Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 2/1/2022: Garuda Linux Release for 2022 and EasyOS 3.1.19



  • GNU/Linux

    • Server

      • 4 Hot Free and Open Source PHP Application Servers

        An application server is computer software which provides the business logic for an application program. It offers services such as management of large distributed systems, data services, load balancing, transaction support, and network security. The application server is one part of a three-tier application, consisting of a graphical interface server, an application (business logic) server, and a database / transaction server.

        There are good reasons to deploy an application server in a corporate environment. At a high level, an application server enables updates and upgrades to applications to be distributed to all users. System administrators also benefit from the fact that changes to application configuration can take place centrally, which greatly simplifies technical support and ultimately the end user experience. Application servers also simplify user management, avoiding the need to set up and maintain user-management systems for applications. This type of software also enhances scalability and resource usage, and exposes business components via different deployment wrappers.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How to resolve “.venv/bin/activate” is not executable by this user

        The actual command to activate virtual environment is “source venv/bin/activate” or ” . venv/bin/activate“, but the user may get confused in the case of a hidden directory.

        I think it would be better if you see some of the examples to clear your concept.

      • How To Install Clonezilla on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Clonezilla on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Clonezilla is a suite of open source drive cloning, drive imaging, and system deployment utilities used to simplify the deployment and maintenance of a group of computers. With Clonezilla, not only you can perform a full backup of a device data blocks directly to another drive but also known disk cloning, but you can also backup entire disks or individual partitions remotely (using SSH, Samba, or NFS shares) or locally to images which can be all encrypted and stored in central backup storage.

        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 Clonezilla OpenSource clone system (OCS) 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 MySQL 8.0 on Fedora 35 - LinuxCapable

        MySQL is a relational database management system based on SQL (Structured Query Language). It is one of the most widely used database software for several well-known applications. MySQL is used for data warehousing, e-commerce, and logging applications, but its more commonly used feature is a web database storage and management.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install MySQL 8.0 on Fedora 35 Workstation or Server.

      • How to Install MariaDB 10.7 on Fedora 35 - LinuxCapable

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

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

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install MariaDB 10.7 on Fedora 35 Workstation or Server.

      • Install Wildfly application server on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS - Linux Shout

        Tutorial to learn the commands to install WildFly (JBoss) latest version on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa or 22.04 Jammy Jelly Fish using its repository and terminal.

        WildFly is a free open-source application server written in Java that runs Java programs. The project emerged from the well-established Java application server but not active any – JBoss, a name used by Red Hat. So, WildFly is a successor of JBoss maintained by RedHat developers and the community.

        Like its predecessor, Wildfly specification and compilation of components, mainly for web services and communication, are not included in the Java SDK.

        The management concept of the application server is based on a generic, untyped management API. Regardless of which management interface is used, all changes are persisted and versioned. All management interfaces of the server are secured by default. These include a CLI, a web-based administration console, a native Java API, an HTTP/JSON-based REST API, and a JMX gateway.

      • How to Install Spotify on Fedora 35 - LinuxCapable

        Spotify is a digital music streaming service with both free and paid features. It is the world’s largest music streaming service provider, with over 381 million monthly active users, including 172 million paying subscribers, as of September 2021. Spotify can give you instant access to a vast online library of music and podcasts, which is very popular as you can listen to the content of your choice whenever you feel like it.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install the Spotify application on your Fedora 35 Workstation using three different methods.

      • How to LXDE Desktop Environment on Fedora 35 - LinuxCapable

        LXDE, or better known as Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment, is a free desktop environment that is known for being lightweight, fast, and energy-efficient which can replace the standard default GNOME Desktop on your Fedora 35 Workstation, which can be desired for users with low powered computers, laptops, and netbooks.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Unity Desktop Environment on your Fedora 35 Workstation.

    • Distributions

      • The 9 Best Obscure Linux Distros You Probably Didn’t Know About

        The open-source Linux kernel has spawned some excellent distros over time. Unfortunately, not all of these names have managed to turn heads around.

        Despite their limited outreach, each distro mentioned below continues to have its own merits, which makes them special in their own unique way. If you are an unconventional user looking for some not-so-common, obscure Linux distros, then read on for some options.

      • New Releases

        • Garuda Linux Kicks Off 2022 with New Cinnamon Edition, Btrfs Assistant Tool

          Garuda Linux still tries to bring Arch Linux to the masses, and the Garuda Linux 220101 release, dubbed “White-tailed Eagle”, is here to introduce a new community edition featuring the beloved and lightweight Cinnamon desktop environment maintained by the Linux Mint developers.

          Garuda Linux offered a Cinnamon edition some time ago, but it would appear that it was dropped due to the lack of a maintainer. Well, the good news is that the Cinnamon edition is back with a new maintainer, it uses the Cinnamon 5.0 desktop environment and provides users with a slick experience and a bunch of customization options.

        • EasyOS 3.1.19 released

          Another one! A gift for the New Year. The main thing to look for this time, relative to 3.1.17, is improved audio setup.

      • BSD

        • Getting XFCE Global Menu working on OpenBSD

          One thing I miss from Mac OS user interface is the Global Menu that sits on the topbar and changes as you switch applications. It saves a bit of space on the screen. And it’s always on the same place which makes it easy to be reached wherever the app is.

          After quite a lot of trial & errors, I could have the vala-panel-appmenu working on OpenBSD 7.0 using XFCE 4.16.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

    • Devices/Embedded

      • Pine64 launches PinePhone Keyboard case, back covers with LoRa radio, fingerprint scanner, wireless charging
        Pine64’s PinePhone Linux smartphone and its successor, the upcoming PinePhone Pro, are designed to be modular and extensible with a PinePhone Keyboard case prototype showcased here in April 2021 and aimed to transform the phone into what looks like a PDA.

        The design has now been refined, and Pine64 has just launched the PinePhone (Pro) keyboard case for $49.99, together with three back covers with either a LoRa module, a fingerprint scanner, or Qi wireless charging for $9.99 to $24.99 depending on the model. All are now available on Pine64 store.

      • Open Hardware/Modding

        • 800MIPS Amiga With Emu68 and PiStorm

          Unfortunately life took over in the last few months and I haven’t been able to keep up with the speed of changes of PiStorm to relay them to you in a weekly format. I have, however, been playing with Emu68 on PiStorm over Christmas. It is a project that has come a long way so I figured I should explain what it is and what is new in it.

          PiStorm is a combination of hardware and software. The stock software is based on the Musashi 68000 emulator with a bunch of enhancements to add RTG graphics, virtual SCSI support, etc… Then one day along came the Emu68 project which could replace Musashi on PiStorm.

        • Reverse-engineering a tiny 1980s chip that plays Christmas tunes

          For the holidays, I decapped a chip that plays three Christmas melodies. The UM66T melody chip from the 1980s was designed for applications such as greeting cards and toys. It looks like a transistor, but when connected to a battery and speaker it plays music. The die photo below shows the tiny silicon chip that I reverse engineer in this blog post.

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Open Source Security Process Wishlist

        Open Source software (OSS) runs the [Internet] (obligatory xkcd). And it is wonderful. But every now and then, it breaks. And then it may set the [Internet] on fire. OSS is, in this way, both not at all and still really quite different from other software: it ought to be owned, managed, and operated in a responsible manner. And that aspect can often be improved.

        Without suggesting that OSS maintainers owe their users any more of their time and effort than they already provide -- this level of support easily warrants a stately support contract -- there are a few methods and practices that can help a software project better manage security incidents and vulnerabilities. The following is a short list of such processes.

        Most of this may seem obvious to people in the OSS world, in software engineering, or dealing with software security in more general terms. Some of this is tedious and definitely requires additional cycles, work, and effort. But all of this is, I believe, helpful to your users.

      • Matrix and its bridges

        Instead, the purpose of Matrix is the room-oriented data structure (as opposed to how IRC and XMPP have message-oriented data). You preserve a chat, sort of like on Mattermost or Gitter, as opposed to display a chat temporarily pieced together from messages. (This room structure is a bad fit for video/audio, which is why it shells out to XMPP for that.)

      • My Predictions For 2022

        So last night, while walking the dog, I was listening to the latest episode of Late Night Linux where they were talking about their 2021 predictions and made new predictions for 2022.

        I decided it would be fun to do something similar on this blog. So I’m going to make 3 predictions; they probably won’t come true, but hey, it’s a bit of fun, right?

        Ok, with my usual pre-waffle out of the way, let’s get on with it…

      • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • FSF

      • Programming/Development

        • HOWTO AoC

          Some tips about participating in Advent of Code.

          AoC is not a competition

          If you were to go with online opinion, AoC is all about getting the solutions as fast as possible. This is actually not true, apart from the top 100 scorers every day[1]. Many people post their full solution online on the AoC subreddit as soon as the top 100 slots have been filled. So if you want to get 50 stars, you pick a popular language (like Python), hang out in the solutions megathread, and run the first posted solution on your input to get the correct results.

          If your organization has a “competition” where the top scorers in their leaderboard get some reward, don’t participate. It’s too easy to suspect someone of “cheating” for it to be fun.

          Instead, focusing on using the event to expand your skills

        • Developer Network Effects

          AWS recently announced Re:Post, a Q&A site focused on AWS technologies. I think this is a great idea, and is doubling down on a key competency of AWS – there's always someone else who has already done it on AWS. It fills a void left by an aging and stagnant StackOverflow (which was acquired earlier this year by an investment group).

          Q&A sites are one of the most useful developer resources because they aggregate network effects. Copying code from StackOverflow's Q&A has is such a meme that the company came out with a Copy/Paste keyboard for April Fools with only three keys – Control, C, and V. In every meme, there is truth.

        • strlcat(3) > strncat(3)

          In my Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment class, I frequently observe common anti-patterns that appear all too easy for students to adopt. One of those is the unsafe use of strncat(3), which I'll demonstrate here together with an explanation of why you should use strlcat(3) instead.

        • Stems as mock data structures in REXX

          An experimental "Tutorial as Code"

        • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

          • Retrospective: Software Architecture

            The last post in the Winter Blog Backlog series will be about software architecture.

            Why write about this big, fuzzy topic? Because the design of Oil revolves around some controversial architectural decisions, like untyped byte streams as a solid foundation for a modern shell language, and for large distributed systems. A JSON file is a byte stream, and that's a feature, not a bug!

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Airlines ask FCC to again delay C-band 5G rollout near airports beyond Jan. 5

        Airlines for America, which represents 11 US passenger and cargo airlines including Delta, United, FedEx, UPS, Southwest and American, called on the regulatory agency to delay approval for 5G rollout near dozens of the country's busiest airports, such as Dallas-Fort Worth in Texas, John F. Kennedy in New York, Chicago O'Hare in Illinois and San Francisco International in California. AT&T and Verizon previously agreed to delay plans to offer the new 5G service, which uses what is known as C-band airwaves, to Jan. 5.

  • Leftovers

    • Letting Go: Wisdom From Our Grief
    • Education

      • Lessons from my PhD

        Most of what I learned during my PhD had nothing to do with my dissertation topic, grad school, or even computer science.

        These lessons are so ingrained into me now that I'm shocked when I find out that not everyone knows them! I think they can be applied to virtually any office job.

        I've written down a few of the lessons in hopes that my students find them useful: [...]

      • Losers Exist, Don’t Hire Them

        But then it was time for him to interview with me. I didn’t ask him very many questions about sales, advertising operations, invoicing, collections, or any of the handful of other tactical skills we wanted. I just grilled him on the bottom fourth of his resume — you know, the one about hobbies and college.

    • Hardware

      • NeoPixel Punk Console Drives WS2812s Using 555 Timers | Hackaday

        NeoPixels, a type of LED strip with individually addressable pixels, are a firm favorite among creators of intricate light effects. They are popular for their versatility and the ease with which you can daisy-chain them. Although the protocol to drive these little LEDs can be rather tricky to implement due to tight signal timing constraints.

        However, [Adrian Studer] proved that driving WS2812-based LED strips like the NeoPixel series doesn’t necessarily require hand-optimized assembly code. In fact, it doesn’t require any code at all. He built the NeoPixel Punk Console, a device that creates a light show without even using a microcontroller. Just a handful of 555 timers and some 74HC series logic work together to produce pulses with approximately correct timings.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Doctors Urge Medicare to Deny Coverage for Alzheimer’s Drug With Unproven Efficacy and Safety

        As Medicare officials grapple with whether to cover Aduhelm—an€ Alzheimer's medication approved by federal regulators despite a lack of evidence that the exorbitantly priced€ and potentially dangerous drug helps patients—many doctors are urging them not to.

        "This doesn't meet Medicare's 'reasonable and necessary' criteria because the FDA themselves says there's no direct evidence of improved cognition."

      • Dialysis Patients Have Faced a Deadly Catch-22 During the Pandemic
      • As Ban on Most Surprise Medical Bills Takes Effect, Critics Denounce For-Profit Healthcare

        While welcoming a federal ban on most surprise medical bills that went into effect on Saturday, Medicare for All advocates made clear that the new law, which crucially excludes ground ambulances, is only necessary because the United States lacks the superior alternative taken for granted in every other wealthy nation: a single-payer healthcare system.

        "While this is good news for consumers, this is necessary because of our complex multi-payer for-profit healthcare system."

      • Michigan's poorer, minority neighborhoods become 'sacrifice zones' for increased pollution

        In Michigan, if a company asks to pollute more, regulators generally say yes. Only 11 permit requests statewide have been rejected by EGLE over the past seven years, according to agency records obtained by the Free Press through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. Over the same time period, more than 1,700 pollution permits were approved that are still active.

      • Big Cars Are Killing Americans

        Americans have traded sedans for crossovers and SUVs for full-size pickups with total abandon over the past decade. To the extent that we think at all critically about the sheer bulk of the vehicles we drive, we’re usually motivated by environmental concerns. One common notion—though auto-safety experts will say it’s not that simple—is that it’s safer to get around in what’s basically a tank. But those benefits, exaggerated as they may be, are only for people inside the vehicle. People outside—pedestrians, cyclists, wheelchair users—are in more peril.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • SSH Keys are Passwords Too

        Luckily there is one, and it is not only more secure but also improves developer productivity. I’m talking about identity-based, short-lived certificates. In our survey, the innovative companies who had moved to certificates pointed out their enhanced security, great functionality (e.g. ability to easily deliver fine-grained role-based access controls), and how since they automatically expire, they reduce attack surface in time.

      • Proprietary

        • Delhi University uses digilocker to verify more than 1 lakh documents

          DigiLocker is a secure cloud based platform for storage, sharing and verification of documents and certificates. The documents stored in the DigiLocker system are deemed to be equivalent to original physical documents as per law.

          These documents can be validated in real-time using the DigiLocker Scanner, which is included with the DigiLocker Android App, or online using verification Application Programming Interface (API), a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other.

        • Security

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • Police Use of Artificial Intelligence: 2021 in Review

              And for many aspects of life, artificial intelligence is delivering on its promise. AI is, as we speak, looking for evidence of life on Mars. Scientists are using AI to try to develop more accurate and faster ways to predict the weather.

              But when it comes to policing, the actuality of the situation is much less optimistic.€  Our HAL 9000 does not assert its own decisions on the world—instead, programs which claim to use AI for policing just reaffirm, justify, and legitimize the opinions and actions already being undertaken by police departments.

              AI presents two problems,€  tech-washing, and a classic feedback loop. Tech-washing is the process by which proponents of the outcomes can defend those outcomes as unbiased because they were derived from “math.” And the feedback loop is how that math continues to perpetuate historically-rooted harmful outcomes. “The problem of using algorithms based on machine learning is that if these automated systems are fed with examples of biased justice, they will end up perpetuating these same biases,” as one philosopher of science notes.

            • Here's why you probably don't need to rely on a VPN anymore

              VPNs, or virtual private networks, continue to be used by millions of people as a way of masking their [Internet] activity by encrypting their location and web traffic.

              But on the modern [Internet], most people can safely ditch them, thanks to the widespread use of encryption that has made public [Internet] connections far less of a security threat, cybersecurity experts say.

            • A tracking device made by Apple is showing up in suspected crimes

              “I don’t think there’s any question that Apple’s AirTags are being used for stalking,” said Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital privacy group based in San Francisco. She was among the people predicting just such an outcome months ago.

              Police in Colorado, Georgia, Michigan and Texas have reported the misuse of AirTags, including for domestic stalking and trying to steal cars. The sheriff’s office in Twin Falls, Idaho, warned residents this month that AirTags pose a danger, especially to potential victims of domestic violence. And one reported attempt at unwanted tracking described on TikTok has received more than 27 million views.

            • Capturing Digital Identity

              In 2022, the TSA will start supporting state IDs in your Apple Wallet. With your credit cards in your Apple Wallet as well, why do you need a physical wallet? (Although, surprisingly, only 6% of iPhone users use Apple Pay).

              Tech companies have been trying to take control of digital identity since the internet was invented, but few have succeeded. Google forces (strongly encourages) users to log into their Web browser. Apple IDs are mandatory. Facebook and Google have made login easier with their "Log in with" products.

            • Open Customer Data

              What would you do if you could get a list of every one of your competitor's customers and their activity? That's whats happening with cryptocurrency products today.

              Openness can be a customer acquisition strategy. The marginal cost of code is nearly zero, and making your source code available (open source) can sometimes be a good tradeoff. Many MicroSaaS developers have found that "building in public" and posting their analytics can be another source of potential customers. But what about making your actual customer data available to everyone?

            • Millions of Jeeps and Rams are about to get this lifesaving new safety feature

              “She asked why we couldn’t have an alert system that shows the kind of emergency vehicle, and the direction it’s coming from?”

              Stellantis moved fast, using existing connectivity hardware and working with Safety Cloud creator HAAS Alert, which works with more than 1,000 emergency responder fleets in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

              Chamarthi tested EVAS in her plug-in hybrid Jeep Wrangler last summer.

              “The system knows the location of the first responder, and it knows where our vehicle is,” she said. Alerts are geofenced. It only notifies drivers of nearby emergency vehicles and disregards those on the opposite-direction side of divided highways.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • „Thin blue line“: German police trainer warns against radicalisation

        Police sometimes see themselves as the last „blue line“ against chaos and crime. Various police stations also tweet about this self-image, which is popular among right-wing officers. Websites where police employees € also participate sell patches, mugs and shirts with the problematic symbolism.

      • Pentagon Spending on Military Contractors May Reach $407 Billion in 2022
      • Travel restrictions tighten in Tibet ahead of Beijing Winter Olympics

        Security has already been tightened in many places in Tibet, a resident of Lhasa told RFA this week.

        “In just a few days, greater security and restrictions have been put in place in Tibetan areas of Lhasa and in Shigatse, Chamdo, Draggo, Ngaba, and Rebkong,” RFA’s source said, referring to areas in the Tibet Autonomous Region and in western China’s Sichuan and Qinghai provinces.

      • Paris jihadist attacks trial put on hold after main suspect catches Covid

        The criminal trial will resume as scheduled on Jan. 4 but then be officially suspended until Jan. 13., the source said. French news agency AFP earlier reported on the planned suspension, citing an e-mail sent to the parties by the court's president.

        Abdeslam, 31, is believed by prosecutors to be the only surviving member of the Islamic State cell that carried out the gun-and-bomb attacks on bars, restaurants, the Bataclan concert hall and the Stade de France stadium on Nov. 13, 2015.

      • Social Media Censors Ignore Islamist Hate Speech and Incitement to Murder

        Despite Facebook's zeal at censoring so-called "hate speech" and "offensive content," violent, radical, and murderous content from Muslim terror groups is allowed to appear on and make use of the social media giant's platform. According to a recent report, Facebook has allowed "scores of groups" that were supportive of either Islamic State or the Taliban to operate freely.

        This matter is significantly worse when one looks at Facebook in Arabic and other languages commonly spoken by Muslims. In the last few years, I've seen endless Arabic-language content on Facebook and other social media giants that amounts to nothing less than terroristic incitement. Usually, these posts remain on the social media platforms for years—until, of course, I or others draw attention to them in English-language articles, at which point they are conveniently removed.

      • “Racist”, “Islamophobic”, “discriminatory”: the former president of the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) attacks the surveillance of Muslim places of worship

        At the same time, he denounces the government’s use of “state resources for purposes of surveillance, record keeping, intimidation and discriminatory treatment of Muslims”. A thread that did not leave some internet users cold. One of them asked him if he knew any “Christian or Jewish jihadists”. Another replied that there were no ” such bloody crimes in the name of Christianity and Judaism” in France.

      • Liverpool taxi bomber warned brother about doing 'something bad'

        He entered Britain in May 2014 with a Jordanian passport, falsely claimed to be of Syrian heritage on asylum applications, and was a practicing Muslim despite converting to Christianity. Advertisement

        Taxi driver David Perry escaped from the blast, which was caused by a homemade bomb.

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Stockholm University Student Writes Essay On 'Racism' Of Milk Against Coffee

        At the end of the course, all the participants were asked to write a paper of 10,000 characters. Haag said, "I took a rather bizarre subject, which is quite fun, and took another turn." He wrote, "The question one may ask is whether it is really a reconciliation between milk and coffee that has occurred or whether adding milk to the coffee is a way to take away coffee's unique properties and instead impose white properties on the black drink," calling it 'drink-based colonization', stressing that milk 'controls and domesticates' coffee.

    • Environment

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Opinion | 2021 Was a Year of Failed Political Leadership

        2021 was the year of political leadership, or more importantly, lack of it, and an invitation to reflect on the social consequences of leadership failures. I think for many of us, it was the year that felt like when time slows down while you are witnessing an accident happen—two seconds that feel like two minutes—or in this case, twelve months that feel like a decade of closings, openings, lockdowns, mandates, curfews, hoarding, and devastation.

      • Hogan, administration found using disappearing messaging app to communicate with staff

        Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and his administration were found to be using a messaging app that deletes messages after 24 hours, keeping his internal communications with staff members private and out of the state archives.

        Messages from the end-to-end encryption app Wickr obtained by The Washington Post show Hogan talking about a wide range of topics, including the state's response to the pandemic, coordinating with staffers and complaining about media. Chat rooms used by Hogan were set to a timer called "Burn-on-Read" which deletes the messages after 24 hours, the Post reported, citing records.

      • Parson says he believes prosecutor will bring charges in Post-Dispatch case

        "These documents show there was no network intrusion," St. Louis Post-Dispatch President and Publisher Ian Caso said this month. "As DESE initially acknowledged, the reporter should have been thanked for the responsible way he handled the matter and not chastised or investigated as a hacker."

      • Foreign Policy's Weirdest New Weapon: Memes

        Seeing as more and more people get their news in the form of simplified headlines and snippets of video on their phones while taking dropping a deuce, the meme format is the perfect method to drip feed a particular message. It's visual and appeals to those who don't have the time or attention span to read more than ten consecutive sentences without some sensory stimulation to distract them. Which reminds us, we really need to stick some more ads in this sucker before you get bored.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • America ends 2021 with censorship surge. Will 2022's new year be better?

        As 2021 nears its close, a spasm of book banning has spread surprisingly quickly among state and local officials. Happily, if history is a guide, this accelerating spread of censorship will fail. But in the meantime, conservative elected officials have used this year to charge headlong backward into the 19th century.

      • Russia labels Pussy Riot member, others as 'foreign agents'

        Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been seen as a popular figure of dissent after she took part in a 2012 protest inside Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. She spent nearly two years in prison.

        Tolokonnikova is also one of the founders of independent news outlet Mediazona. The organization was labeled a "foreign agent" in late September.

        Tolokonnikova said she would challenge Thursday's decision in court, adding: "Russia will be free."

      • Christian YouTuber Faces Continued Harassment As He Fights Against Persecution From Muslims

        Kace's difficulty did not end in being arrested. He was tortured by local police, particularly an official named Napoleon Bonaparte, during his detention. Bonaparte, a co-prisoner on charges of corruption, forced Kace "to eat the excrement of himself," claiming that forcing Kace to do such a disgusting and inhumane act was in the service of Allah and of Islam itself since it is allegedly a payback for the latter's insults on the religion.

        The ICC highlighted that the local police wanted "to be fair" to Kace and arrested Ustad Yahya Waloni who have also delivered insulting lectures on Islam. However, unlike Kace, complaints on Waloni was not given much attention by the police until after Kace was already in prison. Waloni is said to be a Muslim preacher with a Christian background and similarly arrested on blasphemy charges.

        In addition to the difference in the treatment of their arrest, Waloni was also treated differently from Kace during detention. Waloni was immediately given medical treatment when he got sick, but no one paid attention to Kace after he was tortured severely.

      • Delhi HC refuses plea against book allegedly demeaning Islam

        The Delhi High Court has refrained from entertaining a lawsuit filed by a man against an online self-published book titled Muhammad, which allegedly makes derogatory statements against Islam, the Holy Quran and Prophet Mohammed. The court noted that the litigant failed to show an infringement of his personal legal right.

        Justice Sanjeev Narula was of the view that “in the absence of disclosure of infringement of any legal right, the plaintiff’s prayer seeking injunction and damages on account of being offended or aggrieved by the contents of a book – which allegedly is hurtful to his religious sentiments – would not give him any right to approach this court by way of the present suit”.

        Qamar Hasnain, in his plea, had sought to recall all copies of the book purportedly authored by Syed Waseem Rizvi and to destroy all copies sold or unsold. Mr. Hasnain, who claimed to be a religious scholar and a concerned follower of Islam, also sought a direction to remove all objectionable posts and comments related to the book from their respective social media platforms. He contended that the contents of the book were offensive, hateful and distressing to even a casual reader, let alone a follower of Islam or an admirer of Prophet Muhammad.

    • Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

      • The governor of Missouri still doesn’t know how websites work

        While a gross misunderstanding of how websites work by both a state agency and the governor of said state might be funny, Governor Parson's behavior since the paper first published its story is anything but. According to public records obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Vandeven had initially planned to thank the paper for finding the vulnerability. Her tone only became accusatory after meeting with the governor’s office.

      • Vietnam journalist who tried to run for parliament jailed for 5 years

        A Vietnamese journalist arrested after nominating himself as an independent candidate in elections to the country’s National Assembly was sentenced to five years in jail Friday by a court in the capital Hanoi, his lawyer and his wife said.

        Le Trong Hung was arrested March 27 after declaring his candidacy for election in a challenge to political processes tightly controlled by the ruling Communist Party and charged with “creating, storing, disseminating information, materials, items and publications against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”

      • Calls grow for citizen journalist's release, one year into her four-year jail term

        Zhang's family members were last allowed to visit her last month, reporting that she weighed less than 40 kilograms with a height of 1.77 meters, and couldn't walk or raise her head without assistance.

        "Zhang Zhan courageously risked her life reporting in Wuhan at a time when very little information was available on the mode of transmission and severity of Covid-19, and she should have been celebrated as a hero instead of being detained," RSF East Asia Bureau chief Cédric Alviani said.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • Your music library and MusicBrainz Picard

        MusicBrainz Picard and the MusicBrainz database are projects of the MetaBrainz Foundation. MetaBrainz Foundation has a philosophy of free, open access of data. It has been set up to build community maintained databases and make them available in the public domain or under Creative Commons licenses. Most contributions come from volunteers so users are encouraged either to donate or contribute to the data gathering process.

      • Ford Motor Co. beefs up tech strength with director known for global dominance

        "Deere has pioneered some of the first, if not the first, autonomous tractors," he said. "They're adept at bringing new technology into agriculture equipment that competes on a global basis. Deere dominates the segment. And companies like to have winners on the board. If you're a global manufacturer that's moving into high tech, like Ford, you want a board member who has that experience under their belt."

      • Deere CEO John May brought onto Ford board of directors

        In announcing the appointment of May, Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford pointed to the Deere chief’s role in implementing major changes in technology. “May’s experience helping to transform Deere as a smart industrial company is relevant to Ford’s own ambitious transformation, and brings additional valuable insight to the Ford board.”

    • Monopolies

      • [Older] Europe's highest court to revisit the allowability of combination SPCs

        How should Article 3(c) be applied to an SPC for a combo-product where the patent already supports an SPC for a mono-product? A Finnish court has referred an important question to the CJEU, the highest court in the EU, asking whether a second SPC for a combination of active ingredients can validly be granted when a first SPC for one of the active ingredients alone has already been granted on the same patent. As combination SPCs are highly valuable additional rights, which may expire many years after the mono SPCs, the answer to the referred question could have a considerable impact on the filing and enforcement strategy of patentees.



      • KOL369 | Soho Forum IP Debate Post-Mortem with Greg Morin

        Whereupon I do the rare original episode. In November I debated Richard Epstein in New York, at the Soho Forum, on intellectual property (patent and copyright).

      • Global Cannabis Applications Corp. Patent Now Worldwide [Ed: EPO monopolies for narcotics, formerly illegal and with jail sentence attached; the EPO has become truly greedy and uncaring about the law]

        TheNewswire - December 10, 2021 – Global Cannabis Applications Corp. ("GCAC" or the "Company") (CSE:APP), (CNSX:APP.CN), (FSE:2FA), (OTC:FUAPF), a leading medical cannabis chain-of-custody compliance and data platform, obtained official Acknowledgement Receipt from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in filing US Utility Patent Applications.

        GCAC filed the “System of Processing and Tracking Cannabis Products and Associated Method Using Block Chain,” Serial Number 63/126,555, filed the original application on December 17, 2020. Due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Patent was officially published on December 2, 2021. A second application filed November 24, 2021, for “Tracking System for Cultivated Products and Associated Methods,” Serial Number 17/457,385 was acknowledged simultaneously.

        The applications include “World Assignment” applying to the European Patent Office (EPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO), Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and other intellectual property organizations participating with USPTO in bilateral or multilateral agreements.

      • Justices Urged To Undo Fed. Circ.'s Qualcomm Ruling

        A trio of intellectual property lobbying groups, software company Thales and Unified Patents LLC told the U.S. Supreme Court to undo a Federal Circuit ruling saying that Apple doesn't have standing to appeal Patent Trial and Appeal Board rulings upholding two Qualcomm patents.

        Engine Advocacy, the App Association, and the Public Interest Patent Law Institute filed a joint amicus brief Friday, and Thales DIS AIS Deutschland GmbH and Unified Patents filed separate amicus briefs on Monday, all pushing for the Supreme Court to hear Apple's appeal of the appellate court ruling. Upholding the Federal Circuit ruling could lead to fewer post-grant...

      • Patents

        • Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program between Brazil and Portugal is signed [Ed: Who does this help if not the monopolistic litigation puppets and their law firms, at the expense of due process of proper patent examination?]

          The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BRPTO) informed on December 16, 2021 that a memorandum to institute a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot project between Brazil and Portugal was signed. This partnership in the PPH program is planned for a period of five years. Through this PPH program, Brazilians will be able to use the result of the examination of the patent application at the BRPTO to speed up the analysis in Portugal. In the same way, Portuguese will be able to use the result of the exam from the Portuguese Office to speed up the analysis at the BRPTO.

          Finally, since November 05, 2021 the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program of 2021 is closed for having reached the limit of 600 requests for participation. Currently, the PPH program has signed agreements with the following countries/regions: a) United States; b) European Patent Office, c) Japan, d) China, e) Austria, f) Sweden, g) United Kingdom, h) Denmark, i) South Korea and j) Singapore.

      • Copyrights

        • Winnie-the-Pooh and more works will enter the public domain tomorrow

          ENKINS: So Disney still has copyrights over its newer, for example, Winnie-the-Pooh movies. Now, they also have trademarks for the use, for example, of the words Winnie-the-Pooh as a brand. We're not talking about sticking Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh on a backpack or pajamas or a lunchbox. We're talking about that piece of literary work, that gentle book by A. A. Milne from 1926. That's in the public domain, and we can all revisit, reimagine, write our own version of it.

          MCCAMMON: And for the first time ever, as I understand it, sound recordings are entering the public domain as well. And we're not just talking about music and lyrics, but specific recordings of songs. What are some of the titles we'll now have access to?

          JENKINS: We are talking about every single sound recording from before 1923 - everything from the advent of sound recording technology all the way through to early jazz and blues. There are recordings of songs about women's suffrage - for example, the song "She's Good Enough To Be Your Baby's Mother And She's Good Enough To Vote With You."

        • Winnie-the-Pooh and around 400,000 early sound recordings enter public domain

          A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and other books, movies, and compositions from 1926 enter into the public domain today in the US. The works are now “free for all to copy, share, and build upon,” according to Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, which tracks which copyrighted materials will become public each year.

          This year, the usual list of books, movies, and compositions comes with a sizable bonus: a trove of around 400,000 early sound recordings. A recent law, the 2018 Music Modernization Act, standardized how early sound recordings are handled under federal copyright law. As part of that, it set today as the date that copyright protections would end for “recordings first published before 1923.”

        • ‘Winnie the Pooh,’ Hemingway’s ‘The Sun Also Rises’ and 400,000 Sound Recordings Enter the Public Domain

          Additionally, for the first time thanks to the passage of the Music Modernization Act in 2018, over 400,000 sound recordings from the advent of sound recording technology through 1922 will also enter the public domain. This includes works by Mamie Smith, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Ethel Waters and hundreds more.

        • DMCA To The Rescue!

          I Confess To Right-Clicker-Mentality discusses another of the problems this indirect connection causes, namely that trying to create "ownership", artificial scarcity, of an image represented by a Web URL is futile. Anyone can create their own copy from the URL. Miscreants are now exploiting en masse the inverse of this. Because art images on the Web are URLs, and thus easy to copy, anyone can make a copy of one and create an NFT for it. No "ownership" of the image needed. Liam Sharp suffered this way:

          Sadly I'm going to have to completely shut down my entire @DeviantArt gallery as people keep stealing my art and making NFTs. I can't - and shouldn't have to - report each one and make a case, which is consistently ignored. Sad and frustrating. [...[

        • How Much Do Artists Make Per Stream? Here’s the Latest Breakdown — From Rapper T-Pain

          T-Pain (full name Faheem Rasheed Najm) spurred conversation among artists, music industry professionals, and fans with a recent Instagram post and tweet, which include a chart that purportedly shows the number of streams required to earn $1 on leading platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music.

        • Gaming Like It's 1926: Join The Fourth Annual Public Domain Game Jam

          Gaming Like It's 1926: The Public Domain Game Jam



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