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Links 14/11/2021: On 'KDE World Domination' and DRM Backlash



  • GNU/Linux

    • Server

      • How Kubermatic helps automate Kubernetes across any infrastructure | VentureBeat

        The rise of Kubernetes since Google open-sourced the project back in 2014 says a lot about the broader industry push toward containerized applications. In a survey released last year, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) found that 92% of organizations now use containers in production environments, representing a 300% increase since 2016. Moreover, 91% of organizations that do run containers, use Kubernetes for orchestration.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Modernized Zstd Merged Into Linux 5.16 For Much Greater Performance - Phoronix

        While Zstd is used in various areas of the Linux kernel for data compression from transparent file-system compression with the likes of Btrfs to allowing kernel modules be compressed with this Zstandard algorithm, the in-kernel code had fallen years outdated. Finally with Linux 5.16 that Zstd in-kernel implementation is now being brought up to modern standards and delivering better performance too.

        Merged on Saturday evening for Linux 5.16 is the overhauled Zstd code for the Linux kernel. This revised code has a new kernel-style wrapper API around Zstd that should also facilitate easier updates moving forward and to be automatically generated/derived from the upstream Zstd source code.

      • First Enablement Patches For Intel's 13th Gen Raptor Lake Hybrid CPUs Headed To Linux

        Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs To Get Preliminary Support In Linux Through First Enablement Patches

        The source reports that the first enablement patches for Intel's next-gen Raptor Lake CPU family will begin to roll out in the coming weeks. The first patch that rolled out yesterday only adds the Raptor Lake ID (ID 183) to the Linux OS and while it is not that exciting, more patches are going to roll out in the coming weeks. The Intel Raptor Lake is mostly a refresh of the Alder Lake lineup so Intel may not require as many patches to add support for their next-generation chips. That might happen with Meteor Lake in 2023 which is a bigger architectural upgrade.

      • Graphics Stack

        • My personal hell of translating DXIL to SPIR-V – part 3

          It’s time we tackle one of the big problems of DXIL, the binding model. The D3D12 binding model is completely foreign to most people who know the Vulkan binding model, and vice versa. I don’t think there are that many people in the world who can claim to fully grasp the binding models in both APIs. Translating every last detail of the D3D12 binding model to Vulkan is extremely painful, and I feel D3D12 made some critical design mistakes which bite us (and native drivers?) hard. Whenever I hear people naively claim D3D12 and Vulkan is basically the same API, I cringe hard and cry a little inside. Translating low level APIs is hellish when the details don’t map 1:1 exactly and the binding model is the perfect vehicle to demonstrate it.

          I hope this blog post can serve as a definitive document on the insanity we need to go through in vkd3d-proton to make all of this work well. We have landed on a solution I feel is quite solid for AMD, but perhaps less so on other IHVs … A lot of credit here goes to Doitsujin who went through the insane task of rewriting the entire binding model in vkd3d-proton to the full TIER_3 binding model last year.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How to Install Minikube on Debian 11 Bullseye Linux

        Do we really need an entire server or cloud to start with Kubernetes Cluster? The answer is ‘No‘ because it is possible to use Minikube to implement a Kubernetes cluster with just a single node on your local PC for creating and managing virtual machines. Here in this tutorial, we learn the steps to install MiniKube on Debian 11 Bullseye Desktop or Server.

      • How To Upgrade Raspberry Pi OS to Bullseye from Buster

        A new Raspberry Pi OS based upon Debian 11 (Codenamed: Bullseye, following a Toy Story character naming convention) has been dropped and it has Raspberry Pi fans clamouring to install the latest OS on their favorite single board computer.

      • EasyOS: Samba daemon startup fixed
      • How To Rename Multiple Files At Once In Linux - OSTechNix

        In this tutorial, we will learn how to rename multiple files at once in Linux using various tools. All examples provided here are tested in Ubuntu, however they should work on any Linux operating systems.

      • I’ve set GNOME Terminal to use the fish shell. We’ll see how this goes. – BaronHK's Rants

        I don’t have anything against bash, but fish seems like it could be easier.

        I’ve set GNOME Terminal to load fish instead of my user shell, bash. I figured this is the way I always use my shell anyway, and it runs the least risk of breaking anything while I figure out if I even like fish enough to continue using it.

        So far I am liking fish. It’s going to take a while to become proficient with an entirely new shell, but I can already say that the command completion is welcome relief.

        Even with bash-completion, which you have to add to Debian, Bash isn’t this good in that regard, as fish is out of the box.

      • The tech pro's guide to Linux Mint - TechRepublic

        There are many reasons for Linux Mint holding onto that top-five status month after month. Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is already one of the most user-friendly distributions available. Mint then opts for a default desktop environment, Cinnamon, that is much more familiar to the masses.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Be flexible to win big

          Before KDE, I came from the Apple world, which takes a different approach. Apple identifies distinct use cases and focuses their efforts like a laser on making them as polished as possible. This works very well, but it requires ignoring, abandoning, or explicitly blocking other use cases, and sometimes inventing new things that conflict with what others are doing, in the hope that their new thing takes over. It requires saying “no” a lot and being opinionated.

          Apple’s opinionated approach worked well for me with my own personal use cases in my pre-KDE days, as it did for many millions of other people. But evidently it doesn’t work for everyone, as Apple’s products routinely fail to crack 15% market share. And when they do, they often fall back down to that level after competitors emerge. But that’s okay, because Apple isn’t going for the mass market anyway; they’re happy in their profitable and opinionated boutique niche.

          But that’s not KDE, and it never has been; we’ve always dreamed of a broad scope and being useful for everyone. This is what’s behind Plasma desktop’s extreme flexibility; Plasma Mobile for phones; Plasma Bigscreen for TVs; and Plasma Nano for embedded devices. It’s why the Steam Deck handheld gaming console, PinePhone smartphone, and JingPad A1 tablet are built on top of KDE technology.

          To be the market leader, you must be flexible enough to accommodate everyone’s weird and random use cases. This includes grandmas, gamers, businesspeople, students, teachers, phones, tablets, shared family PCs, kiosks, and everything in between. It means you have to give up a certain amount of that laser-focus on making a particular use case bulletproof, in favor of flexibly accommodating everyone and working with partners to support their needs so that they can build their products on top of your platform. Windows and Android do this, and so does KDE.

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • System76 reportedly developing their own Rust-written desktop, not based on GNOME

          With GNOME curling up on itself more and more, this was inevitable. I’m curious to see what System76’s developer come up with, because interacting with some of them on Twitter has taught me they’re good people with good ideas. Since I’m not a developer I’m not going to make any comments on their use of Rust – I’ll leave that to our readers – but I like that it’s indented to be distribution-independent.

    • Distributions

      • Debian Family

        • Raspberry Pi OS Finally Hits Bullseye With Debian 11 Update Bringing Several Upgrades | HotHardware

          The biggest change is support for version 3 of the GTK+ user interface toolkit. This is a software layer that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for widgets like buttons, menus, and so forth. Most desktop apps have, up to this point, used version 2 but as an increasing number have begun leveraging version 3, the Raspberry Pi Foundation felt it was time to make the switch.

          It sounds like this wasn't necessarily an easy decision. In a blog post, Raspberry Pi Foundation's Simon Long explains that many thing are simply easier to do with version 2, especially as it pertains to customizing the look of widgets. He also notes that version 3 removed several user features, necessitating certain tweaks, like the new appearance of tabbed interfaces for widgets.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • Open Hardware/Modding

        • Prototyping Your Way To Better Prototypes | Hackaday

          If you’ve ever made a prototype of something before making the “real” one or even the final prototype, you probably already know that hands-on design time can’t be beat. There’s really no substitute for the insight you will glean from having a three-dimensional thing to hold and turn over in your hands for a full assessment. Sometimes you need to prototype an object more than once before investing time, money, and materials into making the final prototype for presentation.

          This is [Eric Strebel]’s second video in series about making an eco-friendly wireless phone charger. He made a paper prototype in the first video, and in this follow-up, he refines the idea further and makes a chipboard version of the charger before the final molded paper pulp prototype. The main advantage of the chipboard version is to design the parts so that each one will be easier to pull from its mold in a single piece without any undercuts.

        • Bluetooth RC Car Packs In A Few Sensors | Hackaday

          Have you ever been walking around the house, desperate to know the ambient temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure? Have you ever wanted to capture that data with a small remote-controlled platform? If so, this project from [TUENHIDIY] will be exactly what you’ve been looking for.

          The little remote-control car is built around a Seeed Wio Terminal. This is a microcontroller platform that comes with a screen already attached, along with wireless hardware baked in and Grove connectors for hooking up external modules. Thus, the car adds a DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor, along with a BMP280 air pressure sensor using the Grove connectors.

      • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Programming/Development

        • Architecting Software for Leverage

          Lucas Cavalcanti is a principal engineer at Nubank, the most influential Brazilian fintech, built as a service-oriented architecture leveraging Clojure and Datomic. Lucas is a functional programming enthusiast and proponent of best practices in software development with vast experience in real production applications written in Java, Scala, Ruby, and now Clojure.

        • Python

          • William Brown: Transactional Operations in Rust

            Earlier I was chatting to Yoshua, the author of this async cancellation blog about the section on halt-safety. The blog is a great read so I highly recommend it! The section on halt-safety is bang on correct too, but I wanted to expand on this topic further from what they have written.

  • Leftovers

    • Computer History's Unsung Hero: An Ode To Dennis Ritchie

      His first major contribution to the world of computer science was the invention of C, a game-changing computer programming language. Ritchie developed C between 1969 and 1973, and it quickly caught on among programmers. C was flexible and gave programmers a lot of options in problem-solving. While new programming languages have come since (this did launch 50 years ago, after all), C’s imprint can still be seen, especially in languages like C++.

      Around this same time, Ritchie co-developed the Unix operating system with another Bell Labs computer scientist (also underrated) named Ken Thomas. Much like C, the flexibility of Unix as an operating system made it a fast favorite. It could run on different hardware, and it was simple in a way that made collaboration easy. Its influence on modern operating systems cannot be overstated.

    • Science

      • Robotics’ Second Wave

        As robotics become more widely deployed and some operations begin to use fleets from multiple vendors, more of the talk is about software-related issues like integration and less on the workings of the robot hardware itself.

        The first phase of warehouse robotics may be coming to close. That’s because vendors today are talking more about fulfillment processes, integration and software, rather than the robots.

      • New atomic data portal | UDaily

        University of Delaware Professors Marianna Safronova and Rudolf Eigenmann combine physics and computer science to develop their atomic portal.

      • The Fight Between Corporations and Civil Society Over Data Donations

        We face a choice between two models for donating data: one governed by corporations and one determined by grassroots civic action. The winner will decide how much control we have over our digital information.

    • Hardware

      • Nvidia's transformation into a full-stack computing company | VentureBeat

        Nvidia recently announced a toolkit for integrating the open source Robotics Operating System (ROS) with Isaac Sim, its simulation environment for robotics applications

      • TSMC: TSMC founder says free trade recently comes with ‘conditions’, Telecom News, ET Telecom

        Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. founder Morris Chang reiterated the value of free trade to solve supply problems in the critical chip industry, while cautioning that’s been accompanied by more conditions of late.

        Chang, who was speaking as Taiwan’s envoy to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting, on Friday said there’s concern that “recently ‘free trade’ seems to carry more conditions and qualifications than it used to.” Such “conditions” referred to the U.S. planning to make more chips domestically, he later told a media briefing.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Opinion | Deforestation Harms Vulnerable Communities
      • At Least 269 Workers in US Meatpacking Industry Died in First Year of Pandemic
      • Tobacco industry is using Facebook to dodge rules, facilitates bidi sales

        Facebook hosts at least 30 distinct pages for bidi companies, and many of these companies are utilising the social media platform to facilitate sales, according to a report released on Wednesday.

        The report titled "Selling Death on Social Media: How Bidis Are Reaching Consumers Online" from global public health organisation Vital Strategies details digital media monitoring data with 344 instances of bidi marketing on social media between December 2020 and August 2021, almost exclusively through Facebook (98 per cent).

        It showed that the tobacco industry is using Facebook to facilitate bidi sales, dodging India's Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 (COTPA) regulations designed to protect youth and consumers from harmful marketing.

      • Food Outlook: Biannual Report On Global Food Markets

        This Special Feature examines the pathways and impacts of rapidly rising input prices, especially those of energy derived from fossil fuels, which can have detrimental effects on the global food economy in terms of their influence on food prices and future price developments, as well as their likely consequences for global food security. In addition, emphasis is duly placed on those most likely to be hit the hardest – consumers in economically-vulnerable, importdependent countries, given that much of their income is spent on food and energy, bringing about high exposure.

      • World food import bill to reach a record high in 2021

        FAO expects the global food import bill to reach an all-time high in 2021 and surpass US$1.75 trillion, marking a 14 percent increase from the previous year and 12 percent higher than earlier forecast in June 2021. The increase is driven by higher price levels of internationally traded food commodities and a threefold increase in freight costs.

      • World food import bill to reach record high in 2021

        The analysis also points to a growing number of countries, currently 53, where households spend more than 60 per cent of their income on necessities such as food, fuel, water and housing. 

      • New Delhi braces for emergency measures as toxic smog worsens

        It reduced visibility and the Air Quality Index (AQI) hit 470 on a scale of 500, according to the federal pollution control board. This level of pollution means the air will affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing diseases.

      • First Severe Smog Episode Hits Delhi, Could Be Longest In 4 Years: Report

        Green think-tank Centre for Science and Environment said the average daily contribution of smoke from farm fires from the middle of October to November 8 has been the lowest in last four years.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • It's Now Possible To Sign Arbitrary Data With Your SSH Keys

        Did you know that you can use the ssh-keygen command to sign and verify signatures on arbitrary data, like files and software releases? Although this feature isn't super new - it was added in 2019 with OpenSSH 8.0 - it seems to be little-known. That's a shame because it's super useful and the most viable alternative to PGP for signing data. If you're currently using PGP to sign data, you should consider switching to SSH signatures.

        Here's why I like SSH signatures: [...]

      • Proprietary

        • Security

          • Foreign Hackers Stole Information From Defense Contractors, Researchers Say [Ed: Copied, not stole. They left the originals in tact, unless this is ransomware.]

            Foreign hackers are suspected of breaching several organizations, including defense contractors, and accessing sensitive information, according to a report by cybersecurity researchers.

          • How Secure Is Your Data While You're Using Public Transportation?

            Going through airport security can be a stressful experience—yes, even for people with nothing to hide. That’s especially true given the tighter rules after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

            Representatives from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) should only search a phone that looks suspicious, such as if inspections showed a possible explosive device inside.

            On the other hand, border patrol agents can and do take people’s devices to determine if they contain content that could indicate someone’s a national security risk. That means most individuals don’t need to worry about having their devices scrutinized during a border crossing. However, things don’t always turn out that way.

          • Hoax Email Blast Abused Poor Coding in FBI Website

            The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed today that its fbi.gov domain name and Internet address were used to blast out thousands of fake emails about a cybercrime investigation. According to an interview with the person who claimed responsibility for the hoax, the spam messages were sent by abusing insecure code in an FBI online portal designed to share information with state and local law enforcement authorities.

          • Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation

            • Millions of Routers, IoT Devices at Risk from New Open-Source Malware [Ed: Proprietary software company is trying to blame "Open Source" because people can write malware using freely available code]

              BotenaGo, written in Google’s Golang programming language, can exploit more than 30 different vulnerabilities.

              Newly surfaced malware that is difficult to detect and written in Google’s open-source programming language has the potential to exploit millions of routers and IoT devices, researchers have found.

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • Analysis: Privacy-focused startups see boon in big tech's troubles [Ed: Is this an ad or an article? They've already burned at least one user by turning over data to the government]

              The leaks and controversies plaguing tech giants are driving users towards privacy-focused startups that are bidding to shake up the online market with a little help from regulators, company executives and digital rights experts say.

              Last month, a Facebook whistleblower leaked documents she said showed the social media company chose profit over user safety - the latest in a series of damaging revelations about big tech that smaller rivals say are helping them to grow.

              "Tech companies are making our job easier," said Andy Yen, chief executive of Proton, a Swiss-based company that calls itself the world's largest secure email provider, using end-to-end encryption and sophisticated security features.

              "This pursuit of higher and higher profits at the expense of users is driving people to seek alternative products and services with values that are more aligned with their own," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Bannon Indicted for Contempt of Congress for Ignoring January 6 Subpoena
      • The Triple Border, a criminal haven

        Terrorism—and criminality—have found a way to camouflage, change, and reproduce themselves much faster than legislation and actions against them. It is not a recent phenomenon; it has been cultivated for several decades in the triple border of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay and only gains relevance when remarkable or shocking events occur. The fight against these groups—even if they are small and even one-man operations—must be carried out decisively using all available resources, otherwise they will continue to take root and mingle in the region and extend their contacts with regional criminal gangs, which will result—as can already be observed—in an increase in power and lethality.

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Media expert: Lazy journalism leaves fertile soil for populism

        This leaves us journalists with a problem. When a populist says that everything is rotten, it usually includes journalists. How should we react if we are also rotten? Usually, there are two approaches. One group finds that we should condemn it. Others, like me, say we should continue to be good at our job.

        Of course, it is harder than most people think. Populists often make false claims. How to make sure we are not giving them a free pass by covering their actions? We tend to pay more attention to controversial characters and believe, when we criticize them, that people will not vote for them or can see through their agenda.

        I am less hopeful on this front. We should take care not to make it look like populists are the most important party or politician.

    • Environment

    • Finance

      • Point Pickup Delivery App Update Sows Confusion About Algorithmic Pay

        Point Pickup, a delivery contractor used by Walmart and other major retailers, rolled out an app update that sowed confusion among drivers, some of whom say they are earning less money. This may be the result of a switch from a static pricing model to what the company's chief marketing officer said is a "dynamic market pricing technology that informs individual order pricing based on specific market conditions as they fluctuate.”

        Before recent changes to the app, gig workers on the Point Pickup platform were shown a payout amount alongside their delivery offers. Tips were processed later and paid out separately.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Former consul: Ratas ignored free speech issues while on Budapest visit | Politics | ERR

        A former Hungarian Honorary Consul in Estonia has hit out at Riigikogu speaker Jüri Ratas' (Center) recent visit to Budapest, saying he failed to address pressing issues, including freedom of speech, in his meetings with his counterpart, as well as with justice minister Judit Varga.

        The former consul, Mall Helam, tweeted in English Saturday that: "Speaker Jüri Ratas reported about friendly meetings with Hungarian Minister of Justice Judit Varga. It seems that the use of NSO spyware under the responsibility of minister Varga, as well as restrictions in Hungary on the free press and academic freedoms, were not important enough issues to discuss."

    • Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

      • DER SPIEGEL again receives millions in support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

        It is not surprising that a blog that takes a critical look at DER SPIEGEL magazine published this information first. The journalist Thomas Röper, responsible for the Anti-mirror, informed its interested readers on October 9, 2021 that there was another transfer from Gates to Hamburg. According to information from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the impressive sum of 2,900,000 US dollars, that is just under 2.5 million euros, found its way into an account with the magazine in October of this year.

        As early as 2018, SPIEGEL received a transfer of a similar size from the Foundation. Back then it was $ 2,537,294. Bill Gates gave the total a term of 36 months, which had now expired. He seems satisfied with the work he has funded. So he not only invested again, but increased the sum by almost 400,000 US dollars, this time with a term of 41 months.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Biden administration looking to axe another policy from the Trump era

      The Biden Administration is moving to axe another policy measure from the previous administration. The Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has proposed rescinding a Trump era rule giving faith-based contractors more flexibility when it came to anti-discrimination laws.

  • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Monopolies

    • Patents

      • UK: Machine Learning And Patents – A Guide For Patent Attorneys In Chemistry And Life Sciences [Ed: This is an old piece of self-promotional junk from litigation firms, showing how "Hey Hi" gets shamelessly misused for rogue patent agenda]
      • Unease growing in Europe over 'America First' agenda behind O-RAN initiative: telecommunications infrastructure treated as geopolitical football

        Yesterday was the first of two days of a conference organized by the European University Institute's Florence School of Regulation on Transatlantic Relationships in Innovation Policies: Converging Agendas?

        I tuned in because "IP and standard-setting" (with a focus on 5G) were announced as key topics. However, that first day, apart from a keynote by Qualcomm's Alex Rogers (in which he called out Apple on taxing app developers while complaining about SEP royalties), was largely about technology-related trade policy in general, and the O-RAN initiative (for modularizing telecommunications network infrastructure) was actually the key topic.

      • EPO must discourage speculative filings, say pharma counsel [Ed: 'Managing IP' lobbying the EPO on behalf of its sponsors, pushing an already rigged tribunal]

        The G2/21 referral on plausibility risks turning the clock back to a wave of ‘prophetic’ patent filings seen in the 1990s, say in-house sources

      • Federal Circuit Review October 2021

        No Assembly, No Infringement – Federal Circuit Declines to Expand the “Final Assembler” Theory of Direct Infringement

        In Acceleration Bay LLC v. Take-Two Interactive Software, Appeal No. 20-1700 the Federal Circuit held that the “final assembler” theory of direct infringement does not apply to defendants who neither manufacture nor install components to complete a claimed system.

        Acceleration Bay owned patents relating to multi-participant computer networks, such as multi-player game environments. Acceleration Bay sued Take-Two and others for direct infringement for allegedly establishing infringing networks for customers playing Grand Theft Auto V and other games. Because Take-Two did not make or sell each claimed component, Acceleration Bay relied on a “final assembler” theory of infringement. Under a “final assembler” theory, a defendant can directly infringe even when its product does not meet every claim limitation in a claimed system if the defendant “makes” the claimed system when it installs its product into an existing network. Take-Two moved for summary judgment of non-infringement, arguing that the final assembler theory did not apply. The district court agreed and granted summary judgment of non-infringement. Acceleration Bay appealed.

        The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court. Acceleration Bay argued that the “final assembler” theory applied because Take-Two’s software controlled customers’ consoles, which caused the claimed components to satisfy the functional elements of the claims. The Federal Circuit disagreed, finding that the final assembler theory did not apply because Take Two did not manufacture any hardware or install any hardware to a network. Therefore, the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment of non-infringement.

        [...]

        Starting with step one of Alice, the Federal Circuit expressed doubt as to the district court’s framing of the claims as “directed to the abstract idea of authentication.” However, the Federal Circuit declined to determine if the claims were directed to an abstract idea, instead finding that the claims satisfied Alice step two. The Federal Circuit explained that the claims and specification “recite a specific improvement to authentication that increases security, prevents unauthorized access by a third party, is easily implemented, and can advantageously be carried out with mobile devices of low complexity.” Accordingly, the Federal Circuit reversed the judgment below.

        Judge Reyna concurred with the majority decision to reverse the district court’s judgment but wrote separately to argue that, under Alice step one, the claims at issue were directed to patent-eligible subject matter. Judge Reyna also heavily criticized the majority’s bypassing of step one of the Alice inquiry as “extraordinary and contrary to Supreme Court precedent.”

      • Software Patents

        • Another Sovereign Peak Ventures (Dominion Harbor entity) patent likely invalid [Ed: The patent troll Dominion Harbor -- indirectly connected to the criminals from Microsoft -- will likely lose more software patents]

          On November 9, 2021, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 6,877,038, owned by Sovereign Peak Ventures, a Dominion Harbor entity. The '038 patent is directed to transmitting and receiving video data arranged in data frames forming a data stream. It has been asserted against HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) technology from TCL, Hisense, and LG. The petition was filed as part of Unified’s ongoing efforts in the SEP Video Codec Zone.

        • Campaigning lawyers launch counter-offensive against software patent trolls

          Stemming the tide of ‘stupid software patents and the trolls they feed’

          So-called ‘patent trolls’ have been the scourge of technology development for many years, but firms faced with questionable claims are now being offered support from experienced commercial lawyers campaigning against bad practice in the arena of intellectual property.

          Entities abusing the patent system are diverting resources from productive activities to legal fees. Technological advancement and access to technology can suffer as a result.

          Alex Moss, executive director of the Public Interest Patent Law Institute, a former staff attorney and the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), explained that a spirited defense against wrongly issued patents is necessary for technology businesses to flourish.

          [...]

          It also wants to help create more software-related ‘prior art’ (which can be used to invalidate patents and patent applications) available to the public and Patent Office, along with making the patent system itself more transparent and accountable to the public.

          Elsewhere Cloudflare’s Project Jengo is offering a crowdfunded resource that identifies cases of prior art, evidence that can be used to invalidate questionable patent claims.

    • Copyrights

      • ISP Verizon Fails to Lift MangaDex Blockade, Manga Site Codes Own Solution

        In the summer subscribers to ISP Verizon found they were being prevented from accessing giant manga scanlation site MangaDex. The US ISP hasn't provided any reason for taking this action so in response, MangaDex has been working on a solution. Over the past few months, the team has developed a workaround and while it may not last forever, the site is accessible to all once again.



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Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries