02.02.23

GNU/Linux

• Server

  • Kubernetes Blog ☛ Kubernetes Blog: Spotlight on SIG Instrumentation

    Observability requires the right data at the right time for the right consumer (human or piece of software) to make the right decision. In the context of Kubernetes, having best practices for cluster observability across all Kubernetes components is crucial.

  • Container Journal ☛ Is Kubernetes Fit For Purpose?

    Are Kubernetes clusters fit to run many of the applications being deployed on them? That question became the focal point of a panel discussion yesterday in Seattle, Washington, hosted by Tetrate, a provider of an instance of the Istio service mesh. Kelsey Hightower, principal engineer for Google Cloud, said one

• Kernel Space

  • LWN ☛ Nolibc: a minimal C-library replacement shipped with the kernel [LWN.net]

    The kernel project does not host much user-space code in its repository, but there are exceptions. One of those, currently found in the tools/include/nolibc directory, has only been present since the 5.1 release. The nolibc project aims to provide minimal C-library emulation for small, low-level workloads. Read on for an overview of nolibc, its history, and future direction written by its principal contributor.

    The nolibc component actually made a discreet entry into the 5.0 kernel as part of the RCU torture-test suite (“rcutorture”), via commit 66b6f755ad45 (“rcutorture: Import a copy of nolibc”). This happened after Paul McKenney asked: “Does anyone do kernel-only deployments, for example, setting up an embedded device having a Linux kernel and absolutely no userspace whatsoever?”

  • LWN ☛ Hiding a process’s executable from itself [LWN.net]

    Back in 2019, a high-profile container vulnerability led to the adoption of some complex workarounds and a frenzy of patching. The immediate problem was fixed, but the incident was severe enough that security-conscious developers have continued to look for ways to prevent similar vulnerabilities in the future. This patch set from Giuseppe Scrivano takes a rather simpler approach to the problem.

    The 2019 incident, which came to be known as CVE-2019-5736, involved a sequence of steps that culminated in the overwriting of the runc container-runtime binary from within a container. That binary should not have even been visible within the container, much less writable, but such obstacles look like challenges to a determined attacker. In this case, the attack was able to gain access to this binary via /proc/self/exe, which always refers to the binary executable for the current process.

    Specifically, the attack opens the runc process’s /proc/self/exe file, creating a read-only file descriptor — inside the container — for the target binary, which lives outside that container. Once runc exits, the attacker is able to reopen that file descriptor for write access; that descriptor can subsequently be used to overwrite the runc binary. Since runc is run with privilege outside of the container runtime, this becomes a compromise of the host as a whole; see the above-linked article for details.

    This vulnerability was closed by having runc copy its binary image into a memfd area and sealing it; control is then be passed to that image before entering the container. Sealing prevents modifying the image, but even if that protection fails, the container is running from an independent copy of the binary that will never be used again, so overwriting it is no longer useful. It is a bit of an elaborate workaround, but it plugged the hole at the time.

  • LWN ☛ Kernel code on the chopping block [LWN.net]

    Code that is added to the kernel can stay there for a long time; there is code in current kernels that has been present for over 30 years. Nothing is forever, though. The kernel development community is currently discussing the removal of two architectures and one filesystem, all of which seem to have mostly fallen out of use. But, as we will see, removal of code from the kernel is not easy and is subject to reconsideration even after it happens.

• Graphics Stack

  • LWN ☛ X clients and byte swapping [LWN.net]

    While there are still systems with both byte orders, little-endian has largely “won” the battle at this point since the vast majority of today’s systems store data with the least-significant byte first (at the lowest address). But when the X11 protocol was developed in the 1980s, there were lots of systems of each byte order, so the X protocol allowed either order and the server (display side) would swap the bytes to its byte order as needed. Over time, the code for swapping data in the messages, which was written in a more-trusting era, has bit-rotted so that it is now a largely untested attack surface that is nearly always unused. Peter Hutterer has been doing some work to stop using that code by default, both in upstream X.org code and in downstream Fedora.

    A Fedora 38 change proposal to disable support for byte-swapped clients by default in the X server was posted in mid-December. It is owned by Hutterer, who proposed adopting the work he was doing for the X.org server into Fedora. At the time, it was unclear whether the upstream changes would land in time, so the Fedora proposal was contingent on that happening. It turns out that Hutterer merged the changes on January 5, so that would not be an impediment to Fedora being an early adopter of the feature.

• Applications

  • Petros Koutoupis ☛ RapidDisk 9.0.0 now available

    RapidDisk is an advanced Linux RAM Disk which consists of a collection of modules and an administration tool.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install Brave Browser on Rocky Linux 9

    In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Brave Browser on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Brave is a free and open-source web browser developed by Brave Software, Inc.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ Dolphin Emulator on Centos

    It is easily the most popular and best-supported emulator for the console on Linux.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How To Install Kodi Media Server on CentOS 9/ Rocky Linux 9/ AlmaLinux 9

    In this guide, we will show you how to install Kodi Media Server in AlmaLinux, CentOS and RockyLinux servers. Kodi (formerly XBMC) is a free and open-source media player software application developed by the XBMC Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium. Kodi is available for multiple operating systems and hardware platforms, with a software 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How To Install Mattermost Desktop onCentOS 9/ Rocky Linux 9/ AlmaLinux 9

    In this guide, we will show you how to install Mattermost Desktop on CentOS/AlmaLinux and RockyLinux systems.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How do you install a pacemaker with Apache on RHEL 8?

    A pacemaker with apache high-availability cluster management tool in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 that monitors and manages services running on Apache servers. It provides failover capabilities for system failures. Pacemaker combines with httpd using a resource agent.

  • ZDNet ☛ What are VirtualBox guest snapshots and how do you take them?

    VirtualBox makes it easy to run multiple operating system guests on a single host. One feature you should be regularly using is snapshots. Here’s what they are and how to use them.

• WINE or Emulation

  • WINE Project (Official) ☛ WineHQ – Wine Announcement – The Wine development release 8.1 is now available.

    The Wine development release 8.1 is now available.
    
    What's new in this release:
      - Windows version set to Windows 10 for new prefixes.
      - Many code cleanups that were deferred during code freeze.  
      - Various bug fixes.
    
    The source is available at:
    
    https://dl.winehq.org/wine/source/8.x/wine-8.1.tar.xz
    
    Binary packages for various distributions will be available from:
    
    https://www.winehq.org/download
    
    You will find documentation on https://www.winehq.org/documentation
    
    You can also get the current source directly from the git
    repository. Check https://www.winehq.org/git for details.
    
    Wine is available thanks to the work of many people. See the file
    AUTHORS in the distribution for the complete list.
    

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Fedora Family / IBM

  • Fedora Project ☛ Fedora Community Blog: Outreachy Summer’23: Call for Projects and Mentors!

    The Fedora Project is participating in the upcoming round ofOutreachy. We need more project ideas and mentors! The last day topropose a projector toapply as a general mentoris February 24, 2023, at 4pm UTC.

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • Ubuntu ☛ From model-centric to data-centric MLOps

    MLOps (short for machine learning operations) is slowly evolving into an independent approach to the machine learning lifecycle that includes all steps – from data gathering to governance and monitoring. It will become a standard as artificial intelligence is moving towards becoming part of everyday business, rather than an innovative activity.

• Devices/Embedded

  • ZDNet ☛ PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition: Great hardware, but the software is for patient Linux pros only

    This Linux-based phone is filled with promise — and headaches.

  • CNX Software ☛ Eduponics Mini v2.0 Smart Agriculture IoT kit gets more flash, new sensors, 4-channel valve board (Crowdfunding)

    Eduponics Mini v2.0 is a Smart Agriculture IoT kit based on the ESP32 wireless microcontroller with built-in sensors to measure temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and ambient light, and interfaces to connect water level and soil moisture sensors.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • The Next Platform ☛ The First RISC-V Shot Across The Datacenter Bow

    When it comes to operating systems and now CPU instruction sets, there is proprietary, there is licensable and modifiable with a standard base of functionality with room for some originality, and there is true open source.

  • Arduino ☛ Snacky, the snack dispenser, enables snack delivery

    Sometimes you get a hankering for a snack, but there is no snack within arm’s reach. Such a situation is a tragedy and exactly what we built society and technology to avoid.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• uni Stanford ☛ From the Community | Stanford needs an official Mastodon server

  The Twitter/Mastodon saga “might seem like drama that concerns mostly our Silicon Valley neighbors,” writes Tomás Guarna, “but it very much concerns us all.”

• Events

  • Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC) ☛ Linux Plumbers Conference: Preliminary Dates and Location for LPC2023

    The 2023 LPC PC is pleased to announce that we’ve begun exclusive negotiations with the Omni Hotel in Richmond, VA to host Plumbers 2023 from 13-15 November. Note: These dates arenot yet final(nor is the location; we have had one failure at this stage of negotiations from all the Plumbers venues we’ve chosen). We will let you know when this preliminary location gets finalized (please don’t book irrevocable travel until then).

• Programming/Development

  • Buttondown ☛ Improve your debugging by asking broad questions

    I recently had to help a friend debug a Word issue where fonts would randomly change to Greek symbols. It got me thinking about theories of debugging in general. At my last job, I was the Debugging Guy.

  • Python

    • LWN ☛ Python packaging, visions, and unification [LWN.net]

      The Python community is currently struggling with a longtime difficulty in its ecosystem: how to develop, package, distribute, and maintain libraries and applications. The current situation is sub-optimal in several dimensions due, at least in part, to the existence of multiple, non-interoperable mechanisms and tools to handle some of those needs. Last week, we had an overview of Python packaging as a prelude to starting to dig into the discussions. In this installment, we start to look at the kinds of problems that exist—and the barriers to solving them.

      Our overview just scratched the surface of the Python packaging world, so we will pick up some of the other pieces as we go along. The recent discussions seem to largely stem from Brett Cannon’s mid-November post to renominate himself to the steering council (SC) for the 2023 term; that thread also served to highlight the role of the Python Packaging Authority (PyPA) and its relationship to the Python core developers. Up until relatively recently, the PyPA was an informal organization with a membership that was not well-defined; it had an ad hoc style of governance. That changed in 2019 with the advent of PEP 609 (“Python Packaging Authority (PyPA) Governance”); the PEP formalized the governance of the PyPA.

Leftovers

• James G ☛ Happy Groundhog Day

  As of my starting to write this post, there are 25 minutes left until midnight here in the UK. This is the first year that I have actively thought about Groundhog Day throughout the day.

• ███████ Alert

  The history of everyone’s favorite attempt to keep the suspense going for just a little bit longer, the spoiler alert. People who spoil things are obviously evil. Obviously.

• Science

  • uni Michigan ☛ Fish preserves earliest fossilized brain of backboned animal

    A 319 million-year-old ray-finned fish fossil at U-M provides new information about early evolutionary history. The fossil was pulled from a coal mine in England more than a century ago.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Lost Interview With The ‘Father of The Big Bang’ Was Just Discovered

    Like peeking through time.

• Education

  • YLE ☛ APN podcast: Finland flunks Finnish teaching selection

    Finnish schools have separate Finnish-language teaching for students who need extra help — but often pupils are sent there when they don’t need it.

• Hardware

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Revenue miss and weak guidance send Qualcomm’s stock down

    Shares of Qualcomm Inc. fell in extended trading today after the smartphone chipmaker delivered lower-than-expected fiscal first-quarter revenue and offered weak guidance for the coming quarter. The company reported earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of $2.37 per share on revenue of $9.46 billion, down 12% from a year earlier.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Off Guardian ☛ Bill Gates, “Aerogel” & the next stage of mRNA “vaccines”

    Kit Knightly Last week professional-software developer and amateur epidemiologist Bill Gates admitted that the mRNA Covid “vaccines” had “three problems”, including that they don’t prevent transmission. But what appears at first glance to be a frank admission is really about protecting the narrative and setting up a new market for new vaccines. Speaking at a …

  • The Scientist ☛ Daily Gene Expression Rhythms Vary with Sex and Age: Study

    By studying tissues from deceased people, a team found that women have more rhythmical gene expression and that this molecular rhythmicity decreases with age.

• Security

  • Security Week ☛ Google Shells Out $600,000 for OSS-Fuzz Project Integrations

    Google announces an expansion of its OSS-Fuzz rewards program to help find software vulnerabilities before they are exploited.

  • Security Week ☛ F5 BIG-IP Vulnerability Can Lead to DoS, Code Execution

    A high-severity format string vulnerability in F5 BIG-IP can be exploited to cause a DoS condition and potentially execute arbitrary code.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ LockBit claims responsibility for ransomware attack on ION Trading

    The LockBit ransomware gang has claimed responsibility for an attack on financial services company ION Trading UK Ltd.

  • USCERT ☛ CISA Releases Six Industrial Control Systems Advisories

    CISA released six Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on February 2, 2023.

  • USCERT ☛ CISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog [Ed: This is about SugarCRM and Oracle]

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Gizmodo ☛ The Pentagon Claims a Chinese Surveillance Balloon Has Been Floating Over the U.S. for Days

      Defense officials claim that a Chinese surveillance balloon has been drifting over the northern part of the United States for the past several days.

• Defence/Aggression

  • RFERL ☛ Austria Expels Four Russian Diplomats

    The Austrian Foreign Ministry has announced the expulsion of four Russian diplomats for what it said were actions incompatible with their diplomatic status, adding that they must leave the country.

  • RFERL ☛ Russia Preparing Major Offensive, Ukrainian Military Says, As Shelling Kills Civilians In Kramatorsk

    Ukraine’s military says there are clear signs that Russian forces are getting ready for a major push in the east, where a stalemate continues despite months-long heavy fighting and intensive daily shelling by Moscow’s troops.

  • RFERL ☛ France Seizes Iran Assault Rifles, Missiles Heading To Yemen

    French naval forces in January seized thousands of assault rifles, machine guns, and anti-tank missiles in the Gulf of Oman coming from Iran and heading to Yemen’s Huthi rebels.

  • The Local SE ☛ POLL: Majority of Finns want to join Nato before Sweden

    A majority of Finns want to go it alone and join Nato without Sweden, if the latter country’s membership is delayed, a poll suggested on Thursday, after Turkey said it could accept Finland without Sweden.

  • The Strategist ☛ Making Ukrainian victory possible

    Almost one year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the war is entering a new phase.

  • LRT ☛ EC to announce aid package, discuss Ukraine’s EU membership in Kyiv – Lithuanian rep

    The European Commission will announce a new aid package for Ukraine and discuss the prospects of the country’s EU membership during its visit to Kyiv, Lithuanian EC member Virginijus Sinkevičius, who is part of the EC delegation, says.

  • RFERL ☛ EU Says It Will Slap Russia With More Sanctions By First Anniversary Of War

    The European Union says it plans to hit Russia with a fresh package of punitive measures — the 10th since the start of its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine almost one year ago — as the bloc prepares to hold a summit with Ukraine’s leadership in the capital, Kyiv.

  • France24 ☛ US says F-16 deal contingent on Turkey’s support for NATO expansion

    The US Congress cannot support the $20 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey until Ankara ratifies the NATO memberships of Sweden and Finland, a bipartisan group of senators said on Thursday.

  • France24 ☛ Live: Ukraine should start EU entry talks ‘this year’, Zelensky says

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday his war-torn country deserved to start EU accession talks already “this year”. Follow our live blog below for all the latest developments. All times are in Paris time (GMT+1).

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Russian presence at Paris Olympics risks normalizing Ukraine invasion

    The International Olympic Committee’s decision to allow Russian athletes to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics under a neutral flag has sparked outrage from critics who say it risks normalizing the genocidal invasion of Ukraine.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Execution of man convicted in killing of 3 in Texas delayed

    A judge has delayed next week’s scheduled execution of a man convicted of killing three teenagers while they slept in a Texas Panhandle home more than 25 years ago. Fifty-four-year-old John Balentine had been set to receive a lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville on Feb. 8.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvia speaks out against allowing Russian, Belarusian athletes in Olympic competition

    The Latvian Olympic Committee (LOK) on February 1 spoke out against allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games amid fears that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is paving the way for that to happen.

  • CS Monitor ☛ As Ukraine’s economy reels, Ukrainians find ways to soldier on

    As the war with Russia grinds on, Ukraine’s economy is under pressure and dependent on foreign aid. The average Ukrainian faces an uncertain future, but is still finding ways to persevere.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Turkey in NATO: Inscrutable, unreliable, but indispensable

    Authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defies his NATO partners, buying Russian weapons and blocking European nations from joining the alliance. How to manage ties with a leader NATO cannot do without?

  • New York Times ☛ Putin Promises Victory in Ukraine as His Forces Strike a Key City

    On the 80th anniversary of a decisive Soviet triumph over the Nazis, President Vladimir V. Putin tried to cast Russia’s invasion as a virtuous endeavor. Back-to-back missile strikes hit the Ukrainian military hub of Kramatorsk as Kyiv warned of a new Russian offensive.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ Former CIA analyst: ‘A costly and prolonged cold war now seems a certainty’

    ‘No one knows how the war in Ukraine will end, but there is one post-war certainty: there will be a prolonged and costly Cold War between the United States and Russia,’ – predicts Melvin A. Goodman, a former CIA analyst…

  • RFERL ☛ EU Bank Seeks Pledges Of More Than $2.4 Billion For Ukraine This Year

    The European Union’s investment bank has called for more budget guarantees from the bloc’s 27 members to match or exceed this year the 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) spent in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

  • YLE ☛ Finnish, Swedish PMs pledge that nations will join Nato together

    At a joint press conference in Stockholm, Marin and Kristersson stressed that the two countries aim to join Nato by July.

  • RFERL ☛ Finland, Sweden Committed To Joint NATO Accession, Prime Ministers Say

    Finland and Sweden remain committed to joining NATO at the same time despite Turkey’s opposition to the Swedish candidacy, the two countries’ prime ministers said in Stockholm

  • RFA ☛ Police claim that hanged teenager took own life sparks public skepticism

    A news conference presents the official narrative but scant hard evidence, lawyers say.

  • RFERL ☛ Pakistan Says Peshawar Mosque Bomber Wore Police Uniform, Breached Security On Motorbike

    The suicide bomber who killed more than 100 people at a mosque in a police compound in Peshawar this week wore a police uniform and entered the high-security area on a motorbike, a Pakistani provincial police chief said.

  • RFERL ☛ Iran Blames Israel For Isfahan Drone Attack, Vows Revenge

    Iran blames Israel for a drone attack on a military factory near the central city of Isfahan, the semiofficial ISNA news agency said on February 2

• Environment

  • Axios ☛ Record cold snap could hit New England this weekend

    A potentially record-breaking cold snap will descend on New England beginning tonight and lasting into Sunday, with wind chills approaching record low levels.

  • YLE ☛ FMI: Finland sees “exceptionally” mild January

    The city of Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland experienced its warmest start to a year on record.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • New rail service planned through Norway, Sweden and Denmark to Hamburg

      Plans for a new rail service running from Oslo and stopping in Gothenburg, Malmö and Copenhagen before arriving in Hamburg are in the works, Swedish state-owned rail operator SJ has said.

    • Reason ☛ Democrats Say They Support Green Energy. Why Do Their Policies Say Otherwise?

      If you look closely, you’ll find a lot of contradictions.

    • Reason ☛ Biden Promotes a Hummer That Doesn’t Even Qualify for His Electric Vehicle Tax Credits

      Biden sat in a truck that costs as much as $120,000 to promote a tax credit that only applies to electric vehicles retailing for up to $80,000.

    • Quartz ☛ The world needs lithium more than ever, and Latin America knows it

    • Quartz ☛ Peru’s political crisis cuts off access to 2% of the world’s much-needed copper supply

      The Chinese-owned Las Bambas mine in Peru, responsible for close to 2% of the world’s copper production, officially halted production on Feb. 1

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ An Incredible Thing Happens When Dolphins And Humans Team Up

      Teamwork!

    • The Age AU ☛ Marine debris contributed to death of sperm whale in Hawaii

      Marine debris likely contributed to the death of a sperm whale that washed up in Hawaii.

• Finance

  • YLE ☛ Logistics strike postponed until 20 February

    The work stoppage would hit food service providers for hospitals, elder housing, prisons, kindergartens and schools, as well as the Defence Forces.

  • teleSUR ☛ European Central Bank Raises Rates by 50 Basis Points

    The interest rates on the main refinancing operations and on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will be increased to 3 percent, 3.25 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.

  • teleSUR ☛ Bank of England Raises Rates to 4 Pct

    This is the tenth consecutive rate hike since December 2021 as the BoE continues its fight against inflation, which slowed to 10.5 percent in December 2022 from a 41-year high of 11.1 percent in October.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Aviation workers protest foreign airlines flying domestic routes

    AMLO sent a foreign cabotage bill to Congress in December, which could grant foreign airlines the right to operate domestic routes.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Ford 4Q profit drops 90%, company says more cost cuts coming

    Ford says its fourth-quarter net income fell 90% from a year earlier. That led company officials to say Thursday that the automaker’s costs are too high and to pledge more belt-tightening this year. CEO Jim Farley said in a statement that Ford should have done better last year, and it left $2 billion in profits on the table. He said Ford will correct that with improved execution this year. Chief Financial Officer John Lawler told reporters the global shortage of computer chips and other parts hit Ford hard at the end of last year, costing it production of roughly 100,000 vehicles. He would not rule out further white-collar layoffs. Ford said it made $1.26 billion from October through December.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Starbucks misses sales, revenue estimates as China falters

    Starbucks reported lower-than-expected sales in its fiscal first quarter, hurt by COVID restrictions in China and lower consumer demand in other markets. Global same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, were up 5% in the October-December period, but that was partly due to higher prices. Store transactions were down 2%. Starbucks fell short of Wall Street’s forecast for same-store sales, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Starbucks said its revenue rose 8% to a record $8.7 billion, but that also fell short of analysts’ expectations.

  • Breach Media ☛ The global money pool that soaked Canada’s hope of affordable housing

    Cheap money and privatization made housing unaffordable, but organizing can reverse the tide

  • Axios ☛ Biden’s top economic adviser to leave White House

    Brian Deese, the top economic adviser to President Biden, will leave his role at the White House, the presidentsaid in a statementThursday.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Okta and Miro cut staff amid biggest tech layoffs in two decades

    Identity access management company Okta Inc. and online collaborative whiteboard startup Miro today became the latest two companies to announce layoffs amid the biggest layoffs in the tech industry in more than 20 years. Okta is laying off 5% of its workforce, about 300 employees, citing macroeconomic challenges as its motivating factor.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Apple’s stock falls on first earnings and revenue miss in years

    Apple Inc. disappointed investors today as it delivered its fiscal 2023 first-quarter results, missing expectations on revenue, profit and sales for many of its key business lines and sending its stock down in extended trading. Apple’s total sales fell 5.5% from a year earlier, the first time its quarterly revenue has declined since 2019.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Chainalysis plans to cut under 5% of its workforce as ‘crypto winter’ affects markets

    Chainalysis Inc., a company that provides analytical data about cryptocurrency transactions for governments and banks to detect illicit activity, confirmed late Wednesday that the company intends to lay off less than 5% of its 900 employees as part of a reorganization.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Axios ☛ House votes to remove Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee

  • Gizmodo ☛ TikTok Is Trying a New Tactic to Punish Policy Offenders

    TikTok has potential bans weighing heavy on its mind, so much so that it’s planning to completely remodel how it will decide to ban accounts that violate its policies.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ TikTok updates safety policies as US scrutiny continues

    As ByteDance Ltd.-owned TikTok stares down the barrel of a shotgun in the U.S., the company announced today that it’s introducing new moderation policies for creators and users.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Twitter is closing free access to its API starting Feb. 9

    The social media giant Twitter Inc. has announced that it intends to shutter free access to its application programming interface in a move to make more money for the platform.

  • Engadget ☛ Twitter will charge developers to access its API starting February 9th [Ed: Musk helps Twitter die even faster. Euthanasia?]

  • Engadget ☛ TikTok rolls out its own strike system for creators who violate its rules

    TikTok is trying to make it easier for creators and others to navigate its rules, and understand what’s happening to their accounts.

  • RFERL ☛ Prominent Political Ally Of Pakistan’s Ex-PM Khan Arrested

    A prominent Pakistani politician who is also a close ally of former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested after police raided his home near Islamabad.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Fashion designer Barbaros Şansal detained in İstanbul

    The politically outspoken fashion designer was detained at İstanbul Airport due to a warrant for “degrading the military and the police.”

  • Court acquits former MP over ‘hunger=Erdoğan’ tweet

    “It is of course the government who is responsible for the hunger,” said Eren Erdem of CHP at the court.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong falls to 88th in int’l democracy index as think tank cites civil service exodus

    Hong Kong has fallen three positions in the latest global democracy index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), as the think tank attributed the decline to an exodus of experienced civil servants in response to the “deteriorating political situation” in the city.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Editorial Complaints Committee Member, Independent Press Standards Organisation

    IPSO needs someone with recent senior experience in national mass market newspapers.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Reason ☛ Fifth Circuit Holds People Can’t Be Disarmed Just Based on Civil Restraining Order

    Judge James Ho concurs, adding “I write separately to point out that our Founders firmly believed in the fundamental role of government in protecting citizens against violence, as well as the individual right to keep and bear arms—and that these two principles are not inconsistent but entirely compatible with one another.”

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ NSA releases IPv6 transition guidance

    What advice does the NSA have for operating dual-stack and new IPv6 networks?

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Digital Music News ☛ Spotify Stock (NYSE: SPOT) Has Surged by 22% This Week Despite Huge Q4 Loss

    Although Spotify reported a €231 million Q4 2022 operating loss earlier this week, its shares have rebounded by north of 20 percent since the performance analysis released. During today’s trading hours, the per-share value of Spotify stock (NYSE: SPOT) increased by about 3.71 percent from Wednesday’s close to finish at $122.57.

• Monopolies

  • Gizmodo ☛ Biden Administration Wants Apple to Quit Gatekeeping the iPhone

    The Biden Administration thinks Apple and Google “act as gatekeepers” over their respective mobile ecosystems.

  • Patents

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Transfer Venue: Texas Corp Status Given No Weight

      In re Google LLC(Fed. Cir. 2023)

      This is another mandamus action win by Google on convenience grounds. The Federal Circuit has ordered the case moved out of the Western District of Texas (Waco) to the Northern District of California.

  • Copyrights

    • Public Domain Review ☛ A Treatise Concerning the Properties and Effects of Coffee (1792)

      Moseley’s treatise argues the multitude of benefits that come from drinking coffee, when the beverage was still relatively new to Europe.