Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 28/02/2023: qBittorrent 4.5.2 and Godot 4.0 RC 6



  • GNU/Linux

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • HackadayMorphOS: 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.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • OpenSource.comDelegate 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.

    • Medevel10 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

        • MozillaMozilla 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.OrgMike 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 HahnThe 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 EngineRelease 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 PieperUART 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 QuirkMy 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

        • Rakulang2023.09 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

    • Standards/Consortia

      • DEV CommunityBilly 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

    • QuartzShould 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 DiplomacyHow 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 SchadeA 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.comEssential 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

    • Education

      • Mexico News DailyUniversity 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.

      • ButtondownTeaching 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 SchadeDaniel 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 SoftwareUP 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

    • Security

      • NVISO LabsOneNote 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 WeekLastPass 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 WeekCyberattack 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 WeekQNAP 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 WeekMedia 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 LangeDaniel 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 LangeDaniel 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 SwiggerPassword 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 SwiggerChromium bug allowed SameSite cookie bypass on Android devices

        Protections against cross-site request forgery could be bypassed

      • Silicon AngleNews 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 AngleLockBit 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 GroupCISA 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 Breaches553 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 RecordDanish 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 NewsThousands 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.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Federal News NetworkUN 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.

      • AntiWarNine 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.

      • AntiWarWhat 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.

      • AntiWarUkraine: 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 WeekUS 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 WeekUS 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.

      • GizmodoThe 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 DiplomacyFour 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.

      • NYPostBiden needs to step up military aid for Ukraine — fast

        Does President Joe Biden truly want to end the war in Ukraine?

      • Defence WebFATF 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

      • Energy/Transportation

        • Trail Of BitsReusable 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.

        • QuartzSouth 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.

        • LatviaSolar 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.

        • GizmodoWhen 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 StanfordWill 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

    • Finance

      • QuartzTwitter 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.

      • GizmodoElon 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.

      • LatviaConstruction 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 NetworkTesla 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.

      • GizmodoTesla 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.

      • ReasonNow 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 AngleWeak 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

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • GizmodoBBC 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 SalimGoodbye 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 GuardianWATCH: 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 SchadeJournalists 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

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • Monopolies

  • 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.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft's Bing Falls to Fourth in the Europe/Asia-Based Turkey, Share Halved Since LLM Hype, Now Only 1% (Sometimes Less)
Turkey (Eurasia) is another example of Microsoft failing with LLM hype and just burning a lot of energy in vain (investment without returns)
Backlash and Negative Press After Microsoft Tells Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) People to DIE
Follow-up stories
Censorship as Signal of Opportunity for Reform
It remains sad and ironic that Wikileaks outsourced so much of its official communications to Twitter (now X)
The World Wide Web Has Been Rotting for Years (Quality, Accuracy, and Depth Consistently Decreasing)
In the past people said that the Web had both "good" and "bad" and that the good outweighed the bad
Comoros: Windows Plunges to Record Low of About 6% in Country of a Million People (in 2010 Windows Was 100%)
Many of these people earn a few dollars a day; they don't care for Microsoft's "Hey Hi PC" hype
The Mail (MX) Server Survey for July 2024 Shows Microsoft Collapsing to Only 689 Servers or 0.17% of the Whole (It Used to be About 25%)
Microsoft became so insignificant and the most astounding thing is how the media deliberate ignores it or refuses to cover it
Windows Down From 98.5% to 22.9% in Hungary
Android is up because more people buy smaller mobile devices than laptops
Microsoft Windows in Algeria: From 100% to Less Than 15%
Notice that not too long ago Windows was measured at 100%. Now? Not even 15%.
Microsoft Windows "Market Share" in New Zealand Plunges to 25%
Android rising
SUSE Goes Aryan: You May Not Use the Germanic Brand Anymore (It's Monopolised by the Corporation)
Worse than grammar Nazis
Gratis But Not Free as in Freedom: How Let's Encrypt is Dying in Geminispace
Let's Encrypt is somewhat of a dying breed where the misguided CA model is shunned
 
Fedora Week of Diversity (FWD) 2024 Attracting 0.01% of the IBM Staff "Was a Success"
They expect volunteers (unpaid slaves) to do the PR for them...
African's Largest Population (Nigeria) Approaching 80% Android "Market Share" Amid Steady Monthly Increases While Microsoft Has Mass Layoffs in Nigeria
Microsoft- and Apple-sponsored Western (or English-speaking) media chooses to ignore that or treat it as irrelevant (a racist disposition in its own right)
[Meme] The Warlord's Catspaw
Thugs that troll us
Microsoft Misogyny Will be the Fall of Microsoft (Covering Up for Misogynists is a Huge Mistake and Highly Misguided Short-term Strategy)
Microsoft's undoing may in fact be its attitude towards women
Red Hat Keeps Behaving Like a Microsoft Reseller (for Proprietary Stuff!), Microsoft Employees as Authors in redhat.com
In some ways this reminds us of Novell
UEFI 'Secure Boot' Once Again Bricking PCs and Fake Security Models Are Perishing in Geminispace
Let's Encrypt has just fallen again
Links 17/07/2024: New Attacks on the Press, European Patents Squashed Even at Kangaroo Court (UPC)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/07/2024: Proponents of Censorship and New Arrivals at Gemini
Links for the day
Links 17/07/2024: School Budget Meltdown and Modern Cars as Tracking Nightmares
Links for the day
This Should Certainly be Illegal, But the Person Who Helped Microsoft Do This is Still Attacking the Critics of It
perhaps time for an "I told you so post"
[Meme] A Computer With an Extra Key on the Keyboard Isn't Everyone's Priority
(so your telling me meme)
Africa as an Important Reminder That Eradicating Microsoft Doesn't Go Far Enough
Ideally, if our top goal is bigger than "get rid of Microsoft", we need to teach people to choose and use devices that obey them, not GAFAM
Billions of Computers Run Linux and Many Use Debian (or a Derivative of It)
many devices never get updated or even communicate with the Net, so exhaustive tallies are infeasible
[Meme] Microsoft is Firing
Don't worry, Microsoft will have some new vapourware coming soon
More DEI (or Similar) Layoffs on the Way, According to Microsoft Team Leader
What happened shortly before Independence Day wasn't the end of it, apparently
[Meme] Many Volunteers Now Realise the "Open" in "OpenSUSE" or "openSUSE" Was Labour-Mining
Back to coding, packaging and testing, slaves
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 16, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 16, 2024
[Meme] Ein Factory
A choice between "masters" (or "master race") is a false choice that results in mass exploitation and ultimately eradication (when there's little left to exploit)
Links 17/07/2024: Open Source Initiative Lies and Dark Net Thoughts
Links for the day
Media Distorting Truth to Promote Ignorance
online media is rapidly collapsing
Android Rises to New Highs of Almost 80% in Cameroon
How many dozens of nations will see Windows at under 10% this coming winter?
Links 16/07/2024: TikTok Ban in Europe and Yandex Split
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/07/2024: On Packrafting and on Trump Shot
Links for the day
[Meme] Firefox Users Who Think They Know Better Than Mozilla
Enjoy Firebook
Firefox Used to Have About Half the Market in Switzerland, But It Doesn't Stand a Chance Anymore (Chrome Surging This Summer)
Mozilla has managed to alienate some of the biggest fans of Firefox
Microsoft's Biggest Losses Are in Europe This Summer
Microsoft's ability to milk a relatively rich Europe is fast diminishing
How to Make Software Suck and Discriminate Against People at the Same Time
ageism glorified
Bing Was at 2.6% in Russia When LLM Hype Started. Now It's Down to 0.8% (for 3 Months in a Row Already)
The sharp fall of Bing may mean that exiting the Russian market won't matter to anybody
[Meme] Microsoft Seems to be Failing to Comply With WARN Act (by Refusing to Announce Mass Layoffs as They Happen)
since when does Microsoft obey the law anyway?
Microsoft Layoffs Are Still Too Frequent to Keep Abreast of and Properly (or Exhaustively) Classify
The "HR" department knows what's happening, but whistleblowers from there are rare
Bahamas Joined the "5% Windows" Club
statCounter only traces back about 1 in 20 Web requests to Windows
Links 16/07/2024: Salesforce Layoffs and Microsoft's DMARC Fail
Links for the day
Antenna Abuse and Gemini Abuse (Self-hosting Perils)
Perhaps all this junk is a sign of Gemini growing up
Possibly Worse Than Bribes: US Politicians and Lawmakers Who Are Microsoft Shareholders
They will keep bailing out Microsoft to bail themselves out
The Software Freedom Conservancy Folks Don't Even Believe in Free Speech and They Act As Imposters (Also in the Trademark Arena/Sense)
Software Freedom Conservancy was already establishing a reputation for itself as a G(I)AFAM censor/gatekeeper
Djibouti Enters the Windows "10% Club" (Windows Was 99% in 2010)
In Africa in general Microsoft lost control
GNU/Linux Share Doubled in the United States of America (USA) in the Past 12 Months
Or so says statCounter
Even in North Korea (Democratic People's Republic Of Korea) Google Said to Dominate, Microsoft Around 1%
Google at 93.26%
[Meme] The Red Bait (Embrace... Extinguish)
They set centos on fire, then offer a (de facto) proprietary substitute for a fee
Shooting the Messenger to Spite the Message
segment of a Noam Chomsky talk
[Video] Boston Area Assange Defense (Yesterday)
It was published only hours ago
Guinea: Windows Down From 99.3% to 2.7% 'Market Share'
Guinea is not a small country
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 15, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, July 15, 2024
What's Meant by "Antenna Abuse" (Gemini)
syndication is not a monopoly in Gemini and if one doesn't condone political censorship, then one can create one's own syndication service/capsule
Microsoft Layoffs and Entire Unit Termination: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
What an announcement to make just before Independence Day
Links 16/07/2024: Old Computer Challenge and One Page Dungeon Contest
Links for the day
Microsoft Falls Further and Closer Towards 10% (Windows "Market Share") in Kuwait
more countries entering the "single-digit Windows" (under 10%) club
Gemini Links 15/07/2024: Antenna's Pro-Hamas Bias Revisited and Old Computer Challenge
Links for the day
[Video] Julian Assange, Over One Decade Ago, Cautioning About What the Internet Had Truly Become
video is not new
Homage to Malta
Malta is probably easy for Microsoft to bribe
IRC at 16
Logging has been used for us and against us
In Malta, Android/Linux Has Overtaken Microsoft Windows (According to statCounter)
statCounter milestone?
Links 15/07/2024: China’s Economic Problems, Boeing Under Fire
Links for the day
500 Days' Uptime Very Soon
Good luck doing that with Windows...
Windows Falls Below 20% in Tunisia
A month ago we wrote about GNU/Linux in Tunisia
Links 15/07/2024: Google Wants Wiz and Why "Sports Ruin Everything"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2024: Old Computer Challenge and Sending Files via NNCP
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 14, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, July 14, 2024