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Links 13/06/2022: Thunderbird on Android and IPFire 2.27 Core Update 168



  • GNU/Linux

    • Server

      • Envoy Proxy Unveils Envoy Gateway For North-South Traffic

        First off, for those unfamiliar, Envoy Proxy is an open source cloud-native proxy. It was initially designed at Lyft and was then released as OSS in 2016. Envoy has been instrumental to the proliferation of service mesh; it’s the sidecar proxy at the heart of Istio and other service meshes.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • LWNLinux 5.19-rc2 [LWN.net]
      • LWNKernel prepatch 5.19-rc2

        The second 5.19 kernel prepatch is out for testing.

      • Drew DeVaultThe Helios microkernel

        I’ve been working on a cool project lately that I’d like to introduce you to: the Helios microkernel. Helios is written in Hare and currently targets x86_64, and riscv64 and aarch64 are on the way. It’s very much a work-in-progress: don’t expect to pick this up and start building anything with it today.

        Drawing some inspiration from seL4, Helios uses a capability-based design for isolation and security. The kernel offers primitives for allocating physical pages, mapping them into address spaces, and managing tasks, plus features like platform-specific I/O (e.g. reading and writing x86 ports). The entire system is written in Hare, plus some necessary assembly for the platform bits (e.g. configuring the GDT or IDT).

        Things are still quite early, but I’m pretty excited about this project. I haven’t had this much fun hacking in some time :) We have several kernel services working, including memory management and virtual address spaces, and I’ve written a couple of simple drivers in userspace (serial and BIOS VGA consoles). Next up is preemptive multi-tasking — we already have interrupts working reliably, including the PIT, so all that’s left for multi-tasking is to actually implement the context switch. I’d like to aim for an seL4-style single-stack system, though some finageling will be required to make that work.

    • Applications

      • Linux Linksviu - Terminal Image Viewer with Kitty Graphics Protocol support

         One of our favorite adages is “A picture is worth a thousand words”. It refers to the notion that a still image can convey a complex idea. Images can portray a lot of information quickly and more efficiently than text. They capture memories, and never let you forget something you want to remember, and refresh it in your memory.

        Images are part of every day internet usage, and are particularly important for social media engagement. A good image viewer is an essential part of any operating system.

        viu is different from the vast majority of image viewers. It’s a small command-line program to view images from the terminal. It also supports the Kitty Graphics Protocol. This allows you to view high resolution images direct in a terminal.

        viu is written in Rust and published under an open source license.

    • Instructionals/Technical

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

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Joomla on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Joomla is a free and open-source content management system for publishing web content on websites. It is built on PHP and stores its data on an SQL-based database engine on the backend such as MySQL/MariaDB.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Joomla content management systems on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

      • Ubuntu HandbookHow to Disable Lock Screen App Notifications in Ubuntu 22.04 / Fedora | UbuntuHandbook

        Some applications display notifications in the lock screen, which could be quite annoying!

        If you want, you can disable all of them or certain app notifications easily via Gnome Control Center.

        1.) Firstly, go to the top-right corner system menu. Then click on “Settings” to open system settings utility, which is also known as gnome control center.

      • OSTechNixHow To Import QCOW2 Image Into Proxmox - OSTechNix

        In this guide, we will see how to import QCOW2 into Proxmox hypervisor and how to create a virtual machine using the QCOW2 image in Proxmox.

      • ByteXDHow to Use Bash Command Line Arguments in Scripts - ByteXD

        In this article we’ll learn the most important and common ways to pass command-line arguments to our bash script.

      • H2S MediaInstall Joomla on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Linux - Linux Shout

        Learn the commands to install Joomla CMS on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy JellyFish Linux to start your own blog or website.

        On the Internet, after WordPress, Joomla is another popular open-source content management system to start with. The software is often offered for your own websites.

        It is a widely used CMS (Content Management System) that allows you to create and manage web projects. Being an open-source project, it is not only free but also constantly being further developed by the community.

        The core functions of Joomla can be extended as required by components, modules, and plugins. Generally suitable for websites whose content changes frequently or is constantly being expanded. These are, for example, blogs, shops, or communities.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Install Apache CouchDB NoSQL Database Server on Debian 11

        Apache CouchDB is an open-source NoSQL database developed by the Apache Software Foundation. This tutorial will teach you how to install Apache CouchDB Database Server on a Debian 11 server. You will also learn how to perform some basic database operations and access CouchDB via a public URL using the Caddy web server.

      • TechRepublicHow to install the latest version of Checkmk on Ubuntu 22.04 | TechRepublic

        Checkmk is a very popular monitoring system that empowers administrators, managers, and DevOps teams to quickly identify issues that appear across their IT infrastructure. With Checkmk, you can closely monitor your inventory of servers and desktops for network traffic issues, CPU bottlenecks and even manage configurations. Checkmk is scalable, can monitor a vast array of services and works with most operating systems.

        With a recent update, the developers of Checkmk have added Kubernetes support into the mix. If your business works with containerized applications and services, this might be a great time to deploy this helpful monitor to your systems.

        I want to walk you through the process of installing the latest version of Checkmk to Ubuntu Server 22.04.

      • TechRepublicA big change for Samba in Ubuntu 22.04 and how to get around it | TechRepublic

        With the release of Ubuntu 22.04, several changes occurred under the hood to make this latest LTS release one of the best in the history of the Canonical-backed Linux distribution. But there’s one change that has caused a bit of a stir. That problem is the default permissions of the user’s home directories.

        Previously, the user’s home directory permission was set to 755, which allowed other users to view the directory as well as the containing files and sub-directories. To avoid such a security issue, the developers have set the permission to the home directories as 750, which means only the owner of the home directory can view the contents.

        If you tend to share out your ~/Public folder, this causes a big problem with Samba, in that the owner of the home directory is the only one who can access or traverse the folder either locally or across your LAN. This change was done purely for security reasons, and I believe it was the right way to go, as there is no reason why other users should be able to view the content of each other’s home directory.

        With Samba, even if you use public = yes, only the owner of that home directory can see the share. That means even if you specifically allow others to create and delete files in this folder via the Nautilus Public Properties window (Figure A), it will not work.

      • Trend OceansHow to Change Apache HTTP Port in Linux

         In Apache, the default non-secure HTTP connection uses port 80, and the TLS configuration serves the data over port 443.

        Today, you will learn how to change the default Apache HTTP port to your custom port in a few steps.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Barry KaulerEasyOS: Fast first-time bootup

      I posted that if booted on a very cheap flash-stick, there will be a considerable delay while 'easy.sfs' is copied from the boot-partition to the working-partition.

    • Reviews

      • Distro WatchReview: Rolling Rhino Remix

        The concept of Rolling Rhino Remix is one which I feel is worthwhile. A lot of people have been saying for years that Ubuntu could benefit from a proper rolling release branch, not just a development repository. However, few developers have taken on the task, trying to make it work. Rhino is a decent attempt at making this a working option.

        Some things are definitely working and working well. The initial configuration command (rhino-init) and the update command (rhino-upgrade) seem to work properly to set up the system and bring all packages up to date. These functioned as expected and I was pretty happy with them.

        The Pacstall framework seems to be getting larger and more polished since I first tried it last year. There are still some issues when searching for packages, but installing new items seems to work without any problems.

        The one sore spot in my experience was the rhino-config command line program. Running rhino-config rarely worked properly. Sometimes the tool falsely reported the status of features, sometimes it failed due to problems in calling sudo, and sometimes it incorrectly interpreted command line flags. It was an ongoing problem in what was otherwise a mostly smooth experience.

        I will say though that making the two of the rhino- commands aliases rather than scripts strikes me as a problem. As I mentioned above, using aliases will break the tools if the user switches shells and it seems to cause issues when some commands try to run sudo, especially if sudo doesn't already have our cached credentials.

        In short, I think Rhino is off to a promising start. It needs a few things worked out and maybe a few things automated before I'd say it's ready for general consumption, but it's off to a decent start. I especially think Ubuntu could benefit from a rolling release in the way Rhino is trying since it supports working with ZFS which allows the administrator to take filesystem snapshots before each upgrade. I'd love to see tools like boot environments or Timeshift added to Rhino in order to make its rolling upgrades bulletproof.

        One final point I'd like to mention is Rhino's documentation. Rhino is a fairly young project, but the remix-specific documentation which covers installing and using the rhino- utilities is clear and detailed. Not many young projects pay attention to documentation this early in their development and I tip my hat to the developers for making this a priority. It helped me a lot when I was trying to sort out some of the workings of rhino-update and rhino-config.

    • New Releases

      • IPFire Official BlogIPFire 2.27 - Core Update 168 released

        Another update of IPFire is ready: IPFire 2.27 - Core Update 168. It comes with significant improvements to the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), various security improvements, an updated version of Linux' firmware bundle, as well as a heap of updated packages and bug fixes.

        Heads up! IPFire running on software RAIDs will need to rebuild their RAIDs. It is possible, that the RAID was damaged since the last update due to failure to initialise it correctly at boot time (#12862). Systems affected by this problem, would have run just fine, but without the RAID. During the installation of this update, the RAID will be fixed. For that, a reboot is required after installing the update, and it might be necessary to be able to boot from the secondary RAID device.

    • SUSE/OpenSUSE

    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • Red Hat OfficialTrustyAI - an open source project looking to solve AI’s bias [Ed: Red Hat as a clown/cloud of hype and buzzwords, framed as "ethical"]

        The next decade will see giant leaps forward in 5G, edge computing, enterprise Linux and plenty of other areas. As organizations look at the opportunities ahead, they must weigh both the opportunities and the risks.

        One such exciting area is artificial intelligence (AI). As the tools and methodologies advance, many organizations are looking to use AI to improve business efficiencies, bring innovation to customers faster, gain actionable market insights and more. However, the rush to put AI in place without always knowing what it can be used for, or how to use it, can lead to problems with the systems and the data itself. We have heard many stories of when AI makes the "wrong" decision due to built-in biases, and in some cases, the outcome can be life or death.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • Tech - Raspad - Ideal Wheels

        What is a tablet? I’ve been pondering a bit more upon the philosophical imperatives and tensions, also the historical and poetic dimensions of the cybercortex.

        When I think of the word “stylus”, for instance, a word inextricably yoked to “tablet”, the image in my native pictorial language is of a learned woman of Roman era Hellenistic Egypt, holding a stylus to her lips in pensive thought. She was captured thus, in a gesture likely taken from living memory, and painted upon hear mummy’s death mask. Thus her ba (Earthly spirit), or was it ba, might recognize her to return for rest. Her stylus spoke without a word from 2000 years to us, of who she was and how she inhabited the written word. She was a woman I’d like to know.

        Just so, the wax or clay filled wooden tablet upon which that lady wrote is likely now long gone. Probably no words remain from that scholar or poet, even on parched papyrus buried in the desert. It’s a poignancy: this one person is now famous for an image meant to be kept more secret than her writing. Thus does the modern gaze violate all propriety. But apropos, it also connotes the evanescence of the written word, even in stone. Oral band cultures could pass stories along for 10000 years or more, we know now. Something about the written word dies young in its desperation for permanence.

      • Tom's HardwareRaspberry Pi Keeps Ball From Falling Off Plate Using AI | Tom's Hardware

        Finding the right angle to approach a Raspberry Pi project can be tricky. Still, maker and developer Parisiancyclist, as he’s known on Reddit, has found a happy balance with this mesmerizing ball on a plate project (opens in new tab). With the help of a Raspberry Pi, it automatically tilts a plate as needed to prevent a ball from falling over the edge.

        According to Parisiancyclist, the project took roughly a week and a half to develop from scratch. He not only developed the physical plate tilting apparatus but also coded the project to use AI to evaluate the ball’s location and determine how much to angle the plate to keep it from falling off.

      • Using the U-Boot Extension Board Manager - BeagleBone Boards Example - Bootlin's blog

        As explained in the first two blog posts, the BeagleBone boards are supported by a wide number of extension boards, called capes.

        When such a cape is plugged in, the description of the devices connected to the board should be updated accordingly. As the available hardware is described by a Device Tree, the added devices on the cape should be described using a Device Tree Overlay, as described in the first blog post.

      • Linux GizmosAvnet introduces SMARC module based on NXP’s i.MX 8M processor

        Avnet has launched the SM2S-IMX8ULP which is compliant with the Smart Mobility Architecture (SMARC) 2.1.1 standard form factor. The scalable device integrates the i.MX 8M Arm processor architecture from NXP and runs on Linux, Android and Microsoft Azure Sphere.

        The SM2S-IMX8ULP SMARC 2.1.1 has the option to integrate the dual or single core ARM Cortex-A35 processor (up to 1GHz), the Arm Cortex-M33 real-time core (up to 216MHz) and the Vivante GC NanoUlta 3D GPU. The Vivante GPU can support OpenGL ES (1.0, 2.0, 3.1), Vulkan and OpenCL 1.2.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Web Browsers

      • Mozilla

        • 9to5LinuxMozilla Thunderbird Open-Source Email Client Is Coming to Android Devices

           The Mozilla Thunderbird and K-9 Mail projects work on an improved version of the K-9 Mail open-source Android email app by offering users a better account setup experience using Thunderbird's account auto-configuration wizard, the ability to sync Thunderbird desktop and mobile apps, support for message filters, and improved folder management.

          In time, this work that the developers of the Mozilla Thunderbird and K-9 Mail projects plan to implement in the coming months will transform the existing K-9 Mail app for Android into Thunderbird for Android.

        • ThunderbirdMozilla Thunderbird: Frequently Asked Questions: Thunderbird Mobile and K-9 Mail

          Today, we announced our detailed plans for Thunderbird on mobile. We also welcomed the open-source Android email client K-9 Mail into the Thunderbird family. Below, you’ll find an evolving list of frequently asked questions about this collaboration and our future plans.

        • ThunderbirdRevealed: Our Plans For Thunderbird On Android

          For years, we’ve wanted to extend Thunderbird beyond the desktop, and the path to delivering a great Thunderbird on Android™ experience started in 2018.

          That’s when Thunderbird Product Manager Ryan Lee Sipes first met up with Christian Ketterer (aka “cketti”), the project maintainer for open-source Android email client K-9 Mail. The two instantly wanted to find a way for the two projects to collaborate. Throughout the following few years, the conversation evolved into how to create an awesome, seamless email experience across platforms.

          But Ryan and cketti both agreed that the final product had to reflect the shared values of both projects. It had to be open source, respect the user, and be a perfect fit for power users who crave customization and a rich feature set.

          “Ultimately,” Sipes says, “it made sense to work together instead of developing a mobile client from scratch.”

        • VideoWhy Thunderbird is teaming up with this popular Android app. - Invidious
        • LWNK9 mail to become Thunderbird on Android [LWN.net]

          The Thunderbird project's announcement of its plans for an Android client contain a bit of a surprise...

        • VideoThunderbird is NOT Dead! (Interview with Alex and Jason from Thunderbird) - Invidious

          Who actually still uses an e-mail client these days? Actually, quite a few people! In this video, Jay chats with Alex and Jason from Thunderbird about the current status of the project, the future, and more! ## Get involved and help out the Thunderbird project

    • GNU Projects

      • GNUGNU Guix: Celebrating 10 years of Guix in Paris, 16–18 September

        It’s been ten years of GNU Guix! To celebrate, and to share knowledge and enthusiasm, a birthday event will take place on September 16–18th, 2022, in Paris, France. The program is being finalized, but you can already register!

      • GNUnet 0.17.1

        This is a bugfix release for gnunet 0.17.0.

      • DHT Specification Milestones 1-3/5

        We are happy to announce the completion of the following milestones for the DHT specification. The objective is to provide a detailed and comprehensive guide for implementors of the GNUnet DHT "R 5 N". The milestones consist of documenting the base data structures and processes of the protocol. This includes the specification of the DHT message wire and serialization formats.

        [...]

        We invite any interested party to read the document and provide critical review and feedback. This greatly helps us to improve the protocol and help future implementations. Contact us at the gnunet-developers mailing list . As part of the remaining milestones, the specification will be updated and interoperability testing will be conducted. Further, we aim to present the draft specification at IETF.

    • Programming/Development

      • Python

        • Its FOSSThonny is an Ideal IDE for Teaching Python Programming in Schools

           Thonny is a decent tool for beginner Python programmers. Not that experts cannot use it but it’s more suited to be used in the schools and colleges. Students will find it helpful in learning Python and understanding how their code behaves in certain manner. In fact, it was originally developed in University of Tartu, Estonia.

          Overall, a good software for Python learners.

  • Leftovers

    • What makes a good race?

      I didn't write about the Monaco grand prix because life got in the way. Shame, because it was interesting. In qualifying, Leclerc was excellent, and there was synchronised crashing. Verstappen was outpaced by Perez all weekend. There was rain and a drying track, so some people took opportunities and made big gains, and some messed it up. Ferrari were in the second category, moving Leclerc from any easy win to fourth. Perez won, and everyone was happy for him. He had a little cry on the podium.

      This weekend was at Baku in Azerbaijan, one if the countries where F1 takes the money and doesn't ask too many questions. There have been plenty of memorable incidents at this race. None if them happened this year. Leclerc qualified excellently as is now normal, lost the lead at the start, but might still have won but for an engine failure. He's now a looong way behind in the points.

    • Disciplin

      I have chosen to focus more on discipline rather than motivation when it comes to working or generally anything. Motivation fluctuates and maintaining it is very tiresome. I instead chose to focus on discipline as it's a firm means of controlling my unwanted and distracting desires. I feel a sense of pride knowing that I have immense control over my body and mind. No matter how I'm feeling, I can always rely on this to help get me through any task.

    • Hardware

      • CNX SoftwareForlinx introduces Renesas RZ/G2L system-on-module and development board - CNX Software

        Renesas RZ/G2L or RZ/V2L Cortex-A55/M33 processors have found their way into several system-on-modules and single board computers recently with the likes of Geniatech AHAURA board, Avnet RZBoard, or ARIES Embedded MSRZG2UL OSM module among others.

        Forlinx Embedded has joined the fray with the Renesas RZ/G2L-based FET-G2LD-C system-on-module, and a corresponding OK-G2LD-C development board with plenty of I/Os including dual Gigabit Ethernet, RS485 and CAN Bus interfaces, built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, plus an optional EC20 4G mini PCIe module.

    • Security

      • LWNSecurity updates for Monday [LWN.net]

        Security updates have been issued by Debian (chromium, containerd, kernel, ntfs-3g, and vlc), Fedora (buildah and logrotate), Red Hat (xz), and SUSE (google-gson, netty3, rubygem-sinatra, and u-boot).

      • Bruce SchneierCryptanalysis of ENCSecurity’s Encryption Implementation - Schneier on Security

        ENCSecurity markets a file encryption system, and it’s used by SanDisk, Sony, Lexar, and probably others. Despite it using AES as its algorithm, it’s implementation is flawed in multiple ways—and breakable.

      • Practical bruteforce of AES-1024 military grade encryption – Kudelski Security Research [Ed: Proprietary software is not military-grade, it is degraded; Encryption that works isn't difficult to implement, but it makes your life and your project difficult because states begin to interfere and demand back doors]

        I recently presented work on the analysis of a file encryption solution that claimed to implement “AES-1024 military grade encryption“. Spoiler alert: I did not break AES, and this work does not concern the security of AES. You may find advanced research regarding this topic.

        This project started during a forensic analysis. One of my colleagues came with a USB stick containing a vault encrypted with SanDisk Secure Access software. He asked me if it was possible to bruteforce the password of the vault to recover the content. I did not know this software thus, I started to research. It appeared that this solution is distributed by Sandisk by default on any storage device you buy from them.

      • Daniel Aleksandersen7 simple bot detection methods that won’t inconvenience users

        Millions of (poorly coded) bots relentlessly crawl the web to detect and spew junk content into any form they find. The go-to countermeasure is to force everyone to complete a Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA).

      • Red HatKubernetes security risks that keep developers up at night

        In a recent Red Hat survey of more than 300 production-level Kubernetes users, 93% of respondents admitted to experiencing at least one security incident in their Kubernetes environments during the previous year—and 31% of respondents say they experienced revenue or customer loss during that year as a consequence.

        Our industry can do better. This article summarizes findings from the survey, reported in our 2022 State of Kubernetes security report, and highlights the weak points of Kubernetes security today along with a path forward involving DevSecOps.

      • In defence of passwords (+ my system of storing them nicely)

        I randomly stumbled upon some article disussing the possibility of the "passwordless future" and the obstacles that lie before it. Something about it made me a bit itchy, so I decided to think further about it and also discuss the issue with my friend.

        What I'm more interested in is not "how to make passwordless future come sooner", but rather "why do we need a passwordless future" and "what's the problem with passwords in the first place"?

        I mean, I might be wrong of course, but I seriously don't get it.

        In the end of this post, I will provide my own method of generating passwords and writing them down. It's simple and effective.

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

        • Hacker NewsQuick and Simple: BPFDoor Explained[Ed: Most malware targets and infects Windows, but this one "mostly Linux operating systems" so media goes into "man bites dog" mode]

          BPFDoor is a piece of malware associated with China-based threat actor Red Menshen that has hit mostly Linux operating systems. It's undetected by firewalls and goes unnoticed by most detection systems — so unnoticed that it's been a work in progress over the last five years, going through various phases of development and complexity.

        • Computing UKSymbiote: credential-stealing Linux back door that's nearly impossible to detect [Ed: It is not "Linux back door" but malware someone can put on Linux, causing trouble later]
        • Bleeping ComputerNew Syslogk Linux rootkit uses magic packets to trigger backdoor [Ed: And yet another sloppy attempt to associate Linux with "back doors" when it fact it's Windows that has back doors, whereas on Linux you have to install some kind of malware to penetrate the system]

          A new Linux rootkit malware named ‘Syslogk’ is being used in attacks to hide malicious processes, using specially crafted "magic packets" to awaken a backdoor laying dormant on the device.

          The malware is currently under heavy development, and its authors appear to base their project on Adore-Ng, an old open-source rootkit.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • FuturismRussian Scientist Complains That the ISS Is Tainted With Disgusting Pathogens

        Russia sure is busy these days. While launching a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine the country's space authorities are worried their new space station might someday get contaminated with germs.

        According to Wednesday's Newsweek report, plans for the Russian Orbital Space Station (ROSS) are still in motion, and it's possible that Roscosmos, the country's equivalent of NASA, could simply detach its modules from the International Space Station and run them separately.

        There's a big problem with that plan, though, according to a top Russian scientist.

        "Using the ISS modules will lead to the transfer of the microbiota to the new modules, will accelerate the process of their biocontamination," Director of the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences Oleg Orlov said in a state-run press release.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Met Police Invokes “National Security” about Epstein Meeting with US Senators in the UK€ 

        In connection with Whitney Webb’s upcoming book on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, One Nation Under Blackmail, Unlimited Hangout filed a Freedom of Information request asking UK law enforcement and the Ministry of Defence the identity of two sitting US senators who were present at Foxcote House in North Warwickshire, UK on September 1, 2002. UH contributor Johnny Vedmore had previously obtained information from eyewitnesses of that meeting that, not only were two US Senators present at that location that day, but that Metropolitan Police officers had supplied security for the meeting. The FOI request was filed to Metropolitan Police, the UK Ministry of Defence and North Warwickshire Police and only a response from the Metropolitan Police was received.

        The motive for UH’s FOI request is as follows. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein, as attested to by Epstein’s flight logs, was present in this part of the UK during this same period (from August 31, 2002 to September 2, 2002) and eyewitnesses saw him attend this specific meeting at this location with two attractive and glamorously dressed women on each arm. One of these women was Nicole Junkermann, a former model and apparent intelligence asset as revealed in Vedmore’s previous investigative work. The other woman was described by eyewitnesses as a tall brunette. Per those eyewitness accounts, Epstein personally escorted the two women into the room where the two senators were waiting.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • The Shocking Nothingness of DNS

        I recently discovered that my ISP was blocking the domain 'rt.com'. This is the domain of a 'sanctioned' media company, Russia Today. Prior to Russia invading Ukraine, this was a mainstream news source.

        As it turns out, the UK government proposed and passed a law to sanction this company within 2 days. ISPs interpretation of the law was that they had to block the domain. This was the minimum they could do to comply.

        Even looking to Andrews & Arnold's RevK, someone who has fiercly fought government wrongness and stupidity, gives us no solace...

        [...]

        The level of 'meh' on this development has kind of shocked me. DNS is a fundamental aspect of the Internet. It's one thing to self-censor (e.g. content-blocking) as an informed choice, but it's quite another to enshrine censorship into law.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • The Cost of Digital Utopia



        What are the true costs of digital utopia, the most powerful weapon of mass seduction in the expanding arsenal of techno-capitalism? The usual answers – the loss of privacy, the rise of fake news, the risks of cyberwarfare – are, of course, not wrong. But, in staying on the surface, they invariably miss the deeper shifts and transformations that are not immediate and whose effects cannot be directly and explicitly linked to the machinations of Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk.

        The lie that nurtures the utopian myth behind techno-capitalism is that there is only one way to do “big data” or “artificial intelligence” or “cloud computing” – and that this way has already been discovered and perfected in Silicon Valley. The benefits are too numerous and obvious to be even discussed explicitly; a mere invocation of a regularity like Moore’s law often suffices. The numbers go up – and this means “progress.” As for the costs, those could be carefully accounted for, and, when we are lucky, mitigated.

      • EngadgetGoogle pays $118 million to settle gender pay discrimination lawsuit

        Google has agreed to pay $118 million to settle a lawsuit first launched in 2017 over gender-based wage discrimination, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Three former female employees accused Google of segregating women into lower paying jobs that curbed advancement, while similarly-qualified men didn't face those obstacles.

        The lawsuit was expanded to class-action status in 2021 and the settlement covers around 15,500 female employees who worked in Google's California offices after September 2013. It includes a clause that independent experts must review Google's hiring practices and pay-equity studies, according to the law office representing the plaintiffs. However, Google admitted no wrongdoing as part of the deal.

      • GizmodoGoogle Is (Still) Directing People to Misleading Anti-Abortion Centers

        Googling “abortion clinic near me” or “abortion pill” in several U.S. states yields misleading results, according to a new report from the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

      • Columbus OhioOhio sues Google, seeks to declare the internet company a public utility – neritam

        Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a lawsuit asking a court to declare Google a public utility that should be regulated as such. “Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products – that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive,” Yost said in a statement. “When you own the railroad or the electric company or the cellphone tower, you have to treat everyone the same and give everybody access.” The lawsuit, filed in Delaware County Common Pleas Court, is believed to be the first of its kind, Yost’s office said.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Nice pub

        Honestly I really like Gemini, it's a lot like HTTP but lacks a bunch of unnecessary cruft. It's designed for one purpose: transferring plain text between computers on the internet- and in my humble opinion it achieves that goal perfectly.

      • ZimbabweSudan shut down the internet to stop students from cheating during exams? - Techzim

        This is one of the strangest things I have seen in a very long time, and I am saying this as a Zimbabwean who is accustomed to the weird and wonderful that is thrown our way regularly. According to Cloudflare Sudan shut down its internet, over the weekend, to spot students from cheating during exams.



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So When Will British Politicians, Police, Government Departments Quit Twitter (X.com)?
They sure bring constituents there (by being there)
IBM Red Hat Does Not Compete With Microsoft, It's a Microsoft Reseller
even if employees of Red Hat dislike and distrust Microsoft
Dr. Andy Farnell on Marketing Bad Things Like Slop Using FOMO (Fear of "Being Left Behind")
many of the same themes we often cover here
IBM Stock Compared to Bitcoin, Fake Articles About IBM Promote Myths About IBM
The stock moves based on false marketing
 
IBM is Not a Leftist Company, the "I" Stands for Imperialism, and Poo Floats to the Top
Remember that AK is military from both sides of his family
Links 13/01/2026: More Mass Layoffs in GAFAM, Catching Up With Political News of Early January
Links for the day
Freedom of Speech in the UK (or Freedom of the Press/Expression) and Protection From Adversaries
undressing people without consent and in very bad taste is not "speech"
Ending the Status Quo at the European Patent Office (EPO) This Year
Things will continue to get worse as long as the "Digital Majority" stays silent and/or passive
Greenland Ought to Move to GNU/Linux, Not Apple
GNU/Linux at 4%
If You Care About Freedom, Don't Follow IBM Red Hat (Like Microsoft Novell 20 Years Ago)
IBM Red Hat and Microsoft don't seem to compete
Red Hat Layoffs, Even of "AI" Staff in India
This is how companies die
LLM Slop Isn't Replacing Online News, It's Just a Pest That's Gradually Going Away as Money for Slop Runs Out
Slop likes to talk about itself (like some kind of 'web-cancer')
Not Journalism: Almost 80% of the 'Articles' We Saw About Torvalds and 'Vibe Coding' Are LLM Slop (Sometimes Slop Images)
The real issue is, Torvalds who created Git as a solution to proprietary prison is entertaining Microsoft's own proprietary prison
EPO People Power - Part XXXIII - Interest From Some European Media, For a Change
Without it, we'll become another Russian Federation
Just Another Reminder That Microsoft Didn't Deny Mass Layoffs
Remember that Microsoft never denied this
GNU/Linux Measured at 6% in Réunion This Year
Population sizes like a million people are nothing to sneeze at
Bluewashing Continues, Red Hat Onboarding Interns in Low-Paid Regions
It's the end of the second Monday of 2026
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 12, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, January 12, 2026
Gemini Links 13/01/2026: ScottoRang and Outage
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Exceeding 6% in Cape Verde
Windows is measured as down sharply
When It Comes to Health, Slop is a Flop and It Kills People
Chatbots will mostly die after many people die due to them
2026 Has Begun Well for GNU/Linux Users (and for Us)
A lot of the anti-Linux FUD we got accustomed to seeing some years ago became scarce
Links 12/01/2026: Vista 11 Exodus and Famicom/NES Game
Links for the day
Links 12/01/2026: Twitter (X) Being Blocked in More Countries, PTAB Besieged by Cheeto Appointees (Bad Patents Getting Through)
Links for the day
Links 12/01/2026: Brussels Plotting Exit From GAFAM (US), Carole Cadwalladr Explains "Peter Thiel's New Model Army"
Links for the day
Oligarchs and States Always Attempted to Obstruct Efforts to Expose Their Corruption
We commend the administrator who consistently and adamantly defend the freedom of speech
Scheduled Maintenance Between 15th of January and Days to Follow, Free Software Foundation (FSF) Looking to Add 43 More Members by 16th of January
People who value Software Freedom should consider joining to support the FSF
Bracing for Microsoft Layoffs, Tired of Microsoft Lies, Microsoft Staff Wants Transparency, Not Face-Saving Coverup From Frank Shaw
totally made up stock price
GNU/Linux Estimated at Around 5% in Montserrat
another country where the "share" of GNU/Linux is now measured at 5%
GNU/Linux Exceeding 5% in Guadeloupe According to statCounter
GNU/Linux "share" estimates in Guadeloupe
Dr. Richard Stallman @ Georgia Tech Next Week
More Than One Week From Now
EPO People Power - Part XXXII - Little Hope That European Press Will Attempt to Expose Drug Abuse in Europe's Second-Largest Organisation
What does this tell us about the press in Europe?
Three most controversial Australian authors linked to St Paul's, Coburg
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 11/01/2026: Data Breaches and Recent (Early 2026) Political Developments
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/01/2026: Insomniacs After School and Boycotting Amazon
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, January 11, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, January 11, 2026
Brett Wilson LLP 'Dropping' the LLP, Is This Rebranding?
It's not a coincidence or a glitch, there was a formal change somewhere in the system
Can IBM Still Control the Narrative?
We'll see what comes out through the grapevine later this week
IBM SkillsBuild as Microsoft Training, Microsoft Vendor Lock-in, Microsoft Surveillance
Microsoft benefits from IBM's "training"
EPO People Power - Part XXXI - Almost No Crime is Possible Without Enablers and Complicit Colleagues
By the middle of January 2026 we'll have taken things up another gear
Aruba's GNU/Linux Adoption Seems to Have Reach All-Time High This Year
ChromeOS rose by a lot too
After the LLM Slop Frenzy...
In every way, slop is no better than spam
Links 11/01/2026: 'Nothing to Lose' in Iran and Kyiv Restores Electricity
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/01/2026: "Late To The Party" and "Thinking About Software Licences"
Links for the day
Links 11/01/2026: Bob Weir and Stewart Cheifet Perish
Links for the day
Higher Adoption Rates of GNU/Linux in Cyprus in Recent Years
there are some Cypriots who are championing Free software
Microsoft's linkedin.com is Shrinking, Expect LinkedIn Layoffs to Carry on in 2026
Expect the mass layoffs and office closures to carry on there, maybe as early as next week
Gemini Links 11/01/2026: Scott Morgan and 'The Unix Way'
Links for the day
IBM to Be 'Reorganised'
The rich look for ways to 'monetise' what's left IBM
Dr. Andy Farnell Explains Why He'll Stop Sending E-mail to Microsoft and Gmail Users
The article is long and well worth reading
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, January 10, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, January 10, 2026