Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 25/07/2022: postmarketOS Considering SourceHut



  • GNU/Linux

    • 9to5Linux ☛ 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: July 24th, 2022

       This week has been a bit slow in Linux news and releases due to the GUADEC 2022 and DebConf22 conferences. Still, we saw the launch of two new Linux laptops, Dell’s XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and System76’s Oryx Pro, as well as new major FFmpeg, Qt Creator, and VirtualBox releases.

      On top of that, early adopters got their hands on the alpha version of the upcoming GNOME 43 desktop environment and LibreOffice 7.3 office received a new bugfix release. Below, you can enjoy these and much more in 9to5Linux’s Linux weekly roundup for July 24th, 2022.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Trend Oceans ☛ How to Change MAC Address in Linux

        MAC (Media Access Control Address) address is one of the most physical identifiers assigned to your network interface controller. Every device has its own unique mac address, which is set at manufacturing but can be changed using a few tools.

      • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Wine (WineHQ) on Debian 11 Bullseye

        Wine is a free and open-source compatibility layer that enables Windows applications to run on POSIX-compliant operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS. Wine translates each system call your application makes into an equivalent POSIX function used across all platforms, which can be very helpful if you don’t support specific features available in Microsoft’s Windows operating systems.

        One of the great features of Wine is the Wine AppDB. This database contains lists of confirmed applications that can be run under Wine without errors. This program saves the trouble for Linux users who want to use Windows-based programs on their UNIX systems, but not all programs will work in this way; some may have strange bugs or crashes when run with no warnings beforehand. Despite this, many popular programs such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop work well under Wine with few to no issues. Overall, the Wine AppDB is a handy tool for anyone looking to use Windows-based programs on Linux.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install and configure Wine on Debian 11 Bullseye using the command line terminal by importing the official WineHQ repository and installing the latest stable or next release titled development for those eager to try the latest bleeding-edge version of Wine for your windows compatibility needs.

      • UNIX Cop ☛ How to install Microsoft PowerShell on Ubuntu 22.04 [Ed: How to destroy GNU/Linux.]
      • Linux Shell Tips ☛ How to Find a String in a tar.gz Archive File in Linux

        Archiving files is another important aspect of Linux file management, which helps in organizing and managing your project-related files and also saves on disk space to let your Linux OS accommodate more files and be more performant.

        A common file archiving tool for seasoned Linux users is the GNU tar archiving program, which not only lets us store multiple files in a single file archive but also gives Linux users the privilege of manipulating the same archives.

        This tutorial however seeks to explore the possibility of grepping an already existing tar.gz archive.

      • Linux Shell Tips ☛ How to View Files in Linux Using cat, more, or less Commands

        Linux has numerous file viewing tools at its disposal and these tools give Linux users the flexibility of scanning or going through already existing files with the objective of fact-checking or simply retrieving specific information. Three in-built file viewing commands are availed in Linux, namely, cat, more, and less commands.

        These three commands will comfortably let you view targeted files under the Linux operating system environment. Despite this shared commonality between the three commands, the functional originality defined for each of them is different.

      • Linux Shell Tips ☛ The History of Manjaro Linux Distribution

        Based on Arch Linux, Manjaro Linux is a desktop-oriented and user-friendly Linux distribution designed for desktop lovers and Linux users with a keen eye for an exciting UI experience.

        Manjaro is a rolling release and is entirely open source and free to download. It is a versatile distribution that can be used for gaming, app development, and even for basic desktop tasks at home or in the office. It is easy to install and provides basic applications out-of-the-box to help you get started.

        In this guide, we explore the journey that Manjaro had taken from when it was first released to where it is currently.

      • Barry Kauler ☛ Install Limine to PC with mainline Linux distros

        This is a continuation of case-studies, using Limine Installer to install Limine to computers with different hardware and software setups. In this case, installing to my "HP Tower" PC. I bought this secondhand, many years ago. The guy I bought it from had built it from various parts, including a Hewlett Packard motherboard. It is one of the early UEFI motherboards. Originally, it had Windows, that I removed, and currently has two frugal installations, EasyOS and VanillaDpup, and three mainstream-Linux installations, Debian, Mint and Manjaro. The mainstream distros all installed GRUB2, though, the end result has become a bit confused.

      • ELinux ☛ How to set max_open_files in MariaDB / MySQL in CentOS 7
      • LinuxTechi ☛ How to Install Kubernetes Cluster on Ubuntu 22.04

        Are you looking for an easy guide on how to install Kubernetes Cluster on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish)?

        The step-by-step guide on this page will show you how to install Kubernetes cluster on Ubuntu 22.04 using Kubeadm command step by step.

        Kubernetes is a free and open-source container orchestration tool, it also known as k8s. With the help of Kubernetes, we can achieve automated deployment, scaling and management of containerized application.

        A Kubernetes cluster consists of worker nodes on which application workload is deployed and a set up master nodes which are used to manage worker nodes and pods in the cluster.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Devices/Embedded

      • Linux Gizmos ☛ ESP32-based PoE+ board designed for home automation applications

        The Espoir is a Power over Ethernet (PoE+) board built around the ESP32-MINI-1 microcontroller and it includes a mikroBUS socket for additional peripherals. This tiny device is OSHWA certified and it was designed for applications such as gardening, home automation, etc.

        The Espoir is a four-layer board that features the ESP32-MINI-1 which is a dual core processor with maximum frequency of 240MHz. This ESP32 microcontroller includes 4MB of flash and 520KB of SRAM. For connectivity, there is one GbE LAN port in addition to the 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 support.€ € 

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • OpenSource.com ☛ The secret to making self-organized teams work in open source

      Managers and executives are in the business of managing people and resources. Because many of our models for organization are built with the assumption that there's a manager involved, there's an expectation that there's some level of control over all the moving parts of the mechanisms we build. And for that reason, when you propose the idea of self-organizing teams to a manager, the response is often that it's just not possible. Surely everything will spin out of control. Surely the only way to maintain momentum and direction is through the guidance of a project manager and a technical manager.

      It's not just management that gets confounded by the concept of self-organizing teams, though. It can give pause to team members, too. After all, in traditional organizations a developer only needs to deal with the technical manager. However, in a self-organizing team, a developer has to face at least seven or eight pairs of eyes (their team members.) That can be a pretty overwhelming prospect.

      Is it possible for self-organizing teams to thrive?

      Take the example of a team I have coached. One day at a daily standup meeting, a technical manager stood behind the team without saying a word.

    • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

      • OpenSource.com ☛ Tour Collabora Online, an open source alternative to Google Workspace
      • OpenSource.com ☛ How to use LibreOffice Writer templates

        A staple in any office software suite is the word processor. Whether your needs are small or large, from jotting down a note to writing a book, the word processor gets the job done. Most Linux distributions include the LibreOffice suite, and I use LibreOffice Writer as my word processor.

        LibreOffice Writer provides lots of flexibility through its toolbar, keyboard shortcuts, and menus. But if you just want to start a document without too much hassle, you can use one of the pre-loaded templates. Here's how to use LibreOffice Writer templates to make your work easier.

    • Programming/Development

      • postmarketOS // Considering SourceHut

        It's important to us that the software we use could be selfhosted. But there's a lot of maintenance effort that comes with running a selfhosted instance of pretty much any code hosting or CI infrastructure related software: making sure it is constantly available, has no unpatched vulnerabilities, doesn't run into performance problems etc. All the time we would spend on that is time we can't spend actually hacking on phones. We would very much like to avoid that.

        So platforms where we would need to selfhost either the whole code forge or CI for it are out of the picture. As you can guess from the title, SourceHut is the prime candidate right now and there we could just use the official instance at sr.ht for everything, including CI. In fact, we have been using the CI component already since end of 2019 to build all packages and images.

  • Leftovers

    • India Times ☛ Uber admits covering up 2016 [cracking], avoids prosecution in U.S. settlement

      Hinds said the decision not to criminally charge Uber reflected new management's prompt investigation and disclosures, and Uber's 2018 agreement with the FTC to maintain a comprehensive privacy program for 20 years.

      The San Francisco-based company is also cooperating with the prosecution of a former security chief, Joseph Sullivan, over his alleged role in concealing the [cracking].

    • Hackaday ☛ Turn Drone Into A Large Propeller To Increase Hover Efficiency

      Multirotor drones are significantly more popular than conventional helicopter designs for many reasons, which do not include efficiency. Making use of the aerodynamic effects behind this, [Nicholas Rehm] was able to significantly increase the efficiency of his experimental tricopter by turning it into one large spinning propeller.

    • Hackaday ☛ Stackable 3D-Printed Gearbox For Brushless Motor

      Affordable brushless motors are great for a variety of motion applications, but often require a gearbox to tame their speed. [Michael Rechtin] decided to try his hand at designing a stackable planetary gearbox for a brushless motor that allows him to add or remove stages to change the gear ratio.

    • Hardware

      • Hackaday ☛ A ’70s TV With ’20s Parts

        Keeping older technology working becomes exponentially difficult with age. Most of us have experienced capacitor plague, disintegrating wire insulation, planned obsolescence, or even the original company failing and not offering parts or service anymore. To keep an antique running often requires plenty of spare parts, or in the case of [Aaron]’s vintage ’70s Sony television set, plenty of modern technology made to look like it belongs in a machine from half a century ago.

      • Hackaday ☛ Interesting Optics Make This Laser Engraver Fit In A Pocket

        We’re going to start this post with a stern warning: building a laser engraver that can fit in your pocket is probably not a wise idea. Without any safety interlocks and made from lightweight components as it is, this thing could easily tip over and sear a retina before you’d even have time to react. You definitely should not build this, or even be in the same room with it. Got it?

      • Hackaday ☛ Automated Hotend Swapping For Less Wasteful Multicolor Printing

        Multicolor printing on FDM machines can be tricky to get working flawlessly, and purging hotends when changing colors can end up wasting a lot of filament and material. To solve this problem for the popular Prusa i3 and Ender 3 printers, [BigBrain3D] developed the Swapper3D, an automated system that swaps the entire hotend when the material is changed, eliminating the need for purging almost entirely. Video after the break.

      • Hackaday ☛ Complex Movements From Simple Inflatables, Thanks To Physics

        Inflatable actuators that change shape based on injected pressure can be strong, but their big limitation is that they always deform in the same way.

    • Proprietary

      • The Register UK ☛ AWS sales boss claims Microsoft's softened cloud licensing regime is a sham

        A senior exec at Amazon Web Services has accused Microsoft of making cosmetic licence changes to appease regulators, but continuing to ensure its wares are more expensive when run in rivals' clouds.

        Matt Garman, a senior vice president for sales and market at AWS took to LinkedIn to share his opinion that "Customers and policy makers around the world increasingly see MSFT's recent licensing rhetoric as a troubling admission of the same anti-competitive tactics that many companies have been raising with them for years, but went unheeded until they were put before the European Commission."

    • Security

      • Windows Latest ☛ Microsoft: KB5015882, KB5015814 updates break Start menu in Windows 11

        The last two cumulative updates for Windows 11 – KB5015882 and KB5015814 – are causing major issues for some users, according to several reports and Microsoft’s own documentation. The latest round of updates could make the Start menu disappear as soon as you try to open it, thanks to a bug in the operating system.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Foreign Policy ☛ Can This Brussels Neighborhood Shake Its Jihadi Reputation?

        But while Washington has pivoted away from the Middle East, withdrawing from Afghanistan and reducing its troop presence in Iraq, and the Islamic State’s popularity has waned amid its territorial defeats, local factors in Molenbeek remain that extremist groups could now exploit. In particular, unemployment in Molenbeek is 21 percent, three times the national average. Economic despair has coincided with crime increasing in the neighborhood, especially in drug trafficking over the past couple years. “For more than 40 years, [Molenbeek] was a drug trafficking line from Morocco to the Netherlands, but drug trafficking has exploded recently mainly because the pandemic reduced earnings,” Leman said. “It has become a business model for many families.”

      • Algemeiner ☛ In Belgium, Jihadists, Guns, and (Drug) Money

        Molenbeek, Belgium, you may recall, was the Brussels neighborhood that was home to almost half of the jihadists responsible for the 2015 Paris attacks and several subsequent terror attacks in Belgium. The bomber of a train at Brussels Central Station in 2017, for instance, lived in Molenbeek. Mehdi Nemmouche, who shot and killed four people at Brussels’ Jewish Museum in 2014, had previously lived in Molenbeek. The mastermind of the Paris killings, Abdelhamid Abboud, grew up and still lived in Molenbeek.

      • Counter Punch ☛ The War ‘Diplomat’: How Borrell, the West Lost the ‘Global Battle of Narratives’

        “The global battle of narratives is in full swing and, for now, we are not winning,” Borrell admitted. The solution: “As the EU, we have to engage further to refute Russian lies and war propaganda,” the EU’s top diplomat added.

        Borrell’s piece is a testimony to the very erroneous logic that led to the so-called ‘battle of narratives’ to be lost in the first place.

      • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | The War 'Diplomat': How Borrell and the West Lost the 'Global Battle of Narratives'

        In a blog entry reflecting on the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia on July 7-8, the High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, seems to have accepted the painful truth that the West is losing what he termed “the global battle of narratives.”

    • Environment

      • Counter Punch ☛ Paper Straws Are Not Enough

        According to Monbiot: “Paper straws are not enough. Only System Change can halt the climate crisis.” Of course, System Change can only mean throwing out the neoliberal brand of capitalism in favor of almost anything else.

        Adam Smith would be spinning in his grave with today’s crony capitalism. Interestingly, “the term ‘capitalism’ appears nowhere in Smith’s writings.” (Source: Jesse Norman, Adam Smith, Penguin Random House/UK 2018, pgs. 265-66)

      • TruthOut ☛ Roads Are Literally Melting in Europe During Unprecedented Heat Wave
      • TruthOut ☛ Biden Mulls Climate Emergency Declaration as Wildfire Sweeps California
      • Counter Punch ☛ The Fateful Fist Bump

        Perhaps Joe Biden’s advisors thought that a fist bump between the president and Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) would also somehow avoid the appearance of contamination and embarrassment, in this case of the political variety. Certainly, they were worried about the near-radioactivity of MbS. The crown prince is responsible for the murder of a Washington Postjournalist, the ongoing war in Yemen, and innumerable human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. Indeed, on the campaign trail, Biden had promised to turn the Saudi autocrat into a veritable “pariah.”

        Shaking hands with such a devil seemed inconceivable for a president determined to distance himself from the callous disregard for human rights of his predecessor. But perhaps a fist bump…?

      • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | The Fist Bump Was Bad, But Biden's Middle East Policies Are Worse
      • Counter Punch ☛ Back to the Future: Biden in the Middle East

        Biden did what all presidents do: He gave priority to strategic and economic interests ahead of human rights. His main accomplishment is that he discarded some of the worst features of Trump’s Middle East policy.

        Suspending Human Rights

      • Counter Punch ☛ By the Givers of Jordan

        Towards the end of last year, I wrote a piece for CounterPunch on the Hashemite kingdom, using personal memories and anecdotes from my time there during what I called the foothills of Gulf War One. These were pitted against a recent barrage of coordinated barbs and criticism directed against the kingdom. I suggested that this was not only wearisome for the reader but counter-productive to peace and security in the region. Since then, and this is the great surprise, there has actually been a change in attitude towards Jordan, that for me is like watching someone come back from the dead.

        I see it in all sorts of ways, global food crises or tightening of oil markets or not. The now completed, and sometimes befuddled, visit by US President Biden to the region, when Biden was met on Jeddah tarmac by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, deputy governor of Mecca, and not by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has not been the only show in town. The crown prince, or MBS as he is known — to be fair, not exactly rehabilitated later by Biden’s visit — held recent talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at Al Husseiniya Palace in the capital Amman. This was the first such visit by the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia in years. This new phase of cooperation, with its openly declared enthusiasm for good relations, was a genuine surprise. MBS was granted the Order of al-Hussein bin Ali, the highest in Jordan. All those tense past few years, due to contrasting views on local hostilities and pledges of aid not followed through, evaporated like a desert haze. Colossal funding projects of at least $3 billion promised by Saudi Arabia could now be unblocked. It was like watching a desert rock at sundown change colour last minute. ‘There are large investments in Jordan that we are keen to actively participate in and such investments will bring benefits to both countries,’ said MBS. (‘What are the Saudis up to?’ one observer exclaimed to me about this.) Despite Biden later refusing to make Saudi Arabia a ‘pariah state’, at the same time as blaming MBS for being personally responsible for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamil Khashoggi, not even he was treated with such largesse. (They say MBS in quick reply to mention of Khashoggi accused Washington of hypocrisy by not investigating the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, and for allowing Abu Ghraib prisoners to be abused.)

      • Counter Punch ☛ Creating the Capitalocene: Endless Accumulation

        “ . . . why does the early modern period come across as the new era of progress and humanism (?) . . . The reason for cultivating this myth is obvious: it is crucial to the West’s narrative of being the bearer of progress throughout the history of mankind. But what if our present system was actually built on a nightmare, born of naked violence and sheer despair? . . . What if civilization did not make progress, but systematized barbarism instead?”

        It is that system which threatens to plunge the world into final nightmares as we confront the consequences, of warfare and ecological destruction.€  “€  . . . we must thoroughly question the foundations of our economy, our state and much more,” Scheidler writes in his recent work, The End of the Megamachine: A Brief History of a Failing Civilization.

      • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | Greenland Loses 6 Billion Tons of Ice in 3 Days, Harbinger of Unprecedented Coastal Flooding

        CNN and The Independent reported this week on a massive ice melt in Greenland, with on the order of 6 billion tons of ice lost in three days. The melting was because of a heat wave at the top of the world, caused by our burning coal, gasoline, and methane gas and spewing billions of tons of the dangerous heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Common Dreams ☛ California Oak Fire Rages Out of Control as Biden Mulls Climate Emergency

          Thousands of emergency workers in California struggled to fight a rapidly growing wildfire near Yosemite National Park on Sunday as President Joe Biden continued to mull whether to declare a national climate emergency, a move that campaigners say is needed to respond to the immediate threat of extreme weather and lay the groundwork for a livable future.

          Dubbed the Oak Fire, the California blaze was completely uncontained as of Sunday afternoon, having tripled in size since it began on Friday. The fire has now burned more than 14,000 acres, making it California's largest wildfire of the season.

    • Finance

      • TruthOut ☛ Amid Eviction Crisis, Organizers Win Right to Legal Representation for Tenants
      • TruthOut ☛ Federal Minimum Wage Hasn't Been Raised in 13 Years
      • Common Dreams ☛ On 13th Anniversary of Last Minimum Wage Hike, Dems Urged to Raise 'Deplorable' $7.25 Floor

        Marking the 13-year anniversary of the last federal minimum wage increase in the U.S.—a meager boost from $5.15 to $7.25 in 2009—progressive campaigners on Sunday urged congressional Democrats to make another push to raise the national pay floor as inflation continues to diminish workers' purchasing power.

        "Congress must act to raise wages for the tens of millions of workers who are struggling just to get by."

      • Counter Punch ☛ Why Trader Joe’s Workers Are Joining the Fight to Unionize

        Modern companies like€ Apple,€ Google,€ Starbucks, and€ Trader Joe’s perpetrated this lie, obscuring their business practices with a veneer of progressive ideals and referring to staff with euphemistic titles like “partners,” “associates,” or “crew members.” Indeed, many workers employed within this slice of the American corporate world were often relatively content—until now. Alongside the recent pro-union activity at more than€ 150 Starbucks cafés€ across the United States is a newfound awareness among some workers at the Trader Joe’s grocery chain that a union may also be in their best interest.

        Unlike corporations like Starbucks or Amazon where attempts to unionize have a long history, Trader Joe’s workers have traditionally been content. In 2003, when€ tens of thousands of grocery store workers€ in Southern California—home of the€ original Trader Joe’s—went on strike for better working conditions and pay, Trader Joe’s workers, who were not unionized, sat out the labor strife.

      • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | The World Burns and the Richest Profit. It Doesn't Have to Be This Way

        The last time prices rose this fast was 41 years ago. The last time the UK got through prime ministers this fast was the mid-1970s. The last time there was open war between major European powers was in 1945. The last time the Northern Hemisphere was this hot was probably 125,000 years ago.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Telex (Hungary) ☛ Orbán's key word for the season ahead: staying out

        The Bálványos Free Summer University and Student Camp (more commonly known as Tusványos) has been organised in Transylvania since 1990. It has become a large-scale intellectual workshop of the Carpathian Basin, with tens of thousands in attendance. It was originally intended to promote cross-border cooperation, Romanian-Hungarian dialogue and a cultured Hungarian-Hungarian political exchange. According to critics, in recent years it has become a place where members of the Budapest government and representatives of the intellectual establishment close to them express their ideas without substantive debate. It was here that Viktor Orbán first spoke about building an “illiberal democracy’ in 2014, and his speeches have become the highlight of the event and are largely considered to be marking the direction of Fidesz’ politics for the year ahead. This year’s speech was no different.

      • Craig Murray ☛ The Forde Report and the Labour Right

        Nobody can accuse the authors of the Forde report of having a low opinion of themselves. Its lofty tone reflects profound disdain for the views and actions of mere mortals, and it utters judgments with an air of deep profundity. This is amusing as it is banal in the extreme.

      • TruthOut ☛ Political Polarization Is Pushing Evangelicals to a Historic Breaking Point
      • Scheerpost ☛ What Does the Future Between the US and China Look Like?

        As China ascends economically and politically, its struggle with the US has grown fiercer. Huang Renwei points out the inherent weakness of the US power structure and argues that, starting in 2020 …

      • Common Dreams ☛ Major Missouri Newspaper Calls Josh Hawley a 'Laughingstock' for Fleeing Jan. 6 Mob

        Missouri's second-largest newspaper by circulation derided home-state Sen. Josh Hawley in a scathing editorial on Saturday, calling him a "laughingstock" and a "coward" after the House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol attack showed previously unseen security footage of the GOP lawmaker fleeing the violent right-wing insurrectionists that he helped embolden.

        "Hawley has become one of the defining figures of that day," notes The Kansas City Star's editorial board. "A famous photo captured by Francis Chung shows him raising a fist in solidarity with the crowds that would soon break through doors, loot offices, and assault law enforcement."

      • Counter Punch ☛ By Denying Proven Failures in Tory Government, Sunak and Truss Will Repeat Them

        I was reminded of this Chinese fable when watching Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, one of whom will be the next British prime minister come September, pretend to a control over events past and present that is just as fictitious as anything imagined by the Chinese beetle.

        Governments at all times log anything good that happens as their own achievement and disclaim responsibility for anything bad. There is nothing new in this behaviour, but the Truss/Sunak fantasy picture of what has happened in Britain from Margaret Thatcher to Boris Johnson requires a radical rewrite of history.

      • Counter Punch ☛ Scott Morrison Awaits the Apocalypse

        This may well have been the case with Scott Morrison, the accidental of Australia’s prime ministers.€  In 2019, he won an election deemed unwinnable.€  In 2022, he lost in the formidable face of a third of voters who preferred to go for alternative parties.€  Refusing to read the smoke signals from a Liberal heartland worried about political integrity, climate change and violence against women, his party was carved by the stormy arrival of independents and minor parties.

        Put out to lean, undernourished pasture, there was little reason to expect him to slide into respectable obscurity.€  The lecture circuit beckoned, and his debut came in his July 14 address to the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul.€  In it, he emerges enlightened, quoting from yet another pop-historical tract from historian Niall Ferguson, this time on pandemics.€  His account is free of failures and full of praise, much of it for achievements not his own.

      • Counter Punch ☛ Yellen's Noble Efforts Come to Naught
      • Counter Punch ☛ America as Panopticon: You are Being Watched, Even if No One is Looking for You

        Most Americans are aware of video surveillance of public spaces. Likewise, most people know about online tracking – and want Congress to do something about it. But as a researcher who studies digital culture and secret communications, I believe that to understand how pervasive surveillance is, it’s important to recognize how physical and digital tracking work together.

        Databases can correlate location data from smartphones, the growing number of private cameras, license plate readers on police cruisers and toll roads, and facial recognition technology, so if law enforcement wants to track where you are and where you’ve been, they can. They need a warrant to use cellphone search equipment: Connecting your device to a mobile device forensic tool lets them extract and analyze all your data if they have a warrant.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • Computer World ☛ Netflix to launch ad-supported tier with Microsoft in 2023

        Netflix chief operating officer Greg Peters told analysts during the company's earnings call yesterday that “all of the ads that are served on our ad-supported offering will come through Microsoft. So that's an exclusive arrangement with them.”

      • The Verge ☛ Streaming video apps all look the same now

        Based on the comments on our story and comments I’ve seen across Twitter, Reddit (1, 2, 3), and elsewhere, people don’t seem to mind the similarities. This interface has gradually become the de facto standard across Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and now Prime Video. And consistency goes a long way here; we’re fundamentally using all of these services to reach the entertainment on each one, and having a samey interface between them should make doing so easier for everyone.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent Freak ☛ Sony Flags Its Own Website for Repeat Copyright Infringements

          Takedown notices can be a useful tool for rightsholders to protect their content but it's less productive when companies start to report their own websites as piracy havens,. This is precisely what an Indian branch of Sony Pictures did recently, and they're not alone either.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Hadestown and How Having Power Sucks



        This moment in the show is absolutely brilliant. When you see it actually staged, Orpheus stamps his feet in time with the "keeps his head low" line, mimicking the choreography from the workers' chant. It's a fantastic, beautiful reversal of the theme, showing how Hades is just as trapped as his workers.

        Being on top of an oppressive hierarchy is awesome from a resources and power standpoint. You have all the power, money, food, everything you could possibly want, at the expense of everyone underneath you. But beyond that, from an emotional -- or perhaps even, a spiritual -- perspective, there are no winners in the game of oppression. Being at the bottom sucks worst of all because you fear for your survival, your basic needs. But the top of the pile is a terrifying, lonely, impossibly stressful place as well.

        I say this not to say "Oh, think of the poor billionaires, managing a company from their yacht parties must be so stressful! :(" but rather to point out that *everyone* is worse off under oppressive hierarchies, even when those hierarchies seem to explicitly benefit them. We are not meant to hold so much power. We are not meant to constantly watch our backs, fearful someone will take away our position at the top.

      • zine-making, and the benefits it provides (in my eyes)

        I compile a zine, a "per-zine" (personal zine) every so often. Usually every couple of months, and it always is the most rewarding and fulfilling thing I do when I am online. It's a creative initiative, it's motivating, it's 100% *BY* me, and I am glad to keep it going.

        It's also a direct response to a *lack* of motivation and creativity I succumbed to when I was on social media for all those years (10 years). Everything was a "do X in order to arrive at the same result as anyone else who 'does X'", which was to: gain attention > try to gain followers > try to get reaction/engagement, etc. - when all I ever wanted to do was to feel *personally* satisfied/fulfilled with whatever I was doing. Not need to run it through a vanity filter to vindicate/justify that, "yes, I DO need to feel significant, needed, wanted, fulfilled and satisfied". So the zine offers that personal gratification.

      • Plants and Food

        We may have become a bit plant obsessed as of late. This weekend we picked up the following plants for our yard and future garden...

        [...]

        We are hoping to be able to cultivate a nice collection of edibles on our property over time. So far we have 7 different plants that are edible, maybe 8 if you count Hibiscus. Right now the edibles we have are 2 guava trees, 2 varieties of mint, basil, cocoplum, prickly pear, lime and calamondin. Plus, our neighbor on one side has a big avocado tree that produces tons of avocadoes and on the other side they have a huge walnut tree. I'm not sure what else we'll get in the future but some likely possibilties are some of the many varieties of banana that grow well here, maybe a dwarf variety of orange or maybe some other edible natives like blueberry and mulberry. There are some other native and non-native edibles that grow well in our climate too so we'll see.

    • Technical

      • Ask advices about smartphone changing when you try to remove Google of your life



        Today, I have a OnePlus Nord since mostly two years, and I am almost satisfied. I have Android smartphones since about ten years today, and I change my phone almost every two years. I want to keep my current phone longer, this time (for ecological reason). My first problem is the software update (with security fixes) seems to be over in one year, and I don't like to have a phone without security fixes. My second problem is I try to remove maximum Google usage in my (personal) life, and I am not sure if that to keep a "standard" Android phone is a good thing here.

      • On telling users to write the documentation themselves

        i occasionally encounter a situation in which foss users, noting or complaining about the lack of documentation for a piece of software - whether an end-user application or a developer library - get told by the software dev(s) to write it themselves.

        This feels _ridiculous_ to me. Someone reaching for documentation is doing so because _they don't know_ how to use some software, whether an application or a library. Since _they don't know_ how to use the software, they are _not able to document how to use it_!

      • Science

        • Bad news for the pub

          People aged under 40 should not drink alcohol and consumption guidelines should be changed, study says

        • Putting ourselves out of business

          I've started reading Patrick Stuart's blog post about artificial intelligence and art, and I immediately thought of a post by Judd Karlmann I recently saw on Mastodon.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Re: Gemlog and internet time

          I received a nice email from Ernst, but something's not right with the account so I can't send a response. So instead, I'll just publish my reply here.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 07/10/2026: Nostalgia, Neutral Map, and Shorthanding
Links for the day
Slop is Plagiarism
Plagiarism is not "theft" and copyright infringement is not "piracy"
 
Syria: GNU/Linux Has Surged to 8% "Market Share"
I don't have a convincing explanation for this
IBM Dimming Down the Lights on IBM Consulting, No Knowledge or Experience Required
They just "ride" the (old) brand, that's all
Microsoft's XBox CEO Asha Sharma Tells Staff That That Many Thousands of Layoffs Are in Fact "Return to Growth"
Get it? Layoffs are "growth".
Statement on American SLAPP
Crossposted from schestowitz.com
Today The Register MS Published "SPONSORED FEATURE" and "SPONSORED POST" With "AI" 31 Times in Them
This isn't a "Reality" or "Era of AI", it's a paid-for spam campaign
Links 07/10/2026: Unrest in France and Rumours of Plague in Russia
Links for the day
Brigading Against Women - Part XXII - The Lozza Problem (in Length)
Garrett's case was a waste of the Court's money
JavaScript in Richard Stallman's Web Site
For search he is using CGI, not JavaScript
EPO's Local Staff Committee The Hague (LSCTH) Plans Presentation Next Week (Coinciding With Apparent Coronation of 'Cocaine King' Campinos)
They've outsourced this session to the dictator's spying eye
The GNOME Foundation's Code of Conduct Has Been Misused to Hide Corruption
People who value free speech and freedom of expression won't touch social control media with a 10-foot bargepole
Voting for Freedom of the Press
American elections happen every 4 years
What Brett Wilson LLP and Matt Garrett Don't Want People to See/Read
Book-burning is counterproductive
Book-Burning Mindset Does Not Work
It makes the suppressed voices more widely known
Microsoft's XBox in 'Freefall'
XBox is practically finished
IBM is Almost Defunct
IBM is doomed. It just tries to test how much more patience the shareholders have.
Criminalisation of Journalism
"Journalist Derya Okatan arrested in Turkey for allegedly possessing classified material"
Brigading Against Women - Part XXI - Hiding Behind the Veil of "Privacy" After Telling Nazi Things in IRC Channels of Techrights and Physically Threatening People
To merely explain an abuse (or crime) requires naming people; that's a fundamental tenet of reporting
Links 07/10/2026: Quitting Smartphone and "Meta's Muse Is Spying on All Your Friends and Family"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/10/2026: Greed, In Praise of Zotero, and The de-Google Path
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 06, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 06, 2026
Microsoft Hiring Only on the Cheap
Much of the same can be said about GAFAM and IBM
Gemini Links 06/10/2026: Nightfall Express, Shorthanding, and Raspberry Pi Desktop Gets a Debian Trixie Refresh
Links for the day
20th Anniversary Next Month
We are currently trying to agree on a plan for next month's celebrations
Taking Photos With Richard Stallman (RMS)
What's the point?
GAFAM Attack on FreeDesktop
Now they push lots of LLM slop into Linux
EPO Union Bemoans Lack of Social Dialogue as Dictator Wishes to Govern Forever (No Elections, No Rivals), Hide the Many Issues
"Exchange of open letters"
GNU/Linux Has Risen in France Since the Order to Adopt GNU/Linux (in Public Services)
We can expect the same in countries like Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, and The Netherlands
On Microsoft Hiring Freeze or No Permanent Jobs at Microsoft Anymore (Amid Many Silent Layoffs)
Microsoft has changed what it can offer workers
IBM Cannot Hide the Layoffs Forever
we welcome whistleblower to tell us more and send us documents related to that
EPO's Central Staff Committee Asking The Council to Get Rid of Corrupt Campinos
We'll be covering EPO scandals around the time of that meeting
Gemini Links 06/10/2026: EU Kids Act, Practicality of Gemini, and Games
Links for the day
Links 06/10/2026: Data Breaches Epidemic and Turkey Blocking Journalists
Links for the day
The Whole Point of Computing is That Computers Are Deterministic (Speed With Predictable Accuracy)
Unlike stochastic parrots that stochastically utter out lies
It's Not a Linux Back Door If It's an Unpatched Device
"Linux Backdoor" is a glaring misfit, a possibly 'obscene' term
What is a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA)? When Law Firms Become the Litigants.
And the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) needs to be more serious about tackling this
Brigading Against Women - Part XX - Attempts by Lozza to Deplatform Techrights and Tux Machines Only Days After I Sued Garrett and My Wife Also Sued Garrett (Shortly Before the Serial Strangler From Microsoft Joined)
in 2024
Links 06/10/2026: A Year Since "NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Released From Prison", World Tries to Deal With El Niño
Links for the day
"SIRIUS CORPORATION LIMITED" as Evidence of the Financial Shell Games in the UK
Rianne and I still have some fond memories of the time the ex-wife of the CEO treated us like human beings
Lots of Silent Layoffs at IBM Last Week, Employees Explain Patterns of Those Impacted
It wasn't just gossip, it actually happened even if the media chose to look the other way (as usual)
Gemini Links 06/10/2026: Fighting for Purpose, Gemlogs, and Gemtext
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 05, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, October 05, 2026
Red Hat is Phased Out of Existence This Month Onwards
Within a few years we'll probably not see many redhat.com addresses anymore; many became ibm.* last week
Finland's GNU/Linux Share Measured at 12%
Last month GNU/Linux was measured at about 10% in Finland
UK Layoffs and Closures by Microsoft. In Expected Blow, Microsoft Likely Shuts Down Another Studio.
Microsoft's layoffs are never-ending, they just try to keep them all secret.
NVIDIA Buys the Media With Companies It Sponsors to Pretend to be Customers (Circular Funding Scheme)
The media crisis worsens
Discussion About Potential Sale of EPO Buildings and Enshittification of Europe's Largest Patent Office
It's noteworthy that only one hour (or 70 minutes) was devoted to so many topics
Brigading Against Women - Part IXX - Overreaction From Young Female Professional After Invalid Threats Made and Sent From an Incel in Another Continent
Cowards who send threats after committing crimes online
Stonewalling by Bots
We'll now turn our attention back to EPO and other matters
Gemini Links 05/10/2026: "Posthumanism", Cardputer, and More
Links for the day
Links 05/10/2026: “I’m Embarrassed on Behalf of the Tech Industry” and Slop Scammers "Lobbying the Vatican"
Links for the day
SIRIUS OPEN SOURCE LTD Officially Insolvent, Is Reform UK Next?
Sirius no more
Links 05/10/2026: "Congress Must Investigate War Profiteers Once Again" and Update on Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence
Links for the day
libera.chat is an Agenda-Peddling Platform Run by Agenda-Peddling Individuals
The volunteers of libera.chat ("staff") aren't working for free, they work towards an agenda
Nobel Season is Plutocracy Week
Later this week the billionaires will give a fake "Nobel" (in "Economics") to someone who parrots their preferred narrative and those same billionaires will use "Nobel" to bless the promoter of their latest pyramid scheme/buzzword
GNU/Linux Market Share in North America 13% This Past Weekend
It is perhaps not shocking that adoption of GNU/Linux is very high there
When Did Europe Begin to Side With White-Collar Criminals (or Participate in Suppressing People Who Oppose Them)?
How much corruption can we tolerate before the European Union becomes another Russian Federation?
Libera Chat's "Level of Control Might Make Sense for a Corporate Platform"
IRC is not centralised
Brigading Against Women - Part XVIII - Turning Censorship Attempts (Articles About Matthew Garrett) Into Mild Redactions
What Lozza did two years ago
Greenland Needs Digital Sovereignty
the large icy island isn't moving to GNU/Linux as quickly as the rest of Europe
Tracker of Internet Relay Chat Networks Out of Service (But Not Down) Since Thursday
We should note that the number of unique networks they track has grown since we last checked
Gemini Links 05/10/2026: NixOS, Guix, Codeberg Banning Slop, and "Gopher Apps on Android"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 04, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, October 04, 2026