MAIL YOUR LETTERS Got something to say? An idea for a new magazine feature? Or a great discovery? Email us: [email protected] LINUX VOICE STAR LETTER STUCK IN A RUT I’ve been messing about with information from the internet different kinds of Linux for is at times like drinking water a while now – I started with out of a fire hose. So come Ubuntu, then Kubuntu, which on, Linux Voice – spare me was the easiest way to try the flame wars and let me KDE, then Mageia, because know what I should try next. I figured that it was built for David Jahović, Melbourne KDE, rather than having KDE bolted on to it like Kubuntu. Andrew says: We’ve had a few But now I’m stuck. I know emails in this vein, so we’re that there’s loads of choice planning a distro comparison out there, but sometimes for next issue. Until then, give I feel like using the dread Elementary OS a try. It’s pretty, phrase: “There is too much it’s fast, and we love it! choice”. Truly, getting Elementary OS provides a fresh new spin to the Linux desktop. I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE SOMEBODY’S WATCHING ME I wonder if the seeming lack methods can I use to protect my The only way to be sure of privacy and security on the online life? that you’re not being internet due to either breaches I think all this falls into a larger spied on is to use free or even government agencies category such as even being software. There is no peeking into every corner will able to use cloud storage and other way. slowly destroy all the benefits the protect the data. Especially true internet has brought us? How do I since encryption can be called use the internet and still maintain into question just with the recent my privacy? As an example, I love events relating to Truecrypt. that way that I can put an event Has anyone looked into in my calendar and have it remind Penango, which is supposed to me on my computer and phone allow you to encrypt your Gmail for things even as simple as a in a browser (free accounts get birthday. I used to use it to remind free encryption) and allow you me of an eye, medical, or dental to use a key you have stored on appointment, but I use it very your computer rather than having who wants to pay for it, or who can seldom now for my own privacy to give them access to it if I produce a warrant for it. and security. If I use one of the understand it correctly? The only way to guarantee your popular calendars like Google Steve Cox data is safe is to use your own calendar, who is seeing or could software – OwnCloud, for example, see all of my personal daily life? Andrew says: It’s a safe assumption provides a calendaring service that Is there such a thing as a that the data you put into Google you know for sure won’t be shared by secure calendar? What reasonable Calendar is being shared with anyone any nefarious third parties. 12 www.linuxvoice.com MAIL UEFI DOC FORMATTING I am in the process of building a Here’s a tip I learned recently home-use PC, just to see if I can. which might be of use to people. Hopefully I will learn a lot in the Someone sends you a doc file and process. At the moment I am you’re not sure if it is formatting looking at the UEFI issue. I think properly in LibreOffice (yes, it the general census is that it’s here happens sometimes). Upload and we need to work with it. the file to your Google Drive, then UEFI is, apparently, built by ‘The right-click and select “open with Unified EFI Forum’, which consists Google Docs”, then “Download of AMD, American Megatrends, as PDF”. Hey presto, you can Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, Insyde see the correct formatting for the Software, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, document. and Phoenix Technologies working Owain Clarke, Hampshire If you want to know on a non-profit basis. High- My question is, if I have a more about UEFI powered groups there then. It motherboard with a UEFI loading bootloader installation, Mike says: Cheers Owain! Though seems UEFI is about 100MB of disk, do I have to use it? For a check out our tutorial in as I seem to spend so much of my information that sits on its own home builder, it looks like the only issue 2. time hanging out with the LibreOffice partition and is in effect a self- reason to load this thing up is to developers now I have to challenge updating OS at boot. Can I assume give the ‘Unified EFI Forum’ you to a duel for implying that it ever that all those benign interests will unfettered access to my home PC. works less than perfectly. have direct access to this Is this security – and if so, whose? bootloader? I know this topic is in flux and It’s a vast improvement on BIOS there is so much discussion it’s as it offers finer tuning and reaching ‘groan’ status but I am tweaking for the user as well as on a learning curve and would very greater security, since every bit of much appreciate any pointers. code has to be signed and ratified. Steve Taylor Some Linuxy OSes already work with this ‘signing’ process, and Ben says: We think UEFI is enough of others recommend turning off the an improvement over the BIOS that security feature. UEFI also offers we’d go with UEFI. The BIOS won’t be BIOS as an option. around for much longer. Early reports So, if I am building my own PC of Microsoft’s SecureBoot hegemony and given that the only time I have have failed to materialise, and we’re used the BIOS is to change the almost certain you’ll still always have boot sequence; then I turn off the choice of disabling it. UEFI can be LibreOffice is so good that it’s rare signing, what is left of UEFI for me, tricky to install, but it’s also a good for a file to ever open with messed up the user? opportunity to learn something new. formatting, but it does happen. www.linuxvoice.com 13 MAIL AMAZING GRACE I just picked up my first copy of Linux Voice (May issue) last week. What a great mag. I was particularly impressed with the article on Grace Hopper. “We stand on the shoulders of giants”, and this is another great example. I have the utmost respect and admiration for our predecessors in all fields. I have been playing with computers since before the Commodore 64, and have enjoyed programming in various languages, including Basic, Pascal, VBA and C++. I really like Distribution shenanigans have meant the coding theme in your mag. that issue 2 spread across the USA The building a Pi-based arcade slowly, but normal service should have machine was another item that resumed by now. made me pick up my first issue. Congratulations on a great mag. had to include another four pages in I’m waiting to see the next issue at this issue to look at the post-work he my newsagents. did with the Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine, better known Andrew says: We do indeed stand on as Baby, and the Manchester Mark I. the shoulder of giants, and we’re only These old code tutorials seem too happy to pay homage to them in to have gone down well – maybe these pages. Alan Turing, for example, we should turn them into a book. made such an impression that we’ve Readers, what do you think? THERE’S A PLACE FOR US Thanks very much to Liz Hardwick source and hosted and developed for mentioning my talk at on Debian and Ubuntu at http:// Manchester Girl Geeks Barcamp opentechcalendar.co.uk . It’s our as one of her personal favourites 2nd birthday in July and we’re (LV005 LUGs on tour) – however looking forwards to the next year. I should maybe be less shy about Hopefully see you at a tech what the name of my project is! It’s event around the UK soon, Open Tech Calendar – we list tech James Baster, Edinburgh events around the UK. Anyone can add events, all edits are versioned Graham says: Open Tech Calendar, so for safety like a wiki and our open good we’ve mentioned it twice. Turn data is already reused by many to page 16 for more on this brilliantly others. To top it all off, we’re open simple idea. Find tech events in Leeds and further afield with Open Tech Calendar. 14 MAIL NOM DE MINT This machine is proclaiming to all and I don’t like the fact that my freshly sundry that there’s a installed Mint 16 system lists all of user called Andrew, so the non system users at the login crackers have one thing screen. This seems a little insecure less to guess – that’s not great for security. to me, and I prefer the users to have to enter their own username as well as their password. I know that Chris Brown did a short piece on one occasion in that other magazine, which told me how to get rid of this on my previous Mint install but I have forgotten how to do it.