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Links 08/10/2022: Gajim 1.5.2 and KDE's Plans



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • VideoDistrobox Is Basically A Linux Subsystem For Linux - Invidious

        I've been wanting to look at distrobox for ages now this is an incredible tool that let's you easily setup a docker/podman container that tightly integrates into your host system allowing you install apps from any distro around and run them including GUI apps.

      • Full Circle Magazine: Full Circle Weekly News #282

        PeerTube 4.3: https://joinpeertube.org/en/news#release-4.3

        The twenty-sixth alpha version of 0 A.D: https://play0ad.com/new-release-0-a-d-alpha-26-zhuangzi/

        Release of CRUX 3.7: https://lists.crux.nu/pipermail/crux/2022-September/007229.html

        Release of Shotcut 22.09: https://shotcut.org/blog/new-release-220923/

        Bash 5.2: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2022-09/msg00056.html

        KDE Plasma Mobile 22.09: https://plasma-mobile.org/2022/09/27/plasma-mobile-gear-22-09/

        Release of Pale Moon 31.3 and SeaMonkey 2.53.14: https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?t=28875&p=232245#p232245 https://blog.seamonkey-project.org/2022/09/29/seamonkey-2-53-14-is-now-out/

        Beta-auto Ubuntu 22.10: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2022-September/000284.html

        Release of the atomically updated carbonOS 2022.2: https://carbon.sh/blog/2022-09-29-release.html

        Microsoft Edge Browser with Built-in VPN: https://adguard-vpn.com/en/blog/vpn-built-browser-microsoft.html

        Debian proprietary firmware in installation media: https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2022/10/msg00000.html

      • VideoCreepy bear, Steam Deck, Eggs and more - A Trendy Talk. - Invidious
      • VideoStudents Refuse To Give Up Phones In School - Invidious

        This morning I read a news story that absolutely horrified me. A high school in my area had all of their students walkout in protest of the school's new ban on mobile phones during class. Apparently, this is going on in many schools all over the world...

      • E56: Add GraphQL APIs to Your Data with Hasura

        Rajoshi Ghosh & Tanmai Gopal are the Co-founders of Hasura, the platform to create GraphQL APIs with your data.

      • E55: Backend-as-a-Service with ChiselStrike

        Glauber Costa is Founder & CEO of ChiselStrike, the backend-as-a-service platform. Their core technology is open source - and also called ChiselStrike.

    • Applications

      • MedevelWriteFreely: Clutter-free Self-hosted Blogging Platform for Writers

        Written in the Go programming language to offer the best performance, WriteFreely is a lightweight blogging system aimed for hobby and professional writers.

        WriteFreely supports Markdown syntax out-of-box, and offers a distraction-free interface with a limited clutter.

      • Gajim 1.5.2 - Gajim

        Gajim 1.5.2 brings another performance boost, better emojis, improvements for group chat moderators, and many bug fixes. Thank you for all your contributions!

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • The New StackHow to Deploy Containers with nerdctl - The New Stack

        How many ways can you deploy a container? Shall we count them?

        Seriously, we don’t have all day.

        Really, there are more ways to deploy containers than I can count on my hands. For some, that might be a bit of an overkill situation. For those who like options, however, the idea that there are so many deployment methods is a big plus.

        To those who fall into that category, let me add yet another method to your ever-growing pile of possibilities. Said method is by way of nerdctl.

        How can you resist that name? You can’t, that’s how.

      • UbuntubuzzLibreOffice Calc: Pivot Table Made Easy

        This tutorial will show you how to create Pivot Table using LibreOffice Calc -- the complete, free spreadsheet program for everyone. We will learn with examples and pictures by using a simple sales table to create sales report with multiple pivot tables we want. Now let's exercise!

      • Real Linux UserAvailable now - my book - Linux for the rest of us - Real Linux User

        In my previous blog post, I already shared that my first book would almost be available for sale. This week I received my proof print for a final review and now it’s finally here. As of today, my book “Linux for the rest of us” is available worldwide through Amazon in both physical and digital formats.

      • Data SwampLinux NILFS file system: automatic continuous snapshots

        Today, I'll share about a special Linux file system that I really enjoy. It's called NILFS and has been imported into Linux in 2009, so it's not really a new player, despite being stable and used in production it never got popular.

        In this file system, there is a unique system of continuous checkpoint creation. A checkpoint is a snapshot of your system at a given point in time, but it can be deleted automatically if some disk space must be reclaimed. A checkpoint can be transformed into a snapshot that will never be removed.

        This mechanism works very well for workstations or file servers on which redundancy is nonexistent, and on which backups are done every day/weeks which give room for unrecoverable mistakes.

      • ID RootHow To Install VSCodium on Debian 11 [Ed: Bad idea to use this because it helps Microsoft's proprietary userbase]
    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Akademy 2022 | espidev

          This year, I had the amazing opportunity to attend Akademy in person (@ Barcelona) for the first time!

          For context, I first started contributing to Plasma Mobile in 2020, right around when easily testable hardware (ex. PinePhone) was taking shape. I originally started with some contributions to some applications to learn Qt and C++, but have since then taken more responsibility with tasks from all around the software stack.

        • LinuxiacKaOS 2022.10 Released, Dracut Replaces Mkinitcpio

          KaOS 2022.10 comes with an improved Calamares installer and has moved to Dracut as the new initramfs infrastructure.

          KaOS is an independent rolling-release distribution inspired by Arch Linux and entirely focused on the KDE Plasma Desktop and related Qt Toolkit-based software.

          It uses Pacman as its package manager but does not rely on software repositories developed and maintained by Arch Linux. Instead, the software is available from in-house repositories and is built exclusively for 64-bit machines.

          KaOS 2022.10 is the sixth update in this year’s 2022 series for this Linux distro. So, let’s have a look at what’s new.

        • Physical Akademy 2022 in Barcelona - Kai Uwe’s Blog

          I just returned from this year’s KDE Akademy in Barcelona. After two years of only virtual sprints it has been great to finally meet up with many fellow KDE friends, most of which I haven’t seen since 2019, and also get to know some of the faces of people that have joined in-between.

          Whenever I’m using the public WiFi somewhere, I feel like there should be a hint in the network Plasmoid about logging into the captive portal. There is a persistent notification when connecting but once you close it, you can’t get it back. For implementing this, I wanted to use the NetworkConnectivity enum from our networkmanager-qt Framework. In the early days of QtQuick, however, we typically created a wrapper class for exposing enums to QML, which meant having to sync up two separate implementations.

          Qt’s tooling has evolved a lot since and nowadays it’s possible to register namespaces, too. To do so, you need to add the Q_NAMESPACE macro and annotate the enums using Q_ENUM_NS. In the networkmanager-qt case, there was a catch, though: the namespace’s meta object had to be exported since plasma-nm is a separate project. That’s what the Q_NAMESPACE_EXPORT macro is for: once added, I could just register the enum to the QML engine and use it directly from the Plasmoid UI.

        • LinuxiacControl Centre Is a New KDE Widget Inspired by macOS

          The Control Centre widget for the KDE desktop lets you quickly toggle among settings such as Network, Bluetooth, Media Playback, and more.

          KDE Plasma is a desktop environment that stands out for its nearly limitless customization options. Combined with its sleek and modern user interface, these characteristics have made it a popular choice among Linux users.

          Plasma widgets are UI elements, little pieces of software, that provide a variety of features and boost user productivity.

          Control Centre, the new kid on the block among KDE widgets, is something Plasma desktop users have been waiting for for some time. Well, now it’s a fact. So, let’s see what it has to offer.

        • Planck and QMK - Ignorance is bliss...

          Over the past two years I tried out a few different keyboards for fun.

          I started with common form factors like TKL boards, went over 75% boards like the Q1 and then to a 60% HHKB.

          For typing feel, the HHKB is really amazing, but unfortunately the programmable features of a stock HHKB board are very limited.

        • Translations available for KDE unstable packages | dennogumi.org

          As many readers of this blog are aware, openSUSE has been offering packages of git snapshots from KDE since quite a while. They are quite useful for those wiling to test, report bugs, and / or hack on the code, but also for those who want to see what’s brewing in KDE land (without touching their existing systems). However, a major drawback for non English speakers was the lack of translations.

          [...]

          KDE translations are not hosted on the community’s git repositories, but are instead stored in KDE’s SVN server. The main reason they were not moved to git was to preserve the existing workflows of the translation teams (who might not be as technical as the actual hackers). Translations are then placed in tarballs at the times of betas / RCs / releases.

          This unfortunately means that having a git checkout, like what the OBS does when building the unstable packages, will not carry any translations whatsoever. Worse, existing -lang packages for stable versions will raise dependency problems if present (because they require the exact same version of their corresponding binary paclage).

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Make Use OfManage GNOME Extensions Like a Pro With Extension Manager

           The free and open-source GNOME desktop environment has long supported extensions, which expand on what the interface can do. But for years, GNOME didn't do a great job of helping you find and install these extensions. The process involved going to a website, installing a Firefox extension, and crossing your fingers.

          Now there's an app that takes all the pain out of the process. Extension Manager vastly simplifies the experience of discovering, installing, and managing GNOME extensions. This one app can make using GNOME extensions a joyful experience.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Liam ProvenI've been playing with OS/2 again -- more on that soon -- but it was doomed from a young age

      OS/2 2.0 came out in April 1992. Windows 3.0 came out in May 1990, 2 whole years earlier. It already had established an ecosystem before 32-bit OS/2 appeared.

      Secondly, OS/2 2 really wanted a 386DX and 4MB of RAM, and a quality PC with quality name-brand parts. I owned it. I ran it on clones. I had to buy a driver for my mouse. From another CONTINENT.

      Windows 3.0 ran on any old random junk PC, even on a PC XT class box with EGA. At first only high-end users of high-end executive-class workstations got the fun of 386 Enhanced Mode, but that was all OS/2 2.0 could run on at all.

      OS/2 died when OS/2 1.x was a high-end OS with low-end features, and a cheapo low-end 386SX PC with 1 or 2MB of RAM, with MS-DOS and DESQview (not DESQview/X, just plain old text-mode DESQview) could outperform it.

      (Remember the 386SX came out in 1988 and was common by the time Windows 3.0 shipped.)

      But as soon as OS/2 1.x was a flop, MS turned its attention back to Windows, and before even the first betas of Windows 3.0, there were rumours in the tech press that MS was going to abandon the project. This was widely discussed in the media at the time. In my then-job, around 1989, my boss sent me on a training course for 3Com's new NOS, 3+Open, which was based on OS/2 1.0.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • PowerDNSFirst Beta Release of PowerDNS Recursor 4.8.0 | PowerDNS Blog

      We are proud to announce the first beta release of PowerDNS Recursor 4.8.0.

    • PowerDNSFirst release candidate for Authoritative Server 4.7.0 | PowerDNS Blog

      This is the first release candidate for Authoritative Server 4.7.0. We hope it will also be the last

      4.7.0 brings support for Catalog Zones, developed by Kees Monshouwer. As part of that development, the freshness checks in the Primary code were reworked, reducing them from doing potentially thousands of SQL queries (if you have thousands of domains) to only a few. Installations with lots of domains will benefit greatly from this, even without using catalog zones.

      4.7.0 also brings back GSS-TSIG support, previously removed for quality reasons, now reworked with many stability improvements.

    • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

      • Windows High Contrast Improvements

        Spent a little time this week to explore our Windows accessibility High Contrast support because I was working on a GTK High Contrast issue by coincidence when xisco mentioned the Windows one in the regular ESC.

    • Programming/Development

      • Jamie Brandon0028: HYTRADBOI jam, sqllogictest in a week, how safe is zig again, rr on alder lake, google maps jank, links

        Typing is still a bottleneck. I make a lot of errors. Correcting the errors sometimes breaks my concentration, and then take a while to recover what I was doing. I'm particularly bad around special characters. Some of this is caused by my new laptop having a slightly different keyboard layout. It might be worth spending a few minutes a day working on typing exercises, focused on the keys that are in different places or have different shapes on my new keyboard.

      • D LangDIP1000: Memory Safety in a Modern Systems Programming Language Part 2

        The previous entry in this series shows how to use the new DIP1000 rules to have slices and pointers refer to the stack, all while being memory safe. But D can refer to the stack in other ways, too, and that’s the topic of this article.

      • Francesco MazzoliLánczos interpolation explained

        When you resize, rotate, or in any way transform an image; or more generally when you resample some discrete signal, the software you are using must _interpolate_ between the discrete points to produce a result.

      • Mastering Debugging in R

        One major thing that I learned throughout the years is the power of debugging. Irrespective of the programming language I use, debugging is for me key when it comes to understanding the functionality of code (also for code written by someone else). One of the very first steps when digging into a new coding basis is always turning the debugging mode on - it guides you so nicely through the functions that were written (and that show you how they are connected)

      • Just commit more!

        Over new years this past year I made dura. It’s like auto-backup for Git. It tries to stay out of the way until you’re in a panic, trying to figure out how to rescue your repository from a thoughtless git reset --hard. It makes background commits, real Git commits that you don’t normally have to see in the log, by committing to a different branch than the one you have checked out. Overall, it’s been a blast. I’ve learned a lot from the contributors, like how to write well-formed Rust as well as a bit about Nix.

        One recurring quesion has been, “why don’t you just commit more”?

      • choroplethr 3.7.1 is now on CRAN - AriLamstein.com

        When I took my first software engineering job at Electronic Arts 20 years ago someone told me “More time is spent maintaining old software than writing new software.” Since my project at the time (“Spore”) was brand new, and I was writing brand new code for it, I found that hard to believe. My experience with my R package choroplethr, however, has proven that saying to be correct.

        A few weeks ago CRAN emailed me saying they detected minor problems in an HTML file in the package, and asked me to fix them. Since I had not touched the package in over two years, and the error seemed minor, I ignored the message. I also ignored their followup message. They then sent me an email saying that if I did not fix the issue they would archive the package. That got my attention.

      • rstudio::glimpse() Newsletter - RStudio

        So many new learning resources have been created this month! There’s information on tools, deploying models, Quarto presentations and blogs, neat tables and so much more. I love how these show so many different types of things you can do, because with code, so much is possible. That combination of learning what you can do, and the ‘how-tos’ of creation, give us the ability to use data to answer the questions we have. I’m so excited to see everyone continue to explore what’s possible.

      • Do you need a Strong Leader?

        “Strong” is often used as a metaphor for capable, competent, effective leadership.

        Strength is not always the most helpful metaphor for leadership skills.

        Listen to how people describe strong leaders, sometimes there are connotations at odds with effective leadership. Sometimes even hints of toxic masculinity. What does it say about our gender biases that we so often use strength as a metaphor for leadership effectiveness?

        If you stopped pouring petrol onto the fires, maybe you would not need such experienced firefighters.

        [...]

        “We need a strong leader” implies “we need a different leader”.

        What is causing the current leadership (whether vested in a single person explicitly or distributed) to be inadequate?

        Changing or adding one person with authority can be a quick fix, but isn’t guaranteed to work; especially if you don’t have a diagnosis that explains the need for a new leader. Do you really need a superhero to save you?

        What are your best hopes for what a new leader will do? What stops you doing those without them?

      • GentooClang in Gentoo now sets default runtimes via config file - MichaÅ‚ Górny

        The upcoming clang 16 release features substantial improvements to configuration file support. Notably, it adds support for specifying multiple files and better default locations. This enabled Gentoo to finally replace the default-* flags used on sys-devel/clang, effectively empowering our users with the ability to change defaults without rebuilding whole clang.

        This change has also been partially backported to clang 15.0.2 in Gentoo, and (unless major problems are reported) will be part of the stable clang 15.x release (currently planned for upcoming 15.0.3).

        In this post, I’d like to shortly describe the new configuration file features, how much of them have been backported to 15.x in Gentoo and how defaults are going to be selected from now on.

      • Linux On MobileLINMOB.net - Contributing for (advanced?) Dummies

        I vaguely recalled that Tokodon had had one bug that really annoyed me when I had last tried it a few weeks or months ago, and when using it I noticed that it was still there – unsurprisingly since I never had reported it: When composing a toot, the text would not wrap when reaching the end of the text field, but go on and on unless you would add a manual line break, which then would look bad in the resulting toot unless I would remove them.

        Since I keep hitting any character limit a service has, I, unsurprisingly, was more likely to run into this than others. I was annoyed, but when I first encountered it while briefly trying out Plasma Mobile on the Pocophone F1 on a release that wasn't the latest, I just lazy-searched the project, did not find any issue or merge request on the topic and went "well, surely this is fixed in the latest release, I don't want to annoy people".

        I then later discovered that this wasn't the case when re-evaluating Tokodon after Tootle's archival. So I figured: Ok, time to file an issue - but how do I describe this? I could not find the word, was stuck in my native German, thinking "Was heißt Zeilenumbruch auf Englisch?"

      • Steve KempSteve Kemp: Trivial benchmarks of toy languages

        In the real world? It just doesn't matter. For me. But I was curious, so I hacked up a simple benchmark of calculating 12! (i.e. The factorial of 12).

        The specific timings will vary based on the system which runs the test(s), but there's no threading involved so the relative performance is probably comparable.

        Anyway the benchmark is simple, and I did it "fairly". By that I mean that I didn't try to optimize any particular test-implementation, I just wrote it in a way that felt natural.

      • Perl / Raku

        • Eagle's Path: Tie::ShadowHash 2.01 (2022-10-08)

          Tie::ShadowHash is a small Perl module that allows one to stack an in-memory modifiable hash on top of a read-only hash obtained from anywhere you can get a hash in Perl (including a tied hash), functioning much like an overlay file system with the same benefits.

      • Rust

        • Linux Links9 Top Free and Open Source Rust Frontend Web Frameworks - LinuxLinks

          “We need a strong leader” implies “we need a different leader”.

          What is causing the current leadership (whether vested in a single person explicitly or distributed) to be inadequate?

          Changing or adding one person with authority can be a quick fix, but isn’t guaranteed to work; especially if you don’t have a diagnosis that explains the need for a new leader. Do you really need a superhero to save you?

          What are your best hopes for what a new leader will do? What stops you doing those without them?

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Patrick BreyerPirates: Common charger a win for users and the environment

        Today, Members of the European Parliament approved the outcome of the trilogue negotiations on the Common Charger directive. A strong position of the European Parliament warrants that in addition to mobile phones, the USB Type-C cable will become the common charging port for other small and medium-sized portable electronic devices by autumn 2024, and by spring 2026 for larger ones, as well.

  • Leftovers

    • TediumGetting A-head of The Season

      Most of us probably don’t remember too many of our middle school reading assignments. Among that pile of forgotten homework and pristine storybooks probably resides an old short story called The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (sometimes erroneously referred to as The Headless Horseman). Whether you read it or not, you may have at least seen the old cartoon version or otherwise discovered it another way—even if it was via that bizarre Tim Burton film. One way or another, the Headless Horseman myth has perpetuated itself into the pop culture of the twenty-first century. The hideous supernatural creature that so terrified poor Ichabod Crane is rooted in reality. The Headless Horseman story continues to live in our collective memories even today. But Washington Irving’s macabre tale—or at least the creature playing the titular role—has its origins in folklore. In today’s Tedium, we’re dissecting an ancient legend, and some of the pop culture it helped to create. So hang on to your hats (if you’ve got ‘em) because today we’re exploring the real story of The Headless Horseman

    • Security

      • Hacker NewsHackers Exploiting Unpatched RCE Flaw in Zimbra Collaboration Suite

        A severe remote code execution vulnerability in Zimbra's enterprise collaboration software and email platform is being actively exploited, with no patch currently available to remediate the issue.

        [...]

        Zimbra said it expects the vulnerability to be addressed in the next Zimbra patch, which will remove the dependency on cpio and instead make pax a requirement. However, it has not offered a specific timeframe by when the fix will be available.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Michael West MediaWill a body with teeth bite off more than we can chew? - Michael West

        A bit of sunlight to disinfect our politics. Or the star chamber in friendly garb? While the pros of adding another layer to the oversight of our MPs seem obvious, Mark Sawyer sees a few cons, particularly the demise of deal-making.

        The wait is over. The federal integrity watchdog is coming. Three decades after the Independent Commission Against Corruption in NSW introduced the concept to Australia, the NACC (National Anti-Corruption Commission) is finally coming to Canberra. The body has long been advocated by the growing numbers of cross-bench MPs (Greens and independents). It was backed by the Labor opposition, so it became inevitable once Anthony Albanese’s ALP unseated the Coalition government on May 21.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Michael GeistThe Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 141: Why the Online News Act is a Bad Solution to a Real Problem, Part Five – My Appearance Before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage

          The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage launched its hearings on the Online News Act (Bill C-18) with a pair of hearings late last month. At this stage, it remains unclear whether the committee will undertake the extensive study the bill deserves. I appeared in the very first hearing, using my opening statement to touch on four key concerns: the definition of “use”, government intervention, the risk of increased misinformation, and the breaches of Canada’s trade and treaty obligations. Coinciding with National Newspaper Week, this week’s Law Bytes podcast features an introduction to the bill and audio clips from the appearance. The podcast can be downloaded here, accessed on YouTube, and is embedded below. Subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify or the RSS feed. Updates on the podcast on Twitter at @Lawbytespod.

        • Michael GeistWhy the Online News Act is a Bad Solution to a Real Problem, Part Six: CBC Eligibility Harms News Competition and Its Public Interest Mandate

          The blog series on why Bill C-18, the Online News Act, is a bad solution to a real problem continues with the first of several posts on the eligibility rules, starting with the decision to make the CBC eligible for the system that could lead to mandated payments. The inclusion of the public broadcaster should be opposed by its critics and supporters since it harms both competition and the public interest role of the public broadcaster. Indeed, critics will rightly note the market distortion it creates for private entities who stand to lose further advertising-related revenues to the CBC, while supporters should be concerned that the bill undermines the CBC’s claim to a public interest role and makes an ad-free version of the service even less likely. [Previous posts in the series: the risk to the free flow of information stemming from mandatory compensation for linking, how the bill encourages clickbait and other low quality news given the absence of standards in the definition of “news content”, the unprecedented government intervention in a sector where independence is essential, how the bill undermines Canadian copyright law and Canada’s international copyright law obligations, and a Law Bytes podcast episode based on my appearance before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.]

        • Walled CultureInterview | Glyn Moody: Walled Culture - A Journey Behind the Copyright Bricks – Walled Culture

          Glyn Moody has been writing about copyright, digital rights, and the Internet for 30 years. He is the editor of the Walled Culture project and author of Walled Culture – the Book (freely available as ebook). He previously wrote ‘Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution’. He explains how the Walled Culture project is a reflection on digital copyright going wrong, and how copyright and the Internet have shown to be fundamentally incompatible. Glyn highlights how there’s no escaping copyright in an online world. He shares some copyright absurdities, with big content fighting the visually impaired and initiatives like Project Gutenberg and Google Books. He talks about how Big Content put on shackles on libraries thanks to Digital Rights Management (DRM), and reflects on the injustice of the Big Publishers’ suing the Internet Archive.

          Glyn points out how Big Academic Publishers hijacked the shift towards open access to benefit their bottom line, while pointing out that diamond open access shows that we can move away from the academic publishing business. He recalls how Big Record Labels went on a rampage, suing grandmothers and children, neglecting the opportunity to give consumers what they wanted. Glyn describes Big Content’s push for copyright enforcement, from the French three strikes mechanism to the SOPA and ACTA battles, while emphasising how copyright laws got skewed towards Big Content. He talks about the failures surrounding the EU Copyright Directive and the looming dangers of upload filters. He further highlights how copyright no longer promotes culture but harms it, and how it’s about protecting Big Content, not creators. Glyn concludes by reflecting on a possible way forward: building on creators’ true fans.

        • Walled CultureEd Sheeran must face yet another music copyright trial, even more outrageous than the others

          Back in April, Walled Culture wrote about Ed Sheeran’s victory in a case alleging copyright infringement. Unfortunately, the copyright world’s obsession with ownership means that Sheeran can’t simply relax now. In fact, he has already been hit with another lawsuit. What makes this case worse is that it is alleged he copied his hit song “Thinking out loud” not from a living artist, but from “Let’s get it on”, by Marvin Gaye, who died in 1984.

        • Walled CultureComing soon: the next phase of copyright maximalism – destroying the public domain

          The public domain is the natural state of creative material. It’s where creations end up once copyright’s monopoly has expired. Crucially, it is the quid pro quo for that monopoly. The deal is that the creator of a work is granted a government-enforced intellectual monopoly for a limited period, after which the work enters the public domain for anyone to use for any purpose, including commercial ones. That’s the bargain, but it seems that the copyright maximalists in the French Parliament want to renege on it.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Politics

      • UN 2050

        I see that the UN is setting goals for 2050 💁🏻‍♀️ How cute ♥

        In this case it’s a zero greenhouse goal for all world-wide air travel by 2050 (somehow also gonna fix the issue that releasing stuff at that altitude, even if it would’ve normally been released at ground level, such as decomposing or burning plants, is extra warming.

        They’re also betting on tech that doesn’t exist yet to come save us. Why not, then, hold off on their flights until that mythical tech exists? This is something I see again and again and again: “In the future there will be a safe way to do it so let’s do it now 😜” “Oh, I see potato chips are gonna be on sale next Saturday so let’s buy some bags now!” It’s beyond wrong. Of course, it’s wrong like a fox because they don’t really believe that the tech is gonna come. They’re just kidding themselves (and the public) so they can keep flying.

        All this 2030, 2050 stuff is cheaper than cheap since it’s all talk. I wanna see “OK, starting next month, we will…” I wanna see changes in our present time.

    • Technical

      • Simpler Linux self-hosting with tmux and bubblewrap

        Let's say you want to self-host a Gemini capsule and a weblog. Maybe you'll use a Raspberry Pi or VPS server. Typically, you'd install (or get a pre-installed) operating system, like Debian/Ubuntu. You might then `apt install` a webserver like nginx, and `pip3 install` a Gemini server like JetForce.

      • Why it’s OK that PGP sucks

        Don’t get me wrong; if you’re in a position to make email encryption work better, please keep up the good work.

        It’s just that if you’ve heard the cool kids say “I have such-and-such super supreme secure cipher app, that’s what people should use for communication, and email shall be insecure”, I’m like... what I hear is someone saying “I’ve got locks on my house so I don’t need to wear pants in public”. It’s kind of a non-sequiteur. Of course we want secure email.

        A couple of really good things have happened since the era of PGP. Remember, PGP preceded SSL and TSL (and with them HTTPS). It was released in 1991 when an email was less secure than a postcard. Everyone could read everything, and spoof as anyone.

      • Science

        • Re: Pocket Calculator

          evenfire likes calculators

          And so do I.

          In high school I had a math teacher, Mr Anderson, who no one liked. He looked like he was right out of IBM or NASA wearing dress slacks, a white button down short sleeve shirt and a pocket protector. He had been a math teacher for so long he actually taught my dad. While most people hated his class, he was one of the reasons I love math and spent half my time in college in math classes.

      • Announcements

        • Finally Solving TLGS Socket Descriptor Leak

          After months of on and off work, I finally figured out what's causing TLGS' crawler to experience socket leak. I've a gemlog 4 months ago[1] detailing how I solved it. Well, kinda. I found a misuse of `shared_ptr` and timers causing references to TCP connections not released properly. Solving that drastically reduces how fast open socket count grows - that still makes no sense, but good enough for the time. Sockets should not be growing as I limit the crawler to 16 or 24 concurrent connections at a time in production.

      • Programming

        • The stupid socket file descriptor leak in Dremini

          TLGS'[1] crawler has had a crashing issue from the very beginning. The crawler tries to open too many sockets at the same time with the error message "sockets::createNonblockingOrDie: too many open sockets". The crawl dispatcher already limited how many concurrent craws can happen at any time. First I thought it was because I make the dispatcher lock free and I screwed up, but no edge cases were discovered after days of simulation and testing. So I made a compermise, the crawler would count open sockets periondically and wait for some to close before continuing asynchronously. Just so I can still claim everything is still lock free. That solves the crawler crashing, but in return the crawler hangs after some time. It's apparent this is due to some sockets not closing, thus it never drop below the threshold to continue crawling. It's much less often so I took it and just restart the crawler every time it hangs.

        • Security bug in diohsc versions earlier than 0.1.12

          Today I noticed a very stupid security bug in my Gemini client, diohsc, which could potentially be used to circumvent TOFU and run a MitM attack.

          If you use diohsc, please upgrade to the latest version (0.1.12); typically you can do this by running "cabal update && cabal install diohsc".


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Alyssa Rosenzweig's LibrePlanet Talk About Freeing the Apple GPU
Alyssa Rosenzweig is the graphics witch behind the reverse-engineered drivers for the Apple GPU. She previously led Panfrost, the free drivers for Arm Mali GPUs powering devices like the Pinebook Pro. She graduated in 2023 with a Computer Science degree from the University of Toronto and now writes free software full-time.
Links 30/06/2024: LLMs Under Fire and Dictatorship of the Old
Links for the day
[Meme] Walking Outside the Guardrails of the Walled Gardens Built by Monopolies
So-called "advertiser-unfriendly" material was never a problem for Wikileaks
This War Crime Footage, Nothing Political Per Se, Is What They Made Julian Assange Plead Guilty To (War Criminals Not Convicted, Only Those Who Expose Them)
Wikileaks' Julian Assange: Exposing the US Military Crimes
20 Years Passed, Let's Go Even Faster Now
We are hoping to bring more original stories
Windows Lost Almost 92% Market Share in Egypt
From over 99% to just over 7%
 
Destination 'Five Percent'
We reckon GNU/Linux can break the 5% barrier some time by the end of this year, even without counting Chromebooks
A Crisis of Online Journalism
Almost a week ago a journalist was forced to plead guilty for an act of journalism
Germany One of Many Countries Where Microsoft's Bing Lost Market Share After All That LLM Nonsense (Bing Chat and Further Rebrands/Renames)
openai.com traffic plunged 60% last month
Microsoft’s Latest Antitrust Scrutiny
4 new stories
Microsoft Layoffs, Mass Plagiarism, and More
outrage included
GNU/Linux Climbed 0.25% This Month (in statCounter)
Around midday on Tuesday we'll start seeing preliminary data for July
Ilya Gulko Introduces Pollyanna
"Pollyanna is a web framework that makes it easy to create your own libre social space, such as a social network or blog."
'FSFE': Underage Labour, GAFAM Fronting, and Identity Theft to Undermine the FSF's Current Fundraiser
looking to raise funds at the same time as the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 29, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, June 29, 2024
Links 29/06/2024: Astronauts at Risk, Ukraine Updates
Links for the day
Fedora and Red Hat Leftovers
mostly redhat.com
Microsoft is Now Googlebombing or Spamming 'Open Source' and 'Linux' to Promote Proprietary Surveillance, Azure
Notice the title and the image, what's being promoted etc.
Seychelles: GNU/Linux Doing OK
Seychelles cannot be considered poor
Gemini Protocol Isn't Even Remotely "Dead"
"Lupa knows of 505,000 (half a million!) working Gemini URLs at present, up from about 425,000 this time last year"
About 10 New Free Software Foundation (FSF) Members Per Day
The total changed from 46 to 47 while typing the article
Vista 11 Adoption Unusually Low in Germany and It's Going Down, Not Up
This is not happening only in Germany
Kevin Korte on Computers Being Allowed to Make Decisions Based on Cryptic Algorithms and Proprietary/Secret Data
It uses buzzwords where none are needed
[Meme] Garbage In, Garbage Out (linuxsecurity.com)
It is neither Linux nor security, just chatbot-generated slop
Microsoft-Invaded CISA Spreads Anti-Free Software FUD (as If Proprietary Software Has No Memory Safety Issues), Brittany Day Uses Chatbots to Amplify and Permutate the Microsoft FUD
linuxsecurity.com became an anti-Linux spam site
Microsoft Laying Off Staff in an Act of Retaliation and Union-Busting
retaliatory layoffs at Microsoft
Gemini Links 29/06/2024: Content Drowning in 'Goo' and LLM Slop
Links for the day
In Ecuador, GNU/Linux Adoption Surged From Under 1% to Over 4% in About 3 Years
Not even counting Chromebooks
LibrePlanet: Cultivating Backups (of Recordings)
an appeal to recover some of these talks
Microsoft/Windows Machines Are Turned Off (or Windows Deleted/Decommissioned) in Web Servers, as the "Market Share" Collapse Continues
Taking full history into account, this is a decrease of over 90% in some cases
Corwin Brust Hosting Freedom: A Behind-the-scenes Tour With the GNU Savannah Hackers
"the "smiling faces" behind it."
Android at 90% or More in Chad
Windows below 2%
David Wilson: Cultivating a Welcoming Free Software Community That Lasts
"a feeling of shared ownership for all users."
Julian Assange Might Continue Wikileaks, But Certainly Not Yet (Recovery Time Needed)
And probably at a symbolic capacity only
Bringing in 12 Santas and Taking 13 Out (Old Interview With Julian Assange)
Julian Assange's life inside the Ecuadorian embassy
Neil Plotnick on GNU/Linux in the High School Classroom
uploaded to the LibrePlanet instance of MediaGoblin
Asia Appears to be Fastest to Adopt GNU/Linux
the home of a considerable majority of the world's population
Alexandre Oliva's LibrePlanet 2024 Talk About "Software Enshittification"
in spite of technical difficulties encountered while recording
What They Used to Do With Mono They Now Do With Systemd (Lower and Deeper Down Than Userspace)
Now we have a project started primarily by Red Hat (and managed by Microsoft GitHub, which is proprietary) being managed by Microsoft and primarily serving Microsoft and IBM
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 28, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, June 28, 2024
Links 28/06/2024: Kangaroo Courts and Patents Spam, EFF Still Fighting for CPC's TikTok (a Digital Weapon)
Links for the day
Links 28/06/2024: Overton window and Polarization
Links for the day
[Meme] In 50 Years...
Microsoft's Vista 11 will take 50 years to be fully adopted
Only About 1 in 8 Russian Windows Users is Using Vista 11
it looks like over the past 12 months Vista 11 hardly grew and it remains very low at around 12% of Windows usage in Russia
Links 28/06/2024: More Attacks on the Press, More Censorship in Russia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/06/2024: Christmas Prematurely, Self-hosting
Links for the day
IBM: So Long, Suckers. Your Free OS is Now Proprietary. Pay IBM or Else.
almost exactly a year after turning RHEL into proprietary software
Vista 11 is Doomed and Despite Lack of Adoption Microsoft Already Speaks of Vapourware ("12")
"Microsoft has pulled a Windows 11 update after users reported boot loops and startup failures."
ChromeOS Reaches Highest Share in Years at the World's Most Populous Nation, Windows Now at All-Time Low of 13%
We're talking about India today
[Video] "It Is Incredible That Julian Assange Survives"
There was a positive and mutual relationship between Wikileaks and Dr Jill Stein
Never Assume That Because the Law Exists the Powerful Will Follow the Law
Who's going to hold them accountable now?
Nearly a Month Has Passed and Nobody at the Debian Project Even Attempted to Explain What Seems Like Back-dooring of Debian (and Hundreds of Distros That Are Debian-Derived)
I can cynically guess that only matters when a user with a Chinese name does it
[Video] Julian Assange Explains Wikileaks' Logistics
predating indefinite detention
IBM Was Never the "Good Guy", Just a Self-Serving and Opportunistic Money- and Power-Hungry Monopolist, Living Off of Taxpayers' Money (Government Contracts)
The Nazi Party of Germany was its second-biggest client at one point and now it's looking to profit from the work of slaves
"I Hated Working at IBM. They Were the Most Unfriendly People."
Don't forget what Watson the son did to a poor woman on a plane
State of the News (and Depletion of Journalism Online, Not Just Offline)
Newspapers are not coming back and the Web is not coming back either
GNU/Linux Consolidates in North America
Android rising a lot this year, too
[Meme] More Monopolies Granted While Patent Examiners Die (Overworking for Less Compensation)
Work more; Get less
Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) is Taking the New Pension Scheme (NPS) to an International Tribunal (ILOAT)
SUEPO wants more EPO staff to participate in collective action
Stella Assange and the Legal Team Speak to the Media a Day After WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Arrives in Australia
Published yesterday by a number of mainstream publishers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 27, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, June 27, 2024
RIP Daniel Bristot de Oliveira, Red Hat death
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock