Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 12/11/2011: More Sabayon Linux 7 'Flavours'





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



Leftovers



  • Goodbye BIOS, hello UEFI
    When you turn on your computer, a primitive system that dates back more than 30 years, the basic input/output system (BIOS), turns your cold hardware into a functioning system that your operating system can then boot from. Alas, it's sadly out of date. PC makers have slowly been replacing BIOS with the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). That's all well and good, but one UEFI feature, Secure Boot, could be used to lock PCs into being only able to boot one operating system: Windows 8.


  • iOS upgrade swells iPhone battery-suckage grief


  • Security





  • Finance

    • For Bank Of America, Debit Fees Extend To Unemployment Benefits
      usiness plan. Out of work for much of the last three years, she depends upon a $264-a-week unemployment check from the state of South Carolina. But the state has contracted with Bank of America to administer its unemployment benefits, and Busby has frequently found herself incurring bank fees to get her money.

      To withdraw her benefits, Busby, 33, uses a Bank of America prepaid debit card on which the state deposits her funds. She could visit a Bank of America ATM free of charge. But this small community in the state's rural center, her hometown, does not have a Bank of America branch. Neither do the surrounding towns where she drops off her kids at school and attends church.


    • TOM THE DANCING BUG: Whose Encampment Should Crowd-Control Police Be Breaking Up?




  • Civil Rights

    • The WikiLeaks-Fueled Erosion of Civil Liberties Has Begun
      When a federal judge ruled that Twitter must reveal the private data of three WikiLeaks associates on Thursday, privacy advocates died a little inside. The two organizations that had defended the three users, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundations (EFF), immediately filed mournful blog posts that respectively raised doubts about the United States government's secretive handling of the case and highlighted grave message the ruling sends about the future of privacy on the internet. But Wall Street Journal reporter Jennifer Valentine-DeVries sums up the implications of the case best with a leading question: "Should the government be able to collect information related to your Internet use without a warrant?" We now know that the federal court's answer is, "Yes."




  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Turncoat EU Parliament Gives Up on Defending Free Wireless Communications
      In discussions on the future of wireless communications policies, the EU Parliament is giving in to Member States by accepting a watered-down version1 of the Radio Spectrum Policy Programme. Last Spring, the Parliament had made very constructive proposals in favour of open spectrum policies, calling2 for citizen-controlled wireless communications. Sadly, the first major effort to harmonise spectrum policy in Europe is being held back by EU governments' conservatism and the Parliament's surrender.


    • Digital Divide Persists Even as Broadband Adoption Grows
      Broadband Internet adoption has skyrocketed over the last decade in the U.S, though adoption hasn't been entirely evenly spread across all Americans. That's the conclusion from a new Exploring the Digital Nation report from The Department of Commerce's Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

      The report is a followup to one released in 2010 that came to a similar set of conclusions about the so-called digital divide between those that have broadband Internet access and those that do not.




  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Proudhon: if IP is property, is it theft?
      Here is a thought provoking article on how the distribution of income gives the top one percent such a disproportionate share of output link here. It finds the source in French anarchist Proudhon's cry that "Property is theft," and asserts "The biggest "theft" by the [richest] 1 percent has been of the primary source of wealth - knowledge - for its own benefit."






Recent Techrights' Posts

After Softpedia Pushed Out Its Linux News Editor - and Effectively Killed the Linux Section - it Killed the Whole News Section (Altogether)
So they've killed Linux coverage, then their whole "news" section died
Cybersecurity is a structural not behavioural problem.
Reprinted with permission from Cyber|Show
 
The Media Finally Admits (on a Regular Basis) That LLMs Suck
They could not replace medical doctors, teachers, lawyers etc.
Why We're Taking Things Up a Notch
Expect about 20 articles a day this year
Sites That Cover WSL Are Helping Microsoft's Attack on GNU/Linux
Calling out the typical culprits
Plans for June
We'll try to publish Daily Links every time we have enough of these
The War on Free Software Reporters - Part III - Doxing and LARPing
LARPing is an issue I've had to deal with for nearly 20 years
Links 01/06/2024: Ukraine Updates, MongoDB Collapses
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2024: MNT Pocket Reform, Gemini and Content Length
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2024: WeblogPoMo2024, Pentagon’s Increasing Reliance on (i.e. Bailouts to) Microsoft
Links for the day
Twitter is (in Many Ways) Already Dead
Put an 'X' on it
Posts About Free Software, BSD, and GNU/Linux
Focus shifts have occasionally been discussed here over the years
Their Goal is Control, Not Security (and Their Staff Advocates Fake Security or Pricey Gimmicks That Disempower the Users)
Those companies just want control, or simply domination over users (and their computers)
[Meme] The Lowest Standards of Security
No need for any qualifications
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 31, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, May 31, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Free Software is the Future, Open Source is Just Openwashing (Proprietary With a False Marketing Twist)
Also see postopen.org
Society Has Been Destabilised by Social Control Networks
Is it time to get rid of them, if not by sanctions/bans then simply by popular boycotts?
Gemini Turns 5 This Month
As long as Geminispace exists and is accessed by enough people, Gemini Protocol will continue to matter
Links 01/06/2024: More Crackdowns in Hong Kong, Street Named After Navalny
Links for the day
The War on Free Software Reporters - Part II - Antisocial Mobs
how various GNU/Linux bloggers got "canceled" over the years
Microsoft's Share of Physical Web Servers Fell From 9.14% to 9.04% in One Month
What's interesting to us is how Microsoft continues moving down in everything measured
Links 31/05/2024: Escalations in Ukraine and Russia, National Reporter's Shield Law in US
Links for the day
Links 31/05/2024: Generating and Using Identifiers, Why Unicode
Links for the day
A 3-Year Campaign to Coerce/Intimidate Us Into Censorship: In Summary
Some high-profile examples of defamation include Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman...
[Meme] Never "Missing Out" in FOSS Conferences
The sexists who objectify women and bully women are going to FOSS events in pursuit of sex, according to themselves
Racism, Ageism, and Ableism at IBM/Red Hat and Kyndryl
IBM's Kyndryl is now accused of "racial, age, disability discrimination"
The War on Free Software Reporters - Part I - Why Techrights Cannot be Censored (and Won't be Censored)
Microsoft remains by far the biggest culprit
In Spite of Boot-locking (Trying to Make It Hard If Not Impossible to Install BSDs and GNU/Linux on New PCs) Microsoft's Grip is Rapidly Slipping
Escaping the Microsoft prison
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 30, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, May 30, 2024
Microsoft's Problem in Puerto Rico
Notice how much Windows has fallen
Gemini Links 31/05/2024: MNT Pocket Reform and Benben v0.5.0
Links for the day
"I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows. You may laugh at my expense -- I deserve it." -Be's CEO Jean-Louis Gassée
Execution of Red Hat: But I helped promote Azure and .NET
In Many Countries Vista 11's Market Share Goes Down, Not Up (Even Microsoft-Funded Mainstream Media Admits This)
More people are moving to GNU/Linux
10 More Days
Tux Machines turns 20.
[Meme] Meeting People on 'Dating Apps'
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog until you bark
The Campaign to 'End' Richard Stallman - Part IV - The Legitimate Concerns
So at least we now know why the FSF does not mention public talks
Links 30/05/2024: Public Domain and Kangaroo Courts
Links for the day
Canonical Works for Microsoft
Where are the antitrust regulators or CMA?
Links 30/05/2024: Microsoft Layoffs Back in Headlines, RISC-V and Standards
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/05/2024: A Lonely Friend and Deletion of Old Posts
Links for the day
[Meme] 10 Years Down the New Career System (NCS) and What it Did to Our Collegiality
New from SUEPO, the staff union of the EPO
[Chart] Chromebooks in Micronesia Grew at the Expense of Microsoft Windows
As of today...
Angola: Microsoft Windows Down From 98% to 12%
Africa is "lost territory" for Microsoft colonialism
No News Drought in Techrights
Leaving my job after almost 12 years also contributes to available time for research and publication
A 3-Year Campaign to Coerce/Intimidate Us Into Censorship: Targeting My Wife
In my view, it is a form of overt sexism
Death Valley
The truth can be twisted
[Meme] UEFI 'Secure' Boot's Model of Security
Lion cage with people
Climbing a Tall Mountain for 2 Decades
In Web terms, 20 years is a very long time. Very few sites (or a small proportion of the whole) make it to 20.
If You're Going to Concern-Troll "Linux" Make Sure You Actually Use It (Or Tried It)
Concern-trolling has long been a key ingredient of GNU/Linux Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt
The Serial Strangler From Microsoft is About to Be Served Court Papers
You can run, but you cannot hide
The Campaign to 'End' Richard Stallman - Part III - The Reddit Mob (Social Control Media Controlled, Steered or Commandeered by Wall Street)
This is totally reminiscent of what authoritarian regimes do
Caged by Microsoft
Are you telling me that preventing people from booting their Linux is security?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 29, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 29, 2024