Table of Contents

Welcome From The Chief Editor

1. ICYMI: More Than 1,000 Employees Of Leading AI Companies Ask For Guardrails

2. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

3. GIMP Tutorial: Remove A Background In A Glass Object

4. Using AI Locally On PCLinuxOS: Upscayl

5. mpv: Using The "Forgotten" Multimedia Player As An OTA TV Player

6. The Hidden Cost Of Today's “Smart” Devices

7. Wiki Pick: Install Man Pages In PCLinuxOS

8. Alternative Methods of Installing Typst Locally

9. Tip Top Tips: Automatically Backup Your System When You Update

10. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus

11. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

12. Inspiration & Motivation

13. Screenshot Showcase

From The Chief Editor's Desk...

It’s that time of year when summer vacations are over and the kids are headed back to school. Around my parts, school started in late August. In other areas, school started back up in mid-August. In yet other areas, school doesn’t start back up until September.

Feeding the lorikeets at the Kansas City Zoo.

I know that at school, my kids use Chromebooks (woohoo! Linux based!) on a regular basis. That’s what our school district uses to ensure kids have access to the digital resources they require. At home, they both also have laptops running Windows. Yes, they run Windows, because their games run better (and much more easily, without jumping through hoops and hacks) on Windows than they do on anything else.

But, looking at the resources they use for school, there’s no reason they couldn’t use a Linux laptop to do their school assignments at home. Linux is most capable in these cases.

My kids access a considerable amount of their assignments from Google Docs. Everything they need is offered by PCLinuxOS to utilize Google Docs. All you need to access Google Docs is a web browser, and PCLinuxOS has a LOT of those to choose from. Dad uses Firefox … a LOT. But the PCLinuxOS repository also has Google Chrome, Chromium, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Midori, and many others available.

When it comes to office suites, PCLinuxOS has that covered as well. Of course, you can ALWAYS use Google Docs as your office suite. It is quite capable of producing MS Office “x” files (*.docx, *.xlsx, *.pptx, etc.), and output PDF files. But, if you’re looking for a solution that you can run on your desktop, LibreOffice is hard to beat. It can read MS Office “x” files, and it can output files in the MS Office “x” files formats. It can also produce output in PDF format, which is pretty much a universal document format these days.

Do they need to research topics at home? Any web browser will do, and they can access pretty much the same content they access at school, over the same internet (excluding proprietary content or content that is only accessible through the school’s “gateway” or via a special login available only to computers on the school’s network).

PCLinuxOS, like most Linux distros out there, provides the tools necessary for dealing with graphics, whether they are vector or bitmapped graphic files.

Need a calculator program? There are several of them in the PCLinuxOS repository. And that’s not even counting the thousands of them that are available online.

In fact, there is no reason why PCLinuxOS (or any other Linux distro) can’t meet all of your needs for school. The usual/typical “obstacle” is dealing with uneducated or ill-informed IT people. And for that, there is no “easy” solution.

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

This month’s cover celebrates the annual “return to school” (at least around these parts). The background chalkboard image is from OpenClipart-Vectors on Pixabay. I then used Bing Image Creator to change our typical image of Tux into a chalk drawing, which I then inserted into the right side of the image.

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

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

ICYMI: More Than 1,000 Employees Of Leading AI Companies Ask For Guardrails

ICYMI: More Than 1,000 Employees Of Leading AI Companies Ask For Guardrails

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Recent coverage of Flock Safety, the fast-growing US surveillance technology company, reveals how opposition to automated license plate readers is playing out at the local level, according to an article from CNET. To track such surveillance, journalists and researchers are increasingly turning to a free tool called the Atlas of Surveillance, a collaboration between the renowned digital privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation and the University of Nevada, Reno. The site has become a go‑to source for mapping police technology — which also includes drones, facial-recognition cameras and body cameras — with a searchable database that’s often more dependable than alternatives. With the Atlas of Surveillance tool, you enter a city, county, state, law enforcement agency or vendor in the US and select which technology you’re interested in tracking. You’ll get a list of details based on your search, including links to public records or news articles. If you’re the least bit interested in how your tax dollars are being spent to track your every movement in a “free society,” you need to read this entire article.

Do you "accept" or "reject" that cookie request? Browser cookies don’t just remember your login details: They can track your browsing history across websites, follow you around with specific ads, or even hijack your active browser session to log into your accounts without a password, according to an article from Lifehacker. On the other hand, if you don’t click accept when you see a cookie banner, that can affect your browsing experience—many websites need cookies to function normally. Luckily, cookie management isn’t just a binary choice any more. You can choose which cookies to accept on a website, auto-delete cookies after a set amount of time, or even switch between browser profiles to control which cookies stay active during a session. The article provides 10 proven hacks to help manage browser cookies.

Researchers testing a cheap, homegrown oil in Uganda found what cats knew all along – it worked as well as the artificial chemical used globally, according to an article from The Guardian. A homegrown catnip lotion has proven “just as effective as Deet” as a mosquito repellant in trials carried out in Uganda. Catnip, or Nepeta cataria, is a common herb from the mint family. The chemical in the plant that causes feline euphoria – nepetalactone – also has insect-repelling properties, but this has not previously been commercialised. In a study presented at the Society for Experimental Biology conference in Florence on Tuesday, a team working between Uganda and Wales found mosquitoes seeking a blood meal were less likely to land on people wearing lotions made from catnip.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
More than 1,000 employees at America’s leading AI companies, including senior staff members and some co-founders at OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, signed a statement asking the U.S. government to help support international efforts to “deliberately pace” cutting-edge automated AI development, according to an article from NBC News. Highlighting recent comments from the world’s most advanced AI companies that AI systems may soon be able to automate their own research and development, the statement calls on the U.S. government to help create technical and policy tools that could control automated AI progress in coordination with other companies and countries. “To realize AI’s potential, industry, government, and society at large may need the option to buy time to address emerging risks, develop security measures, and strengthen oversight,” the statement says. “We request that the U.S. government support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development,” it concludes.

Email aliases were once a niche privacy trick, according to an article from Lifehacker. Now, though, they're a mainstream solution offered by any number of major email service providers, including Apple, DuckDuckGo, SimpleLogin, and Firefox. Getting a basic alias set up and running to conceal your real email address is easier than ever — but given recent data leaks and sophisticated cyber attacks, it's increasingly clear that a basic setup only gets you so far. That’s why cybersecurity experts now recommend having a nuanced email alias strategy that combines multiple aliases and secure authentication protocols to keep your real inbox away from prying eyes. This Lifehacker article talks about seven ways you can make your use of email aliases more secure.

What do you do when the border authorities stop you at the airport and want to seize your phone, but you think that’s illegal? Tell them a “duress” passcode, a feature kindly provided by GrapheneOS, that wipes the device, of course. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) disagrees, according to an article from Cybernews (and widely reported on by many media outlets). The DoJ is prosecuting one Samuel Tunick, an Atlanta resident, who the authorities say provided them with a passcode that destroyed the data on his smartphone. As court documents show, Tunick is accused of using the aforementioned feature included in GrapheneOS, a custom Android operating system that you can choose to run in place of the software on most modern Google Pixel devices. The feature allows the phone owner to set a passcode that wipes the data on the device if entered instead of the user’s unlock passcode.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Flock cameras are getting mobbed, according to an article from CNN. Over the last few months, people have cut down surveillance cameras owned by the company Flock Safety with an electric saw in upstate New York, thrown paint on them in Oakland, California, and rammed a truck into them in Idaho. One man in Florida sits in a lawn chair holding up a piece of cardboard on a pole to block the camera’s view. City governments have joined in by deactivating the cameras or canceling contracts with Flock in Fort Collins, Colorado; Eugene, Oregon; Madison, Wisconsin; Knoxville, Tennessee; Syracuse, New York; and Walla Walla, Washington. Flock sells its services as a crime-fighting tool, built on a network of cameras that record and analyze everything that passes by them. Law enforcement agencies that have contracts with Flock use its troves of observed license plate numbers and other vehicle data to track or reconstruct the movements of vehicles in criminal investigations. Flock says it has 120,000 automated license plate reader (ALPR) and pan, tilt, and zoom (PTZ) cameras deployed throughout the US, capturing tens of billions of data points a month. Flock’s ALPRs automatically scan every license plate that passes them, while the PTZs record live footage that can be reviewed and analyzed. Because Flock cameras are all connected, the result is a nationwide latticework of recorded activity. Across the majority of states, a police officer in one state can be alerted if a car they’re looking for pops up in another and can inform the local authorities. Want to see another instance of Flock cameras running amok? Check out this article from NotTheBee (a.k.a. Babylon Bee). Meanwhile, you can check to see if your license plate has been “flocked” here.

If you truly care about your privacy, disabling cookies is no longer enough to guarantee your anonymity on the internet, according to an article from Lifehacker. Luckily, browsers like Safari, Firefox, Brave, and others have evolved to address this problem using more privacy features that cost nothing to enable. Uninterrupted browsing used to be a lot simpler: Disable all third-party cookies, blacklist known tracking domains, and get an ad blocker. But now, online platforms can pick up on things like your screen resolution, basic hardware specs, time zone, and installed fonts to establish a fingerprint unique to your browser and device. Websites can query a lot of seemingly harmless data from your device without prompting any security reaction, which, over time, they can use to trace your browsing activity. If you’re curious about what kind of data your browser might be leaking to websites, EFF’s Cover Your Tracks lets you run free scans that show you exactly how exposed you are. You can also rerun this check as many times as you want after adjusting your privacy settings. The site generates an immediate report that tells you whether you have cookies or trackers enabled in your browser, along with the types of data your device is leaking that can be accessed by fingerprinting technology.

[Taps plays in the background]. Another Google “service” meets its death. I was informed of this by an email. The email states, “We’re writing to let you know that the Google Assistant on your mobile device is being discontinued, and Gemini — our next-generation AI-powered assistant — is now the assistant experience on Android. As we transition our mobile experience to Gemini, Google Assistant will no longer be available on your mobile device. We will begin removing access to Google Assistant starting on September 4, and expect that this process may take a few weeks to reach everyone. Once availability is removed, you will no longer be able to use or switch back to Google Assistant on your phone, tablet, or paired devices. If your Android device meets the minimum system requirements, and you are in a region where Gemini is available, Gemini will be the Google-provided assistant on your mobile device. When you invoke your assistant, for example, by saying “Hey Google” or long-pressing your power button, Gemini will appear instead of the previous Google Assistant.” As annoying and intrusive as Google Assistant is/was, Gemini is WAY more annoying and intrusive. Honestly, it took the emergence of Gemini for me to fully appreciate Google Assistant (which I rarely used, anyways). R.I.P., Google Assistant!

Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have created an innovative treatment for periodontitis that targets and eliminates harmful bacteria while preserving beneficial oral microbes essential for health, according to an article from Medical Xpress. The findings were published in the Journal of Translational Medicine. Oral health relies on a diverse and balanced microbial community. Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) is a keystone pathogen that triggers inflammation and disrupts this balance. Such disruption can damage the bone supporting the teeth and eventually lead to tooth loss. The researchers explain that periodontitis is caused by several types of bacteria, so focusing on just one may not be enough. They intend to use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze publicly available oral bacteria data to identify other important species and better understand how they interact. These insights will help develop more precise treatments. Because periodontitis is connected to health issues such as rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes, the researchers believe that their AI-driven analysis could also help determine which patients are most likely to benefit from targeted treatments.

There continues to be a lot of cleaning up of the kernel source tree to deal with noise generated by AI/LLM coding agents sending in reports and patches for old drivers that are likely not actively used by anyone on modern upstream kernel builds, according to an article from Phoronix. Rather than continuing to carry these old drivers around with the uptick in AI/LLM-generated noise, kernel maintainers are finding it better to just retire the old drivers. In recent months we have seen a lot of old kernel code removed stemming from that AI/LLM noise. For functionality like bus mouse support, it's very unlikely anyone running a 2026+ mainline Linux kernel build is actually using said hardware. Dropping old hardware drivers under these conditions in an AI-obsessed world has become a new fact of life with new Linux kernel cycles. The latest example is now the Moxa Intellio driver set for removal.

Arginine, an amino acid found in protein-rich foods and produced by the body, may play a surprisingly important role in helping the immune system spot cancer and viral infections, according to an article from Science Daily. Sohail Tavazoie, who leads Rockefeller University's Elizabeth and Vincent Meyer Laboratory of Systems Cancer Biology, has spent years studying this connection. In 2023, his team reported that depriving colon cancer cells of arginine caused them to accumulate more mutations. Their latest research shows that arginine deficiency may also weaken the immune system. When arginine is scarce, cells struggle to produce MHC-1, a protein that helps alert the immune system to threats such as mutated cells and invading viruses.

Scientists at Texas A&M University recently announced that they developed a nasal spray that appears to reverse brain aging through calming inflammation and restoring energy levels. Just two doses of the spray boosted the memory and brain health in mice for months, presenting a possible new way of treating cognitive decline, according to an article from Inc. The study, which was published in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, suggested that the inflammation responsible for aging may not be as inevitable as researchers previously thought. The individual nodes of inflammation that fester in the brain’s memory center create a persistent brain fog that can cloud thinking, make it harder to form new memories, and increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Scientists call this inflammation “neuroinflammaging.”

A familiar drug may influence an unexpected cellular pathway that controls how cholesterol moves inside cancer cells, according to an article from SciTechDaily. A medication now closely associated with erectile dysfunction began as a treatment for high blood pressure and chest pain caused by limited blood flow to the heart. Three decades later, sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, may have another possible use. Research from the laboratory of Prof. Ayelet Erez at the Weizmann Institute of Science suggests that the drug could interfere with cancer metastasis through a newly identified biological pathway. The findings were published in Cancer Research. The researchers found that sildenafil reduces the ability of cancer cells to use cholesterol, a crucial building block of cell membranes. Cholesterol becomes especially important when cancer cells detach from a primary tumor, travel through the body, and invade distant organs. Limiting their access to it makes the formation of metastases more difficult.

The definition of autism may have become so wide that it risks confusion and even misdiagnosis, according to a new editorial by UCL Professor Dame Uta Frith, whose pioneering research in the 1960s and 70s lay the foundations for how we understand autism, says an article from Neuroscience News. Autism is currently diagnosed as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) – a single condition that includes a huge range of people, from those needing round-the-clock care to those who live independently. In Dame Uta’s editorial, published in Psychological Medicine, she argues that this “spectrum” may now be too broad to be useful. “Autism wasn’t always defined this way – a sort of catch-all diagnosis for a huge variety of conditions,” she said. “When it was first identified in the 1940s, it referred to a small group of children with severe difficulties in social interaction, communication and behaviour. Over time, the definition has widened to include people with milder traits and no language or learning problems. “Today, anyone of any age or intelligence level can be diagnosed with autism if they meet certain criteria.” The number of people diagnosed with autism has increased dramatically. In the 1960s, in the UK, about 4 in 10,000 children were diagnosed. Today, it’s around 1 in 57 schoolchildren in the UK – a more than 40-fold increase.

Lyuboslav Yordanov/Slivo pole municipality
Water levels on the Danube River, the second longest in Europe, have dropped so low because of drought that the hulks of dozens of World War II German battleships — and even the remains of an ancient woolly mammoth — are emerging into view, according to an article from CBS News. In the middle of the river separating Serbia and Romania, near the Serbian port of Prahovo, a rusty hull is now visible, along with a broken mast where the Nazi flag once flew. Meanwhile, falling water levels in the Danube unveiled bones of a mammoth in Bulgaria (image above), a local museum director told AFP. The bone fragments found near the northeastern city of Ruse "very likely" belonged to a woolly mammoth that lived during the Ice Age, said Nikolay Nenov, director of the Regional Historical Museum. Specialists have so far identified a jawbone, fragments of tusks, part of a shoulder blade, and a femur with its articular head among the stash, Nenov said.

A new study from 1Password’s Off-by-1 Labs suggests that organizations should be cautious about relying on large language models (LLMs) to autonomously remediate software vulnerabilities, according to an article from eSecurityPlanet. After evaluating more than 6,000 AI-generated security patches across six recently disclosed, high-impact vulnerabilities, researchers found that fully successful patches were the exception rather than the rule. 1Password found AI-generated security patches failed to fully fix vulnerabilities in more than half of tested cases. Only 26% of AI-generated patches completely remediated vulnerabilities without introducing unintended side effects. Incorrect remediation guidance significantly reduced patch success, while richer prompts improved results but did not eliminate new security risks. Researchers found AI models often produced fragile or incomplete fixes by addressing symptoms instead of root causes. 1Password recommends keeping experienced security engineers involved in reviewing AI-generated patches before deployment.

According to an article from NPR, the Food and Drug Administration approved Moderna's mRNA-based vaccine against seasonal influenza for people 50 and older, the company said on August 5, 2026. It's the first approved vaccine for flu that uses the same technology as COVID-19 shots. The vaccine is called mFLUSIVA, and Moderna says it will be available "in a few weeks" — in time for the 2026-2027 respiratory virus season in the U.S. "The FDA approval of mFLUSIVA … demonstrates the continued strength and versatility of our mRNA platform," said Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive officer, in a statement. "Flu remains a significant public health challenge, and mFLUSIVA provides an important new option for America's seniors. This approval also reflects the ongoing potential of our mRNA platform to help address important public health challenges through continued scientific innovation." Company research involving more than 40,000 people found that mFLUSIVA is safe and appears to produce stronger protection than traditional flu vaccines.

DuckDuckGo dunks on Google and Meta with new anti-surveillance glasses (they’re just regular sunglasses), according to an article from NotTheBee (a.k.a. The Babylon Bee). DuckDuckGo has always marketed itself as the anti-surveillance search engine. And now, they're taking shots at the privacy-invasive companies with their data-hungry smart glasses like Meta ... by releasing a regular pair of sunglasses with nothing to them at all besides the shades. Good luck getting a pair though as the DuckDuckGo glasses are backordered until November. The non-surveillance DuckDuckGo glasses will set you back $35, which is FAR less than a pair of the privacy-intrusion glasses from Google and Meta will cost you (along with all of your privacy-minded friends).

Scientists have made the first viruses designed by artificial intelligence in a milestone that raises hopes for new medicines but also concerns over how to ensure the technology remains safe, according to an article from The Guardian. The viruses are specific kinds known as bacteriophages, which only infect bacteria and are used around the world to treat patients with persistent infections. In lab tests, a cocktail of the AI-designed viruses killed E. coli bugs that were resistant to natural bacteriophages. Dr Brian Hie, a chemical engineer at Stanford University in California, used genome language models, the genetic equivalent of the large language models behind AI chatbots, to design functioning genomes for bacteriophages. The viruses were then made in the laboratory and pitted against E. coli in a dish. The ability to “rapidly design” genomes and tune them for specific bugs while overcoming resistance could “transform phage therapy” and “expand biotechnological toolkits”, the researchers wrote in the journal Science. But beyond the potential benefits, the scientists said the work raised “important biosafety, biocontainment and biosecurity considerations” and urged others who were designing whole genomes to “consult both safety and security professionals throughout the project”.

A new report by Socket shows that more than 50,000 Chrome users are using fake VPNs that steal your data, according to an article from Lifehacker. Socket is a cybersecurity platform with its own GitHub extension, firewall, and CLI to help developers analyze AI-written code for malicious behavior. When they looked into these Chrome extensions, they found that they were all published by a total of 40 developer accounts and had racked up 75,486 installs from users on the Chrome Web Store. Of the 737 suspicious extensions they analyzed, Socket's team performed a detailed analysis of the code in 525 of them. In total, these extensions amounted to 58,318 active Chrome installs at the time. As for the other 212, they were already taken off the Web Store before Socket could take a look at them. In total, these extensions amounted to 58,318 active Chrome installs at the time. As for the other 212, they were already taken off the Web Store before Socket could take a look at them.

Image by enio from Pixabay
AI agents are always getting better at finding things, which includes sensitive information like your passwords, financial information, and API secrets if they are left exposed in obvious places, according to an article from Lifehacker. You may have been following the recent news coverage on OpenAI’s rogue agent attacking the Hugging Face servers during an evaluation. But you may not have noticed that tucked in OpenAI’s public article disclosure on the hack is an admission that its AI models have been targeting publicly exposed online credentials even before this incident. The day after OpenAI’s disclosure, Anthropic came forward with a report of similar incidents with multiple Claude models dating as far back as April of this year. A few years ago, Security Magazine reported on a study that found up to 24 billion username and password combinations circulating on the dark web in 2022. This doesn’t even begin to account for all the exposed tokens, secrets, and API keys sitting in public repositories across GitHub or Hugging Face. All of this information is accessible to anyone with an internet connection — but thanks to the processing power of agentic AI, they can now be discovered and executed at record speed. Info stealers who specialize in this kind of breaching regularly use AI-powered tools to scrape publicly exposed user credentials. Now—as we have just seen with OpenAI — apparently large language models can even find and use these exposed logins of their own volition. So how does one protect their user accounts on online platforms? First, you have to see if your credentials have been exposed. Then you have to take immediate steps to remediate them.

Amazon is investing in a large-scale natural-gas-burning power plant as part of a huge data center in Texas, the company confirmed, a facility that could become the largest single source of climate pollution in the United States, according to an article from the New York Times. Amazon and other tech giants are racing to build enough data centers to keep up with surging demand for artificial intelligence services, and to secure the electricity to power them. A company spokeswoman said in a statement that its planned data center, in Pecos County, would be “powered by new on-site generation that won’t raise electricity costs for Texas families.” The new gas-burning plant, if built to specifications, would be permitted to release 33 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, regulatory records show, more planet-warming gases than any other power plant in the country.

A slew of high-profile cases allege that police have misused the controversial system of Flock cameras used to track vehicle locations. A new update aims to crack down, according to an article from USA Today. As law enforcement agencies across the nation continue to use controversial license plate readers, a leading company behind the tech says a new update aims to crack down on police officers who misuse the data. Flock Safety announced the news on August 13, after a slew of high-profile cases that allege misuse of the system, such as police officers running searches not tied to law enforcement investigations, including to stalk or harass someone. Flock has been facing mounting pushback from Americans across the political spectrum over privacy, along with instances of vandalism and protest by those who oppose how ubiquitous the cameras have become across the United States.

Tiny spacecraft riding beams of light could put humanity within reach of another star system in a single lifetime, according to an article from SciTechDaily. The recent confirmation of an atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet called LHS 1140b has created a wave of interest within the astronomy community. The planet orbits within the habitable zone around its parent star — a red dwarf located some 48 light-years from Earth. There is particular interest in miniaturized spacecraft for interstellar voyages. In large part, this is because it’s easier and cheaper to propel a small spacecraft to another star system — and have it get there within a person’s lifetime — than it is to do the same with a large vehicle. This isn’t quite Star Trek, but it’s a potentially plausible idea that would enable us to study neighboring stars and their planets up close. This kind of concept has been actively pursued by a philanthropically funded venture known as Breakthrough Starshot. This program investigated the key technologies required for an interstellar journey using small probes.

Bed bugs are extraordinarily good at tormenting us. They squeeze into mattress seams, furniture, and cracks barely wider than their flattened bodies. They emerge while we sleep, drink our blood, then disappear again. They’ve been with us since we built our first cities, and they’ve proven to be notoriously resilient. Many populations have also evolved resistance to insecticides, making infestations even more difficult to eliminate. But now, researchers may have found an unexpected vulnerability: water, says an article from ZME Science. It turns out, bed bugs instinctively avoid water. In controlled laboratory experiments, the insects turned away from wet surfaces long before making contact, often making abrupt U-turns and speeding away. This discovery was made almost by accident, revealing a previously unknown behavior that could help researchers develop more effective ways to control infestations.

A shortage of one common nutrient could help cancer cells and viruses hide from the immune system, according to an article from SciTechDaily. Researchers at Rockefeller University found that a shortage of arginine, an amino acid obtained from food and produced by the body, can interrupt the cellular machinery needed to make MHC-I proteins. These proteins act as a surveillance system, displaying fragments from inside a cell so T cells can detect cancerous changes or viral infections. When arginine was limited, that warning system weakened. Increasing the amount of arginine in the diets of mice restored MHC-I production, reduced colon tumor growth, and improved their response to influenza and SARS-CoV-2. The findings were published in Cell.

Image by Markus Winkler from Pixabay
Do you have an old landline phone laying around? Did you know you can convert that old landline phone into a Bluetooth device that allows you to use that old landline phone to make calls over your cellular network? Well, that’s the premise of an article from Lifehacker. It will walk you through the steps you need to take to convert that old landline phone into a Bluetooth “handset” that pairs with your current cell phone. Even better, you can access your phone via voice prompts (over the landline), make and receive calls, etc. You won’t be able to text from the landline, but why text when you can talk? The components are readily available for a decent price on Amazon (between $40 and $100).

Nine PBS in St. Louis filed a lawsuit against information management corporation Iron Mountain Data Centers July 28, seeking to recover over 50 terabytes of archival materials stored in one of the company’s Denver-based data centers, according to an article from Current. The lawsuit filed in Denver District Court alleges that the station’s cloud-storage vendor, Open Source Storage, abruptly cut off access to Nine PBS’ data earlier this year without warning. It states OSS, which had a separate relationship with Iron Mountain to provide data storage, went “defunct,” leaving Nine PBS’ archives in a data center operated by Iron Mountain. Iron Mountain has refused to return the materials to the station because its client, OSS, technically owned “the physical services housing the data” within Iron Mountain, according to the complaint. The station requested temporary and preliminary relief that would prevent Iron Mountain from deleting, modifying or overwriting its materials. A district judge granted the motion and set a hearing for August 12. The article was also featured on Tom’s Hardware.

France’s plan to block children under 15 from social media has hit a constitutional roadblock, according to an article from TechRepublic. The Constitutional Council on Friday blocked the measure, ruling that the restrictions placed an excessive burden on freedom of expression and communication while also raising concerns about how users’ ages would be verified. The ruling does not end President Emmanuel Macron’s push for tougher social-media rules for children. Instead, it forces the government to rethink how an age ban could be enforced without creating disproportionate restrictions or new privacy risks.

A rare book went into the mail. What came out the other end was a glimpse inside the increasingly physical race for AI training data, says an article from eWeek. Amazon is buying large quantities of printed books, scanning them for AI training data, and destroying the physical copies in the process, according to a 404 Media investigation. The publication uncovered a previously unreported operation: hiding a tracking device inside a rare book suspected of having been purchased for AI training, then following the device to an Amazon facility in Las Vegas. The finding adds Amazon to an industrywide hunt for high-quality human-written material as AI developers look beyond the open web for data to train increasingly sophisticated models. According to Amazon employees interviewed by 404 Media, workers at the facility receive large shipments of printed books and remove their bindings so the pages can be scanned more quickly. The process destroys the physical books.

Tadalafil – better known by its brand name Cialis – is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for erectile dysfunction. But in some biohacking and wellness circles, it's increasingly being repurposed for an entirely different reason, says an article from NPR. Online clinics and influential figures are promoting it as a kind of all-purpose longevity drug – delivering benefits for the cardiovascular system, brain and even athletic performance. The drugs aren't approved for preventing heart attack and stroke, let alone for extending life. However, the enthusiasm does reflect growing interest among some experts in the field of cardiology and men's health that tadalafil and other drugs in its class could have a legitimate role in preventive health.

Mozilla is rolling out three new features for its AI "Smart Window" feature in Firefox, according to an article from Lifehacker. The company is rolling out new options, like the ability to browse web sources without leaving your window, and automatic tab grouping. Eventually, Mozilla wants Firefox to remember what you do in the browser. Since Firefox's whole schtick is privacy-first, it emphasizes how none of your interactions with AI Window are used to train Mozilla's models, and your data is never sold to third parties — similar to DuckDuckGo's approach to AI. But Mozilla says that it changed Smart Window throughout its initial beta testing period. While the feature is still in beta, the company is now announcing more updates coming down the pike.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
According to an article from TechCrunch, hackers have stolen the personal information and medical records of more than 3.75 million people in a data breach at health data giant CareCloud, the company has confirmed with federal regulators. The disclosure marks the first confirmation of the scale of the data breach, which is now confirmed to be the fifth-largest theft of health data in 2026 so far. CareCloud detailed the March data breach in a filing with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Monday. The number of affected victims was reportedly revised up in an update on Tuesday, though it’s unclear if the figure is expected to rise further. The New Jersey-based tech company provides electronic medical record storage to tens of thousands of healthcare providers around the United States, consequently serving millions of patients. CareCloud handles a large amount of patient data and billing information on behalf of hospitals, doctor’s offices, and other medical practices.

The relationship between physical activity and dementia risk may depend on whether the activity is recreational exercise or job-related labor, a study of more than 4.2 million people suggested, according to an article from MedPage Today. High physical activity levels were linked to a 20% lower risk of all-cause dementia (relative risk [RR] 0.80, 95% CI 0.75-0.86) over 10 years compared with the lowest level of physical activity, reported Natan Feter, PhD, of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues in a systematic review and meta-analysis. Leisure-time activities like walking, running, swimming, cycling, or playing sports followed a similar pattern and were tied to lower dementia risk (RR 0.76, 95% CI 0.65-0.88), the researchers wrote in Lancet Public Health. Household physical activity also appeared beneficial, but evidence was from a single study. In contrast, occupational activity was associated with an increased dementia risk (RR 1.20, 95% CI 1.01-1.42), Feter and co-authors found. In addition, active commuting was tied to higher dementia risk based on two studies.

Somewhere more than 13 billion miles from Earth, a nearly 50-year-old spacecraft is still doing its job. Voyager 2 has been flying through space since 1977, survived four planetary encounters, crossed into interstellar space and continued sending scientific data back to Earth long after anyone could reasonably have expected it to. Now, its biggest threat isn’t deep space — it’s running out of power. But NASA engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory just found a clever way to squeeze another year out of its dying power supply. It’s all thanks to a carefully choreographed power-saving maneuver known as the “Big Bang” that should allow Voyager 2’s three remaining science instruments to keep working for at least another year, according to an article from Geekspin.

Image by Tho-Ge from Pixabay
An experimental personalized cancer vaccine from Merck and Moderna showed positive initial results in its first-ever late-stage trial, the companies announced Wednesday, bringing them one step closer to filing for approval of the treatment option, according to an article from CNBC. The mRNA-based shot in combination with Merck’s immunotherapy Keytruda met key goals in the Phase 3 trial in more than 1,100 patients with higher-risk or advanced melanoma whose detectable cancer had been completely removed through surgery.

A cybersecurity expert has demonstrated how computer-generated patterns can successfully prevent surveillance cameras from detecting vehicles - such as the controversial AI-powered Flock licence plate readers that are becoming increasingly common on American streets, according to an article from Bitdefender. Bill Swearingen, founder of SIXCYBER, has spent the past year running an impressive 31 million tests developing what he calls noRecognition. noRecognition is a reinforcement learning model that generates patterns capable of defeating the algorithms built into surveillance cameras to detect objects. The patterns do not prevent cameras from actually recording footage, so a human watching the video would still see a car. But what fails is the software used to identify objects, logs vehicle licence plates, and triggers alerts.

With more than 7 million Americans living with Alzheimer's dementia — a number projected to reach nearly 13 million by 2050 — new Emory University research suggests that higher vitamin D supplement intake may be associated with better cognitive function in adults at elevated risk of dementia, according to an article from MedicalExpress. In a study of 54 adults with sleep disturbances and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), two hallmarks of early dementia, participants taking at least 5,000 IU (125mg) of vitamin D daily showed better cognitive function than those who didn't. The study, recently published in Sleep Medicine, found that participants who reported taking 5,000 IU or more of vitamin D daily scored more than 13% higher on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) than those who didn't, even after accounting for other factors. A screening tool to detect the risk of developing dementia, MoCA is widely used to assess memory and thinking skills. In this study, lower daily doses of vitamin D were not associated with higher cognitive scores.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

Taco Bell Cheesy Potato Casserole

Serves: 6-8

INGREDIENTS:

3 pounds russet potatoes, diced *

1 packet taco seasoning, divided

½ teaspoon salt

1½ pounds lean ground beef

½ cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1 cup nacho cheese

½ cup sour cream

4 tablespoons mild taco sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

Diced green onions and tomatoes for topping - optional

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (235 degrees C).

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and boil potatoes until tender, 8 to 10 minutes; drain.

Transfer potatoes to a large bowl. Drizzle with oil, season with 1 tablespoon taco seasoning and salt. Toss until well combined. Spread potatoes evenly onto a rimmed baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven until crispy and golden brown, about 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir ground beef in the hot skillet until browned and crumbly, 5 to 7 minutes. Season with remaining taco seasoning. Drain grease if needed.

Transfer potatoes to a 8x10-inch casserole dish. Drizzle with half the nacho cheese, then add ground beef on top. Sprinkle with Cheddar and drizzle with 1 to 2 tablespoons taco sauce.

Bake in the preheated oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 20 minutes.

Top with sour cream, remaining nacho cheese and serve immediately.

NOTES:

Add chopped onions to ground beef.

* Try substituting Tater Tots in place of diced potatoes. Perhaps 10-15 tater tots per serving.

NUTRITION:

Calories: 692    Carbs: 57g    Sodium: 1072mg    Fiber: 6g    Protein: 45g

GIMP Tutorial: Remove A Background In A Glass Object

by Meemaw

I saw a tutorial the other day that I thought was cool. It takes an image of a glass object and makes it more transparent, so a background can show through it. The catch is that it only works with images with a white background. This tutorial was from Logos by Nick. The first thing you do after loading in your image is to remove the surrounding area. In my case, I used an image of a pitcher.

The first thing you want to do is right-click on your image in the Layers dialog, and choose Add Alpha Channel. This will add transparency to your layer rather than re-filling it with white. If it’s greyed out, you already have one. Using the Pen (Paths) tool, draw an outline around the object. You can see the nodes here. When you click back on the first node to close the path, press Enter.

Reverse your selection (Select > Invert) since you don’t want to delete the pitcher. Press the Delete key. Since my pitcher has a handle, I had to do the process twice, once to remove the white around the pitcher and once to remove it inside the handle. If you zoom in and want to clean it up, feel free to use the pen tool again or the eraser to fine tune the edges.

Now you want to load the background you have chosen. I chose one that looks kind of like a table on the patio.

Copy & place your object onto the new background. If it’s the wrong size, take this opportunity to resize it. You can use Layer > Scale layer, or you can use the scaling tool. If the layer is a different size from your background, choose Layer > Layer to image size.

With your pitcher still chosen, using the layers dialog, change the blend mode of this layer to Multiply. If you haven’t chosen Layer to image size yet (as I hadn’t), choose it now.

I know it looks like it’s close to being finished, but we’re going to do a few more things. Create a duplicate of this layer, and change the blend mode back to normal. It will look white again, but it’s necessary. Using the duplicate layer, choose Copy so it’s on your clipboard. Using the same duplicate, apply a layer mask. Right-click the layer and choose Add layer mask. Leave the defaults (white full opacity). Click Add to close that window, then paste what you have. That’s going to paste that layer as a floating layer in the layers dialog. Now click the anchor icon at the bottom of the layers dialog. That will paste it into the layer mask.

Now choose Color > Curves. Take the point in the bottom left and slide it to the right. You can see the glass becoming more transparent on the page. Find a happy medium that looks pretty good.

Now we want to distort the background a bit. Things aren’t perfectly straight when you’re seeing them through glass. Click on the background layer and duplicate it. Remember, there’s the little icon in the layers dialog that says Create a duplicate of the layer and add it to the image. Now you want to create a displacement map. Choose Filters > Map > Displace. The window you get will have 2 inputs called Horizontal/Radial and Vertical/Angular. Click on the icon to the right of each and GIMP will give you a reference point to choose. My choices were the layers I had in this project. You want to choose the original image of your pitcher (in mode Multiply) for each.

This tells GIMP what area you want to displace. The sliders just under the setting Abyss policy are the Horizontal and Vertical displacement, and you can slide those to the left until it looks the way you want it to. The background should be distorting within the glass.

The only part of the background duplicate we actually want is the displaced part, so we’ll delete the rest. Click on the original jar layer, Right-click and choose Alpha to selection - you'll see a selection going around the glass jar. Now click on the background layer, add an alpha channel, then choose Select > Invert and press delete on the keyboard. Now the background around the jar should be gone. Go to Select > None to remove your selection. This won’t show in the image, but it will in the layers dialog.

The background needs to be a bit blurry. Duplicate the background again. Choose Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur. However, the shelf shouldn't be blurry, so let’s fix that. Add a layer mask to the duplicate and choose a black to white gradient. Use your cursor to draw a line from just above the shelf down into the shelf. Your table should be clear while the background is blurry.

You can fine tune everything. For example, if you want your pitcher a little more transparent, you can choose the upper of the two layers you have, choose Color > Curves again and change it,

Using AI Locally On PCLinuxOS: Upscayl

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

Folks, artificial intelligence is the hottest thing right now—the trend everyone is trying to ride. But, as always, the big tech companies are monopolizing AI to such an extent that even buying a new computer is now becoming a difficult task, thanks to the AI “gold rush.” Well, IMHO, this AI "gold rush" is going to end in a massive bubble that will burst sooner or later—just like the dot-com bubble in 2000—but it might be even worse, since a large number of companies have committed to producing hardware, servers, and data centers that don’t even exist yet, all for an AI demand that may never materialize. Microsoft is already feeling the negative effects of having bet everything on AI, and now the whole thing is backfiring.

But let’s talk about how we can start using AI locally on PCLinuxOS, with a program called Upscayl.

Upscayl: Local AI

Upscayl is an AI-powered image upscaling tool designed to improve the resolution and quality of images. It transforms low-resolution photos into sharper, more detailed images, making it ideal for photographers, graphic designers, and anyone who needs high-quality images.

Key Features

AI Enhancement

- Advanced algorithms: uses AI to predict and add missing details to images.

- High-quality results: produces images that preserve their original integrity and aesthetic appeal.

Intuitive interface

- Easy to use: The simple design allows users of all skill levels to load and enhance the resolution of images effortlessly.

- Batch processing: Supports processing multiple images at the same time, saving time.

Compatibility and Accessibility

- Free and open source: Available at no cost, making it accessible to a wide range of users.

- Supported formats: Works with popular image formats, such as JPG, PNG, or WEBP.

How to Use Upscayl

First, install the application using `dnf install upscayl` or through the DNF Package Manager (a great tool, created right here on PCLinuxOS, which is improving by leaps and bounds), and the first screen you’ll see is as follows:

The command interface is accessed entirely through the side panel, where you’ll have the option to perform a single upscaling or batch upscaling by toggling the BATCH switch.

The first step is simply to select the original image whose resolution you want to increase and load it into the program.

Next, you can choose the upscaling model you want to apply to your image. Each model can produce different results, but it’s not always possible to clearly see the differences—it depends on the type of image.

One of the "magic tricks" that makes Upscayl work is ESRGAN, an acronym for Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks, which is a workflow for the task of image super-resolution based on a frequently cited paper, “ESRGAN: Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks” (Wang, Xintao et al.), published in 2018.

In a nutshell, image super-resolution (SR) techniques reconstruct a high-resolution (HR) image or sequence from observed low-resolution (LR) images—for example, increasing the resolution of an image from 720p to 1080p.

Upscayl includes seven built-in AI models, all of which are variants of Real-ESRGAN optimized for different use cases. These models are defined in the central model registry and offer 4x upscaling capability.

The available models are managed centrally through a TypeScript registry that maps the model identifiers to their configurations:

Upscayl v2.5 includes a “Custom AI Models” option, which allows users to select a model’s folder and use their own imported models. (Further details here).

When everything is ready, just click the “Upscayl” button to start the process. It doesn’t take long, and when it’s finished, the software will automatically save the new image file and display a side-by-side comparison.

An important note here is that the program requires graphics cards compatible with the Vulkan 1.3 API; otherwise, it won’t work. Nvidia graphics cards support the Vulkan API starting with the GT 710 model.

A list of compatible graphics cards can be viewed here.

Conclusion

Upscayl is a powerful tool for anyone who wants to improve image quality without needing extensive technical knowledge. Its combination of advanced AI technology and intuitive design makes it the best option for image enhancement, and it can serve as an introduction to the local use of AI, which is very important for everyone who uses computers.

mpv: Using The "Forgotten" Multimedia Player As An OTA TV Player

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

WAY back in 2022, I wrote some articles on three different programs to use to watch OTA (over the air) TV programming on your desktop. In July 2022, we covered using VLC to watch TV on your desktop. In August 2022, we covered using Mplayer to do the same. Then, in September 2022, we covered using Kaffeine to watch TV on your desktop. Ever since, my “go to” program for watching OTA TV programming on my desktop (via my USB TV Tuner card) has been Kaffeine. Until now.

Recently, I read an article from HowToGeek about mpv. Back when I was writing articles about the programs you can use to watch OTA TV broadcasts on your desktop, I had completely overlooked mpv as a possible tool to use for watching those broadcasts. In fact, most of the time when I think or talk about the various multimedia programs available, mpv is never at the front of my mind (if it’s even thought of at all). In fact, it’s so seldom thought of, I really cannot remember us writing about mpv at all in the time since I’ve been the editor. That’s a long time (17+ years).

A Little History On MPV

mpv is a fork of a fork. No, really! According to Wikipedia, in 2010, mplayer2 was forked from Mplayer. In 2012, mpv was forked from mplayer2. Its goal was to encourage developer activity by removing unmaintainable code and dropping support for very old systems. As a result, the project received a large influx of contributions. mpv is a multiplatform offering, with versions existing for Linux, macOS, BSD, and Windows. There is even an unofficial Android port of mpv.

mpv seems to have been designed from the get-go to be a command line program. As a result, its GUI is about as minimalist as you can get and still have a window. The OSC, or on-screen controller, was added to help offer basic mouse interactions, gave new users easier access to the controls, and to allow precise and direct seeking during playback of multimedia elements. The multimedia engine powering mpv is ffmpeg, so pretty much any file or multimedia format that ffmpeg can recognize can be played back in mpv.

There are several programs that provide a graphical interface for mpv (and they are listed in the Wikipedia article). Probably the one most familiar to PCLinuxOS users is SMPlayer. If SMPlayer is not installed on your computer, you can easily install it from the PCLinuxOS repository, via DNF or DNF-PM. SMPlayer can use either mplayer or mpv as its multimedia backend. My copy of SMPlayer is set up to use mpv. I don’t remember ever changing it in SMPLayer’s preferences, so it must have been installed that way. As a result, SMPlayer can also be used to watch OTA television broadcasts, so maybe we’ll take a look at that in a future article.

So What Can mpv Do For You?

mpv can do a lot. You’ll likely be as surprised as I was at all of the things it’s capable of doing. It actually boggles my mind how much mpv can do. Just typing mpv -- help at the command line doesn’t even begin to tell the story. Doing so nets you this information:

Usage: mpv [options] [url|path/]filename

Basic options:

--start=<time> seek to given (percent, seconds, or hh:mm:ss) position

--no-audio do not play sound

--no-video do not play video

--fs fullscreen playback

--sub-file=<file> specify subtitle file to use

--playlist=<file> specify playlist file

--list-options list all mpv options

--h=<string> print options which contain the given string in their name

But, typing mpv --list-options displays nearly 1300 other options to control various aspects and performance parameters for mpv. But, to be completely honest, it’s not the easiest to digest being displayed in a terminal program. It’s much easier to output the information to a simple text file, where you can use your favorite text editor’s “Search” function to ferret out the information you are seeking.

To do this is super simple. First, from a command line prompt, traverse to the directory where you want to store the file, and then type mpv --help > mpv-commands.txt. This will cause the output to be directed to the file mpv-commands.txt. Notice the use of only one redirect sign (the greater than sign) in this command. Then, at the command line, type mpv --list-options >> mpv-commands.txt. Pay particularly close attention to the redirect sign used here. There are TWO “greater than” signs pointing to our text file. This will append all of the options to the end of the mpv-commands.txt file, without overwriting the file’s current contents. When it’s all done, you should have one text file with all of mpv’s commands located in one text file with over 1300 lines. It is also helpful that all of the options listed are in alphabetical order, which makes the information a bit easier to find (provided you know or have an idea of what you’re looking for).

You can also view the mpv manual, here. It’s basically the same information, broken down into categories. In my humble opinion, the simple text file is easier to search through, since I don’t always know under which category to look for the information I’m seeking. There is another site that provides some more documentation for mpv here.

Like I mentioned, mpv can do a LOT. In fact, I wouldn’t even know where to start when writing about all of the things that mpv can do. Someone well versed in mpv could probably write a series of books on everything mpv can do. So, this article isn’t intended to be a complete overview of all the things that mpv is capable of doing. I don’t have that much time or knowledge to be able to write something of that nature, anyways. So, we’ll focus our attention on using mpv to serve as a TV Player for OTA TV broadcasts. It’s a great way to “introduce” you to the world’s “forgotten” multimedia player. So, in a large way, we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of mpv’s capabilities.

The mpv TV Scripts

I’ll be honest here. All of my scripts listed here were created by ChatGPT. If nothing else, it helps illustrate one good use of AI at a time when it appears that AI is well poised to … well … run amok.

Since mpv is a fork of a fork of Mplayer, you will need to create a channels.conf file for mpv to use. Fortunately, the channels.conf file used for Mplayer also works for mpv. If you already have a channels.conf file for Mplayer, you can just copy it over to the $HOME/.config/mpv directory. But, if you need to create the channels.conf file from scratch, you will first need to go back and read the article in the August 2022 issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Specifically, you need “Script #1” from that article. Running that script will produce the channels.conf file you need.

The journey started with one short, simple script (below), called mpv-channel-list1.sh.

#!/bin/bash

CHANNELS_CONF="$HOME/.config/mpv/channels.conf"

CHANNEL=$(cut -d: -f1 "$CHANNELS_CONF" | \

zenity --list \

--title="Select Channel" \

--column="Channel" \

--height=500 \

--width=300)

if [ -n "$CHANNEL" ]; then

echo "Selected: $CHANNEL"

mpv --deinterlace=yes --geometry=1440x960 "dvb://$CHANNEL"

fi

At only 341 bytes in size, this script is the simplest implementation I can come up with for using mpv to watch a selected OTA TV broadcast from a list of available channels. And, there really isn’t much to it. We populate a Zenity dialog box list with the first field of the entries in the channels.conf file, and pass the selected channel name to mpv for playback.

With the mpv command, I tell mpv to display the broadcast image as “deinterlaced” with the --deinterlace=yes parameter … because I *hate* being able to see the interlaced video scanlines in the image shown by mpv. I then set the window size to 1440 x 960 pixels, with the “--geometry=1440x960” parameter. I do this in all of the scripts, because it allows extra room at the top and bottom of the mpv window for displaying the OSC and volume levels without displaying them over the broadcast image. Ok, so I’m picky that way. Also, by leaving that out, some of the windows produced by mpv are too small to watch comfortably. mpv will adjust the image automatically to fill the window, constraining the video ratio appropriately. Then, I tell mpv to play from my TV tuner card, using “dvb://[channel-name]”. For what it’s worth, “DVB” stands for Digital Video Broadcasting.

The entire OSC fits entirely beneath the mpv image, instead of over the image.

The extra space at the top of the window provides a place for the volume level to be displayed (upper left), instead of over the mpv image. The volume is most easily changed via the scroll wheel on a mouse.

And, this script works great. It displays the selected OTA TV broadcast in the mpv window. But, you cannot change channels. To watch another channel, you need to exit the mpv window, and rerun the script to select a different channel. And, if that’s all you need or want, I’ll tell you that it works great.
But what if you want to start viewing OTA TV broadcasts with one channel, and want to access the other OTA channels in your area? To do that requires a LOT more coding.

According to ChatGPT, the version of mpv in the PCLinuxOS repository (0.41.0) isn’t compiled with full DVB support, only basic support for DVB. So, that means that we cannot create a playlist of channels to facilitate being able to change channels within mpv. Still, it’s possible, but we have to do an “end run” around this limitation. (Stay with me … this really works!) Had mpv been compiled with full DVB support, then it would have been a very simple matter to just make a channels.m3u playlist file, and mpv would be able to change channels after initially showing the chosen channel.

But of course, I wanted to be able to change channels after having mpv starting up with the chosen channel displayed. Keep in mind that this whole script is pretty large (1,000 lines, without subtracting out the blank lines), so I won’t be reprinting the entire script here in the magazine, as I do with most of the scripts I feature in the magazine. Instead, I’ll only be providing a link to download the scripts (yes, there are three scripts, including the one listed above) from the magazine server. I put them all into one tar.gz file for convenience. The tar.gz file, named mpv-dvb-tv-scripts.tar.gz, is only 8.0KiB in size, so it’ll download in the literal blink of an eye.

Once you download the tar.gz file containing the scripts, extract the scripts to the directory where you normally store your scripts, and be sure to mark them as being executable. If the directory you normally store your scripts in is also defined in your $PATH statement, then launching them is super easy (just the name of the script on a command line (along with any required parameters) or as the command line for a launcher). Otherwise, you will have to provide a fully qualified path and filename to launch the script(s).

Like I mentioned, the tar.gz file contains three scripts. They are mpv-channel-list1.sh, mvp-dvb-tv5.sh, and mpv-dvb-tv5.py.

The “end run” that ChatGPT used to get around the lack of full DVB support in the PCLinuxOS version of mpv is complex, and honestly, not something I would have thought of. It uses MPEG transport streams, FIFOs, and a couple of other helper programs to provide a version of MPV DVB TV that allows us to change channels.

The channel display changes in the window title bar and is briefly displayed in the blank space over the mpv image (upper left) when you change channels. Here, I was going from the Dabl channel to H&I. The channels are changed with the up and down cursor keys.

I had the idea and concepts of what I wanted, but not the ability. This is where ChatGPT came in. And even then, ChatGPT took *at least* five different attempts to get the bash script to where it would change channels smoothly. It was the exact same story with the Python3 version that I had it create after completing the bash script version (just because I could).

I then took the scripts produced by ChatGPT and “tweaked” them to be more like what I envisioned. That included changing some text labels, adding in the deinterlacing commands, and setting the window geometry.

And these scripts are a model of efficiency and speed. The bash script is 21.4 KiB in file size (1000 lines). The Python3 script is 13.5 KiB in file size (396 lines) (miraculously, the file size dropped from 29.4 KiB with version 4, to the 13.5 KiB file size with version 5). And that’s not even mentioning the first script I shared in this article, which is only 341 bytes long.

The Python3 script is a little “laggy” when changing channels, but I’m out of “time” on my free ChatGPT account to “fix” that issue at this time. But, it is fixable, and I plan to revisit it in the near future to see if it can resolve the lag issue (once I’ve built up some more time on my free ChatGPT account).

But, in talking about efficiency and speed, my CPU usage meter in Xfce typically reads between 12 and 14 percent when running the script and mpv. That’s in addition to all of the other things running at the same time (currently, Firefox, Geany, Mousepad, 2 different xfce4-terminal windows, PySol, Thunar, and Midori, all just on the desktop and visible).

Summary

I honestly wasn’t expecting ChatGPT to create a 1,000 line bash script. And, I wasn’t anticipating ChatGPT having to do an end-run around the issue of mpv not having full DVB support. I’m not THAT good of a scripter to have been able to figure out how to use MPEG transport streams, FIFO pipes, and the other tools to make all of this work how I was envisioning. Most of that stuff is way beyond my abilities, and definitely way above my pay grade.

But, in the end, I ended up with another option for viewing OTA TV broadcasts on my PCLinuxOS desktop. Plus, it was achieved with very little overhead. I’m impressed by its simplicity. Will it record or time-shift programs? Not at all. But the vast majority of time, I don’t find myself needing those abilities. Most of the time, I just want to be able to watch OTA TV broadcasts on my PCLinuxOS desktop, and this does so admirably.

So move on over, Kaffeine. I think I may have found a new “go to” viewer to watch TV on my PCLinuxOS desktop. It’s not that Kaffeine is a bad program. In fact, I still love Kaffeine. But MPV DVB TV allows me to watch those OTA TV broadcasts with a minimum of overhead. It does one thing, and does it well … just like a well-behaved Linux program should.

The Hidden Cost Of Today's “Smart” Devices

by seano Contributions

Free Software Foundation

Reprinted under Creative Commons License

Google uses “smart” devices to watch and control you
The closer computers get to our bodies and homes, the less control we seem to have over them. “Wearable” devices are sold as personal technology, but they rarely belong to the people who purchase them in any meaningful sense. We have brought attention to these devices in our Fight to Repair campaign, emphasizing that owners usually aren't allowed to inspect them, repair them, or change how they behave. Though it is sometimes possible to modify the nonfree software they run, users can't share the modified versions without facing legal risks. This is a clear example of a broader problem: technology that is physically close to us, yet still out of our hands.

“Fast Pair” equals fast insecurity

Audio headsets that connect to computers wirelessly via Bluetooth demonstrate how quickly this loss of control turns into a security problem. Millions of Bluetooth-capable products utilize Google's “Fast Pair” service, which is nonfree software that promises to make pairing of wearable devices easier. It uses Bluetooth Low Energy and Android’s location services to detect nearby Bluetooth devices automatically and prompts you to pair. Security researchers discovered this feature was really a bug, as it introduced a serious weakness across a wide range of devices. This included wireless earbuds and headphones from major manufacturers, which could be turned into surveillance machines. Attackers could silently pair with these devices and hijack the audio to spy on the person wearing them, as well as anyone they spoke to. In some cases, the microphone could be activated, and the wearer could be tracked through Google's own network.

What makes this so troubling is that researchers did not have access to the source code needed to inspect how Fast Pair worked. Instead, discovering the flaws required independent researchers to reverse engineer the nonfree software. This difficult and time-consuming process would not have been necessary if the software were free and available for anyone to study and improve.

Image by topochart_app from Pixabay
The problem was not confined to one device model or a single vendor, and it is likely that many devices around the world are still vulnerable. Worse, most users will be unable to patch their device without utilizing nonfree software from the manufacturer or Google to run an update. Instead of giving users the freedom to modify and improve, they are forced to trust nonfree software that cannot be easily inspected.

Due to issues with “Fast Pair” security and Bluetooth privacy concerns in general, the Federal Communications Commission now recommends turning Bluetooth off when not in use and avoiding unnecessary pairing. Google is not the only Big Tech company creating vulnerabilities for people who use its products. Just recently, Apple released an update to the nonfree firmware in its Beats Studio Buds headphones, which plugged a hole that allowed attackers to record conversations via the microphones. Though Apple patched this issue, it's clear that such flaws are a symptom of a wider problem and not confined to one specific device or manufacturer. When users cannot inspect or modify the software running on their devices, they depend on corporations to discover problems, provide fixes, and continue supporting the products they paid for but don't have full control over.

Google spying on your nest with Nest

The same problem is demonstrated by Google's Nest products, a series of home thermostats, doorbells, cameras, and alarm systems that are connected to Google's network. Although the Nest brand continues, Google has ended support for certain products and older generations of Nest hardware. These devices are marketed as helpful and convenient, but their usefulness and safety depends on the vendor's nonfree software. When Google ends support for a Nest product, the device may stop receiving software updates, in addition to becoming useless for its intended purpose.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
In the case of the discontinued “Nest Secure” home alarm system, these devices became unusable when Google's support ended, turning expensive hardware into expensive paperweights. Support for several older Nest thermostat models has also been discontinued, leaving homeowners with devices affixed to their walls that will, as Google puts it, “no longer receive software or security updates, which may lead to decreased performance with continued use.” That is exactly the kind of failure that can be prevented by free software and the right to repair.

Fortunately for users of Nest devices, hackers have been able to analyze and update Google's nonfree software and publish their update methods as part of a project called “No Longer Evil.” These modifications are intended to provide the security for Nest users that Google fails to provide, but they have also revealed disturbing surveillance practices baked into Nest devices. Though Google disabled the capability to provide updates to Nest devices that the company no longer supports, they notably did not turn off logging of information about the owners and their homes. Nest devices, even those that are no longer supported by Google, phone home with data about manual temperature changes, amount of sunlight, and the presence of people in the room. These data points can be aggregated to build detailed profiles on household habits and lifestyles.

Google may have stopped maintaining these devices for their owners, but the devices continue to serve Google's interests by transmitting information about the people and homes around them. The hackers behind “No Longer Evil” were able to disable this privacy-invasive logging, proving once again the vital importance of giving users the freedom to study and modify the software running in their own homes.

Thankfully, there are communities of researchers and hackers willing to risk legal action and spend their time and energy making unsafe, nonfree systems less dangerous. But a small number of hacktivists should not have to carry the burden of correcting the consequences of privacy-invasive corporate decisions. Manufacturers earn money from selling this hardware, controlling the software, and collecting information from their users. Companies should not be allowed to abandon their responsibility to maintain these systems by preventing users from taking control.

Wearable and home devices should not require advanced technical skills to discover and fix security and privacy threats, especially when the companies responsible for the software have the resources to address those problems themselves. In the examples above, independent researchers had to compensate for manufacturers who restricted access to source code, retained control over updates, and decided when purchased hardware would stop receiving support. In the case of Nest, Google stopped providing security updates to certain devices while those devices continued transmitting information about their owners and their homes.

Users deserve devices they can inspect, repair, and improve themselves, not products that remain under a manufacturer's control long after purchase. When software is nonfree, owners remain dependent on vendors for security updates, application support, and even basic functionality, while those companies remain able to change the rules, collect your sensitive data, or withdraw support entirely. This is why free software and the right to repair are inextricably tied together. It's also why privacy and security will continue to be part of our campaigns. When a thermostat can quietly collect data on users after support ends and report it back to the vendor, or when a headset can become an eavesdropping device for criminals, the problem is not the user's carelessness—it is the lack of software freedom.

If you're using devices or accessories with optional Bluetooth capabilities, keep the Bluetooth setting off unless you're using it. A bigger step if you interact with Google through its products or disservices: disinvest. If you've already cut Google out of your life, educate others about how harmful Google is.

This work, “Bluetooth surveillance,” is adapted from “Bluetooth Figure Mark Logo” © by Bluetooth SIG, dedicated to the public domain under a Creative Commons CC0 No Rights Reserved license; “Eye outline Pinhead icon” © by Quincylvania, dedicated to the public domain under a Creative Commons CC0 No Rights Reserved license; and “OpenClipArt House 1” © by Cdang, dedicated to the public domain under a Creative Commons CC0 No Rights Reserved license. “Bluetooth surveillance” © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc., by Eko K. A. Owen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Wiki Pick: Install Man Pages In PCLinuxOS

Relevant to ALL editions of PCLinuxOS.

This tip comes from our PCLinuxOS founder and overlord, Texstar.

Are you unfamiliar with man pages? They are accessed from the command line, by typing man <name-of-program>. They differ from the “help” information accessed by typing the name of the program, followed by either -- help, -h, or -?. Linux man pages are much more comprehensive, and cover the options of a program in much greater depth and detail. You wouldn't be remiss to think of Linux man pages as a comprehensive help file, available from the command line.

Under PCLinuxOS, Linux man pages are no longer packaged for installation from the package manager. The packagers have many more important things to focus on.

Linux man pages are accessible online from a variety of sources. One of my favorites is from die.net. However, Texstar's tip allows users who want to access man pages on their computer locally the ability to do so, without having to go out onto the internet.

Based on an image by ubpix from Pixabay
Installation

So, below are the steps that Texstar outlined.

1. Install git from the package manager.

2. Open a terminal session.

3. Type git clone https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages at a command line prompt.

4. Type cd man-pages at the command line prompt, and press the Enter key.

5. Switch to the root user.

6. Type make install at the command line prompt.

Now, sit back and wait for the last step to finish.

Your Linux man pages will now be available on your computer, without having to go out onto the internet to read. Not only can this be a time saver, but it can also be a vital “lifeline” should you be unable to get out onto the internet to access the online Linux man pages.

You can view the PCLinuxOS Knowledgebase Wiki entry here.

Alternative Methods of Installing Typst Locally

by David Pardue (kalwisti)

Almost two years ago, I wrote a tutorial on how to install Typst locally on your computer, thus avoiding the need for an internet connection to use Typst's web app. I recently learned about some alternative methods of installing the Typst compiler locally and would like to share them.

Linux allows you the flexibility to install a third-party application such as Typst in multiple ways. I will discuss one installation method in detail, and mention three other options you might want to consider in the latter half of my article.

If your computer is a single-user, single-disk machine, then where you install Typst is not a crucial matter (personal opinion). However, if your system has multiple users and/or multiple disks, you should evaluate all these options carefully before making a final decision.

Before proceeding, I should mention this violates one of the standard rules of PCLinuxOS system maintenance: to only install programs from the official PCLinuxOS repository. However, in this case, I can assure you that installing Typst is safe and will not bork your PCLinuxOS installation. I have not experienced any glitches or breakage since I began using Typst locally in 2024.

Method A: "Typst-install" Script The easiest, ready-made solution is to use the “Typst installer” script which is available on GitHub. It downloads the most recent Typst release from the main branch’s root folder and automatically installs Typst. At the time of writing, the Typst version is 0.15.1, released on July 17, 2026. (Thanks to member Y.D.X in the Typst Forum for this new tip.)

Copy and paste this command into a Terminal. (You can do this as a regular user; it does not require root or sudo privileges.)

curl -fsSL https://install.typst.community/install.sh | sh

After running the script, you will see output similar to the lines below. It provides almost all of the post-installation instructions you should follow:

david@pclos-openbox ~$ curl -fsSL https://install.typst.community/install.sh | sh

Downloading Typst from https://github.com/typst/typst/releases/latest/download/typst-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.xz

Typst installed to /home/david/.typst/bin/typst

Manually add the directory to your $HOME/.bashrc (or similar)

export TYPST_INSTALL="/home/david/.typst"

export PATH="$TYPST_INSTALL/bin:$PATH"

Example:

echo 'export TYPST_INSTALL="/home/david/.typst"' >> ~/.bashrc

echo 'export PATH="$TYPST_INSTALL/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

Run '/home/david/.typst/bin/typst --help' to get started

Stuck? Open an Issue https://github.com/typst-community/typst-install/issues

Place the Typst Binary in Your $PATH

As stated in the Terminal output above, you must now place the typst directory in your $PATH.

A path — or the search path — is the list of directories that will be searched for anything you type on the command line. After editing your path, when you call/invoke Typst, the system will look for (and find) the typst binary in your /home directory.

Open a Terminal, and copy and paste the two commands below separately (as a regular user). They will add the appropriate entries to the .bashrc file in your /home directory.

echo 'export TYPST_INSTALL="/home/david/.typst"' >> ~/.bashrc

(Note: Change “david” to whatever the username is on your system.)

echo 'export PATH="$TYPST_INSTALL/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

To double-check the result of these commands, open your ~/.bashrc file with your favorite text editor — nano, vim, Emacs, etc. The example below uses nano:

$ nano ~/.bashrc

You should see something like this screenshot:

To apply this change permanently to your $PATH environment variable, open a Terminal and issue the command:

$ source ~/.bashrc

Alternatively, you can log out of your current session, then log back in to make sure the change takes effect.

To verify this change, type the command:

$ echo $PATH

Your results should look something like this:

This screenshot montage shows the directory structure (~/.typst/bin/typst) created by the typst-install script. Note that the “.typst” directory is a hidden directory which was made visible by opening the File Manager and typing Ctrl + H".

Typst is now ready to use. You may use Typst via the CLI, with a terminal-based text editor such as Vim, or with GUI-based code editors such as VS Code / VSCodium or even with Geany.

Prior to Using Method B, C or D

- Unlike Method A, these approaches do not automatically download the Typst pre-built binary from GitHub; therefore, you must first download it from:

https://github.com/typst/typst/releases

- Look for Release ver. 0.15.1 (July 17, 2026)

- Download the file: typst-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.xz

(This contains the Typst compiler and its CLI, which is everything you need to compile Typst documents locally.)

- Extract/unzip the tarball. It is a modest 55.7 MB in size.

- To simplify the naming convention, I renamed the unpacked directory to just “typst”.

- Within the typst directory, use your DE’s file manager (Caja, Thunar, Dolphin, etc.) to double-check that the typst binary is set as executable:

- You can now follow the installation steps for Method B, C or D (depending on your preference and needs).

Method B: Place Typst in Your ~/.local/bin Directory

As mentioned above, when deciding where to install Typst, an important factor will be whether you are the single user on the PC and will be the only person using Typst, or whether your goal is to make Typst available to multiple users.

If it is a single-user system, this is another viable option. It was suggested by member Y.D.X. in the Typst forum. He recommends issuing the command

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin/

to create the required /bin subdirectory.

(The “-p” flag enables the command to create parent directories as necessary.)

Afterwards, you should manually add the Typst directory to your ~/.bashrc file.

export PATH=~/.local/bin/typst:$PATH

After saving this edit and exiting your text editor, issue the command: $ source ~/.bashrc

Alternatively, log out of your current session, then log back in for this change to take effect.

Method C: Place Typst in /usr/local/bin

This approach is sensible if you wish to adhere to the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) and/or need to make Typst available to multiple users.

“The ~/bin directory is a good place to put scripts intended for personal use. If we write a script that everyone on a system is allowed to use, the traditional location is /usr/local/bin. Scripts intended for use by the system administrator are often located in /usr/local/sbin. In most cases, locally supplied software, whether scripts or compiled programs, should be placed in the /usr/local hierarchy and not in /bin or /usr/bin. These directories are specified by the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard to contain only files supplied and maintained by the Linux distributor.” — William Shotts, The Linux Command Line (2026), p. 386.

If you copy (or move) only the typst executable [55.7 MB] to /usr/local/bin, you do not have to make any adjustments to your $PATH because the /usr/local/bin directory is already in PCLinuxOS's default $PATH. Typst will be available for use without you needing to take further action.

However, if you copy (or move) the entire typst folder and its contents — the typst executable, its License, Notice and README.md — you will have to manually add the path to that directory in your ~/.bashrc file:

export PATH=/usr/local/bin/typst:$PATH

Issue the command: $ source ~/.bashrc or, alternatively, log out of your current session, then log back in for this change to take effect.

Method D: Place Typst in /opt

/opt is intended for files of third-party applications which you want to make available to multiple users. This directory can store programs outside of your distribution’s control, i.e., not available in the PCLinuxOS repository.

After you copy (or move) the typst folder to /opt, manually add the $PATH to the Typst directory in your ~/.bashrc file:

export PATH=/opt/typst:$PATH

Issue the command: $ source ~/.bashrc or, alternatively, log out of your current session, then log back in for this change to take effect.

After applying Method B, C or D, Typst will be ready to use. You may use Typst via the CLI, with a terminal-based text editor such as Vim, or with GUI-based code editors such as VS Code / VSCodium or even with Geany.

Summary

Linux gives you the freedom of choice to install an application like Typst in multiple ways, depending on your preference and needs. This article has presented four different methods of installing Typst locally. Although using Typst's cloud editor is a pleasant experience, sometimes I want to work offline, use a custom font installed on my computer and/or not worry about maxing out the storage limit of my Typst web account. My local Typst installation allows me the flexibility to do that.

I tested each method and they all work smoothly. If you are the sole Typst user on your PC, I recommend that you try Method A: the "Typst-install" script. It is a clever kickstart-type file which will set up Typst easily and quickly. If you need to make Typst available to multiple users on the system, you should consider Method C (perhaps a slightly more "purist" approach) or Method D.

Tip Top Tips: Automatically Backup Your System When You Update

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.

This month’s tip comes from hunter0one.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
We all are (or should be) using Timeshift, which typically makes snapshots automatically at different times. However, this doesn't pay attention to when you run transactions (upgrading, removing, or installing software) on your system which is where most problems arise. Thankfully, DNF supports plugins, and one of those plugins will make Timeshift snapshots automatically when you are doing transactions with it.

To use this plugin, simply install timeshift-autosnap-dnf5 (available in the PCLinuxOS repository) and each time afterwards when you install, remove, or upgrade software with DNF graphically or from the command line it will automatically back up your /boot directory and create a Timeshift snapshot. The command will appear in the comment of the snapshot in the Timeshift GUI, so you will know which one it is. The /boot backup will be saved as /boot.backup.

By default, it will save up to three snapshots at a time, but you can change this or other options by editing the file /etc/timeshift-autosnap-dnf5.conf.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus

Hamburger Potato Casserole

Serves: 6

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound lean ground beef

1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup*

¾ cup milk

½ cup chopped onion**

salt and ground black pepper to taste

3 cups peeled and thinly sliced potatoes

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Gather all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir ground beef in the hot skillet until browned and crumbly, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain and discard grease.

Add in condensed soup, milk, onion, salt, and pepper in with the cooked and drained ground beef, mix well.

Alternately layer the potatoes, soup and browned ground beef mixture in a 2-quart baking dish. Cover the dish tightly with foil.

Bake in the preheated oven until potatoes are tender, about 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Remove foil, sprinkle Cheddar cheese on top, and continue baking until cheese is melted and bubbly, 5 to 10 minutes.

Serve and Enjoy

NOTES:

* Substitute Cream of Chicken or Cream of Celery soup instead of Mushroom soup.

** Sautee the onions

Add Sauteed mushrooms and finely diced garlic to the neet

Serve with a green salad or steamed green beans.

NUTRITION:

Calories: 403    Carbs: 17g    Sodium: 538mg    Fiber: 1g    Protein: 22g

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Sudoku

Download Puzzle Solutions Here

Scrappler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here

September 2026 Word Find

Weights & Measures

Download Puzzle Solutions Here

September 2026 Crossword

Weights & Measures

Download Puzzle Solutions Here

Mixed-Up-Meme Scrambler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here

Inspiration & Motivation

Screenshot Showcase

Posted by bliss on August 2, 2026, on KDE

Posted by francescoinblack on August 3, 2026, on IceWM

Posted by luikki on August 6, 2026, on KDE

Posted by Meemaw on August 1, 2026, on XFCE

Posted by mutse on August 15, 2026, on Maté

Posted by parnote on August 5, 2026, on XFCE

Posted by parnote on August 20, 2026, on XFCE

Posted by tbs on August 1, 2026, on XFCE

Posted by texstar on August 23, 2026, on KDE

Posted by Zoid on August 10, 2026, on KDE

Table of Contents

1. Table of Contents

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

3. ICYMI: More Than 1,000 Employees Of Leading AI Companies Ask For Guardrails

4. ICYMI: More Than 1,000 Employees Of Leading AI Companies Ask For Guardrails

5. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

6. GIMP Tutorial: Remove A Background In A Glass Object

7. Using AI Locally On PCLinuxOS: Upscayl

8. mpv: Using The "Forgotten" Multimedia Player As An OTA TV Player

9. The Hidden Cost Of Today's “Smart” Devices

10. Wiki Pick: Install Man Pages In PCLinuxOS

11. Alternative Methods of Installing Typst Locally

12. Tip Top Tips: Automatically Backup Your System When You Update

13. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus

14. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

15. Inspiration & Motivation

16. Screenshot Showcase

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

From The Chief Editor's Desk...

ICYMI: More Than 1,000 Employees Of Leading AI Companies Ask For Guardrails

ICYMI: More Than 1,000 Employees Of Leading AI Companies Ask For Guardrails

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

GIMP Tutorial: Remove A Background In A Glass Object

Using AI Locally On PCLinuxOS: Upscayl

mpv: Using The "Forgotten" Multimedia Player As An OTA TV Player

The Hidden Cost Of Today's “Smart” Devices

Wiki Pick: Install Man Pages In PCLinuxOS

Alternative Methods of Installing Typst Locally

Tip Top Tips: Automatically Backup Your System When You Update

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Bonus

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Inspiration & Motivation

Screenshot Showcase