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Links 01/02/2023: Stables Kernels and Upcoming COSMIC From System76



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • LinuxInsiderHow To Run a Full Linux Desktop on a Chromebook

        Do you want to run a full Linux desktop installation on your Chromebook without giving up ChromeOS? This alteration will give you access to both complete operating systems running simultaneously so you can move between them with a keyboard shortcut.

        You may already use the “Crostini” partition to run individual Linux apps alongside ChromeOS. That method forces users to rely mainly on the command line without the added functionality a full Linux desktop environment offers. So installing a complete Linux distribution — desktop and all — may be a better option for you.

        A few years ago, I played around with a halfway measure to run a KDE desktop on a Chromebook within the Crostini environment. That method, however, was buggy. Before that, I toyed with running GalliumOS from a USB drive to turn Chromebooks into Linux boxes without removing ChromeOS.

      • ID RootUbuntu Linux vs Windows [Comprehensive Comparison]

        The battle of the operating systems has been raging for decades, with die-hard fans on both sides.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • LWNLinux 6.1.9
        I'm announcing the release of the 6.1.9 kernel.
        
        

        All users of the 6.1 kernel series must upgrade.

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

        thanks,

        greg k-h
      • LWNLinux 5.10.166
      • LWNLinux 5.15.91
    • Applications

      • Linux LinksRevisited: termusic – terminal-based music player

        When we reviewed termusic back in April 2022 we lamented that this music player was a strong candidate for someone looking for a terminal-based music player with one exception. The software lacked gapless playback.

        Shortly after our review, the developer of termusic informed us that he’d added gapless playback. Regretfully we never revisited the software. Let’s put that right now!

        We originally evaluated the software under Ubuntu. This time, we tested the software in Manjaro, an Arch-based distro. There’s a package in the Arch User Repository (AUR) for the latest version of termusic (at the time of writing that’s v0.7.8). The software built with no issues.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • ID RootHow To Install Nano Text Editor on Rocky Linux 9

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install the Nano text editor on Rocky Linux 9.

      • ID RootHow To Use PPA on Ubuntu Linux [Complete Guide]

        If you’re an Ubuntu Linux user, you’re probably aware of the fact that installing software can be a bit of a challenge.

      • ID RootHow To Install OpenVAS on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install OpenVAS on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, OpenVAS is an open-source vulnerability assessment tool used for performing security assessments on computer systems and networks.

      • molecule and systemd and cgroupns

        It’s Hackweek and I’m back at working on the GeekOops project. One of the more annoying tasks that I have been postponing already since some time is to adjust the molecule workflow to work with cgroups 2.

      • Manuel MatuzovicDay 92: relative color syntax

        With the relative color syntax we can modify existing colors using color functions. If an origin color is specified, each color channel can either be directly specified, or taken from the origin color and modified.

      • Manuel MatuzovicDay 91: a previous sibling selector with :has()

        I’ve already shown much appreciation for the :has() pseudo-class in this series, but that we can use it as a previous sibling selector tops it all of.

        Since this is not an official selector, but more something like a hack, it can be hard to read and interpret. So, let’s start nice and easy.

      • University of TorontoOne reason I still prefer BIOS MBR booting over UEFI

        Old fashioned BIOS MBR booting is very simplistic but it's also very predictable; pretty much the only variable in the process is which disk the BIOS will pick as your boot drive. Once that drive is chosen, you'll know exactly what will get booted and how. The MBR boot block will load the rest of your bootloader (possibly in a multi-step process) and then your bootloader will load and boot your Unix. If you have your bootloader completely installed and configured, this process is extremely reliable.

      • TechRepublicHow to install the Neo4j graph database on Ubuntu Server 22.04

        If you're looking for a graph database to use for your next project, Neo4j is an open-source option that can encode and query very complex relationships.

      • TechRepublicHow to cap the number of users allowed to log into your Linux servers

        If you have Linux servers that allow remote connection via SSH, you might want to limit the number of users allowed to log in.

      • Make Tech EasierHow to Use Troff to Format PDF Documents in Linux

        Troff is a minimal yet powerful document text processor for Linux systems. It allows you to easily create print-ready documents by compiling source files from the command line. UnlikeLaTeX, Troff is incredibly lightweight and is preinstalled on most Linux systems.

      • Linux JournalMonitoring Oracle Servers With Checkmk

        In this tutorial, I will give a quick guide on how to monitor Oracle Database with Checkmk, a universal monitoring tool for all kinds of IT assets. Oracle Database is one of the most common database management systems (DBMS) for relational databases and Checkmk comes with a great preconfigured Oracle monitoring, so it will only take you a few minutes to get started. This will not only ensure the best performance of your databases, but also give you the option to find optimization opportunities.

      • Linux Shell TipsHow to Find Uptime of Particular Linux Process

        Along with the system uptime, it’s also possible in the Linux operating system to check the uptime of a particular Linux process or service.

      • H2S MediaWhat is Sourcetree and Bitbucket?

        In this article, we discuss quickly and understand what exactly is the difference between Sourcetree and Bitbucket. This helps beginners to start with these two Git tools. What is SourceTree?

      • H2S MediaHow to check OS version in Linux – Ubuntu, Redhat, CentOS etc.

        Checking the operating system version of your Linux installation is useful when you want to see what distribution you are running, the version number, and the kernel version information. This will clue you into what exactly your system is running under the hood.

      • H2S MediaHow to open Vimtutor in Neovim and Vim text editors?

        Learn the command to open Vimtutor on your existing NeoVim installed in Ubuntu, Windows, Linux Mint, MacOS, RHEL, and others. What is Vimtutor?

      • H2S Media3 Ways to install NeoVim on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04

        Let’s try an advanced VIM-based Text editor on Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04 Linux by installing NeoVIM with the help of the command terminal.€  Neovim text editor was created in 2014 and is a fork of the popular VIM editor that comes with modern features.

      • HowTo ForgeLinux cmp Command Tutorial for Beginners (7 Examples)

        Pretty much regardless of your role, if your regular work involves doing stuff on the command line in Linux, you may find yourself in a situation where-in you'd want to compare two files using a command line utility. There are several command line tools that let you do this, and one among them is the 'cmp' command.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Install Zeek Network Security Monitoring Tool on Ubuntu 22.04

        Zeek is a free, open-source, and worlds leading security monitoring tool used as a network intrusion detection system and network traffic analyzer. This post will show you how to install the Zeek network security tool on Ubuntu 22.04.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Install OpenSearch on Debian 11

        OpenSearch is a community-driven project by Amazon and a fork of Elasticsearch and Kibana. In this tutorial, you'll deploy OpenSearch - an open-source search, analytics, and visualization suite - to the Debian 11 server.

      • How to Secure your Raspberry Pi

        In a smart home system, anyone having access to your Raspberry Pi can have full control over your whole house if you're not careful. Luckily, it's easy to secure your Raspberry Pi and make it hacker-proof. Here are a few things you can do to secure your Raspberry Pi and keep all the bad guys away from your smart home.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Install Discourse Forum with Nginx on Rocky Linux 9

        Discourse is an open-source community discussion platform built using the Ruby language. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Discourse Forum with the Nginx server on a server running Rocky Linux 9.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Install ionCube Loader on Debian 11

        This tutorial will explain how to install ionCube Loader on a Debian 11 server. IonCube is a PHP extension that can decode secured encrypted PHP files at runtime.

      • HowTo ForgeLinux pidof Command Tutorial for Beginners (5 Examples)

        Linux command line offers a lot of utilities that work with processes. Once such tool is pidof, which - as the name suggests - gives you the process ID of an already executing process. In this tutorial, we will discuss the basics of pidof using some easy to understand examples.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Clear Bash History on Linux

        If you’ve ever used the command line on a Linux machine, chances are you’ve got a long history of commands logged. If you want to clear this history, there are a few simple steps that can help you do just that.

      • FOSSLinuxInstall AnyDesk on Fedora: A Quick and Easy Guide

        AnyDesk is a German proprietary desktop app distributed by AnyDesk Software GmbH. The tool offers platform-independent remote access to personal PCs and other devices running the host app. It allows remote control, VPN functionality, and file transfer, among other outstanding functionalities.

      • FOSSLinuxEpic Games on Linux: A Comprehensive Guide to the Launcher

        Linux gaming is continually evolving, owing to the community and companies concentrating more on open-source gaming software. Epic Games is a well-known digital gaming retailer best recognized for providing Windows games to millions of consumers worldwide. However, not everyone knows that the Epic Games client may also be installed on Linux.

      • FOSSLinuxHow to install Google Chrome on Linux Mint

        We all have to agree that web browsers are the most important and frequently used apps on all or nearly all operating systems to access search results and browse the Internet. Linux Mint, one of Linux's distros, ships with Mozilla Firefox as the default web browser; however, many users nowadays prefer to set up Google Chrome because of its valuable and advanced features.

      • UNIX CopTwo ways to change the screen resolution in Ubuntu 22.04 / 20.04

        Hello, friends. Talking to some friends who have just installed Linux, I noticed how something as simple as changing the screen resolution can be a bit complicated to do. So in this post you will learn how to do it both from the graphical interface and from the terminal.

      • UNIX CopHow To Install TaskBoard on CentOS Stream 9 /Rocky Linux 9/ AlmaLinux 9

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install TaskBoard on CentOS / AlmaLinux/ RockyLinux systems. TaskBoard is a free and open source used in track keeping of important tasks to be done. TaskBoard enables one create unlimited projects and boards to keep track of tasks to be done. It is easily customizable.

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

        In this guide, we will show you how to install Terraform in Ubuntu systems. HashiCorp€ Terraform€ is an infrastructure as code tool that lets you define both cloud and on-prem resources in human-readable configuration files that you can version, reuse, and share.

      • UNIX CopHow To Install Thunderbird Mail on CentOS 9/ Rocky Linux 9/ Alma Linux 9

        In this guide, we will install Thunderbird Mail on CentOS / Alma Linux & Rocky Linux systems. Mozilla Thunderbird€ is a€ free and open-source cross-platform email client,€ personal information manager,€ news client,€ RSS€ and€ chat client€ developed by the€ Mozilla Foundation€ and operated by subsidiary MZLA Technologies Corporation.

      • UNIX CopHow To Install Netdata Agent on AlmaLinux 9

        In this guide, we will show you how to install Netdata Agent on AlmaLinux 9 Netdata€ is an€ open source tool designed to collect real-time metrics, such as CPU usage, disk activity, bandwidth usage, website visits, etc., and then display them in live, easy-to-interpret charts.

      • UNIX CopHow To Install Terraform on CentOS 9 / Rocky Linux 9 / Alma Linux 9

        In this guide, we will show you how to install Terraform in CentOS, Alma Linux and Rocky Linux. HashiCorp Terraform is an infrastructure as code tool that lets you define both cloud and on-prem resources in human-readable configuration files that you can version, reuse, and share.

    • Games

      • DebugPoint3 NES Emulators to Play Old NES Games on Linux

        A quick look at 3 NES Emulators to play old NES games in Linux. Also, we provide an Installation guide and features. If you want to play the old retro games such as Super Mario, Pokemon, etc in the latest Ubuntu, Linux Mint versions, there are plenty of emulators available.

      • Godot EngineGodot XR update - January 2023

        Updates on various things XR in Godot as per January 2023. New Godot XR Tools, new documentation for Godot 4, new supported renderers and devices.

      • HackadaySteamDeck: Become Printer

        Wonderful things happen when we read the documentation. For instance, we’ve all seen a Raspberry Pi work as an Ethernet adapter over USB, or a ESP32-S2 presenting as a storage device. Well, [parkerlreed] has made his Steam Deck work as a USB printer after reading the Linux kernel docs on the USB gadget configuration, and all it took was some C code and a BIOS setting change.

      • IdiomdrottningMemory vs Reason

        I’ve always relied more on memory than reason—I remember a chess club game back when I was new and lost every game and had no idea what I was doing, except… there was this one game that was pretty memorable. I was playing black and I had asked a friend what opening my opponent liked. Queen’s Gambit. So I sit down the night before and memorize several branches of the Berlin defense. Just jam them into medium term memory, it’d be forgotten a week later, just “cramming for the test”. Come game day and sure enough, guy is playing D4 and I go into the Berlin. Remember, I had lost every single game at that club up to that point. But. He is playing right into the trunk of what I had memorized, I’m making my replies right away, playing as fast as it were blitz while we’re in an hour-long ladder game, and he is pondering every move weighing them carefully. Friends take me aside and say “you’ve got to play slower” but I keep on jamming because every single move is according to script. Now, I have no idea what I’m doing or the purpose of the moves. Back then, I didn’t understand positioning or development or prophylactic moves (a.k.a. reverse sente). But, while the opening tree I had learned had many branches that were short detours, he kept playing straight into the longest branch every single move. This was decades ago before the engines (pros used “Fritz” but I was relegated to commentary such as “black should be stronger here”.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • It's FOSSSystem76's Upcoming COSMIC Desktop is Gearing Up With Big Changes

        The developers of Pop!_OS started working on their Rust-based desktop environment 'COSMIC' back in 2021.

        The goal was to make something familiar to what you already get with Pop!_OS but provide you with a faster and more extensible desktop environment.

        System76 also chose not to release Pop!_OS 22.10 to focus on its development.

        Not to forget, one of our community contributors gave an early build a try, which looked pretty promising.

      • Systemd 76More On COSMIC DE To Kick Off 2023!

        For those of you who don’t know, System76 is moving the feel and front-end functionality of Pop!_OS to a faster codebase, giving you a familiar, but snappier, experience. And I’m here to update you all on the new features and designs the System76 team is building along the way. Once we have a date for you to try out this new desktop environment in a public alpha, I’ll give you that too :)

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • DebugPoint10 Lightweight Linux Distributions for your Old Hardware in 2023 [Ed: Old but updated for the year]

      We highlight a list of 10 lightweight Linux Distributions ideal for your older PC in 2023. We give you their features and what makes them perfect for reviving older hardware. We believe that you should not throw away any hardware, especially PC and its components. Ideally, well-designed software should always run on any hardware.

    • New Releases

      • DebugPointelementary OS 7 "Horus": A List of Best Features

        Iam sure you are excited to try out the shiny new elementary OS 7 "Horus", which was released recently. This release is coming after more than a year of developments. The elementary OS project underwent a leadership change during this entire period, and many events happened.

        Let's take a look at the best feature of this release.

    • BSD

      • Dan LangilleR730-01

        There will be more drives. These aren’t necessarily the drives to be used.

    • SUSE/OpenSUSE

      • OpenSUSETumbleweed Snapshots Update Mesa, Remmina, More

        Several snapshots have updated in openSUSE Tumbleweed before and during Hack Week.

        Leading up to FOSDEM, more packages are arriving, but this blog will give a small overview of the snapshots that have arrived since the last Tumbleweed blog.

        Three packages landed in the 20230130 snapshot. One of those packages was C library libHX 4.10. The package plugged a memory leak in the formatter and provided some multiplatform-directory handling. A Python Package Index that implements a text object that escapes characters, so it is safe to use in HTML and XML was updated. This python-MarkupSafe package updated to version 2.1.2 provides a striptags addition that does not strip tags containing newlines. An update of yast2-trans in the snapshot added multiple translations to include several for Macedonian and Georgian languages.

    • Slackware Family

      • TuMFatigInstall Slackware Linux with Full Disk Ecryption on a UEFI system

        On some previous post, I installed Slackware Linux on a ThinkPad T460s . This was my first time back on Slackware for a long time and, after reading and experimenting, it seems to me that there is a better / smarter / simpler way to install Slackware using FDE on an UEFI system.

        There seem to be a very cleavage point when adressing the need to encrypt the /boot partition. Long story short, keeping /boot unencrypted lets your computer opened to various attacks. I looked at how various distributions were configuring FDE. And it seems this point is half religious and half a software issue ; mostly around what Grub can or can’t do. Distributions like Fedora or Linux Mint configure FDE while keeping /boot unencrypted. Arch Linux documents three or four ways to achieve FDE ; some with, some without encrypted /boot. Pop!OS and Manjaro offer a complete encrypted system ; although using different bootloaders.

    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • The Register UKOracle cozies up to IBM, adds Red Hat Enterprise Linux
        Oracle may offer its own Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) compatible operating system, but clearly not all public cloud developers are happy with the company's "Unbreakable" kernel and would prefer the real thing.

        On Tuesday the two companies announced a joint agreement to offer RHEL and support as an image on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

        Until recently Oracle Linux has been the only modern RHEL-compatible operating system available on the platform. Oracle does offer images for CentOS 6, 7, and 8, which up until the release of CentOS 9 was essentially a community supported build of the community operating system. But, with Red Hat's decision to transition CentOS to an upstream variant, many have migrated to alternatives like Rocky or Alma Linux which are based on RHEL's source code.

      • Unicorn MediaRed Hat Beds With Oracle in New Cloud Deal

        Red Hat on Tuesday announced that it’s partnered with Oracle to bring Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

        Although this doesn’t surprise me at all, 10 years ago this is something I absolutely wouldn’t expect to see.

      • Building flatpaks and Freedesktop SDK from scratch

        Flatpak applications are based on runtimes such asKDEorGnomeRuntimes. Both of these runtimes are actually based onFreedesktop SDKwhich contains essential libraries and services such as Wayland or D-Bus.

      • Caolán McNamara: Firefox, VA-API and NVIDIA on Fedora 37

        Some time ago I got borrowed NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 from my employer (Red Hat) and I finally managed to put it to a workstation instead of my own AMD RX 6600 XT.

      • Kevin Fenzi: error: rpmdbNextIterator: skipping in Fedora 38+

        I've seen this question enough times recently to decide to just write up a blog post on it and point people here.

    • Debian Family

      • Junichi Uekawa: February.

        February. Working through crosvm dependencies and found that cargo-debstatus does not dump all dependencies; seems like it skips over optional ones. Haven't tracked down what is going on yet but at least it seems like crosvm does not have all dependencies and can't build yet.

      • Paul Wise: FLOSS Activities January 2023
    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • NeowinLinux Mint 21.2 will be known as “Victoria”, due at the end of June
      • DebugPointLinux Mint 21.2 Code Name Announced, Arriving on June 2023

        In the January 23 monthly update, the Mint team announced that the upcoming release of Linux Mint 21.2 code name would be "Victoria". This aligns with the female-centric names in alphabetical order for each Mint release (the prior one was 21.1 "Vera").

        In addition, a few details emerge about the new features and enhancements of this upcoming release which is planned on June 2023.

        Here's what ot expect.

      • GhacksUbuntu Pro is now available: here is what you need to know
        Ubuntu Pro, a subscription-based version of Ubuntu that offers ten years of security updates and optional support, is now available publicly.

        Originally launched in October 2022, Ubuntu Pro entered general availability on January 26, 2023. Ubuntu Pro is available for the Long Term Support releases Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS at the time of writing.

        Ubuntu Pro is free for personal use on up to 5 machines. The limit is raised to 50 for official Ubuntu community members.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • CNX SoftwareWinlink E850-96Board SBC is powered by Samsung Exynos 850 Octa-core Cortex-A55 SoC

        The Winlink E850-96Board currently supports Android 10 (AOSP) with Linux 4.14 kernel and LittleKernel bootloader, but we are promised Android 13 support with Linux 5.4.kernel in the future, and Linux distributions are shown as TBD. The obvious reasons for Android support and the relatively outdated Linux kernel are that the mobile processor is used in various smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy A21s or Galaxy A04s, and it was first announced in 2020.

        While the company claims “full compliance” with the Linaro 96Boards CE Extended standard, and the board is most likely compliant, it’s interesting to note they have not placed the Ethernet RJ45 port in one of the recommended locations, but instead in the free-for-all zone. Software and hardware documentation is currently limited, but you can still find instructions to get the Android image and build everything from source on the 96Boards website.

        The price of the board will be disappointing to many, as the Winlink E850-96Board sells for $399 on PlusFour, a Korean company set up to make and distribute 96Boards SBCs and accessories. The SBC should probably be viewed as a development board suitable for companies planning to create IoT or Smart Home devices based on the Exynos 850 processor, as few people will select this board for integration into their personal project(s), and Android app developers can purchase a cheaper Exynos 850 phone.

      • CNX SoftwareXGO 2 – A Raspberry Pi CM4 based robot dog with an arm (Crowdfunding)

        XGO 2 is a desktop robot dog using the Raspberry Pi CM4 as its brain, the ESP32 as the motor controller for the four legs and an additional robotic arm that allows the quadruped robot to grab objects.

        An evolution of the XGO mini robot dog with a Kendryte K210 RISC-V AI processor, the XGO 2 robot offers 12 degrees of freedom and the more powerful Raspberry CM4 model enables faster AI edge computing applications, as well as features such as omnidirectional movement, six-dimensional posture control, posture stability, and multiple motion gaits.

      • CNX SoftwareSTM32Cube.AI Developer Cloud generates AI workloads for STM32 microcontrollers

        STMicroelectronics has just announced the STM32Cube.AI Developer Cloud opening access to a suite of online AI development tools for the STM32 microcontrollers (MCUs) allowing developers to generate, optimize, and benchmark AI working on the company's 32-bit Arm microcontrollers.

      • KDABKDAB at Embedded World 2023

        We will have a great show for you this year at our booth in Hall 4-302 at Embedded World 2023. As every year, we will present our latest demos, showcasing outstanding performance on cost-effective hardware featuring Qt, C++, Slint, Rust and Flutter.

      • CNX SoftwareFOSDEM 2023 schedule – Open-source Embedded, Mobile, IoT, Arm, RISC-V, etc… projects

        After two years of taking place exclusively online, FOSDEM 2023 is back in Brussels, Belgium with thousands expected to attend the 2023 version of the “Free and Open Source Developers’ European Meeting” both onsite and online. FOSDEM 2023 will take place on February 4-5 with 776 speakers, 762 events, and 63 tracks.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • [Old] Simson GarfinkelNeXTCube Serial Number AA001032

        When NeXT announced that the first NeXT Cube was made of cast magnesium, I am sure that I was not the only person who imagined what fun could be had by setting it ablaze. Of course, at more than seven thousand dollars each, I doubted that anybody would ever actually carry out the experiment.

        Anyway, during the fall of 1991, I interviewed Rich Page, NeXT's then vice-president for hardware, for an article which we later ran in NeXTWORLD Extra. At the time, I asked Mr. Page if he could get me an empty NeXT Cube case for the purpose of having such a burning. Page smiled and said that he thought something could be arranged. A few days later, he called me up and said that I could pick up an empty cube at NeXT's Freemont factory.

      • J PieperResistive heater dummy load

        While testing moteus controllers, it is often necessary to experiment with high power conditions. For short durations, any decent sized brushless motor can work, as the windings have a non-zero thermal mass and take a little bit to warm up. However, when testing at high power for extended duration, it can be hard to find a way to get rid of all output energy. Even blowing a fan directly onto a motor only gets you so far when you are trying to get rid of 1kW.

      • Ken ShirriffUnderstanding the x86's Decimal Adjust after Addition (DAA) instruction

        I've been looking at the DAA machine instruction on x86 processors, a special instruction for binary-coded decimal arithmetic. Intel's manuals document each instruction in detail, but the DAA description doesn't make much sense. I ran an extensive assembly-language test of DAA on a real machine to determine exactly how the instruction behaves. In this blog post, I explain how the instruction works, in case anyone wants a better understanding.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Libre ArtsIntroducing Mayo

      So you have a 3D design file and you only need to view it, you don't like the idea of launching an entire 3D CAD program like FreeCAD, and you are on Linux. What do you do?

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • PostgreSQLSubject: pgDay Paris 2023 — Schedule Published

        We are excited to announce that we have published the schedule for this year’s pgDay Paris. The 2023 edition of the popular PostgreSQL conference will be held on March 23, 2023 in the French capital.

        We've had so much interest that this year, we have two tracks of talks and are proposing various training sessions on March 22. All of the talks will be in English, and you can choose training sessions in French or English.

      • PostgreSQLpg_ivm 1.5 released

        IVM Development Group is pleased to announce the release ofpg_ivm 1.5.

        Changes since the v1.4 release include [...]

        • Add CTE support (Yugo Nagata)

          Simple CTEs (WITH queries) which do not contain aggregates or DISTINCT are supported similarly to simple sub-queries.

    • Content Management Systems (CMS)

      • WordPressPeople of WordPress: Daniel Kossmann

        Daniel’s adventure into WordPress began in 2009 when he needed a way to publish and share articles on films. From that small spark, he now enjoys an interesting and varied career in Brazil and beyond, and an ever-expanding community network.

        Following WordPress and its new features fascinates Daniel and he is always looking for ways to share what it has to offer with others. His initial focus on WordPress for content publishing soon became a wider appreciation of the platform’s capacity for building communities and careers.

        Daniel has served as a community organizer for seven years in Curitiba, Brazil and co-organized four annual WordPress Translation Day events in the city. Community building initiatives, like these, bring in new volunteers and help spur on local user groups.

        Now working as a software engineer manager, Daniel maintains his interest in supporting the WordPress community through a newsletter in Brazilian Portuguese.

      • Andre FrancaWebsite version 4.0

        For the fourth time, I decided it was time to go static again. I still don’t post frequently, so I can’t justify my wish to manage content I don’t produce in a more “powerful” way. Also, I found out that I can simply write using any editor I like and push it to the web when I’m at my computer and have time available. And that is okay after all.

      • Medevel12 Free Static Gallery Generator, Convert Photo Folders to Websites

        Static website generators are outstanding tools that allow you to create a quick website in no time, without the need to worry about database setup or even complex server configuration.

        Static Gallery Generators are basically the same thing, with a little twist, It aids photographers to create a creative, interactive

    • GNU Projects

    • Licensing / Legal

      • Nicholas Tietz-SokolskyDoes technology have a right to exist? (No.)

        This was manifest recently in Heather Meeker's article "Is Copyright Eating AI?". In it, she argues that we need clear legal rules that "neural networks, and the outputs they produce, are not presumed to be copies of the data used to train them" (emphasis mine) or else we'll kill the industry and stifle innovation. Specifically, she believes that generative AI in particular is at risk of being brought down by copyright lawsuits.

        And let's be clear: she isn't just arguing that this is the consequence if there's not such a legal rule. She's arguing clearly that it would be good if the legal rule existed, saying "let's hope this nascent field doesn't sink".

    • Programming/Development

      • AntipopeAn AI app walks into a writers room

        Third use case: ChatGPT is currently trained on an English language text corpus. It would be very interesting to see what it could do by way of translation with a sufficiently large input corpus of translated texts—like the huge trove of EU and UN documents that Google Translate was trained on.

      • Jack KellyMonoids in the Category of...

        The meme words have become an annoying blot on the fringes of the Haskell universe. Learning resources don’t mention it, the core Haskell community doesn’t like it because it adds little and spooks newcomers, and it’s completely unnecessary to understand it if you just want to write Haskell code. But it is interesting, and it pops up in enough cross-language programming communities that there’s still a lot of curiosity about the meme words. I wrote an explanation on reddit recently, it became my highest-voted comment overnight, and someone said that it deserved its own blog post. This is that post.

        This is not a monad tutorial. You do not need to read this, especially if you’re new to Haskell. Do something more useful with your time. But if you will not be satisfied until you understand the meme words, let’s proceed. I’ll assume knowledge of categories, functors, and natural transformations.

      • ChrisPoor Man’s Logistic Regression

        We own a B2B online store, and we want to boost conversion rates by improving our search functionality. We a/b test with a SaaS provider, giving us results11 On the first row are sessions that went to the SaaS provider. On the second row are sessions that went to our existing solution. The first column are sessions that lead to a purchase, and the second column those that did not.: [...]

      • RlangTips for organising your R code

        Keeping your R code organised is not as straightforward as one might think. Just think about the libraries, variables, functions, and many more. All these objects can be defined and later rewritten, some might get obsolete during the process.

        This process is proven to be even more crucial when you are part of a larger group of engineers, and scientists, who collaborate with you.

      • RlangDecember 2022: “Top 40” New CRAN Packages

        One hundred sixteen new packages stuck to CRAN in December 2022. Here are my “Top 40” selections in thirteen categories: Computational Methods, Data, Ecology, Epidemiology, Genomics, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Medicine, Networks, Signal Processing, Statistics, Utilities, and Visualization.

      • Daniel LemireMove or copy your strings? Possible performance impacts

        You sometimes want to add a string to an existing data structure. For example, the C++17 template ‘std::optional’ may be used to represent a possible string value. You may copy it there, as this code would often do…

      • MaskRayAll about UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer

        UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer (UBSan) is an undefined behavior detector for C/C++. It consists of code instrumentation and a runtime. Both components have multiple independent implementations.

        Clang implemented the first instrumentations in 2009-12, initially named -fcatch-undefined-behavior. In 2012 -fsanitize=undefined was added and -fcatch-undefined-behavior was removed. GCC 4.9 implemented -fsanitize=undefined in 2013-08.

        The runtime used by Clang lives in llvm-project/compiler-rt/lib/ubsan. GCC from time to time syncs its downstream fork of the sanitizers part of compiler-rt (libsanitizer). The end of the article lists some alternative runtime implementations.

      • Phil EatonLessons learned streaming building a Scheme-like interpreter in Go

        I wanted to practice making coding videos so I did a four-part series on writing a basic Scheme-like language (minus macros and arrays and tons of stuff).

        I picked this simple topic because I wanted a low-stakes way to learn what I did not know about making videos.

        Here was the end result (nothing crazy): [...]

      • Jack KellyDeriving Simple Recursive Functions

        I used to teach Haskell to first-year university students, and many of them struggled to write their first recursive functions. It really isn’t obvious why you can solve a problem using the function you’re in the process of defining, and many students have difficulty making that leap. There is no shame in this. I remember taking a long time to grok proof-by-induction, which has a similar conceptual hurdle: how can you use a statement to prove itself?

      • Git Templates

        Git is a powerful tool for managing and tracking changes in code projects. However, as projects grow and become more complex, it can be difficult to keep everything organized and make sure that everyone is on the same page. This is where Git templates come in.

      • Git: Querying the existing configuration

        Git is a powerful tool for managing code and collaborating with others. One of the most important things when working with Git is understanding how to query the existing configuration.

      • Git: Configuration targets

        Git is a powerful and versatile tool for managing and tracking code changes. One of the key features of Git is its ability to configure various settings and options at different levels, depending on your needs.

      • Bryan Lunduke10 comics about Linux and programming and stuff.

        I have a disease where I can't stop telling Linux jokes. Doctor says it's terminal.

      • Medeveldroppy, The Self-hosted File Storage development has ceased

        droppy is a self-hosted file storage server with a web interface and capabilities to edit files and view media directly in the browser. It is particularly well-suited to be run on low-end hardware like the Raspberry Pi.

        Features

        * Responsive, scalable HTML5 interface

        * Real-time updates of file system changes

        * Directory and...

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Jussi PakkanenJussi Pakkanen: PDF with font subsetting and a look in the future

        After several days of head scratching, debugging and despair I finally got font subsetting working in PDF. The text renders correctly in Okular, goes througg Ghostscript without errors and even passes an online PDF validator I found. But not Acrobat Reader, which chokes on it completely and refuses to show anything. Sigh.

  • Leftovers

    • TruthOutBuzzFeed’s AI-Produced Content Experiment Is a Glimpse Into a Bleak Future
    • [Repeat] The Register UKWhat is Google doing with its open source teams?

      For example, Chris DiBona, who founded Google's OSPO 18 years ago, was let go. As was Jeremy Allison, co-creator of Samba and Google engineer; Cat Allman, former Program Manager for Developer EcoSystems; and Dave Lester, a new hire who was taking ownership of Google's open source security initiatives.

      These are not the people anyone in their right mind, or HR container, would want to fire. They are open source movers and shakers. In open source leadership circles, they're people everyone knows and are happy to work with.

      What the hell, Google?

    • ButtondownTag Systems

      I’ve tried to write a blog post on tag systems for years now. Literally years, I think I first started drafting it out in 2018 or so? The problem is that there’s just so much to them, so many different approaches and models and concerns that trying to be comprehensive and rigorous is an exercise in madness.

      So screw it. These are my noncomprehensive, poorly-researched thoughts on tag systems, thrown on the newsletter. This is not about implementation of tag systems, just their design.

    • QuilletteDeath on Demand: Cautionary Tales from Canada

      MAiD is generating plenty of other collateral damage, too. Some relatives are anguished when they learn that their parents, siblings, or even adult children had requested or received MAiD, and no one ever told them. (Authorities say that privacy laws prevent them from disclosing this information.) We also know that some people who have received approval for MAiD end up torturing themselves about whether to go through with it, scheduling and de-scheduling death dates as they weigh the misery of their existence against the prospect of personal annihilation. For many of these people, their primary form of suffering isn’t physical. It’s social and psychological: feelings of loneliness, boredom, helplessness, and depression. Are those sufficient reasons to indulge a wish for state-assisted death?

      The implications of loosening the MAiD regime’s eligibility rules frighten me profoundly. Canada, like the rest of the world, is full of people who are sad, isolated, and/or disabled. Sooner or later, you and I may well be among their ranks (if you aren’t already), along with many of the people we love.

      Of course, we want to control our fates. But there is something unsettlingly overeager about those stepping forward to expand the reach of this ghoulish (to many) form of medical therapy. Do we really want to be treated—and to treat others—as if humans were disposable? What happens when passing bouts of loneliness and sadness really are all that are formally required for a state-assisted death, with care providers casually offering to sign a depressed patient’s death warrant after he or she has completed a short form on a clipboard?

    • Counter PunchFrank Kunert’s ès Cuisine Photographic Art

      It’s bizarre. Recently, I have been waking dream-like fantasies where I am trapped in a room, often the kitchen, horror-roaring voices assailing me, with no exit or escape feeling I’m about to be grabbed by invisible hands, and decide to jump, and dive into the kitchen floor, and go through the floor, which turns to water, and I’m underwater swimming, down my driveway, up my street, car passing over me, and up an access road to the highway, which is empty and, as I pop my head up on to road, turns to a whitewater, and I ride the water down the steep hill to a place called Midland, now lost beneath a flood. Dream over. It’s a repeating dream. And I’ve wondered if there is something wrong with me.

      Somehow my disappearance from the scene in a dream relates to my recent reading and exploration of Frank Kunert’s latest book of ‘disruptive’ art photography, Carpe Diem. Like his previous books, Lifestyle (2018), Wonderland (2018), and Topsy Turvy World (2008), Kunert’s new book of images has a weird, almost undine, consciousness to it. Though each image implies the presence of humanity — staircases, furniture, place settings, off-ramps, springboards, etc. — there are no people. Replacing people are readers of the book who wear the image as a dream mask for however many moments they sit there perusing the photo. And the photo is of a carefully constructed 3D model of a set. You might recall the scaled world your weird uncle made in his garage where his model train ran through, tenderness in the details of the countryside, structures and the works of humans featured with humans themselves absented, a peaceable kingdom by the sea, if the king were autistic.

    • Ruben SchadeSetting tech expectations

      It sounds obvious when spelled out like this, but one of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned was that our expectations can so often colour our views of a situation. It’s not universally applicable: you can’t force an expectation of feeling great if you haven’t slept for three days. But having reasonable expectations, especially for tech, can help you cope with issues.

    • HackadayDriverless Buses Take To The Road In Scotland

      Scotland! It’s the land of tartans, haggis, and surprisingly-warm kilts. It’s also ground zero for the first trial of full-sized driverless buses in the United Kingdom.

    • Helsinki TimesTampere saw population grow by almost 5,000 in 2022

      THE POPULATION of Tampere grew last year by 4,837 people to 249,060, driven by migration gains.

    • Mexico News DailyRecycling plant fire in Tijuana sends thick smoke across border

      The blaze followed a reported explosion at a carboard recycling plant on Saturday and has spread to the assets of seven other businesses.

    • Science

      • AdafruitSolving the Riddle of Roman Concrete

        The engineering wonders of ancient Rome are widely known and much of their impressive construction was held together with a formulation of concrete. Structures like the Pantheon, built in A.D. 128 and featuring the the world’s biggest unreinforced concrete dome, remain intact today, as do ancient Roman aqueducts, still delivering water.

      • Cendyne NagaHow to use HKDF to derive new keys

        In this article, "misuse" has a specific meaning: a cryptographic tool is not delivering all intended security properties because it is not used correctly.

    • Education

    • Hardware

      • NPRThese combat vets want to help you design the perfect engagement ring

        They call their company Wove. They can't send multiple diamond rings in the mail — the insurance bill would be crippling. But with 3D printing, they make inexpensive models people can see, and feel, and then revise, before buying the real thing.

      • HackadayDIY Adjustable Wrench? Nuts!

        What do you do if you want a tiny little adjustable wrench? If you’re [my mechanics] you build your own. Where do you get the stock metal? Well, he started with an M20 nut. A few milling operations, a torch, some pliers, and work with a vice resulted in a nice metal blank just the right size to make each part of the wrench, including a new nut for the adjustment.

      • HackadayA New Analog And CRT Neck Board For The MacIntosh SE

        Keeping a 35-year old system like the MacIntosh SE and its successor, the SE/30, up and running requires the occasional replacement parts. As an all-in-one system, the analog board that provides the power for not only the system but also the 9″ (23 cm) built-in CRT is a common failure location, whether it is due to damaged traces, broken parts or worse. For this purpose [Kay Koba] designed a replacement analog board, providing it with a BOM of replacement components. This also includes the neck board, which is the part that the CRT itself connects to.

      • HackadayFind SWD Points Quickly, No Extra Hardware Needed

        Say you’re tinkering with a smart device powered by a CPU that uses Serial Wire Debug (SWD), but doesn’t mark the testpoints. Finding SWD on a board — how hard could it be? With [Aaron Christophel]’s method, you can find the SWD interface on a PCB within a few minutes’ time. All you need is two needles, a known-to-be-ground connection, an SWD dongle of some kind, and a computer with an audio output. What’s best — you could easily transfer the gist of this method to other programming interface types!

      • HackadayKiCanvas Helps Teach And Share KiCad Projects In Browsers

        KiCad is undeniably the hacker favourite when it comes to PCB design, and we’ve built a large amount of infrastructure around it – plugins, integrations, exporters, viewers, and much more. Now, [Stargirl Flowers] is working on what we could call a web viewer for KiCad files – though calling the KiCanvas project a “KiCad viewer” would be an understatement, given everything it aims to let you do. It will help you do exciting things like copy-pasting circuits between KiCad and browser windows, embed circuits into your blog and show component properties/part numbers interactively, and of course, it will work as a standalone online viewer for KiCad files!

      • New York TimesNetherlands and Japan Said to Join U.S. in Curbing China’s Access to Chip Tech

        A new agreement is expected to expand the reach of U.S. technology restrictions on China issued last year.

      • HackadayHandmade GPS Tracker Keeps An Eye On Adventurous Cats

        One of the most convenient things about having cats is their independent lifestyle: most are happy to enjoy themselves outside all day, only coming back home when it’s time for dinner and a nap. What your cat gets up to during the day remains a mystery, unless you fit it with a GPS collar. When [Sahas Chitlange] went searching for a GPS tracker for his beloved Pumpkin, he found that none were exactly to his liking: too slow, too big, or simply unreliable. This led him to design and build his own, called Find My Cat.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

    • Proprietary

    • Security

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • VarietyEva Green ‘Humiliated’ After Private WhatsApp Messages ‘Exposed’ in Court

          As part of the discovery process, numerous communications between Green and other individuals – including her agent, Charles Collier of Tavistock Wood, and the film’s writer and director Dan Pringle – were disclosed, in which Green admits she was “very direct.” Among them are missives in which Green calls Sherborne “arseholes” and “sad little people” and describes one of the producers on the project, Jake Seal, as “evil” and “the devil.” She also referred to the crew at production facility Black Hanger Studios as “shitty peasants.” On Monday, the court heard that Green had described the failing project as a “B-shitty-movie”.

          As part of a lengthy cross examination, White Lantern’s lawyer, Max Mallin KC, asked Green whether she was “accustomed to lying in text messages,” to which Green responded that she has a “very direct” manner, before adding: “I was not expecting to have my WhatsApp messages exposed in court. It’s already very humiliating.”

        • EFFEFF Files Amicus Briefs in Two Important Geofence Search Warrant Cases

          The two cases are People v. Meza, in the California Court of Appeal, and United States v. Chatrie, in the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. In each case, the defendant is challenging the police use of a surveillance tool we’ve written about before called a “geofence warrant.” In both cases, the lower courts denied motions to suppress. In Chatrie, however, the district court issued a lengthy opinion holding the geofence warrant was unconstitutional before ruling that police relied on the warrant in “good faith” and therefore the evidence from their search was admissible.

          Unlike traditional warrants for electronic records, a geofence warrant doesn’t start with a particular suspect or even a device or account; instead police request data on every device in a given geographic area during a designated time period, regardless of whether the device owner has any connection to the crime under investigation. Google has said that for each warrant, it must search its entire database of users’ location history information—data on hundreds of millions of users.

          The data Google provides to police in response to a geofence warrant has the potential to be very precise—much more precise than cell site location information, for example. It allows Google to determine where a user was at a given date and time, sometimes to within twenty meters or less. Google can even determine a user’s elevation and establish what floor of a building that user may have been on. As the lower court noted in Chatrie last summer, Google’s database “appears to be the most sweeping, granular, and comprehensive tool—to a significant degree—when it comes to collecting and storing location data.” At the same time, however, Google does not guarantee accuracy. Google’s goal is to accurately infer a user’s location within a certain radius a bare 68% of the time. This creates the possibility of both false positives and false negatives—people could be implicated for a crime when they were nowhere near the scene, or the actual perpetrator might not be included at all in the data Google provides to police.

        • TechdirtMadison Square Garden’s Facial Recognition-Enabled Bans Now Being Targeted By Legislators, State AG

          Late last year, it was revealed that MSG Entertainment (the owner of several New York entertainment venues, including the titular Madison Square Garden) was using its facial recognition tech to, in essence, blacklist its owner’s enemies.

        • Counter PunchHow Police Use Public-Private Partnerships to Spy on Americans

          In this age of ubiquitous surveillance, there are no private lives: everything is public.

          Surveillance cameras mounted on utility poles, traffic lights, businesses, and homes. License plate readers. Ring doorbells. GPS devices. Dash cameras. Drones. Store security cameras. Geofencing and geotracking. FitBits. Alexa. Internet-connected devices.

        • EFFTwo Steps Forward, One Step Back on Vaccine Privacy in New York

          The original bill would have protected people from having their information misused by private companies, the government, or other entities that wish to track their movements or use their private medical information to punish or discriminate against them. It also would have expressly prohibited immunity information from being shared with immigration agencies seeking to deport someone, or with child services seeking to take away their children. Finally, it would have required those asking for immunity information to accept an analog credential, such as a paper record.

          New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill into law at the end of December. Unfortunately, she amended the bill the legislature passed to weaken some of its provisions on data sharing.

          New Yorkers are better off with this law on the books. But it’s disappointing to see signing amendments that run counter to the heart of the bill: that public health requires public trust. We should never worry that seeking health care, especially for something as routine as a vaccine, will land us in legal trouble.

        • New YorkerSurveillance and the Loneliness of the Long-Distance Trucker

          A new book shows how electronic tracking systems have failed to make trucking safer. But they have helped companies spy on their workers.

        • Press GazetteGovernment monitoring of Covid-19 policy media critics revealed

          Toby Young, Talkradio's Julia Hartley-Brewer and Mail on Sunday's Peter Hitchens were among those monitored.

        • EDRIUnder surveillance: (mis)use of technologies in emergency responses

          In the months following the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than half the world’s countries enacted emergency measures. Within this broader context, we have seen a rapid scaling up of governments’ use of technologies to enable widespread surveillance. How has this impacted civil society groups globally?

        • EngadgetEU vows to get tougher on Big Tech privacy violations

          The European Union iseager to crack downon Big Tech's alleged privacy abuses, but the reliance on individual countries to enforce General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules has led to lengthy cases with punishments that arefrequently modest.

        • Danish speed camera warning app to be switched off

          The Fartkontrol.nu app, which warns motorists about upcoming speed checks on roads, is to be switched off at the end of January.

        • Marcy WheelerDOJ Has Spent Five Months Trying to Access Scott Perry’s Phone

          In addition to all the difficulties created by the 25 subjects or witnesses in the January 6 investigation, DOJ has been fighting for five months to access Scott Perry's phone.

        • EDRIMember States want internet service providers to do the impossible in the fight against child sexual abuse

          In May 2022, the European Commission presented its proposal for a Regulation to combat child sexual abuse (CSA) online. The proposal contains a number of privacy intrusive provisions, including obligations for platforms to indiscriminately scan the private communications of all users (dubbed ”chat control”). There are also blocking obligations for internet services providers (ISPs), which is the focus of this article.

        • EDRIPhone unlocking vs biometric mass surveillance: what’s the difference?

          Facial recognition is one of the most hotly-debated topics in the European Union’s (EU) Artificial Intelligence Act. Lawmakers are more aware than ever of the risks posed by automated surveillance systems which pervasively track our faces – as well as our bodies and movements - across time and place. This can amount to biometric mass surveillance (BMS), which undermines our anonymity and freedom, and weaponises our faces and bodies against us. The article explores the types of biometric technology and their implications.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Democracy Now“Elite” Police Units Face More Scrutiny as Memphis SCORPION Unit Disbanded over Tyre Nichols Death

        Memphis police have revealed a sixth and a seventh officer have been placed on administrative leave in addition to the five fired officers over the death of Tyre Nichols, after Nichols was brutally beaten at a traffic stop. On Saturday, Memphis disbanded the police unit responsible for the killing, known as SCORPION, which stood for “Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhood.” We look more closely at these so-called special police units in cities nationwide that operate with little oversight with investigative reporter Radley Balko, author of “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces” and of the criminal justice newsletter, The Watch. His opinion piece for The New York Times is headlined “Tyre Nichols’s Death Proves Yet Again That 'Elite' Police Units Are a Disaster.”

      • Counter PunchHow America's Insurrectionists Crossed the Rubicon of History

        Americans tuning into the television news on January 8th eyed a disturbingly recognizable scene. In an “eerily familiar” moment of “déjà vu,” just two years and two days after the January 6th Capitol insurrection in Washington, D.C., a mob of thousands stormed government buildings in the capital city of another country — Brazil. In Brasilia, what New York Times columnist Ross Douthat ominously labelled “the first major international imitation of our Capitol riot” seemed to be taking place.

        As the optics suggested, there were parallels indeed, underscoring a previously underappreciated fragility in our democratic framework: the period of transition between presidencies.

      • The NationCops Lynched Tyre Nichols Because They Knew They Could

        The race of a cop is “cop.” Nobody should have needed to see a video of five Black cops lynching Tyre Nichols to figure that out. Nichols was beaten to death by Black cops (five of whom have been charged with murder); Tasered by a white cop who encouraged the beating (who has been suspended but still not charged); and abandoned by people with a duty to render aid (three Memphis first responders have been relieved of duty) as he slumped, dying of injuries, for 23 minutes until an ambulance showed up on the scene. A goddamn rainbow coalition of “cops” killed that man. Then, a police force made up of a diverse group of people whose forebears were enslavers, slaves, and slave catchers took to the streets in riot gear and armored personnel carriers to keep Memphis “safe” from people who wanted to protest the brutality of those cops.

      • New YorkerThe Killing of Tyre Nichols and the Issue of Race

        The case dispatches several assumptions associated with police reform.

      • LRTLithuanian FM says all EU countries should expel Russian ambassadors

        Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis says he sees no point in EU member states having Russian ambassadors in their countries.

      • IT WireUS thinking of further tightening export curbs on Huawei: report

        It cited "people familiar with the matter" as saying Washington was looking at adjusting its licensing policy to achieve this end, but that no final decision had been made.

      • Tom's HardwareUS Government Stops Export Licenses to Huawei

        U.S. administration imposes total export ban on Huawei.

      • New York TimesRussia Pours Fighters Into Battle for Bakhmut

        Part of Moscow’s strategy appears to be overwhelming Ukrainian defenses with waves of soldiers as it tries to gain its first significant victory in months.

      • Site36Armed hypocrisy with Aija Kalnaja, in line with the values of the EU

        Misconducts are „pactices of the Past“, Frontex reported after Aija Kalnaja took over as interim director in the autumn.

      • European CommissionMr Janusz Wojciechowski takes part in mission to Kyiv with College of European Commissioners.

        European Commission Event Kyiv, 27 Jan 2023 Mr Janusz Wojciechowski takes part in mission to Kyiv with College of European Commissioners.

      • Defence WebEgyptian President visits India to elevate bilateral relations, including defence ties

        Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi touched down in New Delhi on 24 January for a three-day state visit focused on elevating the relationship to the level of strategic partnership between Egypt and India, in an effort to ramp up defence, political, energy and economic ties.

      • France24Live: Russia not complying with last remaining nuclear treaty amid Ukraine war, US says

        The US said Tuesday that Russia was not complying with New START, the last remaining arms control treaty between the world's two main nuclear powers, as tensions soar over the Ukraine war.€ Follow FRANCE 24’s live coverage of today’s developments on the war in Ukraine. All times are in Paris time (GMT+1).

      • CNNOpinion: Why some African nations are greeting Russia with open arms

        Russia seems to be outmaneuvering the United States in Africa. In recent days, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov underscored that stark reality as he wined and dined his way through a tour of four African capitals.

      • AxiosU.S. charges 4 more suspects in Haitian President Jovenel Moïse's assassination

        Four men were extradited to the U.S. and charged for their alleged involvement in the assassination of former HaitianPresident Jovenel Moïse, the Department of Justiceannouncedon Tuesday.

      • NYPost12-year-old boy shot inside lobby of NYC apartment building

        The preteen suffered a gunshot wound to the left shoulder around 9:20, the NYPD said.

      • Meduza‘Some things are more important than justice’ Trial lawyer Ivan Pavlov talks about the state of Russia’s judiciary and how treason cases are tried in the country — Meduza

        Ivan Pavlov is a defense attorney specializing in crimes against the state. Since the 1990s, he has defended Russians charged with treason, espionage, and disclosing state secrets. In 2015, he founded Team29, an advocacy group for the right to access government information. The state’s resistance to Pavlov’s initiative eventually forced the group to close. Next, Ivan Pavlov and his colleagues established a new advocacy organization, Department One, this time with the mission of helping defendants in non-public trials, where secrecy enables all kinds of manipulations by the prosecution. While representing Ivan Safronov in a recent high-profile treason case, Pavlov himself was arrested and charged with violating the investigation’s secrecy. In September 2021, he emigrated to the Republic of Georgia. Deutsche Welle columnist Konstantin Eggert spoke with Pavlov in Tbilisi, asking him about Russia’s judiciary, his client’s 22-year prison sentence, the people who work in the FSB, and the lustration that could come to Russia, should the Putin regime collapse. With DW’s and Konstantin Eggert’s permission, Anna Razumnaya summarizes Ivan Pavlov’s remarks from an interview that originally appeared on Deutsche Welle’s Russian-language YouTube channel.

      • MeduzaRussia’s prison population stops shrinking after record drop due to Wagner Group recruitment — Meduza

        Russia’s federal penitentiary service (“FSIN”) has published a new report on the country’s prison population. According to the agency’s figures, the number of Russia’s incarcerated people has finally stabilized, after a record drop registered last November.

      • MeduzaAlexey Navalny: ‘Russia’s prison system is just like the Soviet Gulag, only with a chapel in every zone’ — Meduza

        Alexey Navalny, the imprisoned opposition politician serving a sentence in Russia’s Vladimir Region, writes that he is struck by the memoirs of Anatoly Marchenko, a Soviet-era dissident whose experience of the Gulag mirrors Navalny’s own life in the penal colony.

      • The NationTyre Nichols’s Police Murder and the Pathologizing of Blackness

        On January 7, 2023, five Black Memphis police officers brutally beat 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, a Black man, during a traffic stop. Nichols was hospitalized after the coordinated assault, and died three days later.

      • MeduzaRussian Prosecutor General says more than 9,000 illegally mobilized soldiers have been sent back home — Meduza

        Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov said during a meeting with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that more than 9,000 soldiers who were illegally mobilized have now been sent home, including some who were unqualified to serve in the military due to health issues.

      • Counter PunchThe Ukraine War and International Law

        The Ukraine War has provided a challenging time for the nations of the world and, particularly, for international law.

        Since antiquity, far-sighted thinkers have worked on developing rules of behavior among nations in connection with war, diplomacy, economic relations, human rights, international crime, global communications, and the environment. Defined as international law, this “law of nations” is based on treaties or, in some cases, international custom. Some of the best-known of these international legal norms are outlined in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Geneva Conventions.

      • Common DreamsI'm a Card-Carrying Member of the Military-Industrial Complex and Here Is the Unpleasant Truth

        My name is Bill Astore and I’m a card-carrying member of the military-industrial complex (MIC).

      • MeduzaPutin’s decree simplifies implementing terrorism alerts across Russia — Meduza

        Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that simplifies implementing terrorist threat alerts across Russia’s regions.

      • Counter PunchWhat Was That Biden Said About Ending the War?

        Commentators speculate how the American president’s promise – endorsed by the country as enthusiastically as Zelensky himself– of M1 Abram tanks to Ukraine will affect the war that grinds on in Ukraine. Many assume that gifts of fighter jets will follow shortly.

        What disturbs me is the semantics of Biden’s announcement of the gift, rationalized and neatly summed up, by “We all want an end to this war.” I wonder if Joe Biden is aware that his statement comes in the week that marks 50 years since the inglorious end of the U.S. war in Vietnam, (noted more widely in the foreign press than in the U.S.) How many times and for how many years did Americans and perhaps their Vietnamese quislings hear that kind of heroic talk about victory there? Similar assurances from military leaders and politicians were offered in subsequent wars. Remember Afghanistan where American military forces likewise abandoned the noble cause, although that took two decades to prove unworkable, and humiliating as well.

      • Counter PunchThe Pentagon's Perpetual Crisis Machine

        Given President Biden’s decision to send 31 of its top-ranked M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, it is clear that the Pentagon has decided to escalate its war against Russia. Biden’s decision was followed by Germany’s decision to deliver 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks to Ukraine. I’ll guarantee you there isn’t a Russian alive who doesn’t know about the time in the 1940s when Germany sent its tanks deep into Russia, killed millions of Russians, and almost succeeded in conquering the country.

        If the increasing pressure that the Pentagon is putting on Russia does not result in a nuclear war between the United States and Russia, the advocates of this highly dangerous interventionist and escalatory strategy will later exclaim, “You see, we told you that there was never a risk of nuclear war.” But what’s interesting about the Pentagon’s strategy is that if it does result in nuclear war, there won’t be anyone around to point out how wrongheaded it was.

      • RFAChinese photographer displays rare photos of 2008 crackdown in Tibet capital Lhasa

        In March 2018, the Tibetan regional capital Lhasa was seething with protests over long standing grievances about harsh Chinese rule in the Himalayan region. By October the city had recorded several hundred such protests, which were met by a heavy Chinese crackdown that Tibetan sources say claimed as many as 400 lives. Sympathy demonstrations were held around the world, including some that interrupted the Olympic torch relay in European capitals for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

      • CBCYazidis plead with Canada not to repatriate [sic] ISIS members

        The looming return of alleged ISIS members to Canada has brought trauma, worry and fear to people who were invited to Canada as a safe haven after the terrorist group all but destroyed their ancient community in northern Iraq.

      • RAIR FoundationLondon: In Response to Quran Burnings in Denmark and Sweden, Allahu Akbar Shouting Muslims Seize Control of Streets, Burn Flags, Declare Supremacy

        In response to the Qur’an burnings in Sweden and Denmark, angry Muslims protested outside Sweden’s London embassy in the United Kingdom. They turned the Embassy into a Masjid for the day. They took turns burning the Danish flag while chanting the Islamic battle cry, Alluha Akbar, and screaming the controversial adhan (call to prayer). Then, in a show of force, the Islamic supremacists seized control of London streets to show the world they had conquered another western city: [...]

      • NL TimesNetherlands got most asylum applications since 2015 last year

        The number of people applying for asylum in the Netherlands increased sharply last year. There were 35,535 first asylum applications, the highest number since 2015. Compared to 2021, the number of applications increased by 43.6 percent. Applications have decreased slightly since September.

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • [Old] FlightAwareDo you want to build your own FlightAware PiAware ADS-B Ground Station?

        You can now build and run your own ADS-B ground station that can be installed anywhere and receive real-time data directly from airplanes on your computer.

        Your ground station can run FlightAware's PiAware software to track flights within 100-300 miles (line of sight, range depending on antenna installation) and will automatically feed data to FlightAware. You can track flights directly off your PiAware device or via FlightAware.com.

        As a thank you from FlightAware, users sending ADS-B data receive the following: [...]

    • Environment

      • BBCMissing radioactive capsule found in Australia

        The capsule was found when a vehicle equipped with specialist equipment, which was travelling at 70 km/h, detected radiation, officials said.

        Portable detection equipment was then used to locate the capsule, which was found about 2 metres from the side of the road, they added.

      • Common DreamsAI Study Warns World Could Hit 2℃ Within Decades—Even With Emissions Cuts

        Even with ambitious action to reduce planet-heating emissions, the world could pass the two key temperature thresholds of the Paris climate agreement in the coming decades, according to new research that relied on artificial intelligence.

      • Common DreamsDeSantis Screeching "Resiliency" Won't Save Florida From Climate Catastrophe

        Florida is crazy about resiliency. The word is everywhere, because hurricanes, rising seas, erosion, disappearing beaches and downtowns flooding on sunny days are everywhere. The elected need to look like they’re doing something about it. So here comes resiliency. It’s got toughness, machismo, lilt. The syllables surf off the tongue with just enough self-importance for a word coined in mid-17th century England that our right honorable Gov. DeSantis thinks it’ll power Florida through the catastrophes of the 21st. He’s plastering the word everywhere like wonder whitewash.

      • Common DreamsThe Battle of Lützerath Marks Beginning of a New Stage for Global Climate Movement

        In early January 2023, in a tiny village in western Germany, tens of thousands of climate justice activists faced off against thousands of police in a showdown over the fate of the fossil industry in central Europe. The gigantic mobilization of means to secure the destruction of a village and the expansion of one of the world's largest open-pit coal mines—Garzweiler—in the center of Europe marks a new historical moment. To consider what happened in Lützerath as a defeat of the movement is to misunderstand history.

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The HillWorkday cuts hundreds of jobs

        The company told employees in a message on Tuesday that it decided to restructure and realign some teams across the company, leading to the layoffs, the majority of which will be those working on product and technology, according to a copy of the message from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

      • The HillPayPal laying off 2,000 employees

        CEO and President Dan Schulman wrote in a message to employees shared on the company website that while PayPal made “substantial progress” in restructuring its cost structure and prioritizing its allocation of resources, more work needs to be done. He said the downsizing will occur within the next few weeks, and that some organizations in the company will be “impacted more than others.”

      • World Wide Web ConsortiumW3C re-launched as a public-interest non-profit organization

        The World Wide Web Consortium began the year 2023 by forming a new public-interest non-profit organization. The new entity preserves our member-driven approach, existing worldwide outreach and cooperation while allowing for additional partners around the world beyond Europe and Asia. The new organization also preserves the core process and mission of the Consortium to shepherd the web, by developing open web standards as a single global organization with contributions from W3C Members, staff, and the international community.

      • CoryDoctorowThe real scandal is overclassification

        Thousands of American bureaucrats have unilaterally classified tens of millions of unremarkable documents without any legitimate basis for shielding them from public view. Meanwhile, millions of people have "Top Secret clearance" and can view these documents, making a mockery of their supposed secrecy.

      • NPRThe CEO of TikTok will testify before Congress amid security concerns about the app

        The committee alleged the app is linked to the Chinese Communist Party, and said in a statement, "Americans deserve to know how these actions impact their privacy and data security, as well as what actions TikTok is taking to keep our kids safe from online and offline harms."

      • The NationThe Long, Bitter History of Globalism

        Historians often interpret the history of Europe between the two world wars as an epochal struggle between emergent and entrenched systems of governance: communism versus fascism, democracy versus dictatorship. Yet in her new book, Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars, Tara Zahra offers a different frame for grasping the interwar period. Zahra, a professor of Eastern European history at the University of Chicago, sees these years as a mass political reaction to the advent of a truly globalized world and the consequences of a global economy (and the interwar depression) that affected the lives of millions.

      • TruthOutGOP Oversight Chair Plans to Investigate Biden’s Docs Case But Not Trump’s
      • Meduza‘An especially dangerous criminal’ The story of Vasyl Ovsienko, who spent more than 13 years in Soviet prisons for using the Ukrainian language — Meduza
      • MeduzaLithuanian Foreign Minister calls on EU countries to expel Russian ambassadors — Meduza

        Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis called on other EU member states to expel their Russian ambassadors on Wednesday, saying that in most cases, Russia’s diplomatic missions are “not diplomatic institutions but propaganda institutions” that “cover up war crimes” and “promote a program of genocide,” according to the Lithuanian news outlet Delfi.

      • The NationBritain’s Winter of Discontent

        Every Thursday at 8 pm during the spring of 2020, British people would emerge from lockdown for a few brief minutes and make some noise. Some of us bashed pots and pans, others cheered and whooped, others simply clapped. This display of national gratitude was for our “essential workers”—nurses, bus and train drivers, teachers and sanitation and Deliveroo workers—who had to do their jobs so that society could function. With Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles (as they all were then) joining in, we clearly weren’t all clapping for the same thing.

      • TechdirtAs Expected, Twitter’s New Trust & Safety Rules Are ‘Elon’s Whims’

        Have you noticed that everything that Elon Musk insisted was “bad” about the old Twitter (often incorrectly) are things… he’s now doing himself, but in even more ridiculous ways? He insisted that Twitter was run by people who were promoting ideological political views. Yet… it was Elon Musk (not old Twitter management) who publicly insisted people should vote for one party in the midterm elections. He insisted that Twitter unfairly blocked accounts based on made up rationale. Yet it was Elon Musk who started making up nonsense rules to ban people who annoyed him. He insisted that “shadowbanning” was bad, but his stated solution to content moderation policies… is the same exact thing he claims (falsely) is “shadowbanning.”

      • The NationWhat the Attacks on New Mexico Democrats Say About Being a Woman in Politics

        On December 4, Adriann Barboa, the Bernalillo County commissioner, returned home from buying Christmas lights, and what she saw terrified her: Her front door was riddled with bullet holes. Only hours earlier she’d been playing with her grandchild behind that door. Police said a person had shot eight times into her home. It was sheer luck that she and her family were away. She told me that she asked herself in that moment, Why would somebody do this? “I immediately thought,” she said, “it must be because of one of two things: my position as a commissioner or because of the work I’ve done on abortion access.”

      • TechdirtTed Cruz Goes After ‘Woke’ Microsoft Over Xbox Power Saving Settings Update

        If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you will be familiar with the concept of the anti-“woke” culture war the Republican Party grows and farms for its own purposes. This isn’t to say there aren’t real cultural conflicts we need to work out as a country, but that doesn’t change the simple fact that much of what you hear about in the press is specifically cultivated by one party or another to generate headlines and outrage for the purposes of votes and campaign contributions.

      • Counter PunchDanger Ahead: Angry Republicans

        If there’s a symbol of the Republican Party today, it’s heralded replicant Rep. George Santos of New York, known resume creator. If that, indeed, is his real name.

        He’s right out of the 1982 cult dystopian movie “Blade Runner,” starring Harrison Ford. You can’t tell by Santos’ eyes because he wears black horn-rimmed glasses. It’s the eyes that have it for identifying replicants.

      • EngadgetTwitter is killing off co-authored tweets after less than a year

        "We’re still looking for ways to implement this feature moving forward," Twitter said. So, it could return at some point.

      • New YorkerWhen Americans Lost Faith in the€ News

        Half a century ago, most of the public said they trusted the news media. Today, most say they don’t. What happened to the power of the press?

      • CS MonitorSaving democracy by shielding judges

        From Lebanon to Hong Kong, leaders see judicial independence – and civic equality before the law – as essential.

      • Common DreamsNearly 80% of Voters in George Santos' NY District Say He Should Resign: Poll

        Close to 80% of voters in GOP Rep. George Santos' New York congressional district want him to resign—including 71% of Republicans—according to a poll published Tuesday, the same day the serial liar temporarily stepped down from his House committee assignments.

      • TruthOut78 Percent of George Santos’s Constituents Want Him to Resign, Poll Finds
      • Telex (Hungary)Brussels hits the Hungarian government on a very sensitive point with the Horizon program
      • Telex (Hungary)The latest from Arte Weekly: Turkey may sabotage Sweden's NATO membership over Kurds, while the EU approves certain insects as food
      • TechdirtIncredibly, Facebook Is Still Figuring Out That Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible To Do Well

        For years now, I’ve talked about the impossibility of doing content moderation well at scale. I know that execs at various tech companies often point to my article on this, and that includes top executives at Meta, who have cited my work on this issue. But it still amazes me when those companies act as if it’s not true, and there’s some simple solution to all of the moderation troubles they face. The WSJ recently had a fascinating article about how Facebook thought that by simply silencing political opinions, they’d solve a bunch of their moderation problems. Turns out: it didn’t work. At all.

      • Telex (Hungary)Kyiv to Hungarian ambassador: 'Anti-Ukrainian rhetoric' must stop!
      • Common DreamsBiden Intervention in Democratic Primaries Is a Show of Weakness

        When the Democratic National Committee convenes its winter meeting on Thursday in Philadelphia, a key agenda item will be rubber-stamping Joe Biden’s manipulation of next year’s presidential primaries. There’ll be speeches galore, including one by Biden as a prelude to his expected announcement that he’ll seek a second term. The gathering will exude confidence, at least in public. But if Biden were truly confident that Democratic voters want him to be the 2024 nominee, he wouldn’t have intervened in the DNC’s scheduling of early primaries.

      • TruthOutManhattan DA Impanels Grand Jury Over Trump’s Payments to Stormy Daniels
      • Common DreamsBernie Sanders to the DNC: Ban Super PAC Money in All Democratic Primary Races

        Ahead of the Democratic National Committee's annual Winter Meeting in Philadelphia, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday called on the party to end super PAC spending in primary races, saying the Democrats should take the event as an opportunity to show their commitment to protecting democracy.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • MeduzaA window into Yandex’s censorship A source code leak reveals how Russia’s top tech company protects Putin’s image — Meduza

        Last week, Russian Internet giant Yandex suffered a major source code leak when an unknown user (likely a former employee) published parts of the company’s internal repository online. The leaked code provides new insight into the inner workings of Russia’s largest search engine, which has faced growing criticism in recent years for cooperating with the Kremlin. Among other things, the breach confirmed that Yandex has censored image and video search results to prevent the Z symbol and images of Putin from appearing in contexts that might embarrass the Russian authorities. Meduza explains how.

      • WiredThe Flight Tracker That Powered @ElonJet Just Took a Left Turn

        The standard the exchange relies on, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and is mandated by the FAA. It’s that standard that has made ADS-B Exchange so reviled by Musk and the Sauds. Plane owners who wish to hide their flight paths from the general public can submit a request to the FAA, which can require that downstream users of their feeds, like FlightRadar24 and FlightAware, suppress that information. Because ADS-B is transmitted without encryption, directly from the planes themselves, that kind of censorship isn’t possible.

        ADS-B Exchange’s administrators pride themselves on never hiding flight data. James Stanford, one of ADS-B Exchange’s senior administrators, told WIRED their website has been used to track gold smugglers and kidnappers, and it has been threatened by billionaires and warlords who aren’t keen on having their private jets tracked.

      • JETNETJETNET Acquires ADS-B Exchange

        Founded in 2016 by Dan Streufert, ADS-B Exchange aggregates approximately 750,000 messages per second worldwide via receivers hosted by aviation enthusiasts around the world. The acquisition of ADS-B Exchange will enable JETNET to expand its flight data solutions with real-time information.

      • Drew DeVaultShould private platforms engage in censorship?

        Private service providers are entitled to do business with whom they please, or not to. Occasionally, a platform will take advantage of this to deny service to a particular entity on any number of grounds, often igniting a flood of debate online regarding whether or not censorship in this form is just. Recently, CloudFlare pulled the plug on a certain forum devoted to the coordinated harassment of its victims. Earlier examples include the same service blocking a far-right imageboard, or Namecheap cancelling service for a neo-Nazi news site.

      • ExpressIran poised to execute pregnant woman for burning picture of founder Ayatollah Khomeini

        More than 500 people have been killed in an Iranian government crackdown since the start of the protests, with in excess of 18,000 arrested - including pregnant women.

        Zahra Nabizadeh was six months pregnant when she was detained on January 18 in the town of Mahabad, in West Azerbaijan province, Hengaw, a Norway-based group which monitors rights violations in Iran's Kurdish regions, has reported.

      • Hindu PostHow NY Times negates persecution of Hindus, even in its coverage of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws

        Per census data Hindus comprise the largest religious minority in Pakistan: 2.14% vs 1.27% for Christians. And face non-stop persecution & hostility from private and State actors for their faith along with attacks on Hindu temples and loss of sacred spaces.

        Hate against “idol-worship” & fake blasphemy charges against Pakistani Hindus are common. In 2019, a Hindu school principal was accused of blasphemy by a Muslim student simply for being asked about incomplete homework. Community-wide attacks followed.

      • PJ MediaA UN Body Has Condemned the Burning of a Qur’an in Sweden. Here’s Why It Shouldn’t Have.

        Book burning is an ugly business; in America is generally associated with Nazis standing gleefully before bonfires of forbidden books. Still, the freedom of expression is the freedom of expression, and if someone wants to burn a copy of Mein Kampf or The Catcher in the Rye or the Bible, that’s his business. When it comes to the Qur’an, however, suddenly the most stalwart exponents of the freedom of expression start talking about how much we need to curtail that freedom in order to respect the rights of others. It’s all happening again in connection with the burning of a Qur’an in Sweden on Friday.

      • RFERLIranians Use Sadeh Festival To Protest Against Lack Of Freedoms

        Protesters in Tehran's Ekbatan neighborhood celebrated the Sadeh festival by lighting huge fires, saying they showed the depth of their anger toward the government's intrusion on their freedoms and chanted “death to the dictator,” a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Similar scenes were repeated in the Iranian cities of Yazd, Kerman, Shiraz, Kermanshah, Kerman, and Mashhad.

      • The Epoch TimesHollywood Is Beijing’s Lap Dog

        If Hollywood had a spine, it would be made of money. After all, the film industry has always been about money and power. Filmmakers, writers, and actors have always been at the mercy of a cluster of people at the top in Hollywood who decided which actor or which film would get the opportunity to make money at the box office.

        That’s still the case, but the only difference now is that those powerbrokers are from Beijing rather than Beverly Hills, and it’s not just about money anymore. Yes, the old adage, “money is power” still applies in La-La Land, and the studios will do anything for it, including selling out their country and serving the largest slave state on the planet.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • DagHammarskjöldDo we weep or rejoice? The 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

        Like all anniversaries, this one rightfully calls for reflection. Does the track record of the United Nations’ work on human rights make this a moment to weep or rejoice? History shows that the human rights pillar, perhaps more than any other area of the organisation’s work, has struggled with issues of politicisation, legitimacy and underfunding. At the same time, it has generated some of its most transformative advances leading to increased recognition and enjoyment of human rights around the world. Weeping and rejoicing it seems. But most importantly, rekindling of the 1948 spirit to reset and carry on.

      • India TimesApple workplace rules violate U.S. labor law, agency finds

        The National Labor Relations Board will issue a complaint targeting the policies and claiming Apple executives made comments that stymied worker organizing unless the company settles first, an agency official said on Monday in an email reviewed by Reuters.

        The official had sent the email to Ashley Gjovik, a former Apple senior engineering manager who filed complaints against the company in 2021.

      • MedforthAuthorities in North Rhine-Westphalia have closed a Muslim halal slaughterhouse near Cologne, Germany

        “The animal cruelty in the slaughterhouse can hardly be put into words, it is certainly among the worst I have ever seen,” says Jan Peifer, Chairman of the Board of the German Animal Welfare Office. The main accusation, however, is that there was repeated slaughter without anaesthesia. The sheep were brutally pushed to the ground and their throats were cut without prior anaesthesia. The slaughter of animals without anaesthesia is generally prohibited in Germany and is only possible in some federal states with an exceptional permit. However, the slaughterhouse does not have such an exemption.

      • RFERLIranian Restaurant Shut Down After Woman Sings At Opening

        The latest incident was sparked by a video published on social media showing a female singer performing at the opening ceremony of a new restaurant in Mahshahr, in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.

        After the video went viral and was praised by Iranian social-media users, Farshad Kazemi, the police chief in Mahshahr, announced the restaurant had been sealed shut because of the performance.

      • The NationCops Lynched Tyre Nichols Because They Knew They Could

        Cops do not exist to stop crime (see Uvalde) or solve crime (a 2020 report found that police arrests lead to convictions in only 2 percent of major crimes). They exist to arrest people. One might hope that they’re arresting criminals or suspected criminals, but it’s important to remember that the very institution of local policing can trace its roots directly back to the old slave patrols and slave catchers of the antebellum South. Studies show that even when a massive influx of cops into a city leads to a small reduction in major crimes like homicide, it comes with an explosion of arrests for petty, victimless crimes, and, of course, increased brutality against Black people.

        The police are institutionally designed to be predators: Capturing (and if need be, killing) their targets is the primary way they justify their continued existence. Police are judged everywhere based on their numbers of arrests, the number of people they catch. And like all predators, they tend to target the weakest among us.

      • NBCTexas police chief is put on leave after a raid that targeted the wrong home and an innocent teen

        The teenager who was being sought does not live at that home and was later cleared of any involvement in the slaying, officials said.

      • SalonReporters expose how police use “junk science” forensic techniques to arrest innocent people

        Junk science can spread a lot of different ways, but there are some common patterns in how it spreads across forensics and law enforcement.

      • Democracy NowAsylum Seekers Refuse to Leave Manhattan Hotel, Citing Inhumane Conditions at Brooklyn Shelter

        In New York, asylum seekers are continuing to protest outside a Manhattan hotel where they’d been living for weeks, after city officials suddenly evicted them over the weekend to move them to a remote camp in Brooklyn with a thousand cots and no heat. We hear from migrants and activists fighting the eviction.

      • Counter PunchUSA Pipe Dreams: a Response

        We read with stupefaction the recent declarations of the head of the Southern Command of the USA Armed Forces, General Laura Richardson to the Atlantic Council think tank about the Latin American region. In language devoid of any obfuscation, she quite openly said what is well known, that Washington’s foreign policy in the region is exclusively based on its interest in its resources, not its people. As Orinoco Tribune reported, she stated:

        No word about establishing friendly relationships, about facing together shared problems of poverty, about encouraging social development, fighting environmental degradation, or drug trafficking. No “good neighbour” niceties.€  It is almost funny, if it wasn’t so ominous. Let us not forget that according to a UN study, more than 40% of armed conflicts of the last 60 years were linked to natural resources.[2]€  And with looming environmental disasters, increasing scarcity and competition,€  the pillage of natural resources and ensuing environmental deterioration can only get worse.

      • Counter PunchSay No to Expanding the Death Penalty

        Republican leaders have a death penalty problem. During a time when researchers called 2022 the “year of the botched execution” and when several states have had to place a moratorium on executions amidst failed protocols, several Republic leaders are seeking to expand capital punishment.

        It is no surprise that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is pro-death penalty. DeSantis has put himself on the national map by echoing if not extending many of Donald Trump’s most repressive measures.

      • Common DreamsWife of Chief Justice Causes Latest Ethics Concerns at US Supreme Court

        Fresh calls for federal lawmakers to pass new ethics rules for the U.S. Supreme Court mounted after The New York Times on Tuesday revealed that a former colleague of Chief Justice John Roberts' wife raised concerns to Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice.

      • TruthOutA Victory for Abolitionists: ICE-Run Immigration Prison Shuts Down Today
      • TruthOut1,300 Social Justice Groups Demand Atlanta Mayor Resign Over Tortuguita’s Death
      • TruthOutArizona Congressman Andy Biggs Eulogizes Racist Former State Lawmaker
      • EDRIThe UK will treat online images of immigrants crossing the Channel as a criminal offence

        On 17 January, the United Kingdom (UK) government announced that online platforms will have to proactively remove images of immigrants crossing the Channel in small boats under a new amendment to be tabled to the Online Safety Bill. The announcement, intended to bolster the UK’s hostile immigration policy, has been met with concern among the British public and charities working with people on the move.

      • EDRIEDRi-gram, 1 February 2023

        In this first EDRigram edition of 2023, we want to take a look back at what we collectively achieved in 2022. Together, we mobilised people and organisations in key moments and continued to strengthen our network and to contribute to the design of a decolonising programme for the field.

        We are also exploring why the European Commission's blocking obligations for internet services providers in the context of addressing the spread of child sexual abuse material online are impossible.

      • The Straits TimesThai police apologise after Taiwanese actress ‘extortion’ case

        Seven police officers have also been transferred and charged with dereliction of duty.

      • Denmark to grant asylum to all women and girls from Afghanistan

        Denmark’s immigration authority will now grant asylum to women and girls from Afghanistan because of their gender alone.

      • The Local SEPolitics in Sweden: The migration paradigm shift we need isn't the one we're getting

        Malfunctioning bureaucracy at the Migration Agency is the single biggest hurdle to Sweden's ability to attract international talent – and yet it receives shockingly little attention in the political debate, writes The Local's editor Emma Löfgren.

      • JURISTFilings reveal Starbucks paid over $11M to former legal chief amid unionization efforts

        The Starbucks Corporation Monday disclosed in US Securities and Exchange Commission filings that former General Counsel Rachel Gonzalez’s pay amounted to nearly $11.7 million in 2022, including $7.1 million in severance pay.

      • EngadgetThe DOJ is looking into Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving claims

        The rumors of Teslafacing a Justice Department investigationwere true. The EV designer hasconfirmedin an SEC filing that the DOJ has requested documents linked to Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) features.

      • The NationRIP Repro Rights
      • ACLUWhat it’s Like to Fight for Abortion Rights, Post-Roe

        It was exactly one year ago, on the 49th anniversary of Roe, amid an unprecedented surge of anti-abortion attacks sweeping through state legislatures in the run-up to the Dobbs decision. As abortion rights activists were gearing up for the decision, more and more people who had abortions were sharing their stories publicly, hoping to lessen the stigma of abortion as a strategy to fight back.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • EFFSetting the Record Straight: EFF Statement in Support of FCC Nominee Gigi Sohn

        First, we’ve seen some outlandish headlines about EFF’s 2020 recognition of Danielle Blunt, a leader in the technology policy space and advocate for sex workers, because she is a professional dominatrix. Ms. Blunt is one of the co-founders of Hacking//Hustling, a collective of sex workers and others working at the intersection of tech and social justice to interrupt state surveillance and violence facilitated by technology. Through that work, Ms. Blunt is an expert on the impacts of the censorship law FOSTA-SESTA, and on how content moderation affects the movement work of sex workers and activists. No one is more aware of the way that the power imbalances of the real world permeate online, and is more poised to act, than she is.

        Second, much has been made about EFF’s strong and continued opposition to FOSTA-SESTA. These attacks take the claims of FOSTA-SESTA's proponents at face value—that it was a good and useful measure to take against sex trafficking when all evidence points to the contrary. Our opposition to FOSTA-SESTA was and remains based on the facts: It will not stop sex trafficking and will instead make stopping it harder. At the same time, the law puts a wide range of online expression at risk and we are always, unapologetically, against the criminalization and chilling of legal speech.

        Third, despite what its supporters claim, the EARN IT Act is a surveillance bill that would have a devastating impact on privacy, security, and free speech. If Congress passes this disastrous bill, it may become too legally risky for companies to offer encryption services. This bill treats every internet user as a potential criminal, and subjects all our communications to mass scanning. We are pleased that Congress has rejected it twice already.

      • India TimesEU studying whether Big Tech should pay network costs

        The tech giants say the idea is equivalent to an internet traffic tax that could interfere with Europe's net neutrality rules treating all users equally.

        The commission's query is part of a 19-page document the EU executive drafted before it proposes legislation.

      • EFFThe FCC Broadband Maps: Meet the New Maps, Same as the Old Maps

        The problems have also been raised by states, local government, and community organizations, who have filed challenges to the FCC over these inaccuracies. It is now up to the FCC and NTIA to fix the map, and time is of the essence: the Biden administration is set to confirm how the money will be spent by the summer as part of its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.

        Overreliance on internet service providers (ISPs) to report service locations and service availability€ is a recurring problem. ISPs have no incentive to accurately report, and€ in fact, have every incentive to overreport, because misinforming the government has never carried a heavy penalty. These same ISPs then use these faulty broadband maps - which are built on their bad data - to challenge and try to prevent would-be competitors from building infrastructure into areas that are underserved or unserved.

        The FCC, recognizing this concern, created a challenge process through which government entities as well as individuals are able to challenge the ISPs over their service location and service availability. Setting aside the issues with the challenge process and the obvious discrepancy that is pitting an average consumer or small government agencies against well-resourced ISPs, these challenges only allow a glimpse of the true scope of the map’s inaccuracies.

      • TechdirtStarry’s Broadband Ambitions Fall Apart, Lays Off More Employees

        You might recall that Aereo founder Chaitanya Kanojia’s attempt to disrupt the TV industry ran face-first into an army of broadcaster lawyers and a€ notably ugly€ ruling by the Supreme Court. Undaunted, Kanojia returned with a new plan to try and disrupt the broken U.S. broadband industry.

      • Internet Freedom FoundationLegislative Brief on Digital Rights for Budget Session 2023

        Our legislative brief on digital rights for the Budget Session 2023 highlights some of the focus areas within the larger issues of digital rights, online content regulation, platform governance and free speech, data protection, etc. that call for extensive deliberation in the Houses of Parliament.

      • Michael Geist“Ongoing Concerns”: U.S. Objections to Canadian Digital Policies Spreads to the Senate

        U.S. concerns with Canadian digital policy continues to mount with both the U.S. Administration and Senators from both parties raising fears of discrimination. U.S. pressure seems likely to grow as the issue emerges as a major irritant in the bi-lateral trade relationship with Canada’s most important trading partner. With U.S. President Joe Biden scheduled to visit Ottawa later this winter, it seems likely that digital policy - particularly a

      • Michael GeistThe Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 154: The House is Back – A Preview of Canadian Digital Policy as Parliament Resumes

        The House of Commons and Senate return from a lengthy break this week and will likely run until late June with the occasional week or two off. Digital policy may not attract top line attention, but it has emerged as one of the government’s most active issues. This week’sLaw

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

    • Monopolies

      • Common DreamsReport Details How US Policy Devastated Small Dairy Farms and Boosted Corporate Monopolies

        Food & Water Watch on Tuesday released an analysis of the U.S. dairy farming industry—the climate and food justice group's third in-depth report on the economic costs of food monopolies—revealing how corporate consolidation has helped push small family farms out of business over the past two decades, while worsening the climate emergency.

      • Counter PunchDeregulation and the Law of Unintended Consequences

        Montanans have already had a very brutal lesson in deregulation and its unintended consequences. The great idea of the Legislature in the late ’90s was to deregulate our utilities under the “free market” theory that competition would lead to lower prices. HAHAHA! We went from the lowest cost power in the region to the highest — and the rip-off continues to this day, decades later.

        Comes now Governor Gianforte’s ongoing effort to “reduce red tape” — which is simply deregulation of industry under another name. Moreover, they have pulled the wool over the eyes of the populace by saying the goal is to create more “affordable housing.”

      • CCIALays of the Land: Tracking State Legislative Efforts

        DisCo recently released three posts outlining the current content moderation, data privacy, and competition landscapes, highlighting a number of states that have proposed legislation on these topics. As state legislative sessions kicked off in January, these topics are already producing additional proposals and we anticipate this will continue throughout 2023.

      • Patents

      • Software Patents

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent FreakPornhub Risks Losing Its Domain Name in Bizarre Piracy Lawsuit

          Pornhub sister company MG Premium is embroiled in a lawsuit that puts the pornhub.com domain at risk. The company, which is part of the MindGeek imperium, sued the tube site Goodporn for massive copyright infringement. However, Goodporn turned the tables by claiming that it owns the rights, citing a previously signed agreement that MindGeek dismisses as fraudulent.

        • Torrent FreakPirate Site Admin Convicted After Five Years, Another Acquitted, Site Lives On

          Following a legal process of more than five years, a court in Lithuania has handed down its verdict against two alleged operators of streaming portal Filmai. After being found guilty, one man was sentenced to fines and a confiscation order of 200,000 euros. The second man was acquitted. Meanwhile, Film.ai is still online and remains one of the most popular sites in the country.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

    • Technical

      • terminal emulators

        I want one that has sixel support

        but also lets me make up my own regexes to match parts of the terminal's output and make those sections clickable and then passable to an external program.

      • How Would You Feel If Google Indexed the Gemini Space?

        If Google would start supporting the Gemini protocol and indexing the Gemini space, presumely to make better SERPs for users of the Gemini space available, would you feel bad about it?

        There couldn’t be any advertisement and tracking on Google’s Gemtext SERPs, obviously. So, no harm done.

        Would you feel bad if the Gemini space’s content would be available on Google’s SERPs on the WWW, but linking to Gemini pages? It surely would spread the word and allow for more users to know about and experience the Gemini verse and the slow web.

        But there would be advertisement and tracking on Google’s HTML SERPs, obviously. So, harm done, but showing a way out.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

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