Mar 25, 2021

Tech For Everyone #9: Fake Headlines and GNOME Gestures

By Jason Evangelho • Issue #9 • View online

Today I’ll skip the typical intro and make a movie recommendation. Go watch Nomadland immediately. It’s a poignant portrait of a slice of America that goes completely unnoticed. Frances McDormand is flawless, and it doesn’t feel like anyone in this film is even acting.

Instead, the movie feels like we’re simply spying on a way of life. The van life. It’s an essential movie that will make you think, and maybe even make you value what you have that much more.

Welcome back to Tech For Everyone. Let’s get into it.

9 Fake Headlines, 1 Real One

Last week I wrote briefly about Lou Otten’s passing. He was the engineer at Phillips responsible for inventing cassettes. That flawed but wonderful vehicle for mixtapes. The medium that inspired the Walkman and made our music truly portable.

Well, I realized I’m not quite done waxing nostalgic about the cassette. And I discovered that just like vinyl, tapes are making their own mini-comeback as well! Did you know Lady Gaga had the best-selling cassette release of 2020, and that tape sales DOUBLED in 2020 compared to 2019? Wild!

OK. Let’s have some fun! Below I’ve written ten article headlines ranging from straightforward to pure cringe to unabashedly pun-tastic. But only one of them is real. The other nine are complete fabrications (even though I’d love to see what kind of bombastic or humorous essays people could craft with some of these).

Can you spot the real, published title? Hint: I published it a few years ago.

1) More Hipster Than You: A Love Letter To Tapes 

2) Forget Vinyl, Let’s Talk About The Cassette Comeback 

3) High-Speed Dub My Heart 

4) Capstan Holes & Pressure Pads: Tapes Can Be Sexy, Too 

5) Analog Audio And Double Deck Dreams 

6) Drawn Towards Tapes? Must Be Your Magnetic Personality

7) No Pencil: A Harrowing Journey of Music and Madness 

8) Now I’m Cassette For Life: How A Walkman Made Me Rich

9) You Auto-Reversed Your Love And Ejected My Heart

10) Adhesive Love: The Beginner’s Guide To Splicing

Feeling creative? Hit “REPLY” on your email client and throw your best fake tape headlines at me.

GNOME 40 GESTURES, FOR THE REST OF US

GNOME Shell X11Gestures extension

The GNOME desktop is having a nice moment. Not only is version 40 available with a damn nice website to compliment it, but we finally have multi-touch gestures.

That is, if you’re using Wayland. If you’re not (and I know many of you refuse to go there until some of the kinks are worked out), developer Jose Esposito has you covered!

He’s created a useful GNOME extensions plugin called, appropriately enough, “X11 Gestures.” You’ll need to install Touchégg first, and then load up his extension here.

If I’ve learned anything about the Linux community in the past few years, it’s that the Linux community always rises to a challenge, and gives people choice where choice didn’t exist before.

So, thanks Jose!

LINK LOVE

Today’s link attack is an assortment of downright hilarious memes, social network commentary, and Linux-related stories I want to share but don’t have the time to cover in my own words.

PC building in 2021 be like...

This is too real. If you watch one meme today, make it this one.

imgur.com • Share

The Long Journey Ahead For Linux On Apple Silicon

An old joke from the Linux community about its prevalence in computing quips that Linux will run on anything, including some animals…

hackaday.com • Share

Tim Berners-Lee: ‘We need social networks where bad things happen less’

Zoom being Zoom, Tim Berners-Lee’s name appears in my browser window about 20 seconds before his audio and video feed kick in – and for a brief moment, the prospect of talking online to the inventor of the world wide web seems so full of symbolism and significance that it threatens to take my br

www.theguardian.com • Share

Metro Exodus

@MetroVideoGame

Spartans, we have an update for you on the #Mac & #Linux versions of #MetroExodus

We are working hard on bringing these to you, and we can finally let you know the train has left the station. Both versions are now on track to arrive on Wednesday April 14. https://t.co/w2tB3iVnFD

1:06 PM - 25 Mar 2021

THANK YOU

2020 and 2021 have been difficult. I’ve struggled to be consistent and to stay positive about the content I create. But my hardcore community has never given up on me. Thank you for being here, for believing in what I do, and for being awesome.

Until we chat again, take care! And take care of each other.

~Jason

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By Jason Evangelho

Consumer tech coverage and conversations for everyday people. Delivered to your inbox with a heavy dose of storytelling and fun!

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