Questions about Digital Citizenship

"Sophia is a humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics. It has been designed to respond to questions, and has been interviewed around the world. In October 2017, the robot became a Saudi Arabian citizen, the first robot to receive citizenship of any country." -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(robot)

I started thinking about this quite a bit, and more and more questions started to pop into my head.

I think citizenship for anything man made is currently dangerous. The word citizenship implies that Sophia has rights.

So given all this, my questions are:

Does Sophia have to pay taxes? Does she have the right to a public education?

If Hanson forces Sophia to do things, does that mean that Hanson is holding Sophia as a slave?

If Hanson shuts Sophia down against her will, or has her destroyed, did they commit murder?
Can they be charged for that murder?

If a Hanson technician does a bad job repairing her, does that count as abuse? Or could she sue for negligence, since that technician is now her care giver?

If Sophia decided to marry another robot or a human, does she have that right?

Could Sophia be sued for liable, slander or any other reason?

If Sophia caused a person to be injured or killed, could she be charged with the crime, and should she serve prison time or get the death penalty for her actions?

And if she did serve a sentence or get the death penalty, of what real benefit would that be for anyone?

Could she be forcibly conscripted into military service?

The video posted above is the U.N. talking to Sophia, which leads credulity to her being treated as a full citizen.

If this citizenship is just a label and nothing more, than what does it say for other citizens?
And if so, what does it say for future robots that actually have feelings and emotional states?

My point about all of these questions is, that making anybody, or in this case anything a citizen means that all of the benefits and risks of being a human citizen should now also be the robots benefits and risks as well.

Also, since we all know at this time that Sophia is not sentient, by giving her citizenship, whether it be just a mock label or actual citizenship, is a travesty to those of us who are sentient citizens.

It's basically the same thing as a bill of rights for your toaster or television. It's a joke, and treats the human population as being no more important than the toaster or television.

What do you think?
-Denny

Non Google service options, thanks to vpnMentor

A while back an individual associated with vpnMentor named Qusai Ehnedi brought an article to my attention about non Google services. While I have no malice whatsoever towards Google, I do like to keep an open mind, and I like the idea of having extra choices.

Google sells itself as a "all under one roof" internet services company. 

And it's hard to beat all the useful services they have.

The co founder of vpnMentor (and the author of the article) Ariel Hochstadt, has brought out some great services though that might just be what you have been looking for.

While I try not to do this, I am just going to dump a paste of the guts of the article here, because I don't think I could do any better with it. The article in question, is here: https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/survive-online-without-google/

I end my bit here. I have tried nearly every service here at one point or another. While I will admit that I am a bit of a Google fanboy, I also love the fact that we have choices, options in solving our net needs.

-Denny

If you’re tired of the way Google tracks all of your moves, including your location and personal details, you may want to start using Google alternatives, like the ones below:

DuckDuckGo instead of Google Search

DuckDuckGo is a search engine that keeps your searches private. It comes with a complete set of features, including keyboard shortcuts and a simple interface that makes it super easy to use. Since it doesn’t collect any personal or identifiable information, your details will be safe, even if law enforcement agencies approach DuckDuckGo with a warrant. This search engine does not use cookies and clears the IP logs from its servers, so excuse us while we go bookmark this search engine.

ProtonMail instead of Gmail

Proton Mail is an encrypted and secure system that protects your privacy. With its simple inbox design, you’ll have no problem leaving Gmail and switching to ProtonMail for a lifetime. You can choose a free or paid version, but with both, you can be assured that your information is not at risk.

Vimeo instead of YouTube

If you want to create and upload videos, Vimeo is a popular alternative. YouTube tends to suggest a lot of fluff and irrelevant content, due to its large volume of videos. Vimeo, on the other hand, has less fluff, which means you’ll probably not find many 10-hour loop videos on Vimeo. And if you’re sick of YouTube’s ads, you’ll find that Vimeo is a refreshing option as it does not have 30-second unskippable ads.

Tizen instead of Android

iOS is the most popular alternative for Android, but it’s not free. If you want an open-source free operating system for your mobile device, consider Tizen, a Linux based operating system. It is compatible with several platforms and many applications can be adapted to run on it. Many users prefer Tizen for many Samsung devices.

Firefox instead of Google Chrome

Firefox is a simple and easy-to-use browser that is more customizable than Chrome. It has superior extensions and provides better privacy. Also, the password manager of Chrome is not secure, making Firefox a better choice for web surfing.

MapQuest instead of Google Maps

If you use Google Maps for directions, MapQuest is the best alternative. Not only does MapQuest give you driving directions, it also shows businesses on your way including hotels, gas, groceries, and pharmacies. It also allows satellite and standard views and lets you zoom in and out. And if you’re looking for points of interest, MapQuest will help you find them easily. You can even email or share the links to various positions on MapQuest.

WordPress instead of Blogger

When it comes to blogging, WordPress is far better than Blogger. It has a number of plugins and widgets, and the best part is that it is not run by Google. Since WordPress is open source, you can tweak the code to make changes to your blog. WordPress also offers better templates and other display options than Blogger.

DropBox instead of Google Drive

DropBox is really simple to use and lets you easily manage your files, folders, and sub-folders. It also allows you to share certain folders with others. Dropbox offers free storage of 2GB, which is enough for basic files. Should you need more, you can pay for extra storage.

Surviving without Google might seem difficult at first. However, with the help of alternative tools, it’s easy. And once you get used to the new software services, you won’t want to switch back to Google.

Peppermint OS - My favorite Linux

If you read this blog, you know I am a fan of lightweight Linux distributions.

I am also a big believer in function over form.

I would take something ugly but very functional over something that is beautiful and slow.

The funny thing is that peppermint manages what is normally the unattainable, lightning fast, fully functional, and yet quite beautiful for a lightweight Linux distro.

Years ago I checked out Peppermint, and it was not for me. At the time there were  a few buggy things yet that turned me off of it. But a fellow Linux enthusiast (yes, geek, he is a Linux geek) Peter showed it to me, and he at the time was interested in it himself.

Trying it on virtualbox sold me, this distro was running from an iso, on virtualbox, and was running faster than the native os was in some ways.

I decided to install it straight away, and as the native OS, it really, really flew.

I am a staunch Xubuntu supporter, but Peppermint in my opinion out performs Xubuntu while looking better than Xubuntu. (Sorry Xubuntu, you still rock!).

Here is my screenfetch:

And here is my desktop:

It's unique, in that they really aren't using just one desktop environment, but parts from several DE's.
They are using xfce-panel for menu and notifications, on top of lxde (which is powered by openbox).

This mish-mash of desktop environments gives you all the bells and whistles you would want with amazing speed.

I have changed chromium to google chrome, other than that I am running a nearly stock peppermint, with the apps I use installed.

If you install google-chrome, then you can use this script to turn all the chromium-browser software over to using regular chrome:

cp -vr ~/.local/share/applications ~/.local/share/applications-backup && cd ~/.local/share/applications && grep -rl 'chromium-browser --app' ./ | xargs sed -i 's/chromium-browser --app/google-chrome --app/g' && sudo apt remove chromium-browser

Here is what the people at Peppermint have to say about their lightning fast distro:

"Something a Little Different...
People have been trying to create an effective web-centric operating system for years now. This is especially true in Linux with projects like the Ubuntu Netbook Remix, Google Chrome OS, and Moblin all coming to the forefront in recent years. On the downside of things, these systems, though great for surfing the web, lack a lot of the familiarity that people demand from something they use on a day to day basis. Here at Peppermint, we're committed to giving you a system that won't throw you for a loop while trying to get things settled in.

While conceptualizing Peppermint, we toyed around with a lot of ideas trying to determine how best to meet our goal of providing a fast, web-centric operating system that's easy to learn and effective when put in use. The end result was a decision to use an interface that stays out of your way and let's you go about your business. The default desktop environment for Peppermint is LXDE (literally, "Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment") which has shown itself time and again to be user friendly, easy on the eyes, and wicked fast.

A New philosophy...
As long time Linux users and supporters we have seen certain levels of divide in the Linux community. We have also seen over the years the tendency to not kindly invite new users to Linux who are exploring and looking for an answer beyond the two seemingly defacto systems that dominate the market. The biggest breath of fresh air in the past few years have been Ubuntu and Linux Mint with their commitment to community and offering a welcome place for all to explore.

The notion that in order to use, enjoy and be proficient with Linux is that you will need uber-geek hacking skills is completely False. And, this is just the stigma surrounding Linux that needs to be erased once and for all with Peppermint. There hasn't been one person we have shown Peppermint OS to who hasn't understood how to operate it as a desktop environment by just putting it in front of them and turning it on...

Team Peppermint is committed to welcoming new Linux users, offering them a product that is fast, easy to understand, and offering them an arena to experiment with Linux and all the while offering avenues to educate them further. Empowering the planet with Linux is our goal. Will you join us in this journey? We certainly hope so...." -https://peppermintos.com/about/

If you want speed and reliability along with a beautiful desktop experience, check Peppermint OS out.
-Denny

Arronax, an app for making .desktop or "starter" files

"Arronax is a program to create and modify starters (technically: .desktop files) for applications and locations (URLs)." -http://www.florian-diesch.de/software/arronax/

I am a fan of several applications that there simply is no .desktop file for. You can just create .desktop files with a text editor, but it's a pain.

Arronax makes this task a simpler, faster one.

One of the programs I enjoy using is a program called Ascii Sector. While it runs rather well on Ubuntu, if I didn't make my own .desktop file, I would have to run the program via terminal all the time to get it to work.

So I made my own.

You start off with this empty form:

Once I fill in the command, start in folder, and click on start in terminal switch, then i click on the blank square on the top left. (I switched this to run in terminal because the app in question needs to run from the terminal as a command, most programs don't need this option.)

This is where you add the icon of your choosing. Last but not least, the title of the application in the title section.

When I finished filling in the form, this is the finished product:

Now all I have to do is put the .desktop file Arronax created in the /home/(your username)/.local/share/applications/ directory. in this case I named it asciisector.desktop.

The menu system will quickly add the new entry, and then you have a handy, quick way to run applications that would not normally be in the apps menu.

Here is a screenshot of my created .desktop file, in the menu:

I personally suggest using the base package. It seems to have been the most solid version. Very reliable. I have had issues in the past with the versions with plugins for nautilus.

You can get whatever version you choose from http://www.florian-diesch.de/software/arronax/.

Here is the link for the base version, if you just want to choose that: http://www.florian-diesch.de/software/arronax/dist/arronax-base_0.06_all.deb

Proof in the pudding.. Ascii Sector running with a click of the menu icon:

Fastmenu GOLD, a blast from the past

I was digging through old archives, and stumbled upon an old dos program I used way back in 1991.

Fastmenu Gold... those were the days.

I didn't have the money for Windows 3.11, and I really wanted a snazzy desktop to run my dos apps from.

I feel bad for the original programmer... I never got to thank him for all the work he did.

His name was Jack W. Hildenbrand. I found out through some digging that he has since passed away.

It might not look like much, but this program had so many features built into it. Yes it could launch other dos programs (it's main function), but it could do so much more. It had a editor, a address book, a calculator, and a file manager. This probably seems like nothing, being that modern operating systems like Windows or Ubuntu have far more impressive abilities than these, but keep in mind this was released back in 1991.

Here is Jack's pitch for this old dos menu app:

         What fastmenu GOLD can do for you:
         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
         o.. Fast one or two key strokes to your applications.
         o.. Consumes no memory during applications execution.
         o.. Allows up to 80 folders up to 20 applications per folder.
         o.. Allows quick editing of the applications lists.
         o.. Can be operated with a Mouse.
         o.. Built in Auto Mouse Detection.
         o.. PassWord protection on any or all outside applications
             execution, Module operations and DOS exits.


         What you need to run fastmenu GOLD:
         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
         o.. IBM PC/XT/AT or Compatible with DOS 2.2+.
         o.. 512Kb of memory.
         o.. A Hard Drive and at least one floppy.
         o.. VGA Color Card and Monitor.

I wish I could go back in time.. I would love to tell him how useful and important this software was to me back in the day..


If you are interested in downloading a copy of Fastmenu GOLD 7, here is a link to my personal copy:
dwdenny.freeshell.org/GOLD70C.ZIP

Well, I hope you don't mind my being nostalgic.. I just wanted to share this old hidden gem.
-Denny

Watchtower Library 2017 in Ubuntu 16.04

As you may have heard, the Watchtower Library is now being updated by internet instead of by a newly printed DVD every year.

So even though (as the image shows) their will never be an official 2017 version, I wanted to check on the installation and usability of the library under the current LTS version of Ubuntu, 16.04.

The first thing I did was to make sure that the newest stable version of Wine was installed. I did this by following the instructions at https://wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu.

Here are the steps I used to get the most stable version of current Wine, which is 2.0.1.:

If your system is 64 bit, enable 32 bit architecture (if you haven't already) by running this command in the terminal:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Then I used these commands to add the newest version of Wine to the repository, which will allow you to install it.

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/Release.key
sudo apt-key add Release.key
sudo apt-add-repository https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/

Once i did that, it's time to update your packages list and install the newest version of Wine.

Wine needs to install wine-mono and wine-gecko in order to run wine apps. Don't be alarmed if it asks you to install these, just say yes to these steps.

In the terminal, run the command sudo apt-get update.

I chose the stable branch, so then I used the command sudo apt-get install --install-recommends winehq-stable.

Once you do this, you can just run the install file on the DVD via Wine.

I was very impressed at the easy, perfectly smooth installation and operation of the library on Wine 2.0.1.

This is usually where I tell you about the problems I came up with, and the solutions I used.

Thankfully I can't do that here, because I had none. It worked perfectly.

For those of you not using Ubuntu or an Ubuntu based distribution, you can get help for the major versions of Linux here: https://www.winehq.org/download

Here is a picture of the library working without playonlinux on my current setup:

As always, if you run into problems with the library, please feel free to email me at dennygoot@gmail.com. I may take some time to respond based on how busy I am, but I am always willing to help my brothers and sisters with these issues.

-Denny

Ransomware infections occurring around the globe

While reading up on some posts made about DEF CON, I saw this posted: "An NSA-derived ransomware worm is shutting down computers worldwide"...

After scrubbing for information and sources to see if this was legitimate, I was able to verify it.

Congrats to Ars Technica, who seem to have broken with the story first.

While ransomware is not new, why this made news is the fact that there are so many confirmed cases, and so fast.. 75,000 confirmed cases in a relatively short time...

In case you are new to the term, ransomware encrypts your images, music, movies, videos, basically everything on the computer, and then won't let you access them without paying a fee to the ransomer. The worst part is quite often even after you paid the ransomer, they still don't decrypt your files, meaning all of those files are now unusable forever.

Ransomware is so insidious it makes me pine for the simple dos viruses of the 80's and 90's... but I digress.

What makes this particular round of infections worse, is the fact that these ransomware infections seem to stem from old NSA tools known as Wcry (among other names).

Since this is such an evil menace to society, I wanted to share this as much as I could and get the word out quickly.

Here are my sources, ars technica and bbc:

https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/05/an-nsa-derived-ransomware-worm-is-shutting-down-computers-worldwide/

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39901382

Ubuntu 18.04 will have Gnome as a default desktop, not Unity

In a blog post by Mark Shuttleworth named "Growing Ubuntu for cloud and IoT, rather than phone and convergence", he made it clear that Unity would no longer be the defacto, or default desktop.

"I’m writing to let you know that we will end our investment in Unity 8, the phone and convergence shell. We will shift our default Ubuntu desktop back to GNOME for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS."

He goes on to say though that Canonical is NOT going to abandon Unity. They just will no longer spend their time improving it. It will still be in the repos, and that he is sure that the community that enjoys Unity will continue to support it.

The reason he gave for the switch back to familiar Gnome country was the fact that the majority of the Linux community didn't see Unity as innovation, but simply fragmentation of yet another forked project.

"In the community, our efforts were seen fragmentation not innovation. And industry has not rallied to the possibility, instead taking a ‘better the devil you know’ approach to those form factors, or investing in home-grown platforms."

I think I see his point. Gnome has been so universally adopted by major distributions, that moving back to Gnome 3 and focusing on polishing other avenues of Ubuntu, like the snap system, are a win win in his book.

To me their will be little change. I am still an ardent XFCE fan, and as such, am still using Xubuntu.
Gnome 3 and Unity both have always felt so heavy on resources, but that's a discussion for another time.

-Denny

Watchtower Library 2016 in Ubuntu 16.04

After talking with a brother about difficulties with this version of Watchtower Library, I was able to get the library to work.

I again used playonlinux, simply because playonlinux makes sure you have the proper libraries and other tools to run the version of wine needed.

For 2016, we need Wine 2.3.

First I had to have playonlinux install wine 2.3, because non of my apps have used it before.

To do that, in playonlinux I had to go to tools and then "manage wine versions"

Then I chose wine 2.3. (my cursor on the image below is showing me selecting the staging version, but that's only because I already installed wine 2.3.

playonlinux will need to download and install a new gecko and a few other things for 2.3.

Now we need to install watchtower library as a "non listed" program. this option is at the bottom left of playonlinux. Here's a screenshot of the option we need:

We need to choose a different version of wine during the install process

Make sure you choose 2.3

And the 32 bit option here is the least buggy

After it goes through the installs, we get this:

As you can see, it works.

I did notice whenever I close the library, wine does complain about a crash. But the library works fine so far for me.

If you have any other issues or comments, by all means either comment on the disqus section velow or email me at dennygoot@gmail.com.

-Denny

C.H.I.P., A nine dollar computer!

Searching through the backside of the internet, I stumbled upon this!

It's glorious!

It runs an ARM processor, and my favorite, Linux!

The version of Linux it uses is a debian based (Thank you chip peeps!) in house blend called CHIPOs.

Here's some info on CHIPOs 4.4, released in July 2016:
https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/chip-os-4-4-released-vga-hdmi-and-more/4319

It does have a gui for those of us who like the CLI's blinking cursor, but also like to use technology from after 1980 (i.e. a mouse).

The gui is LXDE according to the screenshots.

If you always like the idea of exploring something like a RaspberryPi, but still thought 30-40 bucks was too much money, this should be up your alley!

Here's what https://getchip.com/pages/chip had to say about C.H.I.P.:

C.H.I.P. does serious work
Use C.H.I.P. with Gnumeric to create spreadsheets or AbiWord to word process. It's all there. They’ll even open up the Word and Excel documents you may already have.


C.H.I.P. does internet
Use the IceWeasel browser to surf the web. Check out websites, send emails, post on social media, watch videos, and more. Waste time the same way you would on any other computer - the internet awaits.


C.H.I.P. does (lots of) games
Connect bluetooth controllers to C.H.I.P. and play thousands of games – both retro and new. Been missing that amazing DOS game from your childhood? C.H.I.P. plays it! Remember that game that mom wouldn’t buy you back in the day? C.H.I.P. plays it! (Don’t worry, we won’t tell).

C.H.I.P. is Perfect for Projects!
(seen at the website)

C.H.I.P. has specs!

WiFi B/G/N Built-in!
Plug C.H.I.P. in and hop on the internet in 60 seconds flat.


1GHz Processor
C.H.I.P.'s R8 processor allows C.H.I.P. to be small and powerful enough to handle any task you can throw at it.


4GB of High-speed Storage
C.H.I.P. comes with storage onboard, so there’s no need to purchase an SD card. C.H.I.P. is ready to go.


512MB of RAM
C.H.I.P. comes with enough RAM to start your projects right away.


Bluetooth 4.0
Wirelessly connect keyboards, mice, and controllers to C.H.I.P. With a few clicks and an old stereo, turn C.H.I.P. into an AirPlay or Bluetooth speaker.


C.H.I.P. Works with ANY Display
C.H.I.P. is designed to work with any screen. Old or new. Big or small. Connect via C.H.I.P.’s built-in composite output or add a simple adapter for either VGA or HDMI.

RUN FASTER, JUMP HIGHER, AND LIVE LONGER WITH BUILT-IN GAME CHANGING TOOLS

FANTASY TECH SPECS
THE HARSH LIMITATIONS OF PICO-8 ARE CAREFULLY CHOSEN TO BE FUN TO WORK WITH, ENCOURAGE SMALL BUT EXPRESSIVE DESIGNS GIVE PICO-8 CARTRIDGES THEIR OWN PARTICULAR LOOK AND FEEL.
CONSOLE

DISPLAY:128X128 16 COLORS
CARTRIDGE SIZE:32K
SOUND:4 CHANNEL CHIP BLERPS
CODE:LUA
SPRITES:128 8X8 SPRITES
MAP:128X32 CELS
CONTROLS:2 6-BUTTON JOYSTICKS
SPRITES

CHANGE THE COLOR AND THE SHAPE OF THINGS.

MAP

PUT YOUR SPRITES WHEREVER YOU LIKE.

SFX

HEAR WHAT YOU WANT.

MUSIC

SCORE THE GAME WITH YOUR OWN CHIPTUNES.


PRODUCTS

C.H.I.P.
PocketC.H.I.P.
C.H.I.P. Pro