Desktop/Laptop

• Behind the Scenes of Thelio Mega Engineering

  In 2017, we announced that we were going to bring the design and manufacturing of our products in-house. The driving purpose was to leverage our understanding of our users’ needs in order to engineer better products for them. In 2018, we shipped the first fruits of our labor and, over the course of the last two years, shipped hundreds of updates to the Thelio line as we continuously integrated improvements into our manufacturing. Establishing our factory in Colorado made this possible, but we were just getting started.

  Early this year, we set off to engineer our workstation version of a Le Mans Hypercar. It started with a challenge: Engineer a quad-GPU workstation that doesn’t thermal throttle any of the GPUs. Three GPUs is pretty easy. Stack the forth one in there and it’s a completely different animal. Months of work and thousands of engineering hours later we accomplished our goal. Every detail was scrutinized. Every part is of the highest quality. And new factory capabilities, like milling, enabled us to introduce unique solutions to design challenges. The result is Thelio Mega. A compact, high-performance quad-GPU system that’s quiet enough to sit on your desk.

  We started with simple fan placement experiments to determine the best location for intake and exhaust fans and sizes. Computer fluid dynamics simulations assisted to dial in air flow ducts followed by hundreds of fan placement iterations and thermal tests.

Kernel Space

• Linux 5.10 Is The Next LTS Kernel – Phoronix

  While there had been much speculation that Linux 5.9 would be the kernel’s next long-term support release based on past timing, Linux 5.10 is going to be the LTS release.

  Greg Kroah-Hartman who is the main stable maintainer for the Linux kernel confirmed at the Linux Foundation’s Open-Source Summit Europe that Linux 5.10 will be the LTS release.

  Linux 5.10-rc1 released yesterday and should debut as stable by mid-December. This kernel will then be maintained for the years ahead under the Linux LTS program.

• Linux 5.10 is a bigger kernel release than expected and sees the removal of setf_fs()

  With first release candidate of version 5.10 of the Linux kernel now available, Linus Torvalds says that it “looks to be a bigger release” than he expected.

  Linux kernel 5.10-rc1 includes 14-15,000 merge commits — depending on how you count them — Torvalds notes in his weekly update to the Linux community. He shares the news that, for him, the most interesting change in this release is the removal of the setf_fs() addressing tool.

• Linux 5.10 will deliver ‘historic’ upgrade

  The creator of Linux has hailed the “historic” launch of the latest update as one of the most important in the software’s history.

  Linus Torvalds said that the release of Linux 5.10 was, “a bigger release than I expected”, and could surpass version 5.8 to be the biggest software launch for the company yet.

  The launch looks to make the open-source software platform more powerful and easier to use than ever before, offering a number of new additions, upgrades and features for users across the globe.

• Torvalds hails the removal of a relic from Linux’s early days

  Set_fs() has been the source of various security problems over the years. Jonathan Corbet, a kernel contributor and editor of Linux news site LWN, published an article in 2017 titled ‘A farewell to set_fs()?’ in which he highlighted some of the aforementioned issues.

  “Set_fs() is clearly the sort of interface that can easily create severe security bugs,” Corbet wrote. “It is also a tempting shortcut that tends to find its way into code of questionable quality such as out-of-tree drivers.”

  The function has been part of Linux since around 1991 and enabled the kernel to override address spaces. In 2010, the National Institute of Standards and Technology detailed how it could be used to “overwrite arbitrary kernel memory locations and gain privileges”.

  That particular bug was fixed in 2010 but set_fs() has continued to be a concern and many within the community have called for its removal for many years. However, there’s a lack of developers willing to do such deep infrastructural changes.

  Other notable changes in the release include support for NVIDIA Orin SoCs designed for autonomous cars, improved support for the Broadcom BCM2711 chip used in the Raspberry Pi 4, support for upcoming Arm-based CPUs and GPUs, a fix for the ‘Year 2038 Problem’, virtualisation tweaks, and ending support for PowerPC 601 CPUs.

• ARM32 Page Tables

  As I continue to describe in different postings how the ARM32 start-up sequence works, it becomes necessary to explain in-depth the basic kernel concepts around page tables and how it is implemented on ARM32 platforms.

  To understand the paging setup, we need to repeat and extend some Linux paging lingo. Some good background is to read Mel Gormans description of the Linux page tables from his book “Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager”. This book was published in 2007 and is based on Mel’s PhD thesis from 2003. Some stuff has happened in the 13 years since then, but the basics still hold. It is necessary to also understand the new layers in the page tables such as the five layers of page tables currently used in the Linux kernel.

  First a primer: the ARM32 architecture with a classic MMU has 2 levels of page tables and the more recent LPAE (Large Physical Address Extension) MMU has 3 levels of page tables.

  Only some of the ARMv7 architectures have LPAE, and it is only conditionally enabled, i.e. the machines can also use the classic MMU if they want, they have both. It is not enabled by default on the multi_v7 configuration: your machine has to explicitly turn it on during compilation. The layout is so different that the same binary image can never support both classic and LPAE MMU in the same kernel image.

Instructionals/Technical

• How to Set Up WireGuard VPN on Ubuntu 20.04 | Linuxize

  WireGuard is a modern VPN (Virtual Private Network) technology that utilizes state-of-the-art cryptography. Compared to other popular VPN solutions, such as IPsec and OpenVPN , WireGuard is faster, easier to configure, and has a smaller footprint. It is cross-platform and can run almost anywhere, including Linux, Windows, Android, and macOS.

  Wireguard is a peer-to-peer VPN; it does not use the client-server model. Depending on its configuration, a peer can act as a traditional server or client. It works by creating a network interface on each peer device tha

• [Older] How to use zip on Linux

  Compressed files with the .zip extension are commonplace throughout Windows systems, as it’s been the native file compression method for the operating system since many years ago. On a Linux system, the nearest equivalent would have to be tar files and various methods of compression like gzip.

• How to uninstall MySQL on Ubuntu 20.04

  You would like to remove MySQL database from your Ubuntu system ? In this short tutorial, you will learn how to safely uninstall MySQL .

  Make sure however to create backups of your databases before starting the procedure.

• How to improve your bash/sh shell script with ShellCheck lint script analysis tool

• How to install Minecraft on Deepin 20 – YouTube

• openssl Generate Self Signed SSL Certifcate

  openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout /etc/ssl/private/myblog.key -x509 -days 365 -out /etc/ssl/private/myblog.pem – (openssl Generate Self Signed SSL Certifcate generating self signed ssl certificate to use in dovecot postfix nginx Self signed certificates can be used for private encryptions between server and client and must be manually accepted on browser/ client). The best command line collection on the internet, submit yours and save your favorites.

• How to Add a Simple Progress Bar in Shell Script | Linux Journal

  At times, we need to write shell scripts that are interactive and user executing them need to monitor the progress. For such requirements, we can implement a simple progress bar that gives an idea about how much task has been completed by the script or how much the script has executed.

  To implement it, we only need to use the “echo” command with the following options and a backslash-escaped character.

• How to install Steam on Deepin 20

  Firstly, we will enable 32-bit architecture on our device. Then we will update the system repositories. After that, we will install required 32bit packages. Lastly, with the last three commands, we will download and install Steam. Enjoy!

• FISH | Friendly Interactive SHell on openSUSE – CubicleNate’s Techpad

  BASH has been good to me and I have enjoyed my time with BASH very much. I have learned so much about the inner workings of Linux through the terminal and BASH has been there my whole experience. “Tab” completion has been a marvelous gift to the terminal user experience. I have never had a complaint about BASH and therefore never looked elsewhere.

  On the episode of BDL from 17 Oct 2020, I was told to try FISH as it would change my terminal life. I didn’t really believe it but proceeded to install it anyway. I also wasn’t ready to commit to it so I modified a profile in Konsole to use Fish instead of Bash. Typing in one solitary command and I was sold.

• How to install Sublime Text editor on a Chromebook

  Today we are looking at how to install Sublime Text editor on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

Games

• The absurd multiplayer dating sim Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp is out now | GamingOnLinux

  I will admit that the original Monster Prom is something special as it remains as the only dating sim type of game I’ve enjoyed, and now there’s a brand new helping of it out with Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp.

  The original was an unexpected pleasure for me, as a genre I’ve rarely been able to enjoy. Let’s face it, “In Monster Prom I was rejected even after letting a princess ride me”, is not a typical GamingOnLinux headline. Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp was funded thanks to a Kickstarter campaign back in 2019, and it has released as of October 23 along with full Linux support as expected. Developer Beautiful Glitch mentioned how they’ve pretty much taken all that was tasty from the original, and threw in some spices to make Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp.

• Möbius Front ’83 is a tactical turn-based strategy game from Zachtronics | GamingOnLinux

  Releasing with Linux support on November 5 is Möbius Front ’83 latest title from Zachtronics (SpaceChem, Infinifactory, Opus Magnum, Eliza). Unlike most of their previous titles, it’s not a puzzle game. They say it’s actually a conventional strategy game designed from scratch by the clever minds at Zachtronics, so it will have their own special feel to it.

  “The year is 1983 and the United States of America must defend itself from an enemy it could have never imagined— an America from an alternate universe that will stop at nothing to seize control of the country’s heartland!”

• How to play League of Legends on Linux | FOSS Linux

  League Of Legends is a game made into a snap, meaning that the software package can be installed and executed across different Linux distributions. Being among the largest footprints of any game in streaming media communities on platforms like Twitch and YouTube, installing it in your Linux system will be great. For our case, we will install it in Ubuntu distro.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • Plasma Breeze theme with black fonts – My Brooze edit

    One of the most common topics to land in my inbox is Linux fonts. And more often than not, people ask me about what I normally do to make font clarity and contrast higher in this or that distribution. Then, more prevalent than all are questions about my modified Plasma Breeze theme, aptly titled Brooze.

    [...]

    This is all it takes to have pure black fonts and enjoy good text clarity in Plasma. I don’t understand why low-contrast fonts are such a fad. Hint: Plasma is actually doing a relatively decent job. In general, most distros and desktop environments come with atrociously pale fonts, gray on gray. But then ergonomics has never been strong in the Linux desktop, as it’s not typically developed as a product, and certainly not with the end user in mind, unless the end user is a dark-theme-loving software developer. Anyway, if you are someone who actually spends a lot of time reading or writing, and values their eyes, then you may want to implement Brooze. I hope you find this innocent little article useful.

Distributions

• IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

  • David Cantrell: rpminspect-1.2 released

    rpminspect 1.2 is now available. In addition to four new inspections, a lot of improvements have been made to how the program runs and reports results.

    [...]

    A number of improvements are present in this release. The big one is the detection of rebased builds and the reading of the rebaseable list from the rpminspect-data package. A rebase is found when the before and after builds have matching package names but different version and release numbers. If the package name and version are the same but the release number is different, this is considered a maintenance update. This check determines reporting thresholds. For instance, changes in config files may report as VERIFY for a maintenance update but they report as INFO for a rebase. The assumption here is that rebased packages will bring a lot of changes and while rpminspect will find those, we do not want it to alarm as strictly as it would for a maintenance update.

    When using the -d option to get debugging output, you no longer see the config file settings dumped at the beginning of the output. That output has been moved to the -D/–dump-config option. You may not always want to see that so you now need to specify -D to also get the config file output.

    Support for SHA-224, SHA-384, and SHA-512 message digests is now present in librpminspect. There is a DEFAULT_MESSAGE_DIGEST macro in constants.h that sets the default the program will use. This is intended to help prepare for changes down the road where the message digest used for various tasks in packaging will change.

  • Systemd 247-RC1 Released With Systemd-OOMD, Systemd-Homed Now Defaults To Btrfs

    The first release candidate of systemd 247 is now available for testing and it’s a huge feature release.

    This big systemd 247 release is introducing systemd-oomd for out-of-memory daemon handling, systemd-homed now defaults to using Btrfs, there is a new capability with systemd of secure credentials handling, and much more. Below is a look at the highlights for systemd 247:

    - The new systemd-oomd service has been added for monitoring resource contention and can kill processes when memory/swap pressure is above the defined limits. For now this is experimental and just enabled in the developer mode.

    - Systemd-homed defaults to using the Btrfs file-system when available for creating home directories in LUKS volumes. The DefaultFileSystemType= option for homed.conf remains available for changing off the default/ Btrfs was chosen since it can grow and shrink the file-system online.

Devices/Embedded

• Module and dev kit run Linux on QCS610 camera SoC

  Lantronix has launched an “Open-Q 610 μSOM” module and $995 dev kit that run Linux on Qualcomm’s camera-focused, AI-enabled octa-core QCS610 SoC with triple 4-lane MIPI-CSI interfaces.

  The Intrinsyc division of Lantronix has announced a tiny Open-Q 610 μSOM compute module and Open-Q 610 μSOM Development Kit that run Yocto Linux on a new Qualcomm QCS610 SoC aimed at smart camera applications. Camera features include staggered HDR, lens de-warp, dual camera stitching, image de-fog, and 360-degree panoramic views. The kit is available starting at $995, with shipments due in November.

• Coffee Lake 3.5-inch SBC has up to three GbE ports

  Axiomtek’s 3.5-inch “CAPA520” SBC runs Linux or Win 10 on 8th and 9th Gen Coffee Lake CPUs with triple display and -20 to 60°C support plus up to 3x GbE, 6x USB, 2x SATA, and mini-PCIe and ZIO expansion.

  Axiomtek has announced a 3.5-inch, Intel Coffee Lake SBC that follows its similar, 6th and 7th Gen CAPA500. Like that model, the Linux-ready CAPA520 features Axiomtek’s ZIO expansion interface for optional I/O modules. The SBC supports industrial IoT-related applications in the embedded market, such as industrial control, machine vision, self-service terminal, digital signage, and medical imaging.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Announcing the Open Source Hardware Certification API – Open Source Hardware Association

    Today we are excited to announce the launch of a read/write API for our Open Source Hardware Certification program. This API will make it easier to apply for certification directly from where you already document your hardware, as well as empower research, visualizations, and explorations of currently certified hardware.

    OSHWA’s Open Source Hardware Certification program has long been an easy way for creators and users alike to identify hardware that complies with the community definition of open source hardware. Since its creation in 2016, this free program has certified hardware from over 45 countries on every continent except Antarctica. Whenever you see the certification logo on hardware:

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Working open source | daniel.haxx.se

  I work full time on open source and this is how.

  Background

  I started learning how to program in my teens, well over thirty years ago and I’ve worked as a software engineer and developer since the early 1990s. My first employment as a developer was in 1993. I’ve since worked for and with lots of companies and I’ve worked on a huge amount of (proprietary) software products and devices over many years. Meaning: I certainly didn’t start my life open source. I had to earn it.

  When I was 20 years old I did my (then mandatory) military service in Sweden. After having endured that, I applied to the university while at the same time I was offered a job at IBM. I hesitated, but took the job. I figured I could always go to university later – but life took other turns and I never did. I didn’t do a single day of university. I haven’t regretted it.

  [...]

  I’d like to emphasize that I worked as a contract and consultant developer for many years (over 20!), primarily on proprietary software and custom solutions, before I managed to land myself a position where I could primarily write open source as part of my job.

  [...]

  My work setup with Mozilla made it possible for me to spend even more time on curl, apart from the (still going) two daily spare time hours. Nobody at Mozilla cared much about (my work with) curl and no one there even asked me about it. I worked on Firefox for a living.

  For anyone wanting to do open source as part of their work, getting a job at a company that already does a lot of open source is probably the best path forward. Even if that might not be easy either, and it might also mean that you would have to accept working on some open source projects that you might not yourself be completely sold on.

  In late 2018 I quit Mozilla, in part because I wanted to try to work with curl “for real” (and part other reasons that I’ll leave out here). curl was then already over twenty years old and was used more than ever before.

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • yoric.steps.next()

      The web is getting darker. It is being weaponized by trolls, bullies and bad actors and, as we’ve witnessed, this can have extremely grave consequences for individuals, groups, sometimes entire countries. So far, most of the counter-measures proposed by either governments or private actors are even scarier.

      The creators of the Matrix protocol have recently published the most promising plan I have seen. One that I believe stands a chance of making real headway in this fight, while respecting openness, decentralization, open-source and privacy.

      I have been offered the opportunity to work on this plan. For this reason, after 9 years as an employee at Mozilla, I’ll be moving to Element, where I’ll try and contribute to making the web a better place. My last day at Mozilla will be October 30th.

• Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

  • LibreOffice Information: Presentation size decreasing in LibreOffice

    Possibly you are an artist or a graphic designer and you have created a beautiful presentation template using shapes, images and your great talent. Like these Indonesian people from that site.

    All templatess look very good. Really, I much like it. But if you’ll download for example that template, then (after unzipping) you’ll see that its size is 16 mb! And it’s only a presentation template! Without any your data, images, tables or charts! It’s too much anyway.

  • First batch of videos from openSUSE + LibreOffice Conference 2020 – The Document Foundation Blog

    We’ve edited and uploaded the first batch of videos from our recent joint conference. Here’s the playlist – use the button in the top-right corner to switch videos:

    Please confirm that you want to play a YouTube video. By accepting, you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

  • On sessions, statutes and software – A glimpse behind the scenes at TDF (talk at openSUSE + LibreOffice Virtual Conference 2020) – Florian Effenberger

    At the openSUSE + LibreOffice Virtual Conference I had the opportunity to give a talk about “On sessions, statutes and software – A glimpse behind the scenes at TDF”.

• Programming/Development

  • What is DevSecOps? Everything You Need To Know About DevSecOps

    Most people are familiar with the term “DevOps,” but they don’t know how to really utilize it. There’s more to DevOps than just development and operational teams. There’s an essential element of DevOps that is often missing from the equation; IT security. Security should be included in the lifecycle of apps.

    The reason you need to include security is that security was once assigned to one team that integrated security near the end-stages of development. Taking such a lax approach to security wasn’t such a problem when apps were developed in months or years. The average development cycle has changed quite a bit, though, and apps can be developed in a matter of days or weeks. Outdated security practices like leaving security too late can bring DevOps initiatives to their knees.

  • Nibble Stew: The Meson Manual: Good News, Bad News and Good News

    Starting with good news, the Meson Manual has been updated to a third edition. In addition to the usual set of typo fixes, there is an entirely new chapter on converting projects from an existing build system to Meson. Not only are there tips and tricks on each part of the conversion, there is even guidance on how to get it done on projects that are too big to be converted in one go.

  • Percepio Releases Tracealyzer Visual Trace Diagnostics Solution Version 4.4 with Support for Embedded Linux

    Percepio announced the availability of Tracealyzer version 4.4 with support for embedded Linux. Tracealyzer gives developers insight during software debugging and verification at the system level by enabling visual exploratory analysis from the top down. This makes the software suitable for spotting issues during full system testing and drill down into the details to find the cause.

    Version 4.4 adds several views optimized for Linux tracing, in addition to a set of visualizations already in Tracealyzer, and leverages Common Trace Format (CTF) and the widely supported LTTng, an open source tracing framework.

  • LLVM Adds A SPIR-V CPU Runner For Handling GPU Kernels On The CPU – Phoronix

    LLVM has merged an experimental MLIR-based SPIR-V CPU runner that the developers are working towards being able to handle CPU-based execution of GPU kernels.

    This new SPIR-V runner is built around the MLIR intermediate representation (Multi-Level Intermediate Representation) with a focus of going from GPU-focused code translated through SPIR-V and to LLVM and then executed on the CPU. The runner focus is similar to that of the MLIR-based runners for NVIDIA CUDA, AMD ROCm, and Vulkan, but just executing on the CPU itself. It was earlier this year LLVM added the MLIR-Vulkan-Runner for handling MLIR on Vulkan hardware.

  • Python

    • Python Modulo in Practice: How to Use the % Operator – Real Python

      Python supports a wide range of arithmetic operators that you can use when working with numbers in your code. One of these operators is the modulo operator (%), which returns the remainder of dividing two numbers.

    • Test & Code : Python Testing for Software Engineering 136: Wearable Technology – Sophy Wong

      Wearable technology is not just smart consumer devices like watches and activity trackers.

      Wearable tech also includes one off projects by designers, makers, and hackers and there are more and more people producing tutorials on how to get started. Wearable tech is also a great way to get both kids and adults excited about coding, electronics, and in general, engineering skills.

      Sophy Wong is a designer who makes really cool stuff using code, technology, costuming, soldering, and even jewelry techniques to get tech onto the human body.

  • Rust

    • Librsvg’s test suite is now in Rust

      Some days ago, Dunja Lalic rewrote the continuous integration scripts to be much faster. A complete pipeline used to take about 90 minutes to run, now it takes about 15 minutes on average.

      [...]

      The most complicated thing to port was the reference tests. These are the most important ones; each test loads an SVG document, renders it, and compares the result to a reference PNG image. There are some complications in the tests; they have to create a special configuration for Fontconfig and Pango, so as to have reproducible font rendering. The pango-rs bindings do not cover this part of Pango, so we had to do some things by hand.

Finance

• Homeless seek indoor shelters as temperatures plunge to record lows

  A cold front that dumped several inches of snow in the Pike Peak region Sunday into Monday is expected to pludge temperatures into a record-breaking cold overnight, the National Weather service in Pueblo predicts.

  Colorado Springs broke the record low temperture for Oct. 26 by 10 degrees. The pervious record was set in 1913 at 16 degrees. Monday’s low was measured at 6 degrees, and the brutal cold is forecast to continue.

  For most, the winter-like weather means a hindrance on the roads and running the thermostat higher, but single digit-temperatures can be more than just an inconvenience for those who are homeless.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• FBI investigating fire set in Boston ballot drop box

  A fire was set Sunday in a Boston ballot drop box holding more than 120 ballots in what Massachusetts election officials said appears to have been a “deliberate attack,” now under investigation by the FBI.

  The fire that was set around 4 a.m. in a ballot drop box outside the Boston Public Library downtown, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s office said.

  There were 122 ballots inside the box when it was emptied Sunday morning, and 87 of them were still legible and able to be processed, Galvin’s office said. The box had last been emptied around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Civil Rights/Policing

• Digital Self

  When we talk about the digital self, we are talking about the self as it exists within digital spaces. This holds differently for different people, as some of us prefer to live within an pseudonymous or anonymous identity online, divested from our physical selves, while others consider the digital a more holistic identity that extends from the physical.

  Your digital self is gestalt, in that it exists across whatever mediums, web sites, and services you use. These bits are pieces together to form a whole picture of what it means to be you, or some aspect of you. This may be carefully curated, or it may be an emergent property of who you are.

  The way your physical self has rights, so too does your digital self. Or, perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that your rights extend to your digital self. I do not personally consider that there is a separation between these selves when it comes to rights, as both are aspects of you and you have rights. I am explicitly not going to list what these rights are, because I have my own ideas about them and yours may differ. Instead, I will briefly talk about consent.

  [...]

  Our digital autonomy is not the only thing at stake when we look at digital consent. The ways we interact in digital spaces impact our whole selves, and exploitation of our consent too impacts our whole selves.

Monopolies

• Patents

  • FOSS Patents: Munich I Regional Court’s official presentation of results of “evaluation” of local patent rules puts court’s pro-patentee partiality on full display

    One year ago, the Landgericht München I (Munich I Regional Court) celebrated the tenth anniversary of its Patent Local Rules (“Münchner Verfahren”). On that occasion, the court announced an “evaluation” study by the Max Planck Institute in order to find out how practitioners view the court’s performance. Last week, the court officially presented the results in a videoconference. As of today, access to the recording (which the court originally made available to the public via YouTube) has been restricted.

    Maybe someone decided to hide the presentation because the results are all too embarrassing–and even I, as a critic of the court’s exceedingly patentee-friendly decisions, disagree in some ways.

    [...]

    But in patent cases, which involve far more complex technical questions and have huge economic implications, German judges rarely appoint experts. Does it make sense? No. It simply stinks. It’s an agenda-driven system, and the administration of justice is nowhere near the top of the list.

    To be fair, the practice of adjudicating cases without hearing expert witnesses is not unique to the Munich court. In Dusseldorf and Mannheim, it’s just the same. Nevertheless, the court’s own outline of its patent litigation procedures is shockingly forthright.

    The latest absurdity is that a patentee enforcing an injunction during the appellate proceedings just has to make a deposit of a few million dollars to do what would amount to a multi-billion dollar damage to a car maker such as Daimler, with the court arguing that the defendant should simply take a license (which would, however, end the case).

    Back to that “evaluation” study of the Munich court’s performance in patent cases. The responses to the Max Planck Institute’s survey suggest that Munich has shortcomings with respect to the quality of its legal work and its technical understanding, where Dusseldorf and Mannheim are rated more highly, but that Munich is still a popular venue because it’s a rocket docket and very plaintiff-friendly.

    But should the study be taken seriously at all? Not really. There were only 65 respondents, and there is no indication of any effort having been made to ensure this small sample is statistically representative. Based on where the respondents said they filed their offensive cases over the past five years, it’s at least a possibility that practitioners with a strong preference for Dusseldorf were particularly active–and seized this opportunity to make Munich look bad by comparison with their home court. It’s also possible that many lawyers’ understandable frustration with the ever more plaintiff-friendly approach of the Munich court–especially (but not only) when it comes to standard-essential patents–informed their ratings of the judges’ competence in their field.

    I believe that this “study” (if one wants to use that term at all for a survey with only 65 non-representative repondents) underrates the Munich judges. In terms of technical competence, the Mannheim judges are clearly the best with respect to wireless patents. In other fields of technology, there may not be much of a gap. What I’ve heard from legal practitioners doesn’t suggest that the Dusseldorf judges have a better grasp of technical matters than their Munich-based colleagues.

  • Ecogensus Receives Notice of Allowance from European Patent Office for Waste-to-Fuel Process

    Ecogensus, LLC (“Ecogensus” or the “Company”), a leading technology company in the resource recovery and waste management industry, today announced the European Patent Office’s issuance of a notice that it intends to grant a patent for the Company’s process of converting solid wastes into fuel (European Patent Application No. 15 854 145.8).

    Ecogensus has a full suite of patents granted in the United States as well as countries in Asia and South America in the areas of waste recycling and resource recovery (“waste-to-value”). The new European patent covers the foundational process for conversion of solid wastes into a fuel, a process which enables diversion from waste from landfills and displacement of coal with Ecogensus’ waste-derived fuel.

Desktop/Laptop

• What Linux needs to make it a better mobile desktop

  I have a bit of a confession to make. Although Linux is my operating system of choice on the desktop, I tend to skip over my open source-powered laptop in favor of either a MacBook Pro or Chromebook when I’m working beyond my desk. I know…blasphemy, right? I’ve reached a point in my career and life where I need the tools to be able to get my jobs done as efficiently as possible and without frustration or headache.

  To be absolutely fair, primary reasons why I overlook my one Linux laptop are because it’s too big and the keyboard is absolutely terrible. Given I am a writer by profession, a bad keyboard can be a deal-breaker. Once again, in favor of honesty, the 2016 MacBook Pro keyboard isn’t much better. The “butterfly” keys are loud and way too prone to sticking. My 2015 Pixel was, at one point, an absolute dream machine, but the battery life is waning, and sometimes ChromeOS can be a bit flaky with the trackpad.

• Looking for a new PC

  What’s best for a new desktop computer with GNU/Linux nowadays? I’m looking for performances (CG arts/Krita), only Free/Libre drivers and around 1K€… Hard to find trusty info… If you have advice/recommendations, please let me know.

Audiocasts/Shows

• Pop!_OS 20.10 Full Installation Walkthrough – YouTube

  Pop!_OS 20.10 offers a current snapshot of the latest features of the popular desktop Linux distribution, and in this video we’ll cover the entire installation process from start to finish. This procedure will show you how to replace your current operating system with Pop!_OS 20.10.

• Ubuntu Is No Longer Exciting. They Should Make These Changes. – YouTube

  One thing that is obvious to anyone that has been around Linux for a number of years is that there is not the same level of excitement with the new Ubuntu releases as in the early years. What happened? Where did it all go wrong? And what changes could Ubuntu make to correct this?

• Ubuntu Kylin 20.10 overview | Easy.Excellent.Expert.Elaborate. – YouTube

  In this video, I am going to show an overview of Ubuntu Kylin 20.10 and some of the applications pre-installed.

Kernel Space

• Corsair Power Supplies May Soon See Sensor Support Exposed Under Linux – Phoronix

  Select high-end Corsair power supplies such as their RMi / HXi / AXi series are able to expose various sensor metrics via USB interface to the system. To date this sensor functionality has only worked under Windows with their proprietary software but now an open-source driver is seeking mainline inclusion for supporting these sensors under Linux.

  Independent developer Wilken Gottwalt reverse-engineered the micro-controller found on the Corsair RMi/HXi/AXi power supplies and found it to be a proprietary but simple USB HID protocol. The controller exposes temperatures, current, and voltage levels along with other information like power uptime, power used, and power supply fan speed. This protocol on select models can also allow configuring the fan mode and mono/multi-rail voltage handling, and over-current protection.

• Linux 5.10 rc1 Released as Long Term Support Kernel – debugpoint.com

  This is the first release candidate for Kernel 5.10 and we expect more RCs until the final release in December.

  Linux Kernel 5.10 brings mostly driver updates and as usual, processor supports, performance improvements across storage, and networking modules.

  This Rc1 concludes the Merge window for this release. It adds around 14k commints.

• It’s Official: Linux Kernel 5.10 Will Be an LTS Release

  According to a recent tweet from renowned Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman, the next LTS (Long Term Support) kernel release will be Linux 5.10, which recently entered development with a first Release Candidate (RC) milestone already available for public testing.

  This means that Linux kernel 5.10, which will probably see the light of day near the Christmas 2020 holidays, will receive updates for at least two years. But, as it happened with previous LTS kernel series, support could be extended to up to six years, probably until December 2026.

• Linus Torvalds Announces First Linux Kernel 5.10 Release Candidate

  As expected, Linus Torvalds announced the first Release Candidate (RC) of the upcoming Linux 5.10 kernel series, which looks to be yet another big release with almost 14k commits, but not as big as Linux kernel 5.8 was. However, Linus Torvalds assures us that the merge window didn’t cause any unusual issues and things went “fairly smoothly.”

  The most interesting change in Linux kernel 5.10 appears to be the removal of setf_fs() function, which was used to set the FS segment register of an x86 processor. For now, it was only removed from the x86, PowerPC, s390, and RISC-V architectures, with the rest to follow soon.

• Linux 5.10 finally ditches decades-old tool that caused security bugs

  Linus Torvalds has kicked off yet another development cycle for the Linux kernel, announcing the release of 5.10-rc1, and this time with an historical twist. The new version of the kernel effectively marks the end of a decade-old feature that has long been made redundant after it was found to cause security bugs.

  With the closing of the two-week-long merge window, which precedes the release of every new iteration of the Linux kernel, Torvalds shared his reflections on the Linux kernel mailing list, maintaining that “things seem to have gone fairly smoothly”.

Benchmarks

• Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Linux Performance

  The Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid-state drives are now available from Internet retailers. For those wondering how these SSDs compare with EXT4 under Linux against other PCIe 4.0/3.0 drives, here are a variety of benchmarks.

  While Samsung hasn’t sent out NVMe SSDs for Linux testing at Phoronix, we continue purchasing the new models due to their high performance state and needing some additional drives for various systems in the lab. When the Samsung 980 PRO reached retail channels this month I picked up the Samsung 980 PRO 500GB and 1TB drives and ran a series of benchmarks on them prior to commissioning.

Applications

• Joplin and webdav

  Joplin is a cross-platform note taking app that I use a lot to keep track of my projects, and to organize my notes and thoughts. Joplin allows you to create note books, and add an infinite number of notes to them. You can link between notes, link to external sources, add images, tables, etc. Everythin in markdown, very easy to learn and use. It’s basically an Evernote clone, without the subscription, and without one other thing that I’ll talk about later.

• Exploring Vim: The 18 Best Vim Books To Improve Your Vim Fu

  Vim is only content or text editing tool. That is it. In case you’re accustomed to utilizing Sublime Text for Windows/Mac, Notepad for Windows, Nano for Linux, Atom for Windows/Mac, or any content tool, Vim is simply one more program that permits you to compose and alter the text. Contrasted with other word processors, 2 viewpoints make Vim stick out are proficiency and universality. Vim is all about productivity. What’s more, there are two or three points from which it approaches productivity. Vim permits you to be proficient by driving you to utilize the console, and indeed, that implies no more using the mouse! Therefore, a perfect set of Vim books is undecipherably crucial to learn Vim.

  Universality is likewise a pretty cool part of Vim, which is that it’s all over. It’s accessible on essentially every significant stage you can consider. Regardless of whether you’re utilizing a Mac, Windows, or some Linux conveyance, Vim has you secured. Specifically, if your everyday work includes working in the terminal meetings, Vim is your lone content manager accessible.

• Zeit – A GUI Front-end To Crontab To Schedule Jobs In Linux – OSTechNix

  The system admins will usually schedule repetitive tasks to make their’s and everyone’s work easier! Scheduling repetitive tasks or jobs is crucial in many occasions, for example automating backups, cleaning disk space and other system maintenance tasks. Even if the admin is not around all the time, a scheduled job will keep running at a specific interval. The most widely used tool to schedule jobs in Linux is Cron. We already have published a beginners guide to Cron jobs. Cron is a command line utility, so the newbies may not fully understand the command line arguments. To mitigate this issue, a few standalone and web-based front-ends to Crontab have been developed. One such tool is Zeit.

Instructionals/Technical

• How to Fix Broken Packages in Linux – Make Tech Easier

  Linux package managers, like Apt and DNF, are extremely powerful and intuitive, but that doesn’t mean things can’t go wrong. Occasionally, a package install goes wrong, and you’re left to pick up the pieces. Package managers have the ability to fix broken packages and skip broken updates to get your system working again and avoid troubles in the future. This article covers how to fix broken packages in Linux.

  These tips and tricks should help you get unstuck in most instances. They’re all fairly universal, but every situation is different, so keep that in mind when trying to debug your own situation.

• How to hide snap packages from lsblk on Linux

  Snap packages are an excellent Linux technology that the community is embracing, as it offers a lot of features and benefits. However, sometimes Snap packages can cloud out your command-line output when the lsblk command runs in the terminal, and it can be incredibly annoying.

• How to run the sudo command without a password

  The sudo command is an excellent part of the Linux command-line. It allows users to execute root commands without needing to log into root, protecting their security. The problem is, to use the sudo command, you’ll need to enter your password.

• How to Install RainLoop on Ubuntu 20.04 – RoseHosting

  RainLoop Webmail is a simple, modern, and fast web-based email client. Written in PHP, RainLoop provides an easy way to check your emails using your web browser. It comes with full support of both IMAP and SMTP protocols (SSL, STARTTLS), sieve scripts support, integration with Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Dropbox, a multi-level caching system, plugin support, keyboard shortcut support, and many other additional features.

  The installation is very simple. If you follow our instructions carefully, you can finish the RainLoop Webmail installation in less than 10 minutes. Let’s get started.

• How to Install TYPO3 CMS with Let’s Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu 20.04

  TYPO3 is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP. It is an enterprise-class CMS that combines open source code with reliability and true scalability. It runs on a web server and supports a lot of operating systems including, Windows, Linux, macOS, etc. It is a simple, responsive, mobile ready and secure CMS and can be easily customized and extended without writing any code. It is a very popular and great choice for getting your website up and running quickly.

  In this tutorial, we will show you how to install TYPO3 CMS with Apache web server and Let’s Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu 20.04.

• How To Install MailSpring on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – idroot

  In this tutorial, we will show you how to install MailSpring on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Mailspring is a free desktop email client, available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Mailspring with modern features like unified inbox, snoozing, reminders, templates, offline search, and support for Gmail labels. It is free and supports all IMAP providers, including Gmail, Office 365, and iCloud. It also consists of a Pro Version which adds even more features into the already feature-rich application.

  This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step by step installation of MailSpring on a Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian based distribution like Linux Mint.

• Installing Anbox on Linux to Run Android Apps – Linux Hint

  Anbox is an Android emulator that is available for any GNU/Linux operating system. An android emulator offers the environment necessary for installing and running Android apps. Such emulators do not offer the portability of an Android smartphone, but in exchange, more powerful hardware can be used.In this article, we will show you how to install Anbox on Linux.

• How to set Timers, Alarms, and Stopwatches on CentOS 8

  In this article, I will show you how to set timers, alarms, and stopwatches on your CentOS 8 system. We will perform these actions using two different ways.

• How to Install Docker on Raspberry Pi 4 – Linux Hint

  In this article, learn everything you need to know to get started with Docker and Docker Compose on Raspberry Pi 4.

• How to Create Two Panel Layout in GNOME Shell Us – Linux Hint

  “Dash to Panel” is a GNOME Shell extension that can be installed in Ubuntu, Fedora and other GNOME Shell based Linux distributions. It aims to provide an alternative and much more customizable application dock / taskbar for managing pinned and running apps.

  Until recently, Dash to Panel was limited to a single panel that combined application menus, taskbar and system tray. However, a new update for Dash to Panel was released a couple of months back, allowing users to create two panels. Using this new option, you can now emulate the classic GNOME2 layout, featuring a two panel setup for managing system tray and taskbar. This article will explain how to create this two panel layout using Dash to Panel GNOME Shell extension.

• How to Install LinuxFX Windowsfx 10 on VMware Workstation – SysAdmin

  This video tutorial shows how to install LinuxFX Windowsfx 10 on VMware Workstation step by step. This tutorial is also helpful to install LinuxFX Windowsfx 10 on physical computer or laptop hardware.

• How to Install Heat Sinks on the Raspberry Pi – Linux Hint

  There is a relation between temperature and performance in every electronic device. The lower the temperature, the better the performance. The higher the temperature, the lower the performance. Within a certain boundary, this effect is visible in electronic devices like a Raspberry Pi. So, it is essential to keep the temperature of the Raspberry Pi within a certain boundary.

  Heat sinks are metal objects that are usually placed over the chips and processor of Raspberry Pi. The heat sinks help transfer the heat generated on the processors and other chips to the air. That way, the temperature of the processors and chips remain within a certain boundary that won’t hamper the productivity of the device.

  In this article, I am going to show you how to install heat sinks on the Raspberry Pi. So, let’s get started.

• How to Create Hard Link and Soft Link in Linux? – Linux Hint

  In the Linux operating system, all the information about a file is stored in its respective inode. These inodes allow you to know all the metadata of a file. There is a concept of creating links to a file in Linux, just like we create pointers to the files in most of the popular programming languages. These links are basically of two types: the hard and the soft links. A hard link to a file is essentially an exact copy of the file, which means that a hard link to a file and the actual file will share the same inode. The biggest advantage of creating a hard link is that even if you accidentally delete the actual file, you will still be able to access its contents via its hard link.

  On the other hand, a soft link or a symbolic link works exactly like a pointer or a shortcut to a file. It is not an accurate copy of the file but only points to the original file. A soft link to a file and the actual file will have different inode values. Moreover, if you delete the actual file at any time, you will not be able to access its contents via its soft link. Today, we will share with you the methods of creating a hard link and soft link to a file in Linux.

  Note: We have used Linux Mint 20 for walking you through the methods shown below.

• How to install VirtualBox on Ubuntu 20.04 Linux LTS – nixCraft

  Explains how to install the VirtualBox app on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Linux for trying out new guest operating (Virtual Machines).

• How to fix: Connection refused by port 22 Debian/Ubuntu – Linux Hint

  SSH provides a secure way to access and manage Linux servers. Sometimes while connecting to SSH servers, users often encounter “Connection refused” error by port 22. It happens because of several reasons like SSH service is not running, the port is blocked by the firewall, or the server is using a different port. It can also occur because of the IP conflict issue. In this article, we will discuss some of the solutions that you should try in order to fix the error.

• How to clone an object in PHP – Linux Hint

  Object cloning can be very useful for object-oriented programming. In this tutorial, we show you how to clone an object in PHP.

• How to clear command history in Linux – Linux Hint

  The bash history stores the records of all terminal commands which are executed by a user on the command-line Linux system. Using the history feature, you can easily locate the previously executed commands on your Linux system through the arrow keys navigation. In this article, how to clear command history in Linux is explained.

• How To Install HAProxy on CentOS 8 – idroot

  In this tutorial, we will show you how to install HAProxy on your CentOS 8. For those of you who didn’t know, HAProxy is a free HTTP/TCP high availability load balancer and proxy server. It spreads requests among multiple servers to mitigate issues resulting from a single server failure. HA Proxy is used by a number of high-profile websites including GitHub, Bitbucket, Stack Overflow, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, and Tuenti, and is used in the OpsWorks product from Amazon Web Services.

  This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step by step installation HAProxy on a CentOS 8.

• How To Install Python 3.9 on Ubuntu 20.04 – TecAdmin

  Python is an object-oriented, high-level programming language. It is an open source with a large community. Python is used as key languages among the top tech companies like Google.

  The Python 3.9 stable version has been released with several improvements and security updates. It included multiple new modules, improved existing modules and many other features.

  You can choose deadsnakes PPA for Python installation on Ubuntu 20.04 system.

  Use this tutorial to install Python 3.9 On Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Linux system via Apt-Get. You can also choose second method to install Python using source code.

• YAML for beginners | Enable Sysadmin

  YAML Ain’t a Markup Language (YAML), and as configuration formats go, it’s easy on the eyes. It has an intuitive visual structure, and its logic is pretty simple: indented bullet points inherit properties of parent bullet points.

  But this apparent simplicity can be deceptive.

  It’s easy (and misleading) to think of YAML as just a list of related values, no more complex than a shopping list. There is a heading and some items beneath it. The items below the heading relate directly to it, right? Well, you can test this theory by writing a little bit of valid YAML.

• colorls – turbocharged alternative to ls

  The part of the operating system responsible for managing files and directories is called the file system. It organizes our data into files, which hold information, and directories (also called ‘folders’), which hold files or other directories. Several commands are frequently used to create, inspect, rename, and delete files and directories.

  One of these commands is ls, which prints the names of the files and directories in the current directory. A directory is really just a file. It’s a special file with special rules. The ls utility appeared in the first version of AT&T UNIX.

  Are you looking to liven up your shell? Want a bit more beauty on your terminal? colorls might be the ticket. colorls is a command-line utility that aims to improve on ls. color is written in Ruby.

Games

• A reminder of some recent Linux game releases – October 2020 edition | GamingOnLinux

  Despite this feeling like the longest year ever, time continues moving on and there’s been a number of great games released with Linux support in the last few months.

  It’s time to slow down a bit, and take a look at what developers have been bringing their games over to Linux officially because it’s easy to get swallowed up in a sea of news. This will also serve as a nice starting point for anyone out for a new Linux game right now. Since this is a reminder listicle, we will link to previous articles.

• Map Your Gamepad Buttons With Keyboard, Mouse, or Macros/Scripts Using AntiMicroX in Linux – It’s FOSS

  Gaming peripherals on Linux do not have a great reputation, but we do have some interesting open source tools that can make things easier for you. For instance, I’ve previously covered a tool Piper which lets you configure your gaming mouse.

  This time, let me introduce you to an exciting open source tool that lets you utilize your game pad by mapping it to your keyboard, mouse, scripts, or macros.

• GOG have put up their own spooky Halloween sale | GamingOnLinux

  If you weren’t convinced by anything Humble Store are currently offering in their Halloween sale, take a look over on the DRM-free store GOG with their big Halloween sale now on.

  As usual, we’ve looked through to find some of the most interesting games that are supported on Linux and GOG to offer up a few suggestions to get you going.

• Explore post-apocalyptic Japan as a little robot finding a lost friend in Life of Delta | GamingOnLinux

  With an attention-grabbing art style, Life of Delta looks like it’s going to be a very intriguing post-apocalyptic point and click adventure.

• 9 Monkeys of Shaolin is a great classic kung-fu movie inspired beat ‘em up out now | GamingOnLinux

  9 Monkeys of Shaolin gives us another wonderful beat ‘em up with easy to use controls, thoroughly entertaining combat and some great visuals.

• Gravity Ace is an excellent take on classic twin-stick cave-flying and it feels awesome | GamingOnLinux

  Cave-flying is a genre that was big a very long time ago, now though not so much but Gravity Ace from John Watson entered Early Access recently and it’s absolutely brilliant.

  The idea of cave flyers are that you’re always fighting against gravity while you pilot some sort of spaceship. Developer John Watson took that basic idea with Gravity Ace, threw a load of code at Godot Engine and came out with an Early Access game that shows how timeless certain types of genres can be. Gravity Ace has you fly, fight, and manoeuvre through various tight levels with intense gravitational fields and cramped firefights and it looks awesome while doing so.

• Nonsense Soccer is a highly amusing local multiplayer platformer-soccer-hybrid | GamingOnLinux

  After your next local multiplayer game? Nonsense Soccer is out in Early Access and it’s already a huge amount of fun if you’re the competitive type.

  Nonsense Soccer takes the classic sport and turns it into a side-on platformer-soccer-hybrid and the result is chaotic. Simple enough for anyone young and old to pick up their favourite gamepad and get kicking. It’s actually been available for a little while already, with the new Steam release being their second major update.

• Check out the fresh demo of Bound By Blades and take down some fierce monsters | GamingOnLinux

  Bound By Blades might look welcoming with the sweet colourful style and wonderful music, but this action-RPG gets quickly intense.

  Inspired somewhat by Monster Hunter, it originally tried going through Kickstarter to gather funds back in 2019. It failed but the development has continued anyway. The idea is that you go through increasingly tough battles, slaying big creatures in the unique four-corner combat arena where you run between four corners, dodging enemy attacks and unleash your own. After a year of work, the new demo is out now.

• Humble Store has a big Halloween sale on right now | GamingOnLinux

  Prepare for Halloween with some new games? It’s not like you’re able to go out much with the COVID19 disease still raging on so staying in and playing games sound great to me.

  To help with that you can check out the Humble Store Halloween Sale, which has a number of big hits going on some pretty high discounts. While it’s a Halloween sale, the majority of the titles oddly aren’t really scary or much related to the event, still it’s another good chance to build up your collection.

Distributions

• BSD

  • ext4 (and FUSE) on FreeBSD

    FreeBSD has a FUSE kernel module (Filesystems in User Space, I think), which allows it to use other filesystems – in user space – than it would normally do. Today it saved my bacon.

    I do a lot of development work on a FreeBSD machine, with Linux as the target platform: that’s what you get (punishment?) for writing Linux installers, I guess. I have a handful of development and test VMs, all in VirtualBox, all with a ZFS volume (a reserved chunk of disk) as virtual disk. This normally gives me a lot of freedom in what I do with my VM’s HDDs: I can manipulate them easily from the host system. For testing purposes, that’s usually either zeroing them out or putting some partition table on them beforehand.

    For whatever reason, today VirtualBox was giving me no end of trouble: as I boot each Linux VM, it gets a ton of I/O errors reading the disk, then ends up wedged somewhere in what looks like Plymouth in the guest, and then VBox tells me there was an error and gives up on the VM. It’s not physical I/O errors, since I can read all the data from the ZFS volume with dd, but how can I reach the data?

• IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

  • Cloud Native & Confidential Computing on IBM Z & LinuxONE with Ubuntu 20.04

  • The First Mainframe Computer: Harvard Mark I

    The mainframe computer, or ‘big iron’ in the computer industry, is the longest-running computer system in history. This technology has been substantially useful since the World War II era. In fact, the first mainframe computer was used mainly by the US Navy during the war. Like supercomputers, the mainframe computer addressed the need for an automatic, large-scale calculator as a more efficient and error-free way of computing. It was the invention of such machines that redefined the term ‘computer’ to refer to devices that can carry out automatic calculations of mathematical operations, a term that used to refer to humans who performed the manual calculations of such operations. Today, the importance of this technology in large-scale transaction processing remains unparalleled. Large industries in both the public and private sectors, from government and banking to aviation and healthcare, are in constant need of faster large-scale mainframes with higher stability and reliability. Consequently, big irons continue to evolve, as they remain at the core of every IT infrastructure.

    Inspired by Babbage

    Howard Aiken was a graduate student at Harvard when he came up with the concept of a device that can automatically calculate differential equations, after encountering difficulties in solving mathematical physics problems in his research. He envisioned a machine that could take in loads of mathematical inputs and produce precise and reliable results in a short time. After coming up with an initial design, he approached some manufacturers, but none were interested. Unabashed, Aiken explored other technological advances to improve his design. He eventually came upon Henry Babbage’s demonstration of his father’s Analytical Engine at Harvard, performed 70 years prior. Noticing the similarities between his design and that of Charles Babbage’s, Aiken studied Babbage’s work on the Analytical Engine and used his principles in the development of a new conceptual design. Aiken finished the design in 1937 and obtained the support of the Harvard faculty, who were impressed by his efforts. He presented his design to several manufacturers. Aiken eventually gained the nod from IBM in 1939 after Thomas Watson, then chairman of IBM, saw it as good publicity for the company and as an opportunity to showcase the company’s talents.

  • New fwupd 1.5.0 release – Technical Blog of Richard Hughes

    Today we tagged the 1.5.0 release of fwupd. Quite a bit has changed since the last release and I figured a blog post probably made sense to explain things.

    From a firmware engineer point of view, the most useful is the ability to build composite images, for instance building a firmware.dfuse file from different A.dfu and B.dfu images. At the moment there are commands in fwupdtool to convert one file format to another, but not to merge or alter them. Many firmware files are really just containers which can store multiple images, each with optional id, index and addresses. This new fwupd feature also allows us to create very small complicated container binaries for fuzzing.

  • Fwupd 1.5 Released With Expanded Hardware Support, New Capabilities

    Version 1.5 of the Fwupd utility is available for updating various component firmware/BIOS natively on Linux and integrating with the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) for the easy distribution of said firmware images.

    [...]

    Some of the hardware plug-in additions were motivated by Lenovo’s increased support for Linux on their systems, which is great to see continuing.

  • Red Hat Publishes Open Source Participation Guidelines

    Red Hat’s Brian Proffitt says the guidelines “reflect the values and culture of Red Hat in the most appropriate way possible: a collaboration of many associates working toward a common goal, documenting how Red Hat is committed to contributing to any free and open source project in the most collaborative ways possible.”

  • Linux in the enterprise as seen from IBM

    It’s hard to imagine now, but 20 years ago, enterprise support and use of Linux was a controversial choice. Executives had trouble seeing the value of investing resources in an unproven, open-source operating system when mainstream options achieved the same results with less perceived risk.

    With the benefit of hindsight, so many enterprise clouds are run on Kubernetes containers with Linux that the initial concerns seem silly. The changes gave developers the capabilities to produce more agile, robust and innovative work than ever before. The success of the modern Linux cloud is due partly to IBM’s decision to support Linux on its mainframes 20 years ago.
    We spoke to Javier Perez, open-source program leader at IBM, about why and how IBM made this decision and what trends he thinks are going to influence the next 20 years for developers.

  • Open Source AI and Data: Keep up with rapid advances with LF AI and Data – IBM Developer

    The Linux Foundation Artificial Intelligence Foundation (LF AI) is merging with ODPi, which has a focus on big data in the enterprise, including governance, business intelligence, and data science education. The merged foundation will be called LF AI and Data. IBM believes this move is great for the AI and data open source space and that the new LF AI and Data Foundation will pave the way for stronger, safer open source AI and data projects.

    Why is this important?

    The world’s technology increasingly runs on open source software and data. Open source AI software development has led to advances in AI pattern recognition, including image recognition, speech recognition, and entity extraction in text, that were only possible because researchers were able to use open data sets and open source software to benchmark and compare systems and approaches.

    The data you or your organization create influences and is influenced by AI. Increasingly, both productivity and quality of service depends on data-driven AI systems across business and society. And those AI systems are largely based on open source software and data sets at their core.

  • How IT consultants can build trust with clients

    As a consultant, I’ve learned that consulting requires forming a customer relationship built upon trust. The client and the consultant usually establish trust through shared experiences. The most common shared experience is working through contract delivery. However, only focusing on contract delivery may cause the clients or clients to miss additional opportunities.

    I’ve laid out some low-cost or free opportunities for building trust below. These are not just for one party or the other to initiate! If you are the client, I encourage you to engage your consultants to find mutual interests. Likewise, if you’re the consultant, look for ways to add value for your customer by sharing your expertise.

  • The Red Hat Accelerators Wear Many Fedoras

    With Red Hat Accelerators, there’s a strong community feel with benefits for practitioners to expand their expertise, offer a voice to influence offerings and a seat at the table during industry events. Check out a few examples of how Red Hat Accelerators have been involved since the program’s inception.

    [...]

    Red Hat Accelerators have the opportunity to join briefings and other sessions, hearing from and sharing with teams from across the company, including engineers, marketing, product managers, executives and more. These in-depth discussions and forums have included opportunities to engage with Red Hatters like Chris Wright (senior vice president and CTO), Stefanie Chiras (senior vice president and general manager of Red Hat Enterprise Linux), and Paul Cormier (Red Hat’s president and CEO).

    Forming deeper relationships with customers means engaging Red Hatters from every direction, so customers in the Accelerators program can pick their brains and access candid, unfiltered information on any topic, big or small (or hybrid).

• Debian Family

  • Debian Wants You To Vote For The Debian 11 “Bullseye” Artwork

    Debian is looking for the community to partake in the quick voting process around selecting the default artwork for the upcoming Debian 11 “Bullseye” release.

    Debian 11 will enter its code freeze in early 2021 and should debut as stable later in the year. Given the upcoming freeze, Debian has just commenced voting to decide the default artwork for this next major Debian GNU/Linux operating system release.

  • Vote for the Debian GNU/Linux 11 “Bullseye” Desktop Artwork Now

    Opened to submissions since early August, the artwork proposals for Debian GNU/Linux 11 “Bullseye,” the next major release of the popular Debian GNU/Linux operating system, has reached its deadline last week on October 15th, and now the community can vote for the winner.

    Jonathan Carter announced today that it’s time for the Debian community to choose the desktop artwork to be used in Debian GNU/Linux 11 “Bullseye.” The review period for the final proposals starts today, October 26th, until November 9th, and winners will be unveiled in mid-November.

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • Pop!_OS 20.10 Now Supports DEB822 Format

    The Linux distribution from System 76 has converted over to the friendlier apt format.

    Most users of Debian-based distributions are familiar with the single line apt repository format which includes all of the information for a repository. With the new DEB822 format, those single lines are converted to multi-line entries, which allow more flexibility and extensibility over the standard for Debian software repositories.

    In fact, the single-line format standard is planned for depreciation, so most distributions will eventually convert over. For Pop!_OS users, that time is now. Pop!_OS is the Linux distribution created by System 76 as both a developer and general usage desktop operating system. Up until 20.10, Pop!_OS defaulted to the single-line style of repository entries. Now, instead of the /etc/apt/sources.list file, you’ll find those repository entries in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/system.sources.

  • Xubuntu 20.10 released! « Xubuntu

    The Xubuntu team is happy to announce the immediate release of Xubuntu 20.10!

    Xubuntu 20.10, codenamed Groovy Gorilla, is a regular release and will be supported for 9 months, until July 2021. If you need a stable environment with longer support time we recommend that you use Xubuntu 20.04 LTS instead.

    The final release images are available as torrents and direct downloads from xubuntu.org/download/.

    As the main server might be busy in the first few days after the release, we recommend using the torrents if possible.

    Xubuntu Core, our minimal installation option, is available to download from unit193.net/xubuntu/core/ [torrent, magnet]. Find out more about Xubuntu Core here.

    We’d like to thank everybody who contributed to this release of Xubuntu!

  • Edge cloud boost for Raspberry Pi 4

    Version 20.10 of Ubuntu from Canonical on the Raspberry Pi 4 card and module for the first time supports cloud software such as Kubernetes for distributed cloud software at the edge the network for industrial applications.
    A new version of Linux is enabling edge cloud capability on the latest Raspberry Pi compute card.

    Version 20.10 of Ubuntu from Canonical for the first time provides full desktop Linux on the Raspberry Pi4 board and Compute module, but also supports cloud software such as Kubernetes. This has the potential to put distributed cloud software at the edge of the network for industrial applications.

    [...]

    On a Raspberry Pi, users can start with MicroK8s, to orchestrate highly available workloads at the edge or with LXD to build a home lab appliance using LXD’s clustering and virtual machine management capabilities. The Ubuntu 20.10 release introduces users a way to experiment, test, or develop with full cloud capabilities through the Raspberry Pi, including robotics and AI/ML.

  • Ubuntu 21.04 Is Slated for Release on April 22, 2021

    Following the Ubuntu 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla) release, there will be Ubuntu 21.04, whose codename will start with the word “Hirsute” followed by an animal name, which will probably be voted by the community soon. If you want to give the Ubuntu developers some suggestions on the H animal, check out this Ubuntu Discourse topic.

    Until the codename is decided, development on Ubuntu 21.04 will kick off later this week on October 29th with the toolchain upload, based, of course, on the current release, Ubuntu 20.10. And, as its version number suggests, the final release will be expected in April (04) 2021.

  • Ubuntu Touch OTA-14 Is Coming on November 4th with Better Support for Android 9 Devices

    Coming hot on the heels of the Ubuntu Touch OTA-13 update, which arrived last month with support for the Sony Xperia X family and the OnePlus 3 and 3T devices, the upcoming Ubuntu Touch OTA-14 software update is currently scheduled for November 4th, 2020.

    In this release, the UBports development team focused their efforts on improving support for Android 9 devices, most specifically for the forthcoming Volla Phone, which will start shipping to backers next month and will also offer a variant powered by Ubuntu Touch.

Devices/Embedded

• ModBerry controller advances to Raspberry Pi CM4

  Techbase has opened $272 and up pre-orders on a modular “ModBerry 500 CM4” industrial controller based on the Raspberry Pi CM4. Basic features include GbE, serial, 8-bit DIO, USB, and 1-Wire and options include NVMe, 5G, fieldbus, and digital and analog I/Os.

  Poland-based Techbase has upgraded its ModBerry 500 line of passively cooled DIN-rail automation controllers with a ModBerry 500 CM4 model that supports the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. The new controller follows earlier models such as its RPi CM3 based ModBerry 500 M3 and ModBerry 500 with ESP32.

• Qualcomm QCS610 micro SoM and devkit to power AI and ML smart cameras

  Last July, we missed Qualcomm’s announcement of QCS410 and QCS610 processors designed to bring “premium camera technology, including powerful artificial intelligence and machine learning features formerly only available to high-end devices, into mid-tier camera segments”. The new SoC’s were recently brought to our attention by Lantronix as they have just introduced a new Open-Q 610 micro system-on-module (μSOM) based on Qualcomm QCS610 processor, as well as a development kit designed to bring such smart cameras to market.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Arduino Blog » Transform a pile of clothing into the robot of your nightmares

    While whatever you heard bump in the night was probably nothing to be concerned about, if you see a suspicious blob of clothing on the floor, you might give it another look. Although not particularly dangerous, YouTuber “Sciencish” has come up with a robot that causes a pile of clothes to turn and face, then travel towards the light source you used to check it out.

    The device features four photoresistors, along with an Arduino Uno and two steppers on a robotic chassis for movement. It also accommodates a filament or wire frame on which clothing can rest. When a light is shined at it, the LDRs pick up this “signal” through the clothes. The robot then waits until the lights are off, pauses a bit more, and then rotates to face the person and incrementally advances.

  • Arduino Blog » Say hello to the new Arduino Oplà IoT Kit: Experience the Internet of Things in your hands!

    We’re excited to announce the launch of the Arduino Oplà Kit, the first open programmable IoT platform that allows you to add smart connectivity to the devices around your home or workplace and build custom IoT devices.

    The Oplà IoT Kit contains all the hardware necessary to create eight connected applications, access to an online platform with assembly instructions, and a 12-month subscription to the Arduino Create Maker Plan. This kit is perfect for beginners with basic DIY experience, while more advanced users can leverage it to customize and hack their smart applications and devices, with full control of their data and processes.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Mirada announces commercial launch of new Android TV solution

  • Unofficial Xiaomi software update policy hints at MIUI & Android OS versions device owners can expect

  • How to protect your Android phone from one of the biggest ‘dangers’ on WhatsApp

  • How the LG Wing made me completely rethink how I use Android phones

  • How to stop your Android device from listening to you

  • How to use Google Pay on Android and iOS?

  • OnePlus Nord vs. Nord N10 5G vs. Nord N100: Spec comparison

  • Samsung Galaxy Fit2 vs. Galaxy Fit: Should you upgrade?

  • Android apps for children were actually stealing user data

  • These Android Launchers Will Change the Way You Use Your Phone

  • Sony’s new PS5 controller works with Android but not without some issues

  • Idiap receives accreditation to grant biometrics certificates for Android

  • YouTube rolling out player page redesign with gestures, suggestions for Android and iOS

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Jérôme Gardou hired full-time to work on the memory manager

  I proudly announce that ReactOS Deutschland e.V. has hired Jérôme Gardou to work full-time on the ReactOS kernel’s memory manager for the next 3 months.

  Jérôme is a ReactOS veteran who has been contributing to the project since 2009. He has deep expertise into nearly all parts of ReactOS, ranging from various user-mode components (mostly related to low-level graphics) over their kernel-mode counterparts and down to bare-metal components like the kernel memory manager.

  During the upcoming months, Jérôme is going to overhaul the Mm (Memory Manager) and Cc (Cache Controller) components of the kernel. Both of them are core parts of the operating system, which are involved in every memory request and file operation. Improving them is expected to have a substantial effect on the overall stability and performance of ReactOS.

• “Open-Source Windows” ReactOS To See Improved Memory Management – Phoronix

  ReactOS Deutschland e.V. has hired one of their long-time contributors to work full-time on the “open-source Windows” implementation’s memory management for the next quarter.

  ReactOS is funding longtime contributor Jérôme Gardou to work full-time for the next three months on the open-source operating system’s memory manager and cache controller code within its kernel.

  ReactOS hopes this overhaul to the MM/CS code will yield “a substantial effect on the overall stability and performance of ReactOS.”

• My Open Source meltdown, and the rise of a star

  There comes a time when you feel that you don’t fit anywhere. Where your ideas, principles, motivation and struggles simply don’t align with anyone else. For years, I felt part of something that was larger than myself, had the motivation to use a huge part of my free time to contribute to projects and in several cases, make personal sacrifices to help others, and even envisioned a future for myself in places where I thought it was impossible.

  It’s that struggle trying to find our place in this huge Open Source world what usually ends up in personal meltdown and professional burnout. It’s not a secret that as fast as technologies evolve, the faster we end up being obsolete, unless we dedicate most of our time to keep up to date on every break through.

  I’m not the exception to this, and after being an active contributor for almost 15 years, and then have my “time off” to be a full time mom and employee, what happened in the Projects I used to Contribute left me feeling way far from my comfort zone. I’m grateful that most of the places where I’ve contributed has been because people asks for my help, and even after a long absence it was not different from before.

• CMS

  • Kiwi TCMS – Kiwi TCMS celebrates 200K+ downloads

    We are happy to announce that Kiwi TCMS has been downloaded more than 200000 times via Docker Hub!

• Programming/Development

  • Graphics in Qt 6.0: QRhi, Qt Quick, Qt Quick 3D

    Last year we had a three part blog series about Qt’s new approach to working with 3D graphics APIs and shading languages: part 1, part 2, part 3. For Qt Quick, an early, opt-in preview of the new rendering architecture was shipped in Qt 5.14, with some improvements in Qt 5.15. With the release of Qt 6.0 upcoming, let’s see what has happened since Qt 5.15. It will not be possible to cover every detail of the graphics stack improvements for Qt Quick here, let alone dive into the vast amount of Qt Quick 3D features, many of which are new or improved in Qt 6.0. Rather, the aim is just to give an overview of what can be expected from the graphics stack perspective when Qt 6.0 ships later this year.

  • The Qt Company Details The Graphics Stack Changes With Qt 6.0

    If all goes well Qt 6.0 will make its official debut in December. One of the areas much talked about for Qt 6 development has been the graphics architecture changes and better supporting more APIs besides OpenGL.

    Qt developer Laszlo Agocs has written a blog post outlining some of the fundamental graphics changes that have made the cut for Qt 6.0…

  • Javascript Confirm Method – Linux Hint

    Javascript is the most known language of the web. Javascript is widely used in front-end development as well as in the back-end. Javascript provides a lot of built-in objects, functions, and methods to help in web development. In this article, we are going to learn one of the javascript’s built-in confirm() method, which is used to show pop-ups over the screen and get the user’s response. The confirm box is a bit different if we try to compare it with the alert box. It is a pop-up that contains a message/text with two buttons, “OK” and “Cancel”. The user won’t be able to do any task while a confirm box is over the screen, and he/she clicks the “OK” or “Cancel” button. This is the reason behind not recommending it’s often used. So, let’s have a look at what is a confirm box and what are the different ways to use it.

    The confirm() is basically a method, which is used to show a pop-up box over the web page, and it contains a message or text and two buttons, “OK” & “Cancel”. On the click of the “OK” button, the confirm method returns “true”. Similarly, on the click of the “Cancel” button, it returns false.

  • Applying JavaScript’s Splice Function – Linux Hint

    JavaScript is a lightweight programming language, and as with any programming language, when developing JavaScript programs, we often need to work with arrays to store data. In this article, we will introduce JavaScript’s built-in splice function and discuss how we can use it to manipulate an array. As data are generated, the structures used for storage must be updated. For this reason, a programmer must often add elements to or remove elements from an array.

  • Javascript Trim String – Linux Hint

    Javascript is a scripting or programming language, which is used both on the client-side and back-end of the web. Just like any other language, strings are an important type of the variables, and we often need to manipulate or alter strings as per our needs. While getting data from the user in the form fields, a programmer has to take care of a lot of things. In this article, we will have a look at javascript’s trim() function. We will learn how this function helps in beautifying the strings in javascript and how can we get rid of extra spaces. So, let’s take a look at what is a string and how we can trim the strings.

  • Exploring ELF files using pyelftools | by Roman Storozhenko | Oct, 2020 | Medium

    There are many tools for exploring executable files of ELF format. Most of them intended for providing sole piece of information extracted from a binary in the mentioned format. They are great, but sometimes we need a kind of an universal and yet highly specialized tool allowing to do much more than standard tools are able to. This is a moment when pyelftools come into play.
    In this article I would like to show some usage examples of of pyelftools. I don’t show how to use pyelftools itself, that is, its classes and other features, as you can find it in the documentation and source code itself. Instead I concentrate on applications of this tool for particular purposes.

  • How to Get Current Date & Time in JavaScript? – Linux Hint

    Javascript has become a massively used programming language due to the expansion of the internet and the web at an unbelievable pace. In the modern world of the web, we can do almost every task in one single browser, and Javascript is used in every single website we see in our daily routine life. We frequently used to see the date and time at almost every website. In this article, we are going to have a look at how we can get the current time in Javascript and what are the different ways to get the date and time according to our requirement.

    Javascript provides a built-in object Date, which helps in managing all the date and time. Later, we can extract whatever we want according to our needs using different built-in methods. So, let’s just straight jump into the process and learn the different techniques to extract the current date and time.

  • How to use PHP Null Coalescing Operator – Linux Hint

    The null coalescing operator (??), one of the new features of PHP 7, can be used as an alternative to the ternary operator and isset() function. It is used to check whether a value is assigned to a variable, and it returns a default value when no value is defined for a variable. This operator can also be used to see if $_GET[] and $_POST[], which receive user inputs, are set. Furthermore, it can check the value of more than one variable via chaining.

    In this article, the differences between the ternary and null coalescing operators are discussed, and the null coalescing operator is used as an alternative to the ternary operator and isset() function.

  • Python

    • Seaborn Scatter Plot – Tutorial and Examples

      In this tutorial, we’ll go over how to plot a scatter plot in Seaborn and Python. We’ll go over simple plotting examples, as well as multi-faceted plotting of multiple plots and 3D plots using Seaborn and Matplotlib.

    • What Does “if __name__ == __main__:”” Do in Python?

      if __name__ == “__main__” is used to control the behavior of our Python code when it’s executed directly or imported as a module. This tutorial explains how.

    • Python round() Function – Linux Hint

      Python is a very versatile high-level programming language that is most widely used in Data Sciences, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. Python provides great support through built-in modules and functions where we need to play with the numbers. The Python round() function rounds off the floating-point number to the stated number of decimals and returns it.For example, we have a floating-point number 6.677, and we need to round it off to the 2 decimal points, then the round() function will do the job and round off the number to 6.68.

    • Multi-Layer Perceptron & Backpropagation – Implemented from scratch

      Writing a custom implementation of a popular algorithm can be compared to playing a musical standard. For as long as the code reflects upon the equations, the functionality remains unchanged. It is, indeed, just like playing from notes. However, it lets you master your tools and practice your ability to hear and think.

      In this post, we are going to re-play the classic Multi-Layer Perceptron. Most importantly, we will play the solo called backpropagation, which is, indeed, one of the machine-learning standards.

      As usual, we are going to show how the math translates into code. In other words, we will take the notes (equations) and play them using bare-bone numpy.

    • PyDev of the Week: William Horton

      This week we welcome William Horton (@hortonhearsafoo) as our PyDev of the Week! William is a Backend Engineer at Compass and has spoken at several local Python conferences. He is a contributor to PyTorch and fastai.

      Let’s spend some time getting to know William better!

      Can you tell us a little about yourself (hobbies, education, etc):

      A little about myself: people might be surprised about my educational background–I didn’t study computer science. I have a bachelors in the social sciences. So by the time I finished undergrad, the most programming I had done was probably doing regressions in Stata to finish my thesis. I decided against grad school, and instead signed up for a coding bootcamp (App Academy) in NYC. The day I’m writing this, September 28, is actually 5 years to the day that I started at App Academy.

      Since then I’ve worked at a few different startups in NYC, across various industries: first investment banking, then online pharmacy, and now real estate. I’m currently a senior engineer on the AI Services team at Compass, working on machine learning solutions for our real estate agents and consumers.

      I like to spend my free time on a few different hobbies. I’m a competitive powerlifter, so I like to get into the gym a few times a week (although with the pandemic in NYC I didn’t lift for six months or so). I’ve actually found powerlifting to be a pretty common hobby among software engineers. Every time someone new joined my gym, it seemed like they came from a different startup. I love to play basketball. And I’m passionate about music: I’ve been a singer almost my whole life, and most recently was performing with an a cappella group in NYC. And in the last year I’ve picked up the guitar, after not touching it since I was a teenager, and that has been very fulfilling.

Standards/Consortia

• Malayalam fonts: Beyond Latin font metrics | Soliloquies

  This year’s annual international conference organized by TeX Users Group — TUG2020 — was held completely online due to the raging pandemic. In TUG2020, I have presented a talk on some important Malayalam typeface design factors and considerations.

  The idea and its articulation of the talk originated with K.H. Hussain, designer of well-known fonts such as Rachana, Meera, Meera Inimai, TNJoy etc. In a number of discussions that ensued, this idea was developed and later presented at TUG2020.

  Opening keynote to TUG2020 was delivered by Steve Matteson, about the design of Noto fonts. He mentioned that Noto was originally envisaged to be developed as a single font containing all Unicode scripts; but that was changed due to a couple of reasons: (1) huge size of resulting font and (2) the design of many South/South-East Asian characters do not fit well within its Latin font metrics.

Health/Nutrition

• French doctor warns his country has ‘lost control’ of virus

  A French doctor warned Monday that his country has “lost control of the epidemic,” a day after health authorities reported more than 52,000 new coronavirus cases as nations across Europe enact more sweeping restrictions to try to slow surging infection rates.

  Spain — the first European country to surpass 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases — declared a state of emergency Sunday that included a nationwide overnight curfew, a cap of six people on social gatherings and possible travel bans in and out of the hardest-hit regions.

  The effect was clear on Barcelona’s famed Las Ramblas promenade, which was deserted Sunday night when it normally would have been teeming with people.

  In two major Italian cities, people took to the streets amid a pushback from small sections of society to new restrictions. On Friday, demonstrators in Naples protested a locally imposed 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and clashed with police. On Saturday night, far-right and neo-fascist groups led a similar protest in Rome against a curfew. Another protest is planned for Tuesday in Milan.

Integrity/Availability

• Proprietary

  • Pseudo-Open Source

    • Privatisation/Privateering

      • Linux Foundation

        • New AI & Data Foundation Combines Industry’s Fastest-Growing Open Source Developments in Artificial Intelligence and Open Data

          LF AI Foundation (LF AI), the organization building an ecosystem to enable and sustain open source innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL), and ODPi, a nonprofit organization accelerating the open ecosystem of big data solutions, today announced they will come together under the new LF AI & Data Foundation. The LF AI & Data The Linux Foundation’s AI Foundation & ODPi merge to support growing portfolio of technologies and drive open source collaboration across AI and data

          Foundation will build and support an open community and a growing ecosystem of open source AI, data and analytics projects, by accelerating development and innovation, enabling collaboration and the creation of new opportunities for all the members of the community.

          As one entity under the Linux Foundation, this consolidated and focused effort will enable additional collaboration and integration in the space of AI/ML/DL and Data. With the creation of LF AI & Data, both communities will now support a growing ecosystem of artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning and data technologies. AI and Data are inseparable and codependent on each other. Combining efforts in both spaces will bring developers and projects under a single roof, orchestrated by a single Technical Advisory Council and several committees (Trusted AI, BI & AI), to work together towards building the open source AI & Data ecosystem and accelerating development and innovation. Hosting projects under a single umbrella enables closer collaboration, integration, and interoperability across projects and is a proven recipe for building strong open ecosystems. At the same time, it will provide a unified guidance for end users on tools, interoperability, integration, standards, and the future of AI, Data and Analytics as its use continues to grow in every industry. Furthermore, as member driven organizations, joining forces under LF AI & Data will allow greater efficiency for members across the various services we offer to our hosted projects.

        • 2020 Open Source Jobs Report Reveals Spike in Demand for DevOps Talent, Continued Dearth of Open Source Skills

          The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, and edX, the trusted platform for learning, have released the 2020 Open Source Jobs Report, examining demand for open source talent and trends amongst open source professionals.

          Despite the pandemic, demand for open source technology skills continues to be strong. Companies and organizations continue to increase their recruitment of open source technology talent while offering increased educational opportunities for existing staff to fill skills gaps. 93% of hiring managers report difficulty finding open source talent, and 63% say their organizations have begun to support open source projects with code or other resources for the explicit reason of recruiting individuals with those software skills, a significant jump from the 48% who stated this in 2018. DevOps has also become the top role hiring managers are looking to fill (65% are looking to hire DevOps talent), moving demand for developers to second (59%) for the first time in this report’s history. 74% of employers are now offering to pay for employee certifications, up from 55% in 2018, 47% in 2017, and only 34% in 2016.

        • Linux and open-source jobs are hotter than ever

          The Linux Foundation and , the leading online course company, released the 2020 Open Source Jobs Report on October 26. Once again, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for open-source technology skills is growing. 37% of hiring managers say they will hire more IT professionals in the next six months.

          Specifically, 81% of hiring managers say hiring open source talent is a priority going forward. 56% of hiring managers plan to increase their hiring of open source pros in the next six months

          Why? The answer to that is simple. As a recent Red Hat survey found, 86% of IT leaders said the most innovative companies are using open-source software, citing higher quality solutions, lower cost of ownership, improved security, and cloud-native capabilities as the top reasons for usage. So, even in these bad times, the demand for open-source savvy is higher than ever.

        • Qualified Open Source Talent Still In Short Supply: Report

          Companies and organizations continue to increase their recruitment of open source technology talent while offering increased educational opportunities for existing staff to fill skills gaps. The Linux Foundation and edX have released the 2020 Open Source Jobs Report which reveals spike in demand for DevOps talent and continued dearth of open source skills.

          According to the report, 93% of hiring managers report difficulty finding open source talent and 63% say their organizations have begun to support open source projects with code or other resources for the explicit reason of recruiting individuals with those software skills, a significant jump from the 48% who stated this in 2018.

        • LF AI, ODPi Merge To Form LF AI & Data Foundation

          LF AI Foundation and ODPi have announced plans to come together under the new LF AI & Data Foundation. As one entity under the Linux Foundation, this consolidated and focused effort will enable additional collaboration and integration in the space of AI/ML/DL and Data.

          With the creation of LF AI & Data, both communities will now support a growing ecosystem of artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning and data technologies.

        • Linux Foundation Focuses on Science and Research to Advance Diversity and Inclusion in Software Engineering

          Open Source Summit Europe, October 26, 2020 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the Software Developer Diversity and Inclusion (SDDI) project. SDDI will explore, evaluate, and promote best practices from research and industry to increase diversity and inclusion in software engineering. Founding contributors include Comcast, Facebook, GitHub, Intel and VMware and research professors from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Eindhoven University of Technology, Oregon State University, University of Auckland and University of Victoria.

          According to StackOverflow’s 2020 survey of more than 65,000 developers, 91.7 percent identify as male and 70.7 percent as white or of European descent. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done to create inclusive environments that can lead to a more diverse community building the software that is the foundation for our digital society. Research indicates that racially diverse groups make better decisions, diverse open source projects are more productive and that working on gender diverse teams improves attitudes towards women.

          “While there are a variety of important diversity and inclusion initiatives in the technology industry, none are focused on increasing diversity across categories – race, gender, age and cognitive ability – in software engineering and informed by science and research,” said Kate Stewart, senior director of strategic programs at Linux Foundation. “We have optimism about the future of the open source community and our collective ability to increase diversity and inclusion. The work we do today can influence the vibrancy of the community and effectiveness of our technologies tomorrow.”

        • Linux Foundation Focuses on Science and Research to Advance Diversity and Inclusion in Software Engineering

    • Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub)

      • Microsoft on Linux: It’s a lot easier than you think

      • RIAA Attacks YouTube DL With DMCA Takedown

        Recently the RIAA filed a DMCA takedown notice to GitHub for the removal of YouTube-dl an archiving tool for downloading videos from youtube along with other websites so today we’re going to read through this letter and see what case is being made.

      • RIAA weaponizes DMCA against an open source project!

      • GitHub Disables youtube-dl Repository

        The Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA) filed a request for removal regarding the popular youtube-dl project, which allows developers to download the source files for YouTube videos.

      • FRR: The Most Popular Network Router You’ve Never Heard Of [Ed: They do communication and development using proprietary software that spies (this and only this... only proprietary)]

        Free Range Routing is a fully open project, and always looking for contributors for documentation, software or the discussion. You can submit documentation updates via Github, join their mailing list or join the community Slack channel.

        If you want an easy way to try out FRR yourself, Nvidia provides a free, cloud-hosted lab of their Nvidia Cumulus Linux software running FRR. You can use Nvidia Cumulus in the Cloud today or get a guided tour including using FRR with the Nvidia Cumulus Linux On Demand labs.

  • Security

    • Security updates for Monday [LWN.net]

      Security updates have been issued by Debian (fastd, freetype, openjdk-11, phpmyadmin, and thunderbird), Fedora (ant, firefox, freetype, kde-partitionmanager, kpmcore, mupdf, python-PyMuPDF, singularity, suricata, and zathura-pdf-mupdf), Mageia (claws-mail, nss, firefox, pdns-recursor, and thunderbird), openSUSE (atftp, chromium, firefox, freetype2, gnutls, hunspell, kleopatra, and opera), Oracle (firefox, java-11-openjdk, and kernel), Red Hat (firefox and kpatch-patch), SUSE (bluez, firefox, glibc, libcdio, rmt-server, and SDL), and Ubuntu (freetype, pam-python, and perl).

    • Reproducible Builds: Second Reproducible Builds IRC meeting

      Please join us on the #reproducible-builds channel on irc.oftc.net — an agenda is available. As mentioned in our previous meeting announcement, due to the unprecedented events in 2020, there will be no in-person Reproducible Builds event this year, but we plan to run these IRC meetings every fortnight.

Defence/Aggression

• A New Direction for U.S. Foreign Policy in Africa | Dissent Magazine

  President Trump’s approach to Africa rightly elicits outrage. His conception of the continent ranges from disinterest—he has only mentioned it three times out of around 20,000 tweets—to outright contempt, such as when he referred to African nations as “shithole countries.” For eighteen months, the office of the assistant secretary of state for African affairs was empty or occupied by a temporary official. Almost two years into his administration, there was no ambassador deployed to twenty of Africa’s fifty-four countries. Trump has only met with two heads of state from sub-Saharan Africa in the White House. He has proposed large budget cuts for humanitarian funding—including for the flagship President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and UN peacekeeping operations—although these attempts were mostly foiled by bipartisan efforts in Congress. In January, he extended his travel ban to four additional African countries, including Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation and its largest economy, affecting nearly a quarter of the 1.3 billion people on the continent.

  Appearances, however, are deceptive. While Trump’s Africa policy may seem to be a departure, its broad contours have changed little from recent administrations. Since the end of the Cold War, both Republican and Democratic administrations have embraced a mixture of military intervention, free trade, and humanitarian aid on the continent. As a result, Washington has often ended up backing authoritarian regimes, all the while halfheartedly projecting democratic values.

  Meanwhile, the continent is undergoing transformative changes. Much like Latin America during the 2000s, many African countries once drawn into the U.S. orbit are drifting out of it. With COVID-19 threatening to destabilize African economies and political systems, now is the time for a progressive reset in relations with the continent: a new foreign policy, centered on economic justice and the democratic aspirations of African youth. With the presidential election looming and Joe Biden, the Democratic Party nominee, expected to place Obama-era stalwarts such as Susan Rice and Samantha Power in top foreign policy positions if he wins in November, progressives must push for a new direction for U.S.–Africa relations or risk entrenching the problematic policies of the past.

Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

• The New Humanitarian | As press freedom shrinks, Kashmir’s cartoonists chronicle a life under lockdown

  Due to months of military clampdowns and coronavirus lockdowns, there’s no shortage of material for the political cartoonists documenting Kahsmir’s unrest and its humanitarian fallout, even as press freedom shrinks.

  In August 2019, India’s government stripped the former state of Jammu and Kashmir of its semi-autonomous status. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the move was aimed at ending separatism, but it escalated tensions in a region that has weathered years of conflict, protests, and crackdowns on an anti-government insurgency.

  The ensuing months have seen extended curfews, disruptions to schooling, a crumbling economy, continuing restrictions on high-speed mobile internet, surging border tensions with China in nearby Ladakh, and a health system struggling to contain the pandemic.

Monopolies

• Patents

  • Letter to Congress: Iancu is Good for the Patent System

    The following letter to Congress appears to have substantial support from patent owners. The basics of the letter is to say that Dir. Iancu’s changes to the IPR process have been positive and should stick. Part of the issue here is that Dir. Iancu is a political appointee who is on his way out in 2021 if President Trump loses (and would likely leave in 2021 regardless).

  • Cambodia expands patent cooperation by signing MOU with the US

  • Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2020, LDC’s request WTO to extend transition period and more

    In this week’s Patent News – Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2020 come into force; Nokia seeks injunction against Lenovo for patent infringement; LDC’s request WTO to extend transition period under the TRIP’s for 12 years; CNIPA and EPO to launch pilot program for Chinese Applicants to designate EPO as an additional ISA.

  • Was the recent skirmish on the TRIPS Agreement and Covid-19 really worth it? – Kluwer Patent Blog

    As Bob Hudec explained in his legendary The GATT Legal System and World Trade Diplomacy, GATT’s (since 1995, WTO) long-standing practice of seeking to adopt decisions by consensus finds its roots in 1947, when the then 23 parties to GATT were a small club of good friends. The proposition that a friend might impose a decision via a majority approval on another friend was not quite in line with the friendly atmosphere that delegates enjoyed at the headquarters of GATT, a charming building situated in front of lac Leman. This spirit of consensus, which, of course, has advantages (no losers) and disadvantages (ambiguous legal texts), has lasted to this day.

    Last week, word got around that a proposal made by India and South Africa during the last meeting of the TRIPS Council aimed at introducing rules that would waive certain intellectual property rights (“IPR”) to ease access to Covid-19 vaccines was initially rejected due to a lack of consensus. For example, according to the United Kingdom (“UK”) government, the proposal was “an extreme measure to address an unproven problem”. The European Union, the United States and Australia backed the UK, while other delegations, such as Kenya, supported the proposal. Clearly, the days where GATT was a small club of good friends are gone, although disagreement is not necessarily indicative of an unfriendly mood. And, most likely, the struggle to arrive at a consensus will continue in future meetings.

    But was this proposal necessary in the first place? Interestingly, on 15 October 2020, the WTO published an “Informative Note” under the title The TRIPS Agreement and COVID-19, the reading of which casts doubts on whether any time and energy devoted to another useless modification of the TRIPS Agreement, such as the introduction of Article 31 bis (waivers for export purposes), would be worth it. Why was so much time, effort and so many newspaper headlines consumed in that amendment of the TRIPS Agreement to introduce export waivers, if nobody uses them?

  • PEMETREXED patent infringement in France: €28 million in damages for Eli Lilly (“France is back”?)

    Joining the majority of European courts, the Paris Court of Justice ruled that Eli Lilly’s patent, which relates to the combined administration of pemetrexed disodium and vitamin B12, was infringed by the marketing of Fresenius’ pemetrexed diacid. It also awarded a record amount of damages of €28,000,000: a first in Europe.

    1. The pemetrexed “saga” is one of the most closely followed and resounding in European patent litigation in recent years. After several decisions, notably in the Netherlands [1], the UK [2] and Germany [3], it is now the turn of the French Court to rule in a landmark judgment. In its decision of 11 September 2020, the Paris High Court (the “Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris”) agreed with the position taken in the majority of European countries, ruling that patent EP 1,313,508 (EP 508), which relates to the combined administration of pemetrexed disodium vitamin B 12 for the treatment of lung cancer (sold under the Alimta® trademark), was infringed by the marketing of pemetrexed diacid by Fresenius Kabi. In addition, the Court awarded the plaintiff €28,000,000 in damages, a record in Europe, where this is the first time such an amount has been awarded in patent litigation.

    2. The patent EP 508 invoked in this case relates to the combined administration of the drug pemetrexed disodium (sold under the brand name Alimta®) with vitamin B 12, and possibly with folic acid, to treat two types of lung cancer. Claim 1 reads as follows:

    « 1. Use of pemetrexed disodium in the manufacture of a medicament for use in combination therapy for inhibiting tumor growth in mammals to which said medicament is to be administered in combination with vitamin B12 or a pharmaceutical derivative thereof, said pharmaceutical derivative of vitamin B12 being hydroxocobalamin, cyano-10-chlorocobalamin, aquocobalamin perchlorate, aquo-10-chlorocobalamin perchlorate, azidocobalamin, chlorocobalamin or cobalamin. »

  • USPTO driven to drop rules package and get trial denial input

    Sources suggest that governmental pressure compelled the USPTO to drop allegedly controversial rules the day before it published a request for comments

  • Software Patents

    • FOSS Patents: Presiding judge of patent-specialized panel of Dusseldorf appeals court expressed bias against Asian defendants

      For quite some time, the German patent judiciary has had a reputation of being plaintiff-friendly, but this year the system has simply gone off the deep end in terms of highly problematic decisions, all the way up to the Federal Court of Justice, which hit a new low with its Sisvel v. Haier ruling. Those courts should faithfully apply the law, but more than anything else they are simply agenda-driven.

      [...]

      If you transplanted those German patent courts to a small market, such as Switzerland, they’d lose most of their “business” (all other things being equal). And if those judges had the intellectual honesty to rely to a reasonable extent on technical expert witnesses (like their counterparts in various other jurisdictions) as opposed to claiming they can resolve pretty much everything (except validity, as they prefer not to stay their cases over validity doubts) as a matter of law, those courts could no longer claim to be “rocket dockets.”

      It’s undeniable that the huge number of cases those judges get to decide (about two in three European patent infringement actions are brought in Germany) enables them to build extensive experience. But the broken system–with the future Unified Patent Court promising more lucrative and more prestigious posts—incentivizes bad decisions in favor of plaintiffs (“forum selling”) over well-reasoned decisions. What’s going on right now is a race to the bottom between certain courts that come up with ever more troubling and far-fetched theories only to please patent holders.

      With all that’s going wrong there, this post is part of a continuing effort to to expose and discuss certain issues. Some of this may help policy makers to better understand the extent of the problem of a patent judiciary that pursues its own interests in attracting infringement cases at the expense of the economy and to the detriment of innovation. The makers of the world’s most innovative products dread the German patent judiciary that offers itself as a tool to patent trolls looking for extortionate leverage.

    • Unified Welcomes New Patent Attorney to its Growing Legal Team

      Unified is pleased to announce the addition of Ellyar Barazesh to its growing team of patent attorneys and IP professionals. Ellyar, as Senior Legal Counsel, comes to us by way of WilmerHale and Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, with a wealth of experience and technical expertise to assist Unified’s ever-expanding mission to deter patent abuse wherever it is found.

    • FOSS Patents: Huawei and patent troll Conversant settle patent dispute, automotive downstream stands to benefit from component-level agreement

      On Friday, the Landgericht München I (Munich I Regional Court) entered a final (though appealable) judgment in a Conversant v. Daimler standard-essential patent (SEP) infringement case in which Conversant was asserting a former Nokia patent (or, to be precise, a derivative of a former Nokia patent). I’ve meanwhile obtained a copy of the ruling, and its final part (Section H) reveals that a settlement between Huawei–an indirect Daimler supplier–and the Nokia-fed patent troll has been reached.

      The written decision says that on October 21, 2020 (just two days prior to the ruling date), defendant Daimler and intervenor Huawei (referred to as “intervenor no. 8″) brought parallel motions asking the court to postpone the decision by two weeks in light of an agreement between Huawei and Conversant. The court denied these motions because Daimler’s and Huawei’s representations didn’t go into sufficient legal detail, and because the settlement agreement comes with conditions precedent that weren’t specified (Daimler, in fact, requested the court to ensure that the agreement would enter the record). Furthermore, the court notes that just one day prior to that motion, Huawei had filed a pleading according to which it denied having received a licensing offer from Conversant.

      In most if not all German SEP cases against Daimler, Huawei intervened in its capacity as a tier 2 (indirect) supplier. Huawei makes network access devices (NADs), or connectivity modules, which some of Daimler’s tier 1 (= direct) suppliers such as Continental and Samsung subsidiary Harman incorporate into the telematics control units (TCUs) they sell to the Mercedes maker. Effectively, cellular SEPs are implemented by the baseband chip (tier 3), so if a tier 3 or tier 2 supplier is licensed, so are the tier 1 supplier (TCU maker) and, by ultimate extension, Daimler.

Desktop/Laptop

• Chinese Laptop Featuring New 14nm Loongsoon 3A4000 CPU Appears

  Due to this laptop being in the Chinese market, Windows is not supported at all. It only runs Chinese “domestic operating systems” that are typically modified versions of Linux. Fortunately, this does mean you can install any Linux flavor you want on the laptop, which can be handy if you don’t want to run China-specific apps only.

Audiocasts/Shows

• GNU World Order 377

  Fedora Silverblue.

• LHS Episode #375: No Deliveries | Linux in the Ham Shack

  Welcome to the 375th installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this short-topics episode, the hosts discuss the FCC relocating its offices, Logbook of the World, the new FST4 mode, Peertube, Hashicorp, RustyLinux, Ubuntu DragonOS, QRadioLink and much more. Thank you for tuning in and we hope you have a wonderful week.

• Linux Action News 160

  Ubuntu 20.10 is out, with official Raspberry Pi 4 desktop support. We try it out and report back. And our thoughts on the youtube-dl takedown.

  Plus Edge is out for Linux, and PayPal gets bitcoin fever.

Kernel Space

• Linux 5.10-rc1

  Two weeks have passed, and the merge window is over. I've tagged and
  pushed out 5.10-rc1, and everything looks fairly normal.
  
  This looks to be a bigger release than I expected, and while the merge
  window is smaller than the one for 5.8 was, it's not a *lot* smaller.
  And 5.8 was our biggest release ever.
  
  I'm not entirely sure whether this is just a general upward trend (we
  did seem to plateau for a while there), or just a fluke, or perhaps
  due to 5.9 dragging out an extra week. We will see, I guess.
  
  That said, things seem to have gone fairly smoothly. I don't see any
  huge red flags, and the merge window didn't cause any unusual issues
  for me. Famous last words..
  
  The most interesting - to me - change here is Christoph's setf_fs()
  removal (it got merged through Al Viro, as you can see in my mergelog
  below).  It's not a _huge_ change, but it's interesting because the
  whole model of set_fs() to specify whether a userspace copy actually
  goes to user space or kernel space goes back to pretty much the
  original release of Linux, and while the name is entirely historic (it
  hasn't used the %fs segment register in a long time), the concept has
  remained. Until now.
  
  We still do have "set_fs()" around, and not every architecture has
  been converted to the new world order, but x86, powerpc, s390 and
  RISC-V have had the address space overrides removed, and all the core
  work is done. Other architectures will hopefully get converted away
  from that very historic model too, but it might take a while to get
  rid of it all.
  
  Anyway, to most people that all shouldn't matter at all, and it's
  mainly a small historical footnote that 5.10 no longer relies on the
  whole set_fs() model. Most of the actual changes are - as usual -
  driver updates, but there are changes all over. I think the merge log
  below gives some kind of flavor of what's been going on on a high
  level, but if you're interested in the details go look at the git
  tree. As mentioned, it's a big merge window, with  almost 14k commits
  (*) by closer to 1700 people.
  
  Please go test,
  
                    Linus
  
  (*) closer to 15k commits if you count merges.
  

• Linux 5.10-rc1 Released With New Hardware Support, Security Additions

  Linus Torvalds just released Linux 5.10-rc1 that also marks the end of the feature merge window for this EOY2020 kernel. Linux 5.10 isn’t the largest kernel update in recent time but still has a lot of interesting additions and improvements.

  Linux 5.9 to 5.10-rc1 brings around 704k lines of new code and some 419k lines deleted. In comparison, Linux 5.8 to 5.9-rc1 had 727k lines added and 270k deletions while 5.7 to 5.8-rc1 had 973k lines added and 429k deletions — the biggest kernel ever. So it’s not the largest kernel update in recent times but still ranks highly and has a decent number of changes.

• Kernel prepatch 5.10-rc1 [LWN.net]

  Linus has released 5.10-rc1 and closed the merge window for this development cycle.

Instructionals/Technical

• Bash Process Substitution: How to Use it

  Multiple commands and input/output redirections can be effectively used with bash process substitution.

• How to Install Linux on Chromebook?

  Chromebooks have gotten better since their launch and Linux support has made them even better. Hence, let’s look at how you can install Linux on Chromebook.

• How to Use Docker Run Command with Examples – LinuxBuz

  The docker run command is one the most important command you should become familiar with. The docker run command is used to launch Docker containers from a specified image.

• Running SecureDrop inside of podman containers on Fedora 33

  Last week, while setting up a Fedora 33 system, I thought of running the SecureDrop development container there, but using podman instead of the Docker setup we have.

  I tried to make minimal changes to our existing scripts. Added a ~/bin/docker file, with podman $@ inside (and the sha-bang line).

• Adapting Docker and Kubernetes containers to run on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform – Red Hat Developer

  Adapt existing Docker and Kubernetes containers to run on Red Hat OpenShift, and how to create new Kubernetes containers that can also run on OpenShift.

• 10 Ansible modules for Linux system automation | Opensource.com

  These handy modules save time and hassle by automating many of your daily tasks, and they’re easy to implement with a few commands.

• 7 Git tricks that changed my life | Opensource.com

  These helpful tips will change the way you work with the popular version control system.

• Manage content using Pulp Debian | Opensource.com

  Mirror, sync, upload, and publish collections of software packages with the Pulp_Deb plugin.

• Font And Line Settings In Doom Emacs – YouTube

  I am going to cover a few parts of my Doom Emacs config. Specifically, I am going to talk about my settings for fonts and lines. I also talk about what the fringe is and how you enable or disable the fringe.

• RPKI validation with OpenBSD’s rpki-client and Cloudflare’s gortr

  This article documents how to install rpki-client (an RPKI relying party software, the actual validator) and gortr (which implements the RPKI to Router protocol) on Debian 10 to provide RPKI validation to routers. If you are using testing or unstable then you can just skip the part about apt pinnings.

• How To Install Ionic Framework on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – idroot

  In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Ionic Framework on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Ionic Framework is helpful for building Android and iOS programs faster. You must install those applications to create a hybrid mobile application.

  This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step by step installation of Ionic Framework on a Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian based distribution like Linux Mint.

• How to Configure NGINX as TCP/UDP Load Balancer in Linux

  In this article, we will learn how to configure NGINX as TCP and UDP Load balancer in linux for the applications deployed in Kubernetes cluster.

• 8 Ways to Check CPU Clock Speed on Linux

  Learn different ways to check cpu clock speed in Linux. Linux system has many tools to grab processor information and grab its speed.

• How to create Cron Jobs on Linux | FOSS Linux

  Creating and editing a cron job the most amazing part in Linux, where you don’t need to restart cron or even your PC after creating or editing a cron job.

• How to Install Ruby on Ubuntu 20.04 Linux – Linux Concept

  Nowadays, Ruby is the most popular language, especially for SaaS application development. It has a perfect and elegant syntax structure, and it is the language behind the ultimate robust framework known as Ruby on Rails.

  In this tutorial, we will explain the three different processes to install Ruby on Ubuntu 20.04 machine.

• How To Install Docker And Pull Images From Docker Hub

  Learn how to install Docker and pull images from Docker Hub

• Run Ocserv VPN Server & Apache/Nginx on the Same Box with HAProxy

  This tutorial will be showing you how to run OpenConnect VPN server (ocserv) and Apache/Nginx on the same box with HAProxy. OpenConnect (ocserv) is an open-source implementation of the Cisco AnyConnect VPN protocol.

Distributions

• Reviews

  • Review: Peppermint OS 10

    Peppermint is one of those delightful distributions which does what it says it will do. It sets out to be lightweight, easy to set up, and offer native-like access to web applications. It does all of these things and does them well. I also happen to really like the well-organized settings panel and the friendly software manager. I especially like how mintInstall makes it clear when it is working with Deb or Flatpak packages.

    While I’m not personally a fan of web applications, I do think Peppermint deserves full credit for making them as easy to use as possible and as native-like as it does. I may never like running my applications over the web, but for people who do like this approach, Peppermint’s Ice and SSB features are excellent.

    Mostly though I’m a big fan of the distribution’s combined LXDE/Xfce desktop. It is a mixture of components which works nicely, is fairly easy to configure, and it offers some of the best performance I have had with an open source desktop this year.

    There are some rough edges. The system installer threw out some errors towards the end of the setup process. Needing to logout and back in to see Flatpaks in the application menu was a pain, but not a deal breaker. On the whole I think Peppermint does a good job of feeling modern while offering good performance and easy to use tools.

• Arch Family

  • Wikiman: An Offline Search Engine For Arch Linux, Gentoo Wiki, And More

    Official documentation of applications or commands is always the best way to learn about them if you want to know every detail, which a blog or article can’t provide.

    And in the Linux community, we can’t deny Arch Wiki is truly a go-to place for anything you want to learn about Linux. Besides Arch, there are other documentations as well which you may also want to prefer like Gentoo or FreeBSD.

    So, whether you want to know about a command or jargon in Linux, you can refer to any of the Wiki sites available. But if you’re looking for something that can provide documentation not only of Arch Linux but also of Gentoo, FreeBSD, and others to read in an offline mode, meet Wikiman.

• IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

  • Fedora program update: 2020-43

    Here’s your report of what has happened in Fedora this week. Fedora 33 will be released on Tuesday!

    I have weekly office hours in #fedora-meeting-1. Drop by if you have any questions or comments about the schedule, Changes, elections, or anything else.

  • Fedora status updates: September 2020

    Welcome to the newly-revitalized monthly set of updates on key areas within Fedora. This update includes Fedora Council representatives, Fedora Editions, and Fedora Objectives. The content here is based on the regular updates submitted to the Fedora Council, published to the project dashboard.

  • Fedora program update: 2020-42 – Fedora Community Blog

    Here’s your report of what has happened in Fedora this week. Final freeze is underway. Please update the Release Readiness page with your team’s status. The Go/No-Go meeting is Thursday.

    I have weekly office hours in #fedora-meeting-1. Drop by if you have any questions or comments about the schedule, Changes, elections, or anything else.

  • Fedora Community Blog monthly summary: September 2020

    In September, we published 18 posts. The site had 3,176 visits from 2,022 unique viewers. Readers wrote no comments. 13 visits came from Fedora Planet, while 872 came from search engines, and 199 came from the WordPress Android App.

  • GitLab AMA follow-up – Fedora Community Blog

    Last month, we invited folks from GitLab to a public Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. We collected questions from the community in advance about the upcoming Fedora migration to GitLab.

    The Community Platform Engineering (CPE) team has been working with GitLab for the past few months on understanding and troubleshooting the technical challenges associated with the migration. This AMA was a natural next step to enable the community to participate and give the Fedora community a chance to get to know some of the GitLab team members who are supporting the migration process.

    During the AMA session, Nuritzi Sanchez, Lindsay Olson, Jason Young, André Luís, Greg Myers, Michelle Gill, Daniel Gruesso, and Nick Thomas from GitLab sat down on IRC with the Fedora and CentOS communities to answer questions live.

  • Crashing saltstack minions on f33?

    It’s a _scope_id bug affecting Salt on Python 3.9. There’s a patch submitted upstream, and 3002+this patch is headed to updates-testing.

  • The Python Maintenance team is hiring

    The Python Maintenance team at Red Hat is looking for a software engineer to join us and help us maintain Python in Fedora and RHEL.

    Hey, Pythonistas. We’re looking for a software engineer to join us in the Python Maintenance team at Red Hat – our remote-friendly Brno-based team with members throughout the Czech Republic (including Prague and Ostrava) as well as abroad (France, partially Greece, US planned).

Devices/Embedded

• Modberry 500 CM4 DIN Rail Industrial Computer Features Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4

  We’ve been writing about Techbase Modberry industrial embedded computers with DIN-Rail enclosures such as Modberry M500 or M2000 for several years. Most of their systems are powered by SBC’s like Raspberry Pi 4 or AAEON Up Squared, but they’ve also made models based on Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+, and with the launch of Raspberry Pi CM4, the company has now introduced Modberry 500 CM4 industrial computer powered by Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 with up to 8GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Poll of The Week: Does Android need a small flagship phone like the iPhone 12 Mini?

  • Android phones become payments terminals as Aussie app takes on Square

  • Android users alert! 21 gaming apps with adware identified on Google Play Store – Check full list

  • Google removes 3 android apps with over 20 million downloads

  • Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 review: Reliable mid-range Android tablet

  • GTA 5: How to download GTA 5 on PC and Android smartphones from Steam and Epic Games store?

  • Best Android Go Phones 2020

  • Kindle Fire Upgrade to Android 9 – Location Service Doesn’t Work Right – Android OS

  • Making Google Calendar sync with Android tablet, phone

  • The 6 best smartwatches for Android

Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee dies at 78

Lee Kun-hee was a controversial figure who played a huge part in pushing Samsung from a cheap TV and appliances maker to one of the most powerful technology brands in the world. He became the richest man in South Korea, with the Samsung group contributing around a fifth of the country’s GDP. In its statement, Samsung says that Lee’s declaration of “new management” in 1993 was “the motivating driver of the company’s vision to deliver the best technology to help advance global society.”

Lee also found himself in legal trouble. He was found guilty of bribing President Roh Tae-woo through a slush fund in 1995, and of tax evasion and embezzlement in 2008, but was formally pardoned for each conviction. The second pardon came in 2009 and was made “so that Lee could take back his place at the International Olympic Committee and form a better situation for the 2018 Olympics to take place in Pyongchang,” South Korea’s justice minister said at the time.

Health/Nutrition

• Pence Was Exposed to COVID From Top Aide. He Plans to Keep Campaigning Anyway.

  Despite being considered a close contact with a top aide who tested positive for Covid-19 and began quarantining on Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence is still planning to maintain his travel and campaign schedule with the November election just over a week away—a decision medical experts denounced as potentially dangerous for Pence, those accompanying him, and the public.

• Pence Denounced for ‘Grossly Negligent’ Decision to Keep Campaigning Despite Exposure to Top Aide With Covid-19

  “It’s just an insult to everybody who has been working in public health and public health response.”

• “We’re Not Going to Control the Pandemic,” Trump Chief of Staff Says on Live TV as Covid Cases Surge

  “‘It is what it is’ wasn’t a randomly tossed off phrase: it’s the official policy.”

• Covid-19 and the Political Utility of Fear

  The true mortality rate of covid-19 remains a matter of intense dispute, but it is undoubtedly true that a false public impression was given by the very high percentage of deaths among those who were tested positive, at the time when it was impossible to get tested unless you were seriously ill (or a member of society’s “elite”). When only those in danger of dying could get a test, it was of course not at all surprising that such a high percentage of those who tested positive died. It is astonishing how many articles are published with the entirely fake claim that the mortality rate of Covid-19 is 3.4%, based on that simple methodology. That same methodology will today, now testing is much more widely available to those who feel ill, give you results of under 1%. That is still an overestimate as very few indeed of the symptomless, or of those with mild symptoms, are even now being tested.

Integrity/Availability

• Proprietary

  • Security

    • Episode 221 – Security, magic, and FaceID – Open Source Security

      Josh and Kurt talk about how to get started in security. It’s like the hero’s journey, but with security instead of magic. We then talk about what Webkit bringing Face ID and Touch ID to the browsers will mean.

    • Linux Patches Aim To Provide Fork’ing Brute Force Attack Mitigation

      Building off a set of “request for comments” patches from September, a set of patches were sent out on Sunday for providing brute force attack mitigation around the fork system call.

      With attacks aiming to break Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and similar attacks often relying on the fork system call in order to keep replicating the memory contents of the parent process, these patches aim to detect the behavior where fork is being exploited for these nefarious purposes.

      This work is inspired in part by some patches carried by GrSecurity where a delay around the fork system call will be imposed if a child died from a fatal error. These patches propose collecting statistical data shared across all the processes with the same memory contents and analyzing the timing of any children processes crashing. When the code determines such an exploit may be underway leveraging fork, all of the processes using the same memory contents are killed to stop whatever malicious activity may be happening.

    • Privacy/Surveillance

      • US official pushes India to ban Huawei, ZTE from mobile networks

        An American official has told India it needs to shut out Chinese vendors Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corporation from the country’s forthcoming 5G trials and also remove the companies’ gear from other networks.

      • Sydney Morning Herald shows it knows nothing about encryption

        One of Australia’s main newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald, believes that technology companies can open “very small” encryption backdoors to enable government agencies to snoop on encrypted communications.

      • Former StyleHaul Execs Launch Vody, Big-Data Startup Aimed at Enhancing Content Recommendations (EXCLUSIVE)

        Entertainment-analytics startup Vody is coming out of stealth after more than two years of development and testing. Co-founders and co-CEOs Stephanie Horbaczewski and Jeremy Houghton, who both were previously top execs at YouTube network StyleHaul, claim they’ve built a better mousetrap. The company’s proprietary system, they say, uses machine-learning tech to trawl the [Internet] and compile a comprehensive database of entertainment titles — designed to plug into streaming services for more accurate content recommendations.

        The L.A.-based company was formed by Horbaczewski, previously founder/CEO of StyleHaul, and Houghton, who was StyleHaul CTO. They both left the RTL Group-owned fashion and beauty digital network before RTL shuttered StyleHaul last year.

Defence/Aggression

• Donald Trump, the Mr. Magoo of Geopolitics, Incites Warfare Between Egypt and Ethiopia

  Trump is much more terrifying, if equally cartoonish.

• ‘Victory for Humanity’: Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons to Take Effect as Honduras Becomes 50th Nation to Ratify

  The United States has not ratified the treaty and the Trump administration is actively urging nations to withdraw from it.

• Erik Prince’s Private Wars

  A revealing passage in Prince’s book suggests his father harbored concerns about his only son’s early lack of focus. Edgar Prince inserted a clause in his will stipulating that Erik, the youngest of his four children, wouldn’t receive any inheritance until he turned 30.

  The younger Prince’s life hit a major pivot, however, in 1992, when he left politics to be commissioned as a naval officer and join the elite Navy SEALs. His father, won over by his son’s perseverance, dropped the clause out of the will.

  After his father’s death in 1995 at age 63 from a heart attack, Prince resigned his military commission and used his share of the family fortune to build Blackwater USA, which began life as a cross between a shooting range and training facility for special-operations personnel near North Carolina’s Great Dismal Swamp. After 9/11, the company grew rapidly as it filled the government’s need to protect its personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blackwater would go on to bill the U.S. government for more than $1 billion over its lifetime.

• Murder Of Iranian Dissident In Toronto Raises Questions About Iran’s Footprint In Canada

  Amin, a construction worker and former member of the Iranian-Canadian Congress, has been active on social media in recent years. He attended political rallies against the Islamic Republic, calling for the overthrow of the clergy-dominated establishment in Iran.

  Hamed Ismaeilion, the spokesman for the Association of Victims of Flight 752, said that he had recently received death threats.

  Toronto police have not yet released a report on the possible motive, manner, and perpetrators involved in the murder.

• Mali’s army liberates village besieged by jihadists: army statement

  Mali’s military has regained control of a village in the centre of the country where more than 2 000 residents have been besieged by suspected Islamist militants for two weeks, it said in a statement on Thursday.

• France recalls ambassador from Turkey after ‘unacceptable’ Erdogan comments

  “President Erdogan’s comments are unacceptable. Excess and rudeness are not a method. We demand that Erdogan change the course of his policy because it is dangerous in every respect,” the official told AFP.

  The Elysee official, who asked not to be named, also said that France had noted “the absence of messages of condolence and support” from the Turkish president after the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty outside Paris.

  The official also expressed concern over calls by Ankara for a boycott of French goods.

  Macron this month described Islam as a religion “in crisis” worldwide and said the government would present a bill in December to strengthen a 1905 law that officially separated church and state in France.

  He announced stricter oversight of schooling and better control over foreign funding of mosques.

• France: ‘Anti-Islamophobia’ campaigner issued death fatwa against teacher who showed Muhammad cartoon

  Police in France have arrested a Muslim leader who reportedly issued a fatwa, or the Islamic death warrant, on the school teacher beheaded in Paris on Friday, the French-language newspaper Le Soir confirmed on Monday.

  The suspect, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, leads an organization called “Cheikh Yassine Collective,” which was set up in the memory of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the slain founder of the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas.

• Bereaved father blasts BBC for giving platform to terrorist

  The father of a teenage girl who was among 15 people murdered in the 2001 suicide bombing at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem condemned the BBC this week for giving one of the terrorists involved in the attack a platform, the UK-based Jewish News reports.

  A BBC Arabic program had reported that Ahlam Tamimi, who masterminded the bombing, was appealing to Jordanian King Abdullah II to intervene after her husband’s Jordanian residency was revoked. The report said, “The staff of the [BBC] program reached out to Ahlam to hear her request to the Jordanian king. Let’s listen.”

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

• Scholar Larry Bartels: Trump has revealed that “truth and reason” don’t matter to politics

  In an effort to answer these questions, I recently spoke with political scientist Larry Bartels, who holds the May Werthan Shayne Chair of Public Policy and Social Science at Vanderbilt University. Bartels is the author of several books, including “Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age” and “Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government” (with Christopher Achen). His commentaries and other writing have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times and other leading publications. Bartels is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

  Toward the end of our conversation, Bartels shares his thoughts on the reliability of the various models offered by historians, political scientists and others who claim to be able to predict the outcome of presidential elections and the likely defeat of Donald Trump. (I will not spoil his remarks for you here.) As usual, this interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Environment

• Amy Coney Barrett Is Doubling Down on Climate Denial

  As a lower-court judge, Barrett had previously recused herself from cases involving Shell Oil, because her father worked there as a top attorney for decades. He also served in a top position at the American Petroleum Institute (API), one of the fossil fuel industry’s top lobbying groups, but she never included that organization in her recusal list.

• Climate Change and Hurricanes

  Bruno Latour, the French sociologist and anthropologist writes, in Facing Gaia – Eight Lectures on the New Climatic Regime, 2017, “In the Anthropocene, how can the state maintain that it has a monopoly on legitimate physical violence in the face of the geo-historical violence of the climate?” These weather events now terrorize the state and as we become increasingly subject to anthropogenic phenomena – those characteristics of climate that we believe are acting out of humankind’s historic and present burning of fossil fuels –we anthropomorphize their impact. Wild fires rage, threaten and ravage; hurricanes bear down, hit and devastate. Their actions deriving, we understand from the frantic reporting of them, not from a set of climatological beginnings but devoted to the terrorizing of the human beings in their path – fire, flood and wind marked by a teleological stripe as wide as the swathe they purposefully cut through civilization. Either way, it’s all about us. We have created these vaporous monsters, these flowers of evil – their whirling florescence stunningly captured in satellite imagery – that can only survive in the hot-house of an anthropocentric world. Their evil is the evil that men do, their monstrousness mirrors ours. It is we who have turned the page of geologic epochs to the one named the Anthropocene.

  The fight to reduce CO2 levels to diminish global warming remains the central field of operations in the global climate war that was enjoined some decades ago. Capitalism and its enabling political environment of neoliberalism are locked in battle with a growing army of opinion (scarcely yet reified as action) that suggests that planetary health would be better served by a dramatic re-visioning of our hegemonic anthropocentrism towards an enlightened co-existence with other life-forms. As the world warms, this new Cold War is fated to get increasingly hot. It is a war between the Moderns – those living out the scientific rationalities of the seventeenth century and who still formally exist within the Holocene, a geological epoch characterized by the geomorphic changes signaled by the end of the last ice age and the subsequent advent of agriculture – and those whom Latour calls the “Earthbound of the Anthropocene”, populations alive to the geologic epoch which takes account of humankind’s impact on geo-history and which embrace a world suffused with animism.

• An Effective Green New Deal Must Be Global. This Is What It Could Look Like.

  The position of the Academies of Science from more than 80 countries and scores of scientific organizations is that global warming is human-caused through the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil) to generate power. In fact, scientists have known for decades how carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming, with nuclear weapons physicist Edward Teller actually warning the oil industry all the way back in 1959 how its own activities will end up having a catastrophic impact on human civilization.

• 70+ Climate Journalists Pen Open Letter Condemning Barrett for Enabling the ‘Ecological Crisis of Our Times’

  “At the moment when the facts of the case were presented to her, this arbiter of justice freely chose to side with mistruths. Judge Coney Barrett’s responses are factually inaccurate, scientifically unsound, and dangerous.”

• Energy

  • Fracking Isn’t Just Bad for the Climate. It’s Bad for Mental Health Too.

    Hydraulic fracturing has boomed in the U.S. over the past decade, but unless you live near it, you may not realize just how close fracking wells can be to homes and schools. In Colorado, the wellbore – the hole drilled to extract oil or gas – can be 500 feet from someone’s house under current state rules. In some states, like Texas, drilling can be even closer.

Finance

• Maine Officials Propose Doubling Budget for Agency Charged With Defending the Poor

  Officials in Maine are proposing to double the size of the budget set aside to provide the legal services needed to adequately defend the state’s poor who are accused of crimes.

  The $35.4 million proposal put forward by the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services, or MCILS, would establish the state’s first two public defender offices and provide a substantial raise to private attorneys paid to represent the poor. Members debated the large price tag before unanimously voting in support of the budget plan on Oct. 15. One commissioner was absent.

• Why Uber’s Desperate Prop 22 Is Bad for Drivers and Society

  It would lock in a serf-like condition forever, since Prop 22 requires an unprecedented 88% vote by the state legislature to change it.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Preparing to Protect the Election Results

  Winning, and then protecting this election against a coup, are necessary steps to getting back to our regular work of fighting to build a just and sustainable society.

• The Birth of a Xenophobe

  Two years later, Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower and launched one of the most virulent anti-immigrant campaigns in American political history, delivering a speech that declared Mexico was sending rapists to the US. No president has ever flip-flopped so dramatically on immigration.

  The story of how Donald Trump became a xenophobe reveals how a bigoted con artist joined forces with far right racist anti-immigration radicals and convinced the American people that he had an easy solution to immigration.

• ‘Such an Insult’: Doctors Furious as Trump Peddles Baseless Claim That They Are Inflating Covid Death Count for Profit

  “We report deaths how they occur. If you did your damn job we wouldn’t be reporting so many.”

• Out of the UK, a Bold Pay Prescription for a Post-Trump America

  Two British think tanks are calling for a cap on the compensation that goes to corporate chiefs.

• How to Reverse the GOP’s Power Grab

  This is a travesty of democracy.

• To Defeat Fascism, We Must Recognize It’s a Failed Response to Capitalist Crisis

  Few would disagree in light of recent events that the Trump regime, its most diehard extreme-right, white supremacist supporters, and elements of the Republican Party are bidding for a fascist putsch. Whether this putsch remains insurgent or is beaten back will depend on how events unfold in the November 3 election and its aftermath, and especially on the ability of left and progressive forces to mobilize to defend democracy and to push forward a social justice agenda as a counterweight to the fascist project.

• After Socialist Victory in Bolivia, Media Still Whitewash Coup

  U.S. media have a long history of reporting on Latin America that does more to please the State Department than to inform readers.

• Bob Woodward on the 2020 Election: “How Can You Not Be Worried?”

  Bob Woodward, 77, is also working from home. For decades, he has been among the most important chroniclers of political affairs in the capital. In the early 1970s, he uncovered the Watergate scandal together with his colleague Carl Bernstein at the Washington Post, leading to the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon. He later wrote books about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Woodward has been awarded two Pulitzer Prizes.

  For his new book, “Rage,” which was just published in German, he interviewed top government figures over a span of 10 months, including President Trump.

  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, DER SPIEGEL spoke to Woodward via telephone.

• Fire set in Boston ballot drop box; FBI asked to probe

  A fire was set Sunday in a Boston ballot drop box holding more than 120 ballots in what appears to have been a “deliberate attack,” Massachusetts election officials said.

  The state has asked the FBI to investigate the fire that was set around 4 a.m. in a ballot drop box outside the Boston Public Library downtown, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s office said.

  In a joint statement, Galvin and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh called it a “disgrace to democracy, a disrespect to the voters fulfilling their civic duty, and a crime.”

  “Our first and foremost priority is maintaining the integrity of our elections process and ensuring transparency and trust with our voters, and any effort to undermine or tamper with that process must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” they said in the emailed statement. “We ask voters not to be intimidated by this bad act, and remain committed to making their voices heard in this and every election.”

Censorship/Free Speech

• Samuel Paty’s murder shows need for free speech, combating radicalization in mosques

  The sad reality is that the indoctrination and radicalization of European youth inside European cities is not a single and isolated incident but an alarming trend, as seen in the large numbers of Europeans who joined ISIS. According to a report published by the World Bank under the title “Transnational Terrorist Recruitment: Evidence from Daesh Personnel Records,” 148 fighters resided in France before joining ISIS. The radicalization of young men is the result of a range of causes. Whether for extremist groups such as ISIS or white supremacist groups, it increasingly occurs online with local encouragement through inciting an hateful rhetoric that is articulated by influential figures at home, where young men are groomed by slick propaganda videos and online recruiters.

• Internet disrupted in Guinea ahead of presidential election result announcement

  Network data from the NetBlocks internet observatory confirm that internet has been disrupted in Guinea as of 7:30 a.m. UTC Friday 23 October 2020 as the West African country prepares to announce official results from this week’s presidential elections. The incident has nation-scale impact and is likely to significantly limit the domestic and international flow of information.

  Tensions are high in capital Conakry as supporters of opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo and incumbent President Alpha Conde each appeared to declare their candidate’s victory ahead of the official announcement.

• India Is Still Cracking Down on Dissent

  A lethal mix of authoritarianism and neo-liberal reforms is on the rise, benefitting big business but brutally curtailing many people’s freedoms, dispossessing them of their livelihoods, and sharply escalating inequalities. Here, I share with you what I have seen in India.

• Looking back at France’s long tradition of caricature

  French history teacher Samuel Paty was murdered on 16 October after showing two caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in a class about freedom of expression. In recent years, caricature in France has hit the headlines because of the irreverent cartoons of Charlie Hebdo and the 2015 terrorist attacks. But caricature has a long and colourful tradition in the country.

Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

• Turkish courts pursue trials, asset seizures in multiple cases against journalists

  Yesterday, a court Istanbul rejected an appeal by exiled journalist Can Dündar, thereby allowing authorities to seize his assets in Turkey, the news website Duvar English reported.

  Today, another Istanbul court convicted freelance journalist Sabiha Temizkan of making terrorist propaganda and sentenced her to 15 months in prison for a tweet from 2014, the independent news website Bianet reported, stating that she is free pending appeal.

  Tomorrow, hearings in Istanbul are scheduled to continue in the trials of two Turkish Bloomberg reporters, Kerim Karakaya and Fercan Yalınkılıç, as well as three other journalists and 33 other co-defendants, reports said.

• Open Access Should Include Open Courts

  But using PACER takes more than skill–it takes money. Subject to some exceptions, the PACER system charges 10 cents a page to download a document, and that cost can add up fast. The money is supposed to cover the price of running the system, but has been diverted to cover other costs. And either way, those fees are an unfair barrier to access. Open access activists have tried for years to remedy the problem, and have managed to improve access to some of it. The government itself made some initial forays in the right direction a decade ago, but then retreated, claiming privacy and security concerns. A team of researchers has developed software, called RECAP, that helps users automatically search for free copies of documents, and helps build up a free alternative database. Nonetheless, today most of PACER remains locked behind a paywall.

  It’s past time to tear that paywall down, and a bill now working its way through Congress, the bipartisan Open Courts Act of 2020, aims to do just that. The bill would provide public access to federal court records and improve the federal court’s online record system, eliminating PACER’s paywall in the process. EFF and a coalition of civil liberties organizations, transparency groups, retired judges, and law libraries have joined together to push Congress and the U.S. Federal Courts to eliminate the paywall and expand access to these vital documents. In a letter (PDF) addressed to the Director of the Administrative Office of United States Courts, which manages PACER, the coalition calls on the AO not to oppose this important legislation.

Civil Rights/Policing

• You Cannot Decarcerate by Using the Tools of Incarceration, Says Mumia Abu-Jamal

  The somber baritone of Mumia Abu-Jamal is unmistakable. Before we can exchange greetings, one of several automated announcements interrupts the call, reminding us that our conversation will be subject to recording and monitoring. Abu-Jamal is phoning from State Correctional Institution Mahanoy, a medium-security prison in Pennsylvania. Convicted in 1982 for the alleged killing of white Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in a racially charged trial that, according to Amnesty International, failed to meet international standards, Abu-Jamal’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2011. In April 2019, a new path for Abu-Jamal to appeal his life sentence was opened by reform-leaning Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who withdrew his initial opposition for a new appeal to go forward in the courts. Yet, 64-year-old Abu-Jamal remains skeptical when it comes to criminal legal reform in the United States. Despite calls to defund the police and a string of electoral victories for more progressive prosecutors like Krasner, the current administration is actively rolling back reforms. Most notably, Donald Trump has lifted the 17-year moratorium on federal executions and reinstated Department of Justice contracts with private prisons. For Abu-Jamal, with whom I spoke about abolition, the history of slavery and racialized state violence in the United States, this fraught political moment requires an entirely different mindset that allows us to think about decarceration in new ways.

• How Did We Get Here? And How Do We Get Out?

  It’s important that we figure this out, and figure out how to inoculate the country from this disease—the disease that conflates bravado with brains, degeneracy with dignity, greed with grace, hate with hope.

• Some rich people are getting even richer during the pandemic

  They found, unsurprisingly, that tech billionaires have performed especially well. Between March and the end of June the net worth of both Mr Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, soared by more than 50%. More than half of the 13 biggest gainers were from the tech sector. Another winner of the pandemic was Kuan Kam Hon, the boss of Hartalega, a Malaysian maker of synthetic gloves, whose wealth has doubled. Mr Kuan is now worth an estimated $7.6bn.

• “John Brown: History’s Greatest Hero”

  On that day Thoreau said: “Some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was crucified. This morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung. These are the two ends of a chain which is not without its links. He is not ‘Old Brown’ any longer; he is an Angel of Light . . . I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it, the historian record it, and with the landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown.”

  [...] Who shall be the John Brown of Wage-Slavery?

• Female Cyclist Angers Hard-Liners In Iran By Riding Without Her Hijab

  Amateur video shows the unveiled woman riding her bike triumphantly in Najafabad’s city center while holding one her hands high. It quickly went viral on social media and many Iranians have praised her audacity.

  In the video, a man who apparently is recording the footage from a car asks the woman: “Lady, freedom came? The shah has returned?”

  After making the reference to the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, when Iranians had greater social freedoms, the man encourages the bicyclist by saying: “Bravo! Bravo!”

  Reports suggest those who recorded video of the incident and posted it online also have been detained by Iranian authorities.

• Iranian woman arrested for cycling without hijab, accused of ‘insulting’ Islamic veil

  Authorities in Iran have arrested a woman for ‘insulting the Islamic Hijab,’ after a video of her cycling without a veil went viral on social media, news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported.

  “A person who had recently violated norms and insulted the Islamic veil in this region, has been arrested,” Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Najafabad governor Mojatabai Raei as saying.

  Raei further said the woman’s ‘motive’ for committing this action is being investigated. He, however, did not disclose her identity. “The residents of this city are holding a protest rally today after the unprecedented violation of norms,” the governor added.

• Angela Davis Still Believes America Can Change

  During the trial, Davis’s profile transformed. Before, she had been a noted scholar. After, she became an international symbol of resistance. In a period when images of Black women in major newspapers or on network television were scarce, Davis’s was both ubiquitous and unique. Whether in journalistic photos, respectful drawings or disrespectful caricatures, her gaze was uniformly stern — as if focused on her offscreen accusers — and unbowed. No matter the platform or the publication, she radiated rebellion and intelligence. When I search her name online today, there are countless images from this period to scroll through. There’s a drawing of a bespectacled Davis that reads, “You can jail a revolutionary, but you can’t jail a revolution.” There’s a photo of her holding a microphone at a rally, her own words written beneath: “The real criminals in this society are not all of the people who populate the prisons across the state, but those who have stolen the wealth of the world from the people.” There’s a painting of her washed with the red, black and green of the Pan-African flag. There’s a poster that makes her look like a sexy saint, with the words “Free Angela” hanging above and below her face; an Ecuadorean pennant depicting Davis in shackles alongside a sickle and hammer and the phrase “Libertad Para Angela Davis” — and hundreds and hundreds more.

• Christian Woman in Pakistan Beaten in Public for Arguing with Muslim

  Abbas was angry that Bibi, a person he considered socially lower than him due to her religious identity, had argued with him in public. As Abbas beat Bibi, he also used an extremely derogatory slur for Christians which labels them as untouchables.

  After the attack, Bibi and her family registered a police complaint against Abbas (FIR # 372/20). However, there police have yet to arrest Abbas or his son who reportedly joined his father in beating Bibi.

Monopolies

• Silicon Valley Campaign Cash Complicates Democrats’ Plan to Break Up Tech Giants

  The stage is being set for Democrats to clash next year over a push to rein in Silicon Valley oligarchs. Earlier this month, House Democrats called for the break-up of major tech giants, but Democratic candidates in key Senate races are comfortably out-fundraising their Republican counterparts in campaign cash from the tech industry.

• Making Sure You’re Covered – Using Intellectual Property to Protect Textiles [Ed: Journals reprinting misleading propaganda term “Intellectual Property”]

  Strategies for using a variety of intellectual property types to protect textiles are necessary due to the historical lack of any dedicated protection for textiles, apparel or fiber technologies. This paper is a review and illustration of a multi-pronged approach that weaves together aspects of utility patents, design patents, copyrights, trademark, and trade secrets.

• Four Innovation Myths

  Bert Foer is one of the most influential figures in the past quarter century of antitrust. His founding and development of the American Antitrust Institute (AAI) filled a significant hole in late 20th-century antitrust and served as a useful counterweight to the Chicago School. In addition to his crucial work with AAI, Bert explored long-standing antitrust issues with a fresh perspective. In particular, he offered thoughtful insights on innovation, recognizing the vital role played by “diverse competition,” understanding innovation’s long-term horizon, and highlighting innovation’s importance in antitrust enforcement.

  In the vein of channeling Bert’s fresh look at long-established issues and appreciation of innovation, I introduce and rebut four innovation myths in this chapter. Myths persist throughout the caselaw. But they are particularly likely to endure in this setting given the talismanic effect of the term “innovation.” No one can reasonably stand on the opposite side of “innovation,” the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. To do so would cast one’s lot with the fragile sands of backwards thinking and technological regression. Sometimes, however, innovation arguments are not appropriate or supported.

  This chapter exposes four of these “innovation myths”: (1) innovation is reflected solely by the initial invention; (2) innovation can be evaluated only in product markets; (3) robust intellectual property enforcement leads to more innovation; and (4) innovation is the only objective in certain settings.

• Patents

  • Patent Law’s Equitable Defenses

    In Merck & Co. Inc. v. Gilead Sciences Inc., a jury found Gilead liable for infringement of Merck’s patents directed to treatment for Hepatitis C and awarded Merck $200 million in damages. Three months later, however, the trial judge found that the patents were unenforceable under the equitable defense of unclean hands and rendered the damages verdict moot. In patent law, “unenforceability” carries immense force, limiting and in some cases barring all remedies for infringement of a valid patent. Five doctrines together make up the defense of “unenforceability” as it was incorporated into the Patent Act in 1952: laches, estoppel, unclean hands, patent misuse, and, according to some, inequitable conduct. Yet in the 70 years since incorporation of equitable defenses into the patent statute, the Supreme Court has not fully illuminated the reach of these equitable defenses. The Court denied certiorari in Merck & Co. Inc. v. Gilead Sciences Inc. in 2019 and sidestepped many salient issues on the equitable defense of laches in its opinion in SCA Hygiene in 2017. A significant question remains unanswered: In what contexts are equitable defenses available to bar damages at law? Several interpretive methods have been proposed for determining the reach of such generally worded statutes: Under a dynamic statutory interpretation like that proposed by Professor William Eskridge, courts would be permitted to develop such statutes in accordance with what the law ought to be. Under a traditional faithful agent approach, in contrast, courts would try to determine the scope as set forth by the legislature, piecing together context and history to frame limited words. The scope of equitable defenses in patent law is an ideal proving ground between these methods, having both historical background for use in traditional approaches and high-stakes social questions that factor into a dynamic approach—what conduct do we allow patentees to engage in before we cut off remedies for infringement on innovations that support our health and modern lifestyle?

    Setting the stage of the statutory interpretive battle, this article examines the historical and statutory bases of equitable limits on patent law, with a particular focus on the substantive equitable defenses of unclean hands and patent misuse. It contrasts the history of equitable defenses such as estoppel, which crossed fully into courts of law well before the merger of law and equity and the Patent Act, with equitable defenses such as laches, unclean hands, and misuse. It also explores inequitable conduct. The article walks through these defenses’ pre-codification roots and potential statutory interpretations and presents normative and constitutional considerations under the competing interpretive approaches. It also presents a surprising approach to inequitable conduct. This article is the first to provide a comprehensive framework for the analysis of equitable defenses in patent law.

  • Patent Reviews in ‘Limbo’ as Supreme Court Takes Case on Judges

  • L’Oréal Beats Claims it Wrongly Fired Patent Lawyer Over Quotas

  • American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc. v. Neapco Holdings LLC (Fed. Cir. 2020)

    One of the most interesting (albeit troubling) decisions by the Federal Circuit in the past year or so was its decisions, by a panel and then in denying review en banc, in American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc. v. Neapco Holdings LLC. In addition to expanding (beyond recognition) the capacity for courts to invalidate patents on lack of subject matter eligibility grounds, the case illustrated the fractured nature of the Court on this question (with the judges being equally divided on the rehearing en banc petition). Another aspect was a pair of strong dissents by Judge Moore, at both stages, where she expressed her view that the Court had embarked on a course that resembles “enablement on steroids” and “turns the [Section 101] gatekeeper into a barricade.”

    On Friday, the Court denied American Axle’s motion to stay issuance of the Court’s mandate while awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision on its petition for certiorari. The Court’s order cited the standard, under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 41(d)(1), that such a motion be granted only if “the petition would present a substantial question and that there is good cause for a stay.”

  • Software Patents

    • Apple Pushes Back Against Patent Trolls in Their Favorite Court

• Copyrights

  • Government-Backed Anti-Piracy Deal Aims to Disrupt Pirate Site Cash Flow

    The Danish Ministry of Culture and Rights Alliance have brokered an anti-piracy agreement with various key players in the online media world. Under the new deal, Denmark’s biggest media outlets, advertising companies, and payment processors will try to cut off revenue streams to pirate sites. The list of blocked sites remains private but includes some 350 URLs.

  • ACE Obtains DMCA Subpoena to Unmask Operators of Major Pirate Sites

    Global anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has obtained a DMCA subpoena requiring the Tonic domain registry to hand over all information it holds on a wide range of ‘pirate’ sites. These include torrent giant 1337x.to and streaming portal BS.to, which are good for 78 million visits per month. Veterans Kinox.to and Movie4K.to are among the remaining targets.