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Links 20/05/2022: Oracle Linux 8.6 and VMware Security Crisis



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

    • Kernel Space

      • WCCF TechIntel Arc Graphics Cards Get 'VRAM Self-Refresh' Feature In Latest Linux Drivers

        Linux 5.19 kernel continues to see plenty of AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel updates. Intel is starting to slow down with its preparations for the company's Arc Alchemist and DG2 open-source drive support, moving towards a more standard starting requirement for their dGPU. Recently, additions to non-core features for the ARC graphics devices have appeared. One of these newest inclusions is vRAM Self-Refresh, or vRAM SR.

    • Graphics Stack

      • Mike Blumenkrantz: Ugh

        Mesa 22.1 is out, and it has the best zink release of all time.

      • GamingOnLinuxMesa 22.1.0 out now improving open source graphics

        Mesa 22.1.0 is out now bringing tons of improvements for open source graphics drivers for OpenGL and Vulkan. The official Mesa website doesn't (yet) have a changelog up, but you can peruse it like I did over on the official GitLab.

    • Applications

      • Louis-Philippe Véronneau: Introducing metalfinder

        Introducing metalfinder, a cli tool to find concerts using your local music collection! At the moment, it scans your music collection, creates a list of artists and queries Bandsintown for concerts in your town. Multiple output formats are supported, but I mainly use the ATOM one, as I'm a heavy feed reader user.

      • GamingOnLinuxDeveloper of popular noise suppression tool NoiseTorch has dev machine compromised

        Are you a user of NoiseTorch? It's a popular way of getting some pretty great noise suppression on your microphone, to keep out all that background noise or a hammer hitting your desk. Sadly, the developer had a machine compromised.

      • Kubernetes 1.24: Introducing Non-Graceful Node Shutdown Alpha

        Kubernetes v1.24 introduces alpha support for Non-Graceful Node Shutdown. This feature allows stateful workloads to failover to a different node after the original node is shutdown or in a non-recoverable state such as hardware failure or broken OS.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • CitizixHow to use Terraform to create a vpc network and a Compute instance in GCP

        In this guide, we will build a simple compute instance(virtual machine) in Google cloud platform using terraform. Terraform allows you to develop cloud infrastructure by automating repetitive tasks.

        If you have a use case where you need to create multiple instances, all of which have different memories, disk sizes, and operating systems, the process of going to the GCP Console UI and manually clicking buttons to set up each server can be tiring and time consuming. Terraform was created to solve that problem. It allows you to have the instructions as code that can be used to plan, deploy, modify, and destroy all of our systems.

      • How to Install Ansible on Ubuntu 22.04 - Cloudbooklet

        Install Ansible on Ubuntu 22.04 and configure it to connect to remote servers to automate several tasks. Ansible is a configuration management tool which offers an architecture that doesn’t require special software to be installed on nodes, using SSH to execute the automation tasks and YAML files to define provisioning details.

        In this guide you are going to learn how to install Ansible on a Ubuntu 22.04 server and configure it to connect with remote servers on Google cloud and AWS instances.

      • Linux HintGit Bash Delete Directory

        On the Linux operating system, a directory is a normal repository for hierarchically storing files like what we do in any other Windows operating system. The /bin/ directory, for example, would keep all executable binary files. On the other hand, Git is a version control system used worldwide to create version records of each file and folder so that any change can be monitored through a local computer as well as a remote desktop. Deleting a git directory from its local desktop is quite similar to deleting a normal bash file and folder. It just takes some more commands than usual. So, we have decided to discuss in this article the topic “delete directory in git” using the Bash environment. Let’s get started with the opening of the Kali Linux terminal.

      • Linux HintHow to Install and setup Zsh (Z shell) on Raspberry Pi

        The Z Shell or zsh is the advanced form of the Bourne shell (bash) and zsh contains many unique features that are not present in the bash. For example, in the bash shell, to navigate some directory, we use the “cd” with the directory name, wherein zsh, we navigate to any directory by just using its name, moreover, the zsh also auto-corrects the minor spelling mistakes in the commands.

        In this write-up, we will explore the method of installing the zsh on the Raspberry Pi operating system using the terminal.

      • Linux HintHow to Configure Application Load Balancer for Intelligent Routing

        Application load balancer (ALB) is a type of elastic load balancer provided by AWS. It operates at the 7th layer of the OSI layer model and can be configured for intelligent routing. Using application load balancer, traffic can be routed to different target groups depending upon the following parameters...

      • Linux HintHow to Build WSJT-X from Source Raspberry Pi Bullseye

        WSJT is a free and open-source powerful application that is used for weak-signal radio communication between amateur radio operators. Usually, you will require a single sideband receiver and a computer with a sound card to operate this program. On Windows OS, its installation is pretty straightforward using the .exe file, but on Raspberry Pi, it requires few efforts to build it from the Raspberry Pi’s source.

        This article will guide you on how to build WSJT-X 2.5.4 from the source Raspberry Pi Bullseye.

      • Linux HintHow to Install and Customize Hyper terminal on Ubuntu 22.04

        A terminal is considered the backbone of a Linux operating system and the users spend most of their time using the terminal to perform various activities. However, most of them may become tired of using the same terminal screen every time and they will surely need a solution to change the look of their Linux terminal screen.

        Hyper Terminal is an excellent utility that will allow you to install various themes and plugins to completely change your terminal look. It includes several features, such as different fonts, multiple style changes and much more.

      • Linux HintHow Do I Run as Sudo Root in Fedora

        A root user has all the administrative access in a Linux OS. Some of the root privileges include removing a file, adding/removing a user account, installing/removing an application, changing file permissions, etc. A standard user does not have this kind of privileges. However, an administrator can grant a standard user sudo privileges to run administrative commands. This way a standard user (non-root user) can run administrative commands without logging in as a root user. The commands then run as if that user is an administrator.

        This post describes how to run commands as sudo root in Fedora. It will cover the step-by-step process on how to add a user, set a password for it, and then assign it sudo privileges. In the end, we will verify if the user has been granted the sudo privileges and can run the commands as sudo.

      • Linux HintHow to control screen brightness in Ubuntu 22.04

        Are you worried about your screen brightness in Ubuntu 22.04 and want to change it according to your eye comfort? You should need a desktop application called Brightness Controller. It’s a powerful application that includes primary secondary brightness. To ensure eye safety, it includes color temperature control that can easily be set based on your choice. . This article is a guide on how to install Brightness Controller in Ubuntu 22.04.

      • ID RootHow To Install R Programming Language on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install R Programming Language on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, R is an open-source programming language and free software environment for statistical computing and graphical representation. Supported by the R Foundation for Statistical Computing, it is an increasingly popular and extensible language with an active community. R offers many user-generated packages for specific areas of study, which makes it applicable to many fields.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the R Programming Language on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

      • UNIX CopHow to install curl on CentOS 9 Stream

        cURL is a command available on most Unix-based systems. The main function of cURL is to interact via protocols with URLs. In this way, we can download files and do all kinds of tests.

        curl is used in command lines or scripts to transfer data. curl is also used in cars, television sets, routers, printers, audio equipment and many more.

        One of the great advantages of cURL is that it is open source and with a friendly license, we can use it in almost any project.

      • How To Set Up Linux On Your Chromebook

        Chrome OS began as a simple browser-based operating system that only ran progressive web and Chrome apps. Over the years, Google's OS has evolved well past its humble origins. Modern Chromebooks support Android apps and the Google Play Store, making them far more versatile than their predecessors. But you can also install Linux on Chrome OS to turn your Chromebook into a true powerhouse.

        To be clear, Chrome OS is built on Linux, so third-party workarounds for access to the Linux kernel have existed for years, though Google only officially announced the support in 2018 (via Google Blog). The company allows developers and enthusiasts to run Linux-exclusive apps in an integrated, user-friendly environment. The Linux system is "sandboxed," meaning the apps cannot damage or alter your Chrome OS. It's based on Debian 10 (Buster), which uses the APT package manager to install and update your apps (via Google). Note that Linux on Chromebook doesn't offer hardware acceleration or camera support yet. Here's how to set up Linux on your Chromebook.

      • Backup Kubernetes Cluster Resources to AWS S3 with Velero
      • How to Install GLPI [IT Asset Management] Tool on RHEL Systems

        GLPI is a French acronym for ‘Gestionnaire Libre de Parc Informatique‘ or simply ‘Free IT Equipment Manager‘ It’s an open-source IT asset Management, service Desk System, and issue tracking system written in PHP.

    • Games

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Barry KaulerEasyOS/Debian: Easy Bookworm version 0.3 released

      These are pre-alpha releases so far. When all the obvious bugs are found and it seems functionally equivalent to Easy Dunfell, then I will probably bump the version to match, say 3.5.

    • Barry KaulerTime-out to explore ideas

      EasyOS is an experimental distribution, subject to change as I explore new ideas.

      I want to go into an exploratory binge now, toying with some fundamental structural changes, so might be a bit unresponsive to any questions posted on the forum.

    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • Announcing the release of Oracle Linux 8 Update 6

        Oracle is pleased to announce the availability of the Oracle Linux 8 update 6 for the 64-bit Intel, 64-bit AMD (x86_64) and 64-bit Arm (aarch64) platforms.

        This release includes the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) Release 6 Update 3 on the installation image, along with the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) for the x86_64 platform. For new installations, UEK R6 is enabled and installed by default and is the default kernel on first boot. UEK R6, the kernel developed, built, and tested by Oracle, is based on the mainline Linux Kernel 5.4 and delivers more innovation than other commercial Linux kernels.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • Raspberry PiA teaspoon of computing in every subject: Broadening participation in computer science

        From May to November 2022, our seminars focus on the theme of cross-disciplinary computing. Through this seminar series, we want to explore the intersections and interactions of computing with all aspects of learning and life, and think about how they can help us teach young people. We were delighted to welcome Prof. Mark Guzdial (University of Michigan) as our first speaker.

      • CNX SoftwareRockchip RK3588 Pico-ITX board launched with four-node cluster box (Crowdfunding) - CNX Software

        The Mixtile Blade 3 Pico-ITX single board computer (SBC) powered by Rockchip RK3588 processor has now launched on Crowd Supply with either 8GB or 16GB RAM, and an optional four-node cluster box with a built-in PCIe switch designed to accommodate four Mixtile Blade 3 boards.

        The board also comes with up to 128GB of storage, two 2.5GbE interfaces, HDMI 2.1 output, HDMI 2.0 input, USB 3.2 Gen 1 USB Type-C ports, as well as a mini PCIe Gen 2 for expansion and a 30-pin GPIO header for expansion, as well as U.2 edge connector with 12V, PCIe x4 Gen 3 and SATA signals to interface with other Mixtile boards and build clusters.

      • HackadayPut A New Spin On Your 3D Printed Parts

        Once you get tired of printing keychains and earbud holders with your 3D printer, you’ll want to design things a bit more sophisticated. How about things that rotate? [3DSage] has a good how-to about how to integrate a simple motor and controller into a few different size boxes. Combined with some 3D printed linkages, these boxes can turn your project — printed or otherwise — into something that spins.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Web Browsers

      • Mozilla

        • Firefox for Android no longer gives the user control over the browsing experience. Privacy Browser turns off JavaScript by default. – BaronHK's Rants

          Firefox/Fennec for Android no longer give the user significant control over the browsing experience.

          The browser that said it was on a mission to enable users to “take back the Web” has been falling from grace for years, starting with Digital Restrictions Malware module, Widevine, and then quickly moving to remove a lot of features and then relegating them to extensions, which were then neutered in order to make them easier to port over from Chrome.

          But nothing has made me more upset than what has happened to Firefox (or Fennec, the Free and Open Source version) for Android.

          Mozilla’s move to GeckoView rendered over 99% of all Firefox extensions incompatible with the mobile browser, including bypass paywalls, and there is no longer any way that I’m aware of to turn off JavaScript.

          Major news Web sites like the New York Times are now unreadable in Firefox for Android because I can’t simply block their paywall like I can in my desktop browser, so I decided to try out Privacy Browser for Android, which is in the F-Droid store.

    • Programming/Development

      • Re: Bloat

        Not everyone is working on the shell all day long. This is a choice everyone can make, but it is by no means compelling. I do use the i3/sway window managers, so I'm clearly working in a GUI envionment. However, a tiling window manager full of terminal/bash frames is indistinguishable from the pure console for many people.

      • Dumb Meme

        WHY YOU WANT GUI FOR TEXT EDITOR? IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH AS PROCURED FROM REPOSITORY? YOU THINK NEEDS IMPROVEMENT? THEN MAYBE YOU FIND JOB WITH DEVELOPER OF GNU! YOU HAVE DRINKS WITH BRAM MOOLENAAR, TRADE STORY OF MANY TEXT EDITORS DESIGNED AND DETAILS OF FREE SOFTWARE PORTFOLIO!

      • Linux HintArray of Pairs in C++

        The term pair refers to the combination of two values of different types. Pair allows you to keep two separate objects as a single unit. It is mostly utilized when storing tuples.

        The pair container is a basic container declared in the utility header that consists of two collected data or objects. The first element in the pair container is referred to as ‘first,’ while the second element is referred to as ‘second’, with the order fixed as (first, second).

        By default, the object of a specified array is allocated in a map or hash map of the type ‘pair,’ with all of the ‘first’ elements having unique keys paired with their ‘second’ value objects. To obtain the elements, we use the variable’s name followed by the dot operator and by the first or second keywords.

      • Linux HintDart Hello World

        Dart is a Google-developed static programming language. It allows for client-side and server-side application development. As per the GitHub adoption index, it has become the most widely used programming language because it incorporates the flutter toolkit. However, the Flutter Framework is commonly utilized in developing Android applications, iOS applications, IoT (Internet of Things), and online applications. Dart has a high syntactic and semantic similarity to JavaScript, Java, CPP, and python. It is a vibrant object-oriented language with lexical scope and closure. Dart was released in 2011, but it gained prominence after 2015 with the release of Dart 2.0.

        In this article, we will look at the basic representation of Dart syntax and how to print hello world in the dart programming language. The fundamental framework of Dart programming will be demonstrated here.

      • Java

        • Linux HintHow to Get User Input in Java

          In programming languages, taking the user’s input is an essential task. In Java, multiple predefined classes are used to get the user’s input such as Scanner, BufferedReader, and Console class. All these classes utilizes various methods for handling input such as nextLine(), readLine(), etc.

        • Linux HintHow to convert string to int in Java

          Converting one data type to other data types is a common task in the prommer’s life. If we talk about the string to int conversion it can be achieved using two build-in methods i.e., Integer.ParseInt() and Integer.ValueOf(). Usually, we perform the string to int conversion when we have to execute mathematical operations over the strings containing numeric data.

      • Rust

        • HackadayThings Are Getting Rusty In Kernel Land | Hackaday

          The other answer is that Rust is an easy fit with C code and kernel programming. Rust does it’s magic in the compiler. The code you write is what actually runs, without an interpreter or garbage collection trying to be helpful. Rust hasn’t overdosed on Object Oriented patterns, but meshes nicely with the C-style structs already used in the kernel. Even the stack model is very similar to C.

          There’s one problem with Rust’s memory-safe guarantee — it’s impossible to write a kernel that is formally memory-safe. A kernel has to write to unallocated memory, do weird pointer math, and other seemingly bizarre things to actually make our computers work. This doesn’t work well with a language that tries to guarantee that memory manipulations are safe. How do you write kernel code with Rust, then? Rust has added the unsafe keyword, allowing use of direct memory access and other such techniques that don’t work with Rusts’s memory guarantees. Keep the potential problems together, and it makes auditing easier.

          There’s at least one other language that may come to mind as an incremental update to C that tries to do some of these things: C++. Surely this would have been even a better fit, right? Kernel devs have some strong feelings about that idea. To put it gently, none of the improvements in C++ are useful in the context of the kernel, and some of the other changes just get in the way.

  • Leftovers

    • Counter PunchWho's the Father?

      They suck the virgin light through straws poked into your child’s mind as if it were a school milk carton and when the slurpings done the child’s face shows up on the box, another desaparecido They tiptoe through the night’s broad shadows hysteriques and monotones whispering sweet nothings in your dreams as they suck and leave behind like a mosquito leaves malaria the molecule:Evil – Hate – Anger that poisons, becomes the lens through which the world is secretly seen, their argoty world of ‘warlocks and witches’ felt by Others who cross their path their secret men’s world of psycho-pathology John Wayne Gacy hydra-heads on a brain stem stick they look at you askance with abracadabra eyes on the loose, in some places more than others, with their chaos seeded, final solutions, and lies The Fall when you think about it has some problems for modern readers as an Origin story Adam’s Rib, for instance, raising the question: Who owns a woman’s body? And God’s prideful son, Satan tossed from the Ivory Tower, appears to have given Eve carnal knowledge leading to the first birth of the swarthy Cain who watched his blonde and blue eyed brother, Abel get the best tit in life, more smile pie bringing to life the molecule and the murder and the secondary Exile, Cain away and Seth, who would become Abe and the 3 Tribes, on his way, and here we are, a world divided between Cainites and Abes and the crazy East of Eden, with Tao yoyos, and the sayonara sea of trees (they have their own Origin stories) and we’ve lost track of the Cainites who are the Deep State running everything while the Maker’s off like a sailor big bangin’ and constellating some other celestial mama’s firmament and, if He’s anything like my dad, He won’t be coming back any time soon neurasthenia or nirvana call it what you will call it multiverse, and spill Ask yourself: Am I with Cain or Seth? I know, it takes away the breath and in the day’s

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • HackadayWater Your Plants Just Four Times Per Year

        While it’s true that some plants thrive on neglect, many of them do just fine with a few ounces of water once a week, as long as the light level is right. But even that is plenty to remember and actually do in our unprecedented times, so why bother trying? [Martin] has solved this problem for us, having given every aspect of automatic plant care a lot of thought. The result of his efforts is Flaura, a self-watering open-source plant pot, and a YouTube channel to go with it.

      • Counter PunchHow Decriminalized Marijuana is Reinventing Racism and Poisoning

        An Attack on Black and Brown Cultures€ 

        Spanish-speaking people, who have lived in the US since it stole half of Mexico’s land, have a tradition of smoking marijuana. Amid a growing fear of Mexican immigrants in the early twentieth century, hysterical claims about the drug became widespread, such as allegations that it caused a “lust for blood.”€  The term€ cannabis€ was largely replaced by the€ Anglicized€ marijuana, perhaps to suggest the foreignness of the drug. Around this time many states began passing laws to ban pot.

    • Linux Foundation

    • Security

      • IT WireExperts urge VMware users to patch critical flaws right away

        Security professionals have warned that an authentication bypass flaw in VMware products needs to be patched as soon as possible to prevent its being exploited.

        VMware issued an advisory on Wednesday warning of the flaw affecting VMware Workspace ONE Access (Access), VMware Identity Manager (vIDM), VMware vRealize Automation (vRA), VMware Cloud Foundation and vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager.

        Satnam Narang, staff research engineer at security outfit Tenable, said the vulnerabilities patched as part of VMware’s VMSA-2022-0014 advisory along with the Emergency Directive and associated alert published by the US’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were an important reminder about the importance of patching vulnerabilities as early as possible.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • ScheerpostICE Probably Spied on You

          A new investigation reveals the immigration agency has collected data on most Americans. It’s the latest case in a worrying trend.

        • EFFTwo of Peru's Top ISPs Improve Transparency Practices, While Two Competitors Lag Behind, New Hiperderecho's Report Shows

          Hiperderecho’s new €¿Quién Defiende Tus Datos? (“Who Defends Your Data”) report, launched today, reveals disparities in data protection and privacy practices among Peru’s four leading internet service providers (ISPs). Movistar came out slightly ahead in the new report after tying with Claro for the top position in the report’s last edition. Except for the user notification category, Movistar received full credit in all other evaluated parameters. Even though all four companies—Bitel, Claro, Entel, and Movistar—have improved their marks since the first edition in 2015, the disparities in the latest results are evident. In four out of eight evaluated categories, Bitel and Entel received no credit, highlighting their lack of transparency regarding government requests for getting access to user personal data.

          Only Movistar and Claro received scores€  for publishing information about government requests for user data, disclosing guidelines they follow when responding to such requests, explicitly committing to require judicial orders before handing user data to authorities, and disclosing practices for notifying users about such government requests. The report also looked at companies’ privacy policies, digital security practices, and human rights policies. In those categories, all four companies earned at least partial scores.

          This report, the fourth evaluating Peru’s major telecom operators,€  included a new category: whether telecom companies make available webpages, contracts, and/or privacy policies in native languages, like Quechua and Aymara. As Hiperderecho’s report highlights, “[w]e consider this to be of utmost importance because there is no free and informed consent if the information presented regarding the processing of personal data is not in an understandable language.”€ 

        • Packing and unpacking - biosejo 120220519



          Regarding naivete, I can identify how, when becoming more privacy-aware, I stopped using my legal name online, I deleted a lot of traces and connections, and I went "into the dark".

          I can also identify how, when becoming more aware of the upcoming collapse, I stopped doing a lot of things that I found fun, I became somewhat cynic (despite not wanting to!), I questioned everything I was doing and being part of, I got paralyzed, and again, I went inwards, "into the dark".

        • IT WireiTWire - Eight months after Huawei CFO freed, Canada bans Chinese telco gear

          Nearly eight months after it freed Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in a prisoner swap with China, Canada has announced that it would ban the use of products from telecommunications equipment vendors Huawei and ZTE in its 5G networks.

          François-Philippe Champagne, Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, said in a statement on Thursday: "Today, the government of Canada is ensuring the long term safety of our telecommunications infrastructure.

          "As part of that, the government intends to prohibit the inclusion of Huawei and ZTE products and services in Canada’s telecommunications systems.

          “This follows a thorough review by our independent security agencies and in consultation with our closest allies.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • TruthOutBush Accidentally Condemns “Brutal Invasion of Iraq” When Talking About Ukraine
      • ScheerpostAmerica the Bulletful

        "America the Bulletful," a new original cartoon by the inimitable Mr. Fish, considers the lethal rebranding of our nation’s identity in the face of our gruesomely entrenched gun culture.

      • Meduza‘I don’t know what to do’: Taken to the Russian Far East, refugees from Mariupol were promised housing and jobs. They have yet to receive either.

        For three weeks, more than 300 refugees from Mariupol have been living in the town of Vrangel in Russia’s Far Eastern Primorsky Krai. During Russia’s weeks-long siege of Mariupol, which is now under occupation, many residents were unable to safely escape to territory controlled by Kyiv. Instead, some civilians seeking evacuation were forcibly deported to the Russian city of Taganrog. Upon arriving at the local train station, these refugees were talked into going to the country’s Far East, where they were promised free housing, reduced mortgage rates, relocation support, and jobs. As a result, some 300 refugees from Ukraine ended up in a small town on the shores of the Nakhodka Bay. In interviews with Meduza, refugees living in Vrangel recounted what has happened to them since arriving in Russia.

      • Counter PunchIndia Has a Key Role to Play in a Possible New World Order

        Jaishankar’s statement was not unusual. He and his colleagues have been pushing back against the West’s “concerns” and “advice” to India about its stance on Russia in the Ukraine conflict, including India’s refusal to vote against Russia at the United Nations as well as India’s discussion with Russia to set up a payment mechanism that would bypass sanctions imposed by the West. Visits by Western diplomats to India did not help to alter the Indian government’s actions.

        India, under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been firmly in the U.S. camp, taking part in reviving the Quad and signing three foundational defense agreements with the United States. These moves suggest that India strongly agreed with the United States’ focus on the containment of China. Has India then shifted from this alignment with the United States based on its dealings with Russia? Is nonalignment back on the table? The answer to this question is far more complicated than it would appear on the surface.

      • Counter PunchUkraine: the Antiwar Dilemma

        Here, for instance, are just a few notes I took recently while listening to NPR: A woman calls one of its talk shows, feeling guilty about celebrating her daughter’s birthday in style when Ukrainians are suffering so horribly. A panel on a different NPR show discusses why Americans feel so involved and its members consider all-too-uncomfortably the rationale that the Ukrainians “look like us.” The show’s host does note that they don’t actually look like all of us, but no one suggests that decrying atrocities is easier when they’re committed by another country, especially one we never much liked to begin with.

        Need more? Scott Simon, a popular NPR host, concludes an opinion piece about a 91-year-old Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust and died during the siege of Mariupol this way: “Whether in Bosnia, Rwanda, Xinjiang, Bucha, Kharkiv, or Mariupol, ‘Never Again’ seems to happen again and again.” Note the absence from that list of Afghanistan, Iraq, or Yemen.

      • Common DreamsPeace Advocates Sound Warnings as Progressive Lawmakers Go All-In for $40 Billion Ukraine War Package

        The U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to approve $40 billion in emergency military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine amid both Russia's ongoing invasion and warnings from peace advocates that prolonging the war makes the world a more dangerous, not safer, place.

        "This war must be settled at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield!"

      • Common DreamsWar, Disasters Drive 'All-Time High' of Nearly 60 Million Displaced in Home Nations

        Conflict, violence, and disasters last year displaced nearly 60 million people within their own countries—an "unprecedented" number that underscores the need for sizeable investments in peacebuilding and development, according to a report released Thursday.

        "We need a titanic shift in thinking from world leaders on how to prevent and resolve conflicts to end this soaring human suffering."

      • Counter PunchOnslaught of the Oily Authoritarians

        The party remains stalled largely because it’s tightly limited in how far most of its members will go in challenging the economic power structure. That has led some on the left to ask a bleak question: If neither major party is responding productively to the climate or justice emergencies, let alone challenging the corporate drive for profit that underlies those ills and many others—why should we even care if either party seizes and maintains control of the federal government for the foreseeable future?

        I recently reached out to a couple of people whose views I greatly value to ask how they would respond to that question. Dina Gilio-Whitaker€ (Colville Confederated Tribes), a lecturer of American Indian Studies at Cal State San Marcos and author of As Long as Grass Grows (2019), replied in part, “I would agree that the corporate Democrats are beholden to their corporate overlord donors . . . But I do think that [the Democrats overall] are more reasonable in many ways, and responsive to marginalized, racialized others. With the continued growth in leadership of Indigenous, Black, and Latino populations, there is a possibility for paradigm shift, especially if we can build real coalitions with each other.”

      • Counter PunchBiden’s Empty Quiver

        Despite our noble values, for decades American foreign policy has viewed the rest of the world as pawns on a chessboard–overthrown governments, manipulated elections to gain political allies, conducted “peacekeeping” operations, and occupied foreign territory. Our role in arranging the chess pieces in Eastern Europe is a tragic example.

        In 2014, the Obama-Biden administration, especially Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria “Screw the EU” Nuland, helped overthrow Ukraine’s democratically elected government and installed an anti-Russian government feeding into Ukraine’s situation today.€  Despite the Obama-Biden administration’s reckless desire to pour gasoline on the flames by directly arming Ukraine – an idea which was quickly rebuffed by European allies – cooler heads prevailed.

      • Counter PunchThe British Art of Black Propaganda

        In its efforts to try to win US support for its cause against Hitler in World War II, the train of British propaganda again operated with a concerted effect, demonising isolationists and denigrating supporters and members of the America First Committee.€  The great hope there was that Britain would fight the Germans to the last American.€  It led to one of the largest covert operations in UK history conducted under the auspices of an agency known as “British Security Coordination”.€  During the course of its operations, BSC subject matter entered the American political bloodstream, aided by the injecting activities of Walter Winchell, Drew Pearson, a radio station (WRUL) and the Overseas News Agency (ONA).

        During the Cold War, the black propagandists were again in high demand.€  In 2021, the Observer revealed that the Information Research Department (IRD) had done its bit to egg on the massacres of communists and sympathisers in Indonesia in 1965.€  Pamphlets supposedly authored by seething Indonesian patriots but cooked up by the dark musings of the IRD, called for the elimination of the Indonesian communist party, the PKI.€  The deaths that followed numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

      • Counter PunchFor Biden’s Summit of the Americas, Obama’s Handshake With Raúl Castro Shows the Way

        This is the first time since its inaugural gathering in 1994 that the event, which is held every three years, will take place on U.S. soil. But rather than bringing the Western Hemisphere together, the Biden administration seems intent on pulling it apart by threatening to exclude three nations that are certainly part of the Americas.

        For months, the Biden administration has been hinting that these governments would be excluded. So far, they have not been invited to any of the preparatory meetings and the Summit itself is now less than a month away. While former White House press secretary Jen Psaki and State Department spokesman Ned Price have repeated that “no decisions” have been made, Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols said in an interview on Colombian TV that countries that “do not respect democracy are not going to receive invitations.”

    • Environment

      • Counter PunchMust Environmental Leaders Conform? Or Dare We Actually Lead?

        The rationale was that it had been so long since Montana experienced Wilderness legislation prominence, that we could erupt the impasse, and foster good societal will in the process.€  And then, there was the lure of vast monies rewarded. Heck, we could fund attractive offices, offer much-deserved, professional-level salaries and benefits to our staff, and help move the Montana environmental community into greater respectability. All by taking the grants, and the flattery, prolifically offered by corporate donors and sometimes their governmental partners.

        We did not deliberate upon the ethics of remuneration, or the science of ecosystems. We were hooked.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Counter PunchExperimenting on Monkeys is Cruel...Keeping Them is a Threat to Public Health

          I spent my first few weeks learning how to move around in Borneo’s tropical rainforest trying to keep up with the orangutans, who are big, brilliant and brightly colored apes. They are truly breathtaking, and it’s hard to take your eyes off them. Nevertheless, my attention often wandered to another of the reserve’s primates—the troop of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis). These slender monkeys with variegated green fur and striking facial hair were bounding on all fours through the trees with their long, slim tails acting as a counterbalance.

          Macaques are seed dispersers, making them a keystone species in the environment; remove them from the forest and you risk a cascade of ecological consequences. I could reliably find them within a half-mile of the river’s edge, where they spent their days foraging, grooming, swimming and sleeping. They also routinely wandered into our camp, easily navigating the “edges” that we had opened in the forest. The adults were fiercely protective of the infants and juveniles. Each evening before dark, the troop gathered at a large sleeping tree by the edge of the river. When everyone was accounted for in this troop of 30 highly social and intelligent macaques, the members would huddle together for warmth, safety and companionship. The months I spent in Borneo collecting observational data on the macaques would eventually lead me into an academic and research career during which I focused on the ways infectious diseases move between human and macaque populations and the consequences that this has for primate conservation and public health.

    • Finance

      • Capital One tells me to get a letter from the Buick dealership for my Batteries Plus dispute and then says it doesn’t count.

        Capital One told me to get a letter from the Buick dealership for my Batteries Plus Bulbs dispute and then says it doesn’t count.

        I got a letter from Anthony Buick GMC in Gurnee, Illinois today detailing what they had to do to my Buick and why, and then “Crapital One” said it doesn’t count because they didn’t know how to read what it plainly says.

        I ended up on the phone with Crapital One for another hour before giving up.

        They just don’t want to help their customers with the dispute resolution process.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Common DreamsJudy Blume, Mo Willems Among 1,300 Children's Authors to Condemn 'Wave of Book Suppression'

        More than a thousand children's literature authors on Thursday urged Congress, state lawmakers, and school boards around the U.S. to protect students' right to read and learn by fighting back against the right-wing book-banning frenzy that has stripped hundreds of titles from library shelves nationwide.

        "We, the undersigned, authors and illustrators of books for children and teens, condemn the efforts by organized groups to purge books from our nation's schools," states a letter, which was drafted by€ Christina Soontornvat and signed by 1,300 writers and artists from multiple generations and genres.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • ScheerpostNo More Bystanders in the Post-Roe Era

        For 50 years now, people have told desperate, heart-breaking stories about what it was like to search for an abortion in the days before€ Roe v. Wade. These were invariably narratives of women in crisis. They sometimes involved brief discussions about economic inequality, police-state intrigue, and unwanted children, but for the most part men were invisible in them, missing in action. Where were they? And where are they now that a wall of fundamental rights seems to be crumbling away not just for women, but for all of us? This is another example of what I used to call the Bystander Boys.

      • TruthOutWarren Calls Out Tech Firms for Selling Abortion Clinic Patients’ Location Data
      • Counter PunchSuppressing Insane Ideas Doesn't Stop Insane Conduct

        The pat, and at least partially correct, answer, is that Gendron subscribes to something called the “Great Replacement” theory.€  That’s mostly what we hear about in mainstream media descriptions of his 180-page “manifesto”: He’s a “right-wing” racist who believes that political elites are conspiring to replace him and his fellow “white” Americans with people of color.

        What most mainstream publications don’t do is link directly to the manifesto itself so that members of the public can easily access it, read it, and form our own opinions on its contents. They’re telling us what they want us to know about it in the hope that we’ll think what they want us to think about it.

      • CNBCWhy Tesla was kicked out of the S&P 500's ESG index

        It said that Tesla's "lack of a low-carbon strategy" and "codes of business conduct," along with racism and poor working conditions reported at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, affected the score.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Where Are the Goddamn Men?

        For 50 years now, people have told desperate, heart-breaking stories about what it was like to search for an abortion in the days before Roe v. Wade. These were invariably narratives of women in crisis. They sometimes involved brief discussions about economic inequality, police-state intrigue, and unwanted children, but for the most part men were invisible in them, missing in action. Where were they? And where are they now that a wall of fundamental rights seems to be crumbling away not just for women, but for all of us? This is another example of what I used to call the Bystander Boys.

      • Common DreamsOklahoma Lawmakers Pass Strictest US Abortion Ban While Roe Still Stands

        After a Thursday vote by Oklahoma legislators, the state is poised to enact the country's most restrictive abortion ban, which now just awaits an anticipated signature from Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt—a development widely denounced by defenders of reproductive freedom.

        Abortion is currently only legal in Oklahoma until about six weeks of pregnancy. The Legislature's passage of House Bill 4327 comes as the nation prepares for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and follows Stitt recently signing two other anti-choice bills.

      • The NationThe Island

        Desperation, decay, and violence are far from exceptional for Rikers. The island—which hosts eight of New York City’s jails and the nearly 6,000 people caged in them—has become synonymous with ruinously brutal carceral practices and inhumane facilities. But by the summer of last year, the chaos and disorganization of the Covid-19 pandemic had degraded living conditions considerably for the island’s prisoners. A delegation of state elected officials, visiting the complex to document the crisis in September 2021, witnessed prisoners in desperate conditions: floors strewn with garbage and human waste, vermin infestations, sick prisoners abandoned without access to medical care, an attempted suicide. A mass sick-out policy—wherein thousands of guards simultaneously coordinated taking medical leave—had badly intensified the situation: New York City’s phenomenally well-resourced jails, where correction officers significantly outnumber prisoners, appeared to be badly understaffed. By year’s end, 16 people had died in the custody of the city’s Department of Correction (DOC), some from medical neglect, some from suicide, all while the city’s jail population crept up to pre-pandemic levels and vaccination rates among prisoners remained alarmingly low.1

      • The NationAnti-War Activists Are Facing a Moral Dilemma

        I’ve been watching this country at war for many years now and, after 9/11, began spending time with American veterans who came to disdain and actively oppose the very conflicts they were sent to fight. The paths they followed to get there and the courage it took to turn their backs on all they had once embraced intrigued and impressed me, so I wrote a book about them. While doing so, I was often struck by a strange reality in that era of American war-making: In a land where there was no longer a draft, most Americans were paying remarkably little attention to our ongoing wars thousands of miles away. I find it even stranger today—and please note that this takes nothing away from the misery of the Ukrainian people or the ruthlessness of Vladimir Putin’s invasion—that the public seems vastly more engaged in a war its country is not officially fighting than in the ones we did fight so brutally and unsuccessfully over the past two decades.



Recent Techrights' Posts

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