favorite bangs

Some of my favorite DuckDuckGo !bang codes:

!m - Google Maps
!w - Wikipedia
!s - StartPage
!lilo - lilo search
!ytm - YouTube Music
!yt - YouTube
!dpkg - Debian package search
!pac - Arch package search

!aur - Arch AUR package search

!up (or !apt) - Ubuntu package search

!wc - Weather Channel

!allmusic - AllMusic reviews and info

For more info on DuckDuckGo's bang shortcuts, see: https://start.duckduckgo.com/bang

from france

Fascinating distro. I downloaded the latest release of Emmabuntüs -- the download was about 3.3 GB -- and I've been running it in live sessions, from a flash drive. The Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 3 1.02 release announcement includes the following bit of information:

This distribution was originally designed to facilitate the reconditioning of computers donated to humanitarian organizations, starting with the Emmaüs communities (which is where the distribution's name obviously comes from), to promote the discovery of GNU/Linux by beginners, as well as to extend the lifespan of computer hardware, thereby reducing the waste induced by the over-consumption of raw materials.

That sounds good to me. For more info, check out https://emmabuntus.org/.

The live session defaulted to an Xfce desktop, with an option to switch to LXQt. Here's a shot of the LXQt desktop, with the Welcome window:

Emmabuntüs ships loaded with applications, as noted in this Distrowatch review. I like that it's based on Debian Stable. I'll certainly be keeping it around for live sessions, although I don't think I'll be doing an installation. I think I'm better off with a system built from a Debian netinstall. Still, I'm impressed and intrigued by this distro, and I may end up changing my mind about installing it on one of my notebooks.

Here's Emmabuntüs DE3-1.02 with Xfce:

the jazzy one

I used to love listening to WJZZ in the Detroit area, on 105.9 FM. Old-timers might remember this, from the late 70s or early 80s: "The jazzy one -- oh five, point nine."

Check out my Father's Day gift from M.A.L.:

Sweet!

hope

Barack Obama, June 1, 2020:  "How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change"

As millions of people across the country take to the streets and raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing problem of unequal justice, many people have reached out asking how we can sustain momentum to bring about real change.

Ultimately, it’s going to be up to a new generation of activists to shape strategies that best fit the times. But I believe there are some basic lessons to draw from past efforts that are worth remembering.

First, the waves of protests across the country represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States. The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring. They deserve our respect and support, not condemnation — something that police in cities like Camden and Flint have commendably understood.

On the other hand, the small minority of folks who’ve resorted to violence in various forms, whether out of genuine anger or mere opportunism, are putting innocent people at risk, compounding the destruction of neighborhoods that are often already short on services and investment and detracting from the larger cause. I saw an elderly black woman being interviewed today in tears because the only grocery store in her neighborhood had been trashed. If history is any guide, that store may take years to come back. So let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves.

Second, I’ve heard some suggest that the recurrent problem of racial bias in our criminal justice system proves that only protests and direct action can bring about change, and that voting and participation in electoral politics is a waste of time. I couldn’t disagree more. The point of protest is to raise public awareness, to put a spotlight on injustice, and to make the powers that be uncomfortable; in fact, throughout American history, it’s often only been in response to protests and civil disobedience that the political system has even paid attention to marginalized communities. But eventually, aspirations have to be translated into specific laws and institutional practices — and in a democracy, that only happens when we elect government officials who are responsive to our demands.

Moreover, it’s important for us to understand which levels of government have the biggest impact on our criminal justice system and police practices. When we think about politics, a lot of us focus only on the presidency and the federal government. And yes, we should be fighting to make sure that we have a president, a Congress, a U.S. Justice Department, and a federal judiciary that actually recognize the ongoing, corrosive role that racism plays in our society and want to do something about it. But the elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels.

It’s mayors and county executives that appoint most police chiefs and negotiate collective bargaining agreements with police unions. It’s district attorneys and state’s attorneys that decide whether or not to investigate and ultimately charge those involved in police misconduct. Those are all elected positions. In some places, police review boards with the power to monitor police conduct are elected as well. Unfortunately, voter turnout in these local races is usually pitifully low, especially among young people — which makes no sense given the direct impact these offices have on social justice issues, not to mention the fact that who wins and who loses those seats is often determined by just a few thousand, or even a few hundred, votes.

So the bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform.

Finally, the more specific we can make demands for criminal justice and police reform, the harder it will be for elected officials to just offer lip service to the cause and then fall back into business as usual once protests have gone away. The content of that reform agenda will be different for various communities. A big city may need one set of reforms; a rural community may need another. Some agencies will require wholesale rehabilitation; others should make minor improvements. Every law enforcement agency should have clear policies, including an independent body that conducts investigations of alleged misconduct. Tailoring reforms for each community will require local activists and organizations to do their research and educate fellow citizens in their community on what strategies work best.

But as a starting point, here’s a report and toolkit developed by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and based on the work of the Task Force on 21st Century Policing that I formed when I was in the White House. And if you’re interested in taking concrete action, we’ve also created a dedicated site at the Obama Foundation to aggregate and direct you to useful resources and organizations who’ve been fighting the good fight at the local and national levels for years.

I recognize that these past few months have been hard and dispiriting — that the fear, sorrow, uncertainty, and hardship of a pandemic have been compounded by tragic reminders that prejudice and inequality still shape so much of American life. But watching the heightened activism of young people in recent weeks, of every race and every station, makes me hopeful. If, going forward, we can channel our justifiable anger into peaceful, sustained, and effective action, then this moment can be a real turning point in our nation’s long journey to live up to our highest ideals.

Let’s get to work.


Written by
Barack Obama
Dad, husband, President, citizen.

an excellent handbook

The latest edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook, now available (paperback, download, or online): https://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/

Also see: https://debian-handbook.info/

fluxbox iconbar trick

Fluxbox has no way for changing the order of the list of windows on the iconbar. The most recently opened window always shows up last on the list. I like to have the windows organized by workspace; if I have one app running on Workspace 1 and something else running on Workspace 2, for example, I want the window on Workspace 1 to show up first on the iconbar, even if that app wasn't the first one started.

Someone came up with the script below. The idea is that it hides and redraws the active window, and moves the window to the end of the list on the iconbar. The script requires the xdotool package.

#!/bin/sh
# designed to be used with a keyboard shortcut
# in ~/.fluxbox/keys that could be:
# Control Shift Mod4 X :Exec /home/username/bin/move-to-end-of-taskbar.sh
xdotool getactivewindow windowunmap windowmap

This is not an ideal solution, but it does allow for rearranging the windows, so it isn't a bad workaround.

Source: https://bgstack15.wordpress.com/2019/09/05/rearrange-windows-on-iconbar-in-fluxbox/

Many thanks to "bgstack15" for putting this out there!

distraction-free fluxbox

I installed Fluxbox to use in Kubuntu 20.04. I wanted to keep things clean and simple. Besides the fluxbox package and its dependencies, I added numlockx and dmenu. I've got a trimmed down root menu, with entries for only a few apps:

No cute icons on this desktop. Here's Konsole showing my neofetch, with a couple of windows shaded, and dmenu in action along the top of the screen:

For KDE Plasma apps to look right in Fluxbox, I added the following line to the ~/.fluxbox/startup file:

export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=kde
 

A middle click on the desktop brings up the handy Workspaces menu:

I like the distraction-free feel of this setup. I'm not sure how long before I get tired of the plain background provided by the zimek_darkblue Style I've chosen, but it's nice for now. As usual, I relied heavily on man fluxbox, my saved config files from previous Fluxbox setups, and my notes. Here's the contents of my ~/.fluxbox/menu file, for those might want to make use of it:

# Revised fluxbox menu

[begin] (fluxbox)

   [exec] (firefox) {firefox}
   [exec] (konsole) {konsole}
   [exec] (double commander) {doublecmd}
   [exec] (dmenu [mod4+space]) {dmenu_run}

   [submenu] (fluxbox) {}
      [config] (Config)
      [workspaces] (Workspaces)
      [submenu] (styles)
         [stylesdir] (/usr/share/fluxbox/styles)
         [stylesdir] (~/.fluxbox/styles)
      [end]         
      [reconfig] (reconfigure)
      [restart] (restart)
   [end]

   [submenu] (exit) {exit}
      [exit] (logout)
      [exec] (reboot) {systemctl reboot}
      [exec] (poweroff) {systemctl poweroff}
   [end]

[end]