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Links 29/3/2021: Parrot 4.11, Kate 21.04 Feature Preview, Crystal Language Version 1.0



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Why I predict Chrome and Chrome OS will split with the roll out of version 94

        We’ve been hearing more and more about LaCrOS in the past few weeks, and I think there’s a reason for that. You see, LaCrOS (Linux and Chrome OS, or a Linux version of Chrome running in Chrome OS) has been in the works for quite some time and even though we don’t have complete confirmation on what Google plans to do with it once completed, there are good reasons to think it is being developed with the idea that Chrome OS and the Chrome browser will cease to be a unified software moving forward. While we’ve posited that may be the case, it still hasn’t been 100% clear that Google will replace the existing Chrome browser on Chromebooks with a standalone, Linux-based version for all users. Instead, as we’ve considered, perhaps the plan is to put LaCrOS into play only when a device reaches the end of life. It’s a plausible scenario and one that could still happen, but I think a much more cohesive plan is in the works.

      • Shells virtual desktop cloud computers turn all your devices into Linux computers
    • Server

      • Why Is Linux Hosting So Much More Popular Than Windows?

        The 21st century has seen the rapid digitization of life. All things within daily life – be it shopping or eating out or commuting, technology and computers have a role in enabling almost all of these activities. Different countries, organizations and people collaborate on the internet and contribute to a better working world. And the internet works with the use of computers called servers or hosts. Humans interact with computers with the help of operating systems. The importance of Linux reseller hosting stems from the fact a big chunk of the internet (websites) is up and running, thanks to cheap Linux reseller hosting.

      • March 2021 Web Server Survey

        nginx gained 3.7 million sites this month and holds 35.3% of the market with a total of 419.6 million sites. By contrast, Apache lost 8.5 million sites and accounts for just over a quarter of all sites with 308.5 million. Microsoft lost 9.6% (-7.5M) of its sites this month and ceded third place to OpenResty which in turn gained 1.2 million (+1.6%).

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Vim Which Key: Never Forget Your Key Binds

        When you have a bunch of custom keybindings in Vim it's very easy to forget them, but what if we could see the bindings inside of the editor. We can do exactly that with a plugin called Vim Which Key, inspired by an Emacs plugin of the same name.

    • Kernel Space

      • Kernel prepatch 5.12-rc5

        The 5.12-rc5 kernel prepatch is out for testing. "So if rc4 was perhaps a bit smaller than average, it looks like rc5 is a bigger than average. We're not breaking any records, but it certainly isn't tiny, and the rc's aren't shrinking. I'm not overly worried yet, but let's just say that the trend had better not continue, or I'll start feeling like we will need to make this one of those releases that need an rc8."

      • Linux Creator Warns Next Kernel Could be Delayed

        Linux Torvalds has issued concern about the size of kernel 5.12 and possible delays for its release.

        Never one to mince words, Linus Torvalds has released the latest RC (Release Candidate) of the Linux kernel, while expressing a slight bit of concern the size might hinder a timely release. Torvalds went so far as to say, “I’m not overly worried yet, but let’s just say that the trend had better not continue, or I’ll start feeling like we will need to make this one of those releases that need an rc8.” Most Linux kernels go through 7 Release Candidates, which are made available every Sunday.

      • Linux Driver Published For FSP/3Y-Power Server PSUs

        For those that happen to be running FSP/3Y-Power hot-swappable power supplies, a Linux driver is en route.

        Václav Kubernát of CESNET developed this "fsp-3y" driver for Linux's hardware monitoring (HWMON) subsystem so that the exposed monitoring metrics can be tapped by the mainline kernel.

      • Torvalds says Linux kernel 5.12 may ‘need an RC8’ due to size

        Linus Torvalds says Linux kernel 5.12 may need a little longer in the oven due to the latest release candidate (RC) having a “bigger than average” size.

        Torvalds made the comment in his latest State of the Kernel report where he announced the fifth release candidate of 5.12.

        “I’m not overly worried yet, but let’s just say that the trend had better not continue, or I’ll start feeling like we will need to make this one of those releases that need an RC8,” Torvalds wrote.

        “We’re not breaking any records, but it certainly isn’t tiny, and the RC’s aren’t shrinking.”

      • Graphics Stack

        • NVIDIA Proposes Mesa Patches To Support Alternative GBM Back-Ends - Phoronix

          NVIDIA has proposed a merge request to Mesa that would lay the infrastructure for allowing alternative GBM (Generic Buffer Manager) back-ends to be loaded, such as for NVIDIA's proprietary driver should it presumably implement GBM in the future.

          It looks like NVIDIA is finally taking the GBM route for supporting Wayland compositors with their proprietary driver... For years NVIDIA was against using GBM and instead proposed using EGLStreams. Some compositors like GNOME's Mutter implemented EGLStreams support but that has only been a mild success with Wayland compositors not liking that rather NVIDIA-specific solution while the open-source GPU drivers all support GBM. NVIDIA also was working on an EGLStreams back-end for KDE and more. The Generic Buffer Management interface is a means of allocating graphics buffers and can be used with EGL. Most Wayland compositors use GBM for their buffer handling given its an abstraction that works across GPU drivers.

    • Applications

      • Qt Based Journald API Abstraction (& yet another journald browser)

        On modern Linux systems usually you will find systemd as init system. Along with it, there comes journald as a logging backend with many nice and cool features (which I will not tell you anymore about, the Internet will have answers for you). But also when you are looking on embedded devices with the power of a smart phone or like a Raspberry Pi, journald is a really nice logging data sink for you.

        When analyzing logs of embedded devices, usually you are not working on the device “directly”, meaning not using the tiny konsole application of your smart phone to browse through the logs. Instead, you are either (1) grabbing the full log database from there for offline analysis or (2) you read the logs online via a network stream. Both is easily doable with journald. For the first use case you can simply (please remember to configure journald to use persistent logs!) copy the database from /var/logs/journal and access them on your developer system via “journalctl -D <path>” and get all the nice processing tooling from journalctrl — journalctl is the default CLI frontent for journald. For the second variant, you can start the journal remote service on the target device and receive the online stream of log information on your host system for analysis.

        For the second case there are a few GUI applications available, which nicely solve this problem for you, e.g. qjournalctl (which parses the journalctl CLI input/output) or ksystemlog (yet with the focus of being a generic front-end for various log sinks). Yet, both do not support the parsing of non-system offline logs.

        [...]

        Since my focus originally was on offline logs, those are the type of logs for which the support works quite well right now. But both online local journals (ie. new log entries are attached while the log is open) as well as remote logs will join soon.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Monitoring Arch Linux with Prometheus

        For monitoring the Arch Linux infrastructure we've moved on from Zabbix to Prometheus as it fits more into our infrastructure is code goal. This required some research into how we could achieve the same monitoring with Prometheus. Our Zabbix setup monitored Host, MySQL, Borg and Arch Linux related metrics. For host metrics node_exporter is an excellent solution and mysqld_exporter exists for MySQL. Our Arch Linux where custom Zabbix metrics, which where the number of out date packages and the number of vulnerable installed packages, the Borg metrics is the last backup date of a machine.

        For the Borg/Arch Linux metrics there are two options, create a custom exporter which has to be exposed over the network and periodically polled by Prometheus or use node_exporter's textcollector feature. The textcollector feature of node_exporter works by reading additional metrics from a textfile in a given directory, these metrics are then added to the node_exporter metrics.

      • [Older] Install Anaconda Navigator on Opensuse Tumbleweed or Leap Linux

        Anaconda is a Python and R programming distribution created for developers to easily develop and test various python code and applications. It is designed for scientific work and the analysis of (large) amounts of data. Anaconda is free and consists of free software but also offers additional commercial support.

      • Hung Linux System? How to Escape to the Command Line and More

        It is not much fun when your Desktop hangs. The fear of lost work, the inability to continue work, and more. But it need not always be like this. Knowing just a little extra - a few shortcut keyboard combinations and a few commands at the command line - will hopefully get you back up and running quickly. It does not always work, but it works often.

      • How to install the Bacula backup server on Ubuntu 20.04

        Your server backups are critical to keeping your servers from permanently losing their data. This can happen due to a server crash, a hacker, a misconfigured service and plenty of other reasons. You don't want to ever have to depend on a backup, but you'll be thankful it's there when you do.

      • Four Ways to Speed Up Ubuntu

        Ubuntu is already zippy, especially if you’re coming to Linux from the world of Windows. However, you might have heard that there are snappier distributions available. Why is Ubuntu responding slower than they do? Is there anything you can do to give it a boost? The answer is yes. If you feel that your Ubuntu system is becoming “slow,” here are a few ways to speed up your Ubuntu.

      • How to Enable ModSecurity Web Application Firewall inside NGINX Server on the RoseHosting Cloud platform - RoseHosting

        Nginx is a free, open-source, and one of the most popular web servers and reverses proxy servers. Mostly, it is used for load balancing and high-performance websites. It offers a rich set of features including, TCP and UDP proxying, auto-indexing, error code redirection, SSL support, fault tolerance, and many more.

        ModSecurity is an open-source web application firewall that protects your web server from different kinds of attacks. You can enable this module with Nginx to block some attacks including, SQL injection, bad user agents, session hijacking, trojans, and more.

        RoseHosting cloud provides Nginx Stack (application servers and load balancer) with a built-in ModSecurity module. You just need to enable this module in your container.

      • Pi IoT In C Using Linux Drivers - GPIO Character Driver

        Linux drivers make working with devices so easy - assuming you know how. The most basic of all hardware is the GPIO and the sysfs way of working is now obsolete. Find out what the new way of doing things is all about.

      • How to Install Ansible AWX on Debian 10

        Ansible is an open-source automation tool used for software provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment. It allows you to install, configure and deploy applications across multiple systems automatically.

        AWX is a web-based application used for controlling Ansible. You can manage Ansible playbooks, inventories, Secrets, and scheduled jobs from an AWX web interface.

      • How to install Manjaro 21.0

        In this video, I am going to show how to install Manjaro 21.0.

      • Ubuntu: delete app history [Guide]

        After using Ubuntu for a while, the app history builds up, slowing down your system. Thankfully, it is easy to clear this app history to speed up your system. In this guide, we’ll show you how.

      • How To Configure Nginx To Work With PHP Via PHP-FPM

        Nginx + PHP is one of the most popular groups of software that you can use to build your website. This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to install and configure Nginx to execute PHP on your server using PHP-FPM.

        Nginx is the ideal combination with PHP-FPM. It’s a stable web server recognized for its impressive performance and low resource-consumption.

      • How to Install Java on Ubuntu and Remove it When You're Done

        In the world of software development, Java is one of the most widely used programming languages. You can use it for developing websites, desktop software, android applications, and even games.

        But before all that, the first thing you need to do is install Java on your machine. Most of the Linux distributions do not have Java preinstalled and users have to install it manually on their system.

        In this article, we will discuss how to install and remove Java on Ubuntu, along with a detailed section on JDK and JRE.

      • ISPConfig Perfect Multiserver setup on Ubuntu 20.04 and Debian 10

        This tutorial will take you through installing your own ISPConfig 3 multiserver setup with dedicated servers for the panel, web, DNS, mail, and webmail. Both the DNS and mail server will have a mirror server for redundancy. You can easily add more servers of a certain type afterwards.

        ISPConfig's official auto-installer will be used to set up the servers. Debian 10 will be used as operating system. The guide has been tested with Ubuntu 20.04.2 as well.

      • Learning Binary Reversing: Radare2 vs. GDB | Hurricane Labs

        I’ve seen this question a few times: is it better to learn Radare2 (r2) or GNU Debugger (GDB)? The short answer is you should learn both. The long answer depends on what you are really asking. I usually see this question posed when someone wants to learn binary reverse engineering. In this case, the real question is, “How should I get started? With GDB or r2?”

      • Show USB Devices Event History Using Usbrip In Linux - OSTechNix

        This guide explains what is Usbrip program, how to track the details of connected or disconnected USB devices and also how to show USB devices event history using Usbrip tool in Linux.

      • Install digiKam 7.2.0 in Ubuntu / Linux Mint

        digiKam is an advanced open-source photo management application written in Qt and it is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. This application allows you to import, export, manage and edit the raw files.

        Digikam team released its stable version 7.2.0 and released on 22th Mar 2021.

        This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to install digiKam 7.2.0 in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04, and Linux Mint 20.

      • Gaming on Linux? Here's How to Install Nvidia Drivers on Ubuntu

        If you're intending to run AAA games on Linux, you'll need to ensure you're using the latest graphics drivers. But does Nvidia produce a driver for Linux?

        Thankfully, yes it does. But how do you install the latest drivers on Ubuntu? Whether you prefer to use the desktop environment or command line, installing and updating the Nvidia graphics driver on Ubuntu is straightforward.

      • Linux 101: How to give users sudo privileges on Ubuntu and Red Hat-based Linux distributions

        Most users on your Linux machines might be non-admins who use services and directories for various purposes. However, you might come into a situation when you need to "promote" one of those users to admin and give them sudo privileges.

        How do you do that?

        Once upon a time, it was required that you edit the sudoers file--which is still very much possible, but not necessary. There's a much easier and more reliable method of promoting those standard users with sudo privileges. I'm going to show you how to do just that.

        I'll demonstrate on both Ubunutu- and Red Hat-based distributions, specifically, Ubuntu Server and AlmaLinux. You'll be surprised how easy this is. It's all about adding those users to the right group. Let's first do this on Ubuntu Server.

      • Great Finds: How to Operate on Multiple, Diverse Files at Once

        With disk space nowadays reaching into multiple terabytes, even on a humble laptop, operating systems offer sophisticated tools to search for files. Many of these tools present simple graphical interfaces. But for great flexibility and power, it serves you well to turn to a classic Unix tool, the find command.

      • How to configure static IP address on Alpine Linux

        At home or in a cloud environment, IP addresses are assigned dynamically by the DHCP server. Setting a static IP address on your Alpine Linux server is required for various reasons. For instance, Alpine Linux is configured as a DHCP server or KVM server to host multiple VMs. Static IP address makes it easy to work with port forwarding, firewalling, and HTTPS server too. This quick tutorial will explain how to set up a static IP address on Alpine Linux.

      • YUM Command in Linux – A Definitive Guide

        YUM also called “Yellowdog Updater” is a package management tool for RPM-based Linux distributions including, RHEL, CentOS and Fedora operating systems. It is used to install, update, remove, find and manage packages on Linux.

      • Try These Fixes When Your Sound Is Not Working In Chrome

        Few situations that occur during daily internet browsing are more annoying than a video where the sound doesn’t play. You’ve probably experienced this at some point or another, and you’re not alone – it’s a very common issue. Fortunately, most of the time it’s nothing serious, and solving this problem merely requires following a few straightforward steps.

      • Ansible Playbook to Install and Setup Apache on Ubuntu

        Ansible is an open-source configuration management and application deployment tool. It helps to reduce managerial overhead by automating the deployment of the app and managing IT infrastructure.

        Using ansible we are going to install apache2 web server in Ubuntu 20.04. For which we need to create a configuration in YAML syntax called Ansible playbooks.

        Normally, there is a control node and host nodes. Ansible is installed in the control node and will execute the playbook to deploy in host nodes. In this lab, we are going to install and use it in a single node.

        [...]

        Ansible is a helpful tool as it is agentless and writing configuration is easy. You can browse more configurations from ansible official documentation. Please do comment if you have any issues while writing the playbook on ansible.

      • Setting up a VM on Fedora Server using Cloud Images and virt-install version 3 - Fedora Magazine

        The standard virtualization tool for Fedora Server is libvirt. For a long time the only way to create a virtual Fedora Server instance was to create a libvirt VM and run the standard Anaconda installation. Several tools exist to make this procedure as comfortable and fail-safe as possible, e.g. a Cockpit module. The process is pretty straight forward and every Fedora system administrator is used to it.

        With the advent of cloud systems came cloud images. These are pre-built ready-to-run virtual servers. Fedora provides specialized images for various cloud systems as well as Fedora Cloud Base image, a generic optimized VM. The image image is copied to the server and used by a virtual machine as an operational file system.

        These images save the system administrator the time-consuming process of many individual passes through Anaconda. An installation merely requires the invocation of virt-install with suitable parameters. It is a CLI tool, thus easily scriptable and reproducible. In a worst case emergency, a replacement VM can be set up quickly.

        Fedora Cloud Base images are integrated into the Fedora QA Process. This prevents subtle inconsistencies that may lead to not-so-subtle problems during operation. For any system administrator concerned about security and reliability, this is an incredibly valuable advantage over libvirt compatible VM images from third party vendors. Cloud images speed up the deployment process as well.

      • Doing simple backups to Google Drive on Ubuntu 20.04 - Techzim

        Like everyone else I am one of those people who like to speak about the importance of backups, in reality, I rarely follow through on my own advice especially when it comes to important files on my computer. That changed this weekend when I decided to roll my sleeves and implement automatic backups on my primary laptop. It wasn’t at all what I expected.

    • Games

      • Space station building sim Starmancer gets a Beta on March 31, pre-orders to stop

        Ominux Games have announced their exciting upcoming space station building sim Starmancer is coming along nicely, and there's a Beta going up on March 31.

        This Beta will be supported across Linux, macOS and Windows and will be available to people who pre-order before March 31 as that will be stopped after then, plus people who pledged for Beta access on Kickstarter also get access. The developer made it clear this is not a "fear-of-missing-out tactic", and to wait until the release if that's better for you. Likely it's just to cut down on the amount of reports to a manageable level.

      • Godot Engine - Editor improvements for Godot 4.0

        If you are following me on Twitter (where I post my progress on different Godot features I work on), you might have noticed that I took a two month break from rendering to work on many long standing editor improvements and features.

        While I am far from being the only contributor working on editor-related tasks, I put together a list of everything I have been working for the past two months!

      • Linux Steering Wheel Manager Oversteer v0.6.0 Brings support For 6 Additional Wheels

        Oversteer is a graphical application that lets you configure steering wheels connected to GNU/Linux machines - assuming they are supported by the Linux kernel or user-space drivers. The latest version has a new profile manager and support configuring 6 additional steering wheels.

        [...]

        Oversteer is a graphical application that lets you configure steering wheels connected to GNU/Linux machines so they work as desired in games like SuperTuxKart. It is a useless application if you do not have a steering wheel, and it is only useful if the one(s) you have work thanks to a built-in Linux kernel driver or a third party driver.

      • Building a Retro Linux Gaming Computer - Part 5: Quaking in My Boots

        Dave Taylor can be credited with kickstarting the commercial Linux gaming industry with his ports of the games Doom and Abuse. Before leaving id Software he also graced us with a Linux port of Quake, which while unofficial and unsupported was later taken by Macmillan Digital Publishing to form the basis of their retail Quake: The Offering package. This included not only Quake but also its two mission packs, Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity.

        To install Quake: The Offering on Red Hat Linux 7.3 you need SVGAlib, which I got using the svgalib-1.9.25-1.rh7.rf.i386.rpm package from freshrpms. The setup will still complain about not having libglide2x.so and will skip installing the quake-1.09-glibc-5.i386.rpm package, but you can install it off the disc using rpm and the “–nodeps” flag to skip the dependency check. Then download and copy libglide2x.so to /usr/lib manually to avoid conflicts with the Glide3 package.

        In terms of software rendering you can either launch the squake binary to use SVGAlib from the command line or you can launch the quake.x11 binary to run the game in an X11 window. Full screen is only supported using SVGAlib, and while it can be ran with hardware acceleration through the use of the glquake binary, this will only work on 3dfx Voodoo cards. Everyone else is stuck using the glquake.glx binary within an X11 window.

        This is a temperamental port. As well as not allowing for full screen glquake.glx is also a creature of the XFree86 server. This means it will use the system gamma and the mouse cursor will be drawn on top of the window. This being Linux, I was able to create a BASH shell script that blanks the pointer, increases the brightness, and loads the correct libGL.so.1.2 library file. I also included a menu for selecting either Quake or one of its two mission packs as an added bonus.

        Mouselook is a separate issue. The most reliable way to make this work I found was dropping down the game console and entering both “+mlook” and “_windowed_mouse 1” each time I launched the program. Playing with SVGAlib must be done with root privileges, but the X11 binaries can be ran from a regular user account if the ownership of the glquake.glx binary is changed to the user and write permission is given for the rogue, hipnotic, and id1 directories.

      • Total War: Three Kingdoms - Fates Divided Is Now Available For Linux

        The British game studio Feral Interactive has a long history of making GNU/Linux versions of the games they develop and/or port mostly on the behest of partners like Sega, Warner Bros and Codemasters.

        Feral Interactive has now made a GNU/Linux version of their "Fates Divided" add-on to their somewhat popular "Total War: Three Kingdoms" game released in May 2019.

        Feral Interactive does not make free software, only closed-source proprietary software, so you will have to pay €10 or $12 for the "Fates Divided" add-on in addition to €60 or $71 for the "Total War: Three Kingdoms" game if you want to try "Total War: Three Kingdoms - Fates Divided". We're not about to send Britannia €70 just to try this game, so we can't comment on its graphics, game-play or quality. All we can say for sure is that both "Total War: Three Kingdoms" and the "Fates Divided" add-on are available for GNU/Linux. We haven't even tested if they work.

      • Total War: THREE KINGDOMS - Fates Divided out now for Linux

        Developer and game porter Feral Interactive announced today that the Total War: THREE KINGDOMS - Fates Divided DLC is now supported in the Linux version.

        Fates Divided brings a host of new faction mechanics, start dates, objectives and reworked systems to existing lords from the base game and previous Chapter Packs. Released simultaneously, a free update also introduces Liu Yan’s new cross-generational faction into the fray, with two unique units of their own and a brand new succession mechanic.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Kate 21.04 Feature Preview

          If you wonder: what is KDE Gear? That is the new name for the KDE release service.

          This had different names in the past, like “KDE Applications” that were misleading, as not all KDE based applications are released together like this. For example neither Krita is part of KDE Gear nor is KDevelop, to just name a few.

          After some releases with the very neutral “release service” moniker, we are now back to have some more recognizable branding for this bundle of applications: KDE Gear. I like that ;=)

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Gnome 40 - The anti-desktop desktop

          Gnome 40 is Gnome. Simple. A desktop environment that caters to a weird "minimalistic" model that introduces touch-like inefficiency into the world of classic computing. The naming conventions falsely raises expectations, but it's a standard release, with a few new options, a few small visual changes, and some tweaks behind the scenes. You can't really decouple most of the experience from Fedora.

          I wasn't impressed really. Scaling, fonts, overall ergonomics are all off - and slowly getting worse as time goes by. Just setting up the framework to use extensions - so you can have basic desktop functionality present in 100% of all other desktop setups in the world - is frustrating. A total waste of time. I need a dozen steps just to be able to see my application shortcuts all the time. Why bother? However, there's one advantage to Gnome - it's a good indicator of where the future of Linux lies. So a decade from now, the Linux desktop will gently, gracefully make itself completely irrelevant to everyday computing. But hey. I'm on my happy pills. Smiley face, bye bye.

    • Distributions

      • Maybe will close down the EasyOS Forum

        The fundamental problem for me is that EasyOS is a stop-start project. I go off onto other things, then do not watch over the forum as perhaps should happen. It may be that hiatuses will become longer duration in the future.

        It is simpler to piggy-back on the Puppy Forum, as do all the *Dog distributions. It takes advantage of the guys such as 'rockedge' who maintain and safeguard the forum.

        Another factor is that I visit the Puppy Forum regularly, and continue to find it to be a valuable resource for sharing of ideas within the extended "Puppy family". This cross-pollination is, I think, invaluable.

      • Screenshots/Screencasts

        • Debian 10.9 Run Through

          In this video, we are looking at Debian 10.9.

        • Debian 10.9

          Today we are looking at Debian 10.8. It comes with Linux Kernel 4.19, XFCE 4.12, and uses about 400 MB of ram when idling.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • How partners are helping customers embrace the cloud with Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA)

          Last week, Red Hat and AWS announced the general availability of Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA), a fully managed and jointly supported offering that enables organizations to build, deploy and manage applications with Red Hat OpenShift, delivered as a native AWS service accessible through the AWS Management Console.

          The availability of Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS gives our customers and partners a managed, self-service option to run OpenShift in the AWS cloud, making it even easier for customers to adopt containers, migrate workloads to AWS and deploy their applications faster.

        • Using cloud technology to create better digital banking experiences

          Defining "the next normal" of a digital business may prove to be as elusive as the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The digital world around is rapidly changing and is straining the systems and processes of banks that created over the last two decades.

          Customers may be increasingly impatient and demanding. As they shift between digital and physical products, services, and channels, banks will need to rapidly pivot to keep them happy. This requires spending as much or more time on shoring up transactional systems as it does on digital applications. For instance, a payment service needs to be connected to customer and account information along with financial crime prevention services and, of course, payment networks. The user interface is important, but it is only one component of the larger customer experience.

      • Debian Family

        • Parrot 4.11 Security OS Released with Linux Kernel 5.10 LTS, Updating Hacking Tools

          Arriving more than seven months after Parrot 4.10, the Parrot 4.11 release is powered by the latest LTS (Long-Term Support) Linux 5.10 kernel series for better hardware support and includes up-to-date core components based on the stable Debian GNU/Linux 10 “Buster” operating system repositories.

          While Parrot 4.11 ships with Linux 5.10 LTS as the default kernel, the team plans to upgrade the system to the recently released Linux 5.11 kernel series since Parrot follows a rolling-release model. But they did not provide a time frame for doing so, and if you install Parrot 4.11 make sure you keep it up to date.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Design and Web team summary – 29 March 2021

          The web team at Canonical run two-week iterations building and maintaining all of Canonical websites and product web interfaces. Here are some of the highlights of our completed work from this iteration.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Web Browsers

        • Mozilla

          • Cameron Kaiser: The end of TenFourFox and what I've learned from it

            I've been mulling TenFourFox's future for awhile now in light of certain feature needs that are far bigger than a single primary developer can reasonably embark upon, and recent unexpected changes to my employment, plus other demands on my time, have unfortunately accelerated this decision.

            TenFourFox FPR32 will be the last official feature parity release of TenFourFox. (A beta will come out this week, stay tuned.) However, there are still many users of TenFourFox — the update server reports about 2,000 daily checkins on average — and while nothing has ever been owed or promised I also appreciate that many people depend on it, so there will be a formal transition period. After FPR32 is released TenFourFox will drop to security parity and the TenFourFox site will become a placeholder. Security parity means that the browser will only receive security updates plus certain critical fixes (as I define them, such as crash wallpaper, basic adblock and the font blacklist). I will guarantee security and stability patches through and including Firefox 93 (scheduled for September 7) to the best of my ability, which is also the point at which Firefox 78ESR will stop support, and I will continue to produce, generate and announce builds of TenFourFox with those security updates on the regular release schedule with chemspills as required. There will be no planned beta releases after FPR32 but Tenderapp will remain available to triage bugfixes for new changes only.

          • How one woman founder pivoted her company online while supporting small businesses

            Eighteen years ago Susie Daly started Renegade Craft as a way to build a community of artists through in-person events. When COVID-19 and the corresponding shutdown put a stop to all in-person events, like art fairs, Susie had to quickly create a new strategy for her business. This plan involved seven virtual events, revamping an online shop for artists, cost-cutting measures, and selling a lot of face masks. Like most of us, Renegade Craft has been re-shaped permanently by the events of 2020. They will be continuing the digital efforts they pivoted to this year, but also hope to host their first in-person event in over 18 months later this year. Here’s how the business was able to move their community online, helping countless small businesses, when people needed it more than ever.

      • CMS

        • Structure & Design WordPress Homepage | WordPress 101

          Welcome back to WordPress 101 series. WordPress 101 series aims to teach WordPress CMS to beginners. In this article, we are going to learn to better structure and design the website homepage with WordPress.

          Homepage is the main page on your WordPress site. If better designed and structured, your website’s homepage can represent the entire website content making it easier for visitors to understand it.

          With WordPress, you can create good homepage designs even without buying a premium theme. No doubt, premium themes have a ton of advantages and make everything a lot easier. Premium themes have a pile of widgets and blocks to showcase different types of content beautifully such as images, videos, products, and more.

        • WP Briefing: Talking Full Site Editing with Matías Ventura

          In this episode, Josepha is joined by Matías Ventura, also known as “the spark behind the vision of Gutenberg.” Josepha and Matías discuss full site editing and answer your questions, from “is full site editing a standalone plugin?” to “will full site editing break my current site?”

        • WP Briefing: How WordPress Improves

          In this episode, Josepha Haden Chomphosy explores the WordPress release process. Tune in and learn the phases of a release and catch this week’s small list of big things.

        • WP Briefing: My Typical Day as WordPress’s Executive Director

          In this episode, Josepha Haden Chomphosy speaks to her role as the Executive Director of WordPress.

      • FSF

        • Red Hat withdraws from the Free Software Foundation after Stallman’s return

          Last week, Richard M. Stallman—father of the GNU Public License that underpins Linux and a significant part of the user-facing software that initially accompanied the Linux kernel—returned to the board of the Free Software Foundation after a two-year hiatus due to his own highly controversial remarks about his perception of Jeffrey Epstein's victims as "entirely willing."

        • Red Hat pulls funding from Free Software Foundation
          In a major vote of no-confidence, popular open source vendor Red Hat has axed all monetary support to the Free Software Foundation (FSF).

          Red Hat announcement follows the return of FSF’s former president, Richard Stallman (RMS) to the board of directors of the organization he founded.

        • Jamie McClelland: The problem with Richard Stallman is not about free speech

          There are profound reasons why any movement interested in equitable and open participation would want to publicly distance themselves from Stallman. However, the long form defenses of Stallman, including a note from Nadine Strossen, the former executive director of the ACLU, quoted in this defense, persist.

          Many of the arguments defending Richard Stallman (including the one from Strossen) are grounded in a belief that Stallman is being punished for his unpopular political views, which deserve to be defended on the grounds of freedom of expression.

          That's wrong.

        • More changes at the Free Software Foundation

          John Sullivan, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, has announced his resignation from the organization. "It's been a humbling honor to serve this institution, and to work alongside the FSF's staff, members, and volunteers over the years. The current staff deserve your full confidence and support -- they certainly have mine."

        • Free Software Foundation leaders and supporters desert sinking ship [Ed: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols lying and defaming as usual; the FSF removes RMS-hostile elements and that's what's happening right now.]
        • GNU Projects

          • GnuCash 4.5

            GnuCash is a personal and small business finance application, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. It’s designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible. GnuCash allows you to track your income and expenses, reconcile bank accounts, monitor stock portfolios and manage your small business finances. It is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports.

            GnuCash can keep track of your personal finances in as much detail as you prefer. If you are just starting out, use GnuCash to keep track of your checkbook. You may then decide to track cash as well as credit card purchases to better determine where your money is being spent. When you start investing, you can use GnuCash to help monitor your portfolio. Buying a vehicle or a home? GnuCash will help you plan the investment and track loan payments. If your financial records span the globe, GnuCash provides all the multiple-currency support you need.

          • GNU Taler news: Why a Digital Euro should be Online-first and Bearer-based

            The report does not discuss other choices of hybrid systems. However, the choice is more arbitrary than it might seem at first sight: bearer-based systems are not necessarily offline payment systems, and online payment systems do not need to exclude anonymity. We argue that operating a bearer-based payment system to complement an account-based CBDC in order to gain offline and privacy features is not a good trade-off. Adding permanent, regular offline capabilities via the bearer-based payment instrument constantly exposes the CBDC to the severe issues inherent in offline-capable payment systems. Instead, the offline mode of operation should be restricted to scenarios where it is actually required, which mitigates the risks.

      • Programming/Development

        • What is Glassmorphism? Create This New Design Effect Using Only HTML and CSS
        • Constructors in Dart – Use Cases and Examples

          Most of us are familiar with the concept of constructors. They allow us to create different instances of our classes. We can specify which parameters the class should depend on when it is being instantiated and hide inner initialization logic.

          We can have many constructors for different use cases, or we can rely on the default one.

          In dart, constructors play a similar role, but have several variations that do not exist in most programming languages. This article will go over the different use cases and examples of constructors.

        • How to Implement the Paxos Algorithm in Pure Functions

          This analogy is the same problem that we encounter in distributed systems, but you are dealing with many servers this time. We want to make many servers agree on common events or common information in an asynchronous environment.

          You can use many algorithms to solve the problems, and today we will talk about one of them: the Paxos Algorithm.

          Paxos is one of the earliest published papers about this distributed consensus algorithm that runs rounds and rounds of times to help many servers agree on a value proposed by a group member.

        • Bayes' Rule Explained For Beginners

          Bayes' Rule is the most important rule in data science. It is the mathematical rule that describes how to update a belief, given some evidence. In other words – it describes the act of learning.

        • Crystal 1.0 - What to expect

          The release of the first major release of Crystal arrives after many years of hard work. With thousands of contributions from people worldwide, it was finally possible to find consensus for what truly mattered for 1.0 and what could wait for future releases. Getting here wasn’t an easy journey, filled with enriching, controversial, delightful, and endless conversations that, in the end, made it possible to build a language more useful for more users.

          But what does it mean to have a 1.0 version? After all, the process of receiving valuable contributions and evolving the language will not stop after this milestone. Let’s dig deeper to understand the true meaning of this release for the community, especially those already using Crystal in production environments.

        • Crystal Language Version 1.0 Released

          Crystal’s syntax, according to the website, “is heavily inspired by Ruby’s, so it feels natural to read and easy to write, and has the added benefit of a lower learning curve for experienced Ruby devs.”

        • Perl/Raku

          • Rakudo Weekly News: 2021.13 Games Pop

            JJ Atria just announced another part of the Raku Programming Language’s growing support for games: POP, an experimental 2D game development framework. It has been inspired by frameworks like LÓVE2D and Pico-8, and by others of a similar nature. Meanwhile, it turns out that this work is complementary to Geoffrey Broadwell‘s MUGS (Multi-User Gaming Services) project. Which made it the right time to start a new IRC channel dedicated to game development using the Raku Programming Language: #raku-gamedev on Freenode.

        • Rust

          • Async Vision Doc Writing Sessions III

            Ryan Levick and I are hosting a number of public drafting sessions scheduled this week. Some of them are scheduled early to cover a wider range of time zones.

  • Leftovers

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Security

          • PHP Git repository server compromised

            The PHP project has announced that it is moving its PHP repository to GitHub after its own server was compromised.

          • Counterterrorism Hackers Behind Large Hack Google Identified

            We’re so conditioned to be wary of cybersecurity issues that we forget that white hat hackers and grey hat hackers exist. Even major tech companies like Google forget – or choose not to remember. The large hacking operation Google outed was actually being carried out by counterterrorism hackers.

            [...]

            China, North Korea, and Russia are often called out by hackers backed by U. S. rivals. Project Zero didn’t blame anyone when identifying the 11 zero-day attacks. However, because these originated from an ally, it caused some drama at Google.

            Which ally was carrying out this attack has not been divulged, nor has the basis for the counterterrorism operation.

            MIT Technology Review reported that Google might have left out those details intentionally. It’s not even clear whether the Project Zero researchers notified the hackers before they outed them in January.

          • Security updates for Monday

            Security updates have been issued by Arch Linux (awstats, busybox, dotnet-runtime, dotnet-runtime-3.1, dotnet-sdk, dotnet-sdk-3.1, gitlab, godot, groovy, libebml, mkinitcpio-busybox, openssl, python2, vivaldi, webkit2gtk, and wpewebkit), CentOS (firefox and thunderbird), Debian (pygments, spamassassin, thunderbird, and webkit2gtk), Fedora (CGAL, dotnet3.1, dotnet5.0, firefox, kernel, qt, and xen), Mageia (imagemagick, jackson-databind, openscad, redis, and unbound), openSUSE (evolution-data-server, go1.15, and zstd), Oracle (firefox, openssl, and thunderbird), Red Hat (flatpak), Slackware (xterm), and Ubuntu (squid, squid3 and webkit2gtk).

    • Monopolies

      • Amended Apple-Intel complaint against Fortress alleges monopolization of markets such as 'Generating Alerts Based on Blood Oxygen Level Patents Market'

        Earlier this month, Apple and Intel filed their second amended complaint against Fortress Investment. It all started in October 2019 with an Intel antitrust lawsuit in the Northern District of California, which was effectively replaced with a joint Apple-Intel filing in November 2019.

        The November 2019 filing was 57 pages long, but not specific enough to meet the pleading requirements in Judge Edward M. Chen's opinion. The complaint has meanwhile grown to 161 pages plus a 17-page table. In many other cases, this would suggest that additional claims have been added. Here, however, the complaint is actually more narrowly focused, and the prayers for relief are the same as in the original complaint except an additional request for "[a]n order directing the termination of the anticompetitive conduct and injunctive relief that restores competition to the markets at issue."

        The fact that Qualcomm's Ninth Circuit victory over the FTC won't be appealed to the Supreme Court doesn't make things easier for Apple and Intel, but it makes Apple and Intel v. Fortress even more important: whether this case reaches the appeals court before or after trial, and regardless of who prevails in this case, it will present an opportunity for the Ninth Circuit to clarify that FTC v. Qualcomm doesn't immunize patent-related practices from antitrust liability to the far-reaching extent that some would have us all believe.

        Even if--in a totally hypothetical but conceivable scenario--all that Apple and Intel achieved in the Fortress case was a trend reversal from FTC v. Qualcomm, that would be a strategic breakthrough in its own right.

        [...]

        The question before Judge Chen at this point is whether the pleading requirements for an antitrust case are met. It's not that Apple and Intel didn't state these types of allegations before, but broad assertions just weren't deemed sufficient to go forward with the case.

        But long before this case goes to trial, or before an appeals court might hear a dismissal with prejudice, policy makers should pay attention to what Apple and Intel describe in their complaint. How much leverage, such as in the form of injunctive relief, do we as a society want to give patent owners who don't make products that compete with the ones they accuse of infringement? In the U.S., there are limits under eBay v. MercExchange, which some lawmakers on Capitol Hill would like to overturn. In Germany, NPEs have the same access to injunctive relief as all other patent holders (and the patent injunction reform that may be enacted in the coming months won't change that). Interestingly, the complaint notes that "VLSI is seeking to enjoin Intel in multiple litigations in China." That's the Fortress-funded company that recently won a $2.2 billion verdict against Intel in the Western District of Texas. Another VLSI v. Intel trial in the Western District of Texas--where many major technology companies get sued as I discussed in my previous post--will go to trial next month.

      • Patents

        • Artificial Intelligence: Where is Human After All? [Ed: Insane law firms that promote illegal software patents and the extremely harmful (also unconstitutional) UPC never met a patent applications they did not like]

          I can imagine what the reader might think when reading these few lines: another text on artificial intelligence (“AI”) and the Patent Law! (With perhaps: the author is obsessed with the Daft Punk split[1]). My mantra is: “Never disappoint the reader”! So both are true. That said, concerning the reception of AI by Patent Law I recently published two articles – one in English available on SSRN and one, more substantial, in Revue Propriétés Intellectuelles (i.e. a French peer review). I would like to resume here to the main conclusions of both [2].

          The aim of my work was (and is still), essentially, to insist on the need to (re)take the right road, despite what I like to call “the DABUS Joke”. Thus, in the two above mentioned articles, which include a preamble and two parts, I propose a simple thesis: it is necessary to take into account what artificial intelligence really is, technically, to be able to apply it Patent Law rules, by considering AI from two perspectives: that of the Subject of Patent Law and that of the Object of Patent Law[3].

        • An incredible invention (incredible = not credible).

          The Patent Office rejected applications as inoperative and the Federal Circuit has affirmed. Operability is not expressly required by the patent act, but is directly derived from the utility doctrine of 35 U.S.C. €§ 101 (“new and useful”). In addition, an inoperative creation also lacks enablement — especially in situations like this where the claims are directed to a functional result and not just the machine assembly.

        • Software Patents

          • Dominion Harbor entity, Sovereign Peak Ventures, patent challenged

            On March 26, 2021, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 9,042,457, owned by Sovereign Peak Ventures, a Dominion Harbor entity. The ’457 patent relates to video processing and has been against LG and TCL.

          • World’s biggest portfolios revealed; Sony IP strategy exclusive; Change of guard at CAFC; East Asia EPO biotech boom; Brazilian patents in peril; and much more [Ed: Joff Wild of IAM is enabling EPO crimes by pretending their decisions are objective, e.g. regarding software patents in this case. This scandal will unfold and Wild has no diplomatic immunity, just bribes from the EPO]

            The EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal has confirmed that all CII patent applications should be treated the same way during the examination process. Read more here

            [...]

            An explosion in east Asian biotech applications at the EPO suggests new opportunities for European IP law and attorney firms.

          • BCS Software patent challenged

            On March 26, 2021, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 7,302,612, owned by BCS Software LLC. The '612 patent relates to a high-level operational support framework for monitoring, assessing, and managing the health of applications (or components/objects) in a distributed computing environment. The ‘612 patent has been asserted against Hewlett Packard, Elster Solutions (Honeywell), Landis+Gyr, and Itron.



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