Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 13/07/2022: Microsoft Patch Tuesday, the Latest NSA Back Doors Ready to Install



  • GNU/Linux

    • Applications

      • Linux LinksBest Free and Open Source Alternatives to Apple Maps

        Apple Maps is a web mapping service that’s available in over 200 regions around the world offering curated guides.

        While Apple Maps is free to use, it’s proprietary software and not available for Linux. We recommend the best free and open source alternatives.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • OpenSource.comHow I create music playlists on Linux

        I recently wrote a C program in Linux to create a smaller random selection of MP3 files from my extensive MP3 library. The program goes through a directory containing my MP3 library, and then creates a directory with a random, smaller selection of songs. I then copy the MP3 files to my smartphone to listen to them on the go.

        Sweden is a sparsely populated country with many rural areas where you don't have full cell phone coverage. That's one reason for having MP3 files on a smartphone. Another reason is that I don't always have the money for a streaming service, so I like to have my own copies of the songs I enjoy.

        You can download my application from its Git repository. I wrote it for Linux specifically in part because it's easy to find well-tested file I/O routines on Linux. Many years ago, I tried writing the same program on Windows using proprietary C libraries, and I got stuck trying to get the file copying routing to work. Linux gives the user easy and direct access to the file system.

        In the spirit of open source, it didn't take much searching before I found file I/O code for Linux to inspire me. I also found some code for allocating memory which inspired me. I wrote the code for random number generation.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • OpenSource.comA guide to productivity management in open source projects

        Open source is one of the most important technology trends of our time. It’s the lifeblood of the digital economy and the preeminent way that software-based innovation happens today. In fact, it’s estimated that over 90% of software released today contains open source libraries.

        There's no doubt the open source model is effective and impactful. But is there still room for improvement? When comparing the broader software industry’s processes to that of open source communities, one big gap stands out: productivity management.

        By and large, open source project leads and maintainers have been slow to adopt modern productivity and project management practices and tools commonly embraced by startups and enterprises to drive the efficiency and predictability of software development processes. It’s time we examine how the application of these approaches and capabilities can improve the management of open source projects for the better.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • TecMintLinux Lite – An Ubuntu-Based Distribution for Linux Newbies

        Linux Lite is a free, easy-to-use, and open-source Linux distribution based on the Ubuntu LTS series of releases. By design, it is a lightweight and user-friendly distribution that was developed with Linux beginners in mind especially users migrating from Windows.

        Linux Lite provides a simple and familiar desktop environment that Windows users will have an easy time using. For instance, the start button is clearly labeled. You also get app shortcuts on the taskbar and an applet section in your bottom-right area where you get volume controls, network, update settings and so much more.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • Raspberry PiAre you technocentric?€ Shifting from technology to people

        When we teach children and young people about computing, do we consider how the subject has developed over time, how it relates to our students’ lives, and importantly, what our values are? Professor Pratim Sengupta shared some of the research he and his colleagues have been working on related to these questions in our June 2022 research seminar.

      • HackadayPi Pico Provides Practical PlayStation Pointing

        It’s not immediately clear to us why one would need a mouse for the original PlayStation (though we’re sure there’s no shortage of folks eager to jump down into the comments and tell us), but if you ever desire adding improved pointing capabilities to the nearly three decade old console, this project from [VojtÄ›ch Salajka] is certainly one to keep an eye on.

      • HackadayHackable OSHW CardClock Demands Attention

        When examining a project, it’s easy to be jaded by a raw parts list. When the main component is an ESP8266, we might say “oh, another 8266 project. yawn!” But we’re certain that when you take a look at [Will Fox]’s Foxie CardClock, it’ll surely grab your attention.

  • Leftovers

    • The NationWe Are All God’s Poems

      We all want to be joined in holy metonymy. You are a part of me, we want God to say, that stands for the whole of me. Instead of immanent, just say man. Instead of wishbone, just say wish.

      Sound out the word, and we are all God’s onomatopoeia. Gaga comes from God mad: Coo, coo at the one you love, madman, across the carousel of the cosmos, these painted horses circling the sun.

    • The NationA Gilded Age

      The labor of magazine-making has never been less glamorous, less stable, or less profitable. Prestige, as the union organizers at Condé Nast have said, doesn’t pay the bills. With the churn of digital publishing pushing magazines into the financial and cultural doldrums, the luster of the legacy media job has only gotten duller. Yet there is still a magic in print magazines that does not seem to exist in newspapers or book publishing. Be it a weekly, a biweekly, or a monthly, a magazine can give us a snapshot of cultural mores, a printed record of the present, and a forecast of the future. “The more fragmented we become as a culture,” Tina Brown once observed, “the more the media holds us together.”

    • HackadayIt’s A Bird! It’s A Plane! It’s… A Live Air Traffic Plane Spotting Simulation

      Plane spotting has been a hobby of aviation enthusiasts for generations. Hanging out by the airport, watching aircraft come and go, maybe even listening to Air Traffic Control on a scanner from your local Radio Shack. Yep- we’ve been there, and it can be a lot of fun! But how can those of us who don’t live near a major controlled airport keep up on the action? As demonstrated by the [Information Zulu] YouTube channel’s Live Stream, seen below the break, the action may be closer than you think!

    • Education

    • Hardware

      • HackadayBuild Your Own… Whatever

        You can read all about making, say, a bookshelf or bowling, but unless you’ve actually done it, you don’t really know how it works. That’s the idea behind [codecrafters-io] Build-Your-Own-X GitHub repository. It is a collection of software projects from around the Web that offer “step-by-step guides for recreating our favorite technologies from scratch.”

      • HackadayWeed Eater String Made From Plastic Bottles

        For those who don’t mind constantly adding tiny but measurable amounts of microplastics to their landscaping, string trimmers are an excellent way of maintaining edging around garden beds, trimming weeds, or maintaining ground covers on a steep hill. One problem with them, though, is that not only is the string consumable but it can be expensive. Plus, if you have a trimmer with a proprietary spool you need to hope the company never goes out of business. Or, you can simply refill your string spool with this handy tool.

      • HackadayA Handy Tester For A Mountain Of PS/2 Keybords

        The hacking life is not without its challenges, and chief among these is the tendency to always be in acquisition mode. When we come across a great deal on bulk equipment, or see a chance to rescue some obscure gear from the e-waste stream, we generally pounce on it, regardless of the advisability.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Counter Punch"Value-Based Care" is a Pretext for Privatization

        They have no evidence to back up their assertions.€  But the scheme to move to value-based care and to shove risk onto physicians imposes profit-making managers into the system, shifts the profit incentive from more care to denial of treatment, and expands opportunities for venture capital, private equity, and insurance companies.€  This up-coming corporate-sponsored extravaganza will concentrate on promoting value-based care as the bipartisan solution to our failed yet costly health care system that has thrown 100 million into medical debt as the nation suffered 338,000 deaths from Covid that would not have happened had we had a universal health care system.€  Life expectancy is plummeting as the profits climb.

        Mark McClellan, George W. Bush’s head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will speak on the wonders of Medicare Advantage, the privatized part of Medicare that the HHS Inspector General found denies necessary care and delays care through unsupported demands for pre-authorization.€  McClellan serves on the board of Alignment Health Care, a direct contracting entity–one of the plans that seniors can be placed in without their consent that can take up to 40% of Medicare money in profits and overhead.€  He is also on the Board of Cigna, a company that raked in $143 billion in profit over the 12 months ending March 2022.

      • ScheerpostNewsom Plans to Bring Affordable Insulin to California

        Office of the Governor of California, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Dean Baker / Center for Economic and Policy Research California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, announced€ plans€ las…

    • Security

      • Krebs On SecurityMicrosoft Patch Tuesday, July 2022 Edition

        Microsoft today released updates to fix at least 86 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and other software, including a weakness in all supported versions of Windows that Microsoft warns is actively being exploited. The software giant also has made a controversial decision to put the brakes on a plan to block macros in Office documents downloaded from the Internet.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • EFFCongress Probes How Location Data Brokers Threaten Reproductive Privacy

          Some good news: three members of Congress are investigating this problem, and have sent letters to five location data brokers. The legislators are Rep. Maloney, chair of the House Oversight Committee; Rep. Krishnamoorthi, chair of the Consumer Policy Subcommittee; and Rep. Jacobs, author of the “My Body, My Data” bill. Four of these location data brokers (Babel Street, Digital Envoy, Gravy Analytics, and Safegraph) are discussed in EFF’s recent deep dive on federal government purchases of phone app location data. The fifth broker is Placer.ai.

          The letters begin by quoting EFF’s Eva Galperin regarding the “unprecedented digital surveillance” faced today by abortion seekers. They also cite EFF’s reporting on how the State of Illinois bought data from Safegraph. Most importantly, the letters ask the location brokers for information, including a list of the phone apps the companies use to gather location data, a list of the business partners from which they obtain this data, and a list of purchasers of location data related to family planning clinics.

          The three representatives also sent letters to the makers of five period tracking apps. They ask for information about their data collection and dissemination, and express concern about “the potential misuse of this sensitive, private data to invade the privacy of those seeking reproductive health care.”

        • Pro PublicaPegasus Spyware Maker NSO Lobbying to Get Off U.S. Blacklist

          Israeli cybersecurity company NSO Group, the company behind the notorious Pegasus spyware, has been conducting a broad campaign in the United States to get off the U.S. government’s blacklist.

          Pegasus is a hacking tool that could be used to vacuum up a phone’s contents remotely without the target having to fall into a phishing trap by clicking on a deceptive link. The spyware can even use the phone to remotely track and record its user.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Common Dreams'I'm Going to Kill You': Congresswoman Jayapal Targeted in Alleged Hate Crime

        U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal reiterated Tuesday that she and her family are safe after being verbally attacked at their Seattle home by an armed area man who told her to "go back to India" and threatened to kill her.

        Police arrested a 48-year-old man—who lives about half a mile from the Washington Democrat and Congressional Progressive Caucus chair—on Saturday night at 11:25 pm, according to The Seattle Times.

      • Pro PublicaBayraktar TB2 Drone Sales from Turkey Growing Despite Western Laws

        Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was in a tough spot last August when he paid a visit to Turkey. For nearly a year, his government had been at war with rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which was now pushing south from its stronghold near the Eritrean border and threatening to move on the country’s capital of Addis Ababa. Thousands had already been killed, and the United States and the United Nations had accused all the warring parties of blockading aid, committing sexual assault and deliberately targeting civilians.

        With only a small, aging fleet of Soviet-era military jets, Abiy needed a way to quickly — and cheaply — expand his air campaign against the rebels. Turkey had just the solution: a military drone known as the TB2 that could be piloted from nearly 200 miles away. China and Iran also supplied drones, but the TB2, outfitted with cutting-edge technology, had fast become the new favorite of the world’s embattled nations, helping to win wars even when it was pitted against major powers.

      • Site36German interior minister cybers the Constitution

        According to a new concept, federal authorities are to be given hacking powers, with the Ukraine war cited as the reason

      • Common Dreams'$839 Billion Military Budget Is a Policy Failure,' Say Critics as House Tees Up NDAA

        With the U.S. House set to vote this week on legislation that proposes a staggering $839 billion in military spending, progressive lawmakers and advocates said Monday that the bill exemplifies the warped priorities of Congress at a time of growing hunger, rising child poverty, an ongoing pandemic, and other pressing crises.

        "Until they can pass an audit, it's time to stop handing the Pentagon a blank check."

      • Common DreamsOpinion | The Global NATO Alliance, the European Left, and the Crack in Everything

        It is no secret that the United States and NATO are engaged in a proxy war with Russia, perhaps to be fought to the last Ukrainian. In June, as heads of state gathered in Madrid for the Alliance's annual summit, I joined more than 10,000 activists from across Spain and around the world for mega anti-NATO peace conferences and a massive No to NATO rally. Their focus was not only NATO's roles in the Ukraine War but also its transformation into the world's dominant GLOBAL alliance whose new strategic concept also prioritizes containing China. Highlighting this transformation, the Prime Ministers of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea joined the summit for the first time in the Alliance's history.

      • Common DreamsJohn Bolton Admits on Live TV He 'Has Helped Plan Coups D'État'

        Longtime Republican official John Bolton admitted during a televised interview Tuesday that he has helped plan coups outside of the United States.

        Bolton, who served as former President Donald Trump's national security adviser, appeared on CNN to discuss the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

      • Common DreamsJan. 6 Committee Lays Bare How Trump's Tweets Fomented Deadly Insurrection

        The congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on U.S. Capitol on Tuesday detailed how former President Donald Trump used Twitter to incite his violent followers ahead of the deadly incursion—and how the social media giant helped foment the insurrection.

        "Trump's intimate ties to far-right extremist groups were a cornerstone of his presidency."

      • The NationTrump Was the “Central Figure” Who Set the Coup in Motion

        The January 6 hearings began with an assertion by committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) that Donald Trump was at the center of a conspiracy to implement a coup. The seventh hearing of the US House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, on Tuesday, has been organized with an eye toward confirming that assertion with devastating clarity. In particular, it will provide details about the former president’s participation in a December 18, 2020, White House meeting with what committee member Jamie Raskin has described as a “group of lawyers, of outside lawyers who have been denominated ‘Team Crazy’ by people in and around the White House.” At the meeting, which involved Sydney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and Michael Flynn, among others, Trump’s most extreme associates plotted to overturn the will of the people. They discussed moves that are often associated with coups, such as the seizure of voting machines from states where Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

      • Common DreamsJan. 6 Panel Refers Trump to DOJ for Suspected Witness Tampering

        Rep. Liz Cheney made a stunning revelation at the conclusion of Tuesday's House January 6 committee hearing, informing the public that former President Donald Trump called an unnamed witness in the panel's investigation following the June 28 hearing and that the U.S. Department of Justice has been made aware of Trump's apparent intimidation tactic.

        The yet-to-be-seen witness "declined to answer or respond to President Trump's call, and instead alerted their lawyer," said Cheney (R-Wyo.), vice-chair of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

      • ScheerpostBiden Falsely Claims US Troops Aren’t Engaged in Combat in the Middle East

        The president made the claim in an op-ed on his upcoming trip to the region.

      • ScheerpostOutrage as Biden Reportedly Considers Lifting Ban on ‘Offensive’ Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia

        “Saudi Arabia and the UAE are fabulously wealthy oil states and do not need any aid,” noted one progressive. “U.S. weapons transfers are intended to throw our money to American ar…

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Can President Biden Make Lemonade out of Lemons on his Middle East Jaunt?

        Ah, lemonade! As we endure the summer swelter, is there a more refreshing beverage? Making lemonade out of lemons is a worthy and timely endeavor, whether actually or metaphorically.€ 

      • Counter PunchBiden’s Janitorial Venture in Israel and Saudi Arabia

        Dressed in blue or tan uniforms and pushing janitorial cleaning carts, these hard-working men and women (in Europe women clean men’s restrooms) go about cleaning urinals, toilets, mirrors, and restroom walls, doors, and floors. The trademark blue plastic gloves and disposable paper caps are a sharp contrast to the facial expressions of these resolute folks who, in addition to wiping and cleaning human grime, have to mop floors and fish out cigarette butts, gumballs, and a variety of face masks from urinals and floors. And the latter is a sign of€  COVID-times.

        With stoic, almost robotic and often resigned facial expressions, these men and women perform their menial tasks to help put food on their tables, pay medical bills, and pay rent and utilities.

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • EFFVictory! Another Court Protects the Right to Record Police

        The case is Irizarry v. Yehia. Mr. Irizarry is a journalist who records on-duty police. In 2019, while he was recording a traffic stop, Officer Yehia arrived, stood in front of Mr. Irizarry’s camera, and shined a flashlight into the camera. The Tenth Circuit ruled that “Mr. Irizarry was engaged in protected First Amendment activity when he filmed the traffic stop,” and that he “suffered an injury when Officer Yehia stood in front of his camera and shined a flashlight into it …”

        We agree. Police violate the First Amendment when they interfere with people who are recording them. As we explained in our amicus brief filed in the case:€ 

        On-duty officers have also attempted to interfere with publication of recordings, by loudly playing popular music. Some online platforms use automated filters to block content that contains copyrighted materials. The officers hope these filters will block publication of recordings of their on-duty activity.

      • TechdirtFBI’s Crime Data Collection Still Being Stymied By Major Police Departments Not Reporting Crime Stats

        The FBI has switched to a new crime reporting system to collect crime data from all over the nation. Despite being given a long runway (the 2021 switch was announced in 2015), the FBI is still seeing an incredible lack of contribution.

      • ScheerpostCraig Murray: The Film About Julian Assange

        Ithaka is a heart-rending film that offers an important rebuttal to more than a decade of propaganda aimed at dehumanizing the WikiLeaks publisher.

      • ScheerpostWhistleblower Relief: Dropping the Collaery Case

        The Anglo-Australian legal system has much to answer for.

    • Environment

      • Counter PunchIndigenous-Led Organization Opens New Salvo in Fight for Climate Justice

        “We often envision climate injustices first before we talk about climate justice,” says Frederick. “It’s because we see a lot of injustice in terms of what has created climate change and continues to exacerbate it, [along with those] in the front-line communities that are most impacted, who happen to be our people,” says Frederick.

        The concept of climate justice conforms to the belief that global warming and climate change are social, economic and political issues as much as they are environmental or scientific dilemmas. For organizers like Frederick and her colleague, Jade Begay, climate justice campaign director for NDN Collective, climate justice is more than just an acknowledgment that climate change is man-made and rooted in socioeconomic issues, it stands for a better future where the economy thrives while ethical considerations are made for the environment and all people—rich and poor, white or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color).

      • TruthOutWith Stunning Irony, Environmental Review Is Being Used to Block Climate Action
      • Common DreamsOpinion | Climate Insanity: The Biden Administration Wants to Drill on Alaska's North Slope

        The bitter end of the fossil fuel era is playing out in one of the world's wildest remaining places: Alaska's North Slope. And it's not pretty.

      • Counter PunchHow Climate Change is Making Flooding Worse

        In mid-June 2022, storms dumped up to 5 inches of rain over three days in the mountains in and around Yellowstone National Park, rapidly melting snowpack. As the rain and meltwater poured into creeks and then rivers, it became a flood that damaged roads, cabins and utilities and forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate.

        The Yellowstone River shattered its previous record and reached its highest water levels recorded since monitoring began almost 100 years ago.

      • Common DreamsGroups Demand Egypt Uphold Right to Protest at Global Climate Summit

        Three dozen global human rights groups on Tuesday called on Egyptian authorities to respect international law by allowing peaceful protests at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference—and not limiting dissenters to a specific space where their impact will be weakened, as officials have suggested they will.

        "The Egyptian authorities should unconditionally allow peaceful protests and gatherings around the time of COP27, including in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, and other cities."

      • The NationDear Harvard, It’s Time to Reject Fossil Fuel Money

        In June, Harvard announced that it would establish the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. The institute aims to connect and bolster climate-change initiatives across the university, in large part by supporting related research. With this institute’s creation comes a new and crucial opportunity for Harvard to demonstrate climate leadership. Amid today’s unprecedented climate emergency and a global energy crisis, Harvard can lead the way in protecting the integrity of the research we urgently need to usher in a just, renewable energy economy and ensure the academic freedom of researchers by implementing a ban on fossil fuel industry funding for climate research. Doing so would provide a vital safeguard for our planet, communities, and futures.

      • Energy

        • HackadayAirbus A380 Completes Flight Powered By Cooking Oil

          Fossil fuels are making news for all the wrong reasons of late. Whether it’s their contribution to global climate change or the fact that the price and supply hinges on violent geopolitics, there are more reasons than ever to shift to cleaner energy sources.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Counter PunchFederal Logging Projects Put 10 Climate-Saving Forests on Chopping Block

          Federal agencies are targeting mature and old-growth forests for logging despite these trees’ extraordinary ability to curb climate change and President Biden’s directive to preserve them, according to a new report spotlighting the 10 worst logging projects in federal forests across the country.

          In the report released today,€ Worth More Standing, the€ Climate Forests€ coalition details federal logging proposals targeting nearly a quarter of a million acres of old-growth and mature forests overseen by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The report outlines “a pervasive pattern of federal forest mismanagement that routinely sidesteps science to turn carbon-storing giants into lumber” and calls on the Biden administration to pass a permanent rule to protect these big old trees.

    • Finance

      • Telex (Hungary)Major tax change bill pushed through parliament in spite of protests

        It was proposed on Monday, debated on Tuesday, and after a few hours of debate, the new law about the taxation of small businesses was passed by 120 votes in favour, 57 against and 1 abstention. While the debate was going on in parliament, spontaneous demonstrations were held in several parts of Budapest, with demonstrators blocking Margaret Bridge and part of Elisabeth Bridge.

      • Counter PunchAn American’s Visit to Another Planet: Iceland

        Like most Americans, I don’t get out much. Cost, excessive work hours–all the reasons that keep one close to home are part of my world. A plan that started in 2019 allowed us to take a quick trip to Iceland that only materialized this summer. I was prepared for something radically different; I read about other nations (unlike most Americans), but the reality of seeing how other parts of the world live has made the return home all the more heartbreaking. To say we are off the rails in the United States implies there are rails to go off of (and we of course don’t want to pay for the infrastructure of any high speed rails in the US).

        Where to start–well, for one thing the entire time we were there we did not see one homeless person. I’m not saying that in a Karen-esque–oh, thank heavens we didn’t have to view them. No, it’s a clear indication that they are a nation with an adequately functioning safety net, the likes of which we have given up on in the US. I’m 52 years old and (here we go….old person rant)–the increase in people being forced to live on the streets due to stagnant and unlivable wages, soaring real estate costs, mental health and substance abuse (because what the hell do you think will happen to people in a nation not caring for them?)….the difference in just my lifetime is staggering. It’s become a given that lots of people are living in the most dire circumstances. What a staggering difference. It’s a clear indication of a lack of soul in a nation. If you can’t care for your own or consider so many to be disposable, what are you as a people? It’s a question the right wing doesn’t want to consider because they are too anxious to impose a 100% fascist reality–that’s their desire for the soul of the nation and the liberal left will just frown about the sadness of it all, but not really consider the implication that this is a failed state.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Imperial Detritus: Henry Luce's Dream Comes Undone

        "The American Century Is Over." So claims the July 2022 cover of Harper's Magazine, adding an all-too-pertinent question: "What's Next?"

      • Counter Punch21st-Century Comstockery: Does History Repeat Itself?

        Today, the U.S. is witnessing a third repeat of a long-fought morality war, this one being played out not only at the Supreme Court but in local and state legislations throughout the country. It involves abortion and gun ownership as well as a host of other “culture war” issues, including immigration, racial equality, voting rights, gay/trans rights, “critical race theory” and censorship at schools and libraries.

        Today’s struggle may be considered the third battle over moral values during America’s “modern” and “postmodern” eras – this one marked by vengeance. The second battle took place during the post-WW-II period and involved struggles over dissent (i.e., “communism”) and immorality, including pornography, comic books (dubbed “Marijuana of the nursery”) and illicit sexuality, including prostitution, homosexuality and s&m/leather fetishes. Often forgotten, the nation’s first modern morality war took place in the post-Civil War era and culminated with the passage of the Comstock Act in 1873.

      • Counter PunchOut of It on the Outdoors

        The excise tax has been in place for over a century. In 1937, the Pittmann-Robertson Act directed that revenue back to the states for habitat conservation, wildlife management, hunter and safety education, and more. Combined with a similar tax on fishing and boating equipment known as Dingell-Johnson, these tiny taxes fund a huge portion of Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ annual budget and have long been considered a vital and secure source of revenue for the agency.

        It’s highly doubtful that a single Montana hunter or angler contacted Rosendale’s office to demand he remove the tax since the money comes back in improvements to our much-loved traditional pursuits. In fact, it’s far more likely he’ll be hearing from most Montanans who hunt and fish to ask why he’s backing legislation that provides a dubious “solution” in search of a non-existent problem — and puts a long-standing, tremendously successful program to maintain and improve the nation’s fish and wildlife at tremendous risk.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • TruthOutBoris Johnson Spends Last Days in Office Laying Minefield for His Successor
      • Counter PunchEcuador’s unpopular neoliberal government survives for now: An interview with David Villamar

        From 2007-17 Ecuador was governed by the leftist government of Rafael Correa. In 2017 Lenin Moreno won the presidency by campaigning as a Correa loyalist but, once in office, immediately turned into the exact opposite. For the past five years Correaists have been brutally persecuted. Correa himself has been given political asylum in Belgium. Despite repression and dirty tricks by the electoral authorities, Andres Arauz, the Correaiist candidate in 2021, came fairly close to winning the presidency. Correists also ended up being the largest block in the National Assembly, though they are not a majority.

        In 2019, the indigenous federation, CONAIE, led protests against Moreno’s government after having collaborated with him during his initial years, and applauding Moreno’s persecution of Correaists. Last month, massive CONAIE-led protests broke out against Lasso’s government which has only been in office for a year. Eighteen days of protests led Lasso to backtrack on some of his neoliberal policies though the danger he will renege on his agreement with CONAIE is very real.

      • Common Dreams'People-Powered': John Fetterman Raises $11 Million in Second Quarter

        Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for the key battleground state's open U.S. Senate seat, raised $11 million in the second quarter of 2022, his campaign announced Tuesday.

        Fetterman's best-ever quarterly fundraising haul smashed Pennsylvania's previous record for money raised by a Senate candidate over a three-month period.

      • FAIRNational Polls, State Ballots Measure Different ‘Public Opinions’

        Nate Cohn, who covers politics and polling for the New York Times, wrote an article last month (6/3/22) comparing the results of national polls with actual ballot measures in states. His major theme was that national polls may be unreliable when they show high levels of support for various policies. The reason: When those same policies are voted on at the state level, they uniformly perform worse than what the national polls show.

      • Common DreamsSurvey Reveals How Much Voters Dislike Companies Funding Seditious GOP Lawmakers

        New polling published Tuesday revealed that most U.S. voters oppose corporate donations to Republican lawmakers who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election, with favorability ratings plummeting by an average of 40% when participants were informed of a company's financial support for backers of former President Donald Trump's "Big Lie."

        "Corporations quietly resumed funding these members of Congress who voted to throw out legally cast votes in favor of party loyalty."

      • Common DreamsOpinion | There Should Be No Path Forward to Privatizing Veterans Affairs

        When Joe Biden ran for president in 2020, he marketed himself as a pragmatist, eager to collaborate with Republicans and capable of bridging divides because of his long experience in the Senate and as vice president.

      • Counter PunchCombating Corporate ‘Pinkwashing’ During Pride Month With Mutual Aid
      • TruthOutAOC Calls on Senate to Formally Say If Supreme Court Justices Lied About “Roe”
      • Common DreamsAOC, Lieu to Senate Dems: Say on the Record Whether Gorsuch and Kavanaugh Lied

        Reps. Ted Lieu and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demanded Monday that Senate Democratic leaders say on the record whether they believe U.S. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath about their views on Roe v. Wade, a 1973 decision that both judges voted to overturn last month.

        In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Lieu and Ocasio-Cortez noted that neither Gorsuch nor Kavanaugh contended during their Senate confirmation hearings that Roe was "egregiously wrong from the start," a position that both justices assented to last month by joining Justice Samuel Alito's majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization—a ruling that ended the constitutional right to abortion.

      • Counter PunchMilitant White Identity Politics on Full Display in GOP Political Ads Featuring High-Powered Weapon

        Appearing with a shotgun and a smirk, Greitens leads the hunt for RINOs, shorthand for the derisive “Republicans In Name Only.” Along with armed soldiers, Greitens is storming a house under the cover of a smoke grenade.

        “Join the MAGA crew,” Greitens says in the video. “Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.”

      • Counter PunchNew York Times attacks U.S. Ambassador to Mexico from the right!

        And so, given that Lies of Our Times, founded by Ellen Ray and with regular contributions from Noam Chomsky, stopped publishing in 1994, it’s up to amateurs like me to dissect the current crop of bad reporting. Here we go:

        The article opens with this:

      • Common DreamsWATCH LIVE: Jan. 6 Hearing to Focus on How Far-Right Extremists Answered Trump's 'Siren Call'

        The House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol is set to document how far-right extremists answered former President Donald Trump's "siren call" to converge in Washington for a lie-fueled "stop the steal" rally that descended into violent chaos.

        ​​"Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" Trump tweeted just before 2:00 am on December 19, 2020.

      • TruthOutTrump's White House Counsel "Corroborated" Almost All Jan 6. Witness Testimony
    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Democracy NowAs U.S. Funnels Money & Arms to Ukraine, Independent Media Faces Pressure to Parrot Official Narrative

        As the Pentagon authorizes an additional $400 million for Ukraine’s defense on Friday, bringing estimated total U.S. security spending on Ukraine under President Biden to a staggering $8 billion, we speak to Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, about the pressure on news media to follow a single approved narrative on the Ukraine war. The independent media outlet recently had their PayPal account shut down and received notice from NewsGuard, a fact-checking group, that they are under review for publishing fake news. “American and European audiences have been fed the idea that Russia has been failing in this war and that Ukraine still has a chance to win, but I think we’re starting to see reality seep into the reporting,” says Lauria.

      • ScheerpostVIDEO: As US Funnels Money to Ukraine, Independent Media Faces Pressure to Parrot Official Narrative

        By Democracy Now! As the Pentagon authorizes an additional $400 million for Ukraine’s defense on Friday, bringing estimated total U.S. security spending on Ukraine under President Biden to a …

      • TechdirtTwitter Sues Indian Government Over Orders To Block Content

        The government of India continues to hew closer to the ideals of nearby China, led by the Mohdi government, which has been pushing for greater control of the country’s population. Its favorite means and methods are surveillance and censorship — the tool set of authoritarians all over the world.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Scheerpost28 Years, 160 Arrests: What One Man’s Record Reveals About San Diego’s Broken Justice System

        What do you do with people who are repeatedly failed by social services and the legal system?

      • Meduza‘They don’t think Russia’s prisons are crowded enough’: Ilya Yashin faces criminal charges for speaking out against the war. Meduza spoke to his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov. — Meduza

        On the evening of July 12, lawyer Vadim Prokhorov reported that the Russian authorities were bringing criminal charges against his client, opposition politician Ilya Yashin, for allegedly spreading “disinformation” about the Russian military —€ a crime that could carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison. Yashin is currently in jail, where he’s serving a 15-day sentence for allegedly disobeying a police officer. Meduza spoke to Prokhorov about Yashin's case, and about one of his other clients, Vladimir Kara-Murza, another opposition figure who refused to leave the country after February 24 and now stands accused of spreading disinformation.

      • TruthOutSri Lankan Protesters Occupy Homes of President and PM, Demanding Their Ouster
      • Democracy NowHow Sri Lanka Protests Led to a “Reawakening of the Citizen” & Pushed Out President & Prime Minister

        Thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka have stormed the homes of the president and prime minister and are refusing to leave until they officially resign, as the president faces accusations of corruption that bankrupted the country and led to a massive economic crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is set to formally step down Wednesday and has reportedly tried to flee the country. We go to the capital Colombo to speak with Bhavani Fonseka, a human rights lawyer and a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, who has been participating in the protest. She describes the months of peaceful protest that led to this moment. “Considering the crisis and considering the demands of the people that there has to be a change, we need to look to general elections as soon as the environment is conducive,” notes Fonseka.

      • Democracy NowAbortion Providers in Mississippi & Alabama Post-Roe Want Biden to Federally Codify Right to Choose

        Heeding outrage from reproductive rights activists, President Biden signed an executive order Friday to ensure access to abortion medication and emergency contraception in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. We speak to the heads of two major reproductive health centers in the Deep South about how they are providing patient care now that abortion is criminalized. Diane Derzis is CEO of Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, which was at the center of the Supreme Court case that led to the overturning of Roe. The clinic closed soon after Roe was overturned last month, and plans to reopen in Las Cruces, New Mexico. We also speak to Robin Marty, operations director of the West Alabama Women’s Center, which just reopened on Monday to offer a selective range of sexual health services after discontinuing abortion services. “The only way to stop this is to absolutely pass federal law that protects a woman’s access to the most private decision in our lives,” says Derzis. “We are going to be a safe place that does not ask questions and simply sees people with bleeding issues and does what we are legally allowed to under the law,” says Marty.

      • The NationSelf-Managed Abortion May Become More Important Than Ever

        In the€ Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, the conservative justices rejected the idea that it is a fundamental human right for women to have agency over their own bodies and ruled that state lawmakers can exert control over part of what is in fact a spectrum of reproductive health care that all people who can become pregnant will likely need to some degree. It’s a spectrum because all reproductive health experiences are connected, and the accessibility€ and safety of abortion care is essential to ensuring that pregnancy, childbirth, and miscarriage can be safe too. There aren’t some people who have children and others who have abortions; we’re the same people at different points in our lives.€ 1

      • Project CensoredDid Dobbs Help the Left Rediscover How Political Change is Made? - Dispatches from Project Censored: On Media and Politics
      • TruthOutFederal Judge Blocks Arizona Law Giving “Personhood” Rights to Fertilized Eggs
      • Common DreamsJudge Blocks Arizona 'Personhood' Law Aimed at Criminalizing Abortion

        A federal judge on Monday barred enforcement of a so-called "personhood" law in Arizona that advocacy groups warned would be used to criminalize abortion across the state.

        The Center for Reproductive Rights—part of the coalition that demanded and obtained the injunction—noted in a press release that the 2021 law crafted by Republican legislators "classifies fetuses, embryos, and fertilized eggs as 'people' starting at the point of conception."

      • TruthOutWarren Asks Facebook & Instagram to Stop Censoring Truthful Posts About Abortion
      • TruthOutNo State Can Deny Abortion to Those Needing Emergency Care, Biden Admin Says
      • The NationThe Thin Wall Separating Church and State Comes Tumbling Down

        Last month was shockingly painful, with each new opinion from the Supreme Court worse than the last. In one week, the court ruled that Maine must subsidize tuition at private religious schools along with nonreligious ones, and it struck down Roe v. Wade. Taken together, these unrelated cases highlight the power of the religious right and bode ill for the future of civil liberties and civil rights.

      • The NationBuffalo Community Activists Show How to Fight Gerrymandering

        A coalition of community activists here has once again thrown a spanner into this city’s political works.

      • The NationMo Farah Reveals That He Is a Survivor of Human Trafficking

        Sir Mohamed Farah is a track distance legend. The British runner, born in Somaliland, holds an unprecedented 10 global championship medals, including four Olympic golds. There are statues of him in England. He has honorary titles that have been bestowed upon him by Queen Elizabeth II. And this week, in news that has created shock waves in our supposedly shock-free culture, Farah revealed that he first came to England at the age of “8 or 9” as the result of human trafficking. In the process, he rewrote what was assumed about his history, his family, and even his name.

      • The NationDeadly InHuman Trafficking
      • ScheerpostRoe v. Wade is Gone. A Wave of Criminalization is Coming.

        With Roe v. Wade out of the way, the floodgates have opened. States are rushing to pass new laws to criminalize and surveil abortion, and the future before us could be even grimmer than imagined.

      • The NationThe Republicans’ Agenda, Hidden in Plain Sight

        “What are Republicans for?”

      • Counter PunchReturning to Reno After Roe's Undoing

        She just laughed.

        “What’s so funny?” I asked.

      • Common DreamsWATCH: Hawley Taken to Task for Transphobic Questioning on Abortion Rights

        University of California, Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges reprimanded far-right Sen. Josh Hawley during a congressional hearing on Tuesday, accusing the Missouri Republican of asking transphobic questions.

        "You've referred to people with a capacity for pregnancy. Would that be women?" Hawley asked Bridges during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on abortion rights titled, "A Post-Roe America: The Legal Consequences of the Dobbs Decision."

      • Common Dreams'Not Too Late to Stop This': Organizers Mobilize Against Biden's Anti-Choice Judge Pick

        Pro-democracy groups are ramping up efforts to make sure President Joe Biden backs off his reported plan to nominate an anti-choice Federalist Society supporter to a U.S. District Court in Kentucky amid news that the White House is moving forward with the nomination.

        "They're defending it," a source who was briefed on the Biden administration's judicial nomination plans told HuffPost Tuesday regarding the president's choice of Chad Meredith, a conservative lawyer who served as chief deputy general counsel to former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican.

      • Scheerpost‘The Uber Files’: 124,000+ Leaked Files Expose Global Dirty Dealings of Ride-Hailing Giants

        Internal documents reveal how company “won access to world leaders, cozied up to oligarchs and dodged taxes amid chaotic global expansion.”

      • Meduza‘Life here is going downhill’: How forced mobilization has transformed the Donbas ‘people’s republics’ — Meduza

        The Kremlin-controlled “people’s republics” in the Donbas have mobilized tens of thousands of people since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. More than four months later, these conscripts are faced with a lack of medical care, military gear, and even food. Relatives who dare to speak up on their behalf are persecuted by the security services. Meanwhile, utility companies and mines in the “DNR” and “LNR” are experiencing disruptions due to personnel shortages. And the risk of man-made disasters in the Donbas is higher than ever before. For Meduza, journalist Gleb Golod reports on how mass mobilization has sapped the Donbas.

      • Meduza‘Brutal crimes are a result of brutal policies’ Criminologist Yakov Gilinsky on a life spent navigating war, crime, and state censorship — Meduza

        In the early 1970s, criminologist and lawyer Yakov Gilinsky became the first Soviet academic to study deviantology — the study of deviant behavior and its causes. He was the first researcher in the USSR to study how socioeconomic factors influence crime and suicide rates. Today, Gilinsky continues to teach and work in St. Petersburg. Bumaga spoke with Gilinsky about the likely effects of the war, his childhood in besieged Leningrad, and how he and his colleagues evaded the Soviet censors. With Bumaga’s permission, Meduza is publishing an abridged translation of the interview.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • TechdirtHow Not Overly Enforcing Its IP, Universal Made The Minions Ubiquitous And Beloved

          No one is ever going to confuse Hollywood giant Universal Studios with, say, EFF’s view on more permissive copyright. However, Polygon recently had a really interesting article on how Universal’s comparatively minimal focus on cracking down on the incidental (and fun) uses of its Minions characters have made the characters well known, ubiquitous… and well loved. And, as the article notes, a hell of a lot more relevant today than Mickey Mouse, owned by Disney — which is famous for its unwillingness to allow anyone to make use of its characters.

        • TechdirtTake-Two’s War On Its Own Modding Community Continues, Harming Take-Two

          Over the past couple of years, we’ve discussed several battles in the war on the modding community Take-Two and Rockstar Games launched. I’ve never seen a coherent explanation for why this war was needed at all, from either the publishers or speculators. Almost without warning, Take-Two went on a DMCA blitz on sites hosting these mods, many of which had been around for years. And these aren’t merely mods that allow people to cheat in online games. Many of them are mods for the single-player game, allowing players to do new and interesting things. You know, making Take-Two’s product more valuable, in other words.

        • Torrent FreakMovie Piracy Site Operator Faces Five Years in Prison After Arrest in Japan

          A man suspected of operating a piracy site offering links to over 3,300 local and Western movies has been arrested in Japan. The 51-year-old, suspected of infringing the copyrights of companies including Bandai Namco and King Records, told police that he simply wanted to share his love of movies with others. Under local law, he faces up to five years in prison.

        • Torrent FreakFake Sky Representative Abuses Copyright Claims Board to Target Pirate Streaming App

          The US Copyright Claims board officially opened less than a month ago and there's already a highly suspicious claim on the docket. The unknown “Copyrights Protection” outfit filed a case against pirate streaming app HA Sports Studio 'on behalf' of Sky. However, Sky informs TorrentFreak that it has absolutely nothing to do with it.

        • TechdirtCopyright Is Bananas: Case Over Copyright Of A Banana Taped To A Wall Allowed To Move Forward

          How many times can we write about bananas and copyright? Even assuming the monkey selfie case doesn’t count, it’s come up surprisingly often here on Techdirt. A few years ago, there was a high profile copyright case about whether or not a banana Halloween costume was covered by copyright (it was). But, this latest case is about whether or not there’s copyright in the, um, artistic display of taping a banana to a wall. Believe it or not, this is not the first case we’ve even written about regarding copyright questions around bananas taped to walls. Two years ago, we wrote about a different case, involving the copyright on photographs of bananas taped to walls, but that seemed like a pure trolling case.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Politics

      • That Time Factory Waste Didn't Flow Into a River

        "Waste From Thousands of Old Industrial Sites May Be Released by Floods"

        This note made me remember a large fire incident that I was witness too a few years ago.

        Dalälven is one of Sweden's seven biggest rivers, and Malung is a small city at the edge of it. Malung is known for its history of leather workmanship and had an old abandoned factory that had prepared leather from animal skin until a few decades ago.

        The thing about this old factory is that the old way of doing this involved some pretty dangerous chemicals. As a result the factory grounds were polluted.

    • Technical

      • Science

        • Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

          I immensely enjoyed Andy's The Martian. A tried to read his Artemis, but for some reason I lost steam early on. I'm not sure whether it was the book that did it or extenuating circumstances (of which there were many at the time). However I have heard from many that Project Hail Mary is a gem.

          And it really is.

          We get to follow Dr Ryland Grace (who doesn't remember his own name when the book starts) as he spends time in the Tau Ceti solar system looking for a solution to an extreme extinction level event going on back home.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

EFF Still Uses and Relies on Donald Trump's Friend (Elon Musk) for Campaigning and It Gets No Response (Except From FFII's President)
...He reminds them the issue isn't just "bad patents" or "patent trolls"
OpenSource.net, Which OpenSource.org (OSI) Said Would Continue OpenSource.com (IBM/Red Hat), Has Been Dead for a Month
Open Source Initiative is not an ally; it's a Microsoft front group
Latest in OSI's Blog Affirms Its Status as Microsoft Front Group, Sponsored by Microsoft to Promote Microsoft Agenda and Lobby for GPL Violations
Even the staff is paid by Microsoft; they hardly hide this anymore
OpenAI: If OpenAI Survives Another 2 Years, It'll be About 30 Billion Dollars in Cumulative Losses/Debt
So if Microsoft cushions those losses (to delay the bubble's implosion; Microsoft uses the bubble to fake its "market cap", as does NVIDIA), its debt will skyrocket
Perils for Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) and PREVAIL (Efforts by the Litigation 'Industry' to Bring Back Software Patents and Crush Challengers at PTAB)
The EFF and FSF seem to have caught up with it
 
One of the Largest B2B YouTube Channels?
It makes the Linux Foundation look rogue; it plays along with all this
Free Software is for Everybody
today's Linux Foundation shamelessly and recklessly promotes discrimination
Coming Soon: More Reports About the European Patent Office (EPO)
EPO corruption has made Europe a lot poorer
Filipinos Love GNU/Linux
Philippines as seen by statCounter
[Meme] Poverty Not an Issue
To know who the EFF fronts for, check who's funding the EFF
EFF Stories For Next Year
The EFF isn't what it seems
Windows 10? No, Windows at 10% (in Angola)
That's how statCounter sees things anyway
Wintertime in Techrights
2025 should be an exciting year for us and we look forward to spring
About 80% of Red Hat Blog is the 'Hey Hi' Nonsense (Ponzi Scheme)
The official Red Hat RSS feeds have been drowned out by "AI" nonsense
[Meme] If This is How Wall Street Really Works, People Should be Terrified
"OpenAI worth $150 billion with a $15 billion loss"
Red Hat Has Become a Buzzwords Vendor, Not a Linux Company
Red Hat is quickly becoming a joke of a company or "90% marketing"...
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 14, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, November 14, 2024
Phoronix Did Not Cover This...
1,000 people fired at AMD is not news
Links 15/11/2024: LF Talks About Patent Trolls, Advancing a Warning About "Buy Nothing Day"
Links for the day
Alexander Wirt (formorer), Wayward people & Debian censorship
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 14/11/2024: Infocalypse and "Multiple Monitorings"
Links for the day
Links 14/11/2024: The Web We Lost Coming Back, X/Twitter Crashing
Links for the day
Links 14/11/2024: Politics, Climate, and Instability
Links for the day
Links 14/11/2024: EmacsConf and Flounder
Links for the day
Links 14/11/2024: Science and the Demise of Microsoft-Connected USPTO Director
Links for the day
For "X" to Die the Media and Politicians Will Need to Quit (Then, Advertisers Will Lose Interest, Even for Political Ads)
Fewer people are still there anyway
Debian GNU/Linux and Free Software Developer Daniel Pocock in Irish Elections This Month (Dublin Bay South)
Polling day in 15 days
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 13, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Bob Should Tell Alice About What GitHub (Which Linux Foundation Outsources Code to) Does to Entire Nations, Following Donald Trump's Policies
"What's next, preventing access to Linux from non-NATO countries? Putting NSA backdoors in the kernel?"
Layoffs as Happy Stories in the Corporate Media
It's based on a longstanding pattern
It Took The Guardian More Than 2 Years of Musk to Realise What Twitter Was and It Took Twitter 4 Years of a President Trump to Realise What Trump Was
Trump was deplatformed only a fortnight before Biden became president anyway
[Meme] Google 80%, Windows 2%
"I'm going to f---ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f---ing kill Google."
Microsoft's Market Share Falls to 2% in Haiti
Throw in Android (now 80% of "the market") and Windows is down to 2%
Gemini Links 13/11/2024: Magic of Walking and Lest We Forget
Links for the day
Links 13/11/2024: USPTO Director Kathi Vidal ('Former' Microsoft Rep) Resigning, Censorship After Car Ramming Attack in China
Links for the day
Microsoft: Layoffs, Outsourcing, and R.T.O. as Cover for Mass Layoffs Without Severance Pay
Microsoft had mass layoffs pretty much every month this year
[Meme] The Addicted Lolicon Throwing Stones
"They've found my RMS attack site"
Jonathan Carter & Debian betrayed Joel Espy Klecker
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 13/11/2024: Red Tape War and Programming Experiences
Links for the day
Links 13/11/2024: "Make Your Laptop Last FOREVER" With GNU/Linux, 23andMe Mass Layoffs, Intel 'Resignations' Layoffs Loophole
Links for the day
In Switzerland, GNU/Linux Reaches Record Highs, But What About the Corruption?
Pocock is a disappointed citizen of Switzerland
More Than 3 Years After Vista 11's Release More Chinese Computer Users Still Use Vista 7 (Than "11")
it was "officially" released October 5, 2021
At BetaNews, "Most Commented Story" Is Not a Story But LLM Slop! (Readers Talking to Bots)
They make fake stories with provocative headlines and then boast that these get many comments
[Meme] Swiss Lawyers/Attorneys Who Fake Qualifications and Rob People
Switzerland mostly guards its reputation by censorship of media
Just How Slow Has the News Industry Become?
We're drowning in garbage from fake publishers
Things That Still Work OK (But We're Being Shamed for Using)
Using old stuff is nothing to be shamed of (or afraid to do)
Free Software is About Collaboration
WordPress limits it
Even the Managing Editor of BetaNews is Doing Slop and Spam
A Fish Rots From The Head Down
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 12, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 12, 2024
PERA Bill in US Senate Strives to Crush Caselaw, Making Patents on Mathematics and Algorithms 'Great Again'
Follow the money
BetaNews is Beta-Testing the Site as LLM Slop With Microsoft Propaganda Thrown In
Many of the people there are Microsoft boosters and they use slop as "filler" (for marketing)
Evolution of euthanasia & WIPO UDRP similarities exposed by W. Scott Blackmer
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 13/11/2024: Phasing Out 3G, Brian Kernighan Books, Tcl/Tk, Time to Ditch x86
Links for the day