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Links 14/11/2022: MPV 0.35 and Linux 6.1 RC 5



  • GNU/Linux

    • Linux Made SimpleLinux Weekly Roundup #209

      Welcome to this week's Linux Weekly Roundup.

      We had a full week in the world of Linux releases with, Bodhi Linux 7.0.0 Alpha, Bluestar Linux 6.0.7, deepin 23 alpha, and Mageia 9 alpha1.

    • Server

      • Make Use Of5 Practical Uses of Docker Containers



        What is Docker used for? Here are some practical, real-world benefits of using Docker containers.

        Docker is an open-source platform for deploying applications in bundled components known as containers. At the very core of most Docker containers is a lightweight Linux server running in a virtualized environment.

        Are there any practical use cases for Docker Linux containers? Let's find out.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • JupiterMediaFedora Falls Flat | LINUX Unplugged 484

        Why this latest release of Fedora misses the mark, and Ubuntu's quiet backing away from ZFS.

      • GNU World Order (Audio Show)GNU World Order 486

        **kontact** , **kontactinterface** , **kontrast** , **konversation** , **kopeninghours** , **kopete** , and the great Mastodon influx.

      • Open Source Security (Audio Show)Episode 349 – The cyber is coming from inside the house – the UK is scanning itself

        Josh and Kurt talk about the UK plan to scan their country’s IP space. The purpose and outcome of this isn’t completely clear at this point, but we are hopeful the data can be used as a positive force. We are only going to see more programs like this as all the governments are told they have to cyber harder.

      • VideoLinux User Repository: An AUR For Every Distro - Invidious

        The AUR is one of the biggest selling points of arch linux but could it be possible to have an Arch User Repository linux system for every linux distro, well maybe and the Linux User Repository is trying to do that

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux mailing lists Linux 6.1-rc5
        Another week, another rc.
        
        

        Did things calm down and shrink this week? No. We've got about as many commits in rc5 as we had in rc4. It's not outrageously big, but it's certainly on the bigger side for this timeframe.

        Am I getting worried? Not yet. There's nothing particularly worrisome in here, and the rc5 changes are just a little bit of everything, so I'm hoping it's just that it's one of those timing things and all the pull requests came in this week, and it's going to calm down now.

        But we'll see. If things don't start calming down, this may be one of those releases that need an extra week. It wasn't a particularly big merge window, but I don't particularly like how the rc's keep being on the bigger side.

        Anyway, lots of small fixes, fairly spread out (the diffstat looks fairly flat apart from some maple tree tests moving to the testing subdirectory). Nothing really stands out, the stats all look normal apart from the "just slightly more than usual". Drivers, networking, architecture fixes, with some smattering of noise elsewhere.

        Linus
      • LWNKernel prepatch 6.1-rc5 [LWN.net]

        Linus has released 6.1-rc5 for testing.

    • Applications

      • LinuxiacMPV 0.35 Video Player Brings PipeWire Audio Backend Support

        After a year of development, the new MPV 0.35 version of the free video player is here, with PipeWire backend support and optimization improvements.

        MPV, which was forked in 2012 from MPlayer2, is a free, open-source, and cross-platform video player with a minimalist GUI and a feature-rich command-line version. It is one of the best free media players in the market nowadays.

        MPV supports various video file formats, audio and video codecs, and subtitle types. But the best part is that everything it requires to play media files is contained within; thus, no external codecs are needed

        Exactly one year after the previous 0.34 release, MPV 0.35 has some significant new features and improvements. So let’s have a look at them.

      • Help Net Security5 Kali Linux tools you should learn how to use - Help Net Security

        Kali Linux is a specialized Linux distribution developed by Offensive Security, designed for experienced Linux users who need a customized platform for penetration testing.

        Kali Linux also comes with several hundred specialized tools for carrying out penetration testing, security research, computer forensics, reverse engineering, vulnerability management, and red team testing. Here are 5 you should learn how to use.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • uni TorontoQuestionable TLS Certificate Authorities and Certificate Transparency

        One piece of web security news of the time interval is that TrustCor Systems is, to quote the grugq's newsletter, "a root certificate authority with intelligence community ties that's registered in Panama and operates out of a UPS Store PO box in Toronto" (also, also, also). Concern over TrustCor is apparently not entirely new, but for whatever reason it didn't bubble back up in the modern era of browsers being more strict on CAs until now.

      • uni TorontoI wouldn't use ZFS for swap (either for swapfiles or with a zvol)

        As part of broadly charting how Linux finds where to write and read swap blocks, I recently noted that ZFS on Linux can't be used to hold a swapfile. David Magda noted that you could get around this by creating a zvol and using it for swap. While the Linux kernel will accept this and it works, at least to some extent, I wouldn't rely on it and I wouldn't do it unless I was desperate and had no other choice. Fundamentally, swapping to ZFS is not in accordance with what people (and often Unix kernels) expect from writing pages out to swap.

      • LinuxTechiHow to create a sudo user on Ubuntu Linux

        In this post, we will show you how to create a sudo user on Ubuntu Linux.

        Sudo user is a regular user in Linux who has some admin rights to perform administrative task on the system. In Linux, root is the super user who has full admin rights, but it not recommended to give root credentials other users or to work on a system as root user.

        So, the best practice is to create a regular user and assign sudo rights. By doing so we can track which user has executed which commands using sudo logs (/var/log/auth.log).

        When we install Ubuntu Desktop or Ubuntu server then a group named ‘sudo’ is created automatically. If we add any regular user to that sudo group then that user will have sudo admin rights.

      • DragonFly BSD Digestdsynth without stopping - DragonFly BSD Digest

        If you have a bulk build of packages happening with dsynth(1), you can now add – literally, that’s the command – to the package list without interrupting the build.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install qBittorrent on Fedora 37/36/35

        qBittorrent is a cross-platform free and open-source BitTorrent client. qBittorrent is a native application written in C++ which uses Boost, Qt 5 toolkit, and libtorrent-rasterbar library and is extremely lightweight and fast. qBittorrent is very popular amongst torrent users as the main alternative to uTorrent.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Brave Browser on Fedora 37/36/35

        Brave is a free and open-source web browser based on the chromium web browser with a strong privacy-focused. It sets itself apart from other browsers by automatically blocking online advertisements and website trackers in its default settings.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install UbuntuDDE on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

        The Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) is the default desktop environment for the Linux Deepin distribution. It is known for its sleek and elegant design and modern aesthetics with traditional desktop productivity.

      • VideoHow to install Minetest on Linux Mint 21 - Invidious

        In this video, we are looking at how to install Minetest on Linux Mint 21.

      • ID RootHow To Install RethinkDB on Rocky Linux 9 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install RethinkDB on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, RethinkDB is a highly scalable and open-source NoSQL database server for building real-time web applications with dramatically less engineering effort. It supports many popular languages, including PHP, Java, Ruby, and Python. You can use it for automatic failover and robust fault tolerance. RethinkDB has very minimal response times and updates.

        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 RethinkDB on Rocky Linux. 9.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Audacity on Fedora 37/36/35

        Audacity is a free and open-source digital audio editor and recording application software for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Unix-like operating systems such as Fedora Linux. The software includes many features that allow users to edit and record quickly, mix audio files, and support a variety of audio file formats, as well as VST plug-ins. Audacity also offers several built-in effects that can be applied to audio tracks, such as noise reduction, equalization, and reverb. Audacity is a powerful and versatile tool for anyone who needs to edit or record audio files.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Audacity on Fedora 37/36/35 Linux desktop with either DNF or Flatpak package manager using the command line terminal with cli commands, along with instructions on how to update and remove the software in the future if required.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Microsoft Fonts on Fedora 37/36/35

        When switching from Windows to Linux, there are several factors to consider. One crucial element is fonts. Most Linux distributions, such as Fedora, do not come with natively installed proprietary fonts, such as Microsoft Fonts. This is because most distributions focus on open-source for the most part. However, given many Windows users port over to Fedora, given that it is an upstream distribution that is well-known and popular, they may require these fonts to work with or prefer having them installed for their projects. Additionally, they may receive a PDF or word document with the windows specific fonts embedded in it as the substituted font does not look good and, in rare cases, makes the document hard to read.

      • UNIX CopUsing the find command to exclude files for the searching

        In this short post, I will help you to use the find command to show hidden files but excluding a specific file.

        The Linux find command is used to search the file system. As you can imagine it is powerful, that is, if you manage to use it properly. There is nothing better for doing all kinds of file and folder searches than this command.

        We can even use find to search according to many search criteria. And that’s the trick we’re going to show you today.

    • Games

      • EngadgetThis Steam Deck dock has a thermoelectric cooler

        If you're lucky enough to track down a Steam Deck, chances are you've already experienced the sweaty palm syndrome with this handheld console — just as our very own Jess Conditt did in her review. Worse yet, the machine is prone to throttling or even crashing due to overheating, to the point where modders came up with their own creativesolutions. For the rest of us who don't want to void the warranty, though, Hong Kong-based Unitek is now offering the Cooler Dock Pro for Steam Deck.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • DebugPointKDE Vs Kubuntu Vs Neon Vs Plasma: What’s the Difference?

          Ever wondered why there are so many KDE Distros & types out there? KDE Plasma, Neon, Kubuntu, etc. What’s the difference between them?

          If you are a new Linux user and have started exploring distros for your own need, you may already have come across KDE. And I am sure you heard of Kubuntu, KDE Plasma and KDE Neon. With so many KDE flavours, it is a little confusing. Well, that’s why this article clarifies things and explains KDE Vs Kubuntu Vs Neon Vs Plasma – What’s the Difference?

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • DebugPointTop 5 Privacy Focused Linux Distributions [Compared]

      We list the best five privacy centric Linux Distributions of 2022 in this article to give you a heads up before choosing one.

      Internet privacy has become a major concern with the Pandemic and work from home situations. The more we all go deep into the digital edge, the more cyber security and privacy become a considerable aspect of everyone’s daily life. Almost every day, you see CVEs, a couple of zero-day in a month and ransomware attacks.

      Fortunately, Linux is generally secured by design if you compare it with Windows. In addition, most Linux distributions are secure if you follow some best practices while using them for your day to day work.

      Besides, some specific Linux Distributions give you an additional layer of security with extra tools for your work and personal usage. For example, suppose you want complete anonymity on the internet or are a cyber security expert. In that case, you may consider something other than popular mainstream Linux distros such as Ubuntu or Fedora.

      Here’s a list of 5 Linux distributions that offer better privacy and protection for users.

    • DebugPointTop 10 Linux Distributions for Windows Users in 2022

      We compiled an inventory of the 10 best Linux distributions for Windows users in 2022 based on how easy they are to adopt and successfully migrate from Windows.

      Although there are hundreds of Linux Distributions, very few of them can seriously replace Windows operating system. With the advancements and stability across Linux Kernel and desktop environments, 2022 is the perfect year to adopt Linux as a daily driver. This applies to students, school administrations, hobbyists, scientists, and related work profiles. In addition, the hardware makers also provide Linux support for their device live-ups.

      Linux, in general, still requires some workaround for specific workflows. However, Linux is still catching up on specific niche work profiles. The reason is some specific application vendors do not provide Linux executables. But there are plenty of alternatives available for everything in the Linux world.

      Moreover, for day-to-day work from an average user standpoint, the Linux operating system is now at a stage that can perform all the work you throw. With that in mind, we compiled the below 10 best Linux distributions in 2022 for Windows users. These should cover almost all possible use cases and work profiles (including desktop or Laptop).

    • Barry KaulerEasy now has inxi

      inxi is a script that reports hardware information. It was originally a bash script, but the developer moved to perl.

      I found the perl script to be buggy. Like, for example, running "jwm --version", which doesn't work, only "jwm -v" works. Rather than trying to fix it, I have installed the old bash script in Easy.

    • Barry KaulerJWMDesk updated to version 3.6

      Roger (radky in the forum) has updated JWMDesk to version 3.6, so I have updated in woofQ.

    • Reviews

      • Distro WatchReview: Redcore Linux 2201

        Redcore Linux is a Gentoo-based distribution which offers an easy to use graphical install process. Redcore also offers the option of using binary packages to provide most applications as opposed to compiling software from its source code which is an approach Gentoo is famous for using.

        Redcore is a rolling release distribution and its latest snapshot introduces a number of improvements and fixes. There are a few fixes which address edge-case bugs in the system installer and the package manager (Sisyphus) should more gracefully handle situations when large dependency trees are involved. The Discover software centre should now handle Flatpaks faster than it did before.

        The release announcement mentions some other highlights, such as older (and less secure) methods for authenticating with wireless networks have been re-added. These insecure protocols were dropped for security reasons, but enough people are still using them to justify their return. The announcement also warns there is no VirtualBox support and, regardless of which language preferences are stated, Redcore will end up using English as the default language.

        Something which might give potential users pause is Redcore has a wiki, but very little documentation is included. There is virtually nothing on installing the distribution or default passwords. (Password information is presented on the download page.) There are good tips shared on package management, though not much else at the time of writing.

        Redcore Linux is currently available in one edition for x86_64 machines which features the KDE Plasma desktop. The project's download media is a 4.1GB ISO file. Booting from this media quickly loads the KDE Plasma desktop. A panel sits at the bottom of the screen and holds the application menu, quick launch icons, task switcher, and system tray. The application menu is presented in a classic tree style with a search function.

    • Debian Family

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • Tom's HardwareRaspberry Pi Powers VR Headset for Mice | Tom's Hardware

        The Raspberry Pi is an excellent tool for fun projects and hobbies, but it’s also a popular choice in professional fields. Such is the case with this project from the team at the Schaffer-Nishimura Lab (opens in new tab). Using a Raspberry Pi, they’ve constructed a custom VR headset (opens in new tab) to aid in their neuroscience research involving mice.

        The headset is small enough to fit on the head of a mouse and features two SPI displays. These screens project a look into a custom world designed using the open-source Godot game engine. A custom map was created in the example pictures shown with a grid texture on the ground. It has cliffs, edges, and other obstacles that the mouse can encounter as needed for their neuroscience research.

      • Tom's HardwareKhadas Edge 2 Pro Review: Living on the Edge | Tom's Hardware

        Khadas has a history in single board computers. The company makes high-spec, high cost boards that outperform the Raspberry Pi in almost every area. The Raspberry Pi may still hold the throne, but there are many challengers seeking to end its reign.

        The Khadas Edge 2 Pro comes in two configurations, a Maker kit and an Arm PC kit. The Maker kit is the bare board which comes in a $199 model with 8GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC 5.1 storage. For $100 ($299) more you can get the Pro version, with 16GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC 5.1. The Arm PC version costs an additional $30 more and provides a rather lovely looking case. These prices are either side of the VIM 4 which weighs in at $239.

      • Tom's HardwareRaspberry Pi Remotely Controls Robot Guinea Pig Using SSH | Tom's Hardware

        Practical Dad, as he’s known on YouTube, has earned his title thanks to projects like this Raspberry Pi-powered robotic guinea pig named K-V. The only thing this guinea pig eats is electricity, and he listens pretty well to commands. To spice things up a bit, he opted to add remote controls to the project using SSH as the primary communication platform.

        If you’re not familiar with SSH, we have a few guides handy to help you get started. First, check out this guide by Les for detailed instructions on using SSH to connect to computers remotely—this guide works for Windows, macOS and Linux operating systems. We also have steps handy for setting up an SSH Key to keep the connections secure.

      • GizmodoAlexa-Powered Side Table Mixes Drinks on Command

        The video is a little light on the hardware details, but the folks at Hackster.io managed to spot a few components, including an Arduino Mega 2560 development board that controls pumping mechanisms, and servos that raise and lower dispenser nozzles.

      • HackadayEmulate Any ISA Card With A Raspberry Pi And An FPGA

        One of the reasons the IBM PC platform became the dominant standard for desktop PCs back in the mid-1980s was its open hardware design, based around what would later be called the ISA bus. Any manufacturer could design plug-in cards or even entire computers that were hardware and software compatible with the IBM PC. Although ISA has been obsolete for most purposes since the late 1990s, some ISA cards such as high-quality sound cards have become so popular among retrocomputing enthusiasts that they now fetch hundreds of dollars on eBay.

      • Zach FlowerMy Writing Laptop is 15 Years Old

        One of the things that I have been thinking about lately is how I get value out of some of my older laptops. To a degree, nostalgia has been a motivator (who doesn't like tinkering around in obsolete versions of Windows?), but I actually want these things to do more for me than just tickle my early-aughts memory recall.

      • Old VCRMeet your new two-factor authenticator: your Commodore 64

        The TOTP display depends on the Time-of-Day clock in CIA #1. This is different from the Timer A jiffy clock accessible in BASIC as TI and TI$; the CIA TOD clock is a real clock that keeps time in BCD and uses either the 60Hz or 50Hz frequency from your wall mains. We use this clock because it is unaffected by interrupts. If the progress bar fails to advance, your CIA #1 is broken, and/or the 9V AC line from your power supply is defective, and/or the 2.7V Zener diode and/or glue chip (on breadbin 64s, a 74LS08 or similar, on 128s, a 74LS14) connected to the TOD pin of the CIAs have blown. If everything else with your system functions normally, then it's likely the latter two components since relatively few programs use the TOD clock but do use other CIA features. On a breadbox 64, check U27 and CR1. On a 128 or 128D(CR), check U16 and CR8; on the 128D(CR), CR8 is inconveniently under the power supply at the edge of the logic board, so you'll have to unscrew it from its standoff and the rear and side of the case to move it away. (I mention this because during testing it turned out my "daily driver" 128DCR has a faulty TOD clock. Fixing this will be a future blog entry. Fortunately both VICE and the SX-64 worked fine.)

      • Andrew HutchingsAcorn RiscPC: Restoration Part 2

        I decided at this point to plug in the motherboard, turn it on and see what happens. I have two SIMMs with this and the machine only needs one, the 4MB stick and the corroded 32MB stick. So, for starters I tried with the 4MB stick. This is what I got on the screen.

      • Ken ShirriffThe unusual bootstrap drivers inside the 8086 microprocessor chip

        The 8086 microprocessor is one of the most important chips ever created; it started the x86 architecture that still dominates desktop and server computing today. I've been reverse-engineering its circuitry by studying its silicon die. One of the most unusual circuits I found is a "bootstrap driver", a way to boost internal signals to improve performance.1

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • Nicholas Tietz-SokolskyRC Week 8: Life happens, and databases are hard

        In that vein, I spent the last two weeks mostly focused on figuring out how to build an inverted index over all the unique positions in a collection of chess games I have. To make it concrete, this is 3.8 million games and about 240 million unique positions (north of 300 million before dedup). I ran in circles, and I think it was a combination of: [...]

      • Phil EatonWriting a SQL database, take two: Zig and RocksDB

        As a second non-trivial post while learning Zig, I decided to port an old, minimal SQL database project from Go to Zig.

        In this post, in ~1700 lines of code (yes, I'm sorry it's bigger than my usual), we'll create a basic embedded SQL database in Zig on top of RocksDB. Other than the RocksDB layer it will not use third-party libraries.

    • Programming/Development

      • Red Hat3 ways to embed a commit hash in Go programs | Red Hat Developer

        Whether you are using Go to write a simple console-based utility or a fancy web application, it is always helpful to reference the previous version of your software. This information is essential, especially for developers. They need to know what the source code looked like in previous versions, so they can debug any issues introduced at specific points in time.

        To do that, you need a system that can control and manage different versions of the source code, such as git. Whenever you want to capture a snapshot of the program's current codebase, you run a git commit command that saves the code at that point in time. To make sure you do not overwrite a previously saved record, git creates (by default) a unique identifier, hashed with the SHA-1 algorithm, for every commit.

        Usually, when a decent amount of progress has been made, a couple of features have been implemented and lots of bugs have been fixed, it's about time to make things official and announce a new release version of your software. Of course, embedding the release version is not new. You most likely already have automation in place to provide this information within your software (e.g., during the release pipeline). But this kind of progress doesn't happen in a day. So what happens in the meantime? You do what the rolling-release model does, associating every build (go build) with a snapshot of the code at that point in time. This is when the git commit hash comes in handy. There are three ways to embed this hash into your Go program.

      • Carlos BeckerGoReleaser Split and Merge

        Since v1.12.0-pro, GoReleaser can split and merge its release process.

        This means that you can run the builds for each platform in its own machine, and then merge the results and publish later.

        This can be useful if you need CGO, or if your build process takes too long.

      • Adriaan de GrootDaily Buggle (2) | [bobulate]

        Not even all-that-long-ago I ported about playing around with Rust to build a little bot that gets my FreeBSD bug counts (currently me:0/cmake:9/desktop:24/kde:34, thanks for asking) and posts it to a social thing I no longer participate in. So it’s time to re-jig the bot, switching to Mastodon posting (my profile, thanks for asking) and re-implement it in a different language. I’m vaguely inclined to try some more Haskell, or Zig, or Dart. Very different kinds of language, but that’s kind of the point.

      • The “idiotism” of software developers | Mardy

        Before you get angry at me for this title, please let me state that I count myself in the number of the “idiots” and, secondly, that what I mean by “idiotism” here is not to be intended as an offence, but as some traits of mindset which are typical of very logical brains.

        Some months ago I finished reading Dostoevskiy's “The Idiot”, a book about an exceedingly good-hearted man, prince Lev Mishkin, whose behaviour was puzzling the people around him so much that they thought of him as an idiot. Sure, the fact that he was suffering from epilepsy didn't help, but it was far from being the primary reason for their thinking, since his epileptic seizures were very rare (if I remember correctly, only two occurred during the time of the story) and everybody's opinion had already formed well ahead of witnessing him in such a state.

        He was an idiot because he was open, trustful, and especially because he could not “read between the lines” of what was been said to him: his social conduct was straight, and although he was following at his best the customs that he had been taught, he was supposedly awkward and unable to perceive and parse all the messages that are implicitly conveyed by social behaviours and human interactions. I added the word “supposedly” because, as a matter of fact, his behaviours were all perfectly normal for me: I only noticed their awkwardness when it was pointed out by the other characters, at which point I couldn't help smiling and acknowledging that, indeed, that thing he did was weird.

  • Leftovers

    • Education

      • Teen VogueTeacher Salaries Are So Low That They’re Working Multiple Jobs

        In addition to low salaries, teachers report they are chronically overworked. In her experience, Hannick says, lesson plans can take 40 hours to develop, all falling outside of time spent on actual classroom instruction. That doesn’t include time spent in the classroom before the official start of the school day or the hours spent grading papers at home in the evening.

        “It’s disheartening,” says Eden, who has taught while covering a person on maternity leave and worked as a substitute teacher. “Teachers put in a lot more hours than people think we do. At minimum, it's a 12-hour workday, and we're putting in hours on weekends. Really, you're looking at a 60- to 80-hour workweek, depending on who you are and how many classes you're teaching. I did the math right before [our interview], actually, and if a teacher’s starting salary is approximately $40,000 a year, and if you're working 60 hours a week, that's only about $12 or $13 an hour.”

    • Hardware

      • CNX SoftwareSipeed M1s - M0sense - Low-cost BL808 & BL702 based AI modules (Crowdfunding) - CNX Software

        Sipeed has launched the M1s and M0Sense AI modules. Designed for AIoT application, the Sipeed M1s is based on the Bouffalo Lab BL808 32-bit/64-bit RISC-V wireless SoC with WiFi, Bluetooth, and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee support, as well as the BLAI-100 (Bouffalo Lab AI engine) NPU for video/audio detection and/or recognition. The Sipeed M0Sense targets TinyML applications with the Bouffa Lab BL702 32-bit microcontroller also offering WiFi, BLE, and Zigbee connectivity.

      • HackadayRFID Sticker On Bike Helmet Grants Garage Access

        [Glen] might describe his project of opening his garage door by way of an RFID sticker on his bike helmet as simple, but some of the interfacing he needed to do was quite complex. He walks through the project from beginning to end, and there’s plenty to learn from.

      • HackadayDIY USB Charging The Right Way

        Since the widespread adoption of USB 1.1 in the 90s, USB has become the de facto standard for connecting most peripherals to our everyday computers. The latest revision of the technology has been USB 4, which pushes the data rate capabilities to 40 Gbit/s. This amount of throughput is mindblowing compared to the USB 1.x speeds which were three to four orders of magnitude slower in comparison. But data speeds haven’t been the only thing changing with the USB specifications. The amount of power handling they can do has increased by orders of magnitude as well, as this DIY USB charger demonstrates by delivering around 200 W to multiple devices at once.

      • CNX SoftwareThis is what a 100 €µAh micro-battery looks like - CNX Software

        Electronic components have shrunk a lot over the year, but batteries are usually one of the larger items in a design. ITEN changes that with solid state lithium-ion micro-batteries in the shape of SMD components with up to 100 €µAh capacity. This is clearly not going to power your next smartphone, but ITEM micro-batteries could be found in ultra-low-power sensors potentially replacing non-rechargeable coin cell batteries with much higher capacities (e,g. 100 mAh).

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Sabine HossenfelderWhy are male testosterone levels falling?

        All of which brings up the question how much testosterone is normal? This question is surprisingly difficult to answer.

        To begin with, testosterone levels change during the day, especially in young men, where they peak in the early morning. That’s why testosterone levels are measured in the morning, and another reason why early-morning classes should be illegal.

        But that’s not the only reason testosterone levels vary. According to a 2020 study testosterone levels change with the seasons and are higher in summer. They are also known to change with partnership status. According to a Harvard University study published in 2002, married men have lower levels of testosterone than single men, and the more time they spend with family, the lower the testosterone level. Other studies have shown that men’s testosterone levels drop when holding an infant, or even a baby doll, and that the level goes up again after divorce.

        That’s all very interesting, but these are all quite small effects. What we want to know is what’s a normal average level?

      • Pro PublicaHelp Us Report on Stillbirths

        Every year, more than 20,000 pregnancies in the United States end in stillbirth, the death of an expected child at 20 weeks or more.

        That number exceeds infant mortality, and is 15 times the number of babies who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, according to 2020 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

      • Pro PublicaHer Child Was Stillborn. She Blames a System That Doesn’t Always Listen to Mothers.

        The day before doctors had scheduled Amanda Duffy to give birth, the baby jolted her awake with a kick.

        A few hours later, on that bright Sunday in November 2014, she leaned back on a park bench to watch her 19-month-old son Rogen enjoy his final day of being an only child. In that moment of calm, she realized that the kick that morning was the last time she had felt the baby move.

      • TruthOutAbortion Access and Funding Have Always Been a Struggle in US Territories
    • Proprietary

      • NBCHolocaust survivors turn to TikTok to teach a new generation not to forget

        In a recent TikTok video, 98-year-old Lily Ebert told her 1.9 million followers about the Auschwitz number tattooed on her forearm: A-10572.

        Like many Holocaust survivors, Ebert didn’t talk about the experience for decades. But then her great-grandson Dov Forman started recording her stories and posting them on TikTok, including the 24-second video about her tattoo that has drawn more than 22 million views.

    • Security

      • IT WireiTWire - More Medibank members' data leaked ahead of shareholders' meeting [Ed: Microsoft Windows TCO]

        The attacker(s) who launched a ransomware attack on medical insurer Medibank Group has released some additional data from among the tranche which was stolen. Ransomware generally attacks only systems running Microsoft's Windows operating system.

        On Monday morning AEDT, the attacker(s) updated a post on the dark web, specifying that a file containing data about the mental health of some members had joined the others already released.

        The attacker(s) said more data would be released by Friday and appear to be waiting to see what happens at the Wednesday meeting of Medibank shareholders before acting.

        "There is some more records for everybody to know," the updated portion of the post said. "We'll announce, that next portion of data we'll publish at Friday, bypassing this week completely in a hope something meaningful happened on Wednesday."

      • Hacker NewsWorok Hackers Abuse Dropbox API to Exfiltrate Data via Backdoor Hidden in Images [Ed: Microsoft Windows TCO]

        The Slovak cybersecurity company also documented Worok's compromise sequence, which makes use of a C++-based loader called CLRLoad to pave the way for an unknown PowerShell script embedded within PNG images, a technique known as steganography.

        That said, the initial attack vector remains unknown as yet, although certain intrusions have entailed the use of ProxyShell vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server to deploy the malware.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • The DissenterUS Labor Agency's Top Lawyer Fights Corporate Spying That Discourages Whistleblowers
        • Make Tech EasierEverything You Should Know About Your IMEI Number

          IMEI numbers are a source of both mystery and paranoia within many circles around the Internet. These cryptic, nebulous numbers stamped around various parts of your phone are commonly used to identify it, leading some to wonder whether they can be used for surveillance or other nefarious activities. We’re here to demystify IMEI numbers and tell you what they are, how they work, and how you can find them.

        • HackadayCircadian Lighting For The Home Via Home Assistant

          Artificial lighting is great, in that it lets us work and live well into the night. However, our bodies are dependent on the natural lighting cycles of the sun as part of their basic operation, and artificial lighting can interfere with this. [Tyler Cipriani] decided to use Home Assistant with some smart lights to try and make home lighting more suitable for our natural circadian rhythms.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

      • BBCCOP27: Fears of compromise on key 1.5C global temperature issue

        One of the big concerns though is that as the organisers struggle to find a way forward, a clear statement on the commitment to 1.5C figure might be fudged.

        In last year's Glasgow climate pact, all countries agreed to "keep 1.5C alive" by undertaking "rapid, deep and sustained" cuts in greenhouse gases.

        But at a G20 meeting in Indonesia in August, ministers were unable to agree a communique on climate change, as China and India were reported to have questioned the scientific feasibility of the 1.5C threshold.

      • BBCCOP27: Sharp rise in fossil fuel industry delegates at climate summit

        Campaign group Global Witness found more than 600 people at the talks in Egypt are linked to fossil fuels.

        That's more than the combined delegations from the 10 most climate-impacted countries.

      • [Old] EcoWatchSweden, Once a Climate Leader, Axes Environment Ministry

        On Tuesday, the day he took office, the country’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson moved to jettison the Ministry of Environment. The country will still have a Minister of Climate and Environment but she will work under the Minister for Energy, Business and Industry.

      • Energy

        • Matt RickardWhat is a Token? A Technical Explanation

          First, there are two main types of tokens: native tokens and programmatic tokens.

        • RTLFTX working to secure assets after 'unauthorized' transactions

          FTX officials did not detail the quantity of unauthorized transactions made, but cryptocurrency analysis firm Elliptic said in a report published Saturday that "$477 million is suspected to have been stolen."

        • ABCFunds vanish at bankrupt crypto exchange FTX; probe underway

          Collapsed cryptocurrency trading firm FTX confirmed there was “unauthorized access” to its accounts, hours after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday.

          The embattled company’s new CEO John Ray III said Saturday that FTX is switching off the ability to trade or withdraw funds and taking steps to secure customers’ assets, according to a tweet by FTX’s general counsel Ryne Miller. FTX is also coordinating with law enforcement and regulators, the company said.

        • HackadayGo Fly A Kite

          Harvesting energy from the wind has been a commercially viable way of generating clean energy for around three decades now. Wind turbines are a reliable, proven technology but they do have some downsides, one of which is that since there’s more wind higher above the ground this usually means tall, expensive towers. There is a way around this problem, though, which is using kites to generate energy instead of a fixed turbine.

      • Overpopulation

        • arXivAvoiding the “Great Filter”: Extraterrestrial Life and Humanity’s Future in the Universe [PDF]

          [...] We postulate that an existential disaster may lay in wait as our society advances exponentially towards space exploration, acting as the Great Filter: a phenomenon that wipes out civilizations before they can encounter each other, which may explain the cosmic silence. In this article, we propose several possible scenarios, including anthropogenic and natural hazards, both of which can be prevented with reforms in individual, institutional and intrinsic behaviors. We also take into account multiple calamity candidates: nuclear gwarfare, pathogens and pandemics, artificial intelligence, meteorite impacts, and climate change. Each of these categories have various influences but lack critical adjustment to accommodate to their high risk. The Great Filter has the potential to eradicate life as we know it, especially as our rate of progress correlates directly to the severity of our fall. This indicates a necessary period of introspection, followed by appropriate refinements to properly approach our predicament, and addressing the challenges and methods in which we may be able to mitigate risk to mankind and the nearly 9 million other species on Earth.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The Wall Street JournalTwitter’s Advertising Exodus Accelerates, Despite Outreach From Elon Musk - WSJ
      • ScheerpostTwitter, Twits & Tycoons

        The Elon Musk/Twitter affair has riveted our attention like no other celebrity melodrama since Meghan & Harry went top of the charts 4 years ago. Perfect lead character, perfect script, perfect timing: megalomanic multibillionaire encounters high-tech social media giant. Engagement, each jilts the other, shotgun reengagement, nail-biting wedding, new jefe immediately shows […]

      • Rolling StoneElon Musk Picks a Fight With the Wrong Senator

        All it took for Post reporter Geoffrey A. Fowler to create a fake verified Markey account, Fowler said, was “a spare iPhone, a credit card and a little creativity.” That’s because Musk launched a new Twitter Blue paid subscription that allows anyone with a spare $8 and a credit card to get a blue verified checkmark on their Twitter account. Before Musk’s takeover, those blue checks were largely reserved for notable public figures, celebrities, and journalists who confirmed their identity with the platform. Now, these newly verified accounts have been wreaking havoc. One tweet from a fake Eli Lilly account claiming the company would make insulin free sent its stock plummeting, causing the pharmaceutical giant to lose billions in stock value this past week.

      • VarietyMusk Says Twitter Will End ‘Legacy’ Verification Status ‘in Coming Months’

        Elon Musk is planning to dismantle Twitter’s decade-plus-old verification program, designed to increase trust in the social network by providing a visual signifier that high-profile accounts are, in fact, who they say they are.

        Going forward, Musk’s $7.99/month Twitter Blue subscription will the only way to get the “verified” blue check-mark — except that the identities of the users who pay for that are not actually going to be verified by Twitter.

      • Marcy WheelerThe Tanking Of Twitter

        I don’t even dare embed the original tweet because it may disappear if the worst should come to pass and swaths of Twitter are shuttered to outside access.

      • Pierre EquoyWhat most people see when you post on corporate social networks

        Sure, it might take a little bit more skills to setup a website on your own than to click the "Yes I agree that you sell all of my data and my soul to any of your sketchy commercial partners" button, but you will actually learn something in the process (think about technical emancipation). If you think you cannot do it, and if you really have no one around who could help you with this, then there might be solutions to help you host your website. The French collective CHATONS (“kittens”), for instance, “aims to bring together structures offering free, ethical and decentralized online services in order to allow users to quickly find alternatives that respect their data and privacy to the services offered by GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft).”

      • The Fosstodon HubFosstodon vs Twitter - Round 2

        Actually, I don’t really need to go into anymore detail, those are all the salient points. Needless to say it’s been a horrendous few weeks and we’re still seeing a lot of traffic, but that may just be the new norm.

      • TruthOutSen. Catherine Cortez Masto Projected to Win Crucial Nevada Senate Race for Dems
      • TruthOutTrump Sues House January 6 Panel to Avoid Testifying
      • India TimesAustralia unveils joint cyber police taskforce to 'hunt down' hackers

        Australia on Saturday formalised a new cyber-policing model in a stepped-up effort to "hunt down" cyber criminal syndicates, following recent hacks impacting millions of Australians.

        Australia's biggest health insurer, Medibank Private Ltd, last month was hit by a massive cyber attack, as Australia grapples with a rise in damaging hacks.

        At least eight companies, including Singapore Telecommunications-owned telecoms company Optus, Australia's second largest telco, have reported breaches since September.

      • Common Dreams'Democracy Won': Cortez Masto Victory Means Democrats Keep Control of Senate

        Democracy defenders breathed a collective deep sigh of relief Saturday night as Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada was projected to win reelection, ensuring Democrats retain control of the U.S. Senate regardless of the results of next month's Georgia runoff.

        "Voters across the country showed election-denying MAGA Republicans that we can see through their lies and fearmongering."

      • Common DreamsOpinion | The Election Averted Some Disasters, But the Danger Remains

        Last week I began writing a piece entitled “Dreading Election Day.” I decided to stop tormenting myself and so I stopped writing midstream, opting for quiet desperation instead of public dread.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Pundits Fortunetelling Coverage Over Actual Reporting Poses a Danger to Democracy

        Most people who follow corporate news were probably surprised by the midterm election outcomes, which saw Democrats hold far more seats than predicted.

      • MeduzaMinistry of Justice will publish birthdates and identification numbers of individual ‘foreign agents’ — Meduza

        The government of the Russian Federation confirmed a list of information about “foreign agents” that is now subject to publication on the Internet.

      • MeduzaPrigozhin asks FSB to investigate St. Petersburg governor for treason — Meduza

        Businessman Evgeny Prigozhin’s press service reports that Prigozhin sent requests to the FSB and the Prosecutor General to investigate St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov for high treason.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • VOA NewsIran Charges More Than 750 People for Involvement in 'Riots'

        Iran's judiciary has charged more than 750 people in three provinces for participating in "recent riots", local media reported, amid nationwide protests since the death of Mahsa Amini.

        More than 2,000 people had already been charged, nearly half of them in the capital Tehran, since the demonstrations began in mid-September, according to judiciary figures.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • JURISTJournalists covering climate protests should not have been arrested, UK police say

        In an exclusive interview with British broadcaster LBC, Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner David Lloyd Thursday said that police “got it wrong” when they arrested reporter Charlotte Lynch during a Just Stop Oil protest this week. In total, three journalists were arrested while reporting on climate protests in the UK this week, raising concerns about freedom of the press.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • RTLTaliban ban Afghan women from gyms and public baths

        Gyms and public baths are now also off limits to Afghan women, the Taliban confirmed Sunday, days after banning them from parks and funfairs.

        Women are increasingly being squeezed out of public life since the Taliban's return last year despite the hardline Islamists promising a softer version of the harsh rule that characterised their first stint in power that ended in 2001.

      • ScheerpostFour States Voted to End Slavery — But Not Louisiana

        Wardens and industries that rely on prison labor will undoubtably argue that their “work programs” do not constitute slavery, but it should be up to the courts, the public and incarcerated people to decide.

      • Common DreamsIranians Continue Protests, Defying Rising Death Toll and Potential Execution

        Demonstrations against Iran's authoritarian regime continued for the 58th straight day Sunday despite the rising number of people killed by state forces and the Iranian parliament's recent vote to execute protesters.

        "The Iranian parliament is so disconnected from its people that it would rather kill them instead of hearing their legitimate concerns."

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Freedom of Press is Dealt Deadly Blows by Modi's Proto-Fascist Regime in India

        Since the end of the Cold War, hybrid political regimes have been steadily gaining ground across the world. Hybrid regimes rest on a form of governance which, as Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way pointed out in a 2002 essay in the Journal of Democracy, is essentially authoritarian in nature while "using formal democratic institutions" for "obtaining and exercising political authority." The term used for this type of political regime is competitive authoritarianism. In popular literature, the term "illiberal democracy" is encountered more frequently for the hybrid regimes that have emerged in the post-Cold War period, but an argument can be made against the use of such term as it weakens and stretches the definition of democracy.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Unicorn MediaGoDaddy Sucks — and Here’s Why

        Starting last night, we thought we were well on our way to having this website propagating to a brand new VPS with a brand new IP address. The new server has a lot better stats, meaning faster performance, and would bring an end to an issue with our server crashing several times a day due to an out-of-memory problem. Understandable, since we’ve been using the same server for about 10 years now.

        As I write this, that isn’t even starting to happen yet, and if you’re reading this, it hasn’t happened since, this article is only on the old server and will disappear from the site when visitors start reaching our new server.

      • HackadayDial-Up Internet Over WhatsApp

        As we returned from Supercon 2022, we noticed many airlines offer free in-flight messaging. While the messages are handy for complaining about the seat size, it isn’t quite as exciting as access to the internet. In the air, we wondered how hard it would be to tunnel an internet connection over messaging. Funny enough, [Aleix Rodríguez Alameda] has a project that does exactly that by tunneling traffic over Whatsapp.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent FreakPirate IPTV: Fines For Suppliers & Users as Govt. Plans Pre-Approval System

          Brazil says blocking measures to tackle the rise of pirate IPTV services and devices are coming soon. In the meantime, a new system of fines will apply to suppliers and users alike. The government has other plans which appear to render all TV boxes illegal by default, pending official approval. And if anyone modifies an approved device or "uses it incorrectly", that's an offense too.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • The Silver Standard

        I’m not onboard with the “silver standard” that parts of the D&D community promoted a few years ago.

        Our dinar (GP) / dirham (SP) prices are pretty close to the historical prices, mesh well with how money is used in the original Arabian Nights stories, and is compatible out of the box with everything TSR/WotC.

        Except for weights; we use the WotC weights, where a coin is much lighter than a B/X coin. A B/X / 1e coin weigh five times as much as a 3.x/4E/5e coin.

        Because of this difference in the weight of metal, the “silver standard” prices aren’t ahistorical either, they just have heavier coins. And more boring.

        The idea is that you have silver in your day to day life and then you go into the dungeon and you find... gold! Exciting! Adventure! A rare and special treasure! Except that they then also often put silver in their dungeons after all.

    • Technical

      • Announcements

        • introduction to uxn programming book

          introduction to uxn programming is a beginner's, slow-paced and comprehensive guide of the uxntal programming language and the varvara computer.


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



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