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Links 19/04/2023: More Facebook Layoffs and Another Tails Release



  • GNU/Linux

    • Unix MenTips & Tricks For Testing And Managing Web Applications Run By Linux OS

      Web applications running on a Linux operating system (OS) require thorough testing and effective management to ensure optimal performance and user experience. In this article, we will discuss some tips and tricks for testing and managing web applications run by Linux OS. We will also highlight the importance of hiring a QA tester to ensure that your web application is functioning as intended.

      In conclusion, testing and managing web applications run by Linux OS requires careful consideration and attention to detail. Testing should be performed on different browsers and devices, load testing should be performed to simulate real-world traffic scenarios, and performance metrics should be monitored to ensure that the application is functioning as intended. Automation testing tools, CI/CD, and security testing should also be implemented. Finally, hiring a QA tester is crucial to ensure that your web application is functioning as intended, meets the requirements of the end-users, and is user-friendly and accessible. If you need assistance in testing and managing your web application, consider hiring a QA tester to ensure that your application is running smoothly and efficiently.

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • What You Need to Know about Linux Operating Systems



        Many of us are more familiar with the Windows Operating System when using the computer. However, that’s not the case for those in the IT sector. In fact, some of the world’s biggest companies depend on Linux since they find it more reliable, secure, and faster.

        Another good thing about Linux is that it’s open source, which allows you to create an operating system out of a basic Linux operating system. Moreover, it’s pretty hard for malware to get into a Linux kernel, making it secure and reliable.

        While the Linux learning curve can be tricky to navigate initially, the experience gained in working with Linux translates to all the vast platforms it supports. In fact, Linux is the basis for other operating systems, such as Android, since it does offer so much flexibility.

        Another reason to use Linux is that the kernel is free and comes from the open-source GNU GPL, which allows you to add whatever you want to create a custom configuration. It’s possible to download just about every Linux distribution. For instance, you can download a form of Linux kernel with a few fully functional add-ons but without added cost.

      • ZDNet Ready to ditch Windows for Linux? This is the ideal distro for you

        For many, Windows is the only desktop operating system they've ever used. For them, there's a familiarity that makes dealing with the usual troubles associated with Windows (random restarts for updates, failed drivers, and insecurities) tolerable.

        But what if I told you there was an alternative? There is, and it's been around since 1997. That alternative is the open-source Linux operating system.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Bryan LundukeMozilla, OSI, & the memory-holing of Computer History

        Listen now (23 min) | The Lunduke Journal of Technology Podcast - April 18, 2023

      • mintCast Podcastmintcast 410 – The Rise of Dr. Majid

        First up in the news: Mint Monthly News – March 2023, Ubuntu 23.04 beta released, updates in Tumbleweed, last 16.04-based Ubuntu Touch rolled out, Linux Lite 6.4 released, COSMIC DE updates, OpenBSD 7.3 & FreeBSD 13.2 announced, big changes in Firefox 113, Mullvad announces their own browser, and Solus sets sail once again; In security and privacy, Kodi leaks

        Then in our Wanderings, Bill catches up, Moss has more drive, Joe is such a prints, Majid iPads in In our Innards section, we meet one of our new co-hosts Download
    • Kernel Space

      • Bryan LundukeThe "Big Three" Linux companies ranked by Revenue, Employees, Kernel Contributions

        Red Hat, SUSE, & Canonical. Because stats and charts are fun.

        [..]

        All three companies are sizable, in terms of staff. Roughly the same ratio as with revenue (which you would expect).

        Red Hat has close to 8 times the manpower as SUSE. And over 31 times Canonical.

        But how does that manpower translate into work getting done on upstream projects? Let’s look at the most obvious project… one that they all have a significant interest in… the Linux Kernel itself.

      • BootlinYocto: sharing the sstate cache and download directories

        When developing projects based on Yocto Project / OpenEmbedded, a quite common practice is to have multiple build environments in different directories: one per product, or one for each development branch, or for other scenarios. Each build environment could have different layers, a different configuration, or just using a different version of the source code.

    • Graphics Stack

      • Dave AirlieDave Airlie (blogspot): nouveau/gsp + kernel module firmware selection for initramfs generation

        There are plans for nouveau to support using the NVIDIA supplied GSP firmware in order to support new hardware going forward

        The nouveau project doesn't have any input or control over the firmware. NVIDIA have made no promises around stable ABI or firmware versioning. The current status quo is that NVIDIA will release versioned signed gsp firmwares as part of their driver distribution packages that are version locked to their proprietary drivers (open source and binary). They are working towards allowing these firmwares to be redistributed in linux-firmware.

      • Linux LinksBest Free and Open Source NVIDIA GPU Monitoring Tools

        nvidia-smi (also known as NVSMI) provides monitoring and management capabilities for each of NVIDIA’s Tesla, Quadro and GRID devices from Fermi and higher architecture families. Very limited information is also provided for GeForce devices. It’s based on top of the NVIDIA Management Library (NVML), which helps users manage and monitor NVIDIA GPU devices.

        NVSMI is a cross platform tool that supports all standard NVIDIA driver-supported Linux distros.

        The command line utility tool is installed with the NVIDIA drivers and is probably the monitoring tool that most users are familiar with. We can perform live monitoring using watch and nvidia-smi together e.g.

        $ watch -n0.1 nvidia-smi

        nvidia-smi is quite basic. This article explores other useful NVIDIA GPU monitoring tools.

        Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart. All the software is free and open source.

    • Benchmarks

    • Applications

      • Linux LinksMachine Learning in Linux: DeOldify – colorizing and restoring old images and videos

        DeOldify is a modern way to colorize black and white images using deep learning technology. The software provides pre-trained weights which allows you to colorize images and video without needing to train your own models.

        Our Machine Learning in Linux series focuses on apps that make it easy to experiment with machine learning. This article is a bit different. We wouldn’t describe DeOoldify as an app. But it’s a very interesting project and bills itself as the easiest way to colorize images.

        DeOldify is published under an open source license.

      • OMG! LinuxdigiKam 8.0 Released with OCR Tool, Better Format Support

        When it comes open-source image organizers and photo tag editors open source app digiKam is the most well regarded...

      • Steinar H GundersonSteinar H. Gunderson: Naguru 2.2.1 released

        I've released version 2.2.1 of Nageru, my free software video mixer. This is pretty much a “bookworm release”; a bunch of focused fixes for video input-related issues I hadn't seen before (mostly because the hardware I had accessible to test with didn't happen to stress these bugs).

      • OMG! LinuxImprove GNOME’s On-Screen Keyboard with this Extension

        Got a touch-enabled or convertible laptop and use the GNOME Shell desktop?

      • TecMintConky – A System Monitor Tool for Linux Desktop

        Conky is a free, lightweight, straightforward, and flexible system monitor for X that shows any type of information on your desktop or in its own window. Being cross-platform, it may also be used with

      • Cockpit Project: Cockpit 290

        Cockpit is the modern Linux admin interface. We release regularly.

        Here are the release notes from Cockpit 290, cockpit-machines 288, and cockpit-podman 67: [...]

      • Stephen Smoogen: ~1 year to end of EPEL-7
        Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 7

        Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) are packages based off of various Fedora releases but built for the various distributions based off of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. In June of 2014, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (EL-7) was released and over the next several months, a focus was made to make the release of EPEL possible. Much of the work was done by Kevin Fenzi and Dennis Gilmore with some additional work by anyone else who had spare time. The initial goal was to make it that core packages needed for Fedora Infrastructure to move its core servers to EL-7 were built. That had been what had been done for the initial releases of EPEL-5 and EPEL-6, and would allow for enough base 'packages' to be built for additional packages to be added by other maintainers.

      • TecMint10 Best Linux Command-Line Tools

        In this article, we will share a few command-line programs that you can use in a Linux terminal. By the end of this article, you will learn about some free, open-source, and exciting, text-based

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • It's FOSSGetting Started With NixOS

        Want to explore the immutable NixOS distro? This tutorial series will help you with your NixOS journey.

      • Beginners Guide for Diff Command in Linux

        Today, in this article, you will learn how to use the diff command in Linux to compare the content of two different files or directories to find the changes that are required to make them identical.

      • KifarunixSecurely SSH to Remote Host via Multiple Jump Hosts

        In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk you through the steps to securely SSH to remote host via multiple jump hosts. If you're a system administrator or developer who needs to access a remote host via multiple jump hosts, you know it can be a challenging and time-consuming process.

      • FOSSLinuxA comprehensive guide to mastering symbolic links in Linux

        In this article, we'll examine how symbolic links can be used to manage shared files, avoid breaking dependencies, and create aliases for frequently used commands or scripts. We'll also provide step-by-step instructions for creating symbolic links using the ln command, as well as tips for troubleshooting common issues.

      • Major HaydenMajor Hayden: 1Password quick access in Sway

        1Password has a handy quick access launcher and you can bring it on screen for fast

        access to passwords and two factor codes in Sway.

      • Fedora MagazineFedora Magazine: How to rebase to Fedora Linux 38 on Silverblue

        Fedora Silverblue is€ an operating system for your desktop built€ on Fedora Linux. It’s excellent for daily use, development, and container-based workflows. It offers€ numerous advantages€ such as being able to roll back in case of any problems. If you want to update or rebase to Fedora Linux 38 on your Fedora Silverblue system (these instructions are similar for Fedora Kinoite), this article tells you how. It not only shows you what to do, but also how to revert things if something unforeseen happens.

      • Yuan Yijun: Installed nvidia driver (akmod-keys)

        When Secure Boot is enabled, the "akmods-nvidia" package will build and install kmod-nvidia that is not usable right away. Previously I followed some documents to run a cli script to "sign the modules" but it stopped working recently.

      • Mohammed Tayeh: Migrate bitbucket workspace
      • OMG UbuntuHow to Upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 from Ubuntu 22.10

        Want to upgrade to€ Ubuntu 23.04€ from Ubuntu 22.10? If you're full up-to-date and you have an active internet connection, you can – and in this post I run through the steps to do it. As Ubuntu 22.10 is end of life in July so anyone using it will have to upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 to continue getting updates. If you don't want the hassle of needing to upgrade every 6 to 9 months you might want to consider doing a fresh install of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS as it's supported until 2027.

      • Matt Brown: co2mon.nz: Ventilation monitoring as a service

        Previously, I explained why ventilation monitoring is important, and the opportunity I see to help accelerate deployment of high quality ventilation monitoring for small businesses and organisations.

      • Make Tech Easier7 Ways to Recover Deleted Files on Linux

        File restoration utilities are one of the most important programs in a Linux administrator’s toolkit. They provide the ability to recover deleted files, even in cases where the disk is either physically damaged or wiped clean.

        This guide shows seven simple file recovery tools that you can install right now on Linux. We also show you how you can do basic file restoration on your system.

      • AnyDesk Installation on Debian 12 BookWorm Linux

        AnyDesk on Windows, Linux, Android, or macOS is used as remote desktop software to connect and control distant computer systems using a keyboard and mouse.

      • BeebomHow to Use the “ls” Command Equivalent on Windows

        The ls command, short for “list,” is a Linux command that’s used to display files and directories in the terminal. In most cases, it is used to get an idea about the files in the working directory and to ensure you are in the right directory. When you compare this to a rival operating system, the Command Prompt in Windows has a different approach when it comes to listing directories. In this guide, we will explain how to use the “ls” command on Windows 10 and 11.

      • UNIX CopHow To Install Grsync on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        Grsync is a graphical user interface for rsync, a command-line tool used for synchronizing files and directories between different locations. Grsync makes it easy for users to configure and run rsync commands without having to use the terminal. In this article, we will discuss how to install Grsync on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

      • UNIX CopHow To Install Scrot on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        Scrot is a command-line tool used for taking screenshots on Linux systems. It is a lightweight and easy-to-use tool that can capture screenshots of your desktop, windows, or any specific area of your screen. In this article, we will discuss how to install Scrot on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Signal on Debian 12/11/10

        Signal Messenger is a cutting-edge communication platform designed with a strong emphasis on privacy and security. Developed by the non-profit Signal Foundation, it has rapidly gained traction as a popular alternative to traditional messaging apps.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install R Programming Language on Debian 12/11/10

        The R programming language is a powerful, open-source software environment that was developed specifically for statistical computing and graphics. R was initially created by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman in 1993 at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Memcached on Debian 12/11/10

        Memcached is a powerful, open-source caching system designed to enhance the performance of dynamic web applications by reducing the load on databases. Developed in 2003 by Brad Fitzpatrick for the LiveJournal website, Memcached has since become an essential tool for numerous high-traffic websites and applications.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Apache on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

        Apache 2 is a versatile, open-source, and powerful web server software that has become the backbone of many websites and applications worldwide. It is the latest iteration of the Apache HTTP Server Project, which is developed and maintained by the Apache Software Foundation.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Remmina on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

        Look no further if you're searching for a versatile and powerful remote desktop client! Remmina Remote Desktop Client is the perfect tool to meet all your remote access needs. It offers a seamless and user-friendly experience, making it the ideal choice for managing multiple remote connections.

      • Linux LinksAlternatives to popular CLI tools: man

        A Linux system comes with a whole collection of system reference manuals (known as man pages). There's a man page for each command or program.

      • LinuxTutoHow to Install Elasticsearch 8 on Debian 11

        Elasticsearch is a highly scalable and distributed open-source full-text search and analytics engine tool.

      • Ubuntu HandbookHow to Install / Remove XFCE4 (XUbuntu Desktop) in Ubun|u 23.04

        This simple tutorial shows how to install or completely remove the XFCE4 desktop environment in Ubuntu 22.04 and/or Ubuntu 23.04. XFCE4 is lightweight Linux desktop environment aims to be fast and low on system resources.

      • ID RootHow To Install Passbolt Password Manager on Debian 11

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Passbolt Password Manager on Debian 11. Do you struggle to remember all your passwords? Are you worried about your online accounts' security?

      • ID RootHow To Install FrostWire on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install FrostWire on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

      • LinuxiacHow to Upgrade to Fedora 38 from Fedora 37

        Learn how to smoothly upgrade from Fedora 37 to Fedora 38 with our step-by-step guide. Keep your system up-to-date and secure!

      • Djalel OukidHow to compare images & videos on Linux?

        As a content creator (I think I am), I often need to compare images after compressing them or changing their format to ensure their quality before uploading them to this humble blog.

      • UNIX CopHow To Install Bottles on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        Bottles is a popular application for Ubuntu users who want to run Windows applications on Linux. While the traditional method of installing Bottles involves adding a PPA repository and installing it through the terminal, it can also be installed using Flatpa

      • UNIX CopHow to install Dolibarr ERP on Ubuntu 22.04

        Dolibarr is a PHP-based open-source system that has both E-R-P and CRM functionalities for small and medium businesses. Its main purpose is to help manage various features of the business such as customers, invoices, orders, products, and inventory. The system provides a intuitive and user friendly web interface.

      • Remi ColletRemi Collet: Install PHP 8.2 on Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, Alma, Rocky or other clone

        Here is a quick howto upgrade default PHP version provided on Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux or other clones with latest version 8.2.

      • How to install Nakivo Backup & Replication on Ubuntu Linux

        NAKIVO Backup & Replication is a paid data backup software solution for businesses that want to protect their data from an accidental mishap.

      • How to Integrate Arduino with Unity 3D

        Arduino has a great IDE, but it lacks serious coding features and attractive dashboards. Such limitations can be overcome by integrating Arduino IDE with professional software environments such as Unity 3D (or just Unity), a famous gaming engine. The following guide will show you how to integrate Arduino with Unity and help you make the Unity games technically compatible with Arduino for all your project requirements.

    • WINE or Emulation

      • Ars TechnicaProton update gets 18 more Windows games running on Linux, including Chex Quest HD

        To play Windows-compatible games in its Linux-based operating system, the Steam Deck relies on a compatibility layer called Proton. It's a collection of different technologies, including the venerable Wine software and software that translates Windows-native Direct3D API calls into Vulkan API calls that Linux can handle.

        Proton is continually updated to fix rendering bugs in specific games and to add new games to the compatibility list; version 8.0 was released yesterday and added support for 18 new games (and fixes rendering bugs in tons of others). Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais called the release "our biggest rebase to date."

        The new compatibility list includes a few of the big, recognizable titles you'd expect Valve to prioritize, including the 2023 re-release of Dead Space and Square Enix's Forspoken. But there is one oddball game that stood out to me: Chex Quest HD, the remastered version of a 1996 CD-ROM game that was included for free in boxes of Chex cereal for six weeks in the mid-'90s.

      • Hot Hardware Valve's Proton 8.0 Update Is A Big Win For Linux And Steam Deck Gaming
        The Steam Deck doesn't run Windows. That's right: a gaming handheld based on PC-equivalent hardware, much closer to a full PC than the Xbox or PlayStation, runs Windows PC games on a non-Windows operating system. This is achieved through the herculean efforts of the developers behind myriad open-source software, most prominently Valve's own Proton compatibility layer.

        Proton is up to version 8.0 now, and the program's lead developer says that this is "the biggest rebase to date." It updates almost all of Proton's core components, including Wine, DXVK, VKD3D, and others. As a result, it does require Vulkan 1.3, but that only raises the requirements as far as AMD Polaris (RX 400), NVIDIA Maxwell (GTX 750), and Intel 7th-gen IGPs.

    • Godot EngineGodot 4.1 Rendering Priorities

      For 4.1 the rendering team will be focusing on performance, stability, and usability.

      • Boiling SteamKnight Witch Review – Metroidvania Meets Bullet Hell Shooter

        Knight Witch first caught my eye during last year’s Steam Next Fest (proving once again with Dredge the utility of such events!) [...]

      • What are Counter-Strike 2’s system requirements: Windows, macOS, SteamOS, and Linux

        If you’re looking to make sure you’re ready to go when Counter-Strike 2 launches, then you’ll want to make sure you have the minimum system requirements.

        Counter-Strike 2’s system requirements haven’t been revealed yet officially, but they’re not expected to be exceptionally high. It’s thought that the new iteration will require slightly better computers than the current version, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but not by much.

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • Linux Magazine LXQt 1.3 Has Been Released With Bug Fixes Improvements
      LXQt is a fan-favorite Linux desktop environment for systems with meager resources. Suitable for older systems (but will run like an absolute champ on new hardware), LXQt is not just easy on hardware, but easy to use.

      With the latest release, version 1.3, the developers have remained with Qt 5.15 (although work is being done for initial Qt6 support) and have focused on adding new features.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • KDESeason Of KDE 2023: Wrapping Up My Work With KDE Eco

        This post wraps up my journey as a mentee in Season of KDE 2023, where I contributed to the preparation of Standard Usage Scenarios for the KDE applications GCompris and Kate while also working on a new tool to automate the formatting of log files.

        From troubleshooting screen resolution issues to creating a bash script for resetting user configurations, I hope this blog post provides the reader with useful insights and solutions. First, I share experiences with screen resolution problems when sharing Standard Usage Scenarios (SUS) across reference systems—and one way to overcome them. I also present a step-by-step guide for using KdeEcoTest with GCompris, and provide details about collaborative work porting the existing xdotool-based Kate script with KdeEcoTest. Finally, I give a progress update for the KDE-SUS Log Formatter, a tool used for formatting log files of actions.

        As discussed in my earlier blog post, there were issues when generating a Standard Usage Scenario for GCompris using KdeEcoTest. The main challenge was as follows: when the GCompris script was shared between two machines with different screen resolutions, the resulting UI changes made the script invalid. Specifically, GCompris uses the primary screen resolution to calculate icon size, which led to the script failing to run on a machine with a different resolution.

        To address this issue, SoK23 mentee Mohamed Ibrahim (from the KdeEcoTest project) and I used virtual machines configured with the same screen resolution. We generated a GCompris script on a machine with a screen resolution of 1366X768 and then tested it on a machine with a screen resolution of 1920x1080. However, the script failed to run due to the resulting UI changes. After further troubleshooting, we were able to fix this by generating a script where the GCompris window was kept to around 590x590 pixels as a modal window.

        We also encountered issues with the original GCompris script written by Emmanuel Charruau, as it was not working as expected. This was due to the script resizing the GCompris window to around 830x830 pixels in the modal window, reaching the maximum height of the screen and resulting in the window being maximized. To fix this, we kept the GCompris window

      • DedoimedoSlimbook Titan, Kubuntu, impressions a month later

        By the time you read this article, and/or correlate its publication date with my original Slimbook Titan article, the subsequent HW & install one, or the applications & gaming one, you may be a little confused or overly pedantic when it comes to a simple temporal question: has it really been a month? No matter. Give or take a couple of days, I've now had the Titan in me possession for several weeks, and I've used it quite extensively in this period.

        To that end, I'd like to write another mini review, and this would be the first of "combat reports", similar to what I've done with my older Slimbook Pro2 and its long series of such articles. I want to give you my second impression on how the laptop has been behaving, the hardware support and compatibility, the ergonomics, the software side of things, and such. Let's begin.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • A New Voyage

      As a community and a team, we have been through some choppy waters the last few months. After extensive internal discussions involving consultation with contributors past and present, we have charted a new course for long term success which will yield immediate results for users and contributors. As of today, we are deploying a new, more resilient infrastructure and a new governance structure for Solus.

      [...]

      Both prior to and during the outage, active Solus team members offered to help mitigate the infrastructure bus-factor issue and move the infrastructure to more accessible hosting providers. These efforts were not met with success. In parallel, the Solus team members stepped up to communicate with the community when there was otherwise an absence of information.

      Separately, the Serpent OS project, led by Ikey Doherty (original founder and lead of Solus), reached out to offer hosting of the website to facilitate Solus’ ability to communicate with its user base and serve ISOs (which was declined). Concerned by the continuing outage and its impact on Solus users and contributors, the Serpent OS team then shared a proposal which would allow Solus to resume operations with less technical debt and mitigation of the apparent bus factor of one.

    • LWNThe rebooting of Solus Linux [LWN.net]

      The desktop-oriented Solus distribution has been through a difficult period; this post describes the extensive changes that have been made in response.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Medevel14 Open-source Free Resume Builder and CV Generator Apps

      A Resume Builder App is an essential tool that helps users create professional resumes with ease. By providing templates, prompts, and other tools, these apps guide users in the creation of resumes that are polished and effective.

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Mozilla

        • ThunderbirdMeet The Team: Wolf-Martell Montwe, Android Developer

          I love a great origin story, and many people working in technology seem to have one that’s directly tied to their first computer. Wolf is no exception.

          “I think I started my computer journey with playing games — the first I remember is Sid Meier’s Pirates!” Wolf remembers. “Back then I had an IBM 386. Super slow, super loud! And I hacked around a lot to get games running too, to free up memory, to free up disk space because this was super limited. I think one partition was maximum 3MB! It was a big achievement if something just was running.”

          Wolf’s fascination with games eventually led to some basic programming knowledge and web page development.

          “I used to develop web pages, especially for my school to build up like a little forum,” he says. “I fell in love with PHP because it had one of the first editors with code completion, and that was awesome.”

        • IRL (podcast): Bonus Episode

          We have good news to share. IRL: Online Life is Real Life has been nominated for two Webby Awards: one in the Public Service and Activism category and another in the Technology category. € We need your help. € We’d love it if you could click on the links in our episode notes and vote for us. It’s quick and easy! € Voting ends on Thursday, April 20th at midnight PDT.€ 

          Vote for IRL in the Webby Awards: Technology and Public Service Activism€ 

          It means so much to spotlight the voices and stories of folks who are making AI more trustworthy in real life, and we love to see them celebrated!€ 

        • Bryan LundukeWhy is Firefox called Firefox?

          A story of bullying, and failing to see if a product name is in use before choosing it.

          [...]

          In 2023, everybody knows the name “Firefox.”

          Utter that name, and nearly every computer user will instantly know you are talking about the web browser from Mozilla Corporation… even if Firefox market share has dropped down to less than 3%.

          But did you know that Firefox was not originally named “Firefox”?

          In fact… the Mozilla Web Browser settled on that name through a series of bad decisions, bullying of another open source project, and a game of word association.

          Seriously. You wouldn’t think it… but it’s kind of a wild story.

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

    • GNU Projects

      • GNUGNU Guix: Dissecting Guix, Part 3: G-Expressions

        Welcome back to Dissecting Guix!

        Last time, we discussed monads, the functional programming idiom used by Guix to thread a store connection through a series of store-related operations.

        Today, we'll be talking about a concept rather more specific to Guix: g-expressions. Being an implementation of the Scheme language, Guile is built around s-expressions, which can represent, as the saying goes, code as data, thanks to the simple structure of Scheme forms.

        As Guix's package recipes are written in Scheme, it naturally needs some way to represent code that is to be run only when the package is built. Additionally, there needs to be some way to reference dependencies and retrieve output paths; otherwise, you wouldn't be able to, for instance, create a phase to install a file in the output directory.

        So, how do we implement this "deferred" code? Well, initially Guix used plain old s-expressions for this purpose.

    • Programming/Development

      • Eclipse FoundationEclipse OpenJ9 Version 0.37.0 -

        Eclipse OpenJ9â„¢ release 0.37.0 works with OpenJDK 19. OpenJDK 19 is out of support at the time of the 0.37.0 release. Builds of 0.37.0 should not be used in production and might contain known security vulnerabilities as of 18 April 2023.

      • Announcing WCGI: WebAssembly + CGI

        Welcome to the future of server-side development with WebAssembly! Today we are introducing WCGI, a technology that marries the power of WebAssembly with the versatility and simplicity of CGI.

      • Red HatImplementing C++20 semaphores

        C++20 introduces counting_semaphore€ and binary_semaphore, which support blocking acquire() and non-blocking try_acquire() as well as timed try_acquire_for() and try_acquire_until(). On platforms that support __platform_wait()/__platform_notify(), we select an implementation strategy based on atomic; otherwise, we attempt to use POSIX semaphores.

        If you missed the previous article, read it here:€ Implementing C++20 atomic waiting in libstdc++

        Semaphores in C++

        Here's what the ISO C++ Standard has to say on the matter of semaphores:

        1 Class template counting_semaphore maintains an internal counter that is initialized when the semaphore is created. The counter is decremented when a thread acquires the semaphore, and is incremented when a thread releases the semaphore. If a thread tries to acquire the semaphore when the counter is zero, the thread will block until another thread increments the counter by releasing the semaphore.

      • Daniel LemireDefining interfaces in C++ with ‘concepts’ (C++20)

        In an earlier blog post, I showed on the Go programming language allow you to write generic functions once you have defined an interface. Java has a very similar concept under the same name (interface).

      • CollaboraMeson & VSCode: Develop your project in a modern IDE [Ed: So now Collabora is pushing proprietary Microsoft spyware and calls it "modern"; this makes Collabora look hostile.]

        Want to develop your Meson project in a modern IDE? Make sure to install Meson VSCode extension which is now fully functional with the recent release of Meson 1.1.0!

      • Sebastian Dröge: Building a GStreamer plugin in Rust with meson instead of cargo

        Over the Easter holidays I spent some time on a little experiment: How hard is it to build a GStreamer plugin in Rust with meson instead of using the default Rust build system cargo?

        meson is a community-developed, open-source, cross-platform (including Windows), multi-language build system that is supposed to be fast and easy to use. It’s nowadays used as a build system by a lot of components of the GNOME desktop, by GStreamer, systemd, Mesa, X.org, QEMU and many other pieces of Free Software. Mostly for building C or C++ code, but also for configuring and installing Python or JavaScript code, Vala, and other languages.

      • Qt

        • QtA Collection of References and Hints about Porting from Qt 5 to Qt 6

          With approaching the EOL of Qt 5.15 and the release of Qt 6.5, there is a notable wider interest in porting of existing Qt5-based code base to Qt 6. I keep hearing questions from Qt users who are interested in getting some additional hints and learning how others went on this path. Lets have a look.

        • QtCommercial LTS Qt 6.2.8 Released

          We have released Qt 6.2.8 LTS for commercial license holders today. As a patch release, Qt 6.2.8 does not add any new functionality but provides bug fixes and other improvements.

        • QtTaking Qt for Python to Android
          Deploying Python applications to Android is a big talking point these days among the Python community, and a frequently asked question by people developing their first GUI applications. There are already a couple of Python frameworks that offer the ability to deploy your applications to Android devices, and Qt for Android has existed for a decade now. With QML and Qt Quick, one can use Qt to develop native Android applications. It was high time we bridged the gap and brought PySide applications to Android.

    • Standards/Consortia

  • Leftovers

    • CS MonitorWith April showers, poetry flowers: Three vibrant collections

      Celebrate National Poetry Month with three vibrant new books of poems that broaden and deepen the landscape of poetry.

    • Ruben Schade“Those” tourists in Japan

      Case in point, Clara and I were having breakfast at a beautiful local Osaka coffee shop, when the peace was interrupted by a loud Australian tourist rambling off the most complicated order I’d ever heard… in English. I’d have scarcely remembered half of it in our common language, but the poor Japanese barista didn’t stand a chance. When it was clear the tourist wasn’t getting through to him, he continued to speak English, but slowly. Fortunately for everyone involved, he eventually gave up with a “never mind, mate” and walked out.

      Osaka Point page for the UPGREEN cafe

      I caught the barista’s eye from our table, shook my head, and apologised in (broken!) Japanese for the other gaijins he has to deal with. He laughed it off like the consummate professional he was, but you could tell it had a tinge of frustration to it. Less than fifteen minutes later, the same thing happened with a few tourists speaking Mandarin.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Becoming Part Of A Secret Society

        People are often paranoid about secret societies, however, as a member of a secret society myself, I'm inclined to view secret societies from the perspective of a direct participant rather than as a third-party observer. I have been witness to the operations of a highly influential secret society- and while I cannot divulge any specific details, I can inform you as to the psychological impact of the exclusivity bestowed upon me.

      • Spring Bird Songs 2023-04-19 (Fairbanks, AK, USA)

        After walking out the door this morning, a little before 6am AKDT, I was treated to some nice spring bird chatter. I made a recording with my S5300 camera, and then extracted the audio into these files.

    • Technical

      • Bye, Bye Raspberry Pi

        The Raspberry Pi started off as a low-cost device suitable as an entry point to computing for schools and young students, in the way that the BBC micros and other low-powered/high-constraint computers were back in the early 80s. And it then became a real hobbyist's device, powering all kinds of stuff - including, now, machine learning algorithms.

        But then various industries realized that the low-powered chips had really good reliability, and the devices started working their way into all kinds of industrial applications. And so even though I have a mental model of the Pi as a purely consumer or hobbyist device, it really hasn't been that way for a while.

      • Presentations for lectureship interview

        I applied for a junior lectureship position in Ecological Science a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I didn't get the job, but the experience forced me to think about who I am as a researcher, what my strengths are, and also what my goals should be if I want to be successful on the next application.

      • Importing data layers into Avenza Maps Android app

        I had a go with the Avenza Maps[1] Android app during fieldwork to visualise my position within the landscape. I had access to a vegetation map and I wanted to see how close I was to transition zones between vegetation units, and also where I could walk to find a good place to install a vegetation monitoring plot.

      • plaintext > *

        The gibberish URL doubtless points to some JavaScript Application... until Google shutters the service, as they are wont to do. Then what? With plain text files there are higher odds there's a copy of the document not walled off. And who knows how to escape data from a JavaScript Application. Rumor has it one can write an exporter?

      • The Times, they are a-changin'

        Before we start I would just like to state my bias: I am not a fan of music streaming services, yes they are convenient, but they pay NOTHING to the Artists. Spotify only becomes profitable when you're an Artist with millions and millions of streams per month.


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



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