01.10.23

When the Employer Doesn’t Understand or Grossly Underestimates AWS Capacity Issues (and a Story of Lost E-mail in Clown Computing)

Posted in Free/Libre Software, Servers at 9:41 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: The Sirius ‘Open Source’ management was dumb enough to replace the in-house infrastructure with overpriced (and outsourced) junk that did not even work as expected

THE report we deposited over a month ago already covered the fiasco of outsourcing (gradual) where I had worked for nearly 12 years. We don’t want to repeat what was already covered. I discussed this in person with the main individual responsible for the awful decision. He said they envisioned it would save money, but based on bills that I saw it was beyond insane to suggest so! Why would any sane company throw about 10,000 pounds down the drain every year? A modest second-hand server can be purchased for just 1,000 pounds and we didn’t need to buy any. We already had servers!!! We had an ISP, too.

“Who’s going to be held accountable?”When the company’s “cloud” (or “clown”) bills keep blowing upwards (upward to almost a thousand pounds a month), for something that started very small (the vendor lock-in relies on this sort of illusion, before exit barriers are raised), you have to wonder about the judgment of short-sighted decision-makers like Mr Kink. Who’s going to be held accountable? Or when?

As a reminder, AWS operated at a loss for years and Azure still seems to be operating at a loss (they just call everything “Azure” now). They are enticing people to enter the trap. Microsoft loses money and so does Google. Billions in losses! I brought this up over the phone, speaking to the CEO for about an hour almost a year ago! But they don’t want to listen!

“As a reminder, AWS operated at a loss for years and Azure still seems to be operating at a loss (they just call everything “Azure” now).”As a reminder, Microsoft is laying off staff, cancelling and shutting down datacentres, as they overprovisioned for something that never came (or resulted in massive losses). Microsoft basically misleads shareholders by rebranding many things “cloud” and/or “Azure”, so even if it’s not growing Microsoft can claim otherwise. There’s no proper definition of “cloud” or “Azure”.

On the phone about a year ago I suggested small self-hosted machines (the CEO called this “hobbyist”). It’s worth reminding ourselves that we lost staff that looked after our servers. That too was the fault of the management, for reasons we explained before.

It would be so much cheaper and safer to run our own infrastructure, as we already did for decades. And yes, we covered this in the report and earlier in this series. This is a no-brainer.

To give one example of what moving to AWS caused Sirius: OTRS, a ticketing system, needed us throwing more and more resources at it (partly because of bad design, partly due to workers sending megabytes of text in E-mails, as they top-post — the “Microsoft Way” basically — and don’t bother trimming/snipping what they respond to). Each time you add resources the bills go up by a lot! That’s the “magic” of “the clown”! It’s getting very expensive very fast!

“To give one example of what moving to AWS caused Sirius: OTRS, a ticketing system, needed us throwing more and more resources at it…”Remember that we used to self-host all the E-mail of the company; now the company uses phony encryption as a tenant on someone else’s servers (Amazon). I challenged my colleagues about this. I argued with management. They could not even defend their decision. They saw no need to defend what they had done! We’ve had arguments over this internally in 2022. Of course it was risky for me to bring this up, but at this stage it was the moral thing to do, even a moral obligation. At Sirius, colleagues felt like their efforts and contributions were ignored/discarded by the cabal (family), so they quit caring. This is how nepotism dooms companies. Some colleagues left, some remained but without much desire to go beyond the basics. And this aspect too we’ve covered here before.

Regarding E-mail hosting in “the clown”, here’s a 2020 story. To quote an Evening Shift handover: “Spent most of my evening tracking down missing emails. I was rather perturbed by xxxxx’s handover email disappearing and I’m guessing that because the server was underpowered it started to behave strangely and misclassified legitimate emails as viruses and deleted them. Fortunately each email is given an unique id by the system which is useful for searching the logs. Managed to get a list of deleted ones and sent it to xxxxx, xxxxx, and xxxxx suggesting that they identify their clients or ones they recognise and email them with the time + 1 hour asking to resend. I found one from xxxxx and emailed and xxxxx kindly sent his email again.”

Wonderful! What a mess.

“Ironically,” Ryan Farmer notes today, “”Cloud Hosting” only makes sense if your needs are so small that it’s hardly worth setting anything up yourself.”

In some cases useful virtual machines were turned off to “save money”. Even if they took little space and CPU. If self-hosted, they would cost almost nothing to leave on.

“Clown computing: it’s here today, but gone tomorrow. You’re not part of the decision!”Clown computing is a trap. To quote one new (days-old) cautionary tale (already in Daily Links): “Turns out that Revue is getting shut down. This means that I won’t be able to use it anymore (and I stopped using it because it wasn’t getting much traction vs the amount of work I put into it).”

So maybe outsourcing isn’t such a wise long-term strategy after all.

At one point by far our biggest client relied on VMware for clown hosting; of course VMware shut the whole thing down and in a hurry we needed to get all the servers out of there. Clown computing: it’s here today, but gone tomorrow. You’re not part of the decision! It does not matter if you have critical services on there and they give you a very short notice (to vacate). █

Links 10/01/2023: Yet More Security Issues in Rust

Posted in News Roundup at 9:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Daniel Pocock ☛ Daniel Pocock: Cardinal George Pell: a brief tribute

        While Cardinal Pell was known for his skepticism about climate change, I will always be grateful for donations of surplus fileservers from the dioecese for me to recycle with Debian GNU/Linux.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Applications

      • Converseen 0.9.10.0 with Improved WebP Support – Fasterland

        Converseen, the cross-platform image converter, and resizer, has now been updated to version 0.9.10.0, by adding some improved WebP features, and now it’s also possible to remove EXIF metadata after every conversion or change of format process.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • APIban MySQL client – TelecomsXChange (TCXC) Blog

        APIBAN helps prevent unwanted SIP traffic by identifying addresses of known bad actors before they attack your system. Bad actors are collected through globally deployed honeypots and curated by LOD/APIBAN.

      • Kifarunix ☛ Deploy Nagios Core as a Docker Container – kifarunix.com

        In this tutorial, you will learn how to deploy Nagios Core as a Docker container.

      • ZDNet ☛ How to easily locate your mouse pointer in Ubuntu and other GNOME-based Linux distributions

        If you have trouble locating your mouse pointer in Linux, this little tip will give you some much-needed relief.

      • Network World ☛ Linux filels: creating, listing, updating, and more | Network World

        Linux provides a number of handy commands for managing file permissions, understanding who has access to the files and checking on file content.

      • Make Use Of ☛ 4 Ways to Check Whether cron Is Working on Linux

        cron is a job scheduler and process automation utility for Linux. Here’s how you can check if cron is working properly on your system.

      • UNIX Cop ☛ How to deploy MariaDB and PhpMyAdmin using Docker

        In this short post, you will learn how to deploy MariaDB and PhpMyAdmin using Docker. These are some simple images without so many additives, so you can by yourself edit it and improve it to your liking.

      • Copy, Cut And Paste On The Command Line With Clipboard – Linux Uprising Blog

        Clipboard is a new command line tool to cut, copy and paste text, files and folders. The software works on Linux, Windows, macOS, Android and *BSD.

        This tiny yet powerful command line utility can be useful to both new and power users. Besides allowing you to cut, copy and paste anything from a terminal, it can show the clipboard contents, clear the clipboard, and there’s also support for multiple (infinite) clipboards.

      • Video ☛ How to install WPS Office 2019 on KDE Neon – Invidious

        In this video, we are looking at how to install WPS Office 2019 on KDE Neon.

      • ID Root ☛ How To Install AppImage on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS – idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install AppImage on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, AppImage is a package format for distributing portable software on Linux. It is a single executable file that contains all the necessary dependencies and libraries required to run the software, making it easy to run on any Linux distribution.

        AppImages are self-contained and do not need to be installed in the traditional sense. Instead, they can be run directly from the file manager or terminal by making the file executable and then run it. This makes it easy to use AppImages on systems where you don’t have administrator privileges or don’t want to modify the system libraries.

        One of the main advantages of using AppImages is that they allow you to run software that might not be available in your distribution package manager. This can be particularly useful for running newer or specialized software on older or niche distributions.

        AppImages are also portable, meaning that you can easily move them between different systems and run them without any additional setup. This makes it easy to use the same software on multiple systems, even if they have different package managers or libraries installed.

        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 AppImage on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

      • Linux Made Simple ☛ How to install Blender 3.4.1 on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install Blender 3.4.1 on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

      • Linux Made Simple ☛ How to install Ghostery Dawn on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install Ghostery Dawn on a Chromebook.

      • ZDNet ☛ How to install Kali Linux on Apple Silicon Macs | ZDNET

        I’ve had messages from a number of people asking me for information on how to install Kali Linux on Macs running the M1 and M2 Apple Silicon chips.

      • Ubuntubuzz ☛ How To Write Javanese Script Hanacaraka on Ubuntu Computer

        This tutorial will help you writing one of Indonesian traditional scripts, Javanese, also known as Aksara Jawa (ꦲꦏ꧀ꦱꦫꦗꦮ) or Hanacaraka (ꦲꦤꦕꦫꦏ), on Ubuntu computer. This is the real Javanese language spoken by Javanese people in Java island and not a programming language with similar name. We will show you that you can type Javanese using Firefox browser, Text Editor, LibreOffice, Gimp, Inkscape and Scribus. Now let’s exercise.

      • Make Tech Easier ☛ How to Encrypt Files in Linux with Tomb – Make Tech Easier

        Tomb is a simple shell script that allows you to encrypt files in Linux. Unlike full disk encryption, Tomb enables you to only include the files and folders that you want to encrypt. Here we show you how to install and use Tomb on Ubuntu.

      • Own HowTo ☛ How to Install easypanel on Ubuntu 22.04

        Easypanel is a server control panel software that you can use to deploy many apps on your website.

        In this tutorial you will learn how to install easypanel on Ubuntu 22.04.

    • Games

      • Godot Engine ☛ Godot Engine – Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 11

        With the end-of-the-year celebrations past us, we are ready to get back to work and continue our regular Godot 4.0 beta releases. Over the course of the last four months the engine has seen many changes, making it more stable and feature complete, and it’s getting very close to the state that we would be happy with.

        We took a bit longer to prepare this beta as there were a number of fairly big GDScript refactoring PRs (needed to fix many bugs), which we wanted to merge all at once. As such we expect that this beta 11 might introduce some new GDScript regressions, which we’ll aim to fix for beta 12 next week. Be sure to report anything that stops working as expected in your scripts.

      • Make Use Of ☛ 6 Linux and Open-Source Technologies That Made the Steam Deck Possible

        While Steam’s user interface isn’t open source, nor are most of the games, the experience wouldn’t be possible without an entire stack of free and open-source technology underneath. Valve knows this, and they’re paying numerous developers to improve the technologies they depend on.

        So what are the technologies that the Steam Deck utilizes to deliver an experience that has impressed much of the gaming world?

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • 9to5Linux ☛ GNOME 42.8 Enables Atomic Mode-Setting for NVIDIA/GBM, Improves Wayland and AMDGPU Support

          GNOME 42.8 is a pretty small update for those still using the GNOME 42 desktop on their GNU/Linux distribution. However, it brings an updated Mutter window and composite manager that disables client modifiers when the open-source AMDGPU driver is in use and enables atomic mode-setting for the NVIDIA graphics driver with GBM support.

          Previous GNOME 42 releases denied using the atomic mode-setting with the proprietary NVIDIA graphics driver because the mode-setting device was initiated before attempting to initialize the renderer because EGLStream-based page flipping is not compatible with atomic mode-setting.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • 9to5Linux ☛ Endless OS 5.0 Beta Is Here with a New Desktop Interface and Wayland Support

      Endless OS 5.0 is finally here in a beta variant that you can download and try on your personal computer if you want to enjoy the new desktop interface built on top of the GNOME 41 desktop environment, the revamped App Center that no longer features hard-coded lists of apps, as well as support for the next-generation Wayland display server protocol.

      Endless OS 5.0 also promises improved multi-GPU support as the system UI and most apps now use the integrated graphics card by default to save battery life on laptops. GPU-demanding apps like video games or 3D graphics software, such as Blender, are automatically started with the discrete graphics card.

    • ZDNet ☛ Mabox Linux is a throwback to old-school Linux with a new-school look and feel | ZDNET

      I’ve run the gamut of Linux distributions, from the incredibly simple to the overly complex, from modern interfaces to old-school throwbacks.

      I’ve used Fvwm95, CDE, KDE, Xfce, AfterStep, Blackbox, Enlightenment, Cinnamon, Mate, GNOME, and nearly every desktop that has ever been available to Linux. I’ve also used Ubuntu-based, Fedora-based, Arch-based, and just about any distribution based on nearly any other distribution. The combinations have been staggering over the years. Needless to say, I’ve experienced it all since I started using Linux in 1997.

      Because of using so many Linux distributions over the years, very little surprises me these days. But when I spun up a virtual instance of Mabox Linux, I couldn’t help but smile. Why? Because it reminded me of my early days using Linux, only with a bit of a modern, user-centric twist.

      You see, back in the early days, Linux wasn’t so user-friendly. Quite the opposite in fact. Linux was hard in its infancy. So, when I see a Linux distribution that reminds me of those days but manages to make it easy on users without years of experience under their belts, it reminds me how far the open-source operating system has come.

      Such is the case with Mabox Linux.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Content Management Systems (CMS)

      • WordPress ☛ WordPress is Turning 20: Let’s Celebrate! – WordPress News

        2023 marks the 20th year of WordPress. Where would we all be without WordPress? Just think of that! While many technologies, software stacks, and fashion trends have come and gone throughout the past two decades, WordPress has thrived. This is due to the fantastic work and contributions of the WordPress community, comprised of thousands of contributors; and millions of users who have embraced the four freedoms of WordPress and the mission to democratize publishing.

    • Funding

      • Julia Evans ☛ Some business graphs for 2022

        Hello! I like looking at other independent authors’ business graphs, so I thought I’d share some percentages and graphs of my own this year. Hopefully some of this is useful to other writers who run internet businesses.

        All of the graphs are about Wizard Zines’ business selling zines – I don’t do sponsorships or consulting or commissions or anything.

    • Programming/Development

  • Leftovers

    • Hackaday ☛ IoT Archaeology Leads To API Resurrection

      What happens when someone’s personal project is turned into a startup which becomes something of a publicity darling, then collapses with very little product shipped and takes all its customers’ money with it?

    • Hackaday ☛ Human-Powered Strandbeest

      Once you’ve seen a strandbeest, it’s hard to forget the mesmerizing movement of its mechanical limbs. [Adam Savage] built a pedal-powered strandbeest in (more than) one day in full view of the public at the San Francisco Exploratorium.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Amateur Radio Log 2023-01-10 Mid-day (Fairbanks, AK, US)

        During the lunch break (12:00 AKST) I was able to spend some time at the beginning of Yak road on Chena Ridge doing mobile radio. Radio was an ICOM IC-746PRO with a 3-foot 20-meter mag-mount antenna attached to the top of my SUV. I had tuned the antenna for 14.250 Mhz.

    • Technical

      • Wholesomedonut’s Gemlog: – RISC-V and Toki Pona

        I’m taking a course on RISC-V.

        It’s the LFD-110X course as offered by the Linux Foundation, and hosted by edX.

        You can get in on it too for free by taking the Audit track of the course. You don’t get a certification (though you do have an option to upgrade to getting one later and paying for the exam like everyone who did it originally); and you still get access to all the non-graded course content.

      • 4:3 isn’t bad

        I’ve used 4:3 for about one week. It isn’t bad at all, I can see why many people enjoy this aspect ratio, in the future if I get a monitor I’ll probably try to get a 4:3 one. It’s comfortable, and cozy.

        Although, on my laptop it looks good, on my desktop monitor it looks blurry because of the sheer size of the screen itself, which is not that pleasant. I still find I enjoy it like that, although 16:9 is better in some tasks, or just in having crisp text in my case.

      • New Year, New Blog

        I started blogging around this time two years ago and one of the things I’ve found is that having just a little pressure to have something interesting to share can be a good motivator in getting things done. With my final semester of school just now starting and wanting to finish strong, one of the things I’ve been thinking about stepping up is my blogging efforts. This is just an experiment and I’ll start to back off if it gets to be too much, but I’m hopeful that setting goals to share more will be a good motivator.

      • Winamp 2023

        I was browsing the snap store and came across Foobar2000, a music player that quite closely resembles the old, original Winamp. Being an old nerd, I was curious and decided to install the snap; however, the installer is currently stuck at around 24%, which I attribute to the installation of Wine. Regardless of that, I was reminded that every (six months, year, two years?) I inevitably look to the winamp.com website. For YEARS they promised goodness and great things to come, that the company was working hard on bringing it back…so I stuck with it and went back to the website every now and then. I didn’t sign up for the mailing list simply because I just didn’t want to get more spam.

      • Science

        • Embracing Degrowth

          I’m utterly exhausted – I haven’t been sleeping well, work has been kicking my butt, and I’ve been preparing to go to a con in a few days, but I wanted to write this as a precis of a more detailed post to come.

          I’ve historically viewed capitalism, while flawed, as a basically reformable system. That has increasingly become impossible for me. In particular, the excesses of consumer culture, both inside my industry and outside of it, are horrifying. The incentive structure of capitalism rewards mass ecological destruction, labor exploitation, and waste on an astounding scale. These factors are intimately linked with racism, sexism, and other forms of structural oppression. I have increasingly realized that while those problems are easiest for me to see in my own industry, they are ubiquitous to the capitalist system.

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

Microsofters Stabbing People in Debian

Posted in Debian, Microsoft at 8:58 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Anyway, good news for today so I'm in a good mood: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2023/01/msg00003.html

Stabbing debian

Summary: Hours ago Microsoft Matt bragged that he had just entered the technical committee in Debian; he probably doesn’t want people to see what he wrote before (content warning: violence)

Links 10/01/2023: Lots on Gaming and More Twitter Departures

Posted in News Roundup at 12:19 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  • GNU/Linux

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Jason Rose ☛ OpenZFS: the final word in file systems

      OpenZFS, arguably the heart of TrueNAS, is the open-source file system and volume manager based on Sun/Oracle’s ZFS. ZFS development began at Sun Microsystems in 2001 with the aim of completely reframing how systems administrators manage their storage systems. Its original development team outlined several guiding principles that still shape the project today: storage should be flexibly-pooled, always consistent, self-healing, and simple to manage.

      In ZFS, disks are grouped into virtual devices (or vdevs) usually with some form of redundancy/protection against disk failure. A ZFS pool may have one or more vdevs; if a pool has more than one vdev, they’re striped together to form one giant bucket of storage. A vdev’s redundancy might be based on simple multi-disk mirrors or RAIDZ where administrators can pick from single-, double- or triple-disk parity protection.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ Warner Bros. Fights ‘Mortal Kombat II’ Source Code Leak [Ed: Microsoft censoring/banning Free software again]

      GitHub has removed a recent “Mortal Kombat II” source code leak following a request from Warner Bros. Discovery. The leak purportedly reveals unused artwork and an alternative storyline for the iconic arcade game, first released by Midway in 1993. Three decades later, the current rightsholder seems keen to plug the leaks.

    • Education

      • Felix Crux ☛ Feeds: The Only Civilised Way to Read Online

        There’s a better way — and there has been for decades! Amazingly, it seems underused even within tech circles, and almost completely unknown to the general public. It’s super easy to use, actually more convenient than social media apps, and leaves you in complete control of what you see.

        I’m talking, of course, about RSS/Atom web feeds, and I contend that they are not only a better alternative, but in fact I’d go so far as to say that a feed reader is the only tolerable and civilised way to read online! The system works really well and more in line with what (I think) most people actually want; it minimizes the use of harmful social media platforms; and it helps foster a more vibrant, independent, creative, and non-commerical Web. So drop your non-chronological algorithmically-obscured sponsored timeline, and let’s have a whirlwind overview of what feeds are and how to use them!

    • Programming/Development

      • Daniel Stenberg ☛ My weekly report on email | daniel.haxx.se

        Starting this week, you can subscribe to my weekly report and receive it as an email. This is the brief weekly summary of my past week that I have been writing and making available for over a year already. It sums up what I have been doing recently and what I plan to do next.

        Topics in the reports typically involve a lot of curl, libcurl, HTTP, protocols, standards, networking and related open source stuff.

      • Exploratory DataXray Analysis (EDXA)

        Do you know how long EDA (exploratory data analysis) used to take me? Not hours, not days… A full week! Listen, you don’t know how good you have it. With this new R package I’m about to show you (plus one BONUS hack), you’ll cut your EDA time into 5 minutes. Here’s how.

      • Data Science Tutorials ☛ Lottery Prediction-Comparison between Statistics and Luck

        Lottery Prediction-Comparison between Statistics and Luck, statistics and luck all go hand in hand.

      • Dirk Eddelbuettel ☛ Dirk Eddelbuettel: RcppTOML 0.2.0: TOML 1.0.0 rewrite with toml++

        A few years since the last release in late 2020, the RcppTOML package is now back with a new and shiny CRAN release 0.2.0. It is now based on the wonderful toml++ C++17 library by Mark Gillard and gets us (at long last!) full TOML v1.0.0 compliance for use with R.

        [...]

        This package is a rewrite of the internals interfacing the library, and updates the package to using toml++ and C++17. The R interface is unchanged, and a full run of reverse dependencies passed. This involved finding one sole test failure which turned to have been driven by a non-conforming TOML input file which Jianfeng Li kindly fixed at the source making his (extensive) set of tests in package configr pass too. The actual rewrite was mostly done in a one-off repo RcppTomlPlusPlus which can now be considered frozen.

      • Dirk Eddelbuettel ☛ Thinking inside the box

        Another quick update to the still new-ish package spdl is now om CRAN, and in Debian. The key focus of spdl is a offering the same interface from both R and C++ for logging by relying on spdlog via my RcppSpdlog package.

        This release add support for the stopwatch() facility. One can now instantiate such an object, and referencing it in a log message shows the elapsed time. No more, no less, and it works the same way in R and C++.

      • Dirk Eddelbuettel ☛ Dirk Eddelbuettel: RVowpalWabbit 0.0.18: Maintenance

        A new maintenance release, now at version 0.0.18, of the RVowpalWabbit package arrived on CRAN. It improves several sprintf() calls by changing them to snprintf() (though there is a remaining one creeping in from a linked-to library).

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

      • Dirk Eddelbuettel ☛ Dirk Eddelbuettel: RcppSpdlog 0.0.12 on CRAN: Added Stopwatch

        Version 0.0.12 of RcppSpdlog is now on CRAN and in Debian. RcppSpdlog bundles spdlog, a wonderful header-only C++ logging library with all the bells and whistles you would want that was written by Gabi Melman, and also includes fmt by Victor Zverovich.

        This release adds support for the stopwatch object, a simple container around a std::chrono object. It makes (simple) time measurements of routines and code segments trivially easy. Instantiate a stopwatch object, and ‘formatting’ it in a logging string displays elapsed time. And given that the whole mojo of RcppSpdlog (and its sibbling package spdl) is to make use easy in both R and C++ we can do this nicely and consistently in both languages. The vignette has an added section with a concrete example.

      • Henrik Warne ☛ There Is No Software Maintenance

        Every time I hear about software maintenance as a distinct activity, I cringe. That’s because it is based on the outdated notion that first software is developed, then it is maintained. But that is not how software development works today. Software development does not have the two phases development and maintenance – it is a continuous process. Software maintenance is simply software development.

        It is fairly common to come across the concept of software maintenance. Recently I have seen it in posts on LinkedIn (how developers leave if they have to do maintenance), in books (“it is well known that the majority of the cost of software is not in its initial development, but in its ongoing maintenance”), and in surveys (do you develop new features, or do you maintain existing features). But this is based on the false premise of the software project.

      • OpenSource.com ☛ How to use methods in Java

        A method in Java (called a “function” in many other programming languages) is a portion of code that’s been grouped together and labeled for reuse. Methods are useful because they allow you to perform the same action or series of actions without rewriting the same code, which not only means less work for you, it means less code to maintain and debug when something goes wrong.

        A method exists within a class, so the standard Java boilerplate code applies:

        A package definition isn’t strictly necessary in a simple one-file application like this, but it’s a good habit to get into, and most IDEs enforce it.

        By default, Java looks for a main method to run in a class. Methods can be made public or private, and static or non-static, but the main method must be public and static for the Java compiler to recognize and utilize it. When a method is public, it’s able to be executed from outside the class. To call the Example class upon start of the program, its main method must be accessible, so set it to public.

  • Leftovers

    • Security

      • Techdirt ☛ It’s 2023 And The FCC Only Just Proposed Rules Requiring Telecoms Immediately Inform Consumers When Their Data Is Compromised

        Back in 2015, the nation’s top telecom regulator attempted to create some very basic (by international standards) privacy guidelines for telecom providers, demanding they do things like (gasp) be transparent about the consumer data they were collecting and selling, while also requiring that consumers (gasp) opt in to the sale of any particularly sensitive data.

      • Krebs On Security ☛ Identity Thieves Bypassed Experian Security to View Credit Reports

        Identity thieves have been exploiting a glaring security weakness in the website of Experian, one of the big three consumer credit reporting bureaus. Normally, Experian requires that those seeking a copy of their credit report successfully answer several multiple choice questions about their financial history. But until the end of 2022, Experian’s website allowed anyone to bypass these questions and go straight to the consumer’s report. All that was needed was the person’s name, address, birthday and Social Security number.

      • EFF ☛ EFF and Partners Call Out Threats to Free Expression in Draft Text as UN Cybersecurity Treaty Negotiations Resume
      • FOSSLife ☛ FCC Proposes New Data Breach Rules for Telecoms

        The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed updated rules for how telecoms notify customers of data breaches.

        Specifically, the organization proposes “eliminating the current seven business day mandatory waiting period for notifying customers of a breach,” according to the press release.

        Current FCC rules, which were adopted in 2007, “require that carriers that have more than 5,000 customers notify the FCC of a data breach within seven days of discovery, while breaches affecting fewer than 5,000 customers must be reported no later than 30 days,” notes CyberScoop.

      • Bruce Schneier ☛ ChatGPT-Written Malware – Schneier on Security

        ChatGPT-generated code isn’t that good, but it’s a start. And the technology will only get better. Where it matters here is that it gives less skilled hackers—script kiddies—new capabilities.

      • Ars Technica ☛ ChatGPT is enabling script kiddies to write functional malware | Ars Technica

        Researchers at security firm Check Point Research reported Friday that within a few weeks of ChatGPT going live, participants in cybercrime forums—some with little or no coding experience—were using it to write software and emails that could be used for espionage, ransomware, malicious spam, and other malicious tasks.

      • Ruben Schade ☛ Rubenerd: Using scp(1) to transfer multiple files

        This came up during a customer call last year, where the engineer was running it a few times. On the backend it’s sftp(1) now anyway, as it probably should be.

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

        Security updates have been issued by Debian (libtasn1-6), Fedora (nautilus), Oracle (kernel, kernel-container, nodejs:14, tigervnc, and xorg-x11-server), Red Hat (grub2, nodejs:14, tigervnc, and xorg-x11-server), Scientific Linux (tigervnc and xorg-x11-server), SUSE (systemd), and Ubuntu (firefox, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.15, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.15, linux-azure-fde, linux-azure, w3m, and webkit2gtk).

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Scheerpost ☛ Caitlin Johnstone: Unprovoked!

        In the mass media you’re not allowed to talk about the U.S.-NATO actions that diplomats, politicians, academics — even the head of the C.I.A. — have long warned would lead to war in Ukraine.

      • Michael West Media ☛ The war powers inquiry – Michael West

        The Parliamentary Inquiry into War Powers heard the pros and cons of a parliamentary vote to go to war versus the status quo, that is, the Prime Minister alone can make the call.

      • The Nation ☛ Why the New Hampshire Presidential Primary Is Good for Democracy

        Not all that long ago, America was at war. The Vietnam conflict of the 1960s and ’70s meant the deaths of our young people, then subjected to mandatory drafts to fill quotas. Over 50,000 Americans and allies died, with many others suffering lifelong injuries. An estimated 3 million-plus citizens of North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia were killed. President after president got our nation more deeply involved, with no ending in sight—goaded in large part by the military-industrial complex.

      • The Nation ☛ Thoughts and Prayers… but No Action
      • Scheerpost ☛ Pentagon Doc Reveals US Lied About Afghan Civilians Killed in 2021 Drone Strike

        One Amnesty International campaigner called the new report “more evidence that we need a huge change in how the U.S. uses lethal force and assesses and reveals its consequences.”

      • Scheerpost ☛ On MSNBC and ‘Authoritarianism’
      • Scheerpost ☛ Itamar Ben Gvir Just Banned the Palestinian Flag

        The new Israeli Minister of National Security banned the display of the colors of the Palestinian flag in public spaces. It is the latest Israeli attempt to erase Palestinian identity.

      • Techdirt ☛ Independent Reporting Shows Cops Are Still Killing People At An Alarming Rate

        Law enforcement agencies have no interest in tracking how often officers kill people. Despite all the talk about police reform, very few states require accurate reporting on deadly force deployments.

      • Counter Punch ☛ An Interview With Jefferson Morley on the CIA, Nixon and the Assassination of JFK

        Jefferson Morley is a Washington intelligence expert and investigative journalist. He is co-founder and editor of JFK Facts and vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, which sponsors the internet’s largest archive of records related to JFK’s assassination.

        His latest book is Scorpion’s Dance: The President, The Spymaster, and Watergate. The book  reveals the Watergate scandal in a completely new light: as the culmination of a concealed, deadly power struggle between President Richard Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms.

      • Counter Punch ☛ Prince Harry’s Great Afghan Shooting Party

        What to make of it?  History is filled with the deeds of blood-thirsty princes bold in ambition and feeble of mind.  Massacres make the man, though there is often little to merit the person behind it.  The Duke of Sussex seemingly wishes to add his name to that list.   In what can only be described as one of his “Nazi uniform” moments, Prince Harry has revealed in his memoir Spare that he killed a number of Taliban fighters. (In the same memoir, the weak-willed royal blames his brother for the uniform idea, though not for organising the Afghan shooting party.)

        The prince, wishing to show that he was no toy soldier or ceremonial ornament of the British Army, puts the number of deaths at 25.  “It wasn’t a statistic that filled me with pride but nor did it make me ashamed.”  He recalls being “plunged into the heat and confusion of battle”, and how he “didn’t think about those 25 people.  You can’t kill people if you see them as people.”  Doing so from the security of a murderous Apache helicopter certainly helps.

      • The Nation ☛ The United States Thinks It’s the Exception to the Rules of War

        Let me start with a confession: I no longer read all the way through newspaper stories about the war in Ukraine. After years of writing about war and torture, I’ve reached my limit. These days, I just can’t pore through the details of the ongoing nightmare there. It’s shameful, but I don’t want to know the names of the dead or examine images caught by brave photographers of half-exploded buildings, exposing details—a shoe, a chair, a doll, some half-destroyed possessions—of lives lost, while I remain safe and warm in San Francisco. Increasingly, I find that I just can’t bear it.

      • The Nation ☛ Merchants of Death
      • Common Dreams ☛ Militarized Japan and the Biden-Kishida Summit Signal Moment in the New Cold War

        “Japan in December adopted a set of three security and defense strategy documents that break from its exclusively self-defense-only stance. Under the new strategies, Japan vows to build up its counterstrike capability with long-range cruise missiles that can reach potential targets in China, double its defense budget within five years and bolster development of advanced weapons.” —Asahi Shimbun

    • Environment

      • The Nation ☛ Global Warming Is the Front-Page Story of Our Lifetime

        Let me start 2023 with a glance back at a December news moment that caught my eye. To do so, however, I have to offer a bit of explanation.

      • The Nation ☛ Letters From the January 23/30, 2023, Issue

        A Bridge Too Far… or Too Late?

        Kudos to The Nation for hosting a debate on whether governments should reinvest in nuclear power to fight climate change [“The Debate,” by Paul Hockenos and Jessica Lovering, November 28/December 5, 2022]. A key question among others that need to be addressed is whether there is a viable compromise position on nuclear power. Can it be used as a component of our energy system for only a few decades as part of the transition to clean renewables?Ferd Wulkan montague, mass.2

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Meduza ☛ Orthodox activists report Little Big leader Ilya Prusikin for skateboarding on crucifix — Meduza

        Orthodox Christian activists from the radical Sorok Sorokov movement have reported Ilya Prusikin, leader of the Little Big rave band, for a “blasphemous” Instagram video, in which Prusikin, dressed as a Catholic priest, skateboards on top of a crucifix.

      • Meduza ☛ Bisexual Dagestani teen reports 4 months in brutal ‘conversion therapy’ paid by her parents — Meduza

        Elina Ukhmanova, a bisexual 18-year-old from Dagestan, claims having spent four months in captivity at the Alliance Recovery “rehab center” in Makhachkala, undergoing a violent conversion treatment at the behest of her parents.

      • Telex (Hungary) ☛ Szijjártó: Hungary will vote against Kosovo’s admission into European organizations
      • Scheerpost ☛ Under Musk, Twitter Continues to Promote US Propaganda Networks

        Dozens of accounts that are part of US overt propaganda networks are given special treatment from Twitter, violating Twitter’s own policies

      • Scheerpost ☛ Patrick Lawrence: Europe and the Legitimization of Deception

        The U.S., having no need of or gift for statecraft, has long practiced what I’ve taken to calling the diplomacy of no diplomacy. You can’t expect much from bimbos such as Antony Blinken or Wendy Sherman, Blinken’s No. 2 at the State Department. All they can do is […]

      • Scheerpost ☛ McKinsey’s Addiction Corporations

        Almost 30 years ago, tobacco CEOs were forced to answer questions – under oath. For the first time, corporate bosses had to admit that tobacco companies were designing cigarettes to sustain addiction – a dark day for corporate profits, tobacco corporations, and the ever supportive management consultancy firm: McKinsey. Yet, it was a good day for everyone else. […]

      • The Nation ☛ US Democracy Is Under Attack. These Human Rights Defenders Are Not Backing Down.

        If ever there was a year when progressives faced an uphill climb, it was 2022. Democrats had control of the White House and Congress, but corporate-aligned centrists stalled progress on major pieces of legislation. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, rising gas prices and inflation, and challenges posed by the lingering coronavirus pandemic contributed to a sour mood on the part of the electorate. Then, in June, the US Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and put abortion rights in jeopardy nationwide. It was easy to feel overwhelmed, yet progressives persevered. They played a pivotal role in preventing a Republican takeover of the Senate in November—and even flipped a GOP seat in Pennsylvania to John Fetterman. They thwarted the ambitions of election deniers and proponents of voter suppression in states across the country. And in cities like Los Angeles, they beat the big-money interests that now seek to control every branch of government—with grassroots progressives scoring victories against all odds. Here are some of the campaigners, activists, intellectuals, and artists who spoke truth to power, defended democracy, and bent the arc of history toward justice in 2022.1

      • The Nation ☛ Hannah Arendt Was Really a Prophet Against Conformity

        Hannah Arendt did more than anyone else to give the idea of totalitarianism the importance we accord it today. But like her contemporary George Orwell, in her subtlest trains of thought Arendt was seldom writing about the “-ism,” the social and political entity. She was more concerned with the implications of the adjective “totalitarian.”1

      • Democracy Now ☛ Biden Visits Border But Doesn’t Meet with Asylum Seekers as Administration Cracks Down on Immigration

        Immigrant rights groups are denouncing President Biden’s recent announcement that the United States will start to block migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba from applying for asylum if they’re apprehended crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The move is an expansion of the contested Trump-era Title 42 pandemic policy set to be reviewed by the Supreme Court. Over the weekend, Biden visited El Paso, one of the country’s busiest border crossings, in his first visit to the border as president. He reportedly did not meet with or see any migrants during his four-hour visit. For more, we speak with two immigrant rights activists who have been urging the Biden administration to drop Title 42 and create the infrastructure to welcome asylum seekers: Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, and Fernando García, executive director of the El Paso, Texas-based Border Network for Human Rights.

      • The Nation ☛ In the Windy City

        Located in Chicago’s historic Pilsen neighborhood, 1831 South Racine Avenue is currently the site of a luxury shared-living complex. Advertised as having “eliminated things that make city living a challenge,” Pilsen Coliving offers its tenants private beds and bathrooms inside a completely furnished suite that they share with others. Outfitted with hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, washers and dryers, subway-tiled bathrooms,

      • Democracy Now ☛ Bolsonaro Backers Storm Brazil’s Key Gov’t Buildings in Jan. 6-Style Attempt to Oust Lula from Power

        Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is condemning thousands of supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed the Brazilian Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace Sunday in a scene reminiscent of the U.S. Capitol insurrection. Rioters smashed windows, ransacked offices and set fire to a carpet inside the Congress building before authorities made over 400 arrests. Bolsonaro has never formally conceded the race to third-term President Lula and fled to Florida, where he has reportedly met with Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago, while his supporters have blockaded highways and set up protest encampments outside military bases and in the capital Brasília to protest what they falsely claim was a rigged election. We get an update from Brazilian newspaper columnist and professor Thiago Amparo in São Paulo and reporter Michael Fox, host of the “Brazil on Fire” podcast.

      • The Nation ☛ From a Clown Coup to a Clown Speakership

        Last Friday, as Kevin McCarthy was nearing the end of his grueling, humiliating, multiday quest to become the new House speaker, former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer tweeted, “Kevin McCarthy becoming Speaker by offering concessions to the pro-insurrection caucus on the two year anniversary of January 6th is just a perfect statement about the GOP.” As it turns out, Pfeiffer’s tweet wasn’t quite accurate, because McCarthy didn’t actually have all the votes he needed on January 6. It was only after one final round of begging Florida Representative Matt Gaetz to just vote “present” that McCarthy, in the 15th round of ballot counting, finally won the bare majority he needed to become speaker in the early hours of January 7. But Pfeiffer’s tweet remains poetically true: Two years and a day after the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the Republican Party provided fresh proof that it remains in thrall to its insurrectionist caucus.1

      • The Nation ☛ Kevin McCarthy’s Reign Begins—for Now

        Our long national nightmare is just beginning. After a week of futile posturing and trench warfare on the House floor, the House GOP caucus somehow managed to elect Kevin McCarthy speaker of the House on the 15th ballot. In the early hours of January 7, after the second anniversary of the 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, McCarthy appeared doomed for more purgatorial humiliation as the 14th vote broke against expectations and failed to produce a majority for him. But just as the House was going to vote to adjourn, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, one of the hard-right ringleaders of the “Never Kevin” insurgency, buttonholed the speaker-in-waiting for an impromptu conference. Moments later, McCarthy rushed to take back his endorsement of the pending adjournment, and finally claimed his battered, tarnished, dubiously functional leadership prize.

      • The Nation ☛ George Santos

        George Santos invented an alternate life, With chutzpah we’ve seen only rarely. Mendacity in all his statements was rife. He beat Trump in lying, though barely.

      • Techdirt ☛ Arizona Government Thinks It Should Be Able To Decide What You Wear And When

        Trying to legislate sexual identity is a fool’s errand. Plenty of Arizona state fools are backing a bill that attempts to do that, though. When you can’t figure out how to stop people from outward displays of their sexual identity, you start getting unconstitutional in a hurry.

      • Counter Punch ☛ Which Government Does the United States Recognize in Venezuela?

        On January 3, 2023, Shaun Tandon of Agence France-Presse asked U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price about Venezuela. In late December, the Venezuelan opposition after a fractious debate decided to dissolve the “interim government” led by Juan Guaidó. From 2019 onward, the U.S. government recognized Guaidó as the “interim president of Venezuela.” With the end of Guaidó’s administration, Tandon asked if “the United States still recognize[s] Juan Guaidó as legitimate interim president.”

        Price’s answer was that the U.S. government recognizes the “only remaining democratically elected institution in Venezuela today, and that’s the 2015 National Assembly.” It is true that when the U.S. government supported Guaidó as the “interim president” of Venezuela, it did so because of his role as the rotating president in that National Assembly in 2019. Since the presidency of the National Assembly rotates annually, Guaidó should have left the position of “interim president” by the end of 2020. But he did not, going against Article 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution of 1999, which he cited as the basis for his ascension in 2019.

      • Counter Punch ☛ Biden Isn’t Great for Latin America, But Trump Was Far Worse

        Two major developments can be inferred from the results of the November 8, 2022 mid-term elections in the United States. First, the voters did not punish Joe Biden after his first two years as president as the pre-election polls had predicted they would.  Consequently, Donald Trump’s political standing has diminished along with the legitimacy of his leadership role in the Republican Party.

        All 435 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election, and Republicans now have control of the lower chamber, though by a narrow margin. Since the end of World War II, the opposition party has usually won at least one of the two legislative bodies in the first mid-term election after a new president takes over. Historically, however, the opposition victory margin is much higher than what the Republicans were able to obtain this time around.

      • Counter Punch ☛ How Biden Can Resolve America’s Immigration Crisis

        No pundit can predict what heated issue will dominate the presidential and congressional elections in 2024. However, aside from the Supreme Court making a historic decision to eradicate another established freedom, like marrying who you wish, regardless of gender or race, migration will remain a national issue.

        Public opinion polls have consistently ranked controlling immigration as a significant concern for Americans. For example, a Gallup opinion poll taken in July 2022 showed that 38% of Americans wanted a decrease in immigration, the highest percentage since July 2016, when Donald Trump was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate.

      • The Nation ☛ Protect Democracy by Bolstering Organized Labor

        Twenty twenty-two was a decent year for democracy. Legislative districts remained gerrymandered, but the maps were not as extreme as they were in the 2010s. State governments were still engaging in voter suppression, but it was partly counteracted by pro-voter policies and mobilization by voter turnout groups. Perhaps most important, many candidates who were promoting “Stop the Steal” voter-fraud conspiracy theories lost in the 2022 midterms. Is American democracy out of the woods? The answer, unfortunately, is no. The events of 2022 certainly moved us away from the brink. But the threats remain. The situation is not hopeless, however, particularly if Democrats can focus on long-term strategies, such as rebuilding the labor movement.

      • The Nation ☛ Ben Jealous: Never Forget Our People Were Always Free

        My great-grandmother wrote my grandmother’s birth certificate herself, as she did for every Negro child in her Virginia county at that time. Back then, the county clerk would explain, “We don’t write birth certificates for cows, so we don’t write them for Negroes.” It was 1916, and my people were far from human in the eyes of the segregationist government that ran Dinwiddie County, Va.

      • Telex (Hungary) ☛ Orbán promises to make Hungary a ‘regional middle power’ – and keeps us guessing about the hows
      • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Disaster for Everyone Except Corrupt Politicians’: House GOP Votes to Gut Ethics Office

        In one of their first acts in the majority, House Republicans on Monday approved a rules package that will dramatically hinder the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent body tasked with investigating complaints about sitting lawmakers.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

        • Democracy for the Arab World Now ☛ Saudi Arabia: Government Agents Infiltrate Wikipedia, Sentence Independent Wikipedia Administrators to Prison

          The Saudi Arabian government infiltrated Wikipedia by recruiting the organization’s highest ranked administrators in the country to serve as government agents to control information about the country and prosecuting those who contributed critical information about political detainees, said SMEX and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) today.

          Following an internal investigation in 2022, Wikimedia terminated all of its Wikipedia administrators in Saudi Arabia in December. DAWN and SMEX documented Wikipedia’s infiltration by the Saudi government based on interviews with sources close to Wikipedia and the imprisoned administrators.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Scheerpost ☛ Free Speech and Academic Freedom in the American Corporate University

        Free speech and academic freedom  are under attack in American higher education. From the right the allegation is that wokeness and political correctness  have taken over, articulating  a political agenda that is  anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-capitalism, and pro LGBTQ.  From the left  the indictment is that schools continue to replicate stereotypes […]

      • Meduza ☛ Alexey Navalny starts 2023 in punishment cell — Meduza

        Alexey Navalny, who is serving his sentence in Prison Colony No. 6 in the Vladimir region, has been placed in the punishment cell for the tenth time.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • The Nation ☛ Access to Journalism Is a Human Right

        In 1974, when the Irish statesman and humanitarian Seán MacBride was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he delivered an acceptance speech emphasizing the urgent need for nuclear disarmament. But at a key moment, MacBride turned to the growing role of mass media in world affairs. The media’s exploding reach and speed, he asserted, could grant “a much greater degree of influence to public opinion in the world than it has ever had.” The US withdrawal from Vietnam proved it. For the first time, MacBride said, a country at war had been stopped in its tracks by public opinion—shaped through the media. But this shift in power was not yet fully understood. “Greater vigilance than ever will have to be exercised to ensure that the press and the mass media do not become controlled by governments or financial interests,” he warned.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • The Nation ☛ Pakistan’s Transgender Community Rises Up

        Dr. Sarah Gill was just 14 when she ran away from home in Karachi. For most of her childhood, she had suffered the humiliation of feeling like a girl but being told she was a boy. She used to quarrel with her mother for making her dress like a boy and would refuse to study unless she was allowed to grow her hair long. “From my features, it was always very obvious that I wasn’t a guy,” she says. “People used to degrade me a lot because of my looks. They would come to my house and tell my parents all sorts of things about me.”

      • Democracy Now ☛ Harvard Faces Outcry for Rescinding Post to Ex-Head of Human Rights Watch over Criticism of Israel

        We speak with the longtime former head of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, about losing a prestigious position at Harvard over his criticism of Israeli human rights abuses. Roth was set to begin as a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy after he retired as director of the renowned human rights organization in April. But the school’s dean, Douglas Elmendorf, vetoed the move over Roth’s and Human Rights Watch’s “anti-Israel bias,” The Nation reports. “We hold Israel to the same standards as everybody else,” Roth says of Human Rights Watch’s work. He adds that while it’s unclear what pressure the Kennedy School may have faced in its decision, reporting truthfully on Israel’s rights record often brings down the ire of pro-Israel groups who want to shut down all criticism. “They want us to exempt Israel from human rights scrutiny, and no credible human rights group could possibly do that.”

      • The Nation ☛ Ye Is a Right-Wing Tool—and Black People Know It

        Kanye “Ye” West has been spewing white nationalist talking points for a decade. His current anti-Semitic road show was preceded by years of evident anti-Blackness, from hawking Confederate flag merch in 2013, to declaring that Black enslavement was “a choice” in 2018, to appearing repeatedly at the White House during the Trump years, to attempting, in 2021, to coerce Black election workers in Georgia to falsely confess throwing the vote to Biden. Unsurprisingly, wariness of Ye among Black folks has been steadily growing for years, particularly among disappointed former fans. In 2018, the writer Channing Hargrove wrote a satirical obituary for West; Black Twitter declared him stuck in Get Out’s “sunken place”; and journalist and filmmaker dream hampton indicted him for pushing “the same old white supremacy.” Comedian Zachary Fox had the prescience to warn that we should all disembark from “the Kanye train before it inevitably reaches the ‘Hitler was a good guy’ stop.” In October 2022, an Economist/YouGov poll found that a greater share of Black Americans (40 percent) viewed the rapper very negatively than either Hispanic Americans (32 percent) or white Americans (33 percent).

      • Common Dreams ☛ Malignant Idiots Incoming

        Lesson from the clusterfuck that was the “once-in-a-century humiliation” of “Titan of Mediocrity” Kevin McCarthy bumbling through 15 votes to become Speaker of a shambolic House held hostage by a rabid band of insurrectionist wingnuts: Elect clowns, get a circus. The tragicomedy, years in the gerrymandering, confirms there is no GOP normal; this was MAGA eating its own. After days of concessions – he’ll teach Boebert to read! – Kevin is now the feckless “mayor of Crazytown.” Mazel tov, dude.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Techdirt ☛ Decades Late, The FCC Might Start Cracking Down On Terrible Telecom Prison Monopolies. Maybe.

        However terrible telecom monopolies are in the free world, they’re arguably worse in prisons. For decades, journalists have outlined how a select number of prison telecom giants like Securus have enjoyed a cozy, government-kickback based monopoly over prison phone and teleconferencing services, resulting sky high rates (upwards of $14 per minute) for inmate families.

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • [Old] The Register UK ☛ Software fees to make up 10% of John Deere’s revenues by 2030

        US farm machinery giant John Deere has estimated software fees will make up 10 percent of the company’s revenues by the end of the decade.

      • [Old] uni Tampere ☛ Parody And Copyright In The European Union Law

        Parody and copyright are both linked to fundamental rights in the EU law; parody to the freedom of expression and copyright essentially to the right to property even though it can be seen to advance the freedom of expression as well. The relationship between parody and copyright in the EU law is regulated essentially in the Information Society Directive (The InfoSoc Directive). According to it the Member States may set out a parody exception to copyright holders’ rights found in Articles 2 (right of reproduction) and 3 (right of communication to the public of works and right of making available to the public other subject- matter). The exception means that one can create and publish a parody without violating these rights. Setting out the parody exception is voluntary for the Member States. However, the InfoSoc Directive does not define parody. A change to the lack of definition was provided in the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) preliminary ruling Deckmyn and Vrijheidsfonds (Deckmyn) in which parody was established as an autonomous concept in the EU law and given a uniform definition in the EU law. The ECJ based the definition on its usual meaning. According to the definition ‘the essential characteristics of parody, are, first, to evoke an existing work, while being noticeably different from it, and secondly, to constitute an expression of humour or mockery’. It is argued in the paper that ‘humour’ refers to a humorous intent as opposed to a humorous effect because this is more in line with the freedom of expression and because of practical reasons.

      • Techdirt ☛ John Deere Once Again Pinky Swears It Will Stop Monopolizing Repair

        Once just the concern of pissed off farmers and nerdy tinkerers, the last two years have seen a groundswell of broader culture awareness about “right to repair,” and the perils of letting companies like Apple, John Deere, Microsoft, or Sony monopolize repair options, making repairing things you own both more difficult and way more expensive.

      • Hackaday ☛ You Can Now Fix Your Deere

        Over the last few years we have brought you many stories about John Deere tractors, and how their repair has been locked down such that only manufacturer-authorised technicians can work on them. They’ve become a poster child in the battle for the right to repair, a symbol of the worst practices. Finally now we can bring you some good news of sorts, as the agricultural giant has signed a memorandum of understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation to ensure that their products will henceforth be repairable by people without Deere approval.

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

      • Copyrights

        • Creative Commons ☛ Celebrate Public Domain Day 2023 with Us: The Best Things in Life Are Free

          This year ushered in a wealth of creative works published in 1927 into the Public Domain, which now contribute to our cultural heritage. Iconic authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Marcel Proust, and Virginia Woolf, silent film classics like the controversial The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson and Fritz Lang’s dystopian Metropolis, and snappy musical compositions like “You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream”.

        • Torrent Freak ☛ Police Pay Home Visits to Warn Pirate IPTV Users

          Anti-piracy group FACT is helping UK police to deliver warning messages to alleged pirate IPTV users. Instead of simply sending letters in the mail, some cease-and-desist notices will be delivered in person. A recent IPTV crackdown resulted in the identification of over 1,000 subscribers, who will be asked to immediately stop any illegal activity, or else.

        • Torrent Freak ☛ 370 Pirate IPTV Sellers Faced Legal Action After CJEU ‘Filmspeler’ Ruling

          When streaming became the preferred way for millions of EU-based pirates to consume video content, the name Jack Frederik Wullems would’ve meant nothing. For 370 pirate IPTV suppliers targeted in the Netherlands in recent years, Wullems’ defeat in a landmark case back in 2017 is the reason their wallets are lighter today than they were before.

        • Public Domain Review ☛ Art Brut: The Scare-Fox (1910) – The Public Domain Review

          A mechanical device, designed to keep foxes away from pheasants, which opens onto a story about American gamekeeping in the early twentieth century.

          [...]

          Lawyer, editor, and indefatigable leader of the “More Game” movement in America, Dwight W. Huntington published this photograph of the scare-fox in Our Wild Fowl and Waders (1910) as part of his campaign to raise American awareness of the devastating depredations caused by “vermin”: a word that Americans used largely to refer to bed lice, but which in British gamekeeping circles had long been applied to any animal — from foxes, weasels, snakes, and stoats to rats, moles, and even shrews — that competed with hunters. Enthusiastically introducing the term in his March 1908 Independent “Game Bird Enemies”, Huntington would routinely employ it for the next three decades while cheerleading for “MORE GAME AND FEWER GAME LAWS”. Two journals he edited — Amateur Sportsman (1909–1912) and The Game Breeder (1912 –1938) — are a unique chronicle of the antagonistic reactions of hunters and “shooters” (waterfowl and other bird gunners) to the early twentieth century growth of the wildlife conservation movement. While Audubon Societies and kindred organizations lobbied legislatures to protect mammals and birds from destruction by both hunters and habitat loss, the Game Conservation Society (founded by Huntington in 1912) marshaled a nationwide campaign to stymie the “naturalists”: his generic and largely derogatory label for all of those who impinged on his dream of making America the world’s leading producer of game animals.

        • CNBC ☛ ABBA Voyage: Avatar show in London offers glimpse of future for live music

          Before the launch of “ABBA Voyage,” the London concert performed by 3D digital avatars of the iconic Swedish band, member Björn Ulvaeus said they hoped audiences would “feel that they’ve gone through something that they’ve never seen before.”

          Following its May 27 debut, much of the reaction from domestic and international critics, fans and industry professionals has been rapturous.

        • Adafruit ☛ Cyberpunk 2077 Investors and Developers Settle Class Action Lawsuit
        • Walled Culture ☛ How Minecraft’s ‘End Poem’ ended up in the public domain – Walled Culture

          Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time according to Wikipedia, with hundreds of millions of copies sold. The game concludes with the End Poem by the writer and musician Julian Gough, created in 2011. In December 2022, Gough wrote a post on his Substack site “The Egg and the Rock” in which he explains in detail how the poem came about. It’s a well-written, fascinating tale that touches on many aspects that are likely to be of interest to Walled Culture readers. It is, however, very long: some 10,000 words.

          [...]

          As that indicates, when he wrote the End Poem, Gough did something that this blog has recommended for all creators: to retain copyright in their work, rather than assigning it to a company, whatever the pressure to do so. Admittedly, he did this passively rather than actively, since he never got around to signing or even reading the contract that had been sent to him. When he did read it, he found it full of the usual – outrageous – demands to hand over just about every right that a creator typically has under copyright.

          One amusing consequence of Gough’s oversight is that after Minecraft was sold in 2014 to Microsoft for $2.5 billion, the latter was almost certainly infringing on Gough’s copyright by selling the game without any licence from him. But rather than taking the obvious route of suing the company for a few million dollars or more, Gough did something remarkable.

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

Links 10/01/2023: EasyOS Dunfell-series 4.5.5, CoolerMaster’s MasterPlus Liberated

Posted in News Roundup at 8:01 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Mastering the Linux CLI: why GUI tools aren’t enough – Linux Careers

        In today’s world of computer technology, there is a constant battle between graphical user interface (GUI) and command line tools. While GUI tools are often easier to use and have a more intuitive user experience, they can fall short when it comes to more complex tasks. This article will explore why mastering the command line is essential for any computer user, explaining the benefits of using a command line over GUI tools and demonstrating why GUI tools are not enough for certain tasks. By the end, readers will have a better understanding of why command line tools are an important part of their computing experience.

        Automating repetitive tasks with command line tools

        Command line tools can be especially beneficial for Linux administrators because of their ability to automate repetitive tasks, which can save time and reduce the risk of errors. This can be especially useful in situations where tasks need to be performed on a regular basis or on multiple systems. In contrast, graphical user interface (GUI) tools may not have the same level of automation capabilities, requiring users to manually perform tasks each time they are needed.

        This is just one example of the many benefits that command line tools can offer over GUI tools in Linux. While GUI tools may be more user-friendly and easier to learn, command line tools offer a level of power and flexibility that can be essential for tasks such as system administration, data manipulation, and automation.

    • Applications

      • Linux Links ☛ 9 Best Free and Open Source Linux Terminal Multiplexers

        The nuts and bolts of Linux seem destined to be increasingly hidden away from the desktop user. The continuing development of popular desktop environments offering attractive interfaces and fancy features shows no sign of abatement. However intuitive and slick desktop environments become, there is little prospect that the faithful terminal will be consigned to the recycle bin in the near future. There is simply too much power at the hands of a terminal for many experienced Linux users.

        Users that want to exploit the full power of the terminal may benefit from using a terminal multiplexer. This type of application can be considered to be a text version of a graphical window manager. It enables users to run multiple text programs simultaneously, as well as offering features that allow users to switch seamlessly between these programs in operation. Terminal multiplexers also allow multiple computers to make simultaneous connections.

      • Medevel ☛ Open Note Scanner: The Libre Doc Scanner You Have Been Waiting For

        Document Scanner app is a commercial paper document scanner app that many had to upgrade from the free version with limited options to the full feature paid one. Yet, many do not have the slightest idea that there is an open source free alternative app that does the same.

        Open Note Scanner is a free mobile scanner app for Android devices that enables you to scan documents, paper, cards, handwritten notes, art, or even your shopping receipts. Then do all the heavy lifting for you as automatically adjust the image aspect, contrast and save it in a high quality PDF format. It also supports the automatic scan of preformatted pages with QR Code and action indicators. PDF file with the pages are available on the application website, in the releases section.

        [...]

        Software licensed under the GPL version 3 available in GPLv3.TXT and online.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • TecAdmin ☛ lsusb Command in Linux (Display USB device Details) – TecAdmin

        The `lsusb` command is a utility in Linux that allows users to list the USB (Universal Serial Bus) devices connected to the system. It is a part of the “usbutils” package, which provides utilities to display information about USB buses in the system and the devices connected to them.

      • TecMint ☛ 6 Deprecated Linux Commands and Alternative Tools for Linux [Ed: In this guide, we will highlight 6 deprecated Linux commands and alternative tools that you should be using instead in your Linux system.]

        Linux provides tons of command-line utilities to perform various tasks. However, with the passage of time, some of these tools have become outdated and replaced by other alternative command-line tools.

        In this guide, we will highlight 6 deprecated Linux commands and alternative tools that you should be using instead. Most of these commands are networking utilities that are provided by the net-tools package which has not been under active maintenance for quite a while now.

      • ID Root ☛ How To Install TeamSpeak Client on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS – idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install TeamSpeak Client on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, TeamSpeak is a proprietary, cross-platform voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) application that is used for communication in online gaming, education, and business. Its main idea is to allow people to communicate on a channel, similar to other conferencing apps like Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc. TeamSpeak allows users to communicate with each other using voice and text chat, and it includes a range of features, including support for multiple channels, file sharing, and voice activity detection.

        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 TeamSpeak voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

      • LinuxConfig ☛ How often do you have to reboot your Linux server?

        Are you tired of constantly having to reboot your servers to fix issues or apply updates? You’re not alone. Server maintenance and uptime can be a tricky balance, and the decision of when to reboot a server comes with trade-offs. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the reasons why servers may need to be rebooted, the potential consequences of not rebooting, and the different approaches to server maintenance and uptime.

        We’ll also explore tools and techniques that can minimize the need for reboots. Whether you’re a sysadmin, a developer, or a manager, this article will give you a better understanding of the complexities of server maintenance and uptime and help you make informed decisions about when to reboot your servers.

      • Red Hat Official ☛ Linux file permissions explained | Enable Sysadmin

        Understanding Linux file permissions (how to find them, read them, and change them) is an important part of maintaining and securing your systems.

      • HowTo Forge ☛ Install Dolibarr ERP on Ubuntu 22.04

        Dolibarr is an open-source ERP and CRM system written in PHP.

      • HowTo Forge ☛ How to Install and Use Varnish Cache on Debian 11

        Varnish Cache is an open-source, powerful, and one of the most popular HTTP accelerators used by over 3.4 million websites.

      • HowTo Forge ☛ How to Install Rust Programming Language on Ubuntu 22.04

        The Rust programming language has been adopted by hundreds of big companies in production environments.

      • Red Hat ☛ How to automate devices using the Ansible CIP collection | Red Hat Developer

        Discover how Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform’s CIP collection allows industrial device automation through YAML configuration files.

      • Own HowTo ☛ How to Install Vnstat on Linux Mint

        Vnstat is a network traffic monitoring tool that you can use to monitor how much bandwidth you are using. If you ever wanted to track the bandwidth usage on desktop then vnstat is the right choice to keep track of bandwidth. This console based app is lightweight, very easy to install and use.

        In this tutorial you will learn how to install Vnstat on Linux mint via terminal and Software Manager.

      • Linuxiac ☛ How to Install VS Code on Linux Mint in 5 Easy Steps [Ed: Why is Bobby Borisov helping Microsoft promote proprietary spyware to GNU/Linux users? This is harmful to users' freedom.]
      • H2S Media ☛ How to install Telegram on Linux Desktop in 2023 – Linux Shout

        Telegram is a perfect cross-platform alternative to Whatsapp. It is a cloud-based chatting app that keeps giving tough competition to other similar applications. It was developed by Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov, Russian entrepreneurs.

        This instant messaging app, apart from chatting also allows sending of photos, videos, documents, and other types of media content. But this is not the reason behind the popularity of Telegram instant its cloud-based technology and focus on the security & privacy of users.

        To protect the user’s identity and maintain their privacy, Telegram offers end-to-end server-client encryption. So, that hackers won’t be able to read the chats. Further, users can initiate Secret Chats on Telegram that can’t be forwarded and even has self-destruct timer for messages and media.

      • H2S Media ☛ Snap on Linux- Installation, update and delete commands – Linux Shout

        What is a snap? Snap has been introduced as a package management method by Canonical developers, the people behind the popular Ubuntu Linux systems. We can install and use the SNAP on various types of Linux distros such as Redhat, Ubuntu, CentOS, Elementary, Debian, Linux Mint, Manjaro, and more…

        It is similar to a container with all the files and libraries of an application, and each application is completely independent. So the advantage of using the snap package is that it solves the dependency problem between applications, making it easier to manage between applications. Thus, we can install any Lincu software or packages available in the SNAP repository on any supported Linux distro regardless of its origin, I mean it doesn’t matter what it is. RPM-based or.Deb.

      • Beginners Guide for W Command in Linux

        The w command is a built-in Linux utility that is capable of listing the usernames of all the users that are currently logged-in, locally or remotely.

        In the output, you can view the information of all the logged-in users, like their username, where they are logged-in from, when they are logged-in, and their activity.

        In this article, you will learn how to use the w command, including its options (with examples).

      • Beginners Guide for Logname Command in Linux

        The logname command gives you the username of the currently logged-in user by reading the “/var/run/utmp” file, which is identical to the whoami command with one difference.

        Stick with this article to learn the difference between the logname and whoami commands, the usage of the logname command, and how to use it in shell scripts.

      • Trend Oceans ☛ How to Resolve “unable to launch “X session cinnamon-session-cinnamon””

        When I boot up my Linux Mint machine, I am greeted with a login screen, and when I press the enter key to complete the login process, I found a simple error message that clearly states, “Unable to launch “cinnamon-session-cinnamon” X session — “cinnamon-session-cinnamon” not found; falling back to the default session.”

      • Matthew Garrett ☛ Matthew Garrett: Integrating Linux with Okta Device Trust [Ed: Okta is proprietary, i.e. the very opposite of trust. Linux is gravitating/dragged towards Pentagon trash because of Microsofters such as Matthew Garrett.]
      • Linux Capable ☛ Solved: How to List All Users on a Linux System – LinuxCapable

        In Linux systems, effective user management is an essential yet challenging task for administrators. Within Linux, all local user information is stored at the path /etc/passwd, with each row representing a single user that contains their name, user ID, directory, and login details.

        Several different methods are available to list these users in Linux, and in this tutorial, we will cover some of the popular ones utilizing the command line terminal.

      • Beginners Guide for Whoami Command in Linux

        The whoami (concatenated of the strings “who,” “am,”, “i” as whoami) is a Linux command line utility that prints the username associated with the current effective user ID.

        It comes in handy, especially while writing the shell script, like fetching the username within the script or executing the script for a specific user like root.

        In this article, you will learn the usage of the whoami command, how to use it in shell scripts, and its alternative commands.

      • Beebom ☛ How to Update Your Chromebook Easily (2023 Guide) | Beebom

        When users report that their Chromebook is running slow, we recommend they update Chrome OS to the latest version. Google regularly releases update patches that include performance fixes and new features, so it’s important to stay up-to-date. Keeping an update pending for many days is strongly discouraged, as these updates also help keep your Chromebook secure. Additionally, if you happen to use Linux on your Chromebook, it’s also important to keep it updated to the latest version. So if you want to learn how to update your Chromebook, refer to our guide for detailed instructions.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • It’s FOSS ☛ Wow! CoolerMaster’s MasterPlus Software to Go Open Source!

      Most gaming/peripheral software suits are either proprietary or not officially available for Linux.

      As a result, we must constantly look for open-source tools to configure our hardware to get native functionality.

      The likes of Piper, OpenRGB, Solaar, etc. come in handy in these situations.

      But, sometimes, even these are not enough.

      Luckily, CoolerMaster has decided to release an open-source version of its MasterPlus software that aims to work with its coolers and non-CoolerMaster coolers.

    • Events

      • OpenSUSE ☛ openSUSE Conference Call for Papers is Open – openSUSE News

        The call for papers for openSUSE Conference 2023 is open!

        The openSUSE Conference 2023 is scheduled to take place May 26 to May 28. The call for papers will close on April 9, which leaves 89 days to submit a talk.

        The conference already has two sponsors with Fedora and SUSE. Companies interested in sponsoring the event can view sponsorship information on the project’s wiki page.

      • Bootlin ☛ Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2022: a selection of talks by Bootlin engineers – Bootlin’s blog

        Almost the entire engineering team of Bootlin attended the Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2022 in Dublin mid-september, an important event for Bootlin as it helps everyone in the team stay up to date with the latest developments in the Embedded Linux ecosystem, and connect with members of the community.

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Mozilla

        • Mozilla ☛ Roblox browser extensions for better gaming – Firefox Add-ons Blog

          Every day, more than 50 million people play among millions of user-created games on Roblox. With a massive global audience and an ocean of games, there are vastly different ways users like to interact with Roblox. This is where the customization power of browser extensions can shine. If you’re a Roblox player or creator, you might be intrigued to explore some of these innovative extensions built just for Roblox users on Firefox.

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • PostgreSQL ☛ PostgreSQL: pgDay Paris 2023 — Call for Sponsors and Registrations

        After a successful 2022 edition, we are excited to announce that pgDay Paris is back for 2023 – live and in person on March 23! We’ve had so much interest that this year, we’re planning two tracks of talks and are proposing various half-day training sessions on March 22.

      • OpenSource.com ☛ A guide to strings in MySQL | Opensource.com

        Strings are one of the most common data types you will use in MySQL. Many users insert and read strings in their databases without thinking too much about them. This article aims to give you a bit of a deep dive into how MySQL stores and displays your string variables so that you can have better control over your data.

        You can break strings into two categories: binary and nonbinary. You probably think about nonbinary strings most of the time. Nonbinary strings have character sets and collations. Binary strings, on the other hand, store things such as MP3 files or images. Even if you store a word in a binary string, such as song, it is not stored in the same way as in a nonbinary string.

    • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

    • FSFE

      • FSFE ☛ Promising news from Belgium and Dortmund +++ IT Security +++ Job opportunity – FSFE

        In January’s Newsletter: Dortmund embraces Free Software, and Belgium is working to ensure Router Freedom. A cryptographer analyzes IT security. A digital health ecosystem licenses files with the REUSE tool. We are looking for an office coordinator. We look forward to seeing you in FOSDEM and I Love Free Software events.

        [...]

        The combination of two ideas, universal access to healthcare and Free Software, gives us GNU Health. Created by GNU Solidario, a non-profit dealing with technology and social medicine, GNU Health is a community-driven Free Software project. While visiting schools in Latin America twenty years ago, the founder, Dr. Luis Falcón, realised that technology needs to support social changes.

        To make the licensing clear, the project has recently adopted the REUSE specification 3.0 in its components Hospital Management System (both server and client) and Thalamus (the message server for the GH Federation). Luis presented the project and the process of the REUSE implementation in a video interview.

        Presentation of the digital health ecosystem GNUHealth by founder Dr. Luis Falcón. Becoming REUSE compliant was simple, says Luis in the interview, also available in in our Peertube instance.

    • Programming/Development

  • Leftovers

    • Science

      • Smart watches won’t replace smartphones? Really? | Stop at Zona-M

        In conclusion, “lesser screen times, fewer distractions” just thanks to smart watches is likely to remain wishful thinking. It is much more important and necessary to demand the one thing without which no glasses or watches could decently be called “smart”, that is: full interoperability between all watches and all glasses, regardless of who makes them.

    • Proprietary

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Internet Freedom Foundation ☛ Kerala High Court protects the right to access court records

        A series of petitions before the Kerala HC sought the removal of court orders from the Indian Kanoon website by claiming the ‘right to be forgotten’. Indian Kanoon argued that ‘the right to be forgotten’ is not absolute and that it is inconsistent with the principle of open courts. The Kerala HC ruled in the favour of Indian Kanoon and struck a balance between the right to privacy and the right to freedom of information by holding that the ‘right to be forgotten’ cannot be exercised in criminal law cases and current/recent cases. Though it could be exercised on a case-to-case basis with respect to matrimonial/family cases etc.

        [...]

        India Kanoon is a popular open-access search engine that was launched in 2008. Court orders from the website of the Supreme Court, High Courts, district courts and tribunals are automatically uploaded on the Indian Kanoon website. Indian Kanoon reproduces these orders verbatim, after redacting personally identifiable details of victims of sexual violence. No other modifications or edits are made to the court order. India Kanoon’s case removal policy is available here.

        Several petitioners filed writ petitions before the Kerala HC, seeking the removal of their individual court records online based on a purported right to be forgotten. Of these, two were matrimonial matters and the rest were criminal matters. Indian Kanoon was impleaded as a party in the case as the petitioners sought deletion of these court records from Indian Kanoon’s database as well.

        Indian Kanoon argued that a right to be forgotten cannot extend to court records. Placing reliance on the Supreme Court’s ruling in R. Rajagopal v. State of Tamil Nadu, Indian Kanoon argued that court records are public documents and that a right to privacy cannot be used to prevent their publication. Further, the only circumstances in which the publication of a court order can be prevented are if the court specifically issues such an order or if there is a statutory prohibition against the publication of certain types of orders. For example, Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code prohibits the disclosure of the identities of victims of sexual violence, and Indian Kanoon removes any personally identifiable information of such victims from the court orders it publishes on its website.

    • Finance

      • Being frugal was ALWAYS expensive | Stop at Zona-M

        What is important is to understand the REAL reasons why this happens. I’m sure that many will instinctively answer “I just have NO TIME to do that stuff! Not after being away from home 40 / 50 hours a week just to stay a working poor!”

        [...]

        One big reason why most of us can’t apply the tips above is that everything with a chip inside is unrepairable at home, or anywhere else. Even without that chip wasn’t really necessary in the first place You may need hard to find tools just to diagnose a fault in your “smart” fridge, TV or dishwasher, and just to find that it’s cheaper to buy a new one.

        [...]

        Learning to use a table saw and finding the money to buy it is relatively easy and probably still affordable for most people in western societies.

        But goods like sewing machines or power tools, let alone vegetable gardens or table saws… are simply not affordable, even if they came for free, when the only place to store them when idle (that is, almost always 99.999% of the time) is the same one, tiny cabinet that is already full of clothes, shoes or suitcases (more on this below).

        And even if one had access to enough money for a house with an extra room or closet, spending it just to play carpenter or tailor once per decade would hardly make sense, would it now? (*)

        [...]

        Here in Rome, the number of people who can afford a weekend in Paris, or a week snorkeling in Sharm El Sheik is way, way higher than that of those who can afford any toolshed where they could build or fix their own furniture with their own tools. And from what I hear, it’s pretty much the same in most of the western world.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • It’s FOSS ☛ Combatting Academic Dishonesty: OpenAI to Help Detect ChatGPT Text [Ed: Microsoft angling to become “market leader” in plagiarism, basically breaking the law as a “service”]

          ChatGPT has been the talk of the town in recent times as a very interactive chatbot powered by AI. Launched back in November 2022, it has caused quite a ruckus in the tech world.

          Developed by OpenAI as a language model, it interacts with users as if it were having a conversation with them. It can answer follow-up questions, reject inappropriate questions and even admit mistakes!

          But, as with many things AI, this has also raised a few eyebrows

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Car Free Lifestyle

        When we moved about six months ago we were looking forward to being closer to places we want and need to go. We like to ride our bikes, ebikes and walk so this was a big part of our decision to move where we did. Well after six months I can say that I’m loving it.

      • 🔤SpellBinding: HLYNOTM Wordo: CHAIN
      • Freezr’s PEBCAKs: Happy New Pebcak Year! 😎

        Another year is gone and a lot of pebcaks good and bad happened and are going to happen again!

        A good pebcak is the new “Pebcak [DOT] Club” domain has been activated and the capsule transferred on it… A bad one is I already paid for “GeminiSpace [DOT] Club” till 2025… ^^”

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

IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 09, 2023

Posted in IRC Logs at 2:43 am by Needs Sunlight

Also available via the Gemini protocol at:

Over HTTP:

HTML5 logs

HTML5 logs

#techrights log as HTML5

#boycottnovell log as HTML5

HTML5 logs

HTML5 logs

#boycottnovell-social log as HTML5

#techbytes log as HTML5

text logs

text logs

#techrights log as text

#boycottnovell log as text

text logs

text logs

#boycottnovell-social log as text

#techbytes log as text

Enter the IRC channels now

IPFS Mirrors

CID Description Object type
 QmT3ULA19f6oA7M3wZJh1emsuWYNYPFhYp3yJbpdBQMKPW IRC log for #boycottnovell
(full IRC log as HTML)		 HTML5 logs
 QmYuhqWMHkCaj1kasA4tGL3WN9oeP4YwmKUMER66oN1YTC IRC log for #boycottnovell
(full IRC log as plain/ASCII text)		 text logs
 QmYscVsVW9UhWfwWtJWMVWpUP6BJRGnPApxSawM5QW1o1k IRC log for #boycottnovell-social
(full IRC log as HTML)		 HTML5 logs
 QmbELpzoyGJj1HPwf6eXexbmeMFVAHnVXxyvMxVjP5e982 IRC log for #boycottnovell-social
(full IRC log as plain/ASCII text)		 text logs
 QmadTFHKnpBiNCv7uY5SDV1jW61898Xdxcn2D9NVh9XhyT IRC log for #techbytes
(full IRC log as HTML)		 HTML5 logs
 QmfR4nJWYnHiQYWAK2VqCAfDq2jrFA7tZvjwUnB9F5JKzT IRC log for #techbytes
(full IRC log as plain/ASCII text)		 text logs
 QmYn3KupxNc4YKz7em7Zg1qRSG1DnDm63rbEJFVjdvkJGE IRC log for #techrights
(full IRC log as HTML)		 HTML5 logs
 QmdjfgfKE6YB9w5cchhkrYu5KJyx7pd2Cjox8fbXJCfQwg IRC log for #techrights
(full IRC log as plain/ASCII text)		 text logs

IPFS logo

Bulletin for Yesterday

Local copy | CID (IPFS): QmcoTd9cdz13ZUiXpFN832GoD59aNm8naY18eRHZ8th4bc

[Meme] Censorship of Self-Incriminating Evidence

Posted in Europe, Patents at 2:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

We've got the chief patent judge in our pocket... We've got the chief patent judge in our pocket

Summary: EPO and UPC chiefs won't tolerate people who show evidence of António Campinos controlling the person who’s supposed to independently assess fake European Patents that he has been granting

More Than Half a Dozen Copyright Litigation Threats Sent to Techrights in Less Than Six Months Over EPO and UPC Articles (Misusing Copyrights for Censorship/Intimidation)

Posted in Deception, EFF, Europe, Patents at 2:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum 4284b6c8bada7f9eec70cb35ae8bb0a4
Censorship by Threats
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Freedom of speech is under threat; the few who still cover EPO corruption are routinely subjected to threatening letters, misusing “copyright” in spite of Fair Use provisions; Europe’s patent system is now dominated by a bunch of gangsters like the ones who roam Malta

THE state of the EPO is as dire as it was under Benoît Battistelli if not a lot worse (the problem is that the media no longer talks about it!) and we’re being attacked for covering EPO scandals. We’ve been subjected to copyright trolling last year [1, 2] and the start of this year (belatedly).

“Please do not donate to the EFF; it’s money down the drain as the EFF is run by (and for) the billionaires who pay a lot more.”Regarding the latest example (only happened about 12 hours ago), I’ve since then spoken to three people. I told them about this latest example and they’ve ridiculed the censorship attempts. I also contacted 3-4 people in the EFF and so far they have of course had nothing to say, let alone do. Even since one co-founder died and another was ousted the EFF has barely done anything about patents and SLAPPed/bullied bloggers. Please do not donate to the EFF; it’s money down the drain as the EFF is run by (and for) the billionaires who pay a lot more. The EFF never helped me; the best it did was, it responded to an E-mail (about 4 years ago). The EFF was infiltrated a few years ago. It’s not coming back. █

« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »

RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Home iconSite Home: Background about the site and some key features in the front page

Chat iconIRC Channels: Come and chat with us in real time

New to This Site? Here Are Some Introductory Resources

No

Mono

ODF

Samba logo






We support

End software patents

GPLv3

GNU project

BLAG

EFF bloggers

Comcast is Blocktastic? SavetheInternet.com



Recent Posts