Table of Contents

1. Welcome From The Chief Editor

2. Image Noise Reduction By Image Stacking/Blending

3. Short Topix: 200 Most Common Passwords Of 2020

4. ms_meme's Nook: Everybody Wants To Rule The WWW

5. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Chicken, Bacon & Carmelized Onion Pasta Bake For Two

6. Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

7. Paul's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

8. Meemaw's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

9. YouCanToo's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

10. phorneker's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

11. Game Zone: A Very Sonic Christmas!

12. Inkscape Tutorial: Create A Custom Calendar

13. Repo Review: Shortwave

14. Faked Memory Sticks

15. Using Timeshift To Backup & Restore Your PCLinuxOS System

16. Some Steps To Thwart Google Tracking

17. PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: The Cat

18. Mind Your Step: Going On Sabbatical

19. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus: Savory Spinach & Mushroom Strudel

20. ms_meme's Nook: Linux Treats Me Right

21. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

22. Screenshot Showcase

Welcome From The Chief Editor

Can 2020 PLEASE be over? Can we hurry up and find another planet to colonize? Not that we've taken all that good of care of this one ...

Aye-aye-aye! What a year 2020 has been, and not in a good way. I don't know about you, but this past year has seemed to be just one catastrophic event after another. The words "awful," "dreadful," and "terrible" just seem like too mild of words to use to describe 2020.

Let's take a look at all the bad things that happened in 2020.

Hong Kong uprising/unrest/riots/protests.

Australia bushfires.

Taal Volcano erupts in Luzon, Philippines.

The U.K. and Gibraltar formally withdraw from the E.U.

COVID-19 starts its global spread, and is eventually declared a pandemic by the WHO.

Oil prices reach a record low (which, to many, may not seem like a bad thing at all ... unless you're heavily invested in oil).

Panic buying by consumers here in the U.S. (and other locales, from what I hear) led to a severe shortage of disinfecting sprays, disinfecting wipes, rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, paper towels, and many food products as people bought up all they could should they be required to shelter-in-place for an extended period of time, due to the pandemic. For a period of time, much of the store shelves were empty, as demand far outpaced supply, at least until the supply chain caught up with the demand. Even now, some items are exceptionally difficult to find on store shelves, such as disinfecting sprays and wipes.

A Pakistan International Airlines passenger aircraft crashes in a residential area near Karachi, in Pakistan, killing 97 of the 99 total people on board and injuring dozens on the ground.

Racial protests and riots break out across the U.S. (many lasting most of the summer), and across the world, in response to George Floyd dying in police custody.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declares a state of emergency after 20,000 tons of oil leaked into the Ambarnaya River near the Siberian city of Norilsk within the Arctic Circle.

A 7.5-magnitude earthquake strikes the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico, and kills at least four people. It is felt more than 640 kilometers (400 mi) away in Mexico City.

Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault in New York.

NBA legend Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash.

Radical left-wing members of Antifa take over a several square block area of downtown Seattle.

The 2020 Summer Olympics, which were supposed to take place in Tokyo, are postponed until 2021.

A Ukrainian flight crashes in Tehran, Iran, killing all 176 passengers on board.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce they are stepping down from their duties as senior royals in Buckingham Palace.

The coronavirus pandemic triggered a global recession as numerous countries went into lockdown. The Dow Jones industrial average suffered its worst single-day point drop ever on March 9.

Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's associate, arrested.

"Murder hornets" arrive in US.

West Coast wildfires. (These seem to be an annual event in California, but Oregon and Washington state got hit, as well.)

Many small businesses in the U.S. succumb to the economic hardships imposed by the coronavirus lockdowns.

The Supreme Court Justice and unrelenting trailblazer for gender equality, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, died Sept. 18 at the age of 87. She was the second-ever woman appointed to the high court.

The second wave of COVID-19 starts its sweep.

Canada makes a plan to evacuate its citizens from Hong Kong.

Death toll reaches 39 in the quake that hit Turkey.

Thailand is rocked by protests as the prime minister refuses to step down.

The third wave of COVID-19 gets started moving though the global population, prompting more lockdowns in many countries in an effort to contain transmission of the deadly virus.

Election irregularities and alleged fraud hold up certification of the U.S. Presidential election results.

OF COURSE, NOT EVERYTHING that happened was bad.

Because of increased mask wearing, social distancing, and lockdowns, the influenza wave that was initially expected to hit, pretty much petered out without having nearly the impact that was expected. The fall 2020 influenza cases are also off to a slow start, thanks in large part to the same factors that made the previous influenza case numbers much lower.

Because of COVID-19 lockdowns, air quality improved and air pollution decreased.

My hometown Kansas City Chiefs won their first Super Bowl in 50 years, led by phenom superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes. In fact, it was their first appearance in the Super Bowl in 50 years. The sad part of all of this: I remember their last Super Bowl win 50 years ago! I was just five months past my ninth birthday.

Many businesses switched to a work-from-home telecomputing work model that is expected to persist even after the coronavirus pandemic is behind us.

In the U.S., largely due to Operation Warp Speed, many new drugs and treatments for COVID-19 were fast tracked in an effort to find something that worked against the novel coronavirus. Some worked, some failed, but they all helped to foster hope in despairing times.

Again, largely due to Operation Warp Speed, multiple vaccines for the coronavirus were announced at year's end. Vaccinations are expected to start in the waning weeks of 2020, with healthcare professionals and the elderly among those slated to receive the vaccine(s) first.

Due to falling oil prices, gasoline prices across the U.S. fell to levels not seen in many years. Of course, with the pandemic raging on, there really wasn't anywhere for people to go, either.

I'm sure if you dig deep, hard and long enough, you can find many more bad and good things that 2020 brought your way. I just tried to "hit the highlights."

Here's To Hoping that 2021 is far, far better than the 2020 that we all have endured. It's going to take some time to see how much impact the COVID-19 pandemic will have on society and many entrenched habits/trends that have existed for many, many years. But, any time something of this magnitude hits society, there's almost no way it can't have an impact. We'll never be able to go back to the old "normal." That old "normal" will be replaced with a new "normal" that will supplant it in ways we cannot yet begin to imagine.

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, serenity, prosperity, continued good health ... and the happiest of holidays!

Image Noise Reduction By Image Stacking/Blending

by The Cranky Zombie and Tuxlink

Just what is Image Stacking/Blending?

Simply put, it is a way to use multiple photos of an image to reduce the noise in the final image to produce a cleaner and clearer final image.

Image Stacking/Blending is not the same as Focus Stacking, which is normally used when taking Macro or Close Up images.

Software Requirements

Computer running the Linux OS

The GiMP with the G'MIC-Qt Plugin installed

Hardware Requirements

Your DSLR camera

A sturdy tripod

A remote shutter release.

Waning Gibbous Moon - Stacked image from 5 individual photos.

So how do we begin?

To begin, choose a subject. In this case, we are going to use an image of an early morning moon shot. I set up my camera with a Tamron 300mm lens on a tripod, and used a remote shutter release. I selected my ISO, aperture, shutter speed and then focused on the subject carefully in live view mode. I then took a series of 10 images using continuous shooting mode. I choose to lock the mirror up and use a remote shutter release to prevent mirror slap and camera shake.

Now is the time to get down to the nitty gritty. Once all the images had been taken, I transferred them from the camera to my computer. Once on the computer, I opened them in GiMP and set the view of each of them to 90%. Carefully, I check each photo for focus and choose the best five of the group. No matter how I set things up, it seems that there are always a few of the images that will be out of focus or blurred in some way. This can be caused by many things, but the air itself can cause an image to be blurry, due to turbulence in the air between the lens and the subject itself.

Here's a hint. If you are taking an image of the moon, stars or the planets, it is best to take when the air is cool, as it will be less turbulent, and result in better images.

Now that we have selected the best five images, I then aligned them so the moon appeared as close as possible to the same place in the window for each image. Now I cropped each frame, and copied and pasted each as a new image.

Enlarged and cropped

New image from first image

I repeated the above steps for each of the five images.

I then save each of the new images using export as img1, img2, img3, img4 and img5. Once they have been saved, I closed all the images.

Now we need to open our newly saved images as layers. Choose File > Open as layers, and choose the files you saved. Hold down the Shift key, as you choose each file.

Open Images as layers

You will see one image displayed, but if you look at the bottom right corner of the screen, you will see each of your images have been loaded as a separate layer. Now we are going to align each image, and then blend (stack) them together using the plugin called G'MIC-QT. In GiMP click on Filters > G'MIC-QT. The plugin will open a new window.

Now click on Layers > Align Layers. We are going to use the default setting for this step. So now, press the Apply button.

Apply Layers

This can take a bit of time depending on how many layers are used and the size of each layer in pixels. When G'MIC-QT has completed the process, the window will remain open. Now we want to select Blend [Median].

Blend Median

Again, in this step, we will be using the default values. Now we will click OK. This step can take a while to complete. When this step has completed, the G'MIC-QT window will close.

Blend process completed

The blend process has been completed. You will note that all the layers have been stacked together, as can be seen in the bottom right corner of the GiMP window. Now select Image > Flatten Image. Now we want to save our finished image, File > Export As..., and give it a new file name.

Our final stacked (blended) image.

Some final thoughts. When it comes to aligning the images, G'MIC-QT plugin doesn't seem to work well if the images have much distance between frames.

The above images were taken 10 seconds apart. And failed to stack. It can also make the final image turn out a whole lot worse than its individual original image, as can be seen below.

I have found that it works much much better if you take a very short video clip, and then break the video clip into its individual frames and process that. You can use ffmpeg to extract the frames from the video clip. A couple of second videos will give you plenty of frames to work with, in most cases.

Also, there is a program in Synaptic called Siril, which is supposed to be really good for image processing, though I haven had a chance to use it yet.

Short Topix: 200 Most Common Passwords Of 2020

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

200 Most Common Passwords Of 2020

Despite the "annual warnings" (which are most likely much, much more frequent), users are still using easy-to-hack, easy-to-crack passwords. I know that, as this magazine's Chief Editor for over 11 years, we have run password articles so many times in the past that it's now impossible to count them all. I know this definitely isn't my first password article of 2020, either.

Well, NordPass has released its list of the 200 most common passwords, along with their frequency of use, how many users were found using them, the length of time it took to crack the passwords, and how many times it was exposed. Without much surprise, the top "password" used was 123456. It rose to the number one spot, after occupying the number two spot in 2019.

Now, you've got to promise me that you won't LAUGH at some of these passwords! Below is a reprint of the top 20 worst passwords of 2020.

Can you "relate" to any of these "passwords" in this list? If so, don't gloat or be proud. Go out and change them. NOW! Do you also notice that most of these "passwords" were cracked in less than one second? If your chosen "password" has appeared on this list before, then you can count on the hackers to already have it in their special little dictionary of passwords to try first. That special little dictionary of common, previously used, popular "passwords" is used by the software tools the hackers use to gain access to your data in very, very short order.

Among the top 20 most common passwords on the list of 200, the longest any of them "held out" before being cracked was three hours. Among the entire list of the 200 most common passwords, the "new" password in the 54th place (jobandtalent) took the longest to crack: three years. You can bet that next year, the time to crack it will be much, much shorter, since it will be added to the "dictionary" used by the hacker's password tools.

Let's say you "collect" gold bullion. You store it carefully, stacking it all nice and neat. When you're done counting and stacking your gold, you want to lock it up, to keep others who want to steal your gold from taking it. Would you use a flimsy, mass produced dollar store padlock to secure your gold? Probably not. So why would you do the same thing with your data? Your data is the currency d'jour of the information age. It's YOUR data, and it's YOUR responsibility to protect it. Yes. Others are interested in your data, much like they are interested in your gold. They want to STEAL it! Don't make it easy for them to do so.

Go SMS Pro App Exposes Millions Of User Photos, Files

Here's the obligatory, monthly "remove this app from your Android device due to security concerns and stop using this app" article.

According to an article on TechCrunch, as well as many other media outlets, the popular Android app Go SMS Pro is exposing photos, videos and files sent privately by millions of its users. The app is listed in the Google Play store as having over 100 million users, so this is a really big deal.

Even after being notified by security researchers at Trustwave about the security issue in August, the app maker has done nothing to fix the problem. Efforts by Trustwave, as well as TechCrunch, were unsuccessful at contacting the app maker. So now, three months later, users are being urged to stop using Go SMS Pro, and to remove it from their devices.

Specifically, the issue goes something like this. If a Go SMS Pro user sends photos, videos or files to a user who does NOT have the app installed, the files are uploaded to a server, and the non-user of the app was sent a message via SMS text with a link to the files. This way, non-users did not have to install Go SMS Pro just to receive or view the files. At least, that's how it was supposed to work.

However, researchers discovered that even when files were shared between users who both had the app installed, files were still uploaded to the servers. What's worse, the server was unsecured, and could be accessed by anyone with the link. Researchers also discovered that the web addresses were sequential, which means that anyone who could figure out the predictable web address could potentially gain access to millions of private files.

TechCrunch verified the Trustwave findings, as below:

TechCrunch verified the researcher's findings. In viewing just a few dozen links, we found a person's phone number, a screenshot of a bank transfer, an order confirmation including someone's home address, an arrest record, and far more explicit photos than we were expecting, to be quite honest.

Hmmm. I guess the number of downloads in the Google Play store are NOT indicative of a trustworthy app, after all.

Linux Foundation and NCWIT Release Free Training Course on Diversity in Open Source

The Linux Foundation (November 13, 2020, by Dan Brown) -- Inclusive Open Source Community Orientation (LFC102) is a new training course from The Linux Foundation and National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and is designed to provide essential background knowledge and practical skills to create an inclusive culture in the open source community.

The course delves into facts about diversity in tech, the importance of diversity for innovation, the basics of unconscious and societal bias, and how to recognize the different ways unconscious bias presents itself in technical environments. The course also provides the knowledge and skills to recognize, appreciate, and include people of differing races, ethnicities, genders, ages, abilities and other identity categories and promote inclusivity and diversity in open source communities.

"The research is clear: a variety of cultural factors and implicit biases prevent many people from meaningful participation in technology cultures," said Dr. Catherine Ashcraft, Director of Research, NCWIT. "The practices we suggest in the course are intended to address these multiple biases and make the open source community a more inclusive place where currently underrepresented groups are able to thrive and make meaningful contributions to future technical innovations."

While the 2020 Open Source Jobs Report found efforts by employers to increase diversity in open source hiring activities have increased, there is still progress to be made. 11% of those surveyed for the report stated they have been discriminated against or felt unwelcome due to their personal characteristics, an increase from 8% just two years ago. This course is meant as a starting point for everyone in the community -- from technical staff to managers, executives, support teams and more -- to learn more about these issues and how to ensure everyone feels comfortable in the workplace and broader community.

"Open source projects are best when they cultivate contributions from a wide range of individuals with different backgrounds from all over the world, so it is prudent for community members to ensure everyone feels welcome," said Chris Aniszczyk, CTO of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). "This course will guide open source projects on how to build inclusive communities, which is why we will be planning to require all CNCF project leadership to complete this training starting next year."

LFC102 is available for immediate enrollment at no cost to students. The course complements the existing LFC101 -- Inclusive Speaker Orientation which provides knowledge of how to ensure inclusivity in presentations, messaging and other communications. Enroll today and help build an inclusive open source community!

The History Of Ctrl-Alt-Delete

In the computing world, it's commonly and affectionately known as the "three finger salute." But no matter what you call it, I'm betting you never thought much about its origins. Like many users, you were just glad that it was there for your use when you needed it.

In an article from Mashable, Virginia Hughes explores the history of how the keystroke combination came to be. And, it's quite a story.

In a summarized version, back when PCs were just "born," every time programmers encountered a bug that locked things up, they had to do a hard reboot. There was no other option. And every time you did a hard reboot, early PCs had to perform a RAM check, which took away time from writing code. So, in the Spring of 1981, while working on the Acorn project for IBM, David Bradley created a keyboard shortcut that triggered a system reset, without having to perform the memory check. Never intending for his shortcut to make its way to PC customers, it went on mostly unnoticed ... until Windows and its "blue screen of death" terrorized users. Then, word quickly spread of a quick fix: Ctrl + Alt + Del.

Go ahead ... read more about it at the Mashable link above. There is more to the story, and I don't want to steal Ms. Hughes thunder. It is a fascinating story from the times of the origins of the PC.

Red Bull Rubik's Cube World Cup 2020

From the Rubik's blog -- The 40th anniversary of the Rubik's Cube becoming a worldwide phenomenon also happens to be the same day as the digital Red Bull Rubik's Cube World Cup FINAL (7 November 2020).

Utilising the new digital Rubik's Connected Cube, the final featured some of the best Speedcubers in the world!

The new Rubik's Connected Cube enabled the competition to be a virtual tournament in 2020, the first ever digital speedcubing competition. Not only is the new digital Cube a natural progression in the evolution of Rubik's, the launch happened to coincide with a time when people were unable to travel and participate in physical events, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are the results from the 2020 competition:

SPEEDCUBING MIXED

1st - Max Park (00:05:870) (U.S.)

2nd - Feliks Zemdegs (00:06:219) (Australia)

3rd - Bill Wang (00:06:488) (Canada)

SPEEDCUBING FEMALE

1st - Juliette Sébastien (00:07:526) (France)

2nd - Dana Yi (00:08:851) (U.S.)

3rd - Kalina Jakubowska (00:09:786) (Poland)

FASTEST HAND

1st - Philipp Weyer (00:09:901) (Germany)

2nd - Juliette Sébastien (00:11:225) (France)

3rd - Andrey Che (00:11:643) (Russia)

RE-SCRAMBLE

1st - Chris Mills (00:17:428) (U.K.)

2nd - Ricky Meiler (00:23:342) (Germany)

3rd - Manuel Gutman (00:23:489) (Argentina)

Re-watch the 2020 World Cup Final

Want to battle the best speedcubers in the world and improve your own solve time? Get your own Rubik's Connected Cube now!

Buy Rubik's Connected Cube

Open Source Web Engine Servo to be Hosted at Linux Foundation

The popular and lightning-fast web engine built using the Rust programming language will grow the community and expand its platform footprint

KubeCon, November 17, 2020 (by Craig Ross) -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced it will host the Servo web engine. Servo is an open source, high-performance browser engine designed for both application and embedded use and is written in the Rust programming language, bringing lightning-fast performance and memory safety to browser internals. Industry support for this move is coming from Futurewei, Let's Encrypt, Mozilla, Samsung, and Three.js, among others.

"The Linux Foundation's track record for hosting and supporting the world's most ubiquitous open source technologies makes it the natural home for growing the Servo community and increasing its platform support," said Alan Jeffrey, Technical Chair of the Servo project. "There's a lot of development work and opportunities for our Servo Technical Steering Committee to consider, and we know this cross-industry open source collaboration model will enable us to accelerate the highest priorities for web developers."

Servo is an open source project that delivers components that can load, run, and display web pages, applications, and immersive WebXR experiences. Developers can integrate the Servo web engine -- including a parallelized CSS engine that speeds page load times and improves stability and a rendering engine called WebRender -- into their own user interfaces, 3D experiences, and other products. Servo currently runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and has been ported to devices such as Android phones, Oculus, Magic Leap, and Microsoft's HoloLens. Servo was instrumental in building Mozilla's Gecko browser engine that powered the launch of the Firefox Quantum web browser in 2017, and is still core to Firefox's DNA today.

In 2012, Mozilla started the Servo project, a community effort to create a new, open source browser engine that can take advantage of multicore hardware to improve speed, stability, and responsiveness. Today, Servo is more efficient than most web engines because it takes advantage of low-power multi-core CPUs. This is enabled by the open source Rust programming language that focuses on speed, memory safety, and parallelism. Rust and Servo co-evolved, and during their early days, Servo was the only large-scale Rust program other than the Rust compiler itself. Rust's memory safety guarantees mean that Servo presents a smaller attack surface for security vulnerabilities such as buffer overflow attacks. Rust and Servo were both incubated by Mozilla, and the next step for Servo is through the Linux Foundation.

"Mozilla is a champion of the open source movement, working to unite passionate communities to build software that keeps the internet open and accessible to all," said Adam Seligman, Chief Operating Officer at Mozilla. "We're pleased to see Servo graduate from Mozilla and move on to the Linux Foundation where we know this technology will continue to thrive and power web-based innovation in the future."

"Servo is the most promising, modern, and open web engine for building applications and immersive experiences using web technologies, and that has a lot to do with the Rust programming language," said Mike Dolan, senior vice president, and general manager of projects at the Linux Foundation. "We're excited to support and sustain this important work for decades to come."

For more information about the Servo project and to contribute, please visit servo.org.

ms_meme's Nook: Everybody Wants To Rule The WWW

MP3                                                                       OGG

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner:

Chicken, Bacon and Caramelized Onion Pasta Bake for Two

INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 cup uncooked Penne pasta

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 cup shredded Gruyïre cheese (4 oz)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup shredded cooked chicken

3 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

2/3 cup plain panko crispy bread crumbs

1 tablespoon butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 425F. (218C) In a 7-inch cast-iron skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are browned. Remove from heat.

2. Meanwhile, cook pasta as directed on the package to al dente; drain.

3. In a 2-quart saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add flour; cook and stir for 1 minute. Beat in milk, salt and pepper with whisk; heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; beat in Gruyïre and Parmesan cheeses. Add cooked pasta, chicken, bacon and browned onions; gently stir to combine. Transfer to the same 7-inch cast-iron skillet.

4. In a small bowl, mix bread crumbs and 1 tablespoon melted butter. Sprinkle over the top of the pasta mixture. Bake for 14 to 17 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.

TIPS:

Swiss cheese can be substituted for Gruyïre in this recipe.

The pasta mixture can also be baked in an 8x4-inch loaf pan 18 to 22 minutes.

To lower calories substitute whole milk with 2% milk

Lower the sodium by substituting the salt with your favorite salt substitute.

Reduce carbs, calories and sodium while increasing fiber by substituting the Penne pasta with whole wheat Penne pasta

NUTRITION FACTS:

Calories: 510         Carbs: 38g         Sodium: 1,009mg         Fiber: 4.6g

Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

by Meemaw

Welcome to our second bunch of good news!

Neighbors Helping Neighbor

Lane Unhjem was harvesting his wheat near Crosby, North Dakota in September when his combine caught fire. In the midst of the operations to put the fire out, the stress apparently caused him to suffer a heart attack. He realized something was wrong and had someone drive him to the hospital, where they flew him to Minot, SD for more extensive care.

Realizing he wouldn't be able to complete his harvest, several neighbors started calling friends in the community. People started coming from all over the area, and between 40 and 50 neighbors with "11 combines, six grain carts, and 15 semis (came) to help get his durum wheat and canola in the bin". They finished his 1,000 acres in seven hours.

A local resident posted the above photo on his Facebook page and said, "What a great sense of pride we can all have knowing that when we face something like this, we're not alone. Kudos to all those that helped today."

Mr. Unhjem was in stable condition, and will continue his recovery knowing that his crops are safely harvested.

70 Year-old Veteran Saves Couple From Fire

Image capture from KMOV News footage

"Seventy-year-old Air Force veteran and cancer patient Marshall Helm was walking to the bus stop with his granddaughter one morning when the bus driver got his attention." He said there was a house on fire down the street. Mr. Helm hurried to the house and yelled to get the residents' attention, and got two people out of the house, saving their lives. The couple called him a hero, and he said he hadn't thought about the danger, but would do it again.

Volunteers Build Home for Vietnam Veteran

Image from GoFundMe page

Vietnam Veteran John Holaday had been living in his home without power, running water or sewage services for more than a year. He had saved up money for the repairs, and had hired a contractor to do the work. Unfortunately, the contractor scammed him. The Delaware County, IN Veterans Affairs Office found out about it and started a GoFundMe page. With the money from that page, local business help and several volunteers, they are rebuilding his house for him.

Family Raises Money to Buy Car

Jericha Palmer's car had broken down and she was walking to work, or taking an Uber. Her neighbor decided that he had to do something to help her.

"We made a post for a GoFundMe and said we'd match up to $500," said neighbor Dax Perrier. They made enough to furnish Ms. Palmer with a 2007 Honda Odyssey, and then gave her $1,025 cash to help with the tags and insurance. Palmer broke down in tears of joy when the family surprised her with the vehicle.

Veteran Receives Car

"A Minnesota veteran who served for ten years in the Army National Guard and deployed to Afghanistan as a combat medic received a car from the "Driven to Serve" program.

Retired Staff Sgt. Crystal Guzman received a 2018 Dodge Journey from Freedom Alliance, a nonprofit that supports wounded members of the military and their families in conjunction with U.S. Bank."

She has served in Afghanistan, serving as a combat medic treating burn victims, and Pakistan, where she was the first Medical Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of providing aid to the country after it suffered from a devastating earthquake that killed more than 80,000 people. Guzman has had post-traumatic stress as a result ever since.

Teen Buys Groceries For Elderly Man

Image capture from WLWT 5 news footage

Eighteen-year-old Teo Jordan had only been working as a bagger at the Kroger grocery store in Covington, KY for a few weeks, but when he heard the cashier tell an elderly man he didn't have enough money to buy his groceries, Teo had to help out.

"The cashier told him to put some back so I just thought in my head I would just give him this $35 so he could have all the food that he wants," he told the news outlet. In his senior year of high school, Teo has been helping his family with finances and trying to save for a car. His mother is very proud of him as well.

He didn't want a lot of attention, but had a message for everyone. "Just do something helpful for people. Let them know that God's there for them and make sure they have a good day," he said, adding, "Just treat people how you want to be treated, you know? Always help out if somebody needs it."

Disabled Rescue Dog Gets A Wheelchair

A German Shepherd got a wheelchair recently to help him deal with his disabled back legs. Samantha Sokolis' dog received a wheelchair to help him walk, built by Sokolis and Tom Boser, a student at Manatee Technical College in Florida.

Boser built this one for under $50, while the commercially built ones are $450. He hopes to build more for dogs in shelters, and Sokolis hopes the project can be turned into a non-profit.

More good news later! Happy Holidays!

Paul's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

I don't know which I'm happier about: the arrival of the holiday season, or the fact that the dreadful, awful, catastrophic year of 2020 is about to come to a merciful end. Of course, there's no guarantee that the dreadfulness of 2020 won't carry into 2021, but then there's always hope that it won't. Afterall, a COVID-19 vaccine is JUST AROUND THE CORNER, or so they say. It would probably be the greatest gift of all to everyone that a New Year will bring in a fresh, new start. Then, we can leave 2020 behind, diminishing in our "rear view mirror."

I'm always happy for the holidays, as I watch the excitement, amazement and wonder in my childrens' eyes. From their joy of being visited by Santa Claus, to their eager opening of wrapped presents, it truly is what makes the holidays special.

This year, as for the past 11 years that I've been the magazine's chief editor, we bring you our annual holiday gift guide. These are 10 selections that each of us (Meemaw, YouCanToo, and me) think might make good gift ideas. Add in additional selections from Patrick Horneker, and you should have more than enough suggestions for even the most difficult-to-buy-for person on your holiday gift list.

All of the prices are expressed in U.S. dollars, and all of the items are available in the U.S. to U.S. residents. Your mileage may vary, however, in other countries, depending on import/export restrictions, and other such nonsense.

So, below are my holiday gift suggestions. There should be something to fit into virtually every budget, as I've tried to provide as broad of a selection as possible.

Wavlink ST334U-Red Hard Drive Docking Station - USB 3.0 to SATA Dual Bay HDD Docking Station for 2.5" & 3.5" HDD/SSD SATA I/II/III

Newegg.com     $28.99

If you're like me, you just can't have enough storage options. As such, I have a small collection of hard drives that serve as data backup drives. They are an assortment of 3.5 and 2.5 inch form-factor drives. THIS item makes it easy to hot-swap those drives into and out of use, almost effortlessly. I say almost, because you DO have to physically insert the drive.

Hooking up to a USB 3.0 port (and backwards compatible with all previous iterations of the USB standard), this hard drive docking station will read any SATA drive you want to put into it. But, it will also do more than just read them. With this device, you can clone one hard drive to another, use them to perform data backups, or even duplicate a hard drive.

This device supports two hard drives, up to 8 TiB each. With this hard drive docking station, you can more easily backup your data, leaving your data secure in a separate location. When a catastrophe hits (and it probably will, some day), you can rest assured that your precious personal data and files can be reliably restored.

Rosewill Armer RX200-APU3-25B External 2.5" SATA Hard Drive Enclosure - SSDs / HDDs, USB 3.0 Connection, 100% Screw-less

Newegg.com     $24.99

If the hard drive docking station isn't your cup of tea, or if you just need more portability for your data backups, perhaps a USB external hard drive enclosure will meet your needs better. You can also use a separate USB external hard drive enclosure, with a hard drive installed in it, to move large files (think large video files or an entire song collection) from one computer to another with ease.

If you couple this with an inexpensive SSD hard drive, you have a VERY affordable storage solution for backups and all of your personal data and files. Very recently, I purchased a 256GiB 2.5" SSD hard drive for under $25. Placing that SSD into this external USB hard drive enclosure gives me a very spacious and efficient way to share files between computers, for under $50.

Mini Projector, CiBest Video Projector Outdoor Movie Projector, 4500 lux LED Portable Home Theater Projector 1080P and 200" Supported, Compatible with PS4, PC via HDMI, VGA, TF, AV and USB

Newegg.com     $84.99

Pop up some popcorn! How about planning a movie night with the family? Or, how about having some friends over (with social distancing) to watch movies or the "big game?" With the coronavirus pandemic raging on for nearly a year now, it's a bit difficult to get out to theaters. In fact, it's difficult to do ANYTHING social.

This outdoor video projector will display the image as small as 30 inches (76 cm) and up to 200 inches (508 cm) in diagonal measurement, from a variety of sources. Those sources include HDMI input, SD card, USB flash/thumb/hard drive, a TV set top box, a PC or laptop, a smartphone, a DVD/BluRay player, etc. You can even connect via wifi, Bluetooth or a corded adapter.

The projector utilizes a 24 watt LED bulb that produces 4500 lux, and is expected to have a lifespan of 50,000 hours. It sports a 2000:1 contrast ratio, and supports up to 1080p display resolution. Despite its small size (7.87 x 5.5 x 2.7 inch/2.25 lb or 20 x 14 x 6.9 cm/~1 Kg), it had built-in stereo speakers. You can also hook up a home theater speaker system, via a 3.5mm audio output.

14FT Inflatable Theater Projector Screen Projection Outdoor Home Movie W/Blower Newegg.com     $207.62

Ok. This one may be a little bit pricey, but you have to admit that this has a pretty high "cool factor." Using "technology" similar to the inflatable bouncy houses that appear at a kid's birthday party, this inflatable theater projector screen would be a PERFECT accompaniment to the previous item in my gift guide, the compact outdoor video projector.

The entire inflatable theater projector screen measures 12 ft (366cm) wide, 9.5 ft (290cm) high, 63.6 inches (161.5cm) deep, and 14 ft (427cm) diagonally. It comes complete with the blower motor to keep it inflated, and ropes and stakes to secure it to the ground. Overall, it weighs 10 lbs (~4.5 Kg).

The display screen itself is made of white polyester fabric, allowing for maximum brightness when displaying a projected image.

Whirley-Pop Stovetop Popcorn Popper - Original Silver

Whirley Pop Shop     $24.99

I actually OWN one of these! And I have to attest that this thing makes the MOST PERFECT popcorn I've ever had. If you like popcorn, you owe it to yourself to give the Whirley Pop Popcorn Popper a whirl. This truly makes "movie theater" popcorn!

The model listed here has metal gears for the crank. Place the six quart aluminum pot over a stove burner, place in the oil, salt and popcorn, and close the lid. Turn on the burner to medium-high, and turn the crank at the end of the handle to keep the contents of the pot in motion throughout the heating. In no time at all (usually around three minutes), you will have all the popcorn you might want.

To enhance your popcorn "experience," check out the other items in the Whirley Pop Shop, too. I strongly suggest the coconut oil and Flav-A-Col popcorn salt (hint: both are used to pop that delicious movie theater popcorn) as a place to start. For my popcorn, I just use the cheapest yellow popping corn I can find at Walmart or my grocery store. Also, contrary to the "instructions," I place my Flav-A-Col popcorn salt in with my oil and popcorn kernels. This way, the popcorn salts itself as it pops and as it is agitated with the stirring crank. When I'm done, there are fewer unpopped kernels than I've ever seen, even when compared with premium microwave popcorn.

18-Volt ONE+ Hybrid LED Spotlight (Tool Only) with 12-Volt Automotive Cord

HomeDepot     $59.97

If you are a DIYer around your home, you have probably at least seen, if not even own, some of the Ryobi line of 18 volt cordless tools, sold exclusively at Home Depot. I know they've got me hooked. I have a drill, a cordless circular saw, a couple of different air pumps, and a finishing nailer. They are all very capable, durable tools, especially for all of my DIY uses. They all also use the same 18 volt LiON battery to power all of the tools in their cordless tool lineup. How convenient!

Well, this spotlight in the Ryobi line is a powerful beast! It produces over 2,500 lumens of light, from seven three-watt Cree LEDs, and casts a beam of light for 700 yards (640 meters). The light will run up to five hours on one of the 4.0 AH 18 volt LiON batteries. It also comes with a 12 volt automotive cord, so you need not be trying to change a flat tire or work on your malfunctioning car late at night in the dark.

If you don't already use the Ryobi 18 volt cordless system of tools, this light is also available here, complete with a 2.0 AH 18-volt LiON battery and charger, for $129.

Bayou Classic 0880-CS, Stainless Steel Beercan ChickCAN Rack (2 pack)

Amazon     $14.98

If you haven't heard of "Beer Can Chicken," you need to give it a try! You place a 12 oz can of your favorite beer (or soft drink, if you like ... Dr. Pepper works GREAT!) in the center, place your whole chicken over the rack with the beer/soda can in the middle (yes, the can of beverage is also inside the chicken), and then you place the whole apparatus on your grill (gas or charcoal), in your smoker, or in your oven to cook. The beverage inside the can keeps the chicken meat moist while "seasoning" it with tons of flavor imparted from whichever beverage you choose to use.

This two-pack (two racks) is made of stainless steel, and cooks a four pound (~2 Kg) chicken with ease. Its circular base means that the rack(s) will rest securely, even on a grill grate. The stainless steel construction also means that it is very easy to clean up after use.

Revolution OS (DVD)

Amazon     $21.70

This documentary film explores the beginnings of the GNU/Linux movement! One reviewer put the summary of this film perfectly:

Excellent (now-historical) exploration of the beginnings of Linux - the operating system that you all use in some form or another in order to read this review. Famously it is the basis for the original Google and Amazon servers (and other services), and used on the major stock exchanges of the world for its reliability vs the Win/Apple alternatives.

It is also the vital kernel inside the globally dominant Android OS - and now Google Chrome OS - which is set fair to repeat the success of Android on laptops (Chromebooks) desktops (Chromeboxes) and various ubiquitous USB sticks.

You have to see this movie to appreciate what a monumental U-turn has been made by Microsoft when Satya Nadella (Who? - the latest MS boss) declared publicly "I love LInux." He pretty much has to now.

This story covers the early days - from the first tentative steps by a confident young student (Linus) who argued with the professor of computing - and went on to prove his point - all against the solid background of RM Stallman's long-term GNU project that made everything possible by providing the tools and other software for Linux to thrive.

The credits say: Linus Torvalds (Actor), Richard M. Stallman (Actor).

And there are many, many others involved - Bruce Perens, Eric S. Raymond of "Cathedral and Bazaar" fame, but none of them are actors.

All of them are participants in this story that affects everyone from the owner of the simplest of smartphones or tablets to the head of CompSci at any University. They truly changed the world of computing, for free.

No wonder Ballmer hated them so vocally!

This should pique the interest of every Linux user on your holiday gift list!

PCLinuxOS 17 oz Latte Mug

PCLinuxOS CafePress Store     $18.99

Tall durable white ceramic with easy grip handle, this mug has a 17 oz. (502 ml) capacity, to hold your favorite morning beverage. It measures six inches (15.24 cm) tall, and 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) in diameter. It's the perfect size for your favorite morning beverage or late night brew, and features a large, easy-grip handle.

This mug would make a perfect gift for any PCLinuxOS user on your holiday gift list. Also, purchases made from the PCLinuxOS Online Store also benefit PCLinuxOS, since a portion of the proceeds from each sale go to help support continued development and production of PCLinuxOS.

PCLinuxOS Unisex Classic 2k7logo Dark T-Shirt

PCLinuxOS CafePress Store     $21.44 to $24.44

Increase your wardrobe, and help spread the word about the BEST Linux out there, PCLinuxOS! Shirts sized from small through x-large are $21.44. Shirts size from 2XL through 3XLT are $24.44.

Features including lay flat collar and shoulder to shoulder tapering will make this your new favorite t-shirt. It is made with 100 percent preshrunk cotton heavyweight fabric (gray colors are a cotton/polyester blend), and is offered in a classic unisex style. It also features a tagless neck label, for your increased comfort (no itchy tags to drive you crazy/crazier).

This shirt would make a perfect gift for any PCLinuxOS user on your holiday gift list. Also, purchases made from the PCLinuxOS Online Store also benefit PCLinuxOS, since a portion of the proceeds from each sale go to help support continued development and production of PCLinuxOS.

Summary

There you have it. Ten holiday gift ideas for those on your holiday gift list ... or for yourself, even!

We here at The PCLinuxOS Magazine wish you a happy, safe winter holiday season, regardless of which holiday you observe, or even if you don't observe any of the winter holidays at all. It still remains a season when goodwill seems to be in abundant supply, more so than at any other time of the year. And after the year that we've all endured, we could all use a good cup of cheer and goodwill!

Meemaw's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

by Meemaw

Wow, this year has been really crazy! COVID, politics, weird weather and more... I say weird weather because I'm writing this in mid-November, and it's still pretty warm outside (71° F and a high of 76° F - unusual for this time of year).

For the last few years, parnote, YouCanToo and I have done our own Holiday Gift Guides. This year phorneker has done one as well. I hope you enjoy mine this year. Hopefully, I've found some good gifts, and also some "quirky" ones. Many of the sites I've visited are the same ones I go to year after year, but there are also a new one or two.

Bits & Pieces

Christmas Tree Music Carousel     $19.99

Anyone who likes music boxes would like this one! You hang the ornaments and place the figures at the bottom of the tree, and the tree platform rotates while the music is playing. The music box plays "We Wish You A Merry Christmas".

Funny Mugs     $12.99

This one is funny, and they have several others, all jumbo cups that hold 12 ounces. Others say, "In order to insult me, I must first value your opinion. Nice try though", "I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request", or "Anyone who thinks 'the customer is always right' never worked in Tech Support." They also have several others.

Poinsettia Runners and Placemats     $14.99

This is a neat decoration for a dining table. They have two different lengths on the table runners (36" and 70") and also a set of four placemats.

Set of 3 - 36" long - $14.99

Set of 3 - 70" long - $19.99

Set of 4 - Placemats - $19.99

Bass Pro Shops

Fragrance Warmer     $16.99

If you like the fragrance warmers, this one looks great. It is dual-purpose, letting you melt the fragrance chips in the pewter bowl, or turn it off, take the bowl off and set a regular candle on the wooden base.

Wooden Lantern with Candle     $49.99

This is a nice decoration for Christmas or just for fall. The candle is a battery-powered LED candle. The description adds, "The candle glows softly and flickers much like a real flame and can be set on a built-in timer." Many of their holiday decorations include live greenery.

L L Bean

Pine Trees Jigsaw Puzzle     $34.95

I usually have jigsaw puzzles from Bits & Pieces, but I happened to see this one at L L Bean. This is a 500-piece puzzle, that looks like it might be difficult, since it is just pine trees throughout.

Newegg

Steel Warcraft 3D elk puzzle     7.6 cm tall     $17.82

Unicorn puzzle     6.2 cm tall     $17.82

These are both stainless steel models that you build. They are SMALL (6.2 cm is just under 2.5 inches). Elk, unicorn, mantis, scorpion and dinosaur models are available.

OMG!!! If price is no object, you can always purchase a massage chair... it's on sale at the moment. $1,199.00. Newegg's description says, "Titan Apex Bonita Zero Gravity SL Track Massage Chair with Full Body Shiatsu, Kneading, Tapping, Advanced Stretch, Foot Rollers, Heating, Airbag Massage System, Auto Body Scan, Extendable Footrest".

Amazon

On Amazon's site there's a menu across the top with one item being "Find A Gift". If you click on that and scroll down the page, you will see a section titled "White Elephant Gifts". I had a great time running around in this section!

Darth Vader light-up chopsticks     $49.99

These might be fun if you use chopsticks! They look like lightsabers, and are nine inches long.

Ninja Outdoorsman Credit Card Size Multi-Tool    $6.95

Ever get stuck somewhere and need a tool, but don't have one? This looks like a handy little thing, and it is small enough to fit in your billfold. In the description on Amazon, it includes "Can Opener, Cutting Edge, Flat Screwdriver, Ruler, Beer Bottle Opener, 4 Position Wrench, Butterfly Screw Wrench, Saw Blade, Direction Ancillary Indication (Water Compass), 2 Position Wrench, (and has a) Keychain or lanyard Hole."

Books

They also have several books which look hilarious! I liked this 853 Hard To Believe Facts. $9.49 for paperback or $1.99 for the Kindle version.

You will also find the "Totally Awesome Book of Useless Information", and many ugly Christmas sweaters!

Happy Holidays! However you celebrate, have a great time! Also, enjoy parnote's, YouCanToo's and phorneker's guides elsewhere in this issue.

YouCanToo's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

by YouCanToo

Raspberry PI 400       $70.00

Raspberry Pi 400 is your complete personal computer, built into a compact keyboard. Featuring a quad-core 64-bit processor, 4GB of RAM, wireless networking, dual-display output, and 4K video playback, as well as a 40-pin GPIO header. It's the most powerful and easy-to-use Raspberry Pi computer yet.

Retro Cardboard Instant Camera       $69.00

Combining the best of instant snapshot gratification with a steampunk-inspired look, this instant camera could give your phone a run for its money. The best part: It's made entirely from recycled paper and cardboard, using less material than the packaging of a conventional camera. Fold out the retro-cool accordion lens, aim, shoot, and turn the crank to see your analog photos in minutes. It uses Instax mini film cartridges (sold separately).

Instant Pot Programmable Pressure Cooker       $71.00

Instant Pot DUO60 6 Qt 7-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker has the functions of a slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, sauté, yogurt maker and warmer all in one conveniently sized appliance. With 14 built-in smart programs: Soup, Meat/Stew, Bean/Chili, Poultry, Sauté, Steam, Rice, Porridge, Multigrain, Slow Cook, Keep-Warm, Yogurt, Pasteurize and Pressure Cook, you can cook your favorite dishes with the press of a button. A 24-hour timer allows for delayed cooking. Automatic Keep Warm holds the temperature of the food until you serve it. Instant Pot generates almost no noise and leaks no steam. It traps all the flavors and aromas in the food.

Watch for Instant Pot Recipes in future issues of the PCLinuxOS Magazine Recipe Corner.

Home Chef Meal Delivery Service       starting at $65.00

If you're shopping for a home cook, tell them to ditch the sourdough and give them some meal kits from Home Chef. Your aspiring chef will have tons of gourmet options to pick and choose from.

Camera Lens 13.5 oz. Coffee Mug       $11.99

This mug looks like a real lens. Perfect unique gift for everyone in your life, especially a Photographer & videographer.

Hot Drinks Stay Hot for Longer

Insulated stainless steel interior transforms your mug into a convenient coffee thermos! Food grade ABS plastic keeps your hands cool from hot liquids.

NOTE: Just like a real Canon lens -- this replica is not designed for the microwave, or dishwasher.

For you Nikon lovers, we have you covered too. Looks like a realistic Nikon 24-70mm F2.8G FFX-268FQ lens. Show your love of photography while enjoying it's practical function.

NOT A COFFEE DRINKER? NO PROBLEM!

If you are not a coffee drinker, you can use it as a nifty pen holder, hold loose change or a vase. We're not going to tell YOU how to enjoy your cup. You choose!

MRQ Digital Photo Frame       $59.99

MRQ 10.1 Inch Digital Picture Frame-Presence of Your Beloved. This stylish modern digital photo frame looks good wherever you place it and is sure to draw the eyes of family and friends. Exceptionally bright and detailed IPS screen displays your photos with remarkable image quality and vibrant colors. Photos are stored either on a SD card or a USB drive.

Chef Kenny's Ultimate Spice Gift Set       $33.99

Put a little spice in your life or give it to someone to spice up theirs. Comes in a Decorative gift set box, with 5 recipe cards. Spices include Fried Chicken Seasoning, Moroccain Spice, Cinnamon Coffee Rub, Raging Cajun, and Jerk Spice.

Door County Coffee 12-Pack Classic Gift Set       $29.99

Give the coffee lover in your life an opportunity to try a little bit of the Best of Door County Coffee. Each box contains a variety of our most popular Full-Pot Bags that make the perfect pot! All packaged and shipped in an attractive decorative shipping box. Save yourself the time of wrapping!

Flavors Included: Black & Tan, Breakfast Blend, Cinnamon Hazelnut, Colombian, Door County Creme, Frosted Cinnamon Buns, Heavenly Caramel, Highlander Grogg, Jamaican Me Crazy, Peanut Butter Crunch, Turtle's In a Cup, Vanilla Creme Brulee.

LED Plant Indoor Garden Light       $39.99

Grow LED Mini Garden is designed for indoor planting, it simulates sunlight to supply plants the full spectrum light they need for growing. Automatically 16hrs on and 8hrs off, the timer function enables it to supply proper light. Make your home and office life more peaceful and beautiful.

Tripp Lite UPS Battery Backup       $86.40

Protects equipment against blackouts, brownouts, overvoltages, surges and line noise

Tripp Lite's low-profile line-interactive UPS system fits small spaces and tight budgets. This versatile UPS provides advanced protection for a variety of electronics, including computers, smart devices and audio/video components. It produces a pure Sine Wave output.

phorneker's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

by phorneker

Disclaimer: For the past 17 years, I have held a job in retail at Kohl's, Inc. Per their social media policy, I am required to state that opinions stated herein are my own and not those of Kohl's, Inc. or any of its subsidiaries.

This year has been anything but an ordinary year. Last year, we lost a number of retailers to closure and bankruptcy filings. This year, COVID-19 wreaked havoc in the retail sector.

Fortunately, some retailers, including my employer, fared very well during this pandemic, while others such as GameStop and JCPenney did not.

GameStop was already in financial trouble long before the pandemic. This was due to the ever changing dynamics of the video game market. With more games being played online rather than downloaded, it only makes sense that GameStop would be in trouble. In fact, the demand for games on physical medium has dropped dramatically. Where I live, there are more CD-ROM and DVD-ROM based video games available at my local Goodwill than at the local GameStop.

In fact, you can play classic arcade games at the Internet Archive!

As for JCPenney, the company filed bankruptcy (which was inevitable because their sales were lagging the past decade). The good news here is that Simon Properties (the Indianapolis based real estate company that owns many shopping malls), and Brookfield Property Partners (a property management company based in Bermuda), have purchased JCPenney. This makes sense as many JCPenney locations are attached to or otherwise located inside shopping malls. What happens here is anybody's guess considering that the two companies assumed $500 million in debt with that purchase.

That said, let us get on with this year's Holiday Gift Guide.

Chessie "Sleep Like a Kitten" Wood Frame Clock     Amazon.com    $32.95

For the cat lover, or train buff in your family, this clock features one of the most successful corporate campaigns ever launched during the Great Depression. Viennese artist Guido Grünewald created the original sketch. In 1933, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway purchased the sketch for $5.00 and used it in its advertising campaign for the railroad's air conditioned passenger cars, with the idea that you "Sleep like a kitten. Wake up fresh as a daisy."

The name "Chessie" was given to the kitten, and also happened to be the popular nickname most people called the Chesapeake and Ohio at that time. Later, two kittens, named "Nip" and "Tuck" and Chessie's mate "Peake" were added to the family.

Legend has it that "Peake" served in the Army during World War II (in the Transportation corps), while Chessie sold war bonds and gave up her perch to traveling soldiers.

After the war, the family of cats still represented the Chesapeake and Ohio (which in 1947 expanded into the State of Michigan and the Province of Ontario with the purchase of the Pere Marquette Railway). When Amtrak formed in 1971 to take over all passenger rail service, Chessie and her family were relegated to calendars and various collectables.

The next year, The Chesapeake and Ohio merged with the Baltimore and Ohio and Western Maryland Railroads to form the Chessie System. The cat became the mascot for the entire railroad, and to this day, is still the mascot for CSX Transportation.

Chessie the Railroad Kitten     Amazon.com     $34.00

....and here is Thomas Dixon Jr's book about the legend of this cat.

Western Digital 1TB WD Green Internal PC SSD     Amazon.com    $99.99 to $105.99

If you have an older laptop with a SATA controller, and a traditional hard drive installed, this solid state drive will improve the overall performance of your PCLinuxOS installation. Of course, your local office supply store will have various models with various capacities, but this one is one of the better solid state drives you can buy and use with PCLinuxOS. (These may be available under the SanDisk label as SanDisk is owned by Western Digital.)

The Air Fryer

Prices ranging from $59.99 to $199.99 for various brands from various places online and in store.

This type of appliance has been one of the most popular items purchased so far this year. The idea behind the air fryer is that no oil is needed to fry foods, so what you eat from these appliances contains less grease, and hence what you eat is (theoretically) healthier.

Any grease or fat that comes naturally from the food being cooked is separated while cooking. This, of course, will affect the flavor of the foods being cooked.

I have never used one of these, but many people still purchase these appliances for the convenience (not just for the health benefit).

PPE Protective Masks

This year would not be complete without this rather essential gift (or even for everyday use): the personal protective mask.

These masks are now available as fashion accessories (if you are into that sort of thing), or you can purchase masks that are as plain as you want it to be (at least it does its job).

Samples of what is available:

From the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society:

- PPE Protective Face Mask Chessie/Safety $9.95

- PPE Protective Face Mask Classic Chessie $9.95

From Amazon:

- 5 Pack Fashion PPE Masks $28.00 (or $5.60 per mask)

- 3 Pack Classy Cat PPE Masks $19.99

Even H&M is with the program. ($9.95 for a three pack)

Victrola Journey

The past few years have resurrected vinyl records as the preferred medium for listening to music. Products such as this Victrola Journey make it affordable to listen to vinyl again (especially if you have a large collection of vinyl records accumulated over the years.)

This year, the VIctrola Journey with Bluetooth is available from $59.99 to $69.99 at Kohls.com, or at your local Kohl's store. This model is also available at Victrola.com (the distributor).

Some of you may recognize this as a Crosley Cruiser and think "This is a cheap record player that will ruin your records."

That may well be true...if you do not take care of the record player or your record collection.

This model is an improvement over the Crosley Cruiser in the sense that the Bluetooth connection on the Victrola Journey actually streams audio over Bluetooth, whereas the Crosley Cruiser's Bluetooth connection when switched on shuts down the turntable and activates the Bluetooth receiver to stream audio through the Cruiser's built-in speakers.

From what I have heard about the quality of the audio coming from the Cruiser's built-in speakers, I could not see why anyone would want to play Bluetooth on this device. On the other hand, the Bluetooth switch is useful if you want to pause playback of a record while the needle is still on the record.

If you do get one of these, be sure to replace the sapphire needle that comes with the turntable with a diamond needle. Doing so will ensure that your records play with the best audio quality.

As these are belt driven turntables, they are not really suited for scratching (unless you have a supply of replacement belts around).

Sony Playstation 4

Yes, Sony has released Playstation 5 in the market, and from what I have heard, it is one of the best gaming consoles in the market today. So why am I recommending the Playstation 4?

Because, now you can run Linux on it! Softpedia has an article on how to install Linux onto a Playstation 4. It was possible to do so on a Playstation 2 and to a lesser extent, the Playstation 3. (Red Hat was contracted by Sony to develop the original Linux distribution for the Playstation 2, with WindowMaker for the desktop. Yellow Dog produced later versions of Linux for the Playstation 2.)

The key to doing this is to have a FAT partition on the Playstation's HDD, and have Version 4.05 or 4.55 of the Playstation 4 firmware installed.

You can still order these consoles from Sony ($299.99, while they last), but not for long if the Playstation 5 becomes a bestseller.

Besides, to get a good experience out of the Playstation 5, you will also need to buy a new television, and one with 4K or 8K resolution. Potentially, you would need to spend about $800.00 to $1500.00 on a new television with the video capabilities the Playstation 5 requires.

Fortunately, the Playstation 4 does not need an expensive television set for video display.

Game Zone: A Very Sonic Christmas!

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

In 1992, Sega, a well-known game company, launched the Sega CD (Mega CD), an add-on for its Genesis/Megadrive video game. As it was the launch of new hardware, it is always necessary to have titles that are the famous killer apps, in order to sell the accessory.

The Sega CD, at its launch, had a lot of killer apps: Sega Classics 4-in-1, Cobra Command, Chuck Rock, Night Trap, Sewer Shark, among others.

However, it was not yet the necessary boost of sales of the device. That extra boost would come with the second wave of releases, with titles like Final Fight CD, Ecco the Dolphin and (play the drums) Sonic CD. This second wave of titles showed what the Sega CD hardware was capable of, and positioned the accessory as an object of desire for the gamers of the time, giving a significant advantage in Sega's war with Nintendo.

Sonic CD

The story follows Sonic the Hedgehog as he tries to save an extraterrestrial body, Little Planet, from Doctor Robotnik. As a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Sonic runs and jumps through various themed levels while collecting rings and defeating robots. Sonic CD is distinguished from other Sonic games by its time travel feature, a key aspect of the story and gameplay. When traveling back (and forth) in time, players can access different versions of stages, featuring layouts, music and alternative graphics.

The game we have today, however, is not the original 1993/95 game, but a remastered version.

In 2009, independent programmer Christian Whitehead produced a proof-of-concept video of a remastered version of the game, using his Retro Engine, running on iOS. In 2011, Sega released this version for download on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS, Android, Ouya, Windows Phone, Windows and Apple TV, with Xbox 360, PS3 and PC versions ported by Blit Software. The remastered game features improvements like widescreen graphics, collision detection adjusted to make time travel more consistent, spin dash with the physics of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Japanese and North American soundtracks, the ability to unlock Tails as a playable character and achievements and trophy support. Whitehead also designed two original levels, but they were excluded because Sega wanted to keep the game true to the original release.

Features

- Joystick works OOTB

- JP / US soundtracks

Requirements:

- Directx9C installed      (Winetricks)

- Flatpak installed

- Steam installed

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/200940/Sonic_CD/. At the end of November, it is on a Christmas sales promotion.

Sonic Mania

Sonic Mania is a 2017 platform game published by Sega for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows. Produced in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Sonic Mania pays homage to the original Sega Genesis Sonic games, featuring fast side scrolling gameplay. The game can be considered a remix/remake of the first 3 games that came out for Genesis Megadrive, with a time travel storyline, in which Sonic, Tails and Knuckles return to the past, to the original games to try to prevent Robotnik from destroying the future, changing the past.

Impressive graphics, with much more color than the originals of the Genesis/Megadrive

Quick analysis

- Graphics: Stunning, they have much more colors and animation frames than Genesis/Megadrive games ever had. There is lots of eye candy to look at.

- Audio: The sound is CD quality when it works well. However, I will describe an audio problem, which the game has had from the get go, and how to solve it. But, it is fantastic, it brings the soundtracks of the original games remixed, and with a modern sounding.

- Gameplay: It is what Sonic 4 should have been. Simply, the successor to the last 2D game that was released on its original platform, Genesis/Megadrive. It doesn't get any better than that.

The game is available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/584400/Sonic_Mania/. It is also on a Christmas promotion, with a special price.

Now, I will describe the positive and negative points of the game.

The requirements are the same as for Sonic CD, but there is one more step to be taken.

Pros

- It's the ultimate Sonic game. It can't get any better.

- Excellent graphics.

- Classic gameplay with new elements, which makes the game feel like a new experience of the good old games of the 90s.

Cons

- Joystick is not supported.

- The audio does not work well out-of-the-box.

Solving Sonic Mania problems

Right when the game is installed, it does not recognize any joystick, unlike Sonic CD, which accepts any joystick automatically.

This can be worked around with Antimicro, a program that maps the joystick on the computer keyboard, and is available in the PCLinuxOS repos.

Another very annoying problem is the sound. Right after the game is installed, the sound is delayed and becomes very irritating. I searched on several forums, and there is really this problem. The solution is to install the XACT library via Winetricks, as shown in the picture below:

Doing this, the sound becomes crystal clear and devoid of any problems, running as if it were native to the Windows platform.

Well, I hope you enjoy it. I hope you have Happy Holidays, and enjoy Steam's holiday promotions.

Happy holidays and see you next year!

Inkscape Tutorial: Create A Custom Calendar

by Jimlw1 (with a tiny bit of help from Meemaw)

In this forum post, Jimlw1 wrote:

I don't have an article, but I have designed a Money Holder in LibreOffice Draw [may be of interest to MeeMaw] that my wife and I use every Christmas for gift money to family members. It also has a tiny calendar that I make [needs to be copied and rotated to make a full page of next year's Calendar for cardstock printout]. The calendar for printout is made in Inkscape.

While reviewing his artwork, I remembered that Khadis described how to make a calendar in the January, 2015 issue. However, Jim's is a bit different. With Khadis's summary of the extension Calendar (found in Extensions > Render > Calendar), I found that the calendar could only be made for one year. In Jim's project, he makes a calendar for 14 months, including December of this year plus January of 2022, so as to overlap calendars (in case you don't get a new calendar right away for 2022). That also allows him to make a 4 x 4 grid and add some graphics. It also allows him more flexibility in his design. Let's mess with it a bit.

In Jim's calendar project, he has text boxes with the dates already laid out (at the sides), one for each starting day. Using these, he creates a month at a time, putting in the day and month names as well as the year. In order, he creates the frame for the month, adds the text box for the month and year, then one for the weekdays, and then adds the correct date box he created for that month (editing out the dates he doesn't need, like the 31st in a month with only 30 days). Then, he groups those together to make one month.

Note that each finished month is 2.5 x 2.0 inches (6.35 x 5.08 cm). I'm sure it was an arbitrary choice to make sure they were all uniform. Since he's going to put this on a tri-fold sheet of cover stock to make a money gift card, he needs to make it small. We know it will end up smaller, but we also know by now that graphics look better when they are sized down rather than up. You could probably make them any size that is easy for you, as long as they are ALL the same size.

At this point it might be good to use Align and Distribute to make sure they are all lined up the way you want them. Jim had 16 rectangles (including a couple of holiday images), all the same size, and wanted them all touching, in a 4 x 4 grid. After getting it just the way he wanted it, he exported the calendar page as an image.

That looks awesome! If you just wanted the calendar, you're finished. However, Jim still wanted the tri-fold money card, so his next step was to open a document in LibreOffice Draw.

Now, Jim used Landscape orientation to make his card, but I changed mine to portrait. Since it's your project, you can do it any way that makes sense to you. Insert any text or images to dress up your card. Here is Jim's:

His document has items added which can be changed for your card.

Here is mine:

I rotated the text and images so that, when it's folded, the text and the calendar are all the same orientation.

We're finished! This is a project that you can customize for yourself. If you want to use our documents, they can be accessed here.

Repo Review: Shortwave

by CgBoy

A few years ago, I had already reviewed quite a few of the internet radio players available in the repository, but I thought I'd take the time now to have a look at a new radio player available called Shortwave. Shortwave uses the very large, community driven radio-browser.info database for its lists of internet radio stations, giving you access to over 28,000 radio streams.

Shortwave has a nicer and more modern user interface than a lot of the other internet radio players I've previously tested. The simplicity of Shortwave is good, making it quick and easy to find the radio stations that you're looking for. The main screen that you're presented with when opening Shortwave is the Library page. This is where you can keep all your favorite radio stations for easy access. Clicking on the + button at the top left of the window will take you to the Discover page, where you can find new radio stations to listen to.

The Discover page will show you what all the most popular and trending internet radio stations currently are. If you switch over to the Search tab, you can easily have a look through the many thousands of radio stations available. Once you've found a station you'd wish to listen to, simply click on its play button. Clicking on the station itself will open up a small window displaying information such as the station's language, website, audio codec and tags. Along with this information is also the Add to library button.

Shortwave will automatically record the radio stream that you are listening to, and when a music track has finished playing, it gives you the option to save the recording. This will only work, however, if the radio station stream sends the right metadata for Shortwave to be able to detect the song currently playing.

Summary

Shortwave, in my opinion, is one of the best internet radio players that I've used. It may not have quite as many advanced features as some of the other radio players available, but it makes up for that with its great ease of use. And now would also be the perfect time to use Shortwave for listening to some of your favorite Christmas carols!

Faked Memory Sticks

by davecs

from his blog, Random Thoughts From My World

There is a big trade in cheaper memory sticks, that is, all types. These include both USB Pen Drives and SDXC and microSDXC (aka TF) types. But there are many others. Some cheaper ones have speed problems, and if that's not a concern, go ahead. But amongst them are a number of Fake Memory drives. Let's just explain what that means.

A fake memory drive is a memory drive, it's the details that are faked. It will actually work up to a point. What has been faked is the amount of storage space it holds. Your computer or phone or whatever device using it, relies on information stored at the beginning of the memory to know how much space there is on it. Also held there is the file index system. If someone can overwrite that information, then the drive can return false data to the system about how much space it has.

Writes to space that doesn't exist

Suppose you have bought, like I did, a drive advertised as 128Gb, which actually held only 32Gb. When I put stuff on the drive, it would use the storage space in sequence, and would appear to work until the 32Gb was full. After that, things would start to go wrong. There are at least two possibilities after that, there may be others. Stuff written to the drive may well be written to space that doesn't exist, or it will be paged so that it will overwrite existing data by sharing each location on the drive with 4 or 5 different addresses. Either way you will lose data.

In the case of the one I had, it was the first of these. When verifying data, the first 31 or so Gb was read back OK, but everything after that was lost. If it was the other type, it would be the last data that could be read back.

I tested the drive with a simple Linux program called f3. It's a text program that runs in a terminal. There are two commands, f3write and f3read. You have to type in the path to the disk you want to test. So, if the disk appears on the path at /media/3463-3531 (your file manager will give you this information), you type this line into your terminal:

f3write /media/3463-3531

It will take a very long time for this command to finish running, but if you leave your file manager open at the disk path, you might see something like this:

Files are written in sequence from 1.h2w until the disk's file index system says it's full. Now you may notice that the icon of each file changed from 33.h2w, well that tells you that the File Manager is seeing the contents of the file, as a different file type. That's a warning!

After the writing had completed, I entered the other f3 command into the terminal:

f3read /media/3463-3531

And this is an excerpt from the text that appears in the terminal:

Data is organised into 4 columns, after the three dots. The first number represents the number of sectors that are OK. The others are corrupted, changed and overwritten. Basically anything not in the first column is a fail. If a line contains a few sectors not in the first column, but afterwards everything goes back to normal, it might indicate a damaged area on the disk. It might be possible to format the disk so that those sectors are not used. But in the readout above, the reading for file 32.h2w means that there were 1941312 real sectors left on the drive, and 155840 were not there, and every line after that means that program was trying to read back from sectors that simply were not there!

If you get a reduced number of sectors in column 1, but zero in the others and no more lines after that, it just means that it's the end of the space. Sometimes you get an error report speculating as to why it stopped, for example, that the drive may have overheated. That happened to me when testing a good drive, but the File Manager told me the disk was now full, so there was nothing to worry about.

Another Clue

This paragraph is a bit technical.

One of the "features" of all storage devices, is that the amount of actual space you can write to, is a rather less than the amount advertised. The drive info, table of contents, and the formatting itself take up space. One of the features of Thunar, the file manager used in the XFCE4 desktop, is that by default it records Kilo, Mega and Giga bytes as 1,000, 1,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 respectively. A true Binary Gigabyte is not 1,000,000,000 but 2^30 which is 1,073,741,824. The graphic is a screenshot of Thunar, showing two devices plugged in. One reads 134Gb, but in true binary Gigabytes, that would be 124.79Gb. Although under 128, it's unrealistically high. So in trying to make their fake product look good, the people who have faked this drive have over-egged the cake a little. The one showing as 128Gb will have a binary size 119.2Gb which is more realistic.

Outcome

I sent in a request via Ebay to the seller of the fake drive, for it to be returned. They accepted immediately, which stops me making a complaint, and the drive I bought is still for sale. So be careful out there.

Using Timeshift To Backup & Restore Your PCLinuxOS System

by Ramchu

I recently ran across a post by one of the PCLinuxOS forum members, asking for an article/tutorial on how to use Timeshift, so I decided to give it a go.

Now, if you're new to PCLinuxOS or Linux in general, you may be asking yourself, "what is Timeshift?"

Well, Timeshift is a package/program written for Linux to create restore points for your operating system, much like the restore point feature in Windows. It allows you to make incremental backups that create exact images of your system, at specific points in time. They can be used to restore your system to the exact state that it was in, at the time when the backup was made. The backups are incremental so they don't need as much hard drive space to store.

Timeshift isn't for servers. It was written for the Linux desktop, and works very well in this area. There are several good reasons to install and use Timeshift on your Linux desktop system:

1. Suppose you have been monkeying around in your system and something goes horribly wrong, or

2. A bad update gets installed.

You can just roll back to a predetermined point in time, before the disaster struck.

Timeshift also allows you to backup to external hard drives, protecting your system from hardware failures. Timeshift can be set to run at many different intervals, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and/or every time you boot your system, so your backups are never out of date. It runs in the background so you can continue working while it protects your system.

Timeshift comes preinstalled in most, if not all, PCLinuxOS installation ISOs. But if it's not installed on your system, never fear, it's in the repository. Just open Synaptic and search for Timeshift, then install it.

You will find Timeshift in the Application Menu > Archiving > Timeshift in your system's PC menu.

When you start Timeshift, you will be prompted for your root password, as Timeshift must be run with Root/Administrative privileges. Enter your password, and click OK or press the Enter key on your keyboard.

You will now be in the Timeshift Setup Wizard, and presented with the first dialog window. Here is where you will choose whether to run your backups as RSYNC or BTRFS. Unless you have specially formatted your system hard drive for BTRFS, you're going to want to choose RSYNC. Click Next to advance.

In this dialog window you will be asked where to store your backups. Select the drive where you want the backups to be stored. If you have a second drive or an external drive, that would be the better choice. After choosing the drive for your backups, choose Next to advance.

In this window, you will set the timing and how many backups to store. Set something that works for you and your system. I have read that weekly and nightly works for most users, but if you aren't sure, go with the defaults. Choose Next to advance.

Here, you will set what users and files to backup.

I choose to backup only the user root, Home /root and exclude all of the files. You can choose to backup the entire system and all users and user files. If you have only a few gigabytes of data in your user partition, this may work for you. However, I recommend using another way of backing up user files, even if it's nothing more than drag and drop to your backup device. After making your choices, click Next to advance.

In this window, Timeshift will tell you that the Setup is Finished.

If you ever want to change the settings, start Timeshift and go to the Settings menu to make your desired changes. Click Finish to close the window.

That's it. You don't need to do anything further, unless you want to immediately create a backup, and I would recommend that you do. Otherwise, Timeshift will create a backup at the next scheduled time.

Creating a backup with Timeshift is really, really easy. Just click on the Create button.

Timeshift will immediately begin the backup and give you a visual indicator of the progress, along with an estimate of the amount of time until completion.

After your backup is complete, it will be listed on the main Timeshift screen. This is where all of your backups will be listed, should you ever need to do a restore. Just remember: when doing a restore, files and changes that were made after the restore point, can be lost.

If you want to see the backups, just navigate to the drive/partition that you selected using your file manager, and click on the Timeshift folder.

Inside, you will see all of the different backup folders.

To do a restore, boot up a Live USB, CD, DVD or whatever, on the device that you need restored, startup Timeshift, and Timeshift will scan the drives and find the backups. Select the desired restore point, and click the Restore button in the Main Menu.

You will also notice a column in the TimeShift window called "Tags." This indicates what prompted TimeShift to make the backup. Hover your mouse over the individual tags, and you should see something like the image below, explaining what each tag "code" means.

There you go, you should now be able to backup and restore your PCLinuxOS computer, in just minutes, avoiding having to reinstall and going through all of the process of getting your system just the way you want it.

While working on writing this article, I found a very good Timeshift video on YouTube. In the video, they are running Timeshift in Linux Mint, but I think that we can overlook that, seeing how Timeshift runs exactly the same in PCLinuxOS.

Some Steps To Thwart Google Tracking

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Tracking your every movement across the internet IS what big tech companies do. By now, everyone should be highly familiar with Facebook tracking (Wired article) horror stories, where they track even non-Facebook members, gobbling up truckloads of data about where someone has been on the internet, what they viewed, what they clicked on, what their interests are, who they interact with, etc. The website MakeUseOf has written an excellent article on some sound ways to thwart tracking by Facebook. In fact, you should have very little problems finding information on how to curb Facebook tracking. It has received considerable press over the past few years. (Don't worry. The link is to the DuckDuckGo search engine, which claims to not track your movements across the internet. What? You thought I'd send you to Google when this article is about thwarting Google tracking?)

It has become an accepted "normal" that big tech companies want to vacuum up as much data as possible. I've said it many times before in the pages of this magazine: your data and information ARE the currency d'jour in the "great information age."

As you might imagine, Google, being one of the largest -- if not the largest -- tech companies on the planet, wallows in a pool of user data and information that makes all of the oceans of the world seem like small puddles in a newly paved parking lot.

Google, Facebook and all of the other tech "giants" argue that they go to extraordinary lengths to "protect" your data and its anonymity. They argue that they need that data to target you with advertising and content that you are interested in. While it's true that advertising and selling advertising is a HUGE business for these companies, I have yet to find much of any advertising "served up" to be of any interest to me. AND, I don't have a Facebook account (never have, never will), so I can't vouch for activity there.

However, I have heard countless stories from friends and acquaintances about Facebook tracking. Many have said that they would search for something, and then the next time that they logged into their Facebook account, they were bombarded with advertising and content related to their recent search! Now, tell me that isn't a bit spooky. Big Brother IS watching. It's just that everyone thought Big Brother would be the government(s) and government agencies (and they do a whole host of their own surveillance and tracking, but that's something we've covered before and beyond the scope of what we are talking about here). In this particular case, the tech giants have become Big Brother.

It's one thing if I go to Ebay and search for a "new" used laptop, and then start getting emails asking if I'm interested in this or that or another laptop. I searched for such an item on their website, voluntarily providing that information. It's the same thing on Amazon, or any other online retailer. It happens all the time. On Sportsman's Guide, any time I go to "look" at something without making a purchase, it's just a few hours later that I get an email asking if I'm still interested in that particular item(s). And then, they keep sending me "personalized" suggestions for much of the next two weeks, listing the items I went there to look at. That is all perfectly understandable. But it's not acceptable or understandable that when I search for something on one platform, and then log into another unrelated platform, that I'm inundated with advertising from the search I completed on a separate platform just before logging in.

How Much Can We Stop The Tracking?

Well, you probably won't be able to completely stop the tracking. When you signed up to use these services, you agreed to the data collection. You know ... those "End User Agreements" that are written in such legalese that NO ONE (other than the lawyers who draw them up) has ever read, much less understood. If you're like 99.999999 percent of users out there, you've never read the EUA. Instead, you scroll to the end to just click "Agree" and get on with things.

But, there are things you can do to seriously curb the amount of data that is vacuumed up by the tech giants. Covering some of those is what we will attempt to do in this article.

The First Stop: Google Analytics

This one is HUGE. It is what drives, in a large sense, Google's collection of YOUR data. But, before we set about to confine or restrict its activity, we probably should know what it is. Here's the description from Wikipedia:

Google Analytics is used to track website activity such as session duration, pages per session, bounce rate etc. of individuals using the site, along with the information on the source of the traffic. It can be integrated with Google Ads, with which users can create and review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions (goals). Goals might include sales, lead generation, viewing a specific page, or downloading a particular file, Google Analytics' approach is to show high-level, dashboard-type data for the casual user, and more in-depth data further into the report set. Google Analytics analysis can identify poorly performing pages with techniques such as funnel visualization, where visitors came from (referrers), how long they stayed on the website and their geographical position. It also provides more advanced features, including custom visitor segmentation, Google Analytics ecommerce reporting can track sales activity and performance. The ecommerce reports show a site's transactions, revenue, and many other commerce-related metrics.

On September 29, 2011, Google Analytics launched Real Time analytics, enabling a user to have insight about visitors currently on the site. A user can have 100 site profiles. Each profile generally corresponds to one website. It is limited to sites which have traffic of fewer than 5 million pageviews per month (roughly 2 pageviews per second) unless the site is linked to a Google Ads campaign. Google Analytics includes Google Website Optimizer, rebranded as Google Analytics Content Experiments. Google Analytics' Cohort analysis helps in understanding the behaviour of component groups of users apart from your user population. It is beneficial to marketers and analysts for successful implementation of a marketing strategy.

If that doesn't set you back in your chair, its prevalence should. Of the websites that use analytics, Google Analytics is used by over 84% of them. That represents nearly 55% of all websites. Yikes! Over half!

So how do we go about "curbing" Google Analytics appetite for your data?

FIRST, you can use a Google Analytics Opt-Out extension for your web browser. It supports Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari web browsers. This could be a good first step, but beware of a couple of pitfalls. First, it may seem to be a bit counterintuitive to download software to prevent other software from tracking you. It is, however, better than using cookies, which could be deleted whenever you clear out your cache of cookies. On my computer, I use an automatic cookie deletion extension (for Firefox; also available for Chrome) that automatically deletes cookies from any website that I visit that I have not "whitelisted." There are similar browser extensions for many of the major browsers.

The problem with this approach becomes very apparent when/if you use multiple web browsers. You will have to download multiple copies of the extension, one for each browser you use, if it's even available.

SECOND, you could block Google Analytics with a firewall, using IP address ranges or domain names. If you use a firewall, you could block it for your whole network. But blocking by IP address ranges could also inadvertently block other services that originate from the same IP address. IP addresses can also change without notice. You could block DNS requests from specific domain names by adding a rule to block google-analytics.com and www.google-analytics.com to prevent Google Analytics from completing its mission. But, since Google Analytics is loaded over HTTPS, after the DNS request, it may fail anyway, unless the server uses SNI (Server Name Indication).

THIRD, you could block Google Analytics by blocking JavaScripts. There are several browser extensions that allow you to block JavaScript execution on all but your "whitelisted" websites. One of the more popular ones is called NoScript, available for Firefox and Chrome browsers. If you find that a website you frequent is "broken" with the scripts blocked, then you can whitelist it. Many browsers also allow you to disable JavaScript, but you may find that may not be the best option, since many websites depend on JavaScript to function properly. By disabling JavaScript, you may have a significantly less enjoyable time cruising around the web.

FOURTH, and probably the best solution, is to make a two-line addition to your /etc/hosts file. Here's my original hosts file:

# generated by drakconnect

127.0.0.1 localhost

Not much to it. Now, add the following two lines at the bottom of the hosts file, as shown below:

# generated by drakconnect

127.0.0.1 localhost

0.0.0.0 google-analytics.com

0.0.0.0 www.google-analytics.com

What we are doing here is assigning a non-existent IP address to Google Analytics. This will cause any request from Google Analytics to be terminated, instead of being sent to Google.

Now, as the root user in a terminal session, type service network restart to restart the network service. This will cause your computer to use the newly altered hosts file. The same thing will happen if you restart your computer, if you choose to not type these simple commands at a root prompt in a terminal. It would probably be a good idea to also close, and then reopen, any browser windows you have running. Now, all of the Google Analytics requests for information will be blocked.

The Second Stop: Gmail

Gmail?!?!

Yes, Gmail can be at the root of Google tracking your web movements. This is especially true if you have Gmail's "smart features" turned on.

It should be no secret that especially when you use Google services (e.g., Gmail), Google collects a LOT of information about you. Their usual M.O. (modus operandi) is to sell targeted advertising to you. Of course, they also use the data they collect to make improvements to various Google services. Data collected from Gmail, Chat and Meet services were used to make those services "more convenient." If the "smart features" are turned on, it learns how you write so that it can make suggestions for automatic sentence completion, and suggests automated replies (which are nearly always grammatically incorrect). Of course, to do this, Google must comb through your data in those services.

Scroll down about one-third to one-half of the way through the "General" tab. Once there, you will see several "Smart" features listed: Smart Compose, Smart Compose personalization, Nudges, and Smart Reply. They are, of course, turned on by default. So, you need to go into Gmail, select "See All Settings" from the Settings icon, and then scroll down to the "Smart" settings. Once there, you can turn them off, which will help Gmail to keep from tracking you.

Next, go to the "Inbox" tab, and deselect all of the "Importance markers." I don't know about you, but I really don't need Google to tell me what is important to me. To do so, Google has to "read" your email. There simply is no other way around it. While you're there, also tell Gmail to "Don't override filters," which is right below the "Importance markers."

The Third Stop: Control Your Google Data

We've covered this before, but it's worth reviewing again in connection with what you can do to minimize Google's tracking of your web activity.

Go here to review your Google account settings. Definitely "browse" through each of the categories, but pay particular attention to the "Data and personalization" category. Tighten up as much of it as you can. For example, I have "ad personalization" turned off. That doesn't mean that Google doesn't try to display ads, but the ads they do display are not personalized to my interests ... or what Google thinks they are. While you're poking around in your Google account settings, look for the setting that determines how long Google keeps your data around in its history. I have my web and app history, as well as location history, set to auto-delete after three months, and YouTube history set to auto-delete after 18 months. Your choices are to delete activity older than three months, 18 months, 36 months, or to not auto-delete any activity. The tighter you make the controls, the more control YOU have over YOUR data.

Summary

There is NO WAY that you will be able to completely stop Google from tracking you across the web. But, Google has provided a way to seriously curb that tracking, even if the tools are not the most intuitive to use.

It's YOUR data, and it's YOUR responsibility to do everything you can to secure that data. No one else is going to care about YOUR data as much as you should or do.

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: The Cat

What is your name/username?

I'm Daniel, a.k.a. The Cat, 'cause I had seven lives, but now there are still some 3-4 left!

How old are you?

I'm 40, so I was lucky enough to learn typewriting, send letters to friends and call from a public phone!

Are you married, single?

I'm a very blessed man, married with a wonderful wife! Who, by the way, also loves PCLinuxOS!

How about Kids, Grandkids (names and ages)?

Not for the moment, but who knows the future?

Do you have pets, what is your favorite?

Not now, but we love dogs! Especially those big ones, like the Newfoundland or the Labrador Retriever.

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

I work in the legal & policy field.

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

Hmmm... I feel a little like wandering through this earth till I reach the Eternal Home! But meanwhile, our tent right now is pitched in Switzerland.

The city we're actually living in Switzerland

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

In Brazil and Switzerland, which was very helpful. In Brazil, you develop your creativity, you need to improvise, as you lack all resources; in Switzerland, you learn to be more organized, methodical, punctual. I studied until the postgraduate level.

My hometown in Brazil

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

Computers, for sure! But also traveling, reading and (good) music.

Why and when did you start using Linux?

Just one year after our family bought our first PC with Win95, it already started freezing, breaking. All the wonders from MS. Since then, I started looking for an alternative to that crap. I heard about Linux, but back in the 90's there were very few people, books and resources about it in Brazil. So, after a frustrating period with a Mac (which let me down when it simply stopped functioning), I found Linux in Switzerland. My first distro was Linux Mint, which was quite friendly to use, but that broke my computer after every biannual big update, and the users' forum was useless. So, after learning about the evil systemd, I read something about the Resistance, the Few Ones who kept the flame of tradition! And here am I with PCLinuxOS, since the glorious year of 2014!

What specific equipment do you currently use with PCLinuxOS?

Two notebooks, one is a Lenovo with Intel i5, the other one is an old (and brave) single core Toshiba Satellite!

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

People still believe that Linux is for engineers, geeks and the like, so some think you're some kind of hacker, or genius. When you show them the graphical desktop, with all looking "normal", with icons, and Firefox and all the like, they get amazed!

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

What makes PCLinuxOS great is the people here! I've never seen such a really welcoming and friendly forum like PCLinuxOS! True! It's a blend of an easy to use, rolling release, systemd free, all best apps, great community distro! You don't find this elsewhere! Perhaps now, with the first Linux phones being released, it could be time to start thinking about a PCLinuxOS ARM release, but it's easier to say than to make it!

I can only say that I'm very grateful for being part of this great community led by Sheriff Tex and his men!

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight is an exclusive, monthly column by YouCanToo, featuring PCLinuxOS forum members. 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: Going On Sabbatical

by phorneker

It has been quite a while since my last article, and quite a few things have happened.

I have reassessed my online assets, and have made a decision to move my original website to Neocities. This leaves a lot of space open to develop the Horneker Online brand into something bigger.

GoDaddy currently provides 100GB of space on a server running CentOS 6. (I found this out by accessing the site through SSH and typing uname -a on the command line.

I could install WordPress, Drupal or Joomla into this space. But then, being that these are popular applications for website development, that leads to questions about the security of those applications, specifically the vulnerability of the products to cybercriminal attacks.

If there is one thing I have learned from reading about such attacks is that most of these attacks affect products that are popular in the mainstream markets for information technology.

What do Android powered smartphones, Apple iPhones, Mac OS-X and Windows 10 have in common? They are mainstream products that are widely available and widely used. The same is true with WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. Cybercriminals will spend time on these products because they are widely used and are popular.

Have you noticed that no virus, trojan horse or other malware has ever successfully run on ArcaOS or any of its OS/2 predecessors?

If you have watched videos about Linux on YouTube, especially ones that compare various distributions, did you notice that most of those videos do not even mention PCLinuxOS.

It does not do us well when it comes to public exposure of the distribution. But in this case, it is a good thing. Sometimes, not being popular has its benefits.

What I am saying is that the less popular a technology or product is, the less likely cybercriminals will spend time trying whatever it is they do on these products.

(...and who doesn't want that?)

I am considering installing Nextcloud on my webspace after moving the original website to Neocities. So far, It seems to work, but with a few quirks.

The webspace assigned contains 100GB of storage and runs in a container configured with 512MB of RAM, and enough bandwidth for a low traffic website, which this website has been for the past 24 years!

I have not decided whether to go for it or not, being that this is a low traffic website, and that Nextcloud was designed for high traffic servers. What attracts me to this solution is the high level of security built into the application.

The fact that this website existed for 24 years without a data breach or other attack is proof that the less popular a technology, product or idea is, the less it becomes vulnerable (or even feasible) to cyberattacks.

Case in point, the Slackware website is still accessed through HTTP instead of HTTPS, due to the fact that almost no one new to Linux has even heard of Slackware, let alone trying to install that distribution on their machines. At least my website is accessed only through HTTPS, which is important as I do not want my website to be tagged as Not Secure by Google simply because I did not enable HTTPS for my website.

Another solution I am considering is to use a product such as WordPress, but not allowing any accounts to be created. (The main website for PCLinuxOS does just that!)

I know that I just mentioned that WordPress is a popular product for building websites. But the way it is used on the main PCLinuxOS website is an exception to that theory.

My current website uses an adaptation of the Spectre theme available at HTML5 UP! Website.

I have experimented with different themes available on the Internet. At the end of the day, I end up going back to the same Spectre theme.

What this site really needs is some new content. Up to now, the content that could have been provided for this website has been published in this magazine. The only thing I could do is to add links to the article in the magazine on my website.

Meanwhile, I could look into what is available at GoDaddy to install on my website, keeping security in mind (i.e. I do not want any algorithms or malware coming into my website. This is the way this website has been designed and developed for 24 years, and I intend to keep it that way.)

The other thing I did was to replace the current hard drive with a 480GB SanDisk Solid State Drive. Considering the age of the laptop (14 years), the SATA controller did indeed support the new SSD and PCLinuxOS installed without any issues.

The only thing I have to do every so often is to run fstrim -va every so often to ensure the SSD will work properly. So far, the overall performance of PCLinuxOS on this 14 year old laptop is nothing short of outstanding.

Of course, this also means that I had to rethink what should be installed on this laptop.

For example, I have LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice.org, and SoftMaker Office installed. The latter is a commercial product. But then, so are Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, both of which are available in the PCLinuxOS repository.

SoftMaker Office is for gaining experience with the latest versions of Microsoft Office. The ribbon interface came in really handy when I took assessment tests for Microsoft Word on Indeed.com. (If you want to work for a company that relies on Microsoft products, you will need to have this experience.)

Apache OpenOffice.org may be ancient when compared to LibreOffice. However, it works the same today as it did ten years ago. If you have a machine that is 20 years old and is still running Windows XP, Solaris, or an old version of Linux, chances are, it is running either StarOffice, or OpenOffice.org.

Also, there is no version of LibreOffice that runs on ArcaOS (or earlier versions of OS/2). However, OpenOffice.org is available for ArcaOS from that company's software repository, as well as a stand alone binary compiled for OS/2.

You never know when you need to backport a document for use with an older (vintage) computer.

For these reasons, I shall be going away for some time before my next article. But, before I do...

Social Media News

Normally I would criticize social media for various things, particularly regarding privacy and confidentiality of personal data. But this time, I am praising Twitter for what should have been done some time ago with some of the accounts of key players in the current administration.

On November 7, CNN reported that Twitter permanently closed Steve Bannon's Twitter account for suggesting the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fausi and Christopher Rey.

This does not need any real explanation here as to why this Twitter account has been shut down.

First of all, the First Amendment, while it guarantees free speech, does not cover speech that incites violence or rioting (How many of you actually knew that?)

Second, such statements violate the Terms of Service for most social media accounts, among other Internet services involving user generated content.

In addition, the video posted on Bannon's Facebook account was removed. That video also violated the Terms of Service, this time for Facebook. It does not matter who you are (or think you are), when you use a service such as Twitter or Facebook, you must abide by their rules as you are using their network to post your thoughts and ideas.

Yes, I do believe in the First Amendment. I also believe there is such a thing as proper decorum, and inciting violence violates both the First Amendment and proper decorum.

I also believe that as this matter develops, what happens on social media is going to get very UGLY!!! Perhaps, about as ugly as the 2000-2003 case of MPIAA vs the developers of WinDVD over the right to play DVDs on your computer.

When all is said and done (hopefully before this year is out), there will have to be some kind of regulation placed on social media, especially the same type of regulation that once was placed on newspapers, television and radio.

...and so far, Twitter made the right move with this first step.

(It would also be a good idea to read the Terms of Service next time you log in to a social media account.)

Disturbing Linux Trends

One trend in Linux I have noticed recently is the concept of the immutable distribution. So far, the Fedora Project (sponsored by Red Hat/IBM) has the Silverblue distribution, and openSuSE has MicroOS.

These distributions are small in ISO size (about 100 to 200 megabytes), and as the name suggests, they are immutable, i.e. you cannot change anything in the base distribution.

On one hand, this is a safe way to (quickly) deploy desktops en masse. On the downside, software management is no different from that of a smartphone, and given the state of cybersecurity we have, this is a very dangerous concept.

For both Silverblue and MicroOS, applications are installed from Flatpaks, i.e. downloaded from Flathub. Beyond that, almost nothing else is supported when it comes to software installation. PCLinuxOS does support Flatpaks, which supplements the application library available, instead of replacing the application library as these distributions do.

Immutable distributions are ideal for large corporate environments where desktop usage needs to be tightly controlled, and these distributions do just that. Every desktop running these immutable distributions on a given network looks and works exactly alike from one desktop to the next in that network. (They are also useful for installing Linux on machines which will never be connected to the Internet, in which case, no updates could possibly be available due to the lack of network connectivity.)

The system administrator or another employee in that network's information technology department decides what goes on the end user's desktop, and once the workstation image has been built, all that needs to be done to deploy a workstation is to install that image on that workstation.

For us, who are used to using PCLinuxOS, we are very thankful we will not be going in this direction.

This reminds me of Windows 95, in particular that infamous launch party. The clear intent of that release was to get every personal computer in the world running Windows 95, all running the same desktop, and navigating the system the same way. The concept was repeated with the Windows 8 launch and that attempt to get every device, be it a tablet, a smart phone, or a desktop computer looking and working the same way!

That said, this brings up another critical issue about immutable distributions. When we first started using Linux, it was all about the freedoms we gained, i.e. freedom of choice, freedom from corporate control, and our basic freedoms we have as citizens.

While immutable distributions are good for large corporate environments, they are not good for home or small business usage. That is what we have PCLinuxOS for!!!!! Besides, by giving up control over our Linux installations to the vendors and/or developers, we defeat the reason why we went to Linux in the first place.

Immutable systems are nothing new, either. Acorn Computers had RISC-OS on ROM chipsets as part of their Archimedes line of home and business computers. Atari (under Jack Tramiel) included TOS on ROM chipsets in their ST, STE, TT and Falcon line of 16/32-bit machines sold in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Versions of DOS were included on ROM chipsets on Zenith's Easy-PC, and IBM's PS/1 series of (now vintage) computers designed for the consumer market.

Windows Subsystem for Linux: Does it make any sense?

The other thing happening in mainstream Linux is the deal made with Microsoft where Linux can be installed on a partition with Windows installed, by way of Microsoft's Windows Subsystem for Linux.

This allows Linux to be installed on machines without having to create a dual-boot setup, i.e. Install Windows first on part of the hard disk, then Linux on another part of the disk.

Sure you will be able to run Linux on that machine. But at the end of the day, you will still be running Windows while you are running Linux. Does this really make any sense at all?

That would be similar to building an office tower from (American made) steel on the San Andreas fault. Knowing that any land on or near that fault is anything but stable enough (subject to earthquakes) to build a foundation for a building, you could build an office tower near there, but how long would it last before the next earthquake destroys that building.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus:

Savory Spinach & Mushroom Strudel

This savory strudel utilizes pre-packaged puff pastry to make your time spent in the kitchen so much easier. Many pre-packaged puff pastries - - found in your grocer's freezer section - - are actually vegan by default. Check the labels on brands such as Pepperidge Farms and similar names and then get cooking!

INGREDIENTS:

5 onions (Cippolini or any small, sweet onion, thinly sliced)

1/2 cup mushroom broth

10 ounces mushrooms (any variety, sliced)

3 cups spinach (fresh, chopped)

1 (359-gram) silken tofu (extra-firm, drained)

5 tablespoons vegan cream cheese

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 teaspoons tahini

Salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

1 package puff pastry

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375F. (190C)

1. In a large frying pan over medium high heat, auté the onions in the mushroom broth until the onions are golden brown and tender, about 10 minutes. Stir often so that the onions do not burn.

2. Add the mushrooms and - - keeping over medium-high heat - - cook until almost all of the liquid is gone. Lightly salt and pepper to taste. Gradually add the spinach, and allow it to cook for about 45 seconds, or until the leaves are wilted and brilliant green. Cover and set aside.

3. In a medium sized bowl, using a fork, smash the silken tofu until it resembles cottage cheese. Cream the tofu with the vegan cream cheese, olive oil, tahini, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper.

4. Fold the spinach and mushroom mixture into the tofu mixture and blend well until well incorporated and evenly distributed. On a large clean and lightly floured surface, roll out one sheet of puff pastry so that it is just slightly bigger than the dimensions it came packaged in. Keep the dough square as you roll it out.

5. Using half of the spinach and mushroom mixture, spread the mixture on only half of the pastry square leaving a 2-inch border on each side. Roll up, starting with the filled side, making sure to keep taut while doing so. Pinch edges and fold down to seal. Repeat each step with the other pastry and then place both filled pastries onto a large metal baking sheet.

6. Using a very sharp knife and coming in from the side, score the top of the pastries with 5 slits each.

7. Bake at 375F (190C) for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and crispy. Remove from the oven and allow to cool about 10 minutes before slicing and serving. To retain crispiness, it is best served shortly after baking.

RECIPE VARIATIONS:

Party version! Cut the rolled out puff pastry into 3 x 3 inch squares. Press each square snugly into the bottoms of muffin tins and then fill the cups 1/2 with mushroom filling. Bake for 30 minutes, or until puff pastry is fluffy and the topping is golden. Serve warm.

Total:100 mins           Prep:40 mins           Cook:60 mins           Yield:2 strudels (2 servings)

ms_meme's Nook: Linux Treats Me Right

MP3                                                             OGG

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Sudoku

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Scrappler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Crossword

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

WordFind

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Mixed Up meme Scrambler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Screenshot Showcase

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Posted by Yankee, Nov 10, 2020, running Mate

Table of Contents

Welcome From The Chief Editor

Image Noise Reduction By Image Stacking/Blending

Short Topix: 200 Most Common Passwords Of 2020

ms_meme's Nook: Everybody Wants To Rule The WWW

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Chicken, Bacon & Carmelized Onion Pasta Bake For Two

Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

Paul's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

Meemaw's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

YouCanToo's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

phorneker's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

Game Zone: A Very Sonic Christmas!

Inkscape Tutorial: Create A Custom Calendar

Repo Review: Shortwave

Faked Memory Sticks

Using Timeshift To Backup & Restore Your PCLinuxOS System

Some Steps To Thwart Google Tracking

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: The Cat

Mind Your Step: Going On Sabbatical

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus: Savory Spinach & Mushroom Strudel

ms_meme's Nook: Linux Treats Me Right

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Screenshot Showcase

Unnamed

MP3

OGG

853 Hard To Believe Facts

Chessie the Railroad Kitten

Unnamed