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Links 08/06/2023: Istio 1.18 and FreeIPMI 1.6.11



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • ZDNetThe best Linux laptops of 2023

        ZDNET has researched the best Linux laptops available based on performance, design, cost, and more to help programmers find the right fit for their needs.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Applications

      • Announcing Istio 1.18.0

        We are pleased to announce the release of Istio 1.18. This is the second Istio release of 2023, and the first to ship with Ambient mode! We would like to thank the entire Istio community for helping get the 1.18.0 release published. We would like to thank the Release Managers for this release, Paul Merrison from Tetrate, Kalya Subramanian from Microsoft and Xiaopeng Han from DaoCloud. The release managers would specially like to thank the Test & Release WG lead Eric Van Norman (IBM) for his help and guidance throughout the release cycle. We would also like to thank the maintainers of the Istio work groups and the broader Istio community for helping us throughout the release process with timely feedback, reviews, community testing and for all your support to help ensure a timely release.

      • Istio 1.18.0 Change Notes
        Deprecation Notices

        These notices describe functionality that will be removed in a future release according to Istio’s deprecation policy. Please consider upgrading your environment to remove the deprecated functionality.

      • Istio 1.18 Upgrade Notes

        When you upgrade from Istio 1.17.x to Istio 1.18.0, you need to consider the changes on this page. These notes detail the changes which purposefully break backwards compatibility with Istio 1.17.x. The notes also mention changes which preserve backwards compatibility while introducing new behavior. Changes are only included if the new behavior would be unexpected to a user of Istio 1.17.x.

      • Top 17 Penetration Testing Tools You Need to Know in 2023

        The idea behind penetration testing is to identify security-related vulnerabilities in a software application. Also known as pen testing, the experts who perform this testing are called ethical hackers who detect the activities conducted by criminal or black hat hackers.

        Penetration testing aims in preventing security attacks by conducting a security attack to know what damage can a hacker cause if a security breach is attempted, the outcomes of such practices help in making the applications and software more secure and potent.

      • TecMint15 Useful Performance and Network Monitoring Tools for Linux

        If you’re working as a Linux/Unix system administrator, sure you know that you must have useful monitoring tools to monitor your system performance.

        As monitoring tools are very important in the job of a system administrator or a server webmaster, it’s the best way to keep an eye on what’s going on inside your Linux system/server.

      • OMG! LinuxTrack Upcoming Events with ‘Countdown’ App for Linux

        I try to stay on top of upcoming events but when things are due to happen a little way down the line, it's a struggle.

      • Net2Five best screen recorders for Linux

        Screen recording comes in handy when creating a video tutorial, recording gameplay, live streaming or even something cool you just did and want to showcase it to others. Uses of a screen recorder are diverse and there are a ton of reasons to have one installed on your PC.

      • OMG UbuntuIntel’s New Open Source Mono Font is Pretty Decent

        Between IBM Plex Mono, Hack, Fira Code, and JetBrains Mono I think we Linux users are spoilt for choice when it comes to open-source monospace fonts that look good and work great. Still, there's always room for more, right? Intel thinks so, hence the release of Intel One Mono.

      • Sam Thursfield: State of screen reading reading on desktop Linux

        Reading a computer screen wears out your delicate eye-balls. I would like the computer to read some web-pages aloud for me so I can use my ears instead.

        Here’s what I found out recently about the available text-to-speech technology we have on desktop Linux today. (This is not a comprehensive survey, just the result of some basic web searches on the topic).

        The Read Aloud browser extension

        Read Aloud is a browser extension that can read web pages out for you. That seems a nice way to take a break from screen-staring.

        I tried this in Firefox and, it worked, but sounded like a robot made from garbage. It wasn’t pleasant to listen to articles like that.

        Read Aloud supports some for-pay cloud services that probably sound better, but I want TTS running on my laptop, not on Amazon or Google’s servers.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • LinuxiacUsers Can Now Take Advantage of Flathub’s New Documentation

        Flathub's users' documentation has been revamped and is now available. So dive into it to enhance your Flathub experience.

      • HowTo ForgeGuide to Install Rust and Use Cargo Package Manager on AlmaLinux 9

        In this guide, we'll take you through the installation process of Rust programming language on an AlmaLinux 9. You will install Rust with two different methods and learn the basic usage of the Cargo package manager for creating and managing the Rust project.

      • FOSSLinuxDealing with ‘Failed to Retrieve Share List’ Error in Linux SMB Share

        The Server Message Block (SMB) protocol is commonly used for file sharing between Linux and Windows machines. It's not uncommon, however, to run into errors such as 'Failed to retrieve share list from server: Invalid argument.' This error typically indicates a problem with accessing shared resources, which can be caused by various issues such as network misconfigurations, firewall restrictions, or outdated SMB versions.

      • UNIX CopInstall Able2Extract Professional on Ubuntu / Debian

        Hello, friends. In this post, you will learn how to install Able2Extract on Debian / Ubuntu. This tool is a marvel if you work with many PDF files. What is Able2Extract Professional? Able2Extract Professional is a proprietary tool for working with and manipulating PDF files.

      • Ruben SchadeDisable GUI on modern Debian

        This is how you disable the GUI after logging in and launching a shell:

        sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target
        sudo systemctl reboot
        

        I inadvertently installed a graphical environment installing a new Debian Xen test server. This will let you reboot to a tty.

        For fellow BSD people, remember that the systemctl(8) command has also kudzu’d shutdown(8) on most Linux distros now. I wonder how long it’ll take for sudoedit(8) to be replaced with systemctl text-editor-edit.

      • ZDNetWhat are AppImages and how do you use them on Linux?

        This unique format for distributing Linux applications keeps it simple -- mostly.

      • Data SwampQubes OS dom0 files workflow using fossil

        Since I'm using Qubes OS, I always faced an issue; I need a proper tracking of the configuration files for my systemthis can be done using Salt as I explained in a previous blog post. But what I really want is a version control system allowing me to synchronize changes to a remote repository (it's absurd to backup dom0 for every change I make to a salt file). So far, git is too complicated to achieve that.

      • ID RootHow To Install VMware Tools on Debian 11

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install VMware Tools on Debian 11. Are you using VMware virtualization technology for your virtualized environment? If so, then you should definitely consider installing VMware Tools.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install UFW on Linux Mint 21/20

        The Uncomplicated Firewall, or simply UFW, is a widely embraced network security tool that provides an intuitive interface for managing Linux IPTables firewall rules. It offers a user-friendly platform to manipulate the usually complex IPTables commands, making the process of administering a firewall seamless for both beginners and experienced users alike.

      • LinuxConfigHow to check command version on Linux
      • LinuxConfigHow to say YES to ALL with cp command
      • FOSSLinuxHow to display currently mounted file systems in Linux

        Understanding the currently mounted file systems in your Linux machine is crucial for system management and troubleshooting. Mounted file systems include disk partitions, device drivers, and remote servers that your Linux system recognizes and uses.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Oracle Java 17 on Linux Mint 21/20

        Java, the robust and versatile programming language has always been a preferred choice of developers worldwide.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Xfce on Debian 12/11/10

        XFCE stands as a remarkable desktop environment in the Linux ecosystem. Its core philosophy orbits around balance to provide a modern and user-friendly environment that does not compromise on performance or consume excessive resources.

      • University of TorontoI should read the Vim help more often

        A while back I wrote about handling numbers in Vim when they have a dash in front of them, and in a comment, Seth pointed me to a special option in visual mode, 'g Ctrl-A', which will increment a column of numbers the way I wanted here. Since this is visual mode, I can select the numbers without the leading dashes.

      • UbuntubuzzLibreOffice Calc Basics IX: MIN and MAX
      • UbuntubuzzHow To Add XLOOKUP Function to LibreOffice Calc

        This tutorial will explain in short how to make LibreOffice Calc able to do XLOOKUP by adding an extension called Lox365. It will give you abilities of xlookup and more features like Excel. We would love to say thank you very much to the developer, Goose Pirate, for creating it.€ 

      • TecMint10 Commands to Collect System and Hardware Info in Linux

        It is always a good practice to know the hardware components of your Linux system running, this helps you to deal with compatibility issues when it comes to installing packages, and drivers on your system using yum, dnf, or apt.

        In this article, we shall look at some useful Linux commands that can help you to extract information about your Linux system and hardware components.

      • Linux CapableHow to Enable Nginx HTTP/3 and QUIC

        HTTP/3 is the third version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is used for data communication on the World Wide Web. Compared to its predecessor, HTTP/2, HTTP/3 operates over QUIC, a transport layer protocol, instead of TCP. This change reduces latency and improves the browsing experience.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Falkon on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

        Falkon, previously known as QupZilla, is an open-source, cross-platform web browser that combines the prowess of KDE technology and the robustness of the QtWebEngine rendering engine. Designed with an intuitive interface, Falkon caters to power users seeking a reliable, efficient browsing experience while providing a customizable platform for the more technical folks.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install GoLand on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

        JetBrains GoLand is a robust integrated development environment (IDE) for Go programming, offering a comprehensive suite of features and tools tailored specifically for Go developers. It was meticulously developed by JetBrains, a renowned software company famous for creating leading IDEs for various programming languages.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Rider on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 [Ed: .NET is a poor choice for technical and legal reasons; explore the alternatives]

        If you're on a quest for a powerful, flexible, and intelligent development environment for .NET, look no further than JetBrains Rider.

      • LinuxConfigHow to extract text from PDF document
      • LinuxConfigHow to locate and set JAVA home directory on Linux
      • LinuxConfigBash base64 decode and encode on Linux
      • Linux HintHow to Use Git With VisualSVN Server?
      • Linux HintHow to Use “git status” for Inspecting Git Repository
      • Linux HintHow to Use “git-archive” Command in Git

        The “git archive” command permits the developers to package the entire history of a particular Git repository into a single archive file.

    • WINE or Emulation

      • Lutris 0.5.13 has been released

        With this release, we're adding back the ability to run games with Proton. While this can be an useful thing for testing compatibility, it is still recommended to stick with the builds provided by Lutris. We are now using @GloriousEggroll's Proton based builds by default, which makes using Steam's proton an even narrower edge case.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • 9to5LinuxKDE Gear 23.04.2 Is Out to Improve Dolphin, Kdenlive, and Other KDE Apps

          KDE Gear 23.04.2 is here less than a month after KDE Gear 23.04.1 and improves the Dolphin file manager to remember opened tabs on launch if it is configured this way by the user. It would appear that this functionality broke recently during the process of fixing a bug.

          The Spectacle screenshot tool has been updated so that its sidebar can accommodate long button text in some languages and the Gwenview image viewer now opens the specified app when using the “Open With” menu instead of a different one.

        • KDEKDE Gear 23.04.2

          Over 120 individual programs plus dozens of programmer libraries and feature plugins are released simultaneously as part of KDE Gear. Today they all get new bugfix source releases with updated translations, including...

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Open Source Security (Audio Show)Rocket ships and€ radishes

      There’s been something in the back of my brain that’s been bothering me about talks at the big conferences lately but I just couldn’t figure out how to talk about it. Until I listed to this episode of The Hacker Mind Podcast on Self Healing Operating Systems (it’s a great podcast, like and subscribe). The episode was all about this incredibly bizarre way to store operating system state in a SQL database (yeah, you read that right). The guest made no excuses that this is a pretty wild idea and it’s not going to happen anytime soon. But we need weird research like this, it’s part of the forward march of progress.



      [...]

      In the academic days (like our operating system example from the opening), it would be well understood that this was rocket ship research. It almost certainly wouldn’t go anywhere anytime soon, but was a step as part of the larger story of progress. As the arrow of time drags us all into the future, so does the path of progress, as long as you don’t live in Florida.

    • Linux JournalMinarca: A Backup Solution You'll Love

      Data backup is a crucial aspect of information management. Both businesses and individuals face risks such as hard drive failure, human error or cyberattacks, which can cause the loss of important data. There are many backup solutions on the market, but many are expensive or difficult to use.

      That's where Minarca comes in. Developed by Patrik Dufresne of IKUS Software, Minarca is an open source backup solution designed to offer a simplified user experience while providing management and monitoring tools for system administrators. So let's take a closer look at how Minarca came about and how it compares to other solutions.

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • TursoDatabase migrations made easy with Atlas

        Database migrations is one of the thorniest subjects there is. In short, they happen when a database schema must change to accommodate new or updated data. One simple example of a database migration is adding or removing columns from a table.

        There are many tools available to help the process of database migration, following a variety of approaches. In this article we will look at Atlas, a declarative tool for managing database schemas, that draws inspiration from infrastructure-as-code tools to manage migrations in a novel way.

    • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

      • 9to5LinuxLibreOffice 7.5.4 Office Suite Released with More Than 80 Bug Fixes

        Coming a little over a month after the LibreOffice 7.5.3 point release, LibreOffice 7.5.4 is here to address a total of 83 bugs that have been reported by users or discovered by the LibreOffice developers in the LibreOffice 7.5 series.

        The Document Foundation recommends all LibreOffice 7.5 users to update their installations to the new point release as soon as possible for better stability, reliability, and security.

    • GNU Projects

      • GNUfreeipmi @ Savannah: FreeIPMI 1.6.11 Released
        o Fix double free corner case in ipmiseld.
        o Support ISO 8601 date inputs to date range options in ipmi-sel.
        o Support Xilinx OEM FRU records.
        o Fix corner case in libipmimonitoring, support sensor if units€  
        €  is "RPM per minute", but just return "RPM" as the units.
        o Fix portability compilation on cygwin.
        o Fix typo in fiid template field that could lead to packet
        €  interpretation errors.
        https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/freeipmi/freeipmi-1.6.11.tar.gz
    • Licensing / Legal

      • Bruce SchneierHow Attorneys Are Harming Cybersecurity Incident Response

        So, we’re not able to learn from these breaches because the attorneys are limiting what information becomes public. This is where we think about shielding companies from liability in exchange for making breach data public. It’s the sort of thing we do for airplane disasters.

      • USENIXLessons Lost: Incident Response in the Age of Cyber Insurance and Breach Attorneys

        Incident Response (IR) allows victim firms to detect, contain, and recover from security incidents. It should also help the wider community avoid similar attacks in the future. In pursuit of these goals, technical practitioners are increasingly influenced by stakeholders like cyber insurers and lawyers. This paper explores these impacts via a multi-stage, mixed methods research design that involved 69 expert interviews, data on commercial relationships, and an online validation workshop. The first stage of our study established 11 stylized facts that describe how cyber insurance sends work to a small numbers of IR firms, drives down the fee paid, and appoints lawyers to direct technical investigators. The second stage showed that lawyers when directing incident response often: introduce legalistic contractual and communication steps that slow-down incident response; advise IR practitioners not to write down remediation steps or to produce formal reports; and restrict access to any documents produced.

    • Programming/Development

      • University of TorontoA retrospective on my thesis about language niches, fifteen years later

        The obvious niche that I missed was 'languages that run in web browsers', which started out being JavaScript and has spiralled outward from there (first with other languages that transpile to JavaScript and more recently with WebAssembly (WASM)). This niche became a massive thing over the past fifteen or so years and even spilled out from web browsers proper, with applications being written in 'web shells' such as Electron (which I consider basically browsers because, as I understand it, the API is primarily the browser's DOM API).

      • Alexandru NedelcuScala 3 Significant Indentation Woes: Sample

        Here's a fairly straightforward Scala 3 sample, using significant indentation. Can you spot the compilation error?

      • DataGeeekJAGS Simulation with Multivariate State-Space Model: The G7 on Food Security

        The 49th G7 summit was held recently in Japan. Ukraine was one of the most critical issues at the meeting; most of the session topic was related to problems stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. One of the problems, aforementioned is food security. Because of the war, energy prices have been up. And that has stimulated food inflation. Of course, that is not the only reason but one of the important ones, like the disruption of the food supply chain.

        In this article, we will model the food and energy inflation of the G7 countries since the 1990s and make their 5-year projection. We will use the multivariate state-space model with JAGS simulation for that purpose.

        First, we will build our data set for the model. We will use food and energy annual CPI rates with the 2015 base-year, from OECD.

      • Xe's BlogHow to enable API requests in Fresh

        We can't trust browsers because they are designed to execute arbitrary code from website publishers. One of the biggest protections we have is Cross-Origin Request Sharing (CORS), which prevents JavaScript from making HTTP requests to different domains than the one the page is running under.

      • Rlanguniform spacings

        A riddle on uniform spacings!, namely when considering eight iid Uniform (0,1) variates as visiting times and three further iid Uniform (0,1) variates as server availability times, with unit service time, the question being the probability a server is available for a ninth visiting time, T⁹.

      • GentooWeekly report 1, LLVM libc

        Hey! I had to start GSoC on sunday last week due to school, and I didn’t
        think that I’d write a weekly report for the first week but I decided to
        do it anyways.

        My plan for week 1 was:
        >This week I will set up a LLVM toolchain and sysroot for compiling
        >programs targeting LLVM libc. I will also start setting up a
        >“llvm-libc/Linux from Scratch” chroot.

        Because I played with LLVM libc before last week I had already completed this
        goal. Going forward I will only work in the sysroot until setting up
        crossdev because it’s simple and gives me everything I need to fix
        dependencies like Python.

        This far the project has been going pretty smooth, but I’ve also ran
        into some issues which I will comment on.

        catcream
      • RlangIntroduction to Propensity Score Analysis with R workshop

        Learn how to use propensity score analysis in R! Join our workshop on Introduction to Propensity Score Analysis with R which is a part of our workshops for Ukraine series.€ 

      • PHP

        • Linux HintHow to Use filter_var() Function in PHP

          The filter_var() function is used in PHP to filter a variable with a specified filter. For more details, follow this guide.

        • Linux HintHow to Use Die() Function in PHP

          The die() function in PHP is used to handle fatal errors by displaying the message before terminating the script.

        • Linux HintHow to Use Dechex() Function in PHP

          The dechex() function in PHP is used to convert the decimal value into hexadecimal value. For more details, follow this guide.

        • Linux HintHow to Use Calendar Functions in PHP?

          PHP offers a wide range of calendar functions that are useful for managing and displaying date and time data. Follow this guide to learn about them.

        • Linux HintHow to Use ucfirst() Function in PHP

          The ucfirst() function is a built-in PHP function that allows users to change the first letter of a string to uppercase, without modifying the rest of the string.

      • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

        • TecAdminA User’s Guide to Understanding Redirection Operators in Bash

          The command line is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal as a Linux user. While it may initially appear daunting, with the right knowledge, it can become an incredibly powerful asset. One key aspect of mastering the command line involves understanding redirection operators in Bash.

        • TecAdminSetting Up a Port Forwarding Using Iptables in Linux

          In computer networking, port forwarding is a technique that allows an outside user to reach a service on a private network that's otherwise inaccessible from the outside.

        • TecAdminGetting Started with Linux Mint: Your Download Guide

          In the realm of open-source operating systems, Linux Mint has become a beloved choice for many. Renowned for its versatility, Linux Mint boasts an intuitive and user-friendly environment that makes it a perfect gateway for those transitioning from other systems like Windows or MacOS.

      • Java and JavaScript

      • Rust

  • Leftovers

    • HackadayBooks You Should Read: Prototype Nation

      Over the years, I’ve been curious to dig deeper into the world of the manufacturing in China. But what I’ve found is that Western anecdotes often felt surface-level, distanced, literally and figuratively from the people living there. Like many hackers in the west, the allure of low-volume custom PCBs and mechanical prototypes has me enchanted. But the appeal of these places for their low costs and quick turnarounds makes me wonder: how is this possible? So I’m left wondering: who are the people and the forces at play that, combined, make the gears turn?

    • HackadayPlastic Welding Revisited

      Last time we talked about a video that purported to do plastic welding, we mentioned that the process wasn’t really plastic welding as we understood it. Judging by the comments, many people agreed, but it was still an interesting technique. Now [Inventor 101] has a video about plastic repair that also talks about welding, although — again, we aren’t sure all of the techniques qualify.

    • New York TimesA Stunning Merger Angers Athletes [Ed: Sportwashing by Saudi Arabia will ruin more sports]

      A professional golf merger is a victory for Saudi Arabia and another sign that money can overwhelm almost any other force in sports.

    • New York TimesSaudi Arabia’s LIV Golf Deal Is a Triumph That Transcends Sports [Ed: Triumph? Associating sports with crimes against women, gays, and more is no "Triumph"]

      The deal to merge LIV Golf with the PGA Tour is a big win for the oil-rich kingdom, headlining a banner week that also includes a visit from the American secretary of state.

    • The AtlanticThe PGA Tour’s Stunning Hypocrisy

      The preeminent golf league suddenly decided that Saudi Arabia’s many sins are not a problem.

    • Atlantic CouncilThe US should pay close attention to Saudi Arabia’s domestic policy

      Riyadh’s foreign priorities today are little more than a shadow of its plans at home. US officials should factor this reality into their plans to stabilize relations with the kingdom.

    • RFERLNorway Rescues Russian By Helicopter Near North Pole

      Norway rescued a Russian in need of emergency medical assistance on board a scientific vessel stuck in ice near the North Pole in a spectacular helicopter operation, its rescue services said on June 7.

    • Science

      • Science AlertArtificial Photosynthesis Could Be The Secret to Colonising Space

        Life beyond Earth may depend on this.

      • Computers Are Bad2023-06-07 something up there - nasa and uaps

        A brief note on Grusch

        First, a disclaimer of sorts: I am posting another article on UAPs, yet I am not addressing the recent claims by David Grusch. This is for a couple of reasons. First, I am skeptical of Grusch. He is not the first seemingly well-positioned former intelligence official to make such claims, and I think there's a real possibility that we are looking at the next Bob Lazar. Even without impugning his character by comparison to Lazar, Grusch claims only secondhand knowledge and some details make me think that there is a real possibility that he is mistaken or excessively extrapolating. As we have seen previously with the case of Luis Elizondo, job titles and responsibilities in the intelligence community are often both secretive and bureaucratically complex. It is very difficult to evaluate how credible a former member of the IC is, and the media complicates this by overemphasizing weak signals.

        Second, I am hesitant to state even my skepticism as Grusch's claims are very much breaking news. It will take at least a month or two, I think, for there to be enough information to really evaluate them. The state of media reporting on UAP is extremely poor, and I already see Grusch's story "growing legs" and getting more extreme in the retelling. The state of internet discourse on UAP is also extremely poor, the conversation almost always being dominated by the most extreme of both positions. It will be difficult to really form an opinion on Grusch until I have been able to do a lot more reading and, more importantly, an opportunity has been given for both the media and the government to present additional information.

        It is frustrating to say that we need to be patient, but our first impressions of individuals like Grusch are often dominated by our biases. The history of UFOlogy provides many cautionary tales: argumentation based on first impressions has both lead to clear hoaxes gaining enormous hold in the UFO community (profoundly injuring the credibility of UFO research) and to UAP encounters being ridiculed, creating the stigma that we are now struggling to reverse. In politics, as in science, as in life, it takes time to understand a situation. We have to keep an open mind as we work through that process.

      • Science AlertA Craft Has Flown Close Enough to The Sun to Detect The Source of Elusive Solar Winds

        Hello, Icarus.

    • Education

      • Julia EvansSome blogging myths

        A few years ago I gave a short talk (slides) about myths that discourage people from blogging. I was chatting with a friend about blogging the other day and it made me want to write up that talk as a blog post.

      • Rolling StoneShe Was Falsely Accused of Cheating With AI — And She Won’t Be the Last

        However, Stivers points out that the allegation of cheating is something she’ll have to self-report to law schools during the application process. State Bar associations, she says, are known to ask similar questions about academic history, meaning this misunderstanding could shadow her for years. Indeed, U.S. News & World Report advises law school and State Bar applicants to “err on the side of disclosure” and proactively report any “disciplinary procedures at their college” on the assumption that these can turn up in background checks. And, she says, the decision in her favor came down without an apology or acknowledgement of the mistake from her professor or the college itself. (The UC Davis Office of Student Support and Judicial Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.)

      • Alex EwerlöfMeeting-free days

        An unwanted side effect of hybrid work is more frequent and longer meetings. This leaves less time for focused work.

        Meeting-free days acknowledge that issue and aims to provide undisturbed time for focused work.

    • Hardware

      • HackadayOp-Amp Challenge: Virtual Ball-in-a-Box Responds To Your Motions

        With the incredible variety of projects submitted to our Op-Amp Contest, you’d almost forget that operational amplifiers were originally invented to perform mathematical operations, specifically inside analog computers. One popular “Hello World” kind of program for these computers is the “ball-in-a-box”, in which the computer simulates what happens when you drop a bouncy ball into a rigid box. [wlf647] has recreated this program using a handful of op amps and a classic display, and added a twist by making the system sensitive to gravity.

      • HackadayMoving The Snail Mail To WiFi

        [Zak] loves getting a notification on his phone when he gets physical mail. Enough to wire his mailbox slot with an ESP8285 to send him alerts. Previously, [Zak] used a cellular-based solution as the mailbox slot was not within WiFi range. However, the network provider for the A9G GPRS module decided to move to different towers, and suddenly the module didn’t work. Unable to find a provider that had sensible pricing, he got to work redesigning the module.

      • HackadayWell Documented Code Helps Revive Decades-Old Commodore Project

        In the 1980s, [Stephen] was working on his own RPG for the Commodore 64, inspired by dungeon crawlers of the era like Ultima IV and Telengard, both some of his favorites. The mechanics and gameplay were fairly revolutionary for the time and [Stephen] wanted to develop some of these ideas, especially the idea of line-of-sight, even further with his own game. But an illness, a stint in the military, and the rest of life since the 80s got in the way of finishing this project. This always nagged at him, so he finally dug out his decades-old project, dusted out his old Commodore and other antique equipment, and is hoping to finish it by 2024.

      • HackadayRoyal Navy Tests Quantum Navigation

        GPS has changed the way we get around the globe. But if you command a warship, you must think about what you would do if an adversary destroyed or compromised your GPS system. The Royal Navy and Imperial College London think a quantum navigation system might be the answer. Of course, Heisenberg says you can’t know your speed and position simultaneously. But at the real-world level, you can apparently get close enough. The quantum sensors in question are essentially accelerometers. Unlike conventional accelerometers, though, these devices use ultracold atoms to make very precise measurements using a laser optical ruler, which means they do not drift as rapidly as, say, the accelerometer in your phone. Navigating with accelerometers is well understood, but the issue is how often you have to correct your computed position with an actual reference due to drift and other error accumulation. You can see a Sky News report on the trial below.The tests were done in a rapid prototyping pod carried onboard XV Patrick Blackett, a fitting name for an experimental ship since Lord Blackett was a Nobel laureate and head of the physics department at Imperial College for a decade ending in 1963.The underlying tech came out of the university back in 2018, but making it work in a real-world environment onboard a ship is another matter. You probably won’t have the cryonics and lasers needed for such a quantum compass anytime soon in your smartphone, but the tech could have civilian applications for larger vehicles.

      • Tom's HardwareU.S. Semiconductor Fab Boom Kicks Off

        Spending on fab equipment continues to grow, despite macroeconomic challenges.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • El PaísPsychologist and Harvard professor Rebecca Rolland: ‘We are turning children into people who act robotically’

        A. There are many things that steal children’s time. That’s partly because we fill their schedules with so many things to do. Instead of talking to them, we load them up with experiences and don’t give them time to reflect. We are turning them into people who act robotically, and they are not creative people and do not follow their interests. Another very clear component [of this] is that there are children who are very focused on social media and using the internet. Of course, technology can be put to good use with children, but when they are too focused on searching [the internet] or looking at one perfect picture after another they don’t realize how much time they spend doing that. For example, I know of a case where a child was interacting only through social media. And I think we can’t have them lose those experiences as children and let their lives be focused only on the likes they get.

      • New York TimesAir Quality This Week Gives U.S. a Glimpse of the World’s Air Pollution

        Air-quality readings like the ones expected across parts of New York State on Wednesday would not be seen as particular cause for alarm in some parts of the world.

      • European CommissionOpening remarks by Vice-President Schinas and Commissioner Kyriakides on a comprehensive approach to mental health

        European Commission Speech Brussels, 07 Jun 2023 Remarks by Vice-President Schinas:

        Today, we are here to present a comprehensive, anthropocentric approach to mental health.

      • New York TimesWhen Politics Saves Lives: a Good-News Story

        The decision to fund medications to treat H.I.V.-AIDS patients in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean flew in the face of expert advice. But the U.S. did it anyway.

      • Hong Kong Free PressTight construction schedules stopping Hong Kong workers from following heatstroke guidelines, union says

        Construction workers at both government and private sites have been unable to properly follow new guidelines for working under extreme heat, a union has said, saying tight schedules prevented proper rest periods. Last Saturday, a construction worker died after being found unconscious while an amber warning was in place.

    • Proprietary

      • [Repeat] Light Blue TouchpaperWill GPT models choke on their own exhaust?

        In our latest paper, we show that using model-generated content in training causes irreversible defects. The tails of the original content distribution disappear. Within a few generations, text becomes garbage, as Gaussian distributions converge and may even become delta functions. We call this effect model collapse.

        Just as we’ve strewn the oceans with plastic trash and filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, so we’re about to fill the Internet with blah. This will make it harder to train newer models by scraping the web, giving an advantage to firms which already did that, or which control access to human interfaces at scale. Indeed, we already see AI startups hammering the Internet Archive for training data.

        After we published this paper, we noticed that Ted Chiang had already commented on the effect in February, noting that ChatGPT is like a blurry jpeg of all the text on the Internet, and that copies of copies get worse. In our paper we work through the math, explain the effect in detail, and show that it is universal.

      • TechdirtHumans Still Needed: ‘Firmament’ Players Complain About Game’s Lore Content Written By AI

        You can’t walk out of your front door these days without tripping over someone ready to tell you about the next great thing in artificial intelligence. And, hey, it’s for good reason. The last few months have seen an explosion of new tools that have come online and are capable of some seriously amazing things. But for all of the hand-wringing over where humanity will even fit into the world any longer now that ChatGPT can write me a three stanza poem about how great encased meat is (yes, I did this for real), the current generation of AI tools are not such that they globally apply to replacing human work anywhere and everywhere.

      • Scoop News GroupSecurity professional’s tweet forces big change to Google email authentication

        “This issue stems from a third-party security vulnerability allowing bad actors to appear more trustworthy than they are,” a Google spokesperson told CyberScoop in an email Monday. “To keep users safe, we are requiring senders to use the more robust DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) authentication standard to qualify for Brand Indicators for Message Identification (blue checkmark) status.” Advertisement

        The DKIM requirement should be fully in place by the end of the week, the Google spokesperson said, marking a change from the previous policy that required either DKIM or a separate standard — the Sender Policy Framework — both of which are used by email providers, in part, to determine whether incoming email is likely to be spam and to theoretically authenticate that a sender is who they claim to be. The spokesperson added that Google appreciated Plummer’s work to bring the problem to their attention.

      • ReasonLawyer Explains How He Used ChatGPT to Produce Filing "Replete with Citations to Non-Existent Cases"

        "Can you show me the courts opinion in Varghese v China Southern Airlines"? "Certainly! ... I hope that helps!"

      • The VergeMicrosoft has no shame: Bing spit on my ‘Chrome’ search with a fake AI answer

        Microsoft just gave itself a full-screen ad in search results by faking an AI interaction. This “search result” is juicing Microsoft’s own product instead of respecting its users’ intent.

      • DroidGazzetteMaryland becomes first state to offer driver’s license in both Apple and Google mobile wallets

        Anyone with a valid Maryland driver’s license can upload their ID into the digital wallet. These can be used at airport checkpoints at BWI Marshall Airport and the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

      • Kev QuirkApple WWDC 2023 - My Thoughts

        Yesterday was the Apple 2023 WWDC conference. There were some big announcements, here’s my thoughts…

        I caught up on the Apple event last night, and for the most part, I thought it was all a bit meh.

      • Windows TCO

        • Scoop News GroupUS cyber officials offer technical details associated with CL0P ransomware attacks

          The CL0P ransomware variant evolved from CryptoMix ransomware, according to the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Wednesday advisory. It started as a typical ransomware as a service platform — where a core group of developers lease access to the malware and other infrastructure to “affiliates” and split any profits — and was known for its double extortion method of stealing and encrypting data and then publishing that data on its leak website. The group is also known to sell access to compromised networks to others — known as an initial access broker — as well as operating a large botnet spcecializing in financial fraud and phishing attacks, the advisory said.

        • Silicon AngleClop gang uses MOVEit vulnerability to target BBC, British Airways and Boots

          The BBC, itself a victim of the attack, reported today that the Clop group posted a notice on its dark web site warning firms affected by the MOVEit hack to email them before June 14 or stolen data will be published. The report says more than 100,000 staff at the BBC, British Airways Plc and the pharmacy chain Boots UK Ltd. may have had payroll data stolen.

          The commonality between them is that they use a company called Zellis UK Ltd. for payroll and it was Zellis that was compromised, as opposed to the companies directly.

          “This is announcement to educate companies who use Progress MOVEit product that chance is that we download a lot of your data as part of exceptional exploit,” a post purportedly by Clop stated. SiliconANGLE could not confirm the message because Clop’s dark website was down at the time of writing. The reported message went on to urge victims to email the group to begin negotiations for payment for the nondisclosure of stolen data.

        • Security WeekBBC, British Airways, Novia Scotia Among First Big-Name Victims in Global Supply-Chain Hack

          The Cl0p cyber-extortion gang’s hack of the MOVEit file-transfer program popular with enterprises could have widespread global impact.

        • QuartzA Russian cyber gang is threatening to publish the payroll data of 100,000 people [Ed: But it's Microsoft Windows that gave away the data in the first place; quit blaming everything on "Russia"]

          A cybergang believed to be based in Russia has demanded ransom from some 100,000 victims of a hack it orchestrated recently.

        • Security WeekHackers Issue ‘Ultimatum’ Over Payroll Data Breach

          The Clop ransomware gang issued "an ultimatum" companies targeted in a recent large-scale hack of payroll data

        • Silicon AngleVerizon report finds business email compromise attacks have almost doubled [Ed: Conflating attacks with breaches, i.e. one can safely assume it's about Microsoft/Exchange/Outlook]
          A new report from Verizon Communications Inc. detail the growth in data breaches over the last year, finding that business email compromise attacks have almost doubled and now represent more than half of all social engineering incidents.

    • Linux Foundation

    • Security

      • HackadayHacking A Hyundai Ioniq’s Infotainment System Again After Security Fixes

        These days modern cars are nothing if not a grouping of networked software held together by bits of hardware. This is reflected not only in the rapidly increasing number of ECUs, but also infotainment systems and all-glass cockpits. For better or worse, this offers many exciting hacking possibilities, which [greenluigi1] was more than happy to explore with their new 2021 Hyundai Ioniq SEL last year. Naturally, Hyundai then proceeded to ‘fix’ these vulnerabilities, offering the exciting chance to test the Hyundai engineers’ homework, and proceed to bypass it again.

      • The State of Cloud-Native Security

        Cloud native is becoming the defacto development method for new applications and workloads. Yet, the cloud-native trend also brings accelerated deployment timelines, which could leave security gaps in CI/CD. Studies also find a rise in time to remediate security incidents and uncertainty concerning cloud-native security tooling adoption. The cloud-native also

      • Security WeekVMware Plugs Critical Flaws in Network Monitoring Product

        VMware ships urgent patches to cover security defects that expose businesses to remote code execution attacks.

      • Security WeekAndroid’s June 2023 Security Update Patches Exploited Arm GPU Vulnerability

        Google’s June 2023 security update for Android patches more than 50 vulnerabilities, including an Arm Mali GPU flaw exploited by spyware vendors.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • Off GuardianWHO launches new “digital health initiative”

          Kit Knightly On Monday, the World Health Organization and European Union announced the launch of their new “partnership”, building on the EU’s “highly successful” digital certification network, which was introduced during the “pandemic”. From the WHO’s website [emphasis added]: WHO will take up the European Union (EU) system of digital COVID-19 certification...

        • Privacy InternationalPI's comments on Bureau’s text of the WHO’s Pandemic Treaty (WHO CA+)
        • Patrick BreyerAI Act: For a Europe free of dystopian mass surveillance!

          Contrary to a conservative myth, there is not a single example of biometric real-time surveillance ever having prevented a terrorist attack or other events of this kind. With false alarm rates as high as 99%, these technologies are not nearly reliable enough to be of any use. Requiring a court order as proposed by conservative hardliners is a mere formality, a smokescreen for mass surveillance. Their proposed ‘exceptions’ to the ban would in fact justify the pervasive deployment of facial surveillance technology to search for thousands of “victims”, “threats” and suspects of “serious crimes” who are wanted at any given moment. We must not normalise a culture of mistrust and side with authoritarian regimes that use AI to suppress civil society!

        • ReasonWhy Are So Many Younger Americans Okay with Big Brother Monitoring Their Homes?

          The good news is that "only" a minority of younger American adults favor Big Brother-style surveillance of our home life. The bad news is that we're discussing this because it's a disturbingly large share supporting such a totalitarian intrusion. Worse, the idea seems to be gaining acceptance. We either need to get a handle on what's going on here, or else potentially suffer lives monitored by unblinking eyes of the state, imposed by popular demand.

          "Americans under the age of 30 stand out when it comes to 1984–​style in–​home government surveillance cameras. 3 in 10 (29 percent) Americans under 30 favor 'the government installing surveillance cameras in every household' in order to 'reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity,'" the Cato Institute's Emily Ekins and Jordan Gygi wrote last week. "Support declines with age, dropping to 20 percent among 30–44 year olds and dropping considerably to 6 percent among those over the age of 45."

        • [Repeat] QuartzMicrosoft has been fined $20 million for retaining children's data without parents' consent

          US regulator Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found the tech behemoth to have breached sections 312.5 and 312.10 of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. This law “prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in connection with the collection, use, and/or disclosure of personal information from and about children on the Internet.”

          The company illegally collected data on children who used its gaming platform Xbox—it asked parents for consent only after collecting their full names, dates of birth, and email addresses to set up accounts.

        • The AtlanticThe Snowden Revelations Reconsidered

          I did not know the identity of the person we were to meet. He or she had sent a “welcome pack,” a sample of classified documents that appeared genuine—but I was still uncertain, wondering whether the potential story might be an elaborate fraud or the work of a disgruntled crank. The source turned out to be no hoaxer but a contractor with the National Security Agency: Edward Snowden.

          Then age 29, Snowden had become disillusioned by what he had seen inside the NSA of the scale of intrusion into privacy in the post-9/11 U.S.—some of it illegal—and around the world. He had decided to become a whistleblower. We spent almost a week interviewing him during the day in his cluttered room, in the Mira Hotel in Kowloon, and then writing stories late into the night.

          At the end of one of the interviews, I asked Snowden for evidence showing the involvement of the NSA’s British surveillance partner, the Government Communications Headquarters. The next morning, he gave me a memory stick. I expected it to contain one or two examples; instead, it stored tens of thousands of documents, covering both the NSA and GCHQ. These were to form the basis for subsequent reporting by The Guardian, The New York Times, and ProPublica, which became partners in investigating and publishing the story. Snowden had given even more material to Poitras and Greenwald. In sheer quantity, this was the biggest leak in intelligence history.

        • The Register UK10 years after Snowden's first leak, what have we learned?

          These same folks tell us that while public awareness of the harms posed by mass surveillance has increased over the past decade, there's still much room for improvement. And all of them point to the upcoming battle to reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as the next big test, but more on that later.

          "I warned in 2011 that 'When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry.' I was right, as Edward Snowden's revelations proved," US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) told The Register.

          Wyden was one of two US senators who had sounded the alarm about the Obama administration's surveillance programs even before the Snowden leaks came to light.

        • Patrick Breyer10 years after the revelations of Edward Snowden: Let‘s defend anonymity and secure communication online!

          Today marks the tenth anniversary of the day Edward Snowden revealed the mass surveillance programmes of intelligence agencies worldwide. EU lawmaker and privacy activist Patrick Breyer (Pirate Party) acknowledges this milestone as a key moment for the right to privacy and the defence of fundamental rights. At the same time, he calls for protecting the anonymity and encryption that whistleblowers need to expose such abuses of power.

          Breyer comments, “For the Pirate Party, Edward Snowden is a hero: By revealing the mass surveillance practices of the U.S. intelligence agency NSA and its partners, he selflessly defended the privacy of all and sacrificed his freedom. Even today he relentlessly fights for our fundamental right to privacy.

        • NBCMicrosoft to pay $20 million FTC fine over storage of Xbox information

          Xbox encourages players, including children, to sign up for a Microsoft “gamertag” account to play online. The company gathers information including players’ email addresses, first and last names and birthdays when they sign up.

          According to the FTC, Microsoft stored information from 2015 until 2020 on around 10 million people, including children, who started to create accounts and gave some information but never completed the process.

        • New York TimesSenators Say TikTok May Have Misled Congress on Handling of U.S. User Data

          The lawmakers said recent reports from The New York Times and Forbes raised questions about statements made during congressional testimony in March by Shou Chew, TikTok’s chief executive, and in an October 2021 hearing involving Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s head of public policy for the Americas. TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.

          “We are deeply troubled by TikTok’s recurring pattern of providing misleading, inaccurate or false information to Congress and its users in the United States, including in response to us during oversight hearings and letters,” the senators wrote.

        • TechdirtSafety Last: AI Weapons Scanners Sold To US Schools Routinely Fail To Detect Knives

          We’ve done all we can we’re willing to do to make schools safer. We’ve added more cops, something that sounds like safety but just means we’ve offloaded school discipline to people trained in the art of violence. We’ve locked more doors, added more machinery, and opened up our students to all sorts of pervasive surveillance.

        • TorEmpowering human rights defenders in Brazil, Ecuador & Mexico

          Back in 2017 we established the Global South Strategy to further our mission of promoting human rights and internet freedom across the Global South. As part of this initiative, the Tor Project's user feedback program was created – which aims to improve the user experience of our products by conducting usability research with at-risk communities alongside digital security training.

          In 2021, as part of a new grant, we expanded this program to Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico. We also partnered with two other organisations who, like the Tor Project, are committed to defending human rights and internet freedom with privacy preserving technology: the Guardian Project and Tails. During the past two years we have collaborately closely to combat internet censorship and surveillance, and are pleased to share some of our findings in this report.

        • EFFVictory! New Jersey Court Rules Police Must Give Defendant the Facial Recognition Algorithms Used to Identify Him

          Facial recognition is being used around the country to identify suspects, and we hope other courts recognize that the constitutionally protected right of due process demands that defendants be allowed to examine and question the reliability of this often faulty technology.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Pro PublicaAfter Delay, Texas Public Records Bill Heads to Governor’s Desk

        After a week’s delay, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has forwarded to the governor legislation that aims to increase the transparency of the state’s public records law.

        Patrick had been holding up the bill amid increasingly frayed political relations between him and his Republican counterparts in state leadership, House Speaker Dade Phelan and Gov. Greg Abbott.

      • DeSmogWhy We’re Supporting Climate Whistleblowers

        The climate crisis is worsening by the day. Despite growing pledges to act, greenhouse gas emissions are breaking records. Climate change, pollution and extinctions are intensifying, causing instability, displacement and conflict. To quote U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, we’re on the “highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”

      • Digital Music NewsTexas Appellate Court Refuses to Lift ‘Gag Order’ Covering Astroworld Litigation

        A Texas appellate court has officially refused to lift a gag order covering hundreds of lawsuits filed against Live Nation over the Astroworld tragedy. A three-justice panel just recently rejected a challenge to the seemingly far-reaching gag order, which Judge Kristen Hawkins implemented back in February of 2022.

    • Environment

      • CNNRussia’s war in Ukraine is undermining global efforts to tackle the climate crisis, new report finds

        The war in Ukraine has brought an enormous human toll: Thousands of civilians have been killed, millions have been forced to flee overseas, it has destroyed homes, schools and hospitals. But beyond the immediate, visceral impacts, the conflict is also causing a climate disaster at a time when the world is already struggling to meet climate goals, according to a new report.

        A team of carbon accounting experts has evaluated the climate impact of the first year of the conflict, which started in February 2022.

        They found that a total of 120 million metric tons of planet-heating pollution can be attributed to the first 12 months of the war, according to the report published Wednesday. That’s equivalent to the annual emissions of Belgium, or those produced by nearly 27 million gas-powered cars on the road for a year.

      • GizmodoArctic Sea Ice Is Melting Way Faster Than Previously Thought, Study Finds

        In a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers outlined how the Arctic could experience rapid sea ice loss as early as the 2030s. It’s a decade earlier than a 2021 UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which predicted that the region would lose its sea ice by the middle of this century, researchers wrote. And even if world leaders create policies that successfully lower earth-warming global emissions, the Arctic would still lose September sea ice by the 2050s, the study explained.

      • Common Dreams'About That Climate Emergency?': Northeastern US Chokes on Wildfire Smoke

        Environmental groups are demanding that world leaders take urgent action as smoke from Canadian wildfires fueled by the climate crisis continued to smother eastern regions of the United States on Wednesday, pushing the Air Quality Index (AQI) in both nation's capitals to "unhealthy," with at least 16 states issuing air quality alerts affecting millions of people.

      • European CommissionReadout of meetings of President von der Leyen, Executive Vice-President Timmermans and High-Representative/Vice-President Borrell with the COP28 President

        European Commission Statement Brussels, 07 Jun 2023 Today in Brussels, Commission President von der Leyen, Executive Vice-President Timmermans and High-Representative/Vice-President Borrell met with COP28 President Designate Dr Sultan Al-Jaber to discuss preparations for COP28, the 2023 UNFCCC climate conference

    • Finance

      • Turkish Lira continues to weaken after elections

        The lira plummeted to yet another all-time low against the US dollar and the Euro. Despite overall stability in global gold prices, gold prices also reached record highs.

      • David RosenthalFlash Loans

        I have been generally skeptical of claims that blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are major innovations. Back in 2017 Arvind Narayanan and Jeremy Clark published Bitcoin's Academic Pedigree, showing that Satoshi Nakamoto assembled a set of previously published components in a novel way to create Bitcoin. Essentially the only innovation among the components was the Longest Chain Rule.

        But, for good or ill, there is at least one genuinely innovative feature of the cryptocurrency ecosystem and in Flash loans, flash attacks, and the future of DeFi Aidan Saggers, Lukas Alemu and Irina Mnohoghitnei of the Bank of England provide an excellent overview of it. They:

        analysed the Ethereum blockchain (using Alchemy’s archive node) and gathered every transaction which has utilised the ‘FlashLoan’ smart contract provided by DeFi protocol Aave V1 and V2. The Aave protocol, one of the largest DeFi liquidity providers, popularised flash loans and is often credited with their design. Using this data we were able to gather 60,000 unique transactions from Aave’s flash loan inception through to 2023

        Below the fold I discuss their overview and some of the many innovative ways in which flash loans have been used.

      • Robert ReichBusting the “Paid What You’re Worth” Myth
      • Michael West MediaRetail recession hits and services could be next

        Australia has ushered in a “retail recession” and recorded its second quarter in a row of declining spending in inflation-controlled terms.

        Real retail turnover has recorded a 0.6 per cent fall in the March 2023 quarter, hot on the heels of a 0.3 per cent fall in the December quarter.

      • RFAYoung students brave grueling college exams amid job crisis in China

        A record 13 million students are taking the national college admissions exam.

      • Telex (Hungary)May inflation in Hungary at 21.5 percent

        Consumer prices in Hungary were on average 21.5 percent higher in May than a year earlier. Over the past year, household energy and food prices have risen the most, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Thursday.

      • Michael West MediaSmall businesses granted amnesty on overdue tax returns

        Small businesses with overdue tax and fringe benefits returns dating back almost four years are being granted amnesty.

        The Australian Taxation Office is encouraging small businesses with an aggregated turnover of less than $10 million at the time lodgements were due to file the overdue returns.

      • Michael West MediaHouseholds fretting over power bills as costs rise

        Australian households are fretting about keeping the lights on and many have little confidence new technologies will ease the cost burden in the years ahead.

        Some 52 per cent are concerned about how they are going to pay their power bills, up from a year ago, a sentiment survey published by Energy Consumers Australia shows.

      • Michael West MediaA quarter of homes are bought mortgage-free

        More than a quarter of homes were bought without a mortgage last year, suggesting there’s a sizeable cohort insulated from aggressive interest rate rises.€ 

        Roughly 25 per cent of all sales in the eastern states – both dwellings and land – were made without a mortgage, according to property data firm PEXA.

      • Michael West MediaMacquarie Bank not so green with billions dipped in oil

        Macquarie Group has been accused of touting green credentials€ while taking stakes in high-growth oil and gas companies.

        Billions of dollars in oil and gas undermine the investment bank’s net zero commitments, according to a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

      • New York TimesA $1 Trillion Borrowing Binge Looms After Debt Limit Standoff

        The government has avoided default, but the effects of the debt-ceiling brinkmanship may still ripple across the economy.

      • Breach MediaOrganized tenants are racking up wins against landlords and politicians

        Instead of “succumbing” to their landlords’ whims, Canadian tenants are coming together to fight rent increases and evictions

      • New York TimesTurkey’s Lira Falls to New Low as a New Economic Policy Forms

        The lira plunged 7 percent against the U.S. dollar, as a new finance minister promising “rational” economic policy takes charge

      • Mexico News DailyUS sanctions CJNG leaders and money laundering network

        The U.S. government has sanctioned alleged senior leaders in the Mexican cartel, as well a woman accused of laundering money for it in Mexico.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Democracy NowCornel West on Running for President, Ending Ukraine War & Taking on “Corporate Duopoly” of Dems & GOP

        Cornel West, the iconic academic and social critic, has declared his candidacy for president of the United States in the 2024 election. He is running with the People’s Party, a progressive alternative to the two major parties that grew out of Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign. With 2024 shaping up to be a rematch between “neofascist” Donald Trump and “milquetoast neoliberal” Joe Biden, West says voters need a real alternative focused on tackling inequality, racism, war and corporate greed. “There’s an indifference to the plight of the vulnerable,” West tells Democracy Now! He also discusses the war in Ukraine, censorhip, right-wing extremism, and allegations of sexual harassment and assault against People’s Party founder Nick Brana, among other topics.

      • The Gray ZoneBritish media protected pro-war serial sex pest Nick Cohen for decades
      • Bert HubertThe Dutch government wants to automatically and administratively gain permission to target victims of hackers

        The Dutch government is proposing adding a lex specialis to its existing intelligence and security services act. This addition significantly changes the scope of many powers and also extends who they can be applied to.

        [...]

        On this page I’d like to go over just one specific element of this new law: automatic extension of warrants to hacking victims (’non-targets’). Under the new law, the criteria for targeting non-targets actually become more lenient than for targeting actual targets. I would also hope to hear from experts on what the ECtHR might imply for this automatic extension and the newly proposed oversight. At the very end of this article you will find the original text of the articles, and my best stab at a translation.

      • MandiantA Peek Behind the Curtain: Examining the Dimensions of a National-level Cyber Program

        In the past year, Mandiant Intelligence has been thinking of new ways to help organizations scale their defenses to outpace and outmaneuver state-sponsored cyber programs—all in a format that is widely accessible. This led us to developing “Inside the Mind of an APT,” an on-demand course that shares our more than ten years worth of insights on state-sponsored cyber programs to tip the scale in favor of the blue team. This course focuses heavily on exploring what we call the Big Four: Russia, China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and Iran.

      • Alex EwerlöfLess meetings, more focused work

        At most companies, meetings are the cost of doing business, not a product that’s directly sellable to the customer.

        Customers don’t pay us to go to meetings. They don’t even pay us for making the right decision. They only pay for the right execution. And that just happens to happen outside those meeting rooms!

      • VarietyReddit Laying Off 5% of Workforce, Cuts Back Hiring Plans

        The job cuts, which will span companywide, were announced by Reddit CEO Steve Huffman in an email to staffers Tuesday. “We’ve had a solid first half of the year, and this restructuring will position us to carry that momentum into the second half and beyond,” Huffman wrote. Along with the layoffs, Reddit is reducing its hiring plans for the rest of 2023 to about 100 additional employees (previously it expected to hire 300). Reddit currently has around 2,000 employees worldwide.

        A Reddit rep confirmed the job cuts, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal. According to the company, as of May 2023, more than 57 million daily active unique visitors engage with more than 100,000 active communities on Reddit. Users on the site have contributed more than 13 billion posts and comments worldwide to date.

      • India TimesRegulation? AI, says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

        Altman, who was previously president of Silicon Valley’s famed Y Combinator accelerator, said he’s cognizant of the advantages and dangers of OpenAI, including potential misuse by dictators leading to serious geopolitical implications. He pointed out that generative AI will need more regulations, with parallels to nuclear power and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

      • New York TimesHow Sam Altman Stormed Washington to Set the A.I. Agenda

        But Mr. Altman, 38, has run toward the spotlight, seeking the attention of lawmakers in a way that has thawed icy attitudes toward Silicon Valley companies. He has initiated meetings and jumped at the opportunity to testify in last month’s Senate hearing. And instead of protesting regulations, he has invited lawmakers to impose sweeping rules to hold the technology to account.

      • India TimesGoogle, Meta using 'bullying tactics' against Canada's news bill, says PM Trudeau

        Alphabet's Google and Meta Platforms are using "bullying tactics" against a Canadian push aimed at ensuring financial support for news publishers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday.

        The proposed legislation is designed to compel internet giants like Google and Meta's Facebook to negotiate commercial deals and pay publishers for their content.

        The U.S. firms say proposals in the bill, dubbed the "Online News Act," are unsustainable for their businesses.

      • New York TimesDavid Zaslav Picked Chris Licht to Revamp CNN. Now What?

        Mr. Zaslav, the head of Warner Bros. Discovery, must find a new leader who shares his vision for the network and can figure out its financial future.

      • Michael West MediaCNN head Licht quits US news network after one year

        Chris Licht is out after a year as chief executive at CNN, following a series of missteps and plunging ratings.

        David Zaslav, the CEO of CNN parent company Warner Bros Discovery, announced the leadership change on CNN’s morning editorial call on Wednesday.

      • New York TimesChris Licht Is Out at CNN, Leaving Network at a Crossroads

        Mr. Licht’s turbulent time running the 24-hour news organization lasted slightly more than a year.

      • Michael West Media'Nothing to hide' on Higgins compensation, Labor says

        The attorney-general has rejected claims the Albanese government has questions to answer about a compensation payment to Brittany Higgins.€ 

        The former Liberal staffer reached a confidential settlement€ with the Commonwealth in December 2022 after she launched legal action against her employers in the previous coalition government.

      • Michael West MediaFormer JPMorgan exec rejects bank's Epstein accusations

        The former JPMorgan Chase & Co executive accused of shepherding the bank’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has formally denied involvement in the disgraced financier’s sex trafficking and blamed JPMorgan for keeping him as a client.

        In Wednesday night filings in a New York federal court, Jes Staley said his dealings with Epstein were not the “proximate cause” of any damages JPMorgan might incur in two lawsuits it faces over its work with Epstein, a client from 1998 to 2013.

      • Michael West MediaHey Philip Lowe, it ain't the wages. Best regards from Mathias Cormann and the OECD

        The latest OECD report is out, confirming higher profits are the leading component of recent inflation in Australia and elsewhere. Yet Philip Lowe and the RBA keep raising interest rates to curb inflation with wages growth as the culprit. What’s the scam?

        The scam is that they don’t know any better ways, and their policy options are limited, so they have to blame something.

      • Michael West MediaAustralia willing to walk away from EU deal: minister

        Australia was willing to walk away from a possible free trade deal with the European Union despite there being a “lot at stake”,€ Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has admitted.

        The EU has been pushing for geographic indicators, which would stop Australian producers from using names like parmesan, prosecco or feta to label products.

      • 'Hakan Fidan stands at a crucial point for the Kurdish question'

        bianet has talked to academician Adnan Çelik about the new cabinet and the "Kurdish Ministers" in the cabinet.

      • AxiosHouse grinds to halt as GOP rebels push McCarthy for new deal

        The House continued to postpone votes on Wednesday as a group of right-wing lawmakers pushed to renegotiate a deal they struck in January with Republican leadership.

        Why it matters: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) detractors have the numbers to kill any efforts by leadership to pass party-line legislation, meaning they effectively control the House floor.

      • AxiosHouse GOP tensions erupt as standoff hamstrings agenda

        Frustrations from establishment House Republicans spilled out into the open on Wednesday after right-wing lawmakers succeeded in blocking nearly a week’s worth of House votes.

        Why it matters: The latest bout of infighting has reignited concerns about GOP leadership, all but helpless to stop right-wing agitators from hijacking the legislative process.


        • "The Dysfunction Caucus does what it does best," Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told Axios. "This hurts the GOP conference, Congress and the Country."
      • CS MonitorEleanor Catton talks about ‘Birnam Wood’ and ‘the seduction of certainty’

        New Zealand writer Eleanor Catton brings her reading of “Macbeth” to bear on contemporary politics in her novel “Birnam Wood.”

      • CS MonitorPacific Northwest states search for gun control solutions

        Gun control advocates in Washington state are hailing victory after a federal judge rejected a request to block a new state law. The new law bans the sale and manufacture of more than 50 types of guns, including AR- and AK-style rifles.

      • CS MonitorNo more ‘faceless bureaucracy’? How cities are deepening trust.

        Most Americans think favorably of local government. Still, citizens academies try to deepen trust by getting past “faceless bureaucracy.”

      • CS Monitor‘After the Miracle’ spotlights Helen Keller’s political crusades

        The story of Helen Keller’s childhood is inspirational. As an adult, her uncompromising political views – she was an avowed socialist – made some people uncomfortable.

      • New York TimesProsecutors Tell Trump’s Legal Team He Is a Target of Investigation

        The notice from the office of the special counsel Jack Smith suggested that an indictment was on the horizon in the investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents.

      • New York TimesHouse Is Paralyzed as Far-Right Rebels Continue Mutiny Against McCarthy

        Members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus refused to surrender control of the floor, forcing G.O.P. leaders to scrap votes for the week and leaving the speaker facing what he conceded was “chaos.”

      • CS MonitorFrom a galaxy far, far away to Cape Town: Star Wars re-imagined

        “Aau’s Song” is an African reimagining of the famous fantasy universe.

      • RFAReports: Blinken to visit Beijing within weeks

        The reports come as the chief of U.S. naval operations said he is ‘encouraged’ by a change in tone in ties.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • APNICRIPE 86 bites — QUIC and active network management

        What is challenging active network management?

      • APNIC[Podcast] Failed Expectations: 40 years of network history

        How the failures and successes of technology deployment offer valuable lessons.

      • [Repeat] QuartzAn Indian state is offering free hi-speed internet to 2 million of its poor

        Fourteen thousand poor households and 30,000 government offices of the southern Indian state of Kerala today (June 5) were provided with high-speed [Internet]. But the aim is higher.

        The state’s new service, called Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON), is the first such in India and aims to uplink its 35 million citizens, especially 2 million of those considered poor. Launching the project in 2019, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s government declared access to the [Internet] a basic right.

        When completed, it will function on 35,000 kilometres of optical fibre network across Kerala’s 14 districts.

      • Techdirt$400 Million Later And The FCC Is JUST Starting To Map Broadband Accurately. Sort Of.

        We’ve€ noted for decades€ how, despite all the political lip service paid toward “bridging the digital divide” (and the billions in subsidies thrown at telecom giants to solve the problem), the U.S.€ never had any real idea where broadband is or isn’t available. You can probably imagine that’s a problem given the decades of policy proposals and billions of dollars thrown at the problem.

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • Telex (Hungary)Viktor Orbán: We have begun preparations for the EU Presidency [Ed: Orbán running EU with his mates will just about right given how much corruption EU has been involved in lately, inc. the illegal Unified Patent Court (which Hungary ruled unconstitutional)]

          Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Wednesday that Hungary has begun preparations for the EU Presidency, the Hungarian State News Agency, MTI reports. Referring to Hungary's turn to hold the rotating presidency in the second half of 2024, he said that there was no shortage of experience and preparation, as his government was preparing for its second presidency, which was almost unprecedented in Europe.

        • Dennis Crouch/Patently-OCourt Finds that it would be Inconvenient for Major Multinational Corporation (Microsoft) to Litigate in Texas

          In the recent case of In re Microsoft, 23-128 (Fed. Cir. 2023), the Federal Circuit once again granted a writ of mandamus, ordering a patent infringement case to be transferred out of Judge Albright’s courtroom in the Western District of Texas (WDTX). This decision was made under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. €§ 1404(a), which allows for the transfer of cases for the convenience of the parties and in the interest of justice.

          Microsoft, a multinational corporation with a significant presence in many U.S. states, including Texas, is no stranger to litigation in the Lone Star state. The company’s substantial business activities in Texas, which include marketing, selling, and servicing the accused products, did not significantly impact the 1404(a) jurisprudence in this case.

      • Trademarks

        • VarietyWhy Prince Changed His Name to an Unpronounceable Symbol 30 Years Ago, and What Happened Next

          GOLD: At one point he was in my office, and he’s kind of complaining that Warner Bros. won’t let him release all the albums he wants to release, basically saying, “Let me get off the label and finish the contract by just delivering a bunch of music” [which is essentially what he ultimately did]. He knows exactly what he’s doing and he knows we know exactly what he’s doing, so I say to him, “You know, we paid you a huge amount of money for each one of these records as an advance, and we need to be able to market them and release two and three singles and give the marketplace some space between them. We can’t just release a record every three months.” And it was really one of the few times he broke character with me, he says something like, “You know that everybody thinks these albums are carefully crafted, conceptualized things? I’m in the studio constantly, and when I get enough songs that I think, hey, together, there’s a record, it’s a record. So I have a lot of inventory and I want to release a lot of albums.” That was the one time we had a real conversation, rather than him kind of fronting one of those almost pantomime things he was famous for.

          It never got contentious with any of us — it might have gotten contentious with his lawyers talking to the business affairs people and things like that. But he was kin of doing his talking by press release, and he was showing up still at Warner Bros.’ offices and even at a marketing meeting — with the “slave” thing on his face! But there was never a time that he wasn’t talking to us or I couldn’t get him on the phone.

      • Copyrights

        • VoxHow streaming caused the TV writers strike

          At the core of this dispute is streaming and how it has revolutionized the industry. Companies like Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV+, and more have given consumers an unprecedented array of films and TV shows and opened the door to new voices that don’t have to adhere to mainstream network formats. On the other hand, it has also changed how television gets produced, the role writers play, and how they get paid.

          We interviewed four television writers and showrunners about how streaming has changed how they work, how their incomes have taken a hit, and why it has become harder than ever to build a career.

        • AxiosHollywood's hot strike summer

          This fall might be a great time to catch up on your streaming list — Hollywood has one union on strike, and studios are facing more labor strife that could result in further shutdowns this summer.

          Why it matters: The streaming era has fundamentally broken the industry, and that has Hollywood's biggest unions united to a degree we haven't seen in decades.


          State of play: The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studio side in union negotiations, is trying to use the same playbook it did to end the last writers strike in 2007-08:

          [...]
        • Torrent FreakWhat Remains of Content ID Lawsuit Seems Unlikely to Change YouTube

          Maria Schneider's lawsuit against YouTube began with great ambitions to vastly improve the copyright enforcement landscape on YouTube to the benefit of artists everywhere. With a jury trial just days away, but with class-action status already denied, what's left of the lawsuit could still deliver a win for the plaintiffs. Fulfilling ambitions will probably have to wait until another time.

        • Ruben SchadeGoodbye Astrud Gilberto ♡

          She was my introduction to bossa nova and latin jazz, which have since become my favourite genres of music. I had a poster of her in my bedroom as a teenager. I bonded with my parents over her music, and it got me through some rough years.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Saving What's Left of Decent and Independent Journalism on the Web
We increasingly (over time) try to make local copies (hosted on our server) of important documents; it's hard to rely on third parties
Brian Fagioli's Latest "Linux" Article Appears to be Fake
Another form of plagiarism/ripoff using bots?
[Meme] When the People Who Falsely Accuse You of Pedophilia Turn Out to be Projecting
When you attack something or someone using falsehoods, as happens a lot to Richard Stallman (RMS), there's risk that the attacks will backfire, badly
Why I Continue to Believe That at the End Software Freedom Will Win
a short and incomplete list of factors which I believe contribute to the sentiment that we can - and will - win the battles over hearts and minds in the "Tech" realm
 
Links 18/12/2024: Doha/Qatar Trafficking, Bloat Comfort Zone, and Advent of Code 2024
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft's Latest Marketing Pitch
"Stop Being Poor; buy a new PC with TPMs"
In South Africa, a Very Large Nation, Web Developers Can Already Ignore Microsoft Browsers (Edge Measured Below 3% in 55 Nations)
The dumb assumption you must naively test with Microsoft browsers is no longer applicable in a lot of places
Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the Voice of Bill Gates and Satya Nadella
Not hard to see what they've done with the money
Microsoft Boasts That Its (Microsoft-Sponsored) "Open Source AI" Propaganda Got Cited in Media (That's Just What the Money Did)
This is a grotesque openwashing campaign
In Many Places Around the World, Perhaps as Expected, Yandex is Nearly Bigger Than Microsoft (Like in Several African Countries)
Microsoft may soon fall to "third place" in search
Keeping Productive This Christmas
We've (pre)paid for hosting till almost January 2026 and fully back on the saddle
IBM and Canonical Leave Money on the Table Because Microsoft Pays Them Not to Compete and Instead Market Windows, WSL, Microsoft 'Clown Computing', and TPMs
Where are the regulators?
Other Editors Who Agree "Hey Hi" (AI) is Just Hype But Won't Say So Publicly as It Might Upset Key Sponsors
Some media would gladly participate in a scam to make money
IBM (and Red Hat) is a Patent Troll, Still Leveraging Software Patents to Extract Money Out of Other Companies by Suing Them
Basically, when it comes to patents, IBM is demonstrably part of the problem, not the solution
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 17, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 17, 2024
In Some Countries, Such as Greece, Almost 80% of Windows Users Are on Vista 10 and About 85% Need to Move to GNU/Linux for Security Patches
Vista 11 was a failure
[Meme] They Don't Want the Public to Know What "Responsible Encryption" Really Means
They also blame "China" for their own back doors (because China learned how to exploit those)
The Linux Foundation's Certificate Authority (CA) Significantly and Suspiciously Raises the Number of Certificates It Issues (Quantity Increase/Inflation) by Lessening Their Lifetime in the Name of 'Security' (That Barely Makes Sense!)
LE made 3 months the "standard" for most, soon to become just 6 days instead of 6 months?
Links 17/12/2024: More China Sanctions, GOP Scheming to Prop Up Fentanylware (TikTok)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/12/2024: The Streisand Effect and Productivity-systems Desiderata
Links for the day
Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part X
By Dr. Andy Farnell
Links 17/12/2024: More "Tesla Autopilot" and "Hey Hi" (AI) Blunders
Links for the day
Instead of Promoting GNU/Linux (or Ubuntu) Ahead of Vista 10's EoL Canonical is Marketing Microsoft's Proprietary Software
It's like Canonical employs people who work for Microsoft, not for Canonical
Links 17/12/2024: Many Abuses by Microsoft and War Updates From Ukraine
Links for the day
Content Management Systems (CMS) Bloat/ Static Site Generators (SSG) Trouble
some Web site management stories
DEI Room at fedoraproject.org Pretty Much Dead
We're not against diversity but against its weaponisation by greedy people who do not value diversity at all
The "Latest Technology News" at BetaNews is Slop About Slop
This is at the very top of the "news" (front page) at the moment
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, December 16, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, December 16, 2024
Gemini Links 16/12/2024: Invisibles and 20 Years of GNU/Linux on the Desktop
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows Fell From 98% to Less Than 15% (in 15 Years in Africa)
Operating System Market Share Africa
Swaziland: GNU/Linux Leaps to 7.24%, Based on statCounter
Remember that Microsoft had many layoffs this year in Africa
A Birthday Wish
My birthday is a few hours away
[Meme] Definitely Not Your Role Models
Hypocrite Neckbeard Meme
Changes or Variation of Logo at the FSF as 40th Anniversary is Near (Months Away)
Next year the FSF turns 40
Mobile Usage Nearly 90% in Maharlika (Philippines)?
Microsoft has become just a footnote
Push Back and Become More Vocal for LLM Abuse and Misuse to Stop
We hope that more people out there (sites too) will call out the people who saturate particular topics on the Web with machine-generated junk
The Media Failed to Hold GAFAM Accountable (and Now It Suffers From It and For It)
This recognition of the problem emboldens us to carry on
Botswana: New Highs for GNU/Linux, All-Time Lows for Microsoft
No wonder Microsoft has so many layoffs in Africa this year
Links 16/12/2024: Skinnerboxes ("Smart" "Phones") and Control Social Media Blamed for Fights
Links for the day
Reminder: The Microsoft Person Who Used OpenAI for En Masse GPL Violations Told the Whistleblower to Kill Herself
The evidence (real message)
Links 16/12/2024: emacs, Drawabox, “You Should Have Your Own Website”
Links for the day
In Some Parts of the World, Like Central America and South America, Microsoft is Irrelevant on the Web
Nadella has bet the farm on a Ponzi scheme
[Meme] Microsoft is Not a Country
Reporting crimes is essential for democracy
There's Not Much Time Left for President Biden to Pardon Julian Assange and Signal to Journalists That Exposing States' Crimes or Rich People's Misbehaviour is Lawful
Apathy towards this is part of the problem
Image Fusion is Not 'AI' (LLMs Aren't Either)
Such fakes can (and always could) be done by a digital artist, it's just a little more expensive and time-consuming
GNU/Linux at New Highs in Bosnia And Herzegovina
Quite a few Balkan nations show high adoption rates for GNU/Linux
From Scientists to Pigeons: The EPO Has Turned Patent Examination Into a Process Made by Computers and Improperly Trained Staff Which Doesn't Meet the Requirements of the European Patent Convention (EPC)
Might as well abolish this entire system if this is the current trajectory
Razik Menidjel Will No Longer be Chief Operating Officer Operations at the EPO
What does the EPC say about slop and should it be updated to deal with trouble such as slop?
Underpaid and Inexperienced Workers Overwhelm the EPO, Granting Many Invalid Patents and Placing Pressure on Veteran Examiners
So-called "production" (giving monopolies) pressure is "compromising the quality of our products" [sic] according to a new report
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, December 15, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, December 15, 2024