02.21.23

Links 21/02/2023: GParted 1.5 and GNU/Linux on Dreamcast

Posted in News Roundup at 9:32 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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

Links 21/02/2023: OpenSUSE Leap 15.5 Beta and Tor Browser 12.5a3

Posted in News Roundup at 9:50 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Real Linux User ☛ The 14 things I always do when setting up Linux on a laptop

        I perform clean Linux installs regularly. On my own computers and those of others. For my personal use and for review purposes.

      • Dedoimedo ☛ A new Slimbook is on its way

        My laptop fleet is quiet old. Excluding the other Slimbook in my possession, which I use primarily for work, the youngest laptop dates back to 2015. The machines are anywhere between fourteen and just eight years old, and most have fairly modest specs for today’s standards. The only truly capable machine is the Y50-70 rig, which still pulls its weight, but the mechanical disk is slow, and nine years is a respectable time to look for a replacement.

        And so I decided to get myself a new laptop – a Slimbook Titan no less. Why? Well, first I wanted a powerful mobile system that I can use for all sorts of purposes, including gaming. After all, that’s what the Y50-70 did for a fair share of its life span. Second, I wanted a Linux-only machine so I can fully and totally prepare for the inevitable move away from Windows sometime in 2025 or so. I already did a lot of preliminary work in this regard, and even just recently turned the previously dual-boot Y50-70 into a Linux-only system. Highly encouraged by that experience, including the hybrid graphics support, I decided, yes, I want a new machine, a powerful machine, with solid graphics, and it’s going to be Linux only, and I’m going to tweak it into a total productivity host equivalent to what I get with Windows. Slimbook Titan, it is.

      • LinuxInsider ☛ Not All Linux Systems Are Created Equal, but They’re All Equally Linux

        A friend of mine with decades of experience in tech made a wittily apt remark that I’ve been thinking about lately.

        When discussing how to overcome a thorny technical hurdle that most desktop OSes would obstruct the user from addressing, he quipped that Linux was easily up to the task because “Linux is a real operating system.”

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • DroidGazzette ☛ Linux 6.2: The first mainstream Linux kernel for Apple M1 chips arrives

        Getting Linux to run on the M1 family wasn’t easy.

        When these high-powered ARM chips first arrived, Torvalds told me in an exclusive interview that he’d like to run Linux on these next-generation Macs. But, while he’d been “waiting for an ARM laptop that can run Linux for a long time,” he worried, saying, “The main problem with the M1 for me is the GPU and other devices around it because that’s likely what would hold me off using it because it wouldn’t have any Linux support unless Apple opens up.”

      • GamingOnLinux ☛ Linux kernel 6.2 is out now, here’s a feature highlight

        You can have a little Linux kernel update, as a treat. The Linux kernel 6.2 is officially out now so here’s some notes on some of what’s new. In the release announcement Linus Torvalds requested people to “please do give 6.2 a testing” and that it may not be a “sexy LTS release like 6.1 ended up being, but all those regular pedestrian kernels want some test love too”.

      • ZDNet ☛ Linux 6.2: The first mainstream Linux kernel for Apple M1 chips arrives

        Linux is now ready to run on modern Macs.

      • Talospace ☛ Linux 6.2

        Expect 6.2 to make it to bleeding edge users and Fedora in the very near future.

      • Ubuntu Pit ☛ Reducing Hardware Noise on Linux 6.3 with the New ‘hwnoise’ Tool

        Exciting news for Linux 6.3 – the introduction of a brand new feature, hwnoise! Developed by Daniel Bristot de Oliveira over the past few months, hwnoise works in conjunction with the operating system noise (osnoise) tracer to quantify and monitor hardware noise efficiently.

    • Applications

      • OpenSource.com ☛ My favorite open source tools for personal finance

        There are tons of open source personal finance apps out there. These apps are useful because they help you take control of your finances. I find it much easier to use an app rather than a spreadsheet or a ledger. Here are some of my favorite apps.

        GnuCash is a popular open source personal finance or small business accounting program for Linux users. It is a full-featured double-entry accounting system that supports multiple accounts, investments, and currency conversions. The app also provides a variety of helpful financial tools, including budgeting, reporting, invoicing, and more. GnuCash is a great choice for users looking for a comprehensive and powerful financial management solution. GnuCash is my own personal favorite that I have been using every day for over six years. GnuCash can be installed from the command line or as a Flatpak depending on your distribution and personal choice. GnuCash is licensed with the Gnu Public License. GnuCash is also available for MacOS and Windows users too.

      • Linux Links ☛ 11 Best Free and Open Source Linux GPS Tools

        This article focuses in selecting the best free software for undertaking a wide variety of GPS related tasks. Hopefully, there will be something of interest here for anyone who needs to keep track of where they are, to find the way to a specified location, or determine what direction and how fast they are going. We make the following recommendations captured in a LinuxLinks-style ratings chart.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Make Tech Easier ☛ How to Host Your Own Youtube with Peertube

        Peertube is a federated and open source video hosting platform that you can run from your own computer. Iit allows you to completely control all the content that you host and share from your website. This tutorial shows you how to install and host Peertube on Ubuntu.

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

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Kodi on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

      • Djalel Oukid ☛ Beautify your terminal with Powerline! (Part I: Installation & Configuration)

        Linux distributions have come a long way in the past decade to the point where it is possible today to use Linux without getting into the dark of the terminal (CLI). However, the more you use and learn about Linux, the more you realize that it is inevitable to use the command-line interface. By default, the CLI has a simple interface that gets boring quickly. Luckily, you can illuminate the darkness of the terminal by beautifying it with plugins like Powerline.

      • Tom’s Hardware ☛ How to Safely Remove a Swollen Battery from Your Laptop

        If you decide to go the DIY route, then it is best to be prepared and apply all safety precautions even though you may end up not needing them.

      • UNIX Cop ☛ How to Install Zeit Tool on Ubuntu

        Hello, friends. In this post, you will learn how to install Zeit on Ubuntu. This tool provides you with a simple graphical interface for scheduling tasks on Linux. Written in C++ and with a QT interface, Zeit provides a graphical interface to schedule tasks using crontab and at.

      • UNIX Cop ☛ Barrier on Gentoo

        Barrier is an utility to share a keyboard and a mouse between multiple computers, just like we used to do with old school KVM switches. And why someone would like to do that?

      • FOSSLinux ☛ The guide to managing users and groups in Ubuntu

        In Ubuntu, managing users and groups is an essential task that allows system administrators to control access to the system and its resources. A user is an individual who can log into the system and perform tasks, while a group is a collection of users that share the same permissions and access rights.

      • H2S Media ☛ What is the difference between Homebrew and NPM?

        Homebrew and NPM are two popular package managers which are essentially used to install various packages for modern development environments. Although they appear similar, they have distinct characteristics.

      • HowTo Forge ☛ How to Install Elastic Stack on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

        Elastic Stack (Formerly ELK Stack) is a group of open-source software created by Elastic for collecting data from multiple sources. It allows you to collect, store, process, analyze, and visualize data from various sources in any formats to the centralized Elastic Stack platform.

      • HowTo Forge ☛ How to Install Nginx with Brotli Compression on Ubuntu 20.04

        Brotli is an open-source compression algorithm created by Google. It can be used as an alternative to Gzip, Zopfli, and Deflate. This tutorial will show you how to install Brotli with Nginx on Ubuntu 20.04 server.

      • HowTo Forge ☛ How to Add a Swap File On Ubuntu

        A swap file enables an operating system (OS) to utilize hard disk space to simulate additional memory. Effectively, as the system goes on the low-memory mode, it swaps a certain section of the RAM that an idle program may be using onto the hard disk to release memory capacity for other vital programs. Subsequently, when the user returns to the swapped out program, it swaps places with another program in RAM. This intelligent mix of RAM and swap files is commonly referred to as virtual memory, and its use allows the system to run a far greater number of programs than possible using only the built-in RAM.

      • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Apache Maven on Fedora Linux

        Apache Maven is a powerful build automation tool widely used in Java-based projects to manage dependencies, build, and deploy applications. It provides a comprehensive set of features that automate the entire build process and simplify the development of Java applications.

      • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Neofetch on Linux Mint 21 or 20

        Neofetch is a command-line tool that provides system information in a simple and easy-to-read format. It is available for Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like operating systems. It provides a quick and convenient way to view important information about your system, including the operating system, kernel, CPU, GPU, memory usage, and more.

      • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install qBittorrent on Linux Mint 21 or 20

        qBittorrent is a free, open-source torrent client that has become increasingly popular among users who want to download and share files through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Its user-friendly interface, powerful features, and robust performance have made it a preferred choice for many, especially those who prioritize privacy and security.

      • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Opera Browser on Linux Mint 21 or 20

        Opera Browser is a popular web browser known for its speed, security, and unique features. It was developed by Opera Software and was first released in 1995. Opera is available on various platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and mobile devices. It is also popular among users who value privacy, including a built-in VPN and ad-blocker.

    • Games

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Old VCR ☛ Dusting off Dreamcast Linux

      But jokes aside, Dreamcast Linux has something to teach later Johnny-come-latelies with a distro surprisingly well-adapted to its target platform, support for many peripherals, and an all-in-one batteries-included philosophy. Plus, it was one of the earliest Un*xy things for game consoles circa 2001, predating PlayStation 2 Linux by about a year or so, though PS2 Linux was at least Sony-official. (While at least one Linux purports to run on an O.G. PlayStation, this was a slightly later development.)

    • Barry Kauler ☛ Missing build-choices file in initrd

      I am very grateful to the guys who are patiently testing Easy
      4.99. I know what is causing the reported bugs, so can fix them.

      There is one very odd problem; williwaw reported an error message
      “/build-choices: No such file or directory”:

      https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=81976#p81976

      …from subsequent posts, I deducted that the framebuffer device
      /dev/fb0 must be missing, which is very odd.

      Without /dev/fb0, Xorg server is unable to run, hence the gtk app
      that asks for locale and keyboard-layout is unable to run. In that
      case, there is fallback to /sbin/ask-language, which is a CLI app.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Linux Links ☛ 5 Best Free and Open Source Web-Based Email Clients

      Thunderbird is widely regarded as an exceptional open source desktop email client, especially on Linux. It is highly customizable, has a rich set of features, and is geared for both novices and professional users. But you may prefer a web-based email client.

      Gmail is a free email service which offers 15GB of storage, a search-oriented interface and a ‘conversation view’. It’s hugely popular with more than 1.8 billion active users. But you might not like the automated scanning of email content. The following programs are alternatives to Gmail.

      The chart below summarises our findings. They are all free and open source goodness.

    • Eric Bailey ☛ My Mastodon strategy

      I know, I know. Yet another “how to Mastodon” post.

      That said, I feel like I’ve finally gotten at least a semblance of traction on making my Mastodon feed worthwhile. Reader, it was not easy.

      I should also point out that I was incredibly invested in Twitter for staying on top of industry goings on, networking, friendship, and entertainment. A lot of the following is an attempt of a highly motivated individual in a state of mourning trying to recapture what I once had.

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Mozilla

        • Tor ☛ New Alpha Release: Tor Browser 12.5a3 (Android, Windows, macOS, Linux)

          Tor Browser 12.5a3 is now available from the Tor Browser download page and also from our distribution directory.

          This release updates Firefox on Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux to 102.8.0esr. It includes important security updates to Firefox and GeckoView. There were no Android-specific security updates to backport from the Firefox 110 release.

    • GNU Projects

      • GNU ☛ GNU Linux-libre 6.2-gnu (la quinceañera)
        GNU Linux-libre 6.2-gnu cleaning-up scripts, cleaned-up sources, and
cleaning-up logs (including tarball signatures) are now available from
our git-based release archive git://linux-libre.fsfla.org/releases.git/
tags {scripts,sources,logs}/v6.2-gnu.

Compressed tarballs and incremental patches are also available at
<https://www.fsfla.org/selibre/linux-libre/download/releases/6.2-gnu/>.

The cleanup scripts haven't required changes since rc7, but there was a
small change since rc6, the first published for this series.

This week we celebrate the 15th anniversary of the initial release of
the Linux-libre project by Jeff Moe.  (A separate announcement about the
anniversary is planned for later this week, stay tuned :-)

https://web.archive.org/web/20221001004945/https://lists.autistici.org/message/20080221.002845.467ba592.en.html

We've codenamed this release "la quinceañera", and we're celebrating it
with a picture of Freedo dressed up for the occasion in a tuxedo.
Thanks a gazillion to co-maintainer and artist Jason Self for tending to
the last-minute request!  <https://linux-libre.fsfla.org/#news>

Freesh and RPMFreedom, the distributions of .deb and .rpm packages of
GNU Linux-libre maintained by Jason Self, already have binaries of
6.2-gnu available.


== Cleaning-up changes in this release

This release cycle had a reminder of the early days of Linux-libre, in
which Linux carried tons of actual blobs disguised as source code: v6.2
upstream introduced a brand new old-fashioned sourceless binary blob
disguised as a sequence of numbers, i.e. binary object code encoded as
pseudo-sources.

Now, sequences of numbers in Linux are common, and many of them are just
configuration numbers, developed and maintained as such.  They are not
an attack on our freedom, so they stay.

But this is not the case of those we've been removing, or disabling (*).
The numbers encode executable instructions that control the embedded
processor it is supposed to run.  They are programs, or fragments
thereof, and there is certainly actual source code for them somewhere.
The binaries encoded as numbers are active software rather than passive
data, and we're deprived of their actual sources, so they have to go: a
device under someone else's control is worse for the user's freedom than
a device that does no harmful work at all.

(*) Years ago, upstream moved most (but not all) of the firmware
dependencies (free and nonfree) into separate files, and then out into
packages distributed separately, to mitigate legal risks for developers
and distributors of the kernel Linux (the GNU GPL requires distributors
to offer *complete* corresponding sources), but ultimately this move
made no concrete difference for users' freedom: accepting that a
third-party master will control your device, under the threat that it
will otherwise turn into a brick, is not freedom; it does not amount to
having control over your own computing.

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2017-11/msg00004.html

=== The usual

Every release also brings new blob names and requests in drivers we
cleaned up before (too many to mention in this release), and that
sometimes also requires other adjustments and updating (nouveau, radeon,
mt7921, new and preexisting aarch64 dts files).

There were also several new drivers containing blob names and requests
(mt7622, mt7996, bcm4377) that we have disabled.

One driver we used to clean up, s5k4ecgx, was removed upstream, so we
could drop its cleaning up logic.

We've also removed commented-out logic left over from when we were not
sure whether PCMCIA CIS loadable files were code (they aren't, they are
just a compact encoding of configuration data), and whether Sound Open
Firmware should be cleaned up (the code can load Free firmware indeed,
even though some devices seem to require the otherwise-Free firmware to
be signed, which effectively Tivoizes those signed programs, but the
loading code cannot distinguish between them, so it is left enabled).


For up-to-the-minute news, join us on IRC (#gnu-linux-libre on
libera.chat).  I often mention our releases on P2P or federated social
media as well.  The link in my email signature has directions.


Be Free! with GNU Linux-libre.


What is GNU Linux-libre?
------------------------

  GNU Linux-libre is a Free version of the kernel Linux (see below),
  suitable for use with the GNU Operating System in 100% Free
  GNU/Linux-libre System Distributions.

http://www.gnu.org/distros/

  It removes non-Free components from Linux, that are disguised as
  source code or distributed in separate files.  It also disables
  run-time requests for non-Free components, shipped separately or as
  part of Linux, and documentation pointing to them, so as to avoid
  (Free-)baiting users into the trap of non-Free Software.

http://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2010-11-Linux-2.6.36-libre-debait

  Linux-libre started within the gNewSense GNU/Linux distribution.
  It was later adopted by Jeff Moe, who coined its name, and in 2008
  it became a project maintained by FSF Latin America.  In 2012, it
  became part of the GNU Project.

  The GNU Linux-libre project takes a minimal-changes approach to
  cleaning up Linux, making no effort to substitute components that
  need to be removed with functionally equivalent Free ones.
  Nevertheless, we encourage and support efforts towards doing so.

http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LinuxLibre:Devices_that_require_non-free_firmware

  Our mascot is Freedo, a light-blue penguin that has just come out
  of the shower.  Although we like penguins, GNU is a much greater
  contribution to the entire system, so its mascot deserves more
  promotion.  See our web page for their images.

http://linux-libre.fsfla.org/

  If you are the author of an awesome program and want to join us in
  writing Free (libre) Software, please consider making it an official
  GNU program and become a GNU Maintainer.  You can find instructions
  on how to do so at https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.  We look
  forward to hacking with you! :)


What is Linux?
--------------

  Linux is a clone of the Unix kernel [...]

(snipped from Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst)

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, happy hacker
      • GNU ☛ GNU Guix: Dissecting Guix, Part 2: The Store Monad

        Hello again!

        In the last post,
        we briefly mentioned the with-store and run-with-store macros. Today, we’ll
        be looking at those in further detail, along with the related monad library and
        the %store-monad!

        Typically, we use monads to chain operations together, and the %store-monad is
        no different; it’s used to combine operations that work on the Guix store (for
        instance, creating derivations, building derivations, or adding data files to
        the store).

        However, monads are a little hard to explain, and from a distance, they seem to
        be quite incomprehensible. So, I want you to erase them from your mind for now.
        We’ll come back to them later. And be aware that if you can’t seem to get your
        head around them, it’s okay; you can understand most of the architecture of Guix
        without understanding monads.

        Yes, No, Maybe So

        Let’s instead implement another M of functional programming, maybe values,
        representing a value that may or may not exist. For instance, there could be a
        procedure that attempts to pop a stack, returning the result if there is one, or
        nothing if the stack has no elements.

        maybe is a very common feature of statically-typed functional languages, and
        you’ll see it all over the place in Haskell and OCaml code. However, Guile is
        dynamically typed, so we usually use ad-hoc #f values as the “null value”
        instead of a proper “nothing” or “none”.

        Just for fun, though, we’ll implement a proper maybe in Guile. Fire up that
        REPL once again, and let’s import a bunch of modules that we’ll need:

        (use-modules (ice-9 match)
             (srfi srfi-9))

        We’ll implement maybe as a record with two fields, is? and value. If the
        value contains something, is? will be #t and value will contain the thing
        in question, and if it’s empty, is?‘ll be #f.

      • GNU ☛ a2ps 4.14.95 released [alpha]

        This alpha release benefits from feedback from the platform-testers list
        (mostly Bruno Haible, thanks Bruno!) The work is all on the build system.
        If you have not tried a previous alpha release for functionality, now is the
        time!

        Here are the compressed sources and a GPG detached signature:
          https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/a2ps/a2ps-4.14.95.tar.gz
          https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/a2ps/a2ps-4.14.95.tar.gz.sig

        Use a mirror for higher download bandwidth:
          https://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html

        Here are the SHA1 and SHA256 checksums:

        3169e01029bb2eec80feb488bafdd417fb35c7d5  a2ps-4.14.95.tar.gz
        pP7eBLeaAn/4x48sq8548vTAkj0rpMi2yToQuCRRgvg  a2ps-4.14.95.tar.gz

        The SHA256 checksum is base64 encoded, instead of the
        hexadecimal encoding that most checksum tools default to.

        Use a .sig file to verify that the corresponding file (without the
        .sig suffix) is intact.  First, be sure to download both the .sig file
        and the corresponding tarball.  Then, run a command like this:

          gpg –verify a2ps-4.14.95.tar.gz.sig

        The signature should match the fingerprint of the following key:

          pub   rsa2048 2013-12-11 [SC]
                2409 3F01 6FFE 8602 EF44  9BB8 4C8E F3DA 3FD3 7230
          uid   Reuben Thomas <rrt@sc3d.org>
          uid   keybase.io/rrt <rrt@keybase.io>

        If that command fails because you don’t have the required public key,
        or that public key has expired, try the following commands to retrieve
        or refresh it, and then rerun the ‘gpg –verify’ command.

          gpg –locate-external-key rrt@sc3d.org

          gpg –recv-keys 4C8EF3DA3FD37230

          wget -q -O- ‘https://savannah.gnu.org/project/release-gpgkeys.php?group=a2ps&download=1′ | gpg –import -

        As a last resort to find the key, you can try the official GNU
        keyring:

          wget -q https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-keyring.gpg
          gpg –keyring gnu-keyring.gpg –verify a2ps-4.14.95.tar.gz.sig

        This release was bootstrapped with the following tools:
          Autoconf 2.71
          Automake 1.16.5
          Gnulib v0.1-5836-geecd8afd69

        NEWS

        * Noteworthy changes in release 4.14.95 (2023-02-20) [alpha]
         * Build
          – Build man pages in a simpler and more robust way, using x-to-1 from
            gnulib.
          – Don’t install useless liba2ps.h.
          – Other minor build system improvements, including updating to more recent
            autoconf and gettext.
          – Don’t require help2man or gperf to build from source.
          – Document runtime dependencies.
          – Minor code quality improvements.

    • Programming/Development

      • Dan Langille ☛ Moving the poudriere jail from slocum to r730-01

        I recently moved the pkg01 jail from one host to another. I’m having trouble getting it to build packages.

      • Dan Langille ☛ Moving one jail from host to host

        This is a quick post about the steps I’m using to move my jails from one host to another. This is bing done as I merge two hosts into one. I have not attempted to automate this, apart from the initial syncoid copying of data. This post is base roughly upon my Mastodon post from yesterday.

      • Rlang ☛ Pivoting in tidyr and data.table

        We all need to pivot data at some point, so these are just some notes for my own benefit really, because gather and spread are no longer in favour within tidyr.

        I tended to only ever need gather, and nearly always relied on the same key and value names, so it was an easy function for me to use.

        pivot_longer and pivot_wider are much more flexible, they just take a little bit more thinking about.

      • Johan Halse ☛ What to expect from your framework

        There’s been a bit of a brouhaha these last weeks as parts of the Internet suddenly woke up to the realization that most Single Page Apps are slow and overcomplicated, and — shock horror — it turns out that Facebook, the lovable scamps that brought us React and QAnon, have conducted themselves badly! Refreshingly, rather than launching a thousand caustic subtweets, this little stormwind has caused the blog posts to start flying again. Thank you, Elon “Vain gobshite” Musk. I’m totally here for it.

        For a bit of backstory, the best place to start is probably Zach Leatherman’s History of React criticism followed by Alex Russell’s long and eloquent assault on SPA stacks. You can easily lose an entire afternoon reading the various pieces linked from those (a fun afternoon! so much tech drama!) but what got my delicious brainmeat reaching for the blog this time was the most recent shot, fired over at Laurie Voss’ site. It’s called “The case for frameworks” and you should go read that, too.

        All caught up? Great.

      • Nicholas Tietz-Sokolsky ☛ What’s in my software engineering tool belt?

        One of my favorite things is reading about the tools other people use, and talking about the tools I use. When I read a post recently about a data journalist’s data tool belt, well… I knew I’d have to share my own software engineering tool belt, too.

        So, here’s my software engineering tool belt.

        There are a lot of tools that I use, and not all of them bear mentioning. I’ve left out some of the tools that are probably very common or not super interesting, unless I particularly love those tools.

        The tools I’ve included are categorized roughly based on things that are directly for coding, vs. all the other supporting tasks that are part of software engineering.

      • Hillel Wayne ☛ NP-Complete isn’t (always) Hard

        A common assumption I see on the ‘net is that NP-complete problems are impossible to solve. I recently read that dependency management in Python is hard because package resolution is NP-complete. This is true in principle, but the reality is more complicated. When we say “NP-complete is hard” we’re talking about worst-case complexity, and the average-case complexity is often much more tractable. Many industry problems are “well-behaved” and modern SAT solvers can solve them quickly.

        Okay I’ve probably lost 40% of my readers by this point so let’s back up and explain “NP-complete” and “SAT solver” and stuff.

      • Aral Balkan ☛ End-to-end encrypted Kitten Chat

        Sorry, your browser doesn’t support embedded videos. But that doesn’t mean you can’t watch it! You can download Small Is Beautiful #27 directly, and watch it with your favourite video player.

      • [Reposted] Daniel Stenberg ☛ My 2023 dev machine

        My desktop computer is my trusted work machine that I do the majority of all my (curl) development on. When the 15th computer I’ve owned through the times was ten years old the time was ripe to bump things up a notch.

        I don’t do games (as in: never) and I don’t do any other 3D stuff. I just need my two 4K monitors to display my desktops and browser windows fine.

        In my ordinary days I compile C code and I run tests. CPU and memory will be used to build and test faster and to be able to run separate VM runtimes in parallel without problems. I rarely even build very large or complicated software projects. (The days of building Firefox are long gone…)

        Ideally, this upgrade will last for a long time again so I’ve tried to push it a little to increase those chances.

      • Buttondown ☛ Code review vs code proofreading
        Administrative Stuff
        • Just one month until the March TLA+ Workshop! Thanks to everyone who already signed up, I’m in the process of revising everything and am real excited to share the new content. There’s still nine slots left if you want to join!
        • I have a new blog post up: NP-Complete isn’t (always) Hard, about NP-complete problems and modern SAT solvers.
        Code review vs code proofreading

        So in my last newsletter I had an aside on code review:

        This is also why a lot of people hate code review. It’s good when you’re acting as an editor, looking for foundational improvements to the code, but it’s awful when you’re acting as a proofreader. That probably deserves its own essay!

        Let’s dig into that a bit more.

      • Python

        • University of Toronto ☛ A bit on unspecified unique objects in Python

          Tratt notes that Python’s language specification doesn’t specify the behavior here, so both implementations are correct. Python does this to preserve the ability of implementations to make different choices, and goes on the use the example of __del__ destructors. This might leave a reader who is willing to accept the difference in destructor behavior to wonder why Python doesn’t standardize object identity here.

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Jonathan McDowell: Fixing mobile viewing

        It was brought to my attention recently that the mobile viewing experience of this blog was not exactly what I’d hope for. In my poor defence I proof read on my desktop and the only time I see my posts on mobile is via FreshRSS. Also my UX ability sucks.

        Anyway. I’ve updated the “theme” to a more recent version of minima and tried to make sure I haven’t broken it all in the process (I did break tagging, but then I fixed it again). I double checked the generated feed to confirm it was the same (other than some re-tagging I did), so hopefully I haven’t flooded anyone’s feed.

      • Xe’s Blog ☛ The voice control challenge

        A lot of software these days is difficult to use with accessibility
        tools. A lot of this problem is not really exposed to the people that
        create the software. A lot of software seems to be made with the
        assumption that people have working hands, they can use a mouse, and
        that the text is legible. This is simply not the case for many people.

        I would like to propose a challenge for people. Let’s call it the
        voice control challenge. For this challenge, you need to use voice
        control on your mac, iPad, or iPhone and see how many of your
        day-to-day tasks you can do without having to reach for a keyboard or
        type on the phone manually.

  • Leftovers

    • Science

    • Education

      • The Conversation ☛ Why it’s time for the UK to introduce mandatory training for new dog owners

        In 1987, the UK government discontinued its dog licensing system as politicians felt the old licence scheme cost too much for the limited benefits it gave. It was replaced by dog controls in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. But people told my research team that most dog bites are preventable, meaning the system is letting down both dogs and humans.

        One idea researchers have discussed is that when an owner has a problem with an out-of-control dog they should have to take training, similar to the kind of “speed awareness” courses for drivers in the UK.

    • Hardware

      • Tom’s Hardware ☛ Graphics Card Shipments in China Down 42% Y-o-Y, Up From December

        Shipments of third-party cards fell year over year but are trending up from the prior month.

      • Hackaday ☛ Tidy Breadboard Uses Banana Bread

        Self-described passionate maker in the electronics and 3D printing world, [Jakob], aka [testudor], was getting frustrated trying to connect banana plugs to solderless breadboards. Project Banana Bread was born — small banana jack adaptors and a companion tray with pockets to hold up to six modules.

      • Hackaday ☛ Low Power Challenge: Weather Station Runs For Months Thanks To E-Ink Display

        Having a device in your living room that shows weather information is convenient, and building one of those is a great project if you enjoy tinkering with microcontrollers and environmental sensors. It’s also a great way to learn about low-power design, as [x-labz] demonstrated with their e-ink weather station which works for no less than 60 days on a single battery charge. It has a clear display that shows the local temperature and humidity, as well as the weather forecast for the day.

      • Hackaday ☛ Clear PLA Diffuses LEDs

        [Chuck] often prints up interesting 3D prints. But we enjoyed his enhancement to a cheap LED Christmas tree kit. The original kit was simply a few green PCBs in the shape of a tree. Cute, but not really something a non-nerd would appreciate. What [Chuck] did, though, is printed a clear PLA overcoat for it and it came out great. You can see how great in the video below.

      • Hackaday ☛ Digital Library Of Amateur Radio And Communications Is A Treasure Trove

        Having a big bookshelf of ham radio books and magazines used to be a point of bragging right for hams. These days, you are more likely to just browse the internet for information. But you can still have, virtually, that big shelf of old ham books, thanks to the DLARC — the digital library of Amateur Radio and Communications.

      • NYPost ☛ First-generation, 2007 iPhone sells for more than $63,000 at auction

        The Apple relic sold for for an eye-popping $63,356.40 Sunday — more than 100 times its original price of $599 in 2007.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

    • Proprietary

      • Digital Music News ☛ Meta Verified Coming — A Subscription Service for Creators

        Meta is following in Twitter’s footsteps, offering an account subscription aimed at creators. Here’s what’s coming in Meta Verified. Meta says it wants to make it easier for creators to establish a presence online that is verified, so they can focus on building communities on Instagram or Facebook.

      • Security Week ☛ Twitter Shuts Off Text-Based 2FA for Non-Subscribers

        Twitter started a security ruckus over the weekend with the sudden decision to turn off text message/SMS method of two-factor authentication (2FA) for non-subscribers.

        [...]

        The decision — and the way it is positioned as a paid feature — attracted backlash from security professionals who argue that text-based 2FA is better than nothing at all. Worse, it creates a false sense of security among paying subscribers who may think the weakest form of 2FA is a premium feature.

        Twitter’s own internal data shows that multi-factor adoption remains startlingly low. According to a 2021 transparency report, Twitter found that barely 2.3 percent of all its active accounts have enabled at least one method of two-factor authentication between July and December 2020.

      • Forbes ☛ Why Did Google Stadia Die? Experts Point To Lack Of Content, Technology Incompatibilities

        New insights, plus expert commentary, suggest why Google may have folded the project: lack of content and less-than-ideal technology infrastructure. In fact, some regulators are using Stadia’s closure as key evidence that may stop Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the UK.

        “Google’s recent decision to shut down its own cloud gaming service, Stadia, shows that merely having some strengths relevant to cloud gaming is not enough to guarantee a platform’s success,” wrote the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), in a report.

      • India Times ☛ 80% of Indian firms face cyber attacks due to miscommunication in IT security

        According to the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, in terms of personal attitudes, the majority of non-IT executives (48%) cited a decreased sense of cooperation among different teams and stated that the situation causes them to question their colleagues’ skills and abilities when communicating with their IT-security employees is unclear (43%).

      • Silicon Angle ☛ Google rolls out memory and energy saving features to Chrome

        The first new capability, dubbed Memory Saver, aims to reduce the amount of RAM that Chrome requires to run. Chrome is considered a memory-intensive browser because it deploys each tab as a separate process, or program, which increases hardware requirements. The new Memory Saver feature can reduce browser’s RAM usage by up to 40% or 10 gigabytes when running demanding web applications.

    • Security

      • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

        • APNIC ☛ The benefits of RPKI Signed Checklists

          An RSC is a new type of RPKI-signed object that permits a resource holder to sign arbitrary files or documents with a set of Internet Number Resources. The recipient of an RSC can then cryptographically verify that the holder of those resources attests to the signed files/documents.

          There are several use cases for this functionality.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • The North Lines IN ☛ Facebook-Owner Meta To Roll Out Paid Subscription

          [...] It was not immediately clear how Mr. Zuckerberg planned to price Meta Verified in countries where users cannot afford to pay $12 a month, or in cash-based economies where they may have fewer ways to get the money to Meta. Mr. Musk’s initial attempts to launch a similar service at rival social media network Twitter last year backfired wildly with an embarrassing spate of fake accounts that scared advertisers and cast doubt on the site’s future. He was forced to briefly suspend the effort before relaunching it to muted reception in December.

        • CBC ☛ Blue badge coming to Facebook and Instagram as Meta tests paid subscription services

          The social media giant’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has earlier said it was planning to launch several new products that would “empower creators to be way more productive and creative,” while cautioning about the cost associated with supporting the technology for a large user base.

      • Confidentiality

        • Data Breaches ☛ Aviacode remains silent after 0mega dumps 200 GB of their files

          On January 9, DataBreaches noticed that Aviacode had been added to the leak site for 0mega. Aviacode, which is part of GeBBS Healthcare Solutions, offers medical coding services, medical coding audits, coding denial management, clinical documentation improvement, and revenue cycle management for billings and claims. As such, it is often a business associate for HIPAA-covered entities.

          Seeing 0mega’s claims, DataBreaches sent an inquiry to Aviacode. They did not reply. As 0mega later told DataBreaches, Aviacode did not respond to them, either.

          On February 11, 0mega dumped more than 200 GB of Aviacode files.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • PJ Media ☛ Leftist Group Rocked by Revelation That Its ‘Queer, Muslim, Multiethnic’ Equity Chief Is Really A White Lady

        Raquel Saraswati apparently really is “queer” and Muslim, although her affectation of the hijab suggests that she adheres to a moral code that would have her executed for homosexual activity. And of course, she certainly isn’t a person of color. The contradictions and absurdities in her story should have raised eyebrows among the American Friends Service Committee. But her story was just too good, so good as to be irresistible. Now, despite the fact that the truth has come out about her, one thing is certain: among Leftists, no lessons will be learned.

      • Jewish Journal ☛ Why That Ohio Town Is Named “East Palestine”

        The tragic spotlight now shining on Ohio’s “East Palestine” naturally leaves some people curious as to why it has such as unusual name. The answer is that it’s not a very unusual name at all.

        Elsewhere in Ohio, there are towns named Hebron, Gilboa, Canaan, and Shiloh (two of them, in fact). There’s even a Sodom, which was given its name after a prohibition advocate, disappointed at the small turnout for his lecture in 1840, jokingly compared the locale to that infamous biblical center of sin.

    • Environment

      • The Nation ☛ How Change Is Actually Made on Campus

        In September 2022, Princeton University announced plans to divest its $35 billion endowment and to end financial research ties with 90 fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil, Synergy, and Total. “We’re grateful to the Princeton faculty members who dedicated their time and expertise to addressing an important and challenging set of questions,” wrote Weezie Sams, the chair of Princeton’s board, in its announcement. “It is thanks to their work, and the engagement of many members of the University community, that we’re able to take these steps today.”

      • teleSUR ☛ Climate Crisis Worsening Social Injustices, Conflicts: Nkirote

        This year’s World Day of Social Justice seeks to rally communities toward collective action on threats to basic rights and human dignity, including poverty and hunger.

      • The Age AU ☛ Venice’s canals run dry as Italy faces new drought alert

        The city, where flooding is normally the primary concern, faces unusually low tides that are making it impossible for gondolas, water taxis and ambulances to navigate.

      • Energy/Transportation

        • India Times ☛ EU calls for fast-track [cryptocurrency] capital rules for banks

          Tough capital rules for banks holding cryptoassets must be fast-tracked in the European Union’s pending banking law if Europe wants to avoid missing a globally-agreed deadline, the bloc’s executive has said.

          The global Basel Committee of banking regulators from the world’s main financial centres has set a January 2025 deadline for implementing capital requirements for banks’ exposures to cryptoassets such as stablecoins and bitcoin.

        • Copenhagen Post ☛ Copenhagen rated among top cities for cycling

          “The first bike lane in Denmark was set up in 1892 in Copenhagen. Today, the capital has 385 kilometres (239 miles) of bike lanes, according to VisitDenmark.com,” wrote CNN.

          “Cyclists and drivers also safely share the same roadway in many places. Thanks to Danish design innovations, such as narrowed streets and textured surfaces, cars drive slower.”

        • CNN ☛ 10 of the best cities in the world to see while riding a bicycle

          The good news is some cities have given bicycles and the practice of sustainability their due.

          The following 10 cities worldwide are among the best for tourists (and locals) who like to bike.

        • Hackaday ☛ Automating The Most Analog Of HVAC Equipment

          Burning wood, while not a perfect heating solution, has a number of advantages over more modern heating appliances. It’s a renewable resource, doesn’t add carbon to the atmosphere over geologic time scales like fossil fuels do, can be harvested locally using simple tools, and it doesn’t require any modern infrastructure to support it. That being said, wood stoves aren’t something that are very high-tech and don’t lend themselves particularly well to automation as a result, at least with the exception of this wood stove from [jotulf45v2].

        • The Straits Times ☛ India invokes emergency law to force coal-based power plants to raise output

          The directive comes into effect on March 16. It would remain valid till June 15.

      • Wildlife/Nature

      • Overpopulation

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The Economist ☛ A BBC monitoring station that listened in on the world is being sold

        Eavesdropping on the airwaves was a habit that was slow to begin in Britain. An initial government department, set up at the start of the second world war, comprised three people, one of whom first taught his junior to make tea properly. But it was the BBC, which started its own service at around the same time, that won out.

        By 1943 BBC Monitoring—the branch of the broadcaster that doesn’t speak but listens—was operating in earnest. It took up residence in Caversham Park, bringing with it radios and receivers, typewriters and teleprinters, and numerous refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe to act as monitors. They set about building Babel by a lake in Berkshire—and then they set about translating it. Over the years that followed the reports they produced were used by the BBC itself, by other news agencies and by wartime and peacetime governments.

      • The Hill ☛ Apple flexes lobbying power as Apple Watch ban comes before Biden next week

        The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in December that Apple infringed on medical device company AliveCor’s wearable electrocardiogram patents. The commission’s ruling could result in an import ban on popular Apple Watch models, unless the Biden administration steps in.

        Apple responded by contracting with Shara Aranoff, a lobbyist at Covington & Burling who chaired the ITC during the Obama administration.

      • India Times ☛ Twitter lays off more employees from sales team: report

        Elon Musk-owned microblogging platform Twitter on Friday laid off employees from ad sales team in a fresh round of layoffs, news website The Information reported.

        The number of job cuts, however, is not known, as per the report, which added that the social media company had about 800 sales and marketing employees as of last month.

        Twitter had in November last year reduced staff from its sales team.

      • Common Dreams ☛ Dem Leaders Urged to Mark Bloody Sunday by Acting on Voting Rights, Economic Justice

        “Selma is sacred ground. It is, in a very real sense, the delivery room where the possibility of a true democracy was born. It is no place to play or to be for political pretense. Either you’re serious or not. If you’re coming, come on Sunday, the actual day of remembrance. If you’re coming, come with a commitment to fight for what these people were willing to give their lives for.”

      • France24 ☛ Can Nigeria’s Peter Obi ride his newfound momentum all the way to presidency?

        The rise of Peter Obi in the campaign for Nigeria’s presidential election on February 25 has shaken up the country’s politics, hitherto dominated by two major parties since the end of military rule in 1999. But analysts say that Obi still faces an uphill struggle.

      • teleSUR ☛ New Day of Protests in Israel Against Judicial Reform

        Today’s protests included blockades of streets and avenues, and some demonstrators gathered in front of the residences of government officials.

      • France24 ☛ Protests as Israel’s parliament pushes ahead with judicial ‘reform’

        Israel’s parliament on Monday voted to push ahead with a contested overhaul of the country’s judicial system championed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist government that has sparked mass protests.

      • France24 ☛ Yana, a Russian exile in Paris: ‘Russia’s destiny is everyone’s business’

        Arrested during a protest against the war in Ukraine in March 2022, Yana, a 35-year-old Russian executive, decided to flee her home town of Moscow. Since her arrival in Paris in June, she has been trying to deal with the administration involved in moving country, while sharing the message of critics of Vladimir Putin’s regime.

      • France24 ☛ Mardzhina, a Ukrainian refugee: ‘I planned to visit Paris – not to live there’

        When Mardhzina left her home on the outskirts of Kyiv to shield her family from the war, the 41-year-old single mother hoped she would be returning quickly to Ukraine. A year later, she is now considering a future in France, while keeping a close eye on her home country’s fate.

      • The Straits Times ☛ 2 members of party led by former Malaysia premier Muhyiddin charged with graft

        They are accused of accepting bribes amounting to close to RM7 million in relation to the Jana Wibawa Covid-19 relief initiative.

      • The Straits Times ☛ China says it is ‘deeply worried’ about escalation of Ukraine conflict

        BEIJING – China is “deeply worried” about the escalation of the Ukraine conflict and the possibility of the situation spiralling out of control, China’s foreign minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday.

      • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Charles McGonigal and the Unclassified Oligarch Info

        A protective order dispute between SDNY and Charles McGonigal’s co-defendant reveals that all the discovery in the case is unclassified. But McGonigal and his attorney, former Bill Barr aide Seth DuCharme, both undoubtedly know of classified information they could demand.

      • Mexico News Daily ☛ AMLO resists handover of Pacific Alliance presidency to Peru’s Boluarte

        AMLO was scheduled to hand over leadership of the four-nation coalition to Peru’s former president Castillo in November.

      • Modern Diplomacy ☛ The Normalization Phenomena: Strategic Desperation of Neighbors Amid New Delhi’s Rise

        As New Delhi is setting the stage for great power meetings this year like G-20 and QUAD, its neighbors seem to be desperate to roll out a thaw plan with India.

      • Modern Diplomacy ☛ The Growing Persecution of Women in India has a Fallout on Kashmir

        If there is any country that makes international headlines for its treatment of women, it is India. India is also famous for the exploitation and trafficking of women. Women in India face life threating challenges, including poverty, discrimination, and violence; they are often subjected to sexual exploitation and trafficking.

      • Modern Diplomacy ☛ How China Can Help Reimagine Europe

        China still believes that Europe can be relatively independent from the US as a participant in the global economy and politics. At least, this is evidenced by the extremely friendly tone of Chinese diplomacy with regard to the activities of the European Union and the relations of the Celestial Empire itself with the Old Continent.

      • The Nation ☛ Jimmy Carter Is Our Greatest Former President

        The battle over the legacy of an American president begins the moment they leave office. Historians debate their contributions, reporters examine their records, and the public weighs in with their memories.

      • Common Dreams ☛ Jimmy Carter and the End of Democratic Capitalism
      • Common Dreams ☛ In This Tender Time: Few Humans Have Served So Well

        We can forget, but the news Jimmy Carter is nearing the end of his righteous life reminds us there has been, and perhaps will be, good on this earth. A “thoroughly decent man” and “steadfast champion of humanity,” Carter spoke up for racial justice, economic equity, prison reform, the rights of Palestinians, and hard truths the rich and powerful didn’t want to hear. A “man of great faith who led by example,” he taught us how to live with dignity. And now how to die.

      • The Nation ☛ The Nation Names New Columnists Spencer Ackerman, Adolph Reed Jr., and Jane McAlevey
      • The Nation ☛ Israel Is Destroying the Fantasies of Liberal Zionism

        Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Jerusalem in late January came during a period of notable violence and political upheaval throughout Palestine. But most of the anodyne comments Blinken made during his trip could have been made at just about any time in the past 30 years.

      • The Nation ☛ Running for or Running From?
      • The Nation ☛ The New York Times Is Repeating One of Its Most Notorious Mistakes

        On March 11, 1998, New York Times copy editor Donna Cartwright posted a letter on bulletin boards on every floor of the paper’s newsroom. The letter began: To my colleagues at the New York Times: in the 21 years we’ve worked together, we have shared much hard work and many rewarding experiences. I’m writing this now to inform you of a significant change in my life that will affect our relationship and to ask for your understanding and support. After much reflection and inner struggle, I have decided to resolve a longstanding conflict in my life by beginning to live full-time as a woman starting in about two months’ time.

      • Common Dreams ☛ Tens of Thousands in Israel Rally Against ‘Dictator’s Bill’ as Lawmakers Vote on Judicial Overhaul

        Tens of thousands of people opposed to the far-right Israeli government’s proposed judicial overhaul once again hit the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Monday, where they implored lawmakers to vote against the measures during the afternoon’s first reading.

      • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Moderate PAC’ Is Latest Big-Money Push to Keep Democrats in Line on Israel

        A new Democratic political action committee (PAC) has arisen, dedicated to cultivating what it refers to as “moderate policies.” It stands against Republicans, as it supports only Democrats, but primarily, it aims to move the Democratic party to the right. It’s the latest iteration of conservative efforts to revive the classical conservatism that has been drowned by right-wing fanaticism, creating the so-called “Never-Trump Republicans” who don’t have a political home for the moment.

      • France24 ☛ Kosovo’s PM ‘very optimistic’ that agreement with Serbia could happen this year

        FRANCE 24 spoke to Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti, as Kosovo celebrates 15 years of independence. Kurti is due to meet Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels on February 27 and said he was “very optimistic” that an agreement leading to full normalisation between the two countries could happen “this year”. He regretted that relations between Kosovo and Serbia “are not normal” and claimed Belgrade isolated itself by “not delinking (…) from the Kremlin”.

      • France24 ☛ ‘The United States is here’: US Secretary of State visits Turkey earthquake zone

        U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday announced further aid to Turkey and said Washington would provide longer term help to Ankara as it seeks to rebuild following this month’s earthquake.

      • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Exclusive: Hong Kong police leave 100s of spent tear gas rounds on marine park island after exercise

        Police have left hundreds of spent tear gas grenades and debris from crowd control weapons on one of the Soko Islands following a training exercise. The potentially hazardous refuse was spotted by HKFP on Tai A Chau – which is within the protected South Lantau Marine Park – on Saturday.

      • The Straits Times ☛ Young HK activists who flouted national security law can still hope for a future in the city: Official

        Youth envoys a key to bringing estranged young people back into society’s fold

      • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Proposed Hong Kong crowdfunding law will hinder survival of civil groups, says pro-democracy group

        Proposals to regulate crowdfunding in Hong Kong will make the survival of civil organisations “more difficult,” the League of Social Democrats (LSD) has said. The pro-democracy group added that the new law may bring harsh punishments and criminalise those who donate to unauthorised campaigns.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

        • Axios ☛ Black Girl Environmentalist rejects climate “doomism”

          Climate “doomism” — fatalistic messaging that nothing can be done to reverse climate change on a global scale — is easy to find on outlets like TikTok, where the baseless argument has gone viral in recent years.

        • Digital Music News ☛ Bipartisan Calls for TikTok Regulatory Action Grow As Senators Express ‘Profound’ Concerns: ‘ByteDance Cannot Be Trusted’

          TikTok has been outlawed in both chambers of Congress and by more than 20 state governments. Now, as federal lawmakers push for an outright ban, different senators, also from both sides of the aisle, are calling on Washington to “impose strict structural restrictions between TikTok’s American operations and its Chinese parent company.”

        • Deutsche Welle ☛ Fact check: How propaganda denigrates Ukrainian refugees

          According to an analysis by the institute in October that examined Russian-language discussions about refugees on Telegram in particular, the narratives differ depending on the target group. Audiences in Russia are primarily told that people from Ukraine are fleeing from supposed “Nazis” who allegedly rule the country.

        • The Nation ☛ The Internal Decapitation of Fox News

          “I have been internally decapitated, and, yet, I live…. The Wind tells me I’m a ghost, but I don’t believe it.” Thus speaks the oracle at the center of the great conspiracy theory that nearly toppled the American republic. The writer was an unnamed correspondent of Sidney Powell, the most visible—and most unhinged—promoter of the lie that the 2020 election had been stolen by Joe Biden. A vast tranche of damning discovery and testimony surfaced late last week as part of the $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit Dominion Voting Systems filed against Fox News in March 2021. The company’s petition for summary judgment furnishes the basis for this dumbfounding saga; you can read the 200-page document here.

        • US News And World Report ☛ Project Veritas Founder James O’Keefe Out at Right-Wing Org

          Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe said in a speech posted online that he has been removed as the right-wing group’s leader

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Deutsche Welle ☛ Bangladesh forces main opposition newspaper to shut down

        The order accused the Bengali-language broadsheet of violating printing and publication laws.

        The Dainik Dinkal has long been an important voice for the center-right BNP party. It covers stories that most mainstream newspapers, many of which are controlled by pro-government businessmen, often ignore. This includes what the BNP says are false arrests of its members and intimidation tactics from the government.

        It also employs hundreds of journalists and other workers, most of whom were out in the streets of the capital Dhaka on Monday to protest the government and its shutdown order.

      • The Economist ☛ What is Section 230?

        Section 230 was passed nearly 30 years ago, when websites were young and perceived to be vulnerable. The provision ensured that the companies that hosted them would not get bogged down in lawsuits if users posted material to which others might object, such as bad restaurant reviews or complaints about neighbours. The law has been interpreted by federal courts to do two things. First, it immunises both “provider[s]” and “user[s]” of “an interactive computer service” from liability for potentially harmful posts created by other people. Second, it allows platforms to take down posts that are “obscene…excessively violent, harassing or otherwise objectionable”—even if they are constitutionally protected—without risking liability for any such content they happen to leave up.

      • The Hill ☛ Section 230, student debt top divisive Supreme Court agenda

        The plaintiffs, relatives of a victim who was among the more than 100 people killed in a series of attacks by Islamic State terrorists in Paris in November 2015, sued Google under federal anti-terrorism laws.

        The family accused Google of aiding and abetting terrorism by purportedly recommending pro-ISIS content to users on YouTube, but Google argues that its recommendations are protected by Section 230, a controversial provision that shields internet companies from liability for content provided by a third-party user.

      • France24 ☛ TikTokers jailed as Iraq targets ‘decadent content’

        The young Iraqi woman using that pseudonym was sentenced early this month to half a year behind bars for the light-hearted video clips that show her in tight-fitting clothes.

        A new government campaign aims to cleanse social media platforms of content that breaches Iraqi “mores and traditions”, the interior ministry announced in January.

      • RTL ☛ TikTokers jailed as Iraq targets ‘decadent content’

        Dancing to Iraqi pop made TikTok personality Om Fahad a hit among tens of thousands of followers, but now she is in prison, caught up in a state campaign targeting “decadent content”.

        The young Iraqi woman using that pseudonym was sentenced early this month to half a year behind bars for the light-hearted video clips that show her in tight-fitting clothes.

      • RAIR Foundation ☛ NATO Praises Sweden’s Decision to Adopt Sharia Blasphemy Laws and Ban Qur’an Burnings (Video)

        NATO Secretary praised Stockholm’s decision to stop two planned Qur’an burnings this month and, in a dictation, banned any further burnings of the Islamic “holy” book. However, the authority’s ban applies only to the Qur’an, not to other holy scriptures.

        Despite freedom of expression and demonstration being protected by Sweden’s constitution, the Stockholm police press spokesman Ola Östling announced on state television they will not deny permission to anyone seeking to burn the Qur’an and warns that they will act accordingly if anyone does not comply.

      • India Times ☛ Fans defend Sara Ali Khan’s Maha Shivratri post as trolls call the actress ‘improper’ and unworthy’ Muslim

        Sara Ali Khan stirred controversy on social media with her recent Maha Shivratri post. The actress shared a series of pictures from her spiritual outings and captioned it, “Jai Bholenath’.

      • Deutsche Welle ☛ Salman Rushdie, Rishi Sunak condemn Roald Dahl rewrites

        Separately, renowned author Salman Rushdie also called out the “absurd censorship” on the part of publishers Puffin books and the Netflix-owned Dahl estate.

      • Los Angeles Magazine ☛ Sensitivity Censors Are Rewriting Raold Dahl Classics to Avoid Offense

        “Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship,” said Salmon Rushdie, a Booker Prize-winning author, wrote on Twitter. Rushdie was seriously injured last year in an attack stemming from a long-standing fatwa against him by the late Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, who objected to his fictional portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed in his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses. “Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed,” Rushdie added.

      • BBC ☛ The protesters who’ve gone missing as China deepens crackdown

        Police made few arrests at the time. Now, months on, scores of those protesters are in police custody, say Chinese activists, with one group estimating there have been more than 100 arrests.

        International rights groups and foreign universities have called for their release. And activist groups have published lists naming the alleged detainees. This includes those who protested in Beijing as well as other cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Nanjing.

      • The Economist ☛ The invasion has stalled, but Putin’s war on dissent marches on

        Daniel Treisman of the University of California argues that these people and institutions are not accidental victims of the war, but one of its main targets. Ukraine, after all, posed no military threat to Russia. And a vast and sparsely populated country, spanning 11 time zones, could scarcely be said to need more territory. Rather, it was the gradual emergence in Ukraine of a vigorous civil society that successfully demanded reform of the state, and the inklings of a similar process in Russia, that Mr Putin found threatening.

        Before the tanks rolled into Ukraine, Mr Treisman notes, liberal values were spreading fast in Russia. The share of people who told pollsters that freedom of speech was important to them rose from 34% in 2017 to 61% in 2021. Record numbers were watching Mr Navalny’s YouTube channel. Meanwhile, television viewing, the government’s main tool for shaping Russians’ outlook, was in sharp decline.

      • Times Higher Education ☛ Scholar cleared of Islamophobia says Bristol caved in to students

        Professor Greer, who received online threats and noticed a stranger loitering outside his home after BRISOC began its campaign two years ago, was alleged to have made discriminatory remarks by referring to the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris in the context of Islam’s stance on freedom of speech, which the petition claimed was “an example of the kind of Islamophobic rhetoric that aims to posit the actions of killers as being representative of the entire Muslim community”.

        He was cleared of wrongdoing by a review involving a King’s Counsel, which found “no evidence of Islamophobic speech” and concluded that his teaching material “did not amount to discrimination or harassment and was intended as the basis for academic debate by the students who elected to study it”.

      • New Yorker ☛ Why Some Florida Schools Are Removing Books from Their Libraries

        Farther south, in Manatee County, on the Gulf Coast, Nicole Harlow has recently begun to see local social-media posts about teachers having to remove or cover up their classroom libraries. Harlow, a veterinary nurse in her early forties, has three children in county schools. Her two youngest are in charter schools; so far, the libraries there seem to have remained largely untouched. But her oldest, Emma, is a tenth grader at Parrish Community High School, where bookcases have been covered with signs reading, “Books Are NOT for Student Use!!”

      • Deccan Herald ☛ Salman Rushdie lashes out at ‘absurd censorship’ of Roald Dahl

        Mumbai-born Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie is among the leading literary voices to speak out against a British publisher’s “absurd censorship” after it rewrote certain sections of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s books because the language was deemed offensive.

        Under a review of Dahl’s classics, which include popular titles that were adapted to the screen such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda, references to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race are to be rewritten or removed by so-called sensitivity readers to avoid causing offence.

      • Arkansas Times ☛ Senate committee OKs bill allowing government censorship, criminal charges for teachers and librarians

        Senate Bill 81 classifies such materials as harmful to minors and creates a new crime, making it a misdemeanor for any adults, including teachers and librarians, to knowingly allow access to such things.

        It also seemingly grants the power of judicial review to city boards and county quorum courts. Anyone who disagrees with a library board’s decision to not ban a book would be able to appeal to the city or county government, who would be then empowered to decide what materials stay in libraries and which have to go.

      • Teen Vogue ☛ Organizers are Fighting Ron DeSantis’s Educational Bans with Free Books

        While these headlines may be shocking, they come as no surprise to those on the ground in Florida. “It’s in line with things that he’s always had planned for Florida, and we’ve always known what his ideas were and what he planned to do to us. So it’s shocking, but it’s not surprising,” Alisha Cox, an organizer with the Florida-based Dream Defenders, told Teen Vogue. So Dream Defenders got to work, connecting with leftist publishers including Haymarket Books, Verso, and PM Press, to distribute books and literature to Florida students.

      • Marcy Wheeler ☛ James Comer’s Twitter Hearing Confirmed Donald Trump’s Censorship Attempt and Matt Taibbi’s “Censorship” about It

        James Comer’s hearing on Twitter proved two things: The single instance of government censorship proven at the hearing involved Trump’s attempt to censor a tweet calling him “pussy ass bitch,” and Matt Taibbi had obscured — according to his own false terms, “censored” — that incident.

      • Reason ☛ Facebook Says Noting the CDC’s Scientific Misrepresentations ‘Could Mislead People’

        The social media site slapped a warning on a column in which I criticized the CDC for exaggerating the evidence supporting mask mandates.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • Telex (Hungary) ☛ Telex photographers sweep the board at 41st Hungarian Press Photography Awards
      • Meduza ☛ Russian journalist Filipp Dzyadko denied entry into Georgia.

        Filipp Dzyadko is the former editor-in-chief of Russian Esquire and is currently the head of the Arzamas educational project. According to TV Rain, he was stopped by customs officials upon returning to the country from Vienna, and was initially told that he had to wait to enter because the “system was frozen,” but was later informed that he had been denied entry.

      • BBC ☛ Iran International: Channel leaves UK after regime threats

        Independent TV network Iran International is suspending its operations in the UK because of threats against its London-based journalists.

        The Persian-language TV channel said that the decision was due to a “significant escalation in state-backed threats from Iran”.

      • Project Censored ☛ Guilty of Journalism: New Documentary Film Ithaka and New Book on the Political Case Against Julian Assange – The Project Censored Show

        Gabriel Shipton is Julian Assange’s brother, and a professional film producer. John Shipton is the father of Gabriel and Julian. Information about the documentary, and their U.S. speaking tour, can be found here. Kevin Gosztola is the managing editor of ShadowProof. He has covered the Julian Assange legal proceedings in the UK from their beginning, as well as other press freedom and whistleblower cases dating back to Chelsea Manning. His new book on the Assange case, Guilty of Journalism, will soon be available from The Censored Press/Seven Stories Press March 7. Gosztola also writes at The Dissenter.

      • Project Censored ☛ The February 2023 Newsletter – Censored Notebook

        Gosztola will also be a featured speaker at the Disruption Lab Network’s Smart Prisons conference, to be held in Berlin, March 24-26, 2023. Many events on the program, including the panel featuring lawyer Stella Assange (Julian Assange’s wife), Gosztola, and investigative journalist Stefania Maurizi, will be streamed for free. Check the event website for the full schedule and streaming information.

      • Scheerpost ☛ Sanders Proposes ‘New Deal for Journalism’ To Ensure Media Serves Public Interest

        Nonpartisan, publicly funded media is “an idea that we should explore,” said the senator.

      • The Nation ☛ The Right Distance

        “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.” This sentence is among the most famous in American journalism. It first appeared as the lede in a two-part essay published by The New Yorker in 1989, and then again in 1990 when the essay was published as a short book called The Journalist and the Murderer. Its author was Janet Malcolm, who was on The New Yorker’s staff and wrote lengthy profiles of writers, photographers, psychoanalysts, and many more of whom her writing alone made figures of note. When she died in 2021 at the age of 86, she left behind eight books of nonfiction, four essay collections, and a treasure trove of awards and honors that her work had garnered. The level of attention, positive and negative, that came Malcolm’s way leaves no doubt that she was a significant figure on the American cultural scene.

      • RFERL ☛ Britain Summons Iranian Diplomat Over Journalist Threats, Sets New Sanctions

        The British government summoned Iran’s most senior diplomat in London on February 20 to protest what it said were serious threats against journalists living in the United Kingdom, as ministers launched a new security review into Iranian activities.

      • JURIST ☛ UK foreign secretary summons Iran diplomat following threats to UK-based journalists

        UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly Monday summoned the Iranian Charge D’affaires Mehdi Hosseini Matin due to threats from the Iranian regime concerning UK-based journalists working for Iran International. The London-based, Persian-language news channel recently paused their reporting in the UK as a result of “very real and specific threats.

      • Press Gazette ☛ Nicola Bulley family attack media and single out ITV and Sky News

        ITN and Sky News condemned for contacting the family on Sunday.

      • teleSUR ☛ U.S. Public Trust in News Organizations Down to New Low: CNN

        The media landscape has fractured and it’s not uncommon to now see the same story presented in entirely different ways to different audiences.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • The Nation ☛ Why the Warrior Met Strike Is Ending

        On February 15, 23 months after more than 1,000 coal miners in Brookwood, Ala., walked out on their employers at Warrior Met Coal, representatives from the United Mine Workers of America gathered them in a union hall to share some bad news. The company had reported its results for the fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, and thanks to the skyrocketing price of coal, Warrior Met raked in huge profits. The strike, believed to be the longest in Alabama history, had not had the desired economic impact. It may have cost the company over $1 billion in potential profits, but the high coal prices and the replacement workers that the company brought in meant that the strike hadn’t made a sufficient dent in the company’s bottom line. In 2022, Warrior Met Coal pulled in more than $640 million in net income.

      • Common Dreams ☛ New York Times Under Fire for Anti-Trans Coverage

        In a letter to New York Times leadership (2/15/23), more than 180 of the paper’s contributors (later swelling to more than 1,000) raised “serious concerns about editorial bias in the newspaper’s reporting on transgender, non⁠-⁠binary and gender nonconforming people.” What started as a conversation about a paper’s coverage exploded into a battle between media workers who see a problem at one of the most powerful media outlets on earth, and a media management that simply won’t listen.

      • CoryDoctorow ☛ Turbotax is blitzing Congress for the right to tax YOU

        Every year, Americans spend billions on tax prep services, paying a heavily concentrated industry of giant, wildly profitable firms to send the IRS information it already has. Despite the fact that most other rich countries have a far more efficient process, many Americans believe that adopting this process here is either impossible, immoral, or both.

        That puts tax preparation in the same bucket as other forms of weird American exceptionalism – like the belief that we’re too untrustworthy to have universal healthcare, or that we’re so violent that we must all have assault rifles to protect ourselves from one another.

      • The Guardian UK ☛ Police spy unit caused ‘outrage and pain’ as it infiltrated leftwing groups

        A judge-led public inquiry has found that an undercover police unit that infiltrated leftwing political groups caused “outrage and pain” to the public and acted in a sexist and racist way.

        The inquiry ruled that the Scotland Yard unit was not justified in intruding deeply into the private lives of campaigners, including their sexual relationships, and suggested it should have been disbanded early in its existence.

      • RFERL ☛ Iranians Stage Fresh Anti-Government Protests Despite Security Crackdown

        Officials, who have blamed the West for the demonstrations, have vowed to crack down even harder on protesters, with the judiciary leading the way after the unrest entered a fourth month.

        The protests pose the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.

      • India Times ☛ Uber inks pact with Tata Motors for supply of 25,000 EVs; Wipro cuts salary package offered to freshers

        Delhi govt bans bike taxis: In a big blow to bike taxi operators in Delhi, the transport department has banned commercial bike taxi services against plying on the roads. Carrying passengers on hire or reward basis will be considered a violation of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, that would make aggregators liable for a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

      • RFA ☛ Booked a flight out of China? Police are likely to knock on your door

        Police and neighborhood committees now get to decide who can travel and who can’t, although group tours continue

      • NL Times ☛ Dutch schools warned to be alert to female circumcision

        This form of genital mutilation has been illegal in the Netherlands since 1993. It is also illegal to take a girl abroad to get it done, though no one has been convicted of this crime to date. In the Netherlands, an estimated 41,000 women have been circumcised, and about 4,200 girls are at risk of genital mutilation in the coming years, according to knowledge institute Pharos and the GGD health services.

      • TruthOut ☛ Legislative “War Against LGBTQ People” Is Underway, New Report Warns
      • The Nation ☛ Race and Class: The Beginnings of an Argument

        “Watch out there, Jack, there’s people living under here.”—Ralph Ellison, “The World and the Jug”

      • Reason ☛ Seattle Considers Banning Caste-based Discrimination

        AP reports: [Seattle City Council member Kshama] Sawant has proposed an ordinance to add caste to Seattle’s anti-discrimination laws. If her fellow council members approve it Tuesday, Seattle will become the first city in the United States to specifically outlaw caste discrimination….

      • Reason ☛ Free Immigration Is a Core American Value

        Just consider the policies that the Founding Fathers embraced.

      • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ MN House passes ‘conversion therapy’ ban

        The vote places the bill one step closer to the governor’s desk.

      • Reuters ☛ Microsoft to defend Activision deal at EU hearing on Feb. 21

        The company asked for the hearing after receiving a statement of objections from the European Commission warning about the possible anti-competitive effects of the deal.

        A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the oral hearing

      • JURIST ☛ UK report finds Black men 7 times more likely to die after police restraint

        UK nonprofit group INQUEST Monday reported that Black men are 7 times more likely to die than their white counterparts following the use of restraint by police.

      • JURIST ☛ UK court sentences city fund managers to 12 years in $8M fraud case

        Southwark Crown Court Sunday sentenced three fund managers to a total of 12 years and three months imprisonment following a seven year investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

      • RFERL ☛ U.S. Welcomes Move By Kyrgyzstan To Repatriate Women, Children From Syrian Displaced Persons Camps

        The United States has welcomed the efforts of the Kyrgyz government to repatriate 18 women and 41 children from displaced persons camps in northeast Syria, where the Islamic State extremist group remains a “persistent threat.”

      • RFERL ☛ Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan Gets Court Protection Against Arrest

        Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was granted protective bail by a court in the eastern city of Lahore on February 20, providing him respite from arrest for two weeks in a case that involves charges under the country’s anti-terrorism laws.

      • RFERL ☛ London Says More Than 30 Countries Vow Support For Ban On Russian, Belarusian Athletes

        More than 30 countries, including the United States, Britain and France, have pledged their support for banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in international sporting events, a British government statement said on February 20.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

    • Monopolies

      • Axios ☛ Big Tech’s future is up to a Supreme Court that doesn’t understand it

        The firestorm over Big Tech and content moderation is coming to a head at the Supreme Court — but some experts fear it’s a job the court simply isn’t equipped to do well.

        Why it matters: The court has historically not been great at grappling with new technology. As it dives into the political battle over social-media algorithms, there’s a real fear that the justices could end up creating more controversies than they solve.

      • Patents

      • Software Patents

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent Freak ☛ Bungie Wins $4.3 Million Award Against Cheat Seller in Arbitration

          Game developer Bungie has won its first battle against cheat seller AimJunkies. In an arbitration proceeding, Judge Ronald Cox concluded that the cheaters violated the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision and related trafficking restrictions. The end result is an award for $3.6 million in damages and over $700k in fees and other costs.

        • India Times ☛ Does ChatGPT plagiarize beyond ‘copy-paste’?

          Before finishing their next assignment with a chatbot, students might want to give it some thought. According to a research team led by Penn University that undertook the first study to specifically look at the topic, language models that generate text in response to user prompts plagiarise content in more ways than one.

          “Plagiarism comes in different flavours,” said Dongwon Lee, professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State. “We wanted to see if language models not only copy and paste but resort to more sophisticated forms of plagiarism without realizing it.”

        • Austin Z Henley ☛ Papers on the UX of AI programming assistants

          This is a list of research papers investigating the user experience of AI-powered programming assistants (e.g., Copilot). I started the list because I was finding it difficult to keep up with the massive surge of papers recently.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Technical

      • Internet/Gemini

        • android finger client

          fingerlist almost did what I wanted. It didn’t have finger URI support
          and it also didn’t have anything in its manifest to let other apps
          know that it was able to handle finger URIs.

          So I installed android studio to see if it’d be as much of a pain
          as I was hoping it wasn’t.

          Took me a bit to get into a good work loop of write, build, test
          using python3 -m http.server to re-download it to my phone after each
          apk build.

          My computer is new enough to run the studio, but it has a really hard
          time trying to run a phone emulator at the same time.

          Anyway, I have an apk that seems to work how I want now. :)
          So, have some links to the apk and the source.

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

IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 20, 2023

Posted in IRC Logs at 2:08 am by Needs Sunlight

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