Desktop/Laptop

• Android and Linux apps can be moved between Virtual Desks in Chrome OS 92

  Ever since Chrome OS launched its Virtual Desks feature, you’ve only been able to shift chrome tabs and web apps around between them. For anyone utilizing Crostini for Linux applications or the Google Play Store for Android apps, the very experience of using desks has likely felt incomplete.

  Neither of these could previously be moved between spaces, and have remained on the primary desk as a result. This has caused clutter and frustration, even if just a little. Google’s development team is now addressing this – as of Chrome OS 92, which is rolling out now, users will finally be able to move Linux and Android apps between virtual desks at will!

Server

• Most Reliable Hosting Company Sites in July 2021 [Ed: This is the first time I see GNU/Linux in all the top spots (there's usually at least one BSD in there)]

  In July 2021, dinahosting had the most reliable hosting company site: it responded to all of Netcraft’s requests, with an average connection time of 75ms. dinahosting has appeared in the top 10 table five times in 2021 so far and offers its services from Interxion and Global Switch in Madrid. Customers can choose from a range of cloud and managed solutions as well as register domain names.

  Bigstep, Webair and ServerStack appear in second, third and fourth places respectively. These sites responded to the same number of requests and were separated by average connection time. Bigstep’s bare metal cloud hosting provides the flexibility of cloud hosting without the associated overhead and performance reductions of virtualization. The bare metal offerings are available in data centres in the UK and Romania. Webair offers managed and private cloud services, storage and backup solutions from its eight facilities in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal, London, Paris, Amsterdam and Singapore. ServerStack provides managed and dedicated solutions from its three data centres in North America and Amsterdam.

Audiocasts/Shows

• The Linux Desktop That Windows 11 Wishes It Could Be

  The recent announcement of Windows 11 has a lot of Windows users excited. The previews that Microsoft has released reveal a modern and sleek operating system. But many Linux users can’t help but notice that Windows 11 seems to be heavily inspired by the KDE Plasma desktop.

• Linux overview | KDE NEON 20210729

  In this video, I am going to show an overview of KDE NEON 20210729 and some of the applications pre-installed.

Kernel Space

• Mainline Linux support for the ARM Primecell PL35X NAND controller
  

  It has been more than 7 years since the first draft of a Linux kernel driver for the ARM Primecell PL35X NAND controller was posted on a public mailing list. Maybe because of the lack of time, each new version was delayed so much that it actually needed another iteration just to catch up with the latest internal API changes in the MTD subsystem (quite a number of them happened in the last 2-3 years). The NAND controller itself is part of an ARM Primecell Static Memory bus Controller (SMC) which increased the overall complexity. Finally, the way the commands and data are shared with the memory controller is very specific to the SMC. All these technical points probably played against Xilinx engineers, and Bootlin was contracted in 2021 to finalize the work of getting the ARM Primecell PL35X NAND controller driver in the upstream Linux kernel.

• Graphics Stack

  • Valve and AMD buddy up to improve Steam Deck CPU performance on Linux

    Valve’s Steam Deck handheld could be the start of something beautiful for Linux gamers; proof that the operating system is more than capable of running your favourite games on the go. Yet even before its launch the PC gaming handheld might be paying dividends for Linux gaming, as Valve and AMD join forces to improve CPU performance on the open-source OS.

    Valve’s upcoming handheld gaming PC, the Steam Deck, is built around an AMD APU, which includes both a Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU. It’s a Linux-based system, powered by SteamOS 3.0, an operating system switching to use the Arch Linux distribution. That means it will only be able to run Windows games via a compatibility layer, so for that Valve has Steam Play, also known as Proton.

  • AMD Hiring For Open-Source GPU Driver Work With Mentions Of Tesla Model S, Steam Deck

    With AMD’s increasing marketshare on the CPU and GPU front, scoring more data center wins, and also scoring custom design wins for Linux-based environments such as with the Tesla Model S and most recently with the Steam Deck, AMD continues hiring more Linux engineers.

    Several times this year I’ve noted about AMD ramping up their Linux engineering talent and even forming a “new [client] organization” within the company. Especially on the CPU side they’ve been hiring more Linux kernel engineers this year to focus on areas that hadn’t been as much of a focus for them during their down times and not a priority until more recently when scoring big data center deals and other enterprise wins that now allow them to invest more into power management, the kernel scheduler, virtualization, etc.

  • Valve and AMD Join Forces, Developing an Improved Linux CPU Driver

    Valve and AMD are working together to develop a better CPU performance scaling driver for Linux, targeting the Steam Deck gaming console.

    It is reported that AMD is working with Valve, which develops the game sales platform Steam, to improve the CPU driver with the aim of improving performance on Linux. It is expected that this initiative will improve the performance of Valve’s handheld game console Steam Deck announced last month.

    This type of close collaboration with Valve will be required if the Steam Deck is to compete with other devices. The main reason for this development effort is that the current ACPI CPUFreq driver is “not very performance/power efficient for modern AMD platforms.” In other words, the new driver will allow the processor in the Steam Deck to quickly ramp up to a higher performance state when needed and achieve better performance per watt.

  • Radeon ROCm 4.3 Released With HMM Allocations, Many Other Improvements – Phoronix

    AMD has released ROCm 4.3 as the newest version of their Radeon Open eCosystem stack for providing open-source GPU compute and CUDA portability for their supported graphics processors under Linux. ROCm 4.3 is the biggest update we’ve seen for this important enterprise piece to their enterprise GPU compute stack in a while.

Applications

• DeaDBeeF Audio Player 1.8.8 Now Reads WAV RIFF Tags

  DeaDBeeF audio player 1.8.8 was released as the 8th bugfix release for the 1.8 series.

  The new release introduced some new features, including reading WAV RIFF tags, handling of Disc subtitle frames in ID3v2 and APE tags, and handling samplerates higher than 192KHz to pulseaudio.

  New context menu options “Play Next” and “Play Later” are now available to choose your favorite song to play next, or set one-time play order for songs in play list. It will add marks at the beginning that indicates the sequence.

Instructionals/Technical

• How To Install Ghost on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – idroot

  In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Ghost on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Ghost is a lightweight, open-source Content Management System (CMS) and blogging platform built with Node.js. It has full support for Markdown and provides an easy-to-use web interface for administration purposes.

  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 Ghost CMS 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 Download and Install Discord on Linux

  Introduced in 2015, Discord quickly became gamers’ first choice of communication platform. Although it was originally developed for gamers, the versatile features of the application found their needs in other communities as well.

  Discord runs natively on all major operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. Since there are several ways of installing software on Linux, not to mention the variety of distributions available to users, it can become really complicated for a beginner to install Discord.

• Apache Cassandra: Features and Installation

  Apache Cassandra is one of the most popular NoSQL databases. Though there are other versions of NoSQL that are available. But, why Apache Cassandra is popular? let’s have a look. Here we will see the features and installation of Apache Cassandra.

• How to Secure Containers – A Comprehensive Guide

  Containerization is a word often thrown around when talking about cloud computing and DevOps. Popular services like Docker and Kubernetes have accelerated the use of containers for developing and shipping software. But what is containerization?

  In essence, a containerization is a form of virtualization. The software code is packaged and required dependencies and operating system libraries in an isolated space referred to as a “container.” To put it simply, whatever requirements a piece of code has, are bundled together in the form of a package that can essentially run on any infrastructure without requiring any refactoring.

Games

• Linux takes 1% of Steam market share as interest in Steam Deck rises

  Valve published its monthly Steam Hardware Survey for July, and the biggest surprise came from the Linux gaming crowd. Aside from showing the usual Nvidia and Intel dominance in GPUs and CPUs usage among Steam users, there weren’t many new takeaways from the latest report except Linux gaming rising to 1% in July, a first in years.

  The fact that coincides with the unveiling of the Linux-powered Steam Deck surely can’t be ignored. It seems likely gamers will have started to investigate whether their Steam libraries really will be playable on Valve’s new handheld gaming PC when it launches in December.

  Sweclockers suggests the last time Linux saw a spike remotely this close was a 2% market share jump when Valve announced Proton, a compatibility layer that allows Windows games to run on Linux, back in 2018. As impressive as Proton’s first outing was, it still struggled to deliver as compelling a gaming experience as either native Linux ports, or gaming on a Windows OS. We haven’t found evidence of that 2% spike ourselves, which could mean it tapered off real quick.

  For context, Linux gaming has historically sat below 1%, according to the folks at gamingonlinux who have been tracking market share of the open source OS for a good few years now. They estimate that over 1.2 million active Linux users are currently on Steam, and the trend seems to be moving upward.

• Relax with the new Lazy Galaxy 2, a mix of an RTS with an idle game

  Lazy Galaxy 2 blends together two rather different genres you don’t often see together. Mixing an idle / clicker game with real-time strategy its pretty interesting.

• Top 10 New Games To Enjoy With Proton Since July 2021

  We are back with our usual monthly update! Boiling Steam looks at the latest data dumps from ProtonDB to give you a quick list of new games that work (pretty much?) perfectly with Proton since July 2021 – all of them work out of the box or well enough with tweaks…

• CodeWeavers Releases CrossOver 21 – Rebased On Wine 6.0 – Phoronix

  With CrossOver 21.0 the software has been re-based against Wine 6.0 that in turn provides “thousands of improvements”, including the initial Vulkan back-end work around WineD3D. CrossOver 21.0 also delivers on Xbox and PlayStation controller improvements under macOS, dark mode support on macOS, and various Microsoft Office 2016 and Office 365 fixes for running on Linux. CrossOver 21.0 also provides faster start-up times under Linux and Chrome OS.

Distributions

• Reviews

  • Solus OS Review

    Although Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Mint have made great strides regarding user-friendliness, they’ve sometimes had difficulty convincing the majority of users of other operating systems to drop the way they currently do things and adapt to something new. Solus OS is a new Linux operating system that isn’t based on anything. It’s a fresh take on Linux with a message: less is more. No hassling with settings or choices. Everything is taken care of for you ahead of time.

    [...]

    After more than five years in development, Solus OS has come a long way from its early beginnings and kept to its promise of becoming an operating system for the “everyman.” Adding a plethora of applications to its software repository, it’s become accommodating for even the most veteran of power users, while at the same time retaining the ability to appeal to a less “nerdy” demographic.

    It does what you expect, looks after you, and curates your experience so that you don’t have to fumble around. If you are looking around for a stylish Linux distro, you should also check out Deepin Linux.

• IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

  • IBM Semeru Runtimes Bring Flexibility To Java Developers, Hybrid Cloud Deployments

    IBM has announced the availability of IBM Semeru Runtimes that enables developers to create and run Java applications in hybrid cloud environments from the cloud to data centers in stable, no-cost environments.

  • Open Practice Library basics: Showcasing and improving

    The Open Practice Library is a repository of open practices and principles used during engagements by Red Hat’s Open Innovation Labs. In the previous post in this series, we discussed how to plan and execute a sprint/iteration. In this post, we will talk about showcasing our work and continuously improving.

  • FlashGrid announces support for RHEL 8 and Oracle Linux 8

    FlashGrid Inc. has announced RHEL 8 and Oracle Linux 8 operating systems support with its newly released FlashGrid Cluster version 21.06.

    Enterprise customers use FlashGrid engineered cloud systems with Linux OS for running mission-critical Oracle databases, including clustered Oracle RAC databases, in AWS, Azure, and GCP clouds. The databases typically stay in production for multiple years with non-stop 365x24x7 operation. Minimizing any disruptive changes that might affect database uptime is important in such environments.

  • Now Available: SQL Server 2019 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 in AWS Marketplace [Ed: Red Hat says get Microsoft proprietary software]

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • Ubuntu Blog: UbuntuOnAir update

    It’s been a couple of months since we restarted UbuntuOnAir. We had a few ideas, and lots of aspirations, but we wanted to be realistic and work our way up. You can read about why we brought it back and why we didn’t use the more mainstream channel “Celebrate Ubuntu” elsewhere. Here I talk about some of the things we’ve done, some of the lessons we’ve learnt, and what’s next. If at any point you become curious and want to watch the videos head to ubuntuonair.com and scroll through.

    [...]

    We’ve done other things too, not as much as I’d have liked, but some. We’ve done a ‘gaming’ stream, a tutorial about making tutorials, and a chat with the engineers behind Ubuntu on the Raspberry Pi. They were all one-offs but with the potential to become a series/playlist with return appearances.

    There’s a sizable difference in the engagement figures with these videos though. The Raspberry Pi video did significantly better, both in terms of views and general engagement. We tracked this down to three factors; consistency, relevancy, and marketing.

    The consistency factor is inferred since the other videos we do have are all part of a consistent series and these are not. The relevancy factor is really unavoidable, from my work on Ubuntu on Raspberry previously I know that if you put ‘Raspberry Pi’ in a headline it’s going to do well. And marketing. In the beginning, we promoted the videos more openly. That isn’t to say we don’t still, but we have more things to promote now so it feels like the traffic to the videos is cannibalizing itself. Some food for thought.

Devices/Embedded

• Tiger Lake-H module claims to be first with PCIe Gen4 x16

  Adlink’s rugged, Linux-ready “Express-TL” COM Express Basic Type 6 module features up to octa-core Tiger Lake-H CPUs with up to 128GB DDR4, optional NVMe, quad 4K displays, 2.5GbE and GbE, 4x USB 3.2 Gen2, and PCIe Gen4 x16.

  Adlink announced the second embedded board we have seen based on Intel’s new hexa- and octa-core H-series additions to its dual- and quad-core 11th Gen Tiger Lake processors. The Express-TL follows TQ’s TQMx110EB, which similarly deploys Tiger Lake-H on the 125 x 95mm COM Express Basic Type 6 form factor. TQ may be the first to market — it was previously listed as “coming soon,” but has now changed to “new.” The Express-TL is “preliminary.”

• Congatec COM-HPC & COM Express Xeon modules target high-end IoT gateways, medical edge applications – CNX Software

  Yesterday, we wrote about ADLink Express-TL COM Express Basic Size Type 6 module powered by the latest Intel Tiger Lake-H Xeon, Core, and Celeron processors designed for high-end industrial & embedded systems.

  But as one would expect more such modules are coming to market, and Congatec announced both COM-HPC and COM Express CPU modules based on Intel Tiger Lake-H processors with target applications include high-end IoT gateways and medical edge applications. Let’s check out both conga-HPC/cTLH COM-HPC Client Size B modules (120mm x 120mm), as well as the conga-TS570 COM Express Basic Type 6 modules (125mm x 95mm).

  [...]

  congatec offers support for Microsoft Windows 10, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, Linux, the Yocto Project, and RTS Hypervisor.

• Pico-ITX board and compact system set sail on Elkhart Lake

  Vecow’s “EPCB-1000” Pico-ITX SBC runs Linux or Win 10 on Intel’s dual-core Atom x6211E with up to 32GB DDR4, SATA, DP, 2x GbE, 2x USB 3.1, and 2x M.2 with SIM. The SBC also powers a “PCB-1000” box PC.

  Vecow announced the Pico-ITX form-factor EPCB-1000 board and compact PCB-1000 embedded system along with a larger, more feature rich SPC-6000 system that similarly runs Linux or Win 10 on Intel’s Elkhart Lake processors. We already reported on the SPC-6000 shortly after Vecow announced the system back in Sep. 2020. We don’t see any changes except that the case is colored blue.

• Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Gains Native SATA Support

  Raspberry Pi OS now has SATA support built into the kernel. Before you rush to tear the hard drive from your PC and hook it up to your Pi, there’s a catch: you’ll need a Compute Module 4 instead of the standard 4B or 400 models. And for now you can’t boot from it. YouTuber and Jeff Geerling, who is responsible in part for the addition, has an insightful blog post on the matter, and a video essay embedded below.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • The Explore IoT Kit gets a mini-makeover | Arduino Blog

    A year after the Arduino Education Explore IoT Kit launched globally, we’ve been improving the content of the kit and have made a few tweaks and upgrades!

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• The Institute for Computing in Research Announces Portland Cohort

  Exposure to mentors, communities and the varied academic disciplines is a great opportunity for these budding scientists. Bridging the gap between programs like Outreachy (another member project of Conservancy’s, Outreachy, which provides internships to historically underrepresented groups in technology), Google Summer of Code and other open source internship options with the academic programs like Research Experience for Undergraduates, the ICR is filling a vital role in connecting FOSS and the academy. Showing students computing tools used in industry and the workflows and day to day experiences of academics doing research. Typically these kind of positions are unpaid and not everyone has the luxury of working unpaid for a summer. It’s this kind of equitable thinking that makes the ICR standout to us and why we are pleased to work with them.

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • Hacks.Mozilla.Org: How MDN’s autocomplete search works [Ed: Mozilla is already being outsourced to Microsoft proprietary software with NSA-connected keyloggers]

      The code for all of this is in the Yari repo which is the project that builds and previews all of the MDN content. To find the exact code, click into the client/src/search.tsx source code and you’ll find all the code for lazy-loading, searching, preloading, and displaying autocomplete searches.

• CMS

  • 11 Popular Free And Open Source WordPress CMS alternatives in 2021

    So you want to create a website or blog but would rather avoid WordPress? WordPress is very powerful and scalable, it’s also pretty complicated for beginners.

    What is WordPress?

    WordPress is just a software that you use to build your own website or blog and publish it on the Internet it is also called a content management system or CMS.

    because WordPress is an open source software meaning that there is thousands of software engineers out there that are working on it every day to make it better and better.

    There are plenty of good alternatives available in the market. We will show you the three best non-WordPress options that are, most importantly also easy to use!

    [...]

    The main reason why we add Drupal on top of this list is: It has thousands of people and organizations are using Drupal to power an endless variety of websites.

    Drupal is the open-source CMS of choice for some of the world’s leading technology companies, marketers, developers, Agencies. It was written in PHP language and distributed under GPL (“GNU General Public License”).

    With Drupal, you can build community web portals, Discussion sites, corporate websites, intranet applications, personal websites or blogs, Aficionado sites, E-commerce applications, Resource directories, Social Networking sites.

  • The Month in WordPress: July 2021

    WordPress is global in reach and open source in nature. And you would assume that what allows the software to be used by anyone would also enable it to be built by anyone. After all, your location doesn’t matter, and who employs you also doesn’t matter. And your relative social standing certainly shouldn’t matter. As long as you can communicate with the others contributing to the project, there should be no obstacle to your participation.

• Programming/Development

  • Getting started with wxWidgets on Linux

    Interested in developing a graphical user interface application for Linux, but not sure where to start? As a first step you select a fitting graphical user interface (GUI) library, followed by a programming language to develop your application in. wxWidgets is such a GUI library for C++. It’s also cross-platform and even offers bindings for other programming languages. This article helps you getting started with developing a GUI application using wxWidgets on Linux.

    [...]

    Once you selected the GUI library, your next step is to select the programming language for developing your GUI application. wxWidgets is a C++ library, so C++ is an obvious choice. However, bindings exist for other programming languages, making it possible to use those as well. For example Python, Ruby and Perl.

    The goal of this article is getting you started with wxWidgets on Linux. The focus lies on getting the development environment setup on your Linux system. Then together, we’ll create a Hello World! type GUI application in C++. You can use the resulting application as a starting point for developing your own GUI application. As whip-cream on top, I’ll also show you how you can build your wxWidgets based GUI application with the help of CMake.

  • Beatriz Martins de Carvalho: Mid-point: I got halfway through my internship and what do I do now?

    Finally today the part 4 of my Outreachy Saga came out, the mid-point was on 5/7/21 and as you can see I’m really late, this week had the theme: “Modifying Expectations”.

    But why did it take me so long to post? First, I had to internalize the topic a lot, because in my head I thought that when I reached this point, I would have achieved all the goals I had proposed at the beginning of the internship, but when the mid-point arrived, it seemed to me that I didn’t have done anything and that my internship was going to end, as I didn’t fulfill expectations.

  • Perl/Raku

    • Perl Weekly Challenge 124: Happy Women Day and Tug of War

  • Python

    • Supply Chain Flaws Found in Python Package Repository

      Administrators overseeing the Python Package Index (PyPI) in recent days found themselves responding to vulnerabilities found in the repository of open source software, the latest security problems to hit the Python community.

      Most recently, the PyPI group sent out fixes for three vulnerabilities that were discovered by security researcher RyotaK and published on his blog. Two of the vulnerabilities could be used by bad actors to delete documentation or roles within the software package. The third flaw was found in a GitHub Actions workflow within the PyPI repository that, if exploited, could allow a hacker to write permission against the repository and launch malicious code on pypi.org.

    • How to Create an executable from a Python program

      Applications or scripts developed with the Python language can be converted into executables for the Windows operating system. In this way, they can be usedwithout having to install Python and are thus made available to as many people as possible. It is possible to perform this conversion with different modules created for this purpose. To use one of these modules, you must of course have previously installed Python on your machine.

    • Wanna use your Nvidia GPU for acceleration but put off by CUDA? OpenAI has a Python-based alternative

      If you’ve always wanted to program your Nvidia GPU to accelerate machine learning, image processing, and other workloads, but find Nv’s CUDA too daunting or too much of a faff to learn, you’re in luck.

      OpenAI late last month released Triton, a Python-based environment that tries to help developers write and compile code to run on your Nvidia GPU much more easily without having to grapple with CUDA.

      The San Francisco upstart has been using Triton to optimize their software so that their machine-learning algorithms run more efficiently on specialized hardware. Building state-of-the-art models is costly, developers have to be able to train and tweak their performance quickly, which requires writing custom GPU kernels.

  • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

    • Visualising data as a PGM image

      An ASCII PGM file (“Portable Gray Map”) is a simple text file that encodes a grayscale image. The image below is “face.pgm” and shows a scanning electron micrograph of the face of a tiny Australian millipede:

    • Linux Essentials – awk

      In this episode of Linux Essentials, we take a look at the awk command. With awk, you can leverage its power for the “manipulation of data files, text retrieval and processing, and for prototyping and experimenting with algorithms”. In this particular video, we’ll cover the basics of awk to get you started.

  • Rust

    • The Rust Programming Language Blog: The push for GATs stabilization

      The biggest reason for this decision is that there’s still a bit of design and implementation work to actually make this usable. And while this is a nice feature, adding this in the future would be a backward-compatible change. We feel that it’s better to get most of GATs stabilized and then come back and try to tackle this later than to block GATs for even longer. Also, GATs without object safety are still very powerful, so we don’t lose much by defering this.

Hardware

• Shipping costs from China are going through the roof – CNX Software

  Since the beginning of the year, we’ve had a worldwide chip shortage that increased the price of components, followed by long lead times. My Twitter feed is often filled with complaints of expensive components (e.g. STM32 being 10 times more expensive), and ever-increasing lead times of up to two years.

Integrity/Availability

• Proprietary

  • Pseudo-Open Source

    • Privatisation/Privateering

      • Linux Foundation

        • EdgeXFoundry Rolls Out Second Major Release, Taking Developers to Ireland [Ed: Did Linux Foundation pay for this puff piece? Probably. And more on the way. Linux Foundation as a PR agency.]

          EdgeX Foundry, a project under the LF Edge umbrella organization within the Linux Foundation, has introduced a second major release with advances in API sets, message-based communications, and simplified and more secure interfaces.

        • EdgeX Foundry Releases the Most Modern, Secure, and Production-Ready Open Source IoT Framework

          EdgeX Foundry, a project under the LF Edge umbrella organization within the Linux Foundation, today announced it’s Ireland release. Focused on edge/IoT solutions, EdgeX Foundry’s second major release overhauls API sets, removes technical debt, provides more message-based communications, and simplifies and secures interface for adopters and developers, making the platform significantly easier to use and more reliable.

          “As a leading stage 3 project under LF Edge, the EdgeX Ireland release has expanded use cases across retail, building automation, smart cities, process control, and manufacturing,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge & IoT, at the Linux Foundation. “It’s a key to standardizing IoT frameworks across market verticals.”

  • Security

    • Security updates for Tuesday

      Security updates have been issued by Arch Linux (chromium, nodejs, nodejs-lts-erbium, and nodejs-lts-fermium), Debian (pyxdg, shiro, and vlc), openSUSE (qemu), Oracle (lasso), Red Hat (glibc, lasso, rh-php73-php, rh-varnish6-varnish, and varnish:6), Scientific Linux (lasso), SUSE (dbus-1, lasso, python-Pillow, and qemu), and Ubuntu (exiv2, gnutls28, and qpdf).

    • Qualys Collaborates with Red Hat to Enhance Security for Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS and Red Hat OpenShift

      Teaming with Red Hat, Qualys is offering a unique approach providing a containerized Qualys Cloud Agent that extends security to the operating system. The Cloud Agent for Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS on OpenShift combined with the Qualys solution for Container Security provides continuous discovery of packages and vulnerabilities for the complete Red Hat OpenShift stack. Built on the Qualys Cloud Platform, Qualys’ solution seamlessly integrates with customers’ vulnerability management workflows, reporting and metrics to help reduce risk.

    • Google Calls On Companies To Devote More Engineers To Upstream Linux, Toolchains [Ed: Is this some kind of a sick joke? Google put weakened encryption inside Linux, in effect an NSA back door, before it was compelled to remove it many months later. Google doesn't value real security but US "national security" (empire).]

      Longtime kernel developer Kees Cook of the Google Security Team published a post on Google’s Security Blog today effectively calling for more organizations to devote a greater number of engineers to the upstream Linux kernel in order to improve open-source security.

      In addition to Google backing the Rust initiative for the Linux kernel, they also acknowledge there is a manpower issue.

Monopolies

• Patents

  • I have heard what the Federal Circuit has to say on motions to transfer, says WDTX’s Albright [Ed: The megaphone of EPO criminals, IAM, gives a platform to another person who has perverse concept of justice. IAM: we support crime. Pretty stunning how much of the self-described “legal” media and “law” firms basically support crime, promote corruption, cover up injustices, and look to trick/undermine those who do the correct/just/right/true thing.]

    US District Judge Alan Albright’s Waco court in the Western District of Texas is the US’s busiest patent litigation venue. It is also the most controversial. In an exclusive IAM interview, the judge explains how he has responded to recent CAFC criticisms and discusses plenty more besides

  • Federal Circuit to Judge Albright: You Get An F [Ed: Corrupt judge in Texas, who treats the court like a private for-profit business, gets much-needed scrutiny]

    In yet another mandamus order directed to the Western District of Texas, the Federal Circuit has once again explained to Judge Albright that his analysis of transfer motions is incorrect and ordered him to send a case elsewhere. It’s worth reading the entire order in In re Hulu, but if you don’t have time, I can sum it up for you: Judge Albright got pretty much everything important wrong.

    Yet again, the Federal Circuit found that Judge Albright “clearly abused [his] discretion” in denying transfer. Of the factors that are weighed when determining a motion to transfer, Judge Albright found that two factors slightly favored transfer, three factors weighed against transfer, and three factors didn’t apply.

    The Federal Circuit disagreed. Of the three factors Judge Albright found to weigh against transfer, the Federal Circuit found one to be neutral—and the other two to actually weigh in favor of transfer. And of the factors that slightly favored transfer, the Federal Circuit suggested that the analysis employed by Judge Albright was incorrect and that the factor might better be understood as significantly favoring transfer.

    Judge Albright has joked about how he “may get guidance from the people that grade my papers at some point that that’s not the right approach.” And this is yet another instance of that kind of guidance. But this order isn’t his graders saying he got it a little bit wrong and marking him for a B. This is having every reason you relied upon to deny a transfer marked “incorrect”—it’s your graders telling you you failed completely.

  • Recent Developments in Artificial Intelligence and IP Law: South Africa Grants World’s First Patent for AI-Created Invention [Ed: It's safe to say that in addition to the blunder over COVID-19 monopolies the patent system is self-discrediting at this stage; not they grant patents to bots!]

    On July 28, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission of South Africa granted the world’s first patent on an invention created by an artificial intelligence (“AI”) inventor. This development marks an important milestone in what will certainly be a significant battle for legal recognition of such inventions in the United States and other countries.

    “Device for Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience” aka “DABUS” is an AI developed by Missouri physicist Stephen Thaler. The recently-issued patent is directed to a food container based on fractal geometry. The patent application was filed on September 17, 2019 under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. [1] Under the heading of “inventor”, the application identifies DABUS and states “The invention was autonomously generated by an artificial intelligence.” [2]

  • Recent Developments in Artificial Intelligence and IP Law: South Africa Grants World’s First Patent for AI-Created Invention [Ed: Litigation 'industry' delighted that more junk patents can be granted to bots in some places because it means more litigation (between bots)]

    On July 28, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission of South Africa granted the world’s first patent on an invention created by an artificial intelligence (“AI”) inventor. This development marks an important milestone in what will certainly be a significant battle for legal recognition of such inventions in the United States and other countries.

    “Device for Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience” aka “DABUS” is an AI developed by Missouri physicist Stephen Thaler. The recently-issued patent is directed to a food container based on fractal geometry. The patent application was filed on September 17, 2019 under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. [1] Under the heading of “inventor”, the application identifies DABUS and states “The invention was autonomously generated by an artificial intelligence.” [2]

  • Venue Games – What is Victoria’s Secret?

    Andra sued Victoria’s Secret for infringing its US Pat. 8,078,498 covering a lingerie virtual showroom. Actually, Andra sued L Brands Inc (LBI), the parent company, as well as Victoria Secret Stores LLC (Stores) which operates the physical retail stores; Victoria’s Secret Direct Brand Management, LLC (Direct), which manages the internet activities (including in-store direct online and returns from the stores); and Victoria’s Secret Stores Brand Management, Inc. (Brand) which creates the apparel products. At the time of the lawsuit*, these companies were all directly linked together in a tight corporate subsidiary structure under LBI. Still, each defendant gets to raise the defense of improper venue.

  • PTAB

    • $10,000 for prior art on all 5 patents asserted by Invincible IP, an IP Edge entity,

    • PTAB Strategies and Insights – July 2021: Arthrex: One Month Later [Ed: Fake patents, such as software patents, can still be squashed more easily then before without having to pay much, e.g. court fees]

      Following the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Arthrex, the Federal Circuit issued requests for briefing regarding the decision’s impact in pending PTAB appeals in which an Appointments Clause challenge had been raised. Those briefs have now been filed and the parties are awaiting action from the court of appeals. Here we provide a brief overview of the types of arguments we have seen from the parties and of likely next steps.

      Responses from Patent Owner-Appellants who raised Appointments Clause challenges generally fall into two categories. The first category consists of responses that affirmatively waive the appellant’s right to relief under Arthrex and request that the Federal Circuit decide the appeal on the merits.[1] The second category consistent of responses that request a remand so that the patent owner can have the opportunity to request Director review.[2] At least one appellant proposed a hybrid approach under which the Federal Circuit would address the merits of the appeal first and then—if the merits are decided adversely to the appellant—remand the case to the PTAB to allow the appellant to ask for Director review.[3] In that case, the Federal Circuit responded with an order instructing the appellant to choose between (i) requesting a limited remand and (ii) waiving its right to seek Director review.[4]

• Copyrights

  • Book review: Harnessing Public Research for Innovation in the 21st Century [Ed: If it is publicly-funded research, thwn it should be free and exempt from all monopolies, including patents]

    Previous Guest Kat Rosie Burbidge, Intellectual Property Partner at Gunnercooke LLP and author of European Fashion Law, returns with a review of Harnessing Public Research for Innovation in the 21st Century An International Assessment of Knowledge Transfer Policies, edited by Anthony Arundel (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University and University of Tasmania), Suma Athreye (Essex Business School, London), and Sacha Wunsch-Vincent (World Intellectual Property Organization). Here is what Rosie has to say about the book:

    It is a pleasure to review Harnessing Public Research for Innovation in the 21st Century, edited by Anthony Arundel, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University and University of Tasmania, Suma Athreye, Essex Business School, London and Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, World Intellectual Property Organization.

    Public research and the important issue of how to foster “innovation” are popular concerns for governments and industry alike. This book enables a holistic overview of different innovation practices. By comparing different issues and strategies on an international basis, the common trends and best practices can be more readily identified and questions such as which subsidies produce the greatest economic value can be considered.

    [...]

    However, as they also note, in the context of public research, it “may produce a lot of inventions, but no significant innovations”. This observation ties in with one common issue throughout the book, and with measuring innovation more generally, is that the focus is on the number and type of patent filings which can be a poor proxy for genuine innovation. That is not to say that this data and the associated analysis is not helpful but that it is much harder to get accurate and bias free information regarding other rights, particularly trade secrets which, by their nature, are not widely shared.

Kernel Space

• AMD and Valve Are Building a Better CPU Driver For Linux

Benchmarks

• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD On Linux

  Last year Sabrent launched the Rocket 4 Plus PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid-state drive and left me puzzled for months finding that the Linux performance was coming in short of expectations under Linux. However, Sabrent recently released a firmware update (v1.2) for the Rocket 4 Plus and now the drive seems to be much better positioned under Linux.

  At launch the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus NVMe solid-state drive was coming in short of expectations and similar to the odd performance I have been seeing out of the Samsung 980 PRO under Linux also performing worse than expected. But it looks like things have smoothed out with the v1.2 firmware update available for the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus. The firmware update was made available to download in June while for a while now new drives have been shipping using this latest version.

Applications

• Goggles Music Manager – music collection manager and player

  I spend an inordinate amount of time listening to music. My favorite pastime is to see an eclectic range of bands, solo artists, and orchestras live. It’s such a life-changing and exhilarating experience. It’s one thing to be sitting at home listening to a CD or watching music videos on TV or on YouTube, but being in the audience, packed out in a stadium or music hall, takes it to another level. But it’s an expensive pastime. And it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to attend music performances. Instead, I’m listening to music from my CD collection which I’ve encoded to FLAC.

  I’ve reviewed a smorgasbord of open source music players. But Linux is endowed with a huge selection, there remains a fair few I’ve yet to explore. For this review, I’m looking at Goggles Music Manager.

• Virtualization on PC, Explained for Beginners with Practical Use Cases

  This guide is designed specifically for home users who want to try virtualization on their PC. We’ll take a detailed look at the different types of virtualization as well as the benefits of it.

  If you need to run more than one operating system on your laptop or PC there are several ways to do it. You’ve probably heard the terms “virtualization” and “virtual machine” before, but do you actually know what that is?

• What’s New in VMware Horizon 8 v2106 & v2103

Instructionals/Technical

• Use the Linux terminal to navigate throughout your computer

  To navigate through the directories of your computer in a graphical interface, you’re probably used to opening a window to get “into” your computer, and then double-clicking on a folder, and then on a subfolder, and so on. You may also use arrow buttons or keys to back track.

  To navigate through your computer in the terminal, you use the cd command. You can use cd .. to move one directory back, or cd ./path/to/another/folder to jump through many folders into a specific location.

  The concept of a URL, which you use on the Internet already, is actually pulled directly from POSIX. When you navigate to a specific page on some website, like http://www.example.com/tutorials/lesson2.html, you are actually changing directory to /var/www/imaginarysite/tutorials/ and opening a file called lesson2.html. Of course, you open it in a web browser, which interprets all that weird-looking HTML code into pretty text and pictures. But the idea is exactly the same.

• Basic Hacks for Kobo E-Readers

  With a little hacking, you can free your Kobo e-reader from its proprietary chains. You may even transform your e-reader into a more general-purpose device.

  Any piece of proprietary hardware eventually spawns a community of hackers. Kobo e-readers are no exception. However, while I have used Kobo e-readers for a decade, I only recently started to explore Kobo’s hacker community. New Kobo models are released frequently, so all documented hacks do not work for every e-reader, especially hardware hacks. Moreover, as always when hacking, you may sometimes risk bricking your device. Still, the variety and ingenuity of known modifications is proof of how determined the free hardware and software communities are to bypass the arbitrary restrictions imposed by proprietary hardware.

  Rakuten Kobo is a Toronto-based company, whose products are a distant second to Kindle e-readers in market share. The company also hosts its own site for ebooks and audio books. Over the years, the company has shown a strong tendency to experiment with its hardware, no doubt in an attempt to increase its market share. For instance, Kobo’s first releases supported a Debian client, and several of its early devices used LCD displays rather than e-ink. These experiments sometimes make Kobo a moving target for hackers, but its primary use of the open ePub format makes it popular among those who prefer not to use the proprietary formats like MOBI used by Kindle.

• Connect Ubuntu Linux Desktop 21.04 to an Active Directory domain: Here’s how – TechRepublic

• Set up a VPN server on your Linux PC | Opensource.com

  Have you been connected to an untrusted network such as a hotel or café WiFi and need to securely browse the internet from your smartphone or laptop? By using a virtual private network (VPN), you can access that untrusted network anonymously and as safely as if you were on a private network.

  VPN is an amazing tool for safeguarding private data. By using a VPN, you can connect to a private network on the internet while maintaining anonymity.

  There are many VPN services available, and many people have found that the preferred option for securing private data when using untrusted networks is OpenVPN.

  OpenVPN creates an encrypted tunnel between two points, preventing a third party from accessing your network traffic data. By setting up your VPN server, you become your own VPN provider. Many popular VPN services use OpenVPN, so why tie your connection to a specific provider when you can have complete control yourself?

• Install Apache Tomcat 10 on Debian 11 Linux – Linux Shout

  Learn the steps and commands to install the latest version of Apache Tomcat on Debian 11 Bullseye Linux to test various Java-based applications…

  Apache Tomcat is an open-source web server that allows you to run web applications written in Java. Tomcat is developed and maintained by a free community of developers and our Apache license is published as open-source software.

  Well, Tomcat is significantly different from the Apache web server, it was developed to primarily focus on Web applications. Tomcat does not understand URLs as a file specification, but as a notification of a user action. This is comparable to event-driven programming in classic GUI programming: a click on a button generates an event that the window manager reports to the program. Calling up a URL is analogous, be it in the form of a link or a form called.

• 13 Tips for Tuning and Optimizing Mysql and Mariadb Databases – VITUX

  MySQL and MariaDB are the most widely used relational database management systems (RDMS) when it comes to website hosting and CMS systems such as Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, and Typo 3. In this article, I will explain how to speed up and optimize your MySQL and MariaDB database server.

• How To Install and Configure Todoist in Linux Distributions

  The word Todoist is the phonetic short form of To-Do List, and it can be used for organizing work, tasks, and quick notes. The Todoist can remember all of your works for you and recall you when you need them. If you work for different clients, Todoist can also manage to remind you of the high prioritized tasks. Mostly, if you’re a Linux sysadmin, I’m sure there is too much work to do for you in the entire week.

  You can now use the Todoist tool on your Linux system to remind the tasks, share the load among others, customize workload, and keep a balance between your work and life. You can also use Todoist for managing your shopping, store, day-to-day life, and social gathering.

  The Todoist application is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iPhones. It allows you to set labels, filters on the worklist, and even you can customize the Todoist theme based on your work category.

• How To Install Java on AlmaLinux 8 – idroot

  In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Java on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Java is a general-purpose and object-oriented programming language, lets application developers write once and run everywhere. This means that a compiled java code runs on all platforms that support Java without the need for recompilation. JDK is a collection of various programming tools such as JRE (Java Runtime Environment), Java, Javac, Jar, and many others.

  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 Java on AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for Rocky Linux.

• How to Find and Remove Duplicate Photos in Linux

  Clicked too many similar photos? Have saved the same photo in different folders? I know that feel.

  You click photos on camera, send it through WhatsApp. Now you back up the images and you have two copies of the photos from the gallery and WhatsApp. It is annoying, cluttered and takes extra space unnecessarily.

  I came across this issue while going through my father-in-law’s photo collection. Here’s what I did to find the duplicate photos and remove thm.

• How to Install Java 16 in Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux

  Java is a cross-platform, object-oriented, and multipurpose programming language that is primarily used for creating mobile, web, and cloud applications. Additionally, you can use Java to create games, chatbots, enterprise applications, and a whole lot more.

  To develop Java applications, you need to install an IDE (Integrated Development Environment). IntelliJ IDEA is a perfect example of an IDE that is designed specifically for the development of Java applications. However, you need to have Java installed beforehand. This can be provided by either the OpenJDK (Open Java Development Kit) or Oracle JDK (Oracle Development Kit).

• How to Install Postfix Mail Server on Ubuntu 20.04

  Postfix is both a popular and preferred Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) for more than 25% of active and public internet mail servers. This attribute has something to do with its open-source status. Many Linux systems benefit from its extensive mail routing and delivery services.

  If you are a user of the Ubuntu 20.04 or Ubuntu 18.04 system and wish to install and explore the depths of Postfix MTA, then this article will answer all your queries.

  We are going to take you through Ubuntu 20.04 Postfix installation and configuration. The final bit of this tutorial will test Postfix’s mail routing capabilities after we install “s-nail” – it is a popular email client or in more technical terms, a Mail User Agent (MUA).

• How to define multiple when conditions in Ansible – nixCraft

  Sometimes we need to evaluate multiple when conditions in Ansible playbooks. Let us see how to define multiple when conditions in Ansible for a single task.

  This page explains how to define multiple when conditions in Ansible. The examples further tell how to do a logical “OR” or “AND” using Ansible IT automation tool on your macOS, Linux, or Unix desktop.

• How to patch modules in Red Hat Enterprise Linux | Red Hat Developer

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), in version 8, introduced modules as a higher-level concept for packaging software stacks. Modules enable new features such as adding alternative versions of stacks, called streams. That’s great, but what if you want to patch a stream? Is it possible? It is. Is it more difficult than patching non-modular software? Slightly. This article shows you how to patch a module stream while avoiding the invisible package problem.

• 3 Ways to Remove Files from Trash on Ubuntu using GUI and Terminal

  By choosing files and documents and hitting the “Remove” key on the keyboard, users can remove all data. Those files are then moved to Junk, a computer location for discarded data. Deleted files remain inside the “Trash” folder unless you elect to clear it or restored the contents. Throughout this article, we’ll look at the first choice: how and where to delete documents via Trash.

• Get started with Argo CD | Opensource.com

  In a typical push-based deployment, tools like Ansible and Jenkins connect directly to the server or cluster and execute the provisioning commands. This approach works well when the cluster is accessible on the network and there is direct connectivity between your deployment server and the destination server. For compliance or security reasons, connectivity between the deployment tool and the cluster may not be possible.

  Argo CD is a pull-based deployment tool. It watches a remote Git repository for new or updated manifest files and synchronizes those changes with the cluster. By managing manifests in Git and syncing them with the cluster, you get all the advantages of a Git-based workflow (version control, pull-request reviews, transparency in collaboration, etc.) and a one-to-one mapping between what is in the Git repo and what is deployed in the cluster. This method is called GitOps.

Games

• X-Plane Flight Simulator Continues Advancing Its Renderer With Vulkan – Phoronix

  X-Plane is not only the most realistic flight simulator that has long offered native Linux support but it’s the only instance of a Vulkan-powered flight simulator I am aware of. While long tied to OpenGL, the company behind X-Plane is making it clear that the graphics rendering future is with Vulkan (and Metal when talking about Apple platforms).

  It was just last year that X-Plane debuted with Vulkan support after being tied to OpenGL support previously for its custom renderer developed at Laminar Research. That Vulkan support debuted in X-Plane 11.50 and has continued improving since and even more enhancements ahead for future releases.

• Steam Hardware Survey Shows Linux Finally Breaks the 1% Barrier

  The monthly Steam Hardware Survey is quite possibly one of the best windows we get into not only how consumers are playing games but how their hardware is transitioning to keep up with the graphical advances. It’s also pretty handy for judging which operating system currently holds the biggest slice of the gaming pie. Following the release of the latest figures, however, Linux’s quite devoted fanbase is undoubtedly going to be exceptionally happy as for the time ever (to my knowledge) the operating system has finally hit the magical 1% market share figure on the platform.

  [...]

  We daresay that Microsoft is exceptionally unhappy that their Windows 10 (64 bit) user-based is down in the latest Steam Hardware Survey. More so likely in the fact that those users who did decide to leave the platform have seemingly chosen Windows 7 as a seemingly more viable alternative, or worse, their pretty much sole nemesis Linux.

  While Linux clearly still has a long way to go, as noted above, the operating system is very popular, and you’ll struggle to find someone using it who has any complaints. With 1% now hit though, who knows, maybe more developers will start looking at making their games compatible with it.

• Proton 6.14 GE-2 and Wine 6.14 GE-2 are out, easily update Proton GE with ProtonUp

  Multiple updates to community-built versions of Proton and Wine, along with a very interesting bit of software to help you upgrade Proton GE called ProtonUp.

  If you’re not clear on what Proton and Steam Play are, be sure to check out our constantly updated dedicated page. It’s a special compatibility layer for running Windows games and apps from Steam on Linux. Proton GE is not affiliated with Valve/Steam, it also has less quality assurance versus the official Proton but often ends up with special game-specific fixes quicker.

• Vomitoreum is a FPS Metroidvania with a sprinkle of horror out now

  Built using the power of the open source GZDoom (although it’s a full standalone game), Vomitoreum is an FPS Metroidvania with a focus on atmosphere and horror, inspired by the paintings of Zdzisław Beksiński set in an interconnected and nightmarish world. If you love retro-styled first-person shooter then this is one you need to take a look at.

• SkateBIRD gets delayed until September 16 | GamingOnLinux

  You’re going to have to wait a bit longer to do flips and things as a cute little bird, as SkateBIRD from Glass Bottom Games has been a bit delayed.

  Seems all platforms have been delayed at this point with a new release date set at September 16. Why? In the brief announcement post Glass Bottom Games mentioned “Why? Usual reasons. Shipping a game is hard. Hit some bugs, SDK stuff where the old code worked but the new one suddenly didn’t, you get the idea. Gave us more time to polish other stuff though, so that’s nice!”

• Flare, a free and open source RPG and game engine has a huge new 1.12 release | GamingOnLinux

  Flare is a name I’ve not heard for a while. It is both an RPG and a game engine for other developers to make their own games and a massive new release is out.

  The idea behind Flare as a game engine is to specifically deal with single-player 2D action RPGs. It is not a reimplementation of anything else but a tribute to the whole genre. While the developers also made Flare: Empyrean Campaign to show it off a little.

• First-person brawler Paint the Town Red is officially out now | GamingOnLinux

  After a long time in Early Access, you can now go ahead and start all kinds of ridiculous fights in the first-person brawler Paint the Town Red as it’s out properly now.

  If you love ridiculous games, this is the one for you. Start a fight in a bar? On a dance floor? Punch a shark. Yup, it has it all. Then there’s also the Beneath roguelike RPG mode filled with secrets, hordes of monsters, and otherworldly bosses takes all fighters foolish enough to brave its depths.

• A Prologue demo for IRIS: A Colorful Dream shows off the unique world | GamingOnLinux

  IRIS: A Colorful Dream is an upcoming 3D exploration platformer about restoring colour to the world. It looks simply wonderful and you can play a small unique slice of it right now. The developer recently put out a Prologue demo, which has its own unique world that won’t be in the full game. The developer mentioned it’s partly to “explore our ideas and hone our skills before diving into the real thing”.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • Your Hot New Stuff Here

    KNewStuff, our Framework designed to make it as easy as possible for people to Get Hot New Stuff for whatever app they’re running, and for the people who make those apps to add that same functionality to the apps, has for some time suggested that the KDE Store has the ability to accept uploading of content directly from the application. Unfortunately, due to the way this was originally built (which was essentially built around the idea that People Are Nice) turned out to be a fairly effective vector for spam and malicious content.

    The result of this is that for several years, while KNewStuff has had an implementation of the OCS Content Create functionality, there is no serverside implementation which supports it as it stands. Which is a shame, especially when, while we may not be able to do it through the API because people are, apparently, sometimes Not Nice, what we can do instead is make it easier for people who are nice to learn how to add their own stuff to those listings.

    [...]

    While working on this innocent seeming bit of stuff, i ran into few little things that needed to be done first. Of course, i could have hacked this and just Made It Work, but also that is not what we do in KDE.

    The first, probably smallest thing is that this inherently shows up in our mobile apps, because it’s now a part of both Page and Dialog now. Not that there’s a problem with people finding their way to the store and uploading things there, but if we catch just a couple of people who would have otherwise not uploaded their stuff for the rest of the world to see, well, i’ll chalk that down as a win

    As for more technical things, the way in which one would get a list of the providers known to a KNewStuffCore::Engine was previously all manner of awkward, and really does not fit into how a modern Qt application works (that is, you’d call one function to get some string IDs, then you’d call another function to get each provider, and there was no good way to keep track of what might happen if another got added late, and so on). So, we now have a little model, KNSCore::ProvidersModel, which handles this, and just gives you a list of all the Providers known to an Engine, with a bunch of roles that lets you read all the information you need.

  • Getting Started with UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) on Ubuntu 20.04

    UFW or Uncomplicated Firewall is an application to manage an iptables based firewall on Ubuntu. UFW is the default firewall configuration tool for Ubuntu Linux and provides a user-friendly way to configure the firewall, the UFW command is just like English language so the commands are easy to remember. The UFW firewall supports IPv4 and IPv6.

    UFW provides also a GUI application, if you use a GNOME desktop you can install gufw, or if you use a KDE desktop you can install kcm-ufw.

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • GNOME Web Canary is Now Available to Test Bleeding Edge Features

    Epiphany or GNOME Web is a minimal and yet capable browser for Linux distributions. You should find it as the default browser for elementary OS.

    With GNOME 40, the Epiphany browser has had some improvements and additions.

    Behind the scenes, it regularly gets some exciting improvements and feature additions. And for that, you can opt for the Tech Preview version of GNOME Web tailored for early testers.

    Now, a new Canary flavor has been introduced that you can use to test features that are not yet available even in the tech preview build.

  • Cinnamon 5 desktop review

    Based on this article review, Cinnamon 5.0 is a worthy Linux desktop environment to consider as it has more thumbs up than dislikes. A new user will find it amicably adaptable and scalable, while veteran users might have to re-adjust their muscle memories to adapt to some new GUI tweaks. It is responsive and performs in a lightweight manner. Furthermore, it automates most of its functionalities so that its user only needs to acknowledge their implementation, if any.

    Our articles on the features of Linux Mint 20.2 “Uma” and updating to Linux Mint 20.2 “Uma” directly reference Cinnamon 5.0 as the default associated desktop environment for Linux Mint 20.2 “Uma”.

    The Cinnamon desktop developmental status and mileage can be followed up on Github. Here, you can keep a close eye on the upgrade changes associated with it from the beta stage to an official release.

Distributions

• New Releases

  • 4MLinux 37.0 Release Packs in Linux Kernel 5.10 LTS and New Applications

    One of the most lightweight distros, 4MLinux, has just announced its 37th major release. This version brings a variety of improvements, of which we shall be looking at here.

    Before that, however, I feel that it would be appropriate to find out more about it, especially since it’s such a niche distro.

• IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

  • Introducing the no-cost IBM Semeru Runtimes to develop and run Java applications – IBM Developer

    With the launch of IBM Semeru Runtimes, IBM makes it easier than ever to develop and run Java applications more cost-effectively in hybrid cloud environements, from public cloud to data centers.

    IBM Semeru Runtimes use the class libraries from OpenJDK, along with the Eclipse OpenJ9 Java Virtual Machine to enable developers to build and deploy Java applications that will start quickly, deliver great performance, all while using less memory.

  • IBM Semeru Runtimes deliver enterprise quality for Java applications – IBM Developer

    A large number of IBM software and services rely on IBM Semeru Runtimes technology to provide a solid foundation for IBM and many other Fortune 500 companies operating across a wide range of industry sectors. The runtimes are rigorously exercised across numerous architectures and operating systems, from desktops running Windows, Linux, or macOS to servers such as IBM Power Systems, IBM Z system mainframes, and X86 systems.

    IBM provides high-quality production-ready runtimes that meet the most demanding quality standards in the Java ecosystem. IBM stands behind that statement with optional commercial support available with IBM Runtimes for Business, offering flexible licensing to fit your needs.

  • Why I was scared of IT automation | Enable Sysadmin

    New technology often makes lots of promises but experienced IT professionals are likely to greet these promises warily. There can easily be a disconnect between what the vendor’s sales team is pitching as a solution and the actual problems or challenges you’re trying to solve. Having anxiety about significant change is expected. In our experience working with customers at Red Hat, we’ve found that certain roles share common concerns about IT automation.

  • IT modernization: 5 truths now

    IT Modernization increasingly means something new. Go back five, and certainly 10 years, it would have been primarily an efficiency – which is to say primarily a cost-cutting – story. Out with Solaris and in with Linux. Out with legacy Unix system hardware and in with x86. Out with a proprietary database and in with MySQL.

    We also saw the continued mainstreaming of virtualization, which served to improve the historically dismal utilization of mass-market servers, without requiring much of a fundamental change in how servers were operated.

    This was a common theme of that era of IT modernization. Make things more efficient but don’t upset existing processes, workflows, and development methods. Don’t require any large-scale upskilling of staff.

    But that’s changing. While some percentage of existing platforms are being either left as is or lightly refreshed, many others are being modernized through major refits or other fundamental platform shifts.

Devices/Embedded

• $23 N6110E NVR supports AI features, 10TB SATA drive, up to 10 video channels

  Network video recorders (NRV) typically cost a couple of hundred dollars, but in the past, we noted a low-cost, entry-level NVR with a single Ethernet port may sell for under $50.

  But now, I’ve been made aware that $20 Linux-based NVR’s had shown up on Aliexpress either based on XM8536D processor, or SigmaStar SSR621Q dual-core Cortex-A7 processor. I’ll look at the N6110E model with the latter that sells for $22.99 plus shipping as it includes an enclosure and is said to support up to 10 channels, as well as AI features such as face & human body detection, “auto tracking” (vehicle tracking?), and mixed-traffic detection.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • You may soon be able to play Xbox games on your Android TV | SoyaCincau.com

  • Android TV LineageOS builds published for some devices – 9to5Google

  • Motorola Android 11 update: List of eligible devices & release date

  • Motorola Android 11 update bugs, issues, & problems tracker

  • Google’s redesigned emoji rolling out to Chat for Android – 9to5Google

  • How to download Free Fire Max latest update for Android devices in August 2021

  • Researchers warn of Vultur Trojan attempting to steal banking credentials from Android devices

  • Realme Flash is a new Android phone with a better version of iPhone’s MagSafe | TechRadar

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Apache Pinot Makes It To The Organization’s Top Shelf For Real-Time Big Data Analytics

  After being started by LinkedIn and open-source now for more than a half-decade while incubating at the Apache Software Foundation the past three years, Apache Pinot is the latest project graduating to become a top-level Apache project.

• Programming/Development

  • LibreOffice project recap: July 2021 – The Document Foundation Blog

  • Tender to implement autoupdater (#202108-01)

    The Document Foundation (TDF) is the charitable entity behind the world’s leading free/libre open source (FLOSS) office suite LibreOffice.

  • Managing GitOps control planes for secure GitOps practices

    Red Hat OpenShift GitOps provides Argo CD and other tooling used to implement GitOps workflows for cluster configuration and application delivery. OpenShift GitOps is a Red Hat OpenShift add-on, available as an operator in the OperatorHub. Once you’ve installed the OpenShift GitOps operator, you can deploy Argo CD instances using Kubernetes custom resources.

  • 2022 Fukuoka Ruby Award Competition – Entries to be judged by Matz

    The Government of Fukuoka, Japan together with “Matz” Matsumoto would like to invite you to enter the following Ruby competition. If you have developed an interesting Ruby program, please be encouraged to apply.

  • Git 2.33 Is On The Way With An Assortment Of Fixes, Updated Documentation

    Monday marked the release of Git 2.33-rc0 as the first test release of the next version of this distributed revision control system.

    Git 2.33 isn’t the most exciting update in recent times but primarily an assortment of many different bug fixes. In fact, Git 2.33 seems to be primarily a maintenance release with no big shiny new features at this time but just an assortment of fixes and other smaller items.

  • LLVM 13 Feature Development Is Over, LLVM 14 Enters Development – Phoronix

    LLVM 13.0 feature development has ended with the code now branched and the first release candidate tagged.

    LLVM 13 brings AMD Zen 3 tuning, the GFX1013 target being added to the AMDGPU back-end for RDNA2 APUs, guaranteed tail calls are now supported via statement attributes for C and C++, many improvements to clang-format, the build system now allows building multiple distributions, support for ARMv9-A’s Realm Management Extension (RME), the Hexagon target now supports the V68/HVX ISA, C API improvements, and a variety of other enhancements.

Hardware

• My Google Pixel C: the end of an era

  I got my Google Pixel C tablet in early 2016, well over five years ago. I use it ever since almost every day. A big part of it is that I also have the Pixel C keyboard accessory. I prefer touch typing and funnily enough that does not work on a touch screen. It needs a real keyboard. And that keyboard died today. My Pixel C can still recognize the attached keyboard, but it does not work any more. Most likely it is a battery problem. And – as a nice coincidence – all this happened on the day, when Google announced its first own mobile CPU, called Tensor.

  [...]

  Without the keyboard I’m not sure how much I’ll use it in the future. Obviously, it will be still good for reading or listening to music. But I’ll need to switch to other devices a lot more often, as I prefer typing on real keyboards instead of screens.

• Jakub Steiner: Single Cycle Rave

  Some pointless technicalities: Digitakt is a drum machine that allows to loop even super tiny samples so what you get is a very versatile oscillator to furter shape with EQ and effects. I am still terrible and slow, but there is definitely joy in playing versus programming a pattern in a tracker. Sure it feels a bit odd to keep the amazing Digitone off, but I feel like I always spoit the broth by adding and adding more. This track benefts from the minimalistic constraints I think.

Defence/Aggression

• Belarusian NGO chief found hanged in Ukraine

Monopolies

• Patents

  • UK to look at whether change to the current SEP framework is required [Ed: FRAND as a concept should be banned as it boils down to a number of misleading euphemisms, perfuming a grave injustice]

    The UK courts have become an important reference point in the global FRAND landscape, so a process looking at whether changes to the current SEP environment are needed has the potential to be very significant

  • TiVo and Google renew patent partnership [Ed: This is not a "partnership"; this shows distortion or extreme miscomprehension of what patents are and how they work]

    TiVo has announced a long-term renewal of its patent license with Google.

    The agreement will see Google continue to have broad coverage under TiVo’s patent portfolios, and extends a relationship first established in 2012.

    TiVo, which became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xperi Holding Corporation in June 2020, has spent decades investing in R&D for technologies deployed across the media and entertainment industry. The company holds a global patent portfolio of more than 5,000 patents.

  • New call for proposals under revamped Academic Research Programme [Ed: The criminals who run the EPO are once again bribing scholars to produce biased and false ‘studies’ for reputation laundering purposes, in effect corrupting universities]

    Today the EPO is launching its call for proposals for its Academic Research Programme (ARP). With this revamped scheme, now in its fifth edition, the EPO will support collaborative research with scientific partner institutions, which can benefit from a wider scope, bigger budget and longer duration. The ARP foresees closer interaction between researchers and staff from across the EPO. Under the programme, grants of up to EUR 150 000 will be awarded per research area in relation to two streams (each with a grant envelope of €300 000).

  • UK court hands down first judgment in InterDigital and Lenovo’s five-patent battle

    EP 588 is one of five European patents are at the heart of the debate. The other patents at issue are EP 23 63 008, EP 2 557 714, EP 24 21 318 and EP 33 55 537. All pertain to the 3G and 4G standard. The court has already heard a second technical trial relating to EP 537, with a decision expected in the coming months.

    Since 2009, the parties have discussed licensing EP 558. InterDigital claims that it has made global licensing offers to Lenovo on FRAND terms. InterDigital also offered to licence the patent on alternative terms. However, so far the parties were unable to reach an agreement.

    InterDigital claimed that Lenovo was an unwilling FRAND licensee and would not accept the offered FRAND licence. However, Lenovo rejected claims that InterDigital’s offer was FRAND. Furthermore, InterDigital claims that Lenovo has imported and marketed 4G devices into the UK. Such an action, argued InterDigital, constituted infringement of EP 558.

    InterDigital patent is valid

    Lenovo denied infringement and counterclaimed for invalidity of the patent, on the basis of lack of novelty, lack of validity, and inventive step. The court rejected the counterclaim. The next trial is a FRAND trial, scheduled for next year, over EP 558.

    InterDigital had also initiated parallel proceedings in Germany, with the company filing infringement claims against Xiaomi at the Regional Court Munich. The claims are over EP 537, EP 318, and EP 558, on which the UK has just ruled. However, according to an InterDigital press release, the parties have now settled all pending litigation.

  • FOSS Patents: InterDigital on a roll, settles with Xiaomi: patent infringement complaints and anti-antisuit injunctions in Germany and India prove decisive–license covers 5G and HEVC

    The summer is treating U.S. research and patent licensing firm InterDigital well. Less than a week after netting a strategic victory in a UK patent infringement case against Lenovo, InterDigital (often referred to by its stock ticker symbol, IDCC) today announced a license deal that settles all pending litigation against Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi. The covered patents include InterDigital’s 3G/4G/5G cellular portfolio as well as its HEVC (aka H.265) video codec patents.

    The amounts involved are not known, but the volume must be rather significant. Just last month, Bloomberg reported that Xiaomi had overtaken Apple to become the world’s no. 2 smartphone maker by unit sales. Xiaomi is truly an amazing entrepreneurial success story, and also has ambitious plans in the electric vehicle market. Maybe Xiaomi will once again manage to “come out of nothing” and rise to the top.

    While InterDigital had greater leverage in litigation at this point, Xiaomi has so far been doing a good job demonstrating to patent holders that it is neither a soft target nor an unwilling licensee or “hold-out.” Xiaomi seems to have learned the patent licensing and litigation game fast. Given its market share, I guess I’ll have to pay closer attention to its future patent cases.

• Copyrights

  • EU Copyright Directive: what legal threats mean in reality

    The EU has begun legal action against 23 member states for failing to implement the directive into their national laws, but what impact will this have?

Distributions

• New Releases

  • Nitrux 1.5.1 Released with Latest KDE Plasma Desktop, Updated Installer

    Nitrux 1.5.1 appears to be a small update to the Nitrux 1.5 series of the distribution, which shipped last month as one of the first to support the Linux 5.13 kernel series. Now, the new release ships with updated kernels, including Linux 5.4.137 LTS as the default kernel, as well as Linux 5.10.55 LTS and Linux 5.13.7, which can be installed from the repositories.

    Nitrux also supports Liquorix and Xanmod kernels, currently Linux 5.12.0-19.3, 5.13.7, and 5.13.7-cacule, as well as Linux-Libre LTS and non-LTS kernels, currently Linux 5.10.55 and 5.12.19, all of which can be installed from the repositories.

  • IPFire 2.27 – Core Update 159 available for testing

    
    And another update is available for testing, with a brand new kernel and an updated toolchain.

    This is a major update for IPFire, as it rebases the IPFire kernel on Linux 5.10, the latest long-term supported release of the Linux kernel. Arne has been working through a long spring getting IPFire ported on this release and it is now finally ready for prime-time. It features…

Devices/Embedded

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Raspberry Pi ‘WeatherClock’ shows you the hour’s forecast

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Android System Intelligence is Device Personalization Services – 9to5Google

  • Google soon won’t let you sign in on devices running Android 2.3.7 or older – The Verge

  • Google Pixel: Android Security Bulletin Releases Flash Updates, Soon Available for Other Android Phones | Tech Times

  • Google Play failing to detect stalkerware on Android devices

  • Google will DELETE Android apps from thousands of users’ smartphones | Express.co.uk

  • Google adds a ‘mic notification’ accessibility settings on Android

  • Users of old Android versions will no longer be able to use Google apps and services

  • Old Android phones are about to break FOREVER – are you affected?

  • Oppo Android 12 (ColorOS 12) update tracker: Eligible devices, release…

  • LineageOS 18.1 build brings Android 11 to Walmart’s Android TV boxes

  • Samsung Galaxy A20 is getting Android 11-based One UI 3.1 update in the US – GSMArena.com news

  • This Android malware steals your data in the most devious way • BGR

  • Canceled Nokia 400 Android feature phone appears in hands-on video – SlashGear

  • Snapchat Dark mode for Android phones: Here’s how to get the feature

  • Android Auto update brings back a favourite user feature – and it’s about time | T3

  • We asked, you told us: This is your favorite Android skin – Android Authority

  • This new Android banking malware can screen record everything on your phone | Business Insider India

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Web Browsers

  • HTTP Security Headers: Why? How? What?

    Initially used for simple metadata, HTTP headers now play an important role in the vast field that web security is.

    Setting up HTTP security headers is the quickest, less expensive, and probably the most effective way to secure a web application today. Here is how.

• Education

  • Auckland University of Technology choose Koha Library System

    The move away from an overseas vendor product will save the university $100,000 per year from 2022 onwards. The library retains all functionality from the current system and gains a number of other benefits for both students and library staff.

    AUT and Catalyst find their values around openness closely aligned. Catalyst is excited to partner with AUT, where the library team have become champions in the use of open source software. “Adopting Koha allows us to continue our progress in open source – this drives increased flexibility and control of our own destiny. Open source software allows our people to take ownership – the move to Koha will mean increased capacity, capability and satisfaction for our staff. We get to work directly with a huge global community of librarians and developers to improve and extend Koha, including dozens of libraries in New Zealand,” says AUT Manager of Open Library Initiatives, Craig Murdoch.

• Programming/Development

  • Java

    • Azul Announces Commercial Support for the Eclipse Temurin OpenJDK Distribution

Opinion | To Make the World A Human Dwelling Place For All: I Can’t Believe What You Say Because I See What You Do

“We Will Live in a Completely Different World”: A Conversation With Svetlana Alexievich

Nadezhda Azhgikhina: Svetlana, human rights organizations are concerned by the new wave of repressions in Belarus; the independent press and civil society are being targeted. The Belarus Association of Journalists is in danger of being shut down, and so is the Belarus PEN Center

Welcome to Western China!

Forbidding millions of people from boarding a train, ordering a meal outdoors, or watching a film in a cinema without proving they are not infected by showing, as many as ten times a day, a document that business-owners will have to check, shifts us into another world.

That world already exists and it’s called China. Police officers there have augmented-reality glasses linked to thermal cameras on their helmets so they can pick out a person with a temperature in a crowd. Is this what we want?

St. Petersburg artist auctions off ‘foreign agent’ tattoo in support of Meduza

Arina, an illustrator and tattoo artist from St. Petersburg — also known by her Instagram handle awaystland — has announced plans to auction off a “foreign agent” tattoo in support of Meduza and the advocacy group Nasiliu.net (No to Violence). 

Health/Nutrition

• Fed Up With Democrats, Thousands March to Demand Medicare for All

  To be fair, President Joe Biden has done what he promised to do during his campaign, which is to preserve and strengthen the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and effectively expand private health insurance coverage via subsidies. The ACA is not designed to cover all people with the best and most affordable health care. Biden’s major legislative achievement thus far, the American Rescue Plan, included more government subsidies for private health insurance plans to cover unemployed Americans while leaving millions more out of the equation. Neither the ACA nor the American Rescue Plan’s health care provisions ensure that all Americans have good-quality free health care.

  The only assurance is that private insurance company profits remain healthy. Earlier this summer, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a campaign to encourage Americans to sign up for private insurance through HealthCare.gov (perhaps a more appropriate address for the website would be HealthInsurance.gov). The Biden administration celebrated the fact that 2 million more Americans were able to purchase low-cost or no-cost private health insurance plans or sign up under expanded Medicaid programs. The insurance industry front group Partnership for America’s Health Care Future echoed that number as an achievement to celebrate. But neither made mention of the tens of millions who remain uninsured and underinsured. There is even less acknowledgment of the fact that tax dollars are subsidizing corporate profits for what is often mediocre health care coverage.

• Opinion | How Media Consolidation Endangers Our Health Amid Pandemic

  On Sunday, New York Times journalists Sheera Frenkel and Tiffany Hsu wrote on a topic that’s gone underreported: the role that local radio and television stations play in spreading lies about COVID vaccines.

• Lock Down (Again?)

• Vaccinated People May Spread the Virus, Though Rarely, C.D.C. Reports

  In the new report, which was intended to explain the agency’s sudden revision to its masking advice for vaccinated Americans, the C.D.C. described an outbreak in Provincetown, Mass., this month that quickly mushroomed to 470 cases in Massachusetts alone, as of Thursday.

  Three-quarters of the infected were fully immunized, and the Delta variant was found in most of the samples that were genetically analyzed. Vaccinated and unvaccinated people who were infected carried high levels of the virus, the agency reported.

• Pfizer, Moderna raising vaccine prices in Europe: report

  Reuters reported that Pfizer has raised the price of its vaccine from 15.50 euros to 19.50 euros, or around $23.15. Moderna has raised its prices to the equivalent of about $25.50 per dose.

• Pfizer and Moderna raise prices for COVID-19 vaccines in EU- FT

  The new price for the Pfizer shot was 19.50 euros ($23.15)against 15.50 euros previously, the newspaper said, citing portions of the contracts seen.

  The price of a Moderna vaccine was $25.50 a dose, the contracts show, up from about 19 euros in the first procurement deal but lower than the previously agreed $28.50 because the order had grown, the report said, citing one official close to the matter.

Integrity/Availability

• Proprietary

  • Security

    • Pegasus and the Threat of Cyberweapons in the Age of Smartphones

      The possible targets not only include journalists and activists, but also government officials. This includes 14 heads of states and governments: three presidents (France’s Emmanuel Macron, Iraq’s Barham Salih and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa), three sitting and seven former prime ministers, and a king (Morocco’s Mohammed VI). The three sitting prime ministers are Pakistan’s Imran Khan, Egypt’s Mostafa Madbouly and Morocco’s Saad-Eddine El Othmani. Among the seven former prime ministers are Lebanon’s Saad Hariri, France’s Édouard Philippe, Algeria’s Noureddine Bedoui and Belgium’s Charles Michel, according to the Washington Post.

      Once the malware is installed on a target’s phone, the spyware not only provides full access to the device’s data but also controls the phone’s microphone and camera. Instead of a device for use by the owner, the phone becomes a device that can be used to spy on them, recording not only telephonic conversations but also in-person conversations, including images of the participants. The collected information and data are then transmitted back to those deploying Pegasus.

    • Privacy/Surveillance

      • The Cryptocurrency Surveillance Provision Buried in the Infrastructure Bill is a Disaster for Digital Privacy

        While the language is still evolving, the proposal would seek to expand the definition of “broker” under section 6045(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to include anyone who is “responsible for and regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets” on behalf of another person. These newly defined brokers would be required to comply with IRS reporting requirements for brokers, including filing form 1099s with the IRS. That means they would have to collect user data, including users’ names and addresses.

        The broad, confusing language leaves open a door for almost any entity within the cryptocurrency ecosystem to be considered a “broker”—including software developers and cryptocurrency startups that aren’t custodying or controlling assets on behalf of their users. It could even potentially implicate miners, those who confirm and verify blockchain transactions. The mandate to collect names, addresses, and transactions of customers means almost every company even tangentially related to cryptocurrency may suddenly be forced to surveil their users. 

        How this would work in practice is still very much an open question. Indeed, perhaps this extremely broad interpretation was not even the intent of the drafters of this language. But given the rapid timeline for the bill’s likely passage, those answers may not be resolved before it hits the Senate floor for a vote.

      • Zoom settles $85 million class-action lawsuit — see how much you could get

      • Zoom Agrees To Settle A Privacy Lawsuit For $85 Million

        The settlement still requires approval by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, Calif., but if she signs off, subscribers would receive 15% refunds on their core subscriptions, or $25, whichever amount is larger. Zoom users who did not pay for an account can submit a claim for $15. Zoom will also up its security, committing to alerting users about third-party app data sharing, and taking more measures to safeguard user data.

      • New German ID Cards: More control, less freedom?

        There’s a pressing reason why data protection activists like Leena Simon are raising the alarm: From August 2, authorities in Germany are planning to massively extend requirements for fingerprints to be registered. From that day on, all German citizens applying for a new government-issued ID will be obliged to permit their fingerprints to be stored electronically on the card. So far, this was a voluntary procedure for ID cards and obligatory only for separate passport documents.

        More than 62 million Germans have an ID card. They have the same dimensions as a credit card and are valid for 10 years. Most people use them for everyday movements within the country, although they can also be used for traveling around the EU.

      • New Polish ID cards blocked after fingerprint scanners raise security concerns

        The introduction of new national identity cards in Poland has been delayed indefinitely amid concerns expressed by the Internal Security Agency (ABW) about the threat to state security and personal privacy posed by fingerprint scanners.

        The government has confirmed that it is preparing urgent legislation to postpone the issuance of the cards, which were due to come in on 2 August and bring Poland into line with new EU security rules.

      • [Old] REGULATION (EU) 2019/1157 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 June 2019 on strengthening the security of identity cards of Union citizens and of residence documents issued to Union citizens and their family members exercising their right of free movement (Text with EEA relevance)

        5. Identity cards shall include a highly secure storage medium which shall contain a facial image of the holder of the card and two fingerprints in interoperable digital formats. For the capture of biometric identifiers, Member States shall apply the technical specifications as established by Commission Implementing Decision C(2018) 7767 (13).

      • DOJ Official Supports Mandatory Breach Reporting [iophk: Windows TCO]

        There is currently no federal law requiring such disclosures, but bipartisan Senate legislation co-sponsored by Senator Angus King, I-Maine, would change that. Titled Cyber Incident Notification Act of 2021, the bill was introduced last month.

        This legislation would require all contractors, federal agencies, companies, and organizations critical to U.S national security to report all breaches of data to the Department of Homeland Securities’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within 24 hours.

        The bill and discussions about it come in light of high-profile cyberattacks that have targeted software company SolarWinds and oil transport company Colonial Pipeline in the last several months. And the discussion isn’t expected to slowdown as more critical infrastructure is hooked up to the [I]nternet.

Defence/Aggression

• Decolonizing Pan-Americanism

  The concept of Pan-Americanism has been a contested space since the early nineteenth century between the Bolivarian project of uniting the newly independent states of Latin America against foreign interference, on the one hand, and Monroeism, which has sought to establish the Americas as a protectorate of the U.S., on the other.[1] The idea that the U.S. has the historic mission of leading a process of Pan-American unity against any European incursion contains the contradiction of introducing a new process of colonization, with all its multiple hierarchies of domination (race, class, gender, culture), but this time by Washington, in the name of regional autonomy and mutual assistance. Today we are witnessing a growing aversion to the Monroeist vision of Pan-Americanism as manifest in the deteriorating legitimacy of the Organization of American States (OAS) as an impartial association of the hemisphere’s countries. This deterioration is precisely due to Washington’s relentless opposition to Latin American independence and integration and its failure to adopt a policy based on recognition of the sovereign equality of nations.

  Biden follows Trump’s path

• Opinion | Resisting Nuclear Weapons in a Climate Crisis

  On July 21, I was walking in the forests surrounding the German Air Force Base at Büchel in the Eifel Mountains with three Catholic Worker friends, Susan van der Hijden of Amsterdam, Netherlands, Susan Crane of Redwood City, California, and Christiane Danowski of Dortmund, Germany. We were there at the end of an “International Week” of protests against the approximately 20 US nuclear gravity bombs known as B61s kept at the base in a “nuclear sharing” agreement with the United States.

• Just Let the Militias Have Iraq

  So peace may be a strong word for a weak gesture, but it’s still more than I had hoped for from a century long chickenhawk like Joe. And despite the incessant sob stories coming out of the mainstream media, who will have you and anyone unfortunate enough to listen believe that imperial conquest is the key to feminism in savage brown countries, there appears to finally be something of a bipartisan consensus that Afghanistan has been a gigantic waste of time and resources. Which frankly begs the question, what the fuck are we still doing in Iraq?

  Out of the two flagship wars on terror, Iraq was always the more obvious mistake. At least Afghanistan had actually hosted the fuckers responsible for 9/11, even if they were more than willing to hand them over before we started shooting. The Iraq War had been precipitated on such obvious lies that I was able to expose them on my PC at 15 in between lesbian porno binges. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam fucking hated al-Qaeda more than we did. And yet we’re still there. Biden can call them advisors all he wants but some 2,500 troops are still in Babylon, ready to die for some hopped up neocon conspiracy to control the world’s oil supply.

• The Washington Post Won’t Let Go of Afghanistan

  Meanwhile, civilian casualties in Afghanistan reached record highs in May and June, with women and children making up nearly half of the losses.  The Afghan air force killed and wounded more than twice as many civilians in that period as in the first half of 2020.  During one five-month period in Afghanistan, nearly 90 percent of the people killed by U.S. drones were not the intended target.  The source of the latter information, whistleblower David Hale, was just given a 45-month prison sentence for leaking documents with this information.  President Biden’s Department of Justice was seeking a nine-year sentence.

  The critics of the withdrawal make very little sense; they are led by David Ignatius, the national security columnist of the Washington Post, who typically shills for the military and intelligence communities.  Last week’s column (“Biden’s options on Afghanistan are shrinking”) is a stunner in view of the fact that the United States has been trying to negotiate an end to this miserable war with one foot long out the door.  Ignatius believes the Biden administration should have left our thousands of contractors in the country to “help the Afghan army continue its operations.”  But who would protect the U.S. contractors?  With the Afghan army, including members of the elite commando corps, beating a hasty retreat from the Taliban, there is no reason to believe the so-called Afghan government could do so.

• January 6 Commission Is Necessary But Isn’t Likely to Break Trump’s Grip on GOP

• Dems Blast McCarthy Over Joke About Violence Toward Pelosi With Speaker’s Gavel

• Can Saudis/US Use Water Crisis to Bring Yemenis to Their Knees?

  When the well ran dry, Abu Yahya al-Hamdani, who provides water to many residents of the Saruf neighborhood in northeastern Sana`a, had no warning. Last week, the water table dipped lower in his water well and the pump began to suck air. For the families in the neighborhood, to whom the danger of water shortage suddenly became visible, the specter of dying of thirst is closer than ever.

• Whistleblower Daniel Hale Sentenced To 45 Months In Prison For Exposing The Horrors Of US Drone Strike Programs

  So begins the very dry press release from the Department of Justice. What this is, though, is another successful prosecution of a whistleblower. The “Tennessee man” is Daniel Hale, the whistleblower who exposed the breadth and reach of the United States’ extrajudicial killing programs.

• US suffocates Cuba for unwavering, victorious anti-imperialism at great cost

• As Taliban Advances, Europe Fears an Afghan Migration Crisis

  Around 2,000 Afghans a day are entering Turkey, and migration experts expect the numbers to surge as the Taliban seizes control of more of Afghanistan.

  The Taliban is currently besieging three major cities in south and west Afghanistan to add to the rapid rural gains it has made in recent weeks in the wake of the decision by the Biden administration to withdraw US troops from the country. Almost all NATO troops will be gone by September. Few observers believe the Afghan government will be able to hold out and last week a Pentagon watchdog warned that the country’s government will likely face an “existential crisis.”

• Big-Money Republican Donors Are Now Backing the GOP’s War on Fair Elections

  Mayer captures one of the oddities that make it hard for so many journalists to capture the big picture here: So many of the small details are inane. She covers the Arizona “forensic audit” (or “fraudit”) in Maricopa County, and the cast of bizarros behind it, from the grifting Cyber Ninjas to the Overstock.com guy to babbling QAnonics. It’s easy to chuckle at the lunacy on display. But Republicans in other states, and within powerful big-money groups, are taking notes, and hoping to spread the election-undermining tactic to other states where Biden’s win was fairly narrow—Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania among them. The point is not that they can steal the 2020 election—they can’t—but they’re laying the groundwork for 2022 and 2024. That’s what has Hasen “scared shitless”: the spread of “election subversion,” new laws passed across the country that will elevate election officials “who will mess with the count,” he told Mayer.

• Third Officer Who Responded to US Capitol Attack Dies by Suicide

  This is the third known suicide of a police officer who responded to the attack on the Capitol.

• He Killed Himself After the Jan. 6 [Insurrection]. Did He Die in the Line of Duty?

  On Friday, his widow, Erin Smith, will petition the Police and Firefighters’ Retirement and Relief Board to designate her husband’s suicide as a death in the line of duty, a designation that comes with vastly greater financial benefits and, she says, more dignity. But the odds are decidedly against her.

• Four officers who responded to U.S. Capitol attack have died by suicide

  The District of Columbia’s police department on Monday said two more police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol have died by suicide, bringing to four the number of known suicides by officers who guarded the building that day.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

• How a ProPublica Reporter Learned Scammers’ Secret Sauce

  When the federal government enacted the CARES Act in March 2020, it boosted jobless aid and expanded the benefits to include people who weren’t typically covered, like gig workers. The legislation was designed to cushion workers against the massive blow of a partial economic shutdown during the pandemic.

  But if you haven’t already buried your memories of last year, you probably remember how difficult it was to get those unemployment benefits.

Environment

• “The Ants and the Grasshopper”: Raj Patel’s New Film Aims to “Decolonize” Climate & Health Solutions

  We look at a groundbreaking new documentary on the climate crisis and the global food system, “The Ants and the Grasshopper,” which follows the journey of a Malawian farmer as she tries to end hunger and gender inequality in her village, and tackle climate change in the United States. “In this film, what we’re trying to do is decolonize the view of how it is that we fix the climate crisis and the health crisis by foregrounding the wisdom of peasants from around the world, whether they’re in the United States or from Malawi,” says co-director Raj Patel.

• 4 Major Environmental Treaties the U.S. Never Ratified — But Should

• Report Outlines ‘Crucial’ Need for Biden Administration to Aid Climate Refugees

  A leading refugee advocacy organization on Monday published a report outlining ways in which the Biden administration can help people displaced by the ever-worsening climate emergency find safety.

  “The U.S. government has many tools that it can use now to make a meaningful impact on the lives of climate-displaced people.”—IRAP report

• Protestors Gather to Highlight Social Justice and Environmental ‘Crime Scene’ at Mossmorran Petrochemical Complex

  Yesterday, Fife locals were joined by hundreds of environmental campaigners from across Scotland at the gates of the Mossmorran petrochemical complex – Scotland’s third largest emitter. 

  The protest was part of Scotland’s first “Climate Camp” in over a decade, a weekend of dedicated climate activism in the area. It follows five years of campaigning at a local level to shut down the twin ethylene and liquid natural gas (LNG) plants at Mossmorran.

  Stay up to date with DeSmog news and alerts

• ‘Civil Disobedience Is Our Duty’: Swiss Climate Campaigners Occupy Zürich Financial Center

  Climate justice campaigners occupied the center of Zürich’s financial district Monday to demand that the two biggest banks in Switzerland divest from oil, gas, and coal.

  Dozens of “singing and chanting activists” blocked entrances to the headquarters of Credit Suisse and a UBS office building on Paradeplatz square, Reuters reported. Police officers arrested about 30 people who refused to disperse during the peaceful demonstration.

• Opinion | How Corporate Courts Impede Efforts to Battle the Climate Crisis

  Any day now, Italy expects to be ordered to hand millions of dollars over to an oil exploration corporation, following the Italian government’s decision to ban such exploration off its coast.

• Near-Record Temps and Deadly Fires Engulf Southern Europe

  Southern Europe continues to bake and burn under intense heat Monday as scores of fires have forced evacuations and caused mass destruction across Italy, Greece, and Turkey.

  “We are facing the worst heat wave since 1987,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Monday, referring to week-long soaring temperatures that year which claimed over 1,000 lives.

• Energy

  • What if bitcoin went to zero?

    A rout could be triggered either by shocks from within the system, say through a technical failure, or a big hack of a leading exchange. Or they could come from outside it: a clampdown by regulators, for instance, or an abrupt end to the “everything rally” in markets, say in response to central banks raising interest rates.

  • Illegal crypto-mining operation discovered in Polish police HQ

    The civilian employee reportedly used the station’s computers, which he upgraded with specialised software, to mine cryptocurrency. He also stole the station’s electricity for the power-intensive process.

    The National Police Command’s (KGP) spokesman, Mariusz Ciarka, told Notes from Poland that the employee in question did not access police databases. No breaches of the internal Police Data Transmission Network had been detected.

• Wildlife/Nature

  • The Collapse of Wild Red Wolves Is a Warning That Should Worry Us All

    The killing of red wolf 11768f was the beginning of the bad times for this country’s most critically endangered canid. It was mid-2015, and 11768F was a six-year-old matriarch with a mate and a large family. She’d already given birth several times before, and the evidence suggests she may have been caring for more newborns in the wet coastal forests that flourish near North Carolina’s Outer Banks. She and her family were supposed to be safe, thanks to the strong protections of the Endangered Species Act, which makes it a crime to harm or harass listed animals like red wolves. But then, in a foreshadowing of events to follow, the federal government issued her death warrant: It gave a private landowner permission to gun her down. By late June, she was dead. She was the first-ever federally listed red wolf shot and killed by a private individual with explicit government consent.1This article was written with the support of the Alicia Patterson Foundation.

Finance

• Collapsing Federal Corporate Crime Enforcement

  Despite constant exposés in the mainstream media – still only reporting the tip of the iceberg – neither members of Congress nor presidents from the Republican and Democratic parties have raised the banner of tough “law and order” to counter rampaging corporate crime. Proposals to bring the laws up to date in their penalties and coverage to deter corporate lawbreaking are never a priority for Congress. When was the last time you heard a politician demand “corporate reform”?

  Many people still remember how Wall Street, in its greed and power, collapsed the economy in 2008-2009, cost nine million jobs, shredded pension and mutual funds, and insisted on a multi-trillion-dollar bailout. In 2018 Public Citizen found during President Donald Trump’s first year in office, enforcement against corporate crime and wrongdoing plummeted from the final year of the Obama administration (See Corporate Impunity “Tough on Crime” Trump Is Weak on Corporate Crime and Wrongdoing).

• Hundreds Arrested in DC Demanding Voting Rights, End to Poverty, and Death of Filibuster

  Leaders of the national Poor People’s Campaign and Rev. Jesse Jackson were among hundreds of people arrested in Washington, D.C. during a direct action Monday led by clergy and low-wage workers from across the country.

  The “Moral Monday” event—which follows last week’s 27-mile, four-day march in Texas, one of several states where GOP lawmakers have attacked voting rights this year—elevated demands for congressional action to protect ballot access and improve the lives of working people.

• Homes — Not “Sanctioned Encampments” — Are the Solution to Homelessness

• AOC Slams Democrats Who Would Rather Skip Town Than Vote to Extend Eviction Ban

• Graduate Workers at UT Austin Are Undervalued, Underpaid, and Demanding Answers

  Over the past year, American universities have been eager to tout their role in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. Among them, the University of Texas at Austin has taken particular pride in its role in developing and delivering vaccines and in graduating its first class of Dell Medical School students. However, these avowed commitments to health ring hollow considering that UT Austin, like many universities and medical centers across the country, fails to prioritize the health of its own students and employees. The university’s careless response to Covid emphasized “good choices” over strong, central leadership and transparent reporting. While UT does not report deaths on its Covid dashboard, graduate workers know of at least three staff members who died of the virus over the past year.

• Capitalism Primes Our Bodies for Illness

• Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer Told ‘Stop Playing the Blame Game’ and Extend Eviction Moratorium

  As congressional leaders and the White House continued to point fingers on Monday while coronavirus cases kept rising largely due to the highly contagious Delta variant, the youth-led Sunrise Movement and other progressives demanded that Democratic leadership act to extend the recently expired federal moratorium on evictions by any means necessary.

  “Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer: Stop playing the blame game and show us who you stand for.”—Lauren Maunus, Sunrise Movement

• GDP Rises 6.5 Percent in Second Quarter, Passing Pre-Pandemic Level of Output

  Productivity Growth Still Strong

  While the growth for the quarter was somewhat lower than had generally been expected, it would still likely imply strong productivity growth for the quarter. With the increase in hours worked likely to come in near 4.0 percent, the GDP figure would imply productivity growth near 2.5 percent. This is lower than the 4.1 percent rate from the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021 but far above the 1.0 percent annual rate in the decade preceding the pandemic. If this sort of uptick in productivity growth could be sustained, it makes it unlikely that inflation would be a problem in the years ahead.

• America’s Billionaires: Borrowing Their Way to Ever More Fabulous Fortunes

  The Rockefeller family had hired Rivera to paint the artistic centerpiece of the newly constructed Rockefeller Center in New York. Rivera’s resulting mural contrasted the “debauched rich” with workers on the rise. Right-wingers went apoplectic. Young Nelson, getting hammered, asked Rivera to remove an image of Lenin from the mural. Rivera refused, offering instead to add a portrait of Lincoln.

  The Rockefellers would eventually have Rivera’s mural plastered over, but not before E. B. White, the beloved author of Charlotte’s Web, penned “a classic of light verse” on the face-off for the New Yorker. His poem’s most famous couplet had grandson Nelson excusing his censorship:

• “Inflamed”: Dr. Rupa Marya & Raj Patel on Deep Medicine & How Capitalism Primes Us for Sickness

  As much of the world struggles to cope with the pandemic and its impacts, we speak with Dr. Rupa Marya and Raj Patel, co-authors of the new book, “Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice,” which examines the social and environmental roots of poor health. “Inflammation is the body’s appropriate response to damage, or the threat of damage,” says Marya, a physician and co-founder of the Do No Harm Coalition. “We’re learning that the social structures around us, the environmental, political structures around us, are tuning the immune system to sound out the full range of inflammation.” Patel adds that “capitalism primes bodies … for sickness.”

• “Give Us the Moratorium”: Rep. Cori Bush Sleeps on Capitol Steps Demanding Eviction Protection

  We speak with Missouri Congressmember Cori Bush, who is formerly unhoused, about why she has been sleeping on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with others since Friday night to protest her colleagues’ decision to adjourn for August recess without passing an extension to the federal eviction moratorium, which expired July 31, as millions are behind on rent. Bush tells Democracy Now! she could not “walk away from this situation and go on vacation” knowing that millions of people could end up on the streets. “This isn’t easy. This is not performative in any way. I would rather be at home, but I understand the urgency and the need of this crisis right now,” Bush says.

• Lebanon’s “National Financial Suicide”

• Deutsche Bank Pivots to Virtual Tech Conference as Delta Spreads

  Deutsche Bank AG will shift its September technology conference to a completely virtual format as governments and businesses come to grips with the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• ‘You can’t trust them’ Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Director accuses investigative journalists of working with Western spy agencies

  In an exclusive interview with talk show host Vladimir Solovyov, the Director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (the SVR) Sergey Naryshkin claimed that a number of independent Russian news outlets are part of a “network” allegedly linked to Western intelligence services via the investigative outlet Bellingcat. Naryshkin also reiterated claims that the August 2020 poisoning of opposition politician Alexey Navalny was orchestrated by the West, and said that the SVR is anticipating “new provocations” in the lead up to Russia’s fall elections. Meduza summarizes Sergey Naryshkin’s “Solovyov Live” interview here.

• 100 State Lawmakers From 20 States Join TX Dems in DC to Defend Voting Rights

• ‘He Should Resign’: Women’s Rights Group Denounces Violent Misogyny of Kevin McCarthy

  The women’s rights group UltraViolet on Monday added its voice to the chorus of condemnation of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy after the California Republican joked how difficult it would be to not beat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with the chamber’s gavel should he win her job following the 2022 midterm elections.

  McCarthy’s comments came during a Tennessee Republican Party fundraiser on Saturday, at which he was presented with an oversized gavel.

• 100+ State Lawmakers Join Texas Dems in DC to Demand Passage of For the People Act

  More than 100 state lawmakers from across the United States converged on Washington, D.C. Monday to join Texas Democrats—who fled Austin to block voter suppression legislation—in demanding that the U.S. Senate pass the For the People Act.

  The sweeping pro-democracy bill was approved by the Democrat-controlled House in March, but it has stalled in the evenly divided Senate. In June, Republican senators blocked debate on the For the People Act, fueling calls for Democrats to abolish the legislative filibuster.

• Percentage of Russians who vote in elections hits 17-year low, VTsIOM reports

  The share of Russian citizens who vote in elections has reached a 17-year low, writes RBC, citing a survey conducted by the state-owned Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM).

• The Little Talked About Covid-19 ‘Variants’: Vaccine Mismanagement Will Have Dire Repercussions

  These ambitious goals, which included the eradication of “extreme poverty and hunger”, to “combating lethal diseases” and “reducing child mortality worldwide”, proved to be yet another empty gesture which, unsurprisingly, amounted to little.

  Even if the architects of the project were well-intentioned as they labored to meet the 2015 deadline, the lack of true international solidarity made their commendable program simply impossible.

• Time Running Out for Democrats to Block GOP Gerrymandering Bonanza

  With the U.S. Census Bureau set to release data on August 16 that state governments will use to redraw their 10-year congressional and state legislative maps, progressives are warning Democrats in Congress that if they fail to pass redistricting reform within the next two weeks, Republicans are likely to gerrymander their way to decade-long GOP majorities in the House and in dozens of state houses.

  “You cannot out-organize a well-crafted gerrymander. Once manipulated maps are drawn, they will be almost impossible to overcome.”—Michael Li, Brennan Center for Justice

• Opposition politician Violetta Grudina detained following release from forced hospitalization

  Murmansk police detained opposition politician Violetta Grudina on the morning of August 2 — immediately after she was released from the medical facility where she was involuntarily hospitalized in mid-July.

• Opinion | Trump ‘Shadow Cabinet’ Drains Its Followers of Cash—and the Coup Rolls On

  Even though the number of dying Trump followers increases daily, his coup rolls on.

• Trump’s “Shadow Cabinet” Ensures His Coup Is Ongoing

• Both-Sidesing Democracy to Death

  After January 6, we noted (FAIR.org, 1/18/21) that many in corporate media finally found the courage to cast aside their commitment to false equivalence. Presumably shocked by what they had witnessed, reporters began using words like “sedition” and “incitement” without having to put them in the mouth of a source who could then be balanced by an opposing view. News outlets directly stated that Donald Trump “set in motion” (New York Times, 1/6/21) or was responsible for “inciting” (CNN.com, 1/12/21) the deadly attack on democracy.

• Pro-Trump social network inundated with terrorist propaganda: report

  Gettr, which was started last month by former President Trump’s campaign aide and spokesman Jason Miller, has seen a jump in posts from supporters of ISIS, including graphic content, videos of beheadings and memes of a militant executing the former president, who is shown wearing an orange jumpsuit, according to Politico.

  Moustafa Ayad, an executive director at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who first informed POLITICO of the jihadi propaganda on Gettr, said that the Islamic State has been “very quick” to exploit the app.

Misinformation/Disinformation

• Social Media Platforms Are a ‘Safe Space’ for Anti-Jewish Hate: Report

  Despite promises to crack down on hate speech, social media companies took no action against over 80% of the anti-Jewish posts—which included incitements to violence against Jews and Holocaust denial—reported on their platforms during a recent six-week period, a report published this weekend reveals.

  “This is not about algorithms or automation… Social media companies allow bigots to keep their accounts open and their hate to remain online, even when human moderators are notified.”—Imran Ahmed, CCDH

• Antivax quack tycoon Joe Mercola profits selling COVID-19 disinformation

  I’ve written about Joseph Mercola, DO on a number of occasions over the years, dating back to before I ever joined this blog, first as a contributor and then as an editor. Out of curiosity, as I was writing this post I tried to identify the first time I ever wrote about Mercola. It turns out that it was quite long ago in 2005, at a point when my very first blog was just over six months old. At the time, Mercola was—surprise! surprise!—comparing school vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Interestingly, the link to the original article that I discussed then now forwards to an article from 2009 that includes no mention of the Holocaust, and when I tried to find the original article at Archive.org, it turns out that the original link has been excluded from the almighty Wayback Machine. (It’s almost as though he was embarrassed by his use of the analogy, although it was useful to be reminded that the misuse and abuse of Holocaust was commonplace among antivaxxers even 19 years ago, years before my post.)

Censorship/Free Speech

• Kallee Lasn and Chase Palmieri – The Project Censored Show

Civil Rights/Policing

• Anti-domestic violence group ‘Nasiliu.net’ to launch crisis shelter program in Moscow

  Beginning in August, Nasiliu.net will provide emergency accommodations in Moscow hotels and hostels for victims of domestic violence, the advocacy group stated in a message to Meduza.

• Amid Allegations of Child Endangerment, HHS Inspector General to Probe Fort Bliss Detention Facility

  The inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that it is launching a review into a Biden administration-run detention center that holds thousands of unaccompanied migrant children in Fort Bliss, Texas following whistleblower allegations of unsafe conditions.

  The facility is one of the larger Emergency Intake Sites (EIS) set up to keep children out of Border Patrol custody, but human rights advocates say kids have languished there for too long and in conditions detrimental to their physical and mental well-being.

• Sha’Carri Richardson’s Story Shows Us Drug Testing Is a Harmful Drug War Tactic

• The Story of “El Chapo” and Why the Drug War Will Never End

  On January 31, 2019, US Customs and Border Protection announced its “biggest fentanyl bust ever,” 254 pounds of the synthetic opioid, discovered hidden under the floor of a tractor-trailer chock-full of Mexican contraband bound for Arizona and beyond. “Our great U.S. Border Patrol Agents made the biggest Fentanyl bust in our Country’s history,” then-President Donald Trump tweeted, back when he could still do that. “Thanks, as always, for a job well done!”

• Lawsuit Initiated Against Trump for ‘Illegal’ Deportations Resumes Against Biden

  “The administration is choosing to treat refugees like political pawns, and so we are eager to return to court so we can end Title 42 for families once and for all.”—Noah Gottschalk, Oxfam America

• ShotSpotter (Again) Spotted Altering Shots (And Spots) To Better Serve Police Narratives

  Dozens of cities around the nation are relying on early warning tech to help their law enforcement get out ahead of crime. (Well, get out slightly behind crime, to be accurate…) Microphones and sensors placed in strategic locations around cities pick up loud noises and pass this information on to police departments so they can scramble cops to the spotted shot.

• ‘That’s how suicide cases end up’ Belarusian sports officials caught on tape trying to pressure sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya into quitting Tokyo Olympics after she criticized them publicly. Full transcript.

  A year after protests swept Belarus and nearly forced long-time ruler Alexander Lukashenko from office, the nation’s politics has followed Belarusian athletes to Tokyo. On August 1, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya appealed directly to the Japanese police at Haneda Airport and asked for help from the International Olympic Committee, saying that she was being forced suddenly onto a flight bound for Minsk. The 24-year-old sprinter says the pressure started after she criticized Belarusian sports officials for deciding without her knowledge that she would run a relay race for which she hadn’t trained, in order to fill in for a disqualified team member. In a message shared on social media, Tsimanouskaya said she now fears criminal prosecution if she returns to Belarus. International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams later told journalists that Tsimanouskaya is being protected by the Japanese authorities. The U.N. refugee agency is reportedly involved in her case, and both the Czech Republic and Poland say they are ready to offer the Belarusian Olympian a visa. According to the BBC, Tsimanouskaya is now considering seeking asylum in Europe.

• New York Congresswoman Thinks It’s Too Hard To Be A Good Cop, Offers Up Bill That Would Codify Qualified Immunity

  Last summer, following the George Floyd killing, members of Congress introduced the Justice in Policing Act of 2020. Among other reforms, the bill (since renamed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act) attempted to bring an end to qualified immunity, the Supreme Court-created legal doctrine that allows officers to escape civil rights lawsuits if the court decides no existing precedent would have put them on notice that the violation of rights they committed was actually a violation of rights.

• 7 Years After Islamic State Genocide, Yazidi Survivors Still Seeking Justice

  “They say Daesh is no more. If that’s the case, then where are our missing ones? The parliament passed a law about Yazidi survivors, but where is its implementation? We need action,” she told VOA.

  Safeel said the “Yazidi genocide continues because we still have many missing people and most of us still reside in displacement camps.”

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• Judge Shoots Down ViaSat’s Quest To Stall Starlink Launches

  For a few years, scientific researchers have warned that Elon Musk’s Starlink low orbit satellite broadband constellations are harming scientific research. Simply, the light pollution Musk claimed would never happen in the first place is making it far more difficult to study the night sky, a problem researchers say can be mitigated somewhat but not eliminated. Another problem is there are simply so many low orbit satellites being launched, the resulting space junk is creating navigation hazards. US regulators, so far, have done little to nothing about either problem.

• After Exploiting Covid Broadband Program, Verizon Faces Unsurprising Opposition To Tracfone Merger

  When last we checked in with Verizon, the company had just been caught exploiting the government’s Covid broadband relief program to upsell struggling Americans to more expensive plans. Now, as Verizon tries to gain regulatory approval for its $6.2 billion acquisition of Tracfone, consumer groups and a small cadre of Senators are wondering if a company that thinks nothing of exploiting struggling Americans in need is a good steward for a discount phone company whose client base is predominantly comprised of low-income Americans.

• Pushing Gigabit, FBA President Says Debate over Megabit Speeds ‘Silly’

  Congress has been inundated with proposed legislation that would raise the speed threshold to address connectivity gaps exacerbated by the pandemic. In March, the Democrats proposed tiered service level connections, with anything below 100 Mbps download as low-tier. The current federal standard is 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload.

  Conversation should be on gigabit, not 100 Megabit

  Over the course of the Fiber Connect conference, many panels and keynote speakers did not even discuss 100/100 Mbps symmetrical speeds, and instead were talking about the differences between 1 Gbps service and 10 Gbps service, in between discussing the potential of 100 Gbps services.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

• Where can I buy DRM-free ebooks?

  Do you prefer to buy DRM-free ebooks? It means you can read them on any device you want, and they’re not locked to a single vendor or company. You actually own them.

  Here is a list of online bookshops that sell DRM-free ebooks, digital comics, magazines, and RPGs, usually in multiple formats for any of your favourite devices.

• [Old] How Vulfpeck Album ‘Sleepify’ Used Spotify Loophole to Earn $20,000

  Much fuss has been made over the impact of online streaming on artists’ lifestyles, particularly with respect to Spotify, the streaming giant that offers free music to millions, but only pays artists the royalty equivalent of peanuts. In seeking a Spotify loophole, last year a funk band from Michigan called Vulfpeck set out on a creative mission to get around this issue with the album Sleepify, a 5-minute long silent album, complete with 10 tracks, 30 seconds a-piece. The loophole worked for a little while, netting the band around $20,000 before Spotify pulled the plug.

  The Vulfpeck album coincided with an ambitious call to action, with the band asking its fans to play the silent album on repeat, while they slept, so as to trickle royalties from Spotify down to the band in record numbers — in other words, the ultimate Spotify loophole. At the time, Vulfpeck assured its fans that the album Sleepify would be a resounding success, with replays of the Vulfpeck album Sleepify paying off in the form of an admission-free tour.

• [Old] A Band That Tried to Make Money From Spotify Have Been Banned From Spotify

  The band, who are called Vulfpeck, uploaded a totally silent album and asked fans to play it while they slept, hoping to turn Spotify’s $0.007 pay-per-play into something that would help them survive. They generated revenue from the streams and the profit—which ended up being around $20,000—would be used to finance a free-admission tour to places where the album was played the most. Sadly, Spotify emailed the band, telling them that the album violated the site’s terms and conditions and would be taken down. It’s unclear if the Vulpeck will receive the money.

  [...]

  Jack: I think they panicked when they realised someone was actually making money from the music.

Monopolies

• Patents

  • Insulated From Patent Waivers, Pfizer and Moderna Hike Vaccine Prices

    “Our governments are complicit in this heist by pharma and companies across the board in other sectors. It’s the system they helped create.”—Tahir Amin, intellectual property lawyer

• Trademarks

  • Israel, Ice Cream, Trademarks: This Year’s Dumbest Controversy Results In Trademark Skullduggery

    Welcome to this year’s dumbest controversy thus far. A couple of weeks ago, famed ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s announced that it would no longer be selling its products in “occupied Palestinian territory.” Indicating that doing so would not align with the company’s values, the idea here was that settlements that infringed on territory that was deemed to belong to the Palestinians by international law would be off the company’s radar. Not all of Israel, mind you. Just the occupied territories. And that is when everyone lost their god damned minds. Ron DeSantis is seeking to have Florida put B&J and its parent company, Unilever, on a list of companies that should be scrutinized for “boycotting Israel”. Jewish leaders indicated that the kosher rating of the ice cream could be altered for the same reason. Except that isn’t what B&J are doing. It isn’t boycotting Israel at all. It’s simply refusing to sell its product in small sections of land that Israel currently occupies.

• Copyrights

  • YouTube Class Action: Maria Schneider Argues With Google Over Class Expansion

    Maria Schneider’s class action lawsuit against YouTube is being fought tooth and nail by both sides, centering around YouTube’s alleged restriction of access to takedown tools and a failure to terminate repeat copyright infringers. After shadowy company ‘Pirate Monitor’ exited the action, Schneider now wants to add new plaintiffs but YouTube and Google are having none of it.

  • Cox Prioritized Profits Over Limiting Piracy, Record Labels Tell Court

    Cox Communications is appealing the $1 billion piracy liability verdict a Virginia jury issued in 2019. Responding to this request, the opposing record labels argue that the ISP is not as innocent as it claims. Cox deliberately prioritized its own profits over limiting piracy, they stress.

  • Copyright Ruins Everything Again: How Dare A Sports Writer Get People Excited About The Olympics!

    Every few years, the Olympics comes along to remind us not so much about the power of personal triumphs in sports, but the vast overreach of copyright laws to control absolutely everything for no damn reason at all.