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Links 25/5/2021: Inkscape 1.1 and LibreOffice 7.2 Alpha 1



  • GNU/Linux

    • What Is Linux? What Can You Use Linux For?

      When someone says, "I use Linux," what they mean is that they use the GNU/Linux operating system in one of its many forms. Over the years, various developers have taken the GNU/Linux code, crafted a unique operating system, and distributed it on the internet, usually free of cost. They can do this because of the permissive license that comes with Linux.

    • Running Modern Linux From A Single Floppy Disk

      There was a time when booting Linux from a floppy disk was the norm, but of course, those days are long gone. Even if you still had a working 3.5 inch drive, surely the size of the modern kernel alone would far exceed the 1.44 MB capacity of the disks, to say nothing of all the support software required to create a usable operating system. Well that’s what we thought, anyway.

      But then [Krzysztof Krystian Jankowski] dropped Floppinux, a live Linux OS that boots from just a single floppy. There’s even a few hundred KB left over on the disk, allowing the user to tuck a few of their own programs and scripts onboard before booting it up. But most impressively, the project doesn’t rely on ancient software releases like so many other embedded systems do. Every component of Floppinux is pulled directly from the cutting edge, including version 5.13.0-rc2 of the Linux kernel which is literally just a few days old.

    • What are Daemons in Linux? Why are They Used?

      Daemons work hard so you don’t have to.

      Imagine that you are writing an article, Web page, or book, Your intent is to do just that – write. It’s rather nice not having to manually start printer and network services and then monitor them all day to make sure that they are working right.

      We can thank daemons for that – they do that kind of work for us.

    • Why I Quit Linux as a Creative After 4 Years

      Once I could afford a MacBook, I bought one, and I never looked back. I found there were too many niggles with Linux — both from a technical point of view and a psychological perspective — that damaged my productivity. A key problem with Linux is in the little gremlins that seem like small issues, but that eventually became deal breakers. I’ll go into those more in a moment. The biggest issue for me is that Linux became a distraction. Instead of being a tool to allow me to work, it took me away from my writing. I spent hundreds of hours experimenting with different distros and software set-ups instead of actually writing. It was a lot of fun, but ultimately it was procrastination. Searching for software became an excuse. I told myself — and this went on over many years — “If only I had the right Linux set-up, I’d be able to pursue my creative dreams.” I completed work my clients assigned me, but I failed to produce any writing for myself. I was deluding myself — the idea of finding the perfect software was an excuse, and one that allowed me to waste hours searching through different software. I now know that the key to writing is to sit down and write. Good software can help smooth out the writing process, but it’s not the solution if you’re not already writing regularly. Related to this is the fact that not all the best writing tools are available for Linux. I spent years trying to replicate Scrivener on Linux because I’d seen it on my friend’s MacBook, and I loved the index card layout. I never found a way to do that and the search distracted me from actually writing. Ultimately, when I’m writing, I want a tool that just works. I want software that’s clean, and smooth, and does nothing to distract from the experience. Linux never became that for me.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Late Night Linux – Episode 126

        Drama in the IRC world, the Framework modular laptop pre-orders are live, good and bad Android news, rare praise for Mozilla, the usual distaste for the UK government, and KDE korner.

      • Destination Linux 227: Interview with Shells.com: Alex Lee & Zlatan Todoric

        This week’s episode of Destination Linux, we have an interview with the CEO of Shells along with their VP of technology regarding their virtual desktop product we discussed wiith your just at a few episodes back. Then we take a look at the new TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Linux based laptop that’s entered the market with an impressive 2K and 3K option. Plus we’ve also got our famous tips, tricks and software picks. All of this and so much more this week on Destination Linux. So whether you’re brand new to Linux and open source or a guru of sudo. This is the podcast for you.

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux 5.14 To Support F2FS Read-Only Feature - Phoronix

        With the Linux 5.14 cycle this summer the Flash-Friendly File-System (F2FS) should land its new "RO" feature read-only mode.

        Queued up yesterday into the F2FS "dev" code for its kernel driver is the RO feature when marked in a file-system's superblock then allows bypassing the provisioning/reserve spaces and segment summary area (SSA).

      • Linux 5.14 To Bring Intel IGC Driver Support For AF_XDP Zero-Copy - Phoronix

        After Intel originally proposed zero-copy capability for the Linux kernel's AF_XDP high performance packet processing code years ago and implemented for their higher performance network hardware/drivers, with Linux 5.14 the common Intel "IGC" Gigabit Ethernet driver is set to introduce AF_XDP zero-copy support.

      • Authenticated hashes for btrfs (part 1)

        There was a request to provide authenticated hashes in btrfs, natively as one of the btrfs checksum algorithms. Sounds fun but there’s always more to it, even if this sounds easy to implement.

        Johaness T. at that time in SUSE sent the patchset adding the support for SHA256 [1] with a Labs conference paper, summarizing existing solutions and giving details about the proposed implementation and use cases.

        The first version of the patchset posted got some feedback, issues were found and some ideas suggested. Things have stalled a bit, but the feature is still very interesting and really not hard to implement. The support for additional checksums has provided enough support code to just plug in the new algorithm and enhance the existing interfaces to provide the key bytes. So until now I’ve assumed you know what an authenticated hash means, but for clarity and in simple terms: a checksum that depends on a key. The main point is that it’s impossible to generate the same checksum for given data without knowing the key, where impossible is used in the cryptographic-strength sense, there’s an almost zero probability doing that by chance and brute force attack is not practical.

      • Graphics Stack

        • Breaking

          I had planned to write more posts about some optimizations and whatever other cool stuff I’ve been working on.

          I had planned to make more zink-wip snapshots.

          I did shower; stop spamming frog emotes at me.

          But I also encountered a bug so bizarre, so infruating, so esoteric, that I need to take a bit of a victory lap now that I’ve successfully corralled it. So let’s get into a real, vintage SGC blog post like we used to have back when SGC was a good blog and dive into what it took to fix a bug that took me four full days to resolve.

          [...]

          Iteration on various fixes finally yielded a patch that was upstreamable; the crux of the problem here was that the stride of vertex attributes was being used to calculate the size of the region to map, but the stride only determines the number of bytes between elements, not their size. For example, if the stride was 4 bytes but the element was 8 bytes, the overrun would be 4 bytes for the last element. The solution was to calculate the offset of the last element being mapped, then add the size of the element using the attribute’s format block size, which guarantees that the last attribute won’t be truncated.

          Fuck that bug.

    • Applications

      • Create triangulated illustrations with astonishing open-source free: FOSStriangulator

        People are fascinated with a triangle-based logo and arts they have seen on the internet. It's an eye candy to see an animal image turned to a triangular vector graphic logo.

        Not long ago, it was a trend, as dozens of designers created tutorials on Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Inkscape on how to create such a wonderful art.

      • Welcome to Inkscape 1.1!

        Among the highlights in Inkscape 1.1 are a Welcome dialog, a Command Palette, a revamped Dialog Docking System, and searchable preference options, along with new formats for exporting your work.

        Here at the Inkscape project, we're proud to have contributors from around the world who invest their time, energy and skills towards coding, debugging, translating, documenting and promoting the program.

        Built mostly with the power of a team of volunteers, this open source vector editor represents the work of many hearts and hands from around the world, who ensure that Inkscape remains available free for everyone to download and enjoy. Big Thanks go to the 2020 cohort of Google Summer of Code (GSoC) students (and their mentors) who worked hard to deliver some of the features and bug fixes in 1.1.

        Let's dive into some highlights and tour what's new and what you can now do with the latest version of Inkscape!

      • Inkscape 1.1 Open-Source SVG Editor Released with Many New Features and Improvements

        Coming more than a year after Inkscape 1.0, the Inkscape 1.1 release is here to introduce lots of goodies, starting with a new and fancy Welcome dialog that you can use to fully customize your Inkscape experience by choosing things like the size of the document you want to create, canvas colors, color modes, keyboard shortcut styles, theme sets, and much more.

        Also new is the Command Palette feature that lets you search and use through various functions without relying on menus or keyboard shortcuts. Talking about search, Inkscape 1.1 makes it easier to search preferences when you quickly want to change various settings thanks to the newly integrated search bar.

      • Inkscape 1.1 Released With Command Palette Feature, More Export Options

        It took nearly two decades for Inkscape 1.0 to be realized while fortunately Inkscape 1.1 is ready to succeed it just one year later. Inkscape 1.1 adds a welcome dialog where some initial configuration options can be setup, a command palette added for accessing most of the Inkscape functionality from a simple search-based function input, node tool improvements, a rewritten docking system, a new outline overlay model, new export options, and more. The new export options include the ability to directly export as JPEG, TIFF, WebP, and optimized PNGs. There is also an Inkscape Extension Manager for now being able to update and install additional extensions more easily.

      • Inkscape 1.1 released

        Version 1.1 of the Inkscape vector image editor has been released. "Among the highlights in Inkscape 1.1 are a Welcome dialog, a Command Palette, a revamped Dialog Docking System, and searchable preference options, along with new formats for exporting your work."

      • [Older] Meet Ozant Liuky, Winner of the Inkscape 1.1 About Screen Contest

        We recently caught up with Ozant, to ask him some questions about himself, and his use of Inkscape.

      • Major Update: Inkscape 1.1 Released with Scores of New Features
        This update to the open-source vector graphics editor comes with a number of new features and workflow enhancements, ranging from a new handy new welcome screen to new formats to export finished work to.

        Chances are you’re already familiar with Inkscape, or have at least heard of it before. Much like LibreOffice, Firefox, and Blender Inkscape is regularly cited as an example of how powerful and capable open source software can be.

      • Inkscape 1.1 is the Next Major Update With New Export Options and More Features - It's FOSS News

        Last year, Inkscape 1.0 release hit the surface with tons of new features and improvements after 3 years in development.

        Now, after a year, Inkscape 1.1 is here as the next major update with a several new feature additions and improvements.

        Let me briefly highlight the significant changes in this release.

        [...]

        While Inkscape is already one of the best vector graphics editors for Linux, with every major update, it is shaping up quite good.

        Do you use Inkscape often? What do you think of these changes?

      • Inkscape 1.1 Free Vector Graphics Editor App Released

        Inkscape is a free and cross-platform vector graphics editor. The new Inkscape 1.1 comes with a number of new features and workflow enhancements.

        Inkscape is used to create vector images in SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format. It is a cross-platform open file format widely used among Adobe products. This format can create relatively compact file sizes without losing the quality of the original image.

        Inkscape is one of the staple bits of maker software as it’s powerful, open-source, and relatively easy to get started with. As general-purpose vector drawing software, Inkscape is useful for a wide range of people, such as artists and diagram makers.

      • Vector Graphics Editor Inkscape 1.1 Released With New Welcome Dialog, Command Palette, More

        Free and open source vector graphics editor Inkscape has been updated to version 1.1. The new release includes a welcome dialog, a command palette, rewritten docking system, and more.

        Inkscape 1.1 comes one year after the major Inkscape 1.0 release, which was in development for over three years.

        With this release, the free and open source vector graphics editor has introduced a new welcome screen, from where you can choose the canvas colors, keyboard shortcuts layout, and theme (including dark or light mode), as well quickly open an existing file or create a new one from templates...

        [...]

        Inkscape 1.1 also comes with a rewritten docking system, which resolves many issues, and allows docking dialogs to both sides of the screen. The dialogs are displayed as tabs, and when more are open they transform into icons. What's more, Inkscape now remembers your settings across sessions.

      • celery-batches 0.5 released!

        A new version (v0.5) of celery-batches is available which adds support for Celery 5.1 and fixes storing of results when using the RPC result backend.

        As explored previously, the RPC result backend works by having a results queue per client, unfortunately celery-batches was attempting to store the results in a queue named after the task ID instead of the client ID (Celery internally calls this the “correlation ID”) [1].

      • The Best Free Photography Editing Applications in 2021

        We are all likely familiar with Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop as far as editing applications go and a lot of people love these apps for their versatility and powerful suite of features. But they do come with a price, and paying a fee isn’t always what every photographer is looking for.

        There are plenty of people who would like to find something equally capable of getting the job done that doesn’t run a monthly charge on their credit card bill or require a hefty up front payment. Thankfully, there are plenty of alternatives out there that run the gamut from beginner-friendly to as feature-packed as the name-brand products.

        [...]

        GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Software) is flat-out one of the best editing applications available anywhere — for any price. Its suite of features is impressively full, and more are being added all the time.

        From layers, masks, and curves to brushes, clone stamps, and perspective changes, there is not a whole lot that GIMP can’t do compared to Adobe’s counterpart. Better yet, it is an open-source editor, meaning the huge community of users has created an extensive array of plugins that expand the functionality and abilities of GIMP. Some of these plugins come preinstalled, but there are tons more in its glossary that you can install in addition.

      • Screenshot And Annotation Tool Ksnip 1.9.0 Adds User-Defined Actions, Dockable Widgets And Other Improvements

        Ksnip, a feature-packed cross-platform screenshot tool that works with both X11 and Wayland, has been updated to version 1.9.0, getting the ability to add user-defined actions for taking screenshots and post-processing, dockable widgets, along with many other smaller, but useful new features and changes.

        Ksnip is a free and open source Qt5 screenshot tool that runs on Linux (X11, Plasma Wayland, GNOME Wayland and with this release, xdg-desktop-portal Wayland), Windows and macOS. The tool allows taking a rectangular area, full-screen, current screen and active window screenshots, with support for annotations. It comes with tools such as line, rectangle, ellipse, arrow, pen, marker (rectangle, ellipse, pen), text, text with arrow, auto numbers, and stickers, as well as the ability to scale or crop the screenshot after it has been taken. Optionally, the screenshots can then be uploaded to Imgur or a different image upload website with the help of the Ksnip built-in script uploader support.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Make Command Not Found? Here’s How to Fix it
      • Fndamental of Linux Shell - Linux Concept

        Initially, the Unix OS used a shell program called the Bourne shell. Then, eventually, many more shell programs were developed for different flavors of Unix.

      • How To Find And Move Files In Xubuntu File Manager (Thunar) - Fosslicious

        When using a computer, sometimes we can forget where to put the file that we want to open. In this case we can use Catfish which acts as a file search application.

      • How To Install Htop on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Htop on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Htop is an interactive and real-time system-monitor process-viewer written for Linux. It provides information related to system processes, system memory, Load average, etc. It is a cross-platform, interactive process viewer. It is quite similar to the ‘top’ command, which comes pre-installed with almost all Linux distributions.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of Htop monitor system processes on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

      • How to Create SFTP Only User in Ubuntu 20.04 – TecAdmin

        SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) is a secure file protocol used to access, manage, and transfer files over an encrypted SSH transport session. Security first is an thumb rules for the system administrators. Some times you may need to provide FTP/SFTP access to development or other teams to access file on remote server. This will allow you a secure channel to provide limited access to specific files and directories.

        This tutorial will help you to create SFTP only user (without ssh shell access) on Ubuntu systems. And restrict (chroot) the SFT user account to specific directory only. Also disable the shell access to user.

      • How to Install Latest Cinnamon Desktop in Ubuntu and Fedora

        In this tutorial, we shall walk through the various steps that you can follow to install the latest stable version of Cinnamon desktop on Ubuntu and Fedora. Before we move any further, let us talk about a few properties of the Cinnamon desktop as outlined below.

      • How to Install Latest Mate Desktop in Ubuntu and Fedora

        MATE desktop is a simple, intuitive, and attractive continuation of GNOME 2. It is under active development to bring about constant improvements using modern technologies while holding to the traditional desktop experience.

        There are several Linux distributions that support the MATE desktop including of course Ubuntu, and there is a dedicated Ubuntu MATE edition for this elegant desktop environment as well.

      • How to Keep a Window Always on Top in Linux

        Multitasking on a small screen is challenging. You can’t have multiple apps open on the screen at once, and you need to constantly juggle between different apps to work on them.

        If you're on Linux, you can leverage the Always on Top feature to work around this and improve your multitasking experience. Here's a guide to help you through the process.

      • How to Remove Lines from a File Using Sed Command

        streaming editor (sed) is an important tool when you work with parsing and transforming text in your nix-based systems. It is used for finding, filtering, text substitution, and text manipulations such as insertion, deletion, replace, and search in the text files.

        In most Linux distributions, the sed command comes pre-installed and you can verify it using the following commands, which will show the binary location of the command and version.

      • How to install Godot 3.3 on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install Godot 3.3 on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

      • How to install Shotcut Video Editor on Deepin 20.2

        In this video, we are looking at how to install Shotcut Video Editor on Deepin 20.2.

      • How to install Vivaldi Browser on Ubuntu 21.04 (Easy)

        Vivaldi is a freeware, cross-platform web browser developed by Vivaldi Technologies, a company founded by Tatsuki Tomita and Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, who was the co-founder and CEO of Opera Software. Vivaldi was officially launched on April 6, 2016.

        Although intended for general users, it is first and foremost targeted towards technically-inclined users as well as former Opera users disgruntled by its transition from the Presto layout engine to a Chromium-based browser that resulted in the loss of many of its iconic features. Despite also being Chromium-based, Vivaldi aims to revive the features of the Presto-based Opera with its own proprietary modifications.

      • Using files and devices in Podman rootless containers | Enable Sysadmin

        One key problem Podman users are having is accessing files and devices that they can use from the host but cannot use while in a container, even if they volume mount the objects into the container.

      • Change file ownership with CHOWN command in Linux (with examples) - LinuxTechLab

        When it comes to Linux permissions, things can get pretty tricky. Unless you are an admin user, like root, then you won’t have access to files or directories that were created by other users. In order to access those files, either their permissions should be updated to be available for other users or we can change ownership of the files.

        In this tutorial, we will discuss what to do if you are required to change ownerships of files or directories. We would be discussing how to change ownership of files & directories using the ‘chown command’.

      • How to Install and Remove Software in Manjaro Linux

        There are many people who would like to use Linux instead of Windows but are deterred because they believe in Linux myths such as it is difficult to use. This tutorial will try to overcome that error by showing how easy it is to install and remove software on Linux.

        You probably already know by now that I love Manjaro Linux, so in this article, I will be focusing on Manjaro. There is a similar article on managing software in Ubuntu that Ubuntu users can follow.

      • 1Password for Linux: How to install this password manager

        1Password Password Manager is now available for Linux. Here we will see the steps to download and install 1Password on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04 or 21.04 including for RPM – RHEL, CentOS 8, OpenSUSE, Rocky Linux, and AlmaLinux as well.

        Recently, the popular password manager 1Password that is a paid service and proprietary software officially has released its Linux version.

        In case you are unfamiliar, what does 1Password for Linux offer? Then you can get all the basic functions you expect from a password manager: to keep them safe with extreme encryption, two-factor authentication, strong password generator, multiplatform support, including extensions for web browsers …

        However, one thing needs to be understood, it is not open-source software, thus the users have to purchase it once the Trail period of the software gets ended.

      • Viewing compressed file content on Linux without uncompressing | Network World

        You can examine the contents of compressed files on Linux systems without uncompressing the files or changing them in any way. This post explains the commands for doing that and the types of compressed files they work with.

      • ProxyJump is more secure than SSH agent forwarding - Florida News Times [Ed: This is possibly plagiarism]

        The SSH jump server is the proxy between the client and the rest of the SSH fleet. Jump hosts minimize threats by forcing all SSH traffic through a single enhanced location and minimizing SSH endpoints on individual nodes to the outside world. (Read more: “How to set up an SSH jump server”)

        One way to configure a multi-hop setup is to store the destination server’s private key on the jump server.Do Absent Do this. Jump servers are typically a multi-user environment. That is, a single party with elevated privileges can compromise the private key. The solution to this security threat is to enable agent forwarding. Given how common this method is, you may be surprised to find that it is not recommended. Let’s dig a little deeper to understand why.

      • How to monitor Socket connections using ss command

        ss (socket statistics) is a command line tool that monitors socket connections and displays the socket statistics of the Linux system. It can display stats for PACKET sockets, TCP sockets, UDP sockets, DCCP sockets, RAW sockets, Unix domain sockets, and much more.

        This replaces the deprecated netstat command in the latest version of Linux. The ss command is much faster and prints more detailed network statistics than the netstat command.

        If you are familiar with the netstat command, it will be easier for you to understand the ss command as it uses similar command line options to display network connections information.

        Refer the following link to see other network command tutorials.

    • Games

      • Maintenance release: Godot 3.3.2

        Godot 3.3 was released a month ago, and we had a first maintenance release last week with Godot 3.3.1. A few regressions made their way among the many bug fixes of 3.3.1, so here's another maintenance release to fix them.

        Notably, Windows users could experience crashes when baking lightmaps. Games exported with a ZIP data package could also trigger a crash on exit. Additionally, this release includes a number of non-regression bug fixes to various areas of the engine.

        Godot 3.3.2, like all future 3.3.x releases, focuses purely on bug fixes, and aims to preserve compatibility. It is a recommended upgrade for all Godot 3.3 users.

      • SCS put up an open Beta for multiplayer in Euro Truck Sim 2 and American Truck Sim

        To be available in an opt-in Beta on Steam, SCS Software are officially bringing online multiplayer to both of their truck sims with Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator. These massively popular games should need no introduction, mixing together business management with long-haul trucking to create something weirdly good.

        With the new 1.41 Beta becoming available (Seems ATS is first), SCS are now introducing the Convoy game mode. Which will also bring with it time and weather options for the photo mode, quick travel, a California reskin for ATS and new icons in the map legend. The Convoy mode lets players make a private session to drive with other truckers. Progress doesn't need to stick, as if things went terribly wrong it will let you restore your game to before the Convoy game started.

      • Hints appear of Valve making a possible handheld Steam "SteamPal" Neptune console

        Well well, perhaps we finally know what the end game is here for the Steam Play Proton compatibility layer and a lot of the other work Valve has been doing for Linux with a possible handheld Steam console. Take this with a heavy pinch of salt as we're into super speculation territory now.

        Pavel Djundik, creator of SteamDB who has often dug up interesting new strings showing up in Steam updates has a new Twitter thread up going over some new appearances that raise some eyebrows.

        New appearances are seen mentioning a "Neptune" controller along with things like "GameList_View_NeptuneGames", "SteamPal Games" and more curious entries that mention things like quick access and a power menu - all of which point to something quite a bit more than just a new controller. Not only that, there's also earlier mentions of a "Callisto Developer Program" and "Device Optimized Games" going by what Djundik found.

      • Heroic Games Launcher for running Epic Store titles on Linux 1.7.0 release is out | GamingOnLinux

        As Epic Games continue ignoring Linux with their store, the Heroic Games Launcher picks up that slack and it has a new release now available for you. Reminder: since the Epic Store doesn't support Linux, the Heroic Games Launcher will download Windows games which will then run through a compatibility layer like Wine.

        Heroic is actually pretty great, and does most of what you would expect from a game launcher. Quite a lot of titles work well, although as usual for unsupported titles some don't work at all so your mileage will vary.

        The 1.7.0 "Moria" release of Heroic now has a better download system, so it will continue downloads instead of going back to 0% (hooray!), there's a new option to enable NVIDIA Prime Render Offload for you Optimus users and a Wiki button is included now too.

      • Comedy point and click adventure Not Another Weekend is out now | GamingOnLinux

        With a certain level of humour and style found in early Leisure Suit Larry, developers Animatic Vision / Dead Blue Friends have released Not Another Weekend.

        "For all the fans of pixel art out there, get ready for the wackiest adventure of time. You are a bellboy, Mike Melkout, working at a high-class hotel. Mike may seem crazy, or even peculiar or he might as well be. Nevertheless, he has only one plan. A dark plan. To throw everyone out in just one Weekend. A humorous point ’n’ click adventure game, set in the ’80s, as a tribute to the pop culture of that era."

      • JRPG inspired adventure Light Fairytale Episode 2 is out in Early Access | GamingOnLinux

        Following on from a cliffhanger in the first episode, Light Fairytale Episode 2 is a Japanese inspired RPG featuring a modern presentation with a classic core.

        In Episode 2 you play as Haru and Ayaka as they "uncover the mysteries of the Deeplands while looking for a way to reunite with Kuroko, meeting with a mysterious silver haired girl along the way".

      • Dome Romantik is a unique roguelite miner about digging to the planet's core | GamingOnLinux

        Dig for riches but watch out for nasty creatures on these alien worlds in the unique and quite clever Dome Romantik.

        Originally developed for the Ludum Dare 48 Game Jam with Godot Engine, the idea is to dig as far as you can towards the core of the planet. Gather resources and then use them to upgrade your dome to defend against hostile alien life. A fantastic idea overall with some wonderful pixel artwork.

      • A trio of top-down Dungeon Crawlers reviewed, one old, one new and one coming soon | GamingOnLinux

        I was recently offered a beta key for the upcoming Ampers@t dungeon crawler and then a curator key for the recently released Ouroboros Dungeon. What better time, then, to also review the classic crawler, Unexplored?

        Sadly, all three are Steam only, but they’re also cheap as chips. Let’s get into it.

        Ouroboros Dungeon

        I’ll start with the quickest to review, because it’s also the least interesting of the three. It launched on May 5th and features quite a pretty 3D view of the dungeon and some nicely drawn weapons.

        Sadly, Ouroboros Dungeon lacks depth and after just an hour and a half on a single playthrough, I had no desire to play it again. It’s incredibly repetitive and features clunky combat and a loot system that just doesn’t make much sense (my “Belt of Stamina” granted me a magic boost - this is common, the naming appears to be almost completely random).

    • Distributions

      • New Releases

      • BSD

        • Using NetBSD’s pkgsrc everywhere I can

          NetBSD’s pkgsrc package manager is the best thing since sliced bread. Like everything the NetBSD maintainers touch, it’s high quality, well documented, predictable, and portable to a fault. I use it everywhere I can, from my macOS and FreeBSD laptops to remote Linux machines. This has lead people on social networks to ask me why, and to give examples.

          The biggest reason comes down to what I call digital hygeine, best described by Merlin Mann as “not storing compost in your vegetable crisper”. There’s value in disambiguating personal tools and applications from what is required to run the system, because updating one set shouldn’t impact the other.

      • SUSE/OpenSUSE

        • openSUSE Community Readies for Release Party

          The openSUSE Project is planning to have a 24-hour release party in the openSUSE Bar immediately after the release of openSUSE Leap 15.3.

          The virtual release party will have members of the release team, community members and board members in attendance.

          Beginning at 12:00 UTC on June 2, the release party will go until 11:59 UTC on June 3. Participants are expected from several countries and people are welcome to attend and meet with openSUSE members.

        • openSUSE.Asia 2021 Announcement

          India was accepted to host the openSUSE.Asia Summit 2020. Due of Covid 19 pandemic we had to cancel the event. As the world has shifted from physical mode to digital made, we with the support of openSUSE.Asia committee members proposed to organize openSUSE.Asia summit 2021 in online mode. We are glad that our proposal is accepted by openSUSE board.

          The supporters of openSUSE in India, and of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) at large are excited to organize the most awaited openSUSE.Asia Summit event. In this activity, experts, contributors, end users, and technology enthusiasts will gather to share experiences about the development of openSUSE and other things related to FLOSS and have a lot of fun. The venue for the openSUSE.Asia Summit was chosen after being proposed by the Indian community during openSUSE.Asia Summit 2019 in Bali, Indonesia. The Asian committee decided Faridabad as the host of openSUSE.Asia Summit 2021 from August 6 to August 8, 2021, at Manav Rachna International Institute of Research & Studies, Faridabad.

        • SUSE News at SUSECON 2021: Linux and Kubernetes Leadership, Openness and Interoperability, Customer/Community-led Innovation
        • You Are Now Free to Innovate Anywhere
      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • What Is Rocky Linux and Should You Consider It?

          For a long time, CentOS was a reliable choice for a Linux distro, especially for servers, because it was effectively a free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. But shakeups have rocked the CentOS community, which led to one of its original developers creating a fork called Rocky Linux.

          After several months of development, a pre-release version of Rocky Linux has emerged. Should you consider switching to Rocky Linux? We'll find out in this post.

        • DevSecOps compliance: Make your auditor's job easier!

          Compliance is the topic of this entry in Red Hat’s Security series! In March 2021 the Red Hat Security Ecosystem team began introducing DevOps Security topics to help you learn how Red Hat weaves together DevOps and security to master the force called DevSecOps. We explain how to assemble Red Hat products and our security ecosystem partners to aid in your journey to master deploying a comprehensive DevSecOps solution.

          Compliance can mean a lot of different things, but in this post we will focus on regulatory compliance, and what to think about when attempting to audit and meet compliance requirements within a Red Hat OpenShift deployment.

          Compliance methods and technologies help you adhere to industry and government regulations and corporate policies. They automate compliance validation and reporting throughout DevOps, helping you simplify audits and avoid costly regulatory fines and lawsuits.

        • Red Hat Satellite 6.9.2 has been released

          We are pleased to announce that Red Hat Satellite 6.9.2 is generally available as of May 24, 2021.

          Red Hat Satellite is part of the Red Hat Smart Management subscription that makes it easier for enterprises to manage patching, provisioning, and subscription management of Red Hat Enterprise Linux infrastructure.

        • Fedora Podcast is back - Fedora Magazine

          The Fedora Community with the Marketing Team has brought back the Fedora Podcast! We have a new and improved editing workflow that remains completely FOSS. We also have a new host joining us, Grayson! He’s known as computerkid around the community, uses Fedora Linux, and loves the awesome Fedora community.

        • Capture detailed analytics with the custom metrics policy in Red Hat 3scale API Management | Red Hat Developer

          Developers use Red Hat 3scale API Management to manage APIs through a gateway called APIcast. APIcast includes many out-of-the-box policies that can be configured to extend its default behavior. A new addition to APIcast, the custom metrics policy, provides another way to track metrics that are valuable to your business via the 3scale analytics engine.

          The custom metrics policy was introduced in 3scale API Management 2.9. I was intrigued to learn how to configure this policy, and wanted to understand its potential use scenarios. This article introduces one way to take advantage of the custom metrics policy, using a metric that tracks specific HTTP response status codes as an example scenario. The default analytics in 3scale just capture the response statuses into buckets of 2xx, 4xx, and so on. If you want to capture specific status codes such as 203 or 403, you can use this custom metrics policy.

        • Actionable threat intelligence for publicly known exploits for RHEL

          As a Product Manager at Red Hat, I speak with customers to understand the challenges they seek to address and recommend Red Hat technologies that can help maximize efficiency and productivity in their environments.

          Although no two organizations are the same, some of their most cited challenges include (1) managing the sprawl of their infrastructure footprint in an open-hybrid cloud environment (2) lacking resources to manage it with and (3) an increasing focus on security and compliance concerns.

          Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux is designed and built to help customers address concerns across management of compliance and security. For managing security vulnerabilities on their estate of servers, Insights has a Vulnerability service that helps customers identify, assess, and triage Common Vulnerability and Exposures (CVEs), remediate them with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, and report on the health of the servers across hybrid cloud footprint for any systems registered with Insights.

        • Fedora Community Blog: Migrating the DNF Stack CI to GitHub Actions [Ed: IBM outsourcing more of Fedora to Microsoft's proprietary woftware ... they want to kill the project, don't they?]

          DNF’s continuous integration (CI) has historically struggled from multiple standpoints, including: reliability, coverage, and results not being publicly available. We recently migrated to GitHub Actions, which—in addition to increasing our integration test suite stability and coverage—led to it being more reliable and its results available publicly to contributors.

        • What is your capacity planning strategy? | Enable Sysadmin

          Capacity planning is one of those topics that's treated like backups: No one discusses it until there's a problem. Capacity planning isn't thought of as a critical service by some businesses. However, a well-informed architect or sysadmin will quickly inform you that capacity planning is as much a part of a business continuity strategy as disaster recovery is and no less important.

          What exactly is capacity planning? It answers the question of, "How much infrastructure will you require to handle growth, failure, and technology refresh over the next year, two years, or longer?" Some capacity planning strategies also take personnel requirements into account but that's certainly not consistently the case. For the purpose of this poll, the focus is only on infrastructure: Power, cooling, server hardware, network, storage, rack space, and software licensing.

        • 4 elements of transformational leadership | The Enterprisers Project

          Of all the leadership theories that have been posited over the years, few have the enduring simplicity of transformational leadership. Originally conceived by James Burns and further developed by Bernard Bass, transformational leadership has provided inspiration and principles on which many other leadership theories have expanded. Its straightforward approach makes it easy for any leader to keep in mind as they go about their work.

        • 7 change management tips: Houston CIO of the Year winners share | The Enterprisers Project

          For CIOs and IT leaders, leading change is a critical skill – especially now. Top CIOs share change management advice you can use

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • 4 Best Free and Open Source Web-Based Email Clients

        Email remains the killer information and communications technology. Email volume shows no sign of diminishing, despite the increasing popularity of collaborative messaging tools. There were over 4 billion email users in 2020.

        Messages are exchanged between hosts using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol with software programs called mail transfer agents, and delivered to a mail store by programs called mail delivery agents, frequently referred to as email clients.

        Email clients offer a variety of features. Many email clients offer a slew of features, some stick with just the basics. At the end of the day, what is important is that you find an email client that offers what you need, it is reliable, and works well on your computer.

      • Huawei founder urges shift to software to counter US sanctions

        Mr Ren's note also said the software push would depend on finding the right business model and that the company should adopt an open source approach, calling on staff to "absorb nutrients" through open source communities.

        He said the company's Welink business communication platform had relied on traditional software licensing, which was unsuited to cloud computing and inferior to a rival product from tech giant Alibaba.

        Given the difficulty of working in the US, Mr Ren's note said the company should strengthen its position at home and build up its territory with a view to possibly excluding the US.

      • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

        • LibreOffice Community Member Monday: Hüseyin GÜÇ

          I want the OpenDocument Format and LibreOffice application to be used in my institutions and city. For this reason, I wanted to support The Documentation Foundation individually.

          Also, I am here because I think the LibreOffice community has a differentiation from other open source communities. You can install and use open source applications, but there is a need for the OpenDocument Format to become widespread in order to use the produced output.

          Here, I want to be a part of this dissemination and I believe that there will be an opportunity for this. Open source usage in Turkey is not at the desired level yet. In addition, it is very sad that many individuals and institutions are unaware of the OpenDocument Format and LibreOffice. I want to strive to eliminate this problem.

        • LibreOffice 7.2 Alpha 1 Released For This Open-Source Office Suite
        • LibreOffice 7.2 Alpha1 is ready for testing

          The LibreOffice Quality Assurance ( QA ) Team is happy to announce LibreOffice 7.2 Alpha1 is ready for testing!

          LibreOffice 7.2 will be released as final in mid August, 2021 ( Check the Release Plan ) being LibreOffice 7.2 Alpha1 the first pre-release since the development of version 7.2 started at the end of November, 2020. Since then, 5971 commits have been submitted to the code repository and more than 1040 bugs were set to FIXED in Bugzilla. Check the release notes to find the new features included in this version of LibreOffice.

          LibreOffice 7.2 Alpha1 can be downloaded from here for Linux, MacOS and Windows, and it can be installed alongside the standard version.

        • Free Software Applications with Libre in Their Names

          This article lists several free software applications which the names include the word libre or its variations including liberation or liberty. This article is hoped to be useful to you who are in study of free software and everything around it.

          Free software intended by our community is the one defined by The GNU Project related to freedom unrelated to price. To avoid ambiguity and confusion, the word free is often omitted with libre, hence libre software, to explain that free software is free as in freedom not price. Please read Free Software Definition for further explanation. However, in reality there are many uses of libre in multiple projects and communities and even in the name of several free software applications. We will examine them in this list.

      • Programming/Development

        • Qt 5.12.11 Released

          Qt 5.12.11 provides fixes to over 40 bugs compared to Qt 5.12.10 release. Please check details about the release from Qt 5.12.11 Release Note.

          As earlier Qt 5.12.11 can be updated to existing online installation by using the maintenance tool. For new installations, please download the latest online installer from Qt Account portal or from qt.io Download page. Offline packages are available for commercial users in the Qt Account portal and at the qt.io Download page for open-source users.

        • Sometimes more data can hurt!

          So here’s a mind blower: In some cases having more samples can actually reduce model performance. Don’t believe it? Neither did I! Read on to see how I demonstrate that phenomenon using a simulation study.

        • Why I prefer making useless stuff

          There is nothing I find more liberating than to spend a Saturday afternoon coding on some toy project.

          There is no expectation or obligation to ever become more. It is just for fun, learning, and curiousity. I can add whatever features I want. I can use whatever technologies I want. I can throw it all away if I want. These are the projects I yearn for and look forward to when I'm busy with work.

        • Perl/Raku

          • Perl Lists - a Partial Taxonomy - DEV Community

            Mark Garder recently published the article A list of Perl list processing modules, a detailed and factual, unopinionated listing of eight Perl modules that manipulate lists. So, naturally, when his factual, unopinionated listing was cross posted to Redit, the first comment was the emotional, highly opinionated: “So how do we go about fixing this mess? Because it is a mess.”.

            Yes, the comment was mine.

            My intent was to see if we could create One List:: To Rule Them All. Not only does it confuse people who want to learn Perl to have various list functions in different modules (and to have functions that share a name across modules work differently), but it also confuses Perl veterans.

            And yes, once again, that’s me.

          • Rakudo Weekly News: 2021.21 Chattering

            Patrick Spek reports on behalf of the Raku Steering Council about the move of all Raku-related IRC channels from Freenode to Libera.chat, after most of the Freenode volunteers have left after what has been considered a hostile takeover. So if you want to chat with Rakoons, use the irc.libera.chat IRC servers from now on! The following channels have now effectively moved: #raku, #raku-dev, #moarvm, #cro, #mugs, #red and #raku-gamedev. And there is now also #raku-steering-council channel for direct communication with the Raku Steering Council.

          • Perl Weekly Challenge 113: Represent Integer and Recreate Binary Tree
        • Python

        • Java

          • KOTLIN, The enhanced Java

            A good programming language increases the readability of programs and their long-term maintainability. The faster the bugs can be fixed, the more time there isto develop a product. This is exactly where Kotlin comes in: The programming language on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) has set itself the goal of preventing many errors from occurring in the first place. With zero safety , zero exceptions can be ruled out at compile time.

            A wealth of language constructs such as sealed classes , objects and inline classes make it possible to define data types that do not even allow inconsistent combinations which makes working with the language as pleasant as possible and despite the static typing, Kotlin can automatically determine the data type from the expression (type inference).

  • Leftovers

    • The Roving Mind of Rachel Kushner

      One of the more tragic errors of our time is our ready conflation of what is iconic with what is well branded. In an effort at bypassing the difficult work of becoming someone, many of today’s would-be writers, artists, and thinkers opt to present themselves as walking pitch decks, glomming onto a marketable persona and riding it as hard and far as they can. Our moment’s lack of nuance is frequently bemoaned, but what strikes me as the far greater omission is the lack of real mess and breadth: the modern individual’s resistance to any inconsistency that can’t be readily assimilated into her personal brand. The artist is rebranded a “creator”; the goal is to “make things” to “put out there.” It sometimes feels we have forgotten the value of remaining open—of receiving, rather than curating, experience.

    • Hardware

      • Let us Play: Smartphone brand Honor lets slip it has gained access to Google Mobile Services licences

        Honor, the phone brand formerly owned by Huawei, appears to have secured Google Mobile Services (GMS) licences, paving the way for a meaningful return to the European market.

        The news came from Honor’s German arm. A since-deleted tweet confirmed the firm’s upcoming Honor 50 smartphone series would carry the proprietary Google Android apps. It seems likely the public announcement went out before HQ made it official.

    • Health/Nutrition

      • Wuhan lab staff sought hospital care before COVID-19 outbreak disclosed - WSJ

        Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, months before China disclosed the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report.

        The newspaper said the report - which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits - may add weight to calls for a broader probe of whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory.

      • Curious what cicadas taste like? Cicada recipes could help you find out

        This year's group is called Brood X, and they can be seen in 15 Eastern states from Indiana to Georgia to New York. Their cacophonous mating song can drown out the noise of passing jets.

        When the soil warms up enough, cicadas emerge from the ground, where they've been sucking moisture from tree roots for the past 13 or 17 years, depending on species. They shed their exoskeletons, attach themselves to branches, mate and lay eggs before dying off in about six weeks.

        When eating adult cicadas, it's advised to pull the wings and legs off to reduce the crunchiness. But Gordon advises home cooks to gather the cicadas when they're nymphs, before their body armor hardens and while they are still soft and chewy, like soft shell crab.

      • Brood X cicadas are edible. Up for pizza topped with blanched bugs?

        In case you hadn't heard, trillions of Brood X cicadas are emerging for the first time in 17 years. These critters spend most of their lives underground and come out for at least three to four weeks for a massive mating season, and they're showing up in 15 US states and Washington, DC, leading some to turn to pest control. But there's another -- perhaps more, let's say, natural -- way to manage this insect emergence: eat them.

      • Eating trendy Brood X cicadas: What the bug recipes taste like

        But this time around, the most adventurous among us won’t be satisfied merely hearing the deafening critters — some are preparing to cook these trending buggers up like a terrestrial crawfish boil.

        “You wanna eat the females, because they’re full of eggs,” Gene Kritsky, author of “Periodical Cicadas: The Brood X Edition,” told The Post. Ditching the tired just-like-chicken comparison, he analogized their flavor to something more like “cold asparagus.”

      • Killing Cyclists Is As American As Mass Shootings

        Damn right. In climbing, the danger is high but also predictable, manageable. That’s the whole point. I’ve climbed for decades and trust myself to make good decisions. In road biking, the danger is more like the risk of getting struck by lightning while running around on a mesa during an electrical storm with a tin hat on your head. The only decision that matters is whether to run around at all. Every time you ride a bike on a road with cars, you depend absolutely on every human being driving every one of those cars not to make a careless, casual, no-big-deal momentary oops-level mistake that leaves you maimed or dead. Given the human propensity for such mistakes, that’s a nonstarter for me.

        Also: the bad stories never stopped coming. My daughter went off to college last year and met a terrific young man whose father, a guy very much like myself, was cycling in Napa County on a lovely Saturday morning in August 2012, as a perfectly sober but sleep-deprived nurse drove her BMW in the opposite direction. At roughly 9:30 A.M., the nurse turned left, apparently without first checking to make sure there wasn’t a cyclist going the opposite way, and killed that young man’s father. Law-enforcement officers showed up, looked around, and determined that, yep, the cyclist had the right of way. The perfectly sober nurse was 100 percent at fault in this 100 percent avoidable killing of another human being. In fact, all she would’ve had to do to not kill that young man’s father was think, Oh boy, before I make this turn, I better look carefully to make sure I’m not going to kill anybody. And sure, she tried her best to save his life and was clearly traumatized by the incident. But she was only convicted of a misdemeanor, with a penalty of community service. Because, see, in our system of laws and civic responsibilities, and despite how remarkably easy it is to not kill cyclists, that nurse’s error just wasn’t considered a big deal. In fact, homicide by automobile might be our country’s least-penalized way of killing other human beings.

        So, of course, let’s build heaps of cycling infrastructure in every American city. Cycling is unbeatably healthy, fun, social, and good for the planet, and good infrastructure makes it a lot safer. But let’s also find a way to fix our cultural infrastructure.

      • How Pharma’s Lucrative Patent System Is Complicating The Pandemic

        There’s a worldwide shortage of vaccines but plenty of factories standing by to make them. Why is there such a gap between what we need and what we can make? On this week’s episode of PODCAST-19, we explore the surprisingly wild world of pharmaceutical patent law to understand how our system came to be and how it has shaped the pandemic. You can find the episode and a lightly edited transcript below.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Pseudo-Open Source

          • Privatisation/Privateering

            • Linux Foundation

              • The University of Minnesota Linux scandal doesn’t smell right. IBM and Microsoft’s toll on Linux development bring Windows-like experience.

                So, recently, the University of Minnesota got caught submitting bad patches to the Linux kernel, on purpose, and this led to a huge effort to review hundreds of patches that they had submitted to see which ones needed tweaked or backed out.

                In the early 2000s, there was a lot of fuss about one patch made on an obscure mirror of the kernel’s source tree, which implemented a backdoor, but was never (and would never) be merged.

                Linus Torvalds’ father, Nils Torvalds, all but admitted that Linus had been approached by the United States government asking him to backdoor Linux, at least once.

                The problem with the recent UMN scandal is not only that so many bad patches had to be backed out, or the fact that it took so many resources away from actively improving the kernel.

        • Security

          • Biden’s New Executive Cybersecurity Order Highlights the Power of Open-Source Security [Ed: Microsoft Windows causing far too many security incidents, e.g. Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, and finally there's a response to it? Remove Windows.]

            On Wednesday, May 12th, in the wake of the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack that shut down one of the largest US pipelines for nearly a week, President Biden signed an executive order placing strict new standards on the cybersecurity of all software sold to the federal government. This order is part of a broad, multi-layered initiative to improve national security by incentivizing private companies to practice better cybersecurity or risk being locked out of federal contracts.

          • The Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Hackers Had a Secret Weapon: Self-Promoting Cybersecurity Firms

            On Jan. 11, antivirus company Bitdefender said it was “happy to announce” a startling breakthrough. It had found a flaw in the ransomware that a gang known as DarkSide was using to freeze computer networks of dozens of businesses in the U.S. and Europe. Companies facing demands from DarkSide could download a free tool from Bitdefender and avoid paying millions of dollars in ransom to the hackers.

            But Bitdefender wasn’t the first to identify this flaw. Two other researchers, Fabian Wosar and Michael Gillespie, had noticed it the month before and had begun discreetly looking for victims to help. By publicizing its tool, Bitdefender alerted DarkSide to the lapse, which involved reusing the same digital keys to lock and unlock multiple victims. The next day, DarkSide declared that it had repaired the problem, and that “new companies have nothing to hope for.”

          • UK: Customers hit as ransomware incident blacks out Doncaster insurance firm [iophk: Windows TCO]

            We were so busy watching the Colonial Pipeline situation here that we appear to have missed a ransomware incident in the U.K. of note.

            It started typically enough, with the Doncaster Free Press reporting on May 14 that One Call Insurance had been hit the previous day, and customers were unable to reach the firm.

            It turns out that this was another DarkSide attack, but a lot of the UK coverage seems to have focused on the business owner’s past history, e.g.: [...]

          • New Android 12 privacy features don't mean Google actually care about your privacy

            On May 18th 2021 Google held its annual developer conference, Google I/O, where the company announces a number of innovations, products and software updates that will hit the market in the months to come. Among these announcements, the company introduced Android 12, its latest mobile Operating System (OS), that came with headline grabbing privacy features.

            Possibly trying to catch up with Apple, which is positioning itself as a privacy-friendly tech company and gave the adtech industry a kick in the teeth with its own recent operating system updates giving users the option to object to cross-app tracking, Google is making a number of changes to its OS to give more control to the users and improve security and privacy. These new features revolve around the camera, microphone and location and include: [...]

          • Apple’s Fortnite Trial Ends With Pointed Questions and a Toast to Popeyes

            On Monday, the trial — which covered esoteric definitions of markets as well as oddball video game characters — concluded with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California pressing the companies on what should change in Apple’s business, if anything. The decision over the case, as well as the future of the $100 billion market for iPhone apps, now rests in her hands. Judge Gonzalez Rogers has said she hopes to issue a verdict by mid-August.

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • Air India reveals passenger data stolen in [crack] attack

              Air India, India's national carrier, has revealed that the personal data of about 4.5 million people were leaked in an alleged cyberattack on the airline's passenger system operator, SITA.

              The airline said credit card, passport, booking details and other personal data had been illegally accessed in the "highly sophisticated" attack.

              The carrier did not specify how many of its passengers were impacted.

            • Amazon to extend ban on police use of face recognition tech

              Activists have targeted Amazon Web Services cloud computing unit's "Rekognition" facial recognition technology and Ring surveillance cameras used for home security. It was not clear the degree to which police have used the systems.

              Amazon last year called for governments to put in place "stronger regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology."

            • 1.7 million affected by [crack] of top Japan dating app

              The personal data of more than a million users of one of Japan's most popular dating apps may have been exposed by a [crack], its operator has warned.

              Net Marketing Co, which runs the Omiai app, said it detected unauthorised access in April to the server that stores member information.

            • Facebook Still ‘Secretly’ Tracks Your iPhone—This Is How To Stop It

              So, this isn’t good. Your iPhone settings enable you to tell Facebook you don’t want your location tracked. It’s clear and non-ambiguous. Why then, if you tell Facebook “never” to access your location, is the data harvesting giant doing exactly that?

              Apple’s iOS 14.5 is just a few weeks old, and the data already suggests it has delivered the expected strike against Facebook . Unsurprisingly, more than 80% of users do not opt in to being tracked. Millions of you have seen through the brazen warnings that Facebook’s free apps won’t remain free unless we surrender our right to privacy.

            • European Parliament calls on Commission to open infringement proceedings against Ireland

              The European Parliament has adopted a resolution (Link) calling on the European Commission to start infringement procedures against Ireland, over the lack of GDPR enforcement. Today the votes became public: The resolution was adopted by a vast majority of 541 votes, with only one vote by an independent Member against the resolution (Link). 151 members abstained from the vote. The resolution took special issues with the Irish Data Protection Commission: [..]

            • Privacy vs. “I have nothing to hide”

              To start this article, I should mention what those words mean. Freedom means “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint” and liberty means “the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.” However, from now on, when I use any of those words, I mean both of them. So whether I write freedom or liberty, I mean “freedom and liberty”.

              I value my liberty. I think liberty is what makes humans, humans. As a Middle Eastern, I understand how much my freedom is valuable and important. Us Middle Easterners are very much familiar with struggles one can have to gain freedom.

              We fight for freedom in Middle East. If you’ve followed Middle East news in past 10 years, you surely understand what I’m talking about. Part of our fight for liberty needs us to be anonymous. In Middle East, you may get arrested or executed for simply talking against the dictator, so many of people take anonymity very serious when they talk politics, or anything else.

              Anonymity is part of privacy. Anonymity is a choice when someone has privacy. I should explain this too. Being anonymous is a choice while privacy is a right. Someone with privacy can or may be anonymous but one can be identified and known while one still has privacy. I for example am active in a social network with my real name but I still take my privacy seriously, and am careful about my computing and acts.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Alex Saab v. The Empire: How the US Is Using Lawfare To Punish a Venezuelan Diplomat

        The case of Alex Saab raises dangerous precedents in terms of extraterritorial judicial abuse, violation of diplomatic status, and even the use of torture to extract false confessions. This is according to Montréal-based international human rights lawyer John Philpot. He spoke on May 19 at a webinar sponsored by the Alliance for Global Justice and other groups about this example of the long reach of the U.S. empire enforcing its deadly sanctions on some one-third of humanity.

      • Why Shady Billionaire-Funded NGOs Pushed a PBS Report on Nicaraguan “Conflict Beef”

        There is much truth in the old saying, “He who pays the piper, calls the tune,” and the neoliberal era has spawned individuals with incredible wealth who, through “philanthropy,” can feel good and flex their influence at the same time. While these philanthropists can be liberal on some issues, they almost universally support U.S. foreign policy and the “free market;” and, because many of these super-rich individuals made their wealth through investments and speculation, most do not like a planned economy, socialized services beyond the private sector, or greater government control.

      • Armed men kill 15 at baptism in northern Burkina Faso

        The attack took place in Adjarara, about 7 km from the town of Tin-Akoff in Oudalan province, very close to the border with Mali, according to a statement from the governor of Burkina Faso’s Sahel region.

      • National Guard Ends US Capitol Protection 

        "These airmen and soldiers protected not only the grounds but the lawmakers working on those grounds, ensuring the people's business could continue unabated. They lived out in very tangible ways the oath they took to support and defend the Constitution," Austin said Monday.

      • France's Le Drian Confirms Kidnapping of French Journalist in Mali

        Olivier Dubois this month appeared in a video appealing to authorities to do everything they can to free him from the JNIM (al Qaeda North Africa) holding him.

      • Silos and saturation salvoes: Gaza rockets bedevil Israel

        Named after slain Islamist commanders and fashioned mostly from makeshift materials in clandestine Gaza workshops, the rockets of Hamas and Islamic Jihad have long bedevilled a technologically superior Israeli military. The current cross-border fighting has seen a new tactic by the Gazan militant groups: mass-launches aimed at exploiting the statistical failure rate of Israel’s air defences and increasing the chance of causing casualties in its cities.

      • Spain: Over 8.000 Migrants Arrived in Ceuta in Only Two Days

        Spain accuses the Moroccan government of reducing border control on purpose, as a retaliation for the COVID-19 treatment given in Spain to the Western Sahara independentist Brahim Ghail. Morocco's authorities deny having done so, but the fact is that a wave of migrants flooded the beach Ceuta, forcing local NGOs to offer assistance to the migrants, who swim several kilometers to reach Spain's land.

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Indian media have gone easy on Modi. That's changing because of the pandemic

        While the human toll of the disease has been immense, journalists like Gaur are not just covering the tragedy of the situation. They're also fighting for transparency and accountability from a government that has tried to clamp down on criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his handling of the pandemic.

        As the crisis unfolded, Modi was initially slammed by the international press for not doing enough to prevent the catastrophe, and for downplaying the number of fatalities. The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, who is a close ally of Modi, has been accused of intimidating citizens and journalists reporting on oxygen shortages in the state. New Delhi has even asked Twitter to remove tweets about Covid-19, including some that were critical of Modi.

    • Environment

      • Arctic nations pledge to cooperate on climate despite rising tensions

        Accelerated global warming, untapped resources, new maritime routes opened up by retreating sea ice, and the future of local populations all topped the agenda as foreign ministers of countries bordering the Arctic gathered in Reykjavik in Iceland.

      • [Old] Peat Fires Smolder in Siberia Despite Bone-Chilling Temperatures

        Footage showing smoke rising from the snow in January and November offers physical evidence of the “zombie fire” phenomenon, which describes summertime blazes that continue smoldering through the winter, eventually igniting new fires. European scientists have voiced concerns that “zombie” fires could be causing earlier-than-normal wildfires.

      • [Old] Peat fires continue to burn at air temperature of -50C in northeastern Yakutia

        The latest sighting of winter - zombie - fires was recorded on 23 January by the village of Saydy in the Tomponsky district of Yakutia, some 400km north-east of the republic’s capital Yakutsk.

        Local man Ivan Zakharov who filmed the fire at -50C told The Siberian Times: ‘It is burning near the area hit by last summer's wildfires.

        'This area suffered extremely hot and dry weather. It must be either peat on fire here, or, as some hunters who noticed these fires suggest, possibly young coal (lignite).’

      • Energy

        • Airline pilots switch from runways to railways

          Pilots are generally perceived to be well trained, resilient and reliable — the same professional qualities required of train drivers. Deutsche Bahn told German news agency dpa recently that it had received job applications from 1,500 former pilots and flight attendants, out of which it had so far hired about 280, including 55 pilots and 107 former cabin crew.

        • Tesla Found Guilty Of Throttling Battery Life, Charging Speed In Norway

          Tesla could be forced to pay out as much as $160 million to Norwegian Tesla owners after a Norway court ruled a 2019 software update throttled the electric cars’ battery life and slowed the charging speed.

        • Tesla Fined $16K Per Owner for Throttling Battery Capacity, Charging Speed in Norway

          Tesla could be forced to pay out millions in compensation due to a software update it released back in 2019 to help protect the battery in its electric vehicles.

          As Electrek reports, the software update was released to "protect the battery and improve battery longevity," but it came with two big side effects. The first was a reduction in range, and the second was reduced charging rates at Supercharger stations for Model S and Model X vehicles with 85kWh batteries. The affected models were sold by Tesla until 2016.

        • Tesla is found guilty of throttling charging speed, asked to pay $16,000 to thousands of owners

          Back in 2019, Electrek reported on several reports from Tesla owners about seeing significant drops in range from 12 to 30 miles following a software update.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Many Americans don’t trust elections. What can be done?

        Other experts are calling for a cross-discipline, cross-partisan effort to stop political disinformation. Legislation may have a role to play: for example, revising an 1845 federal law that could be exploited to use allegations of voting irregularities as a pretext for state legislators to override the vote.

        In the end, it may be more than laws that hold together confidence in elections and democracy itself.

      • Florida governor signs law to block ‘deplatforming’ of Florida politicians

        The bill, SB 7072, was proposed in February, weeks after former President Donald Trump was banned from Facebook and Twitter after the deadly right-wing riot at the US Capitol. The law bars social media platforms from banning Floridian political candidates and authorizes the Florida Election Commission to impose fines if these candidates were to be deplatformed. The fines range from $250,000 per day for statewide office candidates and $25,000 per day for non-statewide offices.

      • Ron DeSantis' Big Tech "censorship" law is meant to create a safe space for conservatives online

        In February, a New York University study found that claims of anti-conservative bias in themselves amount to a form of disinformation. "No trustworthy large-scale studies have determined that conservative content is being removed for ideological reasons or that searches are being manipulated to favor liberal interests," the report stated.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Journalist Abby Martin Had Free Speech Rights Violated By Georgia’s Anti-BDS Law, Court Rules

        A federal court ruled in favor of journalist Abby Martin, who was barred from speaking at Georgia Southern University after she refused to pledge she would not boycott Israel.Judge Mark Cohen in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia recognized [PDF] a Georgia state law requiring certification is not “narrowly tailored,” “burdens Martin’s speech,” and she has a valid claim that her rights were violated.However, it also found three of the university officials Martin sued were immune from prosecution because in their “individual capacity” they supposedly could not have known the law was unconstitutional or “beyond debate.”€ “I am thrilled at the judge’s decision to strike down this law that so clearly violates the free speech rights of myself and so many others in Georgia,” Martin, the host of “Empire Files,” declared. “My First Amendment rights were restricted on behalf of a foreign government, which flies in the face of the principles of freedom and democracy.”“The government of Israel has pushed state legislatures to enact these laws only because they know that sympathy and support for the population they brutalize, occupy, ethnically cleanse, and subject to apartheid is finally growing in popular consciousness.”Martin added, “They want to hold back the tide of justice by preemptively restricting the right of American citizens to peacefully take a stand against their crimes.”Yet in states like Arkansas, Arizona, Kansas, Texas, and now Georgia, federal courts have deemed these laws inappropriately prohibit certain speech.On July 9, 2019, Georgia Southern University invited Martin to speak at the 2020 International Critical Media Literacy Conference.A week after Martin accepted the invitation to participate as a keynote speaker, university officials sent her an agreement. They would offer a $1,000 honorarium and cover travel and lodging expenses. However, Martin had to sign a pledge.“You certify that you are not currently engaged in, and agree for the duration of this agreement, not to engage in a boycott of Israel,” the pledge stated.Martin told university officials, “I’m sure you know, a lot of my work advocates the boycott of Israel, and my new film features that call to action. I cannot sign any form promising not to boycott Israel.”She was blocked from speaking at the university, and the conference was subsequently canceled.In 2020, Martin sued Steve Wrigley, chancellor of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and Kyle Marrero, the president of Georgia Southern University, in their official capacities. She also sued three conference services staff members at the university: Michel Blitch, Bonnie Overstreet, and Sandra Lensch, who were involved in planning the conference.According to the court decision, the Georgia law implicates Martin’s rights to freedom of speech and is discriminatory.“Even assuming that Georgia’s interest in furthering foreign policy goals regarding relations with Israel is a substantial state interest, defendants fail to explain how Martin’s advocacy of a boycott of Israel has any bearing on Georgia’s ability to advance foreign policy goals with Israel,” the court contended.Furthermore, as the court outlined “The certification requirement forces parties contracting with the state of Georgia to publicly assign a motive and speech element to what defendants deem merely economic conduct. The certification that one is not engaged in a boycott of Israel is no different than requiring a person to espouse certain political beliefs or to engage in certain political associations.”State laws like the one in Georgia demand contractors like Martin pledge their loyalty to the Israeli government if they would like payment of $1,000 or more from state institutions. Just like a federal court previously ruled in Arizona, restricting a person or company’s ability to participate in collective calls to oppose Israel “unquestionably burdens” protected expression under the First Amendment.The lawsuit was brought by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter in Georgia and the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF). They called it a “major victory.”“Israel’s latest violent onslaught against Palestinians underscores the importance of advocacy for Palestinian human rights,” proclaimed CAIR Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas. “By standing up against this illegal anti-BDS law, Abby Martin ensures that all Americans have the freedom to stand up for Palestine.”“As the world watches Israeli aggression continue in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and against the population it besieges in Gaza, it has never been more urgent to advance the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Israeli regime,” Martin concluded. “The striking of this law is a necessary and timely opening to build this urgent task.”

      • Russia gives Google 24 hours to delete unwanted material

        A Russian regulator has given Google one day to delete banned content or face punitive measures. In a clampdown on tech giants, Moscow has said it wants to beef up its so-called [Internet] sovereignty.

      • [Old] COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS: Tackling Illegal Content Online: Towards an enhanced responsibility of online platforms

        3. Detecting and notifying illegal content

        The objective of this section is to set out what online platforms, competent authorities and users should do in order to detect illegal content quickly and efficiently.

        Online platforms may become aware of the existence of illegal content in a number of different ways, through different channels. Such channels for notifications include (i) court orders or administrative decisions; (ii) notices from competent authorities (e.g. law enforcement bodies), specialised "trusted flaggers", intellectual property rights holders or ordinary users, or (iii) through the platforms' own investigations or knowledge.

        In addition to legal obligations derived from EU and national law and their ‘duty of care’, as part of their responsibilities, online platforms should ensure a safe online environment for users, hostile to criminal and other illegal exploitation, and which deters as well as prevents criminal and other infringing activities online.

      • Prince Harry's First Amendment Aversion Is Funny; the Governments That Agree Are Scary

        The appropriate reaction to criticism of constitutionally protected rights by a member of the British royal family is certainly an eyeroll. After all, we fought a revolution to make sure British aristocrats would no longer have a say over the freedoms Americans exercise, so the reminder that we dodged a bullet on that front is no surprise. What is more concerning, though, is that opposition to free-wheeling speech is more widely shared among people who are in a position to impose a disgruntled prince's vision of good policy on the world at large.

        Prince Harry's comments came on the May 13 episode of actor Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast. As the Hollywood- and Hollywood-adjacent celebrities commiserated about the awfulness of the paparazzi and their behavior, the wayward prince mused about the legal framework that allows intrusions into the private lives of famous people.

    • Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

      • EU States Combined to Force Down Snowden Flight

        The USA, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Austria combined to force down President Eva Morales’ jet in Vienna in 2013 after the CIA falsely reported whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board. The monumental cynicism of these nations in sanctioning Belarus for a directly comparable action is sickening, even by the standards of western hypocrisy. Indeed, to force down a Presidential jet covered by diplomatic immunity is a greater offence to international law than Belarus forcing down the Ryanair flight.

      • State-sponsored air piracy: Belarus dictator challenges international security norms

        European leaders agreed to a series of sanctions measures against Belarus on May 24, the day after the East European nation sparked uproar by forcing an EU passenger jet to land in Minsk and abducting a high-profile dissident passenger. The rapid EU decision to press forward with a new round of sanctions underscored widespread alarm over Belarus dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s actions and the challenge they pose to the rules-based international order.

        Belarus stands accused of using a terrorist bomb hoax on May 23 to divert a Ryanair flight from Athens to Lithuanian capital Vilnius while it was passing through Belarusian airspace. The flight was ordered to reroute to Minsk and escorted to the Belarusian capital by a fighter jet.

      • Belarus Is Becoming Europe’s North Korea

        On Sunday, a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, was forced out of the sky as it traversed Belarusian airspace. The government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has clung to power despite widespread protests following a rigged election last August, ordered the plane to make an emergency landing in Minsk under the pretext of a faked bomb threat, carried out by Belarusian security operatives. In an audacious move that sparked a European security crisis, Belarus authorities scrambled a fully armed MiG-29 fighter jet to intercept the civilian flight.

        This unprecedented act, denounced by European officials as air piracy, was all aimed at capturing a single man: Roman Protasevich, one of the Belarussian dissidents who has been a constant thorn in Lukashenko’s side. Protasevich was pulled off the plane, along with several other Belarusian and Russian nationals. Vilnius has become a hub of opposition to Lukashenko’s rule, with Lithuania rejecting Lukashenko’s legitimacy and providing support and protection to exiles.

      • Belarus ‘Hijacking’ Opens New Playbook for Autocrats

        As the flight made its way north through Belarusian airspace, authorities in the country appear to have called in a bogus bomb threat and scrambled a fighter jet to divert the Ryanair flight to the capital of Belarus, Minsk. It was a brazen attack of air piracy to arrest Protasevich, who was added to the country’s terrorist watchlist last year because of his opposition activities, and who could now face the death penalty if he is convicted of crimes of terrorism.

      • Kaljulaid: EU citizens can no longer consider Belarus a safe space

        The presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are calling for Minsk to release those "abducted" from a Ryanair passenger flight which was diverted on Sunday, the closure of the Belarusian airspace and effective EU sanctions.

        Following yesterday's hijacking incident, President Kersti Kaljulaid held a video meeting with the Latvian and Lithuanian heads of state Egils Levits and Gitanas Nauseda on Monday morning to discuss joint steps to be taken in order to place pressure on Belarus within the framework of both the European Union and the United Nations.

        All three presidents are calling for those abducted to be released, for the closure of Belarusian airspace and for effective sanctions to be implemented at the European Union level.

      • Belarus journalist's family fear torture after plane arrest

        The father of a journalist who was arrested after his flight was diverted to Belarus has told the BBC he fears his son may be tortured.

      • Belarus faces international fury after using fighter jet to land airliner, seize journalist

        According to passengers on the jet who spoke to Reuters, Protasevich held his head in his hands and looked sad and scared on landing. He also appeared to pass his laptop and mobile phone to a female companion, while authorities were later seen taking Protasevich into custody on arrival in Minsk.

        It's unclear what charges or jail terms Protasevich could face, but Belarus remains among a handful of countries in Europe to administer the death penalty.

        "While it sounds like an extraordinary Hollywood plot, it's not. The reality of this apparent act of air piracy is chilling," Marie Struthers, human rights group Amnesty International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia director said in a statement.

      • Belarusian journalists report being tortured in prison

        “By torturing and mistreating imprisoned journalists, President Alexander Lukashenko’s government is trying to scare and deter independent media from continuing to cover social and political developments in Belarus,” said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. “We call for the immediate release of reporters detained in Belarus and for the urgent inclusion of these abuses in the international investigation begun by the United Nations in March, specifically, for the inclusion of acts of torture, violence, arrests, prosecutions and convictions of Belarusian journalists who are clearly being targeted by the state apparatus.”

        Ten Belarusian government opponents filed a lawsuit in Germany at the start of May about more than 100 cases of “state torture” in Belarus, including torture of journalists.

      • Belarus diverts prominent critic's flight, arrest him upon landing

        A prominent opponent of Belarus's authoritarian president was arrested Sunday after the airliner in which he was travelling was diverted to the country after a bomb threat, in what the opposition and Western officials denounced as a hijacking operation by the government.

        Raman Pratasevich, who faces charges that could bring 15 years in prison, was aboard the Ryanair flight from Athens to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius when it changed course to head for Minsk.

      • Belarus opposition figure detained as airline jet is forced to land

        The dramatic incident saw a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet escort a Ryanair-operated passenger plane flying from Athens to Lithuania. The plane was instead suddenly diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where authorities detained journalist Roman Protasevich who had been on board.

        Data from the flightradar24.com website showed the plane was diverted just two minutes before it was due to cross into Lithuanian airspace from Belarus.

      • Who Is Roman Protasevich, the Captive Journalist in Belarus?

        Mr. Protasevich, 26, was traveling by commercial airline from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, when the Belarusian air force scrambled a fighter jet. The flight, on the Irish airline Ryanair, was diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where the millennial opposition figure was taken into custody.

        The widely condemned tactic was the latest attempt by Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the country’s authoritarian leader, to suppress the influential voice of Mr. Protasevich.

      • Did Belarus 'hijack' a civilian airliner to detain an activist?

        Ryanair flight 4978 was about to begin its descent to Vilnius in Lithuania on Sunday when it suddenly changed direction after a "security alert," turning sharply east and descending towards the capital of Belarus, Minsk.

        Whether that security alert was a fabrication by the Belarus authorities is now at the heart of an incident which has sparked widespread international condemnation and raised serious questions about safety in the skies. Some governments have described the incident as a state-sanctioned hijacking.

        One of the passengers on board the Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was Belarus opposition activist Raman Pratasevich, who is wanted on a variety of charges. For him the diversion was much more than an inconvenience. As soon as the plane landed, he was arrested, according to the Belarus Interior Ministry.

      • RSF condemns NYT reporter’s unprecedented expulsion from Ethiopia

        Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled by Ethiopia’s expulsion of Simon Marks, an Addis Ababa-based reporter for the New York Times and Bloomberg News, just weeks after it suspended his accreditation. The Ethiopian authorities must stop constantly intimidating journalists, RSF said.

      • Belarus arrests journalist Raman Pratasevich after diverting flight to Minsk

        “We are shocked by today’s action, even as President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s government has increasingly strangled the press in Belarus for the past year, detaining, fining, and expelling journalists and sentencing them to longer and longer prison terms,” said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Gulnoza Said. “We call on Belarusian authorities to immediately release Raman Pratasevich and for European leaders to respond forcefully to this violation of international norms.”

      • Ethiopia Expels New York Times Reporter

        Ethiopia on Thursday expelled an Irish journalist working for The New York Times, dealing a new blow to press freedom in a country as the government fights a grinding war in the northern region of Tigray.

        The expulsion of the reporter, Simon Marks, comes one month before much-delayed Parliamentary elections in Ethiopia that are expected to cement the authority of the country’s embattled prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.

        Mr. Marks had reported extensively on the war in Tigray, where there are widespread accounts that the Ethiopian military and its Eritrean and militia allies are committing atrocities, including massacres and sexual assault.

      • [Old] As Ethiopia Fights in Tigray Region, a Crackdown on Journalists

        And a foreign reporter working for The New York Times had his press credentials revoked, days after he interviewed victims of sexual assault and terrified residents in the conflict-torn Tigray region of northern Ethiopia.

        Six months into the war in Tigray, where thousands have died amid reports of widespread human rights abuses, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia has sought to quell critical coverage of the conflict with a campaign of arrests, intimidation and obstruction targeting the independent news media, according to human rights campaigners and media freedom organizations.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Media ‘Border Crisis’ Threatens Immigration Reform

      • 'He died like an animal': Some police still 'hogtie' people despite risks

        Officers pushed him face down on the street and tied a belt around his ankles and attached it to his cuffed hands so tightly his knees were lifted off the pavement. On the video, his last coherent words were "Help me."

      • Louisiana Troopers Claimed Ronald Greene Died in a Car Crash. Body Cam Footage Shows a Deadly Beating.

        When Ronald Greene, 49, was killed after an encounter with Louisiana state troopers in 2019, the authorities originally told his family he died when his car crashed into a tree during a high-speed chase.

        That description turned out to be a lie. In reality, Greene was brutalized by the troopers who pulled him over, tased, beaten up, and even dragged. The initial crash report made no reference to a fight with police, but a medical report from an emergency room doctor documented that Greene's injuries included stun-gun prongs in his back. The injuries did not add up. Though official documentation indicates that Greene died of cardiac arrest, it's actually not fully clear how he died, due to the subsequent secrecy from Louisiana State Police about what happened.

        Just over two years later, the Associated Press has obtained 46 minutes of body camera footage recorded by one of the state troopers on the scene and has released clips and described the footage.

      • Why Do Police Keep Shooting Into Moving Cars?

        That’s what happened with Brown. Many departments prohibit or discourage firing into moving vehicles, including the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office.

        Yet police keep firing at cars. On April 11, as jurors nearby in Minneapolis heard the trial of Derek Chauvin, police in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, pulled over 20-year-old Daunte Wright. They discovered that Wright had an outstanding warrant, and attempted to arrest him. As Wright wriggled free of handcuffs, dove into his car, and began to drive away, Officer Kim Potter pointed her pistol at Wright, then fired a shot. After Potter shot Wright, his car went a short distance before striking another car, as well as a barrier. He died at the scene. While the Brooklyn Center police chief says he believes that Potter intended to fire her Taser rather than her pistol, the city’s use-of-force policy says that less lethal weapons should usually not be used on people operating vehicles, for fear of collateral injuries.

      • White Troopers Policing Black Bodies

        Furthermore, the police report, which would have been the only official accounting of Greene’s death if this video hadn’t come to light, is a damning false accounting of events, one that is in line with other false accountings that have been refuted by video in high-profile police killings.

      • Two Russian journalists persecuted for investigating police corruption

        A court ruled yesterday that Dorogov and Katelevskiy, who are both deputy chief editors at the independent investigative news website Rosderzhava, should remain in detention until the end of July while the police continue to investigate the case.

        Arrested near Moscow by around 20 members of the Russian special forces on the night of 28 July, they are accused of extorting more than 1 million roubles (11 140 euros) from a traffic policeman in exchange for an end to critical stories about him.

        The two journalists, whose investigative reporting has included stories about senior police officers seeking bribes from funeral services companies, are facing the possibility of 15 years in prison on this charge, which they think was fabricated with the aim of neutralising them.

      • Why police reform advocates want Congress to end qualified immunity - Marketplace

        "There's a padlock on the front door of the federal courthouse for victims of police brutality," said Marc Morial of the National Urban League.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Congress could spend big on broadband. Tribal nations say it can't come soon enough.

        The internet connection was so poor where Tracey Yazzie’s children are enrolled in school on the Navajo Nation in Arizona last year that educators switched to a low-tech solution: paper, pencil and a yellow school bus.

        Each week, a bus from the Round Rock school would drop off packets of schoolwork for Yazzie's two children, who had very little interaction with teachers and other students, because of spotty internet service when the pandemic closed schools, she said.

        “It’s been very challenging,” said Yazzie, a 33-year-old nurse. “But we at least have dial-up at home. Many of the families at the school don’t have any connection at all.”

      • Vice President Kamala Harris Compares Administration’s Broadband Effort to Rural Electrification

        Highlighting the importance of broadband to the president, Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday compared the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to what the Biden administration aims to do with expanding internet infrastructure.

        Harris said that the New Deal-era measure, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt almost exactly 85 years ago on May 20, 1936, provided federal support for the installation of electrical distribution systems for isolated rural areas of the United States.

      • Craig Settles: Libraries and Telehealth on the Vanguard for Broadband

        There are over 12 million homes in urban America that cannot get neither broadband nor telehealth. 75 percent of those are homes of African-Americans or other people of color. Countless millions of others homes technically have broadband, but in reality it is a pathetic attempt at coverage that lacks the strength to carry telehealth into enough homes.

      • Mike Gabriel: Bye bye, Freenode!

        This is a very short notice that I am not available via Freenode anymore. You can now reach me and the projects I am involved in (#x2go, #arctica, #ayatana-indicators) via the libera.chat IRC network.

      • FSFE is migrating its IRC presence to Libera Chat

        In response to the recent mass resignation of volunteer staff from Freenode, an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network for Free Software communities, the FSFE is migrating its IRC presence to Libera Chat, a new IRC network with a similar focus founded by former Freenode staff.

        The FSFE has been present on Freenode for more than fifteen years, and throughout our tenure we have experienced only dedication, care, and professionalism from the network's volunteer staff. When they feel forced to resign and launch a new network, we follow to continue experiencing the same level of care and dedication.

    • Monopolies

      • One Man’s Fight for the Right to Repair Broken MacBooks

        The right to repair is the concept that when something breaks — a phone, a car, a computer — an owner should be able to get it fixed without needing to go to the manufacturer or the seller. Right to repair advocates say companies like Apple have a financial incentive to make monopolies out of repair, directing customers back to them when devices have problems. That way, they argue, companies can overcharge for repairs or cast off a device as irreparable to persuade a customer to buy a new one.

        For third-party iPhone and MacBook repair shops not officially authorized by Apple, getting parts can be difficult. Apple contractually forces recycling partners to shred old devices, according to a 2017 Motherboard investigation, preventing the parts from being reused.

      • Amazon in Negotiations to Buy MGM in Megadeal (Report)

        MGM Holdings, whose storied studio boasts one of the largest Hollywood film and TV libraries — including the iconic James Bond franchise — is in negotiations to be acquired by Amazon, according to a May 24 Wall Street Journal report citing unnamed sources. The newspaper says a deal figure could be “almost $9 billion,” and talks are advanced enough that a deal could be unveiled “as early as this week.”

      • Amazon Deal to Acquire MGM to Come as Soon as Tuesday

        Amazon.com Inc. is poised to announce an acquisition of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio as soon as Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter, marking the e-commerce giant’s biggest push yet into Hollywood.

        Amazon is in talks to pay almost $9 billion for the business, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The discussions -- first reported last week -- could still fall apart, and it’s possible that the price or timing changes.

      • Patents

        • Strategizing Your Patent Filing In Europe

          If the applicant files in Germany, it needs to be filed in the German Patent and Trademark Office (Deutsches Patent-und Markenam). Filing in this office has the advantage of getting low filing fees. The fees will be 40€* for an application submitted online with up to 10 patent claims, a 300€ search fee, or a 350€ search and examination fee. When the applicant applies to Germany, the office will prepare the search report within 8 months from the date of filing. This helps the applicant to have sufficient time to self-assess the application before the end of the priority year. The applicant can evaluate the state of the art and can make changes accordingly. Having high-quality searches at the German patent office, this office also takes applications in different languages where the translation can be done at a later stage. In Germany, filing in the English language is favorable since those applications are searched at priority. For all those applications filed in English, the term for filing the translation increases to 12 months after the filing date. A major advantage with Germany is with the possibility of suspending the examination procedure indefinitely, in case, the applicant has undecided European application and has not decided that whether it needs to file in Germany.

          In the UK, the British Patent Office is suitable for English applications where the initial assessment is provided within 6 months from the filing date. The filing fees are 20€£ immediately or 30€£ for later payment, search fee for online application 130€£, Examination fee for online application 80€£. The UK office provides a compliance period of four years and six months from the date of filing or priority in which the decision over the patent whether it needs to be granted or refused is conveyed to the applicant. The examination process which can be delayed in Germany cannot be delayed in the UK.

          Also, the applicant can file in the European Patent Office where the patent can be obtained with a single filing and examination process before a single patent office. The filing at the European Patent Office has to comply with that of patent protection required in the European Patent Convention. The online filing fee is 120€* for applications with up to 15 patent applications and up to 35 pages, designation fee 585€*, search fee 1300€*, examination fee 1635€.

          The highly experienced team at the GPF has the expertise in filing and has filed and advised clients in multiple countries in Europe and even at the European Patent Office. The team has successfully led various applications in Europe to the final grant of the same.

        • Patent Office Updates You Need to Know

          On May 20, 2021, the European Patent Office (EPO) announced that it is extending its videoconference pilot program for oral proceedings before the oppositions divisions. All oral proceedings will be held remotely through January 31, 2022. More info here.

        • The European Patent Office Grants Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Patent for Company's Personalized Medicine Drug Discovery Technology USA - English [Ed: Corrupt EPO treating cannabis as an invention and grants patent monopolies around it. Logic exists not when the sole goal is granting lots of patent monopolies.]

          Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCQB: CNBX), a global leader in the development of cancer related cannabinoid-based medicine, announced today that the company's patent titled: "System and Method for High Throughput Screening of Cancer Cells" has been granted by the European Patent Office.

        • Law School Canons: Ford – The New Personal Jurisdiction Quick Reference Guide [Ed: When patent trolls and other abusers of the patent system want to drag people to courts that openly advertise facilitating this abuse of the system...]

          This past Spring semester, I had Civil Procedure II on my schedule. As taught this year, Civil Procedure II took us through personal jurisdiction, subject matter jurisdiction, and finished off with the Erie doctrine. Personal jurisdiction was the bulk of our semester, taking us through midterms. I had my midterm on March 19, 2021 – six days before the Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial Dist. Ct. decision. Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial Dist. Ct., 141 S.Ct. 1017 (2021). Prof. Crouch[1] diligently placed Ford on our class’s radar as the midterm approached, and I was crossing my fingers every day to hope that my new Civil Procedure book wasn’t going to become outdated less than six months after I bought it.

          Luckily, that wasn’t the case! Instead of a radical ripple effect on personal jurisdiction, it made a splash in another way: expanding on our understanding of due process and specific jurisdiction. As of May 24, 2021, 63 cases have cited Ford. Upon reading Ford, it’s easy to see why. Ford is a fantastic resource for personal jurisdiction, elaborating on general and specific personal jurisdiction, expanding understanding of minimum contacts, and giving a north star to perform the analyses. Id. at 1024-25.

          [...]

          Upon finding that the tortious activity alleged by Galaxy was plausible, the court continues the personal jurisdiction inquiry into a third prong of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. Id. Here is where the comfortable terms “purposeful[] avail[ment],” “arise out of or relate to,” and “traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice” come into play. Id. The court finds that personal jurisdiction is authorized and fair. Id. at *7. Soon, I will be taking a look more in-depth at these factors in future posts.

          Personally, Civil Procedure was one of the most interesting classes I had in my 1L. The Ford decision handed down a half-semester’s worth of studying in one neatly wrapped decision. While the Galaxy decision didn’t necessarily take advantage of the more heavy-hitting parts of Ford (e.g., expanding on the “arise out of or relate to” from Bristol-Myers Squibb, see footnote 1.), the decision used the succinctly worded descriptions of specific and personal jurisdiction as their targets for analysis.

        • Opinion: We must end VICO debate once EPO case is settled [Ed: The liars from EPO mouthpiece Managing IP (and person who did a puff pieces interview with EPO President months ago) tell us we must accept a stacked, rigged kangaroo court set up to legalise the illegal]

          This week, many of us – as we have throughout the pandemic – will tune in to watch something online that we may have otherwise attended in person.

          On Friday, May 28, the EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA) will finally consider whether oral proceedings at the Boards of Appeal (BoA) can be conducted by video conference (VICO) without the consent of all parties.

        • A guide to intellectual property rights in the UK [Ed: Those are not properly and they are definitely not "rights", either. At one point in the process of becoming a "lawyer" do they program people to lie to other people?]

          If you are launching a business in the UK, you may well want to consider some or all of these (at least to replicate the protection you have in other territories). Please note that, with effect from the end of the Brexit ‘transition period’ on 31 December 2020, EU-wide rights no longer give protection in the UK and the UK will not be deemed to form part of any relevant EU-wide regime. As noted below, this has particular implications for the UK’s trade mark and registered/unregistered designs regimes.

        • New Vision Gaming & Development, Inc. v. SG Gaming, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2021) [Ed: Kevin E. Noonan and chums still trying hard to stir up phony controversy to undermine the agency or court that thwarts loads of fake patents -- ones that USPTO examiners ought never have granted, notably software patents]

          In one of the more daring (and somewhat risky) strategies by an appellant challenging an adverse decision in a covered-business method (CBM) review proceeding, New Vision Gaming asserted a purported conflict of interest by Administrative Patent Judges (APJs) in making institution decisions. According to the Appellant's argument, the pay, bonus, and supervisory structure of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board raised at least the appearance that APJs could be improperly motivated in their own self-interest to institute CBMs and other post-grant review proceedings (see "Appellant Raises Due Process Issues in New Vision Gaming and Development v. SG Gaming").

        • EPO Extends Mandatory Video Conference For Opposition Division Oral Proceedings Until 31 January 2022

          The EPO has announced that it is extending the use of video conference for opposition division oral proceedings until 31 January 2022. The current measures, whereby all opposition division oral proceedings take place by video conference, were due to expire on 15 September 2021. We understand that this announcement means that no opposition division oral proceedings will take place in-person until after 31 January 2022.

          These measures do not apply to the Boards of Appeal. While the Boards of Appeal have also been conducting video conference oral proceedings, they have retained the possibility of in-person oral proceedings in Munich.

      • Copyrights

        • Court Orders WhatsApp to Suspend Users Sharing Pirated Movie

          The High Court in Delhi has handed down an interesting order aimed at preventing piracy of the new action movie 'Radhe'. Following an application from Zee Entertainment and parallel criminal referrals, a judge has ordered WhatsApp to suspend allegedly infringing user accounts and take similar action against all other accounts subsequently reported for piracy.

        • German 'Upload Filter' Law Sets Standards to Prevent Overblocking

          The German Parliament has adopted new legislation that will implement the EU Copyright Directive into local law. This includes the controversial Article 17 that, according to some, would lead to overbroad upload filters. To deal with these concerns, the German law prevents 'minor' and limited use of copyrighted content from being blocked automatically.

        • We’re Turning 20! What’s Happened Since 2001?

          When Creative Commons was founded in 2001, the internet was a budding universe with high potential, and platforms widely used today like Wikipedia and Google were only just getting started. CC’s founders were keen to hit the ground running, building on their work to ensure that, as the internet continued to grow, safeguards to knowledge, culture, and creativity were firmly in place.

          While those familiar with Creative Commons may know about our CC licenses that form the backbone of open and accessible sharing, they may be less tuned into our larger portfolio of work, spanning Open Education, Open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums), advocacy and global network building.

          In celebration of 20 years of CC, we are excited to shed light on these endeavors, sharing our major accomplishments, and highlighting, too, some noteworthy appearances of CC in popular culture.

        • Announcing Our 20th Anniversary “Better Sharing” Campaign

          Now we’re looking forward to putting the tools to accessing, using, and resharing content in the hands of everyone, everywhere. We know that greater access to information means a stronger global community, more innovation, and increased capacity to solve the challenges the world faces today and in the years to come.

          To make this happen, CC has set an ambitious goal to raise $15 million.

          These funds will ensure we can continue to build accessible, equitable Open Infrastructure that truly responds to community needs and start new projects in Open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) and Open Science.



Recent Techrights' Posts

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Happy solstice
Microsoft OSI Reads Techrights Closely
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Over at Tux Machines...
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