Leftovers

• Fortra LLC ☛ From mischief to malware: ICO warns schools about student hackers | Fortra

  In a sobering analysis of 215 data breach reports between January 2022 and August 2024, the ICO determined that nearly a third (30%) of all insider attacks in the education sector involved stolen or guessed passwords, with 97% of those breaches committed by students.

• Science

  • Futurism ☛ Trump Shutting Down Cancer Research

    That's what's especially galling about these cuts — we know so much more about cancer and are on the brink of some incredible scientific breakthroughs, such as new cancer radiation therapies that are more targeted and less harmful to surrounding healthy tissue, according to the NYT.

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Detect Strange Signal in Gravitational Waves

    The event, dubbed GW190412, saw a black hole eight times the Sun's mass colliding with another black hole that was 30 times the mass of the Sun, some 2.4 billion light-years away.

  • International Business Times ☛ NASA 'Alarmed' As Sun Shows Unusual Activity: Here's How It's Going To Affect All Of Us

    NASA scientists have expressed concern after detecting an unexpected surge in solar activity, reversing decades of decline in sunspots and solar wind. The discovery suggests the Sun is entering a more active phase than experts had anticipated.

  • Pivot to AI ☛ We simulated the human mind with a chatbot. It didn’t work

    Some researchers will do anything not to deal with messy humans and ethics boards. They only want an excuse to synthesize their data.

    The Centaur paper was precisely that excuse. The researchers could not have not known it was that excuse, in the context of the world they live and work in, in 2025. Especially as the first tool they reached for was everyone’s favourite academic cheat code — a chatbot.

• Career/Education

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Guest Post — Is It Enough to Say a Journal Is 'Peer Reviewed'? The Case for Rating Journals Based on Peer Review Quality

    Regardless of technological advancements, the speed of communication, or the sophistication of AI, the public’s need for verified, credible scientific information remains constant. Science flourishes on trust, research propels human progress, and both depend entirely on the credibility of the knowledge we share. The question is: How will this knowledge be shared in the future? Will we continue to rely on traditional academic journals and books?

    For journals, true value lies not in the volume of papers they publish, but in the trust they cultivate and their reputation for consistently publishing high-quality, meaningful research.

  • Sergio Visinoni ☛ Landing the CTO Role: Insights from the Sudo Make Me a CTO Community

    Last week, the Sudo Make Me a CTO Community gathered for an insightful discussion on a critical topic for many of us: how to get hired as a senior engineering leader, specifically for VP and CTO roles. Our conversation covered strategies for standing out, demonstrating value, and navigating the often complex hiring process for these executive positions.

    Here are the key takeaways from our community discussion: [...]

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China bans its biggest tech companies from acquiring Nvidia chips, says report — Beijing claims its homegrown AI processors now match H20 and RTX Pro 6000D

    Beijing reportedly believes that homegrown AI chip makers, like Huawei and Cambricon, now produce chips that have comparable performance to Nvidia’s China-only products. And although Team Green might still have an advantage with its software stack, other Chinese tech giants like Tencent are pushing to build their own infrastructure to replace that. Because of these developments, China’s chip makers are ramping production in anticipation of the glut of orders coming from companies that need AI chips but can’t purchase Nvidia products.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Jeffrey Inscho ☛ Turn Off the Internet

    Big tech has built machines optimized for one thing: keeping people scrolling. The algorithms don’t care what keeps you scrolling. It could be puppy videos or conspiracy theories about election fraud. They only care that you keep consuming. And it turns out, nothing keeps people engaged quite like rage.

• Proprietary

  • Linuxiac ☛ Systemd 258 Drops cgroup v1, Raises Kernel Baseline to 5.4

    Systemd, a widely adopted system and service manager for Linux, has released its latest iteration, v258, which introduces significant changes that administrators should be aware of.

    Probably the headline change is that support for cgroup v1—the so-called “legacy” and “hybrid” hierarchies—has been removed. From now on, only cgroup v2 is mounted during boot and inside systemd-nspawn containers.

  • Aftermath Site LLC ☛ Months After Microsoft Layoffs, Zenimax Unions Never Stopped Fighting For Impacted Workers

    Back in July, Microsoft laid off 9,100 employees across the company, in particular gutting numerous games teams and leading to a cascade of high-profile project cancellations that included Perfect Dark, Everwild, and an unannounced MMO from Elder Scrolls Online creator Zenimax Online Studios. In the months following, unionized workers at the latter – as well as the Zenimax QA union, the first video game studio union at Microsoft – have refused to simply roll over and accept their fates.

    Beginning in mid-July, Zenimax QA union members picketed outside the studio’s Rockville, Maryland office on a weekly basis until late August, just before unionized employees’ final day in early September, to show support for laid-off colleagues.

  • Firstpost ☛ Microsoft links promotion to new attendance policy: Return to office by Sept 19, for at least 3 days a week

    Microsoft has told its employees to return office for at least three days a week or risk promotions, essentially ending the flexible remote work policy. The tech giant is shifting away from its pandemic-era practice, with implementations set to begin in February 2026.

    The mandate will initially apply to Seattle-area employees residing within 50 miles of Microsoft offices, according to an internal memo from Chief People Officer Amy Coleman. Employees who do not comply may be at a disadvantage, as the company places growing emphasis on in-person collaboration for career growth.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • India Times ☛ Reddit seeks to strike next AI content pact with Google, OpenAI

      Reddit also plans to discuss with Google and OpenAI, which has a similar agreement, a future deal structure that could allow for dynamic pricing, where the social platform can be paid more as it becomes more vital to AI answers, said the executives, who asked not to be named discussing private conversations.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ The hype after AI: lads, it’s looking really quantum

      The MIT report that 95% of AI projects don’t make any money frightened the AI bubble investors. This is even as the actual report is trash, and its purpose was to sell you on the authors’ Web3 crypto scam. (I still appear to be the only one to notice that bit.) They got the right answer entirely by accident.

      Venture capital needs a bubble party to get lottery wins. The hype is the product. The tech itself is an annoying bag on the side of the hype.

    • Computational Complexity ☛ Computational Complexity: What is "PhD-Level Intelligence"?

      When announcing Open-AI's latest release last month, Sam Altman said "GPT-5 is the first time that it really feels like talking to an expert in any topic, like a PhD-level expert." Before we discuss whether GPT-5 got there, what does "PhD-Level intelligence" even mean?

      We could just dismiss the idea but I'd rather try to formulate a reasonable definition, which I would expect from a good PhD student. It's not about knowing stuff, which we can always look up, but the ability to talk and engage about current research. Here is my suggestion.

    • The Register UK ☛ OpenAI says models are programmed to make stuff up instead of admitting ignorance [Ed: Nope, LLMs just don't work; they don't have an understanding of anything]

  • Social Control Media

    • Garry Kasparov ☛ The Russians Are Loving This

      It was an anonymous Russian propagandist. Whoever runs the Twitter account of Russian state media outlet RT was downright giddy after Kirk’s murder.

      As news from Utah started rolling in last week, I was struck by how prominently RT was featuring in my social media algorithm. The Russians seemed to be reveling in the chaos.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Hacking Electronic Safes

      The company says that it plans on updating its locks by the end of the year, but have no plans to patch any locks already sold.

    • Linuxiac ☛ After Arch Linux, Mageia Faces Infrastructure Outage

      After Arch Linux, Mageia is now reporting infrastructure outages, with the main website, forums, and wiki down due to what looks like another bot-driven attack.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • IT Wire ☛ iTWire - Kmart’s use of facial recognition to tackle refund fraud unlawful, Privacy Commissioner finds

      Between June 2020 and July 2022, Kmart deployed FRT to capture the faces of every person who entered 28 of its retail stores, and all individuals who presented at a returns counter, in an attempt to identify people committing refund fraud.

      In a determination published today, the Privacy Commissioner found that Kmart did not notify shoppers or seek their consent to use FRT to collect their biometric information, which is sensitive personal information and enjoys higher protections under the Privacy Act.

    • Michael Geist ☛ Government Doubles Down in Defending Bill C-2’s Information Demand Powers That Open the Door to Warrantless Access of Personal Information

      The return of the House of Commons from the summer break brings with it a resumption of debate on government bills. Topping the list this week is Bill C-2, the omnibus border measures bill, that buries dangerous lawful access provisions that open the door to warrantless access to personal information and increased surveillance capabilities in Canadian networks. I wrote multiple posts on the privacy concerns before the summer (here, here, here, here, here, and here), expressing concern not only with the substantive provisions but also with a bill that combines everything from border measures to restrictions on cash transactions to warrantless access for law enforcement to personal information. The risk is that no issue will get sufficient attention as major issues get lost among the myriad of disparate provisions. For that reason, the lawful access provisions in Parts 14 and 15 in the bill should be removed and contained, if at all, within a separate bill.

  • Confidentiality

    • Andreas ☛ PGP basics

      PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is a system for encrypting and signing data using public-key cryptography. You generate a key pair: a public key you share, and a private key you keep secret.

      If someone wants to send you a private message, they encrypt it using your public key. Only your private key can decrypt it. If you want to prove that a message came from you, you sign it using your private key. Anyone with your public key can verify the signature.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Site36 ☛ Deadly police shootings in Amsterdam: Sammy Baker’s family from Germany forces prosecution of officers

    The parents of Sammy Baker, who was killed by Amsterdam police officers in 2020, are not giving up: With the help of several expert reports, they want to force criminal prosecution of the perpetrators. On August 13, 2020, 23-year-old Sammy Baker from Gießen was shot dead by police in Amsterdam.

  • Techdirt ☛ TikTok To Be Sold To Trump’s Right Wing Billionaire Buddies And Converted Into A Propaganda Mill

    After endless delays, Trump insiders claim to be zeroing in on a deal that would sell 80% of TikTok’s U.S. assets to Andreessen Horowitz (owned by Marc Andreessen, an increasingly incoherent right wing billionaire and close Trump ally), Oracle (owned by Larry Ellison, a rabidly right wing billionaire and close Trump ally), and Silver Lake (a hedge fund with a history of… predatory and dodgy behaviors).

  • Digital Music News ☛ TikTok Deal Terms Leak—Who Has A Stake?

    Existing ByteDance investors, including Susquehanna International, General Atlantic, and KKR, would also be part of the group that would own around 80% of the U.S.-based TikTok. This would leave ByteDance and its Chinese shareholders with around a 20% stake, which is low enough to comply with the U.S. law passed in 2024. The law stipulates that TikTok must be sold to a U.S. entity or face a federal ban in America. The finer details of the proposed deal and its terms could still change, as both sides are still at the negotiating table. As anticipated, Trump signed his fourth executive order to push back the deadline for a deal to be reached; the new deadline is December 16.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ See the Entire U.S. Constitution on Display for the Very First Time in History

    For the first time ever, visitors will be able to see the entire United States Constitution.

    The historic document will be on view in the Rotunda at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. from September 16 through October 1. The display is part of the celebrations leading up to America’s 250th anniversary.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Further | One Of Our Own: On Wonderful Americans Like Charlie

    The fiery shards from the murder of Charlie Kirk still ricochet in baleful ways, even as his shooter's views and motives remain murky. Despite rabid calls by a regime eager for revenge to extinguish leftist "scum" who rendered their bigot hero "a martyr for truth and freedom," the killer seems to be a muddled mix of gun freak, devout gamer and violent nihilist. In his bloody wake, many now beset by irrational vitriol are left to argue, "I don't support what happened to Charlie, but Charlie supported what happened to Charlie."

  • Louie Mantia ☛ A Long Train of Abuses

    In the Declaration of Independence, the founders wrote a long train of abuses by the King to justify their actions. Some may feel …unfortunately relevant today: [...]

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Chuck Grassley Complains that DOJ Investigated Why TPUSA Sent 80 Busses to a Riot

    I think the item, a subpoena, may not be what it appears. It appears the subpoena itself was served on Event Strategies, the entity which produced January 6, not TPUSA itself. I’m fairly certain that the investigation into the 80 busses TPUSA paid for was investigated earlier, in the first year of the investigation, along with a bunch of other entities that sent busses.

  • The Nation ☛ Don’t Let Trump’s Henchmen Rewrite History. They’re the Ones Inciting Violence.

    This is all obviously bunkum. Trump and his henchmen are rewriting the past and present in the most Orwellian of manners. So, in the interests of preserving the historical record, and as someone who strongly believes that violence has no place in the political process, I offer you a brief recap of some of MAGA world’s greatest hits.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • 404 Media ☛ DOJ Deletes Study Showing Domestic Terrorists Are Most Often Right Wing

    Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the Trump administration’s promise to go after the “radical left” a study showing most domestic terrosim is far-right was disappeared.

• Environment

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ More Than 300 Hats Have Been Pulled From Yellowstone's Geothermal Features So Far This Year

    Geothermal debris is a more common problem than you might think: Already this year, park staffers have removed more than 13,000 pieces of garbage from Yellowstone’s thermal areas, according to a new report from the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

  • Raspberry Pi ☛ Raspberry Pi's commitment to longevity: a sustainable advantage

    This commitment to product longevity extends even to our earliest products. A customer can still purchase a Raspberry Pi 1 manufactured at Sony’s factory in Wales today, with hundreds of units still being sold each month. This continued demand and availability demonstrate the enduring trust that industrial customers have placed in the Raspberry Pi platform, a trust that is actively supported by Raspberry Pi.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Rare Earth Metals Must Not Come at the Cost of Indigenous Rights

    • Science Alert ☛ Cephalopods Passed a Cognitive Test Intended For Human Children

      Because it's so simple, it can be adjusted for animals. Obviously, you can't tell an animal they'll receive a better reward if they wait, but you can train them to understand that better food is coming if they don't eat the food in front of them straight away.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • EDRI ☛ Why Europe’s new tech laws have the world on edge

    Trump and the global far-right are trying to discredit Europe’s tech laws with misinformation and political pressure, fearing that these regulations might disrupt their ability to undermine democracy. If Europe wants to safeguard its democracy and its credibility as a global regulatory leader in tech, the European Commission needs to enforce these laws swiftly and decisively.

  • Advance Local Media LLC ☛ Robert Redford remembered for his deep legacy in environmental activism and Native American advocacy

    Redford, who died Tuesday at age 89, was hardly the only liberal activist to emerge out of Hollywood, but few matched his knowledge and focus, his humility and dedication. Fellow actors and leaders of the causes he fought for spoke of his unusually deep legacy, his fight for Native Americans and the environment that began at the height of his stardom.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ RIP to Robert Redford, a Star Who Knew How to Play the Game

    Robert Redford was a man of the Left until the end and a patron saint of independent cinema. He will be missed.

  • University of Toronto ☛ Free and open source software is incompatible with (security) guarantees

    To be clear here: this is not about the security and general quality of FOSS (which is often very good), or the responsiveness of FOSS maintainers. This is about guarantees, firm (and perhaps legally binding) assurances of certain things (which people want for software in general). FOSS can provide strong security in practice but it's inimical to FOSS's very nature to provide a strong guarantee of that or anything else. The thing that makes most of FOSS possible is that you can put out software without that guarantee and without legal liability.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Rolling Stone ☛ Sinclair’s ABC Stations to Air Charlie Kirk Tribute During Kimmel Time

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • JURIST ☛ Rights group reports Iran ignored accountability for torture, killings during 2022 protests

    HRW’s report, released on the third anniversary of Amini’s death, stated that the Iranian judiciary has not pursued cases against those implicated in unlawful killings, mass arrests, and torture of protesters. Instead, it has sentenced dozens of demonstrators to lengthy prison terms or death.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ The Right Is Using Charlie Kirk’s Murder to Attack Free Speech

    Over the past week since the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk, we’ve watched conservatives unabashedly take ownership of “cancel culture” and crack down on free speech right before our eyes.

  • CPJ ☛ Taliban blocks fiber optic [Internet] in Afghan provinces for ‘immorality’

    “Banning broadband [Internet] is an unprecedented escalation of censorship that will undermine journalists’ work and the public’s right to information,” said CPJ Regional Director Beh Lih Yi. “The Taliban should end their cycle of repression and unconditionally restore [Internet] access, which is an essential tool for news gathering.”

  • Techdirt ☛ Cowardly Disney Caves To Brendan Carr’s Bogus Censorial Threats, Pulling Jimmy Kimmel

    But the thing that the MAGA world is really desperate to avoid is having anyone suggest that Robinson might not have been indoctrinated by “leftists.” They are so desperate to blame the attack on “the left,” (despite little evidence to support that) that they decided to attack Kimmel for even pointing out that MAGA was bending over backwards to deny that the shooter was “one of them.”

    In the wake of the shooting, both ends of the political spectrum rushed (in an unhealthy way) to look for evidence that the shooter was “radicalized” by extremists at the other end of the political spectrum. This often included doctored evidence. But what evidence was obtained suggested that neither story was accurate and (as is so often the case with lone shooters) his agenda had no deep political component to it, and was just deeply steeped in online meme culture. Robinson himself admitted in messages later released that he basically put meme text on bullet casings for the joke of it all.

    In context, Kimmel’s statements were quite benign.

  • Matt Birchler ☛ Jimmy Kimmel said the most shocking thing you've ever heard on television

    But we don't live in the normal world, we live in a crisis where comedians are kicked off the air due to government pressure on multiple occasions. We live in a world where Republicans are suggesting anyone who doesn't properly mourn Kirk's death should lose their jobs. You know, literal cancel culture stuff, which is something they absolutely love to do when they have power and love to whine about when they don't. What happened to Charlie Kirk was horrendous for his family and our nation in general, it should never have happened, but it's being used to excuse inexcusable behavior.

  • New York Times ☛ Who Is Brendan Carr, the F.C.C. Chair Who Played a Role In Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension?

    In an interview on a right-wing podcast, Mr. Carr criticized comments that late night host Jimmy Kimmel had made earlier this week about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Shortly afterward, ABC decided to pull the Jimmy Kimmel Live show off the air “indefinitely.” Many Democrats immediately criticized the F.C.C. pressure, while President Trump said the suspension of Mr. Kimmel’s show was “Great News for America.”

  • Deseret Media ☛ ABC pulls 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' off air after Kimmel's remarks about Kirk

    "We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it," Kimmel said on his Monday night show.

    Kimmel also criticized Trump's mourning of Kirk, pointing to a video of Trump's comments on the White House lawn. "This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish," Kimmel said.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' Pulled by ABC After Trump FCC Threat

    “Nexstar’s owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show,” the company said in a statement. “Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”

  • TMZ ☛ Jimmy Kimmel Seen For First Time After Suspension by ABC

    TMZ shot video of the embattled late-night host rushing into his Chevy Silverado inside a garage Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

  • TMZ ☛ ABC Suspends Jimmy Kimmel Over Charlie Kirk Comments

    Jimmy Kimmel is in timeout with ABC ... the network is suspending him ... and it's all over what he said about the alleged Charlie Kirk killer.

  • Vox ☛ Jimmy Kimmel suspended: What really happened with Charlie Kirk comments

    What just happened, in short, shows how far down the authoritarian road the United States has traveled in just eight months.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Hollywood Comes to Kimmel's Defense After ABC Pulls Late-Night Show

    The Walt Disney-owned broadcaster said it was yanking "Jimmy Kimmel Live" indefinitely after at least one affiliate said it would replace the show on its airwaves and the nation's top communications regulator threatened investigations due to Kimmel's statements.

  • Court House News ☛ ABC suspends Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show indefinitely over his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s death | Courthouse News Service

    During his Monday evening monologue, Kimmel suggested Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican. “The MAGA Gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

    “This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” Carr said on the Benny Johnson podcast. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

  • Variety ☛ ABC Suspends Jimmy Kimmel: What Does It Mean for Late Night TV's Future?

    It’s worth noting this was not just a rank-and-file Disney employee who got kicked to the curb. Kimmel is the face of the network — a repeat host of the Oscars and Emmys on ABC’s air, and who the network brings in like clockwork at their upfront presentation to roast its own programming. His “getting political,” too, drew his show widespread plaudits when, in Trump’s first term, Kimmel used his pulpit to speak about healthcare in America after his newborn son was found to have a congenital heart ailment. In other words, Kimmel was a company man, and one whose past attempts to speak out had been met with hearty applause. And even he was not safe.

  • New York Times ☛ ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel Off Air for Charlie Kirk Comments After F.C.C. Pressure

    The network did not explain its decision, but the sequence of events on Wednesday amounted to an extraordinary exertion of political pressure on a major broadcast network by the Trump administration.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Reuters ☛ NYT chief executive warns Trump is deploying ‘anti-press playbook', FT says

    The lawsuit was legally baseless, Levien told a Financial Times conference in remarks the paper called her first public utterance on the matter. "The lawsuit has no merit. It lacks any legitimate legal claims. I believe its purpose is to stifle independent journalism, to deter the kind of fact-based reporting that the Times and other institutions are known for."

  • CPJ ☛ In Niger, journalist faces up to 3 years jail for alleged defamation of PM

    “Ali Soumana’s imprisonment illustrates that press freedom in Niger has declined since last year, when President Abdourahmane Tchiani reintroduced prison sentences for defamation, said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Nigerien authorities must immediately release Ali Soumana and reform their laws in favor of media freedom and the public’s right to know.”

  • The Dissenter ☛ ICE And LA's Long History Of Violence Against Journalists

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Variety ☛ Finnish Film industry Laments Proposed Government Cuts

    “If this cut really is 7 million and if it is aimed at our production support, the amount of films we can support will be halved. This means only a few documentaries and shorts, and less than 10 feature films,” Finnish Film Foundation CEO Lasse Saarinen told Variety.

  • Court House News ☛ Microsoft faces some retaliation claims | Courthouse News Service

  • Economic Policy Institute ☛ Unions raise wages. Tariffs don’t: Why Trump’s trade policy won’t help U.S. workers

    Without unions, corporate executives have no incentive to pass on the profits they’re gaining to their workers. Only unionized workers can secure a fair share of tariff-driven profits, while most nonunion workers will be left behind.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • The Register UK ☛ UEFI Secure Boot for Linux Arm64 – where do we stand? [Ed: Udo Seidel, in first-ever article, promotes malicious restrictions in Linux through ARM; "So tell me again why it's acceptable and unquestioned that Microsoft are the ones who decide what software we can run on the hardware we bought from people who aren't Microsoft?" says a comment. Also: "That ought to have triggered an anti-trust/monopoly investigation immediately instead of letting Microsoft get away with it by graciously signing stuff for other people." Or: ". . . why this is desirable? Why the fuck should I cripple my computer in this way?"]

    But back to x86. Very soon there was a working solution, and it was not only adopted by the different Linux vendors and the community but was also supported by Microsoft. The trick was a little EFI binary called shim, which is signed by Microsoft. Having the seal of approval from the Windows-maker meant UEFI would happily execute it when Secure Boot was enabled. Shim opened a door to securely introduce other certificates and signatures into the firmware. Those requiring more granular control or inclusion of more of their own code could enroll Machine Owner Keys (MOK) into the UEFI Secure Boot process. This allows you to extend the Secure Boot chain to load their custom boot loader or an operating system kernel which was not properly signed to a specific machine. This setup has worked well for quite some time in the x86 world and is used by Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE, among others. The major Linux distributions - both enterprise and community - come with shim, which is signed by Microsoft. During the installation a certificate that is used to sign the boot-loader, the kernel, and its modules, is added to UEFI. Trusting the hardware and the firmware and enabling Secure Boot will allow Linux to start up as usual. The user will not notice a difference.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Conspiratorialism’s causal chain

  After all, the Sackler family flagrantly lied about the safety of their opioids. They bribed doctors to over-prescribe their drugs. They paid pharmacists bonuses for not asking nosy questions about people filling endless, gigantic refills. They reaped billions. They hired FDA officials and paid them to lobby their ex-colleagues to turn a blind eye, even as the country's morgues filled with the corpses of their victims. They made more billions, and they abused the justice system and got to stay disgustingly, dynastically rich, even as more than one million Americans died in the overdose epidemic they started: [...]

• Copyrights

  • Walled Culture ☛ Anthropic’s AI lawsuit settlement may not go through, but it exposes a truth about copyright

    Even before those complex questions are addressed, there is a huge assumption that the proposed settlement will go through in its present form. That’s by no means assured. As Bloomberg Law reported, Judge Alsup said he was worried that lawyers were striking a deal behind the scenes that will be forced “down the throat of authors,” and that the agreement is “nowhere close to complete.”

  • Anil Dash ☛ A Way We Were

    Similarly, Prince shared his stages and studios with an incredibly broad and diverse set of collaborators, and constantly reminded them that they needed to walk away with real ownership of their work. He fought the biggest and most powerful companies that attempted to control every aspect of culture and media, and even when it took decades to do so, wrested control of his work back into his own hands, all while pioneering so many of the tools and technologies and techniques that would inspire a new generation of artists to demand the rights they deserve. Just as importantly, he never backed down from using the art he created to speak up on issues of social justice and equity, standing on the biggest stages to plainly speak to the humanity and dignity of every person.