An education on racism

Firefox kept popping up to enter the password. So, being old school, I entered the phrase by which I recalled “Master Password” (Google: Firefox keeps prompting for master password). I received the following result:
Firefox keeps asking me for Primary Password
Within the article, I found the following:

Primary Password is replacing Master Password. Firefox is removing terminology from the browser that has been identified as derogatory or exclusionary. Learn more about why we’re making this change.

So I followed the Learn more link. I got an education.

Primary Password is replacing Master Password

Firefox is removing terminology from the browser that has been identified as derogatory or exclusionary. We’re listening to conversations happening within the Mozilla community and in the world at large, and are paying attention when people tell us that some terms we use in Firefox exclude and damage people.

‘Master-slave’ is a metaphor that perpetuates racism. Firefox strives for inclusion and clarity; we have no need for terms derived from harmful metaphors when we have plenty of alternatives that are more inclusive, more descriptive and non-racist. For this reason, all instances of Master Password are being replaced with Primary Password in the Firefox browsers and products.

Deprecating the term Master Password is also in accordance with the “Derogatory Language” section of the Mozilla Community Participation Guidelines.

Good that I read this, as now I will change my vocabulary to follow Firefox guidelines, as the Firefox guidelines:
These guidelines aim to support a community where all people should feel safe to participate, introduce new ideas and inspire others, regardless of:

• Background
• Family status
• Gender
• Gender identity or expression
• Marital status
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Native language
• Age
• Ability
• Race and/or ethnicity
• Caste
• National origin
• Socioeconomic status
• Religion
• Geographic location
• Any other dimension of diversity

Just as an example, I will no longer use the term “Vanilla” in referring to anything, other than the original intent, such as flavor (vanilla ice cream). As using the term to refer to anything else, such as Vanilla JavaScript, is derogatory and “Plain” should be used instead of Vanilla. I just wonder how I would refer to someone that calls themselves Vanilla, such as Vanilla Ice? I guess I will just refer to the artist by their true name, such as for Vanilla Ice, Robert Matthew Van Winkle.

The Firefox guidelines have made rethink of my daily words that at I use and their terminologies. I believe by using the “true” words and their meanings, instead of using slang, will assist me in expanding my vocabulary and avoid derogatory and offensive words. The worst thing I can think of, is offending someone and not even know that I have offended them. Thank you Firefox!

I believe that is the reason why the COVID-19 variants have changed their names, to stop stigmatization:
Covid Variant Naming Convention:
Alpha – UK
Beta – South Africa
Delta – India
Gamma – Brazil

I just wonder how the new guidelines will affect history: Spanish flu, Lyme Disease, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, West Nile, Zika… Will the books be rewritten? In America monuments of the past are being removed. Out of sight out of mind? History cannot be changed, but can be forgotten. But if forgotten, is that good or bad? Usually the bad is written to not be forgotten, so the bad is not repeated again. Maybe to be ignorant is better, as the saying goes,”What I don’t know can’t hurt me.” Maybe not, as I stated before, the worse thing I can do is offending someone and not even know that I have offended them.

We are currently living a time where words are taken literally instead of their alternate meanings, and people interpret the words differently, depending to their life, which makes using some terms difficult, as different people come from different backgrounds. But these are the times. The best way to avoid any miscommunication, is to use words by their literal meaning. Do not say “bad” when meaning to say “really good” or “exemplary,” or “dope,” when meaning “excellent.”

This is topic is convoluted and complicated… so I will end here.

In Short, requires a license to use an older version.

I have an old Mac OS X (OS 10.7.5 (Lion)) which I have on a shared Keyboard, Video and Monitor (KVM). I came across a software called Teamviewer, which lets a user access another computer remotely. WOW, perfect solution, as I wanted to remove the Mac from my KVM and use those resource for another device.

Down the rabbit hole…
After a few a few hours trying to find the version of Teamviewer that is compatible with the Mac, I finally found the version and downloaded the Host version, which allows the Teamviewer software to run in the background and to auto start on boot up. Great I thought to myself… that is done, now to install Teamviewer on my workstation and access the Mac. Man this is nice… Boy was I wrong!

After downloading the latest version of Teamviewer (15.18.5), installed and tried to access the Mac, I received a message that stated that the Teamviewer that I am trying to access is older that the Teamviewer I am using and to update the Teamviewer I am trying to access. Well since I would not update the Teamviewer on the Mac, as that is no longer supported, I thought, Hmmm… I will just downgrade the Teamviewer I installed. So uninstalled Teamviewer on my Ubuntu 20.04 workstation and installed the same version as the Mac, which is Teamviewer 11. I had compatibility issues with some modules missing, which I resolved after following this post: https://nezhar.com/blog/install-team-viewer-12-or-older-on-ubuntu-18-04/

Just as the article stated, I opened a command line, typed in ./teamviewer and Teamviewer launched as expected! GREAT I thought, that is until I tried to connect and only received the same message. So I searched why having the same versions I would still receive the same message… Came to licensing. With the “free” version, the software becomes obsolete, while if a license was purchased for that version, the software might continue to work. I say might, as I did my research on why Teamviewer was not working, some licensed users where posting in the Teamviewer forum why their licensed software is now no longer compatible. I came to the conclusion that Teamviewer uses something in the backend that prevents older unlicensed version from working.

I ended up uninstalling Teamviewer on both workstations, enabled sharing on the Mac and using TightVNC (https://www.groovypost.com/howto/remote-access-mac-osx-windows-7/). Which works for what I wanted.

Teamviwer would have save me hours of frustration if they provided a notification that older versions will not work unless a license was purchased. But then again, the knowledge and experience that I gained would not have happened. There is always a positive side, just have to look! 😉

Install Samba

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install samba samba-common-bin

Create shared directory

sudo mkdir /media/NameOfDirectory

Configure the directory rights, choose from one of the follwong:

This command sets the sticky bit (1) to help prevent the directory from being accidentally deleted and gives everyone read/write/execute (777) permissions on it.

sudo mkdir -m 1777 /media/NameOfDirectory

No sticky bit and directory can be deleted.

sudo mkdir 777 /media/NameOfDirectory

Configure Samba

Create a backup of the original file before editing

sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.bak

Edit the Samba configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Open to everyone who can access the share.
Add the following to the bottom of the file.

[share]
Comment = Samba shared folder
Path = /media/NameOfDirectory
Browseable = yes
Writeable = Yes
only guest = no
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777
Public = yes
Guest ok = yes

Restart the Samba service.

sudo service smbd restart

Share that can only be accessed by user(s) who have been granted access.

User who already has an account in the system:

sudo smbpasswd -a NameOfUser
New SMB password:
Retype new SMB password:

User that does not have an account in the system, an account has to be created. Not creating a password for the user will only grant the user Samba access and not system access.

adduser NameofUser

Or explicitly state not to create a directory and password for the user.

sudo adduser --no-create-home --disabled-password --disabled-login NameOfUser

Create a Samba password for the user.

sudo smbpasswd -a NameOfUser
New SMB password:
Retype new SMB password:

Edit the Samba configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Add the following to the bottom of the file.

[share]
   comment = Samba Shared Directory
   path = /media/NameOfShare
   valid users = UserName1 UserName2
   public = no
   writable = yes

Restart the Samba service.

sudo service smbd restart

Removing Samba User

Delete Samba user.

sudo smbpasswd -x UserName

Delete user from the system.

sudo userdel -r UserName