luv-talk December 2019

luv-talk@luv.asn.au

18 participants
8 discussions

by Russell Coker

The Android calendar is quite effective for telling you what scheduled tasks you have. It also has a "reminder" which is half OK (summarises multiple items briefly). The final option is "goals" which seems to be a way to put events in the calendar which fit in around other scheduled events. But then if you add a "goal" then you get an entry each day which takes up vertical space when scrolling through the list of all meetings in future. I'm after a (preferrably free) task manager for Android that has tasks that can be scheduled for each day (EG take medicine) and for other tasks like going shopping or fixing a computer that are one-off and get removed when done. Any suggestions? -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

2 years, 9 months

Telstra Scam

by Brian May

Hello All, Seems like my father[1] got scammed by "Telstra". They asked for the model and serial number of our ADSL modem, and asked him what lights were flashing. They had him install "Any place control 7.5" on his Windows computer, gave them remote access. In doing so his screen went blank, which makes me very suspicious. Then he left his computer on with the remote access still enabled. As a result, we have no idea what the attacker may have done. They said we could have free fibre connection for $5 delivery fee, which finally got him suspicious, but he still didn't think of turning off the computer or disconnecting the network connection. We don't have any account with Telstra, and there is no reason why they should be calling. I think we cannot trust that copy of Windows anymore. I have recommended he use Windows from his old hard disk[1] that wasn't plugged in at the time. I am not sure what to do about his data files (Word + Excel), other then do a full virus scan. He also has a backup copy of the files that was not available to the attacker, and was going to compare file sizes. I might suggest he install a program that compares files in two directories, and run that. (any recommendations?). I might also block unknown telephone numbers on incoming phone calls by default. Sure we might miss some important calls (callers these days generally refuse to leave voice mail), but I think it will be safer. I think this could easily happen again. Is there anything else we should be doing? Regards Notes: [1] This the same father who just recently purchased an external USB device, plugged a 12V power supply into it - instead of 5V, and fried the device and his motherboard in his good computer at the same time. -- Brian May <brian(a)linuxpenguins.xyz> https://linuxpenguins.xyz/brian/

2 years, 9 months

Humble bundle: O'Reilly: 14 days: O'Reilly Classics

by Rodney Brown

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/oreilly-classics-oreilly-books Humble Book Bundle: O'Reilly Classics by O'Reilly 14 days USD1 (about AU$1.44) or greater 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know JavaScript: The Good Parts Revolution in the Valley The Cathedral & the Bazaar Programming Perl 4th ed. USD8 (about AU$11.59) or greater Java in a Nutshell 7th ed. SSH: The Secure Shell The Definitive Guide 2nd ed. Git Pocket Guide vi and Vim Editors Pocket Reference 2nd ed. Hackers & Painters USD15 (about AU$21.74) or greater DNS and BIND 5th ed. Data Analysis with Open Source Tools Information Architecture 4th ed. Head First Java 2nd ed.

2 years, 9 months

ADSL congestion

by Brian May

Last night I tested my ADSL speed with speedtest.net, and it barely reached 1Mbps. I rebooted my modem just in case, and then it almost reached 3Mpbs. Today I ran the same test and get 14.23Mbps. Is this likely to be due to congestion on the ADSL network? I note these slowdowns happened about the same time a cabinet, presumably for NBN FTTN, appeared across the road from the telephone exchange. So wondered if maybe they are taking away upstream capacity from ADSL to use for NBN? On a semi related note, I have noticed recently that the Netflix android app often struggles to connect to the "Netflix Android Server". The Netflix network test has a red cross next to "Netflix Android Server nw--423--423", but has a green tick next to "Internet connection". This happens at times when the Internet connection speed is good. Eventually if I keep trying it comes good. Sometimes it dies while watching a show; streaming still works, but searching shows doesn't. So far my attempts to try to debug the problem with tcpdump have resulted in the problem disappearing. Will keep trying. -- Brian May <brian(a)linuxpenguins.xyz> https://linuxpenguins.xyz/brian/

2 years, 9 months

Mail bounce

by Brian May

Hello, When I try to send an email to a recruiter, I get the following bounce: === cut === This is the mail system at host ext-mx-out003.mykolab.com. I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below. For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster. If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message. The mail system <cthum(a)siriustechnology.com.au>: Host or domain name not found. Name service error for name=siriustechnology.com.au type=MX: Host not found, try again === cut === But when I try to lookup the MX records myself, I get a response: === cut === host -t mx siriustechnology.com.au siriustechnology.com.au mail is handled by 5 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. siriustechnology.com.au mail is handled by 10 ALT3.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. siriustechnology.com.au mail is handled by 10 ALT4.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. siriustechnology.com.au mail is handled by 1 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. siriustechnology.com.au mail is handled by 5 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. === cut === I am just curious why this might happen? Regards -- Brian May <brian(a)linuxpenguins.xyz> https://linuxpenguins.xyz/brian/

2 years, 9 months

free PCs with broken PSUs

by Russell Coker

i5 750 2.67GHz with 8G of DDR3 RAM (4*2G), can include video card and SATA disks as needed. Broken PSU. i7-950 with 24G of DDR3 RAM (6*4G), can include video card and SATA disks as needed. Broken PSU. Motherboard has about 12 SATA ports of which only 2 will work reliably at any time (known motherboard issue with multiple Google reports associated with that part number), this is fine if you only have 1 or 2 disks but if you have more then it's a problem for you. For me replacing a PC is easier than replacing a PSU. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

2 years, 9 months

Re: [luv-talk] Australia is governed by a party with extremist right-wing views

by Andrew McGlashan

Hi, On 5/12/19 12:16 am, Jason White via luv-talk wrote: > I've been living overseas in recent years for work reasons, so perhaps I shouldn't comment. However, I don't recall that the Australian Labor Party was particularly progressive regarding the rights of refugees - at least when I was last paying attention. Didn't they favour mandatory detention policies, and the exclusion of off-shore detention facilities from the migration zone? > > If that's the case, then the issue lies with both sides of mainstream Australian politics, making it more complicated than the question of how far to the right the current government is. So far as I can remember, the Australian Greens have been consistently supportive of upholding the human rights of refugees. > > Others are welcome to correct me if any of the above are false impressions, of course. Labor has rolled over on many things; expecting to form government to fix some of them. Labor had, in Hawke's time, more compassion for the people and their own very fair "green" agenda before the Greens party even existed -- there was no need for the Greens back then. In any case, Labor is far too close to LNP in many issues, but you can't win elections (generally), if you keep wanting to take monies out of people's pockets, especially in this depressed economy. It's more give me, give me, give me and "what's in it for me" ... AU people have to look after themselves and do what they can to support causes they believe in if they have enough funds to do so after huge rises in cost of living here. I'm pretty sure one of Keating's last policies helped get him booted, he wanted to increase the government take on capital gains -- sound familiar? Taking ANY monies from the people is a recipe for disaster in this greedy country that can see no further than the value of their dollars. Of the two major parties, I believe Labor is far ahead of LNP, but they don't present well and there are too many supporters of LNP with very strong voices and loads of money for the cause. Yeah, we are stuffed and two rights (LNP and Labor), doesn't make it "right", it just makes it sad. A.

2 years, 9 months

Australia is governed by a party with extremist right-wing views

by Peter Ross

Hi all, Today in Australia, the governing Liberal Party won a repeal of a bill about medical help for refugees detained for more than six years without any timeline for their future. This win was central to their election platform. It is government policy to harm refugees as much as possible, under various justifications which vary when convenient, citing national security, preventing drownings, stopping people smugglers, discouraging queue jumpers or simply "we decide who comes". In Germany, refugees are housed in the community and have freedom of movement in the public. This is generally accepted by all major parties, with one exception. The Alternative für Deutschland, campaigns for similar harsh refugee policies. According to Wikipedia, "the party has been described as a German nationalist, right-wing populist, and Eurosceptic party. Since about 2015, the AfD has been increasingly open to working with far-right extremist groups such as Pegida. Parts of the AfD have racist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic tendencies linked to far-right movements such as neo-Nazism and identitarianism." Court cases confirmed that there are substantial reasons to call the current leader of the party in Thuringia. Björn Höcke, a "fascist". A parliamentary spokesperson for German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stated: "Bernd Lucke is the founder of the most successful Nazi party since the NSDAP." Anti-refugee sentiment is central to the appeal of the AfD to the public, as it is central to the Australian Liberal Party in government as in opposition. I think it is fair to say that Australia is governed by a party with right-wing views at times overlapping with facist and neo-Nazi circles of right wing parties elsewhere in the world. Good night Peter

2 years, 9 months

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luv-talk December 2019