Category: Conspiracy Theories

Weekly Report: October 17, 2020

Weekly Links

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

It’s been a long week, so in the interest of time, I paired this week’s report down to four links. Life has its own way of interfering with progress, but it’s better to give something than nothing at all.

That said, some classic systems were purchased.

One will become a gift and the other will become a regular on the website. With that said, let’s get this done.

Unix

What a big surprise usual announcement of a new iPhone! Apple is known for coming out with new phones on a regular basis. The announcement includes a mini version of said phone.

One the free and open source front, Rescuezilla’s newest release became available. Those familiar with tools like Clonezilla, Ghost, and others have an additional option for cloning hard drives.

Overlooked Pop Culture

There’s a reason some parts of the US have substituted Columbus Day for Indigenous People’s Day. Suffice it to say, I was fortunate to have a teacher in middle school who said that he wasn’t the one who discovered America.

As for the Hunter Biden story, the Verge has an interesting piece on how multiple entities messed up in terms of coverage.

Suffice it to say, Mark Zuckerberg was correct in warning that they can’t act as arbiters of truth. The attempt to stop disinformation was fuzzy and ineffective. People wound up talking about the story anyway.

That’s all for this week, and I will take a break from pushing our Patreon page.

Weekly Report 10/10/2020

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

Weekly Links

As opposed to writing something every day I’ll be doing a weekly wrap up every Saturday night. This week’s report comes courtesy of my Librebooted ThinkPad T500. The keyboard is a dream to type on and this system actually has 8 GB of DDR2 memory.

This fine machine can still hold up to this day and is currently running Linux Mint 20.

Each section will follow the flow of the magazine itself. The Unix section covering Unix-like operating systems and related technology will be followed by the Overlooked Pop Culture section, which covers a variety of popular things that are often overlooked, misunderstood, or both.

Unix

Even though Apple’s OS X is based on BSD, it still has security vulnerabilities. It turns out the T2 Chip is vulnerable to exploits that would let someone take control of a user’s Mac. This would require physical access to a Mac, so it won’t impact most users.

Maybe Louis Rossman can utilize this exploit for data recovery purposes.

Even with newer hardware, Apple will likely face skepticism regarding its branded silicone, Apple Silicone. At least they still have a foothold in the mobile arena. Their next iPhone is expected to be announced this Tuesday.

In Linux news, Sparky Linux 4.13 was recently released. Based on Debian, they updated the “stable” package repositories, the kernel, Firefox ESR, and more. Speaking of cool Linux news, System76 recently interviewed two individuals from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) about the use of a Lemur Pro for archiving satellite imagery for NASA.

In cloud computing news, Nextcloud’s capabilities are increasing as well. Not only can you collaborate with their tools, you can integrate Microsoft Teams, Slack, Github, and more. It’s a good thing that software is updated from time to time, because legacy software has its limits, which can become dangerous depending on the situation.

The legacy version of Excel has a limit of 65,000 rows, which caused the loss of information pertaining to nearly 16,000 positive COVID-19 tests in the UK.

Overlooked Pop Culture

Pro Wrestling fans may be excited about Halloween Havoc making a comeback this year. The classic WCW Pay Per View event is being adopted by NXT. It has been years since the Halloween themed event has aired, so having spookiness galore may ignite fan enthusiasm.

It isn’t all pumpkins and candy corn.

What may also be scary, albeit to Vince McMahon, is this piece from What Culture about Paige learning about Unionism. This comes in the wake of WWE wanting to take more control over performers’ use of social media platforms, even though said performers are “independent contractors.”

Though the WWE has become creative in offering a form of entertainment to the world in the midst of COVID-19, they aren’t the only option.

The Anime News Network has their Fall 2020 Preview Guide, so anime fans who want more than people in spandex in a squared circle wearing night goggles may be happy. Video games, whether it’s on a console or PC, are among a plethora of entertainment options as well.

Those who prefer building their own gaming PC may want to take note of Patrick Lathan’s article reviewing the Lian Li Lancool 215 Airflow Case. As for console gamers, William D’Angelo of VGChartz has an interesting piece regarding the Xbox Series X and PS5.

On a mental health note, it’s important to understand one thing: Even if one is “being edgy,” it’s never a good idea to show up at someone’s house uninvited and unwelcome.

In conspiracy theory news, QAnon, a joke on 4Chan that got way out of hand, has now caused Facebook to change their policies regarding groups mentioning theories peddled by the fake entity.

The removal of said groups will impact the spreading of certain theories.

John McAfee has been arrested in Spain and faces extradition to the US over tax evasion. Topping off the craziness is the story of a group who got caught attempting to place under citizens’ arrest kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes; that’s all for this week.

While you’re here, would you be willing to become one of our Patrons on Patreon? Doing so will get you access to the magazine for much cheaper than purchasing from the website while allowing us to grow. With enough resources, we’ll be able to have more content available throughout the week. Thank you so much in advance for your time.

Volume 3, Issue 1 Now Available

Cover Issue of the 1st Issue.
Conspiracy theories, a first glance at Linux Mint 20, and Pro Wrestling in the COVID-19 era.

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

The first issue of volume 3 of the magazine is now available free of charge. In this issue, the following topics are covered.

  • Why conspiracy theories go viral.
  • A first look at Linux Mint 20, an operating system that’s an alternative to OS X and Windows
  • Pro Wrestling in the age of COVID-19 by Stephen Kelley.

In the future, we’ll sell individual issues for $5 USD. If you become a patron on Patreon, it’s only $1 USD.

You can also get a free copy if you write for us and get published. With this issue and others in the future, please give away copies for free. Whether you share the file through torrenting or cloud storage links or print it, the more people read it, the better.

For those who want to print, bear in mind that the color scheme is RGB as opposed to CMYK, so inkjet and laser printers instead of commercial printers used for newspapers and traditional magazines.

19 Years Ago

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

Based on work by Michael Foran / CC BY

I was in high school walking back to class from a restroom break when I heard the news of the twin towers being struck. The day went from being normal to surreal in a matter of moments.

Learning the rest of the day was going to be out of the question.

At one of the computer classes I was in at a vocational school that was partnered with my high school, we watched the news. We were in awe and terrified as the twin towers came down.

I was emotionally numb about the event for several days.

When the numbness began to wear off, I became uneasy as the Patriot Act was passed into law. The next thing I knew, talks of Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction entered the news cycle.

The former Iraqi President was dealt with more swiftly, even though he had nothing to do with 9/11, than Osama bin Laden.

Today is a reminder of the thing that we have forgotten.

We must not let fear prevent ourselves from speaking up. Traditional media has had too many failures in the past, which is why there is so much distrust now. Crying wolf one time too many has its price.

Due to circumstances in my life and too much negativity, I stepped away from this project as the motivation was just not there.

I’ve concluded that the time has come to bring back The *Nixed Report.

There will be plenty of discussion of things that are not always for the faint of heart. At the same time, I’ve learned that a hard price is paid for taking things too seriously. When people say they get four hours of sleep a night or less as they grow less and less sane, it should be obvious that they are about to crack.

While not everything in life is a joke, being able to laugh is important; even if it’s at ourselves occasionally.

The magazine will be returning next week and will be on sale. The first issue will be free for everyone, and copying will be encouraged. I want the word to get out.

The idea will be to sell copies as well.

They can either be purchased off the website directly or through various crowdfunding platforms such as Patreon. Since choice is important when it comes to media consumption, multiple platforms will be available as well.

Publishing again for the sake of it isn’t a part of the mission statement.

The website, the magazine, and other media published will also serve as teaching tools as well so that others who want to know how to build an independent media venue will have a place to start. A store front with tools, supplies, and learning materials will also be provided as well in the future to help fund this project and help others learn about media creation.

Finally, having fun will be of the utmost importance.

If I don’t enjoy doing this, then there won’t be any point to it. I’m looking forward to rebuilding this brand into something better. Stay tuned.

P.S. Fuck Paul Isaac Jr.

Setting It Aside

Alex Jones is made fun of for viral marketing.

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

As can be seen by looking at this site, there hasn’t really been much in the way of activity for some time. The reason why was life in and of itself. It happens. I won’t go into details, but I had to take a break from the site.

While I was thinking about finding ways to revive the site yet again, something occurred to me.

I wasn’t having fun with it. Combine that with the fact that we’re in a political environment in which we aren’t as willing to think outside the box, and we have what’s called a no win situation.

Then we have individuals who are Revolution for Sale®.

The funny thing is, there are plenty of things to hit a certain radio talk show host in the head with, yet people are going with things that are so weak that it makes me virtually face palm and head desk myself. There are legitimate things that can be used to expose this individual for the person he really is.

Case in point:

I can try to point these things out, but the audience may not be in the mood to listen, and who can blame them? We’re in an environment where we’ve been yelling at each other for so long that we can’t see the forest from the trees.

The perspective of there only being things that are Black and White is what has been hurting us more than anything, and I don’t want to be in that environment at the moment.

I want to have fun again, and give people something to smile about.

What better way to do that than to do something that is actually fun? That is why I started RetroX86. I have been looking at the history of personal computers for some time, and was excited for the first time for some time.

So this isn’t goodbye or see you later.

I’m just setting this site aside for the time being. You’ll still be able to access past content, including the podcasts and magazine issues. The part that said, “Entertain Yourself….” is something I take seriously.

If your heart isn’t in it, don’t do it. My heart is somewhere else at the moment, so I will be doing that.

Thank you for visiting, and please check out the new site.

Let’s make this fun again.

 

 

P.S. Fuck Paul Isaac Jr.

Joyce Riley Passed Away

Joyce Riley Passed Away Today
She was a radio talk show host based in Versailles, Missouri.

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

Versailles, Missouri based radio talk show host Joyce Riley will no longer be able to host The Power Hour radio broadcast. According to their official Facebook Fan Page:

It is with the greatest of sadness that we deliver to you today the heartbreaking news of the death of our friend and fellow patriot Joyce Riley. Joyce died peacefully on June 25, 2017.
Sent with love and remembrance,
The Power Hour

She was the narrator behind the film Beyond Treason and hosted The Power Hour, often with former co-host Dave vonKleist, the narrator of 911 In Plane Sight. Riley was battling cancer and that fight ended today.

Friday Roundup: April 28, 2017

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

With the so called “government shutdown” delayed until next week, the roller coaster of 2017 is still building momentum, which brings us this week’s Friday Roundup.

Unix

 

FOSS Force announced the improvement of their news wire. In addition to headlines and authors, excerpts are now included. DistroWatch Weekly has a review of Ubuntu 17.04, the final series that will use Unity for the desktop environment before switching back to GNOME in the next LTS release. Jesse Smith noted an issue with Snap packages in conjunction with DEB packages.

I think it is worth mentioning that to install Snaps from Ubuntu Software, we need to have an Ubuntu One account. Sometimes, when trying to install Snaps, I would encounter authentication errors with my Ubuntu One account and I found closing Ubuntu Software and then re-opening the software manager and trying to install the Snap again would work around the issue.

I also feel it worth pointing out that Ubuntu’s three software managers (Ubuntu Software, Snap and APT) each work with a subset of the available packages. Snaps, for example, cannot be managed using the APT utilities. Likewise, we cannot use Snap to manage traditional Deb packages. The Ubuntu Software application tries to bridge this gap and works with desktop applications provided by both Snaps and Deb packages. However, Ubuntu Software does not work with non-desktop software or some games, requiring a trip to the command line to manage those items. This situation may get better in the future and we may get an all-in-one software manager, but for now we need three different utilities to manage software on Ubuntu and that makes for an awkward situation.

The CEO of Thinkpenguin Inc was arrested for filming the police at a police checkpoint and may face up to a year in jail. Christopher Waid had this to say:

I was essentially arrested for filming a police checkpoint in Manchester, New Hampshire (police invoked non-existent law to interfere with recording, made multiple contradicting and confusing requests, and were quick to obstruct and damage video recording equipment). Papers please. I don’t think I’ll be posting this to the ThinkPenguin blog as its irrelevant to free software / the company / etc. However I thought people here might be interested in following the case. The entire trial will be highly publicized, recorded, etc. One of the officers humorously threatens me with a motor vehicle violation. To be clear I was not drinking, not driving, had no car nearby (got there via another driver which had his car parks two or three blocks away), and in no way under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The Debian Project is shutting down their public FTP service, though developers won’t be affected. According to SoftPedia:

This means that the upload queues for both the main (ftp://ftp.upload.debian.org) and security (ftp://security-master.debian.org) archives will be accessible to them. The rest of the world won’t be able to access ftp://ftp.debian.org, nor ftp://security.debian.org starting November 1, 2017.

Overlooked Pop Culture

 

Comic book fans may have a reason to rejoice with the upcoming Marvel Legacy one shot. It includes multiple characters telling a story of the glory days. The story will relate to future of the Marvel Universe going forward.

Podcast co-host Stephen Kelley has a review of the 2017 release of Ghost in the Shell. He does pose a warning to the Internet Outrage Machine before the review is underway:

Let’s get this first part out of the way:

If there is one thing I’m tired of in the realm of film and television, it’s pre-emptive complainers trying to de-rail everything before it even comes out. with any review of this live action American/Chinese Ghost in The Shell film, everyone has drawn battle lines in regards to the elephant in the room of “Hollywood whitewashing”; in fact, I would say you were almost expected to take a side, and if you took a side that many didn’t like you’d get lectured by the other. It’s annoying that folks are getting in fights and “unfriending” each-other because of opinions over a goofy sci-fi film, but that’s our modern society I guess. Some popular reviews from major sites didn’t even talk about the film, they just reviewed everything that was in some way perceived as racist to stoke the outrage fires, this honestly comes across like they never actually watched it.

I’m not going to dwell on this topic too much because I can see both sides and don’t think arguing over whether or not Scarlett Johanson should or should not be cast as The Major actually addresses the actual problem that Hollywood has with representation. The internet witch hunts and rage were nearly identical to what people attempted to do with both recent Star Wars films, and even last years re-boot of Ghostbusters, and I honestly don’t care anymore. I’d rather discuss a film based on an anime/manga property that I’ve loved for upwards of 20+ years, and how it turned out.

/end rant

On a lighter note, Causecon has started today and will run through Sunday. All proceeds will go towards the local Women’s Resource Center in Beckley, West Virginia.

Political underground radio talk show host Jack Blood has made his return after a lengthy hiatus. He has a Patreon page for those who have followed him over the years and want to support him. On said page, he indicated the following:

At this time, the show is 100% commercial free! It will be up to you if it stays that way.

That ends this week’s Friday Roundup. We’ll be back next week.

Corporate Media Doesn’t Get Alex Jones

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

Alex Jones is made fun of for viral marketing.
He is a master of viral marketing.

In the passing weeks, there have been a plethora of stories regarding Alex Jones and his “performance artist” defense used by his attorney during his divorce hearing. Since that defense was used, it was assumed by most corporate owned outlets that he doesn’t believe what he’s selling to others.

Once again, they’re way off the mark, and this is part of the reason why so much trust has been lost regarding these established outlets.

The issue at hand is that he uses certain shock jock tactics which are really not that different from that of Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern. He has an audience to build and maintain. The sense of urgency that he has always displayed has been a part of his viral marketing.

There’s a reason he kept encouraging his followers to copy his films and give them away for free.

That is also why I would be able to use his work for certain benchmarks in any future reviews. His discs aren’t region locked. That is a hallmark of viral marketing, and Canonical has also successfully used that tactic to make Ubuntu a house hold name.

Furthermore, when one actually looks into other venues that have covered him at length, a more complicated story appears.

However extreme and paranoid and downright cartoonish his unending stream of alarm can be, Jones believes every word he says and can prove it with a personal stash of food big enough to last three years. And if they bothered to look without prejudice, these righteous leftists would see that Jones covers issues like the drug war, the growing security state, and Monsanto’s genetic modification of food exactly the way they do, just as many of his themes were echoed by the Occupy movement. –John H Richardson for Esquire Magazine

Jones has since changed tone since Trump was elected as President of the United States, but he did cover a lot of points of view that the anti-war crowd would have agreed with during George W Bush’s time in office. As for further evidence that Jones believes what he says, look no further than Joe Rogan.

This isn’t to say that I entirely agree with Jones or his tactics that are used. What I find irritating is the mindless group think that keeps echoing each other when a misleading headline comes across the eyes of the masses.

If people are to oppose Jones and those similar to him, they need to have all their facts straight and be able to back up what is being argued.

Oh, and before anybody cheers for the ex-wife of Jones, you may want to listen to Jack Blood and what he has to say.

When one digs deeper, they find the story of an individual who doesn’t like competition and who may very well have sold out depending on the point of view. Those are points in which criticism would be valid as opposed to saying he doesn’t believe in what he’s selling.

Friday Roundup: April 21, 2017

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

StarCraft Map Editor in Wine
Though Starcraft currently doesn’t run in Wine, the map editor does.

This week has been an interesting one to say the least. Ubuntu continues to get noticed due to Canonical’s change in direction while other interesting developments in the land of make believe are on the horizon. Still, it’s time to get our nerd on.

Here’s this week’s Friday Roundup.

Unix

Canonical’s announcement of moving back to GNOME and no longer using Unity starting with the next LTS release has had some exploring their options. The conclusion of one blog post is that GNOME 3 can’t replace Unity and that there will definitely be a learning curve for those who aren’t used to it.

Luís de Sousa writes:

The take home message of this exercise is that Unity 7 and Gnome 3 are markedly different desktop environments, designed with different – sometimes almost antagonistic – goals. Gnome 3 is a low visual feedback environment, meant for a small number of workspaces and highly reliant on mouse input. In its turn, Unity 7 is far more open to keyboard interaction, embraces workspaces as a cornerstone of desktop interfacing and overall offers far more modes of interaction and features. Unity 7 comes across as a transparent environment, providing immediate visual feedback on what may be happening with each of the programmes it manages; by contrast Gnome 3 opts to hide many visual cues, preferring a clean desktop, focused entirely on the current foreground programme.

(Bolding added for emphasis)

With the switch to GNOME will come the obvious switch to Wayland as well. X11 is network oriented, while Wayland is focused on individual systems, thus cutting down on overhead and improving graphical performance.

Speaking of Ubuntu, System76 is now starting to move production and design in-house. Phase Three will be long term. Carl Richell writes:

We’re starting with desktops. There’s a lot to learn and the form factor is easiest to work with. Both design and CAD work are well along their way. We’re prototyping with acrylic and moving to metal soon. Our first in-house designed and manufactured desktops will ship next year. Laptops are more complex and will follow much later.

Last but not least by any means, Solus has a new release. In addition to the in house Budgie Desktop, MATE and GNOME editions are available. Their release notes are available here.

Overlooked Pop Culture

Apparently, there may be a mini version of the Nintendo Switch on the horizon, if analysts are correct. If true, one can only speculate what will happen to the DS line of portable consoles in the near future. In a surprising turn of events in WWE, Jinder Mahal has earned a number one contender spot for the WWE Champtionship.

Seeing as how the product is now less predictable, it may become more entertaining. Only time will tell.

In a piece that shows a lack of understanding, NBC is among the latest to pick up the story regarding Alex Jones and his performance artist defense. Jones is currently in a custody battle over his kids.

A note of correction: They claim he pushed that the moon landing was faked. That is not entirely true. There will be a future article regarding Jones and his custody battle to further explain this.

StarCraft fans have cause to celebrate this week as the original has been released for free in lieu of the Remastered Edition. Those who want to run into under Wine may be disappointed as it doesn’t work.

The good news is that the map editor still runs.

So if you’re a Windows or OS X user, you’ll be able to run this classic game and compete with your friends.

Cool Links of the Week

Lemonade is not your traditional renter’s insurance company. They operate to keep costs down and premiums low. Mozilla Thunderbird is also an amazing e-mail client, and they could use your help.

That wraps up this week’s interesting, weird, and cool news. We’ll see you next week.

Three Past Media Sins

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

Brian Williams Fake News
Major media itself has been just as guilty of perpetuating false or misleading news.

The past several weeks have seen accusations of media venues peddling fake news and that something has to be done about it. Believe it or not, major venues are not without sin in that category. Here are just three instances in which major media publications and networks got things wrong.

Kevin Mitnick

He was a computer hacker who had mastered the art of social engineering. Mitnick got himself into some trouble in the 1990’s to the point where John Markoff was writing sensationalist stories about him. Markoff claimed he was the FBI’s most wanted computer hacker (he wasn’t), and even claimed that Mitnick broke into the computer systems of a bank in order to distribute a fake press release.

In reality, the so called fake “$400 million loss,” was actually human error as opposed to malicious intent. As for being the most wanted by the FBI, he was on a US Marshall’s poster, but that’s not quite the same thing. Due to such sensationalist stories, Mitnick’s civil liberties were blatantly violated as he was prevented from even having a trial (he plead out so he would no longer be placed in solitary confinement).

Fortunately, Mitnick is now a successful consultant who helps businesses keep their information secure. He is also a successful author of multiple books.

Iraq and WMD’s

As Jon Schwarz of The Intercept points out, major media outlets are still getting this one wrong. The false premise of invading Iraq was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that he was aiding Al Qaeda. In reality, both were bitter enemies.

As for the weapons that were found, they were the very same weapons that existed well before Dessert Storm and Shield. They were holdovers from the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980’s. Some of the weapons couldn’t be destroyed safely due to their very nature, and Hussein was not about to attempt to utilize them.

The world would have discovered it quickly.

The other weapons were ones that Hussein didn’t know about as his regime lost track of them. They weren’t the only military force to lose track of resources as the US Military has also done the same.

Numerous casualties and injuries would result from Operation Iraqi Freedom.

New York Times and Their Fake News Problem

Remember Jayson Blair? He was let go because he plagiarized or outright faked his news coverage. Salon has an interesting piece describing a big problem in terms of media coverage.

Blair wasn’t the only one who played a part in misleading the public. Another individual was involved in pushing the talking points of George W Bush’s administration. Among said points includes the previously covered instance above.

Conclusion

Accusations of bias and being fake aren’t necessarily new nor are actual acts of either. Multiple mainstream venues have indeed made mistakes in terms of accuracy and are not without sin.

So the next time you hear somebody ask about fake news, you may want to ask them, “Remember Brian Williams?”