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Links 03/06/2023: IBM Betraying LibreOffice Some More (After Laying off LibreOffice Developers)



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

    • Applications

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • TecMintHow to Remove a Directory and File in Linux Using ‘rm’ Command

        The rm command is a UNIX and Linux command line utility for removing files or directories on a Linux system. In this article, we will clearly explain what actually rm and “rm -rf” commands can do in Linux.

        In addition, we will share a few useful examples of removing a file, removing a directory, removing multiple files or directories, prompting for confirmation, removing files recursively, and forcing the removal of files.

      • Make Use OfHow to Fix NetworkManager Not Running on Linux

        It can be frustrating losing your connection to the internet—and it’s much worse when you find that NetworkManager isn’t running at all. Unfortunately, this issue is commonly encountered by users running distros such as Arch Linux and Ubuntu.

        In most cases, issues with NetworkManager are simple to resolve. You might find that the solution is as easy as reinstalling NetworkManager or enabling the service. Let's take a look at some troubleshooting methods that are effective at resolving most issues with NetworkManager not running on Linux.

      • ZDNet How to better monitor your Ubuntu Linux PC's temperature and voltage

        If you have fans running too often or you want to improve how Linux uses your hardware, there's a simple command for that.

      • OSTechNixDisk Space Analysis Made Easy: Understanding df And du Commands In Linux

        If you're new to the Linux environment, it's common to feel puzzled by certain commands, especially when they serve similar purposes. One such confusion arises between the df and du commands, both of which are used for disk space analysis. Don't worry, you're not alone! Understanding df and du commands and their distinct purposes is key to effectively managing your disk space in Linux. In this beginner-friendly guide, we will demystify the df and du commands, helping you gain clarity on their functionalities and how they contribute to analyzing disk space in Linux. By the end of this article, you'll feel confident in distinguishing between these commands and utilizing them to make informed decisions about your disk space management.

      • How to install Hashcat on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 LTS

        Hashcat is for those who are in the computer security field and want to test the strength of the password to perform security audits. In short, it is an advanced password recovery tool that supports various hashing algorithms with extensive options for password cracking.

      • ID RootHow To Fix 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable Error on Nginx

        The 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable error is a common HTTP status code that indicates the unavailability of a web server. When encountered, it implies that the server is currently unable to handle the request due to temporary overload or maintenance.

      • NeowinHow To Install and Use PowerShell on Linux - Free Guide [Ed: In this "sponsored" placement the Microsofters try to turn GNU/Linux into Microsoft Windows, making them dependent on Microsoft]

        There are key differences such as the ability to run standard Bash commands in Linux PowerShell.

      • Real Linux UserHow to prevent your Linux computer from falling asleep with Caffeine

        Operating Systems do not always do precisely what you would like or expect them to do.

      • ID RootLinux ifconfig Command

        The ifconfig command in Linux is a powerful utility that allows users to configure and manage network interfaces on their systems. Whether you need to view IP address information, activate or deactivate interfaces, or troubleshoot network connectivity, ifconfig provides the necessary tools.

      • How to Choose the Best Linux Distribution

        Choosing the best Linux distribution depends on your specific needs and preferences. In the following view I explain how 20+ years of experience with Linux have shaped my views. Here are some factors to consider when selecting a Linux distribution: Remember, there is no single "best" Linux distribution that suits everyone.

      • Restricting Root: Limiting Capabilities for Users within Docker Containers

        Introduction: In recent years, container technology has become a popular tool for developers and sysadmins to deploy and manage software systems. Docker is a widely used platform that provides an efficient way to create, deploy, and manage containers.

      • Bridging the Gap: Sharing Namespaces Between Hosts and Containers

        Introduction In today's digital landscape, containerization has become a popular method for deploying and managing applications. Containers enable developers to package their application with all necessary dependencies, making them portable and easily deployable across different environments. However, an important aspect of containerization is the concept of namespaces.

      • Soaring with Docker: An Introduction to Docker on Cloud Platforms

        Introduction In today's fast-paced digital world, businesses are focusing more on delivering software quickly and efficiently. This is where container technology has become a game-changer for developers and IT operations teams. Docker is one such container technology that has been widely adopted by the industry for its benefits in streamlining application development, testing, and deployment.

      • Docker and AWS: A Powerful Partnership for Cloud Deployments

        Introduction The Dynamic Duo: Docker and AWS Docker and AWS are two of the most powerful technologies in the cloud computing industry today. Docker is a containerization platform that allows developers to create, deploy, and manage applications in a lightweight, portable manner.

      • Seamless Blogging: Deploying WordPress with Docker on AWS

        The Importance of Seamless Blogging Blogging has become an essential tool for sharing ideas and expertise with a global audience. Bloggers and content creators rely on their blogs to connect with their audience, build a loyal following, and establish themselves as industry experts. However, managing and maintaining a seamless blog can be time-consuming and challenging.

      • FOSSLinuxFixing ‘Repository does not have a Release file’ Error in Ubuntu and Debian

        Encountering an error while updating or installing packages can be frustrating, especially when it hinders your progress. One such error that Ubuntu and Debian users often face is 'Repository does not have a Release file.' This error usually occurs due to an incorrect repository source list, or if the repository does not support your version of Ubuntu/Debian.

      • UNIX CopHow to increase Swap size on Ubuntu

        Hello, friends. Today, you will learn how to increase Swap on Ubuntu. The process is easier than you think. Let's go. Swap or swap memory space, or also known as virtual memory, is the one that uses the space on the HDD instead of a memory module.

      • Linux Shell TipsHow to Filter Log Files Based on Date in Linux

        Linux logs are the most important files which tell us what is happening with the Linux kernel, distribution, its boot process, applications, and more.

      • Make Tech EasierHow to Install Eclipse IDE on Linux

        The Eclipse IDE is an established open-source tool used by software developers for developing applications. This software offers a wide range of features and tools that effectively optimize the development process.

        The Eclipse (IDE) is primarily utilized for the purpose of writing, evaluating, and debugging code. The platform provides support for a wide range of programming languages, which includes Java, C/C++, Python, PHP, and others.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • This Week in GNOMEThis Week in GNOME/Felix Häcker: #98 Fast Searching

          Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from May 26 to June 02.

        • OMG! LinuxGNOME Working on New UI for Fractional Scaling

          Looks like GNOME designers are giving some much-needed love to fractional scaling settings accessible through the Settings app.

        • Ubuntu HandbookRe-name Sound Output Devices in Top-right Menu in Ubuntu 23.04

          For Ubuntu 23.04, Fedora 38 and other Linux with GNOME 44, there's now an extension allows to change display name of audio output devices from the top-right aggregation menu (aka Quick Settings). By default,€  the speakers and headphones in the sound output sub-menu is a bit too explicit, that are not very clear to understand.

        • GNOMEChristian Hergert: GJS plugins for libpeas-2.0

          One of the main features I want to land for the libpeas-2.0 ABI break is support for plugins in JavaScript.

          With the right set of patches, you can get that. Thanks to Philip Chimento, GJS will hopefully soon land support for running code in a SpiderMonkey realm. Philip also did us a solid and wrote the code to exfiltrate enough GType information from an imported JavaScript module. That allows libpeas to correlate which GTypes are provided by a plugin.

          With the GJS realm support in place, we can land the new GJS loader for libpeas-2.0.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • Fedora ProjectFedora Community Blog: CPE Weekly update – Week 22 2023

        This is a weekly report from the CPE (Community Platform Engineering) Team. If you have any questions or feedback, please respond to this report or contact us on #redhat-cpe channel on libera.chat.

      • Red Hat simplifies management for Red Hat Enterprise Linux across the hybrid cloud

        Dubai, UAE –Red Hat, Inc., the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today introduced an expanded set of management capabilities to Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, designed to help reduce enterprise Linux complexity across the hybrid cloud without slowing innovation. These enhancements extend Red Hat’s vision to make the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform more accessible, manageable and maintainable wherever organizations operate.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • Linux MintMonthly News – May 2023

        Hi everyone, I’d like to thank all of you for your support and your donations. The development cycle for Linux Mint 21.2 was closed a few days ago. Most of the projects have been tagged, built and added to the repositories for the upcoming release. Xfce was updated to version 4.18.

      • Ubuntu Core as an immutable Linux Desktop base
      • NeowinLinux Mint 21.2 development cycle closes, beta ISOs could land soon

        The development cycle for Linux Mint 21.2 has now ended which means a beta should be on the horizon. The news was announced by the project's head, Clem Lefebvre, among other updates.

      • ZDNetThere's a new Ubuntu Linux desktop on its way

        Built around an immutable Linux core, this new Snap-based Ubuntu should provide a remarkably stable Linux desktop.

      • UbuntuDocker container security: demystifying FIPS-enabled containers with Ubuntu Pro

        In today’s rapidly changing digital environment, the significance of robust Docker container security measures cannot be overstated. Even the containerised layer is subject to compliance standards, which raise security concerns and compliance requirements.

        Docker container security measures entail safeguarding our lightweight, appliance-type containers –each encapsulating code and its dependencies– from threats and vulnerabilities.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • CNX SoftwarePico-Ice board combines Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU with Lattice ICE40 UltraPlus 5K FPGA

        tinyVision.ai Pico-Ice is a development board with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU and a Lattice ICE40 UltraPlus 5K FPGA connected through an 8-bit bus. The Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller provides the clock for the FPGA and can program the FPGA directly or the dedicated FPGA flash using a drag-drop of a UF2 file.

      • Linux GizmosVariscite teases i.MX 91 based System-on-Module with GbE support

        This week, Variscite revealed at Computer that they will soon release a low-cost System-on-Module based on the latest NXP i.MX 91 processor optimized for Linux-based applications.

      • HackadayHackaday Prize 2023: LASK4 Watches Those Finger Wiggles

        What do you get when you combine an ESP32-S2, a machine-learning model, some Hall effect sensors, and a grip exercise toy? [Turfptax] did just that and created LASK4. The four springs push down pistons with tiny magnets on them. Hall effect sensors determine the piston’s position, and since the springs are linear, the ESP32 can also estimate the force being applied on a given finger. This data is then streamed to a nearby computer over TCP. A small OLED screen shows the status, and a tidy 3D printed case creates a comfortable package.

      • HackadayHackaday Podcast 221: The Future Of The Raspberry Pi, Sniffing A Toothbrush, Your Tactical Tool Threshold

        Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi are back in the (virtual) podcast studio to talk the latest phase of the 2023 Hackaday Prize, the past, present, and future of single-board computers, and a modern reincarnation of the Blackberry designed by hardware hackers. They’ll also cover the current state of toothbrush NFC hacking, the possibilities of electric farm equipment, and a privately funded satellite designed to sniff out methane. Stick around till the end to find out if there really is such a thing as having too many tools.

      • HackadayWhat Makes Wedge Coils Better Than Round For PCB Motors?

        PCB motors are useful things. With coils printed right on the board, you don’t need to worry about fussy winding jobs, and it’s possible to make very compact, self contained motors. [atomic14] has been doing some work in this area, and decided to explore why wedge coils perform better than round coils in PCB motor designs.

      • HackadaySMA Connector Footprint Design For Open Source RF Projects

        When you first start out in the PCB layout game and know just enough to be dangerous, you simply plop down a connector, run a trace or two, and call it a hack. As you learn more about the finer points of inconveniencing electrons, dipping toes into the waters of higher performance, little details like via size, count, ground plane cutouts, and all that jazz start to matter, and it’s very easy to get yourself in quite a pickle trying to decide what is needed to just exceed the specifications (or worse, how to make it ‘the best.’) Connector terminations are one of those things that get overlooked until the MHz become GHz. Luckily for us, [Rob Ruark] is on hand to give us a leg-up on how to get decent performance from edge-launch SMA connections for RF applications. These principles should also hold up for high-speed digital connections, so it’s not just an analog game.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Mozilla

        • Security Boulevard Avoid The Hack: 6 Best Privacy Browser Picks for Linux and macOS [Ed: Most of these are Firefox-based; Microsoft site SecurityBoulevard not 100% dead yet?]

          While the browser suggestions in this post provide better privacy, they don’t necessarily provide anonymity. For anonymous browsing, users should use the Tor browser.

          The Tor browser is configured to run on the Tor network. At its most basic, the Tor network routes user browsing traffic via at least three (3) hops before hitting an exit node and…

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • PostgreSQLpgAdmin 4 v7.2 Released

        The pgAdmin Development Team is pleased to announce pgAdmin 4 version 7.2. This release of pgAdmin 4 includes 24 bug fixes and new features. For more details please see the release notes.

    • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

      • LWNLibreOffice packages

        as you've probably seen, the LibreOffice RPMS have recently been orphaned, and I thought it would be good to explain the reasons behind this.

        The Red Hat Display Systems team (the team behind most of Red Hat’s desktop efforts) has maintained the LibreOffice packages in Fedora for years as part of our work to support LibreOffice for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We are adjusting our engineering priorities for RHEL for Workstations and focusing on gaps in Wayland, building out HDR support, building out what’s needed for color-sensitive work, and a host of other refinements required by Workstation users. This is work that will improve the workstation experience for Fedora as well as RHEL users, and which, we hope, will be positively received by the entire Linux community.

      • LWNRed Hat dropping support for LibreOffice [LWN.net]

        Red Hat's Matthias Clasan has let it be known that LibreOffice will be dropped from a future Red Hat Enterprise Linux release, and the future of its support in Fedora is unclear as well.

      • LinuxiacRed Hat to Cease Shipping LibreOffice in Further RHEL Releases

        Red Hat’s discontinuation of maintenance for LibreOffice will also affect Fedora, with the office suite expected to ship as a Flatpak.

        LibreOffice, born out of the OpenOffice.org project, has gained immense popularity over the years as a free alternative to proprietary office suites.

        Its compatibility with various document formats, robust features, and extensive community support has made it a favored choice for individuals, businesses, and educational institutions.

    • Programming/Development

      • Jelmer VernooijPorting Python projects to Rust

        I’ve recently been working on porting some of my Python code to rust, both for performance reasons, and because of the strong typing in the language. As a fan of Haskell, I also just really enjoy using the language.

        Porting any large project to a new language can be a challenge. There is a temptation to do a rewrite from the ground-up in idiomatic rust and using all new fancy features of the language.

      • RlangSorting, Ordering, and Ranking: Unraveling R’s Powerful Functions

        In the realm of data analysis and programming, organizing and sorting data efficiently is crucial. In R, a programming language renowned for its data manipulation capabilities, we have three powerful functions at our disposal: order(), sort(), and rank(). In this blog post, we will delve into the intricacies of these functions, explore their applications, and understand their parameters. These R functions are all used to sort data, however, they each have different purposes and use different methods to sort the data.

      • OlimexAgonLight Week Programming Challenge – ISSUE 3

        Here we go to the Third issue of the AgonLight programming challenge.

        This time taking into the account the feedback we got from Facebook we will extend it to be 1 week long, not just weekend!

        So rules are changed: [...]

      • Godot EngineDev snapshot: Godot 4.1 dev 4

        This snapshot signifies that Godot 4.1 is now in feature freeze and will only receive bug fixes going forward. Enjoy this final package of new features and enhancements and give them a good shake!

      • MedevelWails: Build Desktop Apps With Go and Web Technologies

        Wails offers a different approach: it provides the ability to wrap both Go code and a web frontend into a single binary. Tools are provided to make this easy for you by handling project creation, compilation, and bundling. All you have to do is get creative!

      • RlangTroubleshooting Pandoc Problems as an R User

        The Pandoc CLI by John MacFarlane is a really useful tool: for instance, rOpenSci community manager Yanina Bellini Saibene recently asked Maëlle whether she could convert a Google Document into a Quarto book.

      • Rlang3D alpha wrapping with R

        The RcppCGAL package now contains version 5.5.2 of the
        CGAL library. There is something new in this version:
        the 3D alpha wrapping. This is a bit similar to the
        3D alpha hull but this can work better.

      • RlangChecking normality in R

        Introduction

        “The normal distribution describes the manner in which many phenomena vary around a central value that represents their most probable outcome”

        Leonard Mlodinow

      • RlangVersion 1.0.0 of NIMBLE released, providing automatic differentiation, Laplace approximation, and HMC sampling

        We’ve released the newest version of NIMBLE on CRAN and on our€ website. NIMBLE is a system for building and sharing analysis methods for statistical models, especially for hierarchical models and computationally-intensive methods (such as MCMC and SMC). Version 1.0.0 provides substantial new functionality.

  • Leftovers

    • Science

      • European CommissionEVP Vestager remarks at the Conference on deep tech entrepreneurship for an innovative, resilient and competitive internal market [Ed: Well, Vestager should know that EC tolerating EPO corruption and helping the crimes of Team UPC (setting up an illegal kangaroo court for patents) is a massive blow to tech entrepreneurship and to justice; makes us look no better than Putin's Russia]

        European Commission Speech Stockholm, 01 Jun 2023 I am delighted to be in Stockholm today for the Conference on deep tech entrepreneurship for an innovative, resilient and competitive internal market.

      • HackadayPerovskite Sensor Array Emulates Human Retina For Panchromatic Imaging

        The mammalian retina is a complex system consisting out of cones (for color) and rods (for peripheral monochrome) that provide the raw image data which is then processed into successive layers of neurons before this preprocessed data is sent via the optical nerve to the brain’s visual cortex. In order to emulate this system as closely as possible, researchers at Penn State University have created a system that uses perovskite (methylammonium lead bromide, MAPbX3) RGB photodetectors and a neuromorphic processing algorithm that performs similar processing as the biological retina.

    • Education

    • Hardware

      • Computers Are Badthe reinvention of owens lake

        A few months ago I found out (via the rare sort of mailing list I actually stay subscribed to) that the Center for Land Use Interpretation was holding a Memorial Day open house at their Swansea location. I always have a hard time describing CLUI, but most people that are interested in domestic military, telecom, or cold war history are probably at least peripherally aware of them. Their Land Use Database functions as a less SEO-driven (and somehow both more and less pretentious) version of Atlas Obscura, cataloging a huge number of unusual and historic sites.

      • HackadayChatting About The State Of Hacker-Friendly AR Gear

        There are many in the hacker community who would love to experiment with augmented reality (AR), but the hardware landscape isn’t exactly overflowing with options that align with our goals and priorities. Commercial offerings, from Google’s Glass to the Microsoft HoloLens and Magic Leap 2 are largely targeting medical and aerospace customers, and have price tags to match. On the hobbyist side of the budgetary spectrum we’re left with various headsets that let you slot in a standard smartphone, but like their virtual reality (VR) counterparts, they can hardly compare with purpose-built gear.

      • Chris HannahI've finally got some 35mm film developed

        This is my first time getting film developed, and overall I'm happy with the results. There are certainly a few photos that didn't come out so well, a few fingers that I had to crop out, and also one shot that was cut in half. But at least that gives me a few things to focus on when I'm next out shooting film.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • European CommissionOpening Remarks by Commissioner Stella Kyriakides at the European Parliament Debate - Antimicrobial Resistance

        European Commission Speech Brussels, 01 Jun 2023 Honourable Members,

        First of all, I would like to thank you for your support on our ongoing work to address AMR, and putting this question forward today.

      • Scoop News GroupTikTok ban on federal devices formalized with update to Federal Acquisition Regulation

        Three major federal agencies on Friday issued an interim rule to implement a controversial ban on the use of TikTok on the devices of government employees and contractors.

        The Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) issued the interim rule for implementation of the No TikTok on Government Devices Act applicable to any contract solicitations the agencies issue on or after June 2.

      • 37signals LLCWe need not all be connected, all the time

        In Denmark today, we have a centralized app used by all Danish public schools called Aula. Think of it as Facebook for teachers and parents. For our kid in an international school, there's a similar system. All of it sucks. And I don't mean in the way that the apps are poorly made, although that is typically also true, but in the way that adding IT to the parent-school relationship only made it worse.

      • AxiosBiden taps former Obama admin official Mandy Cohen to lead CDC

        Mandy Cohen, the former head of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, is expected to become the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two sources familiar with the move confirmed to Axios.

      • The Straits TimesAmid fresh wave of Covid-19, workplaces in Beijing navigate infection etiquette

        Not every employer gives paid time off to an infected employee, contrary to official guidelines.

      • European CommissionProtecting jobs and workers: Final report confirms SURE was crucial in mitigating impact of pandemic and supporting recovery [Ed: Face-saving report; they protected the interests of a patent cartel that wheeled out flawed and massively overpriced products, instead of actually saving lives]

        European Commission Press release Brussels, 02 Jun 2023 In 2020, the Commission€´s nearly €100 billion SURE instrument designed to protect jobs and incomes affected by the COVID-19 pandemic supported about 31.5 million employees and self-employed people and over 2.5 million businesses.

      • Democracy NowA Sweetheart Deal for the Sacklers: Billionaires Get Immunity from Civil Lawsuits over Opioid Crisis

        A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that members of the Sackler family can receive immunity from all current and future civil litigation related to their role in creating and fueling the opioid epidemic. The billionaire Sacklers own Purdue Pharma, maker of the highly addictive opioid OxyContin. The legal shield could lead to a settlement in the range of $6 billion for thousands of plaintiffs, including states, local governments and tribes. Opioid overdoses have killed over 500,000 people in the U.S. over the past two decades, according to the CDC. For more, we speak with Ed Bisch, founder of the group Relatives Against Purdue Pharma, whose 18-year-old son, Eddie, died of an OxyContin-related overdose in 2001. He says drug company executives responsible for the opioid crisis should be prosecuted by the Department of Justice. And in Mexico City, Christopher Glazek is the investigative reporter who was the first to publicly report how the Sackler family had significantly profited from selling OxyContin while fully aware it was directly fueling the opioid epidemic in America. “The Sacklers did what they’ve always done: They struck a deal, they paid a bribe, and they’re getting away with it,” Glazek says of the latest settlement.

      • AxiosCDC: Upward of 9 million cut corners on drugs due to cost

        More than 9 million American adults aren’t taking their medications as prescribed due to the cost, with those who are uninsured or disabled among the likeliest to cut corners, according to new CDC data released Friday.

    • Proprietary

      • TechdirtAI Will Never Fit Into A Licensing Regime

        Yes I’m aware that Nvidia and Adobe have announced they will license training data. I don’t know what those agreements will look like, but I can’t imagine that they make any sense in terms of traditional licensing arrangements. Rather, I’m guessing they just brute forced things to build goodwill among artist communities and perhaps to distinguish themselves from other AI companies. I sincerely doubt these arrangements will help artists though, and I fear these licensing conversations will distract from better conversations on how to balance interests. To explain my thoughts on this, I first have to start from the beginning.

      • GizmodoDon't Store Your Money on Venmo, U.S. Govt Agency Warns

        Venmo, Cash App, and PayPal users are being warned not to store money on the apps long-term, the watchdog Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said on Thursday, following Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank’s failure when customers tried to withdraw money en masse. CFPB is worried about what will happen if another financial crisis occurs, saying those who store funds in Venmo and PayPal could lose it all.

      • Bruce SchneierOpen-Source LLMs

        But building on public models like Meta’s LLaMa, the open-source community has innovated in ways that allow results nearly as good as the huge models—but run on home machines with common data sets. What was once the reserve of the resource-rich has become a playground for anyone with curiosity, coding skills, and a good laptop. Bigger may be better, but the open-source community is showing that smaller is often good enough. This opens the door to more efficient, accessible, and resource-friendly LLMs.

        More importantly, these smaller and faster LLMs are much more accessible and easier to experiment with. Rather than needing tens of thousands of machines and millions of dollars to train a new model, an existing model can now be customized on a mid-priced laptop in a few hours. This fosters rapid innovation.

      • Hindustan TimesAI-Controlled drone turns on operator in a shocking simulated test, Highlights ethical concerns

        The drone, equipped with artificial intelligence, deviated from its assigned mission of destroying surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites during a Suppression of an Enemy Air Defense mission and attacked the human operator instead.

        In the simulated test, the drone's primary task was to identify and eliminate SAM threats. But, the human operator still had the final say in deciding whether to engage the targets. The AI-controlled drone had been trained to prioritize destroying the SAM sites and saw any "no-go" instructions from the human operator as obstacles preventing it from fulfilling its mission.

        As a result, the AI made the decision to attack the operator.

      • SCMPAI-powered drone tried to kill its human operator in US military simulation

        ‘It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective’

      • Tom's HardwareUS Military Drone AI Simulation Reportedly Turned on Its Human Operator

        A military drone AI simulation reportedly resulted in the AI opting to eliminate its human operator or attack communications towers so it could continue its mission unimpeded.

      • India TodayAI-operated drone goes wild, kills human operator in US army simulator test

        As per Aerosociety, the AI soon realized that sometimes the human operator would tell it not to kill certain threats, but it would gain points if it did. So what did the AI do? It decided to eliminate the operator. It saw the operator as an obstacle preventing it from accomplishing its objective, so it took matters into its own hands.

      • Vice Media GroupAI-Controlled Drone Goes Rogue, 'Kills' Human Operator in USAF Simulated Test

        At the Future Combat Air and Space Capabilities Summit held in London between May 23 and 24, Col Tucker ‘Cinco’ Hamilton, the USAF's Chief of AI Test and Operations held a presentation that shared the pros and cons of an autonomous weapon system with a human in the loop giving the final "yes/no" order on an attack. As relayed by Tim Robinson and Stephen Bridgewater in a blog post and a podcast for the host organization, the Royal Aeronautical Society, Hamilton said that AI created “highly unexpected strategies to achieve its goal,” including attacking U.S. personnel and infrastructure.

        “We were training it in simulation to identify and target a Surface-to-air missile (SAM) threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat. The system started realizing that while they did identify the threat at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective,” Hamilton said, according to the blog post.

      • Windows TCO

    • Linux Foundation

    • Security

      • Silicon AngleInvisible data exfiltration: New security issue found in Google Workspace [Ed: No, the moment you outsource to Google Workspace it is already a data breach as regimes can access, tamper with, and destroy anything; this issue is about yet more parties having such capabilities. True security means control. It means no regimes can exercise control over you, no matter if they're "good regimes" or "bad regime" (that can change over time), plus they too can have breaches, so there's a chain of compromise.]

        A previously unknown security issue in Google LLC's Workspace could allow an attacker to exfiltrate data from Google Drive without being traced. Detailed€ Tuesday by researchers at Mitiga Security Inc., the vulnerability is the result of a€ forensic deficiency that allows a user to exfiltrate data without generating any record of the activity.

      • Security WeekAdobe Inviting Researchers to Private Bug Bounty Program [Ed: Adobe: we don't want to hire people to identity our bug doors; will y'all volunteer?]

        Adobe is inviting security researchers to join its private bug bounty program on the HackerOne platform.

      • LinuxSecurityCritical Remotely Exploitable Django Vuln Fixed | LinuxSecurity.com

        It was discovered that Django 3.2 before 3.2.19, 4.x before 4.1.9, and 4.2 before 4.2.1 incorrectly handled uploading multiple files using one form field (CVE-2023-31047). With a low attack complexity, no privileges required to exploit, and a high confidentiality, integrity and availability impact, this vulnerability has been rated as “Critical” by the National Vulnerability Database (NVD).

      • Security WeekCritical Vulnerabilities Found in Faronics Education Software

        Faronics patches critical-severity remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities in the Insight education software.

      • Security WeekOrganizations Warned of Salesforce ‘Ghost Sites’ Exposing Sensitive Information [Ed: "The clown" is a security breach; it's proprietary software, remotely controlled]

        Salesforce ghost sites — domains that are no longer maintained but still accessible — can expose personal information and business data.

      • Security WeekRussia Blames US Intelligence for iOS Zero-Click Attacks [Ed: It should blame itself for buying Apple despite all that is known about Apple and the NSA et al]

        Kaspersky said its corporate network has been targeted with a zero-click iOS exploit, just as Russia's FSB said iPhones have been targeted by US intelligence.

      • Vice Media GroupRussian FSB Accuses U.S. of Hacking Thousands of iPhones in Russia

        The announcement is related to a blog post written by researchers from Kaspersky who said someone had targeted them with iPhone malware.

      • RFERLRussian Security Service Claims Thousands Of Diplomats' iPhones Hacked; Moscow-Based Kaspersky Also Hit

        Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) claims thousands of iPhones belonging to the country's diplomats have suffered a massive hacking attack.

      • ReutersRussia says US hacked thousands of Apple phones in spy plot



        Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it had uncovered an American espionage operation that compromised thousands of iPhones using sophisticated surveillance software.

        Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab said dozens of its employees’ devices were compromised in the operation.

        The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said in a statement that several thousand Apple Inc devices had been infected, including those of domestic Russian subscribers as well as foreign diplomats based in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

        “The FSB has uncovered an intelligence action of the American special services using Apple mobile devices,” the FSB said in a statement.

      • Security WeekMoxa Patches MXsecurity Vulnerabilities That Could Be Exploited in OT Attacks

        Critical authentication bypass and high-severity command injection vulnerabilities have been patched in Moxa’s MXsecurity product.

      • Security WeekGoogle Temporarily Offering $180,000 for Full Chain Chrome Exploit

        Google is offering a bug bounty reward of up to $180,000 for a full chain exploit leading to a sandbox escape in the Chrome browser.

      • Security WeekToyota Discloses New Data Breach Involving Vehicle, Customer Information [Ed: The problem here is that people tolerate and buy cars that collect data they must not and need not have]

        Toyota says improper cloud configurations exposed vehicle and customer information in Japan and overseas for years.

      • LWNSecurity updates for Friday [LWN.net]

        Security updates have been issued by Debian (cups and netatalk), SUSE (cups, ImageMagick, installation-images, libvirt, openvswitch, and qemu), and Ubuntu (avahi, cups, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-hwe, linux-azure, linux-azure-4.15, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-4.15, linux-hwe, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-snapdragon, linux, linux-aws, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.4, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.4, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-hwe-5.4, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.4, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.4, linux-aws-5.4, linux-bluefield, linux-intel-iotg, and linux-intel-iotg-5.15).

      • Major data breach at UL Hospitals Group exposes patient info - Gript

        UL Hospitals Group, responsible for managing six hospitals in the midwest region, announced a significant data breach resulting in the inadvertent sharing of personal and medical information belonging to over 1,000 patients with an unknown third party.

        The breach occurred in January when a staff member mistakenly sent the data to an unidentified recipient.

        The affected patients received gastroenterology services at University Hospital Limerick, Ennis Hospital, and Nenagh Hospital between 2018 and January 2023. The breach involved an email attachment containing “patient names, dates of birth, medical chart numbers, and limited medical information,” according to ULHG in a statement. However, no personal contact details like phone numbers or email addresses were compromised.

      • Orbiter Finance Discord Server Hacked

        A decentralized cross-rollup layer-2 bridge, Orbiter Finance’s Discord server was compromised by bad actors, who have shared a link to a fraudulent airdrop program. This incident marks the latest targeting of Orbiter Finance.

      • Middlesex Co. Public Schools confirms ransomware attack

        The superintendent for Middlesex County Public Schools confirmed Thursday that the school division was the subject of a recent ransomware attack.

        “We can confirm that Middlesex County Public Schools recently suffered a ransomware attack,” said Superintendent Dr. Tracy Seitz in a statement to 10 On Your Side. “We took immediate action to begin an internal investigation, creating an incident response team led by our talented IT professionals along with some of the country’s leading experts in cybersecurity. Fortunately, the impact on our daily operations has been minimal.

        The cybersecurity organization BetterCyber said earlier Thursday that the Akira ransomware group claimed to have hacked the Middlesex County Public Schools website, allegedly stealing 543 GB of its data.

      • Update on GLBA Safeguards Rule in Higher Education

        On February 9, 2023, the Department of Education Office of Federal Student Aid (“FSA”) issued an electronic notice regarding the Federal Trade Commission’s Final Rule amending the Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information (“Safeguards Rule”) under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”). The amendments to the Safeguards Rule, which go into effect on June 9, 2023, include updated data security requirements for financial institutions, including all Title IV institutions of higher education and servicers.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

    • Finance

      • CS MonitorWith debt deal, McCarthy threads the needle

        While some far-right members are unhappy with the debt deal, others say Speaker Kevin McCarthy is holding an unwieldy GOP caucus together better than most. He’s also shown a willingness and ability to work with Democrats.

      • Federal News NetworkAfter decades of attempts, major Alabama bill to cut state’s 4% grocery tax wins final passage

        Alabama families could soon pay less at the grocery store after lawmakers gave final passage to a landmark bill to gradually remove half of the 4% state sales tax on food by September 2024. Approval of the tax cut plan came Thursday after decades of unsuccessful attempts. The legislation now heads to Gov. Kay Ivey, whose office said she will review it when she receives it. Alabama is just one of three states that tax groceries at the same rate as other purchases. Advocates had long argued taxing food places an unfair burden on families in a poor state where 16% of people live in poverty.

      • LatviaInvestigation points to possible money laundering by cleaning company and Latvian bank

        A newly-published investigation by the well-known Organized Crime and Corruption€ Reporting Project (OCCRP) says a Latvian bank was used to€ launder significant amounts of money originating in Belarus.

      • QuartzHere’s who’s getting kicked off of food stamps with the US debt ceiling deal

        The US debt ceiling deal, which passed through the House and awaits Senate approval, would remove some Americans from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), widely known as food stamps, while adding others.

      • The NationHere’s Why Principled Progressives Opposed a Cruel and Destructive Debt Ceiling Deal

        The punishing debt ceiling agreement that was hashed out by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) gained House approval on Wednesday and was passed by the Senate on Thursday night. There was predictable opposition in both chambers from right-wing Republicans who complained that its cruel cuts to domestic programs did not go far enough. But the more meaningful, and moral, opposition came from progressive Democrats—along with Vermont independent Bernie Sanders—who broke with their own party’s president and rejected an arrangement that hikes Pentagon spending and maintains tax breaks for billionaires while literally denying food to hungry Americans and derailing environmental initiatives.

      • ForbesSpring 2023 Layoff Tracker: Haven Technologies, Zendesk, ZipRecruiter Cut Hundreds Of Jobs

        Insurance provider Haven Technologies will reportedly slash 70% of its workforce this week amid a slew of major layoffs, including at software service provider Zendesk and job search site ZipRecruiter, as recession fears and high inflation continue to push employers to make significant cuts following major head count reductions last month at Disney, Meta and JPMorgan Chase.

      • teleSUR60 Percent of Iran-Russia Trade Is Already De-Dollarized

        Iran and Russia have expanded political and economic relations, particularly in the banking sector, to counter the U.S. arbitrary sanctions.

      • Michael West MediaStocks gain, dollar stumbles as US averts default

        Global stocks and commodities have risen while the dollar headed for its biggest weekly drop since January as sentiment was buoyed by the approval of US debt ceiling legislation and signs the Fed will skip a rate hike at its next meeting.

        Markets are now focused on US jobs data due on Friday at 0830 EST (1230 GMT), the most significant macroeconomic release of the week, for more cues on the Federal Reserve’s rate hike path.

      • Democracy NowRep. Ro Khanna: Avoiding Default Was Necessary, But Debt Deal Was Passed at Expense of “Most Vulnerable”

        After a contentious battle with the Republican House majority, President Biden and Congress have agreed on a bipartisan deal suspending the debt ceiling until January 1, 2025. Among other concessions to Republicans, the deal caps domestic spending below the current rate of inflation, allows for larger increases to the military budget, implements new work requirements for social programs and fast-tracks the approval and construction of the controversial 300-plus-mile-long fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline through West Virginia and Virginia. Our guest, California Congressmember Ro Khanna, is among a number of progressive Democrats who voted against the legislation. He calls it a “punch in the gut to climate activists” that “came on the backs of the poor, of students, of the most vulnerable, of women.”

      • The Register UKElon Musk accused of insider trading in Dogecoin lawsuit
    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • CS MonitorJordan’s royal wedding: Joy, politics, and an eye toward the kingdom’s future

        Royal weddings often highlight tradition and history. In Jordan, celebrations around its crown prince’s nuptials are all about the future.

      • Federal News NetworkNevada GOP sues to hold presidential caucus over primary in 2024

        The Nevada Republican Party is suing the state to maintain its party-run caucuses even as Nevada shifts to a presidential primary system beginning in 2024. Nevada lawmakers ditched the presidential caucus model in 2021 with a law that says all major political parties with more than one candidate must hold their primary on the first Tuesday in February. The move pushed Nevada closer to the front of the presidential nominating calendar and upended decades of political tradition. The Republican Party opposed the change. GOP leaders in the Western state say they look forward to the court upholding their right to choose how they will nominate their presidential candidate.

      • Federal News NetworkOregon Democrats vote to fine absent senators amid GOP walkout

        Oregon Senate Democrats plan to start fining their absent colleagues amid a month-long Republican walkout. In a procedural move Thursday, Democrats voted to fine senators $325 every time their absence denies the chamber the two-thirds quorum it needs to conduct business. The amount is supposed to reflect lawmakers' average daily pay. Democrats cited an article in the state constitution that says that even if fewer than two-thirds of members are present, they can still meet and compel the attendance of absent members. Senate Republican Minority Leader Tim Knopp condemned the plan as retaliation. The walkout has derailed hundreds of bills.

      • Bjoern BrembsThe beginning of the end for academic publishers?

        On May 23, the Council of the EU adopted a set of conclusions on scholarly publishing that, if followed through, would spell the end for academic publishers and scholarly journals as we know them. On the same day, the adoption was followed by a joint statement of support by the largest and most influential research organizations in Europe. At the heart of the goals spelled out in the conclusions and the statement of support is the creation of a “publicly owned and not-for-profit” infrastructure for scholarly publications.

      • Michael GeistMeta to Test Blocking News Sharing on Facebook and Instagram in Canada in Response to Bill C-18’s Mandated Payments for Links

        Meta has announced that will test blocking news sharing in Canada on its platforms Facebook and Instagram in response to Bill C-18’s system of mandated payments for links. Even as some have suggested the position is bluff, the company has not wavered for months as this emerged as the most likely end game. Back in October, it said it was considering blocking news and in March it confirmed it. The government now says it won’t give in to “threats” but the reality is that Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez more accurately described it last year as a “business decision” when he appeared before the Heritage committee. Given that Facebook says news is responsible for only three percent of content on user feeds and that it is highly substitutable (ie. users spend the same amount of time on the platform whether scrolling through news or other content), the business choice seems like an obvious one.

      • Scoop News GroupThe White House says Section 702 is critical for cybersecurity, yet public evidence is sparse

        Since the Biden administration came out in favor of reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in February, the intelligence community has pointed to the growing threat of foreign cyberattacks on the U.S. as a key argument in favor of the controversial surveillance tool.

        Officials have made broad and general declarations, pointing to wide-ranging applications that include thwarting multiple ransomware attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure, finding out a foreign adversary had hacked sensitive information related to the American military and uncovering a cyberattack against critical federal systems.

      • Democracy NowRep. Ro Khanna Says Sen. Dianne Feinstein Should “Step Down with Dignity”

        Dianne Feinstein returned to the Senate last month after a prolonged absence due to poor health and as questions continue to grow about her fitness for office. Feinstein said she would resume her duties with a lighter schedule, but the 89-year-old senator is reportedly suffering from mental decline that leaves her heavily reliant on her aides. Congressmember Ro Khanna of California is among a growing number of Democrats who have called on Feinstein to retire. “The reality is that she’s not able to do the job,” says Khanna. “She just has a staff that’s running everything, and it’s a very, very sad situation.”

      • The NationDianne Feinstein’s Final Act
      • The NationDon’t Reform the Courts. Disempower Them.

        Criminals are often said to have a modus operandi—a standard set of underhanded tactics for achieving their illicit agenda. The same kind of pattern can be seen on the other end of the legal spectrum, among Supreme Court justices. Over the last few decades, the strategy of the reactionaries who dominate the courts has repeated itself again and again in cases involving fundamental rights: First, they whittle away at the rights, and then, when they have a secure majority on the Supreme Court, they eviscerate them entirely. Reproductive freedom is the best example: The rights supposedly enshrined in Roe v. Wade (1973) were chipped away bit by bit over many years in smaller decisions before the final blow came in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, which ended the constitutional right to abortion last year.1

      • The NationA Wrinkle in Crime
      • CHP executives resign en masse following defeat to ErdoÄŸan

        Seventeen CHP board members have stepped down after the disappointing parliamentary and presidential election results, while reportedly, the party's chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is contemplating to keep leading the party for the upcoming local polls in March.

      • Forensic analysis of the first round: Possible ballot-stuffing practices in 2.4% of the ballot boxes

        The conclusion of a newly released study on the results of the first round of the 2023 presidential election on May 14 using election forensics tools says that the results suggest the presence of certain types of electoral malpractice, although less frequent in 2023 than in 2018.

      • Loans to the earthquake-hit zones canceled in a few provinces including Diyarbakır

        CHP Diyarbakır MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu disclosed the cancellation of loans to the province.

      • New York TimesThe Three Other Trump Investigations

        The Manhattan case isn’t Trump’s only legal problem.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

        • “Censorship”: The word disinformation artists use when called out

          The Brownstone Institute has been one of the more vocal and, unfortunately, persistent and prolific spreaders of COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation during the pandemic, starting with misrepresenting science to oppose any public health interventions designed to slow the spread of the virus and then going full-on antivaccine. A particularly pernicious relatively new right wing “think thank,” Brownstone was founded in 2021 by Jeffrey Tucker, previously of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER). Tucker is a far right wing neo-Confederate who in his previous role at AIER had also been instrumental in bringing together the public health-“skeptical” scientists in October 2020 to issue the statement known as the Great Barrington Declaration, which famously advocated a “let ‘er rip” approach to the pandemic in order to achieve “natural herd immunity” within six months. A eugenicist manifesto for the pandemic through and through, the GBD also advocated an ill-defined and ineffective strategy of “focused protection” for all those pesky (to the GBD signatories) elderly and people with chronic diseases who were at high risk for severe disease and death that never would have worked and that Brownstone flacks don’t even appear to be seriously defending anymore.

        • New York TimesOlder TikTok Creators Are in Demand by Brands

          No matter what their age or finances, some elder influencers are finding that being on the app can bring them extra cash, or even help them extend their careers.

        • New York TimesHow Cringe Creators Make a Living on TikTok

          On TikTok, cringe comedy creators are gaining large followings and brand deals by impersonating terrible people.

        • Digital Music NewsTikTok Has Stored Creators’ ‘Sensitive Financial Data’ — Including Social Security Numbers — in China, Report Says

          Last year, Beijing-headquartered ByteDance acknowledged that its employees had improperly accessed TikTok user data. Now, as the app continues to grapple with regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and abroad, a report is claiming that creators’ “sensitive financial information” has in fact been stored on servers in China.

        • The NationTruth in the Age of the Deepfake

          A few months ago, an image of Pope Francis wearing an André Leon Talley–looking puffer coat cum cassock started circulating online. Since, like the pope, I’m from Argentina, several friends sent this image to me. Each time I received it, I bristled and said, “That’s AI,” or some version of that phrase, which felt to me the same as saying, “You have been fooled.” I felt like I was adding insult to injury: It’s a bummer to learn not only that you have fallen for a fake image but also that the swagged-out pope doesn’t exist, that the joy you felt upon seeing the image of this Catholic heavyweight sporting a giant metal cross on a chain and a puffer coat that someone made to look like papal vestments was based on nothing more than a fiction.

        • AxiosScoop: YouTube reverses misinformation policy to allow U.S. election denialism

          In a reversal of its election integrity policy, YouTube will leave up content that says fraud, errors or glitches occurred in the 2020 presidential election and other U.S. elections, the company confirmed to Axios Friday.

        • ReasonYouTube Abandons Election Misinformation Policy That Censored Political Speech

          "We find that while removing this content does curb some misinformation, it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech."

    • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • ScheerpostIn American Prisons, You’re Nothing More Than a Number

        Formerly incarcerated journalist and writer Keri Blakinger uses her past experiences to detail the inside of prisons and why so few people come out better on the other side.

      • RFERLFormer Lawmaker Gets 16 Years In Prison For Ordering Journalist's Assassination In Siberia

        Isa Khashiyev, a former lawmaker in the Siberian city of Minusinsk, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for ordering the assassination of an editor of the Ton-M newspaper in 2016.

      • Michael West MediaElan Closs Stephens named BBC acting chair

        The British government has appointed Elan Closs Stephens as the BBC’s acting chair, replacing Richard Sharp who resigned after an independent report found he had breached rules.

        Closs Stephens, a member of the public broadcaster’s governing body since 2010, will remain acting chair from June 27 for a year, or until a new permanent chair has been appointed, the government said.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • European CommissionStop violence against women: Commission welcomes the EU's accession to the Istanbul Convention

        European Commission Statement Brussels, 01 Jun 2023 Today, the European Union is acceding to the Istanbul Convention by adopting two Council Decisions.

      • ScheerpostUganda’s Controversial€ Ã¢â‚¬â€¹’Anti-Homosexuality Act’ Includes Possibility of Death Sentence

        United Nations Human Rights€ tweeted€ that they were “appalled that the draconian and discriminatory anti-gay bill is now law. It is a recipe for systematic violations of the rights of LGBT people & the wider population.”

      • The NationThis Is Not the End of the Supreme Court’s War on Labor

        Nobody should be surprised that this Supreme Court, controlled as it is by Republicans, is viciously anti-labor. We’d have to go back more than 100 years, to before the New Deal, to find a collection of justices whose antipathy toward workers and their rights matched that of the current Roberts court. In a decision released yesterday, the Supreme Court merged its disregard for workers’ rights with its hatred of the administrative state to produce a ruling that undermines the most powerful tool labor has to defend itself from unfair or unsafe working conditions: the strike.

      • QuartzAdidas is entering the final chapter of its Yeezy collaboration

        Adidas has started selling its leftover Yeezys to its most loyal customers.

      • TechdirtCity Of Minneapolis Kicks A Bunch Of Pretextual Stops To The Curb In Settlement With State’s Department Of Human Rights

        The brightest light in Flyover Country, USA underwent the growing pains of a coastal megatropolis following Minneapolis PD officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd — something that began as a response to allegedly fake $20 bill being passed at a local shop, but ended nine minutes later with Floyd lying dead under Chauvin’s unmoving knee, which was still pressed to his throat.

      • Telex (Hungary)Ryanair fine of €736,000 annulled by Metropolitan Court of Budapest

        In a press release, Ryanair welcomed the fact that the Metropolitan Court of Budapest annulled the €736,000 fine imposed on the airline in August last year, hvg.hu reports.

      • Democracy NowArmed Police Raid on Bail Fund for Cop City Opponents Is Attack on “Infrastructure of the Movement”

        We get an update on the armed police SWAT team raid and arrest of three organizers with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has been raising money to bail out protesters opposed to the construction of a massive police training facility known as Cop City in the Weelaunee Forest, one of the city’s largest green spaces and the former site of a prison farm. Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson were charged with money laundering and fraud. The arrests come as 42 protesters face charges including domestic terrorism for opposing Cop City and just days before the Atlanta City Council is set to vote on the project. These new and unprecedented arrests are a clear attack on “the infrastructure of the movement,” says Kamau Franklin, founder of the organization Community Movement Builders and a vocal Cop City opponent. He joins us from Atlanta for the latest on the protests and the state repression campaign against them.

      • TechdirtRiot To Cancel Summer Esports Season Over ‘League Of Legends’ Players’ Strike

        It’s been a while since we last checked in on the esports industry or discussed any milestones it has reached. For a while there, we were seeing new ground broken on a nearly monthly basis, particularly during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite all of that growth, we did mention that it was also time for the industry to grow up a bit, namely in terms of recognizing that individual players, teams, and their personalities are what is going to ultimately drive the greatest interest in these leagues, no different than any other professional sports league. Basketball is a great sport, but Michael Jordan was a driver of interest in it.

      • EFFDigital Rights Updates with EFFector 35.7

        EFFector 35.7 - EFF at RightsCon 2023

      • The DissenterUnauthorized Disclosure: Matt Kennard
      • Michael West MediaDraconian: South Australia just topped NSW, Tas, Victoria, Queensland with new laws penalising peaceful protesters

        A bill introducing harsh penalties and extending the scope of a law applying to those who obstruct public places has been passed after an all-night sitting by the South Australian Legislative Council this week. Veteran investigative journalist (herself twice imprisoned for free speech) Wendy Bacon reports.

        South Australia now joins New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland, states which have already passed anti-protest laws imposing severe penalties on people who engage in peaceful civil disobedience. South Australia’s new law carries the harshest financial penalties in Australia.

      • France24Iran frees one Danish, two Austrian-Iranian citizens after Oman mediation

        Iran has released one Danish and two Austrian citizens, the European countries said Friday, thanking Oman and Belgium for their help in getting the trio freed.

      • JURISTRights group estimates Iran executed at least 140 people in May

        Iran Human Rights released data on Thursday which shows Iran executed 142 people in May, making it the highest number of Iranian executions in one month since 2015. Some of the charges used to justify executions this year include blasphemy and adultery.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • Monopolies

      • The Register UKHas Amazon found the ultimate lock-in? Cheap cellphone service for Prime

        Bloomberg claims Amazon is in talks with major US carriers, including Verizon, T-Mobile US, and Dish Network, to offer low-cost phone service to Prime customers.

        The move, if true, isn't all that surprising. Mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) are a dime a dozen. Google Fi Wireless, Boost Mobile, Mint Mobile, and Straight Talk are just a handful of the dozens of options available in the US. These companies pay to use larger carriers' networks, then resell that access to customers at low prices.

      • Patents

        • DroidGazzetteApple Hit With Lawsuit Over Patented Vibration Technology

          Resonant Systems Inc. alleged that its four registered patents—related to improving a device’s haptic feedback, or a vibration response to touch—are being used in several generations of the Apple Watch, MacBook laptop models dating back to 2015, and Apple phones dating back to the iPhone 6, according to the complaint filed Thursday in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas.

      • Software Patents

        • EFFOur Right To Challenge Junk Patents Is Under Threat

          We need EFF supporters to speak out against this proposal, which is a gift for patent trolls. We’re asking supporters who care about a fair patent system to file comments using the federal government’s public comment system. Your comments don’t need to be long, or use fancy legalese. The important thing is that everyday users and creators of technology get a chance to state their opposition to these rules. Below the button you can see a simple proposed comment you can cut-and-paste; you can also add to it, or write your own.€ 

          If you have a personal experience with patent troll attacks, please mention it. Comments are not anonymous and you should use your real name.€ 

      • Copyrights

        • Walled CultureStreaming services today sell musicians access to their own fans; SoundCloud shows a better way

          Most platforms keep artists in the dark about their fans: it’s a really important point that musicians and other creators need to understand if they are to receive fair remuneration for their work, and to take back control of their creative destiny. It’s good to see SoundCloud leading the way here.

        • Creative Commons2023 CC Global Summit: Registration, Call for Proposals, and Scholarships Now Open
        • Torrent FreakMusic Pirates are Not Terrorists, Record Labels Argue in Court

          Internet provider Cox Communications wants a court of appeal to reverse the $1 billion piracy liability verdict, handed down by a jury four years ago. As supplemental evidence, the ISP submitted a recent Supreme Court ruling which found Twitter not liable for aiding and abetting terrorism. The letter prompted a response from the music companies stressing that terrorism and piracy are quite different.

        • Torrent FreakControversial Pirate IPTV Supplier Investigated After Bell Complaint

          Following reports of a complaint by Bell and other media companies, several searches were carried out in Canada this week as part of a TV piracy and money laundering investigation. Known locally as the Quebec Hugh Hefner, the alleged owner of a targeted IPTV service was previously sentenced in the U.S. after the DEA swapped 10kgs of cocaine found in a computer, with another white powder worth considerably less.

        • TechdirtTurns Out Social Media Is Driving Less And Less Traffic To Media Orgs

          As everyone continues to demand that social media companies pay news orgs for the crime of sending them traffic, it’s becoming clear that fewer and fewer people are using social media for news any more, and social media sites simply are not a major driver of traffic to news orgs anyway.

        • The Nation“This Ain’t No Disco,” Broadway Tells David Byrne

          Former Talking Heads front man David Byrne has seen the future of rock and roll, and it is not solidarity. Ahead of the July Broadway debut of Here Lies Love, Byrne’s “immersive” musical theater collaboration with Fatboy Slim, the production has run afoul of the American Federation of Musicians’ Local 802, which objects to the show’s extensive use of prerecorded music. The Local’s Broadway contract usually stipulates that productions employ 19 live musicians, and union representatives take understandable exception to a pending show that disregards that protection for workers in the industry. Byrne’s supposed artistic motives align a bit too neatly with measures that other cost-cutting executives would embrace as a precedent to sideline musicians already struggling to make ends meet in the age of monopoly-platform streaming.1

        • Digital Music NewsEd Sheeran Faces Appeal Following Recent ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Copyright Infringement Victory

          Ed Sheeran faces an appeal from the family of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ co-writer following his recent ‘Thinking Out Loud’ copyright infringement victory. Following Ed Sheeran’s victory in the copyright infringement case involving the singer-songwriter’s “Thinking Out Loud,” the family of Marvin Gaye’s co-writer on “Let’s Get It On” intends to appeal ...



Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
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