Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 20/2/2022: Free Software in U.S. Department of Defence and GNOME 42 in Focus



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • 2021 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Award Winners

        The polls are closed and the results are in. We once again had some extremely close races (and multiple ties) and the large number of new categories this year certainly kept things interesting. Congratulations to each and every nominee. The official results: [...]

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Kernel 5.16.10 broken

        Same story. I compiled the 5.16.10 kernel, booted it, it spewed out a lot of stuff to the screen, then a black screen and had to do a hard power-off.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How To Install Boost Note on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Boost Note on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Boost Note is an open-source and advanced note-taking editor app for programmers and developers. It’s an application that is available for major operating systems such as Linux, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Arch Linux.

        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 the step-by-step installation of the Boost Note Note-taking app on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

      • SHOW USERS in MySQL - How to Show/List All Users in a DB

        In this short and simple tutorial, I’m going to show you how to show all the users in a MySQL/MariaDB database.

        There are many SHOW commands in MySQL: SHOW DATABASES, SHOW TABLES, SHOW VARIABLES, etc. Naturally, people expect there to be a SHOW USERS command. However, there’s no “SHOW USERS” in MySQL. There’s a different method to showing/listing all the users in a database in MySQL.

        I’ve wondered why there’s no SHOW USERS command, I even tried running SHOW USERS; in my early days. The actual command to show all the users in MySQL is still pretty simple and easy to remember.

      • Install AngularJS in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 Linux - Linux Shout

        AngularJS is a framework for development, here we learn the commands to install AngularJS on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy JellyFish or Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa using Terminal.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • First Look at GNOME 42’s Built-In Screenshot and Screencast Feature

          I bet that you’ve read about GNOME 42’s built-in screenshot and screencast feature in the past, but you probably never saw it in action in its full and final state. As such, I wanted you to be the first to see it in action and learn about its capabilities right here on 9to5Linux.

          First of all, I want to make it clear that this is not a new app that will replace the GNOME Screenshot utility, but a built-in functionality of GNOME Shell that you can activate in the GNOME 42 desktop environment and later versions via the PrtSc (Print Screen) key on your keyboard.

    • Distributions

      • Tiny Core Linux: The Smallest Linux Distro Ever Made

        You might look at the current crop of major Linux distros and see how big their ISO images are. It's common to see the sizes balloon to several gigabytes.

        [...]

        As the name suggests, Tiny Core Linux is a Linux distribution that is meant to have, well, a tiny core. It's intended to be the bare minimum to boot up and display a desktop. This includes the kernel, BusyBox, an FLWM desktop, and nothing else.

        The TinyCore ISO image is only 21MB. External applications are called "extensions" and must be downloaded separately through the package manager.

        The distro was founded by Robert Shingledecker, who had previously developed Damn Small Linux. You can consider Tiny Core Linux a spiritual successor to DSL.

        The idea behind Tiny Core is that the entire system will be copied into your RAM, making it very fast.

      • Slackware Family

        • I now have a US mirror for Slackware Live and other goodies | Alien Pastures

          Thanks to an anonymous sponsor, I am now operating a physical server in a US data center with a 1 Gbps connection to the Internet.

          This server addresses a complaint of many people who are trying to download ISOs of the Slackware Live Edition. My slackware.nl aka download.liveslak.org server is hosted in a Dutch datacenter in Amsterdam, and it looks like people outside Europe, in particular downloaders in Southern Pacific region, are experiencing terribly slow speeds when fetching content from that server.

      • Debian Family

        • Our pick of the best desktop environments for Debian | FOSS Linux

          Debian comes with support for basically every open-source desktop environment designed to work on Linux. This flexibility of Debian makes it such a compelling Linux distribution for playing around with. No matter if you are a casual desktop user, a power user who needs to manage workstations, or maybe you want to experience a Linux DE for the first time, Debian has you covered.

          In this article, we have decided to dive a little deeper and choose the best desktop environments for different Debian users. This classification explains which desktop environment will suit which kind of user to let you decide and choose one quickly.

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • The U.S. Department of Defence has published new guidelines for the internal use of open source for cyber defence purposes

        Specifically, the new guidelines on software development and open source software attached to the memorandum first and foremost require the Department to follow an "adopt, buy, create" approach when procuring software solutions, preferentially adopting existing government or open source software solutions before turning to proprietary systems, and only creating new non-commercial software when there are no other off-the-shelf solutions available or fit for purpose.

      • MEMORANDUM FOR SENIOR PENTAGON LEADERSHIP COMMANDANT OF THE COAST GUARD COMMANDERS OF THE COMBATANT COMMANDS DEFENSE AGENCY AND DOD FIELD ACTIVITY DIRECTORS [PDF]

        A. The Department must follow an "Adopt, Buy, Create" approach to software, preferentially adopting existing government or OSS solutions before buying proprietary offerings, and only creating new non-commercial software when no off-the-shelf solutions are adequate.

        (1) OSS meets the definition of"commercial computer software" and therefore, shall be given equal consideration with proprietary commercial offerings, in accordance with Section 2377 of Title 10, U.S.C. (reference (e)) (see also FAR 2.l0l(b), 12.000, 12.101 (reference (f)); and DFARS 212.212, DFARS 208.74, DFARS 227.7202, and 252.227-7014(a)(l) (reference (g))).

        (2) In accordance with FAR 13.104, (reference (h)) refusal to consider all OSS based solely on software being open source may be contrary to statutory and regulatory preferences for commercial products, and would unnecessarily restrict competition. OSS should be considered to the maximum extent practical.

      • Deputy CIO for Information Enterprise Danielle Metz and DoD Chief Software Officer Jason Weiss Hold a Media Briefing on the DOD Software Modernization Strategy

        DCIO(IE) DANIELLE METZ: Good afternoon everyone, really appreciate you participating today in this -- today's media roundtable, what I wanted to do is just provide a little context in terms of where the department has been on this journey in terms of evolving from the 2018 DOD Cloud Strategy to the Software Modernization Strategy that was just signed out last week by DSD Hicks. Our journey started in 2020, when we recognized that we had a significant problem but we weren't capturing what that problem set was, and what we wanted to be able to do was to take a step back and crystallize what the problem was. So that we can ensure that we were delivering what was needed as a solution set for the warfighter, and what I mean by that is we spent, and the Federal government has spent, a lot of time advocating for people to move to the cloud. But we never thought about what it would be once we were in the cloud, and that's where you're really harnessing the power of cloud and compute.

      • Programming/Development

        • 5 Top Free and Open Source C Web Frameworks - LinuxLinks

          One of the types of software that’s important for a web developer is the web framework. A framework “is a code library that makes a developer’s life easier when building reliable, scalable, and maintainable web applications” by providing reusable code or extensions for common operations. By saving development time, developers can concentrate on application logic rather than mundane elements.

          A web framework offers the developer a choice about how to solve a specific problem. By using a framework, a developer lets the framework control portions of their application. While it’s perfectly possible to code a web application without using a framework, it’s more practical to use one.

          C is a general-purpose, procedural, portable, high-level programming language that is one of the most popular and influential languages. It was designed to be compiled using a straightforward compiler, to provide low-level access to memory, to provide language constructs that map efficiently to machine instructions, and to require minimal run-time support. Many programming languages owe a considerable debt to C. It has become something of the lingua franca in the programming world.

    • Standards/Consortia

  • Leftovers

    • The Contract Is Signed

      This week I finally signed a contract with Seven Stories Press and Censored Press for the book I’m writing on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s case. On a professional level, it’s my first book contract. Reading through all the twisting and turning lines riddled with unnecessary jargon was on some level intimidating, but it was also validating. Guilty of Journalism: The Political Prosecution of Julian Assange will be released in 2023. The book will be about 250-280 pages.My final edit is due to the publisher in June. I’ll complete the last chapters for the book by the first week of May.

      Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth at Project Censored have already shown me a lot of support over the past months. They will be there every step of the way to help me write the best book possible on the United States government’s prosecution of a journalist.The details are not entirely worked out, but it looks like I will have discounted copies for paid subscribers of the Dissenter Newsletter when the book is released next year. I’ve written chapters covering the charges against Assange and the CIA’s war on WikiLeaks. Next week I move on to Chelsea Manning’s court-martial and the grand jury investigation, which eventually led to Manning being jailed for a year after she refused to testify against Assange.Thanks for all your patience during the first months of the year as I compile the book. By mid-May, reports from The Dissenter Newsletter should be more frequent. Until then, please know I am extremely gracious to have paid subscribers like you who helped me get to the point where writing a book was possible.

    • Dad Cuts Entire Town's Internet To Get His Kids Offline, Likely To Be Fined Or Even Jailed!

      The issue was brought to attention after the L'Agence nationale des fréquences (ANFR) - the organisation responsible for assessing radio frequencies in France received a complaint from a mobile operator. Signal drops were impacting the telephone and internet services of people living in Messanges.

    • Hardware

      • DIY Hydrophone Listens In On The Deep For Cheap | Hackaday

        The microphone is a pretty ubiquitous piece of technology that we’re all familiar with, but what if you’re not looking to record audio in the air, and instead want to listen in on what’s happening underwater? That’s a job for a hydrophone! Unfortunately, hydrophones aren’t exactly the kind of thing you’re likely to find at the big-box electronics store. Luckily for us, [Jules Ryckebusch] picked up a few tricks in his 20-year career as a Navy submariner, and has documented his process for building a sensitive hydrophone without needing a military budget.

      • It’s Bad Apple, But On A 32K EPROM | Hackaday

        The Bad Apple!! video with its silhouette animation style has long been a staple graphics demo for low-end hardware, a more stylish alternative to the question “Will it run DOOM?”. It’s normal for it to be rendered onto a screen by a small microcomputer or similar but as [Ian Ward] demonstrates in an unusual project, it’s possible to display the video without any processor being involved. Instead he’s used a clever arrangement involving a 32K byte EPROM driving a HD44780-compatible parallel alphanumeric LCD display.

      • DIY Float Valve For Passive Hydroponics Leverages 3D Printing | Hackaday

        [Billy] has a special interest in passive hydroponics (also known as the Kratky method), which is a way of growing plants in nutrient-rich water that does not circulate. As the plant grows and liquid level drops, only the tips of the roots remain submerged while more and more of the root surface is exposed to oxygen in a harmonious balance. However, “thirsty” plant types (tomatoes, for example) throw off this balance, and the system needs to be modified. To address this, [Billy] designed and printed a passive float valve system that takes care of topping up the reservoir only when needed, without using pumps or any other electrical equipment.

        Commercial or industrial float valves are too big to use in his small tanks, which led [Billy] to test dozens of DIY designs. He used everything from plastic water bottles to pipe ends, but nothing quite measured up. With 3D printing, [Billy] was able to create a sealed, lightweight float that exactly matched the housing and tube locations.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Supreme Court Could Restrict US Agencies' Regulatory Power in Air Pollution Case
      • The true cost of empty offices

        Cities have often bounced back from crises. From pandemics and earthquakes to floods and fires, the world’s urban powerhouses have emerged stronger when faced with adversity. After the Great Fire of London destroyed most of the city in 1666 a raft of fire-safety regulations were ushered in. Builders swapped timber for brick or stone. Walls were made thicker. Streets became wider. When cholera tore through America in the 1850s New York and other cities introduced sewage systems and public parks. As the disease spread to Paris, authorities there too introduced radical public-health measures. Tree-lined boulevards were built, fountains were erected and slums were cleared.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Google Drive is flagging some macOS files for copyright violation

          Some macOS users trying to upload their own files to Google's cloud storage service have been met with copyright violation notices.

          A disgruntled Reddit user recently reported that a '.DS_Store' file on their Google Drive was flagged by the search giant for violating its copyright infringement policy. Apparently, this isn't the first time this issue has been encountered as macOS users also reported experiencing similar problems last month.

        • Security

          • Reproducible Builds (diffoscope): diffoscope 205 released

            The diffoscope maintainers are pleased to announce the release of diffoscope version 205. This version includes the following changes:

            * Fix a file(1)-related regression where .changes files that contained
              non-ASCII text were not identified as being .changes files, resulting in
              seemingly arbitrary packages on tests.reproducible-builds.org and elswhere
              not comparing the package at all. The non-ASCII parts could have been in
              the Maintainer or in the upload changelog, so we were effectively
              penalising anyone outside of the Anglosphere.
              (Closes: reproducible-builds/diffoscope#291)
            * Don't print a warning to the console regarding NT_GNU_BUILD_ID changes in
              ELF binaries.
            

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • Explained: How a ‘fake image’ in a Saudi activist’s phone blew the lid off NSO’s Pegasus spyware

              As per the Reuters report, Citizen Lab found that al-Hathloul’s phone was infected with a version of the malware that could penetrate without requiring any action from the user’s end. This newer version, called the ‘zero click’ malware, launches itself in the device without the target of the spying ever having to click or tap a suspicious link.

              The ‘zero-click’ feature in Pegasus was introduced as an update to an earlier version of the malware, which required the target to click a link, sent either through an email, an SMS, or a message on WhatsApp or Apple’s iMessage.

              Such zero-click malware also delete all the evidence of their presence once they infect the user, thereby leaving behind no proof. This, according to cybersecurity researchers, makes it difficult to establish if the phones were being tracked.

            • Meta axes a head of global community development after he appears on video in underage sex sting – TechCrunch

              Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has confirmed to TechCrunch that Jeren A. Miles, who had been a manager of global community development, is no longer employed by the company after a video went viral on YouTube, which was then reposted on Reddit and other sites, featuring him in a sting operation conducted by amateurs […]

    • Defence/Aggression

      • The US Owes Afghanistan Reparations, Not Starvation
      • Russia alarmed about foreign troops on Bornholm

        To support its position, the Russian Embassy in Denmark has produced a note from 1946 relating to the Soviet handover of Bornholm to Denmark following WWII.

        Russia maintains that the note – an official correspondence between Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet Union’s foreign minister at the time, and Danish diplomat Thomas Døssing – proves Denmark agreed to never allow foreign troops onto the island.

        “1946 Notes from #DK and #RU sides on the issue of non-deployment of foreign troops on #Bornholm,” wrote the Russian Embassy in Denmark on Twitter.

      • Russia-Ukraine will be world’s first ‘naked war’

        Commercial satellites and civilian snaps produce a birds-eye view of the unfolding international crisis. It’s not likely to stop once the shooting starts but not everything can be taken at face value. Deliberate misinformation is regularly being fed into the mix.

        This can simply be a troll seeking enjoyment out of sewing chaos. It can also be a concerted campaign by military agents.

        But the tools needed to check, validate and verify are also in the hands of the general public.

    • Environment

      • Energy

        • Opinion | Forget Russia—Blame the Fossil Fuel Industry for Europe's Gas Dependency

          With the shadow of conflict in Ukraine threatening to turn the EU's energy crisis into a full-blown catastrophe should Russia turn off the gas supply, it is worth reflecting on how we got here.

        • Opinion | The Mountain Valley Pipeline Can Never Be Completed—Time For Everyone to Admit It

          The first tree should never have been cut, the soil never disturbed. That’s the take away from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ February 3 ruling on Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC. Each and every act of resistance to the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) over the last seven years is validated by this ruling.

        • Opinion | The Fossil Fuel Industry Is a Jobs-Killer

          For years now, any discussion about climate action or the need to move off fossil fuels has run headlong into a€ familiar quandary: The industries fueling the climate crisis create good jobs, often in areas of the country where finding work that can support a€ family is incredibly€ difficult.€ 

        • World funds own destruction with $1.8 tn subsidies: study

          The world must by 2030 slash $1.8 trillion in annual subsidies that destroy the environment, in order to "finance a net-zero global economy", according to a study Thursday from business groups including one founded by tycoon Richard Branson.

          The report, estimating the value of damaging state subsidies, was commissioned by Branson's nonprofit initiative The B Team and global coalition Business for Nature, which comprises academic, corporate and environmental organisations.

          The vast subsidies, totalling two percent of global gross domestic product, fund the "global destruction of nature" and governments worldwide must act, the two organisations said in a statement.

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Misinformation/Disinformation

      • How Facebook twisted Canada’s trucker [blockade] into an international movement

        This pipeline — from physical protest to social media to establishment outlets — is what has helped the [blockade] evolve from a local standoff into a televised event that can raise millions from supporters thousands of miles away. Almost all of that infrastructure pre-dates the [blockade] itself, drawing from anti-vaxx groups, QAnon, and other fringe communities. And while the [blockade] itself may soon be broken up by the Canadian government, those online pathways are much stickier.

      • Estonia calls on Russia to stop 'provocations, disinformation campaign'

        The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on social media that it was "seeing worrying reports on Russia's attempts to spike up tension in Eastern Ukraine".

        "Estonia fully condemns such actions and calls on Russia to stop the provocations and its disinformation campaign," it said, showing solidarity with Ukraine by using the #StandWithUkraine hashtag.

      • National Round-Up: Right-wing party leader claims Chernobyl blast only caused 50 deaths!

        It turns out that Vermund’s 50 were all emergency workers directly killed by the blast, whereas Jørgensen was including those who died as a result of the fallout.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Director of Blonde assures that the film will be for adults and mocks the rumors about its censorship

        Joyce Carol Oates decided to write a novel to analyze Monroe as a protagonist, whose role finally gave her some light and voice over her life. The story is not a classic biography and it is not totally based on real events, but it reflects very well the personality of the actress, what the world expected of her and the abuses she had to suffer. For several years, the novel was thought for an adaptation, but the appropriate way to achieve it or the perfect Monroe was not found until she arrived Anne of Arms.

      • Is 2022 the Year of Censorship?

        Part of the current cycle is clear myside bias, a psychological construct that notes it’s easier to see bad behavior among one’s foes than among one’s allies. This is why I think we observe people passionately condemning censorship from the “other side” yet paradoxically equally defending censorship among one’s allies. Typically, individuals try to excuse their censorship as not really censorship… school boards have the right to set pedagogy (true, they do), or the censorship is coming from private companies, not the government (true, the First Amendment isn’t concerned with even massive tech companies’ control of speech).

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • In Prison, We Celebrated the First Step Act. We Realized It Falls Far Short.
      • Inmates who died asked for release before falling ill with Covid

        The deaths of these three women imprisoned in West Virginia reflect a federal prison system plagued by chronic problems exacerbated by the pandemic, including understaffing, inadequate medical care, and few compassionate releases. The most recent statistics from the Federal Bureau of Prisons report 284 inmates and seven staff members have died nationwide because of covid since March 28, 2020. Medical and legal experts say those numbers are likely an undercount, but the federal prison system lacks independent oversight.

      • Hostility to Aurat March

        IT is that time of year once again when defenders of the patriarchy spring into action with spurious arguments to protect the status quo. This time, Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri is leading the charge.

        He has written to Prime Minister Imran Khan to ask him to ban Aurat March on International Women’s Day — March 8 — and declare it as International Hijab Day, claiming that the women’s rally held annually to mark the UN-designated occasion contravenes religious principles. Interestingly, the minister in his letter dated Feb 9 acknowledges the importance of International Women’s Day in raising awareness of women’s rights, but then proceeds to decry as un-Islamic the banners and slogans that often feature at the Aurat March.

      • Evangelist Beaten, Tied Up to Be Burned for Converting

        “My uncle accused me of embarrassing them by holding Christian evangelistic, open-air meetings and debates with Muslims,” Bruhan told Morning Star News. “He accused me of being an infidel by converting to Christianity, and that Allah will reward them in Jannah [garden paradise] if they kill me.”

        Bruhan remained quiet, he said.

        “He said to me that it is now the right time for me to receive punishment from Allah, whereby I was going to be burned alive and the birds of the air will enjoy me as their meat,” Bruhan said.

    • Monopolies

      • The last days of Myspace

        But capturing or killing rivals was only half the story. The other half was Facebook's ruthless campaign directed against its own users, whom Facebook sought to impose "switching costs" on. A "switching cost" is the value of everything you give up when you switch out a product or service for a rival. Facebook did everything it could to increase the switching costs of leaving for a competitor, including plotting to hold your family photos hostage:

        https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

        That's important, because low switching costs are kryptonite for network effects. If you could leave Facebook and still talk to your Facebook friends (the way you can leave your cellular carrier without leaving behind the people you talk to on your phone), then the first time Facebook really pissed you off, you could just quit.

        In other words, network effects are how companies like Facebook get big, but high switching costs are how they stay big.

      • Copyrights

        • Preemptive Blocking Orders Help Greece Tackle Sports Streaming Piracy

          A new amendment to Greece's copyright law makes it possible to block domain names and IP addresses of pirate live-streaming sources 24 hours before an event starts. The legislation mostly benefits sports rightsholders. Thus far, at least 362 domain names and 185 IP addresses have been blocked, stopping over 100,000 people from watching pirated streams.



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IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 05, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, April 05, 2026
Culture of Harassment Inside Microsoft, Says Former Director at Microsoft
listen to Microsoft insiders
Drone Strikes on Amazon (GAFAM) Datacentres Highlight Azure's Miniscule Share
Azure is failing
SLAPP Censorship - Part 35 Out of 200: How to Make ~10,000 Pound Sterling (13,220.50 United States Dollars) by Copy-Pasting and Editing 10 Pages
Today it's Easter Sunday, so we'll keep this part relatively short
Gemini Links 05/04/2026: Artemis II Mission Tracker, Meditation on Copyright, Alhena 5.5.5, "Gemini as the Final Frontier of Human Cognition"
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Falls to All-Time Low of ~60% in Switzerland, GNU/Linux Among Top Gainers
What will it take for mainstream media (not just geeks' site) to cover it?
Mainstream Media on "Practical Survivalism"
Suffice to say, panic buying begets more panic and price surges
Cloud Computing as a Cloud of Smoke (Your Hosting Provider is a "Legitimate" Military Target)
When a French datacentre went up in flames people joked that the "cloud" meant a cloud of smoke
Andreas Tille Congratulates Sruthi Chandran Before the Election for Debian Project Leader (DPL) is Even Over
Andreas Tille, the current Debian Project Leader (DPL) who has been in this role for nearly 24 months
When You Try to Change the World for the Better and Somehow They Find a Way to Say You Are the Villain
Don't be a fool. Don't fall for inversions of narratives.
Slop Was a Flop and Energy Crisis Will be Slop's Final Blow
Today we see no slopfarms in Google News
Links 05/04/2026: "Taiwanese Airlines to Hike Fuel Surcharges 157%" and Openly Racist Voter Suppression Starts in the US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2026: Playing with Hyprland and Migrating Antenna Filters
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2026: "Confidential Computing" as Proprietary Bundle of False Promises and "The Web Is an Antitrust Wedge"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 04, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, April 04, 2026