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Links 5/4/2021: Linux 5.12 RC6, Mageia 8 Reviewed



  • GNU/Linux

    • 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: April 4th, 2021

      This week has been rich in releases, starting with the digiKam 7.2 professional photo manager, GIMP 2.10.24 image editor, and LibreOffice 7.1.2 office suite, and continuing with 4MLinux 36.0, Parrot 4.11, Nitrux 1.3.9, AlmaLinux OS 8.3, Deepin 20.2, Linux Lite 5.4, and MX Linux 19.4 distributions.

      Moreover, Feral Interactive released the Total War: THREE KINGDOMS – Fates Divided DLC for Linux, Canonical releases the Ubuntu 21.04 Beta, Linux Mint devs unveil the new notification system for updates, and Valve releases a major Proton version with support for games.

    • Linux Weekly Roundup #124

      Hello and welcome to this week's Linux Roundup and happy Easter!!!

      We had a full week in the world of Linux releases with Deepin 20.2, Linux Lite 5.4, MX Linux 19.4, and Ubuntu 21.04 Beta.

    • Linux Weekly Roundup - Ubuntu 21.04 Beta, MX Linux 19.4, and More

      Presenting this week's DebugPoint.com weekly roundup (Week Ending April 4, 2021) series, cleaned up for you from the Linux and the open-source world on application updates, new releases, distribution updates, and major news. Take a look.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • A Quick Look At Manjaro 21.0 "Ornara" Xfce

        Manjaro just had big release so I thought I should take a look at one of their main editions (xfce). Manjaro has always been one of my favorite Linux distributions.

      • Josh Bressers: Episode 265 – The lies closed source can tell, open source can’t

        Josh and Kurt talk about the PHP backdoor and the Ubiquity whistleblower. The key takeaway is to note how an open source project cannot cover up an incident, but closed source can and will cover up damaging information.

      • GNU World Order 400

        **gprof** , **ld.bfd** , **ld.gold** , **nm** , **objcopy** , and **objdump** from the **d** series. Note that for best results when using many of these binutil tools, you must compile _all_ of your targets with the GCC **-pg** and **-g** options.

      • Playing 0 A.D Alpha 24 - DT LIVE

        0 A.D is a free and open source real-time strategy game, similar in spirit to Age of Empires. I am not much of a gamer, and 0 A.D is not something that I often win at, but I do enjoy playing this game. And I love promoting open source games, especially those that are native to Linux.

      • Tree Style Tabs: A Better Way To Manage Tabs

        Everytime I talk about a web browser someone shills Tree Style Tabs to me so I thought it's about time I actually try it out, effectively what it does is provides a way to group tabs together so that heavy tabs users don't have there bar so cluttered.

      • The Co-op News Punch Podcast - Episode 28 | GamingOnLinux

        We're back and actually on time for a change! Welcome back to the Co-op News Punch Podcast - Episode 28.

        As usual, it's a very casual and frank chat between two friends (myself) and GOL contributor / Linux livestreamer Samsai about many different Linux-related topics. Thankfully I didn't mess up the audio in this one, so enjoy!

      • This Week in Linux 145: RHEL Rebuild AlmaLinux, Ubuntu 21.04, Lineage OS, NVidia, ARMv9, Linux Mint

        On this episode of This Week in Linux, CloudLinux has released the stable version of their rebuil of RHEL or CentOS Alternative, AlmaLinux OS. We’ve got some exciting media streaming news for the Raspberry Pi. OBS Studio announced some great news for those running Wayland. Vidia Support for Wayland may be coming and Nvidia also announced support for GPU Passthrough. In other hardware news, ARM has announce the ARMv9 Architecture. In Distro News, we’ve got Ubuntu 21.04 Beta & Ubuntu Testing Week. Plus we’ll also check out some news from, Arch Linux, Nitrux Linux and Parrot Security. Then in Mobile News, Lineage OS has announce the release of version 18.1. That’s not all, back by popular demand we’re going to jump into everyone’s favorite Legal News with SEC vs LBRY and How It Affects Crypto. All that and much more on Your Weekly Source for Linux GNews!

      • Linux Action News 183

        The first CentOS clone is out, but it's the second part of their announcement that might be the most important.

        Plus our reaction to SCO reigniting their decades-long fight with IBM and Red Hat, and the big news in GTK-land you might have missed.

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux 5.12-rc6
        Well, if rc5 was bigger than usual, and I worried about what that
        meant for this release, rc6 is positively tiny.
        
        

        So I think it was just due to the usual random timing fluctuations, probably mainly networking updates (which were in rc5, but not in rc6). Which means that unless things change in the next two weeks, the schedule for this release is going to be the usual one.

        Most of the changes here are drivers (gpu and usb stand out, that's not because of any huge changes, it's mainly because everything else is even smaller) and some arch updates (mainly x86 kvm, but some arm64, powerpc, s390, xtensa and RISC-V too).

        The rest is random other stuff (with io_uring showing up again, but much smaller this time).

        The shortlog is appended - small and easy to scan if you care about the details.

        So hey, in between all those extra helpings of memma - it is Easter, after all - go ahead and do some more testing as we approach the final weeks of the release,

        Linus
      • Kernel prepatch 5.12-rc6

        The 5.12-rc6 kernel prepatch is out for testing. "Well, if rc5 was bigger than usual, and I worried about what that meant for this release, rc6 is positively tiny. So I think it was just due to the usual random timing fluctuations, probably mainly networking updates (which were in rc5, but not in rc6). Which means that unless things change in the next two weeks, the schedule for this release is going to be the usual one."

      • Linux 5.12-rc6 Released - A "Positively Tiny" Easter Kernel

        Linus Torvalds put out Linux 5.12-rc6 on schedule even with the Easter holiday and it's a delightfully small update.

        While last week Linus Torvalds was becoming concerned over the size of the kernel at this stage of development, over the past week it's trended down lower. In fact, Torvalds referred to it as a "positively tiny" update in his Easter day message.

      • Graphics Stack

        • Dave Airlie: crocus: gallium for the gen4-7 generation

          Crocus is a gallium driver to cover the gen4-gen7 families of Intel GPUs. The basic GPU list is 965, GM45, Ironlake, Sandybridge, Ivybridge and Haswell, with some variants thrown in. This hardware currently uses the Intel classic 965 driver. This is hardware is all gallium capable and since we'd like to put the classic drivers out to pasture, and remove support for the old infrastructure, it would be nice to have these generations supported by a modern gallium driver.

          The project was initiated by Ilia Mirkin last year, and I've expended some time in small bursts to moving it forward. There have been some other small contributions from the community. The basis of the project is a fork of the iris driver with the old relocation based batchbuffer and state management added back in. I started my focus mostly on the older gen4/5 hardware since it was simpler and only supported GL 2.1 in the current drivers. I've tried to cleanup support for Ivybridge along the way.

          The current status of the driver is in my crocus branch.

    • Benchmarks

    • Applications

      • Some Calamares Packaging

        Calamares is a distro-, desktop- and toolkit-independent installer for Linux systems. It it intended to be the thing that gets your CD installed onto the hard drive of the target system. The Dutch term voortschrijdend inzicht is applicable here, too, as CD’s have been replaced by ISO images or USB sticks and hard drives are now (virtualised) SSDs instead. Today, though, I’m going to look at the packaging of Calamares – what distro’s do to get a Calamares executable that can be put on that CD.

        [...]

        The thinking in packaging is swinging towards developer-led packaging in AppImage or SnapCraft or FlatPak. I’m still not sure what I think of that in general, but for Calamares it really doesn’t make sense: Calamares is not an end-user application, it’s intended to be used once in a pretty specific situation and then discarded.

        So Calamares is pretty traditional, shipping a source tarball, and you’re expected to run cmake; make; make install to to the things. As time goes by, voortschrijdend inzicht applies (the realisation that things could be better) and conveniences are added to the CMake files, and knobs added or tuned.

        I realised that I did not advertise that kind of improvements in the release notes for Calamares, when I looked at a PKGBUILD file for it.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • [Old] Raspberry Pi Remote Wake/Sleep-On-LAN Server – Test The V3 Beta

        During COVID-19 lockdown, I’m doing a lot less travelling than I normally would, so I’ve been using some of the extra time to revamp some older projects (in addition to building smart exercise equipment). One thing that’s been on my list for a while was cleaning up this Remote Wake/Sleep-On-LAN server (RWSOLS) with properly signed HTTPS certificates, and an automatic setup script. Now, I’ve done exactly that, and it’s in a state that’s ready to share. Here are some of the changes: [...]

      • How to Setup Traefik for Docker Containers on Ubuntu 20.04

        Traefik is one of the modern methods which is used to set up reverse proxy for docker containers. When you want to run multiple applications in docker containers exposing port 80 and 443, traefik can be the best option for reverse proxy. Traefik provides its own monitoring dashboard. You can also use Traefik for HTTP load balancer. In this article, we are going to setup Traefik v2.4 on Ubuntu 20.04 with a simple example.

      • How to Setup Central Logging Server Using Rsyslog on Ubuntu 20.04

        Rsyslog is an open-source utility for log processing. It permits the logging of data from different types of systems in a central repository. Rsyslog is a Syslog protocol with more extensions, features, and benefits.

        What makes rsyslog so powerful? Rsyslog can deliver over one million messages per second to local destinations when limited processing is applied.

        In this tutorial we learn how to install and configure rsyslog on Ubuntu 20.04.

      • Guru: Web Services, DATA-INTO and DATA-GEN, Part 1 - IT Jungle

        Many of the “Can you help me with. . . ” communications that cross my desk these days include reference to JSON. Sometimes the questioner is receiving JSON in a file, or has to retrieve it from a web service, or needs to generate JSON in response to a query. While there are many ways to handle these requirements, RPG’s built-in DATA-INTO and DATA-GEN can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you and are quite simple once you understand the basics.

        In this series of tips, I am going to start with a basic example that uses both DATA-INTO and DATA-GEN to generate the request data and processes the response from a simple REST web service. Subsequent tips in the series will delve further into the capabilities and quirks of these opcodes by working through more complex examples. In addition to the RPG opcodes, I will be using Scott Klement’s YAJL library – specifically the YAJLDTAGEN and YAJLINTO routines. I will also be using Scott’s HTTPAPI library for communicating with the web service. While I will give some details of using HTTPAPI, that is not my primary purpose in these tips, so if you are interested in knowing more about this fabulous tool let me know.

        Time to introduce the web service. In these early examples I will be using the free “fake” REST services provided by the website JSONPlaceholder. I chose this site because it is likely to still be there in a year or two when those who read this in the future may want to try the code. I also like the fact that you do not need an account or any authorization code to use it. As a result, you should be able to copy my code and make your own explorations at any time.

      • How to Compile and Run C Program in Centos Stream

        If you have recently switched to the latest CentOS Stream from Windows and don’t know how to Install C in CentOS Stream, then buddy, you came to the right place.

        C programming language requires the compiler to run a program. Without a compiler, you will not be able to run the program file.

      • Command to Install Android Studio on Ubuntu 20.04 Linux

        To create Android apps, the developers can download an official free-to-use platform called “Android Studio”. It is based on IntelliJ IDEA, a complete development environment, bundles all the functions required for developing and debugging apps. This gives developers an alternative to the Android SDK, which essentially consists of Eclipse and the ADT plug-in. It is available to download and installs for Windows 10/8/7, macOS, Linux, and ChromeOS.

      • How to install the Brave Browser Beta on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install the Brave Browser Beta 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.

        This tutorial will only work on Chromebooks with an Intel or AMD CPU (with Linux Apps Support) and not those with an ARM64 architecture CPU.

      • Hans de Goede: Linux tool for Logitech 27MHz wireless keyboard encryption setup

        For a long time Logitech produces wireless keyboards using 27 MHz as communications band. Although these have not been produced for a while now these are still pretty common and a lot of them are still perfectly servicable.

        But when using them under Linux, there is one downside, since the communication is one way by default the wireless link is unencrypted by default, which is kinda bad from a security pov. These keyboards do support using an encrypted link, but this requires a one-time setup where the user manually enters a key on the keyboard.

      • How to use indexed arrays in bash

        In programming languages, an array is a data structure that represents a collection of objects with the same data type. Although it's not a full-blown programming language, bash also supports array-type variables. Once declared as an array implicitly or explicitly, a given bash variable can store multiple values in it. Depending on how the values are accessed from the array, bash supports two types of arrays: associative arrays or one-dimensional indexed arrays. The former is often called key-value dictionaries or hash maps, where values are accessed by corresponding keys. The latter type of arrays are essentially ordered lists, where you can access the values by their index (i.e., position in the list).

        We already covered associative arrays in another bash tutorial. Thus, in this post, let's focus on indexed arrays and find out how we can use this type of bash arrays. I will illustrate various usages of indexed arrays with examples.

      • How to Create a Sudo User in CentOS - ByteXD

        The sudo command (originally standing for superuser do) is a program designed to allow a sysadmin to give certain users the ability to run some (or all) commands as root while logging the commands and arguments.

        With the sudo command, users can install, update, and remove packages and edit configuration files.

        This is very useful when you do not want to give a user a root password or if you want to allow a user to do something (i.e. su) without logging in as root.

        By default, the sudo command is disabled for standard users for security reasons to prevent any accidental overwriting of system files or any unauthorized root access.

        In this article, we will explain how to create a sudo user in CentOS by adding them to the wheel group.

      • How To Install Flectra on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Flectra on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Flectra is a free and open-source, CRM (customer relationship management) and ERP (enterprise resource planning) software system that provides a lot of flexibility and customization that lets you meet the unique needs of your business. Whether you’re a small or medium-sized business, Flectra comes with a modular suite of apps, including inventory, HR, CMS, POS, Project, etc. that will help you run a successful business today affordably.

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

      • Top Tips for Securing Your Linux System in 2021

        Linux servers are at greater risk than ever. While only a few years ago Linux users could count themselves as the “lucky few” who didn’t have to worry about malware and computer viruses, this era has unfortunately come to an end.

        Attackers now view Linux servers as a viable target that often provides a valuable return on investment. The past few years have been plagued with emerging Linux malware strains which have demonstrated new and dangerous tactics for spreading, remaining undetected and compromising servers - Cloud Snooper, EvilGnome, HiddenWasp, QNAPCrypt, GonnaCry, FBOT and Tycoon being among the most notorious examples. Here’s what you need to know to secure your Linux system against malware, rootkits and other dangerous attacks.

      • CPUFetch – Simple CLI Tool To Fetch CPU Information in Linux

        CPUFetch is a simple command line tool, a bit similar to Neofetch, but for fetching CPU architecture in Linux, Windows, macOS, and Android.

    • Games

      • Thousands of games needing testing

        We're finally ready to unleash the motherlode onto the public for testing. The AGS engine has had many freeware games released over the years, as well as quite a few commercial games as well. Keep in mind that, like the stand-alone AGS interpreter the engine is derived from, only AGS games from 2.5 onwards are supported.

      • Denuvo: We Are Passionate Gamers & Guarantee We Don't Slow Games Down

        Denuvo is the most well-known videogame anti-piracy system on the market and also the most controversial. Critics believe that the system is anti-consumer but is that reputation really deserved? TorrentFreak caught up Denuvo’s Chief Marketing Officer and was informed that the Denuvo team is compromised of passionate gamers who do not slow games down.

      • Lenovo M93 Ultra Small PC – Gaming - Week 5 - LinuxLinks

        This is a weekly blog looking at the Lenovo M93 Ultra Small Desktop PC running Linux.

        We’ve already mentioned the graphics capabilities of the Lenovo M93. To recap, this ultra small PC uses the Intel HD Graphics 4600, a mobile integrated graphics solution by Intel launched in May 2013. The GPU supports DirectX 11.1, OpenCL 1.2 and OpenGL 4.0. The GT2 version integrates 20 Execution Units, 160 shading units, 20 texture mapping units, and 2 ROPs.

        The GPU is operating at a frequency of 400 MHz, which can be boosted up to 1100 MHz. The HD 4600 not only matches some dedicated GPUs such as the GeForce GT 620M/630M, but also competes with the integrated AMD GPUs like the Radeon HD 8650G. Performance of the graphics unit is widely reported as in the low-end segment and rarely sufficient for modern games.

        It’s often touted that integrated graphics are not meant for gaming. But what does that really mean? There are tons of free games available for Linux. Many of them aren’t that graphically demanding.

        To test the extent of gaming on the Lenovo M93, we’ve revisited many of the games that we covered in our AWOW AK41 article. Most of the games are available to download on Steam for free. And a few are even released under an open source license. Here’s our findings.

        Let’s kick off with a venerable classic game that’s still being improved. It’s called SuperTuxKart. We’ve played this game on-and-off for years.

    • Distributions

      • EasyOS: Serious Xorg Wizard bug fixed

        The Xorg Wizard is script /usr/sbin/xorgwizard-cli. If exit from X via the Shutdown menu, type "xorgwizard" at the prompt, and the wizard will run, in text-mode. Note that /usr/sbin/xorgwizard will just run xorgwizard-cli. The wizard detects "hybrid" video systems, that is, those with two video hardware interfaces. This could be a plugin card, or in some cases there are two video interfaces on the motherboard. An example is the video interface builtin to the Intel CPU chip, and a second one, perhaps an Nvidia GPU.

      • Reviews

        • Review: Mageia 8

          Mageia 8 is the latest version of this community distribution which can trace its roots back to Mandrake Linux. Like its ancestor, Mageia mostly focuses on offering a polished desktop experience with user friendly configuration tools. The latest release has a fairly conservative list of new features. Apart from the usual collection of package upgrades, Mageia provides faster processing of package data due to a change in compression technologies and migrates almost all packages from Python 2 to Python 3. Some additional work has been done to support the ARM architectures, though install media isn't available yet for ARM platforms.

          We can download install media for 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x86_64) computers. Mageia offers several download options, including a large install ISO (4.2GB), live desktop flavours for KDE Plasma (3.4GB), GNOME (3.0GB), and Xfce (2.8GB). There are also network install options available in free and non-free firmware flavours. Most of the download options are available in 32-bit and 64-bit builds, though the live media for GNOME and Plasma are both 64-bit only while Xfce builds are provided for both architectures.

          I was originally heading out for a vacation when Mageia 8 was released and so another DistroWatch contributor offered to review the distribution. However, they ran into issues installing Mageia, then getting the distribution to boot. After a few days they reported the operating system would start, but there were several remaining issues, including trouble connection to USB devices and the touchpad on their laptop wouldn't function while booted into Mageia. Given they did not have any success with the distribution, they passed it back to me and I resolved to review it once I finished playing with Void, a project I had just installed.

          I decided to download the live Plasma edition for 64-bit machines. Booting from the live media brings up a menu offering to boot the live distribution or install Mageia. Taking the default live option brings up a series of graphical configuration screens. These screens walk us through selecting our preferred language from a list, accepting the project's license, picking our time zone, and confirming the keyboard's layout.

      • Screenshots/Screencasts

        • Xubuntu 21.04 Beta Run Through

          In this video, we are looking at Xubuntu 21.04 Beta.

        • Xubuntu 21.04 Beta

          Today we are looking at Xubuntu 21.04 Beta. It comes with Linux Kernel 5.11, XFCE 4.16, and uses about 1.3GB of ram when idling. Enjoy!

      • Arch Family

        • Arch Linux’s Installation Medium Now Provides A Guided Installer

          Archinstall is guided/automated Arch Linux installer for those preferring a quick and easy way for deploying Arch Linux.

          If you are new to Linux or consider yourself an average computer user, getting Arch Linux would be a difficult task. It is a distro that eschews easy-do-everything-install in favor of a only-install-what-you-need streamlined installation. Until now.

          This month’s Arch Linux install media is shipping archinstall.

        • The Latest Arch Linux ISO Has A Fresh New Guided Installer

          The community distribution Arch Linux has up to now required you to manually install it by entering a whole lot of scary commands in a terminal. Arch version 2021.04.01 features a new guided installer users who want to install Arch Linux can use.. by typing python -m archinstall guided into the console you get when you boot the Arch Linux installation ISO. It is not very novice-friendly, or user-friendly, but it gets the job done and it will work fine for those with some basic GNU/Linux knowledge.

          [...]

          The "guided" installer does, of course, not start automatically. You will have to type python -m archinstall guided into the console you get when you boot the Arch Linux installation ISO if you want to use it.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • What's New in Fedora 34? 8 Reasons to Upgrade or Switch

          The Fedora Linux standard edition, also known as Fedora Workstation, is a rock-solid Linux distro that's designed with developers and creators in mind. It's a popular and powerful choice for anyone who wants an operating system that reliably works for you and lets you get to work.

          A contender for one of the best Linux distros out there, Fedora by default features the popular and powerful GNOME desktop environment. GNOME gives users a modern, organized, and clean experience that's easy to navigate and use, whether you're developing a complex programming project or just browsing the internet.

          The Fedora Project is backed by, among others, Red Hat, Inc., an open-source IT solutions firm. This kind of professional backing ensures Fedora will continue to see timely updates and helpful support for the foreseeable future.

        • SCO vs IBM Zombie Lawsuit Back from the Dead
        • Software Co. Challenges IBM's $34B Red Hat Buy, Code 'Theft'
    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • FSF

        • GNU Projects

          • GNUnet 0.14.1 released

            Continuing to "release early / release often", we presentGNUnet 0.14.1. This is a bugfix release for gnunet 0.14.0.

  • Leftovers

    • Mr. Fix-It

      But when it comes to details, it sounds as boring as fixing the plumbing.

    • Education

      • Smithsonian Institution Marks 175th Anniversary

        The Smithsonian Institution is marking its 175th anniversary this year, and it expects to celebrate later this year with a futuristic exhibition that includes a robot to help prevent loneliness and a sail for deep space travel.

        The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum complex, consisting of 19 museums, nine research centers, and the National Zoo.

        Established by the U.S. Congress in 1846, the Smithsonian was the brainchild of James Smithson, a wealthy English chemist who left his estate to the United States for the establishment of an institution in the nation’s capital “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” With that broad concept, said Smithsonian historian Pamela Henson, the institution began collecting a vast array of items ranging from artwork to insects.

    • Hardware

      • LG confirms it’s getting out of the smartphone business

        LG is exiting the smartphone business, the company confirmed today. The decision will “enable the company to focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services,” LG said in a statement.

        Existing phones will remain on sale, and LG says it’ll continue to support its products “for a period of time which will vary by region.” The company hasn’t said anything about possible layoffs except that “details related to employment will be determined at the local level.” LG says it expects to have completed the business’ closure by the end of July this year.

    • Health/Nutrition

      • The World After COVID

        Everything Must Change is culled from the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25)’s online broadcasts from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The book’s editors, Renata Avila, a Guatemalan human rights lawyer, and Srecko Horvat, a Croatian philosopher, pulled together conversations that they and the Greek economist and writer Yannis Varoufakis conducted with an impressive mix of international leftist movers and shakers. The result is a commendably broad range of ideas about moving forward with left agendas.

        In a discussion with Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Varoufakis calls for “a progressive international movement” committed to internationalism and solidarity. That vision dovetails with Horvat’s introductory explanation that Everything Must Change “is intended as a collective message that transnational cooperation and resistance, precisely in times of global lockdowns and police states, not only remains possible, but becomes necessary.” Varoufakis and Horvat practice what they preach by serving, along with Avila and other leftists from around the world, on the Council of Advisors for the Progressive International, a joint initiative of DiEM25 and the U.S.-based Sanders Institute. The Progressive International includes many participants from the Global South and aspires to an ecologically sustainable and just post-capitalist world, a common goal among the participants in Everything Must Change.

      • Biden's Jobs Plan Expands Access to Care Outside For-Profit Nursing Homes

        As the nation’s population ages, the need for more care workers and safer, more affordable care options is urgent.

      • Some Eligible People Are Being Denied COVID Vaccines. Chances Are It's Illegal.
      • Koch-Backed Donor Network Wants to Blame COVID Deaths on Public Health Measures
      • How plastics are making us infertile — and could even lead to human extinction

        Dr. Shanna Swan, a professor of environmental medicine and public health at Mount Sinai school of medicine in New York City, has a new book out called "Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race." In it she describes how various chemicals commonly found in plastic products are leading to a decline in fertility. The most striking example of this is in dropping sperm counts; if you have fewer than 15 million sperm per milliliter of semen, you are considered to have a low sperm count. Human beings are rapidly reaching that point, as Swan demonstrates in her book.

        Salon spoke with her about this issue over the phone; as always, this interview has been edited for length and clarity.

      • What To Know About Eating Cicadas As Trillions of Brood X Bugs Set To Emerge in U.S.

        Trillions of insects known as cicadas are set to spring to life after 17 years living underground across the U.S. from next month, but the phenomenon won't just be a chance to see a rare sight—it's an opportunity to enjoy a rare snack.

        Biologists who have studied cicadas say they are not only safe to eat—but may actually taste quite nice when dipped in chocolate, made into a stir fry, cooked into a pizza, added to some fresh banana bread, or perhaps a rhubarb pie.

      • Amid rollout imbroglio, AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine has at least one fresh start: A new brand name

        An AstraZeneca spokesperson confirmed the Europeans Medicines Agency had approved the brand name Vaxzevria for the vaccine in the EU, but added that the “review of the brand name in additional markets is ongoing.” The company has filed the Vaxzevria brand with the U.S. Patents and Trademarks office, according to records.

      • AstraZeneca Vaccine Changes Its Name

        The website of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), shows that the coronavirus vaccine from Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the British University of Oxford has changed its name to Vaxzevria, and indicates that Vaxzevria is composed of a modified adenovirus that, since it is not SARS-CoV-2 itself, cannot cause COVID-19.

        The portal of the Swedish National Medicines Agency (Läkemedelsverket) confirms that the name change was approved by the EMA on March 25 after a request from the company.

      • [Old] Cicada-licious: Cooking and Enjoying Periodical Cicadas

        Who to cook: newly hatched cicadas, called tenerals, are considered best for eating because their shells have not hardened. It is best to collect these in the very early hours of the morning, just after they have emerged, but before they have time to climb up out of reach. The best way to do this is to simply go outside with a brown paper bag and starting scooping them in.

        They should be blanched (boiled for 4-5 mintues) soon after collection and before you eat them! Not only will this make their insides solidify a bit, but it will get rid of any soil bacteria that is living on or in them. You can then cook with them immediately, or freeze them. Keep in mind that freezing them will work best for those that you are going to roast, as the consistency of the cicada may change and make them inappropriate for dishes which call for fresh cicadas. If you are unable to get any tenerals, then mature females are the next best thing. Adult males have very hollow abdomens and will not be much of a mouthful, but the females are filled with fat. Just be sure to remove all the hard parts, such as wings and legs before you use the adults. These parts will not harm you, but they are also not very tast.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Ubiquiti All But Confirms Breach Response Iniquity – Krebs on Security
        • No fooling: Microsoft cloud outage takes Azure, Teams and Office 365 offline

          Microsoft’s Azure cloud services, as well as Teams, Office 365, OneDrive, Skype, Xbox Live and Bing, were all inaccessible due to the outage. Even the Azure Status page was reportedly taken offline.

          The first reports of the outage emerged from users on Twitter, and were confirmed by the website DownDetector, which showed that reports began flooding in at about 5 p.m. EDT. It says it received thousands of notices from Xbox Live, Teams and Office users.

        • University of California victim of ransomware attack

          The University of California (UC) said Wednesday that it was the victim of a ransomware attack.

          The state university system said in a statement published to its website UCNet, that its institution, along with several other government agencies, private companies and other schools have been involved in an attack through the use of Accellion, a secure filing transfer company.

        • Security

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • Opinion | Maine Should Take This Chance to Defund the Local Intelligence Fusion Center

              "The first decade of the 21st century is characterized by a blank check to grow and expand the infrastructure that props up mass surveillance. Fusion centers are at the very heart of that excess."

              Maine state representative Charlotte Warren (D) has introduced LD1278 (HP938), or An Act To End the Maine Information and Analysis Center Program, a bill that would defund the Maine Information and Analysis Center (MIAC), also known as Maine's only fusion center. EFF is happy to support this bill in hopes of defunding an unnecessary, intrusive, and often-harmful piece of the U.S. surveillance regime. You can read the full text of the bill here (pdf).

            • Personal data of 533 million Facebook users leaks online

              Personal data from 533 million Facebook accounts has reportedly leaked online for free, according to security researcher Alon Gal. Insider said it verified several of the leaked records.

              “The exposed data includes personal information of over 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries, including over 32 million records on users in the US, 11 million on users in the UK, and 6 million on users in India,” according to Insider. “It includes their phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and — in some cases — email addresses.”

            • MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's Social Media Site to Give 'Bonus' to YouTube-Banned Users

              In an interview with The Eric Metaxas Show published on March 30, Lindell said his own service, called Frank, is scheduled to launch within the next two weeks and pitched it as a mixture of video uploads, personal posts and community discussion forums.

              "Everybody [is] coming over, and they will be able to talk without worrying about getting kicked off YouTube. On my platform if you get kicked off YouTube you are going to get a bonus," Lindell said during the show. "We give bonuses if you are kicked off YouTube. You know why? That means you are actually speaking your mind again."

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

    • Environment

      • Arctic mining takes centre stage in Greenland election

        A rare earth and uranium mining project proposed by an Australian company and backed by Chinese investors in the south of the island in Kuannersuit could provide a massive windfall that would supplement Greenland's main industry, fishing.

        But in February, a political crisis erupted when a junior party quit the coalition government over the project, leading to Tuesday's early elections for parliament's 31 seats.

      • Opinion | Study Sounds Latest Warning of Rainforest Turning Into Savanna as Climate Warms

        "What is happening at the Amazon-Cerrado boundary may be a precursor for feverish tropical forests across the world. Unlike humans, these forests won't have air conditioners or sunscreens to protect them."

        As the planet warms, it isn't just humans who are feeling the heat—trees are too. Rising temperatures are disrupting a primary engine of life on Earth: photosynthesis.

      • Opinion | Six Ways Chevron Imperils Climate, Human Rights, and Racial Justice

        "These six examples illustrate a stunning array of corporate abuse, deception, and misconduct by one of the world's largest and most powerful corporations."

        Although we're barely one quarter into 2021, multiple forces are squeezing Chevron for the preventable harm it is inflicting on the global climate. The company is also being dragged for its greenwashing, its role in perpetuating racial injustice in the United States, and its violations of Indigenous peoples' rights and other human rights from Burma/Myanmar to Ecuador.

      • Energy

        • Analysis: Fossil Fuel Tax Programs to Cut Emissions Lead to Lots of Industry Profit, Little Climate Action

          Recently, claims have been surfacing of companies taking the taxpayer money offered to incentivize these actions but not following through on reducing their emissions. In March, for example, Reuters reported that Congress has opened an investigation into problems with the government’s “clean coal” tax credit. This is after Reuters revealed that financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, were making huge profits off the program, despite it not effectively reducing€ emissions.

        • A Green New Deal Is Actually More Affordable in the Long Term Than Fossil Fuels

          With global warming representing humanity’s greatest existential crisis, reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, as recommended by the 2018 report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), should be one of the U.S.’s most urgent priorities. We need a Green New Deal now.

    • Finance

      • Bessemer Workers Subsidize Amazon Through Local Tax. A Union Could Challenge It.

        A gainst all odds, the town of Bessemer, Alabama has made national headlines as the potential spark of a revitalized labor movement. Amazon workers’ fight to unionize the local BHM1 Amazon fulfillment center has put the capitalist repression of workers and class power dynamics — which Amazon so perfectly represents — in full view.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Biden Could Chart a New Path for US on Palestinian Rights. Will He?

        Every day my friend in Palestine sends me the local paper as a way to keep in touch. For the past five decades, the headlines have been consistent: “Land Annexed,” “Trees Uprooted,” “Houses Demolished,” “Curfew Inflicted,” “Youth Arrested,” “Village Attacked,” Young Man Shot”… often all on the same front page. For the last year, they have also included a tally of COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

      • Rashida Tlaib Hails Shift in House Dems' Views on Palestinian Human Rights

        "Just a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable to have 12 members of Congress refer to Israeli occupation as colonialism, so I have no doubt that the needle on Palestinian human rights is moving."

        Referring to a recent letter in which a dozen House Democrats called on the Biden administration to oppose Israeli "settler colonialism" in Palestine, Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Friday said that support is growing like never before in Congress for Palestinian human rights.

      • Rep. Eric Swalwell Republicans smear me on Fox News then want to grab dinner. But Congress isn't the WWE.

        Many of my Republican colleagues also don’t see the people they represent as constituents to serve; they see fans to entertain, thinking this will help them win re-election. But Congress shouldn’t be like WWE wrestling. You can’t smash a chair over someone’s head in the ring, then hang out backstage like it was all an act, and still expect to make any real progress on behalf of the people who elected us. The preoccupation with putting on a show often devastates the relationships required for bipartisan cooperation.

        My friend and constituent Donald James of Pleasanton, California, recently retired as NASA’s associate administrator for education, a position in which he worked to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers. He’s among the most thoroughly decent and deeply thoughtful people I know. In February he published a book titled, “Manners Will Take You Where Brains and Money Won’t," positing that our manners signal our authenticity; the way you speak and interact with others creates the foundation for a fulfilling and meaningful life.

        As I had the honor of writing in the book’s foreword: “Don’t mistake this for some milquetoast, go-along-to-get-along philosophy. Being consistently genuine, polite and principled is a learned skill and hard work. It requires you to step outside your comfort zone, to subvert your reflexive impulse to hit back, and to constantly think about how to stay on the higher ground. It is in many ways a spiritual undertaking and a journey that never ends.”

        This lesson is lost on many members of Congress.

      • [Old] The Bantus should be asked about Ilhan Omar's new appointment to human rights committee

        Ilhan Omar's appointment to the role of vice chairwoman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over Africa and global human rights issues is absurd if one considers she belongs to an Arab tribe with a long history of racism and ethnic cleansing against the Bantus fwhich she has never repudiated.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Biden Administration Has Detained Migrant Minors in "Toxic Military Sites"

        In a move that was condemned by environmental justice advocates on Friday, President Joe Biden’s administration earlier this week sent 500 unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors to Fort Bliss — a highly contaminated and potentially hazardous military base in El Paso, Texas — and is reportedly considering using additional toxic military sites as detention centers for migrant children in U.S. custody.

      • End Migrant Warehousing

        The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has custody of 11,800 minors, at more than 100 sites nationwide. HHS receives children from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a component of the Department of Homeland Security. The HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement quarantines unaccompanied minors, and then holds these kids until they turn 18 or are deported, unless relatives or other sponsors can be found to house them for the duration of their immigration court cases.

        The HHS website claims: “Every effort is made to ensure minors can communicate (via telephone or video) at least twice per week.” To whom? To a child, the wait must seem interminable. In FY 2020, migrant children waited, on average, 102 days.

      • On Non-Judicical Punishment of Individuals

        However, there is also the non-judicial punishment of individuals which is meted out today by large populations on the [Internet]. These people are expressing their 1st amendment right to free speech, often to punish someone who is well worthy of such punishment but will not be reached by any judicial means.

        We reach the problems with this when we consider the lack of features of the judicial process that exist in such punishment. Obviously, the accused doesn’t get the chance to have evidence heard fairly in a court and evaluated by a jury of their peers. The last time I was empanelled on such a jury, I heard 21 days of testimony from witnesses and experts, and was well able to make a decision, which (as required, or “innocence” is automatic) was unanimous among the other jurors.

        Nobody works one hundredth so hard upon a non-judicial punishment, perhaps with the single exception of the vanishing breed of investigative journalists. There is no formal “jury”, no standard for guilt or innocence, no sentencing guideline and limit, no accountability among those who mete out punishment.

      • Turkey's state-run broadcaster TRT 'enforces gender segregation based on Islam'

        State-run Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) enforces gender segregation in their offices and violates the principles of secularism, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Gamze AkkuÅŸ Ä°lgezdi said.

        The deputy said that some 1,260 candidates who took an exam to get a position at the broadcaster were forced to take the test in separate rooms, the daily Evrensel reported on April 1.

      • Muslim leaders reject wealth sharing Bill

        Mr Mwasa added that in the Bill, the distribution law does not apply to Muslims, some of whom have more than one wife. “In Islamic teaching, it’s not about percentage but fractions; it says if the husband dies, the surviving wife receives one fourth of the assets and one–eighth of the assets, if she has children. Children share the remaining part of that estate, with boys taking twice of what the girls take,” he added.

      • We have turned sex into a dangerous, fraught experience for teenagers

        Meanwhile, parents and teachers are to blame for transforming teen sexuality into a hostile, overheated political minefield. Regardless of what’s been done to them, girls are being set up to suffer. Instead of letting kids work sexuality out, which they mostly will if left to their own devices, adults are forcing an excessive, politicised sex education on them from a young age. We have seen this to a tragic degree with trans awareness: the number of children seeking puberty-blockers has risen, just as the amount of parental and educational discourse about it, all under the “inclusivity” banner, has too. I for one am incredibly grateful that my friends and I could go through tomboy phases with nobody suggesting we ought to consider sex change surgery.

    • Monopolies

      • Amazon Apologizes to Pocan, Admits Drivers Do Sometimes Pee in Bottles

        "We know that drivers can and do have trouble finding restrooms because of traffic or sometimes rural routes," the tech titan conceded.

        Faced with irrefutable evidence and the prospect of yet another public relations debacle, Amazon apologized€ on Friday to Rep. Mark Pocan for an "incorrect" tweet denying that its delivery drivers sometimes urinate in bottles while on the job because they don't have time to find and use restrooms.€ 

      • Damages awards in China[Ed: "Damages" is misnomer at this point]

        In the latest update from members of the MARQUES China Team, Ms Haiyu Li and Mr Tingxi Huo summarise recent developments regarding damages, and the latest decision in the New Balance case.

        SPC interprets IPR punitive damages

        The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of China released the Interpretation Concerning Application of Punitive Damages in Civil Cases of Intellectual Property Right Infringement, effective 3 March 2021, which includes seven rules.

        The Interpretation addresses issues such as wilfulness, bad faith, wilful infringement factors, severe scenarios and means of calculation.

        In recent years, China amended its laws relating to trade marks, copyright, patents, seeds, unfair competition and the civil code and updated the relevant judicial interpretations. Accordingly, significantly heavier fines and higher damages have been provided, which is expected to greatly improve the IPR enforcement environment and deter infringers.

        However, the amended laws and interpretations are s

      • Patents

        • Apple patent describes recycled-content aluminum it used

          A patent applied for by electronics maker Apple shows it used recycled-content aluminum made with used beverage containers (UBCs) layered with another aluminum alloy to create the all-aluminum cladding it offers for some of its MacBook laptop computers.

          An article on the PatentlyApple.com website was posted by a writer who studied two recently published United States Patent and Trademark Office patents pertaining to the metals used in the MacBook Air computers.

          One of the two patents focuses on a heat-treating process, according to PatentlyApple, while the other is titled “Cosmetic Aluminum Alloys made from Recycled Aluminum Scrap.”

          That second patent indicates UBC-content cansheet was used as a substrate in the MacBook cladding. The substrate was then layered over with a custom-designed alloy consisting of aluminum and several other metals.

        • Obviousness-Type Double Patenting and Divisional Applications in Canada

          Obviousness-type double patenting (“OTDP”) arises when two or more patents or applications include claims that, while not being identical, are not patentably distinct from each other. In the U.S., OTDP rejections can be overcome by filing a terminal disclaimer that limits the term of the rejected application to be no greater than the term of the disclaimed patent. In Canada, however, terminal disclaimers are not available to overcome OTDP rejections. To overcome an OTDP rejection in Canada, the claims can be amended to become patentably distinct, or persuasive arguments can be presented that explains why the pending claims are already patentably distinct.

          Amending the claims to become patentably distinct is not always desirable. Thus, when developing patent portfolios that will include patents with overlapping subject matter, OTDP rejections in Canada should be avoided. One way to do so is to include all possible claims in the original application, thereby provoking a Lack of Unity rejection. The Canadian patent office will then likely respond by grouping all of claims according to each alleged invention, which can then be used as a basis for filing divisional applications that are immune from OTDP rejections.

        • Patenting is Such Sweet Sorrow – a Panela Patent Explained

          A few months ago, there was an article in the New York Times by Jennie Erin Smith titled, “Colombians Ask: Who Would Dare Patent Panela?” [1] The article explains that ‘panela’ is an unrefined form of cane sugar prepared from the boiling of sugarcane juice, and its use has been widespread in Latin America for hundreds of years. According to the article, the panela process was somehow recently patented in the United States, under U.S. Patent No. 10,632,167. Since international patent laws, including those in the United States, require absolute novelty and non-obviousness as a pre-condition for patentability, my interest as an intellectual property professional was piqued. How could something in use for over 300 years suddenly become patentable? Surely the U.S. Patent Office would not have allowed such a well-known process to be patented, would it? How was this patent, U.S. Patent No. 10,632,167, allowed? And does the patent cover what the article implies? Finally, if for some reason such a patent were accidentally granted by mistake, has anyone yet challenged the so-called panela patent by using any one of the many corrective procedures the U.S. Patent Office offers to third parties, including post-grant review (PGR) and inter partes review (IPR)? What’s the real intellectual property story here?

        • Pursuit or threat of antisuit injunction gives rise to strong presumption of implementer's unwillingness to take FRAND license: Munich I Regional Court

          This is a follow-up to yesterday's post, which mentioned that Ericsson is peddling Munich case law on antisuit injunctions in a U.S. appeals court, but even more so to my March 10 post on the recent quadruple-antisuit injunction in InterDigital v. Xiaomi, a judgment in which the Landgericht München I (Munich I Regional Court) laid out a rather inclusive list of criteria entitling standard-essential patent (SEP) holders to A2SIs and A4SIs in Munich (for the AxSI notation, see an earlier post).

          The part of the InterDigital v. Xiaomi decision that has the industry even more concerned than the wide availability of (even pre-emptive) A2SIs and A4SIs is a dictum by the Seventh Civil Chamber (Presiding Judge: Dr. Matthias Zigann) according to which someone moving for an ASI or threatening to do so may effectively lose their FRAND defense in Munich. As I've reported in connection with other cases, German SEP case law took a negative turn last year with Sisvel v. Haier, which the Federal Court of Justice reinforced a few months later in Sisvel v. Haier II. At least in Munich and Mannheim (both patent litigation divisions in either case), the Huawei v. ZTE FRAND analysis is practically limited to the question of whether the implementer (i.e., the alleged infringer) is a willing licensee. Practically, that hurdle is presently insurmountable in Munich, and the only safe harbor in Mannheim is an Art. 315 offer, i.e., a binding offer to take a license on FRAND terms subject to judicial determination if the parties can't agree. Thankfully, the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court's patent litigation division under Presiding Judge Andreas Voss ("Voß" in German) overruled the Mannheim court in that regard.

        • Broad Files Motion in Opposition to CVC Priority Motion

          In its most recent motion, Broad argues that CVC did not have conception of the invention defined by the '115 Interference Count because the person of ordinary skill in the art could not have any reasonable expectation of success in ARTP from the evidence CVC uses in support of its motion, citing Hitzeman v. Rutter, 243 F.3d 1345, 1357-58 (Fed. Cir. 2001). As a reminder, conception is "the formation in the mind of the inventor, of a definite and permanent idea of the complete and operative invention, as it is hereafter to be applied in practice." Hybritech Inc. v. Monoclonal Antibodies, Inc., 802 F.2d 1367, 1376, 231 U.S.P.Q. 81, 87 (Fed. Cir. 1986), citing Coleman v. Dines, 754 F.2d 353, 359, 224 USPQ 857, 862 (Fed. Cir. 1985). Since conception occurs in the mind of the inventor, there must be "corroborating evidence of a contemporaneous disclosure that would enable one of ordinary skill to make the invention." Burroughs Wellcome, Id. at 1919, citing Coleman v. Dines, 754 F.2d 353, 359, 224 USPQ 857, 862 (Fed. Cir. 1985). However, conception of a method does not require knowledge that the invention will work for its intended purpose. Burroughs Wellcome Co. v. Barr Labs, Inc., 40 F.3d 1223, 32 USPQ 2d 1915 (Fed. Cir. 1994). Relevant to Broad's arguments in their motion, in Burroughs Wellcome, the claims of the patents-in-suit were directed to methods for using AZT for treating AIDS, and the issue was whether the AZT inventors had conceived of the claimed methods before obtaining evidence that AZT could indeed provide an effective treatment for HIV infection. Id. at 1225. The Burroughs Wellcome defendants argued that for an invention in an "uncertain or experimental discipline, where the inventor cannot reasonably believe an idea will be operable until some result supports that conclusion," conception occurs only when there is experimental confirmation that the invention works for its intended purpose. Id. at 1228. The Federal Circuit was clear, stating: "[b]ut this is not the law. An inventor's belief that his invention will work or his reasons for choosing a particular approach are irrelevant to conception." Id., citing MacMillan v. Moffett, 432 F.2d 1237, 1239, 167 U.S.P.Q. 550, 552 (CCPA 1970). This is sufficient for conception, unless there is evidence of subsequent experimental failure (the argument Broad relies upon in their argument against CVC): "[a] conception is not complete if the subsequent course of experimentation, especially experimental failures, reveals uncertainty that so undermines the specificity of the inventor's idea that it is not yet a definite and permanent reflection of the complete invention as it will be used in practice." Id. at 1229, citing Rey-Bellet v. Engelhardt, 493 F.2d 1380, 1387, 181 U.S.P.Q. 453, 457-58 (CCPA 1974).

          Although stated differently (and in a way that is supported by the Board's decision in prior Interference No. 106,048 as affirmed by the Federal Circuit), Broad's argument is that CVC's conception was flawed as evidenced by repeated failures to reduce the invention to practice. Broad also supports this assertion by contemporaneous statements by CVC's named inventors as well as statements by experts CVC recruited in its efforts to achieve ARTP from the time of its asserted conception (March 1, 2012) to the priority date accorded by the Board in this interference, the filing date of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/757,640, January 28, 2013.

      • Copyrights

        • Nonfungible Tokens Are Garnering Millions of Dollars, But Where Does Their Value Come From?

          Where does the underlying value of an NFT come from? The issue is that perceptions of what the buyer is paying for are not easily framed in legal terms. NFT marketplaces do not always accurately describe the value proposition of the goods they are selling. The truth is that the value of any NFT is speculative. Its value is determined by what someone else is willing to pay for it and nothing else. Turning something as ephemeral as a tweet into an item that can be sold requires two things: making it unique and proving ownership. The process is the same for cryptocurrencies, which turn strings of bits into virtual coins that have real-world value. It boils down to cryptography.

        • What do you buy when you buy an NFT?

          On March 23, the technology sections of several news websites reported the same story. “Jack Dorsey’s first ever tweet sells for $2.9m” said the BBC. “Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sells first tweet as an NFT for $2.9M”, wrote CNET. The Wall Street Journal went with a similar headline, as well as most other publications. As I pointed out on Twitter, these headlines were inaccurate, the tweet did not sell because it was never for sale. What was sold was not the actual tweet, but a non-fungible token (NFT) of it. As I have discussed in the two previous blog posts dealing with NFTs (here and here), an NFT is not the actual work itself, but it is often a chunk of metadata that has been encrypted using the original work.

          [...]

          It is true that there are a few such projects, but these tend to be limited because the cost of writing data into the blockchain is often prohibitive. This is a feature, not a bug, in Ethereum the cost of uploading a kilobyte of data is 640k gas (as explained in this yellow paper). At the time of writing, this would amount roughly to $13.61 USD per kb (this varies depending on a lot of factors). However, everything in cryptoland is determined by supply and demand, so the more you upload, the more it costs to upload it. Therefore, the cost of uploading data to the ETH blockchain increases exponentially, as described in the chart shown (source). According to this, the cost of uploading a megabyte to the ETH blockchain today would be around $475 USD. The result is that the existing artwork uploaded to the blockchain is limited by size, and in my opinion the results are not particularly impressive (I’ll let you be the judge).

        • Around the Blogs

          The buzz surrounding non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has been picked up by several IP blogs, with both TechnoLlama and The Fashion Law reflecting on what one buys when purchasing an NFT and where its value comes from.

        • Film Company Targets TorrentFreak Article over 'Mandalorian Piracy'

          Google was asked to remove a TorrentFreak article from its search results this week. The article in question reported that "The Mandalorian" was the most pirated TV show of 2020. Interestingly, it's not Disney who takes offense with our reporting, but GFM Films.



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