GNU/Linux

• Server

  • Why Maintenance Windows Don’t Work for Cloud-Native Apps

    Whether planned and expected or unplanned and unexpected, downtime is downtime.

  • ECS Vs. Plain Kubernetes: 5 Key Differences and How to Choose

    Many organizations are debating whether to use ECS or deploy “full-blown” Kubernetes clusters. Here's how to choose.

  • TecAdmin ☛ What are Microservices?

    In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, companies and developers aim to deliver robust, scalable, and easily maintainable applications. Enter “microservices”, a term that has gained significant traction over the last few years.

  • Oracle Bets on Graal to Run Cloud-Native Java Apps Faster

    Oracle added capabilities to simplify building and deploying microservices-based cloud-native applications running on GraalVM, a Java virtual machine and development kit.

• Applications

  • GStreamer: GStreamer 1.22.6 stable bug fix release

    The GStreamer team is pleased to announce another bug fix release in the stable 1.22 release series of your favourite cross-platform multimedia framework! This release only contains bugfixes and security fixes and it should be safe to update from 1.22.x.

  • Linux Links ☛ girouette – terminal-based weather app

    girouette is terminal-based software which displays the current weather. It sources its data from OpenWeather.

  • Linux Links ☛ 8 Best Free and Open Source Hard Disk Utilities for System Tweakers

    We showcase the finest open source tools to diagnose the health of a hard disk and improve its performance.

  • Linux Links ☛ tstock – generate stock charts in the terminal

    tstock is a command-line tool which generates stock charts in the terminal. It's written in Python and published under an open source license.

  • Linux Links ☛ 10 Best Free and Open Source Distraction-Free Tools for Writers

    Here are the finest distraction-free applications to help you focus on writing without interruption.

  • Unix Men ☛ Essential Cybersecurity Tools for Linux in 2023

    In today’s digital happenings, taking serious cybersecurity measures is crucial to protect sensitive information from cybercriminals, especially for corporate organizations with high levels of digital data storage. A popular open-source operating system, Linux offers a solid foundation for building secure systems.

  • Linux Links ☛ Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Corel WordPerfect Office

    Corel WordPerfect Office is an all-in-one office suite.

  • DebugPoint ☛ How to Use Jupyter Notebook: Beginner’s Tutorial

    An easy-to-understand beginner's tutorial on how to use Jupyter Notebook, including installation steps, first Notebook creation and more.

  • Linux Links ☛ s-tui is a terminal-based stress test and monitoring tool

    Stress-Terminal UI, s-tui, is a monitoring tool for your CPU's temperature, frequency, power and utilization

  • Linux Links ☛ 12 Best Free and Open Source Linux Camera Tools

    Linux offers excellent software for dealing with RAW files, for remotely operating cameras, importing and processing raw data, as well as software to read, write and edit camera metadata.

  • Linux Links ☛ 6 Best Free and Open Source Linux System Cleaning Tools

    There are a number of open source applications for Linux which help to keep the operating system working like new.

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • GSoC '23: Wrapping Up

      Hello and welcome back to my blog! In this blog, I will be detailing the work I've done over the second coding period of my 2023 GSoC journey with KDE. Let's dive in!

Distributions and Operating Systems

• BSD

  • FreeBSD ☛ Recap of Second Enterprise Working Group Meeting

    The WG met again the week of September 4, 2023.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Content Management Systems (CMS)

  • Niko Matsakis: New Layout, and now using Hugo!

    Some time ago I wrote about how I wanted to improve how my blog works. I recently got a spate of emails about this – thanks to all of you! And a particular big thank you to Luna Razzaghipour, who went ahead and ported the blog over to use Hugo, cleaning up the layout a bit and preserving URLs.

• Programming/Development

  • J Pieper ☛ C++ client bindings for moteus

    For a long time, moteus has had a python library, that lets most people quickly develop motion control applications. However, python is not a suitable solution in every domain. Embedded systems often either don’t have access to python, or cannot tolerate the resource or timing penalties it imposes.

  • Xe's Blog ☛ gokrazy is really cool

    When you deal with Linux, you end up hearing about "distributions" as different "flavors" of Linux combined with a bunch of other tools. This is mostly true, but it's slightly missing the forest for the trees.

  • Buttondown ☛ The best model checker is your head

    There's this quote I like, "the best model checker is your brain." People who do formal methods find that simply writing the spec is enough to find errors, even without actually running it. It's kind of like if writing a unit test on a piece of paper told you where the bug in your code was.

    I was in Australia to attend YOW! Perth, and one of the closing keynotes gave me a good way of describing it.

  • Joey Hess ☛ Joey Hess: Haskell webassembly in the browser

    As far as I know this is the first Haskell program compiled to Webassembly (WASM) and using the browser DOM.

  • Steinar H Gunderson ☛ Steinar H. Gunderson: Hash table reductions

    I'm writing hash tables again; it seemingly never goes out of fashion. (Like malloc or sorting, we can always improve the implementation of these super-old concepts.) There are so many different tradeoffs you can make, and I thought it would be interesting to summarize the options on one of them: Hash reductions. I.e., you have your hash value (assume it's 32 bits, but this generalizes readily) and want to figure out which of N buckets this reduces to; what do you choose? (I'll assume a standard open-addressing scheme with linear probing, but most of this can be adapted to pretty much anything.) As far as I know, your options are: [...]

  • Mike Blumenkrantz: Tis The Season

    This blog was about pointlessly optimizing things? I’m talking like taking vkGetDescriptorSetLayoutSupport and making it fast. The kinds of optimizations nobody asked for and potentially nobody even wanted.

    Well good news: this isn’t a post about those types of optimizations.

  • Sebastian Wick: On the Usefulness of SO_PEERPIDFD

    Kernel 6.5 added a few new pidfd functions: SCM_PIDFD and SO_PEERPIDFD. The idea behind them is the same as SCM_CREDENTIALS and SO_PEERCRED respectively. The only difference is that the PIDFD functions return not a plain, numerical PID but a file descriptor instead.

    A plain PID is small number of type pid_t that is incremented for each new process and wraps over when too many processes have been created. This PID is usually used to look up some information about the process via files in /proc/$PID. While a process is looking up some information, it is possible that the process that PID initially referred to has terminated and a new process with this PID has been created. The looked up information is now incorrect, possibly resulting in a security vulnerability.

  • Chris ☛ Okay, Microservices Have Benefits Too

  • Chris ☛ Relevance Under Uncertainty

  • Perl / Raku

    • Rakulang ☛ 2023.38 New Search

      Richard Hainsworth has been working a lot on improving the search functionality of the documentation of the Raku Programming Language, and has a prototype working waiting to be tested by you! Please report any comments or suggestions. Anton’s Corner Anton Antonov published a blog post about their LLM::Prompts module.

  • Python

    • TecAdmin ☛ How to Create and Use Custom Python Module

      Python modules are a convenient way to encapsulate and organize reusable code. If you find yourself copying and pasting the same code across multiple scripts or projects, it’s a good indication that you should consider creating a custom module.

    • peppe8o ☛ How to use a Potentiometer with Raspberry PI Pico (MicroPython)

      Last Updated on 23rd September 2023 by peppe8o This tutorial will show you how to use a potentiometer with a Raspberry PI Pico microcontroller.

  • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

    • TecAdmin ☛ Variable Expansion in ZSH

      ZSH, short for the Z Shell, is one of the most popular Unix shells. It’s known for its rich features and enhancements over other shells like bash. One of the features it inherits from sh and enhances further is variable expansion.

  • Java

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Java 21 gets 15 major enhancements and long-term support

      Hewing to an every-six-month release schedule it has maintained for more than five years, Oracle Corp. today announced the availability of Java 21 and designated it as a candidate for long-term support, the first version of Java to receive that credential in two years.

  • Rust

    • Rust Blog ☛ The Rust Programming Language Blog: crates.io Policy Update RFC

      Around the end of July the crates.io team opened an RFC to update the current crates.io usage policies. This policy update addresses operational concerns of the crates.io community service that have arisen since the last significant policy update in 2017, particularly related to name squatting and spam. The RFC has caused considerable discussion, and most of the suggested improvements have since been integrated into the proposal.

    • Rust Blog ☛ The Rust Programming Language Blog: Announcing Rust 1.72.1

      The Rust team has published a new point release of Rust, 1.72.1. Rust is a programming language that is empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software.

Leftovers

• Alan Pope ☛ Alan Pope: You did something!

  This is the third in a series of Tales From Tech Support. Some stories from the past featuring broken computers and even more broken tech support operatives - mostly me.

• Jussi Pakkanen ☛ Jussi Pakkanen: Circles do not exist

  If you thought: "Ah-ha! I'm smart and read the title of this blog post so I know that this is most definitely not a circle."

  Well it is. Specifically it is a raster image of a circle that I created with the Gimp just for this use.

  However almost every "circle" you can see in printed media (and most purely digital ones) are not, in fact, circles. Why is this?

  Since roughly the mid 80s all "high quality" print jobs have been done either in PostScript or, nowadays almost exclusively, in PDF. They use the same basic drawing model, which does not have a primitive for circles (or circle arcs). The only primitives they have are straight line segments, rectangles and Bézier curves. None of these can be used to express a circle accurately. You can only do an approximation of a circle but it is always slightly eccentric. The only way to create a proper circle is to have a raster image like the one above.

  Does this matter in the real world?

  For printing probably not. Almost nobody can tell the difference between a real circle and one that has been approximated with a Bézier curve with just four points. Furthermore, the human vision system is a bit weird and perfect circles look vertically elongated. You have to make them non-circular for people to consider them properly circular.

• Alan Pope ☛ Alan Pope: The 90mph office

  Lightbulb moment

  On Thursday, October 13th 2016, while on a train, slowly recovering from a pub-based night out, I had an idea!

  The idea is to take a train somewhere (unspecified) for four hours, have lunch, then take another train home. The train would be my 90mph office with scenery for those four hours in each direction, and I’d get to enjoy lunch somewhere new. I’d do a full days work with the view out the window constantly changing.

• Adam Young: Make Haste Slowly

  In the software development world, we call it technical debt.
  
  
  In the Army it was “Half-assed, full-blast. Don’t know where we are going but we should have been there yesterday.”

  And the solution was told to be by a guy going through officer basic with me…after a long career as an NCO in Army Special Forces.
  
  
  “Make Haste Slowly.”
  
  
  It is ok to “just make it work.” But have a strict enough code review process that is happy to kick back semi-functional code to get it production quality.

  Think of it like an English Essay: it is ok to show your teacher a rough draft, but expect lots of Red Ink and rewriting on it.
  
  
  Unit Test Everything. Automated testing will catch when your change code that breaks other code. Visual and manual testing does not count. It has to be automated or it is not sufficient. Not writing unit tests is heavy tech debt.

• Education

  • YLE ☛ Helsinki high schoolers also strike over looming budget cuts

    The protesters join university students in expressing their disapproval towards the government's proposed education cuts.

• Hardware

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Huawei subsidiary ships advanced surveillance camera chips in another sign it’s skirting US sanctions

    A subsidiary of China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is reportedly shipping homegrown chips with advanced capabilities for surveillance cameras, in yet another sign that it’s managing to get around U.S. export controls.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Hundreds of workers suffer food poisoning at Turkey's Akkuyu nuclear plant

    A worker who reached out to an MP to reveal the incident said Russian employees on the construction site have privileges over local employees, including better food.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Taking care of house plants

    I grew up thinking I didn’t so much lack a green thumb, but that my existence was an anathema to house plants. Which sucked, because I crave greenery in my surroundings. But now I have a bunch that are thriving.

    Hales set me straight back in 2021 regarding sun damage, where I was prematurely killing plants by giving them too much direct sunlight.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Strategist ☛ Walking the artificial intelligence and national security tightrope

    Artificial intelligence (AI) presents Australia’s security as many challenges as it does opportunities.

  • France24 ☛ China's Xi hails 'strategic partnership' with Syria in Bashar al-Assad visit

    Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad on Friday, and said the two leaders would unveil a new "strategic partnership".

  • The Straits Times ☛ Xi Jinping: China is willing to work with Syria, upgrades ties

    Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is in China seeking to end years diplomatic isolation.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Syria and China announce strategic partnership as Asian Games diplomacy kicks off

    Chinese leader Xi Jinping said that China and Syria will announce a strategic partnership as he kicked off a series of diplomatic meetings ahead of the opening of the Asian Games on Saturday. Xi met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, which is hosting the sports competition. Assad is looking for ways to emerge from the international isolation brought on by a brutal war at home that shows no sign of ending after 12 years. The Syrian leader will attend the opening ceremony along with the king of Cambodia, the crown prince of Kuwait and the prime ministers of Nepal, East Timor and South Korea.

  • New York Times ☛ Syria’s Leader, al-Assad, Visits China in Search of Friends and Funds

    The trip by President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, his first to China since 2004, may bolster Beijing’s efforts to expand its influence in the Middle East.

  • teleSUR ☛ Somalia: 30 Al-Shabab Fighters Killed in Central Region

    The ministry confirmed that Mohamed Bashir Muse, a senior al-Shabab leader, was among the 30 fighters killed during the operations.

  • Reason ☛ Bahrain's Dictatorship Gets More Biden Administration Help

    The U.S.-Bahraini security pact is the first step towards a future U.S.-Saudi “mega-deal.” Critics say it violates the U.S. Constitution and aids torturers.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Argentina’s former detention and torture site added to UNESCO World Heritage list

    Argentina is celebrating a decision by a United Nations conference to include a former clandestine detention and torture center as a World Heritage site. A UNESCO conference in Saudi Arabia agreed to include the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory in the list of sites “considered to be of outstanding value to humanity,” marking a rare instance in which a museum of memory related to recent history is designated to the list. The former Navy School of Mechanics, known as ESMA, housed the most infamous illegal detention center that operated during Argentina’s last brutal military dictatorship that ruled from 1976 through 1983. It now operates as a museum and a larger site of memory, including offices for government agencies and human rights organizations.

  • The Strategist ☛ Made in the Himalayas: building war games for India and its partners

    Wargaming has returned to the fore as a tool for military planning. US think tanks are outcompeting each other in wargaming a Taiwan contingency, with their recommendations amplified by mainstream media.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFERL ☛ Top Russian Officer Among Troops Killed During Azerbaijan's Attack On Nagorno-Karabakh

      A top official from Russia's armed forces was killed during Azerbaijan's shelling of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh just two months after he was appointed to be the second in command of a Russian peacekeeping force in the region.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Azerbaijan forces strike Armenian-controlled Karabakh, raising risk of new Caucasus war

      September 20, 2023 12:10 AM
      
      

      Baku's action raises the threat of a new war with its neighbour Armenia.

    • France24 ☛ Checkmate in Nagorno-Karabakh? How Azerbaijan got Armenia to back down

      The Armenian separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday agreed to lay down their weapons following Azerbaijan's lightning offensive in the Armenian-majority enclave. Between Moscow's weakening position in the Caucasus and the West's dependence on hydrocarbons, Azerbaijan has taken advantage of a favourable international context to complete a decades-long mission to control the disputed region.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Nagorno-Karabakh belligerents trade barbs as U.N. Security Council demands peace

      September 22, 2023 5:51 AM
      
      

      U.N. Security Council members including the United States, Turkey, Russia and France called on Thursday for peace in Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan where Baku launched an offensive this week.

    • RFERL ☛ U.S. Senator Leads Delegation to Armenian-Azerbaijan Border, Calls For International Monitors In Karabakh

      U.S. Democratic Senator Gary Peters, who is leading a congressional delegation to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, called on September 23 for international monitors to be sent to observe conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been captured by Baku after a lightning military strike.

    • France24 ☛ Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: How Azerbaijan forced Armenia to back down

      The Armenian separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday agreed to lay down their weapons following Azerbaijan's lightning offensive in the Armenian-majority enclave. Between Moscow's weakening position in the Caucasus and the West's dependence on hydrocarbons, Azerbaijan has taken advantage of a favourable international context to complete a decades-long mission to control the disputed region.

    • RFERL ☛ Media Watchdog Urges Belarus To Stop Using Extremism Legislation To 'Silence' Independent Reporting

      The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged the authorities in Belarus to stop using the country’s extremism legislation to “silence independent reporting” and allow the media to work freely.

    • RFERL ☛ CPJ Urges Probe Into Threats Against Two Prague-Based Russian Journalists

      The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the Czech Republic to conduct a swift and thorough investigation into recent threats received by journalists at the independent investigative news website IStories and ensure the journalists’ safety.

    • Latvia ☛ Twelve-kilometer line on Latvian-Belarusian border

      After the closure of the border crossing point in Silene, the Pāternieki border point has become the only one to cross the border between Latvia and Belarus. As a result, lorry queues have grown significantly, Latvian Television reported on September 22.

    • LRT ☛ Baltic team helps set up nuclear-proof bomb shelter in Kyiv

      Lithuanian and Latvian entrepreneurs helped set up a fully-fitted bomb shelter in Kyiv, using furniture designed by Vilnius Tech University and tested by soldiers at the frontlines.

    • RFERL ☛ British Prosecutors OK Charges Against Five Bulgarians Suspected Of Spying For Russia

      Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on September 21 that it had authorized espionage charges against five Bulgarian nationals -- three men and two women -- who are suspected of conspiring to spy for Russia

    • Greenhouse workers protest outside embassies of Germany, Russia

      The workers, most of whom are women, were dismissed from a greenhouse company after being unionized. The company makes exports to Germany and Russia.

    • YLE ☛ Finnish student canteen chain stops selling PepsiCo products over firm's Russian links

      "We've received a lot of positive feedback and support from customers about our decision," the company's development chief said.

    • The Straits Times ☛ India visit next week as G7 looks to take the shine off Russian diamonds

      September 22, 2023 4:52 AM
      
      

      Western nations are sending representatives to India, home to 90% of the world's cutting and polishing of the rare gems, to discuss potential effects of any G7 restrictions on imports of rough Russian diamonds, two Biden administration officials said.

    • The Straits Times ☛ North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s car escorted by Hyundai vans in Russia

      
      

      South Korea’s Unification Ministry found it unusual that North Korea openly displayed the Hyundai logo in a documentary.

    • teleSUR ☛ Russia To Host Greater Eurasian Partnership's Educational Forum

      The GEP forum's topics are related to cooperation for the development of science, tech, and innovation.

    • teleSUR ☛ 31 Countries to Participate in the Russian Currency Market

      Among them are Brazil, India, China, South Africa, Türkiye, Iran, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Cuba and Venezuela.

    • teleSUR ☛ Venezuelan Foreign Minister Meets Russian Counterpart

      The meeting took place in the U.S. city of New York in the framework of the UN General Assembly.

    • RFERL ☛ Amid Rumors About His Grave Condition, Another Unverified Video Surfaces Of Chechen Leader Kadyrov

      The Kremlin-backed leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has published a new video on social media amid speculation his health is failing and he had been hospitalized in a coma.

    • RFERL ☛ Bulgaria Expels One Russian, Two Belarusian Clerics Accused of Spying

      Bulgaria on September 21 said it was expelling one Russian and two Belarusian nationals for carrying out “activities directed against” the country's national security and interests.

    • RFERL ☛ Thousands Of Russians In Latvia To Be Told To Leave

      Around 3,500 Russian citizens in Latvia will receive letters from the migration authority this week asking them to leave the country.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian president at UN General Assembly: ‘Russia preparing for more war’

      In his address to the UN General Assembly, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said that Russia has brought back “an old-style colonial war” to Europe, warning that Moscow is preparing to go further.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian worker detained after accidentally crossing into Russia

      A Lithuanian worker carrying out technical work accidentally entered Russia via a railway bridge and was detained there, the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) said on Thursday.

    • JURIST ☛ UK police charge five with spying for Russia

      The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced Thursday it had arrested five Bulgarian nationals on suspicion of spying for Russia. >

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Russian War Report: Black Sea military operations approach NATO countries’ waters

      Zelenskyy expresses frustration at the UN, Russia seems unlikely to block YouTube, and the US drops new sanctions.

    • Latvia ☛ Russian embassy 'seeking solution' to non-payment of pensions

      A Russian embassy official was "summoned to the [Latvian] Ministry of Foreign Affairs" September 20 in connection with a reported failure to pay pensions to its citizens residing in Latvia, the Ministry said in a release.

    • Latvia ☛ 3,500 Russians will be asked to leave Latvia

      The Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) will send out information letters this week about the expiry of residence permits to those Russian citizens who have not submitted documents requesting the status of long-term resident of the European Union (EU), the PMLP said September 20.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvia plans to ban cars with Russian plates

      The Ministry of Justice will submit a draft law to the Saeima that would prevent vehicles registered in Russia and Belarus from staying in Latvia for a prolonged time, also allowing confiscation of these vehicles, the Ministry told the media in a statement on September 22.

    • New York Times ☛ McCarthy Declines to Host House Forum for Zelensky Amid G.O.P. Rifts

      The speaker plans a private meeting with the Ukrainian president, but his refusal to arrange for rank-and-file lawmakers to hear from him directly reflects Republican resistance to continuing aid to Kyiv.

    • New York Times ☛ Zelensky Tells U.N. Security Council It’s Useless While Russia Has a Veto

      The Ukrainian president joined many world leaders in calling for changes at the Security Council, where five permanent members wield veto power — a high barrier to taking action.

    • New York Times ☛ Poland Says It Won’t Send New Weapons to Ukraine Amid Grain Dispute

      The Polish prime minister’s comments came as the country’s governing party seeks to reassure voters that it will not put Ukraine’s interests ahead of those of Polish citizens.

    • New York Times ☛ Russian-Occupied Crimea Comes Under Large Ukrainian Air Attack

      Ukraine’s military said it attacked a Russian air base near the Crimean city of Saki, but gave no details. Russian officials claimed to have thwarted the aerial assaults.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Suspends Fuel Exports Amid Shortages

      Russia's government announced on September 21 that it had suspended exports of gasoline and diesel fuel to curb price hikes during harvest season amid reports of gasoline shortages in the country's south.

    • RFERL ☛ Death Toll In Blast Caused By Gas Leak In Residential Building In Moscow Region Rises To Seven

      Russian emergency officials said on September 21 that seven people, including two rescue workers, were killed after an explosion caused by a gas leak ripped through a nine-story apartment block in the city of Balashikha near Moscow a day earlier.

• Finance

  • RFERL ☛ U.S. Judge Hands Former Russian Gas Company Executive 7 Years For Tax Evasion

    A former top executive at Novatek, Russia's largest independent natural gas producer, has been sentenced by a Florida court to more than seven years in prison for tax evasion.

  • New York Times ☛ Can Ghana’s Debt Trap of Crisis and Bailouts Be Stopped?

    The government of Ghana is essentially bankrupt, and has turned to the International Monetary Fund for its 17th financial rescue since 1957.

  • Latvia ☛ Of banks, supermarkets and the market economy

    Having lived in Latvia for almost 30 years and having witnessed the country’s remarkable transformation towards a market economy that is highly integrated within the European Union, I am saddened by the current political debate regarding the banking system, in particular the idea of capping the interest rates that banks can charge. Allow me to argue – and warn – against this suggestion.

  • New York Times ☛ Real Estate Crisis Triggers New Alarms Over China’s Shadow Banks

    A financially troubled firm has stopped paying investors, risking panic and testing the Chinese government’s resolve to take on debts from its property crisis.

  • teleSUR ☛ Multilateral Banks' Mandates Must Be Reframed: Ramaphosa

    "Developing countries must participate equally and meaningfully in the decision-making process of the international economic order,” the South African leader said.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea opposition leader ends 24-day hunger strike

    Lee Jae-myung will maintain a schedule including court attendance while hospitalised for the time being.

  • Islamophobia statement from Erdoğan in New York

    "Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and most recently, New York, cannot in any way justify the vile attacks on our holy book, the Qur'an. We absolutely reject the legitimization of attacks on the sacred values of the two billion Muslims worldwide under the guise of freedom of speech," said President Erdoğan.

  • New York Times ☛ Biden to Urge Nations to Protect and Nurture Democracy

    In a speech to the United Nations, President Biden is expected to promote his administration’s achievements around the globe even as he confronts challenges at home.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Biden at the UN: Old-school internationalism faces a test

    President Biden’s U.N. speech offers him the opportunity to convince his audiences, foreign and domestic, that traditional internationalism is not a relic of a bygone American century.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Press Gazette ☛ UK’s top editors call for standalone anti-SLAPP bill

    Signatories to the letter include the editors of The Sun, The Guardian, the FT and Private Eye.

  • NYPost ☛ The Biden administration tried to censor this Stanford doctor, but he won in court

    “I think this ruling is akin to the second Enlightenment,” Stanford's Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told The Post of a federal court ruling that the White House “likely violated the First Amendment."

  • The Straits Times ☛ Indian film flags importance of sex education in schools, but kids not allowed to watch it

    Even teen star cannot legally watch the film he acted in after censors gave it an adult certification.

  • Censorship on award-winning children's book

    Stonewall Children and Young Adult Literature Honor Award-winning book "Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress" will now only be allowed to be sold in an "envelope or bag," and will not be allowed to enter the schools.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Kurdish journalist Sedat Yılmaz faces 'terror' charges over 'lack of banking transactions,' social media activities

    Yılmaz, who is also an author for the BİA Children'S Library, has been remanded in custody since May 3.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • YLE ☛ Justice Ministry seeks to strike openly fascist party from register

    The ministry wants to overturn its own decision, having agreed to register the Blue-Black Movement as a political party in 2022.

  • RFA ☛ Date set in Chinese #MeToo activist's 'subversion' trial

    The trial comes as a close friend of Sophia Huang says she has been tortured through repeated sleep deprivation.

  • RFERL ☛ UN Records Torture And Deaths Of Detainees In Taliban Custody

    The United Nations said it had documented hundreds of cases of torture and other "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" committed by the Taliban de facto authorities in Afghanistan during the arrest and subsequent detention of individuals.

  • The Straits Times ☛ UN records torture, deaths of detainees in Taliban custody

    September 20, 2023 3:04 PM
    
    

    The United Nations has recorded over 1,600 incidents of rights violations against people detained by the Taliban authorities, nearly half of them acts of torture and ill-treatment mostly by police and intelligence agents, a report released on Wednesday showed.

  • RFERL ☛ Another Karakalpak Activist Facing Extradition To Uzbekistan Released From Kazakh Detention

    Kazakh authorities have released from detention another Karakalpak activist who faces extradition to Uzbekistan, where supporters say she would be at serious risk of politically motivated prosecution and torture over last year's mass protests in Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan region.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Tedium ☛ The Modem Tax

    How a real-life attempt to charge online services for using the phone line became an infamous internet legend. The “modem tax” was a chain-mail boogeyman.

  • Tedium ☛ Network Lobotomy

    After nearly two decades as the primary broadcast channel for teens, The CW, under new ownership, wants to be something else. It may be a hint at what’s next for linear television.

  • APNIC ☛ DNS is the new BGP

    DNS steering in the service delivery world has some profound implications for the network.

  • APNIC ☛ APNIC celebrates 30 years: Part 3 — The beginnings of address policy

    The history of needs-based distribution, and how it informs modern address policy.

  • APNIC ☛ Dual subsea cable cuts disrupt African Internet

    Guest Post: Investigating the historical impact of undersea landslides on submarine cables.

• Monopolies

  • Patents

    • Unified Patents ☛ Dolby EP patent successfully challenged at the EPO

      On September 14, 2023, all of the original claims of EP 3490258 B1, owned by Dolby International AB, were found unpatentable based on a challenge filed by Unified. EP ‘258 generally relates to video coding techniques that use data hiding to decrease bandwidth. This filing is a part of Unified’s ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone.

    • JUVE ☛ Helsinki local division scrutinises UPC opt-out process in AIM Sport vs. Supponor [Ed: UPC is illegal. Helsinki had a patent office run by a convicted criminal. What sort of patent system is this when run by criminals? JUVE, this publisher, also pockets bribes to promote this unconstitutional and illegal system.]

      The UPC’s local division in Helsinki has issued its first judgment in the case between AIM Sport and Supponor, over targeted advertising technology for sports stadiums.

    • JUVE ☛ 10x Genomics and Bardehle win UPC PI against NanoString [Ed: UPC is illegal and unconstitutional, but JUVE got bribed to promote this illegal system, which deepens the EPO crisis and makes the EU complicit]

      The subject of the case between opponents NanoString and 10x Genomics was a preliminary injunction concerning EP 4 108 782. 10x Genomics applied for the PI against NanoString’s CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager (SMI) instruments and CosMx reagents for RNA detection in the UPC jurisdictions.

    • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ UPC grants 10x Genomics preliminary injunction, NanoString appeals [Ed: Injuction using a system that is both illegal and unconstitutional. The criminals have, in effect, taken over "law enforcement".]

      UPDATE: The Unified Patent Court granted US biotech company 10x Genomics a preliminary injunction against rival NanoString.

    • Unified Patents ☛ Aeritas mobile notification patent claims cancelled

      On September 19, 2023, the USPTO issued a Notice of Intent to Issue Ex Parte Reexamination Certificate in RE90/014,750, cancelling all claims of U.S. Patent 9,390,435, owned by Aeritas, LLC. Prior to this notice issuing, Aeritas had appealed the Examiner’s final rejection to the Board and lost.

    • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Patent case: Judgment no. 18/2023 of Madrid Court of Appeals (Section 32) of 23 June 2023, Spain

      In a detailed and impeccably written decision, the Madrid Court of Appeal (Section 32) has ruled in the raloxifene case, awarding damages in the high seven figure region. This is a landmark decision which is likely to shape patent infringement claims and damage quantification, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector.

    • JUVE ☛ Basic Holdings and DLA Piper secure infringement decision over decorative fireplaces [Ed: Frivolous litigation and bogus patents again]

      Basic Holdings has succeeded in overturning a first-instance decision which, in 2022, found that competitor Afire had not infringed its patent EP 2 029 941. Now the second-instance Court of Appeal in The Hague has found that Afire’s artificial fireplace design does infringe EP 941.

    • JUVE ☛ BMW takes Avanci licence after patent pool launches 5G vehicle programme [Ed: Avanci is a malicious patent troll, but this site is funded by the patent litigation cartel, so it won't inform readers of simple facts]

      BMW is now a licensee in Avanci’s newly launched licensing programme for 5G connected cars. The programme allows patent owners to connect with car makers and Internet of Things (IoT) companies, and share 5G standard essential patents under a single licence.

    • Unified Patents ☛ Fortress entity, Entropic, broadcast cable patent challenged

      On September 20, 2023, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 9,210,362, owned and asserted by Entropic Communications, an NPE and Fortress IP subsidiary. The ’362 Patent generally relates to a wideband receiver that outputs a selected plurality of television channels to a demodulator.

    • Input on the United States Government National Standards Strategy for CET (Part 1)

      This post first appeared on SEP Essentials. The Department of Commerce of the United States government in conjunction with the U.S. National Institute of Standard and Technology (“NIST”) has asked stakeholders and the public to provide input into Implementation of the United States Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology.

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ How Prosecution History Can Support a Motivation to Combine

      The recent Federal Circuit decision in Elekta v. ZAP Surgical provides an interesting case study and also warning on how prosecution history can be used to support a finding of a motivation to combine prior art references, even when those references come from different fields.  Here, the patentee claimed a radiation therapy invention, but included references to imaging devices in its IDS.  That inclusion (along with some other evidence) led to an inference that PHOSITA would generally be motivated to combine art across these two fields.

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Federal Circuit Suspends Judge Newman for Refusing Mental Exam

      At the end of July 2023, a special committee of three Federal Circuit judges recommended a one-year suspension of Judge Newman for refusing to comply with various physical and mental examination requests to test whether she is suffering from a diminished capacity.  The Federal Circuit’s judicial council has now unanimously* adopted the recommendation with the following order:

      Judge Newman shall not be permitted to hear any cases, at the panel or en banc level, for a period of one year beginning with the issuance of this Order, subject to consideration of renewal if Judge Newman’s refusal to cooperate continues after that time and to consideration of modification or rescission if justified by an end of the refusal to cooperate.

    • Digital Music News ☛ Sonos Scores Major Win vs. Google at U.S. International Trade Tribunal

      Sonos has scored a major victory vs. Google at a U.S. International trade tribunal, convincing a judge not to block its imports. Google and Sonos have been in a heated patent battle over wireless speaker technology since 2020.

    • JUVE ☛ Supreme Court shows INPI the way to harmonisation with EPO regulation [Ed: INPI exported a lot of crime and corruption to the EPO; now we have cartel-bribed publishers like JUVE issuing this waffle]

      The French Supreme Court ruling is based on a dispute between Japanese agricultural and construction machinery manufacturer Kubota and the INPI, concerning the application of the former’s French divisional patent FR 18 51806.

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Enabled to Claim the Unknown? Federal Circuit applies Amgen v. Sanofi to invalidate broad antibody claims

      The Federal Circuit recently affirmed a finding of invalidity for lack of enablement in Baxalta v. Genentech, holding that functional antibody claims were insufficiently enabled under 35 U.S.C. §112. Relying heavily on the Supreme Court’s Amgen v. Sanofi decision, the appellate panel found Baxalta’s disclosure to be analogous to Amgen’s “roadmap for further research” rather than a complete teaching of the invention. This result again calls into question the viability of broad functional claims post-Amgen and highlights the importance of structurally defining inventions, especially in unpredictable arts like biotechnology.

  • Trademarks

    • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Is "DEATH FROM ABOVE" Confusable With "HUNT FROM ABOVE" for Hunting Stands?

      The USPTO refused to register the mark DEATH FROM ABOVE for hunting stands, finding confusion likely with the registered mark HUNT FROM ABOVE for "hunting stands for use in trees; seats especially adapted for hunting stands for use in trees." The goods overlap, but what about the marks? Applicant argued that consumers are more likely to focus on the distinctions between the words DEATH and HUNT because they appear as the first portions of the two marks. How do you think this came out? In re Heartland Climbers, LLC, Serial No. 90885309 (September 15, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Angela Lykos).

  • Copyrights

    • Digital Music News ☛ Zayn Malik Sued for Alleged Copyright Infringement for ‘Better’

      Pop star and former One Direction member Zayn Malik is hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit over his hit ‘Better.’