Techrights Bulletin for Sunday, November 01, 2020 ┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅ Generated Mon 2 Nov 00:31:36 GMT 2020 Created by Dr. Roy Schestowitz (roy (at) schestowitz (dot) com) Full hyperlinks for navigation omitted but are available in the originals The corresponding HTML versions are at techrights.org Older bulletins can be found at: http://techrights.org/txt-archives ╒═══════════════════ INDEX ═══════════════════════════════════════════╕ Bulletin articles (as HTML) to comment on (requires login): http://techrights.org/2020/11/01/11-million-people-after-patient-zero/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/01/covering-up-microsoft-misconduct/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/01/human-rights-and-tech-rights/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/01/irc-log-311020/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/01/nanny-monopolies/#comments Followed by Daily Links (news picks): http://techrights.org/2020/11/01/chromium-in-linux-mint/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/01/rc2-of-next-linux-release/#comments ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.01.20 ****** ***** [Meme]_Contact-Tracing_Ploy_(Mission_Creep/Mass_Surveillance)_is_Only Effective_When_Dealing_With_Patient_Zero_and_Few_Others,_Not_Millions ***** Posted in Deception at 11:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Similarly, facial recognition is only effective when dealing with very small sets of people (who can be reliably differentiated) [Dumb Blonde: Participate in contact-tracing (surveillance) because tracking billions of people who got in contact with 11,754,899 (known) active carriers and then testing those billions of people is totally feasible] It doesn’t scale anymore (and hasn’t truly scaled since the end of last year) Summary: Suggesting contact-tracing when you can only test less than a thousand people per day (in countries where thousands of people are already infected) was all along suggesting a waste of effort and money (patient_zero goes over a year back), as Australia too recently found out (see “Fancy_some_contact tracing?_That’ll_be_$4.12_million_a_pop”) ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.01.20 ****** ***** Censorship_by_Microsoft_at_Medium_and_Other_Web_Sites_(to_Cover_Up_or Hide_Microsoft’s_Misconduct) ***** Posted in Deception, Marketing at 5:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz The bully known as Microsoft is faking what’s happening and shielding false narratives [The Three Levels Of Bull: I don't like these articles, Go get 'em, We're the good guys after all!] Summary: The ‘new’ Microsoft is very sensitive about the way it’s publicly presented; it would go as far as censoring current and past employees writing in platforms well outside Microsoft’s reach (bar legal threats) WELL before the Microsoft_layoffs of 2020 (lots of them over the summer) there were many more/lots of dismissals disguised as an “end of contract” (Microsoft isn’t unique in that regard). Don’t be misled by what companies say about themselves. Last we saw (latest IRS filing), the Linux_Foundation operates at_a loss while being robbed by executives who don’t even use Linux. In Microsoft’s case, insiders keep telling us that the company is faking its financial performance. Just because some people amass personal wealth/gain does not mean the companies do too. “In Microsoft’s case, insiders keep telling us that the company is faking its financial performance.”At Microsoft, lying is the norm (the management made that the normal; see the Bill_Gates_deposition for many examples) and cover-up is recommended, even when it is not legal. Recently, as we already mentioned here a few months ago, we became aware that articles about “how to get fired by Microsoft” (with evidential bits) were being censored. Microsoft+Medium pressured the author to censor his own articles or face account termination. We hoped to maintain a highly available and uncensored version, but that’s still work on progress. Only months later the articles got (self-)censored and the evidence was removed from the Web. [A black hat]As a little bit of background to this, even Microsoft’s CEO got involved (he's_crushing_people_quite_often, but Microsoft as a company covers for him). “I also have a Yammer thread in the CEO Connection where Satya flat out ignored me and the fact that his HR department was caught conspiring with my management to retaliate against me after calling out a toxic work environment and idiotic management,” the author of the above articles noted. “I may even have a PST [E- mail archive] somewhere where I was accidentally included on an email chain involving straw man bids to help push a big data pipeline between Singapore and Australia… giving the illusion of diligence. Not to mention the intended recipients response to me asking me to keep quiet about it…” “I truly hope for the day where journalists do their damn jobs and cover them appropriately. At best they want their money, at worst they’re afraid of legal retaliation.”       –AnonymousThis partly came to the attention of the media (e.g. here in The Guardian). “Let’s see,” the author recalled, “I was initially tasked with the Deloitte exchange online migration but my team passed it off to a dude who had never handled a migration before for training purposes and asked me to supervise. I refused and wanted no part in it; this is my area of expertise and as an expert I don’t take a back seat to newbs when dealing with the likes of Deloitte. Turns out that they fucked up the deployment so bad that they didn’t even bother securing administrative accounts with MFA or password change windows, resulting in data breach of their entire mail system for 6+ months unnoticed. Ironically, the dude was a security moron… Literally them hitting the news over some newb shit had me cackling for days.” Microsoft tried to cover it up (likely an illegal decision, where managers are directly accountable). It didn’t go well, did it? But nobody got punished, as usual. We still hope to get our paws on the raw evidence and publish it. In case it happens, stay tuned. As the author told us yesterday: “I truly hope for the day where journalists do their damn jobs and cover them appropriately. At best they want their money, at worst they’re afraid of legal retaliation.” █ “If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.” –Bill Gates, Microsoft ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.01.20 ****** ***** Ashtrays_of_Human_Rights_and_Tech_Rights ***** Posted in BSD, Debian, GNU/Linux, Kernel at 10:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [Travellers] Summary: The way things are going, especially so far this year, we’re going to have to become a lot more active (in the activism sense) and campaign for better society; repression has soared during the COVID-19 pandemic and further exacerbated due to Donald Trump’s fear of losing the election, only to be held belatedly accountable for his crimes (he already jokes aloud about having to escape the US in case he loses the impending election) THIS coming week chaos and violence are predicted in — and for — the United States (we’ll spare the links; there’s no lack of them). We’ve already taken note of which corporate candidate is less harmful and which one is less harmless (double negation because we’re excited about neither candidate). “2020 was an extraordinarily scary year for the “tech rights” of people; privacy is increasingly being framed as a health hazard…”The world is going in a very negative direction, putting aside the health crisis. People tend to focus on human rights aspects, such as asylum-seeking and race-baiting. We try to remain focused on technology because it’s a subject we understand better and are suitably equipped to comment on. 2020 was an extraordinarily scary year for the “tech rights” of people; privacy is increasingly being framed as a health hazard (some places go as far as banning cash payments as if coins or banknotes are the most potent infection vector, not people speaking to each other’s face in some pub with uncovered beverages/drink glasses). It was Halloween yesterday and not a single family/ child knocked on our door (eerily unusual) because we’re going into lock-down in a few days and people don’t trust each others’ palms (or even objects that touched those palms). This sort of “new normal” makes organising for change a lot harder, except digitally. [Linus Pauling]Some readers might choose to feel or actually be “offended” by the view that next week (or later this week, if Sunday is judged to be a week’s first day) we still won’t know who becomes/remains president in the US. No inauguration date until January and maybe no decision on the matter until then, either… These are dark times, both politically and technologically. There’s a correlation between those two things (e.g. misuse/abuse of technology to enable human rights violations, as IBM did ~85 years ago in Germany and a_century_ago in_America). Companies that wish to be seen as racially “woke” are anything but… it’s just smoke and mirrors. To the best of our understanding, our server maintainer is applying to leave the US (for Europe). She’s not the first. To some, the last straw was Bush with his illegal wars; to others, Trump is more than they can chew. Linus Torvalds, a Finnish citizen, was naturalised in the US more than a decade ago (to the best of our knowledge he’s still a dual-national). He moved pretty much all of Linux to the_US-based_fake_‘nonprofit’ (called after his main project, which is in turn named after him). The other day an associate reminded us of what OpenBSD received for opposing illegal wars (OpenBSD is the other famous OS founded by a South African, originally). To quote Australian_press: The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has stopped providing funding for a project which involves OpenBSD, apparently because OpenBSD lead developer Theo de Raadt made statements which could be considered anti-war to a Canadian newspaper. OpenBSD is one of a number of free Unices which are increasingly being used on servers due to their reputation for security. NetBSD and FreeBSD are two others; they all have a common base in a project which began at the University of California in Berkeley and had the name Berkeley Sofwtare Distribution. A good part of the $US2.3 million grant from DARPA, the research and development arm of the US military who in 1970 set up what evolved into the internet, has already been used by de Raadt even though he was not very happy about the source. Canada’s Globe and Mail quoted him as saying: “I actually am fairly uncomfortable about it, even if our firm stipulation was that they cannot tell us what to do. We are simply doing what we do anyways – securing software – and they have no say in the matter. I try to convince myself that our grant means a half of a cruise missile doesn’t get built.” The money was provided to the Portable Open-Source Security Enhancements project run at the University of Pennsylvania. It’s no secret that today’s Pentagon, which drops_bombs as frequently as British_people_nowadays_check_their_so-called_‘phone’, favours Linux. Linus Torvalds is no Linus_Pauling (whose mugshot is shown above). █ ['Trump’s Military Drops a Bomb Every 12 Minutes, and No One Is Talking About It' and 'Brits Now Check Their Mobile Phones Every 12 Minutes'] ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.01.20 ****** ***** IRC_Proceedings:_Saturday,_October_31,_2020 ***** Posted in IRC_Logs at 2:22 am by Needs Sunlight [GNOME_Gedit] [GNOME_Gedit] #techrights_log #boycottnovell_log [GNOME_Gedit] [GNOME_Gedit] #boycottnovell-social_log #techbytes_log Enter_the_IRC_channels_now ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.01.20 ****** ***** Monopolies_Cannot_and_Will_Not_Respect_Your_Privacy_(It’s_an_Anathema_to Them) ***** Posted in Microsoft at 9:27 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz “Everyone in this room is wearing clothes, so you all have something to hide” –Anonymous comment today in #techrights (IRC) [Mannequin_on_toilet] Summary: Companies created and/or run by oligarchs view_privacy_itself_as_a form_of_crime (except when they do it; they want privacy or control only for themselves) because they play ‘nanny’ and work for/with ‘nanny states’ IT has come to our attention that today the site gets an influx of traffic (about 10 hits per second) because of our articles about Microsoft and the NSA supposedly “trending” (e.g. here and here, as well as many ‘tweets’ in Twitter). “Even full disk encryption in Windows has back doors in it, based on hard evidence.”Social control media isn’t something we spend much time on, but this one might be noteworthy because it raised a legitimate point about power, wealth and disregard for people’s basic dignity (privacy): If you ever see a Microsoft developer evangelist getting on a morality high horse, just pass them this: http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Microsoft_and_the_NSA ===================================================================== I find it very interesting that once a company gets to a certain size they’re willing to do a lot of questionable things to make more money. You’d think having a bazillion dollars already would decrease the profit incentive, but nope. ===================================================================== The fact that you’re “surprised” by it is part of the reason why I’m now against shaming other people when they try to make money. If people can’t actively acknowledge the inherent negative impact of a giant company’s behavior then it’s wrong to shame individuals for doing it. Ages ago Microsoft decided to throw_caution_to_the_wind in the name of profit; it didn’t take long for Microsoft to put back doors and allow spies into Windows (we found a CNN report about it going back to some time around 1995 when more PCs became Internet-connected, for at least some of the time due to dial-up being prevalent in homes). People who still — even in 2020 — believe that Windows can under any circumstances be made to respect privacy are deluding themselves. Even full disk encryption in Windows has back doors in it, based on hard evidence. That’s just how much Microsoft ‘values’ privacy. █ ╒═══════════════════ DAILY LINKS ════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.01.20 ****** ***** Links_1/11/2020:_Chromium_in_Linux_Mint,_PinePhone_at_3GB/32GB ***** Posted in News_Roundup at 11:55 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [GNOME bluefish] **** Contents **** * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * **** GNU/Linux **** o **** Audiocasts/Shows **** # ** Video:_podman_systemd-based_system_containers_with_GUI Desktop ** In this screencast I show how to build a podman image using the Fedora 33 base image to include httpd, mariadb, openssh-server as well the XFCE desktop environment with a sampling of desktop applications. I then make and run a container with the image and show you how to connect to it with ssh, http, and X2Go. Oh, and I do all of it as a regular user… as a rootless container. The POWER of podman. Obviously watch it in full-screen or download. Enjoy! For information on how to convert a podman container into a systemd service flle that can be managed with systemctl… even as a user service… see this fine video: Managing Containers in podman with systemd Unit Files # ** How2:_Programmers_Are_Lost_Without_Stack_Overflow_– YouTube ** Programmers would be lost without stackoverflow so today we’re looking at a tool called how2 that let’s you query stack overflow and stack exchange directly from your terminal so you never have to leave your comfy workspace. # ** The_Best_Raspberry_Pi_|_TitusPi_–_YouTube ** Want a desktop replacement, that plays games, multiple workspaces, and has the programs you need on a Raspberry Pi? o **** Kernel Space **** # **** Graphics Stack **** # ** Intel_Formally_Announces_Iris_Xe_MAX_Graphics,_Deep Link_–_Phoronix ** Given the great performance of Gen12 Xe Graphics on Linux for OpenCL / oneAPI Level Zero / Vulkan, we are certainly excited about the prospects of Xe MAX graphics appearing in more laptops and ultimately in desktops starting next year. From our Tiger Lake testing thus far there is long overdue substantial uplift over Gen9 (and Gen11) graphics. The Linux driver support for Gen12 Xe Graphics have been spot-on and continues seeing new optimizations in Mesa and the Linux kernel as well. It will also be interesting to see what comes of the open- source/Linux support of Deep Link moving forward. o **** Applications **** # ** Linux_Jargon_Buster:_What_are_GUI,_CLI_and_TUI_in_Linux?_– It’s_FOSS ** When you start using Linux and follow Linux-based websites and forums, you’ll often come across terms like GUI, CLI and sometimes TUI. This chapter of Linux Jargon Buster briefly explains these terms so that you as a (new) Linux user can understand the context better when these acronyms are used. To be honest, the terms like GUI, CLI or TUI are not exclusive to Linux. These are generic computing terms and you’ll find them used in non-Linux discussions as well. # ** Best_Free_and_Open_Source_Software_–_October_2020_Updates ** For our entire collection, check out the categories below. This is the largest compilation of recommended software. The collection includes hundreds of articles, with comprehensive sections on internet, graphics, games, programming, science, office, utilities, and more. Almost all of the software is free and open source. o **** Instructionals/Technical **** # ** How_to_Set_Up_an_SSH_Jump_Server ** In this blog post we’ll cover how to set up an SSH jump server. We’ll cover two open source projects. 1. A traditional SSH jump server using OpenSSH. The advantage of this method is that your servers already have OpenSSH pre-installed. 2. A modern approach using Teleport, a newer open source alternative to OpenSSH. Both of these servers are easy to install and configure, are free and open-source, and are single-binary Linux daemons. # ** Archiving_Debian-Administration.org,_for_real ** Back in 2017 I announced that the https://Debian- Administration.org website was being made read- only, and archived. At the time I wrote a quick update to save each requested page as a flat-file, hashed beneath /tmp, with the expectation that after a few months I’d have a complete HTML-only archive of the site which I could serve as a static-website, instead of keeping the database and pile of CGI scripts running. # ** Setting_up_the_YubiKey_on_Ubuntu_(Desktop_and_Server)_– YouTube ** I’ve recently had a chance to check out some newer YubiKeys, and decided to make a video on it. In this video, I’ll show you how to set up the YubiKey on Linux, with examples that include setting it up on your local laptop/desktop as well as using it to secure OpenSSH to a remote server. # ** mural_graffiti ** # ** How_to_set_up_Rclone_Browser_on_Linux ** Rclone is a command-line utility that allows Linux users to quickly and easily connect to any cloud storage service (using Dropbox, Google Drive, Open Drive, and many more). The trouble is, Rclone is complicated and tedious to use for the average user. If you need to use Rclone to connect to your favorite cloud storage service on Linux, there’s a better way. Introducing Rclone Browser. It takes away the difficulty of doing everything from connecting to uploading/downloading files with an elegant UI. Here’s how to set it up on your system. # ** mythcat:_Fedora_33:_Upgrade_from_Fedora_32. ** # ** How_to_install_Keycloak_in_Ubuntu_20.04_>_Tux-Techie ** Keycloak is an excellent tool for providing authentication and authorization for your applications. Single sign-on or Open ID is among the authentication options. You can also integrate Keycloak with your OpenLDAP server. This enables you to use OpenLDAP for account management and use Keycloak to provide authorization, enabling you to grant or deny user access to your applications. In this article, we will be sharing the steps that we have taken to install Keycloak in Ubuntu 20.04 from a docker image. # ** How_To_Install_Pip_on_Linux_Mint_20_–_idroot ** In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Pip on Linux Mint 20. For those of you who didn’t know, Pip is a tool for installing Python packages. With pip, you can search, download, and install packages from Python Package Index (PyPI) and other package indexes. With the help of pip, you can also install the package of a particular version. Most importantly pip has a feature to manage full lists of packages and corresponding version numbers, possible through a “requirements” file. It performs the same basic job as an easy install, but with some extra features. This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step by step installation of Pip on a Linux Mint 20 (Ulyana). o **** Wine or Emulation **** # ** Hangover_Alpha_2_Lets_Windows_x86/x64_Programs_Run_On ARM64,_POWER_64-bit ** The Wine program for running Windows games/ applications on Linux and other platforms can run on a number of different architectures, but Wine doesn’t handle the emulation of running Windows x86/x64 binaries on other architectures like 64-bit ARM or PowerPC. But that’s what the Wine-based Hangover is about with currently allowing those conventional Windows binaries to run on AArch64 (ARM64) and 64-bit POWER too. Hangover started out with a focus on Windows x64 binaries on ARM64 in looking at the possible use- case of running Windows software on ARM mobile devices and more. This year with the help of Raptor Computing Systems there has been Hangover support added for IBM POWER 64-bit. # ** Come_And_Find_Out_About_Her_Story ** Why talk about Her Story now? No reason really. It’s been sitting in my library for a while, and I knew it did not run properly with Proton. It will install fine, but the videos will not show up which makes the whole experience pointless. I had a glimmer of hope as Proton 5.13 came out and announced some better support of video files, but that did not change anything. Instead of waiting, I decided to play it dirty by tinkering with the install, as recommended on ProtonDB. o **** Desktop Environments/WMs **** # **** K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt **** # ** This_week_in_KDE:_Continuous_bug_massacre ** This week the bug squashing continues at full speed! We’ve made short work of tons of bugs throughout our software stack, including the infamous login sound bug, some very important and longstanding issues with extended attributes, and a ton of quality-of-life improvements for the Plasma Wayland session. But we also managed to add a few nice new features that I think you’ll like. # ** KDE_Saw_A_“Bug_Massacre”_This_Week_With_Better NVIDIA_Wayland_Experience,_Many_Fixes ** The bug fixing in KDE land continues and ends the month with a “bug massacre”, for how KDE developer Nate Graham describes it in his weekly recaps. Graham also commented of this week’s KDE efforts as “bug squashing continues at full speed!” Some of the work that got addressed this week for KDE includes: - The KDE Plasma Wayland session no longer requires manually setting an environment variable to make NVIDIA GPUs with the proprietary driver properly function. This change is with KDE Plasma 5.20.2 for offering a better KDE Wayland out-of-the-box experience on NVIDIA’s proprietary driver. This is addressed by automatically detecting the NVIDIA proprietary driver and EGLStreams rather than making the user set KWIN_DRM_USE_EGL_STREAMS. # ** The_Many_Features_of_the_KDE_Plasma_5.21_Desktop Environment ** KDE Plasma 5.21 promises to ship with a new look and feel called consisting of a new “Breeze Twilight” global theme that features a Dark mode for Plasma and a Light mode for apps, smaller shadows for inactive windows, more distinct colors for Plasma pop-ups, notifications and windows, as well as colorful icons for sidebars in settings windows. Apart from the new look and feel, under the hood, KDE Plasma 5.21 promises faster startup and load times due to the use of the systemd init system on GNU/Linux distribution where it’s available. # ** New_Repository_for_KOSMIndoorMap ** The indoor mapping component for KDE Itinerary has been moved to a new Git repository and is now undergoing the standard KDE review process for inclusion in the release service for 20.12. Here’s a quick update on what changed. # **** GNOME Desktop/GTK **** # ** Control_Philips_Hue_lights_in_Ubuntu_20.04,_20.10 via_Gnome_Extension ** For those who have Philips Hue compatible lights, now it’s easy to control them via a Gnome Shell Extension. Hue-lights is an extension that offers a system tray indicator to control Philips Hue compatible lights using Philips Hue Bridge. The extension groups the lights in zones and rooms, allows you to control the state, the brightness, and the color. # ** Control_Philips_Hue_Lights_on_Ubuntu_with_this_GNOME Extension ** In 2016 we wrote about a GTK app for managing Phillips Hue lights on the Linux desktop. Though very handy that tool hasn’t been updated for a while. But no worries: now there’s something better. If you use Ubuntu (or any distro with GNOME Shell) and your Hue bulbs are connected to a Hue Bridge you can turn lights on or off, control their brightness, and even change their colour — directly from your desktop PC. The brightly named “Hue Lights” GNOME Shell extension is able to discover Hue Bridges (or connect directly by IP). It lets you manage individual bulbs or groups of lights in “zones” (e.g., ‘bedroom lights’, ec). # ** Spooky_GTG_features_to_try_out_for_Halloween_2020_– The_Open_Sourcerer ** Are you an irresistible creature with an insatiable love for the dead… bugs? Well, grab your bug hunter crossbow, because we need you to test some big technological changes in GTG so that we can confidently release version 0.5 sometime soon (way before the year end, ideally). [...] In addition to the LXML port, another area where Diego brought down the might of his code refactoring skills is the new “task editor” backend and view renderer, which includes a bunch of new features and refinements such as support for subheadings (with the “#” markdown syntax), the use of GTK checkboxes to represent subtasks, tag highlight colors that match the tag’s color, and a bunch of bugfixes. It was also envisioned as a way to address one of the performance issues I theorized about. [....] As you can imagine, Diego’s changes are all major, invasive technological changes (particularly the proposed file format change), and they would benefit from extensive testing by everybody before 0.5 happens. I’ve done some pretty exhaustive testing before he merged his first two branches of course, but I’m only human, and it is possible that issues might remain. As for the third (file format) branch, we’d like to have more people testing it with copies of “real data” before we feel confident about merging it. So please grab GTG’s git version ASAP, with a copy of your data (see the instructions in the README, including the “Where is my user data and config stored?” section), and torture-test it to make sure everything is working properly, and report issues you may find (if any). o **** Distributions **** # **** New Releases **** # ** Kick_Microsoft_Windows_10_to_the_curb_—_switch_to Ubuntu-based_Linux_Lite_5.2_today! ** Many technology pundits have been theorizing and discussing the possibility of Windows eventually becoming a Linux-based operating system. They cite the fact that Microsoft has become less dependent on Windows for revenue, making it silly to dedicate so many resources to it. Not to mention, Microsoft has certainly cozied up to both the Linux and open source communities nowadays. Do I think Microsoft will make this move one day? Who knows. Years ago I’d say it was crazy, but in 2020, the company’s flagship mobile device — the Surface Duo — runs the Linux-based Android. For now, Linux-based Windows remains pure conjecture. With that said, I think we can all agree on one thing — Linux is the future of desktop computing, with Chrome OS leading the sea change. # ** Arch_Linux’s_ISO_Is_Now_Powered_by_Linux_Kernel_5.9, Offers_New_Accessibility_Features ** If you’ve been waiting to install the famous Arch Linux distribution with the latest Linux 5.9 kernel series, the wait is finally over. Arch Linux’s November 2020 ISO release is here and it’s the first to be powered by Linux kernel 5.9, a major branch that introduces numerous new features and improvements for better hardware support. Besides shipping with the Linux 5.9 kernel series (version 5.9.2 is included), the November 2020 release of Arch Linux’s ISO installation image is also the first to come with new accessibility features that help those with special needs to install the powerful GNU/Linux distribution on their computers. # **** IBM/Red Hat/Fedora **** # ** Jonathan_Dieter:_Switching_to_OSTree ** Given our shift towards containers, the most obvious solution would have been to switch to Fedora CoreOS, but a number of our call servers have Sangoma telephony cards with kernel drivers that are, unfortunately, out- of-tree. While there are some elegant ways to load custom kernel modules into Fedora CoreOS, we needed a more stable kernel, due to the (lack of) speed in which these modules are updated to build with new kernels. So we decided to go with a custom OSTree distribution (surprisingly named SpearlineOS), built using rpm-ostree and CentOS 8. SpearlineOS has two streams, staging and production. At the moment, we’re manually building each new release, pushing it to staging, running it through some smoke tests, and, then, finally, pushing it to production. We are in the process of setting up a full staging environment with automatic builds and automatic promotion to production once a build has been functioning correctly for set period of time. We’ve also setup greenboot in SpearlineOS so that our servers are able to fail back to an older release if the current one fails for any reason. # ** AI_Technologies_Are_Fundamentally_Changing_How_Work Gets_Done ** After decades of promise and hype, artificial intelligence is finally becoming one of the most important technologies of our era. AI technologies, like machine learning, are clearly having a major impact on the very nature of work. But, how can we best quantify their impact on the actual evolution of jobs? The best approach for exploring the relationship between technology and jobs is to look at the individual tasks that comprise a job. Most jobs involve a number of tasks. Some of these tasks are relatively routine and based on well-understood rules, while others require judgement, social skills and other human capabilities. The more routine and rules-based the task, the more amenable it is to automation. However just because some of its component tasks have been automated, does not imply that the whole job has disappeared. To the contrary, automating the more routine parts of a job will often increase the productivity and quality of workers by complementing their skills with technologies and tools, thus enabling them to focus on those aspect of the job that most need their attention. While automation substitutes for labor, automation also complements labor, increasing productivity and other economic outputs in ways that often raise the demand for and earnings of workers. “The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) poses a new set of opportunities – and challenges – for work and workers,” said The Future of Work: How New Technologies Are Transforming Tasks, a research report released last Fall by the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. “The tasks that can be done by machine learning are much broader in scope than previous generations of technology have made possible. The expanded scope will change the value employers place on tasks, and the types of skills most in demand.” # **** Free Software Reports **** # ** Kevin_Fenzi:_Bugzilla_and_the_art_of_package maintenance ** The first part of 2020 (in addition to all the horrible things happening in the world) was pretty heads down in our datacenter move. Now that that is over, and Fedora 33 is out the door (hurray!), I’m slowly trying to catch up on other things I normally do that are now a bit backlogged. This weekend, I decided to try and catch up (at least some) on my package maintaining and bugzilla bugs. In the distant past (before 2020) I basically tried to work on this stuff mostly as it came in. Update packages when release monitoring let me know there was a release, ask questions of bug reporters as they reported and try and get something actionable. Of course now I’m behind, so lets try a different process to catch up. # ** MORTEN_LINDERUD:_FOSS_Activities_in_October_2020 ** I wanted to start writing these for myself as I have been reading quite a few monthly reports from Chris Lamb and other Debian contributors. They make for interesting content for readers curious about what distribution maintainers do during a month, and motivation for myself as not everything one does is visible work. I’ll try have some sort of structure with them, by starting off with the menial tasks, and add the meeting notes and misc contributions at the bottom. # ** Jonathan_Carter:_Free_Software_Activities_for_2020- 10 ** Another month, another bunch of uploads. The freeze for Debian 11 (bullseye) is edging closer, so I’ve been trying to get my package list in better shape ahead of that. Thanks to those who worked on fixing lintian.debian.org and the lintian reports on the QA pages, those are immensely useful and it’s great to have that back! # ** Chris_Lamb:_Free_software_activities_in_October_2020 ** # **** Canonical/Ubuntu Family **** # ** A_Brief_History_of_Ubuntu_Touch ** Sensing the tech trend, Ubuntu tried its hands on creating a Linux-based mobile operating system. The first announcement came a decade back and six years down the line, Ubuntu closed the curtains on the project. What went wrong? How it started? Is Ubuntu Touch still alive? Let’s take a look at the history of Ubuntu Touch in chronological order. The Ubuntu Touch project began with a blog post by Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth. The blog post, dated October 31, 2011, started with a bold prediction: “By 14.04 LTS Ubuntu will power tablets, phones, TVs and smart screens from the car to the office kitchen, and it will connect those devices cleanly and seamlessly to the desktop, the server and the cloud.” Shuttleworth went on to explain that this move would be accomplished mainly through the use of the company’s new desktop environment, Unity. (Unity was introduced in Ubuntu 10.10.) “Unity, the desktop interface in today’s Ubuntu 11.10, was designed with this specific vision in mind.” # ** Chromium_Browser_Now_Officially_Available_in_Linux Mint_and_LMDE,_Here’s_How_to_Install_It ** After making it hard for users to install the Chromium web browser on their distributions by deciding to drop support for Ubuntu’s Snap universal packages with the Linux Mint 20 release onwards, the Linux Mint developers are now packaging Chromium and distributing it trough the official repos. Chromium is not only available in Linux Mint, but also in the Debian spin LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition). Users can now easily install the open-source web browser with a few mouse clicks. Depending on the edition you’re using (Cinnamon, MATE or Xfce), all you have to do is open the Software Manager and install Chromium. # ** Linux_Mint_Now_Packaging_Their_Own_Chromium, Developing_New_IPTV_Player ** With this month’s Ubuntu/Debian-based Linux Mint development news there are two items worth calling attention to. First up, Linux Mint is finally packaging Chromium. Linux Mint previously offered Chromium when Ubuntu offered it as a Debian package prior to migrating to Chromium Snaps. Meanwhile the upstream Debian packaging for Chromium often falls well out of date. Thus Linux Mint is now packaging Google’s open- source Chromium web browser on its own for users interested it in place of the official Google Chrome package or using the likes of Firefox. After soliciting feedback from users last month, Linux Mint has also begun developing their own IPTV player. They have begun working on it and this IPTV player is called Hypnotix. They haven’t yet determined if it will be included in Linux Mint moving forward or even how much time will be devoted to the effort. # ** Monthly_News_–_October_2020 ** The Chromium browser is now available in the official repositories for both Linux Mint and LMDE. If you’ve been waiting for this I’d like to thank you for your patience. To guarantee reactivity and timely updates we had to automate the process of detecting, packaging and compiling new versions of Chromium. This is an application which can require more than 6 hours per build on a fast computer. We allocated a new build server with high specifications (Ryzen 9 3900, 128GB RAM, NMVe) and reduced the time it took to build Chromium to a little more than an hour. Although Chromium was present in Debian we noticed it was rarely up to date so the decision was taken to also build for LMDE. We had to adapt a few things and there were hurdles along the way but it’s finally here. The package name is the same in Linux Mint and LMDE: “chromium”. # ** Linux_Mint_re-adds_Chromium_to_its_official repositories ** Clem Lefebvre, head of the Linux Mint project, has shared some of the project’s developments for October. He announced that the Chromium browser is now available from official repositories on Linux Mint and LMDE after it was previously removed and that the project has started work on an IPTV player. During the development of Linux Mint 20, you may remember that the Linux Mint team was angry about Chromium’s snapd requirement added by Canonical – the maintainers of Ubuntu. In response, it replaced the Chromium package with a dummy package forcing users to download it from other places. To remedy this, the Linux Mint team has decided to begin providing Chromium builds on its own. o **** Devices/Embedded **** # **** Open Hardware/Modding **** # ** Engage_in_Unmatched_RISC-V_Business_With_SiFive ** Two years ago HiFive released their Unleashed RISC-V, a fully functional PC based on the open sourced architecture and it was snapped up by fans almost as fast as an Ampere GPU. The original was based on a 1.5 GHz five-core FU540 SoC. and had fairly limited usage unless you added a $2000 expansion board from Microchip to give you HDMI, PCIe and other interfaces. These features are predicted to be included with the Unmatched at launch. HiFive is being a bit cagey about the full details of the Unmatched, but The Register did manage to accumulate a fair number of facts about the system. This version will use a FU740 SoC fabbed on TSMC’s 28nm node which contains four RV64GC U74 CPU cores of an undisclosed frequency, and one RV64IMAC S7 core that will handle basic system tasks. You will find 8GB of DDR4, 32GB of local SPI flash storage It will offer two M.2 port, one for an SSD and one for WiFi or Bluetooth, a single PCIe 3.0 8x slot for an add-in card, four USB 3.2 ports, a microUSB, a console port, GPIO, UART, and PWMs. There is also a microSD slot and a single gigabit LAN port to complete the feature set. Debian or Fedora GNU/Linux are fully vetted to run but enterprising minds will likely expand that list rather quickly. If you are interested in playing with a RISC- V system, it will only cost you $665 a little later in the year to pick up. # ** Hewlett_Packard_Enterprise_will_build_a_$160_million supercomputer_in_Finland ** # ** Allwinner_A133_tablet_processor_pairs_with_XR829_or AW859A_WiFi_&_Bluetooth_chip ** Last year, Allwinner published an updated roadmap for tablet processors that included A100, A200, and A300 SoC’s. None of those have been launched yet, but I’ve just noticed the Allwinner A133 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor showed up on the company’s website. That’s yet another entry-level processor coupled with a PowerVR GE8300 GPU, but you’d get support for Android 10, instead of the older Android 7.1/8.1 SDK provided for the earlier Allwinner A-series tablet processors. # ** Arduino_Blog_»_This_Inspector_Gadget_hat_actually responds_to_voice_commands ** If you ever watched the 1980s Inspector Gadget cartoon, you undoubtedly wanted a hat like his, which can pop out all kinds of useful tools under voice control. Although it won’t allow you to fly off after saying “go go gadget ‘copter,” DJ Harrigan’s replica does produce a spinning propeller and an emergency light with 16 RGB LEDs. # **** Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications **** # ** Android_TV_buyer’s_guide:_All_you_need_to_know_about Google’s_TV_platform ** # ** ROWA_Philippines_to_offer_affordable_Smart_Android TVs_via_Lazada ** # ** Samsung_highlights_some_of_the_new_One_UI_3.0 Android_11_features ** # ** Tekken_3_Game_Download_for_PC,_Android:_How_To Download_And_Install_Tekken_3_Game_For_PC,_Android ** # ** Firefox_82_for_Android_is_now_available ** # ** Five_reasons_XDA_loves_LineageOS ** # ** Google_pulls_popular_Android_apps_that_collected kids’_device_data ** # ** Google_warns_of_possible_summer_time_change_on Android;_see… ** # ** Google_Assistant_Too_Annoying?_How_To_Turn_It_Off_On Android_Devices ** # ** How_to_Add,_Remove,_and_Delete_Samsung_Account_From Your_Android_Phone ** # ** Chrome_for_Android_may_get_a_scrolling_screenshot feature ** # ** iPhone_12_falls_way_behind_Android_phones_in_this major_test ** # ** Android_11_arrives_on_the_Raspberry_Pi,_thanks_to new_OmniROM_release ** # ** 5_Android_apps_you_shouldn’t_miss_this_week_– Android_Apps_Weekly ** # ** Samsung_highlights_some_of_the_new_One_UI_3.0 Android_11_features ** # ** Glossary:_Android_Terms_and_Their_Meanings ** Android is the most popular mobile operating system that powers our phones, tablets, smartwatches, smart TVs, and many other connected devices. From using a selfie camera, to searching the Web with Google Assistant, to navigating real-world GPS traffic, it can be said that Android touches every aspect of our lives (unless you’re an exclusive Apple user, of course) Accordingly, there are many Android terms that are familiar to us but we may not be aware of what they do. The following A-to-Z glossary explains these Android terms. # ** PinePhone_3GB/32GB_upgrades_are_now_available_for purchase ** There are two pricing options: customers who purchased a PinePhone “BraveHeart” edition or a PinePhone UBPorts Community Edition phone can pick up a 3GB/32GB mainboard for $80, while customers who have purchased a more recent version can buy the ne w board for $105. A brand new PinePhone sells for $150 to $200, depending on whether you opt for a 2GB/16GB model or a 3GB/32GB Convergence Pack version, which also comes with a USB-C dock featuring Ethernet, HDMI, and USB-A ports. So replacing the board will cost about half as much as buying a new phone. Keep in mind that you’re not just paying for a memory and storage upgrade, but a whole new mainboard featuring an Allwinner A64 processor, SIM and microSD card slots, and headphone jack. The PinePhone’s modular design makes this upgrade possible – in addition to replacing the mainboard, you can easily repair or replace most key components including the back cover, display, cameras, battery, and USB port with just a screwdriver. Replacement parts are available at the Pine Store. Software for the PinePhone is still very much a work in progress. While there are at least 19 different operating systems that can at least boot on the phone, many are still buggy or incomplete. But developers are making rapid progress on things like camera support, 60 Hz display support and other features that are bringing the PinePhone closer to being useable as a daily driver. Cellular support is still a little iffy, and battery life is still pretty lousy. # ** You_Can_Now_Upgrade_the_Original_PinePhone_with_More RAM,_Storage ** Owners of the original PinePhone can now upgrade their device with more RAM and storage. Higher spec’d mainboards for the Pinephone, which will be of particular interest to BraveHeart and Ubports Community Edition owners, went on sale on the (recently revamped) Pine Store on November 1. The new boards offer 3GB of on-board memory and 32GB of flash storage. This is up from the 2GB/16GB combo offered on the original and early-doors handsets. Newer versions of the PinePhone, including those sold with postmarketOS and Manjaro, tout these “convergence” grade specs. An upgraded PinePhone mainboard costs $104.95. This is a sizeable chunk of the BraveHeart handsets’ original $149 price, but kind of makes sense: this board is the smartphone, essentially. As a sweetener, Pine64 is offering those with the first two handsets the chance to buy the upgraded mainboard at the discounted price of $79.95. o **** Free, Libre, and Open Source Software **** # **** Programming/Development **** # ** A_closer_look_at_the_interpreter ** Another, albeit lesser, downside with the interpreter is that modern processors are very optimized for patterns commonly found in “ordinary” native code. For example, nearly all of them have a special branch predictor just for calls and returns. Assuming that every call has a corresponding return lets it predict returns perfectly unless an exception is thrown, but since the interpreter does not use native calls and returns, it cannot make use of this optimization. Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot that can be done about this, and after over two decades of refinement it’s becoming increasingly difficult to optimize it in meaningful ways. Because of that our quest to improve performance has instead focused on two areas: improving the compiler and implementing a JIT. We’ve made great strides with both as of late, and are very proud to have finally merged the latter. # ** AOMP_11.11_Released_For_LLVM_Clang_OpenMP_Offloading To_Radeon_GPUs_–_Phoronix ** This week brought the release of AMD’s ROCm 3.9 as their open-source compute stack for Radeon GPUs. With ROCm 3.9 the AOMP work for LLVM/Clang-based compiler with OpenMP offload capabilities to Radeon GPUs was integrated. AOMP though is still advancing independently of the ROCm releases with Friday night marking the release of AOMP 11.11. # ** LLVM_Clang_12_Adds_Support_For_AVX-VNNI_–_Phoronix ** The LLVM Clang compiler stack has merged its support for AVX-VNNI, the Vector Neural Network Instructions for AVX to complement the AVX-512 version. Earlier this month GCC added AVX-VNNI support after the most recent Intel programmer’s reference manual update outed this new VNNI variant without AVX-512. The Vector Neural Network Instructions are also known as DL BOOST and optimized to deliver greater deep learning performance out of CPUs for more efficient training and inference. # **** Perl/Raku **** # ** Finding_Squares_in_Matrices_|_Toby_Inkster ** I don’t usually take part in the Perl Weekly Challenge but one of this week’s challenges caught my eye. I thought it could be a fun thing to attempt and decided to use Zydeco to help solve it. # ** Perl_Weekly_Challenge_084_|_Samir Parikhblogs.perl.org] ** As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve been trying to learn the Perl programming language. You can read all the books and tutorials you want, but for me, the only way to really learn a language is to apply it to real world problems. Unfortunately for me, I currently don’t have any real world problems (suitable to be solved by Perl) so I’ve been practicing by solving coding puzzles on the internet. In addition to making my way through the bioinformatics site Rosalind, I’ve also started working on the Perl Weekly Challenges. This week, I managed to muddle my way through the latest installment, Challenge 084. The deadline to submit solutions is fast approaching so if you haven’t solved it yourself yet, you may want to come back to this post later. # **** Python **** # ** 10_tips_to_move_from_Excel_to_Python ** Excel is one of the most used and most empowering piece of software out there. But that doesn’t make it a good fit for every data processing need. And when you outgrow Excel, a really good option for a next step is Python and the data science tech stack: Pandas, Jupyter, and friends. # ** Episode_#205_This_is_going_to_be_a_little_bit awkward_–_[Python_Bytes_Podcast] ** Python Bytes podcast delivers headlines directly to your earbuds. # ** Python_3.9.0_:_Testing_twisted_python_module_– part_001_. ** Today I tested two python modules named: twisted and twisted[tls]. # ** Weekly_Python_StackOverflow_Report:_(ccxlviii) stackoverflow_python_report ** * **** Leftovers **** o ** The_Great_Pumpkin ** o ** Another_reminder_not_to_use_seasons_in_tech_press ** Technical journalists, podcasters, Wikipedia editors, companies, PR departments, social media posters, all of you: I implore you once again to not use seasons to denote time. They’re not only vague and ambiguous, they literally ignore half the planet. Possibly slightly more than half, given that seasons also mean absolutely nothing to people on or near the Equator. o **** Hardware **** # ** China_smartphone_shipments_fell_15%_in_3Q_compared_to_2019 ** The smartphone market in China during the third quarter fell by 8% quarter-on-quarter and 15% on a year-on-year comparison, with 83 million units being shipped, the technology analyst firm Canalys says. # ** Inside_the_stacked_RAM_modules_used_in_the_Apple_III ** This module was built from two 16-kilobit memory chips, constructed from the standard MK4116 dynamic RAM (DRAM) chip packaged in a leadless ceramic chip carrier; these are the golden rectangles on top of the carrier. You might wonder why customers didn&pos;t simply use these surface-mount packages directly, but at the time soldering surface-mount components was still a challenge for many customers. However, mounting two leadless chips on a dual inline- package (DIP) carrier allowed customers to double their memory density while still using their standard through-hole soldering techniques. o **** Health/Nutrition **** # ** College_Football’s_Great_Defender_Has_Covid-19 ** Donald Trump is running for reelection on the claim that he “saved college football.” He did so by recklessly applying presidential pressure to college football conference leaders to forget about Covid-19 and have players take the field. Granted, these conference chiefs truly did not need that much pressure, eager as they were to claim their seven and even eight-figure salaries to keep the trains running on time. And after four years of Trumpian decay with little to justify four more years, the thinking was that bringing football back—especially to swing states in the Big Ten and ACC—would put him on a toboggan ride to electoral college victory. # ** Trump’s_HHS_Is_Withholding_Detailed_COVID_Hospitalization Data_From_the_Public ** As surging coronavirus hospitalizations across the U.S. push already-strained medical facilities to the brink of full capacity, internal documents obtained by NPR show that the Trump administration is withholding from the public critical hospital data that experts say would be extremely useful in helping communities prepare for, track, and overcome Covid-19 outbreaks. # ** How_to_take_a_social_media_break,_4_steps_to_winning_at_it ** It is very important to take a social media break now in midst of a global pandemic. COVID-19 has already done a lot of damage. Don’t be pulled into endless steam of not so good news. This is not the best for your mental health. Social media can also be a hindrance to your work from home productivity. # ** ‘Trump_Is_KILLING_Americans’:_As_US_Cases_Top_9_Million, Stanford_Study_Ties_President’s_Rallies_to_Covid-19_Spread ** The analysis links 18 rallies to over 30,000 cases and 700 deaths—but doesn’t include events in October, when states saw infections surge. # ** Science_journal_Lancet_blasts_Trump’s_virus_‘disaster’, urges_vote_for_change ** America is the world’s worst-hit country, with 8.94 million cases, and on Thursday it announced a record number of new coronavirus cases, topping the grim milestone of more than 90,000 diagnoses in 24 hours. The Lancet editorial said the US was experiencing a “continuing devaluation of science”, as well as a range of rights inequalities. # ** The_US_election_2020 ** The USA in 2020 continues to experience unrest borne out of these still-open wounds: violence against people of colour, vast income inequality, immigration restrictions, and gender barriers, as well as a continuing devaluation of science. Under the banner of making America great again, the Trump administration has pursued regressive nationalist policies, rolled back protections for individuals, labour, and the environment, and withdrawn from international agreements and multilateral organisations, such as WHO. Led by a relentless agenda of deregulation and dysregulation, America has retreated from its once prominent position of leadership and abandoned its beneficence. With the election, Americans have the power to address these issues, both at home and around the world, by eschewing the falsehood of nostalgia. # ** I_Signed_Up_to_Study_Sexual_Health._What_I_Got_Was_Gender Ideology,_Fetishism,_and_Porn ** I am not a conspiracy theorist. And as recently as a year and a half ago, if someone had told me the things I am reporting here, I would have accused them of culture-war paranoia. That was before I enrolled in a professional training program that I’d hoped would expand my skills as a therapist, but instead delivered an extreme form of ideological indoctrination. The Sexual Health Certificate Program is a prestigious University of Michigan program conducted in affiliation with the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT). As someone who recently studied in the program, I can attest that, notwithstanding whatever mission AASECT once had, it now operates largely as a de facto activist group that seeks to reshape standards applied to mental health care and education, and to limit the rights of parents to make decisions about their children. # ** Six_graphs_that_led_to_the_new_Covid_lockdown_for_England ** Boris Johnson’s chief medical officer and scientific adviser spelled out in stark detail the threat the NHS is under this winter as Covid surges across the England. Showing a series of graphs during the live Downing Street press conference, Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance warned infections were rising, patients were filling hospital beds rapidly and deaths are expected to climb. As a result, the prime minister announced a new set of stricter measures to lock down England from November 5 until December 2. Here are six graphs that spurred Mr Johnson to take action. o **** Integrity/Availability **** # ** Humans_are_Bad_at_URLs_and_Fonts_Don’t_Matter ** Been a lot of “victim blaming” going on these last few days. The victim, through no fault of their own, has been the target of numerous angry tweets designed to ridicule their role in internet security and suggest they are incapable of performing their duty. Here’s where it all started: [...] # **** Proprietary **** # **** Pseudo-Open Source **** # **** Openwashing **** # ** Top_Open_Source_Projects_Using Artificial_Intelligence ** These open-source projects using AI were created by the developers in top companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, etc. They are mostly groundbreaking projects that have created new innovations in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. And even more important is the fact that the advances from these open-source projects have benefited the AI sector as a whole with even more funding and innovation provided for newer projects. So let’s check out these trailblazing projects now! # **** Security **** # **** Privacy/Surveillance **** # ** China_Now_Has_The_Ability_to_Track Internet_Users_Who_‘Scale_The_Wall’ ** Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang recently detained and warned an [Internet] user after they were detected using a circumvention tool to read information on Wikipedia, which lies outside China’s complex network of blocks, filters, and human censorship known as the Great Firewall. According to social media reports, [Internet] user Zhang Tao received a visit from police soon after after using the open- source online encyclopedia, suggesting that the authorities’ ability to monitor people’s [Internet] activity in real time has been stepped up recently. # ** Is_The_SNSI_The_New_PRISM? ** This past week, these public relations efforts were dialed up a notch or ten to a whole new level. At an SNSI webinar entitled „Cybersecurity Landscape – Protecting the Scholarly Infrastructure“, hosted by two Elsevier employees, one of the presenters suggested „develop or subsidize a low cost proxy or a plug-in to existing proxies“ in order to collect user data. That user data, it was explained, could be analyzed with an “Analysis Engine” to track biometric data (e.g., typing speed) or suspicious behavior (e.g., a pharmacology student being suspiciously interested in astrophysics). The angle towards Sci-Hub was confirmed by the next speaker, an Ex-FBI agent and security analyst. Considering the track record of academic publishers, this reeks strongly of PR attempts to ‘soften the target’, i.e., to make installing publisher spyware on university servers sound less outrageous than it actually is. After the PRISM debacle, the publishers now seem to have learned from their PR mistakes. This time, there is no ‘pitbull’ around. This time, there is only a strange article in a major newspaper, a shady institute where it appears hard to find out who founded it, who is running it and who funds it. SNSI is an apparent PR project aimed at compromising, not strengthening, network security at research institutions. However, unlike with PRISM, this time the PR effort may pay off. # ** I_bumped_out_some_more_bad_relays ** I spent some time this week refining a new exit scanner, and today we pushed some new reject rules to kick out some relays that we confirmed were running mitmproxy to do more sslstrips. # ** Google_brings_HVAC_monitoring,_early warnings_to_all_Nest_Thermostats ** Earlier this year, Google started testing HVAC monitoring capabilities for Nest Thermostats. The feature was highlighted with the launch of the new Nest Thermostat and is officially rolling out to all existing and current devices in the US and Canada. o **** Defence/Aggression **** # ** Remembering_Stephen_F._Cohen:_Katrina_vanden_Heuvel_on life_and_love_with_eminent_Russia_scholar ** # ** Puerto_Ricans_struggle_for_independence_from_US colonialism ** # ** Belt_and_Road_Hazards,_Coming_to_the_Americas ** As Chinese firms poured billions into real estate and infrastructure projects at both ends of the Panama Canal, many locals worried that Panama’s sovereignty was being threatened—a sovereignty only recently achieved, when the US handed over the Canal Zone to Panama in 1997. In a 2018 editorial in La Estrella, Universidad Interamericana de Panama professor Euclid Tapia warned of the debt- trap diplomacy for which China has become infamous in many other BRI countries. Tapia cited Sri Lanka, “where to pay its debts to Chinese creditors the country was forced to lease its most important port for 99 years.” He said similarly, and with little public attention, China was now seeking to construct a new fourth set of locks on the Panama Canal at an “unspeakable” cost of $15 to $20 billion—which “will gladly be financed by China,” precisely because Panama would likely be unable to pay it back. “Knowing the degree of corruption of our governments,” wrote Tapia, “it is highly probable that the fate of the Panama Canal will follow that of the Suez Canal, which due to Egyptian debt, England took from France. China could take over our canal and swallow us by osmosis.” # ** Pakistani_Shias_live_in_terror_as_sectarian_violence increases ** His ordeal began with a Facebook post in early September, where he condemned the killers of a Shia Muslim martyred centuries ago. Though Kareem had meant it as a post of religious devotion, it caught the attention of an extremist Sunni Muslim group, who called him a traitor to Muslims. Two days later, the 21-year-old student found himself the subject of a police report, accused of violating Pakistan’s draconian laws on blasphemy. He is one of over 50 Shia Muslims in Sunni-majority Pakistan, who have been booked under blasphemy and antiterrorist charges over the last month. The youngest was three years old. “I fear they will kill me,” said Kareem, his voice shaking as he spoke from his place of hiding. “I am being targeted because I am from a Shia religious minority. I fear for myself and my family.” With the police on their way to interrogate him, and fearing the violent fate that extremist Sunni groups in Pakistan inflict on those accused of blasphemy, last month Kareem and his family chose to disappear. # ** France’s_Emmanuel_Macron_seeks_to_calm_tensions_with Muslims ** The interview will air on Sunday, but Macron posted the full, French-language interview on his YouTube channel. France has been on edge since an attack in September outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which republished cartoons of the prophet in a recent edition. Macron emphasized in the interview that the cartoons were not the work of the French state. He said political leaders had distorted the truth, leading people to believe the French government was responsible for the caricatures. o **** Transparency/Investigative Reporting **** # ** KSP_training_slideshow_quotes_Hitler,_advocates_‘ruthless’ violence ** The slideshow was included in KSP documents obtained via an open records request by local attorney David Ward of Adams Landenwich Walton during the discovery phase of a lawsuit. Ward requested KSP materials used to train a detective who shot and killed a man in Harlan County, and Ward shared the presentation with Manual RedEye. One slide, titled “Violence of Action,” in addition to imploring officers to be “ruthless killer[s],” instructs troopers to have “a mindset void of emotion” and to “meet violence with greater violence.” o **** Environment **** # **** Energy **** # ** State_Backers_of_Anti-Protest_Bills_Received Campaign_Funding_from_Oil_and_Gas_Industry,_Report Finds ** The major pipelines studied in the report disproportionately impact historically disenfranchised communities who, in turn find themselves potentially targeted by the protest criminalization measures, often framed as efforts to protect “critical infrastructure,” the report details. # ** Opposition_to_Pipelines_and_Fracking_Is_Actually_a Winning_Electoral_Strategy ** Janine Jackson: “Trump Touts Fracking Policy in Pennsylvania Rally, Says Biden ‘Will Shut It All Down.’” “North Dakota Seeks to Repurpose Coronavirus Aid for Fracking.” “Fracking Is Trump’s Hail Mary Against Biden.” “Could Fracking Actually Help the Climate?” # ** Hurricane_Zeta_Leaves_Thousands_Without_Power,_Oily Mess_On_Heels_of_Laura_and_Delta_in_South_Louisiana ** Like many in the storm’s path, she was caught off guard when the storm intensified just before slamming into the coast.  # ** Faculty_and_Alumni_Demand_that_University_of_Arizona Kick_Koch_Money_Off_Campus ** The event, co-hosted by Unkoch My Campus and held on Tuesday, October 28, focused on “state capture” through education, highlighting how billionaires and corporations attempt to use their donations to academic institutions to advance their private interests. # **** Wildlife/Nature **** # ** Despite_What_the_Logging_Industry_Says,_Cutting_Down Trees_Isn’t_Stopping_Catastrophic_Wildfires ** As thousands of Oregon homes burned to rubble last month, the state’s politicians joined the timber industry in blaming worsening wildfires on the lack of logging. Echoing a long-standing belief in the state that public forests are the problem, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, a Republican who represents eastern Oregon, equated the federal government’s management to that of “a slum lord.” And Democratic Gov. Kate Brown on “Face the Nation” accused Republicans in the state’s Legislature of blocking measures, proposed by a wildfire council, that would have increased logging on public lands. o **** AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics **** # ** The_David_and_Goliath_in_Our_Time ** We have never been so close to nuclear annihilation, in the opinion of many nuclear weapons experts, as today. # ** A_Few_Days_Away_From_Nov._3,_Another_Week_of_Trumpian Havoc ** But despite everything, Christmas may be a little bit early this year. # ** We_Can_Still_Save_the_US_From_Becoming_a_Failed_State ** These past few months, it’s grown ever harder to recognize life in America. Thanks to Covid-19, basic day-to-day existence has changed in complicated, often confusing ways. Just putting food on the table has become a challenge for many. Getting doctors’ appointments and medical care can take months. Many schools are offering on-line only instruction and good luck trying to get a driver’s license or a passport renewed in person or setting up an interview for Social Security benefits. The backlog of appointments is daunting. # ** Experts_Warn_More_Than_1_Million_Mail-In_Ballots_Could_Be Rejected_in_2020_Races ** More than 1 million mail-in ballots could be rejected in the 2020 election if recent trends hold up, experts say, raising fears that the rejections could swing close races. # ** The_Email_and_the_Election ** A few examples from two senders follow but their emails are nothing more than representative of the dozens that arrive each day during the election season. # ** Working-Class_America_Needs_Real_Change,_Not_Slogans ** Working-class people demand better from a republic that promotes freedom, equality, and the pursuit of happiness. # ** Youth_Activists_Are_Transforming_the_Election_by_Leading Protesters_to_the_Polls ** For the past decade, ever since students at 100 universities staged protests in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, youth activism in the United States has been on the rise. Youth organizers involved in the Movement for Black Lives have played a key role in ongoing protests against the police killings of Black people and other people of color, which The New York Times suggests may be the largest social movement in U.S. history. # ** Make_This_Election_About_Care ** There should only be one America: one where we all get the best care and the widest range of choices. # ** Many_Residents_Still_Missing_Their_Mail-in_Ballots_May Have_to_Vote_in_Person ** # ** Giving_Free_Food_to_Voters_Allowed_in_Practice_Despite Legal_Gray_Area ** # ** “Vaguely_Threatening”_RoboCalls_Continue_in_NY_Area, Similar_to_Ones_Spread_By_Right_Wing_Political_Operatives Warning_People_to_“Stay_Home” ** # ** Counties,_Cops_Making_Sure_You’re_Safe_at_the_Polls ** # ** The_Dead_Eyes_and_Cold_Heart_of_Jared_Kushner ** The poster boy for presidential nepotism shows his true colors. # ** ‘So,_So_Cruel’:_Rights_Advocates,_Biden_Campaign_Sound Alarm_About_Immigration_Agenda_Stephen_Miller_Is_Crafting_for Trump’s_Second_Term ** According to the Democratic nominee, “This agenda is designed to do one thing only: divide our communities with cheap, xenophobic rhetoric, and demonize those seeking to make legitimate asylum claims.” # ** Craig_Murray_for_SNP_President_and_Independence_in_Two Years ** The party hierarchy decided members should not be allowed to vote on routes to Independence that do not depend on the permission of Boris Johnson. To give party members a chance to register their concern, I have decided to go forward as a candidate for President. I do so not in the hope of winning (I won’t beat longstanding party servant Mike Russell), but because the ordinary members need to be able to show that they are not happy with the lack of focus on Independence and the closed nature of the party establishment – which two things are related. # ** You’re_Fired ** # ** Intelligence_agencies_launch_recruitment_drive_for Mandarin_speakers_to_counter_China_spy_threat ** Beijing has developed spying on an industrial scale and Britain does not seek to match the scale of China’s espionage army, which is focused on seeking to steal commercial secrets, including intellectual [sic] property [sic], as well as other actions such as interfering in politics. However, by strengthening their ranks of Mandarin speakers, the UK intelligence services would be responding to growing concerns over the rise of China. They also seek to stay ahead of intelligence adversaries through technological innovations, more sophisticated “tradecraft” and close working with allies such as the Five Eyes group of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, as well as European and other partners. # ** Long_Lines_to_Vote_Are_a_Reminder_of_How_Calls_to #MakeAPlan_Aren’t_Enough ** The presentation of this story aligns with Make a Planism. She rose up as an individual and made her vote count, despite the difficulty inflicted by outside forces. But what if we organized to make sure all the Mildred Madisons out there didn’t need to do what she did just to have their voices heard? What if we focused our voting callouts on direct aid and action to not just get out the vote, but to address the systems that suppress the vote in the first place? Maybe we wouldn’t each need to make our own plan, fleshing out details to the letter and anticipating every possible obstacle. # ** Glenn_Greenwald’s_Self_Hack:_“I_could_go_on_and_on” ** What Maass disagreed with are the many places where Glenn, absent any evidence, makes insinuations about Biden corruption. # ** Cyberlaw_Clinic_and_EFF_publish_Guide_to_Legal_Risks_of Security_Research ** Our Guide gives the most comprehensive presentation to date of this landscape of legal risks, with an eye to both legal and technical nuance. Aimed at researchers, the public, and technology lawyers alike, its aims both to provide pragmatic guidance to those navigating today’s uncertain legal landscape, and to provoke public debate towards future reform. o **** Censorship/Free Speech **** # ** Our_new_“Freedom_of_Speech”_policy ** Our beloved Vice-Chancellor proposes a “free speech” policy under which all academics must treat other academics with “respect”. This is no doubt meant well, but the drafting is surprisingly vague and authoritarian for a university where the VC, the senior pro-VC, the HR pro-VC and the Registrary are all lawyers. The bottom line is that in future we might face disciplinary charges and even dismissal for mockery of ideas and individuals with which we disagree. The policy was slipped out in March, when nobody was paying attention. There was a Discussion in June, at which my colleague Arif Ahmad spelled out the problems. # ** Ex-Muslims_have_to_struggle_to_have_their_messages_heard_– on_social_media_as_well ** Globally, they’ve been censored, jailed, flogged and killed for expressing views we take for granted in most of the West. Even those who live in the United States, where citizens have the freedom to say almost anything, have faced threats, ridicule and smearing campaigns for promoting ideas and speaking truths. But ex-Muslims reject a faith that calls for a violent wrath upon those who do just that. Apostasy from Islam is illegal in 23 countries with it being a capital offense in thirteen. As they go public, ex-Muslims must balance the delivery of their message to those who’d benefit from their enlightenment, while avoiding harm from those who adhere to the obedience system that prohibits such liberties. # ** PA_cleric_calls_for_‘day_of_rage’_in_support_of_Mohammed ** Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem and a preacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, called for Friday to be declared a “day of rage” in support of the Prophet Mohammed and in protest against attempts to harm Mohammed’s honor. In a statement, Sabri said that Muslims oppose illustrations that deliberately harm the Prophet Mohammed, and that the public is therefore called upon to come to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to express its protest. # ** Internet_disrupted_in_Tanzania_on_eve_of_general_elections ** Real-time metrics show that Twitter, WhatsApp, backend servers for Instagram and some Google services including GMail and Translate are generally or partially unavailable via Tanzania’s leading network operators Vodacom, Airtel, Tigo, Halotel and ZanTel. Meanwhile, data indicate a more generalized disruption of services on state-owned operator TTCL, the Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation. o **** Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press **** # ** Begging_Outrage:_British_Journalists_For_Assange ** The dangers to the Fourth Estate to Oborne are incalculable. On UK soil, an effort is being made by the US “to prosecute a non-US citizen, not living in the US, not publishing in the US, under US laws that deny the right to a public interest defence.” Yet a myopic British press remains more interested in Assange’s character, one attacked for breaching the Bail Act in avoiding extradition to Sweden to face sexual misconduct suspicions, and the distracting point as to whether he really is a journalist. # ** Two_Charged_In_Sweden_With_Attempted_Murder_Over_Chechen Blogger_Assault ** Swedish authorities have charged two individuals with attempted murder and accessory to attempted murder in a hammer attack on a blogger and outspoken critic of the authoritarian leader of Russia’s North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. The Swedish Security Service (SAPO) said in a statement late on October 29 that the attack in February on Tumso Abdurakhmanov was suspected of being linked to “a regime in another country, the Russian republic of Chechnya.” # ** Journalists_are_pawns_as_China_and_US_vie_for_supremacy_on world_stage ** But another move in the game is the proposed new rules over visas that The Department of Homeland Security released in late September for “international students, exchange visitors, and foreign information media representatives to encourage program compliance, reduce fraud and enhance national security.” For foreign journalists, the change in rules would mean that their visas would be limited to a maximum of 240 days. While they can apply for an extension, that one extension would only be for another maximum of another 240 days. The proposed rules do not mention multiple extensions being possible. This news of the six media groups being made to register as foreign missions was followed by the now usual reaction by Beijing, this time requiring The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Feature Story News, the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), The Bureau of National Affairs and Minnesota Public Radio to report to Beijing about their staffing, finances and real estate holdings. # ** ELECTION_2020:_Media_Silence_on_Assange_Aids_Trump ** The same U.S. media that benefited from the Chelsea Manning-era publications that Assange is now being prosecuted for publishing, and who nominally consider themselves avatars of “resistance” against Trump, are avoiding what would amount to a hard- hitting scandal for Trump, were it to be properly covered in the press. o **** Civil Rights/Policing **** # ** Out_of_Jail_and_Back_in_School,_Grace_Finds_Her_Voice ** Ten minutes before her debut and three months after she became known as the Michigan girl sent to juvenile detention for failing to do her online schoolwork, Grace* hurried into a bustling doughnut shop in suburban Detroit and plopped into a leather chair next to her mother. She straightened her headband and searched her pockets, unsuccessfully, for lip gloss. She tapped a few final notes into her phone. Then, ignoring her mother’s request to sit up straight, Grace leaned in toward her laptop and, for the first time since her case gained national notoriety as a symbol of racial inequities in the juvenile justice system, she began to speak publicly about what had happened to her. # ** Founded_on_Inequality,_Can_the_US_Ever_Be_Truly_Democratic and_Inclusive? ** Our contemporary problem in the U.S. is not monolithic. It resides at the intersections of race, class, gender, hegemonic policing and failed leadership. The inclusive term “syndemic” is what captures more accurately our lived zeitgeist. It is through the framework of this synergistic aggregation of problems that I engage in a generative discussion with distinguished scholar T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, who is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies and French at Vanderbilt University, where she directs the Callie House Research Center for the Study of Global Black Cultures and Politics, and chairs the Department of African American Studies. She is author/editor of 15 scholarly books and three novels, including the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, Bricktop’s Paris: African American Women Expatriates in Jazz-Age Paris and Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on Young Black Women. In this interview, Sharpley-Whiting, articulating part of her way of understanding contemporary race relations through the lens of race realism, does not hesitate to encourage our collective need to do our part in maximizing democratic ideals. # ** Don’t_Let_the_Supreme_Court_Open_the_Door_to_More Discrimination_Against_LGBTQ_People ** LGBTQ people already get turned away from food banks, shelters and more. The high court’s decision in Fulton could make things worse. # ** Social_Movements_Can_Win_Even_With_a_Hostile_Supreme_Court ** With the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, how will the Supreme Court decide future cases? Most people will probably think of it as a “6-3 Court” and expect decisions based on the number of justices nominated by each of the two ruling parties. Shelby County v. Holder, which struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act, was a perfect 5- 4 split between the justices nominated by Democrats and Republicans at the time. # ** Minnesota_state_agencies_defend_fourth-grade_reading material_after_police_criticism ** “Language in this book leaves the impression unchecked that police officers routinely pull over, arrest and kill black people without consequence,” MPPOA President Brian Peters wrote in the letter. “It says cops are ‘mean to black people’ or ‘shot them because they were black’ or police officers ‘stick up for each other’ to help police officers get away with doing bad things.” # ** Tibetan_Woman_Dies_After_Being_Tortured_in_Chinese_Custody ** Lhamo, a 36-year-old herder who was detained by police in June, died shortly after being sent to a hospital by police, a Tibetan living in India told RFA’s Tibetan Service, citing contacts in Driru (in Chinese, Biru).. “Her family believes her death was caused by severe torture that she suffered in custody,“ Konchog Rinchen said from India. # ** China’s_Panchen_Lama_Tours_Tibet_to_Push_CCP_Agenda, ‘Sinification’_of_Buddhism ** Norbu’s activities in Tibet as a religious leader are aimed only at advancing the agenda of China’s ruling Communist Party, Zikyab Rinpoche—abbot of the Indian exile branch of Tashilhunpo—told RFA’s Tibetan Service. “This is a long-term scheme of the Chinese government to turn Tibetan religious matters into something political for their own benefit,” Rinpoche said, adding that Beijing’s hope is that their chosen Panchen Lama will someday sign off on their selection of a successor to Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. The Panchen Lama selected by the Dalai Lama, and now in Chinese custody, “is revered as Tibet’s second-highest religious leader, and the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama have historically been involved in the recognition of each other’s incarnations.” “It is clear now that China hopes to usurp the selection of the next Dalai Lama,” Rinpoche said. o **** Monopolies **** # **** Patents **** # ** UK_High_Court_rejects_AI_inventors ** Readers may be aware of the increased interest in the question of whether an artificial intelligence can be named as an inventor of a patent application. The UK High Court has now issued a decision on the appeal raised by Dr Thaler regarding whether his AI named “DABUS” can be named as an inventor of his UK patent applications. This decision runs alongside a decision earlier this year from the EPO which concluded that an inventor of a patent must be a natural person. The corresponding news statement released by the EPO summarises the decision: “In its decisions, the EPO considered that the interpretation of the legal framework of the European patent system leads to the conclusion that the inventor designated in a European patent must be a natural person. The Office further noted that the understanding of the term inventor as referring to a natural person appears to be an internationally applicable standard, and that various national courts have issued decisions to this effect. Moreover, the designation of an inventor is mandatory as it bears a series of legal consequences, notably to ensure that the designated inventor is the legitimate one and that he or she can benefit from rights linked to this status. To exercise these rights, the inventor must have a legal personality that AI systems or machines do not enjoy. # ** $REGN_Sanofi:_EPO_Rules_In_Sanofi_And_Regeneron’s Favour_On_Praluent ** Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (REGN) – European Patent Office Rules in Favor of Sanofi and Regeneron Concerning Praluent® (alirocumab). Ruling Invalidates Amgen’s European Patent Claims Directed to Pcsk9 Antibodies Relevant to Praluent(®) (alirocumab). Praluent(®) (alirocumab) Continues to Be Available in European Countries Where It is Approved for Use and for Sale. # ** EPO_rules_in_favor_of_Sanofi_and_Regeneron concerning_Praluent ** [...] This latest EPO decision follows a ruling in Sanofi and Regeneron’s favor in August 2019 by the US District Court for the District of Delaware which found as a matter of law that certain of Amgen’s asserted patent claims for antibodies targeting PCSK9 are invalid based on lack of enablement. Under a restructured agreement announced in December 2019, Sanofi possesses sole rights for Praluent outside the U.S. The drug generated sales of 196 million euros ($228.5 million) for Sanofi in the first nine months of 2020, a year-on-year rise of 6.6%. Regeneron has sole rights for Praluent inside the USA. Each party is solely responsible for funding development and commercialization expenses in their respective territories. # ** Patent_Office_Updates_You_Need_to_Know ** The Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) have revised the safety measures for conducting oral proceedings before the Boards. The Boards of Appeal for the EPO has released revised measures for conducting oral proceedings before the Boards. The measures include restricting attendance to two people per party; staggered meeting times where necessary; and the use of videoconferencing technology. The full order and modified measures can be accessed here. # ** Innovation_capture_–_what_to_look_for_and_how_to capture_it_effectively_(09_December_2020) ** He also has wide experience representing clients at hearings before the European Patent Office (EPO) and UK Intellectual Property Office, in the preparation of validity and infringement opinions, the restoration of patent rights and attacking and defending patents during the EPO opposition procedure. Before joining Potter Clarkson, Ben worked for a large private practice firm in Birmingham. During his time there he was seconded to Ericsson to work with its in- house department on optical networks and other networking technology. # ** Caution_Required_When_Using_Electronic_Signatures_in Patent_Filings ** The European Patent Office (EPO) and UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) typically do not require the filing of assignment documents unless there is doubt in the issue, such as where the applicant of the priority applications differs from that listed in the EP or UK filing. In that case, the EPO and UK IPO may ask for evidence of the assignment, which should have been executed prior to the Convention filing (e.g., the PCT filing). This applies to U.S. provisional applications as well, particularly where inventors are listed on the provisional and the PCT is filed in the true applicant’s name. In such a case, an assignment should be executed before filing the PCT. The EPO will not accept electronic signatures on assignments.3 In the United Kingdom, at least one decision of the UK courts has indicated that an electronic signature may be given the same weight as a handwritten signature, but the law is unsettled and may vary from country to country. Further, if a UK or another national court were to decide the validity in the context of a patent derived from a European patent, there is a significant chance that it would adopt the EPO’s stringent rejection of electronic signatures for non-procedural acts, which include assignments. Numerous other countries and jurisdictions have rejected the use of electronic signatures for assignments. These include—but are not limited to—China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Eurasia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. # **** Software Patents **** # ** This_week_in_IP:_politics_shapes_pharma,_FTC appeal_rejected,_Brexit_guidance_published ** In yet another SEP loss for the car manufacturer in Germany, Daimler was defeated by Conversant Wireless at the Munich Regional Court last Friday, October 23, after the court determined that it was an unwilling licensee. The 21st chamber of the German court granted Conversant an injunction against Daimler over European patent 2934050, which is for an “apparatus and method for providing a connection”. It is used in connectivity modules in certain cars and is considered essential for the LTE standard. The security deposit for enforcing the ruling is €5 million ($5.8 million), a slightly smaller amount than the court asked Sharp to pay for its injunction against Daimler – €5.5 million ($6.5 million) – and a much smaller number than the €7 billion ($8.31 billion) the Mannheim Regional Court wanted from Nokia. Daimler has since announced its intention to appeal against the ruling, stating: “Daimler continues to hold the view that a company cannot be prohibited from using standard essential patents if its suppliers are prepared to pay for a corresponding licence. “We do not anticipate that this will lead to a stop in production and delivery.” Daimler has already been defeated in cases brought by Nokia and Sharp for SEP infringement at the Munich Regional Court and the Mannheim Regional Court respectively. # ** Marathon_musings_–_patenting_running_watch algorithms_in_Europe ** If you managed to catch a bit of the rainy real-life event on TV at the beginning of October, you may have noticed the large number of runners wearing a smart running watch. These devices (from companies like Fitbit, Garmin and TomTom) have revolutionised the way runners are able to train through a myriad of clever features. These include the “basics” like measuring time, distance and current pace. Many models also include more advanced features such as heart rate detection, real time mapping and VO2 max estimation. Some models are even able to generate bespoke training plans based on their wearer’s current fitness level and training goals. It’s a far cry from the days of having to work out one’s pace using a paper map, a piece of string and a stopwatch! One of the neatest things about these running watches is the algorithms they use to accurately estimate an impressive range of fitness parameters from a limited set of physical inputs (e.g. from electrical, light and/or motion detectors). Such algorithms are often uniquely developed by the maker of the watch and the quality of these algorithms can be key to the success of a particular model or brand. It is therefore highly desirable to keep these algorithms protected from competitors. One way to try to protect such algorithms is to seek patent protection. # **** Trademarks **** # ** Trademark_parody_petition_at_SCOTUS_is_‘no_joke’, say_counsel ** Forum shopping could be more common if SCOTUS doesn’t hear the Jack Daniel’s dog toy case, and free speech and consumer confusion could conflict if it does # **** Copyrights **** # ** Movie_Company_Demands_$10K_From_BitTorrent_Pirate, Court_Awards_$750 ** Not mounting a defense in a BitTorrent piracy lawsuit can be a recipe for disaster, with large damages handed down in a default judgment. However, a judge in the United States has treated one such absent defendant lightly, rejecting a $10,000 damages demand in favor of one considerably smaller, just $750. How the judge arrived at this decision is of particular interest. # ** Tech_Giants_Want_EU_‘Safeguard’_to_Proactively Remove_Pirated_Content ** Several of the world’s leading Internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, are calling for a new safeguard under EU law, so they can take proactive measures against piracy and other illegal content. Through the industry organization EDiMA, the tech giants argue that they want to proactively remove content, but only if they’re not held liable as a result. ╒═══════════════════ DAILY LINKS ════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.01.20 ****** ***** Links_1/11/2020:_OpenIndiana_Hipster_2020.10,_RC2_of_Next_Linux_Release and_Trinity_Desktop_Environment_(TDE)_Release ***** Posted in News_Roundup at 6:51 pm by Guest Editorial Team [GNOME bluefish] **** Contents **** * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * **** GNU/Linux **** o ** Linux_Weekly_Roundup:_Fedora_33,_Linux_5.10_rc1,_LibreOffice 7.0.3_and_More ** A quite lot happened actually this week with some big released and a handful of application updates. Some major news as well. Here’s the recap of this week from the Linux Universe. o ** Linux_Weekly_Roundup_#102 ** Hello and welcome to this week’s Linux Roundup. We had another week filled with Linux Releases, Fedora 33, Linux Lite 5.2, Voyager Live 20.10, NixOS 20.09, and OpenIndiana 2020.10. o ** 9to5Linux_Weekly_Roundup:_“Halloween_Edition” ** It’s the Halloween week, so Happy Halloween! I know I’m one day late, but since it’s still weekend why not celebrate Halloween for two days. This week was spooky and full of awesome releases, starting with the amazing Fedora 33 release and continuing with a new Linux phone, news about the next major Ubuntu release, Linux 5.10 as the next LTS kernel, as well as all the latest and greatest distribution and app releases. o **** Audiocasts/Shows **** # ** AMD_brings_the_fight_back_in_GPUs,_New_Ubuntu,_Fedora_and PopOS_releases_–_Linux_News_October_2020_–_YouTube ** Here are some interesting Linux, open source, and privacy news for the end of October 2020. This month, we have increased competition on GPUs, a lot of new distro releases with Ubuntu, Fedora, and PopOS, youtube-dl being taken down for alledged copyright infrigement. Oh and Google also get hit by a lawsuit for monopolistic practices. # ** Neix:_Simplest_SURPRISINGLY_GOOD_RSS_Reader_Around_– YouTube ** I’ve been using Newsboat as my rss feed reader for quite a while but I wanted to see what else was out there so today we’re taking a look at a little application called neix which while not being as feature complete as something like Newsboat it provides most of what you’d want from a terminal rss feed reader. # ** GNU_World_Order_378 ** **normalize** (sometimes packaged as **normalize- audio** ) , **pa-mixer** , and **pm-utils** from the **ap** software set of Slackware Linux. # ** “Hey,_DT!_Why_Is_Fish_The_Best_Shell?”_Plus_Other Questions_Answered. ** In this lengthy rant video, I address a few questions and comments that I’ve been receiving from viewers. Some of the topics include why I call Doom Emacs and Spacemacs “Emacs distributions”, why I think Fish is the best shell, problems with YouTube recommendations, and how someone can learn to stop distro-hopping. # ** More_Linux_Content,_More_Community_|_A_BIG_Channel_Update ** # ** The_Linux_Link_Tech_Show_Episode_878 ** o **** Kernel Space **** # ** Linux_5.9.3 ** I'm announcing the release of the 5.9.3 kernel. All users of the 5.9 kernel series must upgrade. The updated 5.9.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/ stable/linux-stable.git linux-5.9.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/ linux-s... thanks, greg k-h # ** Linux_5.8.18 ** # ** Linux_5.4.74 ** # ** IO_uring_Passthrough_For_KVM_Guests_Is_Yielding_Fantastic Results_–_Phoronix ** At the Linux Foundation’s KVM Forum 2020 this week, Stefano Garzarella of Red Hat presented on the possibility of speeding up virtual machine I/ O performance by sharing the host’s IO_uring queues with guests. In doing so the virtual machines have near bare-metal performance with the proposed patches. IO_uring has been one of the most incredible innovations to the Linux kernel of the past decade. New use-cases continue to be explored for this interface to allow for more efficient I/O. Those unfamiliar with IO_uring can see this whitepaper by Facebook’s Jens Axboe who spearheaded the design and continues to advance its capabilities. # ** Intel_Bus_Lock_Detection_For_The_Linux_Kernel_Proceeding_– Phoronix ** Earlier this year the Linux kernel landed split lock detection for being able to detect and optionally kill processes leading to a split lock since it can cause measurable performance issues and even possible unprivileged denial of service. Building off that in the middle of summer was then proposed bus lock detection. It’s been a few months since then but the bus lock detection for the kernel continues to be worked on and a new version of the proposed patches were sent out this week by Intel’s Fenghua Yu. A bus lock as happens via split locked access to writeback memory or using locks to uncacheable memory. A bus lock can lead to performance more than one thousand cycles slower than an atomic operation within a cache line and will disrupt performance on other cores. # ** Intel’s_Abandoned_“Many_Integrated_Core”_Architecture Being_Removed_With_Linux_5.10_–_Phoronix ** While Linux 5.10-rc2 is coming later today and a week past the merge window, a notable late pull request sent in this morning by Greg Kroah-Hartman is removing the Intel MIC (Many Integrated Core) architecture drivers, a.k.a. Xeon Phi. Lightening up the kernel tree by nearly twenty- seven thousand lines of code is the removal of the Intel MIC drivers from the kernel. This is code for Intel’s failed Intel MIC X100 (Knights Corner and beyond) that was the PCIe form factor add-in co- processor cards based on their Many Integrated Core architecture and derived from the earlier Larrabee project and more. Running on the accelerator cards themselves were their own Linux build. The drivers being removed from Linux 5.10 is all the code for interfacing with the these accelerators that during their short-lived time were marketed as Xeon Phi. # ** Linux_5.10-rc2 ** As usual, the start of the week after the merge window closed was pretty quiet, but things picked up in the last few days. Almost everything here got merged Friday or during the weekend. Which is all normal, but a few things stand out. One is that rc2 continues the pattern of this being a fairly large release - not outrageously so, but this is a slightly bigger rc2 than we usually have. The other is that the diffstat looks quite odd, since I merged the pull from Greg that removed the MIC drivers for hardware that never shipped. That is about half the patch, although it's not why I call rc2 big - it's just a single commit. There's also a few big ABI documentation formatting patches that look a bit odd, but make the docs more easily parsable by tools. Again, just a couple of patches, but a big part of the diff. Anyway, if you ignore those things, the rest looks fairly normal, with small fixes all over the place. The shortlog below gives a flavor of the details, I don't think anything else particularly stands out. Despite the size, I don't get the feeling that there's anything really odd going on, and so far the release seems to be going smoothly. But please test, that's how we find problems, Linus # ** Linux_5.10-rc2_Released_Following_The_Intel_MIC_Removal ** The second weekly release candidate to Linux 5.10 is now available for testing. Linux 5.10-rc1 last Sunday marked the end of the two week merge window that saw a lot of new features introduced. In case you missed it, see our Linux 5.10 feature list for a look at all of the new functionality for this kernel slated to be released as stable in December. # ** Linux_Kernel_5.8_Reaches_End_of_Life,_Users_Urged_to Upgrade_to_Linux_5.9_Series ** Released on August 2nd, 2020, the Linux 5.8 kernel series was dubbed as “one of the biggest releases of all time by Linus Torvalds. It brought numerous new features and enhancements, such as support for LZO-RLE compression in the F2FS file system, inline encryption support for the block layer, a new faccessat2() system call, a new initrdmem= boot option for specifying an initial RAM disk image, and a new CAP_PERFMON functionality. But, as all good things most come to an end, and since Linux kernel 5.8 was not a long-term supported branch, it will no longer receive further updates that address important bugs and security issues. Linux kernel 5.8.18 is the last update in the series, and if you’re using it you should consider upgrading to the latest Linux kernel 5.9 series as soon as possible after reading this. o **** Applications **** # ** Ventoy_|_Multi-ISO_Bootable_USB_Drive ** From time to time, I like to try a new distribution of Linux, not because I am dissatisfied with openSUSE as that is NOT the case but like going to another town to visit and see what culinary options they have to offer. I like to try out another Plasma distribution or something that is quite different than what I am used to using. Part of the fun of Linux is all the options and therefore, I want to peruse the buffet from time to time. Also, as a non-card carrying member of the BDLL community, we do these weekly “challenges” and I like to participate from time to time in that. The annoying part about testing distributions is that I have amassed a collection of USB flash drives with various distributions on it and I am often fumbling finding one that I don’t want to write over. The solution, Ventoy. This allows me to have multiple distributions on one USB drive and I also do not have to write the images to the device. I just have to drag and drop the ISO right onto. The system will scan the device recursively so I can still keep everything organized into folders. [...] Ventoy is a fantastic utility, especially if you are regularly or even semi-regularly installing operating systems on machines. Setting up Ventoy is not difficult, so long as you understand the The installation is not difficult, so long as you understand the particulars. Since this isn’t something I would do every day, this little blathering is another note to future me and hopefully it works well for present you. # ** Ventoy_1.0.27 ** Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files. With Ventoy, you don’t need to format the disk over and over, you just need to copy the ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD (x)EFI files to the USB drive and boot them directly. You can copy many files at a time and ventoy will give you a boot menu to select them. Both Legacy BIOS and UEFI are supported in the same way. Most type of OS supported (Windows/WinPE/ Linux/Unix/Vmware/Xen…) # ** Giara_–_Modern_GTK_Reddit_App_for_Linux_[Ubuntu_PPA] ** Looking for a Reddit client for Linux desktop? Giara is a modern new GTK app for Reddit written in Python 3 with GTK. Giara is a free open-source software created with mobile Linux in mind. It comes with most Reddit features including new text, link, media posts, search subreddits and users, up vote, down vote, post rely, dark mode support, and more. # ** man-pages-5.09_is_released ** I’ve released man-pages-5.09. The release tarball is available on kernel.org. The browsable online pages can be found on man7.org. The Git repository for man-pages is available on kernel.org. This release resulted from patches, bug reports, reviews, and comments from more than 40 contributors. The release includes more than 500 commits that changed nearly 600 pages. Nine new pages were added in this release. o **** Instructionals/Technical **** # ** How_To_Install_ClamAV_on_CentOS_8_–_idroot ** In this tutorial, we will show you how to install ClamAV on CentOS 8. For those of you who didn’t know, ClamAV is an open-source (GPL) antivirus engine for detecting trojans, viruses, malware, adware, rootkits, and other malicious threats on Linux. It’s easy to use and best for Linux based Web and Mail server. This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step by step installation of ClamAV antivirus on CentOS 8. # ** How_To_Install_NVM_on_Amazon_Linux_–_TecAdmin ** NVM or Node Version Manager is a command-line utility for installing and managing multiple node.js versions on Linux based systems. With the help of NVM, you can install any specific nodejs version on your system and use to run your application. This tutorial will help you to install NVM on your Amazon Linux machine. Also helped you to basic uses of NVM for Amazon Linux systems. # ** High_load_average_while_package_building_on_Fedora_33 ** # ** How_To_Install_Nginx_on_CentOS_8 ** In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Nginx on CentOS 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Nginx is a powerful web server software that can be used on your server. It is also known for its high performance and low memory usage which will allow fewer resources to be used but getting the job done efficiently. A popular setup is to use it as a proxy for Apache, which can then serve application requests. This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step by step installation of the Nginx web server on CentOS 8. # ** How_to_Install_PrestaShop_on_CentOS_8 ** PrestaShop is one of the most well-known eCommerce platforms in the world. It’s free, open-source, and is built on top of PHP, while using a MySQL database to store the data. It helps small to large businesses to create and run a successful online store. PrestaShop is simple, easy-to-use, easy to install, and is versatile – it provides a great platform for people around the world to create their online stores. Let’s begin with the installation. # ** Running_Isso_on_NixOS_in_a_Docker_container_⁕_Vincent Bernat ** This short article documents how I run Isso, the commenting system used by this blog, inside a Docker container on NixOS, a Linux distribution built on top of Nix. Nix is a declarative package manager for Linux and other Unix systems. # ** How_to_install_Photopea_on_a_Chromebook_–_a_Photoshop alternative ** Today we are looking at how to install Photopea, a Photoshop alternative, on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below. # ** How_to_install_Slack_on_Ubuntu_20.10_–_YouTube ** In this video, we are looking at how to install Slack on Ubuntu 20.10. o **** Desktop Environments/WMs **** # **** K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt **** # ** Kubuntu_20.04_with_KDE_Legacy_Oxygen_Theme ** As I posted last year, KDE 4 is my favorite. Surprisingly, Kubuntu 20.04 brings the legacy Oxygen theme built-in. Thanks to Gemlog on social media, I discovered it. Now I bring you how I do it. Results first! There are my Kubuntu Focal machine with the legendary Oxygen theme I loved so much. It is amazing I can still enjoy this look and feel once again after eight years. # ** TDE_R14.0.9_release_is_here! ** The Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE) development team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of TDE R14.0.9. Albeit being a maintenance release, this version brings along a bunch of new applications to expand the offer of the TDE desktop and provide a more modern look. TDE is a complete software desktop environment designed for Unix-like operating systems, intended for computer users preferring a traditional desktop model, and is free/libre software. Born as a fork of KDE 3.5 back in 2010, TDE is now a fully independent project with its own personality and development team, available for various Linux distros, BSD and DilOS. # ** Trinity_Desktop_14.0.9_Is_The_Latest_For_This Decade-Old_KDE_3.5_Fork_–_Phoronix ** For those still fond of the once venerable KDE 3.5 desktop, the Trinity Desktop Environment is still maintaining its KDE 3.5 fork after more than one decade. Trinity Desktop R14.0.9 debuted today with some additional applications now included and other updates. New applications included with Trinity Desktop R14.0.9 are the Codeine media player, TDEDocker, and TDEPacman. Codeine was the media player during the KDE 3.x players prior to becoming Dragon Player. TDEDocker allows docking any application to the system tray. TDEPacman is a Pacman game. # ** Two_New_“Tablets”:_Wacom_Cintiq_Pro_24″_Touch_and Remarkable_2_–_Fading_Memories ** In 2018, I discussed the digital painting devices I had used up til then. These were a Lenovo Thinkpad X61t, a Lenovo Thinkpad Helix, a Microsoft Surface Pro 3, a Wacom Cintiq Hybrid Companion, an iPad Pro 12.9″, a Wacom Mobile Studio Pro 16″ and a Lenovo Yoga 920. I didn’t discuss the Wacom Graphire, the Wacom Intuos 3, the Huion H610 or the Yiyniva MVP22U that I also had around, probably because apart from the Intuos 3, all of that hardware was stored in the Hardware Attic. But recently, the Hybrid Companion became even more unusable (it was already bad because of the enormous parallax): the screen’s brightness just couldn’t reach visible levels anymore. And the Wacom Mobile Studio Pro has been dying for over a year now — not good for expensive hardware bought only in 2017. When running as a computer, it would shut itself down randomly, probably because it was getting too hot. So I got myself a Wacom Link device so I could use it as a regular cintiq, but after two days of usage… The display would reset itself randomly and finally it wouldn’t power up anymore, at all. # ** News_from_KDE_PIM_in_September-October_2020_–_ervin ** This year Akademy was super easy to attend, no travel was necessary. It was all virtual and it was a blast! As usual Volker’s post about Akademy 2020 covers a bit PIM land. One highlight of the discussions during the PIM BoF was the EteSync resource getting merge. This was the result of a GSoC, it’s always pleasant when those succeed so well. There’s also been further discussion around our GnuPG and Kleopatra activities which was also a good opportunity to rejoice regarding the VS-NfD certification achieved last year. Of course, the efforts regarding moving more of the PIM related libraries to KDE Frameworks are still on going. There’s overall more of a need to explore what’s left and make plans on how to split them up, a sprint might happen regarding this. And last but not least, KAsync was mentioned. This is currently reworked by Dan mostly for Akonadi needs but it might appear in KDE Frameworks later on. We’ll see. o **** Distributions **** # ** The_Earliest_Linux_Distros:_Before_Mainstream_Distros Became_So_Popular ** In here we have tried to explore how the idea of popular distros such as Red Hat, Debian, Slackware, SUSE, Ubuntu and many others came into being after the first Linux kernel became available. As Linux was initially released in the form of a kernel in 1991, the distros we know today was made possible with the help of numerous collaborators throughout the world with the creation of shells, libraries, compilers and related packages to make it a complete Operating System. # **** New Releases **** # ** Nitrux_1.3.4_is_available_to_download ** We are pleased to announce the launch of Nitrux 1.3.4. This new version brings together the latest software updates, bug fixes, performance improvements, and ready- to-use hardware support. Nitrux 1.3.4 is available for immediate download. # ** Nitrux_1.3.4_Switches_to_KDE_Plasma_5.20_Desktop, Offers_Support_for_Linux_Kernel_5.9 ** Nitrux 1.3.4 isn’t your regular monthly update, as the development team decided to jump ship and finally ditch the KDE Plasma 5.19 desktop environment series used in the last few releases for the latest and greatest KDE Plasma 5.20 series. The newest point release, KDE Plasma 5.20.2, is included in this release by default, and it’s been boosted with a new HUD functionality called plasma-hud, which lets users search through an application’s app menu, but only if the respective apps expose their menubar to the Global Menu plasmoid. # ** Linux_Lite_5.2_Released,_Available_to_Download ** A new version of Linux Lite is now available to download. I don’t think I’ve written about this Ubuntu- based Linux distro on the site before, but seeing as it’s just pushed out a major update to download servers I thought “why not?!” — and here we are! “This is the most feature rich, complete Linux Lite release to date. This is the release many people have been waiting for,” the project says in a release announcement. Linux Lite 5.2 is based on Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS and Linux Kernel 5.4. Aimed at lower-end computers, Linux Lite ships a customised Xfce desktop and a careful set of curated apps, settings, and utilities. # ** Linux_Lite_5.2_Final_Released ** # ** ArchBang_November_Release_i3_Tiling_Window_Manager Based ** Have just uploaded a release for November, usual thing updated packages and configs. Guide can now be viewed by using Super + g it includes some basic keybind shortcuts in i3. Firefox is back for now, while huge it does support many features that other lighter browsers do not have. Minor changes in abinstall fixes to remove installers from Conky post install. # **** Arch Family **** # ** [Arch]_Accessible_installation_medium ** We are very happy to announce that accessibility features have been added to our installation medium with archiso v49. From release 2020.11.01 onward these are available via the 2nd boot loader menu item. A specific installation guide can be found on the wiki. Many thanks go to Alexander Epaneshnikov who integrated the features from the TalkingArch project into archiso’s releng profile, which is used for creating the installation medium. # **** IBM/Red Hat/Fedora **** # ** In_it_together:_When_your_manager_is_your_greatest advocate_|_Opensource.com ** Allison’s unique perspective on management stems from a passionate focus on empowerment and using guidelines and accountability systems to help her team connect to their own intrinsic motivation. In fact, a few years ago, Allison and I were part of a group of associates trying to support and advance the concept of empowerment in our organization. As a specific open management practice, empowerment is important for her and her team, specifically because the nature of their work varies so much—each person needs to be able to make decisions about their work within specific guidelines. # **** Debian Family **** # ** FOSS_Activites_in_October_2020_·_utkarsh2102 ** Here’s my (thirteenth) monthly update about the activities I’ve done in the F/L/OSS world. # ** Paul_Wise:_FLOSS_Activities_October_2020 ** This month I didn’t have any particular focus. I just worked on issues in my info bubble. o **** Devices/Embedded **** # ** Emulate_the_ZX_Spectrum_with_Raspberry_Pi ** Sir Clive Sinclair, born in 1940 is an entrepreneur and inventor that many will know. You may know him for his quirky Sinclair C5 battery powered “velomobile” which was set to solve commuters problems in 1985. But many will know him for a range of electronic products that bear his name. Sinclair Radionics was formed in 1961 and it created cost effective electronic products such as pocket calculators and portable televisions. But, in 1980, Sinclair’s company released the ZX80 computer for £99.95 and it was marketed as the “first personal computer for under £100”. The ZX80 proved a cost effective means to get your first computer and learn how to code but it did have a few quirks, famously causing the screen to flicker as each key was pressed. The ZX81 released in 1981 and retailing for half the price of the ZX80 addressed this and other issues while providing a solid base for learners eager to code. An agreement with Timex saw the ZX81 hit the US market as the Timex Sinclair 1000, and an unauthorised clone, the TK85 was released in Brazil via Microdigital Eletronica. The ZX81 was a success and from that initial success more “ZX” machines were released with better graphics, and infamous rubber keys. The first ZX spectrum, released in 1982 introduced the rubber keys and diminutive size of the iconic classic computer. It is here where we start our journey into emulating the ZX Spectrum machines, chiefly the 48K and 128K aka “The Toastrack”. Can emulation give us the same nostalgic glow, can we create BASIC code projects and what is the best way to emulate a ZX Spectrum? Below, we show you two methods: one which turns your Raspberry Pi into a Spectrum and another which gives you a simple emulator that should work in Ubuntu and other flavors of Linux. # ** Ubuntu_20.10_Brings_Full_Desktop_and_Micro_Clouds_to Raspberry_Pi_4 ** Ubuntu Desktop 20.10 is now fully supported on the Raspberry Pi 4, which can be transformed into a complete Ubuntu workstation, says Ubuntu. Ubuntu 20.10 also introduces Micro Clouds for on-demand compute at the edge. Ubuntu 20.10 is the first Ubuntu image built as a full desktop image, rather than being a server image like previous releases. According to Tom’s Hardware, Ubuntu 20.10 is easy to install and use on the Raspberry Pi and represents a solid foundation for future releases, although it is unlikely it will replace Raspberry Pi OS soon. # ** Raspberry_Pi_4_Gets_An_Impressively_Solid_Android_11_Port ** Raspberry Pi is a great mini-computer that helps you explore computing without spending too much on a machine. With a size as small as a credit card, it offers numerous I/O ports, unlike Appl.. (*cough) $3000 machines that offer only two USB Type-C ports. Raspberry Pi can run Ubuntu and its own operating system Raspbian, which, as the name suggests, is also based on Debian. But now, thanks to OmniROM, the first Android 11 port for Raspberry Pi 4 has arrived. # ** Raspberry_Pi_Is_Ripe_And_Ready_For_Android_11_With_Fresh OmniROM_Release ** After a relatively quiet first year of existence, it seems like you can barely swing a cat without running into a new operating system distribution for the Raspberry Pi 4. Raspbian Buster has been around since the beginning, but last weekend Canonical announced a version of Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla desktop for the most popular single- board computer. Now, Android developers have gotten in on the act with the first builds of the OmniROM Android 11 custom ROM for Raspberry Pi. A mobile operating system might seem a little weird for a small desktop platform, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t remember that the Raspberry Pi 4 is more than just a small computer. With the right add-on hardware, like the RasPad 3, it can provide a full tablet experience. For that reason it’s probably no surprise to find that the OmniROM developers have created this distribution with a tablet profile rather than building it for desktop use as something like an Android TV. While it’s unconventional wedge shape and overall heft might be a little weird as a traditional tablet, the RasPad 3 seems like an ideal kiosk, something that for which Android seems like a good fit. # ** Novasom_M9_RK3399(K)_SBC_offers_DSI,_eDP_and_HDMI_display interfaces,_M.2_SSD_storage ** We’ve previously seen compact Rockchip RK3399 powered single board computer with support for dual displays with the likes of Rock Pi 4 and NanoPi M4B thanks to HDMI and MIPI DSI interfaces. Novasom M9 is another compact RK3399 SBC with both HDMI and MIPI DSI, as well as DisplayPort or embedded DisplayPort (eDP) for a wider choice of display interfaces, although as I understand it is still limited to dual independent display configurations. Another differentiating feature is the option for a wider -20 to +85°C operating temperature meaning it can be equipped with Rockchip RK3399K processor instead of RK3399, and the board also happens to come with an M.2 socket for NVMe SSDs just like Rock Pi 4 board. [...] The company can provide Android and Linux BSP for the board. There’s limited public information about the software, but M9 should be compatible with other “RASPMOOD” boards from the company that come with an SDK that makes software development similar to what you’d do with Raspberry Pi OS. # ** May_RISC-V_Processors_Compete_With_Intel,_ARM,_and_AMD? ** # **** Open Hardware/Modding **** # ** Precursor_open_mobile_hardware_up_for_pre-order_for $450_and_up_(crowdfunding) ** Developed by bunnie Huang and Sean “xobx” Cross, the Precursor designed to be a pocket- sized, mobile device that gives owners complete control. If you have the technical know-how to inspect the code or program the device, you don’t have to trust that the chip designers, OS developer, or anyone else is protecting your privacy – all code can be inspected, and you can “compile your CPU” from source using the FPGA. That said, the Precursor probably isn’t powerful enough to use as a replacement for a modern smartphone. It has modern features like a USB Type-C port, but out of the box the FPGA will work like a 100 MHz, 32-bit RISC-V processor. It can be configured to operate like many other older chips, but with a top speed of 100 MHz, the Precursor has the computing power of a 15-year-old smartphone, PDA, or handheld game console like a Palm Treo 600, BlackBerry 8700, or Nintendo DS. # **** Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications **** # ** Top_3_Free_Apps_to_Sign_Docs_On_Android_&_iPhone ** # ** 13_new_and_notable_Android_apps_and_live_wallpapers from_the_last_week_including_Android_TV_Data_Saver, Starlink,_and_TVision_(10/24/20_–_10/31/20) ** # ** The_8_best_local_music_players_on_Android,_now_that Google_Play_Music_is_dead ** # ** 13_new_Android_games_from_the_last_week:_The_best, worst,_and_everything_in_between_(10/26/20_–_11/1/20) ** # ** The_10_Best_Android_TV_Boxes_(Updated_2020) ** # ** 7_Essential_Android_Apps_for_Those_Working_From_Home ** # ** Study:_These_Are_The_Best_Android_Antivirus_for_Home and_Business_Use ** # ** Minecraft_Java_Edition_Free_Download:_How_to Download_Minecraft_Java_Edition_Free_for_PC,_Android ** # ** Google_Maps_Can_Help_You_Get_the_Best_Android_Phone Substantially_Cheaper ** # ** Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_S7_Plus_vs_Galaxy_Tab_S7:_which Android_tablet_is_best_for_you? ** # ** Huawei’s_New_‘Fight’_With_Google_To_Beat_Android_Is Suddenly_More_Threatening ** # ** Caterpillar_CAT_S42_rugged_Android_smartphone_review ** # ** How_to_Get_the_HTC_Sense_Weather_&_Clock_Widget_on Android ** # ** Revolut_Is_Down_For_Android_Users:_Online_Bank Confirms_Outages ** o **** Free, Libre, and Open Source Software **** # ** OpenIndiana_Hipster_2020.10_is_here ** After almost 6 months of development we have released the new OpenIndiana Hipster snapshot 2020.10 right on time on October 31st, 2020. # ** OpenIndiana_2020.10_Released_For_Continuing_Where OpenSolaris_Left_Off_–_Phoronix ** September marked a decade since the OpenIndiana project was announced for continuing on with the OpenSolaris code-base (and ultimately based on Illumos) in being born out of the justified and proven accurate concerns when Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems. OpenIndiana Hipster 2020.10 was released this weekend as the newest version of this open-source operating system. # **** Programming/Development **** # **** Perl/Raku **** # ** Monthly_Report_–_October ** I must confess I do cry and cry like a baby. It feels nice afterwards, I must say. Last month was really difficult for me, on personal and professional front. On personal level, I am undergoing therapy for Depression and Anxiety. On professional front, I missed many things. For the first time, I couldn’t take part in Hacktoberfest in the same passion as before. Another low point, I stopped contributing in Swift for The Weekly Challenge. Then I stopped taking part in the weekly challenge completely. No weekly blog either talking about my contributions. I didn’t stop there, I even stopped doing live session video. At one point, I even decided not to do monthly report. With all the negativity, I received plenty of support and helping hands. Thanks everyone. # **** Python **** # ** Everything_about_Python_Lists_|_FOSS_Linux ** Python has many data types like integer, float, string, list, tuple, etc. In this tutorial, we will learn about the list data type. Lists are one of the most used data types of python and can be used for many operations. To follow this tutorial, it is recommended to have the latest python version installed in your system. You can follow our guide on installing the latest version of python. Most of the code in this tutorial can be run in the python shell, but it is recommended to have an IDE to write python code. You can check our comparison on the top 10 IDE for writing code. # ** Five_Advanced_Django_Tips_|_LAAC_Technology ** Many of the “Django tips” articles that I see online are geared towards beginners not intermediate or advanced Django developers. I hope to demonstrate some of Django’s depth, specifically around the ORM, and you’ll need to have an intermediate understanding of Django. Let’s start by looking at the example models. # ** How_I_learned_Python_|_Codementor ** I wanted to learn Python because Python is a object oriented programming language and is used widely in Programming. # ** Translating_Web_Page_while_Scraping ** Suppose you need to scrape data from a website after translating the web page in R and Python. In google chrome, there is an option (or functionality) to translate any foreign language. If you are an english speaker and don’t know any other foreign language and you want to extract data from the website which does not have option to convert language to English, this article would help you how to perform translation of a webpage. o **** Standards/Consortia **** # ** Rajeesh_K_Nambiar:_Announcing_‘Ezhuthu/എഴുത്ത്_’_—_a handwriting/script_style_font_for_Malayalam ** To celebrate the birth of Kerala on November 1st, the southernmost state in India with around 35 million people speaking its language Malayalam; Rachana Institute of Typography is announcing the release of ‘Ezhuthu/എഴുത്ത്’ — a handwriting/script style Unicode font with traditional orthography. [...] The glyphs are drawn by famed calligrapher Narayana Bhattathiri. The hand-drawn characters are turned to vector graphics which are then transformed to font shapes and this typography is done by Hussain KH who lead the Rachana Aksharavedi movement and designed popular fonts such as Rachana, Meera, Meera Inimai etc. The fine tuned typeface need OpenType shaping to correctly shape and render advanced conjunct character formations in Malayalam. The OpenType feature development, integration and technical infrastructure is worked on by me, Rajeesh. Ashok Kumar and CVR made key contributions to the font development. * **** Leftovers **** o **** Integrity/Availability **** # **** Proprietary **** # **** Pseudo-Open Source **** # **** Privatisation/Privateering **** # **** Linux Foundation **** # ** Linux_Foundation_Creates_Its_Own Versions_of_Apple/Google_Coronavirus Tracing_Apps ** # ** Linux_Basis_Creates_Its_Personal Variations_of_Apple/Google Coronavirus_Tracing_Apps ** o **** Monopolies **** # **** Patents **** # ** EPO-CNIPA_Partnership_Enables_Chinese_PCT_Applicants To_Choose_EPO_As_The_ISA ** A two‑year pilot between the European Patent Office (EPO) and the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) will enable nationals and residents of China to select the EPO as their International Searching Authority (ISA) for applications filed in English under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The pilot, which starts on 1 December 2020, will be open to applicants filing with either the CNIPA or the World Intellectual Property Organization’s International Bureau (IB) as receiving Office and limited to a total of 2 500 applications in the first 12 months and 3 000 applications in the second 12 months. # ** Sanofi,_Regeneron_win_EU_patent_case_against_Amgen over_Praluent ** The European Patent Office (EPO) Technical Boards of Appeal has ruled in Sanofi and Regeneron’s favor, invalidating certain claims of Amgen’s European patent (EP 2 215 124) directed to PCSK9 (proprotein convertase subtilisin/Kexin type 9) antibodies relevant to Praluent (alirocumab). Praluent will continue to be available in European countries where it is approved for use and for sale. “We are pleased with today’s decision by the European Patent Office, which upholds the rigorous standard for pharmaceutical patents that we argued for in this case, affirming that Amgen’s asserted claims against Sanofi in Europe are invalid,” said Karen Linehan, Executive Vice President, Legal Affairs and General Counsel, Sanofi. ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛