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Links 21/09/2022: Debuginfod in Ubuntu



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

    • Server

      • Kubernetes BlogKubernetes 1.25: Use Secrets for Node-Driven Expansion of CSI Volumes

        Kubernetes v1.25, released earlier this month, introduced a new feature that lets your cluster expand storage volumes, even when access to those volumes requires a secret (for example: a credential for accessing a SAN fabric) to perform node expand operation. This new behavior is in alpha and you must enable a feature gate (CSINodeExpandSecret) to make use of it. You must also be using CSI storage; this change isn't relevant to storage drivers that are built in to Kubernetes.

        To turn on this new, alpha feature, you enable the CSINodeExpandSecret feature gate for the kube-apiserver and kubelet, which turns on a mechanism to send secretRef configuration as part of NodeExpansion by the CSI drivers thus make use of the same to perform node side expansion operation with the underlying storage system.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • uni TorontoI believe SELinux needs active support from your distribution

        We have a single machine that uses SELinux, because it has a need for an unusually thorough level of security. This machine runs CentOS 7, because at the time we built this machine (several years ago), CentOS 7 was the obvious long term support Linux to use to get a high security, SELinux based environment. Since CentOS has effectively imploded, we are going to need to replace that machine with some other distribution before the middle of 2024, and the default choice is Ubuntu.

      • Barry KaulerKernel 5.15.69 compiled

        Preparing for the next release of EasyOS, have bumped the kernel to 5.15.69.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • VideoHow to install PyCharm Professional on Linux Mint 21 - Invidious

        In this video, we are looking at how to install PyCharm Professional on Linux Mint 21.

      • Linux Made SimpleHow to install Ultimaker Cura on a Chromebook

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

      • Make Use OfHow to Extend Logical Volumes on Ubuntu Server

        Running out of disk space and managing disk partitions has long been a headache for IT engineers. Luckily, Linux tries to solve this problem by using logical volumes.

        On Ubuntu Server, logical volumes are the default method for managing your server disk space. Unfortunately, when using these volumes, not all disk space is used up and this might leave you wondering where all your disk space went. Let's take a look at how to adjust or increase your LVM hard disk space on Ubuntu.

      • Linux HintHow To Use Zenmap Nmap GUI

        This tutorial explains how to install and use the Zenmap Graphical User Interface for Nmap (Network Mapper) in Debian and Ubuntu Linux distributions.

        While the installation process focuses on Debian-based Linux distributions like Ubuntu (I also included instructions for CentOS), the rest of the tutorial on Zenmap usage is valid for all Linux distributions with popular X Window Managers.

        After reading this article, you can execute different scan types for various purposes, including vulnerability detection and exploitation. All instructions are optimized for new and experienced Nmap users.

        All examples in this document contain screenshots, making it easy for every reader.

      • Linux HintBash “For” Loop To Iterate Through an Array

        A “for” loop is a fundamental part of almost every programming language. It helps write the code you want to be repeated in the desired number of times. For Linux-based systems, Bash also features dedicated syntax that enables its users to leverage loops for automating their day-to-day tasks through scripts.

        Though you can use the “for” loop in a virtually infinite number of scenarios, this guide will look at three basic scenarios that you can plug into more extensive and complex scenarios to achieve bigger goals. We will explore three basic scenarios that employ the for loop for iterating through an array.

        To demonstrate the working of the “For” loop, I will demonstrate the Bash scripts using Ubuntu 22.04.

      • Linux HintHow to Install and Use the Deepin Screen Recorder

        Deepin is a reliable screen recorder. You can use it to capture screenshots and even record your screen. However, only the video gets recorded when recording the screen and not the audio. Still, the screen recorder is easy to use and offers some basic yet helpful editing.

        Using it to capture a screenshot has great features that help modify how the captured image should look. Before saving the screenshot, you can add texts and other shapes to the image. If you are looking for a good screen recorder, this guide covers on how to install and use the Deepin screen recorder.

      • Linux HintLinux Check If Port Is Blocked by Firewall

        We all know that network communication occurs because of the ports and sockets. A port allows you to connect to the desired web server at any time you want while using the Internet. However, there are times that the firewall running on your system blocks certain ports due to security concerns. Therefore, if you ever wish to find out whether your firewall blocks a certain port or not in Linux, then you can follow this guide.

      • UNIX CopHow to Install NextCloud on Ubuntu 22.04 with Snap

        We’ve talked a lot about Nextcloud because we love it, but today we offer you another method to get it. In this post, you will learn how to install Nextcloud using Snap on Ubuntu 22.04.

        Nextcloud is a self-hosted file share and collaboration platform. It works much like cloud applications like Dropbox and Google Drive. It allows you to store and share your files in a secure and convenient manner across both desktop and hand-held devices such as smartphones.

      • Make Tech EasierLinux Command Line Cheatsheet - Make Tech Easier

        Despite the beautiful interfaces found on most modern distros, knowledge of Linux command lines is a useful tool to have. Knowing these basic shortcuts can make you more efficient and supercharge your productivity, not to mention make coding at the terminal that much easier. Regardless of your current background knowledge of Linux, you can start using this list of useful Linux commands right away.

      • Linux JournalFileRun on Docker | Linux Journal

        You may want to set up a file server like FileRun for any number of reasons. The main reason, I would think, would be so you can have your own Google Drive alternative that is under your control instead of Google's.

        FileRun claims to be "Probably the best File Manager in the world with desktop Sync and File Sharing," but I think you'll have to be the judge of that for yourself.

        Just to be completely transparent here, I like FileRun, but there is a shortcoming that I hope they will eventually fix. That shortcoming is that there are some, in my opinion, very important settings that are locked away behind an Enterprise Licence requirement.

        That aside, I really like the ease-of-use and flexibility of FileRun. So let's take a look at it.

      • ByteXDHow to Chown Recursively in Linux - ByteXD

        A recursive action affects a file or directory with its subdirectories. We mainly use the -R option to denote a recursive action. chown is the primary command to change ownership.

        This tutorial simplifies changing a file’s ownership recursively. It starts by taking you through an overview of file permission and ownership in Linux. It then walks you through changing a file’s owner practically.

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

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Alacritty on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Alacritty is a free and open-source GPU-accelerated terminal emulator focused on performance and simplicity. By integrating with other applications, rather than reimplementing their functionality, it manages to provide a flexible set of features with high performance. Its supported platforms currently consist of BSD, Linux, macOS and Windows.

        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 Alacritty terminal emulator 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.

      • Make Use OfHow to Install REMnux on VirtualBox

        REMnux is a free and open-source reverse engineering and malware analysis-oriented Linux distribution based on Ubuntu 20.04. It's a crowd favorite among professional malware analysts due to being modular and feature-rich.

        If you're looking to kickstart your journey as a malware analyst, having REMnux in your arsenal is a must. Let's learn how you can install REMnux on VirtualBox.

      • Create and Manage VirtualBox VM Groups - kifarunix.com

        In this tutorial, you will learn how to create and manage VirtualBox vm groups. In VirtualBox, it is possible to create virtual machines groups. You can group together virtual machines that servers the same purpose or just group them as you so wish.

      • XDACan the HP EliteBook 840 run Linux?

        Some of the best HP laptops are powered by just Windows. That said, if you’re considering buying the HP EliteBook 840 G9 for use in your operations, you might be wondering if it runs Linux. Well, the answer to that question is yes, but not officially, at least.

        We say that because while the HP EliteBook 840 G9 is not sold with a Linux configuration, Linux is an open-source operating system that can still run on almost any laptop (if you know the right tricks.) Also, most devices in businesses these days will run either macOS or Windows. Only specialty laptops like the XPS 13 Developer edition are sold with a Linux option. We’ll explain why that is in this guide and what you can do if you want to try Linux unofficially.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Kubuntu Council Elects 3 Councillors | Kubuntu

          Members of the Kubuntu Council are responsible for considering proposals made by the wider Kubuntu community. The council formalises and ratifies proposals, then votes to obtain an outcome which directs the course of progress for Kubuntu.

          On 11 September I (Rick Timmis) will have been a councilor for the Kubuntu Council for 5 years. Being a councilor is a lot of fun, provides a wonderful sense of fulfillment and also carries a lot of ‘Kudos’ in conversations with those of a technical persuasion.

          If you have been using Kubuntu for a while, and have explored some of our community, why not consider getting involved a little deeper ? We are always looking for testers, contributors, bug reporters, documentation, and blog writers.

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Felipe Borges: Google Summer of Code 2022: It’s a wrap!

          Another program year is ending and we are extremely happy with the resulting work of our contributors!

          This year GNOME had nine Google Summer of Code projects covering various areas, from improving apps in our ecosystem to standardizing our web presence. We hope our interns had a glimpse of our community that motivated them to continue engaged with their projects and involved with the broad GNOME ecosystem.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • TalospaceVoid PPC Goes Chimera (and Bust)

      Void PPC maintainer Daniel Kolesa has announced that instead of simply phasing out big-endian support in Void in 2022, he will instead cease maintaining the PowerPC/Power ISA fork of Void Linux entirely in favour of Chimera Linux, a fusion of a Linux kernel, musl libc and FreeBSD userland built with LLVM. There may even be a return of support for big-endian, at least for 64-bit Power (32-bit Power to be considered), as well as Chimera's core support for ppc64le, aarch64 and x86_64 (with 64-bit RISC-V coming).

    • BSD

      • MWL“OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems” draft done!

        I’m asking tech reviewers to get any comments to me by 15 October 2022. That’s four weeks. It might seem tight, but experience shows that people either get their comments to me immediately, or wait until the last possible weekend. I’m not complaining–I do exactly the same thing. Please return any comments either a) in plain text, with enough context that I can find them when page numbers change, or b) as annotations directly on the PDF.

      • Ruben Schadearia2 can download torrent files, then their files

        For example, I can download NetBSD 9.2 by giving it the torrent file, instead of having to download it first...

      • DragonFly BSD DigestIn Other BSDs for 2020/09/17
    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • LinuxiacRHEL-Based EuroLinux Desktop Debuts on the Linux Scene

        EuroLinux Desktop is a modern operating system based on RHEL 9 intended for usage in office work, companies, and private users.

        Regarding Red Hat Enterprise Linux-based systems, the three most hyped names to date are AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and Oracle Linux. But, of course, they are far from exhausted the RHEL-based distributions competing for their share of the enterprise Linux segment.

        We are glad to introduce you to one of the less popular RHEL derivatives today, thanks to the release of the EuroLinux Desktop edition. But, before we go any further, let’s make a few necessary clarifications.

    • Debian Family

      • LWNDebian's firmware vote [LWN.net]

        The Debian project has begun voting on changes to its approach to firmware needed to install a working distribution. The original ballot options described in this article are still there, but this is Debian so there are several others as well. Some of the additions include changes to the Debian Social Contract that explicitly allow the shipping of firmware needed to use Debian on hardware requiring that firmware.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

    • Devices/Embedded

      • Stacey on IoT5 ways Matter will disappoint users at launch

        After participating in a panel on Matter at Silicon Labs’ Works With event on Tuesday and conversing with attendees throughout the event, I think the initial response to Matter is going to be tepid at best and downright aggravated at worst.

        One person I spoke with, who declined to be named for this article, said they had the feeling that, given the delays and the constant influx of new members to the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which led to ballooning features requests, the CSA decided to just push something — anything — out. While I imagine the CSA’s thinking was probably along the lines of “Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good,” based on my conversations, it may be that the 1.0 version of the standard may not be that good.

      • Pete WardenHow to build Raspberry Pi Pico programs with no software installation

        To solve this problem, I’ve actually turned to what might seem an unlikely tool, Google’s Colab service. If you have run across this, you probably associate it with Python notebooks, because that’s its primary use case. I’ve found it to be useful for a lot more though, because it effectively gives you a free, temporary Linux virtual machine that you control through the browser. Instead of running Python commands, you can run Linux shell commands by putting an exclamation point at the start. There are some restrictions, such as needing a Google account to sign in, and the file system disappearing after you leave the page or are idle too long, but I’ve found it great for documenting all sorts of installation and build processes in an accessible way.

      • CNX Software$199+ NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano system-on-module delivers up to 40 TOPS - CNX Software

        NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano system-on-module (SoM) is an update to the Jetson Nano entry-level Edge AI and robotics module that delivers up to 40 TOPS of AI performance, meaning it’s up to 80 times faster than the original module.

        The new SoM features an hexa-core Arm Cortex-A78AE processor, an up to 1024-core NVIDIA Ampere architecture GPU with 32 Tensor cores, up to 8GB RAM, and the same 260-pin SO-DIMM connector found in the Jetson Orin NX modules.

      • GamingOnLinuxIntel announce their NUC 12 Enthusiast Mini PC and Kit with Arc graphics

        Intel have revealed their new NUC 12 Enthusiast Mini PC and Kit (code-named Serpent Canyon) and I must admit, it looks and sounds pretty nice. Coming with an Intel Arc A770M GPU with 16GB GDDR6 VRAM, this new Mini PC has plenty going for it with a 12th Gen Intel Coreâ„¢ i7-12700H mobile processor.

      • Linux GizmosNew Khadas Edge2 integrates Rockchip RK3588S and it launches at $199

        Khadas officially launched the Edge2 SBC featuring the powerful octa-core Rockchip RK3588S SoC along with a 6 TOPS performance NPU. The device is available in two models which offer upgradable RAM and storage capacity.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • Tom's HardwareRaspberry Pi Live Streaming Camera Sports Microphone for Audio Support | Tom's Hardware

        The Raspberry Pi’s camera support makes for an excellent go-to board for a huge variety of video-based projects. Such is the case today with this impressive live streaming rig created by Mark Lambiase. Lambiase has built an all-in-one device that can aid in his streaming needs without the need for any external components or accessories.

        The system is fitted with a camera module and can stream to platforms like YouTube in real time. The housing is made by Lambiase, as well, and shields it from excess light around the lens as well as any passing debris if used outside. It’s not water-tight, but it should protect the components inside from excess wear.

        In addition to the video streaming support, it has a built-in microphone that can capture audio for live streams. This is one of the best additions to the rig as it makes for a more dynamic stream. Whether you're gaming or setting up a nature cam, no one can deny the useful impact of having a microphone thrown into the mix.

      • Tom's HardwareLattePanda 3 Delta Review: The Maker Desktop | Tom's Hardware

        If you need an all-in-one device that provides a typical desktop experience and a GPIO, LattePanda 3 Delta is a contender for your dollars.

        [...]

        Another group of alternatives are boards that can still be classified as SBCs but feature Intel CPUs at their core. The latest to cross our bench is the $279 LattePanda 3 Delta, a rather large and powerful SBC powered by an 11th Gen Intel Jasper Lake CPU. Because it is Intel based, we have an expansive choice of potential operating systems. LattePanda provides both Windows 10 and 11, but if Linux is more your thing, you are well catered for.

        [...]

        Essentially the LattePanda 3 Delta is an Intel x86 Jasper Lake based PC in a large single board computer form factor. This means that we are free to use Windows (LattePanda offers Windows 10 and 11 downloads via its site) or many other Linux distributions.

      • Tom's HardwarePortable Raspberry Pi Tricorder Detects Starlink Satellites | Tom's Hardware

        Just when you think the Raspberry Pi community has done it all, one maker boldly goes where no maker has gone before. Today we’ve got an exciting update to share: Maker and developer Saveitforparts is using his homemade Raspberry Pi Tricorder to detect Starlink satellites. If you’re wondering what a Tricorder is, these are handheld gadgets from the Star Trek universe used to scan the environment around them.

        Saveitforparts does just that with his Tricorder, using a variety of sensors to scan for things like RF signals and thermal bodies. We first reported on it last year, but today we’re excited to share the project's latest update. There’s something quite appropriate in using a DIY Tricorder to scan for low-orbit satellites. In this case, he’s looking for Starlink satellites which are run by SpaceX and used to provide internet access and intended to reach global support within the coming years.

      • Bunnie HuangBook Review: Open Circuits - bunnie’s blog

        There’s a profound beauty in well-crafted electronics.

        Somehow, the laws of physics conspired with the evolution of human consciousness such that sound engineering solutions are also aesthetically appealing: from the ideal solder fillet, to the neat geometric arrangements of components on a circuit board, to the billowing clouds of standard cells laid down by the latest IC place-and-route tools, aesthetics both inspire and emerge from the construction of practical, everyday electronics.

      • Roberto FrennaOver-engineering my TV watching: Part 1: bypassing geo-block with a custom reverse proxy

        This is the first part of a series of posts where I will detail how I built a complex system to consume Italian TV abroad entirely from a single web app and a Chromecast.

      • ArduinoBeating unscrupulous arcade owners at their own games | Arduino Blog

        Mark Rober isn’t just a talented mechanical engineer and entertaining personality, he is also something of a champion of justice for the common man. He’s already proved that several times with his famous yearly porch pirate-targeted pranks, but now he’s taking on the corrupt fat cats running arcades for children. Those arcades are often full of rigged games that are either more difficult than they seem or downright unwinnable. In his most recent video, Rober built machines that could beat several of those games with ease.

        We don’t have enough space here to provide detail on every contraption that Rober created, but they all accomplish a common goal of defeating rigged arcade games. Some of those, like Skee-Ball, are only nefarious in the sense that have misleading difficulty and rely on misdirection to swindle players. Others, like Quik Drop, are almost impossible for humans to win. For good measure, Rober even made a robot that can block every shot a human opponent takes in air hockey.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • OpenSource.comMy favorite open source alternatives to Notion

      If you have notes to yourself scattered throughout your hard drive, you might need a notes application to collect and organize your personal reminders. A notes system can help you track ideas, important tasks, and works in progress. A popular application that isn't open source is Notion, but here are two options that respect your privacy and data.

    • Liam ProvenEmuTOS and its relatives: a free ST-compatible OS based on DR's GPL code

      I have an ST, and an Amiga, but I didn't use either back in the day. But I think this is amazing work and really impressive.

      So I stuck in on HN and some pillock went "yah boo TOS sucks Amiga is better" like it was 1986. I paraphrase. I am unimpressed.

      In fact, while I don't want to be mean, you're missing two or possibly three different points... among which are the reasons I posted this link.

    • Events

      • FOSDEMFOSDEM 2023 dates: 4 & 5 February 2023

        FOSDEM 2023 will take place on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th of February 2023. We are aiming for a physical conference.

      • NetBSDEuroBSDCon 2022

        No videos are available yet to provide much-needed context to presentations, but we'll keep you posted.

    • Web Browsers

      • Wasmtime Reaches 1.0: Fast, Safe and Production Ready!

        As of today, the Wasmtime WebAssembly runtime is now at 1.0! This means that all of us in the Bytecode Alliance agree that it is fully ready to use in production.

        In truth, we could have called Wasmtime production-ready more than a year ago. But we didn’t want to release just any WebAssembly engine. We wanted to have a super fast and super safe WebAssembly engine. We wanted to feel really confident when we recommend that people choose Wasmtime.

        So to make sure it’s production ready for all of you, a number of us in the Bytecode Alliance have been running Wasmtime in production ourselves for the past year. And Wasmtime has been doing great in these production environments, providing a stable platform while also giving us security and speed wins.

      • Chromium

        • [Old] IT World CAGoogle’s manifest V3 rules restrict AdGuard’s new ad blocker

          Another problem is the inability to load rules into the filtering engine from the extension’s server. With the new rules, AdGuard is now expected to define a set of declarative rules and let Chrome be in charge of the network filtering process. Since the new syntax for the rules is very limited, not all existing rules can be converted, including cookie rules that block certain trackers.

        • [Old] The Register UKAd blockers struggle under Chrome's new rules

          The future of content blocking in web browsers looks a lot like the way it was described by Alexei Miagkov and Bennet Cyphers from the EFF last December. They wrote, "Under Manifest V2, extensions are treated like first-class applications with their own persistent execution environment. But under V3, they are treated like accessories, given limited privileges and only allowed to execute reactively."

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • A minimal distributed key-value database with Hashicorp's Raft library

        So I built my own single-file example. It's not perfect but it helped me get started and may help you too. We'll walk through that code, ~260 lines of Go, in this post.

        The key-value database will only be able to set keys, not delete them. But it will be able to overwrite existing entries. And it will expose this distributed key-value database over an HTTP API.

      • TecMint20 mysqladmin Commands for MYSQL/MariaDB Database Administration

        mysqladmin is a command-line database administration utility that comes with MySQL/MariaDB server, which is used by Database Administrators to perform some basic MySQL tasks such as setting the root password, changing the root password, monitoring mysql processes, reloading privileges, creating/dropping databases, checking server status, show usage statistic, kill running queries, etc.

        The command to use mysqladmin and the general syntax is...

    • Programming/Development

      • [Old] Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!

        Welcome to Learn You a Haskell for Great Good! If you're reading this, chances are you want to learn Haskell. Well, you've come to the right place, but let's talk about this tutorial a bit first.

        I decided to write this because I wanted to solidify my own knowledge of Haskell and because I thought I could help people new to Haskell learn it from my perspective. There are quite a few tutorials on Haskell floating around on the internet. When I was starting out in Haskell, I didn't learn from just one resource. The way I learned it was by reading several different tutorials and articles because each explained something in a different way than the other did. By going through several resources, I was able put together the pieces and it all just came falling into place. So this is an attempt at adding another useful resource for learning Haskell so you have a bigger chance of finding one you like. bird

        This tutorial is aimed at people who have experience in imperative programming languages (C, C++, Java, Python …) but haven't programmed in a functional language before (Haskell, ML, OCaml …). Although I bet that even if you don't have any significant programming experience, a smart person such as yourself will be able to follow along and learn Haskell.

      • Content based change detection with Make

        We can use Make and a couple of short shell scripts to implement file content-based caching and read/write that cache to remote storage, such as S3. The demo repository contains a version using minio for ease of demonstration.

      • Yoshua WuytsFutures Concurrency IV: Join Ergonomics

        On Thursday this week Rust 1.64 will be released, and in it it will include a stabilized version of IntoFuture. Much like IntoIterator is used in the desugaring of for..in loops, IntoFuture will be used in the desugaring of .await.

        In this post I want to show some of the ergonomics improvements IntoFuture might enable, inspired by Swift's recent improvements in async/await ergonomics.

      • LWNThe perils of pinning

        Instead, he has come up with a solution that uses (or abuses) struct initialization and macros. Your editor will not attempt a full description of how it works; the whole thing can be seen in Lossin's slides. Among other things, it requires using some complex macros that implement a not-Rust-like syntax, making the code look foreign even to those who are accustomed to Rust.

      • RlangEnforcing Style in an R Project

        In the previous post we looked at how to apply a linter and styler to a Python Project. Now we’re going to do the same for an R project. We’ll use the {precommit} R package to make the setup a breeze.

      • Daniel LemireEscaping strings faster with AVX-512

        Such a character-by-character approach is unlikely to provide the best possible performance on modern hardware.

      • Alexandru NedelcuJava's Cultural Problem

        Java is good by modern standards, from a technical perspective, the platform having received a lot of improvements from Java 8 to 17. Unfortunately, it still stinks, and the problem is its "enterprise" culture.

        Let me illustrate the problem via examples …

      • Help Net SecurityThe 25 most popular programming languages and trends [Ed: It seems like a bunch of Microsoft boosters though; mentions "list of fastest-growing languages in GitHub’s 2018 and 2019 State of the Octoverse" (i.e. Microsoft as the dataset)]

        CircleCI released the 2022 State of Software Delivery report, which examines two years of data from more than a quarter billion workflows and nearly 50,000 organizations around the world, and provides insight for engineering teams to understand how they can better succeed.

      • Python

        • OpenSource.com6 Python interpreters to try in 2022

          Python, one of the most popular programming languages, requires an interpreter to execute the instructions defined by the Python code. In contrast to other languages, which compile directly into machine code, it’s up to the interpreter to read Python code and translate its instructions for the CPU performing the related actions. There are several interpreters out there, and in this article, I’ll take a look at a few of them.

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Matt RickardStandards, Protocols, and Platforms

        I came across an interesting article on standards/platforms by Michael Mignano, The Standards Innovation Paradox (and a rebuttal The Standards Innovation Paradox: is it real?). I don't feel as strongly as the authors do about RSS, although I've collected my thoughts on RSS.

  • Leftovers

    • TechXploreSend in the drones: Unmanned aerial program offers independent testing and prototyping

      Ever since the Wright brothers innovated in the back of their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, aviation has been—at heart—a nuts-and-bolts endeavor. For all the sophisticated equipment Idaho National Laboratory's Unmanned Aerial Systems team has at its disposal for testing high-tech cameras, radios and sensors, there is still a lot of gearhead ingenuity involved.

      Here, a $500,000 high-tech surveillance camera is kept aloft on an aircraft powered by a 1/2-horsepower gasoline engine adapted from a Honda pressure washer. The launching catapult for the plane is basically an oversized potato gun.

    • Bryan LundukeThe (very real) history of :-) - by Bryan Lunduke

      This is Scott Fahlman. Wearing a T-Shirt celebrating his creation.

    • Hardware

      • Old VCROld Vintage Computing Research: Refurb weekend: New batteries for the Palm Pilots

        Everything portable has a battery, and every portable thing's battery dies. This is bad on earlier PalmOS devices that lack a non-volatile file system because they'll lose their data and you'll lose your mind. Fortunately many of my stable of Palm Pilots and other PalmOS devices use regular old batteries (like my original USRobotics Pilot 1000 and Handspring Visor Deluxe); of my rechargeable units, the AlphaSmart dana has a replaceable battery (I have multiple spares, or you can use regular batteries), and so does the Palm Centro, which has a non-volatile file system to boot.

      • IT WireiTWire - India PC shipments fall below 5m for first time in four quarters [Ed: Terrible news for Windows, helps explains why many PCs there are converted to GNU/Linux]

        India's PC shipments for the second quarter of 2022 dropped to 4.6 million units, a fall of 12%, the technology analyst firm Canalys says.

        The company, which includes desktops, notebooks and tablets when counting PC shipments, said in a statement this was the first time shipments had fallen below five million units in the last four quarters.

        Notebooks were the biggest contributor with 2.6 million units, though this was only 2% year-on-year growth. By contrast, desktops saw 70% year-on-year growth, though this amounted to only 900,000 units shipped.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Nanoplastics can move up the food chain from plants to insects and from insects to fish

        “Our results show that lettuce can take up nanoplastics from the soil and transfer them into the food chain. This indicates that the presence of tiny plastic particles in soil could be associated with a potential health risk to herbivores and humans if these findings are found to be generalizable to other plants and crops and to field settings. However, further research into the topic is still urgently needed,” lead author, Dr Fazel Monikh of the University of Eastern Finland concludes.

      • The NationA Higher Court

        In October 2019, a scant few months before the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to play a low-stakes exhibition game in Shanghai before the start of the upcoming season. The game was part of the league’s ongoing courtship of international markets, but it was suddenly overshadowed by a tweet from then–Houston Rockets executive Daryl Morey that seemed to express support for the protests in Hong Kong. (The since-deleted tweet was an image that read: “Fight for Freedom Stand With Hong Kong.”) The protests had been ongoing since March, but the backlash was immediate: The Chinese Basketball Association suspended its relationship with the Rockets, while Chinese state television and the streaming giant Tencent announced that they would stop broadcasting NBA games. The Nets’ scheduled visit to a Chinese school was canceled, but the exhibition game eventually took place despite the tense atmosphere.

    • Proprietary

      • Adobe to Acquire Figma

        Figma’s mission is to help teams collaborate visually and make design accessible to all. Founded by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace in 2012, the company pioneered product design on the web. Today, it is making it possible for everyone who designs interactive mobile and web applications to collaborate through multi-player workflows, sophisticated design systems and a rich, extensible developer ecosystem. Figma has attracted a new generation of millions of designers and developers and a loyal student following.

      • ReutersAdobe to buy Figma in $20 billion bid on future of work that spooks investors

        Adobe Inc agreed on Thursday to acquire cloud-based designer platform Figma for $20 billion, sparking investor concerns about the rich price tag that led to a drop of more than $30 billion in the market value of the Photoshop maker.

      • BloombergAdobe Tumbles After Deal to Buy Figma for About $20 Billion

        The deal announced by Adobe, which is a mix of half cash and half stock, confirms an earlier Bloomberg report and would mark the biggest ever takeover of a private software company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It’s also Adobe’s biggest acquisition and the market found the deal expensive, sending shares to their steepest single-day decline since 2010.

      • CNBCAdobe shares plunge on deal to acquire design platform Figma for $20 billion

        Figma, whose backers include the likes of Index Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins, is expected to generate more than $400 million in annual recurring revenue this year, sources familiar with the company's financials previously told CNBC. Adobe confirmed Figma's ARR will surpass $400 million exiting 2022.

        That means Adobe is paying in the neighborhood of 50 times revenue at a time when sales multiples for cloud software are contracting dramatically from their record highs reached last year. For the top cloud companies in the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index, forward multiples have fallen to just over 9 times revenue from about 25 in February 2021.

      • New York TimesAdobe Agrees to Buy Figma, a Design Platform, for $20 Billion

        Figma, which was founded in 2012, has raised more than $332 million in funding, according to Crunchbase, and was valued at $10 billion in 2021. The company allows multiple people to collaborate on design projects in the same files at once.

      • FortuneWall Street thinks Adobe overpaid for Figma. Why company officials are confident in their $20 billion purchase

        Nearly a decade ago, Brown University student Dylan Field made a big bet on himself. The college junior dropped out of the Ivy League school after earning a $100,000, Peter Thiel-sponsored fellowship to chase his entrepreneurial dreams.

        Field’s first product, drone-modifying software, didn’t pan out. His next venture, the collaborative software editing company Figma, very much did. It sold Thursday for $20 billion (pending regulatory approval).

      • ABCAdobe buying Figma in $20B cash-and-stock deal

        The companies said that Figma’s web-based, multi-player capabilities will accelerate the delivery of Adobe’s creative cloud technologies on the web, making the creative process more productive and accessible to more people.

      • [Old] Sorbet Leopard - Your Power Mac Unleashed (Revision 1.5 Released)

        I would like to make absolutely clear that there are NO "free" and "paid" versions of Sorbet Leopard. Sorbet is, has always been, and always will be a freely available passion project made in earnest specifically for certain compatible models of the PowerPC-based Power Macintosh, intended to be used exclusively by the vintage Mac community. It was created with the express purpose of simply making life easier on these two-decade-old machines, and absolutely no other reason besides that.

        That aside, due to running the risk of downloading potentially tampered or outdated images, I strongly advise against acquiring any builds of Sorbet Leopard from any sources other than either Macintosh Garden or the MediaFire backup mirror (also available on Macintosh Garden), which are the only locations at present where all hosted builds are officially maintained and updated.

        Moreover, Sorbet Leopard does not contain any code, assets, or components from any builds of the recently discovered Mac OS X Snow Leopard early alpha whatsoever. The system components are comprised primarily of highly matured binaries / libraries found in the final releases of both Mac OS X 10.5.8 and 10.6.8, with the remainder portion being made up of newer community software.

      • BarronsApple to Hike App Store Prices in Europe and Asia

        The tech giant said app prices and in-app purchases will increase in all countries using the euro currency as well as Chile, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, Vietnam.

      • MacworldApple prepares large App Store price hike in Europe and elsewhere

        The increase will take place on October 5 and will apply to the existing pricing tiers: In the Euro zone, for example, the lowest (non-free) tier will increase from €0.99 to €1.19. Developers are free to compensate for the higher tier prices by dropping their apps to a lower tier, but may not be able to keep the price exactly the same.

        In full, there are updated tier price lists for the Euro zone (plus a separate list for Montenegro), Chile, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, and Vietnam. The Verge notes that Japan is facing the highest increase, with prices rising by more than 30 percent.

      • ReutersApple to raise App Store prices in some countries in Europe, Asia

        Apart from euro zone countries, the price increases will hit Sweden and Poland in Europe; Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea and Vietnam in Asia; and Chile in South America.

      • MacRumorsApp Store Prices to Increase in Europe Next Month

        For those unfamiliar with how App Store pricing works, Apple provides developers with preset tiers that they can price their app at, and these tiers will be increasing for the euro next month. For example, tier one will be rising from €0.99 to €1.19, while the maximum tier is set to increase from €999 to €1,199, according to Apple.

      • AppleInsiderApple to hike App Store prices in Europe and other countries in October

        The changes are set to take place as early as October 5, 2022, and will include the prices of apps and in-app purchases but exclude auto-renewable subscriptions.

      • 9to5MacApple to raise App Store prices in multiple countries next month

        There are no details as to why Apple will increase App Store prices in these countries, but this is probably related to the exchange rate of local currencies dropping against the dollar. For instance, the euro has now reached parity with the dollar, something that has never happened in the last 20 years. Apple products have also become more expensive in Europe for the same reason.

      • CNAApple to raise App Store prices in some countries in Europe, Asia

        A rapid rise in inflation, interest rates and energy prices this year has hammered the yen, the euro and most emerging economy currencies. The euro has dropped to two-decade lows this year and has been languishing around parity against the dollar for weeks.

      • NasdaqApple to raise App Store prices in some countries in Europe, Asia

        Apple Inc AAPL.O said on Tuesday it will raise prices of apps and in-app purchases on its App Store from next month in all of the euro zone and some countries in Asia and South America.

      • CNBCApple hiked the price of the iPhone 14 in key markets despite keeping it the same in the U.S.

        The iPhone 14 base model will start at $799, the same amount that it initially charged for last year's iPhone 13. The highest price iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at $1,099, the same as the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

      • MacRumorsApple Executive Responds to Annoying iOS 16 Copy and Paste Prompt: 'Absolutely Not Expected Behavior'

        Apple has responded to user complaints regarding an annoying pop-up in iOS 16 that asks for user permission if an app wants to access the clipboard to paste text, images, and more.

        [...]

        As user annoyance with the behavior boils high, Apple has finally responded, saying the constant pop-up is not how the feature is intended to work. MacRumors reader Kieran sent an email to Craig Federighi and Tim Cook, complaining about the constant prompt and advocating for Apple to treat access to the clipboard the same way iOS treats third-party access to location, camera, microphone, and more.

    • Security

      • BBCHow is a thief taking thousands from London gym-goers?

        A serial thief is targeting London gym-goers and emptying their bank accounts, a BBC Radio 4 investigation has found.

        Journalist Shari Vahl from the You and Yours programme has spoken to a number of women with near-identical experiences - all of which included the loss of many thousands of pounds. Vahl shared her findings with the Met Police, which had previously closed a number of individual investigations, to show the cases could be linked.

        Now the force will reopen the inquiry.

      • Bruce SchneierCredit Card Fraud That Bypasses 2FA [Ed: 'Smart' things are not smart, they're fake security]

        Someone in the UK is stealing smartphones and credit cards from people who have stored them in gym lockers, and is using the two items in combination to commit fraud...

      • Trinity Guard Brings Security Suite Up to Speed with IBM i 7.5 - IT Jungle

        IBM put a major focus on improving security with the release of IBM i 7.5 earlier this year, with stronger out-of-the-box default configurations, new password controls, and improved monitoring. With the launch of TG Suite 3.0, Trinity Guard is helping its customers get the most out of those security improvements.

      • LinuxInsiderGoogle Debugs, JFrog Jumps Code, Confidential Kubernetes, Meta-PyTorch [Ed: Google spun as a security champion even though it works for NSA and has already been caught putting back-doored ciphers inside Linux]

        As the open-source model continues to prove its sustainability in the enterprise, the software community is ramping up its security mindedness. That concern was evident in recent weeks as leading Linux groups led the way for better code security.

        Google announced a new initiative to zero in on software vulnerabilities. Already a generous provider of patching incentives, the software developer upped the ante to encourage more researchers to submit troublesome codes for cash.

        Edgeless Systems made a striking open-source contribution, JFrog offered advancements in support a more polished Rust Foundation, and Facebook, too, pushed the limits for Meta AI.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • LawfareThe Data Broker Caught Running Anti-Abortion Ads—to People Sitting in Clinics

          In 2015, Copley Advertising and its one owner and employee John Flynn provided these capabilities to Bethany Christian Services, an anti-abortion, Michigan-based, evangelical Christian organization that provides adoption services—though until 2021, not to LGBTQ+ parents—and whose website features articles about women deciding to not get an abortion. According to the settlement with the Massachusetts attorney general, Copley Advertising geofenced medical facilities for Bethany Christian Services, including reproductive health clinics, in New York City; Columbus, Ohio; Richmond, Virginia; St. Louis, Missouri; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It then enabled Bethany Christian Services to run ads to devices within a geofenced area—including abortion clinic waiting rooms.

        • The NationThe Prying Eyes of Social Media

          When the Finnish prime minister, Sanna Marin, was recently captured on video dancing at a party with friends, a great deal of ink was spilled evaluating her behavior. She was criticized for conduct unbecoming a prime minister and for an exuberance that some on the far right gleefully—and falsely—claimed must have been excited by illicit drug use. This framing put the onus on Marin to closely monitor herself even in closed rooms, and it does the same for us all. It compels us to perpetually distrust weddings, birthday parties—anywhere there are others who have cell phones. Ascribing the video’s circulation to individual intentionality restricts our imagination to carelessness and “leaks.” One cybersecurity expert “raised the possibility Russia had hacked the phone or social accounts of someone who is part of the close circle of the Finnish premier.”

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

      • Energy

        • Helsinki TimesYLE: LNG from Russia used to fill up new terminal in Hamina, Finland

          A LONG-AWAITED tanker filled with liquefied natural gas (LNG) arrived in Hamina, a coastal town in south-eastern Finland, on Monday, reports YLE.

        • Xe's BlogMy new, weird smartcard and how I learned to use it

          When you speak for professional conferences, sometimes you get a goodie bag with random stuff in it. Recently I spoke at RustConf about authentication technologies. Among other things (such as a very nice picnic bag that I will be sure to make use of), I got a Ledger Nano X hardware cryptocurrency wallet. It is a custom engraved one too. It looks really, really nice. Here's a picture of it: [...]

    • Finance

      • CoryDoctorowThe Chokepoint Capitalism tour

        I'm writing this from a hotel room in Ottawa, the day before the first event in the tour Chokepoint Capitalism, the book Rebecca Giblin and I are about to publish with Beacon Press; this tour is a little different from the usual so I thought I'd do a post explaining how it'll all work.

        This is my first tour since the pandemic hit; I had four (!) book releases during the first year of the lockdown and did a slew of online events. In some ways, these were amazing: I could do a UK event in the morning and a US event in the evening. But I don't think anyone – not the booksellers, nor the readers, nor the special guests who helped me out – would say they were as good as an in-person event.

      • The StrategistA shift to Asia won’t solve Russia’s economic woes

        Russian President Vladimir Putin sought this month to contrast the vibrant economies of Asia with the decadence of the West, signalling that Russia’s future lay with the East.

        The economic and political dominance of the United States was waning, he told an economic forum in Vladivostok, and the Western elites were blind to the ‘irreversible, or should I say tectonic shifts’ in international relations as emerging nations, led by the Asia–Pacific, played a much bigger role.

        ‘Asia–Pacific countries emerged as new centres of economic and technological growth, attracting human resources, capital and manufacturing.’

      • New York Times[Reposted] ‘Crippling’ Energy Bills Force Europe’s Factories to Go Dark

        The furnace, heated to 1,500 degrees Celsius, was glowing red. Workers at the Arc International glass factory loaded it with sand that slowly pooled into a molten mass. Nearby on the factory floor, machines transformed the shapeless liquid with a blast of hot air into thousands of delicate wine glasses, destined for sale to restaurants and homes worldwide.

        Nicholas Hodler, the chief executive, surveyed the assembly line, shimmering blue with natural gas flames. For years, Arc had been powered by cheap energy that helped turn the company into the world’s largest producer of glass tableware — and a vital employer in this working-class region of northern France.

      • VoxStudent loan forgiveness isn’t the midterms savior some Democrats wanted - Vox

        But there’s one “win” some Democrats are concerned may be more of a liability than an asset: the Biden administration’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student loans.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • IdiomdrottningBalance of Power

        The “false balance” media bias is one reason for this.

        False balance, also bothsidesism, is a media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence supports. […] producers and editors may feel that a story portrayed as a contentious debate will be more commercially successful than a more accurate account of the issue. Unlike most other media biases, false balance may stem from an attempt to avoid bias; producers and editors may confuse treating competing views fairly—i.e., in proportion to their actual merits and significance—with treating them equally, giving them equal time to present their views even when those views may be known beforehand to be based on false information.

      • VarietyLinkedIn Hires Ex-CNN Digital Exec Courtney Coupe as First Head of Original Programming

        Coupe comes to LinkedIn with nearly 20 years of media experience. At CNN, where she worked for more than seven years, she had led content strategy and programming for CNN+, before Warner Bros. Discovery shut down the subscription-video service one month after it launched earlier this year. In addition, Coupe oversaw all development and production for CNN Audio’s slate of podcasts, including Anderson Cooper’s recently launched “All There Is With Anderson Cooper.”

      • GizmodoApple’s Quietly Funding an ‘Astroturf Lobbying Group’ Claiming to Represent App Developers

        Washington D.C. tech industry group The App Association boldly refers to itself as, “the leading industry voice on the app economy,” and says it represents more than 5,000 app makers and connected device companies spread out around 27 countries worldwide.

      • QuartzNever mind Elon Musk: Twitter’s bots are actually good

        With Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter hanging in the legal balance, bots—automated twitter accounts that, in Musk’s words, inspired him to purchase the platform and then, later, gave him an excuse to back out of the deal—have been at the center of attention.

        The focus has mainly been on spam bots that harass users or try to sucker them into scams, often related to cryptocurrency. Still, legal experts are skeptical that arguments over the precise ratio of bots to active human users will scuttle the deal. But in the controversy, something important got lost: Bots are great! I like bots.

      • GizmodoThe Pentagon Is Reportedly Auditing the U.S. Military's Own Pro-America Social Media Psyop
      • Michael West MediaMurdoch takes a pay cut, ABC spends big on Queen - Michael West

        As Queen Elizabeth is laid to rest, only one living person remains who can match her for length of service at the head of a family firm. And while Rupert Murdoch’s publications have caused the royal family plenty of grief, there are many similarities between him and the late monarch.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation

        • RTLMisinformation shrouds Philippine martial law era horrors

          Amnesty estimates thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands tortured and imprisoned after Marcos imposed martial law on September 21, 1972.

          Under legislation signed in 2013 by former president Benigno Aquino, 11,103 victims of torture, killings, enforced disappearances and other abuses have been officially recognised and compensated.

          In the run-up to Wednesday's 50th anniversary of the start of martial law, pro-Marcos posts have flooded Facebook and TikTok with false and misleading claims that cast doubt on Amnesty's findings and downplay the abuses.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • [Old] Death threats against bloggers are NOT "protected speech" (why I cancelled my ETech presentations)

        Update: I could not bear to leave this post up on the site, as one of the last things people will see and remember about this blog -- and especially with that horrible photo. So, I have moved the post to a separate web page here. The content is exactly as it was posted, athough it lost some formatting. Comments are closed (after 1100 of them), but you can still read them here. I deleted only one comment from this thread.

      • RTLHong Kong arrests harmonica player for sedition at queen vigil

        A police source confirmed to AFP that the man arrested was the harmonica player.

        After 2019's democracy protests, China has cracked down on dissent in Hong Kong using national security legislation and charges of sedition.

        The latter is a colonial-era law that had fallen into obscurity for decades until prosecutors dusted it off in the aftermath of the protests.

        The song "Glory to Hong Kong" contains the popular protest chant "liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times" which has been declared by the courts to be a threat to national security.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • Jacobin MagazineSecret Documents Have Exposed the CIA’s Julian Assange Obsession

        Stefania Maurizi was no stranger to the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The Italian investigative reporter had worked as a partner journalist with WikiLeaks for all its major releases since 2009. Maurizi had also pursued litigation in four separate countries seeking to compel their governments to release information about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Assange, at that point, was trapped in the embassy. In 2012, Ecuador’s democratic socialist government granted him political asylum, but the United Kingdom made clear they would arrest the journalist should he ever set foot outside the embassy. Maurizi had visited him a number of times.

        While Maurizi met with Assange on December 29, 2017, embassy security held on to her electronics for the duration of the visit. As she talked to her journalistic counterpart, employees of the Spanish security firm UC Global accessed her devices, photographed them, disassembled one of her phones, and removed its SIM card. On at least one occasion, the same security contractor took audio and video recordings of her meeting with Assange.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • NPRWhy your bad boss will probably lose the remote-work wars

        Nicholas Bloom, one of the co-authors of this new study, is an economist at Stanford University. Over the last few years, Bloom has been a machine, pumping out some of the best research we have on remote work to date.

        The biggest battle in the remote wars between bosses and office workers, Bloom says, was fought back in 2020. "Everyone wanted more days than their employers were committing to after the pandemic," Bloom says. "That battle was just decisively won by employees. The employees routed employers. Employers basically had to shift."

      • RTLNew Iran protests over woman's death after 'morality police' arrest

        Public anger has grown since authorities on Friday announced the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in a hospital after three days in a coma, following her arrest by Tehran's morality police during a visit to the capital on September 13. Demonstrations were held in Tehran, including in several universities, and the second city Mashhad, according to the Fars and Tasnim news agencies.

      • NPRFor the first time in 230 years, Congress has full U.S. Indigenous representation

        With her recent swearing-in, it became official for the first time in more than 230 years: A Native American, a Native Alaskan and a Native Hawaiian are all members of the House — fully representing the United States' Indigenous people for the first time, according to Rep. Kaiali'i Kahele of Hawaii. Now, there are six Indigenous Americans who are representatives in the House.

      • CSP: Platteville PD vehicle with female suspect inside hit by train

        A 20-year-old female suspect was taken to the hospital after the Platteville police vehicle she was in was hit by a train Friday evening. The officer was not in the vehicle when the train struck the patrol car, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations.

      • Kansas CityCops put woman in police car parked on tracks, CO officials say. Then a train came

        Officers placed the woman in the back of the Platteville officer’s patrol car and went to search her vehicle, the release said.

        A train traveling northbound then hit the police car, the agency said.

      • Counter PunchJustice for Farmworkers

        Currently farmworkers must vote at a site specified by the state’s Agricultural Relations Board, and supporters of the bill argue that mail-in ballots would free the workers, many of whom are undocumented, from intimidation and retaliation by employers.

    • Monopolies

      • RFIGoogle loses appeal against record EU antitrust fine

        The European Union's second-highest court on Wednesday overwhelmingly upheld the EU's record fine against Google over its Android operating system for mobile phones, slightly reducing the fee for technical reasons.

        In a statement, the EU's General court said it "largely confirms the commission's decision that Google imposed unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices" in order to benefit its search engine.

      • AccessNowMeta and Google must use their powers to stop Myanmar’s alternative propaganda machine

        The Myanmar junta’s intensifying control of online spaces must be stopped — Google and Meta must use their powers to intervene. As part of its efforts to dominate and weaponize the internet against people, the military is planning to “ban” Facebook (Meta) and YouTube (Google) across the country. Access to both platforms has already been curtailed, with some people using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to connect — a workaround likely to be penalized under the new censorship measures, and cemented in the disastrous draft cybersecurity law.

        As military-run government agencies in Myanmar use Google products, and Meta has international sway, these companies can use their leverage to challenge the ban and the likelihood of the junta penalizing people for accessing blocked sites through other means.

        “The Myanmar junta is determined to silence people by stamping out all means of communication and expression,” said Wai Phyo Myint, Asia Pacific Policy Analyst at Access Now. “The military aggressively propagates hate and stifles dissent, while creating communication blackholes that hide its own human rights violations.”

      • Copyrights

        • Publishing PerspectivesFrench Publishers Cheer a Court’s Order to Block a Book Piracy Site

          A judgment was handed down in Paris on August 25, according to SNE and that court ruling has ordered Internet service providers to block the site (and associated domain names) of a piracy group called “Z-Library.” The result, according to the syndicate, is that 209 domain names and their extensions on mirror sites are being rendered inaccessible.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

    • Technical

      • Vim Has Spoiled Me

        I started using vim about two years ago. Powering through the steep learning curve was something I knew I had to persevere through as I started my journey into the world of Linux and minimal computing.

        Over time I became much more comfortable using vim and it's now my go-to editor. I write all my content for this capsule and my other blogs in vim and I've only now started to realize the dramatic increase in efficiency versus common word processors.

        Over the last few days I've had to spend a lot more time in LibreOffice Writer and it felt so clunky compared to vim. I'm not a programmer, so I'm almost exclusively using vim to write prose. And I'll be honest, in the beginning I would give up half way through typing something up because I was spending most of my time looking up a command for something I needed to do. However, over time, muscle-memory kicked in and I started to remember the commands and tricks I used most. The best part is that I'm not even close to realizing the benefits of all the tools available to me.

      • Using Arion to use NixOS modules in containers

        NixOS is cool, but it's super cool because it has modules for many services, so you don't have to learn how to manage them (except if you want them in production), and you don't need to update them like a container image.

      • "I Just Play Here"

        As I mentioned in my last post I've been pretty hooked on OpenTTD lately (that's also why I haven't been as active posting).

        I decided to try a multiplayer game and looked in the listing for one that had active players and wasn't password protected. I picked one of them at random and joined.

        There was one other player there and we've chatted a bit. Apparently it's just been them for a very long time, with others popping in and leaving immediately from time to time. It's been fun sharing a world with someone.


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



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