GNU/Linux

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • Video ☛ The Steam Deck just had its first birthday. But is it for you? – Invidious

    You wanna hear something crazy: I’ve had a Steam Deck for a year. Yeah. Valve sent me a review unit and it arrived here on February 24th, 2022. To think back on the state of the Deck when I first got mine. How far it has come in that time… The question is: should you buy a Steam Deck in 2023?

  • Video ☛ No Flatpak for Ubuntu? | LMDE 5 Followup | Q-A – Invidious

    What do you think about Ubuntu and Snap vs. Flatpak? I dig into some of your comments and answer your questions… This is going to be fun.

  • Video ☛ Rolling Release Linux Distro Probably Isn’t For You – Invidious

    As much as I love my rolling release distro being Arch Linux I know that this kind of system is absolutely not for everyone and shouldn’t be, so let’s go over some things to consider before picking yourself up a rolling release.

• Applications

  • Linux Links ☛ 9 Best Free and Open Source Electronic Design Automation Tools

    There are a wide range of EDA tools out that are released under an open source license which let developers customize, and create their latest designs. To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, we’ve compiled a list of 9 high quality free Linux EDA applications. Hopefully, there will be something of interest here for anyone who wants to design electronic systems.

  • Linux Links ☛ Best Free and Open Source Software – February 2023 Updates

    Here are the latest updates to our compilation of recommended software. Open source software at its finest.

    It’s been an extremely busy month in February with a smorgasbord of new and updated group tests published.

    As always, we love receiving your suggestions for new articles or additional open source software to feature. Let us know in the Comments box below or drop us an email.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Linux Shell Tips ☛ 4 Commands to List Mounted File Systems in Linux

    The Linux operating system provides multiple filesystems, including ext4, xfs, tmpfs, securityfs, and many more. This guide demonstrates various ways to list all mounted

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How to automate updates on Ubuntu and Redhat-based Systems

  • UNIX Cop ☛ What is /dev/null in Linux

  • Cloudbooklet ☛ Building an Effective ML Deployment Stack with Docker on Ubuntu 22.04

    In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the process of building a powerful ML deployment stack on Ubuntu 22.04, complete with step-by-step instructions and commands.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How To Install NoMachine on CentOS 9 / RockyLinux 9 / AlmaLinux 9

    In this guide, we will show you how to download and install NoMachine on AlmaLinux, RockyLinux and CentOS systems. NoMachine is a cross-platform, fastest, and highest quality remote desktop tool that enables you to access the desktop of any other machine with NoMachine installed.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How To Install Bitwarden on CentOS 9 /AlmaLinux 9/ RockyLinux 9

    In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Bitwarden on your CentOS, AlmaLinux and RockyLinux systems.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How To Install Discord on CentOS 9 /AlmaLinux 9/ RockyLinux 9

    In this guide, we will show you how to install Discord on CentOS, AlmaLinux and RockyLinux Systems with two different methods.

  • Peter Czanik: Syslog-ng 101, part 9: Filters

    This is the ninth part of my syslog-ng tutorial. Last time, we learned about macros and templates. Today, we learn about syslog-ng filters. At the end of the session, we will see a more complex filter and a template function.

    You can watch the video or read the text below.

    https://youtu.be/2JZNuRbZc_8

    Declaring filters

    Filters are expressions to select, or in other words, filter log messages. They make sure that the right messages reach the right destinations. For example, you can use filters to discard debug level log messages, or make sure that all authentication-related messages are routed to your SIEM system.

    A filter definition is a collection of one or more filter functions. It consists of two parts. It starts with the word “filter”, followed by an identifier for the filter which you will use later to refer to the given filter. After that, it lists the filter functions with their parameters. You can combine multiple filter functions using boolean operators. Here is how its syntax looks like:

    filter name { filterfunction(); };
    filter f_default { level(info..emerg) and not (facility(mail)); };

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ How to install Notepadqq on Linux Lite 6.2

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ How to install Reaper on a Chromebook

  • Barry Kauler ☛ How to install Vivaldi browser or any DEB

    Forum member tallboy asked how to install Vivaldi web browser in
    EasyOS. Forum member kinoe replied with a link to a Vivaldi appimage.

    I also posted a couple of replies. Yes, appimages will work in Easy,
    and .deb packages can be installed just by clicking on then. There are
    some caveats though, see my replies:

  • DebugPoint ☛ How to Install LibreOffice in Arch Linux (Fresh and Still versions)

    LibreOffice comes in two variants. The latest version by number is the community edition which contains the latest features and enhancements and targets early adopters. And the business version is a little behind on features but it’s stable and solid.

    However, in the Arch Linux package repository, the names remained as “fresh” and “still”.

    Here’s how to install it.

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • Ubuntu Pit ☛ KDE Plasma 5.27.2 Released: What’s New?

      The KDE team has announced the second point release of the Plasma 5.27 LTS desktop environment series: Plasma 5.27.2. This release brings fixes for reported user issues, as well as a more streamlined experience with improved usability and efficiency overall.

    • KDE ☛ KDE Plasma 5.27.2, Bugfix Release for February

      Today KDE releases a bugfix update to KDE Plasma 5, versioned 5.27.2.

      Plasma 5.27 was released in February 2023 with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience.

      This release adds a week’s worth of new translations and fixes from KDE’s contributors. The bugfixes are typically small but important and include…

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Fedora Family / IBM

  • CentOS ☛ CentOS Community Newsletter, February 2023

    CentOS hosted its annual CentOS Connect at FOSDEM 2023. CentOS Connect is a series of mini-conferences where people from across the Enterprise Linux ecosystem can connect at learn. CentOS Connect at FOSDEM is the largest of these events.

    This was our first return to being in person at FOSDEM, and we were very happy with the turnout and overall experience. We also ran the event virtually. We’re committed to running hybrid events, and we’ll continue to improve on the virtual experience. If you attended, either in person or virtually, check your email for a post-event survey. It only takes a few minutes, and it really helps us create better events for you in the future.

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • Ubuntu ☛ Top 10 robotics snaps in the Snap Store – Part 1

    The number of robotics applications being distributed by snaps just keeps growing! From toolkits and plugins to dedicated robotics launch files and ROS-based snaps, robotics developers keep sharing their apps with snaps

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Arduino ☛ Self-guided circular saw automates woodworking

    A circular saw is a must-have tool for anyone who wants to do even basic woodworking. But getting clean, straight cuts is a skill that takes practice to develop. To automate the process in order to perform clean cuts every time with zero effort, Red Tie Projects created this self-guided circular saw.

  • Arduino ☛ Time Slider is an interesting spin on clock design

    You can build a simple and accurate clock with any Arduino board, an RTC (real-time clock) module, and a four-digit seven-segment display. But if you want to be inspired by a more unique design, check out Hans Andersson’s Time Slider. This clever clock features four sliders — one for each digit of the time.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Android Police ☛ Best Mario Kart alternatives on Android in 2023

  • Android Police ☛ LastPass reveals its recent security attack was worse than it initially thought

  • Giz China ☛ This YouTube video crashes some Android smartphones

  • India Today ☛ Phone slowing down? How to speed up your Android smartphone quickly – India Today

  • Geeky Gadgets ☛ Raspberry Pi stress testing – Geeky Gadgets

  • 9to5Google ☛ Android security: How to set a PIN, password, and biometric login

  • Make Use Of ☛ What Are Android Banking Trojans and How Do You Avoid Them?

  • The Sun ☛ Billions of Android users warned over ‘harmless’ apps spying on your every move – including creating map of location | The US Sun

  • The Sun ☛ Billions of Android users can unlock dozens of secret Google features for free using ‘instant upgrade’ loophole | The US Sun

  • Pocket Lint ☛ OnePlus Pad initial review: A charming Android tablet

  • Android Police ☛ Razer Edge review: Thanks, but I already have a phone

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Licensing / Legal

  • Austin Z Henley ☛ AI-generated code needs permission labels [Ed: It is not "AI-generated", it is plagiarism]

• Programming/Development

  • Nicholas Tietz-Sokolsky ☛ If software engineering roles were chess pieces, what would they be?

Leftovers

• Meduza ☛ Belarusian IKEA knockoff company Swed House to open in Russia — Meduza

  The Russian Union of Shopping Centers has signed a cooperation agreement with the Belarusian company Swed House, a home goods firm that sells items intended to look like IKEA products.

• Meduza ☛ Prosecution requests 19-year prison terms for Belarusian opposition leaders, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Pavel Latushko, tried in absentia — Meduza

  Belarusian opposition leaders Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Pavel Latushko are being tried in absentia in Belarus. They have been charged with conspiracy, organizing an extremist group, and undermining the government of Belarus and its state security.

• Meduza ☛ 18 human skeletons found on Dagestan beach, where they may have been buried in 1930s — Meduza

  Human remains were found on a Caspian Sea beach in Makhachkala, Dagestan, the Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti reported on Monday, citing local law enforcement.

• Hackaday ☛ Pokemon ROM Hacks Brought To The Real World

  If you were a kid anywhere in the last 30 years, it was nearly impossible to avoid at least some exposure to the Pokemon franchise. Whether that’s through games like Red and Blue to Scarlet and Violet, the brief summer everyone played Pokemon Go, or to other media such as the trading card game or anime, it seems to have transcended generations and cultures fairly thoroughly. And, if you’ve consumed all there is of official Pokemon video gaming, you may be surprised to know there are a number of slightly modified games floating around out there that can be translated onto game carts just like their official counterparts.

• Hackaday ☛ Collection Of Old Films Rescued For Preservation

  PeriscopeFilm owners [Doug] and [Nick] just released a mini-documentary about the rescue of a large collection of old 35 and 16 mm celluloid films from the landfill. The video shows the process of the films being collected from the donor and then being sorted and organized in a temporary storage warehouse. There is a dizzying variety of films in this haul, from different countries, in both color and black and white.

• World Bank: Earthquake damage in Türkiye estimated to exceed $34 billion

  The rapid damage assessment report after the February 6 earthquakes also acknowledges that recovery and reconstruction costs will be much larger, potentially twice as large.

• Union of bars files case against switch to remote education due to earthquakes

  Higher education will continue online, with earthquake survivors placed in university dormitories.

• Xe’s Blog ☛ Talon is amazing

  When I was writing this post,
  I was in a unique level of flow state working with Talon. It’s
  probably gonna come across a little bit weird. Sorry!

  In my last article I discussed the voice control challenge, it is a
  very simple thing: put your hands at your sides and use only your
  voice to do your daily tasks. In essence, doing this makes you get
  exposed to what it is like for people who have to rely in these
  technologies on a daily basis.

  For many of you reading this post, this is just a thought experiment.
  This is something that you try once or twice and then go back to
  normal. It can be frustrating, none of your applications will work
  correctly. Selecting some UI elements may be difficult or even
  impossible.

  One way to look at a challenge like this is to help you train empathy
  for those who have to rely on this technology. it can make you feel
  powerless. This is a feeling that we rarely get to have as
  technologists.

  The thing that I really feel exemplifies the difficulty of the voice
  control challenge is controlling a text editor. Text editors require
  arbitrary keyboard inputs. They require pressing weird key binds.
  Doing this with voice control on a mac or iPad can be difficult to
  impossible.

• Counter Punch ☛ Letter from London: Meeting at Maison Bertaux

  I made a nostalgic venture back into London’s Soho last week to meet up for a coffee and chat with writer and journalist Christopher Howse. We had arranged to meet at well loved patisserie Maison Bertaux on Greek Street, enjoyed by CNN only a few weeks ago, I noticed. It was not exactly Marlow getting the ship fixed and setting off upriver again but the drums of my past were certainly beating as I wandered up from Charing Cross. Not often these days did I meet with a broadsheet journalist, either. I have known my fair share, some also who gave up once it became impossible to make a living from it. Two I knew actually became barristers — funny, as, also last week, I had come across Harry Mount’s ‘My Brief Career’ in one of those appetising piles of free books you find at overland London railway stations. The kind you are encouraged to pluck like fruit and take back once read. As my train was late, I began reading Mount’s expose, and was immediately thankful to be taken away from news on my phone from Ukraine. It is a tidy account of how Mount travelled in the opposite direction from the two barristers by journeying instead from law to journalism. ‘A hilarious account of the splendid miseries of being a pupil in a barrister’s chamber,’ John Mortimer wrote. Mount is now editor of The Oldie, whose founding editor was former Private Eye and Soho luminary Richard Ingrams, and I wonder how the view is for him now.

  At least London seemed its usual eccentric and capricious self. I couldn’t help but notice the man in Leicester Square marching in front of me with the word ‘ELECTRICITY’ on the back of his high-vis jacket. ‘I’m shocked,’ he kept saying into his mobile phone, rather troublingly for an electricity man. ‘I am shocked!’ he repeated, perhaps too loudly this time. Leaving him to whatever power game he was playing, I sneaked a left into Chinatown and suddenly found myself beneath a marvellous sea of tethered bright orange lanterns, as if each chuckling away at the big grey sky. There were so many of them, all so light and crisp and beautiful, that I had to take a photograph. Only later did I realise each was bearing the name of a giant casino. In fact, serious gambling among London’s Chinese community is sufficiently common nowadays for the many first-time Chinese students heading to our universities being made aware of the impending risk of unlimited access to it. This sounds like something they may have once said to communists about to experience capitalism. On my left, meanwhile, was Wan Chai Corner, where many years ago I would eat delicious dim sum with a gracious backgammon-playing friend. By now I was really looking forward to seeing Christopher again. We are two quite different people who share many of the same interests — poetry, travel, the cosmos — or so I like to think. I reviewed his book ‘Soho in the Eighties’ in these pages a few years ago, and if ever a London memoir demonstrates an acute power of observation, it is this one. In equal measure, I am also a fan of his crescent-like ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’ based on years of travelling across the Castilian interior.

• Oona Räisänen ☛ Using HDMI radio interference for high-speed data transfer

  This story, too, begins with noise. I was browsing the radio waves with a software radio, looking for mysteries to accompany my ginger tea. I had started to notice a wide-band spiky signal on a number of frequencies that only seemed to appear indoors. Some sort of interference from electronic devices, probably. Spoiler alert, it eventually led me to broadcast a webcam picture over the radio waves… but how?

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ Move Over Steel, Carbon-Reinforced Concrete Is Here

    Reinforced concrete is the miracle material which made possible so many of the twentieth century’s most iconic structures, but here in this century its environmental footprint makes it something of a concern. As part of addressing this problem, a team at TU Dresden in Germany have completed what is believed to be the world’s first building made with carbon-reinforced concrete, in which the steel rebar is replaced with carbon fiber.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ DIY STM32 Scope Is Simple, Cheap, And Featureful

    Would you like to have a small digital oscilloscope? Do you have a spare BlackPill (STM32F401) board and a TFT display laying around? [tvvlad1234] presents us with a simple and educational digital storage oscilloscope design that barely needs any components for you to build one, and it’s packed with features just like you would expect from a self-respecting open-source project. Not just that — it can even stream data to your computer, in a format compatible with the TekScope software!

  • Hackaday ☛ Watch Time Slide By With This Electromechanical Clock

    Back in the 18th century, clockmakers were held in high esteem, as turning pieces of metal and wire into working timepieces must have seemed like magic at the time. The advent of mass production made their profession largely obsolete, but today there are several hardware hackers whom you could consider modern heirs of the craft. [Hans Andersson] is one of them, and has made a name for himself with an impressive portfolio of electromechanical clocks. His latest work, called the Time Slider, is every bit as captivating as his previous work.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • CNN ☛ After 959 days, this city is no longer imposing $1,000 fines for not wearing a mask

    One of the last major international cities requiring face coverings on Tuesday announced it will end its controversial Covid mask mandate nearly three years after it was enacted to prevent the spread of the virus.

  • CNN ☛ Zero-calorie sweetener linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds

    A sugar replacement called erythritol — used to add bulk or sweeten stevia, monk-fruit, and keto reduced-sugar products — has been linked to blood clotting, stroke, heart attack and death, according to a new study.

  • TruthOut ☛ Exposure to Chevron’s “Climate-Friendly” Fuel May Pose Severe Risk of Cancer

  • Brownstone flack Gabrielle Bauer admits that the Great Barrington Declaration was wrong

    From the vantage point of three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, at times October 2020 seems like ancient history, although I do still remember it well. The pandemic was building as the first deadly winter approached, and it was not clear when (or if) there would be safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19. There was hope, of course, because the reports coming out about the clinical trials of the mRNA-based vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna sounded promising, but even the most optimistic wouldn’t have predicted that the vaccine would receive emergency use authorization (EUA) and start rolling out to high risk frontline workers a mere two months later and then to the high risk general public not long after that. The 2020 Presidential election was in full swing, as much as it could be given the pandemic-driven restrictions on large gatherings. It was truly a bizarre election.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Minnesota Looks to a New Approach to “Crisis Pregnancy Centers”

    Anti-abortion counseling centers, often called “crisis pregnancy centers,” may soon face an existential choice in Minnesota: Leave behind their explicit agenda of dissuading people from having abortions or risk losing state funding.

    While some center operators could see that as a nonstarter, state Democrats may leave the door open for them to continue receiving taxpayer dollars — albeit under a battery of rules some Minnesota lawmakers hope could expand services for pregnant people amid the country’s rapidly shifting abortion landscape.

  • Pro Publica ☛ How We Found That Sites of Ebola Outbreaks Risk Facing It Again

    As a devastating outbreak of Ebola spread to Tommy Garnett’s homeland of Sierra Leone in 2014, the conservationist had a hunch.

    Garnett long lamented the deforestation from farming, mining and logging in the region and wondered if tree loss had anything to do with the outbreak that had swept into Sierra Leone from a forested area of Guinea. With activities in his country at a standstill due to the outbreak, Garnett asked the ERM Foundation, the nonprofit arm of a sustainability consulting firm in London, to help him analyze patterns of deforestation.

  • Pro Publica ☛ On the Edge

    Generations ago, families fleeing tribal violence in southern Guinea settled in a lush, humid forest. They took solace among the trees, which offered cover from intruders, and carved a life out of the land. Their descendants call it Meliandou, which elders there say comes from words in the Kissi language that mean “this is as far as we go.”

    By 2013, a village had bloomed where trees once stood — 31 homes, surrounded by a ring of forest and footpaths that led to pockets residents had cleared to plant rice. Their children played in a hollowed-out tree that was home to a large colony of bats.

  • New York Times ☛ Hong Kong Mask Mandate, One of World’s Last, Will End

    As of Wednesday, the city will no longer require people to wear masks indoors, outdoors or on public transportation.

• Security

  • Patrick Louis ☛ Secure the Border and Build the Wall

    Introduction

    Plenty of cheesy quotes often say that total security stands on the
    opposite of total freedom.
    Undeniably, in computers and operating systems this is a fact. However,
    universal privilege used to be the norm, and restricting actions was
    a concept that wasn’t part of the vocabulary. Today, this idea is a
    must. Our machines are constantly interacting with the external world,
    exchanging information, and deliberately fetching and executing pieces
    of code and software from servers hosted in places we might never
    visit. Meanwhile, we trust and intertwine our lives with these machines.

    A system that is trustworthy is not the same as a system we must
    trust. This distinction is important because systems that need to be
    trusted are not necessarily trustworthy.

    This article will focus on the topic of access control on Unix-like
    systems. Sit back and relax as it transports you on a journey of
    discovery. We’ll unfold the map, travel to different places, allowing to
    better understand this wide, often misunderstood, and messy territory. The
    goal of this article is to first and foremost describe what is present,
    allowing to move forward, especially with the countless possibilities
    already present. How can we better shape the future if we don’t know
    the past.

  • WhichUK ☛ Scammers are imitating HMRC in fake tax refund emails

    Government issues warning about latest tax office impersonation scam

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Illinois’ biometric privacy law provides blueprint as states seek to curb data collection

      An estimated 17 pieces of privacy legislation backed by both Democrats and Republicans are pending across the country.

    • Techdirt ☛ Signal: If UK Government Undermines Encryption It Can Kiss Messaging Service Used By Its Employees Goodbye

      If anyone can call a government’s bluff, it’s Signal. It’s a nonprofit, which means it doesn’t need to make a bunch of shareholders happy by capitulating to ridiculous government demands in order to retain market share.

    • Techdirt ☛ Supreme Court Denies Cert To NSA Case, Allows State Secret Privilege To Roll On Unaltered

      While we’re waiting to see if the Trump-stocked Supreme Court is going to end the internet as we know it, the nation’s top court has been rejecting, without comment, other essential cases that really could have used another set of judicial eyes.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Nation ☛ America Is a Gun

  • The Dissenter ☛ March To Iraq War, 20 Years Later: February 28, 2003

  • Scheerpost ☛ Western Leaders Privately Say Ukraine Can’t Win the War

    The German and French leaders have told Ukraine they must seek peace with Russia in exchange for a post-war defense pact, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

  • Meduza ☛ Gleb Pavlovsky, political strategist who turned from Kremlin advisor to Kremlin critic, dies at 71 — Meduza

    Russian political scientist and political strategist Gleb Pavlovsky has died at 71, according to Simon Kordonsky, the head of the local self-government department at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. He reportedly died from an unspecified illness.

  • Meduza ☛ Russia’s Aerospace Forces augmented with new anti-aircraft units, specialized in combat air defense — Meduza

    Military anti-aircraft systems and units that previously belonged to Russia’s Ground Forces have been reassigned to the main command of the Russian Aerospace Forces, writes TASS, citing sources close to Russia’s Defense Ministry.

  • Meduza ☛ One reported dead after Russia carries out drone attacks in multiple Ukrainian regions — Meduza

    Russian forces attacked multiple regions of Ukraine with Iranian-made Shahed drones on Sunday night, the Ukrainian General Staff reported on Monday. According to preliminary data, Ukrainian forces shot down 11 of the 14 drones that were used.

  • The Gray Zone ☛ European antiwar protests gain strength as NATO’s Ukraine proxy war escalates

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Russia’s invasion one year on: Ukraine is stronger than ever

    Vladimir Putin expected a short and victorious war that would extinguish Ukrainian independence and force the country back into the Russian orbit. One year on, Ukraine has never been stronger, writes Vitaly Sych.

  • Counter Punch ☛ The Biden National Security Team Must Get Smarter…Sooner

    The conventional wisdom at the tragic first year mark of the Russian-Ukrainian War is that President Joe Biden and his national security team have done an excellent job of managing support for Ukraine and challenging Russia’s invasion.  The New Yorker’s editor, David Remnick, an excellent Kremlinologist, summed it up this way in the current issue: “Biden has conducted a foreign policy of competence and moral clarity, skillfully balancing strength, diplomacy, and restraint.”  Well, I would take issue with the conventional wisdom.

    Biden and his secretaries of state and defense have pursued a policy of dual containment of both Russia and China that has contributed to the strengthening of Sino-Russian bilateral relations and created a worsening Cold War situation with both Beijing and Moscow.  Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger have been credited with manipulating the U.S.-Soviet-Chinese triangle in a way that gave the United States stronger relations with both China and the Soviet Union than China and the Soviet Union had with each other.  Biden will probably be credited with contributing to the worsening of these bilateral relations and weakening the U.S. geopolitical situation in general.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Iranians Need to Drop the Hammer

    The uprising in Iran has transformed into a postponed earthquake, one that is inevitable and most likely will be very destructive. The pent-up anger and frustration will surely come to the surface again but in what shape or form is to be determined. Maybe it will take place when Ali Khamenei dies.

    The regime has lost all credibility and is a dead man walking. The voting that is taking place against the regime is through the dumping of the currency and the purchase of dollars and gold. Within the past month the dollar has gone from 37,000 tomans to 54,000 tomans, and all indications are that by the end of the Norouz holidays the dollar will go above 60,000 tomans.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Why Much of the Global South Isn’t Automatically Supporting the West in Ukraine

  • Telex (Hungary) ☛ Fact-check: Soros did not write that Russia must be defeated at the cost of Eastern Europeans’ lives

  • Scheerpost ☛ Caitlin Johnstone: There Has Never In History Been A Greater Need For A Large Anti-War Movement

    Things are escalating more and more rapidly between the US-centralized power structure and the few remaining nations with the will and the means to stand against its demands for total obedience, namely China, Russia, and Iran.

  • Meduza ☛ Suspended flights, false flag claims, and an alleged coup plan What we know about Moscow’s designs in Moldova — Meduza

    Wizz Air, one of Europe’s largest budget airlines, is suspending flights to and from Moldova beginning on March 14. The company’s press service told the news outlet RBC that the decision is “difficult, but it’s the responsible one” given “recent events” in Moldova and the “elevated risk” in the country’s airspace. (It didn’t specify what “recent events” it was referring to.) Since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, missile fragments have been found on Moldovan territory multiple times.

  • Meduza ☛ Authorities blame hackers after ‘missile strike threat’ warnings take over Russian airwaves for second time in six days — Meduza

    TV and radio broadcasts in multiple Russian regions were interrupted by messages warning of impending missile strikes on Tuesday morning.

  • Meduza ☛ ‘The FSB said I’m raising my daughter wrong’ A single father faces felony charges after his daughter drew an anti-war picture at school — Meduza

    In April of last year, an art teacher in Russia’s Tula region asked her sixth-grade class to draw pictures to show support for the Russian military in Ukraine. When one girl drew an anti-war image instead, the teacher immediately called the police. By the end of the following day, the Russian FSB and child protective services were involved. Now, the student’s single father is facing felony charges, and the student herself is at risk of being sent to live in a shelter.

  • Meduza ☛ The ‘biggest beneficiary’ weighs in A China expert assesses Beijing’s ‘peace plan’ for Russia and Ukraine — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ Putin honors American actor and Russian citizen Steven Seagal with Order of Friendship — Meduza

    Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to honor the American actor Steven Seagal with the state Order of Friendship. The reason for the decoration is Seagal’s “significant contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation.”

  • Counter Punch ☛ ‘Truth, No Matter What’: Why Watering Down Palestinian Reality is a Crime

    On February 20, the United Nations Security Council approved a statement, described in the media as a ‘watered-down’ version of an earlier draft resolution which would have demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

    The intrigues that led to the scrapping of what was meant to be a binding resolution will be the subject of a future article. For now, however, I would like to reflect on the fact that the so-called international community’s relationship with the Palestinian struggle has always attempted to ‘water down’ a horrific reality.

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Watering Down’ the Reality of Life Under Israeli Apartheid Is a Crime

    On February 20, the United Nations Security Council approved a statement, described in the media as a ‘watered-down’ version of an earlier draft resolution which would have demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

  • Techdirt ☛ Yet Another Former Israeli Intelligence Officer Linked To Yet Another Shady Company Offering Hacking Tools

    I’m not sure what’s happening inside Israel’s intelligence services, but it’s not sending the world its best when it’s done with them.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Israeli Rights Group Condemns Settler ‘Pogrom’ Against Palestinians in West Bank

    Israeli settlers tore through the occupied West Bank on Sunday, violently attacking Palestinians and setting fire to their cars, houses, and businesses in what one rights group called a “pogrom” sanctioned by the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

  • TruthOut ☛ Media Orgs Demand McCarthy Hand Over Jan. 6 Footage He Gave to Tucker Carlson

  • TruthOut ☛ Russian War Crimes Have Hardened Ukrainians Against Peace Talks, Activist Says

  • Counter Punch ☛ Campism and the War in Ukraine

    Campism generally splits the world into two antagonistic orders, or great ‘camps’ – in simplistic terms, it is the split between the camp of capitalism and the camp of socialism; the great Cold War rivalry between the United States, its NATO allies and (neo)colonies, versus the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics and its Iron Curtain puppet states; today, it’s the imperialist and capitalist West versus the other(s) opposed to Western hegemony – China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela. With these distinctions in mind, reflecting heavily on the original split between capitalism and socialism that constitutes the very foundation of the campist worldview, an important question must be asked – why are some Western socialists and avowed anti-imperialists today proclaiming bourgeois capitalist states like Russia to be fighting for the great camp of socialism?

    Arguments made on social media platforms by anonymous commentators, publishings by pro-Putin ‘patriotic socialist’ political formations, and even the Russian communist party all claim that Moscow’s brutal invasion of Ukraine serves the purpose of destabilising US hegemony, challenging imperialist expansion through military organisations like NATO, and disrupting the exploitive Western global economic system. Frankly, these are selective claims that are as dishonest as they are delusional. Moreover, these are grotesquely revisionist and historically unfounded claims, flying disrespectfully in face of the theoretical contributions and revolutionary analysis of Marx and Lenin. We must turn towards historical and political fact in order to debunk such positions, ensuring that the revolutionary and socialist spirit and character of the Marxist tradition are not dishonestly distorted and denigrated to support a reductionist and campist view on the inter-imperialist capitalist rivalry underpinning the Russia-Ukraine war.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Techdirt ☛ What Transparency? Twitter Seems To Have Forgotten About Transparency Reporting

    One of the key things that Elon Musk promised in taking over Twitter was about how he was going to be way more transparent. He’s mentioned it many times, specifically noting that transparency is how he would build “trust” in the company.

• Environment

  • Common Dreams ☛ Thunberg, Norwegian Sami Activists Demand Wind Turbine Removal on Traditional Lands

    Demanding that all countries center climate justice as they take steps to transition away from fossil fuel-sourced energy, Fridays for Future leader Greta Thunberg joined dozens of Norwegian Sami people and their supporters Monday at Norway’s Energy Ministry to protest wind turbines that have been constructed on Indigenous lands.

  • Scheerpost ☛ A Looming El Niño Could Give Us a Preview of Life at 1.5C of Warming

    The hotter weather pattern might push the Earth into unprecedented territory next year.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Time Is Up’: Greenpeace Warns UN Ocean Treaty Under Threat of Failure

      Greenpeace warned Monday that nations are “once again stalling” as they enter the final week of talks on the United Nations Ocean Treaty, a pact the environmental group says would “safeguard marine life and be the biggest conservation victory for a generation” if negotiators get it right.

    • The Nation ☛ Why More Alaskans Aren’t Fighting a Huge Potential Oil Project on the North Slope

      It’s hard to imagine any place in the United States that is more precarious, more rugged, or home to people more tenacious than the North Slope of Alaska. A frigid region of tundra and coast roughly the size of Oregon, it is home about 10,000 residents scattered across eight communities, the largest of which is Utqiagvik, formerly named Barrow. The region’s economy is driven mostly by activities on and near the largest oil field in the country, Prudhoe Bay, which operates under some of the most extreme conditions on Earth. The North Slope is also defined by the rhythms of a much older set of Alaska Native subsistence practices, such as fishing, whaling, and caribou-hunting.1

    • Meduza ☛ Fire breaks out at Rosneft oil terminal in Krasnodar Krai after two reported drone explosions — Meduza

      A fire broke out at an oil terminal in the town of Tuapse in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai early Tuesday morning, according to town officials.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Wildlife Wins From Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Act

    • New York Times ☛ Why 23 Dead Whales Have Washed Up on the East Coast Since December

      An unlikely confluence of factors, including climate change and online shopping, appears to be at least partially to blame for the uptick.

• Finance

  • Common Dreams ☛ Groups Warn of ‘Financial Disaster for Millions’ If Supreme Court Kills Student Debt Relief

    Striking down President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan would have devastating impacts on millions of borrowers, advocacy groups warned in a report released Monday, one day before the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments over the White House’s cancellation bid.

  • TruthOut ☛ Millions Face Financial Disaster If Supreme Court Ends Student Debt Relief

  • Axios ☛ Why poverty rates are likely to rise this year

    One of the last remaining major COVID relief programs — the expansion of SNAP benefits, aka food stamps — ends this month, pushing about 32 million Americans off a “hunger cliff.”

  • Axios ☛ Chip makers must provide childcare plan for access to federal funds

    Chip makers who want access to billions of dollars in new federal funding will first have to figure out how workers will access affordable child care, per a new requirement from the Commerce Department.

  • WhichUK ☛ Common food storage mistakes to avoid

    We reveal what should – and shouldn’t – be in your fridge, and the foods to store separately to prolong their life. Plus: the science-based tactics to reduce food waste and save money

  • WhichUK ☛ Hot water bottle or electric blanket – what’s best and cheapest for keeping you warm in bed?

    On cold nights when an extra pair of bed socks won’t cut it, discover your best alternative

  • TruthOut ☛ Biden Officials: Chip Makers Wanting Federal Subsidies Must Provide Child Care

  • TruthOut ☛ Supreme Court Takes Up Case That Could Kill Consumer Finance Protection Agency

  • Counter Punch ☛ What Will Happen When Banks Go Bust?

    Financial podcasts have been featuring ominous headlines lately along the lines of “Your Bank Can Legally Seize Your Money” and “Banks Can STEAL Your Money?! Here’s How!” The reference is to “bail-ins:” the provision under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act allowing Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs, basically the biggest banks) to bail in or expropriate their creditors’ money in the event of insolvency. The problem is that depositors are classed as “creditors.” So how big is the risk to your deposit account? Part I of this two part article will review the bail-in issue. Part II will look at the derivatives risk that could trigger the next global financial crisis.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Inequality is Weakening Social Security. Here’s How We Fix That.

  • Democracy Now ☛ Will the Equal Rights Amendment Finally Be Added to the U.S. Constitution 50 Years After It Passed?

    The Equal Rights Amendment, which would codify gender equality in the U.S. Constitution, has been introduced in every session of Congress since 1923. It was finally passed in 1972, and yet never ratified. This week, the ERA will get its first hearing in 40 years when, on Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee meets to discuss a joint resolution to finally affirm the ERA. We speak to Zakiya Thomas and Linda Coberly of the ERA Coalition for more on the historic significance of this hearing and the century-long fight for constitutional protections against sex discrimination.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Report Shows Big Insurance Profiting Massively From Growing Privatization of Medicare

    A new analysis released Monday shows that insurance giants are benefiting hugely from the accelerating privatization of Medicare and Medicaid, which for-profit companies have infiltrated via government programs such as Medicare Advantage.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Global Coalition Urges OECD to End ‘Reprehensible’ Oil and Gas Export Financing

    More than 175 civil society groups spanning 45 countries urged the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development—an alliance of mostly rich nations—to end export financing for oil and gas, warning in a joint statement Monday that failure to do so would compromise global efforts to keep “a livable future within reach.”

  • The Nation ☛ The Student Debt Cancellation Movement Is About to Face Its Toughest Fight Yet

    Last year, President Joe Biden used his authority—as defined by the HEROES Act of 2003—to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt per borrower. The executive action was taken in response to the lingering health and economic impacts caused by Covid-19, and would help families and borrowers recover while closing racial disparities that widened during the pandemic. Right now, Americans owe nearly $1.8 trillion in student loan debt. On February 28, the Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments for two cases challenging this plan, Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown.

  • Scheerpost ☛ Arkansas’s Anti-BDS Law Remains in Effect Because SCOTUS Refused to Review It

    Politically motivated consumer boycotts have played a central role throughout U.S. history.

  • Hackaday ☛ Antenna Hidden In Holiday Lights Skirts HOA Rules

    For all their supposed benefits, homeowner’s associations (HOAs) have a reputation of quickly turning otherwise quaint neighborhoods into a sort of Stanford prison experiment, as those who get even the slightest amount of power often abuse it. Arbitrary rules and enforcement abound about house color, landscaping, parking, and if you’ve ever operated a radio, antennas. While the FCC (at least as far as the US is concerned) does say that HOAs aren’t permitted to restrict the use of antennas, if you don’t want to get on anyone’s bad side you’ll want to put up an antenna like this one which is disguised as a set of HOA-friendly holiday lights.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Axios ☛ White House: Federal agencies have 30 days to remove TikTok from devices

    The White House has mandated that federal agencies remove TikTok from phones and systems in a bid to keep U.S. data safe, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced Monday.

  • CBC ☛ Federal government banning social media platform TikTok from government phones

  • Copenhagen Post ☛ Parliament urging members to avoid using TikTok

    Centre for Cyber Security warned last week that there was a risk of espionage in connection with having the Chinese app on state devices

  • CNN ☛ Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that Fox News hosts endorsed false stolen election claims

    Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, acknowledged in a deposition taken by Dominion Voting Systems that some Fox News hosts endorsed false claims the 2020 election was stolen.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ BREAKING from Fox News: Trump Cheated … and He Still Couldn’t Beat Joe Biden

    When Rupert Murdoch is forced to answer questions about the 2020 election under oath, it becomes clear the extent to which Fox News was — is! — covering up what a loser (Rupert knows that) Trump is. 

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ The Search For The Origins Of The State

    Were early societies “states” in the modern sense? Nope.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ How Holes in Ivanka’s Testimony Could Help Make an Obstruction Case against Her Father

    In testimony before the January 6 Committee, Ivanka and Eric Herschmann both failed to recall key details of Trump’s refusal to ask his rioters to leave the Capitol. For several reasons, one or both may end up remembering more of those details before a Jack Smith grand jury.

  • ACLU ☛ Crossing the Bridge Together: The Fight for Voting Rights Marches On

    On January 12, a tornado tore across central Alabama, including the historic city of Selma. Since then, community groups have been clearing roads and picking up the pieces from the damage. Simultaneously, the city is preparing for its annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee: a recognition of Bloody Sunday, the Selma-to-Montgomery march, and the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

    As the ACLU of Alabama prepares for our annual trip to Selma to commemorate the historic bridge crossing on March 5, amidst such devastation in the city, I feel the immense tradition and history of Selma, a place where our elders accomplished so much to make voting rights possible. 58 years after the historic movement that led to the 1965 enactment of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the legal enfranchisement of Black voters, I remain struck by the duality of what voting rights in Alabama has meant for this nation.

  • The Strategist ☛ China’s self-serving Ukraine ‘peace plan’

    On 24 February, marking one year since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine began, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs published China’s position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis. In theory, its 12 points form the basis …

  • Common Dreams ☛ Has the GOP Lost Its Brain? Hardly.

    Timothy Noah is an incisive commentor on U.S. politics. His recent New Republic essay, “How the GOP Lost Its Brain,” nicely documents the ways that the Republican party has become both increasingly anti-intellectual and incoherent since the days of Reagan. The GOP deserves to be skewered for its inconsistencies, absurdities, and lunatics. And its very real fissures ought to be analyzed with care, for they can grow, and contribute to the party’s weakening if they do. But it does not follow from these fissures that the GOP is an agglomeration of nihilists and no longer has “ideas.” It has ideas, and they are summed up in the acronym MAGA, which now defines both the Republican base and its major leaders and presidential aspirants.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Dear Gov. DeSantis: You’re a History Grad. Please Tell Me When Systemic Racism Ended

    When Ron DeSantis was asked by a Fox News host two years ago if the United States is “systemically racist,” the Florida governor quickly responded: “It’s a bunch of horse manure.” He went on to boast that he had banned such ideas in Florida’s schools.

  • TruthOut ☛ Former Watergate Prosecutor: Trump Should Have Been Charged Upon Exiting Office

  • Techdirt ☛ Getting Kicked Off Social Media For Breaking Its Rules Is Nothing Like Being Sent To A Prison Camp For Retweeting Criticism Of A Dictator

    It’s become frustrating how often people insist that losing this or that social media account is “censorship” and an “attack on free speech.” Not only is it not that, it makes a mockery of those who face real censorship and real attacks on free speech. The Washington Post recently put out an amazing feature about people who have been jailed or sent away to re-education camps for simply reposting something on social media. It’s titled “They clicked once. Then came the dark prisons.“

  • Telex (Hungary) ☛ Budapest-based Russian “spy bank” in critical situation

  • Telex (Hungary) ☛ A battle of wills: Hungarian doctors vs the government

  • Common Dreams ☛ Analysis Spotlights the Lasting Pain Inflicted by Reagan’s Social Security Cuts

    In 1983, just before signing legislation that cut Social Security benefits, then-President Ronald Reagan declared that “we’re entering an age when average Americans will live longer and live more productive lives.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ Leftist Elly Schlein—’Italy’s AOC’—Elected to Confront Far-Right Giorgia Meloni

    Calling her victory “a clear mandate for real change,” left-wing Italian politician Elly Schlein on Sunday was named the new leader of her country’s Democratic Party after winning against a centrist supported by the political establishment.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Sanders Warns of ‘Primary Care Cliff’ as Federal Funds for Local Clinics Set to Expire

    Sen. Bernie Sanders warned Monday that without swift congressional action, the $5.8 billion in federal funding relied on each year by community health centers around the United States will expire on September 30, resulting in a devastating “primary care cliff.”

  • The Nation ☛ Do Voters Really Want More CIA Analysts in Congress?

    Elissa Slotkin, the first Democratic hopeful seeking to replace retiring Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, is the sort of candidate national Democratic strategists fantasize about. She represents a closely divided district in Lansing, after initially getting elected to a solidly Republican one, and she has a solid centrist voting record likely to appeal to the highly coveted white suburban mom demographic. She’s also a former CIA analyst who served three tours in Iraq. She has the same political CV, in other words, that delivered a clutch of traditional GOP congressional seats to security-minded women during the 2018 blue wave that granted House Democrats a strong majority in the midst of the Trump years. Pundits eagerly dubbed that landmark ballot “the year of the badass woman”—and they will no doubt be closely monitoring Slotkin’s Senate bid for further confirmation of this reassuring political trendlet.

  • The Nation ☛ It’s Time to Call Out the DeSantis Deflection

    When Ron DeSantis recently threatened to end AP courses for all high schoolers in Florida, he did more than escalate the culture war that right-wing reactionaries are waging against “critical race theory” and anti-racism. DeSantis signaled his willingness to join a long line of Southern governors who have used racism to deflect attention from their failure to help people hurting in their states, especially poor and low-wealth people. Even if DeSantis never attacked Black history or trans people, moral leaders and impacted people should be standing up, speaking out, organizing, and voting because of the way his policy decisions have sacrificed the well-being of Floridians, especially the more than 10 million poor and low-wage people, be they Black, white, Latino, Asian, Native, LQBTQIA, or straight. DeSantis wants to argue about whether white students feel guilty when they learn the truth about America’s past, but he has been silent about the fact that 47 percent of Florida’s citizens are poor and low-income, including 39 percent of all white people in his state. Since 1979, income for the top 1 percent of Floridians has nearly doubled. But for everyone else, real income has actually fallen over the same four decades. That’s as true for poor white folks as it is for poor Black folks.

  • The Nation ☛ Why the Media Just Can’t Stop Whitewashing the Koch Family

    If you want to suffer through Hollywood at its sappiest, you could waste an afternoon watching Mary Pickford’s 1917 tearjerker The Poor Little Rich Girl and its 1936 remake of the same name starring Shirley Temple (the original source material being a 1913 Broadway play by Eleanor Gates). Both films, as one could guess from the titles, explore the difficulties of being the child of plutocratic wealth. Pickford plays Gwendolyn, the neglected offspring of a mother who prefers high society to her daughter and a father mired in moneymaking schemes. Growing up in a chilly household, Gwendolyn finds friendship in the rowdy company of the warm if ragged working class, including an organ grinder and a plumber. Temple’s suffering young princess, Barbara Barry, has only one, and a negligent, parent, a widowed father immersed in business. Like Gwendolyn, Barbara also discovers nurturing kindness in the company of the immiserated, including yet another organ grinder.

  • The Nation ☛ Argentina, 1985 Is a Political Tale for Our Time

    Argentine President Alberto Fernández wasted no time in sounding the alarm. A little more than two weeks removed from a January 6–style insurrection in Brazil—and following a series of violent crackdowns by Peru’s newly formed government—Fernández opened the seventh summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Buenos Aires with a warning: “We believe in democracy, and democracy is definitively at risk. After the pandemic, we have seen how the ultra-right has stood up, and it is threatening each of our countries. What we can’t allow is for this recalcitrant and fascist right to threaten our institutions.”

  • The Nation ☛ Sara Nelson Could Be the Greatest Labor Secretary Since the New Deal

    When Sara Nelson agreed to come to Madison, Wis., to discuss the future of labor at an ideas festival on the University of Wisconsin campus in the fall of 2021, it was supposed to be just another appearance by one of America’s most engaged and energetic labor leaders. Then, Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, ended up having a pair of surgeries that required her to use a wheelchair for several months. Of course, she could have canceled the trip. But that’s not how Sara Nelson rolls.

  • Democracy Now ☛ A History of California, Capitalism, and the World: Malcolm Harris on New Book “Palo Alto”

    We speak with author Malcolm Harris about his new book, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, in which he writes how his hometown in the heart of Silicon Valley and home to many tech billionaires has helped to reshape the economy by exporting its brand of capitalism to the rest of the United States and around the world. “It’s important to see the internet and its history as this relation between capital and the government,” says Harris in a wide-ranging interview.

  • Scheerpost ☛ Why Much of the Global South Isn’t Automatically Supporting the West in Ukraine

    In October 2022, about eight months after the war in Ukraine started, the University of Cambridge in the UK harmonized surveys conducted in 137 countries about their attitudes towards the West and towards Russia and China.

  • Scheerpost ☛ ‘Argentina, 1985’ Is a Political Tale for Our Time

    Argentina’s nominee for Best Foreign Film offers an urgent warning to democracies in Latin America and across the West.

  • Scheerpost ☛ West Is Out of Touch With Rest of World Politically, EU-Funded Study Admits

    A study by the elite EU-funded European Council on Foreign Relations found the West is out of touch politically with the rest of the world. Most people in China, India, and Türkiye see Russia as an important ally, and they want multipolarity, not continued “American global supremacy”.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Building Direct Democracy in an Atlanta Forest

    On the edge of a forest just south of Atlanta, I sat in the shade of a gazebo on a hot day in May of 2022, speaking to two activists. Parkgoers sweated in their short sleeves as they strolled past a concrete wall, on which graffiti said DEFEND THE FOREST over a fist sprouting up from roots like a squat tree trunk.

    The two activists, along with many others, had taken the graffiti’s message to heart and were trying to stop large tracts of the South River Forest from being developed into a privately owned soundstage and a sprawling training center for police, dubbed Cop City. Since that day, the gazebo has been ripped apart by heavy equipment, eighteen activists have been charged with “domestic terrorism,” and one forest defender has been shot and killed by police.

  • Pro Publica ☛ The Democratic Insider Who Fought the Trump Administration

    As chief U.S. House counsel for four years, Douglas Letter advised then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi through tense legal standoffs with the Trump administration. He helped shape strategy for the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, leading to contempt of Congress charges against Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro and subpoenas for five sitting members of Congress.

    Now, Letter, a Justice Department attorney for 40 years, has begun a new role as legal counsel for the Brady campaign, defending victims of gun violence and taking on gun laws, such as a local statute in Highland Park, Illinois, that restricts assault weapons like one used in a July 4 parade massacre. Letter said he carries with him lessons learned counseling House Democrats as they faced growing partisan hostilities and concerns for their safety.

  • Green Party UK ☛ Green Party response to deal on Northern Ireland protocol | The Green Party

    Responding to the deal agreed between the UK and the EU on the Northern Ireland protocol, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:

    “We welcome closer cooperation between the UK government and the EU. Boris Johnson had promised an ‘oven-ready’ deal which has caused pain, division and turmoil for communities and businesses in Northern Ireland.

    “Hopefully today’s agreement marks a turning point when we can begin to heal these problems and strive towards much closer relationships.”

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • NCAC ☛ AAUP, AFT, NCAC Issue Statement Denouncing Florida HB 999

    The AAUP,  the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) issued the following statement condemning the introduction of Florida HB 999. 

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Record number of countries enforced internet shutdowns in 2022 – report

  • The Washington Post ☛ Governments shut down the internet more often than ever, report says

  • Hindustan Times ☛ India topped global list of internet shutdowns for 5th year in row in 2022

  • The Wire ☛ India Remains Internet Shutdown Capital of the World for Fifth Year Running: Report

  • AccessNow ☛ Resurging internet shutdowns in 2022: weapons of control, shields of impunity

  • AccessNow ☛ Five years in a row: India is 2022’s biggest internet shutdowns offender

    In 2022, India shut down the internet at least 84 times — more than any country, for the fifth consecutive year. Read “Weapons of control, shields of impunity: Internet shutdowns in 2022.”

  • AccessNow ☛ Internet shutdowns in Myanmar: facilitating brutal human rights violations in 2022

    Access Now’s new report, “Weapons of control, shields of impunity: Internet shutdowns in 2022,” unpacks internet shutdowns in Myanmar and globally.

  • AccessNow ☛ Internet shutdowns in Africa: fewer offenders in 2022, still causing harm

    Access Now’s new report, “Weapons of control, shields of impunity: Internet shutdowns in 2022,” unpacks internet shutdowns in Africa and globally.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • WSWS ☛ Der Spiegel asks: “Is the CIA hunting Assange’s supporters?” – WSWS

    In a feature article published last Thursday, the well-known German weekly magazine Der Spiegel pointedly asked whether the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was “hunting” associates and supporters of Julian Assange.

  • CPJ ☛ At least 14 journalists detained, attacked, or harassed covering Nigeria’s election

  • CPJ ☛ Editor Tamás Bodoky on threats to Hungary’s independent media funding

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Nation ☛ Seattle’s Working People Won the Nation’s First Ban on Caste Discrimination

    Standing in the Seattle City Council chambers on February 21, an Indian-American tech worker named Naresh recalled the caste discrimination he has faced beginning at age 5 in India. His voice quivered with anger as he thought about the dignity denied to him. If he touched a dominant-caste person, he said, they would claim that they needed to “take a shower because they consider me untouchable.” Over the course of the meeting, many other oppressed-caste speakers joined Naresh, sharing their own experiences with caste discrimination—often in their own workplaces in the United States.

  • The Nation ☛ The Long History of Conservative Indoctrination in Florida Schools

    When I was growing up, my Florida high school required me to endure a course called “Americanism vs. Communism.” I was hardly alone. Between 1962 and 1991, Florida mandated the class for all high school juniors or seniors in public schools. Each lesson had the same takeaway: “Americanism” was all good and “Communism” all bad.

  • Meduza ☛ Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner says she’s received more than 50 official complaints from jailed opposition figure Alexey Navalny — Meduza

    Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said at a briefing on Monday that she’s received more than 50 complaints from jailed Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, according to the Russian state news outlet TASS.

  • Türkiye arrests 184 people over earthquakes, including AKP mayor

    Legal action has been initiated against 612 suspects so far, the justice minister has said.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Plainclothes Paramilitaries and the Predator State

    To residents of Memphis’s resource-poor, predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods, the Scorpions were easy to spot. The plainclothes patrols were known for driving their unmarked Dodge Chargers through the streets, often all too recklessly, sowing fear as they went, spitting venom from their windows, jumping out with guns drawn at the slightest sign of an infraction.

  • The Nation ☛ Predatory Policing Has Become a National Crisis

    To residents of Memphis’s resource-poor, predominantly non-white neighborhoods, the Scorpion units were easy to spot. The plainclothes patrols were known for driving their unmarked Dodge Chargers through the streets, often all too recklessly, sowing fear as they went, spitting venom from their windows, jumping out with guns drawn at the slightest sign of an infraction.

  • Common Dreams ☛ This Is Not A Difficult Decision

    After his creator went on a loathsome tirade declaring black people “a hate group” that white people should “get away” from, once-amusing office drone and comic anti-hero Dilbert has been dropped by hundreds of newspapers, his distributor and his book publisher in a rare move of decency and solidarity befitting the close of Black History Month. Online, his still-bellicose creator Scott Adams is whining he’s been “cancelled” for “being white.” Nope, many argue. It’s for “being a racist douchebag.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ US and EU Groups Call for ‘Ceasefire’ on Trade Challenges to Climate Policies

    A coalition of more than three dozen progressive advocacy groups based in the United States and the European Union on Monday implored E.U. policymakers to stop pursuing challenges to the Inflation Reduction Act and urged governments on both sides of the Atlantic to start prioritizing decarbonization over corporate-friendly trade rules.

  • Common Dreams ☛ 50 Years On, Legacy of Wounded Knee Uprising Lives in Indigenous Resistance

    As many Native Americans on Monday marked the 50th anniversary of the militant occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, participants in the 1973 uprising and other activists linked the deadly revolt to modern-day Indigenous resistance, from Standing Rock to the #LandBack movement.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Consumer Advocates Welcome Chance for SCOTUS to Redress 5th Circuit’s ‘Harebrained’ Attack on CFPB

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding, a move that was welcomed by some advocates as an opportunity for the nation’s highest court to protect American consumers from a lower court ruling.

  • TruthOut ☛ Rail Workers Demand “Immediate Action” From Lawmakers to Rein In Rail Industry

  • TruthOut ☛ Will the Equal Rights Amendment Finally Be Added to the US Constitution?

  • Counter Punch ☛ How Howard Schultz Made Starbucks the Poster Child of Corporate Abuse

    Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, in a recent interview with CNN’s Poppy Harlow, proudly showed off his newest invention: a tablespoon of olive oil added to a cup of coffee to bring out rich, complex flavors. The conversation took place in Italy and was meant to showcase Schultz’s commitment to the innovation and quality of Starbucks coffee as he gets ready to step down as CEO of the company for the third time.

    When Harlow asked him why he was in Italy doing interviews rather than sitting down with representatives from Starbucks Workers United (SWU) to negotiate a contract, he responded, “We want to and are willing to enter into bargaining, but we want to do it face to face. That’s what we think is the right thing to do.”

  • Meduza ☛ FSB raids Moscow anarchists’ homes, possibly trying to mount terrorism case against imprisoned mathematician Azat Miftakhov — Meduza

    On Monday morning, the FSB raided the homes of several Moscow anarchists, in connection with an inquiry into the existence of a Moscow branch of Network (“Set”), a leftist political association labeled “terrorist” and banned in Russia.

  • Telex (Hungary) ☛ Hungary to pay €6,500 to Iraqi dentist detained for three months years ago

  • Scheerpost ☛ Welcome to the Predator State, Where the Scorpions on the Corner Just Might Kill You

    With the police ever better funded (just as the U.S. military is), war has come home to roost in our streets, no less disastrously than it did abroad in the years of this country’s war on terror.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Democracy Now ☛ Free Speech on Trial: Supreme Court Hears Cases That Could Reshape Future of the Internet

    We look at two cases before the Supreme Court that could reshape the future of the internet. Both cases focus on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which backers say has helped foster free speech online by allowing companies to host content without direct legal liability for what users post. Critics say it has allowed tech platforms to avoid accountability for spreading harmful material. On Tuesday, the justices heard arguments in Gonzalez v. Google, brought by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, who was killed in the 2015 Paris terror attack. Her family sued Google claiming the company had illegally promoted videos by the Islamic State, which carried out the Paris attack. On Wednesday, justices heard arguments in the case of Twitter v. Taamneh, brought by the family of Nawras Alassaf, who was killed along with 38 others in a 2017 terrorist attack on a nightclub in Turkey. We speak with Aaron Mackey, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who says Section 230 “powers the underlying architecture” of the internet.

  • Techdirt ☛ FCC ‘Investigating’ Repeated Broadband Industry Coverage Lies

    After years of criticism about their inaccuracy, the FCC recently spent another $50 million (on top of the $350 million they’d already spent) on supposedly better broadband maps. But the end result is still a bit of a mess, with entrenched telecom monopolies like Comcast being repeatedly caught claiming to deliver broadband in areas that can’t receive service. Often to glean subsidies the company doesn’t deserve.

  • APNIC ☛ Transiting UAVs in aerial mesh networks

    Guest Post: How to maintain continuous network connectivity during movement.

  • APNIC ☛ Welcome to APRICOT 2023

    APRICOT 2023 starts today in Manila, Philippines! Here are some highlights.

  • APNIC ☛ IETF roundup for the APNIC community

    Guest Post: Investigating IETF activities relevant to the APNIC community at APRICOT 2023.

• Monopolies

  • Patents

    • JUVE ☛ BSH defends vacuum cleaner patent against Electrolux

  • Trademarks

    • Techdirt ☛ Slim Shady Files Shady Trademark Opposition Over Application For ‘Reasonably Shady’ Podcast

      And if that title didn’t really confuse you all that much, then you’ve managed to get the point. Eminem hasn’t been shy about asserting his intellectual property rights in the past, though much of his efforts on that front have actually been to the benefit of artists from his fights with record labels. That doesn’t mean that Em’s team isn’t capable of some IP missteps, however.

  • Copyrights

    • Creative Commons ☛ Zarya of the Dawn: US Copyright Office Affirms Limits on Copyright of AI Outputs

      Just this week, the United States Copyright Office (USCO) provided a bit more clarity, at least as to its views about US law and works generated by AI. While it affirms some of the limits that we articulated, it leaves open many questions about where exactly the boundaries of copyrightability lie.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ Pirate Couple Got Caught Uploading, Promised to Abstain, Got Caught Again

      In 2018, Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN targeted a middle-aged couple who uploaded pirated content in breach of copyright. In exchange for a relatively small settlement and a promise not to infringe again, BREIN took no further action. After being caught for a second time, harsh financial consequences mean that the man and woman are no longer a couple.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ Sony vs. Datel: Game Cheat Copyright Questions Referred to EU’s Top Court

      After more than a decade of litigation in Germany, key questions emerging from a Sony lawsuit targeting cheat maker Datel have been referred to Europe’s highest court. The lawsuit concerns cheat mechanisms created for Sony’s long-dead Playstation Portable that affected gameplay but ran alongside copyrighted code without directly modifying it.

Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal

  • Part Time Work

    Over the last 4 months (since my dance with c0v1d) I’ve been having ongoing health issues. So much so that I can no longer work full time. Of course the bills have to be paid so I find myself looking for alternative modes of operation.

    At first I though that freelancing might be the answer but that lacks stability.Some weeks you have income and others you don’t. One might think that a higher hourly rate is the answer but that approach is getting harder and harder to do in such a competitive market. A part time role could be the answer.

  • Collecting links about skills

    I feel like I’m going overboard with the references. When I listen to podcasts, I practically never check the pages with references. But in this case, the four of us bring so much stuff to the table that deserves a link. If you can think of more stuff that needs to be added, please do so.

    One link I was unable to find was a post by James Raggi where he first mentioned the specialist class in Lamentations of the Flame Princess and ditching percentage thieves’ abilities for X-in-6 rolls with the d6.

  • Christians Speaking out against Christian Nationalism

    I was born and spent the first 32 years of my life in Oklahoma. I hate the place with a passion. For an example of how terrible it is: a couple years after I left, the governor called for a statewide day of prayer for the petroleum industry. I still try and keep an eye on the place. Occasionally I browse the r/okc and r/oklahoma subreddits, to get an idea of what’s going on down there. Last night, I stumbled on a very wonderful article, that I’m going to reproduce in full here.

  • Moon/Star Gazing 2023-02-27 Evening (Fairbanks, AK, USA)

    Fairbanks was inside a high-pressure bubble last night, and skies were clear. Not knowing how many more such opportunities I would get before we were overwhelmed by Alaska’s increasing daylight hours, I decided to head out to the boat launch for some stargazing. I was dressed quite stiffly in multiple layers of artic gear, expecting the temperatures to get extremely cold, and in fact they did drop down to -26 deg F at my viewing location.

  • Tuesday

    As I enter the Midnight, along the counter a few new heads turn to see, who’s coming in. It’s only me. As I carefully close the door to leave the cold wind outside, a whizzing sound can be heard — apparently emanating from my backpack. Ya ya, I know, it’s my trusted notebook grinding away on a build of emacs 29 …
    I turn to my favorite table in the corner, because it has a power outlet close. Hastily I retrieve the machine from my backpack and plug in the power supply. That very moment the whizz dies. make completed. Puh. No errors. Lucky me, I guess.

  • On being an ally

    Sometimes I read posts on Mastodon about allyship and it always reminds me of a longer discussion I had with my wife about the rights of women and microagressions and related topics and she didn’t care much about all that. The main point she came back to again and again was: I don’t care about this, I just want equal pay for equal work.

    I think what she was getting at is that the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon: Talking about being an ally is not the same as actually being an ally for real people in your life.

  • gemini://rawtext.club/~deerbard/glog/2023-02-28-back-to-flow.gmi

    As a child, I entered the flow state naturally. Simply by attending to what interested me.
    Then I gradually lost access to it. Now, having passed the halfway point of my life expectancy, I’m regaining it again.

• Technical

  • Decimal watch, short update

    Of course it is not exactly as I would have imagined. I had meant to only work with decimal time directly when using the watch. My plan was to memorise a handful of decimal equivalents to my regularly daily events and just use the watch to compare how close I was to them throughout the day. As a secondary usage the watch gives me something to glance at and see the day pass without really caring about the specific time.

    My assumption was that the above two use cases would account for the overwhelming majority of my watch usage. The other use case I imagined was ad hoc times, like catching a bus and needing to compare against a time table that uses traditional time. Here I had already decided I would just use other time sources, like pulling out my phone (or looking at nearby clocks). I was OK with this because I suspected it would not do it often.

  • Notes on tldr hosting

    I wasn’t sure if this was worthwhile, and although I’ve used it occasionally myself, I largely forgot about it. But recently I got email from someone who found it helpful, which put it back in my mind.

  • Alt-Text & Link Rot — How Accessibility Features Benefit Everyone

    Links rot. It’s unfortunate, but it’s just a part of the web. Content disappears and links rot; if you don’t host your own images, then you can’t guarantee that your images will always appear. In this situation, alt-text can be the difference between your piece still making sense and it being completely useless. This is because many browsers show the alt-text with the missing image icon, so descriptive alt-text can make sure your audience still gets the necessary information.

  • Punking PCB layout with GEDA-PCB

    I’ve spent most of my adult life laying out PCB boards (not all the time…). I go through phases when I do a lot of PCB layout. I’ve used various software to do so, but in the end, my favorite way to do it is punking it with PCB.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Certificate Change on skyjake.fi

      Sometime in the next few days I will be updating the server certificate on skyjake.fi with a new one that includes “*.skyjake.fi” as a DNS wildcard.

      The private key of the certificate will remain the same, so your client may trust the new certificate automatically.

  • Programming

    • Unlikely Unicode, Episode MMCMVIII

      English has zoning rules against placing the sound represented by ŋ at the head of the word–that would be using English wrongly, you see. The discussion spawned from NixOS and nginx and whether the two alliterate, or not. Probably it’s just that nginx is popular, and is favored by certain perhaps too vocal commentators who also happen to use NixOS. These words alliterate by regular expression, qr/\b(?i)n/, which we might term a visual alliteration, just as one can have visual rhymes, “I love that stove”.

      A leading ŋ could make an appearance in comic-book, perhaps the Penguin was preparing to pontificate when that protector of peace, Batman, punched him in the paunch. Speaking of children’s materials, I am informed that /vr/ is likewise verboten at the start of a word–vroom, vroom! But these are not serious examples, and doubtless they will be grown out of in good time. After all, Don Quixote put an end to the sale of chivalric romances.

GNU/Linux

• Desktop/Laptop

  • Linux Gizmos ☛ Rockchip RK3588 based Mini-PCs feature touch screen display and dual GbE

    Indiegogo recently featured two Mini-PCs integrating the Rockchip RK3568 multi-core processor. The PlanetPC XR series Mini-PCs can be configured with up to 32GB RAM, 256GB Flash, 2x GbE, Wi-Fi/BL connectivity, SSD support and both models run on Ubuntu 20.04.

    The XR1 is described as an entry level Mini-PC integrating a Quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 RK3568 processor clocked at 2.0GHz, an ARM G52 2EE GPU and a [email protected] NPU.

  • PlanetPC XR’s series of computers are a Linux-powered alternative to the Mac mini

    Computers come in all shapes and sizes, where there are some who prefer having a PC with a large chassis for better cooling, the ability to fit larger motherboards and GPUs, while others might prefer something small that can just sit on their desk and don’t take up too much room.

  • Geeky Gadgets ☛ PlanetPC XR touchscreen Linux mini PC

    If you are in the market for a Linux mini PC you might be interested in a new Indiegogo crowd funding campaign launched by the team at Planets Computers based in the United Kingdom. Their latest creation features a 16 LED RGB light array and integrated HD color touchscreen together with microphone and stereo speakers.

    Before pledging your funds however it might be worth your while checking out the previous projects by the company which still seem to be outstanding for some even years after funding was successfully raised. If you are still interested in risking your hard earned cash more details are available over on the official Indiegogo project page by following the link below.

  • Is Linux a Good Alternative to Windows?

    Choosing an operating system is one of the most important decisions a user has to make. And whereas it is pretty easy when it comes to mobile devices – you are basically forced to use iOS on iPhones or Android on (almost) every other phone – on the desktop the case is not that simple.

    In a nutshell, the OS market gives you 3 main options: Windows, MacOS and Linux. Of course, every ‘family’ of operating systems has many distinctive versions, but to put it simply, it is safe to say that within a Windows or Linux brand, all of them are based on the same virtues and their heart pumps similar digital blood.

  • Ubuntubuzz ☛ Collection Of System76 Laptop Reviews 2009-2014

    This is a list of reviews of System76 laptop and desktop computers by different authors for five years from 2009 to 2014. We managed to collect reviews of several System76 models ranging from Serval, Galago, Gazelle, Lemur, Pangolin, to Bonobo Pro with various Intel technologies from Core 2 Duo to generations of i7 with various graphics processors from HD Graphics, Iris Pro to NVIDIA GTX Mobile. We summarized every review by its specifications, battery hour, and the author’s conclusion and linked to every original website so you can read further. We hope this really helps everyone considering then purchasing GNU/Linux-preinstalled branded computers suitable for them. Please read on and look forward for the next collection too. Happy reading!

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Kubuntu Focus announce the second-gen mini desktop Focus NX

    Need some power in a small box with full Linux support? The Kubuntu Focus team recently revealed their second-generation Focus NX. This is a small form factor desktop that comes with Kubuntu (KDE Plasma desktop) 22.04 LTS.

• Server

  • The Next Platform ☛ Japan Buys Supercomputer Just To Predict Torrential Downpours

    You know that climate change is a problem when a supercomputer to do short-term prediction of the formation of linear rainbands and the torrential downpours that they cause is 3.4X as powerful as the machines that do the day-to-day weather forecasting in a country.

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • Video ☛ Which Linux Distro Should You Pick? – Invidious

    With countless distributions of Linux available, which one should you pick for your computer?

  • Video ☛ How to install Notepadqq on Linux Lite 6.2 – Invidious

    In this video, we are looking at how to install Notepadqq on Linux Lite 6.2.

  • Video ☛ How to install Athena OS 2023.02.20 – Invidious

    In this video, I am going to show how to install Athena OS 2023.02.20.

• Kernel Space

  • Slashdot ☛ Asahi Linux Disputes Report That Linux 6.2 Will Run on Apple M1 Chips [Ed: ZDNET spreads lies.]

  • LWN ☛ A Linux-on-M1 update [LWN.net]

    The Asahi Linux project has posted an update and reality check on the status of Linux support for Apple’s M1 hardware.

  • Asahi Linux

    There is an ongoing news cycle about Linux 6.2 being the first kernel to support the M1, started by ZDNET. This article is misleading and borderline false.

    You will not be able to run Ubuntu nor any other standard distro with 6.2 on any M1 Mac. Please don’t get your hopes up.

  • Ars Technica ☛ Linux is not exactly “ready to run” on Apple silicon, but give it time

    It’s an odd thing to see the leaders of an impressive open source project ask the press and their followers to please calm down and stop celebrating their accomplishments.

    But that’s the situation the Asahi Linux team finds itself in after many reports last week that the recently issued Linux 6.2 kernel made Linux “ready to run” on Apple’s M-series hardware. It is true that upstream support for Apple’s M1 chips is present in 6.2 and that the 6.2 kernel will gradually make its way into many popular distributions, including Ubuntu and Fedora. Work on Apple’s integrated GPU by the four-person Asahi core team has come remarkably far. And founder Linus Torvalds himself is particularly eager to see Linux running on his favorite portable hardware, going so far as to issue a kernel in August 2022 from an M2 MacBook Air.

    But the builders of the one Linux system that runs pretty well on Apple silicon are asking everybody to please just give it a moment.

  • It’s FOSS ☛ SSDFS is a New Linux Filesystem for NVMe ZNS SSDs

    ZNS stands for ‘Zoned Namespaces’; it is a relatively new command set for NVMe SSDs that exposes a zoned block storage interface between the host and the SSD, allowing it to align the data better.

    To complement that, a new Linux file system ‘SSDFS’ has been proposed to be included in the kernel by a developer that aims to leverage ZNS for lower I/O latency, reduced write amplification, prolonged SSD lifetime, and more.

    Let’s take a look at it.

  • Ubuntu Pit ☛ XanMod Linux Kernel 6.2.1 Released: What’s New

    If you’re searching for an exceptional Linux kernel distribution that will guarantee a steady and efficient desktop experience, look no further than XanMod.

• Applications

  • 9to5Linux ☛ FFmpeg 6.0 “Von Neumann” Released with Radiance HDR Image Support, New Decoders

    Dubbed “Von Neumann,” FFmpeg 6.0 is here more than a year after FFmpeg 5.0 “Lorentz” and introduces several new features like support for the Radiance HDR (RGBE) image format, VA-API (Video Acceleration API) decoding and encoding for 10bit and 12bit 422/444 HEVC and VP9 streams, as well as a new mode to the cropdetect filter to allow it to detect crop-area based on motion vectors and edges.

    FFmpeg 6.0 also introduces support for the WBMP (Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap) image format, NVEC AV1 encoding support, oneVPL support for QSV, and support for the filtergraph syntax in FFmpeg’s command line interface to pass file contents as option values by prefixing the option name with ‘/’.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • H2S Media ☛ How to install PHP Imagemagick on Ubuntu 22.04

    Are you a web developer looking for ways to enhance your PHP scripts with image manipulation capabilities? If so, then the Imagick PHP module is likely one of the tools you should add to your arsenal.

  • H2S Media ☛ Learn ROS Noetic installation on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

    Introduction Robotics is one of the fastest-growing areas which will change everything around us and also it not showing any signs of slowing down.

  • HowTo Forge ☛ How to Setup IKEv2 IPSec VPN Using strongSwan and Let’s Encrypt on Rocky Linux 9

    In this tutorial, you will learn how to set up an IKEv2 IPSec VPN using strongSwan using EAP-MSCHAPv2 authentication along with Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates on a Rocky Linux 9 server. You will also learn how to connect to the VPN using Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android clients.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Cinnamon Desktop Environment on Fedora Linux

    Cinnamon is a free, open-source desktop environment developed by the Linux Mint team. It is based on the GNOME desktop environment but comes with a unique and intuitive user interface designed to be user-friendly and customizable.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install and Enable SSH on Fedora Linux

    Secure Shell, commonly called SSH, is a network protocol that allows secure remote access and management of Linux servers. Its strong encryption and authentication features have gained popularity over older unsecure methods such as Telnet and FTP.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install GitLab on Debian 11 or 10

    GitLab is a web-based Git repository management tool that provides a complete DevOps platform, enabling teams to collaborate on projects easily. It is an open-source application that offers various features, such as continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD), version control, and issue tracking.

  • Linux Capable ☛ Improving MySQL Performance: A Guide to Using MySQL Tuner

    MySQL Tuner is a popular open-source tool for analyzing and optimizing the performance of MySQL servers. The tool provides recommendations for improving the configuration of your MySQL server based on its analysis of key metrics and statistics.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Slack on Fedora Linux

    Slack is a cloud-based team collaboration tool that has gained widespread popularity for its ability to streamline communication and increase productivity in the workplace.

  • Ubuntu Handbook ☛ KDE Plasma 5.27 Available to Install in (K)Ubuntu via PPA

    The latest KDE Plasma Desktop 5.27 was released 2 weeks ago. (K)Ubuntu 22.10 based systems can now get it via KUbuntu Backport PPA. And, KUbuntu 23.04 will ship with Plasma 5.27 by default.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Python 3.8 on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04

    Python 3.8 is an older release of the Python programming language that is now in security maintenance. Despite being an older release, Python 3.8 is still widely used and is known for its simplicity, flexibility, and readability.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Prometheus on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04

    Prometheus is an open-source monitoring and alerting system that helps you track the performance and health of your systems, applications, and services. Originally developed at SoundCloud, Prometheus has become one of the most popular monitoring tools in the industry, used by companies such as Airbnb, DigitalOcean, and Red Hat.

  • Make Tech Easier ☛ How to Display Information on Your Linux Desktop With Conky

    If you’ve ever spent time browsing a Linux community on Reddit, Twitter, or other social networks, you might have noticed some beautifully-made screenshots of sleek-looking systems where the time, date, and other information about the system are on full display in the desktop. To do this on your system, you need to to master one of the most useful applications in Linux: Conky.

  • ZDNet ☛ How to enable guest sessions on an Ubuntu desktop | ZDNET

    Your privacy is important and nearly every Linux distribution is filled with features, tricks, and underpinnings that take the security of your information very seriously. Take, for instance, the idea of the guest session.

    The concept is a special login for your operating system that allows others to use the machine, without having access to any of your data. At the same time, no information would be saved between guest sessions. In other words, anyone could use your computer, and — once they logged out of the guest session — any and all data collected during the session would be automatically trashed.

  • XDA ☛ Can the HP Dragonfly Pro run Linux?

    Unlike other laptop lineups, the HP Dragonfly Pro series uses both ChromeOS and Windows 11. There’s the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook which runs ChromeOS, and then the HP Dragonfly Pro, which runs Windows. But what about Linux? While you can run Linux on both of these great HP laptops, you’ll need some workarounds.

    On the standard HP Dragonfly Pro, you can virtualize Linux, run Linux apps with the Windows Subsystem for Linux, or try to run it in place of Windows with the risk of driver issues and certain parts of your device not running right. Then, with the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, you can run Linux apps on top of ChromeOS apps. Here’s everything else you need to know.

  • Make Tech Easier ☛ How to Display Information on Your Linux Desktop With Conky

    If you’ve ever spent time browsing a Linux community on Reddit, Twitter, or other social networks, you might have noticed some beautifully-made screenshots of sleek-looking systems where the time, date, and other information about the system are on full display in the desktop. To do this on your system, you need to to master one of the most useful applications in Linux: Conky.

• WINE or Emulation

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ ScummVM 2.7.0 ‘The Real Slim Shader’ supports even more classics

    ScummVM 2.7.0, The Real Slim Shader, is officially out now bringing more compatibility for retro titles to modern platforms so here’s what’s new. What exactly is ScummVM? To put it simply: it’s a whole set of different open source game engines under one roof, with each focusing on a different type of retro games.

• Games

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Building a Retro Linux Gaming Computer – Part 27: Lost Souls

    Return to Part 1: Dumpster Diving

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Beat Hazard 3 gets a “Huge” optimization for Steam Deck

    Beat Hazard 3 is a music-driven twin-stick shooter currently in Early Access, and it should now play a whole lot better on Steam Deck. Released initially back in November 2022, it still has a good while left in Early Access so more work is to be done but some fun stuff landed recently.

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Open source tabletop game simulator gets a second Beta release

    Free, open source and getting better all the time. Tabletop Club has a fresh Beta release available with a whole lot of fixes and improvements.

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • 9to5Linux ☛ KDE Plasma 5.27.2 Is Out with Lots of Plasma Wayland Improvements

      Coming only a week after KDE Plasma 5.27.1, the KDE Plasma 5.27.2 point release is here to improve the first-time setup experience of your Plasma desktop by omitting apps that are pinned to the Task Manager by default but aren’t installed on your GNU/Linux distribution so you won’t end up with broken icons.

      KDE Plasma 5.27.2 also brings lots of improvements for the Plasma Wayland session, including a fix for a recent regression causing line artifacts to appear around panels when using a fractional scale factor, as well as support for correctly rendering the mouse cursor in XWayland-using apps when using a fractional scale factor.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• New Releases

  • On February 27, 2023, EmmaDE4 1.03 focused on parental control – Emmabuntüs

    On February 27th 2023, the Emmabuntüs Collective is happy to announce the release of the Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 4 1.03 update (32 and 64 bits), based on the Debian 11.6 Bullseye distribution and supporting both Xfce and LXQt desktop environments.

    This distribution was originally designed to facilitate the reconditioning of computers donated to humanitarian organizations, starting with the Emmaüs communities (which is where the distribution’s name obviously comes from), to promote the discovery of GNU/Linux by beginners, as well as to extend the lifespan of computer hardware, in order to reduce the waste induced by the over-consumption of raw materials.

    This new update of our distribution adds the CTparental control, as well as a script to help install and configure it. This will greatly simplify the deployment of CTparental for the parents who want to protect their children against unsuitable content on the Internet, see our tutorial presenting the parental control.

• Fedora Family / IBM

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Flathub seeks funding to add payments, donations and subscriptions

    Making the rounds recently is a proposal being made to add in payments, donations and subscriptions options to Flathub.

  • G42 Cloud announces availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift on G42 Cloud

    G42 Cloud, the UAE’s leading Cloud provider, announced the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift on G42 Cloud. This collaboration will enable public sector and regional enterprises to seamlessly move their Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift workloads to G42 Cloud. As part of the engagement G42 Cloud has become a Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider.

    The collaboration will further enhance G42 Cloud’s portfolio through the addition of Red Hat open hybrid cloud technologies. Customers can now utilize Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift on G42 Cloud infrastructure in order to create an enterprise offering with enhanced security capabilities for regional customers.

  • Red Hat Official ☛ Connect Prometheus alerts to IT service management (ITSM) workflows

  • Enterprisers Project ☛ 6 precautions for CIOs to consider about ChatGPT [Ed: Red Hat is once again publishing SPAM for Microsoft's proprietary junk; second time in this site, makes Red Hat looks like a division of Microsoft...]

• Debian Family

  • CNX Software ☛ Armbian 23.02 out with Linux 6.1, DietPi 8.14 adds experimental RISC-V support

    Two of the most popular projects providing images for Arm and RISC-V single board computers have released new updates with Armbian 23.02 adding Linux 6.1-based Debian and Ubuntu images, and DietPi 8.14 adding experimental RISC-V support for the StarFive VisionFive 2 SBC and new Arm boards.

    Linux 6.1 is the latest LTS kernel, so Armbian is now providing Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy and Debian 11 Bullseye images based on Linux 6.1.y for boards that support it, as well as the first development images based on Debian 12 Bookworm and Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar.

    I could not find any new boards added in the changelog, but the release brings several improvements and bug fixes to some of the already supported SBCs including the Raspberry Pi 3, Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS, ROCK Pi S, ROCK Pi 4, NanoPi R2S, NanoPi NEO3, and Banana Pi BPI-M2 Pro. The announcement also highlights that Armbian OS works well on RK3588 with official support for Radxa Rock 5 and Orange Pi 5, albeit some are still using Linux 5.10.x.

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • 9to5Linux ☛ Linux Mint 21.2 Promises Better Support for Flatpak Apps, Faster File Management

    In Linux Mint 21.2 “Victoria”, the devs promise better support for Flatpak apps, as well as for apps using GNOME’s libadwaita library by implementing support for the xdg-desktop-portal desktop integration portal and frontend service for Flatpak and other similar containment frameworks.

    This change will make Flatpak and libadwaita-based apps work seamlessly on all supported desktop environments, including Cinnamon, Xfce, and MATE, even if they’re usually written only for the GNOME desktop environment, and support features like dark mode and screenshots.

  • ZDNet ☛ Ubuntu 22.04.2 is as predictable as an operating system can be… and that’s a good thing | ZDNET

    When the latest point release of Canonical’s Ubuntu desktop operating system was made available, it made me realize that this particular take on Linux (as well as the mother of all distributions… Debian) is totally antithetical to much of society.

    Let me illustrate this by way of a mobile phone metaphor. For a very long time, anyone who designed, created, and manufactured smartphones understood that every release had to have a serious “wow” factor. Without that, no one would pay attention. Why? Because society wants to be wowed, wooed, and impressed. Society is always looking for the “latest and greatest,” the thing that makes the biggest splash and has the most impressive set of new features.

    Those who embrace technology came to expect projects to come out with new features that would blow them away. They wanted pomp, circumstance, and cake (because who doesn’t want cake?).

  • FOSSLinux ☛ Ubuntu backup and recovery: Keeping your data safe and recovering lost data

    Backup and recovery are crucial components of any data management strategy, regardless of whether you’re dealing with personal files, business data, or mission-critical applications. Accidental deletion, hardware failure, theft, cyber-attacks, and natural disasters are some factors that can lead to data loss. The consequences can be severe, ranging from the inconvenience and financial losses to reputation damage and legal liabilities.

  • FOSSLinux ☛ Ubuntu gaming: A comprehensive guide to playing games on Linux

    Gaming on Linux has come a long way in recent years, and Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions for gaming enthusiasts. With the right setup, Ubuntu can provide an excellent gaming experience, offering access to a broad range of games, including popular titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and Rocket League.

  • Ubuntu News ☛ Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 776

    Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 776 for the week of February 19 – 25, 2023. The full version of this issue is available here.

  • Ubuntu Fridge ☛ The Fridge: Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 776

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Ubuntubuzz ☛ KiCAD 7 Released

    KiCAD is a professional free software application for electronic design automation (EDA). It is mainly used for electronic purposes like designing schematics, electronic circuits and drawing printed circuit board (PCB). Drawing circuitry with electronic components like resistors, capacitors, diode, switch etc. is easy with KiCAD. It includes important tools to create a bill of materials (BoM), artwork, Gerber files, and 3D views of the PCB and its components. It is licensed under GNU GPLv3 or later license. Its website is https://www.kicad.org.

  • Tom’s Hardware ☛ Raspberry Pi Helps TRS-80 Model 102 Deploy Kubernetes

    The TRS-80 Model 102 is a classic computer from the mid-1980s and with the help of a Raspberry Pi and an ESP32 it is capable of much more exciting things.

  • Raspberry Pi ☛ Raspberry Pi Backpack

    Portability is one of the great benefits of owning a small, yet powerful, computer such as Raspberry Pi. So long as you have a screen and keyboard to hand, you can pop one into your bag and take it on your travels. Or, as Nicholas Hacault has shown, you can actually make Raspberry Pi a feature of your bag and gain instant access to it wherever you go.

    Nicholas came up with the idea when he was looking for a way of transporting a Linux device. At first, he considered running a virtual machine on his laptop. “But that sounded like too easy a solution,” he says. “Since I was already bringing a bag to school, I figured that a backpack would be the perfect housing for my project.” With the idea in the bag, he was ready to get going.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Hindustan Times ☛ 5 Best hidden features Android users should know about | How-to

  • Geeky Gadgets ☛ How to check your screen time on Android – Geeky Gadgets

  • The Sun ☛ Millions of Android users warned over mysterious ‘cursed’ YouTube video – don’t watch it | The US Sun

  • TheHinduBusinessLine ☛ Not stopping rivals from getting pre-installed OVHP Apps in Android phones, Google tells NCLAT – The Hindu BusinessLine

  • Express ☛ Motorola’s rollable phone fixes massive issue with big Android devices | Express.co.uk

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• XenSummit 2023 announced!

  The annual Xen Project Developer and Design Summit 2023 will be held 24-26 June.

• EIN Presswire ☛ Linux Foundation’s LF Edge and Open Grid Alliance Collaborate on Accelerating Innovation for Reimagining the Edge

• The Register UK ☛ Pop open a cask: Homebrew version 4.0.0 is here [Ed: Can work with GNU/Linux too]

  Homebrew is a handy tool if you work in a terminal window on a Mac, which lets you quickly and easily install a wide variety of familiar tools from the wider FOSS world.

  The add-on package manager doesn’t need superuser permissions and installs programs into your home directory: it “does for macOS what apt-get does for Debian”. The new version 4.0.0 is faster than before, especially when it comes to the update process.

• GamingOnLinux ☛ Wayland driver for Wine is getting closer

  Back late last year, Collabora developer Alexandros Frantzis blogged about a whole lot of work going into getting full Wayland support for Wine and now a big first step towards it being included in Wine is happening.

• Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

  • LibreOffice installer improvements coming, thanks to Ximena Alcaman, Rachael Odetayo and Outreachy

    Today we’re talking to Ximena Alcaman, who is working on LibreOffice installer improvements as part of the Outreachy programme. Outreachy provides internships to people subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation in the technical industry where they are living.

    Ximena is working alongside Rachael Odetayo on the LibreOffice installer, and is being mentored by Marina Latini and Jussi Pakkanen, with support from sponsors SUSE and The Document Foundation. Let’s learn more…

  • Ubuntubuzz ☛ LibreOffice 7.5 ReleasedLibreOffice 7.5 Released

    LibreOffice is a cross-platform, free libre open source software (FOSS) office suite from Germany developed by worldwide community under stewardship of a non-profit organization. It was originally developed from OpenOffice.org in 2010, first released in 2011 and the latest version 7.5 released in 2023. It is consisted of six applications namely Base (database), Calc (spreadsheet), Draw (illustrator), Impress (presentation), Math (equation editor), and Writer (word processor). It is mostly viewed as an alternative to Microsoft Office or Google Docs. It is the de facto office suite on all GNU/Linux operating systems especially Ubuntu. Its website is https://libreoffice.org.

  • AOO 4.1.14 Release Notes

    Apache OpenOffice 4.1.14 is a Maintenance release, incorporating bug fixes and little enhancements. All users of Apache OpenOffice 4.1.13 or earlier are advised to upgrade. You can download Apache OpenOffice 4.1.14 here. Windows 10 and 11 users can now also get Apache OpenOffice for selected languages in the “Microsoft Store” App.

    Please review these Release Notes to learn what is new in this version, as well as important remarks concerning known issues and their workarounds.

    Only use the original website “https://www.openoffice.org/download/” to download. The installed software can be verified with the About box (see menu “Help – About OpenOffice”) by comparing the numbers with the reference data on the download webpage (see the text in the light green box). For Apache OpenOffice 4.1.14 it has to be “AOO4114m1 | Build ID 9811 | Rev. a0d24fb625″.

• GNU Projects

  • GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) ☛ GIMP 2.10.34 Released

• Licensing / Legal

  • [Old] The Verge ☛ The lawsuit that could rewrite the rules of AI copyright

    Microsoft and OpenAI are far from alone in scraping copyrighted material from the web to train AI systems for profit. Many text-to-image AI, like the open-source program Stable Diffusion, were created in exactly the same way. The firms behind these programs insist that their use of this data is covered in the US by fair use doctrine. But legal experts say this is far from settled law and that litigation like Butterick’s class action lawsuit could upend the tenuously defined status quo.

    To find out more about the motivations and reasoning behind the lawsuit, we spoke to Butterick (MB), Manfredi (TM), and Zirpoli (CZ), who explained why they think we’re in the Napster-era of AI and why letting Microsoft use other’s code without attribution could kill the open source movement.

• Programming/Development

  • Qt ☛ Qt Project: Top Contributors of 2022!

    So, 2022 was a successful year for Qt – and we highlight the Qt 6.3 and Qt 6.4 releases, Qt World Summit, and Qt Contributor Summit.

    And our community members keep up with the activity by writing diligent bug reports, contributing patches, giving technical advice, or helping out other users in forums and mailing lists.

  • Earthly ☛ Go with the Gin Framework

    The Gin framework is one of the popular web packages in the Go ecosystem for building web applications. Gin provides most of the functionalities you’ll need in a web framework featuring a martini-like API with high performance and easy error management.

  • Perl / Raku

    • Rakulang ☛ Raku™ documentation

      Welcome to the official documentation of the Raku™ programming language!

• Standards/Consortia

  • uni Michigan ☛ My love for physical media will never die

    If my current position as a writer on The Michigan Daily’s Arts section hasn’t already made it obvious, I love art. Whether it’s books, music, movies, TV shows or anything in between, chances are that I have made the media I consume a part of my personality at some point in my life.

Leftovers

• Tim Bray ☛ Two ongoing Decades

  Today is the 20th anniversary of the first-ever public post on this blog (Spoiler: Not that interesting). Some posts mark milestones: Is This Thing On? (one day), One ongoing Year, 730 ongoing Days, Thirty-six ongoing Months, and for the ten-year mark, Birthday!

  I just re-read that last ten-years note and I think it’s good. If you care about this subject at all, do me a favor and go read it. I’ll wait. Then, a few more words about doing this in 2023 and into the future.

• Hardware

  • RFA ☛ Empty containers stack up at major Chinese ports after zero-COVID effect lingers

    Shipping industry sources say the flow of goods has reversed direction, with more entering ports than leaving.

  • Tom’s Hardware ☛ PC GPU Shipments Drop 35% Year-over-Year in Q4 2022: Report

    As sales of CPUs decrease, shipments of discrete desktop graphics cards increase in Q4 2022, says Jon Peddie Research.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ BREAKING: Hong Kong axes Covid-19 mask mandate from March 1 after over 2.5 years

    Hong Kong’s long-standing Covid-19 mask mandate will be scrapped from Wednesday, Chief Executive John Lee has announced.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Hong Kong scraps one of the world’s longest Covid-19 mask mandates on March 1

    Masks will still need to be worn at high-risk places including hospitals.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Covid-19: PCR test requirement for entry to Hong Kong public hospitals, care homes axed from March 1

    Visitors and staff at Hong Kong’s public hospitals and elderly care homes will no longer need to present a negative result from a Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test from Wednesday, the government has announced.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Covid-19: Macau drops outdoor mask mandate, as survey shows 60% of Hongkongers want end to all restrictions

    Macau’s Covid-19 mask mandate has been partially lifted, leaving Hong Kong as one of the few remaining places across the globe to enforce a mask mandate in all public settings, according to an expert from the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ When can Hongkongers stop wearing masks?

    This is a question that keeps cropping up in Hong Kong, which is currently one of the last places in the world where universal mask wearing in all public settings is compulsory.

  • RFA ☛ Falling short of targets, North Korean factories start selling sweet potatoes

    But the food stalls are hurting families who run small food shops to make ends meet

  • US News And World Report ☛ North Korea’s Kim Calls for Unity to Boost Grain Production

    North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un has called for stronger public solidarity behind his leadership to significantly increase grain production

  • Danish health authority withdraws Covid-19 pill

    The Danish Health Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen) no longer recommends the Covid-19 therapeutic medicine Lagevrio, citing the medicine’s lack of effectiveness.

  • The Scientist ☛ How an Early Warning Radar Could Prevent Future Pandemics

    Metagenomic sequencing can help detect unknown pathogens, but its widespread use faces challenges.

  • Vice Media Group ☛ What ‘Low Confidence’ in the Lab Leak Theory Actually Means

    The lab leak theory may turn out to be true, but we’re nowhere near being able to say that right now.

  • Helsinki Times ☛ Over half of Finns have both vaccine and disease-induced COVID-19 antibodies: Study

    Over half of Finns have developed hybrid immunity to the coronavirus by the end of 2022 through a combination of vaccination and natural infection, according to a study conducted by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). This hybrid immunity provides long-lasting, high protection against severe disease.

    THL has been monitoring the occurrence of antibodies produced in response to coronavirus infection in the population since April 2020.

  • New Yorker ☛ COVID-19 at Three: Who Got the Pandemic Right?

    Dhruv Khullar examines what strategies worked to control the virus, and talks to the C.D.C.’s director, Rochelle Walensky, about the issue of misinformation.

  • New Yorker ☛ [Satire] George Santos Quickly Removes Job at Wuhan Lab from Résumé

    Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Santos said that he had “no idea” how the Wuhan job wound up on his C.V.

  • New Yorker ☛ Phosphorus Saved Our Way of Life—and Now Threatens to End It

    Fertilizers filled with the nutrient boosted our ability to feed the planet. Today, they’re creating vast and growing dead zones in our lakes and seas.

• Proprietary

  • Data Breaches ☛ How Offensive Action is Countering Ransomware

    Ransomware attacks have crossed a red line for many countries with continued merciless attacks. The threat to national economies and critical infrastructure marked a turning point. Governments are fighting back, and one of the strategies now routinely employed is infiltrating the servers and infrastructure of ransomware gangs. A recent offensive action against a top ransomware gang shows it can be a powerful tool both to rattle ransomware groups and provide real-time help to victims.

  • 37signals LLC ☛ Don’t be fooled by serverless

    But what happens if a customer needs the performance of a whole box, most of the time? Then they’re paying $1,400/month for $1,000′s worth of computing. Or maybe, because they’re reserving the whole box, they’ll get a deal at $1,250/month by committing to a whole year. That deal is far less obviously good on both sides. It’s basically a credit agreement at a 25% APR. Tread wisely!

    Enter serverless. It’s the same financial mechanics as above, but you can slice the server far more thinly. Instead of renting out your one big server to seven customers at $200/month, you rent out individual function executions to 100 customers at $20/month. This now clears $1,000/month in profit instead of just $400/month. No wonder cloud providers love serverless!

  • Terence Eden ☛ Responsible Disclosure: Abandoned Buckets and Billing Emails

    This is a problem. Amazon doesn’t reserve bucket names after they’re abandoned. Which means digital miscreants can claim them.

  • Data Breaches ☛ 553 days from discovery to notification? DataBreaches asked Dental Health Management Solutions why.

    Why did it take 553 days from discovery to notify patients? Is the delay acceptable? Applying the standards for HIPAA-covered entities, and having reported on many breaches by now, DataBreaches believes a delay that long is not acceptable unless there are factors we do not know about in play. DataBreaches sent inquiries to both DHMS and their external counsel at Wilson Elser to ask for an explanation for the serious delay. No replies have been received.

• Security

  • Danish hospital websites targeted in cyber attack

    A hacker group took nine Danish hospital websites offline on Sunday afternoon, following a similar attack on Danish airports last Wednesday, and another in Sweden.

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

    Security updates have been issued by Debian (apr-util, freeradius, mono, nodejs, php7.3, php7.4, and python-cryptography), Fedora (epiphany, haproxy, and podman), SUSE (chromium, libraw, php7, php74, python-pip, and rubygem-activerecord-4_2), and Ubuntu (apr, clamav, curl, intel-microcode, nss, openvswitch, webkit2gtk, and zoneminder).

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Light Blue Touchpaper ☛ Bugs still considered harmful

      A number of governments are trying to mandate surveillance software in devices that support end-to-end encrypted chat; the EU’s CSA Regulation and the UK’s Online Safety bill being two prominent current examples.

    • Vice Media Group ☛ US Military Signs Contract to Put Facial Recognition on Drones

      Operators will use the tech on small drones to help them with intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, and identifying targets.

    • Vice Media Group ☛ Top Kickboxers Advertised Encrypted Phones Used by Organized Crime

      Dutch police hacked and shutdown Exclu, a phone network used by alleged criminals. A promotional video shows professional fighters promoting the phones.

    • Vice Media Group ☛ This Hacker Hoodie Uses Surveillance Camera Parts to Blind Surveillance Cameras

      The ‘Camera Shy Hoodie’ renders its wearer anonymous to night vision surveillance cameras, using infrared LEDs usually found in the cameras themselves.

• Defence/Aggression

  • France24 ☛ ‘They burned everything’: Israeli settlers torch Palestinian homes, cars after West Bank attack

    Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Monday counted the cost of deadly violence and arson by Israeli settlers targeting a town where two Israeli brothers were killed.

  • RFERL ☛ Moldova Expels Two Foreigners Caught In Alleged ‘Destabilization’ Plot

    Moldova’s intelligence agency said on February 27 that two foreign nationals have been expelled from the country and banned from returning for 10 years after they were caught carrying out “subversive actions” to destabilize Moldova.

  • RFERL ☛ Canada Slaps Sanctions On Dozen Iranian Officials Linked to IRGC, Law Enforcement

    The Canadian government has imposed sanctions on 12 senior officials from Iran’s IRGC and Law Enforcement Forces for “gross violations of human rights” in a deadly crackdown on protesters angered by the death of a young woman while in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly.

  • US News And World Report ☛ TikTok Banned on All Canadian Government Mobile Devices

    Canada is banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices, reflecting widening worries from Western officials over the Chinese-owned video sharing app

  • RFERL ☛ Turkey’s NATO Talks With Sweden And Finland Set To Resume On March 9

    Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says talks with Sweden and Finland over their NATO membership bids would resume on March 9, although he said Sweden had still not fulfilled its obligations under a memorandum signed last year.

  • teleSUR ☛ Hungary Welcomes Chinese Plan for Peace in Ukraine

    “We need a ceasefire and the start of peace talks, Hungary calls for peace in all international forums,” Viktor Orban said.

  • teleSUR ☛ China Slams US Sanctions on Chinese Firms Related to Russia

    Washington set sanctions using non-existent shipments of Chinese arms to Russia as a pretext.

  • Helsinki Times ☛ Hungary wants answers: Demands UN investigation into Nord Stream pipeline attack

    Hungary is calling for a UN investigation into the “scandalous” attack on the Nord Stream pipelines that journalist Seymour Hersh has asserted were destroyed by the United States. The pipelines, which connected Russia to Germany, were sabotaged last September, leading to a state of dependence on US energy and prompting European countries to support the escalation of the war in Ukraine.

  • Helsinki Times ☛ Always look on the bright side – costs of NATO membership

    Nearly a year ago I was writing a trilogy of articles for Helsinki Times outlining the problems and risks for Finland joining NATO.

    Groupthink clearly prevailed when making the decision to join. Irving Janis who developed the concept years before warned that when decision makers look inward and invest in a perspective that is biased in favour of their own world view without sufficient recognition of other viewpoints, then it leads to poor and damaging decisions.

  • YLE ☛ Record number switch from reserve to civilian service

    The civilian service says it attributes the spike in applications to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

  • YLE ☛ Turkey to resume Nato talks with Finland, Sweden

    Turkey may separate Finnish and Swedish membership bids, according to Reuters.

  • TruthOut ☛ Human Rights Groups Condemn Settler Pogrom Against Palestinians in West Bank

  • The Dissenter ☛ March To Iraq War, 20 Years Later: February 27, 2003

• Environment

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Far-reaching UN treaty a must to cut global plastic use: experts

    On current trends, plastic use will nearly double from 2019 across G20 countries by 2050, reaching 451 million tonnes each year, according to the report, jointly produced by Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.

    In 1950, only two million tonnes of plastic were produced worldwide.

    “The findings highlight the level of ambition and the sense of urgency needed at the negotiation table,” co-author Gillian Parker told AFP.

  • Copenhagen Post ☛ Nord Stream explosions severely impacted maritime life – report

    They released sediment containing toxic substances that could potentially kill off several maritime populations, including Baltic Sea cod and porpoises, which both had breeding grounds close to the blast zones.

  • France24 ☛ Antarctic sea ice shrinks to new record low, US data center says

    Antarctic sea ice likely shrunk to a record low last week, US researchers said Monday, its lowest extent in the 45 years of satellite record-keeping.

  • The Age AU ☛ ‘Should send shockwaves’: ASIC sues Mercer Super in greenwashing crackdown

    The financial market regulator says Mercer was investing in companies such as BHP and AGL while marketing an investment product as being suitable for members who “are deeply committed to sustainability”.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • H2 View ☛ Australia to review National Hydrogen Strategy in response to global policy support

      The Australian Government looks set to review its National Hydrogen Strategy in response to global policy changes to support the hydrogen industry.

    • Renewable Energy World ☛ Battery recycler Li-Cycle Holdings inks $375m DOE loan pledge

      Canada-based Li-Cycle Holdings said that it received a conditional commitment for a $375 million loan from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, through DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program.

    • Danish environmental organisations concerned over Nord Stream leaks impact

      Sabotage at the Nord Stream pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm last year may have resulted in increased pollution which threats natural habitats, a study has found.

    • WhichUK ☛ Energy price cap falls, but your bills are still set to rise

      Bills for gas and electricity look likely to go up from 1 April – and Which? is

      calling on the government not to change the energy price guarantee

• Finance

  • Michael West Media ☛ Top earners benefiting most from super tax breaks

    The Albanese government has set the scene for trimming back super tax concessions with new costings showing the tax breaks are collectively worth up to $50 billion a year and largely flow to high income earners.

  • Zimbabwe ☛ China dropping big four accounting firms, should Zimbabwe do the same?

    You know, for a little while it looked like those hippies’ dreams of one global village had come true. Some of us grew up in the ‘we are the world’ era and really believed Lucky Dube when he said ‘we gotta stand together as one.’

  • The Local SE ☛ Booze price hikes and tax deadlines: What changes in Sweden in March?

    Alcohol is set to get more expensive and tax declaration season gets under way. Here’s more on that and everything else that changes in Sweden in March 2023.

  • Vice Media Group ☛ The Invisible Workers Who Train Google’s Algorithm Fought for $15/Hr and Won

    After delivering a union petition with over 1,000 signatures, the company’s subcontractors will now earn Alphabet’s minimum standard wage.

  • The Age AU ☛ Tax to double on superannuation earnings for balances over $3 million

    Tax on super earnings over $3 million will go from 15 per cent to 30 per cent, commencing in two years time.

  • The Age AU ☛ Super and capital gains tax breaks cost budget more than $100 billion

    A report shows the total cost of concessions around super will be worth almost $51 billion this financial year, with the bulk of the tax breaks flowing to high-income earners.

  • YLE ☛ MOT: Oligarch Rotenberg violated EU sanction rules by not declaring assets in Finland

    Yle’s investigative team found that Boris Rotenberg has not submitted all of the ownership notifications that he should have.

  • YLE ☛ Threatened public transport worker strikes may cause headaches in Finland

    If negotiations are unresolved, threatened strikes may cause lengthy disruptions of public transport services across the country, starting this week.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New Yorker ☛ New Twitter Check Marks in a Rainbow of Colors

    How about Orange? (Trump and Trump-related impersonators only.) Or Blue Sweater/Glasses? (For @georgesantosreallyIswear.) A Shouts & Murmurs by Bill Scheft.

  • France24 ☛ France must demonstrate ‘profound humility’ toward Africa, Macron says ahead of four-nation trip

    President Emmanuel Macron on Monday outlined France’s new strategy for Africa, where anti-French sentiment runs high in some of its former colonies. Ahead of a visit to Gabon, Angola, Congo-Brazzaville and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Macron said that France needs to demonstrate a “profound humility” in Africa.

  • France24 ☛ Nigeria’s opposition leaders reject early results showing ruling party lead

    Tensions rose Monday during the counting of Nigeria’s hotly contested presidential election when representatives from the parties of the two main opposition candidates walked out in anger from the center where state-by-state results were being announced.

  • France24 ☛ What is in the new post-Brexit trade deal on Northern Ireland?

    Britain and the European Union announced a new deal for post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland on Monday in a bid to end a row that has overshadowed their ties since Brexit.

  • France24 ☛ Live: Treasury Secretary Yellen on surprise visit to Kyiv to reaffirm US support

    US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in Kyiv on a surprise visit to highlight US economic support on Monday as a deadly Russian drone attack targeted the western Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi. The UN Human Rights Council convened for its annual session in Geneva as the UN chief warned that the invasion of Ukraine had led to “massive violations of human rights”.

  • Press Gazette ☛ ABCs: Regional dailies see average print decline of 19% (but online looking brighter)

    Data reveals large drops in UK regional print circulation, although some brands’ online audiences have grown.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Sky News reveals new leadership structure following departure of John Ryley

    Jonathan Levy is stepping up after head of Sky News John Ryley’s departure.

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ Banning TikTok

    Congress is currently debating bills that would ban TikTok in the United States. We are here as technologists to tell you that this is a terrible idea and the side effects would be intolerable. Details matter. There are several ways Congress might ban TikTok, each with different efficacies and side effects. In the end, all the effective ones would destroy the free Internet as we know it.

  • Vice Media Group ☛ Twitter Lays Off Manager Who Slept on Office Floor After Musk Takeover

    Twitter has laid off hundreds of workers in another chaotic incident, some of whom were die-hard loyalists to Musk’s new regime.

  • New Yorker ☛ Battling Corruption in Ukraine—and the U.S.

    The Biden Administration calls for greater financial transparency around the world. This country could use more of it, too.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Murdoch Testified Fox News Hosts Endorsed Idea That Biden Stole Election

    Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged under oath that some Fox hosts “endorsed” the notion…

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • France24 ☛ Florida Governor DeSantis takes over Disney district for opposing ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday that gives him control of Walt Disney World’s self-governing district, making good on his threats to punish the company over its opposition to his so-called Don’t Say Gay law.

  • HRW ☛ Satire in Congo is No Laughing Matter

    On February 10, government security agents arrested the satirical comedian Junior Nkole in central Kinshasa in the latest attack on freedom of expression in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Nkole’s relatives told Human Rights Watch that he and his brother Serge Nkole were waiting for a meeting with a business contact in the restaurant of the Hotel Mayotte. At around 10:00 a.m., in what appears to have been a trap, a dozen men in plainclothes who turned out to be officers of Congo’s National Intelligence Agency (Agence nationale de renseignements, ANR) showed up. They beat the two, forced them into an SUV with tinted windows, and took them to an ANR office. The authorities released Serge a few hours later, but Junior remains in detention.

  • RFERL ☛ Prosecutors In Belarus Seek Lengthy Prison Terms For Opposition Leaders Living Outside County

    Belarusian prosecutors have demanded lengthy prison terms and hefty fines for Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya and four other opposition leaders living outside the country.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • France24 ☛ The ‘dalalas’, the middlemen who prey on vulnerable women in Saudi Arabia

    Many foreign domestic workers in Saudi Arabia are forced to work in terrible conditions, often with highly abusive employers. However, they are trapped because of a system that allows Saudi’s staff ro nexties their working rights in the country to the employer. Enter the dalalas — middlemen who prowl Facebook offering desperate women help to flee their terrible employers for better jobs and improved working conditions.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Ex-Hong Kong police officer convicted of sedition over comments over death of marine officer

    A former police officer has been convicted under the colonial-era sedition law over Facebook comments about the death of a marine officer. Chui Chun-man appeared before Acting Principal Magistrate Veronica Heung at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Monday. Heung is one of the city’s handpicked national security judges.

  • HRW ☛ Myanmar Junta Extends Martial Law

  • RFA ☛ Cambodia’s Hun Sen ramps up efforts to bring political opponents to heel

    Facebook commentator, provincial party officials latest to be targeted in efforts to gain ruling party support.

  • RFA ☛ Myanmar’s junta denies ousted leaders access to legal representation

    Critics say the junta wants to isolate Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint from the outside world.

  • The Local SE ☛ ‘A shock’: Brit finds out he’s living in Sweden illegally after nine months

    After 11 years in Sweden, James, a British citizen working in the building industry, found out he no longer had residency in Sweden after calling the Migration Agency to ask about a rejected application for parental leave.

  • Vice Media Group ☛ Pornhub, OnlyFans, and Meta Join New Sextortion Prevention Platform

    ‘Take It Down,’ a new initiative by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, creates a hash from non-consensual images of minors without requiring them to upload anything.

  • JURIST ☛ Biden administration announces new policies aimed at combatting child labor

    The US Department of Labor (DOL) Monday announced new measures aimed at combatting child labor and, in particular, the exploitation of migrant child labor.

  • JURIST ☛ Legal age of marriage increases from 16 to 18 in England and Wales

    The UK’s Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022 came into force Monday, raising the legal age of marriage from 16 to 18 in England and Wales. The act amended the Marriage Act 1949, which regulates marriages in the two countries.

  • JURIST ☛ HRW: Tunisia must reinstate judges and uphold judicial independence

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) Tunisia Director Salsabil Chellali Monday urged Tunisian authorities to reinstate dismissed judges and prosecutors and remove all measures used to subdue judicial authority. President Kais Saied dismissed 57 magistrates last year as part of an “anti-corruption” crusade.

  • JURIST ☛ Ukraine human rights ombudsman accuses Russia of illegally detaining 180 political prisoners in occupied Crimea

    Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Sunday reported that Russia is illegally detaining 180 political prisoners in occupied Crimea. Dmytro Lubinets’ report comes as the country marks the ninth anniversary of Russia’s occupation of the peninsula.

  • JURIST ☛ UK dispatch: new Holocaust Memorial Bill introduced in Parliament

    The Government introduced a new Holocaust Memorial Bill to Parliament last week on February 23rd. The bill, called the Holocaust Memorial Act 2023, was launched under section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998. T

  • LRT ☛ Lithuanian border guards want state of emergency extended despite drop in migrant flows

    Although flows of irregular migrants have ebbed recently, the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (VSAT) believes that the existing state of emergency in border areas should be extended.

  • LRT ☛ Pro-Russian group places flowers on destroyed tank displayed in Vilnius, gets into fight

    A destroyed Russian tank displayed in front of the Cathedral Square in Vilnius attracts not only Ukraine’s supporters. A fight broke out after a group of people laid flowers on the tank on Sunday evening.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • CCIA ☛ A Ruling Against Google in Gonzalez Could Create a “World of Lawsuits” and “Economic Dislocation”

    Without the longstanding interpretation of Section 230 as providing broad protections to digital intermediaries and their users, the digital economy, built on user interactions with an enormous variety of content, could not continue to exist. 

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ Four ways the Supreme Court could reshape the web

    We shouldn’t read too much into the oral arguments heard this week, and they’re not a firm indication of how the court will rule (likely by summer). However, the questions the justices ask can signal how the court is thinking about a case, and we can extrapolate what might happen with more confidence. I’ve broken down some of those more probable scenarios below.

  • Vice Media Group ☛ How Shock Sites Shaped The Internet

    We owe the cultural evolution of the internet to the likes of ‘Two Girls, One Cup,’ ‘Goatse,’ and ‘Tubgirl.’

  • India Times ☛ Big Tech ‘fair share’ debate set to dominate Barcelona Mobile Congress

    Last Thursday, EU industry chief Thierry Breton launched a 12-week consultation on its “fair share” proposals, under which Big Tech platforms would bear more of the costs of the systems which give them access to consumers.

• Monopolies

  • Patents

    • Unified Patents ☛ Unified provides comments for USPTO Initiatives To Ensure the Robustness and Reliability of Patent Rights

      Unified Patents provided comments to the USPTO’s RFC on USPTO Initiatives To Ensure the Robustness and Reliability of Patent Rights and those were recently published.

    • EPO announces CodeFest winners [Ed: EPO breaks the law. It's governed by criminals. It's potraying itself to the public as all "fun and games"]

      Outstanding solutions highlight the potential of machine learning for identifying sustainable innovation in the field of plastics.

    • New Patent Filing Tool in Spain and Lithuania [Ed: Almost nobody in Lithuania files for European Patents because it's too expensive and the quality of the work is very very low; many granted patents are bogus.]

      First two countries implement filing tool

  • Trademarks

    • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: How Did These Three Section 2(e)(1) Mere Descriptiveness Appeals Turn Out?

      The TTAB recently ruled on the appeals from the three Section 2(e)(1) mere descriptiveness refusals summarized below. Let’s see how you do with them. Results will be found in the first comment.

Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal

  • 🔤SpellBinding: YLNOPTC Wordo: NOVAE

  • Self-involved egocentric bullshit

    My support worker is excellent. They’re 26, a kinky enm nonbinary/transmasc dyke; i’ll refer to them as ‘Z’. Z’s been doing this sort of work for at least a few years now. They often have lived experience of the sort of issues i blab about, and i regularly find that i don’t need to explain certain things because it’s very clear to me that they _get it_, that they very much know what i’m talking about. i’m very grateful for this, given my decades of shitty experiences with various health and allied workers.

    During our session today, Z mentioned a recent experience with one of their other clients (without, of course, giving any identifying information). The client is 19, and told Z that Z is ‘queerphobic’ and ‘transphobic’, and that they thus want to take a few weeks’ break from seeing Z. Why? Because in the short period since their last session with Z, they’d changed and/or added identities and/or pronouns, and Z hadn’t somehow automatically known this, and had thus got language wrong. According to the client, Z “should be able to keep up”.

  • i don’t belong to the queer/tgd communities

    i don’t feel i ‘belong’ to the queer/tgd communities. i am, of course, a ‘member’ of those communities by virtue of being queer and transgenderqueer. But decades of experience and activism involving these communities have led me to feel that they project themselves in ways i don’t, and can’t, relate to. In some cases, they can feel actively marginalising.

    The primary example of this is being ‘fabulous’, i.e. outgoing and colourful (both literally and figuratively). Both the queer and tgd communities are apparently _very_ invested in representing themselves as ‘fabulous’. No, i don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone being ‘fabulous’; i’m here for it. Yes, i understand this is at least partly a response to being expected (at best) to remain in the closet, instead being ‘out, loud and proud’.

  • What was the last book you read?

    What was the last book you read?

    Why did you choose it? What did you get from reading it?

    Under what circumstances would you recommend it to someone else?

  • Daily life

    On work days a Casio F-91W wristwatch, draped over
    the clock radio, beeps me awake at 0415. It cost
    $15 at walmart, survived a month under mud, water,
    & snow when I lost it in the backyard. Its battery
    lasts 10 years and is replacable. It goes on my
    wrist before I leave the house.

    Shower, eggs & greens, maybe yoga, scrubs on, chant
    a psalm because it’s Lent, drive 100km to hospital
    for work. I listen to St Thomas Aquinas’s Summa
    Theologica on a busted old offline Android discard-
    ed by my friend Kirsa on the way. Thanks Librivox &
    VLC.

• Technical

  • SSH client configurations

    Here is a set of SSH client configurations I usually use and find useful.

GNU/Linux

• Server

  • The New Stack ☛ New SmartOS: Ready to Serve as Next VM or Container Host

    SmartOS isn’t nearly as well known as some of the other UNIX or Linux-like operating systems built for virtual machines

  • Container Journal ☛ Analyzing Kubernetes Workload Costs? Compare to the Benchmark

    Moving to the cloud is a critical business initiative for many organizations. According to Flexera’s 2022 Tech Spend Pulse, 65% of respondents state that cloud and cloud migrations are one of their top priorities for the year ahead. As organizations press forward on digital transformation plans, they are moving more

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • Destination Linux 314: Can Linux Get Viruses? plus Ubuntu Flavours Removing Flatpaks

  • Tux Digital ☛ Destination Linux 314: Can Linux Get Viruses? plus Ubuntu Flavours Removing Flatpaks

    This week’s episode of Destination Linux, we will be discussing what makes Linux secure? Then we talk about Flatpaks getting their eviction papers in Ubuntu Flavors. Plus, we have our tips/tricks and software picks.

  • Linux User Space Episode 3:17: Pass-Ackward

    Coming up in this episode

    1. Plasma’s Kind of Hot Right Now

    2. Brush your passwords

    3. Browser Watch!

    4. A little feedback

    5. And a little FOCUS

    0:00 Cold Open

    1:33 Akademy Awards

    3:22 Plasma 5.27

    24:33 Your Last Pass… Word

    47:05 Browser Watch!

    55:36 The Mailbag

    1:05:35 Community Focus: Vashinator

    1:08:08 App Focus: ClamAV

    1:20:24 Next Time: EndlessOS History

    1:22:25 Stinger

  • Bryan Lunduke ☛ Linux is the new “It Just Works” OS

    Listen now (20 min) | The Lunduke Journal of Technology Podcast – Feb 27, 2023

  • Bryan Lunduke ☛ Starting this Sunday: “Lunduke’s Big Sunday Placeholder Tech Show”

    Gearing up for the big radio show later this Spring!

  • WordPress ☛ WP Briefing: Episode 50: 3 Interesting Trends from WordCamp Asia

    Join Josepha as she discusses her top 3 takeaways from the first-ever WordCamp Asia in Bangkok!

• Applications

  • Neowin ☛ qBittorrent 4.5.2

    The qBittorrent project aims to provide a Free Software alternative to µtorrent. qBittorrent is an advanced and multi-platform BitTorrent client with a nice user interface as well as a Web UI for remote control and an integrated search engine. qBittorrent aims to meet the needs of most users while using as little CPU and memory as possible. qBittorrent is a truly Open Source project, and as such, anyone can and should contribute to it.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Kifarunix ☛ How to Install Docker Desktop on Kali Linux

    How can you install Docker desktop on Linux? In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Docker desktop on Kali Linux.

  • OSTechNix ☛ How To Solve “error: required key missing from keyring” In Arch Linux, EndeavourOS, Manjaro Linux

    This brief tutorial explains how to solve “error: required key missing from keyring” in Arch Linux, EndeavourOS and Manjaro Linux.

  • TecAdmin ☛ How to Save and Quit in Nano

    Nano is a popular text editor used in Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It is a powerful and easy-to-use tool that can help you create and edit files quickly and efficiently. However, if you are new to Nano, you might be wondering how to save and quit your work.

  • Trend Oceans ☛ How to Create a WiFi Hotspot for Sharing a Wireless Internet Connection in Linux

    It’s very simple and easy to create a hotspot from your network card to get other devices to connect with the internet using the linux-wifi-hotspot tool that turns your network card into a hotspot.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How To Install Neovim on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS

    In this guide, we will show you how to install and use Neovim on Ubuntu systems Neovim is a refactor, and sometimes redactor, in the tradition of Vim.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How To Install Discord on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS

    In this guide, we will show you how to install Discord on Ubuntu Systems with two different methods. D

  • FOSSLinux ☛ Understanding iptables chains and targets in Linux firewall

    If you are working with Linux and managing a network or a server, chances are you have heard about iptables. iptables is a powerful tool used to manage network traffic by filtering packets, and its use is essential to ensure the security of your system. However, iptables can be complex and challenging to master, especially when understanding chains and targets.

  • Dan Langille ☛ Home Assistant running natively on FreeBSD via bhyve

    This is is mostly written after-the-fact without good notes.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install LXDE Desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

    In this tutorial, we will show you how to install LXDE Desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install Jellyfin Media Server on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

    In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Jellyfin Media Server on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install Prometheus on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

    In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Prometheus on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Prometheus is a powerful and flexible monitoring solution that is well-suited for modern cloud-native applications and infrastructure.

• Games

  • Boiling Steam ☛ Steam Deck: First Anniversary of the Ultimate Gaming Platform

    The Steam Deck has been about a year on the market now (it started shipping at the end of February 2022). This first anniversary is a good chance to review what has happened since then.

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • Make Use Of ☛ SteamOS Used to Run GNOME: 6 Reasons Why KDE Plasma Makes Sense

      
      The version of SteamOS that first came with the Steam Deck wasn’t Valve’s first attempt at making a Linux distro. It was actually version 3.

      Before then, SteamOS used the GNOME desktop environment. But for the Steam Deck, Valve chose KDE Plasma instead.

      GNOME is a more popular and arguably more mobile-oriented Linux interface. So why go with Plasma instead? We can’t speak for Valve, but here are several good reasons.

  • GNOME Desktop/GTK

    • OMG! Linux ☛ ‘Conjure’ is a New GTK Image Effects App for Linux

      ImageMagick is an incredibly popular image processing library that a huge number of open source image editors make use of — the latest being Conjure.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Hackaday ☛ MorphOS: A Modern Operating System for PowerPC

  When it comes to modern operating systems for PowerPC-based systems like pre-Intel Macs, or other PowerPC-based systems like older or newer AmigaOS-compatible systems, there is an increasing lack of options. For 32-bit PPC, official Linux support has been dropped already, leaving only unofficial builds and of course AmigaOS as well as AmigaOS-like operating systems. So what do you do if you have a PPC-based Mac system lying around which you do not simply want to run the same old, unsupported copy of MacOS on? In a recent video, [Michael MJD] decided to give MorphOS 3.17 a shot on a Mac G4 Cube.

• BSD

  • MWL ☛ Jan/Feb 2023 Column Out in the FreeBSD Journal

    Somehow, I’ve written 28 “We Get Letters” columns for the FreeBSD Journal. The latest is out.

• Fedora Family / IBM

  • Container Journal ☛ Red Hat Pushes OpenShift to the Network Edge

    At the Mobile World Congress, Red Hat today extended its effort to make the Kubernetes-based Red Hat OpenShift platform a foundation for edge computing by extending alliances with NVIDIA and partnerships with Samsung, Airspan, Druid Software and OMRON.

  • Container Journal ☛ Red Hat Donates Kepler Tool for Tracking Power Usage to CNCF

    At the Mobile World Congress event today, Red Hat, in collaboration with IBM Research, launched an open source project to capture power usage metrics from Kubernetes clusters.

  • Red Hat ☛ Edge computing: From 30 tons to 30 grams

    When the ENIAC computer was introduced in 1946, it was housed in a huge room—1,800 square feet—and weighed 30 tons. It had to be assembled in place, and it wasn’t going to be moved. The era of electronic computers had arrived, but only for an elite few. The idea of edge computing was science fiction—unbelievable science fiction at that. My, how things have changed.

    Mainframes

    The IBM mainframe computers, introduced in 1952, became the standard of computing for corporations and government agencies in the 1960s and 1970s. Those of us old enough can remember, for example, getting their home water bill in the form of a punched card with the words “Do not fold, spindle or mutilate” on it. These mainframe computers moved processing to the corporate headquarters. Sales from cash registers, for example, would be sent to headquarters on punched paper tape where it could be read into the mainframes for reporting.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Red Hat collaborates with Nvidia, Samsung and Arm on efficient, open networks

    Open-source software giant Red Hat Inc. announced a series of updates at the MWC 2023 event in Barcelona today, underscoring its ambitions stretching across advanced 5G, telecommunications clouds, industrial edge, artificial intelligence, radio-access networks and energy efficiency.

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • DebugPoint ☛ Ubuntu Plans for Mini ISO Images for Minimal Desktop Workloads

    Answering a question from an Ubuntu user about the possibility of a minimal Ubuntu ISO image, the developers confirmed that an official minimal ISO image (less than 200MB) is under development.

    The said work is already underway and has progressed a lot. The plan is to introduce an alternate minimal installer for the upcoming Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster release.

    Here are all the details.

• Devices/Embedded

  • CNX Software ☛ NanoPi R6S RK3588S mini PC & router review – Part 2: Ubuntu 22.04

    NanoPi R6S is both a mini PC and a router based on Rockchip RK3588S processor. I received some samples in November and started the NanoPi R6S review with OpenWrt/FriendlyWrt quickly testing the 2.5GbE interfaces and routing with iperf3, and it worked pretty well. But using a system with an octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor and 8GB RAM as an OpenWrt router only feels like a waste of resources, so I wanted to install a more versatile operating system – Ubuntu 22.04 – for further testing.

    FriendlyELEC provides various images on the Wiki either booting from an SD card, installing from a MicroSD to the eMMC flash (aka eFlasher imagers), or flashing through USB with Windows tools. I like the eFlasher images since the OS runs from the internal eMMC flash and no special tools are needed. I had just used the FriendlyWrt eFlasher image, so I thought switching to the Ubuntu 22.04 eFlasher imager image would be a breeze.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Purism ☛ My Top 10 Lapdock Kit Tips

    Two years ago I started an experiment to see if I could replace my personal laptop with my Librem 5 with a lapdock (spoiler: I could). A year later I wrote a follow-up post that talks about my impressions of the Librem 5 and lapdock kit as a personal computer.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • India Times ☛ Antivirus for Android: Keep your smartphones – tablets safe – Times of India (February, 2023)

  • Samsung Galaxy A14 Launched: Checks Specs, Features Of Budget Android Smartphone

  • TechCrunch ☛ Daily Crunch: Mobile World Congress 2023 kicks off with new features for Android, Chromebook and Wear OS | TechCrunch

  • 9to5Google ☛ What apps support Android 13′s new media player [Update: Tidal]

  • CNX Software ☛ Amlogic S928X specifications – A penta-core Arm Cortex-A76/A55 SoC with Mali-G57 GPU, 3.2 TOPS NPU – CNX Software

  • Lifewire ☛ How to Check the Phone Model on Your Android

  • The Sun ☛ Billions of Android owners issued ‘red alert’ – check your Google apps now or risk huge bill | The US Sun

  • The Sun ☛ People are just realizing Android phones have hidden ‘battery drain’ – stop ‘charge vampire’ right now | The US Sun

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• OpenSource.com ☛ Delegate common tasks with an open source automation tool

  Rundeck is an open source software used to quickly automate manual tasks. Use it to create workflows consisting of commands, scripts, and APIs. These workflows might include software management, configurations, and scheduled events. Rundeck logs these activities for transparency and troubleshooting. How can Rundeck address the example of a developer needing an environment in the organization’s cloud? Consider the following points.

• Medevel ☛ 10 Open Source Solutions, Hospitals Need

  In today’s digital age, hospitals increasingly rely on technology to provide quality patient care and manage operations. However, the high cost of proprietary software solutions can be a significant barrier for hospitals, particularly in low-resource settings.

• Web Browsers/Web Servers

  • Mozilla

    • Mozilla ☛ Mozilla Performance Blog: The Firefox Profiler team was at FOSDEM 2023

      The Free and Open source Software Developers’ European Meeting (FOSDEM) 2023 took place on the 4th and 5th of February. This was the first in-person FOSDEM since 2020, and for this reason, coming back to the good ol’ ULB building felt very special. The event was just like we left it in 2020: lots of people, queues in front of the most popular rooms, queues for the food trucks, mud, booths, many many developer rooms and talks to see, and this was just like a reunion between old friends.

      As the Profiler team is very distributed, just like the rest of Mozilla, it’s been also great seeing each other again, living this event together, and strengthening our relationships around some carbonade flamande, meatballs, waffles, and (edible) mushrooms.

      The Firefox Profiler was very much represented there, with no less than 5 talks in 3 different rooms!

      Here is a quick overview of these talks as well as links to the slides and videos.

      Using the Firefox Profiler for web performance analysis, by Julien Wajsberg

      The talk took place in the JavaScript room, at the very last slot on Sunday.

      This was mostly an introduction talk about the Firefox Profiler. Julien talked about what a profiler is, described how to capture a profile, and showed how to navigate in the Firefox Profiler UI like a pro. He explained that measuring is always better than guessing in the performance world.

    • Exple.Tive.Org ☛ Mike Hoye: Never Work In Theory, Spring 2023

      Indulge me for a minute; I’d like to tell you about a conference I’m helping organize, and why. But first, I want to tell you a story about measuring things, and the tools we use to do that.

      Specifically, I want to talk about thermometers.

      Even though a rough understanding of basic principles of the tool we now call a thermometer are at least two thousand years old, for centuries the whole idea that you could measure temperature at all was fantastical. The entire idea was absurd; how could you possibly measure an experience as subjective and ethereal as temperature?

• Programming/Development

  • Evan Hahn ☛ The lone developer problem

    In short: in my experience, if a single programmer builds something, it’s often hard for others to maintain later. There are several possible reasons why. Even great programmers fall into this trap!

    This post is anecdotal from my own experience, so it might not be right or apply to you. But here goes:

    A lot of software is built by one person. It might be an entire product built by a lone developer or a significant piece of a system.

    When this happens, I’ve observed that code written by a single developer is usually hard for others to work with. This code must’ve made sense to the author, who I think is very smart, but it doesn’t make any sense to me!

  • Godot Engine ☛ Release candidate: Godot 4.0 RC 6

    One more time! We’ve now fixed all critical regressions we are aware of, so things are looking great for the stable release!

  • J Pieper ☛ UART tunneling with moteus

    With the release of more flexible I/O support, the moteus controller auxiliary port can be used to monitor encoders using an onboard UART. Now, with firmware release 2023-02-01, those UART pins can be used as an arbitrary logic level serial port controlled by the application!

  • Kev Quirk ☛ My Static Site Workflow

    I’ve managed to come up with a static site workflow that I think is as good as WordPress. Here’s the details…

    Cast your mind back to January 2022, dear reader, when I wrote a post about managing content with Jekyll. Shortly after writing it, I realised it was bloody hard to do, so I went back to WordPress.

    I didn’t make the decision to go back to WP lightly; I considered my options (of which there were many) but decided, at the time, that good old WP was the best of the bunch.

  • Perl / Raku

    • Rakulang ☛ 2023.09 Docu Renewed

      The Raku Programming Language Documentation Team has released the newly reformatted documentation site after what has been a multi-year project in separating content from presentation, and bringing a more modern outlook to the documentation.

  • Python

    • TecAdmin ☛ Files and Directory Handling in Python

      Python is a powerful programming language that can be used for various purposes, including file and directory management. In this article, we will explore the various ways in which Python can be used for managing files and directories.

    • TecAdmin ☛ Write a Python Program to Return Multiple Values From a Function

      Python is a popular programming language that is widely used for developing a variety of applications. One of the features that makes Python stand out is its ability to return multiple values from a function.

    • TecAdmin ☛ Write a Python Program to Check the File Size

      When working with files in Python, it’s often necessary to check the size of a file.

• Standards/Consortia

  • DEV Community ☛ Billy Warren: My take on IRCs – let’s rest from Slack and Discord for a while.

    I want to interest those that haven’t used IRCs for a while through this article. This article generally leans toward the Debian Community but I hope it gives you some perspectives into IRCs and also interests you in joining the Debian Community as well.

    Most Generation Z developers I know have at least used slack, discord, discourse and so many other communication tools but so few have used IRCs so heavily and this could be because they find it boring and limited to what kind of content they can share and what community they are participating in. I got interested in using IRCs when I joined Debian and was able to navigate my way through using some online resources. While IRC may not be as popular as other communication tools like Slack or Discord, it remains a valuable tool for communication and collaboration within the open-source community. Its open-source nature and lightweight protocol make it a flexible and customizable tool that can be used in various settings.

    Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a communication protocol that has been around since the late 1980s. Despite its age, it is still a popular tool for communication and collaboration, especially within the open-source community. It is mostly known to be used by people that work on ‘boring’ projects or maintain legacy code (I can’t state how true this is though). Interesting facts about IRC include that it was created by a Finnish developer named Jarkko Oikarinen, who wanted to create a communication tool that would allow him to chat with his friends in real-time (the FaceBook of those days). The first IRC network was called EFnet, and it quickly grew in popularity as more and more people began to use the protocol for communication and collaboration.

    IRC allows users to connect to servers and join channels (chat rooms) where they can communicate in real time with other users who have also joined the same channel. Many open-source projects use IRC channels for communication and collaboration among developers. The Debian project has a number of IRC channels that are used for communication and collaboration among developers and users. I have at least interacted with three of them which include;-

Leftovers

• Quartz ☛ Should a workplace have a soundtrack?

  Imagine this: you walk into an office building on the day of a big client meeting. You’re feeling anxious, apprehensive. As you approach the receptionist and check in digitally for your appointment, you see a new option to receive a “personalized bio-soundscape” while you wait. You could use a distraction, so—why not?…

• Modern Diplomacy ☛ How to make a nuclear clock tick

  While not primarily useful for telling the time, nuclear clocks could allow scientists to test humankind’s fundamental understanding of how reality works.

• Ruben Schade ☛ A rattling truck of the mind

  Last week I’d rushed back to my desk for a client meeting, when I heard the sound of a large truck idling outside. A driver had decided the street under our balcony was a fabulous place to stop and idle their behemoth while they did who knows what.

• Thomas Vander Stichele: Meet Me in the Bathroom

  “Welcome to pre-9/11 New York City, when the world was unaware of the profound political and cultural shifts about to occur, and an entire generation was thirsty for more than the post–alternative pop rock plaguing MTV. In the cafés, clubs, and bars of the Lower East Side there convened a group of outsiders and misfits full of ambition and rock star dreams.“

  Music was the main reason I wanted to move to New York – I wanted to walk the same streets that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the National, Interpol, the Walkmen, the Antlers and Sonic Youth were walking. In my mind they’d meet up and have drinks with each other at the same bars, live close to each other, and I’d just run into them all the time myself. I’m not sure that romantic version of New York ever existed. Paul Banks used to live on a corner inbetween where I live and where my kids go to school now, but that is two decades ago (though for a while, we shared a hairdresser). On one of my first visits to New York before moving here, I had a great chat with Thurston Moore at a café right before taking the taxi back to the airport. And that’s as close as I got to living my dream.

  But now the documentary “Meet me in the Bathroom” (based on the book of the same name) shows that version of New York that only existed for a brief moment in time.

  “Meet Me In The Bathroom — ??inspired by Lizzy Goodman’s book of the same name — chronicles the last great romantic age of rock ’n’ roll through the lens of era-defining bands.“

• OpenSource.com ☛ Essential tips and tricks for your first tech job

  First days at work are scary. I still recall many instances where I lay awake at night before my first day at work, having an internal meltdown over what would happen the next day. Starting a new job is uncharted territory for most people. Even if you’re a veteran in the industry, there’s no denying that there can be a part of you that’s a bit terrified of what is to come.

  Understandably, a lot is happening. There are new people to meet, new projects and technologies to understand, documentation to read, tutorials to sit through, and endless HR presentations and paperwork to fill out. This can be overwhelming and, coupled with the considerable degree of uncertainty and unknowns you’re dealing with, can be quite anxiety-inducing.

  Two reasons motivated me to write about this subject. The first one being that back when I was a student, most of the discussion revolved around getting a job in tech, and no one talked about what happened next. How do you excel in your new role? Now that I look back, I think I assumed that the hard part is getting the job, and whatever comes after, I could probably figure out myself.

  Similarly, once I started working in the industry, most of the career-related content I came across was about how to go from one senior level to another. No one really talked about what to do in the middle. What about the interns and the junior engineers? How do they navigate their early careers?

  After completing three years of full-time professional experience as a software engineer (and a couple of internships before), I reflected on my time. I put together a list of tips and tricks I’ve employed while settling into a new tech role. I wanted to look beyond just the first couple of months and prioritize helping achieve long-term success.

• Science

  • uni Stanford ☛ Faculty Senate hears President address research misconduct allegations, discusses graduate students’ affordability issues

    President Tessier-Lavigne rejected Daily’s allegations, saying, “the first publication is almost never the final word.” The Faculty Senate also discussed the topic of graduate affordability concerns and upcoming accreditation.

• Education

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ University for Indigenous languages to begin classes in 2023

    The National University of Indigenous Languages will teach Indigenous tongues using immersion and initially offer four related degrees.

  • Buttondown ☛ Teaching Implication Better

    Hello everyone! It’s finally March, or at least close enough to March for my purposes. First thing, we’re a month off from April Cools! April cools is a less-cringe version of April fools, where content creators like me publish content that is both genuine and totally out of genre. Last year I took a break from software engineering to write about microscopy. Other people wrote about singing church music, marathon food, and how to read rot13. If you’ve got a blog, I’d heartily recommend joining! It’s a lot of fun.

    Anyway, between that and a bunch of work obligations, this is going to be a real busy month for me. I’m still committed to updating the newsletter six times a month, but it might be a bit erratic: instead of the alternating 1-2-1 schedule I’ve been on, it might be 2-2-0-2 instead. Just a heads up.

• Hardware

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Daniel Aleksandersen on split keyboard accessibility

    He suggests split keyboards duplicate certain keys that straddle the split, such as B and Y. Alternatively, they could be made detachable.

    Like Daniel, I have an injury on one of my fingers that makes typing difficult. The damaged nerves and muscle in my right pinkie make it hard to strike Return or colon reliably, so over the years I adapted by using my ring finger to perform double duty.

  • CNX Software ☛ UP Squared Pro 7000 SBC features up to Intel Core i3-N305 Alder Lake-N processor, up to 16GB LPDDR5

    AAEON UP Squared Pro 7000 is an upcoming single board computer (SBC) based on a choice of Alder Lake-N SoCs up to the Core i3-N305 octa-core processor, up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, and 64GB eMMC flash. The board supports up to three displays and comes with a MIPI CSI port, dual 2.5GbE networking, three USB 3.2 ports, two RS232/RS422/RS485 interfaces, as well as several M.2 sockets for storage and wireless expansion that makes it suitable for machine vision solutions for smart factories, robotics applications, and retail/digital signage.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Quartz ☛ Giving birth in the US is becoming a deadlier affair

    >

    That the US is a deadly country for new mothers, particularly Black mothers, has become a well-known fact.

  • Latvia ☛ LTV’s De Facto probes dairy industry crisis in Latvia

    Latvian dairy farmers have been experiencing a crisis for several weeks. This week, the Ministry of Agriculture will present a plan to support the sector to the government, while the industry is planning protests, Latvian Television’s broadcast De Facto reported on February 26.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Coronavirus origins still a mystery 3 years into pandemic

    Did the coronavirus originate in animals or leak from a Chinese lab? Governments and health agencies around the world have been trying to answer that question since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Now, the U.S. Department of Energy has assessed with “low confidence” that it began with a lab leak. That’s according to a person familiar with the report who was not authorized to discuss it and was granted anonymity by The Associated Press to confirm its contents.

  • Gizmodo ☛ CDC Sounds the Alarm: A Diarrhea Superbug Is Resisting Drugs and Spreading Fast

    Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are sounding the alarm over a diarrhea-causing superbug. The CDC’s data shows a noticeable rise in extensively drug-resistant strains of Shigella bacteria over the past half-decade.

  • NYPost ☛ My Brazilian butt lift was so painful — like my a– was whooped by 20 gorillas [Ed: Social control media influences people to do very harmful things -- very bad for their health]

    The woman shared her experience on TikTok, calling her BBL surgery “traumatizing.”

  • PHR ☛ Global Medical and Human Rights Groups Call on Türkiye to End Persecution of Doctors

    In a letter issued today, four international medical and human rights organisations call on Turkish authorities to drop the baseless charges against the leadership of the Turkish Medical Association (TMA) at a time when doctors are urgently needed to tend to victims of the 6 February earthquake that have caused over 50,000 deaths in Türkiye…

  • Defence Web ☛ Hawks, SARS seize R30 million worth of illicit cigarettes

    National Hawks Head, Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya, has commended the Directorate’s Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team for seizing R30 million worth of suspected illicit cigarettes in Limpopo.

  • France24 ☛ As UK supermarkets ration fruits and vegetables, many blame Brexit for shortages

    Due to a shortage of certain fruits and vegetables, British supermarkets have been forced to ration their supplies. This situation is likely to continue for some time, leading to fears of price hikes. But how did the UK get to this point? While most officials say that bad weather and rising energy prices are to blame, some observers are pointing the finger at Brexit.

  • NYPost ☛ NYC official ousted over ‘Wu-Flu’ wants back in after China lab reveal, claims he’s ‘vindicated’

    Former Queens community board member Richard Huber said he was “vindicated” by a classified US intelligence report that said the COVID-19 most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China.

  • NYPost ☛ Moms who give birth in early 20s at higher risk of heart attack, stroke: study

    The largest analysis of how reproductive factors can influence women’s heart health found a direct link to increasing a woman’s risk of heart attack and stroke.

  • NYPost ☛ There’s no easy fix to Midtown’s post-COVID half-empty offices

    As the city approaches the third anniversary of COVID lockdowns, Manhattan’s skyscrapers hover around the 50% occupancy mark.

• Security

  • NVISO Labs ☛ OneNote Embedded file abuse

    In recent weeks OneNote has gotten a lot of media attention as threat actors are abusing the embedded files feature in OneNote in their phishing campaigns.

    In this post we will analyze this new way of malware delivery and create a detection rule for it.

  • Security Week ☛ LastPass Says DevOps Engineer Home Computer Hacked

    LastPass DevOp engineer’s home computer hacked and implanted with keylogging malware as part of a sustained cyberattack that exfiltrated corporate data from the cloud storage resources.

  • Security Week ☛ Cyberattack on Boston Union Results in $6.4M Loss

    A cyberattack on the Boston-based Pipefitters Local 537 union’s health fund resulted in the loss of $6.4 million.

  • Security Week ☛ ‘PureCrypter’ Downloader Used to Deliver Malware to Governments

    Threat actor uses the PureCrypter downloader to deliver malware to government entities in Asia-Pacific and North America.

  • Security Week ☛ QNAP Offering $20,000 Rewards via New Bug Bounty Program

    New QNAP Systems bug bounty program covers vulnerabilities in applications, cloud services, and operating systems.

  • Security Week ☛ Media Giant News Corp Discloses New Details of Data Breach

    News Corp says a threat group, previously linked to the Chinese government, had access to its systems for two years before the breach was discovered.

  • Daniel Lange ☛ Daniel Lange: Thunderbird gpg key import

    5MB (or 4.8MiB) import limit. Sure. My modest pubring (111 keys) is 18MB. The Debian keyring is 28MB.

    May be, just may be, add another 0 to that if statement?

    So, until that happens, workarounds …

    Option 1:

    Export each pubkey into a separate file. The import dialog allows to select them all in one go. But – of course – it will ask confirmation for each. So prepare some valerian tea.

  • Daniel Lange ☛ Daniel Lange: Getting gpg to import signatures again

    Now the changed defaults in gpg to “mitigate” this issue are trickling down to even the conservative distributions. Debian Bullseye has self-sigs-only on gpg 2.2.27 and it looks like Debian Bookworm will get gpg 2.2.40. This would add import-clean but Daniel Kahn Gillmor patched it out. He argues correctly that this new default could delete data from good locally store pubkeys.

    This all ends in you getting some random combination of self-sigs-only and / or import-clean depending on which Linux distribution and version you happen to use.

  • Port Swigger ☛ Password managers: A rough guide to enterprise secret platforms

    The second part of our password manager series looks at business-grade tech to handle API tokens, login credentials, and more

  • Port Swigger ☛ Chromium bug allowed SameSite cookie bypass on Android devices

    Protections against cross-site request forgery could be bypassed

  • Silicon Angle ☛ News Corp reveals hackers had access to internal network for two years

    Media conglomerate News Corp has disclosed that attackers behind a data breach revealed in February 2022 had access to parts of its internal systems for two years. The initial attack was first detected in January last year, affecting News Corp. publications and business units, including The Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones…

  • Silicon Angle ☛ LockBit 3.0 remains the most active threat actor as ransomware attacks drop in January [Ed: Microsoft Windows TCO]

    In a surprising finding, a new report from NCC Group plc finds that the number of ransomware attacks dropped in January from December, but the number of attacks was still the highest for January in three years.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ ‘A year of cyberwar’ with Russia: An inside look from a top Ukrainian cybersecurity official [Ed: Reliance on Windows has done them a lot of harm and the "solution" was outsourcing to Microsoft, which worsens things and helps Microsoft grab taxpayers' money]

    Victor Zhora has been at the forefront of coordinating Ukraine’s cyberdefense and describes lessons learned from fending off Russian attacks.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ CISA director urges tech sector to stop shipping unsafe products

    Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said the cybersecurity burden should no longer be placed on consumers.

  • Data Breaches ☛ 553 days from discovery to notification? DataBreaches asked Dental Health Management Solutions why.

    Why did it take 553 days from discovery to notify patients? Is the delay acceptable? Applying the standards for HIPAA-covered entities, and having reported on many breaches by now, DataBreaches believes a delay that long is not acceptable unless there are factors we do not know about in play. DataBreaches sent inquiries to both DHMS and their external counsel at Wilson Elser to ask for an explanation for the serious delay. No replies have been received.

    There is currently no notice on HHS’s breach site (but they often have a delay in posting), and there is nothing on the Texas Attorney General’s breach site. Nor is there any notice on DHMS’s website.

  • How Offensive Action is Countering Ransomware [Ed: So does deleting Windows, and that's a lot cheaper.]

    Ransomware attacks have crossed a red line for many countries with continued merciless attacks. The threat to national economies and critical infrastructure marked a turning point. Governments are fighting back, and one of the strategies now routinely employed is infiltrating the servers and infrastructure of ransomware gangs. A recent offensive action against a top ransomware gang shows it can be a powerful tool both to rattle ransomware groups and provide real-time help to victims.

    The latest occurred last month. Top U.S. prosecutors revealed Jan. 26, 2023, a law enforcement operation involving 13 countries that infiltrated the Hive ransomware group’s infrastructure starting in July 2022. As a top U.S. law enforcement official characterized it: “Simply put, using lawful means, we hacked the hackers.” Hive was one of the most prolific ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) groups, with affiliates using its ransomware to execute attacks and extort more than 1,500 victims. For seven months, investigators had “clandestine, persistent” access to Hive’s control panel and database. That enabled investigators to swipe decryption keys without Hive’s knowledge and distribute those keys to 336 victims actively under attack. More than 1,000 decryption keys were provided to previous Hive victims, and authorities estimated the action meant US $130 million was not paid to the gang. What does this mean for the Hive gang, and what influence will this action have with respect to the broader ransomware environment?

  • The Record ☛ Danish hospitals hit by cyberattack from ‘Anonymous Sudan’

    The websites of nine hospitals in Denmark went offline on Sunday evening following distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks from a group calling itself Anonymous Sudan.

    Copenhagen’s health authority said on Twitter that although the websites for the hospitals were down, medical care at the facilities was unaffected by the attacks. It later added the sites were back online after “a couple of hours.”

  • Dallas News ☛ Thousands of Asian Texans targeted in driver’s license breach

    The state shipped thousands of Texas driver’s licenses to an international organized crime group in a security lapse that is still under investigation, Department of Public Safety Chief Steve McCraw said Monday.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Gizmodo ☛ Yikes, the U.S. is Now Using Facial Recognition Rigged Drones for Special Ops

      Flying killer robots used to be a nightmarish sci-fi fantasy—something that only existed in James Cameron movies or Michael Crichton novels.

    • ACLU ☛ Firestorm Over Green Bay City Hall Surveillance Microphones is a Reminder of Country We Don’t Want to Live In

      A heated controversy over audio recording in Green Bay, Wisconsin has resurfaced an important privacy issue that we have been monitoring for years: the placement of surveillance microphones in public places. When it emerged that live microphones had been installed in public hallways as part of the security system in city hall, a number of politicians objected, including a city alderperson and members of the Wisconsin State Senate, who subsequently filed a lawsuit. City officials, meanwhile, defended the mics.

      Similar deployments have come to light in the district attorney’s office in Nashville, and the city clerk’s office in East Providence, Rhode Island. The deployment of surveillance microphones in this manner needs to stop.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Federal News Network ☛ UN will struggle to unify Libya with elections this year

    The United Nations is making a new push to convince Libya’s rival factions to hold presidential and legislative elections this year. But any optimism was dampened Monday by a lack of details and continued disputes. Abdoulaye Bathily, the top U.N. diplomat for Libya, told the Security Council in New York that the latest initiative aims for elections within 10 months.

  • AntiWar ☛ Nine More Ukraines

    Joe Biden must think that he’s the world’s Rich Uncle. In a meeting with the so-called Bucharest Nine today he promised these former Warsaw Pact nations – which should never have been admitted to NATO in the first place – unlimited economic and military support. Nine more Ukraines if need be.

  • AntiWar ☛ What if the West Can’t Put Ukraine Back Together?

    America’s twenty-year involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrated that nation building is often more expensive, prone to failure, and politically unpopular than expected at the outset.

  • AntiWar ☛ Ukraine: The Violence Before the Violence

    The violence in Ukraine is unimaginable. But before the violence, there was violence. The military conflict in Ukraine has received an unprecedented amount of media coverage. The major US networks have given more coverage to Russia’s war in Ukraine than they did to America’s war in Iraq.

  • Security Week ☛ US National Cyber Strategy Pushes Regulation, Aggressive Hack-Back Operations

    The U.S. government is set to green-light a more aggressive ‘hack-back’ approach to dealing with foreign adversaries and mandatory regulation of critical infrastructure vendors.

  • Security Week ☛ US Sanctions Several Entities Aiding Russia’s Cyber Operations

    US Department of Treasury has announced a fresh set of sanctions against entities helping Russia in the war against Ukraine.

  • Gizmodo ☛ The War in Ukraine Is Accelerating the Global Drive Toward Killer Robots

    The U.S. military is intensifying its commitment to the development and use of autonomous weapons, as confirmed by an update to a Department of Defense directive. The update, released Jan. 25, 2023, is the first in a decade to focus on artificial intelligence autonomous weapons.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ Four Years of Operation Swift Retort, Commemorating Pakistan as a Responsible NWS

    Today marked 4th anniversary of “Operation Swift Retort” when Pakistan Armed Forces responded appropriately to India’s failed misadventure. It all started on February 26, 2019, when Indian Air Force planes carried out airstrikes in Balakot, a town in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

  • NYPost ☛ Biden needs to step up military aid for Ukraine — fast

    Does President Joe Biden truly want to end the war in Ukraine?

  • Defence Web ☛ FATF grey lists South Africa over money laundering and terrorism funding concerns

    The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, has grey listed South Africa because it deems the country’s financial controls being not strict enough to prevent financing of terrorist organisations and money laundering.

• Environment

  • Quartz ☛ China’s lithium crackdown could roil global markets for the critical metal

    Fresh volatility may hit the red hot global lithium market, potentially disrupting supplies of the critical metal needed for batteries that power the energy transition.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Trail Of Bits ☛ Reusable properties for Ethereum contracts

      As smart contract security constantly evolves, property-based fuzzing has become a go-to technique for developers and security engineers. This technique relies on the creation of code properties – often called invariants – which describe what the code is supposed to do.

    • Quartz ☛ South Africa’s power blackouts will cost the economy $1.3 billion this year

      South Africa’s power problem is taking a huge chunk out its GDP after its central bank estimated that $51 million is lost every day due to load shedding.

    • Latvia ☛ Solar panel boom expected to continue this year in Latvia

      Last year there was a boom of solar panels in Latvia. In total, 12,300 households have already installed solar panels or microgenerators with a total capacity of more than 80 megawatts (MW). More state aid is still available for those who want to install them, Latvian Radio reported on February 27.

    • Gizmodo ☛ When It’s Time to Ban Crypto, According to the IMF

      The world needs a new crypto crackdown, or else there’s the nuclear option—at least according to one of the world’s biggest financial bodies.

    • uni Stanford ☛ Will the pre-pandemic Marguerite lines return?

      Students advocate for the reinstatement of weekend and late-night public shuttle lines, citing affordability, public safety and equity concerns.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Latvia ☛ Latvia’s celebrity white-tailed eagles ready the nest

      In the livestreamed nest of white-tailed eagles in Durbe, Latvia, the eagle couple Milda and Voldis are preparing to lay eggs, ornithologist Jānis Ķuze told Latvian Radio on February 27.

    • Latvia ☛ Dead dolphin washed up on Latvian coast

      A dead dophin washed up on a Latvian beach on Saturday, February 25, reports LSM’s Latvian language service.

• Finance

  • Quartz ☛ Twitter fired more employees after Elon Musk said layoffs had ended

    Dozens of Twitter employees have reportedly lost their jobs last week, despite CEO Elon Musk promised layoffs had ended in November, after he made drastic cuts to the company’s workforce shortly after completing his $44 billion takeover.

  • Gizmodo ☛ Elon Musk Lays Off Twitter Employee Who Slept on the Floor to Meet His Crazy Deadlines

    Twitter CEO Elon Musk has a message for employees: Loyalty means nothing. Over the weekend, Musk laid off more than 50 employees at the social media company, including one of his most vocal supporters, product head Esther Crawford.

  • Latvia ☛ Construction costs up by 17.6% on year in Latvia

    Data publushed on February 27 by the Central Statistical Bureau show that in January 2023, compared to January 2022, the level of construction costs in Latvia increased by 17.6 %.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Tesla requests $330M-plus in additional Nevada tax breaks

    Tesla may receive over $300 million in tax abatements over the next two decades for a massive new expansion of its northern Nevada facility, the product of a 2014 deal for when the company first came to the area on the promise of new jobs and major investments in the area. The long-awaited sum will be voted on Thursday by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development. Tesla projects it will bring in 3,000 jobs at an average rate of $33.49 per hour and invest $3.6 billion into the economy.

  • Gizmodo ☛ Tesla Could Get More Than $300 Million in Tax Breaks for Gigafactory Expansion

    A Tesla deal may come to fruition for its facility in Nevada on Thursday, which may allocate more than $300 million in tax abatements to the company. The Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development will hold a vote on Thursday to decide whether the company will receive the sum over the course of two decades.

  • Reason ☛ Now the CHIPS Act Is Going To Subsidize Child Care Too

    If Congress wants to spend taxpayer money on child care services, it should pass a bill authorizing that.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Weak outlook sends Workday’s stock down in extended trading

    Enterprise software provider Workday Inc. beat expectations on earnings and revenue today as it posted its fourth-quarter financial results, but its guidance for the coming quarter came up light and its stock fell almost 3% in extended trading.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Quartz ☛ The UK and the EU have reached an agreement on Northern Ireland

    British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reached an agreement with the European Union (EU) on Monday (Feb. 27) on a new Brexit deal that defines the trade status of Northern Ireland.

  • France24 ☛ PM Sunak and EU chief announce deal on post-Brexit trade for Northern Ireland

    British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has struck a new deal with the European Union on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland and he said it would pave the way for a new chapter in London’s relationship with the bloc.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Experts react: Will a new deal on Northern Ireland repair UK-EU relations?

    What would the deal mean for regional trade and diplomacy? What does it say about Sunak’s approach to foreign policy? Our experts ship off their answers. 

  • Quartz ☛ A former Obama campaign staffer is the first woman to lead Italy’s main left-wing party

    A rising star of the Italian left has won election to the leadership of the Democratic Party, the country’s second-largest political group.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Thousands in Mexico’s cities protest ‘Plan B’ election reform

    The protests happened four days after the Senate approved reform legislation that critics say poses a threat to Mexican elections’ integrity.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ From Twitter spats to island disputes, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have a bone to pick with each other

    Cairo’s relationship with its Gulf ally has become increasingly fractious in recent weeks after a Saudi official made clear that any future Gulf assistance ”will come with strings attached.”

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Canada bans TikTok on government devices

      The Government of Canada has joined the European Commission and the U.S. House of Representatives in banning TikTok on government-issued devices amid ongoing concerns that the Chinese government can use the app to spy on users. The ban, effective starting Feb. 28, was announced earlier today by the Treasury Board of Canada.

    • Federal News Network ☛ TikTok banned on all Canadian government mobile devices

      Canada is banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices, reflecting widening worries from Western officials over the Chinese-owned video sharing app. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it might be a first step to further action. TikTok is wildly popular with young people, but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could use it to collect data on Western users or push pro-China narratives and misinformation.

    • Digital Music News ☛ Canada Bans TikTok On All Government-Issued Devices, Effective Immediately

      Canada has banned TikTok on all government-issued devices, citing an “unacceptable” security risk to privacy and security. TikTok is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, which has drawn scrutiny from around the world.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Gizmodo ☛ BBC Removes Sabrina Carpenter’s Raunchy Freestyle From YouTube Clip

    The BBC apparently isn’t a fan of porn puns, especially ones that pertain to its own name. A live performance by Sabrina Carpenter was cut a tiny bit shorter after it was uploaded to YouTube, removing the singer’s riff at the very end that refers to an obvious sexual innuendo.

  • Michel Alexandre Salim ☛ Goodbye New York Times: your TERF transphobia is one step too far

    Dear NYT,

    Because of your repeated transphobia and your doubling down by silencing your internal critics, I can no longer support your publication.

    I tolerated you continuously giving the anti-choice Douthat a platform, or Dowd’s anti-Clinton hatred and your biased coverage in 2016 contributing to the decline of US democracy (that you never did a mea culpa on) … but now you are just ganging up against one of the most vulnerable groups in our society, and showing your own illiberalism in doing so.

  • Off Guardian ☛ WATCH: Canada Criminalizes Dissent

    The freedom convoy commission has delivered its verdict: dissent is now illegal whenever the government declares it so! Find out about the commission’s final report and what it means for Canadians and freedom lovers the world over on this important edition of The Corbett Report.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Journalists failing in their AI chatbot reporting

    Let’s do an experiment! I’m going to quote an article in the popular press about a chatbot, and we’ll see if anything sounds weird. We’ll start under the subtitle How does $CHATBOT work?:

    $CHATBOT was trained in writing that already exists on the internet up to the year 2021. When you type in your question or prompt, it reacts with lightning speed.

    The journalist can’t even write a factual sentence without immediate embellishment. Ruben is a handsome, well-respected genius who’s wit and modesty are matched only by the delightful freshness imparted by his regular bathing regime and impeccable aftershave choices. AI clearly stands for awesome-smelling individual.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Sterk leaves Atlanta Police Foundation Board of Trustees, University denies connections following Cop City protests

    Former Emory University President and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Public Health Claire Sterk is no longer a member of the Atlanta Police Foundation Board of Trustees as of Feb. 7. Her departure follows pressure from an open letter —spearheaded by public health students and professionals — released on Feb. 5 calling for her resignation. 

  • Digital Music News ☛ YouTube Music Staffers Face Harassment Allegations As Strike Enters Third Week: ‘They’re Trying to Smear Low-Wage Workers’

    The third week of the YouTube Music strike is in full swing, and around 40 team members (contracted by Cognizant) are continuing to speak out against a return-to-office order that they say violates the terms of their employment.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • James G ☛ IndieWeb Principles Poster

    The rain outside here in San Francisco is unyielding. This is perhaps a sign that I should let my feet rest after two long days of walking outdoors. While the rain falls, I have taken an opportunity to do a bit of writing and design. I decided to make a poster that shows the IndieWeb principles.

  • AccessNow ☛ Human rights organizations and associations call for the Tunisian government to postpone the launch of digital platform for subsidies compensation

    The undersigned organizations and associations call on the Tunisian government to postpone launching a digital platform for subsidies compensation.

• Monopolies

  • Digital Music News ☛ U.S. Senators Klobuchar, Lee Urge DOJ Action Against Ticketmaster, Live Nation After Judiciary Hearings

    U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) are calling for the Department of Justice to continue investigating Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s anti-competitive practices. In a bipartisan letter after the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, both Senators urge the DOJ to take action.

  • Trademarks

    • Quartz ☛ Nokia is changing its logo to move away from its mobile manufacturer image

  • Copyrights

    • Michael Geist ☛ The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 157: Stephen Spong on the “Goblin Mode Gaslighting” of Canadian Copyright and Fair Dealing

      Last week was Fair Dealing Week, a chance for a wide range of Canadians – educators, students, librarians, archivists, and creators – to celebrate the important role that fair dealing plays in facilitating both fair access and fair compensation to copyrighted works. I ran a series of posts on Canadian education, fair dealing and copyright that will continue into the coming week.

    • Digital Music News ☛ Musicians’ Union Announces ‘Milestone’ Recording and Broadcasting Agreements With the BBC, Sky, and Others

      London’s Musicians’ Union has announced the completion of a “significant round” of collective bargaining negotiations with the BBC, Sky, and others, which it says will deliver “meaningful pay increases” to its approximately 32,000 members in the approaching years.

    • Digital Music News ☛ U.S. Copyright Office Seeks Comments on Late Fees for Mechanical Royalty Payments

      The US Copyright Office issues a notification of inquiry soliciting public comments on late fees for mechanical royalty payments under the Music Modernization Act. The US Copyright Office is asking for public feedback on digital music royalty late fees and whether it should consider revising the current system.

Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal

  • deluge

    There’s a deluge outside my apartment’s window. My cat and I both are enjoying it.
    I’ve always liked a nice rain, and today’s is particularly heavy. I can tell by the way it washes off the nearest streetlamp, flooding the cap at the light’s top which was designed to withstand this much a torrent, but none more. I suppose the cat and I are easily captivated by the mundane in the same way.

• Technical

  • Lists, renders, submissions, and Smol talk

    Continuing the conversation around Ctrl-ZINE, I have made more progress with the assembly of Issue.1.

    First, I made an 11-point list of topics/suggestions that people can take “queue” from in regards to *what* should be submitted, but additional topics and suggestions are welcome, and are welcome for submission. Tech-oriented content is what this zine is going for, but it’s not set in stone.