✘ UK/US Politics-Free Zone ⤵

July 5, 2024

✘ UK/US Politics-Free Zone ⤵

Hello!

Welcome to the second popey newsletter. A window on my week.

-[ Contrafibularities ]-
★NEW★ BONUS L@@K VERY RARE! etc…

A novel, potentially regular chapter of the publication in which I sincerely express my gratitude for the rapid comprehension, complimentary feedback, and correctional input from newsletter recipients.

A.K.A. "Thanks, Internet friends."

Newsletter Rapid Response Team

Last time, I lamented the unavailability of the Delivered from Distraction (affiliate link) audiobook in the UK. Within minutes of publication, in the Linux Matters Telegram channel, Matthew pointed out the audiobook is indeed available on the Google Play store.

Internet skills under investigation

Cementing their lifetime membership to the inaugural Newsletter Rapid Response Team, Matthew also casually mentioned Borrowbox. Last week, I cited Libby, the Library book-borrowing app, but I completely neglected Borrowbox.

I will hand back my bronze Internet Search Accuracy certificate immediately. I blame Tim Apple.

Wait! There's more!

After the archived newsletter went out on Monday, Marcus got in touch to let me know the book is also available from libro.fm. While on this occasion, that specific book is not available in the UK on Libro, it's another platform to be aware of when looking into the future. Thanks, Marcus!

-[ Create ]-
Newsletter-Meta

This week, we recorded episode 34 of the Linux Matters podcast. I talked about this newsletter, specifically why I made it, how I set it up, and the publishing process. If you're interested in setting up your own newsletter or just want to know how this particular plain-text sausage is made, tune in when LMP34 airs on July 26th.

--AD-------------------
Late Night Linux Patreon supporters (of which I am one) can get the show a little early and without adverts for a small consideration. If you are already a supporter, we appreciate it. Without your support, we couldn't make those shows. Thank you.
-------------------/AD--

In which I am old

This week, I put together a shell script, as you do. The goal was to scan a bunch of GitHub repositories for bugs that met some specific criteria: bugs with no tags or comments or very old bugs without recent responses.

I used gh, the GiHub command-line utility, to do most of the work. I fed it lists of repos, developers, and bots so it could find the bugs I was looking for.

If the script finds no bugs, it prints "Zarro Boogs Found", a reference to Bugzilla, that would humorously, and ironically output that text instead of "0 bugs found". Some of the team didn't understand the reference. I feel old.

CVE-2024-1724

In late February 2024 I was asked to help test a possible security vulnerability in snapd - the (decade-old) 'new' package manager (that I used to work on) from Canonical. I confirmed with the reporter that the issue appears valid to me.

Sufficient time has now elapsed, so this week CVE-2024-1724 was published and patched. I found this a fascinating process, and I'm happy that the issue was responsibly disclosed to Canonical and promptly patched. Good work all around.

-[ Consume ]-
TEEFAX:Cold Case

TEEFAX:Cold Case is a 'mysterious puzzle adventure' in the style of Ceefax/Teletext. I picked it up in a -35% Steam Sale (until July 11th 2024) for £2.59.

In "TEEFAX:Cold Case" players are tasked with solving a murder mystery after the police discover an old laptop with photos of an unidentified victim and a mysterious app called "The Door." Despite their efforts, the police are stumped and seek help from the public to crack the case and claim the reward.

TEEFAX ships as a Windows binary, so on my Ubuntu laptop in Steam, I went to Settings -> Compatibility, then flicked the 'Enable Steam Play for all other titles', which enabled 'Proton' (the WINE-based Windows compatibility thing that Valve maintains). After that, the game worked fine on Linux.

The game is 'inspired' by Ceefax, as the user interface is entirely mouse-driven. You don't have to type in page numbers and then wait for them to go past in the telly signal. Nor do you have red, green, blue, and yellow keys. They're all just things you tap/click on within the window, with a few things to type in. Some of the fonts are mismatched sizes, and the graphics seem beyond 'real' Teletext capabilities. I imagine that might be a little disappointing if you're a weirdo Teletext experience purist. But it certainly has the Teletext feel.

Some pages in TEEFAX will be familiar to Teletext users, including News, Sports, Weather, and even a Bamboozle quiz game. The 'Door' is a special page where the actual cold case challenge is presented. Using the information on the pages and on-screen hints (if you need them), it's possible to find solutions to the various puzzles and challenges and potentially solve the case.

If you like gentle, retro-styled puzzle games. give TEEFAX:Cold Case a look.

-[ Comment ]-
Printer in July

At work we are all given every Friday in July off work. I've not been there long, so I'm unsure whether everyone actually goes AFK or if they just say they are, but actually use the days as undisturbed focus time. Clearly, everyone should step outside, relax, do their hobby, visit family & friends, or do something other than sit at their desk, but I'm not their boss.

One of my ~~hobbies~~ ~~tasks~~ goals for Fridays in July is to clear out my home office. It's full of old retro computers, too much furniture, plastic boxes of crap, and an OKI B410 mono laser printer I never use. The time has come to summon my inner Marie Kondo and clear the room.

"Correct, inner Marie, that box of twenty IEC C13 cables does not ★Spark Joy★."

Be My Unused App

It's three years since I blogged that Be My Eyes is My Least-Used Favourite App on my phone and six years since I initially created my Be My Eyes account. I've still only used it once in all that time. I even moved from an Android to iOS phone in the meantime and haven't had my visual capabilities called upon. Does anyone else keep apps installed that they (almost) never use? Can you "beat" once in six years?

Sounds like a fun-packed show

The Ubuntu Podcast web domain was up for renewal at the start of July. Rather than let it lapse so some domain squatter could nab it, I offered it to Canonical, sponsors of the Ubuntu project. Of course, I checked with the rest of the recent ex-Ubuntu Podcast 'crew' before I did this.

I shut the site down a month earlier to see if anyone would notice. Nobody said anything (to me), so we figured it wouldn't be missed. Canonical IS got in touch, and we did the domain transfer dance via email in about a day this week. It would be great if the Ubuntu Community Team at Canonical had the time and energy to launch a new podcast. Fingers crossed, it lives on.

Hopefully, they do better at coming up with theme music than we did. Ours, the 1927 jolly tune "Crazy Words, Crazy Tune" was selected by ex-presenter, IT Director, photographer and avowed Doctor Who "Fanatic", Tony Whitmore, back at the start of the show in 2008.

I say "jolly", if you don't listen too much to the lyrics which are quite gloomy!

"Keep it light," as we used to say.

Thanks for reading.

-- popey

You are receiving this email because you have been subscribed to the popey newsletter. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Newsletters may contain 'smart' Amazon links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

EOF