01.09.23

[Meme] Database Down? Check Your Wallet.

Posted in Deception, Finance, Servers at 9:41 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

A reboot always works, time to reboot my wallet

Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ is letting down (metaphorically in several senses of the word) its most loyal clients

When the Employer Doesn’t Pay the Bills, So Customers Suffer Outages/Downtimes, Repeatedly Even

Posted in Deception, Finance, Free/Libre Software, Servers at 9:35 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

One client even said it bluntly to our manager, accusing the company of “incompetence” (the examples below are only the managers’ fault)

sirius-competence

Summary: Dishonesty and non-technical problems became a norm under the new Sirius ‘Open Source’ CEO (or under his watch); today we give one client’s story as an example or a case study, where Sirius management is failing to pay upstream providers, resulting in catastrophes

THE “finaliser” of the company may not be the only misguided manager (or saboteur). He turned out to be the barrier and the burier [sic] of the company.

Today we give as an example two separate incidents impacting twice the same client, one year apart. Cause of outage? Not faulty hardware. Not faulty software, either. It was unpaid bills. Who failed to pay? Sirius. The client trusted Sirius to take care of it. Big mistake.

“Sirius failed to pay providers in two countries. The first such incident apparently didn’t serve as sufficient warning.”Without naming the client or the nature of the client’s work, let’s just say that it is a critical client, a longtime client (longest), which relies on real-time access to data and cannot afford downtimes (not long downtimes anyway; as alluded/hinted in this meme last month, the effects would potentially be devastating).

Sirius failed to pay providers in two countries. The first such incident apparently didn’t serve as sufficient warning. No lessons learned. Or maybe no money left in the bank. Remember that it also looks like Sirius could barely pay its own staff; it’s like they failed to pay our pension on several occasions/years; thankfully the pension provider started sending us more and more letters to warn us; it was waiting to report the company, maybe even impose penalties/fines as a result.

Making fun of companies or persons who cannot pay bills is no source for amusement/mockery, but if one company fails to pay another the latter may fail to pay its bills or even its staff. So that’s not fair. We’re not talking about food bills here; it’s stuff like hosting. They kept warning, repeatedly, before taking action (e.g. an E-mail saying payment was “overdue” and lots of warnings before that, for several months in fact).

“It’s absurd that pointing out such embarrassing realities would be deemed ‘defaming’ a company (with facts).”Was the client properly informed about what had happened or were those incidents brushed under the carpet, swept under some rug somewhere? This is the sort of stuff that made me unhappy about the company. The latter incident happened just months ago. I decided not to contact the client and instead hope the company would confess. That never happened though. A host wasn’t being paid for a very long time and then it issued warnings which escalated in severity. The client might also want to ask this host and see if there are overdue invoices right now (in 2023). Months ago the client had a very major outage after Sirius had racked up thousands of pounds in unpaid hosting bills (while trying to sell the client AWS ‘clown computing’, which would be vastly more expensive and I internally opposed efforts to move to it).

It’s absurd that pointing out such embarrassing realities would be deemed ‘defaming’ a company (with facts). The liars love to claim that everyone who says the truth is engaged in “defamatory” behaviour, as if defamation and truth became synonyms. The egoistic boss fails to understand that a company is not a person and facts are not defamation.

When an incident happened in 2021 the handover said: “Logged onto their portal and server is suspended due to unpaid invoice. Raised it with everyone on Slack, and xxxxx told me to tell xxxxx that we’re raising an important ticket with them. xxxxx paid the invoice and they lifted the suspension.”

The Slack messages at the time:

xxxxx: Does anyone know if xxxxx has been paid yet as xxxxx says he can’t get onto xxxxx
xxxxx: xxxxx is asking for an update. Can we pay xxxxx tonight or will we have to wait until tomorrow?
xxxxx: They have a fairly old-school process for accepting payment if I recall. It took a number of days to clear payment last time.
xxxxx: xxxxx and/or xxxxx put the payment through last time to a specific bank account.

“It took a number of days to clear payment last time,” it says. Not the first time. Lessons not learned.

“Three months ago another rather similar incident happened, but this time in another country and another hosting provider.”This is similar to the excuses we got when our pension wasn’t paid (on two separate years), even several months after the days in question. They blame the payment processor instead of those who failed (e.g. forgot) to make the payment!

Three months ago another rather similar incident happened, but this time in another country and another hosting provider. There was no mention of what had happened after the Big Boss was shuffling lots of credit cards, struggling to make a payment to the provider. To quote: “xxxxx and xxxxx emailed to say that xxxxx was down but we didn’t get any alerts so looked into it. Then one of their customers emailed to say they couldn’t login. xxxxx asked me to restart UIs which I did and the problem was resolved. xxxxx sent some questions to ask xxxxx who said he will look into it and get back to them tomorrow. I checked the db connections and there seems to be 380 open out of a possible 1000, but I’m sure xxxxx will be able to verify this too.”

Nothing was said about the failure to pay the bills. Are we meant to think nothing actually happened? Are we meant to lie to clients about this, wasting their time as they try hard to figure our the root cause?

Don’t work for chronic liars. If your employer starts lying a lot, consider your options. █

Links 09/01/2023: Kdenlive 22.12.1 and Alpine 3.17.1

Posted in News Roundup at 1:21 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  • GNU/Linux

    • 9to5Linux ☛ 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: January 8th, 2023

      This first week of 2023 was quite busy and packed with lots of great releases, starting with the approval of the Fedora Budgie and Sway official spins, Arch Linux’s first ISO release in 2023, OpenMandriva Lx’s first-ever rolling-release edition, and a major release of the Debian-based Nitrux distribution.

      On top of that, I present you with the Xfce apps roundup for December 2022, warn you about the end of life of the Linux 4.9 kernel series, and tell you all about the release schedule of the upcoming GNOME 44 desktop environment. Below, you can enjoy these and much more in 9to5Linux’s Linux weekly roundup for January 8th, 2023.

    • TecMint ☛ 10 Myths About GNU/Linux Operating System [Ed: A very old article reposted today with some changes]

      If you are getting started with Linux or have been using it for a while, there is a pretty good chance that you have stumbled upon some half-truths and misconceptions about it. Some of these myths can ultimately dissuade you from embracing and making the most out of the operating system.

      In this guide, we debunk some of the myths and half-truths going around about GNU/Linux operating systems.

    • Net2 ☛ Can Linux be used by businesses

      Linux is a popular open-source operating system that is used by businesses of all sizes. It is known for its stability, security, and flexibility, and offers a number of benefits and features that can be useful for businesses. However, it is not the right choice for every organization, and it is important to carefully consider the advantages and drawbacks of using Linux in a business setting before making a decision.

      [...]

      In conclusion, Linux can be a viable option for businesses that want to take advantage of its cost savings, customization options, security features, and reliability. However, it is important to carefully consider the compatibility and support issues that may arise, as well as the limited user base, when deciding whether Linux is the right choice for your organization. It may be necessary to weigh the benefits and disadvantages of Linux against those of proprietary operating systems in order to determine the best fit for your business. Ultimately, the decision to use Linux in your business will depend on your specific needs and goals.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

    • Applications

      • ByteXD ☛ 4 of the Best Free and Open-Source Password Managers

        We have to make our security-related decisions with a critical mindset. Because even if systems are secure, we are may still not prone to hacking.

        Interacting with computers requires some measures in order to get the most out of this relationship. One of these measures is using strong passwords, which should satisfy strict criteria we all encountered, such as mixing letter cases and using numbers and other characters. Not just that, but also to be a lengthy password 😑.

        Selecting only one strong password is troubling enough, not to mention the need to create countless passwords for all the sites you visit. Thinking of all that encourages people to take shortcuts, and in security, shortcuts mean vulnerabilities that directly impact the system.

        One of the best ways to counteract this dullness without compromising security is to use a password manager.

      • It’s FOSS ☛ OBS Studio 29 Release Has Little in Store For Linux

        OBS Studio is one of the most popular open-source screen recording and streaming software.

        Used by many Linux users and content creators, it has a pretty neat set of tools and features that lets you record and stream content.

        Its last major release was back in September 2022, which brought in native support for Apple Silicon, updated UI, improved color support, and more.

      • GamingOnLinux ☛ OBS Studio recording software v29.0 is out now

        OBS Studio, the very useful and popular recording and livestream software has a new release available with version 29.0 out now. As usual there’s plenty of features that only currently work on Windows, some that will hopefully come to Linux eventually when OBS have people to work on them.

      • Medevel ☛ Imagination: Standalone PowerPoint Alternative for Linux

        Imagination is a free open-source standalone app for creating beautiful presentation with outstanding page traditions.
        It is originally made for Linux and FreeBSD systems, in order to provide a solid alternative for the commercial software like Microsoft PowerPoint.

        Imagination is written in the C language, and it offers a smooth user-friendly experience, especially for users without tech experience.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Manuel Matuzovic ☛ Day 76: overwriting colors in font palettes

        You can use the override-colors property to override colors in a font palette.

        Color fonts come with one or more predefined color palettes. You can select them by using the font-palette property. You can also define your own color palettes or change specific colors in a palette using the override-colors property.

      • University of Toronto ☛ Let’s Encrypt’s complex authorization process and multi-name TLS certificates

        One of the things that people don’t like about Let’s Encrypt’s ACME protocol for getting TLS certificates is that it’s complicated (even beyond using JSON Web Tokens (JWT)). Part of this complexity is that it famously requires you to create and register an account, and the actual authorization process to get a TLS certificate for a domain involves this account in a multi-step process. You can readily come up with simpler single-step processes (such as the one in Another look at the steps for issuing a cert), so you can ask why ACME requires its multi-step process. It recently occurred to me that one reason for this is that it probably makes the logic of issuing a TLS certificate for multiple names simpler.

      • Tom’s Hardware ☛ How To Add Chat to OBS

        Before tackling this project it would be prudent to take a look at our How To Record in OBS and How to Stream on Twitch guides. Those two guides will act as a foundation for building the best stream for your viewers.

        Here is how to add chat to your stream using Facebook, Twitch (using StreamLabs and StreamElements and YouTube.

      • Beebom ☛ Why Is My Chromebook So Slow? 6 Fixes to Try! | Beebom

        Chromebooks rarely slow down over time, but if your Chrome OS device is not performing well, don’t worry. There are several ways you can try to improve a Chromebook’s performance and fix the issue. One option is to revert to an earlier build or update to the latest build, as this can resolve issues caused by a recent update. You can also identify any apps that may be causing the slow-down and close or uninstall them on your Chromebook. If you’re not sure which apps may be causing the issue, use the built-in task manager to help identify them. With that said, let’s look at the steps to troubleshoot and fix a Chromebook that’s running slow.

      • HowTo Forge ☛ Perfect Server Automated ISPConfig 3 Installation on Debian 10, Debian 11, Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04

        This tutorial shows you how to easily set up a web, email and DNS server with ISPConfig 3 using the ISPConfig auto-installation script….

      • ID Root ☛ How To Install LibreOffice on Rocky Linux 9 – idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install LibreOffice on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, LibreOffice is a free and open-source office suite and is often considered a good alternative to the Microsoft Office suite. It offers impressive features, a user-friendly interface, comprehensive, and compatible with MS Office files. LibreOffice is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems, and it can be downloaded and installed for free from the LibreOffice website.

        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 LibreOffice on Rocky Linux. 9.

      • LinuxTuto ☛ How to Install Mattermost on Ubuntu 22.04 – LinuxTutorials

        Mattermost is an open-source, self-hosted chat and collaboration platform that is designed for modern teams. Mattermost is an alternative to Slack.

        In this tutorial, we will show you the complete steps to install Mattermost on Ubuntu 22.04 with PostgreSQL database server.

      • Make Use Of ☛ How to Use KDE Discover to Manage Linux Apps, Widgets, and Much More

        Discover is the default package manager for the KDE Plasma desktop. Both Discover and KDE Plasma are found in a growing number of Linux distributions, including the version of Linux that powers the Steam Deck.

        True to its name, Discover can help you discover new software, but that’s only a small part of what the app does. This is also the primary way you download updates or remove installed apps. So if you’re new to KDE, let’s take a look at how this fundamental piece of software works.

      • Trend Oceans ☛ How to Setup and Enable WhatsApp Proxy on Linux

        When you are cut off from your loved ones for an extended period of time, how do you think you will feel? I mean, it’s bad, right? To solve this problem, WhatsApp made a feature called “WhatsApp proxy,” which lets you talk to your loved ones even if the government blocks or disrupts the connection.

      • Linuxiac ☛ How to Set up Automatic Updates on Fedora Linux

        This article shows how to set up the dnf-automatic service to apply updates automatically on a Fedora Linux.

        If you’re using Fedora as your operating system, keeping your system up to date with the latest software and security patches is important. One way to ensure your system stays current and secure is by setting up automatic updates. This process is simple and only takes a few easy steps.

        Fortunately, Fedora provides a ready-made solution to deal with this case that can be quickly and easily implemented without much effort. Following this guide, you can easily set up automatic updates on your Fedora system and never have to worry about manually updating again. So let me show you how.

      • TecMint ☛ How to Share Fedora Desktop Screen [GNOME] Remotely

        At some point, you might need to share the Fedora desktop screen (GNOME) desktop with other users for one reason or the other. There are multiple remote desktop-sharing applications that can help you achieve this.

        These include TeamViewer, AnyDesk, Remmina, and many others. These are all third-party applications that require installation.

        Ever heard of the ‘screen-sharing’ feature? This is a built-in tool that allows you to seamlessly share your GNOME screen.

        In this guide, we will demonstrate how you can share your GNOME Desktop screen in Fedora using the ‘screen-sharing’ feature.

      • Red Hat Official ☛ How to create a Ceph cluster on a single machine | Enable Sysadmin

        Ceph storage is common in many large-scale use cases, so simpler implementations for testing or training may go unnoticed.

      • TecAdmin ☛ How to Install Python3 on Pop!_OS {3 Methods} – TecAdmin

        Pop!_OS is a popular operating system based on Ubuntu, and like most operating systems, it comes with a default version of Python installed. However, you may want to install a newer version of Python or multiple versions of Python on your system for different purposes.

        Python is a popular programming language that is widely used in many fields, including data science, web development, and scientific computing. Pop!_OS is a popular operating system based on Ubuntu, and like most operating systems, it comes with a default version of Python installed. However, you may want to install a newer version of Python or multiple versions of Python on your system for different purposes.

        In this article, we will explore three methods for installing Python 3 on Pop!_OS: using the Pop!_OS package manager, using `deadsnakes` PPA, and building Python from the source.

      • ID Root ☛ How To Install Nomacs on Fedora 37 – idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Nomacs on Fedora 37. For those of you who didn’t know, Nomacs is a versatile and easy-to-use image viewer that is well-suited for a wide range of image viewing and editing tasks, and it is open-source software that is actively developed and supported by a large community of users and developers. It is designed to be lightweight and easy to use, and it supports a wide range of image formats, including BMP, JPEG, PNG, and TIFF

        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 Nomacs image viewer on a Fedora 37.

      • Linux Capable ☛ How to List RPM Package Dependencies with DNF – LinuxCapable

        Installing applications on Linux derivatives such as CentOS, Rocky Linux, and RHEL may require investigating the dependencies needed for the RPM packages you are installing with the DNF Package manager. Knowing what files and processes will be affected during an installation can help in certain situations, mainly around troubleshooting.

      • UNIX Cop ☛ How To Install Rudder on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS – Unix / Linux the admins Tutorials

        Rudder is an open source audit and configuration management utility to help automate system configuration across large IT infrastructures. Rudder relies on a lightweight local agent installed on each managed machine.

        In this guide, you will show you how to install Rudder on Ubuntu systems.

      • UNIX Cop ☛ How To Install QMPlay2 on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS – Unix / Linux the admins Tutorials

        QMPlay2 is a video and audio player. It can play all formats supported by FFmpeg, libmodplug (including J2B and SFX). It also supports Audio CD, raw files, Rayman 2 music and chiptunes. It contains YouTube and MyFreeMP3 browser.

        In this guide, we will show you how to install QMPlay2 on Ubuntu systems.

      • Linux Hint ☛ Linux Cat Command Examples

        In Linux, the “cat” is the concatenation of files which combines multiple files into a single file. There are other several uses of the cat command in Linux which we will talk in this article to give you an understanding of how it works in different scenarios.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Kdenlive ☛ Kdenlive 22.12.1 released – Kdenlive

          The first maintenance release of the 22.12 series is out with support for Akaso proxy files and a small improvement to audio pause/play. Some highlights include fixes to timeline preview rendering, copy/paste/move of keyframes in the rotoscoping effect, moving of clips on low zoom levels and avoid overlay issues with subtitles backgrounds with alpha.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • DebugPoint ☛ Piscesys: An “official” Cutefish OS Fork Arrives

      For those who don’t know – Cutefish OS is built primarily for general users who want a simple desktop Linux with a “macOS” look out of the box. The underlying Cutefish Desktop Environment (DE) features a Global menu, bottom dock, top panel, icon and cursor themes, and many other features. The desktop is built from scratch, based on Qt, Kwin and used C++ as the primary programming language.

      Piscesys, another Cutefish OS fork, is under development. here’s all the information you need to know.

    • New Releases

    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • Enterprisers Project ☛ 7 Kubernetes resources for IT leaders to bookmark in 2023

        Within the last several years, Kubernetes has evolved from being an emerging technology to a critical component of how enterprises operate. In 2022, The Enterprisers Project’s community of contributors shared thoughtful advice on how to continue to embrace Kubernetes. Whether your organization is resolving to adopt containers in the new year or you are an IT hiring manager seeking candidates with Kubernetes expertise, these articles will set you up for a successful 2023.

      • Enterprisers Project ☛ Artificial intelligence: 3 trends to watch in 2023

        The artificial intelligence (AI) market has been on a swift growth path for several years – so much so that the industry is expected to reach $42.4 billion in 2023. This momentum will continue, and we’re starting to realize it with the debut of powerful new AI-powered tools and services across industries.

      • Fedora Magazine ☛ Using OpenSearch in Fedora Linux – Fedora Magazine

        OpenSearch is Amazon’s open-source search engine and analytics suite. Individuals, businesses, and organizations can use the service to search for a wide range of information and use visualization tools to better understand user behavior and search trends. This article will discuss how you can use OpenSearch in Fedora Linux.

      • Please keep fedora-review alive | FrostyX.cz

        The fedora-review is an essential tool for reviewing new Fedora packages. It helps us ensure that they are of a good enough quality, don’t violate any licenses, and don’t unpleasantly surprise our users. And it needs more developers.

      • Copr – look back at 2022

        Let me sum up what the Copr team did during 2022.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

    • Devices/Embedded

      • Arduino ☛ This Arduino Nano-based synthesizer can produce a wide range of intriguing sounds | Arduino Blog

        Synthesizers have existed in their current form for several decades now. In essence, they generate simple waveforms that are then either added or subtracted together and modified through the use of filters, envelopes, and modulators to control pitch, volume, and several other characteristics. Due to their simplicity, many types of components can be combined to create them with a wide variety of unique characteristics.

        Built by Ignacio Ríos, his take on the synthesizer incorporates an Arduino Nano along with a series of buttons, potentiometers, and an amplifier to produce sounds. It starts by taking a carrier frequency that is modulated by a secondary oscillator, similar to how FM radio functions. From here, four potentiometers modify how the carrier frequency responds to the modulated wave. Another four potentiometers change the attack, decay, sustain, and release durations, all of which are read by the Nano’s onboard ADC.

      • Linux Gizmos ☛ 3D Vision Camera powered by NVIDIA Jetson Nano SoM

        This week, Orbbec presented a multi-mode Depth and 4K RGB camera capable of streaming processed images over Ethernet or USB in real-time. The Femto Mega leverages Microsoft’s ToF technology, a 6-DoF IMU along with an integrated Jetson Nano System-on-Module for AI processing. 

      • Hackaday ☛ Forth Cracks RISC-V

        Over the decades there have been many programming languages, some of which have flowered briefly, and others that have stuck around despite newer, better, and faster competition. Few languages embody this last group more than FORTH, over five decades old and still cropping up wherever a simple, elegant, fast, and compact stack-based programming language fits the bill. [Alexander Williams] has now taken it somewhere new, with a FORTH in RISC-V assembly which runs on the GD32 series of microcontrollers that are RISC-V lookalikes of the popular STM32 ARM parts.

      • [Repeat] GSM Arena ☛ Google proclaims official Android RISC-V support

        Google has officially announced that Android will support the RISC-V instruction set architecture. The announcement is from the RISC-V Summit held last month.

      • Hackaday ☛ Low-Cost 433 MHz Door Sensors Get Open Firmware

        It’s an unfortunate reality these days that if you see a cheap piece of consumer electronics, there’s a good chance its only cheap because it’s designed to lock you into some ecosystem where you’ll either end up paying a subscription, or worse, have your personal information sold behind your back. One of the best tools we have against these sort of anti-consumer practices is the development of open source firmware replacements that put control of the device into the hands of the community, rather than a corporation.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • OMG! Linux ☛ Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 Boasts Powered AutoFocus, HDR + More – OMG! Linux

        Say cheese — a brand new Raspberry Pi camera module has arrived!

        Unveiled today, the Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 is the first major camera update produced by the company since 2020.

        Naturally, plenty of big improvements are the frame. The Camera Module 3 boasts a higher resolution, and is available in variants that offer infrared, HDR, a wide angle field-of-view, and fast, powered autofocus.

        The Camera Module 3 uses 12-megapixel Song IMX708 sensor. This is larger than the camera sensor offered in the Camera Module 2, first released in 2016.

        A bigger sensor means sharper images, plus better low-light sensitivity. The 16:9 aspect ratio means the unit captures 1080p HD video at up to 50 frames per second, using the full area of the sensor.

      • CNX Software ☛ Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 launched with autofocus and HDR – CNX Software

        Raspberry Pi Trading has launched the Camera Module 3, their first camera module supporting autofocus and HDR, designed to work with all Raspberry Pi boards that can take a camera, and offered with either a standard or wide field-of-view, and an optional infrared cut filter.

        All four variants of the new camera module are equipped with a Sony IMX708 12MP sensor that supports high-dynamic range (HDR) and features phase detection autofocus. The Camera Module 3 has the same X/Y dimensions and mounting holes as the popular Camera Module 2 launched in 2016, but is several millimeters taller due to the improved optics.

      • Jeff Geerling ☛ Raspberry Pi’s Camera Module 3 adds autofocus and new Sony sensor

        Raspberry Pi just announced their new Camera Module 3, which comes in four variations (standard and wide angle, normal and NoIR for infrared use), and costs $35.

      • SparkFun Electronics ☛ The New RPi Camera Module 3

        Raspberry Pi is at it again! Their new Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 is now available here at SparkFun Electronics! We have three new product that all revolve around this new version of the Pi Camera Module and we are extremely excited to share them with you. Sit a spell and take a look!

      • [Old] Olimex ☛ AgonLight Open Source Hardware Retro Computer Running BBC Basic was captured in KiCad and updated by Olimex

        AgonLight is a well-documented small computer based on the Z80 family and running BBC BASIC.

        With a VGA output and a PS2 Keyboard this is a stand alone retro style computer.

        The project is open source hardware and software.

      • [Old] Olimex ☛ AgonLight2 now is officially certified by OSHWA as Open Source Hardware

        AgonLight2 now is officially listed on OSHWA.org directory as true Open Source Hardware project.

      • [Old] Olimex ☛ AgonLight2 update: embedded Hello world in BBC basic

        AgonLight2 is Z80 based retro computer running BBC Basic.

        The first thing you do with embedded computer is to run the Hello World equivalent i.e. to blink LED.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • Medium ☛ Optimizing our longest nightly job — a story of sessions, complexity, and toilets

        One day, we noticed that one of these commands was in fact still running after more than 20h, and that the next run would indeed be run before the previous one has ended. This was a big problem — not because the data could have been corrupted (it could not thanks to our idempotency requirement), but because it indicated clearly that we had a performance bottleneck, and probably some scalability issues down the line.

        We took on a mission to find out how to improve this run time; we learned a lot along the way. Come with us!

    • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

      • [Old] LibreOffice ☛ Perpetual Calendar

        A perpetual calendar that adapt to the language installed on the system.

    • Public Services/Government

      • FSFE ☛ FediGov seeks to promote sovereign communication in the public sector – FSFE

        Encouraging public institutions to communicate sovereignly is the aim of the FediGov campaign, launched by FSFE Switzerland and GNU/Linux.ch, that is asking individuals to explain to their local authorities the importance of sovereign communication in the public sector.

        Public administrations are currently using commercial social networks to establish direct communications, excluding residents that are not using the commercial services but alternatives that allow them to use the Internet in a self-determined and privacy-friendly way.

        These alternatives such as the Fediverse are also enjoying growing popularity, for example with many federal authorities in Germany. The Fediverse is a federated social network of free opensoftware servers (referred to as “instances”) with applications such as Mastodon that communicate with each other via a common protocol. Users have the option of operating their own instance or joining existing instances.

    • Programming/Development

      • Rlang ☛ Performance comparison of converting list to data.frame with R language

        When you are working with large datasets performance comes to everyone’s mind. Especially when converting datasets from one data type to another. And choosing the right method can make a huge difference.

        So in this case, I will be creating a dummy list, and I will convert the values in the list into data.frame.

        Simple function to create a large list (approx. 46MB with 250.000 elements and each element consists of 10 measurements).

      • MaskRay ☛ All about sanitizer interceptors

        Many sanitizers want to know every function in the program. User functions are instrumented and therefore known by the sanitizer runtime. For library functions, some (e.g. mmap, munmap, memory allocation/deallocation functions, longjmp, vfork) need special treatment. Sanitizers leverage symbol interposition to redirect such function calls to its own implementation: interceptors. Other library functions can be treated as normal user code. Either instrumenting the function or providing an interceptor is fine. In some cases instrumenting is infeasible (e.g. assembly source files, When can glibc be built with Clang?) or is inefficient, and interceptors may be the practical choice.

        This article talks about how interceptors work and the requirements of sanitizer interceptors.

      • Harish Pillay ☛ Open source codebases are the bedrock of today’s enterprise systems

        My friend and colleague, Vijira published a post summarising his technical keynote on “Open Hybrid Cloud: The Foundation for a Robust Digital Transformation” as part of Red Hat Summit Connect last year.

        There are key takeaways from the post and you should read that first before continuing here.

      • OpenSource.com ☛ Use this open source API gateway to scale your API | Opensource.com

        An API gateway is a single point of entry for incoming calls to an application programming interface (API). The gateway aggregates the services being requested and then returns the appropriate response. To make your API gateway effective, it’s vital for you to design a reliable, efficient, and simple API. This is an architectural puzzle, but it’s one you can solve as long as you understand the most important components.

      • Python

        • NextGenTips ☛ How to implement Celery with Django – NextGenTips

          Perhaps you might be wondering like me what the heck is Celery? Let’s begin by first understanding what Celery is. Celery is an open-source asynchronous task queue that is based on distributed message passing. And what is a task queue? A task queue’s input is a unit of work called a task. They are used as a mechanism to distribute work across threads or machines.

        • ByteXD ☛ How to Write to a CSV File in Python

          Knowing how to write to a CSV file in Python is essential for handling excel-related files and automating repetitive tasks. This tutorial shows you how to write to CSV file with (A) local data and (B) data scraped from a third-party website.

          Let’s get started.

  • Leftovers

    • Hackaday ☛ Spaceballs Get Serialized

      As much as we’d love a TV show version of the cult classic movie, we’re talking about a different kind of Spaceball. While there have been many iterations, [Evan] had a Spaceball built by a company known as Spacetec in 1991 and rebranded by HP. Being an older peripheral, he used the Orbotron 9001, a converter from RS232 serial to USB, to interface his Spaceball with modern devices.

    • Hackaday ☛ Can AI Replace Your DM?

      The current hotness is anything to do with artificial intelligence, and along with some interesting experiments comes a lot of mindless hype. The question is, what can it do for us! [Jesse] provides a fun answer by asking ChatGPT to perform as a Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master.

    • Online countries are not countries | Stop at Zona-M

      There is a book out there making the case for “network states”, that is “states” created out of nothing and nowhere by “a group of people who get together on the internet and decide that they’re going to start a country”, run and managed “in the cloud”, and paid with cryptocurrencies, of course.

    • CoryDoctorow ☛ Social Quitting

      This is where network effects and switching costs come into play. A service has “network effects” if it gets more valuable as users join it. You joined Twitter to talk to the people who were already using it, and then other people joined so they could talk to you.

      “Switching costs” are what you have to give up when you leave a service: if a service is siloed – if it blocks interoperability with rivals – then quitting that service means giving up access to the people whom you left behind. This is the single most important difference between ActivityPub-based Fediverse services like Mastodon and the silos like Twitter and Facebook – you can quit a Fediverse server and set up somewhere else, and still maintain your follows and followers: [...]

    • Counter Punch ☛ Sportswashed: Ronaldo Heads to Saudi Arabia

      It just keeps getting darker and darker.  For the professionally ignorant, things are only getting better.  With one of history’s great events of sportswashing concluded – the 2022 Qatar World Cup – another state famed for its cosmetic distractions and moneyed seductions made a splash.  Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal, his sun setting and his prospects diminishing among Europe’s top clubs, was signed to play in Saudi Arabia.

      He had been seething and fuming at Manchester United, increasingly cast into peripheral, bench warming roles.  The inner truculent brat screamed and found a voice on the ever humbly named show Piers Morgan Uncensored.  In a conversation between brats who felt they had been mistreated over the years, the impression given by Ronaldo was always going to be a love of the game over cash.

    • Counter Punch ☛ Letter From London: Take Me to the River

      One evening last week I walked down to Greenwich under an early evening sky in order to catch a River Bus to Westminster in central London. The shimmering lights on the Thames looked beautiful. It was one of those occasions when you remembered exactly why you loved London so much. The only reason the city was here and not somewhere else on the island of Britain was because of this river. And yet it was one of the most under-utilised parts of the city. How was that? To not embrace it felt shortsighted, risible. Like fat, traffic clogged up each and every artery, the trains and tubes not on strike were over-packed, while the river remained as empty as a country lane. Don’t get me wrong: there was much wrong with it — I can go into that later — but I always like walking to the water’s edge, even when not catching a boat. Just to know it is there is enough when you were born just a sand dune away from water yourself. I will go further. The Thames flows into the North Sea, which in turn flows into the Atlantic Ocean, which in turn meets the Pacific Ocean, telling us everything we need to know about the world being one. Incredibly, the Thames even used to be a tributary of the River Rhine. This was before what became the English Channel. Mind you, they also say we human beings evolved from a sea creature some 540 million years ago with a large mouth and no anus, so of course the Thames feels like home.

      A couple of smokers huddled by a street lamp and I could hear seagulls as I reached the ramp for the River Bus. I saw my fourth Arctic tern in a week, squawking at a group of London pigeons as if telling them they were nowhere to be seen on its latest 35,000 km (22,000 miles) round trip to Australia. (Truly.) When I stepped aboard the River Bus, the tern flew away. A lone passenger jet illuminated its flightpath and I could hear its engines across the night sky. This was when I stared back at the Christmas lights on the tall rigging of the Cutty Sark, thinking of that special time one bright and early morning when I caught a two-masted Danish brigantine called Soren Larsen from St Catherine’s Dock close to London Bridge. We had passed this very spot in Greenwich. The artist had been waiting tongue-in-cheek to wave me past. A policeman noticed the artist — everywhere was deserted; it was very early — and approached her to check she was okay. ‘My boyfriend is about to pass this very spot on a nineteenth-century sea clipper,’ she declared. He looked at her again: ‘Are you sure you’re okay, madam?’ he asked. At which point, two masts miraculously appeared around that gentle bend in the river towards Deptford, and the brigantine sailed past, dipping her Ensign as she did so. I could see the artist waving and of course waved back. The Soren Larsen however had just finished circumnavigating the globe as part of an official reenactment of the First Fleet to Australia, and I would later feel a complete fraud when feted and hugged by assembled strangers on the pier at Southampton where the journey for the rest of the voyage crew had several years ago begun.

    • Science

    • Education

    • Hardware

      • CNX Software ☛ Panthronics PTX30W is a 1W NFC wireless charging listener IC – CNX Software

        Panthronics PTX30W is an NFC wireless charging listener chip that can receive up to 1W as per the NFC Wireless Charging (WLC) specification unveiled in 2020 and integrates a power management unit and a Li-Ion battery charger. Offered in a compact 3.2mm2 (1.78 x 1.78 mm) WL-CSP package, the PTX30W will enable small battery-powered products, such as smartwatches and other wearables, to be charged over NFC. The chip can operate in standalone mode or connected to a host microcontroller, and the company claims it is around four times smaller than existing designs based on multiple discrete components. PTX30W features and specifications: Integrated NFC Wireless Charging Listener device Ffficient Active Rectifier RF interface according to Forum Type 2 Tag Li-Ion battery charger with charging current from 5mA to 250mA MCU LDO with 1.8V or 3.3V output, up to 50mA Embedded power negotiation logic High-efficiency NFC wireless charging listener IC with up [...]

      • Hackaday ☛ Recreating A Numpad For The ADM-3A

        [Evan] already had a working ADM-3A (a dumb terminal from 1976) but was starting to eye the accessories hungrily. He had only seen the numpad on Wikipedia and in the manual. So when he found some authentic stackpole numpads on a surplus sale, he grabbed them and converted them to be ADM-3A compatible.

      • Hackaday ☛ Building A Giant Remote Controlled Model Airbus A380 In A Year

        A year ago [Ramy RC] set out on a momentous challenge: to build a 1:21 scale Airbus A380-800 RC model with functional engines, landing gear and all other details. Recently he finished the project and published a video with a summary of the whole build process (also linked below). The full video series can be found on the Ramy RC channel. The final RC airplane came out at a massive wingspan of 3.9 meters (12.7′), a length of 3.6 meters (11.8′) and a weight of 25 kg. This weight is carried by the full landing gear of multiple bogeys that can retract much like on the real airplane.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • If 2022 was the “year of the gaslighter,” expect a lot more gaslighting in 2023

        Last year at this time, I wrote a post entitled 2021: The year the weaponization of VAERS went mainstream, to be followed by a more general post, Who could ever have seen this coming? The depressing thing that I just realized is that I could very easily have simply repurposed both old posts, changing the years and updating some of the examples used, and they would have been perfectly appropriate for this new year too. In fact, as depressing as it sounds, I could just revise and update the latter of these posts every year if I wanted to, and it would remain just as relevant, likely for however long I have left on this earth and many years beyond, assuming that someone takes up the banner after my passing and keeps it updated. This New Year, however, I thought I’d deal with a different narrative, one that COVID-19 minimizers, quacks, and antivaxxers have been claiming a lot recently, namely gaslighting. Like so many antivax narratives, the charge that against CDC, medical profession, government, and “Them” of “gaslighting” us about the pandemic is pure projection, but unfortunately it’s effective projection.

      • NPR ☛ Seattle’s schools are suing tech giants for harming young people’s mental health

        It blames them for worsening mental health and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, disordered eating and cyberbullying; making it more difficult to educate students; and forcing schools to take steps such as hiring additional mental health professionals, developing lesson plans about the effects of social media, and providing additional training to teachers.

      • GeekWire ☛ Seattle Public Schools sues TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and others, seeking compensation for youth mental health crisis

        The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, seeks “the maximum statutory and civil penalties permitted by law,” making the case that the companies have violated Washington state’s public nuisance law.

        Hundreds of families are pursuing similar cases against the companies, following revelations about the tactics used by Facebook, Instagram, and others to boost engagement among children and teenagers.

        However, Seattle Public Schools appears to be the first school district in the country to file such a suit against the companies.

      • US News And World Report ☛ Seattle Schools Sue Tech Giants Over S

        It blames them for worsening mental health and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, disordered eating and cyberbullying; making it more difficult to educate students; and forcing schools to take steps such as hiring additional mental health professionals, developing lesson plans about the effects of social media, and providing additional training to teachers.

        “Defendants have successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth, hooking tens of millions of students across the country into positive feedback loops of excessive use and abuse of Defendants’ social media platforms,” the complaint said. “Worse, the content Defendants curate and direct to youth is too often harmful and exploitive ….”

      • The Columbian ☛ Seattle Schools sues social media firms over youth mental health crisis

        The 90-page lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleges the social media companies intentionally market, design and operate their platforms to maximize engagement from young users for profit, and cites research linking social media use to mental and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, disordered eating and cyberbullying.

        “This mental health crisis is no accident. It is the result of the Defendants’ deliberate choices and affirmative actions to design and market their social media platforms to attract youth,” the lawsuit states.

        The lawsuit argues the tech companies have violated Washington’s public nuisance law and says SPS seeks “the maximum statutory and civil penalties permitted by law.”

      • [Old] Associated Press ☛ The Facebook Papers

        The Facebook Papers represents a unique collaboration between 17 American news organizations, including The Associated Press.

        Journalists from a variety of newsrooms, large and small, worked together to gain access to thousands of pages of internal company documents obtained by Frances Haugen, the former Facebook product manager-turned-whistleblower.

    • Security

      • LWN ☛ Security updates for Monday [LWN.net]

        Security updates have been issued by Fedora (python2.7), SUSE (ca-certificates-mozilla, libksba, and ovmf), and Ubuntu (linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.4, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.4, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-hwe-5.4, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.4, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.4, linux-raspi, linux-raspi-5.4, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-hwe, linux-azure, linux-azure-4.15, linux-dell300x, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-4.15, linux-hwe, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-raspi2, linux-snapdragon, linux, linux-aws, linux-kvm, linux-lowlatency, linux-raspi, linux, linux-gcp, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-hwe-5.15, linux-ibm, linux-kvm, linux-lowlatency, linux-oracle, linux-raspi,, and linux-aws).

      • Fixed security issue that affected tsp.opensuse.org – openSUSE admin – openSUSE Project Management Tool

        We were contacted by Lukas Euler from Positive Security, to inform us that Travel Support Program (TSP), the application we use to reimburse the costs of traveling to events where you can promote or are organized by the project, had a significant security flaw that impacted our and others’ production systems. We have since patched the vulnerability, contacted other organizations that also use the software, and have spent some time and wrote a script to parse logs, in order to asses the impact. Over the span of the last 2 years, the flaw has not been abused, outside of a script written by Lukas, which read contents of the production database via brute force.

      • Bleeping Computer ☛ Microsoft ends Windows 7 extended security updates on Tuesday

      • Privacy/Surveillance

      • Confidentiality

        • Filippo Valsorda ☛ SSH WHOAMI.FILIPPO.IO

          How it technically works is that the client sends public keys to the server until the server answers that it likes one of them, and then the client sends a signature from that key.[2] The client is allowed to skip the first part and start sending signatures right away, but it doesn’t because producing a signature might require user interaction (for example to decrypt the private key or to enter the PIN of a hardware token) and it’s bad UX to require that for a key the server will reject. This is also why age ciphertexts encrypted to SSH keys carry a hash of the public key: to let the client know if it should bother the user to decrypt an encrypted private key.

          (A neat consequence is that you can test what public keys a server accepts even without having the corresponding private key.)

          The second thing going on that might be unexpected is that your GitHub SSH keys are, well, public. For example, you can see mine at https://github.com/FiloSottile.keys.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

      • Counter Punch ☛ On Giuseppe Trani and the ‘Human Condition’: Positive Vibes for 2023

        When the newsstand of Giuseppe Trani was swept away by massive flooding that devastated the southern Italian town of Casamicciola, near Naples, the 70-year-old man lost everything.

        Not for long, though, as the townsfolk, who were also affected by the flooding and landslides experienced throughout the whole region, raised the needed funds to help Trani rebuild his kiosk.

      • Counter Punch ☛ Climate, Covid & Wishful Thinking

        The challenges presented by climate chaos and the Covid-19 pandemic have both elicited cultural responses that superficially appear to be opposed to one another, but that end up working hand-in-hand to bolster a status quo that’s intrinsically harmful to everyone. Both succeed by appealing to wishful thinking.

        In the case of anthropogenic climate chaos, the two clusters are centered around denialism and what we could call technophilia or perhaps techno-hopium. Climate chaos results from industrial-scaled agricultural civilization, so seriously addressing it would any would entail significantly changing that system, and—if we’re going to be honest—ultimately phasing it out. Avoiding such change is the shared motivation of both parties, so Team Denial shrilly insists that climate chaos is not real, or if real is “natural” rather than “man-made,” so there’s nothing we have to change about how we live. Team Technophile smugly assures us that it is real, but that “green energy” (so-called “renewables” like solar, wind & hydro) will solve the problem, so… there’s nothing we have to change about how we live.

    • Finance

      • Sign My Rocket ☛ Sign My Rocket

        NGO “Center Of Assistance To The Army, Veterans and Their Families” is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that has been operating since 2014 and focuses on helping units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Territorial Defense, Volunteer Forces in the struggle for Ukraine.

      • Counter Punch ☛ The First US Onslaught to “Weaken” Post-Cold War Russia.

        Even Before NATO Expansion, the West Sought to Strangle Russia Economically.

        The first post-cold war assault on Russia by the West began in the early 1990s well before the expansion of NATO. It took the form of a U.S.-induced economic depression in Russia that was deeper and more disastrous than the Great Depression that devastated the U.S. in the 1930s. And it came at a time when Russians were naively talking of a “Common European Home” and a common European security structure that would include Russia.

      • Counter Punch ☛ McKinsey’s Addiction Corporations

        Almost 30 years ago, tobacco CEOs were forced to answer questions – under oath. For the first time, corporate bosses had to admit that tobacco companies were designing cigarettes to sustain addiction – a dark day for corporate profits, tobacco corporations, and the ever supportive management consultancy firm: McKinsey. Yet, it was a good day for everyone else. Corporate CEOs also confessed that they had manipulated an addictive drug. But Big Tobacco wasn’t finished.

        The $157bn heavy tobacco giant Philip Morris shot back by trying to intimidate the media. The corporation did this by filing a $10bn lawsuit against two reporters and their employer – ABC News.

      • Common Dreams ☛ McCarthy Pledges Repeal of IRS Funding Meant to Target Wealthy Tax Cheats

        Soon after the U.S. House reconvenes Monday to vote on the rules package containing many of the concessions House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made to secure to votes of far-right Republicans, the party is also expected to introduce what the new leader said early Saturday would be its “very first bill”: a proposal repealing new Internal Revenue Service funding meant to help audit the wealthiest Americans.

      • Common Dreams ☛ The Republican Party Is Now More Dangerous Than It’s Ever Been

        Very early Saturday morning, Kevin McCarthy finally won on the 15th round of voting for Speaker.

      • Common Dreams ☛ McCarthy Did Not “Cave” To the Right-Wing. He Is the Right-Wing

        After a bitter, grueling, melodramatic and days-long contest on the House floor, Kevin McCarthy was finally elected as Speaker of the House just after the clock struck midnight on the early morning of January 7.

      • Counter Punch ☛ Unemployment Falls Back to Half-Century Low, But Wage Growth Slows

        The pandemic increase in the length of the average workweek has been completely reversed.

        The December employment report showed a very strong labor market but much less evidence of inflationary pressures than in prior months. The unemployment rate fell back to 3.5 percent, its half-century low. The U-6 measure of labor market slack fell to 6.5 percent, its lowest level on record.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The Hill ☛ Elon Musk secures world record for largest-ever loss of personal fortune

        While the true figure is unclear, Musk’s losses appear to easily surpass those of the previous record-holder, Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son, who lost $58.6 billion in 2000.

      • Guiness World Records ☛ Elon Musk suffers worst loss of fortune in history amid “market madness”

        Elon Musk (South Africa) has officially broken the world record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history.

        He has lost approximately $182 billion (£153B; €173B) since November 2021, as estimated by Forbes, although other sources suggest that it could actually be closer to $200 billion.

      • LRT ☛ Is Facebook truly neutral? – opinion

        While Russia is using social media “to create diversion in Europe”, Facebook is routinely banning and blocking those advocating for Ukraine, writes Robert van Voren, professor at Vytautas Magnus University (VDU) in Kaunas and head of the Andrei Sakharov Research Center for Democratic Development in Lithuania.

      • Telex (Hungary) ☛ Orbán’s goal is to make Hungary a regional middle power in Central Europe according to his political director
      • Common Dreams ☛ Three Possibilities for the War in Ukraine in 2023

        In the end, as in any war, the most important factor in the future course of the Ukraine conflict will be what happens on the battlefield. There are essentially three possibilities, though each of these would bring in its wake a range of potential consequences: a Ukrainian breakthrough; a Russian breakthrough; and a stalemate roughly along the present lines of military control.

      • Insight Hungary ☛ Orban is the only EU leader who received holiday greetings from Putin

        The Kremlin published a statement last Friday that included  Vladimir Putin’s Christmas and New Year wishes. Only three EU politicians received holiday greetings from the Russian president: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and former heads of government Silvio Berlusconi and Gerhard Schröder.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

        • Salon ☛ The “copaganda” epidemic: How media glorifies police and vilifies protesters

          Current crime reporting is not based on “criminological facts” but continues to repeat familiar narratives that helped drive the mass-incarceration binge. As Hechinger detailed, reporting is marred by “alarmist headlines” and “dehumanizing language” with “overly simplistic stories” that “provoke fear in the public.” Indeed, the narrative elements Hechinger described follow the storylines of the docu-cop reality shows that aired on Fox and other networks in the 1980s and ’90s, which were often mirrored in local news reporting. Today, the misleading narratives show up across the media, even in prestigious newspapers.

          Fear-based coverage of the FBI report excluded the perspectives of public defenders, social workers, health professionals, academics, researchers and communities with direct experience of the criminal justice system. Foreclosing those voices with editorial selections of “newsworthy” sources is a hallmark of News Abuse. In this case, as Hechinger noted, it allowed police “to use their failures to demand more resources, more funding, more support.” The pro-police framework for reporting on crime and justice issues serves to misdirect policy discussions on policing and blocks solutions to corruption, police brutality and the criminalization of people and communities of color.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • ANF News ☛ Two men executed in Iran on Saturday were a karate champion and a volunteer children’s trainer

        Following the executions, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the European Union urged Iran to immediately suspend the latest death sentences and provide a fair legal process for all detainees.

      • RFERL ☛ U.S. Condemns Executions In Iran Of Two More Men In Connection With Protests

        “This is yet another sign of the Iranian authorities’ violent repression of civilian demonstrations,” Borrell’s spokesperson said. “The European Union calls once again on the Iranian authorities to immediately end the strongly condemnable practice of imposing and carrying out death sentences against protesters.”

      • Barrons ☛ Iran Sentences Three More To Death Over Amini Protests

        Iran has sentenced to death three more people, accused of killing three members of the security forces during the protests triggered by Mahsa Amini’s death, the judiciary said Monday.

        The Islamic republic has been rocked by civil unrest since the September 16 death of Kurdish Iranian Amini, 22, following her arrest for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.

        The latest sentences, which can still be appealed, bring to 17 the total number of people condemned to death in connection with the more than three months of protests.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • Associated Press ☛ W.Va. journalist let go after reporting on abuse allegations

        File said in a statement that Knisely was never fired and remains on the WVPB payroll, though she said her door key and email were deactivated.

        Knisely’s departure comes during a tumultuous time for West Virginia media. Days before she left WVPB, three reporters for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Gazette-Mail said they were fired after publicly criticizing an editorial decision by their company president Doug Skaff, who is minority leader in the state House of Delegates. Skaff approved and led a video interview with Don Blankenship, a coal company executive convicted of safety violations connected to one of the worst coal mining disasters in recent U.S. history.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Kev Quirk ☛ Home vs Office Working

        Some people prefer home work, others like to be in the office. Here’s my opinions on the whole debate.

      • TruthOut ☛ Incarceration and Ableism Go Hand in Hand, Says Abolitionist Talila Lewis
      • Scheerpost ☛ Why the Godfather of Human Rights Is Not Welcome at Harvard

        Kenneth Roth, who ran Human Rights Watch for 29 years, was denied a fellowship at the Kennedy School. The reason? Israel.

      • TruthOut ☛ “Thirst” Updates the Vampire Genre for Our Age of Rising Fascism
      • Common Dreams ☛ Thousands in Israel March Against ‘Fascism and Apartheid’ at Anti-Netanyahu Protests

        Carrying signs reading, “Together against fascism and apartheid” and “Democracy in danger,” thousands of Israelis on Saturday marched in protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government, which less than a week after being sworn in has already threatened to strip the country’s judiciary of power and announced punitive measures against Palestinian people and leaders.

      • Common Dreams ☛ Ben Gvir’s Arrogant Provocation at Al Aqsa Strains Middle Eastern Relations

        On January 3, Israel’s new National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of the fascist Jewish Power party visited the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, in an attempt to stir controversy. He succeeded.

      • Counter Punch ☛ The Cow-Patty Stench of Texas’s Death Penalty

        The putrid stink of Texas’s death penalty—with its rancid racism, rotten dehumanization, and moral depravity—is about to get worse.

        Despite a mental-gymnastics-inducing headline—“Inmates allege Texas plans to use unsafe execution drugs”—Associated Press (AP) reporter Juan Lozano helpfully explains: “Texas plans to use expired and unsafe drugs to carry out executions early this year in violation of state law, three death row inmates allege[.]” Two of the condemned men, John Balentine and Wesley Ruiz, have execution dates in early February, whereas Robert Fratta is scheduled for execution January 10.

      • Scheerpost ☛ Chris Hedges: America’s Theater of the Absurd

        The 15 rounds of voting it took to install Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House is part of the carnival of folly that passes for politics.

      • Counter Punch ☛ Conspiracy Theorists are Missing the Real Scandal of Abused Power

        On 1 October 1963, the CIA station in Mexico City intercepted a phone call to the Soviet Embassy. Speaking in broken Russian, the caller said his name was Oswald and asked if there was any reply to his request for a Soviet visa made in person a few days earlier. After consulting a colleague, the guard on duty said that no reply had been received.

        The CIA memo about the call is part of a vast trove of previously classified US government documents relating to the assassination of President Kennedy, made public just before Christmas in the teeth of objections from the CIA and the FBI.

      • TruthOut ☛ CIA-Backed Units Killed Hundreds of Afghan Civilians in Brutal Night Raids
      • Counter Punch ☛ Are the New Congressional Progressives Real?

        What follows is an encore for a column I wrote in 2018 for the new progressive Democrats elected to the House of Representatives. The Democratic Party won control of the House in 2018, and again barely in 2020. There was no response nor adoption of any of these power-enhancing suggestions from any of the novice legislators in those two election cycles.

        I am now sending to the entering class of 2022 these helpful tools to strengthen both their efforts and those of the citizen groups in the halls of Congress.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Internet Freedom Foundation ☛ TRAI-caller? We tell TRAI why it is a bad idea.

        The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India released its consultation paper on the ‘Introduction of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) in Telecommunication Networks’ on 29th November 2022. We have submitted comments on the citizens’ privacy-centric issues identified in the consultation paper. In our comments, we have suggested that the service must be made opt-in with clear notice to the end users to their enable informed consent; a central database should be avoided since it increases the threat surface to privacy risks. It must be enabled only after a data protection law is in place.

        [...]

        Telephone consumers have voiced their need to identify the calling party, which is currently not met by the Calling Line Identification (CLI) supplementary service. This can be achieved through a name presentation facility that would display the identity of the calling party on the called party’s telephone. Additionally, they have raised concerns about robocalls, spam calls, and fraudulent calls. Robocalls are automated calls used to dupe consumers financially, spam calls are unsolicited marketing calls that bypass the do-not-disturb feature, and fraudulent calls may aim to obtain details of bank accounts or OTPs with an aim to defraud consumers.

        There is a concern that without the CNAP facility, the CLI service does not provide enough information for consumers to trust that a call is genuine. As a result, even genuine calls are going unanswered, resulting in missed opportunities for both the caller and the receiver.

        [...]

        It is important for telecommunications companies to ensure that they obtain the consent of telephone subscribers before activating the CNAP service. This can help to protect the privacy of users and ensure that the service is used responsibly and ethically. TRAI and the TSPs can run awareness campaigns and encourage users to sign up for the CNAP service.

        We have opposed using Customer Acquisition Forms (CAFs) for the purpose of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP). Apart from the risk of being inaccurate, using CAFs for CNAP lacks explicit consent and can lead to potential misuse of personal information.

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

    • Monopolies

      • Broadband Breakfast ☛ More Big Tech Regulation, Tim Wu Leaving White House, Microsoft Antitrust Hearing

        Still, the FTC is concerned about Microsoft’s alleged history of acquiring content to suppress competition, noting in December that “Microsoft would have both the means and motive to harm competition by manipulating Activision’s pricing, degrading Activision’s game quality or player experience on rival consoles and gaming services, changing the terms and timing of access to Activision’s content or withholding content from competitors entirely.”

      • [Old] Reuters ☛ First pre-trial hearing in Microsoft-Activision case set for Jan. 3

        The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which enforces antitrust law, asked a judge to block the transaction earlier this month, arguing that the merger would allow Microsoft’s Xbox to get exclusive access to Activision games, leaving Nintendo consoles and Sony’s PlayStation out in the cold.

      • Patents

        • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Demonstration EPO staff during meeting about re-election president Campinos

          The demonstration has been organised by trade union Suepo. According to an announcement distributed among Suepo members, Campinos was elected and mandated by the Administrative Council in 2018 to restore social dialogue at the EPO after the harsh years of president Benoit Battistelli, but failed to do so. ‘EPO staff hoped the new President elect would put an end to the breaches of fundamental rights’, but is instead ‘protecting Mr Battistelli’s inheritance as long as possible and at all costs’.

          ‘Mr Campinos continues the attacks against staff representation and trade unions by banning them from freely using mass-emails on EPO lines and disbanded in 2021 any secretarial support for staff representation. There are also warning signs that staff representation and unions will be hidden further clicks away in the new Intranet.

          Since 2012, the EPO is consistently testing the limits of Employment Law and feels only governed by the Tribunal. In this respect, Mr Campinos continues to act along the line of his predecessor.’

        • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Top 10 of most popular articles in 2022: less UPC than expected, much on EPO social climate

          An outburst of anger of a president and his re-election, social tensions, industrial actions: for anyone familiar with the world of patents it will be clear that all this refers to the European Patent Office, which drew a lot of attention on the Kluwer Patent Blog last year, even more than the biggest change in the European patent landscape in decades, the upcoming Unitary Patent system. Below the overview of the ten most read articles of 2022.

        • [CE] January 2023 press articles

          (Kluwer Patent Blog published on 09/01/2023) “Top 10 of most popular articles in 2022: less UPC than expected, much on EPO social climate”. Translations are available in German, French and Dutch.

      • Copyrights

        • Internet Archive ☛ Welcoming 1927 to the Public Domain

          This year we are welcoming works from 1927 into the public domain in the United States, including books, periodicals, sheet music, and movies.

          Big events of 1927 include the first transatlantic phone call from New York to London, the formation of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the first successful long distance demonstration of television, the release of the first popular “talkie,” The Jazz Singer, and the first nonstop transatlantic solo airplane flight, from New York to Paris, by Charles Lindbergh.

        • Torrent Freak ☛ Belarus Legalizes Piracy of Movies, Music & Software of ‘Unfriendly’ Nations

          Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko has signed a new law that legalizes piracy of movies, music, TV shows and software owned by rightsholders from ‘unfriendly countries’. The law also allows goods protected by intellectual property law to be imported from any country without obtaining permission from rightsholders.

        • Torrent Freak ☛ Spammers Exploit IMDb to Promote Fishy Movie Piracy Sites

          The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is littered with scammy advertisements for pirate streaming sites. Whether it’s the latest Avatar movie or an episode of “Loki”, you can easily ‘find’ it on the site. IMDb appears to be the ideal target for this type of spam, as these pages are more likely to rank well in search results.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • 🔤SpellBinding: AGIMOSY Wordo: ROADS
      • 2023 Week 1: Thoughts and Photos

        In previous years, I’ve used this kind of log to collect various thoughts and catch-up content that doesn’t (yet) warrant a full post of its own. Since I have some goals for 2023, or at least habits I want to form and aspirations to motivate me, I’d like to start logging my progress in relation to them in these posts.

        I have a large backlog of books to read this year. Last night I finished “Mistborn” by Brandon Sanderson, which was quite a ride. My next target is to finish the novel written by former coworker, mostly so that I can give him feedback on the manuscript. He asked me to read it almost a year ago; it’s past time for me to get back to him on it.

      • New Year, Same Me

        It’s been a while since I’ve written anything for my gemlog. I had stuff going on irl but also not a lot to say in general. I wanted to at least post _something_ to commemorate the new year, so this is it.

        I’ve thought a lot about new years resolutions. I was thinking of things I wanted to accomplish or strive towards, but anything I thought to make my official resolution was likely carried over from 2022. This isn’t to say that I didn’t accomplish what I wanted in 2022, it’s just that the big picture goals I’m working towards are slow going and I’ve been learning to practice patience with myself in achieving them.

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

Team UPC is Trying to Misuse Copyright Law in Order to Censor Critics of the UPC Collusion (a Scheme to Violate Constitutions and Craft an Illegal Kangaroo Court in Defiance of International Conventions)

Posted in Deception, Europe, Intellectual Monopoly, Patents at 12:19 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Let's get artistic then…

Klaus Grabinski Met António Trump

Received minutes ago over IRC:

Dear Sir, Dear Madam, We noticed that Mr. Schestowitz used a photo from which we are the copyright holders, without our authorization, in a post on the website with the following URL: http://techrights.org/2022/11/21/upc-partners-in-crime/ This use constitutes an infringement on the copyrights of Mr. Johan Liénard and the FPS Economy

according to article XI.165 of the Belgian Code of Economic law. At no time did Mr. Johan Liénard and the FPS Economy agree to the publication of the concerned photo in its present form in the post

We therefore ask you to immediately remove the concerned photo and cease any further use of it. If not, we will feel obliged to take the necessary further steps to obtain the cessation of this infringement.

We thank you in advance for your collaboration and remain, With kind regards, Johan Liénard and Jérôme Debrulle on behalf of the FPS Economy.

Summary: The second time in months [1, 2] that EPO friends and UPC fiends (Jérôme Debrulle named above, he’s a major part of the UPC collusion) engage in a kind of copyright trolling in an obvious attempt to intimidate prominent critics of their illegal actions? The self-incriminating photo is the only one of its kind (taken and disseminated foolishly by the perpetrators) and copyright law must not be misused by rich criminals to cover up their crimes (or prevent press coverage on it); they must be hurting because German media has caught up with this epic scandal and is covering it

This is also fair use (bypassing maximalists):

BELGIUM IS NEUTRAL; Jérôme Debrulle: Go for it!

Bunch of ‘copyright nazis’ and button-feeders for Benoît Battistelli.

By the way, I do not live in Belgium. A “dude with a camera” taking a shot of two men is no work of art. He helped promote white-collar criminality and now he doesn’t like the consequences.

EU Copyright Law

Also see The Quotation Exception under EU Copyright Law: Paving the Way for User Rights (2021)

When the Employer Doesn’t Grasp the Simple Fact That Lies Come Back at You (and Lying to Clients or Staff is a Very Bad Idea)

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software at 8:15 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum 8a0c716f5505ae9716a939a2824a5a3e
Sirius False Pretences
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: The Sirius ‘Open Source’ CEO built his repertoire on lies; technical staff did antagonise these lies, but it did not help; today I show how he lied about what had initiated his “investigation” and the company lied about his predecessor, too (they’ve managed to ‘normalise’ deceit all across the board)

THE company I left last month is a lot dodgier than I had realised (from within). We shall see where the shells go… US? Another residential address in the UK? How far does the nepotism go and can any Sirius worker be honest about what’s going on? A company that is honest to staff and to clients doesn’t have such issues; it doesn’t need to hide lots of skeletons in a closet. Just be honest and consistency will follow (as opposed to shuffling excuses and phony timelines).

A lot went wrong with the company when the CEO took money from the Gates Foundation under an NDA; proving a correlation is hard, but things have never been the same. The bullying against my wife and I started only weeks later (same time I was investigating extremely damning things about Bill Gates).

“That article shows how the CEO was stalking IRC and when he saw a name mentioned he decided to use that as a sort of pretext (to make it seem like a client had complained).”The video above focuses on one rather obvious example of lying. It starts with me showing our Cisco phone (now obsolete) and lousy copy-paste job by the CEO, in effect reusing accusations against two different people. Towards the end it shows the latest meme and article. That article shows how the CEO was stalking IRC and when he saw a name mentioned he decided to use that as a sort of pretext (to make it seem like a client had complained). He not only used this unrelated mention to allege somebody had complained; he took it further than this to do the same to my wife. But I spoke to the person in question. The person did not complain. The CEO of Sirius is lying. The company is basically built on a thick layer of lies.

To conclude the video, it’s worth mentioning that the ‘original’ terrible manager (not the wife of the CEO, who was the predecessor, but a former colleague of his from the Open Source Consortium) already damaged the morale of all the staff. Many left weeks/months later and those who stayed were suffering abuse. We’ve mentioned it many times, as that is how things deteriorated 4 years ago, but we need to emphasise it again.

“We’ve mentioned it many times, as that is how things deteriorated 4 years ago, but we need to emphasise it again.”The company said that she went away for a long holiday and then silence… she would never come back. How mysterious. That was a lie. Months passed and not a word was spoken; then one of the colleagues, who had suffered abuse from her, asked if she is ever coming back. The rest of us also wondered, “Where is she? Is she still on a holiday?”

The company didn’t even bother to reply. She just vanished without a trace… good riddance. But why lie about her going on holiday? This wasn’t the only time colleagues were just vanishing without an explanation. We gave examples last month. In short, the predecessor and the current CEO are the same awful imposters, only the gender has changed, and some of the workers might say the current one is even worse. Worst ever. █

IRC Proceedings: Sunday, January 08, 2023

Posted in IRC Logs at 5:46 am by Needs Sunlight

Also available via the Gemini protocol at:

Over HTTP:

HTML5 logs

HTML5 logs

#techrights log as HTML5

#boycottnovell log as HTML5

HTML5 logs

HTML5 logs

#boycottnovell-social log as HTML5

#techbytes log as HTML5

text logs

text logs

#techrights log as text

#boycottnovell log as text

text logs

text logs

#boycottnovell-social log as text

#techbytes log as text

Enter the IRC channels now

IPFS Mirrors

CID Description Object type
 QmWbyqJeVDR9CLkuAyzmDaaU6HZXd3kNoFV2TmmN6JHem2 IRC log for #boycottnovell
(full IRC log as HTML)		 HTML5 logs
 Qmat3JR7bxUepFgk3ikyw2B77mgqFin6U2d79tSGHkfJq6 IRC log for #boycottnovell
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(full IRC log as plain/ASCII text)		 text logs
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(full IRC log as plain/ASCII text)		 text logs
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(full IRC log as HTML)		 HTML5 logs
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(full IRC log as plain/ASCII text)		 text logs

IPFS logo

Bulletin for Yesterday

Local copy | CID (IPFS): QmbFV6peVFMZsZY7FaWNnySZodvNZvLZxsmZLhrRDeDH9q

Links 09/01/2023: Roundup of CRAN Packages and More

Posted in News Roundup at 4:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Jupiter Broadcasting ☛ A New Challenge Approaches | LINUX Unplugged 492

        Join us on a journey to true software freedom. We embark on our 30-day challenge and discover a whole new philosophy that will change the way you think about technology.

      • Tux Digital ☛ 307: Our Open Source Goals for 2023 – Destination Linux – TuxDigital

        This week’s episode of Destination Linux, we’re going to discuss open source projects the crew wants to take on in 2023. Then we discuss Budgie and Sway getting all official on us with Fedora. Plus, we have our tips/tricks and software picks. All this and more coming up right now on Destination Linux to keep those penguins marching!

    • Applications

      • Linux Handbook ☛ 7 Reasons NeoVim is Better Than Vim

        7 Reasons Why Developers Prefer NeoVim Over Vim
        The Vim editor is a successor to the vi editor found on the original UNIX. As a fork of Vim, Neovim is an editor that aims to improve the quality of life for all developers, better than Vim.

        Vim is an excellent choice for experienced sysadmins. However, NeoVim has gathered a significant following among developers.

        Wondering why more developers are choosing NeoVim over Vim? As an ardent NeoVim user, I can think of the following reasons.

      • TecMint ☛ 16 Best Web Browsers I Discovered for Linux in 2023 [Ed: This headline is a lie; they keep recycling old articles, sometimes editing the headlines a bit to make them seem new]
      • TecAdmin ☛ 10 Most Popular Open Source Linux Shells – TecAdmin

        The Linux shell is a command-line interface that allows users to interact with the operating system and execute commands. There are several different types of Linux shells available, each with its own set of features and characteristics. In this article, we will introduce the 10 most popular open-source Linux shells, which are widely used by developers, system administrators, and other users around the world.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • DebugPoint ☛ How to Install EndeavourOS: Step-by-Step Guide

        EndeavourOS is an Arch Linux-based distribution which became popular in the last couple of years. It is easy to use because of installation methods, unique native scripts and tools and user-centric desktop design. EndeavourOS is the best starting point for Arch for beginners.

        On top of that, it comes with popular desktop environments (Xfce, KDE Plasma, GNOME, etc.) and window managers to choose from.

        This tutorial will teach you how to install Endeavour OS in a physical system with dual boot with Windows. And you can follow these steps for a single-install system.

      • Linux Hint ☛ Touch Command in Ubuntu 22.04

        The touch command in Ubuntu 22.04 serves various purposes such as generating files or sets of files, altering the modification or access times of files, etc. Moreover, this command can be used to classify the files based on their timestamps without causing any changes to the files. Besides this, you can set the date and time of modification of a file according to your desire using the touch command.

      • Learn Ubuntu ☛ Check Disk Space in the Ubuntu Command Line

        And if you are curious, the -H option with the df command is used to get output in human-readable form.

        You can clearly see, it gave me all the necessary details like the size of the disk, used space, available space, and mounting point.

        Want to know more methods of checking disk space? Here you have it.

      • LinuxTechi ☛ How to Install Minecraft on Ubuntu 22.04 Step-by-Step [Ed: Microsoft-controlled and proprietary; use something like minetest instead.]
      • Joe Brockmeier ☛ A little Calibre trick: Set series order in metadata : Dissociated Press

        Many book series do not make it abundantly clear what order the series is in by book title. If you are reading, say, Larry Niven’s Ringworld series, it’s not clear from book titles what order the series is in. So you finish Ringworld and then you are ready to start the next book, but is it The Ringworld Engineers or The Ringworld Throne or Ringworld’s Children? Here’s how to make that obvious on your ebook reader.

      • Trend Oceans ☛ How to Connect to Wi-Fi from the Terminal Command Line in All Major Linux Distributions – TREND OCEANS

        In all major Linux distributions, you can easily connect to Wi-Fi from the command line. Learn every step required and get connected with this tutorial today!

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Ubuntu Handbook ☛ Try out GNOME’s New Window Focus Animation in Ubuntu 22.10/Fedora 37 | UbuntuHandbook

          Gnome, the default desktop environment in Ubuntu & Fedora Workstation, is going to replace the app menu with a new window animation, for indicating window focus.

          Meaning it will remove the app menu for current window, in the top-bar beside ‘Activities’ button. Because, it’s always confusing users who are new to GNOME.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Debian Family

      • Junichi Uekawa: Uploaded Debian packages, since a long time.

        Uploaded Debian packages, since a long time. enumn and remain are rust packages, and needed for crosvm. Working slowly through the dependency chain.

      • Gunnar Wolf ☛ Gunnar Wolf• Back to Xochicalco

        Some of the regulars that follow this blog (or its syndicators) will remember Xochicalco, as it was the destination we chose for the daytrip back in the day, in DebConf6 (May 2006).

        [...]

        Xochicalco is quite unique among our archaeological sites, as it was built as a conference city: people came from cultures spanning all of Mesoamerica to debate and homogeneize the calendars used in the region. The first photo I shared here is by the Quetzalcóatl temple, where each of the four sides shows people from different cultures (the styles in which they are depicted follow their local self-representations), encodes equivalent dates in the different calendaric systems, and are located along representationsof the God of knowledge, the feathered serpent, Quetzalcóatl.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Control

      • Ruben Schade ☛ Computers don’t do what you “want”

        It’s useful to think about. There’s no spirit of the law for computers; they live in absolutes. A program you write will be executed faithfully to perform the actions you prescribed, regardless of our aims. We may sometimes anthropomorphise or project ill intentions on these damned machines, even go as far as to pretend they have artificial intelligence. But that’s on us.

        It’s also not universal. Developers, like physicists, live in the abstract; only to be rained on by the physical world. Faulty silicon, degraded physical connections, and unreliable networks can result in computations being done that aren’t what you want, or even what you told it. The Pentium FDIV bug is a classic example, but it could even be something as mundane as coming short in the silicon lottery, or the heatsink falling off your RAID controller at 03:00.

    • Programming/Development

      • Qt ☛ Qt as a Career – The Versatility of Technical Artistry

        In this series, we’ll be bringing you a variety of career stories from people working with Qt.

      • Red Hat ☛ How to use valgrind to track file descriptors | Red Hat Developer

        A file descriptor is a positive integer number representing resources that can do input or output. Naturally, they can represent files that your program opens, but also network sockets and pipes between programs. Also, file descriptors can be created for monitoring timers, signals, and process ids.

        File descriptors are, by default, a limited resource. ulimit -n will show you what the default number of file descriptors that a program can open. A program can normally have only 1024 file descriptors open. Although this number can be increased (also using ulimit -n), you might still want to make sure you don’t keep file descriptors open unnecessarily.

        As long as a file descriptor is open, the resources associated with it cannot be released. For example, a file cannot be deleted from the disk if a program is still reading it, or a network port will be kept open. Also, open file descriptors are inherited by any program created by execve (unless it was opened with the O_CLOEXEC flag).

      • Boosting Win Probability accuracy with player embeddings

        In my previous post Computing Win Probability of T20 matches I had discussed various approaches on computing Win Probability of T20 matches. I had created ML models with glmnet and random forest using TidyModels.

      • November 2022: ‘Top 40′ New CRAN Packages – R Views

        One hundred sixty-seven new packages made it to CRAN in November: Here are my “Top 40” selections in fourteen categories: Climate Modeling: Computational Methods, Data, Ecology, Epidemiology, Genomics, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Networks, Pharma, Statistics, Time Series, Utilities, and Visualization.

      • Austin Gil ☛ Conditional API Responses For JavaScript vs. HTML Forms

        Today, I’ll show you how to detect whether an HTTP request was submitted via HTML form or with JavaScript to the server.

        The examples in this post are based on Nuxt.js and include references to a few global functions (defineEventHandler, getRequestHeaders, sendRedirect). It’s not important that you know how they work. Just focus on the concept. I’ll explicitly highlight the important bits

        Here’s a very basic event handler for a Nuxt JS server. An “event handler” in Nuxt.js represents an HTTP endpoint.

      • Tribonacci sequence
      • Easily re-using self-written functions: the power of gist + code snippet duo

        Quite often data processing or analysis needs bring us to write own functions. Sometimes these self-defined functions are only meaningful and useful within a certain workflow or even a certain script. But other self-written functions may be more generic and reusable in other circumstances. For example, one may want to have a version of ggsave() that always enforces bg = ‘snow’, or a theme_own() function with pre-saved preferences. Self-written functions live in {.GlobalEnv} and have to be re-defined in every new R session. Copying the same lines of code across projects can be boring. How to “bookmark” the useful little own functions and reuse them easier in other projects? This post offers an elegant solution.

      • Python

        • Linux Hint ☛ How to Use Psycopg2 to Connect Python to PostgreSQL

          PostgreSQL is an object-relational database system that you can link with different programming languages. When creating a Python application, you can connect it to the PostgreSQL database. Besides, connecting Python to PostgreSQL is simplified, thanks to the psycopg2 PostgreSQL database adapter.

          Once you install the adapter on your Python development environment, you can execute all PostgreSQL database tasks directly from the Python application. This guide covers different ways of using the psycopg2 database adapter when working with a Python script.

      • Ada

        • OpenSource.com ☛ Learn the Ada programming language by writing a simple game | Opensource.com

          These concepts are the basis of most programming languages. Once you understand them, you can start figuring out the rest. Because programming languages usually share similarities, once you know one language, you can learn the basics of another by understanding its differences.

          A good way to learn new languages is practicing with a standard program. This allows you to focus on the language, not the program’s logic. I’m doing that in this article series using a “guess the number” program, in which the computer picks a number between one and 100 and asks you to guess it. The program loops until you guess the number correctly.

      • Java

        • Red Hat ☛ How to run the correct Java version after an update | Red Hat Developer

          Your shell finds the proper Java environment through an environment variable called JAVA_HOME. It could point to either a JDK or a JRE. As the error message shown earlier indicates, you should point to your JDK if you have a JDK. When non-developers run Java, they don’t need the entire JDK, so they can download a JRE and point JAVA_HOME to that. You can learn more about the Java platform components in the article, What is the Java Runtime Environment.

          When you upgrade Java, the system installs a new JDK, and you need to update JAVA_HOME to point to the new location.

          Environment variables used in the shell are generally defined in a start-up file. This file is located in your home directory and is called .bashrc if you use the Bash shell that is the default on Linux. Note the initial dot in the name .bashrc: this dot means that the file doesn’t normally turn up when you display the contents of the directory.

    • Standards/Consortia

      • James G ☛ 100 Days of IndieWeb Challenge

        For the next 100 days, I am committing to ship something related to the IndieWeb each day. A “ship” could be anything that is seen publicly or could be used by someone else that pertains to the IndieWeb. For example, if I make a change to my personal website that other people can see, that would count. If I write a blog post about something related to the IndieWeb, that too would count. Changes could be made over multiple days, but I should write a short post summarizing what I did on a given day to hold myself accountable.

        I have wanted to do a challenge like this for a while but I never committed. After seeing Tantek start his year by committing to write 100 posts about the IndieWeb, I thought I would follow suit.

  • Leftovers

    • Jim Nielsen ☛ Book Notes: “Pirate Hunters” by Robert Kurson

      My kids have been checking out books at the local library about treasure hunting. I have been reading said books to them, which means I now have an interest in treasure hunting.

    • Ruben Schade ☛ Rubenerd: Social norms at coffee shops

      But a quirk of our human nature means we treat people differently depending on density. Whereas sharing tables within close quarters are expected and reasonable, it’s unsettling in a near-empty coffee shop to be asked to share your table, or have someone sit right next to you. We interpret it as being intimate in a way that’s uninvited or unnecessary, given there are so many other places to sit. And unfortunately, I suspect I’d have an extra level of anxiety if I weren’t a man in this situation.

    • James G ☛ The (not so awkward?) shuffle | James’ Coffee Blog

      I was walking around Edinburgh today. On my way down a street with a narrow pavement, I was in a position where it was unclear to me in what direction I should walk. The person in front of me shuffled one way and I did, too.

    • Evan Hahn ☛ Everything we know about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, as of January 2023

      This post tries to summarize everything we know about Tears of the Kingdom. It’s arranged by time. It may contain spoilers.

    • [Old] Mothers + smartphones = normal birth weight? | Stop at Zona-M

      Does this picture change when mother’s use of smartphone is considered?

    • Hardware

      • Ruben Schade ☛ My final Commodore 128 Retr0bright post

        Last year (wow, that felt weird to say) I retr0brighted my Commodore 64C with some Australian hair developer cream. The results were spectacular; all the yellow streaks were completely gone, and the clean keyboard matched beautifully.

      • Adafruit ☛ Are High Output Batteries Worth the Extra Money?

        Todd at Project Farm was curious to know if tool batteries sold as “high output” (said to have 50% more power and run cooler) actually live up to their claims and are worth the extra money.

        He tested high output vs. regular batteries and compared them for performance using various “high drain” power tools, including chainsaw, circular saw, shop vac, and a leaf blower.

    • Security

      • Wladimir Palant ☛ Wladimir Palant: TouchEn nxKey: The keylogging anti-keylogger solution [Ed: Well, Microsoft Windows itself is typically a keylogger]

        I wrote about South Korea’s mandatory so-called security applications a week ago. My journey here started with TouchEn nxKey by RaonSecure which got my attention because the corresponding browser extension has more than 10 million users – the highest number Chrome Web Store will display. The real number of users is likely considerably higher, the software being installed on pretty much any computer in South Korea.

        That’s not because people like it so much: they outright hate it, resulting in an average rating of 1,3 out of 5 stars and lots of calls to abolish it. Yet using it is required if you want to do things like online banking in South Korea.

        The banks pushing for the software to be installed claim that it improves security. People call it “malware” and a “keylogger.” I spent some time analyzing the inner workings of the product and determined the latter to be far closer to the truth. The application indeed contains key logging functionality by design, and it fails to sufficiently restrict access to it. In addition, various bugs range from simple denial of service to facilitating remote code execution. Altogether I reported seven security vulnerabilities in the product.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Michael West Media ☛ The tragic death of Joshua Gill a failure of the system – Michael West

        In the early hours August 15, 2021, a 14 year old boy Joshua Gill was burned alive in a car not far from his home on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

        A preliminary Coroner’s Report found that Josh had tried to escape from the car as it burned but the child locks were activated and he was trapped inside. The Coroner has yet to advise the Gill family whether an Inquest will be held.

        The Serious Adverse Event schedule for the Northern Beaches Hospital records the tragedy:
        “On August 16 2021 at 0900 hours, Facility E was notified by the mother that the Young Person had died unexpectedly by suspected misadventure, with his body found in the backseat of an incinerated car a few hundred metres away from their residence on August 15 2021.

    • Environment

      • Energy/Transportation

        • Michael West Media ☛ Annastacia Palaszczuk leaves Perrottet and NSW in the dust on coal super profits – Michael West

          Can Dominic Perrottet and Chris Minns “do a Palaszczuk” and hike coal royalties on multinationals now reaping super-profits from the War in Ukraine, or are they too scared of a coal lobby backlash? Michael West reports on the Budget crisis facing NSW as voters head for an election in three months.

          NSW is about to go into election mode. The big day is March 25 and leadership contenders Dominic Perrottet and Labor’s Chris Minns have a dilemma.
          The fall in property prices and sales volume is about to hammer the state budget. NSW net debt is estimated to blow out from $53bn to $114bn over the forward estimates yet there are no new revenue ideas of any significance. In the face of a savage backlash from the Queensland coal lobby, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk brought in a staggered regime for coal royalties, in the mode of a progressive tax system where the more you make the more tax you pay.

          Yet of course, royalties are not taxes, they are the payment a company makes to the state for digging the state’s resources out of the ground and exporting them. Coal royalties are tipped to deliver an extra $5bn for the Queensland coffers this year.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Ruben Schade ☛ Banning video apps

        There’s furore among American talking heads, and more broadly within Five Eyes countries and allies like Australia, over whether TikTok should be banned, based on it being foreign spyware full of tracking. It won’t be the last.

        This reaction is generally met with bemusement elsewhere. It might be a novel concept in the States, but the rest of us are used to foreign IT companies tracking us. For example, my card transactions go through American payment processors, I use American social networks with published ties to American intelligence, and my primary phone chat app is Japanese.

        [...]

        Democracies need to approach this issue by taking an uncompromising stance on digital privacy and human rights. Accepting anything less, and we invite the comparison; whether you think it’s fair or not.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Technical

      • January

        I finally killed my Twitter account. Once the in the open nazis started coming back, the Musk shitshow stopped being fun. And while I miss having access to certain people, I haven’t missed Twitter in the least.

      • CET 2023

        Games with amazing, strange or skilled sound design are rarer than I wish they would be, and there is no good way to find the games that could meet these criteria due to the lack of useful categorizations in the game space.

      • Ancient Domains Of Mystery (ADOM)

        I have two text UI games which I love. I had played them once, then I was playing them many times through time, and I can always play them again. It doesn’t matter if I haven’t played them for some time, because I’m feeling always like I am at home. One of that games I described almost a year ago in [Dwarf Fortress]. The second one is [ADOM].

        I don’t remember how I started to play. ADOM is so old that in my memories it’s convergent with the beginning of the PC’s gaming era. I must read about it in one Roguelike-games article. Why did I start to play the text UI game? Probably because I’m writing many simple text games of life in BASIC. With colorful ASCII characters. So the ADOM must had been looking very familiar to me. But all of this is unclear now. Especially that there were many games, with hi-res graphics mode, which I also want to play then. For unknown reasons, however, I played in ADOM.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Gemini mention, an update to the RFC (final, at least for now)

          Last post regarding gemini mention for a while (probably another year if like last time :p), but after reading constructive comments and remarks via gemlog responses, emails or the fediverse, I had a final thought about what /I/ want to implement on /my/ capsule at this stage. I’ll let it run for the 2023 year and revisit.

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

Corporations Becoming Faceless

Posted in Finance at 12:21 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Crossposted from my personal site

SOME days ago I ranted about totally useless ‘apps’ and ‘Web sites’ that are falsely marketed as making things easier even though in practice they mostly offload/outsource all/most of the actual work to the clients. Their real purpose is to lessen expenses for private companies that formerly had actual staff, offering actual service (of course those useless ‘apps’ and ‘Web sites’ also lead to a severe unemployment problems).

Today people are ‘meant’ to study how to do all their banking (different interface for each bank), how to process and package their groceries (different machines and different programs in each chain of stores). The list goes on and on. Apparently many people are self-taught ‘masters’ of how to manage water bills and power bills ‘online’ or with ‘apps’. This means no trail of paper either. Is that a plus?

I don’t mean to blow a bubble here. I’m far from the first person to complain (or even rant about this repeatedly). The world is becoming a more difficult place. Technology was meant to simplify life, to make life easier through automation. So how did we end up having to ‘learn’ (self-train) a lot more? This is not progress.

Case of point: I want to move my pension away from some awful provider. I have no online account and don’t wish to create one. I paid into this particular pension for 5 years. In the ‘old’ days (say, 1990s) I’d probably phone some number and it would get done by a specialist. Today, it’s almost impossible to even find a contact form on a site; they suggest creating a Web site “account” (as a person with a pension there I already have an account!) or downloading some “app”. Sorry, not everyone complicates or worsens one’s life with so-called ‘smart’ ‘phones’. Some of us have better ways of getting things done. After several days of them not responding to a complaint of mine I once again told them (in a faceless, voiceless Webform): “Please e-mail me or phone me to arrange this.”

Time will tell if they even bother. If bad service persists, maybe I’ll name the company. It’s pushing my patience (a week already).

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