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Links 07/01/2023: Linux 4.9 Reaches End of Life



  • GNU/Linux

    • Kernel Space

      • 9to5LinuxLinux Kernel 4.9 Reaches End of Life After 6 Years of Support

        After being supported for a little more than six years, the Linux 4.9 kernel series has finally reached end of life with the 4.9.337 update released earlier this morning. The kernel is now marked appropriately as EOL on the kernel.org website, which means that it will no longer receive maintenance and security updates.

        Linux kernel 4.9 was released on December 11th, 2016, and it brought support for shared extents and copy-on-write support on the XFS file system, a hardware latency tracer to detect firmware-induced latencies, support for the Greybus bus from Project Ara, a more efficient BPF profiler, a new optional BBR TCP congestion control algorithm, virtually mapped kernel stacks, and more.

    • Games

      • HackadayIs It A Game? Or A Calculator?

        If you are a certain age, you probably remember the Mattel Football game. No LCD screen or fancy cartridges. Just some LEDs and a way to play football when you should be in class. While these might seem primitive to today’s kids, they were marvels of technology in the 1970s when they came out. [Sean Riddle] looks, well, not exactly at the games, but more like in them. As it turns out, they used chips derived from those made for calculators.

      • GamingOnLinuxASUS stick an OLED display into a controller, Dell want to reinvent it

        A new real controller from ASUS is on the way with the ROG Raikiri Pro that features an OLED display, plus Dell get weird with the Concept Nyx from CES 2023.

      • GamingOnLinuxGoogle open sourced CDC File Transfer from the ashes of Stadia

        As Google hover over the nuke from orbit button on Stadia, they're at least releasing some of it as open source like CDC File Transfer.

      • GamingOnLinuxVampire Survivors dev poncle outlines 2023 plans

        Vampire Survivors, probably the most popular game on Steam Deck that keeps being top of the most played list, is set for a busy 2023.

      • GamingOnLinuxSystem Shock remake due to release in March

        Nightdive Studios have now set a launch window for System Shock, with it planned to release in March. That's if it doesn't see yet another delay.

      • GamingOnLinuxBatman Rogue City is a fun looking GZDoom fan game

        Here's a fun retro fan game for you! Batman Rogue City released in December for GZDoom and looks like a criminal-kicking good time. As a fan game, it of course has nothing to do with DC Comics but you know what these big companies can be like, they might get itchy fingers over someone using their names and designs.

      • GamingOnLinuxSteam Deck Beta update, plus easy Flatpak updates and more HDR teasing

        Three fun bits for you today including Steam desktop and Steam Deck Beta updates, an easy way to update third-party Flatpaks on Steam Deck in Gaming Mode and another HDR teaser from Valve.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

      • DebugPointOpenMandriva Introduces "ROME" 23.01: A New Rolling Release Edition

        OpenMandriva is a free, open-source, independent GNU/Linux distribution that was forked from the Mandriva project. It's simple, easy to use for your day-to-day use cases and fully contributed by the community. It also features popular desktop environments and comes with a simple Calamares installer.

        A new rolling release-based edition OpenMandriva "ROME" 23.01 debuts with KDE Plasma, GNOME desktop flavours and some cool apps.

        Here's what's new.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • HackadayArduino Synthesizer Uses Modified Slide Pots

        There comes a point in every Arduino’s life where, if it’s lucky, it becomes a permanent fixture in a project. We can’t think of too many better forever homes for an Arduino than inside of a 3D-printed synthesizer such as this 17-key number by [ignargomez] et al.

      • Linux GizmosArduino Nicla Voice supports speech recognition, BL5.0 and integrates 9-Axis IMU

        Arduino recently presented a compact low-power embedded module with machine learning capabilities. The Arduino Nicla Voice is based on the Syntiant NDP120 processor optimized for Deep Learning applications and the ANNA-B112 u-Blox module for wireless connectivity.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • HackadayChataigne: An Open-Source Swiss Army Knife

      [Ben Kuper] is a developer with a history of working on art installations, and had hit upon a common problem often cited by artists. When creating installations involving light, sound, and motion, they often spend too much time on the nuts and bolts of electronics, programming, and so on. Such matters are a huge time sink with a steep learning curve and oftentimes just a plain distraction from the actual artistic intent they’re trying to focus upon. [Ben] has been working for a few years on a software tool,€ Chataigne€ which is designed as the glue between various software tools and hardware interfaces, enabling complex control of the application using simple building blocks.

  • Leftovers

    • Education

      • The NationHigher Ed Labor Organizing Is Just Getting Started

        About three weeks into the University of California strike—around the time thousands of workers across the state had shared Thanksgiving meals on picket lines—UC Berkeley’s campus health center became inundated with a barrage of strange ailments among student workers. Graduate students were turning up with unspecified leg pain, foot sores, achy hips, repetitive motion problems, and generalized fatigue.

      • The NationHow Students Fought for Democracy in 2022

        For more than a decade, The Nation has highlighted the work of aspiring journalists in StudentNation, an online section of the magazine written by young people. With generous support from the Puffin Foundation, StudentNation has published hundreds of talented young writers covering a wide range of issues through local reporting, firsthand accounts, interviews, and personal essays. The following material is adapted from three recent StudentNation articles. To see the original stories, go to TheNation.com/students.

    • Hardware

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • ScheerpostThe NFL: America’s Billion Dollar Blood Sport

        American football has always been a blood sport. It needs to change or die. Tackle must end.€ € Flags must come. And they will. Why?€ € Because human lives are at stake…and with them, a trillion-dollar industry. A century ago, football players were maimed and died in droves.€ € The college game was a cross between […]

      • Why did antivaxxers seize on the Damar Hamlin case?

        The tragic collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin on Monday night due to a cardiac arrest after a tackle led to a tsunami of conspiracy mongering from antivaxxers falsely insinuating (and outright claiming) that it had to be the COVID-19 vaccines that caused it. A lot of people were surprised by the ghoulishness of it all. They should not have been. False claims that vaccines kill have been a staple of antivax conspiracy narratives going back as long as I can remember, starting with false claims that vaccines are responsible for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and, more recently, that HPV vaccines were causing the deaths of adolescent girls and young women. As I mention every time I discuss the antivax “death after vaccination” narrative, there was even an antivax movie about Gardasil called€ Sacrificial Virgins…in 2018! The Damar Hamlin tragedy is a “teachable moment” because it has featured so prominently in the news over the last three day, which is why I want to discuss it further, particularly how it feeds into a false narrative that COVID-19 vaccines are killing young people, but not just young people, young healthy athletes as well. First, let’s discuss some background again.

      • The NationRepublicans Are Consigning the Poor to Disease and Death

        Covid-19 cases, predictably, have climbed as the weather turned cold in much of the country. As of mid-December, cases had jumped more than 50 percent, while deaths were up 40 percent.

    • Security

      • HackadayThis Week In Security: Lastpass Takeaway, Bitcoin Loss, And PyTorch

        We mentioned the LastPass story in closing a couple weeks ago, but details were still a bit scarce. The hope was that LastPass would release more transparent information about what happened, and how many accounts were accessed. Unfortunately it looks like the December 22nd news release is all we’re going to get. For LastPass users, it’s time to make some decisions.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

      • HackadaySalty Refrigeration Is Friendly To The Environment

        Widespread use of refrigerators is a hallmark of modern society, allowing people to store food and enjoy ice and cold beverages. However, a typical refrigerator uses gasses that are not always good for the environment. Now the Berkeley National Lab says they can change that using ioncaloric cooling, a new technique that uses salt as a refrigerant.

      • Common DreamsAmazon Breathes Sigh of Relief as Lula Returns to Power in Brazil

        The Amazon rainforest is often called the lungs of the planet, covering more than 3 million square miles across nine South American countries. It is an immense carbon sink, drawing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, storing it as biomass and releasing oxygen. Other tropical rainforests do the same, from the Congo Basin to New Guinea and Indonesian-occupied West Papua and Malaysia. But the Amazon is on a scale of its own, and, with human activity driving catastrophic global heating, protecting the climate-healing power of the Amazon is vital.

      • Common DreamsEPA Rule to Curb Deadly Air Pollution Fails Communities at Risk, Groups Warn

        While welcoming efforts to update U.S. air quality standards for soot, environmental and public health advocates on Friday warned that the Biden administration's new proposal falls woefully short of what's needed to protect vulnerable communities from deadly pollution.

      • Energy/Transportation

        • HackadayMycelioTronics: Biodegradable Electronics Substrates From Fungi

          E-waste is one of the main unfortunate consequences of the widespread adoption of electronic devices, and there are various efforts to stem the flow of this pernicious trash. One new approach from researchers at the Johannes Kepler University in Austria is to replace the substrate in electronics with a material made from mycelium skins.

      • Overpopulation

    • Finance

      • TruthOutWage Growth Slows as Unemployment Falls Back to Half-Century Low
      • Common Dreams'Bad News for Workers' as Wage Growth Slows Amid Fed Rate Hike Barrage

        The U.S. Labor Department released data Friday showing that wage and job growth slowed in December as the Fed explicitly targets the labor market and worker pay in its push to tamp down inflation, which has been cooling in recent months.

      • The NationCalifornia Hangs Its Homeless Population Out to Dry
      • Common DreamsA Progressive Political Economy Guide to Inflation

        Since 2021, prices have surged dramatically across countries and inflation has become a global challenge. Global central banks delivered historic rate hikes in 2022 in order to tame inflation and continued doing so even when inflation was falling, thereby risking a global recession.

      • The NationThe Congressional Progressive Caucus Expands

        Even while giving Republicans a narrow margin in the House of Representatives, voters elected a historic cohort of insurgent progressive newcomers, adding at least 11 new members to the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The CPC, which just reelected Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal as its leader, had numbered 101 members, making it the largest ideological caucus in the last Congress. It will grow in the new one, even after losing members to retirement (like Eddie Bernice Jackson of Texas), election to other offices (Karen Bass as Los Angeles mayor, Peter Welch as senator to Vermont), or election reversals (including, regrettably, one of the true champions of working people in Congress, Michigan’s Andy Levin, brought down by reapportionment and a multimillion-dollar dark money assault in the Democratic primary waged largely by AIPAC and Emily’s List).1

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent FreakYouTube Wins Partial Summary Judgment in Maria Schneider Copyright Lawsuit

          YouTube's motion for summary judgment in a class action lawsuit filed by musician Maria Schneider has been granted in part and denied in part. A California district court dismissed all claims related to 27 works, direct infringement claims against 15 works, and 121 other alleged infringements. Other infringement claims stand, and the case will continue.

        • Torrent FreakAnti-Piracy Group Warns of a Problematic Textbook Piracy Culture Among Students

          This week, a Danish court convicted a 26-year-old man for selling pirated digital copies of textbooks. The seller received a suspended jail sentence and was ordered to pay damages. While this incident has been dealt with, anti-piracy group Rights Alliance signals a broader piracy habit among students that has rightsholders worried.

        • TechdirtCopyright Has Kept De La Soul’s Classic 1st Album Off Streaming… Until Now

          For years, we’ve written about the copyright nonsense around sampling in hip hop music, and how it was treated with very, very different rules than things like cover songs and paying homage to previous artists in other forms of music. As we’ve mentioned for over a decade, filmmaker Kembrew McCleod did a full (fascinating) exploration of this in the documentary “Copyright Criminals” which is worth watching if you can find it. The trailer is here:


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



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