Untimely meditations

One man's thoughts, observations and rants

Category: IT

  • Without privacy, you lose your ability to have an identity of your own

    Without privacy, you lose your ability to have an identity of your own

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    by

    Joop Beris
    in ,

    I believe that privacy is something that humans need. Being able to do things and to speak about things without being watched or recorded is essential to growth and identity formation. How do you know who you are or what your values are if you are not free to explore those? Without privacy, we are…

  • Safely clean up boot

    Safely clean up boot

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    by

    Joop Beris
    in ,

    One of the things that seriously annoys me but that pops up from time to time, is the fact that my Linux /boot partition fills up with old, unused kernels. I know, I should have created a bigger partition but this installation is old, updated several times over the course of a few years and…

  • Updating PHP5-APCu on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS for ownCloud compatibility

    Updating PHP5-APCu on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS for ownCloud compatibility

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    by

    Joop Beris
    in ,

    If you run your own ownCloud (not the Enterprise version) on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, you will most likely have noticed that it works but complains on the admin page about APCu being lower than version 4.0.6, which is the version ownCloud 8 and higher needs. Now there is an easy fix to updating PHP5-APCu on…

  • SSH brute force attacks

    SSH brute force attacks

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    by

    Joop Beris
    in ,

    I run my weblog on my server, both out of  hobby and because it gives me complete control over the underlying operating system, available software and security mechanisms. As a result, I see all that goes on with this machine, both good and bad.

  • Stand Up for Strong Security

    Stand Up for Strong Security

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    by

    Joop Beris
    in ,

    Certain factions within the US Congress and the FBI are insisting on the government requiring US technology companies to grant the government special access to devices and cryptographic measures. In essence, they are asking for US technology to be insecure by design. Adding a backdoor for US government agencies is possible but there are serious…

  • Smartphone Battery Myths, Explained

    Smartphone Battery Myths, Explained

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    by

    Joop Beris
    in

    When I named this blog “Random musings, rambling opinions”, I was serious. So I bring you all kinds of interesting (hopefully) posts, ranging from how to secure your computer, to things about atheism, dinosaurs and now smartphone battery myths. Hope this helps someone! Over just a few years, the batteries in our smartphones have changed…