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Links 20/7/2021: Plasma Mobile 21.07, Jim Whitehurst Sells His Home



  • GNU/Linux

    • 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

    • 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

    • 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.

  • Leftovers

    • 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.



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