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Links 30/08/2022: LastPass Cracked Again, Tor Browser 11.5.2



  • GNU/Linux

    • Videos/Shows

      • VideoThe Year of the Linux Desktop won't happen (and why that's okay) - Invidious

        The "Year of the Linux Desktop" is the prophesy that tells of a time when Linux takes over desktops, and becomes the dominant operating system.

      • Tux Digital292: Who Wants To Be A Developer?! (Tips & Tricks To Get Started) - Destination Linux - TuxDigital

        This week’s episode of Destination Linux, we’re going to be discussing “So You Want To Be A Developer” it’s like who wants to be a millionaire but better. We’re going to look at what 80k developers had to say about their favorite IDE’s, best languages to learn and more. Then we will be discussing issues with Signal and our adventures with Element/Matrix and good alternatives to consider. Plus, we have our tips/tricks and software picks. All this and more coming up right now on Destination Linux to keep those penguins marching!

      • Late Night Linux – Episode 192 - Late Night Linux

        We catch up on a month’s worth of news including GitHub and GitLab controversies, Arduino multitasking, VLC being banned in India, Google’s false positives in scans, and KDE Korner.

    • Applications

      • Hari RanaTraditional Packaging is not Suitable for Modern Applications | TheEvilSkeleton

        I repeatedly encounter users complaining about LTS and stable distributions having issues with application packages, but then claim that no such thing ever happens with bleeding-edge distributions. However, with my experience and knowledge with the technical side of packaging, I can’t emphasize enough that this is untrue.

        Distribution model is hardly the issue here; the fundamental issue is that traditional packaging is not suitable for modern graphical applications, no matter the distribution model. And how formats like Nix and Flatpak have managed to address these fundamental problems. Interestingly, most servers do make use of containerization (i.e. Docker), because it improves reproducibility and enhances maintainability. We could take inspiration from this and adopt a similar standard that is suitable for the Linux desktop.

        [...]

        My personal recommendation would be to use and promote Flatpak, as it is solely intended to extend an existing distribution, rather than replace it. Packagers won’t have to worry about packaging applications and resorting to workarounds, as Flatpak will already be taking care of that.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • MQTT Forward Instruction

        Dragino LoRa/LoRaWAN gateway support MQTT forwarding. It can forward the sensor data from LoRa network to MQTT server , and vice verse.

      • Linux Shell TipsHow to Edit Files Over a Network Using FTP, SCP and HTTP

        File modification is an OS routine inevitable to all Linux users. No one can avoid it. Every Linux user (from beginner to pro) has a preferred text editor for file management tasks like their creation, editing, and modification.

        However, what is the procedure for editing a file on a remote machine? Your first response will be to log in to the remote machine via network protocols like SSH, navigate to the targeted file location, open it, edit the file, close it, and log out of the remote machine. While these stated steps do work, there are efficient ways of achieving the stated objective.

        This article is here to explore a more efficient approach to directly editing a file on a remote machine over a network while borrowing the implementations of ftp, scp, rcp, and http network protocols.

      • LinuxOpSysLinux uniq command Explained

        In some scenarios, files might contain several duplicate lines. It becomes extremely hard to view those repeated neighboring lines in a file. In Linux, the uniq command detect repeated lines, reports or removes the duplicated lines, and writes the filtered data to a file or standard output.

      • ZDNetHow to install and configure AfterStep window manager on Ubuntu | ZDNET

        In a recent article on cool things you can do with the Linux desktop that you can't do with MacOS or Windows, I mentioned a few of the many Linux desktops I've used over the years. One of those desktops (actually, a window manager) was instrumental in helping me to realize just how cool Linux is.

      • UNIX CopDiskless Clients on Centos - Unix / Linux the admins Tutorials

        This document explains how to create a diskless clients installation of CentOS 7.

      • UNIX CopHow to Install Avidemux on Ubuntu 20.04 |22.04 LTS

        In this guide, we will show you how to install Avidemux in Ubuntu systems.

        Avidemux is a free and open-source software application for non-linear video editing and transcoding multimedia files. The developers intend it as “a simple tool for simple video processing tasks” and to allow users “to do elementary things in a very straightforward way”. It is written in C++ and uses Qt for its graphical user interface, and FFmpeg for its multimedia functions. Starting with version 2.4, Avidemux also offers a command-line interface, and since version 2.6, the original GTK port has not been maintained and is now discontinued.

      • UNIX CopHow to Install Curtail on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS

        In this guide, we will show you how to install Curtail in Ubuntu systems.

        Curtail is an open source image compression tool for Linux desktops, written in Python. It makes use of the open source OptiPNG, pngquant, and Jpegoptim libraries to “do” the compression, and a GTK GUI providing an attractive, easy-to-use frontend.

        When you need to compress PNG, JPG, and WEBP images quickly and in bulk on Ubuntu you can use Curtail. It’s super easy to use.

      • UNIX CopHow to Install Geany on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS

        In this guide, we will show you how to install Geany on your Ubuntu systems

        Geany is a free and open-source lightweight GUI text editor using Scintilla and GTK, including basic IDE features. It is designed to have short load times, with limited dependency on separate packages or external libraries on Linux. It has been ported to a wide range of operating systems, such as BSD, Linux, macOS, Solaris and Windows. The Windows port lacks an embedded terminal window; also missing from the Windows version are the external development tools present under Unix, unless installed separately by the user. Among the supported programming languages.

      • UNIX CopHow to Install TeXworks on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS

        In this guide, we will show you how to install TeXworks in Ubuntu systems.

        TeXworks is free and open-source application software, available for Windows, Linux and macOS. It is a Qt-based graphical user interface to the TeX typesetting system and its LaTeX, ConTeXt, and XeTeX extensions. TeXworks is targeted at direct generation of PDF output. It has a built-in PDF viewer using the poppler library; the viewer has auto-refresh capability, and also features SyncTeX support (which allows the user to synchronize the PDF viewer position with the source, and vice versa with a single click).

      • UNIX CopHow to Install TimeShift on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS

        In this guide, we will show you how to install TimeShift in Ubuntu systems.

        Timeshift is software that provides a function similar to System Restore on Windows or Time machine on macOS. Timeshift protects your system by taking incremental snapshots of the file system at regular intervals. These snapshots can be restored at an specific date to undo all changes to the system.

    • Games

      • HackadayGenshin Security Impact

        An MMORPG with cute anime-style characters and maybe a bit too much inspiration taken from another classic Nintento franchise, Genshin Impact is a relatively popular game across the PlayStation, iOS, Android, and PC platforms. That last one has already generated a bit of controversy, since the PC version game includes an anti-cheat kernel driver that runs in the Windows kernel context, and on initial release that module kept running even after the game was closed.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • UbuntuFIPS certified vs compliant: what’s safer?

        Encryption is key to protecting sensitive data. There are several methodologies using different cryptographic algorithms to convert plain text into cipher text. Navigating multiple methodologies and algorithms creates a complex, labour-intensive process for teams evaluating the cryptographic services offered within software components.

        The governments of the United States and Canada have encryption requirements for their own systems, and those used by their vendors. The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication is an evolving standard, currently at version 140-2. FIPS 140-2 states what versions of certified software are suitable for use within all federal agencies and entities that work with these agencies. Ubuntu will support FIPS 140-3 when it is ready, and organisations are looking to implement that standard.

      • The Fridge: Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 750
      • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 750

        Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 750 for the week of August 21 – 27, 2022.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • CNX SoftwareMangoPi MQ Quad SBC - Allwinner H616 meets Raspberry Pi Zero W form factor - CNX Software

        MangoPi MQ Quad is an Allwinner H616 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 SBC following Raspberry Pi Zero W form factor, and the company’s earlier MangoPi MQ Pro RISC-V SBC featuring the Allwinner D1 processor.

        The MangoPi MQ Quad also comes with 1GB RAM, a mini HDMI output, two USB Type-C ports, WiFI 4 and Bluetooth connectivity, a microSD card, as well a 40-pin Raspberry Pi-compatible GPIO header and an FPC connector with USB, Ethernet, and more GPIOs for expansion.

        [...]

        The company provides Tina Linux (OpenWrt), Ubuntu, and Android 10 images for the board, plus related SDKs, except for Ubuntu, as it is allegedly a tweaked image of the one for the Orange Pi Zero2 board.

      • When there’s not enough room for sprintf…

        Last week I ran out of ROM space in a work project. For each code addition, I have to do some size optimization elsewhere in the program. Some things I tried actually made the program larger. For example, we have some status bits that get set in two different structures. The code will do it like this: [...]

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Web Browsers

    • Education

      • Filtering my RSS reading

        My approach is very Web 1.0. For each feed I want to filter, I create a CGI script on my server. The script reads the original feed, filters out the articles I don’t want, and returns the rest. The URL of that script is what I subscribe to in NetNewsWire.

    • Programming/Development

      • Python

        • How to write reliable tests for Python MQTT applications

          In the end-to-end test that was causing the problem, the code simulated the start of a pomodoro session and then checked that the correct MQTT message had been sent. The test usually failed but sometimes passed. When I manually ran a separate client that subscribed to the message stream I could see that the right messages were being sent.

          Intermittently failing (or passing) tests are a nuisance. They do nothing to build confidence that the application under test is working reliably, and they are no help when you're refactoring. You can never be sure if the tested fail because you made a mistake in the refactoring, or was it just having one of its hissy fits?

        • Controlling Devices Using MQTT and Python

          MQTT can not only be used for collecting sensor data it can also be used for controlling devices.

          In this mini workshop we will be creating a device in Python that can be controlled using MQTT.

  • Leftovers

    • The NationIn Filipino Politics, What Is Fact and What Is Fiction?

      In Miguel Syjuco’s first novel, Ilustrado, a Filipino writer named Crispin Salvador describes in a fictional interview with The Paris Review€ how hard it is to capture Manila on the page:It’s the most impermeable of cities. How does one convey all that? If one writes about its tropical logic, its familial loyalties, its bitter aftertaste of Spanish colonialism, readers wonder: Is this a Magical Realist? So one writes of the gilded oligarchs and the reporters with open hands and the underpaid officers in military fatigues, the authority of money and press badges and rifles distinguishing them as neither good nor bad, only unsatiated and dangerous. And readers wonder: Is this Africa? How do we fly from someone else’s pigeonhole?

    • John GoerzenThe PC & Internet Revolution in Rural America | The Changelog

      Inspired by several others (such as Alex Schroeder’s post and Szczeżuja’s prompt), as well as a desire to get this down for my kids, I figure it’s time to write a bit about living through the PC and Internet revolution where I did: outside a tiny town in rural Kansas. And, as I’ve been back in that same area for the past 15 years, I reflect some on the challenges that continue to play out.

      Although the stories from the others were primarily about getting online, I want to start by setting some background. Those of you that didn’t grow up in the same era as I did probably never realized that a typical business PC setup might cost $10,000 in today’s dollars, for instance. So let me start with the background.

    • Hackaday$800 Mountain Bike Seat Post Chopped In Two

      For those unfamiliar with the sport of mountain biking, it’s a wild hobby that is rife with hacking. It started in the early 70s when the first dedicated mountain bikers were hacking road bikes together to ride on trails to varying levels of success, but only in the last decade or so have there been a lot of electronics appearing in various bike parts that we can all tinker with as well. This video discusses some of the downsides with a very expensive electronic seat post on a mountain bike, and attempts to solve its shortcomings by cutting it in half.

    • HackadayMagic Eye Tubes Go Solid State With This Plug-In Replacement

      Perhaps nothing added quite so much to the charm of vacuum tube circuits from back in the heyday of the vacuum tube as did the “Magic Eye” indicating tube. With the ghostly green glow of its circular face, magic eyes stood in for more expensive moving-coil meters for things like tuning indicators and VU meters. And while they may be getting hard to come by today, fear not — this solid-state replacement for the magic eye tube is ready to stand in for your restoration projects.

    • Telex (Hungary)Penis-flashing and “what’s up nice-ass” – women’s shocking experiences being harassed by delivery men

      Telex has been informed of three instances in Hungary in the past few years in which young women were harassed by couriers who had previously delivered food or other products to their door. In the most extreme case, a courier delivered food whilst flashing his penis, while in another a courier contacted a woman after delivery with “what’s up nice-ass?”. In a third case, a delivery man added the woman on Facebook, writing “you look good in pyjamas”. Intimidating videos, threatening with knowing her address and other private information followed not long afterwards. We investigated how much – if any – protection the protocols and IT systems of delivery companies offer against these cases happening. Is it safe for a courier to know the customer’s name and telephone number?

    • TruthOutHerschel Walker Complains That Journalists Are Asking What He'll Do if Elected
    • TruthOutFederal Government Wants to Help Companies Keep Workplace Demographics Secret
    • Telex (Hungary)Hungarian Attila Valter joins the world's strongest cycling team
    • Education

    • Hardware

      • HackadayA Detonation Engine Prototyped Using Resin Printing

        Over the years [Integza] has blown up or melted many types of jet engine, including the humble pulsejet. Earlier improvements revolved around pumping in more fuel, or forced air intakes, but now it’s time for a bit more refinement of the idea, and he takes a sidestep towards the more controllable detonation engine. His latest experiment (video, embedded below) attempts to dial-in the concept a little more. First he built a prototype from a set of resin printed parts, with associated tubing and gas control valves, and a long acrylic tube to send the exhaust down. Control of the butane and air injection, as well as triggering of the spark-ignition, are handled by an Arduino — although he could have just used a 555 timer — driving a few solid state relays. This provided some repeatable control of the pulse rate. This is a journey towards a very interesting engine design, known as the rotating detonation engine. This will be very interesting to see, if he can get it to work.

      • HackadayVisual Mandela Effect: You Don’t Know Iconic Images As Well As You Think

        Pop quiz, hotshot: does the guy on the Monopoly box (standard edition) wear a monocle? Next question: does the Fruit of the Loom logo involve a cornucopia? And finally, does Pikachu have a black-tipped tail? If you answered yes to any of these, I am sad to say that you are wrong, wrong, wrong.

      • Hackaday2022 Cyberdeck Contest: Steampunk Cyberdeck Is Made From Wood, Leather, Brass And E-Paper

        Laptop screens have come a long way ever since the first LCD-equipped portables hit the market back in the 1980s. But even today’s high-resolution, full-color screens are not ideal for use in direct sunlight: limited contrast and annoying reflections can make reading awkward and working nearly impossible. Electronic-paper displays don’t suffer from those problems, but their low update speed and lack of color limit their use for general computing.

      • HackadayReview: Lidl Parkside Micrometer

        A couple of years ago we published a look at precision measurement tools, in particular vernier calipers and micrometer screw gauges. It featured a look at how they work and how they’re used, and a comparison of good and bad quality instruments. When comparing micrometers we had three of them, a Mitutoyo and a Moore & Wright representing decent quality, and an €£8 ($9.41) Daniu from Banggood from the cheaper end of the market. As you might expect, the Daniu was laughably bad, with noticeable play in its thread and jaws that were not parallel to the extent you could see light between them. You might consider it case closed for cheap micrometers then, were it not that while on my summer travels through the Benelux countries I spied a Parkside micrometer in a Lidl supermarket for €8.99 ($8.92). I had to buy it and investigate.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • NPRShootings spiked during the pandemic. The spike now looks like a 'new normal'

        Hopes for a rapid decline in the pandemic murder spike are fading. National statistics for 2022 aren't yet available, but you can get a sneak peak from an informal year-to-date tally of murders in major cities compiled by data analyst Jeff Asher. The total count in those cities has dipped slightly lower than last year, but it's still well above pre-pandemic levels. And in 40% of the cities listed, homicides are trending higher.

      • Mexico News DailyBlue corn festival celebrates botanical wealth of Michoacán

        The festival, known as Elote Azul Korhupo Anapu, aims to highlight the state’s botanical wealth and promote the trade of its emblematic blue corn. It will take place September 3–4 at the communal auditorium in San Francisco Corupo, a community in the municipality of Uruapan.

      • Pro PublicaLaredo, Texas, Approves Air Monitoring for Ethylene Oxide

        This month, the Laredo City Council approved $105,360 to purchase equipment and hire a full-time technician to oversee a new air monitoring program. The Webb County Commissioners Court also gave $35,000 to an environmental coalition as part of a larger effort to conduct air monitoring at the five schools that are closest to the plant.

      • TruthOutWhen We Rose to Fight COVID, We Were Deliberately Turned Against Each Other
    • Proprietary

      • French Hospital Hit with Ransomware Attack, Hackers Asked for $10m [iophk: Windows TCO]

        Since August 21, if the patient's care requires access to the technology platform, the hospital has been sending them to other facilities. They also changed or diverted the schedules for surgeries.

      • The EconomistThe cloud computing giants are vying to protect their fat profits

        For now there is little sign of a margin squeeze. On July 28th aws reported an operating margin of 29%, four times that of Amazon’s retail business. Azure’s margins, which Microsoft does not reveal, are believed to be steady, too. Google’s cloud segment cut its operating losses from 16% of revenue in the previous quarter to 14%.

      • Eesti RahvusringhäälingMinister: Friday's cyberattack on private media part of consistent pattern [iophk: Windows TCO]

        The ensuing firewall tech has proven itself in heading off the kind of Distributed Denial of Service (DdoS) attack which private media sites such as Eesti Päevaleht and Delfi (owned by the Ekspress Group) and Postimees (owned by the group of the same name), as well as evening paper Õhtuleht, and in which thousands of requests are made to the same page per second, causing site overload, Järvan added.

      • [Old] NokiaThe rise of botnet DDoS

        Specifically, the Nokia report shows the explosive growth of IoT botnets and an increasingly lucrative extortion market that have fueled exponential growth in DDoS capacity. We now measure IoT botnet and amplifier attack capacity exceeding 10 Tbps -– a significant 3-4x increase from the size of any publicly reported DDoS attacks to date. We further observe aggregate daily DDoS attack volumes peaking over 3 Tb/s during the study period.

        In this short series of blog posts here, we will share our perspectives on the technologies and approaches that are available today that equip us with tools to fight DDoS more effectively than ever.

      • [Old] The Rise of Botnet and DDoS Attacks [iophk: Windows TCO]

        In our previous blog post we covered the history of DDoS attacks and our A10 Networks DDoS Threat Report, which reviewed the techniques used in DDoS attacks. In this article we’re going to cover the how of botnet and DDoS attacks, the most common mechanism for delivering attacks using collections of remotely controlled, compromised services or devices.

      • Security WeekGoogle Blocks Record-Setting DDoS Attack That Peaked at 46 Million RPS

        According to Google, the assault originated from 5,256 source IPs from 132 countries, with 31% of the traffic coming from the top 4 countries.

        Based on the characteristics of this attack, it appears that the Mantis DDoS botnet that Cloudflare detailed last month might have been responsible for the new record-setting incident as well.

      • IT WireIoT vulnerability disclosures grew 57% from 2H 2021 to 1H 2022: report

        Compiled by Claroty’s research team Team82, the State of XIoT Security Report: 1H 2022 is a deep examination of the vulnerabilities impacting the Extended Internet of Things (XIoT), a vast network of cyber-physical systems including operational technology and industrial control systems (OT/ICS), Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), building management systems, and enterprise IoT.

    • Security

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • Broadband BreakfastAdvocacy Groups Applaud FCC Releasing Mobile Data Collection Information

          Advocacy groups are coming out in support of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to release to the public information about how the top mobile carriers store and distribute customer geolocation data.

          On Thursday, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel publicly released pertinent letters that were submitted by America’s top 15 mobile telephone carriers in response to an FCC request issued last July. The group of respondents includes telecom giants AT&T, Comcast, Spectrum Mobile, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Google.

        • IT WireOver third of Australians would delete themselves from Internet if they could: study

          The survey also found that for Australians keeping their personal information safe on the [Internet] is the key to happiness online. As many as 75% of Aussies would most be afraid of having their financial data accessed by a [cracker] (or malicious third party), while 44% said texts and emails, 40% said “medical information,” 35% said “social media accounts,” and 22% said “sex life.”

        • MozillaMozilla Open Policy & Advocacy Blog: Save the Date! The Long Road to Federal Privacy Protections: Are we there yet?

          After decades of failed attempts and false starts, real privacy reform may finally be on the horizon. With bipartisan legislation pending in Congress and the FTC exploring a potential rulemaking, all signs point to a privacy-packed fall. But what does it mean to have multiple activities simultaneously in motion? And what does reform that truly protects privacy look like?

        • Common DreamsFTC Files 'Urgently Needed' Suit Against Data Broker, Citing Threat to Abortion Patients

          "It's a critical step to crack down on data brokers selling sensitive location data—including at healthcare clinics."

        • PIAHow to Find Hidden Cameras in Airbnb or Anywhere

          At first, you might not realize what that means, but then you watch it more closely as it flashes once more before it disappears altogether. Panic starts to set in. Your heart is pounding wildly as your mind races with a million and one thoughts.

        • EFFOver-the-Horizon Drones Line Up But Privacy Is Not In Sight

          BVLOS drones bring new challenges to operations. For example, since BVLOS drones fly longer distances, maintaining communication and control of the drone is even more important. Also, because you are not there to see where it is and have a full view of the airspace around the drone, maintaining awareness of the surrounding airspace becomes more challenging.€  For these and many other reasons, BVLOS drones require their own rules, and will be flown mostly by industry.

        • TechdirtAge Verification Providers Say Don’t Worry About California Design Code; You’ll Just Have To Scan Your Face For Every Website You Visit

          If you thought cookie pop-ups were an annoying nuisance, just wait until you have to scan your face for some third party to “verify your age” after California’s new design code becomes law.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

    • Environment

      • WSWSFish kills in the Oder River: Interaction of climate change and systematic pollution

        While facing the threat of a growing disaster on the Oder River, scientists are steadily uncovering the origin of the original die-off.

      • The NationThis Tiny Fish Holds Together Ecosystems and Cultures—It’s Also Under Threat

        The tribe has pushed back against this declining harvest, and in 2018 it sued to force the state of Alaska to take a more sustainable approach. But the tribe’s proposals are in conflict with the state’s management strategy, which treats “sustainability” more like an economic equation to maximize long-term yield. And while the tribe has won some victories, what it considers the slow-motion destruction of this fishery continues largely unchecked. In 2019 and ‘20, the fishery remained closed because the fish were too small to garner market interest. But this year, the state authorized the largest commercial herring harvest in Alaska’s history.

      • Democracy Now“Climate Apartheid”: Pakistan, Contributing Less Than 1% of Global Emissions, Ravaged by Floods

        Pakistan has declared a national emergency as massive floods continue to devastate the country, displacing 33 million people and bringing the death toll to over 1,000 since June. We speak with Shah Meer Baloch, Islamabad-based reporter for The Guardian, who describes how the floods have swept away homes, roads and bridges in what Baloch and Pakistan’s top climate official have called a serious “climate catastrophe.” We also speak with Asad Rehman, executive director of War on Want, who says Pakistan and other poor countries are “stuck in a toxic interplay between a climate catastrophe that they are not responsible for, increasing hunger, structural inequality and a rigged economic system.” He calls on rich countries to reach zero net emissions by 2030 instead of pursuing geoengineering schemes like carbon capture and storage — a tactic that is funded in President Biden’s new Inflation Reduction Act.

      • DeSmogThe Economic Case for ‘Blue Hydrogen’ Is Getting Worse. Cue the Lobbyists.

        Climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 are bringing new economic headwinds to the gas-derived hydrogen fuel’s prospects. However, many companies invested in the continued existence of the natural gas industry are not giving up on the effort, presumably because blue hydrogen promises to extend the life of natural gas producers.€ 

      • Common DreamsOpinion | The Salish Sea Is Under Grave Risk From the Trans Mountain Pipeline

        This weekend was my 31st birthday, and I had the joy of yelling and skinny dipping in bioluminescent waters, every motion of my body lighting up the waves around me, the salt on my lips. There is little as freeing and as humbling as jumping into cold water, the sea bringing out my inner child, shrieking and playing. I live on the West Coast of North America, on the Salish Sea.

      • Common Dreams'Climate Dystopia at Our Doorstep': Tens of Millions Battle Catastrophic Flooding in Pakistan

        "An unrelenting cascade of heatwaves, forest fires, flash floods, multiple glacial lake outbursts, flood events, and now the monster monsoon of the decade is wreaking nonstop havoc throughout the country."

      • Common DreamsMelting of Greenland Ice Sheet Poised to Trigger Almost a Foot of Sea-Level Rise: Study

        Even if the world stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the Greenland ice sheet is set to lose at least 3.3% of its mass, or 110 trillion tons of ice, and that will cause almost a foot in global sea-level rise (SLR), says the study, published in Nature Climate Change. The authors don't specify a time frame for the melting and SLR, though they expect much of it to happen between now and 2100.

      • Energy

        • Common DreamsOpinion | We Need Public Utilities and We Need Them Now

          The blades of the wind turbines on the mountain range opposite my window are turning especially energetically today. Last night’s storm has abated but high winds continue, contributing extra kilowatts to the electricity grid at precisely zero additional cost (or marginal cost, in the language of the economists). But the people struggling to make ends meet during a dreadful€ cost-of-living crisis€ must pay for these kilowatts as if they were produced by the most expensive liquefied natural gas transported to Greece’s shores from Texas. This absurdity, which prevails well beyond Greece and Europe, must end.

        • Foreign PolicyYou Have No Idea How Bad Europe’s Energy Crisis Is

          In the winter, Europe typically “uses a lot of what it has in storage while, at the same time, importing lots of gas from other sources,” Munton said. “It needs both. But as we think about this winter, there is a very real threat that there won’t be any Russian gas at all.” In normal times, Russian gas supplies about 40 percent of European imports.

        • France24French PM says companies may face energy ‘rationing’ this winter

          "Every company needs to mobilise and act. I call on everyone to establish their own energy-saving plans in September," she said, while stressing that the crisis caused by record-high energy prices would help the transition away from fossil fuels.

          "The months ahead are just a step in the bigger transition that we need to make," she said.

        • ReutersFrench PM tells firms to draft energy savings plans to avoid rationing

          French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne urged companies on Monday to draft energy savings plans by next month, warning they would be hit first if ever France is left with no choice but to ration the supply of gas and electricity.

          Borne told the Medef employers federation's annual post-summer conference that gas cutoffs by Russia could come at any time in the coming months and power shutdowns should be avoided at all cost.

        • BarronsFrench PM Warns Of 'Rationing' Risk This Winter

          Borne said the government was already drawing up contingency plans which included a "quota trading system" that would enable companies to buy and sell power quotas.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Helsinki TimesEspoo to draw up 2035 roadmap for biodiversity protection

          By the end of 2023, Espoo will draw up a roadmap to help biodiversity recover in the growing city. The aim is to achieve the biodiversity targets of the roadmap by 2035.

          Espoo is known for its closeness to nature, and nature is an essential part of its appeal. The city is growing rapidly as part of the densifying Helsinki Metropolitan Area, and the objective of increasing biodiversity is partly in conflict with other development objectives. The roadmap is needed to make it possible to reconcile these divergent objectives.

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The VergeThe Twitter whistleblower just got a subpoena from Elon Musk

        Zatko’s disclosures, filed with the SEC and first obtained by The Washington Post and CNN, made numerous claims of negligent security procedures and intentionally deceptive practices. Among claims made in the documents, Zatko alleges that Twitter knowingly downplayed the level of bot activity on the platform — something that Musk has cited as a central reason for attempting to back out of the deal to purchase the company.

      • New York TimesElon Musk’s lawyers subpoena the Twitter whistle-blower.

        Mr. Musk and Mr. Zatko have both accused Twitter of fraud, but their allegations are not the same, the DealBook newsletter reports. Mr. Musk has said that Twitter’s public disclosures about the number of fake accounts on the platform — which he relied upon when he agreed to purchase the company — were misleading. Mr. Zatko has accused Twitter of years of “material misrepresentation and omissions” about security and privacy protections built into its platform.

      • India Times[Cryptocurrency] firms say US sanctions limit use of privacy software

        One cryptocurrency firm, Tether, has said it would not freeze its accounts tied to Tornado Cash and intends to keep them open. And Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who has received at least $50,000 in contributions from the executive director of the Blockchain Association this year, wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this week asking for the rationale for sanctioning Tornado Cash, saying the sanctions "impact not only our national security, but the right to privacy of every American citizen."

      • Hollywood ReporterYouTube’s Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl to Step Down in October

        Kyncl will be succeeded by Mary Ellen Coe, currently the president of global customer solutions at Google, on Oct. 3.

      • VarietyRobert Kyncl Stepping Down as YouTube Chief Business Officer (EXCLUSIVE)

        Robert Kyncl will exit YouTube in early 2023 after more than 12 years as a senior exec at video giant. He most recently served at YouTube’s chief business officer, helping to grow it into a multibillion-dollar powerhouse.

        Kyncl’s departure was announced in a memo Monday to YouTube staff by CEO Susan Wojcicki, a copy of which was obtained by Variety.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Sad Beyond Words for What the Poison Named Trump Has Wrought

        Honestly, if you had described this America to me more than half a century ago, I would have laughed in your face.

      • Common DreamsFetterman Struts Progressive Message in Pennsylvania's Red Counties

        "Mercer County isn't a place many Democrats go to, but that doesn't change our approach."

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Progressive Champions Needed to Destroy Republican Prospects in Midterms

        Almost all the primaries are behind us now, and the current outlook is still grim for the midterm elections this fall. The semi-fascist Republican Party is very well-positioned to win control of the House and has a decent chance of also gaining a majority in the Senate. But demagoguery is not destiny. Progressives can help steer the future in a better direction over the next two months.

      • ScheerpostChina’s Changing Demographics: The Importance of Creating a More Positive Environment for Young People
      • The NationCan This Teenage Democrat Win in Ohio?

        The Democratic Party spent the past decade watching in horror as Ohio, once considered a battleground state, turned reliably red. Donald Trump won the state in both 2016 and 2020, and his influence—along with interest groups like the Center for Christian Virtue—has only pushed the Ohio GOP further right. Since 2011, Republicans have held the governor’s office, the House, and the Senate, and extreme gerrymandering could soon cement conservative control.

      • Common Dreams'Sign the Bill!': United Farm Workers Press Newsom on California Union Measure

        "A.B. 2183 would give farmworkers the ability to make decisions at home, on their own, and on their own time."

      • Democracy NowCA Gov. Newsom Threatens to Veto Farmworker Union Bill as He Buys $14.5M Vineyard in Napa Valley

        Hundreds of farmworkers concluded a 24-day march to Sacramento spanning 335 miles to demand California Governor Gavin Newsom support legislation that would make it easier for farmworkers to cast their ballots in union elections by mail. Newsom has threatened to veto the bill, which would keep farmworkers safe from employer retaliation, explains Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, the labor union that helped organize the march. We also speak with Irene de Barraicua, operations director of Líderes Campesinas, who describes the ongoing threats women agricultural workers and others face on the ground, including sexual harrassment, wage theft and exposure to toxic chemicals.

      • TruthOutTrump Affidavit Contains Broad-Based Probable Cause of Three Federal Crimes
      • Democracy NowEx-Agent: FBI Has Long History of Abuse, But Trump Probe Shows Better, “More Effective” Path for Agency

        The Justice Department has released a redacted version of the affidavit used by the FBI to raid former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The affidavit revealed authorities were concerned Trump still had possession of top-secret documents that could have compromised U.S. intelligence sources and methods, and said there was “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction was found.” We speak with former FBI special agent Mike German, who says the FBI investigation of Trump has so far followed “a very cautious, restrained and methodological approach” and deviated greatly from the “militaristic approach” the FBI typically uses to target social justice organizations. He also says the threats against FBI agents from Trump supporters are “serious” and “persistent.”

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Mass Media and the Politics of Permanent War

        No one, including the most bullish supporters of Ukraine, expect the nation's war with Russia to end soon. The fighting has been reduced to artillery duels across hundreds of miles of front lines and creeping advances and retreats. Ukraine, like Afghanistan,€ will bleed€ for a very long time. This is by design.

      • Counter PunchSteps Left for Electing Progressives and Defeating Republicans in the Midterms

        A recent€ profile€ by The American Prospect was accurate when it headlined Segal as a “populist coalition builder.” After stints on the Providence City Council (elected at age 22) and in the state legislature (from age 26), Segal co-founded the stellar online activist group€ Demand Progress€ in 2010. It soon gained national acclaim after successful organizing to defend an open Internet against powerful corporate interests.

      • Telex (Hungary)Szijjártó: The esteem of Hungarian foreign policy is at an all-time high
    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • [Old] ForbesFemale Blogger Threatened With Defamation Suit For Writing About TSA 'Rape'

        On the same day as this piece came out, TechDirt reports on a passenger who would likely disagree with the Secretary. After a particularly aggressive patdown in March that might be better termed a feel-up, advice blogger Amy Alkon graphically described how she sobbed loudly while a TSA agent put her hands "into" her -- four times. She screamed "You raped me" after the LAX patdown and took the agent's name with plans to file charges of sexual assault. Those plans fell through after consulting an attorney, but she did blog about it and included the agent's name, thereby inflicting her own assault -- on the agent's Google search results.

      • [Old] TechdirtTSA Agent Threatens Woman With Defamation, Demands $500k For Calling Intrusive Search 'Rape'

        Nearing the end of this violation, I sobbed even louder as the woman, FOUR TIMES, stuck the side of her gloved hand INTO my vagina, through my pants. Between my labia. She really got up there. Four times. Back right and left, and front right and left. In my vagina. Between my labia. I was shocked — utterly unprepared for how she got the side of her hand up there. It was government-sanctioned sexual assault.

      • ScheerpostChris Hedges: Ukraine and the Politics of Permanent War

        Permanent war requires permanent censorship.

      • TechdirtFree Speech Absolutist Elon Musk Demands Take Down Of (Likely Misleading) Videos Of Teslas Running Over Child-Sized Mannequins

        It appears that free speech absolutist Elon Musk is, once again, not such a fan of free speech when it criticizes him or his companies. Perhaps he’s too busy penning columns for China’s official internet censor to know this, but given other reports about how much he micromanages things happening at Tesla, you have to assume he’s well aware that Tesla’s lawyers are busy sending cease-and-desist letters to a group called The Dawn Project, which produced a (likely sketchy — read ahead) commercial attacking Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) claims. You can see the commercial here:

      • TechdirtTexas Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal Of Voice Actor’s Bogus Defamation Lawsuit

        Vic Mignogna is an American voice actor specializing in English dubs of Japanese anime. His career dates back to the early 2000s. Unfortunately for Mignogna, he’s now mostly known as a serial sexual harasser. Those accusations began surfacing in 2019, with some accusations dating back nearly a decade before he became a successful voice actor.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • TechdirtTexas Activist Weaponizes Law Requiring Religious Posters In Schools Against Its Fans

        Secularists teaching the state of Texas a lesson in unintended consequences appears to be becoming something of a theme. To be fair, this is a problem of Texas’ own making, as the state continues to churn out laws that aren’t just conservative, which would be fine, but at least questionable from a constitutionality standpoint. The Union being in the state it is, legal challenges may not currently be the best route to go right now, at least when compared with what is essentially a jaunty bit of fuckery designed to point out the flaws in these laws. We saw a recent example of that with secularists, I presume, utilizing the state’s desire to ban naughty books that contain certain categories of content to also get the Christian Bible banned for the same reason. This is how the law of unintended consequences works, after all.

      • TechdirtAppeals Court Tells Government It Needs Actual Evidence If It Wants To Keep The $70,000 It Seized During An Accident Investigation

        It’s not often you see a civil forfeiture case handled by an appeals court. Most cases are never given their day in court. Many go completely unchallenged. The evidentiary bar for the government is low and the obligations placed on those whose property has been taken is high. Most people can’t afford to fight forfeitures, something the government takes full advantage of by seizing amounts too small to be worth fighting for in court.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • TechdirtNew FCC Broadband Maps Are A Bit Of A ‘Train Wreck’

        We’ve noted€ a few times€ how there’s an absolutely historic amount of money being thrown at the U.S. broadband “digital divide” this year. The broadband infrastructure bill alone designates $42 billion to expanding broadband access. Billions more in COVID relief money started flowing this week courtesy of the Treasury Department.

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • VarietyHBO Max Has an Inventory Problem (Column)

        The bill adds up quickly when the costs of residual fees for actors, writers and directors are included — costs that are triggered no matter how many or how few people cue up a particular episode of a vintage series. There are also producer fees, music licensing fees and myriad other royalties that come into play. Industry sources say the cost varies widely on a title-by-title basis, depending on the underlying deal terms, but there is no version of keeping a show available for viewing on a platform that doesn’t incur at least tens of thousands of dollars in fees per series per year. For the lowest-performing 30% of HBO Max’s active library, that adds up to tens of millions of dollars a year.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent FreakAustrian ISPs 'Had No Choice' But to Block Pirate Sites AND Cloudflare

          Pirate site blocking is a reasonable way for rightsholders to protect their rights in a highly targeted fashion. Importantly, external supervision isn't needed because everyone knows what they're doing. In a twist no one saw coming, Austrian ISPs are currently blocking Cloudflare after a rightsholder obtained a court order to render pirate sites inaccessible and included the CDN's IP addresses.

        • TechdirtSenator Klobuchar’s Latest Bad Idea: Letting Smaller Journalism Outlets Demand Payments For Links

          Look, I’m a small journalism outfit. A very small one. So, in theory, a law that effectively lets me demand free cash from Google and Facebook should be a good thing for me. But, it would actually be a disaster. That’s why I spoke out against the idea last year when Senator Amy Klobuchar and Rep. David Cicilline first floated the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA). Earlier this year, we had a guest post from Library Futures explaining why the JCPA would be lose-lose legislation. In short, it’s a link tax bill, similar to the one written in Australia to appease (and enrich) Rupert Murdoch. It basically says that publishers can band together, with an antitrust exemption, to demand fees from bigger, more successful internet companies.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • The Sandman - as a Fan

        Death in the comics was incongruously cheery considering her role. She absolutely adores her brother, while also pulling no punches when telling him off for how self absorbed and silly his depression is. In the episode, 'The Sound of her Wings', this comes across perfectly. The actor nailed it, to the point that she is now the definitive version of the character in my mind.

      • life-reframing realization

        You ever realize how much of a dumbass you were when you were in high school?

        After going on a couple of dates with (pseudonym) Jade, I've realized that Syd and I did not have the uniquely mature and beautiful relationship we thought we had. We had told ourselves that our relationship was based in friendship and caring for one another compared to all the other high school relationships that were purely based to please those heathens' sexual desires. Of course those sorts of relationships do exist, especially in high school, but after talking with Jade, who's been playing the dating game longer than I have, I see plenty of young relationships are based in friendship. In reality me and Syd's relationship wasn't all that special.

        It makes me mad, not so much at myself now but at myself then. I lost myself to our relationship because I was told by her and I told myself that we were special, soulmates, bound for a life together, which stopped me from seeing things clearly. I had lost myself to the mythos of our bond, blindly believing the religion of our love, not willing to go against the holy scripture.

    • Technical

      • I€²C Project Update

        I'm still working on the project to develop a Mecrisp Stellaris driver for the I€²C module on the Raspberry Pi Pico. (To be more precise, the microcontroller has two I€²C modules.)

      • NixOS specific feature: specialisations

        I often wished to be able to define different boot entries for different uses of my computer, be it for separating professional and personal use, testing kernels or using special hardware. NixOS has a unique feature that solves this problem in a clever way — NixOS specialisations.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Stabilizing engines

          After navigating (or should I say delightfully wandering) in Gemini space, I decided to open this capsule to all travelers !


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



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