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Links 10/04/2022: MX Linux 21.1 “Wildflower” and Linux 5.18 RC2 Released



  • GNU/Linux

    • Mar Tech SeriesCIQ and Google Cloud to Provide Optimized Experience for Rocky Linux

      CIQ and Google Cloud have joined forces to provide mutual customers a direct and unified best-in-class support experience for Rocky Linux.

    • Linux Made SimpleLinux Weekly Roundup #177

      Hello! I hope you are doing well.

      We had a peaceful week, after all the Beta releases of the previous week. So many links this week.

      SELKS 7 , MX Linux 21.1 and KDE neon 20220407 have been released this week.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux 5.18-rc2
        It's Sunday afternoon for me, which means "rc release time". Things
        look fairly normal here, although it's early in the release cycle so
        it's a bit hard to say for sure. But at least it's not looking
        particularly odd, and we have fixes all over.
        
        

        Drivers is the bulk of it, and there's a little bit of everything here, although the AMD GPU driver fixes are perhaps the most noticeable. But there's also networking, scsi, rdma, block, you name it...

        On the non-driver side, we've got a bump in the diffstat for the static call infrastructure, but that's really just code movement. The actual changes are more spread out than that bump would imply, and are generally pretty small. There's some filesystem fixes, core networking, and obviously the usual architecture work.

        And as has been the case lately, there's the usual tooling updates - selftests and perf.

        Full shortlog appended, it's not exactly tiny, but it's easy enough to scroll through to get a feel for what's been going on.

        Testing appreciated as always, Linus

    • Applications

      • Linux LinksBest Free and Open Source Alternatives to Google Firebase

         Google has a firm grip on the desktop. Their products and services are ubiquitous. Don’t get us wrong, we’re long-standing admirers of many of Google’s products and services. They are often high quality, easy to use, and ‘free’, but there can be downsides of over-reliance on a specific company. For example, there are concerns about their privacy policies, business practices, and an almost insatiable desire to control all of our data, all of the time.

        What if you are looking to move away from Google and embark on a new world of online freedom, where you are not constantly tracked, monetised and attached to Google’s ecosystem.

        In this series we explore how you can migrate from Google without missing out on anything. We recommend open source solutions.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Linux Made SimpleHow to install SuperTuxKart on a Chromebook

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

      • ID RootHow To Install Linux Kernel 5.17 on Rocky Linux 8 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Linux Kernel 5.17 on Rocky Linux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, The Linux kernel is the main component of a Linux operating system (OS) and is the core interface between a computer’s hardware and its processes. Linus Torvalds announced the Linux Kernel 5.17 after a few weeks of development and it is available for general usage. Linux Kernel 5.17 was released with new features and support.

        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 Linux Kernel 5.17 on Rocky Linux. 8.

      • ID RootHow To Install LightZone on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install LightZone on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, LightZone is a free, open-source digital photo editor application that is one of the best alternatives to Adobe Lightroom. It is a non-destructive editor that enables users to copy the batch of photos with a single click. Users can build up a stack of tools that can be rearranged, readjusted, and turned off & on. LightZone is a multiplatform program, it already works on Windows, macOS, and 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 LightZone image editor 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.

      • ID RootHow To Install Nginx Web Server on Rocky Linux 8 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Nginx Web Server on Rocky Linux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Nginx is a free and open-source webserver. It is a high-performance HTTP server and reverses proxy. Nginx is also used as a load balancer, HTTP cache, and mail proxy. Compared to Apache, Nginx is a high‑performance, highly scalable, and highly available web server.

        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 Nginx Web Server on Rocky Linux. 8.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install CMake on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        CMake is a free, open-source, cross-platform compiler designed to build native environments, generate wrappers, and build executables in arbitrary combinations. CMake is popular due to its cross-platform so that developers using the build system work the way they’re used to.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install CMake on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish using the command line terminal using the APT method and downloading and compiling manually for users that want to maintain manually the latest version at all times.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Okular on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        Okular is a free and open-source multiplatform document viewer developed by the KDE community and based on Qt and KDE Frameworks libraries. The document viewer is distributed as part of the KDE Applications bundle. Its origins are from KPDF, and it replaces KPDF, KGhostView, KFax, KFaxview, and KDVI in KDE 4.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install WonderCMS with Nginx on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        WonderCMS is a fast and straightforward content management system requiring no database to create websites. It offers rich features such as a custom login URL, SEO friendly design with WYSIWYG elements for editing your site in plain text or HTML code formats; flexible CSS framework so you can change up the look on individual pages without affecting other parts of the webpage, including headings/font sizes, etc. Along with native markdown support, which allows users easy ways to publish articles online using only paragraphs.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install WonderCMS using Nginx and PHP along with importing up-to-date repositories or using the default version and how to create a server block and set it up using the command line terminal on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish desktop or server.

      • How to install Vesta Control Panel on Ubuntu 18.04 - NextGenTips

        Vesta Control Panel is a simple and clever web hosting control panel. It has the fine touch of Softaculus auto installer that is able to install more than 439 apps with one click. It also supports a great ton of features such as a built-in command-line interface, and Softaculus which you can focus on using the apps rather than installing. Has support for commercial plugins such as SFTP Chroot.

        In this tutorial, I will take you through the installation and configuration of the Vesta control panel step by step.

      • Linux CapableInstall WordPress with Nginx, MariaDB, PHP on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        WordPress is the most dominant content management system written in PHP, combined with MySQL or MariaDB database. You can create and maintain a site without prior web development or coding knowledge. The first version of WordPress was created in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little and is now used by 70% of the known web market, according to W3Tech. WordPress comes in two versions: the free open source WordPress.org and WordPress.com, a paid service that starts at $5 per month up to $59. Using this content management system is easy and often seen as a stepping stone for making a blog or similar featured site.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install self-hosted WordPress using the Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP versions available on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish, which can be installed on a desktop or but mostly CMS stacks such as this are installed on headless servers such as Ubuntu server. The tutorial will cover some essential points. Further reading into securing your WordPress site and customizing the back-end/front end will be required, and no Linux tutorial can cover this in one hit.

      • Ubuntu HandbookHow to Enable SSH Service in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | UbuntuHandbook

        This simple tutorial shows how to enable Secure Shell (SSH) in Ubuntu 22.04, so you can login remotely and transfer data securely via the cryptographic network protocol.

        Ubuntu uses OpenSSH to provide Secure Shell services. The client is pre-installed with out-of-the-box support for connecting to remove SSH server. The server package is available in system repository but not installed by default.

      • ID RootHow To Install Photivo on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Photivo on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Photivo is a free and open-source user-friendly photo processor that allows you to quickly modify and adjust bitmap (TIFF, JPEG, BMP, PNG, and many more) and RAW images. It’s a cross-platform application available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and 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 Photivo RAW file processor 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.

      • OpenSource.comNew book teaches readers how to tell data stories with PostgreSQL | Opensource.com

        DeBarros, currently a data editor at the Wall Street Journal, pulls from his practical experience in journalism to teach readers how to tell stories with data. The book consists of an introduction, 20 chapters, and several appendices. The introduction sets the tone for the book, explaining what the book is about and who it is for, and the 20 chapters teach lessons about various database topics. Chapter 1 is the traditional "how to set up your environment" chapter and covers how to install PostgreSQL on Windows, macOS, or Linux (specifically, Ubuntu). The following chapters cover the basics of working with SQL databases, like creating databases and tables, performing basic queries, understanding data types, importing and exporting data, and basic math and stats functions. The chapters then progress to more complex topics like joining tables and extracting, inspecting, and modifying data. By the time the reader reaches the book's midpoint, they should have a solid understanding of how databases work.

      • Trend OceansHow to enable bash completion in AlmaLinux/RHEL based OS

        After switching from the Debian distribution to AlmaLinux, I have found that bash-completion is not working when I press the TAB button for the next available suggestion

        I am very used to the bash-completion feature as it makes my job very easy. Can you tell me the steps to turn on this feature on my AlmaLinux machine?

    • Games

      • SportskeedaApex Legends finally playable on Linux: How to download and everything players need to know

        PC gamers have been ardently waiting to play Apex Legends on Linux and now they finally have the opportunity to do so. Even if it has not been officially revealed by the developers, many players have already tried it out and are happy with the results.

        Moreover, the battle royale game comes equipped with Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) on Linux, which is all the more reason to get excited. The news is yet to be published by EA, Valve, or Respawn Entertainment.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • LinuxiacMaterial Shell Extension Gets GNOME 42 Support

          Material Shell has been updated recently with GNOME Shell 42 support, fixing some existing bugs.

          Fans of the well-crafted cross between a tiled window manager and the modern GNOME Shell have reason to rejoice. The popular extension Material Shell has received support for the recently released GNOME 42.

          The project is named Material Shell because it adheres to the Material Design guidelines, giving the applications an aesthetically pleasing interface.

          However, this is not just a simple GNOME Shell extension. Material Shell completely changes the GNOME Shell user interface.

    • Distributions

      • Barry KaulerEmulate key press to popup drives menu

        In JWM-mode icon-free-desktop, there are two extra menus in the tray, a drives menu and a containers menu.

        I want the drives menu to popup automatically whenever there is some drive/partition activity, such as a USB-stick plugged in, or a partition unmounted. In Easy 3.4.5, this is achieved in script /usr/local/ui/jwm/popup-drives-menu. The script moves the mouse pointer over the drives-menu icon in the tray, then emulates a mouse middle-button click. This causes the drives menu to popup.

      • Reviews

        • Distro WatchReview: dahliaOS 220222

          One of the more interesting projects to show up in the DistroWatch waiting list in recent months is dahliaOS. Unlike many of the projects we talk about here, dahliaOS is not focused on desktop or server work. It is also questionable, based on the project's description, whether it is entirely intended to be a Linux distribution.

      • New Releases

      • Debian Family

        • MX Linux 21.1 Brings Much Needed Stability with Updated Debian Base

          summary of the new changes and features of MX Linux 21.1 "Wildflower".

        • Trend OceansMX-21.1 “Wildflower” based on Debian 11 without systemd support

          The MX development team has released MX-21.1 with Debian 11.3 as a base OS, and this is the first release after the EOL (END OF LIFE CYCLE) of Linux kernel 5.14, where you can find the 5.16 kernel in XFCE AHS editions.

          Compared to other MX variants, you will still find the 5.10 Linux kernel to use in their mainline editions for the sake of stability. And this is the first release where you can test Debian 11 (Buster) without the systemd service.

          Along with this rollout, they have improved system stability with a newer version of the preinstalled package. Out of the box, you will find the samba-config utility to configure SAMBA/CIFS user shares in a desktop-agnostic way.

        • MX LinuxMX-21.1 “Wildflower” released!

          Updated iso images

          We are pleased to offer MX-21.1 for your use.

          MX-21.1 is the first refresh of our MX-21 release, consisting of bugfixes, kernels, and application updates since our original release of MX-21. If you are already running MX-21, there is no need to reinstall. Packages are all available thru the regular update channel.

        • Beta NewsDownload MX Linux 21.1 'Wildflower' now

          MX Linux ranks number one for popularity over on DistroWatch, but truth be told, I do not know anyone that uses the distribution regularly. Don't get me wrong, it is a fine operating system, but it really isn't anything special. Quite frankly, the distro's need to exist is questionable at this point, but whatever.

          Despite the rather negative opening paragraph, I am pleased to tell you that the newest version of the operating system is ready to be downloaded. Huzzah! Given the codename "Wildflower," MX Linux 21.1 is a rather ho-hum point release. The developers share the changes below.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • Linux GizmosSolidRun & NXP launch World’s Smallest 16-Core System on Module

        Finally, SolidRun’s LX2-Lite provides software and documentation for well known Linux operating systems such as Debian, Ubuntu as well as other Yocto developer operating systems.

        SolidRun and NXP anticipates their SOMs to be used for data center networking applications, 5G ORAN applications and to ease the worldwide shift to SD-WAN network architectures.

      • Ingenuity's One Year of Mars Flights - Even a Stopped Clock



        Next week it’s going to be a year since Ingenuity made the first flight in an atmosphere of another planet. An atmosphere with about 1% of density of the one on Earth.

        Something that sounded unlikely became a great success with 24 flights so far. To celebrate the occasion I revisited an older project of mine and used more appropriate footage shot by my friend VOPO at Fuertaventura, Canary Islands. I rendered some overlays of the Ingenuity model kindly provided by NASA.

      • Open Hardware/Modding

        • 10-segment Led Bar and Raspberry PI Pico: Wiring and Code with MicroPython

          10 segment LED bar allows to get visual indicators, usually to measure the filling status. These electronic items work easily with Raspberry PI Pico, enabling to switching on-off each led separately

          In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to connect and use a 10 segment Led bar with Raspberry PI Pico, using MicroPython.

        • Gunnar Wolf● How is the free firmware for the Raspberry progressing?



          Raspberry Pi computers require a piece of non-free software to boot — the infamous raspi-firmware package. But for almost as long as there has been a Raspberry Pi to talk of (this year it turns 10 years old!), there have been efforts to get it to boot using only free software. How is it progressing?

          Michael Bishop (IRC user clever) explained today in the #debian-raspberrypi channel in OFTC that it advances far better than what I expected: It is even possible to boot a usable system under the RPi2 family! Just ¦ There is somewhat incomplete hardware support: For his testing, he has managed to use a xfce environment — but over the composite (NTSC) video output, as HDMI initialization support is not there.

          However, he shared with me several interesting links and videos, and I told him I’d share them — there are still many issues; I do not believe it is currently worth it to make Debian images with this firmware.

      • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Web Browsers

        • Mozilla

          • TalospaceFirefox 99 on POWER

            Firefox 99 is out. The major change here is that the Linux sandbox has been strengthened to eliminate direct access to X11 (which is important because many of us do not live in the Wayland Wasteland). Note that the sandbox apparently doesn't work currently on ppc64le; this is something I intend to look at later when I'm done with the JIT unless someone™ gets to it first.

            Unfortunately, Fx99 does not build from source on ppc64 or ppc64le and I was too busy on the JIT to do my usual smoke tests early. The offender is bug 1758610 but the patches do not apply cleanly to 99, so I have provided a consolidated diff for your convenience. You will also need a tweaked PGO-LTO patch; with those applied the .mozconfigs from Firefox 95 will work.

      • Programming/Development

        • Creative universe

          I have been participating in an annual work-internal project contest (we call it Pet Project contest) since I moved to London and switched jobs to my current employer. I am very happy to say that I won a "silver" prize last week here

        • Re: A phone that's just a web browser

          Before that there was also WebOS, although I don't know too much about that. Back then you could still run a web browser on low-end hardware. I don't recall it having the "killer feature" idea of the above post of being able to sync the phone and desktop seamlessly, but it certainly had the web-based apps including dialer, calculator, calendar, etc. Heck I even wrote an HTML app for the phone to import my contacts from vCards. I still have my original Geeksphone Peak Firefox Phone, although the battery is quite swollen.

          The problem with this idea is that the browser is a constantly moving target. Over the years the browser has become quite an inefficient way to build apps, although it has simultaneously become a popular way to build apps (see Electron). If you think Java is bloated and uses up too much RAM, try comparing the resource usage of a native app to the amount of RAM and CPU a comparable web-based app or Electron app uses! As a simple experiment, I compared VSCode (which many would consider lightweight-and-fast for an Electron app) with a python plugin, to [vim] + [CoC] + [python plugin], and the difference was huge in both startup time and memory usage - VSCode used around 500Mb more RAM for similar feature set and was much slower to start up.

          The web has also become quite commercialized, where users are now consuming content mostly through the browser. This has in turn forced the browser to implement anti-features like DRM, because very few people will choose to use a browser that doesn't support Netflix, over one that does. This isn't necessarily a problem by itself, but as I found out, the DRM is a binary blob with very little incentive to optimize performance especially on niche platforms like the Raspberry Pi, or an Impractical phone. Just look at the state of web browsers on the fairly popular Raspberry Pi, and you'll see the problem: hardware acceleration constantly breaks and is not optimized (on a Pi 4, 360p video in the browser takes 50% CPu, but in mpv takes less than 5%), and services like F1TV or Netflix will force you to upgrade to the latest version of the brwoser (which may not even be available for the Pi). I am ranting a little because this weekend F1TV implemented DRM and I could no longer watch it on my Pi-connected TV.

        • MiTubo 0.8: search, channels, watch later queue

          It has been a while since I last posted about MiTubo, despite releasing a few new versions in the last months. But now I think that there is enough new stuff that's worth a mention here.

          Initially MiTubo only came with a search feature that was using Yandex video as a backend; while that worked generally well, most of the returned results were not playable due to youtube-dl being unable to extract the video information from the returned web pages. So, now we have the option to search on YouTube, via the Invidious API; furthermore, it's also possible to search for channels, whose RSS feed can then be added as a subscription.

        • IAR Systems brings low-code state machine design solution to Linux

          IAR Systems€®, the world leader of software and services for embedded development, today announced the latest version of the graphical modeling and code generation solution IAR Visual State. The new version introduces cross-platform host support that allows IAR Visual State to run on either Linux or Windows, enabling flexible and efficient development workflows based on state machines.

        • Perl/Raku

          • How to Perl

            I recently worked on the Character Sheet Generator for Halberds and Helmets. I think most of that development happened back in 2015. I still use it, mostly to automatically generate a bunch of first level characters. The Monday Characters where generated like that. My idea was this: even if character generation is fast, it’s still not fast enough if we have less than two hours per session so people should just pick a character from the list. In order to ensure that the characters with below average stats are also picked, and to avoid the “click character generator link until you like the result” inclination, the setup was going to be as follows: I’d generate twenty characters and I’d only generate twenty more when all of the initial cohort had been picked by players. Since I’ve since been a player in the Barrowmaze dungeon, I’ve had to do just that and I’m happy with my hapless mages.

          • Linux Links3 Top Free and Open Source Perl Web Frameworks

             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.

            Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, scripting, dynamic programming language. Its syntax has its roots in shell scripting tools, borrowing features from other languages including C, shell script (sh), AWK, and sed.

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Daniel Stenbergmsh3 as the third h3 backend | daniel.haxx.se

        When you build curl, you have the option to build it with HTTP/3 support enabled. The HTTP/3 support in curl is still considered experimental so it is still not enabled by default.

        The HTTP/3 support in curl depends on the presence and support from third party libraries. You need to select and enable a specific HTTP/3 backend when you build curl. It has previously been doing HTTP/3 using either quiche or ngtcp2 + nghttp3. Starting now, there is yet another option to consider: the msh3 library.

  • Leftovers

    • Rant: hardware, software, data --- why issit not werka?

      Sigh.

      If you are not into electronic fiddling, overambitious ideas, overestimated skills and tools, and a continuous, if not annoying stream of whacky ideas, better stop reading now. You have been warned!

      Some time after the beginning of the year 2000 I started fiddling with microcontrollers. PIC16F84 was my first adventure. An Atmel instance of the venerable 8051 my second. Assembly and C were my tools of choice. I then discovered Forth and the Renesas R8C controller. Then I changed jobs, and controllers. Atmel ATmega controllers came to my workbench to stay for a long time. I did not like msp430 much, I never got the hang of ARM M0 or M4 controllers. And when the first risc-v controllers came around I was tired.

      So what to do with them fancy little machines? I settled on data acquisition quite soon, the environment being my main interest. Temperature is fairly easy as long as you have only one sensor. Once you switch to several, you find out soon, that proper calibration is not to be dismissed. Later you find out, that moisture will gnaw on your solder joints, connectors, parts. Measuring the distance to the water surface in a cistern using ultrasonic sensors sounds easy, however, at suspected 100% relative humidity (or more?) you sensor will slowly crumble. It's a mechanical device after all. For that very reason I didn't want any mechanical things like a float with chains to some count-the-links-contraption. You will find out, that for still unkown reasons said measurements drifts away some 1 cm equivalent only to disappear hours or days later for no apparent reason.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Why can’t you move the taskbar on Windows 11? (Reddit Ask Me Anything) [Ed: Reddit: Paid-for Microsoft marketing operation; Microsoft even pays trolls to comment there, based on whistleblowers]
        • Security

          • Open Source Security Podcast: Episode 318 – Social engineering and why zlib got a 2018 CVE ID

            Josh and Kurt talk about hackers using emergency data requests to gain access to sensitive data. The argument that somehow backdoors can be protected falls under this problem. We don’t yet have the technical or policy protections in place to actually protect this data. We also explain why this zlib issue got a 2018 CVE ID in 2022.

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • No, Your Laundry Machine Doesn't Need WiFi

              A friend of mine bought a laundry machine with a tumble dry function recently. It has several different programs and even admits a cheerful melody after it's done.

              And it has a WiFi network chip. Because... reasons? I have a dishwasher, a laundry machine, a tumble drier, a toaster, and more. None of them have ever had the ability to connect to the internet. Nor have I ever found a need for them to be. I mean, they do their respective jobs already.

              Internet of Things is a big trend these days, and there is no end to the problems it's caused for users of these items. From TVs deciding to take their time to update in the middle of Super Bowl to ovens being bricked because a server went offline.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Ditched T-Mobile Home Internet for Comcast. – BaronHK's Rants

        T-Mobile Home Internet has been getting worse in my area, to the point it was intolerable. I finally applied for the Affordable Community Broadband program and was approved.

        The ACB credit qualified me for free 60 Mbps down / 11 Mbps up on Comcast, and free is good, so I ditched the T-Mobile.

        The T-Mobile Home Internet Nokia modem is absolute garbage. It could almost never reliably lock on to a 5G signal, and when it could, it usually didn’t even perform at the minimum speed that they guarantee in an area. They say they won’t sell service in an area unless you can get 25 Mbps, but routinely I was left with half or two thirds of that, and that was in between modem crashes. Sometimes six or seven per day.

        I finally realized why it would crash so much. It’s because the thing is so full of bugs and they roll out new firmware constantly and it’s never any better than it was before, but also this modem is a portable space heater and eventually it will just fry itself. Before it konks out totally, it will just become unstable because of heat buildup, so you have to set it on top of a fan just so it won’t crash so much.

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • EPO Board of Appeal maintains functional epitope antibody genus claim (T 1964/18) - The IPKat

          Antibodies may be defined in a patent claim by their amino acid sequence, by their target (epitope) and/or their functional characteristics. Functional and epitope antibody claims can capture a whole class ("genus") of antibody therapeutics, whereas sequence claim language captures a far narrower field molecules. A recent Board of Appeal decision confirmed that genus antibody claims are not only allowable, but when put to the test, can survive appeal (T 1964/18).

        • Despicably deceptive: Big Tech's Save Our Standards campaign presents small app developer as victim of standard-essential patent abuse though it NEVER had to license SEPs

          I am outraged. What Save Our Standards, a "coalition" formed last fall, has recently employed is by far the most disingenuous lobbying and campaigning tactic ever in the context of standard-essential patents (SEPs). It's an utter disgrace, brutally unethical and shockingly incompetent at the same time. The companies who funded that particular effort--mostly Big Tech, but also automotive industry players--should be ashamed. Very ashamed.

          In an infomercial, they presented a small contract development firm from Alabama as an example of a small business that allegedly has reasons to worry about standard-essential patent (SEP) abuse. But the facts are 100% clear. It's all a lie. A damn lie, just for political again. Deceptive lobbying at its worst. The truth of the whole matter is that the company in question never had to license a single SEP--and not even the customer for which it developed the only existing app mentioned in the infomercial incurred the slightest risk related to SEPs. One just needs to understand the basics of U.S. patent law to understand why, and I'll explain it further below based on a transcript of that Save Our Standards infomercial. If you want to skip the other explanations and go straight to the most absurd part of that infomercial, click here.

          With their small-business lie they're trying to get other small businesses to sign up for a newsletter (presumably so they can subsequently make some of them "members" and argue that their agenda is not just about Big Tech and car makers' interests' in devaluing SEPs). They even try to fool the DOJ, USPTO, and NIST into believing there's a small-business concern here.

        • Arguing Claim Construction: Step 1, Choose your Canons | Patently-O

          The district court narrowly construed Littelfuse’s U.S. Patent No. 9,564,281–leading to an admission of non-infringement. On appeal, the Federal Circuit has vacated and remanded–finding that the proper construction provides a broader scope.

          [...]

          On remand: The patent discloses a multi-part cap with a stem; and a unitary cap without a stem. The accused product is apparently a merger of these two – a unitary cap with a stem. The Federal Circuit has ruled here that the claims extend that far. On remand, the district court may consider whether the full extent of this expanded claim scope is supported under the written description and enablement requirements of 112(a).

      • Trademarks

        • The Louboutin/Amazon cases (C-148/21 and C-184/21) and primary liability under EU trade mark law - The IPKat

          Last year The IPKat reported on a new referral to the Court of Justice of European Union (CJEU) from Luxembourg’s Tribunal d’arrondissement, asking whether the operator of a hybrid marketplace could be considered directly liable for trade mark infringement due to the presence of third-party listings of infringing goods on its platform.

          That referral (C-148/21) has now been joined to another one (C-184/21) made in separate but highly similar proceedings pending between the same parties (Louboutin and Amazon) before the Tribunal de l’entreprise francophone de Bruxelles.

      • Copyrights



Recent Techrights' Posts

Father of XBox Says What Microsoft Does Not Want to Hear About XBox (They All Know It's Dead)
Microsoft just worried shareholders will find out Sharma is "just a face" and an undertaker
France Needs to Focus on Software Freedom, Not Flags
We need more SIP advocacy!
Combatting Censorship in the "Civilised World": The Media Blackout Surrounding EPO Strikes and Other Large-Scale Actions
We - collectively speaking - cannot afford to keep the Office in the hands of a "Mafia"
EPO Strike Actions and Other Industrial Actions Are Effective When Management Fears the Staff and Staff No Longer Fears Any Managers
'António the unready' should get ready to be ousted
IBM Did Not Fall Because of COBOL Vapourware, IBM Still Collapses Because It's Worthless, Way Overvalued, and Very Likely Cooks the Books
language-to-language conversion (in the context of programming) is nothing new
Quitting Reddit (Social Control Media Controlled by Conde Nast)
There is a new post in Reddit
Links 24/02/2026: Telephone Turns 150, Political News Catchup, and Rearmament
Links for the day
 
HR Blunder at IBM or IBM Struggling With Money?
Weird for such an allegedly rich company to be so stingy
Gemini Links 24/02/2026: x86 Computer In-Browser and Administration
Links for the day
Envy is the #1 Enemy of Richard Stallman
Whenever you see someone mocking Richard Stallman, ask yourself: does this person have a reason to be jealous of Richard Stallman?
Life is Sweeter When Less Means More
People need to think "small", not "big" (as in capital)
Championing a Cause
Probably over 100 million GNU/Linux users on laptops/desktops
Balmoral rape cult & Debian suicide cluster indifference, community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Can Much Longer Can the Financial 'Press' (Pump-n-Dump Megaphone) Cheer for IBM's Accounting Enigma?
IBM has fallen almost 25%
Religious or Not, Consider Quitting Social Control Networks (All of Them) This Season
Lent is a good time to quit addiction such as social control media
Liberating the Self From the Invisible Prison of Plutocrats-Controlled Media and Social Control Media
Can you always see the full picture or does something (someone powerful) obstruct it?
Links 24/02/2026: Drug Cartel Decapitated, Jeffrey Epstein-Connected 'Linux' Foundation Promotes Slop and Buzzwords at MWC Barcelona 2026
Links for the day
2023: Layoffs Are Because of "AI". 2024: Shares Up Owing to "AI". 2025: Shares Recently Fell Due to "AI". 2026 Forbes (Paid by IBM): Shares Falling is Good!
"AI" is smoke and mirrors
Bitcoin: Code of Conduct stifled open source concerns
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Slop Boosters and 'Hype Agents' Render Themselves Irrelevant and the General Public Becomes Incredulous Due to "Bros Who Cry Wolf!"
It won't age well
"Half-baked Vibe Code Shipped Full of Errors"
Seems timely after our latest article
Links 24/02/2026: Copyright Litigation Over Anne Frank’s Diary, "Arrogance of Developers"
Links for the day
Another New Low for Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA): Authorising Slop Disguised as "Legal Advice"
SRA is a lapdog - not a watchdog - of the "litigation industry"
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part IV - "Many Jobs Were Given to Spanish Employees for No Related Skills At All"
The EPO's fate might be similar to that of the XBox
Gemini Links 24/02/2026: Hardware Tinkering and Slop Bots Attacking the "Small Web"
Links for the day
IBM is the World Champion at Layoffs and There Are Reportedly More Layoffs in IBM This Month (EU)
IBM fired 60,000 in 1993
Free Software is for Everyone
Young and old, rich and poor etc.
Gemini Links 24/02/2026: Voltage Divider on Slide Rule and Many Raspberry Pi Projects
Links for the day
Asha Sharma "a Palliative Care Doctor Who Slides Xbox Gently Into the Night"
2026 will probably be the last year of XBox
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 23, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, February 23, 2026
Probably IBM's Worst Day in Wall Street in Well Over a Decade
They try to blame some Anthropic slop, but that's just a distraction from IBM having nothing to offer
The Monday After the 9PM-on-Friday Prepared Puff Pieces-Under-Embargo Microsoft Strategy for XBox Collapse
There are more layoffs ahead at Microsoft's XBox
Kyndryl Also in a Freefall Today, James Kavanaugh's Accounting Skills Seem to be Based on Pumping and Dumping
What is the real value of Kyndryl when its debt is about twice its alleged "worth"?
Not Much Left to "Pump" in This Slop Bubble
let's hope that by the end of the year the whole bubble fully implodes
IBM Common Stock Crashes Hard (Almost $100 Below the Levels of February's Beginning)
Another Kyndryl?
Links 23/02/2026: Withdrawal From Slop and Ukraine Invasion Enters Fifth Year
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/02/2026: Moving to Gentoo, Wake-on-LAN Script
Links for the day
Kyndryl Fell by About 50% in One Day, IBM Fell 23% in 20 Days
the IBM Titanic
Security and blobs, by Alex Oliva (GNU Linux-Libre)
Reprinted with permission from Alex Oliva
Trusting the Evil Maids
Don't listen to liars and frauds
Aaron Swartz Has Already Explained What Reddit/Conde Nast Meant to Him and Why We Should All Avoid Reddit If We Value Software Freedom
Aaron Swartz did not start Reddit
Valnet's Good Legacy of GNU/Linux Advocacy in Journalism Form
Let's hope they carry on like this
Techrights Thanks Every Single EPO Worker Who Went on Strike Today
We have so much in common
Coders and Thinkers
I used to be a hyper-productive coder; these days I do more thinking and writing
Slop (So-called 'genAI') is Not a Skill, Slop Gets You Suspended or Even Sacked, It Can Eventually End Your Career
Benj Edwards, a so-called 'Senior' so-called 'AI' so-called 'Reporter'
There is No Such Thing as "AI Skills", "AI Competency", "AI Fluency" Etc.
Slop does not give anybody an advantage
EPO Staff Union: The Strike Actions and Other Industrial Actions "Have Already Delivered Measurable Gains."
SUEPO Munich has just issued a statement to staff
Links 23/02/2026: "What Boston Will Cost Me" and Women as Hostages
Links for the day
IRC Usage Levels Seem to be Rebounding This Year
it looks like the total count (tally) of users increased a lot lately
Microsoft Tricked the Media Into Lying About Microsoft Layoffs in January. Now It Does the Same (in February).
Microsoft has got the media by the wallet (or balls)
Free Software Projects Become Slow Due to Slop
It does not improve efficiency or productivity, it reduces both
EPO Strike Has Begun (or Resumed)
The EPO status quo is untenable
Links 23/02/2026: US Surrenders to Climate Change (to Benefit Oil Companies and Slop), UK Court of Appeal to Hear Mazur
Links for the day
GAFAM Jobs No Longer Lucrative
Those days are long gone
Based on Insider Leaks, Asha Sharma's Job is to Kill XBox While Talking About "AI"
They cite SneakerSO
Germans Recognise the Contagion is Digital, Not Racial
How to dismantle or neutralise those weapons? Turn them off
Free Software (or Software Freedom) Ain't No Religion
It's hardly surprising that some of the loudest opponents of Software Freedom and its luminaries also disregard or bend facts
Dr. Andy Farnell Explains Why the Slop Industry is Like Trespassers and Thieves
interesting new article about robots.txt files
The Demise of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and Profession Based Around Bullying With SLAPPs and Empty Threats
For press to survive and thrive in the UK we need the hired gun to be submerged
Linux Kernel 7.0 Release Candidate Comes Out, Stallman Turns 73 in Three Weeks
It predates Microsoft and Apple
In Greenland, Firefox's Gecko and KHTML (KDE, But Bastardised by Apple) Bigger Than Chrome
Are those Danes recognising the risk of monoculture?
Gemini Links 23/02/2026: Imperfect Journal, Evil, and "Progress Goes Boing!"
Links for the day
“Power is a Thing of Perception. They Don't Need to be Able to Kill You. They Just Need You to Think They are Able to Kill You” ― Julian Assange
When leadership becomes corrupt enough to lose a sense of authority its days are numbered; it'll be replaced
IBM Has Already Admitted 2026 Mass Layoffs (in 4Q Earnings Call)
We showed this earlier this month, but some people bring that up again
Reasons to Go on Strike in the European Patent Office (EPO)
If you live in Europe and don't work for the EPO, you can still help
First speech of Chanellor Hitler, Andreas Tille & Debian denounce Branden Robinson
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 22, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, February 22, 2026
IBM Layoffs Definitely Still Happening
Contrary to what some apologists try to say
More and More Projects Quit Microsoft GitHub This Year, XBox Will See the Same
Microsoft GitHub's embrace of slop as "strategic" gives us a clue of what'll happen to XBox very soon
Google "Intelligence": Despite Slam-Dunk or "Smoking Gun" Proof, Drug Abuse in EPO Leadership is "Unverified Allegations"
Google's slop (so-called 'AI') lacks intelligence
8,000 Pages/Articles Per Year
We're eager to maintain a good production/publication pace and illuminate the sinister attempts to interfere with Freedom of the Press in the UK
Don't Use the Future Tense to Discuss the Slop Bubble
Wall Street does not react to reality; it reacts to panic, which is related to expectations
Gemini Links 22/02/2026: Okonomiyaki and Midcrunch Crisis
Links for the day
The Broken Window Industry and Its Ongoing Desires to Make Technology Less Dependable
Reliable computing is becoming harder to find
Freedom Means Accepting He or She Who is Different
In the Debian community we're sadly seeing some authoritarian overreach this month
New XBox CEO Typecast in Social Control Media
Microsoft apologists will fall back on (or shuffle between) the "racist" and "sexist" angle
Sites Without JavaScript Deserve Your Visits
We're not arguing that the Web should be as simple or barebones like Gemini Protocol/GemText
EPO Strikes Are Already Working
Campinos is already going "into hiding"
Microsoft Windows Falls to Another New All-Time Low in Guatemala, It is a Bottomless Pit
Maybe users come to realise that Windows means back doors and those doors are open to a regime that ought not be trusted
"XBox" Will Become Slop After Mass Layoffs
When all else fails, "AI it"
Links 22/02/2026: Hardware Price Hikes Across the Board, "Microsoft Issues Statement on Potential Layoffs"
Links for the day
Microsoft "Layoffs Incoming"
This transition isn't about promoting games; it's about canning the console
Links 22/02/2026: "Bloat of Modern Fitness Apps" and Wikipedia Deprecates Archive.today
Links for the day
Our IRC 5-Year Anniversary (for Self-Hosted) is Fast Approaching
A week from now it's March already
Gemini Links 22/02/2026: Dream Job Gone and Slop in Taskwarrior
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 21, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, February 21, 2026