Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 03/02/2023: Proton 7.0-6 Released, ScummVM 2.7 Testing



  • GNU/Linux

    • Applications

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • DebugPointHow to Install elementary Tweaks Tool

        This quick tutorial demonstrates the steps to install elementary Tweaks tool/Pantheon Tweaks Tool. The elementary Tweaks tool is a handy utility specially designed for elementary OS. It gives you various options to change certain settings for elementary.

      • CitizixHow to install and configure Redpanda on Ubuntu 22.04

        Redpanda is a Kafka€®-compatible streaming data platform that boasts of being€ 10x faster and 6x more cost efficient. It is also JVM-free, ZooKeeper-free, Jepsen-tested and source available. It is distributed as a single binary with everything thus allowing you to deploy in minutes. It works natively with Kafka tools.

    • Games

      • ScummVMScummVM 2.7.0: Call for testing!

        A few months have passed since we released ScummVM 2.6.1. It's time to prepare for a new release!

        Our lovely developers added support, yet again, for a bunch of new ancient games that require testing:

        • Soldier Boyz
        • GLK Scott Adams Interactive Fiction games (C64 and ZX Spectrum)
        • GLK Scott Adams adventures 1-12 (TI99/4A format)
        • Obsidian
        • Pink Panther: Passport to Peril
        • Pink Panther: Hokus Pokus Pink
        • Driller/Space Station Oblivion
        • Halls of the Dead: Faery Tale Adventure II
      • 9to5LinuxProton 7.0-6 Released with Support for UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection

        Proton 7.0-6 is here with support for new games, including the critically acclaimed UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection, as well as Gotham Knights, Heroes of the Dark, King under the Mountain, NinNinDays2, Super Arcade Racing, 雀姬 (Mahjong ladies), and Crazy Machines 3.

        This new Proton release also brings improvements to video games that were already supported, such as Septerra Core, Persona 5 Royal, Vampire Survivors, Super House of Dead Ninjas, Enemy Mind, Out There Somewhere, Zeepkist, Overcooked! All You Can Eat, Quake III: Arena, Quake III: Team Arena, Marvel Snap, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Make Use OfCarbonyl Lets You Use a Graphical Web Browser in Your Linux Terminal

        Browsing the internet in your terminal is cool, but limited. Image support can be sketchy, and JavaScript may as well not exist. If you plan on consuming media, you're out of luck.

        Carbonyl is a Chromium fork for your terminal. It's a full-fat browser that adheres to, and is compatible with modern standards, meaning that pages behave as they should, and you can even watch streaming video, within the Linux terminal!

  • Leftovers

    • World Economic ForumTech Power and Cooperation
    • Black Hand: The Devil Himself

      How an elite London night club fell under the control of an intelligence-linked sex blackmail agent, self-described satanist and antique dealer named Horace Dibben.

    • Federal News NetworkLauded rebel fashion designer Paco Rabanne dies at age 88

      Spanish-born fashion designer Paco Rabanne has died at age 88. The company that owns the Rabanne brand on Friday announced the death of the designer known for perfumes and metallic, space-age fashions. Fashion and beauty company Puig described Rabanne as a “visionary designer” and “among the most seminal fashion figures of the 20th century.” Rabanne’s fashion house shows its collections in Paris and is scheduled to unveil the brand’s latest ready-to-wear designs during the upcoming Feb. 27-March 3 fashion week. Coco Chanel reportedly called Rabanne “the metallurgist of fashion.” He used various kinds of metal in his designs, including the chain-like mail associated with Medieval knights.

    • LatviaOnly 400 Russian citizens have registered for Latvian language test

      This year, thousands of citizens of the Russian Federation residing in Latvia€ will have to pass a language test to extend their residency permits in Latvia. The Citizenship and Migration Affairs Office (PMLP) has intended to send out reminders to all these people, which has caused some controversy in€ society, Latvian Television reported on February 2.

    • Jim NielsenCORS, CORB, CORP, COOP, COEP, C…

      I recently watched“A Hipster History of CORS”, a talk from Strange Loop 2022 by Devdatta Akhawe, Head of Security at Figma. Devdatta does a great job of taking a complex, even boring, subject like CORS and weaves it into a funny, interesting narrative history. He connected many previously disparate dots in my head, making me go “Ah-ha! That’s why things are the way they are on the web.”

      For example, when working on myReadlistsproject, I ran into an issue where I couldn’t use JavaScript to read the contents of an image fetched from a third-party website. I couldn’t understand why there was a limitation there. “I fetch images all the time with<img src="...">but I guess JavaScript’s not gonna let me?”

    • AxiosOffice occupancy crosses 50%, a post-pandemic high [Ed: People are being herded back into cages in spite of health risks]

      Office occupancyhit a new post-pandemic record this week, at 50.4%, according to swipe data from Kastle Systems.

      Why it matters:Are the offices half-full or half-empty? Some executives might see crossing the 50% milestone as a sign of a comeback. But the figure has largely plateaued since September, hinting at a new reality where people work from home a lot more.

    • Marcy WheelerThe Rise Of Cities In Eurasia

      The earliest large settlements didn't have monarchs.

    • The Straits TimesSeoul city to crack down on teen use of ‘room cafes’

      These businesses provide private spaces and simple food, but some teenagers are reportedly using them for sex and booze.

    • The Straits TimesChina hotel, catering job openings surge on post-Covid demand recovery

      There’s also high demand now for drivers, plane and train crews, and tourism and factory workers.

    • The Straits TimesChina to fully resume travel with Hong Kong, Macau on Feb 6

      Group tours between China and Hong Kong and Macau will resume.

    • The Age AUThe easy work option might not always be the best

      Inevitably, any career decision comes with a degree of uncertainty and risk. It is often our appetite for certainty that can derail us.

    • The Age AUThe workplace rights of arts workers can no longer be ignored

      The Albanese government’s new Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces can strengthen the arts sector by improving the pay, safety and welfare of its workers.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Sitting in O'Hare

        The first part of my weekwas spent in Adams, Massachussets. I flew into Albany, New York on Sunday. Oddly, this location's scenery reminded me of Colorado around the Glennwood Springs/Aspen area. Not an exact match, but it reminded me of it strongly. It makes sense since this too is a ski area.

        I stayed in a high rise hotel. Odd since I was in the small town of Pittsfield. I never expect to see a high-storey building in a small town. This hotel was very hostile to its guests especially with the parking situation. The parking garage was closed "for renovations." I put that in quotes because there were no construction workers to be found the entire time I was there. The available parking was a block away at a bank. They "offered" valet service for the parking. I put that in quotes because the valet service started at 0730 and I had to be out and about before that every single day I was there.

      • Fountain Pens

        Recently I have gone fountain pen mad. It all started from seeing the Muji fountain pen. It is an aluminium affair which has a knurled pen grip area and feels very industrial chic. At a low low price of 18, it was a bit of a no brainer. Something clicked and I felt a need to find out more. Queue reading reviews and watching videos. Then I fell into the rabbit hole.

      • Album #165: Let's Stay Together

        Al Green pops up frequently enough on DJ Time Traveller's weekly radio show that I'm familiar-ish, but this was the first album I've listened to. It's starts strong and keeps going. His voice is versatile. The instrumentation never veers too far in to sappiness, nor does it ever really take centre stage. From start to finish, it’s a pleasure to listen to.

      • minimalism

        Perhaps one problem with minimalism isn't what it removes, but what it leaves: the computer, with all it's storage, and access to the internet. Don't get me wrong: I'm not one for rolling back the internet, but I am one for not being sucked into and controlled by the internet. How do we solve this?

      • Learn better

        Better learning is not reading a book in order it's going backwards in a course when you're not sure it's writing to the author when you think he's wrong It's summarising

    • Technical

      • Finally, I switched over to OpenBSD

        I have been wanting to move my daily driver over to one of the BSDs for some time now, I have written in the past about my experience's with FreeBSD [0]. At the time, the limiting factor was the hardware I was running and the issues that caused. However, now that I have the mini-pc new hardware I thought this would a good week to try it out. One evening I took the plunge, backed up $HOME on my current Alpine Linux setup and installed OpenBSD. It was super simple, and I was up and running in a shell within 15 minutes.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Getting rid of google: The *really* easy stuff and why I may have wrote my previous post a bit too fast

          So I haven't updated in a bit, but I still wanted to start things off by finishing my series of posts on getting rid of google and reduce internet surveillance.

          Here, I'll discuss hoping out of Youtube (well, more or less) and Gmail and explain where I really was too hasty last time, before giving some first thoughts on it all.

        • Zaibatsu downtime notice

          On Saturday the 11th of February, the Mare Tranquillitatis People's Circumlunar Zaibatsu (zaibatsu.circumlunar.space) will be taken offline for an operating system upgrade. This phlog (and all the others hosted here!) will obviously be unavailable during this time. I will endeavour to keep the Gopher downtime as short as possible!

        • And into February

          I originally started this entry at 09:40 this morning, because I knew I'd be too tired this evening after work. Here I am finishing the entry at 21:27. It has been this way lately: finish work, have dinner, then tea, entertain two cats, and then it's time for bed. I must be getting old, because I'm usually awake quite early, therefore I go to bed early.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

The 'Case' of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft is a Lot of Copypasta (Maybe Also LLM Slop) From the Matthew Garrett 'Case'
5RB deserves to know and the matter shall be properly reported in due course (when the time is right)
EPO Squeezing the Staff - Part II - Office Breaks Rules, Ignores Courts, Defies Justice
False promises everywhere
IBM - Like Microsoft - is a Dying Company and Perishing Brand ("AI" is a Lie and Decoy)
"Arvind is cutting costs (layoffs, PIPs, forced RTO, etc...) like crazy. IBM offices are closing all over the place in the US."
"Code of Conduct" Invoked When Fedora and Red Hat Users (Since the 1990s) Don't Want to Use Wayland
That is IBM "DEI"
Microsoft Layoffs Next Week: About 10% to be Laid Off in Microsoft Gaming (2 Days Before Independence Day), About 20%+ of XBox Staff
Microsoft is rapidly collapsing
Why Techrights Cannot be Vilified (and Instead It Gets SLAPPed Repeatedly by Microsoft People)
Attack dogs are all "bark"; because they have no actual "bite"
 
LWN is a Voice of GAFAM (Through Linux Foundation, Their Front Group or Occupying Force Inside Linux)
remember who the chief editor works for and who sponsors many of the articles
Links 26/06/2025: Noise Pollution Considered High in Europe, Mass Layoffs Next Week in Microsoft Confirmed, Very Large in Scale and Scope
Links for the day
No, I Don't Want Your Latest XYZ, ThankYouVeryMuch...
Wayland is finally ready?
China Keeps Breaking Into Microsoft Systems, So for True Sovereignty, Nations Wary of China Need to Dump Microsoft
Looking at data from Taiwan (not China) and Maharlika (not Philippines, the king is dead and Spain is out), there are encouraging signs
Linux Journal Wants Ads on Its LLM Slop or Ads as 'Articles'
it's basically another BetaNews
How to Kill a Monopoly
in 10 simple steps
Mozambique: GNU/Linux Rose From 0.5% Last Year to 3% This Year
what (or how) statCounter is measuring
Next Month Marks 11 Years Since Our In-Depth EPO Coverage
The same is happening to Microsoft right now
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Campaigns Against Vista 11, Adds 4 New Associate Members Per Day
If more people understood the underlying principles, more of them would flock to Free software overnight
Canonical Seems to Have Culled Some Sources of LLM Slop From Planet Ubuntu
It's like "junk food", it's not information
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 25, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 25, 2025
On "Weak Claims"
For the record, they sent me unjustified threats, repeatedly tried injunctions (censorship)
EPO Squeezing the Staff - Part I - Burnout and Family Health
more exceptional circumstances
This Month's Mail (MX) Server Survey Shows Microsoft at 0.20% "Market Share"
We need to remind people that desktops and laptops decline (in proportion to other client devices) and at the "back end" GNU/Linux is already dominant and has long been dominant
Links 26/06/2025: Filespooler Guide and Learning to Code
Links for the day
Austrian GNU/Linux Usage Up to About 5% as More of Europe Abandons Microsoft
Since inauguration day the Austrian people have adopted more and more of GNU/Linux
Why the "Wayland People" and "Rust People" Will Lose Hearts and Minds (Same Reasons)
Wayland pushers are fast becoming like "Rust People"
5,600 Pages/Articles Per Year
So far this year we've kept all the promises
BetaNews Beginning to Show What Its True Goals Are
The 'new' BetaNews won't be about journalism. It's trying to sell things.
Microsoft Has Lost "The War"
We'll soon see the 9th or 10th wave of Microsoft layoffs in 2025 alone
Slopwatch: A Wreck and a Dreck, "Flooding the Zone With Dreck" or Flooding the Web With Junk
"Slopwatch" continues today because we have many new examples
Links 25/06/2025: Thwarting More Software Patents, Overlap Grows Between EPO Corruption and Illegal Kangaroo Patent Courts in EU
Links for the day
Links 25/06/2025: Elon Musk’s Lawyers Caught Lying, WhatsApp Faces More Bans
Links for the day
Wayland Pushers Lose the Argument, Use LLM Slop and Chatbots to Make Up Arguments for IBM
Another new low and low blow
Brian Fagioli Created Another Slopfarm Targeting "Linux" After BetaNews Became a Slopfarm of Phantom Accounts and Pseudonyms
Mr. Fagioli even had slop about a dead Torvalds (hypothetical) as clickbait
Wayland is Perfect, Nobody Can Escape Its Perfection! (Or Not)
Do not form on opinion on Wayland based on politics
What is "MATA"?
Think of it as GAFAM or "Meta"
Moral Duty for "Linux Sites" to Speak Out Against LLM Slop
My wife has long complained about "Linux bloggers" keeping quiet and thus passive about a growing problem: slop
In Recent Hours Google News Promoted at Least 3 Slopfarms That Relayed Linux Foundation Propaganda Made by Bots or LLM "Bullshit Generators" (as Dr. Stallman Dubbed Them)
Google is circling down the drain and Google News too is hopeless
Linux Journal is a Slopfarm, It's Experimenting With LLM 'Authors'
Is Slashdot next?
WebProNews is a Slopfarm
Please avoid linking to WebProNews
Microsoft LinkedIn is Dying and Many More Layoffs Are on the Way
LinkedIn is just a failed acquisition of Microsoft. It causes losses and debt.
Gemini Links 25/06/2025: Combinatorial Music and Self Hosting
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Coming Back to Europe This Autumn to Give More Talks
His last talk in Europe attracted about 400-450 people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 24, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Social Control Media, Technology & Catholicism: Synod on Synodality review and feedback
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
How Many More Women Will Managers at Microsoft Strangle and Tell to Kill Themselves (or Try to Kill)?
The world needs to know what happened
The New BetaNews: 7 New 'Articles', All of Them LLM Slop
BetaNews is basically defunct. Nobody writes there anymore.
Another "Told You So!": XBox Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Many Recent Reports Were Chaff and Spin), Many Other Divisions Affected
With mass layoffs at Microsoft the world would be much better
statCounter Estimates Only 1 in 300 Iranians Would Use Microsoft for Search
Iranians don't quite trust Microsoft
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: ftpd on FreeBSD and Online Small Web Magazine
Links for the day
Google News Does Great Harm by Promoting Slopfarms as Legitimate News Sites
Slopfarms are sites which are 100% LLM slop
Links 24/06/2025: Trouble at "Open" "AI" and ‘Siarhei is Free’
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: Stimulants and Subscription Costs for DRM
Links for the day
When the Microsoft Aggressors Rely on Several Law Firms ('Attack Dogs', 'Guns for Hire'), Not Just One, Lawyering Up Against Techrights (Acting on Behalf of Americans Against UK Publishers)
From serving customers at some restaurant he has moved on to bullying people with demand letters
Links 24/06/2025: OpenAI [sic] May Soon Die (Too Much Debt) and Social Control Media Accused of Being Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda Amplifier
Links for the day
Nirbheek Chauhan in Planet GNOME Explains Why Wayland Pushers Are Losing
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
Polygamy, from Catholic Synod on Synodality to Social Control Media & Debian CyberPolygamy
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Only a Third of or 1 in 3 Web-Connected Devices is a Desktop or Laptop, According to statCounter
we can expect Android to widen its lead
The Days Are Getting Shorter, the First Half of 2025 is Almost Over
We're gratified to see significant increase in traffic and also positive feedback on the work we do
Turning GNU/Linux Into a Political Football
X (not the site) is Free software
X Server Still Works for Many People
A lot of people will grow suspicious of Wayland boosters/pushers if they persist and insist on using these tactics
Exactly a Week Ago "BetaNews Staff" Said "Betanews Is Growing Alongside You". Since Then Every Article (All by "Camila Nogueira") Has Been LLM Slop.
BetaNews is basically a slopfarm
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 23, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 23, 2025
The "Tarzan Effect" in Compilers and Software
What happens when you forcibly make things 'work', either by hacks or by disregarding warnings (like those that compilers tend to issue)?
Gemini Links 23/06/2025: Mass Tourism, Hair Love, and Google Gemini as a Googlebomb
Links for the day