GNU/Linux

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • Video ☛ Debian Voted Yes On Non Free Firmware!! – Invidious

    About a month ago Debian opened up a vote on the inclusion of non free firmware in their installer and recently that vote closed and the developers voted yes on the inclusion, but not on the result that I expected.

  • Video ☛ THE STEAM DECK RESERVATION QUEUE IS HISTORY! – Invidious

  • Video ☛ STOP! Don’t Name That File Without First Watching This Video. – Invidious

    In this video, I talk about a very important topic that doesn’t get discussed as much as it should, especially regarding individual desktop computer users. And that topic is File Naming Conventions, which are frameworks to help guide you in giving your files more descriptive names that make them easier to identify, search, sort, etc.

  • Video ☛ Parrot 5.1 Security Edition overview | designed for Penetration Testing and Red Team operations. – Invidious

    In this video, I am going to show an overview of Parrot 5.1 Security Edition and some of the applications pre-installed.

  • YouTube ☛ Linux Hangout and Future Directions

    Today we will return to our Thursday live show and talk about random topics and some future channel directions.

• Kernel Space

  • LWN ☛ Safer flexible arrays for the kernel [LWN.net]

    At the 2022 Linux Security Summit Europe (LSS EU), Gustavo A. R. Silva reported in on work he has been doing on “flexible” arrays in the kernel. While these arrays provide some … flexibility … they are also a source of bugs, which can often result in security vulnerabilities. He has been working on ways to make the use of flexible arrays safer in the kernel.

    Silva has a background in embedded systems, working with both realtime operating systems (RTOS) and embedded Linux. For the last six years, he has has been working as an upstream kernel engineer. He collaborates with the Kernel Self Protection Project (KSPP) and the Linux kernel division of the Google open-source security team.

  • LWN ☛ BPF as a safer kernel programming environment [LWN.net]

    For better or worse, C is the lingua franca in the world of kernel engineering. The core logic of the Linux kernel is written entirely in C (with a bit of assembly), as are its drivers and modules. While C is rightfully celebrated for its powerful yet simple semantics, it is an older language that lacks many of the features present in modern languages such as Rust. The BPF subsystem, on the other hand, provides a programming environment that allows engineers to write programs that can run safely in kernel space. At the 2022 Linux Plumbers Conference in Dublin, Ireland, Alexei Starovoitov presented an overview of how BPF has evolved over the years to provide a new model for kernel programming.

  • LWN ☛ BPF for HID drivers [LWN.net]

    The Human Interface Device (HID) standard dates back to the Windows 95 era. It describes how devices like mice and keyboards present themselves to the host computer, and has created a world where a single driver can handle a wide variety of devices from multiple manufacturers. Or it would have, if there weren’t actual device manufacturers involved. In the real world, devices stretch and break the standard, each in its own special way. At the 2022 Linux Plumbers Conference, Benjamin Tissoires described how BPF can be used to simplify the task of supporting HID devices.
    Most devices, he began, will work just fine with the kernel’s generic HID drivers. That still leaves quite a few that present problems — behavioral quirks that require a special driver to address. Most of the time, that driver need only make a few tweaks to the “report descriptor” provided by the device. This descriptor, the format of which was defined in 2001, describes the exact protocol a device speaks and which capabilities it offers. The kernel contains a long list of tiny drivers that do little beyond tweaking a device’s report descriptor to make it adhere to the standard; see drivers/hid/hid-sigmamicro.c for an example. Others, only slightly more complex, will modify input events upon receipt from the device; drivers/hid/hid-ezkey.c shows that type of manipulation.

  • The Register UK ☛ Linux kernel 5.19.12 may ‘harm’ Intel laptop screens • The Register [Ed: Phoronix has fed Microsoft-connected sites with that FUD about "LINUX WILL DESTROY YOUR LAPTOP" (the original mailing list message says it is rare). Kernel 5.19.12 is barely even used by anybody except the cutting-edge adventurists.]

    A bug in version 5.19.12 of the Linux kernel “may harm” screens on laptops powered by Intel’s 12th-generation Core processors.

    The Alder Lake family of chips are significantly different from earlier Intel generations, and this has caused previous problems in the open source kernel, though those were relatively modest performance degradation. This latest glitch is a bit more serious, causing displays to flash and fail to work.

  • Bleeping Computer ☛ Linux Kernel 5.19.12 bug could damage Intel laptop displays

    Linux users have reported seeing weird white flashes and rapid blinking on their Intel laptop displays after upgrading to Linux kernel version 5.19.12, leading to warnings that the bug may damage displays.

  • Linux kernel 5.19.12 code could cause permanent damage to some laptop displays | Ars Technica

    For desktop Linux users, updating to a new Linux kernel typically carries relatively small, contained risks: wonky drivers, GRUB pain, maybe a full wipe and reinstall. For one subset of laptop owners on rolling release distributions, however, kernel version 5.19.12 could cause actual LCD screen damage.

• Graphics Stack

  • Its FOSS ☛ A New Open Source Vulkan Driver for NVIDIA Graphics is Ready to Test!

    NVK is a new open-source Vulkan driver for NVIDIA Graphics hardware and aims to be the new go-to graphics driver.

    This was made possible in part due to Nvidia releasing open-source GPU kernel modules for its data center GPUs and consumer cards (GTX/RTX).

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Linux Handbook ☛ How to Check Certificate with OpenSSL

    Keeping a tab on your SSL certificates is a crucial part of a sysadmin’s job.

    There are various ways to do it. You can use a monitoring service like Checkmk to monitor the certificates or you can use the good old openssl command for this purpose.

    In this guide, I’ll explain to you how to use the openssl command to check various certificates on Linux systems.

  • HowTo Forge ☛ How to Install Redmine Project Management Tool on Ubuntu 22.04

    Redmine is free and open-source project management and issue-tracking tool. Its web-based application software, mainly written in Ruby on Rails.

  • OSNote ☛ How to Install Java JDK on Debian 11 – OSNote

    Java is a programming language. Java is portable, which means you can make your code run on different types of computers without having to rewrite it. It’s also object-oriented, which means that it enables programmers to write reusable software components.

  • OSNote ☛ How to Install Cockpit on CentOS, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux – OSNote

    Cockpit is a free, open-source web-based admin GUI. It’s modular and extensible to meet your specific needs, with many customization options.

    Cockpit is released under the MIT license and is completely free to use on any project. There are no limitations to how many projects you can host, but note that your ISP may limit the number of open ports you can run in order to handle high volumes of traffic, which could cause performance issues. If you’re unsure about hosting Cockpit on your website, chat with your host provider or support for more information about this. If you want to host Cockpit yourself, we recommend using Haproxy or a similar in-memory load balancer, which can handle a large number of simultaneous client requests without affecting your server’s performance.

    Cockpit was born out of the necessity for an admin interface for Redis that could be used as a central point for the configuration, support, and migration of Redis clusters. It is meant to allow administrators to make changes from a familiar GUI environment.

  • Make Tech Easier ☛ How to Control RGB Lighting On Linux – Make Tech Easier

    With the rise of online gaming and streaming, the use of RGB lighting on desktop peripherals is trending on the Internet. Most of the RGB lighting comes with a configurable interface that allows you to change the brightness, lighting pattern and more with a desktop application. Typically, these applications only work on Windows, with little to no support for Linux. Thankfully, due to the hard work of some independent developers, there are now Linux apps to control RGB lighting.

  • How to Set Up a Proxy on Ubuntu – Linux Stans

    In this tutorial, I will show you how to set up a Proxy on Ubuntu, from the Settings app, and the CLI.

  • TechRepublic ☛ How to deploy the Portainer container manager with Podman | TechRepublic

    Portainer has been my favorite container management platform for some time. It offers every feature I need to make working with containers a breeze.

    Portainer was originally built for Docker, and with the rootless nature of Podman, Portainer had some serious issues and wouldn’t deploy. However, Podman can be run as either root or non-root, so it is actually possible to deploy the Portainer GUI for the Podman runtime.

  • H2S Media ☛ How to install Deepin Terminal on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS – Linux Shout

    Let’s learn the commands to install the simple Deepin terminal app on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jelly Fish to replace the default Gnome terminal.

    Deepin Terminal is an open source and created by Deepin Technology, the developers behind the Linux OS. The key thing which attracts the user to the Deepin terminal emulator is its simple interface with useful functions. It offers a tabby interface where you can create more workspaces just like we do in browsers. Further, we can create customized keyboard shortcuts for running different commands. For example, you don’t want to write a system update command to run it manually, every time, then set a keyboard shortcut for it. After that, every time you just need to press that shortcut and the terminal will automatically execute the update command.

    For those who don’t know Deepin is a Linux distribution based on Debian. It uses its desktop environment and focuses on an elegant design. The reference to macOS is not to be overlooked – which combines the best of both worlds for Linux users. However many of us are intrigued with the applications of Deepin but do not want to install the OS completely on our system. If such is the case and you like the Deepin Terminal then in this article we discuss how to install it on Ubuntu Linux systems.

  • H2S Media ☛ How to install Hyper Terminal app on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

    Replace your default Gnome terminal by installing the Hyper Terminal app on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy JellyFish for more features and customization options.

    Hyper is an Electron-based Terminal emulator with a number of customization options, and that is your first priority, Hyper Terminal should be the best choice for you. Built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript this terminal app is more suitable for developers, and also has support for plugins to increase the productivity of the program.

    You can find a number of plugins in the Hyper Repository, and I am sure you will definitely find some of them useful for you. With support for ZSH, you can actually change the complete look and feel of the emulator and the support for various themes in some way or another can increase your productivity and workflow. Just give Hyper Terminal a try to unleash the full potential of a Terminal emulator.

  • Red Hat Official ☛ How to migrate data to a distributed database with ShardingSphere | Enable Sysadmin

    Apache ShardingSphere’s new elastic migration feature lets you move data from a single database to a distributed database in an SQL-like manner.

  • HowTo Forge ☛ Install sysPass Password Manager with Free Let’s Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu 22.04

    sysPass is a free, open-source, and PHP-based password management tool used to save your passwords in a safe location.

  • Create Custom ELK Ingest Pipeline for Custom Log Processing – kifarunix.com

  • Linux Magazine ☛ Connect Pi devices and a smartphone with Bluetooth

    We use a Raspberry Pi, a Pi Pico, and a smartphone to communicate over Bluetooth.

    Because the Raspberry Pi comes with both WiFi and Bluetooth, most programs choose to rely on WiFi, with Bluetooth being more of a wallflower. However, the Pi Pico mixes things up and makes Bluetooth a desirable option.

    Bluetooth should be a familiar technology by way of your smartphone, and this topic has been investigated for the Raspberry Pi in a previous article [1], so I will be sticking to the bare minimum in terms of the basic technology in this article. The focus here is on various scenarios in which the Raspberry Pi, Pi Pico, and smartphones use Bluetooth to communicate. The Pico stands in for almost any microcontroller, as long as it supports serial communication.

• Games

  • DSOG ☛ Obliteration is a brand new PS4 Emulator for PC (Windows/Linux)

    And here comes a new challenger. Developer “ultimaweapon” has released a brand new Playstation 4 emulator for the PC (for both Windows and Linux), called Obliteration. Obliteration is currently in a very early state, and cannot run any commercial games. However, you can find a video demonstration (as well as a download link) for it below.

  • Godot Engine ☛ Godot Engine – Announcing the Godot 2022 showreels!

    We bring you three brand-new videos showcasing what the Godot Engine can do. As always we have separate videos for games targeting desktop/console and games targeting mobile devices. This year we are proud to introduce a new category called “Apps & Tools” to highlight non-game creations made with Godot. This is a field that has been growing a lot, so we wanted to shine a light on the great projects released or under development.

    Many of our core contributors and maintainers voted to make the final list in each category, and this year was particularly hard. There were way too many good projects, and we couldn’t include them all to keep the videos at a reasonable length and pace – but don’t be discouraged if your entry didn’t make it, we’ll have more opportunities to showcase great projects, including next year’s showreels.

  • Barry Kauler ☛ SuperTuxKart version 1.3 SFS created

    Forum member don570 introduced me to SuperTuxKart. I never played it before. STK is a 3D arcade racing game, runs very well on my Lenovo Ideacentre PC

  • Boiling Steam ☛ Beacon Pines – Cute visual novel with inventive storytelling devices. – Boiling Steam

    Beacon Pines is a cute, suspenseful, visual novel with interesting storytelling devices, developed by Hiding Spot and published by Fellow Traveler. It runs great on Linux with Proton.

  • Linux Links ☛ 10 Fun Free and Open Source Turn-Based Strategy Games – Part 2 – LinuxLinks

    If you adore hectic racing games, death-defying first person shooters, entertaining arcade classics, or nervy tower defense games, this article might not up your street. Here we’re covering turn-based strategy games that require intelligence, and the ability to come up with an innovative plan that will leave the competition mesmerized. As the title indicates, we are covering a genre where players take turns when playing, strategically seeking to outsmart the enemy.

    Many of the biggest computer games concentrate on explosion-filled genres. But there is a place for high quality turn-based strategy games. It’s a neglected genre in the mainstream, yet contains many marvelous titles. The genre might conjure thoughts of board games with dice and individualized pieces. But, now, they can use the latest technology to make more realistic and immersive experiences.

    There are a vast range of open source games in this field. Turn-based strategy games lend themselves remarkably to open source development. This genre doesn’t need armies of artwork or computer modelling. Games of this type also have fairly modest system requirements, and gives gamers time to get to grips with the controls even if it can take many hours to learn all of the intricacies. You can sit back, strategize, and take a breath, considering all options before making a move. So if you’re looking for a change of pace, check out the following games.

  • Liliputing ☛ ODROID-Go Ultra handheld game console is now available for $111 (Amlogic S922X chip and Ubuntu Linux OS) – Liliputing

    Hardkernel’s ODROID-Go Ultra is a handheld game console with a 5 inch display, an Amlogic S922X processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of eMMC storage plus a microSD card reader for additional storage.

    First announced in August, the handheld game console ships with an Ubuntu-based operating system and software designed for emulation. It’s now available for purchase for $111 and comes in a choice of “dim gray” or transparent “clear white” color options.

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • Jonathan Riddell ☛ Akademy 2022 the BoFs – Jonathan Esk-Riddell’s Diary

      After two days of talks we have moved to a week of BoF sessions. (I’m not a fan of the term BoF but I’ve never managed to think of anything better.) Here’s some notes I made incase anyone is interested.

      The big news is the Frameworks 6 session had some Plasma people there too and voila we have a plan for 6. Most Frameworks and even most Plasma is already working with Qt 6. So the last Frameworks 5 release is due in December and then work will happen to finalise the porting to Frameworks 6 and once that’s solid releases will start again using Qt 6. And for Plasma we’ll make a final Plasma 5 release at the start of next year versioned 5.27. That will be LTS so we’ll stop the 5.24 LTS releases and make further 5.27 releases as long as they are useful. The finalising of the porting to Qt 6 will start in January and we’ll schedule a release whenever that becomes practicle which should be not too far into 2023.

  • GNOME Desktop/GTK

    • OMG Ubuntu ☛ Extension Manager 0.4 Intros Compatibility Checker, Adaptive UI – OMG! Ubuntu!

      A sizeable update to the (really rather indispensable, imho) Extension Manager app is rolling out on Flathub.

      Not heard of this nifty desktop tool before? It lets you install, configure, and manage GNOME extensions without needing to involve a web browser or any “connector” packages. Just install the Extension Manager and that’s it, you’re good to go.

      The new Extension Manager 0.4 update intros a “full adaptive mobile-friendly user interface”, which is ideal if you regularly resize the app during use, as well as overhauled error and crash reporting; and support for the new gnome-extensions:// URL scheme.

      You’ll notice that the toggle switch to disable all extensions has been moved out of the header bar. It now sits at the top of the “installed” view.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Medevel ☛ EndeavourOS Is an Awesome Distro But Not for Everyone

  Days ago, I installed EndeavourOS on my Linux machine, and I was impressed by the speed, the smooth installation process, and the overall performance. But it comes with a cost, and that’s because it is not for everyone.

  But foremost, let’s see how amazing it is before we dive into its problems.

  EndeavourOS is an Arch Linux-based distro, that offers a great user experience, as its successor (Antergos Linux), as it provide an easy to install system, pre-configured environments, and several official and community-based variations with different desktop environments.

• Make Use Of ☛ risiOS: A Fedora-Based Linux Distro That Holds Your Hand

  risiOS aims at making Fedora easy to use for everyone. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

  Fedora Workstation has become an easy-to-use, well-supported version of Linux. If you just want an operating system for your computer that shows you some of the best of what free and open-source software has to offer, Fedora Linux is an easy recommendation.

  But there are some areas where new users may encounter some friction. Why do some video files fail to load? Where are all the apps? risiOS is a Fedora-based alternative distribution that takes care of most of these issues for you. For some, that makes risiOS an even easier recommendation.

• Fedora / Red Hat / IBM

  • Fedora Project ☛ Fedora Hatch Cork 2022 – Fedora Community Blog

    Fedora Hatch Cork was a small, local one day mini-conference. Fedora Project contributors were welcome to attend, learn about the project and connect with other contributors. There were several Fedora-related sessions, followed by a social activity in the evening. The event was held in the Red Hat office in Cork which was recently renovated.

    The day opened with an icebreaker event called “Faces”. Attendees paired up with somebody nearby and swapped sheets of paper to draw a feature of the person they swapped with, starting with the eyes. It was a great exercise to meet new people at the event. It also allowed me to absolutely butcher some peoples’ great drawings!

  • Red Hat ☛ A developer’s guide to Kubernetes storage concepts | Red Hat Developer

    This second article continues a series discussing Kubernetes storage concepts. I will define the concepts of volumes, persistent volume claims, and storage classes, and why they should matter to a developer. I will also explain how persistent volumes and storage provisioners enable system administrators to manage storage for a Kubernetes cluster while offering developers self-service to storage. You will also discover the special abilities of stateful sets.

  • Red Hat ☛ Why CSI drivers are essential in Kubernetes storage | Red Hat Developer

    This article is the third and final part of the series about Kubernetes storage concepts. I will explain how Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers enable advanced storage features necessary for production environments and CI/CD pipelines. This article also underscores the need for storage products designed for Kubernetes versus storage designed for traditional physical and virtual data centers or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds.

  • Enterprisers Project ☛ 8 ways to get out of a career rut

    The pandemic was difficult to navigate for most of us, but if we can try to identify something positive that transpired as a result, it allowed (or forced) time for reflection and re-evaluation.

    Consider the millennial who felt stuck at a small company with no room for growth. Or the older generation of workers who thought they should retire early because the future was so uncertain and accepting a complete shift to digital felt daunting. For Gen Z, the prospect of never meeting managers or colleagues – because of virtual interviews and remote jobs – was foreign and left some without a sense of belonging.

    Not only were we physically absent from workspaces, but many of us also struggled mentally with the sudden, enormous changes to our daily routines and goals. It became a time of contemplation, where many professionals began reassessing their careers (and lives). And the realization for many? They felt stuck.

  • Red Hat ☛ How Kubernetes improves developer agility | Red Hat Developer

    This article is the first in a series that explains Kubernetes storage on a high level. In the series, I provide information for a programmer or software architect to decide which types of storage meet the requirements for their applications running on Kubernetes. This series provides links to help you go deeper into your chosen technologies but does not dig into YAML syntax or Kubernetes APIs. Whether a novice or experienced with Kubernetes, this overview can guide you toward a storage architecture that is right for your application.

  • Red Hat ☛ How to make your APIs more discoverable | Red Hat Developer

    API discoverability is a key aspect of any API management initiative. The discoverability of an API directly impacts its adoption and usage. A typical big enterprise with multiple development teams might build hundreds of APIs that they would want to reuse internally or share with partners that build complementary applications. If the teams cannot discover existing APIs, they might build a new API with the same functionality, which leads to duplication of efforts and underutilization of the existing API. It is also an unscalable practice to contact the API developer each time someone wants to use the API.

    There needs to be a better and more hands-off way for internal teams and partners to discover and understand the usage of these APIs without directly contacting the developers who built them. API discoverability does not just mean making it easy to find an API by providing an inventory (though this is the first and most important step you should take). It should also address some key aspects that are important for an API consumer, such as understanding the API through documentation, request and response format, sign-up options, and the business terms and conditions (in case of a partner) of using the API.

  • Linux Magazine ☛ Distro Walk – Rocky Linux – Linux Magazine

    Rocky Linux steps into the breach left by CentOS with a community-based alternative to RHEL.

    Red Hat Linux bought CentOS in 2014, but largely ignored it for years. Essentially, CentOS was the community version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), both deriving from Fedora. Then, in December 2020, Red Hat announced that CentOS would be discontinued, and it would be replaced by CentOS Stream. Within days, Rocky Linux (Figure 1), named for CentOS cofounder Rocky McGaugh, was announced [1]. Four months later, Rocky Linux released its first version. Like CentOS, it offers a community-based alternative to Red Hat.

  • IBM Old Timer ☛ IBM emeritus Irving Wladawsky-Berger: Human Capital: The Value of Work Experience and Continuous Learning

    Overall, lifetime earnings are significantly higher in advanced economies and in occupations with high education requirements. On average, individuals in both these cases start their working life with relatively high entry-level skills compared to individuals in less developed economies and in occupations with lower education requirements. As a result, work experience plays a bigger role in the lifetime earnings of individuals in less developed economies and in occupations with lower education requirements.

  • Red Hat Official ☛ Succeeding with new technology: four barriers to overcome

    Building a technology adoption strategy is key to achieving business goals and maximizing value from technology. While building such a strategy, some barriers need to be addressed to drive more effective technology adoption. In this post, we discuss these barriers and how we might overcome them.

  • Red Hat Official ☛ Managing SAP workloads with automation on Microsoft Azure [Ed: IBM Red Hat is shilling Microsoft and SAP at the same time. The company lacks principles and promotes enemies of GNU/Linux.]

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • Its FOSS ☛ Ubuntu Pro Now Gives You 10 Years of Security Updates for Free

    Canonical has introduced a free tier to Ubuntu Pro which is aimed at personal use and small-scale deployments.

    Ubuntu Pro subscription (formerly known as Ubuntu Advantage) was originally offered to enterprises for providing them with extended security maintenance updates to Ubuntu LTS releases for an extra 5 years of updates.

    The free tier has been made available in public beta.

  • CNX Software ☛ Ubuntu Pro becomes free for individuals and small companies – CNX Software

    Canonical has launched free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions for individuals and small companies for up to five machines, enabling anybody to get longer-term support and features that were only reserved to paying enterprise customers so far.

    Canonical provides Ubuntu for free with LTS versions released every two years and supported for 5 years. The latest Ubuntu 22.04 LTS was released in April 2022, meaning it will be supported until April 2027. But if you’d like to get 10-year support and extra security features you can now do it for free through an Ubuntu Pro subscription for up to 5 machines.

  • The Register UK ☛ Canonical makes Ubuntu Pro free for up to five machines

    Canonical has opened up its previously paid-for Ubuntu Pro update service. Now it’s free of charge for up to five physical boxes.

    The announcement only applies to Long Term Support releases. All you need is a free Ubuntu One account to sign in and obtain a token.

    If you connect your machines to Ubuntu Pro, they get Extended Security Maintenance coverage, meaning that the normal five years of software updates is extended to 10 years. The free offer also includes the company’s Livepatch service, which can install critical kernel updates without rebooting the machine. This is potentially very useful for busy servers, for which scheduling a maintenance window and downtime can be tricky, but it’s less important for desktop machines.

    For servers, as long as the physical host system is running Ubuntu, all Ubuntu virtual machines on that server are also covered. Machines can be attached to Ubuntu Pro from the command line with pro attach or in the GUI via Ubuntu’s Software & Updates app, under the Livepatch tab.

  • Canonical launches free personal Ubuntu Pro subscriptions for up to five machines

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Android Police ☛ The best Android games on PC in 2022

  • Android Police ☛ 8 great Android games you can play on PC in 2022

  • SamMobile ☛ Android 12 has arrived for the unlocked Galaxy A21 in the USA – SamMobile

  • Notebook Check ☛

  • 9to5Google ☛ Pixel Tablet preview: Tensor G2, Smart Display dock, and more

  • Business Insider ☛ Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 review: Value champion in the Android smartwatch space | Business Insider India

  • Make Use Of ☛ How to Find a Lost Android Phone

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Web Browsers/Web Servers

  • Chromium

    • Barry Kauler ☛ Chrome running in container as user spot

      I have now rebuilt the Chrome SFS, to also run as spot in a container. This is file ‘chrome_105.0.5195.102-1_amd64.sfs’, where the “-1″ is the revision number. You can download via the “sfs” icon.

      Upgrading of SFS files is not really properly implemented. If you already have Chrome SFS installed, and running in a container, go to the menu “Filesystem -> Easy Containers” and there is a choice to delete the Chrome container. Then, click on “sfs” to install the new one.

• SaaS/Back End/Databases

  • PostgreSQL ☛ PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL 15 RC 2 Released!

    The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announces that the second release candidate of PostgreSQL 15 is now available for download. As a release candidate, PostgreSQL 15 RC 2 will be mostly identical to the initial release of PostgreSQL 15, though some more fixes may be applied prior to the general availability of PostgreSQL 15.

    The planned date for the general availability of PostgreSQL 15 is still October 13, 2022, but may be pushed to October 20, 2022 based on what issues are reported. Please see the “Release Schedule” section for more details.

• Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

  • Document Foundation ☛ LibreOffice project and community recap: September 2022

• Content Management Systems (CMS)

  • Medevel ☛ Build a personal link portfolio using this Open-source app: LittleLink

    Linktree is a free hosted service that offers a rich landing page with member social personal, business, and portfolio links. Yet, it is not open-source, so here we present to you its open-source counterpart that you can self-host and use on your server.

    LittleLink is a lightweight open-source landing page that you can deploy in moments using Docker on any of your servers.

    LittleLink is a highly customizable app written primarily in JavaScript/ Node.js, React, and Express. It does not require any any database setup, and it can also be installed also using Kubernetes.

• Programming/Development

  • LWN ☛ Supporting CHERI capabilities in GCC and glibc [LWN.net]

    The CHERI architecture is the product of a research program to extend common CPU architectures in a way that prevents many types of memory-related bugs (and vulnerabilities). At the 2022 GNU Tools Cauldron, Alex Coplan and Szabolcs Nagy described the work that has been done to bring GCC and the GNU C Library (glibc) to this architecture. CHERI is a fundamentally different approach to how memory is accessed, and supporting it properly is anything but a trivial task.

  • Qt ☛ Qt for MCUs 2.2.2 Released

    Qt for MCUs 2.2.2 has been released and is available for download. As a patch release, Qt for MCUs 2.2.2 provides bug fixes and other improvements, and maintains source compatibility with Qt for MCUs 2.2.x. It does not add any new functionality.

  • Random words at the end of GSoC

    This week is the last week of my GSoC period. Other participants may have ended earlier, but I got an extension of the deadline to one month later. Here’s some random words for my summer.

    My whole GSoC period was very hurried and busy. Most of my contributions were not done during the summer, because I got a one-month training for ICPC during my summer holiday. Before the training started, I was thinking that I might be able to do both training and GSoC at the same time, but I was completely wrong. The eight-hour training left me with almost no spare time. Trying to do some contribution in the tiny gaps in my schedule, I was very stressed that month, and in the end, I did not make too much progress also. If there’s not an extension of the deadline, I would be facing a huge pile of unfinished work at the end of August, when training ends. So this is a lesson for me, and also a piece of advice for any GSoC contributors who come after me, that a GSoC project needs some time to finish, and having a well-planned schedule in advance is important.

  • Jonathan Dowland: git worktrees

    I work on OpenJDK backports: taking a patch that was committed to a current version of JDK, and adapting it to an older one. There are four main OpenJDK versions that I am concerned with: the current version (“jdk”), 8, 11 and 17. These are all maintained in separate Git(Hub) repositories.

    It’s very useful to have access to the other JDKs when working on any particular version. For example, to backport a patch from the latest version to 17, where the delta is not too big, a lot of the time you can cherry-pick the patch unmodified. To do git cherry-pick <some-commit> in a git repository tracking JDK17, where <some-commit> is in “jdk”, I need the “jdk” repository configured as a remote for my local jdk17 repository.

    Maintaining completely separate local git repositories for all four JDK versions, with each of them having a subset of the others added as remotes, adds up to a lot of duplicated data on local storage.

    For a little while I was exploring using shared clones: a local clone of another local git repository which share some local metadata. This saves on some disc space, but it does not share the configuration for remotes: so I still have to add any other JDK versions I want as remotes in each shared clone (even if the underlying objects already exist in the shared metadata)

    Then I discovered git worktree. The git repositories that I’ve used up until now have had exactly zero (for a bare clone) or one worktree: in other words, the check-out, the actual source code files.

  • Jussi Pakkanen ☛ Nibble Stew: Using cppfront with Meson

    Recently Herb Sutter published cppfront, which is an attempt to create C++ a new syntax to fix many issues that can’t be changed in existing C++ because of backwards compatibility. Like with the original cfront compiler, cppfront works by parsing the “new syntax” C++ and transpiling it to “classic” C++, which is then compiled in the usual way. These kinds of source generators are fairly common (it is basically how Protobuf et al work) so let’s look at how to add support for this in Meson. We are also going to download and build the cppfront compiler transparently.

    [...]

    The compiler itself is in a single source file so building it is simple. The only thing to note is that we override settings so it is always built with optimizations enabled. This is acceptable for this particular case because the end result is not used for development, only consumption. The more important bits for integration purposes are the last two lines where we define that from now on whenever someone does a find_program(‘cppfront’) Meson does not do a system lookup for the binary but instead returns the just-built executable object instead. Code generated by cppfront requires a small amount of helper functionality, which is provided as a header-only library. The last line defines a dependency object that carries this information (basically just the include directory).

  • Rust

    • Rust Blog ☛ Governance Update

      As part of ongoing work on governance, Rust leadership jointly established a group, “leadership chat”, consisting of the Core team, leads of all teams on the governance page, the Moderation team, and the project directors on the Rust Foundation board. This group has been serving as an interim governing body while efforts to establish the next evolution of Rust project-wide governance are underway.

    • TechRadar ☛ One of the world’s most popular programming languages is coming to Linux | TechRadar

      The next version of the Linux kernel will include support for popular programming language Rust, it has been confirmed.

      As reported by The Register (opens in new tab), Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, has now accepted a pull request that will bring Rust support to the kernel with version 6.1.

      The idea is not to rebuild the entire kernel in Rust, but rather to complement the existing C codebase with new components written in the secondary language, helping to reduce the likelihood of memory bugs that lead to security vulnerabilities.

• Standards/Consortia

  • Make Tech Easier ☛ Matter 1.0 Is Official: Smart Home Devices Will Be Unifed – Make Tech Easier

    After months of waiting, Matter 1.0 is official and ready to make your connected life much easier. It’s a new industry standard designed to leave you with better connectivity with your smart home and other IoT devices. With Apple, Google, Amazon, and more bringing their smart home technologies together, smaller companies are also signing on to Matter. It promises to be very exciting for everyone using connected devices.

Leftovers

• Security

  • 9to5Linux ☛ Wireshark 4.0 Released as World’s Most Popular Network Protocol Analyzer – 9to5Linux

    Wireshark, the world’s most popular and widely-used open-source and cross-platform network protocol analyzer, has been updated to version 4.0, a major release that adds support for new protocols and other changes.

    Major highlights of the Wireshark 4.0 release include a more powerful display filter syntax with support for many new extensions, redesigned Conversation and Endpoint dialogs, updated main window layout with side by side Packet Detail and Packet Bytes sections underneath the Packet List pane, improved Hex dump imports, as well as faster and greatly improved MaxMind geolocation.

    This release also introduces a new address type AT_NUMERIC that allows simple numeric addresses for protocols that don’t have a more common-style address approach, support for fake headers in the HTTP2 dissector to parse the DATAs of streams that are captured without first HEADERS frames of a long-lived stream, and support for Mesh Connex (MCX) in the IEEE 802.11 dissector.

  • LWN ☛ Security updates for Thursday [LWN.net]

    Security updates have been issued by Debian (bind9 and nodejs), Red Hat (prometheus-jmx-exporter and squid), Slackware (dhcp), SUSE (pngcheck and sendmail), and Ubuntu (isc-dhcp, kitty, and linux-gcp-5.4).

  • Security Issues With Open Source In Today’s World [Ed: Seemingly a spammy site promoting FUD and stigma]

    Open source may be the most viable option for most companies today but it comes with its own set of problems too.

  • 3 critical malicious code execution vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

    The roccat_report_event function in drivers/hid/hid-roccat.c has a use-after-free vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-41850 (CVSS score: 8.4). A local attacker might exploit this flaw to run malicious script on the system by submitting a report while copying a report->value . Patch has be released to addresses the Linux Kernel 5.19.12 vulnerability CVE-2022-41850.

  • Cybersecurity Best Practices for Your Enterprise in 2022

    Day by day, cybercriminals devise new ways to gain unauthorized access to and manipulate data belonging to others. To maintain their shady practices, they’ve perfected methods to operate unseen, taking advantage of weaknesses in web infrastructure. Everybody with an online presence can be a target, either for monetary or other similar gains.

    Cybercrime can take many forms, targeting individuals and businesses across industry and geographical lines. And according to Statista, the cost of data breaches in the global healthcare sector alone between March 2021 and March 2022 amounted to over $10 million. There are similar figures in other industries, including technology, energy, research, finances, education, etc.

    While many businesses have always maintained a significant online presence, many others have only recently transitioned to the web space in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While this helps industries to move the business forward in a changing world, it also increases the number of potential targets for cybercriminals.

  • CISA ☛ Cisco Releases Security Updates for Multiple Products | CISA

    A remote attacker could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.

  • Veracode Adds Container Support to Security Tool for Developers [Ed: Very shallow marketing spam]

  • CISA ☛ CISA Releases Two Industrial Control Systems Advisories | CISA

    CISA released two (2) Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on October 06, 2022. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

  • Container Images: The Next Software Supply Chain Concern? [Ed: "Supply chain" has become a modern FUD term; they intentionally ignore the risk that is back doors (e.g. NSA) and China manufacturing a lot of boards at a whim]

  • A Practical Guide to the SLSA Framework [Ed: FOSSA perpetuating anti-FOSS talking points]

    SLSA — which stands for Supply Chain Levels for Software Artifacts — is a framework designed to help organizations improve the integrity of their software supply chains. Along with automated testing tools, secure coding practices, and strong third-party software vetting, SLSA can be an important part of a comprehensive software supply chain security strategy.

  • FOSSLife ☛ Understanding the SLSA Framework

    This FOSSA article breaks down the various levels of the SLSA framework and provides examples to help organizations meet related requirements.

  • LWN ☛ Finding bugs with sanitizers [LWN.net]

    Andrey Konovalov began his 2022 Linux Security Summit Europe (LSS EU) talk with a bold statement: “fuzzing is useless”. As might be guessed, he qualified that assertion quickly by adding “without dynamic bug detectors”. These bug detectors include “sanitizers” of various sorts, such as the Kernel Address Sanitizer (KASAN), but there are others. Konovalov looked in detail at KASAN and gave an overview of the sanitizer landscape along with some ideas of ways to push these bug detectors further—to find even more kernel bugs.

    Fuzzers are great for exercising new paths in the code, but without having some kind of bug detector, they typically end up causing some kind of hard-to-debug kernel crash, he said. The sanitizers and other bug detectors turn those bugs into something that can be tracked down—and fixed. These sanitizers make up a family of bug-detection tools. They were originally created for user-space applications, but were ported to the kernel and had a “K” prepended to their acronym. The AddressSanitizer (ASan) was not the first, but it became somewhat famous early on; others include the MemorySanitizer (MSan) and UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer (UBSan).

    There are a number of advantages that the sanitizers have, which have led to their popularity. They are easy to use; for user space it is just an extra compiler flag and for the kernel a build configuration option needs to be enabled. Compared to other tools that provide the same features, the sanitizers are fast as well. They are also precise since all of the bugs they report are true bugs and not false positives; occasionally a false positive does arise, but it is caused by a sanitizer bug that promptly gets fixed, he said. In addition, the sanitizers provide detailed reports on what caused a bug, which makes it much easier to track them down and fix them.

  • LWN ☛ Progress for unprivileged containers [LWN.net]

    Over the past few years, there has been quite a bit of progress in various kernel features that can be used to create containers without requiring privileges. Most of the containers these days run as root, which means that a vulnerability leading to an escape from the container can result in system compromise. Stéphane Graber gave a talk at the 2022 Linux Security Summit Europe (LSS EU) to fill in some of the details of work that he and others have been doing to run containers as unprivileged code.

    The talk was slated to have two speakers, as Christian Brauner had planned to co-present; unfortunately, Brauner got caught up in the travel woes that plagued Dublin around the time of the conference and was at the airport waiting for his plane home at the time of the talk. The presentation was something of a follow-up to their talk on system-call interception for unprivileged containers at LSS North America back in June. Graber is the project lead for the LXC and LXD container projects, which we recently looked at; Brauner is a kernel developer and one of the LXC/LXD maintainers.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • AccessNow ☛ Access Now applauds U.S. Blueprint for AI Bill of Rights, but more safeguards needed – Access Now

    Access Now welcomes the U.S. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and accompanying Fact Sheet announcing agency actions to help guide the design, development, and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and other automated systems so they protect the rights of the public.

    “The AI Bill of Rights could have a monumental impact on fundamental civil liberties for Black and Latinx people across the nation, but conspicuously omits safeguards against other discriminatory impacts of AI systems that can exclude and vilify particular groups of people across the country,” said Willmary Escoto, U.S. Data Protection Lead at Access Now, who was present at the Blueprint launch. “The framework highlights the importance of data minimization, which Access Now steadily advocates for, while naming and addressing the diverse harms people experience from other AI-enabled technologies, like so-called emotion recognition.”

  • AccessNow ☛ Stop the persecution: Iranian authorities must immediately release technologists and digital rights defenders

    We, the undersigned human rights organizations, strongly condemn the Iranian authorities’ ruthless persecution, harassment, and arrest of technologists and digital rights advocates, and demand their immediate and unconditional release.

    In an attempt to crush the popular uprising and further restrict internet activity and information flows, Iranian authorities are escalating their violent crackdown on people across Iran, and are now targeting internet experts and technologists. To date, Iranian authorities have arrested at least six tech engineers who have been vocal on digital rights in Iran. Those detained have criticized internet restrictions, shown support to protests, or have been explaining the authorities’ technical repression. We are concerned over the growing pressure on this community, including technology journalists and bloggers, and the suppression of their criticisms against authorities. Any attempts to investigate or bring transparency to issues of digital repression or protests are being brutally stamped out. The world cannot allow the Islamic Republic of Iran to normalize this kind of persecution. The government must release these detainees at once.

    Well-known technologists and internet access experts Hossein Darvari, Aryan Eqbal, Milad Nouri, Adel Talebi, Maysam Rajabi and Mohsen Tahmasebi have been amongst those targeted for arrest by the authorities since the beginning of the protests following the death in police custody of 22 year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa (Jhina) Amini.

Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal

  • Diagram Dungeons

    A “diagram dungeon” is a 2d grid of square cells, with gaps between them. You can write and draw in them and between them, and you can also easily refer to them by their coordinates.

    The rooms do not have to be to scale, and the corridors that connect them (that you can draw in between the squares) certainly don’t have to.

  • Your seven sources of dungeon maps

    It’s pretty easy to draw real, proper, to-scale maps that are good-enough-for-behind-the-screen. You don’t really need any other source. Sometimes when I’ve been wanting ideas, I’ve tossed out items randomly (keys, blocks, dice, bottle caps), either physically or digitally (with the “pull shapes” mode of the old “Alchemy” java drawing app), and based the layout on that.

  • How to stock dungeons

    That is a restriction. But it’s also a tool. Following that principle, you can put anything in a dungeon and it’s fine as long as you committed to it before play started, and you’re sticking to it. You have “the prepper mindset” while making the location (challening but winnable) but “the runner mindset” when running it (brutal and unflinching).

    Since this is “paper before rock”, no further balance is necessary, the rest of this article is optional. It’s not law, it’s just good practice. After all, you’re in the “prepper mindset” now and you might want some guidelines. Again: all of this is when making the dungeon. Do not change it in play: if they are steamrolling, let them steamroll. If they are dying, let them.

  • Return (Not the one from Alan Wake)

    Things have been crazy lately, I’ve been stressed out a lot, but I think I’m in a much better place now, way better than I’ve been in a long time.

  • SpellBinding: ABCFKTO Wordo: PRIME

• Politics

  • What a mess

    I recall reading someone's musing back in 2020, probably on Hacker
    
    News, in one of the COVID-19 pandemic discussion threads, something
    
    along the lines of "imagine that 2020 is actually the best year of the
    
    following decade". Sounded like an odd thought, and I probably
    
    wouldn't recall it later if it didn't seem to play out that way a
    
    couple of years later.
    
    
    
    I think they had in mind a worsening pandemic, then economic issues
    
    following it, the stock market bubble bursting, and so on. Those did
    
    happen, but additionally, and in Russia in particular, there's just a
    
    continuous stream of worsening news. Well, perhaps it started in 2012,
    
    or in 2000, or some find its causes in the early 1990s (the failure or
    
    unwillingness to set proper democratic institutions), or the Soviet
    
    times (leading to the early 1990s). I guess one can also blame the
    
    monarchy before that, for leading to that. Or just stupidity in
    
    general, and not any point(s) in history. But it did intensify this
    
    year.
    
    [...]
    
    I suppose living through--and observing--this helps to better
    
    understand some historical periods, dystopian novels, and places which
    
    fell into similar regimes earlier. Actually some of the parallels (in
    
    speeches, actions, explanations) are surprisingly close, as if
    
    borrowed directly. That makes it easier to see how the same situations
    
    can be perceived quite differently (though it was fairly clear before
    
    too): life around here before the war looks fine from this point of
    
    time. Hopefully in the future 2022 won't look like a comparatively
    
    good year.
    

• Technical

  • A NixOS kiosk

    A kiosk, in the sysadmin jargon, is a computer that is restricted to a single program so anyone can use it for the sole provided purpose. You may have seen kiosk computers here and there, often wrapped in some kind of box with just a touch screen available. ATM are kiosks, most screens showing some information are also kiosks.

  • Konsole Kommands

    I elected to go with Ubuntu, as it was the most “mainstream” Linux distro, and the easiest for a newbie like me to learn. But I didn’t go with regular Ubuntu, I went with Kubuntu, as I don’t like GNOME much, and KDE is much better for a post-Windows user to get accustomed to, it feels a lot nicer.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Kids and the Internet

      While being on a train a few days ago, I saw a mother and her daughter, around 5-6 years old. Obviously, the daughter was holding a phone. Only a few minutes later to hear from it very loudly “clicks”, and I kid you not she was playing a “kids game” with slots to win whatever you’d win in a kids game. Worse, her mother did not do anything about it. This isn’t an isolated case, at least where I live.

      It’s horrible to think that even before reaching the age where you can freely choose and have a conscience we’re subject to such addictions from birth. With the rise of smartphones and kids entertainment products, we’ve unleashed a whole another beast. For example, a popular kids entertainment producer was accused of making their musical videos very high-paced, it even had more changing angles than action movies! This is mesmerizing for kids, moms reported that their kids behaved like addicts or just became erratic and had ADHD-like symptoms.

GNU/Linux

• Desktop/Laptop

  • 9to5Linux ☛ TUXEDO Computers Releases Live ISO of Its Ubuntu-Based TUXEDO OS Linux Distro

    Previously only available pre-installed on the company’s Linux-powered notebooks, TUXEDO OS is now also available for download as an ISO image, just like 99.9% percent of the GNU/Linux distributions on the market.

    It took TUXEDO Computers about half a year of work to develop, test, design, and create documentation for the release of the first ISO image of TUXEDO OS, which is a derivative of the Ubuntu operating system featuring the modern and fancy KDE Plasma desktop environment.

  • [Old] Make Use Of ☛ The Best USB-C Chargers That Are Safe to Use

    When looking for the best USB-C chargers, there’s one important question: Will the charger work without wrecking your gear?

    No one should play Russian roulette with their expensive electronics. And with the amount of fragmentation in the USB-C market, even the best chargers may not work properly with all your devices.

  • [Old] Extreme Tech ☛ How USB Charging Works, or How to Avoid Blowing Up Your Phone

    USB-C is a special case. While you won’t blow up your device from plugging in the wrong charger, you can blow up your phone, Nintendo Switch, or other device by using the wrong USB-C cable. How do you know what the right USB-C cable is? Sometimes — and this is the ugly truth — you can’t. In the past, there’ve been spreadsheets dedicated to recording good versus bad cables, but the projects seem to have fallen by the wayside and are now outdated. If you are buying a replacement USB-C cable for your manufacturer-provided cable, we recommend buying from the OEM or an authorized, third-party manufacturer. We covered the initial issues with USB-C in more detail in this article.

  • [Old] USB-C stands for Chaos

    But it’s more complicated than that. USB 3.1 Gen 1 has a slightly different transfer protocol than USB 3.0, so it can be slightly faster if both devices support that. But USB 3.1 Gen 2 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 are exactly the same. So these are the different levels: [...]

  • Video ☛ EU Votes For USB-C Chargers, Apple Must Comply – Invidious

    The EU is now requiring chargers for consumer electronics to be USB C, this means Apple will have to drop their proprietary lightning connector, at least in the EU market.

  • NPR ☛ The EU will require all cellphones to have the same type of charging port

    The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to require cellphones and handheld electronic devices sold in the EU to have a USB-C charging port — a move likely to affect Apple, which uses Lightning chargers for its iPhones.

  • PC World ☛ Europe sets deadline for USB-C charging for (almost) all laptops

    On the other hand, power-hungry laptops that need more than 100 watts still use proprietary connections for their massive adapters. The USB Implementers Forum is working on expanding that limit and some of these laptops can still charge slowly over USB-C. These are the only laptops that Europe will allow to be sold with proprietary chargers after the spring of 2026. While nothing forces manufacturers to follow this new law worldwide, streamlined manufacturing and economy of scale will effectively force the rest of the world to follow in practice if not in legislation.

  • Matthew Garrett ☛ Matthew Garrett: Cloud desktops aren’t as good as you’d think [Ed: Clown = someone else's computer. Clown desktop = someone else's desktop.]

    Fast laptops are expensive, cheap laptops are slow. But even a fast laptop is slower than a decent workstation, and if your developers want a local build environment they’re probably going to want a decent workstation. They’ll want a fast (and expensive) laptop as well, though, because they’re not going to carry their workstation home with them and obviously you expect them to be able to work from home. And in two or three years they’ll probably want a new laptop and a new workstation, and that’s even more money. Not to mention the risks associated with them doing development work on their laptop and then drunkenly leaving it in a bar or having it stolen or the contents being copied off it while they’re passing through immigration at an airport. Surely there’s a better way?

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • Video ☛ BigLinux 2022.08.29 Quick overview #linux #biglinux – Invidious

    A Quick Overview of BigLinux 2022.08.29

  • Tux Digital ☛ 54: Enterprise Linux Desktop – Podcasts – TuxDigital

    Bill, Neal and Brandon get together to talk about “can you just drop linux in place of windows” on the business/enterprise desktop

  • The BSD Now Podcast ☛ BSD Now 475: Prompt Injection Attacks

    Prompt injection attacks against GPT-3, the History of Package Management on FreeBSD, A fresh look at FreeBSD, File Management Tools for Your Favorite Shell, Quick Guide about Video Playback on FreeBSD, and more.

• Kernel Space

  • Web Pro News ☛ Linux 5.19.12 Kernel May Cause Damage to Some Displays

    Linux users are being advised to skip kernel 5.19.12 due to a major bug impacting Intel machines.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • TecMint ☛ Basic SSH Command Usage and Configuration in Linux

    Brief: In this guide, we will discuss the common use cases of SSH. We will also discuss commonly used SSH configurations that can be used in day-to-day life to boost your productivity.

    Secure Shell (SSH) is a widely adopted network protocol, which allows us to interact with remote hosts in a secure way. It provides security by encrypting all communication between them.

  • markaicode by Mark ☛ How to install ONLYOFFICE Docs 7.2 on Fedora | Mark Ai Code

    The GNU AGPL v3.0 license governs ONLYOFFICE Docs, an open-source office suite. It includes a form builder, PDF viewer, collaborative text, spreadsheet, and presentation editors. A fundamental format is OOXML.

    ONLYOFFICE Docs can be integrated with many cloud services, such as content management systems (CMS) (WordPress, Strapi, Drupal), collaboration tools (ONLYOFFICE Workspace, Nextcloud, Seafile, Confluence, Alfresco), issue trackers (Jira, Redmine), and e-learning programs (Moodle, Chamilo, HumHub), among others.

    This guide will teach you how to use Podman to install the most recent version of ONLYOFFICE Docs on Fedora Linux.

  • RoseHosting ☛ How to Install and Use Composer on Ubuntu 20.04

    Composer is a dependency management tool in PHP; unlike ‘apt’ and ‘yum’, it’s not a package manager. Because it handles the dependencies for PHP projects, per project basis, you can declare, manage and install dependencies with Composer on any PHP project running PHP version 7.2.5 or above.

    It’s used in Magento to manage its components and dependencies. The composer uses a composer.json file which specifies version and dependency information. In this tutorial, you are going to install PHP 7.4 and Composer on Ubuntu 20.04 and try out Composer commands. Let’s get started.

  • Linux Hint ☛ How to Install GNOME Desktop Environment on Raspberry Pi

    Installing another desktop environment on a Raspberry Pi device is fun, especially for those previously using the Raspberry Pi OS on their systems. In that case, switching to another desktop environment like GNOME is beneficial because of its elegant and simple look that enables you to launch any application easily. Besides its friendly environment, it also includes several useful applications and games that push you further towards replacing it with your previous desktop environment without losing your data.

    This article will show you how to install the GNOME desktop environment on your Raspberry Pi system and easily switch to the installed OS within seconds.

  • Linux Nightly ☛ How to View and Clear Terminal History in Linux

    The commands you type into your Linux terminal are always logged somewhere. You may have noticed that you can press the up arrow on your keyboard to retrieve commands you’ve executed in the past. This is a convenient feature when you need to recall a past command, but can also be a potential privacy concern.

    In this tutorial, you will learn how to view the terminal history in Linux, and how to clear the terminal history and past commands.

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How to change the keyboard layout using the terminal

    In this post, you will learn how to change the keyboard layout using the terminal. Although simple, it is quite useful for configuration and scripting.

    Using a graphical interface, it is easy to change the keyboard layout on Linux. Simply access the desktop environment options and look for a hardware or input method section related to the keyboard.

    From there you can not only change the configuration but also other things related to the keyboard, but what if it is a server, or we are only accessing via SSH? Well, you have to use the terminal.

    Let’s start.

  • Linux Hint ☛ How to Enable Snap on Linux Mint 21

    In the Linux system, snap is the cross-distribution application manager containing a bundle of applications with their respective dependencies. This easy-to-install application deployment system for Linux users is explored by Canonical.

    Installing packages from the snap store is quite easy as they are installed with the source code, libraries, and dependencies and update the package automatically.

    The service used to handle and manage snaps at the backend is called snap daemon or is represented as snapd. It’s a snap package manager that is used to install applications from the snap store and manage them.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install WonderCMS on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

    In this tutorial, we will show you how to install WonderCMS on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, WonderCMS is a fast and straightforward content management system requiring no database to create websites. It offers features that may not be available to other PHP-based CMS, like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal.

    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 WonderCMS with LEMP Stack 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.

  • Linux Hint ☛ How to Install ExifTool on Raspberry Pi

    ExifTool is a command-line utility that allows Raspberry Pi users to get the metadata information of different media files such as videos, images, audio, and PDFs. The metadata, on the other hand, is the information about a specific file, such as the filename, creation time, file type and so on.

    This tool is helpful for Raspberry Pi users interested in finding complete information about a specific media file. You can install this application by following this article’s guidelines.

  • Its FOSS ☛ Upgrade Various Kinds of Packages in Linux at Once With Topgrade – It’s FOSS

    Updating a Linux system is not that complicated, is it? After all, to update Ubuntu like distros, you just have to use apt update && apt upgrade.

    That would have been the case if all the packages had been installed through a single package manager.

    But that’s not the case anymore. You have the classic apt/dnf/pacman and then come snap, flatpak, appimages. It doesn’t end here. You may also install applications using PIP (for Python) and Cargo (for Rust).

    Use node? The npm packages need to be updated separately. Oh My Zsh? Needs to be updated separately. Plugins in Vim, Atom etc may also not be covered by apt/dnf/pacman.

    Do you see the problem now? And this is the kind of problem a new tool called topgrade aims to solve.

  • Linux Handbook ☛ How to Extend Vim’s Functionality by Adding Plugins

    Being one of the most popular text editors, Vim also influences other modern text editors. In fact, the Microsoft Visual Studio Marketplace has a Vim extension for VS Code; it has over 4 Million installs.

  • uni Toronto ☛ Our unusual traditional /var/mail setup for people’s inboxes

    If you go back 30 years ago, IMAP was not really very much of a thing. Most people read their email by logging in to our Unix servers and running various Unix programs, and these programs read people’s mailboxes in traditional Unix format from /var/mail (or perhaps it was /var/spool/mail at the time). Because we had a multi-server environment even back then, this /var/mail lived on one server and was NFS-exported to all of the others. When a POP and IMAP server was added at some point, it had to play along with this environment and so it was configured so that the IMAP INBOX was your /var/mail inbox (although your other IMAP folders went in your home directory). And because people’s inboxes were directly exposed as files, people could and did write procmail rules files that directly appended incoming email to them (with appropriate locking).

    Today, almost everyone reads their email through IMAP and few people have procmail rules any more. If we were starting a new environment from scratch, we might well allow only IMAP (or POP3) access to your email and not store your INBOX in /var/mail (although we’d need to expose some sort of flexible per-user mail filtering). But we aren’t starting from scratch (and ‘few’ isn’t the same as ‘zero’), so we still have our traditional /var/mail, complete with it being NFS mounted on all of our general use Ubuntu servers.

  • Manuel Matuzovic ☛ Day 7: subgrids

    It’s time to get me up on speed with modern CSS. There’s so much new in CSS that I know too little about. To change that I’ve started #100DaysOfMoreOrLessModernCSS. Why more or less modern CSS? Because some topics will be about cutting-edge features, while other stuff has been around for quite a while already, but I just have little to no experience with it.

  • Manuel Matuzovic ☛ Day 8: nesting :has()

    It’s time to get me up on speed with modern CSS. There’s so much new in CSS that I know too little about. To change that I’ve started #100DaysOfMoreOrLessModernCSS. Why more or less modern CSS? Because some topics will be about cutting-edge features, while other stuff has been around for quite a while already, but I just have little to no experience with it.

  • Video ☛ Testing TCP Connectivity with curl – Invidious

  • Video ☛ How to Tag a Docker Image – Invidious

  • Video ☛ How To： Edit System Files in Linux with vim – Invidious

• Games

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Steam Deck Beta updates fix Red Dead Redemption 2 and external screen changes

    Two Beta updates have landed for the Steam Deck with a Client and an OS update available, with some pretty big changes to how external screens are handled.

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Oxygen Not Included has a new animated short, plus a ‘Story Trait System’ update

    Klei are back with a brand new big update to Oxygen Not Included, after they decided not to do any more paid DLC so this is the first of many free updates to come. Plus a fancy new animated short.

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Here’s how to play Overwatch 2 on Steam Deck / Linux

    While you might struggle to get in due to ongoing server issues, Overwatch 2 is out now free to play and it can run quite nicely on Steam Deck and Linux desktop. Here’s how to get Overwatch 2 installed and running. Since it’s not available officially for Linux, we’re going to be using the Wine compatibility layer for this, along with help from the Bottles app.

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Go tell Bungie you want Destiny 2 on Steam Deck / Linux

    Destiny 2 is one of the biggest and most popular shooters around and sadly it doesn’t work on Steam Deck / Linux. Now is your chance to give your say and maybe Bungie will listen.

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Humble have a nice list of classics in the RPG Legends bundle

    Need some classic RPGs in your life? Check out the RPG Legends: Baldur’s Gate & Beyond bundle with some great picks. It’s quite a small bundle but still a good one if you don’t already own the games. As usual, I’ll be listing how they run on Steam Deck and Linux desktop either via a Native Linux port or via Proton with the ProtonDB rating.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Updates for September, 2022 ⋅ elementary Blog

  Sorry 6.1 fans, this month was all about OS 7 with the exception of a new Icon Browser app being released in AppCenter.

  If you’re familiar with my LookBook app which was previously offered for $10, you may be excited to know that the new elementary Icon Browser is available for free. This developer tool shows you all of the system icons available to use in your apps and you can even search them by description. The new app has been updated to use Gtk 4 and has much better system dark style support as well as doing a better job showing relevant icon sizes and more. If you’re writing apps for elementary OS, be sure to check it out!

• New Releases

  • Redcore Linux Hardened 2201 Rastaban stable

    October seems to be our month, as the previous stable release was launched just shy of 1 year ago. Today, I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of Redcore Linux Hardened 2201 (codename Rastaban) stable. This cycle had ups and downs, but at the end of it, we have the best release to date, and a very up to date one. Redcore Linux has been a rolling release distribution from the very beginning, but it used to lag behing Gentoo Linux by a few, usually 5 to 7, days. At times the lag was considerably longer, due to time constraints on my part (my bad, I have a dissertation to write). But, the old, fluctuating pattern is gone. Starting mid-July, I implemented some changes, and now Redcore Linux resyncs itself with Gentoo Linux every 6 hours. Let’s see what’s new!

• BSD

  • OpenBSD: Manage DNS, DNSSEC (to automate TLSA records)

    Since 2018, I asked me about how to manage TLSA records, according to the DANE and DNSSEC protocols, for my DNS. (I wroted one article in french, on March 2018, about creating TLSA records in shell or PHP languages; if you read french, see: DNS: Générer un enregistrement TLSA…)

• SUSE/OpenSUSE

  • SUSE’s Corporate Blog ☛ SUSE documentation survey—share YOUR feedback! | SUSE Communities

    Every year in late summer—or early autumn—the SUSE documentation team conducts a global survey to gather concrete feedback from our technical users at customers, partners and SUSE about what the current documentation might lack, and how we can improve our documentation services.

• Debian Family

  • Sparky 2022.10 – SparkyLinux

    New iso images of Sparky 2022.10 of the (semi-)rolling line are out.

    Changes between Sparky 2022.07 and 2022.10:
    – all packages updated from Debian and Sparky testing repos as of October 5, 2022
    – Linux kernel 5.19.11 (6.0.0 & 5.15.72-LTS & 4.9.330-LTS49 in sparky unstable repos)
    – GCC compiler v12 installed , GCC v11 removed from iso images
    – added new ‘sparky7-theme’ with support of GTK2/3/4; it’s a package with a light and a dark theme to choose
    – added a dark theme to ‘sparky5-lxqt-theme’ package so you can choose between Sparky light and dark themes now in LXQt desktop
    – replaced Lightdm with SDDM session/login manager to all GTK based desktop iso images; the KDE and LXQt features SDDM as before; added a new SDDM theme ‘sddm-theme2-sparky’ to all live media; an older theme ‘sddm-theme-sparky’ is also installed; so all live media of the rolling line use SDDM now
    – ‘sparky-upgrade’ can be launched as a short command now: ‘spu’ (SParkyUpgrade)
    – LXQt 1.1.0
    – Openbox 3.6.1
    – KDE Plasma 5.25.5
    – Xfce 4.16
    – MATE 1.26.0
    – Calamares 3.2.61
    – Firefox 105.0.2
    – Thunderbird 102.3.0
    – VLC 3.0.17
    – LibreOffice 7.4.1
    – GRUB 2.06

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Canonical announces free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions for up to five workstations or servers – SiliconANGLE

    Canonical Ltd., the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux operating system, today announced that Ubuntu Pro for data centers and workstations, an expanded security maintenance and compliance offering that protects against a wider range of vulnerabilities and threats, is now available in public beta.

    Ubuntu Pro is launching with a free tier for personal and small-scale users covering up to five machines, and paid subscriptions for those with larger deployments.

  • Geeky Gadgets ☛ Free personal Ubuntu Pro subscriptions – Geeky Gadgets

    Canonical has just launched its new free personal Ubuntu Pro subscriptions for up to five machines, making it available as a public beta for data centres and workstations and providing a free tier for personal and small-scale commercial use. Ubuntu Pro includes tools for compliance management in regulated and audited environments and Ubuntu Pro users can access FIPS 140-2 certified cryptographic packages necessary for all Federal Government agencies.

    Ubuntu Pro is available for every Ubuntu LTS from 16.04 LTS and you can sign up for a free personal Ubuntu Pro subscription for up to five machines by following the link below. Ubuntu Pro paid plans start from $25 per year for workstation or $500 per year for server and Canonical has made available a 30-day free trial of Ubuntu Pro for new enterprise customers.

    “Ubuntu Pro expands security coverage for critical, high and medium Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) to thousands of applications and toolchains, including Ansible, Apache Tomcat, Apache Zookeeper, Docker, Drupal, Nagios, Node.js, phpMyAdmin, Puppet, PowerDNS, Python 2, Redis, Rust, WordPress, ROS, and more. “

• Devices/Embedded

  • CNX Software ☛ Allwinner V851S/V851SE low-cost camera SoC embeds 64MB DDR2, a 0.5 TOPS NPU

    You’d usually select the V851S if you need a display, and the V851SE for cameras without a display. There’s no product page on the Allwinner website, just a short announcement in Chinese, but the datasheet is available on the company’s forum and that’s where I got most of the information above. The processor runs Tina Linux, a fork of OpenWrt for Allwinner processors.

    I found out about the new processor through the YuzukiHD board made by the same developer (GLGH_) that did the Yuzuki Chameleon board with an Allwinner H616 processor.

  • Linux Gizmos ☛ Networking board equipped with NXP Layerscape series processors

    
    As seen in the image below, there are four Gigabit LAN ports and two additional 1/10 Gbps SFP+ ports. For debugging, the board uses a Conclusive Developer cable connector which provides access to the system UART, a JTAG port and a system I2C bus.

    For software development, the company seems to provide support for Linux and FreeBSD on request. Conclusive Engineering has listed a Wiki but it seems it’s still a work in progress. Additionally, the company’s GitHub can be found here.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • CNX Software ☛ Unexpected Maker TinyS3, FeatherS3 and ProS3 boards feature ESP32-S3 dual-core wireless MCU – CNX Software

    Seon Rozenblum, better known as Unexpected Maker, has launched upgrades to its ESP32-S2 boards such as the TinyS2 with ESP32-S3 variants, namely TinyS3, FeatherS3, and ProS3 boards.

  • Balthazar Rouberol ☛ Balthazar – Blog – My DIY Dungeons and Dragons ambiance mixer

    I find that an immersive sound ambiance is key to helping tabletop RPG players engage. It can increase their stress and sense of urgency during a fight, galvanize them during a harrowing speech, or break their heart when they realize they’ve just lost something and there’s no getting it back.

    I have been thinking about using a Launchpad to control and mix the ambiance while we play, but the more I read about its design, the less it seemed to fit. The cheapest Launchpad starts at 110€, and it is a full fledged MIDI controller. What I wanted was something simpler: a way to play different long sound ambiance tracks at the same time, and adjust their respective volume to create an immersive atmosphere.

    The project started to take shape when I stumbled upon the Pimoroni RGB Keypad, a 4×4 rainbow-illuminated keypad that I could program using a Raspberry Pi Pico, for a budget of about 30€.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • SamMobile ☛ Samsung Health now supports themed icon on Android 13 – SamMobile

  • Android Police ☛ Android 13 QPR1 Beta 2: What’s new

  • Android Headlines ☛ Android 13 Update Disrupts Android Auto In Some Pixel Phones

  • Digital Trends ☛ Google to pay $85 million fine for tracking Android phones | Digital Trends

  • What Do the Android Status Bar Symbols Mean? A full guide

  • Android Police ☛ The best health and fitness apps for Android in 2022

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Polarhive ☛ Contributing to OpenStreetMap

  This week, I’ve been contributing to OpenStreetMap — a collaborative free software project that aims to create a free, editable map of the world.

• Austin Gil ☛ Under-Engineered Productivity > Over-Engineered Distractions

  It’s hilarious because it perfectly captures how developers love to over-engineer their website. I know people that have rebuilt their website more times than they’ve actually written content for it.

  And to be fair, I think that’s perfectly fine. Rebuilding your website is a great way to learn new technologies and keep our skills sharp.

  But if you actually want to focus on writing, I recommend steering away from those technical distractions on your website. Dedicate side-projects for learning.

• The Register UK ☛ VideoLAN to India: If you love FOSS so much, why have you blocked our downloads?

  Developers of the open source VideoLAN media player have challenged India’s government to explain why the project’s website has been blocked.

  As The Register reported in August 2022, the videolan.org site has been unavailable in India since March 2022, meaning the official source of downloads not available. No official explanation for the block has been offered.

  As VLC is open source the occasional clone infected with malware has appeared – with Chinese actors suspected as the source.

  India has banned many Chinese apps on national security grounds. But VideoLAN’s home base is France, not the Middle Kingdom. And VLC is not known or rated to pose a sterner risk of carrying either malware or the kind of nasty content India’s government likes to ban. The argument has also been made that driving would-be users to third party download sites increases the chances of poisoned clones being passed off as legitimate, making a ban on security grounds ineffective.

  Activists protested the blocking of the project’s site and now one such group – India’s Internet Freedom Foundation – has stated that it helped VideoLAN to write a letter to India’s Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology that demands an explanation for the blocking of videolan.org.

• SaaS/Back End/Databases

  • SQLite: QEMU all over again?

    When I look around today, I see a very similar situation developing around SQLite. SQLite is the brainchild of D. Richard Hipp, who was also involved with the Tcl programming language, and his own version control system, among others. Same as Fabrice, an undoubtedly smart and achieved individual.

    The code for SQLite is also available, but contributing is even harder than it was at the QEMU days: SQLite is explicitly and unequivocally “Open Source, not Open Contribution”. The few core developers they have do not work with modern tools like git and collaboration tools like Github, and don’t accept contributions, although they may or may not accept your suggestion for a new feature request.

• Programming/Development

  • KDAB ☛ Handling a Lot of Text in QML – KDAB

    I will be talking about text in this post, specifically about cases where you have to handle a lot of it. We are not talking about a general solution, but a specific case that we encountered during a customer project.

    [...]

    The project involved showing a chat room for internal communication. We developed a functioning chat room and, eventually, as it grew, we also added support for limited chat history. This was all fine until we heard from the customer that users might need to browse through the whole history, which, in some cases, can span hundreds of thousands of lines of rich text. “How hard can it be?,” we thought. This was a QML application and we soon realized that it’s not as easy as we thought. To see why, consider this demo app…

  • Qt ☛ Qt Design Studio 3.7 Released

    We are happy to announce the release of Qt Design Studio 3.7.

  • Obnam ☛ Iteration planning: October

    The goal of the previous iteration was:

    The goal of this iteration is to prepare for future changes: document threats against the chunk server API (so that authentication can be added in the future), and making an client-internal abstraction for using the chunk store (so that it can later be local as well as remote).

    The following issues were chosen for this iteration: [...]

  • Just commit more!

    Over new years this past year I made dura. It’s like auto-backup for Git. It tries to stay out of the way until you’re in a panic, trying to figure out how to rescue your repository from a thoughtless git reset –hard. It makes background commits, real Git commits that you don’t normally have to see in the log, by committing to a different branch than the one you have checked out. Overall, it’s been a blast. I’ve learned a lot from the contributors, like how to write well-formed Rust as well as a bit about Nix.

  • Data Swamp ☛ My open-source machine learning toolbox

    This program analyzes audio content of an audio or video file, and make a transcript of it. It supports many languages, I tried it with English, French and Japanese, and it worked very reliably.

    Not only it creates a transcript text file, but it also generates a subtitles (.srt) file, you can create video subtitles automatically. It has a translation function which pass all the transcript text to Google translate and give you the result in English.

    It’s quite slow using a CPU, but it definitely works, using a GPU gives an 80 times speed boost.

  • Dirk Eddelbuettel ☛ RVowpalWabbit 0.0.17: Maintenance

    Almost to the week one year since the last maintenance release, we can announce another maintenance release, now at version 0.0.17, of the RVowpalWabbit package. The CRAN maintainers kindly and politly pointed out that I was (cough, cough) apparently the last maintainer who had packages that set StagedInstall: no. Guilty as charged.

    [...]

    As noted before, there is a newer package rvw based on the excellent GSoC 2018 and beyond work by Ivan Pavlov (mentored by James and myself) so if you are into VowpalWabbit from R go check it out.

  • Python

    • Lee Yingtong Li ☛ Beta ratio distribution for SciPy

      The quotient of 2 independent beta-distributed random variables has a known distribution, but its closed-form expression is a little hairy [1, 2]. One Python implementation of this distribution is available from Julian Saffer [3], but it suffers from some numerical issues in some circumstances. For example, below is the PDF generated by Saffer’s implementation for $\frac{\mathrm{Beta}(13, 239)}{\mathrm{Beta}(8, 744)}$: [...]

  • Java

    • Rust Weekly Updates ☛ This Week In Rust: This Week in Rust 463

• Standards/Consortia

  • [Old] Level The Playing Field – Open Standards NZ Presentation

    Open standards offer us something called “permissionless innovation”. If you want to, you can manufacture a micro-USB powered device and sell it, without asking anyone’s permission, as long as you comply with the standard. That’s easy for independent organisations to measure. You can build your innovative new gadget around a micro-USB charging system without worrying that someone will sue you for patent infringement for doing so, or charge you royalties for using their standard, deny you the right to use the micro-USB standard if it suits their strategic interests to do so, or that the standard will change out from under you without a well controlled process that brings you along for the ride.

    For technology, open standards commoditise the interface between technological layers. That means, for instance, that to create an innovative electronic product, you don’t need to know how to design and build DC power systems, because well understood, tested, and supported specs are only an open standard away. In software, similar “coomoditised interfaces” exist at every level. They mean that not only can innovations be achieved with less specialised knowledge, lower investment and far less risk, but the results are more modular, tested, and, well, standardised!

  • James G ☛ Joining my first W3C Sustainability CG meeting

    Organisers at the W3C are working on various initiatives related to sustainability. Over the last few months, two new community groups (CGs) were started to focus on sustainability and how it pertains to the web and the W3C as an organisation. [^1] After doing some reading about the revived Sustainable Web (sustyweb) group, I decided to join and see how I could help.

Leftovers

• [Old] “Blown Away Guy”: The Most Iconic Music Image of All Time

  In the 1980s, Maxell became an icon of pop culture when it produced advertisements popularly known as “Blown Away Guy” for its line of audio cassettes. The campaign began as a two-page advertising spread in Rolling Stone magazine in 1980. The photo shows a man sitting low in a (Le Corbusier Grand Confort LC2) high armed chair in front of, and facing, a JBL L100 speaker. His hair and necktie, along with the lampshade to the man’s right and the martini glass on the low table to the man’s left, are being blown back by the tremendous sound from speakers in front of him — supposedly due to the audio accuracy of Maxell’s product. The man is shown desperately clinging to the armrests but defiantly looking ahead at the source of the music through sunglasses, though calmly catching his drink before it slides off the end table.

• The Nation ☛ Aaron Judge Is Great—but Don’t Erase Barry Bonds

  Aaron Judge is an outfielder in a power forward’s body. At a hulking six-foot-seven inches, he looks at first like an optical illusion. Even though a pitcher stands on a 10-inch mound, Judge seems to tower over it at a distance of 60-feet-six-inches, like a big brother playing whiffle ball at a picnic with his younger siblings. And now, with all the hype that comes with being a New York Yankee, Judge is on top of the baseball world. In the season’s penultimate game, he hit his American League record 62nd home run, breaking Yankee Roger Maris’s record of 61 set 61 years ago.

• Telex (Hungary) ☛ Budapest Festival Orchestra wins Orchestra of the Year Award in London

• Telex (Hungary) ☛ Transparency International willing to join Anti-Corruption Task Force under certain conditions

• Hackaday ☛ Ugliest Airplane Ever Built Predicted The Future

  The airplane that many called “the flying barrel” is also widely considered the ugliest plane ever built. However, [Dark Skies] in the video you can see below argues that the Stipa-Caproni was the direct predecessor of the turbofan engine. Either way, it is an interesting and unique part of aviation history.

• Hackaday ☛ Power Tool Hack Takes A New Angle On RC Power Plants

  For eons, hacker minded people have looked at various items their pile of stuff, came up with an outlandish idea and thought “I wonder if it would work?” Some of us stop there, convincing ourselves that it’s a bad idea that could never work. Others of us such as [Peter Sripol] are well known for not just having those thoughts, but for having the grit to explore them to their impractical limit, such as is shown in the video below the break.

• Science

  • Times Higher Education ☛ Quantum scientists win Nobel Prize in Physics

    Three scientists have shared this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for their research on quantum technology.

    Alain Aspect, from France, John Clauser from the US, and Austria’s Anton Zeilinger were rewarded for what the Nobel committee described as “ground-breaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated”.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ $60 Laser Makes The Cut With New Controller

    If you are reading the Lightburn forums, you probably already have a laser cutter of some kind.  But, if you are like most of us, you can always be tempted into another “deal.” [Dkj4linux] has a post where he bought a $79 laser engraver  (now selling for between $59 and $65, we noticed). Like most of these cheap engravers, the machine takes a proprietary controller with Windows-only software. No surprise that [Dkj4linux] would want to use…um… Linux. The answer? Rip the board out and replace it with an old spare.

  • Hackaday ☛ Fixing A 30-year Old Roland Bug

    The Roland CM-500 is a digital synthesizer sound module released in 1991 that combines two incredibly powerful engines into one unit. However, in 2005 enthusiasts of the Roland MT-25 (one of the engines that went into the CM-500) noticed a difference between the vibrato rate on the MT-25 and the CM-500, rendering it less useful as now midi files would need to be adjusted before they sounded correct. Now thirty-something years later, there is a fix through the efforts of [Sergey Mikayev] and a fantastic writeup by [Cloudschatze].

  • Hackaday ☛ Retro Speaker Becomes The Perfect Micro PC

    We’ve seen many cyberdecks and home built computers in our time here at Hackaday, but we’ve not seen many so tiny and so neatly built as this one from [Carter Hurd]. It takes the form of a tiny retro PC with a working display and keyboard, and we like it a lot.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Hill ☛ Charges dismissed against 7 people in Flint water crisis

    Judge Elizabeth Kelly in the Genesee County Circuit Court ruled the charges were invalid against the officials, including two former state employees accused of involuntary manslaughter after some Flint residents died from Legionnaires’ Disease following the water crisis.

    The ruling comes about three months after the Michigan Supreme Court said a one-judge grand jury that indicted the former government officials did not have the authority to do so.

  • PLOS ☛ Differential personality change earlier and later in the coronavirus pandemic in a longitudinal sample of adults in the United States

    Five-factor model personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness) are thought to be relatively impervious to environmental demands in adulthood. The coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented opportunity to examine whether personality changed during a stressful global event. Surprisingly, two previous studies found that neuroticism decreased early in the pandemic, whereas there was less evidence for change in the other four traits during this period. The present research used longitudinal assessments of personality from the Understanding America Study (N = 7,109; 18,623 assessments) to examine personality changes relatively earlier (2020) and later (2021–2022) in the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels. Replicating the two previous studies, neuroticism declined very slightly in 2020 compared to pre-pandemic levels; there were no changes in the other four traits. When personality was measured in 2021–2022, however, there was no significant change in neuroticism compared to pre-pandemic levels, but there were significant small declines in extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The changes were about one-tenth of a standard deviation, which is equivalent to about one decade of normative personality change. These changes were moderated by age and Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, but not race or education. Strikingly, younger adults showed disrupted maturity in that they increased in neuroticism and declined in agreeableness and conscientiousness. Current evidence suggests the slight decrease in neuroticism early in the pandemic was short-lived and detrimental changes in the other traits emerged over time. If these changes are enduring, this evidence suggests population-wide stressful events can slightly bend the trajectory of personality, especially in younger adults.

  • uni Michigan ☛ U-M to ban tobacco product use on all campuses

    The University of Michigan will prohibit the use of all tobacco products on all of its campuses effective Nov. 17, in conjunction with the Great American Smokeout.

    The existing Smoking on University Premises policy, SPG 601.04, will be revised and renamed the Tobacco-Free University Premises policy. The update bans the following products not addressed in the current policy: [...]

  • Digital First Media ☛ Vaping, smokeless tobacco products to be banned at UM

    Vaping will be banned on the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses when its new tobacco policy is updated next month.

  • The Hill ☛ For veteran suicides, the numbers may be far worse than the government says

    A new assessment from the U.S. Veterans Administration trumpets a decline in the national suicide rate among veterans, but the drop highlights a simmering issue pressed by suicide prevention advocates — the likely undercounting of the data that the government collects.

    It’s long been a contention of advocates that the VA data, while helpful, are incomplete. For example, the deaths of many veterans may not be tallied as suicides in certain instances in which self-harm plays a critical role. These include deaths due to addiction, drug overdoses or alcohol-induced incidents. While not strictly defined as suicide, they represent a statistical grey area. In addition, much variation permeates how each state accounts for deaths. An officially declared suicide in one state might not be in another, given the same circumstances.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | Safe Tap Water Is a Human Right

    The water drips lethargically from the tap, if at all. Its appearance shifts from chemical brown sludge to ghoulish clouds. The accompanying stench is revolting.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Permian Basin Leaking 14 Times More Methane Than EPA Estimates: Study

    Scientists at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Stanford University, and the University of Arizona analyzed more than 10,000 miles of gathering pipelines—which transport unprocessed gas from wells to processing facilities—using aircraft with sensors equipped to detect plumes of methane.

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Absolutely Shameful’: Michigan Judge Drops Flint Water Crisis Charges Against 7 Officials

    Genesee County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Kelly’s decision stems from a Michigan Supreme Court ruling in June that deemed state prosecutors’ use of a one-man grand jury to issue indictments legally improper, throwing into doubt efforts to hold ex-officials accountable for a water disaster that has had lasting impacts on Flint residents.

  • TruthOut ☛ This CDC Scientist Couldn’t Access Monkeypox Treatment. Why?

  • Pro Publica ☛ The CDC Scientist Who Couldn’t Get Monkeypox Treatment

    This call, however, was a personal one. He was sitting on his bed in pain, and he was angry.

  • COVID-19: Now the Third Leading Cause of Death in the United States

    COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States in 2020 and 2021, according to an analysis of national death certificate data by researchers at the National Cancer Institute.

• Proprietary

  • NPR ☛ A software CEO was arrested on suspicion of storing poll worker data in China

    The Los Angeles County District Attorney announced on Tuesday the arrest of Eugene Yu, the CEO of a small company that makes software for scheduling poll workers and had a contract with L.A. County. District Attorney George Gascón said at a news conference that the contract with the county required the company, Konnech, to securely maintain election worker information on servers in the United States.

  • The Hill ☛ Canadian sentenced in NetWalker ransomware attacks

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday sentenced a Canadian national to 20 years in prison and ordered him to forfeit more than $21 million for his role in NetWalker ransomware attacks.

    The DOJ said the defendant, Sebastian Vachon-Desjardins, participated in a sophisticated form of ransomware known as NetWalker, which has targeted dozens of victims across the world, including companies, hospitals, law enforcement, emergency services and schools.

  • Techdirt ☛ Stadia Developers Blindsided By Shutdown

    Last week we noted how Google’s streaming game service, Stadia, is finally being shut down. Google had initially tried deny the obvious last July when rumors began circulating that the company was preparing its exit strategy. This denial apparently resulted in many of the service’s own developers being left in the dark, given they were extremely surprised when the shutdown was actually announced.

  • IT Wire ☛ At Google, product launches the only way to get promoted: claim

    The reason why Google launches so many products and then abandons them is because only those who launch new products are in a position to chase promotions, an unnamed ex-employee and a current employee claim.

    Peter Yang, the product lead at Reddit, posted two accounts from people on Twitter; one was said to be a current employee of Google and the other an ex-employee. He added a rider that the comments were old and things could have changed at the company by now.

    The abandonment of products by Google was thrown into focus last week with the announcement that the company would be shutting down its consumer gaming service Stadia which was launched in March 2019.

    [...]

    There are so many abandoned services, apps and hardware that one developer, Cody Ogden, has set up a site called Google Graveyard where he lists 274 orphaned entities.

  • Redmond Magazine ☛ Linux Client Device Management Coming to Microsoft Intune [Ed: Microsoft propagandists like Kurt Mackie keep pushing this narrative about Linux while Microsoft is working to prevent Linux from even booting and it works with the NSA towards universal back doors]

• Security

  • OpenSource.com ☛ Dynamically update TLS certificates in a Golang server without downtime

    Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol based on SSLv3 designed to encrypt and decrypt traffic between two sites. In other words, TLS ensures that you’re visiting the site you meant to visit and prevents anyone between you and the website from seeing the data being passed back and forth. This is achieved through the mutual exchange of digital certificates: a private one that exists on the web server, and a public one typically distributed with web browsers.

    In production environments, all servers run securely, but server certificates may expire after some period. It is then the server’s responsibility to validate, regenerate, and reuse newly generated certificates without any downtime. In this article, I demonstrate how TLS certificates are updated dynamically using an HTTPS server in Go.

    These are the prerequisites for following this tutorial…

  • Krebs On Security ☛ Glut of Fake LinkedIn Profiles Pits HR Against the Bots

    A recent proliferation of phony executive profiles on LinkedIn is creating something of an identity crisis for the business networking site, and for companies that rely on it to hire and screen prospective employees. The fabricated LinkedIn identities — which pair AI-generated profile photos with text lifted from legitimate accounts — are creating major headaches for corporate HR departments and for those managing invite-only LinkedIn groups.

  • IT Wire ☛ iTWire – Optus breach: govt to allow data-sharing to prevent ID fraud

    The Federal Government says it will amend the Telecommunications Regulations 2021 to allow telcos to temporarily share data that will help prevent ID fraud.

    In a statement, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the changes would allow better co-ordination between Optus and other telecommunications providers and government agencies to prevent frauds, scams and other malicious cyber activities.

    Telcos will be able to share drivers’ licence details, Medicare and passport numbers of affected customers with regulated financial services entities for better monitoring and safeguards for customers affected by the data breach.

    Optus announced the breach on 22 September, and there were fears that the data of as many as 9.8 million Australians could have been exposed.

  • IT Wire ☛ Teen held for using Optus breach data in alleged SMS scam

    A 19-year-old Sydney man who used data from the breach of telco Singtel Optus to allegedly try and and extort people has been arrested by the Australian Federal Police.

    In a statement, the AFP said the teenager from Rockdale had used the data from 10,200 Optus customers, left on the clear web by the actual attacker, and sought to extract $2000 at a time through text messages.

    Optus announced the breach on 22 September, and there were fears that the data of as many as 9.8 million Australians could have been exposed.

    Eleven days after this announcement, Optus finally made it clear that 2.1 million of its customers had some form of ID exposed.

    {loadposition sam08}The attacker initially exposed the data of some 200 customers, presumably as some kind of lure.

    Later, he/she said that the data of 10,000 people would be made public for five days, and released the first lot.

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Buttondown ☛ I am a SQL Injection Attack

      Are there meatspace models for things besides concurrency? Turns out I’ve already used a meatspace model to explain SQL injection attacks to layfriends (say if it’s on the news). At a very high level, an injection attack is the conflation of syntax and data, which isn’t a difference most people have encountered before. So here’s how I explain it.1

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Light Blue Touchpaper ☛ The Online Safety Bill: Reboot it, or Shoot it?

      Some of the bill’s many proposals command wide support – for example, that online services should enable users to contact them effectively to report illegal material, which should be removed quickly. At present, only copyright owners and the police seem to be able to get the attention of the major platforms; ordinary people, including young people, should also be able to report unlawful things and have them taken down quickly. Here, the UK government intends to bind only large platforms like Facebook and Twitter. We propose extending the duty to gaming platforms too. Kids just aren’t on Facebook any more.

      The Bill also tries to reignite the crypto wars by empowering Ofcom to require services to use “accredited technology” (read: software written by GCHQ contractors) to scan your WhatsApp messages. The idea that you can catch violent criminals such as child abusers and terrorists by bulk text scanning is entirely implausible; the error rates are so high that the police would swamped with false positives. Quite apart from that, bulk intercept has always been illegal in Britain, and would also contravene the European Convention on Human Rights, to which we are still a signatory despite Brexit. This power to mandate client-side scanning has to be scrapped, a move that quite a few MPs already support.

    • Video ☛ Do You Want to Tether Your Life to Google? How to Resist

• Defence/Aggression

  • TruthOut ☛ The Far Right’s Violent Rhetoric Is Escalating, and Includes Talk of “Civil War”

  • Salon ☛ Oath Keepers trial highlights the right’s obsession with finding cheat codes for real life

    Rhodes graduated from Yale Law, though he was disbarred in 2015 for repeated ethics violations. He and his legal team have hyped his Ivy law credential to the media, implanting the idea that their defense theory, which otherwise might be regarded as grasping, must have real juice. But close observers have detected signs that lawyers for the Oath Keepers aren’t all that confident. As Vice reported last week, the Rhodes team is embroiled in in-fighting. They even tried for a delay, claiming they weren’t ready for trial even though their client had been indicted in January. During jury selection, a lawyer for co-defendant Thomas Caldwell “jokingly” complained about the number of lawyers in the jury pool, indicating a possible drop in confidence at the thought of selling this defense to jurors who actually know the law.

  • Democracy Now ☛ “There’s Going to Be a Fight”: Oath Keepers Trial Reveals Plan to Use Violence to Keep Trump in Office

    The Oath Keepers trial, in which senior leaders of the right-wing extremist group are accused of plotting violence at the January 6 insurrection, began Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C. Prosecutors played a secret audio recording Tuesday of a meeting held by the Oath Keepers after the 2020 election in which founder Stewart Rhodes discussed plans to bring weapons to the capital to help then-President Trump stay in office. We speak to Arie Perliger, author of “American Zealots,” who says the Trump administration lended extremist groups legitimacy and access to a more mainstream audience. “For them, that was a disastrous situation, losing this kind of access,” says Perliger.

  • Salon ☛ “Security risk”: Election officials sound the alarm over “sabotage” from pro-Trump poll workers

    In Michigan alone, multiple recent incidents have put officials on edge. Last month, Michigan GOP staffers were caught urging poll workers to break election rules, including prohibitions on carrying cell phones or outside writing equipment into polling places. And last week in Kent County, a Republican poll worker was arrested and charged with tampering after he was caught inserting a USB drive into an electronic poll book containing confidential voter registration data.

  • JURIST ☛ Trump administration has not returned all records, National Archives tells Congress

    On September 13 the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform wrote to the NARA and expressed concerns that unreturned confidential documents could pose a security threat to the US and that the Trump administration violated the Presidential Records Act by keeping documents. The Committee asked the NARA to conduct a review of records received from the Trump Administration and seek a signed declaration from former-President Trump that that he has returned all records and did not copy or share records while they were in his possession.

  • Site36 ☛ Criticism over research: EU Commission funds platform to predict „migration flows“

    In an Open Letter, eleven organisations criticise the creation of an infrastructure for predictive migration technologies. The tool, which is also supposed to anticipate „tensions“, is based on „artificial intelligence“. It could therefore contradict a forthcoming EU regulation.

  • Evening Standard UK ☛ Charity Commission probes Brighton Mosque after trustee’s terrorism conviction

    In May 2022, the mosque in East Sussex was issued with an official warning after a former trustee, Abubaker Deghayes, was convicted of encouraging terrorism.

  • Jerusalem Post ☛ Islamic State cell plan to attack Nazareth Muslim school thwarted by Israeli forces

    The ISIS cell had planned to attack a variety of targets. One of the main targets was a local Muslim high school, which according to the suspects, “operates in the way of ‘the infidels.’”

  • [Old] France24 ☛ Crime [sic] unites voters in Swedish far-right stronghold

    “Burning cars, shootings… It happens in Stockholm, Gothenburg and the other places I read about in the papers. But it’s in (the southern county of) Skane where it happens most,” Abdulla says.

    “People get sick of it. I have many friends who are immigrants and still voted SD,” he adds.

  • NBC ☛ A cop in a MAGA hat and an Oath Keeper: Inside one of Jan. 6′s strangest moments

    But an NBC News review of the incident doesn’t align with those narratives. NBC News, with help from a group of open-source researchers that have focused on the Oath Keepers, reviewed multiple videos of the moment and spoke with Johnson’s lawyer and with Michael Nichols, the Oath Keeper and retired police officer who assisted the Capitol Police that day.

    Johnson put on the MAGA cap as a ruse to get people in the crowd to help him, his lawyer confirmed. He was trying to rescue over a dozen officers who were pinned down inside the Capitol, caught between rioters who had already broken into the building and a flood of other Trump supporters who had breached a door and were trying to push their way in.

  • Techdirt ☛ Court Strips Immunity From Cop Who Shot A Dog Within Seconds Of Arriving On The Scene Of A Non-Crime

    Cops kill dogs literally all the time. It happens so often even the DOJ has taken notice.

  • Site36 ☛ Loitering munition: Rheinmetall sells first kamikaze drones to NATO state

    In the present wars, the military is increasingly using remote-controlled warheads. The German defence ministry calls such weapons „worrying“. But after similar plans a decade ago, the Bundeswehr is again considering to procure them.

  • The Nation ☛ Dispatch from Ukraine: The Postmaster of Mykolaiv

    Mykolaiv, Ukraine—Egor Kosorukov prefers to hear the artillery, so that he can tell if it’s incoming or outgoing. It’s why he hasn’t joined most of his employees in the main branch of the Ukrposhta (post office) here, who have gone down to the building’s shelter. Instead, he remains in his fourth-floor office, about 15 kilometers from the front line—and the airfield that was the staging ground for Russia’s initial assault on the southern city last March.1

  • The Nation ☛ Maggie Haberman’s Trump Biography Buys Into the Myth

    Early on in Confidence Man, her doorstop chronology of Donald Trump’s life and presidency, New York Times political scribe Maggie Haberman sketches out the guiding ambition fueling the real estate scion’s ascension to the ultimate summit of power and political prestige. Not satisfied with merely succeeding to his father’s outer-borough real estate empire, Trump “really always wanted to be a star.” All of Trump’s other character traits—his raging narcissism, his bullying demeanor, his eagerness for approval, his notional-at-best acquaintance with truth-telling—all stem, in Haberman’s telling, from a “thirst for fame” that “seemed to grow stronger each time he tasted more of it.”

  • Telex (Hungary) ☛ Hungary joins other EU Member States in approving eighth sanctions package

  • Scheerpost ☛ The Military Industrial Complex Wants You To Be More Media (Il)literate

    A new report suggests media companies and the military are trying to indoctrinate students by way of “media literacy education.”

  • TruthOut ☛ As Iraq War Vote Anniversary Nears, Don’t Forget Who Was Responsible

  • Counter Punch ☛ Locked Up: Crime and Punishment in America

    In a way crime is arguably the toughest domestic issue in politics. Any new low in crime instantly transforms from social achievement into public expectation. It is true, as many liberals have pointed out, that the recent spike has come on the heels of a long drop in crime that started in the early 1990s after a long period of mostly rising crime that began in the late-1960s. It is also that thus far the current crime spike still pales in comparison to the peak rates of that period.  Yet it is equally true is that public fear of rising crime is perfectly legitimate and attempts to minimize public fear in a road to nowhere.

  • Counter Punch ☛ High-Value US Asset “Fat Leonard” Arrested in Venezuela – Possible Prisoner Swap

    ABC News reports that Navy commanders “passed him classified information and steered their ships, mostly from the Navy’s 7th Fleet to ports he controlled” in exchange for “Kobe beef, expensive cigars, concert tickets and wild sex parties at luxury hotels.”

  • Counter Punch ☛ Ukraine Pays the Price for Great Power Tantrums

    To explain coverage of the war in Ukraine requires an awareness and understanding of the totalizing ideology of American imperialism. There is an interesting conceit in which Western corporate media indulge, whereby the only strategic interests we’re willing to acknowledge are those of the United States. Under this conceit, it is simply assumed, with no reasons or arguments offered, that the United States government is specially endowed with the right to set the rules for the entire planet; even the semi-literate might have noticed that this belief, held in common amongst the Washington elite of both parties, is not without its historical antecedents. The United States must rule the world. As Yale University scholar David Bromwich recently wrote in The Nation, the “rules” of the current international order seem to “come from what the US desires at a given moment, and what we can press our allies and our half-willing collaborators to go along with.” Whether the United States, Russia, or any other great power is wrong or right in any particular instance, this system, a “rules-based” order in which the U.S. makes the rules, is not a realistic or sustainable path to the kind of peace we will need, if we are to avoid a potentially civilization-ending nuclear catastrophe.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Nukes, War and Moral Sanity

    Oops, darn that mushroom cloud!

  • Scheerpost ☛ VIDEO: The Late Stephen F. Cohen Provides Clarity on NATO Expansion and Russia, More Than 10 Years Ago

    NATO’s broken promise to Russia provides context to the current state of affairs.

  • Scheerpost ☛ Zelensky Signs Decree Ruling Out Peace Talks With Putin

    Zelensky says talks could only be held with Russia when there’s a new president.

  • Scheerpost ☛ US Ignores Growing Calls for Diplomacy and Sends More Weapons to Ukraine

    “Are there still negotiation possibilities?” asked Noam Chomsky. “There’s only one way to find out. That’s to try. If you refuse to try, of course, there’s no option, no possibilities.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ Peace Groups Push US to Use ‘All Points of Leverage’ to End Saudi Blockade of Yemen

    “Saudi Arabia’s tactic of collective punishment has created untold suffering for tens of millions of people and contributed to hundreds of thousands of deaths.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | The Draconian Silencing of Those Who Call Out ‘Israeli Apartheid’

    Several seemingly disparate events in the past week come together to once again demonstrate the use of raw power by Israel and its supporters to force silence about their oppression of Palestinians from the river to the sea. 

  • Meduza ☛ Kremlin spokesman declines to comment on Wagner Group and calls founder Prigozhin ‘just a Russian citizen’ — Meduza

    Despite St. Petersburg tycoon Evgeny Prigozhin’s admission last month that he played a role in creating the Wagner private military company (PMC), the Kremlin is maintaining its policy of not acknowledging the mercenary group. In a briefing on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Prigozhin “simply a Russian citizen” who continues to “contribute a great deal” to his country.

  • Meduza ☛ ‘I felt like an inmate’: In their own words, Ukrainians describe waiting for days at the Russia-EU border — Meduza

    In the last two weeks, long lines have built up at the checkpoints on Russia’s borders with Estonia and Latvia. But most of the people waiting in them aren’t Russians fleeing mobilization; they’re Ukrainians from Russian-occupied territories fleeing to the EU in the wake of Russia’s annexation of their homes. Russian border guards, however, seem to be doing everything they can to slow down the process, forcing the refugees to spend days waiting in freezing temperatures and sleeping in border checkpoint waiting rooms. Meduza asked two Ukrainians who made it into Estonia to recount their experiences.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Make Kink Not War

    Thus, I’ve taken this little jingle as my light in the dark, my mantra against the madness and a bit of a gag (all puns intended) in the gloom…

  • Meduza ☛ ‘Nobody needs us’: Video from Russia shows hundreds of armed people complaining about mobilization chaos. Who recorded the footage is unclear. — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ State Duma deputy asks defense ministry to ‘stop lying’ about the war — Meduza

    Andrey Kartapolov, head of the State Duma Committee on Defense, criticized the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for not reporting the whole truth about military action in Ukraine.

  • Meduza ☛ Another breakthrough by the Ukrainian army The northern part of Ukraine’s Kherson region has been cleared of the Russian forces — Meduza

    In its second major breakthrough this week, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated the village of Davydiv Brid, which stands over the Ingulets River in the Kherson Region. For months, this has been the Russian forces’ main stronghold in that area, and it took two months of determined fighting to make them finally retreat. On October 4, the Russian military blogger Igor Strelkov (a.k.a. Girkin) reported that Russian formations were leaving their positions “to avoid incipient encirclement.” They also cleared out of the larger villages nearby. According to Semyon Pegov, the founder of WarGonzo (a pro-Russian media project), the Ukrainian army “made a major breakthrough” and “established full control” over the road on the left bank of Ingulets River.

  • Meduza ☛ Photos of the Russians who managed to flee conscription Chaos on the Russia-Georgia border — Meduza

    Russians fleeing “partial mobilization” in the last week of September formed a huge line at the Russia-Georgia border. Russian authorities have taken military equipment to the border crossing at Verkhny Lars and set up a mobilization point there, but it hasn’t stopped people from crossing. At Meduza’s request, photographer Alexandra Makharashvili spent all night at the border on September 27, snapping portraits of Russians who managed to cross to the Georgian side. She also recorded their remarks about events at the border.

  • Meduza ☛ First criminal case for draft evasion launched in Russia since start of mobilization — Meduza

    A 32-year old man refused to sign his draft notice in Russia’s Penza region, and is now prosecuted on charges of draft evasion. This is the first such criminal case since the start of Russia’s so-called “partial mobilization” on Sept. 21. The “suspect” is now in his second day of detention.

  • Meduza ☛ Putin allows draft deferral for graduate and night school students — Meduza

    Vladimir Putin announced that he has signed an order correcting the conditions for the deferral of “partial mobilization” for additional groups.

  • Meduza ☛ Kadyrov announces that he has become a colonel general — Meduza

    Ramzan Kadyrov says that Vladimir Putin has awarded him the rank of colonel general. The head of Chechnya posted on his Telegram channel…

  • Meduza ☛ A new report shows discrepancies in Russian draft statistics 213,000 have been mobilized in Russia — but this only accounts for two-thirds of its regions, not the whole nation, as claimed by Shoigu — Meduza

    At least 213,000 have been conscripted in Russia since the start of mobilization on Sept. 21. This figure was published by Vazhnye Istorii (“Stories that Matter”), in collaboration with Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) volunteer analysts. While this number matches, roughly, Sergey Shoigu’s Oct. 4 assertion that “more than 200,000” had been drafted nationwide, it does not include data from 32 Russian regions left out from the statistics. The Defense Ministry, though, had made clear that all Russian regions would undergo a mobilization.

  • Meduza ☛ If worst comes to worst Experts say Putin going nuclear can’t be ruled out — and that the U.S. shouldn’t respond in kind if he does — Meduza

    Russia’s military doctrine relies heavily on nuclear weapons — but less on their use itself than on the ability they give Moscow to put pressure on opponents. It’s difficult to judge whether that’s what Putin is doing when he hints at his willingness to launch a nuclear strike in Ukraine, and it’s even harder to guess exactly what he would target if he did. But there are a few things most experts agree on: first, that the risk of Russia using nuclear weapons is currently low but not zero, and second, that Moscow hasn’t begun preparations to launch a nuclear strike yet, because if it had, Western intelligence agencies would almost certainly know. Meduza takes a look at what nuclear weapons experts have said about the odds of Russia pushing the red button — and what the West should do if it does.

  • Meduza ☛ Putin amends Russian Constitution, orders the appropriation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant — Meduza

    The Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new decree ordering the publication of an amended text of the Federal Constitution, with changes related to the recent annexation of several Ukrainian territories — the self-proclaimed “DNR” and “LNR,” as well as the Russian-occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

  • The Gray Zone ☛ ‘Now, All of You Are Azov’: ‘openly neo-Nazi’ Ukrainian delegation meets Congress, tours US

  • Democracy Now ☛ Haiti Update: Gangs Rule Much of Port-au-Prince Amid Protests over Fuel Costs, Calls for PM to Resign

    Mass protests in Haiti are condemning rising fuel prices and demanding the resignation of the U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ariel Henry. For nearly two months, street protests likened to a civil war have rocked the island nation’s capital Port-au-Prince after the government announced it would raise heavily subsidized fuel prices. We speak to Haitian activist Vélina Élysée Charlier about rising gang violence and how criminal groups are supported by the government. “There is a mafia that is ruling this country, and that mafia doesn’t want to face justice,” says Charlier.

• Environment

  • uni Stanford ☛ ‘Extremely concerning’: Stanford legal experts say West Virginia v. EPA outcome will diminish environmental regulations

    The landmark decision invoked the “major questions” doctrine, which holds that courts cannot defer authority to executive branch agencies on issues of “vast economic or political significance” unless explicitly stated by Congress. West Virginia v. EPA is one of the first times the doctrine was successfully implemented in a Supreme Court case. The ruling raised concerns for other federal agencies and their authority over issues beyond climate and environmental policies, law school faculty agreed in interviews with The Daily.

  • NBC ☛ The Air Force has released its first plan to reduce its carbon footprint and adapt to climate change

    U.S. Air Force and Space Force officials released a climate action plan Wednesday that includes a goal of operating bases at net-zero emissions by 2046, an ambitious effort to rein in the sizable carbon footprint of the U.S. military’s air wing.

    The plan, the first from the branches, also takes into account how the Air Force will need to adapt its operations to changing climate conditions, most notably within the infrastructure of its bases and where its energy comes from.

  • DeSmog ☛ Big Agriculture Casts Itself as Climate Champion Ahead of COP27

    Launched at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow last year by the U.S. and United Arab Emirates governments, the AIM for Climate (Aim4C) coalition pledged to accelerate innovation in agriculture and food systems to support climate action.

  • DeSmog ☛ COP27 Farming Coalition Under Fire for Links to Climate Science Denial

    The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) is a “knowledge partner” of the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (Aim4C), an initiative launched by the United States and United Arab Emirates at the Glasgow climate summit last year to fund research into technologies to tackle the climate crisis.

  • TruthOut ☛ Florida Struggles in the Wake of Deadly Hurricane as DeSantis Wages Culture Wars

  • Democracy Now ☛ Biden Promises Puerto Rico $60M for Hurricane Fiona. Will U.S. Repeat Mistakes After Hurricane Maria?

    We go to Puerto Rico to look at how the island is recovering from Hurricane Fiona, a Category 1 storm that left much of the island without electricity and clean water. President Biden has promised a $60 million relief package, but some doubt the aid will be distributed swiftly and in a manner that will truly protect the island from future storms, given the failed U.S. response after Hurricane Maria in 2017. Less than 3% of infrastructure money allocated for storm recovery after Maria has actually been used, says Carla Minet, executive director of the Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico. She also discusses how problems have arisen from the transition to a privatized electrical grid.

  • Democracy Now ☛ Florida’s Deadliest Hurricane in Years May Worsen Inequality, Homelessness Amid DeSantis’s Culture War

    As President Biden meets with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and survivors of Hurricane Ian, the deadliest storm to hit the state in decades, we get an update from Florida state Representative Michele Rayner on relief efforts underway and the housing crisis exacerbated by the storm. Republicans like Governor DeSantis are “more concerned about sticking it to Joe Biden than actually making sure that they can take care of their people,” says Rayner. She also discusses the treatment of asylum seekers in Florida and the anti-LGBT “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

  • Hackaday ☛ Leading Edge Erosion: When Precipitation Destroys Wind Turbine Blades

    Erosion is all around us, from the meandering course of rivers and other waterways, to the gradual carving out of channels in even the toughest mountains, and the softening of features in statues. Yet generally we expect erosion from precipitation to be gradual and gentle, taking decades to make a noticeable difference. This of course takes into account gentle flows and the soft pitter-patter of rain on stone, not turbine blades passing through the air at many times the terminal velocity of rain drops of up to 9 m/s.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | For Ron DeSantis, ‘We’re All in This Together’—When It’s Convenient for Him

    We’re all in this thing together.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Coalition Says Biden Should Offer This Many Offshore Drilling Leases: Zero

    “Offshore drilling is harming our communities, wreaking havoc on the environment, and contributing to the ‘code red’ crisis of global climate change.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ US Should Respond to OPEC by Reinstating Oil Export Ban, Says Green Group

    U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said in a statement that President Joe Biden is “disappointed” by OPEC’s decision and will consider “tools and authorities to reduce OPEC’s control over energy prices.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | The Climate Emergency Is Very Much Here. Now We Must Act.

    In Florida, Hurricane Ian ripped homes from their foundations, mangled boat docks and left at least 2.6 million people without power. Floridians shared pictures of flamingos sheltering from the storm in public bathrooms and sharks swimming up the flooded streets.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Barbados Will Be Among the First to Receive Climate Money From New International Monetary Fund Resilience Trust

    Barbados, the Caribbean nation whose prime minister, Mia Mottley, has championed the argument that small and developing countries desperately need debt relief and funding if they are to survive climate change, has reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund that will make it among the first recipients of money from a new $45 billion resilience trust.

  • Scheerpost ☛ Pakistan Flooding ‘Calamity’ Prompts Call for Reparations

    “I have seen many humanitarian disasters in the world, but I have never seen climate carnage on this scale,” says UN Secretary General António Guterres of the recent floods in Pakistan.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | Deep-Rooted Gender Inequities Make Women More Vulnerable During Climate Disasters

    In recent years, the awful repercussions of climate change have become irrefutable and very alarming. Due to which Pakistan is facing a dire humanitarian crisis stemming from unprecedented rainfall and catastrophic floods that have impacted every part of the country. The statistics are staggering: over 1,100 dead, more than 33 million displaced and caused over $10 billion in damages. Officials estimate that this monsoon season has left one-third of the country underwater, one in seven Pakistani people have been affected by the momentous flooding.

  • Counter Punch ☛ How Hurricanes and Other Climate Disasters Exacerbate Inequality, Even in the Middle Class

    But in a new book based on interviews after Harvey devastatedthe area, we found that households in Friendswood ended up on starkly divergent financial trajectories.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Scientist Says Some Coral Reefs Can Be Saved ‘If We Take Immediate Action’

    “The fact that we’re going to see these changes by 2050 is a strong wake-up call.”

  • Energy

    • TruthOut ☛ Greenpeace Campaigners Disrupt Liz Truss Speech to Denounce U-Turn on Fracking

    • Counter Punch ☛ In the Long Fight for Climate Justice, Activists Win Key Victory Against Manchin and Fossil Fuel Industry

      What’s in Manchin’s bill?

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Reform Our Elections to Secure a Sustainable Future

  • Overpopulation

    • New Scientist ☛ Striking photos show scale of development in sub-Saharan Africa

      These arresting images illustrate the scale of this change, and are taken from the upcoming photography book African Studies, by artist and photographer Edward Burtynsky, who spent four years capturing the landscapes of sub-Saharan Africa, mainly using drones and taking photographs from aircraft. “Africa… now stands as a final destination for the complex arc of globalism,” he says.

• Finance

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Not a Blacklist’ But a ‘Whitewash’: EU Slammed for Letting Tax Havens Off the Hook

    “The current list makes the E.U. a hypocrite as major tax havens in Europe like Malta and Luxembourg escape.”

  • Scheerpost ☛ Patrick Lawrence: The Strong, and the Merely Powerful

    In the world order now emerging, it is genuinely strong nations that will prevail over those reliant on power alone, and force will have little to do with it.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Techdirt ☛ Elon Musk’s Texts Suggest Way More People In The Silicon Valley Elite Should Have Imposter Syndrome

    I know that Elon claims he’s decided he might actually live up to what he promised to do in the binding contract he signed to buy Twitter, but I still wanted to discuss some of the text messages that became public last week as part of the case, showing text messages between Musk and various famous people about his plans for Twitter.

  • Techdirt ☛ Coroner Lists ‘Negative Effects Of Online Content’ As One Of The Causes Of A UK Teen’s Death

    So… this is a thing that happened. Adam Satariano reports for the New York Times…

  • Salon ☛ “To the right, to the right”: Peter Thiel invested $1.5m in right-wing dating app “The Right Stuff”

    Developed by Ryann McEnany, the sister of former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, The Right Stuff is backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who invested $1.5m into the project, according to The Guardian. Although Thiel himself identifies as a gay man, The Right Stuff is marketed towards ultra-conservative heterosexuals only.

  • [Old] NPR ☛ A hacker bought a voting machine on eBay. Michigan officials are now investigating

    And, in an additional tweet, Benson noted that the voting machine was originally from Wexford County and clarified that it was not used to tabulate ballots. (The Dominion-made apparatuses are built to function as voting machines or ballot printing devices. In Michigan, they were used to print voter ballots.)

  • BoingBoing ☛ RNC’s Ronna McDaniel wants to sue Google because people mark GOP junk mail as “spam”

    When the RNC sends out millions of fundraising emails on a daily basis asking potential suckers for money, of course most people toss the junk mail into their spam folder (or have already marked it as spam for direct delivery to said folder). And this infuriates the RNC’s Ronna McDaniel, who thinks she can force the unwanted solicitations onto the public by suing Google.

  • PJ Media ☛ As Women in Iran Are Shot Down While Fighting for Their Rights, the Squad Has Little to Say

    What’s happening in Iran is the biggest women’s rights protest ever in the Islamic world. Yet the response from some of the leading feminists in the United States, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, has been strikingly muted. Each one has made what can be characterized at best as a tepid, pro forma response, one that contrasts sharply with their statements and actions during the Trump administration. It looks as if each one of these women regards Donald Trump as a far greater threat to women than the Islamic Republic of Iran is.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Softer approaches to jihadi threats

    Two trends in Africa have prompted a challenge to the military model of countering terrorist threats. Each trend bears watching for the global struggle against terrorism.

    The first is negative. During the past decade, the United States, France, and others have spent billions of dollars helping African governments and militaries fight Islamist extremism in countries upward from the Sahara. Yet violence by these groups has continued to grow. In addition, six countries in the region have seen attempted or successful military coups since 2020. Last Friday, Burkina Faso had its second putsch this year. That instability has prompted France to step back and reassess its military strategy in the region.

  • The Nation ☛ The Supreme Court’s Majority Reconvenes Its Assault on Democracy

    This week, a zealous band of Republican partisans gathers in Washington intent on advancing their campaign to undermine free and fair elections in this country. It isn’t the Proud Boys responding to President Donald Trump’s call to “stand back and stand by.” Nor is it the majority of House Republicans who sustain the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen. It is the six-person, right-wing majority of the Supreme Court using a self-selected docket of cases to advance minority rule.

  • TruthOut ☛ Calls Grow for Clarence Thomas to Recuse Himself From Trump Mar-a-Lago Docs Case

  • The Nation ☛ This Supreme Court Case Threatens the Future of Tribal Lands

    This November, the Supreme Court will hear Haaland v. Brackeen—a case that could have catastrophic consequences for Indian country. The plaintiffs are challenging the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, arguing that the law discriminates against non-Indian adoptive parents on the basis of race. More specifically, they claim that the law institutionalizes discrimination against white families in the adoption of American Indian children.

  • The Nation ☛ The Supreme Court Is Ready to Take Down More of the Voting Rights Act

    The Constitution has been amended three times to achieve the universal suffrage its wealthy white male authors denied everyone other than themselves. The 15th Amendment prohibited denying the vote on the basis of race. The 19th Amendment prohibited denying the vote on the basis of sex. The 24th Amendment eliminated the poll tax “or any other tax” that may be used to erect a financial barrier to voting. But these amendments meant functionally nothing until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It’s the Voting Rights Act that makes these constitutional amendments “real” by providing a way to sue white male governments who seek to suppress or deny the vote in violation of these amendments. Without the Voting Rights Act, voting rights are just suggestions, easily ignored by committed white supremacists operating at the state level. It doesn’t help minority voters to have constitutional amendments if the white people running the place won’t allow voters to prove that they’ve been violated.

  • Pro Publica ☛ What to Expect From the SCOTUS 2022-23 Term

    So far, the justices have agreed to hear about half the number of cases they ordinarily decide in a term, with more to be added in the coming weeks. But already the court’s docket includes major cases concerning voting rights, election law, environmental protections and the constitutionality of affirmative action. As conservatives look for cases that can continue to shift the law in their direction, liberals look with trepidation to what the court’s right wing may do next.

  • The Nation ☛ Why the Left Needs to Change How It Fights

    The left, says Bree Carlson, needs to rethink its strategy. Tired of fighting isolated battles on racial justice and economic justice, and always playing defense, she wants to look toward broader battles—and then win them.

  • TruthOut ☛ Trump Takes Mar-a-Lago Documents Case to Supreme Court

  • Common Dreams ☛ Ro Khanna Lays Out New Vision for American Manufacturing and Economic Progress

    In what some observers view as a messaging test run ahead of a potential presidential bid in 2024 or beyond, Khanna (D-Calif.) published a Boston Globe opinion piece laying out details of his New Economic Patriotism Plan.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Coalition Representing 24 Million Workers Demands Senate Vote on PRO Act Before Midterms

    “Workers across the country can’t afford to keep waiting for the Senate to take action.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Who Voted for This?’: Campaigners Disrupt Truss Speech Over Fracking Ban ‘U-Turn’

    “Who voted for this?” read the sign displayed by Rebecca Newsom, Greenpeace U.K.’s head of public affairs, and Ami McCarthy, the group’s policy officer.

  • Counter Punch ☛ The China Coup Dupes

    The media rush to tie the string around these events was aggressive.  It involved Gordon Chang, infamous proponent of the “collapse of China” theory, being consulted for expert advice by such outlets as Newsweek.  Chang’s tweets were generously quoted as sagacious observations: “[W]hatever happened inside this #Chinese military during the last three days – evidently something unusual occurred – tells us there is turbulence inside the senior #CCP leadership.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | Ron Johnson Stinks

    Another election campaign, and once again the political marketers are portraying Ron Johnson as your favorite uncle, a simple Wisconsin man looking out for the best interests of the state’s people.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | Reviving the Child Tax Credit Is a Winning Campaign Message for Democrats This Coming Midterms

    With the November midterm elections fast approaching, the path the United States government will take over the next two years is looking very uncertain. Recent polling shows that control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives is up for grabs between Democrats and Republicans. To maintain control of both chambers – and possibly expand their majority in the Senate – Democrats will need to take advantage of any edge they can find to bring in more support.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Khanna Tells Biden to Cut Off Weapons to Saudis as OPEC Agrees to Slash Oil Supply

    “President Biden should make it clear that we will stop supplying the Saudis with weapons and air parts if they fleece the American people and strengthen [Russian President Vladimir] Putin by making drastic production cuts,” Khanna (D-Calif.) told The Washington Post in an interview as OPEC members met in Vienna.

  • FAIR ☛ Media Spin Lula Victory as Defeat

    From the way that the Anglo media are treating the October 2 Brazilian first-round presidential elections, a casual news consumer may get the impression that the Brazilian Workers Party suffered a crushing defeat. It takes an incredible amount of spin to create this impression. In order to pull this off, several important facts have to be downplayed or ignored.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • CNN ☛ Crimean beauty queen fined by Russian authorities for singing patriotic Ukrainian song

    Olga Valeeva, who was named Mrs Queen Beauty – Crimea 2022, was spared a jail sentence because she has children who are underage, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Monday.

    A spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Crimea said in a video that it identified a video online in which “two girls sang a song that is the battle anthem of an extremist organization.”

  • NYPost ☛ Miss Crimea fined by Russian officials for singing patriotic Ukrainian song

    Valeyeva was fined 40,000 rubles ($677) and her friend was sentenced to 10 days behind bars for the performance, according to the news outlet.

  • Morning Star News ☛ Christian Woman on Trial for Blasphemy in Northeast Nigeria

    A Christian woman in northeast Nigeria is on trial after being held incommunicado for more than four months on blasphemy charges for forwarding a WhatsApp message, sources said.

  • RTL ☛ Iran pop singer silenced, but his song remains a protest anthem

    Even though he has been silenced, Iranian pop singer Shervin Hajipour’s impassioned song in support of protests over Mahsa Amini’s death in custody remains an unofficial anthem of the movement.

    The song “Baraye” notched up 40 million views on Instagram before it was deleted when Hajipour was arrested, but he has since been freed on bail and has distanced himself from politics, likely as a condition for his release.

  • The Nation ☛ Mahsa Amini and the Women of Iran

  • Common Dreams ☛ Freelance Photographer Says He Was Fired by NYT Over Support for Palestinian Resistance

    “After years of covering the Gaza Strip as a freelance photojournalist for The New York Times, I was informed via an abrupt phone call from the U.S. outlet that they will no longer work with me in the future,” Salem wrote on Twitter. “I began working with the newspaper in 2018, covering critical events in Gaza such as the weekly protests at the border fence with Israel, the investigation into the Israeli killing of field nurse Razan al-Najjar, and more recently, the May 2021 Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip.”

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • BIA Net ☛ Kurdish feminist journalist Nagihan Akarsel killed in armed attack in Iraqi Kurdistan

    Akarsel was shot in front of her home at around 10 a.m. local time, and was immediately killed, the Mezopotamya Agency (MA) reported. Her body was taken to the Sulaymaniyah Forensic Medicine Institution.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Nation ☛ How the Police Became an Occupying Army

    Loosely constructed as model towns, Riotsvilles served as training grounds for the police and military, stages for mock riots, with officers and service members role-playing as protester and police to rehearse scenarios for quashing uprisings. The reenactments, filled with ridiculous wigs and bad acting, were filmed by the military, and they remain in the public domain. The intended targets of their training were labeled as riots to avoid recognizing them as exercises in political dissent—precisely because they called into question the authority of the state. Sierra Pettengill’s documentary, an essay film composed entirely of archival footage, dramatizes the reality of this power struggle.

  • BBC ☛ Iran protests: Schoolgirls heckle paramilitary speaker

    A new video posted online appears to show schoolgirls heckling a member of Iran’s feared paramilitary Basij force, after anti-government protests sweeping the country spread to the classroom.

    The teenagers wave their headscarves in the air and shout “get lost, Basiji” at the man, who was asked to address them.

  • Firstpost ☛ Anti-hijab Iranian teen killed, body snatched, buried secretly to avoid outrage

    Not just that, Nika’s aunt Atash, who posted about Nika on her social media accounts, was arrested on Sunday when security forces raided her house. They even threatened to kill Atash if anyone in the family took part in protests, according to sources.

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Cruel Disregard for Life’: Rights Groups Condemn Iran’s Deadly Attacks on Protesters

    In some cases, they shot at people who were running away.”

  • BBC ☛ Iran: Teen protester Nika Shakarami’s body stolen, sources say

    In her last message to a friend she said she was being chased by security forces, her aunt told BBC Persian.

    Nika’s family finally found her body in a morgue at a detention centre in the capital.

    “When we went to identify her, they didn’t allow us to see her body, only her face for a few seconds,” said Atash Shakarami, Nika’s aunt.

  • [Old] Firstpost ☛ Iran: Nose smashed, skull pounded; security forces return body of another young woman with suspicious injuries

    According to the Iran Human Rights Organization, at least 83 people have been killed in the crackdown. Amnesty International confirms 52 deaths, while Iran’s Fars news agency puts the death toll at “around 60.”

  • Frontpage Magazine ☛ Jamal Khashoggi vs. Marc Bennett: Whose Life Matters?

    “Jamal Khashoggi’s murder 4 years ago was also an attack on freedom of expression everywhere,” Secretary of State Blinken tweeted. There’s no such thing as “freedom of expression” among Khashoggi’s Qatari employees. Khashoggi was not fighting for any kind of freedom, but for an Islamist tyranny of the kind practiced by Qatar’s fellow Islamists in Iran. Had he gotten his way, liberals in Saudi Arabia would be the ones being brutally murdered.

  • Christian Post ☛ Christian converts in Uganda beaten, flogged by Muslims in separate attacks; woman left unable to walk

    In Bulumba Sub-County, Kaliro District, 38-year-old Musa Wabwire was praying in his home on Sept. 9 when relatives and other Muslims arrived, he said. Noting his absence at Friday prayers, the mosque leader had sent an assistant who had secretly recorded video of Wabwire listening to a Christian radio program, Wabwire said.

    “After hearing it, they all got annoyed and flooded into my home and asked me many questions, which I failed to answer,” said Wabwire, who had secretly put his faith in Christ while serving as treasurer for the mosque. “I only told them to take their money box, and that I be left with Christ, who was enough for me. They became so angry and started beating me up while shouting, ‘Kafir, Kafir [infidel]!’”

    When he declined to renounce Christ, they flogged him 40 lashes with sticks, he said. Wabwire’s older brother, an imam in a nearby village, ordered the destruction of his crops and his living quarters on the homestead, he said.

  • The Dissenter ☛ Manufacturing Espionage: FBI Targeted Former NSA Employee Who Had Substantial Debt

  • Telex (Hungary) ☛ For twelve years we thought that sinking deeper is not possible, but as it turns out, it is

    We spoke with two of the Hungarian public teachers who were recently fired for taking part in the civil disobedience movement – for having demanded changes in the education system and a pay raise. They told us about the importance of standing up, the changes that need to be made and what’s next for them. Make sure to turn on the English subtitles!

  • Counter Punch ☛ Optimism of the Will

    Noam Chomsky: I can add a fourth: the impending destruction of what remains of American democracy and the shift of the United States toward a deeply authoritarian, also proto-fascist, state, when the Republicans come back into office, which looks likely. So, that’s four horses.

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Unreal’: Amazon Suspends 50 Employees Who Refused to Work After Fire Broke Out

    “We will not tolerate any unsafe workplace and we will not tolerate intimidation.”

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Techdirt ☛ FCC Finally Starts Playing Hardball With Robocall Enablers

    The FCC is finally starting to toughen up when it comes to tackling our nationwide robocall scourge.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Note to SCOTUS: Section 230 is an Acknowledgement of Reality, Not a “Liability Shield”

    Here are the “26 words” in question…

  • Make Tech Easier ☛ How to Bypass Paywalls of Leading News Websites

    Many leading news websites nowadays come with paywalls. To read more than two or three articles on such websites, you have to pay for a subscription. If you need occasional access to a publication’s website, it doesn’t make sense to subscribe to all of them. Also, the limited free content available might not be enough to evaluate whether a subscription is worth paying for. In such cases, it helps to know how to bypass the news sites’ restrictive paywalls.

• Monopolies

  • TruthOut ☛ Amazon Suspends at Least 50 Workers in Response to Protest Over Warehouse Fire

  • TruthOut ☛ Starbucks Union Organizer Says He Was Fired for Wearing Suicide Awareness Pin

  • TruthOut ☛ Sanders, Warren Slam Starbucks for “Unethical and Unlawful” Union Busting

  • IT Wire ☛ Ex-CSO of Uber found guilty of blocking FTC investigation

    Former Uber Technologies chief security office Joseph Sullivan, who was sacked by the company in November 2017 along with one of his deputies over a October 2016 data breach, has been found guilty of criminal obstruction charges for not reporting the breach to government authorities.

    The verdict was announced on Wednesday in US federal court after a trial that lasted three weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, adding that Sullivan faced five years in jail and a possible additional three for not reporting a felony.

    The October 2016 breach included names, email addresses and phone numbers, according to a Bloomberg report in November 2017 which cited a company spokesperson.

    Apart from this, personal information about seven million Uber drivers was accessed as well. The stolen data included 600,000 US drivers’ licence numbers, but no social security numbers, trip locations or other data.

  • Software Patents

    • AppleInsider ☛ SCOTUS rejects Apple’s bid to cancel Qualcomm’s 5G patents

      The Circuit dismissed Apple’s appeal, saying its settlement with Qualcomm precluded it from attempting to invalidate the chipmaker’s patents.

      In June, the Supreme Court declined to hear Apple’s bid to invalidate two Qualcomm patents, upholding the decision from the Federal Circuit. On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld that ruling and declined to hear Apple again.

    • [Old] Reuters ☛ U.S. urges Supreme Court to reject Apple appeal in Qualcomm patent fight

      The Justice Department on Tuesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a bid by Apple Inc to revive a patent fight with Qualcomm Inc over mobile technology.

      The brief by U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said a federal appeals court was correct to rule that Apple lacked standing to continue efforts to cancel two Qualcomm patents after reaching a global settlement with the chip maker.

    • Reuters ☛ Apple loses second bid to challenge Qualcomm patents at U.S. Supreme Court

      Apple challenged the validity of the patents at issue in this case at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

      The companies settled their underlying fight in 2019, signing an agreement worth billions of dollars that let Apple continue using Qualcomm chips in iPhones. The settlement included an Apple license to thousands of Qualcomm patents, but allowed the patent-board proceedings to continue.

      The board upheld the patents in 2020, and Apple appealed to the patent-specialist U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Cupertino, California-based Apple argued it had proper legal standing to appeal because San Diego-based Qualcomm could sue again after the license expires, potentially as soon as 2025.

    • IT World CA ☛ Apple loses another attempt to nullify Qualcomm patents

      In 2020, the patents were upheld, and Apple appealed to the US Patent and Trademark Office, invoking legal validity because Qualcomm could sue again after its license expires in 2025. Last year, the case was dismissed for lack of reputation, owing to Apple’s speculative risk of being sued again and the fact that the challenge would not affect its payment obligations under the settlement.

  • Copyrights

    • Creative Commons ☛ CC’s Engagement on EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act

      Creative Commons has proactively worked with policymakers and other key stakeholders, creating a constructive dialogue to inform both the content of the text and the context of the debate. We agree with the objectives of the Act: ensuring AI systems placed on the Union market are used in a way that respects fundamental rights and Union values; providing legal certainty to facilitate investment and innovation in AI; and facilitating the development of a single market for lawful, transparent, and trustworthy AI applications to prevent market fragmentation.

    • Creative Commons ☛ Join Us to Celebrate 20 Years of Creative Commons

      During 2021–2022, CC has been celebrating the 20th anniversary of our founding in 2001 and the first release of the CC licenses in 2002, successfully concluding an ambitious fundraising campaign to support programs like Open Culture, Open Climate, and Open Education, and to help ensure CC’s ongoing sustainability.

    • Techdirt ☛ Book Publishing Giant Pulls Nearly 1400 Ebook Titles From GW Library; Forcing Students To Buy Them Instead

      It is difficult to understate how downright evil the big book publishers are. If you think the RIAA and MPA are bad (and, they are), the book publishers take it to new super villain, mustache-twirling levels. George Washington University libraries have put out an alert to students and faculty that Wiley, one of the largest textbook publishers, has now removed 1,379 textbook titles that the library can lend out. They won’t even let the library purchase a license to lend out the ebooks. They will only let students buy the books.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ End Live Piracy Now: Massive Coalition Demands Immediate EU Action

      In a coordinated call to action, more than 100 rightsholders and organizations spanning sports and other live entertainment are demanding action from the European Union to end live piracy – now. They want new legislation that will guarantee the swift removal and blocking of illegal streams. The signs suggest that intermediaries – not actual pirates – will be the targets.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ DISH Wins $26.5m Pirate IPTV Judgment But Might Not Get a Penny

      DISH Network has won yet another significant damages award following a lawsuit filed against a pirate IPTV supplier. The U.S. broadcaster filed a complaint against My Indian TV in August 2021, but the service stayed online until this April. DISH will now take control of the service’s domains but whether it will see any of the $26.5m awarded by a New York court remains to be seen.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ Earthlink Will Ask Wholesale Providers to Block Pirate Site YTS

      Earthlink has settled a piracy liability lawsuit filed by several movie companies this summer. While there is no mention of damages, the ISP has agreed to ask its wholesale providers to block access to the notorious pirate site YTS. The providers are not named but Earthlink sells or resold AT&T and Time Warner Cable infrastructure.

    • Public Domain Review ☛ “Mother Will Be Pleased”: *How It Feels to Be Run Over* (1900) – The Public Domain Review

      One of the earliest uses of intertitles, Hepworth’s film belongs to a genre of fin-de-siècle accident pictures, where we can observe cinema discovering new forms of communication.

      From their beginning, movies have been fascinated with motion and its termination — the play between stasis and animation that is inherent to how we perceive the rapid transit of still images across a screen. Nearly a century before David Cronenberg’s adaptation of J. G. Ballard’s Crash (1973), a novel in which characters yearn for “the ecstasies of head-on collisions”, Cecil Hepworth’s How It Feels to Be Run Over found pleasure in blunt force trauma. In this minute-long film, a stationary camera, placed on the edge of a dirt road, records the approach of a horse-drawn cart, which passes safely out of the frame. Through the dust kicked up by hooves and wheels comes a motor car, driven by Hepworth, veering wildly toward us. As this automobile collides with the camera, the screen cuts to black and hand-written text flashes almost imperceptibly before our eyes: “?!!!? ! Oh! Mother will be pleased”.

Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal

  • The Stumble Through Life Itself

    The current draft of Union squirts from the speaker(s) of this tablet. The initial section will be attended to soon by the mixing module of my cerebrum, as the impressions it usually leaves on me is that of tenebrous, oily liquid. In one way, however, I do like how *dark* it sounds. Perhaps *murky* is a better word. The flow from the end of *Olšanské Hřbitovy* into Christian’s transition directly to the *murk* may be just what the universe needs during this trying epoch. The remainder of the piece is more bright, much unlike the perfect dampening of distributed matter at the Heat Death of the Universe, which, they say, is right around the corner, as it always has been and should certainly be.

  • Natural Alienation

    I am sitting at a table in a dining room, writing this gemlog. My toes touching the hardwood floor. A window sits right next to me, but the light inside causes it to reflect my own face instead of letting me see the dark sky beyond. It is not quite time to sleep, but it would be dark if my environment was not illuminated by the incandescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling.

    I went outside thrice today. I fed the cats, pulled some books out of storage, and fed the cats again. I also walked in circles for some exercise. What am I doing?

• Technical

  • Linux NILFS file system: automatic continuous snapshots

    Today, I’ll share about a special Linux file system that I really enjoy. It’s called NILFS and has been imported into Linux in 2009, so it’s not really a new player, despite being stable and used in production it never got popular.

    In this file system, there is a unique system of continuous checkpoint creation. A checkpoint is a snapshot of your system at a given point in time, but it can be deleted automatically if some disk space must be reclaimed. A checkpoint can be transformed into a snapshot that will never be removed.

  • Small Music: Module Files

    Many years ago, I was active on a fan site based on the MS DOS video game “Jazz Jackrabbit”. The site featured user-created content packs, ranging from custom levels to tilesets to helper programs, and of course fan remixes of game music. Some remixes were uploaded as MP3 files, but most were created and submitted in the same format as the music from the game itself: module files.

    Module files are a group of audio file formats that are derived from the MOD file format on Amiga systems. They store samples of instruments and patterns of notes to play with those samples, along with a series of effects to apply to the notes and metadata about the music. Module files are created using programs called “trackers”, of which dozens exist today for almost every platform imaginable. It was in this format that I would create and upload music.

  • EasyOS: revisiting my past

    In the process of hacking on HitchHiker, I wanted to get my little system installed onto a second system. My backup laptop was set up years ago with a single partition unfortunately, so this required some futzing around with moving partitions.

    Years ago, back when I was new to Linux, I used to be quite active with Puppy Linux. The first version I used was 1.0.2, which was only marginally smaller than Damn Small Linux at the time, somewhere around 50mb, and yet had all of the bases covered for most people’s day to day needs using a computer. I began using it as my daily driver somewhere around 1.0.3-1.0.4, can’t remember which, and got involved a bit with development for a few years. It’s still my go-to distro when I need a live system to do some repair or whatnot.

    [...]

    Nor is my disillusionment completely confined to gtk4. When I started Zterm, it was basically undertaken to fulfill my own wants and needs in a terminal emulator. I wanted both tabs and split panes, while keeping the amount of user interface to a minimum. That is to say as few buttons and menus as possible. I’ve been mostly happy with how it worked out, but the light bindings I created to gtk3 for Zig are deficient in a few key areas, which limits the project in a few key areas. Most notably, due to some design choices made early on Zterm is limited to a single window open at a time. That was one strike against it, but with Zig pushing closer to it’s self hosted compiler I’ve had to fix a lot of issues as they arise due to changes in the compiler. It’s currently compiling on Arch again, but there’s a bug which hasn’t been addressed yet and is likely to remain in Zig for a while. When linking to system libraries, if any of your libraries are placed anywhere other than /usr/lib the compiler gets confused and generates an incorrect linker command, attempting to link to the static versions of certain libraries without including any of their dependencies. So that means that Zterm requires manual linking on FreeBSD and HitchHiker, and likely also on OpenBSD and NetBSD too. Ouch.

  • Generate Veins Faster

    The best part of Veins of the Earth is the cave maps. I have “large scale maps” covering south western Zakhara (mostly underwater♥) and plenty of small scale maps, and those more zoomed in are mostly deterministic to generate. (Perfect for #blorb.)

    The downside is that they’re also a huge time sink, especially for someone like me who can’t keep all the rules in my head at once.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • slondrlog: Gemini e-commerce

      I saw a post recently that implied that the Gemini protocol was so restrictive, it would make e-commerce nonviable. I don’t think this is true at all.

      The easiest way to do ecommerce over Gemini is exactly how the first round of WWW ecommerce worked: put up a list of products you sell or services you provide, with a link at the bottom to submit credit card info. It took the web a decade to figure out how to do that securely, but Gemini already uses TLS for secure data submission so that is no issue here.

    • Gemini: The New Frontier

      I’ve only been on gemini for a month or two now. Very similar to gopher, the internet I grew up with. In those days it was just interesting that people could post information and you could easily access it. There were no ads, no monetization. There was also no high production costs you have now with the large and extremely complex websites you have today. Everything was enthusiast created and enthusiast consumed. Most services were hosted on university servers, some on corporate systems that allowed employees to host services. And of course an handful of people running their own machines, switching over from the old dial up BBS to the new internet. That environment never became monetized so it never seemed to get too get flooded with clickbate.

      I somewhat doubt that gemini will become monetized either. Basic text output, nearly no input. The assumed UX for gemini is reading flat files with separate media files and ASCII Art. I don’t see this as an issue as it will keep a lot of the garbage out. But what I do wonder is what types of services will show up in the future. Right now the majority of pages are personal logs, with a few pages dedicated to our hobbies and interests. There already exists a few search engines which helps discovery. A few news feeds exist that are transposing HTTP sites, a few weather services that call government or public service APIs. I think the next big step to keep gemini going is the creation of more services. As for what they may be, I don’t have a clue. Aside from searching through programming documentation online, I’ve mostly given up on the internet.

    • RE: Archiving the smallnet & fantasizing about a free mesh based internet

      Smokey is trying to figure out how big Gemini is and if it made sense to share it through a mesh network.

      It turns out that I’ve some very interesting data to share. I’ve been using Offpunk to browse both the web and Gemini for a bit less than one year. During those months, every single resource I’ve read has been saved in my Offpunk cache. I didn’t clean the cache except for one very big video file on Gopher (on the web, Offpunk is smart enough not to download files that are too big if not explicitly requested).

  • Programming

    • Thus spake the master programmer: “time for you to leave.”

      Read enough of my posts over the past year or so, and it’s clear that I am not happy working at The Enterprise. The process über alles, the overly managed and useless laptops, the bad communication (which I don’t think I’ve mentioned, but man, I didn’t expect the telephone game [1] to be an actual strategy of a company), the so called “agile development” that is anything but agile [2], the twice daily scrum meetings (because my manager wanted his own scrum meeting with *just the team* with no other departments involved—that’s the *other* daily scrum meeting), and the testing.

      [...]

      So on August 26^th during my one-on-one with my manager, where the topic of conversation drifted towards testing (yet again), I had had enough and decided to leave The Enterprise as I felt like I wasn’t a cultural fit. I made my intentions clear on Monday, August 29^th, and immediately took all my remaining time off (three weeks worth), followed by the standard “two weeks notice period,” where I was in multiple “transfer-of-knowledge” meetings. It’s indicative of the thought process of The Enterprise that most of the “transfer-of-knowledge” meetings were about … testing. Or rather, the testing tools I had written and how they work.

      It was time for me to leave. There were a few red flags indicating that perhaps I should have left earlier (such as the rest of my team leaving the company at the same time [3]) but after twelve years, it was probably time.

      Yesterday was my last day at The Enterprise. Today is the first day of a long needed rest. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the error code from the trap frame [4] …