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Links 7/11/2019: Mesa Releases and Beta of Godot Engine 3.2



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop

      • Chrome OS: Yo dawg, I heard you like desktops so we put a workspace in your workspace

        Google has added virtual desktops to its Chrome OS, used in Chromebooks, enabling users to create multiple workspaces and switch between them.

        The virtual desktop feature is the biggest of several updates. Once the update is installed, a New Desk icon appears in the top right corner of the desktop. You can display virtual desktops full screen or side by side, and drag windows between desktops. These operations can be done with touch, mouse, trackpad or using keyboard shortcuts.

        Virtual desktops have been available in Windows 10, macOS and Linux for some time so Google is catching up with these established operating systems.

        Another new feature is the ability to right-click a phone number in Chrome and send it to an Android phone. This requires enabling sync between the Chrome browser on both devices.

      • HP Envy x360 15 2500u - One year later

        A year passed since owning HP Envy x360 15 2500u now running mainly on Fedora Design Suite now on its 31 release. The Design Suite is based on Fedora Workstation running on Gnome Wayland by default.

        The touchscreen works as intended and feel more responsive. Tweaking Firefox 70.0 However, due to a bug related to the GTK toolkit, using a stylus can cause crash on some applications. The fix is available and will be a matter of the time of an update . Sometimes, the touchscreen failed to work due to an issue related to ACPI only HP can address. The current workaround is to reboot the laptop.

      • The Librem 13 reviewed by Unbox Therapy

        He loved the ease and convenience of our hardware kill switches and how they could be used to seamlessly toggle the WiFi/Bluetooth and the Camera and mic on and off without restarting the system – in Lewis’s own words, “That’s pretty cool, you have to admit that!”

        We are very proud of our kill switches, they are the most secure way to disable components of a laptop that can be used to spy on you — as they physically disconnect the circuitry, like removing the light socket from the wall.

    • Server

      • IBM

        • Red Hat Linux 8.1, Now Generally Available, Adds New Automation Capabilities

          Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 enhances the manageability, security and performance of the operating system underpinning the open hybrid cloud while also adding new capabilities to drive developer innovation.

          Red Hat, Inc., the provider of open source solutions, recently announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1.

          Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 comes with improved manageability, security, and performance of the operating system underpinning the open hybrid cloud while also combining innovative capabilities to accelerate developer innovation.

        • Why Use Containers, Kubernetes, and OpenShift for AI/ML Workloads?

          Containers and Kubernetes are proving to be very valuable in helping accelerate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) lifecycle for organizations worldwide. ExxonMobil, BMW, Volkswagen, Discover Financial Services, Ministry of Defense (Israel), Boston Children’s Hospital, are some organizations have operationalized Red Hat OpenShift, industry leading Kubernetes-based container platform, to accelerate data science workflows, and build intelligent applications. These intelligent applications are helping achieve key business goals and providing competitive differentiation.

          In a recent blog, I explained how these emerging cloud-native technologies are playing a vital role in helping solve ML Lifecycle execution challenges, and accelerate the delivery of intelligent applications. You may be thinking…”ok, so where do we start to learn about this topic?”

          To help you get started on this journey, we have developed a short video that explains in under three minutes how containers, Kubernetes, and OpenShift can accelerate AI/ML initiatives for your organization. Whether you are working at your desk, driving, riding on a train, walking, or something else, this quick video will do the job for you! As always, feedback is highly appreciated.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • The Linux Link Tech Show Episode 833
      • Full Circle Magazine: Full Circle Weekly News #152
      • 2019-11-06 | Linux Headlines

        npm comes up with a reasonable way to fund future contributions; also the new RHEL release has a specific focus, UBports builds for 64bit, while GitHub and Microsoft have some big news to share.

      • Talk Python to Me: #237 A gut feeling about Python

        Let's start with a philosophical question: Are you human? Are you sure? We could begin to answer the question physically. Are you made up of cells that would typically be considered as belonging to the human body?

        It turns out we have many ecosystems *within* us. Understanding them is important to our own wellbeing. In this episode, you'll meet Sebastian Proost, who is using Python to study bacteria in our world.

      • Python Bytes: #155 Guido van Rossum retires
      • FLOSS Weekly 554: Hotrock

        Hotrock is a leading-edge event intelligence platform that allows IT leaders to navigate data overload, cut through the silos and potentially reduce costs. With digital transformation and the digital customer experience, a high priority on corporate agendas, next-generation event management solutions such as Hotrock can deliver meaningful business results in terms of ensuring applications and systems are continuously available and optimized for best performance.

    • Kernel Space

      • Unifying kernel tracing

        Steven Rostedt has been a part of the Linux kernel tracing community for most of its existence, it seems. He was the developer of ftrace, which was one of the early mainline additions for tracing. There are now many tracing facilities in the kernel. At the 2019 Open Source Summit Europe in Lyon, France, Rostedt wanted to present an idea that he has been thinking about for a long time: a unified tracing platform to provide access to all of the kernel tracing facilities from user-space applications.

        There are "many faces of tracing" for Linux, including perf, LTTng, SystemTap, DTrace, BPF, ktap, strace, GDB, ftrace, and "there's plenty more", he said. He began his presentation with a look at the history of Linux tracing, touching on a number of those projects.

      • Redesigned workqueues for io_uring

        The io_uring mechanism is a relatively new interface for asynchronous I/O; it first appeared in the 5.1 kernel in May. Since then, though, it has quickly grown in capabilities and in users; now it appears that it is outgrowing some of the kernel infrastructure that supports it. Thus, we have a proposal from Jens Axboe (the io_uring maintainer) for a new workqueue subsystem for io_uring that hints at some interesting plans for the future. Workqueues are used by many kernel subsystems to run work asynchronously in process context. Over the years, workqueues have been extensively tweaked to provide the features needed by the kernel and to keep queued work requests from running concurrently on the same processor and contending with each other for CPU time. They have been relatively stable for a while, indicating that they do what is needed most of the time.

        The io_uring mechanism is all about allowing user space to create asynchronous threads of execution, so it's not surprising that workqueues are extensively used there. Over time, though, some of the limitations of workqueues have become apparent in this context. Workqueues are, to a great extent, about ceding control over where and when the work functions are executed, but io_uring would benefit from a higher degree of control over how that work is done. Thus, the new mechanism, called "io-wq".

      • Type checking for BPF tracing

        The BPF in-kernel virtual machine has brought a new set of capabilities to a number of functional areas in the kernel, including, significantly, tracing. Since BPF programs run in the kernel, much effort goes into ensuring that they will not cause problems for the running system; to that end, the BPF verifier checks every possible aspect of each BPF program's behavior to ensure that it is safe to run in the kernel — with one notable exception. With a patch set titled "revolutionize bpf tracing", Alexei Starovoitov aims to close that loophole and eliminate a set of potential problems in a widely used class of BPF programs. BPF is heavily used in tracing applications to gain access to useful kernel information and to perform data aggregation in kernel space. There are two variants of these programs. If a tracepoint has been placed in a useful location in the kernel, a BPF program can be attached there; otherwise, a kprobe can be placed at (almost) any kernel location and used to trigger a BPF program. Either way, the BPF verifier currently has little visibility into the data that will be passed to those programs.

        Consider, for example, the trace_kfree_skb tracepoint placed in net_tx_action(). When this tracepoint triggers, any handlers (including attached BPF programs) will be passed two pointers, one to the sk_buff structure representing the network packet of interest, and one to the function that is freeing that packet. The type information associated with those pointers is lost, however; the program itself just sees a pair of 64-bit unsigned integers. Accessing the kernel data of interest requires casting those integers into pointers of the correct type, then using helpers like bpf_probe_read() to read the data behind those pointers. A series of bpf_probe_read() calls may be needed to walk through a data structure and get to the data the tracing program is actually looking for.

      • Graphics Stack

        • mesa 19.3.0-rc2
          Hi list,
          
          

          Along with the stable mesa 19.2.3 release today, I'm pleased to announce mesa 19.3.0-rc2. There's a large number of bug fixes in this release, nouveau, intel, radeon, radv, turnip, nir, meson, zink, iris, swr, core mesa, and android fixes are all present here.

          Developers, please have a look at the release tracker: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/milestones/5, there's plenty of bugs that need looking at if you have some time.

          Dylan

          Shortlog ========

          Alyssa Rosenzweig (1): pipe-loader: Build kmsro loader for with all kmsro targets

          Bas Nieuwenhuizen (6): radv: Fix timeout handling in syncobj wait. radv: Remove _mesa_locale_init/fini calls. turnip: Remove _mesa_locale_init/fini calls. anv: Remove _mesa_locale_init/fini calls. radv: Fix disk_cache_get size argument. radv: Close all unnecessary fds in secure compile.

          Daniel Schürmann (4): docs/relnotes/new_features.txt: Add note about ACO aco: fix immediate offset for spills if scratch is used aco: only use single-dword loads/stores for spilling aco: fix accidential reordering of instructions when scheduling

          Dylan Baker (3): nir: correct use of identity check in python meson: Add dep_glvnd to egl deps when building with glvnd Bump VERSION to 19.3.0-rc2

          Erik Faye-Lund (1): zink: emit line-width when using polygon line-mode

          Ian Romanick (1): intel/compiler: Report the number of non-spill/fill SEND messages on vec4 too

          Ilia Mirkin (2): gm107/ir: fix loading z offset for layered 3d image bindings nv50/ir: mark STORE destination inputs as used

          Jan Zielinski (1): gallium/swr: Fix depth values for blit scenario

          Jason Ekstrand (3): anv: Fix a potential BO handle leak anv/tests: Zero-initialize instances anv: Set the batch allocator for compute pipelines

          Jordan Justen (2): iris: Add IRIS_DIRTY_RENDER_BUFFER state flag iris/gen11+: Move flush for render target change

          Kenneth Graunke (1): iris: Fix "Force Zero RTA Index Enable" setting again

          Lionel Landwerlin (3): intel/dev: set default num_eu_per_subslice on gen12 mesa: check draw buffer completeness on glClearBufferfi/glClearBufferiv anv: Properly handle host query reset of performance queries

          Mauro Rossi (1): android: aco: fix Lower to CSSA

          Paulo Zanoni (1): intel/compiler: remove the operand restriction for src1 on GLK

          Pierre-Eric Pelloux-Prayer (2): radeonsi: tell the shader disk cache what IR is used mesa: enable msaa in clear_with_quad if needed

          Samuel Pitoiset (1): radv: fix compute pipeline keys when optimizations are disabled

          git tag: mesa-19.3.0-rc2
        • Mesa 19.3-RC2 Released With Fixes To RADV Vulkan, Intel Driver Fixes

          Mesa 19.3 is packing many exciting changes for this last quarterly installment to Mesa for 2019. Among the fixes made over the past week since the RC1 / feature freeze include several RADV fixes, a few fixes to the AMD ACO shader back-end that was added for 19.3, a few Intel Vulkan driver fixes, continued fixes for the new Intel Gallium3D "Iris" driver that is in quite good shape for Mesa 19.3, and a variety of other regressions/bugs addressed.

        • mesa 19.2.3
          Hi list,
          
          

          I'd like to announce the immediate availability of mesa 19.2.3. Things are mostly slowing down now, the one exception is the giant pile of release-script changes from me. Yay simplifying the release.

          We've got a bit of everything in this release, iris, meson, radv, anv, turnip , 965, svga, utils, core mesa, glsl, etanviv, and gallium/rbug. But not too much any one place, all in all it feels like we're settling nicely into the stable release groove.

          Dylan

          Shortlog ========

          Bas Nieuwenhuizen (4): radv: Fix timeout handling in syncobj wait. radv: Remove _mesa_locale_init/fini calls. turnip: Remove _mesa_locale_init/fini calls. anv: Remove _mesa_locale_init/fini calls.

          Caio Marcelo de Oliveira Filho (1): anv: Fix output of INTEL_DEBUG=bat for chained batches

          Danylo Piliaiev (1): glsl: Initialize all fields of ir_variable in constructor

          Dylan Baker (13): bin/gen_release_notes.py: fix conditional of bugfix bin/gen_release_notes.py: strip '#' from gitlab bugs bin/gen_release_notes.py: Return "None" if there are no new features bin/post_version.py: Pass version as an argument bin/post_version.py: white space fixes bin/post_release.py: Add .html to hrefs bin/gen_release_notes.py: html escape all external data bin/gen_release_notes.py: Add a warning if new features are introduced in a point release cherry-ignore: update for 19.2.3 cycle nir: correct use of identity check in python meson: Add dep_glvnd to egl deps when building with glvnd docs: add release notes for 19.2.3 Bump version to 19.2.3

          Ilia Mirkin (1): nv50/ir: mark STORE destination inputs as used

          Illia Iorin (1): Revert "mesa/main: Fix multisample texture initialize"

          Jason Ekstrand (2): anv: Fix a potential BO handle leak anv/tests: Zero-initialize instances

          Jon Turney (2): rbug: Fix use of alloca() without #include "c99_alloca.h" Fix timespec_from_nsec test for 32-bit time_t

          Jonathan Marek (1): etnaviv: fix depth bias

          Kenneth Graunke (1): iris: Fix "Force Zero RTA Index Enable" setting again

          Lionel Landwerlin (2): anv: fix unwind of vkCreateDevice fail mesa: check draw buffer completeness on glClearBufferfi/glClearBufferiv

          Marek Olšák (1): util/u_queue: skip util_queue_finish if num_threads is 0

          Nanley Chery (5): anv: Properly allocate aux-tracking space for CCS_E intel/blorp: Disable depth testing for slow depth clears iris: Clear ::has_hiz when disabling aux iris: Don't leak the resource for unsupported modifier iris: Disallow incomplete resource creation

          Paulo Zanoni (1): intel/compiler: remove the operand restriction for src1 on GLK

          Pierre-Eric Pelloux-Prayer (1): mesa: enable msaa in clear_with_quad if needed

          Sagar Ghuge (1): intel/blorp: Assign correct view while clearing depth stencil

          Samuel Pitoiset (4): radv: do not create meta pipelines with 16 samples radv: do not emit rbplus if attachments are undefined radv/gfx10: fix 3D images radv: fix vkUpdateDescriptorSets with inline uniform blocks

          Tapani Pälli (1): i965: setup sized internalformat for MESA_FORMAT_R10G10B10A2_UNORM

          Thomas Hellstrom (2): svga: Fix banded DMA upload unmap winsys/svga: Limit the maximum DMA hardware buffer size

          git tag: mesa-19.2.3
        • Mesa 19.2.3 Released With Many Fixes While Waiting For Mesa 19.3 In A Few Weeks

          Mesa 19.2.3 has a number of RADV Vulkan driver fixes (including a fix for 3D images with GFX10/Navi), various fixes to the Intel ANV Vulkan driver, a few alterations to the maturing Intel Iris Gallium3D driver, and other random fixes throughout the 3D stack.

        • NVIDIA Launches Jetson Xavier NX As 70x45mm 10~15 Watt "AI Supercomputer"

          NVIDIA announced today the newest member of the Jetson family: the Xavier NX as "the world's smallest supercomputer" coming in at smaller than the size of a credit/debit card. This mini supercomputer can deliver 21 TOPS for modern AI workloads while consuming less than 10 Watts or optionally a higher-performance 15 Watt mode.

          The Jetson Xavier NX is powered by a low-power version of the Tegra Xavier SoC. The Jetson Xavier NX offers six NVIDIA Carmel ARMv8.2 cores, a 384-core Volta GPU with 48 Tensor cores, dual NVDLA engines, 8GB of LPDDR4x memory, 16GB eMMC, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.1, and other functionality all off a 70x45 mm PCB and running off a +5V line.

        • Nvidia's new Jetson Xavier NX Adds Horsepower to AI at the Edge
        • NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX SoM Delivers up to 21 TOPS for AI Workloads at the Edge
    • Applications

    • Instructionals/Technical

    • Games

      • Shadow of the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition released on Linux

        Gaming fans, listen up! As we discussed earlier that Shadow of the Tomb Raider is about to arrive on Linux-based systems, well you don’t have to wait any longer as that day has finally come.

        Yesterday marked the release of Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition. Although the original version was liked by both players and critics alike, what makes the Definitive Edition so special is the availability on Linux, so you don’t have to head over to your Windows-based systems or any gaming consoles to play this game.

      • Transport Fever 2 is steaming onto PC and Linux in December

        The follow up to Transport Fever and Train Fever, you start off way back in 1850 and grow your transportation network through the ages, adopting new and evolving technology as it comes about. You can either play in a pure sandbox mode or work your way through a trio of story campaigns that explore the European, American and Asian regions. The game’s been given a thorough UI overhaul from Transport Fever, with new modular stations and an overhaul of the map editor and generator tools. All of this will feed into the modding community with full Steam Workshop support to share maps and saves, which can also be customised in the map editor. I got to go hands on with the game earlier this year, saying in our preview, “Though it’s marked as an evolution of the last Transport Fever, Urban Games might be underselling what this sequel will offer. Sure, a lot of what they’re changing in the core gameplay is based off player feedback and revising some of the existing systems to be clearer, but there’s some major features in the map editor and additions to the core gameplay as well. Even the visual and thematic upgrades alone are a big step forward. If you’re a fan of the previous games or Transport Tycoon games in general, make sure to check the timetables for when this departs for PC later this year.”

      • Verenitti OS Unix style operating system for gamers, creators and professionals

        A new operating system will be launching in a few days time via Kickstarter in the form of Verenitti OS, offering a UNIX-like OS alternative to Windows 10, Linux and Mac OS. The Verenitti OS has been specifically designed for gamers, creators and professionals and will allow you to play AAA games while providing a completely private and secure operating system with complete compatibility, says its creators. Verenitti 33 has been designed specifically for laptops and includes an integrated firewall, application profiles Hybrid OS, Floating OS, Portable OS and more. Verenitti 77 has been designed for designer gaming and creators PC offering incredibly power, with specialised performance drivers.

        “Verenitti is a Unix-like operating system we are developing, with a lot developed already, to allow users to have an OS they own and can use as they wish, with no forced cloud service or external identification needed. As digital code develops and the industry and government expand the possibilities, operating systems are becoming more and more unusable due to privacy concerns and bloat. Windows seems to believe it has the right to add adverts into your operating system whenever it chooses.”

      • The first Beta of Godot Engine 3.2 has been released

        The team behind the FOSS game engine, Godot Engine, have now released the first Beta in the 3.2 series so the full release is coming close now with lots of new goodies for game developers.

        Rémi Verschelde, the Project Manager noted that they've seen plenty of activity since the third Alpha release with well over 200 commits and they're now entering a feature freeze period. So no new features as they work on getting it stable.

      • DEV SNAPSHOT: GODOT 3.2 BETA 1

        We thus publish Godot 3.2 beta 1 as our next iteration, fixing various issues from previous builds. 263 commits have been merged since 3.2 alpha 3. This release is built from commit 077b5f6.

        The beta stage corresponds for us to a release freeze, as announced today on GitHub, which means that we will only consider critical bug fixes for merging in the master branch, and that until Godot 3.2 is released. This way, we can focus on making the 3.2 release as stable as possible with continuously increasing the scope of its new features.

      • Abbey Games announce they're going to let staff go in December as they "scope down"

        Abbey Games, a developer known for titles like Reus, Renowned Explorers: International Society and most recently Godhood announced today things aren't going so well.

        Back in March this year their Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for their newest game, Godhood, was successfully funded with €54,376. It then launched into Early Access in July, but it seems neither the campaign or Early Access launch is enough.

        In a post on the Godhood Kickstarter, they explain that to survive they're going to scope down "significantly" to get Godhood across the finishing line. They said Godhood will still be completed, coming to a full release in the first half of 2020 with a roadmap change.

      • Seven years ago today, Steam for Linux went into limited Beta

        Sometimes it only feels like it was a year or two ago but no, it has been seven years to the date since the valve was opened a little to let some Linux users get some Steam.

        In that time, Valve have done a huge amount for Linux gaming. Sure, the whole Steam Machine and SteamOS idea didn't quite work out but thanks to the initial push we're still here. Not hard to imagine where Linux gaming would be without Valve, hardly any others really stepped up and took interest.

    • Distributions

      • New Releases

        • Easy Pyro 1.2.8 and Buster 2.1.8 released

          Enough new things have happened to warrant new releases. The so-called EOL (End Of Line) Pyro series is continuing to receive version bumps, and if you read the release notes you will see that the version bump 1.2.7 to 1.2.8 and 2.1.7 to 2.1.8 are both getting the same changes.

      • Screenshots/Screencasts

      • Gentoo Family

        • Gentoo eclass design pitfalls

          I have written my share of eclasses, and I have made my share of mistakes. Designing good eclasses is a non-trivial problem, and there are many pitfalls you should be watching for. In this post, I would like to highlight three of them.

      • Fedora Family

        • Final F30-20191106 updated isos Released

          The Fedora Respins SIG is pleased to announce the final release of Updated iso for F30. F30-20191106 Live ISOs, carrying the 5.3.8-200 kernel. This set of updated isos will save considerable amounts of updates after install. ((for new installs.)(New installs of Workstation have 1.2 GB of updates)).

        • F31-20191105 updated iso released

          The Fedora Respins SIG is pleased to announce the latest release of Updated F31-20191105 Live ISOs, carrying the 5.3.8-300 kernel. This set of updated isos will save considerable amounts of updates after install. ((for new installs.)(New installs of Workstation have 500MB of updates)). A huge thank you goes out to irc nicks dowdle, Southern-Gentleman for testing these iso.

        • Fedora 30 : GIMP 2.10.14 with flatpak.

          Flatpak is a software utility for software deployment and package management for Linux. It is advertised as offering a sandbox environment in which users can run application software in isolation from the rest of the system. see Wikipedia . Flatpak builds available in i386, x86-64, ARM and AArch64.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Ubuntu Touch enters the 64-bit era

          It’s been a few years since Canonical stopped developing a version of Ubuntu Linux for smartphones, but the folks at UBports picked up where Canonical left off… and they’ve been busy bringing new features and bug fixes to the Ubuntu Touch platform ever since.

          The latest example? Ubuntu Touch is finally getting 64-bit support.

          While most smartphones supported by Ubuntu Touch have 64-bit processors, up until now the operating system has only run in 32-bit mode. But the UBports team says switching to 64-bit brings a number of benefits including...

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Events

      • Linux Foundation

        • Between a cloud and a hard place, the beauty lies between

          Edge is bringing us back to the days of distributed computing. For so long we’ve had hard choices to make between hands-on control and the promised economies when we let go.

        • Heightened visibility and deeper control with a monitoring control plane

          Until a few years ago, if you did any kind of searching for control planes, you would have found results related to traditional networking concepts. With the advent of cloud computing — including hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, and cloud-native — we’re seeing a lot of tools starting to adopt a “control plane for ‘X’” terminology. We’ve heard this term applied to — among other things — Kubernetes. More on that later.

      • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

        • Changing of cairo to skia inside LibreOffice

          Developers of LibreOffice are making an experiment. They make changing of cairo to skia inside LibreOffice. That change will be merge in to the master after branch of LibreOffice 6.4

        • New Table section was added to Writer Sidebar

          Tamás Zolnai from Collabora added to Writer Sidebar new Table section. Now when you click inside a Writer table then you'll see in Sidebar new section with controls for handling of the table like "Add row", "Add column", etc.

      • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

        • GNU Health 3.6RC3 available at community server & demo database

          The Release Candidate 3 (RC3) for the upcoming GNU Health 3.6 has been installed in the community server.

          You can download the latest GTK client, either using pip (from pypi test repository) or the source tarball as explained in the developer's corner chapter.

        • Rethinking the governance of the GNU Project

          The GNU Project was created by Richard Stallman in 1983 to further his goal of developing an entirely free operating system — a goal that seemed impossibly ambitious at the time. Stallman has recently resigned from some of his roles, but as of this writing his personal site still leads off with this proclamation: "I continue to be the Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project. I do not intend to stop any time soon". Within the project itself, though, it has become clear that this intention lacks universal support. We appear to be seeing the beginning of a governance transition for this venerable project. To many, Stallman's departure from the Free Software Foundation and MIT appears to be an abrupt development based on behavior outside of the technical or project-management areas. Those reasons are mostly out of scope for this article (and for any comments), but there is one thing that is worth pointing out: the concerns that led to these changes have existed for many years. As is often the case, they came to a climax quickly, but the situation had been developing for years.

          While these concerns certainly play into why there is pressure for change from within the GNU Project, there is more to it than that. Some recent events highlight the fact that some maintainers feel that change is needed; they have more to do with Stallman's leadership within the project than his behavior outside of it.

      • Programming/Development

        • Open Source, SaaS and Monetization

          When you're reading this blog post Sentry which I have been working on for the last few years has undergone a license change. Making money with Open Source has always been a complex topic and over the years my own ideas of how this should be done have become less and less clear. The following text is an attempt to summarize my thoughts on it an to put some more clarification on how we ended up picking the BSL license for Sentry.

          [...]

          Open Source is pretty clear cut: it does not discriminate. If you get the source, you can do with it what you want (within the terms of the license) and no matter who you are (within the terms of the license). However as Open Source is defined — and also how I see it — Open Source comes with no strings attached. The moment we restrict what you can do with it — like not compete — it becomes something else.

          The license of choice is the BSL. We looked at many things and the one we can to is the idea of putting a form of natural delay into our releases and the BSL does that. We make sure that if time passes all we have, becomes Open Source again but until that point it's almost Open Source but with strings attached. This means for as long as we innovate there is some natural disadvantage for someone competing with the core product while still ensuring that our product stays around and healthy in the Open Source space.

          If enough time passes everything becomes available again under the Apache 2 license.

          This ensures that no matter what happens to Sentry the company or product, it will always be there for the Open Source community. Worst case, it just requires some time.

          I'm personally really happy with the BSL. I cannot guarantee that after years no better ideas came around but this is the closest I have seen that I feel very satisfied with where I can say that I stand behind it.

        • How to Handle Coroutines with asyncio in Python

          When a program becomes very long and complex, it is convenient to divide it into subroutines, each of which implements a specific task. However, subroutines cannot be executed independently, but only at the request of the main program, which is responsible for coordinating the use of subroutines.

        • When to Use a List Comprehension in Python

          Python is famous for allowing you to write code that’s elegant, easy to write, and almost as easy to read as plain English. One of the language’s most distinctive features is the list comprehension, which you can use to create powerful functionality within a single line of code. However, many developers struggle to fully leverage the more advanced features of a list comprehension in Python. Some programmers even use them too much, which can lead to code that’s less efficient and harder to read.

          By the end of this tutorial, you’ll understand the full power of Python list comprehensions and how to use their features comfortably. You’ll also gain an understanding of the trade-offs that come with using them so that you can determine when other approaches are more preferable.

        • The return of Python dictionary "addition"

          Back in March, we looked at a discussion and Python Enhancement Proposal (PEP) for a new dictionary "addition" operator for Python. The discussion back then was lively and voluminous, but the PEP needed some updates and enhancements in order to proceed. That work has now been done and a post about the revised PEP to the python-ideas mailing list has set off another mega-thread.

          PEP 584 ("Add + and += operators to the built-in dict class") has gotten a fair amount bigger, even though it has lost the idea of dictionary "subtraction", which never gained significant backing the last time. It also has two authors now, with Brandt Bucher joining Steven D'Aprano, who wrote the original PEP. The basic idea is fairly straightforward; two dictionaries can be joined using the "+" operator or one dictionary can be updated in place with another's contents using "+=".

        • Git 2.24 Released With Commit Graphs By Default, Adoption Of Contributor Covenant

          Released earlier this week was Git 2.24, which pardon for not punctually covering due to being extra busy this week, but this revision control system update is nevertheless an interesting update.

          Git 2.24 ships with commit graphs enabled by default after being experimental for recent releases. Git commit graphs by default accelerate the walking of the commit graph used for listing/filtering history and computing merge bases. This should yield a significant performance boost for relevant operations of such walks.

  • Leftovers

    • The primary enemies of the Russian language according to Vladimir Putin
    • Health/Nutrition

    • Security (Confidentiality/Integrity/Availabilitiy)

      • Libarchive Vulnerability Allows Code Execution on Linux and BSD Distros [Ed: This is only a risk if one downloads malicious files and then runs them or attempts to uncompress them]

        Libarchive is a default compression library that is optimized for reading and writing compressed archive files in a single go. It means that Libarchive can process large archive files that cannot be stored on a disk and instead process them on-the-go as they read from or write to a network or a tape drive.

      • Massive White Supremacist Message Board Leak: How to Access and Interpret the Data

        Today, the entire SQL database from Iron March, a now-defunct neo-Nazi / white supremacist message board, was posted onto the Internet Archive by the user “antifa-data“. You can access this data dump on the Internet Archive, and via a torrent file found here, or through this Magnet link.

      • Sberbank's confessed data thief is transferred from jail to house arrest

        The Volgograd Regional Court has transferred Anton Buturlakin — the “National Collection Service” employee charged with stealing Sberbank clients’ personal data — from a pretrial detention center to house arrest, according to the news agency Interfax. Sberbank’s data leak was first reported on October 24, the same day that police announced the capture of a suspect in the case.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • A Tragic Crash, but Was It Murder?

        Semi-pro football player Cedric Mitchell was driving to practice on June 7 when he says he lost consciousness. “I remember blacking out,” the 35-year-old told Truthdig from the county jail in Twin Falls, Idaho, “and coming back to when somebody was taking me out of my truck.”

      • 9 U.S. Citizens Killed in Drug Cartel Ambush in Mexico

        Drug cartel gunmen ambushed three SUVs along a dirt road, slaughtering at least six children and three women — all of them U.S. citizens living in northern Mexico — in a grisly attack that left one vehicle a burned-out, bullet-riddled hulk, authorities said Tuesday.

      • Calling War 'Irrational,' President of Mexico Rejects Trump Offer to Send US Army to Wipe Drug Gangs 'Off Face of the Earth'

        "We have to act independently and according to our constitution, and in line with our tradition of independence and sovereignty," said Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

      • Which of the 2020 Candidates Are Ready to Address the Threat of Nuclear Weapons?

        Fifty-seven years ago last month the world breathed a sigh of relief. Most of that October in 1962 had been spent on the brink of nuclear war. A stare down at a naval blockade, dramatic UN Security Council meetings, a somber Presidential address, a shot down spy plane - and through it all tense backroom negotiations and letters between Kennedy and Kruschev.

      • History Demands: Turn Imperialist Wars into Wars Against Imperialism

        Global dominance has been the centerpiece of U.S. policy in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union when the U.S. suddenly found itself without a counter to its global imperialist aspirations.

      • Why Did Trump Sell Out Kurds?

        On October 6, the presidents of America and Turkey spoke by phone. There is no transcript of what was said, but the White House issued a press release announcing the decision of Turkey’s president to attack northern Syria, and that of the United States to withdraw from it.

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Transparency Advocates and Environment Defenders Call on California Supreme Court to Review Government Email Deletion Practices

        In California, as in many states, the public has a right to request public records—government documents that reveal information such as what decisions public officials make, what actions they take, and how they spend our money. But what happens when a government agency starts deleting records faster than a member of the public can ask for them?€ 

        EFF has joined a coalition of government transparency and environmental justice organizations in supporting a lawsuit against the County of San Diego, which created a policy to destroy all emails automatically after 60 days unless an employee flags the emails for preservation. In a joint letter, we ask the California Supreme Court to grant a hearing in the case Golden Door Properties, LLC, et al. v. Superior Court, arguing that these short retention periods thwart the government transparency measures enshrined in California law and the state’s Constitution.€ 

      • ‘Conducted in secret’: Former PM Malcolm Turnbull secured release of jailed Australian journalist James Ricketson

        Filmmaker James Ricketson has spoken out for the first time about his arrest on spying charges and jailing in Cambodia and the role then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull played behind the scenes securing his release.

        Ricketson, who was pardoned and sent back to Australia, told News Corp Australia Mr Turnbull had direct talks with the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, and said Prime Minister Scott Morrison could do the same, if he wanted to, for detained Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

        “The deal done by Malcolm Turnbull was conducted in secret. This is the way diplomacy works. Scott Morrison can pick up the phone and talk with Boris Johnson. Indeed, the Australian government has made no bones, of the help it has provided to Australian citizens who were sporting heroes or who were young and attractive,” said Mr Ricketson.

    • Environment

    • Finance

      • Homelessness a 'Symptom of Greed' by the Rich, Says Bernie Sanders, Not a Crime by the Poor

        2020 candidate weighs in on Las Vegas, Nevada ordinance that would fine or jail people for sleeping on streets

      • New Report Details How 'Inflation Inequality' Punishes the Poor—and Helps Undercount Them by Millions

        "I'm hoping that this new report will help policymakers understand the reality of the economy for low-income workers."

      • William the Conqueror and CEO pay

        The next time you go to the movies, remember the Norman conquest of 1066.€ That’s when William the Conqueror crossed over the English Channel from Normandy and defeated the last Anglo-Saxon king, changing the course of world history. Back then, the feudal system was in full swing, with medieval peasants toiling while lords and ladies lived in sumptuous luxury. It was a time, in

      • Wealth and All That Glitters

        The generation of baby boomers gave rise to a stable of cultural heroes who became multimillionaires. They were actors, writers, musicians and some of those took part in protest. There was one major difference about this stable that set them apart from the rest of us during that era of protest, and that was they became very, very rich, often on the left’s dime, to where they had more in common with the few and the wealthy than the rest of us who had to pay bills and make ends meet. We didn’t have a choice of whether to show up to work. We were free in a Dickensian way, in that we were free to starve if we chose. Someone on the left noted a few years ago, making an observation of one celebrity (a movie star) from the stable, that a person of extreme wealth could show up at a protest, possibly get arrested, and leave as that person had come, in a limousine. Very few who went to the barricades during the civil rights and antiwar movements got to come and go via limousine. It’s not that the left didn’t benefit by the largess of wealthy donors and celebrities, it’s just that most of those on the left didn’t have much in common with them besides principles, but principles are easy to defend in extreme comfort.

      • You Will Have Social Security Just Like Your Parents and Grandparents—If You Fight to Keep It!

        I was explaining to my 26-year-old son recently that while I’m continuing to work as a writer, because I waited until age 70 to begin collecting my Social Security benefits, I am now collecting almost $29,000 on top of what I earn doing my freelance journalism thing.He said, matter-of-factly, “Well, I and most of my millennial friends don’t expect Social Security to be around

      • The 20 Best Cryptocurrency Wallets for Your Digital Coins in 2020

        The cryptocurrency industry has seen a significant turn over in recent years. With the development and increasing demand, the crypto platforms are working to offer more than ever to their clients and investors. Cryptocurrency wallets are created to store digital assets, manage security issues like saving secret keys and identity verification. To let you know best cryptocurrency wallet is much more secure than the exchanging platforms as a long string, which is referred to as the key represents the address of your portfolio and generated through sophisticated cryptography techniques.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • When Is a Whistleblower, Not a Whistleblower?

        For those readers who care more about Donald Trump, Obama’s legacy or the Republican/Democrat parties rather than the Rule of Law and what remains of the US Constitution, the following scenario should be a Giant Wake up Call.

      • 'Historic' Alaska Ruling Could Provide Roadmap to Defeating Citizens United

        "This decision gives Alaskans and all Americans a chance to revisit those destructive decisions."

      • Is Trump Attending LSU-Alabama Game Because He's "Desperately Searching for a Sporting Event Where His Ass Won't Get Booed"?

        "Oh god, he's just going to keep going to sports events until they don't boo him, isn't he?"

      • The Trump Doctrine Demands a Democratic Response

        I’ve been publishing anti-war material for more than five years now. Seeing as I only retired this past February, I did most of my dissenting while still on active duty, and much of it during the Obama years. During that time, the overwhelming majority of hate mail in my inbox—and sometimes my actual mailbox—almost always came from the political right. Then Trump was elected, occasionally said some modestly prudent things about ending endless war in the Middle East, and when I dared write approvingly about those words, my hate mail began to change. Now it invariably emerges from the mainstream “left,” my own ostensibly ideological compatriots.€  (More on this phenomenon in my Nov. 6 column at antiwar.com). Now, despite spending almost all of my adult life in uniform, I’m labeled a “Putin apologist,” a “traitor,” an “asset” and a “useful idiot.”

      • Great Britain is Reaching for Nationalism Over Economic Sense

        Britain is becoming more and more like Northern Ireland. This should be a comfort to Arlene Foster and the DUP as they rue their betrayal by Boris Johnson over the Irish border.

      • McConnell Brags He and Trump Are 'Changing the Federal Courts Forever' With Extreme Right-Wing Judges

        "It's not for ordinary Americans, it's for the rich and powerful, and we have to find a way to stop them. And that's going to be the elections next year," said Sen. Jeff Merkley.

      • In 'Bombshell' Reversal of Earlier Testimony, Sondland Confirms Knowledge of Quid Pro Quo With Ukraine

        The ambassador claimed statements from other key witnesses for the Democrats' impeachment inquiry "refreshed my recollection."

      • Would the Founding Fathers Impeach Trump?

        Trump’s entire presidency has been shadowed by questions of foreign interference favoring him. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation documented extensive contacts between Trump’s associates and Russian figures — concluding that the Kremlin sought specifically to help Trump get elected, and that Trump’s campaign welcomed Russia’s help. Trump at one point in the 2016 election campaign even publicly called on Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s missing emails, and within hours Russian agents sought to do just that by trying to break into her computer servers.More recently, he openly called on China’s help, saying before cameras “China should start an investigation into the Bidens.”This is an impeachable offense, according to the framers of the Constitution. Trump did it. Case closed.

      • Russian immigrant who smuggled his daughters away from their Muslim foster family in Sweden returns to Russia

        On November 3, Denis Lisov returned to Russia. Lisov, who was born in the Russian city of Khabarovsk, smuggled his three daughters out of Sweden after local child protection officials paired the children with a Muslim foster family. The father and three girls traveled through Poland, where Lisov was arrested while boarding a flight to Moscow. The Swedish government demanded that the family be returned to its care, but a Polish court nonetheless ruled that Lisov had “been placed at an otherwise unresolvable impasse” and allowed him to return to his home country with his children. Russian state media sources have followed Lisov’s story closely and reported on it frequently.

      • As Examples Mount, Sanders Campaign Accuses Corporate Media of 'Deliberate Attempt to Erase Bernie'

        "All of these examples are no accident," said campaign speechwriter David Sirota. "But here's some news: We're not being erased. We're going to win."

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • DOJ, Apparently Unaware Of 1st Amendment, Threaten Anonymous White House Official About To Release A Book

        In the past, when unflattering books about the Trump White House have been about to come out, the President has had one of his personal lawyers (such as the one famous for sending questionable threat letters to various media organizations) send dubious threat letters warning that the book not be published. However, since Trump often seems to think of the DOJ as his personal lawyers, perhaps it's no surprise that the DOJ has now sent a similar threat letter in an attempt to (1) block the publication of an allegedly anonymous White House official, and (2) identify who the individual is.

    • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • 'What Fascism Looks Like': Israeli High Court Upholds Expulsion of Human Rights Watch Director Omar Shakir Over Alleged BDS Support

        "The perpetuation of the occupation continues to mean the silencing of criticism."

      • Messaging as Manslaughter

        In July of 2014, 18-year-old Conrad Roy killed himself in Fairhaven, Massachusetts by pumping carbon monoxide into the cab of his truck. In a bench trial, a judge convicted Roy’s 17-year-old girlfriend, Michelle Carter, of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced her to 2 1/2 years in prison.

      • The New Revolutionaries of the Middle East Share the Same Flaw

        Revolutions are like electricity. An electric shock of the most unexpected kind. The victims think at first it must be a powerful wasp sting. Then they realise the entire house in which they live has been electrocuted.

      • Months after Putin calls Jehovah's Witnesses persecution ‘nonsense,’ another member gets six years in prison

        Jehovah's Witnesses are also Christians, and I don’t really understand why they’re persecuted. So we just need to analyze this. That’s what we need to do. I will speak to [Supreme Court Chief Justice] Vyacheslav Mikhailovich [Lebedev], and we will try to do this.

      • Two Pussy Riot members arrested while attending rock concert

        Police officers have arrested two members of the protest and performance group Pussy Riot, Pyotr Verzilov and Veronika Nikulshina. The pair was attending a Moscow concert by the rock band Scorpions at the time of their arrest, Verzilov wrote on Twitter.

      • Affordances: Science Fiction About Algorithmic Bias and Technological Resistance

        Future Tense Fiction, a joint project of ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination and Slate, has just published Affordances, a new science fiction story by EFF Special Advisor Cory Doctorow. It's a tale of algorithmic bias, facial recognition, and technological self-determination that touches on many of EFF’s key fights.

        "Affordances" is a series of vignettes whose protagonists have steadily increasing degrees of privilege and power—first a literally nameless refugee child, then an activist documentarian on the US-Mexican border, then an African-American cop in Miami, and finally a tech executive running a giant facial recognition company—that show how each of them is caged in by automated tools that strip them of their self-determination and the chance for justice.

      • Lev Ponomarev is resurrecting his human rights group, after Russia's Supreme Court dissolved it last week

        Russian human rights activist Lev Ponomarev says he’s creating a new organization from the ashes of his “For Human Rights” movement, which the Russian Supreme Court dissolved last week in accordance with demands by the Justice Ministry. “We’re creating a new movement — an association unregistered as a legal entity. It will provisionally retain its name, absorbing part of the ‘For Human Rights’ nationwide movement. This is a new association with new leadership,” Ponomarev announced on the movement’s website.

      • Sick and Shrouded in Secrecy: Alabama’s Contract to Gas Humans to Death

        For $25,000, Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall has€ contracted€ with Tennessee company “FDR Safety,” to assist Alabama in developing a barbaric new protocol – to execute its death row prisoners, whom Alabama treats like€ human guinea pigs€ – with nitrogen hypoxia.

    • Monopolies

      • Patents and Software Patents

        • The Project Jengo Saga: How Cloudflare Stood up to a Patent Troll – and Won!

          Remember 2016? Pokemon Go was all the rage, we lost Prince, and there were surprising election results in both the UK and US. Back in 2016, Blackbird Technologies was notorious in the world of patent litigation. It was a boutique law firm that was one of the top ten most active patent trolls, filing lawsuits against more than 50 different defendants in a single year.

          In October 2016, Blackbird was looking to acquire additional patents for their portfolio when they found an incredibly broad software patent with the ambiguous title, “PROVIDING AN INTERNET THIRD PARTY DATA CHANNEL.” They acquired this patent from its owner for $1 plus “other good and valuable consideration.” A little later, in March 2017, Blackbird decided to assert that patent against Cloudflare.

          As we have explained previously, patent trolls benefit from a problematic incentive structure that allows them to take vague or abstract patents that they have no intention of developing and assert them as broadly as possible. Instead, these trolls collect licensing fees or settlements from companies who are otherwise trying to start a business, produce useful products, and create good jobs. Companies facing such claims usually convince themselves that settlements in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars are quicker and cheaper outcomes than facing years of litigation and millions of dollars in attorneys fees.



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