Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 1/12/2021: LibrePlanet CFS Extended to December 15th and DB Comparer for PostgreSQL Reaches 5.0



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Sick of Windows? How to find and install software on Linux with Ubuntu

        If you've grown sick of the constant issues found in the Windows operating systems, you might be wondering if there's an alternative other than purchasing costlier Apple hardware. There is. Linux is an operating system that outperforms the competition on numerous fronts (such as performance, reliability, ease-of-use and security). Even better, you can test-drive Linux by installing anything to your drive, so if you don't like it, you can always go back to Windows with a simple reboot. If you do find that Linux meets (or probably exceeds) your needs, the installation is incredibly simple.

      • 5 Websites Every Linux User Should Bookmark

        There’s no shortage of Linux websites hyping the trendiest distributions (distros) and dishing on the latest developer drama. To help you cut through the noise, we’ve curated a few sites worth your time that offer relevant news, useful information, or both.

    • Server

      • Kubernetes Blog: Contribution, containers and cricket: the Kubernetes 1.22 release interview

        The Kubernetes release train rolls on, and we look ahead to the release of 1.23 next week. As is our tradition, I'm pleased to bring you a look back at the process that brought us the previous version.

        The release team for 1.22 was led by Savitha Raghunathan, who was, at the time, a Senior Platform Engineer at MathWorks. I spoke to Savitha on the Kubernetes Podcast from Google, the weekly* show covering the Kubernetes and Cloud Native ecosystem.

        Our release conversations shine a light on the team that puts together each Kubernetes release. Make sure you subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts so you catch the story of 1.23.

        And in case you're interested in why the show has been on a hiatus the last few weeks, all will be revealed in the next episode!

      • Most Reliable Hosting Company Sites in November 2021

        Rackspace had the most reliable hosting company site in November 2021, with an average connection time of just 8ms across the month and no failed requests. Rackspace has appeared in the top 10 most reliable hosting company sites every month of the past 12 months, and has taken the number one spot in five of those. Rackspace offers a wide variety of cloud hosting solutions from over 40 data centres across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.

        [...]

        Nine of the top 10 hosting company sites used Linux in October, continuing the dominance of Linux. In ninth place, New York Internet (NYI) used FreeBSD.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux 5.15.6
        I'm announcing the release of the 5.15.6 kernel.
        
        

        All users of the 5.15 kernel series must upgrade.

        The updated 5.15.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-5.15.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-s...

        thanks,

        greg k-h
      • Linux 5.10.83
      • Linux 5.4.163
      • Linux 4.19.219
      • New Linux Scheduler Patches Can Improve AMD Zen Performance For Some Workloads - Phoronix

        A set of two patches under review on the kernel mailing list for tweaking some kernel scheduler behavior can provide noticeable performance benefits to those using AMD EPYC and Ryzen processors on various workloads.

        Last year the Linux kernel scheduler code was adapted to allow a floating imbalance between NUMA nodes until 25% of the CPU cores are occupied while higher than that the balancing behaves as normal. Prior to that an imbalance between NUMA nodes was only allowed when the destination node was effectively idle.

        Longtime Linux kernel developer Mel Gorman who wrote that floating imbalance change between NUMA nodes for the kernel last year has revisited it. Where there isn't a 1:1 relationship between the last-level cache (LLC) and node, such as the case for AMD Zen processors, the imbalancing can be sub-optimal for multiple LLCs.

      • Linux Vendor Firmware Service Serves Up 40 Millionth Download - Phoronix

        With the accelerating growth of the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) for serving up system and component firmware files to Linux users for flashing via the fwupd utility, today it crossed the milestone of having served up more than 40 million firmware files.

        LVFS/fwupd lead developer Richard Hughes of Red Hat shared the news of crossing the 40 million download milestone. It's quite a milestone considering back in March of this year was the milestone of 25 million firmware downloads.

      • Intel's Alder Lake is slowing down Linux kernel 5.16 ● The Register

        The mixture of performance and efficiency CPUs in Intel's 12th-gen Core processors, code-named Alder Lake, hasn't just caused problems for some Windows gamers – it's led to complications for Linux.

        Phoronix' Michael Larabel noticed that Release Candidate 1 of the future kernel ran slower than expected on Alder Lake motherboards.. What may be a partial fix, at least, has just landed.

        This performance regression involves two related problems. What's interesting is that the origins of at least one of the issues affecting the latest Intel chips lies in a totally different architecture.

      • Bootlin eligible to French “Crédit Impôt Recherche” tax incentive

        In 2021, Bootlin has initiated the process to be eligible to this tax incentive mechanism, and we are happy to announce that after studying Bootlin’s expertise, engineering experience and achievements, the French tax administration has confirmed that Bootlin can deliver research and development activities fulfilling the Crédit Impôt Recherche criteria to its customers. This means that Bootlin customers in France can now integrate the cost of Bootlin engineering services that correspond to research and development activities into their Crédit Impôt Recherche and receive a tax incentive corresponding to up to 30% of the cost of our engineering services.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How To Install Contao on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Contao on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Contao’s is an open-source content management system (CMS). It is designed for ease of use to allow business owners and power users to create powerful and dynamic content websites. Contao can also be integrated into a regular Symfony application.

        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 the step-by-step installation of Contao 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.

      • Pin App Shortcuts to Ubuntu Desktop as easy as in Windows 10 via Extension | UbuntuHandbook

        Adding an app shortcut icon to the Desktop in Ubuntu is not that easy for beginners by default. User has to first open the folder that stores the app shortcut files (usually /usr/share/applications). Then drag and drop the .desktop files into user’s “Desktop” folder. Make executable in file properties dialog and finally select ‘Allow Launching‘ via context menu option.

        To make life easier, a Gnome extension is available to make the process to create a desktop shortcut for apps as easy as few clicks. Since Ubuntu uses full-screen app launcher, it’s not Windows 10/11 style drag and drop adding desktop icons. Instead, it adds ‘Add to Desktop‘ option to app icon’s context menu.

        Like in Linux Mint and/or Zorin OS, user just needs to search the app in ‘Show Applications’ or ‘Activities’ overview screen, right-click on the app icon, and finally click ‘Add to Desktop’ to pin to desktop.

      • Backup And Restore Files Using Borg In Linux - OSTechNix

        In Linux, there are multiple backup tools providing functionality for system-level backup as well as user data backup. In this comprehensive article, we are going to look into what is BorgBackup and how to backup and restore files using Borg in Linux and Unix-like systems.

      • Moodle Online Learning System Automated Installation and Upgrade - RoseHosting

        Moodle is a free, open-source, and one of the most popular learning management systems around the world. It helps you to create your online learning site in minutes. It allows both teachers and students to choose a time and place for training. It is customizable, user-friendly, and allows you to extend learning environments using plugins. Currently, it is used in many places including, schools, universities, workplaces, and other sectors.

        RoseHosting Cloud PaaS provides a one-click Moodle installer to automate the Moodle installation process on the cloud environment. You can set up Moodle, securely manage it through SSH, import/export any files, and perform other management operations from a single control panel.

        In this guide, we will explain how to install Moodle E-Learning System on the RoseHosting Cloud PaaS.

      • LHB Linux Digest #21.21: Building Homelab on Budget, Alpine Linux, Certifications, Hypervisor and More
      • How to download and install iTunes on your Chromebook

        Ah, the age-old question. You got a Chromebook but you are also an Apple user and you want to access your iTunes library on your shiny, new Chrome OS devices. Unfortunately, Apple has yet to – and likely never will – release an Android version of iTunes. Many users have made the move to Apple Music and are content using the Play Store version or simply navigating to Apple Music on the web. However, there are many that have an extensive iTunes library and still others use the storefront on a regular basis for purchases and media consumption. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could do so on your Chromebook?

        Well, where there’s a will, there’s a way and that way is via the Linux container on Chrome OS. Obviously, Apple has its own iTunes apps for iOS and macOS but the company also offers a Windows version of iTunes and that’s the path we’ll take to get the application on our Chromebook. First, you’ll need to ensure that your Chromebook supports Linux apps. To do so, simply head to the Chrome OS settings menu in the system tray. Click the gear icon and in the settings menu, click advanced. Click “Developers” and select the “turn on” button to install the Linux environment.

      • Commands to Install Xrdp Server on Debian 11 Bullseye Linux

        Steps to Install XRDP Server on your Debian 11 Bullseye Linux to access its graphical user interface from Windows 10 or 11 using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

        By default we cannot access Linux operating system using RDP on Windows, hence we need to install XRDP on our Debian Linux. For those who don’t know about the XRDP, it is an open-source adaptation of the Microsoft RDP protocol. This helps the users to establish remote access of PC from other PC or laptop.

      • How to install Windows 11 on Ubuntu 20.04 using VirtualBox - Linux Shout

        Windows 11 is the latest Microsoft operating system that we can install on Ubuntu 20.04 focal fossa Linux to test it using VirtualBox. Here we let you know how?

        If you have just moved to Linux for some reason but there are some apps that only work on Windows such as Microsoft Office, Adobe, and others. Then running Windows using a Virtual machine is a good idea.

        For those who don’t know about VirtualBox, it is an open-source application to create and manage virtual machines on all popular operating systems.

      • How to create a multiboot USB on Linux

        In this tutorial you will learn how to create a multiboot USB on Linux and Windows. Have you ever wanted to have multiple ISOs on a single USB and be able to boot to any operating system without having to reformat your USB flash drive any time you want to boot to another OS.

        Ventoy allows you to use one single USB flash drive to boot multiple operating systems, so all you need is one single flash drive and enough storage for all ISOs that you want to have on your device.

      • Multiple MySQL instances on the same server - Unixcop

        Some weeks ago I’ve wrote an article about how to run different PHP versions on the same server. Mel like it and suggested me to do the same for MySQL and/or MariaDB. This is how to run multiple MySQL instances on the same server.

      • Linux Essentials - The ps Command - Invidious

        The ps command is useful for taking a look at the processes that are running on your Linux system. In this video, I'll show you the basics of the ps command, and some variations you can use to show the output in different ways.

    • Games

      • Dead Cells: The Queen and the Sea announced for 2022 | GamingOnLinux

        Developers at Motion Twin / Evil Empire have announced Dead Cells: The Queen and the Sea DLC that will be releasing in early 2022 (Q1) and it has a teaser.

        The developer has said it will cost $4.99 at release, which will help continue to fund another year of free updates for Dead Cells along with the next project from Motion Twin. The Queen and the Sea finishes the path started with The Bad Seed and Fatal Falls, giving you a new ending to the game.

      • PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 shows off big game fixes | GamingOnLinux

        RPCS3 continues advancing to truly nail-down the experience of playing classic PlayStation 3 games emulated on modern platforms and a fresh video shows lots of fun.

        This new update includes various graphical glitch fixes for Uncharted 2 and 3, The Last of Us and multiple Ratchet & Clank games. Not only that, their team also worked on uncapping the framerates in Tools of Destruction, Quest for Booty, and A Crack in Time with other games in the Ratchet & Clank series being able to have no in-game limit as well.

    • Distributions

      • Arch Family

        • First Arch Linux ISO Powered by Linux Kernel 5.15 LTS Is Now Available for Download

          Arch Linux 2021.12.01 is now available for download and it comes with Linux kernel 5.15 LTS by default. The ISO image includes Linux kernel 5.15.5, but it looks like Linux kernel 5.15.6 was also released today so expect it in the stable archives by the end of the week.

          Apart from being an LTS (Long Term Support) series, which means that it will be supported for at least a couple of years, Linux kernel 5.15 introduces a brand-new and fully functional NTFS filesystem implementation so you can finally manage your NTFS formatted drives the way you want.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • AlmaLinux Now Has Mailing Lists for Both Users and Devs - FOSS Force

          The CentOS Linux replacement, AlmaLinux, has leveraged GNU Mailman, FOSS software for managing electronic mail discussion and e-newsletter lists, and MailChannels, to create a slate of email lists for those with interest in the project.

          A listing of all the available mailing lists is available on a page on the projects website.

          “Many users have requested this to increase accessibility to important information and announcements, and let’s be honest, many of us enjoy the nostalgia of mailing list conversations,” the project said on their website in a statement.

        • Design a future-ready IT infrastructure with the Red Hat Portfolio Architecture team

          In our last article, we discussed a theoretical framework for inspiring and designing a self-healing infrastructure, using Red Hat Insights alongside Ansible Automation Platform. Today’s article will dive a little deeper into what we’ve designed as an easily consumable and efficiently replicable Red Hat Portfolio Architecture. Using an example of how one of our customers is architecting similar solutions to bring this proposed architecture to life, we hope to help you hit the ground running with this concept, so you can take full advantage of the entire Red Hat Portfolio.

        • The adoption of evolved vRAN propels network enhancements

          5G standalone (SA) architecture defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), brings the promise of new and diverse use cases benefitting from enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low latency communications (uRLLC) services defined in the standard.

          As a telecommunications operator, how do you begin to deploy or plan for 5G SA rollout? This post will highlight some key insights reported by service providers who are at different points in their network transformation journeys. The insights illustrate how an evolved radio access network (RAN) will help realize these multiple use cases, and why it should be seen as fundamental to service providers’ 5G transformation efforts.

      • Debian Family

        • Sparky: Annual donations for our server 2021

          Until January 31, 2022 we have to collect and pay for the server 1500 PLN / 360 Euros / 430 USD plus min. 2800 PLN / ~ 670 Euros / ~ 800 USD for our monthly living and bills, such as: electricity, gas, water, internet, domains, expenses related to improving the functionality of websites, small computer equipment that wears out constantly (memory, pen drives, mice, batteries, etc. …), fuel, as well as rent, food, drugs and immortal taxes.

          We are starting the fundraising campaign today to make sure we will pay for the server on time, so we could stay online for you another year. It is our passion and work we do all the times, therefore we believe that with your help we will succeed.

        • Thorsten Alteholz: My Debian Activities in November 2021

          This month I accepted 564 and rejected 93 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 591.

        • Utkarsh Gupta: FOSS Activites in September 2021

          Here’s my (twenty-fourth) monthly but brief update about the activities I’ve done in the F/L/OSS world.

        • Utkarsh Gupta: FOSS Activites in October 2021

          Here’s my (twenty-fifth) monthly but brief update about the activities I’ve done in the F/L/OSS world.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Xiaomi's CyberDog Robot Runs Ubuntu

          Chinese hardware company Xiaomi recently unveiled an experimental four-legged robot called CyberDog. Their mechanical manifestation of man’s best friend isn’t just cute but state-of-the-art, easy-to-use, and affordable.

          “Face recognition technology makes CyberDog adopt pet-like features, such as following an owner…” And cost is a real motivator here.

          CyberDog costs from $1540 which, when compared to $74k for Boston Dynamic’s canine competitor, is pretty incredible. By making the CyberDog (comparatively) affordable to research institutions and startups Xiaomi wants to jumpstart a robotics revolution for four legged robots.

        • What is a managed IT service? | Ubuntu

          Technology is one of the main success factors for any organisation. A few decades ago, when technology (and life) were not as fast-paced as today, IT was more about keeping the lights on and maintaining business as usual operations. Today, the game has massively changed. On the roads that are ever-changing, innovation is what keeps the wheel spinning.

          If you think that the world is doing enough innovation today, then it would be very interesting to check the recent Growth & Innovation McKinsey report. This report shows that only 6% of executives are satisfied with innovation within their organisations, with the majority not being able to identify how to encourage innovation!

          So, how is innovation related to managed IT services and the speed at which organisations adopt new technologies? And even more, what is a managed IT service?

    • Devices/Embedded

      • 16MP autofocus cam bests the Raspberry Pi HQ at only $16
        Arducam is crowdfunding a 16-megapixel “High Resolution Autofocus Camera Module for Raspberry Pi.” Based on a Sony IMX519 sensor, the 1080p30 camera has an RPi V1/V2 form factor and a tripod mount.

        Over the years, Raspberry Pi has dominated mainstream, third-party RPi cameras on price and features, with official models including the 8-megapixel, $25 v2 Raspberry Pi Camera and last year’s 12.3-megapixel, $50 High Quality Camera. Now, Arducam is coming after the HQ Camera with a 16MP model that adds autofocus capability and sells for less than half the price.

      • SMARC module for robotics taps Qualcomm's octa-core QRB5165

        Adlink announced a “LEC-RB5” SMARC module for robots and drones that runs Linux on Qualcomm’s up to 2.42GHz, octa-core QRB5165 with 15W-TOPS NPU. Highlights include up to 8GB LPDDR4L and 256GB UFS plus 2x GbE, WiFi/BT, CAN, and 6x camera lanes.

        Adlink unveiled its most powerful Arm module to date. The LEC-RB5 runs Ubuntu or a Yocto based Linux stack on Qualcomm’s QRB5165, a robotics-oriented variant of the 7nm-fabricated, octa-core Snapdragon 865. The module can be used to power robots and drones in consumer, enterprise, defense, industrial, and logistics sectors.

      • Raising the bar on smartphones in the EU - Fairphone

        We have already proven that it is possible to make a smartphone that is more sustainable and better for people and planet. But, you know us, we always aim to improve and encourage others in the industry to follow suit.

        What is the next thing we are planning, you ask? We want to influence the review of the EU Ecodesign Directive (2009/125/EC) for mobile phones, cordless phones and tablets – so that smartphones with less environmental impact will be a legal requirement for all manufacturers selling to the EU. As a result of this review, the European Commission has the opportunity to raise the bar and set new rules for the smartphone and tablet industry.

        Our mission is to change the electronics industry and influencing the Ecodesign Directive would be a big jump in the transformation we are striving for.

        [...]

        However, there are some loopholes for manufacturers and missing points that need to be addressed before the above could happen. Loopholes, which allow manufacturers to focus on profit without considering the environmental impact of their smartphones and making it increasingly difficult and expensive for consumers to get their phones repaired. Therefore, we would like the European Working Group to close any loopholes and make repairs possible, affordable and accessible for everyone. There is no reason why ordering spare parts should be difficult and expensive. There is no reason why you, as a consumer, shouldn’t be able to repair your own phone.

      • Open Hardware/Modding

        • Remembering Sanjay Mortimer, Pioneer And Visionary In 3D Printing | Hackaday

          Over the weekend, Sanjay Mortimer passed away. This is a tremendous blow to the many people who he touched directly and indirectly throughout his life. We will remember Sanjay as pioneer, hacker, and beloved spokesperson for the 3D printing community.

          If you’ve dabbled in 3D printing, you might recall Sanjay as the charismatic director and co-founder of the extrusion company E3D. He was always brimming with enthusiasm to showcase something that he and his company had been developing to push 3D printing further and further. But he was also thoughtful and a friend to many in the community.

          Let’s talk about some of his footprints.

        • Grafana Weather Dashboard on the reTerminal by Seeed Studio - The DIY Life

          Today we’re going to be taking a look at the reTerminal, by Seeed Studio. We’ll unbox the device to see what is included and we’ll then set up a weather dashboard on it using Grafana. We’re going to use weather data that is being recorded by an ESP32 microcontroller and is being posted to an InfluxDB database.

          The reTerminal is a compact HMI (human-machine interface) device that is powered by a Raspberry Pi compute module 4 (CM4). It has a 5″ capacitive touch display, along with four physical function buttons, some status LEDs, and a host of IO options.

        • The Medieval History Of Your Favourite Dev Board | Hackaday

          It’s become something of a trope in our community, that the simplest way to bestow a level of automation or smarts to a project is to reach for an Arduino. The genesis of the popular ecosystem of boards and associated bootloader and IDE combination is well known, coming from the work of a team at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, in Northern Italy. The name “Arduino” comes from their favourite watering hole, the Bar di Re Arduino, in turn named for Arduin of Ivrea, an early-mediaeval king.

          As far as we can see the bar no longer exists and has been replaced by a café, which appears on the left in this Google Street View link. The bar named for Arduin of Ivrea is always mentioned as a side note in the Arduino microcontroller story, but for the curious electronics enthusiast it spawns the question: who was Arduin, and why was there a bar named after him in the first place?

          The short answer is that Arduin was the Margrave of Ivrea, an Italian nobleman who became king of Italy in 1002 and abdicated in 1014. The longer answer requires a bit of background knowledge of European politics around the end of the first millennium, so if you’re ready we’ll take Hackaday into a rare tour of medieval history.

      • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • LibrePlanet 2022 will be held March 19-20, CFS extended to December 15th

        Have you submitted a talk for LibrePlanet 2022 yet? For those unsure if they could make it to the virtual event, we have now set the dates: March 19 and 20, 2022! We have also extended the Call for Sessions (CfS) until Wednesday, December 15, 2021 at 10:00 EST (15:00 UTC). This gives us time to get a little more organized, and more importantly, gives you the chance to make sure you're a part of LibrePlanet 2022: Living Liberation!

      • Apache Month in Review: November 2021

        Welcome to the latest monthly overview of events from the Apache community. Here's a summary of what happened in November...

      • Web Browsers

        • Chromium

          • Chromium Blog: Faster Chrome - Let The Compiler do the work

            Chrome is fast, but there's always room for improvement. Often, that's achieved by carefully crafting the algorithms that make up Chrome. But there's a lot of Chrome, so why not let computers do at least some part of our work? In this installment of The Fast And the Curious, we'll show you several changes in how we build Chrome to achieve a 25.8% higher score on Speedometer on Windows and a 22.0% increase in browser responsiveness.

            [...]

            It turns out that the compiler can make even more use of that profile data for PGO. (Not a surprise - once you know where the slow spots are, exactly, you can do a lot to improve!). To make use of that, and enable further improvements, LLVM has something called the "new pass manager". In a nutshell, it's a new way to run optimizations within LLVM, and it helps a lot with PGO. For much more detail, I'd suggest reading the LLVM blog post.

        • Mozilla

          • Pocket’s state-by-state guide to the most popular articles in 2021

            We’re just going to say it: it feels a little bit weird to wrap up 2021 because this year feels like three years in one and an extension of 2020 simultaneously. At some point in the near future, 2020 and 2021 will be studied in history books. While we can’t predict what the history books will say, we can analyze what defined this year for us.

            We do just that in Pocket’s Best of 2021 — the most-saved, -read and -shared articles by Pocket readers, spanning culture, science, tech and more.

            As we analyzed the winning articles, we wondered what we might learn if we looked at the data state by state.

          • Celebrating Pocket’s Best of 2021

            We aren’t the only ones putting out Top 10 content lists or Year in Reviews, but we’d argue these lists are different from the rest — a cut above. Pocket readers are a discerning bunch: they gravitate to fascinating long reads that deeply immerse readers in a story or subject; explainers that demystify complex or poorly understood topics; big ideas that challenge us to think and maybe even act differently; and great advice for all facets of life. You’ll find must-read examples of all of these inside these eclectic Best of 2021 collections, from dozens of trustworthy and diverse publications.

            The stories people save most to Pocket often provide a fascinating window into what’s occupying our collective attention each year. In 2019, the most-saved article on Pocket examined how modern economic precarity has turned millennials into the burnout generation. In 2020, the most-read article was a probing and prescient examination of how the Covid-19 pandemic might end.

      • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • Content Management Systems (CMS)

        • WordPress Co-founder, Matt Mullenweg, to Talk Open Source at 'State of the Word' - FOSS Force

          State of the Word, the annual keynote address from Matt Mullenweg, WordPress’s co-founder, is scheduled to take place this year on December 14, 2021, between 5 and 7 pm. Although it’s too late to attend the event in person (the deadline for requesting an in-person seat was November 28), the event will be livestreamed as Mullenweg pontificates from a podium in New York City — meaning everybody can participate.

          Like practically all other in-person events, last year the the event was moved entirely online (“for the first ever” says WordPress). Also like practically all other events, this year the folks at WordPress are hedging their bet, and are offering the event both livestreamed and in-person.

          “Every year, the event allows us to reflect on the project’s progress and the future of open source,” WordPress said in a statement. “This year will include that and more.”

          “Join Matt as he provides a retrospective of 2021, discusses the latest trends he’s seeing, celebrates the community’s amazing wins, and explores the future. Expect to hear about a range of topics, from WordPress 5.9 and Openverse to Web3 and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).”

      • FSF

      • Programming/Development

        • Anti-patterns You Should Avoid in Your Code

          Every developer wants to write structured, simply planned, and nicely commented code. There are even a myriad of design patterns that give us clear rules to follow, and a framework to keep in mind.

          But we can still find anti-patterns in software that was written some time go, or was written too quickly.

          A harmless basic hack to resolve an issue quickly can set a precedent in your codebase. It can be copied across multiple places and turn into an anti-pattern you need to address.

        • AsmREPL: Wing your way through x86-64 assembly language ● The Register

          Ruby developer and internet japester Aaron Patterson has published a REPL for 64-bit x86 assembly language, enabling interactive coding in the lowest-level language of all.

          REPL stands for "read-evaluate-print loop", and REPLs were first seen in Lisp development environments such as Lisp Machines. They allow incremental development: programmers can write code on the fly, entering expressions or blocks of code, having them evaluated – executed – immediately, and the results printed out. This was viable because of the way Lisp blurred the lines between interpreted and compiled languages; these days, they're a standard feature of most scripting languages.

          Patterson has previously offered ground-breaking developer productivity enhancements such as an analogue terminal bell and performance-enhancing firmware for the Stack Overflow keyboard. This only has Ctrl, C, and V keys for extra-easy copy-pasting, but Patterson's firmware removes the tedious need to hold control.

        • Wasmer 2.1 WebAssembly Implementation Adds Virtual Filesystem, Lisp + Crystal Support - Phoronix

          Wasmer as "the universal WebAssembly runtime" that focuses on being able to run WASM code on any platform is out with its next major release.

          Released this summer was Wasmer 2.0 as a step forward for this open-source WASM implementation. The project remains focused on trying to compile "everything" to WebAssembly and to then run that on any operating system / platform or embed it in other languages or run it in a web browser. Wasmer 2.1 was released today as the next major iteration of the platform.

        • What's The Big Deal With Linux Capabilities? | Hacker Noon

          The prevalent perception is that Linux users benefit from and exercise privileges, however this is not the case. It's the process or executable that runs in a certain user context and exercises rights (permission to carry out to perform the privileged operations guarded by Linux kernel).

        • Perl/Raku

          • Perl Weekly Challenge 141: Number Divisors and Like Numbers
          • Closures

            A casual remark about closures which I made in My Favorite Warnings: redefine touched off a long off-topic exchange with Aristotle that I thought ought to be promoted to a top-level blog entry. The big thing I learned was that any Perl subroutine can be a closure. The rest of this blog will try to make clear why I now believe this. The words are my own, as are any errors or misconceptions.

            The second sentence of Wikipedia's definition of a closure says "Operationally, a closure is a record storing a function together with an environment." This makes it sound a lot like an object, and therefore of little additional interest in an O-O environment.

            But I came to closures pragmatically through Perl, and to me they were a magic way to make data available somewhere else. All I had to do was get a code reference where it needed to be, and any external lexical variables got the values at the time the reference was taken. So much I understood up to the fatal blog post, and it sufficed for my simple needs.

        • Rust

  • Leftovers

    • Science

      • 3D Printed Generator Build Highlights The Scientific Method | Hackaday

        Sometimes we build to innovate, and sometimes we build just to have the satisfaction of saying we made it ourselves. Yet there is another reason to construct something ourselves: To learn, just as [Fraens] has done with this 3D-printed generator. (Video, embedded below.)

        [Fraens] starts off with a jig for winding the individual coils, but then the jig itself snaps into a the stator ring. The stator ring is sandwiched by two rotors which rotate on a brass shaft suspended by needle bearings. With the exception of the hardware, all the structural parts are 3d printed.

      • Supersonic Projectile Exceeds Engineers Dreams: The Supersonic Trebuchet | Hackaday

        Have you ever sat down and thought “I wonder if a trebuchet could launch a projectile at supersonic speeds?” Neither have we. That’s what separates [David Eade] from the rest of us. He didn’t just ask the question, he answered it! And he documented the entire build in a YouTube video which you can see below the break.

        The trebuchet is a type of catapult that was popular for use as a siege engine before gunpowder became a thing. Trebuchets use a long arm to throw projectiles farther than traditional catapults. The focus has typically been on increasing throwing distance for the size of the projectile, or vice versa. But of course you’re here to read about the other thing that trebuchets can be used for: speed.

        How fast is fast? How about a whip-cracking, sonic-booming speed in excess of 450 meters per second! How’d he do it? Mostly wood and rubber with some metal bits thrown in for safety’s sake. [David]’s video explains in full all of the engineering that went into his trebuchet, and it’s a lot less than you’d think. There’s a very satisfying montage of full power trebuchet launches that make it audibly clear that the projectile being thrown is going well past the speed of sound, with a report quite similar to that of a small rifle.

    • Hardware

      • The 555 Timer Contest Returns! | Hackaday

        First a bit of history… “the 555 timer contest” that sticks out in our minds is the one conceived of by [Jeri Ellsworth] and assisted by [Chris Gammell] that took place a decade ago. It was a runaway freight train from the start, with numerous sponsors putting up prizes and a list of celebrity judges. Surely it is not the only contest based around the 555 timer in it’s long and glorious history, but there’s a fond place in our hearts for that one in particular. A lot of those entries have been lost to the annals of time — even the contest page itself is gone, save the Internet Archive version.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Pseudo-Open Source

          • Privatisation/Privateering

            • Linux Foundation

        • Security

          • Security updates for Wednesday

            Security updates have been issued by Debian (rsync, rsyslog, and uriparser), Fedora (containerd, freeipa, golang-github-containerd-ttrpc, libdxfrw, libldb, librecad, mingw-speex, moby-engine, samba, and xen), Red Hat (kernel, kernel-rt, kpatch-patch, and samba), and Ubuntu (linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.11, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.11, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.11, linux-hwe-5.11, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.11, linux-raspi, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.4, linux-azure, linux-gcp, linux-gke, linux-gke-5.4, linux-gkeop, linux-gkeop-5.4, linux-hwe-5.4, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.4, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-hwe, linux-azure, linux-azure-4.15, linux-dell300x, linux-gcp-4.15, linux-hwe, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-raspi2, linux-snapdragon, linux, linux-aws, linux-azure, linux-gcp, linux-kvm, linux-oem-5.13, linux-oracle, linux-raspi, and linux-oem-5.14).

          • CISA Adds Five Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

            CISA has added five new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence that threat actors are actively exploiting the vulnerabilities listed in the table below. These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors of all types and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise.

          • Cybersecurity: Increase your protection by using the open-source tool YARA - TechRepublic

            A plethora of different tools exist to detect threats to the corporate network. Some of these detections are based on network signatures, while some others are based on files or behavior on the endpoints or on the servers of the company. Most of these solutions use existing rules to detect danger, which hopefully are updated often. But what happens when the security staff wants to add custom rules for detection or do their own incident response on endpoints using specific rules? This is where YARA comes into play.

          • Making Transparency Easy: Lumen Is Pleased To Announce a New Feature for Notice Submitters

            We’re thrilled to be rolling out the Lumen Submitter Widget, a tool that allows any online service provider (OSP) to automate reception of content removal requests in a coherent form and to facilitate transparency and research regarding those requests.

            The tool comes out of the many conversations we’ve had with potential data partners about obstacles that OSPs (and users) face in sending, receiving, and making sense of the takedown requests they receive.We hope that making sharing data with Lumen effortless and uncomplicated will encourage more OSPs to join Lumen in providing transparency and supporting analysis of the Web’s takedown landscape.

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • Korean Facial Recognition Project Faces Opposition | Hackaday

              It was discovered last month that a South Korean government project has been providing millions of facial images taken at Incheon International Airport to private industry without the consent of those photographed. Several civic groups called this a “shocking human rights disaster” in a 9 Nov press conference, and formally requested that the project be cancelled. In response, the government has only promised that “the project would be conducted at a minimum level to ensure personal information is not abused”. These groups are now planning a lawsuit to challenge the project.



Recent Techrights' Posts

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Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
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António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
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IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
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[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
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Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
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Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
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Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
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Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
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IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
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Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
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