06.21.22

GNU/Linux

• Linux Links ☛ Linux Around The World: Mexico

  Mexico is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico.

• Applications

  • Petros Koutoupis ☛ RapidDisk 8.2.0 now available – Random [Tech] Stuff

    RapidDisk is an advanced Linux RAM Disk which consists of a collection of modules and an administration tool. Features include: Dynamically allocate RAM as block device. Use them as stand alone disk drives or even map them as caching nodes to slower local disk drives. Access those drives locally or export those volumes across an NVMe Target network.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • HowTo Forge ☛ How to Install Gatsby.js Node Framework on Ubuntu 22.04

    GatsbyJS or Gatsby is a free and open-source framework for building blazing fast, modern apps, and websites with React. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install and set up Gatsby.js on the Ubuntu 22.04 machine.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install qView on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

    qView is a free, open-source image viewer designed to be minimal and space-efficient with super-fast opening images. The image viewer features no cluttered interface, just your image with a title bar containing features such as animated GIF controls for easy viewing on any device.

    For more information about what qView features and looks like before installing it, visit the qView website, which features some great examples of the image viewer in action.

    In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install qView on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish desktop using the command line terminal with tips about installing the alternative development version and removing the application if required in the future.

  • Techtown ☛ How to install PostgreSQL on Ubuntu 22.04 – Techtown

    PostgreSQL is an open source, SQL-based, relational database manager that emphasizes security and SQL compliance.

    According to the PostgreSQL website, it is “The World’s Most Advanced Open Source Relational Database”. Powerful and fast, PostgreSQL is often presented as the logical choice in complex systems or where advanced clustering is required.

    An interesting feature of PostgreSQL is the multiversion concurrency control. This method adds an image of the database state to each transaction offering great performance advantages.

  • Citizix ☛ How to install and configure Pritunl in Rocky Linux/ Alma Linux 8

    In this guide we will learn how to install and configure Pritunl vpn server in Rocky Linux 8. Pritunl is a free and open source enterprise distributed VPN server. It allows you to virtualize your private networks across datacenters and provide simple remote access in minutes. It utilizes a graphical interface that is friendly and easy to use to the user. It is secure and provides a good alternative to the commercial VPN products.

  • Trend Oceans ☛ DNS Toys: Daily use Tools and Utilities over the DNS Protocol

    
    DNS Toys is an open-source tool to help you manage all the little queries you have from your command prompt by taking advantage of the DNS protocol.

    It helps you find the public IP, weather, world time, timezone, conversion rate, etc., within your terminal instead of browsing.

  • Go where?

    This seems like the least useful thing to type at a command prompt:

    cd .

    “Take me to where I already am, please.”

    But suppose that your current directory, /whatever/foo, is a symlink, and some other process has deleted and recreated foo.

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • 9to5Linux ☛ KDE Plasma 5.25 Desktop Gets First Point Release, Multi-GPU Support Improved

      
      KDE Plasma 5.25 arrived last week as the latest and greatest version of the beloved desktop environment for GNU/Linux distributions used by thousands of users worldwide.

      Now, KDE Plasma 5.25.1 is here as the first maintenance update to KDE Plasma 5.25, addressing various issues like external screen support on multi-GPU setups, an issue with the screen brightness being stuck at 30 percent on some laptops, as well as a KWin crash that occurred when the screen setup changes.

    • KDE Plasma 5.25.1, Bugfix Release for June

      Today KDE releases a bugfix update to KDE Plasma 5, versioned 5.25.1.

      Plasma 5.25 was released in June 2022 with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience.

      This release adds a week’s worth of new translations and fixes from KDE’s contributors. The bugfixes are typically small but important and include…

    • DebugPoint ☛ KDE Plasma 5.25.1 (First Point Release) Brings 50+ Changes

      With the list of 50+ changes, KDE Plasma 5.25.1 – the first point release becomes more stable, also brings several tweaks.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Fedora Family / IBM

  • The Register UK ☛ Linux Foundation launches project to ease smartNIC adoption • The Register

    The Linux Foundation wants to make data processing units (DPUs) easier to deploy, with the launch of the Open Programmable Infrastructure (OPI) project this week.

    The program has already garnered support from several leading chipmakers, systems builders, and software vendors – Nvidia, Intel, Marvell, F5, Keysight, Dell Tech, and Red Hat to name a few – and promises to build an open ecosystem of common software frameworks that can run on any DPU or smartNIC.

    SmartNICs, DPUs, IPUs – whatever you prefer to call them – have been used in cloud and hyperscale datacenters for years now. The devices typically feature onboard networking in a PCIe card form factor and are designed to offload and accelerate I/O-intensive processes and virtualization functions that would otherwise consume valuable host CPU resources.

  • Red Hat Official ☛ Why Red Hat is joining the Open Programmable Infrastructure Project

    As organizations strive for digital transformation, they are in reality seeking to reinvent their business, modernize their processes and push the boundaries of existing IT infrastructure. To address that last point, we frequently see customers exploring alternatives to CPU-centric system architectures, where software running on a central CPU directly controls a set of HW peripherals that offer static functions and/or acceleration capabilities. Supporting this trend is a new class of devices, evolved from SmartNICs but lacking cohesive standards even when it comes to naming – NVIDIA and Marvell call their offerings Data Processing Units (DPU) while Intel refers to their technologies as Intelligent Processing Units (IPUs).

  • Linux Foundation’s Site/Blog ☛ Linux Foundation Announces Open Programmable Infrastructure Project to Drive Open Standards for New Class of Cloud Native Infrastructure – Linux Foundation

    Data Processing and Infrastructure Processing Units – DPU and IPU – are changing the way enterprises deploy and manage compute resources across their networks; OPI will nurture an ecosystem to enable easy adoption of these innovative technologies

  • OpenSource.com ☛ How SREs can achieve effective incident response

    Incident response includes monitoring, detecting, and reacting to unplanned events such as security breaches or other service interruptions. The goal is to get back to business, satisfy service level agreements (SLAs), and provide services to employees and customers. Incident response is the planned reaction to a breach or interruption. One goal is to avoid unmanaged incidents.

    [...]

    The Operations Team is the only team that can touch the production systems.

  • Red Hat ☛ Distributed tracing with OpenTelemetry, Knative, and Quarkus

    The OpenTelemetry project addresses the needs of modern, containerized environments running microservices and serverless applications on Kubernetes and cloud systems. This article contains a video showing how to integrate OpenTelemetry into a Java application using the Quarkus framework.

  • Enterprisers Project ☛ Cloud consultants: 4 questions to ask about your strategy

    In the classic corporate satire Office Space, “the Bobs” – two management consultants brought in to trim the fat from fictional software company Initech – pepper a beleaguered “engineer liaison” with questions about his (apparently minimal) job duties before getting to the punchline: “What would you say … you do here?”

    It’s a great bit, but in a real-life IT shop the script should be flipped: It’s you who needs to ask the consultants about what they do – and ideally not months (or years) after you’ve engaged with them.

    Consultants can deliver significant value to IT leaders and their teams, especially when your strategic ambitions outpace the expertise and resources available in-house. But this usually only occurs when you have a strong shared understanding of their role and how you can best work together.

  • Enterprisers Project ☛ IT leadership: 6 questions mentors should ask mentees

    One of the most rewarding things I’ve done in my professional career is to serve as a mentor for others. Numerous people freely gave their time and expertise to help me get to where I am today, so I’m always happy to return the favor.

    The benefits of mentoring are plentiful. According to a SurveyMonkey study, nine out of 10 employees who have a career mentor are happy in their jobs.

    At Improving, we have an initiative that is part career coaching, part mentorship. The aim is to help our people reach their career goals, and the approach is customized to each person’s needs.

  • Red Hat Official ☛ How to use Subscription Manager on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

    Use Subscription Manager to sign up your RHEL machines for important software updates and manage them from your central Red Hat account.

• Debian Family

  • Its FOSS ☛ Mysterious GeckoLinux Creator Reveals a New Debian Remix Distro

    
    GeckoLinux creator unveils a new Linux distribution based on Debian, focusing on simplicity and usability.

    The creator of GeckoLinux (providing an improved openSUSE experience) remains anonymous.

    And, I won’t comment if it is a good or bad thing, but now the developer is back with another similar project based on Debian.

  • CNX Software ☛ Sipeed Lichee RV Dock Pro RISC-V SBC adds MIPI/RGB LCD connector, dual MIC, and BL702 JTAG+UART debugger

    
    Sipeed has launched the Lichee RV Dock Pro kit for the company’s Lichee RV Allwinner D1 RISC-V module that builds on the earlier Lichee RV Dock carrier board and adds a MIPI/RGB LCD connector, two built-in microphones, as well as an on-board JTAG+UART debugger based on Bouffalo Lab BL702 microcontroller.

    Lichee RV Dock Pro specifications (preliminary) which changes in bold or strikethrough…

    The MIPI interface used to be for the 6-mic array expansion, so it’s not available for that board which features two microphones instead. In the original RV Dock board, MIPI displays required an expansion board, but they can now be connected directly to the board.

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • DebugPoint ☛ EdUBudgie Linux: Ubuntu Spin with Budgie Desktop for Students, Teachers

    EdUBudgie is a Linux distribution for schools, students and teachers that comes with pre-loaded educational software and Ubuntu LTS version.

  • Storage news ticker – June 21 – Blocks and Files

    Canonical’s Ubuntu Core 22, the fully containerized Ubuntu 22.04 LTS variant optimized for IoT and edge devices, is now generally available for download. The release includes a fully pre-emptible kernel to ensure time-bound responses. The Ubuntu 22.04 LTS real-time kernel, now available in beta, delivers high performance, ultra-low latency, and workload predictability for time-sensitive industrial, telco, automotive, and robotics use cases, Canonical said.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Android Authority ☛ Survey shows Android users go big on alternative app stores

  • Notebook Check ☛ Teclast M40 Air presented with Android 11, a 10.1-inch display and a MediaTek Helio P60 SoC – NotebookCheck.net News

  • Gizmo China ☛ Android 12 beta program begins for Oppo F21 Pro 5G, Reno 7 Z 5G

  • Make Use Of ☛ Android 11 vs. Android 12: What Are the Differences?

  • Android Police ☛ Android 13′s clipboard overlay will soon dedicate a button to Nearby Share

  • Top 4 Ways to Play YouTube Video With Screen Off on Android

  • Top 9 Ways to Fix YouTube Not Working on Android TV – Guiding Tech

  • How to Access Google ‘My Activity’ on Android?

  • SlashGear ☛ How To Fix Android System Update Failed To Install Error

  • Google Pixel 6a suddenly looks like a very appealing Android phone | T3

  • TechRepublic ☛ New Android banking malware disguises as crypto app to spread | TechRepublic

  • TechRadar ☛ Realme 9 review: a solid but unspectacular cheap Android phone | TechRadar

  • TechRadar ☛ Google finally fixes Android Auto’s annoying dark mode issue for Google Maps | TechRadar

  • CNX Software ☛ Vecow unveils MediaTek Genio 350, Genio 500, and Genio 1200 system-on-modules and development kits – CNX Software

  • Android Headlines ☛ Top 10 Best Live Sports Streaming Apps For Android

  • Android Police ☛ How to access Google Password Manager on your Android

  • Android Authority ☛ Survey shows Android users go big on alternative app stores

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Web Browsers

  • Chromium

    • Its FOSS ☛ This Open-Source Project Proves Chrome Extensions Can Track You

      
      Is this a reason to ditch Chromium-based browsers and start using Firefox? Maybe, you decide.

      Even with all the privacy extensions and fancy protection features, there are still ways to identify you or track you.

      Note that it is not the case for all browsers, here, we focus on Chromium-based browsers and Google Chrome as the prime suspect.

      While detecting installed extensions in a Chromium browser was already possible, numerous extensions implemented certain protections to prevent it.

Leftovers

• Wonder and Feeling Clever – alternatives to “subverting expectations”

  The modern Hollywood and adjacent story-writing traditions nowadays seem to gravitate upon the idea of “subverting expectations”. For various reasons, I find that largely irritating. In this short, I explain why, and offer up the two alternatives in the title as writing goals.

  Let’s set up the stage here a little. Around the late 2010s to (hopefully) the late 2020s, there is a trend that goes on in the story-writing traditions that currently is the most popular in terms of raw brain-space occupation power. This group of traditions is currently centred upon a fairly large city somewhere in America that most people would clearly identify with “Hollywood”, and despite the best efforts of certain other governments in the world, the best that anyone else can do as of time of writing is to appeal only to local tradition, making the Hollywood tradition generally understood to be a global superstratum in linguistics terms.

• Noromo

  Sometimes when people say something that might sound kinda romantic but that’s not why they’re saying it, they’ll say “noromo” (which originated in the X-files fandom; whether it’s related to the sometimes kinda homophobic marker “no homo”, I’m not sure but probably).

• Security

  • TecMint ☛ 20 Useful Security Features and Tools for Linux Admins

    In this article, we shall a list of useful Linux security features that every system administrator should know. We also share some useful tools to help a system admin ensure security on their Linux servers.

    The list is as follows, and is not organized in any particular order.

  • CNBC ☛ FBI says fraud on LinkedIn a ‘significant threat’ to platform and consumers [Ed: Microsoft itself is significant threat]

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

    • Globe Newswire ☛ New Research from Snyk and The Linux Foundation Reveals Significant Security Concerns Resulting from Open Source Software Ubiquity [Ed: Microsoft FUD buddies Snyk connected to Jim Zemlin and his fellow kakistocrats]

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • AccessNow ☛ In a bittersweet ruling, EU Court of Justice allows EU-wide border surveillance scheme but clarifies its limits – Access Now

      Despite 10 years of Access Now campaigning against the legislation, this morning, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) Directive is compatible with EU law and human rights. In a case brought by Belgian civil society group, Ligue des droits humains, the Court upheld the validity of the law despite acknowledging that “the PNR Directive entails undeniably serious interferences” with the rights to privacy and data protection, and seeks to introduce a “surveillance regime that is continuous, untargeted and systematic.” However, instead of scrapping the entire law, judges decided to limit its key measures.

      “Considering the impact that the EU PNR Directive has on fundamental rights — as confirmed by the Court — the law should have been invalidated,” said Estelle Massé, Europe Legislative Manager at Access Now. “All EU states will now have to limit their use of PNR data due to its intrusiveness. They must apply this ruling swiftly, and end their shameful track record of ignoring decisions from the Court — particularly in the area of data retention.”

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • AccessNow ☛ Eyes on Kenya: government must uphold commitment to connectivity during elections – Access Now

    All eyes will be on Kenya over the coming months as Access Now and civil society from across the globe urge authorities to uphold their commitment to ensuring a fair, open, and accessible internet throughout the presidential elections scheduled for August 9.

    “Democracy means information, participation, and communication. Democracy means internet accessibility,” said Felicia Anthonio, #KeepItOn Campaign Manager at Access Now. “Kenya votes on August 9, and Access Now is calling on authorities to stand by their commitment, and #KeepItOn when it counts — always!”

    At least three times this year — first in May, then again twice this month — authorities have committed to keeping the country connected during this cornerstone moment in the nation’s democracy. Chief Justice Martha Koome has also highlighted the importance of digitization and access to the internet, and committed the judiciary to ensuring that the law is upheld in internet governance efforts.

• Gemini/Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • DNS over Gemini (DoG

    First of all, we must admit that DoG doesn’t sound like a super bad idea (and it’s a much better acronym) compared to DoH, and I’m not saying this only because I’m a Puppy Linux developer…

  • low bandwidth lifestyle

    My Internet bill went up by $20 since the 1st year sign-up deal expired so I’ve been considering switching to another tier of internet service.

    Currently we have the 500 Mbps plan. Since Sac has fiber, fast internet is pretty damn cheap. All this thinking about internet reminded me I barely ever run into any issues with the 10 Mbps 2.4Ghz wifi band I use. Occasionally if I download a large file I’ll make sure to swap to the 5Ghz band but even then unless it’s above 2 Gb I’d rather just wait a second and do something else while it’s downloading than switch over. Of course my roommate is a self described data whore so he needs something a bit more powerful and whenever I do torrent stuff it is nice to be able to utilize the faster connection.

    [...]

    When you cut out these harmful digital leaches and only use the web as a way of gathering information and media, you really don’t need much of a connection to it.

    So whenever I do eventually go off-grid, a stable phone hot spot or satellite connection will be all I need. Here’s hoping that day eventually comes.