Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 11/06/2022: More IBM Layoffs



  • GNU/Linux

    • Applications

      • NeowinBlender 3.2.0

        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.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Linux CapableHow to Install VirtualBox on Rocky Linux 8

        VirtualBox is a free and open-source hypervisor for x86 and x86-64 virtualization, which the Oracle Corporation develops. The software targets users wishing to create virtual environments for servers and desktops that allow users and administrations to run multiple guest operating systems on a single computer for either testing methods or production use. VirtualBox may be installed on Windows, macOS, Linux, Solaris, and OpenSolaris.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install VirtualBox on Rocky Linux 8 using the RPM Fusion repository to install the latest version of VirtualBox using the command line terminal.

      • VideoSSHFS: Easiest Way Mount Drives Through SSH - Invidious

        I can't believe I'm just discovering SSHFS this is such a great way to access a remote drive on my web server and all it needs is SSH, which I was already using anyway

      • ID RootHow To Install MySQL on AlmaLinux 9 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install MySQL on AlmaLinux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, MySQL is a freely available open-source Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL). It is one of the most widely used database software for several well-known applications. MySQL is used for data warehousing, e-commerce, and logging applications, but its more commonly used feature is web database storage and management.

        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 MySQL database on AlmaLinux 9. You can follow the same instructions for CentOS and Rocky Linux.

      • Own HowToHow to Mirror your Screen on Linux to any Device

        Deskreen is a very useful software that allows you to mirror your desktop to your TV, phone,computer or any other device, for example you can share your desktop via wifi without having to use an hdmi or any other cable.

        You can also stream multiple sources at the same time which means you can use the same device to share the desktop into multiple screen/devices.

        In this tutorial you will learn how to mirror/share your desktop/screen on Linux to any device you want.

        Follow the steps below to learn how to do this.

      • peppe8oSelf-host your Surveys with LimeSurvey and Raspberry PI

        How many times did you need to ask your friends for an opinion or a vote? Some Google modules can help this but when you want to privately host your surveys the best answer is LimeSurvey on Raspberry PI

        In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to install LimeSurvey on Raspberry PI computer boards (excluding Raspberry PI Pico, as it is a microcontroller).

      • ID RootHow To Install MonoDevelop on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS [Ed: People still use Mono to develop? Even the Mono people have quit, they left Microsoft.]

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install MonoDevelop on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know,

        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 MonoDevelop on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

      • ByteXDHow to Open and Save .ai Files in Inkscape - ByteXD

        Adobe Illustrator is the mainstream software for illustrations, logo design, and many other sub-fields of graphic design, so dealing with its files (.ai) is a crucial part of your graphic design career.

        Some clients require submitting back the design in (.ai) format, so you have to find your workaround if you are an Inkscape user.

        This article will walk you through the process of opening and saving Adobe Illustrator files (.ai), and some potential drawbacks that might cause unwanted translation problem.

      • How to Upgrade Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish – LinuxWizardry

        The Ubuntu 22.04, codenamed “Jammy Jellyfish”, is the latest LTS release of the Ubuntu operating system. It was officially released on April 21, 2022. It ships with kernel v5.15 and other major upgrades, such as PHP 8.1, Ruby 3.0, OpenSSL 3.0, Golang 1.18, and GNOME 42. With GNOME 42, it has improved usability, battery life, and system performance. GNOME 42 also adds new power profile options and significant optimizations that can double the desktop frame rate on Intel and Raspberry Pi graphics drivers. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is the first LTS release that supports all the recent Raspberry Pi devices, from the new Raspberry Pi Zero 2W to the Raspberry Pi 4.

        This tutorial will demonstrate how to upgrade from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish).

      • H2S MediaHow to install Jellyfin Media Server on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS - Linux Shout

        Learn how to install and set up a Jellyfin media server on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy JellyFish to share your music with friends or play them using a local network or the internet.

        When it comes to creating your own Medis server, the first name would be Kodi or Plex, however, these are not only out there. Jellyfin is another popular open-source project that lets us create quickly a modern media server with an interactive web user interface to manage videos, images, and music from any device.

        We can browser media content using Jellyfin on various devices such as computers, apps on your Roku, Android, iOS (including AirPlay), Android TV, or Fire TV device, or via your Chromecast or existing Kodi. Whereas when it comes to installing the Jellyfin server platform it doesn’t limit to Linux only, we can set it up on machines running Microsoft Windows, macOS, or in a Docker container.

      • Make Use Of8 Things to Do Right After You Install Fedora Linux

        So you've done your reading and your research and you've finally decided to take the leap and install Fedora Linux. Like most users, you were probably pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to install the world's best-known “bleeding-edge” Linux distribution.

        We know Fedora runs great and provides plenty of power out of the box. But who wants an out-of-the-box experience? Isn't that why you left Windows? Let us show you how to make your system truly your own. Here are eight things you should do right after you install Fedora.

    • Games

      • Someone got Doom to work on Apple’s forgotten OS

        Released in 1993, Doom helped define and popularize the FPS genre. But in the years since, it has become a challenge of sorts, as software developers compete to run the game on unusual (and unsupported) hardware.

        With some effort, coders have ported Doom to pregnancy tests, kitchen management appliances, and vintage digital cameras.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • H2S Media9 Best Linux distro systems for special tasks

       List of Best Linux distributions to help users with various problems such as managing disk partitions, cloning and data recovery, repairing Windows or Grub for Linux bootloader, data recovery, hacking; for anonymous and secure use of the Internet, NAS, and more…

      All the Linux distros are not meant to replace our desktop systems to perform day-to-day tasks. There are some built by the developers for certain special tasks. In this article, we will find out what are these?

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

  • Leftovers

    • Arguments

      People don't become better or learn from arguments. They don't listen to the opposing side, ending up with both sides leaving unfulfilled, not growing in any aspect. In my opinion, arguments/debates are where you present your opinion in a mannered fashion, listening to the other side closely, and both sides having something to learn and reflect upon after the discussion is done.

      The polarization of both sides is one of the causes. Both sides in a discussion are not willing to listen to the other, demonstrating this with language such as "they're insane/crazy/whatever derogatory adjective," which reinforces the thinking on both sides that the other side doesn't have a "valid" opinion and in no way they can take their opinion into account. This is most frequently seen in politics, where the two sides are not willing to do any compromise, not even for the general well being of their own population.

    • The Register UKOracle closes $28.3b Cerner buy amid warnings of commercial challenges

      Oracle has closed the acquisition of Cerner Corporation, a specialist in healthcare software, in a deal set to be worth $28.3 billion.

      But as Larry Ellison, Oracle's chairman of the board and chief technology officer, is set to outline Oracle's strategy for its acquisition's role in healthcare in the coming days, Cerner customers are being warned to expect some surprises in renegotiating their contracts.

    • The Register UKUK police to spend tens of millions on legacy comms network kit

      Motorola Solutions holds that the market investigation is not warranted. "Motorola believes that after a careful investigation the Group will conclude there is no credible evidence to support the finding of an adverse effect on competition in the reference market caused by Airwave or Motorola and that, as a result, no remedies will be required in that regard," it said in a statement.

    • Science

      • The Register UKAI chatbot trained on posts from web sewer 4chan behaved badly – just like human members [Ed: How is it even considered news that 4chan has many rude people?]

        A prankster researcher has trained an AI chatbot on over 134 million posts to notoriously freewheeling internet forum 4chan, then set it live on the site before it was swiftly banned.

        Yannic Kilcher, an AI researcher who posts some of his work to YouTube, called his creation "GPT-4chan" and described it as "the worst AI ever". He trained GPT-J 6B, an open source language model, on a dataset containing 3.5 years' worth of posts scraped from 4chan's imageboard. Kilcher then developed a chatbot that processed 4chan posts as inputs and generated text outputs, automatically commenting in numerous threads.

      • New ElectronicsMaking it in a male-dominated field

        Only 12% of the UK’s engineering pool are women and globally, only 2% of all professional engineers are women of colour. Women in Engineering Day - this year on 23 June 2022 - raises awareness over the career opportunities available to girls in this industry and focuses on those women that enjoy successful careers in the sector.

      • The Register UKAI helps study first images from James Webb Space Telescope ● The Register

        Scientists around the world are gearing up to study the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, which are to be released on July 12.

        Some astronomers will be running machine-learning algorithms on the data to detect and classify galaxies in deep space at a level of detail never seen before. Brant Robertson, an astrophysics professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the US believes the telescope's snaps will lead to breakthroughs that will help us better understand how the universe formed some 13.7 billion years ago.

      • uni MITFaster computing results without fear of errors

        Researchers developed a new system that can make computer programs run faster, while guaranteeing accuracy.

    • Hardware

      • The Register UKAlibaba sued for selling a 3D printer that overheated, caught fire, and killed a man

        Alibaba is being sued in the US by the parents of a man, who bought a 3D printer from the Chinese e-commerce giant, and died in an accident after the device allegedly malfunctioned and caught fire.

        Hoi Kwong Yu and Janice Yu, parents of Calvin Yu, claim their son purchased "a defective Tronxy X5SA 24V 3D printer" from Alibaba's website AliExpress.com around 9 November 2019. Disaster struck six months later, on 11 June 2020.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Vegan Food Report

        I’m not exactly swimming in money, but I decided to try a few quick-and-easy things from the canned and boxed aisle since I was on ~vacation~ and needed, well, something quick and easy. Especially while recovering from surgery.

    • Proprietary

      • GitHub Killing Atom Code Editor for Cloud Tools [Ed: Microsoft-connected site]
      • Hashtag Trending June 10 – Diablo Immortal not launching in Belgium or the Netherlands; Axon halts Taser drone project; Microsoft drops NCCs | IT Business

        Employees at Microsoft will now be able to look for jobs at other big tech companies, such as Google and Amazon, after the company said it would no longer enforce non-compete clauses (NCCs). NCCs are sometimes used to stop employees from moving to companies that are direct competitors. As of Wednesday this week, Microsoft is removing clauses from employee agreements, and from now on, will not enforce existing clauses in the U.S., Business Insider reported. This is one of four updates announced in a Microsoft blog post. The other updates include plans to stop non-disclosure agreements, conduct a civil rights audit of its existing workplace policies, and commit to providing salary ranges on all internal and external job descriptions.

      • The Register UKMicrosoft accidentally turned off hardware requirements for Windows 11 [Ed: 'Accident'?]

        Microsoft has accidentally turned off its controversial hardware compatibility check, thus offering Windows 11 to computers not on the list.

        Windows 11 does not install on computers that lack a recent TPM-equipped CPU, although there are exceptions (notably for some of Microsoft's own hardware, which failed to make the cut in the original list). It is possible to circumvent this limitation, although there is no guarantee that a future version of Windows 11 won't slam the door permanently.

    • Pseudo-Open Source

      • Openwashing

        • ProtocolWith Delta Lake, Databricks sparks an open-source nerd war and customer confusion

          Databricks insists its Delta Lake database technology is open source, but critics say it’s not open source in spirit, and that could cost businesses time and money. This could be all part of the Databricks playbook as it prepares to go public.

          [...]

          “It’s not open source. It’s open code,” responded Malone about Delta Lake.

          “We don’t need to get into semantics James,” shot back Spencer Cook, financial services solutions architect at Databricks.

          But this public display was about more than just developers and engineers picking sides in a tired debate that has been common over the last 15 years of enterprise tech and the hundreds of open-source projects that drove that growth.

    • Security

      • IT ProKali Linux team announces free cyber security training delivered live on Twitch
      • The Register UKSupply chain attacks will get worse: Microsoft Security Response Center boss [Ed: Many of these "supply chain" attacks are the fault of Microsoft since it bought GitHub and then NPN; but the media likes to blame the victims, to whom Microsoft ships malware]
      • Silicon AngleAs tech world weighs options for software supply chain security, a call for urgency [Ed: At least with Free software you can verify the integrity of what you are using]

        The warning signs are hard to miss. The SolarWinds attack, which planted malicious code in software used by private and public sector organizations around the world, demonstrated the problems that can ensue when the supply chain is breached. More recently, the Apache Log4j vulnerability reported late last year exposed exploitable holes in the Java logging library, and a significant number of applications and servers still lack security patches.

      • The Register UKNow Windows Follina zero-day exploited to infect PCs with Qbot [Ed: By intentional neglect, Microsoft enables other criminals to vandalise your life]

        Miscreants are reportedly exploiting the recently disclosed critical Windows Follina zero-day flaw to infect PCs with Qbot, thus aggressively expanding their reach.

        The bot's operators are also working with the Black Basta gang to spread ransomware in yet another partnership in the underground world of cyber-crime, it is claimed.

        This combination of Follina exploitation and its use to extort organizations makes the malware an even larger threat for enterprises. Qbot started off as a software nasty that raided people's online bank accounts, and evolved to snoop on user keystrokes and steal sensitive information from machines. It can also deliver other malware payloads, such as backdoors and ransomware, onto infected Windows systems, and forms a remote-controllable botnet.

      • The Register UKSymantec: More malware operators moving in to exploit Follina

        Meanwhile Microsoft still hasn't patched the fatal flaw

        While enterprises are still waiting for Microsoft to issue a fix for the critical "Follina" vulnerability in Windows, yet more malware operators are moving in to exploit it.

        Microsoft late last month acknowledged the remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability – tracked as CVE-2022-30190 – but has yet to deliver a patch for it. The company has outlined workarounds that can be used until a fix becomes available.

      • The Register UKUkraine's secret cyber-defense that blunts Russian attacks: Excellent backups [Ed: Dumping Microsoft is the right approach, not more backups]

        This attack – along with several other destructive data-wiping malware infections in Ukrainian government and private-sector networks – illustrates a couple of key cyber security takeaways about Russian cyber goons.

      • Morphisec Launches Knight for Linux to Prevent Advanced Cyberattacks [Ed: With proprietary software you must be an unverifiable assumption that this software itself isn't a security breach]
      • The Register UKApple gets lawsuit over Meltdown and Spectre dismissed [Ed: Apple knowingly sold defective products, but this is considered normal now]

        A California District Court judge has dismissed a proposed class action complaint against Apple for allegedly selling iPhones and iPads containing Arm-based chips with known flaws.

        The lawsuit was initially filed on January 8, 2018, six days after The Register revealed the Intel CPU architecture vulnerabilities that would later come to be known as Meltdown and Spectre and would affect Arm and AMD chips, among others, to varying degrees.

      • The Register UKApple M1 chip contains hardware vulnerability that bypasses memory defense [Ed: Than again, Apple gives your data to the NSA, so you know the company never really valued users' security]

        Apple's M1 chip has been found to contain a hardware vulnerability that can be abused to disable one of its defense mechanisms against memory corruption exploits, giving such attacks a greater chance of success.

        MIT CSAIL computer scientists on Friday said they have identified a way to bypass the M1 chip's pointer authentication, a security mechanism that tries to prevent an attacker from modifying memory references without being detected.

      • password managers and the principle of least privilege

        IMHO, current password managers kinda suck at security. If I want to log into a few low importance accounts on some device, my two options are: 1. logging into my password manager - giving that device full access to all my accounts, including the critical ones 2. retyping the passwords manually - which gets boring quickly

        But why does it have to be that way? Why do all password managers need to have an all-or-nothing approach to accessing data?

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

      • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

        • The Register UKRate of IT outages not falling, power the most common cause ● The Register

          Infrastructure operators are struggling to reduce the rate of IT outages despite improving technology and strong investment in this area.

          The Uptime Institute's 2022 Outage Analysis Report says that progress toward reducing downtime has been mixed. Investment in cloud technologies and distributed resiliency has helped to reduce the impact of site-level failures, for example, but has also added complexity. A growing number of incidents are being attributed to network, software or systems issues because of this intricacy.

          The authors make it clear that critical IT systems are far more reliable than they once were, thanks to many decades of improvement. However, data covering 2021 and 2022 indicates that unscheduled downtime is continuing at a rate that is not significantly reduced from previous years.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • Apple may have killed the password with the introduction of Passkeys at WWDC [Ed: That's just more surveillance and potentially very poor security for gimmicks' sake]
        • The Register UKFive Eyes alliance’s top cop says techies are the future of law enforcement [Ed: Conflating illegal mass surveillance with "law enforcement"]

          Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Reece Kershaw has accused un-named nations of helping organized criminals to use technology to commit and launder the proceeds of crime, and called for international collaboration to developer technologies that counter the threats that behaviour creates.

          Kershaw’s remarks were made at a meeting of the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group (FELEG), the forum in which members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing pact – Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and the USA – discuss policing and related matters. Kershaw is the current chair of FELEG.

        • The Register UKIndia proposes social media censorship powers ● The Register (Another VPN quits India, as government proposes social media censorship powers)

          India's tech-related policies continue to create controversy, with fresh objections raised to a pair of proposed regulation packages.

          One of those regulations is the infosec reporting and logging requirements introduced by India's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in late April. That package requires VPN, cloud, and numerous other IT services providers to collect customers' personal information and log their activity, then surrender that info to Indian authorities on demand. One VPN provider, ExpressVPN, last week quit India on grounds that its local servers are designed not to record any logs so compliance would be impossible. ExpressVPN will soon route customers' traffic outside India.

          On Tuesday, another VPN – Surfshark – announced it would do likewise.

    • Environment

      • CNETMicroplastics Found in Antarctic Snows for the First Time

        Microplastics have been found in the snows of Antarctica for the first time ever, according to a study published Tuesday. The finding could mean microplastics, which are formed when plastics degrade, are causing ecological damage to marine environments, climate and organisms.

        Before now, data from Antarctic snows has been mostly absent, although microplastics have already been found in deep sea sediments, marine sediments, seas and surface waters of the region.

      • Energy

        • Weeks after new SEC crypto regulation, banks warn investors against dealing in cryptocurrencies

          Reports reaching Nairametrics indicate banks are still sending warnings to their customers to avoid using their accounts for cryptocurrency transactions.

          This comes on the heel of the recently released SEC regulation on cryptocurrency, which essentially formalized cryptocurrency as an asset class in Nigeria.

        • Oregon cities receive state grants to make it easier to walk and bike to school

          School’s almost out for summer vacation for many students in Oregon. But transportation planners in their cities and school districts are already thinking past Labor Day, eager to make it easier for students and parents to use active transportation to get to school. Through the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program, school districts have the opportunity to apply for grants for infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects to encourage and facilitate safe ways for kids to walk, bike or roll to school.

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • The Register UKAmazon’s Kindle bookstore to quit China

        Amazon.com has decided to end its Kindle digital book business in China.

        A statement posted to the Kindle China WeChat account states that Amazon has already stopped sending new Kindle devices to resellers and will cease operations of the Kindle China e-bookstore on June 30, 2023. The Kindle app will last another year, allowing users to download previously purchased e-books. But after June 30, 2024, Kindle devices in China won’t be able to access content.

        An accompanying FAQ doesn’t offer a reason for the decision, but an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters “We periodically evaluate our offerings and make adjustments, wherever we operate.”

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • The New Iron Curtain

        On March 7, 2022, 11 days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian Deputy Minister for Digital Development Andrei Chernenko wired an urgent order. Government agencies must switch from foreign web hosting to Russian services and move their websites to the .ru Internet domain. The order prompted a disturbing question: Was the Kremlin cutting Russia off from the global Internet?

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • Bankok PostBig Brother grows bigger

        - I've been doing some deep diving into the whole Windows 11 update process and what I've found has convinced me not to upgrade from Windows 10, let me explain. Windows only supports UEFI Bios not the older Bios types. That takes us back about nine years but there are a lot of older computers out there. Next, Secure Boot must be turned up to boot the system with the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) also required. So what? I mean it all sounds so comforting. Secure Boot requires that the start-up boot loader be signed by a security key. By default, many systems just ship with the security key for Microsoft and no other systems. If you want to run say Linux or BSD in the past you just turned Secure Boot off and injected the necessary keys. Low level diagnostic and recovery tools typically require this to be turned off. Putting this another way, the software you run on your computer should not have to be signed by Microsoft before you can run it.

        - Can you see where this is going? TPM works via Bit Locker to hand over the keys to Secure Boot to then load the Operation System and in some cases this combination of items will encrypt your hard drive for security. Still sounds good right? In reality it adds to the control Microsoft has over your computer and the endgame is you need to ask Microsoft for any help you may need to recover keys and data if something goes wrong. With TPM turned on Microsoft holds the trust. This trust is then passed onto hardware and software makers for them to check that your computer is a trusted platform. If you think about this it is backwards, as it should be you, as the computer owner, who can trust the hardware and software, not the other way round. As of now there are still ways around these controls but it is a short step from here to only rented software and hardware, i.e. like Apple software, you won't own it. The average user won't be too concerned with all of this as they just use their computer for emails, social media and the odd game. For those that push the limits a little then the direction this is heading will be discouraging.

    • Monopolies



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SLAPP Censorship - Part 152 Out of 200: Injunctions Do Not Cover Criticism, They Have Scope
self-incriminating communications
Clownflare Sees About Quarter of Web Requests in Ireland Coming From GNU/Linux
Well, in Ireland it seems like many people adopted GNU/Linux
Clownflare: In Australia and New Zealand GNU/Linux Peaks at Over 10% During Working Hours
That right there is interesting in its own right
Slowing Down by Intention
At the moment we have 6 or 7 ongoing series
Gemini Links 17/08/2026: Chamboree, Partial Solar Eclipse, Lady Macbeth
Links for the day
Links 17/08/2026: "Bluesky Is Down Again!" and "Anti-Social Media"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 16, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, August 16, 2026