Ariel Millennium Thornton @arielmt@computerfairi.es

(video) Pinball Wizard, Folsom Prison Version:
https://youtu.be/6bfPwtUTP4k

I ran FreeBSD's `pkg autoremove` command yesterday, & it removed a bunch of stuff I didn't notice, including hal. Also, something must've changed in a recent kernel because I had to install a new package, xf86-video-intel (on an ancient Dell Inspiron 518 w/on-board graphics), before X11 found a screen again. #DayWithoutX

Welp. Today is the #DayWithoutX. My workstation broke somehow and won't start X11, which means no GUI. Since the fallback in Unix is the CLI, & I grew up on the CLI, I'm not completely lost or unable to work. It's still a surprising nuisance, though.

Wait. Did he clean the motherboard by spraying it with brake parts cleaner? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx63Fv4l_5c

I am watching someone restore a Commodore 64C that was painted banana yellow, on only the top half of the case, with layers of red, green, and black paint underneath. Not even the black would look good because of the beige keyboard.

(I mean actually showing you what the password was, not a generic villainous "I have your password, nyahahahaaaa!" claim.)
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Since I got another one, I have to assume enough people are getting scared by the scam to make it worth the scammer's time.

Passwords are hard to manage, yes. They suck, yes. But try anyway to use a different password with every service, & try to make them actually random, not lolrandom.

And if you get a spam revealing a *current* password, don't pay the scammer a cent but *do* change it asap.

I say that with confidence because the password is one I haven't used in over a decade. Must be closer to 15 years now. In fact I changed it to a much stronger one at about the one and only time I got successfully phished (thanks, Yahoo).

Anyway, the point is the password was already out there, not stolen by hackers getting into my computer like the scammer wants me to believe.

I got another scam spam today where the scammer revealed one of my passwords in the subject, threatening to disclose it if I don't send bitcoin.

The scammer wants me to believe they hacked my PC to steal it, but it's much more likely they bought a list of compromised passwords.

Apparently, "this week" means "just a few hours shy of 'this time [i]next[/i] week.'"

Also, the scammers who called me directed me to a remote desktop software site offering downloads for a wide variety of OSes, not just Windows: MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, FreeBSD, Raspbian, & ChromeOS. Don't do what I did without carefully thinking through every click & every word.

Remember that Microsoft will never call you about "sending us errors." If anyone calls claiming to be from "Windows" or Microsoft, just hang up, don't do what I did.

Read more on Microsoft's support site: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4013405/windows-protect-from-tech-support-scams

Don't uninstall VLC because the news told you to panic, not just yet. The conclusion driving panicky news stories are CERT-Bund & NVD assessments, but the bug it relates to had been open for a whole month before the first "uninstall it now!" story appeared.

Lifehacker: https://lifehacker.com/you-should-wait-before-banning-vlc-from-your-computer-1836645438

NIST NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-13615

Huzzah! I just got cold-called by a "Windows tech support" scammer outfit and successfully wasted 34 minutes of their time before they figured out I'm not running Windows!

This is my home desktop, where I just finished making a much simpler signpost-like desktop icon theme, and I'm going to start my write-up with this.