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Links 4/12/2021: IPFire 2.27 Core Update 162 and Genode OS Framework 21.11



  • GNU/Linux

    • What Is ’Apt-Get’ In Linux?

      Despite being accused of “hard to use” operating system, GNU/Linux OSes are fantastic free alternatives to Windows and macOS. Despite the growing list of Linux distributions, Linux is now as straightforward and intuitive as other operating systems. Unlike Windows, which only allows you to install apps from .exe files and the Windows Store, Linux has APT (Advanced Package Tool), which handles the installation and removal of packages/apps in the operating system.

      If you want to install a program on Linux, you’ll need to use the term apt-get, but what exactly is it, and what does it do? In this article, let’s sudo apt get-started to find out what apt-get is.

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Windows Vs Linux: 7 Reasons To Switch To Linux

        The view that Linux is a server operating system only is an outdated view. There are hundreds of Linux distributions designed specifically to be beneficial for the average desktop/laptop user, and it is perhaps time you consider switching to Linux from Windows.

        When we talk about switching to Linux, we talk about using distributions like Ubuntu or Linux Mint instead of your Windows installation. Of course, you don’t have to get rid of Windows at the same day either; you can install Linux side by side with Windows if you wish, until you have finally made your mind about it.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Graphics Stack

        • Mesa's Classic Drivers Have Been Retired - Affecting ATI R100/R200 & More - Phoronix

          The day has finally come that Mesa's classic OpenGL drivers (non-Gallium3D) have been cleared out of the code-base as part of their modernization effort for mainline.

          After a half-year pending, the "Delete Mesa Classic" merge request was honored today in eliminating the Mesa "classic" OpenGL drivers from the code-base. The drivers will still be maintained in an "Amber" branch, but considering how little focus these drivers have been receiving by upstream Mesa developers currently, don't expect much (or, if any) real changes moving ahead.

    • Intel

    • Applications

      • Blender 3.0 Released! How to Install it in Ubuntu via Linux Tarball
        lender 3.0 was finally released! Here’s what’s new and how to install it in Ubuntu.

        The new release of the animation creation software features 2x ~ 8x faster GPU rendering, magnitudes faster loading and saving compressed .blend file. Also, it has updated theme, and a bunch of new options to customize UI layout.

        Other features in Blender 3.0 include...

      • Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Corel DVD Copy

        Corel Corporation is a Canadian software company specializing in graphics processing. They are best known for developing CorelDRAW, a vector graphics editor. They are also notable for purchasing and developing AfterShot Pro, PaintShop Pro, Painter, Video Studio, MindManager, and WordPerfect.

        Corel has dabbled with Linux over the years. For example they produced Corel Linux, a Debian-based distribution which bundled Corel WordPerfect Office for Linux. While Corel effectively abandoned its Linux business in 2001 they are not completely Linux-phobic. For example, AfterShot Pro has an up to date Linux version albeit its proprietary software.

        This series looks at the best free and open source alternatives to products offered by Corel. 

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • 2 ways to install Chrome Browser on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 Linux

        Looking for an answer to how do I install Google Chrome browser in Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jelly Fish or Ubuntu 20.04 Focal fossa? Then here are the commands to follow. Chrome is the free internet browser from Google and with its search engine as default. It is currently one of the popular and most widely used browsers in the world, ahead of Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer (Edge). In terms of function and security, Google Chrome is well-positioned.

        Although Firefox is the default browser in Ubuntu, those who are not a fan of it and want Chrome can switch to it any time. The easiest possible methods are here.

      • How To Install Glances on AlmaLinux 8 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Glances on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Glances is a cross-platform curses-based system monitoring tool written in Python. Glances provide information regarding memory, CPU, Disk IO, file system, Uptime, processes, interfaces, alerts & many other system information.

        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 Glances real-time Linux server monitoring on an AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, and Rocky Linux distributions.

      • Add Second Disk to Existing TrueNAS Pool in Mirror Configuration (RAID1)

        We are using the TrueNAS homelab server that we created some time ago to provide a share storage solution for Kubernetes.

        When we built the TrueNAS server, we went for the most basic and least expensive ZFS pool with a single disk. It worked well but did not provide any redundancy. While we didn’t store any important data in Kubernetes at the time, we do now. We’ve got ElasticSearch logs, WordPress MySQL databases, Prometheus metrics etc.

        We’ve purchased a second hard drive that is of the same size, and we want to use it as a mirror disk, also known as RAID1, to ensure that no data loss occurs in a case of a single drive failure.

      • Install AnyDesk on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy via Command terminal

        AnyDesk is an alternative to Teamviewer kind of application that enables the users to establish a connection for accessing remote Dekstop or Laptop via the Internet. Just like TeamViewer, it is also free for personal usage while commercial users need to buy licenses. Apart from Linux, AnyDesk is also available for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, FreeBSD, Raspberry Pi, and Chrome OS. Here we will see how to install AnyDesk on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy JellyFish using its repository and command terminal.

      • How to Use the du Command to Find Disk Usage in Linux - ByteXD

        The du (Disk Usage) command reports the estimated amount of disk space used by files and directories on a machine.

        It allows you to gain disk usage information quickly, and it can be used for things like tracking files and directories that are using up too much space on your disk drive. The du command accepts many options, which allow you to customize the disk usage results output in a variety of formats to meet your needs.

      • FinalCrypt

        Installation (Sparky 6 & 7 amd64): sudo apt update sudo apt install finalcrypt

      • How to install AnyDesk on Debian 11 Bullseye Linux - Linux Shout

        In this tutorial, we will learn the commands to add a repository of AnyDesk on Debian 11 Bullseye or 10 Buster. Those who don’t know about this app- AnyDesk is a popular and very simple to use remote server or desktop management application. It allows the users to control other computers remotely, or to control your computer remotely. The free remote access software is the alternative to Teamviewer.

        Although Teamviewer is de facto standard when you want to access a third-party computer and control it remotely. But with Anydesk there is a powerful alternative. In terms of functionality, both are very similar; apart from the remote desktop graphical access, both also offer functions such as file transfer and chat. The software is free for private users. For commercial use, companies have to go for a monthly subscription.

        AnyDesk is a cross-platform app, hence apart from Linux also available for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. If this app is not the one you like then we also have covered the steps to install TeamViewer on Debian 11, you can go for that.

      • Install TeamViewer on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy | 20.04 Focal - Linux Shout

        Well, if you are thinking about how you can easily install the TeamViewer Remote desktop app on either Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy JellyFIsh or Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal fossa? Then here is the solution.

        Teamviewer is a popular and cross-platform application to access the remote desktop or server graphical user interface. It is free for personal usage but unfortunately, commercial users have to buy its license.

        Apart from remote access, the user can perform chat, video conferencing, file transfer, remote printing, and more. It offers high security by providing end-to-end 256-bit AES encryption.

      • How to install Erlang on ArchLinux – Citizix

        Erlang is a functional, general-purpose, concurrent programming language and garbage-collected runtime environment built for concurrency, fault tolerance, and distributed application architectures. It is supported and maintained by Ericsson OTP product unit.

      • How to set up an SFTP server on Arch Linux – Citizix

        In this guide we are going to set up an sftp server on an Arch Linux system. We will also set up a form of chroot where users can only access sftp with the shared credentials.

        The File Transfer Protocol is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network.

        FTP isn’t popular today because it Lacks Security. When a file is sent using this protocol, the data, username, and password are all shared in plain text, which means a hacker can access this information with little to no effort. For data to be secure, you need to use an upgraded version of FTP like SFTP.

        SFTP Secure File Transfer Protocol is a file transfer protocol that provide secure access to a remote computer to deliver secure communications. It leverages SSH – Secure Socket Shell and is frequently also referred to as ‘Secure Shell File Transfer Protocol’.

      • How to install and configure RabbitMQ in Archlinux

        In this guide we will explore how to install the latest release of RabbitMQ in Archlinux system.

        RabbitMQ is an open source message broker software that implements the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP). RabbitMQ works by receiving messages from publishers (applications that publish them) and routes them to consumers (applications that process them).

      • How To Backup and Restore RabbitMQ Data & Configurations – Citizix

        This guide covers backup and restore procedures for various types of data a RabbitMQ node may contain.

        RabbitMQ backups are a JSON representation of your broker’s metadata. This includes users, vhosts, queues, exchanges, and bindings. Backups are made against a running cluster using the export command provided by the RabbitMQ management plugin. Messages are not included in the backup.

      • How to use dig

        Hello! I talked to a couple of friends recently who mentioned they wished they knew how to use dig to make DNS queries, so here’s a quick blog post about it.

        When I first started using dig I found it a bit intimidating – there are so many options! I’m going to leave out most of dig’s options in this post and just talk about the ones I actually use.

        Also I learned recently that you can set up a .digrc configuration file to make its output easier to read and it makes it SO MUCH nicer to use.

        I also drew a zine page about dig a few years ago, but I wanted to write this post to include a bit more information.

      • Setup C/GTK3 Programming Tools on Parabola GNU/Linux for Beginners

        This tutorial will explain how to install a full GTK version 3 software development kit on Parabola GNU/Linux computer operating systems. This will include the necessary components as well as the editor, compiler and documentation. Finally, we hope this helps people to develop more desktop free software. Now let's go!

      • K3XEC | Receiving BPSK symbols (Part 3/5)

        This post is part of a series called "PACKRAT". If this is the first post you've found, it'd be worth reading the intro post first and then looking over all posts in the series. In the last post, we worked through how to generate a BPSK signal, and hopefully transmit it using one of our SDRs. Let’s take that and move on to Receiving BPSK and turning that back into symbols!

        Demodulating BPSK data is a bit more tricky than transmitting BPSK data, mostly due to tedious facts of life such as space, time, and hardware built with compromises because not doing that makes the problem impossible. Unfortunately, it’s now our job to work within our imperfect world to recover perfect data. We need to handle the addition of noise, differences in frequency, clock synchronization and interference in order to recover our information. This makes life a lot harder than when we transmit information, and as a result, a lot more complex.

    • Wine or Emulation

    • Games

      • Steam support for Chromebooks could surface this week

        After months and months and even more months of waiting, it appears that we may finally get our first look at native Steam gaming on Chrome OS in the very near future. Affectionately known as project ‘Borealis’, the containerized version of Steam has been in the works for nearly two years and it was initially thought that Google was targeting mid to late 2022 for a release. With Chrome OS 96 just rolling out and the next iteration of Google’s desktop operating system not due until January of 2022, it’s fairly clear that this target was missed but that’s okay. I’d rather see a fully baked product released than a buggy piece of software that sours users to Chrome OS. Anyway, in its early development, I presumed that ‘Borealis’, a.k.a. Steam on Chrome OS, would simply be an optimized version of the Steam application that would install and run inside the current Linux container. Over time, we learned that Google was actually creating an entirely new container designed specifically to house Borealis and that it should run independently from the Debian container currently available in Stable Chrome OS. This makes more sense as Google can retain control of the Borealis container and keep it neat and clean for running Steam. Presumably, users will never actually interact with the container like you can with the Linux terminal.

      • [Reposted] Valve says DayZ and five other games are now anti-cheat ready for Linux (and Steam Deck)

        Valve’s Steam Deck handheld won’t have any exclusive games, but it is slowly filling in some holes in its Windows game library — Valve says Arma 3, DayZ, Unturned, and Planetside 2 now have functioning BattlEye anti-cheat when you’re using the Proton compatibility layer to play Windows games in Linux. That brings the total to six games, including Ark: Survival Evolved and Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. (Those two already had support as of November 8th.)

        That compatibility is important for Linux in general (and the Steam Deck handheld specifically) because they don’t play Windows games out of the box unless they work with Proton, and third-party anti-cheat software is known to interfere.

        But for two of the most popular flavors of anti-cheat, this shouldn’t be a difficult fix! Epic Games has said enabling Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) in Proton should take “just a few clicks” in the game developer portal. Valve has said enabling BattlEye is as easy as sending an email.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Pango updates

          I was hoping to wrap up my Pango work after the previous update, but unexpected trouble came in from the side – Benjamin made GtkLabel more serious about height-for-width, and that uncovered some inaccuracies in Pango’s line wrapping implementation. Sometimes, we would make our lines shorter than necessary, and ometimes, we would let a hyphen leak out of the allotted width, creating an overlong line.

          Fixing all this up took some serious effort, but I think it was time well spent. One of the outcomes is that Pango now has APIs to serialize PangoLayout objects, and these are used in the testsuite.

        • Felix Häcker: #21 Software Cleanup

          Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from November 26 to December 03.

    • Distributions

      • IPFire 2.27 - Core Update 162 is available for testing

        Another release is available for testing: IPFire 2.27 - Core Update 162. It comes with a brand-new kernel based on Linux 5.15, and it will be the last release supporting the i586 architecture.

        Once a few releases after upgrading to Linux 5.10, we have now rebased the IPFire kernel on Linux 5.15. Due to dropping or upstreaming our patchset this was a lot easier than the previous step to 5.10.

        The new kernel is long-term supported by the Linux kernel developers and comes with various new drivers and performance improvements. Noteworthy are various performance improvements on "zero copy" for increased throughput and lower latency; Core Scheduling (for safer Hyperthreading), and a new drivers for NTFS.

      • BSD

        • iXsystems Recognized in 11th Annual Best in Biz Awards for Most Innovative Product Line of the Year

          TrueNAS by iXsystems is the world’s most popular Open Source storage operating system and is the most efficient solution for managing and sharing data over a network. TrueNAS Open Storage provides unified storage for file, block, object, and application data – making it an exceptionally flexible storage platform for business. All TrueNAS editions -- CORE, Enterprise, and SCALE -- leverage the enterprise-grade OpenZFS file system to provide an all-inclusive data management solution that protects customer data with features like Copy-on-Write, Snapshots, Checksums, Scrubbing, and 2-Copy Metadata.

      • EasyOS

        • Balsa email client

          I have chosen an older gtk2 version, 2.4.7, as it has configure choices that suit EasyOS. For example: It integrates with Osmo personal information manager. I haven't tested this, so don't know how it works. It uses the libgtkhtml v2 library to render HTML emails. This is great, as libgtkhtml v2 is already in EasyOS, used by helpsurfer local document viewer, and Osmo.

        • JWM menu button text is broken

          I want to bring out a new release of EasyOS in a couple of days, so if the problem isn't resolved quickly, I will roll back to 1685. Actually, 1685 works fine, I have had no issues with it, so really why upgrade just because there is a later version?

        • Kernel 5.10.83 compiled

          It was compiled with the 5.10.39 kernel, but was removed afterward.

          OK, it has returned. It must be understood of course, that the wl.ko module conflicts with others, hence has to be a separate PET. It means that every time you upgrade to a later version of EasyOS that has a later kernel, you will have to un-install the PET and install the one that matches the new kernel.

        • Mapping all download folders to one folder

          With the introduction of non-root client applications, there are multiple download folders. For example, firefox runs as user 'firefox', with home folder 'home/firefox', and default download path /home/firefox/Downloads'.

          OK, but if we have more non-root client apps, each with its own Download folder, it is starting to become inconvenient. Perhaps. Forum member hundido was showing a grandma how to use EasyOS, and she liked it, except for all these different download paths...

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • CentOS Stream 9 is Now Generally Available

          The release of CentOS Stream 9 has been carried out before CentOS Linux 8 expires at the end of this year.

          CentOS Stream saw the light of day in 2019 and fundamentally changed the work on the distribution. At the end of 2020, the announcement that Red Hat will shift its focus from CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream caused heated discussions.

          As you can imagine, many users were not satisfied with this decision. As a result, some replacement CentOS clones such as AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux soon came into play, which are now also generally available.

          Now the new CentOS project is showing off the latest and greatest in the first all-new release of CentOS Stream 9.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Hot not-Spot-bot spot: The code behind Xiaomi's CyberDog? Ubuntu

          Linux fans rejoice: the smarts running behind Xiaomi's Not-Spot, CyberDog, emanate from none other than Ubuntu 18.04.

          The Register asked Canonical why not something a little fresher, such as 20.04, and were told by robotics product manager, Gabriel Aguiar Noury, that "the operating system is running 18.04 rather than 20.04 because they are using Jetson, and 18.04 is more compatible for the approach the team had in mind."

          The CyberDog bounded onto the global stage in August and represented the company's first foray into the world of quadruped robotics.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Genode OS Framework release 21.11

        Genode 21.11 puts the spotlight on device drivers. Interactive Genode scenarios come to the Pinephone, hardware-accelerated graphics becomes available on Intel Gen9+ and Vivante GPUs, and Xilnx Zynq receives new love.

        The previous release presented our new take on porting drivers from Linux, and the architectural integration of hardware-accelerated graphics in Genode-based systems. The just released version 21.11 is the continuation of both topics. Thanks to our streamlined approach for transplanting Linux drivers to Genode, we were able to reuse the Pinephone's Linux drivers for the display and touchscreen without modification. But, in contrast to running those drivers in the Linux kernel, we are walking on new ground by confining each driver in a separate sandbox.

        With our GPU line of work, we followed two major directions during the release cycle. For one, we applied our architectural approach to a second GPU vendor besides Intel, namely the Vivante GPU as used by the i.MX SoC family. Combined with the etnaviv Gallium driver of the Mesa library, Genode thereby becomes able to render graphics with hardware acceleration on the MNT Reform open-hardware laptop. The second branch is the promised extension of our custom Intel GPU multiplexer to GPUs of generation 9 or newer. Thereby, GPU support has now become a regular feature of the Genode-based Sculpt OS that can be taken for a spin on commodity PC hardware.

      • Genode OS 21.11 Now Has Working Intel Gen9+ Graphics, Better PinePhone Support

        Genode OS as the interesting open-source operating system framework is out with its v21.11 release this week and delivers on many hardware improvements and other features.

        Genode OS 21.11 delivers on a number improvements and new features such as:

        - Genode's support for the Allwinner A64 SoC and in particular the PinePhone support has made "big leaps forward" this cycle. Touchscreen support and other functionality should be working now for the PinePhone on Genode.

      • Add CAPTCHA protection that’s not reCAPTCHA to a WordPress site – LinuxBSDos.com

        Want to add CAPTCHA protection that is not Google’s reCAPTCHA to the login page of your WordPress website? There is a WordPress plugin for that!

        And that’s how I ended up using CAPTCHA to protect the login page of this website. It was not planned, though. You see, it just so happened that I was trying to replace Google reCAPTCHA on a newsletter subscription plugin I wanted to use for this website. So I installed the CAPTCHA plugin, but I couldn’t get it to work as well as the default reCAPTCHA on the newsletter subscription form.

      • Strapi v4: Big changes in latest release of this open-source 'headless' CMS | ZDNet

        Strapi, the company behind the most popular open-source headless content management system (CMS) of the same name, has launched the next stable release of Strapi v4. This includes a new design system, user interface, plug-in Application Programming Interface (API), database query engine, and improved REST and GraphQL API performance.

      • 7 tips for virtual mentorship in open source | Opensource.com

        In open source, contributors collaborate across various projects, regions, and time zones. There are often untapped opportunities to create mentorship relationships through this distributed engagement. A mentorship is mutually beneficial to both the mentor and mentee when both parties are committed to the relationship's success. Both the mentor and mentee grow professionally in the process. For example, the mentor develops their leadership skills, evolves, and prepares for career advancement. Here are a few ways to effectively build a positive mentorship relationship.

      • Events

        • Open-Source Firmware Conference 2021 Videos Now Available - Phoronix

          Taking place this week was the annual Open-Source Firmware Conference "OSFC" devoted to open-source firmware from Coreboot to open-source BMC solutions and other low-level booting/initialization efforts.

          OSFC 2021 was once again a virtual affair due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Organizing the event was Meta (Facebook), 9elements Cyber Security, and Google. Talks this year covered U-BMC, the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS), Oreboot, Arm SystemReady effort for the Raspberry Pi, Arm LBBR, Coreboot, Slim Bootloader, and more.

      • Programming/Development

        • Haskell mortgage calculator



          A few months ago I was trying to compare two mortgage offers, and ended up writing a small mortgage calculator to help me. Both mortgages were fixed-term for the same time period (5 years). One of the mortgages had a lower rate than the other, but much higher arrangement fees.

          A broker recommended the mortgage with the higher rate but lower fee, on an affordability basis for the fixed term: over all, we would spend less money within the fixed term on that deal than the other. (I thought) this left one bit of information missing: what remaining balance would there be at the end of the term?

        • Best Programming Languages for Web Development

          Choosing the best programming language for your web development project is a critical task. An excellent choice facilitates rapid project development and helps your development team integrate essential features with lesser efforts.

          While there are many different programming languages, the most common ones used in web development are JavaScript, HTML, CSS, PHP, etc. JavaScript has a popularity of nearly 65% among developers worldwide, as per Statista.

          Do you know which programming languages are preferred by developers worldwide?

        • AMD AMF SDK 1.4.23 Brings Main 10 HEVC Encode, Auto LTR Encoder Mode - Phoronix

          AMD on Friday published a new version of their Advanced Media Framework "AMF" software development kit that enhances the multimedia processing capabilities for Radeon hardware.

          AMD AMF continues to support both Windows and Linux and supporting interoperability with multiple APIs including DirectX, Vulkan, OpenGL, and OpenCL. As the first AMF update since this summer, AMF 1.4.23 is rather noteworthy in now adding an Auto LTR encoder mode as well as Main 10 HEVC encoder profile.

        • Kioxia adds sophisticated admin tools and wider support to KumoScale – Blocks and Files

          The v3.19 KumoScale software also supports the Ubuntu distribution of Linux, the latest Kubernetes CSI version, and adds CSI and Ansible support of snapshot and clone functionality.

        • Dirk Eddelbuettel: RcppAPT 0.0.8: Package Maintenance

          A new version of the RcppAPT package interfacing from R to the C++ library behind the awesome apt, apt-get, apt-cache, … commands and their cache powering Debian, Ubuntu and the like arrived on CRAN earlier today.

          RcppAPT allows you to query the (Debian or Ubuntu) package dependency graph at will, with build-dependencies (if you have deb-src entries), reverse dependencies, and all other goodies. See the vignette and examples for illustrations.

          This release updates some package metadata, adds a new package testing helper, and, just like digest three days ago, drat two days ago, and littler yesterday, we converted the vignettes from using the minidown package to the (fairly new) simplermarkdown package which is so much more appropriate for our use of the minimal water.css style.

        • Perl/Raku

  • Leftovers

    • Technology’s Role in Society: It’s Complicated

      “Welcome to the future - not 2021, as you might have been expecting, but 2025, or even 2030, depending on whom you ask,” said The Economist in a November, 2020 article. “The adoption of new technological behaviours in response to the pandemic, from video-conferencing to online shopping, means usage has already reached levels that were not expected for many more years.”

      For years, companies and governments found all kinds of reasons for not embracing work from home, virtual meetings, telemedicine, online learning, and other digital applications. But, the pandemic forced us to accelerate the digital transformations of the economy and society to help us cope with the crisis. And, not only have these digital applications worked remarkably well, but they offer a number of important benefits, like not waiting for a straightforward doctor diagnosis in a room full of sick people, and not having to travel for hours to participate in a 45 minute meeting.

      Post-pandemic, how much will things snap back?, asked The Economist. “Clearly the world is not going to return to its pre-pandemic state… some new behaviours will stick, but not all, and the result will be somewhere in the middle. Exactly where will have enormous implications: for transport patterns, property prices and the layout of cities, among other things.”

    • Hardware

      • [Older] Steam Deck SoC Is Codenamed Aerith; Valve Recommends Capping FPS, FSR Will Be Added on OS Level

        During the Steamworks Virtual Conference dedicated to the Steam Deck, Valve shared a lot more information on the hardware of its upcoming PC handheld system.

        To begin with, we learned that the custom SoC used in the Steam Deck is codenamed Aerith. The APU block, a combination of AMD's Zen 2 and RDNA2 technologies, was specifically designed to accommodate the low target requirement for power (the TDP is 4-15W).

      • Paper Plate Surround Sound System | Hackaday

        With the holiday season, you might turn to paper plates to cut down on dishwashing after having family or friends over. But what do you do with the extras? If you are [TKOR] you make some speakers. The process is fairly simple and if you know how a speaker works, you won’t find any surprises, but there are some neat techniques you might pick up. You can see the video below.

        A drill and a steel rod help with the coil winding duty. You can probably adapt the technique to make other kinds of coils and we’d rig up an encoder to count revolutions, too.

        In addition to paper plates that act as transducers, paper bowls form the back of the speakers. They wound up with 16 speakers which would have been expensive to buy, but it might not be very attractive, depending on your sense of fashion.

      • Two Wire Sensors On LED Strips | Hackaday

        While addressable LED strips are all the rage, [Mike] from [mikeselectricstuff] has been working on an installation using the more basic two-wire strips that are simply controlled via PWM dimming. He’s recently figured out a tidy way to send sensor signals down these strips without adding any additional cabling.

        The build uses 24 V LED tape, which consists of gangs of 6 LEDs in series with a forward voltage of 3V. Thus, these strips don’t even begin to light until approximately 18V is across them.

        By adding a 15 V Zener diode and a resistor across the MOSFET which dims the LEDs, a voltage of around 9 V can be put across the LEDs without lighting them up when the MOSFET PWM dimmer is in its off phase. A PIC10F322 microcontroller and an accelerometer can then be run from this voltage, with the aid of a 3.3 V regulator wired in parallel with the LEDs. The regulator must also be able to handle the full 24 V when the LEDs are switched on.

      • Abandoned Airplane Takes Off Again As Luxury RV | Hackaday

        There it was, rusting in a field outside Rolla, Missouri — the vintage plane that would start [Gino Lucci] on the path to fulfilling this dream. This project began when [Gino]’s son spotted the body of a 1943 Douglas R4D military transport aircraft.

        Over the next year, [Gino] and his sons painstakingly fused the fuselage to the chassis of an International DuraStar 4400 medium-duty truck. We love how they went about it. [Gino] and the boys just kept putting the two together and cutting away the fuselage in stages until they got it right. After making it roadworthy, it took another two years to work out the kinks.

        The Fabulous Flamingo is 38 feet (11.6 meters) long and stands 12.5 feet (3.81 meters) tall. But the best metric is the width. It’s unspecified, but is apparently half an inch (1.27 cm) under the definition of what is street legal in Michigan. They used the plane’s engine cowlings as fenders and got the mirrors off of a ’70s Ford pickup. Floor it past the break and check it out.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • The DOCX Transition: The USPTO Explains Why It’s Delaying the Fee for Non-DOCX Filings

          On Friday, November 19, the USPTO announced that it will be delaying the $400 fee for patent applications filed in non-DOCX formats until January 1, 2023. Previously, the fee was set to take effect on January 1, 2022, but the Federal Register notice, officially published on Novemebr 22, indicated that the Office will undertake enhanced testing of its information technology systems as more users file in DOCX, and that it wants to give applicants more time to adjust to filing patent applications in DOCX format. The goal, according to acting USPTO Director Drew Hirshfeld, is to alleviate concerns that have been raised by users about rendering problems that could result in applicants losing their filing dates due to incorrect information being filed.

        • Security

          • Scanning Docker for Secrets - Infosecurity Magazine

            Owing to their structure and usage, docker images are likely to contain hidden secrets

          • Top IT Asset Management Tools for Security
          • Sensitive information of 30k Florida healthcare workers exposed in unprotected database
          • Security, Privacy Risks of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

            “There are multitudes of ways in which AI is particularly useful in the healthcare context. But there are a whole host of concerns in terms of how we regulate AI, particularly because AI is so dependent on gathering large blocks of data in order to learn,” Malek explained.

            “When you consider that, you see that there are data privacy and cybersecurity issues, ethical issues, and safety issues.”

            The volume of data that AI models can maintain is staggering. Without the proper safeguards and regulatory assurances, AI could pose risks to patient data security and privacy.

            When it comes to protected health information (PHI), covered entities have a duty under HIPAA to protect patient data. Engaging with any third-party vendor comes with risks that should be carefully assessed.

          • Still paying for antivirus software? Experts say you probably don't need it [Ed: The advice here it poor; operating systems with back doors are not secure and the solution isn't in them but outside them, and not AV snake oil]
          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • American diplomats' iPhones reportedly compromised by NSO Group intrusion software

              The Apple iPhones of at least nine US State Department officials were compromised by an unidentified entity using NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, according to a report published Friday by Reuters.

              NSO Group in an email to The Register said it has blocked an unnamed customers' access to its system upon receiving an inquiry about the incident but has yet to confirm whether its software was involved.

              "Once the inquiry was received, and before any investigation under our compliance policy, we have decided to immediately terminate relevant customers’ access to the system, due to the severity of the allegations," an NSO spokesperson told The Register in an email. "To this point, we haven’t received any information nor the phone numbers, nor any indication that NSO’s tools were used in this case."

    • Finance

      • Pandora Papers: How journalists mined terabytes of offshore data to expose the world’s elites

        The Pandora Papers revealed how politicians, celebrities, royalty and fraudsters use offshore tax havens to hide assets, secretly buy property, launder money and avoid taxes.

        More than 600 journalists in 117 countries collaborated, using data tools to extract hidden connections between offshore companies and wealthy elites who used tax havens to hide their financial activities. Their investigation embarrassed politicians, royalty, celebrities and oligarchs worldwide.

        The Pandora Papers showed that one of the world’s longest-serving monarch, King Abdullah II of Jordan, had secretly built up a personal property empire.

        His portfolio, including luxury properties in Malibu and London’s Belgravia, were worth well over $100m. And they were bought at a time when his country’s citizens were facing severe austerity measures and rampant unemployment. Their true ownership was hidden by offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.

        In Chile, opposition politicians launched impeachment proceedings against president Sebastián Piñera over irregularities in the sale of a mining company that were revealed in the documents.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • €» Sony vs the internet (in this case dns resolvers) | dwaves.de

        “In the end, it may be bitter for Quad9 that they only got into the trouble by moving to Europe, where they wanted to establish themselves as a data protection-friendly EU alternative to commercial providers. According to Sony’s corresponding claim against the market leader Google in the USA – or even only against German 8.8.8.8 users in this country – you are looking in vain so far.

        Quad9 Managing Director Jonathan Todd says they remain confident that the next instance will confirm the view that DNS resolvers as part of the Internet infrastructure are only “conductors” and should not manipulate the service at the request of private companies.”

      • India known as ‘internet shutdown capital’ of the world - The Federal

        Internetshutdowns.in, an internet tracker maintained by Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), records a total of 550 internet shutdowns in India so far since 2012, and over 50 per cent of these shutdowns were imposed since 2019, a report in The Indian Express noted, further quoting Prasanth Sugathan, Legal Director at SFLC, as saying: “We source these shutdowns through media reports and suspension orders that are issued by the governments. These orders are not publicly available, which are then to be procured by filing applications under the RTI Act.

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • Obituary - Professor Margaret Sophia Moy Llewelyn (1962-2021)

          Margaret Llewelyn, Honorary Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the University of Sheffield, best known as one of the foremost experts on plant breeders’ rights and patent law, passed away on 2 November 2021.

        • Darling Ingredients' Rousselot€® Health Brand Obtains A Granted Patent from the European Patent Office for its SiMoGelâ„¢ Solution

          Launched in 2018, SiMoGel enables the production of nutraceutical gummies using a starch-free process – providing the hygienic conditions needed for supplements. The gelatin-based solution not only helps optimize the production process of nutraceutical gummies, but also enables producers to bring tasty, innovative and competitive delivery forms to the market.

          "We're delighted to have achieved this important step in protecting our innovative SiMoGel solution," says Randall C. Stuewe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Darling Ingredients. "The patent grant by the EPO strengthens our current patent portfolio and confirms that we are delivering truly innovative solutions to the market. In securing this patent, we are able to offer our customers even more opportunities for secure product development, allowing them to tap into the growing nutraceutical gummy market."



Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
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
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
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
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[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
Links for the day
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?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
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
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
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?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
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)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
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
Links for the day