Previously: Part Zero, Part I, Part II.
Part III: The Cloud
In Parts I and II, we looked at desktop and mobile operating systems. Regardless of which OS you are running, you will need some software and online services to make it useful. We will now look at some free and open source alternatives to more mainstream software and services, which are more respectful of user privacy, beginning with “the cloud”.
“There is no cloud, it’s just someone else’s computer.” It’s cliche to say, and tech journalists have made a cottage industry out of writing lengthy articles explaining why it’s not technically accurate. Yes, it’s an oversimplification, but the underlying meaning is true: anything “in the cloud”, whether it is software or data, is outside of your control, and you must rely on the trust you have in the provider of the service. My personal preference is to use local software and storage as much as possible and to use cloud services as little as possible. But particularly in a business environment, cloud services are unavoidable. “Cloud” is a very broad term encompassing a huge variety of software-as-a-service solutions outside the scope of this article, so we will look at just a couple of the most common cloud services used by home users: storage and office productivity software.
When most individual web users, think of “the cloud”, they are thinking of cloud storage services like DropBox, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive – a big hard drive in the sky where you can put your files and access them from anywhere. The 2014 iCloud breach that gifted the English language with the term “The Fappening” should be sufficient to demonstrate why storing sensitive information on a publicly-accessible computer is not always a great idea, despite the convenience it offers. If you are going to use a cloud storage service, regardless of which provider you choose, it is highly recommended to encrypt your files prior to uploading using a program like Cryptomator or Duplicati, so that even if your files are retrieved by a malicious actor – or scanned by the service provider itself, for the children, of course – they still must be decrypted in order to be read or displayed. When you sign up for a cloud storage service, read the terms and conditions so that you know how your data will be handled and stored, how requests to access your data by governments and law enforcement agencies will be handled, and how your data will be shared with third parties. While I have not used it personally, I have heard good things about pCloud, and their client software encrypts your files prior to uploading as previously recommended. It is also entirely possible to roll your own “personal cloud” storage solution. In the past I have used the free and open source NextCloudinstalled on a home/small office NAS for this purpose, and can recommend it. This is an option best suited to someone with at least a little bit of technical experience, as you will need to expose your NAS to the public internet and take the appropriate security measures accordinglyif you want to access your files from outside your local network. NextCloud can also be used with a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or other third-party hosting provider, although that leaves you with the same caveats and drawbacks as using any cloud storage provider, you just have more control over the actual infrastructure. A related option which accomplishes a similar goal without actually using either a public or private cloud is to use a program like Syncthing to sync files from one computer or device to another. Syncthing is a peer-to-peer (P2P) program that allows you to connect two computers over a local network or the internet and synchronize files from one location to another. This is obviously more limited in functionality than a big data pool in the sky that anyone can access, but if you just want to, say, share files between your phone and PC, or between your office computer and your home computer, it’s a very good option with a simpler security model than cloud storage.
Another common use of cloud services for individual home users is office productivity software. Google and Microsoft’s cloud-based office suites are the most widely used and allow for easy online collaboration, creation, editing, and sharing of common office documents. While my preference is to use the LibreOffice suite installed on a local machine, if you need online collaboration and editing capabilities, there are other alternatives as well. LibreOffice itself has an experimental browser-based version using WebAssembly which looks quite promising, but it is not yet production-ready. Until then, OnlyOffice provides similar collaboration and online editing capabilities as Google and Microsoft’s offerings in a free and open source package that integrates with a number of different cloud solutions, including the aforementioned NextCloud. A less sophisticated alternative if you can live without real-time collaboration and online editing is to use the aforementioned Syncthing to simply sync locally-created and locally-edited office documents across different computers over a local network or the internet.
If you are interested in other types of alternative services you can host on your own private cloud, check out the Awesome-Selfhosted index.
TL:DR; Consider self-hosting your own cloud storage using a software solution like NextCloud, or using Syncthing to synchronize files between computers. Failing that, be sure to encrypt your files before uploading them to any cloud storage hosting provider using software like Cryptomator or Duplicati. Consider using OnlyOffice or a local office suite like LibreOffice instead of Google or Microsoft cloud office suites. Feel free to explore other self-hosted options from the Awesome-Selfhosted index.
Next, “Part IV: Web Browsers.”
There is no spoon?
I don’t know if I’m up for technical stuff. I’m on my second bacardi. It’s been a long day.
Short entry this week, as cloud services are kind of the antithesis of privacy. I considered trimming this section out of the series, but I didn’t, so here it is. Feel free to go OT.
I don’t use any cloud shit.
I let Amazon store some of my photos that I share with you people. That’s it.
It is still appreciated.
Like Count Potato, I have had many drinks. I hd the day off so I played with chocolate martini recipes for the womenfolk on Thanksgiving. I currently do use iCloud for a variety of things.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/12/20/google-scans-gmail-and-drive-for-cartoons-of-child-sexual-abuse/
Cartoons are illegal? Are they aware of an island nation in the north west pacifc?
Also, there’s at least one person (and more likely a team) of people looking at kiddie porn trying to tune their automation. Or using copies of kiddie porn to do so.
But that’s ok if they do it. And I’m sure it would never attract the wrong sort of person to that job.
it’s probably Sergei Brin, and he probably was an Epstein customer.
Apple’s implementation generates hashes of every image you upload to iCloud and cross-references it against image hashes from the FBI’s database of CP. I’d imagine Google’s is similar. Oh, yeah, btw, the FBI has a colossal database of CP…
Or a snowy land to the north?
https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/windsor-man-faces-child-porn-charges-due-to-cartoon-animated-images
However, the Criminal Code of Canada’s definition of child pornography includes “any written material, visual representation, or audio recording that advocates or counsels sexual activity with a person under the age of 18 years that would be an offence under this Act (Section 163.1 (1).”
Romeo and Juliet.
Game of Thrones?
“Cartoons are illegal?”
I believe so. That passe don the fedgov level a few years back.
LOL
“Balenciaga under fire over ‘creepy’ ads of kids with ‘bondage outfits’”
https://nypost.com/2022/11/21/balenciaga-under-fire-over-ads-with-kids-in-bondage-gear/
“the brand “Balenciaga” just did a uh….. interesting… photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about ‘virtual child porn’
normal stuff”
https://twitter.com/shoe0nhead/status/1594532715126202368
LOL shoe is the NY Post.
I’ve tried to like LibreOffice as recently as a couple weeks ago but I just… can’t. Wonky bugs everywhere, ugly as sin, etc. I appreciate the effort but maybe try not to shove in every conceivable feature and option and instead focus on something a little more approachable.
+1
It would be better if it were more simple. Same thing with Gimp.
I use LibreOffice Writer to compose my shiznat, and to open the doc/docx files that the contributors who don’t do WordPress send in, since I’m a cheap-ass mofo. I’ve never experienced bugs, but I find the interface and documentation incredibly clunky.
I used a free graphics rendering software for a while when my business was viable, InkSpot I think it was, and one of the biggest issues was incompatability with and vendors I used. Printers couldn’t print off of it, it fucked up rasterizing, etc. I gave up on it.
InkScape, probably. I used it to design a logo to be laser engraved on an anodizing project many, many years ago. Krita seems to have become the defacto FOSS standard for vector graphics and drawing. Blender for 3D.
But if you’re saving it as an SVG, does it matter what software you created it in? Or are you saying SVG is not a good standard?
I’ve used Inkscape to vectorize (and edit after vectorizing) raster files in order to cut on a CNC laser. With great success. Of course I’m the end user, so maybe that’s why I don’t see the issues you guys are talking about?
Theoretically, SVG should be completely portable once created. My experience was like yours, in that I created a SVG file in Inkscape and sent it off to the laser engraver without issue, but it was a very, very simple project, and that was around 10 years ago. I’m guessing Zwak was working on something more sophisticated and the vendor may have had different file format requirements or something.
True on both counts. Trying to make industry maps for locations with the clients supplied image files. I have no idea what the end issues were with the printer, as they farm out (at a nice discount) the final product as I am printing at volume. So, there could have been just as many front end issues as back end. I was able to go back and take care of most, but not all, issues in InDesign. Which cut into my profit, as it was a tiny business, and I loath subscription software.
And, yes, it was InkScape.
I’ve never had problems with it. The spreadsheet is a pain, but the word and ppt equivalents work fine for me.
I’ve been exclusively using OpenOffice (prior to getting borg’d by Oracle), then LibreOffice since not too long after the MS Office ribbon interface debuted, and to which I never quite adapted. I hear a lot of complaints about its hideousness, but for me it’s comfortably familiar. I also haven’t encountered a lot of bugs, but I don’t do much beyond basic accounting in Calc and the occasional letter and envelope in Writer.
I just use the free online MS apps – my needs are super basic bitch. If MS wants to paw through my games list or my resume… knock yourselves out.
Atlantis Word Processor
I’m disappointed by the lack of “alt-text” (image attribute field in WordPress editor).
Ceiling cat is watching you.
I forgot to add text to any of the illos. In my defense, they were a last minute addition.
I CANT FAP TO THE FAPPENING STUFF WHEN CEILING CAT IS WATCHING!
Ceiling kitty roolz
LibreOffice is good.
I am with you. LibreOffice does a variety of things well. You have to adjust to it, as you do if you suddenly went to Mac from Microsoft Office. Unless I am using it for work I avoid Microsoft Office and related products like the plague, They are the “government cheese” of software for me. I feel like a man in sunglasses is watching me all the time I use them. Endless verifications, etc…
Wouldn’t having your own cloud be storing info on your own computer?
Excellent series, by the way.
It allows access by your devices anywhere. So cloud, in your control. Yes it is based at home but your phone still has access to all your photos hosted there.
OK, that makes sense, I guess. I never do anything on my phone, but OK.
Same. The reason I took my NextCloud offline was because I just never used it from outside my local network anyway, but if you’re the type of person that wants to sync your phone in real time, it’s useful for that. Also music/video streaming if you have a device with limited local storage and no microSD slot. I keep my music library on a 256 GB microSD.
What is your preferred MicroSD?
I stick to Samsung for SD cards and thumb drives, and order directly from their website as a tremendous amount of the Samsung-branded flash memory at Amazon and eBay is counterfeit. I actually got my last batch of SD cards cheaper buying direct anyway.
Thanks.
You can use FFF to check them.
https://fight-flash-fraud.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
I think most of mine are Kingston.
“Excellent series, by the way.”
Don’t tell him that! You’ll spoil him. And then we won’t get no more good work out of him.
It’ll never happen. I considered the entire series substandard to the point that I scrapped it more than once and started over, and remain resolutely convinced that if it is evaluated with anything less than scornful derision it is merely out of politeness.
It fucking sucks. I love it.
It Was Much Better Than Cats
Never understood the appeal of making my files a) harder for me to access and b) easier for everyone else in the world to do so.
All of my active files and all of my archived documents and pictures fit on a 32GB SD card and thumb drive. Windows dropped support for the Briefcase which made it super easy to take my files on the road and update when I got home.
Thanks, Pat, enjoying this series.
I know my wife uses the cloud, specifically DropBox, all the time at work, as it allows file sharing between workers relatively easily. But, privacy for me is more important, and I often had to work somewhere with zero internet connections.
Tell you wife I said hello, by the way.
The only remote person who would connect to my files is me so portable storage is the most useful. Briefcase made it easy. Thanks Microsoft for making things harder with every “upgrade”. I still miss XP.
And Mrs. Hobbit sez, “Hi!”.
I use dropbox for unimportant things I need to transfer between devices. For instance, my ebook library, cross stitching patterns, etc.
Syncthing works similarly, you might find it useful. Rsync is the GOAT synchronization tool, but only available under WSL or cygwin on Windows.
What are
Syncthing
Rsync
WSL
cygwin
?????
WSL = Windows Subsystem for Linux
cygwin is an older option that lets you run *nix software on Windows
The other two seem to be software for syncing.
Syncthing is referenced briefly up in the main text with a link to the website. It’s basically just a P2P synchronization tool that works over a local network or the internet. You could use it in the same manner as the Briefcase tool to synchronize a designated folder.
Rsync is a CLI tool, but without a doubt the best synchronization tool around. Allows you to incrementally synchronize files, directories or entire drives while preserving permissions and ownership. I use it for my weekly backups. It’s cross-platform, but designed for POSIX environments, which is where cygwin and WSL come in. Cygwin is a POSIX runtime environment for Windows, and WSL = Windows Subsystem for Linux, which is kind of like a built-in virtual machine that allows you to run a Linux distro and Linux software inside Windows. It’s been included on the Pro and above versions of Windows since 10 debuted.
WSL2 is included in Windows 11 Home, FWIW
It was available for Windows 10 Home IIRC with some tweaking required
I use it for some programming tasks that are more comfortable in *nix
Ahh, nice. I have yet to “upgrade” my gaming drive from 10 to 11 and will put it off as long as humanly possible, so I’m a bit behind the times.
Links:
Rsync
cygwin
WSL
Use WSL2 if available. WSL2 runs in Hyper-V giving better Linux kernel support. Still not as good as VMWare Workstation (which is free for personal use).
But it’s seamless & no overhead that I can notice, which is pretty cool.
I use SyncToy, which is a built-in Windows sync utility.
Thank you to all for your replies. I see that there are options out there, will look into them.
I was pretty hot back when I was programming FORTRAN IV but the world seems to have left me in the dust.
One of these days I am going to do a study of active acronyms in tech, starting in 1960 and going to modern times. It’s going to be like looking at crimes considered felonies, which went from 2 to 80 to 47,000.
rsync is part of MacOs (and Linux, BSD, etc.)
Evening.
It was an interesting night at bowling. Got more strikes in a few minutes of practice than during the three games that mattered. I also had a streak of frames hwere I’d start by getting 1-3 pins, then picking up the spare.
I’ve grown to hate bowling as I was pretty decent as a teenager and just got worse and worse over the years. The last few times I’ve gone it was just embarrassing.
I’m sorry to hear that. Is it frustration or disillusionment?
Lack of confidence? Definitely lack of playtime.
It’s not like riding a bike, that’s for sure.
Next, “Part IV: Web Browsers.”
Squee!
Once again, I expect to learn that I am doing everything wrong 🙂
Dogs flew spaceships! The Aztecs invented the vacation!
Yes, seeker Everything You Know is Wrong!
It’s the longest entry in the series, and quite a slog. May God have mercy on your souls.
I believe it. Everything is fucking web now.
Won’t somebody please think of the programmers? Web programming sucks ass.
For the days when front end code was simple, handwritten HTML.
Exposing Nextcloud and most other services to the internet makes me cringe.
My preference is to only expose Wireguard or OpenVPN through my home router (pfsense/open source routers as article 4 maybe?) and then accessing Nexcloud and other homelab services through those VPNs
Both are much more widely used services with excellent guidelines for hardening.
Admittedly this is an option for the more advanced users
Definitely not for the faint of heart, and a VPN tunnel is the sensible approach. And of course, legal disclaimer, make sure you aren’t violating your ISP’s TOS by doing so.
Nothing in this series on home routers, I’m afraid (all parts of the series were written and submitted together). I wouldn’t feel quite qualified to do a write-up on that as I just use an Asus home office router with DD-WRT.
There is no cloud, it’s just someone else’s computer.
I’ve often said “the cloud is a great place to store data you don’t mind everyone in the world seeing.”
Yup. My thing is IDGAF.
Now… in a few years that might change; when I actually feel that I need to hide text from prying eyes like Klaus. Even then it will probably be a losing battle; and if that’s where we are, we have bigger problems to solve.
““There is no cloud, it’s just someone else’s computer.” It’s cliche to say, and tech journalists have made a cottage industry out of writing lengthy articles explaining why it’s not technically accurate. ”
How could it be any different? Close enough for me- not secure, etc.
That said, I do put files on drive and other places… but only things I am intending to share anyway, why else go through the effort?
Having a young kid is great. Spent the last 30 minutes before bedtime ‘camping’ in the living room in our ‘tent’.
I don’t understand people that can’t play with kids. Camping in the living room sounds fun.
I think if you can’t understand or won’t play with a little kid it is a big red flag.
“Camping in the living room sounds fun.”
It was awesome, We even drove the the camp site and everything. 😛
I need to book a real camping trip.
Oh, I lied. I use Carbonite as off-site storage.
When I see something in French I can parse a few words. When you guys go all techie I truly am a babe in the woods, totally defenseless.
Thanks anyway, Pat, it’s not your fault.
/Ignorance is happiness
Thanks, Pat!
Except that I am doing everything wrong. My existence could disappear with a keystroke.
Am I lazy? Nihilistic?
Or this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZASlBqCPETk
Yes?
Fair.
For only a $125 you can buy a jar of Terry Bradshaw peanut butter.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/200395271492
In the feed, there is another jar for $18.50. Ebay is a magical place.
Public service announcement for those few (read “one”) of you who might be inclined to go there: Hobby Lobby was crazy busy today, even early in the afternoon. Enter at your own risk. 😳
Oof. I did Kroger today, that was my last pre-Thanksgiving need. I can only imagine Hobby Lobby.
I think I’d rather hit the prepper stash in the basement than set foot in a grocery this week. So grateful we’re going to a restaurant Thursday!
Some of us helped my German teacher inventory at Linens ‘n Things once.
*random thought from HS about something that seems pretty odd a few decades later*
Can’t remember how I got roped into it, but I recall helping take inventory at a hardware store once back in HS. Somehow related to teachers with second jobs, maybe?
Yes, this was his second job.
I just look back and wonder how on earth this happened. I can’t imagine it happening today.
“Mom, my teacher wants me to spend tonight inventorying at his second job. I think he’ll drive me home around 11pm.”
“Sure!”
“Is he paying you?”
“No.”
“Oh HELL no.”
Heh. I don’t remember if money exchanged hands. I hope it did.
She just wanted you out of the house… 😛
I’m staying the hell away from Hobby Lobby until January. I got my mom’s gift framed and it was a madhouse. It’s been a nonstop madhouse for weeks. So done.
My mama’s Christmas present.
SOOOO beautiful!
+1
Did you paint that? It’s a visual treat.
No, it’s cross stitching, done from a pattern.
I need my eyes checked.
It’s not you. It’s my picture taking. Was trying to avoid glass glare and reflection.
As G_d is my witness, I thought those were grapes.
The good news is that I found fabric I liked – sturdy, furniture-appropriate, and WASHABLE – for the covers of the sofa cushions I’m making. Found it Friday evening, but held off buying it because the clerk clued me in that it would probably be 40% off this week. (Since I needed about 7 yards, that made it worth waiting for!) Took a long lunch and went back for it today, thankfully finding it right away in the same place, with only one person ahead of me getting fabric cut.
I got as far as “ I found fabric I liked – sturdy, furniture-appropriate, and WASHABLE..” and I though you were going for the Doktor Jill look in your wardrobe.
‘ only one person ahead of me getting fabric cut.’
This is key. Some people’s orders take FOOOOREEEEVVVEEEEERRR.
This one cracked me up.
https://mobile.twitter.com/kunley_drukpa/status/1594677974938570752
He’s not much worse than this guy.
I cannot wait for this week to be over. The wife is having surgery in 7 days, and they have her on this uber diet to shrink her liver: 1000 calories a day, no carbs, no fats, and so on. It is turning her into a raging bitch. I mean, she is losing a pound a day or more, she is super hungry, stressed, worried, I get it, but yeesh.
Vent over.
Sooo…I guess you don’t have big plans for Thanksgiving dinner?
Sorry it’s so rough for her AND for you! Hope the surgery goes as well as possible!
Even if you pointed it out, would she tell you, “It has nothing to do with that! I have a legitimate reason to be angry!” and actually believe she isn’t lying to herself?
My best to you both.
Sorry, Zwak. This is why God gave us mind altering substances.
Yikes 😲
I’ll drink to a speedy recovery 🙂
Stop twisting my arm so hard. 🍻
Best wishes for the missus, Zwak. I hope two weeks from now you both have some funny stories to tell about the stresses you’re now going through.
Best wishes for a good result and a speedy recovery.
Good luck, my wife is the same way if she misses her snacks… though I’m sure to a lesser degree. I of course have no such issues, as I’m always a curmudgeon.
It is amazing the level to which one’s perception is changed by external factors.
What an amazing color of blue (wait for it)
/runs into Lowes
“I want this blue for the walls and this blue for the trim!”
Very cool video.
Klimate change doom porn!
Sadly that was my reaction as well. cool color, thanks Kinnath.
Does anyone in America still do any frigging work? Tuesday, a manufacturer promised me a work order would be cut by Friday. Thursday, I called the local country club about holding a banquet in May. Thursday, I also contacted the County VA director about having a meeting to discuss veterans graves. Heard nothing by Friday pm so I called all three outfits today.
Not one of them is at work today! And the granddaughter is off from school all darn week for Thanksgiving (after being off three days two weeks ago for “set up for election day”, “election day” and Veterans Day. You’d think we were in France or Italy.
Aside from a few of (((those days))) it’s all hands on deck where I am.
(Oh, and we don’t get (((those days))) next year because they fall on the weekend. 😢)
It’s a running joke at work that our Swedish office won’t reply to any inquiries between October and January or so because nobody’s there. I guess there are one or two folks there for KTLO but it’s true – projects basically shut down.
We are a field office in the FAA and FedGov and we constantly ask…does anyone else work?
“Does anyone in America still do any frigging work? ”
Pretty sure nah. I have had the greatest commute this week. Crazy how shitty traffic gets from all the kids and teachers driving to school.
“You’d think we were in France or Italy.”
Correct.
For those interested in running one of the more private mobile operating systems Pat mentioned last time, the Google Pixel 6a is $299 right now.
https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_6a?hl=en-US
I’m tempted.
*walks into room and sees 2 female cats, a female dog and my wife*
*backs out with a ‘I love you’*
I was wholly outnumbered
At least one of those felines will identify as male once you crack the lid.
You dun goofed.
I watched some more snow fall today and realized that I haven’t left the front door for the last three weeks. Tacoma is growing an Afro. Where would I go? What would I do?
Venture to the nudie booty?
If I cared about that sort of thing it’s free to watch. Nah, this runs a little deeper.
Judi bought Carl’s Jr for dinner tonight. It is unseemly to complain but why would a souse with the stomach the size of a walnut want to dig into a burger the size of his head? It just gets betterer and betterer.
Too local VA news (Gourmeltz). https://fredericksburg.com/news/local/spotsylvania-restaurant-has-abc-license-suspended-keeps-selling-booze/article_e32880da-65f8-11ed-b89c-230274946e08.html#tracking-source=mp-homepage
They won’t stop. They will never give up!
For CPRM https://youtu.be/zYm9AeGoMMo
Rachel Stevens from S Club 7 on self touching
“Strickland said he was a big supporter of Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares. He said they told him while campaigning for those positions that, if elected, they would help him deal with the state’s cases against him.”
Yeah, they should force ABC to throw the case out.
“Strickland also pointed out that it was Miyares who helped close the ABC case in court that led to the license suspension.”
Wait… am I understanding that right? Miyares did closing arguments in the case against this guy?
The Fucking Cloud! I’m yelling at it! I’ve told this before, but I’ll tell it again. When I worked at the radio station they switched the software that ran all of the over the air playback systems. This was good, it was needed. The software we were running was from about 2003 and no longer ran newer hardware. This older software used a LAN database to share media files between 4 radio stations. Running on old systems and software meant it would take between 1 and 3 minutes to transfer files to all 4 stations. The software they switched to was open source Linux based, and file transfers on the local database would be almost instantaneous. BUT, they chose to go with a firm that tweaked that open source software to make it proprietary AND worked on a cloud based model, which they charged a service fee for. So they went from 1-3 minutes to send the files to four stations to a system where the files had to be uploaded to the companies CLOUD, then downloaded by each station separately. Sometimes this would take upwards of 15 minutes. So in crunch time I was instead running from room to room with a flash drive to get the files up in time to air. Progress! (I was the only one who knew how to even get the data off of a flash drive in Linux environment, so when they fired me I guess they lost even that option)
“Gentlemen, installing mpd on a $500 server in the basement is far too easy, here’s what I propose…”
They paid a company to deploy a bloated version of an open source program AND for CLOUD services that took away any control over the database and was slower. It was utterly retarded.
I definitely am a fan of ProtonMail. But oddly enough, my “Fed” company computer blocks access through ProtonMail but allows it through gmail.
Nevada National Security Site is slowly phasing out Webex and Skype, but not all the DOE labs are in synch on that. For example, one of my new weekly meetings is hosted by Livermore Berkeley Lab (not the same as Lawrence Livermore) uses Zoom. We might as well be on TikTok, security-wise.
I can’t use Zoom on my work computer so I joined the meeting on my personal computer. It automatically connected me as “hayeksplosives”. I had to log off and change it. Then when I went on my next Glibs zoom, I had my real name.
Aargh!
I was wondering which of us was “Wendy Whoppers”.
‘I can’t use Zoom on my work computer so I joined the meeting on my personal computer. It automatically connected me as “hayeksplosives”. I had to log off and change it. Then when I went on my next Glibs zoom, I had my real name.’
I hate that.
It is comical that anyone in fedgov is using zoom. Especially anything you or the labs would be involved in. I guess it is cheaper for the chinese this way, rather than having to go and bribe people.
I had the same thing happen when we had a rare “snow day” when the office closed but we had a meeting scheduled…for a committee that includes a couple of Board members. 🙄
Oh also, in my latest meeting with the three letter agency, they asked if we use Cisco products for phone calls and phone conference calls.
Apparently, it’s a problem. Be advised.
Tryin to keep The Black Man outta Star Trek?
Quick, everybody switch to Huawei…
FCC should have pallets of gear just lying around after the buyback…
Cisco Webex < Microsoft Teams < Google Meet
lol, just every phone in every office….
Not that there is any as Transformer nerdy as me around here, but my Christmas present to myself arrived today. Unexpected, as delivery from CHINA!!! was said to be between Dec 9 and Jan 13.
I ordered a nerdy thing for the spouse for x-mas, and I got the confirmation that it was shipped today. Opening tracking, I saw that the internet company was shipping it from somewhere probably less than five miles from my house, lol. If I’d known that before, I would’ve called them and see if I could go pick it up. ah well
“Does anyone in America still do any frigging work?”
Some of us are up all night doing it, and are never seen by you “normies”. When we do venture out during the day and are spotted, it’s assumed we’re unemployed. Or on vacation.
There’s that same guy buying beer at 0730 again. Tsk…tsk…tsk…
Is the Hot Air Balloon Lounge still going up in Vandalia? They used to cater to the overnight FedEx (or whatever shipping company had a big facility at the airport) crews when they got off their graveyard shifts.
As someone who lived/worked/associated with the demi-mondaine, can confirm.
Turn it in to lost and found
Good morning, Roat and (upthread somewhere) Lack!
My primary function in life – posting my employer’s payroll – has been completed for this biweekly period (except for doing the detailed voucher for the Accounting Coordinator later this week.) Not necessarily an easy day, though – on the way out yesterday, my boss said he’d probably have me look at his PowerPoint presentation for tonight’s Board meeting. PPT kept changing the background design for his slides. I’ve somehow fixed this problem for him before a while back, but darned if I remember how. 😕
Morning.
Good morning, U! How are you today?
By the way, it sounds as if your bowling is improving.
I’m lousy today.I threw up at 1am and just barely dragged myself out of bed in time to connect to work.
I have to remember to move my car by noon or I’ll get a $50 ticket because it’s tuesday.
Yikes. On the plus side, it can only get better. Right?
That’s not guaranteed, merely probable.
Oh, no! I’m so sorry! Coming down with something, or just something you ate disagreeing with you? 😟
I don’t know.
Whatever it is, I hope it passes ASAP. If you’re not feeling feverish, maybe it’ll go away quickly. Take care! 🙁
Thank you
Oof, I’ve got to work up some blind cover letters (Got canvassed for jobs elsewhere in my current agency but the canvasses don’t provide any info on what the job is.)
Well, that’s not very helpful of them.
For most titles, there’s not so much variety. For IT Specialist and Manager of IT titles, it could be anything in the field. The process was set up for titles like Tree Pruner and Keyboard Operator (both actual titles) where you can be pretty sure the work is landscaping for one and data entry for the other.
DEIB positions?
Mornin’, reprobates.
Good morning, ‘patzie! How are you and yours today? Furnace working OK now? (Had to have ours serviced yesterday. Fortunately a simple fix with a part the guy had on the truck, but not cheap!)
Heh. Funny you should mention that – had the control panel on the brand new furnace replaced yesterday. Damn thing kept shutting off in the middle of the night, crossing my fingers… Glad yours is OK. Too cold for dysfunctional heating.
Saturday, a co-worker mentioned on a chat that he was sick. Got the full scoop yesterday. Dude got his fourth booster Friday, had 103° fever Saturday. He’s OK now, but what the hell is in that shot?
Poison
The fever lets you know it’s working!
Fifth one’s the charm!
#6 gets you a free Subway sandwich.
Imagine how sick he would have been had he not gotten the booster.
*waves*
Morning. I am working for two days and then taking off Thanksgiving. I have a ton of paperwork to do.