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Links 24/9/2019: CentOS Release/s, ‘Peek’ 1.4.0, Nim Reaches Version 1.0



  • GNU/Linux

    • Server

      • Persistent Storage for Containers: Why the Future is Open Source

        Software containerization is unlikely to be at the top of the list of considerations for the average storage administrator. First and foremost storage professionals are going to be concerned with every enterprise’s most pressing problem: managing the ‘explosive’ volume of data within the constraints of their limited IT budget.

        However, there are compelling reasons why storage professionals should be thinking about containerization as how its rapid adoption will impact the roadmap of your existing storage providers and drive changes to your own organization’s data storage strategy.

      • Multi-cloud Management: Stratos and Kubernetes

        At the recent Cloud Foundry Summit EU in the Netherlands, Troy Topnik and Neil MacDougall of SUSE demonstrated and talked about the work that SUSE has done to extend the Stratos management interface to include support for Kubernetes and Helm. They described how they used the Stratos extension mechanism to add new endpoint types for Kubernetes and Helm and showed some of the features that SUSE has been developing. They talked about where SUSE is headed next in extending Stratos beyond Cloud Foundry into a Multi-cloud Management interface.

      • IBM

        • Fedora and CentOS Stream

          Hi everyone! You may have seen the announcement about changes over at the CentOS Project. (If not, please go ahead and take a few minutes and read it — I’ll wait!) And now you may be wondering: if CentOS is now upstream of RHEL, what happens to Fedora? Isn’t that Fedora’s role in the Red Hat ecosystem?

          First, don’t worry. There are changes to the big picture, but they’re all for the better.

        • CentOS Linux 8 Officially Released, It's Based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

          The CentOS project announced today the release and general availability of the CentOS Linux 8.0 open-source operating system for all supported architectures.

          Coming hot on the heels of the CentOS Linux 7.7 release, CentOS Linux 8 is now officially available, based on the sources of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 operating system, which means that it comes with all of its great new features and enhancements for the hybrid cloud era.

          Highlights include support for Application Streams, which consists of fast-moving frameworks, programming languages, and developer tools that are frequently updated, the ability for systems administrators to automate complex tasks more easily, as well as built-in support for the OpenSSL 1.1.1 and TLS 1.3 cryptographic standards.

        • Release for CentOS Linux 8 and CentOS Streams

          CentOS Linux 8.0-1905 has been released. The release notes have more details. The CentOS project also introduces CentOS Stream.

        • CentOS-8 (1905) Release Notes

          Hello and welcome to the first CentOS-8 release. The CentOS Linux distribution is a stable, predictable, manageable and reproducible platform derived from the sources of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)1. You can read our official product announcement for this release.

          CentOS conforms fully with Red Hat's redistribution policy and aims to have full functional compatibility with the upstream product. CentOS mainly changes packages to remove Red Hat's branding and artwork.

          We have decided not to follow Red Hat's usage of Installation Roles. In CentOS Linux all content from every distribution 'channel' is made available to the user at time of installation.

          Please read through the other sections before trying an install or reporting an issue.

          This is the first release of a new distribution from the CentOS Project: CentOS Stream. CentOS Stream is a rolling-release Linux distro that exists as a mid-stream between the upstream development in Fedora Linux and the downstream development for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It is a cleared-path to contributing into future minor releases of RHEL while interacting with Red Hat and other open source ecosystem developers. This pairs nicely with the existing contribution path in Fedora for future major releases of RHEL. You can read more on the CentOS Stream release notes page.

        • Presenting CentOS Stream

          Today, CentOS Stream is available based on CentOS Linux 8 software packages the project has been building over the summer combined with the latest Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 development kernel. You can read the release announcement here.

          CentOS Stream will be a rolling-release Linux distro that exists as a midstream between the upstream development in Fedora Linux and the downstream development for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It is a cleared-path to contributing into future minor releases of RHEL while interacting with Red Hat and other open source developers. This pairs nicely with the existing contribution path in Fedora for future major releases of RHEL.`

          Over the coming months, the CentOS Project and Red Hat Engineering plan to begin updating the packages in CentOS Stream to reflect the in-progress development toward the next minor release of RHEL. This, for the first time, makes the CentOS Project a part of the RHEL platform development cycle.

          During this period, and with community support, Red Hat and the CentOS Project will develop the processes necessary to help CentOS Stream evolve rapidly to serve the needs of current and future CentOS distro users and to enable developers in new and interesting ways, all while helping to contribute to the broader platform.

          In the past there was no way to contribute to the upstream via the CentOS Project. That changes with CentOS Stream -- you can make stronger, more direct connections to the operating system developers of the Fedora Project, reducing the feedback loop into the distro creation itself. Bringing the diversity of all developer voices to the room when RHEL is being planned and created.

          During the introduction and build-out of CentOS Stream, we want to make sure we’re helping CentOS distro users however you need it. Come join the conversation and help us create the future.

        • CentOS Linux 8 released: New Features and Download

          entOS Linux 8 released. It is a Linux distro derived from RHEL 8. CentOS was created when Red Hat stopped providing RHEL free. These days CentOS mostly used on servers, HPC, and desktop. CentOS is a high-quality Linux distribution. It gives complete control of its open-source software packages and is fully customized for research needs or for running a high-performance website without the need for license fees. Let us see what’s new in CentOS 8.

        • Remi Collet: CentOS 8 repository

          Shortly after RHEL-8, CentOS 8 is released and of course my repository is already open and fully populated.

        • Changes to CentOS: What CentOS Stream means for developers

          Today Chris Wright, vice president and CTO at Red Hat, published a post describing how CentOS is changing and the opportunities it opens for developers in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) ecosystem. The net effect of this change is that, in addition to CentOS Linux 8, there is a new version of CentOS—CentOS Stream—which will provide a “rolling preview” of future Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernels and features. This is being announced in addition to the release of the traditional CentOS Linux 8, which is a downstream rebuild of the current RHEL release.

          CentOS Stream is an exciting addition to the family of Linux operating systems that are upstream and downstream of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

          CentOS Stream will live in-between Fedora and RHEL, providing a clearer vision of what the next version of RHEL will be, giving developers the opportunity to stay a step or two ahead in their planning, and making it easier to ensure next-generation applications will be compatible with future RHEL versions. CentOS Stream also will make contributing to future versions of RHEL much simpler and more direct.

        • CentOS 8.0 Released As Community Version Of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

          With Scientific Linux having been phased out moving forward, CentOS is the main community-based distribution (albeit backed by Red Hat) providing a cost-free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It took a few months to get out the door, but CentOS 8.0 is now available as being re-based off Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. CentOS/RHEL 8.0 brings many new features over the aging EL7 archive.

        • Red Hat Creates CentOS Stream

          Red Hat announced a new project called CentOS stream that will serve as an upstream project for Red Hat Enterprise Linux to establish a better relationship between RHEL, Fedora and CentOS. According to Red Hat CTO, “The CentOS Stream project sits between the Fedora Project and RHEL in the RHEL Development process, providing a “rolling preview” of future RHEL kernels and features. This enables developers to stay one or two steps ahead of what’s coming in RHEL, which was not previously possible with traditional CentOS releases.”

        • CentOS Stream Announced As Developer-Forward Distribution, Rolling Release Of RHEL

          CentOS Stream is a new forward-looking distribution running in parallel with CentOS 8 and in cooperation with Red Hat and the CentOS Project.

          While CentOS 8.0 will be announced today, Red Hat made the surprise announcement of CentOS Stream this morning.

          Red Hat's Chris Wright wrote of CentOS Stream, "CentOS Stream is a developer-forward distribution that aims to help community members, Red Hat partners and others take full advantage of open source innovation within a more stable and predictable Linux ecosystem. It is a parallel distribution to existing CentOS Linux, which this morning saw the release of CentOS Linux 8."

        • Red Hat introduces rolling release CentOS Stream

          If you need enterprise Linux with support, Red Hat wants to sell you Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). If not, Red Hat will be happy if you use CentOS, the RHEL clone. It's not updated as often, but it does the job. Now, Red Hat is switching things up by offering a rolling release version of its popular server operating system: CentOS Stream.

          A rolling release is one in which all of the operating system -- kernel, libraries utilities and applications -- is continuously updated. Examples of these include Arch, Manjaro, and openSUSE Tumbleweed. The more typical roll-up releases consolidate recent updates into a stable tested operating system.

        • Transforming the development experience within CentOS

          More than five years ago, Red Hat and the CentOS Project joined forces to further the development of next-generation Linux innovations for enterprise IT. Since then, we’ve seen the open source model continue to thrive, fueling the rise of Linux containers, Kubernetes, microservices, serverless and more. Given the rapid pace of this community-driven innovation, we, in agreement with the CentOS Project leadership, are pleased to introduce a new model into the CentOS Linux community: CentOS Stream.

          CentOS Stream is a developer-forward distribution that aims to help community members, Red Hat partners and others take full advantage of open source innovation within a more stable and predictable Linux ecosystem. It is a parallel distribution to existing CentOS Linux, which this morning saw the release of CentOS Linux 8.

        • A journey to the vhost-users realm

          In the previous deep dive blog, we showed the benefits moving the network processing out of qemu and into a kernel driver by using the vhost-net protocol. In this post we will go one step further and show how to achieve better network performance by moving the dataplane from the kernel to userspace in both the guest and the host using the DPDK: Data Plane Development Kit. To achieve this we will also look in detail into a new implementation of the vhost protocol: the vhost-user library.

          By the end of this post, you should have a deep understanding of all the components involved in a vhost-user/virtio-pmd based architecture and understand the reasons behind the significant performance improvement it provides.

        • OpenShift Scale-CI: Part 2 – Deep Dive

          In part one of the series, we saw how the Red Hat OpenShift Scale-CI evolved. In this post, we will look at the various components of Scale-CI. OpenShift Scale-CI is not a single tool, it’s a framework which orchestrates a bunch of tools to help analyze and improve the Scalability and Performance of OpenShift.

          [...]

          A typical Scale-CI run installs OpenShift on a chosen cloud provider, sets up tooling to run a pbench-agent DaemonSet, runs Conformance (e2e test suite ) to check the sanity of the cluster, scales up the cluster to the desired node count, runs various scale tests focusing on Control plane density, kubelet density, HTTP/Router, SDN, Storage, Logging, Monitoring and Cluster Limits. It also runs a Baseline workload which collects configuration and performance data on an idle cluster to know how the product is moving across various OpenShift releases. The results are shipped to the Pbench server after processing for analysis and long term storage. The results are scraped to generate a machine readable output ( JSON ) of the metrics to compare with previous runs to pass/fail the Job and send a green/red signal.

        • Deliver digital telco services with modern operations and business support systems

          There are plenty of opportunities for communication service providers (CSPs) to expand and evolve their offerings to be more competitive, including new services for more than 17 billion connected devices in use today around the world. The challenge, however, will be to modernize operations support systems (OSS) and business support systems (BSS) so that the digital services can be provisioned, monitored, managed, scaled and delivered to meet customers’ high expectations.

          [...]

          Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform delivers a strong foundation for microservices-based OSS/BSS architecture. It integrates a number of open source projects, bringing together enterprise-grade Linux operating system, container runtime, networking, monitoring, container registry, authentication, and authorization solutions. These components are tested and supported together for unified operations on a comprehensive Kubernetes platform spanning the leading clouds. Coupling it with integration and automation solutions can increase both efficiency and agility in network management and business operations, clearing the way for innovation and improved customer experience. Red Hat’s Consulting team offers a comprehensive adoption path to move CSPs from inception to production at scale.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Full Circle Magazine: Full Circle Weekly News #146
      • Noodlings | Desktops and Window Managers, BDLL and openSUSE News

        I view KDE Plasma as the pinnacle of all things that are the Desktop and portal into your digital life. This is of course my own opinion but really, what else can do as much as Plasma, in as little resources and be as flexible as it is.

        Xfce is the GTK desktop that is, in my estimation, the benchmark to which all GTK desktops should be measured against. It is what I would call a “classic” Redmond style interface that is familiar to nearly everybody.

        i3 is a very interesting window manager, I would still call it a desktop of sorts though the “hard core” users of it may say otherwise. It uses Gnome so it is encumbered by the Gnome limitations. If it could somehow be Xfce based, it would seemingly make more sense. I did some searching and so far as I can tell, I have not been able to find a Kwin based Window manager as opposed to i3.

        [...]

        The welcome window for openSUSE received more translations for global users with an update of the opensuse-welcome 0.1.6 package.

        openSUSE MicroOS, specifically the core appliance buildier Kiwi, has been further updated, it added required cryptomount coding for for EFI boot.

        openSUSE MicroOS is designed for container hosts an optimized for large deployments. It benefits from the rolling of Tumbleweed and the SUSE Linux Enterprise hardening and scale of deployment. It is optimized for large deployments but is just as capable with a single container-host. Uses the BTRFS snapshots for updates and rollback.

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux 5.4 To Support NVMe-of P2P Support With Compatible Systems

        Sent in and already landed on Monday were the PCI changes for Linux 5.4 and includes an interesting feature addition.

        With the Linux 5.4 PCI code is support for handling peer-to-peer (P2P) DMA between root ports for whitelisted bridges. This work allows for NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-of) P2P support to transfer data between devices while bypassing any switching on the root complexes.

      • Graphics Stack

        • AMDVLK 2019.Q3.6 Vulkan Driver Brings New Extensions & Performance Tuning

          AMD's AMDVLK open-source Vulkan Linux driver recently fell off its weekly release wagon with the last release being nearly one month ago. But today they finally tagged their next milestone and given the time that's lapsed there are a number of new features and improvements.

          AMDVLK 2019.Q3.6 is the latest source snapshot of their official Vulkan Linux driver that is now available from GitHub.

    • Applications

      • Linux GIF Screen Recorder Peek 1.4.0 Is Out With UI Updates, Fixes

        Peek, a free an open source animated GIF screen recorder for Linux, was updated to version 1.4.0. This release updates the user interface to the new GNOME guidelines, while also fixing some crashes.

        With Peek you can create small, silent screencasts of an area of the screen, saving them as GIF animations. While Peek is optimized to record the screen as an animated GIF, the application can also save the screencast as a video (WebM or MP4, without sound), though for this I recommend SimpleScreenRecorder or OBS, which offer more flexibility.

        Use it by placing the Peek frame on top of the area you want to record, then click the Record as GIF button to save the recording as an animated GIF image. To use a different format, like APNG, WebM or MP4, click the down arrow to the right-hand side of the Record button.

      • Animated GIF Recorder ‘Peek’ 1.4.0 Released (How to Install)

        Peek screen recorder 1.4.0 was released today with stability fixes and some use interface improvements. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, and derivatives.

        Peek is a handy desktop screen recorder with an easy to use interface. It supports recording to GIF, APNG, Webm, and MP4, and so far works on X11 or inside a GNOME Shell Wayland session using XWayland.

      • Peek, the GIF Screen Recorder for Linux, Has Been Updated

        Peek is one of my favourite bits of software. I don’t use it often — for a millennial I’m surprisingly bad at using GIFs — but when I do use it, I always appreciate how perfectly formed it is.

        So naturally I’m excited to say that a new version of Peek is now available for download.

        And it features a batch of welcome improvements that make an already-great app that little bit better!

    • Instructionals/Technical

    • Games

      • Imperator: Rome has a big free 'Cicero' update out now with some major changes

        Paradox have just launched a big free update to their struggling new strategy game Imperator: Rome, which might help to turn things around for it.

        Today the free Cicero update launched, which Paradox said lets "the player focus on political consequences and imperial governance instead of waiting for numbers to grow"

      • Space Grunts 2 combines a turn-based rogue-like with card-based battles, out now

        Orangepixel just released their latest game Space Grunts 2, keeping a similar approach to the original with the roguelike experience and turn-based battles only this time with cards.

        If the name is not familiar, Orangepixel also made games including: Heroes of Loot, Space Grunts, Ashworld, Gunslugs:Rogue Tactics and more. They've supported Linux for a long time and Space Grunts 2 continues that.

      • D3D9 over Vulkan gets even better as D9VK 0.21 'Lollihop' is out

        Developer Joshua Ashton continues doing some great work, as another release of the D3D9 to Vulkan layer D9VK is out.

        Released just today, D9VK 0.21 'Lollihop' implements more needed D3D9 features like D3DBLEND_BOTHSRCALPHA and D3DBLEND_BOTHINVSRCALPHA. There's also now support for "locking of MSAA images with intermediate resolve" which is apparently invalid behaviour for D3D9 "but everyone supports this", the YUV2 and YUVY video formats were implemented for compute shaders and some "minor" performance improvements.

      • D9VK 0.21 Implements More Direct3D 9 Over Vulkan Functionality, Many Bug Fixes

        D9VK 0.21 is out today as the newest feature release for this project implementing the Direct3D 9 API over Vulkan.

        The D9VK 0.21 release implements more blending features, support for locking of MSAA images with intermediate resolve, locking of depth stencil images, YUVY/YUV2 video format support via compute shaders, and other features now hooked up for D3D9 / DXSO / fixed function functionality. Various performance improvements are also present.

      • The Surge 2 Sees Same-Day Linux Support Via Steam Play, RADV Workaround Needed

        Released yesterday was The Surge 2 third-person action RPG game by Deck13 and sequel to the earlier The Surge game. While only released for Windows and consoles, thanks to Valve's Steam Play there is same-day support on Linux.

        The Surge 2 natively uses Vulkan so that works nicely with Steam Play and no other apparent fundamental issues leading to this fairly notable game working at-launch on Linux with Steam Play.

      • Transform your x86 Linux PC into a Retro-Gaming Powerhouse with Retropie!
      • Twitch now officially sponsor OBS Studio development and more in the latest progress report

        I honestly don't know where we would be without OBS Studio now, it's a fantastic bit of free and open source software for recording videos and doing livestreams. It seems Twitch agree.

        Developer and OBS founder Hugh "Jim" Bailey, wrote a new progress report yesterday which goes over some thoughts on how they're doing. The first big point was how Twitch have started directly supporting OBS Studio (full announcement), as they've become a "Premiere" level sponsor which means they're pumping more than $50K a year into the project. It's not clear exactly how much, as the sponsor tiers only go up to "Diamond" which is $50K a year and Twitch are being listed above that level on the OBS contribute page.

      • Steam's top releases for August 2019 are out, here's our usual look over

        Another month has passed and Valve have just now put up a post going over some of the big new releases on Steam for August.

        Their top twenty list goes over what games earned the most in the first two weeks following the release. It doesn't matter if it's a "full" release or Early Access as it all counts when talking about revenue. Then they also take a look at the top five free titles by their peak concurrent player count following release.

      • The Long Dark is celebrating five years since release, Episode 3 of the story due in October

        Five years ago in September 2014, The Long Dark entered Early Access as a rather unique take on the survival game genre. Later in November 2015, it also released for Linux.

        That might seem like a long time, but for a full game to be developed it's really not. There's plenty that have gone on for far longer like Project Zomboid which has been going since some time in 2011. Bigger games do tend to take a long time, especially for a smaller team like Hinterland with The Long Dark.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Calamares: Welcome Malayalam

          During Akademy, I chatted with Aish about Malayalam, a language of Kerala state. It stands out for me as a language with a beautiful script.

          Not two days after Akademy, I was approached by two people on IRC about adding a Malayalam translation for Calamares, the Linux installer. I think it was largely independent. In any case, Subin and Balasankar now run the Malayalam translation team on Transifex for Calamares. In ten days or so they’ve reached 50% translation state, which means that they land in the “ok” list of languages. The next release of Calamares will have Malayalam translations enabled and selectable from the language drop-down on startup.

    • Distributions

      • Bye Bye Bento, Hello Bootstrap!

        This is probably the last post related to revamping our user interface (UI).

        This is part 8 of a series of posts about revamping the user interface of OBS. We started off with the Package pages in October 2018, moved on to the Project, User and Group pages in December 2018, continued with the Request pages in February 2019 and migrated the Configuration pages in March 2019. We then finished the Maintenance pages in April 2019, the Search and Kiwi Editor pages were completed in May 2019. In June 2019 we focused on the Cloud and Monitor pages. The whole migration was finished in September 2019, bye bye bento!.

        After almost one year of work, we systematically updated to a new technology stack, simplified a lot of code and brought the interface over from 2006 to 2019.

      • New Releases

        • UCS 4.4-2: Second Point Release
          Looking back at the first point release (UCS 4.4-1 in June 2019), our REST API for the Univention Directory Manager was still in beta stadium. Good news: the interface for accessing the directory service is stable now. The API connects applications to the UCS directory service; access is granted via a web service using HTTPS, and data is exchanged JSON format. So, the REST API offers the same functionality as the udm command line tool. For example, it simplifies the maintenance of user properties or computer objects from connected systems. Developers of applications offered in the Univention App Center also benefit from the new, standardized access because they are no longer limited to the UDM Python interface. The REST API of the Univention Directory Manager is by default activated on all UCS 4.4-2 DC Master and DC Backup instances.



      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Ubuntu Eoan Ermine 19.10 Community Wallpaper Competition - WINNERS!

          The Ubuntu wallpaper competition has attracted over 160 entries this year, the most ever! Thanks to everyone who entered their art for consideration by the Ubuntu community as wallpaper for 19.10 Eoan Ermine. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching the thread expand over the months with lots of beautiful images.

          The standard is very high this year so I think it’s going to be hard to limit yourself to your favourite ten, but limit yourself you must. Think carefully about how you vote, the winners will go forwards through to the 20.04 LTS competition as well.

        • These Are the Default Wallpapers of Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine)

          Canonical has announced the winners of the Ubuntu wallpaper competition and unveiled the default wallpapers for the upcoming Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) operating system.

          The Ubuntu wallpaper competition opened its doors to photographers and graphic designers since early July, and more than 160 artists have submitted their beautiful artwork for inclusion in the upcoming Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) operating system, due for release on October 17th. However, only nine of them had their artwork included in Ubuntu 19.10.

        • Meet the 9 Winners in the Ubuntu 19.10 Wallpaper Competition

          The winning entries in the Ubuntu 19.10 wallpaper competition have been revealed.

          Nine new background images, picked from a pool of hundreds, will be included on the Ubuntu 19.10 install image and available “out of the box” in the ‘Eoan Ermine’.

          While I’d say this cycle’s crop is less-than-diverse bunch — 3 mountain shots; no “bright” background — it does (rather notably for distro geeks like me) include the first Ubuntu branded wallpapers for years.

          Distro logos, mascot names and the like had been a no-no in the rules prior to now.

          Below is (hopefully) a gallery of the selected drapes for your perusal and opinion. Do note that these images are compressed, resized versions of the actual wallpapers because hey: I want this page to finish loading sometime this decade!

        • Mint has landed

          There’s no better, friendlier introduction to using Linux than with Linux Mint. Linux and the accompanying library of open source tools means you’re no longer locked to a single OS vendor, a single desktop or a single app store.

          With the recent release of the new Mint 19.2 we’ve decided to visit how best to install it for a perfect set up. Hopefully both newbies and long-time Linux users will get useful insights into how to better set up their systems and get started. From install options, where to place your /home, making the most of LVM and loads more.

        • Canonical Releases New Kernel Live Patch for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS

          The new Linux kernel live patch is here to address just a single security vulnerability, namely a buffer overflow (CVE-2019-14835) discovered by security researcher Peter Pi in Linux kernel's virtio network backend (vhost_net) implementation, which could lead to DoS attacks.

          "Peter Pi discovered a buffer overflow in the virtio network backend (vhost_net) implementation in the Linux kernel. An attacker in a guest may be able to use this to cause a denial of service (host OS crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code in the host OS," reads the security advisory.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Chef CEO says he’ll continue to work with ICE in spite of protests

        Yesterday, software development tool maker Chef found itself in the middle of a firestorm after a Tweet called them out for doing business with DHS/ICE. Eventually it led to an influential open-source developer removing a couple of key pieces of software from the project, bringing down some parts of Chef’s commercial business.

        Chef intends to fulfill its contract with ICE, in spite of calls to cancel it. In a blog post published this morning, Chef CEO Barry Crist defended the decision. “I do not believe that it is appropriate, practical, or within our mission to examine specific government projects with the purpose of selecting which U.S. agencies we should or should not do business.”

        He stood by the company’s decision this afternoon in an interview with TechCrunch, while acknowledging that it was a difficult and emotional decision for everyone involved. “For some portion of the community, and some portion of our company, this is a super, super-charged lightning rod, and this has been very difficult. It’s something that we spent a lot of time on, and I want to represent that there are portions of [our company] that do not agree with this, but I as a leader of the company, along with the executive team, made a decision that we would honor the contracts and those relationships that were formed and work with them over time,” he said.

      • 'No source code for evil': Developers pressure Chef Software to cut ties with ICE

        With thousands of immigrant children separated from their parents under President Donald Trump's anti-immigration policies, the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has made many enemies. At the same time, software companies like Chef Software, the DevOps company, work with ICE. So, when open-source developer Seth Vargo discovered his open-source project, Chef Sugar, was being used by Chef, he pulled his code. And then he and Chef Software both discovered just how much Chef, the program, relied on his library.

        Chef Sugar is a Ruby library that makes it easier to work with the DevOps program Chef. Varga developed and open-sourced the library while he worked at Chef, and the library was later integrated into Chef's source code. But, while open source, Chef Sugar's most up-to-date code still lived on Vargo's personal GitHub repository.

        So, when Vargo, now a Google Cloud engineer, declared he has "a moral and ethical obligation to prevent my source from being used for evil," he removed his code from both GitHub and RubyGems, the main Ruby package repository.

        Bang!

      • You can't open-source license morality
      • The Apache Software Foundation Announces Apache Rya as a Top-Level Project

        The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of more than 350 Open Source projects and initiatives, announced today Apache Rya as a Top-Level Project (TLP).

        Apache Rya (pronounced "ree-uh") is a Cloud-based Big Data triple store (subject-predicate-object) database used to process queries in milliseconds. The project was originally developed at the Laboratory for Telecommunication Sciences, and was submitted to the Apache Incubator in September 2015.

        "We are very excited to reach this important milestone showing the maturity of the project and of the community around it," said Dr. Adina Crainiceanu, Vice President of Apache Rya and Associate Professor of Computer Science at the U.S. Naval Academy. "RDF (Resource Description Framework) triple data format is simple and flexible, making it easy to express diverse datasets such as connections between users on social media, financial data and transactions, medical data, and many others. Rya provides a scalable solution to store and query such data. The publication of the first research article about Rya garnered interest from industry, academia, and several government agencies. Bringing the project to ASF allowed collaboration and increased pace of development."

      • Apache Promotes Rya To Being A Top-Level Project

        The Apache Software Foundation today announced that Rya has been promoted as the organization's newest top-level project.

        Apache Rya is a cloud-based big data triple store database that is designed to deliver queries at milisecond level performance.

        Apache Rya has been an incubator project for the past four years but now given its proliferation of usage from drones to edge computing use-cases and petabyte-scale graph modeling has now been promoted to being a top-level project.

      • ReactOS 0.4.12 Released with Window Snapping, New Themes

        A new version of the open source Windows clone ReactOS is now available for download.

        ReactOS 0.4.12 features a ‘multitude of improvements’ throughout the would-be Windows-inspired OS, including improved font handling and new system themes, among many other changes.

        This update also introduces window snapping on the desktop (I’m amazed it didn’t have this already) and adds support for the Intel e1000 NIC driver (used in virtual machines).

        Kernel improvements, support for user mode DLLs, and general tweaks to many core apps also feature.

      • ML

        • 7 Good Open Source AI/Machine Learning Systems

          Artificial intelligence is taking over many sectors in technology in the last few years. Developers from all different backgrounds finally realized the opportunities AI an achieve for them regardless of their needs. And as usual in any new buzz, proprietary solutions are always developed to try to take a piece of the new market, but open source ones were also developed to allow everybody to have their share of the new technology.

          In today’s article, we list 7 of the best open source AI/Machine learning systems.

        • AAEON BOXER-8310AI Rugged Fanless Mini PC Combines Apollo Lake Processor & Myriad X VPU for AI Edge Applications

          The company has now introduced three new AI embedded computers for the same AI edge applications but using Intel processors together with Intel/Movidius Myriad X VPU (Vision Processing Unit) for AI acceleration. The three models are BOXER-8310AI, BOXER-8320AI, and the upcoming BOXER-8330AI based on respectively Intel Celeron/Pentium Apollo Lake processor, Intel Core i3 7th gen processor, and an Intel Core i3/77 or Xeon processor.

        • Aaeon spawns three Intel-based AI computers with Myriad X

          Aaeon announced three “Boxer-8300AI” series edge AI computers that run Linux on Intel Apollo Lake or 6th and 7th Gen Core CPUs with up to two Myriad X-enabled AI Core X modules or AI Core XPG cards.

          Over the years, Aaeon has churned out dozens of Intel-based “Boxer” embedded computers, but in recent years we have seen more Arm-based Nvidia Jetson TX2 models such as the recent Boxer-8170AI. Meanwhile, Aaeon has also introduced various UP boards equipped with Intel’s Movidius Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU) and newer, more powerful Myriad X VPU, as seen on its Whiskey Lake-U based UP Xtreme.

      • Web Browsers

        • Mozilla

          • Exploring Collaboration and Communication with Mozilla Hubs

            In April last year, Mozilla introduced Hubs, an immersive social experience that brings users together in shared 3D spaces. Hubs runs in the browser on mobile, desktop, and virtual reality devices. Since its initial release, the platform has undergone extensive development work to better enable communities and creators to embrace the opportunities that online collaborative environments have to offer. As a result, we’ve seen increased adoption of Hubs and new use cases have emerged.

            The ability to connect to anyone around the world is a powerful tool available to us through the internet. As we look at advancements in mixed reality like the WebXR API, we are able to explore ways to feel more present with others through technology. One area where virtual reality shows considerable promise is in supporting distributed teams.

            Mozilla is no stranger to remote collaboration. 46% of our employees work from home and the ten company offices span seven countries across six time zones. Because of this, we’re excited about finding opportunities to improve the ways we connect with our community of contributors and volunteers. Remote work and collaboration is a core part of how we connect to each other through the web.

      • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

        • Nepal: LibreOffice localisation event on Software Freedom Day 2019

          Thanks to our worldwide community, LibreOffice is available in over 100 languages. Volunteers help to translate the software, documentation and website – and on Software Freedom Day, the Nepalese LibreOffice community organised a localisation event.

        • Yak Shaving Progress Report

          At last years LibreOffice conference in Tirana I gave a talk on how SwClient is considered harmful. At this years LibreOffice conference in Almeria, I presented a lightning talk, giving some updates on the progress.

      • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

      • Programming/Development

        • Picolibc 1.0 Released - A New C Library For Embedded Systems

          Even prior to his SiFive employment, Keith was working on finding lightweight libc implementations that would work for his embedded system use-cases around his model rocket components, etc. Picolibc is the libc implementation for what he was previously developing as "newlib-nano", This new libc library has a replaced stdio implementation, now makes use of the Meson build system, removal on unused code, and other changes.

        • EuroPython 2019 - Videos for Thursday available

          In this batch, we have included all videos for Thursday, July 11 2019, the second conference day.

          In the coming week we will publish videos for the final conference day. In total, we will have more than 130 videos available for you to watch.

          All EuroPython videos, including the ones from previous conferences, are available on our EuroPython YouTube Channel.

        • xlwings Tutorial: Make Excel Faster Using Python

          But that doesn’t mean can’t still enjoy some of the efficiencies of Python! In fact, using a library called xlwings, you can use Python to make working in Excel faster.

        • Java SE 13 Reaches GA

          Oracle has announced the general availability of Java Standard Edition 13 (Java SE 13) along with the open source version, Java Development Kit 13 (JDK 13). The announcement was made at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco.

          OpenWorld is held concurrently with CodeOne, and in the keynote for this Brian Goetz, Java language architect at Oracle, said the move to a six montlly schedule is working well but means new releases don't have big new features.

        • Java still relevant, Linux desktop, and more industry trends

          The impact: A completely open source release of Java Enterprise Edition as Jakarta EE lays the groundwork for years of Java development to come. Some of Java's relevance comes from the mind-boggling sums that have been spent developing in it and the years of experience that software developers have in solving problems with it. Combine that with the innovation in the ecosystem (for example, see Quarkus, or GraalVM), and the answer has to be "yes."

        • Python-inspired Nim: Version 1.0 of the programming language launches

          Nim is a statically typed program language that draws on concepts from languages like Modula-3, Delphi, Ada, C++, Python, Lisp, and Oberon.

          However since it's a compiled programming language with a static type system, it's also been compared to Rust, C++, and Go.

          The Nim compiler can generate executables for distribution on Windows, Linux, BSD and macOS systems. It also compiles to C, C++ and JavaScript.

        • Version 1.0 released - Nim Blog

          Today is the day. The Nim Team is very proud and happy to announce the much-anticipated version 1.0 of the language.

          Nim has always been focused on providing a compiled statically typed language focusing on efficiency, readability and flexibility.

          Version 1.0 marks the beginning of a stable base which can be used in the coming years, knowing that the future versions of Nim won’t break the code you have written with the current version.

        • Nim Programming Language Hits Stable Milestone With v1.0 Release

          The Nim programming language now has a stability guarantee with this statically-typed, general purpose programming language hitting its 1.0 release.

        • Debugging Python Code Running in Docker Containers with Wing 7

          Docker is a containerization system that uses a relatively light-weight form of virtualization to package and isolate application components from the host system, making it easier to spin up uniformly configured virtual machines for use in application development, testing, and deployment.

          Wing 7 can be used to develop and debug Python code running inside of Docker containers. This is accomplished by setting up a mapping of local (host-side) directories into the container, and then configuring Wing so it can accept debug connections from the container.

        • Real Python: Thonny: The Beginner-Friendly Python Editor

          Are you a Python beginner looking for a tool that can support your learning? This course is for you! Every programmer needs a place to write their code. This course will cover an awesome tool called Thonny that will enable you to start working with Python in a beginner-friendly environment.

        • RSEQ Support Might Finally Premiere In Glibc 2.31 For Using This Modern Linux Feature

          It's looking like RSEQ support might be added to the GNU C Library with the Glibc 2.31 release in a few months time. The "restartable sequences" support was added last year to the Linux kernel and the numbers have been quite promising for the performance benefits.

          The RSEQ (Restartable Sequences) system call was added back in Linux 4.18 to allow for faster user-space operations on per-CPU data. Benchmarks on the RSEQ system call have been quite promising while it looks like the GNU C Library might finally be wrapping its support for RSEQ in time for the next release, Glibc 2.31.

        • Coverage.py 5.0a7, and the future of pytest-cov

          Progress continues in the Python coverage world. Two recent things: first, the latest alpha of Coverage.py 5.0 is available: 5.0a7. Second, pytest-cov is supporing coverage.py 5.0, and we’re talking about the future of pytest-cov.

          There are two big changes in Coverage.py 5.0a7. First, there is a new reporting command: coverage json produces a JSON file with information similar to the XML report. In coverage.py 4.x, the data storage was a lightly cloaked JSON file. That file was not in a supported format, and in fact, it is gone in 5.0. This command produces a supported JSON format for people who want programmatic access to details of the coverage data. A huge thanks to Matt Bachmann for implementing it.

          The second big change is to the SQL schema in the 5.x data file, which is a SQLite database. Previously, each line measured produced a row in the “line” table. But this proved too bulky for large projects. Now line numbers are stored in a compact binary form. There is just one row in the “line_bits” table for each file and context measured. This makes it more difficult to use the data with ad-hoc queries. Coverage provides functions for working with the line number bitmaps, but I’m interested in other ideas about how to make the data more usable.

  • Leftovers

    • Science

      • Legacy College Admissions Are a Testament to What is Legacy Culture

        I have been witnessing it for my entire adulthood and it’s a scenario that plays out well for major media which likes to pretend that€  George W. Bush is an anomaly for having attended both Yale (undergrad) and Harvard (business school) simply because his father attended these very same institutions. When The New Yorker got hold of Bush’s Yale records, it not only uncovered that he scored a 566 on the verbal SAT and a 640 on€  the math SAT, far below the median score for his Yale classmates, but many Americans reading the journalism on this story were led to believe that this case is isolated to one anomaly.€  The problem is that legacy college admissions are not only symptomatic of the problems within American academia, but they are a symbol of our culture and the myth that one can work and study one’s way from one class to another.

    • Hardware

      • Unknown bug is bringing Hollywood Mac Pros running Avid to their knees

        Apple is getting ready to release a new, powerful Mac Pro but it seems the old model is having some considerable problems right now. And it is shutting parts of Hollywood down.

        The problems started when users first noticed that their Mac Pros weren't restarting properly after being shut down. It only appears to be impacting users of the high-end video editing app Avid, meaning people across Hollywood are impacted big time. In fact, people have been taking to Twitter and Facebook to warn users not to shut their Macs down, according to Variety

      • Mac Pros Across Hollywood Are Crashing, Refusing to Reboot

        The combination of a Mac Pro and Avid's Media Composer video editing software is a common one across Hollywood.

    • Security (Confidentiality/Integrity/Availability)

      • Security updates for Tuesday

        Security updates have been issued by Debian (php5), Fedora (blis, kernel, and kernel-headers), openSUSE (bird, curl, fish3, ghostscript, ibus, kernel, libgcrypt, openldap2, openssl-1_1, skopeo, and util-linux and shadow), Oracle (dovecot and kernel), Red Hat (dovecot, httpd:2.4, qemu-kvm, and redhat-virtualization-host), Scientific Linux (dovecot), SUSE (djvulibre, expat, firefox, libopenmpt, and rust), and Ubuntu (ibus and Mosquitto).

      • How to create strong passwords

        To create a strong password, try combining two or more unrelated words. It could even be an entire phrase. Then change some of the letters to special letters and numbers. The longer your password, the stronger it is.

        A single word with one letter changed to an @ or ! (such as p@ssword!) doesn’t make for a strong password. Password cracking programs contain every type of these combinations, in every single language.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • A Careless Bully at the KFC at the End of Empire

        Will Trump go to war with the Iranians or the homeless? Or both?

      • See “Official Secrets”

        The movie “Official Secrets,” which is just out, is about Katharine Teresa Gun, the British translator in the U.K. government’s equivalent to the U.S.’s NSA, who leaked a top secret memo in an effort to prevent the Iraq War (in which up to 1 million Iraqis and over 35 thousand U.S. and U.K soldiers died, and many hundreds of thousands of others were injured).

      • Strong Men in Europe: Tony Abbott Visits Hungary

        “I extend a special welcome to Australia’s former prime minister. It is in part due to his tough policy that we regard Australia as a model country. We especially respect it for the brave, direct and Anglo-Saxon consistency which it has shown on migration and defence of the Australian nation”.

      • Ending the Afghan War Won’t End the Killing

        I’ve never been to Afghanistan, but I am the mother of two young children. So when I imagine what life must be like there after 18 years of war, my mind conjures up the children most vividly — the ones who have been affected by the conflict — and their parents. I think of the 12-year-old€ boy€ who was carrying water to a military checkpoint in a remote part of that country, earning pennies to help sustain his family, whose legs were blown off by a landmine. Or the group of€ children€ at a wedding party, playing behind the house where the ceremony was taking place. One of them picked up an unexploded shell, fired from a helicopter, that hadn’t detonated in battle. It blew up, killing two children, Basit and Haroon, and wounding 12 others. What must it be like to care for a five year old — the age of my oldest child — who is maimed and who needs to learn how to walk, play, and live again with ill-fitting prosthetics?

      • American Iago: On Washington’s Character Assassins

        Slander. Libel. Calumny. Defamation. Vituperation. Degradation. Vilification. Smears and trolling and backstabbing. Whatever you call it, reputation destruction is a tried-and-true foreign-policy tactic of Washington. Whether aimed at individuals or nations, the goal is regime change. It is character assassination writ large. When Washington does it, they don’t just take down an individual, they take down whole administrations, entire governments, nationwide ideologies, and entire economies.

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Pamela Anderson Defends WikiLeaks From Meghan McCain: ‘How Many People Has the American Government Killed, Innocently?’

        Pamela Anderson stopped by ABC’s “The View” Friday and defended WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange from Meghan McCain, who called him a “cyber-terrorist,” and Joy Behar, who questioned if he supports President Donald Trump.

        Asked about Assange’s state as he serves out an 11-month prison sentence in London while awaiting possible extradition to the United States, Anderson said her friend’s health has deteriorated and he’s lost weight, but “he is the most resilient person” she’s ever met.

    • Environment

      • Trump and his ilk clash with the global climate movement

        A giant worldwide protest highlights the gap between Trump, nationalist leaders and millions clamoring for real climate action.

      • The House is on fire, but we need more than the fire brigade

        lobal emissions are reaching record levels and show no sign of peaking. The last four years were the four hottest on record, and winter temperatures in the Arctic have risen by 3€°C since 1990. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying, and we are starting to see the life-threatening impact of climate change on health, through air pollution, heatwaves and risks to food security. The impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere and are having very real consequences on people’s lives. Climate change is disrupting national economies, costing us dearly today and even more tomorrow.’

        UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres is not pussyfooting around the climate problems facing the world today, and more so tomorrow. In his statement announcing the Climate Action Summit of September 23th, he is not only clear about the problems, but also bullish about the prospects: ‘There is a growing recognition that affordable, scalable solutions are available now that will enable us all to leapfrog to cleaner, more resilient economies… Business is on our side. Accelerated climate solutions can strengthen our economies and create jobs, while bringing cleaner air, preserving natural habitats and biodiversity, and protecting our environment.’

      • Greta Thunberg and 15 other children filed a complaint against five countries over the climate crisis

        Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and 15 other children filed a complaint with the United Nations Monday alleging that five of the world's major economies have violated their human rights by not taking adequate action to stop the unfolding climate crisis.

        The complaint was filed a short time after Thunberg delivered an impassioned rebuke to world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit.

        "You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words — and yet, I'm one of the lucky ones," Thunberg said Monday. "People are suffering, people are dying."

        The petition names five countries -- Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey -- which they say have failed to uphold their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a 30-year-old human rights treaty which is the most widely ratified in history.

      • Scientists need to learn from the young

        Global climate strike meets global scientific hero Alexander von Humboldt – and this time scientists must start to learn from the young.

      • US Lobby Groups Most Effective at Blocking Climate Action – Report

        Of the top 10 trade associations considered to be the most effective at opposing climate-friendly policies globally, seven are based in Washington DC, according to a report published this week by lobbying watchdog€ InfluenceMap.

      • Extremes of global heat bring tipping points closer

        It makes good business sense to contain planetary warming to 1.5€°C. Passing the Paris target spells disaster, with more extremes of global heat.

      • We're Inching Closer to Earth's Deadliest Tipping Points

        Urgent action on climate change will be costly. But inaction could be€ four or five times more expensive, according to new climate accounting: extremes of global heat are on the increase.

      • Energy

        • The US Is Exporting a Fracked Climate Catastrophe

          According to climate scientists, limiting the worst impacts of climate change means weaning the world off of fossil fuels, not ramping€ it up. But two factors, the U.S. “fracking revolution” that helped boost domestic oil and gas production to record levels combined with lifting the 40-year-long€ ban on exporting crude oil in 2015, are complicating that€ vision.

    • Finance

      • Amazon vs. the Socialists in Seattle

        In what may turn out to be a preview of the U.S. presidential election, with the ruling class hellbent on stopping Bernie Sanders at all costs, big business in Seattle is Amazon vs. the Socialists in Seattle https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/09/23/amazon-vs-the-socialists-in-seattle/ against socialist and progressive candidates in this year’s elections.

      • President Trump, I’m One of the Workers You Lied To

        My entire working life has been dictated by offshoring. I’ve spent my career jumping from one factory closing to another.

      • Travel Chaos, Jobs Lost as U.K. Firm Thomas Cook Collapses

        Hundreds of thousands of travelers were stranded across the world Monday after British tour company Thomas Cook collapsed, immediately halting almost all its flights and hotel services and laying off all its employees.

      • US Consumer Complaints Database Will Remain Public

        In a surprise move, the United States Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB)€ has announced€ it will keep its€ consumer complaints database€ open to the public following uncertainty over whether it would do so.€ The database is a crucial resource containing over a million complaints about consumer financial products

      • There's No Chance Corporate Elites Will Fix Inequality

        Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote of being leery of a fast-talking huckster who visited his home: “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons,” Emerson exclaimed.

      • Companies Are Using a Depression-Era Law To Escape Trump’s Tariffs — And It’s Costing Them

        A few weeks ago, signs went up in the parking lots and loading docks at Fluid Equipment Development Co., a small manufacturer in Monroe, Michigan, a lakeside town a bit south of Detroit.

        “WARNING,” they read. “This bonded facility is under the custody and control of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and any person entering these premises must comply to the laws governed therein.”

      • The Serpent of Their Agonies

        One of the world’s most brilliant analysts of our present Neo-liberal world, Wolfgang Streeck, penetrates laser-sharp into the internal logic of this new form of capitalism (How will capitalism end? [2016]. Most of us need all the help we can get to understand this serpent that would commodify everything in its pathway as it deeply erodes social regimes everywhere in the world to maximize its profits for the very few. Karl Polyani thought that the governing logic of capitalism was to be self-regulating. That’s capitalism’s utopia.

      • Russia's Central Bank proposes banning new investors from buying more than 50,000 rubles in foreign stocks

        As a new bill introducing regulatory categories for investors makes its way through Russia’s State Duma, the country’s Central Bank has introduced a set of amendments that would place severe restrictions on those who are just beginning to invest.

      • Crash Course: How Boeing's managerial revolution created the 737 MAX disaster

        Nearly two decades before Boeing’s MCAS system crashed two of the plane-maker’s brand-new 737 MAX jets, Stan Sorscher knew his company’s increasingly toxic mode of operating would create a disaster of some kind. A long and proud “safety culture” was rapidly being replaced, he argued, with “a culture of financial bullshit, a culture of groupthink.”


        Sorscher, a physicist who’d worked at Boeing more than two decades and had led negotiations there for the engineers’ union, had become obsessed with management culture. He said he didn’t previously imagine Boeing’s brave new managerial caste creating a problem as dumb and glaringly obvious as MCAS (or the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, as a handful of software wizards had dubbed it). Mostly he worried about shriveling market share driving sales and head count into the ground, the things that keep post-industrial American labor leaders up at night. On some level, though, he saw it all coming; he even demonstrated how the costs of a grounded plane would dwarf the short-term savings achieved from the latest outsourcing binge in one of his reports that no one read back in 2002.*

        Sorscher had spent the early aughts campaigning to preserve the company’s estimable engineering legacy. He had mountains of evidence to support his position, mostly acquired via Boeing’s 1997 acquisition of McDonnell Douglas, a dysfunctional firm with a dilapidated aircraft plant in Long Beach and a CEO who liked to use what he called the “Hollywood model” for dealing with engineers: Hire them for a few months when project deadlines are nigh, fire them when you need to make numbers. In 2000, Boeing’s engineers staged a 40-day strike over the McDonnell deal’s fallout; while they won major material concessions from management, they lost the culture war. They also inherited a notoriously dysfunctional product line from the corner-cutting market gurus at McDonnell.


      • How to Invest in Cryptocurrency: Best 30 Tips to Follow Before Investing

        The concept of crypto trading is sophisticated. If you have decided to dive into the enormity of cryptocurrency, you must know about blockchain, what is bitcoin, how a miner works, and the rate of the available currencies. Here, this comprehensive tips will help you to invest in cryptocurrency successfully.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • About Elastic’s DMCA move

        Yesterday evening we noticed that some Search Guard repositories and artifacts on Sonatype’s and GitHub’s websites were removed. We have since learned that the removal was precipitated by takedown notices received by GitHub and Sonatype from Elasticseach, Inc. (“Elastic”) pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

        Elastic appears to claim that certain components of floragunn’s Search Guard product infringe Elastic’s copyrights. To be clear, floragunn fully and unconditionally rejects Elastic’s allegations of copyright infringement, and will vigorously defend Elastic’s unfounded claims in court, and hold Elastic accountable for damages that their actions have caused floragunn and its customers.

        We understand that companies like GitHub and Sonatype must react to DMCA takedown notices to protect themselves from potential liability. However, it is important to understand that by taking down content under DMCA, GitHub and Sonatype are not taking sides in the dispute between Elastic and floragunn, but are simply seeking to protect themselves against potential infringement claims.

    • Privacy/Surveillance

      • Private Companies Gathering Plate Data Are Selling Access To People's Movements For $20 A Search

        License plate readers are everywhere. Their existence is predicated on the assumption that traveling on public roads strips drivers of their privacy. To a certain extent this is true. But automation allows government agencies to reconstruct peoples' lives and movements by simply typing in a plate number and accessing the billions of image/location data records stored by ALPR manufacturers like Vigilant.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Court Says Compelled Production Violates Fifth Amendment... Unless The Gov't Takes Certain Steps First

        A federal judge in California has issued a ruling [PDF] on the Fifth Amendment that upholds both the Constitutional right and a request that appears to violate it. It doesn't all fit together perfectly, but the "foregone conclusion" doctrine factors into it. But constraints are put on this conclusion and, ultimately, that's how the government is permitted to carry out this search.

      • During A Police Raid, Russian Activist Uses Drone To Whisk Sensitive Data To Safety

        Drones have moved beyond the novelty stage, and are now capable of having a global impact. That was shown most dramatically by the recent drone attack on the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia. The loss of production has caused the price of oil to spike, and fears about a global recession to mount -- all because of a few tiny drones.

      • UN: World Leaders Should Speak Out for Rights

        World leaders gathering for the United Nations General Assembly should reject the abusive policies of autocratic populists and promote greater respect for human rights worldwide.

      • How Far Will Sisi’s Government Go to Crush Protests?

        Time and again, Egyptian security forces have responded to peaceful protests with harsh oppression. Rare public protests this weekend were met with€ tear gas, the firing of live bullets, and€ mass arrests.

      • Thailand: Pro-Democracy Activists Acquitted

        Bangkok’s Criminal Court acquitted six prominent pro-democracy activists in an important verdict for protecting free expression in Thailand.

      • Making Torture American Again, With Help From Hollywood

        Regardless of their take on the volatile topic of torture, there appears to be rare agreement among an array of experts, activists, proponents and critics about one of the most reliable ways it has been successfully defended in recent decades. The so-called ticking time bomb scenario has done the trick so often and so well—for leaders of countries, militaries, small armies of Hollywood producers—that it has taken on the enticing shine of a particularly hot political commodity: the foregone conclusion disguised as a given.

      • Mass Arrests Cast Doubt on Rights Reform in Kazakhstan

        Since€ coming to power in June, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokaev has claimed a desire to accelerate political reforms and€ improve human rights€ in the country. But the mass detention of peaceful protesters over the weekend and other recent large-scale arrests undermine Tokaev’s expressed commitment to reform.

      • Trump Is Taking His War on Women Worldwide

        Not content to merely police women’s bodies in the United States, the Trump administration has gone global with their war on reproductive rights. According to The Guardian, which has seen the document, U.S. officials wrote a letter to United Nations member states asking that they join an allegedly “growing coalition” of countries determined to end abortion.

    • Monopolies

      • People Freaking Out About Amazon Copying A Shoe Are Totally Missing The Point

        I know that tons of people are talking antitrust about the big internet companies, and Amazon is a prime target these days. So, perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised last week when there was a minor freakout, starting on Twitter, when Jeff Morris Jr., who works in the internet industry, tweeted out an angry tweet about Amazon supposedly copying Allbirds' famous shoes:

      • Patents and Copyright: Protection Racket for Intellectuals

        Last week I was asked on Twitter why proposals for replacing patent monopoly financing of prescription drugs with direct public financing have gained so little traction. After all, this would mean that drugs would be cheap; no one would have to struggle with paying tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for drugs that are needed for their health or to save their life. (This is discussed in chapter 5 of Rigged [it’s free].)

        Public funding would also eliminate the incentive to misrepresent the safety and effectiveness of drugs in order to maximize sales at the patent monopoly price. Without patent monopolies, the drug companies would not have had the same incentive to push opioids, as well as many other drugs of questionable safety and effectiveness.

        The idea of direct funding of biomedical research also should not seem strange to people. We currently spend close to $45 billion a year on research through the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies. The idea of doubling or tripling this funding to replace the roughly $70 billion of patent supported research now done by the pharmaceutical industry, should not appear outlandish, especially since the potential savings from free-market drugs would be close to $400 billion annually (1.9 percent of GDP).

      • Copyrights

        • RomUniverse Aims to Crowdfund Legal 'Piracy' Battle With Nintendo

          Download portal RomUniverse plans to put up a fight against Nintendo. The site, which the game publisher accuses of brazen and mass-scale copyright infringement, hopes that people will donate money to crowdfund its upcoming legal expenses.

        • French Court Declares That Steam Gamers Actually Do Own What They Bought

          Good news on the front for those of us that think we ought to own what we've actually bought. You may recall that way back in 2015, when the world made much more sense, French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir sued Valve over several different ways the company operates the Steam platform. Chief among those concerns were resale rights, with Steam arguing all along that its subscription based service does not afford customers the right to resell the games they bought, as they would physical copies of games. As we said all along, why the delivery method for a video game should alter the consumer rights for that product were anyone's guess, but that was the argument Valve made in response to the suit.

        • US Court Says Fair Use Nullifies French Rightholder's Attempt To Extract $2.25 Million From A California Art Scholar

          Almost twenty-three years after a US art editor was first sued by a French company for alleged copyright infringement, a US court has told the French rightholders going after him that copyright does not work that way… at least not here in the United States. (via Courthouse News)

        • Investigation Targets Telegram & WhatsApp-Based Newspaper Pirates

          An investigation in Italy is targeting people who not only upload pirated copies of news publications to WhatsApp and Telegram, but those who download them too. Three key providers of content have already been identified using marked content and there are threats to fine downloaders too.

        • Cable Giant Spectrum On Quest To Outlaw 'Insane' Streaming Password Sharing

          For years, streaming video operators like HBO and Netflix have taken a relatively-lax approach to password sharing. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has gone so far as to say he "loves" the practice, and sees it as little more than free advertising. Execs at HBO (at least before the AT&T acquisition) have made similar arguments, arguing that young users in particular that share their parents' password get hooked on a particular product via password sharing, then become full subscribers down the road. In short, they see it as added value for the consumer, and have repeatedly stated it doesn't hurt them.



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EPO Administration: Wait Several Months or Until Next Year for Clarifications
"After the intranet announcements of 18 September and 27 September and recent emails from CIGNA concerning opting into the VECOZO network, colleagues have been contacting us with queries and requests for guidance."
[Meme] Shoestring Budget With Record Profits (Because Hundreds of Thousands of Fake European Patents Get Granted)
Record profits? EPO staff does not benefit!
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 13, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, October 13, 2024
Unrest at the European Patent Office as School Costs Eat Away the Income
"Letter to the administration on the Education Allowance - DISDH - German School"
Gemini Links 13/10/2024: ArcMenu, Emacs decide-mode, Midnight Pub Mass-Deletion Option
Links for the day
Links 13/10/2024: Science, Politics, and Some Gemini
Links for the day
Links 13/10/2024: Writing, Remembering John Wheeler, Voice Cloning
Links for the day
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Falls to 0.7% in Geminispace (It Was Around 12% Just 2 Years Ago and 7.5% This Past February)
Let's Encrypt is down again
Gemini Links 13/10/2024: Self-hosting Snac2 and Invasion of e-ink
Links for the day
SDxCentral, which the Linux Foundation Paid to Produce Marketing SPAM, Has Now Become Slop (LLM Spew) Disguised as 'Articles'
Google should delist it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 12, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, October 12, 2024