Leftovers

• CER ☛ PCAS Expansion, Growth, Research, and SIGCSE 2024 Presentations

  The ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium is March 20-23 in Portland (see website here). I rarely blog these days, but the SIGCSE TS is a reminder to update y’all with what’s going on in the College of Literature, Science, & the Arts (LSA) Program in Computing for the Arts and Sciences (PCAS).

• OpenRightsGroup ☛ BRIEFING: THE ICO ISN’T WORKING

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• Hackaday ☛ The Chandra X-Ray Observatory Faces Shutdown In FY2025 Budget

  The Chandra X-ray Observatory started its mission back in 1999 when Space Shuttle Columbia released it from its payload bay. Originally, it was supposed to serve only a five-year mission, but it has managed twenty-four years so far and counting, providing invaluable science along with the other Great Observatory: the Hubble Space Telescope. Unfortunately, NASA’s FY2025 budget now looks to threaten all space telescopes and Chandra in particular. This comes as part of the larger FY2025 US budget, which sees total funding for NASA increase by 2%, but not enough to prevent cuts in NASA’s space telescope operations.

• Education

  • YLE ☛ PM Orpo: Finland working on strategy to keep foreign students beyond graduation

    Prime Minister Petteri Orpo hosted a meeting with representatives from immigrant and human rights organisations on Monday.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ Edge Impulse machine learning platform adds support for NVIDIA TAO Toolkit and Omniverse

    Edge Impulse machine learning platform for edge devices has released a new suite of tools developed on NVIDIA TAO Toolkit and Omniverse that brings new Hey Hi (AI) models to entry-level hardware based on Arm Cortex-A processors, Arm Cortex-M microcontrollers, or Arm Ethos-U NPUs.

  • Hackaday ☛ The F Number On A Lens Means Something? Who Knew!

    The Raspberry Pi has provided experimenters with many channels of enquiry, and for me perhaps the furthest into uncharted waters it has led me has come through its camera interface. At a superficial level I can plug in one of the ready-made modules with a built-in tiny lens, but as I experiment with the naked sensors of the HD module and a deconstructed Chinese miniature sensor it’s taken me further into camera design than I’d expected.

  • Hackaday ☛ Proper Routing Makes For Many Happy Return Paths

    Here’s a question for you: when your PCB has a ground plane layer, where do return signals flow? It seems like a trick question, but as [Kristof Mulier] explains, there’s more to return path routing than just doing a copper pour and calling it a day.

  • Hackaday ☛ Faux Silkscreen On A PCB Made With A Laser Cutter

    If you’re getting PCBs professionally made, silkscreen usually comes free as part of the package. However, if you’re making your own, the job is on you. [Tony Goacher] makes his own PCBs on a CNC router, so he’s not getting any silkscreening as part of that bargain. But he wondered—could he do something analogous with a laser cutter?

  • CNX Software ☛ AAEON COM-RAPC6 and COM-ADNC6 COM Express modules feature Raptor Lake and Alder Lake-N CPUs

    AAEON has unveiled two COM Express Type 6 Compact Computer-on-Module families with the COM-RAPC6 designed for high performance with 13th generation Raptor Lake processors from the 15W defective chip maker Intel Processor U300E up to 45W defective chip maker Intel Core i7 SKUs, and the COM-ADNC6 optimized for efficiency with Alder Lake-N processors such as the defective chip maker Intel Core i3-N305 or Atom x7425E CPUs.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • NYPost ☛ Four years on, COVID damage remains while Fauci & Co. pay no price

    We just passed the fourth anniversary of “15 Days To Slow the Spread,” the start of the COVID lockdowns that did damage from which we still haven’t recovered.

  • RFA ☛ COVID symptoms kill 5 North Korean children, schools and daycares shuttered

    Ryanggang province enacts mask mandate and advises children to stay home for 10 days.

  • New York Times ☛ Pandemic Lockdowns Had Varied Effects on Wildlife

    A new study of camera-trap images complicates the idea that all wildlife thrived during the Covid lockdowns.

  • Science Alert ☛ Florida Man Discovers Brain Parasite Is Cause of Constant Headaches

    This was no ordinary migraine.

  • Science Alert ☛ Major US Study Confirms a New #1 Cause of Disease Worldwide

    A seismic shift in illness.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Engineer Cow That Makes Human Insulin Proteins in Its Milk

    This could solve global insulin supply.

  • Science Alert ☛ Toddler Milk Is a Huge Seller, But Do You Know What's In It?

    Experts raise the alarm.

  • Science Alert ☛ Worm-Like Amphibians Leak Milk For Their Hatchlings And It's Kind of Cute

    See for yourself.

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ The quest to legitimize longevity medicine

    On a bright chilly day last December, a crowd of doctors and scientists gathered at a research institute atop a hill in Novato, California. It was the first time this particular group of healthy longevity specialists had met in person, and they had a lot to share.

  • Internet Society ☛ What Governments Can Learn from Canada when Regulating Online Harms

    The Government of Canada introduced Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, on 26 February 2024. As the name implies, the Bill seeks to address certain harms that people see online through various public platforms.

  • New York Times ☛ Famine Is ‘Imminent’ in Northern Gaza, Report Warns

    A global authority on food security said that in the coming months, as many as 1.1 million people in Gaza could face the most severe levels of hunger.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Hackaday ☛ Learn AI Via Spreadsheet

    While we’ve been known to use and abuse spreadsheets in the past, we haven’t taken it to the level of [Spreadsheets Are All You Need].

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • EFF ☛ EFF to California Appellate Court: Reject Trial Judge’s Ruling That Would Penalize Beneficial Features and Tools on Social Media

      A California trial court recently departed from wide-ranging precedent and held that Snap, Inc., the maker of Snapchat, the popular social media app, had created a “defective” product by including features like disappearing messages, the ability to connect with people through mutual friends, and even the well-known “Stories” feature. We filed an amicus brief in the appeal, Neville v. Snap, Inc., at the California Court of Appeal, and are calling for the reversal of the earlier decision, which jeopardizes protections for online intermediaries and thus the free speech of all internet users.

    • Michael Geist ☛ The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 196: Vibert Jack on the Supreme Court’s Landmark Bykovets Internet Privacy Ruling

      The federal government has struggled to update Canadian privacy laws over the past decade, leaving the Supreme Court as perhaps the leading source of privacy protection. In 2014, the court issued the Spencer decision, which affirmed a reasonable expectation of privacy in basic subscriber information and earlier this month it released the Bykovets decision, which extends the reasonable expectation of privacy to IP addresses.

    • EFF ☛ Decoding the California DMV's Mobile Driver's License

      What is the California DMV Wallet? 

      The California DMV Wallet app came out in app stores last year as a pilot, offering the ability to store and display your mDL on your smartphone, without needing to carry and present a traditional physical document. Several features in this app replicate how we currently present the physical document with key information about our identity—like address, age, birthday, driver class, etc. 

      However, other features in the app provide new ways to present the data on your driver’s license. Right now, we only take out our driver’s license occasionally throughout the week. However, with the app’s QR Code and “add-on” features, the incentive for frequency may grow. This concerns us, given the rise of age verification laws that burden everyone’s access to the internet, and the lack of comprehensive consumer data privacy laws that keep businesses from harvesting and selling identifying information and sensitive personal information. 

• Defence/Aggression

  • Reason ☛ The CCP Sucks. So Does Banning TikTok. [Ed: What if one is weapon of the other, and moreover it advocates against free speech?]

    Plus: A listener asks about Republicans and Democrats monopolizing political power in the United States.

  • Techdirt ☛ As The US Freaks Out About TikTok, It’s Revealed That The CIA Was Using Chinese Social Media To Try To Undermine The Gov’t There [Ed: Techdirt admits social control media is a weapon, so let's allow the Chinese one?]

    You know that line, “every accusation is a confession?” For no reason at all, that’s coming to mind all of a sudden. No reason.

  • ACLU ☛ Why is the ACLU Representing the NRA Before the US Supreme Court?

    For more than 100 years the American Civil Liberties Union has defended the right to free speech – no matter the speaker, and regardless of whether we agree with their views.

    The defense and protection of free speech and expression span many forms and issues at the ACLU. In the last year alone, it has included efforts to actively oppose book bans; represent educators fighting classroom censorship aimed at suppressing important race perspectives; defend protesters responding to police shootings or overseas wars; protect the ability of Indigenous students to wear tribal regalia at their graduation ceremonies; and fight against retaliatory arrests for protected speech.

  • NYPost ☛ Justice system’s double standard, ACLU’s anti-free-speech turn and other commentary

    “Our criminal justice system no longer treats the accused equally,” fumes Victor Davis Hanson at American Greatness.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea's Kim oversees firing drills with 'super-large' rocket launchers, state media says

    SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen firing drills by artillery units in the western region involving \"newly-equipped super-large\" multiple rocket launchers, state media KCNA said on Tuesday.

  • YLE ☛ Traficom: Increased GPS interference along eastern border, Gulf of Finland

    The Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) recorded 600 incidents of GPS interference last year, and 200 so far this year, but cannot say for certain if all the cases are intentional or not.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Afghan asylum seeker convicted for New Mexico killing of Pakistani immigrant

    A New Mexico jury on Monday found an Afghan asylum seeker guilty of murdering a Pakistani immigrant in one of three 2022 ambush-style shootings that terrified Muslims in the state's largest city.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Trump’s criminal trials recede – but not civil fraud penalty

    Key criminal lawsuits facing Donald Trump have been delayed. Instead, a civil fraud verdict weighs heavily on the presidential candidate.

  • RFA ☛ UK relaxes rules for Hong Kong migrants ahead of new security law

    An immigration consultant reports a surge in interest in emigration to the UK since the law's launch.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Jimmie Allen Sexual Assault Case Dropped by ‘Jane Doe’ Accuser — But Another Case Still Looms

    A Jane Doe who accused country singer Jimmie Allen of sexual assault has agreed to dismiss her lawsuit against him, but another sexual assault case still looms.

  • Reason ☛ Racially Discriminatory Enforcement Lawsuit Against Duluth Police Officer Can Go Forward

    A black resident called the police to complain about alleged racial harassment by white neighbor; the resident alleges the police arrested him for leaving the scene after the police arrived, but didn't arrest the neighbor for doing the same thing.

  • RFERL ☛ Taliban Says It Strikes Back After Deadly Pakistani Strikes

    Afghanistan's Taliban government on March 18 said Pakistani warplanes bombed "militant hideouts" inside Afghanistan belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), killing at least eight civilians, including three children.

  • France24 ☛ Several killed in Pakistani air strikes on Afghanistan, says Kabul

    Eight civilians were killed Monday in "reckless" air strikes by Pakistan's military in the border regions of Afghanistan, prompting Afghan forces to retaliate against Pakistani military outposts, Taliban officials said.

  • RFERL ☛ Kyrgyz Court Allows Jailed Politician To Get Medical Treatment Abroad

    A court in Bishkek on March 18 allowed jailed politician Bektur Asanov to get back surgery in Turkey after his jailed co-defendants threatened to launch a hunger strike.

  • The Straits Times ☛ UN secretary-general alarmed by reports of Myanmar airstrikes

    United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is alarmed by reports that military airstrikes in Myanmar, including on Monday in Minbya township, have killed and injured many civilians, a U.N. spokesman said.

  • New York Times ☛ Pakistani Airstrikes in Afghanistan Kill at Least 8, Taliban Officials Say

    The pre-dawn strikes escalated tensions between two countries that have clashed over the recent rise in militant violence on Pakistan’s soil.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong minibus driver arrested following 3 hit-and-runs in 10 minutes

    A Hong Kong minibus driver has been arrested after allegedly hitting three vehicles within 10 minutes and fleeing the scene, leaving three people injured. A 64-year-old minibus driver was arrested on Sunday afternoon over his suspected involvement in three hit-and-runs in Yuen Long that left three people injured, police said.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ Kasčiūnas ‘logical’ replacement for outgoing defence minister – Lithuanian PM

      Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said on Monday that it would make sense for MP Laurynas Kasčiūnas, who chairs the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence, to replace the outgoing defence minister.

    • AntiWar ☛ In Navalny and Guaido, Washington Saw Useful Pawns, Not Political Paragons

      Following the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, outrage and eulogies echoed out in equal measure from the halls of power in Washington, amplified one-hundredfold by the US and UK press, and gave the sense that a champion of democracy had been assassinated by a dictator.

    • Meduza ☛ ‘Miserable scumbag’ How Team Navalny reacted to Putin’s statement that he agreed to exchange the opposition leader before his death — Meduza

    • Latvia ☛ Former Putin propagandist prefers not to return to Russia

      A former leading employee of the Russian propaganda channel Sputnik, Marat Kasem (Marats Kasems in Latvian), has decided not to return to Russia after his release from detention, reported LTV's De Facto investigative show March 17.

    • Latvia ☛ LMT leaves Latvian defense industry union

      One of the founders and most influential members of the Latvian Security and Defense Industries Federation (LDAIF), the state-owned company Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT), has quit the federation after expressing dissatisfaction with its management, reports the Latvian Television broadcast De Facto on March 18.

    • Reason ☛ Video of Marshall University Online Talk on "Putin's Western Supporters"

      In the presentation I explain why Putin's regime appeals to these people, and how they compare with Western sympathizers with the USSR during the Cold War.

    • France24 ☛ Western leaders denounce Putin's 'illegal' election win as allies send congratulations

      President Vladimir Putin won a fifth term in the Kremlin with 87.28 percent of the vote, Russia's electoral commission said Monday, after a three-day ballot in which he ran against no real challengers. While Putin’s friends and allies were quick to congratulate him, Western leaders denounced what they called an illegal election.

    • France24 ☛ Putin vows Russia cannot be 'intimidated' in election day victory speech

      Vladimir Putin said Russia would not be "intimidated" as he hailed an election victory that paves the way for the former spy to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than 200 years.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China expresses ‘congratulations’ as Russia’s Vladimir Putin claims election victory

      By Matthew Walsh Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping sent a congratulatory message to Vladimir Putin on Monday, telling his Russian counterpart his re-election “fully reflects the support of the Russian people”, Beijing’s state media reported.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian government presents options how to fund 3% GDP defence spending

      Four possible sources for increased defence funding were proposed for consideration at a government meeting on Monday. They will now be further considered by employer and trade union representatives.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Techdirt ☛ Three Glomars A Day: Officials Refuse To ‘Confirm Nor Deny’ Stuff At Least 1,000 Times A Year

    The Freedom of Information Act does its best to free information, but it can only do so much when the same government that’s supposed to follow it figures it shouldn’t abide by a law another branch crafted.

• Environment

  • Atlantic Council ☛ The critical-minerals boom is here. Can Africa take advantage?

    The critical minerals discussion on extraction, national security, and supply chains will move past Africa unless the moment is seized.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Despite Ban, China-based cryptocurrency investors made $1B in gains during 2023

      According to a report by a New York-based firm, China has made significant gains in cryptocurrency profits in 2023, despite China imposing a ban on Cryptocurrency. The gains enabled the nation to be in the fourth highest position, behind the US, the UK and Vietnam.

    • YLE ☛ Helen scraps electricity distribution fees for April, May

      Customers will likely save an average of around 25 euros on their electricity bills for the two months, depending on their type of contract.

    • New York Times ☛ What Meltdown? Crypto Comes Roaring Back in the Philippines.

      Two years after the cryptocurrency market crashed, internet cafes for playing crypto-earning video games are opening and farmers have started harvesting virtual crops from the games for income.

• Finance

  • RFA ☛ China’s economy improves on industrial output growth

    The real estate sector continues to be a drag, with new home sales plunging over 29%.

  • The Strategist ☛ China’s manufactured exports to Australia are soaring

    While China was imposing punitive barriers against Australian exports, its own sales to Australia were rising rapidly, with growth led by motor vehicles, electric machinery and wind towers.

  • YLE ☛ Several key Kela benefits to be trimmed from April

    More than half a million people will feel the effects of social welfare reforms, according to Kela's figures.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Realtor commissions are changing. So could the price of selling a home.

    Multiple lawsuits have claimed homeowners were unfairly forced to pay artificially inflated agent commissions when they sold their homes. On March 15, the National Association of Realtors agreed to change its rules and pay sellers $418 million.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ New Zealand Prime Minister Luxon intends visit to China

    New Zealand’s prime minister Christopher Luxon intends to travel to China in the coming months following meetings with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in New Zealand this week.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi hails ‘friends’ in New Zealand during Wellington visit

    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a rare visit to New Zealand on Monday, stressing the need to work with “friends” in the face of the “tumultuous international situation”. The trip marks the start of a diplomatic blitz through New Zealand and Australia, Wang’s first visit to either country since 2017.

  • Breach Media ☛ Corporate lobbyists are flocking to Pierre Poilievre’s cash-for-access fundraisers

    More than a hundred active or recent corporate lobbyists have attended the Conservative Party’s cash-for-access fundraisers since Pierre Poilievre became leader

  • Federal News Network ☛ Negotiators race to finish government funding bills after late clash on Homeland Security

    Negotiators from Congress and the White House are scrambling to complete work on funding government agencies for the fiscal year to avoid government shutdown.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • CS Monitor ☛ Social media fills Supreme Court schedule. First up, disinformation control.

      During the pandemic, the Biden administration encouraged social control media platforms to remove posts that it viewed as disinformation. Now, the Supreme Court will review whether that encouragement was a form of coercion that targeted conservative voices.

    • Public Knowledge ☛ “Lies All the Way Down” – Combating 2024 Election Disinformation

      As a new election season approaches, the same problems remain.

    • New York Times ☛ In Seoul, Blinken Warns of Disinformation Threat to Democracies

      At an international forum, the secretary of state said artificial intelligence’s ability to disrupt the global flow of information could prove politically perilous during a year of elections.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Techdirt ☛ Moderating Eating Disorder Content Is Harder Than You Think

    Both troubled teens and government agencies are asking, “How thin is thin enough?” The teens are thinking about how thin they want to look, while the government is thinking about what’s too thin to post online.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Jimmy Lai’s aide Mark Simon helped handle US$1.8 million raised by Hong Kong protesters, court hears

    Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai’s aide acted as an intermediary for handling donations raised through a crowdfunding campaign in 2019, a pro-democracy activist has testified in a high-profile national security trial.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Reason ☛ Employers May Not "Take Adverse Employment Actions … Based on [Employees'] Race or Gender to Implement" "Diversity and Inclusion" Programs

    From Tuesday's Fourth Circuit decision in Duvall v. Novant Health, Inc., written by Judge Agee and joined by Judges Quattlebaum and Floyd (upholding a damages award of "about $4 million"): [...]

  • YLE ☛ Human rights groups call on Finnish government to tackle racism, discrimination

    A total of 33 organisations — including Amnesty, the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, Save the Children Finland and the Family Federation of Finland — signed the joint statement.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Techdirt ☛ Two Decades Later And The FCC Is Still Trying To Crack Down On Anti-Competitive Deals Between Landlords And Broadband Monopolies

    For decades, U.S. broadband providers have struck cozy deals with landlords effectively elbowing out competitors and allowing them to create building-by-building broadband monopolies. That stifled competition results in higher costs, slow speeds, and worse overall service. And while the FCC passed rules in 2007 trying to ban the practice, they were so full of loopholes as to be effectively useless.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • JUVE ☛ Year in review: Top patent monopoly cases in France 2023

    During 2023, the French patent monopoly courts were particularly occupied with important pharmaceutical cases, especially involving SPCs. In particular, the French Supreme Court issued landmark decisions on the interpretation of the European SPC regulation.

  • Unified Patents ☛ Fortress IP entity, Neo Wireless, 4G/LTE patent monopoly challenge instituted

    On March 14, 2024, three months after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 9,948,488, owned by Neo Wireless, LLC, an NPE and Fortress IP entity.

  • Unified Patents ☛ IP Edge entity Communication Advances camera patent monopoly challenge instituted

    On March 15, 2024, less than three weeks after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,823,826, owned by Communication Advances LLC, an NPE and entity of IP Edge.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Licensing by Acquisition: The High-Stakes Dispute Over Whether defective chip maker Intel is Licensed to VLSI’s Patents

    The Federal Circuit has issued an interesting nonprecedential order in In re VLSI Technology LLC, denying VLSI’s petition for a writ of mandamus that sought to reverse a district court order allowing defective chip maker Intel to amend its answer to assert a declaratory judgment counterclaim regarding a patent monopoly license defense.

    The Federal Circuit’s brief order sheds some light on the standards for amending pleadings late in litigation and the propriety of declaratory judgment counterclaims in patent monopoly cases even where the underlying infringement claims have been extinguished.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Inventorship Correction Affirmed for Patent on Intermodal Container for Transporting Gaseous Fluids

    In a recent nonprecedential decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court ruling ordering the correction of inventorship for U.S. Patent No. 9,376,049. Tube-Mac Indus., Inc. v. Campbell, No. 2022-2170 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 15, 2024). The patent monopoly at issue, originally naming a single inventor (Steve Campbell), claims a lightweight intermodal container system for transporting refrigerated gaseous fluids.

    This post examines the reasoning behind the Federal Circuit’s affirmance as well as the potential applicability of the equitable defense of laches in cases brought under 35 U.S.C. § 256 to correct inventorship on an issued patent.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ UPC “saisie-contrefaçon” Part II: the “OERLIKON” case [Ed: UPC is illegal and unconstitutional. This kangaroo 'court' isn't meant to exist, but EPO corruption has spilled over to the EU and now patent "justice" is basically the Mafia in charge of states]

      Having examined the JUB texts relating to UPC “saisie-contrefaçon” (see here), it’s time to look at the initial case law.

  • Software Patents

    • Unified Patents ☛ Adnexus advertising patent monopoly found invalid

      On March 14, 2024, in less than 8 months after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) entered a final rejection of the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,719,101, owned and asserted by Adnexus, Inc., an NPE.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: How Did These Three Section 2(e)(1) Mere Descriptiveness Appeals Turn Out?

    So far this year, the Board has affirmed more than 90% of the Section 2(e)(1) mere descriptiveness refusals reviewed on appeal. Here are three more. How do you think they came out? [Results in first comment].

• Copyrights

  • Science Alert ☛ Anti-Copyright Infringement Warnings Can Actually Trigger More Copyright Infringement, Study Shows

    "They might send [Copyright Infringement] soaring."