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Links 17/10/2021: Blender 2.93.5, Microsoft Bailouts



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Linux Locales

        Locale is often ignored aspects of a system. Especially if you’re America. For most systems, locale is chosen on installation. But for distributions like ArchLinux, you do need to config locale yourself. Now there’re two ways to config set locale. One way is described on ArchLinux Wiki, edit /etc/locale.gen to enable the locale and use locale-gen to generates it. Finally set $LANG to the locale you want. The second way is to use DE, take KDE for example. You can set locale in system settings under languages or formats. And unlike locale-gen, it doesn’t need root permission. Surprisingly, it actually work! I always set time format in formats to British while keep other America. The time format on system panel did changed to British after that. However, after rebooting, some terminal applications will complain about invalid locales. Mosh even refuses to work! I just set $LC_ALL to C in situations like this. But there must be something wrong about it.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Vortex86 Processors Finally Seeing Work In 2021 For Proper Handling Under Linux - Phoronix

        The Vortex86 32-bit SoCs have worked under Linux for those distributions still maintaining 32-bit x86 support and where not hitting corner-cases of some i686 level features not being supported by some Vortex86 cores, but there is finally a pending kernel patch to provide proper CPU detection for Vortex86 hardware.

        The DM&P Electronics Vortex86 SoCs work with various older Linux distributions just fine without catering the Linux kernel to these CPUs in not requiring any special handling compared to the generic x86 32-bit paths. This formal detection and support for DM&P Vortex processors being worked on now though in late 2021 is motivated by Spectre and Meltdown mitigations being incorrectly applied to them.

      • Linux To No Longer Enable AMD SME Usage By Default Due To Problems With Some Hardware - Phoronix

        Being sent in as a fix for the Linux 5.15 kernel this morning and to be back-ported to existing stable series is a behavior change that the Linux kernel will no longer use AMD Secure Memory Encryption (SME) by default on supported hardware but rather making it now opt-in due to shortcomings of some platforms.

        Since the introduction of AMD SME support to the Linux kernel, Secure Memory Encryption has been activated by default when the SME support (AMD_MEM_ENCRYPT) is built into the kernel. That defaulting of "AMD_MEM_ENCRYPT_ACTIVE_BY_DEFAULT" allowed for Secure Memory Encryption to be used out-of-the-box without needing to specify any extra kernel parameters or the like. Unfortunately, that's led to boot failures on some platforms particularly around IOMMU along with other headaches to work out as well, like some graphics driver issues with not expecting the memory to be encrypted.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How To Install Apache Cassandra on Debian 11 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache Cassandra on Debian 11. For those of you who didn’t know, Apache Cassandra is a NoSQL database used for storing large amounts of data. It has a distributed architecture and is designed to manage large volumes of data with dynamic replication. It is used by many large companies like Github, NetFlix, Reddit, and Instagram.

        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 the Cassandra open source NoSQL database on a Debian 11 (Bullseye).

      • Adam Young: Ironic Clean PXE failure



        One of our ironic baremetal nodes was suffering a cleaing failure. Fixing it was easy…once we knew the cause/

        Cleaning is a process by which ironic prepares a node for use. It removes old data and configuration from a node. In order to do that, it has to run a simple image. We use a Debian based image, known as the IPA image, as it runs the Ironic Python Agent. This image is installed via PXE boot. So, if the PXE setup is broken, the node can’t be cleaned.

      • Fixed wait for kernel video modules to load

        The pups have, I think, "udevadm settle" in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit, which waits for all kernel drivers to load before continuing. However, attempting to get to the desktop quicker, EasyOS does not have this, instead waits for the kernel video module(s) to load before bringing up the desktop. That is, EasyOS does not wait for all modules to load, just enough to bring up the Xorg desktop.

      • How to Monitor IT Infrastructure using Checkmk - kifarunix.com

        In this tutorial, you will learn how to monitor IT infrastructure using Checkmk. Checkmk is a free and Open Source IT infrastructure monitoring tool, alternative to Nagios. It provides a powerful monitoring of networks, servers, clouds, containers and applications. Fast. Effective.

      • How to use TOP command - Unixcop

        Administrators should know what processes are running and the consumption of each of them.

        That’s why you need tools to help you to monitor your system and watch the utilization of it, and as a result you tune your system better to make greater use of it by killing unneeded processes or give priority to the important ones.

        One of the tools (commands) to do so is TOP command and this article is for how to use TOP command in your Linux-based system.

        There are lots of commands that help you monitor your system, as an example there is PS, but the different here is that PS is for non-interactive monitoring.

      • How To Install ownCloud on Linux Mint 20 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install ownCloud on Linux Mint 20. For those of you who didn’t know, ownCloud is an open-source, self-hosted file sync and file share platform, similar to Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google Drive. It works with various database management systems such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MariaDB. It maintains the synchronization with all the computers either it is a window-based or Linux-based operating system.

        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 ownCloud self-hosted file sync on a Linux Mint 20 (Ulyana).

      • How to fix broken video

        I decided to write this tutorial in the first-person, so as to more easily relate my personal experiences with video setup. All of my computers, for the last several years, have been all-Intel GPUs (Graphical Processing Units, that is, the video chip). However, just recently I acquired a Nvidia GeForce 210 (GT218 GPU) video card, and that's when I discovered how much "fun" it is to get Nvidia cards to work! Here is a blog post about that video card:

      • Use External Labels with Prometheus Alerts

        I’ve recently deployed the second Kubernetes cluster into the homelab environment, and realised that if I send alerts to the same Slack channel, I can’t tell which environment the alert somes from. I therefore need a way to identify the cluster that fires the alerts, ideally getting the cluster name passed to Alertmanager.

      • 4 Ways to Check MySQL or MariaDB version on Linux - Linux Shout

        This tutorial will let you know the key commands or ways we can use to check the MySQL or MariaDB Database server version running on Linux operating systems such as Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and more.

        If you have already done the installation of MySQL or MariaDB server on your Linux. Then now you probably have a question about how to check which version you are actually using?

        Also, MySQL is one of the popular and most common database servers using around the world to store data. However, don’t be confused between MySQL and MariaDB because the latter one is the fork of MySQL, nothing more than that. Hence, the commands used for Oracle MySQL will also be applicable for MariaDB.

    • Games

      • An Interview With GDKChan, Creator of Ryujinx

        I’m blown away by how far Nintendo Switch emulation has come in just the past few years. To me, it’s just as mind-blowing as when Valve rolled their first Proton release to the public. Linux gamers can not only play most of their favorite Windows games through Proton, but they can also play their favorite Switch games with higher frame rates and resolutions, thanks to emulation. In both cases, the experience is nearly flawless, thanks to Valve/CodeWeaver’s contributions to Wine, and the (mostly) voluntary, rigorous work programmers put in to their emulation projects to ensure a smooth, painless experience.

        I enjoy the Ryujinx emulator in particular, so I wanted to sit down and chat with gdkchan, the primary heart and soul behind the project (not to discredit the several other developers who are working on this as well). gdkchan went above and beyond providing the basic answer behind both ekianjo’s questions and my own.

      • Apple Will Support the Future Success of Blender 3D Software [Ed: Rather silly and promotional headline as in practice this money buys them control]

        Apple has become a patron member of the Blender Development Fund, supporting the work of the Blender Foundation.

        Blender is a free and open source 3D computer graphics software used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, motion graphics, and computer games. It is available for free on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

      • Blender 3D tool now supported by Apple

        If you had any doubt of the long-term value of learning how to sculpt in 3D with Blender, doubt no more. The Blender Foundation just announced that Apple joined their Blender Development Fund as “a Patron Member” to support development of the software for the foreseeable future. This is GOOD news for Blender, no matter how you slice it.

      • How I use open source to play RPGs

        I play a lot of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs), in terms of both frequency and variety. Generally, I prefer playing RPGs in person with friends, but over the past two years, I've been playing online.

        At first, I wasn't sure how to run a long-term game online. I knew there were a lot of tools out there to make it possible, but none of them interested me until I discovered the world of open source online tabletop gaming. With a small collection of open source applications, I've been able to run all my games exclusively on open source.

    • Distributions

      • Why Is Linux Popular for Machine Learning? Top Distributions To Use

        Linux is becoming the go-to operating system for machine learning and artificial intelligence processes. The Linux Foundation reports that the LF AI, the foundation’s AI initiative, “has been growing at the rate of one new project per month”. Moreover, they consider that the future of open source lies in its applications of the AI ecosystem and data communities.

        If you are wondering if you should use Linux for your new Machine Learning project, this post is for you. We’ll explore Linux use cases for AI and Machine Learning projects and the most popular distributions.

      • Reviews

        • New Atari VCS Review: Retro Tech Meets Geek Chic

          Among other things, the year 1977 marked the beginning of (in my humble opinion) the two greatest entertainment franchises: Star Wars and Atari. Needless to say, the former is alive and well. And until recently, the latter has lived on through the sheer tenacity of its legendary gaming heritage. Now, three years after its hugely successful Indiegogo campaign, Atari at long last quenched retro gaming fans' thirst by finally releasing its brand-new console. Officially known as the VCS 800, this truly multifunctional hybrid gaming, entertainment and computing device is an amazing time machine to both the past and future.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • AlmaLinux OS Foundation Names New Chair, Founder Steps Aside to Increase Independence of Community Owned and Governed CentOS Alternative | Business Wire

          The AlmaLinux OS Foundation, stewards of the 100% community-owned and governed enterprise-grade Linux distribution, announced today that benny Vasquez will take over as chair of its governing board of directors replacing Igor Seletskiy of CloudLinux, who steps down from board membership.

        • Thoroughly Modern: Talking IBM i System Management With Abacus [Ed: IBM-sponsored fake 'journalism' about itself; how long can this marketing budget last?]

          If you want the members of your IT department to focus on the core applications that define, run, and improve your business, and they also have to manage your systems, and you have limited budgets to do it all, you have to learn to let go of something. There are only so many hours in a day, only so many days in a year, and only so many people to do the work. Something has to give, and you have to keep what brings the real value.

        • The Shape Of The IBM To Come [Ed: IBM-sponsored Timothy Prickett Morgan on state of IBM]

          Big Blue is getting ready to spin off its managed services businesses, which represents about a third of its revenue stream and a big chunk of its employee base, into the separate company called Kyndryl and hopes to have this task done by the end of the year. Last week, IBM’s top brass had a virtual meeting with Wall Street to host its Investor Day, and IBM’s chief executive officer, Arvind Krishna, and the rest of the team unveiled a new segment and financial reporting structure that will be put into effect once the Kyndryl spinout is done.

          At that time, IBM will no doubt do its financial reporting for the quarter and backcast the new way of talking about product lines and money into prior quarters, and if history is any guide, it will do this for all of 2020 as well as whatever bits of 2021 are done at the time. And everybody, including us, will set about to recast our IBM revenue models.

        • IBM's former Chinese Power Systems partner sues for theft of customer data ● The Register

          IBM has been sued for trade secret misappropriation by a Chinese company called Beijing Neu Cloud Oriental System Technology Co., Ltd, over "fraudulent and unfair business practices" that allegedly saw Big Blue encourage use of Neu Cloud's customer information by staffers at server-maker Inspur.

          According to Neu Cloud's complaint [PDF], its parent company TeamSun had been a distributor and implementor of IBM POWER technology since 2010.

        • IBM still spending its way to cloud relevance with BoxBoat buy

          IBM has splashed yet more cash on cloud after confirming it plans to acquire BoxBoat Technologies – the Maryland-based DevOps consultancy and enterprise Kubernetes certified service provider.

      • Devuan Family

        • Systemd-free Linux Distro Devuan Releases Version 4.0 Based on Debian 11

          The developers of Devuan GNU+Linux have recently released the latest stable version – Devuan “Chimaera” 4.0. For those who aren’t aware, Devuan is a fork of Debian that doesn’t use systemd but init as its software suite.

          Let’s take a look at what this new release has to offer.

          [...]

          The installer is completely based on Debian 11’s installer. Thus, all procedures described in Debian’s wiki will apply here too.

          You can now disable task-speech accessibility if you intend to install a console-only system and avoid unnecessary dependencies.

          Lastly, you can successfully install a desktop environment without installing PulseAudio. The GUI or console installation sessions will use hardware or software speech synthesis instead. This also includes using a refreshable braille display.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Xubuntu 21.10 Released

          Xubuntu 21.10 "Impish Indri" was released on 10/14. It features some new applications and improved keyboard shortcuts. I also expand on the three different Xubuntu versions.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Blender 2.93.5

        Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation. Through it's open architecture, Blender provides cross-platform interoperability, extensibility, an incredibly small footprint, and a tightly integrated workflow. Blender is one of the most popular Open Source 3D graphics application in the world.

      • Ventoy 1.0.54

        Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files. With Ventoy, you don't need to format the disk over and over, you just need to copy the ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)EFI files to the USB drive and boot them directly. You can copy many files at a time and ventoy will give you a boot menu to select them. Both Legacy BIOS and UEFI are supported in the same way. Most type of OS supported (Windows/WinPE/Linux/Unix/Vmware/Xen...)

      • Open-source software: Nine out of 10 companies use it, but how much is it really worth? | ZDNet

        The report marks the third and final chapter in OpenUK's investigation into the impact of open-source software on the UK economy as detailed in its State of Open: The UK 2021 paper. The organization is trying to encourage the adoption of open-source software in the energy sector ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), which will be held in Glasgow, Scotland.

      • Nextcloud, iXsystems tie up to offer Hub features on TrueNAS systems

        Open-source file syncing and sharing software company Nextcloud has announced a partnership with open storage systems developer iXsystems to bring all Nextcloud Hub features to TrueNAS systems.

        iXsystems sells high-availability storage with servers running open source solutions like FreeNAS, FreeBSD, OpenZFS, and TrueNAS, all based on the ZFS filesystem.

        In a statement, Nextcloud founder and chief executive Frank Karlitschek said: "As self-funded companies that share a strong open-source philosophy, Nextcloud and TrueNAS are natural partners.

        “Our mutual customers will benefit from an open and flexible platform with strong enterprise support capable of delivering efficient collaboration at any scale.”

      • Nextcloud and TrueNAS Deliver Productivity and Privacy

        Nextcloud GmbH, the company behind the worlds' most deployed on-premises content collaboration platform, and iXsystems inc., developers of the industry’s number one Open Storage platform, announce a partnership to bring the full suite of Nextcloud Hub features to TrueNAS. Tens of thousands of TrueNAS systems already run Nextcloud and availability of a supported, well integrated offering will give larger organizations more confidence to deploy.

      • Web Browsers

        • Chromium

          • Is a Chromebox right for you? How to try Chromium OS on a Raspberry Pi to find out.

            Given that I can’t still for long, I tend not to use stationary computers such as Chromeboxes. Still, these small desktop machines offer the same Chrome OS experience as their mobile counterparts: Chromebooks and Chrome OS tablets. And yet some people aren’t sure about the Chrome OS on a desktop device. How can you answer the question of is a Chromebox right for you without actually spending hundreds of dollars? There’s an inexpensive way to try Chromium OS on a Raspberry Pi to find out.

          • Chrome OS 94 is the last big update before we skip all the way to 96

            Chrome OS 94 has started rolling out to stable. I know, it's unusual for an update to roll out on a Thursday, but that's probably because of the upcoming change in Google's release timeline: There won't be a Chrome OS 95. Highlighted changes in today's release should include better voices when using select-to-speak, document scanning support in the camera app, and some tweaks to Chrome OS's virtual desks, plus a few smaller tweaks/flags developers might enjoy.

      • FSF

        • Free Software Foundation claims Windows 11 will reduce user freedom

          The Free Software Foundation has described Windows 11, the new avatar of Microsoft's desktop operating system that was launched on 6 October, as taking "important steps in the wrong direction when it comes to user freedom".

          In a blog post, the organisation's campaigns manager Greg Farough said Windows 11 did nothing to mitigate "Windows' long history of depriving users of freedom and digital autonomy".

          The FSF was set up by former MIT employee Richard Stallman to try and develop an operating system and other utilities that would not impinge on the freedom of users. The word "free" refers not to the price, but the ability to change and share the software as one wishes.

          Farough said Microsoft was "intentionally choosing to create an unjust power structure, in which a developer knowingly keeps users powerless and dependent by withholding information".

      • Programming/Development

        • The Eclipse Foundation Releases Results from the First

          The Eclipse Foundation, one of the world’s largest open source foundations, along with the Eclipse Cloud DevTools Working Group, today announced the availability of the first annual Cloud Developer Survey Report. The report was commissioned by the Eclipse Cloud DevTools Working Group and is the result of more than 300 interviews conducted by an independent analyst organization. Participants consisted of software developers, as well as DevOps, IT and development leadership. Primary survey objectives were to gain a better understanding of cloud-based developer trends by identifying the requirements, priorities, and challenges faced by organizations that deploy and use cloud-based development solutions, including those based on open source technologies.

        • OpenCV 4.5.4 Released, Look For Updated Features And Fixes
  • Leftovers

    • Rudy Horowitz on the transitory nature of what matters in life – The Bowdoin Orient

      Rudy noted that he is most proud of his contributions to society, namely through his architectural career designing buildings and facilities. His designs include American Airlines Admirals Club lounges at LaGuardia and JFK and medical facilities for both New York University and the State of New York. In the early 1980s, he created an application to AutoCAD, a design and drafting design software, called GEOCAD. The application moved architectural drafting from the drawing board to the computer, while maintaining the appearance of hand-drawn sketches. GEOCAD was marketed throughout the USA.

    • Hardware

      • China stumbles on the long march to close the technology gap - Nikkei Asia

        Another challenge for China's tech industry is policy uncertainty. For example, both Phytium and Huawei Technologies' chip design unit HiSilicon's processors are based on chip architecture licenses they had obtained from British chip design company ARM.

        Even if Beijing can block ARM's sale to Nvidia to prevent ARM from becoming an American company, it remains uncertain whether chips based on ARM designs can be 100% secure for China.

      • Brother printers may not work in Windows 11 if connected via USB [Ed: Even Lawrence Abram, a fervent Microsoft propagandist, seems to realise Vista 11 is a trainwreck like Vista (hardware won't work)]

        Brother is warning that many of their printers may no longer work or display errors when using a USB connection in Windows 11.

        One help article states that updating to Windows 11 could prevent the operating system from detecting your Brother machine when connected via USB, changing printer settings, or connecting more than one printer via USB.

    • Health/Nutrition

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Enfield Dispatch | Hospital appointments lost as NHS trust hit by IT problems

        Patients across Barnet, Enfield and Camden have been affected by lost appointments caused by IT failures at a hospital trust.

        The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands that Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust experienced a string of problems after upgrading its electronic patient record (EPR) system and widening its use.

        Lists of appointments for a number of clinics are understood to have been lost as a result of the transfer last week, causing delays to clinical activity across the NHS trust’s services in North London. There were also difficulties reported with booking in new appointments and accessing patient records.

        As well as The Royal Free Hospital in Camden, the NHS trust runs a range of other hospitals and clinics in North London, including Barnet Hospital and Edgware Community Hospital in Barnet, and Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield. The trust started upgrading and expanding its EPR system, which is designed to replace paper records, at the beginning of October.

      • Microsoft Bailouts From the US Army Budget

        • US Army slows ~$20bn project to put Microsoft's HoloLens VR headsets into the field [Ed: President Biden has already bailed out Microsoft to the tune of 22 billion dollars for something that's basically dead; Microsoft sacked all staff of HoloLens; this is worse than grifting as it's akin to Microsoft theft from taxpayers (Trump did the same with "JEDI"; latest below)]

          The US Army has delayed a massive rollout of Microsoft's HoloLens virtual reality headsets.

        • [Older] Looks like NSA now stands for Not Selecting Azure: US spy agency picks AWS over Microsoft
        • Supreme Court declines to hear Oracle's challenge to JEDI ● The Register

          The US Supreme Court has brushed off Oracle’s complaint that it wasn't awarded the Pentagon's $10bn winner-takes-all Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract.

          [...]

          Still, Big Red refused to give up. It appealed its case all the way to the Supreme Court. The US government told the justices the case ought to be rejected given that Oracle wouldn’t have won the contract anyway. The ongoing legal spats, however, were made pointless when the Pentagon scrapped JEDI in July.

          Despite this, Oracle still thought the case was worth pursuing considering the DoD had replaced the cloud project with the new “Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC)” contract. The JWCC deal has been limited to AWS and Microsoft only. We note that Oracle says it does more than $28bn a year in cloud revenues.

        • Pseudo-Open Source

        • Security

          • Twitch suffers data breach amid demand for a less toxic environment

            Twitch, the video game live-streaming platform owned by Amazon.com Inc. suffered a data breach on Oct. 6, with more than 120 gigabytes of sensitive data leaked on 4Chan, an online chat forum.

            The user that leaked the information claimed to have the company’s source code, the foundation for software and program creation. If leaked, it can open the possibility for other hacks.

          • Four zero-day exploits add urgency to October's Patch Tuesday [Ed: Misses the point that Microsoft perpetually leaves its products exposed through back doors]

            October brings four zero-day exploits and 74 updates to the Windows ecosystem, including a hard-to-test kernel update (CVE-2021-40449) that requires immediate attention and an Exchange Server update that requires technical skill and due diligence (and a reboot). The testing profile for the October Patch Tuesday covers Windows error handling, AppX, Hyper-V and Microsoft Word. We recommend a Patch Now schedule for Windows and then staging the remaining patch groups according to your normal release pattern.

          • US Cybersecurity At A ‘Kindergarten Level’ Compared To China, Former Pentagon Official Says [Ed: Security theatre, "Smart" things, and back doors in everything are the opposite of security]

            A former Department of Defense official said he left the Pentagon in protest over the United States’ inability to compete with China technologically.

          • LoginID and Algorand partner for FIDO-certified biometric authentication [Ed: FIDO is 'security theatre', but we see who's pushing it]

            LoginID and the Algorand Foundation have entered a new biometrics-focused partnership. LoginID will research and prototype changes to their application programming interfaces (APIs) and software development kits (SDKs) to facilitate Algorand developers’ integration of FIDO-certified biometric authentication solutions.

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

            • FontOnLake: "Sophisticated" malware targets Linux systems [Ed: ESET FUD as marketing]

              Security researchers have uncovered new malware dubbed “FontOnLake” that is being used in a new campaign that targets Linux systems.

              Present since at least May 2020, according to samples uploaded to VirusTotal, the malware stands out for its ability to maintain persistence on the infected system and for the sophistication of its design.

            • Beware - a brand new malware family is infecting Linux systems | TechRadar

              There’s a new malware family in town - and one that attacks Linux systems by concealing itself in legitimate binaries to deliver several backdoor and rootkits.

              Dubbed FontOnLake, by cybersecurity researchers at ESET, samples of the malware date as far back as May 2020.

              According to the researchers, the malware makes use of several carefully crafted modules that not just collect credentials, but also give remote access to the threat actors.

    • Environment

    • Finance

      • COVID-19 and Central Bank Digital Slavery with John Titus

        In this episode, Whitney is joined by John Titus of BestEvidence to discuss how Central Banks and Wall Street Banks have used the COVID-19 crisis to launch a “silent takeover” of the wealth and assets of regular Americans and what these banks plan for the post-COVID era, from CBDCs to “green” finance.

    • Misinformation/Disinformation

      • [Older] Twitter offers to cough up 80 days of annual sales to settle 'false' user count lawsuit

        Twitter has offered to pay $809.5m to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in 2016 accusing it of misleading investors by falsely inflating its number of monthly active users.

        “The proposed settlement resolves all claims asserted against Twitter and the other named defendants without any admission, concession or finding of any fault, liability or wrongdoing by the Company or any defendant,” the web biz stated in an announcement. “Twitter and the individual defendants continue to deny any wrongdoing or any other improper actions.”

    • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • Call of Duty Warzone: Why Ricochet Anti-Cheat Has Fans Worried [Ed: Linux rootkits]

        Why is Kernel Level Anti-Cheat Software a Security Concern?

        Well, to be clear, it might be more accurate to say that kernel-level anti-cheat software is a potential security concern. Anytime you grant any outside element that level of access to something that’s important to you, you’re potentially exposing yourself to an increased level of risk. However, it doesn’t mean that you’re absolutely going to have a security problem.

    • Monopolies

      • Discussion with Isaac Funderburk about College, Careers, IP

        We talked about college and what a libertarians goals should be, activism, careers, publishing, and economic and libertarian issues such as intellectual property.

      • ENDRA Life Sciences Further Strengthens TAEUS€® System Intellectual Property Protection with Issuance of 21st U.S. Patent [Ed: Conflating patents with fiction that they like to call "IP"]
      • GI owners toast success as evocation threshold ‘lowered’ [Ed: "Owners" is the wrong term/word, but when your paymaster is called after a lie ("IP") we come to expect narrative being distorted for sponsors]

        A ruling involving champagne has further strengthened the power of GI and PDO owners – but do their broad rights now shut out fair competition?

      • Patents

        • Do Reference Signs Clarify Or Limit The Scope Of Patent Claims In India? [Ed: These litigation fanatics in India should very well know that this agenda works against the Indian economy, but they don't care]

          Reference signs are used to improve the intelligibility of claims. Sometimes also known as "reference numerals", they help understand claims in light of the specification and drawings on record. If a patent application contains drawings, the claims can be clarified by establishing a connection between the features mentioned in the claims, corresponding to reference signs in the drawings. This is why one often finds reference signs or numerals placed in parentheses after features mentioned in claims.

          However, there is some cloud over whether adding reference signs in the claims limit the scope of the claims themselves in India. More specifically, does the insertion of reference signs, which denotes a particular feature in the claims, limit that feature to all its embodiments as shown in the accompanying drawings?

        • Lawsuit accuses Rhombus Systems of patent infringement
        • U.K. and EU Nations Block COVID Vaccine Patent Waiver at World Trade Organization

          A meeting of the World Trade Organization’s intellectual property council ended Thursday without action on a proposal to suspend patent rights on COVID-19 vaccines. The United Kingdom and some wealthy European Union nations, led by Germany, continue to oppose a patent waiver, which was first proposed over a year ago by India and South Africa and backed by over 100 WTO member nations. Since then, the world has recorded over 3.8 million COVID-19 deaths.

        • Judge Vyskocil Allows Amino Acid Case to Go Forward Despite “Group Pleading” and “Inconsistent Allegations” of Infringement | Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP - JDSupra

          On September 27, 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil held that plaintiffs Ajinomoto Co., Inc. and Ajinomoto Heartland Inc. had alleged plausible claims for relief for infringement under 35 U.S.C. €§ 271(g), for inducement of infringement, and for willful infringement, despite the complaint’s purported “group pleading” and “inconsistent allegations” of infringement by the three related defendant corporations.

          [...]

          The defendants also moved to dismiss the claims asserted against all three defendants for inducement of infringement and willful infringement.

        • Federal Circuit Rejects Arguments of Bias at the PTAB [Ed: Patent litigation lawyers and their sponsored fronts (like Dennis Crouch) eat their hearts because fake patents continue to perish and high courts are fine with it]

          In a 2-1 decision, the Federal Circuit has rejected Mobility’s argument that the PTAB Judges have an improper financial interest in instituting AIA proceedings. The baseline here is that the patentee presented evidence that Board members who institute more AIA proceedings receive better performance reviews and more bonus money. A higher institution rate also ensures job stability for administrative patent judges. The argument then is that those incentives to institute constitute a due process violation under cases such as Tumey v. Ohio, 273 U.S. 510 (1927) and Ward v. Monroeville, 409 U.S. 57, 60 (1972).

          To be clear, none of the USPTO rules or practices provide expressly give more money or quota-points for initiating IPR. However, the only way to receive points for judging an IPR is to first institute the IPR. And, most of the quota-points are accumulated post-institution. Likewise, the PTO receives substantial fees for institution.

        • First four OPPO v. Nokia countersuits over 5G patents have been docketed in Mannheim, Munich, and Hamburg [Ed: Germany is trying to become just another district in Texas, attracting patent litigation for no productive gains, just lawyers' time]

          About a month ago, Gizmochina reported on OPPO having filed countersuits over 5G patents against Nokia in China and an unspecified number of European jurisdictions. This is what I expected to happen, especially after I became aware of the litigation prowess the Chinese smartphone maker demonstrated in its recently-settled dispute with Sharp. OPPO is to be reckoned with, and as OPPOsed to letting others push it around, it fights back. I don't know whether OPPO brought any patent infringement counteractions against Sharp, but I have been able to find out about a Dutch declaratory judgment proceeding targeting Sharp's EP'181.

        • In re ESIP: No Arthex challenges in closed case [Ed: The patent profiteers that fund this blog will never be happy with patent sanity, only maximalism (endlessly)]

          This is a short nonprecedential decision in a petition for a writ of mandamus that was issued today but that isn’t on the Federal Circuit’s website. (I don’t see why the Federal Circuit doesn’t just put all dispositive orders on its website; it already puts Rule 36’s and many orders in petitions for writs of mandamus on the site.) The petitioner, ESIP, was the patent owner of a patent that was the subject of an inter partes review proceeding at the PTO. The PTO initiated review over ESIP’s objection, and subsequently concluded that the claims were obvious. ESIP appealed. The Federal Circuit affirmed the obviousness determination and held that it was barred from reviewing the institution decision because that decision is nonreviewable under 35 U.S.C. 314(d). The Supreme Court subsequently denied cert and the PTO issued a certificate of cancellation.

        • Arecor Therapeutics says polysaccharide vaccine patent upheld by European Patent Office [Ed: The EPO's kangaroo courts cannot exercise freedom to judge properly though]
        • Arecor Therapeutics Shares Jump as Vaccine Patent Is Upheld by European Patent Office
        • Case: Patents/Procedure (Fed. Cir.) [Ed: CAFC on PTAB crushing fake patents for crowd-funded efforts by their victims]

          The Federal Circuit remanded to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to determine whether to grant rehearing of Unified Patents LLC’s challenge to Mobility Workx LLC’s patent for methods for proactive allocation of wireless resources, in light of U.S. v. Anthrex Inc., 141 S. Ct. 1970 (2021), finding that administrative patent judges were unconstitutionally appointed. The board determined that certain patent claims were invalid as obvious, and on appeal, Mobility raised constitutional challenges to the USPTO’s structure. The Federal Circuit remanded to the board for the limited purpose of allowing Mobility the opportunity to request director-rehearing of the final written ...

        • Can Artificial Intelligence be an Inventor? Different Countries Reach Different Conclusions
        • Can Artificial Intelligence Be An Inventor? Different Countries Reach Different Conclusion [Ed: Can your pet cat get a patent? Only two insignificant patent office might say OK... but the law firms make a mountain out of this molehill in pursuit of patent maximalist agenda]

          Artificial intelligence ("AI") technology and its applications across various sectors of the economy are growing exponentially. As AI advances, one of the important, practical challenges that courts, governments and regulators face is whether current intellectual property legal frameworks are equipped to address a question that is already upon us: Can an AI be granted a patent?

        • Clearmind Medicine Files Provisional Patent Application Related to Methods of Drug-Assisted Psychotherapy [Ed: Too much emphasis on patents and not patients]
        • One more UPC Signatory State to ratify the PAP Protocol [Ed: More fake news about UPC; they need the UK and cannot have the UK. UPCA is dead, but they cheat, lie, bribe the media too sometimes.]
        • IPBC Europe in Dublin brought patent value issues to the fore

          Put another way, the IBM patent portfolio suddenly became a whole lot more valuable when Marshall Phelps took control of it in the early 1990s.

        • Japanese patent licensing firm IP Bridge is suing Ford Motor Company in Munich over former Panasonic SEP

          On the first of the month, L2 Mobile Technologies LLC, an entity affiliated with non-practicing entity Longhorn IP (named after the official state large mammal of its home state of Texas), sued Ford Motor Company over patent infringement in the District of Delaware (Courtlistener docket overview).

          Ford is not the most willing licensee among car makers. With Nokia, it once entered into a short-term license agreement that was more of a standstill agreement, and provided material to Daimler for use in its (meanwhile settled) dispute with the Finnish wireless company. Ford may prefer to lock horns with Longhorn over signing up for a license quickly, but whether that is an economically wise decision is in the eye of the beholder.

        • Strategic move: How Quinn Emanuel and Kirkland became US firm success stories in Europe [Ed: Mathieu Klos has turned from journalist into spammer. This isn't journalism or reporting, it's just marketing placement for litigation firms dressed up as "news". What shame; JUVE used to be a news site. Also notice the UPC plug (lie) in the third paragraph (and below, reproduced). JUVE is dead to me... just like UPCA]

          As the launch of the Unified Patent Court is once again within reach, the appetite among US law firms for European patent litigation business grows. In recent years, some US heavyweights have successfully established IP teams in Europe. Thanks to their excellent US clients, this list includes Jones Day, McDermott Will & Emery, WilmerHale and DLA Piper, among others.

        • Munich’s Long Night of Museums: Exploring Art at the European Patent Office [Ed: Once again, as before, con artists who hijacked the EPO, pretend to care about art]



          For Munich's Long Night of Museums on 16 October 2021, the EPO is showing the German version of a film about its high-calibre art collection for the first time. Throughout the evening, members of the public can also attend new outdoor art tours on the premises of the EPO, which is one of the main sponsors of this year's epic event. The artworks covered in each 30-minute tour are to be specially illuminated for the occasion by the Munich video artist Raphael Kurig.

          [...]

          "For 40 years, the EPO art collection has reflected an impressive openness to new ideas and, at the same time, the diversity and richness of European culture. The EPO is very proud of its unique collection, which originated in Munich and continues to inspire staff and visitors to the Office today. As an international organisation with strong roots in Munich, interaction with the local community is important to us. The sculptures in our green spaces, including works by Max Bill, Eduardo Paolozzi, Steven Rand and Hansjörg Voth, contribute to the development of the urban landscape and invite Munich residents to get to know us better."

        • Launch of Search Pilot for National Offices [Ed: Deeply corrupt EPO still trying to 'absorb' patent offices that aren't corrupt and infiltrated]

          The EPO has recently launched on 13 October the pilot for the new Cooperation Search system, which will be used by over 100 examiners in 8 national offices over an initial period of six months. The pilot national offices of member states include the UK, France, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark and Austria, with other offices either testing or intending to join later.

          The tool is closely based on the EPO's modern ANSERA search system, in use since 2016, and aims to eventually replace the current EPOQUENET system used by member states since 1991.

        • Lithuanian e-filing becomes first national patent application to be made using new Front Office software [Ed: EPO has brought up Lithuania again [1, 2]]

          On 13th October 2021, a Lithuanian patent application became the first national filing to be made using new Front Office e-filing software. This is the result of intense collaboration between the EPO and several national patent offices including Lithuania, Spain and Greece, as part of the EPO's IT Co-operation Programme.

          The initial Front Office service, launched today, supports the filing of national patent applications at a national office. The scope of the service will be incrementally extended to cover the filing of various requests and replies, EP validations, etc. The service will be hosted on each National Office's own infrastructure and will be adapted to that office's specific requirements.

        • Software Patents

          • Unified seeking additional IEEE, MPEG, and 3GPP training sets [Ed: Strange approach for tackling a software patents cartel around codecs (even in places where such patents lack actual validity/legitimacy)]

            Unified Patents is seeking to license and supplement existing training sets of patents found essential and nonessential to 3GPP (5G, LTE, V2X); IEEE / 802.11 / WiFi; and Video Codecs ( VVC / H.266 and AV1). The patents and applications should be reviewed by experts and mapped against the technical specifications. This would be a joint effort and collaboration to understand fundamental technologies and their corresponding patent landscape. If you are interested in participating please contact info@unifiedpatents.com.

          • Smart Path Connections patent challenged

            On October 11, 2021, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 7,551,599 owned and asserted by Smart Path Connections, LLC. The ‘599 patent generally relates to methods and systems for improved utilization of communications networks configured as layer-2 ring networks. The patent has been asserted against Juniper Networks and Adtran.

      • Trademarks

        • Ecuador eased border enforcement but must fix backlog: lawyers [Ed: Yielding and wielding shameful propaganda against Ecuador by speaking to nobody but lawyers, i.e. those who fund this 'article']

          A law enacted in August has relaxed enforcement rules and harshened penalties, but brands still face long waits for trademarks, say five Ecuadorian partners

        • Battle of the spiritual and holistic therapists over ‘Archangel Alchemy’ trade mark

          Trade mark disputes with accompanying passing off claims are nothing new. But what happens when the public being considered is fairly niche and, as such, smaller than those that would arise in your ‘everyday’ trade mark cases? Well, such a case arose before the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) recently, in one of the most unique contexts to date.

          As succinctly and aptly described by HHJ Clarke in her opening paragraph: “This [was] a dispute between two spiritual and holistic therapists over use of the trade mark ‘ARCHANGEL ALCHEMY’ to sell metaphysical/spiritual education and coaching courses which aim to connect participants with archangels”.

          [...]

          What was particularly interesting about this case was the quantification of the use of ARCHANGEL ALCHEMY with regards to Wenman’s general business. Ordinarily, the mark in question in such proceedings is the main mark that the parties use, as opposed to be a ‘subsidiary’ one. However, it does emphasise the importance of use of the mark beyond actual (or estimated) percentage use in the grand scheme of the business, such that Wenman had nonetheless demonstrated that she had accrued the necessary goodwill.

          In EU case law, a similar standard has been upheld. In Anheuser-Busch (C-96/09P), the CJEU noted that in order to be capable to prevent registration of a new sign, the sign relied on in opposition “must actually be used in a sufficiently significant manner in the course of trade”, with “account [to] be taken of the duration and intensity of the use of that sign as a distinctive element vis-à-vis its addressees, namely purchasers and consumers as well as suppliers and competitors. In that regard, the use made of the sign in advertising and commercial correspondence is of particular relevance.” This was in the context of an EU trade mark opposition, relying on Article 8(4) of Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 - now Article 8(4) of EUTMR) - which also takes into account usages of such non-registered marks (though also requiring more than mere local significance).

      • Copyrights

        • Gaming the System: Economic incentives are preventing desperately-needed game archiving

          For many years now, there has been an ongoing debate about the artistic merit of video games. As a form of media, should they be held in the same regard as movies, TV and music? In terms of archiving, at least, video games lag far behind these counterparts.

          Video games hit store shelves as soon as the technology for playing them began to be invented, and as a result, the hardware was constantly evolving. The Nintendo Entertainment System came out in the 1980s, with games loaded onto chips inside big plastic cartridges. Graphics became more advanced and cartridges grew smaller until, eventually, games moved to disc formats, with developers releasing a new console every few years to keep up.

        • The paradox of open: How to build a better internet

          In an era when content rules, the impulse to expand access to creative works is an idea whose time has been around for at least 20 years. It is hard to even imagine today’s maker culture of re-mix and re-use in a proprietary world dominated by copyright.

          Early on in 2001, when the Creative Commons (CC/cc) organisation was founded by Lawrence Lessig as a United States-based charity to legally adopt creative licences across jurisdictions, it was a measure of reform to copyright legislation intended to build a healthy digital commons.

        • Many ways to skin a cat: BlindSA obtains a court declaration on the unconstitutionality of the South African Copyright Act [Ed: Litigation profiteers like this author might never be able to truly understand why some nations don't wish to succumb to the regime of copyright barons from abroad]

          As IPKat readers may know, the legislative process to amend South Africa's current Copyright Act has been a long continuing one with BlindSA amongst others, at its forefront. Indeed as this Kat has reported on this blog (here), the process of addressing the South African President's reservations regarding the Copyright Amendment Bill (CAB) just kicked off in May 2021 (11 months after the President had sent his reservations in a letter to Parliament).

          It seems that BlindSA decided to pursue other legal means to achieve its aim of using copyright exceptions to legitimise unlicensed access to copyright-protected works for visually impaired persons. Late in September, a High Court in Gauteng Division ruled on a motion filed by BlindSA in Blind SA v Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (14996/21) challenging the constitutionality of South Africa's current Copyright Act on the grounds that the statute limits people with visual and print disabilities from accessing copyright-protected materials in formats such as Braille, among others.



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