Table of Contents

Welcome From The Chief Editor

1. A Temporary “Fix” For Synaptic & How To Fix Repo Paths

2. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops

3. ICYMI: Copy Fail Malware Strikes Linux

4. Inkscape Tutorial: Turn Your Initials Into A Logo

5. The Science Is Not Settled: How Weak Evidence Is Fueling A National Push To Ban Social Media For Youth

6. Making Music Easily & Cheaply On PCLinuxOS, Part 4

7. Two New Scripts To Temporarily Toggle Your VPN Connection Off & On

8. Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

9. Microsoft Took A Step Toward Human Rights Accountability.

Google & Amazon (and Others) Should Pay A

10. Wiki Pick: How To Change Your DNS In PCLinuxOS

11. Tip Top Tips: Enabling Nvidia Dynamic Boost

12. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus: Easy Taco Casserole

13. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

14. Inspiration & Motivation

15. Screenshot Showcase

From The Chief Editor's Desk...

So, as we were preparing this issue of the magazine, we started chatting amongst the magazine production staff (basically, myself, Meemaw, and tbs), we got around to talking about societal values and how literally “screwed up” they are.

This is especially evident in the world of professional sports. These grown men and women literally MAKE BANK with contracts that pay them obscene amounts of money … Just. For. Playing. A. Game. Yet, aside from bringing fans and a community together, sports have no real or lasting impact on society. Hence, it's why I say that sports have no socially redeeming value.

Meanwhile, other members of society whose occupations do have socially redeeming values … educators, police officers, firefighters, healthcare workers, garbage collectors, chefs, etc. … are paid wages that just barely (typically) put that person above the poverty line.

It seems we place more value on those playing games than those whose socially redeeming value of their jobs is (and remains) untold, with greater impact on society as a whole. Educators are especially underpaid, seeing how they are charged with educating our children, and the results of their efforts may remain hidden for many years.

Where would you be without firefighters to extinguish a fire in your home (which I hope never occurs for any of you)? Or where would we all be without law enforcement officers to maintain the order and enforce the laws? Or, who would you turn to when you're sick and infirm without healthcare workers? Without garbage collectors, there's no one to properly dispose of our wastes. Chefs and cooks prepare our food, while waiters and waitresses serve that food to us. Construction workers build our houses and buildings, and pave our roads. The list goes on and on and on. Most of these occupations pay barely survivable wages in a lot of cases.

The same could be said for those in the entertainment industry and of our legislators. Can you imagine how different things would be if those serving in those roles in our society had to live on the median income of their fans or constituents? Then, there's a vested interest in making sure everyone gets a “piece of the pie.” I'm sure you can imagine many different scenarios, but none that would ever come to fruition. The “machine” that powers this current set of standards is deeply entrenched, as deeply entrenched as the greed that spurred it.

I realize that this sounds somewhat like communism, which is NOT what I'm advocating ... at all. Communism has been an epic failure in most of the cases where it has been embraced or tried. But there's room within a capitalistic society for a different set of rules to be in place, from which springs forth a vastly different set of societal standards. In essence, it levels the "playing field" for everyone.

I'm a huge baseball fan (no big secret there!), and I'm happy that one of the best players in the game today (Bobby Witt, Jr.) plays for my favorite team (the Kansas City Royals … I've been a fan since their inception in 1969). And, even though I'm not as big as a football fan (that's American football for everyone living outside the U.S.), I'm happy that one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL (Patrick Mahomes, III) plays for my favorite football team (the Kansas City Chiefs). I don't begrudge them for their ability to work within the current system to nab a significant amount of wealth during their playing years (in Mahomes case, over $500 million dollars over a 10 year contract), but at some point, you've got to ask yourself when is that wealth too much wealth?

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With June comes summer, and summer means B-A-S-E-B-A-L-L! Actually, by this point, the baseball season is in full swing, and the major league season is almost one-third over (it officially started in late March). I'm a much bigger fan of baseball than I am of any other sport (karate ranks a very close second, and is one I've started training in a little over a year ago). Around our house during baseball season, you can count on seeing every Kansas City Royals game on our television when we're home. So, this month features Tux gracing the cover of the magazine, taking a hack at a baseball, wearing a PCLinuxOS batting helmet. The image was created by Bing Image Creator, using AI powered by DALL-E 3.

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

A Temporary “Fix” For Synaptic & How To Fix Repo Paths

by kalwisti

Editor’s Note: A “perfect storm” presented itself over the last half of May that has PCLinuxOS users scrambling to counter. First, RPM was updated to version 6.x, which breaks the compatibility with Synaptic. The version of Synaptic used by PCLinuxOS is a special version designed to work with RPM. That version hasn’t been actively updated or maintained since the early to mid 2000’s. Then, NLUUG changed the path for the PCLinuxOS repository … with NO notification to anyone. That meant that NO ONE could update, regardless of which package manager was being used (Synaptic or PCLinuxOS’s homegrown DNF PM). As a result, a lot of confusion has ruled ever since. Our longtime friend kalwisti has made detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to a) temporarily fix Synaptic so that you can update your system and switch to DNF PM, and b) how to “fix” the path statements in both Synaptic and DNF PM. If you have not already done so, you need to RETIRE Synaptic and make the switch to DNF PM. Otherwise, you may not be able to update your system in the very near future. It would be best to read through the entire article before making any changes.

Disclaimer: Although the first part of this procedure is official, the second portion is unofficial and based on my experiments with MATE 2024.04 in an Oracle VirtualBox VM. This procedure worked for me, but I cannot guarantee that it will work identically on your system.

What Just Happened and Why Must I Manually Fix It?

NLUUG changed the directory structure of their mirror — which is PCLinuxOS’s master public repo — with no advance notice to Texstar or any other party. It is difficult to control if you do not own all of the repositories that people around the world want to use. Tex did not create this mess. Because the repo path was changed, it could not be found by our package managers, and therefore the problem cannot be fixed by an upgrade or any other centralized process. Only a manual intervention on every PCLinuxOS computer can fix the problem. This is unfortunate, inconvenient and has caused much confusion. However, a manual fix is unavoidable (Editor’s Note: barring reinstalling from an updated ISO, which aren’t yet available at the time of this writing).

The Official Fix For DNF Package Manager

IF you’ve already made the switch from Synaptic to DNF PM, then you will need this information to make DNF PM work properly after the snafu at NLUUG.

The official fix given in the PCLOS KnowledgeBase is to issue the "sed" command below from a Terminal/Konsole window:

su -c "sed -i 's|/pclinuxos/apt/|/apt/|g' /etc/repo.d/default.repo"

Important: You must use this command carefully (and ONLY once).

In this case, when you run the command successfully, you will see no output from the Terminal. No output is normal/expected in this case.

(The lack of terminal output from some successful Linux commands stems from a historical [Unix] design choice. [Many Unix systems ran on Teletypes, which ran very slowly. Printing when an operation was successful just wasted time and paper].)

Running the command once will correct the directory path. However, if you accidentally run the command a second time (as I and many others did), the directory path will get messed up (as shown below):

After first run : Correct:

... /distr/pclinuxos/apt/pclinuxos/ ...

After second (accidental) run : Wrong:

... /distr/apt/pclinuxos/ ...

Therefore I suggest that you use this "safer" version of the command (below, kindly provided by Gerrit Draisma). If you unintentionally issue the command twice, it will not incorrectly modify the directory path (entered all on one line):

su -c "sed -i 's|/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/|/pclinuxos/|g' /etc/repo.d/default.repo"

After making this change, open the DNF PM GUI. Double-check to verify that NLUUG is set as the active repo mirror. (It should be, but there's no harm in checking.) Click on the "Refresh" button of the GUI. You should now be able to update your system normally.

Note: In the course of updating, you will probably encounter the "lib64pangomm2.4" issue which will cause the dnf transaction to fail.

Upgreyed posted a simple fix for that. You only need to do this and then refresh dnf:

rpm -e lib64pangomm2.4_1-2.40.1-3pclos2017 --nodeps

Since Texstar has posted numerous times that Synaptic is now dead, you'll need to switch over to using DNF Package Manager (for better or worse).

Another Note: Since you're running Plasma 6.x, be prepared to receive a lot of Plasma updates. Be patient with DNF PM and allow it time to process those updates.

I believe that my guide/overview of DNF PM has enough info to get you started using it productively. It was last updated May 17, 2026 (as of the writing of this article).

Once you have completed the system update via the NLUUG repo, you will have received new "definitions" of the other repo mirrors which are correct/updated. You will then be able to switch to a different repo mirror which is faster and/or geographically closer to you.

NLUUG Updating Failure: How To Fix Synaptic Temporarily & Transition to DNF

I experimented with installing PCLOS MATE 2024.04 in a virtual machine, then updating it.

This ISO predates dnf/DNF Package Manager GUI, so it has only Synaptic.

I wanted to test how to use Synaptic as a temporary bridge to update the system one time, then immediately install DNF Package Manager [DNF PM] and begin using it. (Texstar has posted numerous times that Synaptic is unmaintained/dead, and that all users should now switch to using dnf and/or its [homegrown] graphical frontend: DNF Package Manager.)

If your system lacks dnf/DNF PM and has only Synaptic installed, I hope this procedure can give you a path forward -- a way of transitioning to dnf without having to do a new/fresh installation.

Disclaimer: Although the first part of this procedure is semi-official, the second portion is unofficial and based on my experiments with MATE 2024.04 in an Oracle VirtualBox VM. This procedure worked for me but I cannot guarantee that it will work identically on your system.

Getting Started

I suggest that you first check whether you have these tools installed by issuing the command below from a Terminal/Konsole:

$ dnf list --installed | grep dnf

If dnf is not installed, you will see the output below:

[david@pclos-mate-old-test ~]$ dnf list --installed | grep dnf

bash: dnf: command not found

If dnf is installed, you will see something like this:

[david@pclos-openbox ~]$ dnf list --installed | grep dnf

dnf.x86_64 5.4.2.1-1pclos2026 x86_64

dnf-package-manager.x86_64 1.14-7pclos2026 x86_64

dnfzypp-sources-list.x86_64 1.0-5pclos2025 <unknown>

lib64dnf5.x86_64 5.4.2.1-1pclos2026 x86_64

lib64dnf5-cli.x86_64 5.4.2.1-1pclos2026 x86_64

If you already have "dnf" installed, skip down to the instructions in the "Bid Farewell to Synaptic" section.

If you do not have "dnf" installed, you will need to install it via Synaptic.

I will try to offer a quick-and-dirty summary of how to solve the "bad/changed URL at NLUUG" problem.

What Works (If You Are Careful): The Official Fix (for Synaptic)

The official fix given in the PCLOS KnowledgeBase is to issue the "sed" command below from a Terminal/Konsole:

su -c "sed -i 's|/pclinuxos/apt/|/apt/|g' /etc/apt/sources.list"

Important: You must use this command carefully (and ONLY once!). Enter your root password if/when prompted. In this case, when you run the command successfully, you will see no output from the Terminal. No output is normal/expected in this case. Running the command once will correct the directory path. However, if you accidentally run the command a second time, the directory path will get messed up.

Therefore I suggest that you use this "safer" version of the command (kindly provided by Gerrit Draisma) (entered all on one line). If you unintentionally issue the command twice, it will not incorrectly modify the directory path:

su -c "sed -i 's|/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/|/pclinuxos/|g' /etc/apt/sources.list"

Wrong Path -- Before the Fix:

rpm http://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/apt/ pclinuxos/64bit x86_64 kde5 xfce4 mate

(Note the double occurrence of " ... /distr/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/ ... ")

Correct Path -- After the Fix:

rpm http://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/pclinuxos/apt/ pclinuxos/64bit x86_64 kde5 xfce4 mate

Update Your System (Once) via Synaptic

After making this change, open the Synaptic Package Manager. Double-check to verify that NLUUG is set as the active repo mirror. In the Section(s): box of Synaptic, I left "kde5" as it is; I did not change it.

Note about the "Unknown Unknowns": If you are a Plasma 6.x user, I'm guessing that specific section will/should have already been changed to "kde6."

(The "kde5" section of the NLUUG repo is empty/no longer exists. However, in my experiment, the system update was successful even though I left the "kde5" unchanged.)

Use Synaptic to "Mark All Upgrades" as usual.

In my experiment, approx. 700 packages were upgraded. It took a while but the update was successful.

After the update finishes, reboot your system for good measure.

Note: As part of this update, you should receive both of these packages:

dnf 5.4.2.1-1

dnf-sources-list 2.0-1

The "dnf-sources-list" contains correct, updated 'definitions'/URLs for the other PCLOS repo mirrors around the world.

Bid Farewell to Synaptic and Update Your System via dnf

Tip: Even if you do not yet have the dnf-package-manager package installed, you now have the dnf package installed. So you can first update your system via the Terminal/Konsole, NLUUG will have been set as the default repo (in the directory /etc/repo.d/default.repo) for dnf. However, it now has the correct repo directory path, so you do not need to adjust it.

Note: Even if you do not yet have the "dnf-package-manager" package installed, you now have the "dnf" package installed. So you can update your system via the Terminal/Konsole.

(NLUUG will have been set as the default repo (in the directory /etc/repo.d/default.repo) for dnf. However, it now has the correct directory path, so you do not need to adjust it.)

To do that, first acquire root/superuser privileges by typing " su - ". (There is a single space and a single hyphen following the "su".) You will be prompted to type the root password.

Next, issue these commands:

dnf check-update

dnf distro-sync

You should be able to update your system normally.

Note: In the course of updating, you might encounter the "lib64pangomm2.4" issue, which will cause the dnf transaction to fail.

If so, Upgreyed posted a simple fix for that. You only need to do this and then refresh dnf:

rpm -e lib64pangomm2.4_1-2.40.1-3pclos2017 --nodeps

To install the DNF PM GUI, type this command (still as root user):

dnf install dnf-package-manager

Another Note: If you're running Plasma 6.x as your DE, be prepared to receive a lot of Plasma updates. Be patient with DNF PM and allow it time to process those updates.

Once you have completed the system update via the NLUUG repo, you can switch to a different repo mirror which is faster and/or geographically closer to you.

In my virtual experiment, after installing the DNF PM GUI, I changed the repo mirror to "princeton.repo" [Princeton, NJ, USA], successfully removed several packages and successfully installed the Geany editor.

Here is a link to the most recent English-language version of my DNF Package Manager (GUI) guide. You may download the PDF [24 p., 2.6 MB] from my personal Box.com account. (You do not need to create a Box account in order to download the file). This guide was last updated May 17, 2026 (as of the writing of this article).

These instructions are also available as a downloadable PDF [4 p., 123 KB] from my Box.com account.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops

Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS:

2 large eggs

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning

4 boneless pork chops, trimmed

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.

Whisk egg in a shallow bowl.

Mix Parmesan cheese and Cajun seasoning together on a plate.

Dip each pork chop into the egg. Press into Parmesan mixture until coated on both sides. Place in the prepared baking dish.

Bake in the preheated oven until golden and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C), 35 to 40 minutes.

NUTRITION:

Calories: 246    Carbs: 1g    Sodium: 459mg    Fiber: 0g    Protein: 31g

ICYMI: Copy Fail Malware Strikes Linux

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Image by James de Castro James from Pixabay

Outside experts expressed caution about a study suggesting a link between early onset lung cancer and diets rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, according to an article from MedPage Today. Survey data on 187 lung cancer patients ages 50 and younger with molecular subtypes of non-small cell lung cancer mostly seen in low-risk groups -- such as women and non-smokers -- revealed that these patients on average had higher-quality diets than the general U.S. population, based on Healthy Eating Index (HEI) scores. The researchers suggested that components of these diets are those often exposed to pesticides, which could indicate a possible link to lung cancer.

Mozilla announced Tuesday that the release of Firefox 150 ships with patches for 271 security vulnerabilities uncovered using early access to Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview, a powerful AI model the company has so far kept out of public hands, according to an article from TechRepublic. Firefox Chief Technology Officer Bobby Holley, writing on the Mozilla blog, said, “Defenders finally have a chance to win, decisively.” Anthropic’s Mythos Preview isn’t available to the general public. Although the company has released it to a small circle of technology partners through a program called Project Glasswing, which includes the likes of Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, all tasked with scanning their own software for weaknesses before the model reaches broader audiences. Mozilla’s access came through a direct collaboration with Anthropic, separate from the formal Project Glasswing consortium, Holley confirmed to WIRED.

Another month, another round of Google Chrome security vulnerabilities. If you are one of the more than three billion people who use the Google Chrome web browser, then pay attention: make sure your application is updated to version 147.0.7727.137/138 across Windows, Mac and Linux platforms as soon as possible, according to an article from Forbes. Google has confirmed a total of 30 new browser security vulnerabilities, including four officially rated as being of critical severity. This is not a drill, don’t wait for the Chrome update to find you, go and find it, install it and activate it. Now.

Image by Marcin Paśnicki from Pixabay

Nearly every Linux system built since 2017 is vulnerable to the ‘Copy Fail’ flaw, according to an article from The Record. Security researchers and European cybersecurity officials are urging administrators to address the risk posed by a newly discovered security flaw that has been hiding in the Linux operating system for nearly a decade. The bug allows anyone with a basic account on an affected computer to seize full administrative control. It also works as an escape route from cloud containers, meaning a compromised application running inside a supposedly isolated environment can break out and take control of the entire host server — a major risk given the cloud industry’s dependence on Linux distributions. Patches and mitigations began reaching users Thursday, though some systems remain unprotected. An interim workaround circulating online does not function correctly on all distributions. The flaw, dubbed “Copy Fail,” was publicly disclosed this week by researchers at cybersecurity firm Theori, which said it found the bug using an AI-powered scanning tool called Xint Code. (The previous link provides a VERY detailed explanation of the vulnerability, and how to remediate the problem).

QR codes have become a normal way to open links, pay bills, and sign in, but that same speed lets attackers push victims from the physical world into a risky web page or app action in seconds. In recent campaigns, the QR image is not the threat by itself; it is a delivery wrapper that can hide a long redirect chain, according to an article from Cybersecurity News. Besides this it can also trigger in-app deep links, or send the phone to a direct download that bypasses app-store checks, called quishing, and it shows up in emails and posters. Palo Alto Networks researchers noted a rise in malicious QR activity, and over recent months they tracked campaigns mixing phishing and scams, saying their crawlers see about 75,000 QR codes per day, with roughly 15% of those pages leading to malicious links, which adds up to more than 11,000 detections daily.

Earlier in April 2026, Nikkei Asia reported that the ongoing memory crisis was not slowing down anytime soon, according to an article from Lifehacker. RAM supply is currently in extreme demand, as AI companies are scooping up the hardware to power their ever-growing data centers. Unfortunately, there are only so many memory manufacturers in the world, and only so many resources available to actually manufacture those chips. There are really only three key players—SK Hynix, Micron Technology, and Samsung — and while all are ramping up production as much as possible, it doesn't appear to be enough to meet demands for the immediate future. Now, Samsung is officially confirming as much. During a post-earnings call, Samsung memory chip business executive Kim Jaejune said, "Our supply falls far short of customer demand...based solely on the demand currently received for 2027, the supply-to-demand gap for 2027 is set to widen even further in 2026." This affirms much of the Nikkei Asia report, namely that Samsung cannot keep up with the current level of demand, and that it expects that reality to continue throughout the next year.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Google may tout the safety features of Chrome, but a privacy consultant is calling into question how safe the browser really is, according to an article from TechRepublic. Alexander Hanff maintains that browser fingerprinting is not protected in Chrome. Browser fingerprinting is a technique used to track people by capturing technical details about their browsers. “There are at least thirty distinct fingerprinting techniques that work in Chrome right now, today, as you read this,” maintained Hanff, in a recently published critique of Google’s browser. “Not theoretical attacks from academic papers that might work under laboratory conditions — real, production techniques deployed on millions of websites to identify and track you without your knowledge or consent,” he added.

Most internet users are familiar with CAPTCHA tests, simple challenges like selecting traffic lights or typing distorted letters to confirm they are human. But cybercriminals have found a way to weaponize this process, according to an article from Cybersecurity News. Hackers are now building fake CAPTCHA pages that trick users into sending paid international text messages, quietly charging their phone bills. This threat is tied to a telecom fraud scheme called International Revenue Share Fraud, or IRSF, active since at least June 2020. The scheme lures users to websites that look like legitimate verification pages. Instead of a normal CAPTCHA, these fake pages instruct users to send an SMS message to prove they are human. What victims do not know is that those messages go to phone numbers in countries with very high termination fees, such as Azerbaijan, Egypt, and Myanmar.

Many scientists now believe that mastering cellular rejuvenation may be the key to transforming how long and how well we live, according to an article from the New York Times. Some hope that they might eventually be able to harness the process to cure hundreds of diseases, extend life by decades and even fend off aging entirely. Over the past 20 years, they have learned how to trigger rejuvenation in the lab, achieving a series of breakthroughs that have made that future feel tantalizingly close. Scientists have taken skin cells from 90-year-olds and restored them to youth in a petri dish. They have rejuvenated diseased mice, turning their gray hair back to black and strengthening their muscles. They have taken failing kidneys out of rats, rejuvenated them in a lab and successfully reimplanted them; they are now moving on to pigs. In March, the first safety trials to test rejuvenation therapy on humans began with an attempt to reverse disease in the eyes and cure glaucoma. Rejuvenation is one of the newest and most promising developments in longevity research, a field that began in earnest in 1993 when a scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, proved that she could double the life span of a roundworm simply by tweaking a single gene. Since then, research devoted to how we age has exploded, developing alongside a booming longevity industry led by entrepreneurs and even some scientists pushing unproven peptides, supplements, laser therapies, electric suits, collagen powders, cryotherapies and blood infusions. Today, anti-aging products and treatments that claim to extend youth are part of an estimated $2 trillion global wellness industry.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Kids are using fake mustaches, VPNs, and their parents' accounts to get around age verification. Age verification and social media bans for under-16s are gaining popularity worldwide in response to rising concerns over harmful online content, according to an article from TechSpot. However, questions surround the effectiveness of enforcement methods. A recent UK report suggests that, while digital restrictions have reduced children's exposure to harmful content, the problem remains far from resolved. A recent survey from Internet Matters reveals that the UK's Online Safety Act has had limited effectiveness in stopping minors from accessing social media and adult content. Whoddathunkit?

A classroom platform built for homework, grades, and student messages is now at the center of a high-stakes extortion claim, according to an article from TechRepublic. Instructure has confirmed a cybersecurity incident involving some Canvas LMS user information and messages, though its investigation is still ongoing. The confirmation follows claims from ShinyHunters that data tied to 275 million users and nearly 9,000 schools was stolen, a scale that Instructure has not publicly verified. The most sensitive question now is not just how many users were affected, but what kinds of school communications may have been exposed. Instructure also reported “no evidence” that passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers or financial information were involved, adding that impacted institutions would be notified if that changes. Update: According to an article from the New York Times, the maker of Canvas said that it had reached a deal with the hackers that recently breached its systems for the return of stolen data and the destruction of any copies.

Plenty of states (and countries) now have age-restriction measures placed on pornography sites, which are often circumvented using VPNs. But a Utah law is about to go into effect that will specifically target VPN software users as part of its age verification rules, according to an article from TechSpot. On May 6, Utah's Online Age Verification Amendments, formally Senate Bill 73, took effect. The law states that a user is considered to be accessing a website from the state if they are physically located there, regardless of whether they use a VPN, proxy server, or other means to disguise their geographic location. The big issue is that the law appears to assume websites can both detect VPN traffic and determine a visitor's true physical location with certainty. They cannot. At best, sites can block known VPN IP addresses, a constantly changing and incomplete list that will inevitably catch legitimate users while missing others entirely. Moreover, websites that host "a substantial portion of material harmful to minors" are now prohibited from facilitating or encouraging the use of a VPN to bypass age checks. This includes providing instructions on how to use a VPN or providing the means to circumvent geofencing. The bill defines a substantial portion as more than one-third of a site's total material.

If you’re like a lot of people, you’ve already dumped Google as your primary search engine, replacing it with DuckDuckGo (DDG). But DDG has a lot more capabilities than just providing a more private search engine. Did you know DDG can hide AI-generated images from image searches? Or that DDG will allow you to search other websites and search engines with a shorthand command? Or that DDG will allow you to use AI chatbots anonymously to preserve your privacy? DDG will also allow you to block certain sites from your search results. If not, you can find the information for these “hacks” and six more from this Lifehacker article.

Researchers have identified a consistent chemical difference in the brains of people with anxiety, according to an article from SciTechDaily. Anxiety has become one of the most visible mental health problems in the United States, showing up not only in clinics but also in schools, workplaces, and everyday family life. Although therapy and medication can help many people, anxiety disorders often go untreated, and even those who receive care do not always recover fully. A new UC Davis Health study points to a possible biological clue: people with anxiety disorders appear to have lower levels of choline, an essential nutrient involved in brain function.

Across the Milky Way, about 190 light years from Earth, astronomers have identified a highly unusual planetary pairing, according to an article from Science Daily. A massive hot Jupiter, a type of giant planet typically found alone, shares its system with a smaller mini-Neptune orbiting even closer to their star. This rare configuration has puzzled scientists since it was first discovered in 2020. Now, researchers at MIT have taken a closer look at the inner planet's atmosphere and uncovered new clues that help explain how this strange system formed. In a study published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, the team used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to analyze the atmosphere of the mini-Neptune. This marks the first time scientists have measured the atmospheric composition of a mini-Neptune located inside the orbit of a hot Jupiter. The observations show that the planet's atmosphere is surprisingly dense and filled with heavier molecules, including water vapor, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and traces of methane. This type of atmosphere would be unlikely if the planet had formed close to its star, where lighter gases usually dominate. Instead, the findings suggest a very different origin.

Ko Arimatsu/NAOJ

Astronomers have detected a thin atmosphere around a tiny celestial body in the outer solar system for the first time — an object previously thought to be too small to support the presence of an atmosphere, according to an article from CNN. Thousands of frozen, rocky bodies called trans-Neptunian objects, or TNOs, exist in the Kuiper Belt on the edge of our solar system, remnants from its formation 4.5 billion years ago. The dwarf planet Pluto is the largest of these TNOs, so named because they’re found beyond the orbit of Neptune. The frigid temperatures and weak surface gravity of the small bodies has long caused astronomers to believe they aren’t capable of retaining atmospheres — with the exception of Pluto, which has a thin one. Atmospheres, especially dense ones, typically form around large planets or moons, including Saturn’s biggest satellite, Titan.

Your browser may have downloaded an AI model behind your back… and you might never know, according to an article from eWeek. That’s the situation now facing many Google Chrome users, after security researcher Alexander Hanff flagged that the browser is downloading a four-gigabyte AI model onto users’ devices without a clear opt-in prompt. According to his findings, the model is automatically installed on devices that meet certain requirements, consuming significant storage while remaining largely invisible to users. In many cases, the only telltale signs are increased bandwidth usage or rapidly filled-up disk space. While the model powers useful features like scam detection and writing assistants, the rollout is drawing scrutiny for how it is delivered. Hanff argues that the lack of clear user consent mirrors patterns often associated with unwanted software, raising questions about the lengths software companies will go to push their products on users.

L-arginine helps protein droplets stay stable and prevents fibril formation linked to Alzheimer’s, according to an article from SciTechDaily. This process occurs at droplet surfaces, offering a potential therapeutic target. Inside living cells, tiny liquid-like droplets quietly keep essential processes running. But in disorders like Alzheimer’s, these dynamic structures can take a dangerous turn, hardening into fiber-like fibrils that disrupt the inner workings of neurons. This transformation undermines critical functions, including the stabilization of microtubules that ferry vital cargo through cells. The challenge has been finding a way to stop this harmful shift without shutting down the droplets’ normal activity. Biophysicists at the University at Buffalo report a potential solution involving a naturally occurring small molecule already found in cells. In a study published in Nature Communications, they found that the metabolite L-arginine improves the stability of protein droplets. It helps prevent their conversion into fibrils while preserving their ability to stabilize and build microtubules.

There is a moment when internet companies get the stink of death on them. For AOL, it was 2003, when it became clear that its users were abandoning its clunky dial-up internet service for far-faster broadband. For Yahoo, it was 2015, when their last-ditch acquisition spree failed, and they sold themselves to Verizon. For Meta, that time is now. I believe the company — one of the most powerful media organizations in the world and one of the most valuable members of the S&P 500 — is at the start of a long, slow decline that will trigger aftershocks to our economy and our society, according to an editorial from the New York Times. It may be named Meta, but the company’s biggest asset is still Facebook. Started from a Harvard dorm, the original online social network has dominated our world for two decades. Its three billion users are still bigger than any single country. Its platforms can help sway an election, fuel an insurrection or spark a genocide.

In response to President Donald J. Trump’s directive for transparency on U.S. government information regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), the Department of War (DOW), with support from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), is overseeing government wide efforts to expeditiously find, review, identify, declassify and publicly release unresolved UAP-related records and historical documents in the federal government’s possession. This is an unprecedented, historic undertaking that requires coordination between dozens of agencies and the review of tens of millions of records, many existing only on paper, spanning many decades. Given the scope of this task, the Department of War will be releasing new materials on a rolling basis as they are discovered and declassified, with tranches posted every few weeks. The materials archived here are unresolved cases, meaning the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena. This can occur for a variety of reasons, including a lack of sufficient data, and the Department of War welcomes the application of private-sector analysis, information and expertise. DOW will continue to conduct separate reporting on resolved UAP cases, as mandated by statute. Under this Administration, we will pursue the truth and share our findings with the American people.

Before you send your next Instagram DM, be warned: Whatever you share with that friend, influencer, or business could potentially be seen by anyone — including but not limited to hackers, law enforcement, or even Meta itself, according to an article from Lifehacker. As of today, May 8, 2026, Instagram DMs are no longer end-to-end encrypted (E2EE). Your messages are vulnerable, whether you're discussing a reel you saw, or sharing your Social Security number. (Please don't do this.) E2EE is necessary for any messaging service that wants to protect its users' privacy. This level of encryption ensures that the only people who can read the contents of a conversation are the ones with access to the devices involved. When you send a message over E2EE, the program encrypts, or "scrambles," it. Each device contains a "key" to decrypt, or "unscramble" the message. If you try to intercept the message without the key, all you'll see is a mess of code. Even Meta couldn't read your encrypted Instagram DMs in the past, which makes this change frustrating.

Image by Icon Blast from Pixabay

Until recently – and I mean VERY recently – I couldn’t wrap my head around passkeys and how they were better than using passwords. But, I found this stellar explanation of passkeys, how they are better than passwords, and how to use them from the New York Times. If you’re in the same boat I was in, this article is definitely worth a read. I’m already a definite non-fan of 2FA (two-factor authentication). It’s just another hoop to jump through that delays my access to the information I’m seeking out. But passkeys remove that extra hoop, and help maintain significantly better security of my accounts than just a simple password does or can.

Gmail does a decent job at filtering junk mail to the Spam folder, but there are always the marketing emails, newsletters, and other mass messages that slip through to your inbox, says an article from Lifehacker. Maybe you accidentally signed up for a mailing list, or you wanted those promo emails at one point, but now they've become too much. You can keep deleting them one by one—or you can take action to remove spam from certain senders once and for all. The article lists a number of ways to “tame” the spam coming into your Gmail account.

At least throughout North America, this spring and early summer is looking like a bumper crop of those little blood sucking ticks. Ewww! If you wonder about the best way to remove those disease-carrying arachnids, look no further than the article on Lifehacker about how to remove them once they choose you as their meal. Whatever you do, forget about the matches, oils, soap, alcohol and any of the other folk-lore remedies. They all cause the tick to vomit their stomach contents into your bloodstream, greatly increasing your chances of getting any of a number of tick-borne illnesses, like Lyme disease.

Image by Jim Cooper from Pixabay

Have you ever wondered why T. Rex had such short arms? It seems you’re not alone. In an article that appears on The Conversation website, a paleontologist answers that very question. Even though the length of its arms are typically about 30% of the length of its legs, no one is quite certain what their use was, or if they were even used at all. That would be the equivalent of a six-foot tall man having arms around 11 inches long.

One Gmail, one address. That seems right. After all, you have one phone number, and one home address. The same should be true for your email addresses, Gmail included. As it happens, though, your Gmail account has an unlimited number of addresses you can use whenever you want, fooling everyone from Netflix to spammers alike. Check out the article from Lifehacker for all of the lowdown tricks of creating a virtually unlimited number of Gmail aliases … and they are all delivered to your “normal” Gmail inbox.

Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) were once considered to have been extremely primitive and unsophisticated compared to us humans (Homo sapiens). However, continued research into our long-lost cousins has revealed that these extinct hominids were not quite as archaic as they seemed to early anthropologists, according to an article from Popular Science. While archeologists have found that Neanderthals pulled out food from their teeth with toothpicks and may have even used medicinal plants as antibiotics, researchers still aren’t sure about the extent of their medical care abilities. Now, new research published in the journal PLOS One indicates that they were capable of complex dental interventions, which adds a series of cognitive and physical updates to the Neanderthal story.

Inkscape Tutorial: Turn Your Initials Into A Logo

by Meemaw

I found this tutorial a couple of months ago. It allows you to use your initials to create a logo. I was having computer problems at the time, so it didn’t work correctly then, but the problem is fixed now, so let’s do it.

My first and middle initials are PJ, so I used those. Open your Inkscape and create the letters. The tutorial used a font called Winner, but I didn’t get it. There’s a link in his tutorial, and if you want to set up an account, it’s free. I used Impact, which is a default font, I think.

When you create the letters, choose Path > Object to path in order to edit them. Then choose Path > Split path to edit them one at a time.

We’re going to edit them so they are a bit stretched out, and can overlap each other. Using one letter at a time, choose the Nodes Tool. When you’re editing, you can make the letters wider and longer. I made mine bigger, and, choosing the nodes shown in blue below, pulled the front of the “P” out so it was longer. Then I edited the “J” so it was longer, and the curl at the bottom was longer as well.

Then, when you have them edited, go ahead and arrange them the way you want to have them overlapping. You can always edit more if you need to, but get them as you want before starting the next step.

Now, choose both letters, and duplicate them. The program will keep the duplicates chosen, but just to make sure, your status bar will say 2 paths in Layer 1. Using those two, choose Path > Outset. This will make them bigger, but that’s where the spaces will be. Do Path > Outset 2 or 3 times, depending on how big you want the spaces. I did 3.

Now choose all 4 paths to work the magic. You can use your selection tool and outline them all. Your status bar should say 4 paths in Layer 1.

Choose the Shape Builder tool. This is a relatively new tool, and I’m sure we’ll make some awesome things with it. When you choose it, your drawing will change to look like this:

Now, you want to select the areas that you want to keep. Make sure the Add button is selected up above in the tool settings. Click and drag your mouse over the parts of the letters that you want to be visible. Be careful because whatever you touch with the mouse will be included. Those spaces will turn blue to let you know what you’ve chosen. The trick here is to choose the centers that give the impression of the letters overlapping in different places. If you make a mistake, you can choose the Subtract option and take it off, but it was easier for me to change to the Selection tool, then back to the Shape Builder tool and start over. With something bigger you want to be really careful. Here, I have selected my areas.

You can see that the top of the J will overlap the P and the bottom of the P will overlap the J. When you get it the way you want it, click the Finish button in the tool options.

With a different font, I used the initials that were used in the tutorial. It looks good, too.

I think you’ll have fun with this one!

The Science Is Not Settled: How Weak Evidence Is Fueling A National Push To Ban Social Media For Youth

by Rindala Alajaji

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Reprinted under a Creative Commons licence

As statehouses ramp up for 2026, we’re seeing a familiar and concerning trend of lawmakers rushing to regulate the internet based on shockingly shaky science. From the California State Assembly to the Massachusetts and Minnesota legislatures, a wave of bills is crashing against the digital lives of young people, with proponents of these measures framing social media access as a “public health epidemic," or a “mental health crisis," even though we have yet to see any of the settled science that those labels usually invoke.

As a digital rights organization dedicated to the civil liberties of all users, EFF’s expertise lies in reminding lawmakers that young people enjoy largely the same free speech and privacy rights as adults. EFF is not a social science research shop, but we can read the emerging research. What that research shows is much more nuanced than what is claimed by those proposing to ban young people from social media, and it is clear that research and theories used to justify these sweeping bans is far from settled. The rush to ban access to digital platforms is being fueled by “pop psychology" narratives and a collection of statistically flawed studies that do not meet the rigorous standards required for such a massive infringement on youth autonomy and constitutional rights.

The Lie of A “Settled” Consensus

The current legislative push relies heavily on a specific, media-friendly narrative that the “great rewiring” of the adolescent brain is a proven fact. This theory suggests that smartphones and social media are the primary, if not sole, drivers of a global uptick in teen anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self harm, etc. While this narrative makes for a compelling airport-bookstore read, it quickly collapses under the scrutiny of the broader scientific community.

Independent researchers, including developmental psychologists from institutions like the University of California, Irvine, and Brown University, have repeatedly found that the evidence for such claims is mixed, blurry, and often contradictory. Large-scale meta-analyses covering dozens of countries have failed to show a consistent, measurable association between the rollout of social media and a decline in global well-being. In reality, we are seeing a classic case of what many of our middle school science teachers warned us about: “correlation” being sold as “causation.”

Additionally, the studies used to support these measures often fail to account for or exclude significant alternative explanations for rising teen anxiety and depression, such as the lasting impact of pandemic-era isolation, the persistent threat of school gun violence, and mounting economic or climate-related stress. By focusing narrowly on social media, these findings frequently overlook the broader societal factors that also impact youth mental health.

The Cult of the “Anxious" Expert

The current push for blanket social media bans relies almost exclusively on the work of Jonathan Haidt, particularly his book The Anxious Generation. While Haidt is an amiable and brilliant storyteller, he is not a clinical psychologist or a specialist in child development. He is a social psychologist who writes about moral psychology at a business school. Nonetheless, the book has made it to every Best Seller list, and with Haidt revered as an expert on podcasts with massive reach, like Oprah, Joe Rogan, Michelle Obama, and Trevor Noah — his message has been heard by a large subset of society, which primarily relies on: no smartphones or social media before age 16, phone-free schools, and more “unsupervised, real-world independence.”

To highlight Haidt’s reach when it comes to legislation banning social media: the California committee analysis for the proposed California social media ban mentions Haidt 20 times; the Governor of Utah promoted the book as a “must-read” months before signing the nation’s first social media ban; Haidt is cited in bill analysis for the bill banning social media in Florida; his work is mentioned in a federal bill aiming to ban phones in schools; and he provided formal testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee (Subcommittee on Technology, Privacy, and the Law) in May 2022.

While Haidt’s research has been paramount to legislation stripping millions of young people of their rights to expression and connection, his conclusions are not without challenge, and many experts in the field argue that the evidence is less than ironclad.

The “Bad Science” Fueling Social Media Bans

While we can admit that Jonathan Haidt’s “great rewiring" theory makes for a gripping narrative, we cannot ignore that independent researchers and statisticians have identified significant flaws in the data used to justify it. Which means we are currently watching policymakers legislate blanket bans based on evidence that would be rejected in almost any other field of public health.

The reality is that research has consistently disproven the oft-assumed link between social media use and poor mental health in youth, and actually indicates that moderate internet use is a net positive for teens’ development, and negative outcomes are usually due to either lack of access or excessive use. In one major study of 100,000 adolescents, a “U-shaped association emerged where moderate social media use was associated with the best well-being outcomes, while both no use and highest use were associated with poorer well-being.” We also know that young people’s relationship with social media is complex, as it provides them essential spaces for civic engagement, identity exploration, and community building—particularly for LGBTQ+ and marginalized youth who may lack support in their physical environments.

But again, the image Haidt presents in his book is increasingly at odds with the broader academic consensus. As mentioned, critics argue that the evidence for the mental health impacts of social media is mixed, blurry, and often misinterpreted. NYU statistics expert Aaron Brown, writing for Reason, notes that many of the studies in Haidt’s exhaustive reference list are statistically unreliable or fail to show a strong causal link. Prof. Candace Odgers, a leading voice in psychological science, explains the “selection effect" that legislators often ignore:

“Hundreds of researchers, myself included, have searched for the kind of large effects suggested by Haidt. Our efforts have produced a mix of no, small and mixed associations. Most data are correlative. When associations over time are found, they suggest not that social-media use predicts or causes depression, but that young people who already have mental-health problems use such platforms more often or in different ways from their healthy peers.”

This raises a fundamental question of legislative responsibility: If the science is not settled, how can legislators confidently declare a “public health crisis” to justify stripping away young people’s First Amendment rights? By bypassing the rigorous, nuanced findings of the scientific community in favor of a more convenient narrative, legislators are choosing emotion over evidence. Before imposing such draconian restrictions on young people’s access to information, policymakers have an obligation to do the heavy lifting: to dig into the actual research and listen to the experts who are sounding the alarm on oversimplified conclusions.

The Dangers of “Social Contagion" Narrative

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of Haidt’s crusade is its overlap with ideological rhetoric that pathologizes the identities of marginalized youth, and how that makes its way through efforts to ban social media for youth. A recurring theme in the literature favored by proponents of social media bans is the idea of “social contagion”—specifically regarding the rise in young people identifying as transgender or non-binary. Haidt dedicates an entire chapter of his book to this (ch.6, pt 3, p. 165), talking about “Why Social Media Harms Girls More Than Boys,” stating that:

“The recent growth in diagnoses of gender dysphoria may also be related in part to social media trends, [...] the fact that gender dysphoria is now being diagnosed among many adolescents who showed no signs of it as children all indicate the social influence and sociogenic transmission may be at work as well.”

These harmful theories suggesting that social media is “infecting” young people with gender dysphoria are false and not supported by peer-reviewed clinical research. But by legitimizing “experts ”who promote these debunked theories, legislators—especially those in states like California who pride themselves on being a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ youth—are inadvertently platforming the same rhetoric used in other states to ban gender-affirming care for youth. This “social contagion ”narrative is a tool of exclusion, not a scientific reality, and we must be wary of any “public health ”argument that treats community-building and self-discovery among marginalized young people as a “purported mental illness ”spread via TikTok.

A Better Path: Digital Wellness, Not Bans

Fortunately, there is a measured, evidence-based alternative already emerging. California's A.B. 2071, for instance, is a student-authored “digital wellness ”bill that offers a measured, evidence-based alternative rather than prohibition. The bill advocates for a curriculum that teaches students how to manage algorithms, recognize cyberbullying, and regulate their own relationship with technology. Instead of trying to completely shield young people from social media, education-based approaches empower young people and have the benefit of providing skills that stay with a young person long after they leave the classroom.

JustLeadershipUSA, a criminal justice organization, has a slogan that rings true in this instance too: “Those closest to the problem are closest to the solution.” So let’s start listening to what our young people are asking us for—more education—instead of imposing paternalistic, disempowering bans.

Legislating With Precision instead of Emotion

Adolescent mental health struggles are a complex, multifaceted crisis. It is a crisis that has existed for as long as time, and has been driven by economic instability, the opioid epidemic, the threat of school violence, amongst other issues. To pin all of society's woes on a smartphone app is not just a scientific error; it is a policy failure that ignores the real, material needs of young people both online and off.

Legislators must stop legislating as “anxious parents ”and start acting as measured policymakers. Because for some youth, social media platforms are a lifeline. UNICEF and other global human rights organizations have warned that age-related restrictions and blanket bans can backfire in three critical ways: isolating marginalized youth (like LGBTQ+ youth, students in rural areas, foster youth, or those with disabilities) who social media is often the only place they can find a supportive community; necessitating invasive mass collection of biometric data or government-issued IDs from all users, including adults; and pushing young people toward less-regulated, “darker ”corners of the web where content moderation is non-existent and the risks of actual exploitation are significantly higher.

Legislators have a valid interest in protecting children, but that interest must be pursued through tailored, measured approaches. We cannot allow emotions or a collection of flawed data sets to justify a historic rollback of digital rights.

Making Music Easily and Cheaply on PCLinuxOS, Part 4

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

Continuing the series of articles on module music, I’ll be discussing one of the programs with the coolest features in the module music and retro composition scene.

MilkyTracker is one of the most famous and active tracker programs (music sequencers) today, designed specifically to be compatible with the Amiga MOD file format, as well as supporting many other tracker music formats (such as XM, S3M, IT, and extended MODs).

A Little History: Fast Tracker 2

The origins of MilkyTracker can be traced back to Fast Tracker 2, a groundbreaking module music tracker created for MS-DOS.

FastTracker 2 (FT2), released in 1995, was developed by Fredrik “Mr. H” Huss and Magnus “Vogue” Högdahl, members of the Triton demoscene group (which later founded Starbreeze Studios). FT2 became the de facto standard for creating music in the XM (Extended Module) format on Windows and DOS, surpassing the previous ProTracker (originally from the Amiga) in terms of features and usability. It introduced features such as support for more channels, advanced effects, and an interface that became iconic.

MilkyTracker was born as a spiritual successor project to FastTracker 2, but with a different approach.

Meanwhile, the MilkyTracker developers, led by Peter “pailes” Barth, explicitly stated that their goal was to recreate the FT2 playback and editing experience, but with open-source, cross-platform code. MilkyTracker is described as a “second-generation tracker,” focused on faithfully reproducing the sound and behavior of FT2.

The origins of MilkyTracker trace back to an earlier project called MilkyPlay, which was a player for .MDL (Digitrakker) files, developed since the mid-1990s. About a decade later, the project evolved into a full-fledged editor, initially focused on Pocket PC devices but quickly expanded to the desktop.

MilkyTracker thus becomes a version of FastTracker 2 for modern systems and computers, with a design philosophy centered on fidelity to classic trackers. The team emphasized that there were no plans to add modern features that would break compatibility with FastTracker 2. This ensures that music created in MilkyTracker plays exactly as it would in FT2, preserving the aesthetics and sound of the classic era.

Because of these characteristics—innovating without losing its roots—MilkyTracker has become the standard tool for many artists in the demoscene and among chiptune music producers who wish to create music compatible with FT2 or the Amiga (ProTracker), all in a free and accessible software package.

Getting to Know MilkyTracker

MilkyTracker is an open-source, cross-platform music application; more specifically, it belongs to the tracker family. It aims to recreate the module playback and user experience of the popular DOS application FastTracker II, with special playback modes available to improve compatibility with Amiga ProTracker 2.x/3.x. MilkyTracker is not “just another tracker for Windows,” which should already be clear from the wide variety of compatible desktop and portable platforms.

Some features of MilkyTracker

- Instrument editor. Allows you to create multiple user-definable envelope points and envelope loop points.

- Sample editor. Includes waveform generators, synthesizers, and effects.

- Resamplers. MilkyTracker offers various resampling options for module playback, rendering, and sample processing.

- Tabbed user interface. Allows you to open and play up to 32 modules simultaneously and exchange data between them.

- Basic support for compressed files. You can load modules compressed in ZIP, PowerPack, and UMX formats directly.

- MIDI input support. (You can use it on stage during live performances)

- Support for low-latency audio drivers. 5

- Undo

The components of MilkyTracker

MilkyTracker includes the following components in its system:

Loop Station

Milkytracker also functions as a loop station for creating, editing, and mixing sample loops for use with external modules or equipment.

It includes the ability to convert a pattern into a sample (loop):

- Convert to sample (Ctrl+Shift+V)

- Convert to sample [overdub] (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V)

The currently selected sample (in the sample editor) will be the target sample.

Overdub mode works like a loop pedal: it records the pattern into the sample (while maintaining the duration of the target sample).

This allows for complex loops and interesting grouping features.

These interesting features can be found in the context menu of the pattern and sample editors.

Milky Synth

MilkyTracker offers a simple synthesizer (in beta) for generating looping or single/multi-cycle waveforms.

A synthesizer dialog box appears when you press the “synth” or “*” button on the sample screen.

The first slider allows you to choose from various synthesis algorithms:

- FM: synthesizer (based on Riku Salminen's jamtoysynth)

- CYCLE: single-cycle or multi-cycle waveforms

These rules apply to all summary options:

- The synthesizer buttons only work on empty samples or samples that have already been synthesized.

- Enable additive/layered synthesis by clicking “Select All” before opening the synthesizer dialog box

- Pressing the “*” button will randomly select an initial preset (which can be edited later)

Channels and Scopes

Milkytracker takes a revolutionary approach compared to most MIDI samplers:

- A channel is not limited to a single sample, volume, effect, or pan setting

- Up to 128 channels are allowed

MOD files are true works of art when it comes to combining elements across up to four channels.

Scopes let you view the sample signal and VU meters, which can be controlled using the mouse and keyboard:

- Left-click: mute/unmute

- Left-click and right-click: mute/unmute

- Shift + 1–9: mute/unmute a specific channel

- Ctrl (Shift) + M: mute/unmute a specific channel

Re-samplers

MilkyTracker offers several resampling options for module playback, rendering, and sample processing. These include:

- No interpolation

- Linear interpolation

- Cubic Lagrange

- Cubic spline

- Fast sync (window size 16, fixed-point integer, sync lookup table)

- Precise sync (window size 128, double-precision floating point)

- Amiga 500

- Amiga 500 LED

- Amiga 1200

- Amiga 1200 LED

Although the choice of resampler is a matter of personal preference, keep in mind that linear interpolation is the highest-quality option available in Fasttracker II, and it is likely the one used to create (or play back) most .XM files. Many chiptunes, however, will sound very muffled with interpolation due to their short samples and, therefore, the relatively greater impact of interpolation. The Amiga modes are intended for use only with 4-channel .MODs. Precise Sinc consumes a lot of CPU—great for resampling in the sample editor, but don’t expect very good real-time performance.

Volume Ramping

- None (not recommended: may cause clicks)

- End of sample (recommended: preserves the drum transients)

- End + beginning of sample (the much-praised FT2 sound, at the expense of the drum transients)

The purpose of the volume ramp in samplers is to prevent unwanted clicks in the music. Clicks occur when there is a sudden change in the direct current (DC) voltage, which usually happens:

- Start: when starting a sample that has a DC offset in the first sample

- End: when changing the volume of a sample

- End: when cutting a sample

Let’s talk about the last two cases. Ramping is useful in these cases because, otherwise, a click is simply unavoidable. When a sample is cut into a song, the songwriter has little choice regarding the phase/position of the sample at the start of a tick.

In the first case, however, we can say that if the sample starts with a DC offset, then the sample actually contains a click. Is it an intentional click or a recording error? In old mod files, there are certainly many instances where some sampling error occurred, and the tools of the time couldn’t easily handle removing DC offset, etc., so it’s fine if we apply ramping, even if that might not be “authentic” (many old mod players didn’t have ramping). This basically falls into the same category as “the listener correcting the music,” such as surround sound, reverb, and EQ on the player.

Tabs

MilkyTracker allows you to open and play up to 32 modules simultaneously, as well as exchange data between them. Initially, the tabs are hidden, but they can be activated using the keyboard shortcuts described below. There are also some configurable options for the tabs, such as automatically opening modules in new tabs and controlling how playback behaves in the background. You can choose to never pause playback in background tabs, to pause automatically when switching tabs, or to pause when playback starts in another tab. Playback can also be resumed when returning to a tab. Imported and exported file formats

Modules

MilkyTracker can import a wide variety of tracker module formats, but since Milky is an FT2 clone, the modules are rendered in an FT2 environment, which means that not all features of the different formats are supported. MilkyTracker also offers basic support for compressed files, allowing you to load ZIP, PowerPack, and UMX compressed modules directly.

Imported formats:

Exported Formats:

Samples

MilkyTracker can load practically anything as RAW PCM audio samples; one of FT2's famous features.

Import:

Export:

Getting Started with MilkyTracker

After dnf install milkytracker, start the app and be greeted by a somewhat overwhelming screen.

Apart from the command section top left, we have instruments/Sub two times to get from 8 to 4 channels, then hit Config→ and set Edit mode to MilkyTracker because all hotkeys will depend on it. Also use Config→ and to the right, choose a Custom pixel resolution of your liking.

Your First Note

Ok, so how do we make sound? We load a wav sample (e.g. say "wow" into a recorder app) by going top-right to Samples→ and naming instrument 1 in the panel left to it accordingly. Or we add another instrument with Ins→+ and, left in the command section, press Smp. Ed. (Ctrl+Alt+S) aka sample editor, which opens at the bottom.

RMB (right mouse button) into the empty space, and choose New with 64 samples to create our "sound canvas" with time (x-axis) and volume (y-axis). More samples will stretch the wave and thus make the sound lower. Then RMB again to Generators→ with 1 period. Lastly, in the bottom middle, choose Forward to repeat the tone from the beginning.

To actually play a tone, press one of Y or the keys right from it, until M: This, our cdefgab, and the halftones are on SD and GHJ in the row above, mirroring what a piano does. Note: German keyboard.

Also try Bi-dir instead of Forward, to go back and forth instead of repeat, and notice how the sound becomes "dirtier". And for a third instrument, instead of RMB→, you could try Generators→ for a more percussive sound, maybe with 1024 samples and 10 periods. Then press the Rng all button aka select all, plus RMB→ from 100 to 10.

To further refine the sound, you could press the Ins. Ed. (Ctrl+Alt+I) button for the instrument editor. Activate checkbox On, then button Add for more control points to the left, then move them by mouse for fine-grained volume shaping. And Ctrl+Alt+X to get back to the main screen.

Your First Track

Now that we can make a tone, next up is composing. At the top, hit Shrink two times to get a manageable first recording time. Pressing Rec (Space) makes the gray cursor bar turn red, and from now on every tone should go into the first track. Key 1 records as "stop tone", and cursor keys navigate elsewhere for larger pauses. Shift+cursor selects tones for delete (Del), copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V), with Shift+Alt+cursor to extend the selection.

Hit Space again to get out of editing, Play Sng (Enter) to start replay, and Stop (Esc) to stop; alternatively Shift+Space for tone-by-tone debugging. The middle bar shows waveforms, and you can LMB on any of them to (un)mute, useful for listening to track decomposition. While editing, you can also Tab through the tracks and Shift+M (un)mute them.

Now to the notes: Something like "C-5 2" means C on octave 5 (on 0..7, reachable by F1-F8), with instrument 2 (cyan), here "sine64" in the instrument panel top-middle. Each detail can be edited: Note down (Shift+F1) or up (Shift+F2) by a halftone, as well as instrument down (Ctrl+Shift+ß, right of 0) or up (Ctrl+Shift+', two right of 0).

Combined with copy&paste, you can duplicate the first track, then change the instrument or octave (12x note up or down), or transpose to the fifth like in a power chord (7x note up/down). Tricks like these can make the sound appear "fuller" in our ears.

Effects

You might have noticed the columns are not quite full: We are missing volume and effects yet. Volume (green) goes into the column after instrument and effect (pink+yellow) in the column after that.

Effects are e.g. 3 for "fade from previous tone" and have parameters, e.g. 05 for fade speed. Note that I removed the stop tone, so there is actually a tone to fade from. Volume is a number from 0 to 40, with default 40, and can be set either as absolute number or +/-, with +F the maximum increase; also usable as volume effect.

The (muted) track 2 shows a copy of most of track 1, but with different instrument and transposed by +7 halftones. At the end, a second effect is 4 for vibrato, with the parameters 55 defining weak or strong vibrato.

Sheets

A musical piece contains a lot of sheets (patterns), and so far we have had only one sheet of 0x10 or 16 notes, with the default 0x40 notes. At the top left is the sheet management, where you see sheet 0 with id 00. Use Ins to add another entry 1 and +/- to define which sheet will be played there.

For editing, use the top middle Patn. +/- buttons to change which sheet you are on. Within the sheet in edit mode, press F9-F12 to jump from the first to fourth quarter of a sheet, and Shift+F9-F12 to play from that quarter.

Also, the CLN (clone) button is a nice alternative to Ins: It copies the current sheet to a newly created one. Just like SEQ (sequence), the id of the new sheet is the next free one. And if you are this far, consult the docs and faq to see what else is possible…

Friends, this article was written with the help of artificial intelligence to speed up the writing process. Even so, the AI made a few mistakes and went off the rails, and I had to correct it. So, you can’t trust anyone these days… AI, that is…

Two New Scripts To Temporarily Toggle Your OpenVPN Connection Off & On

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

I’m pretty sure that I’ve mentioned this before, but I tend to use a VPN for the vast majority of my dealings online. In today’s snoopy society, I view my VPN as a strong soldier in the battle to keep my personal private information … well … private.

Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay

As far as I’m concerned, my ISP has no reasonable need to monitor or even see what I’m doing online. It’s not that I’m doing anything illegal, either. But, my ISP wants to use my online data for two primary reasons. First, my ISP wants to be my “nanny” to be sure I’m not doing anything illegal. I’ve made a career out of following the rules and the laws, some of them so onerous that it’s almost impossible to fully comply. So, I’m not “the one” you’re looking for. Second, my ISP wants to tailor advertising to my interests. No, thank you! I have to put up with enough of that from other service providers, so by eliminating my ISP from that group of busy-bodies is a welcomed relief.

With my VPN, my ISP can’t be my “nanny.” All of the traffic between my computer and my VPN provider’s servers is encrypted, so all they see is traffic. But what they can’t see is where I’ve been, what I’ve done while at my destination, or anything else … just traffic. There are a LOT of ISPs that automatically think that if you’re downloading torrents, you’re automatically doing something illegal.

Of course, that very “narrow-minded” view completely discounts the legitimate use of torrents (like, grabbing the latest release of PCLinuxOS). Certainly, there are plenty of people using torrents to circumvent laws and to download copyrighted content from the web, so I “kinda” get it. But not all torrents are involved with illegal activity. There are also a LOT of people using torrents to download FOSS programs. Torrents are a great way to distribute that FREE software.

Plus, with your personal and private information (PPI) being the literal “currency” in recent times, I feel better knowing that information transferred online benefits from the encryption of all of the data leaving my computer. There’s no need to hand over my PPI to the Cretans on a silver or gold platter if I don’t have to (and I definitely don’t want to).

So, that pretty much covers WHY I use a VPN. But, there are certain sites that refuse to work with your VPN activated. I’m looking at you, MLB.com and Netflix, among many others. That leaves me seeking an easier way to temporarily disable my VPN so that I can connect to those sites. And, once I’m done visiting the “offensive” site that doesn’t allow VPN connections, I’m looking for an equally easy way to re-activate my VPN.

As much as I am absolutely, totally, 1000% ecstatic over PCLinuxOS’s switch to NetworkManager a few years ago, there is one aspect of NetworkManager that I’m less than happy about. Accessing the VPN menu to turn your VPN off or on is oftentimes a lesson in frustration. Let your mouse cursor stray even one pixel outside of the menu boundaries, and the menu disappears, forcing you to start all over. It becomes increasingly frustrating when the VPN server you want to connect to appears at the end of a very long list of VPN servers.

That makes turning your VPN off or on an exercise in frustration. I figured there has to be an easier, less frustrating way to turn (or toggle) your VPN off or on. Thankfully, there is a way, thanks to the command line tools provided by NetworkManager.

Before we get into discussing my solution(s) to toggle my VPN off or on, I do have to say that writing these scripts was challenging. I felt like I was pushing the boundaries of my bash scripting ability a bit farther than what I was comfortable doing. Of course, that’s how you “grow” your abilities, and I feel my bash scripting skills benefitted from that expansion.

Toggle VPN

My first script is called “Toggle VPN.” It has no formal “window.” Instead, it creates an icon that’s placed in the notification tray. Attached to that icon is a menu that’s activated by right–clicking on the icon in the notification tray.

This script is the shortest of the two presented here. Even though it’s a bash script, there are GUI elements for the end user. So, you can place this script in your desktop environment’s “AutoStart” directory, or add it to the location where the autostart information is kept. You can, of course, download the script from the magazine server. The file name is “vpn-toggle.sh.txt,” and it’s only 2.0 KiB in size (so it should download in the blink of an eye). Of course, there’s nothing preventing you from typing it in from the listing of the script below, either. (Hint: if you’re serious about learning how to write bash scripts, typing the script in makes you slow down so you can better understand exactly how the commands work.)

As I’ve mentioned before with other scripts that I’ve presented in the magazine, store the script in the directory where you normally save your bash scripts. Remove the “.txt” file extension, and make the file executable. Hopefully, the directory where you save your bash scripts is in your computer’s $PATH statement. If it is, all you then have to do is issue the script name (vpn-toggle.sh) to start the script. Otherwise, you will have to provide a full path to the script to run it.

So, here’s the script for vpn-toggle. It’s a bit longer than usual, because I’m trying to get better about annotating my script with comments about what the various parts of the script do. The actual “functioning” part of the script is only 10 lines of bash code.

1. #!/bin/bash

2. #

3. # VPN Toggle script.

4. # Written by Paul Arnote

5. # Read the article in the June 2026 issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine

6. # https://pclosmag.com/

7. #

8. # This script will toggle the currently running VPN off as selected by

9. # the end user from the menu attached to an icon placed in the user's

10. # notification tray. The VPN can be turned off or on, depending on

11. # which menu item the end user selects.

12. #

13. # Requirements: yad, Network Manager

14. #

15. # This script is released under the GPL v2.0 license, and may be

16. # freely distributed under the terms of the GPL v2.0 license.

18. # Debugging line ... uncomment the "set -x" line below to see

19. # a "trace" of the script actions.

20. # set -x

22. # Get the active VPN connection name

23. ActiveVPN=$(nmcli -g NAME,TYPE con show --active | grep vpn)

25. # Extract just the VPN name (before the colon)

26. ActiveVPN2=$(echo "$ActiveVPN" | cut -d ':' -f1)

28. # Check to see that the VPN is already running. If it isn't, display

29. # a warning message to the user, and exit the script. The user's VPN

30. # must be running before launching this script.

31. if [[ -z "$ActiveVPN2" ]]; then

32. yad --warning --width=350 --height=200 --text-align=center --button=Cancel:1 --title="VPN Toggle" --text="\n\n \

33. This message will\nself destruct in 10 seconds." --timeout=10 --timeout-indicator=bottom

34. if [[ $? == 1 || $? == 70 ]]; then

35. exit

36. fi

37. fi

39. # Using YAD, we create an icon in the notification tray, and assign

40. # a menu to it with only 3 items: Turn VPN Off, Turn VPN On, and Quit.

41. # The user selects the appropriate menu choice, and either turns the

42. # VPN off, on, or quits the script.

43. yad --use-interp --notification \

44. --listen --image="networking_section" \

45. --text="VPN Toggle" \

46. --menu="Turn VPN Off!nmcli con down id $ActiveVPN2!networking_section \

47. |Turn VPN On!nmcli con up id $ActiveVPN2!netorking_section \

48. |Quit!quit!gtk-quit"

50. # Exit the script gracefully

51. exit 0

Line 1, of course, is the typical bash “she-bang” that gets things rolling. Lines 2 - 19 are comment lines, and should be self explanatory. In line 20 (commented out in the listing above), the “set -x” line is there to assist with debugging of the script when I was creating it. I left it in here, just in case you want (or have a need) to see the output in a terminal session.

With line 23, we get the active VPN connection with the nmcli -g NAME,TYPE con show --active | grep vpn command, and store it as the ActiveVPN variable. The returned active VPN connection is not usable “as is,” so in line 26, we strip the “:vpn” part of the ActiveVPN variable, and store it as ActiveVPN2, to give us just the name of the active VPN connection, which we can use.

Lines 31 - 36 check to see if the VPN is running, and if not, it produces an error message (above). That error message tells the user to launch/start their VPN, and then to try the script again. That error message is presented to the end user in a yad dialog box that is set to “timeout” in 10 seconds, with a countdown indicator at the bottom of the dialog box that moves from right to left as the 10 seconds counts down. When the timer has counted down, the dialog box is automatically closed, and the script exits.

So, your VPN **must** be running before launching the script. Otherwise, there’s no way to “store” the name of the active VPN connection in either variable, ActiveVPN and ActiveVPN2. The script doesn’t directly check to see if the VPN connection is active. Instead, it checks to see if $ActiveVPN2 is an empty string, which it would be if the VPN connection wasn’t present when the script was started, which is good enough.

Lines 42 - 47 set up the menu in the notification area (shown above). After selecting the icon in the notification area with a right mouse click, select “Turn VPN Off” to toggle your VPN off, and “Turn VPN On” to toggle it on. Of course, selecting “Quit” from the menu causes the script to exit. Finally, line 50 causes the script to exit gracefully.

If some of the bash code looks familiar, congratulations on having a sharp eye and/or a sharp memory. The menu creation code was “borrowed” from my game launcher script. That’s a really nice feature about writing bash scripts … you can reuse code from one script to another, with minor tweaks.

Timed VPN Toggle

One potential “shortcoming” of the previous script (vpn-toggle) is that you might forget to turn your VPN back on, exposing your PPI to prying eyes. So, I came up with another script that turns your VPN off, and then turns it back on when the specified amount of time has elapsed.

Just as with the previous script, you can also download this script from the magazine server (or you can type it in, if you like). And, just as with the previous script, store your script in the directory where you normally store your other bash scripts. Remove the “.txt” file extension, and make the script executable. The same advice applies about saving the script to a directory included in the $PATH statement of your computer.

So, below is the script, which I’ve named “vpn-timed-toggle.sh.” Take a look at it, before we dissect it. Like with the previous script, it appears to be a little longer than normal, as I try to “improve” on annotating my scripts. But, the “business” part of this script is right around 30 lines of bash code (yes, a bit longer than the previous script), with the remainder being comment lines. Still, the entire script is only 3.3 KiB, so it should also download in the blink of an eye.

1. #!/bin/bash

3. # Timed VPN Toggle script.

4. # Written by Paul Arnote

5. # Read the article in the June 2026 issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine

6. # https://pclosmag.com/

7. #

8. # This script will toggle the currently running VPN off for a specified

9. # amount of time, and then restart that same VPN when the timer has

10. # elapsed.

11. #

12. # Requirements: zenity, yad, Network Manager, notify-send

13. #

14. # This script is released under the GPL v2.0 license, and may be

15. # freely distributed under the terms of the GPL v2.0 license.

17. # Debugging line ... uncomment the "set -x" line below to see

18. # a "trace" of the script actions.

19. # set -x

21. # Get the active VPN connection name

22. ActiveVPN=$(nmcli -g NAME,TYPE con show --active | grep vpn)

24. # Extract just the VPN name (before the colon)

25. ActiveVPN2=$(echo "$ActiveVPN" | cut -d ':' -f1)

27. # Check to see that the VPN is already running. If it isn't, display

28. # a warning message to the user, and exit the script. The user's VPN

29. # must be running before launching this script.

30. if [[ -z "$ActiveVPN2" ]]; then

31. yad --warning --width=350 --height=200 --text-align=center --button=Cancel:1 --title="Timed VPN Toggle" --text="\n\nVPN appears to not be running.\n\nVPN <b>*must*</b> be running before\nlaunching this script.\n\nLaunch/start your VPN,\nand run this script again.\n\nExiting script.\n\nThis message will\nself destruct in 10 seconds." --timeout=10 --timeout-indicator=bottom

32. if [[ $? == 1 || $? == 70 ]]; then

33. exit

34. fi

35. fi

37. # Get the number of hours to toggle VPN off, and convert to minutes

38. hrs=$(zenity --entry --title="Timed VPN Toggle" --text="Enter the number of hours for your timer...")

39. if [ $? == 1 ]; then

40. exit

41. fi

43. hours=$(( $hrs * 60 ))

45. # Get the number of minutes for the VPN to be toggled off.

46. # The number of minutes must be between 0 and 59 minutes, or an error

47. # message will be displayed and the script will exit.

48. mins=$(zenity --entry --title="Timed VPN Toggle" --text="Enter the number of minutes for your timer...\n\nNumber MUST be between 0 and 59.")

49. if [ $? == 1 ]; then

50. exit

51. fi

52. if [[ ( $(($mins)) -lt 0 ) || ( $(($mins)) -gt 59 ) ]]; then

53. zenity --error --title="Timed VPN Toggle" --width=200 --height 100 --error --text="Exiting.\n\nNumber entry\nout of range.\n\nMust be a number\nbetween 0 & 59."

54. exit

55. fi

57. # Add the hours (converted to minutes) to the minutes specified by

58. # the user for the total number of minutes of the timer.

59. TIME=$(( $hours+$mins ))

61. # Format the "message" text for the notification that is displayed

62. msg=$(printf "$ActiveVPN2 OFF for the next\n%02d Hours %02d Minutes" $hrs $mins)

64. # Turn off the currently connected VPN, and display the notification

65. # that the VPN has been turned off for the specified amount of time

66. nmcli con down id $ActiveVPN2

67. notify-send --icon=networking_section "Timed VPN Toggle" "$msg"

69. # Countdown the total number of minutes, one minute at a time

70. # This is our "timer"

71. while [ $TIME -gt 0 ]

72. do

73. sleep 60s

74. TIME=$(( $TIME - 1 ))

75. done

77. # Since the timer elapsed, turn the previously connected VPN back on

78. # and display a notification to the user that the VPN has been turned

79. # back on

80. nmcli con up $ActiveVPN2

81. notify-send --icon=networking_section "Timed VPN Toggle" "Timed VPN Toggle timer has elapsed.\n\nPrevious VPN connection restored."

83. # Exit the script gracefully

84. exit 0

The typical bash “she-bang” starts things off in line 1. Comment lines fill up lines 2 - 18, and should be self-explanatory. In line 19 (which is commented out in the script listing above), the “set -x” command provides valuable feedback for debugging the script. If you want to see that output, simply uncomment the line by removing the “# ” from the beginning of the line.

Line 22 calls on the nmcli -g NAME,TYPE con show --active | grep vpn command to fill the variable ActiveVPN with the name of the active VPN connection. However, we cannot use it as it’s presented ([name-of-vpn-connection]:vpn), so we strip the “:vpn” part of the active VPN connection name, and assign only the first part (the actual name) to the variable ActiveVPN2 in line 25.

Lines 30 - 35 check to see if the VPN is running, and if not, it produces an error message (above). That error message tells the user to launch/start their VPN, and then to try the script again. That error message is presented to the end user in a yad dialog box that is set to “timeout” in 10 seconds, with a countdown indicator at the bottom of the dialog box that moves from right to left as the 10 seconds counts down. When the timer has counted down, the dialog box is automatically closed, and the script exits.

So, your VPN **must** be running before launching the script. Otherwise, there’s no way to “store” the name of the active VPN connection in either variable, ActiveVPN and ActiveVPN2. The script doesn’t directly check to see if the VPN connection is active. Instead, it checks to see if $ActiveVPN2 is an empty string, which it would be if the VPN connection wasn’t present when the script was started, which is good enough.

Lines 38 - 41 display a Zenity dialog box for the end user to enter the number of hours to pause the VPN. In line 43, we convert the number of hours to minutes. With lines 48 - 51, we have another Zenity dialog box for the end user to enter the number of minutes to pause the VPN. That number **must** be between 0 and 59, or an error message will be displayed (via another Zenity dialog box), and the script will exit. In line 59, we add the number of minutes entered into the “minutes” dialog box to the hours converted to minutes to get the total time (in minutes) to pause the VPN.

We need to format the text displayed by the notification that pops up, so line 62 takes care of that for us. Line 66 turns the currently active VPN off, while line 67 displays the notification. With lines 71 - 75, we set up a very effective timer. With it, the “while … do” loop continues to run for as long as the $TIME variable remains greater than zero. With each pass through the “while … do” loop, the script “sleeps” for 60 seconds, and the $TIME variable is decreased by one.

Once the timer reaches zero, line 80 restarts the previously active VPN connection, and line 81 pops up a notification that the previous VPN connection has been restored. Finally, line 84 allows the script to exit cleanly when it’s finished.

If you’ve been paying attention, I’ve reused some bash code with this script, as well. The timer portion of the script was “borrowed” from my earlier script that turns off xscreensaver for a specified amount of time. Other aspects of this script are “borrowed” from the vpn-toggle script at the beginning of this article. Reusing bash code that has been proven to work and to be reliable helps “fast track” bash script creation, and that certainly worked well in this case.

If you only want or need to pause your VPN connection for just a few minutes, feel free to enter “0” for the hours, and then the number of minutes in the “minutes” dialog box. At the end of that few minutes, your VPN connection will be restored.

The nice thing about the vpn-timed-toggle script is that you don’t have to worry about restarting your VPN connection, since the script will restore it for you automatically.

Summary

Between the two scripts presented here, the shorter “vpn-toggle” script was the most difficult one to write. First, I was treading where I had never trod before. Second, the documentation for yad isn’t the best, so it took some time to figure out the proper formatting for the menu so that the commands were executed properly. And, honestly, I’m much more familiar with Zenity than I am with yad. Once I had the “vpn-toggle” script completed, creating the “vpn-timed-toggle” script only took a few minutes. In fact, it ran perfectly the first time I tried it.

I’ve been running these scripts (mostly the “vpn-toggle” version) since late March, and they have yet to fail me. They dutifully pause my VPN connection when asked, and restore my VPN connection when asked. That is, ultimately, what I was after. Now, “pausing” my VPN and getting it restored is a very simple matter of a handful of mouse clicks, all without having to navigate the messy and inconvenient menu in NetworkManager.

Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

compiled by Meemaw

Couple Adopts Three

Stanley & Kerri had fostered three children, aged 10, 8 and 6, for several months after the children’s parents’ rights were severed. They have recently adopted all three of them, boosting the size of their family to eight! They worked with a foster care agency in Georgia called NECCO which also helps people reunite with their biological relatives.

The family hopes others will open their homes to children in need.

Kerri said, “We just fell in love with them, and we weren’t going to let them go back into the system,” to which Stanley added, “If not us, then who?”

K9 Officer Saves Autistic Teen

Officer Chris and his K9 partner Ruger are being praised for finding a Florida teenager who went missing.

When they found he was missing, Chris knew that they had to act quickly because the teen is autistic. Finding a sock belonging to the boy, Ruger sniffed it and took off down the street. He slowed down when he found the teenager in a parking lot in a busy part of town. When the teen saw Ruger he started yelling and attracted another officer’s attention, and he was returned home. The officer told him he was glad the kid had yelled because they were worried for his safety.

“You did a good job calling us over, okay? When you see the police, you say something to them,” one officer told the teenager.

Ruger also does more than rescue missing persons. He also loves connecting with the community’s children who love him in return, according to a video from the sheriff’s office.

Middle School Students Save Bus Driver

Five middle school students riding a bus to school took heroic action when their bus driver lost consciousness while driving the bus.

The driver suffered an asthma attack during which she lost consciousness three or four times. The students noticed what was happening and stopped the bus. She woke up and gestured to her pocket, where her medication was. Some helped her with her meds and another of them called 911. She was taken to the hospital, where she made a full recovery.

She had kind words for her rescuers, stating, “I’m grateful for my students. They’re the ones that saved my life and everybody else’s on that bus.”

According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Asthma is a lung condition that makes your airways narrow. It causes symptoms like coughing, wheezing, or shortness of breath that make it hard to breathe. Most people with asthma can manage their symptoms with a combination of medication and habits. But sometimes, asthma symptoms flare up and worsen more than usual. This is an asthma attack,” the website read.

Police Officers Save Unresponsive Man

Police officers had been called to a restaurant for a medical emergency. Phillip had been having breakfast with his accountant when he passed out. When the officers got to the restaurant, Phillip wasn’t breathing and had gone into cardiac arrest. The officers rushed to administer CPR and then used a defibrillator to get his heart started and stayed until he was talking to them.

“It was a miraculous recovery to get to the scene of someone who was completely unresponsive, to going through that entire process to being able to speak,” the Old Westbury Chief of Police said.

Three weeks later Phillip got to meet the officers. “It’s emotional because without them, I’m not here,” he said. “The most important thing to me is how these people responded. A minute here, a minute there, I would be dead.”

“These guys did the right thing, and I’m alive because of it,” the retired banker and grandfather added.

Later, the police department presented awards for the rescue to the three officers involved. “A grandfather. It’s great to see. It means a lot,” one of them said. “It’s kind of what we all signed up to do. I became a police officer to help people and I got to do that.”

Assistive Glasses Help With Dementia Sufferers

A British company called Cross Sense, LTD has won a £ 1 million prize for developing a pair of AI smart glasses with a camera, microphone, speakers and assistant to help those with dementia stay independent for longer.

The glasses can look at what the person is doing and respond with warnings of possible danger, and help the person with answers to questions the person asks using a helper called Wispy. They are also programmed to sense if a person’s condition changes. The lenses also have floating text for more help.

CrossSense Ltd provided the AI software, but the team had been working with frames produced by various hardware companies. These can be fitted with prescription lenses and are compatible with hearing aids.

The glasses were tested with 23 pairs of people living with dementia and their caregivers. They will be tested in the last quarter of 2026 in people’s homes to see how well they work. Smartphones with the same AI program should be available at the end of this year, and the glasses should be available in 2027.

Dr Foyzul Rahman, an expert in cognitive decline at Loughborough University who was not involved with the project, said the breakthrough made by CrossSense was offering real-time prompts and feedback during tasks rather than providing simple one-off reminders.

Microsoft Took A Step Toward Human Rights Accountability.

Google & Amazon (and Others) Should Pay Attention!

by Betty Gedlu and Cindy Cohn

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Reprinted under Creative Commons license

For years, civil society organizations, workers, journalists, and human rights experts have warned that major technology companies risk enabling grave human rights abuses when they provide cloud computing, AI, and surveillance infrastructure to governments implicated in violations of international and humanitarian law. While many companies pay lip service to evaluating customers and contracts for human rights implications (lip service Exhibit A: Palantir!), too often those processes fail to provide any meaningful accountability when their standards are not met or are simply ignored. But recent developments at Microsoft suggest that accountability for failing to uphold the human rights standards that a company itself sets, even if incomplete, is possible.

According to recent reporting, Microsoft’s Israel chief has departed amid an escalating ethical controversy surrounding the company’s business relationships with the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The move follows months of scrutiny, internal dissent, and sustained pressure from inside the organization along with press and civil society, especially after a report by The Guardian revealed that Microsoft technologies were used in systems connected to mass surveillance and military targeting operations in Gaza in ways that appeared to violate Microsoft’s own standards. This did not happen overnight.

In September 2025, Microsoft reportedly suspended certain services after initial investigations raised serious concerns about how its cloud and AI infrastructure may have been used. That alone distinguished Microsoft from many of its peers. Rather than simply dismissing mounting concerns or hiding behind vague claims of neutrality, Microsoft appeared to recognize that providing technology in conflict settings creates real human rights responsibilities. Now, after additional investigation and continued public scrutiny, it appears the company has taken another step, one that should send a strong signal to others that violating Microsoft’s human rights commitments could cost you your job. This is important.

There is still much more Microsoft should do, of course. The company has yet to fully disclose the scope of its findings, explain exactly which services were suspended, or clarify what safeguards remain in place to prevent its technologies from contributing to human rights abuses in the future. We shouldn’t have to infer the connection between this employment action and the company’s investigation.

Just prior to reports that Microsoft had fired its Israel Country General Manager, EFF joined Access Now, Amnesty International, Fight for the Future, and 7amleh in a joint May 7, 2026 letter to Microsoft leadership calling on the company to publicly release the findings of its investigation, suspend business relationships tied to serious human rights abuses, and implement meaningful safeguards to prevent its technologies from contributing to further harm. The letter detailed allegations regarding Microsoft’s reported provision of Azure cloud and AI services to Israeli military and intelligence units involved in surveillance and targeting operations, while also pressing the company to take concrete human rights due diligence measures going forward. Those demands remain urgent, even as Microsoft appears to be taking some of the steps we urged.

But even as we push for more, it is important to recognize when a company takes steps in the right direction. Because this is what it means to put human rights commitments into practice. It means acknowledging that human rights policies are not just branding exercises or transparency reports. It means accepting that companies providing cloud infrastructure and AI services have responsibilities when credible evidence emerges that their technologies may be enabling violations of international law. And it means taking concrete action when those risks become known.

The allegations facing Microsoft are serious. Human rights organizations and investigative reporting have documented claims that Microsoft Azure services were used by Israeli military and intelligence units to process large-scale surveillance data, support AI-assisted targeting systems, and sustain military cloud infrastructure during the war in Gaza. The concerns raised extend beyond ordinary business risk; they implicate potential complicity in violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

Faced with these allegations, Microsoft could have chosen the path many tech companies take: deny everything, attack critics, suppress worker dissent, and continue business as usual. Instead, the company appears to have begun responding to the evidence.

Technology companies are not powerless bystanders. Cloud providers and AI companies make choices every day about who gets access to their infrastructure, under what conditions, and with what oversight. When companies claim to uphold human rights principles, those commitments should have operational consequences. Too many companies, in both international and domestic policing contexts, provide technology to institutions that violate people’s human rights and civil liberties, then fall back on the claim that they are merely providing a service that their customers can use how they see fit. This is an ethical failing that falls short of most companies’ publicly expressed commitments. Microsoft’s recent actions suggest that sustained public pressure, worker organizing, investigative journalism, and civil society advocacy can force even the world’s largest technology companies to respond.

Google and Amazon should especially see this as a clear example to follow. Both companies also provide services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and have faced years of criticism over those contracts and services, including from EFF. Yet neither has demonstrated the level of responsiveness or accountability that Microsoft has shown. If Microsoft can suspend services, investigate allegations, and make leadership changes amid mounting evidence and ethical concerns, then other cloud giants can no longer pretend that meaningful action is impossible.

The technology industry has spent years insisting that ethics and human rights matter. The real test has always been whether those principles survive when profits, government contracts, and geopolitical pressure are on the line. Microsoft’s recent steps are not the end of that story, but they may mark the beginning of what real accountability can look like.

We’re looking at you, Amazon and Google. If Microsoft can do it, why can’t you?

Wiki Pick: How To Change Your DNS In PCLinuxOS

Relevant to all versions of PCLinuxOS.

Changing your DNS numbers is as simple as editing a file.

In your favorite text editor, open the file /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/base.

In this example, we will use the text editor called nano. In the terminal window as the root user, enter:

nano /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/base

Once open, you can add the following lines. NOTE: These are google open nameserver IP numbers.

Once you have entered your new nameserver IP's simply press the <CTRL> and the X keys at the same time then enter "y" and press return. You have now added two new nameservers to your system. They will take effect once you restart your computer.

There are many other public nameservers available to use. For Example:

Cloudflare public DNS nameservers: 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1

OpenDNS public DNS nameservers: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

NextDNS public DNS nameservers: 45.90.28.232 and 45.90.30.232

Comodo secure DNS nameservers: 8.26.56.26 and 8.20.247.20

Google public DNS nameservers: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

NOTE: By adding the nameserver to the /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/base file. This will only affect the DNS for that machine. If you have multiple machines on a network that you want to all use the same DNS, then you should change the DNS within your home router. Consult your router manual on how to change the DNS.

On my TP Link router, I have to access the admin page at 192.168.1.1 and enter my password.

Once logged in, I choose Network and then my DHCP Server (using the Advanced tab). Under settings, I can then add my Primary and Secondary DNS numbers. For example:

To take effect, I simply reboot my router. To change the DNS in your home router may vary.

You can view this PCLinuxOS Knowledgebase Wiki article here.

Tip Top Tips: Enabling Nvidia Dynamic Boost

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

Editor’s Note #2: WARNING! Use this tip with extreme caution! You MUST follow directions explicitly as given. There is a big risk of borking your installation if things are not done correctly. This tip is aimed more at experienced users who are comfortable with tinkering with their system at this level. If you have ever borked your system by not explicitly following the directions provided, then this tip is most likely NOT for you! In either case, it might be a good idea to have timeshift running, so that you can roll back to a working version of your system should things not go as anticipated.

This month’s tip is from MBL.

CPU: Ryzen 5 5600H GPU: RTX 3060 NVIDIA Laptop

The FN + Q keyboard shortcut allows you to manage this (blue = silent, white = auto, red = performance).

Note: I disabled the “optimus/prime” option in the BIOS to be in full NVIDIA mode.

inxi -SMGC

System:

Host: 82ju Kernel: 6.12.74-pclos1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64

Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.6.1 Distro: PCLinuxOS 2026

Machine:

Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 82JU v: Legion 5 15ACH6H

serial: <superuser required>

Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: NO DPK serial: <superuser required>

Firmware: UEFI vendor: LENOVO v: GKCN64WW date: 12/07/2023

CPU:

Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H with Radeon Graphics bits: 64

type: MT MCP cache: L2: 3 MiB

Speed (MHz): avg: 2750 min/max: 400/4280 cores: 1: 2750 2: 2750 3: 2750

4: 2750 5: 2750 6: 2750 7: 2750 8: 2750 9: 2750 10: 2750 11: 2750 12: 2750

Graphics:

Device-1: NVIDIA GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q] driver: nvidia

v: 550.163.01

Display: x11 server: X.org v: 1.21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9 driver:

X: loaded: nvidia,v4l gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: N/A 2: N/A

API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 vendor: nvidia v: 550.163.01 renderer: NVIDIA

GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU/PCIe/SSE2

API: Vulkan v: 1.4.321 drivers: nvidia,llvmpipe surfaces: N/A

API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.

Info: Tools: api: clinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo

de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi

x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr

By default, my graphics card is locked at 80W. I unlocked the card so that it can now reach 130W max.

Technical background — what Dynamic Boost does

(https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/535.54.03/README/dynamicboost.html)

According to the official Nvidia documentation:

Dynamic Boost is managed by an nvidia-powerd daemon that relies on systemd and D-Bus to coordinate CPU⇄GPU and increase GPU power when the CPU is not saturated.

Under normal conditions in Linux, without this service, cards like my RTX 3060 Laptop remain locked at the base TGP (~80 W), whereas with Dynamic Boost they can reach up to ~130 W.

Specific limitations in PCLinuxOS

PCLinuxOS does not use systemd, so nvidia-powerd.service does not exist and cannot be enabled. Thus, the standard documentation does not apply as is. The absence of systemd means that standard Nvidia dynamic management cannot be used.

Step 1. Check GPU compatibility

First and foremost, you need to make sure that your laptop supports Dynamic Boost:

1) Check Dynamic Boost support via nvidia-settings:

nvidia-settings -q DynamicBoostSupport

Attribute ‘DynamicBoostSupport’ (82ju:0[gpu:0]): 1.

'DynamicBoostSupport' is a boolean attribute; valid values are: 1 (on/true) and 0 (off/false).

‘DynamicBoostSupport’ is a read-only attribute.

‘DynamicBoostSupport’ can use the following target types: GPU.

1 = compatible

0 = not compatible, meaning it cannot be enabled.

2) Check the GPU power limits:

nvidia-smi -q | grep -E "Current Power Limit|Max Power Limit"

Current Power Limit : 80.00 W

Max Power Limit : 130.00 W

Current Power Limit : N/A

Max Power Limit : N/A

Current/Default Power Limit = 80 W

Max Power Limit: must be higher than current/default setting (e.g., 130 W).

If Max Power Limit = Default, then Dynamic Boost is impossible.

Step 2: Check the Nvidia driver

Drivers >= 550 block nvidia-smi -pl for laptops.

Dynamic Boost only works via nvidia-powerd from this version onwards.

On PCLinuxOS, the official .run package contains the binary, but the distro packages may exclude it.

Step 3: Install the prerequisites

cpufrequtils (optional, useful if you want to manage the CPU):

sudo dnf install cpufrequtils

Check that D-Bus is working:

ps aux | grep dbus-daemon

dbus-daemon --system must be running.

Step 4: Download the official Nvidia driver

1) Download driver 550.163.01 (corresponds to the version I have on PCLinuxOS):

wget https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/550.163.01/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.163.01.run

2) Make the downloaded .run executable:

chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.163.01.run

Step 5: Extract the contents of the .run file without installing and go to the folder.

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.163.01.run --extract-only

cd NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.163.01

Step 6: Check for the presence of the nvidia-powerd binary

find . -name "nvidia-powerd"

./nvidia-powerd

If found, then this is perfect. If not, then this .run version does not support Dynamic Boost.

Step 7: Check for the presence of the D-Bus file

find . -name "*dbus*.conf"

./nvidia-dbus.conf

Expected file: nvidia-dbus.conf

Step 8: Copy the necessary files to the system

1) Copy the nvidia-powerd binary:

sudo cp ./nvidia-powerd /usr/bin/

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/nvidia-powerd

2) Copy the D-Bus file:

sudo cp ./nvidia-dbus.conf /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/

sudo chmod 644 /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/nvidia-dbus.conf

Step 9: Manually launch nvidia-powerd for testing

sudo /usr/bin/nvidia-powerd --verbose

The logs should show that it is running without errors.

Check the power draw:

watch -n1 nvidia-smi

or launch nvtop if installed

nvtop

Launch a game/benchmark. Your power draw should exceed 80 W.

Step 10: Automate launch at boot (without systemd)

1) Modify /etc/rc.d/rc.local:

sudo nano /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Add to the end:

# Start Nvidia Dynamic Boost daemon

/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd &

2) Make rc.local executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.local

3) Restart the machine.

4) Check after reboot:

ps aux | grep nvidia-powerd

root 3646 0.4 0.0 151828 3048 ? Sl 16:35 1:14 /usr/bin/nvidia-powerd

mbl 5852 0.0 0.0 32748 2196 pts/1 S+ 21:15 0:00 grep --color nvidia-powerd

or with the command nvidia-smi or nvtop.

Key points

systemd is not necessary, rc.local is sufficient to launch the daemon.

Dynamic Boost only works if:

DynamicBoostSupport = 1

Max Power Limit > Default Power Limit

D-Bus is functional and allows nvidia-powerd (.conf file present)

nvidia-smi -pl does not work with 550+ on laptops, this is normal.

There you go, my RTX 3060 card can now go up to a maximum of 130W.

Example FN + Q with red light

nvidia-smi -q | grep -E "Current Power Limit|Max Power Limit"

Current Power Limit : 130.00 W

Max Power Limit : 130.00 W

Current Power Limit : N/A

Max Power Limit : N/A

Or with nvtop:

The power range in AUTO mode: 80-95-115-130W

PS: there is also the cputhrottle program to manage your Intel/AMD CPU.

That's it, feel free to share your feedback on this topic.

I did this with the help of AI. I even have three scripts that it gave me to do it. I haven't tested these scripts yet, but I can post them here for verification and improvement.

Does this also work with the “optimus/prime” mode like under PCLinuxOS? (gpu radeon + gpu nvidia)

I used the same process as the full NVIDIA version.

$ inxi -SMGC

System:

Host: L5 Kernel: 6.12.48-pclos1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64

Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.6.1 Distro: PCLinuxOS 2026

Machine:

Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 82JU v: Legion 5 15ACH6H

serial: <superuser required>

Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: NO DPK serial: <superuser required>

Firmware: UEFI vendor: LENOVO v: GKCN64WW date: 12/07/2023

CPU:

Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H with Radeon Graphics bits: 64

type: MT MCP cache: L2: 3 MiB

Speed (MHz): avg: 400 min/max: 400/4280 cores: 1: 400 2: 400 3: 400 4: 400

5: 400 6: 400 7: 400 8: 400 9: 400 10: 400 11: 400 12: 400

Graphics:

Device-1: NVIDIA GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q] driver: nvidia

v: 550.163.01

Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cezanne [Radeon Vega Series /

Radeon Mobile Series] driver: amdgpu v: kernel

Display: x11 server: X.org v: 1.21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9 driver:

X: loaded: amdgpu,nvidia,v4l dri: radeonsi

gpu: amdgpu,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: N/A 2: N/A

API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 vendor: nvidia v: 550.163.01 renderer: NVIDIA

GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU/PCIe/SSE2

API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.

Info: Tools: api: clinfo,glxinfo de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor

gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr

Yes it does! (130W also here)

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus

Easy Taco Casserole

Serves: 6

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound ground beef cooked and crumbled

1 (1 ounce packet) taco seasoning about 2 tablespoons

2 cups Doritos crushed

8 ounces cream cheese softened

½ cup salsa

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese divided

2 cups shredded lettuce

2 tomatoes diced

DIRECTIONS:

Grease a 9×13 inch baking dish and add the crushed Doritos to the bottom of the pan.

In a skillet, cook ground beef and add taco seasoning as directed on the package. Spread over Doritos layer.

In a bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth, slowly add in salsa. Spoon over ground beef layer and smooth out evenly.

Top with 1½ cups shredded cheese. Bake at 350˚F for 25-30 minutes, or until hot & bubbly. Garnish with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes and remaining ½ cup cheese.

NOTES:

Place Doritos chips in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush up.

Spray casserole dish with pan release for easier clean up.

Allow cream cheese to come to room temperature, or microwave until soft, for easier blending.

Refrigerate the casserole in a covered container for up to 3 days.

To reheat, cover with foil, and heat in a 350˚F oven, or in the microwave.

NUTRITION: Calories: 600    Carbs: 34g    Sodium: 1194mg    Fiber: 4g    Protein: 32g

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Sudoku

Download Puzzle Solutions Here

Scrappler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here

June 2026 Word Find

Baseball

Download Puzzle Solutions Here

June 2026 Crossword

Baseball

Download Puzzle Solutions Here

Mixed-Up-Meme Scrambler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here

Inspiration & Motivation

Screenshot Showcase

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Table of Contents

1. Table of Contents

2. From The Chief Editor's Desk...

3. A Temporary “Fix” For Synaptic & How To Fix Repo Paths

4. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

5. ICYMI: Copy Fail Malware Strikes Linux

6. Inkscape Tutorial: Turn Your Initials Into A Logo

7. The Science Is Not Settled: How Weak Evidence Is Fueling A National Push To Ban Social Media For Youth

8. Making Music Easily and Cheaply on PCLinuxOS, Part 4

9. Two New Scripts To Temporarily Toggle Your OpenVPN Connection Off & On

10. Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

11. Microsoft Took A Step Toward Human Rights Accountability. Google & Amazon (and Others) Should Pay Attention!

12. Wiki Pick: How To Change Your DNS In PCLinuxOS

13. Tip Top Tips: Enabling Nvidia Dynamic Boost

14. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus

15. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

16. Inspiration & Motivation

17. Screenshot Showcase

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

From The Chief Editor's Desk...

A Temporary “Fix” For Synaptic & How To Fix Repo Paths

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

ICYMI: Copy Fail Malware Strikes Linux

Inkscape Tutorial: Turn Your Initials Into A Logo

The Science Is Not Settled: How Weak Evidence Is Fueling A National Push To Ban Social Media For Youth

Making Music Easily and Cheaply on PCLinuxOS, Part 4

Two New Scripts To Temporarily Toggle Your OpenVPN Connection Off & On

Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

Microsoft Took A Step Toward Human Rights Accountability. Google & Amazon (and Others) Should Pay Attention!

Wiki Pick: How To Change Your DNS In PCLinuxOS

Tip Top Tips: Enabling Nvidia Dynamic Boost

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Inspiration & Motivation

Screenshot Showcase