Ernie's

In my experience, avoidance, prevention and preparation are paramount for changing disaster to inconvenience when preparing for or dealing with having an Internet-based account hacked or taken over. What follows are my recommendations for Internet-based account security, in so far as the steps a user can take to safeguard an account: 1. Avoidance The best way to avoid your account being hacked or taken over is to do everything in your power to prevent it in the first place. 2. Prevention Use unique, long, strong passwords consisting of random characters for every Internet-based account you have: Securely store all passwords in a manager to mitigate or eliminate many security threats. Activate 2FA for all Internet-based accounts (prevents most account take-over attacks): If an account doesn’t offer/support 2FA, consider seeking an alternative that does. Use passkeys where avail...

I asked the AI overview on my Firefox web browser:     How does key-logging malware capture key strokes, and more importantly, if it obtains the required level of access, is there anything it cannot also do on my computer? Here's the response: Malware captures keystrokes by utilizing legitimate system APIs (like Windows' SetWindowsHookEx ) to intercept input events before they reach intended apps, or by embedding at deeper levels. Once malware achieves high-level (administrative or kernel) access, it has near-total control over your computer, operating with the same rights and permissions as the operating system itself. With this level of access, there is virtually nothing the malware cannot do. Capabilities include: Data Ex-filtration and Spying : Silently taking screenshots, hijacking your webcam and microphone, stealing browser cookies, and accessing all stored files. System Manipulation : Terminating security programs, disabling firewalls, installing add...

When I began to Vibe Code my Show-It.py Python3 script, I intended it to work on both Windows 11 Pro 25H2 and Garuda Mokka Linux, and my efforts were successful on Windows, but when I copied the script file to Garuda, while I could run it from the command line, it turned out that systemd is much fussier than the Windows Task Manager, so I had to embark on a bit of a journey to make my script work corectly with systemd. As I embark on writing this Linux-based tutorial, my latest journey's complete after using Googles Gemini to help me merge my two versions of my script into one, so it truly does execute equally well on both Windows 11 Pro 25H2 and Garuda Mokka Linux, my two favorite environments to work and play on. First things first! Check that you have Python installed on your system, using this command in your terminal: python --version # If Python's installed this command should return the installed version (We want Python3 for my Python script) If for some reason, this ...

I needed a way to put persistent reminders on my desktop to remind me of daily tasks and appointments, because I'm easily distracted, and I can become so engrossed in what I'm doing that I lose track of the passage of time, not a good thing on days I have appointments, or fail to feed my dog or cat on schedule. To make things even more complicated, I dual-boot Windows 11 Pro 25H2 with Garuda Mokka Linux, so I wanted solutions for both OSes. After a lot of searching on the Internet I came to the conclusion that what I want isn't available, at least not in a way I'm comforted with using. Across my search efforts I used Google's AI overview extensively in an effort to discover a solution that would do what I wanted, in a way I wanted (I' can be picky when it comes to my computers). After a few months of this on-again - off-again search, I gave up and decided to put my efforts on a back burner for a while. A few weeks later, I read an item about Windows Task Sched...