Distributions and Operating Systems

• BSD

Leftovers

• Joan Westenberg ☛ Breaking up with Slack and Discord: why it's time to bring back forums.

  Unlike most chat apps, forums allow conversations to develop at more thoughtful pacings with well-constructed dialogue. Members can take time crafting articulate posts, which persist as valuable community resources, instead of being lost in ephemeral streams. The asynchronous nature ensures all global contributors can participate comfortably regardless of their timezone. Exploring archives helps new members progressively build knowledge, context, and relationships within foreign communities without being overwhelmed.

• Dan Q ☛ [Bloganuary] Communicate Early, Communicate Often

  I’ve written before about how this site – my blog – is the centre of my digital “ecosystem”. And while the technical details may have changed since that post was published, the fundamentals have not: everything about my public communication revolves around this, right here.

• Manton Reece ☛ Micro.blog category improvements

  These customizations are available with a new field on the edit category page. I hope folks enjoy this extra flexibility. Also note that it’s possible to create new conflicts, such as the same path being used for standalone pages and categories… Just be mindful of this when creating pages.

• Simone Silvestroni ☛ Quitting capitalism

  I keep thinking about people who actually agree with the current incarnation of capitalism as members of a growth death cult. Can’t explain it differently.

• Joan Westenberg ☛ How to quit capitalism.

  In its unbridled form, capitalism has ushered in an era where consumerism is king, and possessions are the yardstick of success. In this relentless pursuit of more, we have lost sight of what truly matters — our connection to each other, our harmony with nature, and our sense of purpose beyond material gains.

  We’re trapped in a cycle that glorifies wealth and power, ignoring the human cost it entails — a cost paid in the currency of social injustice, environmental degradation, and a deep sense of existential void.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Countdown To A Spaceship Simulator

    [Jon Petter Skagmo] claims that the spaceship simulator he’s working on is for his daughter, but we think there’s an excellent chance he’s looking to fulfill a few childhood dreams of his own. But no matter what generation ends up getting the most enjoyment out of it, there’s no question it’s an impressive build so far, complete with a very realistic-looking instrument display and joystick.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Independent UK ☛ Cycle commute improves mental health, research shows

    Analysis of almost 380,000 people living in Scotland suggests commuting by bike reduces the risk of mental ill health.

    Commuting by bike led to greater reductions in mental health prescriptions in women than in men, according to research from the University of Edinburgh – although men were more likely to cycle.

  • CNN ☛ Bottled water contains thousands of nanoplastics so small they can invade the body’s cells, study says

    At 1,000th the average width of a human hair, nanoplastics are so teeny they can migrate through the tissues of the digestive tract or lungs into the bloodstream, distributing potentially harmful synthetic chemicals throughout the body and into cells, experts say.

  • Associated Press ☛ Scientists find about a quarter million invisible nanoplastic particles in a liter of bottled water

    Much of the plastic seems to be coming from the bottle itself and the reverse osmosis membrane filter used to keep out other contaminants, said study lead author Naixin Qian, a Columbia physical chemist. She wouldn’t reveal the three brands because researchers want more samples before they single out a brand and want to study more brands. Still, she said they were common and bought at a WalMart.

  • Healthline Media ☛ Massive number of plastic particles found in bottled water. Are they harmful to health?

    The new study found between 110,000 and 370,000 nanoparticles, most of which were nanoplastics, when they tested three popular bottled water brands.

    Using hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy, the researchers could observe particles as small as 100 nanometers in the water they examined.

  • uni Columbia ☛ Bottled Water Can Contain Hundreds of Thousands of Nanoplastics

    The researchers tested three popular brands of bottled water sold in the United States (they declined to name which ones), analyzing plastic particles down to just 100 nanometers in size. They spotted 110,000 to 370,000 particles in each liter, 90% of which were nanoplastics; the rest were microplastics. They also determined which of the seven specific plastics they were, and charted their shapes—qualities that could be valuable in biomedical research.

    One common one was polyethylene terephthalate or PET. This was not surprising, since that is what many water bottles are made of. (It is also used for bottled sodas, sports drinks and condiments such as ketchup and mayonnaise.) It probably gets into the water as bits slough off when the bottle is squeezed or gets exposed to heat. One recent study suggests that many particles enter the water when you repeatedly open or close the cap, and tiny bits abrade.

    However, PET was outnumbered by polyamide, a type of nylon. Ironically, said Beizhan Yan, that probably comes from plastic filters used to supposedly purify the water before it is bottled. Other common plastics the researchers found: polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and polymethyl methacrylate, all used in various industrial processes.

    A somewhat disturbing thought: the seven plastic types the researchers searched for accounted for only about 10% of all the nanoparticles they found in samples; they have no idea what the rest are. [...]

  • The endless quackery and grift of The Wellness Company

    About a week ago, I noticed that Dr. Robert “inventor of mRNA vaccines” Malone and Trial Site News were targeting The Wellness Company, the supplement company in which COVID-19 antivaxxer and quack Dr. Peter McCullough has become a major player, with an “investigative report” entitled Monetizing the COVID-19 Backlash—Big Vision, Palpable Demand, But Can They Pull it Off? Given that there are few things I enjoy better than a quack fight, I knew that this would have to be the topic of my first post for this year, especially when I’ve written about The Wellness Company before in the context of Dr. McCullough’s selling nattokinase supplements (with bromelain) which according to him break down SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, as a fake cure for both COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccine “injury” and also because Dr. Robert Malone, siding with Trial Site News, got permission to repost the entire story on his Substack, characterizing it as Trial Site News‘ “fair and balanced ‘deep dive’ investigation into ‘The Wellness Company.'”

  • LRT ☛ How to survive January Blues?

    The third Monday of the year is dubbed Blue Monday, or the saddest day of the year. This phenomenon is not scientifically proven, but the gloomy January does make many people feel down. So, what can we do to help ourselves feel better?

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • NYPost ☛ I asked Hey Hi (AI) to show me a stay-at-home mom’s life — it got it so wrong

    A mother-of-three was shocked at the perfect life depicted when Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot was asked to show what a stay-at-home mom looked like.

  • Jon Udell ☛ 7 Guiding Principles for Working with LLMs

    Here’s the latest installment in the series on working with LLMS: 7 Guiding Principles for Working with LLMs.

  • Daniel Miller ☛ Desperation Algorithms

    Just like the algorithm that tries to keep me consuming content on the platform, the algorithm that chooses ads from the platform’s vast inventory is comically bad. In the case of YouTube, I have checked or unchecked all the boxes in Google that make it so it can’t track me quite so closely. But they still know about all those videos I’ve watched, right? Still, I get the most ridiculous ads. There are a couple that are clearly auto-generated from an image and some text, the image being a low-resolution copy of the company’s logo, which the YouTube ad generator stretches and squashes into a blurry, pixelated mess. Then there are the ads for hyper-conservative content, my little view into the frankly paranoid and seething world of the far right. I get these ads either in spite of or because I have watched left-leaning content on the platform.

  • India Today ☛ Google confirms it has already fired over 1000 employees in recent weeks, AI reorganisation going on

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ Much of Houthis’ Offensive Ability Remains Intact After U.S.-Led Airstrikes

    The strikes damaged the group’s ability to carry out complex missile and drone attacks, U.S. officials said, but identifying targets has proved to be a challenge.

  • New York Times ☛ Monday Briefing: Houthis Hold Firm After Strikes

    Also, Taiwan’s president-elect and India’s court case backlog.

  • JURIST ☛ US and UK defend strikes on Houthis at UN Security Council amid fears of escalation

    The US and UK defended the legality of their strikes launched in Yemen against Houthi rebels at the UN Security Council’s Friday meeting.

  • France24 ☛ 🔴 Live: US downs missile fired from Yemen at American warship

    The US military said Sunday its forces shot down a cruise missile fired at an American destroyer warship from Houthi controlled areas of Yemen. The attack appears to be the first against a US destroyer amid a growing number of missile and drone strikes or attempted strikes by the Houthis, on what they deem Israeli-linked shipping on the key Red Sea trade route.  Follow our live blog for all the latest developments.

  • YLE ☛ Finnish firms exporting crucial equipment to Russia despite sanctions

    Using customs documents, journalists from Yle's MOT investigative reporting unit uncovered the firms involved. They are mostly companies owned by individuals with Russian backgrounds that operate in the small-scale logistics and freight forwarding sectors.

  • Open Dialog Foundation ☛ Russia’s Accomplices in the War Against Ukraine: Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Army’s Reliable Rear

    By suppressing civil society, the media, and restricting the rights and freedoms of citizens, the Kyrgyz authorities narrow the space for objective reporting and criticism of the actions of the Kyrgyz leadership, not only in relation to large-scale corruption, but also regarding the support of Russia in circumventing sanctions. Democratic countries should impose personal sanctions on representatives of the Kyrgyz authorities, for increasing the number of political prisoners, restricting the right to peaceful assembly and persecuting independent media.

    [...]

    As a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Kyrgyzstan, like Kazakhstan, plays an important role in ensuring the supply of banned goods to Russia despite international sanctions. Given the small volume of the country’s GDP (about USD 10.5 billion for 2022), it is important to consider export growth for 2022 rather than the total amount of goods delivered when analysing exports from Kyrgyzstan to Russia, as it is export growth that reflects the policy of the Kyrgyz authorities to help Russia circumvent sanctions: [...]

  • Atlantic Council ☛ The sentencing of a US Navy sailor is a window into Chinese espionage. Here’s how the US should respond.

    The United States and its allies and partners are under constant threat from pervasive efforts by China to collect intelligence, though this rarely makes it into the public eye. This week provided a clear reminder of this threat. On January 8, US Navy sailor Wenheng Zhao, who pled guilty in October 2023 in the Central District of California to one count of conspiring with a foreign intelligence officer and one count of receiving a bribe, was sentenced to twenty-seven months in prison and ordered to pay a $5,500 fine.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Despite sanctions, Chinese military, universities, and government bodies procure Nvidia GPUs.

    The U.S. imposed bans on the exports of Nvidia's A100 and H100 chips to China and Hong Kong in September 2022, which lead to Nvidia designing A800 and H800 models tailored for Chinese market (in October 2023, the U.S. government restricted shipments of both A800 and H800 to China). Despite this, dozens of Chinese entities continued to acquire A100 and H100, according to the publicly available tender documents, Reuters claims. The review of these transactions shows that more than 100 tenders involved the procurement of A100 chips, and several tenders since the October ban included purchases of the A800 model. Most of these tenders require delivery and installation prerequisites before payment, ensuring the completion of these transactions.

  • Meduza ☛ More than 20 Finnish companies reportedly exporting military goods to Russia

    The companies in question either exported goods directly to Russia or acted as intermediaries. Goods from Finland were also sent through other countries, such as Uzbekistan, allowing Russia to circumvent sanctions, according to Yle.

  • New York Times ☛ Britain Moves to Ban the Islamist Group Hizb ut-Tahrir

    Parliament is expected to debate and vote on the measure this week. If approved, it would take effect as early as Friday.

    James Cleverly, the home secretary, said in a statement on Monday, “Hizb ut-Tahrir is an antisemitic organization that actively promotes and encourages terrorism, including praising and celebrating the appalling 7 October attacks.”

  • JURIST ☛ UK moves to declare Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist group

    Hizb ut-Tahrir is an Islamist political group that operates in 32 countries worldwide but is banned in several states, including Germany and Egypt. It aims to establish the Islamic Khilafah, which, according to their website, involves “presenting the Islamic solutions to address contemporary problems, political activism and ultimately working for political change in the Muslim countries in a non-violent way.”

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFA ☛ N Korea confirms new hypersonic missile test as minister heads to Russia

      Pyongyang claimed that its test was safe for neighbors and unrelated to regional security.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Russia welcomes North Korean foreign minister for talks on deepening ties

      North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui is due in Russia on Monday for talks with her counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, as the two countries deepen economic, political, and military ties.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Poet Lev Rubenshtein Dies Of Injuries After Being Hit By Car

      Renowned Russian poet and essayist Lev Rubenshtein has died in Moscow at the age of 76, his family announced on January 14.

    • New York Times ☛ War or No War, Many Older Ukrainians Want to Stay Put

      The front line in Ukraine is largely peopled by the elderly these days. Some can’t afford to get out. Others say they won’t abandon their homes.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Heads To Davos For 'Peace Formula' Talks As Dnipro Marks Anniversary Of Deadly Missile Strike

      Residents of the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro gathered on January 14 to mark the first anniversary of a Russian missile strike on a residential building that killed 46 civilians, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy prepared to travel to the Swiss city of Davos.

    • RFERL ☛ Convicted Former Russian Mayor Released To Fight In Ukraine

      A former mayor of the Russian Pacific coast port of Vladivostok, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2023 for bribe-taking, has been released from prison to serve in the Russian military in Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Romanian Farmers Again Block Truck Movement At Ukrainian Border

      Romanian farmers have again blocked the movement of trucks at the Siret checkpoint near the border with Ukraine, authorities on both sides said on January 14.

    • RFERL ☛ War In Ukraine Having Consequences For Russia's Health-Care System, U.K. Says

      Russia's war against Ukraine is also affecting Russian health care, according to British intelligence reports.

    • Meduza ☛ Hundreds of protesters in Russia’s Bashkortostan demand activist’s release and governor’s dismissal — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russia sees increase in alcohol dependence diagnoses for first time in decade — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Tinder to stop working in Belarus — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Switzerland to host global peace summit on Ukraine — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Child reportedly injured by falling debris after Russian air defenses down eight drones in Voronezh region — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russian government commission endorses bill enabling asset seizure for convictions related to “fake news” about army — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ How Putin’s daughter makes millions as a shareholder of her own company — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Ukrainian Air Force reportedly shoots down Russian radar plane over Azov Sea — Meduza

• Environment

  • YLE ☛ Polar vortex a factor in Finland's weeklong deep freeze

    Finland is located on the edge of the polar vortex. If the vortex breaks down in the middle of winter, exceptionally cold air could reach as far as southern Europe.

  • Michael Bburkhardt ☛ Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands

    🌋 Besides all kinds of interesting animal species, the many islands themselves are just as fascinating. The product of a volcanic hot spot, the islands range in age from just hundreds of thousands of years old in the west, to five million years old in the east. One of may favorite experiences was walking through a lava field.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • US News And World Report ☛ Sweden's Northvolt Raises $5 Billion Green Loan to Expand Battery Factories

      The company has now secured more than $13 billion in equity and debt to expand its operations across Sweden, Poland, Germany, the United States and Canada.

  • Overpopulation

    • NL Times ☛ Netherlands should aim for "moderate" population growth to 20 million people in 2050

      The commission pointed out that the composition of the population will change in the coming years. More people with diverse cultural backgrounds already live in the Netherlands, and there are more elderly people. The aging population will reach a peak in the next 10 to 15 years, and after that, we will remain an “older” society, the commission wrote. The aging population will lead to greater staff shortages in healthcare and education. The problems with these facilities are different in every region.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Register UK ☛ India again backs down on its controversial PC import restrictions

    Last Friday, India made another move when the DGFT published a circular [PDF that states “Only the import of Laptops, Tablets, All-in-one Personal Computers, Ultra small form factor Computers and Servers falling under HSN 8471 is ‘Restricted’ and import should be allowed against a valid Import authorisation only for above five item categories.”

    “The given Import Restriction does not apply to any other goods such as Desktop Computers, etc. under tariff head 8471.”

  • Alex Ewerlöf ☛ What can we learn from Spotify layoffs?

    As we’ll see it’s not the micro-productivity (personal level) but rather macro-productivity (company scale) that motivates these layoffs, but even then, there are external factors at play and ironically layoffs add fuel to the fire.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Universal Music Preparing Major Layoff Round of ‘Hundreds,’ with Recorded Music Division ‘Hit the Hardest’

    Bloomberg reported on Friday, January 12, that Universal Music Group is planning a major round of layoffs this quarter, according to those close to the matter. Universal Music will cut “hundreds” of jobs, with the company’s largest division, recorded music, being “hit the hardest.”

  • India Times ☛ How OpenAI plans to fight election misinformation on ChatGPT

    2024 is an election year in many countries, including the US and India. With the rise of AI in the tech world, there’s a genuine concern over the use of technology for election misinformation. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has laid bare details on how it plans to combat it. In a blog post, OpenAI its our approach is to continue its platform safety work by elevating accurate voting information, enforcing measured policies, and improving transparency.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Eesti Rahvusringhääling ☛ Watch again: Open Estonia Foundation disinformation forum

      The XXVI Open Society Forum "Europe at the Crossroads: Civil Society, Media Literacy and Resilience in Europe" session can be viewed by clicking the video player above.

      Organizers said that the forum delves into the nature and extent of problems associated with disinformation, while also highlighting the specific transnational and national dynamics at play.

    • India Times ☛ Russian version of Wikipedia to launch soon, reports say

      Russia has said it was not yet planning to block Wikipedia - one of the few surviving independent sources of information in Russia since a state crackdown on online content intensified after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • RFERL ☛ Iran Files New Charges Against Two Journalists After Their Release

    Two Iranian journalists face new charges for flouting Iran's hijab law after they published photographs on social media without wearing head scarves just hours after being temporarily released from prison, where they were serving lengthy sentences for their coverage of the death of Mahsa Amini.

  • Project Censored ☛ Exploring Press Freedoms: Updates on Julian Assange's Extradition

    The Official Project Censored Show Exploring Press Freedoms: [...]

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Democracy Now ☛ MLK Day Special: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words

    Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born January 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Vietnam War. We play his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, which he delivered at New York City’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, as well as his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” that he gave on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Go Placidly: (Still) In Search Of the Beloved Community

    It's tough, in this bleak, bloody, foreboding time, to hold onto and keep faith with Martin Luther King's lofty vision of equality forged through non-violence. Still, we're trying. For succor there is the memory of the blessed John Lewis, honored in a new biography, for whom "the fire never dimmed"; the words of King himself, who argued, "Only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars," and the fierce Rev. William Barber, who rejects the revisionist "happy MLK" and vows to "reconsecrate" himself to the work at hand.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Iran extends Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi prison sentence

    Mohammadi's family said on Monday the Revolutionary Court sentenced in December the Nobel Laureate to 15 months in prison. They added that she had boycotted the trial.

    Mohammadi is currently serving a 30-month sentence in Tehran over allegedly spreading propaganda against the ruling system, disobedience in prison and defamation of authorities.

  • RFERL ☛ Iranian Police Blame Woman For Violence Of Her Arrest

    Tehran's police said in a statement the objective of the incident was to impound the woman's vehicle after she was caught defying the hijab law. Police have been conducting vehicle inspections to specifically target compliance with the law.

    There have been previous reports of the Iranian police utilizing city-wide CCTV cameras to identify women who violate the mandatory hijab law and subsequently impound their vehicles.

  • The Register UK ☛ Infosys co-founder doubles down on call for 70-hour work weeks

    Undoubtedly hard work played into the scenario, after all the former exec admitted he worked 85 to 90 hours a week until retirement. But what also helped build his empire was the domestic labor provided by his wife, who took over such duties alongside his in-laws who lived downstairs.

  • The Register UK ☛ Cloudflare defends firing of staffer for reasons HR could not explain

    Cloudflare has defended its HR practices after a former employee posted a nine-minute video of a phone call during which she was fired, asked for an explanation for being let go, but was told those who made the call were unaware of the reasons for her dismissal.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ IMF: AI will affect 40% of jobs and could worsen inequality

    “In advanced economies, about 60% of jobs are exposed to AI, due to prevalence of cognitive-task-oriented jobs,” said the researchers. “A new measure of potential AI complementarity suggests that, of these, about half may be negatively affected by AI, while the rest could benefit from enhanced productivity through AI integration. Overall exposure is 40% in emerging market economies and 26% in low-income countries.”

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ AI set to impact 60% of jobs in developed economies: IMF

    The impact is expected to be different in the developing world, with 40% of jobs in emerging markets set to be impacted and 26% of jobs in low-income countries.

    But while these labor markets are set to see a smaller initial impact from AI, they are also less likely to benefit from the increased productivity that AI promises.

  • JURIST ☛ Iran opens new case against recently released female journalists for appearing without hijab

    Iranian authorities arrested Hamedi and Mohammadi in September of 2022, following protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, who died following her detention for not complying with Iran’s mandatory hijab rules. At the time, Iranian authorities said that she had died due to a pre-existing health condition, but this account was rejected, sparking nationwide protests. Both Hamedi and Mohammadi had worked for reformist publications, with Hamedi visiting the hospital while Amini was in a coma and then breaking the story about Amini’s death, publishing pictures of Amini’s parents mourning their daughter at the Tehran hospital where she died. Police arrested her shortly after. Mohammadi worked for Ham-Mihan, a pro-reform daily newspaper in Tehran, and traveled to Amini’s home of Saqqez to report on the funeral and was arrested just days later.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ Beyond borders: A recap of Afghanistan’s School on Internet Governance 2023

    Exploring the key takeaways from AFSIG’s first event in three years.

  • The Atlantic ☛ The Internet Is Being Ruined by Bloated Junk

    Algorithms promise to do one basic job: pluck the supposedly best content possible from the deluge of the [Internet] and surface it to users. Some algorithms may in fact prioritize length metrics (such as time spent watching) as an indicator of quality. But it’s hard to say for sure, because tech companies tend not to give many details about their inner workings. Longer videos, like all other content, are recommended based on the preferences and interests of viewers, the TikTok spokesperson said.

    In some ways, whether an algorithm is actually hard-coded to prefer longer-form videos matters less than whether creators think an algorithm prefers longer-form videos. Folk theories of algorithms end up influencing what kinds of content get made. If people start believing that longer videos or podcast episodes do “better,” they’ll make more of them.

  • Trail of Bits ☛ Internet freedom with the Open Technology Fund

    Trail of Bits cares about [Internet] freedom, and one of our most valued partners in pursuit of that goal is the Open Technology Fund (OTF). Our core values involve focusing on high-impact work, including work with a positive social impact. The OTF’s Red Team Lab exists to provide auditing services for the software that protects privacy and ensures open access to the [Internet], free of censorship. We’re a proud member of the Red Team Lab and have performed numerous engagements on software products that are critical to [Internet] freedom. See what we’ve been up to below.

  • India Times ☛ Starlink faces licence delay as DoT seeks clarity from DPIIT

    DPIIT had in 2020 amended the foreign investment policy to make prior government approval mandatory for inflows from countries sharing a land border with India through Press Note 3, which also requires all foreign investors to share complete shareholding details so as to check if there are any investors from countries sharing a land border with India, like China.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Ethical Infantilism in the Age of Technological Advancement

    Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and I re-read his speech today — especially the portion contrasting development of science and technology against development of the human spirit.  The past 60 years have continued to reveal astonishing discoveries and invention. Yet King’s words and warnings continue to resonate because we have continued to neglect our internal realm.

    Every man lives in two realms, the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ T 1137/21 – Even Amendments based solely on Original Dependent Claims may be Risky

      The EPO’s Boards of Appeal are famously strict on added matter. But normally applicants can sleep soundly at night after making amendments based entirely on the original dependent claims having appropriate back references, especially where the amendments still cover the examples.

  • Software Patents

    • [Old] Internet Archive ☛ RSA Security Releases RSA Encryption Algorithm into Public Domain

      Represented by the equation "c = me mod n," the RSA algorithm is widely considered the standard for encryption and the core technology that secures the vast majority of the e-business conducted on the Internet. The U.S. patent for the RSA algorithm (# 4,405,829, "Cryptographic Communications System And Method") was issued to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on September 20, 1983, licensed exclusively to RSA Security and expires on September 20, 2000.

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • Gizmodo ☛ Dumbest AI Stunt of the Week: A Robot George Carlin Standup Special

      Welcome back to the Dumbest Tech News of the Week, Gizmodo’s Monday column where we dive into the best of the worst that technology has to offer. This week we’re exploring Dudesy, an AI comedy podcast and video channel run by comedian Will Sasso, writer Chad Kultgen, and a tech company they refuse to name. On Tuesday, Dudesy released the special, “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead.” Even Sasso and Kultgen seem uncomfortable with the project, and that’s to say nothing of the countless bad reviews and outrage from Carlin’s family. In other words: it’s dumb.

• Copyrights

  • New York Times ☛ The Next Battle in Higher Ed May Strike at Its Soul: Scholarship

    Cases involving Stanford, Harvard and M.I.T. are fueling skepticism over the thoroughness of research — even from the academic world’s biggest stars.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ FrostWire Returns to Google Play Store After Music Industry Takedown

    With millions of users, BitTorrent client FrostWire is no small player. The content-neutral download tool distances itself from piracy but following an Indian music industry complaint, it was unavailable in the Play Store for more than a month. The 'misunderstanding' was eventually resolved so to commemorate the comeback, FrostWire has just released a new update, dubbing it the “Ice Phoenix” release.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ '£1m' Pirate TV Box Seller Avoids Prison Due to Private Prosecution Delays

    A man who sold "thousands" of piracy-configured TV boxes to customers in the UK has avoided prison, despite claims he generated up to £1 million. Jordon Longbottom faced a private criminal prosecution brought by the Federation Against Copyright Theft but avoided a custodial sentence after the case failed to be brought in a timely fashion. Overcrowding in UK prisons was also taken into consideration, undermining claims that small-time pirates risk custodial sentences.

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Personal/Opinions

    • 🔤SpellBinding — VEILOSC Wordo: VIDEO

    • Be for

    • Post me a river

      huge swaths of snow clouds

      gliding the river's surface is how it looks

    • #Lore24 - Day 15 - On Primer on Crystal Techniques

      I always had fond memories of the Dick and Jane books when I was learning to read. When I had children, we got them a copy of their own and went through those stories that try to teach children how to read. Later, there were books that taught me how to do electronics, programming, or woodworking. Naturally, when I thought about how a world that already knew magic would introduce it, I figured I'd create a primer for a popular magic system, hench the Primer on Crystal Techniques[1] which is the foundation of Kanéko's[2] understanding of magic in Flight of the Scions[3].

    • Sometimes I'm so tired ...

      I read an article on the IT ticker about "no charging your $favorite_toy for 50 years". No kidding. Radio-nuclide batteries based on Nickel-63. Ok, it's small and cute and it may not power your $favorite_toy for a long time, but you get it. So, homo sapiens is clever enough to add yet another dimension to the not so small waste and garbage problem: radioactivity.

    • Sidereal Time (publ. 2023-01-15)

      Something I have wanted to have for a while is a handy sidereal time clock, set to my Local Sidereal Time. For those not familiar with it, the basic idea is that, due to our orbit around the sun, the sun moves around the sky at a slightly slower speed than the stars. This is a fun, but sometimes confusing, feature of our created universe which allows most of us to see a slightly different set of stars each night throughout the different seasons of the year — the exception being those who live on either the north or the south pole.

  • Technology and Free Software

    • There's no beating a good keyboard shortcut

      Honestly: is there anything better than the '%' key jumping one between curly braces in vim?

      Fun ponderings earlier today about how awareness outward ("paying" attention) is somehow paramount to denying the inner reality, which to me is an irreligious version of the opposite of "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness". That outflowing of awareness leads to an emptiness driving more outflowing (as though the outflowing could lead to a reclamation) combined with attempting to garnish/draw the attention/awareness of others.

    • Internet/Gemini

      • January 2024 Update

        Life, it seems, likes to throw a lot of curveballs right at those times when I'm working hardest towards my goals. This is going to be an uncharacteristically personal post. Truth told I'm forcing myself to write because a) I haven't been keeping up this Gemlog and b) I need something to do right now to avoid spiraling.

        I haven't written much code recently either, at least not as much as I normally output. I've recently finished knocking my rust implementation of my Haggis archiver into shape so that it's not just a library but has a full command line program using the library. There is a C implementation as well, but I've only just started working on anything past the library.