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Links 6/3/2022: digiKam 7.6.0 and Firefox Buxfixes



  • GNU/Linux

    • Applications

      • digiKam 7.6.0 is released

         After one month of active maintenance and another huge bug triage, the digiKam team is proud to present version 7.6.0 of its open source digital photo manager. See below the list of most important features coming with this release.

        Long time ago, the AppImage packaging suffered from an important lack of International Components for Unicode (ICU) support. Typically, digiKam and Showfoto deal with the string internally using Qt, but the framework was not compiled with the ICU library to handle properly all string encoding used over the world.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • TubstaNative IPv6 with OpenBSD and Aussie Broadband

        We are coming on two decades since IPv6 became a recognised standard and generally available but it is still not being widely adopted by people and organisations that have easy access to IPv4 address space. Even if you have a native IPv4 address, it will typically be in the form of some CG-NAT or other NAT on your customer premises equipment (CPE).

        Things work so much better when they have a dedicated, routable IP address, especially when they don’t need to share a state table with other connections.

      • Mark HansenImaging Bad Hard Drives (with a Synology NAS)

        This is what I learned, trying to recover data from a bad drive. Most of this post should work for imaging a disk on a regular non-Synology Linux system.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install LibreWolf Browser on Debian 11 Bullseye

        LibreWolf is a Firefox fork that focuses on privacy and security by eliminating telemetry, which can be invasive to your personal information, along with increased protection against tracking and fingerprinting techniques, while also including a few security improvements.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install LibreWolf Browser on Debian 11 Bullseye. The tutorial will go over importing the official repository and gpg key and updating and removing the browser.

      • How to install KumbiaPHP on Debian 11 / Ubuntu 20.04?

        For many, English is the universal language, but there is also a very active community of Spanish-speaking developers. That is why we have created a PHP framework with a Latin flavor so that everyone can take advantage of it. Today, you will learn how to install KumbiaPHP on Debian 11 / Ubuntu 20.04

      • Its FOSSHow to Install and Use FileZilla on Ubuntu Linux

        If you ask the geeky sysadmins, they will swear by rsync or scp commands for transferring files between remote server and local system.

        However, those are command line methods and not everyone feels comfortable.

        Thankfully, there are some GUI tools available that let you transfer files to or from the remote servers.

        FileZilla is a popular, cross-platform, open-source tool for this purpose. It supports transferring file using FTP over TLS or SSL (FTPS) and also FTP over SSH (SFTP) along with old FTP protocol.

      • Tom's HardwareHow To Change File or Directory Permissions in Linux | Tom's Hardware

        If you’ve ever tried to run a script from the command line in Linux and gotten an error message saying that it’s not executable or attempted to enter a directory only to be blocked by the system, you probably don’t have permissions to do those things. Fortunately, if you have the proper rights or the ability to act as a super user (accessible by using sudo), you can change the permissions on files and directories.

        In this how-to we’ll look at the chmod command, a powerful command that can change file and directory permissions for the owner, user group members and others. In a section below, we’ll also explain how to tell what group your user is in and exactly what Linux means by “others.”

        Whilst you become accustomed to these commands it’s good to work with example empty files and directories and you should take extra care to ensure you are carefully following the instructions.

        All the commands in this how-to will work on most Linux machines. We’ve used a Ubuntu 20.04 install but you could run this how-to on a Raspberry Pi. All of the how-to is performed via the Terminal. You can open a terminal window on most Linux machines by pressing ctrl, alt and t.

      • H2S MediaHow to Install Krita on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish - Linux Shout

        Learn the different ways to install Krita on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy JellyFish using the command terminal for creating beautiful drawings.

        What is Krita?

        Krita is free drawing software that also lets you create animations and export them as videos. What distinguishes the program from comparable applications? Krita is kept relatively slim but does not lack any of the central functions. You can customize both the user interface and the tools to suit your needs.

        For example, you can freely move and adjust the set-up of the individual tool elements on the user interface. You can save your preferred settings so that they are right there waiting for you next time.

        You also have the option to customize the existing wide brush and tool palette. For example, brushes can be imported from other drawing applications or you can create your own.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Spotify on Manjaro 21 Linux

        Spotify is a digital music streaming service with both free and paid features. It is the world’s largest music streaming service provider, with over 381 million monthly active users, including 172 million paying subscribers, as of September 2021. Spotify can give you instant access to a vast online library of music and podcasts, which is very popular as you can listen to the content of your choice whenever you feel like it.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Spotify on Manjaro 21 Linux. The tutorial will use the command line terminal with yay AUR helper, ideally most users may be using some wrapper for Pacman, for new users, it is essential to install one to keep your packages up-to-date while you learn Arch/Manjaro.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install MakeMKV on Manjaro 21 Linux

        MakeMKV is a free, open-source tool that can convert video clips from DVDs and Blu-rays, usually encrypted. The output will have most information preserved but not changed in any way; it’s perfect for people who want their media without hassle or headache caused by software limitations like those found with some other transcoder apps.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install MakeMKV on Manjaro 21 Linux. The tutorial will use the command line terminal with yay AUR helper, ideally most users may be using some wrapper for Pacman, for new users, it is essential to install one to keep your packages up-to-date while you learn Arch/Manjaro.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Discord on Manjaro 21 Linux

        Discord is a free voice, video, and text chat app used by tens of millions of people to talk with their communities. Users can communicate via calls or videos in private chats and media files that are usually shared within servers/communities called “servers.” The software has been available on Windows systems since 2009 but also implements OS X (2010) & Linux distros too!

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Discord on Manjaro 21 Linux. The tutorial will use the command line terminal with yay AUR helper, ideally most users may be using some wrapper for Pacman, for new users, it is essential to install one to keep your packages up-to-date while you learn Arch/Manjaro.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Sublime Text 4 on Manjaro 21 Linux

        Sublime Text 4 is an excellent choice as your go-to program to edit code. Sublime is known for its speed, ease of use, cross-platform, and community contribution. It natively supports many programming languages and markup tongues, but users can also expand its functionality with plugins!

        The Python API makes it easy; make sure you download within Sublime, or they won’t appear in settings. Also, you can further customize and enhance it by installing additional features using package control and custom settings.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Telegram on Manjaro 21 Linux

        Telegram is a popular free cross-platform, cloud-based instant messaging system. Telegram is famous for providing end-to-end encrypted video calling, VoIP, file sharing, amongst many other features. One of the main attractions of Telegram, it is unique in having no ties or shared interests with the big social media giants such as Facebook or Twitter. The application is also cross-platform, with app versions available for most operating systems for desktops and mobile/tablet devices.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Telegram on Manjaro 21 Linux. The tutorial will use the command line terminal with yay AUR helper, ideally most users may be using some wrapper for Pacman, for new users, it is essential to install one to keep your packages up-to-date while you learn Arch/Manjaro.

    • Distributions

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • The National Science Foundation bets big on open source

         The NSF is an independent agency of the United States government and the premier funding agency for fundamental research and education in all non-medical fields of science and engineering. They are now major open source supporters as well. To be fair, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds medical research in the United States, is also already a big fan of open source with the first open-access mandate and even an open source 3-D Printing Exchange made famous during the pandemic.

        With PEOSE, the NSF hopes to harness the power of open source development for the creation of new technology solutions to problems of national and societal importance. Existing NSF-funded research projects already result in publicly accessible, modifiable, and distributable open source software or data platforms and now even open hardware that catalyzes further innovation. Open source savings for scientists are large. The return on investment (ROI) for funders of open source development (100s-1,000s% after only a few months) is frankly too high to ignore. The NSF wants to follow the best examples of open source development where the product is widely adopted and forms the foundation of a self-sustaining open source ecosystem (OSE). A distributed community of developers and a broad base of users across academia, industry, and government make up these OSEs. Think Linux for software, Arduino for electronics, or RepRap for manufacturing hardware.

      • Web Browsers

      • Programming/Development

        • XeWant to Learn a New Language? Write a Blog Backend!

          It's also designed to make you dip your toes into a lot of commonly used technologies and computer science fundamentals in the process. Namely it makes you deal with these buzzwords: [...]

        • Eric RescorlaUnderstanding The Web Security Model, Part I: Web Publishing

          Like many pieces of technology, the Web is one of those things that people are perfectly happy to use but have absolutely no idea how it works.[1] It's natural to think of the Web as a publishing system, and at some level it is: the Web lets people publish documents for anyone to read. But what the Web really is is a distributed computing platform that lets Web sites run code on your computer.[2] Originally, of course, that code just rendered documents, but now it's used for everything from documents (like the one you're reading now) to text-based applications like Slack or even videoconferencing apps like Google Meet. Unsurprisingly, then, the Web has a unique security model, which is the topic of this series of (some unknown number of) posts.

          I meant to start right in on security but then I realized I first needed to provide enough background of how the Web works to have the security stuff make sense. This post is the first half of that background material, covering the structure of Web sites and pages. There will be a second post that covers Web "applications". This isn't a textbook or a specification, so I don't intend to provide a complete picture; the idea here is to cover the essential elements for understand the security model.

        • Trail Of BitsOptimizing a smart contract fuzzer

          During my winternship, I applied code analysis tools, such as GHC’s Haskell profiler, to improve the efficiency of the Echidna smart contract fuzzer. As a result, Echidna is now over six times faster!

        • Remy Van ElstQt 5.15.3 Open Source released

          Qt is a nice C++ framework with a GUI toolkit on top, actually, 2 toolkit, Widgets and Qml. Qt is available under the GPL and LPGL, open source licenses and a closed source license. Back in 2020, the Qt company decided to start a war against their own users and contributors by withholding the 5.15 code, only releasing them under a closed license, making the offline installers available to paid customers and requiring a Qt account for the online installer. Due to an agreement with the KDE project they are obliged to release the code after one year under an open source license, and that time has come for 5.15.3. For most LTS releases, the Qt company writes a blog post, but this open source release only gets a mailing list post (One day and 4 blog posts later, no mention of 5.15.3 on their blog). This short post is intended to give a bit more publicity to that release and to tell you about the KDE Qt 5.15 LTS patch collection. Even if I might not agree with the business practices, the framework is nice to work with.

        • Python

          • EarthlyCircleCI with Python and Django

            I’m currently working on a project comparing different CI/CD pipelines, trying to get a better idea of what each offers, how they run, and how much it takes to get them set up. My first stop was CircleCi.

            If you’re looking for a reliable CI/CD platform to deploy your Python Django project, CircleCi offers a lot. It’s easy to set up, comes with tons of reusable set ups called Orbs, and best of all, offers up to 6,000 build minutes per month for free.



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