely on ad revenue from Google Ads as their source of revenue, things are still in a state of flux and uncertainty. They are still (as of May 15) waiting for an updated SDK that Google promised them, but that cannot be implemented until the deadline expires. The SDK cannot be tested until GDPR enforcement is underway. Even then, a Google representative said in the Mobile Ads forum that the company couldn't guarantee that apps using the Consent SDK would actually be compliant.

Meanwhile, over at ICANN, the organization that is responsible for internet's domain name system, they are reeling in chaos. Specifically, they are scrambling to insure that whois data, used by the tool of the same name that allows you to look up who is responsible for a web page or site, is compliant with GDPR provisions. If they don't, they face extensive fines that may be ruinous to the organization.

Summary

While it has been a LONG time coming, the GDPR is a huge first step towards ensuring that users' private data has a seat at the table, so to speak. This most likely won't have any effect on the three and four letter government spying agencies slurping up our private data, but then they operate under a whole separate set of rules that we often aren't even privy to. Heck, I'm betting that sometimes (often times?), they make those rules up as they go, so there's no one really who knows what those rules are.

I only hope that other countries take the EU's lead in protecting the private data of users from the abuses that we've witnessed and encountered over the years, especially lately. Your private and personal data ARE the currency of this digital age. The GDPR gives users some heavy hitting tools to help protect that data against the large and faceless corporations whose only desire is to monetize and capitalize on that data.

Creating A Slideshow In Kdenlive

by ms_meme

I am going to show you how I used Kdenlive to create a slideshow. Kdenlive is a video editor for KDE.

The slideshow I am making is called Cast My Fate to the Wind. I enjoy singing and recorded the song in 2004. I am playing a baritone ukulele.

I have a Kdenlive directory where I create a folder for each individual project. For each project, I gather the graphics and audio I want to use and put them into the folder. I might have to edit them in Gimp or Audacity, depending on how the project develops.

To start a project, open Kdenlive and click File > New. Name and save it to the new project folder.

The graphics and audio are called clips and are added to the Project Bin. This can be done with the Add Clip feature.

I find it easier to select the graphics and audio and just drag them into the Project Bin.

The clips can now be placed on the timeline by left clicking them in the Project Bin and dragging them to one of the Video lines. There are projects that need more than Video line, but I have only used one.

The clips can be seen in the Clip Monitor. The clip that is highlighted in the Project Bin is the one in the Clip Monitor.

Next I drag my recording of castyourfatetothewind to the audio line. You can see from the numbers at the top of the timeline that the recording lasts about a minute. If I were to play the show now, there would be no video for most of the song.

I click and drag the clips and spread them to the end. Dragging the edges makes each of them last longer during the audio. Now the video will last as long as the song.

Each fate clip may appear to be the same, but they are all different. Each clip has the lyrics to a portion of the song. I put the words because I like viewers to be able sing along with me.

I need to space each clip so that it advances with the words of the song. This is the hardest part of the project. I will need to play the song over and over and move the clips accordingly. It's a good thing I like to listen to myself sing.

I wanted a little variety to the slideshow so I added a new clip in between each written part of the song. There are handles on the clips to move them or increase/decrease the amount of time they are to be shown. By right clicking the clips I can also add a dissolve transition effect.

There is a play button below the Clip Monitor. I play and adjust it many times until I am satisfied with the way it will look. I then choose the Render button and render as MP4. I then have a video to enjoy and share with friends. It can also be uploaded and shared on YouTube.

There are many many options in Kdenlive that I haven't used yet. I have had fun making musical slideshows. The video can be viewed at https://www.dropbox.com/s/3fsh81o1n6fauho/castmyfatetothewind.mp4?dl=0 .

As I was making the video and listening to my recording of Cast Your Fate to the Wind, I thought of some new words for the tune. I called it Cast His Fate with a Linux Brand. It is this month's entry for ms_meme's Nook.

Inkscape Tutorial: Drawing Realistic-Looking Grass

by Meemaw

I saw this one a while back and it looked really fun! We'll be making a bunch of grass that looks realistic. To do this we'll have to start with a single blade of grass.

Using the Pen tool, enable the Triangle out setting and draw a straight line. Change to the Nodes tool and widen the bottom of your line just a bit, then curve the line a little (since grass is never absolutely straight).

Before we go any farther, use the Gradient tool to make a light green to dark green linear gradient.

OK, now it's important that we change the rotation location on our line. Generally when you double-click an object, there's a small plus sign in the center of it. For this project, we need to drag that plus sign to the bottom of our line.

Since we want a whole bunch of grass, we're going to use an easy way to get it. Before we learned so much about Inkscape, our first thought would be to use <CTRL> + D and duplicate the heck out of that single line. However, making them all look different would be loads of work. So instead of that, we will use Tiled Clones again.

Select your single blade of grass and go to Edit > Clones > Create Tiled Clones. The first thing you should do is click on Reset at the bottom of the window to make sure that no previous settings are still there. Then, we want the following settings:

Shift - X - Per column - -85% (This is Minus 85)

Scale - Y - Randomize - 10%,

Rotation Angle - Randomize 10%

Rows - 1, Columns - 475.

Now click Create.

You're done!

The tutorial I read said to make two or three of these. You can just export, or duplicate one of the blades of grass and do it again. To make things easier, group each bunch of grass together so it will be easier to move. Flip one so they aren't all going the same direction. I made three, grouped each one, then centered the three horizontally and vertically aligned the bottoms.

After all that I moved them to the bottom of my page. Put a blurry green rectangle behind your grass to make it look like it is really thick.

This can be exported by itself. All you have to do is select your grass, and choose Export Selection. You should probably export it as a .png to preserve the transparency. Now, if you are making a scene that requires grass, you have it covered. Easy, huh?

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

Slow-Cooker Creamy Tomato Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lb)

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 jar (15 oz) Alfredo sauce

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained

1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce

1 box (12 oz) uncooked pasta (such as penne or mostaccioli)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons water

1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese blend (2 oz), if desired

DIRECTIONS:

1. Spray 3 to 4-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Arrange chicken in bottom of slow cooker. Top with garlic, basil, oregano and pepper.

2. In separate bowl, stir together Alfredo sauce, tomatoes and tomato sauce until well combined. Pour mixture over chicken.

3. Cover; cook on Low heat setting 5 to 6 hours.

4. 10 to 15 minutes before serving time, cook pasta as directed on package. In small bowl, stir together cornstarch and water; stir into mixture in slow cooker. Increase heat setting to High; cook uncovered 5 to 10 minutes longer.

5. Serve chicken with pasta; top with cheese.

Options: Serve over rice or quinoa.

ms_meme's Nook: PCLOS Is A Picnic

MP3                                                   OGG

Stop Autoplay Before It Starts

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

There's little else in the world that's as annoying as visiting a website and a few seconds after arriving, video or audio starts playing. I don't know about you, but it makes my blood boil. Don't. Take. My. Choices. Away. And that's exactly what it does. If I want to watch a video or listen to an audio file, I will decide by clicking the play button.

Plan on autoplaying media any time you visit a media site, such as ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, CNN, Fox, or any number of other media outlets. The annoyance is just about enough to make you vow to never visit that particular site ever again. But then you do revisit, and get annoyed all over again.

Well, fret no more. YOU can take control back and stop autoplaying media in its tracks. How much you can take control back seriously depends on which browser you use. Honestly, I wasn't even aware this was possible until recently. Making the necessary changes has made life a little more sane, and a lot less aggravating. Since making the changes, I've not encountered even one media file that plays immediately upon the loading of a webpage, but then I also use the one browser -- the ONLY browser, currently -- that makes it possible.

Let's take a look at how to stop autoplaying media in each of the three major browsers: Opera, Firefox and Google Chrome.

Opera

Preventing the autoplay of media in Opera is pretty easy. In fact, Opera comes installed with autoplay for Flash files turned off, so you probably don't have to do anything at all ... unless you've changed it.

Click on the Opera menu, select the Settings menu, and then select the Websites subcategory. Scroll down until you see the "Flash" category, and make sure that "Ask first before allowing sites to run Flash (recommended)" is selected.

It may be just my perception, but some things come late to Opera. Yes, the settings work great for Flash media. But they don't work quite so well for HTML5 video. On the ABC News site, the video started autoplaying, but with muted sound. On the CBS New site, the video started playing, with audio. So, you're most likely going to have some problems with some sites autoplaying media files. Opera, for all it has going for it, isn't going to present a complete solution to stop the autoplaying of media files. Grade: C-.

Firefox

Despite all of Firefox Quantum's advances, it comes with autoplay of media files enabled when it is installed. But, turning that off is exceptionally easy.

Open a new tab and type "about:config" on the address bar. Click on the button that says you'll be careful. Then, type "autoplay" in the search bar. The first option, media.autoplay.enabled, is set to the value of "true" when Firefox is installed. Just double-click the line, and the value will change to "false."

Does it work? Like a champion. No media files will autoplay when a web page is loaded. Instead, you have to press the "Play" button for the media files to play, regardless of its source. CBS News, a huge offender of autoplaying media, no longer automatically plays video files. Not even YouTube automatically plays videos. You have to click on the "Play" button to start the videos in each and every case. This is as close as you can get to a simple on/off switch for the autoplay of media files in any of the "Big 3" web browsers on Linux. Grade: A+.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome seems to have taken the most obscure, circuitous, overly complicated route to turning off the autoplay of media files. Oh, it's possible (they say), but it can get confusing, and the whole process is incredibly frustrating. On the Google Developer's blog, the most telling reaction to Google's approach is in the comments. Of the nearly 300 comments, the prevailing themes are "I want an override switch" and how Google's implementation breaks a LOT of websites. Truly, it's as if someone sat around and WAY, WAY over-thought this whole issue.

According to the aforementioned developer's blog, there are two internal switches that should disable automatic playback of media files. Those are --disable-features=PreloadMediaEngagementData, MediaEngagementBypassAutoplayPolicies. Guess what? They seem to have absolutely no effect on media that's set to autoplay. I've tried them separately and together, and it never makes a difference. Strike One.

So, let's try another route. In Chrome's address bar, type chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy. Next to the dropdown for "Autoplay policy," choose which "policy" you want to use: Default, No user gesture is required, User gesture is required for cross-origin iframes, or Document user activation is required. Don't beat yourself up if it doesn't work. I tried every setting, and it never, ever made a difference. Strike Two.

We have ONE more thing to try. In Chrome, there's a feature called "Media Engagement Index," or MEI for short. Starting with Chrome 66, the browser will "learn" your preferences for websites about whether or not you want media to autoplay.

According to the blog entry by John Pallett, project manager for Chrome:

Chrome does this by learning your preferences. If you don't have browsing history, Chrome allows autoplay for over 1,000 sites where we see that the highest percentage of visitors play media with sound. As you browse the web, that list changes as Chrome learns and enables autoplay on sites where you play media with sound during most of your visits, and disables it on sites where you don't. This way, Chrome gives you a personalized, predictable browsing experience.

As you teach Chrome, you may find that you need to click "play" every now and then, but overall the new policy blocks about half of unwanted autoplays, so you will have fewer surprises and less unwanted noise when you first arrive at a website. The policy is enabled in the latest version of Chrome—update today and try it out.

Chrome is supposed to learn your preferences. However, no matter how many times I stop autoplaying media from playing, Chrome still allows autoplay, each and every time. Strike Three. You're OUT!

You might think that would be the end of it, but it isn't. Due to outrage from developers, Google has backed off from its (non-working) policy to squash autoplay media. Pallett posted the following to the bug message boards:

We've updated Chrome 66 to temporarily remove the autoplay policy for the Web Audio API. This change does not affect most media playback on the web, as the autoplay policy will remain in effect for <video> and <audio>.

We're doing this to give Web Audio API developers (e.g. gaming, audio applications, some RTC features) more time to update their code. The team here is working hard to improve things for users and developers, but in this case we didn't do a good job of communicating the impact of the new autoplay policy to developers using the Web Audio API.

The policy will be re-applied to the Web Audio API in Chrome 70 (October). Developers should update their code based on the recommendations at: https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes#webaudio

This report was originally filed with a user interface suggestion for controlling autoplay. As others have pointed out, this is a non-trivial user interface challenge with a lot of nuances. We are still exploring options to enable great audio experiences for users, and we will post more detailed thoughts on that topic here later.

Never mind that developers have known this change was coming since at least Chrome 64. Why the Chrome development team cannot just provide a switch to allow or disallow the autoplay of media files on a web page remains a huge mystery. Just leave things up to the end user to decide. That way, everyone can be happy and have it "their" way. Grade: F.

Summary

Firefox, by far, offers the best solution for controlling autoplaying media. It puts total control in the user's hands. Opera should be considered a "work in progress." I suspect that they eventually will give the users the ultimate control over this annoyance. Opera's development seems to happen at a much slower pace than either Firefox or Chrome. As for Chrome, don't hold your breath, out of fear of dying from asphyxiation. They have so over complicated and over thought the entire process, that nothing works as advertised when it comes to suppressing autoplay media.

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: PendragonUK

as told to YouCanToo

What is your name/username?

Stephen Morrish/PendragonUK.

How old are you?

I have just turned 53.

Are you married, single?

Married to Julie since 1991.

How about Kids, Grandkids (names and ages)?

A step-daughter called Joanne. She is married and in her early 40's. No grandkids, and unlikely to have any at this point.

Do you have pets, what is your favorite?

No pets at the moment, which is odd. We have had dogs and cats and more than a few rabbits over the years.

Are you retired, still working and if working, what do you do?

I'm a full time career for my wife, who has multiple disabilities. Looking after her requires me to be within yelling distance just about all of the time. So yea, I'm the general dog's body.

Where do you call home? What is it like? IE: weather, scenery

I live in village in Cornwall. The part of Cornwall I live in is dominated by large china clay extraction pits. Massive earthworks several times larger than the largest stadium. Quite impressive and beautiful in their own way.

Cornwall is the pointy bit at the bottom left hand corner of the British isles. It's a thin peninsula jutting out into the North Atlantic. As such, its weather is dominated by the sea. Very mild in winter and warm in the summer without being hot. The difference between winter and summer is typically only 10-15 degrees C at most. It is, however, very wet and very green because of it. In the summer months, we get a lot of tourists. Most people in Britain think of Cornwall as a holiday destination. The rest of the year, it's a quiet rural backwater.

The iconic Eden Project owing its existence to the China Clay industry,

sitting, as it does, in a former china clay pit.

Where did you go to school and what is your education level?

School, or should I say schools? My father was in the Met Office, at the time a department of the Ministry of Defence, so my childhood was similar to that of any serviceman's family. We moved every four or five years, as dad was posted to different airbases. So I have lived in several parts of southern England.

Education? Mixed. I can't say I liked school much, and didn't do as well as I could have. I left school in the recession of the early 80's. I was one of Maggie's Millions: unemployed and angry like so many of my peers at that time in Britain. It was an interesting time in Britain's recent past.

What kind of things you like doing? hobbies, travel, fishing, camping?

I'm a computer nerd and that just about covers it. I was a nerd before it was cool. I cut my teeth messing with computers like the Sinclair ZX81 in the micro computer boom of the early 80's.

I used to play shooter games competitively. I was quite good, if I say so myself. I still play games with a handful of the guys every Sunday evening, for the best part of 20 years now (Internet years are like dog years I think, 20 years feels like a very long time). I enjoy watching movies, Sci Fi or anything with guns and fast cars.

I like taking pictures, going for walks where I can see a long way or there is a great view to take the pictures.

Why and when did you start using Linux?

Why Linux? Well here I have to admit my interest is not "just" Linux. I'm quite pragmatic about OS choice. Having started my computer hobby long before MS and Windows, I never accepted the all out dominance of the 90's. Messing about with different computer operating systems was "normal" for me. So anything I could get my hands on was fair game. I worked for IBM for a bit, so I ran OS/2 Warp when everyone and his dog was jumping on Win95. I think the first Linux I ran was in the mid/late 90's with a book called "Teach yourself Linux in 24 hours". After that I would have a look at any distro I could get hold of (cover CD's from computer mags). I do remember looking at Mandrake in the early 2000's and thinking that this was the first distro I could have run 24/7 on my main PC, rather than just on a test rig.

What specific equipment do currently use with PCLOS?

Right now it's a bit sad. PCLinuxOS is on a very elderly Dell laptop. My main rig (AMD Ryzen) is running Windows. Yes, I know it makes me feel dirty, but as I said earlier I also play PC games. Steam no longer works with PCLinuxOS, and as such, I need to pay Uncle Bill his pound of flesh. I think I have made a deal with the devil, but needs must be met.

Use what works to get done what you need to get done. You can have favorites, but it should not be allowed to get in the way of what you need to do.

Do you feel that your use of Linux influences the reactions you receive from your computer peers or family? If so, how?

They think I'm a wizard, and they often look like Muggles to me. At any family event I will, at some point, be fixing someone's computer. People will ask me to show them how to do whatever. I try to explain that I have never used application "X" and have no experience with it but they still expect me to tell them how to use it. I can normally figure out.

What would you like to see happen within PCLOS that would make it a better place. What are your feelings?

A couple of things come to mind. On the forum at least, we are at times a little too partisan. There is nothing wrong with loving the OS you are using, but to "hate" others is not good. There are times when reading the forum the fanboyism is strong. It can leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. This is coming from a self confessed PCLinuxOS advocate. Maybe we can dial back on the rhetoric just a tad. For such a friendly community, we can be a little prickly at times if someone says the wrong thing.

We are really missing Steam compatibility. I know it's not easy, but ever so important for a great many users. Why do you think I'm running Windows on my main computer and PCLinuxOS is relegated to hideously slow laptop? If I do swap it over to Linux on my main rig it's not going to be PCLinuxOS. It will be one of the distros that has maintained support for Steam.

Gaming is one of the three big must have "killer apps" that maintains Windows dominance on the desktop, along with Adobe Creative and MS Office. There is not much we can do about MS Office and Adobe, but Steam is a native Linux program and not having it will hurt PCLinuxOS future adoption.

We can not just live on the Windows XP refugees forever. We already have an aging demographic. What happens in the future?

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight is an exclusive, monthly column by YouCanToo, featuring PCLinuxOS forum member. This column will allow "the rest of us" to get to know our forum family members better, and will give those featured an opportunity to share their PCLinuxOS story with the rest of the world.

If you would like to be featured in PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight, please send a private message to youcantoo, parnote or Meemaw in the PCLinuxOS forum expressing your interest.

YouTuber - Yet More Tools And Tips For Your Video

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

Continuing the series of articles on how to become a YouTuber, today I will address some more tools for the production of gameplay videos. All the programs mentioned here are in the PCLinuxOS repos.

Audacity

Audacity is a free digital audio editing software available mainly on the platforms Windows, Linux and Mac and also on other operating systems. The source code for Audacity is under the GNU General Public License. Its graphical interface was produced using wxWidgets libraries. The Audacity project started in 1999 by Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg at Carnegie Mellon University in the U.S., and was released on May 28, 2000 as version 0.8.

Audacity is very popular with podcasters for its editing features, its wide availability on multiple platforms, its support, and its open license that enables the program to be free.

On October 10, 2011, it was the 11th most popular download from SourceForge, with 76.5 million downloads. Audacity won the SourceForge Community Choice Award in the 2007 and 2009 contest's for Best Multimedia Project. In March 2015, the hosting was moved to the FossHub site, and in February 21, 2017, it exceeded 51.8 million downloads on that platform.

Features

- Import and export WAV, MP3 (via LAME, installed separately), Ogg Vorbis, and others

- Recording and playback of sounds

- Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete

- Unlimited undo for any step

- Mixing multiple tracks

- Digital sound effects and more plug-ins (You can create new plug-ins in the Nyquist language)

- Sound amplitude editing, envelope format

- Noise removal

- Support multichannel mode, sampling rate of up to 96 kHz and 24 bits per sample

- Ability to change the speed of sound without changing its height, for perfect video synchronization (in voiceover)

- Ease of use

- Leveler

- Clicks Removal

- Reverse audio

- Compressor

- Equalizer

- Sample rate up to 384,000 Hz

Audacity main program screen

The main tools we'll use are as follows, as found in the Effects menu:

- Normalize: Use Normalize effect to set the peak amplitude of a single track, making various tracks have the same peak amplitude and equalize the balance of the left and right channels of stereo tracks. Optionally, you can remove any DC offset of the tracks.

- Amplify: Increases or decreases the selected audio volume. When you open the dialog, Audacity automatically calculates the maximum amount you can amplify the selected audio without causing cuts (distortion caused by trying to do the very high audio).

- Click removal: Removal of clicks is designed to remove clicks in audio tracks and is especially suitable to decode recordings made of vinyl records. Usually it works best with very short clicks. For larger individual pops selections in width up to 128 samples (about three milliseconds to a 44100 Hz design rate), you can try the repair effect.

- Noise reduction: Reduces the noise of constant background, as fans, tape noise or ringing. It will not work to remove background conversations or music.

Remember: to use Audacity comfortably, you should create a folder /TMP for your temporary files. Do not use the /tmp of the system, or it may be unable to edit your audio tracks.

jPSXdec

jPSXdec is a media converter of the PlayStation 1 platform that produces higher quality output compared to all other legacy converters.

Advantages of this program over existing converters programs

- Can decode some unique types of films

- Converts with correct colors

- More precise frame rate detection.

- Multi-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux)

- Source code available

Also has features for modders: replace STR video, replace audio XA and replace Tim pictures.

jPSXdec main program screen

With this program, you can extract audio (songs), videos and images (.TIM format) from Playstation 1 ISO's. This makes it possible to enrich your videos of gameplays, with the videos of the game, without having to play it for them to be played.

Rezound

Rezound aims to be a stable audio file editor, open and graphical code, especially for, but not limited to, the Linux operating system.

It does not have all the features of Audacity. However, for certain tasks, it is the most appropriate. It is faster, and it has an interface with very interesting tools (like a slider button to search for a particular passage in an audio file).

Rezound main program screen

Some of its features:

- A 16-bit or 32-bit floating point integer can be chosen as the sample size

- Fast editing of large files

- Undo

- Signaling Positions labeled

- Suggestions can be dragged

- Crossfading automatic selection borders in all actions applied to create smooth transitions

- Ability to save user notes in formats that support it.

- Macros allow a user to record one sequence in a file and repeat these actions in other files later.

- User defined key links to actions

- Support LADSPA Plugin's

- Various effects / manipulations

- Reverse

- Change volume

- Gain (by steady or curve)

- Change rate (for constant or curve)

- Table

- Delay (echo)

- Quantize

- Distortion (for a curve)

- Repeat varied

And so, we finish another article of this series of producing videos to YouTube. I hope you enjoy, and next month there's more.

Tip Top Tips: pmss - Scrot On Steroids

Editor's Note: Tip Top Tips is a semi-monthly column in The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Periodically, we will feature -- and possibly even expand upon -- one tip from the PCLinuxOS forum. The magazine will not accept independent tip submissions specifically intended for inclusion in the Tip Top Tips column. Rather, if you have a tip, share it in the PCLinuxOS forum's "Tips & Tricks" section. Your tip just may be selected for publication in The PCLinuxOS Magazine.

This month's tip comes from hakerdefo.

pmss (Poor Man's Screenshooter) is a simple bash front-end to screen capture utility Scrot. pmss lets you easily capture screenshots without having to remember various options and flags of Scrot. pmss also utilizes power of xdotool to make the task of taking screenshots in variety of ways not only possible but enjoyable. After taking that perfect screenshot, pmss can optionally upload the screenshot to imgur, either anonymously or to an imgur account, and give you image sharing links for forums (such as this one), GitHub, Reddit, message boards, websites, and blogs. Of course, pmss will also give you direct image link, and a link to delete the uploaded image. What's more, pmss will also keep a log of all the anonymously uploaded images so you can reuse the image links whenever you need them, or remove the uploaded image using the delete link, if need be. pmss also lets you empty the whole screenshots directory with a single key press.

Following types of screenshot capturing is supported:

1. Entire screen

2. Clean desktop

3. Dirty desktop

4. Window in focus

5. Window open below the pmss window

6. Window under the mouse cursor

7. Window selected by the user

8. Area selected by mouse

First, just to make sure the required dependencies are installed, run the following command as root:

apt-get install scrot xdotool curl

Next, download pmss-master zip, extract its contents into a directory, open that directory in your favorite terminal emulator, copy pmss to somewhere in your $PATH, and give it chmod 755 permission.

Just run pmss from your terminal whenever there is a need for a screenshot and say CHEESE.

Feedback-comments-critique are demanded.

Short Topix: Julian Assange Update

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Man Gets 15 Month Prison Sentence, $50K Fine For Making Disc Copies Of Software Freely Downloaded From Microsoft, Dell

Eric Lundgren lost his court case on appeal to an appellate court, which upheld a lower court's guilty ruling and sentencing ... for making "recovery" CDs. The recovery CDs were to be bundled with refurbished PCs, and he only charged a nominal fee of $0.25 (25 cents) for each disc ... just as PC sellers do, to cover the cost of creating the CD.

Say what? Both Microsoft and Dell offer free copies of Windows on their websites, available to anyone who wants to reinstall Windows for any reason. These are stripped down versions of Windows, and are only 30 day "feature limited" "trial" copies that must be activated by a valid license key. This was the EXACT same thing that Lundgren was providing. He was not selling Windows licenses, but only copies of the same software that Microsoft, Dell and other PC sellers openly offer on their websites that can be freely downloaded.

The Windows license comes from the purchase of the PC when it is new. Common sense would seem to dictate that the Windows license, being included with the purchase of a PC, would continue to be transferred with that computer for its lifespan. But, Microsoft contends that is not the case, and that they charge computer refurbishers $25 for Windows licenses. But wait ... Lundgren was never charged with selling Windows licenses. He only made CD copies of software that is freely downloadable from Microsoft and PC sellers.

Are you shaking your head in disbelief now, just as I am?

In its press release following the case, Microsoft said, in part, ""Unlike most e-recyclers, Mr. Lundgren sought out counterfeit software which he disguised as legitimate and sold to other refurbishers." This part of their statement runs counter to the facts of the case. They added, "This counterfeit software exposes people who purchase recycled PCs to malware and other forms of cybercrime, which puts their security at risk and ultimately hurts the market for recycled products." As pointed out in a TechRepublic article, this is a very peculiar statement to make. As noted in the Washington Post article, this issue was never raised in Lundgren's trial. Be careful. The Post article is likely to raise your eyebrows even more, so much so that it might make your eyebrows appear on the back of your head.

Now, Lundgren has to spend 15 months in a federal prison, pay a $50,000 fine, and forever have a felony on his record, all for making copies of free software that can be downloaded from Microsoft and virtually every PC seller or maker. Nothing about this case makes any sense, common or otherwise.

Once you can get past the shock and disbelief over this case, it makes you happy to be running PCLinuxOS. Perhaps Lundgren would have been better off to make copies of the PCLinuxOS LiveDVD and provide them to PC refurbishers. Not only would he not end up behind bars in a federal prison, but his users would have benefitted from a much more robust operating system, free from viruses, spyware, malware and crapware.

"Man With The Golden Arm" Makes Last Blood Donation

James Harrison, an Australian man who's known as the "man with the golden arm," has made his last blood donation at age 81. Over the past 64 years, he has donated blood over 1100 times, and is credited with helping save the lives of over 2.4 million babies in Australia alone.

See, Harrison's blood has a rare and unusually strong and persistent antibody that helps babies with rhesus disease. This disease occurs when the baby has Rh positive blood, which is typically determined by the father, and the mother has Rh negative blood. Mother's immune system sees the Rh positive blood of the baby as a foreign invader, and attacks the Rh positive blood of the baby. Harrison's blood, more specifically the antibodies in his blood, are used to make an injection called "Anti-D," which helps fight rhesus disease.

Left untreated, rhesus disease (more formally known as Rhesus D Hemolytic Disease, or HDN) can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, brain damage, and fatal anemias in newborns, and is responsible for thousands of baby deaths every year in Australia. Roughly 17 percent of mothers in Australia receive Anti-D injections throughout their pregnancy to combat the effects of rhesus disease. This has even included Harrison's own daughter being a recipient of the Anti-D treatment. Injections of Anti-D in Rh negative mothers with low levels of RhD immunoglobulin allow the antibodies to clean up any Rh positive blood cells in the mother without causing harm to the baby.

When Harrison was 14 years old, he had a major chest surgery that required him receiving 13 units of blood. He made a pledge then that as soon as he were old enough, he would donate blood as often as he could. Starting in 1954, he has donated blood, sometimes weekly. Each of his blood donations could potentially save three people, and his plasma another 18 people.

Typically, blood donors in Australia have to be under the age of 71. But, it took physicians 10 more years to convince Harrison to stop donating blood for the sake of his own health. Harrison has stated that he'd love to keep on donating, if only the doctors would allow him to do so. But as it is now, he has officially "retired" from blood donation.

The Australian Blood Service now has about 160 donors in the Anti-D program, and Harrison was their first donor recruited. Finding donors is exceptionally laborious and difficult. Harrison's feat is unlikely to ever be duplicated, and Harrison's antibodies have been largely responsible for researchers coming up with the first Anti-D injection in 1967.

Completely Stop Web Site Push Notifications In Firefox Quantum

There are a lot of annoyances when you're browsing the web. Autostarting media. Tracking your every move. Privacy concerns. And those infuriating push notifications. The latter are a complete time waster, since you have to say whether to block or accept the push notifications. Like, really?! If I want to know that your website has updated with new content, then I'll visit again, later, at my convenience. I don't want to be hounded to death over your website, and I don't want to give up any more of my privacy than I already do. Well, now you can say goodbye to the push notifications -- for good -- if you use Firefox Quantum.

Go to the Firefox "hamburger" menu, located at the upper right corner of the toolbar. Select "Preferences" from the menu. Then, travel to the "Privacy & Security" section of the preferences. Find the "Notifications" section, and click on the "Settings..." button.

Once you click on the "Settings..." button, you should see something like the screenshot above. Clicking on the button highlighted in red will clear out all of the websites that have asked to allow push notifications (notice all of mine say "Block"). Then, to prevent future "requests," put a checkmark in front of "Block new requests asking to allow notifications" (outlined in blue above).

Now, you can sit back and say bye-bye to all those annoying, pesky "push notifications." I'm not sure who ever thought these were a good idea in the first place.

Julian Assange: Closeted & Cut Off

Since 2012, Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in England. He sought refuge there from Swedish authorities who wanted to interview him about sexual assault allegations. The Swedes have since dropped any such investigation, but Assange would be arrested "on sight" for jumping bail in London. The U.S. is also has great interest in Assange, after tomes of classified data were dumped to the public via WikiLeaks.

Assange's lengthy stay at the South American country's embassy, which is currently known as "Operation Hotel" due to his length of stay there (it was previously known as "Operation Guest," but was changed at some point over the past six years), is said to cost the Ecuador government $66,000 per month. Last January, Ecuador tried to assist with Assange's quest to leave by making him a citizen of Ecuador and designate him a diplomat. However, his status as a diplomat was ultimately denied. So, for now, Assange remains at the Ecuador Embassy, under "Operation Hotel."

To make matters worse -- oh, yes, it does get worse -- Assange's broadband internet has been cut off by the embassy. Anonymous sources (how far can you trust those?) have implicated Assange for hacking the computer system at the embassy, even going as far as to claim that he intercepted private communications intended for other embassy staff members. Assange, and WikiLeaks, has vehemently denied the allegations.

As reported in The Register:

The embassy -- based in Knightsbridge, London -- said it revoked Assange's broadband connection after he violated a promise not to say, or tweet, anything that would harm the South American nation's relations with the UK.

"Assange's behavior, through his messages on social media, has put our good relations with the United Kingdom and the rest of states in the European Union at risk," a translation of the statement reads.

The Ecuadorian statement did not specify exactly what it was that Assange said to bring about the measure.

Prior to his forced internet sabbatical, Assange had been tweeting on a number of topics, including criticism hurled at him from a UK government official and a link to an article on interactions between Italy's Hacking Team and Ecuador's SENAIN intelligence agency. He also retweeted articles on Germany's interactions with the Spanish government in the arrest of Catalan independence leader Carles Puigdemont.

I know that there are two sides to the controversy surrounding Assange, and they are about as opposite as you can get. One side views him as a traitor and leaker of the worst kind. The other side views him as a hero of the highest order, revealing shady and underhanded government dealings that governments don't want revealed. There doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground between the two viewpoints.

Facebook Data Slurping, Part Deux

As if Cambridge Analytica wasn't bad enough, another "poison" Facebook app has been suspended for ... you guessed it ... collecting MASSIVE amounts of data on Facebook users. Alexandr Kogan, a professor at Cambridge, was listed as a collaborator on the app, called myPersonality, until the middle of 2014. If the professor's name sounds familiar to you, it should. Kogan was at the center of the recently exposed Cambridge Analytica flap.

Over 6,000,000 users filled out answers to intimate questionnaires, and over half of them -- over 3,100,000 -- agreed to share their responses with the "project." The scores to the questionnaires are supposed to assess the respondent's conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism. In the end, the data was widely available to over 280 "collaborators" from nearly 150 institutions.

The data was supposed to be "anonymized" by stripping out the names of the users. However, New Scientist discovered that the "anonymizing" was done so poorly that it wouldn't take much work to uncover which data belonged to which user.

Users would answer these "psychological" quizzes, full of very intimate information. The risk for the misuse of the data was ripe, right from the start. The more detailed the information that is included, the more difficult it becomes to truly "anonymize" that data.

The data, after being "anonymized," was supposed to be posted to the web to be accessed by collaborators to the project. But the data was widely available to just about anyone who knew of its existence and who wanted to access it. If you didn't have a permanent academic contact, the "key" to the data could be easily found in a single web search, stored on GitHub. That username and password has been publicly available on GitHub for the past four years. So, anyone who wanted access could have found the key and downloaded the data in less than a minute. That wide open "back door" to the data has been nailed shut, and the publicly available username and password no longer grant access to the data. The app is also no longer available, but isn't that a bit like shutting the barn door after the horses have all run off?

This is extremely bad news for Facebook, who is still reeling from the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. Most recently, Facebook has been trying to save face by (finally) placing an emphasis on user data and privacy. At least in the U.S., Facebook has been buying prime time network TV ads professing their new "love" of user data and privacy.

Facebook has also suspended around 200 apps that, as part of its internal investigations, have been found to have access to large amounts of user data. For many users, it may be too little, too late. Plus, despite Facebook's claims that this is a new revelation, project coordinators report having meetings with Facebook over the myPersonality app as early as 2011.

Google Openly Aligns With U.S. Defense; Employees Protest, Quit; Drops "Do No Evil" From Code Of Conduct

Although Facebook's data breaches have grabbed many of the recent headlines, Google hasn't fared much better in the news cycles.

First, Google signed on to help develop AI (artificial intelligence) for the U.S. Department of Defense. Called Project Maven, the project develops AI that helps study imagery from drones, with the hopes to improve the accuracy of drone strikes on the battlefield. Google used the "excuse" that Amazon and Microsoft are also partners on the project. Google claims that it's partnership with the Pentagon is "specifically scoped to be for non-offensive purposes" and only uses "open-source object recognition software available to any Google Cloud customer." Yeah, right. "Non-offensive purposes" for the U.S. military? Virtually everything developed by or for the U.S. military is for offensive purposes or can be weaponized.

Second, this partnership with the U.S. DoD prompted a open, written letter of protest to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Between 3,000 and 4,000 Google employees signed the petition (PDF), the number varying by source. More than a dozen Google employees have resigned due to ethical concerns as a result of Google's new, cozy ties with the U.S. DoD. Some of the employees who resigned told Gizmodo in an interview that "executives have become less transparent with their workforce about controversial business decisions and seem less interested in listening to workers' objections than they once did."

Third, and finally, Google has removed the phrase "Do No Evil" from its Code of Conduct. To just about everyone else, it seems about time for the phrase to be removed, since Google has deliberately detoured around this "code" for several years now, in its never ending quest for profits based on your private data and browsing habits. According to the article on The Daily Sheeple, the phrase was present in the Code of Conduct when you look at the Wayback Machine archive from April 21, 2018. However, on the Wayback Machine archive from May 4, 2018, the phrase is absent from Google's Code of Conduct. Google's parent company, Alphabet, dropped the phrase in 2015 shortly after taking over as Google's holding company, replacing the famous phrase with "do the right thing." Just doesn't sound quite as convincing, huh?

Firefox 63 To Block Cryptomining Exploits, Improves Tracking Protection

As reported by the Bleeping Computer website, the upcoming Firefox 63 release in mid-October will offer users increased protection from tracking, as well as block cryptomining exploits.

Available in Firefox's private browsing mode for a few years now, the increased tracking protection has been available in regular browsing mode since Firefox 57, released in November 2017. The tracking protection, though, comes disabled by default, and must be purposefully enabled by going to Firefox's settings > Privacy > Tracking section.

The trouble is, few know it's available (if they even know about it at all), due to it being buried so deeply in Firefox's settings. But starting with Firefox 63, users will be able to access tracking protection from multiple areas of Firefox's user interface. Two areas will be from the address bar's drop down security panel that displays HTTPS information, and another will be from the "hamburger" menu in the upper right corner of the Firefox window.

Tracking Protection has always blocked ads, analytics, and social sharing scripts. Starting with Firefox 63, tracking protection will add the ability to block user fingerprinting scripts, as well as in-browser cryptomining scripts (also known as cryptojacking). All of these abilities will be accessible from an enhanced and redesigned tracking protection panel, in Firefox's settings > Privacy > Tracking section.

Furthermore, Firefox 63 will offer an easier way to clear cookies for individual websites. Users will be able to clear cookies and site data for any particular website by clicking on the info/lock icon in the address bar, and then selecting "Clear Cookies & Site Data" button that appears at the bottom of the window that displays SSL certificate information.

PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe Corner

Caramel Apple Tart

INGREDIENTS:

1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury™ refrigerated crescent dough sheet.

1 tablespoon butter

4 cups sliced peeled apples (3 medium)

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup (from 13.4-oz can) dulce de leche (caramelized sweetened condensed milk)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 375 F. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray; unroll sheet onto cookie sheet. Press into 12x9-inch rectangle. If using crescent rolls, press seams together. Bake 10 to 13 minutes or until golden brown.

2. Meanwhile, in 10-inch nonstick skillet, cook butter, apples and sugar over medium-high heat 6 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently, until apples are just tender.

3. Spread 1/2 cup of the dulce de leche onto warm crescent crust, leaving 1/2-inch border; carefully arrange cooked apples in single layer over top. In small microwavable bowl, microwave remaining 1/4 cup dulce de leche uncovered on High 10 to 20 seconds or until thin enough to drizzle. Using fork, drizzle over apples. Serve warm.

ms_meme's Nook: Cast His Fate With A Linux Brand

MP3                                                   OGG

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Scrappler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Sudoku

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Crossword

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

WordFind

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Cryptograms

From the computer of ms_meme:

Everyday I work the daily crosswords and cryptograms in the paper. I like the cryptograms as they are wise/silly sayings of famous people.

The magazine article about secure passwords made me think of the cryptograms. We have people in the forum who are always posting famous/wise/silly sayings.

I have made a few into cryptograms, and hope our readers will enjoy them.

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Screenshot Showcase

Posted by HERTZ, May 1, 2018, running Mate

Posted by iceman, May 7, 2018, running LXDE

Posted by jogurtmen, May 3, 2018, running Mate

Posted by luikki, May 27, 2018, running KDE

Posted by Meemaw, May 19, 2018, running Xfce

Posted by MGBguy, May 18, 2018, running KDE

Posted by Mr. Cranky Pants - YouCanToo, May 1, 2018, running

Posted by ms_meme, May 8, 2018, running KDE

Posted by mutse, May 4, 2018, running Trinity

Posted by parnote, May 27, 2018, running Xfce