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Results 1-20 of 41 for Jonathan Terrasi.

Strong Basics: The Building Blocks of Software Engineering

The following observations were compiled with software engineering in mind, as I identified them while working in that discipline. However, these practices apply universally.

When Betting on Linux Security, Look at the Big Picture

Exploring the landscape of Linux desktop security, Jonathan Terrasi delves into the vulnerabilities of IoT devices, the focus on Linux servers for attacks, and why Linux remains a more secure albeit less popular operating system.

TECH BLOG

If Only Documentation Looked as Clean as the Code

What makes good documentation? Fundamentally it's about organization and ease of visual tracking. Here are some manifestations of that, in no particular order.

Linux? What Linux? It Just Works

Let's explore what makes Linux work so well that users aren't even conscious that they've opted out of the desktop operating system duopoly.

Not All Linux Systems Are Created Equal, but They’re All Equally Linux

Linux isn't any one thing, yet it also is. Its ability to mold itself to its hardware and use case context while maintaining a consistent internal structure is what Linux is.

Cognitive Skills for Engineering Success

The primacy of critical thinking is such a worn-out aphorism that most people whom I prompt to scrutinize it are inured to it. That shouldn’t lead anyone to mistakenly believe it isn’t indispensable, though.

INSIGHTS

Don’t Become a Fool in the IT Gold Rush

To give back to computer science education in a small way, I'd like to share my observations about determining the quality of instructional resources. Hopefully, those of you treading a similar path will learn the easy way what I learned the hard way.

Start Here When Things Go Wrong on Your Linux System

If you’ve run any operating system for any length of time, you will probably have encountered strange phenomena. Here are a few routes you can traverse to track down suspicious behavior on your Linux system.

OPINION

The Conflict in Ukraine Provides a High-Res Glimpse at 21st Century War

This is the first war in which both sides can bring top-tier cyber capabilities to bear. Intelligence agencies the world over are watching very closely to see just what to plan for should their nations enter a conventional conflict.

HOW TO

Computers Use Processes, So Should You

Writing about technology over the years I've produced many guides on how to do cool stuff with your computer. However, without the right foundation, even the most thorough guide can leave room for pesky variables to creep in. This made me realize how important it is to establish what firm footing fo...

OPINION

We’re Late Closing the Barn Door on Pegasus

People are freaking out about reports of NSO Group's Pegasus surveillance tool being used to spy on journalists, political dissidents, and other opponents of regimes worldwide. It's disheartening, and worth discussing. But why are we shocked? In Pegasus' case, the game theory is clear: some company ...

REVIEW

Clear Linux* Delivers a Lucid if Limited Vision of Desktop Linux

Intel's Clear Linux* has been on my radar for its ambition to sprint to the head of the pack. While it's certainly not the first distro developed by a tech heavyweight, it's a rare case in which a private company releases a distro with no direct commercial application. It's an experiment to prove wh...

HOW TO

Bolt-On Security the Linux Way

In this piece, I aim to provide a range of simple but effective options for encrypting a small number of files. In particular, these options are salient for use cases like tax filing, where users are sending sensitive documents to recipients with an unknown degree of technical proficiency. Fond as I...

A Linux Safari to Classify the Genus of This Penguin

Recently, I took an interest in poking at Gentoo a bit. In the eyes of many desktop Linux users, it's considered a rite of passage to install this historically significant distribution. This curiosity sent me on a much more interesting Linux safari to explore what truly differentiates distributions....

OPINION

Once the Big Tech Battler, Open Source Is Now Big Tech’s Battleground

A cadre of tech giants have created the Rust Foundation. This is neither the first nor largest contribution to an open-source project by private tech vendors. Still, the creation of this new body marks another noteworthy instance in which proprietary software companies took the initiative to found a...

The ‘Unix Way’ Has a Right Way That’s Almost a Lost Way

As I study tech sector innovations, I see signs that the old traditions are fading. I'm not one to sanctify tradition for tradition's sake, but I see merit in maintaining a traditional approach to computing tasks that encourages shrewdness. To illustrate what I mean, these are some ways we are stray...

Where Will the Penguin March From Here?

Linux began its life as a humble experiment in Unix porting, but from there it quickly became a popular kernel for server OSes due to its low cost and customizability. From there it morphed to power network appliances and Android, proving it was lean enough for a whole gamut of embedded systems. It'...

HOW TO

3 Helpful Networking Projects for Your Raspberry Pi

In spite of being a beloved companion to computer hobbyists the world over, the Raspberry Pi doesn't get enough credit. In fact, single-board computers of all stripes haven't gotten their due -- I just happen to have a Raspberry Pi.

HOW TO

Get No-Fuss File-Level Crypto With Fscrypt

This piece is a demonstration of one means of setting up file-level encryption which is widely available for Linux desktop users. To offer a similar encryption scheme to as many users as possible, we'll walk through how to use fscrypt to create an encrypted filesystem. While simple, fscrypt offers m...

TECH BLOG

The ‘Unix Way’

We neglect our OS at the risk of radically underutilizing the incredible tools that it enables our device to be. Most of us only come into contact with one, or possibly both, of two families of operating systems: "House Windows" and "House Practically Everything Else." The latter is more commonly kn...

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