Techrights Bulletin for Monday, November 09, 2020 ┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅ Generated Tue 10 Nov 02:23:32 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/2020/11/09/assange-in-the-eyes-of-biden/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/biden-riaa-and-mpaa/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/change-we-can-believe-in/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/drake-riaa-meme/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/health-crisis-exploited-to-harm-health/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/inside-the-epo-lock-downs/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/irc-log-081120/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/no-epo-leadership/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/the-pardon-train/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/thomas-grzybowski-on-freesw/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/two-party-elections/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/why-ipfs/#comments Followed by Daily Links (news picks): http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/grep-3-6/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/09/mutt-2-0/#comments ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** President-elect_Joe_Biden_(or_Vice_President_at_the_Time):_Journalists Are_Like_Terrorists_Who_‘Conspire’_If/When_They_Expose_US_War_Crimes_and Government_Corruption ***** Posted in America at 2:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Video_from_one_decade_ago http://techrights.org/videos/assange-biden.webm Summary: “I’d argue that it’s closer to being a high-tech terrorist than the Pentagon Papers,” explained Joe Biden on NBC (Meet the Press) ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** Just_for_the_Record(ing_Industry):_Joe_Biden_is_an_Enemy_of_Freedom_and of_Software_Freedom ***** Posted in Free/Libre_Software, Microsoft at 8:43 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz It has been a fantastic week for the RIAA and MPAA [Biden and Chris Dodd] “Former Sen. [then MPAA chief (connected to RIAA)] Chris Dodd is helping his longtime friend Joe Biden in choosing his running mate,” the media_reported back_in_July [Biden and Bush medal]Summary: It’s important to understand where Joe Biden comes from in order to better understand where he is going after settling in the White House WE promised we’d not say negative things about Biden until after he ousts the resident of the White House. It’s important, however, that people understand what we’re dealing with here. The RIAA declared_war_on_Free_software_last_month (maybe it had done that before, but to a lesser degree) and Microsoft assisted the RIAA greatly. The RIAA is closely connected to MPAA, which was headed by a very close friend of President-elect Biden. Expect no good to come out of it (yes, Donald Trump would be worse, but that’s not the point). “Electing one dictator to spite the worse dictator still leaves us with the infamous #TwoDictators trap.”When President Obama was in charge Hollywood got what it wanted. When Obama was still a candidate Biden was somewhat of a liability to him because of his pro-war leanings and his connections to Hollywood, which were noted by the media. [Biden and Bush medal]It’s not surprising that Biden would later proceed to the spectacles on the left and the right (photo at the top), basically whitewashing the name of a horrible war criminal with a medal named “Liberty”. Biden also claims responsibility for unconstitutional laws, so to what degree should people rejoice as opposed to pressure his administration? There’s already a transition team being formed and we can expect it to be just about as corporate and corrupt as Trump’s. Electing one dictator to spite the worse dictator still leaves us with the infamous #TwoDictators trap. The Green Party supporters and leftists in general are being compelled to support people who are to the left of nobody except Trump. █ ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** [Meme]_Some_Things_Will_Never_Change ***** Posted in Deception at 7:51 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [The three birds talking: Hope, Change we can believe in, Do you believe? No, but Trump sucks. Biden sucks also.] Summary: Disillusionment regarding the upcoming presidency won’t help; progressives need to become more active and increasingly vocal if they want things to improve beyond “not Trump” ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** [Meme]_For_Free_Software_to_be_Freedom-Respecting_Its_Development_and Distribution_Need_to_be_Decentralised_and_Widely_Distributed,_Not_Centralised and_Monopolised_by_Microsoft’s_GitHub ***** Posted in Free/Libre_Software, Microsoft at 8:51 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [Drake RIAA Meme (Cats and Three Panels Version)] [Merkel: Delete GitHub]Summary: The recent events in GitHub ought to remind people, yet again, that GitHub and Free software are inherently incompatible, as GNU had warned years before Microsoft bought it THE MEME above needn’t be explained much, but for those are are baffled by the part in the middle, see this_article. “Biden won’t change for the better until he’s pressured…”To be very, very clear (and avoid misunderstandings), we are glad that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump, but we certainly consider Biden to be anything but an ally. Biden won’t change for the better until he’s pressured (and that sort of pressure too isn’t guaranteed to accomplish anything). █ ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** Inside_the_EPO_During_Corona:_The_Management_of_the_European_Patent Office_Was_(Fore)Warned_About_Exploiting_a_Public_Health_Crisis ***** Posted in Europe, Patents at 4:22 pm by Guest Editorial Team It’s a matter of public record now [Health pills] Summary: An “OPEN LETTER” (not open to the public but to EPO staff) correctly asserts — in a much-needed statement for the record — that “postponement of reforms is necessary” because EPO staff is already under great and growing stress due to the pandemic (this was in March when lock-downs were extended to countries other than Italy) “Coronavirus pandemic: postponement of reforms [sic] is necessary” was an open letter from the Central Staff Committee, issued to António_Campinos back in March. Like Benoît_Battistelli before him, Campinos knew how to exploit crises outside the EPO (e.g. terror attacks) to implement repressive new measures. Here’s the full letter as it was circulated almost 8 months ago (remember that at the time of this letter lock-downs were just days away in the UK and travel between countries was getting difficult for these examiners who work away from their home country). European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY Reference: sc20048cl-0.3.1/4.2.2 Date: 19.03.2020 Mr António Campinos President of the EPO Room 1081 – ISAR OPEN LETTER Coronavirus pandemic: postponement of reforms is necessary Dear Mr President, Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, governments in Europe are now concentrating their efforts on ensuring that their citizens are safe and to limit the number of casualties. Some also delay discussions on (important) reforms which are not a priority. The pandemic severely affects the Office, too, where many colleagues are now staying at home, trying to reconcile work and family obligations, such as caring for (young) children whose schools are closed. The first priority of the Office must be the health of staff and their families. Anything else should be put on the back burner. The specific situation of an International Organisation like the EPO, which acts as an employer but also in many respect takes over responsibilities of a sovereign state, imposes a reinforced duty of care. For us to perform our duties as staff representatives in accordance with Article 34 ServRegs1 we will need to stay in close contact with staff to exchanges information, sentiments and opinions. Your persistent refusal to permit free e-mail traffic with all staff has already significantly hampered us in efficiently and effectively representing staff. With the COVID-19-induced restrictions on contacts and a de facto shut-down of the Office we now, on top, also cannot gather staff in General Assemblies to inform them and get their feedback. The most important element of consultation, namely the possibility for the elected interlocutors to be able to consult the group they represent, is missing. We therefore currently have the greatest difficulties representing staff in consultations that concern the employment package. In addition, the pandemic also affects the good functioning of the Administrative Council (AC) and its bodies, notably the Budget and Finance Committee (BFC). In such an unfavourable context, the far-reaching reforms which you were intending to put on the agendas of the May BFC meeting and the June AC meeting should simply be postponed until halfway normal conditions are restored, especially as there is no urgency to implement a new salary adjustment procedure (SAP) in view of Article 10 of the current SAP (automatic reconduction for one year). Continuing to rush important reforms in the current circumstances would be rightly perceived as taking advantage of an exceptional crisis and displaying a profound disregard for staff, further eroding the trust in the Organisation. It would also bear the serious risk of making those reforms illegal. We urge you to postpone your plans for reforming the SAP until the Coronavirus pandemic is contained so as to allow normal functioning of staff representation, the Office and its supervising bodies. Meanwhile we can continue to exchange (in writing or by video conference) and hopefully make progress towards an acceptable compromise on a new SAP. Yours sincerely, Alain Dumont Acting Chairman of the Central Staff Committee cc.: AC delegations Ms Nellie Simon; Vice-President DG4 ____________ 1 “[The Staff Committee] shall contribute to the smooth running of the service by providing a channel for the expression of opinion by the staff”. It is already known by now (it has been a long time) that the advice in this letter was disregarded; the Office plans layoffs and it is going ahead with its illegal plans, often under the convenient cover of a public health crisis. Later in the series we’ll highlight representatives’ response to that. With decreasing work security (hard to find alternative employment when so many people out there are unemployed) it’s cruel for an Office with billions in the bank to crush its sole asset: the staff. But when the Office is run by incompetent autocrats and their longtime friends what else can be expected? █ ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** Inside_the_EPO_During_Corona:_A_New_Series_About_the_European_Patent Office_During_European_Lock-downs ***** Posted in Europe, Patents at 3:50 pm by Guest Editorial Team Examiners are human beings and scientists; they’re not cogwheels! [Several businessmen] Summary: European lock-downs have profoundly affected the lives of European Patent Office examiners (who are in effect scientists, unlike their managers); in an act of solidarity and transparency (for accountability, which EPO management truly lacks) we publish a series of documents and letters “Desperately nothing new from the EPO,” one EPO insider noted. “There is very little life left in the office. But the silence may be broken when Mediapart publishes a series of articles about l’OEB.” (Benoît_Battistelli and António Campinos are both French speakers) One way to break the silence somewhat is to assess the happenings at the Office during Coronavirus lock-downs, based on documents circulated internally among staff and staff representatives (CSC and SUEPO). We aren’t just blindly publishing these; we carefully study what’s published and whether it’s safe to put it in the public domain (once the time is right). “We aren’t just blindly publishing these; we carefully study what’s published and whether it’s safe to put it in the public domain (once the time is right).”In the coming days if not weeks we intend to publish many documents; the rest of November we’ll be locked down here in England anyway (until December 2nd if not longer). For readers who think this has nothing to do with software freedom we kindly remind that 1) the EPO’s policy is being extended to other continents (the EPO is bragging about it) and 2) the EPO is illegally granting software_patents_in Europe and these hurt software development in general (Free software more so because of limited financial means for legal defence). [Q1 South View]Feedback about the series can, as always, be sent to us securely (a number of insiders are already familiar with communication channels). One quick way to supply us with information is the IRC applet below (or here), albeit we suggest accessing it with an IP address other than one’s home and a very generic nickname (makes it difficult enough to pinpoint sources). As we’re dealing with the EPO here — not the US military — public terminal access should be safe enough. Without further ado, let’s study what goes on “Inside the EPO During Corona…” █ ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** IRC_Proceedings:_Sunday,_November_08,_2020 ***** Posted in IRC_Logs at 2:31 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 =============================================================================== **** IPFS Mirrors **** _____________________________________________________________________________ |CID___________________________________________|Description___________________| |QmNREyEMVMPuFJxrJGBMzwbxzDNfe1JjEZ5duGX8VL8z71|IRC log for 081120 (full IRC | |______________________________________________|log)__________________________| |QmU3QMm4W672SSN2buqEG9ouKsQ6EtXYSX6gn6WfT4haSM|IRC log for social-081120 | |______________________________________________|(full_IRC_log)________________| |QmQEmXnY4ETbzMR95rxap2D3c9D5zoNcukjrnfbxtDFivj|IRC log for techbytes-081120 | |______________________________________________|(full_IRC_log)________________| |QmYqvfUaqAt7kAKM8kjjLhVsmaLtBCAPUBHb2iAsZwEk8Z|IRC log for techrights-081120 | |______________________________________________|(full_IRC_log)________________| [IPFS logo] **** Bulletin for Yesterday **** Local_copy | CID (IPFS): QmUzg7gYUYeQZnNpRqRFQDoWcbEZUSphfYKmDhSpEWWSMS ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** Inside_the_EPO_During_Corona:_Like_Benoît_Battistelli,_António_Campinos Leaves_Out_Staff_Representation_Out_of_Consultation_Regarding_Unprecedented Health_Crisis_Which_Impacts_Staff ***** Posted in Europe, Patents at 4:48 pm by Guest Editorial Team The current EPO President shows the leadership skills of Donald Trump and Benoît_Battistelli [The mental health series] Summary: Dependence on the Office for one’s salary (basic means) is exploited by the autocrats who run the Office to crush the staff and not even listen to staff while doing so [Dependent] THE biggest asset of the EPO is its staff. Without staff, the EPO is nothing but a stamping authority and a monopoly on the stamping (in EU member states and beyond, except NPOs). “What kind of cruel regime fails to involve actual staff for input?”What on Earth does Mr. Ernst smoke? Why are they so eager to crush their very own staff while pretending otherwise? Where’s the goodwill promised by the Campinos regime? All gone so fast? No wonder his approval rate among staff is about 10 times lower than that_of_Donald_Trump (estimated at around 3%, based on a staff survey we’ll come to later). Just days after the aforementioned_letter_was_sent to António_Campinos the Central Staff Committee wrote to him again. As it explained back then to EPO staff: The President [Campinos] has set up a task force for rapid reaction to the development of the pandemic without any involvement of the Staff Representation. However, feedback from staff shows that there is an urgent need for involving the Staff Representation in task- force meetings. We repeat our request for task-force meetings. In addition, the present situation and the measures taken by the task force will have longer-term, wider-ranging, consequences on staff, which we need to discuss as soon as possible with the President. Thus, in addition, we also request “crisis meetings” with the President on a regular basis to address those consequences. Here’s the full text of the corresponding letter: Reference: sc20049cl-0.3.1/4.3 Date: 19.03.2020 Mr António Campinos President of the EPO Room 1081 – ISAR OPEN LETTER Request for crisis meetings (and repeated request for task-force meetings) Dear Mr President, The Coronavirus pandemic confronts us with unusual problems of business continuity as well as issues of staff health and conditions of employment. We understand that you have set up a task force for rapid reaction to the development of the pandemic. However, it turns out that staff has often difficulties in understanding the measures implemented or “encouraged” by your administration, presently without any involvement of the Staff Representation. This is clear from the massive feedback we get. The present situation is not satisfactory and we feel that we would contribute positively to overcoming the present crisis without too much damage to EPO staff and their families. This is why there is an urgent need for involving the Staff Representation in task-force meetings and we reiterate the request we have already made several times. In addition, the present situation and the measures taken by the task force already have, and will have, longer-term, wider-ranging consequences on staff, which we need to discuss as soon as possible with you. There is also a need to address issues resulting from the work of the task force at a more general, systemic level. Consequently, we request “crisis meetings” by videoconference with you on a regular basis to address those consequences. Yours sincerely, Alain Dumont Acting Chairman of the Central Staff Committee The EPO was exploiting the fact that staff could not seek alternative employment and could barely even fly back home to visit family (other than partner and kids). What kind of cruel regime fails to involve actual staff for input? The EPO isn’t even poor, so there’s no excuse for that. █ ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** But_at_Least_He’s_Not_Donald_Trump_or_George_Bush… ***** Posted in Deception at 5:21 pm by Guest Editorial Team Standards for freedom or “liberty” have been set way too low. [Three spinsters: Bush, Obama, Trump: The next guy will protect us] Two videos, two dictators (one impending president, two who should have been arrested, not rewarded with medals) Summary: An almost President and former VP Joe Biden giving an award to a_war criminal (he would do so again later) is about as absurd as (almost) VP Harris offering such an award to Donald Trump later this year http://techrights.org/videos/bush-biden-medal.webm http://techrights.org/videos/bush-biden.webm ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** Free_Software_Freedom_is_Not_Linux ***** Posted in Free/Libre_Software, FSF, GNU/Linux, IBM, Red_Hat at 7:39 pm by Guest Editorial Team By Thomas Grzybowski [A server room] Summary: “We would all probably be better-off if they simply folded their tent and let the GNU organization get on with the real movement.” A friend of mine was attending one of the OLF Conferences, on Saturday November 7th, and he happened to find a seat listening to Bob Young of Red Hat. Young was telling a story about how a few years ago he had explained to Richard Stallman that he himself was more committed to Free Software than Stallman was. In his view, Stallman was only ideologically supporting Free Software, while Red Hat’s entire business model depended upon on it. And through Red Hat’s commercialization of GNU/Linux, Young had brought open-source/free software into wide-spread corporate acceptance and into the marketplace such that many more people could benefit. Now what Young was saying was true, in a selfish sense, but I myself, I was concerned to hear his spiel took place at a “Free Software” conference. These sorts of arguments betray a deep ignorance about the nature of Free Software – perhaps, more nefariously a consistent willful ignorance. [Lit up computer]The “FOSS” acronym is a red flag (if not a Red Hat) that a mistake is about to be made. People (and Executives) are consistently conflating Free Software with Open Source. But these are two notions are very different things, belonging to entirely different domains: one is cultural and the other economic. Freedom is a sociocultural phenomenon, while source-code availability is essentially concerned with the distribution of property. It’s not surprising that once one conflates these differing notions there is much confusion. I want to make this clear: Free Software is a matter of practice. Software Freedom must be actively practiced to exist, whilst Open Source is essentially about the availability of a product. Clearly, Freedom is the more fragile entity here. Institutions seemingly dedicated to Free Software engaged with domain confusion will cause the movement itself to suffer, slow, and die. The mission of the Free Software Foundation has been evolving. At the beginning, with Stallman as president and a few strong allies as board members, the FSF was designed to draw-in financing for GNU projects. It also took over most of the distribution services from GNU. Over time the FSF became the primary defender of the GPL licenses. The FSF also took on an education mission and began hosting conferences. The Free Software Foundation became the public face for GNU, and much of Free Software in general. And more and more it also served to provide a corporate-friendly face for fund-raising. These missions came to cloud the original GNU mission. Today, the Free Software Foundation continues to expound the message that we must choose between surrendering to proprietary software or work to opposing it. What we have learned, over time, is that this is an oversimplification of what needs to be done in order to keep the Freedoms inherent in Free Software alive and moving forward. Before we go any further, let us define what “Freedom” means here for our purposes. Freedom is having two things: options to do as you wish, and the ability to carry choices out. Without both of those things fully in place, Freedom is incomplete and often nullified. Of the two requirements, the means is the most difficult to fulfill. Sadly, one cannot experience software freedom if one is lacking a computing device. Assuming one has access to such a device, and the source code is openly available (with the appropriate license), are we not “Free” as in “Free Software”? Well, the Gnu organization defines four freedoms: Usersmusthave the freedom to(1)run,(2)copyanddistribute,(3)study,and (4)change and improve the software. (As per http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free- sw.html) Yet there is something not fully stressed in the the Four Freedoms, and this missing understanding is badly undermining Free Software today: one cannot experience software freedom if one is lacking the means to practice software freedom.“Wait, Wait” you say, “I can download the source-code”. Alrighty. And Where does that get you? It is often argued that the “Free Software” movement is ideological, and based upon some ivory-tower idealism. Nothing could be further from the truth. As we stated before, Free Software is a practical matter, and if the practices cannot be carried-out or are not carried-out in good faith, the benefits (the Freedoms themselves) are not realized. What we are missing in Free Software, and the Free Software movement today is the ability to fully participate in the Four Freedoms – in particular, but not limited-to, the fourth freedom. Many, if not most of our major software packages distributed today are huge, inflated with features and overly complex – not amenable to the application of the fourth freedom (nor the third). If you have any doubt about this statement, take your current Linux system, make a change in Firefox, and recompile it. Simple. Not. In fact, it is virtually impossible. Try it. I doubt more than one in a thousand Linux users could carry this out. And this is only one example. If you have any more doubt, now try a similar operation with systemd. These observations show the growing gap between the teams of developers behind the software and the community at large. I would like to quote Richard Stallman on this topic: “The job wasn’t to build an operating system; the job is to spread freedom to the users of computers.” (From https://www.fsf.org/faif) “And to do that we have to make it possible to do everything with computers in freedom.” Let me state here: The Free Software Foundation is failing at this job. The removal of Richard Stallman from the Free Software Foundation was a bad sign, and there have not been many positive signs since. There are two more very troubling signs leading me to predict a failure for freedom to prevail there: #1 would be an increasing identification of the mission with the support of the Linux ecosystem. This is a mistake. The practice of software freedom is the mission, and the Linux kernel and ecosystem is taking a shape antithetical to that mission. The second concern would be the increasing use of and dependency upon GitHub. There can be no software freedom if our ability to practice software freedom is subsumed and fettered within a proprietary development environment. The compromises are too great, and will become contrary to the core mission. We should not tolerate a corporate overlord which insists upon identifying and collecting information about each and every participant. Also a corporation which censors code because of DMCA take-down notices is completely unacceptable. Microsoft simply cannot be a gatekeeper to Free Software. Let us return to address the first and perhaps most pressing issue, the engulfing focus on “all things Linux”. The Free Software Foundation is guilty of feeding a near-monopoly OS kernel, along with deeply concerning events associated with Linux development. For instance, the_“Guix_Petition”, which called for RMS to be removed or resign from GNU, includes a disproportionate number of signatories whom were receiving job-payment from Red Hat. Even more of these signatories are known to make important use of GitHub. Now, I am not alleging corruption here, but rather an institutional failure to properly direct the GNU mission. The failing we see on the surface is that of promoting only a single dimension of activism: Proprietary Software VS Free Software, with the implicit assumption there are no other important factors. Given the remarks of Bob Young, Red Hat (and by extension the overemphasis on Linux), may be at the root of this failing. Regardless of the etiology of the failure of the Free Software Foundation to promote the practices of Free Software other than the licensing, the consequences are severe. The Free Software Foundation remains the premier edifice for Free Software. This can continue on indefinitely, even as the institution itself becomes hollow, and the very concepts of software freedom become overshadowed by “Linux” and high-sounding platitudes. We would all probably be better-off if they simply folded their tent and let the GNU organization get on with the real movement. █ ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** [Meme]_Let’s_Not_Kid_Ourselves._Democrats_Aren’t_Allies_of_Free_Software, Either. ***** Posted in Bill_Gates, Deception, Free/Libre_Software, Microsoft at 6:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [Obama's medal for Gates] Summary: Bursting the bubble regarding software freedom from the “less extreme than Donald Trump” administration TWELVE years ago we wrote a bunch of posts about Obama after he had been elected. We didn’t blast him before the election because many can agree that a war criminal like Bush or McCain had to go (and if not to prison, then definitely out of politics). McCain is gone, Bush Sr. is also gone, Gates Sr. died a few months ago, but his son acts like nothing but a politician, actively working_to_loot_the_taxpayers. “Sure, Trump was miles worse, but we’re still not seeing politicians that respect people’s freedom and software freedom.”Now that Biden is elected and is being publicly instructed by Gates we must remember that despite being “not Sleepy Trump” (or “not Bush”, who also won a medal by the way, presented_by Biden_himself), which is their main selling points, Establishment Democrats have little to offer to ordinary people. Sure, Trump was miles worse, but we’re still not seeing politicians that respect people’s freedom and software freedom. There’s nobody to bribe sponsor them for that. Whoever wins two-party (corporate parties) elections, the plutocrats remain largely in power and in almost direct control of all the important decisions and policies. [Bill Gates meets with US President-elect Trump]This message isn’t to be misinterpreted as some pedophilia conspiracy theory or allegation that both corporate parties are equally bad. All we’re saying is, we must carry on the fight and Biden will hardly be an ally; he’ll be an obstruction, funded_by special_interests (rich people like Gates). The same was true for Obama (and yes, for Trump!). █ ╒═══════════════════ ARTICLE ═════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** Why_Becoming_Peer-to-Peer_(P2P)_and_Distributed_Will_Improve_Preservation and_Free_Speech_(Amongst_Other_Things) ***** Posted in Site_News at 7:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [IPFS animation] Summary: A quickstart-type explanation of how IPFS works and why it works for us; the main benefit is long-term preservation and resistance to censorship OVER a month ago we started seeing technical problems at Groklaw (which is still_offline by the way) and that’s why we started reproducing Bill_Gates deposition_videos, encoded as Ogg files for/by Groklaw more than a decade ago. “We realise the concept may be baffling to people who grew up on BBS (centralised), dial-up modems, Netscape (HTTP) and never used things like newsgroups.”The information published here needs to outlive this Web site (let’s face it, no site lasts forever and the Web itself will perish sooner or later). So it’s not a bad idea to distribute and decentralise this site, ensuring the same material can come from lots of different nodes all around the world. We realise the concept may be baffling to people who grew up on BBS (centralised), dial-up modems, Netscape (HTTP) and never used things like newsgroups. That’s a lot of us who embraced the Internet and then the Web (which is too bloated 2 decades after it became commercially available to the private market outside universities, military and so on). [IPFS logo]At the moment we use IPFS (not gopher or SFTP or many other options; even GNU has one). We’ve received help from an IPFS expert, who assisted setup at our home, which now has one of many nodes (IPFS is growing_faster_than people_realise). The technical details aren’t too ‘gory’ or baffling to those who have used P2P applications since the 1990s (popularised by media file- sharing). As someone put_it_a_couple_of_years_ago: “In computers, communication protocols usually exist in bundles (called a protocol suite) of several layers. For example, the Internet protocol suite consists of 4 layers, each of which is responsible for specific functions. In addition to communication protocols, an important relationship to understand is the basic structure of the interconnections between the computers. This is known as the system architecture. Several exist, but the two types relevant to us are client-server and peer-to-peer networks. The internet is dominated by client-server relationships, which rely on the Internet Protocol suite. Of these, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the basis for communication.” That’s in rather simple terms. Here’s another somewhat_older_explanation: Redundancy is central to digital preservation. When only one copy exists, it’s easy to destroy it. Backups and mirrors help, and the more copies there are, the safer the content is. The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a recent technology that could be tremendously valuable in creating distributed archives. [...] IPFS is based on a radical vision. Its supporters say that HTTP is broken and needs a replacement. What they mean is that location-based addressing by URLs makes the Web fragile. If a server loses a file, you get a 404 error. If the serving domain goes away, you don’t get any HTTP response. IPFS ensures the persistent availability of files by allowing multiple copies on nodes of a peer network. The trick is that they’re addressed by content, not name. An IPFS identifier uses a hash of the content. This protects against file tampering and degradation at the same time; it also means that objects are immutable. Our IPFS node runs on a Debian-based Raspberry Pi with Gopher as in the Go language, not the gopher protocol. In due course we might expand to more protocols. Ultimately we’d like to think that many people who aren’t already reading the site using full_RSS (XML) will adopt non-Web protocols. The Web is far too bloated and it’s increasingly being monopolised by companies that shove DRM and surveillance down everyone’s throats. The Web became the ‘Disney of the Internet’, governed by the likes of the RIAA and their Microsoft sidekicks. It’s time to get rid of that and perhaps the simplest correction is complete abandonment of the protocol (the fatigue is rapidly growing). You don’t need the Web to get information; the Web_is_sometimes_more_noise_than_signal, cluttering the minds and undermining_society. █ ╒═══════════════════ DAILY LINKS ════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** Links_10/11/2020:_Grep_3.6,_LiVES_3.2.0_and_Curl_Developer_Daniel Stenberg_Gets_US_Visa_After_3-Year_Limbo ***** Posted in News_Roundup at 9:16 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [GNOME bluefish] **** Contents **** * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * **** GNU/Linux **** o **** Audiocasts/Shows **** # ** Bc:_Deep_Dive_Into_The_POSIX_Calculator_Language_–_YouTube ** There’s a lot of calculator apps out there for Linux, however, every linux system already has a calculator installed called bc, in fact this is a part of POSIX spec and basically every unix like system will come with this installed as well. # ** Raspberry_Pi_400,_LXQt,_Youtube-dl_Update,_Dell_Privacy Drivers,_HBO_Max_|_This_Week_in_Linux_124 ** On this episode of This Week in Linux, Raspberry Pi Foundation announced a really cool new product called the Raspberry Pi 400 which is a PC inside of a keyboard! Dell announced some really cool news about hardware privacy controls. We’ve also got a lot of new releases this week with a new version of the desktop environment LXQt, plus a new release of youtube-dl, Pitivi video editor, and the distro OpenIndiana. We’ve got a couple of follow ups this week from Linux Mint and also HBO Max. All that and much more coming up right now on Your Weekly Source for Linux GNews! # ** LHS_Episode_#378:_Space_Junk_|_Linux_in_the_Ham_Shack ** Welcome to the 378th installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, the hosts discuss lots of space- and satellite-related topics, FCC application fees, Dell and security, RISC, Raspberry Pi 400, the Icom IC-705 and much more. Thank you for listening and we hope you have a great week. # ** Episode_#206_Python_dropping_old_operating_systems_is normal!_–_[Python_Bytes_Podcast] ** Python Bytes podcast delivers headlines directly to your earbuds. o **** Kernel Space **** # ** Dell_Will_Soon_Enable_Privacy_Controls_for_Linux_Hardware ** Dell has completely embraced the Linux community. With one of the finest Linux-based laptops on the market (the XPS Developer Edition), Dell is definitely no stranger to open source and the needs of those who use it. Case in point, many Linux users are quite savvy in the realms of privacy and security. With most modern laptops equipped with webcams and microphones, which can be used (either by accident or via nefarious means) in less-than- desirable ways, it has become crucial for many users to have control over those features. # ** TTM_Multihop_Code_Revised_For_Improving_Linux_GPU_Buffer Management_–_Phoronix ** Among the many open-source graphics driver improvements being worked on recently by Red Hat’s David Airlie from Lavapipe to OpenCL 3.0 Clover work, another recent effort has been around TTM “multihop” as an improvement for this memory management infrastructure used by the likes of the AMDGPU kernel driver. Airlie has been working on patches in recent weeks to extend the TTM memory management infrastructure with a “multihop” feature. Right now when needing to move a buffer temporarily across address spaces such as from system RAM to/from video RAM, the driver functions are called upon that add further complexity to the driver code. TTM Multihop allows the core TTM memory management code handle this temporary placement of buffers to/from vRAM to sRAM in order to avoid call stack issues with existing path of the drivers handling it. # ** Linux_Picking_Up_A_Driver_For_Checking_If_Thunderbolt/USB4 Ports_Are_Functional_–_Phoronix ** Intel is contributing a new driver to the Linux kernel for determining whether Thunderbolt / USB4 ports are functional. The DMA Traffic Test Driver does just that and is used for sending and receiving a specified number of packets on a loopback connection to see whether a port is functioning, primarily for testing purposes during hardware manufacturing. o **** Applications **** # ** Linux_CLI_Email_Client_Mutt_2.0.0_Released_With_Domain- literal_Support ** If you’re a terminal-centric person, you might already know or be using the Mutt application, one of the best command-line email clients available for the Unix-like operating system. Last week, Mutt had a new stable release version 2.0.0, bringing new features, bug fixes, and a few backward-incompatible changes. So let’s see what’s new with Mutt 2.0.0. # ** Pitivi_–_A_Free_and_Open_Source_Video_Editor_for_Linux ** Pitivi is a beautiful, powerful and intuitive free and open-source non-linear video editor and it just received the biggest update since its first release. As time will have it, the latest version of Pitivi, 2020.09 is its first major release since 2018 which, as you must have noticed, features a year and month as the version number as opposed to the common “1.x” naming convention. For starters, Pitivi features a new welcome screen/ wizard with a more elaborate overview of existing projects. It also now uses scaled proxy clips to make optimized media easier for machines to handle and then restores their editing state when reopening the project. There is a redesigned effects library that makes using video effects a lot cooler with the option to save favourites for quick access. The clip effects UI has also been revamped for batch-tweaking effects at once. # ** PosteRazor_–_create_your_own_posters ** Linux has matured into an excellent platform for artists, photographers, animators, and designers. With inexpensive hardware, free software, and a modicum of talent and inspiration, anyone can create professional-looking computer graphics. Have you ever wanted to print a poster? PosteRazor cuts raster images into multipage PDF documents so that they can be printed and glued together to make a poster. The software used the FLTK based user interface, but the latest development has seen a move to Qt, a popular widget toolkit. # ** Quick_Lookup_is_a_Simple_Open_Source_Word_Lookup_Tool_to Find_Meaning_of_Words_You_Come_Across ** It is always handy to have a quick word lookup tool while browsing the web or reading an e-book. Quick Lookup is one such free and open-source tool to try. Whenever I come across a word that I don’t know the meaning of, I just open a new tab and search for the meaning. However, it is a hit and trial every time depending on what search engine you’re on. Even if you do get an idea for the meaning with a quick search, you do not get all the details required along with it. Especially, if you do not know the meaning of the word that describes your target word. You will end up performing another quick search. # ** LiVES_Video_Editor_3.2.0_Released_with_Tons_of_New Features_[PPA] ** LiVES, a free and open-source video editor and VJ tool, released new major version 3.2.0 with new features, performance and resource usage improvements, and tons of other changes. # ** Meet_Giara,_a_New_Reddit_App_for_the_Linux_Desktop, Written_in_GTK ** Meet Giara, a new free and open-source Reddit client application for the Linux desktop, created by Gabriele Musco. Designed using the latest GTK+/ GNOME technologies, Giara is designed to become the go to app for all your Reddit needs, so you won’t have to keep a tab open on your web browser just for Reddit. In development for some time now, Giara is now ready for mass adoption and it’s already being packaged for the Arch Linux distribution, as well as a Flatpak universal binary for most GNU/Linux distributions out here. The app comes with most of the main features you would expect from a serious Reddit app. o **** Instructionals/Technical **** # ** How_to_install_Ubuntu_MATE_20.10_–_YouTube ** In this video, I am going to show how to install Ubuntu MATE 20.10. # ** How_to_Turbo_Boost_Your_Clipboard_with_CopyQ ** When you copy a piece of text or an image in your computer, the content is saved to the clipboard. From there, you can then paste it to another destination. If you want to store more than one text snippet for reuse, though, or would like more control over how that’s done, you’ll have to use a third-party application known as a clipboard manager. And CopyQ is one of the best. # ** How_to_watch_HBO_MAX_on_Linux ** HBO MAX is a rebranding of HBO’s on-demand subscription service. It’s a pretty excellent service, and best of all, it works on Linux.  If you have an # ** How_to_install_Teamspeak_on_Linux_Mint_20_–_YouTube ** In this video, we are looking at how to install Teamspeak on Linux Mint 20. # ** How_to_Install_Taiga_Project_Management_System_on_Ubuntu 20.04 ** Taiga is a free, open-source, simple yet powerful project management tool for startups, Agile developers, and designers. It supports teams that work Agile across both Scrum and Kanban frameworks. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install the Taiga Project Management Tool on Ubuntu 20.04 server. # ** How_to_install_Python_3_on_a_Chromebook ** Today we are looking at how to install Python 3 on a Chromebook. This method will also install additional packages that you need to use python as a programming environment. 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_Teamviewer_on_Linux_Mint_20 ** Today we are looking at how to install Teamviewer on Linux Mint 20. Enjoy! # ** How_to_install_Linux_on_Windows? [Ed: Seems outdated, maybe plagiarised, but at least it's no WSL/2] ** # ** How_to_Host_a_Complete_Website_on_a_Raspberry_Pi_[Guide] ** Raspberry Pi is a low-cost single-board computer that requires very low energy to run and can provide a long-time service. Besides many other features of the Pi, it can be used as a web server too. Hence, it’s really easy to host a website on Raspberry Pi. If you calculate a regular hosting service provider’s costings, you will see how expensive they can be for their service. On the other hand, you can host your site on the Pi for almost free of cost. Also, the features of the Pi are upgrading quite randomly in recent years. So, you can be relaxed to know that the hosting service will only get better with time! # ** Anwesha_Das:_How_to_use_Yubikey_or_any_GPG_smartcard_in Thunderbird_78 ** Thunderbird is the free and open source email client by Mozilla Foundation. I have been using it for some years now. Till now the Thunderbird users had to use an extension Enigmail to use GnuPG. Thunderbird 78 now uses a different implementation of OpenPGP called RNP. Since RNP library still does not support the use of secret key on smartcards, to use Yubikey or any other GnuPG enabled smartcards, we need manually configure Thunderbird with GnuPG. # ** ROS_2_on_Kubernetes:_a_simple_talker_and_listener_setup_| Ubuntu ** Kubernetes and robotics make a great match. However, robots running ROS2 can be tricky to set up with individual components on Kubernetes. In this second part of our blog series about running ROS 2 on Kubernetes, we set up a simple, scalable talker / listener system using MicroK8s on Ubuntu. In order to understand some of the design choices for this configuration, be sure to review part one, “Exploring ROS 2 with Kubernetes“. MicroK8s brings a full Kubernetes install to your machine with a single command and the baseline ROS 2 Foxy docker image fits neatly into the Kubernetes configuration. Our challenge is to configure these projects to all work nicely together. This configuration creates ROS nodes in pods, and each pod runs a single docker container. The container is the official baseline ROS Foxy docker image maintained by Open Robotics. We launch two talkers and one listener which can be scaled up and down. Networked ROS devices outside the Kubernetes host can also access the ROS graph. # ** This_is_how_I_git_|_daniel.haxx.se ** Every now and then I get questions on how to work with git in a smooth way when developing, bug- fixing or extending curl – or how I do it. After all, I work on open source full time which means I have very frequent interactions with git (and GitHub). Simply put, I work with git all day long. Ordinary days, I issue git commands several hundred times. I have a very simple approach and way of working with git in curl. This is how it works. [...] The main curl development is done in the single curl/curl git repository (primarily hosted on GitHub). We keep the master branch the bleeding edge development tree and we work hard to always keep that working and functional. We do our releases off the master branch when that day comes (every eight weeks) and we provide “daily snapshots” from that branch, put together – yeah – daily. When merging fixes and features into master, we avoid merge commits and use rebases and fast- forward as much as possible. This makes the branch very easy to browse, understand and work with – as it is 100% linear. # ** Set_up_Minishift_and_run_Jenkins_on_Linux_|_Opensource.com ** Minishift is a tool that helps you run OKD (Red Hat’s open source OpenShift container platform) locally by launching a single-node OKD cluster inside a virtual machine. It is powered by Kubernetes, which is one of my favorite things to talk about. In this article, I will demonstrate how to get started with Minishift on Linux. This was written for Ubuntu 18.04, and you’ll need sudo access on your Linux machine to run some commands. # ** Getting_started_with_Stratis_encryption_–_Fedora_Magazine ** Stratis is described on its official website as an “easy to use local storage management for Linux.” See this short video for a quick demonstration of the basics. The video was recorded on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 system. The concepts shown in the video also apply to Stratis in Fedora. Stratis version 2.1 introduces support for encryption. Continue reading to learn how to get started with encryption in Stratis. # ** DNF_for_APT_users_|_Enable_Sysadmin ** Take a look at a few common and useful DNF and APT operations. # ** IPS_configuration_recommendations_for_IPFire_users ** Especially users in luxury of running IPFire on powerful hardware might sit back now, as their machines can easily handle any IPS configuration, no matter which amount of rules has been turned on and how demanding they are in terms of CPU load. The more common scenario, however, is IT staff already working to full capacity being told to run or activate an IPS on dated hardware. Sometimes, this is a desperate bid to compensate security issues in the networks behind the firewall or gateway machine, or due to a superior reading about IPS making things more secure in his or her glossy tech magazine. Both scenarios have something in common which virtually enforces spending more time and thoughts on your IPS’ configuration: False Positives. The more IPS rules you enable, the more False Positives will arise. As mentioned in another post before, they might cause more damage to a networks’ security than the attackers itself: After a series of False Positives, alerts because of True Positives are not given the attention they deserve anymore. While it might be certainly interesting to detect and analyse attacks against protocols for industrial control systems (such as SCADA) in terms of academic interest, those are simply irrelevant for people not administering the network of a power plant or production hall. Unless you are a telephone company, STCP scans in order to detect entry points to the SS7 network might be an interesting read, but do not really matter. Most users will observe the usual background noise: Port scanning en masse, brute force login attempts against popular services such as SSH, spam waves or open SMTP relay hijacking, or bots trying to infect other machines on the internet by using common exploits against known vulnerabilities. # ** What’s_the_difference_between_orchestration_and automation?_|_Opensource.com ** For the longest time, it seemed the only thing any sysadmin cared about was automation. Recently, though, the mantra seems to have changed from automation to orchestration, leading many puzzled admins to wonder: “What’s the difference?” The difference between automation and orchestration is primarily in intent and tooling. Technically, automation can be considered a subset of orchestration. While orchestration suggests many moving parts, automation usually refers to a singular task or a small number of strongly related tasks. Orchestration works at a higher level and is expected to make decisions based on changing conditions and requirements. However, this view shouldn’t be taken too literally because both terms—automation and orchestration—do have implications when they’re used. The results of both are functionally the same: things happen without your direct intervention. But the way you get to those results, and the tools you use to make them happen, are different, or at least the terms are used differently depending on what tools you’ve used. # ** Adding_DKIM_support_to_OpenSMTPD_with_custom_filters_| Almost_Secure ** If you, like me, are running your own mail server, you might have looked at OpenSMTPD. [...] You might want to add virtual user lists, aliases, SRS support, but it really doesn’t get much more complicated than this. The best practices are all there: no authentication over unencrypted connections, no relaying of mails by unauthorized parties, all of that being very obvious in the configuration. Compare that to Postfix configuration with its multitude of complicated configuration files where I was very much afraid of making a configuration mistake and inadvertently turning my mail server into an open relay. There is no DKIM support out of the box however, you have to add filters for that. The documentation suggests using opensmtpd-filter-dkimsign that most platforms don’t have prebuilt packages for. So you have to get the source code from some Dutch web server, presumably run by the OpenBSD developer Martijn van Duren. And what you get is a very simplistic DKIM signer, not even capable of supporting multiple domains. The documentation suggests opensmtpd-filter-rspamd as an alternative which can indeed both sign and verify DKIM signatures. It relies on rspamd however, an anti-spam solution introducing a fair deal of complexity and clearly overdimensioned in my case. So I went for writing custom filters. With dkimpy implementing all the necessary functionality in Python, how hard could it be? # ** OpenID_Connect_integration_with_Red_Hat_3scale_API Management_and_Okta_–_Red_Hat_Developer ** This article introduces you to using Red Hat 3scale API Management for OpenID Connect (OIDC) integration and compliance. Our goal is to secure an API in 3scale API Management using JSON Web Token (JWT), OIDC, and the Oauth2 Authorization Framework. We will set up the integration using Okta as our third-party OpenID Connect identity provider. An important part of the demonstration is establishing the 3scale API Management gateway’s connection with Okta. [...] For demonstration purposes, we will use 3scale API Management and Okta as self-managed services. If you don’t have them already, begin by creating free service accounts using 3scale.net and okta.com. [...] Thank you for taking the time to read this article and follow the demonstration. As you have seen, 3scale API Management works together with any OpenID provider in a way that is compliant with its specification. We’ve used Okta as our OpenID provider for this demonstration. I hope that breaking down the verification process and showing each party’s roles and responsibilities helped to demystify aspects of application security with JWT, OIDC, and Oauth2. # ** Program_your_microcontroller_with_MicroBlocks_| Opensource.com ** If you like to tinker with technology, you may be familiar with programmable microcontroller boards, such as AdaFruit’s Circuit Playground Express and the BBC Micro:bit. Now there’s a new programming option for you to try: MicroBlocks. It’s a simple Scratch-like programming interface that works well with several microcontrollers, including those two. # ** Install_Google_Chrome_on_Fedora_[GUI_&_Terminal_Methods] ** Fedora comes with Firefox as the default web browser. Despite it being an excellent web browser, you may prefer the popular Google Chrome browser. If you are wondering how to install Google Chrome on Fedora, let me show you two ways of installing Google Chrome, graphical method and command line method. # ** Setting_Up_Hadoop_Pre-requisites_and_Security_Hardening_– Part_2 ** In this article, we will go through OS-level pre- requisites and do some important Security Hardening tips according to the CIS Benchmark for Production servers. # ** How_to_Solve_‘E:_Could_not_get_lock_/var/lib/dpkg/lock’ Error_in_Ubuntu ** In this guide, we will learn how to solve ‘Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock’ and ‘/var/lib/apt/ lists/lock’ error in Ubuntu Linux. # ** Conditional_Statements_in_Ansible:_When,_Block_and Handlers ** Learn to use when statements to run tasks conditionally, block statements to implement exception handling and Ansible handlers to trigger tasks upon change. # ** How_To_Install_ADB_and_Fastboot_on_Ubuntu_20.04_LTS_– idroot ** In this tutorial, we will show you how to install ADB and Fastboot on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, ADB or Android Debug Bridge is a command-line utility that lets us control an android device from the computer itself. Its part of Google Android SDK and can be used to run shell commands or to copy the files to & from the device and also to install or remove the applications from the device. Fastboot is basically a diagnostics mode that is used to modify the Android file system from the computer when the android device is in bootloader mode. It’s an alternative to recovery mode and is normally used to perform updates or to perform installations. 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 ADB and Fastboot on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian based distribution like Linux Mint. o **** Games **** # ** The_perfect_Linux_laptop_for_gaming_?_–_Neptune_15_FULL REVIEW:_performance,_battery_life… ** After using this big boy, the Juno Computers Neptune 15, as my daily driver for a few weeks, it’s time for a full review. # ** The_awesome_Tenderfoot_Tactics_is_now_available_on_itch.io and_you_should_get_it_|_GamingOnLinux ** If you like turn-based tactical battles mixed with open world exploration, you pretty much owe it to yourself to go and pick up Tenderfoot Tactics. Released only recently, to which I gave it a very positive look, Tenderfoot Tactics has a seriously enchanting theme to it while you’re exploring. Thinking on it, Tenderfoot might be up there in my biggest highlights of this year. You explore a world that is being consumed by some sort of evil Fog, turning everyone into ghostly forms as you and your pals go on a real-time overworld exploration adventure to try and save the world. While doing so you get to slide down mountains, meet great big creatures and have tactical turn-based battles where the environment can be messed with. # ** Babylon_comes_to_Civilization_VI,_plus_a_new_game_mode_on November_19_with_the_next_DLC_|_GamingOnLinux ** As part of the ongoing expansion for the New Frontier Pass, the turn-based strategy Civilization VI will be getting another DLC on November 19. The team at Firaxis aren’t giving out too many details yet, but they couldn’t seem to hold back on shouting Babylon from the rooftops as the next major inclusion to which they say will “blind you with science”. This pack will also be coming with 6 new City States each being unique, there’s also going to be 24 new Great People and a whole new game mode with Heroes & Legends. With the new Heroes & Legends Mode, it will introduce a variety of legendary figured from various cultural traditions over the world as playable characters. They say the heroes “are like great people on steroids”, there’s going to be many of them including the likes of King Arthur. # ** Free_and_open_source_flight_sim_‘FlightGear’_has_a_brand new_release_|_GamingOnLinux ** It might not be as advanced as the likes of X-Plane but FlightGear is free, open source and still very much alive with a big new release up. FlightGear 2020.3 is what they’re calling a “Long Term Support” release, as they nowadays offer a full stable build and much more regular content updates. Developed by volunteers, they’re trying to make the most advanced flight sim that’s entirely free to use. Most people interested probably don’t stick to the LTS versions, as the in between releases always have the exciting stuff. # ** It’s_hard_to_believe_but_Counter-Strike_has_turned_20_and it’s_still_going_strong_|_GamingOnLinux ** 20 years officially today, Counter-Strike 1.0 was officially released and it went on to change the way many of us played games online. Truthfully, the true original was just a little bit before my time. I really came into it with Counter- Strike Xbox Edition on the Xbox back around 2003, to this day it might still be my most played Xbox game. When it comes to the PC, it was Counter- Strike: Source that really helped me appreciate competitive PC gaming. So while I may not have many memories of the original, from the Xbox and Source version onwards, it found a special place, Looking at it, the original to this day still have an incredibly active player-base. It’s kind of insane just how popular it remains. Checking over on the always useful SteamDB, their charts actually show that the original classic Counter-Strike has seen a consistent regular amount of fifteen thousand (and often above) players online at any time. # ** Chris_Titus_is_WRONG_about_Linux_Gaming. ** # ** First-person_shooter_Prodeus_enters_Early_Access_today, Linux_(and_macOS)_to_come_later_|_GamingOnLinux ** Prodeus is the seriously slick looking retro- shooter re-imagined blending modern and retro designs together, it enters Early Access today but we have a wait ahead for official support. Originally funded on Kickstarter, close to 3,000 backers helped the developers with around $105,626 back in 2019 and it’s looking exciting. # ** Kujlevka_is_an_upcoming_quirky_Russian_adventure_about_a crashed_alien_ship_|_GamingOnLinux ** The Russian village of Kujlevka becomes anything but ordinary in this upcoming story-based adventure game about an alien ship that crashes into your house. “Russia, 1992. An ordinary village of Kujlevka faces yet another challenge in this dark period of Russian history, and this one really makes the financial crisis and raising crime rates look bleak: out of all locations on Earth, this little settlement, forgotten by everyone, turns into the busiest place on the planet overnight when a flying saucer crashes directly into the headman’s house.” # ** Need_to_chill?_Check_out_Forest’s_Secret,_a_free nonviolent_adventure_|_GamingOnLinux ** Forest’s Secret is a free (you can donate) adventure game with a nonviolent theme where you play as a traveller who has just arrived at a quiet forest settlement called Wabika. “Forest’s Secret is a cozy, nonviolent adventure game. You play as a traveler who has just arrived at a quiet forest settlement called Wabika, and must explore its mysterious paths, discover its ancient history, and make friends with its quirky inhabitants in order to find what it is you’re searching for. There’s lots of neat little stuff to discover!” It actually released quite some time ago, along with an additional Mystery of the Frost update that came later adding in a new story, new areas to explore and new gameplay mechanics. Shame we only just came across it as it’s quite sweet. # ** Smash_up_an_office_to_find_vermin_hiding_in_the_free_game Perfect_Vermin_|_GamingOnLinux ** A free game that lets you run around a seemingly empty office with a sledgehammer? Perfect Vermin is not quite what it seems as you hunt for some weird creatures. Originally released on itch.io, it’s now hopped on over to Steam to bring it to a bigger audience. Your task is pretty simple: run through an office and smash up some tables. chairs, toilets and yes even the lightswitch can be smashed off the wall. The reason though? Well, there’s some kind of vermin posing as various objects. It’s like a game of prop hunt, only with a short narrative and a darker theme. # ** OpenRazer_2.9.0_is_out,_adding_plenty_of_new_Razer_device support_on_Linux ** Enjoy your fancy Razer hardware on Linux? You should probably check out OpenRazer, which is a nice big collection of drivers for Linux. A project that’s been going for a long time now, with no sign of it stopping and it just keeps on improving. Another example of the open source community bridging the official support gap for users. Just recently OpenRazer 2.9.0 was released, adding in support for plenty of additional devices including these… # ** DragonBox_Pyra_Linux_mini_PC_portable_gaming_system_pre- orders_start_shipping ** Those of you in the market for a small pocket - sized portable gaming PC may be interested know that the DragonBox Pyra handheld PC is now available to purchase and has started shipping out to customers that pre-ordered the small Linux PC. o **** Distributions **** # ** Top_6_Tiny_Linux_Distributions_One_Must_Try ** Linux is a versatile operating system. You can find different distros for different purposes and still be surprised by the functionality the distros have to offer without sacrificing too much. Tiny Linux Distributions are also like that. They are powerful yet compact and lets you run Linux operating systems on slow machines with minimal specs. Even though you do not need those (as you are running a fast machine in 2020), you should try out these tiny Linux distros to completely understand the flexibility that Linux provides. However, even now, these distros can come in handy. For instance, you can use the distros to: Make use of your old computer that is lying around without any purpose. Give the computer a purpose, and showcase your resilience by using such an old piece of hardware. # **** IBM/Red Hat/Fedora **** # ** Fedora_33_Workstation_review ** I don’t think there’s much to be said at this point. It’s all written above. Fedora 33, like 99% of distros out there, does not have sufficiently friendly defaults for the average user, let alone anyone coming from the Windows world. Perhaps the nerdy features could be useful to developers and alike – latest kernel, BTRFS and whatnot – but ordinary people don’t know what these are, don’t care, and they just want to watch videos without heaving. Having to worry about trifles like font, media playback or minimize button. Nah. My intention is to still go through all the way and try to create a useful baseline for the common desktop user. This will include a complete revamp of the desktop, installation of a dozen different applications, and several dozen tweaks. Similar to my Fedora 32 guide, probably almost identical. But that’s just because I want to see what needs to be done, and if there’s anything useful I can offer my readers. I can’t recommend Fedora for everyday usage, and I feel quite sad and resigned at the end of this short testing session. Take care. # ** IBM_Cloud:_IBM_and_AT&T_Collaboration,_New Partnership_with_ClearBlade,_and_Code_Risk_Analyzer ** # ** IBM_Launches_IBM_Cloud_[sic]_For_Telecommunications ** IBM has announced an open, hybrid cloud architecture called IBM Cloud for Telecommunications to help telcos address the specific challenges of the industry. The platform helps them accelerate business transformation and enhance digital client engagement as they modernize their enterprise applications and infrastructure to unlock the power of 5G and edge. # **** Canonical/Ubuntu Family **** # ** Ubuntu_Unity_20.10_Review:_Unity_with_Stability ** Ubuntu Unity 20.10 “Groovy Gorilla” spin is the Unity desktop spin with a stable Ubuntu 20.10 base. It features the controversial Unity desktop with additional customizations. We review the Ubuntu Unity 20.10 short-term release to provide you a glimpse of its offerings. # ** Canonical_Saw_~$119M_Revenue_In_2019_But_Still Operating_At_A_Loss ** Ubuntu maker Canonical Holdings Limited recently submitted their UK financial report for their fiscal year ending 31 December 2019. During the pre-COVID times they generated around 22% more revenue than 2018 but still operated at a loss albeit more narrowly than in prior years. A few weeks back Canonical Group Limited submitted their FY2019 documents with the UK Companies House. They show their 2019 revenue at $119 million USD, up from $97 million the prior year. Their operating loss came in at just $2M, better than the $11M operating loss in 2018 and the losses they have been operating at some years. Canonical’s average headcount for 2019 was 473, up from 437 the prior year. While they added close to forty more employees, it’s still down from their 500+ headcount prior to their restructuring when they abandoned their smartphone ambitions and more. This older article offers a look at the Canonical headcount and financial performance for the past number of years. # ** Canonical’s_Charmed_OpenStack_To_Power_MTS_Cloud Infrastructure ** MTS has selected Canonical’s Charmed OpenStack to power the company’s next- generation cloud infrastructure. Charmed OpenStack is based on technologies such as Metal-as-a-Service (MAAS), Juju Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM), OpenStack Charms and Ceph. MTS plans to leverage Charmed OpenStack’s advanced lifecycle management capabilities and flexible cloud-native architecture to better enable multi-vendor and cross-platform integration. o **** Devices/Embedded **** # ** 5_Best_Lightweight_Operating_Systems_For_Raspberry_Pi ** Let’s have a look at the list of the useful and best lightweight operating systems for Raspberry Pi. One of the best-operating systems for the Raspberry Pi is Raspberry Pi OS Lite. This is a “headless” operating system. piCore is the Tiny Core Linux’s Raspberry Pi version. It is extremely lightweight as it is just under 90MB in size. # ** RISC-V_based_Allwinner_chip_to_debut_on_$13_Linux_hacker board ** Alibaba’s T-head subsidiary amd Allwinner have produced a single-core, RISC-V-based XuanTie C906 processor with MMU that will appear on a sandwich- style, Linux-driven, $12.50 Sipeed SBC due in two months. In July, 2019, Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group surprised the industry with the most powerful RISC- V architecture SoC design to date: a 16-core, 2.5GHz XuanTie 910 (XT 910). Now Alibaba’s RISC-V- focused T-Head subsidiary is collaborating with Allwinner to introduce a single-core, 1GHz XuanTie C906 (RV64GCV) RISC-V processor designed to run Debian Linux. A Sipeed dev kit will arrive in the coming months for $12.50 that incorporates an Allwinner compute module built around the XuanTie C906. # ** Pick_up_this_coin_sized_Linux_computer_with_screen_for_13% off ** Computers are more compact than ever before. But, if you don’t already know about the VoCore2, you haven’t seen anything yet. That’s because this Linux machine takes portability to a whole new level. And now you can pick one up for just $69, which is a sweetheart of a deal. The VoCore2 is a super small, coin-sized, open- source Linux computer system. But don’t let its miniature stature fool you. Inside is some pretty serious circuitry that lets it perform powerful feats. You can use it as a VPN gateway, an AirPlay music streaming station, a private cloud for your own personal data, and more. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. # ** Compact_box_computer_and_signage_system_feature_RK3399 ** Advantech’s compact “EPC-R4710” embedded computer and $303-and-up “DS-100” signage system run Android or Linux on a Rockchip RK3399 with 2GB LPDDR4, 16GB eMMC, up to 2x GbE, 2x HDMI, and M.2 expansion. Last week while exploring Advantech’s Rockchip RK3399 powered ROM-5780 SMARC module, we saw two RK3399 based Advantech computers marked as “new.” It is hard to see how new since we have seen no announcements or media coverage. (Advantech rarely announces its hardware products, saving its PR for major platform initiatives and strategic partnerships.) The EPC-R4710, which is also marked as “preliminary,” appears to be more recent than the DS-100, which is available from multiple sources selling for as low as $339 or $303 for the DS-100 Lite model. # ** JumpDrive_OS_flashing_tool_now_supports_PineTab_and_3GB PinePhone ** One of the nice thing about Pine64‘s Linux smartphones and tablets is that they’re configured to automatically boot from a properly prepared microSD card. So whether you buy a PinePhone with postmarketOS, Manjaro, or Ubuntu Touch pre- installed, you can try out alternate operating systems by loading them on a removable storage card. But there’s a bit of a performance hit when you do this, because the data transfer rates for the PinePhone and PineTab microSD card readers aren’t very fast. So you may want to consider flashing a new OS directly to the device’s built-in eMMC storage. That’s where JumpDrive comes in. It’s a utility that makes it easy to flash a disk image to eMMC storage, troubleshoot problems and more. Developer Martijn Braam has just released a new version of JumpDrive that adds support for newer hardware. # **** Open Hardware/Modding **** # ** XuanTie_C906_based_Allwinner_RISC-V_processor_to power_$12+_Linux_SBC’s ** Allwinner RISC-V processor will run the Debian Linux operating system (Tina OS), and the $12.5 price tag for Sipeed SBC makes it the cheapest RISC-V Linux board with MMU by far. You can already run Linux on RISC- V using Kendryte K210 boards, but those are not really practical due to the lack of MMU and low-memory, or on HiFive Unmatched offered for $665 and allows you to build a complete RISC-V PC. The upcoming Allwinner powered RISC-V board from Sipeed does not come with a 3D GPU, and memory is limited so based on the information currently available, it may end being comparable to a Raspberry Pi Model A+ minus the ability to run any application relying on 3D graphics. # ** What_is_a_System-on-Chip_(SoC),_and_Why_Do_We_Care if_They_are_Open_Source? ** Modern gadgets are typically built around a single, highly integrated chip, known as a “System on Chip” (SoC). While the earliest home computer motherboards consisted of around a hundred chips, Moore’s Law pushed that down to just a handful of chips by the time 80286 PC/AT clones were mainstream, and the industry has never looked back. Now, a typical SoC integrates a CPU core complex, plus dozens of peripherals, including analog, RF, and power functions; there are even “System in Package” solutions available that package the SoC, RAM, and sometimes even the FLASH die into a single plastic package. Modern SoCs are exceedingly complex. The “full user’s manual” for a modern SoC is thousands of pages long, and the errata (“bug list”) – if you’re allowed to see it – can be hundreds of pages alone. I put “full user’s manual” in quotations because even the most open, well-documented SoCs (such as the i.MX series from NXP) require a strict NDA to access thousands of pages of documentation on third party Intellectual Property (IP) blocks for functions such as video decoding, graphics acceleration, and security. Beyond the NDA blocks, there is typically a deeper layer of completely unpublished documentation for disused silicon, such as peripherals that were designed-in but did not make the final cut, internal debugging facilities, and pre- boot facilities. Many of these disused features aren’t even well-known within the team that designed the chip! Disused silicon is a thing because building chips is less like snapping together Legos, and more like a sculptor chiseling away at a marble block: adding a circuit is much harder than deactivating a circuit. Adding a circuit might cost around $1 million in new masks, while delaying the project by about 70 days (at a cost of 100,000 man-hours worth of additional wages); with proper planning, deactivating a circuit may be as simple as a code change, or a small edit to a single mask layer, at a cost of perhaps $10,000 and a few days (assuming wafers were held at intermediate stages to facilitate this style of edit). # **** Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications **** # ** Google_Messages_Beta_Supports_Android_11_Smooth Keyboard_Animation ** # ** Samsung_may_be_planning_to_upgrade_up_to_90_devices to_One_UI_3.0_and_Android_11 ** # ** How_to_get_the_old_Gmail,_Calendar,_Google_Drive icons_back_on_Android,_iPhone,_and_Chrome ** # ** Tech_Q&A:_Making_Google_Calendar_sync_with_Android tablet,_phone ** # ** MEmu_Android_Emulator_7.2.9 ** # ** Android_smartphones_worth_the_iPhone_12_Pro challenge_today ** # ** OnePlus_8,_8_Pro_stable_Oxygen_OS_11_update_is wiping_the_phones_clean ** # ** [Update:_Nov._09]_Motorola_Android_11_update: Tracker,_list_of_eligible_devices_&_release_date ** # ** Good_News,_LG_Is_Testing_Android_11_For_The_V60 ThinQ ** # ** Difference_Between_iOS_And_Android:_What_Sets_iOS And_Android_Apart_From_Each_Other ** # ** Google_app_enables_banks_to_lock_Android_devices over_credit_defaults ** # ** Samsung_Galaxy_S10_Lite_Gets_November_2020_Android Security_Patch_With_Latest_Update ** # ** How_to_Block_Spam_Calls_on_Android_and_iPhone ** # ** How_to_Use_Incognito_Mode_in_Google_Chrome_for Android ** # ** The_Toshiba_TV_UA2B_is_a_mammoth_4K_Android_Smart_TV for_under_£400 ** # ** Nokia’s_name_gets_slapped_on_4K_Android_TV_box_with sleek_results ** # ** Nokia_8_V_5G_UW_is_a_powerful_new_Android_device headed_to_Verizon ** # ** Fastest_USB-C_Charger_2020:_Best_phone_chargers_for Android_and_iPhone ** # ** New_tool_detects_unsafe_security_practices_in Android_apps ** # ** Double_Patterns_Could_Advance_Android_Device Security ** # ** Android_Circuit:_Surprise_Galaxy_Upgrade,_Honor_10X Lite_Revealed,_Fixing_Gmail’s_New_Icons ** # ** How_to_Restore_the_Classic_Google_Icons_on_iOS_and Android ** # ** How_To_Convert_YouTube_Videos_On_Android_Smartphones ** # ** How_to_remove_Meet_tab_from_Gmail_on_Android ** # ** 7_Reasons_to_Replace_Android_With_/e/OS_on_Your Smartphone ** # ** Best_Android_games_for_2020:_Here_are_15_best offline_or_online_games_for_Android ** # ** Yet_Another_Android_Auto_Annoyance_Found_by_YouTube Music_Users ** # ** Android_Auto_Causing_Embarrassing_Moments_Due_to Unfixed_Music_Problem ** # ** Samsung_Galaxy_M31_updated_to_OneUI_2.5,_still_based on_outdated_Android_10 ** # ** Nokia_Streaming_Box_8000_With_Android_TV,_4K Streaming_Launched:_Price,_Specifications,_Features ** # ** Boosteroid_Vs_Stadia:_The_Best_Cloud_Gaming Experience_For_Your_Android_Smartphone ** # ** Google_opens_Play_Store_voting_for_your_favorite Android_apps,_games,_books,_and_movies ** # ** Millions_of_websites_won’t_load_on_over_30%_of Android_devices_starting_next_year_—_but_there’s_a_fix ** o **** Free, Libre, and Open Source Software **** # ** [Curl_developer]_Daniel_Stenberg:_a_US_visa_in_937_days ** As a bonus, the visa also comes with a NIE (National Interest Exception) that allows me a single entry to the US during the PP (Presidential Proclamations) – which is restricting travels to the US from the European Schengen zone. In other words: I am actually allowed to travel right away! The timing is fascinating. The last time I was in the US, Trump hadn’t taken office yet and I get the approved visa in my hands just days after Biden has been announced as the next president of the US. [...] All my family and friends, in the US and elsewhere who have supported me and cheered me up through this entire process. Thanks for keeping inviting me to fun things in the US even though I’ve not been able to participate. Thanks for pushing for events to get organized outside of the US! I’m sorry I’ve missed social gatherings, a friend’s marriage and several conference speaking opportunities. Thanks for all the moral support throughout this long journey of madness. # **** FSF **** # **** GNU Projects **** # ** grep-3.6_released_[stable] ** This is to announce grep-3.6, a stable release. There have been 18 commits by 3 people in the 6 weeks since 3.5. This release has two important changes, a fix for a bug introduced in grep-3.2 (from late 2018) and the removal of support for the long- deprecated GREP_OPTIONS envvar. See the NEWS below for more detail. Thanks again to Norihiro Tanaka and Paul Eggert, and to everyone else who has contributed. The following people contributed changes to this release: Jim Meyering (9) Norihiro Tanaka (3) Paul Eggert (6) Jim [on behalf of the grep maintainers] ================================================================== Here is the GNU grep home page: http://gnu.org/s/grep/ For a summary of changes and contributors, see: http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/ ?p=grep.git;a=shortlog;h=v3.6 or run this command from a git-cloned grep directory: git shortlog v3.5..v3.6 To summarize the 65 gnulib-related changes, run these commands from a git-cloned grep directory: git checkout v3.6 git submodule summary v3.5 ================================================================== Here are the compressed sources: https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grep/grep- 3.6.tar.gz (2.6MB) https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grep/grep- 3.6.tar.xz (1.6MB) Here are the GPG detached signatures [*]: https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grep/grep- 3.6.tar.gz.sig https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grep/grep- 3.6.tar.xz.sig Use a mirror for higher download bandwidth: https://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html [*] Use a .sig file to verify that the corresponding file (without the .sig suffix) is intact. First, be sure to download both the .sig file and the corresponding tarball. Then, run a command like this: gpg --verify grep-3.6.tar.gz.sig If that command fails because you don't have the required public key, then run this command to import it: gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net -- recv-keys 7FD9FCCB000BEEEE and rerun the 'gpg --verify' command. This release was bootstrapped with the following tools: Autoconf 2.69c Automake 1.16b Gnulib v0.1-3992-gbd90572c0 ================================================================== NEWS * Noteworthy changes in release 3.6 (2020-11-08) [stable] ** Changes in behavior The GREP_OPTIONS environment variable no longer affects grep's behavior. The variable was declared obsolescent in grep 2.21 (2014), and since then any use had caused grep to issue a diagnostic. ** Bug fixes grep's DFA matcher performed an invalid regex transformation that would convert an ERE like a+a+a+ to a+a+, which would make grep a+a+a+ mistakenly match "aa". [Bug#44351 introduced in grep 3.2] grep -P now reports the troublesome input filename upon PCRE execution failure. Before, searching many files for something rare might fail with just "exceeded PCRE's backtracking limit". Now, it also reports which file triggered the failure. # **** Programming/Development **** # ** Optimized_Compiler_Builds_Are_Well_Worth_It_For Intel_Tiger_Lake ** Making use of “-march=tigerlake” for building optimized binaries catering to Intel’s latest-generation processors is well worth it on the likes of GCC 11. Out of the new instruction set extensions on Tiger Lake is more uplift than we have seen out of recent Intel generations and comparing the different “-march=” targets shows significant performance benefits if you don’t mind compiling your own software from source. For this testing with the Dell XPS 9310 Intel EVO laptop was used with the Core i7 1165G7 processor. While the Tiger Lake notebook was running Ubuntu 20.10 with the Linux 5.10 Git kernel, the GCC 11.0 compiler was used for benchmarking as of its 25 October development state. Off GCC 11.0, the benchmarks under test were built with the CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS of “-O3 -march=XXX”. The different -march= values tested included generic x86-64, sandybridge, haswell, skylake, icelake- client, and tigerlake for looking at the impact of increasing the instructions exposed and other optimizations / scheduling model in catering to the newer CPU generations. * **** Leftovers **** o **** Integrity/Availability **** # **** Proprietary **** # ** Apple_backtracks_on_App_Store_removal_threat_for Unix_shell_iOS_apps ** Developers of Linux and Unix shells have received warnings from Apple that their iOS apps violate App Store Review Guidelines, with the threat of termination from the App Store said to be reversed in at least one instance. A shell is a tool that enables users to perform command-line operations on a device, which usually doesn’t offer that sort of functionality, such as the lack of a terminal in iOS. These terminal emulator apps like a- Shell and iSH enable the use of many Unix commands in iOS, which can be useful for developers and power users. However, according to a series of tweets on Sunday, it seems that the two apps have come under fire from Apple’s App Store team for seemingly violating the App Store Review Guidelines. The iSH Twitter account advised it was informed by Apple it would be removing the app from the App Store on Monday. # **** Pseudo-Open Source **** # **** Privatisation/Privateering **** # **** Linux Foundation **** # ** Old_Versions_of_Android_to_Not Support_Secure_Websites [Ed: The surveillance enthusiast Laura Tucker wants us to think Linux_Foundation already_has_a_monopoly_on_the_Web] ** Recently, The non-profit organization Let’s Encrypt announced that on September 1, 2021, it’s partnership with certification authority IdenTrust will end. It will not be renewing the partnership and will instead be using its own root certificate. Default cross-signaling for IdenTrust’s certificate will stop on January 11. # ** Linux_Foundation_Is_Democratizing Security_With_OpenSSF_|_Polyverse ** # ** Linux_Foundation’s_AI_and_ODPi Groups_Merge ** The LF AI Foundation, which is aimed at enabling and sustaining open source innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL) has merged with ODPi, a nonprofit organization accelerating the open ecosystem of big data solutions. The new organization is called LF AI & Data Foundation. According to the announcement, the consolidated group brings developers and projects under one roof, governed by a single Technical Advisory Council and several committees. # **** Security **** # ** Campari,_Capcom_hit_by_Windows_Ragnar_Locker ransomware ** Italian liqueur manufacturer Campari Group and Japanese game maker Capcom have both been hit by cyber criminals using the Ragnar Locker ransomware that affects only Windows systems. # ** China_hits_out_at_US_for_pushing_Egypt_to reject_use_of_Huawei_gear ** The latest battleground for the US and China is Egypt, where an American official has warned authorities that they should avoid using Chinese technology for their 5G networks. # ** Ubuntu,_Windows,_And_Chrome_Hacked_At_China’s Top_Hackathon ** # ** Indian_COVID_vaccine_research_firms_hit_by Windows_ransomware ** Two companies involved in research connected with vaccines for the coronavirus and both based in India have been hit by ransomware. # ** Launching_IPFire_on_Exoscale ** Today, we are launching IPFire on Exoscale, the GDPR-compatible European Cloud Provider based in Switzerland. For the two years that IPFire is available on Amazon EC2, we have often received feedback from various customers about their data privacy concerns. GDPR and the generally higher data protection regulation in Europe is making it difficult for many people to find the right cloud provider that complies with those laws. We are proud to offer an option for those customers. With data centers in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Bulgaria, Exoscale is promising that your data won’t “travel halfway around the world”. Privacy has been built into the cloud from the first moment. # ** Security_updates_for_Monday_[LWN.net] ** Security updates have been issued by CentOS (bind, firefox, java-1.8.0- openjdk, kernel, libX11, qemu-kvm, thunderbird, and xorg-x11-server), Debian (guacamole-server, krb5, libexif, poppler, raptor2, and sympa), Fedora (blueman, chromium, freetype, galera, krb5, libtpms, mariadb, mariadb-connector-c, pngcheck, and salt), Mageia (blueman, docker, fontforge, junit, libproxy, libuv, mariadb, suricata, and webmin), openSUSE (apache-commons-httpclient, bluez, gnome-settings-daemon, gnome- shell, python, salt, sddm, u-boot, virt-bootstrap, and wireshark), Red Hat (chromium-browser), SUSE (ceph, deepsea, kernel, Salt, salt, SUSE Manager 3.2, u-boot, and yast2- multipath), and Ubuntu (openldap and pacemaker). o **** Defence/Aggression **** # ** Far_Right_Monitors_Anxious_About_Lingering_Possibility_of Post-Election_Violence ** # ** Students_Push_to_Remove_Police._University_President Doubles_Down_Instead. ** # ** There_Will_Be_No_Graciousness_or_Concession_From Trump—Incapable_of_Either ** So how can Biden heal the nation when Trump doesn’t want it healed? # ** Trident_Must_Be_Destroyed,_Not_Given_to_Westminster ** There appears to be a presumption that upon Scottish Independence, the Trident submarine fleet and its incredibly destructive WMD’s must simply be handed over to Westminster by Holyrood. That is wrong in international law; if the weapons remain on the territory of Scotland, a sovereign state, it will be for the Scottish Government to dispose of them as it chooses. # ** Don’t_Let_Up:_Fascism_isn’t_Dead_Yet ** Donald Trump doesn’t have the intelligence, competence or sufficient ruling-class backing to actually become a fascist dictator. His desire to be one, however, has been more than sufficient to necessitate the widest possible movement against him and the social forces he will continue to represent, and there is no doubt his authoritarian impulses would have become still worse had he won a second term. What little democracy is left in the United States’ capitalist formal democracy would have been further reduced. It might be better to understand Trump as the Republican Party’s frankenstein — the culmination of the Republican “Southern Strategy.” Richard Nixon was an open racist who developed the strategy of sending dog whistles to White racists; Ronald Reagan promoted “states’ rights,” well understood code words for supporting racially biased policies; George H.W. Bush exploited racial stereotypes with his Willie Horton campaign ads; George W. Bush’s presidency will be remembered for his callous ignoring of New Orleans and its African-American population in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; and the roster of Republicans hostile to civil rights is too long to list. Moreover, the Republican Party, with very few exceptions, has been an eager promoter and enabler of Trump’s virulent pro-big business policies with most not even bothering to pretend to challenge Trump’s racism and misogyny. Support our evolving Subscriber Area and enjoy access to all Subscribers content.  Subscribe # ** The_New_Humanitarian_|_INTERSOS_to_close_all_Somalia projects ** INTERSOS, a UN-funded NGO that provides healthcare and other services to hundreds of thousands of people in Somalia, is pulling out of the country after an investigation uncovered “systematic fraud” that the Italian-based aid group deemed too dangerous to try to resolve. In an interview with The New Humanitarian, INTERSOS Director General Kostas Moschochoritis said it was a “hard decision” reached after “huge debate” within the NGO. “We realised we couldn’t fix it,” he said, adding that he was “really saddened”. All the 200 INTERSOS staff may be laid off – mostly in Somalia, but also some in a support office in neighbouring Kenya. No disciplinary action had been taken against staff, Moschochoritis said, adding that redundancies would be compliant with local guidelines. He explained how INTERSOS had opened an investigation earlier this year after receiving a complaint. That probe, he said, found systematic “manipulation of procedures”, particularly in “procurement” – a term that can cover the purchase of goods or the selection of contractors. Pressed for more detail, he said, “I cannot go deeper”, adding that discussions were underway with local authorities and other agencies on a “smooth handover” to try to continue services. He said local authorities, donors, and the staff had been informed in recent days. # ** The_New_Humanitarian_|_COVID-19_quarantine_ferries_prove dangerous_for_migrants_in_Italy ** Outrage is growing among human rights advocates at the use of commercial ferries by Italian authorities to quarantine asylum seekers and migrants due to COVID-19 – not just new arrivals, but also people from reception centres inland who have been in Italy for years. The initial policy began in April, but civil society organisations and lawyers argue that legitimate public health concerns are now being used as an excuse to detain people in poor conditions on the ferries and to restrict access to asylum, setting a dangerous precedent. A slew of troubling incidents, including several recent deaths and reports of attempted self-harm, have added to the sense of alarm. “The use of quarantine ships for those migrants who arrived by sea raises a number of human rights concerns,” Dunja Mijatović, human rights commissioner at the Council of Europe, told The New Humanitarian. “Vulnerable people, including children and those with underlying medical conditions, must be promptly identified and evacuated on land; everyone must have prompt access to adequate healthcare and to information on their rights and be able to apply for asylum.” The movement of people across the sea is also under fresh scrutiny after it emerged that the attacker who killed three people outside a church in Nice on 29 October arrived in Italy by boat in September and was quarantined on board a ferry before making his way to France. o **** Environment **** # **** Energy **** # ** Army_Corps_Suspends_Permit_for_Toxic_Plastics Complex_in_“Chemical_Alley” ** o **** Finance **** # ** China_smartphone_shipments_fall_in_3Q,_Huawei_stays_top despite_sanctions ** China’s smartphone shipments during the third quarter of 2020 fell 14.3% year-on-year, the tech analyst firm IDC reports, adding that 84.8 million units were shipped during the period. # ** Liberal_Capitalism_is_Dead ** As the radical historian Rudolf Rocker noted in the years prior to WWII, the promise of equality before the law under liberal democracy was shipwrecked on the rocks of class society, a fact that has only become truer in the post-war period, as the United States acted as midwife for the rise to power of a transnational corporate empire in the midst of its own rise to global dominance as geopolitical hegemon. With the rise of transnational corporate capitalism, the limitations of liberal capitalism are becoming too conspicuous to safely sweep under the rug. Politicians are bought and paid for before they even reach office thanks to corporate campaign donations, as are the national committees of two- party duopolies, and this is only the beginning. On shipwrecks Support our evolving Subscriber Area and enjoy access to all Subscribers content.  Subscribe o **** AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics **** # ** ‘Great_News_for_Progressives_Around_the_World’: International_Applause_After_US_Voters_Fire_Donald_Trump ** “It’s time to get back to building bridges, not walls.” Leaders from around the world congratulate the Democrats, but say much damage done by Trump requires repair. # ** The_2020_Election_as_a_Triumph_for_Democracy?_Hold_the Hosannas ** Even high voter turnouts mask the reality of that “affluent authoritarianism” that now governs America. # ** Biden_Needs_to_Deliver_to_the_Working_People_Who_Delivered for_Him ** Biden and Democrats in Congress now have an opportunity to win a generation’s long-term loyalty, but only if they deliver the big changes young Americans demand. # ** A_Memo_to_the_GOP,_Wall_Street,_Joe_Biden,_and_All Democrats:_‘No,_Mitch_McConnell_Is_Not_the_46th_President’ ** “President Biden will be under no obligation to hand Mitch McConnell the keys to his Cabinet,” progressive groups argue. # ** Trump_Faces_Growing_Fury_Over_His_Stubborn_Refusal_to Concede_Defeat_to_Biden ** # ** Rest_Today._Soon_We_Begin_the_Work_of_Clearing_Trump’s Wreckage. ** # ** Now_Comes_the_Hard_Part ** Trump’s defeat is just the very beginning of this battle for the future. # ** ‘Concede_and_Get_the_Hell_Out’:_Anger_Grows_as_Trump Refuses_to_Admit_Defeat ** “You lost, you miserable self-entitled infantile f**ker,” said famed American novelist Stephen King. # ** Democrats_Taking_Cues_From_John_Kasich?_Ocasio-Cortez “Can’t_Even_Describe_How_Dangerous_That_Is” ** “Progressive policies do not hurt candidates,” says the New York Democrat. “Every single candidate that co-sponsored Medicare for All in a swing district kept their seat. We also know that co-sponsoring the Green New Deal was not a sinker.” # ** Dark_Money_From_Super_PAC_Played_Key_Role_in_Defeat_of Several_House_Democrats ** o **** Monopolies **** # ** Book_review:_Enforcement_of_Intellectual_Property_Rights in_Africa [Ed: Africa needs Intellectual [sic] Property [sic] Rights [sic] — basically three lies in a row — like America needed Trump] ** Africa is a continent with 54 countries. These 54 countries come with distinct and diverse legal systems and rules. As a consequence, understanding and following developments on law and practice in Africa can be an uphill task even for a field like IP law that ‘enjoys’ the benefit of various international treaties. Readers will be pleased to find out that two legal practitioners practising across various African countries, Marius Schneider (IPvocate Africa Legal Advisers) and Vanessa Ferguson (Ferguson Attorneys) have provided up-to- date study of the law and practice of intellectual property rights enforcement in all 54 African countries in one book: Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Africa. # **** Patents **** # ** Turkey:_New_Code_of_Civil_Procedure_Extends Deadlines_in_Patent_Litigation [Ed: More time for patent lawyers to empty the coffers of their clients] ** The “Code on the Amendment of the Code of Civil Procedure and of Some Other Laws” entered into force in Turkey recently. This Code focusses on the principle of procedural economy and acceleration of the judicial process. One of the Code’s amendments important for patent law practice concerns the extension of the legal period in which to submit statements challenging court expert reports. This amendment to Article 281 of the Code of Civil Procedure (“CCP”) stipulates that the Judge may grant an additional two- week period to submit statements challenging the expert report. In Turkish practice, it is regarded as necessary to retain an expert for resolution of the disputes that are related to patent law, and expert reports generally sway the balance. The following sentence has been added to the first paragraph of Article 281 of the CCP that regulates objections to experts reports: “If it is very difficult or impossible to prepare a statement countering the expert report, or it requires special or technical preparatory work, an extension of time may be granted to the party who petitions the court within this period, on the understanding that the extension period starts from expiration of the deadline for submissions, the extension will be granted only once, and the period granted does not exceed two weeks.” With this amendment, the judge may add two additional weeks to the two-week period granted to the parties in which to submit their statements refuting the expert report, and the period the parties shall have in which to submit their statements and objections may be extended to a maximum of one month. It is stated as a basis for this amendment that there are complaints about insufficiency of the two-week period given in practice in which to examine the expert report and to prepare counter-statements. # ** Patent_case:_Akteneinsicht_XXIV,_Germany ** The FCJ decided that submissions by the parties which are expressly intended for the court only and not for the opposing party may not be included in the court file. As a consequence, they may not be relied on by the court and may not be disclosed to the opposing party for the purposes of file inspection. # **** Software Patents **** # ** DigiMedia_Tech_patent_challenged_as_likely invalid ** On November 6, 2020, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 7,715,476, owned by DigiMedia Tech LLC, an NPE and an IP Investments Group entity. The ‘476 patent is generally related to displaying video images generated by a camera on a display, and more particularly to tracking a head portion of a person image in camera-generated video images. The ‘476 patent has been asserted against Olympus Corp., Fujifilm Holdings, Sakar International, Nikon, JK Imaging, and Elite Brands. # ** Carucel_Investments_patent_held_unpatentable ** On November 6, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. Carucel Investments, L.P. holding all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 7,979,023 unpatentable. The ‘023 patent is owned by Carucel Investments, an NPE, and relates to mobile communication systems for vehicles. The patent had been asserted against numerous automotive companies such as Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, and Mercedes-Benz. # ** VirnetX_wins_another_Jury_Verdict. ** The jury awarded less than $1 per device, but it still adds up. This $500 million verdict is stacked atop a $400 million judgment from earlier this year. # **** Copyrights **** # ** Pirate_Bay_Domain_That_Sold_for_$50,000_Now Redirects_to_Proxy ** A few weeks ago the domain Piratebay.org was sold at auction for $50,000. The domain was previously owned by the official TPB team, who ‘forgot’ to renew it. After the domain briefly promoted a mysterious “Torrent Man” film project, it now redirects to an ad- financed proxy site. # ** Time_For_a_Real_Response_to_Supposed_Malware_in Pirate_Streaming_Devices ** After endless claims that supposed malware in pirate streaming apps is putting Internet users in peril, it’s now time to bring these threats into the open. The challenge for anti-piracy groups is to actually start naming and shaming pirate apps that act maliciously. Given the reported grave threat, this should be simplicity itself. # ** Don’t_blame_EU_competition_chief_Margrethe_Vestager_if SAP_customers’_antitrust_complaints_are_fundamentally flawed,_get_copyright_law_wrong ** You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone less SAP-friendly than me, given that I harshly criticized the German enterprise software maker (just the week before last) for botching–together with Google and Daimler–the German patent injunction reform and even called Microsoft, BMW, and Deutsche Telekom “lemmings” for following SAP’s lead. The last occasion on which I collaborated with SAP was over a decade ago when we were co- complainants against Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems–and the individuals I worked with at the time have meanwhile retired. Also, SAP is absolutely irrelevant to my business as a game app maker (I finally submitted a beta version to Apple on Thursday for TestFlight approval, and we’ll submit our Android version to Google this week). [...] At the heart of those complaints against SAP–one was lodged with the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) in 2018, and another with DG COMP–is some customers’ disagreement with SAP’s policy that it charges for how its software is used, which often involves third- party applications. The complainants–a group named VOICE including the likes of Siemens and Volkswagen–argue that the 2009 EU directive on the legal protection of computer programs (summary) protects interoperability to the extent that SAP couldn’t do that. With my combined IP and antitrust background, I can’t help but find that argument not only spurious but downright nonsensical. What the directive in question actually refers to is the decompilation (a step that is typically at the beginning of a reverse- engineering effort) of program code. If a certain set of conditions are met, the right holder’s ability to enforce copyright may be limited for interoperability’s sake. ╒═══════════════════ DAILY LINKS ════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.09.20 ****** ***** Links_9/11/2020:_Linux_5.10_RC3,_Mesa_20.2.2,_and_Mutt_2.0 ***** Posted in News_Roundup at 3:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [GNOME bluefish] **** Contents **** * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * **** GNU/Linux **** o ** Linux_Weekly_Roundup:_GIMP_2.99.2,_LXQt_0.16.0,_Sparky_Linux 5.13_and_More ** Here’s this week’s roundup series, curated for you from the Linux and open-source world on application updates, new releases, distribution updates, major news, and upcoming highlights. o ** 9to5Linux_Weekly_Roundup:_November_8th,_2020 ** I’ll start this weekly roundup with a big THANK YOU to everyone who followed 9to5Linux or me on social media. Thank you again to everyone who donated so far, and, if you can afford and you want to help me keep this Linux website alive for as long as possible through this challenging time please consider donating. Even the smallest amount will make a big difference! This week has been kinda slow in both releases and news, but I’ll say there were some interesting announcements and let’s not forget about the launch of another tiny Linux computer. Let’s get started, shall we? o ** Linux_Weekly_Roundup_#103 ** Hello, we hope that you are doing well. We had a peaceful week in the world of Linux Releases. These distros were released during this week; MX Linux 19.3 RC1, Bluestar Linux 5.9.3, Pardus 19.4, and SparkyLinux 5.13. LXQt 0.16 desktop environment has also been released in the past week, we are waiting for it to arrive in Lubuntu 21.04 daily builds, and then we will have a look at it. o **** Desktop/Laptop **** # ** Review:_my_new_Desktop_Computer_for_a_GNU/Linux_digital- painting_workstation ** So here is a review of the computer I received 48h ago. Quick reminder: I was looking for… a performant workstation with a focus on 2D Computer Graphics (Krita/Inkscape/Scribus) Good for multi-monitor setup, video editing, a bit of Blender 3D. Running GNU/Linux with minimal proprietary driver (no Nvidia proprietary driver) No 3D gaming: this a PC for work only. Low budget for a workstation: 1100€ (~$1300) I only painted 7h with this PC, made a bit of video editing, recorded a bit; but this is already beyond what I expected for the task this PC is meant to do. I hope it will have a long life! o **** Audiocasts/Shows **** # ** Episode_223_–_Full_disclosure_won,_deal_with_it_–_Open Source_Security ** Josh and Kurt talk about the idea behind the full disclosure of security vulnerability details. There have been discussions about this topic for decades with many people on all sides of the issue. The reality is however, if you look at the current state of things, this discussion is settled, full disclosure won. # ** Linux_Action_News_162 ** We review the Raspberry Pi 400. Then discover new features coming to Linux powered Dells. Plus an important Let’s Encrypt update, and the next billion-dollar tech coming to Linux. # ** GNU_World_Order_379 ** Listener feedback, the **Powertop** package, and the state of Slackware in 2020. # ** Need_A_Hotkey_Daemon_Give_Dxhd_A_Try_–_YouTube ** Sxhkd is great and all but there are some small improvements that could be made to it to make it a much better hotkey daemon and that’s what dxhd aims to do, it’s very easy to port your config over from sxhkd and adds some neat little additions on top of it. # ** Podcast_#12_with_James_Ramey_from_Codeweavers_–_Boiling Steam ** You want podcasts? No need to wait much longer, we are back with a new podcast episode. This time we talk to James Ramey (president from Codeweavers) once again following the recent release of Proton 5.13 and their rebranded offering with PortJump and ExecMode. # ** Do_Open_Source_Projects_Ignore_You? ** o **** Kernel Space **** # ** mesa_20.2.2 ** Hi list, I know this is coming rather late, but better late than never! Mesa 20.2.2 is now available, and includes numerous fixes. Please enjoy responsibly. Dylan # ** Mesa_20.2.2_Released_With_A_Random_Assortment_Of_Fixes ** For those sticking to stable releases of Mesa3D there is Mesa 20.2.2 now available as the latest point release. Mesa 20.2.2 comes with a rather random assortment of fixes ranging from a few corrections in RADV as well as to the ACO compiler back-end, several Intel fixes , and other work in the different areas of the growing Mesa3D code-base. There aren’t any really standout fixes as part of Mesa 20.2.2 but those looking for the full list can see the release announcement. # ** Linux_5.10-rc3 ** Things look normal. rc3 is neither particularly small or particularly large - it's pretty much average for an rc3 release for the last couple of years. As usual, things have picked up a bit from rc2 as people are finding things, but that's normal and not worrisome. Nothing particularly stands out in the shortlog (appended) or the diffs either - the changes are pretty spread out, with all the usual suspects: drivers (gpu, sound, i2c, networking etc), architecture fixes (x86, powerpc, arm64, risc-v, s390), and various tooling and documentation updates. And to round it out, a random smattering elsewhere (core networking, kernel, some mm and filesystem noise). Please test, Linus # ** Kernel_prepatch_5.10-rc3 ** The 5.10-rc3 kernel prepatch is out for testing. “Things look normal. rc3 is neither particularly small or particularly large – it’s pretty much average for an rc3 release for the last couple of years.” # ** Linux_5.10-rc3_Released_As_A_“Normal”_RC3_Version ** Linus Torvalds just released Linux 5.10-rc3 as the newest test release ahead of stable Linux 5.10 that will be minted in December. # ** Experimental_Linux_Patches_Allow_User-Space_Peer-To-Peer DMA_Between_NVMe_Drives_–_Phoronix ** A set of Linux kernel patches posted on friday allow peer-to-peer DMA (P2PDMA) transfers between NVMe drives using existing O_DIRECT operations or the NVMe pass-through interface from user-space. These patches allow for user-space transfers between NVMe solid-state drives in a more efficient manner via P2PDMA. The patches though at the moment are marked “request for comments” and there are some technical issues to overcome around scatter- gather lists (SGLs) and one of the DMA interfaces. # **** Intel/AMD **** # ** New_TTM_Allocator_For_AMDGPU_Graphics_Memory_Landing With_Linux_5.11_–_Phoronix ** The recently proposed new TTM memory management page allocator that can yield 3~5x faster page allocation as tested with the AMDGPU kernel driver will be coming for Linux 5.11. Christian König has been working on this new TTM allocator code and where it changes to it by default — not just for AMDGPU but also the older Radeon DRM driver and for other drivers too like Nouveau and VMWGFX that also make use of the TTM memory management code. # ** Intel_“coIOMMU”_Can_Help_With_Performance_For_VMs When_Using_Direct_I/O_Access_–_Phoronix ** Currently when directly assigning I/O devices to virtual machines the guest memory needs to be statically pinned unless using a vIOMMU setup in which case it does not but there are performance implications there as well. Intel engineers though have been working on a virtual IOMMU implementation with DMA buffer tracking to overcome these limitations. With Intel’s proposed “coIOMMU” implementation there is fine-grained pinning and vendor agnostic support for emulated or para-virtualized vIOMMUs. Yu Zhang of Intel presented at KVM Forum 2020 on this coIOMMU effort. # ** Intel_Sends_Out_Linux_Support_For_SGX_Enclaves Support_A_40th_Time ** Intel didn’t manage to get their Software Guard Extensions (SGX) support merged for the current Linux 5.10 LTS kernel cycle and it’s still up in the air if it will be pulled in the near-term for providing the mainline kernel with SGX enclaves support. SGX enclaves support is about providing protected regions of code/data from unauthorized access or modification. SGX support has been around since Skylake and continues to be built upon including with upcoming Ice Lake Xeon servers. But getting mainline support for SGX has been quite an effort now taking years and as of this week up to forty rounds of code review. [...] The SGX v40 Linux patches also have a number of low-level fixes and other code improvements. More details on the SGX v40 Linux kernel patches via the mailing list. We’ll see in December if SGX gets pulled into the Linux 5.11 merge window or if the Intel developers will keep working on pushing it to upstream into 2021. o **** Applications **** # ** Mutt_2.0_Release_Notes ** This release was bumped to 2.0, not because of the magnitude of features (which is actually smaller than past releases), but because of a few changes that are backward incompatible. # ** Mutt_2.0_released ** o **** Instructionals/Technical **** # ** How_to_Set_ulimit_Value_Permanently_–_Linux_Hint ** In Linux, ulimit is a built-in tool to manage resource allocation at global, group, and user levels. For a multi-user system like Linux, such a feature is almost paramount to have. It can prevent the consumption of unwanted system resources like RAM, and CPU power. # ** How_to_install_Google_Chrome_on_Ubuntu_20.10_–_YouTube ** In this video, we are looking at how to install Google Chrome on Ubuntu 20.10. # ** Hacking_WPA2_WiFi_Networks_|_The_Linux_Rain ** Whatever the reason for wanting to hack a wifi network, it is nonetheless doable. In fact, it’s become child’s play these days. # ** Combining_repeat_and_repeat-complex-command ** In Emacs, you can use C-x z to repeat the last command you input, and subsequently you can keep tapping the ‘z’ key to execute that command again and again. If the command took minibuffer input, however, you’ll be asked for that input again. For example, suppose you type M-z : to delete through the next colon character. If you want to keep going and delete through the next few colons, you would need to use C-x z : z : z : etc. which is pretty inconvenient. So there’s also C-x ESC ESC RET or C- x M-: RET, which will repeat the last command which took minibuffer input, as if you’d given it the same minibuffer input. So you could use M-z : C- x M-: RET C-x M-: RET etc., but then you might as well just keep typing M-z : over and over. It’s also quite inconvenient to have to remember whether you need to use C-x z or C-x M-: RET. # ** Video:_podman_systemd-based_system_containers_with_GUI Desktop_|_MontanaLinux.org ** 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! # ** How_to_Set_Max_User_Processes_on_Linux_–_Linux_Hint ** Linux offers the capability to customize almost every single aspect of your system. One such feature is the ability to control the number of processes a user can have. This gives the system admins better control over the system and optimizes resource consumption. This article will show you how to set max user processes in Linux. # ** How_to_Use_Wireshark_to_Search_for_a_String_in_Packets_– Linux_Hint ** In this article, you will learn how to search for strings in packets using Wireshark. There are multiple options associated with string searches. Before going further in this article, you should have a general knowledge of Wireshark Basic. # ** Export_MySQL_Data_To_Excel_in_PHP_–_Linux_Hint ** Sometimes, you may need to export into Excel format from MySQL to use locally. The database or tables of the MySQL database can be exported into various file formats, such as CSV, XML, SQL, Excel, etc., by using the PHP client, phpMyAdmin. It is also possible to export MySQL data using PHP script instead of exporting the data manually. When a web application requires data to be stored in Excel format from the MySQL database, then it is best to use PHP script to perform this task. This tutorial shows you how to export MySQL data using PHP script. # ** How_to_Capture_Wi-Fi_Traffic_Using_Wireshark_–_Linux_Hint ** In this article, you will learn how to capture wireless frames using Wireshark in Linux (Example: Ubuntu. To follow this article, first, you should learn the basics of WireShark in the Wireshark Basic article, and then you can come back here. # ** Zip_and_Unzip_Commands_in_Linux_–_Linux_Hint ** Zip is a popular cross-platform command used for compressing and archiving data. Compression saves space by shrinking the size of data while archiving makes the transfer of data easier by combining multiple files or directories into a single file. Consider, if we have to transfer 5 files over the internet, each with size 50 megabytes; transferring all the files one by one could take a long time. Compressing the files to reduce the size up to 25MB, and then archiving all of them in a single file will make it much quicker to transfer the files than when they are uncompressed. Zip is the most widely used utility for archiving and compressing files, while the unzip is used for extracting and decompressing the zipped files. In this article, we will look at the zip and unzip commands in Linux, along with their command-line options and examples. # ** List_Only_Directories_in_Linux_With_ls_and_Other_Commands ** Listing the contents of a directory is easy. But what if you want to list only the directories, not files and links? # ** Rename_all_subtitles_files_with_the_same_name_of_mp4_files in_same_folder ** # ** Editing_Custom_Fields_Using_REST_API_in_WordPress_–_Anto Online ** On December 6, 2016, the WordPress team announced the JSON REST API. The original API came with endpoint for posts, comments, terms, users, meta, and settings. By now, the REST API includes much more functionality like plugins access, custom post and taxonomy types, authorization, and searches. In this post, you will be learning how the posts endpoint works and how you can use that to edit WordPress custom fields. But first, let us start with the basics of using the REST API in WordPress. # ** Openstack_RDO_&&_KVM_Hypervisor:_Setting_up_KVM_Hypervisor on_SparkyLinux_2020.9_rolled_forward_up_to_11/08/2020_(VENV) ** # ** How_To_Install_Kanboard_on_Ubuntu_20.04_LTS_–_idroot ** In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Kanboard on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Kanboard is a free and open-source project management tool that uses the Kanban methodology. Kanboard focuses on minimalism and simplicity, it is mainly designed for small teams. It also helps you to manage your projects and visualize your workflow. 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 Kanboard on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian based distribution like Linux Mint. # ** NordVPN_–_The_most_famous_VPN_service_provider_for_Linux_– LinuxH2O ** In this article, you will learn about the NordVPN features and how you can install and setup it up in your favourite Linux distribution without any hustle. NordVPN is arguably a celebrity when it comes to VPN service providers. There are many out there claiming to be the best, however, NordVPN seems to have caught everyone’s attention. # ** Using_Mailvelope_with_Yubikey_in_Linux ** Mailvelope is an extension on web browsers to send end to end encrypted emails. This is a good option available to the users to send end to end encrypted without changing the email service they use. It is licensed under AGPL v3, making it Free and Open Source software. The code is there in Github for the community to have a look. This can be added as an extension to the – Chrome, Firefox and Edge browsers to securely encrypt emails with PGP using your email providers. ​ Mailvelope does provide end to end encryption for the email content but does not protect the metadata (subject, IP address of the sender) from third parties. As most of the email encryption tools, it does not work on the mobile browser. There is a detailed user guide on Mailvelope from the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which is really helpful for the new users. # ** Parabola_GNU/Linux-libre:_[From_Arch_32]_plasma-workspace needs_manual_intervention ** o **** Games **** # ** What_have_you_been_gaming_on_Linux_recently?_Come_have_a chat_|_GamingOnLinux ** It’s been a little while since we had a community- chat post to round-up what you’ve all been gaming on Linux lately, so let’s have a chat shall we. We’re all a bit spoilt for choice thanks to the likes of native Linux games, Steam Play Proton, cloud game streaming, lots of great emulators and more that you can all do right on Linux. This often makes choosing a game to play rather difficult doesn’t it? It does for me. I end up quite often going back to what I see as comfort games, those that you can just repeat over and over and you know them well, like a gaming comfort blanket with the likes of XCOM 2, Counter- Strike: Global Offensive, Streets of Rogue and others but there’s a new one in my own personal list: Ziggurat 2 which released into Early Access with Linux support in late October. # ** How_to_play_Among_Us_on_a_Chromebook_with_GeForce_Now_– Steam_Version ** Today we are looking at how to play Among Us on a Chromebook. We will be using Nvidia’s Geforce Now, to play as it works very well and on most Chromebooks,. So, as seen in the video, a person first creates a free or paid GeForce Now account (if you do not have one already). Then we go to the Steam website and create a free account (if you do not have one already) and add Among Us which is a paid game to your library and lastly, we go to the GeForce Now dashboard and launch and play Among Us! # ** FlightGear_2020.3_Released_with_New_Default_Keflavík_ (BIKF)_Airport_[Ubuntu_PPA] ** After 2 years of development, Flightgear 2020.3 was released as the latest stable version of the flight simulator. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, and derivatives. o **** Desktop Environments/WMs **** # ** Customize_Xfce_Desktop_for_Modern_Look_and_Productivity ** You can customize the super lightweight Xfce desktop for a modern look and improve productivity by tweaking various settings. In this guide, we explain the steps to configure a basic Xfce desktop installation (for example – Xubuntu) entirely and make it look modern while being productive. # **** K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt **** # ** KDE_Kicks_Off_November_With_More_Fixes,_Including More_Plasma_Wayland_Work ** The first week of November brought numerous improvements to the KDE stack. KDE developer Nate Graham is out with his weekly development highlights and among them for the past week are: - The Kate text editor now supports the Zig language server. # ** Kate_is_soon_20_years_old! ** As described here Kate will soon be twenty. My mail to the former KWrite maintainer dates back to “Thu, 14 Dec 2000 18:38:42 +0100”, thought I think I started earlier with actually hacking on that MDI KWrite variant. But just to have some official date, let’s say Kate was born at 14th December 2000, in a bit over one month Kate will turn officially twenty. # ** KDE_Android_News_(November_2020) ** Since Akademy a few things have happened regarding bringing our applications to Android. Here are some of the highlights I’m aware of. # ** [KDE's_Albert_Astals_Cid]_20.12_releases_branches created ** Make sure you commit anything you want to end up in the 20.12 releases to them # **** GNOME Desktop/GTK **** # ** GSoD_Weekly_Summary_7_–_Pranali_Deshmukh ** This week I finally started working on the documentation for another application: GNOME contacts. It is another core GNOME application, and the next application in my list as per the list posted on the GNOME App Help Tasks Wiki. # ** Evolution_added_support_for_EteSync-2.0_–_Nour’s Blog ** Welcome everyone, in the past weeks, EteSync made some major announcements one of them is releasing EteSync-2.0 which brings new features and made major improvements over EteSync-1.0, you can read more about what the new version brings and how to migrate your EteSync account to EteSync-2.0 from their blog post here. And now I am happy to announce that the Evolution-EteSync module has been upgraded to use the new EteSync-2.0 protocol which is built under Etebase and the module is now under GNOME repo, you can check it here. This guide will show you how to install the module and how to use it with Evolution, most of the things are as before except that now, you don’t need to enter an encryption password plus other major performance boost. o **** Distributions **** # ** What_an_amazing_week!!!!!_–_ArchBang_Live_Iso ** I am really surprised today ArchBang has had over 3500 downloads this week. An all time record. Have to blame (or thank) Matt at ArchLabs for letting users know of release. Think some comments were also made on Distro Watch. Never going to say ArchBang is perfect and it will always need more work Tried to make it so a user has a range of options to get the job done. If you want to install offline, a fully customized install from the ground up or via arch-install-scripts (the arch way). Am looking at adding a mirror selector to abinstall and possibly making a user use gparted to set up partitions. Not that high on my list at the moment but something that would make install a little easier. # **** BSD **** # ** One_or_more_devices_has_experienced_an_unrecoverable error._An_attempt_was_made_to_correct_the_error. Applications_are_unaffected. ** This is not message I wanted to see in my FreeNAS GUI when running brand new disks, but oh well. [...] A few months have passed since I started writing this post. In the meanwhile I was monitoring the situation and did not discover any further issues. The pool is running fine and no further scrubs reported any errors. I am therefore concluding that the issue was caused most likely by the above malfunction and has nothing to do with the drive itself. # ** QNAP_firmware_4.5.1.1465:_disable_ssh_management menu ** as a good boy i just upgraded my QNAP NAS to the latest available firmware, 4.5.1.1465, but after the reboot there’s an ugly surprise awaiting for me once i ssh’d into the box to do my stuff, instead of a familiar bash prompt i’m greeted by a management menu that allows me to perform some basic management tasks or quit it and go back to the shell. i dont really need this menu (in particular because i have automations that regularly ssh into the box and they are not meant to be interactive). # ** VirtualBox_disk_I/O_on_FreeBSD_|_[bobulate] ** Over on Twitter Allan Jude suggested that I should switch volmode at the ZFS level so that GEOM wouldn’t (potentially) interfere with the disks. I haven’t tried that, and sometimes I like being able to, say, munge the partition table of a virtual disk from the host system. In any case, it’s possible that zfs set volmode=dev zvols/calamares-dev- kamarada will do the trick as well. # **** IBM/Red Hat/Fedora **** # ** Review:_Fedora_33_Workstation ** In late October, the Fedora project released Fedora 33 in several different versions. Workstation, Server, and IoT (Internet of Things) are the three core releases. Fedora CoreOS and Fedora Silverblue are considered emerging editions. There are also several spins and variants that feature alternate desktop environments or are tuned to a specific task. I will be focusing on Fedora 33 Workstation for this review. Fedora 33 Workstation introduces two interesting new features: Btrfs as the default file system format and swap on zRAM, the later of which was already in use in Fedora IoT. The rest of the updates include the usual refresh and polish of everything. Fedora 33 Workstation ships with version 5.8 of the Linux kernel, GNOME 3.38, and all the various applications and development tools are the latest versions. [...] Fedora 33 is the first time I have ever been frustrated with a Fedora release. From the Secure Boot issue to the constantly crashing Firefox tabs, this release of Fedora was not a pleasure to work with. It was not awful, but it was no where near what I have usually experienced from a Fedora release. I am sure all the issues will be fixed eventually, but, for now, I have a hard time recommending Fedora 33. Maybe people with better hardware will have better luck (the Firefox issue does seem to be related to not having enough available RAM), so try Fedora 33 out, if you are a Fedora fan. Maybe things will have improved by the time they put out a possible point release to deal with the Secure Boot issue, but nothing to date has fixed any of the issues I had when working on this review. # **** Debian Family **** # ** Debian_11_“Bullseye”_Freezes_Coming_Up,_Debian_13_To Be_Trixie ** Debian developers are two months out from the transition and essentials freeze for Debian 11 “Bullseye” that in turn should debut as stable later in 2021. Starting on 12 January 2021 is the transition and essentials freeze for the Debian 11 “Bullseye” release. After that Debian maintainers should avoid large/disruptive changes. The soft freeze should then begin on 12 February and the hard freeze on 12 March. The full freeze and actual release of Debian 11.0 have yet to be determined. # ** debexpo:_adding_“Already_in_Debian”_field_for packages_list_–_ひとりしずかに。 ** I’ve sent a merge request to show “Already in Debian” column in packages list on mentors.debian.net. [...] This feature is not fully merged yet, but it may be useful to distinguish “This package is already in Debian or not” for sponsor. # ** LazPaint ** There is a new application available for Sparkers: LazPaint [...] LazPaint was started to demonstrate the capabilities of the graphic library BGRABitmap. It provides advanced drawing functions in Lazarus development environment. Both provided a source of inspiration for the other and finally LazPaint became real image editor. Thanks to the help of Lazarus community, the program has been compiled on Windows, Linux and macOS. # **** Canonical/Ubuntu Family **** # ** Edge-native_Linux ** Tech innovators use Linux to create intelligent devices for homes, factories, buildings, cities or vehicles etc… These things are deployed at the edge, in privacy sensitive or business critical environments. They require ever more compute to run ever smarter applications. A Linux distribution engineered for embedded devices running highly intelligent applications at edge scale is overdue. Let’s discuss what it takes to get there. Micro-servers, built on SoCs Application processor SoCs are replacing the constrained chips embedded devices used to be built upon. These SoCs integrate multiple CPUs, GPUs, memory, and other capabilities like multimedia encoders/decoders, controllers (USB, BT, wifi) on the same chip. These SoCs are powerful enough to run general purpose operating systems and applications. They provide advanced computing capabilities in small form factors and at low price points. The result is a blurring of the line between embedded and general purpose computers. # ** Canonical_to_Work_with_Major_Telecom_Company ** While talking about cloud-based business, nothing is as wide-spread and influential as telecommunications companies. Because of software-defined networking (SDN) and Network functions virtualization (NVF), telecom services are completely run on the cloud. Canonica, best known for its Linux-based OS Ubuntu, has won a significant customer for its Charmed OpenStack cloud software. The customer is none other than MTS, the largest telecom company in Russia. o **** Devices/Embedded **** # ** Kontron_unveils_RK3399K(Pro)_SMARC_2.1_Module_with_up_to 8GB_RAM ** Embedded systems companies tend to use processors from established firms like NXP Semiconductors or Texas Instruments, we’ve seen few systems-on-module based on processors from Amlogic, Rockchip, or Allwinner which are popular on this blog due to their value proposition. One of the reasons was/is software support, but this has improved over the years, and the other is the lack of wide temperature range parts plus potential concerns about long term supplies. I’m not aware of any industrial/extended temperature range part from Amlogic, but Allwinner provides A40i/A60i industrial temperature range processors, and Rockchip RK3399K supports an extended commercial temperature range between -20 to +85°C. Kontron selected the latter for their first-ever Rockchip powered system-on-module: the SMARC-fA3399 SMARC 2.1 module. # **** Open Hardware/Modding **** # ** Open-Source_RISC-V_ISA_Offers_More ** Lately, news about the free and open RISC- V Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) has been garnishing a lot of attention. One reason is that RISC-V might become a less expensive yet viable competitor to the global processor leader Arm, especially if the latter is acquired by GPU-giant Nvidia. Even before the potential announcement of Arm by Nvidia, the RISC-V platform had gained a large following among system-on-chip (SoC) designers, thanks in part to its standardized development platform and diverse ecosystem. # ** Arduino_Blog_»_This_perpetual_calendar_displays_the date,_month,_and_day_using_cryptic_rings ** Earlier this year we covered an automated perpetual calendar, which used three ring gears to align the date, month, and day of the week with a viewing window. After building one of these devices, Wolfspaw was inspired to create a new “spin” on it by combining it with a linear Cryptic Calendar, featuring digits that only make sense in the viewing window. The resulting project looks like a few rings inscribed with alien symbols, until each is rotated in place. This frames the numerical date, as well as abbreviated month and day so that they can be read. # **** Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications **** # ** 7_ways_to_fix_charging_issues_on_your_Android_device ** # ** 5_Best_Gallery_Apps_With_Hide_Photos_Option_for Android ** # ** OnePlus_8_Pro_revisited:_The_good_and_bad_six_months later ** # ** Easily_apply_Smali_patches_to_Android_Framework without_a_PC_using_this_script ** # ** New_Xiaomi_Android_11_update_list_shifts_remaining confirmed_devices_such_as_the_Mi_9_series,_Xiaomi_Black Shark_smartphones,_and_the_Mi_A3_to_internal_testing status ** # ** Can’t_Take_Screen_Shots_After_Upgrading_To_Android 11?_Here’s_A_Possible_Fix ** # ** Another_Chrome_zero-day,_this_time_on_Android_– check_your_version! ** # ** Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_A7_review:_Decent_Android_budget tablet ** # ** OnePlus_Buds_Z_review:_Cheaper_and_better_than_the OnePlus_Buds ** # ** Best_Smartwatches_for_your_Android_phone ** # ** 5_Best_Ways_to_Permanently_Delete_Android_Data ** # ** 5_Android_features_that_the_next_iPhone_should_copy ** # ** 26_new_Android_games_from_the_last_week:_The_best, worst,_and_everything_in_between_(11/2/20_–_11/8/20) ** # ** How_to_do_it_.._How_to_run_your_Android_phone… ** # ** How_to_Change_Your_Bluetooth_Name_on_Android ** # ** As_Huawei_is_set_to_drop_Android,_another_tech_giant is_shunning_a_Google_OS ** # ** Google_Silently_Kills_Off_Android_Auto_on_an_Old Android_Version ** # ** CarDroid_replaces_Android_Auto_with_an_Android_9.0 USB_computer_(Crowdfunding) ** Many cars now sell with Android Auto but infotainment systems based on the solutions may have limitations and that’s why we have started to see third-party solutions such as AAWireless adapter to enable wireless Android Auto on more cars. Since Android Auto hardware can’t be easily or cheaply upgraded, CarDroid Innovations has introduced CarDroid USB computer that works with Android Auto but instead runs Android 9.0 on a quad or octa- core Cortex-A53 processor clocked at up to 2.0 GHz with improved performance and access to more apps. o **** Free, Libre, and Open Source Software **** # ** Manage_Any_Scientific_Laboratory_with_this_Amazing_Fee Open-source_LIMS_Software:_eLabFTW ** LIMS or Laboratory Information Management Systems are designed to run labs, function as a collaborative platform for researchers as well as a laboratory notebook. LIMS boosts teams productivity, organize lab assets and resources, improve collaborative teamwork and keep organized records in digital forms that eases researchers and technician work. Our topic today is about eLabFTW and why do we recommend it as LIMS? eLabFTW is a self-hosted completely free open- source (Libre) laboratory information management system. It’s designed as a general-purpose laboratory system but proven reliable in medical and biology laboratories, it also works exceptionally for experimental research laboratories. # ** Gaphor:_Open-source_UML_and_SysML_Modeling_Application_For Windows,_Linux_and_macOS ** Developers and software engineers are often required to create diagrams in their line of work. As there are many commercial solutions some may feel compelled to buy like I did on macOS, there are few alternative professional solutions like Dia diagram editor. Our topic of the day is Gapher a simple yet powerful solution, where we list its features and why it’s an important asset for developers and software engineers. Gapher is a free open-source simple UML and SysML program. It’s a multiplatform solution which means it runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. # ** OpenRazer_2.9_Released_With_Support_For_Handling_More Razer_Peripherals_On_Linux_–_Phoronix ** Version 2.9 of OpenRazer is now available as the independently-developed solution for configuring and monitoring various Razer peripherals on Linux like not only their keyboards and mice but also headsets and other hardware. # ** Adam_Franco_Built_Curvature_to_Find_the_Fun_Roads ** Software developer Adam Franco created Curvature to analyze ten million roads around the world and find the twisty ones. Using OpenStreetMap (OSM) and a ton of math, Curvature ranks roads based on the number and quality of their curvy bits. The result is a map of almost everywhere on Earth you want to spend a sunny day driving or riding. Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. # **** Events **** # ** Design_Session_–_Xen_FuSA_SIG_present_and_future_– Xen_Project ** In this Xen Summit Design Session, the Xen Functional Safety Special Interest Group (FuSA SIG), outlines the progress of the group around Xen and Certification, what is currently being done, and possible future plans. This session goes through the goals of the FuSA, one of which is writing documents for safety certification but also documents used by developers themselves. These two goals are not always perfectly aligned and present challenges in that the documents must meet requirements for certification, but also be readable and usable by the community at large. # ** OSS_EU_and_ELC_EU_videos_available_[LWN.net] ** The 2020 editions of Open Source Summit Europe (OSS EU) and Embedded Linux Conference Europe (ELC EU) were held virtually October 26-30, along with some other events (KVM Forum, Linux Security Summit, and more). The videos, Q&A, and presentations from those conferences are now available to all at the event site through the month of November. The videos will also be posted to YouTube during the month so that they will be available for the future. The schedule is available as well. # **** Web Browsers **** # ** ProBeat:_Net_Applications_will_no_longer_track_the browser_wars ** For more than a decade, I’ve used Net Applications’ NetMarketShare tool to track the desktop browser and operating system markets. The monthly reports have been critical in gauging which browsers and new versions of operating systems are gaining or losing market share. This week, Net Applications released its final NetMarketShare report. The loss could not come at a worse time. # **** Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra **** # ** [LibreOffice]_QA/Dev_Report:_October_2020 ** LibreOffice 7.0.2.1 was released on October 8 and LibreOffice 7.0.3.1 on October 29 # **** FSF **** # **** GNU Projects **** # ** New_GIMP_Unstable_Build_Lets_You_Test_Features Coming_in_GIMP_3.0 ** A major new development version of the GIMP image editor is available for testing – but brace yourself ‘cos it’s a big one! GIMP 2.99.2 is an unstable snapshot, and the first towards the long- anticipated, much-hyped, and hugely- significant GIMP 3.0 release. There’s no firm GIMP 3.0 release date devs right now, but they hope to have it out sometime in 2021. “We want to release a rock-solid GIMP v3 and need to pay a lot of attention to details. This is where we are now and why we are releasing this first development version,” the GIMP team say of this release. # ** GNU_Guix:_Introduction_to_the_Guix_Data Service,_the_missing_blog_post ** The initial motivation came from trying to automate aspects of reviewing patches for Guix. If you have some patches for Guix, one aspect of review might be to apply the patches and then build the affected packages. How do you know what packages are affected though? You could try and guess based on the content of the patches, and this could work some of the time, but because Guix packages relate to one another, changing one package may cause dependent packages to change. Additionally, there are places in Guix where small changes could affect a large number of packages, build systems for example. The guix refresh - l command is really helpful when testing packages locally, but it can in some cases miss some packages that are effected by changes, as it only explores the package graph. The approach taken to working out what packages are affected by a set of patches, was to record information about all the packages in the “base” revision of Guix, prior to applying the patches, and also record information about the “target” revision generated from applying the patches. With all that information about the two revisions, you can then compare the data to determine what’s changed. This goes beyond finding out what packages are affected, and includes things like looking at changes to lint warnings, channel news entries, and more. # **** Programming/Development **** # ** Simple_C++_Hello_World_Tutorial_–_Linux_Hint ** C++ is a flexible, general-purpose programming language that was originally created in 1985 by Bjarne Stroustrup, a Danish computer scientist. Today, C++ is considered to be one of the most powerful languages used for software development. C++ is used in various domains, such as embedded software, real-time operating systems, game development, and finance, and because it supports both procedural and object-oriented programming styles, it is both strong and versatile. In this article, we are going to discuss the basic structure of a C++ program and show you how to write a simple “Hello World” program. # ** Best_C++_Editors [Ed: Not recommended as 40% of those are Microsoft] ** Computer Science is one of the hottest prospects these days. With the world around us relying heavily on technology, this comes off as no surprise as everything is gradually becoming digitized and the demand for people skilled in this field keeps on increasing. The Internet has also exploded in the last couple of years and this has in turn led to an increase in the market for computers and devices related to it. However, the beauty of Computer Science isn’t only in its high success in the industry but also in how it is structured. It offers the best blend of mathematics and engineering, along with providing a platform where programmers can create and develop things simple with just a computer, similar to how an artist does with a paintbrush. Since Computer Science itself is composed of multiple subfields, there have been various programming languages developed each of which has been specifically designed for certain tasks. One such programming language that is immensely popular and lies at the crux of game development, animations, and operating systems is C++ which shall also be the topic of our discussion in this article where we would be looking at the best editors that are available for C++ programming. # ** How_to_Read_and_Write_to_a_File_in_C++ ** In this article, we are going to show you how to read and write to a file in the C++ programming language by using several examples. To understand C++ file operations like read and write, we must first understand the concept of a stream in C++. # ** Convert_XML_to_Associative_Array_in_PHP_–_Linux_Hint ** XML (Extensible Markup Language) is one type of markup language that is used to store the data in a human-readable format. It is different from other markup languages. Every tag of this language is user-defined. Using XML is the better solution to store a small amount of data when you don’t want to use any database for storing data. The data from the XML document can be easily accessed and used in any web application using a PHP script. How the XML document can be parsed and stored into an associative array is shown in this tutorial. # ** Hidden_Tuples_|_Adam_Young’s_Web_Log ** If you are going to write a Sudoku solver, write a brute force, depth first search. You can get it running fast enough. But what if you couldn’t? What if the puzzles were so big that solving them by brute force was not computationally feasible? A Sudoku puzzle is build on a basis of 3: The Blocks are 3X3, there are 3X 3 of them in the puzzle, and the rows and columns are are 9 cells (3 * 3) long. This approach scales up. If you were to do a basis of 4, you could use the Hexadecimal digits, and have 16 X 16 puzzles. A Basis of K leads to a puzzle size of (K^4). The basis can be any integer. A Basis of 10 would lead to a puzzle size of 1000. [...] The digits_out removal is, I think, ineffectual. I convinced myself that I needed it when I wrote it, but I am fairly certain that the cells out side of the found list will never contain those numbers. I am not certain if it makes sense to run this algorithm unless it is coupled with other techniques that make use of the small reductions found by it to do larger reductions on the whole board. If we go back to our Sudoku puzzles with basis > 3, the tuples found by this technique can be larger than 4. I suspect that there is a relationship of the the nature Basis+1. Thus, for our basis of 10, we probably could expect to find matches with a tuple size of 11, slightly greater than one in ten cells in a house. But this algorithm is expensive. The tuple map grows with the number of elements on the board. I’ve not calculated the growth, but I suspect it is of the nature of n^2. Still that should be better than N! or exponential. # ** 3_Free_Books_to_Learn_Dart_–_LinuxLinks ** Dart is a client-optimized programming language for fast apps on multiple platforms. Compile to ARM & x64 machine code for mobile, desktop, and backend. Or compile to JavaScript for the web. Dart is a multi-paradigm, object-oriented, class defined, garbage-collected, scripting language using a C-style syntax that transcompiles optionally into JavaScript. It supports interfaces, mixins, abstract classes, reified generics, static typing, and a sound type system. Dart is developed by Google and is used to build mobile, desktop, backend and web applications. The language is published under the BSD license. There are very few free books about programming in Dart. # ** Learning_meson_·_Martin_Pitt ** Last Friday at Red Hat the fourth Day of Learning happened. This time I picked the meson build system. More and more projects have switched to it, like systemd more than 3 years ago, or most of GNOME. Back then I was really impressed by how much faster a systemd build became with meson – but now I actually want to learn it, peek behind the curtain, be able to contribute to projects that use it, and to know if a conversion makes sense. Also, I have been sponsoring Jussi’s Debian meson package uploads for years now, it’s really time to understand what exactly I am uploading there! # ** Nibble_Stew:_Proposal_for_target-private_directories for_compilers ** One of the greatest strengths of the classical C compiler model is that all compile jobs are fully isolated. This means that they can be run perfectly in parallel. This same feature is also one of its greatest weaknesses. There are no ways for individual compile jobs to communicate with each other even if they wanted to. This could be useful for things like caching. As an example a compiler might transparently create “precompiled headers” of sorts during one compilation and use them in other compilations if needed. This might also be useful for languages that require scanning steps before building such as Fortran and C++ using modules. [...] Meson and CMake already to pretty much exactly this as they store object files in special directories. I don’t know enough about Autotools to know how much work it would be, though it does have the concept of higher level build targts. Handwritten Makefiles would need to be tweaked by hand as with every change. Visual Studio solutions are already split up to per-target project files so adding new flags there should be fairly simple. The best part is that this change would be fully backwards compatible. If the private dir argument is not used, the compilers would behave in exactly the same way they do now. # **** Perl/Raku **** # ** Perl_Weekly_Challenge_85:_Triplet_Sum_and Power_of_Two_Integers_|_laurent_r_ [blogs.perl.org] ** These are some answers to the Week 85 of the Perl Weekly Challenge organized by Mohammad S. Anwar. # **** Python **** # ** Python_Filter_Function_–_Linux_Hint ** The filter is a built-in Python function. It filters the specified sequence or iterable through a function that checks each item or element in the iterable to be true or false. To put it simply, the filter function filters the iterable through a function. The given function test each item of the sequence or iterable and returns the true if the item satisfied the given criteria. As a result, the filter() function constructs a new iterator. The most commonly used iterable are lists, tuples, and dictionaries. This article briefly describes the filter() function with the help of examples. [...] The filter() is a Python built-in function that is used to filter the iterable on a given function. This article explains the filter() function with examples. # ** Weekly_Python_StackOverflow_Report:_(ccxlix) stackoverflow_python_report ** # ** User_Authentication_·_Matt_Layman ** In the previous Understand Django article, we learned about the structure of a Django application and how apps are the core components of a Django project. In this article, we’re going to dig into Django’s built-in user authentication system. We’ll see how Django makes your life easier by giving you tools to help your web application interact with the users of your site. # **** Java **** # ** Dependency_Injection_in_Java_|_Adam_Young’s Web_Log ** You might be thinking that this is a long solved problem. I think I have something a little bit different. This is very similar to the C++ based one that I wrote long ago. There are several design decisions in this approach that I would like to make explicit. * **** Leftovers **** o **** Science **** # ** The_Public_Face_of_Science_–_Implications_of_the_Covid Crisis ** The Public Face of Science was launched four years ago by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to better understand the complex relationship between scientists and the American public. The initiative has now published three reports. The first, Perceptions of Science in America, was published in 2018. It found that a majority of Americans have expressed a great deal of confidence in the scientific community, a confidence which has remained stable over the past thirty years. But, it also found that confidence in science varied based on demographics, including age, race, educational attainment, regional location, political affiliation and other characteristics. The report recommended additional research to better understand why certain topics were particularly controversial, especially climate change, vaccine safety, and genetically modified foods. It was followed by Encountering Science in America, which was published in 2019. This second report explored the diverse and expanding range of opportunities for people to learn about science outside the classroom, including visits to science centers and museums, general news sources, online information, social media, and entertainment. It concluded that such a complex landscape calls for a multifaceted approach to the public face of science, and recommended additional research to better understand how effective communications and engagements shape the public’s interest in their understanding and support of science. Priorities for the Future, the third and final report, was published in August of 2020. While the report doesn’t directly address the implications of Covid-19 to the Public Face of Science initiative, it does so in an accompanying document which highlights the critical role played by science in ensuring the well-being of individuals and society during the pandemic. “[T]he experience with COVID- 19 reinforces the need for continuing thoughtful work to address public access to reliable scientific content and to enhance the public’s capacity to identify and reject misinformation and disinformation (intentionally false information).” o **** Education **** # ** Joe_Biden_Won._Here’s_What_Higher_Ed_Can_Expect. ** One complicating factor: Higher education is now a partisan issue, with Republicans increasingly questioning the usefulness of certain degrees, particularly in the liberal arts. Republicans have also accused higher ed of being biased against conservative viewpoints. o **** Integrity/Availability **** # **** Proprietary **** # **** Pseudo-Open Source **** # **** Openwashing **** # ** Open_environments_are_where_innovative ideas_thrive [Ed: More openwashing by IBM] ** In the first article of this series, I examined the nature of the innovation process in great detail. I also discussed some sources of resistance to it. In this second part of my review of Matt Ridley’s book How Innovation Works, I will explain the ideal environment in which discoveries are born, protected, and progress into useful products and services, considering certain essential conditions for innovations to flourish. And I will argue that open organization principles are the keys to establishing those conditions. # **** Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub) **** # ** AWS_preps_its_own_library_of_public Docker_container_images [Ed: Making Free software merely a bunch of blobs] ** When you run applications on the cloud, odds are you’re actually running them in containers. And many of us aren’t creating our own containers of common applications, such as the Apache Web Server, MySQL DBMS, or the Traefik cloud-native edge router. Instead, we simply grab them from the Docker Hub or another repository of popular container images. Unfortunately, for users who don’t want to pay for their images, Docker is not a charity. Starting in November, Docker has started limiting Docker container pull requests for anonymous and free authenticated users. To address this issue, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has started working on its own public container registry. # **** Security **** # ** Windows_10,_iOS14_Hacked_in_China’s_Biggest Hackathon [Ed: Cracking stuff with NSA back doors isn't too hard] ** # ** Microsoft_Windows_10_hacked_at_Tianfu_Cup, China’s_largest_hacking_competition ** # ** Windows_10,_iOS,_Chrome,_and_many_others_fall at_China’s_top_hacking_contest ** # **** Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/ Dramatisation **** # ** Cyberattackers_Now_Also_Make_Linux Versions_of_Their_Ransomware [Ed: Slashdot now feeding pure_garbage_from_ZDNet] ** # ** Cyberattackers_Now_Additionally_Make Linux_Variations_of_Their_Ransomware ** # ** New_Ransomware_Threat_Jumps_From_Windows To_Linux—What_You_Need_To_Know [Ed: Longtime Microsoft booster Davey Winder happy to also relay this FUD] ** # ** Gitpaste-12:_A_dozen_exploits_that silently_lived_on_GitHub,_attacked_Linux servers [Ed: Sonatype blames Microsoft- hosted and Microsoft-served malware on "Linux" (as did a number of other sites)] ** # **** Privacy/Surveillance **** # ** Amazon_Web_Services_to_Spend_$2.8B_on Data_Centers_in_India ** The data center cluster will open by mid-2022, he said on Twitter. Amazon opened its first data hub in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, in 2016. Data parks and storage services are becoming a lucrative bet in India and have lured global players as well as the local billionaire, Gautam Adani. # ** De-Googling_Update_1 ** I made a resolution for 2020 to be less reliant on Google by the end of the year. This post is an update on where I ended up in that process. [...] This wasn’t on my original list but like many, I’m still traumatized by the loss of Google Reader so many years ago. Something special died that day. I’ve struggled to host my own Tiny Tiny RSS instance for years, it’s quite nice to use but not fun to keep running. I seldom used it and eventually broke it pretty bad this year. However again I realized, I don’t ever read RSS on my laptop, it’s always my phone, why bother with self-hosting a web server and database? I hunted around for a good Android RSS client and found a few decent open source options, but landed on using Palabre for now. It’s a little clunky with feed management and a lot of the feeds I imported from OPML show up without any indication of the title of the site, which I cannot seem to edit. However for the most part it lands my must-haves: local only, OPML import, dark mode, and mark read on scroll. I’m actually enjoying consuming news this way instead of just relying on Twitter and Reddit as I have been lately. RSS feeds are still out there. Bring back RSS! o **** Environment **** # ** In_the_Arctic,_‘everything_is_changing,’_massive_animal tracking_study_finds ** “There’s changes everywhere you look — everything is changing,” said Gil Bohrer, corresponding author of the new study published online Thursday in the journal Science. It describes the new Arctic Animal Movement Archive, which compiles data about the movements of 86 species from golden eagles to caribou to bowhead whales across the Arctic over three decades, combining the work of more than 100 universities, government agencies and conservation groups in 17 countries around the world, including more than a dozen in Canada. That allows researchers to observe changes on a scale they had never been able to before. # **** Wildlife/Nature **** # ** Back_from_the_dead:_Race_to_save_Romania’s_65 million-year-old_fish ** Official estimates number the population at around 10-15 specimens, which are thought to exist on a 1km (0.6 mile) stretch of the shallow, rocky Valsan. This compares with around 200 specimens in the early 2000s. But a small team of scientists and conservationists are campaigning to save the endemic fish species, also known as Romanichthys valsanicola. And they have been encouraged by a recent discovery in the river. o **** AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics **** # ** Biden’s_transition_team_launches_its_official_website_and social_media_accounts. ** President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris took a public-facing step toward building their administration on Sunday, launching a website for their transition team. # ** Is_there_an_alternative_to_Huawei? ** The trouble is that the costs of ditching Huawei are high: you risk becoming reliant on two big Nordic firms, Nokia and Ericsson, the other main suppliers of 5G gear. In the long run a duopoly is bad for competition and innovation. And in the short run neither firm is infallible. Nokia, in particular, is in trouble. On October 29th it announced a drop in sales of 7% year on year, and its shares plunged by almost 20%. Its new boss said that it had been “clearly behind” on 5G. o **** Censorship/Free Speech **** # ** Source:_Female_Iranian_Filmmaker_Jailed_Since_2018 Sentenced_to_10_Years_in_Prison ** An Iranian filmmaker jailed since 2018 for her work and criticism of the government has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after going on a hunger strike and attempting suicide in recent months in response to her predicament, according to a knowledgeable source. Speaking to VOA Persian from Iran on Monday, a source close to the family of filmmaker Maryam Ebrahimvand, 29, said an Iranian court for government employees notified Ebrahimvand’s lawyer of the verdict the previous day. The source said Ebrahimvand was sentenced to seven years in prison for making a film deemed to be vulgar, two years for allegedly spreading disinformation about Iran’s top military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and one year for allegedly insulting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. o **** Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press **** # ** Investigative_Journalists_Facing_‘Vexatious’_Lawsuits Aimed_at_Silencing_Them ** Investigative journalists in Europe and elsewhere probing financial crimes are increasingly facing vexing lawsuits, many filed in British courts, aimed at intimidating them into silence, according to a global survey published this week. “What came across resoundingly from the results of the survey were that legal threats really are a key concern,” said Susan Coughtrie of the Foreign Policy Center, a London-based research policy organization, which oversaw the survey examining pressures reporters in 41 countries face when trying to unearth corruption. Respondents said they faced many different efforts to intimidate them, from being trolled aggressively on social media to physical harassment and surveillance as well as being blacklisted by governments, but the threat of legal action is having the biggest impact on their ability to continue their work. The legal fees involved in defending against lawsuits are often enough to force a reporter or media company to back down. o **** Civil Rights/Policing **** # ** Unions_Lost_a_Major_Battle_in_Their_War_on_the_Gig_Economy ** The law, Assembly Bill 5, had already been weakened by several carve-outs. But Prop 22 deals a massive blow to A.B. 5′s original intent because it means that Uber and Lyft drivers will be mostly exempt from its requirements. # ** Michigan_man_beaten_by_cops_during_arrest_challenges immunity_protection_for_police ** When his criminal case was pending, King recalled that one of his attorneys advised him to take a plea deal because most people don’t win against the police. “Which felt to me then, and still now, felt wrong to lie and say I did this thing that I didn’t do,” he said. King, who is white, recalled his African-American trial attorney telling him, “if you were Black, they would have killed you.” # ** Group_knocks_IGP_for_advising_policemen_to_use_force against_public ** The group said democratic free speeches and assemblies must remain the axiom of democracy and its process in the country and must also be strictly adhered to all the times. It said, as a key member of the UN System, Nigeria must abide by the dictates of international norms and laws including ten basic principles in policing and managing democratic free speeches and assemblies in a democratic republic. # ** Hong_Kong_security_law:_Why_students_abroad_fear_it ** The national security law that China has imposed on Hong Kong is already curtailing speech in the territory – but it is having a far wider impact. It applies to everyone in the world, everywhere in the world. People who break the law can be prosecuted if they go to Hong Kong. # ** Black_School_Leaders_Matter ** Leadership matters. In a crisis, effective leadership matters that much more. In a pandemic the likes of which none of us have seen, leadership can be the difference between absolute success and complete failure. America’s public education system was woefully unprepared for COVID-19. Our antiquated system of centralized school districts did little to empower its school leaders to rapidly adapt in such an emergency. In contrast, the autonomy and independence that school leaders like Lagra Newman, Robert Marshall and Shawn Nelms enjoy, enable them to respond in ways that should be replicated. # ** Former_HUD_Secretary_Julián_Castro_joins_local_candidates stumping_for_Biden-Harris ** o **** Monopolies **** # ** Brexit_and_Supplementary_Protection_Certificates ** What impact will Brexit have on Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs)? The question is complicated as SPCs are national rights governed by EU Regulations – specifically, Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 6, 2009, concerning the supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products. There is also Regulation (EC) No 1610/96 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the creation of a supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products. Both Regulations apply in all the EU and EEA member states and some other countries, such as Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia, offer similar legal protection. # ** Counsel_must_educate_juries_on_US_FRAND_rates ** As the US Supreme Court’s cert denial in TCL v Ericsson means juries choose FRAND rates, lawyers must figure out how to explain FRAND issues to them # ** Delhi_High_Court_patent_rules_give_hope_for_speedier trials ** In-house and private practice lawyers praise the proposals but would like to see more details on how they will be implemented # ** US_election_2020:_five_IP_stories_from_the_year ** In October, Patrick Wingrove revealed that the head of the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division would step down after Trump’s first term regardless of the election result. Makan Delrahim later reflected on his tenure as he prepares to depart – probably for the private sector. # **** Patents **** # ** OXURION_NV_Confirms_New_Patents_for_THR-687_Issued by_European_and_US_Patent_Offices ** Oxurion NV (Euronext Brussels: OXUR), a biopharmaceutical company developing potential next generation standard-of-care therapies to better preserve the vision of patients with diabetic macular edema (DME), today announces a further strengthening of its intellectual property (IP) portfolio governing THR-687, an integrin antagonist being developed for the treatment of DME. The European Patent Office (EPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) have both issued new composition-of- matter patents covering THR-687. Patents EP3613739 and US10703752 were issued in November 2020 and July 2020 respectively, and expire in 2039, with possible patent extensions of up to 5 additional years (2044). An international application is still pending. # ** This_week_in_IP:_China_patent_law_praised,_Led Zeppelin_rehearing_requested,_HTC_wins_royalties reprieve ** On Wednesday, November 4, the England and Wales High Court struck out a claim that infringement damages for a UK standard essential patent should be calculated based on device sales outside of the UK, because the foreign sales were not caused by the UK infringement. In his judgment in IPCom v HTC, Mr Justice Colin Birss set out that SEP damages should not be approached on the same basis as fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing terms, and that Taiwanese phone maker HTC should pay royalties for infringing sales only in the UK. By contrast, the UK Supreme Court ruled in Unwired Planet v Huawei that the patent holder’s ETSI undertaking empowers the UK courts to determine FRAND licence terms of a patent portfolio including foreign patents. Katie McConnell, partner at Hogan Lovells and counsel for HTC, said: “This decision provides welcome clarification that damages for SEP infringement do not follow the global, portfolio approach of FRAND licensing. “The judgment is a victory for common sense, avoiding the possibility that a single instance of UK patent infringement will necessarily result in damages liability for global sales for the life of that UK patent, even though no infringement of foreign patents has been proven.” IPCom sued HTC in 2011 for infringing its UK patent (EP1841268). In 2017, the England and Wales Court of Appeal found the patent to be valid, essential, and infringed by HTC’s original devices, but not by devices that implemented a workaround, which had been court-approved in earlier litigation between IPCom and Nokia. IPCom pursued damages in 2019, shortly before its patent expired in February 2020. # ** In-house_counsel:_how_we’ve_been_fighting_NPEs_in 2020 [Ed: A patent trolls' lobbyist can't even get himself to use the term "patent troll" and instead uses a misleading, softening euphemism] ** Counsel at Slack and three other tech companies say it’s important to do your research on patent assertion entities, and not to show weakness by settling # ** The_bar_has_been_raised:_Prevnar®_vaccine_case demonstrates_the_impact_of_Australian_patent_law reforms [Ed: Software patents lobbyists from Australia (a litigation giant that doesn't do any actual software) complaining about patent quality, as usual] ** Australia’s Federal Court has delivered judgment in a dispute concerning patents covering improvements in vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae, a leading cause of serious infections, particularly in children. The judgment provides the first detailed analysis by a Federal Court judge of the Raising the Bar reforms to Australian patent law concerning sufficiency and support. The decision demonstrates the profound implications of those reforms for permissible claim breadth in Australian patents. # ** Biden_IP_plan_analysis;_Apple’s_$2bn_damages_bill; Top_global_patent_dealmakers_named;_Conversant_and_RPX agree_big_wireless_licence;_China_trade_secrets concerns;_plus_much_more ** Conversant deal with RPX hands a group of the defensive aggregator’s members a licence to portfolio of wireless patents and ends litigation with big name handset manufacturers. # ** Daimler_loses_to_Conversant_over_connected_cars_SEP [Ed: Europe sucking up to patent trolls that are being armed_by_Microsoft] ** In the ongoing battle over connected cars technology, Daimler has recorded another defeat. This time, it’s against Conversant Wireless. The Regional Court Munich has upheld the infringement suit against the Stuttgart car manufacturer (case ID: 21 O 11384/19). [...] Daimler has announced its intention to appeal against the ruling. A spokesperson of the car manufacturer told JUVE Patent, “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.” If Conversant enforces the judgment, Daimler will face a sales stop of the car models that infringe the claimed patent. The security deposit for enforcing the ruling is €5 million. The comparatively small amount is because the court based its determination on a possible licence fee. This is the first case in the dispute between Conversant and Daimler, over a total of four patents. EP 050 expires on 19 January 2021; as such, the court also rejected a request to submit a question – whether a FRAND licence should be offered to suppliers – to the CJEU. # ** Daimler_feels_the_pressure_after_losing_to_Nokia again ** In the ongoing connected cars battle, Daimler faces a sales ban after the Regional Court Munich ordered an injunction against the company. The action is based on the infringement of a Nokia UMTS patent. In early August, Daimler lost another suit against Nokia. Today’s judgment puts pressure on the Stuttgart car giant. # ** BREAKING:_CRISPR_priority_appeal_written_decision issued ** Following its decision in January 2020 to uphold the Opposition Division’s decision to revoke EP2771468 (reported here), the Board of Appeal has now issued its written reasons for that decision. As expected, the Board endorses the EPO’s long standing “all applicants” approach i.e. all applicants for a priority application (or their successors in title) should be named on the priority claiming application at its date of filing. The Board also explains why no referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal was necessary. In this case, the application of the “all applicants” approach meant that crucial priority claims were invalid, resulting in an uncontested lack of novelty over intervening prior art. The EPO’s press release summarising the decision can be found here. While no appeal of this decision is possible, as discussed in our earlier note, the Patentees could file a Petition for Review by the Enlarged Board of Appeal. We’ll know whether they make this final throw of the dice in about 2 months’ time. Watch this space. # **** Software Patents **** # ** Patent_Protection_of_Machine_Learning_and Artificial_Intelligence_Inventions_in_Europe ** Partner Vlad Teplitskiy and Silvia Dondi of Bugnion S.p.A hosted a virtual discussion going over European Patent Office (EPO) legal framework and challenges for protecting artificial intelligence and machine learning inventions. # ** On_the_Patent_Eligibility_of_Graphical_User Interfaces:_Part_I [Ed: Michael Borella is, as usual, pushing fake patents like software patents under the guise of "UI" (courts would throw these out a lot of the time)] ** The evolution of graphical user interfaces parallels the evolution of computing technology itself. As computers grow more powerful and sophisticated, so does their ability to display cutting-edge representations of information to users. Indeed, an entire field of academia, Human-Computer Interaction, has been established to address how to best allow humans to interface with computers, and graphical user interfaces are one of several modalities that are frequently studied. The importance of providing a suitable experience for users of software applications cannot be overstated. One of the most visible aspects of any application is its user interface, which is often graphical. Good graphical user interfaces can help applications become successful, while poor graphical user interfaces have the opposite effect and are regularly the subject of frustration and criticism. It would be sensible to assume that, as a field ripe with innovation, graphical user interfaces would be commensurately well-disposed for patenting. But this is not the case. Due to a series of Supreme Court decisions, as well as restrictive interpretations thereof by the Federal Circuit, patenting a graphical user interface can be fraught with peril. This article applies current state of patent eligibility to inventions involving graphical user interfaces. In doing so, we develop a framework for assessing the patentability of such inventions and provide examples of claims that have both succeeded and failed to meet the eligibility standard. [...] The Court rapidly found the claims abstract, noting that “[t]he only difference between the trading screen of [the prior art] and the one claimed is that the axis in [the prior art] displays price values, and the claimed axis displays P&L values.” Further, the Court concluded that the identifying and computing steps were “nothing more than mere automation of manual processes using generic computers, which does not constitute a patentable improvement in computer technology.” Despite the plaintiff arguing that the displaying and moving steps “provide a particular graphical user interface that improves usability, visualization, and efficiency,” the Court disagreed. Instead, it found that the claims focus on “providing information to traders in a way that helps them process information more quickly, not on improving computers or technology” and they fail to be non-abstract “because arranging information along an axis does not improve the functioning of the computer, make it operate more efficiently, or solve any technological problem.” The Court also found no inventive concept in the combination of claim elements. Thus, unlike the static price index of the ’304 patent, there apparently was not enough daylight between the prior art and the displaying and moving of first indicator in the ’556 patent. This goes to show how some graphical user interface decisions could easily go one way or another not just based on the claim language under review, but also the context of the invention with respect to the prior art. # **** Trademarks **** # ** Counsel_reveal_how_to_stop_dead_brands_coming_back to_bite ** Sales, licensing and other creative uses may help companies avoid the risk that rivals will use their former brands and confuse consumers # ** Indigenous_Land_as_a_Geographical_Indication_– IPTango ** ‘INPI grants first denomination of origin to indigenous people’ This is the title that the Brazilian Institute Nacional da Propiedad Industrial (INPI) uses for its headlines. My mind started to think of other cases in which a national IPO has recognized in one way or another indigenous peoples and communities. The first, that came into my mind was ‘Tejedurias Wayuu’ [maybe because I love a pretty bag –Xmas list (husband, are you reading this?] (Resolution 71098, 07 Dec 2011) which is a recognized Colombian Denomination of Origin (DO) and it refers to handicraft made by the women from the Wayuu tribe. The second example that came into mind was again from Colombia, the ‘Sombrero Zenu’ (DO) (Resolution 71097 07 Dec 2011) for a hat made by the Zenú Indigenous Reservation [husband, I don't want a hat or a new pot!]. ore in DOs in Colombia here. Going back to the title and Brazil, the news was a bit different from what I was expecting. Why? you may ask. The Geographical Indication (GI) granted is the name of an Indigenous land and this is something new to me in the recognition of indigenous peoples on GI. In my previous examples, the DOs name refer to the peoples rather than to the land. While GI usually, if not always refers to the link with the region, or better say, the origin in a given ‘place’ – the terroir, the Colombian examples refer to the people. [...] The INPI reports that local biome in the ‘Andirá-Marau’ Indigenous land and the know- how of the indigenous Sateré-Mawé people play a key role in obtaining a differentiated product. # ** Mountain_Dew_Trademark_Battle:_David_v._Goliath_or Misapplication_of_Prior_User_Rights? ** The plaintiff Syed Ghaziuddin claimed that he decided to set up a PDW plant in 1997-98 and chose the name ‘Mountain Dew’ because he felt that it indicated something pure, emanating from natural sources. Commenced in 2000, the business gained popularity and received various certifications for meeting high standards of quality. In 2003, his firm Magfast Beverages (‘Magfast’) received a legal notice from PepsiCo’s representatives who had approached the Delhi High Court accusing Magfast of trademark infringement. Magfast then sued PepsiCo for passing off, arguing that the latter had no rights on the trademark as it did not use it in India before 2003. Pointing out that PepsiCo does not sell its PDW branded drink as ‘Mountain Dew’ but as ‘AQUAFINA’, Magfast argued that the MNC cannot prevent it from selling its PDW under that trademark. It accused PepsiCo of passing off its goods as that of Magfast’s. In addition, it leveled charges against PepsiCo of colluding with Times of India and Vartha, a Telugu newspaper, to publish defamatory articles about Magfast which caused loss of reputation and mental agony, seeking damages worth 25 lakh! PepsiCo categorically denied carrying out any acts to defame Magfast. It claimed that it has been selling citrus soda named Mountain Dew since 1940 and has immense popularity all over the world. It also owns registered trademarks of the name in 100 countries including ones in India dating back to 1985. Thus, it accused Magfast of engaging in infringing acts. (Note: In 2005, IPAB had dismissed a petition by Syed Ghaziuddin which sought to remove PepsiCo’s trademarks from the register on grounds of non-use.) [...] More recently, in Toyota v. Prius, limitations were imposed on the pervasive overreach of this doctrine by requiring proof of local goodwill of the international trademark. The court inquired whether Toyota’s ‘Prius’ enjoyed a local reputation among a significant number of consumers in India by 2001, as that was the year when the Indian company adopted the mark. It held that the limited online exposure at the time meant that this local reputation could not have been established in the short period between the global launch of Toyota Prius in 1997 and the defendant’s product launch in 2001. There is, however, a much wider 60-year gap between the global launch of PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew and Magfast’s PDW that allows for consumers to be exposed to the former’s product through other media. Thus, it is quite possible that PepsiCo may seek refuge in this doctrine. Moreover, the identical marks are being used over the same Class 32 of goods. Although the court has not addressed this issue in detail, a difference in products has not always been enough to alleviate concerns of likelihood of consumer confusion. In Aktiebolaget Volvo Sweden v. Volvo Steels Ltd., once the existence of trans-border reputation was ascertained, the Indian steel trader had been restrained from using the VOLVO trademark despite the identical international mark in question belonging to an automobile manufacturer. For now, Magfast has emerged victorious, but with these issues looming large over what is shaping up into yet another battle between a foreign giant and a homegrown brand, it remains to be seen what course this dispute takes. # ** Around_the_IP_Blogs ** Contrary to the image of peaceful valleys which the words ‘Mountain Dew’ alone might evoke, PepsiCo has been engaged in a 16-year long trade mark battle in India over whether Hyderabad-based Magfast Beverages enjoys prior user rights over its bottled water brand’s identical trade mark. SpicyIP has the latest analysis in relation to PepsiCo’s most recent setback. # **** Copyrights **** # ** Meet_My_Artificially-Intelligent_Virtual_Self: Creative_Avatars,_Machine_Learning,_Smart_Contracts_and the_Copyright_Conundrum ** Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have triggered a dramatic paradigm shift in how we conceive of authorship and creation. Intelligent machines, such as those powered by the new GPT-3 neural network technology, are capable of generating human-like creative expressions, composing text, performing translations and producing other creative outputs once thought to be beyond the ability of computers. This article focuses on intelligent applications (or “creative avatars”) that are programmed to replicate the style of a human author (such as Shakespeare, Rembrandt or J.K. Rowling), and the regulatory challenges flowing from the generation of such works. The challenges surrounding the production of such content relate not only to questions of ownership and authorship, but extend to issues of how, if at all, these works can be treated as copyrightable subject matter. # ** Horror_Movie_Copyright_Cases ** While Halloween brings to mind jack-o’- lanterns and spooky scary skeletons, some major horror movie franchises have had their spines tingle from the terrors of copyright infringement. From Friday the 13th to The Stuff, horror films and parodies alike have caused courts to wrestle with difficult copyright issues. We bring you some standout horror movie copyright cases and their interesting implications to the law. [...] Cohen created a satirical horror movie called The Stuff. Primarily, Effects Associates created the dramatic end scene where the Stuff factory, which manufactured an alien life form that looked and tasted like frozen yogurt, explodes. The two parties made an oral agreement for production of the special effects shoots, but they did not discuss copyright ownership. Cohen was dissatisfied with the scene and only paid Effects Associates half of his promised amount. Yet, Cohen still used the footage in his movie, which was distributed through New World Entertainment. Effects Associates claimed that Cohen did not have the rights to use this footage unless he paid the full contract price. The court explained how the Copyright Act requires copyright transfers to be made in writing –there is no exception for moviemakers, which according to Cohen, “do lunch, not contracts.” But, the question remained whether Cohen had a license to use the filmed scenes. The court stated that the precedent in Oddo v. Ries controlled – while no oral agreement occurred, the parties’ conduct implied that Cohen had a nonexclusive license to use the scenes. Here, Effects Associates’ conduct suggested a nonexclusive license: Effects Associates created the work at Cohen’s request, intending for Cohen to copy and distribute it. Even though Cohen did not pay the full price for the work, his $56,000 payment implied that the footage’s contribution to the film was not “of minimal value” and without some type of conveyed license. # ** Chilling_Copyright_Stories_for_Halloween ** Marion Zimmer Bradley is arguably the central figure in the copyright controversy over fanfiction. Bradley, who was the author of fantasy fiction novels, The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series, serves as a cautionary tale for commercial writers and fanfiction authors alike. In the 1960’s, Bradley heavily encouraged fanfiction and actively engaged with her fans who, in turn, submitted their works to her for approval. She helped them edit and publish their works in “fanzines” and eventually published 12 anthologies of fan-written stories through fantasy book publisher DAW Books. From the 1970’s to the early 1990’s, Bradley cultivated a sizable universe of fans who astonishingly collaborated harmoniously with her for over two decades. Unfortunately, not all good things are made to last. In 1992, Bradley’s fantasy utopia came crashing down on her. A fan named Jean Lamb wrote a novel titled Masks, using one of Bradley’s characters. Bradley read the novel and gave her feedback as was customary amongst her fan universe. There was some apparent overlap between the themes and characters in Masks and Bradley’s forthcoming Darkover novel, Contraband. There are two sides to every story, so in one version of events the overlap was entirely coincidental, and Bradley had already included those elements in her (yet to be published) work. In the other version, Bradley copied those elements without permission after offering Lamb a few hundred dollars. In that version of events, Lamb attempted to negotiation a better deal, but Bradley shut her down. Whatever the case, once Contraband was announced, Lamb sued Bradley claiming she had stolen her works. This caused Bradley’s publisher to drop her contract and terminate the publication of Contraband. In response, Bradley shut down her fanfiction universe and ceased publishing the fanfiction works of her fans. This move would eventually scare both commercial and fanfiction writers for years to come. # ** Battle_Lines_Have_Been_Drawn_Over_the_Protection_of Fonts ** A decades-long, quietly simmering battle over the copyrightability of fonts is poised to flare into all-out war in light of recent and largely unreported developments at the Copyright Office. The issue on the table is whether and to what extent fonts are subject to copyright protection. After years of registering digitized fonts, the Copyright Office seems to have reversed course, taking the position that font software – at least in one of its most common forms – does not qualify for copyright protection. ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛