Paul Sutton – personal blog
Linux user group meeting October 2020
This Saturday is the forth Saturday of the month and therefore time for the monthly DC Lug meeting, this is being held via meet.jit.si. Details below:
DCGLUG virtual meeting (jitsi) Day / Date : Saturday 24/10/2020 Time : From 12:00 Location : Online – Meeting jit.si link
OSIRIS-REx mission
Yesterday, there was an update to the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission to collect and return a sample of dust from an asteroid.
This post was prompted by a BBC Science news report. The NASA mission page can also be found here.
Mission should return to earth in 2023.
Hopefully the sample collection went as planned.
Update 21/10/2020
Mission on the way back, sample collections went successfully, should return largest sample from a foreign body since Apollo.
Follow @OSIRISREx for updates.
Discussion
Feel free to start a thread on Science Forums to discuss further.
National Chemistry Week 2020
18th to 24th October is National Chemistry week, so there are a few activities listed on the American Chemistry Society website out reach pages.
In recent chemistry news ScienceMagazine has an article on a Globular cluster in the Andromeda galaxy that appear to be deficient in elements heavier than Hydrogen and Helium.
This is interesting, there isn't that much information due to the need to sign in, but I would suspect the research papers may be more widely available in due course.
#science,#chemistry,#asc,#astronony.#andromeda,#astrochemistry,#scienceweek,#chemistryweek,#USA
Resources
Get Online Week
This week 19-25 October is UK GetOnline week
Useful Links
Learn
Freedom respecting software
CryptPad is a web based suite of applications that offer Text Editing, Spreadsheets and file storage.
Privacy respecting.
Social media
Alternatives to facebook and twitter etc that respect user freedom, privacy and do not collect data
Thunderbird 78
Debian has just updated Thunderbird 78. Enigmail is now depreciated, in place of this is direct support for OpenPGP
I have therefore decided to revoke my previous keys and start fresh with a new one, so that this could be set up properly with the new system.
The new interface for Thunderbird, however looks a lot nicer, cleaner and easier to navigate.
International day against DRM
Exeter Chiefs vs Bath
Rugby Fixture
Saturday 10th October home to Bath kick off 16:10
Scores
Nextcloud desktop
As I have been using Disroot e-mail for some time. I have also been using their cloud service for file storage.
As This uses NextCloud. I have installed the desktop client in order to help keep some files synchronised between my netbook and desktop.
nextcloud-desktop/stable,now 2.5.1-3+deb10u1 amd64 [installed]
Nextcloud folder synchronization tool
This is working very well. I can sync files to the cloud and download them on another connected device.
Connecting devices is really easy and is a case of knowing the URL of the service. Then just giving the client the appropriate credentials (as in uid / password).
You get a new folder in /home/user/ which anything copied or moved in to this is sync'd. Remember if you want to keep a copy locally you should copy and paste the file. Otherwise drag & drop will move files.
There is also a green icon in the `panel' which is illustrated below.
As xfce4 allows emblems to be added to files / folders then I have set two, so that this folder is easier to identify. I need to add my 2nd disroot account too, but no rush for that.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a privacy centric alternative for file storage then NextCloud is a great option. Services such as OnlyOffice also integrate in to this to provide a full cloud based office solution.
While you 'can' self host you can also take advantage of many solutions that will take care of this for you.
You can also host in a Docker container.
Version 20 of next cloud also includes Dashboard which has a host of really useful features.
If you live within the UK / EU then you may also want to host within this jurisdiction, in order to help comply with the GDPR.
References
Overleaf Webinar 08/10/2020
Overleaf will be presenting their latest webinar, later on today.
Creating the Art of Strategy with Overleaf Thursday 8 October – 10:00am ET/2:00pm UTC/7:00am PT
This is roughly 15:00 hrs UK time.
For information please check the Overleaf website webinar page