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Links 25/08/2022: Linux's 31st Birthday and KDE Plasma 5.25 in Kubuntu 22.04



  • GNU/Linux

    • Kernel Space

      • 9to5LinuxHappy 31st Birthday, Linux! - 9to5Linux

        Today is August 25th in many parts of the world, which means that Linux is turning 31 years old, so join me in celebrating Linux’s 31st birthday with a glass of good champagne and a delicious cake!

        While some don’t recognize August 25th as Linux’s birthday, I do. It was on August 25th, 1991, when 21-year-old Finnish student Linus Benedict Torvalds made his now-famous announcement on the comp.os.minix newsgroup that he’s working on a free operating system for 386(486) AT clones, just as a “hobby.”

      • OpenSource.comHappy birthday, Linux! Here are 6 Linux origin stories | Opensource.com

        On August 25, 1991, Linux 0.01 was announced. All of us have a story to tell about Linux. I told my story a couple of months ago, but for those who weren't here: My first exposure to Linux was when my grassroots hospice organization moved from paper to digital charting. We didn't have the funding to get something proprietary, but the IT department had Linux set up on our old machine, and we used the GNOME desktop and OpenOffice to start our journey in creating digital assets.

    • Applications

      • ID RootThe Best Linux Task Manager - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you the best Linux Task Manager. For those of you who didn’t know, Linux Task Manager is one of the essential tools that help you to find out the details of resource usages (CPU/RAM) by any particular software or even the system itself. Task managers are very important to monitor and detect system slowdowns etc. Linux provides a lot of task management tools that are more capable than Windows Task Manager.

        We have both CLI (Command Line) and GUI task-manager programs. With CLI, these programs run on the Linux terminal and give you a full report of all running applications. For GUI task managers, these programs provide the user with an interactive graphical user interface. If you’re looking for the perfect task manager, the following list should be helpful.

        [...]

        As a Linux lover, I always prefer to use a command-line interface program. This CLI-based Linux task manager will be an excellent help for performing some specific tasks.

      • Its FOSS15 Ways to Tweak Nemo File Manager in Linux to Get More Out of it - It's FOSS

        Nemo is the default file manager of the Cinnamon Desktop. You get it in Linux Mint and other distributions with the Cinnamon desktop.

        It’s a powerful file manager with plenty of features you might not know. Some tweaks are hidden inside the Nemo settings while some require installing additional extension packages.

        I have included commands for installing extensions for Ubuntu and Debian-based distributions.

        [...]

        Nemo Preview is a cool feature that comes in handy if you want to peek into some files on the go. You can access the preview feature for images, audio, video, PDF, etc.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • ThunderbirdThunderbird Tips: Rearrange The Order Of Your Accounts

        One of Thunderbird’s strengths is managing multiple email accounts, newsgroup accounts, and RSS feed subscriptions. But how do you display those accounts in the order YOU want? It’s super easy, and our new Thunderbird Tips video (viewable below) shows you how in less than one minute!

      • Adriaan ZhangLogging Requests with SQLite and Nginx

        Googling revealed multiple solutions that enabled me to accomplish my goals to great degree of customizability. But I didn't feel like using any of them. For no reason. Some bizarre, neurotic, obsessive-compulsive tendency within me screamed to waste time reinventing the wheel instead of taking the easy way out, and the rest of my brain simply caved to its siren call. (It didn't help that Twitter wasn't loading on my computer at the time.)

      • SSH Tips and Tricks

        Since I joined Charm, I’ve been working and learning more about SSH, and I thought I would share a few quick tips and tricks with you.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Install Glances Monitoring Tool on Ubuntu 22.04

        Glances is a free, open-source, and cross-platform curses-based system monitoring tool written in Python. It is a real-time system monitoring tool that monitors system resources, including CPU, Memory, Load, Disk I/O, Processes, File System space, Network interface and more. It is designed to present a large amount of monitoring information via command-line and web-based interface. It uses psutil library to grab information from the system. It allows you to set different thresholds such as careful, warning, and critical in the configuration file and show each in different colors.

    • Games

      • GamingOnLinuxCheck out my appearance with Brodie on Tech Over Tea

        I had the pleasure of speaking to Brodie Robertson recently on the subject of Linux Gaming, Steam Deck and all sorts of things for you to sit back and chill with. This was over on Brodie's Tech Over Tea channel.

      • GamingOnLinuxSteam Deck reservations continue to grow, now at its highest point

        Valve has confirmed two tasty bits of info today for those waiting on getting a Steam Deck, and for those curious about how things are currently going.

      • TecMintHow to Install Ajenti Control Panel in Debian and Ubuntu

        Ajenti is a free and open source web-based Admin Control Panel that allows you to perform a wide range of server administration tasks such as installing and updating packages, managing services, and so much more.

        Written in Python and Javascript, Ajenti provides a powerful and intuitive UI that is lightweight and resource-friendly. In addition, it’s easy to install and a great tool for novices or users who do not have advanced Linux knowledge.

      • GamingOnLinuxGet the likes of Parkitect and Project Hospital in this latest game bundle

        Another reasonably good pick here from Humble Bundle with the Career Break Bundle. Here's what's in it and what to expect on Linux desktop and Steam Deck. As usual now I'll be going over each game to list the Steam Deck Verified rating plus either Native Linux status or ProtonDB ranking so you've got the full picture.

      • EarthlyBuilding Pong in Your Terminal: Part Two

        I’ve been trying to learn Golang recently. As a side project I’ve been building a version of Pong that you can play in your terminal. In Part One I showed how to use the tcell library to get a bouncing ball working in our terminal. In this second part, I’ll finish up the game by adding paddles, players, a score and some game logic.

      • GamingOnLinuxBoneraiser Minions is probably my next 100 hour indie obsession

        Stop me if you've heard this before, but I've discovered another game that takes elements from Vampire Survivors and makes it nicely unique again. Enter the world of Boneraiser Minions. Another really cheap indie game that's released recently at around $1.99 / €£1.69 and you can get a great many hours out of this one. It works perfectly on Linux with Proton and it is Steam Deck Verified too.

      • GamingOnLinuxWaves and Waves 2: Notorious are now free after developer passed away

        Waves and Waves 2: Notorious are two rather good twin-stick shooters and sadly, the developer behind them has died after a battle with Cancer and as a dying wish has made both games free to keep for everyone.

      • GamingOnLinuxCommand armies over voice comms, Radio General - Water Rats expansion out now

        Radio General - Water Rats is the first paid expansion for the positively rated unique strategy game, where you call the orders over your microphone.

      • GamingOnLinuxGames publisher PQube accused of 'predatory practices' and being manipulative (updated)

        PQube, a games publisher that has over 50 games on Steam, has been accused of engaging in "predatory practices".

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Make Use OfKaOS 2022.08 Released: What to Look Forward to in the Latest Release

          The lean KDE-based distribution, KaOS, is back with a new release, with a series of new features and upgrades in tow. In August 2022, the distro’s developers announced the release of the latest version, titled KaOS 2022.08.

          The latest release delivers a power-packed performance and incorporates changes suggested by the users for a while.

          The lightweight distro is here to stay and promises a seamless experience to the end users with its range of bug fixes, new upgrades, and alternate applications.

          [...]

          Here’s what you can expect with KaOS 2022.08...

        • DebugPointHow to Get KDE Plasma 5.25 in Kubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish

          The KDE developers now enabled the popular backports PPA with necessary updates with KDE Plasma 5.25 which you can install now in Kubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish. Here’s how.

          KDE Plasma 5.25 released a few days back on June 14, 2022 with some stunning updates. With this release, you get the dynamic accent colour, revamped login avatars, floating panel and many such features which we covered in the feature highlight article.

          But, if you are running Kubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish which was released long back on April 2022, you have the KDE Plasma 5.24 with KDE Framework 5.92.

          You probably waiting to enjoy the new features in your stable Kubuntu 22.04 release, and now its possible to install it in Kubuntu 22.04 via the famous backports PPA.

        • OMG UbuntuKDE Plasma 5.25 Now Available for 22.04 LTS Users - OMG! Ubuntu!

          If you’re running Kubuntu 22.04 LTS you can now upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.25, the latest stable release of the free, open source desktop environment.

          The Kubuntu team has made the update available to install from its backports PPA following requests from users.

          To be clear: this is not an automatic upgrade. The Kubuntu 22.04 LTS install image ships with KDE Plasma 5.24 by default, and that’s not changing.

          Instead, users who want to upgrade to Plasma 5.25 on Jammy can opt-in by adding the Kubuntu backports PPA and a new backports-extra PPA (technically the extra PPA can be used on its own but the team say it’s designed to be used alongside the standard backports PPA).

          “Providing backports of new Plasma versions to a LTS release always must be an ‘opt-in’ process, however we are aware that many of our users now are accustomed to adding our backports PPA as a matter of course, so for a LTS release some additional caution is required in what we make available there,” the team say.

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Help improve GNOME! – Form and Function

          gnome-info-collect is a new tool which collects anonymous data about how GNOME systems are configured, and then sends that information back to GNOME servers, where it can be analyzed. The goal of this tool is to help improve GNOME, by providing data that can inform design decisions, influence where resources are invested, and generally help GNOME understand its users better.

          As of today, gnome-info-collect is ready to be used, and we are asking all GNOME users to install and run it!

          The more people who provide data, the better! So, if you would like to help us improve GNOME, please consider installing and running gnome-info-collect on your system. It only takes a second.

          [...]

          The collected data is completely anonymous and will be used only for the purpose of enhancing usability and user experience of GNOME. No personal information is recorded, like usernames or email addresses. Any potentially identifying information, such as the IP address of the sender and the precise time of receiving the data, is discarded on the server side. To prevent the same client from sending data multiple times, a salted hash of the machine ID and username is used.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • BSD

      • FreeBSD on the Framework Laptop

        Now with that said, I ordered this Framework Laptop on November 20, 2021 and was marked as part of Batch 6. It's currently configured with 1x USB C, and 3x USB A Expansion Cards. I also have an HDMI Expansion Card, and another USB C Expansion Card on the side in case I want to switch it up. I use the USB C port for charging primarily but also to connect my Anker PowerExpand+ 7-in-1 Dongle, which has a variety of other ports (not all are working). This machine came with the Tempo 92HD95B Audio Codec for people that want to further identify the model.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • Doug BrownSolving my truck’s TPMS sensor problem with the help of an RTL-SDR dongle

        One of the computer modules in modern vehicles listens to the radio waves for signals sent wirelessly by tire pressure sensors in order to make sure that all four tires are inflated to the correct pressure. TPMS stands for Tire Pressure Monitoring System. This blog post is going to be about the TPMS sensors and how I used some computer software/hardware tools to help diagnose a problem with them.

      • Raspberry PiA peer instruction approach for engaging girls in the Computing classroom: Study results

        Today, we are publishing the third report of our findings from our Gender Balance in Computing research programme. This report shares the outcomes from the Peer Instruction project, which is the last in our set of three interventions that has explored teaching approaches to engage more girls in computing.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

      • Drew DeVaultA review of postmarketOS on the Xiaomi Poco F1

        I have recently had cause to start looking into mainline Linux phones which fall outside of the common range of grassroots phones like the PinePhone (which was my daily driver for the past year). The postmarketOS wiki is a great place to research candidate phones for this purpose, and the phone I landed on is the Xiaomi Poco F1, which I picked up on Amazon.nl (for ease of return in case it didn’t work out) for 270 Euro. Phones of this nature have a wide range of support from Linux distros like postmarketOS, from “not working at all” to “mostly working”. The essential features I require in a daily driver phone are (1) a working modem and telephony support, (2) mobile data, and (3) reasonably good performance and battery life; plus of course some sane baseline expectations like a working display and touchscreen driver.

        The use of mainline Linux on a smartphone requires a certain degree of bullshit tolerance, and the main question is whether or not the bullshit exceeds your personal threshold. The Poco F1 indeed comes with some bullshit, but I’m pleased to report that it falls short of my threshold and represents a significant quality-of-life improvement over the PinePhone setup I have been using up to now.

        The bullshit I have endured for the Poco F1 setup can be categorized into two parts: initial setup and ongoing problems. Of the two, the initial setup is by far the worst. These phones are designed to run Android first, rather than the mainline Linux first approach seen in devices like the PinePhone and Librem 5. This means that it’s back to dealing with things like Android recovery, fastboot, and so on, during the initial setup. The most severe pain point for Xiaomi phones is unlocking the bootloader.

        [...]

        I have a much higher tolerance for “initial setup” bullshit than for ongoing problems bullshit, so this is a promising result for my needs. I have found that this device is ahead of the PinePhone that I had been using previously in almost all respects, and I have switched to it as my daily driver.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Education

      • Unix SheikhDo you feel overwhelmed trying to stay up to date with the latest tech news?

        Even though the technology related news media isn't about inhibiting thinking or controlling the masses, like the regular news media, the technology media is mostly using the same tactics by creating sensational and story-formattet junk. You can spot a bad technology media (or any news media) by the low level of investigative journalism and the high level of sensationalism it contains.

        If you try to follow all the latest news within technology, whether hardware related or software related or security related, etc., you can easily spend 3-5 hours a day reading through all the information, even if you only skim. Add social media to the mix, with people sharing links to this and that, and you will spend your entire day shoveling through it all.

        Let me share something with you. Most of the technology news media is not about the technology, it's all about getting you to feel overwhelmed and out of control. By doing so they make sure that you keep coming back for more in a desperate attempt to keep up with it all.

    • Programming/Development

      • Yoshua WuytsState Machines II

        In the past I've written about state machines in Rust. And more recently I've also written about anonymous enums 1 in Rust. I've been wondering what would happen if the two interacted? I think the result could actually be quite nice, and worth daydreaming about. In this post we'll be discussing state machines, the language features which could make them easier to use, and ways in which we could push the ergonomics further.

      • ButtondownWhy do arrays start at 0?

        I was at my wits end for this newsletter after my first two ideas hit research barriers. Then someone linked me this story about why arrays start at 0 and bam I had my topic. Specifically, arguing that said link is wrong and does not, in fact, fully explain why arrays start at 0.

  • Leftovers

    • Hardware

      • Linux GizmosNetworking embedded board taps Qualcomm processor, 4x 1GbE ports and 1x 10GbE port

        The DR8072 V01 is a networking board based on the Qualcomm Atheros IPQ8072A System on Chip (SoC) which also supports Wi-Fi 6. According to the developer company Wallystech, this board was optimized to provide users with high-bandwidth data transmission and robust performance in challenging RF environments.

        According to the IPQ8072A datasheet, the SoC offers four ARM Cortex A53 with a max frequency of 2GHz. The IPQ8072A is compatible with the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz Wi-Fi spectral band. The DR8072 V01 product page specifies that the 2.4GHz radio provides speeds up to 1147Mbps while the 5GHz radio offers speeds up to 2475Mbps.€ 

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • WiredWhat Adults Don't Get About Teens and Digital Life

        These messages are well-intentioned and in many cases on point. They’re shared with teens by adults who truly care about them and want to ensure that young people are staying safe and on a path to a successful life. Still, these messages fall short. We don’t mean they are inaccurate or wrong; we mean they aren’t enough. Sometimes, they even backfire, amplifying anxiety without clarifying what teens can or should do when challenges come up. Today’s teens need more than broad principles and panicked warnings.

      • Kevin BurkeHow to Ventilate Your House

        Modern homes in particular are designed not to leak any air if you don't want to. While this is good news for efficiently heating or cooling your house, it is bad news for air quality inside. Measure air quality inside your house and understand which tools are best for bringing in better air.

    • Proprietary

      • [Old] WiredA Slack Bug Exposed Some Users’ Hashed Passwords for 5 Years

        Slack, which is now owned by Salesforce, says a security researcher disclosed the bug to the company on July 17, 2022. The errant passwords weren't visible anywhere in Slack, the company notes, and could have only been apprehended by someone actively monitoring relevant encrypted network traffic from Slack's servers. Though the company says it's unlikely that the actual content of any passwords were compromised as a result of the flaw, it notified impacted users on Thursday and forced password resets for all of them.

    • Security

      • Ongoing phishing campaign can hack you even when you’re protected with MFA | Ars Technica

        On Tuesday, Microsoft detailed an ongoing large-scale phishing campaign that can hijack user accounts when they're protected with multi-factor authentication measures designed to prevent such takeovers. The threat actors behind the operation, who have targeted 10,000 organizations since September, have used their covert access to victim email accounts to trick employees into sending the hackers money.

        Multi-factor authentication—also known as two-factor authentication, MFA, or 2FA—is the gold standard for account security. It requires the account user to prove their identity in the form of something they own or control (a physical security key, a fingerprint, or face or retina scan) in addition to something they know (their password). As the growing use of MFA has stymied account-takeover campaigns, attackers have found ways to strike back.

      • Optimizing Developer Impact on K8s Security - Container Journal

        Kubernetes just passed its eighth birthday (hope you didn’t forget to send a card). In that time, the DevSecOps movement has decisively shifted security left. The evolution continues to add work to a software engineer’s plate—a plate that is already heaped with Kubernetes complexity. While the now-de facto choice for container orchestration has matured into an enterprise-grade solution, Kubernetes security controls still often boil down to preventing developers from direct access to production clusters or namespaces. In the early days of Kubernetes, development teams commonly operated Kubernetes clusters on their own. This practice was replaced as Kubernetes workloads became more critical; developers now generally own workload security while platform engineers take responsibility for securing the Kubernetes platform.

      • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

        • Terence EdenWhat's the optimal length for a 2FA code?

          I'll admit, this weirded me out. Surely 4 is just far too short. Right? I think almost every 2FA code I've seen has been 6 digits long. Even back in the days of carrying one of those physical RSA fobs, 6 has been the magic number.

          But why?

          A 2FA code is meant to prevent a specific class of problem. If an attacker has got hold of something you are (your username1) and something you know (your password), you are still protected by something you have (your phone). Whether your second-factor is an app generating unique codes, a SIM card receiving SMS2, or a cryptographic enclave producing signed transactions - it doesn't matter. The attacker can use your password but won't get the unique second code.

        • Certificate Transparency is really not a replacement for key pinning

          I’ve noticed that there’s a common misconception that Certificate Transparency is a replacement for HTTP public key pinning. If those words make no sense to you: HTTP public key pinning was a now-mostly-defunct mechanism whereby websites could “pin” themselves to a set of public keys, so that browsers would not accept a certificate for that website’s hostname unless one of those pinned public keys appeared in its certificate chain. Certificate Transparency is a system whereby certificates must be logged in public append-only logs, so that domain owners can observe them as they are issued and detect malicious certificates (see my previous overview here).

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • WiredSpyware Scandals Are Ripping Through Europe

          What sets the scandal in Greece apart is the company behind the spyware that was used. Until then the surveillance software in every EU scandal could be traced back to one company, the notorious NSO Group. Yet the spyware stalking Koukakis’ phone was made by Cytrox, a company founded in the small European nation of North Macedonia and acquired in 2017 by Tal Dilian—an entrepreneur who achieved notoriety for driving a high-tech surveillance van around the island of Cyprus and showing a Forbes journalist how it could hack into passing people’s phones. In that interview, Dilian said he had acquired Cytrox and absorbed the company into his intelligence company Intellexa, which is now thought to now be based in Greece. The arrival of Cytrox into Europe’s ongoing scandal shows the problem is bigger than just the NSO Group. The bloc has a thriving spyware industry of its own.

          As the NSO Group struggles with intense scrutiny and being blacklisted by the US, its less well-known European rivals are jostling to take its clients, researchers say. Over the past two months, Cytrox is not the only local company to generate headlines for hacking devices within the bloc.

        • ViceHow a Third-Party SMS Service Was Used to Take Over Signal Accounts

          Last week, hackers broke into the systems of Twilio, a cloud communications company that provides infrastructure to other companies to automate sending text messages to their users. By breaking into Twilio systems hackers could read victims’ text messages. This potentially gave the hackers a chance to take over any victim’s accounts that were tied to their phone number on services that use Twilio.

        • YLEBank account obstacles creating Finland's "second class citizens"

          This is because strong authentication is required to access almost all public services and many commercial services, and the most common form of authentication is a bank ID.

        • ScheerpostDon’t Wait: Get Into the Encryption Habit Now

          Photo by Christiaan Colen via Flickr By Thomas Knapp / CounterPunch In early August, a Nebraska prosecutor charged a mother and daughter with violating the state’s ban on abortion after 20 weeks. T…

        • Public KnowledgePublic Knowledge Joins 48 Public Interest Groups Urging House To Pass Bipartisan Privacy Bill - Public Knowledge

          Today, Public Knowledge joined nearly 50 other public interest, consumer advocacy, and civil rights groups in a letter urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to move the “American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA)” to a vote by the full House of Representatives. The groups contend that this comprehensive federal privacy and civil rights legislation will create “real and lasting protections” for millions of Americans, shielding their personal data like never before.

          The following is an excerpt from the letter:

          “The American Data Privacy and Protection Act strengthens civil rights and privacy protections nationwide. To accomplish these sweeping advancements and bring relief to millions today, we understand that some compromise is necessary. ADPPA has limited preemption of state privacy laws that cover the same issues as ADPPA. It does not preempt state civil rights laws, consumer protection laws of general applicability, or laws related to student or employee privacy, health privacy, financial privacy, social security numbers, facial recognition, electronic surveillance, encryption, or several other categories.

      • Confidentiality

        • Scoop News GroupDOJ now relies on paper for its most sensitive court documents, official says

          The Justice Department has filed its most sensitive court documents on paper since January 2021 to avoid any chance of a breach or vulnerability in electronic filing systems compromising its high stakes cases.

          In an interview this week, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security Adam Hickey told CyberScoop the department implemented the policy last year but did not connect that change to any specific breach or cybersecurity event.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Matt RickardA Short List of Cognitive Biases

        Cognitive biases are systematic deviations from rational judgment. All of us experience them to some degree, and it's useful to understand them in order to avoid or mitigate them. A short list of ones that I've found helpful in my personal and professional life.

    • Environment

      • Energy

        • WiredHere’s What Happens When Countries Use Bikes to Fight Emissions

          An international team of researchers decided to look into what factors have enabled these countries to make that shift and what might happen if more countries adopted a similar transportation focus. Two conclusions are clear: It's hard to get reliable data on bicycles, and bicycle-focused transportation could eliminate emissions equivalent to that of a decent-sized industrialized country.

        • Antipope[Repeated] The gathering crisis

          There is a forecast risk of unscheduled, protracted, rolling black-outs in midwinter.

          The government's own forecasts of a "reasonable worst case" (which include some scheduled blackouts) still rely on the UK importing electricity via the grid interconnectors from France, the Netherlands, and Belgium—but those nations are having their own energy problems.

        • David RosenthalInvestment Frauds

          The history of the technological and philosophical underpinnings of Bitcoin make two things clear. First, while ingenious, Nakamoto's innovation was squarely in the mainstream of work on digital currencies for the previous quarter-century. Second, the libertarian goal of the cryptocurrency movement was to implement Austrian economics and thereby avoid the need to trust government and corporate institutions. Nakamoto clearly shared this goal. One can argue that fraud is an inevitable consequence of the libertarian program, but that does not make it the goal of libertarians.

    • Finance

      • Seth Michael LarsonPreparing for the wave of open source funding

        I've listed the sections below in order of priority if your end goal is to be sponsored by organizations or companies. Not all sections will be relevant for all projects, pick and choose what makes sense for you!

      • Counter PunchA First Step, But We Have to Do More on Student Debt

        But we have got to do more. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, education, from pre-school through graduate school, must be a fundamental right for all, not a privilege for the wealthy few. If the United States is going to effectively compete in the global economy we need the best educated workforce in the world, and that means making public colleges and universities tuition free as many other major countries currently do – and that includes trade schools and minority-serving institutions as well. In the year 2022, in the wealthiest country on earth, everyone in America who wants a higher education should be able to get that education without going into debt.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer)[Repeat] Cook County Judge’s Office gets thrown off GULAG Tube (YouTube) and has to file an appeal.

        GULAG (Google) doesn’t even feel compelled to tell them why they have been banned, and the court begs GULAG to allow them back on instead of ordering them to.

      • NPRA former employee accuses Twitter of big security lapses in a whistleblower complaint

        The whistleblower also accuses Twitter of misleading federal regulators about its progress toward tightening up the privacy and security of its users' accounts after a major [crack].

        The complaint adds that Twitter's policy toward fake accounts incentivized "deliberate ignorance" by undercounting spam accounts and providing bonuses to executives for growing the number of users on the platform, but not sniffing out bots.

        Twitter's security vulnerabilities makes the platform vulnerable to foreign spies, hacking and disinformation campaigns, Zatko further alleges.

      • Counter PunchTime is Running Out to Upgrade US Immigration Policy

        The green card pileup mainly affects skilled workers from countries with the largest populations. At the current rates, about 200,000 skilled Indian immigrants are likely to die before they receive a green card, a process that is expected to take until the year 2216, a whopping 194 years from now. In addition, hundreds of thousands of foreign-born children of H1-B visas will have to switch over to international student visas or self-deport, despite having lived in the country legally for nearly their entire lives. The only way to resolve this issue is to include the original versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness Act (USICA) in this year’s defense bill.

      • MeduzaMunicipal candidate in Moscow suffers spinal fracture in attack outside local election board — Meduza

        In the latest of a series of incidents targeting political candidates nonaligned with the Kremlin, Communist Party Moscow municipal council candidate Sergey Burtsev was attacked outside a local election board on Wednesday, August 24. Doctors later concluded that he suffered a spinal fracture as well as numerous cuts and bruises. Burtsev told the news outlet Holod Media that a man allegedly pretending to be intoxicated assaulted him after he refused to call a taxi for him.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation

    • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Michael West MediaSlow [Internet] among barriers to growth: PC

        Speed test data by Ookla shows Australia’s actual [Internet] speeds are not globally competitive, with a download speed ranking of 18th in the world and the median fixed broadband download speed ranking 61st.

        Agriculture businesses were most likely to cite unsuitable [Internet] speed and geographic location as barriers, suggesting poor digital connectivity in regional and remote areas could be limiting technology uptake.

      • TechdirtFormer UK Supreme Court Judge Calls Out Online Safety Bill As Harmful By Itself

        We have discussed at great lengths the many problems of the UK’s Online Safety Bill, in particular how it will be a disaster for the open internet. Unfortunately, it appears that important politicians seem to think that the Online Safety Bill will be a sort of magic wand that will make the “bad stuff” online disappear automatically (it won’t).

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • TechdirtHBO Max And Sesame Street Highlight The Stupidity Of Mindless Media Megamergers

        If you recall, AT&T spent nearly $200 billion on megamergers thinking it was going to dominate the online video advertising space. But after spending a fortune on DirecTV and Time Warner, laying off 50,000 people, killing off popular properties like Mad Magazine and DC’s Vertigo imprint, it quickly became clear that AT&T executives had absolutely no idea what they were doing.

      • Torrent FreakDenuvo Promises to Kill Nintendo Switch Emulator Piracy With New Protection

        Anti-piracy company Denuvo has announced a new product that aims to prevent pirated copies of Nintendo Switch games from being played on PC-based emulators. Denuvo says that 'Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection' will have no impact on the gaming experience and will ensure that anyone wishing to play a game will have to buy a legitimate copy.

    • Monopolies

      • Trademarks

        • TechdirtU.S. Appeals Court Affirms Disney Win Against Evel Knievel Estate Over Toy Story Character

          I guess I shouldn’t be shocked, but the trademark and publicity rights dispute between Disney and K&K Promotions, the company that manages the rights for the late stuntman Evel Knievel, was still ongoing until recently. If you’re not aware of what I’m talking about, the movie Toy Story 4 included a character named Duke Caboom, a toy motorcycle stuntman that certainly had some characteristics that were an homage to Knievel. Not just Knievel, though, and that’s the important bit. Instead, the character had its own backstory, name, and imagery, all of which borrowed from several stuntmen from that era.

        • TechdirtFucking TTAB Says FUCT Owner Can’t Trademark ‘Fuck’ Because That Word Fucking Belongs To All Of Us

          I love this story so much I want it to find other similar vulgar stories so that those stories can have little baby vulgar stories for me to read. You may recall the saga of Erik Brunetti, founder of FUCT, a fashion brand with a name supposedly standing for Friends U Can’t Trust. We wrote about FUCT at first being denied a trademark on the brand over vulgarity concerns, a decision overturned on appeal on First Amendment grounds. It was a good ruling on the merits, as the government shouldn’t be in the business of saving our ears from naughty words based on its judgement of naughtiness.

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent FreakPrivate Torrent Site User Faces Prison After Sharing 40 Movies

          During a court hearing scheduled for tomorrow, a private torrent site user is expected to admit that he shared around 40 movies in breach of copyright. The case is special. Not only is this a criminal prosecution carrying a possible prison sentence, it will also pave the way for similar action against an undisclosed number of pirates.

        • Torrent FreakYout.com Site Blocking 'Whack-a-Mole' Continues in Peru

          Popular stream-ripping site Yout.com finds itself blocked again by Peruvian ISPs. Just a few months ago the service protested a similar blockade. The Government isn't easily defeated though, as it simply requested another temporary blockade, pending an investigation. And while the formal deadline has passed, getting the blockade lifted is easier said than done.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Movement: A personal reframing

        Renewing a focus and commitment with physical movement.

        For the past years I've had several cycles of disenchantment with computers. Although nice things have come out of them, like Compudanzas, they have also represented a source of anxiety: it seems I have internalized that my way of contributing to the world, society and a solarpunk present and future *has* to be through computers. This thought has been reinforced by a way of looking to my own history, as I've been "always around computers", "always excelling at mathematical and logical thinking". "This is what I'm good at, this is where I can be most helpful". The disenchantment leaves me floating in the void.

      • Open content that you can contribute to



        And would also like to mention iNaturalist, where people can contribute observations of animals, plants, fungi, &c. Photos are shared under user-chosen terms, but they recommend using some CC licenses compatible with Wikimedia Commons.

      • I am my father's son

        Oh man, I had a good chuckle at that. I remember one day that me and my mum were both home from work, and we decided to go to the local hospital to donate blood. My dad returned home from work when we were both at the hospital. Years later he recounted the story and made special note about how everybody left the house but left the lights on. I was laughing my arse off at that.

        As a teenager I got the occasional remark about how I looked like my father. When I answer the phone, no-one can work out whether it's me or my father.

        [..]

        local Sainsbury's (a UK supermarket). I proceeded to tell her the best strategy for getting there, which included what pedestrian crossing to take. She thanked me as she rolled her eyes. In that instant I knew I was exactly like my father.

        My mum recently accused me of being even worse than my father. Yeah, he is a bit of an arsehole.

    • Technical

      • Local peer to peer binary cache with NixOS and Peerix

        There is a cool project related to NixOS, called Peerix. It's a local daemon exposed as a local substituter (a server providing binary packages) that will discover other Peerix daemon on the local network, and use them as a source of binary packages.

        Peerix is a simple way to reuse package already installed somewhere on the network instead of downloading it again. Packages delivered by Peerix substituters are signed with a private key, so you need to import each computer public key before being able to download/use their packages. While this can be cumbersome, this also mandatory to prevent someone on the network to spoof packages.


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



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