Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 10/01/2023: Yet More Security Issues in Rust



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Daniel PocockDaniel Pocock: Cardinal George Pell: a brief tribute

        While Cardinal Pell was known for his skepticism about climate change, I will always be grateful for donations of surplus fileservers from the dioecese for me to recycle with Debian GNU/Linux.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Applications

      • Converseen 0.9.10.0 with Improved WebP Support - Fasterland

        Converseen, the cross-platform image converter, and resizer, has now been updated to version 0.9.10.0, by adding some improved WebP features, and now it’s also possible to remove EXIF metadata after every conversion or change of format process.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • APIban MySQL client - TelecomsXChange (TCXC) Blog

        APIBAN helps prevent unwanted SIP traffic by identifying addresses of known bad actors before they attack your system. Bad actors are collected through globally deployed honeypots and curated by LOD/APIBAN.

      • KifarunixDeploy Nagios Core as a Docker Container - kifarunix.com

        In this tutorial, you will learn how to deploy Nagios Core as a Docker container.

      • ZDNetHow to easily locate your mouse pointer in Ubuntu and other GNOME-based Linux distributions

        If you have trouble locating your mouse pointer in Linux, this little tip will give you some much-needed relief.

      • Network WorldLinux filels: creating, listing, updating, and more | Network World

        Linux provides a number of handy commands for managing file permissions, understanding who has access to the files and checking on file content.

      • Make Use Of4 Ways to Check Whether cron Is Working on Linux

        cron is a job scheduler and process automation utility for Linux. Here's how you can check if cron is working properly on your system.

      • UNIX CopHow to deploy MariaDB and PhpMyAdmin using Docker

        In this short post, you will learn how to deploy MariaDB and PhpMyAdmin using Docker. These are some simple images without so many additives, so you can by yourself edit it and improve it to your liking.

      • Copy, Cut And Paste On The Command Line With Clipboard - Linux Uprising Blog

        Clipboard is a new command line tool to cut, copy and paste text, files and folders. The software works on Linux, Windows, macOS, Android and *BSD.

        This tiny yet powerful command line utility can be useful to both new and power users. Besides allowing you to cut, copy and paste anything from a terminal, it can show the clipboard contents, clear the clipboard, and there's also support for multiple (infinite) clipboards.

      • VideoHow to install WPS Office 2019 on KDE Neon - Invidious

        In this video, we are looking at how to install WPS Office 2019 on KDE Neon.

      • ID RootHow To Install AppImage on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install AppImage on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, AppImage is a package format for distributing portable software on Linux. It is a single executable file that contains all the necessary dependencies and libraries required to run the software, making it easy to run on any Linux distribution.

        AppImages are self-contained and do not need to be installed in the traditional sense. Instead, they can be run directly from the file manager or terminal by making the file executable and then run it. This makes it easy to use AppImages on systems where you don’t have administrator privileges or don’t want to modify the system libraries.

        One of the main advantages of using AppImages is that they allow you to run software that might not be available in your distribution package manager. This can be particularly useful for running newer or specialized software on older or niche distributions.

        AppImages are also portable, meaning that you can easily move them between different systems and run them without any additional setup. This makes it easy to use the same software on multiple systems, even if they have different package managers or libraries installed.

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

      • Linux Made SimpleHow to install Blender 3.4.1 on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install Blender 3.4.1 on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

      • Linux Made SimpleHow to install Ghostery Dawn on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install Ghostery Dawn on a Chromebook.

      • ZDNetHow to install Kali Linux on Apple Silicon Macs | ZDNET

        I've had messages from a number of people asking me for information on how to install Kali Linux on Macs running the M1 and M2 Apple Silicon chips.

      • UbuntubuzzHow To Write Javanese Script Hanacaraka on Ubuntu Computer

        This tutorial will help you writing one of Indonesian traditional scripts, Javanese, also known as Aksara Jawa (ꦲꦏ꧀ꦱꦫꦗꦮ) or Hanacaraka (ꦲꦤꦕꦫꦏ), on Ubuntu computer. This is the real Javanese language spoken by Javanese people in Java island and not a programming language with similar name. We will show you that you can type Javanese using Firefox browser, Text Editor, LibreOffice, Gimp, Inkscape and Scribus. Now let's exercise.

      • Make Tech EasierHow to Encrypt Files in Linux with Tomb - Make Tech Easier

        Tomb is a simple shell script that allows you to encrypt files in Linux. Unlike full disk encryption, Tomb enables you to only include the files and folders that you want to encrypt. Here we show you how to install and use Tomb on Ubuntu.

      • Own HowToHow to Install easypanel on Ubuntu 22.04

        Easypanel is a server control panel software that you can use to deploy many apps on your website.

        In this tutorial you will learn how to install easypanel on Ubuntu 22.04.

    • Games

      • Godot EngineGodot Engine - Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 11

        With the end-of-the-year celebrations past us, we are ready to get back to work and continue our regular Godot 4.0 beta releases. Over the course of the last four months the engine has seen many changes, making it more stable and feature complete, and it's getting very close to the state that we would be happy with.

        We took a bit longer to prepare this beta as there were a number of fairly big GDScript refactoring PRs (needed to fix many bugs), which we wanted to merge all at once. As such we expect that this beta 11 might introduce some new GDScript regressions, which we'll aim to fix for beta 12 next week. Be sure to report anything that stops working as expected in your scripts.

      • Make Use Of6 Linux and Open-Source Technologies That Made the Steam Deck Possible

        While Steam's user interface isn't open source, nor are most of the games, the experience wouldn't be possible without an entire stack of free and open-source technology underneath. Valve knows this, and they're paying numerous developers to improve the technologies they depend on.

        So what are the technologies that the Steam Deck utilizes to deliver an experience that has impressed much of the gaming world?

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • 9to5LinuxGNOME 42.8 Enables Atomic Mode-Setting for NVIDIA/GBM, Improves Wayland and AMDGPU Support

          GNOME 42.8 is a pretty small update for those still using the GNOME 42 desktop on their GNU/Linux distribution. However, it brings an updated Mutter window and composite manager that disables client modifiers when the open-source AMDGPU driver is in use and enables atomic mode-setting for the NVIDIA graphics driver with GBM support.

          Previous GNOME 42 releases denied using the atomic mode-setting with the proprietary NVIDIA graphics driver because the mode-setting device was initiated before attempting to initialize the renderer because EGLStream-based page flipping is not compatible with atomic mode-setting.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • 9to5LinuxEndless OS 5.0 Beta Is Here with a New Desktop Interface and Wayland Support

      Endless OS 5.0 is finally here in a beta variant that you can download and try on your personal computer if you want to enjoy the new desktop interface built on top of the GNOME 41 desktop environment, the revamped App Center that no longer features hard-coded lists of apps, as well as support for the next-generation Wayland display server protocol.

      Endless OS 5.0 also promises improved multi-GPU support as the system UI and most apps now use the integrated graphics card by default to save battery life on laptops. GPU-demanding apps like video games or 3D graphics software, such as Blender, are automatically started with the discrete graphics card.

    • ZDNetMabox Linux is a throwback to old-school Linux with a new-school look and feel | ZDNET

      I've run the gamut of Linux distributions, from the incredibly simple to the overly complex, from modern interfaces to old-school throwbacks.

      I've used Fvwm95, CDE, KDE, Xfce, AfterStep, Blackbox, Enlightenment, Cinnamon, Mate, GNOME, and nearly every desktop that has ever been available to Linux. I've also used Ubuntu-based, Fedora-based, Arch-based, and just about any distribution based on nearly any other distribution. The combinations have been staggering over the years. Needless to say, I've experienced it all since I started using Linux in 1997.

      Because of using so many Linux distributions over the years, very little surprises me these days. But when I spun up a virtual instance of Mabox Linux, I couldn't help but smile. Why? Because it reminded me of my early days using Linux, only with a bit of a modern, user-centric twist.

      You see, back in the early days, Linux wasn't so user-friendly. Quite the opposite in fact. Linux was hard in its infancy. So, when I see a Linux distribution that reminds me of those days but manages to make it easy on users without years of experience under their belts, it reminds me how far the open-source operating system has come.

      Such is the case with Mabox Linux.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Content Management Systems (CMS)

      • WordPressWordPress is Turning 20: Let's Celebrate! - WordPress News

        2023 marks the 20th year of WordPress. Where would we all be without WordPress? Just think of that! While many technologies, software stacks, and fashion trends have come and gone throughout the past two decades, WordPress has thrived. This is due to the fantastic work and contributions of the WordPress community, comprised of thousands of contributors; and millions of users who have embraced the four freedoms of WordPress and the mission to democratize publishing.

    • Funding

      • Julia EvansSome business graphs for 2022

        Hello! I like looking at other independent authors’ business graphs, so I thought I’d share some percentages and graphs of my own this year. Hopefully some of this is useful to other writers who run internet businesses.

        All of the graphs are about Wizard Zines’ business selling zines – I don’t do sponsorships or consulting or commissions or anything.

    • Programming/Development

  • Leftovers

    • HackadayIoT Archaeology Leads To API Resurrection

      What happens when someone’s personal project is turned into a startup which becomes something of a publicity darling, then collapses with very little product shipped and takes all its customers’ money with it?

    • HackadayHuman-Powered Strandbeest

      Once you’ve seen a strandbeest, it’s hard to forget the mesmerizing movement of its mechanical limbs. [Adam Savage] built a pedal-powered strandbeest in (more than) one day in full view of the public at the San Francisco Exploratorium.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Amateur Radio Log 2023-01-10 Mid-day (Fairbanks, AK, US)

        During the lunch break (12:00 AKST) I was able to spend some time at the beginning of Yak road on Chena Ridge doing mobile radio. Radio was an ICOM IC-746PRO with a 3-foot 20-meter mag-mount antenna attached to the top of my SUV. I had tuned the antenna for 14.250 Mhz.

    • Technical

      • Wholesomedonut's Gemlog: - RISC-V and Toki Pona

        I'm taking a course on RISC-V.

        It's the LFD-110X course as offered by the Linux Foundation, and hosted by edX.

        You can get in on it too for free by taking the Audit track of the course. You don't get a certification (though you do have an option to upgrade to getting one later and paying for the exam like everyone who did it originally); and you still get access to all the non-graded course content.

      • 4:3 isn't bad

        I've used 4:3 for about one week. It isn't bad at all, I can see why many people enjoy this aspect ratio, in the future if I get a monitor I'll probably try to get a 4:3 one. It's comfortable, and cozy.

        Although, on my laptop it looks good, on my desktop monitor it looks blurry because of the sheer size of the screen itself, which is not that pleasant. I still find I enjoy it like that, although 16:9 is better in some tasks, or just in having crisp text in my case.

      • New Year, New Blog

        I started blogging around this time two years ago and one of the things I've found is that having just a little pressure to have something interesting to share can be a good motivator in getting things done. With my final semester of school just now starting and wanting to finish strong, one of the things I've been thinking about stepping up is my blogging efforts. This is just an experiment and I'll start to back off if it gets to be too much, but I'm hopeful that setting goals to share more will be a good motivator.

      • Winamp 2023

        I was browsing the snap store and came across Foobar2000, a music player that quite closely resembles the old, original Winamp. Being an old nerd, I was curious and decided to install the snap; however, the installer is currently stuck at around 24%, which I attribute to the installation of Wine. Regardless of that, I was reminded that every (six months, year, two years?) I inevitably look to the winamp.com website. For YEARS they promised goodness and great things to come, that the company was working hard on bringing it back...so I stuck with it and went back to the website every now and then. I didn't sign up for the mailing list simply because I just didn't want to get more spam.

      • Science

        • Embracing Degrowth

          I'm utterly exhausted - I haven't been sleeping well, work has been kicking my butt, and I've been preparing to go to a con in a few days, but I wanted to write this as a precis of a more detailed post to come.

          I've historically viewed capitalism, while flawed, as a basically reformable system. That has increasingly become impossible for me. In particular, the excesses of consumer culture, both inside my industry and outside of it, are horrifying. The incentive structure of capitalism rewards mass ecological destruction, labor exploitation, and waste on an astounding scale. These factors are intimately linked with racism, sexism, and other forms of structural oppression. I have increasingly realized that while those problems are easiest for me to see in my own industry, they are ubiquitous to the capitalist system.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Maintenance Reminder
We'll carry on publishing
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part VIII - Mobbing and Silencing of Dissenting Staff
that's the very cornerstone of functional democracies with real opposition parties
Reader Shares Recent Memes on Slop and 'Coding' by LLMs
"just some funny memes I thought were relevant to current coverage."
Invitation to General Assembly After 1,200 EPO Workers Participated in the Demonstration 3 Days Ago
"the strike of 19 March was also very well followed."
SLAPP Censorship - Part 17 Out of 200: A Long Track Record of Online Abuse, Then Choosing a Low-Cost Law Firm to Muzzle People Who Have Illuminated This Abuse for Over a Decade
Censorship by targeting ISPs and webhosts isn't unprecedented
 
SLAPP Censorship - Part 18 Out of 200: Third Parties Funding Attacks on the Messengers, Lawsuits Against GAFAM-Critical Voices That Uphold Real National Security
Women are like kryptonite to them
Never Trust People Who Write Their Own Wikipedia Pages (Vanity Pages About Themselves) or Ask Friends to Do So. Also: Jono Bacon is Married to Microsoft.
We'd hardly be the first to point out Wikipedia isn't what it seems
No Tolerance for Attacks on Family Members
Being a Free software activist ought not lead to "collateral damage" like attacks on family members, including doxing
Sirius Open Source is Just a Zombie Firm With Shell Entities
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In an age when ~1,000 simultaneous layoffs aren't enough to receive any media coverage, what can we expect remaining publishers to tell us about Microsoft layoffs in 2026?
Bluewashing at Confluent: Some Workers to Leave Within 3 Months (IBM Mass Layoffs)
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Microsoft OpenAI, Drowning in Debt and Forced to Make Significant Cuts (as Reports Reveal This Month), Does Hiring Disguised as "Takeovers" to Fake Value or Alleged Potential
Remember what happened to Skype last year
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many Computer Scientists do not want programs to get contaminated by slop
Coders Don't Just Reject 'Vibe Coding' Because They're "Luddites", They Just Know the True Cost of Slop
if some programmer says slop sucks, don't rush to assume selfishness or defence of one's occupation
When Nobody Else Covers the News
There's an obvious "media blackout" regarding the mass layoffs
Links 21/03/2026: David Botstein Dies, Slop as Censorship Apparatus
Links for the day
Links 21/03/2026: Metastablecoin Fragmentation and Crescent Moon
Links for the day
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HSBC the Latest Failed Bank Using Slop as Excuse for Its Financial Failure
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A/Prof Susan G Kleinmann, Enkelena Haxhija & Debian-private risk to MIT
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
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The net effect of those slopfarms is very negative
Links 20/03/2026: Facebook Weaponised Politically, Openwashing by LF and NVIDIA, Encyclopedia Britannica Sues Microsoft Proxy for Plagiarism
Links for the day
The EPO's Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Explains to the Administrative Council (AC) How Bad Things Have Become at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Biggest Patent Office, and Corruption/Cocaine Hub (Jobs Sold to Friends)
We'll say a bit more tomorrow
IBM's Red Hat Diversity: Only 3 Women (Out of 11 Leaders)
For comparison's sake, the FSF is about 50% female
Symptom of Publishers Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop. Symptom of Software Companies Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop ('Vibe').
It'll always fail. It's hype. It's a bubble.
Under IBM, Red Hat Replaces Code With LLM Slop, Fedora is Slopware
Not even hiding it, those things are in plain sight
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Depictions of Culture and The Social Smolnet
Links for the day
SimilarWeb Was Never a Reliable Yardstick for Traffic
5RB may need some "house-cleaning"
Strangulation, suffocation, Jonathan Carter & Debian toxic culture confirmed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Reports or Hearsay Suggest Ogilvy Broke Up With IBM and Insiders Report Mass Layoffs in "Infrastructure" (Might Impact Red Hat Entrants)
hearsay in Social Control Media
Scheduled Server Maintenance Tomorrow Night
Starting 9PM
None of the Above (NotA) & Debian snubbing Sruthi Chandran
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/03/2026: Cryptography Pioneers Win Turing Award and BMG Sues Anthropic for Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
Even Uganda Understands That Journalists Never Belong in Prison
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Inaction Helps Your Enemies
Without freedom, there's nothing else left
Windows Down From 99% to ~50% in Republic of Seychelles (République des Seychelles)
Windows fell by a lot
"systemd is essentially a corporate IBM/Redhat project and corporations of course will comply"
Microsoft and IBM care about users' freedom like Cheeto Lump cares about the US Constitution
Confluent Insiders: IBM Laid Over Over 800 at Confluent, Not Just 800
For the record, the layoffs at Confluent won't be over. After the bluewashing there will be "IBM RAs" impacting Confluent folks, aside from PIPs
The Layoffs at IBM Carry on (Shades of Enron)
Is IBM another Enron?
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Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 19, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 19, 2026
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For those who have not followed our story
Microsoft "hiding behind bigger news of war, Epstein, other companies' layoffs"
They know what's coming, they just don't know when
Joerg Jaspert (Debian Account Manager/DAM) personally approved Raphael Hertzog's wife Sophie Brun
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Letter 'A' prohibited by Code of Conduct extremism
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Spoiler: Diversity & Debian means different things to different people
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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many if not all solicitors and solicitor firms in the UK are in effect unregulated
Archiving or Preserving Pages About IBM Layoffs
Layoffs at IBM and the media does not talk about these
ABC, the American National Broadcaster, "Now Publishes Slop"
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Links 19/03/2026: Culling Deepfakes of Artists’ Music and "Age Verification Isn’t the Answer"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/03/2026: "Aktion GPT-4" and "Kill All Descendants"
Links for the day
"AI" 15 Times in Short 'Article' From The Register MS. And The Register MS Got Paid to Publish It.
gets paid to do this
People Who Decided to Boycott Novell Over Its Microsoft Alliance Should Also Boycott Canonical
As an associate put it, "selling out further, due to Microsoft moles inside Canonical"
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Links for the day
The European Patent Office, Europe's Second-Largest Institution, is on Strike Today
Lots more to come
What People Impacted by the Bluewashing Layoffs at IBM Confluent Say (While the Media Says Nothing at All, in Effect Burying the News)
Worse yet, the mainstream media spreads lies about it right now
IBM Has Turned Red Hat and Fedora Into Slop
This is IBM policy
IBM is Being Robbed, Companies and Jobs Are Destroyed
Companies taken over by IBM will be exploited and destroyed to keep a bubble inflated for a little while longer
In Confluent Layoffs, IBM Vapourises a Quarter of Its Workforce (IBM Buys Something That It Destroys Already)
In the past, such things were typically referred to as "media blackout"; now it's just "the norm".
IBM Effect at Confluent: Mass Layoffs and IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) Said to be Violated
For Confluent employees who survived the layoffs there will be "culture chock"
Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Links 19/03/2026: LLM Fatigue (It Doesn't Work as Advertised), "Small Web Feeds"
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