𝕿𝖊𝖈𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖘 Bulletin for Tuesday, February 28, 2023 ┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅ Generated Wed 1 Mar 02:41:37 GMT 2023 Created by Dr. Roy Schestowitz (𝚛𝚘𝚢 (at) 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚣 (dot) 𝚌𝚘𝚖) Full hyperlinks for navigation omitted but are fully available in the originals The corresponding HTML versions are at 𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈 Latest in 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒕𝒙𝒕 and older bulletins can be found at 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒕𝒙𝒕-𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 Full IPFS index in 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒊𝒑𝒇𝒔 and as plain text in 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒊𝒑𝒇𝒔/𝒕𝒙𝒕 Gemini index for the day: gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/02/28/ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐒 ════════════════════════════════════╕ Previous bulletins in IPFS (past 21 days, in chronological order): QmdqfApkUHoNL7LgRhijLyQ917yqySCE8TFPFh8Efixmuk QmYUwzBTiff9y3NpVBbZgEPJYspVVxmzVVYkzar4igJRiY QmWU4whiYNSNx6oxSqvGVEkr1unaGuqfGtoiphqZLBAxVJ QmQUWdJviNhacCKbEie2yYrdrQaNYjUhGH7B8majeYU6Vb Qmckkfq1rqb7mTK7w6RbFZJjskRKcnUk8PdtMmcLwUhXgV QmVY5cAKghhEttE24TaNrAQgciJau5j7EoeaEmfjYdbLMD QmUUEWf3hsUuMVJFPVavJpe7kPpi5bCmXqN9PPz7qbVMEu QmVBn9QkCHpe2cDLPr9H2kyS7vx3eRh5a9NN8CDSJEKw58 QmYGXGQ6SW216dEJ4TMfGyb7yDMBF4n6zCEwza8SfCQjDJ QmbPtsyc7sJxSwGRbURzMBpmJpQAgABouVYWUyXdfGhcFh QmSCXZVE6CQ7coFZMzXzjrALhoFTURwUpGRmU6CktGzSQz QmPbC3tAdXsThGxVyQYA3w5ThD5inZGhqy6fsNKHm55vAM QmfXoJrbKnWSQ2LZPdcn6D62y58ADQrCM6VaEptoYdSLz7 QmVFthGmR5Kh2aG2L3dgjZk4cCYoHhxwUKnwVSzKutqpZ9 Qmb1ifnMR1HKQVZSvpC4pPPzaFprCcVWkqqqznNJrvKGMT QmRmM7KSPSMNkJa65wrPNTYM2RSbSjrTUjyFydLzyeS74W QmcGKU7J3P2cV9jwQZBuJGz5uH9cKMjzpiF2ZKW9ZitXGr QmfG9Hg56mJpukz1EZw428rJ2z6dqsninonxMjQ6Hu8nDX QmQvUGyavcKLCo8JSF7418NQWwTLC4ErwUkVYeHeqdzCrT QmNyiqRsuJ8mYSSPM3c4spDSbX4bhkrqvCphrF31fpb2KW QmcAUH8T4ETkZScFqRu8n6bEqqRbJAcFnJGixx9EE2ZYiU ╒═══════════════════ 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐗 ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ⦿ EPO Has ’Guidelines on Rewards’, But Promotions Are Down Sharply and Potential to Recruit is Very Low (Except Scabs) | Techrights ⦿ IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 27, 2023 | Techrights ⦿ Microsoft Stabber Joseph Cantrell Boasts of Nazi Lineage and Made Disturbing Video Games | Techrights ⦿ NOW: Pensions and the Mystery of Fines by the Pensions Regulator | Techrights ⦿ Sirius ’Open Source’ Pensiongate: Pension Providers That Repeatedly Lie to the Clients and Don’t Respond to Messages | Techrights ䷼ Bulletin articles (as HTML) to comment on (requires login): http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/epo-guidelines-on-rewards/#comments http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/irc-log-270223/#comments http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/microsoft-nazis/#comments http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/now-pensions-breaches/#comments http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/sirius-open-source-pensiongate-pension-providers-that-repeatedly-lie-to-the-clients-and-dont-respond-to-messages/#comments ䷞ Followed by Daily Links (assorted news picks curated and categorised): http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/apache-openoffice-4-1-13/#comments http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/godot-4-0-rc-6/#comments http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/new-kde-release-2023/#comments ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 61 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/epo-guidelines-on-rewards/#comments Gemini version at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/02/28/epo-guidelines-on-rewards/ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.28.23⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ EPO_Has_‘Guidelines_on_Rewards’,_But_Promotions_Are_Down_Sharply_and Potential_to_Recruit_is_Very_Low_(Except_Scabs)⠀✐ Posted in Deception, Europe, Finance, Patents at 1:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Summary: The Central Staff Committee at the EPO has a new publication which reveals dishonesty about the EPO’s budget, staff prospects, and so much more THE OTHER day we mentioned how the_EPO_crisis_had_happened and what_it_looks like_from_the_inside. The short story is, there’s brain drain and the EPO can barely recruit. It’s barely even trying to. From the looks of it, Benoît Battistelli and António_Campinos only sought a ‘production line’ of monopolies and now they pursue a kangaroo court to blindly accept these monopolies as “valid”, in effect bypassing national courts in many countries (that’s both illegal and unconstitutional). EPO stakeholders aren’t exactly happy about this and they're_complaining. “Lying and mischievous violations of the law have become so routine that nowadays they’re simply expected.”The ‘production line’ mindset/mentality impacts European_software_patents, based on EPO_leaks, so something must be done about this. Examiners are meanwhile warning that the regime keeps lying, typically relying on nice-sounding titles (e.g. “Teams Together”) to do ruinous, harmful things. One new example of that is described in a newly-circulated paper from the Central Staff Committee. We’re reproducing it in full below (HTML, text, GemText): Zentraler Personalausschuss Central Staff Committee Le Comité Central du Personnel Munich,20/02/2023 sc23021cp § Reward Exercise 2023⠀➾ § Taking away with the other hand⠀➾ Dear Colleagues, In his Communiqué of 14 February 2023, Mr Campinos presented his Guidelines on Rewards 2023 as an improvement. However, in real terms, the number of potential steps and promotions decreases (-8,2%) compared to 2022 and the budget for steps and promotions decreases (- 6,4%) compared to the budget approved by the Administrative Council (CA/D 1/22). The focus on bonuses rather than on career progression confirms that management is not willing to invest in EPO staff in the long term. This policy seems unsustainable at a time when production is behind plan, quality has decreased to unbearable levels for our users and the “Bringing Teams Together” project causes staff disengagement. This paper gives more details. Budget: real decrease of the envelope for steps and promotions The draft budget1 for 2023 contained an envelope for steps and promotions of EUR 14,690 million. The envelope was then reduced in the final budget2 approved by the Council to EUR 14,380 million. Instead of following the Council’s decision, Mr Campinos has further reduced3 the envelope to EUR 11,700 million. The table below shows the evolution between the budget approved by the Council and the budget proposed by Mr Campinos: 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇EPO_budget⦈_ 60% of among eligible staff, but in practice? ____ 1 CA/50/22, p. 168 2 CA/D 1/22, p. 166 3 GCC/DOC 3/2023, p. 6 ===================================================================== Two obvious comments come to mind: Firstly, salaries have been adjusted by +10,8% as of 1 January 2023 to reflect the evolution of the purchasing power and the salaries of national civil servants. Steps and promotions are therefore “more expensive” in the same proportion. However, the envelope for steps and promotions will only increase by 1,7% for 2023. This means, all else unchanged, that about -8.2%4 less steps / promotions can be granted. In contrast, the budget for bonuses has increased very slightly in real terms. Secondly, when setting the envelope, the Council budget took into account the salary adjustment as well as departures, replacements and recruitments foreseen in 2023 resulting in a calculated increase of +8,6%. In 2022, Mr Campinos had already proposed an envelope significantly below the one approved by the Council. One would expect him to increase his envelope at least by the same percentage as the one decided by the Council. This is however not the case. By increasing his envelope by only +1,7% instead of +8,6% the ratio between the two reveals that Mr Campinos has arbitrarily decreased his envelope by -6,4% compared to the envelope approved by the Council. Quota: 60% among eligible staff Steps or promotions are available for up to 60% of eligible staff, which remains the lowest level since the introduction of the New Career System in 2015. As explained below the effect is that, in absolute numbers, fewer and fewer colleagues are receiving a step or promotion and thus fewer and fewer colleagues are progressing in their career. To justify his policy, Mr Campinos still dares to refer to5 the baseline scenario of the Financial Study 2019 corresponding to granting a pensionable reward to 60% of eligible staff. Management should refrain from referring to a study which has now proven undeniably fundamentally wrong as it predicts deflation6 instead of inflation. It is also questionable whether the 60% can even be reached in view of the President’s cut in the envelope. After eight reward exercises, the demotivating aspects of the New Career System have also become obvious: Staff in service on 31.12.2022 and still in service on 01.07.2023 may be considered for steps or promotion, provided that they are not yet in the last step of the highest grade of the respective job group or “off-scale”. (section II, 1. 2) The number of staff members who have reached the last step (G9(5) for JG6, G10(5) for JG5 and G13(5) for JG4) has increased and they are now deprived of any pensionable reward. This could create some possibility of granting more pensionable rewards to the younger colleagues if the envelope as approved by the Council were used. However, the rigid 60%-quota combined with the arbitrary decrease of the envelope prevents this. The reward exercise is more of a budget- based and quota-based exercise than a merit-based one. _____________ 4 100%-(101,7%/110,8%) 5 GCC/DOC 3/2023, p. 6 6 CA/83/19, p. 20 ===================================================================== Calibration At a time when production is a matter of concern for management, a new amendment is made: The pensionable and non-pensionable envelopes are initially distributed to the DGs on the basis of the demographic structure (number and grading of staff). Each VP may then calibrate them within the DG considering unit performance and collaborative achievements. However, no transfer of the different amounts between the different envelopes is allowed. (section I, par. 3) This new amendment now formalises the practice of arbitrarily reducing the percentage for the teams considered less productive without duly considering the specificities of their work. A COO, a PD or a VP may further reduce the percentage to show that he or she is acting more “sustainably” than other managers. Conclusion In his Christmas speech of 12 December 2022, Mr Campinos stated that the salary method is now delivering on an initial promise with a significant “pay rise”. However, in real terms, his envelope for steps and promotions now presumably allows for -8,2% less pensionable rewards and decreases by -6,4%. This gives the feeling that what Mr Campinos had to (reluctantly) give with one hand, he is now taking with the other. Indeed, the Financial Study 2019 wrongly predicted deflation and limited salary adjustments to Eurozone inflation + 0,2% in the hope this cap would remain low. It was however not the case due to historically high inflation. The new salary adjustment procedure led after three years to a cumulative result similar to the previous procedure. Management is now trying to “repair” what it sees as a mistake with a real decrease in the envelope for steps and promotions. Salary adjustment and rewards serve different purposes: the former is meant to maintain the purchasing power and parallelism with national civil servants, the latter are meant to reward staff’s performance in the previous year based on merit. The policy of the administration appears to link both with purely financial considerations. Staffing levels are already too low, production is behind7 plan, quality has decreased 8 to unbearable levels for our colleagues and for users, and the “Bringing Teams Together” project is further disengaging staff. How does the management intend to motivate staff, if they only propose more of the same? The Central Staff Committee _____ 7 DG1 Beats – January 2023 8 “Concerns about deteriorating patent quality at the EPO”; Kluwer Patent Blog, 11 February 2023 https://patentblog.kluweriplaw.com/2023/02/11/concerns-about- deteriorating-patent-quality-at-the-epo/ As the above helps show, nothing that the EPO’s management says can be trusted. Lying and mischievous violations of the law have become so routine that nowadays they’re simply expected. There’s no oversight, only complicity from the outside. █ ⡏⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠋⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠋⢉⢉⢉⢉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⢹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡀⠐⠙⠓⠑⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡀⠐⠀⠐⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠂⠀⠀⠀⠘⠑⠋⠂⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⡟⠻⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠟⠛⠿⢿⠛⠿⢿⢛⠿⠿⠿⠿⠟⢻⣿⣿⣿⡟⡛⠛⠛⡛⡛⢟⢛⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠻⠻⠛⢻⡛⠛⠛⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣷⣷⣴⣴⣶⣾⣶⣶⣶⣶⣤⣿⣶⣶⣾⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⣿⣧⣤⣥⣤⣬⣥⣤⣬⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣤⣥⣥⣬⣥⣤⣤⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣏⣼⣩⣩⣉⡉⣉⣉⣉⣍⣁⣨⣩⣩⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣏⣼⣿⣊⢗⣍⣳⣽⣭⣃⣀⣍⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⣇⣼⣹⣹⣧⣣⣱⣏⣩⣀⣉⣝⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⡟⣝⡛⠛⠛⠛⠻⠛⢻⣟⡻⣿⠋⢛⡿⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⡻⡻⢻⣿⣿⡟⡽⣿⢫⢟⣽⣯⠛⣽⡟⢿⢝⣽⣽⣽⣿⣿⣿⡽⡽⢫⢿⡝⢫⢻⣿⢟⢟⡟⠿⣻⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⣷⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣇⣘⣉⢉⣉⡈⣉⣉⣉⣉⣁⣈⣩⣉⣹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣇⣸⣆⣾⢃⣐⣀⣸⣍⣀⣀⣉⣍⣿⣿⣿⣿⣅⣸⣸⣘⣆⣐⣀⣏⣉⣀⣈⣉⣹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣽⣽⢳⣿⣄⣿⣿⡃⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⡿⣿⢿⢿⣿⠿⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿⢿⠿⡿⣿⢿⢿⠿⡿⠿⢿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿⢿⢿⣿⢿⢿⡿⠿⠿⢿⢿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⡿⡿⠿⢿⣿⣿⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣧⣵⣵⣿⣽⣴⣤⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣼⣿⣵⣽⣯⣮⣾⣿⣦⣴⣵⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣽⣾⣿⣯⣮⣮⣧⣾⣤⣶⣵⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣧⣥⣧⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 332 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/irc-log-270223/#comments Gemini version at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/02/28/irc-log-270223/ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.28.23⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ IRC_Proceedings:_Monday,_February_27,_2023⠀✐ Posted in IRC_Logs at 2:38 am by Needs Sunlight Also available via the Gemini protocol at: * gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-techrights-270223.gmi * gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-270223.gmi * gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-social-270223.gmi * gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-techbytes-270223.gmi Over HTTP: 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇H 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇HTML5_logs⦈_ #techrights_log_as_HTML5 #boycottnovell_log_as_HTML5 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇H 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇HTML5_logs⦈_ #boycottnovell-social_log_as_HTML5 #techbytes_log_as_HTML5 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇t 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇text_logs⦈_ #techrights_log_as_text #boycottnovell_log_as_text 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇t 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇text_logs⦈_ #boycottnovell-social_log_as_text #techbytes_log_as_text Enter_the_IRC_channels_now =============================================================================== § IPFS Mirrors⠀➾ CID Description Object type IRC log for  QmbDXxFdqRrdfC8m5LK7zZ9NU9Zqw2JBnsC8c3Gr2Cw8CV #boycottnovell 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #boycottnovell  QmevaQXSDNCLc63BBGXRNkv5PPAHP1osYYwGPqkWy388yk (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for #boycottnovell-  QmU19wea8uuRFCmJgA7q4xBoXSU5Q6NPUVQsRhaVanoKMJ social 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #boycottnovell-  QmZkTUUBL1yrraSRvgciJW9xpBARGeAY18wS5hfuXHzaxM social 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ (full IRC log as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for  QmWy4dGLuHvfLioZ4eAJuN3ErEt69gqokL4DdV2fJYd5q7 #techbytes 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #techbytes  QmXavbdLmkwP6eMrA6mcN6kTW5eaAE39Loomxhkyz2hrEK (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for  QmYRragz3oJryZDo3aMGrPJvtwTSfm9NbnDHLuWi4rH7jJ #techrights 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #techrights  Qme5iDa2kQDbcADHFsqtF8bt3oDC9DQSL7PVBEiqHK7XsK (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ as plain/ASCII text) 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇IPFS logo⦈ § Bulletin for Yesterday⠀➾ Local_copy | CID (IPFS): QmcAUH8T4ETkZScFqRu8n6bEqqRbJAcFnJGixx9EE2ZYiU ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 459 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/microsoft-nazis/#comments Gemini version at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/02/28/microsoft-nazis/ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.28.23⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ Microsoft_Stabber_Joseph_Cantrell_Boasts_of_Nazi_Lineage_and_Made_Disturbing Video_Games⠀✐ Posted in Microsoft at 9:35 pm by Guest Editorial Team Microsoft Stabber Joseph Cantrell Boasts of Nazi Lineage and Made Disturbing Video Games. Reprinted with permission from Ryan The news reports that Microsoft_employee_Joseph_Cantrell_attacked_and_stabbed another_Microsoft_employee, whom he did not know, while they were walking off the campus from work. I did a little more digging. On Cantrell’s personal Web site, he has a very long “about” page, which includes this nugget. “My evolved cells, their DNA, and everything else in my body have their roots in my family. To get here, my grandmother, Paula Josefa Cantrell (1922-2003), emigrated from Germany to the U.S.A. during Adolf Hitler’s bolstering of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s.” -Joseph_Cantrell,_Microsoft_Stabber If bragging about Nazi lineage just ain’t doin’ it for ya, he has a list of video games where you win points by killing Jesus Christ, the Prophet Muhammad, and anyone you give it a picture of. Available in 2d and 3d. His projects include something called an “Anne_Frank_Simulator”. His favorite shows include “Death_Note”, where beings from another dimension, called Shinigami, have special books where they write in human names, and then basically that person drops dead and the victim transfers their remaining life to these things. In the series, they occasionally drop these “death notes” into the human world, where people pick them up and start writing names. Anyone they don’t like basically dies of any cause they write down. So for example, you can become a serial killer and take control of your victim and force them to do something extremely gruesome to end their life. Alone, is this proof he’s a nut? Not really, but taken as a whole some of this could go along with that. My impression from his “about me” page is that the guy is just kind of a loser who wanted to overcompensate by boasting about himself in weird ways. There’s no telling what set him off until and unless he decides to talk to the cops. I wasn’t able to find much about his work at Microsoft except a GitHub (Microsoft) repository with_some_things_about_Azure. The only commit I found was about adding some Oxford commas to some documents. “I came here to add commas and stab people, and I’m all out of commas.” Microsoft gets a disturbing number of stabbers, rapists, stranglers, and other assorted crazy people. You’d seriously think that the hiring managers could open Google and find out that they’re dealing with a crazy person though, which about, oh, two or three minutes looking at his blog would have done. Apparently, the victim’s Apple Watch alerted_his_wife there was something wrong. “Alert! Your husband is being stabbed by a Microsoft employee!” Damned_rollercoasters. I have also located a confession that Cantrell put on his own site detailing illegal_drug_use. (It’s under “secret-journal-wall-trump-card-v2” in the file “Joseph Cantrell- alias.txt”.) Note the following, This was originally a document detailing my drug use and my thoughts on or during their effects like the dream journal my mom bought me when I was a kid. However, it is now my overall life journal and literary practice. It should be freely and posthumously published to help humanity or whatever. I’m sure it will help someone in the future given the challenges I’ve faced with abnormal genetics of decelerating neuron firing rates. Also, it’s a good deterrent. I’m deep undercover with Luzianne sweet tea. [...] Most Intense Experience: LSD + MDA + 3-MeO-PCP + Cannabis (potentially fatal combination) Best Experience: LSD + 3-MeO-PCP + Cannabis Drug Utility Shortlist: Amphetamine sulphate: Intelligence training, motivation, long term life enhancement Marijuana: Malleable short term life enhancement, natural medicine 3-MeO-PCP: Amphetamine addiction and withdrawal, creativity, motivation, depression MDMA: Amphetamine withdrawal (sparingly) Psychedelics: Appreciation LSD: Weightlifting DMT: Weightlifting, back pain, natural medicine Dissociatives: Reflection, habit based depression Drugs I’ve used to get high: Amphetamine Sulphate Caffeine Marijuana Alcohol LSD 25I-NBOMe Methylphenidate LSA Mushrooms Nitrous Oxide Dextromethorphan Cocaine MDMA 2C-B DOM Diphenhydramine Kratom DMT Methoxetamine 2C-T-2 2C-E 5-MeO-MiPT Ketamine S+ & -Racemic Codeine & Promethazine MDA DOC 25B-NBOH Salvia Divinorum 25I-NBOH 3-MeO-PCP Alprazolam Heroin 4-MeO-PCP DCK O-PCE/2-OxO-PCE 3-MeO-PCE DOB 25E-NBOH 3-HO-PCP 3-HO-PCE Flunitrazolam 2F-DCK 4-HO-MET Mescaline 5-MeO-DMT TMA-2 ETH-LAD 2C-C PCP Methamphetamine 2-FMA 4-HO-MiPT 4-AcO-DMT 3-Fl-PCP Now with that very same list, I’ll divulge my thoughts on those drugs. A ++ denotes I would use it again while a — means it is a castaway. Amphetamine Sulphate ++ This is the gold standard and my ticket to life with Neural Deceleration Disorder. It trains me to be intelligent, motivated, happy, and caring. It acts through releasing NE and DA, but it also has other actions unbeknownst to me. I am most addicted to this drug, and it will always be that way until I die. It causes massive oscillations in the neurons of my body to the point I can hallucinate toward a ketamine-like hole of white light and 3-MeO-PCP-like hallucinations of rainbow women. It enhances my holistic comprehension, calculation speed, working memory, short term memory, and long term memory. It enhances adrenaline reserves when appropriate, and adrenaline is more easily triggered for release, even by withdrawal alone. Levoamphetamine mostly trains those things related to NE and makes me hungry and cold. I can sleep on levoamphetamine even with large amounts of dextroamphetamine as long as the ratio is sufficient. Somehow levoamphetamine trains a moral tending to the call of duty. It fosters integrity. Dextroamphetamine trains my DA related motivation and reward and makes me hot, keeps me awake, and mitigates my hunger. These two atomic arrangements work together to keep me holistically capable. This is the only way I know to increase intelligence, and it would be sufficient to transform a C student to a P.h.D. graduate. This should have the ability to train away fear, at least if used in childhood for six years. Caffeine ++ This is the standard work drug, and it works well so long as I am not oscillating too much from amphetamine. Caffeine boosts my enjoyment of lifting weights, and I consume it in the form of Luzianne sweet tea and flavored preworkout. Marijuana ++ Weed is great for amplifying another drug’s effects. It can put me to work or put me to bed and is good in almost every situation except lifting weights. Marijuana puts me to work so long as I am in the presence or afterglow of amphetamine. Weed will likely put motivated people to work and put demotivated people to rest just as it does me in the vicinity of my amphetamine dependence. Alcohol – I’ve given up alcohol for good because it has awful hangovers with headaches, body aches, brain fog, and puking. It is extremely addictive given that it is very frequently consumed in small quantities. It contributes to cancer like that which killed my mother. It is worth trying a couple times to experience GABA agonism. LSD ++ This drug is a great way to enjoy the company of one’s own thoughts and visualize oneself. LSD almost doubles the acquisition of muscular strength from lifting weights. I’ve used LSD daily with no ill effects to achieve that growth. LSD makes me see beautiful caricatures of rainbow women and even a white light and full body orgasm at high doses. No overdosing makes this one of the best psychedelics. Like most psychedelics, no hangover and addictive qualities make this an ideal choice. 25I-NBOMe ++ This drug is like LSD but is more precise in the serotonin receptors it targets, namely 5HT-2A. This drug morphs the color black more than other psychedelics. It numbs the tongue and must be dissolved under the tongue. It is stimulating and gives me the giggles quite easily. With a high enough dose or combined with enough weed, it can lead to blacked out cackling. Methylphenidate – A DAT and NET inhibitor, this drug is often used as an NDD medication, but it has been disavowed by me by making my NDD worse in time of crisis in late 2017. It doesn’t foster any sort of responsibility like amphetamine and is similar to cocaine in the selfishness it induces, so this drug is noted as being inappropriate for children among those educated about it. LSA ++ This is a naturally occurring drug similar to LSD but producing more sedation. Food tastes very good. Natural sources cause intense puking, but the short nausea is worth the dreamy lethargy it induces. Mushrooms – Mushrooms have more morphing visuals than LSD a stronger mental danger at high doses. I suspect I dislike mushrooms because of some dopamine activity that isn’t compatible with my NDD much like DAT inhibitors. Nitrous Oxide ++ NO2 has very heavy NMDA antagonism and is purported to have mild opiate and benzo effects. I can’t confirm those latter two statements, but the rapidity of effects’ dissipation lends itself to a greater addiction than other drugs. This is the most addictive dissociative I have used, but given the lack of negative effects in moderation, I would do it again. One would need to ingest hundreds of eight gram cartridges every day for negative effects to quickly manifest. Dextromethorphan ++ DXM needs weed to feel good. Otherwise there is too much nausea. This has the greatest chance of inducing double vision visuals while also having the most complex closed eye visuals of any dissociative. Massive planetary landscapes and castles can be imagined. Cocaine – This DAT and NET inhibitor drug is evil in the selfish, talkative nature it induces. Constricted blood vessels and a hangover is present the next day unlike methylphenidate which suggests additional activity. Fascinations with evil plotting, lying, betrayal, gloating, cameras, attention seeking, disregard, and sadism are present. Clapping and running are stimulated behaviors. I read in the media that sadism enhances sexual gratification with partners later in the day, but I can’t verify that being a major drawing point. They call that charging or hooking. MDMA ++ This drug makes me feel very happy since it is very similar to my medication, amphetamine. It’s a great substitute to alleviate amphetamine withdrawal, and given my negative experiences with trying things like MDA, it is dangerous to try anything else for amphetamine withdrawal. It is very far reaching and has no noticeable hangover if used in moderation. Despite common usage for group settings, I love to use this drug to examine myself. However, because I had a bad reaction to amphetamine withdrawal in combination with MDA, becoming addicted to MDMA which metabolizes to MDA could become just as disastrous. This drug is not something to use as often as I have in the past. 2C-B ++ This drug produces morphing visuals more than LSD and also has more intense bodily feelings except in high doses where LSD is more intense in just about every way. Low headspace compared to LSD. DOM ++ DOM is more stimulating and visually active than LSD and produces much more detailed hallucinations for way longer. I’ve never seen a white light of serotonin saturation like with LSD and won’t because of the overdose potential. Vasoconstriction is prominent, so a little weed is necessary to combat that. With 10 mg, the feeling of a pinball moving back and forth in the brain is present. Diphenhydramine – DPH creates three dimensional visuals that are imperceptible from reality. It can also create very realistic 2D textures on surfaces like TV’s, ceilings, and pillows. DPH can also cause a dream like state that is indistinguishable from reality. It is worthless for recreation unless used with DXM and weed. Kratom – A mild natural opiate plant, this produces more nausea than the negligible opiate high of contentment. DMT ++ Vaporized, natural, tree formed DMT rapidly produces strong rainbow visuals of humanoids, typically women, and even a white light of serotonin saturation. It also has a full body orgasm. It shares all of these qualities with high doses of LSD but these qualities are more reproducible. Like LSD, DMT also helps muscle growth. Methoxetamine ++ MXE is a very fiendish dissociative that in moderate doses even helps with weightlifting throughput. Walking is more difficult with MXE than other dissociatives but not impossible. Rainbow visuals are very prominent and a white glow in a black void is present in the high dose hole. 2C-T-2 ++ 2C-T-2 has strong scenery drifting visuals and is clearheaded enough to stimulate writing. 2C-E ++ 2C-E has a very strong buzzing sensation across the body like pins and needles pricking the skin. With low headspace, introspection is a theme. Morphing visuals are more prominent than other psychedelics, and I could reliably see rainbow dragons forming from the trees. 5-MeO-MiPT ++ Moxxy is clearheaded and produces rainbow dragon visuals in high doses of 20 mg. Ketamine S+ & -Racemic ++ The surgical dissociative, the hole begins with the body vibrating like rustling bushes and even a sound of rustling bushes. This is followed by swirling of the room, massive rainbow objects in a black void, sensations of time oscillating, and white “ghosts” in a black void. It is exclusively an NMDA inhibitor. Codeine & Promethazine – This drug combination produces a state of a stupefied bliss although I only tried it once with blue vodka. MDA ++ This is the best drug I’ve tried for sex and masturbation. Despite being dangerous for abstinent amphetamine withdrawal, this is my second favorite neurotransmitter releasing drug. This drug is a natural metabolite of MDMA, and for recreation I think it is superior to MDMA. DOC – This drug produces visuals for the longest of any psychedelic I’ve tried. The visuals slightly more detailed than LSD but not as detailed as DOM. I had a strange smell like burnt plastic for the peak of my experiences. I woke up feeling fine despite having a trip of 36 hours. 25B-NBOH – This drug is like 25I-NBOMe but with too much vasoconstriction throughout the experience. Salvia Divinorum – Unnatural feelings of discomfort and repeating patterns captivating one’s vision are present. 25I-NBOH ++ This drug is just like 25I-NBOMe. It doesn’t elicit feelings of happiness that are as strong. 3-MeO-PCP ++ This is the best dissociative ever since it is functional and inspiring at low doses and catatonic at high doses. It is more of a PCP2 inhibitor than NMDA but possesses a good stimulation. This is one of the best ways to mitigate amphetamine addiction, get stuff done, and have fun. This drug inhibits PCP2 more than any other dissociative and thus rainbow faces are a common theme. This drug is a better depression medication than ketamine since it is very naturally motivating for day to day tasks like weight lifting. 3-MeO- PCP enhances weightlifting output and has no effect on muscle growth. This drug still leaves one alert enough to trigger life saving, slow motion adrenaline release. It goes great with all Alprazolam – Xanax is a lot like alcohol and has the propensity to induce a dangerous feeling hangover with sharp pains in the head. Blackouts are much more dangerous as the user’s body is not as inhibited as alcohol. It has zero positive effects to note unlike most other drugs on this list. It is not very euphoric, but I suspect feelings of relief and satiation can be found once one is addicted. Trying alcohol a few times makes trying other benzos obsolete. Heroin – Opiates produce contented feelings and even a drift toward a rainbow mist. It causes vomiting even after passing out just like alcohol. It also causes constipation and a host of other side effects just from that. The itchy, heaving hangover induced is not worth the trouble. I would have been better off lifting weights until I could deadlift heavy enough to truly experience the MOR receptor. 4-MeO-PCP – I suspect I tried this drug by mistake. It prolongs masturbation and allows for multiple ejaculations. DCK – This disso readily induces rainbow visuals and has a distinct stutter as a short term hangover effect. O-PCE/2-OxO-PCE – This is the hardest disso to walk on, and it also is prone to blackouts. It has an uncomfortable, strong stimulation of unknown mechanisms. 3-MeO-PCE – This disso is stimulating like 3-MeO-PCP and then sedating to the point of sleep. It has more rainbow visuals than 3-MeO-PCP and low doses. High doses can cause a ringing in the ears and an unpleasant feeling of being overwhelmed. DOB – DOB is a long lasting, very stimulating, and vasoconstriction prone drug with visuals that aren’t as intense or interesting as DOM and DOC. 25E-NBOH ++ This is the most easy going NBOx drug and is more like LSD in terms of visuals and bodily feelings. Combined with 3-HO-PCE, conscious slow motion is reproducible without using any adrenaline. 3-HO-PCP ++ This drug produces the strongest bodily vibrations of any dissociatives including NO2. It also produces more replicated rainbow visuals than any other. This has the best bodily feeling of any dissociative drug and is up there with DMT. 3-HO-PCE – This drug inhibits PCP2 more than NMDA but is not stimulating like 3- MeO-PCP. Rainbow faces are present but so is boredom. Weed is a must. Flunitrazolam – This drug is like alcohol and results in lying down and sleep. 2F-DCK – 2F-DCK is like ketamine but doesn’t elicit very much elation. 4-HO-MET – This is a stimulating psychedelic that is alleged to have NET properties which results in withdrawal with burning insides and a hateful disposition. It doesn’t appear to have any TAAR-1 activity like amphetamine, but I don’t know much about that receptor anyway. Humanoid rainbow entities are often present like with DMT. Mescaline – Mescaline induces so much nausea compared to the visuals, and it doesn’t produce much euphoria. I ate a purified extract from the cactus, and I think the point of a cactus evolving needles and chemicals like mescaline is to keep animals away. Other plants with things like DMT and LSA are flowers and trees which haven’t evolved to ward away people quite as much. 5-MeO-DMT ++ This natural toad excretion produces the feeling of levity in addition to unique psychedelic visuals. It’s not as comfortable as DMT. I suspect impurities like excess plant or toad materials contribute to that. TMA-2 – This drug produces stimulation, nausea, and vasoconstriction with barely any visuals and long lasting after effects of those three effects. ETH-LAD ++ ETH-LAD results in strong euphoria and visuals with a brief spout of nausea on the comeup. Visuals are detailed and rounded like serpentine dragons. 2C-C ++ 2C-C produces strong, detailed visuals and stimulation. Visuals have sharp corners like knives. PCP – The first synthetic dissociative, classic PCP produces antagonistic feelings, stimulation, and decent dissociative visuals. It is the infamous target of the PCP2 receptor. It also causes extreme hunger at the beginning, shitting in the middle, and sleep after a few hours. It also causes strong ejaculations that could hit me in the eye if I was standing up. It promotes simple but not complex musical and poetic creativity. There’s something more sinister about this than meets the eye, but I can’t place it any more than I can place the compulsions to eat and take a shit. There is truth to the manic, antagonistic behavior, but I don’t know what causes that either. Unknown mechanisms like that have the potential to kill me if used while in amphetamine withdrawal. I’ve read rumors in various works of art that this is how my NDD predecessor died. Methamphetamine – This drug feels like a dirty poison flowing through one’s veins like alcohol’s bodily feelings. I don’t know what isomers I tried. It burns like an NET inhibitor and given enough, excessive dopamine output produces destructive cholinergic hallucinations like DPH. That delirium has great potential for a CIA truth serum. It appears to lack an inhibiting function on its dopamine output, leading to wild ideas, spontaneous actions, and the infamous twitch. It is pure evil and will melt not only the human brain but its face. It will teach humanity the qualities of a faggot, both inside and out. Signs, symbols, and ambiguity are nonstop here, and it shows in various media. It is not comparable to amphetamine and is not a viable substitute. Detrimental neural and other bodily changes are permanent, shown by the faces of meth photos online. Similar to cocaine, the roads here all lead to the dominion of Adolf Hitler, his wife, and his Nazi regime of no remorse. 2-FMA ++ 2-FMA is a stimulating drug that is purported to release dopamine and norepinephrine. It doesn’t induce hunger like levoamphetamine, and thus I am reluctant to try it and anything else as an NDD alternative medicine. I assume it would produce the same disastrous results as MDA if used to offset acute amphetamine withdrawal. After a week, I felt strapped to my chair and glued to my artistic endeavors. I also started watching TV all day while I worked on For My Aspect. After I ran out, I kept being entertained by the TV. 4-HO-MiPT ++ This psychedelic induces a mild hunger. I ate fried chicken from Publix about every day I used this. Otherwise, it is like LSD but with less nausea and less headspace. 4-AcO-DMT – This drug is purported to metabolize to 4-HO-DMT, the active ingredient in mushrooms also called psilocin. I can’t be sure of that, but it made it difficult to get comfortable in my bed and made the temperature changes feel very drastic. 3-Fl-PCP ++ This drug makes me hungry. It feels like the amphetamine hunger mechanism (calcium channel?) and norepinephrine release. That’s only two of many mechanisms of my disorder dependent on amphetamine It has light visuals except in high doses, and it has some visual qualities that appear to be in common with DXM. -Joseph_Cantrell,_Microsoft_Stabber As you can see, this shows an extremely poor lack of judgment on the part of the Microsoft hiring managers. This is all out where I found it in under 10 minutes. It goes on at some length, including how much he enjoyed trick-or-treating dressed up as Adolf Hitler and his penchant for “Software Piracy” including some specific admissions, which is something that Microsoft actually always is going on and on about. There’s honestly so much more here I can’t even sit and read it. He goes into a detailed description of basically dates and times he used all of the listed illegal drugs and what effects they had on him. It started around 2015 and clear through February 23rd, 2023 (4 days before the knife attack), at least. Some excerpts approaching (week leading to) the attack, (the only thing I changed was adding some stars to the N word and some bold for effect): February 14, 2023: 7:24 a.m. – I got up to listen to music at 7:09 a.m. this morning, whereas I usually wait until about 7:30 or 7:40 lately. I used to wait and sleep in until about 8:30 starting in October when I started using amphetamine again. Bright rainbow faces are curling up everywhere and shimmering almost my entire visual field in a way that’s impossible to ignore at times, but they aren’t very detailed. NMDA lattices are also mucked among them. I’m in a very disordered state. Two nights ago, I took 40 mg 3-Fl-PCP instead of my usual 24 mg. That affected my neurons’ oscillations. 8:53 a.m. – The N****rberg Trials, reminiscent of the Nuremburg Trials, are set to begin soon. 9:11 a.m. – I looked back and realize the last time I saw the woman Taylor was February 16, 2021. I was thinking it was February 15. It must have symbolic significance to the people who know about my situation, just as my doctor’s appointment today. In light of all the lies and evil I’ve documented these past 6.5 years, a safe America will likely cease to exist within ten years just as it did in Nazi Germany. February 15, 2023: 10:05 a.m. – My cousin called me an asshole. All he ever writes me back is “WTF!” I’m sure the U.S. military government pumped him full of methamphetamine and told him to keep quiet. He called me an asshole, analogous to amphetamine hole, which is characteristic of my birth disorder and the neural and visual holes in response to amphetamine treatment. That “asshole” terminology is explained better in Scarface and the more obviously military movie, Idiocracy, and it’s own movie called Ass. Teja used to say that word with her condescending, gleeful smile. I think I know what she meant now. Maybe she was some kind of shitty military wife or gang leader. Whatever she is, she’s a fucking retard who was retarding me the whole time I was trying to medicate and work. This is fucked. My mom said she cooked while my aunt liked to clean, and I’m sure somehow she meant meth was a part of that. She also said Jonathon burned trash cans and went to boot camp for it, and I’m sure she meant meth. My family is compromised, and I can’t count on them to help me. They’re basically Nazis. The Nazis had families who helped them. Hitler had a wife. I’m playing Metro Last Light again. 2033 looks to be a hellish warzone in the United States. I suppose China has it easy with their wiggers being a small percentage of their rather homogeneous population. Across America, people are chanting the wigger songs and hoisting the wigger banner. 12:12 p.m. – Hayden decided to text me yesterday at like 6 p.m. on Valentine’s Day with like 500 words that make it seem like momma was right that Vickie’s side of the family can’t be trusted. He’s being creepy on purpose, and he probably knows all about my situation. His stepfather is in some biker gang, the very people holding me back right now. She accused Vickie of stealing from my grandmother. I think they might be raised to lie and cheat. Well, military guy Jonathon clearly puts his government and gang friends over his cousin and aunt Patricia, and so does his whole side of the family, so fuck it. My mother was the only person in the whole world on whom I could truly rely. She’d be storming her own blitzkrieg right from her Facebook to the door. Fuck the whole thing. 5:18 p.m. – My temples are burning again, with the left burning much more than the right. February 16, 2023: 9:47 a.m. – I’ve finally started playing video games again since my hiatus back in December. 4:32 p.m. – I can smell things again, and I’m seeing simple rainbow faces. I could swear I’m starting to see gold spots, but it’s hard to tell. I’m sure I’ll know it when I see it kind of thing. I’m sure I’ll grow into it. 10:27 p.m. – I just kept repeating to myself while watching Jason VI, “There’s wiggers in the trees!” I didn’t pluralize “There’s” in combination with “wiggers”. There are wiggers in Georgia Tech, wiggers at Microsoft, wiggers in Paris, wiggers in computers, and soon to be more wiggers in space. February 17, 2023: 12:42 p.m. – My lips and mouth are flooding with moisture which then retreats in a cycle. I suspect it has something to do with this undefined calcium channel and the oscillating hunger in my stomach. February 18, 2023: 5:20 p.m. – I took only 22 mg of amphetamine at 3 p.m. Rainbow faces and crimson slash marks littered my vision which started to distort objects as well. They’re forming large shapes too that start to resemble rainbow, smooth, simple humanoid shapes. 2/21/23: 9:33 a.m. – That day as noted, I saw a rainbow, humanoid, rainbow silhouette kneeling and facing me with its head pointed down to the ground. February 19, 2023: 7:54 a.m. – Fuck the wigger nation. They’re telling me my illness is wigger itch, jock itch, or some other bullshit. February 20, 2023: 4:32 p.m. – Joe Biden visits Ukraine on President’s Day while I continue to bide their bullshit inherited from the bullshit dynasty. Nobody knows a lot of the truths I’ve written here. The U.S. government gives gang members, other governments, and their respective gang members free reign to utilize this knowledge against the people of the United States, especially me. This is evidenced by all the people from all over the world who have visited me to fuck me over. These are people like the nice, affluent Chinese Vi Nguyen who knew of my necessity related to the calcium channel hunger based neural mechanism, Teja from India, Anna from Turkey, and Abhinav from India. These people are given free reign to surround and destroy the lives of people in the United States. Teja had a green card. She certainly didn’t deserve that. I would rescind it from her if I had the power. I would ship her nonstop shit talking, terrorist ass back to fucking India. 5:44 p.m. – When I roar like a lion and shake my head by doing so, my vision simplifies into circles and squares like a lack of NMDA neural signal transmission. This isn’t something new I’ve noticed, but it’s the first time I’ve written it down. 1:19 a.m. – I have never been more justifiably paranoid in my life. After everything I’ve written here describing my history, where do I go to stop people from hurting me? February 21, 2023: 9:24 a.m. – I refuse to be a part of the United States’ officially declared Great Leap Backward. It was declared in wigger doublethink, but “It is what it is.” according to President Joe Biden. They just keep reversing their truck with NDRI drugs, with meth being the worst offender of the bunch. It’s insane the government so defiantly pushes drugs like methylphenidate on children while also denying people the knowledge to truly help themselves become smarter with amphetamine sulphate. 5:58 p.m. – Crimson slashes are forming in my vision as the dextroamphetamine is finally mostly metabolized from my body. 9:48 p.m. – Given the secrets the U.S. government uses against people, the U.S. government is the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world. This is written in the history of my diary. The U.S. government refuses to teach people, and it’s committed to hurting them by pushing secret sadist drugs through its various gangs and puppet governments it set up: opioids and Taliban Afghanistan, cocaine and Latin America, meth and the Philippines, etc. These are the same abusive drugs they push through the pharmaceutical and hospital industry: codeine, methylphenidate, and Vyvanse. Hitler also hypocritically condemned recreational drugs while he, his government, and his troops used them. I’ve heard rumors that military adolescents will get into meth early on, and they will attract teenage girls into their cult of meth. I’ve heard those rumors through people like David Toelle and Austin Pritchett from Columbus High School, next to Fort Benning. That’s just like military Hitler youth. I think that’s fucked up. I wish there was a way to stop that. Clearly meth doesn’t foster a good enough sense of responsibility, else the literature would be less scarce. It must be abolished by providing better drug education and better substitutes. February 22, 2023: 3:34 p.m. – Behind my right eye has hurt a lot for the past ten minutes. I stayed up late again yesterday. I’ll have to check my consumption of 3-Fl-PCP. It looks like I’ll have to burst fire this drug over a month or so. On a side note, I heard a helicopter sound in my TV a few days ago, and Howshe mentioned I had a new TV when I saw him at work. Perhaps my TV really does have a speaker trying to manipulate me. I love Patricia Cantrell, Bruce Denham, Breezy, ESi, and Taylor forever. I pray to live in peace. I wish I had impregnated ESi or Taylor, gotten my act together, settled down in a house, and lived in peace making art. However, my history sucks. Even though I don’t believe in God, I hope and pray everyone does better for each other. I’d go to church with those pretty latina girls if they wanted; I’d do just about anything for them to live in peace. 4:23 p.m. – I’m coughing up some phlegm. It snowed today too! I’m watching Look Who’s Back again. I’ve been marathoning it for a bit. It’s the only good German movie of which I know. 4:37 p.m. – I just coughed up a huge glob of phlegm I had to throw up. It was sticky and like 5 inches in diameter. -Joseph_Cantrell,_Microsoft_Stabber This guy should have been committed, involuntarily, and never allowed out. I think if he gets an attorney, he should submit all of this to the court in the stabbing case and plead Insanity. They’ll probably put him in a strait jacket and give him some major antipsychotics if they get ahold of this, but that’s what needs to be done. It needed to be done over 10 years ago if anyone was paying attention, but Microsoft hired him. How is a person who even writes things like this not setting off alarms just being in the same room as the hiring manager? MinceR in #Techrights IRC suggested that maybe Microsoft was using their shitty Bing engine. I found all of this on Google, but Bing didn’t return anything about him except the attempted murder stories in the news. I couldn’t figure out the race of his victim. Reading through his texts where he’s obviously falling apart and using lots of drugs, it becomes obvious that this guy is right-wing, possibly a Nazi, and that he has a serious grudge against Blacks and Indians, but sexually objectifies Latinas. The sort of media he tends to consume and create along with his writing sort of shows a pattern forming of an increasingly generalized anger, which could indicate an unprovoked knifing, as it could simply go along with the decompensation. (But it’s also possible that he was so under the influence of drugs that he was hallucinating.) If I had to guess, although this would be speculation, he sexually objectifies women in general, and complains that he doesn’t have a girlfriend or wife. He probably has unhealthy sexual obsessions which would lead to porn hoarding and further disconnect from reality. Incel? Possible repressed homosexuality? In any event, he’s going to get a lot of psychiatric attention. As usual, the government did nothing, Microsoft hired him, his university in Georgia did nothing even though people like this cannot function in public without severe tells. The attention he needs comes too late for the victim. █ ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 1242 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/now-pensions-breaches/#comments Gemini version at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/02/28/now-pensions-breaches/ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.28.23⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ NOW:_Pensions_and_the_Mystery_of_Fines_by_the_Pensions_Regulator⠀✐ Posted in Deception, Finance at 9:25 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Facilitator of Fraud? There Is Already an Official Track Record of Misconduct. 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇NOW: Pensions logo⦈ Summary: There seems to be quite a crisis in British pension funds, which casualty ‘disappear’ funds and enable companies to plunder staff and former staff; in this series we focus on two such funds, one of which employs close to 10,000 people and covers very many companies (millions of people’s pensions) Founded relatively recently (2011), the pension provider currently used by Sirius_‘Open_Source’ has quite a colourful (and surprisingly short) past. It was moaning about the state of the economy in recent years (in public filings that we saw) and it probably struggles a lot. It’s a very small company, already sold to another due to difficulties, and its service has been truly appalling. I cautioned them that I would take this public and name them unless things improved. It started in December and we’re in March already. It’s only getting worse. “Your repeated lies to me and your stonewalling have left me without any option but taking this public,” I said to them yesterday. “Rest assured many colleagues and clients of yours are reading this. Tomorrow I shall name your company in public and release telephone recordings to show your utterly poor record as a company, including the lies. This will be only the start.” “I cautioned them that I would take this public and name them unless things improved.”They didn’t respond. They never respond. I did this patiently and politely for months already. The above is an escalation in tone. So who’s behind this company? Not many people and public records show a volatile board with many resignations. It was put_up_for_sale_5_years_ago or just over a year after Sirius had moved funds into it (after Sirius apparently silently plundered all the older pensions — the subject of further verification these days, maybe even an impeding class action lawsuit). For some context see our prior writings about that: 1. Sirius_‘Open_Source’_and_the_Money_Missing_From_the_Pension 2. Sirius_Finished 3. Sirius_‘Open_Source’_Pensiongate:_An_Introduction 4. When_the_Pension_Vanishes 5. Sirius_‘Open_Source’_Pensiongate_(Sirius_Financial_Crisis):_Company_May Have_Squandered/Plundered_the_Pensions_of_Many_People 6. Sirius_‘Open_Source’_Pensiongate:_Pension_Providers_That_Repeatedly_Lie to_the_Clients_and_Don’t_Respond_to_Messages As it turns out, NOW: Pensions is considered dodgy; according_to_Wikipedia (after many edits, some of which controversial): “During the three years leading up to June 30, 2017 Now:Pensions achieved a 2.8 percent annualized return, which was significantly less than the returns achieved by almost all of its competitors during the same time.[1] In November 2017 the Pensions Regulator fined the trustees of Now:Pensions £50,000 for administration problems. Followed by a fine for £20,000 in February 2018.[1][2] In February 2019 The Cardano Group acquired Now:Pensions from ATP[3] after Now:Pensions ran into multiple administration problems and years of poor performance.[1]” “We’ll release some audio soon.”So they already got fined for breaches. Only less than a year before the fines Sirius chose this company. How come? And where did the money go? I’ve already cautioned former colleagues about this and if this is representative of the state of the “pension industry”, then we’re all in deep quicksand and generally in trouble. Based on recent articles in the media, more and more people nowadays realise they’re affected. In the case of NOW: Pensions, maybe they realise that some of the money that they possess is linked to fraudsters and they’d rather protect the fraudsters than do what’s right. We’ll release some audio soon. █ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠙⣿⡟⠙⠛⢷⣦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠻⠇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⣿⡇⠀⠀⠀⣿⡇⢀⡤⠤⢤⣄⠀⠠⣤⡄⡠⠤⣤⡄⠀⠀⣠⠤⠤⣤⠀⠠⣤⡄⠀⠀⣠⠤⠤⢤⣄⠀⠠⣤⣄⡤⠤⣤⡀⠀⠀⣤⠤⠤⣤⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⣿⣇⣀⣠⡼⠟⢠⣿⠁⠀⠀⣿⡆⠀⣿⡏⠀⠀⠘⣿⠀⠘⣿⣄⠀⠉⠀⠀⣿⡇⠀⣼⡇⠀⠀⠈⢿⡆⠀⣿⡏⠀⠀⢸⣿⠀⠸⣿⣄⠀⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⣿⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠸⣿⠉⠉⠉⠉⠁⠀⣿⡇⠀⠀⠀⣿⠀⠀⠈⠙⠻⣦⡀⠀⣿⡇⠀⣿⡇⠀⠀⠀⣼⡇⠀⣿⡇⠀⠀⢸⣿⠀⠀⠈⠙⠻⣦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⣠⣿⣧⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠹⢷⣤⣤⡤⠀⣀⣿⣇⡀⠀⣠⣿⣀⠸⣧⣀⣠⠟⠁⢀⣿⣇⡀⠘⠷⣄⣀⣴⠟⠀⣀⣿⣇⠀⠀⣸⣿⣀⠸⣧⣀⣠⠟⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 1355 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2023/02/28/sirius-open-source-pensiongate-pension-providers-that-repeatedly-lie-to-the-clients-and-dont-respond-to-messages/#comments Gemini version at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/02/28/sirius-open-source-pensiongate-pension-providers-that-repeatedly-lie-to-the-clients-and-dont-respond-to-messages/ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.28.23⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ Sirius_‘Open_Source’_Pensiongate:_Pension_Providers_That_Repeatedly_Lie_to the_Clients_and_Don’t_Respond_to_Messages⠀✐ Posted in Deception, Finance, Fraud, Free/Libre_Software at 3:18 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Previously: 1. Sirius_‘Open_Source’_and_the_Money_Missing_From_the_Pension 2. Sirius_Finished 3. Sirius_‘Open_Source’_Pensiongate:_An_Introduction 4. When_the_Pension_Vanishes 5. Sirius_‘Open_Source’_Pensiongate_(Sirius_Financial_Crisis):_Company_May Have_Squandered/Plundered_the_Pensions_of_Many_People 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇Pension_letter_1⦈_ See more: Evidence_of_Sirius_‘Open_Source’_(or_Sirius_Corporation)_Failing_to Pay_Pensions,_Failing_to_Inform_Staff,_Not_Responding_to_Staff Summary: Sirius_‘Open_Source’ has chosen rather questionable pension providers that ‘cover up’ for the_company's_abusive_behaviour TODAY we resume the series not because of progress but due to a lack of progress. We set some deadlines or ultimatums and those have already been missed/exceeded by over a week. The short stories, as we shall tell them in the coming days, might not be applicable to all pension providers in the UK, only at least two of them — the ones I’ve dealt with personally for months already (as did former colleagues). Before we share some audio of conversations (likely some time tomorrow or later this week) let’s just say that this is still an ongoing investigation. At least 2 people were saying they cannot find anything about me on their system. Upon escalation, however, a “Standard_Life”_supervisor_or_line_manager_or_whatever_ (Leah_Brown)_said_the_pension_had_been_transferred (why could her colleagues not see the name?) but still refused to give all sorts of critical information. This was done without any authorisation from those impacted and, yet worse, without even notifying them that it happened. This investigation of ours follows some pension-related abuses at Sirius, as covered here back_in_December (we shared some letters too). It was escalated further in light of two revelations: 1) the older pension ‘vanished’. 2) the existing one is being elusive, the provider evasive, and those who phone to ask about it are being provided with only “template” responses. At first, I had to submit complaints to them at least twice only to finally receive a phonecall (about 3 weeks late). At a later stage they sent out an E- mail: Dear Roy, Thank you for contacting [redacted]. Following on from our conversation on Friday the 6^th of January 2023, I can confirm your employer has now sent us over the contributions for October and November. I’ve arranged for a contribution history to be sent to your home address within 10 working days. If you need any more help, we have a new alternative way for you to make your request digitally. You can securely confirm your details and send your request to our team *here.* [redacted] We would also appreciate if you could click on the link below and let us know how we did today. Kind Regards, [redacted] [redacted] Helpdesk I then responded: Dear [redacted] (or colleague), There seems to be about 5000 pounds missing. The statement was received by post, but it lacks about 5 years of my pension — money passed to you from another provider back in 2016. Please phone us, as before, to clarify why the statement omits this. I’m on [redacted] My reference number is [redacted] Regards, They never responded to this. They never followed up at all. After a long while (maybe days) I said: Please phone me and my wife ASAP. We both have pensions with you and it is a matter [that's] urgent because: a) there seems to be a lot of “missing” money b) the employer may be committing fraud c) I am a whistleblower (see (b)), so they might try to retaliate Regards, PS – call me today, it is very urgent. There were several more messages like this (about 5 in total, sent days apart). They did not reply to this either. Days later I phoned them up and they lied to me. They gave false, empty assurances. I sent the following: Hi, Your handling of clients is totally irresponsible and completely unacceptable. You did not reply to any of my urgent E-mails (about 5 of them), so after a week I phoned you up, at my expense, and spoke for nearly an hour with [redacted]. He later spoke to my wife as well. We both demanded written assurances that the former employer cannot plunder the pension like it did with our previous one. You said you would send us written assurances within 10 working days. Today we finally received two letters, but those are just balance statements (like a template reply) and nothing else. It’s a repeat of what you sent us before. It’s redundant. Nothing at all was written for us. In other words, [redacted] gave us false verbal assurances and you gave us nothing at all. Hence, I hereby demand that you send us the money of our current balance (yes, I am aware of the very high taxes). Phone us immediately. We live nearby and will come to collect our money ASAP. You failed us repeatedly. You failed numerous times. You gave false assurances. You moreover fail to heed our warning about an employer (your client) that plunders people’s pensions. This bodes well for the pension sector as a whole. Please phone us now to arrange collection of our funds. At this stage we already spoke to other victims; we suspected they had paid us salaries using our own money (our pensions) without telling us. Or maybe someone paid his mortgage using our pension money. Whatever it is, many people’s money seems to have gone “missing”. I wrote to them again: Hi [redacted], My wife and I still wait for the letters you promised us. If we don’t hear back in the next day or so, we’ll take this public. That was over a week ago. They just lied over the telephone (we have that recorded as proof) and they never responded to any E-mail. It’s as if their policy became, “do not speak to the client” (if the client phones us, lie to the client). And we just got the phone bill 4 days ago. We paid almost 20 pounds for phonecalls (to just one pension provider, not even counting the other one). A financial firm that kept lying or made false promises would typically not survive, would it? Among the other expenses in the phone bill: 08 Feb 13:10 [redacted] Calls to UK landlines 00:25:06 £5.94 27 Jan 09:20 [redacted] Calls to UK landlines 00:45:53 £10.51 27 Jan 09:19 [redacted] Calls to UK landlines 00:01:12 £0.46 This story isn’t over and it’s still an ongoing dispute. The other pension provider is even more scandalous, but we’ll cover that separately (some former colleagues are also “on the case”). As one former colleague put it, “I was in the [redacted] one and got the weird e-mails saying some payments were missing but when I got a statement from them they had all been fixed” (or so we’re told; there are other issues). The bottom line is, if you work for a company that has gone rogue and is acting ‘dodgy’ (British slang), then you might want to check what pension provider it chose and what happens ‘behind the scenes’. They may be arranging the looting of staff’s salaries (or partial wage theft) under the guise of “pension”. █ ⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⠀⠀⠀⠅⢀⠃⠄⠀⢥⢼⣟⣓⣵⣾⣿⣛⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠔⡈⠡⡾⠻⢐⣾⣿⣽⣻⣿⣿⣿⣻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡐⡈⠐⠑⠀⡬⣾⣼⣿⣟⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⠄⠀⡀⡢⣿⣾⣘⣳⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡰⠀⠟⣵⣽⠙⡿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠁⠀⡀⠄⢀⠨⢛⡠⠪⡁⣽⢙⣿⣿⣻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⠐⠄⠀⠃⠊⠐⠸⠯⠯⠷⠾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⠀⠠⠐⠀⠄⠔⢠⠠⠠⢤⡢⣶⣶⣿⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣧⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠄⢄⠀⢀⢀⠰⠀⡰⡆⣤⣴⣼⣼⣷⣷⣧⣽⣿⣿⣯⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣰⣀⢀⡓⡀⣛⢳⣼⠻⣽⡿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⢰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡗⢽⣱⣽⣯⣿⣚⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⢾⣷⣧⣽⣿⣟⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣇⣽⡾⣻⡿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠈⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⢝⡙⠩⡉⣍⣶⣿⣯⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠨⢯⣿⣿⣾⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⠐⡦⢼⣿⣿⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢸⠨⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠐⠀⠈⢁⠁⠀⡽⣿⣺⣿⣿⣟⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⠄⢲⡿⢿⣵⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⢷⣻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡗⢽⢟⣽⢾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠂⠀⠉⠉⠈⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠈⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⠰⠌⣻⣧⣥⣮⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠐⠀⠐⠙⠓⠿⠏⠻⠻⠿⠟⠿⠿⠿⠻⠿⠿⠻⠻⠿⠟⡿⠻⠿⠿⠿⢿⠿⠿⠿⡿⠿⡿⣿⢿⢿⣿⡿⠿⠿⠿⡿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠂⠀⠀⠠⠐⠠⠺⠂⠖⠒⠶⠒⠲⢶⠶⠶⠶⠶⠳⡶⠶⠶⡶⠶⠶⠶⠶⠷⠶⡤⣦⣤⣦⣤⡧⢾⣴⢦⣧⣤⣤⡴⣤⡤⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠂⠐⠀⠐⠖⠢⠀⠰⠔⠶⠖⠶⠶⠶⠶⠶⡖⢶⠖⠶⠷⠶⠶⢧⠶⠴⡶⠶⢶⠤⣧⢤⣤⢶⣴⡤⢤⣤⣴⣤⣧⣤⢧⢄⣧⣥⣦⣤⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠒⠢⠐⠐⠐⠲⠒⠰⠖⠶⠶⠶⠶⠷⠶⢶⠶⠶⠷⠶⢦⠴⢶⢴⢶⢦⢶⣵⣤⣤⣤⣤⣧⡤⣤⣤⢤⣤⣤⣼⣤⡼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠂⠀⠴⠐⡠⠐⡠⡆⠔⠦⣴⣶⣦⣧⣶⣶⣷⣶⣾⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣴⣦⣬⣤⣴⣦⣴⣤⣴⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣧⣤⣤⣤⣤⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠁⠄⠆⠠⠂⠤⠃⠁⢀⣼⣻⡿⡿⢿⢽⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣏⠙⠛⡟⠛⢻⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⢿⠛⠿⢿⠛⠿⠻⠿⠿⠻⡿⡟⠻⠿⡿⠿⣿⢿⠿⠿⡿⡿⠿⠿⠿⢿⢿⠿⡿⡿⡿⢿⡿⣿⣿⣾⣿⣾⣿⣷⣾⣾⣾⣿⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡟⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⠻⠛⢻⠛⡛⢻⠛⠚⠛⡟⠟⠛⠻⠻⣟⠻⠿⡟⠿⠿⠟⡷⢺⠶⡻⠾⠷⠷⡶⠾⢿⠶⢶⠾⡶⠷⡾⡶⢶⢶⣾⣾⣾⣶⣮⣷⣶⣿⣤⣤⣤⣼⣤⣤⣤⣤⣄⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣾⣿⣿⣾⣾⣾⣿⣶⣶⣾⣶⣶⣾⣶⣾⣶⣶⣶⣿⣾⣶⣶⣷⣶⣶⣿⣾⣶⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⡙⠛⠉⠛⢛⠛⠋⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⠟⠛⠟⠛⢻⠻⠛⠛⢛⠻⠻⡿⣻⡿⠿⡿⠿⠿⠛⠟⠻⠻⢿⡿⠿⠿⠿⠿⡿⡿⠿⠿⢿⢿⣿⣿⡿⣿⢿⣿⡿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⡛⠛⠛⣟⡛⠛⠛⢍⠛⠛⡛⠻⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⠚⠛⠻⠛⢟⡻⡿⠿⠾⡾⠷⠶⠷⠶⡶⠶⠷⠶⢶⠺⠶⠷⠶⠶⣷⠶⠶⢾⢷⢷⣿⣶⢶⣶⣴⣦⣷⣥⣴⡧⣤⣧⣤⣥⣮⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣾⣶⣶⣾⣷⣾⣶⣶⣷⣶⣤⣬⣤⣤⣬⣤⣤⣤⣤⣬⣬⣤⣤⣽⣤⣤⣶⣦⣤⣭⣤⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣯⠉⡉⠛⠛⢻⠛⡛⡏⠙⠛⠛⠛⠛⠋⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣯⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡿⡙⢛⠋⡉⠉⠋⢻⠙⠙⠛⠋⠻⠉⠋⠛⡟⠛⢛⠛⠛⠛⠛⠛⡟⠛⠻⠻⠿⢻⠛⠿⢿⠿⠿⡟⠿⠿⢿⠿⠿⢿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⡿⠿⣿⣿⡿⣿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡛⠛⠛⡟⠻⠛⠻⠟⠿⢿⠿⢿⠿⠛⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣾⣿⣿⣿⣷⣿⣷⣷⣷⣶⣷⣾⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣾⣷⣷⣾⣦⣤⣤⣤⣦⣥⣤⣷⣤⣤⣬⣬⣾⣬⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣽⣷⣻⣿⣾⣿⣷⣾⣶⣶⣶⣾⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡇⡆⠒⠂⠐⠒⢲⠓⠛⠛⠛⢻⣿⡏⢻⠛⠿⠟⡏⠍⠭⠭⠭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⡿⡃⡍⠩⠭⠩⠭⠍⠭⠭⡍⠭⠩⢭⡅⠭⠬⠥⡬⡥⢤⠶⠿⠶⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣷⣿⣧⢷⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣒⣒⣒⣚⣃⣒⣒⣒⣒⣒⣚⣒⣛⣒⣚⣛⣛⣛⣻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡿⠿⠿⢿⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣧⣶⣴⣦⣴⣦⣤⣤⣦⣤⣼⣤⣤⣤⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡿⠿⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢿⣿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡷⠷⠶⠧⢶⣤⣦⠤⠤⢼⣤⣼⢤⠤⣤⣤⡤⣤⣼⣤⣤⣤⣏⣤⣤⣾⣤⣭⣩⣍⣩⣉⣏⣩⣁⣏⣉⣉⣍⣉⣉⣉⣉⣩⣋⣏⣉⣛⣉⣙⡛⣋⡛⢻⠋⠛⢛⢻⠛⢻⡛⢟⠛⠻⡟⠻⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⡿⣧⣴⣤⣴⣤⣤⣬⣦⣧⣤⣴⣼⣤⣤⣦⣼⣤⣼⣤⣼⣤⣤⣵⣧⣵⣧⣬⣬⣭⣦⣈⣉⣏⣉⣉⣏⣉⣉⣉⣉⣉⡉⡏⣉⣫⣛⣩⡛⣻⣙⢛⡟⡛⠛⢻⢛⣛⠛⠛⠿⠻⢻⠻⠷⡟⠻⠿⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡿⠿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿⣿⢿⣿⣿⣿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡧⣶⣤⢤⣤⡤⡤⣾⡤⣼⡤⣤⣤⣴⣤⣤⣤⣼⣶⣥⣤⣼⣤⣬⣽⣽⣤⣅⣹⣁⣉⣉⣉⣉⣉⣋⣉⣉⣉⣙⣛⣏⣹⣽⣛⢻⣛⣻⣛⡟⢛⠛⠛⢻⠛⡛⠛⣻⡻⠻⣿⠟⢿⠿⡿⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣷⣤⣴⣤⠤⣥⣤⣧⣤⣼⣤⣤⣼⡠⣤⣼⣦⣤⣤⣧⣾⣤⣬⣽⣬⣽⣻⣉⣉⣉⣉⣉⣭⣩⡟⣩⣙⣹⣙⣍⢛⡩⡛⡛⡿⣏⢹⢛⠛⢻⠛⠛⠙⣟⢻⠛⠛⢻⠻⢿⣿⢿⠟⠿⢶⢷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡧⣤⣴⣤⣤⣤⣴⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣥⣤⣦⣤⣤⣎⣤⣵⣤⣦⣩⣡⣈⣉⣁⣉⣏⣍⣹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣷⣤⣴⣤⣤⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 1668 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ═════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.28.23⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ Links_28/02/2023:_Apache_OpenOffice_4.1.13_and_GIMP_2.10.34_Released⠀✐ Posted in News_Roundup at 10:38 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GNOME bluefish⦈ § Contents⠀➾ * GNU/Linux o Desktop/Laptop o Server o Audiocasts/Shows o Kernel_Space o Applications o Instructionals/Technical o WINE_or_Emulation o Games o Desktop_Environments/WMs # K_Desktop_Environment/KDE_SC/Qt * Distributions_and_Operating_Systems o New_Releases o Fedora_Family_/_IBM o Debian_Family o Canonical/Ubuntu_Family o Open_Hardware/Modding o Mobile_Systems/Mobile_Applications * Free,_Libre,_and_Open_Source_Software o Productivity_Software/LibreOffice/Calligra o GNU_Projects o Licensing_/_Legal o Programming/Development # Perl_/_Raku o Standards/Consortia * Leftovers o Hardware o Health/Nutrition/Agriculture o Proprietary o Security # Privacy/Surveillance o Defence/Aggression o Environment # Energy/Transportation o Finance o AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics o Censorship/Free_Speech o Civil_Rights/Policing o Internet_Policy/Net_Neutrality o Monopolies # Patents # Trademarks * Gemini*_and_Gopher o Personal o Technical * § GNU/Linux⠀➾ o § Desktop/Laptop⠀➾ # ⚓ Linux Gizmos ☛ Rockchip_RK3588_based_Mini-PCs_feature_touch screen_display_and_dual_GbE⠀⇛ Indiegogo recently featured two Mini-PCs integrating the Rockchip RK3568 multi-core processor. The PlanetPC XR series Mini-PCs can be configured with up to 32GB RAM, 256GB Flash, 2x GbE, Wi-Fi/BL connectivity, SSD support and both models run on Ubuntu 20.04. The XR1 is described as an entry level Mini-PC integrating a Quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 RK3568 processor clocked at 2.0GHz, an ARM G52 2EE GPU and a [email protected] NPU. # ⚓ PlanetPC_XR’s_series_of_computers_are_a_Linux-powered alternative_to_the_Mac_mini⠀⇛ Computers come in all shapes and sizes, where there are some who prefer having a PC with a large chassis for better cooling, the ability to fit larger motherboards and GPUs, while others might prefer something small that can just sit on their desk and don’t take up too much room. # ⚓ Geeky Gadgets ☛ PlanetPC_XR_touchscreen_Linux_mini_PC⠀⇛ If you are in the market for a Linux mini PC you might be interested in a new Indiegogo crowd funding campaign launched by the team at Planets Computers based in the United Kingdom. Their latest creation features a 16 LED RGB light array and integrated HD color touchscreen together with microphone and stereo speakers. Before pledging your funds however it might be worth your while checking out the previous projects by the company which still seem to be outstanding for some even years after funding was successfully raised. If you are still interested in risking your hard earned cash more details are available over on the official Indiegogo project page by following the link below. # ⚓ Is_Linux_a_Good_Alternative_to_Windows?⠀⇛ Choosing an operating system is one of the most important decisions a user has to make. And whereas it is pretty easy when it comes to mobile devices – you are basically forced to use iOS on iPhones or Android on (almost) every other phone – on the desktop the case is not that simple. In a nutshell, the OS market gives you 3 main options: Windows, MacOS and Linux. Of course, every ‘family’ of operating systems has many distinctive versions, but to put it simply, it is safe to say that within a Windows or Linux brand, all of them are based on the same virtues and their heart pumps similar digital blood. # ⚓ Ubuntubuzz ☛ Collection_Of_System76_Laptop_Reviews_2009- 2014⠀⇛ This is a list of reviews of System76 laptop and desktop computers by different authors for five years from 2009 to 2014. We managed to collect reviews of several System76 models ranging from Serval, Galago, Gazelle, Lemur, Pangolin, to Bonobo Pro with various Intel technologies from Core 2 Duo to generations of i7 with various graphics processors from HD Graphics, Iris Pro to NVIDIA GTX Mobile. We summarized every review by its specifications, battery hour, and the author’s conclusion and linked to every original website so you can read further. We hope this really helps everyone considering then purchasing GNU/Linux- preinstalled branded computers suitable for them. Please read on and look forward for the next collection too. Happy reading! # ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Kubuntu_Focus_announce_the_second-gen_mini desktop_Focus_NX⠀⇛ Need some power in a small box with full Linux support? The Kubuntu Focus team recently revealed their second-generation Focus NX. This is a small form factor desktop that comes with Kubuntu (KDE Plasma desktop) 22.04 LTS. o § Server⠀➾ # ⚓ The Next Platform ☛ Japan_Buys_Supercomputer_Just_To Predict_Torrential_Downpours⠀⇛ You know that climate change is a problem when a supercomputer to do short-term prediction of the formation of linear rainbands and the torrential downpours that they cause is 3.4X as powerful as the machines that do the day-to-day weather forecasting in a country. o § Audiocasts/Shows⠀➾ # ⚓ Video ☛ Which_Linux_Distro_Should_You_Pick?_–_Invidious⠀⇛ With countless distributions of Linux available, which one should you pick for your computer? # ⚓ Video ☛ How_to_install_Notepadqq_on_Linux_Lite_6.2_– Invidious⠀⇛ In this video, we are looking at how to install Notepadqq on Linux Lite 6.2. # ⚓ Video ☛ How_to_install_Athena_OS_2023.02.20_–_Invidious⠀⇛ In this video, I am going to show how to install Athena OS 2023.02.20. o § Kernel Space⠀➾ # ⚓ Slashdot ☛ Asahi_Linux_Disputes_Report_That_Linux_6.2_Will Run_on_Apple_M1_Chips [Ed: ZDNET spreads lies.]⠀⇛ # ⚓ LWN ☛ A_Linux-on-M1_update_[LWN.net]⠀⇛ The Asahi Linux project has posted an update and reality check on the status of Linux support for Apple’s M1 hardware. # ⚓ Asahi_Linux⠀⇛ There is an ongoing news cycle about Linux 6.2 being the first kernel to support the M1, started by ZDNET. This article is misleading and borderline false. You will not be able to run Ubuntu nor any other standard distro with 6.2 on any M1 Mac. Please don’t get your hopes up. # ⚓ Ars Technica ☛ Linux_is_not_exactly_“ready_to_run”_on_Apple silicon,_but_give_it_time⠀⇛ It’s an odd thing to see the leaders of an impressive open source project ask the press and their followers to please calm down and stop celebrating their accomplishments. But that’s the situation the Asahi Linux team finds itself in after many reports last week that the recently issued Linux 6.2 kernel made Linux “ready to run” on Apple’s M-series hardware. It is true that upstream support for Apple’s M1 chips is present in 6.2 and that the 6.2 kernel will gradually make its way into many popular distributions, including Ubuntu and Fedora. Work on Apple’s integrated GPU by the four-person Asahi core team has come remarkably far. And founder Linus Torvalds himself is particularly eager to see Linux running on his favorite portable hardware, going so far as to issue a kernel in August 2022 from an M2 MacBook Air. But the builders of the one Linux system that runs pretty well on Apple silicon are asking everybody to please just give it a moment. # ⚓ It’s FOSS ☛ SSDFS_is_a_New_Linux_Filesystem_for_NVMe_ZNS SSDs⠀⇛ ZNS stands for ‘Zoned Namespaces’; it is a relatively new command set for NVMe SSDs that exposes a zoned block storage interface between the host and the SSD, allowing it to align the data better. To complement that, a new Linux file system ‘SSDFS’ has been proposed to be included in the kernel by a developer that aims to leverage ZNS for lower I/ O latency, reduced write amplification, prolonged SSD lifetime, and more. Let’s take a look at it. # ⚓ Ubuntu Pit ☛ XanMod_Linux_Kernel_6.2.1_Released:_What’s New⠀⇛ If you’re searching for an exceptional Linux kernel distribution that will guarantee a steady and efficient desktop experience, look no further than XanMod. o § Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ 9to5Linux ☛ FFmpeg_6.0_“Von_Neumann”_Released_with_Radiance HDR_Image_Support,_New_Decoders⠀⇛ Dubbed “Von Neumann,” FFmpeg 6.0 is here more than a year after FFmpeg 5.0 “Lorentz” and introduces several new features like support for the Radiance HDR (RGBE) image format, VA-API (Video Acceleration API) decoding and encoding for 10bit and 12bit 422/ 444 HEVC and VP9 streams, as well as a new mode to the cropdetect filter to allow it to detect crop- area based on motion vectors and edges. FFmpeg 6.0 also introduces support for the WBMP (Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap) image format, NVEC AV1 encoding support, oneVPL support for QSV, and support for the filtergraph syntax in FFmpeg’s command line interface to pass file contents as option values by prefixing the option name with ‘/’. o § Instructionals/Technical⠀➾ # ⚓ H2S Media ☛ How_to_install_PHP_Imagemagick_on_Ubuntu 22.04⠀⇛ Are you a web developer looking for ways to enhance your PHP scripts with image manipulation capabilities? If so, then the Imagick PHP module is likely one of the tools you should add to your arsenal. # ⚓ H2S Media ☛ Learn_ROS_Noetic_installation_on_Ubuntu_20.04 LTS⠀⇛ Introduction Robotics is one of the fastest-growing areas which will change everything around us and also it not showing any signs of slowing down. # ⚓ HowTo Forge ☛ How_to_Setup_IKEv2_IPSec_VPN_Using_strongSwan and_Let’s_Encrypt_on_Rocky_Linux_9⠀⇛ In this tutorial, you will learn how to set up an IKEv2 IPSec VPN using strongSwan using EAP-MSCHAPv2 authentication along with Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates on a Rocky Linux 9 server. You will also learn how to connect to the VPN using Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android clients. # ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_Cinnamon_Desktop_Environment on_Fedora_Linux⠀⇛ Cinnamon is a free, open-source desktop environment developed by the Linux Mint team. It is based on the GNOME desktop environment but comes with a unique and intuitive user interface designed to be user-friendly and customizable. # ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_and_Enable_SSH_on_Fedora Linux⠀⇛ Secure Shell, commonly called SSH, is a network protocol that allows secure remote access and management of Linux servers. Its strong encryption and authentication features have gained popularity over older unsecure methods such as Telnet and FTP. # ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_GitLab_on_Debian_11_or_10⠀⇛ GitLab is a web-based Git repository management tool that provides a complete DevOps platform, enabling teams to collaborate on projects easily. It is an open-source application that offers various features, such as continuous integration/ continuous deployment (CI/CD), version control, and issue tracking. # ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ Improving_MySQL_Performance:_A_Guide_to Using_MySQL_Tuner⠀⇛ MySQL Tuner is a popular open-source tool for analyzing and optimizing the performance of MySQL servers. The tool provides recommendations for improving the configuration of your MySQL server based on its analysis of key metrics and statistics. # ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_Slack_on_Fedora_Linux⠀⇛ Slack is a cloud-based team collaboration tool that has gained widespread popularity for its ability to streamline communication and increase productivity in the workplace. # ⚓ Ubuntu Handbook ☛ KDE_Plasma_5.27_Available_to_Install_in_ (K)Ubuntu_via_PPA⠀⇛ The latest KDE Plasma Desktop 5.27 was released 2 weeks ago. (K)Ubuntu 22.10 based systems can now get it via KUbuntu Backport PPA. And, KUbuntu 23.04 will ship with Plasma 5.27 by default. # ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_Python_3.8_on_Ubuntu_22.04 or_20.04⠀⇛ Python 3.8 is an older release of the Python programming language that is now in security maintenance. Despite being an older release, Python 3.8 is still widely used and is known for its simplicity, flexibility, and readability. # ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_Prometheus_on_Ubuntu_22.04 or_20.04⠀⇛ Prometheus is an open-source monitoring and alerting system that helps you track the performance and health of your systems, applications, and services. Originally developed at SoundCloud, Prometheus has become one of the most popular monitoring tools in the industry, used by companies such as Airbnb, DigitalOcean, and Red Hat. # ⚓ Make Tech Easier ☛ How_to_Display_Information_on_Your_Linux Desktop_With_Conky⠀⇛ If you’ve ever spent time browsing a Linux community on Reddit, Twitter, or other social networks, you might have noticed some beautifully- made screenshots of sleek-looking systems where the time, date, and other information about the system are on full display in the desktop. To do this on your system, you need to to master one of the most useful applications in Linux: Conky. # ⚓ ZDNet ☛ How_to_enable_guest_sessions_on_an_Ubuntu_desktop_| ZDNET⠀⇛ Your privacy is important and nearly every Linux distribution is filled with features, tricks, and underpinnings that take the security of your information very seriously. Take, for instance, the idea of the guest session. The concept is a special login for your operating system that allows others to use the machine, without having access to any of your data. At the same time, no information would be saved between guest sessions. In other words, anyone could use your computer, and — once they logged out of the guest session — any and all data collected during the session would be automatically trashed. # ⚓ XDA ☛ Can_the_HP_Dragonfly_Pro_run_Linux?⠀⇛ Unlike other laptop lineups, the HP Dragonfly Pro series uses both ChromeOS and Windows 11. There’s the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook which runs ChromeOS, and then the HP Dragonfly Pro, which runs Windows. But what about Linux? While you can run Linux on both of these great HP laptops, you’ll need some workarounds. On the standard HP Dragonfly Pro, you can virtualize Linux, run Linux apps with the Windows Subsystem for Linux, or try to run it in place of Windows with the risk of driver issues and certain parts of your device not running right. Then, with the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, you can run Linux apps on top of ChromeOS apps. Here’s everything else you need to know. # ⚓ Make Tech Easier ☛ How_to_Display_Information_on_Your_Linux Desktop_With_Conky⠀⇛ If you’ve ever spent time browsing a Linux community on Reddit, Twitter, or other social networks, you might have noticed some beautifully- made screenshots of sleek-looking systems where the time, date, and other information about the system are on full display in the desktop. To do this on your system, you need to to master one of the most useful applications in Linux: Conky. o § WINE or Emulation⠀➾ # ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ ScummVM_2.7.0_‘The_Real_Slim_Shader’ supports_even_more_classics⠀⇛ ScummVM 2.7.0, The Real Slim Shader, is officially out now bringing more compatibility for retro titles to modern platforms so here’s what’s new. What exactly is ScummVM? To put it simply: it’s a whole set of different open source game engines under one roof, with each focusing on a different type of retro games. o § Games⠀➾ # ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Building_a_Retro_Linux_Gaming_Computer_– Part_27:_Lost_Souls⠀⇛ Return to Part 1: Dumpster Diving # ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Beat_Hazard_3_gets_a_“Huge”_optimization for_Steam_Deck⠀⇛ Beat Hazard 3 is a music-driven twin-stick shooter currently in Early Access, and it should now play a whole lot better on Steam Deck. Released initially back in November 2022, it still has a good while left in Early Access so more work is to be done but some fun stuff landed recently. # ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Open_source_tabletop_game_simulator_gets_a second_Beta_release⠀⇛ Free, open source and getting better all the time. Tabletop Club has a fresh Beta release available with a whole lot of fixes and improvements. o § Desktop Environments/WMs⠀➾ # § K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt⠀➾ # ⚓ 9to5Linux ☛ KDE_Plasma_5.27.2_Is_Out_with_Lots_of Plasma_Wayland_Improvements⠀⇛ Coming only a week after KDE Plasma 5.27.1, the KDE Plasma 5.27.2 point release is here to improve the first-time setup experience of your Plasma desktop by omitting apps that are pinned to the Task Manager by default but aren’t installed on your GNU/Linux distribution so you won’t end up with broken icons. KDE Plasma 5.27.2 also brings lots of improvements for the Plasma Wayland session, including a fix for a recent regression causing line artifacts to appear around panels when using a fractional scale factor, as well as support for correctly rendering the mouse cursor in XWayland-using apps when using a fractional scale factor. * § Distributions and Operating Systems⠀➾ o § New Releases⠀➾ # ⚓ On_February_27,_2023,_EmmaDE4_1.03_focused_on_parental control_–_Emmabuntüs⠀⇛ On February 27th 2023, the Emmabuntüs Collective is happy to announce the release of the Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 4 1.03 update (32 and 64 bits), based on the Debian 11.6 Bullseye distribution and supporting both Xfce and LXQt desktop environments. This distribution was originally designed to facilitate the reconditioning of computers donated to humanitarian organizations, starting with the Emmaüs communities (which is where the distribution’s name obviously comes from), to promote the discovery of GNU/Linux by beginners, as well as to extend the lifespan of computer hardware, in order to reduce the waste induced by the over-consumption of raw materials. This new update of our distribution adds the CTparental control, as well as a script to help install and configure it. This will greatly simplify the deployment of CTparental for the parents who want to protect their children against unsuitable content on the Internet, see our tutorial presenting the parental control. o § Fedora Family / IBM⠀➾ # ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Flathub_seeks_funding_to_add_payments, donations_and_subscriptions⠀⇛ Making the rounds recently is a proposal being made to add in payments, donations and subscriptions options to Flathub. # ⚓ G42_Cloud_announces_availability_of_Red_Hat_Enterprise Linux_and_Red_Hat_OpenShift_on_G42_Cloud⠀⇛ G42 Cloud, the UAE’s leading Cloud provider, announced the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift on G42 Cloud. This collaboration will enable public sector and regional enterprises to seamlessly move their Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift workloads to G42 Cloud. As part of the engagement G42 Cloud has become a Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider. The collaboration will further enhance G42 Cloud’s portfolio through the addition of Red Hat open hybrid cloud technologies. Customers can now utilize Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift on G42 Cloud infrastructure in order to create an enterprise offering with enhanced security capabilities for regional customers. # ⚓ Red Hat Official ☛ Connect_Prometheus_alerts_to_IT_service management_(ITSM)_workflows⠀⇛ # ⚓ Enterprisers Project ☛ 6_precautions_for_CIOs_to_consider about_ChatGPT [Ed: Red Hat is once again publishing SPAM for Microsoft's proprietary junk; second time in this site, makes Red Hat looks like a division of Microsoft...]⠀⇛ o § Debian Family⠀➾ # ⚓ CNX Software ☛ Armbian_23.02_out_with_Linux_6.1,_DietPi 8.14_adds_experimental_RISC-V_support⠀⇛ Two of the most popular projects providing images for Arm and RISC-V single board computers have released new updates with Armbian 23.02 adding Linux 6.1-based Debian and Ubuntu images, and DietPi 8.14 adding experimental RISC-V support for the StarFive VisionFive 2 SBC and new Arm boards. Linux 6.1 is the latest LTS kernel, so Armbian is now providing Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy and Debian 11 Bullseye images based on Linux 6.1.y for boards that support it, as well as the first development images based on Debian 12 Bookworm and Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar. I could not find any new boards added in the changelog, but the release brings several improvements and bug fixes to some of the already supported SBCs including the Raspberry Pi 3, Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS, ROCK Pi S, ROCK Pi 4, NanoPi R2S, NanoPi NEO3, and Banana Pi BPI-M2 Pro. The announcement also highlights that Armbian OS works well on RK3588 with official support for Radxa Rock 5 and Orange Pi 5, albeit some are still using Linux 5.10.x. o § Canonical/Ubuntu Family⠀➾ # ⚓ 9to5Linux ☛ Linux_Mint_21.2_Promises_Better_Support_for Flatpak_Apps,_Faster_File_Management⠀⇛ In Linux Mint 21.2 “Victoria”, the devs promise better support for Flatpak apps, as well as for apps using GNOME’s libadwaita library by implementing support for the xdg-desktop-portal desktop integration portal and frontend service for Flatpak and other similar containment frameworks. This change will make Flatpak and libadwaita-based apps work seamlessly on all supported desktop environments, including Cinnamon, Xfce, and MATE, even if they’re usually written only for the GNOME desktop environment, and support features like dark mode and screenshots. # ⚓ ZDNet ☛ Ubuntu_22.04.2_is_as_predictable_as_an_operating system_can_be…_and_that’s_a_good_thing_|_ZDNET⠀⇛ When the latest point release of Canonical’s Ubuntu desktop operating system was made available, it made me realize that this particular take on Linux (as well as the mother of all distributions… Debian) is totally antithetical to much of society. Let me illustrate this by way of a mobile phone metaphor. For a very long time, anyone who designed, created, and manufactured smartphones understood that every release had to have a serious “wow” factor. Without that, no one would pay attention. Why? Because society wants to be wowed, wooed, and impressed. Society is always looking for the “latest and greatest,” the thing that makes the biggest splash and has the most impressive set of new features. Those who embrace technology came to expect projects to come out with new features that would blow them away. They wanted pomp, circumstance, and cake (because who doesn’t want cake?). # ⚓ FOSSLinux ☛ Ubuntu_backup_and_recovery:_Keeping_your_data safe_and_recovering_lost_data⠀⇛ Backup and recovery are crucial components of any data management strategy, regardless of whether you’re dealing with personal files, business data, or mission-critical applications. Accidental deletion, hardware failure, theft, cyber-attacks, and natural disasters are some factors that can lead to data loss. The consequences can be severe, ranging from the inconvenience and financial losses to reputation damage and legal liabilities. # ⚓ FOSSLinux ☛ Ubuntu_gaming:_A_comprehensive_guide_to_playing games_on_Linux⠀⇛ Gaming on Linux has come a long way in recent years, and Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions for gaming enthusiasts. With the right setup, Ubuntu can provide an excellent gaming experience, offering access to a broad range of games, including popular titles like Counter- Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and Rocket League. # ⚓ Ubuntu News ☛ Ubuntu_Weekly_Newsletter_Issue_776⠀⇛ Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 776 for the week of February 19 – 25, 2023. The full version of this issue is available here. # ⚓ Ubuntu Fridge ☛ The_Fridge:_Ubuntu_Weekly_Newsletter_Issue 776⠀⇛ o § Open Hardware/Modding⠀➾ # ⚓ Ubuntubuzz ☛ KiCAD_7_Released⠀⇛ KiCAD is a professional free software application for electronic design automation (EDA). It is mainly used for electronic purposes like designing schematics, electronic circuits and drawing printed circuit board (PCB). Drawing circuitry with electronic components like resistors, capacitors, diode, switch etc. is easy with KiCAD. It includes important tools to create a bill of materials (BoM), artwork, Gerber files, and 3D views of the PCB and its components. It is licensed under GNU GPLv3 or later license. Its website is https:// www.kicad.org. # ⚓ Tom’s Hardware ☛ Raspberry_Pi_Helps_TRS-80_Model_102_Deploy Kubernetes⠀⇛ The TRS-80 Model 102 is a classic computer from the mid-1980s and with the help of a Raspberry Pi and an ESP32 it is capable of much more exciting things. # ⚓ Raspberry Pi ☛ Raspberry_Pi_Backpack⠀⇛ Portability is one of the great benefits of owning a small, yet powerful, computer such as Raspberry Pi. So long as you have a screen and keyboard to hand, you can pop one into your bag and take it on your travels. Or, as Nicholas Hacault has shown, you can actually make Raspberry Pi a feature of your bag and gain instant access to it wherever you go. Nicholas came up with the idea when he was looking for a way of transporting a Linux device. At first, he considered running a virtual machine on his laptop. “But that sounded like too easy a solution,” he says. “Since I was already bringing a bag to school, I figured that a backpack would be the perfect housing for my project.” With the idea in the bag, he was ready to get going. o § Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ Hindustan Times ☛ 5_Best_hidden_features_Android_users should_know_about_|_How-to⠀⇛ # ⚓ Geeky Gadgets ☛ How_to_check_your_screen_time_on_Android_– Geeky_Gadgets⠀⇛ # ⚓ The Sun ☛ Millions_of_Android_users_warned_over_mysterious ‘cursed’_YouTube_video_–_don’t_watch_it_|_The_US_Sun⠀⇛ # ⚓ TheHinduBusinessLine ☛ Not_stopping_rivals_from_getting pre-installed_OVHP_Apps_in_Android_phones,_Google_tells_NCLAT –_The_Hindu_BusinessLine⠀⇛ # ⚓ Express ☛ Motorola’s_rollable_phone_fixes_massive_issue with_big_Android_devices_|_Express.co.uk⠀⇛ * § Free, Libre, and Open Source Software⠀➾ o ⚓ XenSummit_2023_announced!⠀⇛ The annual Xen Project Developer and Design Summit 2023 will be held 24-26 June. o ⚓ EIN Presswire ☛ Linux_Foundation’s_LF_Edge_and_Open_Grid_Alliance Collaborate_on_Accelerating_Innovation_for_Reimagining_the_Edge⠀⇛ o ⚓ The Register UK ☛ Pop_open_a_cask:_Homebrew_version_4.0.0_is_here [Ed: Can work with GNU/Linux too]⠀⇛ Homebrew is a handy tool if you work in a terminal window on a Mac, which lets you quickly and easily install a wide variety of familiar tools from the wider FOSS world. The add-on package manager doesn’t need superuser permissions and installs programs into your home directory: it “does for macOS what apt-get does for Debian”. The new version 4.0.0 is faster than before, especially when it comes to the update process. o ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Wayland_driver_for_Wine_is_getting_closer⠀⇛ Back late last year, Collabora developer Alexandros Frantzis blogged about a whole lot of work going into getting full Wayland support for Wine and now a big first step towards it being included in Wine is happening. o § Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra⠀➾ # ⚓ LibreOffice_installer_improvements_coming,_thanks_to_Ximena Alcaman,_Rachael_Odetayo_and_Outreachy⠀⇛ Today we’re talking to Ximena Alcaman, who is working on LibreOffice installer improvements as part of the Outreachy programme. Outreachy provides internships to people subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation in the technical industry where they are living. Ximena is working alongside Rachael Odetayo on the LibreOffice installer, and is being mentored by Marina Latini and Jussi Pakkanen, with support from sponsors SUSE and The Document Foundation. Let’s learn more… # ⚓ Ubuntubuzz ☛ LibreOffice_7.5_ReleasedLibreOffice_7.5 Released⠀⇛ LibreOffice is a cross-platform, free libre open source software (FOSS) office suite from Germany developed by worldwide community under stewardship of a non-profit organization. It was originally developed from OpenOffice.org in 2010, first released in 2011 and the latest version 7.5 released in 2023. It is consisted of six applications namely Base (database), Calc (spreadsheet), Draw (illustrator), Impress (presentation), Math (equation editor), and Writer (word processor). It is mostly viewed as an alternative to Microsoft Office or Google Docs. It is the de facto office suite on all GNU/Linux operating systems especially Ubuntu. Its website is https://libreoffice.org. # ⚓ AOO_4.1.14_Release_Notes⠀⇛ Apache OpenOffice 4.1.14 is a Maintenance release, incorporating bug fixes and little enhancements. All users of Apache OpenOffice 4.1.13 or earlier are advised to upgrade. You can download Apache OpenOffice 4.1.14 here. Windows 10 and 11 users can now also get Apache OpenOffice for selected languages in the “Microsoft Store” App. Please review these Release Notes to learn what is new in this version, as well as important remarks concerning known issues and their workarounds. Only use the original website “https:// www.openoffice.org/download/” to download. The installed software can be verified with the About box (see menu “Help – About OpenOffice”) by comparing the numbers with the reference data on the download webpage (see the text in the light green box). For Apache OpenOffice 4.1.14 it has to be “AOO4114m1 | Build ID 9811 | Rev. a0d24fb625″. o § GNU Projects⠀➾ # ⚓ GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) ☛ GIMP 2.10.34 Released⠀⇛ o § Licensing / Legal⠀➾ # ⚓ [Old] The Verge ☛ The_lawsuit_that_could_rewrite_the_rules of_AI_copyright⠀⇛ Microsoft and OpenAI are far from alone in scraping copyrighted material from the web to train AI systems for profit. Many text-to-image AI, like the open-source program Stable Diffusion, were created in exactly the same way. The firms behind these programs insist that their use of this data is covered in the US by fair use doctrine. But legal experts say this is far from settled law and that litigation like Butterick’s class action lawsuit could upend the tenuously defined status quo. To find out more about the motivations and reasoning behind the lawsuit, we spoke to Butterick (MB), Manfredi (TM), and Zirpoli (CZ), who explained why they think we’re in the Napster-era of AI and why letting Microsoft use other’s code without attribution could kill the open source movement. o § Programming/Development⠀➾ # ⚓ Qt ☛ Qt_Project:_Top_Contributors_of_2022!⠀⇛ So, 2022 was a successful year for Qt – and we highlight the Qt_6.3 and Qt_6.4 releases, Qt World Summit, and Qt Contributor Summit. And our community members keep up with the activity by writing diligent bug reports, contributing patches, giving technical advice, or helping out other users in forums and mailing lists. # ⚓ Earthly ☛ Go_with_the_Gin_Framework⠀⇛ The Gin framework is one of the popular web packages in the Go ecosystem for building web applications. Gin provides most of the functionalities you’ll need in a web framework featuring a martini-like API with high performance and easy error management. # § Perl / Raku⠀➾ # ⚓ Rakulang ☛ Raku™_documentation⠀⇛ Welcome to the official documentation of the Raku™ programming language! o § Standards/Consortia⠀➾ # ⚓ uni Michigan ☛ My_love_for_physical_media_will_never_die⠀⇛ If my current position as a writer on The Michigan Daily’s Arts section hasn’t already made it obvious, I love art. Whether it’s books, music, movies, TV shows or anything in between, chances are that I have made the media I consume a part of my personality at some point in my life. * § Leftovers⠀➾ o ⚓ Tim Bray ☛ Two_ongoing_Decades⠀⇛ Today is the 20th anniversary of the first-ever public post on this blog (Spoiler: Not that interesting). Some posts mark milestones: Is This Thing On? (one day), One ongoing Year, 730 ongoing Days, Thirty-six ongoing Months, and for the ten-year mark, Birthday! I just re-read that last ten-years note and I think it’s good. If you care about this subject at all, do me a favor and go read it. I’ll wait. Then, a few more words about doing this in 2023 and into the future. o § Hardware⠀➾ # ⚓ RFA ☛ Empty_containers_stack_up_at_major_Chinese_ports after_zero-COVID_effect_lingers⠀⇛ Shipping industry sources say the flow of goods has reversed direction, with more entering ports than leaving. # ⚓ Tom’s Hardware ☛ PC_GPU_Shipments_Drop_35%_Year-over-Year in_Q4_2022:_Report⠀⇛ As sales of CPUs decrease, shipments of discrete desktop graphics cards increase in Q4 2022, says Jon Peddie Research. o § Health/Nutrition/Agriculture⠀➾ # ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ BREAKING:_Hong_Kong_axes_Covid-19 mask_mandate_from_March_1_after_over_2.5_years⠀⇛ Hong Kong’s long-standing Covid-19 mask mandate will be scrapped from Wednesday, Chief Executive John Lee has announced. # ⚓ The Straits Times ☛ Hong_Kong_scraps_one_of_the_world’s longest_Covid-19_mask_mandates_on_March_1⠀⇛ Masks will still need to be worn at high-risk places including hospitals. # ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Covid-19:_PCR_test_requirement_for entry_to_Hong_Kong_public_hospitals,_care_homes_axed_from March_1⠀⇛ Visitors and staff at Hong Kong’s public hospitals and elderly care homes will no longer need to present a negative result from a Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test from Wednesday, the government has announced. # ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Covid-19:_Macau_drops_outdoor_mask mandate,_as_survey_shows_60%_of_Hongkongers_want_end_to_all restrictions⠀⇛ Macau’s Covid-19 mask mandate has been partially lifted, leaving Hong Kong as one of the few remaining places across the globe to enforce a mask mandate in all public settings, according to an expert from the University of Hong Kong (HKU). # ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ When_can_Hongkongers_stop_wearing masks?⠀⇛ This is a question that keeps cropping up in Hong Kong, which is currently one of the last places in the world where universal mask wearing in all public settings is compulsory. # ⚓ RFA ☛ Falling_short_of_targets,_North_Korean_factories start_selling_sweet_potatoes⠀⇛ But the food stalls are hurting families who run small food shops to make ends meet # ⚓ US News And World Report ☛ North_Korea’s_Kim_Calls_for Unity_to_Boost_Grain_Production⠀⇛ North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un has called for stronger public solidarity behind his leadership to significantly increase grain production # ⚓ Danish_health_authority_withdraws_Covid-19_pill⠀⇛ The Danish Health Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen) no longer recommends the Covid-19 therapeutic medicine Lagevrio, citing the medicine’s lack of effectiveness. # ⚓ The Scientist ☛ How_an_Early_Warning_Radar_Could_Prevent Future_Pandemics⠀⇛ Metagenomic sequencing can help detect unknown pathogens, but its widespread use faces challenges. # ⚓ Vice Media Group ☛ What_‘Low_Confidence’_in_the_Lab_Leak Theory_Actually_Means⠀⇛ The lab leak theory may turn out to be true, but we’re nowhere near being able to say that right now. # ⚓ Helsinki Times ☛ Over_half_of_Finns_have_both_vaccine_and disease-induced_COVID-19_antibodies:_Study⠀⇛ Over half of Finns have developed hybrid immunity to the coronavirus by the end of 2022 through a combination of vaccination and natural infection, according to a study conducted by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). This hybrid immunity provides long-lasting, high protection against severe disease. THL has been monitoring the occurrence of antibodies produced in response to coronavirus infection in the population since April 2020. # ⚓ New Yorker ☛ COVID-19_at_Three:_Who_Got_the_Pandemic Right?⠀⇛ Dhruv Khullar examines what strategies worked to control the virus, and talks to the C.D.C.’s director, Rochelle Walensky, about the issue of misinformation. # ⚓ New Yorker ☛ [Satire]_George_Santos_Quickly_Removes_Job_at Wuhan_Lab_from_Résumé⠀⇛ Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Santos said that he had “no idea” how the Wuhan job wound up on his C.V. # ⚓ New Yorker ☛ Phosphorus_Saved_Our_Way_of_Life—and_Now Threatens_to_End_It⠀⇛ Fertilizers filled with the nutrient boosted our ability to feed the planet. Today, they’re creating vast and growing dead zones in our lakes and seas. o § Proprietary⠀➾ # ⚓ Data Breaches ☛ How_Offensive_Action_is_Countering Ransomware⠀⇛ Ransomware attacks have crossed a red line for many countries with continued merciless attacks. The threat to national economies and critical infrastructure marked a turning point. Governments are fighting back, and one of the strategies now routinely employed is infiltrating the servers and infrastructure of ransomware gangs. A recent offensive action against a top ransomware gang shows it can be a powerful tool both to rattle ransomware groups and provide real-time help to victims. # ⚓ 37signals LLC ☛ Don’t_be_fooled_by_serverless⠀⇛ But what happens if a customer needs the performance of a whole box, most of the time? Then they’re paying $1,400/month for $1,000′s worth of computing. Or maybe, because they’re reserving the whole box, they’ll get a deal at $1,250/month by committing to a whole year. That deal is far less obviously good on both sides. It’s basically a credit agreement at a 25% APR. Tread wisely! Enter serverless. It’s the same financial mechanics as above, but you can slice the server far more thinly. Instead of renting out your one big server to seven customers at $200/month, you rent out individual function executions to 100 customers at $20/month. This now clears $1,000/month in profit instead of just $400/month. No wonder cloud providers love serverless! # ⚓ Terence Eden ☛ Responsible_Disclosure:_Abandoned_Buckets and_Billing_Emails⠀⇛ This is a problem. Amazon doesn’t reserve bucket names after they’re abandoned. Which means digital miscreants can claim them. # ⚓ Data Breaches ☛ 553_days_from_discovery_to_notification? DataBreaches_asked_Dental_Health_Management_Solutions_why.⠀⇛ Why did it take 553 days from discovery to notify patients? Is the delay acceptable? Applying the standards for HIPAA-covered entities, and having reported on many breaches by now, DataBreaches believes a delay that long is not acceptable unless there are factors we do not know about in play. DataBreaches sent inquiries to both DHMS and their external counsel at Wilson Elser to ask for an explanation for the serious delay. No replies have been received. o § Security⠀➾ # ⚓ Danish_hospital_websites_targeted_in_cyber_attack⠀⇛ A hacker group took nine Danish hospital websites offline on Sunday afternoon, following a similar attack on Danish airports last Wednesday, and another in Sweden. # ⚓ LWN ☛ Security_updates_for_Monday_[LWN.net]⠀⇛ Security updates have been issued by Debian (apr- util, freeradius, mono, nodejs, php7.3, php7.4, and python-cryptography), Fedora (epiphany, haproxy, and podman), SUSE (chromium, libraw, php7, php74, python-pip, and rubygem-activerecord-4_2), and Ubuntu (apr, clamav, curl, intel-microcode, nss, openvswitch, webkit2gtk, and zoneminder). # § Privacy/Surveillance⠀➾ # ⚓ Light Blue Touchpaper ☛ Bugs_still_considered harmful⠀⇛ A number of governments are trying to mandate surveillance software in devices that support end-to-end encrypted chat; the EU’s CSA Regulation and the UK’s Online Safety bill being two prominent current examples. # ⚓ Vice Media Group ☛ US_Military_Signs_Contract_to_Put Facial_Recognition_on_Drones⠀⇛ Operators will use the tech on small drones to help them with intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, and identifying targets. # ⚓ Vice Media Group ☛ Top_Kickboxers_Advertised Encrypted_Phones_Used_by_Organized_Crime⠀⇛ Dutch police hacked and shutdown Exclu, a phone network used by alleged criminals. A promotional video shows professional fighters promoting the phones. # ⚓ Vice Media Group ☛ This_Hacker_Hoodie_Uses Surveillance_Camera_Parts_to_Blind_Surveillance Cameras⠀⇛ The ‘Camera Shy Hoodie’ renders its wearer anonymous to night vision surveillance cameras, using infrared LEDs usually found in the cameras themselves. o § Defence/Aggression⠀➾ # ⚓ France24 ☛ ‘They_burned_everything’:_Israeli_settlers_torch Palestinian_homes,_cars_after_West_Bank_attack⠀⇛ Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Monday counted the cost of deadly violence and arson by Israeli settlers targeting a town where two Israeli brothers were killed. # ⚓ RFERL ☛ Moldova_Expels_Two_Foreigners_Caught_In_Alleged ‘Destabilization’_Plot⠀⇛ Moldova’s intelligence agency said on February 27 that two foreign nationals have been expelled from the country and banned from returning for 10 years after they were caught carrying out “subversive actions” to destabilize Moldova. # ⚓ RFERL ☛ Canada_Slaps_Sanctions_On_Dozen_Iranian_Officials Linked_to_IRGC,_Law_Enforcement⠀⇛ The Canadian government has imposed sanctions on 12 senior officials from Iran’s IRGC and Law Enforcement Forces for “gross violations of human rights” in a deadly crackdown on protesters angered by the death of a young woman while in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly. # ⚓ US News And World Report ☛ TikTok_Banned_on_All_Canadian Government_Mobile_Devices⠀⇛ Canada is banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices, reflecting widening worries from Western officials over the Chinese-owned video sharing app # ⚓ RFERL ☛ Turkey’s_NATO_Talks_With_Sweden_And_Finland_Set_To Resume_On_March_9⠀⇛ Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says talks with Sweden and Finland over their NATO membership bids would resume on March 9, although he said Sweden had still not fulfilled its obligations under a memorandum signed last year. # ⚓ teleSUR ☛ Hungary_Welcomes_Chinese_Plan_for_Peace_in Ukraine⠀⇛ “We need a ceasefire and the start of peace talks, Hungary calls for peace in all international forums,” Viktor Orban said. # ⚓ teleSUR ☛ China_Slams_US_Sanctions_on_Chinese_Firms_Related to_Russia⠀⇛ Washington set sanctions using non-existent shipments of Chinese arms to Russia as a pretext. # ⚓ Helsinki Times ☛ Hungary_wants_answers:_Demands_UN investigation_into_Nord_Stream_pipeline_attack⠀⇛ Hungary is calling for a UN investigation into the “scandalous” attack on the Nord Stream pipelines that journalist Seymour Hersh has asserted were destroyed by the United States. The pipelines, which connected Russia to Germany, were sabotaged last September, leading to a state of dependence on US energy and prompting European countries to support the escalation of the war in Ukraine. # ⚓ Helsinki Times ☛ Always_look_on_the_bright_side_–_costs_of NATO_membership⠀⇛ Nearly a year ago I was writing a trilogy of articles for Helsinki Times outlining the problems and risks for Finland joining NATO. Groupthink clearly prevailed when making the decision to join. Irving Janis who developed the concept years before warned that when decision makers look inward and invest in a perspective that is biased in favour of their own world view without sufficient recognition of other viewpoints, then it leads to poor and damaging decisions. # ⚓ YLE ☛ Record_number_switch_from_reserve_to_civilian service⠀⇛ The civilian service says it attributes the spike in applications to Russia’s war in Ukraine. # ⚓ YLE ☛ Turkey_to_resume_Nato_talks_with_Finland,_Sweden⠀⇛ Turkey may separate Finnish and Swedish membership bids, according to Reuters. # ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Human_Rights_Groups_Condemn_Settler_Pogrom Against_Palestinians_in_West_Bank⠀⇛ # ⚓ The Dissenter ☛ March_To_Iraq_War,_20_Years_Later:_February 27,_2003⠀⇛ o § Environment⠀➾ # ⚓ Omicron Limited ☛ Far-reaching_UN_treaty_a_must_to_cut global_plastic_use:_experts⠀⇛ On current trends, plastic use will nearly double from 2019 across G20 countries by 2050, reaching 451 million tonnes each year, according to the report, jointly produced by Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation. In 1950, only two million tonnes of plastic were produced worldwide. “The findings highlight the level of ambition and the sense of urgency needed at the negotiation table,” co-author Gillian Parker told AFP. # ⚓ Copenhagen Post ☛ Nord_Stream_explosions_severely_impacted maritime_life_–_report⠀⇛ They released sediment containing toxic substances that could potentially kill off several maritime populations, including Baltic Sea cod and porpoises, which both had breeding grounds close to the blast zones. # ⚓ France24 ☛ Antarctic_sea_ice_shrinks_to_new_record_low,_US data_center_says⠀⇛ Antarctic sea ice likely shrunk to a record low last week, US researchers said Monday, its lowest extent in the 45 years of satellite record-keeping. # ⚓ The Age AU ☛ ‘Should_send_shockwaves’:_ASIC_sues_Mercer Super_in_greenwashing_crackdown⠀⇛ The financial market regulator says Mercer was investing in companies such as BHP and AGL while marketing an investment product as being suitable for members who “are deeply committed to sustainability”. # § Energy/Transportation⠀➾ # ⚓ H2 View ☛ Australia_to_review_National_Hydrogen Strategy_in_response_to_global_policy_support⠀⇛ The Australian Government looks set to review its National Hydrogen Strategy in response to global policy changes to support the hydrogen industry. # ⚓ Renewable Energy World ☛ Battery_recycler_Li-Cycle Holdings_inks_$375m_DOE_loan_pledge⠀⇛ Canada-based Li-Cycle Holdings said that it received a conditional commitment for a $375 million loan from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, through DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. # ⚓ Danish_environmental_organisations_concerned_over Nord_Stream_leaks_impact⠀⇛ Sabotage at the Nord Stream pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm last year may have resulted in increased pollution which threats natural habitats, a study has found. # ⚓ WhichUK ☛ Energy_price_cap_falls,_but_your_bills_are still_set_to_rise⠀⇛ Bills for gas and electricity look likely to go up from 1 April – and Which? is calling on the government not to change the energy price guarantee o § Finance⠀➾ # ⚓ Michael West Media ☛ Top_earners_benefiting_most_from_super tax_breaks⠀⇛ The Albanese government has set the scene for trimming back super tax concessions with new costings showing the tax breaks are collectively worth up to $50 billion a year and largely flow to high income earners. # ⚓ Zimbabwe ☛ China_dropping_big_four_accounting_firms,_should Zimbabwe_do_the_same?⠀⇛ You know, for a little while it looked like those hippies’ dreams of one global village had come true. Some of us grew up in the ‘we are the world’ era and really believed Lucky Dube when he said ‘we gotta stand together as one.’ # ⚓ The Local SE ☛ Booze_price_hikes_and_tax_deadlines:_What changes_in_Sweden_in_March?⠀⇛ Alcohol is set to get more expensive and tax declaration season gets under way. Here’s more on that and everything else that changes in Sweden in March 2023. # ⚓ Vice Media Group ☛ The_Invisible_Workers_Who_Train_Google’s Algorithm_Fought_for_$15/Hr_and_Won⠀⇛ After delivering a union petition with over 1,000 signatures, the company’s subcontractors will now earn Alphabet’s minimum standard wage. # ⚓ The Age AU ☛ Tax_to_double_on_superannuation_earnings_for balances_over_$3_million⠀⇛ Tax on super earnings over $3 million will go from 15 per cent to 30 per cent, commencing in two years time. # ⚓ The Age AU ☛ Super_and_capital_gains_tax_breaks_cost_budget more_than_$100_billion⠀⇛ A report shows the total cost of concessions around super will be worth almost $51 billion this financial year, with the bulk of the tax breaks flowing to high-income earners. # ⚓ YLE ☛ MOT:_Oligarch_Rotenberg_violated_EU_sanction_rules_by not_declaring_assets_in_Finland⠀⇛ Yle’s investigative team found that Boris Rotenberg has not submitted all of the ownership notifications that he should have. # ⚓ YLE ☛ Threatened_public_transport_worker_strikes_may_cause headaches_in_Finland⠀⇛ If negotiations are unresolved, threatened strikes may cause lengthy disruptions of public transport services across the country, starting this week. o § AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics⠀➾ # ⚓ New Yorker ☛ New_Twitter_Check_Marks_in_a_Rainbow_of Colors⠀⇛ How about Orange? (Trump and Trump-related impersonators only.) Or Blue Sweater/Glasses? (For @georgesantosreallyIswear.) A Shouts & Murmurs by Bill Scheft. # ⚓ France24 ☛ France_must_demonstrate_‘profound_humility’ toward_Africa,_Macron_says_ahead_of_four-nation_trip⠀⇛ President Emmanuel Macron on Monday outlined France’s new strategy for Africa, where anti-French sentiment runs high in some of its former colonies. Ahead of a visit to Gabon, Angola, Congo- Brazzaville and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Macron said that France needs to demonstrate a “profound humility” in Africa. # ⚓ France24 ☛ Nigeria’s_opposition_leaders_reject_early results_showing_ruling_party_lead⠀⇛ Tensions rose Monday during the counting of Nigeria’s hotly contested presidential election when representatives from the parties of the two main opposition candidates walked out in anger from the center where state-by-state results were being announced. # ⚓ France24 ☛ What_is_in_the_new_post-Brexit_trade_deal_on Northern_Ireland?⠀⇛ Britain and the European Union announced a new deal for post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland on Monday in a bid to end a row that has overshadowed their ties since Brexit. # ⚓ France24 ☛ Live:_Treasury_Secretary_Yellen_on_surprise visit_to_Kyiv_to_reaffirm_US_support⠀⇛ US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in Kyiv on a surprise visit to highlight US economic support on Monday as a deadly Russian drone attack targeted the western Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi. The UN Human Rights Council convened for its annual session in Geneva as the UN chief warned that the invasion of Ukraine had led to “massive violations of human rights”. # ⚓ Press Gazette ☛ ABCs:_Regional_dailies_see_average_print decline_of_19%_(but_online_looking_brighter)⠀⇛ Data reveals large drops in UK regional print circulation, although some brands’ online audiences have grown. # ⚓ Press Gazette ☛ Sky_News_reveals_new_leadership_structure following_departure_of_John_Ryley⠀⇛ Jonathan Levy is stepping up after head of Sky News John Ryley’s departure. # ⚓ Bruce Schneier ☛ Banning_TikTok⠀⇛ Congress is currently debating bills that would ban TikTok in the United States. We are here as technologists to tell you that this is a terrible idea and the side effects would be intolerable. Details matter. There are several ways Congress might ban TikTok, each with different efficacies and side effects. In the end, all the effective ones would destroy the free Internet as we know it. # ⚓ Vice Media Group ☛ Twitter_Lays_Off_Manager_Who_Slept_on Office_Floor_After_Musk_Takeover⠀⇛ Twitter has laid off hundreds of workers in another chaotic incident, some of whom were die-hard loyalists to Musk’s new regime. # ⚓ New Yorker ☛ Battling_Corruption_in_Ukraine—and_the_U.S.⠀⇛ The Biden Administration calls for greater financial transparency around the world. This country could use more of it, too. # ⚓ US News And World Report ☛ Murdoch_Testified_Fox_News_Hosts Endorsed_Idea_That_Biden_Stole_Election⠀⇛ Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged under oath that some Fox hosts “endorsed” the notion… o § Censorship/Free Speech⠀➾ # ⚓ France24 ☛ Florida_Governor_DeSantis_takes_over_Disney district_for_opposing_‘Don’t_Say_Gay’_law⠀⇛ Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday that gives him control of Walt Disney World’s self-governing district, making good on his threats to punish the company over its opposition to his so-called Don’t Say Gay law. # ⚓ HRW ☛ Satire_in_Congo_is_No_Laughing_Matter⠀⇛ On February 10, government security agents arrested the satirical comedian Junior Nkole in central Kinshasa in the latest attack on freedom of expression in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nkole’s relatives told Human Rights Watch that he and his brother Serge Nkole were waiting for a meeting with a business contact in the restaurant of the Hotel Mayotte. At around 10:00 a.m., in what appears to have been a trap, a dozen men in plainclothes who turned out to be officers of Congo’s National Intelligence Agency (Agence nationale de renseignements, ANR) showed up. They beat the two, forced them into an SUV with tinted windows, and took them to an ANR office. The authorities released Serge a few hours later, but Junior remains in detention. # ⚓ RFERL ☛ Prosecutors_In_Belarus_Seek_Lengthy_Prison_Terms For_Opposition_Leaders_Living_Outside_County⠀⇛ Belarusian prosecutors have demanded lengthy prison terms and hefty fines for Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya and four other opposition leaders living outside the country. o § Civil Rights/Policing⠀➾ # ⚓ France24 ☛ The_‘dalalas’,_the_middlemen_who_prey_on vulnerable_women_in_Saudi_Arabia⠀⇛ Many foreign domestic workers in Saudi Arabia are forced to work in terrible conditions, often with highly abusive employers. However, they are trapped because of a system that allows Saudi’s staff ro nexties their working rights in the country to the employer. Enter the dalalas — middlemen who prowl Facebook offering desperate women help to flee their terrible employers for better jobs and improved working conditions. # ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Ex-Hong_Kong_police_officer convicted_of_sedition_over_comments_over_death_of_marine officer⠀⇛ A former police officer has been convicted under the colonial-era sedition law over Facebook comments about the death of a marine officer. Chui Chun-man appeared before Acting Principal Magistrate Veronica Heung at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Monday. Heung is one of the city’s handpicked national security judges. # ⚓ HRW ☛ Myanmar_Junta_Extends_Martial_Law⠀⇛ # ⚓ RFA ☛ Cambodia’s_Hun_Sen_ramps_up_efforts_to_bring political_opponents_to_heel⠀⇛ Facebook commentator, provincial party officials latest to be targeted in efforts to gain ruling party support. # ⚓ RFA ☛ Myanmar’s_junta_denies_ousted_leaders_access_to_legal representation⠀⇛ Critics say the junta wants to isolate Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint from the outside world. # ⚓ The Local SE ☛ ‘A_shock’:_Brit_finds_out_he’s_living_in Sweden_illegally_after_nine_months⠀⇛ After 11 years in Sweden, James, a British citizen working in the building industry, found out he no longer had residency in Sweden after calling the Migration Agency to ask about a rejected application for parental leave. # ⚓ Vice Media Group ☛ Pornhub,_OnlyFans,_and_Meta_Join_New Sextortion_Prevention_Platform⠀⇛ ‘Take It Down,’ a new initiative by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, creates a hash from non-consensual images of minors without requiring them to upload anything. # ⚓ JURIST ☛ Biden_administration_announces_new_policies_aimed at_combatting_child_labor⠀⇛ The US Department of Labor (DOL) Monday announced new measures aimed at combatting child labor and, in particular, the exploitation of migrant child labor. # ⚓ JURIST ☛ Legal_age_of_marriage_increases_from_16_to_18_in England_and_Wales⠀⇛ The UK’s Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022 came into force Monday, raising the legal age of marriage from 16 to 18 in England and Wales. The act amended the Marriage Act 1949, which regulates marriages in the two countries. # ⚓ JURIST ☛ HRW:_Tunisia_must_reinstate_judges_and_uphold judicial_independence⠀⇛ Human Rights Watch (HRW) Tunisia Director Salsabil Chellali Monday urged Tunisian authorities to reinstate dismissed judges and prosecutors and remove all measures used to subdue judicial authority. President Kais Saied dismissed 57 magistrates last year as part of an “anti- corruption” crusade. # ⚓ JURIST ☛ Ukraine_human_rights_ombudsman_accuses_Russia_of illegally_detaining_180_political_prisoners_in_occupied Crimea⠀⇛ Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Sunday reported that Russia is illegally detaining 180 political prisoners in occupied Crimea. Dmytro Lubinets’ report comes as the country marks the ninth anniversary of Russia’s occupation of the peninsula. # ⚓ JURIST ☛ UK_dispatch:_new_Holocaust_Memorial_Bill introduced_in_Parliament⠀⇛ The Government introduced a new Holocaust Memorial Bill to Parliament last week on February 23rd. The bill, called the Holocaust Memorial Act 2023, was launched under section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998. T # ⚓ LRT ☛ Lithuanian_border_guards_want_state_of_emergency extended_despite_drop_in_migrant_flows⠀⇛ Although flows of irregular migrants have ebbed recently, the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (VSAT) believes that the existing state of emergency in border areas should be extended. # ⚓ LRT ☛ Pro-Russian_group_places_flowers_on_destroyed_tank displayed_in_Vilnius,_gets_into_fight⠀⇛ A destroyed Russian tank displayed in front of the Cathedral Square in Vilnius attracts not only Ukraine’s supporters. A fight broke out after a group of people laid flowers on the tank on Sunday evening. o § Internet Policy/Net Neutrality⠀➾ # ⚓ CCIA ☛ A_Ruling_Against_Google_in_Gonzalez_Could_Create_a “World_of_Lawsuits”_and_“Economic_Dislocation”⠀⇛ Without the longstanding interpretation of Section 230 as providing broad protections to digital intermediaries and their users, the digital economy, built on user interactions with an enormous variety of content, could not continue to exist.  # ⚓ MIT Technology Review ☛ Four_ways_the_Supreme_Court_could reshape_the_web⠀⇛ We shouldn’t read too much into the oral arguments heard this week, and they’re not a firm indication of how the court will rule (likely by summer). However, the questions the justices ask can signal how the court is thinking about a case, and we can extrapolate what might happen with more confidence. I’ve broken down some of those more probable scenarios below. # ⚓ Vice Media Group ☛ How_Shock_Sites_Shaped_The_Internet⠀⇛ We owe the cultural evolution of the internet to the likes of ‘Two Girls, One Cup,’ ‘Goatse,’ and ‘Tubgirl.’ # ⚓ India Times ☛ Big_Tech_‘fair_share’_debate_set_to_dominate Barcelona_Mobile_Congress⠀⇛ Last Thursday, EU industry chief Thierry Breton launched a 12-week consultation on its “fair share” proposals, under which Big Tech platforms would bear more of the costs of the systems which give them access to consumers. o § Monopolies⠀➾ # § Patents⠀➾ # ⚓ Unified Patents ☛ Unified_provides_comments_for_USPTO Initiatives_To_Ensure_the_Robustness_and_Reliability_of Patent_Rights⠀⇛ Unified Patents provided comments to the USPTO’s_RFC_on_USPTO_Initiatives_To_Ensure the_Robustness_and_Reliability_of_Patent Rights and those were recently published. # ⚓ EPO_announces_CodeFest_winners [Ed: EPO breaks the law. It's governed by criminals. It's potraying itself to the public as all "fun and games"]⠀⇛ Outstanding solutions highlight the potential of machine learning for identifying sustainable innovation in the field of plastics. # ⚓ New_Patent_Filing_Tool_in_Spain_and_Lithuania [Ed: Almost nobody in Lithuania files for European Patents because it's too expensive and the quality of the work is very very low; many granted patents are bogus.]⠀⇛ First two countries implement filing tool # § Trademarks⠀➾ # ⚓ TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog_Test:_How_Did_These_Three_Section 2(e)(1)_Mere_Descriptiveness_Appeals_Turn_Out?⠀⇛ The TTAB recently ruled on the appeals from the three Section 2(e)(1) mere descriptiveness refusals summarized below. Let’s see how you do with them. Results will be found in the first comment. * § Gemini* and Gopher⠀➾ o § Personal⠀➾ # ⚓ 🔤SpellBinding:_YLNOPTC_Wordo:_NOVAE⠀⇛ # ⚓ Self-involved_egocentric_bullshit⠀⇛ My support worker is excellent. They’re 26, a kinky enm nonbinary/transmasc dyke; i’ll refer to them as ‘Z’. Z’s been doing this sort of work for at least a few years now. They often have lived experience of the sort of issues i blab about, and i regularly find that i don’t need to explain certain things because it’s very clear to me that they _get it_, that they very much know what i’m talking about. i’m very grateful for this, given my decades of shitty experiences with various health and allied workers. During our session today, Z mentioned a recent experience with one of their other clients (without, of course, giving any identifying information). The client is 19, and told Z that Z is ‘queerphobic’ and ‘transphobic’, and that they thus want to take a few weeks’ break from seeing Z. Why? Because in the short period since their last session with Z, they’d changed and/or added identities and/or pronouns, and Z hadn’t somehow automatically known this, and had thus got language wrong. According to the client, Z “should be able to keep up”. # ⚓ i_don’t_belong_to_the_queer/tgd_communities⠀⇛ i don’t feel i ‘belong’ to the queer/tgd communities. i am, of course, a ‘member’ of those communities by virtue of being queer and transgenderqueer. But decades of experience and activism involving these communities have led me to feel that they project themselves in ways i don’t, and can’t, relate to. In some cases, they can feel actively marginalising. The primary example of this is being ‘fabulous’, i.e. outgoing and colourful (both literally and figuratively). Both the queer and tgd communities are apparently _very_ invested in representing themselves as ‘fabulous’. No, i don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone being ‘fabulous’; i’m here for it. Yes, i understand this is at least partly a response to being expected (at best) to remain in the closet, instead being ‘out, loud and proud’. # ⚓ What_was_the_last_book_you_read?⠀⇛ What was the last book you read? Why did you choose it? What did you get from reading it? Under what circumstances would you recommend it to someone else? # ⚓ Daily_life⠀⇛ On work days a Casio F-91W wristwatch, draped over the clock radio, beeps me awake at 0415. It cost $15 at walmart, survived a month under mud, water, & snow when I lost it in the backyard. Its battery lasts 10 years and is replacable. It goes on my wrist before I leave the house. Shower, eggs & greens, maybe yoga, scrubs on, chant a psalm because it’s Lent, drive 100km to hospital for work. I listen to St Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica on a busted old offline Android discard- ed by my friend Kirsa on the way. Thanks Librivox & VLC. o § Technical⠀➾ # ⚓ SSH_client_configurations⠀⇛ Here is a set of SSH client configurations I usually use and find useful. =============================================================================== * Gemini_(Primer) links can be opened using Gemini_software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 3918 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ═════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.28.23⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ Links_28/02/2023:_qBittorrent_4.5.2_and_Godot_4.0_RC_6⠀✐ Posted in News_Roundup at 4:43 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GNOME bluefish⦈ § Contents⠀➾ * GNU/Linux o Server o Audiocasts/Shows o Applications o Instructionals/Technical o Games o Desktop_Environments/WMs # K_Desktop_Environment/KDE_SC/Qt # GNOME_Desktop/GTK * Distributions_and_Operating_Systems o BSD o Fedora_Family_/_IBM o Canonical/Ubuntu_Family o Devices/Embedded o Open_Hardware/Modding o Mobile_Systems/Mobile_Applications * Free,_Libre,_and_Open_Source_Software o Web_Browsers/Web_Servers # Mozilla o Programming/Development # Perl_/_Raku # Python o Standards/Consortia * Leftovers o Science o Education o Hardware o Health/Nutrition/Agriculture o Security # Privacy/Surveillance o Defence/Aggression o Environment # Energy/Transportation # Wildlife/Nature o Finance o AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics o Censorship/Free_Speech o Freedom_of_Information_/_Freedom_of_the_Press o Civil_Rights/Policing o Internet_Policy/Net_Neutrality o Monopolies # Trademarks # Copyrights * Gemini*_and_Gopher o Personal o Technical * § GNU/Linux⠀➾ o § Server⠀➾ # ⚓ The New Stack ☛ New_SmartOS:_Ready_to_Serve_as_Next_VM_or Container_Host⠀⇛ SmartOS isn’t nearly as well known as some of the other UNIX or Linux-like operating systems built for virtual machines # ⚓ Container Journal ☛ Analyzing_Kubernetes_Workload_Costs? Compare_to_the_Benchmark⠀⇛ Moving to the cloud is a critical business initiative for many organizations. According to Flexera’s 2022 Tech Spend Pulse, 65% of respondents state that cloud and cloud migrations are one of their top priorities for the year ahead. As organizations press forward on digital transformation plans, they are moving more o § Audiocasts/Shows⠀➾ # ⚓ Destination_Linux_314:_Can_Linux_Get_Viruses?_plus_Ubuntu Flavours_Removing_Flatpaks⠀⇛ # ⚓ Tux Digital ☛ Destination_Linux_314:_Can_Linux_Get_Viruses? plus_Ubuntu_Flavours_Removing_Flatpaks⠀⇛ This week’s episode of Destination Linux, we will be discussing what makes Linux secure? Then we talk about Flatpaks getting their eviction papers in Ubuntu Flavors. Plus, we have our tips/tricks and software picks. # ⚓ Linux_User_Space_Episode_3:17:_Pass-Ackward⠀⇛ Coming up in this episode 1. Plasma’s Kind of Hot Right Now 2. Brush your passwords 3. Browser Watch! 4. A little feedback 5. And a little FOCUS 0:00 Cold Open 1:33 Akademy Awards 3:22 Plasma 5.27 24:33 Your Last Pass… Word 47:05 Browser Watch! 55:36 The Mailbag 1:05:35 Community Focus: Vashinator 1:08:08 App Focus: ClamAV 1:20:24 Next Time: EndlessOS History 1:22:25 Stinger # ⚓ Bryan Lunduke ☛ Linux_is_the_new_“It_Just_Works”_OS⠀⇛ Listen now (20 min) | The Lunduke Journal of Technology Podcast – Feb 27, 2023 # ⚓ Bryan Lunduke ☛ Starting_this_Sunday:_“Lunduke’s_Big_Sunday Placeholder_Tech_Show”⠀⇛ Gearing up for the big radio show later this Spring! # ⚓ WordPress ☛ WP_Briefing:_Episode_50:_3_Interesting_Trends from_WordCamp_Asia⠀⇛ Join Josepha as she discusses her top 3 takeaways from the first-ever WordCamp Asia in Bangkok! o § Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ Neowin ☛ qBittorrent_4.5.2⠀⇛ The qBittorrent project aims to provide a Free Software alternative to µtorrent. qBittorrent is an advanced and multi-platform BitTorrent client with a nice user interface as well as a Web UI for remote control and an integrated search engine. qBittorrent aims to meet the needs of most users while using as little CPU and memory as possible. qBittorrent is a truly Open Source project, and as such, anyone can and should contribute to it. o § Instructionals/Technical⠀➾ # ⚓ Kifarunix ☛ How_to_Install_Docker_Desktop_on_Kali_Linux⠀⇛ How can you install Docker desktop on Linux? In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Docker desktop on Kali Linux. # ⚓ OSTechNix ☛ How_To_Solve_“error:_required_key_missing_from keyring”_In_Arch_Linux,_EndeavourOS,_Manjaro_Linux⠀⇛ This brief tutorial explains how to solve “error: required key missing from keyring” in Arch Linux, EndeavourOS and Manjaro Linux. # ⚓ TecAdmin ☛ How_to_Save_and_Quit_in_Nano⠀⇛ Nano is a popular text editor used in Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It is a powerful and easy-to-use tool that can help you create and edit files quickly and efficiently. However, if you are new to Nano, you might be wondering how to save and quit your work. # ⚓ Trend Oceans ☛ How_to_Create_a_WiFi_Hotspot_for_Sharing_a Wireless_Internet_Connection_in_Linux⠀⇛ It’s very simple and easy to create a hotspot from your network card to get other devices to connect with the internet using the linux-wifi-hotspot tool that turns your network card into a hotspot. # ⚓ UNIX Cop ☛ How_To_Install_Neovim_on_Ubuntu_20.04_|_22.04 LTS⠀⇛ In this guide, we will show you how to install and use Neovim on Ubuntu systems Neovim is a refactor, and sometimes redactor, in the tradition of Vim. # ⚓ UNIX Cop ☛ How_To_Install_Discord_on_Ubuntu_20.04_|_22.04 LTS⠀⇛ In this guide, we will show you how to install Discord on Ubuntu Systems with two different methods. D # ⚓ FOSSLinux ☛ Understanding_iptables_chains_and_targets_in Linux_firewall⠀⇛ If you are working with Linux and managing a network or a server, chances are you have heard about iptables. iptables is a powerful tool used to manage network traffic by filtering packets, and its use is essential to ensure the security of your system. However, iptables can be complex and challenging to master, especially when understanding chains and targets. # ⚓ Dan Langille ☛ Home_Assistant_running_natively_on_FreeBSD via_bhyve⠀⇛ This is is mostly written after-the-fact without good notes. # ⚓ ID Root ☛ How_To_Install_LXDE_Desktop_on_Ubuntu_22.04_LTS⠀⇛ In this tutorial, we will show you how to install LXDE Desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. # ⚓ ID Root ☛ How_To_Install_Jellyfin_Media_Server_on_Ubuntu 22.04_LTS⠀⇛ In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Jellyfin Media Server on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. # ⚓ ID Root ☛ How_To_Install_Prometheus_on_Ubuntu_22.04_LTS⠀⇛ In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Prometheus on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Prometheus is a powerful and flexible monitoring solution that is well-suited for modern cloud-native applications and infrastructure. o § Games⠀➾ # ⚓ Boiling Steam ☛ Steam_Deck:_First_Anniversary_of_the Ultimate_Gaming_Platform⠀⇛ The Steam Deck has been about a year on the market now (it started shipping at the end of February 2022). This first anniversary is a good chance to review what has happened since then. o § Desktop Environments/WMs⠀➾ # § K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt⠀➾ # ⚓ Make Use Of ☛ SteamOS_Used_to_Run_GNOME:_6_Reasons Why_KDE_Plasma_Makes_Sense⠀⇛  The version of SteamOS that first came with the Steam Deck wasn’t Valve’s first attempt at making a Linux distro. It was actually version 3. Before then, SteamOS used the GNOME desktop environment. But for the Steam Deck, Valve chose KDE Plasma instead. GNOME is a more popular and arguably more mobile-oriented Linux interface. So why go with Plasma instead? We can’t speak for Valve, but here are several good reasons. # § GNOME Desktop/GTK⠀➾ # ⚓ OMG! Linux ☛ ‘Conjure’_is_a_New_GTK_Image_Effects_App for_Linux⠀⇛ ImageMagick is an incredibly popular image processing library that a huge number of open source image editors make use of — the latest being Conjure. * § Distributions and Operating Systems⠀➾ o ⚓ Hackaday ☛ MorphOS:_A_Modern_Operating_System_for_PowerPC⠀⇛ When it comes to modern operating systems for PowerPC- based systems like pre-Intel Macs, or other PowerPC-based systems like older or newer AmigaOS-compatible systems, there is an increasing lack of options. For 32-bit PPC, official Linux support has been dropped already, leaving only unofficial builds and of course AmigaOS as well as AmigaOS-like operating systems. So what do you do if you have a PPC-based Mac system lying around which you do not simply want to run the same old, unsupported copy of MacOS on? In a recent video, [Michael MJD] decided to give MorphOS 3.17 a shot on a Mac G4 Cube. o § BSD⠀➾ # ⚓ MWL ☛ Jan/Feb_2023_Column_Out_in_the_FreeBSD_Journal⠀⇛ Somehow, I’ve written 28 “We Get Letters” columns for the FreeBSD Journal. The latest is out. o § Fedora Family / IBM⠀➾ # ⚓ Container Journal ☛ Red_Hat_Pushes_OpenShift_to_the_Network Edge⠀⇛ At the Mobile World Congress, Red Hat today extended its effort to make the Kubernetes-based Red Hat OpenShift platform a foundation for edge computing by extending alliances with NVIDIA and partnerships with Samsung, Airspan, Druid Software and OMRON. # ⚓ Container Journal ☛ Red_Hat_Donates_Kepler_Tool_for Tracking_Power_Usage_to_CNCF⠀⇛ At the Mobile World Congress event today, Red Hat, in collaboration with IBM Research, launched an open source project to capture power usage metrics from Kubernetes clusters. # ⚓ Red Hat ☛ Edge_computing:_From_30_tons_to_30_grams⠀⇛ When the ENIAC computer was introduced in 1946, it was housed in a huge room—1,800 square feet—and weighed 30 tons. It had to be assembled in place, and it wasn’t going to be moved. The era of electronic computers had arrived, but only for an elite few. The idea of edge_computing was science fiction—unbelievable science fiction at that. My, how things have changed. § Mainframes The IBM mainframe computers, introduced in 1952, became the standard of computing for corporations and government agencies in the 1960s and 1970s. Those of us old enough can remember, for example, getting their home water bill in the form of a punched card with the words “Do_not_fold,_spindle or_mutilate” on it. These mainframe computers moved processing to the corporate headquarters. Sales from cash registers, for example, would be sent to headquarters on punched paper tape where it could be read into the mainframes for reporting. # ⚓ Silicon Angle ☛ Red_Hat_collaborates_with_Nvidia,_Samsung and_Arm_on_efficient,_open_networks⠀⇛ Open-source software giant Red Hat Inc. announced a series of updates at the MWC 2023 event in Barcelona today, underscoring its ambitions stretching across advanced 5G, telecommunications clouds, industrial edge, artificial intelligence, radio-access networks and energy efficiency. § Canonical/Ubuntu Family⠀➾ * ⚓ DebugPoint ☛ Ubuntu_Plans_for_Mini_ISO_Images_for_Minimal_Desktop Workloads⠀⇛ Answering a question from an Ubuntu user about the possibility of a minimal Ubuntu ISO image, the developers confirmed that an official minimal ISO image (less than 200MB) is under development. The said work is already underway and has progressed a lot. The plan is to introduce an alternate minimal installer for the upcoming Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster release. Here are all the details. § Devices/Embedded⠀➾ * ⚓ CNX Software ☛ NanoPi_R6S_RK3588S_mini_PC_&_router_review_–_Part_2: Ubuntu_22.04⠀⇛ NanoPi R6S is both a mini PC and a router based on Rockchip RK3588S processor. I received some samples in November and started the NanoPi R6S review with OpenWrt/FriendlyWrt quickly testing the 2.5GbE interfaces and routing with iperf3, and it worked pretty well. But using a system with an octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor and 8GB RAM as an OpenWrt router only feels like a waste of resources, so I wanted to install a more versatile operating system – Ubuntu 22.04 – for further testing. FriendlyELEC provides various images on the Wiki either booting from an SD card, installing from a MicroSD to the eMMC flash (aka eFlasher imagers), or flashing through USB with Windows tools. I like the eFlasher images since the OS runs from the internal eMMC flash and no special tools are needed. I had just used the FriendlyWrt eFlasher image, so I thought switching to the Ubuntu 22.04 eFlasher imager image would be a breeze. § Open Hardware/Modding⠀➾ * ⚓ Purism ☛ My_Top_10_Lapdock_Kit_Tips⠀⇛ Two years ago I started an experiment to see if I could replace my personal laptop with my Librem 5 with a lapdock (spoiler: I could). A year later I wrote a follow-up post that talks about my impressions of the Librem 5 and lapdock kit as a personal computer. § Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications⠀➾ * ⚓ India Times ☛ Antivirus_for_Android:_Keep_your_smartphones_–_tablets safe_–_Times_of_India_(February,_2023)⠀⇛ * ⚓ Samsung_Galaxy_A14_Launched:_Checks_Specs,_Features_Of_Budget_Android Smartphone⠀⇛ * ⚓ TechCrunch ☛ Daily_Crunch:_Mobile_World_Congress_2023_kicks_off_with new_features_for_Android,_Chromebook_and_Wear_OS_|_TechCrunch⠀⇛ * ⚓ 9to5Google ☛ What_apps_support_Android_13′s_new_media_player_[Update: Tidal]⠀⇛ * ⚓ CNX Software ☛ Amlogic_S928X_specifications_–_A_penta-core_Arm_Cortex- A76/A55_SoC_with_Mali-G57_GPU,_3.2_TOPS_NPU_–_CNX_Software⠀⇛ * ⚓ Lifewire ☛ How_to_Check_the_Phone_Model_on_Your_Android⠀⇛ * ⚓ The Sun ☛ Billions_of_Android_owners_issued_‘red_alert’_–_check_your Google_apps_now_or_risk_huge_bill_|_The_US_Sun⠀⇛ * ⚓ The Sun ☛ People_are_just_realizing_Android_phones_have_hidden_‘battery drain’_–_stop_‘charge_vampire’_right_now_|_The_US_Sun⠀⇛ § Free, Libre, and Open Source Software⠀➾ * ⚓ OpenSource.com ☛ Delegate_common_tasks_with_an_open_source_automation tool⠀⇛ Rundeck is an open source software used to quickly automate manual tasks. Use it to create workflows consisting of commands, scripts, and APIs. These workflows might include software management, configurations, and scheduled events. Rundeck logs these activities for transparency and troubleshooting. How can Rundeck address the example of a developer needing an environment in the organization’s cloud? Consider the following points. * ⚓ Medevel ☛ 10_Open_Source_Solutions,_Hospitals_Need⠀⇛ In today’s digital age, hospitals increasingly rely on technology to provide quality patient care and manage operations. However, the high cost of proprietary software solutions can be a significant barrier for hospitals, particularly in low-resource settings. * § Web Browsers/Web Servers⠀➾ o § Mozilla⠀➾ # ⚓ Mozilla ☛ Mozilla_Performance_Blog:_The_Firefox_Profiler team_was_at_FOSDEM_2023⠀⇛ The Free_and_Open_source_Software_Developers’ European_Meeting_(FOSDEM)_2023 took place on the 4th and 5th of February. This was the first in- person FOSDEM since 2020, and for this reason, coming back to the good ol’ ULB building felt very special. The event was just like we left it in 2020: lots of people, queues in front of the most popular rooms, queues for the food trucks, mud, booths, many many developer rooms and talks to see, and this was just like a reunion between old friends. As the Profiler team is very distributed, just like the rest of Mozilla, it’s been also great seeing each other again, living this event together, and strengthening our relationships around some carbonade flamande, meatballs, waffles, and (edible) mushrooms. The Firefox_Profiler was very much represented there, with no less than 5 talks in 3 different rooms! Here is a quick overview of these talks as well as links to the slides and videos. § Using the Firefox Profiler for web performance analysis, by Julien Wajsberg The_talk took place in the JavaScript_room, at the very last slot on Sunday. This was mostly an introduction talk about the Firefox Profiler. Julien talked about what a profiler is, described how to capture a profile, and showed how to navigate in the Firefox Profiler UI like a pro. He explained that measuring is always better than guessing in the performance world. # ⚓ Exple.Tive.Org ☛ Mike_Hoye:_Never_Work_In_Theory,_Spring 2023⠀⇛ Indulge me for a minute; I’d like to tell you about a conference I’m helping organize, and why. But first, I want to tell you a story about measuring things, and the tools we use to do that. Specifically, I want to talk about thermometers. Even though a rough understanding of basic principles of the tool we now call a thermometer are at least two thousand years old, for centuries the whole idea that you could measure temperature at all was fantastical. The entire idea was absurd; how could you possibly measure an experience as subjective and ethereal as temperature? * § Programming/Development⠀➾ o ⚓ Evan Hahn ☛ The_lone_developer_problem⠀⇛ In short: in my experience, if a single programmer builds something, it’s often hard for others to maintain later. There are several possible reasons why. Even great programmers fall into this trap! This post is anecdotal from my own experience, so it might not be right or apply to you. But here goes: A lot of software is built by one person. It might be an entire product built by a lone developer or a significant piece of a system. When this happens, I’ve observed that code written by a single developer is usually hard for others to work with. This code must’ve made sense to the author, who I think is very smart, but it doesn’t make any sense to me! o ⚓ Godot Engine ☛ Release_candidate:_Godot_4.0_RC_6⠀⇛ One more time! We’ve now fixed all critical regressions we are aware of, so things are looking great for the stable release! o ⚓ J Pieper ☛ UART_tunneling_with_moteus⠀⇛ With the release of more flexible I/O support, the moteus controller auxiliary port can be used to monitor encoders using an onboard UART. Now, with firmware release 2023- 02-01, those UART pins can be used as an arbitrary logic level serial port controlled by the application! o ⚓ Kev Quirk ☛ My_Static_Site_Workflow⠀⇛ I’ve managed to come up with a static site workflow that I think is as good as WordPress. Here’s the details… Cast your mind back to January 2022, dear reader, when I wrote a post about managing_content_with_Jekyll. Shortly after writing it, I realised it was bloody_hard_to_do, so I went back to WordPress. I didn’t make the decision to go back to WP lightly; I considered my options (of_which_there_were_many) but decided, at the time, that good old WP was the best of the bunch. o § Perl / Raku⠀➾ # ⚓ Rakulang ☛ 2023.09_Docu_Renewed⠀⇛ The Raku Programming Language Documentation Team has released the newly reformatted documentation site after what has been a multi-year project in separating content from presentation, and bringing a more modern outlook to the documentation. o § Python⠀➾ # ⚓ TecAdmin ☛ Files_and_Directory_Handling_in_Python⠀⇛ Python is a powerful programming language that can be used for various purposes, including file and directory management. In this article, we will explore the various ways in which Python can be used for managing files and directories. # ⚓ TecAdmin ☛ Write_a_Python_Program_to_Return_Multiple_Values From_a_Function⠀⇛ Python is a popular programming language that is widely used for developing a variety of applications. One of the features that makes Python stand out is its ability to return multiple values from a function. # ⚓ TecAdmin ☛ Write_a_Python_Program_to_Check_the_File_Size⠀⇛ When working with files in Python, it’s often necessary to check the size of a file. * § Standards/Consortia⠀➾ o ⚓ DEV Community ☛ Billy_Warren:_My_take_on_IRCs_–_let’s_rest_from Slack_and_Discord_for_a_while.⠀⇛ I want to interest those that haven’t used IRCs for a while through this article. This article generally leans toward the Debian Community but I hope it gives you some perspectives into IRCs and also interests you in joining the Debian Community as well. Most Generation Z developers I know have at least used slack, discord, discourse and so many other communication tools but so few have used IRCs so heavily and this could be because they find it boring and limited to what kind of content they can share and what community they are participating in. I got interested in using IRCs when I joined Debian and was able to navigate my way through using some online resources. While IRC may not be as popular as other communication tools like Slack or Discord, it remains a valuable tool for communication and collaboration within the open-source community. Its open- source nature and lightweight protocol make it a flexible and customizable tool that can be used in various settings. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a communication protocol that has been around since the late 1980s. Despite its age, it is still a popular tool for communication and collaboration, especially within the open-source community. It is mostly known to be used by people that work on ‘boring’ projects or maintain legacy code (I can’t state how true this is though). Interesting facts about IRC include that it was created by a Finnish developer named Jarkko Oikarinen, who wanted to create a communication tool that would allow him to chat with his friends in real-time (the FaceBook of those days). The first IRC network was called EFnet, and it quickly grew in popularity as more and more people began to use the protocol for communication and collaboration. IRC allows users to connect to servers and join channels (chat rooms) where they can communicate in real time with other users who have also joined the same channel. Many open-source projects use IRC channels for communication and collaboration among developers. The Debian project has a number of IRC channels that are used for communication and collaboration among developers and users. I have at least interacted with three of them which include;- § Leftovers⠀➾ * ⚓ Quartz ☛ Should_a_workplace_have_a_soundtrack?⠀⇛ Imagine this: you walk into an office building on the day of a big client meeting. You’re feeling anxious, apprehensive. As you approach the receptionist and check in digitally for your appointment, you see a new option to receive a “personalized bio-soundscape”while you wait. You could use a distraction, so—why not?… * ⚓ Modern Diplomacy ☛ How_to_make_a_nuclear_clock_tick⠀⇛ While not primarily useful for telling the time, nuclear clocks could allow scientists to test humankind’s fundamental understanding of how reality works. * ⚓ Ruben Schade ☛ A_rattling_truck_of_the_mind⠀⇛ Last week I’d rushed back to my desk for a client meeting, when I heard the sound of a large truck idling outside. A driver had decided the street under our balcony was a fabulous place to stop and idle their behemoth while they did who knows what. * ⚓ Thomas_Vander_Stichele:_Meet_Me_in_the_Bathroom⠀⇛ “Welcome to pre-9/11 New York City, when the world was unaware of the profound political and cultural shifts about to occur, and an entire generation was thirsty for more than the post–alternative pop rock plaguing MTV. In the cafés, clubs, and bars of the Lower East Side there convened a group of outsiders and misfits full of ambition and rock star dreams.“ Music was the main reason I wanted to move to New York – I wanted to walk the same streets that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the National, Interpol, the Walkmen, the Antlers and Sonic Youth were walking. In my mind they’d meet up and have drinks with each other at the same bars, live close to each other, and I’d just run into them all the time myself. I’m not sure that romantic version of New York ever existed. Paul Banks used to live on a corner inbetween where I live and where my kids go to school now, but that is two decades ago (though for a while, we shared a hairdresser). On one of my first visits to New York before moving here, I had a great chat with Thurston Moore at a café right before taking the taxi back to the airport. And that’s as close as I got to living my dream. But now the documentary “Meet me in the Bathroom” (based on the book of the same name) shows that version of New York that only existed for a brief moment in time. “Meet Me In The Bathroom — ??inspired by Lizzy Goodman’s book of the same name — chronicles the last great romantic age of rock ’n’ roll through the lens of era-defining bands.“ * ⚓ OpenSource.com ☛ Essential_tips_and_tricks_for_your_first_tech_job⠀⇛ First days at work are scary. I still recall many instances where I lay awake at night before my first day at work, having an internal meltdown over what would happen the next day. Starting a new job is uncharted territory for most people. Even if you’re a veteran in the industry, there’s no denying that there can be a part of you that’s a bit terrified of what is to come. Understandably, a lot is happening. There are new people to meet, new projects and technologies to understand, documentation to read, tutorials to sit through, and endless HR presentations and paperwork to fill out. This can be overwhelming and, coupled with the considerable degree of uncertainty and unknowns you’re dealing with, can be quite anxiety-inducing. Two reasons motivated me to write about this subject. The first one being that back when I was a student, most of the discussion revolved around getting a job in tech, and no one talked about what happened next. How do you excel in your new role? Now that I look back, I think I assumed that the hard part is getting the job, and whatever comes after, I could probably figure out myself. Similarly, once I started working in the industry, most of the career-related content I came across was about how to go from one senior level to another. No one really talked about what to do in the middle. What about the interns and the junior engineers? How do they navigate their early careers? After completing three years of full-time professional experience as a software engineer (and a couple of internships before), I reflected on my time. I put together a list of tips and tricks I’ve employed while settling into a new tech role. I wanted to look beyond just the first couple of months and prioritize helping achieve long-term success. * § Science⠀➾ o ⚓ uni Stanford ☛ Faculty_Senate_hears_President_address_research misconduct_allegations,_discusses_graduate_students’_affordability issues⠀⇛ President Tessier-Lavigne rejected Daily’s allegations, saying, “the first publication is almost never the final word.” The Faculty Senate also discussed the topic of graduate affordability concerns and upcoming accreditation. * § Education⠀➾ o ⚓ Mexico News Daily ☛ University_for_Indigenous_languages_to_begin classes_in_2023⠀⇛ The National University of Indigenous Languages will teach Indigenous tongues using immersion and initially offer four related degrees. o ⚓ Buttondown ☛ Teaching_Implication_Better⠀⇛ Hello everyone! It’s finally March, or at least close enough to March for my purposes. First thing, we’re a month off from April_Cools! April cools is a less-cringe version of April fools, where content creators like me publish content that is both genuine and totally out of genre. Last year I took a break from software engineering to write about microscopy. Other people wrote about singing_church_music, marathon_food, and how_to_read rot13. If you’ve got a blog, I’d_heartily_recommend joining! It’s a lot of fun. Anyway, between that and a bunch of work obligations, this is going to be a real busy month for me. I’m still committed to updating the newsletter six times a month, but it might be a bit erratic: instead of the alternating 1-2-1 schedule I’ve been on, it might be 2-2-0-2 instead. Just a heads up. * § Hardware⠀➾ o ⚓ Ruben Schade ☛ Daniel_Aleksandersen_on_split_keyboard accessibility⠀⇛ He suggests split keyboards duplicate certain keys that straddle the split, such as B and Y. Alternatively, they could be made detachable. Like Daniel, I have an injury on one of my fingers that makes typing difficult. The damaged nerves and muscle in my right pinkie make it hard to strike Return or colon reliably, so over the years I adapted by using my ring finger to perform double duty. o ⚓ CNX Software ☛ UP_Squared_Pro_7000_SBC_features_up_to_Intel_Core i3-N305_Alder_Lake-N_processor,_up_to_16GB_LPDDR5⠀⇛ AAEON UP Squared Pro 7000 is an upcoming single board computer (SBC) based on a choice of Alder Lake-N SoCs up to the Core i3-N305 octa-core processor, up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, and 64GB eMMC flash. The board supports up to three displays and comes with a MIPI CSI port, dual 2.5GbE networking, three USB 3.2 ports, two RS232/RS422/ RS485 interfaces, as well as several M.2 sockets for storage and wireless expansion that makes it suitable for machine vision solutions for smart factories, robotics applications, and retail/digital signage. * § Health/Nutrition/Agriculture⠀➾ o ⚓ Quartz ☛ Giving_birth_in_the_US_is_becoming_a_deadlier_affair⠀⇛ > That the US is a deadly country_for_new_mothers, particularly Black mothers, has become a well-known fact. o ⚓ Latvia ☛ LTV’s_De_Facto_probes_dairy_industry_crisis_in_Latvia⠀⇛ Latvian dairy farmers have been experiencing a crisis for several weeks. This week, the Ministry of Agriculture will present a plan to support the sector to the government, while the industry is planning protests, Latvian Television’s broadcast De Facto reported on February 26. o ⚓ Federal News Network ☛ Coronavirus_origins_still_a_mystery_3 years_into_pandemic⠀⇛ Did the coronavirus originate in animals or leak from a Chinese lab? Governments and health agencies around the world have been trying to answer that question since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Now, the U.S. Department of Energy has assessed with “low confidence” that it began with a lab leak. That’s according to a person familiar with the report who was not authorized to discuss it and was granted anonymity by The Associated Press to confirm its contents. o ⚓ Gizmodo ☛ CDC_Sounds_the_Alarm:_A_Diarrhea_Superbug_Is_Resisting Drugs_and_Spreading_Fast⠀⇛ Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are sounding the alarm over a diarrhea-causing superbug. The CDC’s data shows a noticeable rise in extensively drug-resistant strains of Shigella bacteria over the past half-decade. o ⚓ NYPost ☛ My Brazilian_butt_lift_was_so_painful_—_like_my_a–_was whooped_by_20_gorillas [Ed: Social control media influences people to do very harmful things -- very bad for their health]⠀⇛ The woman shared her experience on TikTok, calling her BBL surgery “traumatizing.” o ⚓ PHR ☛ Global_Medical_and_Human_Rights_Groups_Call_on_Türkiye_to End_Persecution_of_Doctors⠀⇛ In a letter issued today, four international medical and human rights organisations call on Turkish authorities to drop the baseless charges against the leadership of the Turkish Medical Association (TMA) at a time when doctors are urgently needed to tend to victims of the 6 February earthquake that have caused over 50,000 deaths in Türkiye… o ⚓ Defence Web ☛ Hawks,_SARS_seize_R30_million_worth_of_illicit cigarettes⠀⇛ National Hawks Head, Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya, has commended the Directorate’s Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team for seizing R30 million worth of suspected illicit cigarettes in Limpopo. o ⚓ France24 ☛ As_UK_supermarkets_ration_fruits_and_vegetables,_many blame_Brexit_for_shortages⠀⇛ Due to a shortage of certain fruits and vegetables, British supermarkets have been forced to ration their supplies. This situation is likely to continue for some time, leading to fears of price hikes. But how did the UK get to this point? While most officials say that bad weather and rising energy prices are to blame, some observers are pointing the finger at Brexit. o ⚓ NYPost ☛ NYC_official_ousted_over_‘Wu-Flu’_wants_back_in_after China_lab_reveal,_claims_he’s_‘vindicated’⠀⇛ Former Queens community board member Richard Huber said he was “vindicated” by a classified US intelligence report that said the COVID-19 most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China. o ⚓ NYPost ☛ Moms_who_give_birth_in_early_20s_at_higher_risk_of_heart attack,_stroke:_study⠀⇛ The largest analysis of how reproductive factors can influence women’s heart health found a direct link to increasing a woman’s risk of heart attack and stroke. o ⚓ NYPost ☛ There’s_no_easy_fix_to_Midtown’s_post-COVID_half-empty offices⠀⇛ As the city approaches the third anniversary of COVID lockdowns, Manhattan’s skyscrapers hover around the 50% occupancy mark. * § Security⠀➾ o ⚓ NVISO Labs ☛ OneNote_Embedded_file_abuse⠀⇛ In recent weeks OneNote has gotten a lot of media attention as threat actors are abusing the embedded files feature in OneNote in their phishing campaigns. In this post we will analyze this new way of malware delivery and create a detection rule for it. o ⚓ Security Week ☛ LastPass_Says_DevOps_Engineer_Home_Computer Hacked⠀⇛ LastPass DevOp engineer’s home computer hacked and implanted with keylogging malware as part of a sustained cyberattack that exfiltrated corporate data from the cloud storage resources. o ⚓ Security Week ☛ Cyberattack_on_Boston_Union_Results_in_$6.4M Loss⠀⇛ A cyberattack on the Boston-based Pipefitters Local 537 union’s health fund resulted in the loss of $6.4 million. o ⚓ Security Week ☛ ‘PureCrypter’_Downloader_Used_to_Deliver_Malware to_Governments⠀⇛ Threat actor uses the PureCrypter downloader to deliver malware to government entities in Asia-Pacific and North America. o ⚓ Security Week ☛ QNAP_Offering_$20,000_Rewards_via_New_Bug_Bounty Program⠀⇛ New QNAP Systems bug bounty program covers vulnerabilities in applications, cloud services, and operating systems. o ⚓ Security Week ☛ Media_Giant_News_Corp_Discloses_New_Details_of Data_Breach⠀⇛ News Corp says a threat group, previously linked to the Chinese government, had access to its systems for two years before the breach was discovered. o ⚓ Daniel Lange ☛ Daniel_Lange:_Thunderbird_gpg_key_import⠀⇛ 5MB (or 4.8MiB) import limit. Sure. My modest pubring (111 keys) is 18MB. The Debian_keyring is 28MB. May be, just may be, add another 0 to that if statement? So, until that happens, workarounds … § Option 1: Export each pubkey into a separate file. The import dialog allows to select them all in one go. But – of course – it will ask confirmation for each. So prepare some valerian tea. o ⚓ Daniel Lange ☛ Daniel_Lange:_Getting_gpg_to_import_signatures again⠀⇛ Now the changed_defaults_in_gpg to “mitigate” this issue are trickling down to even the conservative distributions. Debian Bullseye has self-sigs-only on gpg 2.2.27 and it looks like Debian Bookworm will get gpg 2.2.40. This would add import-clean but Daniel Kahn Gillmor patched_it_out. He argues correctly that this new default could delete data from good locally store pubkeys. This all ends in you getting some random combination of self-sigs-only and / or import-clean depending on which Linux distribution and version you happen to use. o ⚓ Port Swigger ☛ Password_managers:_A_rough_guide_to_enterprise secret_platforms⠀⇛ The second part of our password manager series looks at business-grade tech to handle API tokens, login credentials, and more o ⚓ Port Swigger ☛ Chromium_bug_allowed_SameSite_cookie_bypass_on Android_devices⠀⇛ Protections against cross-site request forgery could be bypassed o ⚓ Silicon Angle ☛ News_Corp_reveals_hackers_had_access_to_internal network_for_two_years⠀⇛ Media conglomerate News Corp has disclosed that attackers behind a data breach revealed in February 2022 had access to parts of its internal systems for two years. The initial attack was first detected in January last year, affecting News Corp. publications and business units, including The Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones… ⚓ Silicon Angle ☛ LockBit_3.0_remains_the_most_active_threat_actor_as ransomware_attacks_drop_in_January [Ed: Microsoft Windows TCO]⠀⇛ In a surprising finding, a new report from NCC Group plc finds that the number of ransomware attacks dropped in January from December, but the number of attacks was still the highest for January in three years. ⚓ Scoop News Group ☛ ‘A_year_of_cyberwar’_with_Russia:_An_inside_look_from_a top_Ukrainian_cybersecurity_official [Ed: Reliance on Windows has done them a lot of harm and the "solution" was outsourcing to Microsoft, which worsens things and helps Microsoft grab taxpayers' money]⠀⇛ Victor Zhora has been at the forefront of coordinating Ukraine’s cyberdefense and describes lessons learned from fending off Russian attacks. ⚓ Scoop News Group ☛ CISA_director_urges_tech_sector_to_stop_shipping_unsafe products⠀⇛ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said the cybersecurity burden should no longer be placed on consumers. ⚓ Data Breaches ☛ 553_days_from_discovery_to_notification?_DataBreaches_asked Dental_Health_Management_Solutions_why.⠀⇛ Why did it take 553 days from discovery to notify patients? Is the delay acceptable? Applying the standards for HIPAA-covered entities, and having reported on many breaches by now, DataBreaches believes a delay that long is not acceptable unless there are factors we do not know about in play. DataBreaches sent inquiries to both DHMS and their external counsel at Wilson Elser to ask for an explanation for the serious delay. No replies have been received. There is currently no notice on HHS’s breach site (but they often have a delay in posting), and there is nothing on the Texas Attorney General’s breach site. Nor is there any notice on DHMS’s website. ⚓ How_Offensive_Action_is_Countering_Ransomware [Ed: So does deleting Windows, and that's a lot cheaper.]⠀⇛ Ransomware attacks have crossed a red line for many countries with continued merciless attacks. The threat to national economies and critical infrastructure marked a turning point. Governments are fighting back, and one of the strategies now routinely employed is infiltrating the servers and infrastructure of ransomware gangs. A recent offensive action against a top ransomware gang shows it can be a powerful tool both to rattle ransomware groups and provide real- time help to victims. The latest occurred last month. Top U.S. prosecutors revealed Jan. 26, 2023, a law enforcement operation involving 13 countries that infiltrated the Hive ransomware group’s infrastructure starting in July 2022. As a top U.S. law enforcement official characterized it: “Simply put, using lawful means, we hacked the hackers.” Hive was one of the most prolific ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) groups, with affiliates using its ransomware to execute attacks and extort more than 1,500 victims. For seven months, investigators had “clandestine, persistent” access to Hive’s control panel and database. That enabled investigators to swipe decryption keys without Hive’s knowledge and distribute those keys to 336 victims actively under attack. More than 1,000 decryption keys were provided to previous Hive victims, and authorities estimated the action meant US $130 million was not paid to the gang. What does this mean for the Hive gang, and what influence will this action have with respect to the broader ransomware environment? ⚓ The Record ☛ Danish_hospitals_hit_by_cyberattack_from_‘Anonymous_Sudan’⠀⇛ The websites of nine hospitals in Denmark went offline on Sunday evening following distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks from a group calling itself Anonymous Sudan. Copenhagen’s health authority said on Twitter that although the websites for the hospitals were down, medical care at the facilities was unaffected by the attacks. It later added the sites were back online after “a couple of hours.” ⚓ Dallas News ☛ Thousands_of_Asian_Texans_targeted_in_driver’s_license_breach⠀⇛ The state shipped thousands of Texas driver’s licenses to an international organized crime group in a security lapse that is still under investigation, Department of Public Safety Chief Steve McCraw said Monday. * § Privacy/Surveillance⠀➾ o ⚓ Gizmodo ☛ Yikes,_the_U.S._is_Now_Using_Facial_Recognition_Rigged Drones_for_Special_Ops⠀⇛ Flying killer robots used to be a nightmarish sci-fi fantasy—something that only existed in James Cameron movies or Michael Crichton novels. o ⚓ ACLU ☛ Firestorm_Over_Green_Bay_City_Hall_Surveillance Microphones_is_a_Reminder_of_Country_We_Don’t_Want_to_Live_In⠀⇛ A heated controversy over audio recording in Green Bay, Wisconsin has resurfaced an important privacy issue that we have been monitoring for years: the placement of surveillance microphones in public places. When it emerged that live microphones had been installed in public hallways as part of the security system in city hall, a number of politicians objected, including a city alderperson and members of the Wisconsin State Senate, who subsequently filed a lawsuit. City officials, meanwhile, defended the mics. Similar deployments have come to light in the district attorney’s office in Nashville, and the city_clerk’s office in East Providence, Rhode Island. The deployment of surveillance microphones in this manner needs to stop. § Defence/Aggression⠀➾ * ⚓ Federal News Network ☛ UN_will_struggle_to_unify_Libya_with_elections this_year⠀⇛ The United Nations is making a new push to convince Libya’s rival factions to hold presidential and legislative elections this year. But any optimism was dampened Monday by a lack of details and continued disputes. Abdoulaye Bathily, the top U.N. diplomat for Libya, told the Security Council in New York that the latest initiative aims for elections within 10 months. * ⚓ AntiWar ☛ Nine_More_Ukraines⠀⇛ Joe Biden must think that he’s the world’s Rich Uncle. In a meeting with the so-called Bucharest Nine today he promised these former Warsaw Pact nations – which should never have been admitted to NATO in the first place – unlimited economic and military support. Nine more Ukraines if need be. * ⚓ AntiWar ☛ What_if_the_West_Can’t_Put_Ukraine_Back_Together?⠀⇛ America’s twenty-year involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrated that nation building is often more expensive, prone to failure, and politically unpopular than expected at the outset. * ⚓ AntiWar ☛ Ukraine:_The_Violence_Before_the_Violence⠀⇛ The violence in Ukraine is unimaginable. But before the violence, there was violence. The military conflict in Ukraine has received an unprecedented amount of media coverage. The major US networks have given more coverage to Russia’s war in Ukraine than they did to America’s war in Iraq. * ⚓ Security Week ☛ US_National_Cyber_Strategy_Pushes_Regulation, Aggressive_Hack-Back_Operations⠀⇛ The U.S. government is set to green-light a more aggressive ‘hack-back’ approach to dealing with foreign adversaries and mandatory regulation of critical infrastructure vendors. * ⚓ Security Week ☛ US_Sanctions_Several_Entities_Aiding_Russia’s_Cyber Operations⠀⇛ US Department of Treasury has announced a fresh set of sanctions against entities helping Russia in the war against Ukraine. * ⚓ Gizmodo ☛ The_War_in_Ukraine_Is_Accelerating_the_Global_Drive_Toward Killer_Robots⠀⇛ The U.S. military is intensifying its commitment to the development and use of autonomous weapons, as confirmed by an update to a Department of Defense directive. The update, released Jan. 25, 2023, is the first in a decade to focus on artificial intelligence autonomous weapons. * ⚓ Modern Diplomacy ☛ Four_Years_of_Operation_Swift_Retort,_Commemorating Pakistan_as_a_Responsible_NWS⠀⇛ Today marked 4th anniversary of “Operation Swift Retort” when Pakistan Armed Forces responded appropriately to India’s failed misadventure. It all started on February 26, 2019, when Indian Air Force planes carried out airstrikes in Balakot, a town in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. * ⚓ NYPost ☛ Biden_needs_to_step_up_military_aid_for_Ukraine_—_fast⠀⇛ Does President Joe Biden truly want to end the war in Ukraine? * ⚓ Defence Web ☛ FATF_grey_lists_South_Africa_over_money_laundering_and terrorism_funding_concerns⠀⇛ The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, has grey listed South Africa because it deems the country’s financial controls being not strict enough to prevent financing of terrorist organisations and money laundering. § Environment⠀➾ * ⚓ Quartz ☛ China’s_lithium_crackdown_could_roil_global_markets_for_the critical_metal⠀⇛ Fresh volatility may hit the red hot global lithium market, potentially disrupting supplies of the critical metal needed for batteries that power the energy transition. * § Energy/Transportation⠀➾ o ⚓ Trail Of Bits ☛ Reusable_properties_for_Ethereum_contracts⠀⇛ As smart contract security constantly evolves, property- based fuzzing has become a go-to technique for developers and security engineers. This technique relies on the creation of code properties – often called invariants – which describe what the code is supposed to do. o ⚓ Quartz ☛ South_Africa’s_power_blackouts_will_cost_the_economy $1.3_billion_this_year⠀⇛ South Africa’s power problem is taking a huge chunk out its GDP after its central bank estimated that $51 million is lost every day due to load shedding. o ⚓ Latvia ☛ Solar_panel_boom_expected_to_continue_this_year_in Latvia⠀⇛ Last year there was a boom of solar panels in Latvia. In total, 12,300 households have already installed solar panels or microgenerators with a total capacity of more than 80 megawatts (MW). More state aid is still available for those who want to install them, Latvian Radio reported on February 27. o ⚓ Gizmodo ☛ When_It’s_Time_to_Ban_Crypto,_According_to_the_IMF⠀⇛ The world needs a new crypto crackdown, or else there’s the nuclear option—at least according to one of the world’s biggest financial bodies. o ⚓ uni Stanford ☛ Will_the_pre-pandemic_Marguerite_lines_return?⠀⇛ Students advocate for the reinstatement of weekend and late-night public shuttle lines, citing affordability, public safety and equity concerns. * § Wildlife/Nature⠀➾ o ⚓ Latvia ☛ Latvia’s_celebrity_white-tailed_eagles_ready_the_nest⠀⇛ In the livestreamed nest of white-tailed eagles in Durbe, Latvia, the eagle couple Milda and Voldis are preparing to lay eggs, ornithologist Jānis Ķuze told Latvian Radio on February 27. o ⚓ Latvia ☛ Dead_dolphin_washed_up_on_Latvian_coast⠀⇛ A dead dophin washed up on a Latvian beach on Saturday, February 25, reports LSM’s Latvian language service. § Finance⠀➾ * ⚓ Quartz ☛ Twitter_fired_more_employees_after_Elon_Musk_said_layoffs_had ended⠀⇛ Dozens of Twitter employees have reportedly lost their jobs last week, despite CEO Elon Musk promised layoffs had ended in November, after he made drastic cuts to the company’s workforce shortly after completing his $44 billion takeover. * ⚓ Gizmodo ☛ Elon_Musk_Lays_Off_Twitter_Employee_Who_Slept_on_the_Floor_to Meet_His_Crazy_Deadlines⠀⇛ Twitter CEO Elon Musk has a message for employees: Loyalty means nothing. Over the weekend, Musk laid off more than 50 employees at the social media company, including one of his most vocal supporters, product head Esther Crawford. * ⚓ Latvia ☛ Construction_costs_up_by_17.6%_on_year_in_Latvia⠀⇛ Data publushed on February 27 by the Central Statistical Bureau show that in January 2023, compared to January 2022, the level of construction costs in Latvia increased by 17.6 %. * ⚓ Federal News Network ☛ Tesla_requests_$330M-plus_in_additional_Nevada tax_breaks⠀⇛ Tesla may receive over $300 million in tax abatements over the next two decades for a massive new expansion of its northern Nevada facility, the product of a 2014 deal for when the company first came to the area on the promise of new jobs and major investments in the area. The long-awaited sum will be voted on Thursday by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development. Tesla projects it will bring in 3,000 jobs at an average rate of $33.49 per hour and invest $3.6 billion into the economy. * ⚓ Gizmodo ☛ Tesla_Could_Get_More_Than_$300_Million_in_Tax_Breaks_for Gigafactory_Expansion⠀⇛ A Tesla deal may come to fruition for its facility in Nevada on Thursday, which may allocate more than $300 million in tax abatements to the company. The Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development will hold a vote on Thursday to decide whether the company will receive the sum over the course of two decades. * ⚓ Reason ☛ Now_the_CHIPS_Act_Is_Going_To_Subsidize_Child_Care_Too⠀⇛ If Congress wants to spend taxpayer money on child care services, it should pass a bill authorizing that. * ⚓ Silicon Angle ☛ Weak_outlook_sends_Workday’s_stock_down_in_extended trading⠀⇛ Enterprise software provider Workday Inc. beat expectations on earnings and revenue today as it posted its fourth-quarter financial results, but its guidance for the coming quarter came up light and its stock fell almost 3% in extended trading. § AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics⠀➾ * ⚓ Quartz ☛ The_UK_and_the_EU_have_reached_an_agreement_on_Northern Ireland⠀⇛ British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reached an agreement with the European Union (EU) on Monday (Feb. 27) on a new Brexit deal that defines the trade status of Northern Ireland. * ⚓ France24 ☛ PM_Sunak_and_EU_chief_announce_deal_on_post-Brexit_trade_for Northern_Ireland⠀⇛ British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has struck a new deal with the European Union on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland and he said it would pave the way for a new chapter in London’s relationship with the bloc. * ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ Experts_react:_Will_a_new_deal_on_Northern_Ireland repair_UK-EU_relations?⠀⇛ What would the deal mean for regional trade and diplomacy? What does it say about Sunak’s approach to foreign policy? Our experts ship off their answers.  * ⚓ Quartz ☛ A_former_Obama_campaign_staffer_is_the_first_woman_to_lead Italy’s_main_left-wing_party⠀⇛ A rising star of the Italian left has won election to the leadership of the Democratic Party, the country’s second- largest political group. * ⚓ Mexico News Daily ☛ Thousands_in_Mexico’s_cities_protest_‘Plan_B’ election_reform⠀⇛ The protests happened four days after the Senate approved reform legislation that critics say poses a threat to Mexican elections’ integrity. * ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ From_Twitter_spats_to_island_disputes,_Egypt_and Saudi_Arabia_have_a_bone_to_pick_with_each_other⠀⇛ Cairo’s relationship with its Gulf ally has become increasingly fractious in recent weeks after a Saudi official made clear that any future Gulf assistance ”will come with strings attached.” * § Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda⠀➾ o ⚓ Silicon Angle ☛ Canada_bans_TikTok_on_government_devices⠀⇛ The Government of Canada has joined the European Commission and the U.S. House of Representatives in banning TikTok on government-issued devices amid ongoing concerns that the Chinese government can use the app to spy on users. The ban, effective starting Feb. 28, was announced earlier today by the Treasury Board of Canada. ⚓ Federal News Network ☛ TikTok_banned_on_all_Canadian_government_mobile devices⠀⇛ Canada is banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices, reflecting widening worries from Western officials over the Chinese- owned video sharing app. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it might be a first step to further action. TikTok is wildly popular with young people, but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could use it to collect data on Western users or push pro-China narratives and misinformation. ⚓ Digital Music News ☛ Canada_Bans_TikTok_On_All_Government-Issued_Devices, Effective_Immediately⠀⇛ Canada has banned TikTok on all government-issued devices, citing an “unacceptable” security risk to privacy and security. TikTok is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, which has drawn scrutiny from around the world. § Censorship/Free Speech⠀➾ * ⚓ Gizmodo ☛ BBC_Removes_Sabrina_Carpenter’s_Raunchy_Freestyle_From YouTube_Clip⠀⇛ The BBC apparently isn’t a fan of porn puns, especially ones that pertain to its own name. A live performance by Sabrina Carpenter was cut a tiny bit shorter after it was uploaded to YouTube, removing the singer’s riff at the very end that refers to an obvious sexual innuendo. * ⚓ Michel Alexandre Salim ☛ Goodbye_New_York_Times:_your_TERF_transphobia is_one_step_too_far⠀⇛ Dear NYT, Because of your repeated transphobia and your doubling down by silencing your internal critics, I can no longer support your publication. I tolerated you continuously giving the anti-choice Douthat a platform, or Dowd’s anti-Clinton hatred and your biased coverage in 2016 contributing to the decline of US democracy (that you never did a mea culpa on) … but now you are just ganging up against one of the most vulnerable groups in our society, and showing your own illiberalism in doing so. * ⚓ Off Guardian ☛ WATCH:_Canada_Criminalizes_Dissent⠀⇛ The freedom convoy commission has delivered its verdict: dissent is now illegal whenever the government declares it so! Find out about the commission’s final report and what it means for Canadians and freedom lovers the world over on this important edition of The Corbett Report. § Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press⠀➾ * ⚓ Ruben Schade ☛ Journalists_failing_in_their_AI_chatbot_reporting⠀⇛ Let’s do an experiment! I’m going to quote an_article_in_the popular_press about a chatbot, and we’ll see if anything sounds weird. We’ll start under the subtitle How does $CHATBOT work?: $CHATBOT was trained in writing that already exists on the internet up to the year 2021. When you type in your question or prompt, it reacts with lightning speed. The journalist can’t even write a factual sentence without immediate embellishment. Ruben is a handsome, well-respected genius who’s wit and modesty are matched only by the delightful freshness imparted by his regular bathing regime and impeccable aftershave choices. AI clearly stands for awesome-smelling individual. § Civil Rights/Policing⠀➾ * ⚓ Sterk_leaves_Atlanta_Police_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees,_University denies_connections_following_Cop_City_protests⠀⇛ Former Emory University President and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Public Health Claire Sterk is no longer a member of the Atlanta Police Foundation Board of Trustees as of Feb. 7. Her departure follows pressure from an open letter —spearheaded by public health students and professionals — released on Feb. 5 calling for her resignation.  * ⚓ Digital Music News ☛ YouTube_Music_Staffers_Face_Harassment_Allegations As_Strike_Enters_Third_Week:_‘They’re_Trying_to_Smear_Low-Wage_Workers’⠀⇛ The third week of the YouTube Music strike is in full swing, and around 40 team members (contracted by Cognizant) are continuing to speak out against a return-to-office order that they say violates the terms of their employment. § Internet Policy/Net Neutrality⠀➾ * ⚓ James G ☛ IndieWeb_Principles_Poster⠀⇛ The rain outside here in San Francisco is unyielding. This is perhaps a sign that I should let my feet rest after two long days of walking outdoors. While the rain falls, I have taken an opportunity to do a bit of writing and design. I decided to make a poster that shows the IndieWeb_principles. * ⚓ AccessNow ☛ Human_rights_organizations_and_associations_call_for_the Tunisian_government_to_postpone_the_launch_of_digital_platform_for subsidies_compensation⠀⇛ The undersigned organizations and associations call on the Tunisian government to postpone launching a digital platform for subsidies compensation. § Monopolies⠀➾ * ⚓ Digital Music News ☛ U.S._Senators_Klobuchar,_Lee_Urge_DOJ_Action Against_Ticketmaster,_Live_Nation_After_Judiciary_Hearings⠀⇛ U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) are calling for the Department of Justice to continue investigating Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s anti-competitive practices. In a bipartisan letter after the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, both Senators urge the DOJ to take action. * § Trademarks⠀➾ o ⚓ Quartz ☛ Nokia_is_changing_its_logo_to_move_away_from_its_mobile manufacturer_image⠀⇛ * § Copyrights⠀➾ o ⚓ Michael Geist ☛ The_Law_Bytes_Podcast,_Episode_157:_Stephen_Spong on_the_“Goblin_Mode_Gaslighting”_of_Canadian_Copyright_and_Fair Dealing⠀⇛ Last week was Fair Dealing Week, a chance for a wide range of Canadians – educators, students, librarians, archivists, and creators – to celebrate the important role that fair dealing plays in facilitating both fair access and fair compensation to copyrighted works. I ran a series of posts on Canadian education, fair dealing and copyright that will continue into the coming week. o ⚓ Digital Music News ☛ Musicians’_Union_Announces_‘Milestone’ Recording_and_Broadcasting_Agreements_With_the_BBC,_Sky,_and Others⠀⇛ London’s Musicians’ Union has announced the completion of a “significant round” of collective bargaining negotiations with the BBC, Sky, and others, which it says will deliver “meaningful pay increases” to its approximately 32,000 members in the approaching years. o ⚓ Digital Music News ☛ U.S._Copyright_Office_Seeks_Comments_on_Late Fees_for_Mechanical_Royalty_Payments⠀⇛ The US Copyright Office issues a notification of inquiry soliciting public comments on late fees for mechanical royalty payments under the Music Modernization Act. The US Copyright Office is asking for public feedback on digital music royalty late fees and whether it should consider revising the current system. § Gemini* and Gopher⠀➾ * § Personal⠀➾ o ⚓ deluge⠀⇛ There’s a deluge outside my apartment’s window. My cat and I both are enjoying it. I’ve always liked a nice rain, and today’s is particularly heavy. I can tell by the way it washes off the nearest streetlamp, flooding the cap at the light’s top which was designed to withstand this much a torrent, but none more. I suppose the cat and I are easily captivated by the mundane in the same way. * § Technical⠀➾ o ⚓ Lists,_renders,_submissions,_and_Smol_talk⠀⇛ Continuing the conversation around Ctrl-ZINE, I have made more progress with the assembly of Issue.1. First, I made an 11-point list of topics/suggestions that people can take “queue” from in regards to *what* should be submitted, but additional topics and suggestions are welcome, and are welcome for submission. Tech-oriented content is what this zine is going for, but it’s not set in stone. =============================================================================== * Gemini_(Primer) links can be opened using Gemini_software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 5908 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ═════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.28.23⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ Links_28/02/2023:_New_KDE_Release_and_Some_Politics⠀✐ Posted in News_Roundup at 9:05 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GNOME bluefish⦈ § Contents⠀➾ * GNU/Linux o Audiocasts/Shows o Applications o Instructionals/Technical o Desktop_Environments/WMs # K_Desktop_Environment/KDE_SC/Qt * Distributions_and_Operating_Systems o Fedora_Family_/_IBM o Canonical/Ubuntu_Family o Open_Hardware/Modding o Mobile_Systems/Mobile_Applications * Free,_Libre,_and_Open_Source_Software o Licensing_/_Legal o Programming/Development * Leftovers o Science o Hardware o Health/Nutrition/Agriculture o Security # Privacy/Surveillance o Defence/Aggression o Transparency/Investigative_Reporting o Environment # Energy/Transportation # Wildlife/Nature o Finance o AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics o Censorship/Free_Speech o Freedom_of_Information_/_Freedom_of_the_Press o Civil_Rights/Policing o Internet_Policy/Net_Neutrality o Monopolies # Patents # Trademarks # Copyrights * Gemini*_and_Gopher o Personal o Technical # Internet/Gemini # Programming * § GNU/Linux⠀➾ o § Audiocasts/Shows⠀➾ # ⚓ Video ☛ The_Steam_Deck_just_had_its_first_birthday._But_is it_for_you?_–_Invidious⠀⇛ You wanna hear something crazy: I’ve had a Steam Deck for a year. Yeah. Valve sent me a review unit and it arrived here on February 24th, 2022. To think back on the state of the Deck when I first got mine. How far it has come in that time… The question is: should you buy a Steam Deck in 2023? # ⚓ Video ☛ No_Flatpak_for_Ubuntu?_|_LMDE_5_Followup_|_Q-A_– Invidious⠀⇛ What do you think about Ubuntu and Snap vs. Flatpak? I dig into some of your comments and answer your questions… This is going to be fun. 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇:)⦈ # ⚓ Video ☛ Rolling_Release_Linux_Distro_Probably_Isn’t_For_You –_Invidious⠀⇛ As much as I love my rolling release distro being Arch Linux I know that this kind of system is absolutely not for everyone and shouldn’t be, so let’s go over some things to consider before picking yourself up a rolling release. o § Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ Linux Links ☛ 9_Best_Free_and_Open_Source_Electronic_Design Automation_Tools⠀⇛ There are a wide range of EDA tools out that are released under an open source license which let developers customize, and create their latest designs. To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, we’ve compiled a list of 9 high quality free Linux EDA applications. Hopefully, there will be something of interest here for anyone who wants to design electronic systems. # ⚓ Linux Links ☛ Best_Free_and_Open_Source_Software_–_February 2023_Updates⠀⇛ Here are the latest updates to our compilation of recommended software. Open source software at its finest. It’s been an extremely busy month in February with a smorgasbord of new and updated group tests published. As always, we love receiving your suggestions for new articles or additional open source software to feature. Let us know in the Comments box below or drop us an email. o § Instructionals/Technical⠀➾ # ⚓ Linux Shell Tips ☛ 4_Commands_to_List_Mounted_File_Systems in_Linux⠀⇛ The Linux operating system provides multiple filesystems, including ext4, xfs, tmpfs, securityfs, and many more. This guide demonstrates various ways to list all mounted # ⚓ UNIX Cop ☛ How_to_automate_updates_on_Ubuntu_and_Redhat- based_Systems⠀⇛ # ⚓ UNIX Cop ☛ What_is_/dev/null_in_Linux⠀⇛ # ⚓ Cloudbooklet ☛ Building_an_Effective_ML_Deployment_Stack with_Docker_on_Ubuntu_22.04⠀⇛ In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the process of building a powerful ML deployment stack on Ubuntu 22.04, complete with step-by-step instructions and commands. # ⚓ UNIX Cop ☛ How_To_Install_NoMachine_on_CentOS_9_/ RockyLinux_9_/_AlmaLinux_9⠀⇛ In this guide, we will show you how to download and install NoMachine on AlmaLinux, RockyLinux and CentOS systems. NoMachine is a cross-platform, fastest, and highest quality remote desktop tool that enables you to access the desktop of any other machine with NoMachine installed. # ⚓ UNIX Cop ☛ How_To_Install_Bitwarden_on_CentOS_9_/AlmaLinux 9/_RockyLinux_9⠀⇛ In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Bitwarden on your CentOS, AlmaLinux and RockyLinux systems. # ⚓ UNIX Cop ☛ How_To_Install_Discord_on_CentOS_9_/AlmaLinux_9/ RockyLinux_9⠀⇛ In this guide, we will show you how to install Discord on CentOS, AlmaLinux and RockyLinux Systems with two different methods. # ⚓ Peter_Czanik:_Syslog-ng_101,_part_9:_Filters⠀⇛ This is the ninth part of my syslog-ng tutorial. Last time, we learned about macros and templates. Today, we learn about syslog-ng filters. At the end of the session, we will see a more complex filter and a template function. You can watch the video or read the text below. https://youtu.be/2JZNuRbZc_8 § Declaring filters Filters are expressions to select, or in other words, filter log messages. They make sure that the right messages reach the right destinations. For example, you can use filters to discard debug level log messages, or make sure that all authentication- related messages are routed to your SIEM system. A filter definition is a collection of one or more filter functions. It consists of two parts. It starts with the word “filter”, followed by an identifier for the filter which you will use later to refer to the given filter. After that, it lists the filter functions with their parameters. You can combine multiple filter functions using boolean operators. Here is how its syntax looks like: filter name { filterfunction(); }; filter f_default { level(info..emerg) and not (facility(mail)); }; # ⚓ Linux Made Simple ☛ How_to_install_Notepadqq_on_Linux_Lite 6.2⠀⇛ # ⚓ Linux Made Simple ☛ How_to_install_Reaper_on_a_Chromebook⠀⇛ # ⚓ Barry Kauler ☛ How_to_install_Vivaldi_browser_or_any_DEB⠀⇛ Forum member tallboy asked how to install Vivaldi web browser in EasyOS. Forum member kinoe replied with a link to a Vivaldi appimage. I also posted a couple of replies. Yes, appimages will work in Easy, and .deb packages can be installed just by clicking on then. There are some caveats though, see my replies: # ⚓ DebugPoint ☛ How_to_Install_LibreOffice_in_Arch_Linux_ (Fresh_and_Still_versions)⠀⇛ LibreOffice comes in two variants. The latest version by number is the community edition which contains the latest features and enhancements and targets early adopters. And the business version is a little behind on features but it’s stable and solid. However, in the Arch Linux package repository, the names remained as “fresh” and “still”. Here’s how to install it. o § Desktop Environments/WMs⠀➾ # § K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt⠀➾ # ⚓ Ubuntu Pit ☛ KDE_Plasma_5.27.2_Released:_What’s New?⠀⇛ The KDE team has announced the second point release of the Plasma 5.27 LTS desktop environment series: Plasma 5.27.2. This release brings fixes for reported user issues, as well as a more streamlined experience with improved usability and efficiency overall. # ⚓ KDE ☛ KDE_Plasma_5.27.2,_Bugfix_Release_for February⠀⇛ Today KDE releases a bugfix update to KDE Plasma 5, versioned 5.27.2. Plasma 5.27 was released in February 2023 with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience. This release adds a week’s worth of new translations and fixes from KDE’s contributors. The bugfixes are typically small but important and include… * § Distributions and Operating Systems⠀➾ o § Fedora Family / IBM⠀➾ # ⚓ CentOS ☛ CentOS_Community_Newsletter,_February_2023⠀⇛ CentOS hosted its annual CentOS Connect at FOSDEM 2023. CentOS Connect is a series of mini- conferences where people from across the Enterprise Linux ecosystem can connect at learn. CentOS Connect at FOSDEM is the largest of these events. This was our first return to being in person at FOSDEM, and we were very happy with the turnout and overall experience. We also ran the event virtually. We’re committed to running hybrid events, and we’ll continue to improve on the virtual experience. If you attended, either in person or virtually, check your email for a post- event survey. It only takes a few minutes, and it really helps us create better events for you in the future. o § Canonical/Ubuntu Family⠀➾ # ⚓ Ubuntu ☛ Top_10_robotics_snaps_in_the_Snap_Store_–_Part_1⠀⇛ The number of robotics applications being distributed by snaps just keeps growing! From toolkits and plugins to dedicated robotics launch files and ROS-based snaps, robotics developers keep sharing their apps with snaps o § Open Hardware/Modding⠀➾ # ⚓ Arduino ☛ Self-guided_circular_saw_automates_woodworking⠀⇛ A circular saw is a must-have tool for anyone who wants to do even basic woodworking. But getting clean, straight cuts is a skill that takes practice to develop. To automate the process in order to perform clean cuts every time with zero effort, Red Tie Projects created this self-guided circular saw. # ⚓ Arduino ☛ Time_Slider_is_an_interesting_spin_on_clock design⠀⇛ You can build a simple and accurate clock with any Arduino board, an RTC (real-time clock) module, and a four-digit seven-segment display. But if you want to be inspired by a more unique design, check out Hans Andersson’s Time Slider. This clever clock features four sliders — one for each digit of the time. o § Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ Android Police ☛ Best_Mario_Kart_alternatives_on_Android_in 2023⠀⇛ # ⚓ Android Police ☛ LastPass_reveals_its_recent_security attack_was_worse_than_it_initially_thought⠀⇛ # ⚓ Giz China ☛ This_YouTube_video_crashes_some_Android smartphones⠀⇛ # ⚓ India Today ☛ Phone_slowing_down?_How_to_speed_up_your Android_smartphone_quickly_–_India_Today⠀⇛ # ⚓ Geeky Gadgets ☛ Raspberry_Pi_stress_testing_–_Geeky Gadgets⠀⇛ # ⚓ 9to5Google ☛ Android_security:_How_to_set_a_PIN,_password, and_biometric_login⠀⇛ # ⚓ Make Use Of ☛ What_Are_Android_Banking_Trojans_and_How_Do You_Avoid_Them?⠀⇛ # ⚓ The Sun ☛ Billions_of_Android_users_warned_over_‘harmless’ apps_spying_on_your_every_move_–_including_creating_map_of location_|_The_US_Sun⠀⇛ # ⚓ The Sun ☛ Billions_of_Android_users_can_unlock_dozens_of secret_Google_features_for_free_using_‘instant_upgrade’ loophole_|_The_US_Sun⠀⇛ # ⚓ Pocket Lint ☛ OnePlus_Pad_initial_review:_A_charming Android_tablet⠀⇛ # ⚓ Android Police ☛ Razer_Edge_review:_Thanks,_but_I_already have_a_phone⠀⇛ * § Free, Libre, and Open Source Software⠀➾ o § Licensing / Legal⠀➾ # ⚓ Austin Z Henley ☛ AI-generated_code_needs_permission_labels [Ed: It is not "AI-generated", it is plagiarism]⠀⇛ o § Programming/Development⠀➾ # ⚓ Nicholas Tietz-Sokolsky ☛ If_software_engineering_roles were_chess_pieces,_what_would_they_be?⠀⇛ * § Leftovers⠀➾ o ⚓ Meduza ☛ Belarusian_IKEA_knockoff_company_Swed_House_to_open_in Russia_—_Meduza⠀⇛ The Russian Union of Shopping Centers has signed a cooperation agreement with the Belarusian company Swed House, a home goods firm that sells items intended to look like IKEA products. o ⚓ Meduza ☛ Prosecution_requests_19-year_prison_terms_for_Belarusian opposition_leaders,_Sviatlana_Tsikhanouskaya_and_Pavel_Latushko, tried_in_absentia_—_Meduza⠀⇛ Belarusian opposition leaders Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Pavel Latushko are being tried in absentia in Belarus. They have been charged with conspiracy, organizing an extremist group, and undermining the government of Belarus and its state security. o ⚓ Meduza ☛ 18_human_skeletons_found_on_Dagestan_beach,_where_they may_have_been_buried_in_1930s_—_Meduza⠀⇛ Human remains were found on a Caspian Sea beach in Makhachkala, Dagestan, the Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti reported on Monday, citing local law enforcement. o ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Pokemon_ROM_Hacks_Brought_To_The_Real_World⠀⇛ If you were a kid anywhere in the last 30 years, it was nearly impossible to avoid at least some exposure to the Pokemon franchise. Whether that’s through games like Red and Blue to Scarlet and Violet, the brief summer everyone played Pokemon Go, or to other media such as the trading card game or anime, it seems to have transcended generations and cultures fairly thoroughly. And, if you’ve consumed all there is of official Pokemon video gaming, you may be surprised to know there are a number of slightly modified games floating around out there that can be translated onto game carts just like their official counterparts. o ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Collection_Of_Old_Films_Rescued_For_Preservation⠀⇛ PeriscopeFilm owners [Doug] and [Nick] just released a mini-documentary about the rescue of a large collection of old 35 and 16 mm celluloid films from the landfill. The video shows the process of the films being collected from the donor and then being sorted and organized in a temporary storage warehouse. There is a dizzying variety of films in this haul, from different countries, in both color and black and white. o ⚓ World_Bank:_Earthquake_damage_in_Türkiye_estimated_to_exceed_$34 billion⠀⇛ The rapid damage assessment report after the February 6 earthquakes also acknowledges that recovery and reconstruction costs will be much larger, potentially twice as large. o ⚓ Union_of_bars_files_case_against_switch_to_remote_education_due to_earthquakes⠀⇛ Higher education will continue online, with earthquake survivors placed in university dormitories. o ⚓ Xe’s Blog ☛ Talon_is_amazing⠀⇛ When I was writing this post, I was in a unique level of flow state working with Talon. It’s probably gonna come across a little bit weird. Sorry! In my last article I discussed the voice control challenge, it is a very simple thing: put your hands at your sides and use only your voice to do your daily tasks. In essence, doing this makes you get exposed to what it is like for people who have to rely in these technologies on a daily basis. For many of you reading this post, this is just a thought experiment. This is something that you try once or twice and then go back to normal. It can be frustrating, none of your applications will work correctly. Selecting some UI elements may be difficult or even impossible. One way to look at a challenge like this is to help you train empathy for those who have to rely on this technology. it can make you feel powerless. This is a feeling that we rarely get to have as technologists. The thing that I really feel exemplifies the difficulty of the voice control challenge is controlling a text editor. Text editors require arbitrary keyboard inputs. They require pressing weird key binds. Doing this with voice control on a mac or iPad can be difficult to impossible. o ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Letter_from_London:_Meeting_at_Maison_Bertaux⠀⇛ I made a nostalgic venture back into London’s Soho last week to meet up for a coffee and chat with writer and journalist Christopher Howse. We had arranged to meet at well loved patisserie Maison Bertaux on Greek Street, enjoyed by CNN only a few weeks ago, I noticed. It was not exactly Marlow getting the ship fixed and setting off upriver again but the drums of my past were certainly beating as I wandered up from Charing Cross. Not often these days did I meet with a broadsheet journalist, either. I have known my fair share, some also who gave up once it became impossible to make a living from it. Two I knew actually became barristers — funny, as, also last week, I had come across Harry Mount’s ‘My Brief Career’ in one of those appetising piles of free books you find at overland London railway stations. The kind you are encouraged to pluck like fruit and take back once read. As my train was late, I began reading Mount’s expose, and was immediately thankful to be taken away from news on my phone from Ukraine. It is a tidy account of how Mount travelled in the opposite direction from the two barristers by journeying instead from law to journalism. ‘A hilarious account of the splendid miseries of being a pupil in a barrister’s chamber,’ John Mortimer wrote. Mount is now editor of The Oldie, whose founding editor was former Private Eye and Soho luminary Richard Ingrams, and I wonder how the view is for him now. At least London seemed its usual eccentric and capricious self. I couldn’t help but notice the man in Leicester Square marching in front of me with the word ‘ELECTRICITY’ on the back of his high-vis jacket. ‘I’m shocked,’ he kept saying into his mobile phone, rather troublingly for an electricity man. ‘I am shocked!’ he repeated, perhaps too loudly this time. Leaving him to whatever power game he was playing, I sneaked a left into Chinatown and suddenly found myself beneath a marvellous sea of tethered bright orange lanterns, as if each chuckling away at the big grey sky. There were so many of them, all so light and crisp and beautiful, that I had to take a photograph. Only later did I realise each was bearing the name of a giant casino. In fact, serious gambling among London’s Chinese community is sufficiently common nowadays for the many first-time Chinese students heading to our universities being made aware of the impending risk of unlimited access to it. This sounds like something they may have once said to communists about to experience capitalism. On my left, meanwhile, was Wan Chai Corner, where many years ago I would eat delicious dim sum with a gracious backgammon-playing friend. By now I was really looking forward to seeing Christopher again. We are two quite different people who share many of the same interests — poetry, travel, the cosmos — or so I like to think. I reviewed his book ‘Soho in the Eighties’ in these pages a few years ago, and if ever a London memoir demonstrates an acute power of observation, it is this one. In equal measure, I am also a fan of his crescent-like ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’ based on years of travelling across the Castilian interior. o ⚓ Oona Räisänen ☛ Using_HDMI_radio_interference_for_high-speed_data transfer⠀⇛ This story, too, begins with noise. I was browsing the radio waves with a software radio, looking for mysteries to accompany my ginger tea. I had started to notice a wide-band spiky signal on a number of frequencies that only seemed to appear indoors. Some sort of interference from electronic devices, probably. Spoiler alert, it eventually led me to broadcast a webcam picture over the radio waves… but how? o § Science⠀➾ # ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Move_Over_Steel,_Carbon-Reinforced_Concrete_Is Here⠀⇛ Reinforced concrete is the miracle material which made possible so many of the twentieth century’s most iconic structures, but here in this century its environmental footprint makes it something of a concern. As part of addressing this problem, a team at TU Dresden in Germany have completed what is believed to be the world’s first building made with carbon-reinforced concrete, in which the steel rebar is replaced with carbon fiber. o § Hardware⠀➾ # ⚓ Hackaday ☛ DIY_STM32_Scope_Is_Simple,_Cheap,_And Featureful⠀⇛ Would you like to have a small digital oscilloscope? Do you have a spare BlackPill (STM32F401) board and a TFT display laying around? [tvvlad1234] presents us with a simple and educational digital storage oscilloscope design that barely needs any components for you to build one, and it’s packed with features just like you would expect from a self-respecting open-source project. Not just that — it can even stream data to your computer, in a format compatible with the TekScope software! # ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Watch_Time_Slide_By_With_This_Electromechanical Clock⠀⇛ Back in the 18th century, clockmakers were held in high esteem, as turning pieces of metal and wire into working timepieces must have seemed like magic at the time. The advent of mass production made their profession largely obsolete, but today there are several hardware hackers whom you could consider modern heirs of the craft. [Hans Andersson] is one of them, and has made a name for himself with an impressive portfolio of electromechanical clocks. His latest work, called the Time Slider, is every bit as captivating as his previous work. o § Health/Nutrition/Agriculture⠀➾ # ⚓ CNN ☛ After_959_days,_this_city_is_no_longer_imposing $1,000_fines_for_not_wearing_a_mask⠀⇛ One of the last major international cities requiring face coverings on Tuesday announced it will end its controversial Covid mask mandate nearly three years after it was enacted to prevent the spread of the virus. # ⚓ CNN ☛ Zero-calorie_sweetener_linked_to_heart_attack_and stroke,_study_finds⠀⇛ A sugar replacement called erythritol — used to add bulk or sweeten stevia, monk-fruit, and keto reduced-sugar products — has been linked to blood clotting, stroke, heart attack and death, according to a new study. # ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Exposure_to_Chevron’s_“Climate-Friendly”_Fuel May_Pose_Severe_Risk_of_Cancer⠀⇛ # ⚓ Brownstone_flack_Gabrielle_Bauer_admits_that_the_Great Barrington_Declaration_was_wrong⠀⇛ From the vantage point of three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, at times October 2020 seems like ancient history, although I do still remember it well. The pandemic was building as the first deadly winter approached, and it was not clear when (or if) there would be safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19. There was hope, of course, because the reports coming out about the clinical trials of the mRNA-based vaccines from Pfizer/ BioNTech and Moderna sounded promising, but even the most optimistic wouldn’t have predicted that the vaccine would receive emergency use authorization (EUA) and start rolling out to high risk frontline workers a mere two months later and then to the high risk general public not long after that. The 2020 Presidential election was in full swing, as much as it could be given the pandemic- driven restrictions on large gatherings. It was truly a bizarre election. # ⚓ Pro Publica ☛ Minnesota_Looks_to_a_New_Approach_to_“Crisis Pregnancy_Centers”⠀⇛ Anti-abortion counseling centers, often called “crisis pregnancy centers,” may soon face an existential choice in Minnesota: Leave behind their explicit agenda of dissuading people from having abortions or risk losing state funding. While some center operators could see that as a nonstarter, state Democrats may leave the door open for them to continue receiving taxpayer dollars — albeit under a battery of rules some Minnesota lawmakers hope could expand services for pregnant people amid the country’s rapidly shifting abortion landscape. # ⚓ Pro Publica ☛ How_We_Found_That_Sites_of_Ebola_Outbreaks Risk_Facing_It_Again⠀⇛ As a devastating outbreak of Ebola spread to Tommy Garnett’s homeland of Sierra Leone in 2014, the conservationist had a hunch. Garnett long lamented the deforestation from farming, mining and logging in the region and wondered if tree loss had anything to do with the outbreak that had swept into Sierra Leone from a forested area of Guinea. With activities in his country at a standstill due to the outbreak, Garnett asked the ERM Foundation, the nonprofit arm of a sustainability consulting firm in London, to help him analyze patterns of deforestation. # ⚓ Pro Publica ☛ On_the_Edge⠀⇛ Generations ago, families fleeing tribal violence in southern Guinea settled in a lush, humid forest. They took solace among the trees, which offered cover from intruders, and carved a life out of the land. Their descendants call it Meliandou, which elders there say comes from words in the Kissi language that mean “this is as far as we go.” By 2013, a village had bloomed where trees once stood — 31 homes, surrounded by a ring of forest and footpaths that led to pockets residents had cleared to plant rice. Their children played in a hollowed-out tree that was home to a large colony of bats. # ⚓ New York Times ☛ Hong_Kong_Mask_Mandate,_One_of_World’s Last,_Will_End⠀⇛ As of Wednesday, the city will no longer require people to wear masks indoors, outdoors or on public transportation. o § Security⠀➾ # ⚓ Patrick Louis ☛ Secure_the_Border_and_Build_the_Wall⠀⇛ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ Introduction⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Plenty of cheesy quotes often say that total security stands on the opposite of total freedom. Undeniably, in computers and operating systems this is a fact. However, universal privilege used to be the norm, and restricting actions was a concept that wasn’t part of the vocabulary. Today, this idea is a must. Our machines are constantly interacting with the external world, exchanging information, and deliberately fetching and executing pieces of code and software from servers hosted in places we might never visit. Meanwhile, we trust and intertwine our lives with these machines. A system that is trustworthy is not the same as a system we must trust. This distinction is important because systems that need to be trusted are not necessarily trustworthy. This article will focus on the topic of access control on Unix-like systems. Sit back and relax as it transports you on a journey of discovery. We’ll unfold the map, travel to different places, allowing to better understand this wide, often misunderstood, and messy territory. The goal of this article is to first and foremost describe what is present, allowing to move forward, especially with the countless possibilities already present. How can we better shape the future if we don’t know the past. # ⚓ WhichUK ☛ Scammers_are_imitating_HMRC_in_fake_tax_refund emails⠀⇛ Government issues warning about latest tax office impersonation scam # § Privacy/Surveillance⠀➾ # ⚓ Scoop News Group ☛ Illinois’_biometric_privacy_law provides_blueprint_as_states_seek_to_curb_data collection⠀⇛ An estimated 17 pieces of privacy legislation backed by both Democrats and Republicans are pending across the country. # ⚓ Techdirt ☛ Signal:_If_UK_Government_Undermines Encryption_It_Can_Kiss_Messaging_Service_Used_By_Its Employees_Goodbye⠀⇛ If anyone can call a government’s bluff, it’s Signal. It’s a nonprofit, which means it doesn’t need to make a bunch of shareholders happy by capitulating to ridiculous government demands in order to retain market share. # ⚓ Techdirt ☛ Supreme_Court_Denies_Cert_To_NSA_Case, Allows_State_Secret_Privilege_To_Roll_On_Unaltered⠀⇛ While we’re waiting to see if the Trump- stocked Supreme Court is going to end the internet as we know it, the nation’s top court has been rejecting, without comment, other essential cases that really could have used another set of judicial eyes. o § Defence/Aggression⠀➾ # ⚓ The Nation ☛ America_Is_a_Gun⠀⇛ # ⚓ The Dissenter ☛ March_To_Iraq_War,_20_Years_Later:_February 28,_2003⠀⇛ # ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ Western_Leaders_Privately_Say_Ukraine_Can’t Win_the_War⠀⇛ The German and French leaders have told Ukraine they must seek peace with Russia in exchange for a post-war defense pact, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. # ⚓ Meduza ☛ Gleb_Pavlovsky,_political_strategist_who_turned from_Kremlin_advisor_to_Kremlin_critic,_dies_at_71_—_Meduza⠀⇛ Russian political scientist and political strategist Gleb Pavlovsky has died at 71, according to Simon Kordonsky, the head of the local self- government department at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. He reportedly died from an unspecified illness. # ⚓ Meduza ☛ Russia’s_Aerospace_Forces_augmented_with_new_anti- aircraft_units,_specialized_in_combat_air_defense_—_Meduza⠀⇛ Military anti-aircraft systems and units that previously belonged to Russia’s Ground Forces have been reassigned to the main command of the Russian Aerospace Forces, writes TASS, citing sources close to Russia’s Defense Ministry. # ⚓ Meduza ☛ One_reported_dead_after_Russia_carries_out_drone attacks_in_multiple_Ukrainian_regions_—_Meduza⠀⇛ Russian forces attacked multiple regions of Ukraine with Iranian-made Shahed drones on Sunday night, the Ukrainian General Staff reported on Monday. According to preliminary data, Ukrainian forces shot down 11 of the 14 drones that were used. # ⚓ The Gray Zone ☛ European_antiwar_protests_gain_strength_as NATO’s_Ukraine_proxy_war_escalates⠀⇛ # ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ Russia’s_invasion_one_year_on:_Ukraine is_stronger_than_ever⠀⇛ Vladimir Putin expected a short and victorious war that would extinguish Ukrainian independence and force the country back into the Russian orbit. One year on, Ukraine has never been stronger, writes Vitaly Sych. # ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_Biden_National_Security_Team_Must_Get Smarter…Sooner⠀⇛ The conventional wisdom at the tragic first year mark of the Russian-Ukrainian War is that President Joe Biden and his national security team have done an excellent job of managing support for Ukraine and challenging Russia’s invasion.  The New Yorker’s editor, David Remnick, an excellent Kremlinologist, summed it up this way in the current issue: “Biden has conducted a foreign policy of competence and moral clarity, skillfully balancing strength, diplomacy, and restraint.”  Well, I would take issue with the conventional wisdom. Biden and his secretaries of state and defense have pursued a policy of dual containment of both Russia and China that has contributed to the strengthening of Sino-Russian bilateral relations and created a worsening Cold War situation with both Beijing and Moscow.  Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger have been credited with manipulating the U.S.-Soviet- Chinese triangle in a way that gave the United States stronger relations with both China and the Soviet Union than China and the Soviet Union had with each other.  Biden will probably be credited with contributing to the worsening of these bilateral relations and weakening the U.S. geopolitical situation in general. # ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Iranians_Need_to_Drop_the_Hammer⠀⇛ The uprising in Iran has transformed into a postponed earthquake, one that is inevitable and most likely will be very destructive. The pent-up anger and frustration will surely come to the surface again but in what shape or form is to be determined. Maybe it will take place when Ali Khamenei dies. The regime has lost all credibility and is a dead man walking. The voting that is taking place against the regime is through the dumping of the currency and the purchase of dollars and gold. Within the past month the dollar has gone from 37,000 tomans to 54,000 tomans, and all indications are that by the end of the Norouz holidays the dollar will go above 60,000 tomans. # ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Why_Much_of_the_Global_South_Isn’t Automatically_Supporting_the_West_in_Ukraine⠀⇛ # ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Fact-check:_Soros_did_not_write_that Russia_must_be_defeated_at_the_cost_of_Eastern_Europeans’ lives⠀⇛ # ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ Caitlin_Johnstone:_There_Has_Never_In_History Been_A_Greater_Need_For_A_Large_Anti-War_Movement⠀⇛ Things are escalating more and more rapidly between the US-centralized power structure and the few remaining nations with the will and the means to stand against its demands for total obedience, namely China, Russia, and Iran. # ⚓ Meduza ☛ Suspended_flights,_false_flag_claims,_and_an alleged_coup_plan_What_we_know_about_Moscow’s_designs_in Moldova_—_Meduza⠀⇛ Wizz Air, one of Europe’s largest budget airlines, is suspending flights to and from Moldova beginning on March 14. The company’s press service told the news outlet RBC that the decision is “difficult, but it’s the responsible one” given “recent events” in Moldova and the “elevated risk” in the country’s airspace. (It didn’t specify what “recent events” it was referring to.) Since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, missile fragments have been found on Moldovan territory multiple times. # ⚓ Meduza ☛ Authorities_blame_hackers_after_‘missile_strike threat’_warnings_take_over_Russian_airwaves_for_second_time in_six_days_—_Meduza⠀⇛ TV and radio broadcasts in multiple Russian regions were interrupted by messages warning of impending missile strikes on Tuesday morning. # ⚓ Meduza ☛ ‘The_FSB_said_I’m_raising_my_daughter_wrong’_A single_father_faces_felony_charges_after_his_daughter_drew_an anti-war_picture_at_school_—_Meduza⠀⇛ In April of last year, an art teacher in Russia’s Tula region asked her sixth-grade class to draw pictures to show support for the Russian military in Ukraine. When one girl drew an anti-war image instead, the teacher immediately called the police. By the end of the following day, the Russian FSB and child protective services were involved. Now, the student’s single father is facing felony charges, and the student herself is at risk of being sent to live in a shelter. # ⚓ Meduza ☛ The_‘biggest_beneficiary’_weighs_in_A_China_expert assesses_Beijing’s_‘peace_plan’_for_Russia_and_Ukraine_— Meduza⠀⇛ # ⚓ Meduza ☛ Putin_honors_American_actor_and_Russian_citizen Steven_Seagal_with_Order_of_Friendship_—_Meduza⠀⇛ Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to honor the American actor Steven Seagal with the state Order of Friendship. The reason for the decoration is Seagal’s “significant contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation.” # ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ ‘Truth,_No_Matter_What’:_Why_Watering_Down Palestinian_Reality_is_a_Crime⠀⇛ On February 20, the United Nations Security Council approved a statement, described in the media as a ‘watered-down’ version of an earlier draft resolution which would have demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.” The intrigues that led to the scrapping of what was meant to be a binding resolution will be the subject of a future article. For now, however, I would like to reflect on the fact that the so- called international community’s relationship with the Palestinian struggle has always attempted to ‘water down’ a horrific reality. # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ ‘Watering_Down’_the_Reality_of_Life_Under Israeli_Apartheid_Is_a_Crime⠀⇛ On February 20, the United Nations Security Council approved a statement, described in the media as a ‘watered-down’ version of an earlier draft resolution which would have demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.” # ⚓ Techdirt ☛ Yet_Another_Former_Israeli_Intelligence_Officer Linked_To_Yet_Another_Shady_Company_Offering_Hacking_Tools⠀⇛ I’m not sure what’s happening inside Israel’s intelligence services, but it’s not sending the world its best when it’s done with them. # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Israeli_Rights_Group_Condemns_Settler ‘Pogrom’_Against_Palestinians_in_West_Bank⠀⇛ Israeli settlers tore through the occupied West Bank on Sunday, violently attacking Palestinians and setting fire to their cars, houses, and businesses in what one rights group called a “pogrom” sanctioned by the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. # ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Media_Orgs_Demand_McCarthy_Hand_Over_Jan._6 Footage_He_Gave_to_Tucker_Carlson⠀⇛ # ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Russian_War_Crimes_Have_Hardened_Ukrainians Against_Peace_Talks,_Activist_Says⠀⇛ # ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Campism_and_the_War_in_Ukraine⠀⇛ Campism generally splits the world into two antagonistic orders, or great ‘camps’ – in simplistic terms, it is the split between the camp of capitalism and the camp of socialism; the great Cold War rivalry between the United States, its NATO allies and (neo)colonies, versus the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics and its Iron Curtain puppet states; today, it’s the imperialist and capitalist West versus the other(s) opposed to Western hegemony – China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela. With these distinctions in mind, reflecting heavily on the original split between capitalism and socialism that constitutes the very foundation of the campist worldview, an important question must be asked – why are some Western socialists and avowed anti-imperialists today proclaiming bourgeois capitalist states like Russia to be fighting for the great camp of socialism? Arguments made on social media platforms by anonymous commentators, publishings by pro-Putin ‘patriotic socialist’ political formations, and even the Russian communist party all claim that Moscow’s brutal invasion of Ukraine serves the purpose of destabilising US hegemony, challenging imperialist expansion through military organisations like NATO, and disrupting the exploitive Western global economic system. Frankly, these are selective claims that are as dishonest as they are delusional. Moreover, these are grotesquely revisionist and historically unfounded claims, flying disrespectfully in face of the theoretical contributions and revolutionary analysis of Marx and Lenin. We must turn towards historical and political fact in order to debunk such positions, ensuring that the revolutionary and socialist spirit and character of the Marxist tradition are not dishonestly distorted and denigrated to support a reductionist and campist view on the inter-imperialist capitalist rivalry underpinning the Russia-Ukraine war. o § Transparency/Investigative Reporting⠀➾ # ⚓ Techdirt ☛ What_Transparency?_Twitter_Seems_To_Have Forgotten_About_Transparency_Reporting⠀⇛ One of the key things that Elon Musk promised in taking over Twitter was about how he was going to be way more transparent. He’s mentioned it many times, specifically noting that transparency is how he would build “trust” in the company. o § Environment⠀➾ # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Thunberg,_Norwegian_Sami_Activists_Demand Wind_Turbine_Removal_on_Traditional_Lands⠀⇛ Demanding that all countries center climate justice as they take steps to transition away from fossil fuel-sourced energy, Fridays for Future leader Greta Thunberg joined dozens of Norwegian Sami people and their supporters Monday at Norway’s Energy Ministry to protest wind turbines that have been constructed on Indigenous lands. # ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ A_Looming_El_Niño_Could_Give_Us_a_Preview_of Life_at_1.5C_of_Warming⠀⇛ The hotter weather pattern might push the Earth into unprecedented territory next year. # § Energy/Transportation⠀➾ # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ ‘Time_Is_Up’:_Greenpeace_Warns_UN Ocean_Treaty_Under_Threat_of_Failure⠀⇛ Greenpeace warned Monday that nations are “once again stalling” as they enter the final week of talks on the United Nations Ocean Treaty, a pact the environmental group says would “safeguard marine life and be the biggest conservation victory for a generation” if negotiators get it right. # ⚓ The Nation ☛ Why_More_Alaskans_Aren’t_Fighting_a_Huge Potential_Oil_Project_on_the_North_Slope⠀⇛ It’s hard to imagine any place in the United States that is more precarious, more rugged, or home to people more tenacious than the North Slope of Alaska. A frigid region of tundra and coast roughly the size of Oregon, it is home about 10,000 residents scattered across eight communities, the largest of which is Utqiagvik, formerly named Barrow. The region’s economy is driven mostly by activities on and near the largest oil field in the country, Prudhoe Bay, which operates under some of the most extreme conditions on Earth. The North Slope is also defined by the rhythms of a much older set of Alaska Native subsistence practices, such as fishing, whaling, and caribou-hunting.1 # ⚓ Meduza ☛ Fire_breaks_out_at_Rosneft_oil_terminal_in Krasnodar_Krai_after_two_reported_drone_explosions_— Meduza⠀⇛ A fire broke out at an oil terminal in the town of Tuapse in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai early Tuesday morning, according to town officials. # § Wildlife/Nature⠀➾ # ⚓ The Revelator ☛ Wildlife_Wins_From_Biden’s_Bipartisan Infrastructure_Act⠀⇛ # ⚓ New York Times ☛ Why_23_Dead_Whales_Have_Washed_Up_on the_East_Coast_Since_December⠀⇛ An unlikely confluence of factors, including climate change and online shopping, appears to be at least partially to blame for the uptick. o § Finance⠀➾ # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Groups_Warn_of_‘Financial_Disaster_for Millions’_If_Supreme_Court_Kills_Student_Debt_Relief⠀⇛ Striking down President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan would have devastating impacts on millions of borrowers, advocacy groups warned in a report released Monday, one day before the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments over the White House’s cancellation bid. # ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Millions_Face_Financial_Disaster_If_Supreme Court_Ends_Student_Debt_Relief⠀⇛ # ⚓ Axios ☛ Why_poverty_rates_are_likely_to_rise_this_year⠀⇛ One of the last remaining major COVID relief programs — the expansion of SNAP benefits, aka food stamps — ends this month, pushing about 32 million Americans off a “hunger cliff.” # ⚓ Axios ☛ Chip_makers_must_provide_childcare_plan_for_access to_federal_funds⠀⇛ Chip makers who want access to billions of dollars in new federal funding will first have to figure out how workers will access affordable child care, per a new requirement from the Commerce Department. # ⚓ WhichUK ☛ Common_food_storage_mistakes_to_avoid⠀⇛ We reveal what should – and shouldn’t – be in your fridge, and the foods to store separately to prolong their life. Plus: the science-based tactics to reduce food waste and save money # ⚓ WhichUK ☛ Hot_water_bottle_or_electric_blanket_–_what’s best_and_cheapest_for_keeping_you_warm_in_bed?⠀⇛ On cold nights when an extra pair of bed socks won’t cut it, discover your best alternative # ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Biden_Officials:_Chip_Makers_Wanting_Federal Subsidies_Must_Provide_Child_Care⠀⇛ # ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Supreme_Court_Takes_Up_Case_That_Could_Kill Consumer_Finance_Protection_Agency⠀⇛ # ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ What_Will_Happen_When_Banks_Go_Bust?⠀⇛ Financial podcasts have been featuring ominous headlines lately along the lines of “Your Bank Can Legally Seize Your Money” and “Banks Can STEAL Your Money?! Here’s How!” The reference is to “bail-ins: ” the provision under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act allowing Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs, basically the biggest banks) to bail in or expropriate their creditors’ money in the event of insolvency. The problem is that depositors are classed as “creditors.” So how big is the risk to your deposit account? Part I of this two part article will review the bail-in issue. Part II will look at the derivatives risk that could trigger the next global financial crisis. # ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Inequality_is_Weakening_Social_Security. Here’s_How_We_Fix_That.⠀⇛ # ⚓ Democracy Now ☛ Will_the_Equal_Rights_Amendment_Finally_Be Added_to_the_U.S._Constitution_50_Years_After_It_Passed?⠀⇛ The Equal Rights Amendment, which would codify gender equality in the U.S. Constitution, has been introduced in every session of Congress since 1923. It was finally passed in 1972, and yet never ratified. This week, the ERA will get its first hearing in 40 years when, on Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee meets to discuss a joint resolution to finally affirm the ERA. We speak to Zakiya Thomas and Linda Coberly of the ERA Coalition for more on the historic significance of this hearing and the century-long fight for constitutional protections against sex discrimination. # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Report_Shows_Big_Insurance_Profiting Massively_From_Growing_Privatization_of_Medicare⠀⇛ A new analysis released Monday shows that insurance giants are benefiting hugely from the accelerating privatization of Medicare and Medicaid, which for- profit companies have infiltrated via government programs such as Medicare Advantage. # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Global_Coalition_Urges_OECD_to_End ‘Reprehensible’_Oil_and_Gas_Export_Financing⠀⇛ More than 175 civil society groups spanning 45 countries urged the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development—an alliance of mostly rich nations—to end export financing for oil and gas, warning in a joint statement Monday that failure to do so would compromise global efforts to keep “a livable future within reach.” # ⚓ The Nation ☛ The_Student_Debt_Cancellation_Movement_Is About_to_Face_Its_Toughest_Fight_Yet⠀⇛ Last year, President Joe Biden used his authority—as defined by the HEROES Act of 2003—to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt per borrower. The executive action was taken in response to the lingering health and economic impacts caused by Covid-19, and would help families and borrowers recover while closing racial disparities that widened during the pandemic. Right now, Americans owe nearly $1.8 trillion in student loan debt. On February 28, the Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments for two cases challenging this plan, Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown. # ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ Arkansas’s_Anti-BDS_Law_Remains_in_Effect Because_SCOTUS_Refused_to_Review_It⠀⇛ Politically motivated consumer boycotts have played a central role throughout U.S. history. # ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Antenna_Hidden_In_Holiday_Lights_Skirts_HOA Rules⠀⇛ For all their supposed benefits, homeowner’s associations (HOAs) have a reputation of quickly turning otherwise quaint neighborhoods into a sort of Stanford prison experiment, as those who get even the slightest amount of power often abuse it. Arbitrary rules and enforcement abound about house color, landscaping, parking, and if you’ve ever operated a radio, antennas. While the FCC (at least as far as the US is concerned) does say that HOAs aren’t permitted to restrict the use of antennas, if you don’t want to get on anyone’s bad side you’ll want to put up an antenna like this one which is disguised as a set of HOA-friendly holiday lights. o § AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics⠀➾ # ⚓ Axios ☛ White_House:_Federal_agencies_have_30_days_to remove_TikTok_from_devices⠀⇛ The White House has mandated that federal agencies remove TikTok from phones and systems in a bid to keep U.S. data safe, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced Monday. # ⚓ CBC ☛ Federal_government_banning_social_media_platform TikTok_from_government_phones⠀⇛ # ⚓ Copenhagen Post ☛ Parliament_urging_members_to_avoid_using TikTok⠀⇛ Centre for Cyber Security warned last week that there was a risk of espionage in connection with having the Chinese app on state devices # ⚓ CNN ☛ Rupert_Murdoch_acknowledged_that_Fox_News_hosts endorsed_false_stolen_election_claims⠀⇛ Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, acknowledged in a deposition taken by Dominion Voting Systems that some Fox News hosts endorsed false claims the 2020 election was stolen. # ⚓ Marcy Wheeler ☛ BREAKING_from_Fox_News:_Trump_Cheated_…_and He_Still_Couldn’t_Beat_Joe_Biden⠀⇛ When Rupert Murdoch is forced to answer questions about the 2020 election under oath, it becomes clear the extent to which Fox News was — is! — covering up what a loser (Rupert knows that) Trump is.  # ⚓ Marcy Wheeler ☛ The_Search_For_The_Origins_Of_The_State⠀⇛ Were early societies “states” in the modern sense? Nope. # ⚓ Marcy Wheeler ☛ How_Holes_in_Ivanka’s_Testimony_Could_Help Make_an_Obstruction_Case_against_Her_Father⠀⇛ In testimony before the January 6 Committee, Ivanka and Eric Herschmann both failed to recall key details of Trump’s refusal to ask his rioters to leave the Capitol. For several reasons, one or both may end up remembering more of those details before a Jack Smith grand jury. # ⚓ ACLU ☛ Crossing_the_Bridge_Together:_The_Fight_for_Voting Rights_Marches_On⠀⇛ On January 12, a tornado tore across central Alabama, including the historic city of Selma. Since then, community groups have been clearing roads and picking up the pieces from the damage. Simultaneously, the city is preparing for its annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee: a recognition of Bloody Sunday, the Selma-to-Montgomery march, and the passage of the Voting Rights Act. As the ACLU of Alabama prepares for our annual trip to Selma to commemorate the historic_bridge crossing on March 5, amidst such devastation in the city, I feel the immense tradition and history of Selma, a place where our elders accomplished so much to make voting rights possible. 58 years after the historic movement that led to the 1965 enactment of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the legal enfranchisement of Black voters, I remain struck by the duality of what voting rights in Alabama has meant for this nation. # ⚓ The Strategist ☛ China’s_self-serving_Ukraine_‘peace plan’⠀⇛ On 24 February, marking one year since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine began, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs published China’s position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis. In theory, its 12 points form the basis … # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Has_the_GOP_Lost_Its_Brain?_Hardly.⠀⇛ Timothy Noah is an incisive commentor on U.S. politics. His recent New Republic essay, “How the GOP Lost Its Brain,” nicely documents the ways that the Republican party has become both increasingly anti-intellectual and incoherent since the days of Reagan. The GOP deserves to be skewered for its inconsistencies, absurdities, and lunatics. And its very real fissures ought to be analyzed with care, for they can grow, and contribute to the party’s weakening if they do. But it does not follow from these fissures that the GOP is an agglomeration of nihilists and no longer has “ideas.” It has ideas, and they are summed up in the acronym MAGA, which now defines both the Republican base and its major leaders and presidential aspirants. # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Dear_Gov._DeSantis:_You’re_a_History_Grad. Please_Tell_Me_When_Systemic_Racism_Ended⠀⇛ When Ron DeSantis was asked by a Fox News host two years ago if the United States is “systemically racist,” the Florida governor quickly responded: “It’s a bunch of horse manure.” He went on to boast that he had banned such ideas in Florida’s schools. # ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Former_Watergate_Prosecutor:_Trump_Should_Have Been_Charged_Upon_Exiting_Office⠀⇛ # ⚓ Techdirt ☛ Getting_Kicked_Off_Social_Media_For_Breaking_Its Rules_Is_Nothing_Like_Being_Sent_To_A_Prison_Camp_For Retweeting_Criticism_Of_A_Dictator⠀⇛ It’s become frustrating how often people insist that losing this or that social media account is “censorship” and an “attack on free speech.” Not only is it not that, it makes a mockery of those who face real censorship and real attacks on free speech. The Washington Post recently put out an amazing feature about people who have been jailed or sent away to re-education camps for simply reposting something on social media. It’s titled “They clicked once. Then came the dark prisons.“ # ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Budapest-based_Russian_“spy_bank”_in critical_situation⠀⇛ # ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ A_battle_of_wills:_Hungarian_doctors_vs the_government⠀⇛ # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Analysis_Spotlights_the_Lasting_Pain Inflicted_by_Reagan’s_Social_Security_Cuts⠀⇛ In 1983, just before signing legislation that cut Social Security benefits, then-President Ronald Reagan declared that “we’re entering an age when average Americans will live longer and live more productive lives.” # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Leftist_Elly_Schlein—’Italy’s_AOC’—Elected to_Confront_Far-Right_Giorgia_Meloni⠀⇛ Calling her victory “a clear mandate for real change,” left-wing Italian politician Elly Schlein on Sunday was named the new leader of her country’s Democratic Party after winning against a centrist supported by the political establishment. # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Sanders_Warns_of_‘Primary_Care_Cliff’_as Federal_Funds_for_Local_Clinics_Set_to_Expire⠀⇛ Sen. Bernie Sanders warned Monday that without swift congressional action, the $5.8 billion in federal funding relied on each year by community health centers around the United States will expire on September 30, resulting in a devastating “primary care cliff.” # ⚓ The Nation ☛ Do_Voters_Really_Want_More_CIA_Analysts_in Congress?⠀⇛ Elissa Slotkin, the first Democratic hopeful seeking to replace retiring Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, is the sort of candidate national Democratic strategists fantasize about. She represents a closely divided district in Lansing, after initially getting elected to a solidly Republican one, and she has a solid centrist voting record likely to appeal to the highly coveted white suburban mom demographic. She’s also a former CIA analyst who served three tours in Iraq. She has the same political CV, in other words, that delivered a clutch of traditional GOP congressional seats to security-minded women during the 2018 blue wave that granted House Democrats a strong majority in the midst of the Trump years. Pundits eagerly dubbed that landmark ballot “the year of the badass woman”—and they will no doubt be closely monitoring Slotkin’s Senate bid for further confirmation of this reassuring political trendlet. # ⚓ The Nation ☛ It’s_Time_to_Call_Out_the_DeSantis Deflection⠀⇛ When Ron DeSantis recently threatened to end AP courses for all high schoolers in Florida, he did more than escalate the culture war that right-wing reactionaries are waging against “critical race theory” and anti-racism. DeSantis signaled his willingness to join a long line of Southern governors who have used racism to deflect attention from their failure to help people hurting in their states, especially poor and low-wealth people. Even if DeSantis never attacked Black history or trans people, moral leaders and impacted people should be standing up, speaking out, organizing, and voting because of the way his policy decisions have sacrificed the well-being of Floridians, especially the more than 10 million poor and low-wage people, be they Black, white, Latino, Asian, Native, LQBTQIA, or straight. DeSantis wants to argue about whether white students feel guilty when they learn the truth about America’s past, but he has been silent about the fact that 47 percent of Florida’s citizens are poor and low-income, including 39 percent of all white people in his state. Since 1979, income for the top 1 percent of Floridians has nearly doubled. But for everyone else, real income has actually fallen over the same four decades. That’s as true for poor white folks as it is for poor Black folks. # ⚓ The Nation ☛ Why_the_Media_Just_Can’t_Stop_Whitewashing_the Koch_Family⠀⇛ If you want to suffer through Hollywood at its sappiest, you could waste an afternoon watching Mary Pickford’s 1917 tearjerker The Poor Little Rich Girl and its 1936 remake of the same name starring Shirley Temple (the original source material being a 1913 Broadway play by Eleanor Gates). Both films, as one could guess from the titles, explore the difficulties of being the child of plutocratic wealth. Pickford plays Gwendolyn, the neglected offspring of a mother who prefers high society to her daughter and a father mired in moneymaking schemes. Growing up in a chilly household, Gwendolyn finds friendship in the rowdy company of the warm if ragged working class, including an organ grinder and a plumber. Temple’s suffering young princess, Barbara Barry, has only one, and a negligent, parent, a widowed father immersed in business. Like Gwendolyn, Barbara also discovers nurturing kindness in the company of the immiserated, including yet another organ grinder. # ⚓ The Nation ☛ Argentina,_1985_Is_a_Political_Tale_for_Our Time⠀⇛ Argentine President Alberto Fernández wasted no time in sounding the alarm. A little more than two weeks removed from a January 6–style insurrection in Brazil—and following a series of violent crackdowns by Peru’s newly formed government—Fernández opened the seventh summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Buenos Aires with a warning: “We believe in democracy, and democracy is definitively at risk. After the pandemic, we have seen how the ultra-right has stood up, and it is threatening each of our countries. What we can’t allow is for this recalcitrant and fascist right to threaten our institutions.” # ⚓ The Nation ☛ Sara_Nelson_Could_Be_the_Greatest_Labor Secretary_Since_the_New_Deal⠀⇛ When Sara Nelson agreed to come to Madison, Wis., to discuss the future of labor at an ideas festival on the University of Wisconsin campus in the fall of 2021, it was supposed to be just another appearance by one of America’s most engaged and energetic labor leaders. Then, Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, ended up having a pair of surgeries that required her to use a wheelchair for several months. Of course, she could have canceled the trip. But that’s not how Sara Nelson rolls. # ⚓ Democracy Now ☛ A_History_of_California,_Capitalism,_and the_World:_Malcolm_Harris_on_New_Book_“Palo_Alto”⠀⇛ We speak with author Malcolm Harris about his new book, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, in which he writes how his hometown in the heart of Silicon Valley and home to many tech billionaires has helped to reshape the economy by exporting its brand of capitalism to the rest of the United States and around the world. “It’s important to see the internet and its history as this relation between capital and the government,” says Harris in a wide- ranging interview. # ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ Why_Much_of_the_Global_South_Isn’t Automatically_Supporting_the_West_in_Ukraine⠀⇛ In October 2022, about eight months after the war in Ukraine started, the University of Cambridge in the UK harmonized surveys conducted in 137 countries about their attitudes towards the West and towards Russia and China. # ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ ‘Argentina,_1985’_Is_a_Political_Tale_for_Our Time⠀⇛ Argentina’s nominee for Best Foreign Film offers an urgent warning to democracies in Latin America and across the West. # ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ West_Is_Out_of_Touch_With_Rest_of_World Politically,_EU-Funded_Study_Admits⠀⇛ A study by the elite EU-funded European Council on Foreign Relations found the West is out of touch politically with the rest of the world. Most people in China, India, and Türkiye see Russia as an important ally, and they want multipolarity, not continued “American global supremacy”. # ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Building_Direct_Democracy_in_an_Atlanta Forest⠀⇛ On the edge of a forest just south of Atlanta, I sat in the shade of a gazebo on a hot day in May of 2022, speaking to two activists. Parkgoers sweated in their short sleeves as they strolled past a concrete wall, on which graffiti said DEFEND THE FOREST over a fist sprouting up from roots like a squat tree trunk. The two activists, along with many others, had taken the graffiti’s message to heart and were trying to stop large tracts of the South River Forest from being developed into a privately owned soundstage and a sprawling training center for police, dubbed Cop City. Since that day, the gazebo has been ripped apart by heavy equipment, eighteen activists have been charged with “domestic terrorism,” and one forest defender has been shot and killed by police. # ⚓ Pro Publica ☛ The_Democratic_Insider_Who_Fought_the_Trump Administration⠀⇛ As chief U.S. House counsel for four years, Douglas Letter advised then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi through tense legal standoffs with the Trump administration. He helped shape strategy for the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, leading to contempt of Congress charges against Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro and subpoenas for five sitting members of Congress. Now, Letter, a Justice Department attorney for 40 years, has begun a new role as legal counsel for the Brady campaign, defending victims of gun violence and taking on gun laws, such as a local statute in Highland Park, Illinois, that restricts assault weapons like one used in a July 4 parade massacre. Letter said he carries with him lessons learned counseling House Democrats as they faced growing partisan hostilities and concerns for their safety. # ⚓ Green Party UK ☛ Green_Party_response_to_deal_on_Northern Ireland_protocol_|_The_Green_Party⠀⇛ Responding to the deal agreed between the UK and the EU on the Northern Ireland protocol, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: “We welcome closer cooperation between the UK government and the EU. Boris Johnson had promised an ‘oven-ready’ deal which has caused pain, division and turmoil for communities and businesses in Northern Ireland. “Hopefully today’s agreement marks a turning point when we can begin to heal these problems and strive towards much closer relationships.” o § Censorship/Free Speech⠀➾ # ⚓ NCAC ☛ AAUP,_AFT,_NCAC_Issue_Statement_Denouncing_Florida HB_999⠀⇛ The AAUP,  the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) issued the following statement condemning the introduction of Florida HB 999.  # ⚓ The Guardian UK ☛ Record_number_of_countries_enforced internet_shutdowns_in_2022_–_report⠀⇛ # ⚓ The Washington Post ☛ Governments_shut_down_the_internet more_often_than_ever,_report_says⠀⇛ # ⚓ Hindustan Times ☛ India_topped_global_list_of_internet shutdowns_for_5th_year_in_row_in_2022⠀⇛ # ⚓ The Wire ☛ India_Remains_Internet_Shutdown_Capital_of_the World_for_Fifth_Year_Running:_Report⠀⇛ # ⚓ AccessNow ☛ Resurging_internet_shutdowns_in_2022:_weapons of_control,_shields_of_impunity⠀⇛ # ⚓ AccessNow ☛ Five_years_in_a_row:_India_is_2022’s_biggest internet_shutdowns_offender⠀⇛ In 2022, India shut down the internet at least 84 times — more than any country, for the fifth consecutive year. Read “Weapons of control, shields of impunity: Internet shutdowns in 2022.” # ⚓ AccessNow ☛ Internet_shutdowns_in_Myanmar:_facilitating brutal_human_rights_violations_in_2022⠀⇛ Access Now’s new report, “Weapons of control, shields of impunity: Internet shutdowns in 2022,” unpacks internet shutdowns in Myanmar and globally. # ⚓ AccessNow ☛ Internet_shutdowns_in_Africa:_fewer_offenders in_2022,_still_causing_harm⠀⇛ Access Now’s new report, “Weapons of control, shields of impunity: Internet shutdowns in 2022,” unpacks internet shutdowns in Africa and globally. o § Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press⠀➾ # ⚓ WSWS ☛ Der_Spiegel_asks:_“Is_the_CIA_hunting_Assange’s supporters?”_–_WSWS⠀⇛ In a feature article published last Thursday, the well-known German weekly magazine Der Spiegel pointedly asked whether the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was “hunting” associates and supporters of Julian Assange. # ⚓ CPJ ☛ At_least_14_journalists_detained,_attacked,_or harassed_covering_Nigeria’s_election⠀⇛ # ⚓ CPJ ☛ Editor_Tamás_Bodoky_on_threats_to_Hungary’s independent_media_funding⠀⇛ o § Civil Rights/Policing⠀➾ # ⚓ The Nation ☛ Seattle’s_Working_People_Won_the_Nation’s First_Ban_on_Caste_Discrimination⠀⇛ Standing in the Seattle City Council chambers on February 21, an Indian-American tech worker named Naresh recalled the caste discrimination he has faced beginning at age 5 in India. His voice quivered with anger as he thought about the dignity denied to him. If he touched a dominant-caste person, he said, they would claim that they needed to “take a shower because they consider me untouchable.” Over the course of the meeting, many other oppressed-caste speakers joined Naresh, sharing their own experiences with caste discrimination—often in their own workplaces in the United States. # ⚓ The Nation ☛ The_Long_History_of_Conservative Indoctrination_in_Florida_Schools⠀⇛ When I was growing up, my Florida high school required me to endure a course called “Americanism vs. Communism.” I was hardly alone. Between 1962 and 1991, Florida mandated the class for all high school juniors or seniors in public schools. Each lesson had the same takeaway: “Americanism” was all good and “Communism” all bad. # ⚓ Meduza ☛ Russia’s_Human_Rights_Commissioner_says_she’s received_more_than_50_official_complaints_from_jailed opposition_figure_Alexey_Navalny_—_Meduza⠀⇛ Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said at a briefing on Monday that she’s received more than 50 complaints from jailed Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, according to the Russian state news outlet TASS. # ⚓ Türkiye_arrests_184_people_over_earthquakes,_including_AKP mayor⠀⇛ Legal action has been initiated against 612 suspects so far, the justice minister has said. # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Plainclothes_Paramilitaries_and_the Predator_State⠀⇛ To residents of Memphis’s resource-poor, predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods, the Scorpions were easy to spot. The plainclothes patrols were known for driving their unmarked Dodge Chargers through the streets, often all too recklessly, sowing fear as they went, spitting venom from their windows, jumping out with guns drawn at the slightest sign of an infraction. # ⚓ The Nation ☛ Predatory_Policing_Has_Become_a_National Crisis⠀⇛ To residents of Memphis’s resource-poor, predominantly non-white neighborhoods, the Scorpion units were easy to spot. The plainclothes patrols were known for driving their unmarked Dodge Chargers through the streets, often all too recklessly, sowing fear as they went, spitting venom from their windows, jumping out with guns drawn at the slightest sign of an infraction. # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ This_Is_Not_A_Difficult_Decision⠀⇛ After his creator went on a loathsome tirade declaring black people “a hate group” that white people should “get away” from, once-amusing office drone and comic anti-hero Dilbert has been dropped by hundreds of newspapers, his distributor and his book publisher in a rare move of decency and solidarity befitting the close of Black History Month. Online, his still-bellicose creator Scott Adams is whining he’s been “cancelled” for “being white.” Nope, many argue. It’s for “being a racist douchebag.” # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ US_and_EU_Groups_Call_for_‘Ceasefire’_on Trade_Challenges_to_Climate_Policies⠀⇛ A coalition of more than three dozen progressive advocacy groups based in the United States and the European Union on Monday implored E.U. policymakers to stop pursuing challenges to the Inflation Reduction Act and urged governments on both sides of the Atlantic to start prioritizing decarbonization over corporate-friendly trade rules. # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ 50_Years_On,_Legacy_of_Wounded_Knee Uprising_Lives_in_Indigenous_Resistance⠀⇛ As many Native Americans on Monday marked the 50th anniversary of the militant occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, participants in the 1973 uprising and other activists linked the deadly revolt to modern-day Indigenous resistance, from Standing Rock to the #LandBack movement. # ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Consumer_Advocates_Welcome_Chance_for SCOTUS_to_Redress_5th_Circuit’s_‘Harebrained’_Attack_on CFPB⠀⇛ The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding, a move that was welcomed by some advocates as an opportunity for the nation’s highest court to protect American consumers from a lower court ruling. # ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Rail_Workers_Demand_“Immediate_Action”_From Lawmakers_to_Rein_In_Rail_Industry⠀⇛ # ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Will_the_Equal_Rights_Amendment_Finally_Be_Added to_the_US_Constitution?⠀⇛ # ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ How_Howard_Schultz_Made_Starbucks_the Poster_Child_of_Corporate_Abuse⠀⇛ Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, in a recent interview with CNN’s Poppy Harlow, proudly showed off his newest invention: a tablespoon of olive oil added to a cup of coffee to bring out rich, complex flavors. The conversation took place in Italy and was meant to showcase Schultz’s commitment to the innovation and quality of Starbucks coffee as he gets ready to step down as CEO of the company for the third time. When Harlow asked him why he was in Italy doing interviews rather than sitting down with representatives from Starbucks Workers United (SWU) to negotiate a contract, he responded, “We want to and are willing to enter into bargaining, but we want to do it face to face. That’s what we think is the right thing to do.” # ⚓ Meduza ☛ FSB_raids_Moscow_anarchists’_homes,_possibly trying_to_mount_terrorism_case_against_imprisoned mathematician_Azat_Miftakhov_—_Meduza⠀⇛ On Monday morning, the FSB raided the homes of several Moscow anarchists, in connection with an inquiry into the existence of a Moscow branch of Network (“Set”), a leftist political association labeled “terrorist” and banned in Russia. # ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Hungary_to_pay_€6,500_to_Iraqi_dentist detained_for_three_months_years_ago⠀⇛ # ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ Welcome_to_the_Predator_State,_Where_the Scorpions_on_the_Corner_Just_Might_Kill_You⠀⇛ With the police ever better funded (just as the U.S. military is), war has come home to roost in our streets, no less disastrously than it did abroad in the years of this country’s war on terror. o § Internet Policy/Net Neutrality⠀➾ # ⚓ Democracy Now ☛ Free_Speech_on_Trial:_Supreme_Court_Hears Cases_That_Could_Reshape_Future_of_the_Internet⠀⇛ We look at two cases before the Supreme Court that could reshape the future of the internet. Both cases focus on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which backers say has helped foster free speech online by allowing companies to host content without direct legal liability for what users post. Critics say it has allowed tech platforms to avoid accountability for spreading harmful material. On Tuesday, the justices heard arguments in Gonzalez v. Google, brought by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, who was killed in the 2015 Paris terror attack. Her family sued Google claiming the company had illegally promoted videos by the Islamic State, which carried out the Paris attack. On Wednesday, justices heard arguments in the case of Twitter v. Taamneh, brought by the family of Nawras Alassaf, who was killed along with 38 others in a 2017 terrorist attack on a nightclub in Turkey. We speak with Aaron Mackey, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who says Section 230 “powers the underlying architecture” of the internet. # ⚓ Techdirt ☛ FCC_‘Investigating’_Repeated_Broadband_Industry Coverage_Lies⠀⇛ After years of criticism about their inaccuracy, the FCC recently spent another $50 million (on top of the $350 million they’d already spent) on supposedly better broadband maps. But the end result is still a bit of a mess, with entrenched telecom monopolies like Comcast being repeatedly caught claiming to deliver broadband in areas that can’t receive service. Often to glean subsidies the company doesn’t deserve. # ⚓ APNIC ☛ Transiting_UAVs_in_aerial_mesh_networks⠀⇛ Guest Post: How to maintain continuous network connectivity during movement. # ⚓ APNIC ☛ Welcome_to_APRICOT_2023⠀⇛ APRICOT 2023 starts today in Manila, Philippines! Here are some highlights. # ⚓ APNIC ☛ IETF_roundup_for_the_APNIC_community⠀⇛ Guest Post: Investigating IETF activities relevant to the APNIC community at APRICOT 2023. o § Monopolies⠀➾ # § Patents⠀➾ # ⚓ JUVE ☛ BSH_defends_vacuum_cleaner_patent_against Electrolux⠀⇛ # § Trademarks⠀➾ # ⚓ Techdirt ☛ Slim_Shady_Files_Shady_Trademark Opposition_Over_Application_For_‘Reasonably_Shady’ Podcast⠀⇛ And if that title didn’t really confuse you all that much, then you’ve managed to get the point. Eminem hasn’t been shy about asserting his intellectual property rights in the past, though much of his efforts on that front have actually been to the benefit of artists from his fights with record labels. That doesn’t mean that Em’s team isn’t capable of some IP missteps, however. # § Copyrights⠀➾ # ⚓ Creative Commons ☛ Zarya_of_the_Dawn:_US_Copyright Office_Affirms_Limits_on_Copyright_of_AI_Outputs⠀⇛ Just this week, the United States Copyright Office (USCO) provided a bit more clarity, at least as to its views about US law and works generated by AI. While it affirms some of the limits that we articulated, it leaves open many questions about where exactly the boundaries of copyrightability lie. # ⚓ Torrent Freak ☛ Pirate_Couple_Got_Caught_Uploading, Promised_to_Abstain,_Got_Caught_Again⠀⇛ In 2018, Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN targeted a middle-aged couple who uploaded pirated content in breach of copyright. In exchange for a relatively small settlement and a promise not to infringe again, BREIN took no further action. After being caught for a second time, harsh financial consequences mean that the man and woman are no longer a couple. # ⚓ Torrent Freak ☛ Sony_vs._Datel:_Game_Cheat_Copyright Questions_Referred_to_EU’s_Top_Court⠀⇛ After more than a decade of litigation in Germany, key questions emerging from a Sony lawsuit targeting cheat maker Datel have been referred to Europe’s highest court. The lawsuit concerns cheat mechanisms created for Sony’s long-dead Playstation Portable that affected gameplay but ran alongside copyrighted code without directly modifying it. * § Gemini* and Gopher⠀➾ o § Personal⠀➾ # ⚓ Part_Time_Work⠀⇛ Over the last 4 months (since my dance with c0v1d) I’ve been having ongoing health issues. So much so that I can no longer work full time. Of course the bills have to be paid so I find myself looking for alternative modes of operation. At first I though that freelancing might be the answer but that lacks stability.Some weeks you have income and others you don’t. One might think that a higher hourly rate is the answer but that approach is getting harder and harder to do in such a competitive market. A part time role could be the answer. # ⚓ Collecting_links_about_skills⠀⇛ I feel like I’m going overboard with the references. When I listen to podcasts, I practically never check the pages with references. But in this case, the four of us bring so much stuff to the table that deserves a link. If you can think of more stuff that needs to be added, please do so. One link I was unable to find was a post by James Raggi where he first mentioned the specialist class in Lamentations of the Flame Princess and ditching percentage thieves’ abilities for X-in-6 rolls with the d6. # ⚓ Christians_Speaking_out_against_Christian_Nationalism⠀⇛ I was born and spent the first 32 years of my life in Oklahoma. I hate the place with a passion. For an example of how terrible it is: a couple years after I left, the governor called for a statewide day of prayer for the petroleum industry. I still try and keep an eye on the place. Occasionally I browse the r/okc and r/oklahoma subreddits, to get an idea of what’s going on down there. Last night, I stumbled on a very wonderful article, that I’m going to reproduce in full here. # ⚓ Moon/Star_Gazing_2023-02-27_Evening_(Fairbanks,_AK,_USA)⠀⇛ Fairbanks was inside a high-pressure bubble last night, and skies were clear. Not knowing how many more such opportunities I would get before we were overwhelmed by Alaska’s increasing daylight hours, I decided to head out to the boat launch for some stargazing. I was dressed quite stiffly in multiple layers of artic gear, expecting the temperatures to get extremely cold, and in fact they did drop down to -26 deg F at my viewing location. # ⚓ Tuesday⠀⇛ As I enter the Midnight, along the counter a few new heads turn to see, who’s coming in. It’s only me. As I carefully close the door to leave the cold wind outside, a whizzing sound can be heard — apparently emanating from my backpack. Ya ya, I know, it’s my trusted notebook grinding away on a build of emacs 29 … I turn to my favorite table in the corner, because it has a power outlet close. Hastily I retrieve the machine from my backpack and plug in the power supply. That very moment the whizz dies. make completed. Puh. No errors. Lucky me, I guess. # ⚓ On_being_an_ally⠀⇛ Sometimes I read posts on Mastodon about allyship and it always reminds me of a longer discussion I had with my wife about the rights of women and microagressions and related topics and she didn’t care much about all that. The main point she came back to again and again was: I don’t care about this, I just want equal pay for equal work. I think what she was getting at is that the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon: Talking about being an ally is not the same as actually being an ally for real people in your life. # ⚓ gemini://rawtext.club/~deerbard/glog/2023-02-28-back-to- flow.gmi⠀⇛ As a child, I entered the flow state naturally. Simply by attending to what interested me. Then I gradually lost access to it. Now, having passed the halfway point of my life expectancy, I’m regaining it again. o § Technical⠀➾ # ⚓ Decimal_watch,_short_update⠀⇛ Of course it is not exactly as I would have imagined. I had meant to only work with decimal time directly when using the watch. My plan was to memorise a handful of decimal equivalents to my regularly daily events and just use the watch to compare how close I was to them throughout the day. As a secondary usage the watch gives me something to glance at and see the day pass without really caring about the specific time. My assumption was that the above two use cases would account for the overwhelming majority of my watch usage. The other use case I imagined was ad hoc times, like catching a bus and needing to compare against a time table that uses traditional time. Here I had already decided I would just use other time sources, like pulling out my phone (or looking at nearby clocks). I was OK with this because I suspected it would not do it often. # ⚓ Notes_on_tldr_hosting⠀⇛ I wasn’t sure if this was worthwhile, and although I’ve used it occasionally myself, I largely forgot about it. But recently I got email from someone who found it helpful, which put it back in my mind. # ⚓ Alt-Text_&_Link_Rot_—_How_Accessibility_Features_Benefit Everyone⠀⇛ Links rot. It’s unfortunate, but it’s just a part of the web. Content disappears and links rot; if you don’t host your own images, then you can’t guarantee that your images will always appear. In this situation, alt-text can be the difference between your piece still making sense and it being completely useless. This is because many browsers show the alt-text with the missing image icon, so descriptive alt-text can make sure your audience still gets the necessary information. # ⚓ Punking_PCB_layout_with_GEDA-PCB⠀⇛ I’ve spent most of my adult life laying out PCB boards (not all the time…). I go through phases when I do a lot of PCB layout. I’ve used various software to do so, but in the end, my favorite way to do it is punking it with PCB. # § Internet/Gemini⠀➾ # ⚓ Certificate_Change_on_skyjake.fi⠀⇛ Sometime in the next few days I will be updating the server certificate on skyjake.fi with a new one that includes “*.skyjake.fi” as a DNS wildcard. The private key of the certificate will remain the same, so your client may trust the new certificate automatically. # § Programming⠀➾ # ⚓ Unlikely_Unicode,_Episode_MMCMVIII⠀⇛ English has zoning rules against placing the sound represented by ŋ at the head of the word–that would be using English wrongly, you see. The discussion spawned from NixOS and nginx and whether the two alliterate, or not. Probably it’s just that nginx is popular, and is favored by certain perhaps too vocal commentators who also happen to use NixOS. These words alliterate by regular expression, qr/\b(?i)n/, which we might term a visual alliteration, just as one can have visual rhymes, “I love that stove”. A leading ŋ could make an appearance in comic-book, perhaps the Penguin was preparing to pontificate when that protector of peace, Batman, punched him in the paunch. Speaking of children’s materials, I am informed that / vr/ is likewise verboten at the start of a word–vroom, vroom! But these are not serious examples, and doubtless they will be grown out of in good time. After all, Don Quixote put an end to the sale of chivalric romances. =============================================================================== * Gemini_(Primer) links can be opened using Gemini_software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ ¶ Lines in total: 8548 ➮ Generation completed at 02:42, i.e. 51 seconds to (re)generate ⟲