Table of Contents

From The Chief Editor's Desk

1. Inkscape Tutorial: Triangle Campfire

2. Short Topix: U. S Gov't Once Again Requests iOS Back Door

3. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Southwest Lasagna

4. ms_meme's Nook: We Love Linux

5. Slipstream On PCLinuxOS: Analysis

6. PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: bliss

7. Mind Your Step: New Decade Edition

8. Google Chrome Browser FINALLY Catches Up

9. Repo Review: PDFsam Basic

10. PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe Corner: Chicken Tortilla Casserole

11. ms_meme's Nook: Boot Up The Band

12. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

13. Screenshot Showcase

From The Chief Editor's Desk

What does Groundhog Day and PCLinuxOS have in common? And no, we're not talking about the comedic movie starring Bill Murray.

Groundhog Day, at least in the U.S. and Canada, is every February 2nd. According to Pennsylvania Dutch superstition, a little Groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, emerges from his den. If it's sunny and he sees his shadow, he retreats back into his den, and we are supposed to have six more weeks of Winter. If it's cloudy and he doesn't see his shadow, then it's a signal that Spring will arrive early.

Coincidentally, Groundhog Day occurs roughly six weeks before the start of meteorological Spring (in the Northern Hemisphere), which is from March 19 to June 20 this year. Studies have shown little to no correlation between the arrival of Spring and whether or not the Groundhog sees his shadow. It has become, more than anything else, a reason for people to gather and party during the doldrums of Winter.

Well, February 2nd also has special meaning for PCLinuxOS users. February 2nd is Texstar's birthday. Yes, the man who gives us PCLinuxOS was born on February 2. He also shares his birthday with Jim Wilk, a forum member from New Zealand.

We don't have to worry about Texstar seeing his shadow. And he's not going to go duck back into his den if he does. Things around PCLinuxOS are always Spring-like. Under Texstar's expert oversight and stewardship, PCLinuxOS just works and works and works.

Plus, exceptionally few Linux distro founders are as accessible as Texstar. He makes himself available to PCLinuxOS users everywhere, sharing his insights, knowledge and wicked sense of humor.

It hardly seems adequate to say "Thank YOU, Texstar" for the gift you've given us all in PCLinuxOS. But, at the very least, we can collectively wish you a very, very Happy Birthday. We also wish for you to have great health, and to stay with us for countless years to come. You have created something here that is truly unique and special. You have left an indelible mark on the Linux community as a whole. You have also had a positive impact on the computing lives of every PCLinuxOS user that has ever gave PCLinuxOS a try.

Happy Birthday, Texstar!

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

Inkscape Tutorial: Triangle Campfire

by Meemaw

I saw this tutorial a few days ago and it looked fun. Using triangles and the Tiled Clones tool, we're going to create a campfire.

First, choose your Bezier tool and draw a tiny triangle. Make it about 30px by 20px.

Now set the Fill to Unset, and remove the stroke as well.

With your tiny triangle selected, click on Edit > Clone > Create Tiled Clones. If you've used the Create Tiled Clones window, you should probably click the Reset button at the bottom before you start, because Inkscape saves your last settings.

The following settings should give us a nice flame effect:

Shift

Shift X: Per Column: -50%, Randomize: 50%

Shift Y: Per Row: -150%, Randomize: 50%

Rotation

Angle: Randomize: 100%

Blur & Opacity

Opacity: Per Row: 1%

Color

Initial Color: (Click on the color swatch at the top, choose RGB at the top, and put in these settings: R 255, G 228, B 0 then close the color window. Then in the main settings for that section: H: Per Row: -0.5%

Finally, change rows and columns to width and height: 200px wide and 300px tall, and click Create.

You should have ended up with something like this.

It's still a bit square, so let's remove some of the clones. Using your Eraser tool, set to Delete objects, just drag your cursor around to delete some of those triangles at the top. I also deleted a few at the bottom to round it off. It should look more like a fire when you're finished.

Now it looks a bit more like a fire, but it needs some wood.

Using the Rectangle tool and the Bezier tool, I drew some pieces of wood and placed the fire on them. To finish, I added a shadow under the campfire.

The Tiled Clones tool is kinda touchy at times, so make sure you've reset your settings before you begin. It's pretty fun! We'll have to explore this tool more.

Short Topix: U. S Gov't Once Again Requests iOS Back Door

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Microsoft Commandeers 50 N. Korean Hacking Sites By Court Order

In a bold move that will end up protecting users everywhere for all platforms, Microsoft has taken control of 50 domains believed to be used by the North Korean hacking group commonly referred to as Thallium, according to a blog report on Microsoft's site.

U.S. District Court documents were unsealed on December 27, 2019 that detail the steps that Microsoft has undertaken to disrupt cyberattacks originating from the Thallium hacking group. As a result, those 50 sites will no longer be able to be used to launch cyberattacks.

The attacks were mostly "spear phishing" attacks. They would attempt to trick users into logging into a fake Microsoft security account to fill out information about their accounts, and into revealing their account credentials. By combining publicly available information gleaned from social media accounts, the Thallium group of hackers was able to make a rather believable case for the possibility of a user's account becoming compromised.

They also employed techniques that might go undetected by the average non-tech savvy users, such as using an "r" and an "n" closely spaced to represent the first "m" in the "microsoft.com" website address.

From the Microsoft blog entry:

Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) and the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) have been tracking and gathering information on Thallium, monitoring the group's activities to establish and operate a network of websites, domains and internet-connected computers. This network was used to target victims and then compromise their online accounts, infect their computers, compromise the security of their networks and steal sensitive information. Based on victim information, the targets included government employees, think tanks, university staff members, members of organizations focused on world peace and human rights, and individuals that work on nuclear proliferation issues. Most targets were based in the U.S., as well as Japan and South Korea.

...

This is the fourth nation-state activity group against which Microsoft has filed similar legal actions to take down malicious domain infrastructure. Previous disruptions have targeted Barium, operating from China, Strontium, operating from Russia, and Phosphorus, operating from Iran. These actions have resulted in the takedown of hundreds of domains, the protection of thousands of victims and improved the security of the ecosystem.

Be vigilant, folks! There are bad actors out there everywhere who want access to your private information and accounts. Your data is truly the currency d'jour, especially among cybercriminals, and you are the best resource for protecting that data.

Add A "Real" Search Box To Google Chrome's New Tab Page

Google placed a search bar on the new page tab in Google Chrome in 2012. But, have you noticed that the search bar in the new page tab is fake?

Yep. It is.

In a plain, unmodified installation of Google Chrome, the search bar displayed on the new page tab simply redirects its output to the address bar. This makes it no different than performing the search from the address bar in the first place.

It doesn't matter much if you have Google or some other search engine set as your default, either (Bing, if selected, performs pretty much as it would if you went to the Bing homepage, though).

Here's why this happens. Go to Chrome's hamburger menu, and select "Settings." Go to the "Search Engine" selection on the left side of the screen. Notice in the image above, the setting explicitly says "Search engine used in the address bar" (highlighted by the red box).

But, according to an article on ghacks.com, you can now return a REAL search bar to the new page tab by making a small change to your installed copy of Google Chrome. It won't matter which search engine you use as your default, either. This means that your search criteria aren't just redirected to the address bar.

First, open a new tab. Type "chrome://flags/#ntp-realbox" on the address bar, then press enter. You should see something like the image above. At the right, there is a dropdown selector (mine is already "Enabled"). The choices are default, enabled or disabled.

There! That is all there is to it. Now, the search bar in the new page tab actually works as you expect it to, instead of just redirecting to the address bar. The image below shows the search bar actually performing its intended job.

ProtonMail Adds Encrypted Calendar

You've probably heard about the secure email solution called ProtonMail. If you haven't, it is a direct competitor to Google's email service, commonly referred to as Gmail. ProtonMail is encrypted over its entire delivery path.

Google claims to have stopped scanning users' emails for keywords to use for serving ads back in 2017, but then who can be completely sure? Google, facing recurrent bouts with public outrage over its actions (and having dropped the "Do No Evil" credo), has become an increasingly secretive corporation. The transparency upon which Google was founded has become about as opaque as iron.

With ProtonMail, there is no question about your email remaining private ... just like your snail mail. ProtonMail (company name is Proton Technologies AG) is based out of Geneva, Switzerland, and is subject to Switzerland's stricter-than-most-other-countries privacy laws. Their mail servers are all located in Switzerland, so there's little to no fear of the company's servers being commandeered by some rogue nation in some yet-to-come revolution or uprising.

According to an article at The Verge, ProtonMail has just began offering an encrypted calendar to all ProtonMail users on a paid plan (currently $4/€4 per month, billed annually at $48/€48). It is called ProtonCalendar, and it is in the early beta stages. It is also only currently available via the web interface, although dedicated iOS and Android apps are also in the works.

ProtonMail claims that some companies will scan your calendar entries to target ads to you. A Google spokesperson told The Verge that they do not currently scan calendar entries to target ads to you. The Verge followed up and asked if Google ever has used calendar entries to target ads to users, but Google has yet to respond.

From the ProtonMail blog announcing ProtonCalendar:

"A calendar is more than just a tool. It's a record of the moments that make up your life -- your big meetings, your gatherings with friends, and children's birthdays. For the longest time, to easily organize these events, you had to let large corporations monitor these special moments. These companies snoop on your calendar and use that information to inform their advertising.

...

"We believe everyone has the right to plan dinner with friends without announcing to Google who will attend. For that reason, once ProtonCalendar is publicly released, a basic version will be available to all ProtonMail users (including Free users) while paid Proton users will benefit from additional functionality."

U.S. Gov't Once Again Requests iOS Back Door

A widely reported incident where a Saudi Air Force cadet shot and killed three U.S. servicemen, and wounded eight others, at the Pensacola, Florida naval air station before being shot and killed himself by a police officer is being called an act of terrorism. The cadet had two iPhones in his possession at the time of the incident.

In shades of 2016, when the San Bernardino, California shooter had an iPhone 7 in his possession, the government asked Apple to provide government officials "backdoor" access to the contents of the phone. U.S. Attorney General William Barr has renewed that request, and Apple's response is the same as it was the first time ... no way.

The Pensacola cadet had two iPhones in his possession: and iPhone 7 and an iPhone 5. The shooter placed one iPhone down on the ground and put a round through it, but the FBI has been successful in reconstructing the damaged phone. The problem comes about because of a security feature on the iPhones. If the wrong PIN is entered more than six times in a row, all of the data on the phone is automatically deleted, effectively rendering most brute-force attacks worthless and futile.

The 2016 case by the U.S. government against Apple never went before the courts, since the FBI enlisted the services of Israel-based Cellebrite to crack the iPhone encryption. In that case, Apple refused to comply with a court order to crack the iPhone encryption. Apple has remained steadfast in its refusal to install a backdoor for the "good guys," insisting that such a backdoor can be equally exploited by the "bad guys," and causing a nightmare for everyone involved. To think that a backdoor for the "good guys" won't be discovered by and exploited by the "bad guys" is far beyond naive.

Here is Apple's complete response to the charges leveled by U.S. Attorney General William Barr:

We were devastated to learn of the tragic terrorist attack on members of the US armed services at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida on December 6th. We have the greatest respect for law enforcement and routinely work with police across the country on their investigations. When law enforcement requests our assistance, our teams work around the clock to provide them with the information we have.

We reject the characterization that Apple has not provided substantive assistance in the Pensacola investigation. Our responses to their many requests since the attack have been timely, thorough and are ongoing.

Within hours of the FBI's first request on December 6th, we produced a wide variety of information associated with the investigation. From December 7th through the 14th, we received six additional legal requests and in response provided information including iCloud backups, account information and transactional data for multiple accounts.

We responded to each request promptly, often within hours, sharing information with FBI offices in Jacksonville, Pensacola and New York. The queries resulted in many gigabytes of information that we turned over to investigators. In every instance, we responded with all of the information that we had.

The FBI only notified us on January 6th that they needed additional assistance -- a month after the attack occurred. Only then did we learn about the existence of a second iPhone associated with the investigation and the FBI's inability to access either iPhone. It was not until January 8th that we received a subpoena for information related to the second iPhone, which we responded to within hours. Early outreach is critical to accessing information and finding additional options.

We are continuing to work with the FBI, and our engineering teams recently had a call to provide additional technical assistance. Apple has great respect for the Bureau's work, and we will work tirelessly to help them investigate this tragic attack on our nation.

We have always maintained there is no such thing as a backdoor just for the good guys. Backdoors can also be exploited by those who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers. Today, law enforcement has access to more data than ever before in history, so Americans do not have to choose between weakening encryption and solving investigations. We feel strongly encryption is vital to protecting our country and our users' data.

Apple is supported in its efforts to resist the government's request by the ACLU and the EFF, among other groups concerned about user privacy.

Even more recently, it was revealed that Apple backed away from a plan to encrypt the iCloud backups after the FBI complained in 2016. To date, the iCloud backups remain unencrypted. It has been widely reported that Apple changed course from their plan to encrypt the iCloud backups, due to not wanting to deal with the anticipated backlash from the public, law enforcement and other government agencies/officials.

New Fiber Optic Breakthrough Could Surpass 5G, Help Wire Rural Areas

In early January, 2020, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology announced that they successfully transmitted data over high-tech fiber optic cables 323 miles (520 Km) at speed over 200 GiB per second, according to an article at Inverse. This throughput rate is faster than 5G, and may represent a better way to deliver high speed internet access to sparsely populated areas, provided that costs are reasonable.

The team worked with Russia-based T8 and United States-based Corning to deliver the super fast data speeds. Corning, best known for developing Gorilla Glass that is used extensively in many of today's smartphones, developed the commercial cables used in the feat.

The breakthrough has the potential to support up to 400 GiB per second. The initial speed test was limited to 284 GiB per second to insure that the data could be transmitted over the vast distance. The T8 team has its goals set on achieving a throughput rate of 600 GiB per second, using the new system. It is hoping to set a new transmission distance record by sometime next year.

Paris Museums Release Over 150,000 Images Of Artwork Into Public Domain

Portrait of Voltaire at the Bastille composing the Henriade, by

Louis-François Charon, 1822,

from the Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris

Paris Musées, a collection of 14 museums in Paris, released more than 150,000 high quality digital copies of works of art into the public domain. They are now available online for you to view, enjoy, and use without restrictions.

At the website, you can browse the collection, view images, share images, and even download images of your favorite artwork. On the catalog page of the images, hover your mouse over the catalog entry, and select the "See" button. A new page will open with an enlarged view of the image. Below the image, you should see a "Download" button.

Each image you download comes in a ZIP archive file. It will contain at least one high resolution image of the artwork, plus a PDF and TXT file containing information about the image downloaded. Be forewarned ... the archive file downloads can be quite large. The package that contained the image used above had two high resolution copies of the artwork, plus the PDF and TXT files, and came in at over 34 MiB in filesize. So, if storage space is an issue for you, you might want to be a bit selective of which ones you download.

In my brief browsing through the catalog, I saw paintings, photographs, drawings, sketches, carvings and castings represented among the selections. From a press release (PDF) from the Paris Musées:

The launch of Open Content will mark a new stage in Paris Musées' digitisation policy. It will contribute to enhancing and improving the way our collections are made available and will strengthen the measures taken to ensure better public access to art and culture as well as increasing visibility and understanding of the works in our municipal collections.

Making this data available guarantees that our digital files can be freely accessed and reused by anyone or everyone, without any technical, legal or financial restraints, whether for commercial use or not.

Digital files that contain works that belong in the public sphere under a CCØ (Creative Commons Zero) licence will be made available to everyone via the Paris Musées' Collections portal. At first only reproductions of works in 2D that are not copyright restricted will be available as Open Content, those works that are still in copyright will be in low definition in order to illustrate, on the Internet site, what is available in the collections. Art lovers will now be able to download works by the great names in photography (Atget, Blancard, Marville, Carjat) or in painting (Courbet, Delacroix, Rembrandt, Van Dyck).

This release of new digitized artwork brings the Paris Musées number of artworks offered online to over 320,000 pieces.

Hacker Publishes List Of Telnet Passwords For Over 500,000 Servers, Home Routers, IoT Devices

In mid January 2020, a hacker published a list of Telnet passwords for over 515,000 servers, home routers and IoT devices on a popular hacking forum, according to an article on ZDNet. The list includes each device's IP address, username, and the Telnet password. The Telnet protocol can be utilized to take control of internet-connected devices.

That IoT devices were included is no surprise. We've covered IoT security issues before. I said it then, and I'll say it again. IoT should be renamed "IdioT" devices, for their gross lack of security features that make them extremely vulnerable to hackers. To those with even a mild concern for privacy and security, you'd have to be an idiot to use such devices. Makers of IoT devices have never heard the maxim "just because you can, doesn't mean that you should." After all, do you REALLY need your refrigerator connected to the internet? If you can't think of another way to compile your grocery shopping list, then compiling that shopping list was never that big of a concern for you in the first place.

The hacker compiled his list by scanning the internet and looking for devices that were exposing their Telnet port. The username and password fields were either gleaned from known default usernames and passwords, or by guessing commonly used "custom" passwords.

According to ZDNet, all of the data in the list that was leaked was from October and November 2019. It's unclear how much of the list remains current, as devices may have changed IP addresses and/or passwords. ZDNet did not try to connect to any of the devices on the list, since that would have been illegal.

PCLinuxOS Magazine News Roundup

In the words of Gomer Pyle, USMC ... Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! Google has killed off yet another service, according to an article on The Verge. This time, they are killing off the PDF-based replica magazines in Google News, where users had to pinch and drag around a page on a phone or tablet just to read the articles. Actually, they quietly killed off two more services in December 2019 as well. Google Hangouts and Google Cloud Print have also bit the dust in the December wave of Google housecleaning. You can view all of the Google Kill List at the Killed By Google website, which keeps track of all of Google's services that have been killed off by the tech giant.

Laptop security is a huge deal. Let's say you're working on a project while waiting for your flight at the airport, or you are using your laptop to play a movie to pass the time. What happens if your laptop is suddenly stolen from you? You could pray that you are able to call your bank and secure your accounts ... before the thief robs you penniless. If it's a corporate computer, you could pray that they don't wreak havoc on your corporate accounts before IT is able to sequester your laptop from their servers. But one enterprising user has come up with his own solution. It's called BUS Kill, and you can build your own here, using the plans he has shared with the world. Essentially, it's a dead-man's kill switch. It uses udev commands to lock, shut down or wipe your computer in the event that your laptop is used without the proper USB device connected. It connects to the laptop's USB-A port (there are also plans for USB-C ports, as well, if your laptop lacks USB-A ports), and is held there with a magnetic breakaway USB adapter. The other end is attached to the USB device via a one meter cord that is attached to the user via a small carabiner. The price to build your own will run around $20 (U.S.) for the USB-A version, and around $50 for the USB-C version.

ZDNet reported that MalwareBytes has discovered unremovable malware on low end Unimax U673C handsets sold by Assurance Wireless, a division of Virgin Mobile, in the U.S. The handsets are primarily sold to low income Americans through Lifeline, a government-subsidized program to provide phone service to low income users. The handsets are manufactured in China, and the malware has its origins there, as well. Specifically, one installs programs without user interaction, whether the end user wanted them or not. The other one acts as a dropper for second-stage malware, namely a malware package called HiddenAds, which users report having suddenly appeared on their phones.

Phoronix reports that Multipath TCP should start coming to Linux with kernel 5.6 laying the prerequisite groundwork. Full Multipath TCP could be coming to Linux as early as with kernel 5.7. Multipath TCP could allow for greater throughput and stability for network connections. The MacOS was the first to fully support Multipath TCP.

The Hackaday website reported that one user has added additional LEDs to his USB drive to help protect against rogue USB-based malware attacks. By adding an additional LED (most USB drive enclosures already have one LED), it allows users to distinguish between reads and writes from the USB drive.

The Interesting Engineering website reports that an interdisciplinary team of researchers have discovered that using nano-sized copper compounds in conjunction with chemotherapy eradicated cancer in mice, and helped insure that the cancer stayed away. The nano-sized copper oxide particles were able to target cancer cells (which are sensitive to copper oxide), while leaving healthy cells untouched. There is some suggestion that the addition of nano-sized copper oxide particles might also act like a vaccine, preventing further cancerous growth or progression.

On a Google blog post, Google reported that it plans to end support for third-party cookies within two years in Google Chrome. Third-party cookies typically allow ad owners to track you across the web to see how their ads are performing. Hurray! Hurray! Hurray! Finally, Google is doing something for user privacy! I doubt, though, that they would have done so without an ever-increasing public outcry for increased privacy across the web.

If you are a Google Maps user, it has saved every trip you have ever made (especially on your mobile device). The CNBC website has an excellent article on how to stop Google Maps from tracking you and saving your location history. The level of detail is c-r-e-e-p-y. Like when you leave work, any stops you make on your way home, when you leave for work, what pictures you took where, and whether you were walking, driving, riding on a train, or bicycling. With its default settings, Google sucks up all of this data ... and retains it FOREVER! That is, unless you go in and make the changes that the article suggests. Honestly, I was shocked at not only the level of detail that Google Maps Hoovered up about my trips, but also how far back it went.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Southwest Lasagna

Southwest Lasagna

INGREDIENTS:

9 uncooked lasagna noodles

1 lb extra-lean (at least 90%) ground beef

1 package (1 oz) Taco Seasoning Mix

3/4 cup water

1 container (15 oz) ricotta cheese

1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chilies

2 eggs

1 jar (26 to 28 oz) tomato pasta sauce

1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained, rinsed

1 box (9 oz) frozen corn, thawed

2 teaspoons ground cumin

3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (12 oz)

DIRECTIONS:

Place cookie sheet or foil in oven on rack below middle oven rack; heat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Cook lasagna noodles as directed on package; drain. Rinse with cold water to cool; drain well.

Meanwhile, in 10-inch skillet, cook ground beef over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in taco seasoning mix and water. Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes or until thickened.

In a small bowl, mix ricotta cheese, chilies and eggs.

Stir pasta sauce, beans, corn and cumin into beef mixture. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thoroughly heated.

To assemble lasagna, arrange 3 cooked noodles in the bottom of a baking dish. Spoon and spread 1/3 of ricotta mixture over noodles; top with 1/3 each of beef mixture and cheese. Repeat layers 2 more times, reserving the last 1/3 of cheese.

Place a baking dish on the middle oven rack; bake 25 minutes. Sprinkle with reserved cheese; bake 15 to 25 minutes longer or until lasagna is bubbly and cheese is melted. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Cut into squares.

ms_meme's Nook: We Love Linux

MP3                                                                       OGG

Slipstream On PCLinuxOS: Analysis

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

If I were to define this game in one sentence, it would go something like this: A love letter to the arcade racers of the 80's (Outrun, Turbo Outrun, Outrunners, Top Gear and many others).

Yes friends, the nostalgia is strong with this one, but it is not an empty nostalgia. Slipstream is inspired by the classics of the past, but it has enough personality to be original and fresh.

The game was developed by Brazilian programmer Sandro Luiz de Paula, from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, and the sound/music part by Stefan Moser, from Charleston, South Carolina.

Some curiosities of the game's production:

- Slipstream is, admittedly, a love letter for the classic SEGA era. In addition to the obvious inspiration in OutRun/OutRunners, there are numerous references to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise spread across Slipstream, from the title screen to the names of roughly half the tracks. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the developer's favorite game.

- Other direct inspirations/references include: vaporwave and synthwave music and aesthetics (also known as retrowave), the anime Initial D and the TV show The Joy of Painting, with Bob Ross.

- Some tracks are inspired by real places: Monument Valley (USA), Highgate Cemetery (England), Akagiyama (Japan), Valley of the Kings (Egypt), Parthenon (Greece) and, most importantly, Villa Rica, based on the historic city of Ouro Preto, in Minas Gerais.

- Slipstream was developed exclusively on Linux systems (Ubuntu and Arch Linux), using free software tools such as Krita, Blender and GIMP for graphics and Intellij IDEA CE for programming. No sprites * in the game were produced on Windows or any other proprietary software like Photoshop. The developer just prefers Linux and free software. (* Does not apply to the soundtrack)

- Slipstream will have local multiplayer for up to 4 players in the near future. Due to time limits, this mode is not included in the initial release, but is already being tested and will be implemented in a free update in about two months. There are also plans to make a track editor available, but no set date for that.

Features

- Local multiplayer up to 4 players (split screen on the same PC)

- Online ranking.*

- Real graphics and feel in Pseudo3D: just like the classics.

- 6 game modes: Grand Tour, Cannonball, Grand Prix, Single Race, Time Trial and Battle Royale.

- 5 playable cars.

- 20 different tracks, 4 cups in Grand Prix mode.

- Visual filters: CRT, NTSC and pixelated modes.

- 24 Achievements.

- Full joystick support

* only works on the Steam version

The game menu

Menu Items

Arcade: The standard game mode, where you play against the clock, to beat each track (and consequently move on to the next track), and also against a rival. Each track will have a different rival, and among them, the late painter Bob Ross.

Quick Race: Quick race, where you can choose any car and track to play. There is no progression in this mode.

Grand Prix: Championship mode, where up to four different cups are played, over 20 tracks around the world. Each cup has five races, and cash prizes are won to improve the car.

Leaderboards: Online ranking, only available on the Steam version.

Settings: Settings

Tutorial: Learn to run

Quit game: Exit the game

What follows is my opinion on 4 essential aspects of the game: Graphics, Soundtrack, Gameplay and Replay value.

Graphics

The graphics are excellent, true pixel art that evoke the golden age of the bitmap arcades of the 90s. They are so well made, it is hard to believe that they were made on Linux. Below are some screenshots:

Yes, Bob Ross challenges you in a race

Soundtrack

The exclusive soundtrack was also created using synthesizers from the era, such as the Yamaha DX-21, which make the game sound as authentic as it sounds. Listening to the game, it seems that I am watching Stranger Things again, so good is the music, and the emulation of the old synth pop classics from the 80s (Duran Duran, Baltimora, P. Lion and others).

Gameplay

Here we come to a very important point: There is no point in having great graphics and music, if the gameplay is lame. A pleasant surprise was the automatic detection of the joystick, without any additional configuration.

The game is fast, exciting and leaves the player on the edge of his seat. So good is the animation in the game, that again, it is hard to believe that it was made in Java, due to the speed and quality of the game.

Being able to play between four players on the same computer is a journey of nostalgia, to the time when children gathered in the homes of friends, to challenge them, whether it was at Super Mario Kart, or Top Gear (who doesn't remember?).

Now, the controls are responsive, and the different tracks have their characteristics: rain, snow, desert, beach, which affects the control of the car, a very cool touch of realism.

But, not everything is perfect: Special maneuvers, notably Drift and Slipstream are very difficult to do.

The drift is done like this: Release the accelerator, touch the brake, and accelerator again. The problem is that this game mechanic is not intuitive: In all racing games, the drift is always done by pressing the hand brake, and, by slowing the acceleration a little, not with this confusing mechanic. It took me two days to do the drifts right.

But worse is the slipstream, the maneuver that gives the game its name: This one, I never consciously managed, and it came out a few times, but alien to my will.

Replay Value

With several racing modes, multiplayer, arcade mode, quick race and championships, the game offers many hours of fun. This game has a good longevity, since you will spend a lot of time trying to advance in the various achievements that it offers.

However, there could be secret cars, which would be unlocked as the player progresses. Multiplayer on the local network has already been promised by the author, so the game will improve.

Verdict

Costing US$ 9.99, the game is accessible, and worth buying:

A) If you like retro games.

B) If you like arcades from the 80s, but feel that the good old games are no longer to be found.

C) You want to encourage a developer who uses Linux exclusively in his work.

Links:

Game website: https://slipstre.am/

Author's website: https://www.ansdor.com/

Slipstream on GOG (without DRM): https://www.gog.com/game/slipstream

Game Review video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKzuDso7hOA

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: bliss

as told to YouCanToo

What is your name/username?

Bobbie Seller/bliss

How old are you?

82 aiming at 83.

Are you married, single?

Single blessedness.

How about Kids, Grandkids (names and ages)?

None!

Do you have pets, what is your favorite?

No animals due to allergies.

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

Retired and working at understanding my computer better, I am also a member of San Francisco Linux Users Group and help host monthly meetings and maintain the Distribution Library. It does not pay well, but is very satisfying at times.

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

San Francisco, California for the past 52 years. We enjoy every sort of weather aside from snowstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Only strong Earthquakes wake up people who have lived in California the most of their lives.

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

I finished High School in Sacramento, California. Then I took USN schools in hospital corpsman, psychiatric nursing technician, and nuclear power health physicist. Then, after the service, some nursing training classes.

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

Oh i like eating and breathing. When I was younger and before computers, I was an avid motorcyclist and liked to ride road events like the California 1000. In 1984, after several elective surgeries and anomalous illness, I acquired systemic exertional intolerance disease, and it has gradually worsened over the years since. I lived through the big explosion of computer interest and read all I could before I bought my Commodore 64 in the 1980's, and an Amiga in the 1990's.

Commodore 64

Commodore Amiga

Around 2011, I got serious and got a DSL line and started to download lots of distributions, but never found any I wanted to switch to until Mandriva went under and did not recover. I found PCLinuxOS around 2012.

I also liked to read SF magazines, but they became too expensive after I had to retire from nursing. Now, I make extensive use of the San Francisco Public Library. I got interested in Japanese animation in the early 2000's then, due to that in Japanese comics called "Manga." I buy a few manga at low prices. To better understand the topics of the comics, I got interested in Japanese history and foods. I have read lots of books on Japanese history, ancient and modern.

Why and when did you start using Linux?

About 2006 when the Commodore Business Machines had gone under in 1994, I hoped forlornly that it would do the smart thing and start transitioning to the x86 processor architecture. One of my online friends suggested Mandriva, but could not get it together to send me copies. Another online friend took pity on me and sent me the Mandriva 2006 iso files on a DVD. I made the 6 CDs using Windows XP, created a partition on the Great Quality(not so great) laptop and installed Mandriva.

I learned to use Knoppix as well from a book "Knoppix for Dummies". Shortly after starting with Mandriva, I joined SF-LUG to get help, principally with getting online with WiFi and repairing LiLo.

What specific equipment do currently use with PCLinuxOS?

A Dell E6540 with i7 4 cores and 16 Gigabytes of memory and a 500 GB hard drive. My favorite is the Dell E6540 that I am working on now.

I use it with a cheap lighted keyboard on the desk, while the computer and its screen are elevated on an easel.

I take a Dell E6520 with i5, 4 cores and 12 Gigabytes of memory to the meetings, usually. Both of these are used machine representing a few hundred dollar and much less than more current models. I have added memory and hard drives to each for my specific needs.

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

I think I am viewed a friendly geek by my friends, that I use PCLinuxOS in the LUG disturbs some who have been propagandized to believe that Ubuntu is a user-friendly distribution. Other much more knowledgeable and skilled users don't understand why I don't work from terminals. I don't like to work from terminals because I am a rotten typist.

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

If you mean in the distribution, well a really large Live Install with the multiple options desktop for environments might get on a Linux Pro distribution, which would greatly expose others to the distribution.

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.

Mind Your Step: New Decade Edition

Podio is a project collaboration service provided by Citrix. The fact that this was in French suggests that the real sender could be in France, Switzerland or the province of Quebec.

(Fun Fact: French, German and Italian are languages spoken in Switzerland.)

The last two snippets are from cloud service providers. The Parsec referred to in the snippet refers to Parsec Gaming by Parsec Cloud whose web address is https://parsecgaming.com. There is a Linux version of the Parsec client, but it is a Debian package for U****** only.

There is, however, another Parsec that specializes in UNIX. This is the Parsec Group and they provide training, support and consultation on all UNIX platforms, including Linux, as well as OpenVMS. Parsec Group is based in the Denver suburb of Arvada, Colorado.

With that out of the way, now for something a bit more pleasant.

Seeburg 1000 Update

Since I have written articles on configuring music players to connect to seeburg1000.com for background music, the seeburg1000.com website is now streaming the music through streema.com. I do not know if the links provided in the articles are still good. But if not, then you may bookmark http://streema.com/radios/play/Seeburg to get the streaming service. Yes, this is a http:// link and not a https:// link, but that is how Streema works as a streaming service for this particular channel.

By the way, I did subscribe to the Seeburg 1000 newsletter on their website.

Streema itself is accessed with a https:// link and operates on the CloudFlare platform. This streaming service is dedicated to radio stations and television stations worldwide.

For Michigan City, IN, both WE-FM and WIMS have channels on Streema.

JPG Magazine returns to print!

JPG Magazine is a publication that is dedicated to photography where each issue has some kind of theme associated with the content. The magazine went from a print publication to an online publication, and will be returning to print format. The older website, which will shut down this month, contained 66 of my best photographs.

I have since purchased archives containing the 26 online issues and have reclaimed my archive of 66 photographs. These were distributed with a Creative Commons license, and are now too good to publish just anywhere.

Google Chrome Browser FINALLY Catches Up

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."

That was how my initial article about stopping autoplaying media began in the June 2018 issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Fully a year and a half after we ran our initial article in The PCLinuxOS Magazine on how to stop autoplaying media elements inside a browser, Google Chrome has finally caught up! At that time, we looked at Firefox Quantum, Opera and Google Chrome. Firefox earned a A+ for its ability to block autoplaying media elements. Meanwhile, Opera earned a C-, and Google Chrome earned a despicable F. Little has changed since then with those rankings, at least until now. Firefox upped the ante with additional controls since then, which we reported on in the January 2019 issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine.

I don't know about you, but I hate autoplaying media SO MUCH that I also have a Firefox extension, AutoplayStopper, installed ... just in case some website somewhere figures out a way around Mozilla's efforts to stop autoplaying media. Sometimes, on some sites (like the MLB site), playing one media element is interpreted as "permission" for the site to play every other media element on the page as you scroll through. AutoplayStopper halts this behavior in its tracks. I wrote about it in yet another article in The PCLinuxOS Magazine in September 2019. Between the Firefox settings and the extension, I've yet to suffer the agony of autoplaying media elements since.

So, finally, after caving in to an outrage from web developers 18 months ago when the Chrome developers originally planned to do something about autoplaying media elements, Google Chrome has provided a way to address the issue, sort of. While it doesn't prevent the multimedia elements from starting to play, it gives users a choice of whether or not those elements continue to play.

When you open a page that autoplays media elements, a new tool will appear on your Chrome toolbar. That new tool is highlighted in the image above with a red arrow pointing to it. Clicking on the new "hamburger" tool with a note on it will pop up a small window that contains playback controls, including a "pause" button. Click on the pause button to silence the autoplaying media element.

OK. So it isn't a complete solution, but it's better than nothing ... which is the level of control that Chrome users had before. To take advantage of the additional control, you must have updated to Google Chrome 79, which is currently available in the PCLinuxOS repository.

So now, let's say you have multiple tabs opened up, and you're not sure which tab is autoplaying the media. Regardless of which tab you're currently in, you can press the new button on your toolbar, and click on pause in the popup window to stop the intrusive media element from continuing to play.

Finally, at least minimal control has been returned to the end user to decide whether autoplaying media elements are allowed to continue playing, without having to search out the offending tab.

I guess it's better late than never. I guess it's better than having no control at all. But it still isn't ideal, either. I imagine that diehard Chrome users will be ecstatic and enthusiastic about the new level of control.

Repo Review: PDFsam Basic

by CgBoy

PDFsam (Split and Merge) Basic is a helpful program used for splitting, extracting, and merging PDF documents. There are paid versions of PDFsam with more features, but for this review we'll just be focusing on the free Basic edition available in the repository.

PDFsam has a modern, well designed interface. Each editing function of PDFsam is divided into a different module accessible from the main screen.

To merge two or more PDF files together, go to the Merge module and load in the files you want to mix. Then, if you don't want every page to be merged, you can set which ones you do want by double clicking on the Page ranges column at the top right, and entering comma separated page numbers (for example, 1-3, 15, will include pages 1 to 3 and page 15). You then have a few options, such as normalizing the page sizes, generating a new table of contents, adding a page footer to indicate which file the page was from, and options for handling bookmarks and interactive forms. Next, choose the output location and filename. By default, the output PDF file will be compressed. Now just press Run and let it merge the documents.

The Alternate Mix module is used for merging two or more PDF files by alternating the pages taken from each document.

To split a PDF document, go to the Split module and load the PDF file in. Then you have the option to split the document after every page, every even page number, every odd page number, after any page numbers you enter in, or after every specified number of pages. When you press Run, it will then split the document into multiple PDF files.

The Split by bookmarks module allows you to split a PDF file at the bookmark level you specify. And the Split by size module lets you split the PDF document into smaller files all of a certain file size, which you can set.

If you want to change the orientation of a PDF document, go to the Rotate module and simply choose to rotate it by 90, 180, or 270 degrees. Like before, if you want to only apply this to some of the pages, specify the page numbers in the Page ranges column at the top.

And finally, the Extract module allows you to extract selected pages from one or more PDF documents. It will save all the extracted pages into one PDF file.

Summary

There are other PDF merging and splitting tools in the PCLinuxOS repository, but I chose to review PDFsam because I thought it was the best one all round, especially with its user friendly interface. If you need a simple program for performing some PDF splitting and merging tasks, I would really recommend PDFsam Basic.

PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe Corner: Chicken Tortilla Casserole

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts* - cooked and shredded

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion chopped

1 green bell pepper cored and chopped

1 red bell pepper cored and chopped

1 jalapeno cored and diced

2 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 can tomato sauce (28 ounces)

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

3 tablespoons Tabasco Jalapeno Sauce plus additional for serving

18 (6-inch) corn tortillas

2 cups freshly grated Monterey Jack cheese (8 ounces)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a 9x13-inch casserole dish with baking spray. If needed, cook and shred chicken according to these easy steps.

Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium high, then add the onion, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, and jalapeno. Saute until the veggies are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomato sauce, chicken stock, and Tabasco Jalapeno sauce, then stir to combine. Let the sauce simmer for 12 minutes.

Assemble the casserole: Spread a thin layer of the sauce on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Arrange 6 tortillas on top so that they cover the sauce, overlapping as needed. Top with 1/3 of the chicken, 1/2 cup of the cheese, then 1/3 of the remaining sauce. Repeat the process twice more, sprinkling the last 1/2 cup of the cheese over the top.

Cover then pan with foil, then bake for 35 minutes. Remove the foil, return the pan to the oven, then bake for 10 additional minutes, until the casserole is hot and bubbly and the cheese is melted. Let rest 5 minutes. Serve hot with desired toppings.

TIPS:

Optional for serving: salsa, sliced avocados, lime juice, plain Greek yogurt (or sour cream), chopped fresh cilantro.

ms_meme's Nook: Boot Up The Band

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!

Mixed Up meme Scrambler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Screenshot Showcase

Posted by Chrisripp, January 1, 2020, running e23

Posted by francesco_bat, January 20, 2020, running Trinity

Posted by Hallvor, January 7, 2020, running KDE

Posted by kalwisiti, January 12, 2020, running Mate

Posted by Meemaw, January 1, 2020, running Xfce

Posted by mutse, January 1, 2020, running Mate

Posted by OnlyHuman, January 9, 2020, running e23

Posted by parnote, January 8, 2020, running Xfce

Posted by tbschommer, January 1, 2020, running KDE

Posted by Yankee, January 18, 2020, running Mate

Table of Contents

From The Chief Editor's Desk

Inkscape Tutorial: Triangle Campfire

Short Topix: U. S Gov't Once Again Requests iOS Back Door

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Southwest Lasagna

ms_meme's Nook: We Love Linux

Slipstream On PCLinuxOS: Analysis

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: bliss

Mind Your Step: New Decade Edition

Google Chrome Browser FINALLY Catches Up

Repo Review: PDFsam Basic

PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe Corner: Chicken Tortilla Casserole

ms_meme's Nook: Boot Up The Band

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Screenshot Showcase

Unnamed

Unnamed