Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 04/09/2022: The GNU Hackers’ Meeting 2022 Coming



  • GNU/Linux

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • ID RootHow To Install Apache Tomcat on Rocky Linux 9 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache Tomcat on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Apache Tomcat is an open-source web server that allows you to run web applications written in Java. Apache Tomcat software powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the FApache Tomcat on Rocky Linux. 9.

      • DebugPointGNOME Extensions in Ubuntu and Other Linux: Install and Usage

        Here’s how you can install and use GNOME Extensions in Ubuntu and other Linux distros.

        GNOME Shell Extensions are the code written by third-party developers for extending the GNOME desktop user experience. The extensions are similar to Firefox, and Chrome’s “Add on” which you may already be aware of.

        There is a huge library of shell extensions available on the GNOME extension website. By installing those, you can extend your desktop experience to any level using the GNOME extensions in Ubuntu and other GNOME-based desktops such as Fedora workstations.

        Now, there are two ways you can install the GNOME Extensions. An easy and modern way. And the old and difficult way.

      • OMG UbuntuHow to Make Console Your Default Terminal App on Ubuntu - OMG! Ubuntu!

        Ubuntu developers have decided not to make GNOME’s Console the default terminal emulator in the upcoming Ubuntu 22.10 release, but that doesn’t meant you can’t.

        Console is billed as a “simple user-friendly terminal emulator for the GNOME desktop” and, by all accounts, that’s exactly what it is. Functionally speaking, it’s not as avanced as GNOME Terminal, which is the VTE Ubuntu and most Linux distros that ship the GNOME desktop environment use.

        But honestly? Speaking as a Linux user who uses the terminal daily for package management, system monitoring, and playing around with awesome command line tools like ncdu, mapscii, and musikcube, I’m yet to encounter anything Console can’t do.

      • url redirect tracer with curl
      • Ubuntu HandbookReplace 'Activities' with Current Workspace Name in Ubuntu 22.04 / Fedora 36 | UbuntuHandbook

        This simple tutorial shows how to set custom names for your desktop workspaces, and replace “Activities” in the top-left with the current workspace name you specified.

        Today’s desktop operating systems mostly have multiple desktops to group app windows in different screen. These virtual desktops in GNOME (default desktop environment in Ubuntu/Fedora Workstation) are called workspaces. And, each workspace can have its own name.

      • Data SwampNixOS specific feature: specialisations
      • Data SwampMy BTRFS cheatsheet

        I recently switched my home "NAS" (single disk!) to BTRFS, it's a different ecosystem with many features and commands, so I had to write a bit about it to remember the various possibilities...

      • VideoE85: Tech Talk: Hugo Website Builder, I've Reach My YouTube Ceiling, Plex Breach - Invidious

        Tech Mentorship! Please enjoy the video and if you have any questions, leave a comment down below. My goal is to expand the Linux community.

      • VideoPlex Media Server | Install on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS - Invidious

        What's up, guys!!! In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through installing Plex Media Server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Plex is a streaming media server that lets you organize your video, music, and photo collections and stream them to all of your devices at any time and from anywhere.

    • Games

      • HowTo Geek15 Video Games to Try If You Don't Play Games

        Some of the titles we’ve highlighted below are available on most modern smartphones, including both Android and iPhone. If you have a tablet like an iPad, there are often optimized versions available for that hardware too. Others are available to play on a computer running Windows, macOS, and Linux.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • OMG UbuntuEvolution Email Client Now Uses a Headerbar/CSD

          I checked in with the latest development builds of Evolution ahead of the GNOME 43 release just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything major and guess what? I was missing something major: the introduction of header-bars!

          I don’t feel like header bars are as controversial now as they were a few years back, but such is the path of progress: people don’t a change, get used to a change, adopt the change as a new baseline normal, and then kick when things change again — rinse, repeat, ad infinitum

        • Welcome to Pitivi GSoC Update 4

          Hey everyone, hope you are doing fine. This is my fourth update related to Pitivi GSoC, and this time I got a bit late at publishing, more details later on in this blog, so keep reading :)

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • GNU Projects

      • The GNU Hackers’ Meeting 2022 is less than one month away - 2022-09-04 20:21 (last update: 2022-09-04 20:37)

        The GNU Hackers’ Meetings are a venue to discuss technical topics related to GNU and free software. GNU Hackers’ Meetings have been taking place since 2007: you may want to look at the pages documenting most past editions which in many cases also include presentation slides and video recordings.

        The event atmosphere is always friendly and informal. Anybody is welcome to register and attend, including newcomers.

        The next GNU Hackers’ Meeting will take place in İzmir, Turkey on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd October 2022.

        We updated the GHM 2022 web page with information about the venue, accommodation and transportation.

    • Programming/Development

      • Matt RickardThe Commoditization of Large Language Models: Part 2

        Since I wrote Commoditization of Large Language Models almost two months ago, things have progressed much faster. There are now two serious competitors to DALL-E: Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. DALL-E pricing hasn't changed, but GPT-3 is now cheaper.

        [...]

        The cost moat is nearly gone – new models are trained cheaper, on non-proprietary data, on commodity hardware. Access to these models is trending open rather than closed.

      • GeshanThings tech recruiters look for in your resume and first interview part 3

        Have you applied to 10s of tech jobs and never heard back from anyone? Are you sure that your resume does its main job of getting that first call from the recruiter? Do you want to know what tech recruiters look for in the initial call? If any of your answers were yes, you must read this post.

        In this piece, you will hear from three amazing tech recruiters from Sydney’s popular companies reveal the secrets behind a great resume and acing that initial call with the recruiter. Stay tuned!

      • Lee Yingtong LiRobust Poisson regression in medical biostatistics

        Log-binomial and robust (modified) Poisson regression are common approaches to estimating risk ratios in medical biostatistics [1].

        I have discussed log-binomial regression in a previous post about generalised linear models. The conceptual basis for using log-binomial regression to estimate risk ratios is straightforward – it is natural to specify a binomial (Bernoulli) distribution for a binary outcome, and a log link puts the parameter estimates on the risk ratio scale.

        Robust Poisson regression, on the other hand, seems harder to justify. Under the usual parametric view of generalised linear models, it seems to assume a Poisson distribution for a binary outcome, which is incorrect, as a Poisson-distributed variable can take any non-negative integer value, but the outcome can only either happen or not.

      • RlangData Science Challenges in R Programming Language | R-bloggers

        Data Science Challenges in R Programming Language, Take-home challenges in data science will force you to step outside of your comfort zone.

        But guess what?

        That’s advantageous because it’s the one area where you’ll actually learn stuff. Both novice and expert R programmers must learn to master the take-home problems, but the challenges you’ll tackle will differ greatly depending on your degree of expertise.

      • RlangTraining and Testing Data in Machine Learning | R-bloggers

        If you are interested to learn more about data science, you can find more articles here finnstats.

        Training and Testing Data in Machine Learning, The quality of the outcomes depend on the data you use when developing a predictive model.

        Your model won’t be able to produce meaningful predictions and will point you on the wrong path if you are using insufficient or incorrect data.

      • RlangWhat are the algorithms used in machine learning? | R-bloggers

        If you are interested to learn more about data science, you can find more articles here finnstats.

        What are the algorithms used in machine learning?, In less than a minute, this article will explain some of the most popular machine learning algorithms, making them easier to understand for everyone.

      • Lawrence TrattLaurence Tratt: A Week of Bug Reporting

        If you use software regularly, and have your wits about you, you will often realise that you've encountered a bug — in other words, that the software has done (or not) something that it shouldn't (or should have). When this happens, the vast majority of people moan to the nearest bystander about how incompetent the people behind the software are and then carry on with whatever they were doing — often stumbling into the same bug repeatedly. Only a minority of people think of reporting bugs and, if they do think of it, they often fail to do so either because they think it's too time-consuming or that they might end up looking silly.

        It's unfortunate that so few people report bugs. First, surprisingly few bugs affect a single person: by the time someone does report a bug, it can have affected hundreds or thousands of other people. We can't all be freeloaders — someone has to take the plunge and report the bug. Second, bugs frequently appear in contexts unfamiliar to the software's developers [1]. Most obviously, we all have slightly different software installations, and those variations can cause odd effects. Less obviously, users often use software in ways unimagined by its creators, such that some previously untested combinations of operations work incorrectly [2]. Either way, we cannot assume that the software's developers will encounter the same bugs that we do: in many cases, if we don't report bugs, the developers simply won't know they exist.

      • ButtondownGiving Names to Things ● Buttondown

        First of all, new post: Software Mimicry! It’s about a thing I’ve seen in a lot of software tools and products that I was trying to capture in a single term, so I could share it and explore what it actually means for things. It’s also a rewrite and expansion of one of my very first newsletters: on emulation. I find myself fascinating with terms. Mimicry is something I see in a lot of different places, and I’ve seen people identify particular instances of it, but not connect the dots and discuss the abstract concept of mimicry. Is “articulating” mimicry into a distinct term useful? I think so! By having a term for something you can discuss it as a thing instead of being forced to gesture vaguely at it through examples.

        Take, for example, “side effect”. A side effect is when a function changes the outside world in addition to computing a value. Changing a global value is a side effect. Allocating or freeing memory is a side effect. Updating the cache, advancing the RNG, and making a POST request are all side effects. Side effects are generally something that increases software complexity, so are often implicitly avoided, or explicitly embedded in software constructs like monads and algebraic effects.

      • Austin Z HenleyMeasuring demand for a feature: An economics approach

        How bad do users want a feature in your software?

        What if we could use good ole economics to answer the question? The supply of new features you can provide in your software is limited, so measuring the demand accurately is vital.

        Let's think about how we could measure the demand for a feature...

        We could ask users what they want. Interview or survey them. Take a poll and give them a few options. Or scrape forums and social media to see what they're already asking for. Maybe even show them a mockup and get their feedback. Do they say they can't live without it? These are all standard methods in a user researcher's toolbox.

        The economics term for this is stated preference, what someone says they want. The problem is that stated preference often does not align with revealed preference, that is, what someone's actions reveal to be their preference. To put simply, just because a user says they want a feature doesn't mean they will actually use it. I've even written about my own experience where these did not align: When users never use the features they asked for.

      • Python

        • Free Python Tutorial For Beginners: Learn Python - Python Land

          Are you looking to learn Python? Look no further. This free Python tutorial contains 100+ carefully crafted, free Python articles full of information, practical advice, and Python practice! We’ll dive into the basics and work our way up to advanced concepts. I’ll provide you with many examples to explain all the concepts clearly.

    • Standards/Consortia

  • Leftovers

    • Tim Brayongoing by Tim Bray - Long Links

      Matt Stoller is a full-time anti-monopoly activist and offers an interesting look at a proposed mega-merger in the big-publishing world, characterizing it as Free Speech on Trial. I think he’s 100% right.

    • Ruben SchadeRubenerd: Switching to black coffee/tea as we get older

      “Optimised”… I just made coffee sound like software.

    • RachelEcho reply (an incomplete update on things)

      For the record, I'm still here. I'm still pissed off at the state of affairs in my country, and I'm still taking my usual summer break, so there's been no writing.

      I appreciate that several people have checked in, naturally.

    • Science

      • 3D artificial pneumatic muscles for future “makers” - iiTalk

        The research has been published in Science Robotics. One of the first demonstrations is that of a pneumatic hand made using a simple 3D printer

      • uni Rutgers3D Printing Process Created by Rutgers Researchers Is Faster and More Precise Than Conventional Methods | Rutgers University

        Known as Multiplexed Fused Filament Fabrication, the technique “could be a game changer for the 3D-printing industry,” says lead author of study

      • New York TimesThe Animal Translators - The New York Times

        The naked mole rat may not be much to look at, but it has much to say. The wrinkled, whiskered rodents, which live, like many ants do, in large, underground colonies, have an elaborate vocal repertoire. They whistle, trill and twitter; grunt, hiccup and hiss.

        And when two of the voluble rats meet in a dark tunnel, they exchange a standard salutation. “They’ll make a soft chirp, and then a repeating soft chirp,” said Alison Barker, a neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, in Germany. “They have a little conversation.”

        Hidden in this everyday exchange is a wealth of social information, Dr. Barker and her colleagues discovered when they used machine-learning algorithms to analyze 36,000 soft chirps recorded in seven mole rat colonies.

      • New algorithm uncovers the secrets of cell factories - Chalmers

        Drug molecules and biofuels can be made to order by living cell factories, where biological enzymes do the job. Now researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have developed a computer model that can predict how fast enzymes work, making it possible to find the most efficient living factories, as well as to study difficult diseases.

        Enzymes are proteins found in all living cells. Their job is to act as catalysts that increase the rate of specific chemical reactions that take place in the cells. The enzymes thus play a crucial role in making life on earth work and can be compared to nature's small factories. They are also used in detergents, and to manufacture, among other things, sweeteners, dyes and medicines. The potential uses are almost endless, but are hindered by the fact that it is expensive and time consuming to study the enzymes.

        “To study every natural enzyme with experiments in a laboratory would be impossible, they are simply too many. But with our algorithm, we can predict which enzymes are most promising just by looking at the sequence of amino acids they are made up of”, says Eduard Kerkhoven, researcher in systems biology at Chalmers University of Technology and the study's lead author.

    • Hardware

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Eating more ultra-processed foods associated with increased risk of dementia

        People who eat the highest amounts of ultra-processed foods like soft drinks, chips and cookies may have a higher risk of developing dementia than those who eat the lowest amounts, according to a new study published in the July 27, 2022, online issue of Neurology€®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers also found that replacing ultra-processed foods in a person’s diet with unprocessed or minimally processed foods was associated with a lower risk. The study does not prove that ultra-processed foods cause dementia. It only shows an association.

      • Daily Exposure to ‘Forever Chemicals’ Costs United States Billions in Health Costs | NYU Langone News

        Daily exposure to a class of chemicals used in the production of many household items may lead to cancer, thyroid disease, and childhood obesity, a new study shows. The resulting economic burden is estimated to cost Americans a minimum of $5.5 billion and as much as $63 billion annually.

        The new work revolves around per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of more than 4,700 manmade chemicals that experts have detected for decades in the blood of millions of people. The chemicals are used, for example, in the production of water- and oil-resistant clothing, electronics, and nonstick cookware, and people are thought to ingest them as food comes into contact with packaging. The substances are believed to disrupt the function of hormones, signaling compounds that influence many bodily processes.

    • Security

      • uni TorontoLarge scale Internet SSH brute force attacks seem to have stopped here

        The last time I paid attention to what happened when you exposed an SSH port on the Internet was years and years ago, when I gave up being annoyed by log messages and either stopped paying attention or firewalled of my SSH ports from the general Internet. Back then, it was received wisdom (and my general experience) that having an SSH port open drew a constant stream of SSH brute force attacks against a revolving cast of whatever logins the attackers could come up with.

        Recently I set up a Grafana Loki setup that captures our systemd logs. As part of getting some use out of it (beyond questions about how server clocks drift), I built a Grafana dashboard that reports on SSH authentication failures across our Ubuntu fleet (among other things). What I saw surprised me, because what our exposed SSH servers experience today seems to be nothing like it was in the past.

      • Ruben SchadeRailway interest in IoT devices growing

        Industrial IoT has amazing potential. But in the words of Mikko Hyppönen, anything smart is vulnerable. Implementation will be key.

      • Ransomware attacks: 75 percent spike in attacks on Linux OS users in first half of 2022 [Ed: Copy-pasting the FUD from a private firm that targets Windows and isn't interested in Linux success; in fact, this helps distract from the real target of ransomware, which is Windows (about 900-95% of the time)]
      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • The WirePegasus Row: Why Initial Global Outrage Didn't Translate into Appetite for Accountability

          For years, there had been lingering concern about the use of NSO group’s Pegasus software. But, the controversy over the military-grade cyber weapon erupted a year ago with the publication of the collaborative global investigation known as the Pegasus Project, led by Forbidden Stories and 16 other media organisations.

          It led to an immediate reaction from most of the countries involved or were impacted through the use of Pegasus spyware. The NSO Group has denied the allegations of abuse of the spyware and asserted that it only licenses the powerful software to national governments.

          The Wire has tracked the twists and turns in the diplomatic consequences of the Pegasus project in the last year.

        • The WireOne Year After Pegasus Project Revelations, the State of Israel Continues to Evade Scrutiny

          In the 1980s, when the State of Israel was the main arms supplier to the apartheid regime in South Africa, no one believed Israel’s denials and attempts to remove responsibility from itself to private Israeli companies.

          Since September 1979, Israel’s representative to the United Nations repeatedly announced in written statements that the State of Israel was complying with the UN Security Council’s arms embargo on South Africa.

          For decades, Israel followed its policy of silence. For example, the deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hanan Bar-On, wrote in his telegram to the ministry director, David Kimchi, on August 29, 1984, “The Israeli policy … is that we do not in any way admit [such sales] to an Israeli or to a foreign actor and certainly not to an American Congressman, even if he is considered a friend and the relationship with him is supposedly intimate.”

    • Defence/Aggression

      • CNNAn 'imposter Christianity' is threatening American democracy

        Three men, eyes closed and heads bowed, pray before a rough-hewn wooden cross. Another man wraps his arms around a massive Bible pressed against his chest like a shield. All throughout the crowd, people wave "Jesus Saves" banners and pump their fists toward the sky.

        At first glance, these snapshots look like scenes from an outdoor church rally. But this event wasn't a revival; it was what some call a Christian revolt. These were photos of people who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, during an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

    • Finance

      • Yanis VaroufakisInflation as a Political Power Play Gone Wrong - Project Syndicate op-e - Yanis Varoufakis
      • Ujjwala: Over 9 million beneficiaries did not refill cylinder last year, Centre admits

        Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) connections distributed to women under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) are gathering dust. Beneficiaries have not been able to fill cylinders due to high prices of LPG. The Centre has itself admitted this. Rameshwar Teli, minister of state for petroleum and natural gas told the Rajya Sabha August 1, 2022 that 9.2 million customers did not take any refill in 2021-22. He added that 10.8 million customers took only one refill (Refills being given with connections). Thus, 20 million of the 93.4 million beneficiaries of PMUY took a maximum of one refill.

      • The Wire88% of Over 9,000 Punjab Farmers Who Died by Suicide in 18 Years Were Debt-Ridden: Study

        The Panjab Agriculture University study examined deaths by suicide among farmers between 2000 and 2018 in six districts of the state.

      • Michael West MediaYou gotta pay the troll toll to get in! - Michael West

        With road tolls about to hike with inflation, Victorian and NSW governments face motorist anger heading into their respective state elections. Michael West reports on the upshot of privatisations which have left one company, Transurban, with a monopoly of monopolies.

      • Michael West MediaFor whom the toll bells: Transurban’s profits, motorists' losses and looming toll hikes - Michael West

        With road tolls about to hike with inflation, Victorian and NSW governments face motorist anger heading into their respective state elections. Michael West reports on the upshot of privatisations which have left one company, Transurban, with a monopoly of monopolies.

        Over in the UK, they are calling it the “Poonami”. Rivers polluted beyond legal limits, holiday-makers told they can’t swim at beaches because of the sewage. And they are pointing the bone at the privatisation of Britain’s water companies. The profits are going to shareholders rather than things like fixing leaking pipes. The water bosses are making out like bandits, enjoying a 20% surge in pay last year while companies are busy charging as much as they can and slotting the excess cash to their shareholders rather than stopping human effluent draining into the waterways.

      • The Origin of Student Debt: The Danger of Educated Proles

        WITH THE vociferous debate over President Joe Biden’s announcement that the federal government will cancel a portion of outstanding student debt, it’s important to understand how Americans came to owe the current cumulative total of more than $1.6 trillion for higher education.

        In 1970, Ronald Reagan was running for reelection as governor of California. He had first won in 1966 with confrontational rhetoric toward the University of California public college system and executed confrontational policies when in office. In May 1970, Reagan had shut down all 28 UC and Cal State campuses in the midst of student protests against the Vietnam War and the U.S. bombing of Cambodia. On October 29, less than a week before the election, his education adviser Roger A. Freeman spoke at a press conference to defend him.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Michael West MediaDrinks on Albo as he brings up his century on a tame wicket - Michael West

        Anthony Albanese celebrated 100 days as prime minister with an address to the National Press Club on Monday and perhaps a quick skull of a foaming frostie.

        In cricketing terms, his century means he gets to take fresh guard, assess the field settings, and strike out to greater things as the opposition wilts under the onslaught.

        The two-day Jobs and Skills Summit on Thursday and Friday is looking encouraging. The Better Off Overall Test will be a focus. Despite the lowest jobless figures in 48 years, there are massive challenges in the vital sectors of the workforce. But there are indications that employers and unions will try to make the government’s life easier as it grapples with the shortage of skilled workers in vital sectors.

      • Michael West MediaSlaughter on Batman Avenue: Victoria gets election result three months early - Michael West

        If the Victorian election were a boxing match, the ref would have stopped the fight. Except that the election isn’t until November 26. The fact that Melburnians suffered one of the world’s longest lockdowns under Covid won’t be enough to stop Premier Daniel Andrews gaining a third term. Last weekend Andrews basked in the favourable publicity generated by his announcement of free university places for nursing students. As feelgood stories go, this was a ripper. Meanwhile The Weekend Australian proclaimed on its front page: ”The Andrews era to live on”. The paper’s Newspoll gave Labor a lead of 56-44 (two-party preferred) over the Coalition led by Matthew Guy. The Liberals live in a world of pain caused by an internal scandal that has overshadowed Labor’s own internal scandals. Under Guy they ceded the plumb seat of Hawthorn in 2018, and now another stronghold, Kew, is likely to fall to a Teal independent.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • The ends of justice: a case of Bilkis Bano

        A lone woman’s painful struggle for justice, and the recent remission granted to 11 convicts who had assaulted her during the 2002 Gujarat riots, sits, disturbingly, at the centre of this poem

      • Role of Muslims in India’s Freedom Struggle | NewsClick

        For all patriotic Indians, it is the worst of times, it is the age of foolishness, it is the epoch of incredulity, it is the season of darkness, it is the winter of despair, we have nothing before us, to paraphrase an epic description of the revolutionary tumult of the French Revolution, by Charles Dickens in his novel The Tale of Two Cities. However, the current situation in India is not about a revolutionary tide. The torrents that India faces today are intensely counter-revolutionary.

        The forces of Hindutva and its allies are ensconced in power and are hell-bent on overturning the Indian constitution and its Preamble. Their chief picking is to undermine secularism. And to do so, they have chosen to demonise the Indian Muslims.

        As you read this article, hundreds and thousands of Indians are being fed the communal pie through WhatsApp University about the inherent ‘anti-nationalism’ of the Indian Muslims. However, even a cursory glance at history would reveal that Indian Muslims not only played a stellar role in the freedom struggle but happily laid down their lives at the altar of the anti-colonial national struggle.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • EGILMRY Wordo: UNCAP
      • The joy of not knowing

        Somewhere between seeing something for the first time and knowing everything about it lies a wonderful time of figuring things out, and gaining fluency.

        Not just technical things. I love finding myself getting lost in Central Park, even though I've been down every path many times. The occasional feeling of 'oh-oh, where the **** am I' is a true joy in my life.

    • Technical

      • Internet/Gemini

        • The Viability of Sneakernets

          ew0k pondered yesterday whether a sneakernet is useful in free, developed countries.^ It seems a modern sneakernet is a solution to a non-existent problem, assuming the activities it supports are not illegal or socially unacceptable.

          Is this actually the case? I think the issue is not so black and white. The degree to which a society is free and a nation is developed is a major factor in my opinion.

          First, a point of pedantry. The title of ew0k's post refers to free and developed societies, but in the article, the phrase "democratic countries in the developed world" is used. I don't see free countries and democratic countries as being synonymous. It's certainly possible for democratic countries not to be free: the majority may choose to give up freedoms for the sake of safety or civil order, or may strip freedoms from the minority for profit or to enforce societal norms. Conversely, free societies may not be democratic: a hypothetical anarchist society has almost unlimited freedom at the level of the individual, but does not have a central government, democratic or otherwise.

        • limiting the connection

          Continuing on the theme of the ideal Internet experience*, I contemplated the possibility of periodically unplugging the Internet from the computer, perhaps using an offpunk browser**, but most importantly, experiencing that disconnection. The feeling of stepping away from the hustle and bustle, of hiding in a cave instead of staying non-stop in the center of a big city. I even wrote recently in my tinylog that I miss the limited access to the net from the days when every minute cost money.

        • Setting a Gopher hole

          As the beginning of the 2021 came through as setting a Gemini capsule, the beginning of the 2022 is coming through as setting a Gopher hole. I've decided to sign up for sdf.org account, because there is a big gopher community and I didn't want to stuck in as some pioneer somewhere else. So it should be easy thing to set up Gopher hole there. No it wasn't so obvious.


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



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The Slop Ponzi Scheme is a Problem and Threat to All of Us (Even Those Who Don't Invest in or Use Slop at All)
This problem is systemic, not contained
"Blind Justice" Examines the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Turning a Blind Eye to Abuse by British Solicitors
We have some jaw-dropping examples of how the SRA does not do actual regulation - to the point where its staff does not actual work and does not look into any evidence at all!
7 Days From Now the FSF's Founder Gives a Talk in Bern, the FSF Has Just Advertised This
Meanwhile the FSF (or GNU) processes and uploads many recent talks by RMS
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 04, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, June 04, 2026
Links 04/06/2026: Self-hosting Remotely and GemText Emphasis
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2026: Ukraine’s Daily Moment of Silence and Uber Lays off 23% of HR
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 98 Out of 200: Microsoft Threatening Real Security Researcher With Criminal Investigation for Talking About Microsoft's Bug Doors/Back Doors
The crime should be the back doors (deliberate attack on every user's data protection), not talking about those back doors
Microsoft Would Get Away Even With Pedophilia
"Microsoft should never be above the law"
Journalists Should be Ashamed for Parroting False Claims From IBM Management About "Quantum Computing", Say IBM Insiders Who Work on "Quantum Computing"
IBM is a buzzwords vendor. International Buzzwords Machines.
Free Software is Nourishment to Software Users, Unlike Proprietary Software
Quit treating "mere users" of software "like animals"
The "Peanut Gallery" of GAFAM Has Infiltrated Free Software Projects or Disrupts Free Software Communities
They contribute nearly nothing and do substantial damage; they're freeloaders who attack the most productive members of projects
Coding is Not a Quantity Game (It Never Was!)
"less is more"
Exposing Corruption Using a Highly Resilient Platform
Growing levels of trust, based on our track record, help us attract whistleblowers
Mass Layoffs Expected at Microsoft in July 2026
They're preparing more "lists" of people
Reflection on EPO Leadership That Harbours Cocaine, IBM Leadership That Pumps-and-Dumps the Shares, and More
ManCity replaced Manuel Pellegrini with a more famous manager it didn't envision winning 20 titles in 10 years (it could only hope) [...] Team-building is something that "Pep" seemed to be good at, as was Jürgen Klopp
Pump and Dump by IBM Insider Traders: Nickle LaMoreaux, Gary Cohn, James Kavanaugh, Arvind Krishna, Robert Thomas, and Others
the shares are already collapsing
FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) Has Weakened If Not Ruined What's Left of Big Media
Many things that have existed for decades are now being rebranded as "AI"
SLAPP Censorship - Part 97 Out of 200: Garrett in Hiding (From the Simple Observable Fact He's Closely Connected to the Microsofter Who Strangles Women, Tells Women to Kill Themselves, and Worse)
They use one another; they are coordinating this via the SLAPP industry in another continent
Links 04/06/2026: Microsoft Threatening Security Researcher for Naming Back Doors in BitLocker, "Demand is Booming for" Old Tech
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/06/2026: "Word Vomit", Slop", and Moving to Gopher/Gemini
Links for the day
Rust Outsources its Financing (or Financial Control) to Microsoft
How long before the third "E"?
"Format Sovereignty" Can Only be Accomplished With LaTeX or OpenDocument Format (ODF) or Vendor-Neutral Standards for Editable Documents
Microsoft is, in effect, above the law
IBM's Shares Fell Nearly 13% in One Day (Including After Hours)
its main product is false promises
The Cyber Show on the Importance of Software Freedom and Why GNU/Linux Could Not be Stopped
an excellent article
Drew DeVault Can Still Redeem His Reputation. Revisiting His Attacks (and Attack Site) on Richard Stallman Might be a Good Start.
DeVault has openly apologised (this past spring)
The Register MS is Publishing Paid SPAM; Some of It is Designed to Prop Up the "AI" Pyramid Scheme
The Register MS participates in scams
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: "Operation Influencer"
Costa's political career was far from finished
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 03, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 03, 2026
GNU/Linux Usage Rising Among Gamers, But "Hardware Survey Data Not Available."
Not anymore, not for now anyway
Jumping Up and Down on the Shoulders of Giants, Never Talking About What Bill Gates Did
We're back to 2019
Despite LLM Slop or Chatbots, Our Traffic Has Doubled Since We Moved Everything to the UK (in 2023)
The demise of news sites was not what we thought it would be
Software Developers Attacked by Plagiarism Engines Because These Developers Can Teach People How to Exercise Control, Not Outsource to Monopolies of Slop and Back Doors
"Universities should be telling industry what is to be done next, not the other way about. Present education policy has the tail wagging the dog."
Quantum Quantum Quantum Quantum (Pump, Then Dump)
What has IBM become?
Communicating With Freedom - Part I - Developing “Quibble” and Improving GNU LibreJS in the Process
In the next part we shall examine where things currently stand
Quantum Computers Are "All the Rage" (35 Years Ago, What IBM Promises This Year is What People Promised When the CEO Was in His 20s)
"Quantum" hype is high on the agenda
How IBM Removes 15% of Its Staff Without Even Checking Performance of Staff (or Calling That "Layoffs")
Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) as veiled RAs
Links 03/06/2026: Mobile Systems, Openwashing, and New Antenna
Links for the day
Canonical as Reseller of Back Doors in "Ubuntu" Clothing
Microsoft is the antithesis of security and autonomy
Romania Used to be Windows Stronghold, But That's No Longer the Case
Windows was once upon a time so ubiquitous that institutions didn't bother supporting anything except it
KDE Has Long Used Dragons, and Dragons Come From Hatched Eggs
That Microsoft Lunduke tries to paint this as some "trans agenda" thing says a lot about Microsoft Lunduke and his COVID-19-damaged brain
IBM Announces 5 Billion Dollars "Invested" in "AI", in "Security", and 10 Billion Dollars for "Quantum", But IBM Does Not Have This Kind of Money (It's Fake News to Manipulate the Share Price)
IBM has fast-growing debt and liabilities, it does not intend to invest this kind of money, it's a smokescreen and false promises timed to alleviate the sagging share price (52-week low)
When Science and Religion Are on the Same Side, United Against Slop Pushers
The "Mathematics Pope" (sometimes known as "Pope Pi") brought together science and religion, united against technofascists who are mostly college drop-outs who abhor women
Links 03/06/2026: "In Turkey, Criticizing a Corporation Can Land You in Jail" and "Court Bans X Account of Turkey's Oldest Newspaper"
Links for the day
Web Censorship Benefits the Corrupt and the Criminal
More so when corrupt politicians are in charge
Have a "Lifetime" Without Microsoft
The online rage over this is still ongoing
Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine Undoing Censorship of Corporate Wrongdoing
That won't go away anymore
"For Entertainment Purposes Only" But Everyone Must Adopt It for Work and Governance, Say Anti-Scientific Technocrats
"The present mentality around "AI" is like driving to the gym to use a treadmill - it's walking for people who hate fresh air and beautiful changing scenery."
Gemini Links 03/06/2026: Ian Murdock's Ex-wife Footprint in Debian and Alhena 5.6.1 Released
Links for the day
Irish Company statCounter Recognises It Overestimated Microsoft Windows' Market Share in Ireland
it seems like the Irish people are gradually moving away from Windows
Corporate Media Participates in the Lie That Mass Layoffs at GitLab and Loss of Geographic Footprint in More Than a Third of Countries is "AI" and Thus "Success Story"
There's no way to spin this as positive news
Slop Prompting is Not a Coding Skill and Slop Deserves Shunning
Red Hat is hypocritically shunning the very same thing it keeps promoting
IBM colleagues "handed out a PIP and then right after the end date they are gone"
Some go into early 'retirement' to save face
SLAPP Censorship - Part 96 Out of 200: When You Receive Death Threats From Anonymous Sockpuppets/Burner Accounts Connected to People Who Strangle Women and Tell Women to Kill Themselves
Women are not objects and my wife ought not be mentioned in "threats to kill" (how cops have described this)
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Tale of Two Antónios - Introducing the Other António
António Costa
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 02, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 02, 2026