Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 11/12/2022: KaOS 2022.12 and More



  • GNU/Linux

    • Linux LinksLinux Around The World: USA - New York - LinuxLinks

      New York, officially known as the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east; it has a maritime border with Rhode Island, east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the north and Ontario to the northwest.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Benchmarks

    • Applications

      • OpenSource.comSimplify your Linux PC with the PCManFM file manager

        The PCMan File Manager, or PCManFM for short, is a fast and lightweight file manager that's full of features. It was developed for the LXDE desktop environment, but is a stand-alone application and can be used with the desktop or window manager of your choice.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • ID RootHow To Install Scala Programming on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Scala Programming on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Scala is a programming language that is designed to be concise, scalable, and high-performing. It is a statically-typed language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), and it can be used to build a wide range of applications, from the web and mobile apps to data analysis and machine learning tools.

        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 Scala programming language on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

      • Trend OceansHow to Show Welcome Message to Logged SSH Users - TREND OCEANS

        Today, you are about to learn how to display a welcome message after authorized or unauthorized users log into the system.

      • Manuel MatuzovicDay 55: anonymous layers

        In all previous posts about cascade layers I’ve used named layers in the demos, but it’s actually not required to name them.

      • Run Your Own Instant Messaging Service on FreeBSD

        What if you could host your own instant messaging service for you and your friends, to communicate privately and securely, away from the prying eyes of big tech? Turns out you can, and it’s actually quite easy to do.

      • [Old] IT TavernSSH server hardening

        We all know that it is important to secure your machines. I am going to show you some ways to do so. Some are trivial and should be set immediately, and some require some more work. Part 2 will follow with the advanced options.

        I'll use a random Linux machine with a SSH server as reference (OpenBSD Secure Shell server according to systemd and config file). For the upcoming changes of the config, I have to edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config. It might differ from your setup.

      • IT TavernGetting started with tmux

        This post hopefully will help you to get started with tmux. I'll cover more topics and features of tmux in the future.

      • H2S MediaHow to use Visual Studio Code as default editor for git? [Ed: But it is proprietary software Microsoft uses to spy on developers and users; it's also being vertically integrated with proprietary GitHub to push people into traps that attack Git, attack GPL, and so on]

        Let’s learn the simple steps to set Visual Studio Code as the default editor in Git. This will help the developers to edit their code directly in VSCode instead of Notepad or other editors.

        Git is a popular free version control software that was created initially to develop the Linux kernel. So that multiple developers can easily work and collaborate on the same project. Git allows developers to split project data into individual snippets. This makes it possible to work in a team and easily find the extensions or adjustments done to code by the individual team member.

        The beauty of the Git version control system is it can track all the changes to files and allows multiple users to coordinate updates to those files. In addition, Git can also be used to manage file updates of any kind, is the version control standard for GitHub and other source code management systems, and is widely used in DevOps initiatives to implement CI/CD. Although Git is not a programming language, become an important part of software development.

    • Games

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • MedevelVikunja: Boost Your Project Management To The Next Level

      Vikunja is a fairly new style open-source task management system that you can install it on your server or local machine.

      Vikunja features an organized workflow to manage your tasks and projects within a fancy clutter-free interface.

      Vikunja is formed of two parts an API core which is written in the Go programming language and a frontend which uses the Vue framework.

    • MedevelAmbar: Libre Document Search Engine for Office, Text and PDF Documents

      Ambar is an open-source document search engine with automated crawling, OCR, tagging and instant full-text search. Ambar defines a new way to implement full-text document search into your workflow.

    • FOSS WeeklyFOSS Weekly #27 - Thunderbird Android, open-source keyboard, Apple drivers in Asahi, and more | FOSS Weekly

      Here is everything that has happened in the open source world in the past week. The highlights include a preview of Thunderbird on Android, the availability of Apple Silicon GPU driver in Asahi Linux, and releases from Blender, Tor Browser, PipeWire, etc.

    • Tom MacWrightPlaying with ActivityPub

      ActivityPub, WebFinger, and Mastodon are getting some attention because of chaos at Twitter

      It’s anyone’s guess how this all shakes out. As an active user of Twitter, it’ll be sad if it goes away. But in the meantime, let’s have some fun with ActivityPub.

    • MedevelMarkdownify: A Minimal Yet Feature-rich Markdown Editor

      Markdownify is a simple yet feature-rich Markdown document editor for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

      It is built on top of Node.js technologies, Electron, and using Marked library to parse Markdown, Showdown library, CodeMirror, and highlight.js.

      Although it is a lightweight app, it comes packed with many useful features, clutter-free interface with full-screen distraction free mode, LaTeX support, and PDF file export.

    • MedevelTask Coach Is a Multi-platform Task Manager

      Task Coach is an open-source lightweight task management app that help you keep track and organize your messy task and project workspaces.

      It is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. There is also an Android separate project.

      With Task Coach, you can add your tasks, organize them in lists, categories, or tags, export them to software and programs as Outlook, Claws Mail, Apple Mail and Thunderbird.

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Ruben SchadeAnother lacklustre RSS pitch

        RSS is more than plumbing, just as blogging is more than advertising. It’s a shame one of the world’s largest blog hosting platforms misses this potential. Heck… they may even be more money it for them! cough.

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • Jon UdellWhen your database is an HTTP client

        A couple of years ago I found a way to unify those ingredients: Run the script inside the database. You can do a lot with Postgres’ built-in procedural language, and even more if you activate Python inside Postgres. I went deeply into both and explained why in an earlier episode.

      • YottaDBWhere are the Users?

        Where are the users? Most assuredly, they are here on our planet, but where on Earth are they? For software released under proprietary licenses, one knows ones licensees at least in theory. But for code released under a free / open source software (FOSS) license that is free to anyone to use and redistribute, as all YottaDB software is, that is not as easy. To best serve users, whether or not they are customers, software developers should really understand the applications for which their software is used.

    • Programming/Development

      • HackadayFossil Files: My .Emacs

        Last week, I wrote about cargo culting in a much more general context, so this week I’m going to come clean. The file that had me thinking about the topic was the worst case you’ve probably ever seen: I have a .emacs file kicking around that I haven’t really understood since I copied it from someone else – probably Ben Scarlet whose name is enshrined therein – in the computer lab in 1994! Yes, my .emacs file is nearly 30, and I still don’t really understand it, not exactly.

      • HackadayFlipper Zero Hacker Tool Gets UI Editor For Custom Apps

        [Mikhail] released a handy GUI editor/generator tool for the Flipper Zero multipurpose hacker tool, making layouts and UI elements much easier and more intuitive to craft up.

      • Ben HoytCode coverage for your AWK programs

        I also thought that it would be cool to be able to say that GoAWK is the only AWK implementation we know with code coverage support.

        Thanks to Volodymyr’s efforts, GoAWK version 1.21.0 includes the code coverage feature. There was some refactoring that needed to happen before the main code change – thanks again, Volodymyr, for having the patience to see this through.

      • [Old] uni ArizonaA Brief Introduction to Icon

        Icon is a very high-level imperative language with a rich repertoire of string and structure processing facilities. It is available on a wide range of computers and is in wide use.

        In Icon, values, not variables, are typed. Built-in data types include numerics, character sets, strings, sets, lists, associative tables, records, and procedures. The aggregate types - sets, lists, tables, and records - can hold values of any type. Tables can be indexed by values of any type. Numerics, character sets, and strings are atomic values; operations on them produce new values. Aggregates use pointer semantics; operations on them can change existing values as well as produce new ones. Strings and aggregates can be of arbitrary size, and their sizes can change during execution. Memory management is automatic.

        Icon has an expression-oriented syntax; even control structures are expressions. Procedures consist of zero or more expressions separated by newlines or semicolons. Icon programs consist of one or more procedure definitions, and execution begins by calling the procedure named main.

      • Amos WengerDay 8 (Advent of Code 2022)

        This is a 5x5 grid, and every number denotes the height of a tree. For part 1, we must find out how many trees are visible from the outside of the grid.

      • Bozhidar BatsovWhat’s the Term for a Filename Without Its Extension?

        Today someone asked in OCaml’s Discord “How do you call a variable that refers to a filename without its extension?”. I always thought there was no specific term for this and I always named such variables filename-sans-extension (or similar), but it turns out I was wrong. It’s never too late to learning something new! But first a bit of (subjective) terminology: [...]

      • Jason SwettKeep test code and application code separate

        Sometimes you’ll be tempted to add things to your application code that don’t affect the functionality of your application but do make testing a little easier.

        The drawback to doing this is that causes your application code to lose cohesion. Instead of doing just one job—making your application work—your code is now doing two jobs: 1) making your application work and 2) helping to test the application. This mixture of jobs is one straw on the camel’s back that makes the application code just that much harder to understand.

      • Matt RickardSpam Filtering AI Content

        As generative AI becomes more advanced, it's likely that we will see an increase in spam that is difficult to distinguish from human-generated content. Some ways that we can combat the next wave of AI-generated content.

      • Sean ConnerSome comments on delimiter-first code

        That doesn't look half bad, I thought. It could make for smaller diffs in some cases. For instance, I have this: [...]

      • [Old] The Chapel Parallel Programming LanguageAdvent of Code 2022: Twelve Days of Chapel

        To kick off the Chapel blog and gain some experience with the site during this month’s “soft launch”, we plan to spend the next few weeks writing daily articles about participating in Advent of Code 2022 (AoC 2022) using Chapel.

      • GeshanHow to use Axios interceptors, a step-by-step guide with example

        Axios is one of the most popular JavaScript libraries to perform HTTP requests. Axios interceptors are powerful mechanisms built into Axios for making changes to requests and responses in a non-intrusive way. In this guide, you will walk through the basics of Axios interceptors and step through a useful example of how they can be used. By the end, you should have a good understanding of how to use Axios interceptors in your own applications.

      • A Programmer-Friendly I/O Abstraction Over io_uring and kqueue | TigerBeetle

        Consider this tale of I/O and performance. We’ll start with blocking I/O, explore io_uring and kqueue, and take home an event loop very similar to some software you may find familiar.

        [...]

        When you want to read from a file you might open() and then call read() as many times as necessary to fill a buffer of bytes from the file. And in the opposite direction, you call write() as many times as needed until everything is written. It’s similar for a TCP client with sockets, but instead of open() you first call socket() and then connect() to your server. Fun stuff.

        In the real world though you can’t always read everything you want immediately from a file descriptor. Nor can you always write everything you want immediately to a file descriptor.

        You can switch a file descriptor into non-blocking mode so the call won’t block while data you requested is not available. But system calls are still expensive, incurring context switches and cache misses. In fact, networks and disks have become so fast that these costs can start to approach the cost of doing the I/O itself. For the duration of time a file descriptor is unable to read or write, you don’t want to waste time continuously retrying read or write system calls.

      • HackadayLisp Runs This Microcontroller Pendant

        As a programming language, Lisp has been around longer than any other active language except for Fortran. To anyone who regularly uses it, it’s easy to see why: the language allows for new syntax and macros to be created fluidly, which makes it easy to adapt it to new situations, like running it on a modern Atmel microcontroller to control the LEDs on this star pendant.

      • The Register UKGoogle's Dart language soon won't take null for an answer ● The Register

        When the third major release of the Dart programming language debuts in mid-2023, null values will no longer be allowed where they're not expected.

        Null in this context is an assignment value indicating the absence of a value or referenced object. Null references date back to around 1964 when British computer scientist Tony Hoare introduced the concept in the ALGOL family of languages. He considered them his "billion dollar mistake" for the amount of time and money they've cost in error repairs – an issue to this day.

        Dart, an object-oriented, garbage-collected C-like language that once aspired to replace JavaScript, supported sound null safety – a way to prevent errors from accessing variables set to null – as of version 2.12. But it maintained modes for running code without null safety or with partial null safety.

        Dart 3 will no longer entertain those suboptimal possibilities.

      • R

        • Data Science TutorialsHow to Calculate Ratios in R - Data Science Tutorials

          How to Calculate Ratios in R? The following two techniques can be used in R to determine the ratio of values in two columns.

          The following data frame, which displays the total number of shots taken and attempted by different basketball players, is used to demonstrate how each strategy should be used in practice.

        • Linux FoundationSpreading a Passion for R with the Münster Community in Germany - R Consortium

          Dr. Shirin Elsinghorst recently shared her great experience with the R language, motivating her to start the Münster R useR Germany. Shirin shared how R has become a very important part of her life, from her first contact with the language while receiving her Bachelor’s degree, in the workplace, and even as part of her spare time activities. She also emphasizes how significant is the presence of women in the IT world, describing herself as a staunch supporter of the R-Ladies.

        • 30 Day Map Challenge 2022 | Nicola Rennie

          The #30DayMapChallenge is a month-long mapping, cartography, and data visualization challenge aimed at the spatial community. Here are the things I've learnt from participating in the challenge for a second time.

        • Data Science TutorialsAutocorrelation and Partial Autocorrelation in Time Series

          The correlation between two values in a time series is known as autocorrelation. In other words, the name comes from the fact that the time series data are self-correlative.

          We use the term “lags” to describe these connections. By measuring a feature at regular intervals, such as daily, monthly, or yearly, analysts collect time-series data.

          The lag is the total number of time gaps between the two observations. For instance, there is a one-observation lag between the current and previous observations.

          The lag increases by one if you go back one more interval, and so on.

          The observations at yt and yt-k are mathematically separated by k time units.

      • Python

        • MedevelLighting: A Low-code and Admin Dashboard for Django

          Lighting is a fairly new project that adds a low-code flavor into your Django project in a matter of minutes. It allows you to generate a comprehensive admin panel for your data models, with minimal configuration.

          It uses Django, React and Ant Design frameworks to create a smooth user experience. However,

          Lighting requires Python 3.6, and Django 2.2.x. However, Django 3.x is not yet supported, but it may be in the near future.

        • University of TorontoPython version upgrades and deprecations

          Recently I read Itamar Turner-Trauring's It’s time to stop using Python 3.7 (via). On the one hand, this is pragmatic advice, because as the article mentions Python 3.7 is reaching its end of life as of June 2023. On the other hand it gives me feelings, and one of the feelings is that the Python developers are not making upgrades any easier by slowly deprecating various standard library modules. Some of these modules are basically obsolete now, but some are not and have no straightforward replacement, such as the cgi module.

  • Leftovers

    • New York TimesIn a Future Filled With Electric Cars, AM Radio May Be Left Behind

      Carmakers say that electric vehicles generate more electromagnetic interference than gas-powered cars, which can disrupt the reception of AM signals and cause static, noise and a high-frequency hum. (FM signals are more resistant to such interference.)

      “Rather than frustrate customers with inferior reception and noise, the decision was made to leave it off vehicles that feature eDrive technology,” BMW said in a statement, referring to the system that powers its electric vehicles.

    • Nicholas Tietz-SokolskyRC Week 11: Learning is best when multiplayer

      As I come up on the end of my batch at Recurse Center, I've been doing some reflecting on my time here. One of the standout themes is how much I've learned through struggling with other people. In particular, this learning together has make some difficult topics approachable, where I may have given up or gotten stuck on my own.

      [...]

      Some of the proofs in chapter 5 were just absolute beasts to get through until we figured out the particular techniques we needed. In particular, we had to remember to always include eqn:E (or similar) for every destruct tactic; it doesn't hurt (just adds more into the context, which can be overwhelming), but if you don't do this you sometimes get into a situation where you lack what you need in the context, so the goal is not provable! Getting to this technique required a lot of back and forth between a couple of us.

    • Phil EatonIs it worth writing about?

      You acquire a skill or experience through time and effort, then downplay the impact of writing and sharing the learning process.

      Professionals seem naturally to imagine a high bar for what is worth writing about.

      I think that's misguided. This article is not criticism of folks with these beliefs, but rather encouragement for folks looking for a reason to write.

      There are (at least) a few concrete reasons to write about what you've learned, even when you don't think it's novel.

      [...]

      When I learn a topic I normally go through dozens of posts, papers, videos or books to find a version that clicks. If I can. I prefer to start with blog posts and often there are not blog posts on the subject. Books, videos, and academic papers aren't often as accessible.

      Even if you're writing about a popular topic, there's still a chance your post gets through to someone where other posts do not.

      For programmers there are notorious topics you can avoid if you'd like ("What is a monad", "Why is lisp interesting", "Kubernetes sucks"). Or not. I've fallen into those traps.

      Additionally, as you gain experience as a programmer (or product manager, or whatever), your perspective and approach becomes both more interesting and more valuable.

    • Xe's BlogThe cheese grater that saved Christmas - Xe Iaso

      Twilight Sparkle and the cheese grater both try to remind them that there are more important things to focus on, like the importance of mental health and the need to be prepared for any future threats.

      Despite their differences, the group comes together to enjoy the holiday season and celebrate their victory. They exchange gifts, enjoy festive meals, and spend time with their loved ones.

      As the year comes to an end, they reflect on the events of the past year and make plans for the future. They vow to continue to work together and support each other, no matter what challenges they may face.

      Despite their differences, they remain united in their determination to protect Earth and its inhabitants from any threats that may come their way.

    • Science

      • The EconomistJay Pasachoff travelled the world to catch the Moon eclipsing the Sun

        It was the corona, the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, that most interested him. His love of eclipses was partly because he could study the corona properly while the Sun’s disc was dark, noting its flares, its loops of ionised gas and the plumes from the polar regions. With the data he recorded he could try to discover why the corona, one millionth as bright as the disc, was 300 times hotter. Was that heat generated by thousands of constantly erupting nanoflares? Or was it caused by vibrations in the gas loops, which were held in place by the Sun’s magnetic field? Both were plausible, but there were at least a dozen other theories around.

        The unadventurous wondered why he had to see so many eclipses. (He also studied the much rarer transits across the Sun of Mercury and Venus.) But no two were alike, because the Sun, he explained, was never the same twice. It was like a river, forever changing, not least because it was married to the sunspot cycle. Sceptics also asked why he did not rely on space-based telescopes, with coronagraphs that could block out the Sun’s photosphere. But those either hid too much of the corona, or failed to block the disc entirely; and even with 99% of it obscured, the sky would be 10,000 times brighter than in a total eclipse.

      • HackadayA VM In An AI

        AI knoweth everything, and as each new model breaks upon the world, it attracts a new crowd of experimenters. The new hotness is ChatGPT, and [Jonas Degrave] has turned his attention to it. By asking it to act as a Linux terminal, he discovered that he could gain access to a complete Linux virtual machine within the model’s synthetic imagination.

    • Education

      • ChrisSampling For Managers

        Every year I’m asked to produce a very peculiar number: how many gigabytes of storage my department has reserved at cloud providers. This is apparently useful input into some methodology for estimating the environmental impact of renting cloud resources.

    • Hardware

      • HackadayOld-School Video Switching Levels Up With Modern USB Control

        Video effects and mixing are done digitally today, but it wasn’t always so. When analog ruled the video world, a big switch panel was key to effective results.

      • Linux GizmosFanless Mini-PC supports Legacy and modern operating systems

        The EBOX-58 from ICOP is an industrial Mini-PC equipped with Braswell Series low-power processors from Intel. The device supports up to 8GB DDR3L, SATA 3.0, 1x HDMI port, 2x GbE RJ45 and optional serial interfaces. Additionally, it’s compatible with legacy OS such as DOS, Win7/10/11, QNX, Androidx86 and many more.

      • HackadayRetro Alarm Clock With Nixies Is Thoroughly Modern Inside

        We feature a lot of clocks here at Hackaday, but alarm clocks seem to be less popular for some reason. Maybe that’s because no-one enjoys being woken up in the morning, or simply because everyone uses their smartphone for that purpose already. In any case, we’re delighted to bring you [Manuel Tosone]’s beautiful Nixie tube alarm clock that cleverly combines modern and classic technologies in a single package.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • New York TimesBefore Beer Became Lager, a Microbe Made a Mysterious Journey

        But while brewer’s yeast is common enough, how the lager yeast’s other parent wound up in Bavaria has been harder to trace. It was first spotted in the wild in 2011, when biologists discovered the cold-loving yeast, S. eubayanus, living happily in the forests of Patagonia in South America. Then there were some tantalizing traces found in the Italian Alps, Tibet, western China and North Carolina.

      • Sabine HossenfelderNuclear Waste: What Do We Do With It?
      • Projection, thy name is Joe Mercola (and Aseem Malhotra)

        As I sat down to write this, I realized that this weekend (tomorrow, actually) is my 18th blogiversary. Yes, it will be 18 years ago tomorrow since I first sat down in front of my computer on a gray, cold December Saturday afternoon to write my first ever post for this blog. True, the blog was then on Blogspot—does anyone remember that or still use it?—and I didn’t know what I was doing, but that was the start. So perhaps it’s appropriate that the post I noticed yesterday that I wanted to write about involved a massive case of projection by an old “friend,” über-quack Joe Mercola, doctor who started out selling “natural health” and then became a “pioneer” selling quackery on the Internet in the late 1990s, which led to him becoming fabulously wealthy, to the tune of a net worth upwards of $100 million. Naturally, with the arrival of the pandemic, Mercola pivoted to the even more profitable selling of COVID-19 disinformation. So it’s not surprising that he’d now publish an exercise in projection that combines old antivax tropes with newer COVID-19 disinformation, all with the help of a doctor who’s recently gone from “soft antivax” to totally antivax, Dr. Aseem Malhotra.

      • TruthOutMichigan Judge Drops Flint Water Charges Against Ex-Gov Snyder, Sparking Outrage
    • Proprietary

      • Chris HannahTwitter Blue Will Cost More on an iPhone

        There are quite a few publications sharing information regarding the pricing of Twitter's Blue subscription, that it will be more expensive from an an iPhone. This is to cover the revenue cut that Apple take from all purchases on the App Store and their in-app payment system.

        This isn't exactly a solution that everyone can suddenly adopt. However, I think for large companies such as Twitter, it's a clever decision. That's as long as there is an alternative method to start a subscription from another device at a lesser price.

        [...]

        I'm not sure how this will play out. Especially as to some, Twitter isn't even a place to be for free, let alone pay for it.

      • Help Net SecurityRackspace Hosted Exchange outage was caused by ransomware [Ed: Microsoft Windows TCO]

        “As you know, on Friday, December 2nd, 2022, we became aware of suspicious activity and immediately took proactive measures to isolate the Hosted Exchange environment to contain the incident. We have since determined this suspicious activity was the result of a ransomware incident,” the company stated in the newest released service announcement.

        “Alongside our internal security team, we have engaged a leading cyber defense firm to investigate. Our investigation is still in its early stages, and it is too early to say what, if any, data was affected. If we determine sensitive information was affected, we will notify customers as appropriate.”

        The confirmation came just a few hours after the publication of a press release on the situation, in which Rackspace said the security incident “may result in a loss of revenue for the Hosted Exchange business, which generates approximately $30 million of annual revenue in the Apps & Cross Platform segment,” and that they expect to have “incremental costs associated with its response to the incident.”

        The company did not share details about how the attackers got in and deployed the ransomware.

    • Security

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • Patrick BreyerChat control: Mass surveillance proposal will let children down

          EU Interior Ministers today discussed the proposal to automatically search all private correspondence for suspected content (so-called „chat control“). They insisted in pursuing an approach of mass surveillance. Member of the European Parliament Patrick Breyer (Pirate Party), negotiator for the Greens/EFA group, comments: [...]

        • India TimesBanks need to upgrade pre-mobile era core banking

          Most of the public sector banks have installed their core banking system more than 15 years ago much before the advent of smart phones. However, many have upgraded their systems during the consolidation exercise which saw ten banks merge into four. The merger of psu banks has also increased their capacity to invest in technology.

        • Pro PublicaHow We Protect Families’ Privacy When Reporting on Vulnerable Kids

          In November, we published a story about three New York City teenagers who struggled to get mental health services that the city’s public schools are legally obligated to provide. We identified one of those teenagers by her full name and the second by his first name only. For the third teenager, we agreed to use just his middle name and — unlike the other two — to refrain from naming a parent at all.

          We followed families’ stated preferences for their children’s privacy. But in doing so, we wrestled with difficult questions about how to best serve readers and the kids we were writing about.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • The HillAmerican author Michael Shellenberger releases ‘Twitter Files Part 4’

        This latest portion of uncovered information regarding Twitter’s content moderation pre-Musk focused on employees’ reactions to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, leading up to the ban of former President Trump instituted on Jan. 8, 2021.

        Shellenberger shared screenshots of a conversation on Jan. 7 between former Twitter Head of Trust & Safety Yoel Roth and an anonymous coworker where he asked to blacklist the terms “stopthesteal” and “kraken,” which propped up the conspiracy that Trump won the 2020 election.

    • Environment

      • DeSmog1.5 and 2€°C: A Journey Through the Temperature Target That Haunts the World

        Two numbers. One long-term goal. In 2015, nearly 200 countries agreed to “Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2€°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5€°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”. It was at COP21, where the Paris Agreement, the most important climate pact to date, was enshrined.

      • ReutersKeystone pipeline shut after 14,000-barrel oil spill in Kansas

        The cause of the leak, which occurred in Kansas about 20 miles (32 km) south of a key junction in Steele City, Nebraska, is unknown. It is the third spill of several thousand barrels of crude on the pipeline since it first opened in 2010.

      • New York TimesOil Spill in Kansas Prompts Shutdown of Keystone Pipeline System

        An estimated 14,000 barrels of oil spilled into a creek in Washington County, Kan., south of the Nebraska border, TC Energy said in a statement on Thursday. Washington County has a population of about 5,500, according to government data.

      • CNNKeystone Pipeline shuts down after oil leak, halting flow of 600,000 barrels a day

        Canada’s TC Energy (TRP) said it launched an emergency shutdown of the Keystone Pipeline System at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday after alarms were triggered and pressure dropped in the system. The company said the system remains shut as “our crews actively respond and work to contain and recover the oil.”

        Calgary-based TC Energy said there has been a “confirmed release of oil” into a creek located about 20 miles south of Steele City, Nebraska. An estimated 14,000 barrels of oil have been discharged as of late Thursday, the company said.

      • CBCKeystone pipeline ordered shut down after leak of 14,000 barrels of oil

        The amount of oil spilled has been estimated at 14,000 barrels, making it larger than all of the 22 previous spills combined on the Keystone pipeline since it was opened in 2010, according to Zack Pistora, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club in Kansas.

        "This is going to be months, maybe even years before we get the full handle on this disaster and know the extent of the damage and get it all cleaned up," he said.

      • PBSKeystone oil spill in Kansas is largest in pipeline’s history, federal data shows

        The TC Energy permit included more than 50 special conditions, including on its design, construction and operation, the GAO report said. Bill Caram, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy Pipeline Safety Trust, said Friday that he would have thought that the additional safety measures would have been enough to offset the pipeline’s higher pressure.

        “When we see multiple failures like this of such large size and a relatively short amount of time after that pressure has increased, I think it’s time to question that,” Caram said, noting the 2017 and 2019 spills.

      • Energy

        • Neil SelwynResisting the environmental costs of AI

          The IT industry business model is built on a range of environmentally unsustainable practices – such as the extraction of rare minerals and metals, alongside sucking up massive volumes of water. The scale of this natural resource consumption is staggering – for example, one 2021 study reckoned Google to have used 15.8 billion litres of water, with many observers noting that such IT industry figures are routinely under-reported.

        • NPRAmid rising energy costs, Italian cooks go old-school to save gas

          Russia's invasion of Ukraine — and decision to throttle natural gas exports to Europe — has sent energy prices and utility bills higher. The rising costs have forced many households to get creative to save money.

          In this Tuscan town, some cooks have rediscovered the energy-saving cooking box, a tool their grandparents used during World War II. An enterprising nonprofit here is producing useful — and stylish — insulating boxes that use less gas than traditional Italian cooking.

        • SalonWhy in the hell did we need cryptocurrency? The collapse of FTX and SBF explained, sort of

          Or, in this modern age, you could use your money to buy a bitcoin, or even multiple bitcoins, or some other form of cryptocurrency, which if you've been reading the headlines lately, can turn out to be a little like taking your money and exchanging it for chips at a casino and putting piles of them on every single number or red or black or odd or even betting line at a roulette table and then watching the croupier — wow, there's a guy in a vest and a bow tie called a croupier, kind of like a fancy teller! — spin the roulette wheel and wait for the little ball to fall into a slot that allows the croupier to take all of your money except for however much of it you put on the number or color or odd or even that won.

        • BitcoinFTX Co-Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Agrees to Testify Before US Congress

          Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has agreed to testify before the House Committee on Financial Services after the committee’s chair, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, politely tweeted inviting him to testify several times.

        • TruthOutCrypto Industry Ally Joins House GOP Leadership, Nixing Hopes for Reform
      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Common DreamsRed List Calls Out 'Perfect Storm of Unsustainable Human Activity Decimating Marine Life'

          During the United Nations biodiversity summit in Montreal, an international conversation group on Friday highlighted how humanity is dangerously failing marine life with illegal and unsustainable fishing, pollution from agricultural and industrial runoff, and activities that drive up global temperatures.

          "If we are to secure a new future for the world's oceans and the essential biodiversity they harbor, we must act now."

        • Common DreamsOpinion | This Human Rights Day, Stand With the Maasai to End Fortress Conservation

          The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly 74 years ago, enshrines a host of fundamental rights for all people. Today, human rights remain under attack from the usual suspects—authoritarian governments and greedy corporations—as well as from the Western conservation industry that garners much international respect.

        • HackadayGaze Upon The Swimming Mechanical Stingray, Made With LEGO

          Stingrays have an elegant, undulating swimming motion that can be hypnotic. [Vimal Patel] re-created this harmony with his fantastic mechanical mechanical stingray using LEGO pieces and a LEGO Technics Power Functions motor. The motor is set in a clever arrangement that drives the motion remotely, so that it and electrical elements can stay dry.

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The HillFormer Twitter employees file class-action lawsuit, alleging company targeted women in layoffs

        They also argued that Musk’s comments saying that he wanted to prioritize keeping employees who were in engineering-related roles cannot explain the disparity. They said 63 percent of female employees in these roles were laid off, while only 48 percent of men in these roles were.

      • India TimesTwitter will delete 1.5 billion accounts to free up space: Elon Musk

        Twitter earns nearly 90% of its revenue from selling digital ads. Musk recently attributed a "massive drop in revenue" to civil rights organizations that have pressured brands to pause their Twitter ads.

      • Chris HannahTwitter Blue Will Cost More on an iPhone #

        It's one thing to offset the commission that Apple take, but I would imagine it also makes the cut that Apple take off all payments, a bit more visible.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | 'Megalomaniacal, Narcissistic Tyranny': The Mars of Elon Musk

        Not long after commandeering Twitter in October for a sum of $44bn, Elon Musk—who is also the CEO of SpaceX and the self-branded "Technoking" of Tesla—dispatched an ultimatum to Twitter employees giving them two options. The first was to commit to being "extremely hardcore" and working "long hours at high intensity". The second was to quit.

      • Common DreamsFollowing Trump's Lead, Kari Lake Files Suit to Reverse Loss in Arizona Governor's Race

        This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates...

        Failed Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on Friday followed in the footsteps of her political ally former President Donald Trump by challenging her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs in state court.

      • VarietyTwitter Sets Relaunch of Twitter Blue With Safeguards to Prevent Blue Check-Mark Imposters

        However, subscribers won’t automatically get the blue check-mark. That will occur only “after your account has been reviewed,” Twitter said in announcing the service relaunch Saturday. In addition, subscribers will be able to change their handle, display name and profile photo, but “if they do they’ll temporarily lose the blue check-mark until their account is reviewed again.”

      • The Economist“I thought I’d been [cracked]. It turned out I’d been fired”: tales of a Twitter engineer

        The following Tuesday I was on a call talking about a new project, end-to-end encryption on direct messages. About 15 minutes into the conversation my video stopped: I’d been signed out of my work email. I tried to log back in, but a message flashed up saying that my password had just been changed. Then my laptop screen turned grey. I wondered if I’d been hacked – I’d received a text message from corporate security during the meeting saying that they needed to speak to me urgently.

        I never found out what they wanted: a few minutes later my boss’s boss called me to tell me I was fired, with immediate effect. As far as I know I was the first Twitter engineer this happened to. Musk has sacked about half the workforce since then. My boss was fired. So was his boss. And his boss’s boss. And their boss.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • VOA NewsIran Government Vows to Execute More Protesters

        One day after announcing the execution of an anti-government protester, Iranian state media said Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and other government officials pledged to continue to crack down on unrest in the country despite widespread condemnation from the West.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • Eesti RahvusringhäälingEstonian tabloid press celebrates 100th anniversary

        "Talking about regular journalism, it started with Esmaspäev in 1922, which was a weekly. Oh the sensation of it all. Whether we're talking about stories about important, let us say princes and princesses, pieces about local movie stars or athletes or articles on crime – everything was used," scholar of journalism Tiit Hennoste said.

        One innovation Esmaspäev imported were so-called reader games that quickly proved very successful.

      • ScheerpostFormer CIA Director’s Institute Hosts Event on the Assange Case (and Madness Ensues)

        An institution founded by former CIA director Michael V. Hayden hosted a panel on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s case. They billed it as a debate over whether he was a “techno spy” or “modern day journalist” and drew the attention of several Assange supporters. While press freedom advocates and […]

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • QuilletteThe Philadelphia Experiments

        Dr. Kligman would die in 2010 at the age of 93. His New York Times obituary described his many accomplishments and the critical role he played in bringing a “scientific base to dermatology.” It mentioned his “innovative” and “very charismatic” personality, his coinage of new terms such as “photoaging” and “cosmeceuticals,” and his wildly profitable commercial products, Retin-A and Renova. However, the Times also mentioned my book, Acres of Skin, which illuminated Kligman’s darker side—his use of vulnerable populations for medical research and the many “ethical questions that dogged his career.” In fact, the last 10 years of his life would be, in some respects, a bulwark action in defense of his scientific contributions as he fended off attacks that cast him as a modern day Mengele, who used institutionalized back men as grist for his research mill and personal enrichment.

      • BBCNobel Peace Prize: Russian laureate 'told to turn down award'

        Yan Rachinsky, who heads Memorial, said he was told not to accept the prize because the two other co-laureates - a Ukrainian human rights organisation and jailed Belarusian rights defender - were deemed "inappropriate".

        Memorial is one of Russia's oldest civil rights groups, and was shut down by the government last year.

      • The HillRussian Nobel Peace Prize winner says authorities ordered him to decline award

        The Russian co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize said the country’s authorities ordered him to decline the award because his fellow co-winners were a Ukrainian human rights organization and a jailed Belarusian rights defender.

        Yan Rachinsky — who leads one of Russia’s oldest civil rights groups, Memorial — told the BBC in an interview that he was told to turn down the prize because the other winners were deemed “inappropriate,” but he ignored the advice.

      • IndiaRussian Nobel Peace Prize Winner Says Kremlin Ordered Him To Decline Award

        One of the main reasons was his work towards the Memorial which has been the oldest Civil Rights Group and has also documented historical Soviet repression. The group had its first chairman, Arseny Roginsky, who was punished in Soviet labor camps for "anti-communist" study of history. Memorial was founded on the idea that "confronting past crimes is essential in preventing new ones", said the Nobel committee while announcing Nobel Peace Prize winners.

      • ScheerpostTaking ‘Peace’ Out of the Nobel Peace Prize

        Despite the occasional polite nod to Alfred Nobel, the committee — which will name this year’s award on Saturday — has never made known his vision of peace through global demilitarization, writes Fredrik S. Heffermehl.

      • ScheerpostPeru’s Oligarchy Overthrows President Castillo

        The coup against Pedro Castillo was led by an odious right-wing that refused to accept the people’s aspiration for a progressive project.

      • ScheerpostJudicial Coup in Argentina: Corrupt Judges Conspire With Media Oligarch to Ban Cristina Kirchner From Office

        Leaked messages show Argentina’s corrupt judges and prosecutors conspired with right-wing media oligarchs to launch a judicial coup against left-wing ex President and current VP Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, sentencing her to six years in prison and banning her from running in the 2023 elections.

      • Common DreamsRussian Authorities Told Rights Group to Reject Nobel Peace Prize, Says Leader

        An embattled Russian rights group that received this year's Nobel Peace Prize was pressured by the Kremlin to decline the honor because of the Ukrainian organization and jailed Belarusian activist who also received the award, BBC News revealed Saturday.

        "Maybe we should take this award not only as an assessment of what we have managed to do in 35 years, but also as a kind of advance on what we aim to do."

      • CoryDoctorowHow tech changed global labor struggles for better and worse

        The original sin of both tech boosterism and tech criticism is to focus unduly on what a given technology does, without regard to who it does it to and who it does it for. When it comes to technology's effect on our daily lives, the social arrangements matter much more than the feature-sets.

        This is the premise behind my idea of the "shitty technology adoption curve": if you want to do something horrible to people with technology, you must first inflict it on people without social power and then work your way slowly up the privilege gradient, smoothing the tech's rough edges by sanding them against the human bodies of people who can't fight back.

        Thus we see the rise of all disciplinary technology, especially bossware, which started off monitoring forced prison labor, then blue-collar workers, then pink collar workers (like the largely female, largely Black work-from-home customer service reps who work for Arise)...

      • Common DreamsOpinion | People Power Overcomes Voter Suppression in Georgia Senate Runoff

        "It is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: The people have spoken," Senator Raphael Warnock said on Tuesday night before a cheering crowd, after winning the runoff election for the U.S. senate in Georgia. Warnock ran against Republican Herschel Walker, a retired football star. Walker, recruited to run by former president Donald Trump, proved to be a deeply flawed candidate. Nevertheless, the Warnock campaign had to overcome a complex array of voter suppression laws and tactics deployed by Georgia Republicans.

      • Counter PunchHow Alaa Abd El-Fattah Connects Everything
      • TruthOutAs NYT Staffers Strike, Sanders Calls to Empower Workers Battling Media Giants
    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • Terence EdenYou can't screenshot or right click this image

        I tried to explain to them that DRM always fails; you can't make data which can't be copied. I explained that artificial scarcity was harmful. They didn't care.

        But, their proposed solution was intriguing. And, with their kind permission, I'm posting it here. To be clear, I don't think this is good but I think it is vaguely interesting.

    • Monopolies

      • New York TimesLina Khan, Aiming to Block Microsoft’s Activision Deal, Faces a Challenge

        The case is shaping up as a test of Ms. Khan’s belief that the F.T.C. must become more aggressive to check the power of corporate giants in the modern economy, including the biggest tech companies. Appointed to lead the agency by President Biden, she has signaled she wants to take more lawsuits to court — instead of settling with companies — to push the boundaries of antitrust law and return to the kind of trustbusting not seen since the last century.

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent FreakU.S. Govt Seizes Domains of Popular Sports Streaming Piracy Sites

          With the FIFA World Cup in full swing, U.S. law enforcement authorities appear to have seized the domain names of several popular sports streaming sites. The targeted sites, which include score808.com, hesgoal.com, freestreams-live1.com, and weakstreams.com, each have millions of monthly visitors.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Death

        Last Friday, my Grandad died. He had been ill for a pretty long time.

        His quality of life hasn't been great for the past 5 years but it has

        really tanked in the last year. He had a few strokes and heart attacks

        which left him bed ridden. I am glad he is not sufferring any more and

        I am glad for my Grandma. She was making herself ill trying to care

        for him. Since he fell ill again last Tuesday, she has spent all of

        her time with him and moistening his lips. Thankfully she no longer

        has to do that.

        [...]

        Death can be a terrible thing but it can also be good. It all depends

        on when and how it happens.

    • Technical

      • New Laptop

        So I have bought a new laptop. This is a bit unusual for me as I have

        previously bought second hand as a rule. However, I have been looking

        for a replacement smallish laptop to replace a Thinkpad Helix2. This

        is a convertible affair where the keyboard detaches. I have found it a

        fairly annoying machine physically as it is heavy and tends to suffer

        from wobble. I also find I cannot carry it around without worrying

        about bits flexing. With a recent business trip, I found the keyboard

        part to have started rattling. It appears a speaker has become loose.

        The performance side is pretty good though. The battery has reached a

        point where it is being a pain too. I have started having to carry the

        power cable for meetings.

      • well then, I will just say a little something right here :)

        I was watching a video about setting up a Teleguard BBS in 2021(22?), and found it fascinating. One of the rules a mod/admin would implement, is to require the members of a BBS to post every so often. Like a couple times a week, or something. To keep things interesting, moving along. So, I do this with...everything I participate in (most of the time).


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries
Links 26/03/2024: Inflation Problems, Strikes in Finland
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2024: Losing Children, Carbon Tax Discussed
Links for the day
Mark Shuttleworth resigns from Debian: volunteer suicide and Albania questions unanswered, mass resignations continue
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 26/03/2024: 6,000 Layoffs at Dell, Microsoft “XBox is in Real Trouble as a Hardware Manufacturer”
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2024: Microsofters Still Trying to 'Extend' Gemini Protocol
Links for the day
Look What IBM's Red Hat is Turning CentOS Into
For 17 years our site ran on CentOS. Thankfully we're done with that...
The Julian Paul Assange Verdict: The High Court Has Granted Assange Leave to Appeal Extradition to the United States, Decision Adjourned to May 20th Pending Assurances
The decision is out
The Microsoft and Apple Antitrust Issues Have Some But Not Many Commonalities
gist of the comparison to Microsoft
ZDNet, Sponsored by Microsoft for Paid-for Propaganda (in 'Article' Clothing), Has Added Pop-Up or Overlay to All Pages, Saying "813 Partners Will Store and Access Information on Your Device"
Avoiding ZDNet may become imperative given what it has turned into
Julian Assange Verdict 3 Hours Away
Their decision is due to be published at 1030 GMT
People Who Cover Suicide Aren't Suicidal
Assange didn't just "deteriorate". This deterioration was involuntary and very much imposed upon him.
Overworking Kills
The body usually (but not always) knows best
Former Red Hat Chief (CEO), Who Decided to Leave the Company Earlier This Month, Talks About "Cloud Company Red Hat" to CNBC
shows a lack of foresight and dependence on buzzwords
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 25, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 25, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Discord Does Not Make Money, It's Spying on People and Selling Data/Control (38% is Allegedly Controlled by the Communist Party of China)
a considerable share exists
In At Least Two Nations Windows is Now Measured at 2% "Market Share" (Microsoft Really Does Not Want People to Notice That)
Ignore the mindless "AI"-washing
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Still Has Hundreds of Thousands of Simultaneously-Online Unique Users
The scale of IRC