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Links 28/04/2023: Nitrux 2.8 and GNU Lightning 2.2.2



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • 9to5LinuxTUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen8 Linux Ultrabook Is Now Available for Pre-Order

        If you’re in the market for a new Linux business laptop that has an ultra-lightweight magnesium enclosure and a huge battery, you can check out the 8th Gen TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14, which features a 99 Wh battery promising runtimes of around 10 hours in typical work scenarios or up to 16 hours in idle.

        Under the hood, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen8 notebook is powered by an Intel Core i7-13700H “Alder Lake” processor with 14 cores, 20 threads, 24M cache, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, and up to 5.00 GHz clock speed, up to 64GB DDR5 6400 MHz RAM, as well as up to 4TB M.2 SSD (PCI-Express 4.0) storage.

    • Applications

      • Make Use OfHow to Listen to Podcasts in Your Linux Terminal With Castero

        Podcasts are a great way of keeping up with the news, comedy shows, or topics you're interested in. You can listen to the latest episodes on your phone, while you're stuck in traffic, or while you're trying to get off to sleep.

        But what if you live your life on the command line? Castero is a terminal app for Linux to help you listen to the best audio podcasts available online.

      • PostgreSQLEMS Data Export for PostgreSQL version 4.0 released

        We are pleased to announce the new major version of EMS Data Export for PostgreSQL- the powerful tool to export database data quickly to any of 20 available formats.

      • GNUlightning @ Savannah: GNU lightning 2.2.2 released!

        GNU lightning is a library to aid in making portable programs that compile assembly code at run time. Development: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/lightning.git Download release: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/lightning/lightning-2.2.2.tar.gz €  GNU Lightning 2.2.2 main new features: € 

        • Mips release 6 support.
        • New rbit* instruction, used for reversing bits.
        • new popcnt* instruction, used to count set bits in a word.
        • new lrot* and rrot* instructions, used to rotate bits.
        • new ext*, ext*_u and dep* instructions, used to extract and deposit bits, using a pattern compatible with C bit fields.
        • New qlsh*, qlsh*_u, qrsh* and qrsh*_u instructions, used to as normal shifts, but that also save overflow or underflow bits in a second output register.
        • New unld*, unld*_u, unst*, unld*_x and unst*_x instructions, used to read or write unaligned memory.
        • New mov*_f_w, mov*_w_f, mov*_d_w, mov*_w_d, mov*_d_ww and mov*_ww_d instructions, used to move values from/to gpr from/to fpr registers without using memory (if supported by the cpu).
        • New fma*, fms*, fnma* and fnms* instructions, used for fused multiply-add.
        Scheme language.

      • TecMint15 Best Web Hosting Control Panels for Linux

        As an owner of the website, it is very difficult to manage multiple websites without a control panel. However, to suit the needs, we need a custom hosting plan.

        A Web hosting control panel is a totally web-based interface that has the capability to manage your web services under a single location. These web-based control panels can manage email accounts, FTP accounts, file management functions, creation of subdomains, disk space monitoring, bandwidth monitoring, create backups, and many more.

      • TecMint12 Best Software for Data Center Server Management

        When a company grows its demand for computing resources grows as well. It works for regular companies as for providers, including those renting out dedicated servers. When the total number of racks exceeds 10 you’ll start facing issues.

        How do inventory servers and spares? How to maintain a data center in good health, locating and fixing potential threats on time. How to find the rack with broken equipment? How to prepare physical machines to work? carrying out these tasks manually will take too much time otherwise will require having a huge team of administrators in your IT department.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Red HatHow to add public Ingress to a PrivateLink ROSA cluster

        This article demonstrates how to expose applications to the internet by deploying in a PrivateLink Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS€ (ROSA) cluster within a truly private Virtual Private Cloud€ (VPC) that doesn’t have a network address translation (NAT) gateway or an internet gateway attached to it. We will be using a single VPC for Ingress and Egress traffic. However, you might choose to have separate VPCs for Ingress and Egress traffic to provide more security control of this traffic.

      • ZDNetHow to install Ubuntu Linux (It's easy!)

        If you can install an app, you can install Linux. Here's how.

      • TecMintHow to Fix “Command ‘pip3’ not found” Error in Linux

        PIP is the conventional package manager for Python, which is the standard tool for installing and managing Python packages alongside their dependencies which are not included in the standard Python library.

        When using pip, you might encounter the error “pip command not found” on the terminal. Below is an excerpt of the error as captured on the Ubuntu system.

      • TecMintHow to Fix “-bash: sudo: command not found” in Linux

        Have you ever tried to run a Linux command using sudo only to see the warning “sudo command not found” splashed on your terminal? This can be quite frustrating and it prevents you from working on your system as a non-root user while performing administrative tasks.

        In this guide, we look at how to fix the “sudo command not found” error in Linux.

      • Linux HandbookWhat is $0 in a Bash Script?

        As you know, the $ sign in the bash is used to indicate the variables. This is a variable too but a different one.

      • BeebomTar Command in Linux: Syntax, Options, and Examples

        Archiving and unarchiving files in Linux is an essential feature that every Linux user should know for efficient file management. When it comes to compressing both files and directories, the “tar command” in Linux can prove to be a lifesaver. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned Linux user, having a good know-how of the tar command with its options can be useful for various tasks. In this article, we will show you how to use the tar command in Linux; complete with its syntax, options, and examples.

        [...]

        As for the tar command, short for “Tape Archive”, it is a Linux utility tool that’s used to create and manage archive files of various types. The tar command is a collection of many different types of tools with which you can create and modify archive files. With the tar command, you can create various different types of archive files like .tar, .tar.gz, and .tar.bz2 comprising both files and directories. All these file types have different types of compression rates and overall file sizes.

      • BeebomHow to Exit Vim in Linux (Three Ways) | Beebom

        Vim is a versatile editor that you can use for simple text editing to make huge coding projects, as it comes packed with some great features like custom keybindings, a powerful search and replace tool, etc. All these features make Vim a perfect choice among developers. However, for beginners, Vim can be quite intimidating, especially when it comes to exiting the editor. So, in this article, we will teach you how to exit Vim, so you can spend more time writing code and less time figuring out how to close the editor.

      • HowTo GeekHow to Create a User on Linux

        Adding users to a Linux computer is a basic administration task, and there are several ways to achieve this. Each method of creating users has benefits and drawbacks, and we’ll walk you through three different user creation techniques.

      • It's UbuntuHow To Boot Into Rescue Mode Or Emergency Mode In Ubuntu 22.04 / 20.04 / 18.04

        In this tutorial, we will show you the solution to the following question....

      • LinuxiacHow to Install Google Chrome on Fedora Linux Quick and Easy

        This step-by-step guide shows you how to easily install Google Chrome on your Fedora Linux. Upgrade your browsing experience now!

      • UNIX CopHow to Install Foliate on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        If you're an Ubuntu 22.04 user who enjoys reading eBooks, you may be interested in installing Foliate, a free and open-source eBook reader.

      • UNIX CopHow to Install Pixelorama on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        Pixelorama is a free and open-source pixel art creation tool that allows users to create stunning graphics with ease. If you're an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS user, you may be wondering how to install Pixelorama on your system. In this article, we'll walk you through the steps to install Pixelorama on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

      • UNIX CopHow to Install Deluge on Ubuntu 22.04

        Deluge is a popular, free and open-source BitTorrent client that's widely used on Ubuntu and other Linux systems.

      • FOSSLinuxHow to compile and run Java from command-line in Linux

        Developers often use Java as a programming language, while Linux serves as a popular platform. The combination of these two can result in a robust development environment. Our tutorial will provide step-by-step guidance on how to run Java through the command-line in Linux.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Brave Browser on openSUSE Leap | Tumbleweed

        In the world of web browsing, openSUSE users have a plethora of options to choose from, including popular choices like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. However, there's a relatively new player in the field that has been making waves in recent years: the Brave Browser.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install VSCodium on openSUSE Leap | Tumbleweed

        VSCodium is an open-source alternative to the popular Visual Studio Code (VS Code) code editor. While both editors share many similarities, VSCodium offers a variety of unique features that make it an attractive choice for openSUSE users.

      • LinuxTutoHow to Install Vtiger CRM on Ubuntu 22.04

        Vtiger CRM is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software that helps businesses manage their sales, marketing, and customer support activities.

      • Unix MenExploring Game Development on Linux: A Step-by-Step Guide

        Game development is an exciting field that can pay off as big for you as it does for the players who play your games. But game development on Linux? That's an entirely different story..

    • Games

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • It's FOSS7 Super Lightweight Linux Distros

      The variety of Linux distributions available is not a disadvantage but a helpful trait.

      There is something for everyone. And here, we want to address the options tailored for users who wish to run Linux on dated hardware and systems with shallow storage space.

      Or maybe, you want the operating system to occupy the least space while you can carry out specific tasks on your computer?

      So, let me highlight some super lightweight Linux distros for such use cases.

    • Make Use OfThe 4 Best New Manjaro 22.1 "Talos" Features You Should Know About

      Manjaro 22.1 Talos, the latest Arch-based Linux distribution, is finally here after its predecessor, Manjaro Sikaris. With new updates, bug fixes, and polished desktop variations, the newest Manjaro will make your life flavorful with its colorful, vibrant desktops.

      If you are an avid Manjaro fan, you can choose from three different desktop flavors for your machine. Each desktop environment differs; however, since the distro is powered by Arch under the hood, you can always expect top-notch performance from Manjaro.

      Here are the top features to look out for in Manjaro 22.1 Talos.

    • New Releases

      • 9to5LinuxNitrux 2.8 Released with Linux 6.2, Zswap, Support for Android Apps, and More

        Powered by the Linux 6.2 kernel series from Liquorix with zswap enabled by default, Nitrux 2.8 ships with the latest KDE Plasma 5.27.4 LTS desktop environments, which is accompanied by the KDE Frameworks 5.105 and KDE Gear 23.04 software suites. In other words, you’re getting the best Plasma desktop experience to date!

        A major change in Nitrux 2.8 is the inclusion of WayDroid by default, a container-based approach to boot a complete Android system on a regular GNU/Linux system. This means that you will now be able to install and use Android apps on your Nitrux-powered computer.

    • SUSE/OpenSUSE

      • OpenSUSEKDE Gear, Grep, GTK4 update in Tumbleweed

        This week’s openSUSE Tumbleweed had a decent amount of software packages in each snapshot.

        The rolling release updated applications for both GNOME and KDE, with several KDE Qt5 Patch Collection packages and command-line utility grep receiving updates.

        Just a few packages updated in the latest snapshot, 20230426. The changes in firewalld 1.3.2 were minimal but for testing functions, which two were related to iptables. The 20230425 version was the second update of the week for the selinux-policy package. This package added a policy for wtmpdb, which will provide a more accurate calculation of boot time. Two other packages to update in the snapshot were a 2.4.0 version of 389-ds and 2.0.16.21 version of numactl.

      • OpenSUSEHome instance of NextCloud with Leap Micro 5.4, Leap Micro 5.2 is EOL, Leap 15.5 enters RC

        Leap 15.5 enters the Release Candidate phase! According to the roadmap users can expect the final release shortly after the openSUSE Conference 2023 on June 7th.

    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • Business Wire ELevate Project Now Allows In-place Upgrades for Red Hat Clones from 8.x to 9.x

        The AlmaLinux OS Foundation today announced an incredible update to the ELevate Project, an open source initiative to assist users perform migrations between different Red Hat Enterprise Linux based distributions. The project has been expanded to allow in-place upgrades from AlmaLinux 8.x, EuroLinux 8.x, or Rocky Linux 8.x to 9.x of the same distribution.

    • Debian Family

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • 9to5LinuxUbuntu 23.10 “Mantic Minotaur” Is Slated for Release on October 12th, 2023

        Ubuntu 23.10 “Mantic Minotaur” will be Canonical’s 39th Ubuntu release and it’s another interim release that will be supported for only nine months with software and security updates, until July 2024, and the last interim release before the next LTS (Long Term Support) release, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

        Canonical kicked off today the six-month development cycle with the toolchain upload and an official release schedule that suggests September 21st as the release date for the beta version and October 12th for the final release of Ubuntu 23.10.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • CNX SoftwareMixtile Core 3588E Rockchip RK3588 system-on-module works with NVIDIA Jetson TX2 NX carrier boards

        Mixtile provides both Android 11 and Debian 11 BSPs for the Rockchip RK3588 module which contrasts with the Ubuntu 18.04 or 20.04-based JetPack SDK for the NVIDIA Jetson modules. Besides the different supported operating systems, the Mixtile Core 3588E should offer a better price/performance ratio than the 260-pin Jetson modules it aims to replace, of course, depending on the exact workload you are trying to run.

        There are most likely some compatibility issues with some of the carrier boards designed for the NVIDIA Jetson TX2 NX, but Mixtile does not discuss those, or which carrier board the company has tested with the Core 3588E. In all fairness, this looks like an early announcement, so all information may not be available yet. A few more details may be found on the product page.

      • ROS 2 on Ubuntu 20.04 is now available on iWave portfolio of Single Board Computers powered by i.MX 8QM, i.MX 8M Plus, and i.MX 8M Mini Applications Processor

        ROS is an open-source robot meta-operating system. It performs operating-system-like functions such as hardware abstraction, low-level device control, implementation of commonly-used functionality, message passing between processes, and package management.

      • CNX SoftwareTinker Board S R2.0 SBC features Rockchip RK3288-CG W processor

        The Tinker Board S R2.0 and Tinker Board R2.0 (no eMMC flash) single board computers support the Debian-based TinkerOS sand Android 12, but I must have missed some changes, as some of the newer OS images are provided only for the R2.0 models unless it’s just for the different wireless module., or the original Tinker Board SBCs have been phased out.

        It’s unclear when ASUS introduced the new R2.0 SBCs, but they are already for sale on various websites as we’ll explain below, and I can see the Rockchip RK3288-GC W was added to the datasheet in May 2018. I’ve never heard about it, but it looks like it supports higher CPU (1.8 GHz) and GPU (600 MHz) frequencies compared to the earlier RK3288 introduced in 2024, or at least does so in a more stable manner.

      • HackadayUsing An Old Smartphone In Place of A Raspberry Pi

        The Raspberry Pi was a fairly revolutionary computing device when it came on the scene around a decade ago. Enough processing power to run a full Linux desktop and plenty of GPIO meant almost certain success. In the past year, though, they’ve run into some issues with their chip supplier and it’s been difficult to find new Pis, which has led to some looking for alternatives to these handy devices. [David] was hoping to build a music streaming server and built it on an old smartphone instead of the ubiquitous single-board computer.

        Most smartphones are single-board computers though, and at least the Android devices are fully capable of running Linux just like the Pi. The only problem tends to be getting around the carrier or manufacturer restrictions like a locked bootloader or lack of root access. For [David]’s first try getting this to work, he tried to install Navidrome on a Samsung phone but had difficulties with the lack of memory and had to build the software somewhere else and then load it on the phone. It did work, but the stock operating system kept killing the process for consuming too much memory.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • Jonathan McDowell: Repurposing my C.H.I.P.

        Way back at DebConf16 Gunnar managed to arrange for a number of Next Thing Co. C.H.I.P. boards to be distributed to those who were interested. I was lucky enough to amongst those who received one, but I have to confess after some initial experimentation it ended up sitting in its box unused.

        The reasons for that were varied; partly about not being quite sure what best to do with it, partly due to a number of limitations it had, partly because NTC sadly went insolvent and there was less momentum around the hardware. I’ve always meant to go back to it, poking it every now and then but never completing a project. I’m finally almost there, and I figure I should write some of it up.

        TL;DR: My C.H.I.P. is currently running a mainline Linux 6.3 kernel with only a few DTS patches, an upstream u-boot v2022.1 with a couple of minor patches and an unmodified Debian bullseye armhf userspace.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • OpenSource.com3 reasons to host a docathon for your open source project

      Your open source project's documentation is essential to your customers. Your target audience must understand the purpose of your project and how to use it, and documentation is what bridges that gap. A project is rarely ever truly done, so it's equally important for resources to be maintained and updated with your project's continuous improvement.

      But what happens when you have lots of documentation to maintain but lack the resources to keep it current? The answer is pretty simple: Host a docathon!

    • Programming/Development

      • Unix MenCustom Software Development for Small Businesses and Linux [Ed: It looks like unixmen is posting webspam/SEO spam; this is worrying]
      • Unix MenWhy UNIX Professionals Are Increasingly Adopting DevOps [Ed: "devops" is a silly cargo cult; nothing to see here...]

        Picture this: you’re a UNIX pro who’s spent years honing your skills in a world of terminals, scripts, and shell commands. It’s been a wild ride, but you’ve got a feeling that something’s missing. A new buzzword keeps popping up in conversation: DevOps. So, what’s the deal with this DevOps thing, and why are UNIX pros like you jumping on the bandwagon?

      • Computers Are Bad2023-04-27 los alamos - compound to county pt I

        This weekend, I found myself staying in Los Alamos for a volunteer role in which I judge children on the quality of their software. Clearly this is not the kind of opportunity I would turn down, but I also always take an excuse to drive back up the hill. I only lived in Los Alamos briefly, but it left a big impression. It's a unique place in many ways, born of a rather unusual history.

        The role that Los Alamos as a place, Project Y and the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory as an institution, and more broadly the Manhattan Engineering Works played in World War II is widely documented. The Manhattan Project-era history of Los Alamos is actually surprisingly uninteresting to me, because few physical remnants of it exist in publicly accessible areas. There has been a concerted effort to offer more frequent public tours of places like Omega Canyon as part of the Manhattan Project National Historic Park, but the reality of DoE security requirements and complete paralysis of DoE outreach efforts during COVID mean that these have not made much forward progress.

        Unfortunately, LANL remains littered with historic buildings---demarcated by a brown sign bearing an "H" placed by the laboratory historian---that no one other than employees will ever see. And employees don't tend to make much note, because when you work in the institution it seems rather unremarkable. The nuclear weapons program poses a fascinating historiographical puzzle that way, and I sometimes lament that the laser-focus of most nuclear history on the pre-1945 period leaves even many nuclear history enthusiasts oddly unaware of the evolution of DoE facilities in even the 1950s. While unfortunate, this blindness to the Cold War era is quite practical: once the arms race kicks in, the proportion of historical record that remains classified shoots steeply upwards.

      • Scott Moser: Today I learned: set -e sucks even more.

        Today I learned: set -e sucks even more.

        Summary: Just don’t use set -e.

        I’ve never been a fan “errexit” in shell. You’ve probably seen this as set -e, or set -o errexit or sh -e.

        People write lists of shell commands in a file and want the script to exit on the first one that fails rather than barreling on and causing damage. That seems sane.

      • Stéphane Cerveau: ESExtractor: how to integrate a dependency-free library to the Khronos CTS
        ESExtractor, how to integrate a dependency-free library to the Khronos CTS

        Since the Vulkan CTS is now able to test and check Vulkan Video support including video decoding, it was necessary to define the kind of media container to be used inside the test cases and the library to extract the necessary encoded data.

        In a first attempt, the FFMpeg media toolkit had been chosen to extract the video packets from the A/V ISO base media format chosen as a container reference. This library was provided as a binary package and loaded dynamically at each test run.

        As Vulkan video aims to test only video contents, it was not necessary to choose a complex media container, so first all the videos were converted to the elementary stream format for H264 and H265 contents. This is a very elementary format based on MPEG start codes and NAL unit identification.

      • Python

        • Linux HintPython List to Comma Separated String

          To convert a Python list to a comma-separated string, apply “join()” method, “join()” with “List Comprehension” approach, “for” loop, or the “StringIO” module.

        • Linux HintPython Math Exp

          In Python, the "math.exp()" function of the "math" module is used to calculate the exponent power of numeric values such as “int” and “float”.

        • Linux HintPython os.path.expanduser() Method

          The “os.path.expanduser()” method allows us to easily expand paths that start with “~” or “~user” to the appropriate home directory path.

        • Linux HintPython StringIO

          In Python, the “StringIO” module is used to manipulate strings as if they were files. This module provides various methods to perform specific tasks in Python.

        • Linux HintSeaborn Save Plot

          The matplotlib “plt.savefig()” function can be applied to save seaborn plots in various formats, including “png”, “jpg”, or “pdf”.

        • Linux HintSeaborn Horizontal Bar Plot

          To create, and customize the horizontal bar plot the “seaborn.barplot()” function of the “seaborn” library is used with various parameters in Python.

        • Linux HintPython Write String to File

          To write a string to file various methods such as the “write()” method, “with” statement, and “fileinput” module are used in Python.

        • Linux HintHow Do I Convert an Exception to a String in Python

          To convert an exception to a string the “str()” function, “traceback.format_exc()” function, and “repr()” function is used in Python.

        • Linux HintHow to Unzip Files in Python

          The “zipfile” module and the “shutil” module are used to unzip single or multiple files from the specified zip file in Python.

        • Linux HintPython Count Characters in String

          To count characters in a string in Python, apply the “len()” function, “Counter” class from the collections module, “dictionary comprehension”, etc.

        • Linux HintPython Count Occurrences in List

          To count the occurrences in a list in Python, apply the “count()” method, “Counter” class, “operator” module, “List Comprehension” approach, or the “for” loop.

        • Linux HintMatplotlib Bold Text

          The “fontweight” and “weight” parameters are used to bold a text in Matplotlib. It is used to emphasize key information and enhance visualizations.

        • Linux HintConvert String to Set Python

          To convert the given string to a set, various methods such as “set()” function, “add()” method, or the “set comprehension” can be used in Python.

        • Linux HintHow to Use Xrange in Python

          The xrange() function in Python 2.x or range() function in Python 3.x is used for efficient iteration over a range of values.

        • Linux HintPython Finds the Index of All Occurrences in a List

          The “for” loop, “enumerate()” function, “index()” method, or the “defaultdict()” function can be used to find the index of all occurrences in a list in Python.

        • Linux HintNumPy Astype

          The “astype()” method of the numpy module is used to change the data type of a NumPy array into other data types such as str, int, complex, etc.

        • Linux HintHow Do I Check If a String Is Empty in Python

          “not” operator, “len()” function, “strip()” function, “==” operator, “__eq__()” method, or “not + str.isspace()” method can check if string is empty in Python.

  • Leftovers

    • Science

      • HackadaySolving The Mystery Of The Mayan Calendar’s 819-Count Cycle

        Despite the mysticism that often clouds the Mayan calendar in popular culture, fact remains that the calendar system in use by the Mayans was based on a system used throughout the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies, dating back to at least the 5th century BCE. Characteristic of this system is the cyclical nature, with the Mayan calendar featuring three common cycles: the Long Count, Tzolk’in (260-day) and the 365-day, solar-based Haab’. Combined, these three cycles formed what is known as the Calendar Round and which lasts for 52 haab’ (years).

    • Hardware

      • HackadaySmooth Animations, Slick Bar Graphs, But No Custom Characters On This 16×2 OLED

        Sometimes, finding new ways to use old hardware requires awesome feats of reverse engineering, software sleight of hand, and a healthy dose of good fortune. Other times, though, it’s just as simple as reading the data sheet and paying attention to details.

      • HackadayOp Amp Challenge: What’s Your Monitor’s Delay?

        In the days of CRT displays, the precise synchronization between source and display meant that the time between a video line appearing at the input and the dot writing it to the screen was constant, and very small. Today’s display technologies deliver unimaginable resolutions compared to the TV your family had in the 1970s, but they do so at the expense of all their signal processing imposing a much longer delay before a frame is displayed. This can become an issue for gamers, but also with normal viewing, because in some circumstances the delay can be long enough for it to be audible in a disconnect between film and soundtrack. It’s something [Mike Kibbel] has addressed with his video input delay meter, and it makes for a very interesting project.

      • HackadayCompressed Air Keeps Screws Moving Through Modular Production System

        If there’s an unsung hero of manufacturing, it’s the engineer who figures out how to handle huge numbers of small parts. It’s one thing to manually assemble something, picking each nut, bolt, and washer by hand. It’s another thing to build a machine that can do the same thing, but thousands of times in a row, ideally without making mistakes.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

    • Proprietary

      • 9to5GoogleGoogle Chrome is improving dark mode support on Linux

        Chrome has supported dark mode settings for a few years now, including the ability to sync the toggle to the system you’re running the browser on. Now, Google Chrome is preparing support for following the system dark mode setting of Linux, including Ubuntu.

        OMG Ubuntu spotted that Google Chrome v114 on Linux respects the system setting for dark mode not just in the browser itself, but also on websites. This is new behavior compared to previous releases, which wouldn’t toggle the dark mode of otherwise compatible websites.

        It’s a minor change, but one dark mode enthusiasts will surely appreciate.

      • It's FOSSOpera's New Redesigned Web Browser is Also Available on Linux [Ed: Proprietary software from China. Why does a site called "It's FOSS" promote this?]

        Opera is a cross-platform web browser that uses Chromium at its core.

        It can distinguish itself from other Chromium-based browsers with its unique features and a well-made interface. Not to forget, its gaming browser, Opera GX, is one of its unique offerings that could use a debut on Linux.

        With a recent announcement, the folks at Opera have introduced the latest evolution of the popular web browser, i.e., Opera One.

    • Security

      • LWNSecurity updates for Thursday [LWN.net]

        Security updates have been issued by Fedora (chromium, perl-Alien-ProtoBuf, and redis), Oracle (kernel), SUSE (dmidecode, fwupd, libtpms, libxml2, openssl-ibmca, and webkit2gtk3), and Ubuntu (cloud-init, ghostscript, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.15, linux-azure, linux-gke, linux-gke-5.15, linux-gkeop, linux-hwe-5.15, linux-ibm, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.15, linux, linux-aws, linux-azure, linux-gcp, linux-hwe-5.19, linux-ibm, linux-kvm, linux-lowlatency, linux-oracle, linux-raspi, and linux, linux-aws, linux-kvm, linux-lts-xenial).

      • CBSCyberattack disrupts Lowell city government, shuts down computers - CBS Boston

        The city of Lowell is alerting residents to a cyberattack that impacted the municipality’s computer systems starting early on Monday.

        “We realized Monday morning around 3 to 5 a.m. that there was a breach,” said City Manager Tom Golden.

        Golden says that phones, emails and other city systems are down as a result.

      • Aeries Settles Data Breach Lawsuit for $1.75M; Illuminate Suit is Dismissed – For Now -- THE Journal

        In a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of students at San Dieguito Union High School District, a federal judge in March gave final approval to a settlement ordering Aeries Software to pay $1.75 million to members of the class, which includes nearly 100,000 former and current San Dieguito Union students whose PII was compromised in a November 2019 breach of Aeries databases.

        Last week, a proposed national class-action lawsuit filed against Illuminate Education over its January 2022 data breach was dismissed by the same court, the U.S. District Court Central District of California, Western Division. The judge dismissing the lawsuit against Illuminate — formed when civil suits filed last summer in New York and California were combined — wrote in his decision that the plaintiffs did not successful establish standing to sue or that actual harm was imminent, and the court gave the plaintiffs 21 days to amend the complaint and re-file.

      • Ransomware attack reported in Spartanburg County, South Carolina

        “We recently detected and responded to a ransomware attack on our computer network. As soon as we learned this, we began working to investigate, to restore operations, and determine the effects of the incident. We are also working with nationally recognized third-party cybersecurity consultants. We continue to actively monitor the situation and are coordinating with law enforcement.

      • Data BreachesNYSARC Columbia County Chapter confirms July, 2022 ransomware incident

        Nine months after detecting abnormal activity on their systems, and seven months after first publicly acknowledging a breach, NYSARC Columbia County has issued another press notice.

        Their newest notice is somewhat confusing in that it states that they “will issue notices to affected individuals and relevant state and federal agencies about the incident.” But then in the next paragraph, they state, “While COARC is unaware of any misuse of personal information, out of an abundance of caution, we notified the potentially affected individuals by mail.”

        So have they notified them already or will they first be notifying them?

      • Krebs On SecurityMany Public Salesforce Sites are Leaking Private Data

        A shocking number of organizations — including banks and healthcare providers — are leaking private and sensitive information from their public Salesforce Community websites, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. The data exposures all stem from a misconfiguration in Salesforce Community that allows an unauthenticated user to access records that should only be available after logging in.

      • Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation

      • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

        • NangoWhy is OAuth still hard in 2023?

          We implemented OAuth for the 50 most popular APIs, such as Google (Gmail, Calendar, Sheets etc.), HubSpot, Shopify, Salesforce, Stripe, Jira, Slack, Microsoft (Azure, Outlook, OneDrive), LinkedIn, Facebook and other OAuth APIs.‍

          Our conclusion: The real-world OAuth experience is comparable to JavaScript browser APIs in 2008. There’s a general consensus on how things should be done, but in reality every API has its own interpretation of the standard, implementation quirks, and nonstandard behaviors and extensions. The result: footguns behind every corner.

          If it weren’t so annoying, it would be quite funny. Let’s dive in!

        • Simon JosefssonA Security Device Threat Model: The Substitution Attack

          I’d like to describe and discuss a threat model for computational devices. This is generic but we will narrow it down to security-related devices. For example, portable hardware dongles used for OpenPGP/OpenSSH keys, FIDO/U2F, OATH HOTP/TOTP, PIV, payment cards, wallets etc and more permanently attached devices like a Hardware Security Module (HSM), a TPM-chip, or the hybrid variant of a mostly permanently-inserted but removable hardware security dongles.

          Our context is cryptographic hardware engineering, and the purpose of the threat model is to serve as as a thought experiment for how to build and design security devices that offer better protection. The threat model is related to the Evil maid attack.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • Scoop News GroupCritics suggest intelligence agencies should get a warrant for FISA searches

          A hearing Thursday marks the beginning of debate over reforming the intelligence community's warrantless searches under Section 702.

        • TechdirtSenator Brian Schatz Joins The Moral Panic With Unconstitutional Age Verification Bill

          Senator Brian Schatz is one of the more thoughtful Senators we have, and he and his staff have actually spent time talking to lots of experts in trying to craft bills regarding the internet. Unfortunately, it still seems like he still falls under the seductive sway of this or that moral panic, so when the bills actually come out, they’re perhaps more thoughtfully done than the moral panic bills of his colleagues, but they’re still destructive.

        • ScheerpostYour Messaging Service Should Not Be a DEA Informant

          The bill, named the€ Cooper Davis Act, is likely to result in a host of inaccurate reports and in companies sweeping up innocent conversations, including discussions about past drug use or treatment.

        • Terence EdenSo, farewell then COVID-19 App

          The app was, by any reasonable measure, a success.

          A team of experts at the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford and Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick estimate the NHS COVID-19 app prevented around 1 million cases, 44,000 hospitalisations and 9,600 deaths during its first year.

        • Scoop News GroupReturn of the EARN IT Act rekindles encryption debate at critical moment for privacy-protecting apps

          Lawmakers will markup legislation next week that would hold tech companies accountable for child sexual abuse materials and images distributed on their platforms, part of a growing push in Washington, across the U.S. and abroad to crack down on activity online related to harming minors.

          This marks the third time Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., have put the bill — the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act — forward. The bill previously failed to see a floor vote, instead drawing backlash from security experts and privacy advocates over its potential to weaken the availability of end-to-end encryption.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • ShadowproofThe Myth Of Daniel Ellsberg As The ‘Good Leaker’

        The framing somberly noted how Ellsberg faces terminal pancreatic cancer, and to him, the war in Ukraine is eerily similar to the Vietnam War he€ helped€ end. “I’m reliving a part of history I had no desire to live again. And I hoped I wouldn’t. And by the way, that makes it easier to leave,” Ellsberg declared.But Barrett and the Post brought in Steven Aftergood, who is known in Washington, D.C., for his work with the Federation of American Scientists’ Government Secrecy Project, to comment on Ellsberg. Aftergood held up Ellsberg as the “archetypal” leaker of government secrets and pits him against many of the more recent whistleblowers, who Ellsberg himself has supported.

      • The DissenterThe Myth Of Daniel Ellsberg As The 'Good Leaker'
      • Democracy NowMedea Benjamin: Pentagon Leaks Show Ukraine War Is a Stalemate. Why Isn’t the U.S. Pushing for Peace?

        Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week for the first time since Russia’s invasion last year. The call comes two months after China put forward a 12-point peace plan to end the war, and Xi reportedly said negotiations are “the only viable way out” of the conflict. The Chinese president also offered to send a special envoy to Ukraine to help resolve the crisis. To talk more about the war in Ukraine and growing calls for negotiations, we are joined by Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink and co-author of the new book War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict. “The world is calling for negotiations, and the U.S. keeps saying no,” says Benjamin. “We are the ones who are holding up a peace process.” Her latest piece in The Progressive is headlined “Pentagon Leaks Punch a Hole in the U.S. Propaganda War.”

    • Environment

      • Energy/Transportation

        • US News And World ReportUS Court Orders South African Firm's CEO to Pay $3.4 Billion for Bitcoin Fraud
        • SpiegelGermany's Flat-Rate Train Ticket

          The history of the Deutschland Ticket shows how complicated progress is in a country where pettiness is often the order of the day. And how, sometimes, politicians in Germany can find solutions that they weren't even looking for.

        • New York TimesF.B.I. Searches Home of Top FTX Executive

          Ryan Salame, a former top FTX executive and a prolific Republican donor, faces mounting legal pressure for his role in Sam Bankman-Fried’s business empire.

        • New York TimesRussia’s Gas Exports Are Expected to Drop by 50% in 2023

          Estimates suggest gas exports by pipeline from Russia could be halved this year compared with 2022, which was an especially bad year. Here is what else we’re covering:

        • Common DreamsInvestigation Details How Gas Industry Exploited Ukraine War to Boost LNG Expansion

          In what it calls "one of the most blatant examples of the 'shock doctrine,'" a new Greenpeace report released today reveals how the gas industry took advantage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine to lock Europe and the U.S. into building new liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure that threatens the well-being of both frontline communities and the entire planet.

        • HackadayMaking Hydrogen With Solar Energy, With Oxygen And Heat A Bonus

          Hydrogen is a useful gas. Whether you want to float an airship, fuel a truck, or heat an industrial process, hydrogen can do the job. However, producing it is currently a fraught issue. While it can be produced cleanly using renewable energy, it’s often much cheaper to split it out of hydrocarbon fuels using processes that generate significant pollution.

        • David Rosenthal[Cryptocurrency]: My Part In Its Downfall

          I was asked to talk about cryptocurrencies to the 49th Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop. I decided that my talk would talk the form of a chronology, so I based the title on a book by the late, great comic Spike Milligan. It became Crypto: My Part In Its Downfall1.

          Below the fold is the text, with links to the sources.

        • CepsaThe high cost of the cryptocurrency race

          The University of Oxford estimates that they already consume 0.63% of the world's energy and result in higher electricity bills for households

        • The Guardian UKBitcoin is terrible for the environment – can it ever go green?

          A 2022 report, titled Revisiting Bitcoin’s Carbon Footprint, conducted by climate and economics researchers across Europe estimates that “Bitcoin mining may be responsible for 65.4 megatonnes of CO2 per year … which is comparable to country-level emissions in Greece (56.6 megatonnes in 2019).”

        • ArduinoHow to solve an energy crisis with technology and automation

          Energy crises are nothing new, but they’re always painful. Right now, the world is dealing with a serious energy crisis that has led to skyrocketing utility bills, economic uncertainty, and widespread questions about how we supply our homes with power.

          One of the biggest questions being asked right now is, “how do we avoid this kind of energy crisis in the future?” What steps can we take — as individuals and societies — to mitigate energy crises and deal with them more effectively when they do come around?

          Automation is one powerful tool at our disposal here. It can be used not just by governments and energy companies, but also by individual households. The good news is that tools like Arduino and the Arduino Cloud can help you build automated devices to better manage your energy usage and save money in times of crisis.

          In this article, we’ll take a look at how automation can help us use our energy more efficiently, avoid major crises, and pave the way to a more sustainable and reliable energy future.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • IDACapture the Dark 2023: Meet the Judges

          In celebration of the impact that photography has had on the dark sky movement, the International Dark-Sky Association is hosting the fourth annual€ Capture the Dark Photography Contest.

        • New York TimesFrom Alpacas to Yaks, Mammal DNA Yields Its Secrets

          The genomes of monkeys, bats, whales and many other mammals are helping scientists tackle big questions about physiology, evolution and one very famous sled dog.

      • Overpopulation

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Telex (Hungary)Many Fidesz voters also feel government is bullying capital, survey shows
      • Common DreamsFeinstein Resignation Calls Grow After Manchin Sides With GOP on Pollution Rule

        U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is facing fresh calls to resign after her extended absence—and Sen. Joe Manchin's inclination to partner with Republicans—led to the Wednesday passage of a resolution to roll back Biden administration emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks.

      • Telex (Hungary)Bracing for US sanctions, Russian financier in Budapest was busy securing personal offshore assets, leaked documents reveal
      • Telex (Hungary)Commander of Hungarian Defence Forces Romulus Ruszin-Szendi relieved of his duties by President Novák
      • ScheerpostWhy Should We Pay Attention to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?

        "Kennedy has been marginalized by the mainstream media for 18 years...but I know him to be deeply honest, totally dedicated to his beliefs and willing to back them up with personal courage and scientific evidence."

      • Michael West MediaThe race is on - the line-up to replace Joko Widodo as Indonesia's next president is revealed

        Indonesia’s grand old dame, Megawati Soekarnoputri, has finally announced her preferred candidate for next year’s presidential election. It means the race to replace Joko Widodo as president is on in earnest. Duncan Graham reports on the leading candidates and their relationships with Australia.

        Indonesia is the world’s third largest democracy after India and the USA. It is also our closest neighbour, but you wouldn’t know it if you only read mainstream media who have barely reported on the latest developments. Who the president of Indonesia is matters to Australia. At least the candidates themselves seem to be aware of that, using Australia to show their international ‘form’.

      • Alex EwerlöfTechnical Committee Lifecycle

        A while back I was asked to join a Technical Committee. 😲 I politely declined but my excuse became the core of this post.

        This post briefly defines what a Technical Committee is, its lifecycle, the reasons it’s a bad idea and when to actually use it.

      • Michael GeistThe Bill C-11 Compromise That Never Came

        While there was no shortage of hyperbole throughout Bill C-11’s journey, the lingering question is why was the government so determined to retain user content regulation in the bill? When Bill C-10 was introduced, it was excluded. The decision to amend the bill by removing an exception on user content late in that bill’s process literally sparked years of opposition and concern. Many of the traditional Canadian Heritage stakeholders didn’t care about the issue at all. In fact, if you were to ask whether they would have preferred passing a bill without user content in 2021 or waiting until 2023 to get a bill with it in, my guess is they would unanimously take passing the bill two years ago over a delayed, contentious process that offers practically no additional benefits to the sector by including user content regulation. That leaves either the prospect that the government wants to retain the power to regulate user content (a real possibility) or that, egged on by a handful of largely Quebec-based culture groups, it was unwilling to admit that it had made a legislative mistake. If so, given the choice between Quebec-based lobby groups and admitting error or the myriad of opponents, the government preferred the appearance of being compromised over compromise.

      • The BeatIDW “goes dark” on the NYSE, lays off 39% of their staff

        While the PR did not specifically mention other layoffs among the 39% of the workforce laid off, The Beat has learned that the entire marketing and PR staff and half of editorial have been let go, including publisher Nachie Marsham. We are working to get names of remaining staff, and information on the fate of imprints such as Top Shelf, as well as details on the editorial reorganization.

      • Common DreamsActivists Implore Biden to Eschew 'Brutal' Trade-Offs in New Migrant Policy

        While welcoming parts of the Biden administration's newly announced plans to expand refugee resettlement and family reunification parole in the Americas, migrant rights advocates on Thursday warned that provisions restricting the rights of asylum-seekers undermined the policy.

      • MeduzaJournalists say unidentified 'aerial military object' found in Polish forest is missile with Russian writing — Meduza

        Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro reported Thursday that the remains of an unidentified “aerial military object” have been found in northern Poland. According to Ziobro, the remains were found in a forest near the city of Bydgoszcz.

      • MeduzaJournalists reveal names of 13 figures who have joined Viktor Medvedchuk's new political project — Meduza

        Journalists from Radio Liberty have learned the names of 13 public figures who have joined a new political initiative launched by Viktor Medvedchuk, the pro-Kremlin politician who was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship in January after being sent to Russia in a prisoner swap last year.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

        • NPRHe 'Proved Mike Wrong.' Now he's claiming his $5 million

          Zeidman, who voted for Trump twice, says the data provided at the symposium not only failed to prove any Chinese election interference that could have tipped the outcome in favor of Joe Biden, the data included no discernible information whatsoever.

          "It was pages and pages of numbers. And in other cases, a table full of gibberish, as if someone had sat there for hours and just typed random stuff into a word processor," he says.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Shirish Agarwal: John Grisham’s books, Evolution removed from textbooks

        A few days ago, NCERT (one of the major bodies) that looks into Indian Education due to BJP influence has removed Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. You can’t even debate because the people do not understand adaptability. So the only conclusion is that Man suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

      • Hong Kong Free PressHong Kong woman jailed for 4 months over ‘seditious’ Twitter and Facebook posts

        A Hong Kong woman has been jailed for four months after she admitted to making more than 60 social media posts that were deemed to be seditious under the colonial-era Crimes Ordinance.

      • Vice Media GroupThe Imgur Apocalypse Is Going to Break Large Parts of the Internet

        It’s not just porn that’s getting deleted from Imgur. Millions of images that are embedded elsewhere will also eventually be taken down.

      • RFERLMoscow Court Shuts Down Sova Think Tank In Russian Capital

        A Moscow court on April 27 approved the Justice Ministry’s request to shut the Sova analytical center in the Russian capital as a crackdown on providers of independent information continues.

      • RFERLRussia Fines Wikimedia Over Refusal To Remove Information On Military Unit

        A Moscow court on April 27 fined the Wikimedia Foundation, owner of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, 2 million rubles ($24,440) for failing to remove information about a military unit involved in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

      • TechdirtThe EU Designates 17 Sites As ‘Very Large Online Platforms’ Subject To DSA’s Most Stringent Rules

        I’ve been criticizing the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) approach to internet regulations, because they’re doing this “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” bit in which they insist that the DSA is not regulating speech, but then they admit that the point of the DSA is to see less “bad” speech on the internet.

      • QuilletteNudity and Nonconsensual Viewing

        Compared to the violence of ISIS, practically any other suppression of art seems trivial. Still, the shrouding of Talepasand’s busty figurines on the grounds of offending Islamic modesty doctrines, and the row over Michelangelo’s iconic sculpture because it might be deemed pornographic, reveal a worrying trend. The question of whether an artwork is offensive is now determined by the least generous interpretation of the most sensitive viewer. This trend gets us closer to the “quasi-theocratic” society that Gore Vidal dreaded.

        When Christopher Hitchens interviewed director Miloš Forman about The People vs. Larry Flynt, Forman revealed that his decision to work on the movie was motivated by the fact that the Nazis and the Soviets, who had both occupied his native Czechoslovakia, had insisted on “cleaning things up.” Supposedly pornographic art was low-hanging fruit and, as Forman recalled, the crackdown even won applause from the locals. What followed, under both occupations, was a steady ratcheting up of oppression, despotism, and “casual humiliation.” Having experienced firsthand the damage caused to freedom by the censorship of images, Forman knew the importance of resisting it. He did not have the luxury of taking the First Amendment for granted, which is why he strove to defend it in the country he had adopted as his own.

      • VOA NewsRussian Court Fines Wikipedia Again for Article About War in Ukraine

        Wikimedia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously said information that Russian authorities complained about was well-sourced and in line with Wikipedia standards.

        Wikipedia is one of the few surviving independent sources of information in Russian since a state crackdown on online content intensified after Moscow invaded Ukraine last year.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • JURISTHuman Rights Watch report shows hundreds of deaths along Turkey/Syria border

        Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report Thursday claiming that Turkish border guards are shooting Syrian refugees while also using excessive force and torture against asylum seekers entering the country. The report cited hundreds of recent deaths along the Turkey/Syria border and condemned the actions of the Turkish government.

      • RFERLProsecutor Seeks 12 Years For Former Chief Of Navalny's Team In Bashkortostan

        The prosecution has asked a court in Ufa, the capital of Russia's Bashkortostan region, to convict and sentence Lilia Chanysheva, the former leader of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's team, to 12 years in prison.

      • New York TimesNew York State Bill Could Give Class-Action Lawsuits a Boost

        If a new consumer protection bill passes in New York State, false advertising and mislabeling cases could get another boost, experts say.

      • RFERLTwo Crimean Tatar Activists Detained After Homes Searched

        Police in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea region have detained two Crimean Tatar activists, Edem Ismailov and Bari Bariyev, for unspecified reasons after searching their homes on April 27.

      • New York TimesCall Them Dissidents. But Don’t Call Them Feminists.

        Over the last 60 years, Brazil’s women artists made work about universal rights abuses, not gender issues, a new show finds. “It was all of us, all citizens, who didn’t have rights.”

      • Common Dreams'Disappointing Day for Women': Senate GOP Filibuster Blocks Equal Rights Amendment

        Equal Rights Amendment supporters on Thursday slammed the vast majority of U.S. Senate Republicans for filibustering a resolution that would make the 100-year-old measure the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.

      • Common DreamsBan on Multinational Corporate Spending on Political Campaigns About to Become Law in Minnesota

        Campaign finance reform advocates on Thursday cheered final passage by legislators in Minnestoa of a bill prohibiting multinational corporations from spending money on state elections.

      • Common DreamsWorker Militancy Has Fueled a Surge in Union Growth and Popularity

        If there's one picture to summarize the growing militancy of many unions and workers, let's call it the picket sign. Behind that image is an important message as well–forceful challenges to big corporations benefit all working people and resonate with the broader public.

      • The NationImpeach Clarence Thomas and Remove Dianne Feinstein

        Although we commonly refer to justices on the federal bench as being appointed “for life,” Article III of the Constitution says rather that judges “shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour.” Violations of this standard, the Constitution stipulates, are determined via impeachment by the House and trial by the Senate. A total of 15 federal judges have been impeached—on charges ranging from drunkenness and mental instability to bribery, perjury, and treason. Eight were removed from office, including Robert Archbald, who in 1910 took his wife on a trip to Europe paid for by Henry Cannon, an officer of railroad and coal companies that sometimes had business before the court.1

      • The NationHarry Belafonte Never Betrayed His Revolutionary Spirit

        When Harry Belafonte celebrated the 110th anniversary of the birth of his friend and mentor Paul Robeson in 2008, he recalled that1the cruelties visited upon him by the power of the State stands as a great blemish on the pages of American history. But despite the attempt to wipe him from memory, he has endured and continues to influence. It speaks to our most strategic interests that African American children be instructed about the truth of his existence. Indeed it would be in the best interest of all Americans to know what this great patriot offered this nation.2

      • Common DreamsHarry Belafonte's Commitment to a Better World Was His Most Beautiful Performance

        In May 1963, as civil rights demonstrations rocked the city of Birmingham, Alabama, Harry Belafonte was at a cocktail party in Manhattan, scolding the then-attorney general of the United States.

      • The NationWill We Lose the Right to Abortion?

        It took five Supreme Court justices to take away the right of more than half the people in the country to end a pregnancy. It took only one lower court Texas judge to ban the most popular method of doing so. That would be Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Amarillo, Tex., with a substantial record of anti-abortion views.

      • The NationWomen’s Bodies, Women’s Rights
      • MeduzaThe art of decolonization How Eastern European art became the latest battlefront in countering Russian imperialism — Meduza
      • Pro PublicaHis Conviction Was Overturned. NYC Said He Didn’t Deserve a Dime.

        As members of the New York City Council convened last month to discuss the Law Department’s budget, they asked the city’s top lawyer to account for the rising cost of police misconduct.

        The topic had been driving headlines for weeks. In February, an analysis of payout data had shown that the city shelled out $121 million in NYPD-related settlements and judgments in 2022, a five-year high. Weeks later, officials announced that millions more in taxpayer dollars would go toward what lawyers for demonstrators called a “historic” deal to settle claims involving the NYPD’s violent response to racial justice protests in 2020. Of particular concern to some members of the council’s Committee on Governmental Operations was reporting by ProPublica and New York Magazine on how city lawyers aggressively fight these kinds of misconduct claims, even in the face of compelling evidence that officers crossed the line.

      • Democracy NowOklahoma Parole Board Denies Clemency for Richard Glossip, Rejecting Plea from State Attorney General

        We speak with investigative reporter Liliana Segura about the remarkable case of Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, whose execution is set for May 18. Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board on Wednesday denied Glossip clemency even though Oklahoma’s own Republican attorney general has sought to vacate Glossip’s conviction. Glossip has always maintained his innocence. The case dates back to 1997, when Glossip was working as a motel manager in Oklahoma City and his boss, Barry Van Treese, was murdered. A maintenance worker, Justin Sneed, admitted to beating Van Treese to death with a baseball bat, but claimed Glossip offered him money for the killing. The case rested almost entirely on Sneed’s claims, and no physical evidence tied Glossip to the crime. Sneed, in exchange for his testimony, did not get the death penalty. “From the beginning, the evidence in this case was weak,” says Segura, a senior reporter for The Intercept who has been following the case since 2015.

      • Insight HungaryHungarian President vetoes controversial law that targets LGBT people

        Hungarian President Katalin Novak has vetoed a controversial whistle-blower law that€ makes it possible to anonymously report rainbow families to authorities.€ The Hungarian Parliament approved the law earlier this month.€ 

        In theory, the law transposes an EU directive protecting whistleblowers€ but it also allows€ citizens to report those who contest the “constitutionally recognized role of marriage and the family” and those who contest children’s rights “to an identity appropriate to their sex at birth.”€ 

      • Vice Media GroupGirls Do Porn Victims Say Cloudflare Participates in 'Criminal Venture' by Servicing Sites That Host Videos of Their Abuse

        Victims of the sex trafficking ring Girls Do Porn are demanding that Cloudflare stop providing services to websites that host videos of their abuse.

      • TechdirtHow Refugee Applications Are Being Lost In (Machine) Translation

        That’s a tiny difference, and one that today’s machine translation programs can easily miss, especially for languages where training materials are still scarce. And yet the consequences of the shift from singular “I” to plural “we” can have life-changing consequences – in the case above, whether asylum was granted to a refugee fleeing Afghanistan. There are other problems too: [...]

      • VOA NewsUN Experts Say China Forcing Tibetans Into 'Vocational Training'

        "Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have reportedly been 'transferred' from their traditional rural lives to low-skilled and low-paid employment since 2015, through a program described as voluntary — but in practice their participation has reportedly been coerced," the experts said.

        They said the labor transfer program was facilitated by a network of vocational training centers, "which focus less on developing professional skills and more on cultural and political indoctrination in a militarized environment."

      • NPRTribal nations were once excluded from Colorado River talks. Now they're key players

        It's been almost exactly 100 years since the first "law of the river" - the Colorado River Compact - was negotiated among the seven basin states: Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California.

        Back then there were no Native people in the room, let alone even near it.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • VarietyStreaming Audio May Never Be the Same After AI. And That’s a Good Thing

        Universal Music Group had much harsher words for AI following the Drake debacle. “The recent explosive development in generative AI will, if left unchecked, both increase the flood of unwanted content hosted on platforms, and create rights issues with respect to existing copyright law, in the U.S. and other countries, as well as laws governing trademark, name and likeness, voice impersonation and right of publicity,” chairman-CEO Lucian Grainge said Wednesday on the earnings call. “Any way you look at it, this oversupply, whether or not AI-created is, simply, bad. Bad for artists. Bad for fans. And bad for the platforms themselves.”

      • US News And World ReportCanadian Senate Passes Bill to Compel Local Content on Streaming Giants
      • Digital Music NewsSpotify Sets Sights On Raising Prices Following Amazon Music, Apple Music Increases: ‘I Would Like and Hope for Us to Do That in 2023’ [Ed: Ripoff that spies and denies saving; this company is still losing money]

        Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has seemingly doubled down on existing plans for a Spotify price increase in the U.S. and potentially elsewhere – albeit while noting that label negotiations and other factors will impact the increase’s timing. Ek broached the subject (and additional interesting topics) during Spotify’s first-quarter earnings call.

    • Monopolies

      • Security WeekBig Tech Crackdown Looms as EU, UK Ready New Rules

        TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Amazon are facing rising pressure from European authorities as London and Brussels advanced new rules Tuesday to curb the power of digital companies.

      • CoryDoctorowConvicted monopolist prevented from re-offending

        Cloud gaming isn't really a thing right now, but it might be. That was Microsoft's bet, anyway, as it plonked down $69b to acquire Activision-Blizzard – a company that shouldn't exist, having been formed out of a string of grossly anticompetitive mergers that were waved through.

        Activision-Blizzard is a poster-child for the failures of antitrust law over the past 40 years, a period in which monopolies were tolerated and even encouraged by the agencies that were supposed to prevent monopolies from forming and break up the ones that slipped past their defenses. Activision-Blizzard is a giant, moribund company whose "innovation" consists of endless sequels to its endless sequels, whose market power allows it to crush its workers while starving competitors of market oxygen, ensuring that gamers and game workers have nowhere else to go.

      • Chris HannahUK regulators cause Microsoft/Activision Blizzard merger to collapse

        When I heard about this potential merger, I can't say I particularly cared much, apart from the effect it could have on one of my favourite games, World of Warcraft. But now I've read more about the potential monopoly it could give Microsoft, and also their childish response to the decision, I'm coming quite happy that the UK blocked the deal.

      • BBCFurious Microsoft boss says confidence in UK 'severely shaken'

        Although US and EU regulators have yet to decide on whether to approve the deal, the UK regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said: "Activision is intertwined through different markets - it can't be separated for the UK. So this decision blocks the deal from happening globally."

        If it had been approved, the $68.7bn (€£55bn) deal would have been the gaming industry's biggest ever takeover, and would have seen Microsoft get hold of massively popular games titles such as Call of Duty, Candy Crush and World of Warcraft.

        Both Microsoft and Activision have said they will appeal against the CMA's decision.

      • RTLMicrosoft says EU more attractive after UK blocks deal

        The CMA said its decision showed Britain was supporting competition and was "absolutely open for business".

      • Computer WorldUK regulators block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard

        In a statement outlining its reasons for preventing the deal, the CMA said although Microsoft submitted a proposal to address some of its concerns, that proposal ultimately contained a number of significant shortcomings. These included a failure to sufficiently open up to providers who might wish to offer versions of games on PC operating systems other than Windows, and not taking into consideration different cloud gaming service business models.

      • TechdirtWhoa: UK’s CMA Blocks Microsoft’s Acquisition Of Activision Blizzard

        We’ve been following the entire saga of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard for some time now. The whole thing has been decidedly messy, for various reasons. For starters, there are three main regulatory bodies that most of us have been waiting to hear from: the UK’s CMA, the USA’s FTC, and the EU. And those bodies have been in different places and on different timelines to date. The EU gave its tacit approval to the deal, while the FTC signaled it wanted more information before making any decisions, while the CMA has voiced some very serious concerns about approving the deal. If you’re an American reading this, you may be conditioned to roll your eyes at all of this talk of regulation. The FTC in this country has behaved largely as though it lacks fangs when it comes to antitrust activity.

      • Patents

        • JUVENo major changes in EU Commission final proposal for FRAND regulation [Ed: Thierry Breton still pushing for an illegal system, shaped by lobbyists of the rich (he worked for Rothschild Bank)]

          The EU Commission today published a comprehensive package of measures on intellectual property in Europe. It includes proposals to regulate EU-wide supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) and compulsory licensing on patents. However, of particular interest is the setting out of new rules on standard essential patents (SEPs) in Europe.

        • Unified PatentsPatent transaction data now available through Q1 of 2023

          Unified’s Portal now includes patent transaction data through Q1 of 2023. Users can search for patents that are For Sale or Likely Sold to understand secondary market behavior and make predictions on future assertions activity. This data is available through Richardson Oliver Insights, an insights provider offering a proprietary deal database and deep connections with the patent broker and seller community. Richardson Oliver Insights have provided customers with actionable information in the form of reports, analysis, and insights on live information on specific assets.

        • JUVENauta Dutilh partner Anne Marie Verschuur to succeed Gertjan Kuipers at De Brauw [Ed: JUVE is still posting spam for sponsors and hopes it won't get caught disguising this as 'journalism'; JUVE is a lobbying apparatus of litigation fanatics and profiteers]

          Anne Marie Verschuur, who is one of the best-known patent lawyers in the Netherlands, will join De Brauw as a partner from Nauta Dutilh. She is not only active in the patent litigation field, but also advises in the life sciences and tech sectors.

      • Trademarks

      • Copyrights

        • Digital Music NewsTikTok Rival Triller Agrees to Pay $4.5 Million in Damages to Sony Music Entertainment

          Triller has agreed to pay more than $4.5 million in damages to Sony Music Entertainment to resolve claims that Triller breached an agreement covering its use of musicians’ songs on the platform.

        • Digital Music NewsMontana Governor Wants to Expand TikTok Ban to Include Other Apps

          Montana governor Greg Gianforte (R) is asking state lawmakers to expand its existing TikTok ban to include other apps. Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed the first TikTok ban in the United States. It goes beyond prohibiting state and federal employees from using the app and extends to the entire state.

        • Digital Music NewsYouTube Music Officially Rolls Out Podcasts — No Subscription Required [Ed: Nasty DRM and other resrictions, spying and costs aside]

          YouTube Music is finally rolling out support for listening to podcasts—in the US only for now. The update is rolling out gradually, so users may not see it for a few weeks.

        • US News And World ReportEd Sheeran, on Guitar, Gets Musical With a New York Jury

          British singer Ed Sheeran sang a few lyrics from one of his songs and played a few chords on a guitar for a New York jury, hoping to hit the right notes with a jury deciding whether the song violates the copyrights of Marvin Gaye's soul classic “Let's Get It On.”

        • New York TimesEd Sheeran Defends Himself in Copyright Case, With His Guitar

          The pop star strummed a four-chord progression from “Thinking Out Loud” in a Manhattan courtroom, seeking to separate his work from Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”

        • KOL411 | IP Law Tutorial, Part 2: Copyright Law

          As noted in KOL409 (Part 1: Patent Law), although I've done dozens of speeches and interviews over the past 20 or so years on libertarian aspects of intellectual property, or IP, that is, on IP policy, I've never done any in depth lectures for libertarians on IP law itself. In KOL409, I did a brief overview of various types of IP law, and then focused on the patent law and patent application process itself.

        • Torrent FreakPirate Streaming Giant Pobre.tv Was Bigger Than Netflix, Now It's Gone

          With more web traffic than Netflix and Disney, pirate streaming site Pobre.tv was hugely popular in Portugal. A few days ago the site mysteriously went offline without any word from its operators. No anti-piracy agency has taken credit either, but ACE says that it obtained several disclosure orders related to the site in recent weeks.

        • Torrent FreakVietnam Could Kill Several Major Pirate Sites Worth Billions of Visits

          Some of the world's largest pirate sites, offering movies, TV shows and anime for free, are reportedly operated from Vietnam. The statistics are nothing short of extraordinary and measured in billions of visits per year. Fmovies, Bmovies, Bflix and 9anime are just a few of the sites causing problems for rightsholders. Despite U.S. concerns, Vietnam seems unwilling to pull the plug.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Album #234: Fatboy Slim - You've come a long way baby

        I expected to resent this, given how thoroughly it saturated the UK when it came out. It wasn't a chore though. It's still fun.

      • Album #247: Screaming Trees - Dust

        Author: I've got a few to catch up on actually. Do you want to listen to Fat Boy Slim or Sheryl Crow next?

      • Album #246: Supergrass - I Should Coco

        If I had been writing up my daily listens at the time, I'd have said the same about their next album 'In it for the Money', which I was also surprised how much I enjoyed. `Better than expected!` (⭐⭐⭐), I wrote at the time. Fortunately my music criticism has come on leaps and bounds since then.

      • Debord's “Society of the Spectacle”

        i recently read Guy Debord's 1967 work “The Society of the Spectacle”[a]. i found it dense, but ultimately comprehensible[b]. The following is a collection of quotes that particularly stood out to me, irrespective of whether or not i agree with them. (In particular, i found Debord's repeated invocations of “false consciousness” to be .... problematic.)

      • 🔤SpellBinding: DEGINWY Wordo: MASTS
      • Album #166: Selected Ambient Works 85-92

        Selected Ambient Works 85-92 must to be on the list with justifications like 'impact' and 'influence'. It's fine. It's a sign of more interesting things to come. From a 2023 perspective it's not all that interesting.

        I'm familiar-ish with Aphex Twin, but more later albums. Here there are hints of what's to come, but individually the sounds quite basically seem to explore one idea, something rhythmic or specific sounds, and move on.

      • Album #240: Parliament - Mothership Connection

        This is the third of 3 Parliament/Funkadelic albums in the book for me, which is a shame - this is a good one. I mean, all three have been pretty good. Maggot Brain is still the clear favourite, but what this album is pure funk, with less of the psychedelia that puts me off some of the other albums.

        It still has its WEIRD spots, sure. But musically it feels tighter than One Nation, and has less of the rock guitar than the other two so far on the list. But no less of the fun.

      • Album #245: The Triffids - Calenture

        These are the sort of moments that keep me going on this - a band I've got 0 context for, presented with no biases or genre information or expectations. Alright so there's a moody guy on the cover, which hasn't been a good omen so far, but let's see how it goes.

        A quick aside: there's that early moment on Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In the Aeroplane over the Sea' where, if I suggest the album to someone, I cross my fingers and hope they make it past. Not the stained mountain tops, a little before that. It's a wonderful album, but *that part* feels a little confrontational to people who are going in cold.

      • It's dark this early Friday morning

        I managed to awaken and feel rather awake just before 4:00am, today. Part of it is the gout in the hand knuckle in the ring finger of me left had, the place I usually experience gout symptoms first after having eaten too much of what I shouldn't, especially in a degrees of dehydration context. Joints injured in the past tend to manifest crystallized uric acid sooner than other joints. I injured this particular joint while horsing around with a girlfriend in my parents' swimming pool over forty years ago.

    • Technical

      • 3D Printing Something Useful

        An obvious question to a 3D printing enthusiast: what is it good for? Well, I found one use.

        Next to my desk and under the window is a shelf; and under the shelf was a power strip just hanging there awkwardly. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, to clip the power strip under the shelf?

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Gemini Server
        • Hello World2

          I just got a Gemini pod and tried using the CLI interface to smol.pub and something is awry. So I am now trying it from the web interface to see if what is wrong is me, my bash, or the internet or what.

        • re: why gemini is boring

          Having read a couple of posts about Gemini being boring I wanted to join the conversation.

          I think that for me, even if Gemini in intentional about this, I can’t just write something that I don’t think people will read. It might be still being contaminated by social media dirt and the pursue of views/likes/relevance, but just writing what I find interesting, i.e. talking to the void, is kind of scary.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries
Links 26/03/2024: Inflation Problems, Strikes in Finland
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2024: Losing Children, Carbon Tax Discussed
Links for the day
Mark Shuttleworth resigns from Debian: volunteer suicide and Albania questions unanswered, mass resignations continue
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 26/03/2024: 6,000 Layoffs at Dell, Microsoft “XBox is in Real Trouble as a Hardware Manufacturer”
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2024: Microsofters Still Trying to 'Extend' Gemini Protocol
Links for the day
Look What IBM's Red Hat is Turning CentOS Into
For 17 years our site ran on CentOS. Thankfully we're done with that...
The Julian Paul Assange Verdict: The High Court Has Granted Assange Leave to Appeal Extradition to the United States, Decision Adjourned to May 20th Pending Assurances
The decision is out
The Microsoft and Apple Antitrust Issues Have Some But Not Many Commonalities
gist of the comparison to Microsoft
ZDNet, Sponsored by Microsoft for Paid-for Propaganda (in 'Article' Clothing), Has Added Pop-Up or Overlay to All Pages, Saying "813 Partners Will Store and Access Information on Your Device"
Avoiding ZDNet may become imperative given what it has turned into
Julian Assange Verdict 3 Hours Away
Their decision is due to be published at 1030 GMT
People Who Cover Suicide Aren't Suicidal
Assange didn't just "deteriorate". This deterioration was involuntary and very much imposed upon him.
Overworking Kills
The body usually (but not always) knows best
Former Red Hat Chief (CEO), Who Decided to Leave the Company Earlier This Month, Talks About "Cloud Company Red Hat" to CNBC
shows a lack of foresight and dependence on buzzwords
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 25, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 25, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Discord Does Not Make Money, It's Spying on People and Selling Data/Control (38% is Allegedly Controlled by the Communist Party of China)
a considerable share exists
In At Least Two Nations Windows is Now Measured at 2% "Market Share" (Microsoft Really Does Not Want People to Notice That)
Ignore the mindless "AI"-washing
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Still Has Hundreds of Thousands of Simultaneously-Online Unique Users
The scale of IRC