Another Win For Linux

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yogi
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Another Win For Linux

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https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/03/goo ... ource-tech

As I mentioned elsewhere Google is jumping into the gaming market. They just announced a new streaming service called Stadia. This is all done as open source and is prime material for any Linux OS. Perhaps Linux will finally have it's day in the gaming world should Google's strategy pay off. Then again, Google had big plans to displace Facebook when it started it's Google+ service a few years ago. That service is coming to an ungraceful end next month.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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It's not in the Buzz on Linux forums.
There are a few comments about possible latency problems.
But even though they used open source it doesn't mean it will be geared to Linux.
It will more than likely be geared to their Game Console.
Most of the games will probably be the shooter type games, the heavy gamers play.
If so, latency and bandwidth problems will surely rear their ugly head as they gain players.

I never understood Google+!
I set up a bookmark toolbar which required joining Google+ to do so.
I also have a page on Google+, but mainly to see a couple of friends I have on there.
I was worried that when Google+ shut down, the bookmark bar would also, but they say no, the bookmark bar is something else entirely. Oh OK, then why did I have to get Google+ to get the toolbar?
We'll see if the bookmark bar continues to work. I sure hope so, as I hate to reset everything again.

A friend has been pushing MeWe, I took a look at it, but without a way to sort out your followers by categories, it will be a no go. I think he has recently got involved with another one that is supposed to be Conservative, but have not looked into it. It will take more than a small push to garner the Farcebook users, no matter how mad they get at Farcebook.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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My first outside advertising was a fan page on Facebook which, as you know, still stands today. Most of the earlier days of that fan page were spent trying to get people over to Google+. A few tried it but I got the same feedback you are giving, i.e., it was too difficult to understand how it works. I think Google missed a great opportunity there by not simplifying things. Then again, like all the others, Google didn't want to look like an imitation social media. They wanted to stand out on their own merits. Well, as I said, they are closing down in a couple weeks.

The Google gaming platform is designed for browsers just as is their Chromium computer. It's consistent with their philosophy of not having a desktop to tinker with plus has all the portability and platform independence you would expect in a browser. There aren't many details yet, but I can assure you that you will need a Google account in order to play their game. That Google account gets you involved with ALL their services whether you want them, need them, or do not care about them. I think your bookmark toolbar fits into that category. It's just one of the many services Google offers. When one of their other services crashes and burns, that has no baring on the service you are using. However, you are still locked into the Google mindset. Now that I have some Android experience and am forced to use Google services, I can say with some authority that they suck. Everything is integrated which makes it all very complex, but that's only half the problem. Everything you do on any of Google's services is recorded permanently for their own purposes. You can get copies of what they have on you and delete what is stored, but you can never stop them from collecting the telemetry.

Facebook and Google are data mines that very few outsiders understand. This massive collection of private information is what will get the government involved. It won't be too many years from now when you will see all those data collection giants being forced to dismember themselves.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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Firefox had a bookmark bar similar to Google which could be shared between your computers, but it had some problems with multiple users on the same computer. Each person would have to log out of the bookmark bar for the next person to log into theirs. A royal pain. Now Googles bookmark bar, although started by any of the computer users under their name, becomes attached to all instances of the Google browser. So it just sits up there running for anyone using Google.
My Google Bookmark Bar is under another name than what I'm on right now, but I have a folder for each user which simplifies everything, except for one hitch. The Google bookmark bar automatically brings up the user who last accessed a website, like Farcebook, even if you loogged out of Farcebook. So you do have to remember to log-in to Farcebook as yourself.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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I stopped using toolbars from third parties somewhere in Internet Explorer 6 days. LOL The problem back then was it is super vulnerable to malware attacks, not to mention the telemetry it employs. Nothing is free, if you recall. The price you pay is to allow yourself to be tracked, categorized, sliced and diced by the owners of the "free" toolbar. Maybe things changed in Chrome since Google has you by the short and curlies just for using their browser. I dunno. I'm still very skeptical.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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I rarely use other computers for things other than what I set them up for.
But when something isn't working right, it is helpful to have all of my website links available on each computer. Especially the repair information links.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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I like the idea of computers dedicated to a single task. I actually do something like that with a combination of browsers and virtual machines. Most of what I do is for fun and not very productive. I got into VM's, for example, just to say I could do it. Then it turns out there are some security benefits that I like. LOL

My approach to trouble shooting, particularly in Linux, is to load up the home directory /documents and /downloads with all the information and tools I need to keep the system going. For a while I'd keep a copy of each system's home directory and all the subdirectdories safe and sound on the NAS. That way if the main system crashed I'd have a way to peruse my troubleshooting guide. I've not kept that up very well lately, partly because I have fewer problems now. Also, some of the tech articles disappear after a few years and my resources evaporate that way.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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I have the same problem with all the tools I would use to check my writing for grammar and punctuation. Every time I find one I like, they either disappear or become a pay per use site. I'm a life member at the greatest site I found, wasn't cheap, and sadly I've not used them in a couple of years now. Not that far enough along on my story to make use of it.
All the HTML info sites I used are still there, but the simpler ones that made sense to me are all now gone.
Well, except for the common ones that have been around for decades, but most of those are no help to me, because they are usually over my head.
Every site I've used to try and learn Bash was absolutely no help at all to me.
They almost always start out with how to use computer commands and go for a while doing that, then stop.
At least with HTML you can look for what you want to do and find out the way to do it properly.
I've never found such a thing with Bash, although I do hit a lot of websites that have command strings for doing certain things, thousands of them in fact, but not exactly what I wanted.
I have one bash string I use several times a day. I think you wrote it for me!
I did learn enough from that string to find ways to alter it to print out both pieces of info I want with only one entry.
Here it is:
-----date +%A_%I:%M_%p -d "today +40 hours"-----
As simple as that is, I've never found anywhere that explains the how and why it is formatted the way it is.
I only change the number of hours to get the answer I need. What's in quotes is what is printed, using the format established by the code in front of the -d.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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I think the reason you don't get along with BASH is because it's not doing the same thing that HTML does. BASH is an instruction set used to run applets that perform functions down at the kernel level of the OS. If there is an output, it can frequently be formatted. None of it is straight forward as is HTML, which does not run programs or applets of any kind. HTML is a set of instructions for the browser which in turn renders web pages. Page layout and rendering format is what HTML is all about.

Part of what seems intimidating in BASH is the shortcut notation used to modify the commands. Most are not human readable and consist of as few characters as possible. HTML, or CSS, is human readable and thus looks more sensible. There are shortcuts used in HTML as well, but they are not as esoteric as BASH.

The documentation for BASH is in the 'man' pages which are written in a style that is so generic that much of it is incomprehensible without any foreknowledge of what is going on. Those man pages are thorough and comprehensive, but they don't give you any hint about why you want to use the command or it's modifiers. HTML documentation is only slightly more understandable because it is indeed aimed at humans instead of machines. Some of the modifiers are intuitively obvious why you want to use them. Most are just as ambiguous as BASH 'man' pages.

To be succinct about it, HTML appeals more to authors and writers than BASH which is targeted for use by programmers. You can do both, but your forté is writing. :grin:
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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When it comes to programming, I'm like Schultz, I Know Nothing, hi hi.

I just saw an ad for an at home college degree, they had BASIC as one of the programming languages you could get a degree in. Actually two different types of BASIC, but I don't remember what they called the second one.
Who still uses Basic?

I suppose you are right, I think like a writer, not like a computer, hi hi.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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It's been a long time since I've rubbed elbows with real life programmers. I spent a lot of time designing and building test equipment for the factory. Most of the equipment in the test rack was from HP and was controlled by a computer. The only language used then was HP BASIC. In the last years of my being at Motorola they got away from BASIC and switched over to C which could be used to write executables and create dll files. So, it seems like BASIC went extinct when all that happened. It would still be a great language for homebrew programs, but who does that anymore? Scripting for business purposes was done in Visual BASIC, but that was a far cry from the HP BASIC. VB was more like C but was interpreted and not compiled. I doubt that any form of BASIC is being used for serious business these days.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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Apparently Visual Basic, and Visual Net are still used for in-house quick programs for business things on Windows computers.

Seems like everyone I've asked these past few years about what to learn if I had the time to, they all name the same three things, but not necessarily in the same order. Sometimes they may mention other programming languages like G or R whatever those are, but the big three they all say to learn are: Python, JavaScript, and PHP. Many will place PHP first, or JavaScript first, if they ask why I want to know, or what I intend to do. If I say web pages they say PHP first, although a few will say Java and JavaScript. I may be a klutz because they all say Python is super easy to learn, and to me it looks like Greek/Egyption, hi hi.

Did learn one thing, heck, no wonder so many kids are getting into programming. Almost every programming job pays over 100k a year. And if they get into heavier programming requiring the harder languages to learn, it can jump up close to 200k per year.
That being said, those who work in IT that I've met only get paid 50 to 85k per year, and they too do a lot of programming.

Although HTML is not all that hard to learn, easy in fact. It surprises me how many people who want a website use things like WordPress and templates which lock them into a specific format, and then when the template changes, they are screwed over and have to redo everything again.
I help a lady with some things, and she was paying big bucks to places like NING for her websites, and they were charging her an arm and a leg for each website she hosted with them.
I finally got her to switch to another host provider, but she decided to go with their WordPress option. She found a template she liked, and already they've changed it on her twice, so she fell back on one of their old standard templates they claim will never change.

Not to be phunny, but I tried WordPress for a website, and I think the learning curve to use it was harder than learning HTML myself. Then too, I was not doing some of the things folks were doing on their websites, like having a blog with comments by users, etc.

I've not had the time to make any changes or updates to my websites now in probably over three years, so will have to learn HTML all over again. I forget how to do things fast, if I don't use it every day.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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Building web pages is not programming. PHP and Javascript are add-ons to HTM, although Java and PHP can be run stand alone. Python is the way to go these days if you are using databases to any degree. If you are aiming to be a highly skilled webmaster you need to know all three. But, you and I are not like most of those other folks who just want something that works, i.e., WordPress. Those folks are content providers in one way or another and have no inclination to be webmasters.

I worked in IT for a while during my tenure at Motorola. Networking and security fascinated me more than anything else, but I never really got involved too much with either of those. The average IT programmer back then was getting around $55k salary, but today I can see how it would easily be double or triple that number. If I had to do it all over again, and started in 2019 I'd become proficient at penetration testing and cyber security. Those folks get paid big bucks to stress test systems and legally hack into them. There is a huge shortage of these kind of people these days and I'd guess you can walk into any company and name your price if you had the credentials.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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If for some reason I ever find the time, and have a valid use to learn Python, I just might do it. But right now I have so many irons in the fire trying to stay afloat, everything has to land on the back burner.
In fact. I have to take the frau to the doctor in about 10 minutes, so better hop to it!
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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Python, PHP, MySQL and Javascripting would all make your curator tasks a lot easier. You would be able to create world class web pages and create a legacy you could be proud of. But you need to devote a lot of time, not just months, to learning the languages and how to program with them. That last bit about programming is what enables it all to happen. I'd say you are doing what you need to do given the resources you have. It's nice to think you can do better, but you have a lot invested in what you already did. You can't regret any of that.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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Way way back, in the early days of websites, right after I moved from using a BBS. Or should I say when I changed from using the Bulletin Board on my BBS to using a website hosted by my BBS service. I started an interesting website, using internal page links to other places on the page. Then when the web grew a little, we could link to other pages, and this is when I devoted a lot of time to making a chain of web pages that ran sorta like a flowchart.

If I could have kept up with it, it could have turned into a money making website within about ten years of when I started it. I moved from the BBS services website to Inlink as my website host, where I had even more space to use.
What I did was create a How-To Website that covered carpentry, plumbing, electrical, flatwork, and a few other things.
It basically worked on yes and no responses, and started with topical type questions. For example: If you selected Plumbing the next page asked if it was Water Supply, Waste Water, Open Drainage, etc. If you selected Waste Water, the next page asked if it was for a Sanitary Sewer System, or Storm Sewer System. Finally, if you selected Sanitary Sewer System, you would get a whole list of possibilities, like Kitchen Drains, Bathroom Sink Drains, Water Closet (Toilet) Drains, Vents and Stacks, etc. The early website was annoying to have to step through so many pages, so when I redid the website, you could see each item in the chain of possibilities so you could jump ahead without stepping through each question. When I did this, the number of hits to the website jumped exponentially. This also caused my cost to go up a little, and once again I was running out of space. I also had a personal website which I kept removing things from to make room for the How-To website and all of its pages.

I moved from BBS.Galilei.com to Inlink.com, and they upped and closed suddenly, at least I still had my e-mail account on the BBS even after I moved down here, until they closed. I've not had enough time to do much of anything with anything after I moved south. 9/11 wiped out my businesses and all of my funds, except for the little tabletop business I've mentioned previously. Even so, after I moved south, and after the city promised to reciprocate on my licenses, after I made the move south, they refused to reciprocate on any of them, so I basically retired. Then I became a caregiver for my frau's mother. Being twice a widower, I had the experience needed, so volunteered.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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From what I've already seen of your construction and remodeling journals, I'm certain your How To website would have been a big hit. You would probably need just as many pages as you had to describe how to complete a project, but the navigation could have been greatly simplified even back in the early days of HTML. Forms and dropdown menus would take the place of links to the various web pages that took you to even more web pages. I run into these types of forms all the time when I buy stuff online. There is a whole catalog of goods behind the home page of a web store, but a single form with a few dropdowns will get you to the exact product without leaving the home page.

Web hosting services come and go quickly. I've been very lucky with the people who host this website in that they have remained in place and reasonably priced for the dozen year's I've dealt with them. They also sell domain names and a few other services. Over the years I've noted that their tech support staff has not changed. The same names I saw ten years ago on trouble tickets are still there looking out for my best interests today. That says something about the company if the grunt workers stay with them that long.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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After Comcast turned off personal web pages, after studying several available hosts, I went with 1 and 1, which is now 1&1 Ionos. Nothing changed with the merger other than they have more services to offer, none of which I use anyhow so it didn't affect me one iota. They do handle my domain name registration and stuff, but this time "I" own it.
Learned the hard way when I left my last host provider and moved to Comcast, not to take domain name deals.
Turned out my last host provider before Comcast owned my domain name, since I bought it from them. This is how they keep you. If I wanted to move elsewhere, they wanted to sell me my domain name for like 500 bucks. I said no way.
Glad I didn't buy it, because Comcast would not let you use your own domain name on a personal web page, only on business web pages.

I've never had to deal with service, although I have talked to them a couple of times. Could barely understand the guy, and I'm not sure he understood what I was asking anyhow. Maybe I wasn't wording it right.

You might now the answer, so I'll give it a go here.
My host provider has web mail, and I do have one e-mail address they set up, but I don't use it.
Right now, my e-mail accounts are on Comcast. So my e-mail address ends with @comcast.net
I can set up new e-mail accounts on my host provider using my domain name behind the @ sign.

My question is this:
If I set-up a few e-mail accounts, such as, a personal e-mail @ my domain name, a business e-mail @ my domain name, etc.
If I move to a new host provider, will I be able to keep my e-mail accounts and move them to the new host provider.
I guess that is if the new host provider does have e-mail, which I would think they all would.
Or is there something on the back-end I need to know about that would prevent me from moving an e-mail address, even though it uses my own domain name.

I've not yet asked my current host provider if the have an SMTP and Pop-server for me to get my e-mail from them into my own computer. I don't like using web mail on their mail web site.
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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You probably already know the answer to your e-mail questions, but I'll go ahead and tell you what I know anyway. :lol:

First of all domain names are tracked by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). They keep a list of all the names being used, but that's all they do. They don't buy, sell, or otherwise do business with domain name registered owners. Thus when you own/lease a domain name, that's all you get: a place in the ICANN registry.

Names can be purchased or leased from various sources. ISP's, or their affiliates, are probably the largest purveyors of domain names. When you obtain a name from your ISP of choice, they typically will offer you the use of their in-house mail server. That mail server has an IP address associated with your domain name so that all the DNS servers out in the wild will know where to send any e-mail addressed to your domain. As it happens, most ISP's also have their own DNS servers which you get to use by default.

As you can see, e-mail transactions are fundamentally simple. The DNS server associating your domain name with an IP address on some mail server can be maintained an infinite number of ways. For example, the DNS server configuration is handled by the tech ops people at your ISP, but you can have anybody with a DNS server do the configuration. I might have a DNS server that is ten times faster than your ISP so that you may want to connect to my DNS server instead of theirs. Likewise, the server that has the e-mail software on it does not have to be part of your ISP facilities. You could run your own e-mail server and have the DNS people point to you instead of your ISP. At least that is the theory. Comcast might have other ideas and restrict how your e-mail transfers are configured.

None of the e-mail has anything to do with the server that hosts your website. That's a third type of server that most ISP's utilize and gets routed by that DNS server they have in the basement. So, it is entirely possible for you to have a hosting service only host your web site, a different service only handling your e-mail, and a third party handling the DNS configuration. Normally they are all in the same place physically, but they do not have to be.

When you leave one ISP and migrate over to another, all your e-mail content is on your original ISP's server. In order to transfer it over to the new server you would have to make a request for that to happen. They may charge you an arm and a leg to do it, but your e-mail is simply a subdirectory on their server that can be copied over to anybody's server -- unless we're talking Linux vs Windows servers. That could be a problem. When they do make the transfer, however, you will also need to get somebody (probably the new e-mail server people) to reconfigure their DNS server to point to the right place. After all the new server has a different IP address than the old server. During that transition of IP addresses, you could lose some incoming mail while all the network DNS servers are being updated.

While all the above is true and possible, I doubt that it would be very easy to accomplish. Getting all the files transferred from one company's server to a different company's server could be a coordination nightmare that neither one of them want to deal with. One possible work around would be to maintain two email names. The old name would stay on the old server but all mail received there would be forwarded to the new server. You could do this forever if you don't mind paying twice for e-mail service. But, typically once all your contacts have the new e-mail address you can drop the old server altogether.

Simple, eh? Your welcome. :mrgreen:
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Re: Another Win For Linux

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After I moved south, I still used my e-mail account on my St. Louis BBS Service. Never saw a reason to change it.
However I also established an e-mail address on Comcast. Two of them in fact, that I use now.
When my St. Louis BBS shut down, I just notified everyone of my new e-mail address at Comcast.

I don't need my mail transferred to a different location. I download all of my e-mail daily from Comcast to my own computer. In fact, although I tell them to keep it on their server for 30 days before letting it scroll off, I think they keep it much longer than that, until my allocated space is full, then it scrolls off.

My current website host provider gave me mailboxes, and suggested I set up a few like Webmaster@, Information@, CompanyName@, etc. I only have the initial one they set up which is CompanyName@CompanyName dot com

Although I no longer belonged to my St. Louis BBS, had no web pages or services provided by the, except for my e-mail. They never charged me because they said it costs them nothing to handle e-mail accounts. It was done on older computers they couldn't use for much of anything else, hi hi.

I had a Yahoo web-mail account I used for club business, but stopped when they would no longer forward mail.

If I wanted to move from one host provider to another, I wouldn't need for them to transfer the e-mails they have on their server, since I already have them on my computer.

However, here is what I'm really worried about, and don't think you addressed it in your comment, although you did cover a lot of stuff.
Let's assume I have an e-mail address of Garibaldi@RiversideFarms.com hosted on ABC Hosting Service, along with my websites which would also use the domain name RiversideFarms.com, so one of the websites might be SuperCorn.RiversideFarms.com

Now I decide to move my websites from ABC Hosting Service to XYZ Hosting Service.
My website would still be SuperCorn.RiversideFarms.com and someone connecting to it would now be connected to XYZ Hosting Service.
Consider this scenario. XYZ Hosting Service automatically sets up e-mail accounts named Webmaster@RiversideFarms.com, and Information@RiversideFarms.com

Won't this cause a problem if I already have Webmaster@RiversideFarms.com on ABC Hosting Service?

If I wanted to move my own e-mail Garibaldi@RiversideFarms.com from ABC to XYZ.
My thoughts would be I would need to create the e-mail account Garibaldi@RiversideFarms.com on my new host XYZ.

Will my e-mail go to both places, or will cause the known Internet to CRASH and BURN, hi hi.
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