03.25.23

GNU/Linux

• Desktop/Laptop

  • CNX Software ☛ Framework modular laptop adds Intel Raptor Lake, AMD Ryzen motherboards, 16-inch laptop frame

    When we first covered the Framework modular laptop in 2021 it came with a choice of 11th generation Intel Tiger Lake Core processors, up to 64GB RAM, up to 4TB SSD storage, a 13.5-inch display, a Full HD webcam, and a 55Wh battery. Modular electronic devices have been worked on by several companies over the years, but such endeavors usually result in failure due to costs and other difficulties.

• Server

  • The New Stack ☛ Catching up with the Founder and CEO of Portainer

    Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting the CEO and founder of Portainer, Neil Cresswell.

• Applications

  • TecMint ☛ 10 Best Open Source Note-Taking Apps for Linux

    A note-taking app allows you to record notes on the go, whether you are in class or studying, reading somewhere, at work, or in a meeting. There are so many note-taking apps you can install and use on Linux systems.

    In this article, we will review the 10 best open-source note-taking applications you can use on Linux systems.

  • Trend Oceans ☛ Sniffnet: Application to Comfortably Monitor your Network Traffic

    Sniffnet is a great tool to use if you want to easily keep an eye on network traffic.

    It has a simple GUI interface that lets you filter the network based on the application’s protocol and sends you an alert when a set threshold limit is reached.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • FOSSLinux ☛ Installing and configuring Python in Linux Mint

    In this guide, we will provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to customize the Tmux status bar in Linux. We will cover the basic syntax of Tmux status bar configuration, as well as some practical examples to demonstrate how to add, remove, and rearrange components. We will also explore some popular Tmux plugins for further customization.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Upgrade Python Pip Packages in Linux

    Pip is a widely used package installer and manager for Python projects, and it enables you to install, update, and manage packages efficiently.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Perl on Rocky Linux 9 or 8

    Perl is a powerful and flexible programming language often used for text manipulation, web development, and system administration tasks. As a high-level language, it has a rich set of features that make it an excellent choice for various applications.

  • FOSSLinux ☛ Customizing the Tmux status bar in Linux

    In this guide, we will provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to customize the Tmux status bar in Linux. We will cover the basic syntax of Tmux status bar configuration, as well as some practical examples to demonstrate how to add, remove, and rearrange components. We will also explore some popular Tmux plugins for further customization.

  • FOSSLinux ☛ Tmux copy-paste mode tips and tricks for productivity

    In this guide, we will explore various tips and tricks for using Tmux’s copy-paste mode, including how to navigate between panes and windows, how to copy text to the clipboard, and how to paste text from the clipboard back into the terminal.

  • Real Linux User ☛ Quick Fix – How to solve Unable to update Snap Store in Ubuntu

  • FOSSLinux ☛ The guide to mastering cron jobs in Linux Mint

    In this guide, we will provide a comprehensive overview of configuring and managing cron jobs in Linux Mint. We will cover the syntax of cron expressions, how to schedule jobs, how to edit and delete existing jobs, and how to troubleshoot common issues. We will also explore some practical examples of using cron to automate routine tasks.

  • FOSSLinux ☛ A step-by-step guide to creating custom Tmux key bindings

    In this guide, we will explore the process of creating custom key bindings in Tmux, a powerful terminal multiplexer. You will learn how to map your preferred key combinations to Tmux commands, allowing you to perform tasks more efficiently.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Fail2Ban on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04

    Fail2Ban is an open-source, widely-used intrusion prevention software that helps to protect servers from unauthorized access attempts and brute force attacks. It works by analyzing log files and banning IP addresses that exhibit malicious behavior, such as too many failed login attempts.

  • Linux Capable ☛ Nginx Custom Fail2ban Filters and Jails: 10 Examples

    Nginx is a widely recognized web server and reverse proxy server, renowned for its exceptional performance, stability, and efficient resource utilization. It is extensively employed for serving web applications, load balancing traffic, and enhancing website performance.

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ 2023-03-20How to install DataGrip on Linux Lite 6.2

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ 2023-03-21How to install Discord on Linux Lite 6.2

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ 2023-03-23How to install FreeOffice on Linux Lite 6.2

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ 2023-03-20How to install DataGrip on Linux Lite 6.2

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ 2023-03-20How to install The Mixed Island on a Chromebook

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install WonderCMS with Nginx on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04

    WonderCMS is a fast, lightweight, and efficient content management system (CMS) that simplifies website creation and maintenance. Its user-friendly interface, combined with robust features, makes it an ideal choice for users who are looking for a hassle-free way to manage their web content.

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ 2023-03-22How to install Ghostery Dawn on a Chromebook in 2023

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ 2023-03-21How to install Gnome Mahjongg on a Chromebook

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ 2023-03-22How to install Inkscape on Linux Lite 6.2

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ 2023-03-20How to install The Mixed Island on a Chromebook

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ 2023-03-23How to install Pinta on a Chromebook in 2023

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

    UNRAR is a powerful, versatile, and widely-used tool designed for extracting files from RAR archives. RAR, which stands for Roshal Archive, is a proprietary archive file format developed by Eugene Roshal.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Kate Text Editor on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04

    Kate – KDE Advanced Text Editor – is a powerful, open-source text editor designed for developers and programmers, offering a wide array of features for handling and manipulating text files.

  • How to detect devices connected to my LAN?

    Port Authority is an excellent and fast tool for Android that allows you to detect devices connected to your Local Area Network and scan its ports

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install VMware Workstation on Debian 11

    In this tutorial, we will show you how to install VMware Workstation on Debian 11.

  • TecAdmin ☛ How to check if a file does not exist in Bash

    Bash, or the Bourne Again SHell, is a popular Unix shell used for scripting and automating tasks in Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like systems. One common task in Bash scripting is checking whether a file does not exist.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install Docker on Fedora 37

    In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Docker on Fedora 37. As a powerful and versatile containerization platform, Docker has revolutionized the way software is developed and deployed.

  • 2023-03-24Changing the data directory in MySQL

  • 2023-03-24Configuring the MySQL Parameters

  • 2023-03-24MySQL Configuration Using Global and Session Variables

  • 2023-03-24Using parameters with MySQL startup script

  • 2023-03-24How to Use the MySQL Config File for Configuration

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

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

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install Zoom on Rocky Linux 9

    In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Zoom on Rocky Linux 9. In the current era of remote work and virtual communication, video conferencing has become an essential part of our lives.

  • TecAdmin ☛ How to Clone All Remote Branches in Git Repository

    Git is an essential tool for developers, enabling efficient code versioning, management, and collaboration. One of the core functionalities of Git is the ability to clone remote repositories to your local machine.

  • TecAdmin ☛ Setting Up Redis for PHP Session Storage on Linux

    Redis is an in-memory data structure store, widely used as a database, cache, and message broker. It is particularly useful for managing PHP sessions due to its high performance, low latency, and data persistence capabilities.

  • TecAdmin ☛ Top 10 JQ Commands Every Linux Developer Should Know

    JQ is a versatile command-line JSON processor for Linux that allows developers to parse, filter, and transform JSON data quickly and efficiently. Its powerful features make it an indispensable tool for anyone working with JSON files on Linux systems.

  • TecAdmin ☛ Practical Examples of JSON Processing with JQ in Linux

    JQ is a powerful and flexible command-line JSON processor for Linux, designed to parse, filter, and transform JSON data. Its lightweight nature and speed make it an essential tool for developers working with JSON files.

  • TecAdmin ☛ Pushing new local branches to remote git repositories

    Git is an essential tool for developers, enabling efficient code versioning, management, and collaboration. One of the key aspects of working with Git is sharing local branches with remote repositories, allowing multiple team members to contribute to the same project.

  • Trend Oceans ☛ Status Resolved ERROR: 2002 (HY000): Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket

    It is very frustrating when you see this ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket on your terminal when you try to open MySQL.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ Install iRedMail on Ubuntu 22.04

    Hello, friends. Today in this post, you will learn how to install iRedMail on Ubuntu 22.04 With iRedMail, you can deploy an OPEN SOURCE, FULLY FLEDGED, FULL-FEATURED mail server in several minutes, for free. iRedMail is a tool that allows you to quickly deploy a fully open-source mail server.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• LinuxStans ☛ 2023-03-24A Distro-Hopper’s Guide to Hacking on Linux for Beginners

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • Ubuntu Handbook ☛ Ubuntu 20.04.6 Released! Fix Secure Boot & Integrate Ubuntu Pro

    The Ubuntu team announced the 6th point release for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. According to the release note, Ubuntu 20.04.6 fixed the Secure Boot issue for the amd64 installer: Unlike previous point releases, 20.04.6 is a refresh of the amd64 installer media after recent key revocations, re-enabling their usage on Secure Boot enabled systems.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Linux Gizmos ☛ SparkFun Thing Plus module supports Bluetooth 5 Low Energy

    The SparkFun Thing Plus NINA-B306 is a compact embedded device optimized for portable and wireless applications. This product is enabled with BLE 5.0 connectivity and it features a MicroSD card slot, 6-DoF IMU, an Environmental sensor and LiPo battery management.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Hackaday ☛ Dead Raspberry Pi Boards, PMICs, And New Hope

    Since the Raspberry Pi 3B+ release, the Pi boards we all know and love gained one more weakpoint – the PMIC chip, responsible for generating all the power rails a Pi needs. Specifically, the new PMIC was way more vulnerable to shorting 5V and 3.3V power rails together – something that’s trivial to do on a Raspberry Pi, and would leave you with a bricked board. Just replacing the PMIC chip, the MxL7704, wouldn’t help since the Raspberry Pi version of this chip is customized – but now, on Raspberry Pi forums, [Nefarious19] has reportedly managed to replace it and revive their Pi.

  • Hackaday ☛ The Keychain 6809

    When you think of tiny microcontroller boards, you probably think of a modern surface mount processor. Not [Andreas Jakob]. His 5×5 cm keychain computer rocks a 6809 CPU at a blistering 1 MHz or, if you prefer, a 6309 that runs at 5 MHz. The RAM — all 32K — is in a SMD package to make it fit, but the board also sports a 27C256 EPROM which means that chip and the CPU take up most of the PCB.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Android Authority ☛ 5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week – Android Apps Weekly

  • The Sun ☛ Billions of Android users urged to check hidden app settings – look for ‘red alert’ signs as soon as possible | The US Sun

  • Android Authority ☛ Why can’t I sync blocked numbers to a new Android phone?

  • HowTo Geek ☛ How to Turn On or Off the Always On Display for Android

  • SlashGear ☛ How To Clear The Google Maps App Cache On Your Android Phone

  • SlashGear ☛ How To Disable App Notifications On Your Android Phone

  • Notebook Check ☛ Nubia Pad 3D: Pre-orders open for new Android tablet with innovative 3D display – NotebookCheck.net News

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

  • Hackaday ☛ Enjoy An Open-Source Espresso

    One of the core principles of the open-source movement is that anyone who wants to build on a piece of work, in whatever way they want, is easily able to. With source code freely available, the original project can be expanded upon, modified, updated, or simply looked at and used as inspiration. Usually we think about this in the realm of software freedom, but hardware is an important component as well. And not just electronics hardware, either. [Norm] demonstrates this espresso machine which was built on these open-source foundations.

Leftovers

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ 2023-03-21Rare Cosmic Event Will See 5 Planets Align in The Sky. Here’s How to Watch.

• Education

  • Hackaday ☛ Plan To Jam Mobile Phones In Schools Is Madness

    Mobile phones in schools. If you’re a teacher, school staffer, or a parent, you’ve likely got six hundred opinions about this very topic, and you will have had six hundred arguments about it this week. In Australia, push has come to shove, and several states have banned the use of mobile phones during school hours entirely. Others are contemplating doing the same.

• Hardware

  • New York Times ☛ Gordon E. Moore, the Intel Co-Founder Behind Moore’s Law, Dies at 94

    His prediction in the 1960s about exponential advances in computer chip technology set a course for the age of high tech.

  • Hackaday ☛ Digitizing Sound On An Unmodified Sinclair ZX81

    Whatever the first computer you used to manipulate digital audio was, the chances are it came with dedicated sound hardware that could play, and probably record, digitized audio. Perhaps it might have been a Commodore Amiga, or maybe a PC with a Sound Blaster. If you happen to be [NICKMANN] though, you can lay claim to the honor of doing so on a machine with no such hardware, because he managed it on an unmodified Sinclair ZX81.

  • Hackaday ☛ Glowscope Reduces Microscope Cost By Orders Of Magnitude

    As smartphones become more ubiquitous in society, they are being used in plenty of ways not imaginable even ten or fifteen years ago. Using its sensors to gather LIDAR information, its GPS to get directions, its microphone to instantly translate languages, or even use its WiFi and cellular radios to establish a wireless hotspot are all things which would have taken specialized hardware not more than two decades ago. The latest disruption may be in microscopy, as this build demonstrates a microscope that would otherwise be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The GOP was the antivax party before Ron DeSantis, but now he’s turbocharged its resistance

    Earlier this week, Vanity Fair published and article by Katherine Egan entitled Inside Ron DeSantis’s Plan to Ride Anti-vaxxism to the White House. I was inspired, if you will, to use this story as a starting point for today’s post because, while it didn’t report anything that I didn’t already know about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his embrace of antivax politics, it was nonetheless alarming for a couple of reasons. First, it represents what I see as the cementing of resistance to public health interventions, including vaccines, as key element that is part of the Republican Party’s identity now. Second, the story seems to lack a sense of history, treating this development not as the predictable result of a process dating back at least to 2010 or so, but as some new phenomenon that’s occurred since the pandemic. It’s not. I’ll start with the blurb after the title:

  • The Nation ☛ The Anti-Vax Movement and the Medical Freedom Hustle

    In December 2021, Francis Collins, the outgoing head of the $45 billion federal National Institutes of Health declared himself utterly flummoxed. “I never imagined,” the walrus-whiskered Collins told PBS, “a year ago…that we would still have 60 million people” resisting vaccines. This article has been adapted from Matt Hongoltz-Hetling’s If It Sounds Like a Quack…: A Journey to the Fringes of American Medicine. Copyright © 2023. Available from PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group.

  • New York Times ☛ Utah Law Could Curb Use of TikTok and Instagram by Children and Teens

    The law, which prohibits social networks from allowing minors to have accounts without parental consent, may come as welcome news to many families even as it raises privacy concerns.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Senate Dems Blast Medicare Advantage Giants Over ‘Exorbitant’ CEO Pay

    Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley are calling attention to the massive profits and “exorbitant” executive salaries of top Medicare Advantage insurers such as UnitedHealthcare and Humana, which are leading a lobbying blitz against efforts to combat widespread fraud in the privately run healthcare program.

• Security

  • Scoop News Group ☛ The FBI’s BreachForums bust is causing ‘chaos in the cybercrime underground’

    The dramatic fall of one of the preeminent cybercrime communities on the web will have major implications for the cybercrime markets.

  • Michael West Media ☛ It’s a bot-eat-bot world as cyber criminals go hi-tech

    So-called deepfakes are being used to manipulate voters, launch business scams or even generate fake pornography to harass and extort.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Democracy Now ☛ The Candidate and the Spy: James Bamford on Israel’s Secret Collusion with Trump to Win 2016 Race

      In his new book, Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence, investigative journalist James Bamford reveals that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dispatched a secret Israeli agent to the United States in the spring of 2016 to help Donald Trump win the presidential election. The agent met with advisers to Trump and offered to share secret intelligence with the campaign against Hillary Clinton. Bamford’s investigation finds that while American media fixated on Russia’s role in swaying the 2016 election, Israeli interference was completely ignored. He joins us from Washington, D.C., for more on what’s been uncovered during his investigation. “The Israelis got what they wanted, and Trump got what he wanted, and the American public was screwed in the meantime,” Bamford says.

• Defence/Aggression

  • FAIR ☛ Norman Solomon on the Iraq Invasion, 20 Years Later

  • Meduza ☛ Russia accuses Slovakia of violating a bilateral agreement by sending fighter jets to Ukraine — Meduza

    Russia’s Federal Service of Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) says that Slovakia took an “unfriendly step” toward Russia and violated its international obligations when it supplied Ukraine with MiG-29 fighter jets.

  • Meduza ☛ Imprisoned rocket scientist offers expert help to Russian military — Meduza

    A pardons commission in Russia’s Tula region has recommended granting a clemency petition submitted by a rocket scientist now serving a sentence in one of the region’s penal colonies.

  • Meduza ☛ No to war-themed commercial branding The likes of Heroic Bucha Kombucha, Azovstal radish varietal, and Heroes Don’t Die beer may have to leave the market as Ukraine’s legislators seek a ban — Meduza

    A group of Verkhovna Rada legislators has proposed a bill to ban war-themed commercial branding in Ukraine.

  • Meduza ☛ Moscow opposition politician Elvira Vikhareva reports she was poisoned with heavy metal salts — Meduza

    Moscow opposition politician Elvira Vikhareva was poisoned by heavy metal salts several months ago, the Russian outlet Sova reported on Friday, citing lab tests that Vikhareva underwent after she started experiencing symptoms.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Emerging From the Bomb Shelter: My Life at World’s End

    Indulge me for a moment. This is how “The Prophecy” in my 1962 high school yearbook began. It was written by some of my classmates in the year we graduated from Friends Seminary in New York City.

  • FAIR ☛ ‘People Have Been Protesting Against Cop City Since We Found Out About It’

    Janine Jackson interviewed Community Movement Builders’ Kamau Franklin about the fight against Cop City for the March 17, 2023, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Trump Warns of ‘Death and Destruction’ If He’s Indicted

    Government watchdogs on Friday said former President Donald Trump has potentially placed himself in even more legal jeopardyafter he threatened violence if he’s charged in a criminal case in New York.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Putin Is a War Criminal. Full Stop. And So Are Many US Leaders Never Held to Account

    It’s true – Russian president Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. As I wrote when the conflict with Ukraine began: “the attack on Ukraine was a clear violation of international law, and there is absolutely no excuse for this invasion.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ Congress, Do Your Job, End US Support for the War in Yemen

    Having just observed the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, the United States Senate is currently considering S. 316, a bill sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) to repeal the anachronistic Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq, which date to 1991 and 2002. This action is long overdue, and part of a recent effort by Congress to reclaim its constitutional authority over matters of war and peace. The Biden Administration supports the measure, which is significant as Joe Biden, as a US Senator, voted for the 2002 AUMF, while he opposed the 1991 measure.

  • Common Dreams ☛ US Bombs Syria Two Weeks After House Voted Against Withdrawing Troops

    The U.S. launched airstrikes in Syria on Thursday after one American contractor was killed and five service members were injured in an attack by a drone that the Pentagon claims was of “Iranian origin.”

  • Meduza ☛ ‘Pure looting, thievery, and banditry’ Russia has seized roughly 1,000 businesses in Ukraine’s annexed regions, new investigation finds — Meduza

    Journalists from Novaya Gazeta Europe have discovered 1,150 companies on Ukraine’s annexed territories that are registered with the Russian government.

  • Defence Web ☛ Kenya, Uganda strengthen defence ties

    Senior officers from the Kenyan and Ugandan defence forces met in Nairobi this week to further cement “engagement and collaboration as partners seeking sustainable security solutions”. The two-day joint defence committee (JDC) meeting follows last year’s signing of a defence co-operation agreement.

  • LRT ☛ Lithuania-Belarus border now 100-percent surveilled – ministry

    Lithuania’s entire border with Belarus is now covered by surveillance systems, the Interior Ministry said on Friday, adding that the next step is to set up a patrol trail, with 20 million euros in EU funding sought for the project.

  • Mint Press News ☛ Iran International: Inside the “Saudi-Funded” Network Promoting Regime Change in Iran

    Iran International: Alan Macleod reveals how a network of Western and Saudi interests converged to create the ultimate propaganda tool in a failed bid to overthrow the government of Iran.

  • New York Times ☛ Daniel Ellsberg, the Man Who Leaked the Pentagon Papers, Is Scared

    The whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg has never run out of secrets.

• Environment

  • Common Dreams ☛ UK Lawyers Sign ‘Declaration of Conscience’ Not to Prosecute Peaceful Climate Protesters

    More than 120 mostly English lawyers on Friday published a “declaration of conscience” pledging to withhold their services from “supporting new fossil fuel projects” and “action against climate protesters exercising their democratic right of peaceful protest.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ In Blow to Koch and Exxon, Federal Judges Say Minnesota Climate Suit Belongs in State Court

    Minnesota on Thursday scored a significant procedural win in a lawsuit seeking to hold Big Oil accountable for lying to consumers about the dangers of burning fossil fuels and thus worsening the deadly climate crisis.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Minnesota Nuclear Plant Shuts Down After New Leak Near Mississippi River

    The operator of a Minnesota nuclear power plant said the facility would be taken offline Friday to repair a new leak near the Mississippi River, an announcement that came a week after the company and state officials belatedly acknowledged a separate leak that occurred in November.

  • Meduza ☛ Kremlin to skip annual Earth Hour campaign after World Wildlife Fund named ‘foreign agent’ — Meduza

    The Kremlin will not take part in this year’s Earth Hour, an annual environmental awareness campaign sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in which participants around the world turn off the lights for one hour, according to the Russian state news outlet Interfax.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Michael West Media ☛ Cost of diesel stubbornly high as war ratchets up price

      Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is partly to blame for inflated diesel prices, which have soared beyond the cost of regular petrol. The price of diesel remained significantly higher than petrol in the December quarter of 2022, with supplies reduced from Russia as well as from France because of refinery strikes.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ A Hidden Threat to Bats: Hunting

    • Common Dreams ☛ Entire Towns Evacuated as Climate-Fueled Wildfires Start ‘Very Early’ in Spain

      A large wildfire raging in Spain’s eastern Valencia region forced more than 1,500 people to flee their homes on Friday, providing further evidence of life-threatening consequences of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis and bolstering the case for meaningful mitigation efforts.

• Finance

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘No One’s… Having Fun’: Surveys Show Soaring US Economic Pessimism

    A pair of polls published Friday revealed that the rising cost of living is causing financial strain for most Americans—especially people with lower incomes—and that pessimism about the state and future of the country’s economy is pervasive and spreading.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Behind Trump’s Possible Arrest and the Latest Banking Crisis Lurks the Billionaire Oligarchy

    What connects the two biggest stories now dominating the news — Donald Trump’s likely arrest and the Fed’s bailouts of shaky banks?

  • Scheerpost ☛ Private Opulence and Public Squalor in the US

    The Federal Reserve is not working for the people but for wealthy individuals and corporations that can afford to have a say in the rules.

  • The Nation ☛ You Can’t Even Tell Who’s Rich Anymore

    One of the great disappointments of contemporary life is that in times of hopelessly vast income inequality, society’s arch-capitalists—and many very rich people in general—are boring. The zenith of their boringness? How they dress. Look, for example, at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg. Extremely rich guy. If you saw him on the street, walking around in a Patagonia vest and a quarter-zip pullover paired with chinos, you’d easily mistake him for one of your dad’s friends. Bill Gates dresses more like your friend’s granddad—khakis, long-sleeved rugby shirt, loafers. Elon Musk does that infuriating 2010s tech-guy thing where he pairs an ill-fitting blazer with a T-shirt and jeans. These men, when they wear suits, look like penguins, waddling around galas and red carpets completely ill at ease with themselves. It’s not just tech billionaires, either. If you flip through People, you’ll see ungodly rich actors and actresses being snapped in Nike sweatpants, Starbucks cups in hand.

  • Democracy Now ☛ “France Is Furious”: Anger Grows at Macron for Raising Retirement Age as Millions Strike & Protest

    French unions say nearly 3.5 million people took to the streets Thursday in a nationwide general strike to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply unpopular move to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Macron forced the legislation through the French National Assembly last week, using a constitutional clause to bypass a parliamentary vote. Macron’s government survived a vote of no confidence Monday by just nine votes, but public anger shows no signs of abating, with France’s major trade unions planning another nationwide protest for Tuesday. “Not only is the government trying to do this pension reform that people see as fundamentally unfair, but they’re ignoring historically large protests even by French standards,” says journalist Cole Stranger from Marseille. His new guest essay in The New York Times is headlined “France Is Furious.”

  • The Nation ☛ You Can’t Solve the Homelessness Crisis Without Housing

  • Michael West Media ☛ Deutsche Bank, UBS shares hammered amid banking fears

    Banking stocks have fallen sharply in Europe with heavyweights Deutsche Bank and UBS Group pummelled by worries the worst problems in the sector since the 2008 financial crisis have not yet been contained. Deutsche Bank fell for a third day, sinking more than 11 per cent

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Democracy Now ☛ Rep. Ro Khanna on Regulating Banks, TikTok, China, Ukraine & His Vote on the “Horrors of Socialism”

    We speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna about the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, regulating the banking sector, and how Federal Reserve interest rate hikes contributed to the banking crisis. Silicon Valley Bank was based in Khanna’s district in California, and he has criticized fellow Democrats who supported a 2018 bill that weakened oversight for some banks. “We need to regulate large regional banks the same way that we regulate the Big Four banks,” says Khanna. He also talks about growing concern from lawmakers about the social video app TikTok, the Biden administration’s policy on Taiwan and Ukraine, and more.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Twitter to revoke ‘legacy’ verified badges as Twitter Blue rolls out globally

    Twitter Inc. today announced that it will revoke “legacy” verified badges in April as it made its Twitter Blue paid verification service available globally.

  • Techdirt ☛ How Forcing TikTok To Completely Separate Its US Operations Could Actually Undermine National Security

    Back in August 2020, the Trump White House issued an executive order purporting to ban TikTok, citing national security concerns. The ban ultimately went nowhere — but not before TikTok and Oracle cobbled together “Project Texas” as an attempt to appease regulators’ privacy worries and keep TikTok available in the United States.

  • Techdirt ☛ Jim Jordan Weaponizes The Subcommittee On The Weaponization Of The Gov’t To Intimidate Researchers & Chill Speech

    As soon as it was announced, we warned that the new “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” (which Kevin McCarthy agreed to support to convince some Republicans to support his speakership bid) was going to be not just a clown show, but one that would, itself, be weaponized to suppress speech (the very thing it claimed it would be “investigating.”)

  • TruthOut ☛ WI Supreme Court Candidate Defends Campaigning With “Stop the Steal” Organizer

  • Press Gazette ☛ UK’s biggest online publishers in February 2023: Guardian and Future drop out of top 20 as Tiktok enters

    Press Gazette’s ranking of the biggest online publishers in the UK, using Ipsos iris data.

  • Press Gazette ☛ How and why digital publishers should consolidate their tech stacks

    How having fewer technology tools under one system can drive revenue and subscriptions.

  • New York Times ☛ There’s a Problem With Banning TikTok. It’s Called the First Amendment.

    American users of the social media platform are indisputably exercising their constitutional rights when they post and consume content on the site.

  • FAIR ☛ What Fox’s Bad Calls on Election Night 2020 Say About 2024

    The problems Fox News had on Election Night 2020 don’t bode well for the election of 2024.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Trump Rally in Waco Called Not a Dog Whistle, But a ‘Blaring Air Horn’ to Far-Right

    While former U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign insists it is purely coincidental that his planned Saturday rally in Waco, Texas falls during the 30th anniversary of a deadly 51-day siege targeting a religious cult, some Texans and extremism experts aren’t buying it.

  • Meduza ☛ Political scientist Abbas Gallyamov appears on Russia’s federal ‘wanted’ list — Meduza

    Russia’s Ministry of Internal affairs has put political scientist and consultant Abbas Gallyamov on the federal “wanted” list, reports Mediazona.

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Scorched-Earth Politics’: Indian MP Ousted, Sentenced to 2 Years Over Modi Insult

    Democracy defenders sounded the alarm Friday after senior Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was ousted from his parliamentary seat a day after being sentenced to two years in prison in a dubious defamation case involving an insult against the surname of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Whitmer Signs ‘Historic’ Workers Rights Bills Into Law in Michigan

    Workers’ rights advocates in Michigan on Friday applauded as Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a repeal of the state’s so-called “right-to-work” law and restored the prevailing wage standard for state-funded construction projects.

  • Techdirt ☛ Which Sucker Companies Are Going To Pay Elon Musk $1,000/Month To Get An Ugly Gold Badge?

    Elon Musk’s next big revenue bet is that companies really, really, really want to show up as “verified.” All evidence suggests that very few Twitter users are interested in paying Elon $8/month to constantly break the site or engage in ego-driven experiments that make the general experience worse.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Techdirt ☛ Utah’s Governor Live Streams Signing Of Unconstitutional Social Media Bill On All The Social Media Platforms He Hates

    On Thursday, Utah’s governor Spencer Cox officially signed into law two bills that seek to “protect the children” on the internet. He did with a signing ceremony that he chose to stream on nearly every social media platform, despite his assertions that those platforms are problematic.

  • Techdirt ☛ Man Loses Maine Vanity Plates Describing His Love For Bean Mush

    It’s absolutely stupid just how often we’ve had to write about issues surrounding license plates. For convoluted reasons that involve how plates, which are mandated on all cars by states, are government property, that means that a state disallowing a vanity plate therefore does not violate the First Amendment. There are caveats to that that have been explored by federal courts, while other plate-holders have won in the lower courts. And, yet, the disputes over what constitutes a “vulgar” vanity plate continue unabated.

  • TruthOut ☛ AOC Slams GOP for Banning Children’s Book “Life of Rosa Parks” for Being “Woke”

  • Common Dreams ☛ Progressives Slam Passage of GOP ‘Book Banning Bill’

    Progressive lawmakers and education advocates on Friday condemned federal Republican lawmakers’ foray into the nationwide attack on people of color and the LGBTQ+ community as the GOP-led U.S. House passed the so-called Parents Bill of Rights Act—legislation that critics said is aimed at banning books and further ostracizing marginalized communities, while providing no improvements to children’s safety at school.

  • EFF ☛ Victory at the Ninth Circuit: Twitter’s Content Moderation is Not “State Action”

    Twitter is a private entity, so the government and the courts cannot tell it what speech it must remove or what speech it must carry. The First Amendment restricts censorship only by the government, not private entities, unless those entities are using government power or otherwise effectively acting as the government. But in O’Handley, even if Twitter and the government were “generally aligned in their missions to limit the spread of misleading election information[, s]uch alignment does not transform private conduct into state action.”

    Moreover, as we argued in our amicus brief in the case, holding Twitter liable for content moderation would likely violate the platform’s own First Amendment rights. For example, when Twitter took down plaintiff Rogan O’Handley’s tweets and then his account, it made an editorial decision about what content it would publish. 

    O’Handley’s lawsuit, relied on the fact that the California Office of Election Cybersecurity flagged one of O’Handley’s tweets for supposedly violating Twitter’s misinformation policy. But as the Ninth Circuit explained, Twitter developed and applied that policy at its discretion, and the government did not order Twitter to take any action. The court said, and we argued in our brief, that Twitter is not a state actor unless it “ceded control” over its content moderation process to the government. In general, the government is free to talk to Twitter, and Twitter is free to listen (or not listen).

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Meduza ☛ Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny sent to ‘punishment cell’ for ‘improperly introducing himself’ — Meduza

    Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, who’s currently serving a nine-year prison sentence, has been sent to a “punishment cell” for the 12th time in eight months. According to a post he made on Twitter, Navalny’s “offense” was “improperly introducing himself.”

  • New York Times ☛ Amazon Union Gets Favorable Finding on Warehouse Access for Organizing

    Federal labor regulators said that Amazon had illegally barred off-duty employees from work sites and that the policy was aimed at union backers.

  • TruthOut ☛ Judge Denies Bond for 8 People Rounded Up in Mass Arrest for Opposing Cop City

  • Democracy Now ☛ Cop City: Judge Denies Bond to People Rounded Up in Mass Arrest for Opposing Police Training Facility

    In Atlanta, a judge has denied bond for 8 of the people indiscriminately arrested at a music festival against the proposed “Cop City” police training facility in the Weelaunee Forest. Jailed since March 5, they are charged with domestic terrorism based on scant evidence like muddy clothes or simply being in the area at the time of the festival. We’re joined by Micah Herskind, an Atlanta community organizer, who calls the charges “political prosecutions” and a blatant “attempt to repress this social movement that is trying to stop Cop City.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Speechless’: US, Canada Agree on Plan to Turn Away Asylum-Seekers

    In a move that critics say will push people to attempt more dangerous border crossings, the United States and Canada on Friday are expected to announce an agreement allowing both countries to block migrants from seeking asylum at unofficial points of entry.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Techdirt ☛ Biden Administration Makes It Clear Broadband Consumer Protection Has Never Been Much Of A Priority

    Earlier this month we noted how a successful, often homophobic smear campaign scuttled the nomination of popular reformer Gigi Sohn to the FCC. The GOP and telecom sector, as usual, worked in close collaboration to spread all manner of lies about Sohn, including claims she was an unhinged radical that hated Hispanics, cops, puppies, and freedom.

  • Internet Society ☛ Fostering the Next Generation at the NDSS Symposium

    The NDSS Symposium fosters the next generation of Internet security leaders—like 16-Year-old California high school student Aditya Puri.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Techdirt ☛ American Farm Bureau Continues To Sell Out Farmers On Meaningful ‘Right To Repair’ Reform

    We’ve noted how agricultural machinery giants like John Deere have spent several years waging war on independent tractor repair shops in a bid to monopolize maintenance and drive up costs. We’ve also noted that every time industry promises to stop doing this, it turns out they’re largely full of shit.

• Monopolies

  • Trademarks

    • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Is “THE HARRIMAN HOTEL” Primarily Merely a Surname for Hotel Services?

      The USPTO refused to register THE HARRIMAN HOTEL for hotel, real estate, and health spa services, deeming the mark to be primarily merely a surname under Section 2(e)(4). Applicant argued that HARRIMAN is a rare surname (ranking 6694th in the 2010 Census list of surnames occurring 100 or more times), and that, because William Averell Harriman is an historical figure, HARRIMAN would not likely be perceived by consumers as primarily a surname but rather would be seen as referring specifically to him. How do you think this came out?

  • Copyrights

    • Torrent Freak ☛ New Pirate IPTV Bill Moved to Senate as Italy Takes on ‘Digital Mafias’

      A bill designed to crack down on pirate IPTV services has been unanimously approved by Italy’s Chamber of Deputies. If passed by the Senate, telecoms regulator AGCOM, broadcasters, and anti-piracy affiliates are poised and ready to go. Pirate streams will be blocked within minutes, maybe even seconds, according to reports. Stream suppliers will face three years in prison and for those who watch them, 5,000 euro fines will be on the table.

    • Digital Music News ☛ Neil Young Says ‘Concert Touring Is Broken’ After The Cure/Ticketmaster Debacle

      Following The Cure’s showdown with Ticketmaster, Neil Young says the current concert touring model is broken. “It’s over. The old days are gone,” Neil Young begins his complaint. He says he gets letters from fans who are angry at $3,000 tickets for a benefit concert.

Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal

  • Monster Trivia

  • 🔤SpellBinding: CIUNOTJ Wordo: HILUM

  • Neighborhood Twilight 2023-03-24 (Fairbanks, UK, USA)

    I had plans to go see the sunset tonight, but those plans fell through, due to circumstances outside my control. I took a little walk through the neighborhood, however, and got one idyllic photo…

  • Album #211: Fairport Convention – Unhalfbricking

    If you go to a record fair in the UK, you’d be forgiven for thinking Fairport Convention was a *genre* rather than a band. Which is exactly the sort of mainstream recognition that would make past me decide not to bother with a band. Today’s pick is past me being shown up once again.

• Politics

  • Fix Democracy

    Israelis now protest a proposed reform to the Hich Court of Justice
    because they are afraid that Israel will become a dictatorship.
    I fo to some of the protests. but I do not go to block highways.
    When large masses of people protests that way and the government cannnot
    control the population by law enforcement, there’s is a folly about which
    you can read in Barbara W. Tuchman’s book “Yhe March of Folly”.

  • Love the sinners, hate the sin?

    Earlier this month, conservative talking head Michael Knowles ignited a controversy over his statement, both on his TV show and at the CPAC 2023, that called for an “eradication of transgenderism.”

    Knowles then accused the media outlets that reported his speech as a call for genocide, of a “libel” and demanded retractions.

• Technical

  • Looking at new search engines

    I happened across a small number of lesser known search engines and decided to try them out. I’m excluding any that didn’t work.

  • Oracle Cloud might screw me over

  • Podcast numbers

    2019-03-01 Podcast Numbers talked about estimating the number of listeners for a podcast. These days my web server only keeps logs for 4 days. Thus, stats are limited. Here’s what I did for the Internet Office Hours.

  • Programming

    • Two Key Takeaways from “A Philosophy of Software Design”

      This past week I’ve been reading “A Philosophy of Software Design” by John Ousterhout. I picked up the book after watching his talk on YouTube[1] that gives a general overview of the themes. The ebook was only a few quid and whilst its not super long its still great value for money. Probably the best serious tech book I’ve read to date, although not as fun as Ed Mastery by Michael W Lucas[2].

      The main idea that Ousterhout argues is that good software design is not just about writing code that works, but also about creating code that is easy to understand, maintain, and modify over time. He has various pointers towards good design and red flags to identify bad design, but there are really two key points that I walk away with. First, the importance of thinking strategically rather than tactically, and second how the value of abstractions comes in the size of the ratio between their interface and their implementation.

    • Hackaday ☛ A Jenkins Demo Stand For Modern Times

      Once you’re working on large-scale software projects, automation is a lifesaver, and Jenkins is a strong player in open-source automation – be it software builds, automated testing or deploying onto your servers. Naturally, it’s historically been developed with x86 infrastructure in mind, and let’s be fair, x86 is getting old. [poddingue], a hacker and a Jenkins contributor, demonstrates that Jenkins keeps up with the times, with a hardware demo stand called miniJen, that has Jenkins run on three non-x86 architectures – arm8v (aarch64), armv7l and RISC-V.