10.19.21

Links 19/10/2021: Karanbir Singh Leaves CentOS Board, GPL Violations at Vizio

Posted in News Roundup at 8:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • New Linux laptop offers RTX 3080 and 144 Hz 17-inch screen

        Linux users like to game, too, and the Juno Neptune 17-inch V3 laptop announced this week ensures that people on Ubuntu can play their favorite titles on the go.

        Keeping up with the Alienwares, Asus ROGs, and other Windows-focused gaming brands, the new portable packs up to an RTX 3080 discrete graphics card and the 8-core Intel Core i7-11800H. And it lets you experience all the action on a spacious, 17.3-inch screen with a 144 Hz refresh rate. A colorfully backlit keyboard completes the package.

      • Juno readies Intel Tiger Lake-H and AMD Ryzen 5000U Linux-based laptops

        Juno Computers is a new UK-based OEM that sells Ubuntu Linux laptops for the European and US markets. The company just updated its entire laptop lineup with the latest mobile processors from Intel and AMD.

        For budget-oriented users, Juno offers the Nyx 15-inch AMD V2 model powered by the Ryzen 7 5700U 8-core / 16-thread APU with Zen 2 cores. It features a 15.6-inch IPS display with FHD resolution and 60 Hz refresh rate, but does not come with a dGPU solution, so users will have to make do with the integrated Vega 7 graphics. The Nyx supports up to 64 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and up to 2 TB of NVMe SSD storage and comes standard with Wi-Fi 6 + BT 5.0 + GbE connectivity, 49 Wh battery, 3.64 lbs chassis, plus connectors like USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (no DP), HDMI 2.0 and even features a microSD card reader.

      • Windows, macOS or Linux, which one to choose [Ed: Relatively shallow article]

        Linux made its name for being an extremely versatile operating system, equipping everything from minicomputers like the Raspberry Pi to datacenters in the cloud, through devices that are in our daily lives, such as smart TVs, routers, thermostats, and the like, without even being suspicious. But what about home and personal use? How does the penguin system fare?

        The main difference between Linux in relation to Windows and macOS is that it is an open-source system. Therefore, it can be modified and improved by anyone who wants to collaborate on the project or make their own distribution. It is due to this characteristic that we see the system being implemented for so many purposes.

    • Server

      • Trend Micro duo find Linux malware targeting Huawei Cloud [Ed: As it turns out, Linux isn't the security risk but proprietary software people install on it]

        A vulnerability in the Oracle WebLogic Server product of Oracle Fusion Middleware is one route through which Linux malware, observed by researchers at Trend Micro to be attacking Huawei Cloud, a relatively new cloud service provider, gain access to systems.

      • How to create your own data center-specific Linux image with Cubic – TechRepublic

        At this point, you most likely use Linux in your data center. It’s an inevitability that you cannot fight these days. And that’s a very good thing because Linux is incredibly powerful, flexible and (without question) powers so much of what we depend on.

        If you’re deploying to a lot of servers in your data center, the idea of installing a base server distribution and then adding everything you need, one server at a time, can be a bit of a daunting task. That’s understandable, especially when those servers might number in the hundreds. And if you’re not using virtual machines for those deployments, you’re probably looking for a way to make those rollouts a bit easier.

      • Cortex-M55 based Arm Virtual Hardware is now available in AWS Cloud

        The Arm DevSummit 2021 is taking place on October 19-21, and the first announcements from Arm are related to IoT with “Arm Total Solutions for IoT delivering a full-stack solution to significantly accelerate IoT product development and improve product ROI”, “Project Centauri” aiming to achieve for an extensive Arm Cortex-M software ecosystem in the way that Project Cassini does for the Cortex-A ecosystem, starting with support for PSA Certified and Open-CMSIS-CDI cloud-to-device specification, and Arm Virtual Hardware based on Corstone-300 IoT platform with a Cortex-M55 MCU core and an Ethos-U55 microNPU accessible from Amazon Web Services.

      • Foundries.io Announces Support for Arm® SystemReady Initiative with Future-proof Linux Platform for Securing IoT and Edge Products

        Foundries.​io, leader in cloud native development and deployment solutions for secure IoT and Edge devices, today announced support for the new Arm SystemReady initiative.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Intel teases ‘software-defined silicon’ with Linux kernel contribution – and won’t say why

        Intel has teased a new tech it calls “Software Defined Silicon” (SDSi) but is saying almost nothing about it – and has told The Register it could amount to nothing.

        SDSi popped up around three weeks ago in a post to the Linux Kernel mailing list, in which an Intel Linux software engineer named David Box described it as “a post-manufacturing mechanism for activating additional silicon features”.

      • Graphics Stack

        • RadeonSI Lands Another “Very Large” Optimization To Further Boost SPECViewPerf – Phoronix

          In recent months we have seen a lot of RadeonSI optimizations focused on SPECViewPerf with AMD seemingly trying to get this open-source OpenGL driver into very capable shape moving forward for workstation GL workloads. Hitting Mesa 22.0-devel today is yet another round of patches for tuning SPECViewPerf.

        • Vendors Including NVIDIA Talk Up New OpenCL Extensions For Vulkan Interop, NN Inference – Phoronix

          Last Friday night we spotted OpenCL 3.0.9 with several new extensions included. Today The Khronos Group is formally announcing these latest OpenCL additions focused on Vulkan interoperability as well as neural network inferencing.

          These new extensions for OpenCL 3.0 include an integer dot product extension for neural network inferencing (cl_khr_integer_dot_product) with a focus on 8-bit integer support.

        • RadeonSI Enables NGG Shader Culling For Navi 1x Consumer GPUs – Phoronix

          As another possible performance win for RadeonSI Gallium3D as AMD’s open-source Radeon OpenGL driver on Linux systems is enabling of NGG culling for Navi 1x consumer graphics processors rather than limiting it only to newer Navi 2x (RDNA2) GPUs.

          Merged on Monday was a patch to enable shader culling for Navi 1x consumer SKUs with no longer limiting it to Navi 2x / GFX10.3 or when using various debug options. This culling was also enabled for Navi 1x GPUs but only for the “Pro” graphics SKUs.

    • Applications

      • SoftMaker FreeOffice 2021 is Now Available to Download

        As with previous versions of this free (but not open source) alternative to Microsoft Office, the full suite of apps is available across Windows, macOS, and Linux with no feature limitations or patchy coverage.

        While SoftMaker says this is a “completely revised version” that is “seamlessly compatible with Microsoft Office” file formats, both new and old, it’s hard to know what’s new in FreeOffice 2021 specifically as there’s no official change-log detailing the changes between this and the previous FreeOffice release.

      • VirtualBox 6.1.28 Released with Initial Support for Linux 5.14 and 5.15 Kernels

        VirtualBox 6.1.28 is here about three months after VirtualBox 6.1.26 to introduce initial guest and host support for the Linux 5.14 and 5.15 kernel series. This means that you can now use VirtualBox on GNU/Linux systems powered by Linux kernels 5.14 or 5.15, as well as to run distributions powered by Linux 5.14 or 5.15 kernels inside virtual machines.

        In addition, this release introduces initial support for the upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5 operating system, improves the detection of kernel modules in Linux hosts to prevent unnecessary rebuilds, fixes a display corruption on Linux Mint systems, and adds bindings support for Python 3.9.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Speak to me! – Purism

        My trusty laptop’s speakers gave up the ghost. I don’t like to sit around in headphones all the time, I don’t have any other speakers, and the replacements are still being manhandled by the postman.

        I’d get used to the austerity if I hadn’t started missing calls from a friend. That’s unacceptable! But what am I supposed to do? Buy extra gadgets just to throw them away after a week? Nope, I’m not that kind of a person.

        But hey – I have a Librem 5! It has a speaker. It’s open. I have control over it, and I’m a hacker too. So I should be able to come up with a hack to turn it into a speaker for my laptop, right?

        Pulseaudio to the rescue. I look through the guide. There it is: forwarding audio over a network.

      • How To Install CSF Firewall on Debian 11 – idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install CSF Firewall on Debian 11. For those of you who didn’t know, CSF is also known as “Config Server Firewall” is a free and advanced firewall for Linux systems. We should use ConfigServer Security & Firewall (CSF) since this CSF have more advanced and comprehensive features than other firewall application such as UFW, Firewalld, or Iptables. Compared to the other Linux firewall application, CSF is more user-friendly and effective which is mostly used by web hosting providers.

        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 ConfigServer Security & Firewall (CSF) on a Debian 11 (Bullseye).

      • What are the differences between SQL and MySQL | FOSS Linux

        Due to many organizations, businesses, companies, and firms making an online presence, databases have become the core requirement for their daily operations. A database in a layman’s language is defined as a collection of data stored and organized electronically to ensure easy retrieval, access, management, and manipulation of business data.

        Most business successes depend on databases since they aid in storing essential and relevant data in a central position. Besides, databases also help facilitate communication of crucial business info such as employee profiles, sales transactions, customer profiles, marketing campaigns, product inventory, etc. Furthermore, databases have ensured that the company’s data is secure through various authentication mechanisms like access specifiers, user logins, and sign-ups.

        This article will talk about the difference between the two popular relational databases SQL and MySQL.

      • How to install Funkin’ Psych Engine on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install Friday Night Funkin’ Psych Engine on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

      • How to Use an SSH Key with Non-root Users – Unixcop

        You can SSH to your Linux instance as root with the key. However, the key doesn’t work for non-root users.

        So we will illustrate two methods to use SSH keys with non-root users.

      • Allow Port Through Firewall in Ubuntu 20.04 – Linux Nightly

        Ubuntu comes with ufw (uncomplicated firewall) installed by default. This is a frontend for iptables/nftables, the built-in Linux firewall, and is meant to make firewall management a bit easier.

        In this guide, you’ll see how to add rules to the firewall to open ports and allow certain services to have access through the firewall on Ubuntu.

      • Some regex tests with grep, sed and AWK

        In my data work I regularly do searching and filtering with GNU grep (version 3.3), GNU sed (4.7) and GNU AWK (4.2.1). I don’t know if they all use the same regex engine, but I’ve noticed differences in regex speed between these three programs. This post documents some of the differences.

      • Upgrade to Fedora 35 from Fedora 34 using DNF – If Not True Then False

        This is guide, howto upgrade Fedora 34 to Fedora 35 using DNF. This method works on desktop and server machines. You can also upgrade older Fedora installations (example Fedora 33/32/31/30) directly to Fedora 35.

        I have tested this method on several machines, but if you have problems, please let me know. Always remember backup, before upgrade!

      • Jenkins: Basic security settings – Anto ./ Online

        Jenkins contains sensitive information. Thus it must be secured, like any other sensitive platform. Thankfully Jenkins provides you with many security options. This guide will show you all the essential bits that you need to know.

        You access these features on the Configure Global Security page under manage Jenkins.

      • LDAP query from Python · Pablo Iranzo Gómez’s blog

        Recently, some colleagues commented about validating if users in a Telegram group were or not employees anymore, so that the process could be automated without having to chase down the users that left the company.

        One of the fields that can be configured by each user, is the link to other platforms (Github, LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram, etc), so querying an LDAP server could suffice to get the list of users.

        First, we need to get some data required, in our case, we do anonymous binding to our LDAP server and the field to search for containing the ‘other platform’ links.

      • How To Install Zikula on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Zikula on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Zikula is free open source software (FOSS) It allows webmasters and users to create great portals for secure extranet, online databases, e-commerce and multilingual sites.

        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 Zikula 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.

      • How to Install Caddy Web Server on Debian 11

        Caddy is a free, open-source, and modern web server written in GO language. It is a lightweight and commercially supported web server that supports HTTP/2 and experimental HTTP/3 protocols. It can run anywhere with no external dependencies and is expanded via plugins. It is designed with security in mind and provides a number of features that are useful for hosting websites.

        In this tutorial, I will explain how to install the Caddy web server on Debian 11.

      • How to Install GIMP on Debian 11 Bullseye – LinuxCapable

        GIMP is free, open-source raster graphics editing software primarily used for image manipulation and image editing, transcoding between various image formats, free-form drawing, and many more specialized tasks. GIMP is released under GPL-3.0-or-later license and is available for Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn to install the GIMP application on Debian 11 Bullseye using three alternative methods that you can choose from.

      • How to Install and Use PIP Python Package Manager on Debian 11

        Pip is a widely used package manager for the Python programming language. It is being used for installing and managing additional packages that are not available in the Python standard library. It allows users to search a package from the python packages index as well as install its dependencies. Pip is also known as a “Preferred Installer Program” that can create a completely isolated environment for the Python application.

        In this article, I will show you how to install and use Pip on Debian 11.

      • How to Install Visual Studio Code Cloud IDE on Rocky Linux 8 [Ed: It is proprietary, it is spying, and it needs to be shunned]
      • How to Remove Trash Can Icon From Left Dock Panel in Ubuntu 21.10 | UbuntuHandbook

        This simple tutorial shows how to remove the trash icon from the dock in Ubuntu 21.10 Impish Indri.

        Different to the previous releases, Ubuntu 21.10 puts the trash icon on left dock instead of the desktop. However, I don’t use the trash icon in either location. Instead, I removes files using right-click menu options, and go to trash via file manager left sidebar.

        If you also find it useless, then here’s how to remove it either via a single command or by a graphical configuration tool.

      • How to create a user and add it to the sudoers group in Rocky Linux

        In Linux administration, best practice recommends running commands as a regular user with sudo privileges. This user is simply known as a sudo user, and the user bears root privileges to perform elevated tasks in the system such as installing, updating, upgrading, and removing packages to mention a few. To execute privileged commands as a sudo user, the word ‘sudo’ precedes the actual command. Sudo is short for Super User do and when invoked, it allows underprivileged users to perform elevated tasks using root privileges.

        By default, the regular user created upon installation is simply an underprivileged user. Thankfully, you can add the user to the sudoers group to impart root privileges. This will allow the user to perform elevated tasks in the system just as a root user would. In this tutorial, we demonstrate how to create a user and add them to the sudoers group on Rocky Linux.

      • How to install Apache, MariaDB and PHP (LAMP) on Debian 11 – VITUX

        The LAMP stack is a collection of open-source software products that are frequently used in conjunction. The acronym LAMP is used to describe a computer system that has the following components: Linux, Apache HTTP Server (or just server), MySQL and PHP/Perl/Python.

        A user can install all of these components separately on a single computer or, more commonly, on separate computers connected by a network; however, some components are dependent upon other components – for instance, it is not possible to install Apache without first installing Linux – hence the standard installation practice is to install all components on a single computer system.

        The LAMP stack is the combination of open-source software to form a server environment most commonly used in web development.

      • How to install OpenSSH server on Alpine Linux (including Docker) – nixCraft

        This quick tutorial explains how to install and set up OpenSSH (SSHD) server and client on the Alpine Linux system. Further, you will learn how to build a Docker Linux container running sshd server based upon Alpine Linux image too.

      • How to use Shazam on the Linux desktop with SongRec

        Are you listening to a song and don’t know the name of it? Want to “Shazam” it but don’t have an Android or iOS phone? Check out SongRec! It’s an unofficial Shazam client for Linux. Here’s how to use it to “Shazam” on the Linux desktop.

      • Installing KDE On Linux Mint Cinnamon Base – gHacks Tech News

        If you’re like me and really enjoy using the KDE Plasma desktop environment, especially as it’s become very lightweight over the last year or two compared to the past where it was known as very heavy on resources, you are probably disappointed that Linux Mint does not offer a KDE version of its popular Ubuntu-based distribution. However, installing KDE is very easily accomplished, and doesn’t take very long.

      • A Fresh Installation of Debian 11 Bullseye

        August 14, 2021, marks a new major release for the popular Debian Linux distribution. Codenamed Bullseye and chock-full of enhancements as well as software updates after 2 years, 1 month, and 9 days of development, this release will be supported for the next 5 years.

        This guide will walk through a fresh installation of Debian 11 Bullseye’s new operating system.

        With this new release comes quite a bit of new functionality. One of the most welcomed changes is an updated kernel. Buster (Debian 10) was still running 4.19 but now with Bullseye (Debian 11), the jump to 5.10 has brought some wonderful hardware support!

    • Games

      • How to play Trine 3 on Linux

        Trine 3 is an action/puzzle-platformer video game developed by Frozenbyte. It is the successor to Trine 2 and was released on August 20th, 2015. The game is on Microsoft Windows, Xbox, PS4, Mac OS, and Linux. Here’s how to get it working on your Linux PC.

        [...]

        Trine 3 works on Linux as a native game, but you’ll have to install the Steam application first if you want to play it. Thankfully, Steam works on a majority of Linux operating systems. Unfortunately, the software doesn’t come pre-installed on many distributions, so we’ll need to go over how to get it working first.

      • Stellaris: Aquatics Species Pack announced, launching with the free 3.2 update | GamingOnLinux

        Paradox only recently talked about a bunch of changes coming in the free 3.2 update and now they’ve announced Stellaris: Aquatics Species Pack as the latest DLC.

        “Sail the intergalactic seas and uncover an all new expansion packed to the gills with new options for new and longtime players alike. The Aquatics Species Pack will rinse Stellaris with a rising tide of new content, including brand new origins, species traits, civics and a treasure trove of new cosmetics. Seafarers and landlubbers alike will agree that this is Stellaris’ most immersive species pack to date.

      • Monster collecting game Cassette Beasts gets a new trailer and publisher | GamingOnLinux

        Cassette Beasts is the upcoming monster collecting game from Bytten Studio and today it has been announced that Raw Fury has joined as publisher. Bytten Studio had been looking for a publisher for some time now so this is great news.

        Developed in the open source Godot Engine, Cassette Beasts looks like a monster catching game like no other as you use the powerful fusion system to transform into creatures using retro cassette tapes.

      • Julius 1.7 is out, an open source re-implementation of the classic Caesar III | GamingOnLinux

        Julius is another shining example of an open source game engine re-implementation done well and a major update is out. Taking the original Caesar III and upgrading it for modern computing platforms. Not by the original developers though, this is like others, totally unofficial but don’t let that stop you enjoying a much improved experience.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • KDE Plasma 5.23.1, Bugfix Release for October

          Today KDE releases a bugfix update to KDE Plasma 5, versioned 5.23.1.

          Plasma 5.23 was released in October 2021 with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience.

          This release adds a week’s worth of new translations and fixes from KDE’s contributors. The bugfixes are typically small but important and include…

        • KDE Plasma 5.18.8, Bugfix Release for October

          Plasma 5.18 was released in February 2020 with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience.

    • Distributions

      • Screenshots/Screencasts

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • CentOS Project Chair Karanbir Singh Steps Down
        • Karanbir Singh stepping down from the CentOS Board

          Today we have heard from KB that he is stepping down from the CentOS Board of Directors.

          On behalf of the Board, I want to thank KB for his years of leadership. His work on the project, and in the community, has made the world a better place in tangible ways that affect millions of sysadmins on a daily basis, and that’s hard to measure or quantify.

          On a personal note, I’ve appreciated his advice, insight, and mentorship as I took the reins of the Community Manager position. His stories and introductions paved the way for success in a role that has been very rewarding and a lot of fun.

        • How security has changed in the era of cloud computing

          Technologies come and go, but one concept has remained at the forefront of IT conversations for decades: Security. While security remains a perennial top priority for IT departments, what it means to be secure, and the processes required, continue to change. Let’s talk about how security, open source, and cloud computing can co-exist.

        • “DevOps Culture and Practice with OpenShift”: The experience-driven, real world guide to building empowered teams

          With a wealth of information about DevOps adoption readily available on the market, a group of Red Hatters felt that some critical elements were missing—pieces they’ve found to be successful in their own work with customers adopting DevOps.

          Technology is the cornerstone of DevOps adoption, but containers and Kubernetes need DevOps practices to maximize the business impact of modern application platforms. The team pivoted to focus not just on the technology, but on those practices and the role that people, process, and culture play in supporting the technology; a key change in approach that is imperative to success.

        • Introducing Node.js 17

          Back in April, I gave an update on some of the news features in the Node.js 16 release. Today, I am happy to share that the Node.js community is releasing Node.js 17 and that next week Node.js 16 will be promoted to Long Term Support (LTS).

          As per the Node.js release process, Node.js version 17 will not be promoted to LTS as only even versions get LTS. For production deployments, we recommended using Node.js 16, and focus on Node.js 17 to test and provide feedback on the new functionality and features to help pave the way for future releases. You can read more about the community release process here.

        • AlmaLinux Announces ELevate Project to Migrate or Upgrade Any Red Hat Enterprise Linux-based Distribution
        • AlmaLinux Announces ‘ELevate’ For CentOS 7 to AlmaLinux 8 Migrations – FOSS Force

          On Tuesday at the All Things Open conference in Raleigh, AlmaLinux’s community manager, Jack Aboutboul announced the ELevate project, which includes software and methods for migrating CentOS 7 deployments to AlmaLinux 8 without needing to do a lot of heavy lifting and shifting.

          Actually, according to Aboutboul, ELevate capabilities aren’t confined to CentOS to AlmaLinux moves, but can be used help with all migrations between different Red Hat Enterprise Linux-based distributions, such as CentOS 7 to AlmaLinux 8, Oracle Linux 8, or Rocky Linux 8.

      • Debian Family

        • Gunnar Wolf• raspi.debian.net now hosted on Debian infrastructure

          So, since I registered the URL for serving the unofficial Debian images for the Raspberry computers, raspi.debian.net, in April 2020, I had been hosting it in my Dreamhost webspace.

          Over two years ago –yes, before I finished setting it up in Dreamhost– Steve McIntyre approached me and invited me to host the images under the Debian cdimages user group. I told him I’d first just get the setup running, and later I would approach him for finalizing the setup.

        • Raphaël Hertzog: Freexian’s report about Debian Long Term Support, September 2021

          Folks from the LTS team, along with members of the Debian Android Tools team and Phil Morrel, have proposed work on the Java build tool, gradle, which is currently blocked due to the need to build with a plugin not available in Debian. The LTS team reviewed the project submission and it has been approved. After approval we’ve created a Request for Bids which is active now.

          You’ll hear more about this through official Debian channels, but in the meantime, if you feel you can help with this project, please submit a bid. Thanks!

          This September, Freexian set aside 2550 EUR to fund Debian projects.

        • More python3 modules in devx SFS

          In OpenEmbedded, there are some python3 modules used during the build, but not packaged for the target system. I have added these to be built for the target system. So these binary packages will be built for possible inclusion in EasyOS.

        • Dirk Eddelbuettel: RVowpalWabbit 0.0.16: One More CRAN Request

          Another maintenance RVowpalWabbit released brings us to version 0.0.16 on CRAN. This is last package for which configure.ac needed an update to current standards (see the updates of corels, RcppGSL, RQuantLib, and littler). The make matters more interesting we also had to address one UBSAN issue we could not reproduce locally (which, it turns out, was our fault because we had not rebuilt one package dependency under UBSAN). But Prof Ripley confirmed the issue as addressed so all is good for now.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Ubuntu Unity and Cinnamon Remix versions 21.10 available

          Ubuntu Unity is the attempt to keep alive Unity 7 , Canonical’s mythical shell that has been the face of Ubuntu for years, but has ended up abandoned after the company gave up its strategy around the consumer market.

          Ubuntu Unity officials say the desktop environment has received major changes in version 21.10, “including new and updated flags and the migration of schemas from ‘glib-2.0’ to ‘gsettings-ubuntu-schemas’ ” . The system now has a new look that includes a simpler logo, new wallpapers, and a new splash screen for Ubiquity’s Plymouth, plus the project is undergoing a slow migration process to GitLab due to the fact that its current structure cannot handle heavy traffic.

          Ubuntu Unity has decided to adopt the Snap version of Firefox for version 21.10, thus following the line set by Canonical. On the other hand, it has published the first beta of ‘ lol ‘ , which is not a reference to League of Legends or lots of laugh , but an Open Source alternative to the Snap Store and published under GPLv3 .

          Lastly we have the Ubuntu Unity ISO image builder released as part of the project Ubuntu Remixes to allow anyone to build new Ubuntu remixes. This tool has recently started to be used by Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix as well.

        • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Codename Has Been Revealed and it’s Dangerously Ho

          The Ubuntu 22.04 LTS codename has been revealed on Launchpad, home of Ubuntu development.

          After the letter “I” in the alphabet series, comes “J”. Therefore, Canonical’s next big LTS version codename should have the letter “J” in its codename.

          Canonical has revealed what the codename is going to be for the next LTS version of Ubuntu i.e, 22.04. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS release date has also been revealed and it is set on April 21st, 2022.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • LEGO Technic meets Raspberry Pi with the Build HAT

        A new official Raspberry Pi expansion board is introduced today. The Built HAT provides four connectors for LEGO Technic motors and sensors from the SPIKE Portfolio, as well as an 8V DC jack to power both the Raspberry Pi and LEGO motors, sensors, LED matrix, and more.

        Designed in collaboration with LEGO Education, the Build HAT features the Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core ARM Cortex M0+ MCU for I/O control, and will enable more complex models benefiting from more powerful Broadcom BCM2xxx processors, as well as a Python library for easy programming.

      • Raspberry Pi LEGO HAT taps RP2040

        Raspberry Pi has launched a $25 “LEGO Build HAT” for STEAM education based on its RP2040 MCU. The HAT can control up to 4x LEGO Technic motors and sensors and comes with Python library and an optional $15 power supply.

        When Raspberry Pi launched its dual Cortex-M0+ based RP2040 MCU and RP2040-based Raspberry Pi Pico module, we speculated that one or both might show up in a Raspberry Pi HAT. Today, Raspberry Pi and Lego Education announced an official LEGO Build HAT based on the RP2040 designed for any 40-pin Raspberry Pi. The $25 HAT is designed for STEAM education and hobbyist hacking for anyone who owns the LEGO Education SPIKE Prime or SPIKE Prime Expansion sets, or other LEGO devices such as the LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor kit.

      • This Raspberry Pi add-on lets you control Lego robots

        Raspberry Pi is releasing an add-on that will let you use many of its tiny, inexpensive computers to control certain Lego robot motors and sensors. The add-on is called the Build HAT (HAT stands for Hardware Attached on Top), and slotting it onto a Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins will give you four ports that you can use to control Lego Education’s SPIKE components, which the HAT and its software are specially designed for. It’ll also connect to most other parts that use an LPF2 connector, including the components from the Lego Mindstorms robot inventor kit.

        There’s also a Python library (basically a set of commands you can use to control the robot) available to go alongside the HAT, which will let you write software to control the robot parts you’ve got hooked up. Programing Lego’s SPIKE components with Python isn’t a unique selling feature from Raspberry Pi — the SPIKE kit comes with a hub that supports connecting six devices (compared to the Build HAT’s four) that can also store and run Python programs.

      • Now you can plug Lego into your Raspberry Pi | ZDNet

        Raspberry Pi has announced a new collaboration with Lego, which will enable users to integrate a whole new range of sensors, motors and other special pieces into their creations.

        The project has been two years in the making, according to Raspberry Pi’s program manager Richard Hayler, and takes the form of a $25 add-on board called the Build HAT (an acronym for “Hardware Attached on Top”) that can connect to the computer on one end while attaching to Lego components on the other.

      • Common Sense – using the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT on Ubuntu Impish Indri | Ubuntu

        Dave Jones from the Canonical Raspberry Pi team has put together a helpful guide for those getting started with the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT on Ubuntu Impish Indri. We’ve reproduced an edited version below, or you can read the full post on his blog along with other great Raspberry Pi tips!

      • Wheeled payload robot can control elevators

        SLAMTEC’s wheeled “Hermes” robot runs Android on an RK3399 and can carry up to 16 kg payloads. The autonomous bot includes 360° Lidar, depth cameras, WiFi and 4G links, a 7.5-hour battery, and an elevator controller.

      • RK3399-based programmable wheeled robot works across multiple floors

        Powered by a Rockchip RK3399 mainboard, the Hermes robot platform supports autonomous path-finding, robot collaboration, cross-floor delivery, smart obstacle avoidance, safety features, and autonomous Recharging. It can be controlled with a REST API, programmed with C++ SDK, or a program called RoboStudio available for Windows and Android.

      • Open Hardware/Modding

        • ESP32 Clock Pushes Outrun Graphics Over Composite | Hackaday

          We’ve covered plenty of clocks powered by the ESP32, but this one from [Marcio Teixeira] is really something special. Rather than driving a traditional physical display, the microcontroller is instead generating a composite video signal of an animated digital clock. This could be fed into whatever device you wish, but given the 80’s synthwave style it’s pumping out, you’ll probably want to find a suitably retro CRT to do it justice.

        • The Quadrivium EnsembleBot Is A Labour Of Love

          The Quadrivium EnsembleBot project is a mashup between old school musical instruments and the modern MIDI controlled world. Built by a small team over several years, these hand crafted instruments look and sound really nice.

          [...]

          This project is by no means unique, lately we’ve covered controlling a church organ with MIDI, as well as a neat Arduino Orchestra, but the EnsembleBot is just so much more.

      • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Events

        • Five of Tuesday’s ‘All Things Open’ Presentations We Wouldn’t Miss

          Yesterday — just in case you were looking for something to do — we told you about five talks on Monday’s All Things Open schedule that we were planning on watching online (which we did, and they were even better than expected).

          Today, we’re doing the same with ATO’s Tuesday schedule, because hey, that’s just the way we roll. You might have noticed yesterday that we left the keynotes off our list, which we’re also doing today. The way we look at it is that if we have to tell you that you need to watch the keynotes, there’s not much we can do for you.

      • Web Browsers

        • Mozilla

          • How to try out the open-source Firefox alternative LibreWolf on Linux

            Firefox is a great browser. The developers of Firefox do a lot for the web, and without it, we’d all be stuck using Chromium on Linux. However, as time goes on, Firefox has gotten worse with its practices. If you’re tired of the experiments and the business practices Mozilla is up to, there’s LibreWolf.

            LibreWolf is a fork of Firefox proper. It is open-source and works on Mac OS, Linux, and Windows. Best of all, it removes all of the shady things Mozilla has been up to. Here’s how you can try out LibreWolf on Linux.

          • William Lachance: Learning about Psychological Safety at the Recurse Center

            Some context: I’m currently working as a software engineer at Mozilla, building out our data pipeline and analysis tooling. I’ve been at my current position for more than 10 years (my “anniversary” actually passed while I was out). I started out as a senior engineer in 2011, and was promoted to staff engineer in 2016. In tech-land, this is a really long tenure at a company. I felt like it was time to take a break from my day-to-day, explore some new ideas and concepts, and hopefully expose myself to a broader group of people in my field.

            My original thinking was that I would mostly be spending this time building out an interactive computation environment I’ve been working on called Irydium. And I did quite a bit of that. However, I think the main thing I took away from this experience was some insight on what makes a remote environment for knowledge work really “click”. In particular, what makes somewhere feel psychologically safe, and how this feeling allows us to innovate and do our best work.

            While the Recurse Center obviously has different goals than an organization that builds and delivers consumer software, I do think there are some things that it does that could be applied to Mozilla (and, likely, many other tech workplaces).

          • [Older] Firefox Now Sends Your Address Bar Keystrokes to Mozilla

            Firefox now sends more data than you might think to Mozilla. To power Firefox Suggest, Firefox sends the keystrokes you type into your address bar, your location information, and more to Mozilla’s servers. Here’s exactly what Firefox is sharing and how to control it.

          • Support.Mozilla.Org: What’s up with SUMO – October 2021

            As we enter October, I hope you’re all pumped up to welcome the last quarter of the year and, basically, wrapping up projects that we have for the remainder of the year. With that spirit, let’s start by welcoming the following folks into our community.

            [...]

            Thanks for Jefferson Scher for straightening the Firefox Suggest confusion on Reddit. That definitely help people to understand the feature better.

          • Welcome Imo Udom, Mozilla’s new Senior Vice President, Innovation Ecosystems

            I am delighted to share that Imo Udom has joined Mozilla as Senior Vice President, Innovation Ecosystems. Imo brings a unique combination of strategy, technical and product expertise and an entrepreneurial spirit to Mozilla and our work to design, develop and deliver new products and services.

          • Taskgraph Diff | Hunting the Shmoo

            Introducing taskgraph –diff to help validate your task configuration changes.

      • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

        • Announcing the election for the next TDF Board of Directors

          On October 18, we officially announced the upcoming election for the next Board of Directors of The Document Foundation, the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice.

          As per § 7 II of our statutes (binding German version and non-binding English translartion) the Board’s term lasts two years. The current Board started its duty on February 18, 2020. Therefore, the old Board remains in charge until the end of February 17, 2022, so the new Board will be in charge the day after that, which is February 18, 2022.

          That upcoming term will then (regularly) end on February 17, 2024, so the next election of the Board of Directors will take place before.

          As per § 6 III, only members of the Board of Trustees of The Document Foundation, as well as current members of any of its bodies, are eligible to be elected into the Board of Directors, and the election is prepared and supervised by the Membership Committee (§ 7 II).

      • FSF

        • Licensing/Legal

          • Complaint (direct link)
          • Software Freedom Conservancy files lawsuit against California TV manufacturer Vizio Inc. for GPL violations

            Software Freedom Conservancy announced today it has filed a lawsuit against Vizio Inc. for what it calls repeated failures to fulfill even the basic requirements of the General Public License (GPL).

            The lawsuit alleges that Vizio’s TV products, built on its SmartCast system, contain software that Vizio unfairly appropriated from a community of developers who intended consumers to have very specific rights to modify, improve, share, and reinstall modified versions of the software.

          • SFC files suit against Vizio over GPL violations [LWN.net]

            Software Freedom Conservancy has announced that it filed suit against TV maker Vizio over “repeated failures to fulfill even the basic requirements of the General Public License (GPL)”. The organization raised the problems with Vizio in August 2018, but the company stopped responding in January 2020, according to the announcement.

          • Software Freedom Conservancy sues Vizio for GPL violations

            The SFC is suing Vizio because its SmartCast OS is based on Linux. Linux’s source code is protected under the GPL version 2 (GPLv2). Besides the Linux kernel, the other GPL’d and Lesser GPL (LGPL)’d code in SmartCast includes U-Boot, bash, gawk, tar, Glibc, and FFmpeg. In short, Vizio is using the code without permission.

            This can’t come as any surprise. Vizio has been made well aware of this problem. The company was first informed that it had violated the GPLv2 for not releasing SmartCast OS’s source code by the SFC in August 2018. After over a year of diplomatic attempts to work with the company, the Conservancy declared that not only was the company still refusing to comply, but it had stopped responding to inquiries altogether as of January 2020.

  • Leftovers

    • Hardware

      • VCF East Roars Back To Life | Hackaday

        It didn’t take long to realize that the 2021 Vintage Computer Festival East — returning to the InfoAge Science and History Museum in Wall, New Jersey after being held virtually last year — was a massive success. In fact, the first clue came before I even got out of my car. When a volunteer came up to my window to apologetically explain that the primary parking lot was already full and I’d have to drive down the road to an overflow lot, there was no question about it; a whole lot of folks were more than ready to shake off those pandemic blues and get back to business.

      • Drone And High Voltage Spin Up This DIY Corona Motor | Hackaday

        The average Hackaday user could probably piece together a rough model of a simple DC motor with what they’ve got kicking around the parts bin. We imagine some of you could even get a brushless one up and running without too much trouble. But what about an electrostatic corona motor? If your knowledge of turning high voltage into rotational energy is a bit rusty, let [Jay Bowles] show you the ropes in his latest Plasma Channel video.

        Like many of his projects, this corona motor relies on a few sheets of acrylic, a handful of fasteners, and a healthy dose of physics. The actual construction and wiring of the motor is, if you’ll excuse the pun, shockingly simple. Of course part of that is due to the fact that the motor is only half the equation, you still need a high voltage source to get it running.

    • Health/Nutrition

      • How food became the perfect beachhead for gentrification

        Everybody, it seems, welcomes the arrival of new restaurants, cafés, food trucks and farmers markets.

        What could be the downside of fresh veggies, homemade empanadas and a pop-up restaurant specializing in banh mis?

        But when they appear in unexpected places – think inner-city areas populated by immigrants – they’re often the first salvo in a broader effort to rebrand and remake the community. As a result, these neighborhoods can quickly become unaffordable and unrecognizable to longtime residents.

        [...]

        It’s uncontroversial and has broad appeal. It taps into the American Dream and appeals to the multicultural values of many educated, wealthy foodies. Small food businesses, with their relatively low cost of entry, have been a cornerstone of ethnic entrepreneurship in American cities. And initiatives like farmers markets and street fairs don’t require much in the way of public investment; instead, they rely on entrepreneurs and community-based organizations to do the heavy lifting.

        In City Heights, the Community Development Corporation hosted its first annual City Heights Street Food Festival in 2019 to “get people together around table and food stalls to celebrate another year of community building.” Other recent events have included African Restaurant Week, Dia de Los Muertos, New Year Lunar Festival, Soul Food Fest and Brazilian Carnival, all of which rely on food and drink to attract visitors and support local businesses.

        Meanwhile, initiatives such as the New Roots Community Farm and the City Heights Farmers’ Market have been launched by nonprofits with philanthropic support in the name of “food justice,” with the goal of reducing racial disparities in access to healthy food and empowering residents – projects that are particularly appealing to highly educated people who value diversity and democracy.

      • Christian Celebrity Says She’s ‘Pro-Medical Freedom’ Amid COVID Vax Mandates
    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Security

          • Security updates for Tuesday

            Security updates have been issued by Debian (redmine and strongswan), Fedora (containerd, fail2ban, grafana, moby-engine, and thunderbird), openSUSE (curl, firefox, glibc, kernel, libqt5-qtsvg, rpm, ssh-audit, systemd, and webkit2gtk3), Red Hat (389-ds:1.4, curl, kernel, kernel-rt, redis:5, and systemd), SUSE (util-linux), and Ubuntu (ardour, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.11, and strongswan).

          • Best Open Source Security Tools | eSecurityPlanet

            Over the past quarter of a century, the open source movement has gone from strength to strength. But that success and the openness inherent in the community have led to a major challenge – security. The more software that is developed, the greater the likelihood there is for vulnerabilities.

            To make matters worse, the open source world prides itself on openness and transparency. Therefore, any security vulnerabilities are disclosed publicly. In this age of organized gangs of cybercriminals, that is like placing an ad asking for an attack.

            This has given rise to a large number of open source security tools. They take care of all aspects of the management of security in open source components, examine dependencies, fix bugs in code, and lower risk.

          • Credit card PINs can be guessed even when covering the ATM pad

            Researchers have proven it’s possible to train a special-purpose deep-learning algorithm that can guess 4-digit card PINs 41% of the time, even if the victim is covering the pad with their hands.

            The attack requires the setting up of a replica of the target ATM because training the algorithm for the specific dimensions and key spacing of the different PIN pads is crucially important.

          • Using Machine Learning to Guess PINs from Video – Schneier on Security

            This works even if the person is covering the pad with their hands.

          • Google Developing “SiliFuzz” For Fuzzing CPUs To Uncover Electrical Defects – Phoronix

            With OSS-Fuzz for continuous fuzzing of open-source projects and along with working on the various sanitizers for compilers, Google has been doing a lot for proactively uncovering software defects in key open-source projects. Now though a group of their engineers have been working on SiliFuzz for software aiming to discover new CPU defects.

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • DHS Wants Wearables to Track Employee Health at Work and at Home

              The Homeland Security Department wants to build a tech solution to monitor the health and stress levels of its employees to help identify when workers need assistance—due to physical or mental weariness—and optimize “human performance and resiliency” among the workforce.

              The department issued a call for proposals looking for solutions that incorporate biometric technologies to monitor employees’ health and “psychosocial information” entered into the software by the user. That data will be supported by algorithms that can alert employees to oncoming physical and mental health issues and suggest actions that can be taken to avert those breakdowns.

              “The scope of this project is to find innovative technological solutions that will improve the overall health and wellness of those consistently placed in high-stress and dangerous conditions,” the call states. “DHS is seeking capabilities that not only promote intervention action when necessary, but preemptively and in real-time optimize DHS personnel performance and resilience.”

            • Profiling for USA 2024 is already happening

              In the social media industry, data is the product. Facebook’s APIs allow me to pull some aggregate data but other methods let me scrape the profiles of people who interact with my posts.

              [...]

              Such an engine could power potent networks of political disinformation. Major companies have long had far more powerful targeting tools at their disposal, but those tools are too expensive for politicians and aren’t aimed squarely at the traits that drive political engagement.

    • Environment

      • Energy

        • Enough of batteries, already! [Ed: An economy made to increase waste for the same of profit]

          The Internet of Things should embed polluting electronics in billions of things that mostly don’t really need it. We already know that. Less considered is the contribution of this pollution by another phenomenon, much smaller in size, but much more important, and hopefully much more lasting in the long run: the Makers Movement.

        • Urban air travel, this is not

          The problem: While consumers and businesses are increasingly converting to electric ground vehicles, air travel remains a carbon-intensive industry.

    • Finance

      • Research: Remote Work Now Accounts for Nearly 15% of all High Paying Jobs

        Ladders, Inc. data scientists analyzed tens of thousands of high-paying job openings in the US and Canada. They dug into not only those 100K+ jobs listed on theladders.com, but also high-paying jobs available across the largest 50,000 employers, which are responsible for the majority of all hiring. Cenedella says the research shows this is not a passing trend. “This is not a fad. The future of work is here now,” he said. “This is great news for employees seeking better work/life balance. You often hear people are happy to work in their pajamas but this is so much deeper than that. People who work remotely have more time to invest in family and personal wellness. You can’t put a price on that.”

      • Remote Career Opportunities Show No Sign of Slowing

        The Ladders study found that remote job opportunities represented nearly 15 percent of all high-paying job listings in the third quarter of 2021, up from about 13 percent in Q2. “There are currently more than 30,000 high-paying remote jobs available in the US and Canada,” the study reports.

        “This is not a fad. The future of work is here now,” says Ladders CEO Marc Cenedella. “This is great news for employees seeking better work/life balance.”

    • Monopolies

      • Amazon sent a man through my neighborhood to figure out why so many packages are being stolen.

        Today, a man named Mario, from Amazon, came through our neighborhood. He stopped by my apartment building and rang a bunch of the doorbells and talked to some of us about stolen packages.

        The consensus among the tenants was just that we lived in a bad neighborhood.

        It’s in Waukegan, IL, and just blocks from where the riots and looting pretty much tore through the town last year.

        The cops pretty much just hide out in the police station doing nothing and playing with themselves, or occasionally venture out to write up some paperwork, or issue traffic tickets, so when the looting happened, the cops pretty much arrested 6 people out of hundreds and called it a day.

        Mail theft, early in the morning, and package theft, are of course, easy crimes to get away with. Especially when the cops don’t care.

      • Patents

        • SACEPO discusses digital transformation and data protection [Ed: EPO management looking to distract, yet again, from its gross privacy violations by throwing money at the problem and writing misleading press releases]

          The SACEPO Working Party on Rules met on 14 October 2021 via videoconference to discuss legal changes that will further enable the digitalisation of the patent grant process and enhance data protection.

          Stakeholders from the patent profession and user communities were consulted on the Office’s plans for amending the EPC Implementing Regulations, so as to bring a variety of rules into line with the new digital environment. EPO representatives reported on the implementation of the order of the Enlarged Board of Appeal in referral G1/21, as well as the ongoing evaluation of the pilot project for the conduct of oral proceedings by videoconference (on which a full analysis will be published in the coming weeks).

        • New EPO study: Europe and US are leading innovation in plastic recycling and alternative plastics globally, patent data shows [Ed: A new greenwashing campaign]

          From a global perspective, Europe and the US are leading innovation in plastic recycling and alternative plastics technologies, a new study published today by the European Patent Office (EPO) shows. Europe and the US each accounted for 30% of patenting activity worldwide in these sectors between 2010 and 2019, or 60% combined. Within Europe, Germany posted the highest share of patent activity in both plastic recycling and bioplastic technologies (8% of global total), while France, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium stand out for their higher specialisation in these fields.

        • Patents to tackle plastic waste on the rise [Ed: EPO now pays German media to produce propaganda and lies about patents, as if monopolies will save the planet]

          There are currently thousands of different types of plastic available and the lion’s share of new plastic soon ends up as waste. As mountains of the used stuff continue to pile up around the world, people are looking for new ways to reduce, reuse and recycle some of it. But getting rid of even a tiny amount of it will be a gargantuan job, especially with the popularity of hard-to-recycle products and single-use plastic.

          In 2019, nearly 370 million tons of plastic were produced globally, according to the PlasticsEurope trade association. Most of it was synthesized from oil or natural gas. That’s just another reason why many inventors are now tackling the issue in a multitude of ways like making things easier to recycle or even looking for alternatives to conventional plastics altogether.

          Currently, the US and Europe are tied for the number of recycling-related and bioplastic technology patents, according to a study released Tuesday by the European Patent Office (EPO). Combined they account for 60% of global patents between 2010 and 2019 to make the plastic industry more circular.
          This may seem like old data, but since patent applications are often filed years before products or processes actually appear for consumers, such information can be a good indicator of things to come. And what the EPO sees is growing innovation in recycling and alternative plastics.

        • Slovenia deposits ratifications of UPC Agreement and its Protocol on Provisional Application [Ed: Slovenia is irrelevant to the UPCA because UPC can never happen without the UK. Team UPC spin mode persists regardless.]

          As reported here, Slovenia’s legislation ratifying the Protocol on the Provisional Application (PPA) of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA) came into force on 24 September 2021. The instrument of ratification, however, was not immediately deposited with the Council of the EU. The deposition was, however, effected on 15 October, together with that of Slovenia’s instrument of ratification of the UPCA itself. Slovenia’s ratification of the PPA is, therefore, now effective; as recorded here and here.

        • Slovenia ratifies PPA and Unifed Patent Court Agreement [Ed: This is just Bristows again, using yet another blog with recycled talking points]

          According to a message of the UPC Preparatory Committee, this brings “the Unified Patent Court one step closer to its launch”.

          “Thanks to the Slovenian ratification and following the recent ratification of the PAP-Protocol by the German government, one last ratification (or expression to be bound) is now necessary in order for the Court to enter the final phase of its set-up”, the Committee has stated.

        • Bill Gates Patents

          • Burger King still sells the “Impossible Whopper”, AKA Bill’s Burgers, but wants $1.49 more for the meal with lab garbage.

            Burger King still sells the “Impossible Whopper”, AKA Bill’s Burgers (he’s heavily invested in Beyond Meat as well), but wants $1.49 more for the meal with lab garbage.

            I was at Burger King last night with my spouse and noticed this.

            Bill Gates said at one point that he admitted that the fake burgers aren’t as good and the beef industry wants to have labeling laws that make you call them “lab garbage”, which is what they are.

            Why would I bother to write this? It gives me an excuse to pull this out after 23 years. I found it on an old back up of my website from when I was 14.

            Maybe this is the patented process for Bill’s Burgers too. Anyway, the Burger King deal was a natural fit, as Bill was so evasive and told so many Impossible Whoppers in the US v. Microsoft case that even the judge broke down and laughed.

[Meme] Giving the Knee

Posted in Europe, Law, Patents at 8:27 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Kratochvìl “just doin’ his job”…

Kratochvìl: What are you looking at, Punk?

Summary: The 'knee' champion Kratochvìl and 'kneel' champion Erlingsdóttir are simply crushing the law; they’re ignoring the trouble of EPO staff and abuses of the Office, facilitated by the Council itself (i.e. facilitated by themselves)

Josef Kratochvìl Rewarded Again for Covering Up EPO Corruption and the EPO Bribes the Press for Lies Whilst Also Lying About Its Colossal Privacy Violations

Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 6:31 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Related: EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law — Summing Up: EPO Administrative Council Still Asleep at the Wheel

How do I sleep at night? On a big pile of dirty cash
The EPO’s corruption is the norm now

Summary: Corrupt officials and officials who actively enable the crimes still control the Office and also the body which was supposed to oversee it; it’s pretty evident and clear judging by this week’s press statements at the EPO’s official Web site

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME. PUTTING aside the latest misleading noise from Team UPC (we can dispute the lies with a bunch of funny memes alone; more in Daily Links later tonight), over the past couple of days the EPO‘s “Mafia” showed that nothing is going to change; they want us to think that swapping/replacing Benoît Battistelli with his French friend António Campinos magically solved all the problems; nothing could be further from the truth and it’s not “business as usual”.

As a gesture akin to slaps across the face of EPO staff, the EPO proudly heralded (warning: epo.org link) that “[t]he Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation convened for its 168th meeting on Wednesday 13 October 2021. At the meeting the Council members re-elected Josef Kratochvìl (CZ) as its Chairperson for another three-year term in office commencing in January 2022. They also re-elected Johannes Karcher (DE) as the Deputy Chairperson to the Committee on Patent Law, as well as appointing a new Boards of Appeal Committee member.”

They also entertained the person they’re supposed to supervise: “The meeting agenda included an activities report by the President of the European Patent Office, highlighting the Office’s substantial progress with SP2023 to date, despite the unprecedented challenges of the past two years. Praising strong teamwork by staff, the President underlined the continued success of internal job mobility, lively discussions on quality – both among staff and with stakeholders – and positive developments in European and international co-operation activities. An update was also provided on the progress of the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court, which was welcomed by member states and user representatives present.

What “progress of the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court”? The faked progress? The fabrications? The false media coverage?

A new greenwashing campaign has also just been announced (warning: epo.org link), saying that “Europe and the US are leading innovation in plastic recycling and alternative plastics technologies, a new study published today by the European Patent Office (EPO) shows. Europe and the US each accounted for 30% of patenting activity worldwide in these sectors between 2010 and 2019, or 60% combined. Within Europe, Germany posted the highest share of patent activity in both plastic recycling and bioplastic technologies (8% of global total), while France, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium stand out for their higher specialisation in these fields.”

What does that have to do with patents? They want us to think that a patent monopoly helps the planet, as if monopolies will somehow increase adoption of solutions… that’s false, but they have already planted this propaganda in mainstream German media, even in English. In other words, the EPO likely pays already-compromised German media to produce propaganda and lies about patents. That same media can then not criticise the EPO; it’s like an implicit non-disparagement agreement.

Finally — and perhaps most shameful of it all — the EPO’s autocrats now use buzzwords like “digitalisation” (they also use that to promote European software patents, incidentally) to cover up (warning: epo.org link) severe privacy violations and outsourcing of EPO data to Microsoft in the United States. Notice how EPO management is looking to distract, yet again, from its gross privacy violations by throwing money at the problem and writing misleading press releases. Josef Kratochvìl played a major role in this cover-up and it’s framed like North Korean propaganda with yet another one of those “Working Parties”; to quote:

The SACEPO Working Party on Rules met on 14 October 2021 via videoconference to discuss legal changes that will further enable the digitalisation of the patent grant process and enhance data protection.

Stakeholders from the patent profession and user communities were consulted on the Office’s plans for amending the EPC Implementing Regulations, so as to bring a variety of rules into line with the new digital environment. EPO representatives reported on the implementation of the order of the Enlarged Board of Appeal in referral G1/21, as well as the ongoing evaluation of the pilot project for the conduct of oral proceedings by videoconference (on which a full analysis will be published in the coming weeks).

G1/21 was an absolute catastrophe for the EPO's credibility, but notice how they’re framing it. The EPO is a failed institution, run by people who actively participate in corruption, law-breaking, and cover-up. Team UPC has found its match.

[Meme] Sorry, Wrong Country (Or: Slovenia isn’t Great Britain)

Posted in Europe, Patents at 5:57 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

What do you mean we need the UK to ratify??? Slovenia is in England

Summary: Team UPC is trying to go ahead with a total hoax which a high-level European court would certainly put an end to (if or when a referral is initiated)

How Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden Voted on Patently Unlawful Regulations at the EPO

Posted in Europe, Patents at 5:46 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum fb3a71cfef7ba19bc878961d1b9bdd29

Summary: We look back and examine what happened 8 years ago when oppressed staff was subjected to unlawful new “regulations” (long enjoyed by António Campinos, the current EPO autocrat)

THE seventeenth part of the current EPO series has just been published and the video above contains more personal views and offbeat interpretation.

“As we shall show shortly, the EPO wrapped up last week’s meeting with self-serving lies and hogwash.”As mentioned repeatedly over the years, it would be handy to have leaks associated with the salary of Benoît Battistelli and the rumoured personal rewards (basically bribes) for Jesper Kongstad, who is still mostly unpunished for his role in attacking European citizens for personal gain.

As we shall show shortly, the EPO wrapped up last week’s meeting with self-serving lies and hogwash. The EPO is incapable of fixing itself. It bribes publishers instead (to control the narrative or set false perceptions).

The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVII: The Non-Monolithic Nordic Bloc

Posted in Europe, Patents at 5:22 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Series parts:

  1. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part I: Let the Sunshine In!
  2. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part II: A “Unanimous” Endorsement?
  3. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part III: Three Missing Votes
  4. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IV: The Founding States
  5. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part V: Germany Says “Ja”
  6. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VI: A Distinct Lack of Dutch Courage
  7. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VII: Luxembourgish Laxity
  8. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VIII: Perfidious Albion and Pusillanimous Hibernia
  9. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IX: More Holes Than Swiss Cheese
  10. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part X: Introducing the Controversial Christian Bock
  11. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XI: “General Bock” – Battistelli’s Swiss Apprentice?
  12. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XII: The French Connection
  13. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIII: Battistelli’s Iberian Facilitators – Spain
  14. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIV: Battistelli’s Iberian Facilitators – Portugal
  15. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XV: Et Tu Felix Austria…
  16. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVI: The Demise of the Austrian Double-Dipper
  17. YOU ARE HERE ☞ The Non-Monolithic Nordic Bloc

Jesper Kongstad and his deputy Anne Rejnhold Jørgensen
The Danish representatives: Jesper Kongstad and his deputy Anne Rejnhold Jørgensen

Summary: We start our investigation of how countries in northern Europe ended up voting on the unlawful “Strike Regulations” at the EPO and why

In this part we turn our attention to the delegations representing the EPO’s Nordic states and look at the positions that they took on Benoît Battistelli‘s “Strike Regulations” in June 2013.

To begin with, it’s worth noting that three of these states – namely, Denmark, Norway, Iceland – have established a regional body called the Nordic Patent Institute (NPI) for the purpose of promoting collaboration in patent-related matters, in particular in the area of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) administered by WIPO in Geneva.

The establishment of such a regional institute was first mooted at a meeting of the Nordic Council of Ministers in September 2003. This led to the publication of a “Feasibility Study on the Establishment of a Joint Nordic PCT Authority” in September 2004 which proposed various models for co-operation.

“Such fundamental divergences of opinion among the Nordic delegations commonly occur in relation to EPO affairs. Each delegation tends to follow its own line and they rarely, if ever, achieve an overarching consensus or act as a monolithic bloc.”However, when discussions started, no consensus could be achieved on the question of which model should prevail. This led to Finland and Sweden backing out of the discussions and, to this day, they remain outside the NPI.

Such fundamental divergences of opinion among the Nordic delegations commonly occur in relation to EPO affairs. Each delegation tends to follow its own line and they rarely, if ever, achieve an overarching consensus or act as a monolithic bloc.

Back in June 2013, the Administrative Council was chaired by the head of the Danish delegation: Jesper Kongstad, a figure who needs no introduction to readers of Techrights.

“…it is rumoured among EPO insiders that Battistelli literally had Kongstad “in his back pocket”. According to these rumours, Battistelli arranged for “his” Council Chairman to be paid the equivalent of a Principal Director’s salary from EPO funds.”Kongstad had previously acted as the Deputy Chairman of the Council following Battistelli’s election as Chairman in March 2009.

In the summer of 2009, both Battistelli and Kongstad – the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Council – announced that they were standing as candidates in the race to elect a successor to Alison Brimelow, the departing President of the Office.

After a couple of inconclusive rounds of voting, the two rivals eventually agreed to a “pact” which saw Battistelli being elected as President of the Office and Kongstad assuming the position of Council Chairman.

In his subsequent role as Council Chairman Kongstad always acted in very close concert with the Office President Battistelli.

“Although no official investigation has ever been carried out into this suspected act of corruption, the rumours come from credible inside sources and have a high degree of plausibility.”Indeed, it is rumoured among EPO insiders that Battistelli literally had Kongstad “in his back pocket”. According to these rumours, Battistelli arranged for “his” Council Chairman to be paid the equivalent of a Principal Director’s salary from EPO funds.

Although no official investigation has ever been carried out into this suspected act of corruption, the rumours come from credible inside sources and have a high degree of plausibility.

If true, these rumours would certainly explain a lot about Kongstad’s behaviour as Council Chairman during the “Battistelli era” and why he was prepared to endorse so many manifestly flawed and controversial measures submitted to the Council by Battistelli.

Battistelli and Kongstad

It is rumoured among EPO insiders that Battistelli literally had Kongstad “in his back pocket” and had arranged for “his” Council Chairman to be paid the equivalent of a Principal Director’s salary from EPO funds.

In any event, Kongstad gave his unqualified endorsement to the “Strike Regulations” submitted to the Council by Battistelli for adoption in June 2013.

“…Kongstad gave his unqualified endorsement to the “Strike Regulations” submitted to the Council by Battistelli for adoption in June 2013.”However, Battistelli’s Great Dane only had a partial success in persuading his Nordic peers to support the proposed full frontal assault on the fundamental rights of EPO staff.

More precisely, the pro-Battistelli position taken by the Danish delegation was followed by Iceland and Finland but opposed by Sweden and Norway.

Borghildur Erlingsdóttir and her deputy Elfa Íshólm Ólafsdóttir
The Icelandic representatives: Borghildur Erlingsdóttir and her deputy Elfa Íshólm Ólafsdóttir

At the time in question, the Icelandic delegation was headed by Borghildur Erlingsdóttir who was assisted by her deputy Elfa Íshólm Ólafsdóttir, the Head of the Icelandic Patent Office’s Finance and Operation Division.

“In the case of the “Strike Regulations” of June 2013, Icelandic support for this contentious proposal may have been influenced by another factor.”Historically, the Nordic microstate of Iceland used to be a dependency of Denmark until it became independent in 1944. In relation to EPO affairs, the Icelandic delegation generally tends to follow the position taken by its Danish hegemon.

In the case of the “Strike Regulations” of June 2013, Icelandic support for this contentious proposal may have been influenced by another factor.

By a curious coincidence, a mere fortnight before the 136th Council meeting took place in Munich, the great and good of the “European Patent Network” convened in Reykjavík to discuss “how to bring co-operation forward in order to improve the quality and efficiency of the European patent system, and thus better serve industry”.

“It’s not clear who exactly footed the bill for this extravaganza but it’s quite probable that the bulk of the funding came out of the EPO’s coffers.”This “co-operation meeting” which was hosted by the Icelandic Patent Office was attended by representatives of the EPO and its member states as well as representatives of the EUIPO/OHIM in its observer capacity.

It’s not clear who exactly footed the bill for this extravaganza but it’s quite probable that the bulk of the funding came out of the EPO’s coffers.

Needless to say Battistelli was in attendance and he took advantage of the occasion to pose for a photo-op with the Icelandic Minister of Industry and Commerce, Ragnheiður Árnadóttir, and the Director General of the Icelandic Patent Office, Borghildur Erlingsdóttir.

Lutz and Battistelli in Iceland
Lutz and Battistelli with Minister of Industry and Commerce Ragnheiður Árnadóttir (2nd from right) and head of the Icelandic Patent Office Borghildur Erlingsdóttir (right) in Reykjavík (12 June 2013).

Given the attention which Battistelli lavished on the Icelanders in advance of the Council’s 136th Meeting, it’s hardly surprising that he succeeded in capturing their vote for all of the “reforms” which he put on the agenda at that meeting, including the “Strike Regulations”.

“Given the attention which Battistelli lavished on the Icelanders in advance of the Council’s 136th Meeting, it’s hardly surprising that he succeeded in capturing their vote for all of the “reforms” which he put on the agenda at that meeting, including the “Strike Regulations”.”All things considered, the voting record of the Icelandic delegation on the EPO’s Administrative Council during the Battistelli era at the EPO gives the impression that it was well and truly "captured".

In March 2015, the Icelandic press reported excitedly that the head of the delegation – Borghildur Erlingsdóttir – had been appointed to the Board of the Administrative Council, the exclusive “inner circle” which prepares the agenda for the Council’s quarterly meetings.

“All things considered, the voting record of the Icelandic delegation on the EPO’s Administrative Council during the Battistelli era at the EPO gives the impression that it was well and truly “captured”. “A couple of years later at the 159th meeting (warning: epo.org link) of the Council in March 2019, she advanced to the position of deputy Chair of the Council.

Borghildur’s advancement among the ranks of the Administrative Council delegates may have been a coincidence but many EPO insiders believe that it was intended as recognition of her earlier support for “le système Battistelli”.

“Borghildur’s advancement among the ranks of the Administrative Council delegates may have been a coincidence but many EPO insiders believe that it was intended as recognition of her earlier support for “le système Battistelli”.”In her spare time, Borghildur who comes from Seltjarnarnes near Reykjavík has enjoyed something of a career as a sportswoman. She is well known in Iceland as a keen practitioner of powerlifting at the Grótta sports club in Seltjarnarnes.

According to Icelandic reports, she was the national champion in the 57 kg category and has also held the Icelandic record in the knee-bend in that weight category. 

Unfortunately, like most of her peers on the EPO’s Administrative Council, Borghildur seems to have been a bit too eager to bend the knee before the tyrant Battistelli.

Powerlifiting-Borghildur-Erlingsdottir
The former Icelandic powerlifiting champion Borghildur Erlingsdóttir seems to have been a bit too eager to bend the knee before EPO tyrant Battistelli.

Her current performance as deputy Chair of the Administrative Council – in particular her continued eagerness to bend the knee before Battistelli’s successor António Campinos – is unlikely to win her any awards, at least not among EPO staff.

Borghildur-Trophies
Borghildur’s performance as deputy Chair of the Administrative Council – in particular her continued eagerness to bend the knee before Battistelli’s successor Campinos – is unlikely to win her any awards among EPO staff.

Getting back now to the events of June 2013, the official record shows that even if the Icelanders were prepared to follow the lead of their Danish hegemon, other Nordic states were less positive about the merits of Battistelli’s proposals.

As we will see in more detail later on, both Sweden and Norway withheld their support.

As a matter of fact, the Norwegian delegation was one of the few delegations that bothered to perform due diligence by referring the matter to the national Ministry for Labour.

“In the end, the well-founded scepticism of Sweden and Norway was not sufficient to dissuade the remaining Nordic state – Finland – from following the Danish lead.”The Norwegian Ministry of Labour [PDF] responded by issuing a negative opinion on the compatibility of the proposed “Strike Regulations” with generally recognised principles of international law which are enshrined in conventions of the International Labour Organisation. This was enough to deter the Norwegian delegation from voting in favour. The Swedish delegation followed suit.

In the end, the well-founded scepticism of Sweden and Norway was not sufficient to dissuade the remaining Nordic state – Finland – from following the Danish lead.

In the next part, we will take a closer look at the Finnish delegation and consider what might have induced it to give its agreement to the adoption of such a patently unlawful proposal.

Proof That Windows “11” is a Hoax

Posted in Deception, Microsoft, Windows at 5:15 pm by Guest Editorial Team

Guest post by Ryan, reprinted with permission from the original

Windows “11” was supposedly a major new version with a refreshed and sleek design.

Except that, thanks to a bug, we can see that all of the old code from Windows 10’s Exploder Shell is embarrassingly still present.

Some people reported that the Windows 10 taskbar was showing up. Microsoft claims that they fixed the issue, which means it should be hidden with all the rest of the crap you aren’t supposed to see, as of Preview Build 22000.282.

Also landed is a “partial fix” for Windows “11” completely screwing up task scheduling worse than it ever was on Windows 10, on AMD Ryzen platforms.

Microsoft claims that it fixed the cache latency problems, but that the operating system is still prone to scheduling tasks to happen on a core that’s too slow to run them well.

Windows Vista had similar task scheduling problems with AMD’s Phenom series, where it would sometimes schedule a task to run on a core that running at the lowest clock speed.

Windows is a disaster, and the fact that they’re advising people to revert to Windows 10 until the “end of November” if they’re affected by things like this, or a File Explorer bug that makes that unusable due to being slow, or any number of other things that will be “fixed any time now” (except it’s Windows, so it’ll always be rotten trash) really says it all.

Remember Vista? “The Wow starts Now!”.

Well, not now. End of November, latest. 😉 I’m sure Windows “11” will work great at the end of November.

After all, Microsoft had six years with Windows 10 to screw around and break people’s computers with crap updates every single month, and we all know that worked so well at the end because now it’s “11” and we’ve got all this stuff playing out.

But Windows is losing market share rapidly as people give up on it and move to all sorts of other things.

They try to downplay the disaster that’s unfolding on them when they now have close to zero presence in high performance computing, dwindling Web server share, and the consumers are fleeing to anything that doesn’t crash and burn all the time, including Chromebooks, Macs, tablets, GNU/Linux distributions, and phones.

It certainly didn’t help them at all that they had that idiot Monkey Man, Steve Ballmer, at the helm, completely dismissing new markets that Microsoft entered too late and then died in.

The company has had no vision an no coherent strategy in software for years except that they want to pack it full of spyware, ads, and Hollywood DRM while it crashes on you and can’t even figure out which AMD core to schedule a program on, and now they’re basically a big patent troll that’s ruining Samsung and making Samsung phones unbearable shit.

No sane person would use or stick around for more of this. The only people defending Microsoft need it so they can draw a paycheck as a shill or fixing it when it breaks down due to some oddball knowledge of when it fails like this do that, when the customer has a virus, boot it from a (Linux) live USB with an antivirus program and remove it that way, etc.

Bonus: Then they released videos like this back in the day. Although it turned out that Uncle Bill really was slinking away from his desk after about an hour each day, it was to go cheat on his wife and to fly on Jeff Epstein’s plane even though Uncle Bill had like nine planes that he had maintained meticulously, and bags with blood of his type onboard, like some kind of Mexican drug cartel boss.

Good times!

Firefox Becomes as Morally Reprehensible as Apple, Facebook, or Uber

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software at 2:15 pm by Guest Editorial Team

Guest post by Ryan, reprinted with permission from the original

Blake Ross

Firefox has been going down the toilet for years.

According to Wikipedia, Blake Ross, one of the original creators of Firefox (it was a fork of the Mozilla Suite, which sort of continues in a badly broken state as Seamonkey….It’s no longer packaged by Debian or Ubuntu due to unfixed security flaws), ended up working at Facebook for several years, and then resigning to go work at Uber.

Both of these companies produce spyware for “smart” phones that run in the background and swipe information about you in real time.

They pretend that they are a social network and an alternative to calling a taxi. However, Facebook is constantly reading your contacts list and text messages, and finding out where you are at, at all times, accurate to within a few feet, if you use their app on your phone.

If you don’t use their app, Samsung now puts Facebook “system services” in their phones that, unless you find them and disable them, also run in the background and use your battery and network to spy on you.

Uber does many unethical things. Recently, it was even caught checking how much battery life you have on your phone. If it’s critically low, the app offers you a higher price for a ride.

Richard Stallman has many pages on why not to use Facebook, Uber, or Apple. In fact, Facebook accused me of spamming for posting links to Mr. Stallman’s website on Facebook.

I barely use Facebook. It grows worse by the minute and so I just don’t use it much anymore. I have an account, but it’s only because they wall off everything if you’re not logged in because they’re competing with the web.

The other creator of Firefox, David Hyatt, left almost right away to take a job offer at Apple to work on Safari. Apple spies and so do very nearly all of the apps. It’s not a “private” alternative to Android, in fact, nearly two-thirds have Google’s tracking libraries, and almost all have at least Apple’s.

If you’re thinking “What odd places for people who are Free Software developers to end up.”, then you’ve made the mistake of confusing Free Software with the watered down alternative, called “Open Source”.

The Free Software side is interested in giving the user freedom to do whatever they want with their computer, and freedom from this sort of abuse by proprietary software companies and their spyware.

The Open Source people are only interested in source code being shared around as a way to develop software.

While most Open Source licenses are Free, and while most Free Software licenses are Open Source, the difference is important.

Even Facebook, Apple, and Uber do some “Open Source”, and some of it even ends up in GNU/Linux distributions. You almost certainly use some right now if you use a GNU/Linux system. In this context, those bits of code are at least probably not hurting you.

But the force behind the “Open Source Movement” are giant corporations who want free labor, and who appeal to the vanity of programmers in order to get it. If you license your program permissively to get “more users”, then those “users” might, in fact, end up being Big Tech companies who roll your program into Windows or the Mac or Facebook, and then use it to attack people and help nation states to murder them, or at least take away their other human rights.

Firefox is not Free Software. It’s not even Open Source anymore.

It includes DRM software that nobody is allowed to study, which is proprietary, and licensed from Google. If you even did go to study it, you might be committing a felony in the United States, and so reporting security issues with it might land you in prison, as those issues may allow someone to bypass DRM.

Mozilla allows you to view the JavaScript source code that they claim sanitizes your keystrokes of personal information, before being sent to an advertising company. DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Policy (which they themselves ignore) mentions that nobody who has claimed to remove personal information has ever actually accomplished that.

In fact, AOL, which is what Mozilla was spun off from, was sued for dumping user search information they claimed to have anonymized, and didn’t.

This raises an interesting point by itself, however. Malware can be open source. Just because you understand how the software they abuse you with works, doesn’t make it non-abusive.

We also catch Mozilla openly lying about data collection and retention. Here’s what the description for Firefox in Flatpak form says.

Mozilla statement

Should read: “At Firefox, we troll people who expect privacy with our misinformation.”

Description of Firefox in the GNOME Software Center taken from Mozilla’s official Flatpak.

Notice the “We never collect or store your personal data.” part. We’ll come back to this.

When Bleeping Computer asked them for a statement on Firefox Suggest, which is a malicious software keylogger that is on by default and sends your typing to both your search engine, Mozilla, and an advertising company, here’s part of their response.

Mozilla quote

So Firefox doesn’t collect your data according to Mozilla, but according to Mozilla, it collects your data. Then, according to Mozilla, it doesn’t store it. Except, according to Mozilla it does. And then according to Mozilla, they don’t share it, except that according to Mozilla they do.

They probably don’t technically “sell” the data that they “share”. The whole point of the scheme is to drive ads, and they are selling your screen to advertisers, and then they “share” the data with the advertisers.

My God, they can’t even keep their lying straight anymore. Did Donald Trump retire and take a job there?

Then to add insult to injury, they now develop all of their software on Microsoft GitHub, which routinely disappears and censors software repositories due to DMCA trolls and various governments with poor human rights records.


Doesn’t Mozilla say they block tracking?

Yes, like Apple, Microsoft, and others, they are working very hard on blocking OTHERS from tracking you. It makes the data that they collect worth more, either internally to force their own ad and spyware network (Apple) on app developers, or to command a higher price for the personal data that they steal from you (Mozilla Firefox Suggest).

Almost every article about Firefox 93 agrees with my position that Suggest is adware driven by a keylogger.

When I searched for news posts about Firefox 93, about 70-80% seemed to be about turning off Firefox Suggest.

While you’d have to be insane to do anything in your browser with it on, the “platform” is growing more hostile to your privacy and freedom by the minute, and it will definitely continue to get worse from there.

Nobody at Mozilla has any scruples. This is a quick cash grab on the way out. Like DuckDuckGo, they spent years pretending to be some kind of an underdog with a “Spread Firefox campaign.”.

One of Spread Firefox’s most enthusiastic supporters was Nathan Lineback, who runs a site called ToastyTech, and it included pages and pages devoted to how godawful Internet Explorer was and how Firefox was the solution.

I emailed him for comment about this, noting that Firefox has been slowly morphing itself into DRM with spyware and adware that also has a web browser in it. Here’s his reply.

Yea, I’ve been inches away from nuking my “firefox is good” pages. I’ve been sticking with a “New Moon” port for Windows XP, but lots of sites are breaking things for no good reason. I remember when one of the advantages was that Firefox was available for almost every OS out there. Crap like DRM and all of this compiling scripts to assembly makes porting that much harder. It really hurts because I used to actively promote Firefox. I’ve still got a bunch of stickers and stuff that the Mozilla folks sent me because I participated in their SpreadFirefox event for Firefox 3. I get so tired of not having control over technology I use. And even more tired of the attitude that I should just put up with it all like some kind of cow. Anyway, thanks for visiting my site.

Nathan Lineback, ToastyTech

He had posted to his rants page, previously, about another user who was fed up with Microsoft Edge, which is only slightly ahead of Firefox in overall nastiness at this point.

Edge now has a “feature” that tells you when you’re shopping for something and a big box retailer like Walmart or Amazon has a price that’s like $1-2 cheaper. When you click on it, there’s a GUID tracker that Microsoft uses in order to get part of the sale as a commission.

I’m guessing that “Firefox Shopping Assistant” isn’t too far away at this point. They’re probably just arguing about how much you’re worth if you’re part of the 3.5% and falling that still uses Firefox.

However, in this article, I have demonstrated that Mozilla has never been led by people who were diametrically opposed to spyware, human rights abuses, and surveillance capitalism. Firefox is the enemy.

At this point, they pitch a VPN, but with all of the shady stuff that’s been going on in there, would you even feel safe about using it?

I wouldn’t.

Firefox new tab
What goes on behind the scenes is worse than you think. Mozilla is selling you to advertisers. Here’s where they can pay to target you. Source: Buy Sell Ads. From the page: “This audience is always looking for new solutions to their technical problems. If you can convert them, they’ll undoubtedly tell their friends and coworkers about your product. The thing is, knowing where they came from isn’t always straightforward.”

« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »

RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Home iconSite Home: Background about the site and some key features in the front page

Chat iconIRC Channels: Come and chat with us in real time

New to This Site? Here Are Some Introductory Resources

No

Mono

ODF

Samba logo






We support

End software patents

GPLv3

GNU project

BLAG

EFF bloggers

Comcast is Blocktastic? SavetheInternet.com



Recent Posts