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Links 20/01/2023: Apple Releases Lisa Code Only 40 Years Later, Legacy OS 2023 and Netrunner OS 23 Released



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Applications

      • Linux LinksLinux Candy: Relaxator – relax to soothing sounds

        Linux Candy is a series of articles covering interesting eye candy software. We only feature open-source software in this series.

        Relaxator is a small utility that’s designed to do one thing — listen to soothing sounds. This free and open source utility is written in Vala.

      • Unix MenBest Push Notifications Software for Linux 2023

        If you’re a Linux user, you may be wondering which push notification software is the best for your system.

        In this blog post, we’ll be taking a look at the top 5 push notification software for Linux in 2023. But before we dive into the list, let’s go over some key considerations to keep in mind when choosing push notification software for Linux.

      • Make Use OfListen to Internet Radio From Your Linux Terminal With PyRadio

        There are several graphical internet radio apps for Linux. But what about users who want to listen to the radio from their terminal? Enter PyRadio.

        Radio is the oldest form of electronic mass communication and even in the third decade of the 21st century, it's still how many people consume news, find new music, and pass the time while stuck in traffic on the commute to work.

        The internet allows you to listen to streaming radio stations worldwide, exposing you to music, culture, news, and events you would never otherwise have found. You can listen to internet radio without ever leaving your terminal on Linux. Here's how.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • ID RootHow To Install Swift Programming Language on Fedora 37 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Swift Programming Language on Fedora 37. For those of you who didn’t know, Swift is a powerful and intuitive general-purpose programming language, it’s designed to work on multiple platforms and it’s open-source, which means that developers can contribute to its development, and use the language for developing on other platforms besides Apple’s ecosystem.

        Swift is also a high-performance language, it’s designed to be fast and efficient, it uses modern techniques such as automatic reference counting (ARC) and optional types to help developers write more efficient code. It also includes features such as closures, generics, and operator overloading which make it a versatile language for many different types of development. Swift is also designed to be easy to learn, its syntax is easy to read and understand, and it’s similar to other modern programming languages such as Python or Java, which makes it easy for developers who are already familiar with other languages to pick up.

        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 Swift programming language on a Fedora 37.

      • Linux Made SimpleHow to install VRoid Studio on a Chromebook with Crossover 22

        Today we are looking at how to install VRoid Studio on a Chromebook with Crossover 22. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Install and Use MongoDB NoSQL Database on Rocky Linux 9

        MongoDB is an open-source, cross-platform, and distributed NoSQL (Non-SQL or Non-Relational) database system.

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

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install OpenSSL on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, OpenSSL is a widely-used open-source implementation of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols, which are used to secure communications over a network. It provides a library of cryptographic functions and command-line tools to use them, including symmetric ciphers, public-key ciphers, and hashing functions, as well as functions for managing digital certificates and certificate signing requests. OpenSSL is also used as a foundation for many other software libraries and tools, however, it’s important to keep your version of OpenSSL up-to-date to avoid known vulnerabilities.

        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 latest OpenSSL 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.

      • ID RootHow To Install ImageMagick on Fedora 37 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install ImageMagick on Fedora 37. For those of you who didn’t know, ImageMagick is a powerful command-line tool for manipulating images on a Linux system. It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats, it offers image manipulation through the command line, as well as through programming languages such as C, C++, Perl, and PHP using the MagickWand API, it has the ability to handle a wide variety of image formats, it has a powerful command-line interface, it has a built-in library that can be used by other programs, and it is supported by many programming languages.

        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 ImageMagick on a Fedora 37.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Java 17, 11, or 8 LTS on Fedora Linux

        Java is a popular, general-purpose programming language designed to be platform-independent. It is widely used to develop enterprise-level, mobile, and web applications. One of the main benefits of using Java is its ability to run on different operating systems and devices, making it a versatile choice for development projects. Additionally, Java offers several features that make it an ideal choice for many applications.

      • H2S MediaHow to Enable EPEL Repo on Amazon Linux 2 - Linux Shout

        Enable EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) in Amazon Linux 2 for installing various additional software packages that run on RPM-based Linux.

        Apart from the official repository of Amazon Linux 2, we can add a popular one known as EPEL. That stands for Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, a community-driven project for RedHat Linux. However, it is not limited to REHL; we can add it to other Linux systems based on it, such as CentOS, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Oracle Linux, and more. So, AWS AMI Linux is also a Fedora drive project and uses RPM packages; hence EPEL is also available for it as well.

        The group of volunteers maintains this repository and its packages. It includes a wide range of software, including libraries, utilities, and applications that cannot be installed using the official repo of the distribution.

        With each new version of Redhat, EPEL also releases a dedicated repo containing well-test packages that are compatible with the RHEL version.

        EPEL packages can be installed and managed using the standard YUM or DNF package management tools. However, unlike other popular Linux, the way to enable EPEL on Amazon Linux is slightly different, and in this article, we know that.

      • Ubuntu HandbookHow to Disable Welcome Screen (First Login Dialog) in Ubuntu 22.04 | UbuntuHandbook

        When first time logging in a user account, it always pop-up a welcome dialog to setup online account, livepath, privacy, etc in Ubuntu.

        It’s quite annoying if you create new user accounts regularly, since all options in that dialog are also available in system settings. In this case, you can follow this tutorial to disable this function in Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 22.10.

        Tip: run /usr/libexec/gnome-initial-setup --existing-user command in terminal can manually launch Welcome dialog if need in Ubuntu.

      • OMG UbuntuHow to Test Ubuntu Budgie’s Improved Window Snapping Feature - OMG! Ubuntu!

        An improved window tiling experience is being primed for inclusion in the the next stable release of Ubuntu Budgie, which is due out in April.

        Developers of this Ubuntu flavour have shared word on work they’re doing to bring the edge tiling experience — or window snapping, if you prefer — up to par with that offered by the distro’s existing keyboard-driven Window Shuffler too.

        The proposed approach, which is being made available for testing on earlier versions of the distro, will be familiar to anyone who’s used a recent version of Windows. You drag a window to the upper or lower corners to quarter tile, drag to either side to vertically half-tile, and drag to the very top or the very bottom to horizontally half tile.

      • H2S MediaHow to install php 7.4 on Amazon linux 2 - Linux Shout

        Execute the command in this tutorial to install the PHP 7.4 version on Amazon Linux 2 for your web applications that don’t support the latest version of PHP.

        Amazon Linux 2 is the current long-term supported and RPM-based Linux offered by AWS to run on its cloud. As we know, CentOS is not anymore an LTS server OS; therefore AML 2 version of AWS is an excellent stable option for installing and hosting applications.

      • CitizixHow to deploy a Golang Application with Google cloud run

        Google cloud run is a fully managed container execution environment. It is an environment specifically for request-driven workloads. It provides autoscaling, scaling down to zero, pretty fast deployments, automatic HTTPS support, global names and more. Google Cloud Run doesn’t have language runtime restrictions as soon as the language runtime is supported on gVisor.

      • TecAdminGetting Started with Linux Command line: The Beginner’s Guide

        The Linux Command Line Interface (CLI) is a text-based interface for interacting with the operating system. Users can enter commands, which the system then interprets and carries out to the kernel. It allows the user to navigate the file system, manage files, and perform various other tasks. The command line interface is a powerful tool for advanced users and is often used for tasks such as automation, scripting, and system administration.

        Most of the Linux servers provide CLI only for interacting with the system, which is also the preferred way for system administrators. Many desktop users also love to use the command line interfaces to quickly perform jobs.

      • HowTo GeekThe Linux rm Command: Everything You Need to Know

        The Linux rm command is primarily for deleting files. It’s one that most people encounter soon after they start using Linux. Just by virtue of being a newcomer to Linux, you’re likely to make mistakes. You’ll create or copy files by accident, or with the wrong name, or to the wrong place. It’s all part of the learning curve of the command line. The clean-up operations for such mistakes involve rm .

        The rm command can delete files, groups of files, directories, or complete directory trees. That’s why it must be used with caution. Using rm isn’t difficult, but the penalty for failure is high.

        When a file is deleted with rm , it is gone. It isn’t moved to the trash. It is obliterated immediately. That doesn’t mean you should avoid using rm . But to use it safely, you need to be aware of what it can do, and ensure you’re using it properly.

        Some tools are more dangerous than others, and far less forgiving of mistakes. That’s why there’s never been a movie called The Texas Wrench Massacre. rm isn’t a wrench, it’s definitely a chainsaw.

    • Games

      • Godot EngineDev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 14

        With the first Godot 4.0 Release Candidate on the horizon we continue to release beta snapshots frequently and relentlessly! Such cadence allows us to better measure the overall stability and quickly catch regressions, especially when a lot of features are worked on at the same time.

      • VideoA Gamer's Descent into Linux Lunacy (Switching to Linux) *Reaction* - Invidious

        So we have a Gamer who decided to make a descent in the lunacy filled world of Linux! Let's see how that switching to Linux went for them!

      • AdafruitWolfenstein 3D is now fully playable in CGA even on an 8088!

        Wolfenstein 3D is now fully playable in CGA (a low-rez color and black and white display standard on the first IBM PCs and compatibles)! A 80286 is no longer required either, as it will run on an 8088 under MS-DOS!

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • It's FOSS8 Best Window Managers for Linux

        A window manager should be helpful if you dabble with multiple active windows on your system and want to make the most out of the available screen space.

        Sure, you can re-size and reposition your windows to organize them to some extent. However, with a window manager, you can step up your multitasking potential by organizing the windows using keyboard shortcuts, mouse and even automating some of it.

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • This Week in GNOME#79 Research Results - This Week in GNOME

          Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from January 13 to January 20.

        • LinuxiacGNOME's Survey Results: A Window into User Behavior

          GNOME has published the results of its last year August user survey. The findings are expected and telling. Here they are.

          As our media reported in August, the GNOME project initiated a survey among users using a telemetry data-gathering tool (gnome-info-collect) to gain a better understanding of user habits, software installed, and overall desktop experience.

          Five months later, the results were public, revealing both expected and surprising facts. So, without further ado, let’s analyze them.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • New Releases

      • 9to5LinuxNetrunner OS 23 “Vaporwave” Launches Based on Debian GNU/Linux 11 “Bullseye”

        Dubbed “Vaporwave,” Netrunner OS 23 is here almost two years after Netrunner OS 21.01. It is the first release of this GNU/Linux distribution for desktop computers based on the latest and greatest Debian GNU/Linux 11 “Bullseye” operating system series.

        Previous Netrunner OS versions were derived from Debian GNU/Linux 10 “Buster” and shipped with Linux kernel 5.9. The new Netrunner OS release is powered by Debian Bullseye’s long-term supported Linux 5.10 kernel series, which will be supported with security and bug fixes until December 2026.

      • Legacy OS 2023

        After a 6 year hiatus LegacyOS is back! Now based on antiX / Debian Bullseye 64 Bit. After a long development period LegacyOS 2023 is now available for download. As with previous releases LegacyOS uses the Ice Window Manager (icewm) and ROX / PCmanFM File Managers. All included Ice Window Manager Themes have been created for this release. A useful selection of Applications are included by default. VLC, MPV, Strawberry, Peek, FreetuxTV, OnlyOffice, Scribus, Gimp, Inkscape, Firefox-ESR, Thunderbird, Transmission just to name a few. Also available for download through the Synaptic Package Manager are the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Web Browsers. Unlike previous releases LegacyOS 2023 will receive regular updates. To Login User = Demo | Password = Demo Install or run live from USB or DVD.

    • SUSE/OpenSUSE

      • OpenSUSESalt, Vim, nodejs update in Tumbleweed

        This week’s openSUSE Tumbleweed snapshots had a steady amount of software packages in each of the daily releases.

        While vim, Node.js and Salt updates made the headlines, AppStream, KDE Frameworks and the Linux Kernel provided several important updates.

      • Dominique LeuenbergeropenSUSE Tumbleweed - Review of the week 2023/03 - Dominique a.k.a. DimStar (Dim*)

        For Tumbleweed, things are steadily rolling. Updates come in (mostly pre-tested in devel projects), are staged, pass staging (most requests pass in a day), and are then added to a snapshot. Sounds rather unspectacular. Of course, this is the optimal case, which does not work in some cases (as seen on the ‘future changes’ that have been carried over for a few weeks already). But all that does not have an impact on users’ workstations, as we simply do not deliver those aspects which are known not to be ready.

      • German Software Giant Suse Begins India Operations Taps Kerala Police As Client - BW Businessworld

        Suse, the German-based open-source software major that develops and sells Linux, Kubernetes and Edge products, has begun its full-fledged operation in India by opening a first-of-its-kind ‘Centre of Excellence’ in Bengaluru.

        The company, which earlier had its sales operation in India, has already sold its Linux products and services to Indian entities like Indian Oil, JK Tyres and Industries, Mankind Pharma and the like. Besides business houses, Suse has also partnered with state-owned Kerala Police to transform the latter’s digital policing platform.

    • Debian Family

      • DebugPointDebian 12 "bookworm" Reaches First Code Freeze

        For the last few months, Debian 12 has been under development. Developers and package maintainers were pouring their application components into the new branch. Code-named "bookworm", Debian 12 is planned for release by the end of 2023.

        And now, the Debian team has reached a significant milestone for the upcoming Debian 12 release.

      • OMG! LinuxDebian 12 "Bookworm" Just Hit its First Freeze - OMG! Linux

        Development on Debian 12 “Bookworm” just hit a major milestone.

        Ahead of its expected release later this year, the popular Linux distro has officially entered a freeze period.

        Paul Gevers, writing on behalf of the Debian release team, announced the first freeze on the Debian developer mailing list, writing:

        “On January 12th we stopped accepting transition requests and we are working to complete the transitions in progress. We ask the maintainers of packages that are part of the toolchain to stop uploading those packages without prior approval from us.”

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • UbuntuUbuntu 18.04 LTS End Of Life – keep your fleet of devices up and running

        Ubuntu 18.04 ‘Bionic Beaver’ is reaching End of Standard Support this April, also known sometimes as End Of Life (EOL). This distribution of Ubuntu was installed by millions of users and powers up thousands of devices. From kiosks and appliances to IoT devices and robots, 18.04 helped many companies deploy innovations to the world. As with all other Ubuntu LTS releases that reach their end of standard support, Bionic Beaver will transition to Extended Security Maintenance (ESM). This blog post will help developers and companies evaluate their options for devices currently running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. It will also cover how you can enable ESM in case you choose to extend the support window with this service. Before we jump in, let’s cover a burning question: why do Ubuntu releases reach EOL?

      • NeowinUbuntu 22.04.2 delayed by two weeks over Hardware Enablement kernel, due Feb. 23 - Neowin

        Canonical is delaying the launch of Ubuntu 22.04.2 by two weeks to February 23 after it encountered some issues pertaining to the new Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernels that are designed to make newer hardware work with the current long-term support edition of the operating system. People running Ubuntu 22.04 are not affected by this but those waiting on the point release with the HWE kernel will have to wait just a bit longer.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • ArduinoWalk-Bot helps people with visual impairments navigate safely | Arduino Blog

        It is no secret that visual impairments — even those that don’t result in complete blindness — make it very difficult for people to live their lives. White canes can help people get around, but they require physical contact. Seeing eye dogs provide very valuable assistance, but they’re expensive and need care of their own. That’s why Nilay Roy Choudhury designed the Walk-Bot device to help people with visual impairments navigate safely.

        Walk-Bot is a wearable navigation device that uses audible cues and haptic feedback to give visually impaired people a sense of their immediate environment. It has a host of sensors that let it identify nearby obstacles at any height from the floor to the ceiling. Walk-Bot performs onboard trigonometry to determine the distance to any obstacles that might interfere with its user’s ability to walk safely. And it is affordable and easy to build with common components.

      • ArduinoThe 2022 Arduino Open Source Report is out | Arduino Blog

        In our last annual report we described 2021 as one of the busiest and most productive years in Arduino history in terms of open source development (if you missed that report, go read it now as it contains so many nice things). Well, we didn’t rest in 2022 either!

        The Arduino team has been busy releasing new important open source projects, both hardware and software, while the community continues to release and maintain libraries at an incredible pace.

      • ArduinoArduino resurrects a washing machine that failed for silly reasons | Arduino Blog

        The maker movement often focuses on creation, but we should never overlook repair. In a consumer market increasingly moving towards planned obsolescence, manufacturers often fail to devote any resources towards the repair of their products. In many cases, replacement parts are unavailable or prohibitively expensive. But the maker skill set can provide recourse, as demonstrated by Balakrishnan Prashanth’s Arduino-based solution for a washing machine’s failed timer display.

        Like many modern washing machines, Prashanth’s Whirlpool has a digital readout that displays the time remaining in a cycle. It’s a handy feature, but not one that is absolutely necessary to wash clothes. Unfortunately, this Whirlpool disagrees. They designed this model’s control board so that the entire machine’s functionality comes to a screeching halt if the digital display stops working. The control board sends data to the display and expects an acknowledgment. If it doesn’t receive that acknowledgment, it won’t let the washing machine run through a cycle. That’s what happened when Prashanth’s machine’s display failed.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • It's FOSSApple Lisa: 40 Years Later, Now Open Source

      This consequently led to the development and launch of Lisa.

      But, when it launched, it didn't garner that many sales due to its high price and was considered a commercial failure.

      What it succeeded in was that it paved the way for the Macintosh operating system which later took the computing world by storm.

      It offered many innovations, with a good GUI being one of the main highlights.

      Now, in a recent announcement.

      After 40 years of Lisa's release, the Computer History Museum (CHM) has made the source code open.

    • AdafruitThe Apple Lisa source code has just been released!

      Happy 40th Birthday to Lisa! The Apple Lisa computer, that is. In celebration of this milestone, the Computer History Museum has received permission from Apple to release the source code to the Lisa software, including its system and applications software.

      Lisa Office System 3.1 Twiggy dates back to April 1984, during the early Mac era, and it was the equivalent of operating systems like macOS and Windows today. The entire source package is about 26MB and consists of over 1,300 commented source files, divided nicely into subfolders that denote code for the main Lisa OS, various included apps, and the Lisa Toolkit development system.

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • PostgreSQLPostgreSQL: pgFormatter 5.4 released

        Version 5.4 of pgFormatter, a free and reliable tool used to format SQL and PLPGSQL code, has been officially released and is publicly available for download. A demonstration site is available online at http://sqlformat.darold.net

        pgFormatter is the most advanced SQL and PlPgsql code formatter and beautifier dedicated to PostgreSQL. It is provided as a CLI or a CGI program.

        This maintenance release fixes issues reported by users since the last five months with some improvements and new features.

      • PostgreSQLPostgreSQL: Parquet S3 FDW 1.0.0 released

        We have just released version 1.0.0 of the Foreign Data Wrapper for Parquet file on Amazon S3.

        This release can work with PostgreSQL 13, 14 and 15.

      • PostgreSQLPostgreSQL: SQLite FDW 2.3.0 released

        We have just released version 2.3.0 of the Foreign Data Wrapper for SQLite.

        This release can work with PostgreSQL 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.

      • PostgreSQLPostgreSQL: High-Performance SQL Cluster Engine PGSpider 3.0.0 released

        We have just released PGSpider v3.0.0.

        PGSpider is High-Performance SQL Cluster Engine for distributed big data. PGSpider can access a number of data sources using Foreign Data Wrapper(FDW) and retrieves the distributed data source vertically. Usage of PGSpider is the same as PostgreSQL. You can use any client applications such as libpq and psql.

      • PostgreSQLPostgreSQL: GridDB FDW 2.2.0 released

        We have just released version 2.2.0 of the Foreign Data Wrapper for GridDB.

        This release can work with PostgreSQL 11, 12, 13 14 and 15.

      • PostgreSQLPostgreSQL: DynamoDB FDW 1.2.0 released

        DynamoDB FDW 1.2.0 released

        We have just released version 1.2.0 of the Foreign Data Wrapper for DynamoDB.

      • PostgreSQLPostgreSQL: pgAdmin 4 v6.19 Released

        The pgAdmin Development Team is pleased to announce pgAdmin 4 version 6.19. This release of pgAdmin 4 includes 20 bug fixes and new features. For more details please see the release notes.

        pgAdmin is the leading Open Source graphical management tool for PostgreSQL. For more information, please see the website. Notable changes in this release include:

      • PostgreSQLPostgreSQL: JDBC FDW 0.3.0 release

        We have just released version 0.3.0 of the Foreign Data Wrapper for databases with JDBC interface.

        This release can work with PostgreSQL 13, 14 and 15.

        This FDW is implemented in C language with JDK.

    • FSF

      • FSFJoin LibrePlanet 2023 behind the scenes as a volunteer

        LibrePlanet 2023 is coming very soon and we need your help to make the world's premier gathering of free software enthusiasts a success. LibrePlanet 2023 will be held March 18-19, 2023 both online and in person in Boston, MA. It will be the fifteenth edition of the conference that brings free software advocates together from around the globe, and you can be an important part of this celebration.

    • Programming/Development

      • Perl / Raku

        • PerlOTOBO supports the German Perl/Raku-Workshop

          We are happy to announce that Rother OSS again supports the German Perl/Raku-Workshop as a sponsor.

          Since 2011, Rother OSS GmbH, based in southern Germany and with a team throughout Germany, has relied on the combination of an open source ticket system and business services from experts. Specifically: consulting, development and support for the free OTRS versions.

          Since 2011, Rother OSS GmbH, based in southern Germany and with a team throughout Germany, has relied on the combination of an open source ticket system and business services from experts. Specifically: consulting, development and support for the free OTRS versions.

        • PerlThis Week in PSC (094)
      • Python

      • Rust

        • Rust in 2023: Growing up

          When I started working on Rust in 2011, my daughter was about three months old. She’s now in sixth grade, and she’s started growing rapidly. Sometimes we wake up to find that her clothes don’t quite fit anymore: the sleeves might be a little too short, or the legs come up to her ankles. Rust is experiencing something similar. We’ve been growing tremendously fast over the last few years, and any time you experience growth like that, there are bound to be a few rough patches. Things that don’t work as well as they used to. This holds both in a technical sense — there are parts of the language that don’t seem to scale up to Rust’s current size — and in a social one — some aspects of how the projects runs need to change if we’re going to keep growing the way I think we should. As we head into 2023, with two years to go until the Rust 2024 edition, this is the theme I see for Rust: maturation and scaling.

        • Rust BlogThe Rust Programming Language Blog: Officially announcing the types team

          Oh hey, it's another new team announcement. But I will admit: if you follow the RFCs repository, the Rust zulip, or were particularly observant on the GATs stabilization announcement post, then this might not be a surprise for you. In fact, this "new" team was officially established at the end of May last year.

          There are a few reasons why we're sharing this post now (as opposed to months before or...never). First, the team finished a three day in-person/hybrid meetup at the beginning of December and we'd like to share the purpose and outcomes of that meeting. Second, posting this announcement now is just around 7 months of activity and we'd love to share what we've accomplished within this time. Lastly, as we enter into the new year of 2023, it's a great time to share a bit of where we expect to head in this year and beyond.

  • Leftovers

    • Hardware

      • The Register UKTales from four decades in the Sinclair aftermarket ● The Register

        RWAP Software has been offering parts and upgrades for Sinclair Research computers since the mid-1980s. Owner Rich Mellor talked to El Reg about what got him into the business, what's kept him interested, as well as his new product – which is a very different beast.

        While Commodore and Atari dominated the US market, in Europe, no other range of home computers still holds so much affection for so many people as Sinclair Research. The original company sold untold millions of units of the ZX80, ZX81, the classic ZX Spectrum and the Sinclair QL. Then founder Sir Clive Sinclair pulled off an impressive second act with the Cambridge Computers Z88, one of the earliest consumer laptops.

        If you are lucky enough to find one in the attic, or for a bargain price at a car-boot sale, there's a good chance the famously awful rubber-membrane keyboard will have failed – but over three decades later, RWAP can supply you with a replacement.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • VideoThe corruption of evidence based medicine

        Professor Clancy worked with Professor David Sackett, the founder of the modern evidence based medicine movement, for over 4 years. Here we discuss the nature and importance of EBM and how this has been corrupted to the detrement of patient care.

    • Proprietary

      • Tom's HardwareMicrosoft Will End Sale of Windows 10 Licenses to Consumers This Month | Tom's Hardware

        Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system has been available on the retail market for over seven years and was superseded by Windows 11 in October 2021. However, despite its age, Windows 10 remains the most popular version of Windows, with a global market share of 67.95% in December 2022 compared to 16.97% for Windows 11, according to StatCounter. But it now looks like Microsoft is ready to put the brakes on issuing new Windows 10 licenses to everyday consumers. Microsoft's official product pages for Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro now include the following disclaimer: "January 31, 2023 will be the last day this Windows 10 download is offered for sale. Windows 10 will remain supported with security updates that help protect your PC from viruses, spyware, and other malware until October 14, 2025."

      • Bleeping ComputerMicrosoft pushes KB5021751 to check for outdated Office installs [Ed: Figuring out how to squeeze money out of people who don't have any left]

        The company says the goal is to determine how many customers are still using outdated Office versions.

    • Linux Foundation

    • Security

      • LWNSecurity updates for Friday [LWN.net]

        Security updates have been issued by Debian (lava and libitext5-java), Oracle (java-11-openjdk, java-17-openjdk, and libreoffice), SUSE (firefox, git, mozilla-nss, postgresql-jdbc, and sudo), and Ubuntu (git, linux-aws-5.4, linux-gkeop, linux-hwe-5.4, linux-oracle, linux-snapdragon, linux-azure, linux-gkeop, linux-intel-iotg, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15, linux-oracle-5.15, and linux-bluefield).

      • CISACisco Releases Security Advisory for Unified CM and Unified CM SME | CISA

        Cisco released a security advisory for a vulnerability affecting Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME). A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial-of-service condition. For updates addressing lower severity vulnerabilities, see the Cisco Security Advisories page.

      • UbuntuUbuntu 18.04 LTS End Of Life - keep your fleet of devices up and running | Ubuntu

        Ubuntu 18.04 ‘Bionic Beaver’ is reaching End of Standard Support this April, also known sometimes as End Of Life (EOL). This distribution of Ubuntu was installed by millions of users and powers up thousands of devices. From kiosks and appliances to IoT devices and robots, 18.04 helped many companies deploy innovations to the world. As with all other Ubuntu LTS releases that reach their end of standard support, Bionic Beaver will transition to Extended Security Maintenance (ESM). This blog post will help developers and companies evaluate their options for devices currently running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. It will also cover how you can enable ESM in case you choose to extend the support window with this service. Before we jump in, let’s cover a burning question: why do Ubuntu releases reach EOL?

      • Bleeping ComputerNew Boldmove Linux malware used to backdoor Fortinet devices [Ed: The Microsofters are getting nastier. This is a Fortinet problem, not Linux, and there's no "backdoor". Vicious FUD campaigns persist.]
      • Hacker NewsChinese Hackers Exploited Recent Fortinet Flaw as 0-Day to Drop Malware

        A suspected China-nexus threat actor exploited a recently patched vulnerability in Fortinet FortiOS SSL-VPN as a zero-day in attacks targeting a European government entity and a managed service provider (MSP) located in Africa.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • VideoHow Is This for Apple Privacy?

          This week in the WeeklyNewsRoundup, Apple scans computers again, FOSS Software Sideloading Malware, and the Linux Foundation creates an Open Source Metaverse

    • Monopolies

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Comics and Graphic Novels

        I'm not sure exactly what kicked it off but I've been more into comic books and graphic novels lately. There was a period in my youth where I was pretty into comic books but it didn't really stick around for too long. Anyways, my wife gave me Descender Volume One as a gift and it is really good! I tore through it pretty fast and then ordered volumes two and three. I'm a huge fan of sci-fi anything so that's mostly what I've been searching out. I ordered some other volume ones to check out too along with "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Authorized Collection" which is a volume of the HHGG comic books that I didn't even know existed up until this point.

      • Album #150: Cosmo's Factory

        Creedence Clearwater Revival to me are the band that films or games use when they want you to think 'Vietnam War'. I've just left them in that box as far back as I can remember. So I put today's record on expecting very little, and was surprised to have a blast.

        I think it was track 1, Ramble Tamble, that softened me up - the long instrumental section in the 7 minute song wasn't at all what I expected. On some albums, big singles like Up and Around the Bend really stand out as obvious hits, but on this it felt like just another song - one I knew already, but in no way overshadowing the rest.

      • Album #149: The Stooges



        The Stooges is 34 minutes long, including and even that feels like a cheat - "We Will Fall" is an eminently skippable 10 minute drone a few songs in. The album has its moments though. "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is a great track, sleigh bells, dirgey piano and menacing guitars making for an atmosphere that nothing else on the album quite reaches.

        I guess this makes the list for its influence, or impact, or the sign of things to come. Raw Power is The Stooges album I've heard before, and from memory think it's the better album. I'd check, but might as well wait - I'm sure it's going to come up later.

    • Technical

      • Why do I keep writing short games?



        I just don't read the long rule books. The absolute upper limits for me are the 2×64 pages of B/X D&D, or the 160 pages of The Traveller Book, and … I just don't want to read more than that before I start playing. Maybe, once I've played for 12 sessions, I'd be interested in more. If I had to guess, I don't even read 50 pages before running a game. I might read more, later. But up front? Never.

      • Dungeons & Dragons - OpenGL Controversy

        I really enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons, but Hasbro (which owns Wizards of the Coast) has evidently decided to try break the Open Gaming License, and don't really care about the players anymore. Below are linked a couple of videos about the controversy, that explains it a lot better than I ever could.

        I've played a lot of different systems. In the last several years, D&D has been my main game, with some Alternity (2018 version), and custom systems made by my brother thrown in.

      • Getting efingerd / finger working on Ubuntu with systemd



        Not a lot of folks use the finger command or protocol these days; however, I've been delving into the #smallweb / smolweb (i.e., the Gemini Protocol) for the past year and noticed a few people have revived this ancient protocol for status updates. I figured I'd give it a shot, and I thought it would be simple, but the lack of guidance really hindered me for a bit.

        If you're wondering, efingerd / fingerd (the original) simply enables people outside of your own linux machine to use the finger command, just remotely.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • A SmörgÃ¥sbord of Problems

          For the past several days, while combating another flu, I've been polishing Lagrange's dev branch for the v1.15 release. Preparing for a release typically involves solving a series of small(ish) problems. Here's a sampling of what I encountered this time.

          Operating systems have fundamental differences when it comes to windowing and event processing. I do most of my development on macOS, so a bunch of small issues typically pop up when testing on Windows, Linux, and *BSD.

        • Gopher and Long-Term Interest in Gemini

          My presence on the small Web is almost exclusively on Gemini, and I mostly browse capsules in Geminispace, but every now and then I find myself returning to Gopher. My first experience with small protocols was with Gopher, and while I switch the Gemini almost immediately, I still enjoy exploring phlogs and resources on Gopher.

          Part of the enduring charm of Gopher to me is its long-term stability. It's been a staple of the Internet for over three decades, receiving an assignment on port 70 by the IANA. The protocol hasn't evolved significantly since then, meaning any server or client capable of accessing the Internet can still communicate--indeed, several decades-old gopherholes are still online. That stability imbues the community with a rich culture that is easily as accessible as it was in the 1990s.


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



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