Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 26/8/2011: Official 20th Anniversary of Linux, Blankfein (Goldman Sachs CEO) Allegedly Might Face Prison



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



Leftovers



  • Hardware



  • Security



  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • General Electric's Jim Cramer Heads to Midwest to Cheerlead for Fracking
      Today, CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer's "Invest in America" series will take the show to a seemingly unlikely locale. The crew will head to a place many would consider the middle of nowhere -- the state of North Dakota.


    • Plain Talk: Gore deplores BS skewing climate debate
      It has been nearly two years now since Wendell Potter, the former public relations expert for two of the nation’s largest health insurers, wrote the book “Deadly Spin,” exposing the misleading advertising campaigns and dirty tricks that insurance companies have used to try to scuttle meaningful health care reform.

      In the book Potter, who is now a senior fellow at the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy, revealed that the health insurance industry has been using many of the same tactics and, indeed, some of the same people who successfully fought off tobacco regulation for decades. Tobacco interests used doctors and other medical “experts” to discredit the research that found tobacco causes cancer and numerous other diseases in not just smokers, but people around them.






  • Finance

    • Cameron and Osborne did the Swiss tax deal to support tax evasion - there's no other explanation
      The UK – Swiss tax deal does not meet with my approval, as some will have noticed. The deal is outlined here. My objections are littered through the blogs preceding this one. But let’s stand back for a moment and consider why the UK have done this deal – uniquely (because it seems unlikely that the supposedly similar German one will get parliamentary approval and so will not happen).


    • Under Fire, Goldman Sachs CEO Hires Top-Notch Attorney
      Goldman Sachs’ shares nosedived nearly 5% after it confirmed that its chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, has hired Reid Weingarten, a high-profile Washington, D.C., defense attorney to defend the embattled executive in connection with the Department of Justice’s inquiry into Blankfein and other firm officials.

      The Justice probe is looking into findings in a report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations which alleges Goldman Sachs (GS) executives misled Congress and investors about its mortgage-backed securities deals.


    • Could Blankfein Face Prison?
      The Goldman Sachs CEO didn’t get a big-time criminal-defense lawyer because he’s worried about an SEC wrist slap—there’s a real possibility of doing time, says former Goldman managing director Nomi Prins.


    • Job Creation and America's Future
      Right at the beginning the report hits us in the face with a few statistics highlighted in big text that succinctly capture the job picture in 2011: US jobs have declined by 7 million since December 2007; 20% of men are not working today, up from 7% in 1970; there has been a 23% drop in new business creation since 2007; the jobless recovery is projected to last 60 months; 10% of Americans move annually, down from 20% in 1985.


    • Revealed: Former Goldman Sachs VP Turned Issa Staffer Supervised Scheduling Of Elizabeth Warren Incident (Think Progress)
      Last week, ThinkProgress revealed that Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) hired Peter Haller, a former Goldman Sachs vice president, as one of his top aides. Haller, who adopted his mother's maiden name in 2008 and had escaped public scrutiny until now, coordinated an Oversight Committee letter to regulators demanding that they justify new Dodd-Frank rules impacting investment banks like his old employer, Goldman Sachs. After publication of our story, the Project on Government Oversight discovered more of Haller's Oversight Committee letters, again on issues directly related to Goldman Sachs.




  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Plastic Bag Manufacturers Edit California Textbooks
      The American Chemistry Council (ACC), a lobbying group representing plastic bag manufacturers, successfully convinced the California Department of Education to rewrite its environmental textbooks and teachers' guides to include positive statements about plastic grocery bags.


    • Profit Motive Underlies Outbreak of Immigration Bills
      July 29 marked the one-year anniversary of Arizona's controversial immigration law, a year that has seen similar anti-immigrant bills emerge across the country. Thanks to the release of over 800 pieces of "model legislation" by the Center for Media and Democracy, we can now pinpoint the source of the outbreak to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a bill factory for legislation that benefits the bottom line of its corporate members. While it has been reported that more immigrants behind bars means more income for ALEC member Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), less discussed has been how immigrant detention benefits commercial bail-bond agencies, an industry represented in ALEC through the American Bail Coalition.






Recent Techrights' Posts

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American bigots funding blatant and shameless racists here in the UK
Another Woman (or Women) Has Just Run Away From Brett Wilson LLP (After Barely a Month!), the Hired Guns of Garrett and Graveley (Microsoft)
They call this phenomenon "death spiral"
SLAPP Censorship - Part 200 Out of 200: Will GNU Boot Undo the Technical Damage Caused by Microsoft and Garrett? (And Garrett's Litigation Allies From Microsoft)
Today we publish the final part of this series
Things Not to Measure in Quantity Alone
More patents do not beget greater innovation
SLAPP Censorship - Part 199 Out of 200: An American Burden on the British Legal System
A year ago (October 2025) the head of media (Jointly in Charge of the Media and Communications List), the judge in the Garrett case, said that this case was a waste of the court's money
Criminalising Opposition to Fraud
slop causes social issues
 
Large Wave of IBM PIPs, the RAs Wave Comes After 'Low-Hanging' Fruit (Families) Disposed of
PIPs are the new RAs
Links 25/09/2026: Carcinogen Atrazine Pollutes Americans' Bodies, "Donald the Deadbeat Does Diesel", and Anger Over Data Centres Grows
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people work longer hours for less, i.e. their hourly salary is decreasing
Tackling Racism in the United Kingdom (Racism Funded by Americans) Using the Courts
We'll talk about racism my wife and I experienced in the events leading up to litigation
US Government Sites Can Now Totally Ignore Mozilla Firefox Users or Users of Firefox Derivatives
Firefox, now at 1.1% in the US (based on American government sites), has sunken to the point of no return
Even Microsoft Boosters Start to Doubt XBox Will Exist (It's Being Phased Out, Just Not "Officially")
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Omarchy is Built on the Idea That Slop is Desirable (It's Not)
They call bots and plagiarism "agents" and "training"
IBM is Shrinking Very Fast (Silent, Unannounced Layoffs)
IBM and Microsoft both avoid WARN notices by compelling staff to leave or silently removing them with some NDA
In Some Parts of Microsoft 50% of All Staff Subjected to Layoffs, Media Pretends Only 0.1% of Staff Are Removed
This really says a lot about the state of today's so-called 'media'
EPO Management Wants Everything to be Done in Microsoft Spyware
In reality, this management should be ousted for normalising cocaine at the Office
The Register MS Does Not Properly Flag Its SPAM About Slop
Signs of desperation
Gemini Links 25/09/2026: Ljubljana, Tanana River, and Curse of Slack
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 24, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, September 24, 2026
Supporters of winding-up process staking claims against Reform UK Party (CR-2026-007405)
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Winding-up petition leaked before service on Reform UK Party Limited / Nigel Farage
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 24/09/2026: Laziness, Outdoor Seating, "AngelNova’s Interview Malware and Its North Korea Connection"
Links for the day
Links 24/09/2026: Slop "Linked to Disturbing Culture of Sexual Assault"; "Zelensky Warns Russia’s War Will Expand if It Is Not Ended Soon"
Links for the day
Winding-up petition served on Reform UK Party Limited (Nigel Farage)
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Appliances Should be Dumb
Any "Smart Home Appliance" is basically a thing that does not last long, does not work as advertised, and is generally unfit for purpose
SLAPP Censorship - Part 198 Out of 200: It Sounds Like Garrett is Now Sending People to Silence Critics (Including His Own Spouse)
This week Garrett is having a somewhat karmic experience
Links 24/09/2026: Slop Contaminating KDE, Slop-Focused Data Centres Have Severe Environmental Impact
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 197 Out of 200: Garrett Became So Poor That He Wants Others (in Another Continent) to Pay for His Own Legal Work Being Faulty
They lie to courts
The Register MS Has Become a Slopfest
This is the behaviour of a perishing publisher
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Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 23, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 23, 2026
IBM Grapevine: Development Outsourced to LLM Slop and It Results in Many Bugs
IBM is circling down the drain and every insider knows it
Microsoft Gives Many People the 'Booty' This Week, Not Counting PIPs (Silent Layoffs and 'Voluntary' Layoffs)
Microsoft PIPs allegedly target "20-25% in some teams."
Nearly 1,000 People at EPO 'Met' to Plan Further Strikes and Impending Action to Dethrone Corrupt Leadership
Exploring the purchasing "power" of EPO leadership (buying elections while doing cocaine in public)
Links 23/09/2026: Pax Silica Hub Ruins a Country for a Pyramid Scheme (Slop), Convicted Felon's Press Block Resembles Iran, Russia, China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/09/2026: Stuck, Gambling, Fury Road, IPFS, and More
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The Register Got Paid Today to Spew Out "AI" Almost 50 Times (Keeping the Pyramid Scheme Buzzing in Headlines)
paid-for spam
SLAPP Censorship - Part 196 Out of 200: Sending Someone to Our Doorstep to Ship Approximately 5 KG of Legal Papers (Instead of to Our Representatives)
it is not about law, this is lawfare
IBM's Anderon Already Smells Like a Fraud and IBM Insiders Heckle the Lies From the Management
Sabine Hossenfelder recently made some videos which explain in simple terms why IBM is lying and has already lied about this for years
Links 23/09/2026: Mass-Surveillance by Clownflare and "Data Centre" Crunch Commences
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Same Name/Brand, Not the Same Project/Product
What is Linux becoming?
Germany, Like Switzerland, Will Dump Microsoft's Proprietary Software and Disservices, Then Dump Windows for GNU/Linux
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3 Years Divorced From Americans
Next year we plan to pursue the UK's Court of Appeal
The Register MS Uses Slop About Slop (in Images)
Months ago we caught The Register MS using slop for text as well
There Are Likely Over a Thousand Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Networks Online, Net Gain of 16 Seen This Month by Andreas Gelhausen's netsplit.de
It's good that they're still tracking that sort of stuff
SLAPP Censorship - Part 195 Out of 200: Two Years Since Garrett, Graveley and Lozza Worked in Parallel to Censor Techrights
It began in September 2024, shortly after we had sued Garrett
Linux Kernel Becoming a Slopfest - Part 8 - In Conclusion
this can invite more SCO-like problems in the future
Microsoft Shuts Down More Studios, Morale Low, More Mass Layoffs Ahead of Reports
They pretend it's not happening or that it's a lot smaller than it actually is
Over at Tux Machines...
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