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Links 05/06/2022: Unifont 14.0.04, More Software Patents Perish



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • LinuxiacHow to Setup and Manage VirtualBox VMs on a Headless Server

        This guide explains how to install and configure VirtualBox on a remote headless server and remotely control its virtual machines with the RemoteBox app.

        VirtualBox is free cross-platform virtualization software that may be installed as application software on any operating system. It allows you to run virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical machine and use them alongside the actual machine.

        Each virtual machine can run its operating systems, such as Linux, Windows, Unix, and Solaris.

      • PC LinuxInkscape Tutorial: Create A Sketch Effect

        I've been looking at some of the Inkscape tutorials on the YouTube channel "Logos by Nick". He has a lot of good stuff. One tutorial I enjoyed was one called the Sketch Effect. I'll review it here.

        Sketch Effect uses the path effect, Hatches, and it's kinda fun. You can apply the path effect to nearly anything, and most of what I'll explain here is the settings included to make things look the way you want.

        To start, create a square in Inkscape. Click on Paths > Path effects. The window you get has nothing because this is a new project and you haven't chosen any path effects for it yet. At the bottom, it says Click button to add an effect, and there's a plus sign in the bottom left corner of the window.

      • UNIX CopNginx – Virtual Hosts (Part 2)

        This is a continuation of my previous article. So you might want to check that out first. In this article, we’re going to expand upon our existing configuration and explore some of the features that nginx provides.

      • Linux HandbookBuffers in Vim [Complete Beginner's Guide]
      • TechtownHow to Install Teleport on Ubuntu 20.04 - Atechtown

        Linux is the ideal system for the deployment and administration of network infrastructures. This is due to the security, stability, and efficiency of the system. So, today you will learn how to install Teleport on Ubuntu 20.04

      • Linux Handbookls sort by size: List Files by Size in Linux Command Line

        Learn to sort files by their size using the ls command in the Linux terminal. Also learn about finding the biggest files.

      • UNIX CopHow to install the EGroupware community server

        Groupware is a free, open-source groupware software intended for businesses from small to enterprises. Its primary functions allow users to manage contacts, appointments, projects, and to-do lists.

    • Games

      • PC LinuxGame Zone: Psychonauts 2 On Linux!!!

        Although not as well known as the LEGO, "The Incredibles" and Sonic adventure game franchises, Psychonauts 2 is the creation of famed designer Tim Schafer from Double Fine Studios. Humorous, charismatic and touching, the game has amazing graphics and great gameplay.

        Continuing the story of the acrobat Rex, the main character from previous titles Psychonauts and Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, the game brings more amazing acrobatic moves, several references and a world full of content to be explored.

      • Boiling Steam3200 Games On The Steam Deck with Ender Lilies and Divinity Original Sin 2 as Verified

        The past week has been fairly slow in additions of verified/playable games for the Steam Deck, following the previous 3100 games milestone. There are now more than 3200 games validated (3222 games to be precise at the time of publication) on the Steam Deck – in two categories...

      • FEX 2206 Tagged!

        Steam started enabling the chromium sandbox. Seccomp isn’t supported in FEX-Emu so it was crashing early on. Forcibly disable it trying to use the sandbox using an application profile. This lets the game library be visible again, although it can take a while to appear.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Screenshots/Screencasts

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

      • PC LinuxOf Mice, Men & Magazine

        Last month, we ran an article from Agent Smith that caused a shiitake mushroom storm. Quite literally.

        Agent Smith, a.k.a. Alessandro Ebersol, is a frequent contributor to The PCLinuxOS Magazine. He has stepped up to help produce exclusive content for The PCLinuxOS Magazine when virtually no one else would. He is passionate about battling the continuing and continued overreach of Big Tech. He is passionate about PCLinuxOS. He is passionate about gaming on PCLinuxOS. Living in Brazil, he sometimes has a different take on events than many of the other people who volunteer for The PCLinuxOS Magazine.

        Out of the storm that developed from "that" article, it has become apparent that there are some significant misunderstandings or misconceptions about the magazine that need to be cleared up.

        That is the reason for this article.

      • PC LinuxRepo Review: Video Editors

        Whether you're creating YouTube videos, producing a cinematic film, or simply assembling a collection of your old home movies, having a decent video editor is essential. Thankfully, there are many free options available. In this article, I'll give a quick overview of what I believe are the best video editors available in the PCLinuxOS repository.

      • PC LinuxFrom The Chief Editor's Desk...

        PCLinuxOS is a great operating system for everyone.

        I think I might have just found one of our youngest users.

    • Debian Family

      • 9to5LinuxTails 5.1 Anonymous OS Improves the Tor Connection Assistant, Updates to Tor 0.4.7.7

        After a delay of five days due to the later Tor Browser release not being out, Tails 5.1 includes fixes for the recently disclosed security vulnerability in the JavaScript engine of the Mozilla Firefox web browser, on which Tor Browser is based.

        Tor Browser 11.0.14 is included by default in this release for all your anonymous browsing, along with the latest Tor 0.4.7.7 release of the free and open-source software for enabling anonymous communication inside Tails.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • GNU Projects

  • Leftovers

    • Summertime

      I'm getting sick of my work. I don't think admin. work is right for me, so I guess I'll start looking for other things.

    • My Name is Dima

      Quite ironically, my family immigrated to Israel when I was a baby, and Israel is a pretty racist country (even among Jews). The situation is worse in the periphery, where poverty, crime and lack of education meet educated "fresh meat" with a foreign accent.

    • Security

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • PC LinuxShort Topix: Amazon Kindle Now Supports EPUB Files ... Sorta

          To make help for mental illness more accessible, various mental health apps have sprung up on mobile platforms. And, with the COVID lockdowns, the mental health crisis is greater than it ever has been. One such app that pretty much "leads the way" among the mental health apps is called "BetterHelp." BUT THE BETTERHELP APP RATED AS ONE OF THE LOWEST IN PROTECTING USER PRIVACY among the 32 apps tested and rated by Mozilla's "Privacy Not Included" buyer's guide. In fact, 28 of the 32 apps tested failed to meet the "grade." Only Wysa, PTSD Coach, Headspace, and Glorify were not issued a warning label in the guide. All of the others, including BetterHelp and TalkSpace, fell short in protecting privileged and private user data.

          To quote the late and great Gomer Pyle ... Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! The great internet Hoover vacuum of personal and private data, GOOGLE, HAS NOW MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR USERS TO REMOVE SELECT PRIVATE/PERSONAL INFORMATION FROM SEARCH RESULTS, according to an article on NPR. You can choose to have your address, email address, phone number, bank account, credit card numbers, medical documents and some other personal/private information to be stripped from search results. Interested? Click here to access the Google tool to remove your selected information from Google search results. Careful though that so many people don't overload the server and crash it!

          If ever you needed another reason to avoid systemd like the plague, here's another. MICROSOFT (of all people) HAS DISCOVERED A FLAW IN THE LINUX DESKTOP THAT GIVES ROOT PRIVILEGES TO UNTRUSTED USERS, according to an article on Ars Technica. Fortunately for PCLinuxOS users, the flaw/exploit only appears to affect Linux users who are plagued by use systemd. The flaw, named NimbuSpwn (actually two vulnerabilities, CVE-2022-29799 and CVE-2022-29800), according to the article, "combine threats including directory traversal, symlink race, and time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition. After reviewing the Networkd -dispatcher source code,

    • Defence/Aggression

      • John GoerzenJohn Goerzen: Visiting Germany: Reflections on Schloss Charlottenburg

        200 years ago, my ancestors migrated from Prussia to Ukraine. They left for many reasons, many of which boiled down to their strong pacifism in the midst of a highly militarized country.

        Last week, my wife, the boys, and I walked through the favorite palace of Friedrich Wilhelm III, the king of Prussia who was responsible for forcing my ancestors out – Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin.

        Photos can’t possibly convey the enormity and the riches of this place, even after being attacked during multiple wars (and used by Napoleon for a time).

        My ancestors would never have been able to get into to this place. We, on the other hand, walked right through the king’s bedroom, audience room, and chapel. The chapel, incidentally, mixing church and state; a fine pipe organ along with a statue of an eagle holding the Prussian crown.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Better Gemini Search Results with Kennedy and Gemipedia



        I found that integrating Gemipedia results into Kennedy's search results created a great user experience. Specifically, when you do a search on Kennedy, I query not only the full text index for all of Gemini space, I also search Wikipedia for articles. If I get a hit, I return the top match as a Gemipedia link at the top of the first page of search results. I also include a link to Gemipedia's search results, containing more Wikipedia content which mentions your query.

        I feel this is a good compromise that balances showing content on gemini with content from Wikipedia, without one overwhelming the other. I also made some tweaks to Kennedy's ranking algorithm which surfaces more valuable content.

      • Covid tests are impossible for older folks

        I felt pretty well yesterday, and thought I'd take a test today to see if further isolation is necessary, as I am approaching day 5.

        I went through two BinaxNow tests. One was defective, with the control strip dead in the middle, making it impossible to see the second line. Or more likely the control line was too high, masked by the top of the window, and what I thought was the control line was my very, very prominent Covid marker.

        The second test was outrageously positive, but felt a bit weird because the control line appeared way after the positive line. Usually the control line comes up after a minute or so, and the positive result shows up during the last few minutes. Not this time: a very, very positive line was there almost immediately, and the control showed up later.

      • Markdown and Gemtext



        I’ll try to summarize her thesis: Markdown is great for authoring documents because it’s easy for people to write, but it’s a bad “exchange format” because it’s too ambiguous (i.e., it’s hard for computers to parse).

        I wish I had read this a couple months ago; maybe I wouldn’t have wasted a weekend trying to convert Markdown to Gemtext “the way I want it to look” before realizing that converting Markdown → HTML → Gemtext was much simpler (if you leverage existing Markdown → HTML conversions), precisely for this reason. That experience got me thinking about the pros and cons of different document formats.

    • Monopolies

      • Software Patents

        • Unified PatentsSpeir Technologies patent challenged

          On May 27, 2022, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 7,321,777, owned and asserted by Speir Technologies Ltd., an NPE and Atlantic IP Services Limited entity. The ’777 patent relates to using a wireless device to locate a remote wireless device and has been asserted against Samsung and Apple.

        • Unified PatentsIP Edge entity, Savannah Licensing, patent challenged

          The '777 patent relates to using feedback based on a user's indication of frustration with a device and has been asserted against Nuu Mobile, Atlassian, Snapchat, Instagram, and Sony.

        • Unified PatentsAcacia entity, Monarch Networking Solutions, patent held invalid [Ed: Microsoft-connected patent troll]

          On May 27, 2022, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. Monarch Networking Solutions LLC holding all of the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 7,756,507 unpatentable. Owned by Monarch Networking Solutions LLC, an NPE and an Acacia Research entity, the ‘507 patent is related to two-step authentication. The ‘507 patent was asserted against Cisco, Meraki, and Duo Security.



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