Project Zebra: Unless they look at life like Socrates ►

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2026-10-21 📌 Project Zebra: A minor evil created by incompetent amateurs

Tags All Linux Personal Tech

This entry is part of my Project Zebra series covering migration to Linux for personal computing use.

Title reference: A slightly abridged quote from Jon Ribbens about PHP: "PHP is a minor evil perpetrated and created by incompetent amateurs, whereas Perl is a great and insidious evil, perpetrated by skilled but perverted professionals." Kids today may never even have seen Perl, except for maybe PCRE. Hot on the heels of that critical cPanel vulnerability earlier in the year, every web host and WordPress blog is likely to be affected by this: https://www.php.net/archive/2026.php#2026-10-20-1 https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/21/php2shell-php-vulnerabilities-patched-cve-2026-109618-cve-2026-109619/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/php-vulnerabilities-waf-protection/ https://watchtowr.com/intelligence/php-cve-2026-109618-faq/ https://www.huntress.com/blog/php2shell-leaked-critical-php-vulnerabilities I've got a supported version selected, and am reassured HostingUK is on it: "The PHP security team has announced an update to address two critical security vulnerabilities, scheduled for 21 October 2026 at 15:00 BST. Details of the affected versions and relevant patches will be published when the update is released. Shared hosting and managed customers: We will apply the relevant patches to your service once they are released and available for your hosting platform. You do not need to apply these patches yourself. Unmanaged server customers: You’ll need to update PHP on your server once the relevant security patches are available. We recommend applying these as soon as possible to help keep your server secure. We recommend that all customers use the latest supported PHP version compatible with their websites and applications, and keep it updated with the latest security patches. If you are running an unsupported PHP version, please arrange an upgrade to ensure you continue to receive security updates." Patches have also been backported by https://deb.sury.org/ For servers it's important to make sure updated and patched versions are the ones actually running. Clearing down lots of older notes... I give in, Swiftkey is driving me mad with how less accurate it is than Gboard. But Gboard moved the keyboard layout around and isn't an option either. So I'm experimenting with Heliboard, available via FDroid, which gives a modicum of confidence (as does it not being internet-connected). If necessary, unlike get-what-you're-given Google, Microsoft, etc, offerings, it can do fully custom layouts. https://www.howtogeek.com/this-open-source-android-keyboard-finally-fixed-what-gboard-gets-wrong/ https://github.com/HeliBorg/HeliBoard/discussions/2261 It seems established and active, going back to 2022 when it forked from OpenBoard. It optionally uses Google's swipe library, which is considerably better than Microsoft's in my experience, insofar as it doesn't lean into inferring words with low statistical probability, and doesn't require anything like as much precision whilst swiping. It seems very configurable but also defaulted to backspace and enter being in the correct positions, like on a physical keyboard, which is a damn good start. It reliably doesn't fucking censor input when told not to, which is nice. Reading around a bit, other people hate HMD Nokias too: https://developer.run/80?utm_source=dannyob&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2025-06-24-metag0v-comms-the-dumbest-of-phones And that mentions TCL handsets. Can they do individual ringtones, though? i.e. Only assign priority calls a sound. Google's AI slop suggests the 4042S can, if they're saved to the phone rather than the SIM, but I can't find anything about ringtones in a PDF of the manual. The Nokia 235 4G can, which is its one saving grace. But interestingly, this suggests TCL and HMD both use Mocor OS: https://www.reddit.com/r/dumbphones/comments/1peqf9z/a_long_rant_about_mocor_rtoss30_and_hmd_as_a_whole/ So maybe another manufacturer has just managed to not screw it up, and also it might still have specific contact ringtones. Also very cheap refurbed ones around. I feel another experiment coming on. dmcrypt can read old Truecrypt volumes, which would be more handy if I kept track of passwords better https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/truecrypt-veracrypt-linux-native-use.html sudo cryptsetup --readonly tcryptOpen container_file_or_partition TCMOUNT Google continues down the walled garden path: https://m.slashdot.org/story/457838 https://www.theregister.com/applications/2026/09/24/f-droid-app-store-thumbs-its-nose-at-googles-dev-crackdown/5298974 I've written before about how bad things seem to have gotten with Windows, and being able to update infrequently used systems is probably far from the biggest issue, but seven hours? https://www.theregister.com/os-platforms/2026/09/20/how-windows-turned-months-of-inactivity-into-a-7-hour-update-hostage-situation/5297478 Android Firefox UI remains fairly bad at simple things: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/please-allow-shortcuts-on-the-home-screen-to-be-rearranged-into/idi-p/10733/page/1 Use a tablet to shut down, lock screen, etc: https://userbase.kde.org/KDE_Connect/Tutorials/Useful_commands Still no simple RDP it seems though: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/root-tip-how-to-remote-desktop-with-plasma-wayland/184566 I'm very traditional with desktop environments but Jenson's smart and engaging: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7AfAcQwLW0 Also to watch, 30 years of KDE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBAsX0SRhqI And a Register write up of the latest release: https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/10/15/kde-hits-30-decides-its-time-to-move-out-of-the-x11-era/5303293 Shading tends to be used as an equivalent of reducing windows to tray icons rather than panel buttons, so I feel the pain of these users losing it with Plasma on Wayland - losing window management functionality isn't good. Like with the kdocker workflow I needed to replace, someone has come up with a workaround replacement, so hopefully that sees official adoption https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=377162 https://github.com/stefanq/kde-wayland-window-shading Useful links about Acorn mice: https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25114 http://qubeserver.com/Qube/projects/serialmouse.html?i=1 Station cat: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckp8gdng8q64o Game book legacy: https://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Home Picolo as a container package: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/09/banshee-music-player-snap-ubuntu A light story anthology that alters backstory more than expected: https://downthetubes.net/britains-greatest-superheroes-50th-anniversary-celebrating-captain-britain/

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