Desktop/Laptop

• Microsoft has its own Linux distribution. [Ed: They are missing the point of it and overlooking the fact that Microsoft continues to attack Linux from a number of fronts]

  The days when Microsoft CEO, the shy and retiring Steve Ballmer, called Linux cancer on the software industry, are really dead and buried – Vole now has its own Linux distribution which it is even telling people about.

Audiocasts/Shows

• The Killer Feature Of Tiling Window Managers Isn’t Tiling

  I often get people telling me that they don’t see the point of using a tiling window manager. I think part of the problem is the name “tiling window manager”.

• Using Linux at work – KDE Edition

  This is an update on the Linux at work series I started a while ago! At the time, I was using elementary OS on a Huawei matebook 13, to work as a Product Owner. Since then, remote work became a lot more prevalent, and I also changed distros, and laptops, so let’s see how I’m making Linux and KDE work as my primary OS, on my laptop, and desktop!

Kernel Space

• Linux 5.12 Kernel Reaches End of Life, Upgrade to Linux Kernel 5.13 Now

  Released about three months ago, Linux kernel 5.12 introduced lots of goodies, including support for Playstation 5 DualSense and Nintendo 64 game controllers, eMMC inline encryption support, support for the Lenovo IdeaPad platform profile and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2, as well as a new memory-debugging tool called KFENCE.

  It also introduced initial support for zoned block devices to the Btrfs file system, LTO in Clang support, AMDGPU Freesync HDMI support, and many other cool features, but it’s now marked as EOL (End of Life) on the kernel.org website, which means that it will no longer receive support upstream and that you must upgrade to a newer or LTS kernel as soon as possible.

• Linux 5.13.4

  I'm announcing the release of the 5.13.4 kernel.
  
  All users of the 5.13 kernel series must upgrade.
  
  The updated 5.13.y git tree can be found at:
  	git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-5.13.y
  and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser:
  
  https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-s...
  
  thanks,
  
  greg k-h
  

• Linux 5.12.19

• Linux 5.10.52

• Linux 5.4.134

• Linux 4.19.198

• Linux 4.14.240

• Linux 4.9.276

• Linux 4.4.276

• Graphics Stack

  • AMD Posts Linux Graphics Driver Patches For “Cyan Skillfish”

    AMD posted a new patch series bringing up a new graphics processor, Cyan Skillfish.

    As usual, this is a Linux-focused codename for a yet-to-be-launched product with their naming convention of an X11 color name paired with a fish species.

    While yet to be launched, Cyan Skillfish isn’t as exciting as some of the recent RDNA2 or CDNA GPUs. Cyan Skillfish is the support for a Navi (1x) graphics processor in a forthcoming APU.

  • Reverse-engineering the Mali G78

    After a month of reverse-engineering, we’re excited to release documentation on the Valhall instruction set, available as a PDF. The findings are summarized in an XML architecture description for machine consumption. In tandem with the documentation, we’ve developed a Valhall assembler and disassembler as a reverse-engineering aid.

    Valhall is the fourth Arm® Mali™ architecture and the fifth Mali instruction set. It is implemented in the Arm® Mali™-G78, the most recently released Mali hardware, and Valhall will continue to be implemented in Mali products yet to come.

  • Arm Mali “Valhall” Reverse-Engineering Started

    The Panfrost open-source Linux graphics driver stack has matured nicely for Arm Mali Midgard and Bifrost generations but for the past two years now there has been Valhall as the latest-generation Arm Mali microarchitecture. There is now work underway on reverse-engineering Valhall for ultimately wiring up with open-source graphics driver support.

    Panfrost lead developer Alyssa Rosenzweig commented today that reverse-engineering work has begun for Valhall with a focus on the Mali G78 in particular. This reverse engineering has been going on for just about one month but there is already some instruction set documentation made as well as an XML-based representation.

  • NVIDIA Brings Its RTX Tech To Linux On Arm

    When NVIDIA sets out to acquire a company, it doesn’t seem to waste any time to start producing custom product with the new IP access. After the company announced its plans to acquire Arm last fall, the company announced a full-fledged Arm-based supercomputer called Grace this past spring. Arm in the enterprise seemed likely, but did you expect to see the label “RTX” tied in with it, as well?

    At the ongoing Game Developers Conference, NVIDIA announced that it’s bringing RTX to Arm on Linux, which should result in a number of different types of devices adopting it. With the help of two tech demos, the company utilized MediaTek’s Kompanio 120 (eight-core with 1-3-4 config) and gave it a GeForce RTX 3060 to work with. With one demo, the fast-paced Wolfenstein: Youngblood was shown-off, utilizing both ray tracing and DLSS. You can check it running in real-time in the video below:

Applications

• HandBrake 1.4.0

  HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. Handbrake can process most common multimedia files and any DVD or BluRay sources that do not contain any kind of copy protection.

• VirtualBox 6.1.24 Released with Support for Linux 5.13 and Ubuntu Specific Kernels

  VirtualBox 6.1.24 comes almost three months after version 6.1.22 to introduce support for the latest and greatest Linux 5.13 kernel series, for both hosts and guests. As you can imagine, this means that you can now run GNU/Linux distributions powered by Linux kernel 5.13 on virtual machines or install VirtualBox on a distro running Linux 5.13.

  For the first time, VirtualBox introduces support for kernels that are specific to a certain GNU/Linux distribution. In this release, there’s support for Ubuntu specific kernels, as well as kernels that are specific to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Desktop (SLES/SLED) 15 SP3 (Service Pack 3) operating systems.

• The best email client for Linux, Windows and macOS isn’t Outlook

  I rely on email. In fact, it’s my primary method of communication with the outside world. While most people are busy on Slack and other chat platforms, I still prefer email. Why? For one thing, I retain a digital trail of my communication. I can search through email threads to follow conversations with a single person (or multiple persons) with ease. Another reason is that I’ve been using email since the late ’90s, so it’s a very comfortable and familiar format.

  Does that mean I ignore chat and other types of communication platforms? Not at all. But for my primary method of communication with clients, editors and publishers, it’s email all the way. It’s easy, fast and always there. I don’t have to worry about whether or not a recipient is online; they’ll get the communication one way or another.

  But there is a slight problem. Which email client to use? There are quite a large number of apps available on every platform, and not every app is available for every operating system. You have Apple Mail for macOS, Outlook for Windows and macOS, Evolution for Linux, and a host of other possibilities. And for the longest time, everyone just assumed Microsoft Outlook was the single best email client on the planet.

  For anyone who’s had to troubleshoot Outlook problems, you know just how bad that client can get when it’s in a fussy mood. I’ve experienced Outlook problems so bad, the only way to solve the problem was a complete reinstall of the OS. Granted, that situation was not normal, but it is very indicative of what can go wrong with that particular email client. And although Apple Mail is a very good email application, its macOS-only limitation is problematic. I will go so far as to say if Apple Mail was available for Linux, macOS and Windows, it would probably wind up at the very top of this list.

Instructionals/Technical

• How to Create Rust Virtual Environment Using Conda on Linux

  Conda is an open-source package management system and environment management system for installing multiple versions of software packages and their dependencies. It is mainly developed for Python and not tied to any specific programming language. Conda allows you to install many programming languages in multiple different environments.

  In this post, we will show you how to create Rust virtual environments using Conda in Linux.

• How to Install the Latest HPLIP Driver in Ubuntu 20.04 [Fix Dependency Issue] | UbuntuHandbook

  Need the most recent HPLIP to get your HP printer or scanner working in Ubuntu? Here’s how to install guide as well as workaround to fix the python-pyqt5 dependency issue.

  HPLIP is an open-source Linux drivers for HP’s inkjet and laser printers. The project is initiated and led by HP Inc. While the package in Ubuntu repositories is always old, you can install the official binary to get new devices support.

  However, the most recent releases refuse to install in my Ubuntu 20.04 due to python-pyqt5 dependency issue. If you’re facing with the similar issue, then this tutorial may help!

• Linux Essentials – Automatically mounting storage volumes with /etc/fstab

  In a previous video we went over the basics of storage, and in this episode of Linux Essentials, I’ll show you how to automatically mount storage volumes when you boot your server.

• Automatically bring up a SocketCAN interface on boot

  Working with Controller Area Network (CAN) on your Linux PC? Through the SocketCAN kernel modules, Linux supports CAN quite well. It can be a bit tricky though, to get your USB-to-CAN adapter configured and up-and-running. This tutorial not only explains how to bring up your SocketCAN network interface, it also shows you how to configure your Linux system to automatically bring up your SocketCAN network interface, each time you plug it in or boot up your Linux system.

• How to Build a Package from Source in Linux – Make Tech Easier

  Besides its open-source nature, customizability is one of the other reasons many users love Linux: you can modify and configure almost every file to meet your specific needs and style. This includes the ability to rebuild a package from source.

  The ability to rebuild a package from the source can be beneficial to any Linux power user because it allows you to change packages, enable or disable a feature, or even apply custom modifications.

Wine or Emulation

• Wine 6.13

  The Wine development release 6.13 is now available.
  
  What's new in this release (see below for details):
    - Proper scrollbar theming.
    - More work towards WinSock PE conversion.
    - Preparation work for the GDI syscall interface.
    - Some progress on the IPHLPAPI PE conversion.
    - Various bug fixes.
  
  The source is available from the following locations:
  
  https://dl.winehq.org/wine/source/6.x/wine-6.13.tar.xz
  
  
  http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/wine/source/6.x/wine-6.13.tar.xz
  
  Binary packages for various distributions will be available from:
  
  https://www.winehq.org/download
  
  You will find documentation on https://www.winehq.org/documentation
  
  You can also get the current source directly from the git
  repository. Check https://www.winehq.org/git for details.
  
  Wine is available thanks to the work of many people. See the file
  AUTHORS in the distribution for the complete list.
  

• Wine 6.13 Released With Proper Scrollbar Theming, More PE Conversion

  The Wine project usually puts out new open-source development releases reliably every other week, but as is sometimes the case during the summer months, last Friday’s was missed due to summer holidays. That update — Wine 6.13 — has now shipped today.

  Alexandre Julliard just issued the belated Wine 6.13 release. Among the changes this time around are now having proper scrollbar theming for Windows applications running in Wine, preparation work for the GDI system call interface, and more PE conversion work. There still is work going on the WinSock portable executable conversion and now on the IPHLPAPI PE conversion too.

Games

• Ubisoft are keeping an eye on the Steam Deck, will release on it if it’s big enough

  Today during the Ubisoft conference call where they discussed first-quarter 2021-2022 sales, Steam Deck got mentioned.

  It’s an interesting one, since Ubisoft has pretty much left Steam behind in favour of other stores like the Epic Games Store. The Epic store doesn’t support Linux, and Epic currently have no intention to do so. So unless people are expected to manually load up Windows to replace SteamOS, companies like Ubisoft would need to bring their games back to Steam to give users a good experience.

  During the conference call that we listened to today, a question was asked about the Steam Deck from one investor.

• Space station building and management sim Starmancer confirmed for GOG

  The release of the fantastic space station building and management game Starmancer is getting ever closer, and now a GOG released has been confirmed today. It’s been a while since the Kickstarter in 2018, which showed a hugely promising idea.

  Starmancer follows long after some sort of catastrophe on Earth with the remains of humanity having their brains uploaded into special memory banks. You’re responsible for building up a sustainable station to enable supporting human life, which you end up growing in special pods to have a consciousness downloaded into.

  “Starmancer offers gameplay with consequences, a living sandbox environment, crafting, and managing the daily lives of colonists. Create a utopian society where everyone is well fed, happy, and safe. Or go rogue and figure out how many times a colonist can eat wheat before they go crazy. The choice is yours!”

• DXVK-NVAPI 0.4 Released For Improving NVIDIA Integration Atop DXVK

  DXVK-NVAPI 0.4 is out today for improving the implementation of this NVIDIA driver public API interface (NVAPI) within DXVK for running Windows Direct3D games on Linux. DXVK-NVAPI 0.4 updates against the latest public NVAPI header files, now makes use of the NVIDIA Management Library (NVML) for querying various attributes on Linux, changes around log level options, and adds an optional test suite for helping to verify the NVAPI support.

• The Nvidia Arm race has just put Microsoft, AMD, and Intel on notice

  Nvidia is paving the way for entirely GeForce-powered notebooks, potentially shoving Microsoft, Intel, and AMD aside in its quest for high-performance gaming laptops. The green team has now proven the power of both ray tracing and DLSS running in a Linux distro, on ARM-based silicon, with RTX graphics cards plumbed into them.

  And that should scare the crap out of everyone involved in the traditional Microsoft/x86 PC gaming monopoly.

  So yeah, it sure looks like GDC 2021 is kicking off with a bang, as Nvidia has today shown Wolfenstein: Youngblood running with ray traced reflections enabled, and DLSS in operation, on a system using an eight-core MediaTek CPU and an Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU.

• Nvidia’s ARM-Powered Linux RTX Demo Is a Warning Shot to x86, Microsoft

• The Steam Deck Might Not Play All Games in Your Library

  As of now, the Steam Deck might play all of the games in the Steam Library, though the developers at Valve are working hard to make everything work.

  The Steam Deck is a portable gaming console. Its biggest selling point is its hardware specs capable of running even the most demanding PC games. So, if you’re the type of person who wants to play games on the go, this thing is ideal for you.

  That said, while there are many games to choose from, you might not get them running on this device.

• Steam Deck SSD Replacement Possible on All Models

  Valve’s upcoming handheld Steam Deck will allow its users to replace and upgrade its internal SSD with their own, although the company strongly recommends against it.

  The news was first brought to light by Valve’s head Game Newell himself by responding to a redditor’s inquiry about the system’s SSD. The Steam Deck’s website was later updated (spotted via VGC) to state that all models “use socketed 2230 m.2 modules (not intended for end-user replacement).”

• Gadgets Weekly: Valve Steam Deck, Asus Chromebooks and more

  Out of the blue, Valve Corp on Thursday unveiled the company’s first-ever hand-held gaming console Steam Deck, which competes directly with the popular Nintendo Switch series.

  The new Steam Deck sports wide 7.0-inch HD+ (1,280x800p) LCD panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio. It supports up to 60Hz display refresh rate, and offers close to 400 nits of peak brightness.

  Yes, the screen is touch-sensitive and also comes with an ambient light sensor, stereo speakers and a dual microphone array.

  Inside, it houses AMD’s custom APU, optimized for handheld gaming. The APU’s power ranges from 4W to 15W, which promises to deliver more than enough performance to run the latest AAA games very efficiently.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • Akademy 2021 Interview: In Conversation with Jeri Ellsworth

    A *loooong* conversation with Jeri Ellsworth, self-made inventor, chip designer, AR entrepreneur and keynote speaker at Akademy 2021.

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • How Calls became a part of GNOME

    Since Purism’s philosophy and GNOME’s principles are closely aligned it is not far fetched to call them a match made in heaven.

    As you probably know the software stack in use on the Librem 5 is built upon GNOME technologies and has been designed by parts the GNOME Design Team.

    This is why we’re happy to officially announce that Calls will become a part of the GNOME project. Having a dialer application available shows that mobile is an important use case for GNOME.
    Furthermore this shows that we take upstreaming our development efforts and making them available to the wider community very seriously.

    The old repository has been archived and the new repository where development takes place can be found here while the packaging for PureOS can be found here.

    By moving to GNOME infrastructure we hope to generate more community interest around Calls.

Distributions

• IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

  • How natural language processing can fight deforestation: MANA-Vox [Ed: IBM is greenwashing surveillance]

    Every second, more than one hectare of tropical forestland is destroyed around the planet, in many cases, by large global corporations in the incessant hunt for agricultural space, timber, and urban expansion. Many times, this shows up on the web and in social media, but finding credible, up-to-date information from the thousands of posts produced every day can be a full-time job for a researcher, and a tough proposition for any non-profit working in this space.

  • Gartner dumps IBM from 2021 enterprise backup’n’recovery MQ leader corner [Ed: Maybe IBM just didn’t renew the payment (bribe) to Gartner]

• Debian Family

  • Debian GNU/Linux 10 “Buster” Users Get New Linux Kernel Security Update, 4 Flaws Patched

    The new Linux kernel security update comes about three months after the previous kernel update and it’s here to address a total of four security vulnerabilities discovered by various security researchers in the upstream Linux 4.19 kernel series used by the Debian GNU/Linux 10 “Buster” operating system.

    The four security flaws patched in this kernel update are CVE-2020-36311, a vulnerability discovered in the KVM subsystem for AMD CPUs that could allow an attacker to cause a denial of service (soft lockup) by triggering the destruction of a large Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) virtual machine.

Devices/Embedded

• Tiny compute module and dev kit give root to STM32MP1 applications

  MYIR’s tiny “MYC-YA15XC-T” module runs Linux on ST’s STM32MP1 with up to 512MB DDR3L and 4GB eMMC and optional -45 to -85°C support. The module is supported with a “MYD-YA15XC-T” dev kit.

  MYIR announced a 39 x 37mm MYC-YA15XC-T module as a more compact alternative to its 45 x 43mm MYC-YA157C module, which similarly runs Linux on STMicroelectronics’ 650MHz to 800MHz, single- or dual-core, Cortex-A7 STM32MP1. The SoC also integrates a 209MHz Cortex-M4 MCU, cryptography, and secure boot.

  The MYC-YA15XC-T lacks the MYC-YA157C’s GbE controller and is limited to 148 stamp-hole (castellated-hole) pins instead of 164. This was enough of a difference for MYIR to whip up a custom MYD-YA15XC-T carrier board for the module instead of using the MYC-YA157C’s smaller MYD-YA157C board (see farther below).

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • An Arduino-powered micro quadruped that fits in the palm of your hand | Arduino Blog

    Arduino-powered quadruped robots are quite common projects for hobbyists to build once they are a bit more comfortable with embedded systems. One problem with many of the pre-designed quadruped platforms is that they require a lot of time to assemble owing to their large size. This is what inspired Technovation to come up their own micro quadruped robot, which requires only a fraction of the normal amount of material and hours to construct.

    The robot is based around a central chassis that houses the Arduino Uno and sensor shield components, which provide power and signaling to the motors. Underneath this hardware stack are four servos that can rotate to the side and act as hip joints. Lastly, each leg is comprised of two servos to allow for forward motion.

  • Design for Disassembly: This Old Idea is the Wave of the Future

    The stats feel tired at this point: the EPA tells us that over 10 million tons of furniture are taken to US landfills each year, and more than 2 thousand tons of major appliances will be tossed onto the heap in 2021 alone. As product designers, this can lead us straight to an existential fever dream, imagining Victor Papanek whispering in our ear: “There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a few.”

    The reality is that consumption-based capitalism isn’t going anywhere. But we as designers and business leaders have the opportunity and the agency to devise ways to implement healthier making and sourcing methods by rethinking our approaches to design.

    How can our products’ life spans be prolonged? How can our designs encourage repair? How can we insist on our work’s participation in a circular economy? I give you, with as much bravado as I may, our solution: Design for Disassembly (DfD).

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Poll: How long do you keep your Android smartphone before upgrading? | Android Central

  • How To Record Calls on Your Android Smartphone

  • Gboard Material You redesign rolling out on Android 12 – 9to5Google

  • Android 12 has a controversial change — and some people are really upset | Tom’s Guide

  • LG G8X ThinQ Android 11 update imminent as source code gets published

  • Motorola Android 11 update: List of eligible devices & release date

  • Motorola Android 11 update bugs, issues, & problems tracker

  • Samsung impressively updates the old and humble Galaxy A10e to Android 11 in the US – PhoneArena

  • Android TV gains some of Google TV’s best features | What Hi-Fi?

  • Some URL shortener services distribute Android malware, including banking or SMS trojans | WeLiveSecurity

  • Anker PowerWave Alloy review: The best wireless charger for Android | Android Central

  • Sony clarifies: the Xperia 1 III will get at least two Android updates – GSMArena.com news

  • Verizon is also switching to Android Messages as default for RCS – The Verge

  • Chrome for Android will make it easier to manage sites’ permissions – The Verge

  • Google shutting down My Maps Android app in favor of web – 9to5Google

  • OnePlus Nord 2 5G’s design confirmed in latest teaser

    The OnePlus Nord 2 5G’s renders that leaked last month revealed the smartphone’s design, which is now officially confirmed by the phone maker as it posted a teaser of the Nord 2 5G on its social media accounts.

    The image shows us the Nord 2 5G’s rear side, which is similar to the OnePlus 9′s. It has a OnePlus logo, and a camera island in the top-left corner housing three cameras, with the primary camera already confirmed to use a 50MP Sony IMX7666 sensor with OIS.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • Firefox May Have Lost Up to 12% Of Its Users So Far In 2021

      Firefox is the default web browser installed on most Linux distributions. It is a well-known browser by Mozilla that respects user privacy by design, and currently remains the only major web browser pushing for open web standards and community interest rather than giant corporations like Google, Microsoft or Apple.

      The existence of Firefox is important for the open source community. Both to prevent the monopoly of these corporations on the web and also to ensure a free and open source web browser (and engine!) remains accessible for end-users.

      However, Firefox has been recently struggling on many different fronts and on a number of issues and topics. We have covered a story in October, 2020 where Mozilla’s CEO was found to be getting a large $2.4M annual salary, while 25% of Mozilla’s workforce was let go because of financial issues at Mozilla. And yet, Mozilla is promoting initiatives to fight political ads, misinformation and “promote diversity” rather than fixing its own problems.

    • Spring Cleaning MDN: Part 1 [Ed: Mozilla is dead. And it is outsourcing to Microsoft proprietary software now.. Stick a form it it. Mozilla is a walking dead.]

      Most notably MDN now manages its content from a repository on GitHub. Prior to this, the content was stored in a database and edited by logging in to the site and modifying content via an in-page (WYSIWYG) editor, aka ‘The Wiki’. Since the big move, we have determined that MDN accounts are no longer functional for our users. If you want to edit or contribute content, you need to sign in to GitHub, not MDN.

• SaaS/Back End/Databases

  • SQLite Extraction of Oracle Tables Tools, Methods and Pitfalls

    The SQLite database is a wildly successful and ubiquitous software package that is mostly unknown to the larger IT community. Designed and coded by Dr. Richard Hipp, the third major revision of SQLite serves many users in market segments with critical requirements for software quality, which SQLite has met with compliance to the DO-178B avionics standard. In addition to a strong presence in aerospace and automotive, most major operating system vendors (including Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and RedHat) include SQLite as a core OS component.

    There are a few eccentricities that may trip up users from other RDBMS environments. SQLite is known as a “flexibly-typed” database, unlike Oracle which rigidly enforces columnar datatypes; character values can be inserted into SQLite columns that are declared integer without error (although check constraints can strengthen SQLite type rigidity, if desired). While many concurrent processes are allowed to read from a SQLite database, only one process is allowed write privilege at any time (applications requiring concurrent writers should tread carefully with SQLite). There is no network interface, and all connections are made through a filesystem; SQLite does not implement a client-server model. There is no “point in time recovery,” and backup operations are basically an Oracle 7-style ALTER DATAFILE BEGIN BACKUP that makes a transaction-consistent copy of the whole database. GRANT and REVOKE are not implemented in SQLite, which uses filesystem permissions for all access control. There are no background processes, and newly-connecting clients may find themselves delayed and responsible for transaction recovery, statistics collection, or other administrative functions that are quietly performed in the background in this “zero-administration database.” Some history and architecture of SQLite can be found in audio and video records of Dr. Hipp’s discussions.

    Despite these eccentricities, SQLite is likely a superior format for data exchange as opposed to CSV, XML, or even JSON, as indexes can be included, enabling recipients to perform high-speed queries in SQL92 without any preprocessing, licensing, or activation. SQLite’s conservative coding style and commentary is intended to benefit “future programmers who are not yet born,” and the on-disk database format has further been defined as a long-term storage standard by the Library of the U.S. Congress.

• CMS

  • WordPress 5.8 Tatum

    Introducing 5.8 “Tatum”, our latest and greatest release now available for download or update in your dashboard. Named in honor of Art Tatum, the legendary Jazz pianist. His formidable technique and willingness to push boundaries inspired musicians and changed what people thought could be done.

    So fire up your music service of choice and enjoy Tatum’s famous recordings of ‘Tea for Two’, ‘Tiger Rag’, ‘Begin the Beguine’, and ‘Night and Day’ as you read about what the latest WordPress version brings to you.

• FSF

  • Freedom moving forward: An overview of the FSF’s history

    Our thirty-fifth birthday as an organization has given us the opportunity to think about the Free Software Foundation’s (FSF) development over the years. More than thirty-five years of history is hard to bring together in a few sentences, so much so that even staff at the FSF sometimes have to do serious research into the exact dates that milestones occurred. This being the case, we realized it was high time to create an overview listing key points in the history of the FSF and GNU.

    Today we launched the FSF history timeline page which shows a clear overview of milestones for the organization, like when the GPLv3 was published, or when the first LibrePlanet conference took place.

  • Licensing/Legal

    • Our lawsuit against ChessBase

      The Stockfish project strongly believes in free and open-source software and data. Collaboration is what made this engine the strongest chess engine in the world. We license our software using the GNU General Public License, Version 3 (GPL) with the intent to guarantee all chess enthusiasts the freedom to use, share and change all versions of the program.

      Unfortunately, not everybody shares this vision of openness. We have come to realize that ChessBase concealed from their customers Stockfish as the true origin of key parts of their products (see also earlier blog posts by us and the joint Lichess, Leela Chess Zero, and Stockfish teams). Indeed, few customers know they obtained a modified version of Stockfish when they paid for Fat Fritz 2 or Houdini 6 – both Stockfish derivatives – and they thus have good reason to be upset. ChessBase repeatedly violated central obligations of the GPL, which ensures that the user of the software is informed of their rights. These rights are explicit in the license and include access to the corresponding sources, and the right to reproduce, modify and distribute GPLed programs royalty-free.

    • Stockfish sues ChessBase

      The Stockfish project, which distributes a chess engine under GPLv3, has announced the filing of a GPL-enforcement lawsuit against ChessBase, which has been (and evidently still is) distributing proprietary versions of the Stockfish code.

    • Are you compliant with open-source license obligations?

      A short answer is no. Your piece of software will not be open-source if it doesn’t have an open-source license. Under copyright law, such software is copyrighted by default, with all the restrictions that this implies.

      If you want anyone to use your code freely, you should ensure certain liberties commonly called “the four freedoms“. They say that OS software may be used, studied, modified, and distributed freely, as long as the license is respected.

      For the first three, there are no conditions of any kind; you are free to use, study, and modify the code for any purpose. If you move beyond that and decide to distribute your modified version (or the original), this is when open-source license compliance starts.

      Missing license texts are the number one cause of license infringement cases, which, as we’ve seen above, can lead to the loss of ownership rights and enforcement actions such as an interim injunction.

• Programming/Development

  • Python

    • The data worker’s guide to psiphiorrhea

      A dataset I recently audited had a record for a marine specimen observed at latitude 6.47457312, longitude -52.5741239, depth 103.8799973 metres. I’ve changed the coordinates (but not their number of decimal places) to protect the data owner’s privacy.

      While those coordinates aren’t as impressive as the
      -33.8903169365705 151.198409720645
      I blogged about in 2019 for a huge building in Sydney, Australia, they still specify the specimen’s underwater location ±0.55 millimetres in latitude. And the depth measurement is ±0.00005 millimetres.

      I suspect that the marine recorder might be afflicted with psiphiorrhea. I concocted this word (pronounced siff-ee-oh-REE-uh) from Greek roots meaning “digit or numeral” and “flux”. In the same way that someone who talks far too much is exhibiting logorrhea, or excessive word-iness, someone who uses far too many digits in their numbers is exhibiting psiphiorrhea, or excessive digit-iness.

Science

• Not only is Hubble back online after outage, it’s already taking photos of the cosmos • The Register

  The Hubble Space Telescope is back in action doing what it does best – capturing stunning images of the universe – after more than 50 NASA engineers worked hundreds of hours to get the instrument working again.

  After activating redundant components within the orbiting observatory on Friday to clear a hardware glitch, the telescope has been able to use its sensors again. NASA released two photos of oddball galaxies Hubble snapped over the weekend: one depicting two galaxies intersecting each other, and the other showing a large spiral galaxy with three arms.

Integrity/Availability

• Proprietary

  • China says Microsoft hacking accusations fabricated by US and allies [Ed: Well, it is the fault of Microsoft that holes exist]

  • US legal eagles representing Apple, IBM, and more take 5 months to inform clients of ransomware data breach

  • Security

    • Researchers flag 7-years-old privilege escalation flaw in Linux kernel (CVE-2021-33909)

      A vulnerability (CVE-2021-33909) in the Linux kernel’s filesystem layer that may allow local, unprivileged attackers to gain root privileges on a vulnerable host has been unearthed by researchers.

    • New Linux kernel bug lets you get root on most modern distros

    • Nasty Linux systemd security bug revealed

      Qualsys has found an ugly Linux systemd security hole that can enable any unprivileged user to crash a Linux system. The patch is available, and you should deploy it as soon as possible.

    • How IBM i Fits Into a Zero-Trust Security Framework [Ed: Authored by IBM shill funded by IBM]

      One of the hot new trends in cybersecurity these days is the zero-trust security model. Instead of implicitly trusting network traffic behind the firewall, zero-trust demands that traffic have explicit permission to be there. But how does that model work with the strange beast known as IBM i? IT Jungle recently sat down with PJ Kirner, the CTO and co-founder of zero-trust software provider Illumio, to find out.

      Illumio is an eight-year-old venture-backed startup based in Sunnyvale, California, that is working in the field of zero-trust security. It develops an offering, called Illumio Core, that allows companies to begin implementing the zero-trust security model in their own data centers.

      It’s a fairly radical shift in philosophy, Kirner says. “There’s a mentality change from ‘I trust everything’ to . . . ‘I need a policy enforcement point of some sort everywhere, not just in the one place at the boundary of two things,’” he says.

      When fully built out, an IT estate with an active zero-trust security model will resemble a party where only invited guests are allowed in. Building from a whitelist, or “allow list,” is starkly different than starting with a blacklist, or an “exclude list,” Kirner says. “If you start by saying just these two things are not allowed to talk, well, that’s a whole bunch of implicit trust around everything else,” he says.

      Illumio, which recently added support for IBM i systems, begins every zero-trust security engagement by making a map of network traffic behind the firewall. Illumio develops software that does this mapping, which can be quite illuminating in its own right.

    • New Windows 10 vulnerability allows anyone to get admin privileges

    • The virus rears its ugly head….

      There is a virus going around. We thought we were winning the battle against it, but powerful forces and events have allowed it to raise its ugly head and cause unforeseen additional hardship.
      People thought that it was not so bad, they did not listen to reason and take the precautionary measures necessary to protect themselves. In letting down their guard they were unprepared and unprotected.
      After months of machines being turned off, software licenses (with their expiration dates never “dormant”) are up for renewal.
      Many companies, educational institutions and public buildings (like libraries) are turning on their Wintel PCs for the first time in over a year and finding that they need to renew their licenses, not only for what is called an operating system on their computer, but also for many of the closed source, proprietary add-on software packages that owners purchased in a wild attempt to make their hardware somewhat useful.

      [...]

      This variant is called “Windows 11”, and the creator of it seems to be unable to tell you how much havoc it will create for you. Does it run on your otherwise great hardware? You have a decent processor, a lot of RAM, and you bought it just two or three years ago….but it might not run Windows 11.

    • UK.gov’s Huawei watchdog says firm made ‘no overall improvement’ on firmware security but won’t say why

      Huawei has made “no overall improvement” in software engineering processes for its UK telecoms equipment’s firmware, its GCHQ overseers have warned.

      The Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Cell (HCSEC) oversight board’s annual report for 2020 was noticeably less critical than in previous years – but still says Huawei is dragging its feet in key areas.

    • Northern Train’s ticketing system out to lunch as ransomware attack shuts down servers

      Publicly owned rail operator Northern Trains has an excuse somewhat more technical than “leaves on the line” for its latest service disruption: a ransomware attack that has left its self-service ticketing booths out for the count.

      “Last week we experienced technical difficulties with our self-service ticket machines, which meant all have had to be taken offline,” a spokesperson for Northern Trains confirmed to the The Register.

    • Fortinet’s security appliances hit by remote code execution vulnerability

      Security appliance slinger Fortinet has warned of a critical vulnerability in its products that can be exploited to allow unauthenticated attackers full control over the target system – providing a particular daemon is enabled.

      The vulnerability, discovered by Orange Group security researcher Cyrille Chatras and sent to Fortinet privately for responsible disclosure, lies in the FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer software running atop selected models in the company’s FortiGate security appliance family. Should a particular daemon be enabled, the company admitted, a remote attacker can gain full control.

    • Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation

      • Romanian Linux Cryptojacking Cybercriminals Spotted [Ed: This is classic FUD as it's not a Linux issue but a weak password issue]

        Since at least 2020, an active threat organization based in Romania has been running a cryptojacking operation against Linux-based machines using the Golang-based SSH brute force, according to The Hacker News. The campaign’s objective is to infect Linux systems with Monero mining applications.

    • Privacy/Surveillance

      • India IT minister denies illegal use of NSO Pegasus spyware
        

        Indian IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has denied the nation illegally used the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, but hasn’t denied that India used it.

        The existence of Pegasus is not news. But over the weekend, Amnesty International, French outfit Forbidden Stories and a dozen publications around the world alleged the software has been widely misused to target media, dissidents, and other individuals, and that NSO Group’s assertions its products are only used in the cause of national security are insincere at best.

Environment

• Wildlife/Nature

  • Thousands of penguins crowding near Ukrainian polar station

    Ukrainian polar explorers recorded large waddles of penguins near the Antarctic station “Academician Vernadsky”.
    “This July, our polar explorers recorded extremely large winter waddles of penguins: hundreds and thousands of individuals have a rest on different islands within a radius of 20 km from the station, and hundreds of penguins that eat can be observed in the water at the same time. These are mostly sub-Antarctic penguins (Gentoo) or Adélie penguins,” the National Antarctic Scientific Center of Ukraine posted on Facebook.

Desktop/Laptop

• Did Microsoft just sneak out its own Linux distro? [Ed: No, Microsoft is still attacking Linux in a number of ways]

  Microsoft may have evolved its Linux strategy even further

• Is ChromeOS the way to go?

  I have been wondering about this for some time. My understanding is that ChromeOS was originally designed for a permanently online computer, not really for running off-line. I haven’t closely followed development, but apparently that changed, allowing off-line use.

Server

• March Networks’ Unveils Linux-Based Video Management Software (VMS) With Support For 3,000 IP Cameras On A Single Server

  March Networks, a global video surveillance and video-based business intelligence solutions company, is pleased to announce a new highly scalable Linux version of its Video Management Software (VMS) that can support up to 3,000 cameras on a single server.

Kernel Space

• Graphics Stack

  • Nvidia GeForce: Linux graphics driver improves Wayland support – Market Research Telecast

    Comprehensive hardware acceleration for the Wayland graphics architecture is a highlight of new Linux graphics drivers from Nvidia. But that is by no means the only thing that the first driver of the 470 version line comes up with. With the 470.42.01 graphics driver, notebooks with AMD processors and GeForce graphics chips can now also switch on the Nvidia GPU during operation; There are further improvements for anti-aliasing and for virtual reality glasses.

    The fresh driver also brings support for recently introduced graphics chips, but will soon drop support for some older GPUs.

  • NVIDIA has open sourced more of GameWorks with Linux support | GamingOnLinux

    NVIDIA seem to be on a bit of a roll lately when it comes to Linux with a huge new driver release, DLSS for Proton, RTX and DLSS support for Arm on Linux and getting Linux native support added to the DLSS SDK and now they’ve open sourced a bunch of GameWorks.

    Perhaps feeling some pressure from AMD and GPUOpen? Open sourcing their work means many more developers can use them without licensing issues, and so it might pull more towards it instead of going with various tech them AMD currently provides.

  • Nvidia’s TensorRT 8.0 boasts faster conversational AI performance

    Nvidia has released TensorRT 8.0 for Nvidia GPUs including its Jetson modules. This latest AI inference optimization SDK delivers up to 2x the natural language query performance compared to v7.0, with 1.2ms latency using BERT.

    At GTC 2021 in April, Nvidia announced TensorRT 8.0 along with related technologies such as a GUI-based TAO framework that eases AI model training for GPU-equipped platforms. The TensorRT 8.0 SDK is now available for enabling deep learning inference on all Nvidia GPU products, including the Linux-based Jetson modules.

  • NVIDIA Releases TensorRT 8.0 With Big Performance Improvements

    NVIDIA today is making available a much faster version of TensorRT, its SDK for optimized deep learning inference on their GPUs.

    With TensorRT 8 that is being made public today, NVIDIA is reporting “2x performance” relative to the existing TensorRT 7 release. That 2x performance is around transformer optimizations while they are also claiming 2x accuracy against TensorRT 7 when using INT8 with quantization aware training.

Applications

• HandBrake Free Video Converter 1.4 Released, Here’s What’s New

  If you’re looking for a free video converter, HandBrake is a solid choice. It is a powerful tool you can use to convert one video format in to another, with broad support for modern and widely used video codecs.

  HandBrake is an open source free video converter compatible with Linux, Windows, and MacOS. It is a program used in ripping and converting video files to work in particular supported devices.

  HandBrake grabs video from a variety of sources, including a DVD, and a DVD image, and grabs audio from sources as well, including MPEG audio tracks. You’ll then be able to output a digital file in a variety of formats. It can handle DVDs, Blu-Rays, .mp4, .mkv, H.264(x264), MPEG-4, MPEG-2, AAC, MP3, FLAC, AC3, Vorbis, AC-3, DTS and DTS-HD among others.

• Progress on PGPainless Development

  Not much time has passed since I last wrote about my progress on the PGPainless library. However, I feel like its time for an update.

  Since the big 0.2.0 release, 4 further releases, 0.2.1 through 0.2.4 have been published. Taken together, the changes are quite substantial, so let me summarize.

• Release Roundup: Flameshot 0.10.0, HandBrake 1.4.0, Szyszka 2.0.0, Clight 4.6 And Zellij 0.15.0

  This article covers the new release (in short summary) of Flameshot (screenshot and annotation tool), HandBrake (video transcoder), Szyszka (file renamer), Clight (tool to match your backlight level to ambient brightness using the webcam or ambient light sensors) and Zellij (terminal multiplexer with extras).

• 10 Must Have Tools for Linux System Administrators

  A Linux system administrator’s job includes OS installation, upgrade, and monitoring system performance by constantly validating its essential software and functions. Even though every person might have their favorites, it’s necessary to have a set of tried and tested tools that enable you to manage your Linux systems as a sysadmin.

  Whether you are an experienced sysadmin or have just started exploring Linux, the following tools will offer you practical solutions without incurring a steep learning curve.

• Open-source RAW image editor Darktable releases major update to version 3.6 – and it’s very accessible

  Traditionally the Darktable project only releases one update a year, with a new version arriving on Christmas day. But the developers behind Darktable have been adding new features and improving existing ones so quickly that one a year is no longer enough.

  Going forward, Darktable users can expect two updates a year, one in summer and the other the traditional Christmas day release.

Instructionals/Technical

• What are apt-get Command Options in Linux Complete tutorial for beginners

  Yes, I know the computer, It is the combination of the Software and Hardware but I am talking here software or tools which are installed inside the operating system no matter, OS is window Mac or Linux.

  Installing and removing the packages from the Linux operating system is the most popular activity. If you want to be expert in the LINUX operating system you must know about the installing and removing packages.

  There are lots of the methods used to manage packages inside Linux. the apt-get method is one of them.

  Apt-get is a package manager used to manage packages inside the debian-based operating system, for example, Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Debian, and other debian-based distributions.

  This package manager is very useful for Debian based users, It is the command-line tool for managing packages. if you are a Linux lover then you can understand the importance of the command-line tool.

• How To Install FTP Server on AlmaLinux 8 – idroot

  In this tutorial, we will show you how to install FTP Server on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, FTP which stands for File Transfer Protocol is an application layer protocol that is used in the exchange of data and information between computers on a private network or internet seamlessly by use of an FTP application. Makes use of TCP on the internet. With the use of FTP, one can upload and download data with ease.

  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 FTP server on an AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for Rocky Linux.

• How To Backup Files And Directories Using Rsync In Linux – OSTechNix

  Looking for a reliable and robust solution to backup your data in Linux? Rsync got you covered! This guide walks you through the steps to backup files and directories using Rsync in Linux.

• The Easy Way to Enable ‘Minimize on Click’ in Ubuntu – OMG! Ubuntu!

  In this post you will learn how to enable minimize on click for the Ubuntu Dock in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and above.

  But what is “minimize on click”, and why do some Ubuntu users like to enable it?

• How to Upgrade to Debian 11 from Debian 10

  This guide explains the steps to upgrade debian 11 from debian 10.

• How I saved time with automation | Enable Sysadmin

  How an IT automation initiative streamlined business practices, reduced contested billing, and even helped to satisfy a law enforcement request.

• How to Install Docker and Docker-Compose on Rocky Linux 8

  As we all know that Docker Container is the highly demanded technology in IT world. With help of Docker containers, developers and infra admins can package their application and its dependencies and can run it in one computing setup to another.

  In this guide, we will cover how to install Docker and Docker Compose on Rocky Linux 8 step by step.

• Enrico Zini: Run a webserver for a specific user *only*

  I’m creating a program that uses the web browser for its user interface, and I’m reasonably sure I’m not the first person doing this.

  Normally such a problem would listen to a port on localhost, and tell the browser to connect to it. Bonus points for listening to a randomly allocated free port, so that one does not need to involve some amount of luck to get the program started.

• 30 Interesting Tools and Services to Monitor Your Linux Servers

  It’s just not enough to deploy a specifically configured Linux server. Monitoring the servers is also crucial to maintain them effectively in long run.

  If you know what’s going on with your servers, you could avoid potentially catastrophic situations. Take something as trivial as disk space. If your server runs out of disk space, the running services will be affected.

  This is why it is essential to install dedicated DevOps monitoring tools to ensure efficient maintenance and monitoring.

• How to Install Splunk Data platfrom on Ubuntu 20.04 Linux

  Let’s learn the step-by-step way to install and configure Splunk on Ubuntu 20.04 or 18.04 LTS Linux server to collect and analyze various data.

  Splunk is a data platform that allows collecting, indexing, monitoring, and analyzing machine data in large quantities (hundreds of terabytes of data per day) from various sources in real-time. Splunk has the ability to receive data from almost any source. Also, it is possible to receive the logs (machine data) from e.g. production machines, measuring devices, sensors, vehicles, etc.

• How to install Monitorix on Ubuntu 21.04 – Unixcop

  Monitorix is a free, open source, lightweight system monitoring tool designed to monitor as many services and system resources as possible.It has been created to be used under production Linux/UNIX servers, but due to its simplicity and small size can be used on embedded devices as well.

• How to Use Netcat to Scan Open Ports in Linux

  The Netcat (in short NC) is a feature-rich computer networking, debugging and investigation utility that supports an extensive range of commands to manage networks and monitor the flow of network traffic data between systems using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

  Netcat can be a very useful tool for network and system administrators to quickly recognize how their network is performing and what type of network activity is occurring in the system.

  In this article, we will discuss how to install and use this versatile netcat utility to perform simple port scans to identify open ports in Linux systems.

• How to install Ubuntu on Virtualbox Step by Step Guide for beginners 2021

  Do you want to learn and practice Linux without install Ubuntu on you hard drive?

  Virtual box is best option to run multiple operating system in same time. Meantime you can use your favorite Operating System Windows / Mac and you can learn how to use Linux operating System.

  Linux is an Operating System. Before to use it you will have to install first on your Laptop or Desktop. But when you use virtual-box you don’t need to install on hard drive. You can use multiple operating system at same time.

  Today I am going to tell you “how to install Ubuntu on virtual box in Windows 10″. This article consists text and images so you can understand better.

• How to copy a directory in Linux a Guide for beginners 2021

  I know how to copy files in Linux by using cp command, but on same when I tried to copy the Documents directory, and I got the following error “cp: -r not specified; omitting directory ‘Documents’”

  Are you facing the same problem?

  Are you a new user of Linux and don’t know how to copy a directory in Linux? Don’t worry anymore. In this article, I cover how to copy the directory in Linux with all possibilities.

  So you will not face any problem in future to copy directory in Linux

• Top Examples of echo command in Linux Guide for Beginners 2021

  echo command in Linux is mostly used in bash/shell scripting. It is not only useful for programmers but useful for other Linux user as well. echo command in Linux is used to display a line of text/string that is passed as an argument.

  You can use this command to print the value of a variable on the screen.

• How to save signature in MySQL | FOSS Linux

  Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) is a service or software used to create and manage databases based on a relational model scheme. It can be defined as an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) with a client-server model.

  Note: To aid improve your understanding of MySQL, some of the key terms used throughout the article have been defined.

• Top reasons why systemd is a practical tool for sysadmins | FOSS Linux

  System daemon or systemd is a service and system manager for Linux. systemd is compatible with LSB and SysV and is available in all major distros. Certainly, as you would expect with Linux, systemd is not the only init system available. Other alternatives include OpenRC, SysVinit, runit, and s6. However, the versatility, ease of use, and power of the systemd tool make it practical for users and system administrators alike.

  To manage systemd, use the systemctl command, which utilizes both the functionality of SysVinit’s service and chkconfig commands. It manages system units which are representations of system services and resources. You can use it to enable or disable services permanently or for the current session.

Games

• CreatorCrate is absolutely insane and it’s out on August 11 | GamingOnLinux

  Jori Ryan of CreatorCrate Games has announced that CreatorCrate, a platformer that gives you the ability to “3D print” any object you come across is out on August 11 and it seems like quite a laugh is waiting for you.

  A thoroughly quirky game where you play as a sentient 3D printer that can make anything. You’ve decided you also want to be free and so things get messy. Set on a huge circular spinning space station, everything is always moving, including gravity that changes as you explore. This is shaping up to be a platformer like no other.

  “Fight to stay alive while everything around you is on fire, exploding, or shooting lasers. Dangle by your arm over deadly drops. Climb just ahead of fizzing pools of acid. Take it one area at a time with checkpoints or crank up the challenge with permadeath mode. Procedural generation keeps the action fresh each time so you can get blown up and try again!”

• Survival platformer Residual gets a new demo on Steam | GamingOnLinux

  Residual from Orangepixel and publisher Apogee Entertainment is getting close to release and so to pull you in they’ve put up a new demo with an exclusive planet to explore.

  What’s supposed to be a new breed of survival-platformer, Residual will rely on plenty of procedural generation with their “Nature Engine” that provides “1000′s of planets from a vast set of environment-based rules” giving you a whole new planet to explore each time. One of the key parts of Residual is the non-violent nature of it with no traditional combat.

• Get a bunch of cheap Kalypso DLC in their Humble Bundle, plus a new coding bundle | GamingOnLinux

  We have a mixture of games you can get cheap, and some fresh ebooks to help with your own coding from Humble Bundle. Let’s take a look at what’s on offer this time.

  First, there’s a new Kalypso 15th Anniversary DLC Bundle. Yep, not games but DLC. Giving you the opportunity to build up your collection and expand some of your favourites? Not a bad deal really. You can purchase multiple to get a higher discount with the discount increasing more when you add 3, 4 and 5 DLC items.

• Valve Announces Steam Deck Gaming Device

  Valve recently announced the Steam Deck handheld gaming device, which ”brings the Steam games and features you love to a powerful and convenient form factor.”

  According to the website, Valve has partnered with AMD to create Steam Deck’s custom accelerated processing unit (APU) for “the most powerful, full-featured gaming handheld in the world.”

• Proton Experimental gets a small update and fixes Quake Champions crashes

  Ready for some more testing? Valve has updated Proton Experimental once again with some new bits, including solving some crashes with Quake Champions. If you’re not clear on what Proton and Steam Play are, be sure to check out our constantly updated dedicated page.

  Part of the problem with Proton at times, is that developers don’t often test for it and so games push out updates that then break the Windows version working on Linux with Proton. That happened again recently with Quake Champions after they added some new anti-cheat, which had caused it to be left broken for multiple weeks with Proton. The latest Proton Experimental as on July 19 notes if fixes “crashes in recent Quake Champions update.”.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • Plasma Mobile 21.07 is Out

    The Plasma Mobile team is happy to present the Plasma Mobile updates for July 2021. Read on to found out about all the new stuff included in this release:

  • KDE Plasma Mobile 21.07 Released With More Responsive Shell, Fixes

    The folks working on KDE’s mobile efforts have released Plasma Mobile 21.07 as the newest feature release.

  • KDE Connect now supports Windows as well as Linux and macOS (link your phone to your PC)

    KDE Connect is a free tool that lets you pair a smartphone with a PC to do things like share links and files between devices, view phone notifications on your PC, use your phone as a remote control for presentations or to control media playback on your computer (or use your PC to control media on your phone), and much more.

  • You Can Now Use KDE Connect in Windows as Well

    KDE Connect is a popular open-source tool that lets you share a connection between a phone and your computer.

    While it was always limited to the Linux platform, it looks like that it is coming to Windows after all.

  • Plasma Mobile 21.07 Released with Improvements for Kasts, Dialer, Shell, and More

    Plasma Mobile 21.07 brings updates to the Shell with a much-improved top panel, which makes the Shell more responsive overall, the Dialer with better support for international numbers, support for hardware keyboards, and the ability to display the right contact name when receiving a call, as well as the Qrca QR reader with support for multiple cameras and the ability to import barcodes for transport tickets into the KDE Itinerary app.

    The Kasts podcasting app has been updated as well in this release with many new features, including the ability to resume podcast episode downloads, revamped playback speed settings, a new Discover page that lets you search https://podcastindex.org for podcasts, the ability to check for a metered connection, the ability to highlight the currently selected page in the main menu, and new settings to set up handling for played episodes.

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • Three Fingers Swipe Not Working in GNOME 40? Here’s How to Fix it

    GNOME 40 brought a radical new interface with a horizontal first approach. One of the features in this approach is a three finger swipe for touchpad.

    Swipe three fingers up on the touchpad and brings up the activity menu. Do it once more and you’ll have the application menu. Move the fingers down and you’ll be coming out of the application menu and the acitivity area.

Distributions

• My list of recommended systemd-free Linux based operating systems

  Not everyone likes systemd. While it’s a great operating system, it lacks a proper init system. Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list with some of the more popular systemd-free alternatives out there.

  The list is in alphabetical order to not favour anything in particular, but it’s perhaps no secret that I personally like (and use) Gentoo and Alpine Linux myself.

• Gentoo Family

  • Additional stage downloads for amd64, ppc, x86, arm available

    Following some technical reorganization and the introduction of new hardware, the Gentoo Release Engineering team is happy to offer a much-expanded set of stage files for download. Highlights are in particular the inclusion of musl-based stages and of POWER9-optimized ppc64 downloads, as well as additional systemd-based variants for many architectures.

    For amd64, Hardened/SELinux stages are now available directly from the download page, as are stages based on the lightweight C standard library musl. Note that musl requires using the musl overlay, as described on the page of the Hardened musl project.

  • Gentoo Spins Up More Stage Downloads For Musl libc, Systemd Init

    The Gentoo project has announced the availability of a greater selection of stage files for download in kicking off the Gentoo Linux installation process.

    Gentoo is now offering stage downloads for musl libc-based builds, POWER9-optimized PPC64 downloads, and systemd-based variants for many architectures. AMD64 also has hardened/SELinux stages more readily available too.

• IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

  • Run a Linux virtual machine in Podman [Ed: Red Hat shilling its OSPS or vendor lock-in]

    Podman “is a tool for managing containers and images, volumes mounted into those containers, and pods made from groups of containers. Podman is based on libpod, a library for container lifecycle management.”

    Magical things happen when you use Podman Machine, a feature that helps you create a basic Fedora CoreOS virtual machine (VM) to use with containers and containerized workloads.

  • Zoom CIO: Hybrid work demands fresh thinking [Ed: Red Hat says, let's follow the example of proprietary software surveillance companies with back door]

  • Access cloud files on Windows with ownCloud [Ed: Red Hat assumes you are using Windows]

  • Fedora Community Blog: Time to make new release schedules

    We’re only a few weeks away from when F35 branches from Rawhide. That’s the start of Fedora Linux 36 development. Several years ago, I created schedules through F36, which means we’re about to run out of schedule! Before I start the process of creating schedules for F37 through F42, I want to review the existing schedules. This is your chance to let me know what tasks need to be added, removed, or edited for your team. Or if your team doesn’t have a schedule and needs one!

    [...]

    If your team has an existing schedule, I’ve already created an issue in the schedule repo to review it. You may be hearing from a member of the Program Management Team, but feel free to jump in with your thoughts. If your team doesn’t have a tab on the release schedule but you would like one, open an issue in the schedule repo. I’d like to have updates in by mid-August so that I can start preparing the next few years worth of schedules.

  • Top CI/CD misconceptions, explained | The Enterprisers Project

    A continuous integration and continuous delivery ( CI/CD) pipeline has the potential to transform software delivery and advance your DevOps journey. CI/CD helps bring development and operations teams together by automating the building, testing, and deployment of applications. There is a lot of information circulating about how to build and optimize your CI/CD pipeline, but unfortunately, there are also many misconceptions. Understanding these misconceptions will help prevent missteps and delays.

  • Fedora 35 Looking To Employ WirePlumber For Managing PipeWire – Phoronix

    While Fedora 34 successfully shipped with PipeWire for managing audio/video streams and replacing PulseAudio use-cases, with Fedora 35 this autumn the integration around PipeWire should be even better.

    Fedora 35 is looking to make use of WirePlumber, a more sophisticated PipeWire session manager. As with PipeWire itself and as used by the current Fedora 34 release, a simple “example” session manager is currently used. But for Fedora 35 they are seeking approval to use WirePlumber as the superior session manager. This F35 change proposal is led by Red Hat’s Wim Taymans who also leads the PipeWire efforts and thus safe to assume this change will be approved and come to fruition.

  • Former IBM president Whitehurst sells Durham home, heads south

  • Red Hat updates Runtimes offering, announces general availability of JBoss EAP in Microsoft Azure App Service [Ed: Red Hat has put itself in the ashtray for Microsoft ]

  • Deploy Node.js applications to Red Hat OpenShift with Helm | Red Hat Developer

    Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes, which you can use to define, install, and upgrade all types of Kubernetes applications. You can think of Helm as an operating system packager (such as apt or yum) but for Kubernetes. With Helm, you package your Kubernetes application into a chart, which is a series of files that define the Kubernetes resources for your deployment. You can use Helm for a variety of scenarios—from very simple applications to complex ones with many dependencies.

    Helm offers a fast and effective way for you and your customers to automate Node.js application deployments. Helm also supports Go, which allows for greater chart customization depending on user-specified values. (You can turn certain features on or off depending on the values.) For more information, see the Helm documentation.

    You can use Helm to deploy applications to any Kubernetes environment through the command line. It’s often as easy as helm install XYZ. However, in OpenShift we’ve worked to make it even easier. There are now two ways to deploy applications with Helm using the OpenShift user interface (UI).

    We’ll start with a Helm chart template that was recently made available on OpenShift. You can use the template to deploy your Node.js application to OpenShift via Helm as a starter, and then customize it to create your own Helm chart. While you can also use this template to deploy to Kubernetes, it includes OpenShift extensions that make deployments easier in that environment.

    In the next sections, I will show you how to use the Helm chart template to deploy a Node.js application to OpenShift with just a few clicks. After that, we’ll talk through the chart’s implementation, and I’ll show you how to package up your own Helm chart and add it to the OpenShift developer catalog.

  • CentOS In Your Car? Automotive SIG Approved – Phoronix

    The newest special interest group (SIG) approved by the CentOS Board of Directors is around the automotive space for in-vehicle automotive use-cases.

    The CentOS Automotive SIG is backed by Red Hat and appears to be more about having an open-source home for the company’s automotive Linux efforts rather than directly pushing for CentOS within automobiles. Red Hat has been investing into in-vehicle infotainment and other efforts around Red Hat Enterprise Linux within automobiles. The CentOS Automotive SIG in turn would help drive this.

• Debian Family

  • How To Speed Up a Website on Debian 9

    Speeding up a website is a very important process because most of the visitors will leave a slow website and visit a competitor’s website instead of suffering a delay. Also, they would not return to a website with poor loading speed. A faster page load speed gives visitors a better user experience. The impact of website speed is huge on search engine rankings too. If you strive to achieve good rankings on search engines, make sure to optimize your website for speed. Before we start working on improving the website speed, it is a good idea to know what is an acceptable web page speed. In general, the best practice is around three seconds.

    There are many different steps we can take to increase website speed and improve user experience. In this guide, we will show you how to speed up a website on a Debian 9 VPS.

    Listed below are the most efficient ways to increase the website speed:

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • Ubuntu on a phone, anyone? UBports reaches 18th stable update, but it’s still based on 16.04

    UBports, which took on the task of maintaining the Ubuntu Touch mobile OS after Canonical abandoned it, has released OTA-18 with lots of improvements, but still based on the ancient Ubuntu 16.04.

    According to the team, one of the big changes in this release is a rewritten Media-hub service, responsible for media playback and control. “20,526 lines of code later, the new media-hub emerged – with better tests, a more contributor-friendly structure, and a few fixed bugs to boot,” said the post introducing the release.

Devices/Embedded

• Pine64′s $30 Linux Smartwatch Launches

  Back in 2019, Pine64 announced that it was working on a $25 Linux smartwatch. It turns out $25 was a little optimistic because, as OMG! Ubuntu! reports, the PineTime has now launched carrying a $29.99 price tag. I think we can all forgive Pine64 for charging an extra $5, and the current Community launch price is only $26.99.

  Keeping in mind how little this smartwatch costs, you’re getting a device that weights 38 grams and is made from a mix of zinc alloy and plastic. The display is a 1.3-inch IPS touch screen panel with a 240-by-240 pixel resolution and 65,000 colors. The internal memory consists of 64KB of RAM, 512KB of Flash system storage, and 4MB of additional flash storage. The watch is powered by a 64MHz ARM Cortex-M4F as part of the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 SoC.

• QNAP TVS-675 NAS features Zhaoxin KaiXian KX-U6580 x86 processor – CNX Software

  QNAP has been trying something different in several in their new NAS recently. Last month, we covered QMiroPlus-201W that combines an Arm router and Intel NAS into one device, and now the company has announced another x86 NAS, but not based on Intel or AMD processor, but instead Zhaoxin’s 2.5 GHz eight-core KaiXian KX-U6580 processor.

  QNAP TVS-675 NAS comes with 8GB RAM by default, six drive bays for hard drives or SSD’s, two M.2 2280 slots for SATA or NVMe storage, as well as two PCIe 3.0 x4 slots for networking, storage, or other expansion cards. The NAS also features 2.5GbE wired connectivity and an HDMI 2.0 to connect a display.

• CanLite ESP32 board for CAN Bus hacking support up to two high-side switches – CNX Software

  Voltlog’s CanLite is not the first ESP32 CAN bus board we’ve covered here at CNX Software, having written about Olimex ESP32-EVB and CAN32 boards a few years ago.

  But the open-source hardware, compact CanLite board offers an alternative for CAN bus hacking with a built-in automotive-grade DC-DC converter as well as an optional two-channel high-side automotive-grade switches capable of switching up to 6A per channel.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Xavier NX edge AI system supports four GMSL cameras

    Vecow’s “EAC-2000” and “EAC-2100” computers run Linux on Nvidia’s Jetson Xavier NX and provide 2x GbE, 2x GbE with PoE+, 4x USB 3.1, and on the EAC-2100, a CAN port and 4x GMSL cam connectors.

    Vecow announced an EAC-2000 Series of fanless embedded computers that run Linux on Nvidia’s Jetson Xavier NX. The rugged edge AI system includes a standard EAC-2000 model and a larger EAC-2100 that adds 4x Fakra-Z connectors for GMSL cameras.

    Vecow manufactures several Intel-based edge AI systems with slots for Nvidia GPU cards, such as its Coffee Lake based GPC-1000. Yet, the new EAC-2000 Series is the company’s first system to run on an Nvidia Jetson module, which also handles CPU duties. The systems support applications including traffic vision, intelligent surveillance, auto optical inspection, smart factory, AMR/AGV, and other AIoT/Industry 4.0 deployments.

  • Kinetic digital clock takes 7-segment displays to another dimension | Arduino Blog

    Seven-segment displays have been around for ages, and they have a really cool retro aesthetic about them. Over on Instructables, user alstroemeria (known as Jacky Mok in real life) decided to build a different kind of display that utilizes individual servo motors to slide the segments out, thus creating a 3D clock. The main board in this project was the Arduino Mega, which was selected due to its large number of digital GPIO pins that can set all 28 of the servos to the correct positions.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • realme narzo 20 Pro receives Android 11 stable update

  • Sony Xperia 1 III will only get two years of Android OS updates

  • How to convert EXE file to APK file to run on Android

  • Huawei falls further behind Android rivals but things could change on July 29 | Express.co.uk

  • Android Refresh Tuesdays – AMOLED theme – PhoneArena

  • You Can Now Install Wear OS Apps From Your Android Phone

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• 10 Hidden Useful Tricks for Mastodon Users

  This is a list of hidden yet useful tricks for Mastodon users. For new comers, Mastodon is like Twitter but blessed with federation and privacy features. Now let’s start!

• In a surprising move Adobe joins Blender Development Fund [Ed: Blender keeps taking money from enemies like Microsoft, Unity (Mono/Microsoft), and now Adobe]

  It was announced today that Adobe has officially joined the Blender Development Fund as a corporate Gold member to provide funding for future Blender development.

  This means that Adobe will be paying around €30,000 a year joining the likes of Facebook, Epic Games, NVIDIA, AMD, Unity, AWS, Tangent Labs, Ubisoft, Intel, Google and more in ensuring that Blender can continue providing some incredible free and open source software.

• OSI: What does Copilot Mean for Open Source? [Ed: The corrupted OSI, which now sends the majority of its budget Microsoft's way (GitHub/proprietary software), is of course pretending that mass violation of the GPL by Microsoft is no big deal. The person who authored this piece of Microsoft apologism had also raised Microsoft money (bribes) for SFC for two years in a row and worked hard to destroy RMS after receiving an award from him.]

  Everyone’s been talking about GitHub’s recently announced Copilot tool, a new AI-powered code assistant. So, we started by asking ourselves, “Is this tool a net positive for the open source community?”

  The answer is “Maybe” but with some caveats.

• Nextcloud Introduces Talk 12 To Take On Whatsapp And Skype-For-Business

  Nextcloud Talk provides users with all the common features of instant messaging apps, such as one on one chat, group chat, video calls, message replies, voice messages, emojis, media sharing, read status setting and a lot more available on the web and mobile. Security and respect for privacy are the biggest advantages of Nextcloud Talk, putting users in control of their data.

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • Mozilla Security Blog: Stopping FTP support in Firefox 90 [Ed: Mozilla Firefox becoming less and less useful over time; it's like whatever Google does Mozilla will do too]

      The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) has long been a convenient file exchange mechanism between computers on a network. While this standard protocol has been supported in all major browsers almost since its inception, it’s by now one of the oldest protocols still in use and suffers from a number of serious security issues.

      The biggest security risk is that FTP transfers data in cleartext, allowing attackers to steal, spoof and even modify the data transmitted. To date, many malware distribution campaigns launch their attacks by compromising FTP servers and downloading malware on an end user’s device using the FTP protocol.

• Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

  • LibreOffice’s New Website: Meet the Design Team

    LibreOffice is getting a shiny new website! We’re still working on it, and everyone interested in testing and helping out can join our mailing list for updates.

    But today, we’re talking to the team who created the new design. Say hello to Dan Gallagher, Cat de Leon, Irene Geller, Helen Tran and Zarema Ross. Together, they identified needs and use cases for the website, created mockups, and then moved on to more concrete designs. Let’s see what they have to say…

    [...]
    At the end of the day, it was teamwork that drove us to the results we have. I would like to say special thanks to our UX design team: Helen Tran – the time we spent on usability testing, deriving the insights from the research; Dan Gallagher, Cat de Leon and Irene Geller- for the brainstorming we did together, going from lo-fi to hi-fi designs.

• Programming/Development

  • Qt Extras Modules in Qt 6

    Qt 6 is a result of the conscious effort to make the framework more efficient and easy to use.

    We try to maintain binary and source compatibility for all the public APIs in each release, but some changes were inevitable in an effort to make Qt a better framework. One of those changes was to remove the platform-specific Extras modules, to ensure a cohesive cross-platform story and future for Qt 6.

  • Rust

    • Rust in the Linux kernel: Why it matters and what’s happening next

      There’s growing momentum behind an effort to make programming language Rust a second language to C for the Linux kernel. Google is backing a project led by developer Miguel Ojeda that would see Rust being used to write elements of the Linux kernel, which now underpins some of the most critical pieces of the internet’s infrastructure today.

Standards/Consortia

• Vulkan 1.2.185 Introduces Several New Extensions – Includes Presentation Work Led By Valve – Phoronix

  Vulkan 1.2.185 was christened this morning with several new extensions being introduced.

  Vulkan 1.2.185 has the large assortment of different documentation fixes and clarifications plus this time around has a few new extensions. The four new Vulkan extensions are:

  VK_EXT_shader_atomic_float2 – This updated shader atomic float extension allows a shader to perform 16-bit floating-point atomic operations on buffer and workgroup memory as well as floating-point atomic minimum/maximum operations on buffer/workgroup/image memory. VK_EXT_shader_atomic_float2 was drafted by Intel’s Linux Vulkan driver developer lead Jason Ekstrand.

Integrity/Availability

• Proprietary

  • Security

    • A local root kernel vulnerability

      Commit 8cae8cd89f05 went into the mainline kernel repository on July 19; it puts a limit on the size of buffers allocated in the seq_file mechanism and mentions “int overflow pitfalls”.

    • [oss-security] CVE-2021-33909: size_t-to-int vulnerability in Linux’s filesystem layer

    • Security updates for Tuesday

      Security updates have been issued by Debian (kernel, libjdom1-java, rabbitmq-server, and systemd), Fedora (glibc), Gentoo (libpano13, libslirp, mpv, pjproject, pycharm-community, and rpm), Mageia (glibc, libuv, mbedtls, rvxt-unicode, mxrvt, eterm, tomcat, and zziplib), openSUSE (dbus-1, firefox, go1.15, lasso, nodejs10, nodejs12, nodejs14, and sqlite3), SUSE (go1.15), and Ubuntu (containerd).

    • Netgate® Releases TNSR® High Performance Router Version 21.07

      During this development period, Netgate also began the effort to move the underlying OS base from CentOS to Ubuntu, in response to the recently announced shift from CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream. The company expects to have TNSR on Ubuntu commercially ready for users in November.

Monopolies

• Patents

  • Severe flooding in Europe: Solidarity with Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg [Ed: Criminals who run the EPO pretends to have sympathy while committing crimes that put Germany to shame]

    As a sign of solidarity and out of respect for the victims of the floods, the flag of the European Patent Organisation is flying at half-mast at all EPO buildings today. To coincide with the national day of mourning in Belgium, the Belgian flag is flying at half-mast in The Hague and Munich. We intend to mark subsequent days of mourning with similar gestures of solidarity and respect, and continue to align our measures with the decisions of our member states and other international organisations.

  • Düsseldorf on new ground with partial AASI against Xiaomi [Ed: Software patents in Germany, piggybacking consortia as Trojan horses]

    The Regional Court Düsseldorf has delivered a judgment confirming an anti-anti-suit injunction against Xiaomi (case numbers: 4c O 73/20; 4c O 74/20; 4c O 75/20). In December, Philips, General Electric and Mitsubishi Electric had already obtained an AASI ex-parte against the Chinese mobile communication company.

    HEVC filed the AASI to protect pending actions at the same court. The main proceedings, which began in August last year, concern Xiaomi’s alleged infringement of HEVC Advance’s patents (case numbers: 4c O 49/20; 4c O 50/20; 4c O 68/20).

    [...]

    Philips, General Electric and Mitsubishi Electric are all part of the HEVC patent pool. In summer 2020, in main proceedings four members of the HEVC pool launched a wave of lawsuits against Xiaomi over the video coding standard HEVC/H.265. The pool members accused Xiaomi of infringing the standard.

    In December 2020, the three claimants filed for an anti-anti-suit injunction at the Regional Court Düsseldorf. The pool was reacting to the prevalent trend of Chinese companies filing ASIs.

    Initially, the judgment covered all the applicants patent rights, including cases other than the current one, as well as having a global effect on Xiaomi’s ability to file ASIs at other courts.

  • Flimsy patent exhaustion argument weighs against willingness to take standard-essential patent license, and § 315 still no safe harbor: Mannheim court

    German patent prosecution and litigation firm Bardehle Pagenberg published an article last week on a landmark Mannheim FRAND judgment that came down in early March, but the redacted version of which apparently wasn’t published until a couple of months later. In that case, LG Electronics won an injunction against TCL over a standard-essential patent (SEP). The redacted judgment doesn’t name the parties, but LG issued a press release a week after its first-instance victory.

    I strongly recommend the summary and the analysis provided by Bardehle’s Professor Tilman Mueller-Stoy and Jan Boesing. After reading the Mannheim ruling, I don’t have much to add, but I do wish to address two of the key holdings (one of them is actually just a dictum) because they are so very relevant to aspects of SEP litigation that this blog has addressed and will continue to discuss. Maybe my way of putting it will even encourage some more people to dig deeper by reading the aforementioned article.

  • European patents with unitary effect | Unified Patent Court: Toward a start in the first half 2022? [Ed: This is a lie typical of Team UPC; they've been saying this every year since around 2015]

    A few days ago (decision of June 23, 2021, published on July 9), the German Constitutional Court rejected two preliminary injunctions which had been filed against a new act of approval voted by Parliament, on the grounds that the plaintiffs did not demonstrate the violation of their fundamental interests.

  • EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal Backs Videoconference Hearings [Ed: Watchtroll now spreading lies for crooked and corrupted EPO management with a misleading or semi-false headlines that piggybacks kangaroo courts and totally omits ‘inconvenient’ facts. EPO shows what happens when crime gets normalised though immunity and then spreads even to the courts.]

  • With the UK out of the picture, the UPC needs a local division based in Ireland [Ed: This is illegal and Team UPC is promoting illegal things. This is a massive case of widespread corruption in Europe and a coup by litigation giants. IAM is one among many publications bribed by EPO “Mafia” (what EPO staff calls EPO management) to become propaganda mills in “media” clothing.]

    In the absence of the UK, argues Naoise Gaffney, Ireland is the only country signed up to the UPC Agreement that can offer the common law expertise and native English language capabilities that many litigants will want

  • G1/21 – Order from Enlarged Board of Appeal [Ed: They fail to speak about how much of a scandal this is — that so-called ‘courts’ at the EPO are just pawns of those they decide on]

    Enlarged Board of Appeal endorses conduct of oral proceedings before the Board of Appeal by videoconference during a “general emergency”
    As reported in our briefing note dated 29th April 2021, in its interlocutory decision of 12 March 2021 in case T 1807/15, Technical Board 3.5.02 referred the following question to the Enlarged Board of Appeal under Article 112(1)(a) EPC:

    Is the conduct of oral proceedings in the form of a videoconference compatible with the right to oral proceedings as enshrined in Article 116(1) EPC if not all of the parties to the proceedings have given their consent to the conduct of oral proceedings in the form of a videoconference?

  • New case studies show routes to success [Ed: Corrupt EPO constantly attacks SMEs in a number of ways, but they keep lying about it. How many liars have been employed by their PR department?]

    Today the EPO is further expanding its advice for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to help them make better use of the patent system by launching a new series of innovation case studies about companies spun-out from European universities or public research organisations (PROs). European SMEs, universities, PROs and lone inventors are responsible for over a quarter of all patent applications to the EPO – they are vital engines for innovation, employment and economic growth.

• Trademarks

  • Book review: Research Handbook on Trademark Law Reform

    At first glance, this book might easily be overlooked. The title’s suggestion of legislative reform processes could scare off readers. Because the editors are US-based scholars and the EU’s quaint spelling of “trade mark” is not used in the title, non-American readers might think the book is not for them. And the cover art somehow succeeds at being both bewildering and generic. All this can make the book, when not opened or examined more attentively, something of an ugly duckling in a book store aisle with fancy titles and appealing covers.

    But make no mistake: behind the cover is a veritable treasure trove of thought-provoking scholarship. We soon learn that “Trademark Law Reform” refers to aspirations to tackle contemporary problems in trade mark law worldwide, whether by means of legislative overhaul or not, put to paper by some of the world’s leading experts. In the introductory chapter, editors Graeme Dinwoodie and Mark Janis formulate the book’s mission thus: “we have turned brilliant scholars loose with few constraints other than to reflect on trademark law problems and how they might be solved”. Now that piques the interest, and the work of these “scholars at large” does not disappoint.

Audiocasts/Shows

• Late Night Linux – Episode 134 – Late Night Linux

  The Steam Deck is probably the best news for Linux gaming since Proton, the Mars helicopter has over-delivered, whether Windows 11 is a good opportunity for FOSS, KDE Korner, and more.

Instructionals/Technical

• How to Install Rust on Ubuntu 20.04 – LinuxCapable.com

  Rust is an open-source systems programming language that focuses on speed, memory safety and parallelism. Developers use Rust to create a wide range of new software applications, such as game engines, operating systems, file systems, browser components and simulation engines for virtual reality. Rust is syntactically similar to C++ but can guarantee memory safety by using a borrow checker for validating references.

  For users and especially developers wanting to try out Rust Programming language, at the end of this guide, you will know how to install Rust on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. The same principle will work for the newer version Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo).

• How to post code as code in forum posts

  User Information: To post code as code in the window where one writes their reply or post use the icon. Highlight the part that is code and click on that icon. Any output in a terminal or Konsole is considered code. Contents of system files and any configuration files are code.

• Install Shutter in Fedora 34 and Above

  This quick guide explains the steps required to install shutter in Fedora 34 and above.

• How to Install and Configure Memcached with Apache and PHP

  Memcached is a key-value store to cache the dynamic database calls and stores them in memory. This reduces the database load helps in speeding up the dynamic database driven websites.

  In this guide you are going to learn how to install and configure Memcached in your server alongside with Apache and PHP on Ubuntu 20.04.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • Madeline ‘Madds’ Holland: Making Progress

    My first steps into working on this internship with Librsvg was learning about what to learn about. From Rust to the internals of Librsvg itself, I had a lot of unfamiliar things thrust at me, but I used the bits of time I had the first weeks and poured time into learning about everything I could for this project. I tried to go into this with as much of an open mind as I could, learning about all these new things with eagerness. Largest on the to-do list was organizing what needed to be done, so I did what I generally do and made a list! I listed out in a spreadsheet a subset of the features SVG 2 had added, then Federico (my mentor, maintainer of Librsvg and GNOME co-founder, for those of you not seeing this post on planet GNOME) and I sorted that list, removed things that weren’t applicable, and added things that were, until we got a more detailed list up on the Librsvg Gitlab wiki.

    [...]

    Finally, we’re to the present day! GUADEC is this week, and I’ll be participating in the intern lighting talks on Friday, so make sure to register for it and attend! Learning about so many different things and becoming a part of this community has been an amazing experience so far, I’m very thankful for the past half of the internship and so excited about the future. Thank you!

Distributions

• PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

  • Progress on OM Lx 4.3 release

    OM Lx 4.3 final release has been delayed. In our internal testing our hard working, all volunteer, developers uncovered some issues within our core libraries. The decision made was to delay and fix these issues even though the “fixes” have gotten complicated and time consuming. These issues do not really mean all that much was wrong, just a bit of code here or there. But a huge number of other packages depend on core libraries so they all need to be rebuilt. That is a lot of work. We are doing the work and will report when we get to the next step.

• Debian Family

  • Getting help with autopkgtest for your package

    If you have been involved in Debian packaging at all in the last few years, you are probably aware that autopkgtest is now an important piece of the Debian release process. Back in 2018, the automated testing migration process started considering autopkgtest test results as part of its decision making.

    Since them, this process has received several improvements. For example, during the bullseye freeze, non-key packages with a non-trivial autopkgtest test suite could migrate automatically to testing without their maintainers needing to open unblock requests, provided there was no regression in theirs autopkgtest (or those from their reverse dependencies).

    Since 2014 when ci.debian.net was first introduced, we have seen an amazing increase in the number of packages in Debian that can be automatically tested. We went from around 100 to 15,000 today. This means not only happier maintainers because their packages get to testing faster, but also improved quality assurance for Debian as a whole.

Devices/Embedded

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • PandaZhu – ESP32 powered 3D Printer controller board supports Marlin 2.0 & ESP3D WebUI – CNX Software

    Around two years ago, we noted beta Marlin 2.0 support for ESP32 and some initiatives to create ESP32 powered 3D printer controller boards with built-in WiFi connectivity. Now Marlin 2.0 firmware officially supports ESP32 boards such as FYSETC E4, [email protected], or MRR ESPA.

    Another ESP32 based 3D printer controller board has now been brought to my attention. PandaZhu supports up to eight motor drivers, up to three heaters, up to three thermistors, one external LCD display, and on the software-side, the board is compatible with Marlin 2.0 as well as ESP3D WebUI.

  • PiStorm – Keeping the Amiga alive

  • This interactive beer pong table is lit, literally | Arduino Blog

    eer pong and its derivatives are some of the most enjoyed games on college campuses, but they are not all that exciting with just a few cups at either end of a plastic folding table. Meet the Interactive Pong Table, which was created by Instructables user boregan1. It features a fully-custom tabletop gaming experience with a large LED matrix running underneath the center and 20 total cup zones that can be used to play more intriguing games. There are even arcade buttons surrounding the sides of the table that act as video game controllers when the players just want a quick game.

    A total of four Arduino Nanos were used to build the Interactive Pong Table, with each one being responsible for a single aspect and communicating with the others via the I2C protocol. At the heart is the main controller which handles the central RGB LED matrix and the game logic. It can display fun, animated graphics in the middle of the table and even run classic pong. The cups at either end of the table are tracked with the use of infrared emitter/receiver pairs that change their voltage whenever a cup is removed. This allows the LEDs underneath the cups to light up or play an animation if one is removed. Additionally, the game running on the main controller can keep score of which player has fewer cups remaining.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • 7 Cool Pixel Features You Can’t Get on Other Android Phones

  • Best Android Phones – Phandroid

  • Best Android app deals of the day: This War of Mine, more – 9to5Toys

  • Top Five Web Browsers For Android Phones: Firefox, Vivaldi, Brave And More

  • No, Sony’s Xperia 1 III won’t be limited to just one Android update | TechRadar

  • Android TV is swiping some of Google TV’s best features – The Verge

  • The Xiaomi Mi A2 receives its final allotted update, leaving the Mi A3 as Xiaomi’s last active Android One smartphone – NotebookCheck.net News

  • How To Recover Deleted Files From Android Devices Without Root

  • How to change font on Android through root and non-root methods

  • How to Improve Battery Life on Android through simple and easy steps

  • Everything You Need To Know About Using Android Auto

  • Xiaomi Mi 9 is now receiving the MIUI 12.5 update based on Android 11 – GSMArena.com news

  • Digital Wellbeing Heads Up rolls out to more Android phones – SlashGear

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• CMS

  • 10 Best Free and Open Source JavaScript Static Site Generators

    LinuxLinks, like most modern websites, is dynamic in that content is stored in a database and converted into presentation-ready HTML when readers access the site.

    While we employ built-in server caching which creates static versions of the site, we don’t generate a full, static HTML website based on raw data and a set of templates. However, sometimes a full, static HTML website is desirable. Because HTML pages are all prebuilt, they load extremely quickly in web browsers.

    There are lots of other advantages of running a full, static HTML website.

Standards/Consortia

• Deurbanising the Web

  Let HTML5 become the web application platform. Let the browser vendors keep developing forever more. We can’t fight them (and besides, we all still want to watch YouTube), but we can escape to the countryside and rebuild something human-scale, human-controlled and human-understandable! It is true that the PDF spec has suffered feature creep (3D models?!), so we should use PDF/A instead, which forbids interactive content (normal PDFs can contain JavaScript!) and ensures your PDFs are absolutely self-contained, even embedding the fonts.

  “But how can you just throw away all of the semantic qualities of HTML?!”

  HTML’s semantic capabilities were oversold. Tagged PDF is just as expressive for all practical purposes. Maybe HTML supports richer metadata, but metadata is crap. Stick the right keywords in a document and 99% of semantic use cases are met.

Even Noah Would Be Amazed

An extensive televised BBC News story of 16 July 2021, titled “Catastrophic flooding across western Europe as politicians blame climate change,” showed the devastation caused by the rapid massive flooding in the region of Western Europe at the confluence of the borders of Germany, Belgium, France and Luxembourg during the third week of July 2021, when three times the monthly average of rainfall was dumped in only a day or two. In that report, the likely next Prime Minister of Germany forthrightly assigned blame for the catastrophe to global warming climate change, and urged serious and immediate national, European and world action to counter it by reducing anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide.

If this flooding in Germany and Belgium this last week, and the vast fires and massively deadly heat in Northwestern USA and Canada, and Siberia the previous week, can cause such devastation despite occurring in the most technologically sophisticated and economically advanced and developed countries on Earth, how do you think such similarly “natural catastrophes,” amplified and accelerated by global warming, would affect (and are affecting) the hundreds of millions — even billions — of the Earth’s poorest and most vulnerable people — as in Sub-Sahara Africa, Amazonia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and the Pacific Islands?

The Campaign Against Me

Nothing is Happening in South Africa (Just Devastation)

The crisis has been going on since Friday 9th, and really took off on Monday. Indicative of how little international coverage there has been is that it took until Thursday for me to start receiving a smattering of messages asking if we are OK – “I heard something is going on…”

The contrast to Lebanon (where I lived for 17 years, until 2019) is incredible. Whenever there was a bomb or another security incident, I’d invariably get messages within minutes if not hours checking in.

Health/Nutrition

• California Cannabis, Summer 2021: Lindsay Davey, OGs and the Gang at CannaCraft

  Millions of Americans, many of them aging boomers, professional athletes and people formerly addicted to Oxycodone, disagree with the federal government, as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) points out. No surprise there. NORML, which has been in existence for more than 50 years, only reports good news about cannabis. The latest good news comes from NORML’s executive director, Erik Altieri, who says, “The days of federal prohibition are numbered.” Maybe so, but I’ve heard those same sentiments expressed for more than 50 years.

  In June, the disqualification of the 21-year-old sensational Black sprinter, Sha’Carri Richardson, was one of the best things that could happen to cannabis, though it was bad news for the U.S. team. “This is the last time the Olympics don’t see Sha’Carri Richardson,” she said. “This is the last time the U.S. doesn’t come home with the gold in the 100 meters.”

• Seven Water Protectors Protesting Line 3 Pipeline Arrested at the Shell River

  At least seven water protectors from the Indigenous-led movement to stop Enbridge’s Line 3 were arrested on Monday while protesting at the Shell River in Minnesota, which the partially completed tar sands pipeline is set to cross in five places.

  “Today women and other water protectors from across multiple communities in Minnesota sat together at the Shell River, near Park Rapids, Minnesota, in peaceful prayer to oppose the construction of Line 3,” the group Honor the Earth said on Instagram. “These women represent many others who stand in solidarity with the protection of water across Anishinaabe treaty lands.”

• Testing the Air to Tell a Story: How We Investigated Air Pollution Near Florida’s Sugar Fields

  The Glades is an area of Florida just south of Lake Okeechobee, the large body of water in the center of the state you can easily spot on a map. As a Floridian, I probably should have known that this area produces more than half of America’s cane sugar, but I only learned that recently while reading our stellar Local Reporting Network investigation into how air pollution from the area’s sugar industry poses health risks for residents who live there. Reporter Lulu Ramadan of The Palm Beach Post worked with ProPublica engagement reporter Maya Miller and news applications developer Ash Ngu to shed light on how sugar cane companies set fire to dozens of cane fields across western Palm Beach County. The smoke from setting the crop ablaze — a harvesting method that saves sugar companies money — affects the day-to-day lives of people living in the Glades.

  I encourage you to read the entire story, but I want to highlight the deep level of community engagement and involvement of Glades residents in the reporting. Working closely with residents was particularly complicated for this investigation because many of the same people who are affected by the seasonal burns also benefit from the industry’s role as one of the biggest employers in the region. To reach residents, reporters sent letters to public school teachers and custodians across the area; they knocked on doors, attended a virtual church service, canvassed food distribution sites, distributed flyers to local businesses and organizations, and reached out to doctors and nurses in the area.

• “Crime of the Century”: How Big Pharma Fueled the Opioid Crisis That Killed 500,000 and Counting

  As the U.S. continues to deal with the fallout from the devastating opioid epidemic that has killed over 500,000 people in the country since 1999, we speak with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, whose latest documentary, “The Crime of the Century,” looks at the pharmaceutical industry’s methods in promoting and selling the powerful drugs. “I realized that the big problem here was that we had been seeing it as a crisis, like a natural disaster, like a flood or a hurricane, rather than as a series of crimes,” says Gibney. “You had these terrible incentives, where the incentive is not to cure the patient. The incentive is to just make as much money as possible.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says U.S. drug overdose deaths skyrocketed to a record 93,000 last year — a nearly 30% increase. It is the largest one-year increase ever recorded, with overdoses rising in 48 of 50 states.

• The Delta Variant Is Feasting on the Unvaxxed — and It’s Getting Worse

• George Soros And Bill Gates’ Backed Consortium To Buy U.K. Maker Of Covid Tests For $41 Million

  The Soros Economic Development Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the launch of a new initiative, Global Access Health (GAH), aiming to strengthen the global rollout saving medical technology and the subsequent acquisition of Mologic Ltd, best known today for the deep-nostril technology used to deliver rapid Covid-19 tests. The technology can also be used to test for dengue, bilharzia and river blindness.

• DNA Has Four Bases. Some Viruses Swap in a Fifth.

• Texas Democrats who fled state in protest of GOP anti-voting bill test positive for COVID

Integrity/Availability

• Proprietary

  • Don’t Wanna Pay Ransom Gangs? Test Your Backups.

    Browse the comments on virtually any story about a ransomware attack and you will almost surely encounter the view that the victim organization could have avoided paying their extortionists if only they’d had proper data backups. But the ugly truth is there are many non-obvious reasons why victims end up paying even when they have done nearly everything right from a data backup perspective.

  • Security

    • Privacy/Surveillance

      • Spyware targeted Khashoggi’s wife before his death: report

        On Sunday it was reported that the spyware, used by governments to track terrorists and criminals, had been used to [cr]ack smartphones belonging to activists and journalists.

      • Pegasus scandal shows risk of Israel’s spy-tech diplomacy: experts

        But the Washington Post, the Guardian, Le Monde and other news outlets that collaborated on an investigation reported on a leaked list of up to 50,000 phone numbers believed to have been identified as people of interest by clients of NSO since 2016, not all of whom were [cr]acked.

      • Massive Data Leak Shows Israeli Spyware Targeted Journalists Around the World

      • As UN Human Rights Chief Urges Stricter Rules, Snowden Calls for End to Spyware Trade

        The United Nations human rights chief and American whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday joined the wide range of public figures demanding urgent action after reporting that Pegasus hacking spyware, sold by the Israeli firm NSO Group, has been used to facilitate human rights violations worldwide, including to target activists, journalists, and politicians.

        “If they find a way to hack one iPhone, they’ve found a way to hack all of them.”—Ed Snowden, whistleblower

      • Leaked Data Shows NSO Group’s Malware Was Used To Target Journalists, Activists, And World Leaders

        A massive data leak has confirmed what’s been suspected (and reported by security researchers like Citizen Lab) for a long time: Israeli malware developer NSO Group’s powerful cellphone snooping tools have been used to target journalists, activists, and dissidents all over the world.

      • Modi’s main rival among Indian Pegasus targets: reports

        Forensic analyses performed on 22 smartphones in India whose numbers appeared on the list showed that 10 were targeted with Pegasus, seven of them successfully, the newspaper said.

        Analysis of the Indian phone numbers strongly indicate intelligence agencies within the Indian government were behind the selection, the Guardian reported.

      • Data breach reveals extensive government spying on journalists and political activists

        The list consists of at least 180 targeted journalists, with reporters, executives, and editors from the Financial Times, CNN, the New York Times, France 24, the Economist, Associated Press and Reuters, all identified by the Pegasus project. The Guardian, which has produced a series reporting on the leak titled “The Pegasus project” in coordinating with 16 other news outlets, has stated that it will release further information about the targeted individuals in the coming days as part of its reporting on the issue.

        Without forensic analysis of each phone number listed, it is impossible to determine how many phones were actually infected. However, an analysis of a sample of the listed phones by the Pegasus project determined that half, 37 of 67, were infected, indicating potentially tens of thousands of infections.

      • Malware From An Infamous [Cr]acker-For-Hire Group Was Found On Nearly 900 Phones

        From a list of more than 50,000 cellphone numbers obtained by the Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International and shared with 16 news organizations, journalists were able to identify more than 1,000 individuals in 50 countries who were allegedly selected by NSO clients for potential surveillance.

        They include 189 journalists, more than 600 politicians and government officials, at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists and several heads of state, according to The Washington Post, a consortium member. The journalists work for organizations including The Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde and The Financial Times.

      • The Pegasus leak: What you need to know right now

        On 19 July, a consortium of 17 international media organisations published an investigation around a leaked list of phone numbers from across the world, dubbed the Pegasus Project. These numbers are allegedly a “target list” of phones [cr]acked/to be [cr]acked by the Pegasus spyware product sold by Israel’s NSO Group. The list is apparently notable for its sheer size, as well as for containing the numbers of prominent journalists, dissidents from various countries, politicians, judges, businessmen, rights activists and heads of state. Some targets listed have cooperated with the consortium of media and Amnesty International for a forensic examination of their devices, and have found evidence of [cr]acking using the Pegasus suite.

      • Rahul Gandhi, Ashwini Vaishnaw among Pegasus’s potential targets: Report

        Pegasus snooping scandal snowballed into a political potboiler on Monday with latest revelations showed that Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Prahlad Patel, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, top Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, election strategist Prashant Kishor and former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa were either spied or were potential targets.

        Five friends and at least two aides of Rahul, 18 numbers of family and associates of Vaishnaw and Patel, a former close aide of Union Minister Smriti Irani, an aide of BJP leader Vasundhara Raje, late VHP leader Pravin Togadia and the sexual harassment victim and her husband in the case involving former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi were also in the leaked list of targets or potential targets of the snooping using Israeli spyware Pegasus, The Wire reported.

Defence/Aggression

• ’39 Men Still Remain’: After Prisoner Released, Biden Urged to Close Gitmo Completely

  While relieved over the transfer of one Guantánamo Bay prisoner on Monday, human rights advocates pressed the Biden administration to speed up the pace of its efforts to release or move all other remaining detainees and shutter the offshore facility once and for all. 

  “The administration has much to do to fulfill President Biden’s mandate to close the prison and show greater respect for human rights.”—Center for Constitutional Rights

• Migration Is Not a “Crisis.” It’s Survival and Resistance to Ongoing Genocide.

• If Biden Wants to “Stand With the Cuban People,” He Can Ease the Cruel Blockade

• Where Do Wars Come From?

  Ever since the publication, in 1984, of Barbara W. Tuchman’s The March of Folly, I have associated the decision to go to war with the word and concept of “folly.” In her book, Tuchman examined several cases, beginning with the Trojans’ famous decision to move the Greeks’ warrior-filled wooden horse into their city and ending with the US decision to intervene in Vietnam, to show how those who make military decisions often do so in ways that run contrary to their own and their country’s fundamental interests. For anyone who came of age during the Vietnam War era, as I did, this folly has proved to be an inescapable lesson of history, one that continues to be taught to this day: From the Gulf War of 1990–91 to the 2001 intervention in Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, wars inevitably result from errors of judgment.

• Who Authorized America’s Endless Wars?

  Sometimes, as I consider America’s never-ending wars of this century, I can’t help thinking of those lyrics from the Edwin Starr song, “(War, huh) Yeah! (What is it good for?) Absolutely nothing!” I mean, remind me, what good have those disastrous, failed, still largely ongoing conflicts done for this country? Or for you? Or for me?

• The USA’s Gun-Buying Spree

• Man faces 1st sentencing for felony in [insurrection] at US Capitol

  Video footage shows Hodgkins, 38, wearing a Trump 2020 T-shirt, the flag flung over his shoulder and eye goggles around his neck inside the Senate. He took a selfie with a self-described shaman in a horned helmet and other rioters on the dais behind him.

  His sentencing Monday in Washington could set the bar for punishments of hundreds of other defendants as they decide whether to accept plea deals or go to trial. Hodgkins and others are accused of serious crimes but were not indicted, as other were, for roles in larger conspiracies.

• 20 Years of U.S. Occupation Was Brutal in Afghanistan—And So Will Be the Exit

  The president shifted focus, saying, “The economy is growing faster than anytime in 40 years, we’ve got a record number of new jobs, COVID deaths are down 90 percent, wages are up faster than any time in 15 years, we’re bringing our troops home.” The war’s end is merely the icing on the cake he is seemingly gifting the American public: an end to a war in addition to peace, prosperity, and health at home (even if such achievements are more marketing than reality).

  At the very least, one can give Biden credit for formally ending the U.S. role in the war, even if he had nothing substantive to say about the devastation we have wrought over the years. Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said they “commend President Biden for fulfilling his commitment to ending the longest war in American history” and took his withdrawal of troops to mean that “there is no military solution in Afghanistan.” (They made no mention of Biden’s role during the Obama presidency in prolonging the war.)

• The US steps up efforts to save Afghan allies amid Taliban offensive

  The Biden administration will begin evacuating thousands of Afghans who worked for the US government later this month, ahead of an August 31 deadline for the end of US military operations in Afghanistan.

  Current and former Afghan translators, interpreters, and others who have worked with the US government in Afghanistan are facing deadly danger as the US drawdown continues and the Taliban reclaims territory once controlled by Afghan and coalition forces.

  As Task & Purpose reported this month, “an estimated 70,000 Afghans who have worked for the United States — and their family members — are at risk of being killed as the Taliban push for a final victory.”

• Al-Qaeda Calls For Murder of Americans In First Magazine Issue Since 2017

  The establishment media and the national security apparatus has begun to speak about the jihad threat as a thing of the past, far smaller today than the phantom threat from “white supremacists” which is getting the lion’s share of their attention. But jihadis are working to use the obvious weakness of those elites to remind them that the global jihad, which has continued uninterrupted for 1,400 years, is not a thing of the past just yet.

• Tommy Chong fumes over MAGA rioter’s paltry jail sentence: ‘I got nine months for selling bongs!’

Environment

• In Gift to Rich Tax Cheats, Republicans Strip IRS Funds From Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

  Under pressure from well-heeled conservative advocacy organizations and donors, Republican senators have removed funding for IRS enforcement from an emerging bipartisan infrastructure plan, threatening to tank a proposed crackdown on rich tax cheats.

  “Fully funding the IRS = $1.2 trillion in revenue over 10 years. No wonder Republicans want to protect their rich friends.”—Rep. Ro Khanna

• The Climate Change and Infrastructure Crises Are Interconnected

  This is not just happening in Orange County; this is a problem throughout our state and country. California’s most recent wildfire season was the worst on record, with over 4 million acres burned last year. That’s larger than the state of Connecticut and more than double California’s previous record for the most land burned in a single year. Across the United States, we saw nearly 60,000 wildfires last year.

• ‘A False Solution’: 500+ Groups Urge US, Canadian Leaders to Reject Carbon Capture

  More than 500 organizations on Monday pressured political leaders in the United States and Canada to reject carbon capture as “a false solution” that has become “a dangerous distraction driven by the same big polluters who created the climate emergency.”

  “It’s time for decision-makers to abandon the dirty, dangerous myth of CCS.”—500+ groups

• Sunrise Launches Green New Deal Jobs Website to Celebrate Future of Climate-Friendly Work

  Amid a sustained push for the inclusion of a Civilian Climate Corps in federal infrastructure legislation, the Sunrise Movement on Monday rolled out a new tool showcasing the potential for over 15 million jobs that simultaneously tackle economic inequality and the climate crisis.

  “We’re hoping that through this we can bring hope and vision for a livable future as we push our politicians to deliver for us.”—Varshini Prakash, Sunrise Movement

• Global Alliance for a Green New Deal Launches Visionary Campaign for the World

  A group of global politicians on Monday launched the Global Alliance for a Green New Deal to advance “the creation of a greener, fairer world where all people and the planet can flourish.”

  With founding members including U.S. Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Joênia Wapichan, Brazil’s first Indigenous congresswoman, the alliance of 21 politicians spanning all inhabited continents is focused on a truly transformative Covid-19 recovery and is calling on fellow lawmakers to help make their vision a reality.

• Energy

  • Communities Petition for Major Oil Companies to Stay Away From Uganda Exploration Frontier Near UNESCO Reserve

    Community-based groups and civil society organisations in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are urging multinational oil companies to keep off a new biodiversity-rich oil exploration block opened in Western Uganda’s region. 

    The groups are asking fossil fuel giants Total E&P, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) of China, and Australia’s DGR Global Ltd, among others, to withdraw their interest in the Nganji oil explorations block, one of the largest areas opened to potential resource extraction in the second round of offers for exploration licenses announced by the government of Uganda in May 2019.

    Stay up to date with DeSmog news and alerts

  • Government announces plans to build world’s 8th-largest solar farm in Sonora

    The US $1.68-billion, 1,000-megawatt project would be a joint venture between the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and the Sonora government. The former would take a 54% share, the latter 46%.

  • The fires this time: a climate view from California

• Wildlife/Nature

  • Closing the Tree Equity Divide

  • Devastating: ‘Nearly All’ Young Sacramento River Winter Chinook Salmon Could Perish This Year

    The winter-run Chinook salmon is listed as “endangered” under both the federal Endangered Species Act and the California Endangered Species Act. The once abundant sub-species of salmon declined from a high of 117,000 in 1969, to 200 fish in 1991.

    Previous reports from the CDFW documented a large mass of winter-run Chinook in stressed conditions below Keswick Dam, including adult fish dying before spawning in the relatively warm water conditions.

Finance

• In Nod to Tax-Dodging Donors, Republicans Nix IRS Funding for Tax Enforcement

• Bernie Sanders Is the Real Force Behind the $3.5T Reconciliation Bill

• Shoplifting Is Big News; Stealing Millions From Workers Is Not

  Urban crime is the golden child of local media, as recent FAIR coverage (6/21/21) has shown. But as FAIR’s Julie Hollar recently noted, the amount of attention given to a topic does not always reflect the seriousness of the situation.

• Good Riddance! Let Outer Space Have Our Billionaires

• Branson Goes to Space

  Such demand was evident in spades on July 11.  Branson made his way in his Virgin Galactic rocket plane for a 1.5-hour mission to the edge of space, a mission he promised to embark upon as far back as 2004.  Then, he told the BBC that some 3,000 people “would want to do this.”  Were he to develop a successful program, he envisaged “orbital flights and then, possibly, even get a hotel up there.”

  The effort was plagued with delays and difficulties, a tendency not alien to the Virgin brand.  In 2014, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo space tourism craft succumbed to what the company described as “a serious anomaly”.  The crash in the Mojave Desert killed a pilot and injured another.  “Space is hard – but worth it,” a regretful Branson said at the time.  “We will persevere and move forward together.”

• Oxfam Slams Bezos Space Trip as Billions Suffer on Earth

• ‘Human Folly, Not Human Achievement’: Oxfam Slams Bezos Space Trip as Billions Suffer on Earth

  With billionaire Jeff Bezos set to take flight into space Tuesday aboard an unpiloted Blue Origin rocket, the humanitarian group Oxfam International blasted the world’s richest man as the avatar of a system that allows a handful of people accumulate enough wealth to flee the planet amid widespread suffering on an increasingly polluted, warming, and pandemic-ravaged Earth.

  “What we need is a fair tax system that allows more investment into ending hunger and poverty, into education and healthcare, and into saving the planet from the growing climate crisis—rather than leaving it.”—Deepak Xavier

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Decaying Democracy and the Deadly Lag

  Kicking life-saving solutions endlessly down the road is the mark of the brutish power of the corporations over the innocents.

• All Abbott (No Costello)

  As a result of his experience and the financial windfall the tree fall landed on him Abbott realized the need for tort reform in Texas so others would not have such exaggerated benefits from injuries they suffer. As  governor he was the enthusiastic supporter of tort reform that, among other things, limited the amount a person could recover for pain and suffering and for economic damages.  The terms of the Abbott settlement have not been disclosed so it is not possible to know how his settlement would have been affected had tort reform been in place.  There is a strong likelihood it would have been considerably less.

  It is not only plaintiffs in personal injury actions for whom Abbott has little sympathy today. In May he joined other states in announcing that effective June 26, 2021, Texas would no longer accept the $300 supplemental federal unemployment benefits that were to continue at least through September 6.  Among the recipients of those payments were gig workers and self-employed Texans who did not qualify for state unemployment benefits. The federal payments to Texas came to an end on June 26.

• Presidential Prerogatives

  In recent times Congress either votes to “authorize” a war already underway or is only casually consulted if at all. Though the 1973 War Powers Resolution was meant to restrain an imperial president who had led the country to defeat in Vietnam, no president since has faithfully followed that law’s requirements. Thus, whereas in authoritarian systems the great leader simply orders troops into action, in democracies like ours, going to war is sneakier, in two ways.

  First, in justifications, as when the President dispatches troops on the basis of his role as commander-in-chief, invoking “national security,” the “national interest,” “regional stability,” “humanitarian intervention,” “restoring order,” and other wide-open categories that most Congress-members are loath to challenge.

• ‘Which Side Are You On?’ Arrests in DC as Women Put Their Bodies on the Line for Voting Rights

  Nearly 100 women from 42 states were arrested Monday as they participated in a Washington, D.C. march demanding legislation to safeguard voting rights and deliver relief to poor and marginalized Americans.

  “We’re planting seeds today. And we are building the movement that will give our children and the next generations the life that they deserve.”—Kenia Alcocer, Poor People’s Campaign

• The Politics of Fear and Hope

  The Republicans present Fear like a paperback novel you can’t put down. Will you be murdered on an evening stroll by someone who doesn’t look like you? And did you notice there’s more of them moving into your neighborhood?

  For the Democrats, Fear is like a chapter in an assigned textbook. There are x number of guns in America, unless we reduce them by 10%, thousands of lives will be lost by gunshot wounds.

• This Texas Democrat Doesn’t Want Proud Boys Standing Over His Grandmother as She Votes

  Democratic Texas Representative James Talarico didn’t come to Washington, D.C., to embarrass Fox’s Pete Hegsuth, but that’s what he did last week. The youngest member of the Texas delegation, now 32, Talarico violated a lot of Democrats’ precepts, including my own (I’m a Never Foxer), to mix it up with the lightweight Trump-backing Fox prime-time host. He took him down.

• Biden Clarifies ‘Facebook Isn’t Killing People’ After Blaming Social Media Companies for Covid-19 Deaths

  U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday clarified his remarks from last week that social media companies like Facebook are “killing people” by allowing the spread of Covid-19 misinformation, explaining instead that users are posting deadly “bad information.”

  “By remaining the platform of choice for insurrectionists, extremists, and far right radicals, Facebook continues to wallow in filth—from Q-anon to January 6th to Covid disinformation.”—The Real Facebook Oversight Board

• Biden softens criticism of Facebook after accusing company of ‘killing people’

  He said the remarks Friday were in response to a report he had recently seen that identified a dozen Facebook users as being responsible for the majority of false information about the vaccine.

• Joe Biden says Facebook isn’t ‘killing people,’ but misinformation causes harm

  On Monday, President Joe Biden said that vaccine misinformation on Facebook harms people, while partially walking back a statement he made last week in which he told reporters that platforms like Facebook were “killing people” by allowing misinformation to spread.

• Microsoft Exchange email [cr]ack was caused by China, US says [iophk: Microsoft is getting help from the Biden administration in shifting the blame away from their own shoddy products and onto China.]

  The administration and allied nations also disclosed a broad range of other cyberthreats from Beijing, including ransomware attacks from government-affiliated [cr]ackers that have targeted companies with demands for millions of dollars. China’s Ministry of State Security has been using criminal contract [cr]ackers, who have engaged in cyber extortion schemes and theft for their own profit, according to a senior administration official. That official briefed reporters about the investigation on the condition of anonymity.

• U.S. accuses China of abetting ransomware attack

  The announcement was part of a broader effort by the U.S. and a large group of allies, including the European Union, NATO, the U.K., Australia and Japan, to condemn China’s government for “malicious cyber activity,” a senior White House official told reporters on a call Sunday night. The official asked to not be identified as a condition of participating in the call.

Censorship/Free Speech

• Dane Who Drew Controversial Muhammad Caricature Dies at 86

  From the early 1980s, Westergaard worked as a cartoonist for Jyllands-Posten, one of Denmark’s leading newspapers, and was associated with the daily until he turned 75.

  Westergaard became known worldwide in 2005 for his controversial depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in Jyllands-Posten, which published 12 editorial cartoons of the principal figure of Islam.

Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

• How we got here Meduza looks back on Russia’s most high-profile incidents of repression over the past six months

  Six months ago, on January 17, 2021, opposition politician Alexey Navalny returned to Russia and was immediately arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Russian prison authorities accused him of violating probation while in Germany (where he spent about five months recovering from an assassination attempt) and a Moscow court incarcerated him under a reinstated sentence on February 2. Over the next several months, the Russian authorities destroyed Navalny’s political and anti-corruption movement and launched an all-encompassing campaign of repressions against activists, human rights defenders, and independent journalists. Meduza looks back at the key moments in this crackdown.

• The brain behind Russia’s Eye of God: How Evgeny Antipov created a platform that aided the investigative work of police and journalists alike, and what comes next

  Until recently, the Telegram channel and chat room “Eye of God” was one of the Russian Internet’s main data-leak hubs, indexing services that allowed lawbreakers to gain access to private personal and corporate information sold by insiders abusing their privileges at work. In early July 2021, however, Eye of God suddenly disappeared from Telegram after a court order based on a complaint filed by Russia’s federal censor, RKN, which argued that the channel violates privacy rights. The authorities have blocked other platforms like this, but RKN’s campaign against the black market for personal data didn’t begin in earnest until after researchers at Bellingcat used leaked records from the Federal Security Service to tie the agency to the attempt on Alexey Navalny’s life. Russia’s intelligence agencies “fear the Novichok stuff like Woland and Voldemort combined,” says Evgeny Antipov, who created Eye of God. Meduza special correspondent Lilia Yapparova asked Antipov about the legality of his project, how Eye of God managed to track both FSB agents and journalists, how he collected several dozen state certificates, and whether he monitors his own clients for the police.

• Pushed By Press Freedom Advocates, Garland Limits DOJ’s Ability to Seize Reporters’ Phone Records

  In a move that press freedom advocates said would “ensure journalists can do their job of informing the public without fear of federal government intrusion,” the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday announced new rules limiting federal prosecutors’ ability to secretly seize journalists’ phone and email records, which were expanded under the Obama and Trump administrations as the government sought to crack down on leaks.

  “Attorney General Garland has taken an important step towards protecting journalists and their First Amendment rights.”—Claire Finkelstein, Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law

• Morocco court jails journalist Omar Radi for six years

  Amnesty in a statement labelled the proceedings “flawed” and “not justice”, calling for “a fair retrial in line with international standards”.

Civil Rights/Policing

• The Politics of American Protest, With a North Korean Twist

  A number of right-wing politicians and commentators called her unpatriotic and demanded that she be kicked off the Olympic team. As Tom Cotton, Republican senator from Arkansas, put it: “If Gwen Berry is so embarrassed by America, then there’s no reason she needs to compete for our country at the Olympics.”

  Conservative outrage at protests against the American flag and the national anthem is not unusual. When football player Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem during the 2016 season, to protest racial injustice in the United States, he was roundly criticized in conservative circles. When he became a free agent the next year, no football team would sign him, despite his obvious talents as a quarterback.

• Challenging Supremacy: BLM, Palestine and the Struggle for Equal Rights in Burma

  Approximately three years ago, during the Great March of Return, thousands of Palestinians peacefully marched to Gaza-Israeli border fences demanding an end to their illegal blockade. Thousands of peaceful protesters were subsequently injured and several killed after being fired upon by live ammunition and tear gas grenades. Yet there was hardly much fuss in the Western press nor did it register much on the public radar during these events.

  This time, however, the public engagement on this issue was surprisingly high, with large scale Palestinian solidarity protests in most Western capitals. Pro-Israeli advocates in the American media were frequently found on the defense. Representatives in the US Congress, most notably Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, spoke passionately against the atrocities happening. Polls taken during and after the violence show a sharp drop for support for Israel in all demographics except the most loyal Republican base.

• Outrage as Biden Says Fate of Immigration Reform Is ‘For the Parliamentarian to Decide’

  President Joe Biden said Monday that he would defer to the advice of the Senate parliamentarian regarding whether Democratic lawmakers can approve a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants using budget reconciliation, prompting outrage from immigrant rights advocates who argue that an unelected official should not be allowed to determine the fate of millions of people.

  “Are we going to let an unelected person decide on the lives of folks with DACA?”—Cristina Jiménez

• ‘We’re like a bone in their throat’ After seven years of defending Russia’s most difficult political cases, prominent legal group Team 29 disbands fearing prosecution

  August 2021 should have marked the seventh anniversary of Team 29 — an independent association of lawyers, attorneys, and journalists known for tackling some of Russia’s most hopeless human rights cases. But on July 18, the group announced it was disbanding to protect its members and supporters from criminal prosecution. The shutdown came just days after Russia’s censorship agency blocked Team 29’s website for allegedly publishing content from an “undesirable organization.” In a statement, Team 29 said that they couldn’t ignore the risks associated with continuing their work and that going forward, their lawyers will defend clients in an exclusively personal capacity. In conversation with Meduza, now-former Team 29 member Evgeny Smirnov said that he and his colleagues have long been a “bone in throat” of the Russian authorities.

• The Republican Party Is an Enemy to American Families

• The US Must Prioritize Children’s Safe and Legal Resettlement

  In 2013, Wendy and her sister crossed the border on a bus into the United States hoping to reunify with their mother. When Border Patrol agents stopped them and asked for papers the girls didn’t have, they were taken off the bus and placed in handcuffs. Wendy and her sister spent days, their wrists and ankles shackled, in freezing-cold holding cells commonly called hieleras—iceboxes. They huddled together under their Mylar blankets to try to keep warm.

• Our ‘Racial Reckoning’ Is Turning Out to Be a White Lie

  With inevitable regularity, racial injustice and violence lead to moments of national conflict when even white Americans can no longer ignore the issue. And just as inevitably, instead of addressing this country’s pervasive racism and anti-Blackness, white Americans locate the problem somewhere within Black people themselves.

• Texas Senate Passes Bill Removing MLK, Suffrage From Required Curriculum

• ‘We still haven’t ruled out aliens’ After journalists find an abandoned private prison outside St. Petersburg, it’s promptly bulldozed shut

  A strange facility now lies in ruins outside St. Petersburg. Until bulldozers arrived on Monday, July 19, a compound 44 kilometers (27 miles) from the city concealed an abandoned private prison with three cells, a guard station, and a furnace that may have served as a crematorium. Viktor Smirnov and Andrey Karov, two local journalists from 47news, say they learned about the site through a tip “from some migrant worker.” Meduza summarizes what they found underground.

• With Abortion Under Assault, Time for Pro-Choice Men to Break Their Silence

• If the Supreme Court Overturns “Roe v. Wade,” It Will Impact Us All

• Oregon Will Protect Reproductive Health Care When Hospitals Merge

  Pope Francis emerged onto a hospital balcony in Rome where he is recovering from colon surgery on Sunday and declared that he had “experienced once again how important good health care is—accessible to all, as it is in Italy and in other countries.”

• Appeals Court Affirms State Trooper Who Responded To An F-Bomb With An Arrest Owes $15k In Legal Fees

  By now, there’s enough case law in place that law enforcement officers should definitely know it’s a violation of rights to arrest someone for momentarily offending them. Even without the case law, these officers know it’s not okay to bust people for flipping them off or yelling expletives in their general direction. That’s why those that do, buttress their rights violations with absurd claims that doing these things “disturbs the peace” or violates any other “contempt of cop” law that can be deliberately misread to criminalize hurting a cop’s feelings.

• Using The George Floyd Protests As An Excuse, Minneapolis Police Destroyed Evidence And Case Files

  Immediately following the murder of George Floyd by former-officer and current-convict Derek Chauvin, Minneapolis burned. Literally. Unchecked violence by cops provoked violence by some city residents, who looted businesses and, most provocatively, set the Minneapolis PD’s Third Precinct building on fire.

• Native Youth Lead Return of 10 Children’s Remains From Carlisle Indian School

• After 140 Years, Native Youth Lead Return of 10 Children’s Remains from Carlisle Indian School in PA

  The remains of nine Indigenous children were buried by the Rosebud Sioux in South Dakota after being transferred back from the former Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, where the children were forcibly sent over 140 years ago. Carlisle was the first government boarding school off reservation land, and it set the standard for other schools with its motto, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” The schools were known for their brutal assimilation practices that forced students to change their clothing, language and culture. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe negotiated the return of the children’s remains buried at the school, and a caravan of Rosebud Sioux youth returned them to their tribe this week. Dozens of other Native American and Alaskan Native families have asked Carlisle to return their relatives’ bodies. Knowledge of the boarding schools is still being recovered as many survivors are reluctant to revisit the trauma, says Christopher Eagle Bear, a member of the Sicangu Youth Council. “These schools, they played a key part in trying to sever that connection to who we are as Lakota,” he says. “They took away our language, and they made it impossible for us to be who we really are.”

• Photographing and recording the TSA

  After stalling for more than five years, the Transportation Security Administration has made public a curious internal memo regarding photography and audio and video recording at TSA checkpoints.

  The TSA wants to photograph us and track our movements and activities using facial recognition, but wants to limit our ability to photograph and record its activities.

  The memo was released in May 2021 in response to a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request made by Sai in March 2016. The memo itself is undated, but was distributed in July 2011 to TSA Federal Security Directors (FDSs) “for your immediate dissemination and implementation.” Needless to say, that “dissemination” did not include disclosure to the public, then or at any time until now, ten years after the fact.

• The bill Jeff Bezos doesn’t want you to know about

  Amazon and other architects of inequality don’t just wield enormous economic power. They now wield immense political power, allowing them to get away with egregious labor law violations. Even though public support for unions is as high as it’s been in 50 years, when nearly 6,000 predominantly Black workers dared to try to unionize their Bessemer, Alabama warehouse, they were thwarted by Amazon’s “shock and awe” union-busting campaign against them. The National Labor Relations Act makes it illegal for employers to fire workers for trying to organize a union. But the penalties for violating the Act are so laughably small that employers like Amazon routinely do it anyway.

• I’m Fine With Sending Jeff Bezos Into Space, As Long as He Pays His Taxes Here on Earth

  It wasn’t like Bezos fell on hard times in the mid-2000s. According to Forbes magazine, his personal fortune increased by $3.8 billion in 2007. Yet Bezos somehow avoided taking a hit from the IRS.

  “How did a person enjoying that sort of wealth explosion end up paying no income tax?” asked ProPublica. Well, the forensic investigators explained, “In that year, Bezos, who filed his taxes jointly with his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, reported a paltry (for him) $46 million in income, largely from interest and dividend payments on outside investments. He was able to offset every penny he earned with losses from side investments and various deductions, like interest expenses on debts and the vague catchall category of ‘other expenses.’”

• More than 57 percent of workers in German metropolitan areas could work from home

  An analysis of working from home, based on monthly measurements since spring 2020, shows that it also reaches a particularly high rate of over 31 percent in districts surrounding Berlin and Munich. Its prevalence is low, at less than 21 percent, in many districts in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein.

• Is the Sharia a Threat to American Values?

  According to court documents, Mariam claims that she was essentially hoodwinked and defrauded into signing the document. At the time, she believed she was signing two copies of a marriage acknowledgment form, which is customary in Muslim cultures.

• Saudi Arabia Releases Two Prominent Women’s Rights Activists

  On June 27th, news spread that prominent Saudi Arabian women’s rights activists, Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah, were released early after three years of imprisonment. Badawi and al-Sadah were arrested in August of 2018 and were initially sentenced to five years in prison. Prosecutors within Saudi Arabian-held trials alleged that they disturbed the “public order” by communicating with international actors and human rights NGOs, citing these acts as a “criminal offense” in a report by the Human Rights Watch.

  Both Badawi and al-Sadah, before their arrest, protested against sexist policies in the country, such as its male guardianship law. Al Jazeera states this law removes a woman’s autonomy, requiring them to “obtain the consent of a male relative” to perform activities such as receiving healthcare, running in office, and leaving prison. These activists ultimately sought to raise awareness about the harm of these policies, challenging the government to rethink its long-held patriarchal practices. Yet, the Saudi Arabian government, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, seems to demonstrate little interest in doing so.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 95: Mark Phillips on the Federal Court of Canada’s Right to be Forgotten Ruling

  Your Morning, Canadians Could Soon Have the Right to be Forgotten

• It’s 2021 And Bullshit Broadband And Cable TV Fees Are Somehow Still A Thing

  For years we’ve talked about how the broadband and cable industry has perfected the use of utterly bogus fees to jack up subscriber bills — a dash of financial creativity it adopted from the banking and airline industries. Countless cable and broadband companies tack on a myriad of completely bogus fees below the line, letting them advertise one rate — then sock you with a higher rate once your bill actually arrives. These companies will then brag repeatedly about how they haven’t raised rates yet this year, when that’s almost never actually the case.

• Dish switching network to AT&T after calling T-Mobile anticompetitive

• Feds crack down on brothers behind 45 million illegal robocalls

Monopolies

• Josh Hawley Throws a Challenge at Big Tech—and at the Left

  My assignment: read and critique The Tyranny of Big Tech, the new book by Missouri’s Republican junior U.S. Senator Josh Hawley.  

• Internet Companies’ $234 Million in Political Spending Harms Efforts to Close Digital Divide: Report

  To help close the digital divide and curb the pernicious influence of internet service provider lobbying, Congress must pass legislation and the Federal Communications Commission should restore net neutrality regulations, according to a report published Monday.

  “The powerful ISP lobby will seemingly spend whatever it takes to keep politicians beholden to them.”—Beth Rotman, Common Cause

• Patents

  • Apple might leave the UK market, claims its lawyer in patent troll case

    Apple might leave the UK market if it is forced to pay too much money to a patent troll, after losing a case last month, says the company’s lawyer. The case relates to a claim by Optis Wireless, which initially won a $506M award against Apple in the US, before the judgment was overturned on appeal.

    Optis – which bought some standards-essential LTE patents in order to make claims like this – then won a separate case against Apple in the UK, this time claiming billions rather than millions …

  • Huawei Settles Two Patent Lawsuits It Filed Against Verizon

    Huawei Technologies Co. agreed to settle two U.S. patent-infringement lawsuits it brought against Verizon Communications Inc., avoiding at least one public fight over the Chinese electronics maker’s role in the telecommunications supply chain.

    Verizon said the agreement, announced Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, covered allegations Huawei filed in two federal courts in 2020. The Shenzhen-based electronics giant had demanded that the American cellphone carrier pay it fees for the use of dozens of patents. Verizon has previously called the allegations meritless.

    “Verizon is happy with the settlement reached with Huawei involving patent lawsuits,” the U.S. company said Monday. “While terms of the settlement are not being disclosed, our team did an outstanding job bringing this protracted matter to a close.”

    A Huawei spokesman confirmed the settlement ended litigation between the two companies. News of the settlement was earlier reported by Reuters.

  • USPTO Conducting Patent Eligibility Jurisprudence Study

    At the request of Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Marie Hirono (D-HI), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Chris Coons (D-DE), the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) is undertaking a study on the current state of patent eligibility jurisprudence in the United States and how the current jurisprudence has impacted investment and innovation, particularly in critical technologies like quantum computing, artificial intelligence, precision medicine, diagnostic methods and pharmaceutical treatments. On July 9, 2021, the USPTO issued a Federal Register Notice seeking public input on these matters to assist in preparing the study. The deadline for submitting written comments is September 7, 2021.

  • Why Biden and Congress cannot lose momentum on patent quality

    We are midway through the first year of the Biden administration and the 117th Congress, and when it comes to intellectual property, each branch of government is off to a good start.

    They are striking balances that favor innovation, competition and public interests. A Senate subcommittee is thinking about how to make the patent system more inclusive, and improve the quality of U.S. patents. This administration has supported a limited waiver of IP protections for COVID vaccines, and in an executive order earlier this month, it set out to fix how the government treats the licensing of standard patents found in everyday technology.

    But the work isn’t finished. President Biden still needs to nominate a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) director — someone who will play a vital role in shaping IP policy. And while congressional hearings are a necessary first step toward inclusive and quality-oriented legislation, hundreds of other members need to agree before we see anything across the finish line.

  • Barring Immoral Speech in Patent and Copyright [Ed: How about discussing the immorality of the monopolies themselves?]

    In the past three years, the Supreme Court has twice ruled that Congress’s moral bars to trademark protection violate the First Amendment. Those rulings raise a simple question in other areas of intellectual property. Does the First Amendment preclude Congress from denying patent or copyright protection based on a moral reason? Congress, for instance, might deny patent protection for inventions directed toward the consumption of marijuana. Inventors would accordingly choose not to disclose knowledge about those inventions to the public, and the denial would chill their speech. Similarly, Congress would chill speech if it denied copyright protection for moral reasons. A copyright bar to statues of the Confederacy, for instance, would deter artists from speaking such content. Hence, through patent and copyright, Congress might seek to influence speech in accord with its moral viewpoint. This Article considers whether that use of intellectual property would violate the First Amendment.

    The Article concludes that moral denials in patent and copyright may be constitutionally permissible in certain instances. On the patent side, Congress’s choices about which invention to patent may plausibly be construed as government speech, suggesting the absence of any First Amendment violation. Yet even if those choices are not government speech, they represent Congress’s attempt to regulate conduct relating to the embodiments of the inventions—not the knowledge about the inventions. That suggests that the incidental effect on an inventor’s speech is permissible.

    Copyright law is a different matter. The copyright system appears to comprise a limited public forum, which implies that moral denials of copyright protection must be viewpoint neutral to pass First Amendment muster. In other words, moral denials of copyright protection may be permissible but only if the reason for denial is not related to the expression’s message or effects responsive to that message. This principle severely limits Congress’s power. Thus, for moral denials of patent protection, the First Amendment affords Congress broad discretion whereas for moral denials of copyright protection, it affords Congress very limited discretion.

  • Mandatory remote hearings can continue, EPO rules [Ed: Illegal court approves illegal practices and in the process it has also confirmed that all those courts are themselves corrupt. We think EPO can easily win an award for Europe’s most corrupt institution — to the point of also bribing the media to weed out criticism of the corruption. What’s the point having ‘courts’ that are controlled by the very same people they’re ruling on?]

  • English patent torpedoes and the UPC [Ed: “The UK is not participating in the UPC” because the UPC does not exist, partly because the UK must participate for it to exist. Taylor Wessing does not live in the same planet as the rest of us. They reject reality, the law etc. Team UPC keeps paying the media to plant lots of lies in it, heralding the unlawful as a desirable thing. EPO already showed that it is possible to buy unlawful and unconstitutional agenda even at the level of courts. ]

    The UK is not participating in the UPC, but the two systems will be inextricably linked when considering a European patent litigation strategy. One tool in the armoury of litigants when using these jurisdictions will be the English cross-border non-infringement declaration, which has the potential to affect UPC infringement proceedings concerning both European and Unitary Patents.

  • Patent Quality Week: Public Interest Patents, The AIA At Ten, And More

    This week marks the first annual Patent Quality Week. Low quality patents can have huge negative impacts on business sectors from Main Street retailers to Silicon Valley startups, and everywhere in between.

    Coordinated by Engine, a policy advocate for startups, Patent Quality Week includes a number of events focused on patent quality and how it impacts the innovation ecosystem. This includes events describing efforts to promote the issuance of valid patents; prevent the issuance of weak, overbroad patents; find efficient mechanisms to eradicate bad patents; and to craft balance in patent enforcement.

  • Congratulations to Judge Tiffany Cunningham

    The Senate has confirmed Tiffany Cunningham, President Biden’s first pick for the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judge Cunningham is expected to be sworn in this week and immediately step into her new role (although the court typically slows down during August).

  • In-house wary of equivalents doctrine – here’s how they win [Ed: Notice how they only ever speak to lawyers, whop also fund this propaganda mill of theirs]

    In-house lawyers from five companies reveal how expert witness selection and good planning can help businesses win on doctrine of equivalents claims

  • District court TM filings H1 2021: top plaintiffs, venues and firms [Ed: When you treat patent courts like corporations with market share and stock holders]

    The Emoji Company filed the most trademark cases, the Northern District of Illinois was the most popular court and Greer Burns & Crain was the ‘busiest’ firm

  • Compulsory Licensing Singapore [Ed: "Compulsory Licensing" typically means having to pay for patents that ought not exist in the first place (so the 'compromise' is making a licence compulsory)]

    The legal basis for compulsory licenses under Singapore patent law is the Patents Act under Chapter 221, Part XI, Section 55 (Patents Act).

    As of January 1, 2020, Singapore changed its patent system and applications are now required to go through local substantive examination prior to issuance.

  • Wonders of Ancient Greek Technology on Display at Kostanas Museum [Ed: EPO still uses art fetish to distract from its crimes]

    The inventions have traveled to most continents, and been shown at museums, the European Patent Office at the Hague, universities and the National Library of France, among others.

  • Federal Constitutional Court clears the way for the UPC [Ed: No, insurmountable barriers remain. TeaM, UPC in fantasy land. But the lies, they hope, can make it a reality regardless.]

    Following delays throughout 2020 (see previous article here), on Friday 9 July 2021, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on two urgent applications against the ratification of the Unified Patent Court (UPC). In both cases (2 BvR 2216/20 and 2 BvR 2217/20), the petitions were rejected as inadmissible, as – in the court’s view – there was insufficient substantiation.

    Thus, the path is finally clear for Germany to ratify the UPC, creating a common court system for patent litigation across European Union member states.

  • Finally a green light for the start of the UPC – an analysis of the ruling by the Bundesverfassungsgericht and the remaining preparatory work [Ed: Chronic liar Wouter Pors is at it again]

    On 23 June 2021 the German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) issued an order rejecting the requests for a preliminary injunction against ratification of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement. The order was published on 9 July 2021 and immediately drew a lot of attention, because this removed the most important obstacle for the start of the UPC. In fact, the UPC will now almost certainly open for business by the end of 2022, or the beginning of 2023 at the latest.

  • Paris Court of Appeal confirms no preliminary injunction against Mylan

    A Paris court has rejected Allergan’s request for preliminary injunction measures against defendant Mylan over treatment for eye condition glaucoma. This upholds a Paris Court of First Instance decision, issued in June 2020. However, the Court of Appeal judgment contrasts with the view among some patent lawyers that French patent judges more willingly grant preliminary injunctions than their European colleagues.

    [..]

    EP 17 54 434 concerns an eye drop treatment for glaucoma, a common eye condition where fluid build-up at the front of the eye damages the optic nerve. Allergan filed an application for EP 434 in March 2006, under the priority of US patent application 83261 of 16 March 2005. The European Patent Office granted the patent in 2009, and it is valid until 2026.

  • Oral Hearings Before The Patent Senate Of The German Federal Court Of Justice During The Corona Pandemic [Ed: Safety last, lawfulness also last]

    The Patent Senate of the German Federal Court of Justice restricts physical access to the court room in oral proceedings. Only two attorneys are admitted for each party. All other in-terested persons are to participate online.
    Public trials with contact restrictions?

    One of the many challenges posed by the Corona pandemic is the organisation of oral proceedings in court. In Germany, the general principle applies that hearings must be “public” as set out in section 169 of the German Judicature Act (GVG). This leads to challenges especially in patent cases, for which the Tenth Senate of the German Federal Court of Justice has jurisdiction as the second instance in patent invalidity cases and as the third instance in patent infringement cases. Often several attorneys at law, patent attorneys, the parties and other persons interested in the case are involved. How can contact restrictions be reconciled with the general principle that a trial must be “public”?

  • PTAB Generally Affirms Eligibility Rejections[Ed: More fake patents thrown out by PTAB and Crouch will never be happy (he’s sponsored by litigation profiteers)]

    If affirmances by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) are any guide, patent examiners appear to now have a good handle on applying the PTAB eligibility examination guidance. I looked at PTAB patent eligibility decisions from the past month and found that examiner eligibility rejections were affirmed in 92% of cases (55 of 60 decisions). There were also five cases where the PTAB added eligibility as a new ground for rejection.

    92% affirmance for eligibility issues is quite high compared to other issues being appealed. So far in FY2021, the PTAB is fully affirming examiner decisions in only 56% of cases and partially affirming in an addition 10%.

    The PTAB’s general approach is to follow the USPTO’s eligibility examination guidance and then supplement that approach with Federal Circuit and Supreme Court cases. Most often, the PTAB is able to draw a direct analogy with a prior appellate decision.

  • Patent Quality Week: This One Weird Trick Could Solve Most Patent Quality Problems

    This week is the very first Patent Quality Week, in which a bunch of folks in the innovation space explore what it will take to improve patent quality. Unfortunately, for years, patent maximalists have tried to attack those of us who support a better patent system with somehow being totally against patents. They will regularly conflate arguments people have made to get rid of bad patents, and about how bad patents are abused to hinder, stifle, and slow down innovation, as if they mean that we hate all patents entirely. That’s not true. So this week we’ll be posting a variety of articles from different perspectives about how we can get better quality patents.

  • When the Patent Trolls Come Calling, Mind your NDAs

    Here is a short article on Intel’s recent run-in with a company accusing one of Intel’s open source projects — and its downstream users — of patent infringement.

  • Software Patents

    • In memoriam Philippe Aigrain (1949-2021)

      It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Philippe Aigrain on Sunday 11th of July, in the mountains, near his home in the French Pyrénées.

    • PTAB Won’t Take Up Unified’s Challenge Of Video Patent

      Unified Patents was dealt a loss when the Patent Trial and Appeal Board refused to review a video compression standard-essential patent owned by the Electronics Telecommunications Research Institute and other Korean institutions.

      In a decision issued Friday, the PTAB said Unified failed to show that at least one of the challenged claims in the patent owned by ETRI, Kwangwoon University and Sejong University were invalid for being anticipated or obvious over prior art.

      Among other things, the PTAB said an earlier U.S. patent known as Nishi did not disclose either the horizontal or vertical intra prediction modes that would render a…

• Copyrights

  • Instagram Asks Court to Delete Users’ Suit Over Embed Feature

    Instagram reiterates that anyone who creates an account agrees to its Terms of Use, which grants “a nonexclusive license to publicly reproduce and display the content the user uploads and posts to their account.” It also dives into the tech underlying the embedding feature, essentially offering a World Wide Web 101 class: The web is a “global file system,” HTML files are “a recipe” for the website a person is looking for, and adding in an embed code tells the webpage to bring in elements from another server.

    The company points to something called the “server test,” which was established by the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 2007 in a lawsuit involving Google and image thumbnails. Under that test, Instagram argues, “an [I]nternet company can be found to directly infringe a copyright owner’s rights only if it hosts and transmits the copyrighted material from its own servers.”

    Here, it’s Instagram that hosts and transmits the content — not the third parties who are embedding it.

  • US Copyright Groups Want ‘Adequate’ Anti-Piracy Penalties in South Africa

    The IIPA, which represents the MPA, RIAA, and other entertainment industry groups, is calling for stricter anti-piracy enforcement in South Africa and a thorough redraft of the country’s Copyright Act. These measures are needed to deter copyright infringement, the groups argue, noting that the country shouldn’t be eligible for trade benefits if it fails to show progress.

  • Operation Dark Stream: Police in Portugal Arrest 9 For IPTV Piracy

    Law enforcement agencies in Portugal have coordinated an operation targeting a pirate IPTV service. In addition to domestic and non-domestic searches, six men and three women were arrested. Various items of computer equipment, bank accounts, cash, and a car were seized. One of the arrested was detained for possession of illegal firearms according to the national crime agency.

  • French Competition Authority Fines Google Nearly $600 Million For Failing To Negotiate A Nonsensical Deal With Publishers ‘In Good Faith’

    France has long been in the vanguard of passing bad copyright laws. For example, it rushed to bring in probably the worst implementation of the EU Copyright Directive’s upload filters. It’s also keen on forcing Google to pay French press publishers for sending traffic to them when it displays clickable snippets of their news stories for free. Last year, the French Competition Authority said Google had no choice in the matter, and ordered the company to negotiate with French news organizations and come up with a deal that pays them to display even short excerpts. A year on, it seems that the French Competition Authority is not happy with the way that Google has responded: