Linux Weekly Daily Wednesday – Encrypted Pliers

Lucasfilm open-sources MaterialX, Bacon seeks unity, encrypting drives with LUKS, and steampunk theremins. All this plus your feedback!

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Colour key – Venn Pedro Mathieu Jordan

Jono Bacon wants to consolidate the Linux Desktop
http://www.jonobacon.com/2017/07/13/consolidating-linux-desktop-app-story-idea/

  • What I want to see is that the various distributions put at the core of their platform a central app repository that is based on Flatpak
    • Oh, SNAP!
  • Ah, yes! The old Linux unicorn of unification. Standardization. Whatever you want to call it.
  • Those suggestions Jono provides are good. He was also clever enough to not actively recommend a desktop environment and rile up a bunch of his readers.
  • Though, I’m sure he rustle some feathers at his former employer’s with the flatpak suggestions.
  • Unfortunately this is in no way an original idea.
  • This is just the updated version for 2017.
  • That said, I agree with the Bacon but attempts at unification have been going on for at least two decades.

 

Beelink launches an affordable x68 mini PC
https://liliputing.com/2017/07/beelink-launches-ap34-mini-pc-8gb-ram-64gb-storage-apollo-lake-cpu.html

  • At $167 that would have been an impulse buy.
  • Though seeing as how the price is now over $210 in an actual store listing, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
  • Have to agree.
  • Soon as the price starts with a 2 I lose interest.
  • But hey, it’s fanless… like a $30 RasPi that can do most of the same things.

 

Cleaning your Linux box for fun and profit
http://www.2daygeek.com/bleachbit-system-cleaner-junk-files-ubuntu-debian-fedora-opensuse-arch-linux-mint/

  • I have started using Ubuntu cleaner to nope old kernels.
  • Oh, the OG way people kept breaking their boxes back before 2010.
  • I admit, I too b0rked my system with bleachbit back then. Because I was under the assumption that I needed something like CCleaner for Linux, like I used to for Windows.
  • I don’t see how this could bork a box and if you are low on the disk space it will at least tell you where to look.

 

Handy guide for encrypting your drives with luks
https://kushaldas.in/posts/encrypting-drives-with-luks.html

  • As the guide says Be very careful when copying commands to your terminal.
  • Chances are, your drive names won’t match up.
  • And he starts with a wipefs, too. That’s about as good a stupid person magnet as it gets.
  • At least he gets it #XKCD
  • I don’t encrypt anything that doesn’t leave the house because wrench.
  • That said I do encrypt the FS on my Nexus 10.

 

NetRoller
http://www.netrunner.com/netrunner-rolling-2017-07-released/

  • The July roll-up ISO for netrunner is now available.
  • (if we have too many stories, this one can go)
  • While it would be possible to simply update a previously installed system due to its continuously rolling nature, we recommend a fresh install.”
    • WAT?

 

Linux Laptop Maker Stationx Preloads 20 Different Distros (including ARRRRCH!!!11!)
http://stationx.rocks/

  • That guy looks like a budget Lunduke.
  • They ship to the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and The Netherlands.
  • Pick from 7 ARCH distros.
  • I would never want to be responsible for supporting ARCH.
  • *Show of price of configured system.
  • They even address the AAAARCH!!1! thing in the FAQ.
  • Namely, if you pick one of the AAAARCH!!1! flavors and a hybrid graphics system, you’re going to have to put in legwork yourself.

 

The other Linux store
https://starlabs.systems/

  • It’s a thing, don’t know anything about the company just wanted to give them a mention.
  • If anyone has one of their machines let us know what you think.

 

Lucasfilm open sources a tool used in The Force Awakens
https://www.awn.com/news/lucasfilm-ilm-announce-open-source-release-materialx-library
https://github.com/materialx/MaterialX

  • MaterialX allows the exchanging of rich material content between different software packages / rendering systems.
  • It will maintain the complete look of a model from one application or rendering platform to another.

Slice of Pi

Turn your Pi into an always-on listening device.
https://blog.pi-top.com/category/latest-greatest/

  • We’ve covered the hard-mode version of this.
  • Build fun STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) projects with music, lights and sound.
  • It has full Amazon Alexa integration, the cloud-based voice service.

 

Make your RasPi scream like a banshee
http://www.instructables.com/id/Ultrasonic-Pi-Piano-With-Gesture-Controls/

  • Goodby sonic screwdriver hello steampunk theremin.

 

Tracking airplanes #HiNSA
https://blog.alexellis.io/track-flights-with-rpi/

  • You can keep the signals you pick up to yourself or contribute them to a real-time tracking site like FlightAware.com, FlightRadar24 and PlaneFinder.net – in return you get detailed metrics – RADAR readouts and other rewards such as
    • Free NSA watchlist membership.  
    • Mandatory enhanced screening from the TSA
    • FBI Surveillance Van 37 listed on your available networks.

Feedback

Le Show
http://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?4GlWHpt

  • Worse, he got a jerb.
  • Like Python, Strider is single threaded.

DRM
http://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?3B3osLA

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