Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 20/09/2022: Darktable 4.0.1, SuperTuxKart 1.4 Release Candidate, and Gajim 1.5.0



  • GNU/Linux

    • Server

      • Why use docker for a home server?

        With all that context I summarised, what’s the role of docker in my use case and do I still need it? I’m running some services with attached databases, some with file storage, some talking to each other on their own network. Most of them can be trivially moved to a simper system. Specifically most features I care about can be provided by systemd parameters and the reproducibility by NixOS.

        It wasn’t always that way though. In the old days we had lxc containers and openvz and if you wanted something that looks like a container, you needed to actually run the whole secondary system. Docker definitely helped by minimising that scope to just the app and its dependencies. (more than a chroot, less than a VM) It enabled a single description for running a single app. Then docker-compose allowed spawning the whole mini-environment with all the required blocks. It was an amazing change and it made hosting multiple things on one host really nice - perfect for home usage.

      • Kubernetes BlogBlog: Kubernetes 1.25: Local Storage Capacity Isolation Reaches GA

        Local ephemeral storage capacity isolation was introduced as a alpha feature in Kubernetes 1.7 and it went beta in 1.9. With Kubernetes 1.25 we are excited to announce general availability(GA) of this feature.

        Pods use ephemeral local storage for scratch space, caching, and logs. The lifetime of local ephemeral storage does not extend beyond the life of the individual pod. It is exposed to pods using the container’s writable layer, logs directory, and EmptyDir volumes. Before this feature was introduced, there were issues related to the lack of local storage accounting and isolation, such as Pods not knowing how much local storage is available and being unable to request guaranteed local storage. Local storage is a best-effort resource and pods can be evicted due to other pods filling the local storage.

        The local storage capacity isolation feature allows users to manage local ephemeral storage in the same way as managing CPU and memory. It provides support for capacity isolation of shared storage between pods, such that a pod can be hard limited in its consumption of shared resources by evicting Pods if its consumption of shared storage exceeds that limit. It also allows setting ephemeral storage requests for resource reservation. The limits and requests for shared ephemeral-storage are similar to those for memory and CPU consumption.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Applications

      • Ubuntu HandbookDarktable 4.0.1 Released with Various Bug-Fixes, PPA Updated | UbuntuHandbook

        The free open-source photography software Darktable got a new update few days ago with various bug-fixes, new cameras support and some other changes.

        Darktable 4.0.1 added base support for CANON EOS R7 and CANON EOS R10, and noise profiles for NIKON D780, CANON EOS M50 Mark II, CANON EOS 850D.

        The $(MAKER) and $(MODEL) can now be used when importing files. And display infinity for very large focus distance as supported by the exif standard.

        The release also added support for fast pipe mode on the diffuse module, HEIF media type association for the desktop, and various bug-fixes for issues ranging from DNG creation, TIFF export, Latex export, to memory corruption. See more details via the official release note.

      • The AnarcatLooking at Wayland terminal emulators - anarcat

        Back in 2018, I made a two part series about terminal emulators that was actually pretty painful to write. So I'm not going to retry this here, not at all. Especially since I'm not submitting this to the excellent LWN editors so I can get away with not being very good at writing. Phew.

        Still, it seems my future self will thank me for collecting my thoughts on the terminal emulators I have found out about since I wrote that article. Back then, Wayland was not quite at the level where it is now, being the default in Fedora (2016), Debian (2019), RedHat (2019), and Ubuntu (2021). Also, a bunch of folks thought they would solve everything by using OpenGL for rendering. Let's see how things stack up.

      • Gajim 1.5.0 - Gajim

        Gajim 1.5.0 comes with a significant performance boost. Pinned chats can be ordered via drag and drop, message corrections have been improved, and many bugs have been fixed.

      • Its FOSSManage Linux Chroot Environments Easily With Atoms GUI Tool

        A chroot environment provides you with isolation for testing in Linux. You do not need to take the hassle of creating a virtual machine. Instead, if you want to test an application or something else, create a chroot environment that allows you to select a different root directory.

        So, with chroot, you get to test stuff without giving the application access to the rest of the system. Any application you install or anything you try gets confined to that directory and does not affect the functioning of your operating system.

        Chroot has its perks, which is why it is a convenient way to test things for various users (especially system administrators).

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • FOSSLinuxHow to install Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS | FOSS Linux

        Canonical announced the launch of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) on April 21, 2022. It's now available on desktop computers and Servers. This article will highlight the procedures needed to set up Ubuntu 22.04 Server Edition with LTS (Long Time Support) on your computer.

      • FOSSLinuxHow to list all users in Ubuntu | FOSS Linux

        As a Linux system administrator or regular user, one key component of keeping your system secure is managing what privilege every user has over a particular file, directory, or settings. To achieve that, you need to have a detailed understanding of all users present on your system.

      • Matthew GarrettMatthew Garrett: Handling WebAuthn over remote SSH connections

        Being able to SSH into remote machines and do work there is great. Using hardware security tokens for 2FA is also great. But trying to use them both at the same time doesn't work super well, because if you hit a WebAuthn request on the remote machine it doesn't matter how much you mash your token - it's not going to work.

      • How to run Chronyd in Debug mode On RHEL / CentOS

        This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to run Chronyd in debug mode On RHEL , CentOS , Alma Linux and Rocky Linux.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Neofetch on Arch Linux

        Neofetch is a free, open-source command-line system information tool written in bash. Neofetch displays system information in a beautiful aesthetic way, such as system model and manufacturer, operating system, kernel version, uptime, memory resources, disk usage, and more. All this is displayed in an easy-to-read format that can be further customized with colors and logos. Neofetch also outputs the information in JSON, so other programs and scripts can use it. Neofetch is an excellent tool for anyone who wants quick and easy system information without installing additional software.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Neofetch on Arch Linux using the command line terminal and how to use the terminal commands to achieve more with Neofetch.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Sysdig on Arch Linux

        Sysdig is a powerful open-source system analysis tool that can capture and inspect system state and activity on a running Linux-based system. Sysdig is scriptable in Lua and includes a command-line interface and a powerful interactive UI. The Sysdig UI can filter and analyze captured data, making it particularly useful for system debugging and inspection. Sysdig is also extensible, allowing users to create custom scripts and plugins to extend its functionality. Overall, Sysdig is an extremely powerful and versatile tool that can be used for various system administration and analysis tasks.

        The following tutorial will teach you how to install Sysdig on Arch Linux using the command line terminal and basic commands for using Sysdig.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Duf on Arch Linux

        The Duf disk utility is an open-source, free “Disk Usage Free Utility” written in Goland and released under an MIT license. The disk utility supports multi-platforms such as BSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows operating systems. One of the excellent features of Duf is its ability to display disk usage details in a beautiful, user-friendly layout in tab form. Some extra features with Duf include disk usage in JSON output for further integrations with other programs or scripting languages. Duf is an excellent tool for system administrators to keep track of their server’s disk space or for general users to keep track of the space on their computer’s hard drive. Overall, the features and usability of Duf make it an excellent program for managing and understanding your computer’s disk usage.

        The following tutorial will teach you how to install Duf on Arch Linux using the command line terminal. The tutorial will also focus on some common-use commands.

      • UNIX CopHow to Install KDevelop on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS

        In this article, we will show you how to install KDevelop in Ubuntu systems.

        KDevelop is a free and open-source integrated development environment (IDE) for Unix-like computer operating systems and Windows. It provides editing, navigation and debugging features for several programming languages, and integration with build automation and version-control systems, using a plugin-based architecture.

        KDevelop 5 has parser backends for C, C++, Objective-C, OpenCL and JavaScript/QML, with plugins supporting PHP, Python 3 and Ruby. Basic syntax highlighting and code folding are available for dozens of other source-code and markup formats, but without semantic analysis.

        KDevelop is part of the KDE project, and is based on KDE Frameworks and Qt. The C/C++ backend uses Clang to provide accurate information even for very complex codebases.

      • UNIX CopHow To Install RawTherapee on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS

        In this guide, we will show you how to install RawTherapee on Ubuntu Systems.

        RawTherapee is application software for processing photographs in raw image formats, as created by many digital cameras. It comprises a subset of image editing operations specifically aimed at non-destructive post-production of raw photos and is primarily focused on improving a photographer’s workflow by facilitating the handling of large numbers of images. Also, it is notable for the advanced control it gives the user over the demosaicing and developing process. It is cross-platform, with versions for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux.

        So, RawTherapee was originally written by Gábor Horváth of Budapest, Hungary, and was re-licensed as free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License Version 3 in January 2010. It is written in C++, using a GTK+ front-end and a patched version of dcraw for reading raw files. The name “Therapee” was originally an acronym derived from “The Experimental Raw Photo Editor”.

      • UNIX CopHow To Install SoftMaker FreeOffice on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS
      • UNIX CopHow To Install WebStorm on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS

        In this guide, we will show you how to install WebStorm in Ubuntu Systems.

        Webstorm is the smartest JavaScript IDE. WebStorm is an integrated development environment for JavaScript and related technologies. Like other JetBrains IDEs, it makes your development experience more enjoyable, automating routine work and helping you handle complex tasks with ease.

      • Barry KaulerCreate a CLI app that will run on Linux, Windows, macOS, BSD
      • HowTo GeekHow to Make and Combine PDF Files on the Linux Command Line

        PDF files were designed to promote sharing. Everyone can open them—in their web browser if they have nothing else. Linux lets you manipulate, merge, and split PDF files on the command line.

      • Network WorldUsing the Linux apropos command – even if you have to fix it first

        On Linux, the apropos command helps identify commands related to some particular term. It can be helpful in finding commands you might want to use—especially when you can’t remember their names.

      • Make Use OfHow to Compress Image Files on Linux Using Curtail

        Storing and sharing large image files can be a headache. Fortunately, there are several ways to compress image files. If you're on Linux—and prefer native tools—Curtail is one good image compression tool you can use to compress images on your computer.

      • Linux Made SimpleHow to install Lightworks 22.3 on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install Lightworks 22.3 on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

      • MakeTech EasierHow to Edit a Screenshot on Your Phone - Make Tech Easier

        Taking screenshots is just one part of the job. You will need to edit it if you want to crop an area, add text or draw on the picture. So how does one edit a screenshot on the phone? Well, both Android and iPhone offer native methods to edit screenshots. You can use those, use the gallery apps or install third-party apps to edit screenshots. Let’s check all the different methods to edit screenshots on Android and iPhone.

      • UNIX CopHow To Install XanMod Kernel on Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 LTS

        In this guide, we will show you how to install XanMod Kernel on Ubuntu systems.

        XanMod is a general-purpose Linux kernel distribution with custom settings and new features. Built to provide a stable, responsive and smooth desktop experience.

        The real-time version is recommended for critical runtime applications such as Linux gaming server / client for eSports, streaming, live productions and ultra-low latency enthusiasts.

      • Make Use OfHow to Install and Set Up Grafana on Ubuntu

        Data visualization tools make it easy to discern useful information and draw a conclusion from large and complicated data sets. Grafana is one of the popular and open-source interactive data visualization tools that let you analyze and visualize your data from all the sources into a unified dashboard.

    • Games

      • GamingOnLinuxIntel's Linux Vulkan Driver readying up a 60%+ speed boost "in draw throughput"

        Blumenkrantz blogged about it, in their usual funny way, going over some profiling they did on the Intel ANV driver using the vkoverhead tool. Thanks to their investigation the result is two small patches that aren't yet merged into Mesa but once in, should provide a "60%+ improvement in draw throughput on ICL". The fun thing is that the patches only touch a few lines and yet provide such a boost.

      • Boiling SteamScathe: Not The Doom You Are Looking For - Boiling Steam

        This was going to be a review of Scathe, a new “bullet hell” single-player/online co-op first-person shooter, but I couldn’t bring myself to make it far enough for a full review. So let’s call this “impressions” with a hope that the game will evolve into something to spend many more hours with in the near future.

        [...]

        There are no plans currently for a Linux version. Scathe should work well on the Steam Deck with its official controller support and lower settings. I never (yet?) got the hang of FPSes with a controller so I didn’t try it, but yes it is on my list of things to do with the Deck.)

      • GamingOnLinuxSteam Deck Q3 invites are all out early as Valve beats own production estimates (again)

        Again and again Valve has managed to speed up production of the Steam Deck, so much so that for reservations the Q3 era is over. Valve said that everyone who was inside Q3, would have gotten their purchase invite email today and so they're now speeding onwards into the Q4 window.

      • GamingOnLinuxReturn to Monkey Island is out now, Linux version due soon

        It's here at last. Terrible Toybox and Devolver Digital have today released Return to Monkey Island, and for fans of Native Linux ports one is on the way. For the Linux side, developer Ron Gilbert said on Twitter: "Works on Proton and a pure Linux version is coming soon after."

      • GamingOnLinuxSteam Mobile App continues adding new features to the Beta

        Valve are continuing to roll out big changes to the brand new Steam Mobile App, which is currently in Beta. This will eventually replace the older app, which has been left in the dust for too long.

      • GamingOnLinuxThe Wandering Village is a clear hit with over 50K copies sold

        The Wandering Village, the new city-builder from Stray Fawn Studio has clearly become something of a hit and for good reason. Announced in a Steam post, the developer mentioned how "The Wandering Village has sold 50’000 copies in the first two days" and it also has a Very Positive user rating now too.

      • GamingOnLinuxGE-Proton installer ProtonUp-Qt adds support for the Steam Snap

        ProtonUp-Qt continues being an incredibly helpful GUI for installing the likes of GE-Proton, Wine-GE, Luxtorpeda and more with a new version out now.

      • GamingOnLinuxValve had the official Steam Deck Docking Station at TGS, plus other TGS bits

        While they haven't yet released the official Steam Deck Dock and they haven't really talked about it since the indefinite delay, it's clearly still a thing.

      • SuperTuxKart 1.4 Release Candidate 1 available!

        We are happy to announce the release of the first release candidate for STK 1.4!

        This release mainly focuses on visual changes, notably our collectable items now have a more dynamic and polished way to interact with players...

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • GamingOnLinuxPlasma 5.26 Beta brings on the bigscreen experience

          Plasma 5.26 Beta is officially out now and it comes with plenty of massive improvements, especially when it comes to using it on the bigscreen. With this version in preview, it's a chance for users and developers to find and help fix any remaining bugs to make the full release on October 6th a great one.

        • Plasma 5.26 Beta available for testing | Kubuntu

          Are you using Kubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish, our current stable LTS release? Or are you already running our development builds of the upcoming 22.10 Kinetic Kudu?

          We currently have Plasma 5.25.90 (Plasma 5.26 Beta) available in our Beta PPA for Kubuntu 22.04 and for the 22.10 development series.

        • Bryan LundukeLinux, Alternative OS, - Retro Computing News - Sep 17, 2022

          KDE releases TV interface: “Bigscreen”

          The Beta release of KDE Plasma version 5.26 was just released. And it has some really fun stuff — and big stuff — in there. Far more than a “5.26” point release would otherwise suggest.

          The biggest, in my opinion, being their new “Bigscreen” interface, intended for use when connected to a TV.

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • BSD

    • Arch Family

    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • Fedora at OpenAlt 2022 | Brno hat

        Covid stopped a lot of activities including IT events. As things are hopefully coming to normal the Czech community of Fedora had its first booth at a physical event since 2019. It was also a revival for OpenAlt, traditional open source conference in Brno, because its last edition was in 2019, too. The traditional date of OpenAlt is the first weekend in November, but to avoid any possible autumn covid waves the organizers decided to have it on Sep 17-18.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

    • Devices/Embedded

      • HacksterYuzukiTsuru's Yuzuki Chameleon Pops an Allwinner H616 Chip Into a Raspberry Pi Model A Form Factor - Hackster.io

        Pseudonymous maker "YuzukiTsuru," also known as "GloomyGhost," has published an open-hardware design for a single-board computer mimicking the Raspberry Pi Model A layout but with an Allwinner H616 system-on-chip at its heart: the Yuzuki Chameleon.

        "Yuzuki Chameleon is a Raspberry Pi A-shaped SBC [Single Board Computer], based on [the] Allwinner H616 chip," YuzukiTsuru explains in a post brought to our attention by CNX Software. "[It can] run Android, Debian Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Armbian, Android TV, and other OS[es]."

      • NPRRep. Jackie Walorski's driver was at fault in the fatal crash, police say

        The sheriff's office said evidence from the crash reconstruction, including information from the airbag control module (also referred to as the car's "black box") showed that the Toyota was traveling at 82 mph five seconds before the crash.

        Police added no phones were apparently used prior to the crash, and there was no indication of mechanical failures.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • ArduinoThis DIY strain wave gearbox is strong enough to pull a car | Arduino Blog

        Mechanical advantage is arguably the most important engineering concept that humanity has ever learned to harness. By converting distance, like the length of a lever or rotations of a gear, into torque (and vice versa) we can overcome almost any physical challenge. But that distance can be an issue. For example, if you have an input gear 10mm in diameter and want a 100:1 reduction, your output gear needs to be a full meter in diameter. Strain wave gearboxes solve that problem and Brian Brocken’s video will walk you through how to build your own that is strong enough to pull a car.

        To avoid meter-wide gears, engineers typically turn to gearboxes that incorporate several gears. Each gear multiplies the reduction of the preceding gear, so several gears can achieve dramatic reductions and one can arrange them in a compact space. But a strain wave, AKA “harmonic drive,” gear can achieve a similar reduction with just three parts: a wave generator, a flex spline, and a circular spline.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • JoinupOpen Source code repository for the EU institutions launched by DIGIT Director-General Gaffey

      On Friday 16 September, Director-General for Informatics Veronica Gaffey announced the launch of the Commission's open source repository for the EU institutions: code.europa.eu. (Speech transcript below) She reported that there are already over 100 projects and 150 developers on the platform, and that the Commission's Open Source Programme Office is "busily onboarding others".

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • SQLite: Past, Present, and Future

        SQLite is a single node and (mostly) single threaded online transaction processing (OLTP) database. It has an in-process/embbedded design, and a standalone (no dependencies) codebase ...a single C library consisting of 150K lines of code. With all features enabled, the compiled library size can be less than 750 KiB. Yet, SQLite can support tens of thousands of transactions per second. Due to its reliability, SQLite is used in mission-critical applications such as flight software. There are over 600 lines of test code for every line of code in SQLite. SQLite is truly the little database engine that could.

      • SQLite: Past, Present, and Future

        In the two decades following its initial release, SQLite has become the most widely deployed database engine in existence. Today, SQLite is found in nearly every smartphone, computer, web browser, television, and automobile. Several factors are likely responsible for its ubiquity, including its in-process design, standalone codebase, extensive test suite, and cross-platform file format. While it supports complex analytical queries, SQLite is primarily designed for fast online transaction processing (OLTP), employing row-oriented execution and a B-tree storage format. However, fueled by the rise of edge computing and data science, there is a growing need for efficient in-process online analytical processing (OLAP). DuckDB, a database engine nicknamed "the SQLite for analytics", has recently emerged to meet this demand. While DuckDB has shown strong performance on OLAP benchmarks, it is unclear how SQLite compares. Furthermore, we are aware of no work that attempts to identify root causes for SQLite's performance behavior on OLAP workloads. In this paper, we discuss SQLite in the context of this changing workload landscape. We describe how SQLite evolved from its humble beginnings to the full-featured database engine it is today. We evaluate the performance of modern SQLite on three benchmarks, each representing a different flavor of in-process data management, including transactional, analytical, and blob processing. We delve into analytical data processing on SQLite, identifying key bottlenecks and weighing potential solutions. As a result of our optimizations, SQLite is now up to 4.2X faster on SSB. Finally, we discuss the future of SQLite, envisioning how it will evolve to meet new demands and challenges.

    • Programming/Development

      • FinnstatsLAB to Delta E conversion in R - finnstats

        LAB to Delta E conversion in R, First we need to understand what is Delta E. The “distance” between two colours is represented by a single integer called delta-E.

        It’s alluring to just contrast the euclidean distance between an RGB’s red, green, and blue components.

        Unfortunately for us, rgb doesn’t correspond to how we truly sense colour. It was designed for the convenience of use with electrical equipment.

      • Perl / Raku

        • PerlIssue #582 - 2022-09-19 - Grandfather’s Perl

          I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that Dave came up with perfect response to the other blog post with this This is not your grandfather’s Perl. It has already created positive noise. If you want to take a closer look at the recent changes to the latest release of Perl v5.36 then please do checkout the GitHub repository sharing the changes with example. By the way, it is not just limited to v5.36. You will find plenty more to keep you busy.

        • Rakulang2022.38 Another Wave - Rakudo Weekly News

          Ben Davies has been working a lot on Data::Record, a module that introduces record types for maps, lists and tuples to the Raku Programming Language. Still not happy with the feature set, they described how the next wave of changes to the module may look.

        • PerlTypes, Objects, and Systems, Oh my! | AWNCORP [blogs.perl.org]

          Perl isn't a strongly typed language, and its built-in types are limited and not generally accessible to the engineer, however, Perl supports various classes of data and in recent years has flirted with various ways of enabling runtime type checking.

          In a strongly typed language the tl;dr; case for declaring data types is memory management, compile-time code optimization, and correctness. To this day I'm both impressed and horrified by the number of errors caught when I implement some kind of type checking in my programs. When it comes to runtime type checking we're only concerned with enforcing correctness.

          Types, values, objects, signatures, and the systems that tie these all together, are all inextricably bound. They are necessarily interdependent in order to present/provide a cohesive and consistent system. Peeling back the layers a bit, types are merely classifications of data. Any given piece of data can be classified as belonging to a particular type whether implicit or explicit.

          Types are instantiated (i.e. have concrete representations, i.e. instances) whenever data is created and/or declared as conforming to the type's criteria. Runtime types are arbitrary. A value of 1 can be said to be of type number where the value "1" can be said to be of the type string. Also in Perl, an object is a specific kind of reference; a reference tied to a particular namespace.

      • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

        • [Old] Is mktemp posix?

          Is mktemp posix?

          Since mktemp is not POSIX compliant, we can create a POSIX compliant version using the GNU M4 macro processor. This tool can expand the mkstemp() function specified by the C API.

          a Is mktemp portable?

          tempfile is not portable. mktemp exists more widely (but still not ubiquitously), but it may require a -c switch to create the file in advance; or it may create the file by default and barf if -c is supplied.

        • [Old] Creating a Temporary File in Linux

          In this tutorial, we’ll show how to create temporary files when using Linux. We’ll start by explaining the purpose of temporary files, after which we’ll continue with the usage of the mktemp utility available on most Linux systems. Then, we’ll finish off with a POSIX compatible solution.

        • [Old] How Do I Use mktemp?

          Many times when we’re writing an application, we need a temporary file or directory. mktemp provides a system-based way to create a valid and unique temporary file or directory from a script or application.

          In this tutorial, we’ll present a way to safely and reliably create temporary files and directories on Linux using mktemp.

        • [Old] Greg WooledgeHow do I create a temporary file in a secure manner?

          There does not appear to be any single command that simply works everywhere. tempfile is not portable. mktemp exists more widely (but still not ubiquitously), but it may require a -c switch to create the file in advance; or it may create the file by default and barf if -c is supplied. Some systems don't have either command (Solaris, POSIX). POSIX systems are supposed to have m4 which has the ability to create a temporary file, but some systems may not install m4 by default, or their implementation of m4 may be missing this feature.

        • [Old] Code MavenCreate temporary directory on Linux with Bash using mktemp

          When writing a test or whenn running a build job it is usually a good practice to use a temporary directory and then clean up after the process is done.

          It is also a good practice to make sure the temporary directoy is unique so if two processes run at the same time they won't interfere.

          In Linux one usually has a directory called /tmp to store temporary files. In most of the programming languages there is some tool to create temporary directories. Sometimes these also handle the removal of these directories once they are not needed any more.

          In Unix/Linux shell we can use the mktemp commmand to create a temporary directory inside the /tmp directory.

      • Rust

  • Leftovers

    • Science

      • Quantum AI breakthrough: theorem shrinks appetite for training data | Discover Los Alamos National Laboratory

        Rigorous math proves neural networks can train on minimal data, providing ‘new hope’ for quantum AI and taking a big step toward quantum advantage

      • Decoding Canine Cognition

        Scientists have decoded visual images from a dog’s brain, offering a first look at how the canine mind reconstructs what it sees. The Journal of Visualized Experiments published the research done at Emory University.

        The results suggest that dogs are more attuned to actions in their environment rather than to who or what is doing the action.

        The researchers recorded the fMRI neural data for two awake, unrestrained dogs as they watched videos in three 30-minute sessions, for a total of 90 minutes. They then used a machine-learning algorithm to analyze the patterns in the neural data.

      • Quanta MagazineQuanta Magazine

        Richard Rusczyk, founder of Art of Problem Solving, has a vision for bringing “joyous, beautiful math” — and problem-solving — to classrooms everywhere.

      • Simulation aids the search for the origin of cosmic rays - Newsportal - Ruhr-Universität Bochum

        Cosmic rays seem to surround us everywhere. This is precisely what makes it difficult to find its sources. It would be helpful if we could trace their path through space. A new programme can help.

        An international research team has developed a computer programme that can simulate the transport of cosmic rays through space. The researchers hope it will help them solve the mystery of the sources of cosmic rays. So far, we do not know which celestial objects emit the high-energy radiation that pelts the Earth from space. Theoretical models are necessary to explain experimental data; the new computer simulation can provide these. A team of researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) describes the software in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, published online on 12 September 2022.

      • ReutersNorth American companies send in the robots, even as productivity slumps

        North American companies snapped up a record number of robots in the first half of this year as they struggled to keep factories and warehouses humming in the face of an extremely tight labor market and soaring compensation costs.

        Companies ordered a record 12,305 machines in the second quarter valued at $585 million, 25% more units than during the same period a year ago, according to data compiled by the industry group the Association for Advancing Automation. Combined with a strong first quarter, the North American robotics market notched its best first half ever, the group said.

        "Companies need to get product out the door — and so they need" new automation, said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation, known as A3.

    • Hardware

      • ReutersUpset by high prices, GM's Cruise develops its own chips for self-driving cars

        Cruise had developed four in-house chips so far - a computing chip called Horta, the main brains of the car, Dune which processes data from the sensors, a chip for the radar, and one that it would announce later, Jenkins said.

        The sensors and computing chips would also reduce power consumption, helping to increase driving range.

      • Mullvad creates a hardware company

        Something that makes the key unique is the fact that both its software and hardware are open source. Therefore it can be trusted because of its ability to be inspected and verified. The USB is free to be programmed by end users whilst still being secure. This offers the flexibility to easily be used in a wide variety of new applications.

      • Mullvad Creates an Open-Source USB Security Key

        According to Mullvad, this process should allow the Tillitis Key to verify an app’s integrity before it loads. It also prevents applications from “seeing” each others’ secrets, which may provide a strong defense against malware. (Note that Tillitis Key loads applications, but these applications aren’t persistently stored on the security key.)

      • Tillitis Key

        A user- or host-supplied secret can also be mixed into the key derivation function, providing further protection. A sophisticated physical attacker should be assumed to have knowledge of the target application’s hash, and will likely eventually succeed in extracting the UDS from the hardware. By adding a host-supplied secret, knowledge of the application used as well as the security key’s UDS is not sufficient to produce the application secret. This makes the security impact of a lost or stolen Tillitis Key less than for conventional security keys.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • NBCCovid will be a leading cause of death in the U.S. indefinitely, whether or not the pandemic is 'over'

        Covid was the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020, after heart disease and cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same was true last year, provisional CDC data shows. Since April, Covid deaths have stayed relatively flat, at a weekly average of around 300 to 500 per day. If the trend continues, the U.S. could expect 113,000 to 188,000 deaths a year from Covid, putting it on par with Alzheimer’s, chronic lower respiratory diseases and stroke.

      • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer)Biden declares COVID-19 Pandemic “over” one week before voting begins.

        Just a coincidence, I’m sure.

        I mean, sure, there’s still at least half a million confirmed cases a day worldwide, and the US government has stopped providing tests to the poor and uninsured for free, and sure Governor Pritzker (Democrat) of Illinois recently said to send the kids to school without masks.

        See how fast they need it to go away? They realize they’re going to get thumped hard in the election and the Democrats want everyone to forget the Two Years of Hell they caused, including millions of job losses, 25% inflation in a single year (rent, food, utilities), and such a high suicide rate now that the Germans and Japanese want to know what’s going on in here.

        [...]

        I fear that the only way to stop them will be to vote for Mark Curran and to try to flip the state Supreme Court.

    • Proprietary

      • A few thoughts about Uber's breach - 2022-09-19

        Allegedly, an eighteen-year-old spammed an employee with two-factor authentication via push notifications on an employee with a known password. They got into the VPN and scanned for servers, found a file share without any access controls, and a script that could access break-the-glass credentials. With the highest level of credentials available, they then got effective root access to Slack, AWS, Google Suite, and active directory at Uber.

      • Deutsche WelleWhat will the [Internet] of the future look like?

        Their vision: Rather than scrolling through websites or apps, people will soon stroll virtually through a three-dimensional version of the internet dubbed the "metaverse" — a digital landscape of sorts where users can work, buy things or meet their friends, and where physical and digital realities converge.

      • FuturismUber [Breach] Was So Huge Employees Thought It Was A Prank

        The company told Reuters that it's investigating the breach and claims no sensitive user data had been accessed. Until the company — or the [cracker] — provide more updates, we won't really know what happened or why the hacker went after the ride-sharing giant. But it's clear, at least, that it was not a joke.

      • SECSEC Charges VMware with Misleading Investors by Obscuring Financial Performance

        The SEC’s order finds that, beginning in fiscal year 2019, VMware began delaying the delivery of license keys on some sales orders until just after quarter-end so that it could recognize revenue from the corresponding license sales in the following quarter. According to the SEC’s order, VMware shifted tens of millions of dollars in revenue into future quarters, building a buffer in those periods and obscuring the company’s financial performance as its business slowed relative to projections in fiscal year 2020. Although VMware publicly disclosed that its backlog was “managed based upon multiple considerations,” it did not reveal to investors that it used the backlog to manage the timing of the company’s revenue recognition.

      • ReutersSEC charges VMware with misleading investors by obscuring financial performance

        The company was charged with misleading investors about its order backlog management practices, which the agency said enabled it to push revenue into future quarters by delaying product deliveries to customers, thereby concealing the company's slowing performance relative to its projections.

        Without admitting or denying the findings in the SEC's order, VMware consented to a cease-and-desist order and will pay an $8 million penalty, the SEC said. VMware confirmed in a statement of its own that it reached a settlement with the SEC and agreed to pay the penalty without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.

      • The Register UKSEC charges VMware with hiding slowing sales from investors

        VMware misled investors about its order backlog management processes that allowed it to roll revenue into future quarters by postponing product delivery dates to customers to conceal slowing sales relative to forecasts.

      • NasdaqSEC charges VMware with misleading investors by obscuring financial performance

        Without admitting or denying the findings in the SEC's order, VMware consented to a cease-and-desist order and to pay an $8 million penalty, the SEC said.

      • US News And World ReportSEC Charges VMware With Misleading Investors by Obscuring Financial Performance

        "VMware shifted tens of millions of dollars in revenue into future quarters, building a buffer in those periods and obscuring the company’s financial performance as its business slowed relative to projections in fiscal year 2020," the SEC said.

      • Silicon AngleVMware settles with SEC for $8M over allegedly misleading investors

        In May this year, VMware announced that it had reached a deal to be acquired by Broadcom Inc. for $61 billion.

      • IT WireGrand Theft Auto maker breached, next version footage stolen

        In a statement, Rockstar said confidential information had also been taken by the attacker. "At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects," the company added.

        Take-Two Interactive Software, the parent company of Rockstar, issued an SEC filing notifying its investors of the attack.

      • Input MagazineA ragtag community that updates this aughts Wikipedia gadget

        Take, for instance, the Kin, a social networking device which Microsoft spent a billion dollars developing just for it to be taken off the market after two months due to poor sales.

    • Security

      • GoogleAnnouncing the Launch of the Chrome Root Program [Ed: A prelude to Web censorship by Google]

        The Chrome Root Program ultimately determines which website certificates are trusted by default in Chrome, and enables more consistent and reliable website certificate validation across platforms.

        [...]

        As part of establishing a secure connection to a website, Chrome verifies that a recognized entity known as a “Certification Authority” (CA) issued its certificate. Certificates issued by a CA not recognized by Chrome or a user’s local settings can cause users to see warnings and error pages.

      • Help Net SecurityHigh severity vulnerabilities found in Harbor open-source artifact registry - Help Net Security

        Oxeye security researchers have uncovered several new high severity variants of the IDOR (Insecure Director Object Reference) vulnerabilities (CVE-2022-31671, CVE-2022-31666, CVE-2022-31670, CVE-2022-31669, CVE-2022-31667) in CNCF-graduated project Harbor, the popular open-source artifact registry by VMware.

      • IT WireiTWire - Uber admits breach, says it was effected through contractor's credentials

        Ride-sharing firm Uber says a recent compromise of its network was effected using stolen credentials of an external contractor, but claimed that there was no evidence that its production network had been accessed.

        In a statement, the company claimed it was likely that the attacker had bought the Uber contractor's corporate password on the dark web, after malware had been used to steal the credentials. It said the attacker was likely linked to a group known as Lapsus$ which has carried out a number of attacks this year.

        The attacker then repeatedly tried to log in to the contractor’s Uber account. Each time, the contractor received a two-factor login approval request, which initially blocked access. Eventually, however, the contractor accepted one, and the attacker successfully logged in.

      • IT WireiTWire - Grand Theft Auto maker breached, next version footage stolen

        Rockstar Games has revealed that an attacker breached its network and accessed early development footage of the next version of its well-known video game Grand Theft Auto 6.

        In a statement, Rockstar said confidential information had also been taken by the attacker. "At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects," the company added.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • India TimesNew Data Protection Bill to augment efficient usage of data by industry: Centre

          The Centre on Monday said that the new draft of the data protection bill is being prepared to augment efficient usage of data since it would largely be used by the industry.

          Speaking at the CII 'International Technology Summit 2022,' Dr Rajendra Kumar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), noted that the government has put in place a proactive approach to deal with emerging technologies and subsequent threat levels.

        • Broadband BreakfastCalifornia Social Media Law, Rosenworcel Deep in Space, Changes at I3 Connectivity Explorer

          Effective July 1, 2024, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act will limit the online collection of children’s data by any business that “provides an online service, product, or feature likely to be accessed by children.” The act also forbids the usage of children’s data in a manner “the business knows, or has reason to know, is materially detrimental to the physical health, mental health, or well-being of a child” and limits businesses’ ability to dispose of such data, among other measures. To ensure compliance, businesses would be required to establish the age of online users and issue reports to state officials.

        • Assembly Bill No. 2273: CHAPTER 320: An act to add Title 1.81.47 (commencing with Section 1798.99.28) to Part 4 of Division 3 of, and to repeal Section 1798.99.32 of, the Civil Code, relating to consumer privacy.

          This bill would create the California Children’s Data Protection Working Group to deliver a report to the Legislature regarding best practices for the implementation of these provisions, as specified. The bill would require the members of the working group to have certain expertise, including in the areas of children’s data privacy and children’s rights. The bill would require the working group to take input from a broad range of stakeholders, including from academia, consumer advocacy groups, and small, medium, and large businesses affected by data privacy policies, and make prescribed recommendations on best practices, including identifying online services, products, or features likely to be accessed by children.

          This bill would authorize the Attorney General to seek an injunction or civil penalty against any business that violates its provisions. The bill would hold violators liable for a civil penalty of not more than $2,500 per affected child for each negligent violation or not more than $7,500 per affected child for each intentional violation. The bill would require any penalties, fees, and expenses recovered in an action brought under the act to be deposited in the Consumer Privacy Fund with the intent that they be used to fully offset costs incurred by the Attorney General in connection with the act.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Michael West Media"Be honest for once": cost of secret trials rises as Government covers-up Timor spying fiasco - Michael West

        The Timor-Leste secret spy trials are not over, with costs already $5m and rising, Rex Patrick writes the Government will be back in court spending more public money trying to censor one of the former Chief Justice’s decisions to keep secret the finding of the Court that the spying operation took place.

        Court proceedings relating to Bernard Collaery blowing the whistle on a conspiracy to defraud Timor-Leste of its oil and gas by spying on the Timorese sea boundary negotiating team are over. Yes?

        No!

        $5,421,115 of taxpayers’ money has been spent, but there’s more cost to come. Secret trials have occurred, but they’re not over yet.

        On 23 September the Government will be back in the ACT Supreme Court spending taxpayers’ money trying to censor one of the former Chief Justice’s decisions to keep secret the finding of the Court that the spying operation took place.

      • Michael West MediaFalk Lines: Information Commissioner fights for the right to hide information indefinitely, que? - Michael West

        Information Commissioner Angelene Falk will argue in the Federal Court that she can take forever to handle FOI complaints. Rex Patrick, who brought the case, reports she is acting against the government’s transparency regime, advice from Mark Dreyfus, and the public interest.

        For people to make valid judgments on government policy or to contribute to new policies in an intelligent way, they must be able to exercise their rights to have timely access to government information.

        So it is with great disappointment that at 10.15 this morning the Information Commissioner (IC), Angelene Falk, will argue in the Federal Court that, when she is asked to conduct a review of a government’s FOI decision that refuses a person’s access to information, she can take forever to do so, thereby denying indefinitely the right of that person to engage fully in our democracy.

        The IC’s decision to instruct her taxpayer-funded solicitors to do so is a betrayal and a disgrace. It’s also a particularly strange move when the Attorney-General has already intervened in the case spelling out the adverse effects of her delay in decision making is having on the FOI regime.

    • Environment

      • Energy

        • New York Times‘Crippling’ Energy Bills Force Europe’s Factories to Go Dark

          This past week, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed offsetting the hit by capping revenue from low-cost electricity generators and forcing fossil fuel firms to share the profit they make from soaring energy prices.

          But the solutions may not be fast enough. Costs have already soared beyond what many manufacturers can afford. Thousands of European companies are near the end of fixed energy contracts signed when prices were cheaper, and must renew them in October at current prices. Year-ahead electricity prices, which are tied to the cost of gas, are around 1,000 euros per megawatt-hour in Germany and France, while natural gas is at record highs of around €230 per megawatt-hour.

        • FuturismMiners Forked Ether So They Can Still Pollute After The Merge, But It's Already Crashing In Value

          But that also means mining outfits are now sitting on massive piles of extremely power-hungry hardware. Many banded together to create ETHPoW, a hard fork of Ethereum that lets them keep their environmentally damaging operations going.

          That's not going so great, though. Today alone — the fork was yesterday — ETHPoW is already down by a staggering 55 percent.

        • The EconomistCan Europe decarbonise its heavy industry?

          Heavy industry has long seemed irredeemably carbon-intensive. Reducing iron ore to make steel, heating limestone to produce cement and using steam to crack hydrocarbons into their component molecules requires a lot of energy. On top of that, the chemical processes involved give off lots of additional carbon dioxide. Cutting all those emissions, experts believed, was either technically unfeasible or prohibitively expensive.

        • What The Merge Means - a16z crypto

          The Merge – the major Ethereum upgrade that happened early Thursday morning – will go down as one of the most important moments in the history of open source. It’s hard to think of a cooler example of a community of hundreds of developers across many organizations driving years of open-ended research and hard technical development.

          Many people don’t realize: Transitioning Ethereum to “proof-of-stake” (PoS) – an alternative to “proof-of-work” (PoW) mining for reaching consensus on blocks of transactions – was an insane feat. The update involved hot-swapping the most important component of Ethereum’s architecture – its consensus mechanism – *while it was running*. All this occurred while maintaining perfect uptime for millions of users, thousands of decentralized applications (dapps), and hundreds of billions of dollars secured.

    • Finance

      • [Old] The Asymmetry of Open Source

        Users need open source projects, but open source projects do not need users.

        That asymmetry is, I believe, at the crux of the open source sustainability problem. We all use open source projects either directly or indirectly. But projects do not need us. Of course, projects need users to create rich and active communities, collaborate on code, and contribute in other ways; but those are optional components, and projects can absolutely do what they want in a vacuum, ignore their users, or even abandon them altogether. Ultimately, project developers do not need users in order to write code and put it on the Internet.

        With the recent revival of the discussion about sustaining open source spurred on by multiple severe CVEs in a popular logging library, and with so many hot takes clamoring for more funding—some calling on companies, others on maintainers—I wanted to write about the problem and its solutions more wholistically, as I have spent many years thinking about this from my own experience with both failing and succeeding… a perspective that I hope some of you will find helpful.

      • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer)Walmart Grocery Pickup, Walmart App, and Walmart+ is getting more frustrating.

        Walmart Grocery Pickup is getting more frustrating.

        Walmart has been looking at ways it can convince more people to pay for Walmart+, which is their answer to Amazon Prime.

        Recently, Walmart decided to ditch DoorDash because the “partnership” wasn’t working out, and by “wasn’t working out”, I mean that DoorDash doesn’t actually pay their slaves enough to bother, so orders would just sit forever until Walmart canceled them without delivery.

        On the off chance that your order went through, Walmart basically discouraged tipping the driver, which created even more bad feelings towards the scheme from drivers, which caused even more drivers to stop taking Walmart orders. Some had stories like “I just carried in like 100 gallons of bottled water up four flights of stairs for $3 and the cheap fucker didn’t even tip me!”.

        So that didn’t last long, and now our local Walmart has its own delivery van and a store employee. (You can tip them, but Walmart has to pay them the legal minimum wage, and it’s Walmart’s van and gas money. This is a win for labor.)

        I usually pick up grocery orders. I don’t go inside much because I have a Walmart credit card which gives me 2.5 times as many points to have someone else do my shopping.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The HillPentagon orders audit of clandestine information warfare: report

        Undersecretary of Defense for policy Colin Kahl last week asked the military commands that participate in online psychological operations to give a complete rundown of their activities by next month, according to the outlet.

      • The Washington PostPentagon opens sweeping review of clandestine psychological operations

        The takedowns in recent years by Twitter and Facebook of more than 150 bogus personas and media sites created in the United States was disclosed last month by internet researchers Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory. While the researchers did not attribute the sham accounts to the U.S. military, two officials familiar with the matter said that U.S. Central Command is among those whose activities are facing scrutiny. Like others interviewed for this report, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

      • NetblocksTikTok restricted in Azerbaijan and Armenia amid clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh

        Network data confirm the restriction of social media platform TikTok on multiple internet providers in Azerbaijan and Armenia amid deadly clashes between the two countries as tensions rise over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

      • India TimesProfessor behind $12 billion empire fuels China’s tech rise

        Li Zexiang grew up in rural China during the Cultural Revolution, when capitalists were the enemy. Now the 61-year-old academic has quietly emerged as one of the country’s most successful angel investors. He’s groomed a generation of entrepreneurs and set up an incubation academy, funding or nurturing promising players in robotics and artificial intelligence valued at almost $12 billion.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation

        • New York TimesFood Supply Disruption Is Another Front for Russian Falsehoods

          Disinformation experts agree that there is a main driver for these falsehoods: Russia. Propaganda from the Kremlin, they said, has bled into right-wing social media chat rooms and, occasionally, into mainstream conservative news media like Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program.

          U.S. officials have said Russia is trying to deflect its responsibility for disrupting the world food supply through its invasion of Ukraine. And they warn that these conspiracy theories will only find a more receptive audience as Russia’s invasion continues to pressure the global markets for food and energy and, as is expected, keeps prices elevated through the winter.

        • NBCMigrants who landed on Martha’s Vineyard were tricked by misleading brochure, lawyers say

          But there’s one problem with what the brochure was promoting: The migrants aren’t anywhere close to being classified as refugees, a specific term under U.S. immigration law. The implicit promises of help, therefore, were misleading and potentially criminal, according to Lawyers for Civil Rights, a nonprofit legal aid group representing 30 of the people who landed on the Massachusetts island last week.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • The HillCalifornia Dems follow Texas GOP into online speech battle

        California’s transparency law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) last week, has the opposite intent as that of a law backed by Texas Republicans that is set to go into effect after an appellate court ruled Friday in favor of the state.

        But the industry groups opposing Texas’s law are tying the two together, arguing that both content moderation laws are unconstitutional and could set dangerous precedents that lead to more hate speech online.

      • How TikTok is Censoring the Left

        It goes down like this: Right-wingers target my account, which presently has 26,410 followers, by falsely mass reporting videos that have managed to get through to a sizable audience (quite a few of my TikToks have had viewership in the six figures) and in which I speak out against Republican tyranny (as well as smug Democratic inaction). But because I have racked up enough community guidelines violations — largely factitious — TikTok hits me with a seven day ban, even when I appeal every single one of these falsely flagged videos and win the vast majority of my petitions.

      • [Old] BBCNigeria clash: Abuja mob burns man to death over row with Muslim cleric

        Ahmad Usman, 30, was in a local vigilante group and police say about 200 people were mobilised against him.

        Eyewitnesses said the row was over an alleged blasphemous remark, but the police have not confirmed this.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • BBCMahsa Amini: Iran police say woman's death was 'unfortunate'

        Her death sparked protests in the capital and western Iran, where two people were reportedly killed in clashes with riot police on Monday.

      • VOA NewsIran Police Use Tear Gas, Water Cannon to Disperse Protest Over Woman's Death

        The protest came three days after doctors declared Amini dead on September 16 after she showed no brain activity since falling into a coma after being admitted to the hospital.

        According to reports published on social networks, Amini had traveled from the western Iranian province of Kurdistan to Tehran to meet relatives when she was arrested by the morality police on September 13.

        Eyewitnesses to her arrest told journalists that Amini appeared to have been beaten inside the police van while being taken to the detention center.

      • ABCHarris County Sheriff's Office deputy gets sick after taking drugs he mistook for candy: Sources

        An internal review is underway after a Harris County Sheriff's Office deputy got sick Wednesday morning at a substation. Sources told ABC13 the deputy took drugs, which had been recovered at a crime scene, because he thought they were candy.

        It happened at the Cypresswood substation in northwest Harris County. The drugs were colorful in nature and divided into clear plastic baggies and packed in a box. The deputy said he mistook it for candy.

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

    • Monopolies

      • Computer WorldGoogle’s failure to quash EU antitrust ruling has broad implications for tech companies

        The ruling dealt with three types of agreements that involved Google’s mobile application distribution agreements (MADAs), antifragmentation agreements (AFAs), and revenue sharing agreements (RSAs).

        According to the case, Google’s MADAs required smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Google search and browsers to carry the Play Store, while its AFAs forced smartphone makers not to run alternative versions of Android. Finally, under the company’s RSAs, mobile operators and smartphone manufacturers earned revenue if they agreed not to pre-install a competing search engine to Google’s, what are known as "exclusivity rebates."

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • 19th September 2022 - Queen Elizabeth II's Funeral

        Today is a bank holiday so I was free from work. Sadly it was due to the Queen's funeral. So of course, I felt obliged to watch as I did some Scout digital stuff. As ever with these things, there is a lot of nonsense.

      • Manhattan: Overheard Conversation
      • Star Log 2022-09-18 23:00 AKDT (Fairbanks, AK, US)

        I prayed for good star-gazing weather yesterday morning, and was blessed with a great opportunity last night, with skies clearing up for most part around 9pm. The top item on my agenda was to try out the telescope again on Jupiter. Unfortunately, of the original three magnification lenses I had, I lost one in storage, and I discovered that another one had a cracked lens, which left only the lowest magnification. So I didn't have enough magnfication to get any detail on Jupiter's surface. But I was excited to be able to view four of jupiter's moons. The image I saw looked just like this screenshot from Stellarium, except that the moons were not disks but instead bright points, and also my view was inverted horizontally.

      • 2022 Week 36/37: Catch-Up and Photos

        Rob's capsule has been quiet over the last several days. The reason is that I've decided to finally move the capsule off of my Raspberry Pi 1B and onto a faster machine. That, combined with a mid-week sinus infection and multiple personal commitments, left me with little time to add content.

        My capsule is now served on Rocky Linux 8 using KVM. I had originally intended to stay with gmnisrv to power the server, but I was unable to get it to compile on Rocky. I then set up vger using ncat and a systemd socket, only to discover that vger does not support client certificates. gmid also had problems compiling, so I turned to Jetforce, with which I'm now very happy.

      • The Ringing

        The weirdest thing I've ever experienced happened to me and Roomie last night.

        We were watching TV when a high-pitch ringing note started playing, it almost sounded metallic like a bell. Except it didn't sound like a weird house noise or something from outside, it sounded like it was coming from inside my ears. It was extremely foreboding and filled us with a sense of dread. Roomie asked me "What's that sound?" and paused the video.

    • Technical

      • Swearing at computers

        I've been trying to get DHL Express to deliver a package to my place. After three unsuccessful deliveries the tracking page informed me that I would have to contact support to arrange another.

        I tried the email form first but I expected the back-and-forth would last for days so I looked for a more immediate solution. There is a “Digital Assistant” which just a chatbot with a predetermined set of questions it can answer. The same chatbot is also available over WhatsApp but calling the provided phone number results in the call being dropped as expected.

      • A brief lull

        I've been looking at getting a NeoCities page. I'm sticking around here, I love smol.pub. NeoCities would be a good personal hub, a place to put links and photos and interests outside of social media. It looks easy, it looks like it has a lot of good features, and it's part of the indie web, and I like that a lot. It'll be fun to play with, especially since my experiment with having a VPS doesn't seem to have worked out (which is fine, that's what experimenting is for).

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Gemini search



          There are 38616 results, so I'm not going to be able to search through all of them. There's a few problems. I get the link, but not the title. The text shown in the results didn't seem especially helpful, either.

          So OK, suppose I'm interested in how to configure the PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) hardware that's on the stm32. I search for "stm32 and pwm", but I still don't get a useful result. One of the top links is to "Open Hardware: Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and ESP32", none of which is applicable to the stm32.

      • Programming

        • Somewhat confusing

          Learning a programming language is hard. I try and try, yet I just overfill my head with knowledge I don't need and stress myself out. What i really need is an end goal.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

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