Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 28/06/2023: NVK Update and Ubuntu EoL

  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • 9to5LinuxNew TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 16 Linux Laptop Gets NVIDIA RTX 4000 Series GPUs

        Featuring the same large, high-quality 16-inch WQHD display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 2560×1600 pixels resolution, the InfinityBook Pro 16 Gen8 laptop is powered by an Intel Core i7-13700H processor with 14 cores, 20 threads, 24M cache, up to 5.00 GHz clock speed, and Intel Iris Xe graphics.

        The Intel Core i7-13700H processor appears to be very well suited for all demanding use cases, such as gaming, but now you can order the InfinityBook Pro 16 laptop with a more powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics cards with 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM for unbeatable performance.

    • Kernel Space

      • LWNLinux 6.3.10
        I'm announcing the release of the 6.3.10 kernel.
        
        

        All users of the 6.3 kernel series must upgrade.

        The updated 6.3.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-6.3.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-s...

        thanks,

        greg k-h
      • LWNLinux 6.1.36
      • LWNLinux 5.15.119
      • LWNLinux 5.10.186
      • LWNLinux 5.4.249
      • LWNLinux 4.19.288
      • LWNLinux 4.14.320
    • Graphics Stack

      • GamingOnLinuxThe open source NVIDIA NVK driver is coming along well

        A project I have a very keen eye on is NVK, the open source NVIDIA Vulkan driver developed by the community (not NVIDIA), and it seems like progress on it is going rather well. Developer€ Faith Ekstrand wrote a bit on the Collabora blog, detailing work that has been done since the original introduction post back in October last year.

      • LWNEkstrand: NVK update: Enabling new extensions, conformance status & more

        Faith Ekstrand has provided an update on the status of the NVK Vulkan driver for NVIDIA GPUs.

      • CollaboraNVK update: Enabling new extensions, conformance status & more

        It's been a while since I've written about NVK. Rebecca, my intern, has written a couple of blog posts about her NVK work but I've been mostly quiet. Part of that is because I've been primarily focused on something else NVK will need but we'll get to that in a bit. That doesn't mean nothing has happened in NVK, though. Quite a bit has landed in the main NVK branch since October and we're long overdue for an update.

    • Applications

      • TecMintPowerline – Adds Statuslines and Prompts to Vim and Bash Shell

        Powerline is a great statusline plugin for Vim editor, which is developed in Python and provides status lines and prompts for many other applications such as bash, zsh, tmux, and many more.

        It enhances the appearance and functionality of the Vim editor by providing a customizable and informative status line at the bottom of the editor window, which includes current mode (e.g., normal, insert, visual), file name, path, line and column numbers, Git branch, virtual environment, and more.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • BeebomHow to Make a File Executable in Linux (2023 Guide) | Beebom

        Imagine a situation where you wrote an excellent script to automate a tedious task for you. But when you try to execute it in Linux, all you get is a “Permission Denied” error. Fret no more, as in this article, we will discuss two easy methods to make a file executable in Linux and avoid such permission-denied errors.

      • It's FOSSBash Basics Series #3: Passing Arguments and Accepting User Inputs

        Learn how to pass arguments to bash scripts and make them interactive in this chapter of the Bash Basics series.

      • LinuxTechiHow to Install PHP 8 on RHEL 8 / Rocky Linux 8 / CentOS 8
      • Linux HandbookTrap: A Shell built-in Command

        You might have come across a few shell scripts on the Internet, which are used in production, that use a keyword called trap. Naturally, you are wondering what the heck is this trap keyword, how is it useful and how do I use it in my scripts?

      • TecMint12 Ways to Find User Account Info and Login Details in Linux

        This article will show you useful ways to find information about users on a Linux system. Here we’ll describe commands to get a user’s account details, show login details as well what users are doing on the system.

        If you want to add or create users in Linux, use the useradd command, and to modify or change any attributes of an already created user account, use the usermod command via the command line.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Tim F. Brüggemann: (Almost) Bi-weekly GSoC Update: FlatSync GSettings Integration

          This post is going to cover the latest progress on FlatSync as well as my absence from bi-weekly updates and the project.

          # Absence From Blog and Project

          Normally, I'd write bi-weekly blog post updates regarding GSoC and FlatSync, but both my mentor and I have been very busy with university work in this month's first week, and after that, I've been ill and bed-ridden for a little over a week. As a result, development stagnated in this period, so there was just nothing to write about. I'm somewhat back on my feet though, so you can expect regular updates again.

          # Progress on FlatSync

          We were thrown behind quite a bit on schedule, but luckily, the still-open, expired milestone we wanted to catch up on turned out to be less work than originally planned, and we were able to fulfill it quite easily.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • It's FOSSExodia OS is a Linux Distro for Cybersecurity Enthusiasts

      Are you a cybersecurity enthusiast tired of using the same old Kali Linux or other popular distros for hacking?

      Well, then we have got an alternative for you that might pique your interest.

      Let us take a look at Exodia OS.

    • DebugPointWhy is Kali Linux Preferred by Hackers?

      Kali Linux is a Debian "testing" based Linux operating system created almost a decade ago. Over the last few years has gained significant popularity among hackers and cybersecurity professionals. With the ever-increasing dependency on digital infrastructures and ever-growing online threats, cybersecurity has become more relevant today for average users and businesses.

      Here are a few points why Kali Linux is used by most of the hackers and pen testers.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • OMG! LinuxLibreboot, the FOSS BIOS Replacement, Sees New Release

      Unlike other boot firmware, Libreboot is entirely free of proprietary blobs, is free to inspect, modify, and redistribute. It also boasts solid support for booting Linux-based distros, as well as OpenBSD and FreeBSD.

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Mozilla

        • MozillaSigning in to Pocket just got even more secure

          The Pocket app and web experience are trusted by millions of people everyday to stay up to date and informed on the topics they care about most, free from clickbait, fake news and the pressure and anxiety often felt while on social media platforms. Since being acquired in 2017, Pocket is part of the family of products made by Mozilla, the nonprofit-backed tech company building responsible technology that prioritizes people over profits, so internet safety and security are top of mind for our customers.€ 

        • MozillaChallenge the default with Firefox

          In our ever faster and more overwhelming online lives, we’ve learned to settle for the obvious choices — the ones we’re made to believe are practical and right for us. Our phones come with pre-installed apps, our laptops have their own browsers. But in real life, we can choose to go to our local ethical store, choose which school to send our children to, or decide to travel by train. So why should this choice be taken away from us online? Why can’t we pick technology that feels more like us and what we stand for?€ 

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • Peter EisentrautPostgreSQL compile times: Meson review

        In a recent article, I compared the compilation times of PostgreSQL using different compilers. In the comments, I was asked for numbers for the new Meson build machinery. Let’s do that now.

        (Of course, when we are testing the compilation step, we are not really using Meson much but rather Ninja operating on build description files produced by Meson.)

        We have to consider how we can make both build systems build approximately the same set of files, to make this a fair comparison. I’m going to use make world-bin on the make side, which builds the same things as meson compile on the meson side (that is, core, contrib, but not documentation). Also, I’m configuring with plain configure without options and with meson setup --auto-features=disabled, in order to get approximately the same build configuration. Finally, I’m running the configure and make build in a separate build directory, to match the meson build, just in case that matters. Beyond that, the methodology is the same as in the previous article.

    • Education

      • Raspberry PiJoin London’s hybrid Raspberry Pi live event

        If you attend or host a Raspberry Pi-focused meet-up that we haven’t yet listed, scroll to the bottom of this page to let us know some details and we’ll put out the Pi signal to alert others near you.

    • Programming/Development

      • HackadayA Browser Approach To Parsing

        There are few rites of programmer passage as iconic as writing your first parser. You might want to interpret or compile a scripting language, or you might want to accept natural-language-like commands. You need a parser. [Varunramesh] wants to show you parser combinators, a technique used to make practical parsers. But the demonstration using interactive code cells in the web page is nearly as interesting as the technique.

      • Geeks For GeeksRelative Importance Analysis in R

        A statistical method called relative importance analysis (RIA) is used to assess the relative contribution of independent variables to the variance of a dependent variable.

      • [Repeat] ButtondownMaybe Software Engineers could learn something from Linguistics

        Unlike most languages, Alloy has two notions of subtyping: a type (or “signature”) can be extended, which is exclusive, or they can be in, which are stackable. In this example, the source can be generic, a database, or a file, but not all three. The Step can be generic, an extraction step, a load step, or both:1 [...]

      • Jamie Brandon0037: dynamic mutable value semantics, interior pointers, uninterning, functionless effects, papers, books

        I worked through a simple implementation of mutable value semantics here (tree-walking interpreter, no optimizations). The main difference from swiftlet/val is that it's a dynamic language - demonstrating that nothing about MVS requires static typing.

      • RlangA Journey through Arrow in R

        Apache Arrow is a software development platform for building high performance applications that process and transport large data sets. It is designed to improve the performance of data analysis methods, and to increase the efficiency of moving data from one system or programming language to another.

        In this community call moderated by Stephanie Hazlitt, our speakers, Nic Crane and Jonathan Keane, will lead us through the Arrow R package.

      • Jay LittleDeveloping Custom Software is Probably a Bad Idea

        This post is the culmination of years of accumulated professional frustration. It will not be well received by some. That's okay. If you make it to the 25 year point of your dev career and you spent most of that time writing custom software for clients and you still disagree, feel free to write your own take and send it along to me. I will afford it my due consideration.

        That isn't me gate keeping or trying to make an argument based solely on an appeal to my own authority. I'm just pointing out that I have watched a lot of clients break themselves against the rocks of custom software development and over time the accumulated weight of their trials, tribulations and in some cases, overt failures, has begun to weigh upon my soul. The purpose of this post is to discuss some of this at a high level and explain why I now believe custom software is not a good option for most.

      • Python

        • Geeks For GeeksPython Array length

          In Python, the length of an array can be obtained using the len() function.

        • University of TorontoBelatedly remembering to use the two expression form of Python's assert

          Today I confessed on the Fediverse that I had somehow mentally overwritten what I once knew about Python's assert with a C-like version that I wrote as 'assert(expression)' (which I apparently started doing more than a decade ago). What caused me to notice this was that I was revising some Python code to cope with a new situation, and I decided I wanted to fail in some way if an impossible thing turned out to not be as impossible as I thought. This wasn't an error that should be returned normally, and it wasn't really something I wanted to raise as an assertion, so adding an assert was the easy way.

      • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

        • EarthlyNavigating Directories Like a Pro with Bash pushd and popd

          If you answered yes, then it’s the perfect time to learn two more bash commands: pushd and popd. In this article, you’ll learn how pushd and popd work, as well as a couple of alternative commands. By the end of this article, you’ll have added two more useful commands to your repertoire.

        • Linux HandbookRead File Line by Line in Bash

          You may find yourself in a situation where you want to use a shell script to read files line by line.

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Walled CultureTop EU court advisor says technical standards, like laws, should not be locked down by copyright

        One of the most pernicious ideas that copyright maximalism has spread is that preventing people from freely accessing creative material is not just a good thing to do, but should be the natural state of affairs. This has made questioning whether copyright is really the best way to support artists and promote creativity hard. Against that background, there’s an interesting opinion from one of the top EU court’s special advisers, known as advocates general, suggesting a situation in which copyright definitely should not be applied. The Court of Justice of the European Union’s press release explains the background: [...]

  • Leftovers

    • The NationSecret Histories

      An assassin works from a partial understanding of the world. If not literally a hashishi, as suggested by the word’s etymology, an assassin must nevertheless see the world in tunnel vision, his victim viewed through the lens of a scope. The vast, complex network of humanity to which he and his victim belong, with contending narratives and blurred individual motives, cannot be allowed to exist. To do so would be to fail as an assassin.

    • [Repeat] The StrategistFrom the bookshelf: ‘The ghost at the feast’

      America’s record as an ambivalent and erratic liberal hegemon has deep roots, as analysed by Robert Kagan in The ghost at the feast: America and the collapse of world order, 1900–1941.

    • Science

    • Education

      • The NationSchool Zone
      • David RosenthalThe Philosopher of Palo Alto

        As I was at the time a member of "staff in some other department" at Sun Microsystems and then Nvidia, below the fold I discuss some of the "practicalities" that should have been faced earlier rather than later or not at all.

    • Hardware

      • The AtlanticThere Will Never Be Another Second Life

        The virtual world, a strange cross between Burning Man and Neal Stephenson’s metaverse, marks its 20th anniversary with no true corporate competitor in sight.

      • DedoimedoThe Slimbook is dead, long live the Slimbook

        This be a short article for now, but I'll save the details for when the laptop actually arrives. I am happy to have bought myself a new toy, but the impetus for the purchase wasn't really a happy one, so I don't have this amazing, giddy feeling bubbling inside me. I also didn't spend a great deal of time reading reviews and comparing products, one because I like and know Slimbook's offerings, and two because I didn't think I'd come to any wiser conclusion than the one I already have. Linux-friendly systems are all much alike, they do cost a bit more than the generic off-the-shelf Windows-powered system, but hey.

        Well, now we shall wait. I do have a question for you though, if you feel like sending an old-fashioned email. Do you think I ought to re-use all of the Slimbook Pro2's user settings and desktop configurations, or simply start fresh, create a brand new setup, and then just copy the actual user data? If you have an idea or a suggestion, feel free to ping me. Stay tuned for updates.

        [...]

        But then, I noticed that the case was actually warped. The entire left side was thicker than the right side, and the abnormality was slowly, but steadily growing. I figured that my laptop's battery was bulging! As I've already told you in my recent Slimbook & Kubuntu 22.04 upgrade article, I was worried the battery may cause problems down the road. It did, and much sooner than I expected, and in a more destructive way than I'd have liked. As one does with devices with Lithium-ion batteries, I let it drain and powered the machine off. And then went searching for a replacement.

      • The Drone GirlHow these drones survey underwater — without actually going underwater

        With the Bathydrone system, a drone drags a small vessel on the water’s surface. That vessel is equipped with a commercially-available, off-the-shelf sonar unit mounted on its bottom.

        And it’s that sonar unit that has down-scan, side-scan, and chirp capabilities, making it possible to log data onboard the console, which is located inside the hull. After the drone’s flight and the sonar unit is retrieved, data can then be uploaded post-mission from the console.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Matt RickardDark Patterns

        Dark patterns are design tactics used in websites that manipulate users into doing something they didn’t intend to do.

        A list of dark patterns I’ve come across.

      • Pro PublicaInside the Secretive World of Penile Enlargement

        They wanted it because they’d just gone through a bad breakup and needed an edge in the volatile dating market; because porn had warped their sense of scale; because they’d been in a car accident, or were looking to fix a curve, or were hoping for a little “soft€­ware upgrade”; because they were not having a midlife crisis; because they were, “and it was cheaper than a Bugatti Veyron”; because, after five kids, their wife couldn’t feel them anymore; because they’d been molested as a child and still remembered the laughter of the adults in the room; because they couldn’t forget a passing comment their spouse made in 1975; because, despite the objections of their couples therapist, they believed it would bring them closer to their “sex €­obsessed” husband (who then had an affair that precipitated their divorce); because they’d stopped changing in locker rooms, stopped peeing in urinals, stopped having sex; be€­cause who wouldn’t want it?

        Mick (his middle name) wanted a bigger penis because he believed it would allow him to look in the mirror and feel satisfied. He had trouble imagining what shape the satisfaction would take, since it was something he’d never actually experienced. Small and dark haired, he’d found his adolescence to be a gantlet of humiliating comparisons: to classmates who were blond and blue-€­eyed; to his half brothers, who were older and taller and heterosexual; to the hirsute men in his stepfather’s Hasidic community, who wore big beards and billowing frock coats. After he reached puberty — late, in his estimation — he grew an impressive beard of his own, and his feelings of inadequacy concentrated on his genitals.

      • HackadayMIT Engineers Pioneer Cost-Effective Protein Purification For Cheaper Drugs

        There are a wide variety of protein-based drugs that are used to treat various serious conditions. Insulin is perhaps the most well-known example, which is used for life-saving treatments for diabetes. New antibody treatments also fall into this category, as do various vaccines.

      • HackadayDentist Tool Hardware Inspires Non-Slip Probe Tips

        Cross-pollination between different industries can yield interesting innovations, and a few years ago [John Wiltrout] developed some non-slip meter probe adapters. He recently used our tips line to share some details that you won’t see elsewhere, letting us know how the idea came to be.

      • YLENurse shortage eats away at ward beds

        Around half of the wellbeing services counties that took part in Yle's survey report closing some of their wards due to a lack of staff.

      • The Straits TimesJumbo problem: Sri Lanka's battle with plastic pollution

        Officials say a law banning single-use plastics may come into force within weeks.

      • teleSURUN Report Sounds Alarm on Surging Global Drug Use

        The number of people suffering from drug use disorders has skyrocketed to 39.5 million globally, a surge of 45 percent over the decade.

      • The AtlanticDear Therapist: I’ve Been Dumped by My Friends

        I thought our shared history would keep us close, but it hasn’t.

      • New YorkerHow Plastics Are Poisoning Us

        They both release and attract toxic chemicals, and appear everywhere from human placentas to chasms thirty-six thousand feet beneath the sea. Will we ever be rid of them?

      • New YorkerA Year of Change for a North Dakota Abortion Clinic

        After the Dobbs decision that reversed Roe v. Wade, North Dakota and thirteen other states banned most abortions. Emily Witt visits one clinic that managed to move across state lines.

      • New YorkerThe Perils and Promises of Penis-Enlargement Surgery

        One doctor’s Promethean quest to grow the male member is leaving some men desperate and disfigured.

    • Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

      • DroidGazzetteOutlook for the web outage impacts users across America

        Some South American users also say they’re having issues with the Outlook desktop application, which crashes when launched.

      • Windows TCO

        • Scoop News GroupTwo major energy corporations added to growing MOVEit victim list

          Since the Russian-speaking CL0P began publicizing its victims, state and local governments appear to have been heavily affected by the campaign as at least seven have been hit, including the nation’s largest public-employee pension fund the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. Over the weekend, around 45,000 New York City public school students had their personal data stolen which included information like Social Security numbers, StateScoop reported.

    • Security

      • IT WireAPRA takes action against Medibank over October ransomware attack

        “Since launching the 2020-2024 Cyber Security Strategy, APRA has repeatedly stressed the importance of an uplift in cyber security and continued vigilance to identify and address cyber exposures.

        "Unfortunately, not all entities are heeding these messages as we continue to identify poor cyber security practices and inadequate oversight from boards and management,” Smith said.

        In response, Medibank said in a note sent to the ASX that it had sufficient capital to meet the increase.

        It said after application of this requirement the company would remain well capitalised with unallocated capital remaining at 30 June 2022 levels: $148 million. Given this, the company said it would not reduce its target health insurance required capital ratio.

        Medibank chief executive David Koczkar said: "Safeguarding customer data is a responsibility Medibank takes very seriously.

        “Medibank has continued to strengthen our systems and processes to provide our customers with the security they expect and deserve. We will continue to work to enhance our systems and processes even further. Our company remains strong and well capitalised.

        “We continue to support our customers through the Medibank Cyber Response Support Program, which includes mental health and well-being support, identity protection and financial hardship measures.”

      • SANSThe Importance of Malware Triage, (Tue, Jun 27th)

        When dealing with malware analysis, you like to get "fresh meat". Just for hunting purposes or when investigating incidents in your organization, it's essential to have a triage process to reduce the noise and focus on really interesting files. For example, if you detect a new sample of Agent Tesla, you don't need to take time to investigate it deeply. Just extract IOCs to share with your colleagues. From a business point of view, you don't have time to analyze all samples!

      • LWNSecurity updates for Tuesday [LWN.net]

        Security updates have been issued by Debian (c-ares and libx11), Fedora (chromium and kubernetes), Red Hat (python3 and python38:3.8, python38-devel:3.8), and SUSE (amazon-ssm-agent, kernel, kubernetes1.24, libvirt, nodejs16, openssl-1_1, and webkit2gtk3).

      • TechCrunchLetMeSpy, a phone tracking app spying on thousands, says it was hacked



        A hacker has stolen the messages, call logs and locations intercepted by a widely used phone monitoring app called LetMeSpy, according to the company that makes the spyware.

        The phone monitoring app, which is used to spy on thousands of people using Android phones around the world, said in a notice on its login page that on June 21, “a security incident occurred involving obtaining unauthorized access to the data of website users​​.”

      • Silicon AngleAmerican and Southwest Airlines pilot data breached in hack of third-party provider

        Pilot data relating to American Airlines Group Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. has been breached following the hack of a third-party provider of pilot applications and recruitment. The breach involved the compromise of a company called Pilot Credentials between April 30 and May 1, with the airlines informed on May 3.

      • Bruce SchneierExcel Data Forensics

        In this detailed article about academic plagiarism are some interesting details about how to do data forensics on Excel files. It really needs the graphics to understand, so see the description at the link.

        (And, yes, an author of a paper on dishonesty is being accused of dishonesty. There's more evidence.)

    • Defence/Aggression

      • RIPEInsights from the World’s Largest Cyber Defence Exercise

        We spoke with Patrik and Tomas to find out more about the experience: how did it feel to work under that level of stress, what lessons did they learn, and what surprises did they encounter along the way?

      • New York TimesAfter Montana Banned TikTok, Users Sued. TikTok Is Footing Their Bill.
        The popular video service had deflected questions about its involvement in the creators’ lawsuit for more than a month.

        [...]

        While TikTok is funding the lawsuit, the creators said, the company is not paying them directly for their role.

      • QuartzThe US Supreme Court struck down a GOP effort to subvert elections

        Writing the majority opinion for a 6-3 decision (pdf), chief justice John Roberts wrote that the US Constitution does not “insulate” state legislatures from judicial review.

        The decision was an indictment of the independent state legislature theory, a radical interpretation of the US Constitution’s elections clause that claims state legislatures should have unilateral control over elections. The June 27 ruling essentially establishes that courts have the authority to weigh in on the legality of state election regulations.

      • HackadayEscalate The NERF Arms Race With Self-Firing Missiles

        NERF guns are a toy that appeals to adults and youngsters alike — if you’ve never had the chance to pelt your friends with safe and kid friendly foam darts in a surprise ambush, you haven’t lived. But just as with real-world weapons of the type superpowers put in shows of military strength, there’s an arms race in the world of NERF. Mere darts aren’t enough, and there’s a range of missiles for the bellicose youngster intent on skirting the brink of global foam dart annihilation. These come with a catch though in the shape of a lackluster launcher, and this has prompted [Joel Creates] to create a self-firing NERF missile with a secondary rocket motor.

      • New York TimesMurders, on the Decline

        The recent spike in murders already seems to be over.

      • New York Times14-Story Building Collapses in Alexandria, Egypt

        The collapse is one of a several similar disasters in Egypt in recent years. Rescuers were trying to determine if more people were trapped under the rubble.

      • Federal News NetworkCouple celebrating 50th wedding anniversary are stabbed to death

        Authorities announced late Monday that they had arrested a 41-year-old man in the weekend killing of a Massachusetts couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, along with another family member, in the small city outside Boston. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced police took Christopher Ferguson, of Newton, into custody Monday evening and charged him the killing of 73-year-old Gilda “Jill” D’Amore after an autopsy revealed she had died from a homicide. Additional charges were expected in the death of 74-year-old Bruno D’Amore and Jill’s mother, 97-year-old Lucia Arpino, Tuesday after those autopsies have been completed.

      • RFAAs US aircraft carrier docks in Da Nang, Vietnamese premier visits Beijing

        The events illustrate Hanoi’s flexible ‘bamboo foreign policy,’ expert says.

      • RFERLThree Kosovar Police Officers Released Following Serbian Court Order

        A Serbian court has ordered the release of three Kosovar policemen detained on June 16 along the border between the two countries in an incident that heightened tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.

      • New York TimesConditions at Guantánamo Are Cruel and Inhuman, U.N. Investigation Finds

        The report was the result of the first visit by an independent human rights investigator to the prison in its two-decade history.

      • France24UN experts say treatment of Guantanamo detainees is 'inhuman and degrading'

        With nearly constant surveillance, gruelling isolation and limited family access, the treatment of the last 30 Guantanamo detainees is "cruel, inhuman and degrading," UN rights experts said Monday as they reported on their first visit to the US military prison.

      • teleSURUN Expert Denounces US Torture of Guantánamo Detainees

        The U.S. Naval Base prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, opened in January 2002, during the presidency of George W. Bush.

      • Federal News NetworkFirst UN investigator at US detention center at Guantanamo says detainees face cruel treatment

        The first U.N. independent investigator to visit the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay says the 30 men held there are subject “to ongoing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law." Irish law professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin called the American government’s use of torture against them “a betrayal” of the rights of victims and survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States to justice. She told a news conference Monday about her 23-page report that the 2001 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that killed nearly 3,000 people were “crimes against humanity.” But she said the U.S. use of torture and rendition against alleged perpetrators and their associates in the aftermath violated international human rights law.

      • New York TimesA Grave Escalation in the West Bank

        Ultranationalist West Bank settlers who have recently attacked Palestinian towns and villages seem to want to wedge out their Palestinian neighbors.



      • New York TimesProsecutors to Seek Death Penalty for Idaho Murders Suspect Bryan Kohberger

        The top prosecutor in Latah County said the November killings met the standard for the kind of aggravating factors that warrant seeking the death penalty.

      • War in Ukraine

    • Environment

      • Energy/Transportation

      • Wildlife/Nature

      • Overpopulation

        • GizmodoWe Pump So Much Groundwater, We've Shifted The World's Tilt and Contributed to Sea Level Rise

          Groundwater is a pretty important source of water throughout the world, especially in the U.S. It’s used to provide drinking water and it’s a backup source of water when there’s drought. But there is such a thing as taking too much out of the ground. “Earth’s pole has drifted toward 64.16€°E at a speed of 4.36 cm/yr during 1993–2010 due to groundwater depletion and resulting sea level rise,” researchers wrote in the study. That’s a tilt of about 1.7 inches towards the east per year, or more than 28 inches (70 centimeters) in less than two decades.

    • Finance

      • Michael West MediaHand that (Cor)mann a cigar: Labor suddenly shy about multinational tax avoidance, 'sunshine' reform on ice

        Multinational tax avoiders and the OECD have won a reprieve from the Albanese government which has delayed legislation aimed at shining the light on tax avoidance. Jason Ward explains why the backdown is bad news.€ 

        The Labor government made an election promise, a budget promise, a legislative promise and held two consultations on landmark legislation to implement global tax transparency for multinationals. Now it has bent to corporate pressure. Landmark legislation for public country by country reporting was set to be implemented as of 1 July.

      • Michael West MediaWelcome mat put out for low-deposit home buyers

        Tens of thousands of hopeful buyers can secure a property with a smaller deposit by locking down a spot on the latest home guarantee scheme.

        From Saturday – the start of the next financial year – there will be 50,000 new places available for buyers hoping to jump on the property ladder with a smaller deposit, as the government guarantees a chunk of the loan.€ 

      • The Straits TimesHong Kong high-rise aims to become ‘village’ of the dead [Ed: Capitalism is turning corpses into business too]

        A basic two-person option for space at the columbarium is sold for $78,000.

      • QuartzThe race gap in US employment has disappeared for one age group: workers 65 and over

        The race gap in employment between Black and white US workers has nearly closed for people 65 and over, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

      • LatviaSmall shops still fight Latvia's deposit system

        For small rural shops, the size of which is more than 60 square meters, the Law lays down an obligation to accept empty containers for deposit, but€ shopkeepers have long been saying that there are issues with that, mainly space, Latvian Radio reported on June 27.

      • QuartzHigh-performing teams use this exercise to build accountability

        How many times have you been in a situation where a colleague said, “I thought so-and-so was going to do that?” or “Isn’t that your job?” It’s frustrating at the minimum—but on top of that, it slows down decision-making and makes teams less effective.

      • QuartzA tax scandal prompted PwC to sell a part of its Australian business for $0.67

        PwC is selling its scandal-ridden Australian government services business for next to nothing. The consulting firm yesterday (June 25) announced the sale to Sydney-based private equity firm Allegro Funds for the price of just $1 Australian dollar ($0.67).

      • Yahoo NewsSpain angers ride-hailing platforms and drivers with new regulation [Ed: Terribly loaded headline, painting those who try to guardian labourers from misuse like they're the actual problems]

        The Spanish government on Tuesday angered the ride-hailing transport industry by allowing regions to restrict their activity despite a ruling by the European Union's top court that had overturned a set of local curbs in Barcelona.

        Associations representing drivers working with app platforms operating in Spain, such as Uber, Bolt and local rival Cabify, said they would challenge the decision in Brussels and ask the European Commission to open legal proceedings against Spain.

        "We regret the aim is again to impose limits on business activity and not the users' right to get a quality service," Bolt said in a statement.

      • The Telegraph UK UK shares on longest losing streak since pandemic

        Domestic shares in the UK have slumped into their longest losing streak since the lows of the pandemic amid worries about the outlook for the economy.

        Although many global stocks are trading higher in a so-called bull market, the FTSE 250 index of Britain’s midcap companies dropped for the 10th straight day on Monday.

        The index, which is mainly made-up of domestically-focused companies, has fallen 5.8pc so far this year, worse than the benchmark FTSE 100, which is down 1.5pc.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • The Local SESwedish police give go-ahead to Quran burning outside Stockholm mosque

        Swedish police have given a man permission to burn a copy of the Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm on Wednesday afternoon.

      • Project CensoredBurying Information Down Under - Censored Notebook

        Timor-Leste is a tiny nation just to the north of Australia, also known as East Timor. In 2004, its newly independent government began negotiations with the Australian government over oil and gas in an offshore field between the two countries. To gain an upper hand in the negotiations, an Australian spy agency installed listening devices in Timor-Leste government offices during a humanitarian aid project.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • CPJLiberian journalist Winston Blyden attacked by politician’s bodyguards

        On June 6, 2023, Hanson Kaizolu, a member of Liberia’s opposition Unity Party, ordered two of his bodyguards to “flog” and “beat up” Winston Blyden, a producer and director with the privately owned broadcaster Bana FM, after he covered daily legislative proceedings at the Capitol building in Monrovia, according to a statement by the local trade group Press Union of Liberia and Blyden, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

      • AxiosSocial media news consumption slows globally
        Data: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023; Chart: Axios Visuals; Note: Respondents were ages 18+ from select countries, including UK, USA, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Ireland

        Social media has shrunk as a source for news, mostly due to Facebook's global pullback from news.

      • The NationJulian Assange and Arnon Milchan: The Lopsided Scales of American Justice

        The lopsided scales of the American justice system were on vivid display in England last weekend. In London’s His Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh—a fortress-like maximum security prison encircled by 18-foot water-stained concrete walls, balls of shinny razor wire and a dozen menacing guard towers—inmate A9397AY, otherwise known as Julian Assange, was into his fifth year of confinement. His accommodations consist of a plastic chair, a metal bed, and a steel toilet. That is where, for over four years, he has fought extradition to the United States on charges of espionage and computer intrusion in connection with the publication of hundreds of thousands of documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • ScheerpostSupreme Court Keeps Navajo Nation Waiting for Water

        More than 150 years after the Navajo Nation signed treaties with the United States establishing its reservation and recognizing its sovereignty, the country’s largest tribe still struggles to secure the water guaranteed by those agreements.

      • Site36Cracking of Encrochat crypto phones: Shockwave from Europol

        France’s secret service hacked the Encrochat crypto service and created a goldmine for law enforcement. Thousands were arrested. Doubts remain about the usability of the data in court.

      • Jacobin MagazineTo Stop the Race to the Bottom, Europe Needs to Recognize Platform Workers as Workers

        On June 2, the CEOs of Deliveroo, Uber, Delivery Hero, Wolt, and Bolt joined forces in a show of unity among gig-economy bosses. Their aim: to sabotage European Union attempts at regulating platform work.

      • TruthdigSolitary Confinement Is Torture

        There is a growing body of research that shows that solitary confinement as it is used today can cause a variety of severe psychological problems, including anxiety, depression, paranoia, hallucinations and suicidal thoughts. These problems can be so severe that they can lead to long-term disability or even death.

      • TechdirtWest Virginia State Police Sued Over Hidden Cameras Placed In ‘Junior Troopers’ Locker Room

        Law enforcement officers and sexual assault go hand-in-hand. Give someone enough power and they’re sure to abuse it. That’s just human nature. Only the best people should be trusted with this much power, but this nation tends to believe that only the most law enforcement will do. Consequently, our hiring practices — not to mention our disciplinary practices — are woefully deficient.

      • Pro PublicaSupreme Court Keeps Navajo Nation Waiting for Water

        More than 150 years after the Navajo Nation signed treaties with the United States establishing its reservation and recognizing its sovereignty, the country’s largest tribe still struggles to secure the water guaranteed by those agreements.

        Decades of negotiations with the state of Arizona have proven fruitless. The state has been uniquely aggressive in using the scarce resource as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from the Navajo Nation and other tribes, dragging out the talks while Indigenous communities await desperately needed water and infrastructure, a recent ProPublica and High Country News investigation found.

      • New York TimesWhile We Wait for the Supreme Court to Make Up Its Mind …

        The fine print is what really matters when it comes to affirmative action.

      • New YorkerAfter Affirmative Action Ends

        The next big question for school admissions will likely be the legality of “race-neutral” methods that are designed with the continuing goal of producing diverse student bodies.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • [Repeat] APNICState of DNS rebinding in 2023

        This update documents the state of DNS rebinding for April 2023. We describe Local Network Access, a new draft W3C specification currently implemented in some browsers that aim to prevent DNS rebinding and show two potential ways to bypass these restrictions.

        We also discuss the effects of WebRTC IP address leak mitigation, and DNS Bit 0x20 on DNS rebinding attacks.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Digital Music NewsWill.i.am Joins Hallwood Media for Solo Artist Management

          Will.i.am joins Neil Jacobson’s Hallwood Media for solo artist management, including his track ‘The Formula’ featuring Lil Wayne as the official song of the 2023 Formula 1 season. Producer, musician, and entrepreneur will.i.am has signed with Neil Jacobson’s Hallwood Media for artist management.

        • New YorkerJoanna Sternberg Is a Music Ninja

          Growing up in Manhattan Plaza, an artists’ housing complex, the singer-songwriter sat in with the Marsalis brothers and almost had Alicia Keys as a babysitter.

Recent Techrights' Posts

'Dark Patterns' or a Trap at the European Patent Office (EPO)
insincere if not malicious E-mail from the EPO's dictators
There's an Abundance of Articles About the New Release of Kali Linux, But This One is a Fake
It can add nothing except casual misinformation (fed back into the model to reinforce lies)
IBM's Leadership Ruining Lives of People Who Thought Working for IBM Would be OK
Nobody gets fire-lined for buying IBM?
The United States' Authorities Ought to Become Enforcers of the General Public License (GPL) for National Security's Sake
US federal agencies ought to pursue availability of code and GPL compliance (copyleft), not bans
The Problem of Microsoft Security Problems is Microsoft (the Solution is to Quit Microsoft) and "Salt Typhoon" Coverage Must Name CALEA Back Doors
Name the holes, not those who exploit them.
A "Year of Efficiency"
No, we don't mean layoffs
 
Another Terrible Month for Microsoft in Web Servers
Consistent downward curve
LLM Slop Disguised as Journalism: The Latest Threat to the Web
A lot of it is to do with proprietary GitHub, i.e. Microsoft
Gemini Links 20/12/2024: Regulation and Implementing Graphics
Links for the day
Links 20/12/2024: Windows Breaks Itself, Mass Layoffs Coming to Google Again (Big Wave)
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Microsoft: "Upgrade" to Vista 11 Today, We'll Brick Your Audio and You Cannot Prevent This
Windows Update is obligatory, so...
The Unspeakable National Security Threat: Plasticwares as the New Industrial Standard
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Microsoft's All-Time Lows in Macao and Hong Kong
Microsoft is having a hard time in China, not only for political reasons
[Meme] "It Was Like a Nuclear Winter"
This won't happen again, will it?
If You Know That Hey Hi (AI) is Hype, Then Stop Participating in It
bogus narrative of "Hey Hi (AI) arms race" and "era/age of Hey Hi" and "Hey Hi Revolution"
Bangladesh (Population Close to 200 Million) Sees Highest GNU/Linux Adoption Levels Ever
Microsoft barely has a grip on this country. It used to.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 19, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, December 19, 2024
Gemini Links 19/12/2024: Fast Year Passes and Advent of Code Ongoing
Links for the day
Twitter is Going to Fall Out of Top 100 Domains as Clownflare (DNS MitM) Sees It
evidence of Twitter's (X's) collapse
[Meme] Making Choices at the EPO
Decisions, decisions...
Large and Significant Error Correction in South America?
Windows now has less than half what Android achieved in terms of "market share"
Links 19/12/2024: Astronaut Record and Observer Absorbed
Links for the day
Links 19/12/2024: Seven Dirty Words and Isle Release v0.0.3 (Alpha)
Links for the day
Links 19/12/2024: Nurses Besieged by "Apps", More Harms of Social Control Media Illuminated
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15 Countries Where Yandex is Already Seen to be Bigger Than Microsoft (in Search)
Georgia, Syrian Arab Republic, Cyprus, Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Turkey, and Russia
Links 19/12/2024: Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake and Privacy Camp
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/12/2024: Port Of Miami Explosion, TurboQOA, Gnus
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Fake Articles About 'Linux'
Dated yesterday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 18, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 18, 2024
FSF Has Made It Halfway to Its Target (Funding Goal) a Week Before Christmas Day
$400,000 definitely seems reachable now, especially if they extend the "deadline"
[Meme] The Master Churnalist
Speaking of press releases being passed off as "journalism"
Spamnil's TFiR: Still Pretending Press Releases Are 'Articles' (TFiR 'Originals' as Plagiarism or Fluff)
Same as last year
Links 18/12/2024: Zakir Hussain Dies, TuneIn Layoffs
Links for the day
Links 18/12/2024: Karate Love and Advent of Code
Links for the day
Windows (or Microsoft) Has Become the "One Percent" (Market Share) in Chad
How long before it falls below 1%?
Arvind Krishna, IBM's CEO, Will Eventually Suck Up to Donald Trump Like His Predecessor Did or the Watson Family Did With Adolf Hitler
Literally Hitler
Being a Geek Need Not Mean Being Sedentary
"In the past 18 months," Berkholz writes, "I’ve lost 75 pounds and gone from completely sedentary to fit, while minimizing the effort to do so (but needing a whole lot of persistence and grit)."
GAFAM Kissing the Ring of the Mafia Don
"resistance" to dictatorship and defenders of democracy?
Slop Spaghetti From the Chef, Second Time Today
Fresh slop ready out the oven!
IBM - Like Microsoft - Lies About the Number of People It's Laying Off (Several Tens of Thousands, Not Counting R.T.O. "Silent" Layoffs and Contractors/Perma-Temps)
How many waves of silent layoffs have we seen so far at IBM this year?
Links 18/12/2024: EU Launches Probe Into TikTok (At Last!)
Links for the day
Links 18/12/2024: Doha/Qatar Trafficking, Bloat Comfort Zone, and Advent of Code 2024
Links for the day
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
[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
Brian Fagioli's Latest "Linux" Article Appears to be Fake
Another form of plagiarism/ripoff using bots?
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