JDPFu.com 2025

When people choose to install Ubuntu, they usually grab the latest release because we have been conditioned to think that newer = better. Sometimes that is true, but not always.

All the people who installed Ubuntu 13.04 should be updating to 13.10 soon. There isn’t really any choice.

I like rdiff-backup. It isn’t perfect, but for my needs, it fits. I’ve written about it, mostly in abstract ways, over the years. Seemed like time to show a non-trivial example. Below is the command used to backup a major storage server here.

As usual, security and convenience ride a fulcrum. As things are easier to use, security usually suffers. That applies to full disk encryption too.

What?

I was reviewing a B-sides talk by Tom Kopchak on defeating full-disk encryption. Tom was able to gain administrative access to a Windows laptop with full-disk encryption enabled. We aren’t always safe.

Organizing a LUG and being active on Linux forums, I find that the same questions get asked over and over. Here are the most common questions that I’ve answered.

• Why Linux?
• Troubleshooting
• Booting
• Best Practices
• Security
• Privacy

Recently update the System Maintenance for APT-based Linux PCs article here. Seems that some things that used to be handled automatically are NOT handled automatically anymore.

BTW, the article was published on Lifehacker a few years ago. I based it on their Maintenance for MS-Windows PC article. As you know, maintaining Linux systems ist 100x easier than maintaining MS-Windows.

Most nerds accept that email is not private. We are willing to send unencrypted emails to our friends, family and coworkers because it is convenient. We forget that email is really like a postcard, not a letter, so anyone along the way can read all the contents.

A few people use encrypted email. There are 2 main forms of this – x.509 and gpg. I’ve been using gpg more and more for unimportant communications, because it is my right to have private conversations over the internet. What is said between me and the other party is nobody elses’ business. Really, we are just chatting, but that isn’t the point.

Recently, a brave businessman has probably risked jail by not saying that his company was not asked to provide access to encrypted email sent by customers. There have been 2 encrypted email services shutdown by their owners in the last week. We don’t know why, but suspect a gag order by the US government prevents these businesses from talking.

Last time I checked, the 1st amendment to our Constitution expressly provided for free speech. It says (this is a direct quote):

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It has been some very sad years since 2001. The terrorist have won. The US government is more of an enemy now than anyone else in the world, I’m sad to say.

While I wouldn’t trust any 3rd party service for my encrypted email needs, I know how difficult and non-convenient using gpg is. It is a hassle, but I encourage everyone to use it for all their emails. What we say in our email is nobody elses damn business. We shouldn’t need to fear what we say privately and shouldn’t have to worry that our more and more oppressive government is reading those conversations.

So, google “how-to gpg email” for your platform and email program and get setup with your own gpg keys. This is very important for people using those free, huge, email providers like gmail.

A few related articles:

• What Petraeus did Wrong
• KeePassX, Pinentry, and Enigmail
• Options to Securely Share Files

Now the government has made me sound like a lunatic, but at least I feel better.

Turns out that nobody is paranoid enough when it comes to their internet use.

Even the most paranoid people, who use TOR have discovered that TOR isn’t enough.

I’ve been paranoid for years and years, not because I have anything to hide, my life is relatively boring. Mostly it is because I believe in the US Constitution and the right to privacy that is included by the 4th Amendment therein. Without a judge signing a warrant based on probable cause, what I do is nobody’s business.

If you haven’t read the full Constitution since High School – take 5 minutes and read the main part again now. It is a simple outline for governments written in plain English. I dare say – genius.
It isn’t perfect. I’d change the election laws by forcing term limits, prohibit campaign contributions except from 1 human individual to another human individual, prohibit contributions unless the person contributing can legally vote in THAT elections, and I’d add clearer privacy rights across all forms of communications taken place in private. I’d add that government employees can be recorded in any way while they are working, except where safety is a concern.

So it turns out that I was paranoid about the wrong things, at least if you read my blog articles. I’ve been paranoid about the US Government for years, just didn’t think it was a good idea to post those thoughts to the internet. We will see if there is any impact to my international travel based on this.

At a LUG meeting recently, someone asked which distributions I used and why. My choice of distro is not random by any means. It was a carefully thought out reason, which fits my requirements.

Amazon Prime Streaming is a service similar to Netflix and HuluPlus. It includes free 2-day shipping from Amazon and free streaming of selected TV and Movies over the internet to select devices. Over the years, Amazon Prime distinguished itself from Netflix by working with stock Linux desktop installs. Sure, from time-to-time, Amazon has broken that capability, but it was usually corrected and Linux users, including XBMC users, were happy again.

Sometime in April or May of 2013, Amazon changed something in their streaming and broke the ability for Linux users to access the content – free or paid. A number of friends have complained to Amazon. One relative requested and received a 100% refund from Amazon on the Game of Thrones streaming that he’d purchased due to this screw-up. That person has purchased an Apple-TV device now.

For a few months, Linux users tried to find a work-around, then streaming started working again for some Linux users, but not all. Here is what I know ….

Ubuntu is a specific Linux release – a distro – that is based on Debian, but with many, many GUI-level differences. Canonical is the company behind the Ubuntu releases and sometimes their near-term goals do not mesh with normal end-user goals. Canonical also changes some non-GUI things in their releases, but an average end-user will not notice those changes.

Anyway, I strongly believe that most end-users should be running the latest LTS release, not the 3 intermediate releases. for more reasons, keep reading.