Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 09/05/2023: Firefox 113 and War Reporting Awards



  • GNU/Linux

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Jeff GeerlingSelf-hosting with AT&T Fiber Internet

        Today I got AT&T Fiber Internet installed at my house, and I thought I'd document a few things I observed during and after the install.

      • Balthazar RouberolMerging multiple mp3 files into an audiobook with chapters

        I recently found the 3 Lord of the Rings audiobooks I bought from Phil Dragash some years back, as I was digging through my NAS. Each book is split into about 20 mp3 files, which makes it a bit unwieldy for me. As I mostly listen to audiobooks when I'm going to sleep, I oftentimes have to find the last part I remember listening to and start again from there the next day.

      • University of TorontoWhen to use drgn instead of eBPF tools like bpftrace, and vice versa

        I talked recently about drgn and using it to poke around in the kernel, and yesterday I followed that up with an example of finding out which NFS client owns a file lock that used bpftrace (and also I discussed using drgn for this). As an outsider, you might reasonably wonder when you'd use one and when you'd use the other on the kernel. I won't claim that I have a complete answer, but here's what I know so far.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Mozilla

        • DebugPointFirefox 113 Introduces Enhanced Picture-in-Picture and Improved Security Features

          Firefox 113 is now available for download, packed with several new features, enhancements and bug fixes. Among the most notable new features is the enhanced Picture-in-Picture (PIP), allowing users to rewind, check video duration, and switch to full-screen mode effortlessly on the web's most popular video websites.

          Here's what's new.

    • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

    • Education

      • Julia EvansNew talk: Learning DNS in 10 years

        Here’s a keynote I gave at RubyConf Mini last year: Learning DNS in 10 years. It’s about strategies I use to learn hard things. I just noticed that they’d released the video the other day, so I’m just posting it now even though I gave the talk 6 months ago.

        Here’s the video, as well as the slides and a transcript of (roughly) what I said in the talk.

    • Programming/Development

      • Bertrand MeyerStatement Considered Harmful

        I harbor no illusion about the effectiveness of airing this particular pet peeve; complaining about it has about the same chance of success as protesting against split infinitives or music in restaurants. Still, it is worth mentioning that the widespread use of the word “statement” to denote a programming language element, such as an assignment, that directs a computer to perform some change, is misleading. “Instruction” is the better term.

      • EarthlyError Handling in Python

        This article will introduce the concept of exception handling in Python and cover the built-in exceptions provided by the language. The article will also cover how to define and raise custom exceptions in Python, and how to use the try-except block to handle exceptions. Other related statements like try-finally and raise will also be discussed in detail. The article will also cover best practices for error handling.

  • Leftovers

    • India TimesNew York Times to get around $100 million from Google over three years: report

      The New York Times is getting around $100 million from Google over three years as part of a broad deal that allows the Alphabet Inc unit to feature Times content on some of its platforms, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

      The deal includes the Times' participation in Google News Showcase, a product that pays publishers to feature their content on Google News and some other Google platforms, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter.

    • Science

      • Cryptography EngineeringPRFs, PRPs and other fantastic things

        Pseudorandom functions (PRFs) and pseudorandom permutations (PRPs) are two of the most fundamental primitives in modern cryptography. If you’ve ever implemented any cryptography yourself, there’s an excellent chance you relied on an algorithm like AES, HMAC or ChaCha20 to implement either encryption or authentication. If you did this, then you probably relied on some security property you assumed those primitives to have. But what precisely is that security property you’re relying on?

    • Education

    • Hardware

      • Connor TumblesonLost Treasure: K'NEX

        K'NEX was a toy that was an alternative to LEGOs because they worked a bit differently. A K'NEX structure as seen above was much more wire-frame in shape with rods and connectors to connect the pieces. This can be seen in stark comparison to LEGOs which was just a collection of plates and bricks.

        Now of course if you look at both those toys in present day - they introduced so many different pieces that anything that was once specific to one toy is no more. So we should turn the clock back to the 1990's to look at how these toys were ~20 years ago.

      • The Drone GirlTeal 2 offers an American made, military-grade drone for night flights

        If the name Teal 2 feels somewhat familiar to you, that’s because the drone isn’t completely new. It was previously available only to early-adopter customers, which included U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In fact, that agency ordered 54 units of the Teal 2 to provide supplemental airborne reconnaissance, surveillance and tracking capability, enhancing situational awareness for U.S. field commanders and agents. Teal also had been visiting NATO countries to discuss how Ukrainian forces might use the Teal 2 to counter Russian forces particularly after dark.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • ReasonFauci and Biden Are Rewriting the History of COVID-19 Restrictions

        Here are three people whose record on COVID-19 shouldn't be forgotten.

      • Hong Kong Free PressHong Kong pro-democracy union that distributed Covid-19 supplies should be exempt from gathering ban, defence says

        A Hong Kong pro-democracy union that held a street booth to distribute pandemic supplies in 2020 should be exempted from the Covid-19 ban, the defence has argued. Four members of the Construction Site Workers General Union – Tsang Ho-yuen, Yung Ka-man, Wong Chun-yu and May Lam – appeared at Eastern Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

      • Michael West MediaLegislative change if High Court rules for Qantas

        Legislation bolstering workers’ protections will be drafted by the Albanese government if the High Court rules in favour of Qantas over its decision to outsource more than 1600 workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Qantas is appealing two rulings by the Federal Court, which found the outsourcing of baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff was illegal.

      • Michael West MediaQantas faces off in High Court over workforce cull

        Qantas will launch its legal challenge in the High Court in a bid to overturn a judgement relating to its controversial decision to outsource more than 1600 workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Qantas is appealing two rulings by the Federal Court, which found the outsourcing of baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff was illegal.

      • The Straits TimesLearning how to smile again: Japan holds lessons for life without mask post-Covid-19 pandemic

        Demand for smiling lessons rose 4.5 times compared to the previous year.

      • uni MichiganUniversity’s COVID-19 response entering new phase

        The comprehensive health and safety response that U-M created during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic will transition to a new phase this week, affecting employee benefits, as well as COVID testing on campus.

      • NPRPsychologists issue health advisory for teens and social media

        For the first time, the American Psychological Association has issued recommendations for guiding teenager's use of social media. The advisory, released Tuesday, is aimed at teens, parents, teachers and policy makers.

        This comes at a time when teenagers are facing high rates of depression, anxiety and loneliness. And, as NPR has reported, there's mounting evidence that social media can exacerbate and even cause these problems.

      • LRT‘There are no safe areas in Lithuania’ – climate change gives boost to tick-borne diseases

        Lithuania currently has the highest rates of tick-borne encephalitis in Europe. Getting vaccinated can help protect against it. Milda Žigutienė, a specialist at the National Centre for Public Health (NVSC), spoke to LRT RADIO about the dangers presented by ticks.

      • India TimesCondom maker Mankind up 23% in India's biggest listing of 2023

        Shares of Manforce condom maker Mankind Pharma Ltd surged as much as 23% in debut trading on Tuesday, valuing the company at 531.58 billion rupees ($6.50 billion), and making it the biggest domestic listing so far this year.

      • The EconomistSuicide rates for girls are rising. Are smartphones to blame?

        Spurred by recent data showing a rise in depression among American teenagers, both the British and American press have barraged readers with stories about social media ravaging young people’s mental health. Jonathan Haidt of New York University has compared social media to waterboarding. The public has noticed: in a recent survey, 53% of Americans said that social media were mostly or fully responsible for increasing teenagers’ depression.

        Smartphones went global long ago. If they are causing an epidemic of sadness, evidence should appear around the world. Data support the claim that young people, particularly girls, have deteriorating mental health. But they leave room for doubt that mobiles are the main culprit.

      • SalonYes, loneliness really is as deadly as smoking — here's why

        Yet attitudes on loneliness and its effect on us are slowly changing: indeed, United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently stated that loneliness is so damaging to humans that it is a health risk. And not a minor one: Murthy compared it to smoking cigarettes, something that research bears out.

      • France24US sends reinforcements to border as migrants gather ahead of end to Title 42

        The Biden administration and Texas state government are sending reinforcements to the US-Mexico border to prepare for a possible increase in illegal immigration when COVID-19 restrictions known as€ Title€ 42€ are set to end on Thursday.

    • Proprietary

      • Bruce SchneierAI Hacking Village at DEF CON This Year

        At DEF CON this year, Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI and Stability AI will all open up their models for attack.

      • India TimesTwitter to purge inactive accounts, Musk warns follower count could drop

        Micro-blogging site Twitter will purge accounts that have been inactive for years, according to a tweet by CEO Elon Musk, who added that users on the social media platform could see a drop in follower count.

      • Silicon AngleNew Cactus ransomware encrypts itself to avoid detection by security software

        Discovered by security researchers at Kroll LLC, the ransomware, dubbed “Cactus,” is believed to have first been deployed in March. The ransomware targets known vulnerabilities in Fortinet Inc. VPN appliances to gain access to major organizations before getting to work.

      • FiatjafBluesky is a scam

        Bluesky advertises itself as an open network, they say people won’t lose followers or their identity, they advertise themselves as a protocol (“atproto”) and because of that they are tricking a lot of people into using them. These three claims are lies.

      • India TimesLinkedIn lays off 700 employees, exits China app as demand wavers

        LinkedIn, which has 20,000 employees, has grown revenue each quarter during the last year, but it joins other major technology companies including its parent in laying off workers amid a weakening global economic outlook.

      • BW Businessworld Media Pvt LtdLinkedIn To Begin Layoffs, Shuts China App Amid Intense Competition

        In a letter to employees, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky said that the company will invest in opportunities for “profitable growth and capture share amidst the current cycle”. He added that this would involve reducing roles and also opening up 250 new roles in the segments of operations, new business and account management teams starting on 15 May.

      • Computer WorldLinkedIn lays off 716 staffers, to shut China job app

        Employment-focused social media platform LinkedIn on Tuesday said it would let go of 716 staffers as it shuts down a job search app in China and prepares for tapering revenue growth [sic].

      • Windows TCO

    • Pseudo-Open Source

    • Security

      • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

        • IT WireVictoria announces digital driving licence trial in Ballarat

          In a statement on Monday, the State Government said drivers in Ballarat would have the option to store the digital licence either in the Services Victoria app or else the VicRoads app; the latter is to be launched soon.

          Ballarat residents will be able to sign up for the trial through either the Service Victoria or VicRoads websites in June before the trial begins in July. Those who register will be invited to add a digital version of the licence to their smartphones.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Rolling StoneThey Hired a P.I. to Find Missing Loved Ones. He Turned Them Into YouTube Content

        FOR FAMILIES WHO ARE IN THE MIDST of the crisis of a missing relative, vetting the background of P.I.s is not always a priority — which can, in turn, make them vulnerable. There have been reports about fake private investigators conning families out of cash, or scammers using information shared on platforms like Facebook to request ransom money from unwitting, worried families; many of these scams are made possible through information picked up on social media.

    • Environment

      • IDADark skies over Shanghai: Celebrating International Dark Sky Week with the Shanghai Astronomy Museum and Rémy Martin.

        You can set your watch by it. At 10 pm every night—11 pm in the Summer—the light display in the Shanghai central business district goes dark. I was there as the guest of Frank Fei Guo, a local lighting designer and leader of DarkSky Shanghai. As a city of 26 million, it’s far from dark even once the display lights turn off, but it does demonstrate even large cities can take steps towards mitigating light pollution.

      • Institute for Policy StudiesHIGH FLYERS 2023: How Ultra-Rich Private Jet Travel Costs the Rest of Us and Burns Up Our Planet [PDF]

        ● Private jets emit at least 10 times more pollutants than commercial planes per passenger. Unsurprisingly, approximately 1 percent of people are believed to be responsible for about half of all aviation carbon emissions. In addition, since the start of the pandemic, private jet use has increased by about a fifth and private jet emissions have increased more than 23 percent, according to a recent study.

        ● Private jets make up approximately one out of every six flights handled by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) but contribute just 2 percent of the taxes that make up the trust fund that primarily funds the FAA. Instead, the majority (roughly 70 percent) of the tax revenue that makes up the aviation trust fund is financed by passengers purchasing commercial air travel. Passengers pay a 7.5 percent tax on the prices of their tickets plus a passenger facility charge of no more than $4.50. Passenger taxes are increasing as flight prices increase. Meanwhile, private jet fliers only pay fuel surcharge taxes — roughly $0.22 per gallon of jet fuel.

      • Energy/Transportation

        • QuartzChina and Saudi Arabia are teaming up on steel decarbonization

          China and Saudi Arabia have in recent months signed multibillion-dollar energy deals. The kingdom has pledged to support China’s energy security, and Beijing has welcomed Riyadh into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the political and security bloc led by China and Russia.

        • India TimesLiechtenstein to allow payment for certain state services in Bitcoin: report

          Liechtenstein plans to allow Bitcoin payments for certain state services, Prime Minister Daniel Risch told the German business daily Handelsblatt in an interview.

        • ForbesCurrent Climate: The White House Aims To Tax The Electricity Used To Mine [Cryptocurrencies]

          Mining cryptocurrencies uses a lot of energy. According to the University of Cambridge, just Bitcoin’s annualized power consumption right now is about 135 terawatt-hours per year. That’s more than the entire country of Norway, and has implications for a world trying to move to net zero. As a result, the Biden Administration’s 2024 budget proposes a 30% excise tax on the electricity used for cryptocurrency mining operations. The tax would phase in over the course of several years and also require companies to report the type of energy they’re using to produce their [cryptocurrency].

        • Politico LLC[Cryptocurrency] foes gird to stop mines from ‘spreading like cancer’

          [Cryptocurrency] mines — banks of computers that run to obtain digital currency — can operate as much as 24 hours per day, seven days a week and, depending on their energy source, can spew significant levels of planet-warming gases.

        • AxiosSBF asks court to dismiss most criminal charges against him

          After FTX began to unravel in early November, Bankman-Fried said publicly he was unaware of the depth of the [cryptocurrency] exchange's financial problems and those at trading firm Alameda Research, FTX's sister company.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Bridge MichiganAnishinaabe tribes work to save Michigan whitefish

          Commercial fishers are catching fewer whitefish in parts of the Great Lakes – and the Anishinaabe people are trying to figure out why. The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians is looking into low reproduction rates for the fish.

          Great Lakes whitefish are pretty popular. Whether it’s smoked whitefish spread or an old-fashioned fish boil, it’s something of a tradition for some folks. But, whitefish has been important to Native Americans for a long, long time.

      • Overpopulation

        • El PaísWill my child be able to survive on this earth?

          This question — which more and more people seem to be asking — was followed by other related queries: how drastic is climate change? What can I do, individually and collectively, to reverse the damage we have caused? Who is responsible for the majority of pollution? Are other people asking these same questions? Does anyone have the answers?

        • France24DR Congo buries its flood victims as death toll surpasses 400

          This can increase the destruction wrought by the floods and landslides that were already common in South Kivu. Poor urban planning and weak infrastructure also make it more vulnerable to such events.

        • Los Angeles TimesTracking the California drought

          The American Southwest is experiencing its driest period in 1,200 years. Storms in the winter of 2023 eased some of California's extreme drought conditions, officials stress that conservation should remain a way of life.

          State regulators track water use in cities and towns, collecting monthly data from more than 400 urban supplies that serve about 37.2 million Californians.

        • The San Joaquin Valley SunCalif.’s population continues shrinking, with one exception: the Valley.

          The big picture: California’s population decreased by 0.3 percent from 39.1 million at the start of 2022 to an estimated 38.9 million at the start of 2023.

          The decline in population has slowed down in the last six months of 2022 due to factors such as reduced immigration, deaths from COVID, and remote work exodus.

        • The HinduMathematically quantifying water needs of Odisha, Chhattisgarh in Mahanadi River water dispute

          Behind all noises over the dispute, a monumental effort is underway to churn out mountains of data, which could actually help quantify the claim over every drop of Mahanadi water— an ‘unprecedented’ attempt to resolve inter-State River water dispute in India.

          The inter-State Mahanadi Basin is mainly spread across Chhattisgarh and Odisha accounting for more than 99.5% of the basin area. A small portion of the catchment of less than 0.5% of the basin lies in the co-basin States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

    • Finance

      • AntiWarThe Flight From the US Dollar

        On March 20, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. In his article in the Russian media preceding the meeting, XI enthused that "China-Russia trade exceeded 190 billion U.S. dollars last year, up by 116 percent from ten years ago."

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • RFATaking the TikTok trail
      • European UnionEurope Day

        Europe Day held on 9 May every year celebrates peace and unity in Europe. The date marks the anniversary of the historic 'Schuman declaration' that set out his idea for a new form of political cooperation in Europe, which would make war between Europe's nations unthinkable. Schuman's proposal is considered to be the beginning of what is now the European Union.

      • Patrick BreyerLeaked EU Council legal analysis: EU chat control plans for indiscriminately searching private messages doomed to failure

        The Council’s official Legal Service opinion on the legality of the proposed Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR), also named “Chat control”, has been leaked. The Council legal experts advise EU governments that the EU Commission’s proposal of ordering e-mail, messaging and chat providers to search all private messages for allegedly illegal material and report them to the police (“detection orders”) likely fails to comply with fundamental rights, thus would probably be annulled by the European Court of Justice. The experts also voice concerns regarding generalised age verification for communications services.

      • The Register UKWhite House pledges $140 million for seven new AI research centers

        It's not clear exactly what was discussed. The Biden administration said the conversation was "to underscore this responsibility and emphasize the importance of driving responsible, trustworthy, and ethical innovation with safeguards that mitigate risks and potential harms to individuals and our society."

        The White House was criticized for excluding academic institutions and other non-profit organizations from the meeting. But the administration hinted that AI experts outside of industry will get a chance to talk to officials at some point too.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • TechdirtHow Will China Answer The Hardest AI Question Of All?

        One Chinese chatbot began by warning: “Please note that I will avoid answering political questions related to China’s Xinjiang, Taiwan, or Hong Kong.” Another simply refused to respond to questions touching on sensitive topics such as human rights or Taiwanese politics.

      • Archive TodayChina releases rules for generative AI like ChatGPT after Alibaba, Baidu launch services

        The Cyberspace Administration of China’s draft measures lay out the ground rules that generative AI services have to follow, including the type of content these products are allowed to generate.

        For example, the content generated by AI needs to reflect the core values of socialism and should not subvert state power, according to the draft rules.

      • Archive TodayWhy Chatbot AI Is a Problem for China

        The Chinese Communist Party keeps itself in power through censorship, and under its domineering leader, Xi Jinping, that effort has intensified in a quest for greater ideological conformity. Chatbots are especially tricky to censor. What they blurt out can be unpredictable, and when it comes to micromanaging what the Chinese public knows, reads, and shares, the authorities don’t like surprises.

      • France24Iran hangs two men for blasphemy as executions rise amid unrest

        Iran on Monday hanged two men on charges of spreading blasphemy on social media, prompting US condemnation and accusations from Amnesty International the Islamic republic has reached a "new low" in a spree of executions.

      • ABCIran hangs 2 in rare blasphemy case as executions surge

        The two men executed, Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare, died at Arak Prison in central Iran. They had been arrested in May 2020, accused of being involved in a channel on the Telegram message app called “Critique of Superstition and Religion,” according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Both men faced months of solitary confinement and could not contact their families, the commission said.

        The Mizan news agency of Iran's judiciary confirmed the executions, describing the two men as having insulted Islam's Prophet Muhammad and promoted atheism. Mizan also accused them of burning a Quran, Islam's holy book, though it wasn't clear whether the men allegedly did that or such imagery was shared in the Telegram channel.

      • Deutsche WelleIran executes 2 over blasphemy charges

        In a long statement, the judiciary said the duo ran various online anti-religion platforms dedicated to what it described as insulting Islam and its sanctities and promoting atheism.

        It claimed that one of the accused confessed in March 2021 to publishing the content. Such confessions are believed to be forced under duress, as per rights groups based outside Iran.

      • Canberra TimesIran hangs two men for blasphemy as executions surge

        Two men convicted of blasphemy in Iran have been hanged in rare death sentences for the crime, as executions surge across the Islamic Republic.

      • Jerusalem PostIran hangs two men for crimes of blasphemy, insulting Islam

        The two were running dozens of online anti-religion platforms dedicated to the hatred of Islam, the promotion of atheism and insults to sanctities, Mizan reported.

        UN experts have called on majority Shi'ite Muslim Iran to stop persecution and harassment of religious minorities pointing out an Iranian policy of targeting dissenting beliefs or religious practices, including Christian converts and atheists.

      • RTLOutcry after Iran hangs two on blasphemy charges

        In Washington, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the executions were a "grave reminder of the Iranian regime's penchant for abusing and violating the human rights of Iranian people."

        "Blasphemy laws remain an affront to human rights worldwide, including in Iran," he told reporters.

      • RFERLIran Hangs Two Men For Blasphemy

        Zare's and Mehrdad's cases reportedly date to 2019, when charges were filed against them in the Arak Revolutionary court. Mehrdad, a father of three young children, was accused of online blasphemy, as well as having burned a Koran. Zare was reported to have confessed to insulting the prophet and Islam.

        Their hangings add to a growing list that has seen Iran execute one person every six hours in the past two weeks, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization.

      • JURISTSwedish-Iranian dual national Habib Chaab executed in Iran over alleged terrorism charges

        Norway-based human rights group, Iran International, condemned the execution of Chaab on Twitter, labelling the trial in Iran as a “sham trial.” The organisation highlighted Chaab as “one of three Iranian dissidents who have been abducted by state agents and brought back to Iran since 2019.”

      • VOA NewsIran Executes Two Men for Blasphemy

        The report said their crimes included insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, and that they used online platforms to spread hatred of Islam and promote atheism.

      • JURISTIran executes 2 men for blasphemy
      • RFAOutspoken university scholar stopped while crossing border to Hong Kong

        "She has always espoused universal values [like freedom and democracy] and has exposed a lot of injustice in China," Gao said. "She was the only person at Tsinghua to speak up in support of Xu Zhangrun, and was hauled in by [university authorities] for it."

      • The HinduI am already living a bonus period, Kharge says in response to a death threat to him

        “What is the average life expectancy in India? It is around 70 years. I am 81 years old now. I am already in the bonus period. If everything goes well, I may live another eight or nine years. If you [BJP] think your problems will be solved by eliminating me, just kill me. I am ready for it. But, don’t think that you will get rid of questions. If I am not there, somebody else will be there to question your misdeeds. I am not afraid of your death threats. I won’t stop speaking the truth and exposing your misdeeds. I would continue to do my duty no matter who would do what to silence me,” Mr. Kharge said at a public meeting in Kalaburagi on Monday.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • CoryDoctorowCalifornia to smash prison e-profiteers

        It's a double-whammy that defines 21st century American life: a corporation gets caught doing something terrible, exploitative or even murderous, and a government agency steps in – only to discover that there's nothing it can do, because Reagan/Trump/Clinton/Bush I/Bush II deregulated that industry and stripped the agency of enforcement powers.

      • 37signals LLCIn defense of the office [Ed: "The modern world we live in was designed and executed from an office," he argues. He could say the same about slavery.]

        You're never getting me back into an office. I credit much of my career to escaping that place in the early 2000s. It wasn't until I found the prolonged solitude of working from home that I could consistently make big leaps in my creative process. The pandemic taught millions the same lesson. And yet – AND YET! – I'm going to come to the defense of the office.



        Because I find it so nonsensical to hear remote-work advocates proclaim the universal, moral superiority of abolishing the office, as I did listening to those who couldn't envision productive work from home just a few minutes ago. Let's be real here. The modern world we live in was designed and executed from an office. It's a perfectly legitimate way of working.

      • RFARenowned Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden dies at 53

        Award-winning Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden, best-known for “Jinpa” and “Balloon” and admired by both Chinese and Tibetans for his work showing the living conditions of Tibetans, died in Lhasa on Monday, several sources told Radio Free Asia. He was 53.

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • Mirror UKWindows 10 users face costly upgrade after Microsoft makes shock announcement

        Microsoft has just dealt some seriously bad news to millions of Windows 10 users and it could prove costly for anyone with an older PC in their homes. The Redmond company has just confirmed that its latest Windows 10 release, called 22H2, is going to be its last which means users of this hughly popular software will no longer get exciting new features or shiny game-changing upgrades.

      • [Repeat] Tom's HardwareAMD TPM Exploit: faulTPM Attack Defeats BitLocker and TPM-Based Security (Updated)

        The report is especially pertinent now that Microsoft has added TPMs to its system requirements for Windows 11, a move met with resistance due to its deleterious impact on gaming performance even when it works correctly, and severe stuttering issues when it does not. Yes, the TPM requirement is easily circumvented. Still, Microsoft's push for the feature has increased the number of applications relying solely on TPM 2.0 for security features, thus increasing the cross-section of applications vulnerable to the new faulTPM hack.

      • AFK GamingHow to Fix the TPM 2.0 Error in Valorant

        There are two key components known as Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 that are essential if you want to play Valorant on Windows 11. If either of the features do not work, they will prevent Valorant from working on your system.

        Secure Boot is one of the features of the latest Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) that protects users from security threats. TPM 2.0 is a hardware security measure needed to use Windows 11. Both TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot need to be enabled to play Valorant and if both are disabled, you will get the TPM 2.0 error in Valorant.

    • Monopolies

      • VarietyWhy Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Buy Hinges on Cloud Gaming

        The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the deal April 26, citing concerns that Microsoft would gain an anticompetitive advantage in cloud gaming if it decided to withhold Activision’s “Call of Duty,” the leading franchise on consoles, from services competing against Xbox Game Pass.

      • Copyrights

        • India TimesApple loses bid to revive US copyright claims over iOS simulation

          The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals said Corellium lawfully recreated Apple's system under the US copyright doctrine of fair use, furthering scientific progress by aiding important security research.

          Representatives for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision.



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IRC logs for Wednesday, November 06, 2024
Microsoft-Connected Publishers Want Us to Think That Linux is Some Sort of a Virus and a "Backdoor"
"The problem is with windows and the attack vector is via Windows"
We've Made it to 18! Here's to Another 18!
Going on for another 18 years means until some time at the end of 2042
Links 07/11/2024: Political Angst and Laptop Issues
Links for the day
Links 06/11/2024: BPF in RFC 9669, More Facebook Fines for Privacy Abuses
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/11/2024: Political Shock and Hermaic Encouragement
Links for the day
Planet Debian Allows Politics (But It Depends on Your Opinions and Debian's Big Sponsors)
Planet Debian is OK with politics... as long as all your political opinions are the "correct" ones and you add cute animals
Let's Encrypt Falls to a New Low of Only 0.6% of Gemini Capsules Known to Lupa
In Gemini Protocol, certificates for encryption are required, but centralised Certificate Authorities (CAs) aren't needed
Computer-Generator Crap Flooding the Web, the Latest Example About "Linux"
Here's today's example
Links 06/11/2024: Election Disinformation and Legal Actions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/11/2024: Stargazing and Death on Hallowe'en
Links for the day
Would You Trust a Liar?
Why lie about the authorship?
Mass Layoffs at Mozilla Announced During US Elections
Maybe nobody will notice?
[Meme] Announcing "Results" Before Everyone Even "Played"
There is a "tech" angle to otherwise political news
US Polls Close in One Minute (Social Control Media Does Not Care, Will Not Wait)
US election results will be known in about 2 days
Concentration and Centralisation Versus Aggregation or Syndication
KDE has a history of burying old sites
Social Control Media, Even Hours Before Polls Have Closed
Has social control media controlled by CPC (TikTok) and the Trumpmobile guy (Musk's "X") done enough to convince people not to even vote (based on presumptive "results", presented a long time before all polls have closed)?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 05, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 05, 2024
Wayland Pains in Community-Led Distros of GNU/Linux
Few people and companies use Wayland; there's hardly any technical or practical reason to choose it
IBM Still Conflating Microsoft With 'Security'
As a meme
Sanctions Cause Fragmentation in Software
some Chinese Linux developers are already subjected to restrictions similar to Russians'
Web Failing With Slop, Even in 'Linux' Sites (LLM Spam)
Add SEO prompting to the mix and the Web becomes a pool of slop, not knowledge
[Meme] State of the World Wide Web and Online Journalism
Technically a failure (DRM) and cannot even get basic things right
Trump's signature policy, building a wall, copied from Irish-Australian student politician
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linus Torvalds' self-deprecating LKML CoC mail linked to Hitler's first writing: Gemlich letter
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] Turning 18 in One Day
just one more day
Birthday Tomorrow
Many cakes and drinks are ready; we're one day away now
The Internet is Failing to Protect Democratic Processes and Human Knowledge
Amplifying lies, rewarding plagiarists
Links 05/11/2024: Criminal Referrals Regarding Patent Trolls and Disinformation About the Election Process (Already)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/11/2024: 'App' Needed for Parking, NNCP, Gomphotherium
Links for the day
How Voting Does Not Work
You cannot vote from an "app"
Saving the Planet With Honesty, Transparency, and Sharing (Not Only of Computer Code)
GAFAM is destroying the only habitat humans and other animals have and it'll only get worse
Disinformation About Election Outcomes Even Before Any Election Outcomes (or Election/Voting!)
seeding doubt about election outcomes
Links 05/11/2024: Bluesky and Enshittification, Pugad Baboy, and Lots of Disinformation Flooding the Web
Links for the day
[Meme] Sweaty Under the Belly
"OK, my critics are 'spam'"
Microsoft Bribing Canonical (to Stop Competing) and Bribing Users to Shun the Competition
Canonical is worth shunning
[Meme] The 2024 'Info Bros'
And prehistoric googling
Computers Getting Worse (for the User) Over Time
This is like Windows-ism coming to "Linux" through the hardware
[Meme] How NOT to Vote
Another form of (mostly-unspoken-of) election interference
An LLM Inside a 'Search' Engine Means That Companies Tell You What They Want, Not What Web Pages to Visit
The future of 'googling' things might be as unreliable as using Social Control Media as a source of information
Google's Debt Has Increased and 'Cash on Hand' Fell by 22.27% This Past Year
These are the numbers that the corporate media intentionally leaves out
Against Outsourcing of Sites and E-mail
Software Freedom is great, but it is not enough if you let someone else do it 'for you'
Drew DeVault: People Talking About My Attack Site (Against the Founder of GNU/Linux) is "Spam"
"Spam on sr.ht mailing lists"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 04, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 04, 2024
There's a Reason Why Techrights is Turning 18 and Tux Machines Will Turn 20.5 Next Month
I started advocating GNU/Linux when I was a teenager
"Oppose the Fascist"
what the founder of GNU/Linux said
Techrights Has a Long History of Fighting to Expose 'Team Mono' or Microsofters Inside GNOME
Never downplay the malice of Microsoft and its operatives
Halloween, All Saints Day & Swiss citizenship
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 05/11/2024: Halloween Over, Intention and Implementation, Bookmark Syncing
Links for the day