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Links 22/05/2022: Free Software Developments in Bratislava



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • The Financial Squeeze Is Affecting the Photography Industry: Seven Ways to Protect Your Pocket | Fstoppers

        It’s a constant annoyance that once speedy computers become old and slow. Is this built-in obsolescence? I am pretty sure it is. I constructed my desktop computer about seven years ago. It has an 8-core processor that was considered fast when I installed it. It has 32 GB RAM and solid-state hard drives. Windows 11 won’t work on it because the processor is incompatible. It’s also much slower than it once was, despite having a clean install of Windows.

        Macs also slow down with age. In 2020, Apple paid a $113 million fine for deliberately slowing down their iPhones. One must wonder whether operating systems are intentionally made sluggish to encourage upgrades.

        Besides my main computer, I have an ancient single-core laptop with 2 GB RAM onto which I loaded the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system. I have Raw Therapee installed on it, and it is as fast as my Windows desktop. (Raw Therapee recommends 4GB of RAM, but my old laptop works with 2GB.)

        Not directly photography-related, but there is also an excellent free word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and other software bundled in with Libre Office that can save you a substantial amount on your administration costs compared to Microsoft Office. This is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems.

        Ubuntu isn’t the answer for everyone, but it might be a possible solution for those struggling to get by and whose computers are slow because of older specifications.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Graphics Stack

      • Timur Kristóf: Task shader driver implementation on AMD HW

        Previously, I gave you an introduction to mesh/task shaders and wrote up some details about how mesh shaders are implemented in the driver. But I left out the important details of how task shaders (aka. amplification shaders) work in the driver. In this post, I aim to give you some details about how task shaders work under the hood. Like before, this is based on my experience implementing task shaders in RADV and all details are already public information.

    • Applications

      • FOSSBytes7 Best Rufus Alternatives To Create Bootable USB In 2022

        One of the first steps of trying out an operating system is installing the image of the same on a USB drive. Rufus is one of the most widely used tools to create bootable USBs, but you might not like it due to its UI or slow on your computer. Hence, in this article, let’s look at some of the best Rufus alternatives to create bootable USBs.

      • Linux Links8 Best Free and Open Source Survey Tools

         Surveys are one of the most effective tools for obtaining customer feedback. However, creating and distributing them can be very challenging.

        Without the right software, you can spend days, even weeks, trying to create a perfect survey. And even then the quality and formatting of the survey may fall short of industry standards.

        You may therefore need a survey creation tool that can help set up an effective feedback loop. The software featured here lets you build fully-customizable surveys, forms and quizzes.

        Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks chart. Only free and open source software is included. Each application can be self-hosted on your own server.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Linux HandbookGetting Comfortable with Visual mode in Vim

        You know Vim. It is your favorite text editor. Using Vim makes you feel at home. But, like in Home Alone, there is the basement that you have not conquered yet.

      • How to install ftp and tftp server on Fedora | FOSS Linux

        FTP, SFTP, and TFTP are protocols used to transfer files over a network. It can either be a local network or over the internet. Let’s look at each protocol in detail to understand the main difference in the abbreviations.

        FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This protocol is used to transfer files between devices on a network. For example, to transfer files between a computer and the server over the internet. In a nutshell, FTP is the language that devices use to transfer files over a TCP/IP network.

        If you want to make files on your computer available to other users globally, you can upload those files to the FTP server, and the other users will connect to the server and download the files using the FTP protocol. But from this example, we see that you need to have a dedicated FTP server setup to share the files. But do you need to go all the way and configure a dedicated FTP server?

        No, you can easily configure your computer as an FTP server, as we will show you in this post. Windows users can do so using the Internet Information Services Manager, while Linux users can easily install the FTP utility on their system.

      • How to Install Zoom on openSUSE

        The pandemic issue has changed our lives and the way we work. Now, many companies and individuals do remote work and even meetings. These meetings are supported by necessary software such as Zoom. That’s why learning how to install Zoom on a major distribution like openSUSE is necessary, so you don’t miss a thing.

      • Install sysPass Password Manager on Rocky Linux - kifarunix.com

        In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to install sysPass password manager on Rocky Linux. sysPass is opensource multiuser password manager written in PHP for business and personal use. It allows a centralized and collaborative passwords management. It saves passwords using bidirectional encryption with a master password to a database. Passwords are associated to accounts, and these have detailed information about it like: customer, category, notes, files, etc.

      • VideoAdding New Package To DTOS For System Sounds - Invidious

        This lengthy video covers how I created a new package for DTOS called 'dtos-sounds'. It is a collection of short mp3 files that can be used as system sounds for things like startup, shutdown, opening menus, etc. I can specify which sounds to use for what purpose in my XMonad config (which is also available in the latest DTOS).

      • FOSSBytesHow To Delete Apps On Chromebook?

        There are many ways to install apps on a Chromebook — using the Google Play Store, Chrome Web Store, and Linux. If you have many apps installed and want to delete some to free up space, Chrome OS also provides an easy way to remove apps. In this article, let’s look at how to delete apps on Chromebook.

      • ID RootHow To Install Xrdp on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Xrdp on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Xrdp is an open-source remote desktop protocol server that provides a graphical user interface to remote machines using RDP (Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol). Xrdp can connect to a locally created X.org session with the xorgxrdp drivers, to a VNC X11 server, and forward to another RDP server.

      • LinuxiacHow to Install VirtualBox on Debian 11 (Bullseye): A Step-by-Step Guide

        This tutorial shows the easiest way to install VirtualBox on Debian 11, a general-purpose full virtualizer app for x86 hardware.

        VirtualBox is cross-platform, free, and open-source software that allows you to virtualize the x86 computing architecture. It has allowed open source enthusiasts and IT professionals to host many operating systems on a single host machine for years.

        Although VirtualBox is primarily aimed at home users, it is also commonly utilized in professional environments.

      • Install sysPass Password Manager on Ubuntu 22.04/Ubuntu 20.04 - kifarunix.com

        In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to install sysPass password manager on Ubuntu 22.04/Ubuntu 20.04. sysPass is opensource multiuser password manager written in PHP for business and personal use. It allows a centralized and collaborative passwords management. It saves passwords using bidirectional encryption with a master password to a database. Passwords are associated to accounts, and these have detailed information about it like: customer, category, notes, files, etc.

      • Install sysPass Password Manager on Debian 11/Debian 10 - kifarunix.com

        In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to install sysPass password manager on Debian 11/Debian 10. sysPass is opensource multiuser password manager written in PHP for business and personal use. It allows a centralized and collaborative passwords management. It saves passwords using bidirectional encryption with a master password to a database. Passwords are associated to accounts, and these have detailed information about it like: customer, category, notes, files, etc.

      • H2S MediaHow to install Dolphin File manager on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS - Linux Shout

        Dolphin is the file manager and an integral part of KDE. Even the Konqueror uses Dolphin in its file management. In contrast to Konqueror, Dolphin is a specialist in file management and has been specially developed with ease of use in mind.

    • Games

      • GamingOnLinuxSteam Deck hits over 3,000 games either Verified or Playable

        There it is, the next big milestone for the Steam Deck has been hit with over 3,000 games now rated as either Verified or Playable. It's just a number of course, and there's far more you can actually play, this is just what Valve has formally put through Deck Verified.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • BSD

      • [Old] OpenBSD on Raspberry Pi 4 with Full-Disk Encryption

        After some effort, I got my Raspberry Pi 4 running OpenBSD 6.9 with full-disk encryption on a USB3 memory stick. I could find no one else online talking about this subject anywhere, except this mailing list thread. So, I thought I’d share my experience on how I got it working. I recommend you read the entire post before proceeding, so you have an idea of the process upfront.

    • Fedora Family / IBM

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • Dirk EddelbuettelDirk Eddelbuettel: #37: Introducing r2u with 2 x 19k binaries for Ubuntu 22.04 and 20.04

        One month ago I started work on a new side project which is now up and running, and deserving on an introductory blog post: r2u. It was announced in two earlier tweets (first, second) which contained the two (wicked) demos below also found at the documentation site.

        So what is this about? It brings full and complete CRAN installability to Ubuntu LTS, both the ‘focal’ release 20.04 and the recent ‘jammy’ release 22.04. It is unique in resolving all R and CRAN packages with the system package manager. So whenever you install something it is guaranteed to run as its dependencies are resolved and co-installed as needed. Equally important, no shared library will be updated or removed by the system as the possible dependency of the R package is known and declared. No other package management system for R does that as only apt on Debian or Ubuntu can — and this project integrates all CRAN packages (plus 200+ BioConductor packages). It will work with any Ubuntu installation on laptop, desktop, server, cloud, container, or in WSL2 (but is limited to Intel/AMD chips, sorry Raspberry Pi or M1 laptop). It covers all of CRAN (or nearly 19k packages), all the BioConductor packages depended-upon (currently over 200), and only excludes less than a handful of CRAN packages that cannot be built.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • Stacy on IoTWe need to talk about Thread

        Thread launched back in 2014 as a wireless networking protocol designed for a world of millions or billions of connected devices. The idea behind the radio was that connected devices such as sensors, thermostats, doorbells, etc. needed mesh capabilities, the ability to conserve power, and a direct connection to the internet.

        While the code underneath has changed, the basic design of the technology and its requirements haven’t changed much. It has since become the low-power data transfer option for the Matter smart home interoperability standard, which means Thread will soon play a huge part in smart home and building infrastructure.

        But it does have a few problems the industry needs to address.

      • Linux GizmosAeon ATX Server board is equipped with eight SATA III ports, two GbE ports and six R-DIMM slots

        The ARES-WHI0 is an ATX server board built around the Intel Xeon Ice Lake-SP processor. Besides its large storage capacity, the ARES-WHI0 features plenty of PCIe slots to support up to four VGA cards for AI acceleration and enhanced graphics experience.

        Another useful feature of the Intel C621A chipset is the support for Intel’s Deep Learning Boost which is supposed to improve AI acceleration and Edge Server performance. RAM is supplied by six R-DIMM slots (2666MHz) and the eight SATA III (6.0 Gbps) ports that support RAID.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • [Old] uni MichiganSmarter 3D printing makes better parts faster

        SmartScan tackles the problem by considering how heat flows within a given part and mapping an optimized scan sequence to limit heat accumulation in any given area. It analyzes the shape of the part and the thermal properties of the material being used, including conductive and convective heat transfer.

        Others in the field have experimented with varying printing patterns to reduce heat buildup, for example by jumping from one area to another or alternating between horizontal and vertical scanning directions. But Okwudire says SmartScan is the first solution that uses a thermal model to optimally guide the laser to distribute heat more evenly.

      • Andrew HutchingsAmiga 1000 Restoration: Recap, Cleaning and Testing

        Looks like my next adventure will be cleanup and repair of the keyboard.

      • The VergeiFixit will sell nearly every part of the Steam Deck — including the entire motherboard

        The era of fixing your own gadgets has nearly arrived, and Valve’s Steam Deck handheld gaming PC may be setting the best example yet — not only does it offer a repair-friendly design, but it now looks like almost every part will be sold separately at iFixit.

      • The VergeApple shipped me a 79-pound iPhone repair kit to fix a 1.1-ounce battery

        The thing you should understand about Apple’s home repair process is that it’s a far cry from traditional DIY if you opt for the kit — which I did, once I saw the repair manual only contains instructions for Apple’s own tools. (You can just buy a battery if you want.)

        I expected Apple would send me a small box of screwdrivers, spudgers, and pliers; I own a mini iPhone, after all. Instead, I found two giant Pelican cases — 79 pounds of tools — on my front porch. I couldn’t believe just how big and heavy they were considering Apple’s paying to ship them both ways.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • JoinupOpen Source developments in Bratislava: New open source digital services for the residents of Bratislava

      The City of Bratislava is currently building a whole new ecosystem of open source digital services under the leadership of its CIO Petra Dzurovčinová. These services will be tested in Bratislava and then ate planned to be expanded to other cities in Slovakia with a goal of limiting the existing vendor lock-in and improving public services for the residents.

      According to Petra, choosing open source solutions for the digital transformation of the city is based not only on the long-term economic incentive, but more importantly, on the quality of services to be provided for the citizens. The digitisation team in Bratislava took on the task by first identifying and understanding the needs of the citizens through iterative processes involving interviews, co-creation and cooperating with other cities. A large part of the work has been done internally in the conceptualisation phase to steer the next steps of developing technological solutions and ensure achieving the planned objectives.

    • Web Browsers

      • Ted Unangstcss vs webgl cubes

        I wanted to conduct a little experiment, and it turned into a few experiments in one. I was watching a youtube video about creating 3D scenes purely in CSS. At first, it seems pretty ridiculous. Surely this has to be too much effort, but then as it came together, it wasn’t that difficult. CSS has more potential as a lightweight 3D rendering language than I may have suspected.

        So I figured what we need is a side by side comparison. I could just watch more videos, or look at some demos, but it’s helpful to retype things and change them around a little bit for more understanding.

      • Kev QuirkA Brutally Simple Site

        I teased last week that I’ve been working on a new brutalist design for this website. Well, this is the result. 🙃

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • Yarmo MachenbachInfluxDB 2 migration

        InfluxDB is the MIT licensed time series database of my monitoring stack of choice, the so-called TICK stack, consisting of Telegraf (data collection agent), InfluxDB (time series database), Chronograf (charts and dashboard interface) and Kapacitor (data processing engine).

    • Licensing / Legal

      • New Jurisdictional Ruling in Vizio Case

        For more about the initial complaint see my previous post. In brief, SFC had sued Vizio in California state court, alleging that a violation of GPL was a breach of contract, and seeking declaratory judgment and specific performance (release of source code). SFC is not the author of the GPL code at issue, and the authors of the code are not party to the suit.

        The issue in the removal motion was whether there was federal jurisdiction, sufficient to shift the lawsuit from state court to federal court. Federal courts in the US have exclusive subject matter jurisdiction over copyright claims, and diversity jurisdiction over other claims that are between parties in different states, and where damages are sought in excess of $75,000. 28 USC €§ 1332. But SFC’s complaint was neither a copyright infringement claim nor a claim for damages. This neatly avoided federal subject matter or diversity jurisdiction. The court said, “There is no dispute that SFC’s complaint alleges only state law claims, and the Parties agree that the action is removable only if SFC’s claims are completely preempted.”

        The remaining question was whether the state law claims were pre-empted by copyright law. Preemption is a legal doctrine that reserves certain kinds of matter to the exclusive regulation of federal law. Under 17 USC 301a, federal law clearly pre-empts all claims that are within the scope of copyright law. Here, however, the court said the state law claim pled by SFC was different from a copyright claim. Therefore, the court in this case did not take jurisdiction over the matter away from the state court.

        To support its preemption argument, Vizio argued unsuccessfully (relying on MDC v. Blizzard) that all violations of license conditions should only result in copyright infringement claims. But that was converse logic. MDC was about what cannot be a copyright claim, not what must be one.

    • Programming/Development

      • Perl / Raku

        • PerlPerl Weekly Challenge 165: Scalable Vector Graphics

          These are some answers to the Week 165 of the Perl Weekly Challenge organized by Mohammad S. Anwar.

          This week, Task 1 and part of Task 2 relate to Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). I’d been using SVG a very long time ago and certainly didn’t remember any of the details. So, in my first blog relating to PWC 165, I stated that I didn’t have time for that and covered only the part of the challenge not related to SVG. I also said that, in the event that I find some time over the weekend, I might come back and fulfill the SVG part. I thought at the time that this was rather unlikely, but I was finally able to cover the SVG part, at least in Raku.

      • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

        • uni TorontoGetting a Bourne shell "here document" into a shell variable

          Suppose, for reasons to be discussed in a later entry, you would like to write a shell script that turns an embedded here document into a shell variable (ie, an unexported environment variable). As a preview, one reason to want to do this is that here documents allow almost arbitrary contents, while other forms of getting things into environment variables or command line arguments may block using certain characters or require awkward quoting.

  • Leftovers

    • RachelTasks, lists, and promises

      Not everything at a big company involves writing code. Sometimes, you have to do a bunch of meta stuff in order to manage the projects. These are two stories of doing exactly that.

    • Digital Music NewsComposer and Early Synth Pioneer Vangelis Has Died – Age 79

      He composed the score for Chariots of Fire in 1981, with the opening theme hitting the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts. His efforts with the soundtrack earned him an Oscar for Best Original Score at the Academy Awards. Vangelis also composed the soundtrack for Blade Runner and the PBS documentary about the galaxy Cosmos.

    • the beginnings of a personal manifesto?

      Personal manifestos are something I used to write often when I was younger, when everyone was making a lot of assumptions about who I was as a person and I didn't have the opportunity to speak for myself.

    • Toby's tinylog

      Everything that becomes popular turns to crap. So now I have to ditch DuckDuckGo and find an alternative.

    • The Cyborg and the State

      Humans have been using technology to enhance our capabilities for as long as we’ve existed. The earliest stone tools let us do things our hands and teeth couldn’t, fire let us do things our digestive systems and skin couldn’t. Clothing, shelter, containers, weapons, eye glasses, and of course, computers are things that we have, at various points, integrated into our selves to become something that we weren’t before. All humans are cyborgs.

    • Outsourcing Care

      I see positive shifts, though, in the direction of decentralization of care and cooperative reinvestment in communities through the mutual aid groups that have popped up in the last few years (may they flourish well beyond this pandemic...) and a growing dissatisfaction among many with the current structures of power, economic system, and institutions that benefit such a small section of society. Perhaps this urge to engage arises naturally when we see how far in one direction a system has taken us and we are spurred to act as a form of correction, (re?)balancing power dynamics, reengaging in community care.

    • Education

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • NPRHow to overcome FOMO

        Worrying about whether we're missing out on new experiences, content, trends and even investments can make us feel like we're falling behind. But we can actually overcome that feeling and be present with what we have. Here's why we experience FOMO in the first place, how to know when that feeling is serving us and how to move past it when it gets in the way.

      • The EconomistA world grain shortage puts tens of millions at risk

        Lukashivka and the villages around it have seen thousands of tonnes of grain destroyed or left to rot; much the same is true throughout the country’s war zones. Russian forces have targeted grain elevators and fertiliser plants, leaving the infrastructure in pieces. The share of last year’s grain harvest still in the country—about 25m tonnes of grain, a lot of it maize (corn)—is stuck there, because Odessa’s ports, through which 98% of the grain exports normally pass, are blockaded. Getting the grain to alternative ports in Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltics is hard. “Before the war Ukraine exported about 5m tonnes of grain a month,” says Mykola Solskiy, the minister for agriculture. “Last month we managed to get 1.1m tonnes out.”

      • TruthOutThe Greatest Trick COVID Ever Pulled Was Convincing the World It Didn't Exist
    • Security

      • GhacksPwn2Own 2022: Windows 11, Ubuntu, Firefox, Safari, Tesla and more hacked

        The hacking event Pwn2Own took place from May 18 to May 20 of 2022. This year, security researchers managed to hack Windows 11 and Ubuntu, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Teams, a Tesla and other targets successfully during the three days of the event.

      • Silicon AngleCosta Rica’s president says country ‘at war’ with Conti ransomware gang [iophk: Windows TCO]

        Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves has said that his country is “at war” with the Conti ransomware gang, according to local media.

        The Conti ransomware gang, which is believed to be based in Russia, launched a series of cyberattacks against Costa Rican government agencies last month. In April, the country’s Ministry of Finance was the first agency to report a data breach. More than two dozen other government institutions are affected as well.

      • IT WireExperts urge VMware users to patch critical flaws right away

        Security professionals have warned that an authentication bypass flaw in VMware products needs to be patched as soon as possible to prevent its being exploited.



      • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

        • Troy HuntDownloading Pwned Passwords Hashes with the HIBP Downloader

          Just before Christmas, the promise to launch a fully open source Pwned Passwords fed with a firehose of fresh data from the FBI and NCA finally came true. We pushed out the code, published the blog post, dusted ourselves off and that was that. Kind of - there was just one thing remaining...

          The k-anonymity API is lovely and that's not just me saying that, that's people voting with their feet: [...]

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • Facebook had to pay us about $800 because they violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. – BaronHK's Rants

          Facebook had to pay us about $800 because they violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

          I got a $397 check for my spouse last week and a $397 check for myself this week.

          Facebook had been tagging us in our pictures and storing our facial patterns in their facial recognition programs. That turned out to be a big problem for them that cost them nearly $700 million in the resulting class action settlement.

          Scumbag corporations have been losing big time due to the BIPA, and they want it repealed. There’s pending lawsuits against at least a dozen major companies, and lots of settlements too.

          The only thing corporations understand is losing money. Facebook has already had a lot of fake stock value erased this year.

          Facebook blamed the loss mostly on Apple’s alleged new “privacy” functions on the iPhone, even though Facebook already has patents pending on how to avoid those features and track people with iPhones anyway. As long as their apps are even on your phone, you’ve lost already whether you use an Android or an iPhone.

          [...]

          I tried to tell Roy Schestowitz that he’d be a lot happier and lose nothing if he got off Twitter years ago, but the only reason he left was because they shoved him out the door for criticizing Bill Gates.

          Merely criticizing the rich and powerful is enough to get you thrown out.

          It is dangerous to have “social media” replace the Web, because then they can throw you out when they don’t like what you say, even if it’s not illegal to say that. And that’s why corporations and the governments want the Web to die. They can spy and censor better that way. It was much harder to do this in bulk when everyone who wanted a blog just got their own Web site.

          Google even crawls my blog and I get readers. When you post to Facebook and Twitter, your thoughts just die immediately. It gives the illusion of having spoken, even though nobody is really listening.

      • Confidentiality

    • Defence/Aggression

      • New York TimesBuffalo gunman’s video is surfacing on Facebook, sometimes with ads beside it.

        The social network has sometimes served ads next to posts offering clips of the video, which a gunman live streamed on the video platform Twitch as he killed 10 people. For the past six days, recordings of that livestream have circulated across the internet including on Facebook, Twitter and fringe and extremist message boards and sites, despite some companies’ efforts to remove the content.

      • The Gray ZoneA history of naked imperialism continues as Biden approves Somalia redeployment
      • Common DreamsRights Group Urges Civilian Safeguards as Biden Sends Troops Back to Somalia

        Human Rights Watch on Friday implored the U.S. military to prioritize protecting Somali civilians after President Joe Biden signed off on the re-deployment of hundreds of Special Forces troops to the war-torn African nation, where American drone and other airstrikes have killed at least scores of noncombatants in recent decades.

        "U.S. officials should be very clear on how their forces will avoid harming Somali civilians during military operations."

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Progressives Need to Understand Why the Son of a Hated Dictator Won the Philippine Election

        As a progressive activist, I am dismayed at the election of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator, by a landslide in the recent Philippine presidential election. But as a sociologist, I can understand why.

      • Craig MurrayThe Slide Down

        I am today in Izmir. The last time I was here, eleven years ago, I called on the bereaved family of an aid worker murdered by Israel on the Mavi Mamara. A decade later, as witness the case of Shireen Abu Aqlah, Israel is still carrying out blatant public murder of good people; there has been no progress at all. The only thing that has changed is that the suppression of critics of Israel has become much more intense across social media, mainstream media and political debate.

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • JURISTDenmark parliament blocks charges against former Defense Minister for leaking state secrets

        The Danish Ministry of Justice Thursday put charges on hold for former Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen after the Danish parliament Folketing refused to remove Frederiksen’s parliamentary immunity. The Ministry of Justice previously recommended charging Frederiksen with leaking state secrets. As a current member of the Folketing, Frederiksen is guaranteed parliamentary immunity under Section 57 of the Danish constitution, which can only be removed by a vote in the Folketing.

        While Ministry of Justice has kept information about the charges classified, Frederiksen alleges that the charges are related to Operation Dunhammer, a joint operation between Denmark’s foreign intelligence agency and the US National Security Agency (NSA). Operation Dunhammer included the illegal sharing of Danish citizens’ information with the NSA and spying on European public officials.

    • Environment

      • Energy

        • The Verge[Cryptocurrency] exchange FTX is getting into stock trading

          FTX plans on routing orders directly through the Nasdaq exchange, instead of using the payment for order flow (PFOF) method employed by Robinhood and other exchanges. PFOF involves brokerages receiving compensation for directing orders to market makers, a process critics say could pose a conflict of interest, as brokers may want to direct orders to institutions that increase their profits. The practice came under scrutiny following the GameStop stock surge that occurred last year.

        • Matt Rickard[Cryptocurrency] Without Blockchains

          There are fundamental tradeoffs to using a blockchain architecture (see Blockchain tradeoffs). Blockchains choose transparency over privacy and decentralization over scalability. Decentralization is costly.

        • Renewable Energy WorldEU plan to ditch Russian energy relies heavily on renewables, efficiency

          The European Union’s executive arm moved Wednesday to jump-start plans for the 27-nation bloc to abandon Russian energy amid the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, proposing a nearly 300 billion-euro ($315 billion) package that includes more efficient use of fuels and faster rollout of renewable power.

          The European Commission’s investment initiative is meant to help the 27 EU countries start weaning themselves off Russian fossil fuels this year. The goal is to deprive Russia, the EU’s main supplier of oil, natural gas and coal, of tens of billions in revenue and strengthen EU climate policies.

        • Common DreamsOpinion | A Historic Turning Point: Goodbye Russian Gas, Hello Rapid Decarbonization

          Three months into the Kremlin's war against Ukraine, European politicians and officials are working out plans to reduce fossil fuel imports from Russia to zero.

        • Common DreamsOpinion | Big Oil Is Dangerously Going After Fossil Fuel Extraction in Africa

          At the start of this century, when much of the developed world woke up to the dangers of smoking, Big Tobacco turned to Africa€ to seek out new profits.

      • Overpopulation

        • OverpopulationBreaking boundaries but not population taboos

          The book Breaking Boundaries by Johan Rockström and Owen Gaffney explains the basics of how the Earth works and how humanity is rocking the boat, ecologically speaking. While describing monumental challenges, it views the future with optimism. Despite having a chapter dedicated to population, it fails to acknowledge how larger global populations reduce our chances of achieving sustainability.

        • [Old] PNASAnthropogenic warming has increased drought risk in California

          California ranks first in the United States in population, economic activity, and agricultural value. The state is currently experiencing a record-setting drought, which has led to acute water shortages, groundwater overdraft, critically low streamflow, and enhanced wildfire risk. Our analyses show that California has historically been more likely to experience drought if precipitation deficits co-occur with warm conditions and that such confluences have increased in recent decades, leading to increases in the fraction of low-precipitation years that yield drought. In addition, we find that human emissions have increased the probability that low-precipitation years are also warm, suggesting that anthropogenic warming is increasing the probability of the co-occurring warm–dry conditions that have created the current California drought.

        • CNNOfficials worry Southern California won't have enough water to get through summer without unprecedented cuts

          Scientists reported earlier this year that the West's current megadrought is the worst in at least 1,200 years and that the human-caused climate crisis has made it 72% worse.

    • Finance

      • The price of a man’s haircut is $30 plus tax and tip because they have “The Legendary Hot Towel”.

        When I was 11 years old, in 1995, we had a barber. His name was Max.

        Max the Barber (not to be confused with Joe the Plumber) cut hair for about $6.

        In the $6, he even pulled out a hot towel and then after a couple of minutes of you reading the sports magazine, which he had, while Max went and worked on someone else, he’d come back and do your neckline with a straight razor.

        I’ve never seen a corporate franchise salon come at me with a straight razor to get my neckline and sideburns like Max the Barber did. I think straight razors are cool. I guess corporate lawyers don’t.

        Which is why I always came out of a Great Clips and still had to go home and use my own shaving razor to really finish the job, after I already paid them.

        [...]

        And in the end, since the app costs them money, it costs you money.

        An app on your phone spies on you, which is why everyone wants to litter your phone with apps and turn it into a dumping ground for apps.

        You’re being punished for rejecting this by wasting your own time if you don’t use one.

        Now, in the era of COVID, you also go in there, pay them the outrageous fee, get spied on by apps, and then literally have someone breathing down your neck who may very well have COVID.

        During the brief phase where the government pretended to care about COVID so they could create corporate welfare programs and remind everyone who was in control of our lives, they shut down all of the haircut places around here, so it was either buy a home haircut kit or look like Cousin It from the Addams Family.

        At first, we were just buzzing each other’s hair off, because we weren’t going anywhere anyway. It was quick, it was comfortable, etc.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Rolling StoneKremlin Goes After Its Ultimate Foe: Rob Reiner

        The Kremlin’s perfunctory list of 963 sanctioned people includes politicians from both sides of the aisles, and complete opposite ends of the spectrum: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Maxine Waters, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff are listed alongside Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Paul Gosar. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have also been sanctioned by Russia, but as the Washington Post notes, the list excludes one prominent name: former president Donald Trump.

      • SalonDid George Carlin have the best comedy routine on every political subject? Judd Apatow thinks so

        Apatow also shared that Carlin, who was a well-known advocate for freedom of speech, would understand why today's GOP is banning books. "They're banning books because if you read the books, you will question how the country is set up and the power dynamics that hold people down," Apatow sai. "The worst thing that could happen for certain interests in the country is that everyone was educated."

        The two-part film charts Carlin's life from childhood through stardom — complete with a brutally honest look at Carlin the father and husband as shared by his daughter Kelly and his widow, Sally Wade. But as a comedian myself, it's Carlin's material that will not just make you laugh, but also make your jaw about how his observations on our country are still spot on today. Watch my "Salon Talks" episode with Apatow here, or read a Q&A of our talk below, to hear more about Carlin and more from Apatow, who opens up about his creative process and insecurities as a comic. "You're always terrified," he shared.

        The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

      • Common DreamsAustralian Progressives Hail 'Greenslide' Amid Big Left Wins and Morrison's Ouster

        Amid the aromatic sizzle of traditional Election Day "democracy sausages," Australians ended nine years of right-wing rule in Saturday's compulsory federal vote, with climate campaigners and progressives around the world cheering what many called a "greenslide" as the left-wing Greens enjoyed unprecedented ballot box success.

        "Millions of Australians have put climate first. Now, it's time for a radical reset on how this great nation of ours acts upon the climate challenge."

      • Misinformation/Disinformation

        • NPRShe joined DHS to fight disinformation. She says she was halted by... disinformation

          Conservatives [sic] seized on her tweets and past public statements as evidence of her partisan bias. The attacks got personal: Jankowicz has been barraged with abuse, harassment and death threats.

          It all culminated Wednesday in DHS's decision to put the board on pause for 75 days while the agency reviews its work addressing disinformation. The same day, Jankowicz quit.

          Jankowicz spoke with NPR about the board's botched rollout, what she had hoped to accomplish, and the irony of an effort to combat disinformation being derailed by disinformation. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

        • SalonFetus-powered street lamps? Republicans ramp up outrageous anti-abortion lies ahead of Roe's demise

          "In places like Washington D.C.," fetuses are "burned to power the light's of the city's homes and streets," claimed Catherine Glenn Foster, who had, just minutes before, sworn not to lie under oath. The GOP-summoned witness let loose the wild and utterly false accusation that municipal electrical companies are powered by incinerated fetuses.

        • SalonWhy are Republicans attacking WIC: GOP finds new scapegoat for baby formula outrage

          On Wednesday, nine House Republicans voted against a bill to help low-income families access baby food amid the nation's formula shortage, arguing that parents on federal food assistance benefits would be depriving middle-income families of the products they need as well. Now those same Republicans are defending their vote by pointing to America's most vulnerable families as the true cause of outrage.

        • RTLCrimea arrest footage shared in false reports of 'US general detained in Ukraine'

          Footage of Russian intelligence agents detaining a man shared on social media claims to show a US general being detained in Crimea.

          But the claim is false. AFP traced the video to Russian news reports of an unidentified man being detained in March on suspicion of aiding an "illegal armed group" in Crimea. NATO has repeatedly debunked rumours that Roger Cloutier was arrested in Ukraine, and he has been seen publicly since the posts were shared.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • VOA NewsTaliban Want to Erase Women From Media, Afghan Journalists Say

        A Taliban mandate that women cover their faces while on television is seen as an attempt to erase female journalists, say media and women's rights activists.

        Afghan media outlets on Thursday said the Taliban Ministry of Vice and Virtue informed them that female presenters must cover their faces while on air.

        Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told media on Thursday the move is "a religious order" that all women, including journalists, should obey.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • VOA NewsDispute Over Indian Mosque Stokes Tensions

        Right-wing Hindu groups have long claimed that Mughals, who ruled India for about 300 years, starting in the 16th century, built several mosques on the site of prominent temples that they demolished, and they say the Gyanvapi mosque is one of them.

      • Copenhagen PostFirst female-majority police graduate class: Trainer expected cliques, but instead they really clicked

        But the contrary has been true, as the gender balance has had a very positive effect. The gruff tone, typical of a male-dominated classroom, has been replaced by a more positive atmosphere geared towards hard work, structure and inclusiveness – and absolutely no cliques.

        “There is respect and an inclusiveness, and no-one is left out. Sometimes the men do something by themselves in their free time, which I can easily understand, but so do the women,” added Pedersen.

      • JURISTUS Soccer announces equal pay for men and women national team players

        US Soccer Federation Wednesday announced both men and women national team players will receive equal pay and prize money based on new collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). The news brings to an end a years-long battle for equal pay headed by the US Women’s National Team (USWNT).

        The term of the CBAs will run through 2028 and include equal pay and compensation for all competitions, including the FIFA World Cup. Importantly, the agreements mean that “US Soccer becomes the first Federation in the world to equalize FIFA World Cup prize money awarded to the…USWNT and the US Men’s National Team (USMNT) for participation in their respective World Cups.”

      • CBCSomehow, cherished Blackfoot items ended up in Devon, England. Now they're headed home

        "Were they sold? Were they stolen? Were they given as gifts? It was probably all of those things. I don't know how this got over here and I think it's irrelevant," Crowfoot told CBC News after an inspiring ceremony at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.

        "They need to be back with the people who created these items."

        The repatriation ceremony, which featured traditional Blackfoot or Siksika songs of heroism and colourful traditional headdresses, was the culmination of years of effort to repatriate a collection of items that belonged to the legendary Chief Crowfoot.

      • Hans ThoolenTaliban dissolves ‘unnecessary’ Human Rights Commision

        Patrick Slater, from the Vermont Law School, reports in Jurist.org of 18 May 2022 that the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan announced that the country’s Human Rights Commission will be dissolved, calling it “unnecessary.”

        The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) was the national human rights institution of Afghanistan, dedicated to the promotion, protection, and monitoring of human rights and the investigation of human rights abuses.

      • JURISTTaliban authorities dissolve Afghanistan human rights agency

        Taliban authorities in Afghanistan announced Monday that the country’s Human Rights Commission will be dissolved, calling it “unnecessary.” The commission was backed by the US government and sought to ensure that human rights were protected in Afghanistan. Along with the Commission, four other departments were dissolved. The Taliban faces a $500 million budget deficit, and the dissolution of these agencies was deemed necessary to avert a financial disaster. In addition to the Human Rights Commission, key agencies such as the National Security Council and the High Council for National Reconciliation have been dissolved.

      • NetzpolitikThe bloody footprint of our digital devices

        According to the plaintiffs‘ claim, Apple, Google, Tesla, Microsoft and Dell buy battery grade cobalt from Umicore, a Brussels-based metal and mining trader, which buys cobalt from Glencore. This UK mining company owns the mines where Raphael died in the collapsing tunnels, reports the Guardian. Apple, Dell, and Microsoft apparently bought cobalt from Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, a major Chinese cobalt firm, which also owns mines that employed child labor.

        Long before the filing of the lawsuit, there have been reports of the use of child labor and human rights violations in the Congolese cobalt mines. But the defendants in the lawsuit have largely maintained that they had not been aware of reports of the use of child labor for the extraction of Congo. Dell for instance claimed that “We have never knowingly sourced operations using any form of involuntary labor, fraudulent recruiting practices or child labor”. Google on its part maintained that “Child labor and endangerment is unacceptable and our Supplier Code of Conduct strictly prohibits this activity.”

        From an overview of the lawsuit, the connection seems to be straightforward, and it appears to be more than an echo of the colonial practices of exploitation of foreign natural resources and labor. The raw material from the global south is extracted and exported to the capitalist centers in the global north where it is converted into finished products. The finished products in the end are so expensive that people from the countries where this raw material is extracted cannot even afford to buy them.

      • TruthOutAbd El-Fattah Is a Political Prisoner in Egypt. US Aid Is Funding His Jailers.
    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • Matt RickardStreaming Applications

        Netflix and the ability to stream on-demand, non-interactive media was a significant innovation in the last two decades. Streaming interactive applications over the internet is an exciting and logical next step. Here are three different products that implement interactive streaming applications.

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • IdiomdrottningTrivial Patents

          I opposed and ended a trivial patent once (I found prior art) but the lesson I learned from that is that it’s important to oppose even non-trivial patents. If I identify and stop only the stupid patents, I’m only doing the work of the patent office for them.



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