Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 03/12/2022: KDE Report and Canonical Lying to Staff



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • KDE Dev-Vlog 5: Dolphin's New Selection Mode - Felix Ernst

        Dolphin 22.12 is going to be released in a few days so it is high time that I report on its big new feature which I have implemented: the selection mode. In this light-hearted video I will present it next to problems, whose solutions have not been implemented yet.

      • Going LinuxGoing Linux #433 €· Run Ubuntu MATE On A 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop

        My Lenovo Flex 5i is a 2-in-1 laptop with the ability to use the touch screen with a finger or an included stylus on the screen. Ubuntu MATE provides support for touch screens by default. I did have to make some adjustments to the stylus/screen mapping when using the stylus. In this episode I describe those adjustments and link to our article that describes some optional additional setup steps that make it more convenient to use the laptop in tablet mode.

      • VideoE91: Tech Talk w/ @DistroTube - Linux Enthusiast - Open Source Advocate

        Tech Mentorship! Please enjoy the video and if you have any questions, leave a comment below. My goal is to expand the Linux community.

    • Applications

      • OpenSource.comFeel like a Linux wizard with the Thunar file manager

        Computers are fancy filing cabinets, full of virtual folders and files waiting to be referenced, cross-referenced, edited, updated, saved, copied, moved, renamed, and organized. In this article, I'll take a look at a file manager for your Linux system.

        The XFCE desktop is well-known and respected for its careful and methodical development cycle. It's actively maintained and has continued to evolve over the years, its focus tends to be on delivering a consistent experience with just the right amount of new features. It's a pleasure to use XFCE on everything from the old computer you've repurposed as a home server to the new PC you've just built and are too greedy to waste GPU cycles on fancy desktop effects. XFCE is a budget desktop that doesn't make you skimp on experience, and its file manager exemplifies that.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Manuel MatuzovicDay 50: :has(:not()) vs. :not(:has())

        Something I was tripping over when I began learning about :has() was the combination with :not().

        Let me show you what I got wrong by using an example. Let's say we have two cards, each with a heading and some text. One of them also contains an image.

      • Manuel MatuzovicDay 49: layering entire style sheets

        You can use @import to load entire style sheets into a cascade layer.

      • Pi My Life UpInstalling Mastodon on the Raspberry Pi

        Mastodon is a free and open-source software that allows you to self-host your own social network on your Raspberry Pi.

        This software is a microblogging platform that is very much like Twitter However, unlike Twitter, it is possible to use Mastodon to run a private social network.

        Please note that Mastodon is a relatively heavy piece of software. You will have the best experience using a Raspberry Pi 4 with at least 2GB of memory.

        Additionally, you must be using a 64-bit operating system due to the newer release of PostgreSQL we will be utilizing.

      • Kian RyanThe Sidecar For Psion - A PPP Modem And Linux Terminal For RS232 Devices

        Creating the PiRS232 and playing with the Pi over serial has been leading towards an idea - I wanted to create a small, battery powered device, a sidecar that I could carry with my Psion and use as portable Linux terminal. I also managed to turn it into an Internet gateway, leading to some interesting experiences.

        The idea was straightforward: take a Pi Zero, add an RS232 board that already handles the null modem side, add a Lipo battery, power management and charging, and print a case for it. It’s taken a few months from initial idea to final design, but I’m happy the result, it’s usable and practical, and you can build one too.

      • Alexandru NedelcuPersonal Server Backups

        Services like Linode or DigitalOcean offer backup services for your VPS. Save your money, you don’t need it. Here’s how to backup your data safely, and with no extra costs…

      • University of TorontoApache 2.4's event MPM and oddities with ServerLimit

        I mentioned recently that we were hopefully going to move away from the Apache prefork MPM when we upgraded our primary web server from Ubuntu 18.04 to Ubuntu 22.04. We had tried to switch over to the event MPM back in 18.04, but had run into problems and had reverted to the prefork MPM as a quick fix. Specifically, we had run into Apache stopping serving requests and reporting the following in the error log: [...]

      • Data SwampAuthentication gateway with SSH on OpenBSD

        A neat feature in OpenBSD is the program authpf, an authenticating gateway using SSH.

        Basically, it allows to dynamically configure the local firewall PF by connecting/disconnecting into a user account over SSH, either to toggle an IP into a table or rules through a PF anchor.

      • ID RootHow To Install Nessus Scanner on Rocky Linux 9 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Nessus Scanner on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Nessus is an open-source network vulnerability scanner for vulnerability assessments and penetration testing. With the help of this web-based GUI scanner, you can stay apprised of any issues that might arise on your network servers. Nessus does a fantastic job of checking for vulnerabilities and breaches in your company’s infrastructure.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Nessus Security Scanner on Rocky Linux. 9.

      • Linux NightlyHow to Rename File From Linux Command Line - Linux Nightly

        Renaming files is one of the most fundamental tasks on a Linux system. On the command line, the mv (move) command is used not only to move files to different locations, but also to rename them.

      • Linux NightlyHow to Install VirtualBox on Fedora 37/36 - Linux Nightly

        Learn how to install Oracle VirtualBox 7 on Fedora 36 and Fedora 37 via command line.

      • UNIX CopHow to Turn off beep / bell on linux terminal on Rocky/Almalinux /Redhat 9

        In this post, you will learn a simple trick in practice but quite useful for those who work a lot with the terminal. Today, you will learn how to turn off beep / bell on Linux terminal on Rocky Linux / Alma Linux / Red Hat 9.

        It turns out that when a person uses Linux and his terminal a lot, it is because he is working in demanding or important situations. So, imagine that every time you use the tab key, then a noise comes out of nowhere. Once is fine, but frequently? I think that’s not ideal.

        There are other, more extreme situations where the terminal starts making sounds out of nowhere, making the situation worse. So for this, we have the solution, and it is nothing more than disabling the beep / bell of the terminal.

        Let’s go.

      • Linux NightlyHow to Restart Nginx on Linux - Linux Nightly

        Nginx is a free and open source web server. It can also be used as a reverse proxy, HTTP cache, and load balancer. In this article, we will learn how to restart Nginx in Linux.

      • Linux NightlyHow to Disable (or Enable) Firewall on AlmaLinux - Linux Nightly

        AlmaLinux and other RHEL-based Linux distributions use firewalld to manage firewall rules. Note that firewalld is simply a frontend for iptables, which is the system firewall baked directly into the Linux kernel. firewalld makes firewall rules easier to manage by setting up “zones.”

        In this tutorial, you will see how to disable or enable the firewall on AlmaLinux. It’s generally recommended that you keep your firewall enabled for security, but there may be instances where it’s appropriate to turn it off.

      • Linux NightlyHow to Enable Root GUI Login on Kali Linux - Linux Nightly

        By default, Kali Linux doesn’t give us the option to log in to the GUI with the root account. If you want to circumvent this security recommendation and use the GUI with your root account, follow the steps below.

      • Linux NightlyHow to Install Google Chrome on Manjaro - Linux Nightly

        In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Google Chrome on Manjaro. Google Chrome is available in the Arch User Repostiroy (AUR) so we can install it from there by either downloading and compiling it, or using an AUR helper like yay or pamac as you’ll see below.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Nate GrahamThis week in KDE: custom tiling

          KWin got a very cool new feature this week: a built-in advanced tiling system that you can use to set up custom tile layouts and resize multiple adjacent windows at a time by dragging on the gaps between them!

          This feature is still in its infancy and not designed to completely replicate the workflow of a tiling window manager. But we expect it to grow and advance over time, and also the new APIs added for it should benefit 3rd-party tiling scripts that do want to let you turn KWin into a tiling window manager. Thanks very much to Marco Martin for contributing this work, which will be released in Plasma 5.27!

          But there’s much, much more as well!

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • It's FOSSGetting Nostalgic With the Historical Coherent Operating System

      Here’s a blast from the past. Years ago, back in the early 1990s, there was an operating system called Coherent. The price wasn’t so bad – $99. A few years ago, it was made freely available. Coherent never claimed to be UNIX, but UNIX-like. I learned a lot with that OS.

      When the Mark Williams Company closed in 1995, Coherent was a closed-source product. In 2015, it was released under a 3-clause BSD License so, if you’re interested, you can grab a free copy of Coherent at Internet Archive or here.

      Here’s a little look-back at Coherent.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • Snap Updates Happen Without User Consent | Smaller Fish

        Aside from this notification apparently not being tied properly into the KDE notification system (it doesn’t show in the list of recent notifications that’s available from the system tray notifications widget, and so therefore seems to be using a different notification system), this highlights a particularly annoying (and anti-user) line of thinking by the Snap development team.

        A little background, before going into detail on the issue here (skip down to the next image if you’re up to speed on Linux packaging). As is standard operating procedure in the Linux ecosystem, competing systems are vying to become a standard to solve a particular problem, and as usual we’ll end up with segmented user bases, inefficient use of sparse developer resources, and multiple ways to achieve the same thing. Human nature, ftw. The problem that’s being addressed in this case is that of software distribution.

        The status quo for obtaining software for Linux distributions until fairly recently was the idea of repositories, i.e. managed collections of software, and tooling baked into the distributions to allow installing and updating software from these repositories. (Linux repositories preceded the popularity of “app stores”, but it’s basically the same idea.) Part of the differentiation between competing Linux distributions is how (and how often) they curate their repositories. While some distributions opt to be “bleeding edge”, and allow highly streamlined updates from developers to make it through to end users with a minimal amount of testing, many other (and most mainstream) distributions opt for periodical release cycles, whereby critical security updates (and some important bugfixes) can be made and pushed out quickly, but generally most other significant updates will be held until the next big release of the distribution.

        This was both good and bad for users. If your system was in a fairly stable state, you could expect that applying updates when prompted to do so would leave your system in at least as stable a state as it was prior to the update, at least until the next distribution wide release (and then, your mileage might vary depending on hardware, drivers, amount of upstream testing, your own customizations, etc). “Long term support” releases were introduced, and if you opted into these, you’d be protected from distribution releases for years at a time, giving you stability at the expense of recency. Unfortunately, this meant if that if you needed an important feature update from an application, you’d either have to “sideload” it, or you’d need to wait for the distribution to include that update in the next release.

      • OS NewsSnap updates happen without user consent – OSnews

        I would really, really suggest moving away from Ubuntu, and opting for the countless better alternatives instead, like Fedora (the best desktop, in my view), Linux Mint (a great desktop, but a bit more conservative than Fedora), any of the Arch derivatives (for bleeding edge and tons of fooling around with AUR), or Void (for those of us with taste). Or any, any of the others.

      • Leaving Canonical, again

        The reason? Those who know me well might suspect that it's related to some complications with that fact that I'm living in Russia, or maybe with some remarks I might have made about the war in Ukraine or about other current events, since I tent to be quite outspoken and provocative. Nothing of all that: it's about my refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19; unfortunately, it has now become apparent that I'm not the only one leaving, and other employees who have refused either to get vaccinated or to disclose their vaccination status are also being shown the door (including people who have been in the company for more than 10 years). This has sparked some internal discussions in the company, and several different point of views have been voiced: from those who welcome this policy and would like to see it extended to flu vaccinations (which makes a lot of sense, since once you've accepted to renounce your freedom in order to protect the weak, you should accept it for all transmissible diseases), to those who voiced concerns about the legality of this move, or would have found this reasonable one year ago but not in the current situation as restrictions are getting lifted and the current variants are less scary than the previous ones; those who pointed out that being vaccinated has little impact on transmissibility of the virus; that we are mostly a remote company and we could instead have exceptions to allow unvaccinated people (or people with a weak immune system) to remotely attend the few in-person meetings we have; that as long as there are no vaccination mandates for plane flights and other guests attending the same hotel premises where we meet, mandating employees to get vaccinated might not help a lot; and whether this is a decision that a company should make, or shouldn't it rather lobby the politics to have it mandated at state level. I think there's merit to all these arguments, but I'm personally not particularly interested in discussing any of them, since my point is another.

        Before talking about that, though, let me clearly set one thing straight: I hate lies, and Canonical's management is lying about this matter. The vaccination mandate measure is being justified on the grounds that it allows employees to travel (something that I've been able to do as unvaccinated throughout the last two years, even when restrictions were at their peak) and, most importantly, to protect our weaker colleagues. This is what I find most disgusting: using genuine feelings like love and compassion to justify repressive measures. No, dear Canonical, this has nothing to do with protecting the weak; not only because a vaccinated person can still spread the virus (and our employees know this from first-hand experience), but also because, if this was the real reason, then you'd accept people who have recently recovered from COVID-19, since immunisation after recovery is not worse than that of vaccination; but you don't, as I was explicitly told by HR that any previous infection is irrelevant. It's also significant that you didn't establish clear rules about how often one needs to get vaccinated, since all recent scientific literature on vaccine efficacy shows that this is not a minor detail. Why not just be honest with ourselves, and admit it's just for business? Being open about the fact that having a fully vaccinated workforce can grant us access to more business deals would not change a lot in the practical life of the (ex-)employees, but at least we won't feel that the company is treating us as fools while embellishing its image with fake care and compassion. Or, if there are other reasons, state them, because these ones don't stand up to logic scrutiny.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • CNX SoftwarePiTalk 4G HAT for Raspberry Pi / 4G USB dongle targets M2M and IoT applications (Crowdfunding) - CNX Software

        PiTalk is a 4G cellular connectivity solution based on Quectel EG25-G LTE Cat 4 module intended for M2M and IoT applications, and available either as a Raspberry Pi HAT or as a USB dongle. There’s also a PiTalk 2G HAT, but we’ll focus on the 4G hardware in this article.

        PiTalk supports data rates up to 150 Mbps downlink and 50 Mbps uplink, integrates GNSS support, and as its name implies you can also make and receive calls, or send/receive SMS messages for the device provide you connect a display, speaker, and microphone to the Raspberry Pi or other host device.

      • peppe8oWizFi360-EVB-Pico: Raspberry PI Pico W Alternative with MicroPython

        Setup and use a WizFi360-EVB-Pico microcontroller with MicroPython and test it with MQTT.

      • HackadayHackerboards: Making Finding The Right Single-Board Computer Easy

        The great thing about the wide availability of single-board computers (SBCs) is that it offers such a large selection of options, in terms of CPU performance, GPU features, RAM size, I/O options and much more. This is however also the largest issue, especially with the annual surge of new boards with new feature sets. Trying to make sense of all these offerings is the recently overhauled Board-DB, also known as Hackerboards.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • UndeadlyOpenIKED 7.2 released

      This release includes the following changes to the previous release: [...]

    • IDGSurviving a Mastodon stampede

      Here’s how Mastodon works. Its servers (instances) operate semi-independently of each other, and users register with servers geared toward communities that interest them. But users can follow and interact with others from across the Fediverse — users hosted on other Mastodon instances as well as other services utilising the open-source ActivityPub protocol from the Worldwide Web Consortium.

      Active users of Mastodon nearly doubled between October 27 and November 6, according to the company’s CEO Eugen Rochko, causing some growing pains. The distributed nature of Mastodon and ActivityPub have strengths in terms of keeping the service community driven both at the instance and Fediverse level, but some users are starting to notice a warts here and there that seem related to their architecture.

      Decentralisation: Robust, not necessarily efficient

    • Hazel WeaklyScaling Mastodon: The Compendium

      This is honestly a very hastily written selection of various snippets, with text extracted, and notes. No real editing thought was put into this, so I hope it’s not too confusing. This blog post will be kept up to date as I find out more information and publish my findings.

      It’s currently organized in no particular order with a bunch of micro fragment thoughts split out in a row.

    • Events

      • Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC)That's a wrap! Thanks everyone for Linux Plumbers 2022 - Linux Plumbers Conference 2022

        Thank you to everyone that attended Linux Plumbers 2022 both in person or virtually. After two years of being 100% virtual due to the pandemic, we were able to have a very successful hybrid conference, with 418 people registering in-person where 401 attended (96%), and 361 registered virtually and 320 who actually participated online (89%), not counting all those that used the free YouTube service. After two years of being 100% remote, we decided to keep this year’s in-person count lower than normal due to the unknowns caused by the pandemic. To compensate for the smaller venue, we tried something new, and created a virtual attendance as well. We took a different approach than other hybrid conferences, and treated this one as a virtual event with an in-person component, where the in room attendees were simply participants of the virtual event. This required all presentations to be uploaded to Big Blue Button, and the presenters presented through the virtual platform even though they were doing so on stage. This allowed the virtual attendees to be treated as first class citizens of the conference. Although we found this format a success, it wasn’t without technical difficulties, like problems with having no sound in the beginning of the first day, but that’s expected when attempting to do something for the first time. Overall, we found it to be a better experience and will continue to do so in future conferences.

        We had a total of 18 microconferences (where patches are already going out on the mailing lists that are results of discussions that happened there), 16 Refereed talks, 8 Kernel Summit talks, 29 Networking and BPF Summit track talks, and 9 Toolchain track talks. There were also 17 birds-of-a-feather talks, where several were added at the last minute to solve issues that have just arrived. Most of these presentations can still be seen on video.

    • Education

      • James GDecentralized Website Communication with Webmention (Talk Announcement)

        Being able to post social interactions on your own site and have them show up on another website excites me. You can retain ownership over the interactions you post and curate them in a way that you would like. For instance, I have a separate website where I publicly show my comments. There's so much I can do with this information. I could start adding tags and curate by tag. I could use some natural language processing to understand what categories of content I consume and bookmark the most.

      • Sean ConnerMinimum support for webmentions

        I just now realized I've released a version of mod_blog during the holiday season going back as far as 2016. With that in mind, and with the fact that I finally received my first webmention on my blog couple of days ago, I have just released the latest version for this Christmas season. The big change this release is that I now show webmentions per post, even though I've only so far received one.

    • Programming/Development

      • Unmitigated RiskTo err is human, to forgive is divine

        In the context of ACME today the large majority of clients have no failover or logic. This means if the enrollment fails due to connectivity issues to the specified CA, the CA has an outage, or the CA suspends operations for one reason or another the enrollment will fail.

      • RachelTwenty five thousand dollars of funny money

        I loaded it up on my dev environment and got cracking. Sure enough, something was wrong with it, and the first time through, it would blow up. It was something dumb like the code was throwing an exception but the exception handling path was making the wrong sort of log call so that would then blow up the whole request. I fixed the logging so we'd actually get to see what the exception was, and that'd give us a chance to fix any real problems. Simple enough, right? I sent the change to the last person to touch the code... who had just touched it that morning, oddly enough. They thanked me and it was applied.

        Then I tried to get my credit, and this time it blew up again, but now it logged what was wrong. I could see this on the dev environment. It was something about calling some function with the wrong number of parameters.

      • Julia EvansA couple of Rust error messages

        I’ve been doing Advent of Code in Rust for the past couple of days, because I’ve never really gotten comfortable with the language and I thought doing some Advent of Code problems might help.

        My solutions aren’t anything special, but because I’m trying to learn, I’ve been trying to take a slightly more rigorous approach than usual to compiler errors. Instead of just fixing the error and moving on, I’m trying to make sure that I actually understand what the error message means and what it’s telling me about how the language works.

      • Terence EdenA Quick Guide to Filters on Mastodon

        This can be a problem on social media. You might be following someone for their insightful takes on RuPaul's Drag Race but can't be bothered with their opinions about football. In my ideal social network that wouldn't be a problem - people would post to "Channels" which you could subscribe to. We're not there yet, so we have to do with keyword filtering.

        Here's a quick guide to setting up a filter on the Mastodon social network.

  • Leftovers

    • Telex (Hungary)Hungarian ultra runner wins women's race in Antarctica ultra marathon
    • Telex (Hungary)I'm just an average person during the week – and a dominatrix on the weekend
    • HackadayConverting A Porsche 944 To Run A MAF

      Electronic fuel injection was a big leap forward for engine control. However, early implementations often left something to be desired. This was the case for [Rob] and his Porsche 944, which had relied on an old-fashioned mechanical air flow meter (AFM). He decided to replace this with a modern mass air flow (MAF) sensor instead, and documented the process online.

    • HackadayStack Trace From The 1950s Punches Again

      This repair/tutorial video by the telephone Connections Museum of Seattle€ features an amazing piece of electro-mechanical technology from the 1950s — the€ 5XB trouble recorder. Museum volunteer Sarah the “Switch Witch” has a deep passion for old phone equipment, and gives an excellent description of the trouble recorder, the problems it solved, and how it works, and how they went about fixing it.

    • TediumCurta Calculator History: A Mechanical Calculator Survival Story

      We think of computers as being purely digital objects—computational beasts that work with abstracted collections of 1s and 0s. As complexity increased, so did the tactics to making the computing devices smaller, to the point where we can have one implanted in our brain as if that’s something we wanna do. Of course, computers are reliant on power these days, but there was a time when computers didn’t need things like batteries, because they weren’t electronic. Really, they were machines. Complicated machines, or simple ones. Hand-held, or not. But machines nonetheless. Tonight’s Tedium takes a nice long look at one specific machine—a machine that melded many of the things we now take for granted from our computers, but did all of them with tiny cranks and dials. Meet the Curta Calculator.

    • HackadayThe Amateur Rocketry Hack Chat Reaches For The Stars

      Hackaday has been around long enough to see incredible changes in what’s possible at the hobbyist level. The tools, techniques, and materials available today border on science-fiction compared to what the average individual had access to even just a decade ago. On a day to day basis, that’s manifested itself as increasingly elaborate electronic projects that in many cases bear little resemblance to the cobbled together gadgets which graced these pages in the early 2000s.

    • Counter PunchThe Case Against Jeanne Dielman
    • HackadayThe J1772 Hydra Helps You Charge Two EVs At Once

      There are plenty of electric vehicle (EV) chargers out there that are underutilized. This is particularly common where older EVs are involved, where the cars may only be able to charge at a few kW despite the charger being capable of delivering more. [Nick Sayer] regularly found 6.6 kW chargers being used by vehicles that could only draw down 3.3 kW at his work. Thus, he built the J1772 Hydra as a nifty double-adapter to charge two cars at once.

    • Science

    • Education

      • TruthOutAs a UC Academic Worker, I Need a Contract That Addresses the Cost of Living
      • Phil EatonIs it worth writing about?

        This is the easiest reason. While practice does not imply improvement, you cannot improve without practice.

        Every time you learn something is a chance to write down both what you've learned and also how you learned it.

        For professional developers this chance happens all the time. Daily, really. But most developers, even those who want to write more, let the opportunity slip.

      • JoinupMeet the SEMIC conference corner speakers and evaluators!

        This session brings lightning talks presented by 10 European junior researchers in the field of linked data & semantics to the front. The first talks deal with different aspects of linked data followed by talks about how data interoperability and AI are enablers. The session continues with three talks about the associated governance and policy issues. The intention is that these inspiring talks from the next generation will enhance the quality of the discussions on linked data and semantics and thus interoperability.

    • Hardware

      • Linux GizmosMini-PC integrates 12th Gen Alder Lake processor

        Minisforum recently launched a mini-PC powered by the 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900H processor. The NAD09 is offered as barebone or it can be configured with up to 64GB DDR4 and 2TB SSD. Additionally, the NAD9 Mini-PC includes 1x GbE LAN port, 4x displays supporting [email€ protected], 2x 2.5” SATA slots, etc.€ 

      • HackadayHanging Christmas Lights With No Ladder And No Fuss

        Getting up on a ladder to hang Christmas lights is a great way to hurt yourself if you’re not careful, and winter conditions only add to the peril. One enterprising hacker has whipped up a neat way to avoid ladders entirely, by hanging their lights while planted safely on the ground.

      • HackadayIs That A Typewriter In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Pleased To See Me?

        [Attoparsec] wondered what if you could carry a typewriter in your pocket, then€ followed through with that and built one. (Video, embedded below.) Kind of. The plan was to use an existing set of striker bars, but not wanting to destroy a perfectly good typewriter, they realised that you can easily source just the bar set on eBay.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Perhaps Bill Gates Is Not the Best Expert on Hunger in Africa

        The tire fire that Elon Musk seems to be making out of his new toy, Twitter, is leading some to call for an overdue, society-wide jettisoning of the whole "if he's a billionaire, that means he's a genius" myth.

      • ScheerpostAmerica’s ‘Zero’ Strategy

        Original to ScheerPost China’s “zero Covid” policy has€ sparked rare protests across the nation€ of nearly a billion and a half people. Which led me to think about our very own failed “zero” policy here in the United States. Zero corporate tax. To be fair, it’s not a policy per se, but is […]

      • TruthOutDrug Industry’s Chief Lobbying Group’s Revenue Surpassed $609 Million in 2021
      • Common DreamsMillions of Americans Lack Adequate Health Coverage, But the Pentagon Has a New Nuclear Bomber to Flaunt

        Peace and economic justice advocates responded to the imminent unveiling Friday of the United States Air Force's new $750 million-per-plane nuclear bomber by reiterating accusations of misplaced priorities in a nation where tens of millions of people live in poverty and lack adequate healthcare coverage.

        Military-industrial complex giant Northrop Grumman is set to introduce its B-21 Raider on Friday. The B-21, whose development was 30 years in the making and whose total project cost is expected to exceed $200 billion, is tapped to replace the aging B-2 Spirit.

    • Proprietary

      • Chris HannahApple Wants Yet Another 30%

        I guess it's a rule now. So you could argue that Coinbase just have to get on with it. But this all does seem like yet another greedy move from Apple.

      • Taiwan NewsPalo Alto Networks president discusses cybersecurity, future risks for businesses at Taiwan Cyberweek 2023

        As more businesses began to rely on online networks to remain productive and profitable over the past two years, the amount of data and data usage has skyrocketed. Along with the ever-increasing connectivity and data creation, the potential risks of cyberattacks have also increased.

      • India TimesLastPass claims no data was compromised despite cybersecurity attack

        Was the security breach of LastPass limited? In its official statement, the company said that the breach was limited to the development environment and couldn't reach the customers' data and encrypted passwords. The company didn't specify what information was accessed as the investigation is currently ongoing. It further stated that the production environment lies in a different physical environment than the development environment.

    • Security

      • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

        • Ariadne ConillBuilding fair webs of trust by leveraging the OCAP model | Ariadne's Space

          Since the beginning of the Internet, determining the trustworthiness of participants and published information has been a significant point of contention. Many systems have been proposed to solve these underlying concerns, usually pertaining to specific niches and communities, but these pre-existing solutions are nebulous at best. How can we build infrastructure for truly democratic Webs of Trust?

        • University of TorontoLinux Certificate Authority root stores have a too simple view of 'trust'

          Let's start with the background. Pretty much every Linux system (really, every Unix system) has a 'system CA root store', by which we mean 'the list of all CA root certificates that are trusted by default by most TLS-using software'. For various sensible reasons, many Linux distributions reuse Mozilla's CA root store for their system root store, possibly with some tweaks.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • EFFIndia Requires Internet Services to Collect and Store Vast Amount of Customer Data, Building a Path to Mass Surveillance

          Directions 20(3)/2022 - CERT-In came into effect on June 28th, sixty days after being published without stakeholder consultation. Astonishingly, India’s Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the government wasn’t required to get public input because the directions have “no effect on citizens.” The Directionsn itself states that they€  were needed to help India defend against cybersecurity attacks, protect the security of the state and public order, and prevent offenses involving computers. Chandrasekhar said the agency consulted with entities “who run the relevant infrastructure,” without naming them.

          Cybersecurity law and policy directly impact human rights, particularly the right to privacy, freedom of expression, and association. Across the world, national cybersecurity policies have emerged to protect the internet, critical infrastructure, and other technologies against malicious actors. However, overly broad and poorly defined proposals open the door to unintended consequences, leading to human rights abuses, and harming innovation. The Directions enable surveillance and jeopardize the right to privacy in India, raising alarms among human rights and digital rights defenders. A global NGO coalition has called upon CERT-in to withdraw the Directions and initiate a sustained multi-stakeholder consultation with human rights and security experts to strengthen cybersecurity while ensuring robust human rights protections.€ 

        • TechdirtReport: ID.me Lied About Pretty Much Everything While Providing Identification Services To The Government

          ID.me made its disastrous news cycle debut as COVID-19 continued to wreak havoc worldwide. With ID verification and other government services mostly still being handled remotely, multiple governments continued to wrestle with these unprecedented logistical problems.

        • TechdirtSouth Dakota Bans Government Employees From Using TikTok. The Countless Other Apps And Services That Hoover Up And Sell Sensitive Data Are Fine, Though

          South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem put on a bit of a performance this week by announcing that the state would be banning government employees from installing TikTok on their phones. The effort, according to the Governor, is supposed to counter the national security risk of TikTok sharing consumer data with the Chinese government:

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

      • Salon10,000 freed mink roaming the Ohio countryside now pose a threat to ecology and public health

        Living in confinement also means domesticated mink are riddled with disease, a problem that does not exist for their wild counterparts. In the words of Hannah Connor, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, "these naturally solitary animals are often maintained in extreme confinement and unhygienic cages, circumstances that facilitate the spread of disease among the animals and, as we saw with COVID-19, can facilitate the spread of disease back and forth between the confined mink and humans." This has long been a cause of concern from a public health standpoint, and quite obviously "if released into the wild, diseased farmed mink can pose a threat to public health and native wildlife."

      • Common DreamsClimate Activists Tell Macron to Stop Using Trade Rules to Thwart Clean Energy

        Environmental campaigners implored French President Emmanuel Macron to stop inhibiting sorely needed climate action by weaponizing global trade rules during a Thursday night protest outside the White House, where U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Macron for the first state visit of his tenure.

        "We simply do not have time for governments to continue using outdated trade agreements to attack and undermine climate action."

      • Common DreamsOpinion | What We're Demanding at the Upcoming Biodiversity Summit

        We are at a crucial turning point for the future of life on Earth. For decades, deforestation, overfishing, corporate agri-business mega-farming, and extraction of natural resources have contributed to the disappearance of species at an alarming rate that is unprecedented in human history. Between climate change and ecosystem loss, one million species are now threatened by extinction.

      • DeSmogPuerto Rican Cities Sue Fossil Fuel Companies in Major Class-Action, Climate Fraud Case

        Nearly 25 years ago, oil major Shell predicted in an internal 1998 report that a class-action lawsuit would be brought against fossil fuel companies following “a series of violent storms.” That prediction is finally coming true: A group of Puerto Rican communities, which were ravaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, are suing Shell and other fossil fuel producers in a first-of-its-kind, class action climate liability lawsuit.€ € 

        The groundbreaking case — filed November 22 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico — is the first climate-related class action lawsuit in the United States filed against the fossil fuel industry to target the industry with federal charges of racketeering. It alleges that the fossil fuel defendants engaged in a coordinated, multi-front effort to promote climate denial and defraud consumers by concealing the climate consequences of fossil fuel products in order to inflate profits.€ € 

      • Common DreamsFonda's Fire Drill Fridays Returns to DC Streets Over Manchin Dirty Deal

        Fire Drill Fridays—the climate action protest launched three years ago by actor and activist Jane Fonda—returned Friday morning to Washington, D.C., where participants rallied and marched against U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin's "dirty deal" while demanding President Joe Biden declare a climate emergency.

        "What we do or fail to do in the next eight to 10 years to cut our fossil fuel emissions in half will determine how much of a livable future we will have."

      • ScheerpostWho Will Pay for an Overheating Earth

        Stan and Priti Gulati Cox explain that the countries of the Global South can’t afford to pay for what’s happening to them.

      • The NationPolluter’s Carbon Tax Credit
      • Energy

        • The NationThe Many Confessions of Sam Bankman-Fried

          “Commingling” is too euphemistic. Even though Alameda and FTX were nominally classed as separate entities, both controlled by SBF, they both drew from the same enormous pot of money for banking purposes. FTX customers often wired money to an Alameda bank account at Silvergate, a crypto industry-focused bank. This was a major oversight that SBF has yet to explain away, but it was consistent with FTX’s flagrant lack of financial controls or proper accounting.

        • India Times[Cryptocurrency] meltdown a boon for bankruptcy lawyers

          Turmoil in the cryptocurrency industry has rattled major exchanges and sent the value of digital assets tumbling, but at least one group stands to gain: bankruptcy lawyers.

          High-profile bankruptcies involving [cryptocurrency] exchange FTX, hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and crypto lenders BlockFi, Celsius Network and Voyager Digital Ltd are generating new opportunities - and big fees - for law firms that counsel troubled companies.

          Large law firms can rake in more than $100 million in legal fees during a long-running bankruptcy, experts said.

        • RTLGovernment to help fund EV charging points in homes and apartment blocks

          In broadening the financial aid in this way, the government hopes to expand the circle of beneficiaries. In November last year, the government introduced financial incentives for companies who install charging points on their premises.

      • Wildlife/Nature

      • Overpopulation

        • ABCIncreased drought forces California to deliver less water to cities

          California's ongoing drought and a poor forecast is forcing the state's water management agency to cut back on its fresh water supply to nearly 27 million residents.

          The state's Department of Water Resources announced Thursday an initial allocation of 5% of requested supplies for 2023 for 29 local water agencies across California.

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • TechdirtGoogle Strikes $9.4 Million Settlement With FTC For Paying DJs And Influencers To Praise Phones They Never Touched

        The FTC and four state attorneys general this week struck a $9.4 million settlement with Google over allegations that Google covertly paid celebrities money to promote a phone none of them had ever used.

      • TechdirtMultiple Former Twitter Employees Note That Musk’s New Favorite Tool, Polls, Are Easily Gamed By Bots

        Rolling Stone has a fun article quoting multiple former Twitter employees highlighting that polls are the least secure tool on the platform, and are regularly open to manipulation by bots:

      • Matt RickardApple's Enemies

        No single company seems to be able to take on Apple — it’s just too big. But as Apple competes in more areas and creates more enemies, will it ever stretch itself too thin? Can a conglomerate of large tech companies overtake Apple (or convince the government to distribute its power)?

      • The HillDHS cyber board to examine [cracking] extortion group Lapsus$ [iophk: Windows TCO]

        The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Friday that its Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) will begin conducting a review of recent [breaches] associated with Lapsus$, a global extortion [cracking] group that has been tied to numerous data breaches targeting major tech firms.

        DHS said the cyber criminal group has reportedly used various techniques to circumvent a range of security controls and has successfully infiltrated several companies across multiple industries.

      • India TimesMeta removed 32 million pieces of bad content on Facebook, Instagram in India in October

        Meta reportedly purged millions of content from its social media services Facebook and Instagram in India in October. According to a report by IANS, the social media giant has removed over 29.2 million pieces of bad content across 13 policies for Facebook and over 2.7 million pieces of such content across 12 policies for Instagram. These numbers were reported by the company in its monthly compliance report which is mandatory under the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

        According to the new IT Rules 2021, major digital and social media platforms with more than 5 million user base need to publish monthly compliance reports. Meta also claims to count the number of content pieces (including posts, photos, videos and comments) the company has taken action on for going against its standards. However, taking action doesn’t always mean removing a piece of content from Facebook or Instagram. At times, Meta covers photos or videos with a warning for content that some audiences may find disturbing.

      • Computer WorldAmazon layoffs now expected to mount to 20,000, including top managers

        Company managers over the last few days, however, have been told that they should try to identify work performance problems among employees, as part of an effort to lay off about 20,000 people, according to sources. Twenty thousand employees are the equivalent of about 6% of corporate staff, and about 1.3% of Amazon's total 1.5 million-strong workforce including global distribution center and hourly workers.

      • Daniel PipesWhen Arab Politicians' Shouts and Whispers Contradict Rely on Public Statements, Not Seductive Murmurings

        These examples concerning Iraq highlight a feature of Arab public life: politicians roar emotional messages in speeches to their masses and sotto voce speak in tactful off-the-record remarks to Western interlocutors.

        That raises two questions: Should an outsider heed the shouts or the whispers? Which is the better guide to policy? (This differs from asking about true personal beliefs because how a politician acts matters more than how he thinks deep down.) A historical review finds the answer to be quite easy – and perhaps surprising.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Democrats Failed to Understand the Fundamentals of Collective Bargaining for Railway Workers

        The Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats purport to be pro-union, but in their desperation to prevent a rail strike they fail to understand something fundamental about collective bargaining: Sometimes workers have to inconvenience the public in order to achieve their legitimate goals.

      • The NationOn the Wrong Track: Why Biden Abandoned Rail Workers

        When President Joe Biden helped to engineer a tentative agreement to avert a threatened railroad workers’ strike earlier this fall, a narrative of benevolent patrician governance locked immediately into gear. Knowing that a massive work stoppage would upend an already beleaguered supply chain, Biden acted swiftly to resolve the wage-and-hours issues that separated rail owners and the four major rail workers’ unions. And amid much pundit-brokered anxiety over runaway inflation in the run-up to the 2022 midterms—a trend that would surely be accelerated by a rail strike—the prospective deal also earned praise for its political savvy.

      • Common DreamsRight-Wing Extremist Boebert to Guide Policy on House GOP Leadership Team

        Despite winning reelection by just 550 votes in a race that's now undergoing a recount, Rep. Lauren Boebert this week won a vote of confidence from her fellow Republican members of the U.S. House as she was elected to join the party's policy committee.

        The office of Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Thursday announced Boebert's unexpectedly close race with her Democratic challenger, Adam Frisch, would go to a recount under state law.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Gen Z Voters Are a Force for Progressive Politics. Can Politicians Keep Up?

        The midterm elections took some time to sort out. But one thing was made clear quickly: Gen Z voters are a force to be reckoned with—for both parties. That's a lesson elected officials need to start taking now—from this year's lame duck session to next year's divided government.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Hakeem Jeffries' Foreign Policy Worldview Is Far From Progressive

        On Wednesday, House Democrats unanimously elected Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to serve as their party’s new leader following Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) recent decision to step down from her leadership role.

      • ScheerpostEvangelical Lobbying Threatens Supreme Court’s Independence

        Recent exposés have uncovered an emerging pattern of improper lobbying of right-wing Supreme Court justices by wealthy evangelicals. They reveal serious threats to the independence of the judiciary. But equally alarming is that the Supreme Court is unconstrained by a code of judicial ethics.€  From 1995 to 2018, the right-wing […]

      • Common DreamsFetterman Taps Person Who Literally Wrote the Book on Killing Senate Filibuster as Chief of Staff

        U.S. Senator-elect John Fetterman on Friday announced two key staff hires for his office on Friday, including tapping the author of a book calling for the abolishment of the arcane Senate filibuster to be his next chief of staff.

        The Pennsylvania Democrat said in a statement that he has hired Adam Jentleson to oversee his D.C. office as chief of staff and that longtime party operative and labor organizer Joseph Pierce will be his state director.

      • ScheerpostIsrael Set to Deport Palestinian-French Human Rights Defender Salah Hammouri

        Having spent nearly a decade in occupation prisons, Hammouri was most recently placed under administrative detention in March. In 2020, Israel revoked his residency status, an often-used tool of ethnic cleansing deployed against Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

      • ScheerpostNATO Narratives and Corporate Media Are Leading to ‘Doorstep of Doom’

        As we slide closer to what was once considered the ultimate insanity—nuclear Armageddon—corporate media seem to be egging on reckless leaders.

      • ScheerpostPutting ‘Profits Over People’, Senate Rejects Paid Sick Leave for Rail Workers

        "Senate Republicans and Joe Manchin have yet AGAIN failed working Americans by voting down seven days of paid sick leave for rail workers," lamented Rep. Jamaal Bowman.

      • FAIRNelson Lichtenstein on UC Strike, Marjorie Cohn on Evangelicals’ Supreme Court Lobbying
      • TruthOutStruggles with eviction can translate into disenfranchisement at the ballot box.
      • TruthOutAppeals Court Strikes Down Trump Mar-a-Lago Special Master
      • TruthOutGOP-Run Account Deletes Tweet Praising Ye After His Latest Antisemitic Diatribe
      • TruthOutFL GOP Plans to Alter State Law to Help DeSantis, Should He Run for President
      • The DissenterUnauthorized Disclosure: Biden And Democrats Block Rail Workers Strike, 'Rape Club' Prison Scandal, SF Arms Robots
      • Common DreamsWith GOP House Control Looming, Pascrell Calls for Swift Release of Trump Tax Records

        It took U.S. House lawmakers more than three-and-a-half years to get their hands on former President Donald Trump's federal tax returns, but with Republicans assuming control of the chamber next month, Democrats are quickly running out of time to examine and publish the highly sought-after records.

        "There is no one in this country... that is above the law."

      • Common Dreams'Zero Tolerance for Corruption': Grijalva, Porter Demand Answers on Alleged Trump Pardon Bribery Scheme

        U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva and committee member Rep. Katie Porter are investigating an alleged bribery scheme in which they believe a real estate developer donated to a super PAC aligned in support of former President Donald Trump in exchange for pardons for two other men.

        "The parallels between the Vigneto case and the Hammonds' pardons raise significant concerns about another potential case of bribery under the Trump administration."

      • Telex (Hungary)Orbán: Begrudgingly and unwillingly, but Hungary admits Ukraine needs to be supported
      • The NationKanye West, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and the Mainstreaming of Nazism

        Appearing on Alex Jones’s Infowars show on Thursday, the musician Kanye West, who now goes by the name Ye, did something remarkable: He made Alex Jones seem comparatively reasonable. Jones, you will recall, is the unhinged conspiracy theorist infamous for insisting that the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax fabricated with actors. Jones has also frequently indulged in anti-Semitism, and even on the interview with West agreed that there is a “Jewish mafia,” after West at length accused Jews of being pedophiles. But elsewhere in the interview West, by repeatedly praising Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, went too far even for the vile, shamelessly mendacious Jones.

      • The NationSalvador Allende Still Speaks to Us Today

        Fifty years ago, in late 1972, I was one of a multitude of Chileans who lined the streets of Santiago to support President Salvador Allende as he embarked on a trip abroad to tell the world about how his homeland was advancing toward socialism using democratic means—an unprecedented revolutionary process that was under siege from forces both inside and outside the country. Arrayed against the left-wing government were powerful adversaries: the CIA, Nixon and his éminence noir Henry Kissinger, multinational corporations, international financial institutions, allied with a rabid conservative opposition within Chile itself that was increasingly armed and violent.

      • The NationWill LA’s New Mayor Karen Bass Reset the City’s Labor and Housing Markets?

        Incoming Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has racked up a formidable progressive voting record in Congress over the past decade. Having withstood a $100 million spending barrage from her opponent, Rick Caruso, in the mayor’s race, she will have an opportunity as head of the country’s second-largest city to realize her political vision on the ground in Southern California.

      • The NationWhy Do So Many International Students Leave the US?

        Eve Alas Moran, a recent Hofstra University graduate, came to the United States to pursue her dream of becoming a professional dancer—a career, she says, that does not exist in her home country of El Salvador. “I made one of the hardest choices,” said Moran. Now, however, she worries that she may be forced to leave the US, giving up everything she has worked for over the past few years.

      • Common DreamsHouse Committee to Investigate Alito Leak, Right-Wing Lobbying at Supreme Court

        U.S. Supreme Court watchdogs on Thursday applauded the House Judiciary Committee for announcing it will hold a hearing next week regarding allegations that Justice Samuel Alito leaked at least one of the court's rulings to right-wing activists—and called on the Senate to follow suit in the next Congress.

        "The people of the country deserve real answers from justices we trust to wield the power of the highest court in the country."

    • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • TruthOutNew Film Exposes Israel’s Cover-Up, US Response to Shireen Abu Akleh’s Murder
      • Democracy NowInside Israel’s Cover-up & U.S. Response to Murder of Palestinian American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

        More than six months since the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed while reporting in the occupied West Bank, “there is still no accountability in what happened,” says journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous. He is the correspondent on a new Al Jazeera documentary for the program “Fault Lines” that investigates Abu Akleh’s May killing. It draws on videos and eyewitness accounts of Abu Akleh’s killing to establish that Abu Akleh was fatally shot in the head by Israeli forces, a finding supported by numerous other press investigations. The Biden administration also recently opened an FBI probe into her killing, but Israel is refusing to cooperate and has continued to deny responsibility. Abu Akleh, who was one of the most recognizable faces in the Arab world, had worked for Al Jazeera for 25 years and held U.S. citizenship. We play excerpts from the Al Jazeera documentary, “The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh,” and hear from Shireen’s niece Lina Abu Akleh. “We want there to be accountability. We want there to be justice,” she says.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • ABCRail unions slam Senate's 'anti-American' rejection of sick days

        The bill, which gives rail workers seven paid sick days, passed the House but was defeated by a vote of 52-43 in the Senate, as Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., joined Republican members in rejecting the measure. A handful of Republican members, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla, voted in favor of the bill.

        "It is extremely disappointing that 43 Senators voted to prioritize the corporate greed of rail carriers and CEOs over the needs and quality-of-life improvements that our members so desperately deserve," said the SMART Transportation Division, or SMART-TD, which represents about 28,000 conductors, making it the nation's largest rail union.

      • BBCIndonesia set to punish sex before marriage with jail time

        The law, if passed, would apply to Indonesian citizens and foreigners alike.

      • BBC'I'm living in fear for my life in Afghanistan'

        It is nearly 11 months since the UK launched its scheme to help vulnerable Afghans come to the UK. But MPs and charities say the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) has been too slow to get up and running and is leaving those who are in most danger stuck in Afghanistan.

      • BBCPolice arrest elderly Alabama woman over unpaid $77 trash bill

        In a statement on Facebook, City of Valley police said they treated Ms Menefield respectfully and that they had notified her several times that she had not paid the bill for three months.

      • NBCSan Francisco vote to allow police use of deadly robots spurs concern and outrage

        Matthew Guariglia, a policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for civil liberties in the digital realm, criticized the measure for using what he said is vague language that makes it “not at all unreasonable for us to assume that in standoffs with people in the midst of a mental health crisis or something police will now feel empowered to send out robots that are equipped with explosive charges.”

        Paul Scharre, the vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank focused on national security issues, said the San Francisco proposal was “the exact opposite of what we should be using robots for in a policing context.”

      • MeduzaFire reported in Moscow’s Mikoyanovsky meat-packing plant — Meduza

        A fire started in a building at the Mikoyanovsky meat-packing plant on Moscow’s Volgogradsky Prospekt.

      • Counter PunchLip Service in Qatar

        As the camera moved down the line of players, most of their faces registered only a pained and reluctant mumble. The possible exception was the first to be seen in close-up—Mehdi Taremi, the talented striker who plays in Portugal’s premier league when he is not sporting the uniform of his native country. A cynic might say he has the most to lose, given his value on the international football/soccer market. But even he looked robotic during the anthem, and his stand against the opening anthem was heroic.

      • Common DreamsEPA Urged to 'Finish the Job' After Latest Move to Protect Bristol Bay From Pebble Mine

        Campaigners across the United States celebrated the Biden administration's step this week to safeguard Alaska's Bristol Bay from the proposed Pebble Mine long opposed by conservationists, local fishery advocates, and tribal leaders.

        "We can't afford to lose any more time to the uncertainty that has hung over Bristol Bay communities for years."

      • TechdirtDes Moines Residents Will Shell Out $125,000 To Man Whose Phone Was Illegally Seized By Cops He Was Recording

        Denying qualified immunity to law enforcement officers who violate rights is a rarity. It doesn’t mean the sued cops lose. It just means they can’t dismiss the lawsuit. In theory, that means officers alleged to have violated rights will now make their case in front of a jury.

      • Common DreamsBetrayal of Railway Workers Ignites Working-Class Fury Toward Biden and Democrats

        U.S. rail workers and working-class allies are angry at President Joe Biden—the self-proclaimed "most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history"—and Democratic congressional leaders for betraying them this week.

        "You can't be 'pro-labor' if you don't stand in solidarity with workers when they decide to strike. Period."

      • Pro PublicaDOJ Tried to Hide Report Warning That Private Border Wall in Texas Could Collapse

        A private border wall built along the Rio Grande in South Texas could collapse during extreme flooding, according to a federally commissioned inspection report that the government sought to keep secret for more than a year.

        The 404-page report, produced by the global engineering firm Arcadis, confirms previous reporting from ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. It also shows for the first time that the federal government independently found structural problems with the border fencing before reaching a settlement agreement with the builder, Fisher Industries, in May.

      • Democracy NowThe New McCarthyism: Angela Davis Speaks in New York After Critics Shut Down Two Events

        When high school students in Rockland County, New York, invited renowned activist and professor Angela Davis to speak, the event got shut down in two different venues over protests that she was “too radical.” But the students persevered, and Angela Davis addressed a packed church Thursday night. “I talked about the importance of recognizing that through struggle, through organized struggle, through the efforts of people who come together and join hands and join their voices together, we’ve made changes in this country,” says Davis. We also speak with community activist Nikki Hines, who supported students at Rockland County High School when they invited Davis to speak and who says “misinformation” drove the protests.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Michael GeistMoney for Nothing: Government Quietly Expands Bill C-18 Eligibility to Broadcasters That May Not Even Produce News Content

        Later today, the Canadian Heritage committee will continue its clause-by-clause review of Bill C-18, the Online News Act. The committee is virtually certain to expand the eligibility of news outlets, responding to concerns that the current criteria may exclude smaller, independent outlets from benefiting from the bill’s mandatory payment/arbitration system. However, earlier this week, just as the committee was hearing that the bill covers users Facebook posts with quotes and links to news content, it quietly expanded the scope of the definition of “eligible news business” in a manner that opened the eligibility door to some organizations that may not even produce news content. As a result, the bill faces another potential trade challenge as it evolves into a straight subsidy model in which the bulk of the payments go from Internet companies to Canadian broadcasters with little regard for value or any notion of actually use of news content.

        The gradual expansion of eligibility for news outlets is an interesting one. When the government first created new tax supports for Canadian journalism, it created the concept of the Qualifying Canadian Journalism Organization (QCJO). I’ve written about QCJO status in the past, which requires that organizations be Canadian, produce general interest news, and meet certain journalism standards. There are some criticisms of the system (including the lack of transparency), but it has clear standards and a review process to ensure eligible entities meet the criteria. Given its limited scope – broadcasters are not included nor are foreign entities with Canadian operations – the government expanded the scope of eligibility in Bill C-18 by adding a second avenue.

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • EFFThis Judge’s Investigation Of Patent Trolls Must Be Allowed to Move Forward

          This shouldn’t be the case. Earlier this week, EFF filed a brief seeking to protect an ongoing investigation of one of the nation’s largest patent-trolling companies, IP Edge.€ 

          In recent weeks, Delaware-based U.S. District Court Judge Colm Connolly asked that owners of several patent-holding LLCs, which have filed 69 lawsuits in his court so far, testify about their histories and financing. The hearings conducted in Judge Connolly’s courtroom have provided a striking window into patent assertion activity by entities that appear to be related to IP Edge.€ 

          Judge Connolly has also filed his own 78-page opinion explaining the nature and reasoning of his inquiries. As he summarizes (page 75), he seeks to determine if there are “real parties in interest” other than the shell LLCs, such as IP Edge and a related “consulting” company called Mavexar. He also asks if “those real parties in interest perpetrated a fraud on the court” by fraudulently conveying patents and filing fictitious patent assignment documents with the U.S. Patent Office. Judge Connolly also wants to know if lawyers in his court have complied with his orders and the Rules of Professional Conduct that govern attorney behavior in court.€ He has raised questions about whether a lawyer who files and settles cases without discussing the matter with their supposed client is committing a breach of ethics.

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent FreakCourt: Discord Must Expose Genshin Impact Leaker 'Ubatcha'

          Action role-playing game Genshin Impact is reported to have generated a record-setting $3.7 billion in sales in its first year alone. The game has a massive fanbase but, when fans can't wait for the next piece of hot news, they turn to Ubatcha, one of Genshin Impact's most prolific and popular leakers. Information obtained by TorrentFreak reveals that Ubatcha is now facing legal action after a court ordered Discord to hand over their personal details.

        • Torrent FreakTelegram Copyright Takedowns Breed a Hydra of Z-Library Bots

          The U.S. Government's crackdown against Z-Library continues to make waves online. After the main domain names were seized, many book pirates switched to using alternatives such as Telegram bots. Several of these have since been removed by rightsholders. In response, a new bot was created with the power to unleash an ebook piracy hydra, for as long as it lasts.

        • MeduzaArt thieves remove Banksy mural from Hostomel building — Meduza

          One of the murals created by the British street artist Banksy in the Kyiv region was cut away from the facade it decorated.

        • Creative CommonsReimagine Open Culture with the Newly Relaunched Curationist.org

          The webinar will celebrate open access arts and culture as a vital digital tool for reimagining cultural narratives, challenging historical inequalities, and creating vibrant ecosystems of shared knowledge. As well as providing an opportunity to explore potential ways to bring open source metadata directly to the communities who created and care for their art and artifacts, this also allows for a more efficient and effective way to manage and catalog these items.€ € 

        • Creative CommonsExperts Weigh In: AI Inputs, AI Outputs and the Public Commons

          In both webinars, we were looking to explore how the proliferation of AI connects to€ better sharing: sharing that is inclusive, just and equitable — where everyone has wide opportunity to access content, to contribute their own creativity, and to receive recognition and rewards for their contributions? And how the proliferation of AI connects to€ a better internet: a public interest vision for an internet that benefits us all?

        • TechdirtYes, Digital Books Do Wear Out; Stop Accepting Publishers Claims That They Don’t

          There’s a great post by Brewster Kahle on the Internet Archive blog with the title “Digital Books wear out faster than Physical Books“. He makes an important point about the work involved in providing and preserving digital books:

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • You too, can make objectively the world's best pizza at home

        I have a thing [1] for [2] Detroit [3] style [4] pizza [5] from [6] Buddy's [7]. If it wasn't so expensive to ship from Detroit, I would definitely have it more often. So it was with great joy that a few weeks ago Adam Ragusea [8] release a video about Detroit style pizza [9]. I had even more joy when I saw him make it from scratch [10]. It's simple, it's just dough (which you have to make because it's not your standard pizza dough), pepperoni, Wisconsin brick cheese [11] (which looks like it's only available via the Intarwebs if you aren't in Wisconsin) tomato sauce, and several hours (to let the dough proof, and to heat the oven to its highest setting, which technically isn't hot enough, but it will do).

      • Cider making

        This is a record of the cider we made in 2022.

        We picked and pressed the apples on the 1st October. We collected 3 wheelbarrows full of apples. 1 Lady Sudeley[1] from the West Farm Orchard. 1 green eating apple and 1 green cooking apple from a neighbour's garden.

      • being blunt

        Last time it was about people affecting me, this time it's about me affecting people. There are moments where I would be socially inadequate and say the wrong things that make some people mad, there are also times where I am aware that what I'm saying might causes interpersonal issues, and decided to say it out loud anyways.

    • Politics

      • The vultures that are private equity firms

        Adam Conover's video on private equity firms [1] was interesting, but I would have liked a better explanation of how they make money from bankrupting the firms they buy (aside from the fees they apparently charge for their “services”). I would think that would be rather counter-productive over the longer term.

        And yes, I have some experience with private equity firms. When I worked at The Corporation, we were initially bought out by a larger company (but were left along for years for … um … reasons), then that company was bought out by a private equity firm. It was then when we sold off access to some critical databases we used to a competitor and leased the data back from them, which I'm sure this bought in a ton of money for the private equity firm itself directly. Indirectly, it most likely shifted expenses around for tax advantages for the next few years (like shifting capital expenses to operating expenses or something like that—I'm not an accountant though) until our contract with our competitor expired in a few years and it would become Somebody Else's Problem to deal with (I think the hope of the private equity firm was that they would no longer own us by then). We also suffered hiring freezes because we “never had enough money to hire anyone” (odd, that, because we made millions per month from our customer, the Oligarchic Cell Phone Company).


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

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