01.07.23

Gemini Net Gain in 2022 Compared to 2021

Posted in Protocol at 10:13 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Capsules by year

Summary: Now that the year is over we can compare, based on Lupa at least, the gains in active capsules (2021 showed slightly stronger gains than last year)

Capsules in Lupa, 2023

When the Employer Starts Acting Like an Obsessive and Jealous Ex-Boyfriend

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software at 9:40 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

School days/Sirius: Tech staff hit by boss

Summary: The ‘UK’ manager at Sirius ‘Open Source’ decided to start stalking an innocent worker, trying really hard to somehow associate her with things she wasn’t involved in (probably to avoid paying compensation as the company was rapidly collapsing)

THE past two parts explained how the company communicated with myself and with my wife, basically taking extreme action before even bothering to contact us.

Then, the company was writing the same letters to both of us (both to Roy and to Rianne, albeit separately) like it’s the same person, sometimes forgetting to even change the names in the letters, which contained totally irrelevant paragraphs. Lazy management. Lousy skills. They didn’t even bother distinguishing! We’re not talking about legally-valid letters here; those weren’t based on law but a bunch of gobbledegook with endless reuse or copy-paste of stuff, not even offering much original content and just following mindless and legally-inapplicable portions. We’ve already shown some parts while hiding more personal parts. The company did not bother truly customising the letters and, as noted here before, forgot to change the names sometimes! How awful! No wonder the company keeps losing clients!! Quality has fallen sharply.

“Quality has fallen sharply.”What we’re dealing with here is a very cheaply-made and very poorly-executed hatchet job.

There was no need to produce any letters. On the surface one can see they just want to extrajudicially attack staff. No need to print any letters either as that would waste paper. Not good for the environment… the company likes to pretend to be green by not printing things… while the CEO drives around in a car that’s like 4 times bigger than what’s needed. In more recent years one got the impression he can no longer afford even a shirt!

In an upcoming video we plan to show Rianne’s letter. We’ll show it’s folded (because the CEO does not have a suitable envelope or cannot afford one). Maybe he chose to fold everything to save envelope money (stamps) given that Roy’s letters weren’t folded.

The weirdest thing is, the CEO was becoming rather creepy and spooky, spying on us and especially on Rianne, taking screenshots of her photographs like a scene from Jeepers Creepers. No return address on the envelopes; maybe he lives in some lair/cave somewhere.

“On the surface one can see they just want to extrajudicially attack staff.”The writing style is also quite primitive. He used proprietary software (Google) and pasted (pushed through) screenshots of text into that. Any moron knows that the way to process a PDF is, copy text, don’t make screenshots of text! It’s like a newbie authored the letter/s, so in the evidence (so-called ‘evidence’) is a bunch of screenshots with remarks that mostly take out of context what’s in the screenshots. Those screenshots show stuff like an informal chat about us depositing coins (change) in the bank. How on Earth is that even of relevance? Is he trying to mock people who use physical currency instead of Apple stuff?

Speaking of Apple stuff, we don’t suppose he wants the Cisco IP phone (they recently decided to replace all of them with proprietary spyware anyway), so we don’t know whether to toss it in the bin or find a way to recycle it. It’s too large for any envelope currently in our home and we don’t know where to send it. Mr. Big Shot Boss, send us a clue. Is it too “old” and “hobbyist” for you to accept? It’s not Apple and it’s not “clown computing”, so we’re left to assume it’s “obsolete”. That’s the way you think anyway. Never mind if this phone was always far more reliable than the “clown computing” garbage you brought to the company and insisted on even after it had failed all the workers; again and again and again…

The letters contain totally irrelevant text and some facts you don’t like to hear about the company you claim to lead. You’ve mostly oppressed this past year. That’s no true leadership.

So what to do with those letters you mailed us? Should they be treated like pathetic love letters from a long-lost boyfriend, who maintains an unhealthy obsession? Should we tear it all and throw it in the trash can? It’s small enough to fit in the bin, but maybe it’s better to keep that as a souvenir. You have been wasting paper, time, and toner, reinforcing the idea or the perception you don’t know how to run a company. You were introduced to us as a person who had created a successful company, but public records show just a one-man company or a defunct two-person company (dissolved a decade ago). So either we’re blind to some very big company that doesn’t bother mentioning you or we’re dealing with a pathological liar who relishes in high self-esteem.

“He used proprietary software (Google) and pasted (pushed through) screenshots of text into that. Any moron knows that the way to process a PDF is, copy text, don’t make screenshots of text!”We can’t help wondering why the CEO felt a need to send a physical copy of his letters. Maybe because that’s a culmination of several weeks of him stalking people. Those letters are like ‘trophies’ to him, even if about 90% of them are mindless screenshots of his proprietary Web browser (he’s like some very dumb uncle who includes the whole browser in the screenshot instead of just framing the contents of the page). Well, perhaps we should be thankful for these physical (hard) copies because a) we don’t need to print it ourselves; we can bring it to lawyers easily. b) I have something for my recording (to show in the upcoming video). Cheers!

Anyway, there was no need to send it, I have all the logs and can access things with full context, unlike some lousy screenshots that lack a corresponding URL. Did you ever think any labour tribunal would deem a two-person chat (or screenshot thereof) admissible? Maybe that’s rather revealing; the company is now run by rookies. █

Links 07/01/2023: GNUnet 0.19.2 and Nobara Project 37

Posted in News Roundup at 9:14 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  • GNU/Linux

    • PC Linux ☛ Short Topix: “Pay Phones” Are Making A Comeback In Philadelphia, Thanks To Linux

      Thanks to an amateur phone collective in Philadelphia, pay phones are mounting a comeback there. Behind it all is Linux, according to an article on Make Use Of.

      Despite the proliferation of cell phones — and particularly smartphones — there are plenty of people who don’t have them, either because they can’t afford them, or because they value their privacy.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • LWN ☛ Linux 6.1.4

        I’m announcing the release of the 6.1.4 kernel.

        All users of the 6.1 kernel series must upgrade.

        The updated 6.1.y git tree can be found at:
        git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-6.1.y
        and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser:

        https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-s…

        thanks,

        greg k-h

      • LWN ☛ Linux 6.0.18
      • LWN ☛ Linux 4.9.337
      • PCLOS Official ☛ Kernel 6.1.4 and 6.0.18 Available – PCLinuxOS

        Kernels 6.1.4 and 6.0.18 are now available in the PCLinuxOS Software Repository.

    • Graphics Stack

      • Vulkan video shenanigans – FFmpeg + RADV integration experiments – Maister’s Graphics Adventures

        Vulkan video is finally here and it’s a fierce battle to get things working fully. The leaders of the pack right now with the full release is RADV (Dave Airlie) and FFmpeg (Lynne).

        In Granite, I’ve been wanting a solid GPU video decoding solution and I figured I’d work on a Vulkan video implementation over the holidays to try helping iron out any kinks with real-world application integration. The goal was achieving everything a 3D engine could potentially want out of video decode.

    • Applications

      • 9to5Linux ☛ Ventoy 1.0.87 Brings Support for Lenovo Product Recovery and Dell PER ISOs

        Ventoy 1.0.87 has been released today for this open-source and cross-platform bootable USB solution that lets you create multi-boot USB drives for ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD(x), and EFI files, supporting numerous OS types and platforms, including Linux, Unix, ChromeOS, VMware, Windows, WinPE, etc.

        The new Ventoy release is here with support for the Lenovo Product Recovery ISO file, as well as the Dell Platform Specific Bootable ISO file. In addition, the GRUB2 mode has been updated to support ISO images of the Porteus Linux distribution.

      • Neovim vs Vim Comparison 2023 – Which is a better Editor? – DekiSoft

        If you are looking for a powerful terminal-based emulator for a long time then Vim is your go-to software. It is deemed to be one of the oldest open-source projects. We have many good terminal editors such as Nano but they don’t lie close to Vim in terms of functions, modes and extensibility. However, a much better player is in town now so we have put together a Neovim vs Vim detailed comparison along with Emacs and VSCode to see the differences so you can make an informed decision.

        This was until 2014 when Vim fork the Neovim had made its appearance on the open-source horizon. Although it came forward with many controversies still is hailed as the future which was designed keeping in mind the modern user. A lot of development was seen in both of these, especially after the development of Neovim over the years.

      • Volker Krause ☛ November/December in KDE PIM

        Here are some of the highlights of what happened around KDE’s personal information management applications in the past two months. Since the last report 23 people contributed about 1200 code changes, focusing on the KDE Gear 22.12 and the Gpg4win 4.1.0 releases and preparing for the transition to Qt 6.

      • Linux Links ☛ Best Free and Open Source Visual Automation Tools – LinuxLinks

        This article looks at software which provides a graphical user interface for automating desktop tasks. Tasks can be recorded as they are performed by the user or can be selected from a list. The output of the previous action can become the input to the next action.

        This type of software can be a real boon to productivity. The software saves time and effort over human intervention.

        Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks ratings chart. We only feature free and open source software here.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • PC Linux ☛ GIMP Tutorial: Using The Heal Tool

        I still watch tutorials to learn new skills, and came across this one on Davies Media Design’s YouTube channel about the Heal tool.

        The Heal tool is similar to the Clone tool, but uses a bit different algorithm. While the Clone tool copies the exact pixels selected, and paints them over your chosen area, the Heal tool seems to take the surrounding pixels and imperfections into account as well, making your subject easier to paint (they are, after all, both brushes).

        Let’s look at the difference between the Clone tool and the Heal tool. If you have the tools grouped in GIMP, they are in the same group. If not, the Clone tool icon looks like a stamp, and the Heal tool looks like two bandages in an X-shape.

      • PC Linux ☛ PDF Part 3A: Manipulating PDF Files, GUI Style

        My original plans were to have a three part article series that covered the creation of PDF files, the editing of PDF files, and finally, the manipulation of PDF files. But when I looked closer, I discovered there are several GUI programs that help with manipulating PDF files, and even more command-line programs for manipulating PDF files. So, I’ve decided to break the third article down into two related articles. This article, “PDF Part 3A,” will deal with the GUI programs you can use to manipulate the structure and orientation of a PDF file. The next article, “PDF Part 3B,” will focus on the command-line tools for manipulating PDF files.

        Some may argue that editing and manipulating PDF files are the same thing. But, that’s not necessarily so. Editing the contents of a PDF file changes the information conveyed in the PDF, while merely changing the page order or page orientation of a PDF file does not inherently change the contents of the file, nor the information conveyed. It’s a gray area, but we need to “draw a line” and make a distinction somewhere.

      • 5 Ways to Follow Symbolic Links in Linux

        Symbolic links (also referred to as “soft links” or “symlinks”) are a kind of shortcut to another file used in the Linux operating system mostly for shared libraries.

        If you’ve been using Linux as a regular desktop, you might already have encountered one or will in the future. But today’s focus will be on how you can find the original file to which the symbolic link points.

        Note that we already wrote a separate article for all the tools that are mentioned in this article, so this is kind of a summarized version of all the tools.

        However, if you directly jump to this article and are only interested in knowing a tool that can help you find the original file to which the symbolic link points, then you can directly read our readlink command article.

      • ID Root ☛ How To Install OwnCloud on Rocky Linux 9 – idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install OwnCloud on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, ownCloud is a free and open-source file hosting and sharing platform that allows users to store and access their files from anywhere. It provides a user-friendly interface for storing, accessing, and sharing files, and it integrates with a variety of popular file-sharing and collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Office and Google Drive. By using ownCloud, you can easily store, access, and share your files from anywhere and collaborate with others on a wide range of projects.

        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 OwnCloud on Rocky Linux. 9.

      • Make Use Of ☛ How to Remote Access Linux From a Windows Computer

        Set up a Linux server? Perhaps you’ve configured it as the solution to network storage. Or maybe you have a Linux work PC, media center, or simply keep a secondary PC in another room. Whatever the case, at some point, you’ll need to remotely access the Linux device from a Windows PC or laptop. So, what is the solution?

        Windows users have several tools that enable simple remote desktop from Windows to Linux. Want to know how remote desktop from Windows to Linux? Read on!

      • The New Stack ☛ MicroK8s and Portainer: The Easiest Way to Deploy an App on Kubernetes – The New Stack

        Anyone who’s attempted to work with Kubernetes for the first time understands how complicated it is. Not only is creating a Kubernetes cluster a challenge but so too is deploying applications. With so many moving parts, this technology can get the best of anyone who doesn’t have a deep understanding of how it works.

        There are, however, shortcuts to take. One such shortcut is deploying Portainer to a MicroK8s cluster. I’ve already demonstrated how this is one in an earlier tutorial. Why would you go this route? Simple. Not only is MicroK8s one of the easiest methods of deploying Kubernetes, but Portainer also offers one of the most powerful and user-friendly GUI tools for managing Kubernetes deployments.

      • OSTechNix ☛ How To Check The Password Complexity In Linux – OSTechNix [Ed: Article updated]

        We already posted a brief guide about – how to generate a strong password in Linux a while ago. Now, we are going to find out if the generated password is really strong or not. In this short tutorial, we will see how to check the password complexity in Linux from commandline.

      • Linux Hint ☛ How to Only List the Files and Not the Directories in Linux

        In Linux, we use the “ls” command to navigate through directories for files. Listing all the files and folders in Linux is a common command. But occasionally, we must only list the files and not the folders. In that case, this command does not work. To only list the files using the “ls” command, we need to write “ls *.txt”. But this command works if we need to only list the text files since this command only lists the text files. If we need to list all the files and not only the text files, this command becomes useless. For that purpose, Linux provides us with many options. To list all the files in a specific directory only, we use the following methods:

      • Ubuntubuzz ☛ How To Make Calendar with LibreOffice Calc

        This tutorial will show you the exercise of making calendars with LibreOffice Calc. It works with multilingual translations automatically so you can easily print ones with English, Indonesian, German, Chinese, Japanese and other languages. Now let’s exercise.

      • Ubuntubuzz ☛ How To Make Bulletin with LibreOffice Writer

        This tutorial will help you to create bulletin with LibreOffice Writer. You will make one with example documents you can download below. We name it “Humanity”, will use Wikipedia article as source text, and simply use available fonts on Ubuntu like Ubuntu Font as well as FreeSerif. Now let’s exercise!

      • Citizix ☛ How to ship docker logs to Grafana Loki using Docker plugin

        Grafana Loki officially supports a Docker plugin that will read logs from Docker containers and ship them to Loki. This guide assumes that you have grafana loki up and running. If not, checkout these guides: How to run Grafana Loki with docker and docker-compose How to run Grafana Loki with Helm and kustomize in kubernetes…

      • UNIX Cop ☛ How to install Code Server on Ubuntu 22.04

        In this post, you will learn how to install Code Server on Ubuntu 22.04, so you will have your IDE in the cloud for your many projects. The procedure is simple, so let’s go for it.

      • My thoughts about the Tai-Hao Sunshine Nordic ISO keycaps | Hund

        This is not a sponsored post. The keycaps has been paid for in full by my partner.

      • Make Use Of ☛ How to Enable Snap Support in Linux Mint

        Linux Mint doesn’t ship with snapd by default, and that’s an improvement over the Ubuntu base for many users. But what if you fancy snaps and want to install them on Linux Mint?

        Maybe you want to bring back the ease of installation and portability snaps bring to the table. Or perhaps, you need to install software that’s only available from the Snap Store.

        Whatever the reason is, enabling Snap support on Linux mint is quite easy.

      • Linux Capable ☛ Linux du Command: Common Examples

        The du command is a handy tool for Linux users that allows you to analyze how much space individual files and directories are taking up on your file system. It is also straightforward to use and it will quickly provide you with the size of everything in the current directory, including subdirectories. The following tutorial will demonstrate common examples of the du command in a Linux terminal environment.

        Please note it is best to run the du commands in the root account, or you may need to add sudo to the command depending on the area or permissions set for the directories, such as system files, as they may not be accessible without root permissions.

      • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Waterfox on Manjaro Linux

        Waterfox is an excellent choice for web users who prioritize security and performance. It is built from Firefox source code, allowing users to customize their browsing experience and allowing for more control over features like advertisements and tracking scripts compared to Firefox. The following tutorial will teach you how to install Waterfox Browser on Manjaro Linux with cli commands and utilizing the Arch Linux user repository.

      • ID Root ☛ How To Install Cockpit on Rocky Linux 9 – idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Cockpit on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Cockpit is a server management dashboard that provides real-time information on the state of your machine. In addition to CPU load, filesystem statistics, processes, and other data, it also gives access to the system. The cockpit is designed to be easy to use and intuitive, and it provides a user-friendly interface for performing common server management tasks. It is suitable for use by both experienced system administrators and novice users.

        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 Cockpit on Rocky Linux. 9.

      • It’s Ubuntu ☛ How To Install Docker On Debian Linux [Latest] | Itsubuntu.com

        In this tutorial post, we will show you the steps to download the latest version of Docker on Debian and its derivatives. Docker is already available in the default repository of Debian but they might not have the latest version of Docker.

      • Trend Oceans ☛ How to Enable Automatic Dark Mode on All Websites in Google Chrome – TREND OCEANS

        Is looking at a bright website hurt your eyes? Here’s an easy solution that’ll enable you to use Dark Mode on all the sites you visit with the help of Google Chrome. Check it out now!

      • Learn Ubuntu ☛ Install NPM on Ubuntu

        NPM is nothing but a package manager for the Noje.js projects that lets you install and manage them on your system.

        You can think of NPM as similar to apt but mean specific to the noje.js projects.

        And in this tutorial, I will show you how you can install the NPM package manager in Ubuntu and walk you through the primary use of NPM.

      • Beginners Guide for Realpath Command in Linux

        We recently published a detailed article on the use of the readlink command in Linux; if you read that article, you will understand this better.

        In short, both are identical tools for finding the original file to which the soft link points. But this tool can also be used to print the absolute path of the referenced files or directories.

        So, stick with this article till the end to learn everything about the realpath command in Linux (with practical examples).

      • Beginners Guide for Readlink Command in Linux

        If you have been following us for a long time, then you might already be aware of symlinks (or soft links), but for a quick reminder, they are a kind of shortcut to another file in Linux.

        Now, you might already be interacting with soft links without knowing the path of the original file to which they point.

    • WINE or Emulation

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Make Use Of ☛ 6 Ways KDE Plasma Reminds You That Computing Can Be Fun

          Personal computers now come in many form factors, but the same can’t be said about computer interfaces. Most PCs come with a layout that feels like Windows or macOS. Even mobile devices have grown more similar, regardless of whether you use Android or iOS.

          On the surface, KDE Plasma doesn’t feel any different. Most screenshots show a Windows-like desktop. But Plasma intends to be adaptable to whatever your preferences or needs are. Tweaking KDE Plasma to suit your tastes is an imaginative process that harkens back to how fun computers were when they were new. Here’s why.

        • Ubuntu Handbook ☛ Krita 5.1.5 Released! How to Install via PPA in Ubuntu 22.04 | UbuntuHandbook

          Krita graphics editor 5.1.5 released few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 22.04 and/or Ubuntu 22.10 via PPA repository.

          Krita 5.1 was released months ago with improved Webp, photoshop files support, extended fill tools, and configurable touch controls.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • 6 Best Alternative Open Source Router Firmware For 2023 – DekiSoft

      For mere performance, we need to update this. We all want our wifi to be fast and accessible from each room, now, what the update does is provide bug fixes and technology improvements which lead to a better experience for the entire family.

      Another reason is the security protection which it provides. Today threats are there for online security and these have mainly in target home wifi-networks. Like, your router can get in hands of a security theft if it is not secured properly. These can then be further used along with thousand of others hijacked to launch malicious cyberattacks there on the organization’s sites and networks.

      The best way to save yourself from this is to always have the latest version of firmware installed.

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

      • DebugPoint ☛ OpenMandriva Introduces “ROME” 23.01: A New Rolling Release Edition

        A new rolling release-based edition OpenMandriva “ROME” 23.01 debuts with KDE Plasma, GNOME desktop flavours and some cool apps.

        OpenMandriva is a free, open-source, independent GNU/Linux distribution that was forked from the Mandriva project. It’s simple, easy to use for your day-to-day use cases and fully contributed by the community. It also features popular desktop environments and comes with a simple Calamares installer.

      • Linuxiac ☛ OpenMandriva Lx 23.01: A Breath of Fresh Air for Distro Hoppers

        OpenMandriva is changing course by introducing the ROME rolling release, which makes its debut in OpenMandriva Lx 23.01.

        OpenMandriva is a community-centric Linux distro forked from discontinued Mandriva Linux with roots in then-legendary Mandrake Linux. It was created in May 2012 by OpenMandriva Association as the distro aimed at experienced and first-time Linux users.

        One essential aspect of OpenMandriva is that it is one of the so-called original distributions. In other words, it is not based on another existing one. The distro is designed to be easy to use and to provide a wide range of software and features to meet the needs of a variety of users.

      • PC Linux ☛ From The Chief Editor’s Desk…

        New Year’s celebrations are virtually synonymous with making New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, most New Year’s resolutions barely last a month, and by February, are a distant memory. According to an article on BestLife, only 55 percent of resolution-makers are still working on those resolutions after one month. An article on Fit & Well paints an even grimmer/dimmer picture of New Year’s resolutions. According to that article, most New Year’s resolution-makers ditch their “goals” just 17.8 days into January. This is so prevalent that January 17th is (unofficially) known as “ditch New Year’s resolutions day.” Wow! They don’t even make it three weeks!

        Personally, I make the same New Year’s resolution every year, and I’ve got quite a streak going for not breaking it. My annual New Year’s resolution is to not make a New Year’s resolution.

      • PC Linux ☛ Screenshot Showcase

    • Debian Family

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • Arduino ☛ Make your own micro FPV drone racing gate | Arduino Blog

        Drone racing is an increasingly popular hobby, especially as high-performance drones get more and more affordable. Racing drones can reach 200mph and a huge part of the skill set necessary for competition is the pilot’s ability to navigate through gates at high speed. Those gates mark check points on the course, a bit like the gates that slalom skiers go through. Drone racing gates can also track time, which is the case with this DIY micro FPV drone racing gate built by YouTuber ProfessorBoots.

        This is an affordable gate meant for indoor micro FPV drone racing. It is big enough to accommodate some larger drones, but the pilot would have to have stellar finesse. For micro drones, it is perfect. The gate detects the presence of a passing drone and can time laps, recording each lap and allowing the pilot to see their best time. It also has a ring of LEDs for visibility. If desired, the user can program those LEDs to flash when a drone passes through.

      • Video ☛ Mechanical 7 Segment Display Driven By An Arduino – Invidious

        The Arduino Mega has 15 PWM pins, enough to drive two digits. The digit segments are all 3D printed using bright green PLA.

      • Adafruit ☛ New Products 1/4/23 Featuring #Adafruit Sensirion SHT45 Precision Temperature & Humidity Sensor!
      • CubicleNate ☛ Ender3 Ikea Lack Table Printer Enclosure – CubicleNate’s Techpad

        The Ender3 is seemingly a fantastic, inexpensive, entry level machine to get you started in the wondrous world of 3D printing. I would hardly call it the most quality, feature-rich machines out there but the incredible affordability is what makes is a great starting place. This wasn’t the first 3D printer I became familiar with but it might be my favorite.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Mozilla

        • PCLOS Official ☛ Betterbird Email Client 102.6.1 – PCLinuxOS

          Betterbird is a successful fork of Mozilla Thunderbird, Betterbird provides a more complete email client with exclusive features and a lot of other bug fixes. Now available in the PCLinuxOS Software Repository!

    • GNU Projects

    • Programming/Development

      • nbdkit + libblkio | Richard WM Jones

        Our plugin-based Network Block Device server, nbdkit, now has support for libblkio.

        libblkio is a library written by Stefan Hajnoczi, Alberto Faria, Stefano Garzarella and others for accessing some somewhat unusual disk protocols including vhost-user, NVMe, vDPA, VFIO and io_uring which I’ll talk about below. It’s important to know that these are not disk formats (like raw or qcow2), but accelerated protocols for talking to virtual or real hardware.

        The library is written in Rust (but offers a C API) and I believe it’s intended to replace various bottom-end parts of the qemu block layer at some point in the future.

      • Free PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript editor – Codelobster IDE

        In this article, we suggest you to get acquainted with the free editor of web languages – Codelobster IDE. It is presented on the software market for a long time already, and it wins a lot of fans.

        Codelobster IDE allows you to edit PHP, HTML, CSS and JavaScript files, it highlights the syntax and gives hints for tags, functions and their parameters. This editor easily deals with those files that contain a mixed content.

      • Linux Links ☛ Excellent Free Tutorials to Learn Zig – LinuxLinks

        Zig is a general-purpose programming language and toolchain for maintaining robust, optimal, and reusable software.

        The language is designed for “robustness, optimality and maintainability”, supporting compile-time generics, reflection and evaluation, cross-compilation and manual memory management.

        Zig also ships with a C/C++ compiler, and Zig can be used with either or both languages.

      • Linux Hint ☛ Bucket sort C++

        Sorting is a method by which we order the items in a sequence. Bucket sort is one of the sorting algorithms but this algorithm is a bit different from the other algorithms. A bucket, as the name implies, contains something in a separate space like a container. This algorithm places the elements in the bucket according to the condition. The elements are divided into different buckets, and sorting is performed on each bucket. We can decide which algorithm is used to sort the buckets. The other names for bucket sort are bin sort and radix sort. The grouping of elements to be stored in buckets is done uniformly. Bucket sort is the algorithm that is good with small arrays. But when it comes to sorting the larger arrays, this algorithm is not preferred because the complexity increases and the performance decreases. This algorithm is applied mostly on the floating point values where we need to uniformly group the elements of the array.

      • Linux Hint ☛ Dynamic Memory Allocation in C++

        Memory allocation is determined at the time of variable declaration. But in most cases, we don’t know how much memory is required for a specific variable. In that case, memory allocation has to be done on the runtime. The runtime memory allocation of the program is known as dynamic memory allocation. In dynamic memory allocation, we don’t know the actual size of the variable. We manually allocate the memory for that variable, and it can also be an array or object of a class. Pointers play a key role in dynamic memory allocation. When we dynamically allocate the memory, the “new” keyword is used to tell the compiler that we are dynamically allocating the memory. When we are done with allocating the memory, in the end, we need to manually “delete” that reserved dynamic memory. In other programming languages like Python and Java, we don’t have to dynamically allocate the memory because the compiler automatically does that. But in C and C++, we do this manually using the new (to reserve space) and delete (to free space) keywords.

      • Perl / Raku

        • Why Perl is making a comeback: 5 reasons why it’s worth learning – Linux Careers

          Perl is making a comeback, and for good reason. From its strong support for text manipulation and data processing tasks to its wide array of libraries and modules, Perl is a versatile and powerful language that’s worth learning. In this article, we’ll explore 5 reasons why Perl is making a comeback and why it’s worth learning now. Whether you’re a seasoned programmer or just starting out, Perl is a valuable skill to have in your toolkit.

          Perl is a popular programming language that is widely used in the tech industry for tasks such as web development, data processing, and system administration. Its simplicity, flexibility, and power make it a good choice for those looking to pursue a career in the tech industry. In this article, we will explore the strengths of Perl and discuss why it may be a good choice for those looking to learn a programming language. We will also compare Perl to Python, another popular programming language that is often used for similar types of tasks, and discuss the situations where one language may be a better choice over the other.

      • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

        • Linux Hint ☛ Bash Remove Last x Characters From String?

          There are several ways or commands in Linux that we may use to remove the last characters from a string value in bash, including “cut”, “sed” “compliment”, “awk” and others. The “%” and “?” operators can also be employed to eliminate the ending element from a string. By utilizing the “cut” command in bash, we can also delete a specific character from a string that we want to eliminate. In this article, we will show a variety of techniques for deleting elements from sequences.

        • Linux Hint ☛ How to Export a Path in .Bashrc

          When a command is launched on Linux, the operating system looks in the environment variable which is known as PATH for executable files. When we employ these paths, we can run the commands without having to provide a specific path.

        • Linux Hint ☛ Create Bash Functions with Arguments

          To create efficient code, bash functions are used in shell scripts. In essence, these are a set of instructions that can be used again throughout the program. Additionally, it enables programmers to divide long, complex scripts into manageable chunks that may be invoked as needed. In this article, we will go through how to pass an argument to a bash function to build a function with an argument. The parameter may be a string, an integer, or something else entirely. Different methods of sending arguments to bash functions will be used in this article.

        • Linux Hint ☛ Bash Loop Through Files In A Directory?

          Sometimes according to our requirements, we need to move and loop through all the files and directories in a given folder. Let us suppose we want to run a specific command in each folder and file of a directory. For that purpose, we will iterate through all directories using loops. Only a few CLI utilities or command line utilities allow us to run the same command for multiple files. But in our case, we use bash shell scripting and using for loop to speed up any command we want to make our work efficient.

        • Linux Hint ☛ Bash Cut Command with Examples

          Linux provides us with many commands and utilities that allow us to cut out pieces and parts of specific files and process and filter those files. “cut” is also a command line utility in Linux that allows us to cut specific parts and sections of files and show us the data as standard output by printing it. We can use it to cut out the parts of files by delimiter, field, bytes, position, and characters.

      • Java

        • GCC ☛ Java front-end and library patches v2
          Disclaimer: this does not currently work.

The front-end and library compile successfully, but fail to link at
the very end.
This is due to a regression caused by
1dedc12d186a110854537e1279b4e6c29f2df35a, which I have been unable to solve.

Nevertheless, I am posting this patch series for two reasons.

Firstly, to get feedback and reviews on the 56 already existing
patches, even though most are just re-adding code or making idiomatic
changes, so that when the final issue is solved everything has already
been approved (hopefully) and the merge is good to go.

Secondly, to get assistance with the final issue, because it is simply
beyond me, and history has shown that asking for help via gcc-patches
will yield nothing.

You'll need libtool 2.4.7 and a bleeding-edge version of bdwgc to
build it, in case anyone planned to do some testing.

      • Rust

        • The Register UK ☛ Rust projects open to denial of service thanks to Hyper • The Register

          Security researchers at have identified multiple vulnerabilities arising from careless use of the Rust Hyper package, a very popular library for handling HTTP requests.

          Security firm JFrog found that an undisclosed number of projects incorporating Hyper, like Axum, Salvo and conduit-hyper, were susceptible to denial of service (DoS) attacks arising from HTTP requests crafted to take advantage of the vulnerabilities.

          Those three have fixed their code, but an undisclosed number of other vulnerable projects have not yet responded, according to JFrog. Currently, 2,579 projects listed in Rust’s package repository crates.io depend on Hyper, which has been downloaded more than 67 million times.

  • Leftovers

    • Adafruit ☛ Bring back personal blogging

      In a recent piece for The Verge, Monique Judge made a pretty compelling argument on behalf of the personal blog. We’ve all been talking for years now about the cracks and rot forming in most/many social media platforms. But what if what’s next is what came before? Especially poignant is the way Judge links personal blogging to community building. It all made me a little teary-eyed for the days when I used to open up my computer and check my favorite sites and blogs, all of which I had bookmarked in my browser. Launching my tabs to check on Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, Waiter rant, The Sartorialist, even Perez Hilton (I must admit), was definitely more satisfying (and far less chaotic) than opening up Twitter.

    • Tedium ☛ Why Canada Had to Ban 1.5-Liter Glass Soda Bottles in 1979

      In the summer of 1979, Canadian grocery stores had a problem. It was a product design problem, and it was one that involved a specific size of soda bottle. As soda became an increasingly popular drink, consumers demanded more sizes so that they could drink more and save some of it for later. These days, we think nothing of this shift, beyond the obvious environmental and health implications of drinking so much soda. But the conversation was different in the late 1970s, especially in Canada, where the soda bottles had one significant difference from the modern ones that mattered quite a lot—they were made of glass, and as it turns out, large glass bottles and soda don’t mix. Today’s Tedium talks about the year Canada recalled pop.

    • Hardware

    • Security

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • Is “no grid” the smartest grid of all? | Stop at Zona-M

          The Grid in “Smart Grid” is the electric grid, that is the whole network of transmission lines, substations and other equipment that distribute electricity from power plants to their end users. Electric grids worldwide are aging, and regardless of age could not cope with the “increasing complexity and needs of electricity in the 21st Century” anyway. The solution is to make them Smart Grids, that is grids that, thanks to digital technologies, can “move” electricity back and forth among utilities and customers in real time, in the safest and most efficient way.

    • Internet

      • Faster Internet makes bad citizens?

        “In the UK, the diffusion of broadband has resulted in a decrease in civic and political participation. On the other hand, it does not seem to have affected the strong ties among relatives and friends. The phenomenon could also explain the rise of populism.”

        “A one standard deviation reduction in the distance between the phone line of the people interviewed for the study and the closest network node, which is a good indicator of a faster connection, caused the likelihood to participate in membership activities to decrease by 4.7 percent between 2005 and 2017. For political parties and trade unions, the decrease in the probability of involvement rises to 5.1 percent.”

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Adafruit ☛ What Copyrighted Works Become Public Domain in 2023?

          On this Steve Shives video, he looks at some of the more significant copyrighted works that are entering the public domain in 2023.

          These works include The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, the last of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories (meaning all of the Holmes stories are now public domain), Agatha Christie’s The Big Four, and Upton Sinclair’s Oil! (which the film There Will Be Blood was based on).

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Halberts and Knives

        With the recent OGL discussion, my thoughts are back with Helmbarten, my German Fantasy 2d6 game, which was translated into English as Halberts by @frotz@mstdn.games and @phf@tabletop.social and play-tested by @PresGas@freeradical.zone and the three of us. I was wondering how to provide a zero-to-hero experience using it.

        As it stands, you roll on your career tables, betting that you’ll survive and get better vs. strokes of fate taking you out. After a while, you decide you’re done. Your character won’t advance in levels, learn new skills, get better, or any of that. That all happened during character generation. Now the adventure begins.

      • Unexplained: After COVID I Can Run 10K a Day

        I am well into my 50′s. I’ve never been a fitness nut, preferring sitting in front of the computer or some other sitting project. In my childhood I had experienced a series of respiratory infections, scarring in my lungs, visible on x-rays. Most of my life I had a hard time with a 10-minute jog. For no good reason I can now run for hours.

        I had toyed with running, but I had trouble breathing. Around the Central Park reservoir, I would wind up completely out of breath (way before finishing the 1.4-mile loop), heart pounding and lungs jumping out of my burning larynx as I would recover, bent over and dizzy. Every time — in my twenties, thirties and forties.

      • What I wish 2023 will bring for me
      • What I wish 2023 will bring for me

        I’m thinking about a whole small-net sauce and my text-mode hobby environment which I’m using for all interactions with it.

      • 🔤SpellBinding: AGLOYXT Wordo: DOLTS

    • Politics

      • The Written Word is Senile

        I don’t know how long until people cannot use pens, but it seems their days are numbered.

        Whatever time it might take, certain stages seem inevitable.

        Those currently in the government seem unlikely to change the education system to remove pens. I find it more likely that a group who broadly haven’t used a pen more than once a decade would find it natural to remove teachings they’ve never used.

      • The Plot Against America

        I’ve had a number of discussions with friends about government in the last year or so. They’ll claim that government doesn’t work and that no government is ever any good. Having some ancom leanings of my own, I can understand and sympathize with that point of view. What my friends don’t understand is that the US government isn’t working because it has been deliberately sabotaged for decades. I’ve had to make the case a few times, so it is worth putting down in writing.

    • Technical

      • Innovation (2010)

        For every occasion, my wife and I gift board games to each other, so we can play them together. This time made no exception. After browsing BoardGameGeek for a while, I bought her “Innovation”, a game where you must create a prehistoric civilization and guide it through the ages using innovations until the information era.

        We usually tend stay away from too complex or too strategic games, mostly because it takes too much time and effort to setup, and we end up never playing it. I was also looking for a game that might have a deeper game play the usual kind that we love (Codenames, Chroni, etc.).

      • Reading Ebooks Using Emacs!

        I assume the ‘nov’ stands for ‘novel’, but I’m not sure.

        I found a plugin for Emacs, that gives it the ability to read e-books! Well, epubs at least. I haven’t tried other formats. I installed it both on my Librem Mini and my Pinephone with ‘sudo apt install elpa-nov’. The easiest way to bring up the ebook is to type ‘emacs MYDOC.epub’ at the Terminal, and it pops right up (or ‘emacs -nw MYDOC.epub’ for those of us who want to *stay* in Terminal).

        To access ‘nov’ commands, use Meta-x nov, and hit tab once or twice and you will get the list of commands available. For those newer to Emacs, the Meta key is usually the Alt key (though you can reset it, and I think it is different on Mac). So – Alt-x and type ‘nov’ and press Tab key a couple of times.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Trying out my own gemlog

          I am by no means a writer. I may have grown up a native english speaker, but my words don’t reflect that. I have always gotten a C or worse in my english classes, and writing essays has always been an arduous task for me. Despite this, I want to write gemlogs. I can’t yet articulate why I want to write a blog of sorts, but I think it has something to do with wanting to be a part of the gemispace community.

      • Programming

        • Proprietary algorithms

          We’ll inevitably encounter algorithms in our day-to-day life, but it matters that we should not succumb to the manipulation that’s going on by proprietary ones.

          Proprietary algorithms, such as the ones used on commercial social-media or search engines, actively manipulate us with the data they gather from our usage of their platforms. Algorithms decide trends, what becomes popular or not, and largely play a part in the daily happenings of the world. This is why it’s important to not get swayed by them at every step, sabotaging our view of the world, with an artificially customised one by the platform owners.

          We’ll encounter them sooner or later, even if one steers clear of manipulative platforms, such is the task that we should try to seek if a curated view is presented, by hiding information, purposefully giving more importance to a view point and so on.

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

Links 07/01/2023: Linux 4.9 Reaches End of Life

Posted in News Roundup at 11:14 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  • GNU/Linux

    • Kernel Space

      • 9to5Linux ☛ Linux Kernel 4.9 Reaches End of Life After 6 Years of Support

        After being supported for a little more than six years, the Linux 4.9 kernel series has finally reached end of life with the 4.9.337 update released earlier this morning. The kernel is now marked appropriately as EOL on the kernel.org website, which means that it will no longer receive maintenance and security updates.

        Linux kernel 4.9 was released on December 11th, 2016, and it brought support for shared extents and copy-on-write support on the XFS file system, a hardware latency tracer to detect firmware-induced latencies, support for the Greybus bus from Project Ara, a more efficient BPF profiler, a new optional BBR TCP congestion control algorithm, virtually mapped kernel stacks, and more.

    • Games

      • Hackaday ☛ Is It A Game? Or A Calculator?

        If you are a certain age, you probably remember the Mattel Football game. No LCD screen or fancy cartridges. Just some LEDs and a way to play football when you should be in class. While these might seem primitive to today’s kids, they were marvels of technology in the 1970s when they came out. [Sean Riddle] looks, well, not exactly at the games, but more like in them. As it turns out, they used chips derived from those made for calculators.

      • GamingOnLinux ☛ ASUS stick an OLED display into a controller, Dell want to reinvent it

        A new real controller from ASUS is on the way with the ROG Raikiri Pro that features an OLED display, plus Dell get weird with the Concept Nyx from CES 2023.

      • GamingOnLinux ☛ Google open sourced CDC File Transfer from the ashes of Stadia

        As Google hover over the nuke from orbit button on Stadia, they’re at least releasing some of it as open source like CDC File Transfer.

      • GamingOnLinux ☛ Vampire Survivors dev poncle outlines 2023 plans

        Vampire Survivors, probably the most popular game on Steam Deck that keeps being top of the most played list, is set for a busy 2023.

      • GamingOnLinux ☛ System Shock remake due to release in March

        Nightdive Studios have now set a launch window for System Shock, with it planned to release in March. That’s if it doesn’t see yet another delay.

      • GamingOnLinux ☛ Batman Rogue City is a fun looking GZDoom fan game

        Here’s a fun retro fan game for you! Batman Rogue City released in December for GZDoom and looks like a criminal-kicking good time. As a fan game, it of course has nothing to do with DC Comics but you know what these big companies can be like, they might get itchy fingers over someone using their names and designs.

      • GamingOnLinux ☛ Steam Deck Beta update, plus easy Flatpak updates and more HDR teasing

        Three fun bits for you today including Steam desktop and Steam Deck Beta updates, an easy way to update third-party Flatpaks on Steam Deck in Gaming Mode and another HDR teaser from Valve.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

      • DebugPoint ☛ OpenMandriva Introduces “ROME” 23.01: A New Rolling Release Edition

        OpenMandriva is a free, open-source, independent GNU/Linux distribution that was forked from the Mandriva project. It’s simple, easy to use for your day-to-day use cases and fully contributed by the community. It also features popular desktop environments and comes with a simple Calamares installer.

        A new rolling release-based edition OpenMandriva “ROME” 23.01 debuts with KDE Plasma, GNOME desktop flavours and some cool apps.

        Here’s what’s new.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • Hackaday ☛ Arduino Synthesizer Uses Modified Slide Pots

        There comes a point in every Arduino’s life where, if it’s lucky, it becomes a permanent fixture in a project. We can’t think of too many better forever homes for an Arduino than inside of a 3D-printed synthesizer such as this 17-key number by [ignargomez] et al.

      • Linux Gizmos ☛ Arduino Nicla Voice supports speech recognition, BL5.0 and integrates 9-Axis IMU

        Arduino recently presented a compact low-power embedded module with machine learning capabilities. The Arduino Nicla Voice is based on the Syntiant NDP120 processor optimized for Deep Learning applications and the ANNA-B112 u-Blox module for wireless connectivity.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Hackaday ☛ Chataigne: An Open-Source Swiss Army Knife

      [Ben Kuper] is a developer with a history of working on art installations, and had hit upon a common problem often cited by artists. When creating installations involving light, sound, and motion, they often spend too much time on the nuts and bolts of electronics, programming, and so on. Such matters are a huge time sink with a steep learning curve and oftentimes just a plain distraction from the actual artistic intent they’re trying to focus upon. [Ben] has been working for a few years on a software tool, Chataigne which is designed as the glue between various software tools and hardware interfaces, enabling complex control of the application using simple building blocks.

  • Leftovers

    • Education

      • The Nation ☛ Higher Ed Labor Organizing Is Just Getting Started

        About three weeks into the University of California strike—around the time thousands of workers across the state had shared Thanksgiving meals on picket lines—UC Berkeley’s campus health center became inundated with a barrage of strange ailments among student workers. Graduate students were turning up with unspecified leg pain, foot sores, achy hips, repetitive motion problems, and generalized fatigue.

      • The Nation ☛ How Students Fought for Democracy in 2022

        For more than a decade, The Nation has highlighted the work of aspiring journalists in StudentNation, an online section of the magazine written by young people. With generous support from the Puffin Foundation, StudentNation has published hundreds of talented young writers covering a wide range of issues through local reporting, firsthand accounts, interviews, and personal essays. The following material is adapted from three recent StudentNation articles. To see the original stories, go to TheNation.com/students.

    • Hardware

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Scheerpost ☛ The NFL: America’s Billion Dollar Blood Sport

        American football has always been a blood sport. It needs to change or die. Tackle must end.  Flags must come. And they will. Why?  Because human lives are at stake…and with them, a trillion-dollar industry. A century ago, football players were maimed and died in droves.  The college game was a cross between […]

      • Why did antivaxxers seize on the Damar Hamlin case?

        The tragic collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin on Monday night due to a cardiac arrest after a tackle led to a tsunami of conspiracy mongering from antivaxxers falsely insinuating (and outright claiming) that it had to be the COVID-19 vaccines that caused it. A lot of people were surprised by the ghoulishness of it all. They should not have been. False claims that vaccines kill have been a staple of antivax conspiracy narratives going back as long as I can remember, starting with false claims that vaccines are responsible for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and, more recently, that HPV vaccines were causing the deaths of adolescent girls and young women. As I mention every time I discuss the antivax “death after vaccination” narrative, there was even an antivax movie about Gardasil called Sacrificial Virgins…in 2018! The Damar Hamlin tragedy is a “teachable moment” because it has featured so prominently in the news over the last three day, which is why I want to discuss it further, particularly how it feeds into a false narrative that COVID-19 vaccines are killing young people, but not just young people, young healthy athletes as well. First, let’s discuss some background again.

      • The Nation ☛ Republicans Are Consigning the Poor to Disease and Death

        Covid-19 cases, predictably, have climbed as the weather turned cold in much of the country. As of mid-December, cases had jumped more than 50 percent, while deaths were up 40 percent.

    • Security

      • Hackaday ☛ This Week In Security: Lastpass Takeaway, Bitcoin Loss, And PyTorch

        We mentioned the LastPass story in closing a couple weeks ago, but details were still a bit scarce. The hope was that LastPass would release more transparent information about what happened, and how many accounts were accessed. Unfortunately it looks like the December 22nd news release is all we’re going to get. For LastPass users, it’s time to make some decisions.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

      • Hackaday ☛ Salty Refrigeration Is Friendly To The Environment

        Widespread use of refrigerators is a hallmark of modern society, allowing people to store food and enjoy ice and cold beverages. However, a typical refrigerator uses gasses that are not always good for the environment. Now the Berkeley National Lab says they can change that using ioncaloric cooling, a new technique that uses salt as a refrigerant.

      • Common Dreams ☛ Amazon Breathes Sigh of Relief as Lula Returns to Power in Brazil

        The Amazon rainforest is often called the lungs of the planet, covering more than 3 million square miles across nine South American countries. It is an immense carbon sink, drawing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, storing it as biomass and releasing oxygen. Other tropical rainforests do the same, from the Congo Basin to New Guinea and Indonesian-occupied West Papua and Malaysia. But the Amazon is on a scale of its own, and, with human activity driving catastrophic global heating, protecting the climate-healing power of the Amazon is vital.

      • Common Dreams ☛ EPA Rule to Curb Deadly Air Pollution Fails Communities at Risk, Groups Warn

        While welcoming efforts to update U.S. air quality standards for soot, environmental and public health advocates on Friday warned that the Biden administration’s new proposal falls woefully short of what’s needed to protect vulnerable communities from deadly pollution.

      • Energy/Transportation

        • Hackaday ☛ MycelioTronics: Biodegradable Electronics Substrates From Fungi

          E-waste is one of the main unfortunate consequences of the widespread adoption of electronic devices, and there are various efforts to stem the flow of this pernicious trash. One new approach from researchers at the Johannes Kepler University in Austria is to replace the substrate in electronics with a material made from mycelium skins.

      • Overpopulation

    • Finance

      • TruthOut ☛ Wage Growth Slows as Unemployment Falls Back to Half-Century Low
      • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Bad News for Workers’ as Wage Growth Slows Amid Fed Rate Hike Barrage

        The U.S. Labor Department released data Friday showing that wage and job growth slowed in December as the Fed explicitly targets the labor market and worker pay in its push to tamp down inflation, which has been cooling in recent months.

      • The Nation ☛ California Hangs Its Homeless Population Out to Dry
      • Common Dreams ☛ A Progressive Political Economy Guide to Inflation

        Since 2021, prices have surged dramatically across countries and inflation has become a global challenge. Global central banks delivered historic rate hikes in 2022 in order to tame inflation and continued doing so even when inflation was falling, thereby risking a global recession.

      • The Nation ☛ The Congressional Progressive Caucus Expands

        Even while giving Republicans a narrow margin in the House of Representatives, voters elected a historic cohort of insurgent progressive newcomers, adding at least 11 new members to the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The CPC, which just reelected Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal as its leader, had numbered 101 members, making it the largest ideological caucus in the last Congress. It will grow in the new one, even after losing members to retirement (like Eddie Bernice Jackson of Texas), election to other offices (Karen Bass as Los Angeles mayor, Peter Welch as senator to Vermont), or election reversals (including, regrettably, one of the true champions of working people in Congress, Michigan’s Andy Levin, brought down by reapportionment and a multimillion-dollar dark money assault in the Democratic primary waged largely by AIPAC and Emily’s List).1

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent Freak ☛ YouTube Wins Partial Summary Judgment in Maria Schneider Copyright Lawsuit

          YouTube’s motion for summary judgment in a class action lawsuit filed by musician Maria Schneider has been granted in part and denied in part. A California district court dismissed all claims related to 27 works, direct infringement claims against 15 works, and 121 other alleged infringements. Other infringement claims stand, and the case will continue.

        • Torrent Freak ☛ Anti-Piracy Group Warns of a Problematic Textbook Piracy Culture Among Students

          This week, a Danish court convicted a 26-year-old man for selling pirated digital copies of textbooks. The seller received a suspended jail sentence and was ordered to pay damages. While this incident has been dealt with, anti-piracy group Rights Alliance signals a broader piracy habit among students that has rightsholders worried.

        • Techdirt ☛ Copyright Has Kept De La Soul’s Classic 1st Album Off Streaming… Until Now

          For years, we’ve written about the copyright nonsense around sampling in hip hop music, and how it was treated with very, very different rules than things like cover songs and paying homage to previous artists in other forms of music. As we’ve mentioned for over a decade, filmmaker Kembrew McCleod did a full (fascinating) exploration of this in the documentary “Copyright Criminals” which is worth watching if you can find it. The trailer is here:

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

When the Employer Asks for ‘Cool-off’ After Attacking Innocent Staff (Which Backfires)

Posted in Free/Libre Software at 9:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum e7d0e62fcd938f1c783acdc8e9ff6afa
Picking on Innocent Workers
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Today we focus on what Sirius ‘Open Source’ ‘Inc.’ (shell company) did to my wife this past November; it wasn’t just irrational but suicidal (if the company could still be taken to court; it’s trying to dodge the law at this point)

THE ‘UK’ CEO of Sirius ‘Open Source’ (it’s a UK-based company, it only pretends to be American!) has aggravated/upset staff and now he’s in a bit of a panic, trying to silence those whom he mercilessly hurt with false accusations and accusation inflation, basically looking to cover up misconduct and lying by simply shooting the messenger (who had spoken about this internally for years before doing anything else, however subtle).

“What sane person would go ahead with such a witch-hunt?”The series is getting longer and longer because the tail of scandals stretches further and further, almost as fast as we deplete what we have. We’re receiving additional information, which helps explain what exactly happened earlier this winter. The company wants to pretend everything is normal, but in reality this is a total catastrophe.

The video above is commentary about the latest 3 memes and article. What makes it exceptional is the low quality of the accusation against my wife, Rianne. What sane person would go ahead with such a witch-hunt? █

Shooting first, asking questions later? Sirius UK or Sirius Ukraine?

Buk missiles: Fire the Buk

[Meme] Looking Down. Down, Down It Goes… (Penny Stock)

Posted in Site News at 8:54 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Published moments ago: Develops TPM drivers for proprietary Windows in proprietary GitHub controlled by Microsoft which his employer says it wants to be acquired by to make lethal trucks free of accountability

Aurora Innovation

Summary: Microsoft's helper (whom Microsoft wanted to hire) sees the employer down from over $10 to just $1 (it was over $17 just about a year ago) and says he’s “not afraid of being unemployed in the near future.” (Another post about Microsoft’s plagiarism enablers and about TPM2). For those who don’t know (or forgot) he has been the key individual instrumental in promoting UEFI ‘secure boot’, in effect rendering BSD and GNU/Linux hard to defend in antitrust complaints against Microsoft. He was laying the TPM foundations/traps (under the guise of ‘security’), effectively dooming prospects of broader adoption of alternatives to Windows.

[Meme] Only Pretending Proposals Were in Fact Discussed With Staff!

Posted in Europe, Law, Patents at 8:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Put 14 documents on the agenda; Allocate less than 10 minutes to each

Summary: EPO management is volleying changes, some of which dubious and possibly illegal, without providing sufficient time for input from staff representatives; Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos turned the EPO, Europe’s second-largest institution, into a vendor-captured den of corruption, where the interests of litigation firms and billionaires always come first

Insufficient Time for Staff of the European Patent Office to Comment on Managers’ Proposals

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:02 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum 53f6cca0b5bbd52cf2438aa6e6dd0036
Cooking Disastrous EPO Policies
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: The rogue management at Europe’s second-largest institution is not tolerating dissent; it does not listen or does not facilitate input from staff that does all the actual work (except a token or a box-ticking exercise to give the mere illusion of participation by staff)

The Central Staff Committee (CSC) of the EPO is once again complaining about António Campinos, ‘brainchild’ of Benoît Battistelli, who literally referred to himself as “the f***ing president”.

Here’s the latest communication with staff.

Zentraler Personalausschuss
Central Staff Committee
Le Comité Central du Personnel

Munich, 16/12/2022

sc22148cp

Report on the GCC meeting of 22 November 2022

Dear Colleagues,

There were fourteen (!) documents on the official agenda. Of particular impact on staff were the documents on:

• Adjustment with effect from 1 January 2023 of salaries and other elements of the remuneration of employees of the EPO and of pensions paid by the Office (CA/74/22; GCC/DOC 19/2022);
• Adjustments to the health services (CA/85/22; GCC/DOC 27/2022), which we requested to withdraw, in vain;
• Flexibilisation of parental leave (CA/87/22) & amendments to Circular 22 (GCC/DOC 28/2022);
• Adjustment in medical coverage for children beyond 18 years (CA/92/22; GCC/DOC 29/2022).

The President had scheduled two hours (!) for the meeting. He agreed to our request for additional time. The meeting lasted about 3,5 hours, which was too short, as usual.

For the second time, the President was absent and delegated the chairmanship to Vice-President DG5. He announced that he would personally chair the next GCC meeting on 16 December 2022.

We provided the President and the GCC members with a written and reasoned opinion on all documents submitted (see annexes).

The Central Staff Committee

The full publication is available in the “Report on the GCC meeting of 22 November 2022″ [PDF] and it is discussed in the video above. It is very long (nearly 50 pages). █

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