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Links 23/12/2020: Xfce 4.16, Go 1.16 Beta 1 and Haiku OS Report



  • GNU/Linux

    • Server

      • 10 lessons from sysadmins adapting to change in 2020

        While 2020 will certainly be remembered for elections, protests, and most of all, the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of other things changed in 2020, including a whole lot of cool changes in technology. Through it all, we could count on system administrators to do what they do best. Perhaps more so than ever, as we all moved from physical offices to working from home. We generated more load than ever on our infrastructure as more users relied on virtual private networks and videoconference tools to get their daily work done.

      • A Custom Kubernetes Scheduler to Orchestrate Highly Available Applications

        As long as you're willing to follow the rules, deploying on Kubernetes and air travel can be quite pleasant. More often than not, things will "just work". However, if one is interested in travelling with an alligator that must remain alive or scaling a database that must remain available, the situation is likely to become a bit more complicated. It may even be easier to build one's own plane or database for that matter. Travelling with reptiles aside, scaling a highly available stateful system is no trivial task.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux 5.11 Drops AMD Zen Voltage/Current Reporting Over Lack Of Documentation

        The Linux hardware monitoring "k10temp" driver is dropping support for reporting CPU voltage and current information for AMD Zen-based processors over lack of documentation for being able to properly support the functionality.

        Earlier in 2020 this long-standing AMD hwmon temperature driver added support for core/SoC current and voltage reporting with Zen processors based on the work by the community and some best assumptions around the appropriate registers. But now that support is being dropped for lack of accuracy in some configurations and the possibility it might even damage the hardware.

    • Benchmarks

      • The Fastest Linux OS For AMD Ryzen Zen 3? It's Still Intel Clear Linux

        As we have shown with prior AMD Ryzen and EPYC processors, the Linux distribution generally offering the fastest out-of-the-box performance is Intel's Clear Linux platform. Given there aren't many other distributions as aggressively optimizing their default package set and engaging in features like AutoFDO, PGO, and various out-of-tree patches in the name of modern Intel x86_64 Linux performance -- and in turn, AMD performance benefits as well -- Clear Linux really shines with modern hardware. Testing of the latest Clear Linux with a Ryzen 9 5900X continues to delivering promising performance compared to the likes of Fedora, openSUSE, Manjaro, Debian, and Ubuntu.

    • Applications

      • App Showcase: Animatch

        Animatch is a fun, easy to install app on the Librem 5. Pop open the PureOS store and install.

      • Kitty - A Powerful GPU Based Terminal Emulator

        Written in Python and Objective C, Kitty is a cross-platform and feature-rich GPU based terminal emulator developed under the GPL 3.0 license. It supports graphics, images, Unicode, true-color, mouse protocol, hyperlinks, multiple copy/paste buffers, etc. It's a lightweight emulator that can be controlled from scripts, shell prompt, and over SSH. Like tilix and terminology, kitty is a feature-rich terminal emulator.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Learn to use the Sed text editor | Opensource.com

        Created for version 7 of AT&T’s original Unix operating system, the sed command has been included with probably every Unix and Linux OS since. The sed application is a stream editor, and unlike a text editor it doesn’t open a visual buffer into which a file’s data is loaded for processing. Instead, it operates on a file, line by line, according to either a command typed into a terminal or a series of commands in a script.

      • Building and installing the future kernel from AUR | Arcolinux.com

        We investigate with yay what kernels we can build from the AUR.

        We visit the website https://kernel.org. We take a look at the PKGBUILD of the kernel. In the ~/.cache/yay folder we take a look at all the data that is required to build a kernel.

        We go on a search to find some kind of list of all the nvidia cards supported in the kernel. Unfortunately I just found parts. It was my believe there used to be some kind of list in the files from kernel.org. Maybe you can find it. Maybe it is just not there. We did find a lot of links online.

      • 8 steps to check your network interface information

        In a GUI, checking the state of a network interface card is pretty easy. That is to say, you just have to click on the network information icon to see all the details. On the other hand, do you ever wonder how to check it in Linux command line? It is really simple task if you use mii-tool command.

      • Bind DNS server setup on Centos 7

        In one of our earlier articles we demonstrated how to configure a caching only DNS server. In this article we will be explaining the step by step process of configuring a DNS server using bind. Along with the DNS server configuration we will also be explaining some DNS related terms like domains, TLDs and sub domains before we get to the actual configuration.

      • How to install Tor Browser on Ubuntu 20.04 or 18.04 LTS - Linux Shout

        Tor Browser that is based on Firefox is best known for its privacy and Tor network integration features. It is free & open-source and can be used to surf and chat anonymously on the Internet so that we can protect our privacy, data and remain clandestine over the web. It is possible because while exchanging the data, it uses a random overlay network that consists of thousands of relays. Moreover, the forwarded data traffic will also be in encrypted form, thus it becomes impossible to identify the source where the request was generated, hence, you leave no trace while using the Tor network. That is why people also use the “Tor Browser” to access websites available on the Darknet.

      • How to install RPG Maker VX on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install RPG Maker VX on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

      • How to Install Kali Linux on VMware Workstation - buildVirtual

        This article goes through how to install Kali Linux on VMware Workstation. Kali Linux is a Debian-derived Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. It is maintained and funded by Offensive Security. Kali comes bundled with over 600 tools used for penetration testing.

        Running Kali as a VMware virtual machine means you don’t have to do a bare-metal install, and get the advantages that running as a VM offers. Usnig the virtual image is a good alternative to using a live CD. Here we will be covering how to install Kali Linux on VMware Workstation, but many of the steps will be valid for VMware Player and for VMware Fusion which are VMware’s other desktop hypervisors.

      • Mtr : Stop using ping and traceroute anymore - The Linux Juggernaut

        In today’s guide, we are going to look at the mtr command and see what it can tells us about network connections. Mtr is a simple linux command line tool that you can use for network diagnostic and troubleshooting in linux. It comes with the options of both ping and traceroute commands. Just like a typical traceroute query, a query from the MTR command will show the route from a computer to a specified host.

        The advantage over using the ping and traceroute commands is that Mtr will provide a lot of statistics about each hop, like response time and percentage.

      • Linux Boot Process: Explained Step by Step for Beginners

        Booting a computer is the very first step to use the system. No matter which operating system you chose to run your system, you need to know how to boot the system. In Linux, the necessary steps for booting a computer is a very straightforward process. If you use a personal computer (PC), you might find the CPU power switch. On the other hand, if you are using a notebook or a laptop, you would find the power button right above the keyboard. Nowadays, some notebook manufacturing companies are often placing the power button along with the keyboard to make the system compact.

        However, a Linux system’s booting procedure is an effortless and uncomplicated task, but knowing tiny detailed information about the Linux boot process might help you if you fall into any troubles while booting the system.

      • Everything You Need To Know About Linux Chmod Command

        If you are familiar with the Linux filesystem, you know that all the system files are stored inside the root (/) directory. Linux reserves some specific file system permission only for the root user. The main difference between the filesystem of the Linux-based operating system and other operating systems is that Linux reserves some specific file system permission. If you are not a root user, you can’t delete, move, or modify root files from your system. For example, if you have a localhost server running on your Linux system, you can’t move the server configuration files without the root permission. Even you can’t change the configuration settings without the root permission. To change the filesystem status, you need to know the chmod commands. The chmod command allows you to read, write, and execute files on a Linux system.

      • How to install Skype on Ubuntu 20.10 - YouTube

        In this video, we are looking at how to install Skype on Ubuntu 20.10.

      • How to Control Your Wi-Fi Network in Linux

        Is your Wi-Fi connection too slow? Are you having constant network problems while surfing the ‘Net? Chances are your wireless network is handling more traffic than it should. Luckily, it is quite easy to control your Wi-Fi network in Linux. You can use the open-source application evillimiter for monitoring and controlling device bandwidth. This guide illustrates how to do this using a step-by-step approach.

      • How to Move Linux Files With the Mv Command

        While you likely already know how to move a file in Linux using the GUI file browser, you may be wondering if there's a move command in the terminal that allows you to quickly move files to different directories. The mv command is the one you want, and it's easy to use with its simple syntax and a few optional safety flags.

        This basic terminal command works on most Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Kali Linux, and Fedora.

      • How To Install Python 3.9 on CentOS 8 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Python 3.9 on CentOS 8. Python is an open-source and beginner-friendly programming language. Python 3.9 uses a new more flexible parser, based on PEG, which replaces the LL parser. In the next Python versions, the old parser will be deleted.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of Python 3.9 on a CentOS 8.

      • How to install Latte dock on Ubuntu 20.04 or 18.04 LTS - Linux Shout

        Out of the box, Ubuntu comes with a standard Gnome panel or Dock on the left side of the screen. However, if you are not familiar or switching from macOS to Ubuntu or just want to give fancy look to your Linux OS, then try out Latte Dock. It is a responsive dock based on KDE plasma frameworks. It offers animation to dock contents or icons by using the parabolic zoom effect.

      • How to install PostgreSQL Database Server CentOS 8

        PostgreSQL, also known as Postgres, is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) that implements the Structural Query Language (SQL). PostgreSQL is an enterprise-class SQL Database server that allows you to build fault-tolerant and complex applications. It stores and organizes data and allows the retrieval of information in a structural way. PostgreSQL has many advanced features like reliable transactions and high concurrency. In this tutorial, we will learn how to install PostgreSQL on CentOS 8. So let’s get started.

        [...]

        In this tutorial, we have learned how to install PostgreSQL on CentOS 8. We also saw, how to allow PostgreSQL for remote access connection, how to add a Firewall rule to enable access for the remote. I hope this tutorial will help you in setting up PostgreSQL on Centos 8.

      • How to install VLC Media Player 3 on CentOS 8

        VLC is one of the most popular media players, also known as VideoLAN client. It was developed by the VideoLAN project, which is a non-profit company. It is an open source, free and cross-platform framework that lets you play multimedia files, for example, audio CD, VCD, DVD, CD and other supported media protocols. VLC is a portable media player software available on all operating systems such as Linux, Windows, Solaris, Android, OS X, Mac and other operating systems that support VLC player.

        A new version of VLC media player 3 has been released with some new advanced features and improvements. If we talk about CentOS 8 Linux system, this media player is not available by default. We will install VLC by using third-party packages. In this article, we will learn how to install VLC on CentOS 8 Linux.

      • How to scan port from your Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD Unix system using netcat/nc
      • Linux Set Environment Variable Command Tutorial
      • How to copy file from local to remote server in linux

        If you are looking something to transfer the file using SSH then you are at right article We will cover How to copy a file from local server to a remote server or remote server to local.

        This can be easily performed through SCP(Secure Copy). An SCP command utility helps us to transfer file and directories in a secure way to transfer between remote server to local and vice versa.

        The reason why we said secure when you transfer file using SCP, data get encrypted with cipher key between in both system.

    • Compression

      • Why LZO was chosen as the new compression method

        Everyone wants fast applications. Recently, we provided a mechanism to make snap applications launch faster by using the LZO format. We introduced this change because users reported desktop snaps starting more slowly than the same applications distributed via traditional, native Linux packaging formats like Deb or RPM.

        After a thorough investigation, we pinpointed the compression method as the primary slowdown. Once we introduced the change, some users started wondering why we chose LZO as the new compression method for snaps, given that there are “better” algorithms available. Here, we want to take you through the journey of understanding why we picked LZO, and what is next for the snap compression story.

      • Patch Proposed For Removing BZIP2 Support From The Linux Kernel

        For at least a second time, a patch sent out under "request for comments" would strip out the existing BZIP2 code within the Linux kernel.

        Back when Zstd was added to the kernel there was a proposal as part of that to eliminate the BZIP2 usage given its inefficiencies compared to other modern compression algorithms. That change wasn't pulled at that time while now a developer has proposed a new patch stripping out BZIP2 from the possible kernel use-cases.

    • Games

      • The Steam Winter Sale 2020 is now live, plus a new Codemasters Humble Bundle | GamingOnLinux

        Another season another big Steam sale, is your wallet prepared? There's plenty of huge discount going on right now for you to take a look at. Plus to save you a click - there's a new Codemasters Humble Bundle.

        With this latest Steam sale live until January 5, 2021, developers have put up thousands of games for discount. Plus, Valve has added new seasonal items to the Points Shop. Not only that, the Points and Profile system on Steam has now been expanded. You can upgrade your Steam Profile showcases to get more room, you can get additional profile showcases and there's new award types too for actual Steam Profiles and community posts. Read more on that here. If you really love Steam Chat we've got good news there too, as each day Valve are giving out a free sticker in the Points Shop too.

      • FlightGear 2020.3.5 Released With Hundreds Of Bug Fixes - Phoronix

        If you miss flying this holiday season due to the pandemic, you can at least experience it virtually by flying your own aircraft with the open-source, cross-platform FlightGear flight simulator software.

        FlightGear 2020.3.5 is out as mainly a bug-fix release over the prior FlightGear 2020.3 release.

      • Get an early look at online multiplayer in the action-RPG Last Epoch | GamingOnLinux

        One of the most promising upcoming action-RPGs around, Last Epoch had a pretty great year expanding the content available along with a new playable class and they have their sights set to get you playing online in 2021.

        The singleplayer is already a lot of fun, but being able to play directly with a bunch of friends in Last Epoch sure does sound enticing. In their new preview, they make it clear it's still multiple months away but it sounds exciting. They're working on bringing up all the social systems so that you will be able to form parties, inspect the gear from other players, show off all your loot and more. With a party system allowing up to 4 players, the game will scale the difficulty of enemies based on that and their planning lots of server regions too.

      • Get the incredible Brigador: Up-Armored Deluxe free on GOG until December 25 | GamingOnLinux

        Need a new game? Here's one I can recommend without hesitation - Brigador: Up-Armored Deluxe and it's free to claim and keep for 72 hours.

        Brigador is a game I've sunk a great many hours into, and I've written a few words here and there before about just how entertaining it is. An isometric rogue-lite with seriously intense combat, and plenty of fancy destruction as you can annihilate an entire city with your big mech or tank with customizable loadouts it's so much fun to blast through. Getting it free really is an absolute steal you shouldn't pass up.

        [...]

        Why the giveaway? Well, that's because the GOG Winter Sale is still going on until January 4 and there's of course lots of juicy Linux games on sale.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • Xfce 4.16 Desktop Environment Officially Released, This Is What’s New

        The Xfce 4.16 desktop environment arrives with numerous new features and improvements, including client-side decorations (CSD) for all Settings dialogs, fractional scaling, dark mode for the Panel, and much more.

        Highlights of Xfce 4.16 include a refreshed look with new icons and color palette, support for fractional scaling in the Display dialog, dark mode for the Panel, improved search and filter capabilities for the Settings Manager, support for client-side decorations for all the Settings dialogs, as well as a revamped About Xfce dialog that now shows basic system information.

      • Xfce 4.16 released

        Today, after 1 year and 4 months of work, we are happy to announce the release of the Xfce desktop 4.16, a new stable version that supersedes Xfce 4.14.

        4.16 was a special cycle in many respects (not only pandemic-wise, but also). One of the corner-stones of the non-code changes concerns our migration to GitLab, which is a change in development workflow and a huge step forward in terms of becoming more contributor-friendly and welcoming. In parts, the humungous changelog of Xfce 4.16 can be attributed to new contributors proposing merge requests (288 merge requests were merged or closed against our core components alone!). We also created a reference Docker container (xfce/xfce-build) and added CI pipelines to all components to ensure we don€´t break the build. None of this would have been possible without our hosting being sponsored by Gandi and Fosshost!

        Another big change concerns our visual identity, which we updated from a strange mix of random (partly Tango-based) icons and not following any naming scheme to a new, visually consistent set (following the freedesktop.org naming specification and a fixed color palette). We€´re aware this will generate some work for icon theme maintainers (if they really want to override our gorgeous icons ;)) but we believe the longterm benefit outweighs this one-time effort.

      • Xfce 4.16 Released With Numerous Improvements To This Lightweight GTK3 Desktop

        Xfce 4.16 managed to ship in 2020 as one of the original goals for this release after the much delayed Xfce 4.14 series. Xfce 4.16 comes with many incremental improvements to this GTK3 desktop environment.

      • Xfce 4.16 tour

        This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.16. It only covers improvements made on the (user-visible) surface; for the full list of changes, see the changelog.

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Kdenlive 20.12 Released with New Subtitling Tool, Same Track Transitions
          Kdenlive video editor 20.12 was finally announced. Here’s what’s new and how to install it in Ubuntu.

          The new release features the long requested same track transition function. It can be activated by selecting a clip and pressing “u” on keyboard or via the icon in the timeline toolbar.

          Kdenlive 20.12 also features new subtitling tool allows to add and edit subtitles directly in the timeline or by using the new subtitle widget.

        • The Fairy Fir tree - Krita timelapse

          I compressed the 6h (or more) of recorded video for an illustration into a 8min timelapse. Honnestly, the artwork could have been done twice faster; but I made 'small' mistakes on the first steps of the making-of (maybe I wanted to go too fast?).

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

    • Distributions

      • Top 10 Linux Distributions For Everyone Out There

        The open-source and price-tag free attributes of the Linux operating system continues to be a blessing in disguise. The name Linux is a household name that holds numerous Linux distributions or distros. The existence of these distros makes it flexible enough to accommodate operating system users with different skill sets. Therefore, you no longer have to acquaint with the Linux operating system as a security-based software only.

        These distros continue to attract an increasing number of community users who are embracing the dynamic applicability of the Linux OS, which is turning out to be more than just a security-centered software. From a desktop to an enterprise environment, Linux gives its community users a reason to stick around regardless of whether you have an unmatched set of IT skills or are just a passerby looking for a new OS home.

      • AppImage for KID3 tag editor

        Since there's no reason to install the Qt5 enormous bullshit of libs, just to run KID3 Tag Editor : here's the AppImage !

        kid3-3.8.4-x86_64-1.AppImage

        This AppImage should run on any Linux distro... but you have "1 click" menu integration in Zenwalk ;)

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • Bid to explain Red Hat's killing of CentOS makes users angrier
          Wade's arguments could be summed up this way: CentOS and CentOS Stream are antithetical to each other and thus both could not exist. He also claims that CentOS Stream could replace CentOS in 95% of cases.

          His post comes well after Mike McGrath, Red Hat's vice-president of Linux Engineering, told Christine Hall of the website ITPro:"As with any decision like this, there was a lot of discussion and several aspects that went into it. I would say the big one for us was that CentOS itself was not actually providing that much usefulness to Red Hat. Most of the communities we set up, Fedora, for example, do have a lot of bidirectional community involvement. Unfortunately, CentOS was never like that. It was always a community of users, so that that contribution model was mostly one way."

        • Red Hat defends CentOS decision following push back
          With no end to the backlash resulting from its decision to terminate CentOS in favour of CentOS Stream, Red Hat’s Karsten Wade put forth the company’s rationale behind the move in a blog post.

          Writing in the official CentOS blog, Wade, a member of the CentOS Governing Board, and longtime Fedora Linux contributor, shared that he “was part of the consensus decision that we [CentOS] recently announced about shifting the project’s focus.”

        • Red Hat unveils common Kubernetes platform for Windows and Linux

          Red Hat has announced the general availability of its common Kubernetes foundation for Windows and Linux container workloads: Red Hat OpenShift Support for Windows Containers.

          Containers allow organizations to package and run Windows and Linux applications on-premises and in the cloud. With Red Hat’s new service, enterprises can simultaneously manage Linux and Windows-based containerized workloads, eliminating the need for parallel software processing across hybrid cloud environments.

        • Six courses to build your technology skills in 2021

          The new year is a great time to be thinking about your career and where you want to take it. Why not take advantage of the opportunity to learn new sought-after skills with IBM courses? You can enroll free of charge, work at the time and pace that’s right for you, and open up brand new career opportunities in 2021.

        • Oracle Linux 8: Oracle VM VirtualBox made easy with short training videos

          A popular tool for developers and users creating cloud and local applications without the overhead of using a full server environment, Oracle VM VirtualBox runs on standard x86 desktop and laptop computers. It allows users to set up multi-platform virtual machine environments for software development, testing, and general purpose operating system (OS) virtualization, with optional runtime encryption. Software engineers can develop for cloud native environments from within Oracle VM VirtualBox VMs directly on their Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and Oracle Solaris machines, making it easier to create multi-tier applications with just a standard laptop.

          Oracle VM VirtualBox also enables users to create and update virtual machines locally, including the OS and applications, and then package them into an industry standard file format for easy distribution and cloud deployment in conjunction with Oracle Linux KVM, or other server virtualization solutions. Oracle VM VirtualBox allows users to run nearly any standard x86 OS hosting applications that are not available natively on their systems.

        • Fedora 34 Planning To Make Use Of Systemd-OOMD To Improve Low Memory Experience - Phoronix

          At the end of November systemd 247 released with the new Out-of-Memory Daemon (systemd-oomd) and for the Fedora 34 release next year that will likely be enabled by default for all spins.

          Systemd-OOMD aims to improve the Linux low-memory / OoM experience and is based on code originally written by Facebook for their Linux servers and then adapted for Linux desktop memory pressure scenarios. Systemd-OOMD allows monitoring for resource contention and can kill opt-in processes when the memory/SWAP pressure is above a predefined threshold.

        • IBM To Acquire Finnish Cloud Firm Nordcloud
        • MontaVista Enhances MVShield For CentOS Service

          MontaVista Software LLC is renewing its commitment to providing MVShield for CentOS Service for both existing and new customers interested in securing high-quality support and maintenance services for their products and platforms on long-term maintained CentOS minor releases.

          Despite the recently announced change in the CentOS Project’s strategy to focus future development on the CentOS Stream at the end of 2021, MontaVista will continue to provide long-term branch maintenance services uninterrupted and unchanged.

      • Debian Family

        • Vendoring Rust dependencies for a Debian derivative

          Recently, I needed to package a Rust crate libslirp for a Apertis, a Debian derivative. libslirp is used by the newly release UML backend of debos, our Debian image build tool. Unfortunately, this crate hasn’t yet been properly packaged for Debian proper, so I could not simply pull the packaging from Debian. Even worse, its build dependencies haven’t all been packaged yet. Most importantly, I have only uploaded zbus to Debian today, and at that time none of its dependencies were in Debian either.

          Another issue with this were that each crate is packaged for Debian as a separate package, making the process a bit more tricky since I’d need to import all of the crates into Apertis separately. Doing that takes time and is further complicated by the CI loop we’re using which requires the full build process to complete for a package before a pipeline a dependent package can run.

          Having all that considered, I took a shortcut: I vendored all the build dependencies with the package itself, and here’s how.

        • Call for testing: monitoring-plugins 2.3 in experimental

          As announced recently I prepared a monitoring-plugins 2.3 package for experimental. If there is enough positive feedback until 12th January 2021, I intend to upload this into unstable targeted for Debian Bullseye.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • ODROID-Go Super is an $80 Ubuntu-powered handheld game system
          Hardkernel’s third ODROID-Go device has a bigger screen, a bigger battery, improved wireless capabilities, and more buttons than the company’s first two handheld gaming systems.

          The ODROID-Go Super will go on sale in late January 2021 for $80.

        • This $80 Games Console Looks Like a Switch, But Runs Ubuntu
          It’s a 5-inch handheld PC built by Korean hardware company Hardkernel. They have previous form in the area of low-cost Linux portables.

          Their newly-unveiled ODroid Go Super runs Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and the EmulationStation frontend (meaning, yes: it supports a wide range of classic gaming content from the likes of Nintendo, Sony, and Atari).

          Hardkernel pitch the Super as an ideal “developers’ gaming gadget for 2021”. The thing is small, performant, and (awesomely) rather cheap too. I’d certainly have one on my desk to entertain me during lengthy distro upgrades and those days where… I just …can’t… write… anything.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Haiku OS Gearing Up For 2021 With Improving ARM Port, Other Hardware Improvements - Phoronix

        mt fixed various warnings, use-after-free, memory leaks, and dead code problems detected by the clang static analyzer.

        X512 reworked app_server memory management to use owning pointers and avoid some memory leaks and use-after-free cases. This led to a rework of the classes used for that purpose, in particular AutoDeleter and its variants, to be more efficient and more flexible.

        kallisit5 fixed a crash in the icon-o-matic save panel.

        PulkoMandy fixed an ABI problem that resulted in crashes for the 64bit version of Wonderbrush. Wonderbrush is now available in HaikuDepot for 64bit systems.

      • Haiku OS Gearing Up For 2021 With Improving ARM Port, Other Hardware Improvements - Phoronix

        The Haiku project has issued an activity report concerning their happenings for November/December 2020. Haiku over this time has seen code clean-ups, various user interface improvements, continued work on the ARM port, POSIX compatibility enhancements, networking updates, storage handling updates, and continued work on sound and other hardware drivers. The fixed up ACPI thermal driver is also now able to read some motherboard and CPU temperatures.

      • Announcing FOSS Quiz: Quiz Platform For Open Source

        At FOSS Post, we are very happy today to release our newest project: FOSS Quiz.

        When any new user enters the open source world, he/she will discover that there are so many details, so much information and tons of software to learn a lot about. Users wishing to dive deeper in the field may find it hard to just browse the random Internet in order to collect the knowledge they need about the topics they wish to learn more about.

        FOSS Quiz comes here to solve that problem; A central platform for taking various quizzes about open source software, so that interested users can try to answer these quizzes and learn much more about the respective project/software in the process, in a fun and interactive way.

      • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

        • Best Community 2020: LibreOffice at DINAcon

          At the recent online DINAcon (Digital Sustainability Conference) in Switzerland, Mike Saunders from The Document Foundation gave a talk about how TDF and the LibreOffice community works.

          And guess what: our community won an award at DINAcon too: Best Community 2020! We’re really proud to have such an active, passionate and diverse range of contributors all across the globe – LibreOffice wouldn’t be as popular and powerful today without their help.

      • Programming/Development

        • Joachim Breitner: Don’t think, just defunctionalize

          CPS-conversion and defunctionalization can help you to come up with a constant-stack algorithm.

        • Go 1.16 Beta 1 is released

          We have just released go1.16beta1, a beta version of Go 1.16. It is cut from the master branch at the revision tagged go1.16beta1.

          Please try your production load tests and unit tests with the new version. Your help testing these pre-release versions is invaluable.

        • Two more months until Go: 1.16 beta offers improved tooling up for a test-drive

          With two more months until the final Go 1.16 release, the Go team has called upon developers to start testing the newly cut first beta version of the programming language. However, those looking to play with new language features might have to sit this one out, as work has mainly been done on the tooling and infrastructure front this time around.

          Most changes can be found in the go command which now allows the embedding of static files and file trees into executables through a new //go:embed directive, and has become module-aware by default. To support the latter, go install has learned to accept arguments with version suffixes for installing packages in module mode without taking the go.mod file into account.

        • Perl/Raku

          • Perl steering council elected

            The Perl project has announced the election of the first steering council to serve under the project's new governance rules. Eight candidates put their names in; the winners were Ricardo Signes, Neil Bowers, and Sawyer X.

          • First Perl Steering Council elected to replace Pumpking position
          • Perl weekly challenge 92

            I'm not a great blogger - but I will try and explain my solutions to the Perl weekly challenge each week. I always try and look for interesting solutions to the problems at hand.

          • Raku Challenge, Week 92, Issue 1

            This week’s task has an interesting solution in Raku. So, here’s the task:

            You are given two strings $A and $B. Write a script to check if the given strings are Isomorphic. Print 1 if they are otherwise 0.

            OK, so if the two strings are isomorphic, their characters are mapped: for each character from the first string, the character at the same position in the second string is always the same.

            In the stings abc and def, a always corresponds to d, b to e, and c to f. That’s a trivial case. But then for the string abca, the corresponding string must be defd.

          • Raku Advent Calendar: Day 23: Christmas-oriented design and implementation

            Every year by the beginning of the school year, which starts by January 8th in the North Pole, after every version of the Christmas gift-giving spirit has made their rounds, Santa needs to sit down to schedule the classes of the North Pole Community College. These elves need continuous education, and they need to really learn about those newfangled toys, apart from the tools and skills of the trade.

            [...]

            So Santa created this script to take care of it, using a bit of point free programming and Perl being Perl, the whippipitude and dwimmability of the two sister languages, Perl and Raku.

        • Python

          • Josef Strzibny: Serve Django static assets with Gunicorn

            Serving static assets by the application server such as Gunicorn is usually not a good idea. We should prefer a web server with a better performance, but what if you want to serve the assets directly with the Django application?

        • Rust

          • Advent of Rust, Day 20 and 21: Stumped by Sea Monsters

            Unlike in the past puzzles, I have no idea how to tackle this problem, so I start just by reading in the data. I’ll create a struct Tile to hold the data. I don’t have to store the actual image data, just the borders, so I can compare them to the borders of the other tiles.

            There are eight borders — one on each of the four sides, plus the tiles may also be flipped, so the same borders again but reversed. I’ll store each border as a u16 bit pattern for easy comparing, in an array of length 8.

          • Learn Rust by writing a simple game

            Start programming with a simple game you can try in multiple languages.

        • Java

          • [Older] Jakarta EE 9 provides new baseline for evolution of platform

            The Eclipse Foundation has announced the release of Jakarta EE 9, which provides a new baseline for the evolution of the platform.

            According to the Eclipse Foundation, the major change in Jakarta EE 9 is the completion of the transition from the javax.* package namespace to the jakarta.* namespace.

            The foundation explained this namespace change establishes Jakarta EE 9 as a foundation to develop enterprise Java applications on.

  • Leftovers

    • Education

      • Lecturer ‘penalises whole class’ over cheating allegations

        The ABC reported that 300 students in a third-year algorithms class had been told they would be docked 30 per cent of their marks from a project to develop a software application because their lecturer had been unable to identify the perpetrators of “massive academic misconduct”.

        The chicanery was apparently exposed when the university uncovered advertisements from students offering to pay others to complete the task for them but could not identify who had posted them.

    • Health/Nutrition

      • #NoCovidMonopolies - Twitter storm activist toolkit

        Negotiations continue at the World Trade Organisataionns on South Africa's and India's proposal for #NoCovidMonopolies and we need YOU to help us stand up for global solidarity in this COVID-19 pandemic.

      • A silent spine-related epidemic building up, warns doctor

        The associated factor is the forced sedentary lifestyle, and prolonged sitting, lack of exercise and poor activity. Poor understanding of spine ergonomics leads to improper posturing and is also contributory, explains Dr Samir K Kalra, Consultant, Department of Neurosurgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

      • Air pollution killed 17 lakh Indians last year and led to loss of 1.4% of GDP

        In 2019, an estimated 17 lakh individuals died from air pollution in India, which was 18% of the total deaths in the country, while the economic shortfall due to lost output from premature deaths and morbidity from air pollution was equivalent to Rs 2,60,000 crore, according to the study published in Lancet Planetary Health.

        For the country as a whole, the economic loss in GDP terms is the maximum in Uttar Pradesh (2.15% of GDP) and Bihar (1.95%). But in southern India, Karnataka (1.22%) tops the list followed by Andhra Pradesh (1.09%) and Tamil Nadu (1.06%).

        The study also showed that household air pollution was decreasing over the last two decades resulting in 64% reduction in the death rate attributable to it from 1990 to 2019, whereas the death rate from outdoor ambient air pollution has increased during this period by 115%.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Microsoft rushes out fix for critical Windows 10 bug



          A new critical bug appears to have emerged in Windows 10, which is crashing some computers when they run the chkdsk command.

          It appears that this bug is affecting Windows 10 running the latest update (December 2020), which was released by Microsoft to fix numerous problems. Instead, as Windows Latest reports, some users have found that when they run the Check Disk tool (also known as chkdsk), their PCs crash, and the dreaded Blue Screen of Death appears.

        • Pseudo-Open Source

        • Security

          • The SolarWinds Hack Is Just The Same Sort Of Espionage The US Government Engages In Every Day

            A historic hack of unprecedented scale has set off alarms in the US government -- itself a target of suspected Russian hackers who leveraged IT infrastructure company SolarWinds' massive customer base to compromise an unknown number of victims. Among those victims were several US government agencies, including the DHS's cybersecurity wing, which announced its own breach hours after issuing a dire warning to potentially affected government agencies.

          • Biden faults Trump administration on cybersecurity following massive [attack] [iophk: Windows TCO]

            President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday accused the Trump administration of failing to prioritize cybersecurity in the wake of a far-reaching breach of private and government systems and promised a serious response when he takes office.

          • Senator Says [Crackers] Compromised US Treasury Email Accounts

            Wyden said that while the [attack] “appears to be significant,” there is no indication those responsible compromised taxpayer data.

            He added that department officials do not know the full extent of the [attacker]s’ actions or exactly what information they stole.

          • Microsoft Azure breach left thousands of customer records exposed

            Thanks to questionable security practises by an app developer, more than half a million sensitive documents of its customers were exposed on the Internet. The documents were housed in an unprotected Microsoft Azure blob storage and could be viewed by anyone with the direct address of the files, without any kind of authentication.

            Azure Blob storage is a feature of Microsoft Azure that allows users to store large amounts of unstructured data on Microsoft's data storage platform.

            The unsecured blob was managed by Surrey-based app developer Probase and according to The Register, it contained 587,000 files, ranging from backed-up emails to letters, spreadsheets, screenshots, and more.

          • Security updates for Tuesday

            Security updates have been issued by CentOS (kernel and thunderbird), Debian (openjdk-8 and webkit2gtk), Fedora (gdm, mingw-openjpeg2, and openjpeg2), Mageia (compat-openssl10, golang-googlecode-net, mbedtls, openssl, and virtualbox), openSUSE (ovmf and xen), Red Hat (kernel, mariadb-connector-c, mariadb:10.3, postgresql:10, and postgresql:9.6), and SUSE (ardana-cassandra, ardana-mq, ardana-osconfig, ardana-tempest, crowbar-core, crowbar-openstack, grafana, influxdb, openstack-cinder, openstack-heat, openstack-heat-gbp, openstack-heat-templates, openstack-horizon-plugin-gbp-ui, openstack-ironic-python-agent, openstack-manila, openstack-neutron, openstack-neutron-gbp, openstack-neutron-vpnaas, openstack-nova, python-Jinja2, python-pysaml2, python-pytest, python-urllib3, release-notes-suse-openstack-cloud, spark, ceph, crowbar-core, crowbar-openstack, grafana, influxdb, openstack-heat-templates, openstack-nova, python-Jinja2, firefox, java-1_7_0-ibm, java-1_7_1-ibm, PackageKit, and thunderbird).

          • But, what about root passwords?

            If you’ve walked long enough into your enterprise identity management journey you might reach this question: How will root passwords be managed? Having centralized user and group IDs, your access policies—Host Based Access Control (HBAC) and Role Based Access Control (RBAC)—in Red Hat Identity Management (IdM) or any similar solution might still leave root passwords unmanaged.

            [...]

            While there is a resemblance in some of these examples and the public cloud’s approach in having no root password set, and shifting the privileged access to users other than root, there is one big difference. Many physical and virtual provisioning workflows for on-prem will include setting up a default root password for a variety of reasons, but those reasons are beyond the scope of this blog post.

          • Kali Linux: The Last 12 Months (2019/2020) & Looking forwards (2021)

            As the end of the year is coming up (some may say not quickly enough), we want to take a few minutes and recap on our roadmap 2019/2020 post.

            At a higher level, the last 12 months of Kali Linux (outside of the normal release items – e.g. packages updates), Kali has had various refreshes, switches and additional new features added.

          • Josh Bressers: Episode 248 – Door 23: How to report 1000 security flaws

            Josh and Kurt talk about how to file 1000 security flaws. One is easy, scale is hard.

          • Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation

            • The State of Safety Certification of Platforms

              A lot has been written about safety “certification” of platforms. As the number of applications involving human safety increases in markets such as avionics, automotive, industrial, etc., the importance of the functional safety certification of software that controls key functions has never been greater. There are several standards that govern the safety certification of software like DO-178, SEAL, ISO26262, and IEC61508. It is the best known and perhaps the most rigorous is the DO-178 standard that is governed by the FAA for commercial avionics software. A look “under-the-hood” into the process of safety certification reveals many interesting facts.

              As the leader of an engineering team that is working on certifying code for deployment on big programs like the Joint Strike Fighter, I thought it would be interesting to share the next level of what is involved. Let me start with a datapoint. The average time to get a single line of source certified to DO-178 DAL A Standard (used for the most critical system functions in aircraft and helicopters) may take 2-3 hours. So, that means that every 2,000 lines of code takes one year to certify. How many applications these days have as little as 2,000 lines of code?

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • Twitter will make Joe Biden’s @POTUS account start with zero followers

              This is a reversal from what Twitter did in 2017 when the Trump administration took over accounts from the Obama administration. Back then, Twitter essentially duplicated the existing accounts, creating an archive of Obama-era tweets and followers and building a new set of accounts for the incoming administration that retained all of those followers without any of the tweets.

            • ‘Free speech’ Reddit clone Voat says it will shut down on Christmas

              However, Voat faced chronic funding and technical problems, as well as denial-of-service attacks and an apparent warning from law enforcement about threats made on the site. Chastain warned in 2017 that Voat was likely to shut down, but a year later, he announced a partnership with the unnamed investor, keeping the site online.

              Other alternative social networks have struggled to gain traction as well. Gab migrated to the decentralized Mastodon network in 2019, after a mass shooting by a Gab user prompted PayPal and GoDaddy to sever ties. Parler experienced a massive user influx after the 2020 presidential election, but its momentum slowed rapidly. Voat’s death has been announced before, and it’s possible the site will pull through again — but its demise looks much more likely this time around.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Activist Karima Baloch found dead in Canada, police say no reason to believe foul play

        Unverified reports, mostly in the Indian media quoting unnamed sources, had said that Baloch had been killed.

        But a spokesperson for the Toronto Police told Dawn.com that authorities were investigating the death as "non-criminal".

        "On Monday, December 21, 2020, a 37-year-old woman was located deceased. It is currently being investigated as a non-criminal death and there are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances," Caroline de Kloet, Toronto Police's media relations officer, said in an email response.

        Baloch was critical of the Pakistani establishment and had been living in Canada since 2016, where she had been granted asylum. A close friend of hers told the BBC she was receiving threats while in Canada.

      • Pakistani Human Rights Activist Found Dead in Canada

        “I can’t believe that it’s an act of suicide,” he told the newspaper. “She was a strong lady and she left home in a good mood. We can’t rule out foul play as she has been under threats. She left Pakistan as her home was raided more than twice. Her uncle was killed. She was threatened to leave activism and political activities, but she did not and fled to Canada.”

        Her friend, Lateef Johar Baloch, told the BBC Baloch had recently received anonymous threats that someone would “teach her a lesson.”

    • Environment

      • Taiwan and China cooperate against illegal Chinese sand dredgers

        After over 100 Chinese ships illegally dredged sand near Taiwan’s outlying island of Matsu, both countries reached an agreement to battle the problem together, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said Tuesday (Dec. 22).

        The presence of the Chinese sand dredgers last September caused concern in Taiwan over the environment and national security, as Matsu lies close to the coast of the Chinese province of Fujian.

        However, in its latest interpretation of the issue, the CGA said the dredging was not politically motivated but purely a case of illegal profit-seeking, the Liberty Times reported.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The Socialists vs. Andrew Cuomo

        Two socialists emerged from a flower shop in Astoria, Queens, with a bouquet of red roses. Jabari Brisport, 33, a newly elected state senator from Brooklyn, sported a red Democratic Socialists of America hoodie while Zohran Mamdani, 29, a newly elected assemblyman from Queens, wore a red-and-black checked Arsenal jersey—an item he’d just purchased and later characterized as “this ridiculous shirt” yet was plainly excited to show off. NYC-DSA endorsed both this year, and the pair spent the overcast November weekend surprising each of the organization’s freshly endorsed City Council candidates at home with a rose. (The color red has represented socialism and communism at least since the 1840s, while the red rose, now the symbol of the Democratic Socialists of America, has been associated with socialist and social democratic movements and parties since the 1880s.) “I’d like to point out that he didn’t pay [for the flowers]. That’s the problem with socialism,” Mamdani ribbed Brisport, impersonating a conservative. “Eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

      • Trump’s Longtime Banker at Deutsche Bank Resigns

        Mr. Trump’s key contacts at his biggest financial backer are leaving at a perilous time for the departing president. He owes Deutsche Bank about $330 million, and the loans come due in 2023 and 2024. Mr. Trump provided a personal guarantee to get the loans, meaning that if he fails to pay them back, the bank can pursue his personal assets.

      • Trump Is Guilty of Sedition and Must Be Brought to Justice

        If I were a lawyer, I’d say that Trump is building a pretty good sedition case against himself, urging war against the institutions of American democracy and substituting loyalty to the person of Trump for loyalty to the country, the Constitution, and the institutions that he, and all of his government colleagues, have sworn an oath to protect.

        But I’m not a lawyer, so I’ll just call it as I see it. Having lost the popular vote by 7 million, having lost the Electoral College vote too, and having failed at every level of the court system to get judges to intervene to squeeze a victory out of the bitter lemons of defeat, Trump is now grasping not only at one frivolous lawsuit after the other but at the straws of violence: specifically, military and paramilitary violence.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Two shades of Virtual Private Networks

        In July 2018, the Over-The-Top (OTT) tax on social media platforms was introduced to generate more revenue to improve Internet services. Critics examined it as a wider web to silence alternative or dissenting opinions on matters of public interest in Uganda.

        After President Museveni spoke disdainful to social media users that the tax was aimed at dealing with the consequences of online “gossip”, this led to the massive adoption of Virtual Private Network (VPNs), to evade the daily Shs200 tax to access social media platforms.

    • Monopolies

      • Government Contracts and Ownership of Technical Data

        This is a government contract case involving rights to technical data provided to the government from a contractor. Boeing is working on a multi-billion-dollar F-15 Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) project subject to a DoD contract. Under the contract, Boeing “retains ownership” of the technical data it generates and delivers. However, the U.S. Gov’t receives also “unlimited rights” to the data, including the right to “use, modify, reproduce, perform, display, release, or disclose [the] technical data in whole or in part, in any manner, and for any purpose whatsoever, and to have or authorize others to do so.”

        When Boeing began providing data, it included first notice below. The U.S. Gov’t. objected to that language and Boeing offered the second alternative. Still though the U.S. Gov’t. objected as out of compliance with the DoD regulations. (DFARS 252.227-7013(f)). This objection apparently came as something of a surprise — Boeing says that it has been marking its technical data with propriety legends since 2002.

        [...]

        Technical Data Rights: The underlying question, of course, is what rights are we talking about? The US does not have a category of property rights known as “technical data rights.” The best data protection may be trade-secret rights, but that does not seem to work here because we’re talking about data that has been turned over to another party without any restriction. Boeing’s copyright notice is probably the best-clue. However, copyright protection in a document is a far-cry being the “owner” of the technical data as the court discussed.

      • Patents

        • Pre-AIA 102: Meaning of On Sale “in This Country”

          Caterpillar filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) against Wirtgen — arguing that the German manufacturer was importing infringing devices into the US. However, the ITC found the claims invalidated by the company’s pre-filing sales. On appeal here, the Federal Circuit has affirmed.

          Caterpillar’s U.S. Patent No. 7,140,693 covers a milling machine with retractable wheels (or tracks). The invention here was originally created by engineers at the Italian company Bitelli in the late 1990’s. Caterpillar purchased Bitelli in 2000, the priority patent application was not filed (in Italy) until April 2001, followed by the PCT in 2002. Bitelli had already been selling embodiments of the invention even before 2000.

        • $1,500 Awarded for Mountech IP prior art

          Unified is pleased to announce the PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Ekta Aswal, who received a cash prize of $1,500 for their prior art submission for U.S. Patent 7,991,784. The patent is owned by Mountech IP, an NPE and IP Edge subsidiary. The ‘784 patent generally relates to a method for automatic dynamic contextual data entry completion system. The ‘784 patent has been asserted in district court against ZTE, Samsung, Motorola, Blackberry, and LG.

        • Breaking: German UPC legislation challenged again by constitutional complaints

          Another chapter has been added to the endless UPC saga. Two constitutional complaints were filed last Friday against the German ratification law for the Unified Patent Court. This was confirmed by the spokesman of the German Constitutional Court responding to a request from JUVE Patent.

          The highest German court apparently received the two complaints (case IDs: 2 BvR 2216/20 and 2 BvR 2217/20) shortly after the German Bundesrat approved the German UPC legislation. The second chamber of the German parliament had unanimously passed the laws on 18 December. Prior to this, the German Bundestag had approved them with the necessary two-thirds majority. This cleared the way for the completion of the German UPC ratification and the launch of the UPC as a whole.

          It is currently unknown who the claimants are. The Constitutional Court did not provide any information on this matter. However, in the run-up to the votes in the German parliament, two groups had hinted at potential lawsuits.

          In November, Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) took a combative stance, calling on companies to join forces to file a constitutional claim.

        • New UPC complaints filed in Germany

          Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has confirmed it has received two complaints against the country’s Unified Patent Court legislation.

          In a statement sent to Managing IP, the court confirmed: “Regarding the Act on the Agreement of February 13 2013 on a Unified Patent Court, two constitutional complaints have been filed and are pending.”

          However, the statement added that a decision date was not known. Neither the identity of the plaintiffs nor the grounds of the complaints are currently available.

          In March this year, a long-awaited FCC ruling declared that the act approving the UPCA had not been signed off by a required two-thirds majority in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. That ruling was based on a complaint filed in 2017 by German lawyer Ingve Stjerna.

        • Two constitutional complaints filed against new German UPC legislation

          The German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht - BVerfG) has informed the press (see here and here) that last Friday two constitutional complaints (cases 2 BvR 2216/20 and 2 BvR 2217/20) were filed against the draft legislation enabling Germany to ratify the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement and its Protocol on Provisional Application. As reported here, on the same day the Bundesrat approved that legislation but further steps are required for the legislation to come into force. Neither the grounds of the complaints nor the identity of the complainants are known. However, in upholding in March 2020 the constitutional complaint against the previous draft German law on the ground of it not having been having been approved by the requisite majority in the Bundestag, the BVerfG did not rule on other parts of the complaint (see here).

          One potential ground for another constitutional complaint is that the UPC Agreement’s provisions that establish the primacy of EU law infringe the Basic Law (the German constitution). The BVerfG did not previously consider that ground but comments by the rapporteur in that case, Justice Huber, suggest that it may succeed; FAZ reported (here) Justice Huber’s comments on the BVerfG’s decision in May 2020 in the ECB case (in which Justice Huber was rapporteur), and in response to the question (translated) “The EU Commission is examining an infringement procedure. Is that not inevitable?”, Justice Huber replied (translated) “It is by no means inevitable. On the contrary, the Commission has political discretion in this respect. In doing so, it should note that Germany and most other Member States of the European Union would not have been allowed to join the European Union at all if the unrestricted primacy of European law over the Basic Law, as assumed by the CJEU, would exist. We made this clear once again in the decision on the Unified Patent Court in January.”

        • TRU-VA-DI TRU-VA-DA, Life goes on at Gilead

          Each time I hear “TRUVADA”, the catchy chorus of the Beatles’ Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da sounds different to me… However, TV addicts or literature lovers also keen on pharmaceutical litigation should not have failed to notice a more disturbing coincidence: “Gilead” is moreover the sweet name given to the dictatorship where The Handmaid’s Tale is set – a sort of reminiscence of Oceania in 1984. Randomness. No doubt. In any case, the Paris Court of Appeal’s decision of June 19, 2020 is by now the last episode in our TRUVADA€® Pharma Saga, perhaps its final point.

          As a reminder, TRUVADA€® is an anti-HIV drug consisting of the combination of tenofovir disoproxil (TD) and emtricitabine (FT), which has been approved for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP) of HIV infection. It has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection by 86%. This combination was the object of a European patent (EP0915894) until July 25, 2017. Its protection was extended by Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs), including one for “tenofovir disoproxil and its salts, hydrates, tautomers and solvates in combination with other therapeutic compounds such as emtricitabine” and expiring on February 21, 2020 in the French territory (FR08C0020), based on European Union marketing authorization EU/1/04/305/001 and the patent claim 27, which reads as follows : “A pharmaceutical composition comprising a compound complying with any of claims 1 to 25 [tenofovir disoproxil is claimed in claim 25], together with a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle, and where appropriate, other therapeutic ingredients.” [emphasis added]. In the meantime, the description also disclosed this possibility of combining a claimed active ingredient with “other therapeutic ingredients”, but also does not specifically mentioned emtricitabine [09-15]. Based on SPC FR08C0020, Gilead decided to take action for infringement against Mylan, which launched TENOFOVIR DISOPROXIL, a generic of TRUVADA€®. Thus, the issue raised by this case was the following: could emtricitabine (FTC) constitute a product protected by the basic patent within the meaning of Article 3(a) of Regulation (EC) No 469/2009, even though the patent did not explicitly refer to it and only cited possible combinations with “other therapeutic ingredients”?

      • Copyrights

        • Trump urges Congress to amend 'wasteful' coronavirus aid bill

          Mr Trump concluded: "Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests, while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it. It wasn't their fault. It was China's fault.

          "I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple.

          "I'm also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to deliver a Covid relief package."

          Mr Trump's statement stunned Capitol Hill, plunging the long-awaited aid bill into turmoil.

        • New ‘felony streaming’ measure is aimed at piracy services, not Twitch streamers

          That doesn’t mean copyright activists can rest easy. The multitrillion-dollar package did include a copyright measure that civil liberties activists fear could have dramatic consequences. The CASE Act was also approved in the package and would create a quasi-judicial copyright claims court within the Copyright Office. Copyright holders could be awarded up to $30,000 in damages if they find their creative work being shared online.

          There’s also more bad copyright news coming from Sen. Tillis in the next congressional term. The senator is planning to offer up additional copyright changes next year that have already spooked the tech and creative industries. National Journal reported on Tuesday that Tillis has been circulating a draft proposal of a bill that would completely reform the DMCA. The bill would include a “notice-and-staydown” provision that could make copyright bots, like YouTube’s Content ID, stricter. National Journal said that Tillis’ office would limit this provision to “complete or near-complete works” and would focus on larger enterprises rather than small platforms or creators. Still, current copyright-striking tech has been hit-or-miss.

        • The COVID-19 Stimulus Bill Would Make Illegal Streaming a Felony

          Perhaps most surprising, according to the text of the bill being circulated, illegal streaming for commercial profit could become a felony.

          It's been less than two weeks since Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) released his proposal to increase the penalties for those who would dare stream unlicensed works. In doing so, the North Carolina Senator flirted with danger. About a decade ago, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar made a similar proposal before it ended up dying as people worried about sending Justin Bieber to jail. (No, seriously.) This time, Tillis' attempt was winning better reviews for more narrowly tailoring the provisions towards commercial operators rather than users. That said, it's had very little time to circulate before evidently becoming part of the spending package. If passed, illegal streaming could carry up to 10 years in jail.

          That's not the only copyright change either.

          The spending bill also appears to adopt a long-discussed plan to create a small claims adjudication system within the U.S. Copyright Office.

        • Covid relief bill to make illegal streaming a felony with up to 10-year prison sentence, in landmark victory for Hollywood studios

          Studios have been trying to pass copyright legislation to curb piracy for almost a decade since the failed 2012 Stop Online Piracy Act.

          If the 5000-page Covid-19 relief package passes, buried in there will be increased penalties for illegal streaming of movies and music that could carry up to 10 years in jail, as first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

        • US Passes Spending Bill With CASE Act and Felony Streaming Proposal

          US Congress passed the spending bill a few hours ago. The legislation package includes the CASE Act, which establishes a tribunal for small copyright claims. A proposal to criminalize streaming piracy services also passed as part of the omnibus bill.

        • US Congress passes a COVID-19 relief bill—and also some new copyright laws

          “This is why Congress needs time to actually read this package before voting on it. Members of Congress have not read this bill. It’s over 5000 pages, arrived at 2pm today, and we are told to expect a vote on it in 2 hours. This isn’t governance. It’s hostage-taking.”

        • Both-Sidesing the Stimulus Bill

          Nearly nine months after the CARES Act, Congress has finally passed a second economic stimulus. The bill, with a price tag of about $900 billion, falls far short of what Democrats and most economists say is necessary, as a result of continual Republican insistence that aid not reach the $1 trillion mark. But to hear corporate media tell it, the too little, too late stimulus story has been largely another example of both parties’ intransigence.

        • You'll Need Fifty Stimulus Checks To Pay The Damages You Might Get Hit With Under The CASE Act

          It was only mid-day yesterday that it was confirmed that Congress has slipped in two controversial copyright provisions into the must-pass government funding bill. Last night, as everyone expected, that must-pass bill did indeed pass, and it will soon be law.

        • Congress throws garbage copyright and streaming rules in with COVID relief bill

          Section 212 of the proposed bill, meanwhile, is the "copyright small claims" part. Specifically, the proposed bill refers to the "Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act 6 of 2020" also referred to as the "CASE Act of 2020."

          And just what is the CASE Act, you ask? The Electronic Frontier Foundation has some thoughts.

          "Under the CASE Act, people could file copyright infringement claims with an obscure body, under the auspices of an office most people have no experience with," reads a statement from the EFF. "And that board could decide that the subjects of those claims owe up to $30,000 for activities as common as sharing memes, images, and videos online."

          Yup. Sharing memes.

        • 'DMCA 2.0' Draft Hints at Filters With Notice-and-Staydown Scheme

          Senator Thom Tillis has released a discussion draft of the “Digital Copyright Act of 2021," a potential successor to the current DMCA. The draft proposes a takedown-and-stay down requirement for online service providers, which indirectly suggests the use of piracy filters. That's just one of the many elements that will be fiercely debated in the coming months.

        • Senator Tillis Releases Massive Unconstitutional Plan To Reshape The Internet In Hollywood's Image

          Yesterday, Senator Thom Tillis helped ram through a gift for Hollywood: getting the felony streaming copyright bill that he'd only released a week earlier included in the must-pass omnibus funding bill despite literally no discussion or debate about the problems with the bill.

        • Police "Seize" Pirate IPTV Platform, Prepare to Identify 50,000 Users

          Italy's Guardia di Finanza says it has carried out a "preventative seizure" of a pirate IPTV platform serving in excess of 50,000 users. The action follows an investigation by Sky and football league Serie A. According to reports, the authorities are now working to identify the platform's subscribers.



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In France, Android Skyrockets to 52%, Windows Falls to 26%
even in rich countries across Europe Windows is rapidly losing "market share"
When News Sites Become Shopping Catalogues Disguised as 'Reviews' or 'Articles'
Sometimes Fagioli uses HEY HI (AI, LLMs actually) to make 'articles' about HEY HI
[Meme] Hit and Run with SLAPP
Microsoft staff versus Techrights
[Meme] When You Go Against Corporate Front Groups and Shills of Moneyed Interests (EDRi is Microsoft-Compromised Now)
The "golden rule" is, follow the gold
The Register Exposed Many IBM Scandals, Lawsuits, and Secret Layoffs. Now IBM Pays The Register.
Hush money?
IBM Told the Media the Secret Mass Layoffs Would Carry on Till End of November, But They Still Happen This Month
"My team of 9 people had 4 regulars and 5 contractors. All contractors gone."
Gemini Links 06/12/2024: Shrinkflation and Working at Google
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 05, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, December 05, 2024
[Meme] Shooting the Messenger
"you needn't refute the message, just take out the messengers"
Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Associate Sued Us for Publishing Perfectly Accurate Article About SFC; We Sued Them for Harassment
SFC and its associates aren't nice people
Fantastic Journalism by Brian Fagioli
A lot of today's Web, even "news" sites, is spam
Techrights Does Not Forget
Techrights has many anti-censorship mechanisms
Windows Has Fallen to All-Time Low in India
In India, only about 1 in 8 Web requests comes from Windows
Microsoft Criminals: Law Enforcement is the Real Problem
deflecting the issue and resorting to projection
[Meme] They Dropped the L (Libre and Law)
SFLC, could I borrow 75% of your letters?
Companies That the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Will Censor the Community for, Using Their Very Large CoC
also exploiting poor (and sexually abused) women from eastern Europe
Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Has Asked a Blogger to Delete This Page About the SFC, So We Reproduce It in Full Here
Censored article
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Raised More Than Three Times More Money Than the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), Which Mostly Gets Money From Corporations, Including Microsoft
Do not donate any money to copycat organisations. It's worse than money down the river because your money might get spent attacking and even defaming the originals.
Increasing Productivity With Less Hardware, Little Power, and Fewer CPU Cycles (and Far Less Digital Waste in General)
A lot of people who glance at our PCs (as they visit us) act a bit baffled, as much of what we're using is a bunch of terminals and some text editors
Gemini Protocol Keeps Getting Better (Less and Less Reliance on Centralised Certificate Authorities)
Reliable systems do not depend on third parties, only themselves
Why We Moved to Perl and Dumped PHP Last Year
Elongating the lifetime of the underlying stack
Links 05/12/2024: Explaining the South Korea Chaos and French PM Barnier's Government Already Disintegrating
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/12/2024: Domain Changes, Griping With Haskell
Links for the day
Links 05/12/2024: Mass Layoffs at Microsoft's PR (Bribery of Media) Agency, UnitedHealthcare CEO Shot Dead
Links for the day
GNU/Linux news for the past day
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 04, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 04, 2024
Links 05/12/2024: Formaldehyde and Cancer, US and China Boycotting One Another
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/12/2024: Hermeticism, Living in the Shell, and More
Links for the day
At the OSI, Microsoft Operative (Funded by Microsoft) Promotes Proprietary Software of Microsoft
The OSI is deeply corrupt. The good news is, it's barely hiding it anymore.