Why can't I change the default output sound device on Ubuntu 20.10?

Today I struggled with an annoying issue concerning the sound system on my Dell XPS 13 7390. Ignoring whatever output sound device I selected, Ubuntu would instead play the audio directly through the built-in speakers. To quote what I regularly hear from my users, “it worked yesterday, and I didn’t change a thing!”

Sex, drugs and no-reply@sharepointonline.com

Is there anything more annoying in this world than dealing with Microsoft support? You might assume that Microsoft would appreciate reports detailing the abuse of its services or even act upon that information. But alas, in both cases you’d be wrong.

Content warning: This article contains mildly sexually explicit text and images.

Slackware Linux trivia, history, and things you didn't know

In the modern computing era, Slackware might be considered an old relic of a long-forgotten past. The old king may have abdicated the throne, but the embers of past glory still smolder. As we’re on our way towards the release of Slackware 15, allow me to share a few amusing Slackware tales I’ve collected over the years.

KDE Plasma 5.20 arrives in Slackware-current

Slackers rejoice! The dark ages have finally come to an end. Our benevolent dictator for life has spoken, and KDE Plasma 5 has arrived in /testing on Slackware-current. Patrick Volkerding announced the update with his usual lack of fanfare on the Slackware-current changelog:

A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack from Facebook?

The other day I got an automated alert from our managed WordPress hosting service, notifying me of an issue with resource exhaustion for a virtual site. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the adversary was not your everyday aimless botnet, but something darker, and far more sinister.

.CYOU TLD - We See You Too Spammer

ShortDot SA, the top-level domain registry that brought us the infamous .ICU TLD is back with yet another useless domain extension. Say hello to .CYOU TLD, the “savvy and uber-cool domain”, at least according to ShortDot.

Your fortune awaits on Slackware Linux

Enjoying a lazy Sunday morning, I decided to boot up my Slackware-current laptop to install yet another batch of kernel updates. To repay my kindness, Slackware gave me what I can only describe as a malicious jumpscare that nearly resulted in a heart attack.

Did Microsoft just roll out MTA-STS and TLS-RPT?

A few months ago I was complaining about the lack of MTA-STS adaptation with major email service providers besides Google. Recently though, I’ve noticed a new player connecting to mta-sts.paranoidpenguin.net to retrieve my MTA-STS policy.

Outlook.com is no longer blocking my mail server

I’ve been getting quite a few emails from people wanting to know if I’ve made any progress on the deliverability issues I was facing when delivering email to outlook.com. As good fortune would have it, Microsoft accepted my request to delist my mail server from outlook.com’s internal IP blocklist.