Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 1/8/2021: 4MLinux 37.0, IBM Fluff, and USMCA Update

  • GNU/Linux

    • Server

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • [Old] Zip - How not to design a file format.

        I have a feeling this is like many file formats. They aren't designed, rather the developer just makes it up as they go. If it gets popular other people want to read and/or write them. They either try to reverse engineer the format OR they ask for specs. Even if the developer writes specs they often forget all the assumptions their original program makes. Those are not written down and hence the spec is incomplete. Zip is such a format.

      • What’s In A Font? Website Typography Best Practices

        I love web design and website typography is a huge part of that. It turns out that I’m somewhat of a typography nerd, so I wanted to share some of what I’ve learned in this regard here.

      • How to Install MariaDB 10.6 on Rocky Linux 8 - LinuxCapable

        MariaDB is one of the most popular open-source databases next to its originator MySQL. The original creators of MySQL developed MariaDB in response to fears that MySQL will suddenly become a paid service due to Oracle acquiring it in 2010. With its history of doing similar tactics, the developers behind MariaDB have promised to keep it open source and free from such fears as what has happened to MySQL.

        MariaDB has become just as popular as MySQL with developers, with features such as advanced clustering with Galera Cluster 4, faster cache/indexes, storage engines, and features/extensions that you won’t find in MySQL.

      • How to Install Sysdig on Ubuntu 20.04 - LinuxCapable

        Sysdig is open source, system-level exploration: capture system state and activity from a running Linux-based system such as Ubuntu 20.04, then save, filter, and analyze that is particularly useful for system analysis, inspection, and debugging, amongst other uses. Sysdig is scriptable in Lua and includes a command-line interface and a powerful interactive UI using the command csysdig that runs in your terminal.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Sysdig on Ubuntu 20.04 and 21.04.

      • How to Install Oracle VirtualBox on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

        As we know Oracle VirtualBox is a famous desktop virtualization tool which allows us to run multiple virtual machines or guest operating systems. It is used for test and development environment where Linux geeks create and delete virtual machines based on the requirements. VirtualBox is a cross-platform tool available for both Windows and Linux operating systems.

        VirtualBox gives us the option to create host-based networking for virtual machines. In this post, we will discuss how to install latest version of Oracle VirtualBox on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal fossa) system. At the time of writing this post, VirtualBox 6.1.26 was available.

      • How To Install Wing Python IDE on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Wing Python IDE on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Wing Python IDE was designed from the ground up for Python, to bring you a more productive development experience. Full-featured Python IDE with the intelligent editor, a powerful debugger, remote development error checking, refactoring, and much more. The wing was designed from the ground up for interactive Python development.

        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 the step-by-step installation of the Wing Python IDE on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

    • Distributions

      • New Releases

        • Freespire 7.7 Released
        • 4MLinux 37.0 STABLE released.

          The status of the 4MLinux 37.0 series has been changed to STABLE. Edit your documents with LibreOffice 7.1.5.1 and GNOME Office (AbiWord 3.0.5, GIMP 2.10.24, Gnumeric 1.12.50), share your files using DropBox 126.4.4618, surf the Internet with Firefox 90.02 and Chromium 90.0.4430.212, send emails via Thunderbird 78.12.0, enjoy your music collection with Audacious 4.1, watch your favorite videos with VLC 3.0.16 and mpv 0.33.0, play games powered by Mesa 21.0.1 and Wine 6.12. You can also setup the 4MLinux LAMP Server (Linux 5.10.47, Apache 2.4.48, MariaDB 10.6.3, PHP 5.6.40 and PHP 7.4.21). Perl 5.32.1, Python 2.7.18, and Python 3.9.1 are also available.

          As always, the new major release has some new features. FluidSynth (a software synthesizer) with VMPK (Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard) have been added. Dmidecode (a tool to read hardware-related data from your SMBIOS) has also been included. HandBrake (a video transcoder) and qBittorrent (an advanced BitTorrent client) are now available as downloadable extensions. 4MLinux now uses its own servers for updating the ClamAV virus database. The Linux kernel patched to support the reiser4 file system has been added to the 4MLinux drivers collection.

      • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

        • qmmp updated to 1.5.1

          Qmmp is a feature-rich audio player, written with help of the Qt library. The user interface is similar to winamp or xmms.

        • librewolf updated to 90.0.2

          LibreWolf is designed to minimize data collection and telemetry as much as possible. This is achieved through hundreds of privacy/security/performance settings and patches. Intrusive integrated addons including updater, crashreporter, and pocket are removed too. LibreWolf is NOT associated with Mozilla or its products.

        • caprine updated to 2.54.0

          Caprine is an unofficial and privacy-focused Facebook Messenger app with many useful features.

        • calibre updated to 5.24.0

          Calibre is meant to be a complete e-library solution. It includes library management, format conversion, news feeds to ebook conversion as well as e-book reader sync features.

      • Arch Family

        • First Arch Linux ISO Powered by Linux Kernel 5.13 Is Now Available for Download

          Arch Linux 2021.08.01 has been released today and it’s the first monthly ISO snapshot of the popular GNU/Linux distribution to ship with the latest and greatest Linux 5.13 kernel series, which is now used by default. Linux 5.13.6 is included in this snapshot, but the Linux 5.13.7 point release already hit the testing repos at the moment of writing and will soon land in the stable channel for you to update your new installations to the latest kernel.

          As you can imagine, Linux kernel 5.13 introduces better hardware support, which means that Arch Linux is now compatible with more systems and components. Highlights include FreeSync HDMI support for AMD GPUs, ACPI 6.4 support, support for Lenovo’s Thinkpad X1 Tablet Thin keyboard, Apple’s Magic Mouse 2, or Amazon’s Luna game controller, as well as new virtio drivers for some audio devices and Bluetooth controllers.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • Here are 5 insights you might have missed from Red Hat Summit 2021 [Ed: "TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Red Hat Summit." In other words, IBM pays this 'publishers' to become a puff pieces apparatus]

          It has been approximately two years since IBM finalized its acquisition of Red Hat Inc. for $34 billion, and the Red Hat Summit in April offered an opportunity to assess the state of the open-source world and the key projects brought about by the marriage of two key enterprise computing powers.

          The two-day virtual event was covered extensively by theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, which conducted nearly 20 interviews with Red Hat and IBM executives, customers and partners as part of this year’s online gathering.

        • Linux to host open source solution to aid firefighter safety [Ed: Misuse of the brand "Linux"]
    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Apache Cassandra 4.0 finally arrives

        Well, that took a while. Well over a year ago the Apache Software Foundation announced the beta of Cassandra 4.0. Developers were eager to get their hands on this, the most popular of the NoSQL databases. Alas, it took longer than many had hoped. Then at the 11th hour, a nasty bug was found, which further delayed Cassandra's release for a few days. But, at long last Apache Cassandra 4.0 is here and ready to tear into your petabytes of data.

      • Zulip releases ‘Teach a course’ education product

        Zulip for Education is a new open source team chat product used at university departments around the world, including MIT & University of California San Diego

      • U.S. Secretary of Commerce to Headline Open Skills Network’s Inaugural Skills Summit | News | bakersfield.com

        This open source software toolkit will facilitate the creation and maintenance of open skills libraries for use across sectors including education, the workforce, government, and the military.  

      • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • Programming/Development

        • What do developers want and need from secure coding training?

          Cybersecurity is increasingly becoming integrated into software development initiatives. As part of this, application security (AppSec) specialists often work closely with software development teams to improve security within the applications they create. However, there is still confusion about the role developers play in software security, and whether responsibility for it should rest solely on their shoulders.

  • Leftovers

    • I Am Parting With My Crypto Library

      The time has come for me to find a new home for my (paper) cryptography library. It’s about 150 linear feet of books, conference proceedings, journals, and monographs — mostly from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

    • Education

      • Technical blogs worth reading

        I'm dedicated to checking my favorite blogs every few days (and always looking for more), so I was surprised when a group of friends said they don't know of a single blog worth reading!

        This list is so that I can easily share my favorite blogs to colleagues and students. These blogs cover programming, software engineering, startups, product design, usability, research, game development, and academia. They are in no particular order, but I provide a few categories for each and an example post that I recommend.

    • Health/Nutrition

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Canonicalization Attacks Against MACs and Signatures

        Canonicalization Attacks occur when a protocol that feeds data into a hash function used in a Message Authentication Code (MAC) or Digital Signature calculation fails to ensure some property that’s expected of the overall protocol.

        The textbook example of a canonicalization attack is the length-extension attack against hash functions such as MD5–which famously broke the security of Flickr’s API signatures.

        But there’s a more interesting attack to think about, which affects the design of security token/envelope formats (PASETO, DSSE, etc.) and comes up often when folks try to extend basic notions of authenticated encryption (AE) to include additional authenticated (but unencrypted) data (thus yielding an AEAD mode).

      • Proprietary

        • SolarWinds [Attack] Reached 27 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, Justice Says

          The attack compromised Microsoft 365 accounts of at least 80% of the department’s employees working in offices located in the Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western Districts of New York. Also affected to a lesser degree were employees in U.S. Attorneys’ offices in 14 other states, including California, Florida, Maryland, Texas and Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia.

        • Safari isn't protecting the web, it's killing it

          There's been a lot of discussion recently about how "Safari is the new IE" (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

          I don't want to rehash the basics of that, but I have seen some interesting rebuttals, most commonly: Safari is actually protecting the web, by resisting adding unnecessary and experimental features that create security/privacy/bloat problems.

          That is worth further discussion, because it's widespread, and wrong.

          More specifically, Safari's approach isn't protecting the web from bloat & evil Google influence, because: [...]

        • Hasta la Vista Gmail

          I’ve been a Gmail user pretty much since day 1, when it was still an invite-only service in 2004.1 Not anymore. Over the past month I’ve migrated most of my email to Fastmail and I’m extremely happy with the result.

          Why bother? Well, I guess it won’t come to you as a shock that I’ve felt progressively more uncomfortable with how Google (and the like) are handling my personal data. I’ve also been getting quite frustrated with attempts to make email/my inbox “smarter”. I never needed a “priority inbox”, auto-categorization of email, etc. Simple is good. Just put the newest emails on the top and I’ll sort it out from there.

        • Google dodges regulation, hits advertisers with “regulatory” charges: What’s the Scam?

          We are not familiar with what draconian regulatory schemes exist for Google in Austria and Turkey, but here in Australia we know what it is – which is not much at all. And they paid no tax on their 2020 revenue of $5.2 billion.

        • Storing Encrypted Photos in Google’s Cloud

          Cloud photo services are widely used for persistent, convenient, and often free photo storage, which is especially useful for mobile devices. As users store more and more photos in the cloud, significant privacy concerns arise because even a single compromise of a user’s credentials give attackers unfettered access to all of the user’s photos. We have created Easy Secure Photos (ESP) to enable users to protect their photos on cloud photo services such as Google Photos. [...]

        • Security

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • K-pop’s fandom platforms are changing what it means to be an idol

              While the DAUM fancafes for many idols are still up and running, there has been a shift away from them over the past two years, especially for English-language fandoms. In their place, several companies have created new social apps for their artists, entirely bypassing third-party platforms like Twitter or Facebook. Three main platforms now stand out: NCSoft’s Universe is used by a wide range of groups managed by companies outside of the Big Four of Korean pop music and includes features like a “private messaging” service, exclusive music, and mildly controversial AI-generated voice calls with idols. HYBE’s Weverse is home to mega-groups like BTS and TXT and structured more like the DAUM fancafes. Finally, there’s SM’s LYSN, which includes the truly innovative Bubble app that has found a way to give K-pop groups all of the benefits of Twitter DMs, without many of the problems.

            • Here’s how police can get your data — even if you aren’t suspected of a crime

              Many of the Capitol insurrectionists might be discovering this now, as cases against them are built with evidence taken from [Internet] services like Facebook and Google. While they left a trail of digital evidence for investigators (and [Internet] detectives) to follow, not all of that data was publicly available. If you read through cases of people charged with crimes relating to the events in Washington on January 6, you’ll find the FBI also obtained internal records from various social media platforms and mobile phone carriers.

              But you don’t have to be an alleged insurrectionist for law enforcement to get data about you from another company. In fact, you don’t have to be suspected of a crime at all. The police are increasingly using tactics like reverse search warrants to grab the data of many people in the hope of finding their suspect among them. You might get swept up in one just because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time or looked up the wrong search term. And you might never know that you got caught in the dragnet.

            • Pirate MEP: EU Attack On Cash And Virtual Cash Results In Financial Paternalism

              There was a great public outcry when the Commission asked the public for their opinion on limiting cash payments in 2017. More than 90% of responding citizens spoke out against such a step. Respondents considered paying anonymously in cash an “essential personal freedom” and considered that “restrictions on payments in cash are ineffective in achieving the potential objectives (fight against criminal activities, terrorism, tax evasion)”. According to an ECB survey up to 10% of citizens use cash for amounts exceeding 10.000 € (e.g. buying cars). According to calculations by shadow economy expert Friedrich Schneider of the University of Linz, banning large cash payments would have “only minimal lowering effects on crime”.

            • Social Media: A Psychic Cancer

              I'm not sure how to best handle this issue, this is a bigger multifaceted issue than individuals can really take on their own. It's a societal problem. It's bigger than just people or small groups of them, it's something that affects us all.

            • Spyware revelations are a crucial moment for Indian democracy
            • Joint Open Letter: States Must Implement Moratorium on Surveillance Technology - PEN America

              We the undersigned civil society organizations and independent experts are alarmed at the media revelations that NSO Group’s spyware has been used to facilitate human rights violations around the world on a massive scale.

              These revelations are a result of the Pegasus Project and are based on the leak of 50,000 phone numbers of potential surveillance targets. The project is a collaboration of more than 80 journalists from 16 media organizations in 10 countries coordinated by Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based media non-profit, with the technical support of Amnesty International, who conducted forensic tests on mobile phones to identify traces of the Pegasus spyware.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Opinion | Preventing an American Pinochet

        As the congressional investigation into the January 6 insurrection gets underway, we’re learning disturbing new details about Trump supporters’ violent attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

      • Opinion | US Policy Is Deeply Implicated in Haiti's Crisis

        Exactly what happened in the lead-up to the early morning of July 7, when armed mercenaries invaded the home of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, is still unclear. What is known is that Moïse was assassinated, and eighteen Colombian mercenaries (seven of whom received some level of training from the U.S. military) and three Haitian Americans are accused of conspiring to kill him.€ 

      • Cameroon Says Boko Haram Attacks Military, Seduces Civilians

        Officials in Cameroon say Boko Haram militants appear to be changing their tactics and attacking only military and government targets in an effort to try to attract more recruits.

      • Why Islamism became woke

        To this new alliance between Islamism and progressive rhetoric, there is no simple response. Dawa, by its very nature, is inherently more difficult to fight than jihad. But those who believe, as I do, in a free, open, pluralist society need to be aware of the nature and magnitude of this new challenge. After two decades of fighting Islamist terrorism, we have a new and more subtle foe to contend with. Wokeism has long been regarded as a dangerous phenomenon — but only now are we starting to see why.

      • Tigray: UN says 100,000 children could die from hunger

        "UNICEF estimates that over 100,000 children in Tigray could suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in the next 12 months — a tenfold increase compared to the average annual caseload."

      • Erdogan, the Diyanet, and its Field Office near DC

        This Islamist NATO member—accused of tacitly supporting ISIS and other Salafi–jihadists—has long held high expectations of becoming a leading global power, and to lead the Muslim world under a new caliphate. To pursue such theocratic goals, Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan (who famously compared democracy to a train: “you get off once you’ve reached your destination”) has worked to consolidate power, develop an international network of extremist ideologues and teachings, fund terror, persecute his critics, religious, and ethnic minorities, undermine foreign powers, and systematically destroy the remaining vestiges of Turkey’s democratic policies and practices from its former secular system.

        One of ErdoÄŸan’s main tools has been this government agency that too few Western public officials, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement departments know of: the Diyanet. The Diyanet is thus not just a gravy train for covetous officials; it is also the main vehicle for the ideological export of theocratic Turkey’s guiding Islamist ideas.

      • The invisible victims of jihadi violence

        Failing to grasp this, Westerners don’t understand the nature and extent of the threat to their own security. That’s because it doesn’t fit the liberal narrative—that Muslims are the victims of Western colonialist oppression, and that therefore their violence is a kind of justified resistance, at least in its aims if not its methods.

      • Taliban assassinations of Afghan pilots ‘worrisome,’ US government watchdog says

        At least seven Afghan pilots have been assassinated off base in recent months, two senior Afghan government officials told Reuters, part of what the Islamist Taliban says is a campaign to see US trained Afghan pilots “targeted and eliminated.”

      • The Taliban seek cooperation with China?

        As China expands its global presence, it will eventually come into contact with nations with very difficult political and economic situations, such as Afghanistan. However, China will not flee because of obstacles, because the majority of the world’s developed countries are Western countries with strong biases against China, and those wanting to have good relations with China are frequently developing countries with varied challenges. nation. As a result, China has no option.

    • Environment

      • Black Residents in Coastal Georgia Are Holding Polluters Accountable
      • Energy

        • Opinion | For First Time on Record, US Renewables Generated More Electricity Than Either Coal or Nuclear in 2020

          The Energy Information Administration, the primary authority in the federal government on energy numbers, concludes that renewables, primarily hydro, wind and solar, rose to become 21% of electricity generation in the U.S. in 2020.

        • Why California isn’t banning gaming PCs (yet)

          While we’re surprised Alienware had to take this step, the reasons why are actually not new. I had looked into this way back in 2018, after two PC companies told me the end was nigh in California due to the regulations that had been passed in 2016. I waded through hundreds of pages of California Energy Commission reports and meeting minutes. On the face of it, it did sound like California’s strict power regulations would end most desktop PC sales in California on July 1, 2019.

          The truth is, of course, far more nuanced. Power regulators were mostly looking for ways to rein in the power use of PCs in idle mode, as a way to manage energy use during the workday. Regulators were primarily targeting the typical compact PC or all-in-one you see sitting in banks, hospitals and businesses—not gaming PCs. In standard bureaucratic style, though, it’s neither easy nor clear-cut to know which PCs are being targeted, unless you can make sense of Intel’s Expandability Score Calculation chart below better than we can.

      • Wildlife/Nature

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Trump's Tax Returns Must Be Handed Over to Congress, DOJ Says
      • Opinion | Our Leaders Can Save Lives With the Stroke of a Pen

        The single action of a governor or president can reset people’s lives and send them on a journey of liberation and healing. This should be done more often in every state.

      • With Election Days Away, Bernie Sanders Headlines Get-Out-the-Vote Rally for Nina Turner

        Just days out from the closely watched August 3 Democratic primary contest in Ohio's 11th congressional district, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont headlined a get-out-the-vote rally in Cleveland on Saturday for progressive candidate Nina Turner, whose grassroots campaign is facing an establishment opponent backed by high-profile party leaders and corporate cash.

        In his keynote speech at the event, Sanders spotlighted Turner's ambitious policy platform and argued that—if she prevails in the special election against Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chair Shontel Brown—the Ohio progressive would play a significant role ushering much-needed legislation through the narrowly divided Congress.

    • Misinformation/Disinformation

      • She exposed how Facebook enabled global political manipulation. Now she's telling her story.

        After nearly a year of avoiding personal questions, Zhang is now ready to tell her story. She wants the world to understand how she became so involved in trying to protect democracy worldwide and why she cared so deeply. She’s also tired of being in the closet as a transgender woman, a core aspect of her identity that informed her actions at Facebook and after she left.

        Her story reveals that it is really pure luck that we now know so much about how Facebook enables election interference globally. Zhang was not just the only person fighting this form of political manipulation; it wasn’t even her job. She had discovered the problem because of a unique confluence of skills and passion, and then taken it upon herself, driven by an extraordinary sense of moral responsibility.

        To regulators around the world considering how to rein in the company, this should be a wake-up call.

      • How dare China, the worlds’ number one propagandist, accuse the BBC of broadcasting “fake news"?

        China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, during a press conference on the 29th of July called the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) a "bad-mouthing broadcasting corporation" which has "attacked and vilified China, seriously deviating from journalistic standards" and deserves to be "unpopular with the Chinese public" as it produces “fake news”. This statement came just days after the youth division of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) published online death threats against foreign journalists covering the floods in central China's Henan province, triggering a wave of physical, verbal and online harassment against them.

      • This 'perfectly timed' photo of a protester in a Polo Ralph Lauren jacket is actually photoshopped

        This photo, which has been circulating on Twitter and Facebook since July 10, looks perfectly timed: the stance of a police officer on horseback brandishing a baton is a mirror image of the logo of the brand Polo Ralph Lauren on the back of a protester’s jacket. But the image is actually a creation of the artist Marijn Achternaam, who edited the original photograph.

      • The strange case of WhatsApp and the child-kidnappers

        There were some 70 mob attacks across India between January 2017 and July 2018, according to IndiaSpend, a data-journalism website. More than 30 people were killed and nearly 100 injured. Most of the violence was in response to rumours about child kidnapping spread on social media. Nearly a third of the assaults were traced directly back to messages spread on WhatsApp.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News

        The author uses the 2005 case of the controversial Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad which sparked global protests.

        Even Index on Censorship, refused to publish the Danish cartoons in 2009 alongside an article by the academic Jytte Klausen about the decision of her publisher, Yale, not to include the cartoons in her book on the subject.

        The presumption of tolerance underpins the right to freedom of expression. Berkowitz’s account of the shaping of the First Amendment of the US Constitution is a powerful reminder of how far we have strayed from its values. The rise of ‘cancel culture’ as a remedy for curbing offensive opinions has eroded the belief in ‘freedom for the thought that we hate’, as expressed by Justice Holmes, one of the most influential US Supreme Court judges. Perhaps unfortunately, the author does not go as far as to interrogate what is driving this shift in support for censorship.

      • Get Ready for the 'No-Buy' List

        When I helped create PayPal in 1999, it was in furtherance of a revolutionary idea. No longer would ordinary people be dependent on large financial institutions to start a business.

        Our democratized payment system caught fire and grew exponentially with millions of users who appreciated its ease and simplicity. Traditional banks were too slow and bureaucratic to adapt. Instead, the revolution we spawned two decades ago inspired new startups like Ally, Chime, Square, and Stripe, which have further expanded participation in the financial system.

        But now PayPal is turning its back on its original mission. It is now leading the charge to restrict participation by those it deems unworthy.

      • PayPal and ADL Team Up to Disrupt 'The Financial Pipelines' Supporting 'Hate and Bigotry'

        In 2019, 25 donor networks worth more than $1 billion launched a “Hate Is Not Charitable” campaign, aiming to cut off funds from conservative “hate groups” the SPLC targeted. In 2020, the SPLC teamed up with the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to pressure the philanthropic sector — which held more than $121 billion in donor contributions in 2018 — to blacklist conservative “hate groups.” In 2019, Democrats cited the SPLC in calling on the IRS to remove tax-exempt status from “hate groups.”

    • Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

      • Russia's 'Foreign Agent' Law Targets Journalists, Activists, Even Ordinary Citizens

        Russia's 2012 law on foreign agents originally singled out nongovernmental organizations receiving grants from abroad. The legislation has since been amended to target not only media organizations but also individual journalists, YouTube bloggers and practically anyone else who receives money from abroad and voices a political opinion.

        Upon receiving the designation, they are required to label anything they publish — even social media posts — as the work of a foreign agent, and submit quarterly financial reports to the Justice Ministry. Bookkeeping mistakes and failure to comply can result in fines and even imprisonment.

      • UK: Blogger Craig Murray jailed for eight months over “jigsaw identification”

        Murray is expected to surrender himself to police on 30 July to begin his eight-month prison sentence for contempt of court after the UK Supreme Court refused the application to review his case. The charges stem from Murray’s coverage from the public gallery of Salmond’s trial on sexual assault charges -- of which Salmond was aquitted -- at the Edinburgh High Court in March 2020. Judge Lady Dorrian found that Murray had breached her strict order to protect the identities of witnesses, concluding that his blog posts would allow for “jigsaw identification” - apparently unprecedented grounds for imprisonment in the UK - for which he was sentenced in May 2021 to eight months in prison.

      • Photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was executed by Taliban: Report

        Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was not simply killed in a crossfire in Afghanistan, nor was he simply collateral damage, but was "brutally murdered" by the Taliban after verifying his identity, according to a report published in a US-based magazine on Thursday.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Glen Ford’s Journalism Fought for Black Liberation and Against Imperialism
      • Keeping Freedom Alive

        I want to make one or two points for you to ponder while I am in jail. This is the last post until about Christmas; we are not legally able to post anything while I am imprisoned. But the Justice for Craig Murray Campaign website is now up and running and will start to have more content shortly. Fora and comments here are planned to stay open.

      • The Making of Two Political Prisoners: Daniel Hale and Craig Murray
      • Christians in Iraqi Kurdistan forced to abandon homes due to Turkish bombardment

        The operation, however, has indiscriminately targeted Christian communities and other civilian communities.

        This includes Assyrian Christians indigenous to the region, as well as those from Mosul and the Plains of Nineveh (the historic centre of Iraqi Christianity) who fled to Kurdistan to escape Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) and subsequent violent persecution.

      • Videos show Taliban has no interest in peace in Afghanistan

        While both the US and the UN has warned the Taliban of international isolation and travel sanctions if the Sunni group unilaterally tries to seize power in Kabul, the Islamist group, with its leadership safely ensconced in neighbouring Pakistan is in no mood to change from its 1996 version. The Deobandi group's larger objective is to impose Sharia on Afghanistan by converting it into an emirate and expand the Sunni Pashtun influence all over the country at the cost of the minorities and women rights.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • The Tanzania ISP Association (TISPA) issues a statement & reminds everyone about the critical services of AFRINIC

        The Supreme Court of Mauritius has ordered that the bank accounts of AFRINIC, the Regional Internet Registry for Africa and Indian Ocean region, be temporarily frozen, following a dispute between AFRINIC and one of its Resource Member, Cloud Innovation Ltd.

        The ramifications of AFRINIC's frozen bank accounts are severe. The Tanzania ISP Association (TISPA) reminded everyone of the severity of these actions via their statement that they posted today. In the statement, TISPA explained the role of AFRINIC in running critical services for the global Internet and how these services could be impacted with the recent development in the legal dispute. I quote: [...]

    • Monopolies

      • Big tech tries to derail EU AI policy with ‘warnings’ from US think tank
        EU policymakers recently proposed a sweeping set of regulations called the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). If made law, the AIA would offer European citizens the strictest, most comprehensive protections against predatory AI systems on the planet.

        [...]

        This report uses fuzzy, cherry-picked math to come up with the assertion that passing the AIA will cost Europe tens of billions of dollars. It warns against “brain drain,” – that’s when all the smartest people leave their homeland so they can get rich abroad – and claims European innovation will die an expensive, painful death as US and Chinese corporations leave the EU behind.

        To that, I say: Lol. Using the US or China as a bar for regulation is like using a UFC fight as an example of diplomatic negotiations.

        The current state of AI policy in the US can only be described as absolutely ridiculous. There’s next to no regulation, the police are out of control, companies such as Facebook conduct psyops on the general public without reprisal, and Tesla is literally testing autonomous vehicle software in the general public with absolutely no oversight.

        People regularly die in vehicle accidents because AI software lets them down, the police wrongfully arrest and shoot people because AI misidentifies them, and companies such as PredPol, Clearview AI, and Palantir are being paid billions in taxpayer dollars to strip away citizens’ Constitutional rights.

      • Patents

        • Mexicans judge the USMCA trade deal’s first year a success

          Hello and welcome from Mexico City, where we’re looking at how the all-important USMCA trade deal with the U.S. and Canada is faring, just over a year after it replaced NAFTA.

          Mexican Economy Secretary Tatiana Clouthier visited Washington last week to discuss progress with top U.S. officials and business leaders and to iron out differences on implementation.

      • Copyrights

        • DISH & Sling Sue Pirate Sites For Circumventing Sports Stream DRM

          DISH Network and Sling TV have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against four unlicensed sports streaming sites including the popular SportsBay.org. According to the companies, the platforms offer illegal access to sports programming by bypassing Sling's technical protection measures in violation of the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA.

        • Tokyo Olympics Opening Ceremony is The First Mainstream 8K Rip on Pirate Sites

          The opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was one of the most anticipated events of this year. In Japan, the lucky few could watch it in an ultra-high 8K resolution with 22.2 surround sound. This subsequently resulted in the first pirated 8K rip appearing on pirate sites, which is a major milestone by itself.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day