Table of Contents

Welcome From The Chief Editor

1. Remembering dockmackie

2. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Taco Rigatoni

3. How To Create The Full Monty (FM) Desktop

4. GIMP Tutorial: Using The Curves Tool

5. ICYMI: Password Reuse Rooted In 23andMe Data Breach

6. Grisbi Revisited: Tips For Beginners, Part Two

7. Google Year In Search: 2023 Top Search Terms

8. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus: Beer and Bacon Burger Skillet

9. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

10. Screenshot Showcase

From The Chief Editor's Desk...

As I sit here on Christmas Eve morning, writing this, we're in the midst of some of the warmest December weather I can remember in many years. We have gotten about one to two inches of snow, but that was well over a month ago, and it is LONG gone. That snowfall only lasted a day or so, until warming temperatures turned it back into the liquid form of water. We are currently getting some rain, after three days of bleak, gray sky and incessant misting or drizzle.

In the forum, sam2fish (who lives, IIRC, in/near Saskatchewan, Canada) has commented that there is no snow in his location … which is quite odd for being that far north. Kc1di has also commented that there is little to no snow for his location in Maine.

As for my area (near Kansas City), I have no doubts that we'll get our fair share of the frozen wintery white stuff. We always seem to. At least I hope so. The kids have not one, but two, new sleds that they are eager to test/try out. And we have the perfect sledding hill in the park very near our house, well suited for a seven and 10 year old.

Just prior to the Mayor's Christmas Concert on December 3, 2023,

where Ryan (along with the rest of the 4th graders from the Independence School District) performed.

In fact, I have a sneaky suspicion that come January, February and March, we're going to see significant amounts of wintery weather. That's usually what happens when Winter arrives like a lamb … and I'm not talking about the fluffy white fleece of the lamb's woolen coat. I'm just hoping that it isn't ice, with a mound of snow piled on top, as happens around my parts so frequently. It seems we can rarely get snow without the ice underneath around here. And then the snow plows scrape away the snow and leave the icy layer exposed, making things even more treacherous and hazardous. At least I can get a little traction in the snow and slush, as opposed to the ice layer, upon which I have zero traction in my truck. Oh well … hope springs eternal, I guess.

Just as with the Bing Crosby song "White Christmas," I suspect that for many who usually have snow on the ground for Christmas, the "White Christmas" will remain just a dream this year. We are supposed to possibly get some insignificant snowfall on Christmas Day night, going into the day after Christmas. Just yesterday (Christmas Eve eve), we were celebrating Christmas with my father-in-law and stepmother-in-law on their farm in central Missouri, and we were sitting around on the deck in shirt sleeves with unseasonably warm 58°F (14.4°C) temperatures. That's about 20°F warmer than the temperatures we usually have around this time of year.

We only receive a "White Christmas" around the Kansas City area around 20% of the time. Our last one was in 2017, when we had four inches (~10cm) of the frozen, flaky, white stuff on the ground. We're overdue. The Old Farmer's Almanac (and to not be confused with the Farmer's Almanac) had even "predicted" a White Christmas for us this year. Oh well. Despite both periodicals boasting an "80% accuracy" with their forecasts, research shows that they are correct only about 50% of the time. Their forecasts, it seems, aren't much more accurate than a coin flip, I guess.

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

This month's cover image is from Klaus Hausmann, from Pixabay. Let's hope your New Year celebration left you safe and ready to face the new year without too much drama.

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

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, serenity, prosperity, continued good health … and Happy New Year!

Remembering dockmackie

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

PCLinuxOS lost a loyal and faithful user on December 4, 2023. Our friend dockmackie passed away after a two to three week hospitalization. He was 76 years old.

dockmackie's avatar from the PCLinuxOS forum

"Dock," as he was often called, was born on August 26, 1947. He lived in Clayton, Georgia, amidst the backdrop of the Smoky Mountains.

He was married to his wife, Joanne, and he was the "master" of several dogs that lived with them. At least three of them were Great Pyrenees. His dogs were his "babies."

Dock joined the PCLinuxOS forum on November 28, 2014. His last login to the forum was November 22, 2023. He also frequently dropped into the PCLinuxOS-Magazine chat room on PCLOS-Talk. His last visit there was on November 24, 2023.

In the chat room, dock would talk about his dogs and his wife Joanne. He would also talk quite a bit about his ongoing struggles with his breathing. In his later years, the high pollen levels and high humidity in/near Clayton, Georgia seemed to exacerbate his breathing problems, so he was relegated to spending a lot of his time inside his house. Most of the time it was Dock, The CrankyZombie, Meemaw, tuxlink and me, talking about things we'd seen on the forum, sharing family stories, or health issues, or comparing the weather from our respective areas (Dock lived in Georgia, Meemaw and I live near Kansas City, tuxlink lives in California, and The CrankyZombie lives in Oregon.)

On the PCLinuxOS forum, dock posted quite a bit about using VirtualBox, as well as working with MySQL and MariaDB database "stuff." Most of his posts were seeking assistance with various issues he may have been having. Very few of his posts were in response to some of the silliness and tomfoolery that sometimes goes on in the forum. His last post in the forum was on October 21, 2023, when he was looking for which package included the library file libwebkit2gtk-4.0.so.37.

He posted a "thank you" for all of the birthday wishes on August 27, 2022, and it best captures his wit and sense of humor:

"Thank you all for the happy birthdays, I appreciate it!

This summer has easily been the single most purgatorial span of time I can ever remember. Wake up each morning to light the color of dead guacamole under a sky the color of a TV tuned to a dead channel but not nearly as interesting, air too thick to breath and too thin to drink. Day after day after day after day. I am now 75 and officially Old Goat. I can look back across the years and see what a turmoil of meaningless and forgettable scurrying around they really were, a wasteland of irreplaceable hours lost on nothing much.

Yesterday was a pleasant surprise. I woke up to a clear sky, there was a real dawn with a real sun in it instead of a time warp into the Palaeozoic. It was the first normal summer day of the summer, come late. It got hot enough by midday to stay in for a while, and then a small and needlessly enthusiastic small thunderstorm blew up, had a crisis of electricity (striking the roof twice) directly overhead, dumping 2.5 inches of ice water (melted hail, so it had to be a really tall column up there), and then disintegrated, after dropping the outside temp by 20F. Then there is a fine meal, finished up with a raspberry cheesecake. Does it get better than this? Probably not.

All that just to say how much I appreciate you all, each and every.

Best regards!"

We bid you adieu, dockmackie. Thank you for blessing us with your presence. We hope that you find eternal peace, and that your family and friends can revel in the memories of the good times you had with them. You will be missed!

Meemaw and YouCanToo also contributed details for this article.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner:

One-Pot Taco Rigatoni

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

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

1 package (1 oz) taco seasoning mix

2 cups uncooked rigatoni pasta

1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chilies

1 jar (24 oz) Thick 'n Chunky salsa

2 cups water

1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1 Heat a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add beef; cook until brown, crumbling as it cooks.

2 Add taco seasoning mix, stirring to coat beef. Add pasta, chilies, salsa and water, stirring to combine. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to simmering. Cover; cook about 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until pasta is tender.

3 Remove from heat; stir in cheese. Cover; let stand for about 2 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

4 Sprinkle with cilantro just before serving.

Tips:

When you're using extra-lean ground beef, there is no need to drain fat.

Top with freshly diced tomatoes, sour cream or any of your other favorite taco toppings!

Nutrition:

Calories: 630         Carbs: 73g         Sodium: 1490mg         Protein: 39g

How To Create The Full Monty (FM) Desktop

by Isaac

Before I get started on this tutoriaI, I want to say a Happy Belated Birthday to PCLinuxOS, as she turned 20 this year. Next year she'll be able to gamble, and go get a margarita. I also want to mention that the FM desktop is the original creation of our founder, Texstar. The last official release of the Full Monty iso was in 2014 on KDE 4. It was discontinued for aesthetic reasons.

A couple months ago, I was inspired to recreate it, after an article I read online. I recently created an ISO and it has had good reviews, but it does not adjust the way it should to screen size, aspect ratio or resolution changes.

So, in the meantime until those problems are fixed and while I am continuing to work on it, I wanted to share a how-to guide on creating the FM desktop so you can use it too, without downloading an ISO.

Now, without further hubbub, here is a very straightforward set of instructions on how to set up the FM desktop for yourself.

Setup

Note: You should know (not that you don't already, that depending upon what you wish to include, The Full Monty can take a lot of room on your drive. This is because, as the name suggests, it can incorporate anything and everything.

Getting started

1. Open activities.

Add as many of those shown here as you like by clicking Create New.

Click the icon and find the one that best suits the name of the activity. I use all the basic icons.

Click All and find the one you like best. Here, because it is the internet, I chose the globe icon.

Remember to name the activity according to what kind of apps you will be using for that activity. To ensure the activities appear in the order you wish them, number them, and they will appear in that order.

2. When you are done creating the activities, open the Virtual Desktop settings.

I set my number of virtual desktops to six, because each activity has to have at least one desktop assigned. There is no separate setting to only set the number of desktops per activity. So initially this is necessary to enable the activity pager to work properly. If you choose only one desktop, you will not be able to initially use the pager. I go into detail about this in the notes below.

Make sure all the settings for virtual desktops shown above are chosen.

Select the desktop you wish to view, by using your mouse wheel while hovering over the desktop (as shown here).

Note: At the end of the day, multiplying the number of activities by the number of desktops, will give you the total number of usable desktops. In my case, I have 6 activities, each with 6 desktops, for a total of 36 individual desktops. However, if you only want a couple desktops per activity, you can remove the extra ones when you are done setting up the activity pager.

3. Right click the panel, and open the Add Widgets dialog.

Choose the pager for virtual desktops. Because you chose two rows, you will have two rows of pages.

Right-click the panel and click Enter Edit Mode. Move the pager where you want it.

Right-click on the desktop pager on the panel, and choose Show Alternatives. Then choose Activity Pager. Now you can change all your activities and desktops will work.

Assign Wallpapers

1. Click on the activity where you want to change the wallpaper.

2. Open wall paper settings, and you will be able to assign the wallpaper for each activity. Each desktop/workspace will have the same wallpaper as the activity you are using. Each Activity will have the same number of virtual desktops workspaces.

3. Each virtual desktop will have the ability to independently open upon mouse click.

Included wallpapers are: The six originals included by Texstar on the original FM desktop. These are meant to be used with a dark theme. I recommend Breeze Dark.

I created six more for this version. These wallpapers look good on Breeze or Breeze Dark.

You can download a *.tar.gz archive file containing all the new wallpapers I created, along with the wallpapers from the original Full Monty, from here. The images are high resolution files, and the archive is 27.6 MiB in filesize. There are separate wallpaper files for those using a monitor with a 4:3 aspect ratio, a 16:9 aspect ratio, and a 16:10 aspect ratio. They are all in the one archive available for you to download.

Using Quick Launch

1. Right click on the Quicklaunch you want to use, and either: add, or remove the launcher.

2. You can also edit the launcher to add a description, or change an icon.

3. Right click the Quicklaunch you want to edit and select Configure Quicklaunch to open the Quicklaunch Settings dialog.

Adding Shell apps

1. Right-click the KDE menu Icon and open Edit Applications.

Find the correct category for the CLI app you want to add and click New Item.

Enter the Item name.

Add the relevant information; ie Name, Description, Comment.

Click the box to choose the correct icon. Choose the relevant category and type a description of the icon you want to use, choose the icon, then click save.

Select Open file dialog. Navigate to /usr/bin and type the name of the program you want to use, in the Name field, and click Open.

Open the Advanced tab, and check Run in terminal.

IMPORTANT: Do not try adding the shell launcher from the quick launch, since doing so will break the specific file association.

You should end up with an end result similar to these screenshots below:

That's all! If you have any questions, reach out. I'm happy to help. Email me at yourfriendisaac@pclosmail.com

GIMP Tutorial: Using The Curves Tool

by Meemaw

While looking at some of my photos, I see some that aren't quite as vibrant as I remember them when I took them. One of the tools that GIMP has is the Curves tool, which adjusts the color in a photo. It's easy to use and fun to play with.

Load a copy of your photo into GIMP. As we have learned over the years, if you screw up the only copy of your photo, then you have lost it. Working on a copy preserves the original. Here is the photo I'll work on first. It's a pretty little grove of trees I saw on a four wheeler ride in Colorado about seven years ago. While the colors are nice, they don't really "pop" and they aren't nearly as bright as I remember.

To try to fix this, we'll use the Curves tool, in the Colors menu. It allows one to do color adjustment fairly easily. The window looks like this:

The main feature is the square in the center with a diagonal line. The bottom left corner represents the darkest color in your photo, and the top right corner represents the lightest color. To help you with your work, make sure "Preview" at the left is checked so you can see the changes. Then check "Split View" on the lower right of the window. Split view divides the photo in half and allows you to compare what you have done to what you started with.

We'll attempt to edit our photo by pulling the diagonal line in different directions, the lower being darker and the higher being lighter. The first thing I did was to grab the line in the lower left part of the square, and pull it towards the bottom a bit. With Split View chosen, you can see what's happening.

I've only moved it a little, but the image is more colorful already. Playing with the location you choose and distance you move the curve makes a big difference, but play with it a bit to get the effect you want.

I'm also going to grab the other end to lighten it up a bit. It was a sunny day, so it should have been brighter.

You may have to play with yours a bit, but I was happy with mine, so I saved it.

There's a bit more to this tool. At the top, there is a "Values" dropdown. If you feel like there's a predominant color you need to tone down, you can choose it from the values and again use the line to change it. This can happen with night shots. Some cameras (or some photographers) will shoot something at night, and the camera will pick up the darkness with an orange tone. I was in San Diego, CA ten years ago and took a photo of the Old Town Plaza just as it was getting dark. I want to work on this one.

It looks pretty close to what I remember, but I'm going to see if I can make it a bit better. Loaded into GIMP and using the Curves tool, I get this:

The right side is what I had to start. While it was getting dark, I don't remember it being quite that dark yet. Choosing the red in Values, it brought out too much green, so I clicked on "Reset Channel" next to the Values dropdown. I ended up using just the Curves tool without changing the values, but you might try it with your photo, and it may help. Mine is not too much different, but it looks better to me.

I hope this helps you in your photo editing! If there's a tutorial you'd like to see, feel free to PM me on the forum, or email me at meemaw@pclosmail.com.

ICYMI: Password Reuse Rooted In 23andMe Data Breach

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

A new study in mice found limited intakes of one particular essential amino acid slowed the impacts of aging and even lengthened their lifespan, according to an article from Science Alert. Scientists are now wondering if these findings could help people improve their longevity and quality of life. Isoleucine is one of three branched-chain amino acids we use to build proteins in our bodies. It is essential for our survival, but since our cells can't produce it from scratch, we have to get it from sources like eggs, dairy, soy protein and meats.

Surprise! Surprise! Attention Chrome and Chromium-browser users: Your internet activity is vulnerable to cyberattacks, unless you update to the latest version of your browser, according to an article from Lifehacker. On November 28, 2023, Google announced on their Chrome Releases blog that a new version of Chrome, 119.0.6045.199 for Mac and Linux and 119.0.6045.199/.200 for Windows, is available, and patches seven different security vulnerabilities. All of these discovered issues are rated as "high" in severity, but Google only names six of them.

Do you want to know if the "research" that you are reading is valid or just bunk? That is the premise covered by an article from The Atlantic. With so, so many "research papers" released every year, it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

In an article from the New York Times, a data breach at 23andMe affects 6.9 million profiles, the company says. Hackers were able to obtain access because some customers reused old passwords, the genetic testing company said. The compromised data, in some cases, included ancestry trees, birth years and geographic locations. And as if I needed yet another reason to steer a wide berth around these genetic data collection "companies." It also reiterates what we've been telling you here in the pages of this magazine for years about the risks of password reuse.

Believe it or not, astronomers "lost" a whole galaxy, according to an article from Mashable. It's hard to imagine astronomers could detect one of these colossal realms with a ground-based telescope, only to peer through a powerful telescope in space and see no trace of its existence — just a deep and endless void of darkness. Scientists first discovered Aztecc71 with a camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii. But when they searched for the galaxy with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, it had completely vanished. It took the James Webb Space Telescope, the leading infrared space observatory, to win at hide-and-seek. There it was: a faint but distinct galaxy, popping out hundreds of new stars every year.

An article from BBC Future takes a look at what it would take to switch the world's aircraft to running off of renewable biofuels. The biomass required to make biofuel can come from a broad range of sources – plant material, food waste or even algae. While biofuels release CO2 when burned, some consider them a sustainable option because they are renewable and biomass removes some CO2 from the atmosphere as it grows. But … whoa! … the amount of land necessary to keep the world's aircraft aloft is staggering.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

ChatGPT provided incorrect or incomplete information when asked about [pharmaceutical] drugs, and in some cases invented references to support its answers, two evaluative studies found, according to an article from MedPage Today.. In the first, 39 questions sent to a drug information service for pharmacists were later posed to ChatGPT, which provided no response, an inaccurate response, or an incomplete response to 74% of them. In the second study, ChatGPT missed at least half of established side effects for 26 of 30 FDA-approved drugs.

Hundreds of Windows and Linux computer models from virtually all hardware makers are vulnerable to a new attack that executes malicious firmware early in the boot-up sequence, a feat that allows infections that are nearly impossible to detect or remove using current defense mechanisms, according to an article from Ars Technica (and other news outlets). The attack—dubbed LogoFAIL by the researchers who devised it—is notable for the relative ease in carrying it out, the breadth of both consumer- and enterprise-grade models that are susceptible, and the high level of control it gains over them. In many cases, LogoFAIL can be remotely executed in post-exploit situations using techniques that can't be spotted by traditional endpoint security products. And because exploits run during the earliest stages of the boot process, they are able to bypass a host of defenses, including the industry-wide Secure Boot, Intel's Secure Boot, and similar protections from other companies that are devised to prevent so-called bootkit infections.

Unidentified governments are surveilling smartphone users via their apps' push notifications, a U.S. senator warned on Wednesday, according to an article from Reuters. In a letter to the Department of Justice, Senator Ron Wyden said foreign officials were demanding the data from Alphabet's Google and Apple. Although details were sparse, the letter lays out yet another path by which governments can track smartphones. Apps of all kinds rely on push notifications to alert smartphone users to incoming messages, breaking news, and other updates. These are the audible "dings" or visual indicators users get when they receive an email or their sports team wins a game. What users often do not realize is that almost all such notifications travel over Google and Apple's servers.

A number of popular mobile password managers are inadvertently spilling user credentials due to a vulnerability in the autofill functionality of Android apps, according to an article from TechCrunch. The vulnerability, dubbed "AutoSpill," can expose users' saved credentials from mobile password managers by circumventing Android's secure autofill mechanism, according to university researchers at the IIIT Hyderabad, who discovered the vulnerability and presented their research at Black Hat Europe this week.

In November of 2020, a freak wave came out of the blue, lifting a lonesome buoy off the coast of British Columbia 17.6 meters high (58 feet), according to an article from ScienceAlert. The four-story wall of water was finally confirmed in February 2022 as the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded at the time. Once thought to be relegated to nautical folklore, scientists got a wake-up call in 1995, when they detected a nearly 26-meter-high rogue wave (85 feet) that suddenly struck an oil-drilling platform roughly 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of Norway.

Thirty years ago, a botanist in Germany had a simple wish: to see the inner workings of woody plants without dissecting them. By bleaching away the pigments in plant cells, Siegfried Fink managed to create transparent wood, and he published his technique in a niche wood technology journal, according to an article from Ars Technica. The 1992 paper remained the last word on see-through wood for more than a decade, until a researcher named Lars Berglund stumbled across it. Berglund was inspired by Fink's discovery, but not for botanical reasons. The materials scientist, who works at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, specializes in polymer composites and was interested in creating a more robust alternative to transparent plastic. And he wasn't the only one interested in wood's virtues. Across the ocean, researchers at the University of Maryland were busy on a related goal: harnessing the strength of wood for nontraditional purposes.

Happy 30th birthday, Doom. Undoubtedly one of the most immediately recognizable, important and best FPS games of all time, you probably don't need to be told why you should play it. To celebrate 30 years since the first game launched on December 10, 1993, the game's co-creator John Romero released Sigil 2, his second such expansion for the iconic game, according to an article from PCGamesn. Sigil 2 follows on from Romero's previous Sigil, released in 2019 as a spiritual successor to the fourth episode of The Ultimate Doom. The new Megawad (the traditional name for a pack including a total of 15 or more levels) is described as an "unofficial sixth episode" and is now available as a free add-on for the iconic FPS game. Sigil 2 is out now. If you want to play it, you can get it now as a free download via John Romero's website. You'll need to own a copy of the original Doom, and Romero himself recommends GZDoom as the ideal way to play it. You can also head to his site to buy Sigil 2 with an accompanying soundtrack from Thorr made for the game or get a full boxed edition of the new campaign with some spectacular artwork and additional goodies.

Hackers are always finding new ways to break into your devices. A troubling new vulnerability in iOS now allows hackers to spy on you through your keyboard, according to an article from Fox News. Certo Software released a report revealing how cybercriminals are avoiding Apple's stringent security measures to steal your information. Essentially what hackers are doing is installing a third-party keyboard that features a keylogger into your iPhone. They will disguise that keylogger in a small app and use Apple's TestFlight tool for app developers to bypass Apple's security checks. Hackers are hoping you download those apps and turn over your own information.

Engineers and major companies are pushing a technology that they say could make the web feel dramatically faster, according to an article from The Verge. The good news is that there's a plan to almost eliminate latency, and big companies like Apple, Google, Comcast, Charter, Nvidia, Valve, Nokia, Ericsson, T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom, and more have shown an interest. It's a new internet standard called L4S that was finalized and published in January, and it could put a serious dent in the amount of time we spend waiting around for webpages or streams to load and cut down on glitches in video calls. It could also help change the way we think about internet speed and help developers create applications that just aren't possible with the current realities of the internet.

AI-generated image by DALL-E

Researchers have demonstrated a programmable nano-scale robot, made from a few strands of DNA, that's capable of grabbing other snippets of DNA, and positioning them together to manufacture new UV-welded nano-machines – including copies of itself, according to an article from New Atlas. The robots, according to New Scientist, are created using just four strands of DNA, and measure just 100 nanometers across, so about a thousand of them could squeeze up into a line the width of a human hair. The team, from New York University, the Ningbo Cixi Institute of Biomechanical Engineering, and The Chinese Academy of Sciences, says the robots surpass previous efforts, which were only able to assemble pieces into two-dimensional shapes. The new bots are able to use "multiple-axis precise folding and positioning" to "access the third dimension and more degrees of freedom." These nano-bots are often viewed as potential ways of manufacturing drugs, enzymes and other chemicals, potentially inside the cells of the body. But the researchers specifically call out the fact that these machines can "self-replicate its entire 3D structure and functions."

Bill Gates said he was originally expecting the internet to make the world a more fact-based, rational place, but has come to realize it's become a tool for disinformation and "crazy ideas," according to an article from Business Insider. "I will admit, the people who drove the digital revolution, including myself, really thought that the world would get more rational," Gates said at a fireside chat on December 7, 2023, in New York. Keep in mind that this is the same guy who once said that no one would ever need more than 640KB of RAM, too.

A "consumer alert" from the U.S. Federal Trade Commision (FTC) is advising consumers to be wary when scanning QR codes Scammers have been "discovered" replacing valid QR codes with fake QR codes, routing users to fake websites all in an effort to steal personal and private information. You can read the FTC advisory on their website.

Source: BBC Studios

The skull of pliosaur, a massive prehistoric sea predator, was discovered in the UK, along what is commonly referred to as England's "Jurassic Shore" along the cliffs of Dorset, according to an article from USA Today, and many other media outlets. It is thought to be the most complete pliosaur skull ever discovered. The perilous mission to recover the fossilized skull of the prehistoric pliosaur will be documented in an upcoming BBC film narrated by David Attenborough.

Meanwhile, according to an article from Earth.com, researchers have unearthed a new mosasaur in Japan, the "blue dragon," that rivals the size of a great white shark, dating back 72 million years. This ancient marine predator, given the Japanese name Wakayama Soryu, offers new insights into the prehistoric seas of the Pacific.

The stomach of the teenage tyrannosaur Gorgosaurus libratus is a gift that keeps on giving, according to an article from Popular Science. A team of paleontologists in Canada found the remains of two meals preserved inside of its stomach cavity, including the partially digested drumsticks of two birdlike dinosaurs. The findings were described in a study published December 8 in the journal Science Advances and is the first known time that well-preserved gut continents have been discovered in a fossilized tyrannosaur.

Is there life beyond Earth? The question has turned out to be one of the hardest to answer in science, according to an article from Space.com. Despite the seemingly boundless expanse of the universe, which implies there's potential for abundant life, the vast distances between stars render the search akin to locating a needle in a cosmic haystack. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) constitutes a branch of astronomy dedicated to finding extraterrestrial life by searching for unusual signals, dubbed technosignatures. The identification of a technosignature wouldn't just signify the existence of life, but specifically point to the presence of intelligent life using advanced technology. Previous technosignature surveys have included only the radio frequency band above 600 MHz, leaving lower frequencies virtually unexplored. That's despite the fact that everyday communication services such as air traffic control, marine emergency broadcasting and FM radio stations all emit this type of low-frequency radiation on Earth.

Google announced this week that it will be making several important changes to the way it handles users' "Location History" data, according to an article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a.k.a. EFF. These changes would appear to make it much more difficult—if not impossible—for Google to provide mass location data in response to a geofence warrant, a change EFF has been asking Google to implement for years.

It sounds like something you'd hear from your paranoid friend: your devices are listening to you so that companies can market items to you based on your conversations, according to an article from Business Insider. Except that's exactly what a marketing company is bragging about, a new report from 404 Media reveals. Cox Media Group recently gave advertisers an overview of a new technology it calls Active Listening. CMG claimed that its technology can use microphone data from devices like smartphones and tablets, specifically analyzing "pre-purchase conversations." The since-deleted blog post also mentions using AI to determine when the phrases heard from smart devices could be "relevant" to advertisers.

Years after rival web browsers made the move, Google Chrome on Jan. 4 will begin blocking websites from using third-party cookies, the easiest way to track our online behavior as we move around the web, according to an article from CNET. The browser will block third-party cookies for 1% of users on computers and Android phones, said Anthony Chavez, leader of Google's Privacy Sandbox project, in a blog post. Google will extend the block to all Chrome users by the end of 2024 under a schedule that has been pushed back several times in recent years. The Chrome change, even though it so far only affects a small portion of people, is a momentous change for the web. Cookies, small text files that websites store on phones and PCs, have been used nearly since the dawn of the web, and ejecting them has been tough despite a growing effort to protect privacy online. Chrome is the dominant browser, accounting for 63% of web usage, according to analytics firm StatCounter. Major browser competitors, including Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Brave, began blocking cookies years ago, and Microsoft Edge offers the same with a "strict" privacy setting, but Google moved more slowly.

Are you confused by EXACTLY what is meant by the term "Quantum Computing?" Well, this article from Reuters may help lift some of the confusion. To be honest, while I still found it difficult to wrap my head around the simplified explanation, the article does an excellent job of attempting to demystify the concept.

While many AI companies race to find ways to use the technology to enhance or even create video, Resemble AI is focused on audio fidelity, according to an article on the Decrypt website. The startup—which also offers an AI voice generator for businesses to use to create realistic human–like voice overs—has launched 'Resemble Enhance,' an open-source tool designed to significantly upgrade the quality of historical audio. The new service can take a distorted, fuzzy recording of a long-lost historical speech and then apply AI to make it sound like it was recorded or broadcast yesterday. You can try out Resemble Enhance by visiting its website, or by visiting its official GitHub page.

A press release from Canalys estimates that in the nearly two-year period until Microsoft's official end-of-support date for Windows 10 – 14 October 2025 – roughly a fifth of devices will become e-waste due to incompatibility with the Windows 11 OS. This equates to 240 million PCs. If these were all folded laptops, stacked one on top of another, they would make a pile 600 km taller than [the distance to] the moon. Of course, that's assuming that there's ONLY one OS worthy of those machines. This could turn into quite a boon for Linux users, rescuing still-usable computers from a premature death in landfills around the world. It may be time for some new "curbside shopping" adventures!

Do you want to be able to discern if what you read has been written by AI? That is the premise of an article from Gizmodo. Over the coming short term, this is going to become a burgeoning "skill," as more and more people try to pawn off AI creations as their own, original work. And, the better AI gets, as it's bound to do as it "evolves," the more and more difficult it will become to be able to spot AI-generated anything. Trust me … nothing about this article (or anything else that appears in The PCLinuxOS Magazine, for that matter … as far as I am aware) is AI-generated. And when it is (so far, only images), we are up front about it.

A groundbreaking study led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has unveiled a previously unknown class of antibodies with the potential to neutralize various forms of the flu virus, according to an article from the Jerusalem Post. The findings, published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology on December 21, 2023, mark a significant step toward the development of more universally protective flu vaccines.

Another month, another zero-day Google Chrome vulnerability. The latest update for Google Chrome — version 120.0.6099.129 for Mac and Linux, and versions 120.0.6099.129/130 for Windows — patches just one security flaw, but that doesn't mean you should ignore it, according to an article from Lifehacker. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2023-7024, is a heap buffer overflow in WebRTC, a platform that adds communication features like video and audio without the need for plugins.

Grisbi Revisited: Tips For Beginners, Part Two

by kalwisti

Last month, we re-introduced you to Grisbi to manage your finances. This month, we'll take a look at actually setting Grisbi up for use.

Getting Started

When you start Grisbi for the first time, a series of helpful wizards/assistants will lead you through the process of creating a new account file. The wizards' instructions are clear and self-explanatory.

I will not devote much space to this topic because it is covered in two other sources. First, Meemaw wrote an overview of Grisbi in an earlier issue of our community magazine (Vol. 65, June 2012). Second, you can refer to Grisbi's User Manual [English translation, illustrated PDF version], Chapter 3, "First Start of Grisbi", pages 13-17.

Working with Transactions

Despite Grisbi's import capabilities – it can import files in CSV, QIF, OFX and .gnucash format – I decided the cleanest way to begin was by manually entering "fresh" transactions beginning with my January 2022 bank statement. I plan to write a continuation of this article which evaluates Grisbi's performance with importing and exporting other file formats, as well as importing downloaded bank files.

Categories

Grisbi includes a large assortment of standard Categories which is adequate for personal use. Nevertheless, you may modify them to meet your individual situation.

One possible caveat involving categories is that Grisbi's are a bit Francocentric; you might wish to edit them. For example, the category Housing [French 'Logement'] includes the subcategories Electricity, Gas, Phone, Water, etc. English speakers might be more inclined to place those subcategories under a new parent category called Bills, or, Utilities. For educational expenses, Grisbi has the category Studies [French 'Etudes'], with the subcategories Books, Lessons, School Fees. English speakers might prefer the parent category to be called Education.

Creating New Categories

It is easy to create a new category in Grisbi. The GUI method involves selecting Categories in the navigation panel, then clicking on the "New category" icon in the toolbar.

A dialog will open, in which you type the name of your new category and indicate whether it is classified as a Credit or a Debit.

In this example, I will create a Postal category to track postal expenses.

Click on the Apply button to finish creating the new category.

Creating New Subcategories

To create a new subcategory, be aware that the 'parent' (or top-level) category must already exist. If we continue from the example above, let's create the expense subcategory Stamps under our new Postal category.

Choose Categories in the navigation panel, then click on the Postal category to select it. Next, click on the "New sub category" icon in the toolbar.

A dialog will open in which you type the name of your new subcategory. (Note: You do not need to indicate the subcategory type because its parent category, Postal, has already been classified as a Debit.) Click on the Apply button to finalize this step.

Creating (Sub-)Categories on the Fly

Grisbi also allows the creation of categories on the fly, i.e., while you are entering data for a transaction. In the Transaction form of the ledger, type either your new 'parent' category, or the 'parent' category with its 'child' subcategory. (Note: If there are two elements, you must have a space on each side of the colon for the software to recognize it correctly.)

In the example below, I will simultaneously create the expense category Memberships and the subcategory Fees.

The new categories will appear in the Categories list after the transaction has been validated/entered.

Split Transactions

A split transaction – also known as a "split" – is a transaction that can be assigned to more than one (expense) category. Some financial apps make entering split transactions cumbersome; however, Grisbi handles them capably.

While entering your transaction, enter the usual data (viz., Date, Payee, Amount of debit, Notes). However, in the Categories field, type in the text "Split of transaction". Then, click on the Validate button.

Grisbi will notify you that there is a variance. The ledger's red font color alerts you that there is an error in the transaction data.

In the Debit field, enter the amount of the first expense category. In this case, it is $42.24 assigned to the Gifts category. Next, click on the Validate button again.

Grisbi will recalculate and alert you that there is still a variance of $17.50. (The font remains in red).

In this example, the remaining amount was spent on household items, so I will assign it to the Housing category and press the Validate button.

If the amounts of the split balance out correctly, the ledger entry will change the color of its font back to black.

By clicking on the flippy triangle (circled above), you can expand the ledger entry and verify that the split amounts are correct.

Reconciliation

Grisbi's user manual recommends that you reconcile your account regularly, to ensure its accuracy and avoid accounting errors. Reconciliation will help you catch mistakes -- such as a business charging you the wrong amount, or you transposing numbers while entering a payment or deposit.

To begin, click on the Reconcile button in the account ledger's toolbar.

Notice that in the Reconciliation reference box, there is an auto-generated reference (consisting of a text string plus a number). Grisbi will auto-increment this string as you do subsequent reconciliations.

On Line 2 of the table, type in the Date [ending date of your bank statement] and the Balance [ending statement balance].

(Note: After you complete your very first reconciliation in Grisbi, the program will prompt you to set the initial date of the reconciliation, i.e., the opening date of your bank statement.)

In the main ledger area, look for the column labeled C/R (with boxes underneath it).

Work through your bank statement, and check/tick the box beside each matching transaction. Verify that the transaction amount listed in your bank statement matches the amount in your Grisbi checkbook register.

Alternatively, you can highlight the transaction's line and type Ctrl+P.

A "P" will appear beside the box. This means the transaction has been "pointed," i.e., ‘flagged prior to reconciliation.'

As you point transactions, you will see that the Variance changes. In the example below, almost everything has been pointed; a Variance of only $86.00 remains.

When all transactions have been pointed, the Variance should show as 0.00.

(If at any time, you wish to pause/interrupt the Reconciliation process, click on the Cancel button. Transactions will remain pointed; however, when you resume, you will have to input the ending Date and ending Balance again.)

When you are completely done, click on the Validate button. (Note: The button will not become functional/active until the Variance is 0.00).

In the C/R column, all the Ps will change to Rs [for 'Reconciled'].

After the very first reconciliation finishes, a pop-up dialog will appear.

To set the initial reconciliation date, go to Edit > Preferences > Transactions > Reconciliation.

Fill in the Initial date field. The final results should look something like the image below.

After the Reconciliation process is complete, by default reconciled transactions will disappear from the checkbook register. If you wish to unsuppress those reconciled transactions, click on the View button in the ledger's toolbar and select/tick "Show reconciled transactions."

:

After making this selection, reconciled transactions will reappear.

Note: After a transaction has been reconciled, is it only partially editable. The Amount is fixed/frozen as per standard accounting principles.

I mentioned earlier that Grisbi will automatically increment the Reconciliation reference string as you do subsequent reconciliations. If you are curious about how this looks, here is a screenshot, shown below.

Add a New Payment Method

If you need to add a new payment method – with a digital service such as PayPal, Zelle or Venmo – Grisbi makes it straightforward. In this example, I will add Zelle as a payment option.

From the Edit menu > choose Preferences > Resources > Payment methods. Then click on the Add button.

Fill in the relevant information; when you finish, click on the Close button.

Afterwards, "Zelle" will appear as a payment option in the Transaction Entry form when you are entering data.

Useful Data Entry Shortcuts

The F11 function key toggles Grisbi's display between full screen or normal display.

To create a 'New Transaction' in the account ledger, type Ctrl+T.

When entering transactions, to change the Date field more quickly:

- Press the + [plus] or - [minus] key as needed.

- Double-clicking will open a calendar dialog box.

- Alternatively, you can type &$60;Ctrl+Enter> to open the calendar dialog.

Configuration Tips

Auto-load Last File on Startup

When Grisbi opens, its Start Page displays by default the icons for your three most recently opened files.

If you work with only one account file and would like to change Grisbi's behavior so that it auto-loads your last file on startup. Under the Edit menu > choose Preferences > Generalities > Files. Check/tick the option "Automatically load last file on startup" and change the value of "Memorise last opened files" to "1." (Note: Be careful this value is not set to "0.")

Suppress the Default Dialog Box before Closing Program

When you exit Grisbi, a dialog appears, asking if you wish to save your changes before closing.

If you would like to change this default behavior and suppress the message. Under Edit menu > choose Preferences > Generalities > Files. Then, check/tick the option "Automatically save on exit."

Reports

Although Grisbi lacks the charting/graphing options of other personal finance programs (e.g., HomeBank and Skrooge), it features powerful reporting capabilities. Grisbi offers several preformatted reports. To access them, select Reports in the navigation panel > click on the New report button > and choose your desired template.

If you wish, these preformatted reports can be modified and used as a basis for custom reports. Reports can be exported in CSV or HTML format, printed and/or saved as a PDF file.

Alternatively, you can choose the "Blank report" option. All the information contained in a transaction – such as Time period, Account(s), Payees, Categories, Payment methods, etc. – can be used as sorting criteria. You can add and chain practically as many criteria as there is information, in order to obtain all types of representations imaginable. Although this might sound intimidating, the process of creating a blank report is fairly straightforward because it is GUI-driven. The Grisbi User Manual [English translation, illustrated PDF version] covers reports in depth, in Chapter 20 (p. 163-167) and Chapter 21 (p. 169-192).

Searching for Transaction Details

Technically this is not a report but I would like to mention Grisbi's transaction search feature, which allows you to search for text (strings) contained in the Notes field. This is useful for retrieving details which might otherwise be difficult to find, e.g., When did I last buy mealworms for our platform bird feeder? (Of course, this assumes that I included the term "mealworms" in the Notes field when I originally entered the transaction. I did, as we shall see momentarily.)

In Grisbi's account ledger, click on a transaction to highlight it. It does not matter which one you choose; any transaction will work. Then, right-click on the highlighted transaction and choose the Search option.

A "Search" dialog will appear.

Check/tick the option "Search in note" and type your desired search term in the box.

Click on the Find button. If any matches are found, the Search dialog will indicate "[x] transactions found" and automatically highlight the first matching transaction in the ledger. (The details will be visible below in the Notes field of the Transaction Entry Form.)

In this example, the first (of two) matching transactions is dated 12/17/2022.

To see the second matching transaction, click on the Find button again. It is from 1/22/2022.

:

Conclusion

If you are considering an offline application to manage your finances and GnuCash is overkill, Grisbi is an attractive option. I encourage you to give it a try. I have enjoyed becoming reacquainted with Grisbi. The program has demonstrated its accuracy and reliability.

Grisbi is beginner-friendly, with an intuitive user interface, easy access to repeating transactions (via the Scheduler), the ledger and payees. The program comes with a large number of predefined categories designed for personal use, and it is fairly painless to import downloaded data from bank websites. In addition, Grisbi can export its files in QIF and CSV format.

Google Year In Search: 2023 Top Search Terms

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Do you wonder what terms people have been searching for over the past year? Google has released its top search terms for 2023. The lists are based on search terms that had the highest spike this year, as compared to the previous year.

The search terms are broken into categories. We'll show you the top 10 search terms for each category. Furthermore, the search terms are broken down by geographical regions. For this article, we'll explore first the global results, and then the U.S. results. If you want to see the results for your region of the world, don't hesitate to pull up Google's list and select your region of the world.

Search results are available for the following area/regions/countries, in addition to the global results:

Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile Colombia Croatia Czechia Egypt Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary India Ireland Israel Italy Japan Kenya Latvia Lithuania Malaysia Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria Norway Pakistan Peru Poland Portugal Romania Saudi Arabia Serbia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Türkiye Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Vietnam

So, below are the global results.

News

1) War in Israel and Gaza

2) Titanic submarine

3) Turkey earthquake

4) Hurricane Hilary

5) Hurricane Idalia

6) Hurricane Lee

7) Maine shooting

8) Nashville shooting

9) Chandrayaan-3

10) War in Sudan

People

1) Damar Hamlin

2) Jeremy Renner

3) Andrew Tate

4) Kylian Mbappé

5) Travis Kelce

6) Jenna Ortega

7) Lil Tay

8) Danny Masterson

9) David Beckham

10) Pedro Pascal

Passings

1) Matthew Perry

2) Tina Turner

3) Sinéad O'Connor

4) Ken Block

5) Jerry Springer

6) Angus Cloud

7) Nicola Bulley

8) Jane Birkin

9) Jimmy Buffett

10) Lance Reddick

Actors

1) Jeremy Renner

2) Jenna Ortega

3) (Ichikawa Ennosuke IV)

4) Danny Masterson

5) Pedro Pascal

6) Jamie Foxx

7) Brendan Fraser

8) Russell Brand

9) Kiara Advani

10) Matt Rife

Athletes

1) Damar Hamlin

2) Kylian Mbappé

3) Travis Kelce

4) Ja Morant

5) Harry Kane

6) Novak Djokovic

7) Carlos Alcaraz

8) Rachin Ravindra

9) Shubman Gill

10) Kyrie Irving

Games

1) Hogwarts Legacy

2) The Last of Us

3) Connections

4) Battlegrounds Mobile India

5) Starfield

6) Baldur's Gate 3

7)

8) Diablo IV

9) Atomic Heart

10) Sons of the Forest

Movies

1) Barbie

2) Oppenheimer

3) Jawan

4) Sound of Freedom

5) John Wick: Chapter 4

6) Avatar: The Way of Water

7) Everything Everywhere All at Once

8) Gadar 2

9) Creed III

10) Pathaan

Musicians

1) Shakira

2) Jason Aldean

3) Joe Jonas

4) Smash Mouth

5) Peppino di Capri

6) Gino Paoli

7) Tom Kaulitz

8) Kellie Pickler

9) José Luis Perales

10) Anna Oxa

Recipe

1) Bibimbap

2) Espeto

3) Papeda

4) Scooped bagel

5) Pasta e fagioli

6) Coronation quiche

7) Tacacá

8) Black cake

9) Ashure

10) Smelt

Songs

1) obi

2) Try That In A Small Town - Jason Aldean

3) Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53 - Shakira and Bizarrap

4) Unholy - Sam Smith and Kim Petras

5) Cupid - FIFTY FIFTY

6) ERE - Juan Karlos

7) Kill Bill - SZA

8) Rich Men North of Richmond - Oliver Anthony

9) Pasilyo - SunKissed Lola

10) Seven - Jungkook

Sports Teams

1) Inter Miami CF

2) Los Angeles Lakers

3) Al-Nassr FC

4) Manchester City F.C

5) Miami Heat

6) Texas Rangers

7) Al Hilal SFC

8) Borussia Dortmund

9) India national cricket team

10) Boston Bruins

TV Shows

1) The Last of Us

2) Wednesday

3) Ginny & Georgia

4) One Piece

5) Kaleidoscope

6) King the Land

7) The Glory

8) That '90s Show

9) The Fall of the House of Usher

10) Shadow and Bone

Google Maps: Top Parks

1) Park Güell, Barcelona, Spain

2) Central Park, New York, New York

3) Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom

4) El Retiro Park, Madrid, Spain

5) Villa Borghese, Rome, Italy

6) Nara Park, Nara, Japan

7) Cubbon Park, Bengaluru, India

8) Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, Morrison, Colorado

9) Parque Ibirapuera, São Paulo, Brazil

10) Bryant Park, New York, New York

Google Maps: Top Stadiums

1) Spotify Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain

2) Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid, Spain

3) Wembley Stadium, London, United Kingdom

4) Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan

5) San Siro Stadium, Milano, Italy

6) Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, India

7) Madison Square Garden, New York, New York

8) Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, United Kingdom

9) Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France

10) Emirates Stadium, London, United Kingdom

Google Maps: Top Museums

1) Louvre Museum, Paris, France

2) The British Museum, London, United Kingdom

3) Musée dOrsay, Paris, France

4) Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom

5) teamLab Planets, Tokyo, Japan

6) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

7) Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

8) Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

9) American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York

10) Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Google Lens: Top Categories

1) Translate

2) Arts & Entertainment

3) Text

4) Education

5) Shopping

6) Home & Garden

7) Science

8) Barcode

9) Beauty & Fitness

10) Hardware

Google Lens: Top Apparel

1) Shirt

2) Outerwear

3) Footwear

4) Dress

5) Pants

6) Skirt

7) Shorts

8) Romper

9) Jumpsuit

10) Sweater

Below are the top 2023 search terms for the United States. As you'll notice, some of the search categories change based on the country/region you are looking at.

News

1) War in Israel and Gaza

2) Titanic submarine

3) Hurricane Hilary

4) Hurricane Idalia

5) Hurricane Lee

6) Maine shooting

7) Nashville shooting

8) Maui fire

9) Idaho murder trial

10) Canada wildfires

People

1) Damar Hamlin

2) Jeremy Renner

3) Travis Kelce

4) Tucker Carlson

5) Lil Tay

6) Andrew Tate

7) Carlee Russell

8) Jamie Foxx

9) Danny Masterson

10) Matt Rife

Passings

1) Matthew Perry

2) Tina Turner

3) Jerry Springer

4) Jimmy Buffett

5) Sinéad O'Connor

6) Ken Block

7) Tyre Nichols

8) Lisa Marie Presley

9) Suzanne Somers

10) Bob Barker

Actors

1) Jeremy Renner

2) Jamie Foxx

3) Danny Masterson

4) Matt Rife

5) Pedro Pascal

6) Jonathan Majors

7) Sophie Turner

8) Russell Brand

9) Ke Huy Quan

10) Josh Hutcherson

Athletes

1) Damar Hamlin

2) Travis Kelce

3) Brock Purdy

4) Lamar Jackson

5) Jalen Hurts

6) Nick Chubb

7) Wander Franco

8) Will Levis

9) Mac McClung

10) Jon Jones

Books

1) My Fault - Mercedes Ron

2) Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros

3) Hello Beautiful: A Novel - Ann Napolitano

4) The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder - David Grann

5) Red, White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston

6) Happy Place - Emily Henry

7) American Prometheus - Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

8) The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins

9) The Ritual - Shantel Tessier

10) Spare - Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

Explained

1) The Menu explained

2) No One Will Save You explained

3) Silo explained

4) Reptile explained

5) Israel Palestine conflict explained

6) Beef explained

7) White Noise explained

8) Loki ending explained

9) NBA In-Season Tournament explained

10) Title 42 explained

Games

1) Hogwarts Legacy

2) Connections

3) Baldur's Gate 3

4) Starfield

5) Diablo IV

6) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

7) Atomic Heart

8) Dead Island 2

9) Sons of the Forest

10) Mortal Kombat 1

How often

1) How often do you think about the Roman Empire?

2) How often is the World Baseball Classic?

3) How often is a blue moon?

4) How often is the World Cup?

5) How often do trains derail?

6) How often is Friday the 13th in October?

7) How often should you get a COVID booster?

8) How often is the State of the Union?

9) How often does California get hurricanes?

10) How often is Punxsutawney Phil correct?

Meme

1) Kevin James

2) Ohio

3) Police girl

4) Folding chair

5) Smurf cat

6) The waffle house new host

7) One two buckle my shoe

8) Animan Studios

9) Selena Gomez

10) Submarine

Movies

1) Barbie

2) Oppenheimer

3) Sound of Freedom

4) Everything Everywhere All at Once

5) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

6) The Super Mario Bros. Movie

7) Creed III

8) John Wick: Chapter 4

9) Five Nights at Freddy's

10) Cocaine Bear

Recipe

1) Grimace shake

2) Lasagna soup

3) Chicken cobbler

4) Black cake

5) Pumptini

6) Hugo spritz

7) Cowboy butter

8) Coronation quiche

9) Brazilian lemonade

10) Cottage cheese ice cream

Songs

1) Try That In A Small Town - Jason Aldean

2) Rich Men North of Richmond - Oliver Anthony

3) Unholy - Sam Smith and Kim Petras

4) Ella Baila Sola - Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma

5) Boy's a liar Pt. 2 - Ice Spice and PinkPantheress

6) Kill Bill - SZA 7) Cruel Summer - Taylor Swift

8) Margaritaville - Jimmy Buffett

9) Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53 - Shakira

10) vampire - Olivia Rodrigo

Musicians

1) Jason Aldean

2) Ice Spice

3) Oliver Anthony

4) Peso Pluma

5) Joe Jonas

6) Sam Smith

7) Matt Healy

8) Kellie Pickler

9) Kim Petras

10) Sexyy Red

TV Shows

1) The Last of Us

2) Ginny & Georgia

3) Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

4) Daisy Jones & The Six

5) Wednesday

6) That '90s Show

7) Kaleidoscope

8) Beef

9) The Idol

10) The Fall of the House of Usher

Vs

1) Lakers vs Warriors

2) Lakers vs Nuggets

3) Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury

4) Heat vs Nuggets

5) Jake Paul vs Nate Diaz

6) Bills vs Bengals

7) Lakers vs Grizzlies

8) TCU vs Georgia

9) Colorado vs Oregon

10) Eagles vs 49ers

Trends

1) Roman empire trend

2) Moon phase trend

3) AI yearbook trend

4) Instagram notes number trend

5) Fruit Roll-Ups trend

6) Grimace shake trend

7) Girl dinner trend

8) Red boots trend

9) Dupe trend

10) NPC trend

¿Cómo...?

1) ¿Cómo votar en La casa de los famosos?

2) ¿Cómo va el Inter de Miami?

3) ¿Cómo quedó México hoy?

4) ¿Cómo murió Julián Figueroa?

5) ¿Cómo se llama Peso Pluma?

6) ¿Cómo se llama la novia de Piqué?

7) ¿Cómo va Guatemala hoy?

8) ¿Cómo murió Adrian Estrada?

9) ¿Cómo murió Carlos Parra?

10) ¿Cómo saber si tengo fecha de corte?

¿Dónde…?

1) ¿De dónde es Peso Pluma?

2) ¿Dónde se hundió el Titanic?

3) ¿Dónde ver el clásico mundial de béisbol?

4) ¿Dónde ver la casa de los famosos?

5) ¿De dónde es Grupo Frontera?

6) ¿Dónde ver Sound of Freedom?

7) ¿De dónde es Yahritza y su esencia?

8) ¿Dónde queda Maine?

9) ¿Dónde vive Messi en Miami?

10) ¿Dónde hay gasolina cerca de mi?

Canciones

1) Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53 - Shakira and Bizarrap

2) LA PEOPLE - Peso Pluma and Tito Double P

3) AMG - Gabito Ballesteros, Natanael Cano, and Peso Pluma

4) El Azul - Junior H and Peso Pluma

5) Ella Baila Sola - Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma

6) PRC - Natanael Cano and Peso Pluma

7) Ch y la Pizza - Fuerza Regida and Natanael Cano

8) Mi Bello Angel - Natanael Cano

9) El Rápido - Peso Pluma and Grupo Firme

10) Qué Onda Perdida - Gerardo Coronel and Grupo Firme

¿Quién…?

1) ¿Quién es el papá de Peso Pluma?

2) ¿Quién es Lele Pons?

3) ¿Quién juega hoy en la Copa Oro?

4) ¿Quién ganó Chivas vs Tigres?

5) ¿Quién ganó las elecciones en Guatemala?

6) ¿Quién es Dalai Lama?

7) ¿Quién ganó la pelea de Canelo?

8) ¿Quién ganó la pelea de hoy?

9) ¿Quién es Magdaleno Meza?

10) ¿Quién mató a Lefty?

Recetas

1) Receta de frijoles charros

2) Receta cubana de ropa vieja

3) Receta de galletas de avena

4) Receta de lasaña

5) Receta de puré de papa

6) Receta de enchiladas Suizas

7) Receta de flan napolitano

8) Receta de chimichurri

9) Receta de camarones al ajillo

10) Receta de pechuga de pollo

¿Qué es…?

1) ¿Qué es la implosión?

2) ¿Qué es Oxycontin?

3) ¿Qué es sapiosexual?

4) ¿Qué es Peso Pluma?

5) ¿Qué es Hamas?

6) ¿Qué es aneurisma?

7) ¿Qué es fentanilo?

8) ¿Qué es una persona no binaria?

9) ¿Qué es Threads?

Google Maps: Top Parks

1) Central Park, New York, New York

2) Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, Morrison, Colorado

3) Bryant Park, New York, New York

4) The High Line, New York, New York

5) Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado

6) Washington Square Park, New York, New York

7) Little Island, New York, New York

8) Hocking Hills State Park, Logan, Ohio

9) Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois

10) The Battery, New York, New York

Google Maps: Top Stadiums

1) Madison Square Garden, New York, New York

2) MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey

3) Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

4) Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York

5) Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts

6) Citi Field, Queens, New York

7) Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois

8) AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas

9) United Center, Chicago, Illinois

10) NRG Stadium, Houston, Texas

Hum to Search: Top songs

1) Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

2) Kill Bill - SZA

3) Ballin' - Mustard

4) Tom's Diner - AnnenMayKantereit

5) Until I Found You - Stephen Sanchez

6) Flowers - Miley Cyrus

7) Barbie Girl - Aqua

8) Shinunoga E-Wa - Fujii Kaze

9) Believer - Imagine Dragons

10) Wellerman - Nathan Evans

Google Maps: Top Museums

1) American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York

2) 9/11 Memorial &tional Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

4) Ark Encounter, Williamstown, Kentucky

5) The Getty, Los Angeles, California

6) Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

7) The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

8) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

9) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

10) Intrepid Museum, New York, New York

Regardless of how you feel about Google (and I'm fully aware that there is a LOT of animosity towards Google), it does still remain THE most popular search engine on the planet, despite doing nothing on its own behalf to improve that image or opinion.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus:

Beer and Bacon Burger Skillet

Serves: 6

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup hot water

1/2 cup beer

1 box Hamburger Helper™ double cheeseburger macaroni

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (4 oz)

4 slices bacon, crisply cooked, crumbled

1 can (2.8 oz) French-fried onions

Frank's™ RedHot™ Original cayenne pepper sauce or chopped jalapeño chilies, if desired

DIRECTIONS:

1 In a 10-inch skillet, cook beef over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until brown; drain.

2 Stir in milk, hot water, beer, uncooked pasta and sauce mix (from Hamburger Helper box). Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.

3 Reduce heat; cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender. Remove from heat; uncover.

4 Top with 1/2 cup of the cheese, the bacon and onions. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup cheese on top. Cover; let stand for 5 minutes (sauce will thicken as it stands). Sprinkle it with pepper sauce.

TIPS:

Don't want to make this with beer? Non-alcoholic beer can easily be substituted.

NUTRITION:

Calories: 500         Carbs: 28g         Sodium: 850mg         Fiber: 0g         Protein: 30g

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

Posted by astronaut, Dec 13, 2023, running openbox

Posted by brisvegas, Dec 1, 2023, running Mate

Posted by cH1.@R3, Dec 2, 2023, running KDE

Posted by DrMop, Dec 6, 2023, running Xfce

Posted by francesco_bat, Dec3 , 2023, running iceWM

Posted by jogurtmen, Dec 17, 2023, running Mate

Posted by luikki, Dec 4, 2023, running KDE

Posted by OnlyHuman, Dec 9, 2023, running e25

Posted by tbs, Dec 3, 2023, running KDE

Posted by tuxlink, Dec 3, 2023, running KDE

Table of Contents

Welcome From The Chief Editor

Remembering dockmackie

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Taco Rigatoni

How To Create The Full Monty (FM) Desktop

GIMP Tutorial: Using The Curves Tool

ICYMI: Password Reuse Rooted In 23andMe Data Breach

Grisbi Revisited: Tips For Beginners, Part Two

Google Year In Search: 2023 Top Search Terms

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus: Beer and Bacon Burger Skillet

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Screenshot Showcase