Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 11/09/2022: Papirus Icon Set Refreshed



  • Tech

    • Railroads Reverse Years of Streamlining to Improve Freight Service | SupplyChainBrain

      Rail yards are starting to rumble with activity again as freight railroads invest in expanding capacity and improving service. The Wall Street Journal reports that Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific have recently reopened several “hump yards,” where trains are broken down and reassembled for their next destinations.

      The yards were among operations that had been significantly curtailed in the industry’s years-long push to operate more efficiently by using fewer trains and holding them to tighter schedules.

    • Applications

      • Ubuntu PitKoodo Reader: An Open Source eBook Reader for Linux

        Are you looking for an eBook reader for your Linux desktop and laptop? Well, then you need to check out Koodo Reader must. It’s an open-source eBook reader app for your Linux. Simply put, it’s an all-in-one tool you need to read eBooks on your Linux system.

        Koodo fills the limitations of other eBook readers by providing an elegant look and user experience. Though Linux has plenty of eBook reader apps (e.g., Foliate and Calibre) available, Koodo stands out for its unique features and functionalities. It’s exceptionally lightweight and user-friendly.

        In this article, you’ll get an in-depth overview of the features Koodo has for you, from where you can download Koodo, how to install it on different Linux distros, and the user guide.

        [...]

        Let me give you a concise brief of this reader app.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • ID RootHow To Install FreeOffice on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install FreeOffice on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, FreeOffice is a free and open-source alternative tool for MS Office created by SoftMaker. It is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac and free for home use or at the workplace. Although Free Office does not offer all applications as available in Microsoft Office, it focuses mainly on day-to-day used applications such as Text (an alternative to MS Word), PlanMaker (spreadsheet), and Presentation (like PowerPoint).

        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 FreeOffice suite 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.

      • uni TorontoWhat systemd timer directives seem to be used in practice

        Systemd .timer units have a bunch of different On<Thing> directives to define the time when the timer(s) trigger, including OnCalendar=. As I discovered when looking into using timers to run things very frequently, there can be more than one way to get what you want with all of these directives. This variety of options raises a straightforward question, namely what do people seem to do in practice.

        I'm not energetic enough to download every Ubuntu or Fedora package that has a timer and look at them all. Instead, I'm looking (only) at the packages installed on the Fedora and Ubuntu systems I have ready access to, and especially the timer units that are actually enabled (things that aren't enabled can have weird things lurking in their depths). Widely installed and enabled timer units sort of set the standard for what people expect.

        By far the most popular option is OnCalendar. Unsurprisingly there's a bunch of packages that use 'daily' or 'weekly' as basically a replacement for cron.daily and cron.weekly. Even the Certbot timer unit (on both Ubuntu and Fedora) uses OnCalendar, although it has an interesting trick; it sets itself to run at 00:00 and 12:00 but also has a 12 hour randomized delay, so the actual activation time of all of those Certbot timers is (hopefully) randomized very broadly across the day. This same trick is used by fwupd-refresh.timer, motd-news.timer (in Ubuntu), man-db.timer, and plocate-updatedb.timer (although it only activates once a day so it's not quite the same).

      • ByteXDUsing Filament to Create a WebGUI for FreeRadius - ByteXD

        Filament is a TALL (Tailwind, Alpine.js, Laravel, Livewire) admin panel framework.

        There are several admin panel frameworks available for Laravel. Until recently, my favorite was Laravel Nova — the official Admin Panel, backed by the creators of Laravel.

      • ByteXD[Fix] Laravel: Return type of Illuminate\\Support\\Collection::offsetExists($key)
      • Barry Kaulerchroot too many levels of symbolic links

        There is a serious problem in the '3buildeasydistro' script in woofQ, building Easy Bookworm. In a few places it runs "chroot rootfs-complete ...", that now fail.

      • Data SwampSolene'% : Video - talk about NixOS deployments tools

        At work, we have a weekly "knowledge sharing" meeting, yesterday I talked about the state of NixOS deployments tools.

      • Make Use OfHow to Self-Host Bitwarden Password Manager on Raspberry Pi Zero

        Many users create simple passwords or use the same ones while signing up for any service or product online, as they are easy to remember. Some users do use complex passwords but save the credentials in the web browser, which is neither recommended nor safe. Instead of using a web browser to manage your passwords, you can build a self-hosted modern password manager using Bitwarden with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), backups, SSL certificate, remote access, and enhanced security.

        [...]

        Insert the microSD card into the card reader and connect it to your computer system. Then follow these steps to write the 64-bit Lite version of Raspberry Pi OS to it.

    • Games

      • Tom MacWrightWilderplace - macwright.com

        There are few people I’ve worked as closely with as Saman Bemel Benrud. We built a lot of stuff together at Mapbox, from iD to Mapbox Studio. But he was insistent that after this job, he was going to make games and comics. No more tech rocket ships.

        He’s gone and done it. Saman, along with Micah Fitch and Tom Lubanovic, released Wilderplace today. It’s an endlessly creative turn-based adventure game.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • OMG UbuntuPapirus Icon Set’s September Update Adds 38 New Icons - OMG! Ubuntu!

        A new version of the Papirus icon theme for Linux desktops is available to download.

        Furthering August’s amiable update, Papirus designers add 38 new and updated icons in this refresh.

        Among the gamut of glyphs within are icons for GTK audio editor Ear Tag, Material Design-led music player Harmonoid, and convergent KDE podcast client Kasts.

        There are also icons for the Chromium-based web browser Naver Whale, well-regarded Gabut Download Manager, and the Electron-based and privacy-focused Discord client WebCord.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • DebugPointTop 10 Best Linux Distributions in 2022 For Everyone

      We compiled a list of the 10 best Linux distributions for everyone in 2022 based on their stability, attractiveness and time required to configure after installation.

      The Linux Distribution space is heavily fragmented to the point that a new fork is being created almost every day. A very few of them are unique and bring something different to the table. Most of them are just the same Ubuntu or Debian based with a different theme or a wrapper.

      The Linux distro landscape is so dynamic that it changes every month. Some Linux distributions become more stable with ever-changing packages and components, while others become unstable in quality. Hence, it’s challenging to pick and choose the best Linux distribution for your school, work or for just casual browsing, watching movies, etc. Not to mention, many Linux distributions are discontinued every year due to a lack of contributions, cost-overrun and other reasons.

      That said, we compiled the below 10 best Linux distributions in 2022, which is perfect for any user or use case. That includes casual dual-boot users with Windows 10 or 11, students, teachers, developers, creators, etc. Take a look.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Programming/Development

      • Jim NielsenPodcast Notes: Jen Simmons on ShopTalk Show - Jim Nielsen’s Blog

        While listening to Chris, Dave, and Jen discuss the array of new things coming to CSS, what stuck out to me was how much these new things aren’t necessarily about addressing specific concerns around technological capability — e.g. when will we get IF statements in CSS? — but rather about addressing organizational and cultural concerns that arise from humans trying to work together to build software — e.g. how can teams of people write, maintain, and refactor CSS?

      • The Package: learning how to build an R package

        I recently made my first R package and was asked how I did it. The answer of course was: I searched, read, and stumbled around until it was done. But having gone through the process I figured it was worthwhile summarising what I did and what I found tricky.

      • Using Shiny Server in Docker
      • Python application deployment with RStudio Connect: Streamlit

        RStudio Connect is a platform which is well known for providing the ability to deploy and share R applications such as Shiny apps and Plumber APIs as well as plots, models and R Markdown reports. However, despite the name, it is not just for R developers (hence their recent announcement). RStudio Connect also supports a growing number of Python applications, API services including Flask and FastAPI and interactive web based apps such as Bokeh and Streamlit.

      • Why I don't enjoy RSpec all that much

        One of the reasons I prefer testing with Minitest is the dissatisfaction with my everyday RSpec work. Here are things I don’t like about typical RSpec test suites and how to fix them.

        Please take the post with a grain of salt. If you enjoy writing RSpec this way, keep enjoying it! Some things are personal, and it’s okay.

      • Taking on Virtual Events with Regular Structured and Casual Meetups ☕️ - R Consortium

        The R Consortium recently interviewed John Blischak and Tim Hoolihan with the Cleveland R UseR Group. The organizers share more about how the group managed to continue to grow with consistent structured and casual virtual events like their Virtual R Café.

      • Stacey on IoTCan TinyML really provide on-device learning?

        Imagine if your smart speaker could be trained to recognize your accent, or if a pair of running shoes could alert you in real time if your gait changed, indicating fatigue. Or if, in the industrial world, sensors could parse vibration information from a machine that changed location and function often in real time, halting the machine if that information suggested there was a problem.

      • HaikuOS[GSoC 2022] XFS : Final Report | Haiku Project

        GSoC 2022 is nearing its end so here is the final report on my project, which aims at adding more XFS file system support on Haiku.

      • Beneath and Beyond the Cox Model - R Views

        The Cox Proportional Hazards model has so dominated survival analysis over the past forty years that I imagine quite a few people who regularly analyze survival data might assume that the Cox model, along with the Kaplan-Meier estimator and a few standard parametric models, encompass just about everything there is to say about the subject. It would not be surprising if this were true because it is certainly the case that these tools have dominated the teaching of survival analysis. Very few introductory textbooks look beyond the Cox Model and the handful of parametric models built around Gompertz, Weibull and logistic functions. But why do Cox models work so well? What is the underlying theory? How do all the pieces of the standard survival tool kit fit together?

      • VideoThe C++ memory leak detector no one told me about | address sanitizer - Invidious

        The Address sanitizer is an awesome tool that does a lot more than just detect memory leaks. In this video I show you the basic usage of this tool using a leaky C++ code snippet

      • Data SwampBento 1.0.0 released
  • Leftovers

    • BloombergCities Using Digital Twins Like SimCity for Policymakers

      Cities like Orlando, FL, and Singapore are using digital twins to generate virtual models of themselves, in order to simulate the effects of potential new policies or infrastructure projects that can inform real-world decision-making.

    • Science

      • Extreme TechCanada Is Working On the World’s Largest Geothermal Solar Lagoon

        Petite-Rivière-Saint-François has never been considered much of a tourist destination. The tiny Quebec town is typically regarded as a pass-through municipality on the way to Canada’s Charlevoix region, an area known for its vast greenery, architecture, skiing, and arts scene. Soon, however, that’s going to change. In just a couple of years, Petite-Rivière will be home to geoLAGOON, the world’s largest geothermal solar lagoon.

        If you’re thinking the term “geothermal solar lagoon” looks at first like a jumble of buzzwords, you’re not the only one. But each aspect of the self-sufficient, environmentally-friendly destination is carefully planned. The center will be a large, open-air lagoon heated to 100.4 F (38 C) year-round. The heat will come from an “energy ecosystem” consisting of solar, air, and biomass resources, as well as built-in geothermal equipment. Under the lagoon will sit a thermal reservoir heated to 150 F (70 C) by both solar and geothermal energy.

      • New ScientistDeepMind AI learns to play soccer using decades of match simulations

        Artificial intelligence has learned to play soccer. By learning from decades’ worth of computer simulations, an AI took digital humanoids from flailing tots to proficient players.

        Researchers at the AI research company DeepMind taught the AI how to play soccer in a computer simulation through an athletic curriculum resembling a sped-up version of a human baby growing into a soccer player. The AI was given control over digital humanoids with realistic body masses and joint movements.

    • Hardware

      • IEEEAerial Dragon Robot Reconfigures Itself Into a Flying Manipulator

        A couple years ago, we wrote about the Dual-rotor embedded multilink Robot with the Ability of multi-deGree-of-freedom aerial transformatiON—Dragon, of course. It’s one of the wildest drones we’ve ever seen, consisting of four pairs of gimbaled, ducted fans, with each pair linked together through a two-axis actuated joint, making it physically flexible in flight to a crazy degree.

        Dragon is one of those robots with literally more degrees of freedom than it knows what to do with—in the sense that the hardware is all there. But the trick is getting it to use that hardware to do things that are actually useful in a reliable way. In 2018, Dragon was just learning how to transform itself to fit through small spaces, but now it’s able to adapt its entire structure to manipulate and grasp objects.

      • Extreme TechNASA Spends $50 Million to Develop Next-Gen Processor for Space Exploration

        NASA has been using the same spaceflight computers for almost 30 years, but it won’t be much longer. The agency has awarded a $50 million contract to Arizona-based Microchip Technology Inc. to “architect, design, and deliver” a next-generation space-optimized processor. NASA expects the new chip, which will be used in future lunar and planetary missions, will be 100 times faster than the chips currently in use.

        In an interview we conducted with Perseverance rover engineer Adam Steltzner, he told us the chip powering the robot was no faster than the CPU in a late 90s Mac computer — the phone in your pocket is an order of magnitude more powerful. However, you can’t just slap the latest Intel CPU in a spacecraft and call it a day. Space is a harsh environment with extreme temperatures and damaging radiation. Regular computer hardware tends not to last very long. The Ingenuity Mars helicopter is one notable exception. It runs on a Qualcomm smartphone SoC, and despite NASA’s low expectations, it’s still going strong on Mars.

      • TechCrunchGM’s Cruise recalls, updates software in 80 robotaxis following crash

        Cruise, the autonomous vehicle unit under GM, reported a software recall and update in 80 of its robotaxis following a crash in June.

        The crash, which resulted in minor injuries to two riders, received national attention because it occurred a day after Cruise received the final permit from California regulators to commercialize its driverless robotaxi service.

    • Security

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

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • Cops wanted to keep mass surveillance app secret; privacy advocates refused

          Much is known about how the federal government leverages location data by serving warrants to major tech companies like Google or Facebook to investigate crime in America. However, much less is known about how location data influences state and local law enforcement investigations. It turns out that's because many local police agencies intentionally avoid mentioning the under-the-radar tech they use—sometimes without warrants—to monitor private citizens.

        • How About a Civic Group to Oppose a Cashless Society? - Ralph Nader

          The most perceptive ancient historians and philosophers could not have foreseen a time when a certain type of mass convenience and abundance becomes a threat to democracy, justice and dispersed power. Welcome to the incarcerations of the credit card payment systems Gulag and the corporate state’s drive to stop consumers from paying with cash.

          So long as you have a credit card and a credit score, you’re in a world of easy credit (no down payments, etc.), and high interest rates, especially on unpaid monthly balances. All it takes is swiping your card and pushing buttons at retail establishments or online to make a purchase.

        • RFAWeChat warns users their likes, comments and histories are being sent to China — Radio Free Asia

          The Chinese social media platform WeChat is warning users outside China that their data will be stored on servers inside the country, RFA has learned.

          A number of overseas WeChat users received a notification on Sept. 6, warning that "personal data [including] likes, comments, browsing and search history, content uploads, etc." will be transmitted to China.

          The notification also reminds users that their behavior while using the app is subject to WeChat's licensing agreement and privacy policy.

          A YouTuber living in France who gave only the pseudonym Miss Crook said she was shocked to receive a French translation of the same message.

          "I clicked through and ... this message popped up, so I automatically clicked cancel," she said. "It's becoming clear what the difference is between a democracy and a dictatorship."

    • Defence/Aggression

      • The WireThe Truth About the Kargil War Is Bitter But it Must Be Told

        On Vijay Diwas, which is observed on July 26 every year, glowing tributes are rightly paid to the soldiers who laid down their lives to ensure India’s victory in the historic Kargil War. But the nation also witnesses another drama of a different kind.

        A lot of old Army generals, who never saw an artillery shell fall closer than two km, that too during demonstrations in firing ranges, as well as the likes of those who have seen snow only in Bollywood classics like Kashmir ki Kali and Aarzoo, emerge as great experts on TV channels. Some can even be heard yelling their lungs out. They heap praise upon themselves for ensuring India’s victory in Kargil and indulge in a lot of chest thumping from the safe confines of television studios. But the truth behind the fiasco that resulted in the loss of more than 500 Indian soldiers, and another 1,500 wounded during the war gets suppressed in the cacophony.

        [...]

        The events which led to the Kargil fiasco, which I will go on to narrate in some detail in this story, are not classified. They are available as court records, information procured through RTI queries and from books published by those involved in the war, including General V.P. Malik, Major General Verma, Captain Amarinder Singh and a few others.

    • Environment

      • Energy

        • RlangHow strongly does German electricity demand react to high prices?

          The discussion on how to deal with exploding European electricity prices takes on steam. Recent ideas of the EU and similar proposals by the German government do not directly attempt to reduce electricity wholesale prices. The goal is to collect infra-marginal rents in another way and redistribute the money to energy users by different channels than wholesale price reductions.

        • Graphing California Electricity Supply using ggplot2

          Graphing California Electricity Supply using ggplot2 during record temperatures 9/05/2022 - 09/09/2022

          Raw data from CA ISO. Data is available in 5 minute increments for each 24 hour period.

        • ForbesEthereum Founder’s Huge 2040 Bitcoin And Crypto Crash Price Prediction

          The bitcoin price has fallen sharply since hitting a peak of almost $70,000 per bitcoin late last year. The ethereum price has also suffered an almighty crash with ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin issuing an urgent update warning in the run-up to ethereum's major merge upgrade that begins next week.

        • The AtlanticCrypto’s Core Values Are Running Headfirst Into Reality

          This is the promise crypto advocates have sold consumers and politicians over the past decade, as crypto has blown up into a trillion-dollar behemoth—in the process making Buterin, now best known as the founder of the Ethereum network, very, very rich. (Buterin’s Ethereum Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.) Even as crypto has wormed its way into the mainstream, the argument goes, the tech was constructed in such a way as to prevent meddling on the part of banks and governments. For example, Jesse Powell, CEO of the Kraken exchange, has referred to crypto networks as “censorship-resistant rails of last resort.” And the venture-capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz, now the foremost backer of crypto start-ups, has invoked that same idea in promoting its multibillion-dollar funds.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Data from elephant seals reveal new features of marine heatwave ‘the Blob’

          The North Pacific Blob, a marine heatwave that began in late 2013 and continued through 2015, was the largest and longest-lasting marine heatwave on record. A new study using data collected by elephant seals reveals that in addition to the well documented surface warming, deeper warm-water anomalies associated with the Blob were much more extensive than previously reported.

      • Overpopulation

        • World Overshoot Day: World has already overshot nature’s budget for rest of the year

          This year’s Earth Overshoot Day was observed July 28, a day before it was celebrated last year July 29 and nearly a month earlier than it was celebrated in 2020 August 22.

          The day, hosted and calculated by Global Footprint Network, an international research organisation, falls earlier every year, to indicate that humanity’s demand for natural resources exceeds what the Earth can provide.

    • Finance

      • Jacobin MagazineMikhail Gorbachev’s Project Was a Noble Failure Thwarted by Forces Beyond His Control

        When he became the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to democratize the USSR without embracing free-market capitalism and end the Cold War without enabling US domination. The world is still haunted by his inability to achieve those goals.

      • Ruben SchadeRubenerd: Queen Elizabeth II

        Liz represented a family that has wrought untold suffering and theft to people around the world, and altogether not enough has been done to atone and compensate for this, let alone acknowledge it. Charles III’s coronation will also cost billions of pounds right when working class people are struggling to keep the heater on.

        [...]

        The world’s relationship with Liz was more complicated than people on either side acknowledge. This is most starkly represented in Hong Kong, where her family were responsible for the Opium wars on one end, and represented lost freedoms and resistance since the handover.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Michael West MediaA winner by wallet maybe, but Lachlan Murdoch has put Crikey on the world stage

        If he gets in the witness box, Lachlan Murdoch stands to win his defamation action against Crikey but the Australian news site is already triumphant. Michael West and Alan Austin report. Lachlan Murdoch is suing Crikey for defamation. A $10 billion US media juggernaut is suing a $20 million small publisher Downunder, plus its politics correspondent Bernard Keane and editor Peter Fray. Goliath versus David. Murdoch took exception to a Crikey article in June which described former US president Donald Trump as a ‘‘confirmed unhinged traitor’’ who had propelled the US into a ‘‘new and dangerous state of crisis’’. It added that News Corp’s owners ‘‘and their slew of poisonous Fox News commentators are the unindicted co-conspirators of this continuing crisis’.’

      • Michael West MediaNo future: Governor-General’s charity knocked on the head - Michael West

        It may be the easiest budget cut the Albanese government makes as it battles with a trillion dollars of debt.

        On Wednesday night, with MWM’s coverage rating hot (it still is on Thursday morning), the government announced that the $18m charity endorsed by the Governor-General, funded by the taxpayer, headed by a low-profile businessman, and with only the vaguest mandate, would be scrapped.

      • Michael West MediaDid Tourism Australia really get a KPMG report, or was it Scomo’s imagination? - Michael West

        There are still many questions surrounding Scott Morrison’s ill-starred time at the helm of Tourism Australia, writes Jommy Tee. Newly released documents confirm KPMG did not undertake a probity audit in 2005 into the assessment and evaluation of shortlisted tenderers for Tourism Australia’s advertising contracts.

        It’s more than 100 days since Scott Morrison led the Coalition to a crushing election defeat. Under a twin assault from Labor and the climate independents, Coalition seats fell like ninepins everywhere except Queensland. Outside the Sunshine State, the Coalition recorded the worst defeat in terms of seats of any government since Gough Whitlam’s.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • New York TimesOpinion | Censorship Is the Refuge of the Weak - The New York Times

        Republicans across the country are trying to use the power of the state to restrict speech.

      • GizmodoBiden Issues Another Vague Call to 'Reform' Section 230

        Since taking the White House in November 2020, President Joe Biden has issued repeated calls to amend one of the most foundational laws governing the internet, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

      • New York TimesHong Kong Sentences 5 Over ‘Seditious’ Children’s Books - The New York Times

        Tales about a sheep village resisting a wolf pack prompted the charges against leaders of a speech therapists’ union, extending a government crackdown on dissent.

      • Hong Kong Free Press5 Hong Kong speech therapists jailed for 19 months each for sedition over children's books - Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

        Five Hong Kong speech therapists have each been sentenced to 19 months behind bars under the colonial-era sedition law. They were convicted of publishing a series of illustrated books that effectively “brainwashed” young readers, a judge ruled.

        District Judge Kwok Wai-kin meted out jail terms to Lorie Lai, Melody Yeung, Sidney Ng, Samuel Chan and Fong Tsz-ho on Saturday, three days after he found them guilty of conspiring to print, publish, distribute and display three books with seditious intent between June 2020 and July 2021.

      • JURISTACLU of Nevada sues Las Vegas over age restrictions - JURIST - News

        The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nevada has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Las Vegas and the Fremont Street Experience on behalf of a street performer and two 18-year-olds. The ACLU stated that the age restrictions to enter the popular tourism destination, in place on weekends since July 12, 2022, violate the First Amendment of the Constitution.

      • RFAReport: China accelerates global campaign to sway foreign media — Radio Free Asia

        China is intensifying its campaign to influence and manipulate news and information worldwide, and using an array of tools to project a positive image of itself abroad, a U.S.-based watchdog group said in a report released Thursday.

        In Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia were vulnerable to Beijing’s influence campaigns from early 2019 through the end of last year, while the Philippines was more resilient, according to the new report by Freedom House, a non-profit headquartered in Washington.

        “The Chinese government, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, is accelerating a massive campaign to influence media outlets and news consumers around the world. While some aspects of this effort use the tools of traditional public diplomacy, many others are covert, coercive, and potentially corrupt,” the report said in giving an overview of Beijing’s media influence push across the globe.

      • New York TimesArab States Demand That Netflix Drop ‘Offensive Content’ - The New York Times

        Egypt joined six Gulf Arab nations in insisting that streaming services take down programs that go against “societal values.”

      • The AtlanticSalman Rushdie, Free Speech, and Violence - The Atlantic

        In August, the author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck. The novelist has spent decades living under the threat of a hit put out by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. The religious directive was a response to Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses, which Khomeini regarded as blasphemous. For many, the attack was an opportunity to reflect on the importance of free expression, and a reminder of the clear distinction between speech and violence.

        For others, it was an opportunity to remind others of the clear distinction between speech and violence, which is something that all those snowflake libs, who are sort of like the fanatic who stabbed Rushdie in the neck, should take to heart.

        “We live in a culture in which many of the most celebrated people occupying the highest perches believe that words are violence,” Bari Weiss wrote on her Substack, citing no one in particular. “In this, they have much in common with Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.” She added that “of course it is 2022 that the Islamists finally get a knife into Salman Rushdie. Of course it is now, when words are literally violence and J.K. Rowling literally puts trans lives in danger and even talking about anything that might offend anyone means you are literally arguing I shouldn’t exist.”

      • RFAChina's state media urged not to stray from party line, dumb down ideology — Radio Free Asia

        The head of China's state news agency has pledged never to swerve from the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) line or from supporting incumbent leader Xi Jinping as he gears up to seek an unprecedented third term in office at the 20th CCP National Congress in October.

        Xinhua news agency president Fu Hua said his journalists shouldn't take leave of the party line, Xi Jinping Thought or core propaganda themes "not even for a minute."

        "Xinhua will never depart from the party line, not even for a minute, nor stray from the path laid down by general secretary Xi Jinping, not even for a minute, nor lose sight of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the Central Committee, not even for a minute," Fu wrote in a Sept. 2 article for the Cyberspace Administration publication ChinaNetNews.

        Fu's pledge was explicitly linked to the run-up to the 20th party congress, and called on Xinhua to "give the strongest voice to the party's ideas" during that time.

      • RFAVietnamese authorities walk back decision ordering artist to destroy 29 paintings — Radio Free Asia

        The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee reversed a decision ordering a popular Vietnamese poet and artist to destroy 29 of his works because he hosted an exhibition in July without a permit, he told RFA.

        Bui Quang Vien, better known by his pen name Bui Chat, held the exhibition from July 15-30 at the city’s Alpha Art Station. Authorities on Aug. 9 fined him 25 million dong (about U.S. $1,000) and ordered the destruction of 29 of his abstract paintings, an unprecedented move critics called a “step backward” even in a country known for heavy censorship.

        Authorities summoned the painter on Aug. 31 to inform him they had made a new decision on his case, and he received official notification on Monday, he told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.

      • Deutsche WelleForced abroad, Russian independent media continue fight against censorship | News | DW | 08.09.2022

        Russia has sentenced a former star journalist to jail and revoked the license of a Kremlin-critical newspaper, further tightening the screws on independent media. Getting uncensored information is harder than ever.

      • ReasonCloudflare Can Cancel Service to Awful Sites Like Kiwi Farms. But Should It?

        There's been ample cheering over the internet intermediary company Cloudflare canceling services to the controversial 8chan heir Kiwi Farms. If history is any indication, however, Cloudflare's decision will do little to stop online hate and harassment. Meanwhile, it moves us yet another step further from the sort of neutrality that's typically guided internet infrastructure companies (that is, things like web hosting, cybersecurity, and newsletter services). And the further we stray from this neutrality, the worse the consequences for all sorts of online speech and organizing.

        Cloudflare is a private business, and perfectly free to drop services to any entity it likes. But whether it should—and whether it made the right call with Kiwi Farms—is up for debate.

      • ViceTwitter Experiences Intermittent Outages Following Death of Queen Elizabeth II

        Several users are reporting being unable to access Twitter after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

        The Internet Observatory, an organization that tracks outages and instances of internet censorship around the world, reported “international outages.”

        The website Downdetector, which allows users to report issues with websites, showed hundreds of users reporting the social media platform being down and unreachable.

      • New York TimesBattling Violence and Censors, Women in China Become ‘Invisible and Absent’ - The New York Times

        The Chinese Communist Party has long promoted gender equality as a core tenet, but as cases of gender abuse make headlines, Beijing has tried to squelch dissent and control the narrative.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • CPJSpain is set to reform ‘gag law,’ but press freedom groups are skeptical - Committee to Protect Journalists

        In May, Diego Díaz Alonso, editor of Spanish non-profit news outlet Nortes, was surprised to receive a 601 euro (US$611) fine in the mail. The letter claimed that Díaz Alonso had resisted police and obstructed emergency services as they were treating a homeless person lying unconscious in the street in Gijón, in northern Spain, the previous summer. But Díaz Alonso told CPJ he was at the scene as a journalist and did not resist or obstruct anyone. He said that his July 2021 report alleging excessive police force against the homeless is what drew the authorities’ ire–and the fine.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • OWPAn Overdue Reckoning: The Napalpí Ruling And Indigenous Repression In Argentina - The Organization for World Peace

        In May, Voice of America reported that a court in Resistencia held the Argentinian state responsible for committing “crimes against humanity” in July 1924, when police and settlers massacred around 400-500 indigenous Qom and Moqoit peoples for protesting slave-like working conditions in the Napalpí reservation. Judge Zunilda Niremperger ordered the state to pay “historic reparations”, although these will not include financial compensation.

        On July 19th 1924, a group of 130 men, armed to the teeth with Winchester rifles, surrounded indigenous encampments and opened fire indiscriminately, killing countless men, women, and children. The assailants then hacked anyone left standing to death with machetes and hunted down witnesses for weeks.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • James GBuilding an 'on this day' feature for my website | James' Coffee Blog

        "on this day," in the context of the web, refers to a tool that lets you see what you have posted on a particular day over a previous time period, typically over years. I have been thinking about this idea since the IndieWebCamp Berlin event, after seeing David's personal website with a "this week" section. This section shows all of David's posts from a given week in the past.

        The concept of being able to see what I have posted in the past intrigues me, serving as a reminder that my website is a growing being. Additionally, a page that shows old posts on a given day raises the profile of some of my older posts that may be further in my archives, particularly those that are not featured on a prominent category (i.e. coffee or the IndieWeb on this site). I could bring a bit more serendipity to my site for both users and myself.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

    • Technical

      • Programming

        • Assembly Calling

          I've been itching to code in assembly for a few weeks now. It's just a part of my cycle - getting tired of the complexity and bulk of high-level languages and wanting to do something direct and simple - and what is more direct than coding assembly-language instructions on a CPU?


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Google Has Mass Layoffs (Again), But the Problem is Vastly Larger
started as a rumour about January 2025
Electronic Frontier Foundation Defends Companies That Attack Free Speech Online (Follow the Money)
One might joke that today's EFF has basically adopted the same stance as Donald Trump and has a "warm spot" for BRICS propaganda
 
Early Retirement Age: Linus Torvalds Turns 55 Next Week
Now he's almost eligible for retirement in certain European countries
Gemini Links 22/12/2024: Solstice and IDEs
Links for the day
BetaNews: Microsoft Slop is Your "Latest Technology News"
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Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Saturday, December 21, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, December 21, 2024
Links 21/12/2024: EU on Solidarity with Ukraine, Focus on Illegal and Unconstitutional Patent Court in the EU (UPC)
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsofters at the End of David's Leash
Hand holding the leash. Whose?
Deciphering Matt's Take on WordPress, Which is Under Attack From Microsofters-Funded Aggravator
the money sponsoring the legal attacks on WordPress and on Matt is connected very closely to Microsoft
Gemini Links 21/12/2024: Projections, Dead Web ('Webapps' Replacing Pages), and Presentation of Pi-hole
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[Meme] Brian's Ravioli
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Links for the day
LLM Slop is Ruining the Media and Ruining the Web, Ignoring the Problem or the Principal Culprits (or the Slop Itself) Is Not Enough
We need to encourage calling out the culprits (till they stop this poor conduct or misconduct)
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And since Microsoft's software contains back doors, only a fool would allow any part of SSH on Microsoft's environments, which should be presumed compromised
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"managers want more LLM slop"
On BetaNews Latest Technology News: "We are moderately confident this text was [LLM Chatbot] generated"
The future of newsrooms or another site circling down the drain with spam, slop, or both?
"The Real New Year" is Now
Happy solstice
Microsoft OSI Reads Techrights Closely
Microsoft OSI has also fraudulently attempted to censor Techrights several times over the years
"Warning About IBM's Labor Practices"
IBM is not growing and its revenue is just "borrowed" from companies it is buying; a lot of this revenue gets spent paying the interest on considerable debt
[Meme] The Easier Way to Make Money
With patents...
The Curse (to Microsoft) of the Faroe Islands
The common factor there seems to be Apple
Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 20, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, December 20, 2024
Gemini Links 21/12/2024: Death of Mike Case, Slow and Sudden End of the Web
Links for the day
Links 20/12/2024: Security Patches, Openwashing by Open Source Initiative, Prison Sentence for Bitcoin Charlatan and Fraud
Links for the day
Another Terrible Month for Microsoft in Web Servers
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LLM Slop Disguised as Journalism: The Latest Threat to the Web
A lot of it is to do with proprietary GitHub, i.e. Microsoft
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Links for the day
Links 20/12/2024: Windows Breaks Itself, Mass Layoffs Coming to Google Again (Big Wave)
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Microsoft: "Upgrade" to Vista 11 Today, We'll Brick Your Audio and You Cannot Prevent This
Windows Update is obligatory, so...
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Made to last or made to be as cheap as possible? Meritocracy or industrial rat races are everywhere now.
Microsoft's All-Time Lows in Macao and Hong Kong
Microsoft is having a hard time in China, not only for political reasons
[Meme] "It Was Like a Nuclear Winter"
This won't happen again, will it?
If You Know That Hey Hi (AI) is Hype, Then Stop Participating in It
bogus narrative of "Hey Hi (AI) arms race" and "era/age of Hey Hi" and "Hey Hi Revolution"
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Microsoft barely has a grip on this country. It used to.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 19, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, December 19, 2024