Leftovers

• Analog Office ☛ Reader Question 9: How long do you keep your notes?

  For your handwritten plan for the week, how long will you keep that? Months, years? Other than helping you map out your two-week windows, does it also serve a long term purpose, like a place to revisit to see what you were doing in the past?

• Brandon ☛ Blaugust 2024: An Introduction

  I participated in Weblogpomo 2024 and Junited 2024 and even managed to get a reply in for the July Reply challenge. I've enjoyed the challenges so decided to signup for Blaugust 2024 which is a similar posting challenge to write and create (hopefully good) content.

  The first post is encouraged to be an introduction post but my first post ended up being a rant & warning not to weaponize people into enemies for political gain. My bad.

  To make up for it, I'll make this something of an introduction.

• Lou Plummer ☛ A Computer Is a Hammer

  I want to tell you that a computer is a tool, similar in may ways to a hammer. When you buy a hammer, you intend to use it to hit stuff with. When you buy a computer, I hope you intend to use it. I understand if you have a relationship with you computer the way I have one with my car. You don't want to break it, so you follow the guidelines. Good for you. But know this, short of physically damaging the thing by pouring orange juice over the keyboard or repeatedly dropping it, you are not going to ruin it. Whatever software woes you encounter can be fixed, maybe at some expense to you, but it can be fixed.

• Jacky Alciné ☛ Why do I continue to post on social media?

  This is making me reassess what I'm aiming to "get out" of social media. I'm choosing to treat it as it is; a machine of marketing that has been built as the such and doesn't seem to be changing pending a cultural shift/revolution. It can easily devolve into a silent shouting match and that doesn't help anyone involved. This is influencing my choice to ramp up my personal blogging, which I'm not totally sure can help. I can be selective about how I engage in a way that most social networks either explicitly prohibit or don't support; like limiting who I choose to platform on my own site or even choose to read. My local feed reader is where I keep longer form prose for reading and I'm working to keep social network clients only on my laptop; to make it easier to escape from scrolling mindlessly[5]. I have things I want to get out into the world that are meaningful to me and I resent, at times, the time I'd spend rolling down a feed when I could have spent it working on that instead, or going for a walk, or playing with my dog, calling a friend, writing a letter, playing a video game. So many things that I lose because I decided to hit reply.

  No longer.

• Games

  • Hackaday ☛ Pixel Art And The Myth Of The CRT Effect

    The ‘CRT Effect’ myth says that the reason why pixel art of old games looked so much better is due to the smoothing and blending effects of cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays, which were everywhere until the early 2000s. In fits of mistaken nostalgia this has led both to modern-day extreme cubism pixel art and video game ‘CRT’ filters that respectively fail to approach what pixel art was about, or why old games looked the way they did back with our NES and SNES game consoles. This is a point which [Carl Svensson] vehemently argues from a position of experience, and one which is likely shared by quite a few of our readers.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Nvidia reportedly discontinues Steam's most popular gaming GPU — rumors claim the RTX 3060's days are numbered

    Chinese tech forum Bobantang alleges that the RTX 3060 is finally about to be discontinued after three years. In-add card partners will allegedly have one final chance to place orders for the final quantity.

• Science

  • Wired ☛ NASA Is ‘Evaluating All Options’ to Get the Boeing Starliner Crew Home

    In the last few weeks, ground teams from NASA and Boeing completed testing of a thruster on a test stand at White Sands, New Mexico. Then, last weekend, Boeing and NASA fired the spacecraft's thrusters in orbit to check their performance while docked at the space station. NASA has said preliminary results from these tests were helpful.

  • The Local DK ☛ Why Vikings in Norway were more violent than their Danish counterparts

    Researchers compared Viking age Skeletons of Norwegians and Danes and found that human remains from the period uncovered in Norway were far more likely to show evidence of cuts and blows than Danish ones.

    More than a third of the Norwegian skeletons examined indicated that the person was killed in an act of violence, compared to just six percent of the Danish remains studied.

  • Institute for Progress ☛ What Would It Take to Recreate Bell Labs?

    To students of technological progress, Bell Labs is a giant. For decades, Bell Labs was considered not only the best industrial research lab in the world, but arguably the best research lab in the world, period. One Bell Lab alumnus described it as “a parallel organization to almost all the academic institutions put together.” Bell Labs not only developed new telephone equipment but performed novel scientific research, under the assumption that such research would ultimately result in improved communications technology.

    Bell Labs is most famous for being the birthplace of the transistor, but that’s just one of dozens of major inventions and discoveries that originated there. Bell Labs also spawned: the silicon solar PV cell, the first active and passive communications satellites, the first videophone, the first cellular telephone system, the first fiber optic telephone cable, the quartz clock, Information Theory, Statistical Process Control, the UNIX computer operating system, and the discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. Many of Bell Labs' less famous inventions were among its most important: the discovery of compounds that could protect polyethylene from decomposing in sunlight isn’t typically mentioned on lists of Bell Labs’ most impressive achievements, but the patents for them were the most valuable that AT&T ever produced. Among Bell Labs’ awards are 10 Nobel Prizes, 5 Turing Awards (the highest honor in computing), and 5 Draper Prizes (the highest honor in engineering).1 36 Bell Labs staff members have been inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame (though not all for work they did at Bell Labs).

• Hardware

  • University of Toronto ☛ A surprise with the temperature distribution in our machine room

    Temperature sensors can be fickle things, but this is an industrial unit with a good reputation (and an external sensor on a wire), so I believe the absolute numbers shown by its readings. So one of the lessons I take from this is that I can't predict the temperature distributions of our machine room (or more generally, any of our machine rooms and wiring closets). If we ever need to know where the hot and cold spots are, we can't guess based on factors like the distance from the AC units; we'll need to actively measure with something appropriate.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Atlantic ☛ Why I Hate Instagram Now

    But as Instagram knows, newborns are boring, except to their parents. (I’ve found they start displaying more personality at about 18 months.) Instead of showing me all available photos of newborns from accounts that I deliberately follow, the social network augments my feed with endless “Reels” (the short-form, TikTok-style video clips introduced back in 2020) that it judges likelier to be engaging.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • The Register UK ☛ DARPA suggests turning legacy C code automatically into Rust

    Those involved with the oversight of C and C++ have pushed back, arguing that proper adherence to ISO standards and diligent application of testing tools can achieve comparable results without reinventing everything in Rust.

    But DARPA's characterization of the situation suggests the verdict on C and C++ has already been rendered.

  • The Register UK ☛ San Francisco supes endorse ban on algorithmic rent software

    San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin introduced the ordinance on July 16, 2024, arguing such software "enables price collusion among large corporate landlords for the purpose of rent-gouging."

    “Banning automated price-fixing will allow the market to work and bring down rents in San Francisco,” said Peskin [PDF], who has in the past supported down-zoning that limits the supply of available real estate in San Francisco, pushing up costs for people.

    Other factors beyond algorithmic price setting and lack of housing supply can contribute to rental pricing, including private equity rental investment, housing costs, and construction costs.

  • Webselenese Ltd ☛ 4.6 Million Voter and Election Documents Exposed Online by Technology Contractor

    Once I was reasonably sure who managed the database, I sent a responsible disclosure notice to Platinum Technology Resource. However, in a follow up review the next day, I noticed the database was still publicly accessible. In an attempt to identify other contact details, I found several additional FOIA documents indicating an Illinois-based technology company called Magenium is responsible for the technical support of Platinum Elections Services. During a phone call to Magenium, I was told that they are a partner of Platinum Technology Resource and that they would look into my findings. A day after sending Magenium a responsible disclosure notice, the databases were restricted. In a phone call a representative from Magenium confirmed their closure of the databases and that Platinum Election Services was aware of the situation. It is not known how long the documents were exposed or if anyone else gained access. Only an internal forensic audit could identify additional access or suspicious activity.

  • Wired ☛ Sensitive Illinois Voter Data Exposed by Contractor’s Unsecured Databases

    Fowler reported the unprotected databases to Platinum on July 18, but he says he didn't receive a response and the databases remained exposed. As Fowler dug deeper into public records, he realized that Platinum works with the Illinois-based managed services provider Magenium, so he sent a disclosure to this company as well on July 19. Again, he says he did not receive a response, but shortly after the databases were secured, pulling them from public view. Platinum and Magenium did not return WIRED's multiple requests for comment.

  • PC World ☛ Hackers can wirelessly watch your screen via HDMI radiation

    According to the paper, it’s possible to train an AI model to interpret the tiny fluctuations in electromagnetic energy from the wired HDMI signal. Even though it’s a wired standard and it’s usually encrypted digitally, there’s enough electromagnetic signal coming off of these cables to detect without direct access.

  • Manuel Moreale ☛ The “blowing smoke up your ass” theory of AI

    The current state of AI is filled with mostly nonsense. Just look at what the big players are announcing. Google has tried to shove its stupid AI thing inside search results and has failed spectacularly and they’re now slowly retreating. Apple had an entire event dedicated to AI to announce a smarter Siri and some smart—allegedly—writing aid. Cool, I guess? OpenAi is announcing all sorts of tools that are cool tech demos but I can’t see why the population at large should be excited about any of that stuff.

  • Axios ☛ Google yanks Olympics ad about AI-drafted fan letter

    The big picture: The "Dear Sydney" ad ruffled the feathers of online critics who believe that using generative AI to help a child write a fan letter sucks the life out of a time-honored tradition of fandom and also constitutes lazy parenting.

  • Michael Burkhardt ☛ AI Outside The Bubble - As Long As There’s Coffee

    My background is in Computer Science and Data Science. Advanced data analytics, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, are part of what I do every day. I am well inside the bubble. Most (but not all) of the people I interact with on a daily basis are inside the bubble. And most of them tend to reflect (to paraphrase Alan Greenspan) an “irrational exuberance” with respect AI.

    It’s not that they’re wrong. There are some very good use cases, not only in technology but in the business, law, humanities, and yes even in the arts and everyday life. But as we have seen, these solutions are by and large not yet “ready for prime time.”

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • University of Toronto ☛ Modern web PKI (TLS) is very different than it used to be

      In yesterday's entry on the problems OCSP Stapling always faced, I said that OCSP Stapling felt like something from an earlier era of the Internet. In a way, this is literally true. The OCSP Stapling RFC was issued in January 2011, so the actual design work is even older. In 2011, Let's Encrypt was a year away from being started and the Snowden leaks about pervasive Internet interception (and 'SSL added and removed here') had not yet happened. HTTPS was a relative luxury, primarily deployed for security sensitive websites such as things that you had to log in to (and even that wasn't universal). Almost all Certificate Authorities charged money (and the ones that had free certificates sometimes failed catastrophically), the shortest TLS certificate you could get generally lasted for a year, and there were probably several orders of magnitude fewer active TLS certificates than there are today.

    • PC World ☛ Even Google isn’t safe from malicious Google ads

      The format of Google’s text advertisements allow bad actors to display legitimate web addresses (like www.google.com), but direct users to fake sites with malware. Such software can be used for a number of purposes, including spying on users and stealing potentially sensitive information.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • VOA News ☛ China's proposal to create a cyber ID system faces criticism

      While many netizens appear to agree in their posts that companies have too much access to their personal information, others fear the cyber ID proposal, if implemented, will simply allow the government to more easily track them and control what they can say online.

      Beijing lawyer Wang Cailiang said on Weibo: "My opinion is short: I am not in favor of this. Please leave a little room for citizens' privacy."

    • The Record ☛ Judge says maker of Pegasus spyware does not need to provide sought-after Israeli witnesses in WhatsApp case

      The decision could be significant in the aftermath of last week’s revelations that the Israeli government sought to influence the case by reportedly seizing NSO Group documents, issuing a gag order to prevent Israeli press coverage of the seizure and editing court filings produced by the spyware purveyor. NSO Group’s zero-click Pegasus spyware is considered by privacy experts to be the most advanced spyware technology available today, and is sold to governments worldwide.

      In denying the WhatsApp request, Northern California federal judge Phyllis Hamilton said the three current executives NSO Group selected to testify are sufficient sources of information on the company’s practices relating to its Pegasus product.

    • El País ☛ Goodbye to luggage worries: The apps and gadgets to pack, measure and track your bags

      To ensure a headache-free trip as we head out on summer vacation, careful packing is key, as well as knowing where our luggage is at all times. EL PAÍS explores the most useful applications and gadgets to create personalized packing lists according to destination and trip duration; to measure the suitcases; and to track their location, as well as finding lockers to store them.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New Eastern Europe ☛ Expect Russia to meddle in Georgia’s parliamentary election

    The recent acts of Georgian Dream have made many Georgian citizens concerned. To date, 79 per cent of Georgian citizens support future membership in the European Union. They also heavily support the country’s integration into other western organizations and institutions. Despite this support, Georgian Dream is making decisions that are distancing the country from EU integration. It is also seeking to strengthen ties with Moscow.

  • RFERL ☛ Beyond The Elation, Putin's Prisoner Swap Has Ominous Implications

    “The fact that a lot of these people come back in prisoner swaps makes it easier for [Moscow] to recruit people to work as illegals abroad,” career U.S. Foreign Service officer William Courtney, now a fellow at the Rand Corporation think tank in Washington, told RFE/RL.

  • The Barents Observer ☛ Mayor wants to tear down Russian-initiated war monuments | The Independent Barents Observer

    Unlike many other memorials from Second World War in northern Norway, these two were initiated and made by FSB-affiliated officials from Murmansk and Russia’s Consulate General in Kirkenes. One was erected in 2011, the other in 2018.

    “I want them removed as they are misused by sympathisers and Russian authorities,” Labahå says.

  • VOA News ☛ US Justice Department sues TikTok, claiming it violated kids' privacy  

    In 2019, the government sued TikTok's predecessor, Musical.ly, for COPPA violations.

    "Since then," the Justice Department said in a statement Friday, "the defendants have been subject to a court order requiring them to undertake specific measures to comply with COPPA."

    TikTok and ByteDance remain under that compliance court order.

  • RTL ☛ 'Knowingly and repeatedly': US accuses TikTok of violating children's privacy

    Five years ago, the US filed a COPPA-focused suit against an app called Musical.ly, which China-based ByteDance had bought and merged into TikTok.

    That case resulted in TikTok having to take steps to comply with the children's privacy act, according to justice department officials.

  • The Record ☛ Justice Department sues TikTok for alleged violations of children’s privacy

    The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission filed a civil suit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance on Friday, asserting that the Chinese-owned social media giant flagrantly violated children’s privacy laws.

    The lawsuit comes on the heels of a rare public announcement made “in the public interest” by FTC Chair Lina Khan last month, revealing that her agency had uncovered evidence that TikTok was violating children’s data privacy laws.

    Friday’s lawsuit alleges that TikTok has broken the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) law in myriad significant ways.

  • Axios ☛ DOJ sues TikTok over alleged child privacy law violation

    The department also accused TikTok and its parent company ByteDance of "failing to comply with parents' requests to delete their children's accounts and information."

  • Greece ☛ WWII bomb found at old airport is destroyed

    The disposal caused a loud noise that could be heard in neighbourhoods from Glyfada to the foot of Mount Ymittos. The bomb, which weighed 500 pounds (226 kilograms), was large and powerful.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ How Chinese loans trapped Pakistan's economy

    On the table are proposals to delay at least $16 billion in energy sector debt to China, along with extending the term of a $4 billion cash loan facility due to depleting foreign exchange reserves.

    Last week, Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb was in Beijing to present proposals on extending the maturity of debt for nine power plants built by Chinese companies under the multibillion-dollar Pakistan China Economic Corridor (CPEC).

  • France24 ☛ US sues TikTok, accusing it of violating online privacy laws for children

    The U.S. decided to file the lawsuit following an investigation by the FTC that looked into whether the companies were complying with a previous settlement involving TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.

    In 2019, the federal government sued Musical.ly, alleging it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, by failing to notify parents about its collection and use of personal information for kids under 13.

  • The Hill ☛ Why Putin agreed to the prisoner exchange

    Putin also demonstrated that arresting Americans and other Westerners on trumped-up charges of espionage — or anything else for that matter — works like a charm. Put a few journalists in prison, starve them a bit and beat them for effect, and Washington will do just about anything to have them freed. Although many nations refuse to negotiate with terrorists, the massive prisoner exchange demonstrated clearly that the West is willing to negotiate with Russia’s terrorist-in-chief.

    The refusal to negotiate rests on persuasive logic: If you let the terrorists know they can bargain successfully, you are simply encouraging them to engage in more terrorism in the future. According to this logic, Putin will continue imprisoning Americans and demanding concessions; perhaps the release of imprisoned Russian spies, perhaps changes in policy. The Americans — or Germans, Canadians, Israelis, Italians, etc. — need not be prominent journalists. Random tourists, backpacking students and the like will do.

• Environment

  • Greece ☛ The threat of food shortages

    Sicily has become a flashpoint for this crisis, with much of wheat production under threat, animal feed severely affected and water supplies at a critical low. Sicilian farmers told The Associated Press that, if these conditions persist, they will have to sell off their animals. The island, the Mediterranean’s largest, plays an outsized role in the production of the kind of wheat used for Italian pasta, with 20% of Italy’s hard wheat grown there.

    Also hit hard, in Sicily and elsewhere, is fruit production, with higher prices reflecting the new reality. If weather conditions persist, the danger that the island will turn from a bread basket to a net importer of foodstuffs is very real, experts warn.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Airlines Still Want to Cheat You Out of Your Money

      The move comes just as the airlines attempt to block a different consumer protection from the Biden administration. On Monday, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a notoriously industry-friendly court, granted airlines a major win by stalling a Department of Transportation rule taking on airline junk fees, extra fees for bags or seating.

      Now, the airlines want to stop consumers from getting potentially billions of dollars back in refunds for unused flights, too.

    • Ruben Schade ☛ Cancel your Gravatar, now!

      Advocating for this tech in 2024 should be grounds for immediate dismissal. I don’t know how you could possibly see the years of evidence against this stuff and still think it’s a good idea. Either this is further proof Automattic have lost the plot, or they’re being pushed to spruik scams by a third party. I don’t care either way, to be honest.

      To disable your Gravatar: [...]

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Europe can do more to help Ukraine counter Russia’s energy attacks

      Ukrainian energy sector officials believe that during the coming winter season, peak demand could be above eighteen gigawatts, with average consumption likely to hover around fifteen gigawatts. However, remaining capacity is just over ten gigawatts. Unless significant new sources can be secured, Ukrainians will have to deal with extended blackouts amid subzero temperatures. This could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe and create new waves of refugees fleeing to the EU.

  • Overpopulation

    • Punch NG ☛ Food crisis: 82 million Nigerians may go hungry soon, UN warns

      The United Nations has again predicted that 82 million Nigerians, about 64 per cent of the country’s population, may go hungry by 2030, calling on the government to tackle climate change, pest infestations, and other threats to agricultural productivity.

      The prediction comes in the wake of a persistent hike in food prices in the country.

• Finance

  • Jarrod Blundy ☛ The Waterhole

    But I’ve come to see that decision, and many others, not as an oversight, but as an intentional choice with real benefits. Namely that it’s speedy and simple. There are no computers that could glitch or need updates and maintenance. No reliance on an internet connection. No one has to wait for a customer to juggle a wallet full of different cards when one gets declined. There are no open tabs for the bartenders to keep track of, or cards left behind. Everything is in service of quick service, so folks can get back to the main event: the music.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Pro Publica ☛ Marjorie Taylor Greene’s and Brad Raffensperger’s Voter Registrations Targeted in Georgia’s New Online Portal

    On Friday, four days after Georgia Democrats began warning that bad actors could abuse the state’s new online portal for canceling voter registrations, the Secretary of State’s Office acknowledged to ProPublica that it had identified multiple such attempts — including unsuccessful efforts to cancel the registrations of two prominent Republicans, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

    The confirmation of the attempts to misuse the portal follows separate discoveries by The Associated Press and The Current that the portal suffered at least two security glitches that briefly exposed voters’ dates of birth, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and their full driver’s license numbers — the exact information needed to cancel others’ voter registrations.

  • Rlang ☛ R Consortium Grants Committee Announces New Chair

    The R Consortium is pleased to announce that Katherine Jeschke has been appointed Chair of the Grants Committee.

  • CBC ☛ Intel's stock plunges as company cuts 15% of workforce, struggling to fund chipmaking business

    CBC News reached out to Intel to ask whether employees in Canada were impacted by the layoffs. A statement from the company said that it would not be disclosing specific headcount numbers by site or geography.

    Shares of other chip firms also fell, with Arm, Micron Technology, GlobalFoundries and U.S.-listed shares of TSMC trading down between two per cent and 5.1 per cent.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • France24 ☛ What fake news is being shared about US presidential candidate Kamala Harris?

      There have been a wide range of fake news stories circulating on social media about US Vice President Kamala Harris since President Joe Biden withdrew his re-election bid on July 21 and endorsed her instead. Social media users have been circulating a photo that allegedly shows Harris next to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Other posts feature Harris’ statements taken out of context or digitally altered videos.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • [Repeat] Atlantic Council ☛ As sixteen of Putin’s prisoners come home, don’t forget the millions of hostages who remain

    Now Evan, Paul, Oleg, Sasha, Kevin, Vladimir, Ilya, and other hostages of Putin’s regime have gained freedom.

    But even on such a day, I cannot stop thinking about the thousands of people who remain in Putin’s prisons. About the poet Zhenya Berkovich. About the politician Alexei Gorinov, who protested against the war from the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is now dying in prison. About Daniil Kholodny, an information technology specialist who was imprisoned for eight years for creating a website for now-deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny. About thousands of other people.

    I do not call them all “hostages” by chance.

  • Craig Murray ☛ Freedom of Speech and the Fascist Wave

    How does this stand with my strong commitment to free speech?

    In On Liberty, the great John Stuart Mill argued that to state that corn merchants are thieves and profiteers who starve the poor was perfectly valid. But to shout the same thing to a howling mob outside a corn merchant’s house was not valid freedom of speech.

    It is not just the words, it is their context. This is a crucial insight (and it also carries a pro-freedom of speech weight against the sledgehammer of hate speech legislation which denies the importance of context and seeks to condemn simple forms of speech).

  • Raw Story ☛ Constable spent years trying to prosecute school librarians over books he hated: report

    The controversy occured in Granbury, a town of 10,000 people just southwest of Fort Worth, wrote Ileana Garnand. Scott London, a Hood County chief deputy constable, accused three school district librarians of letting kids access books he deemed obscene, the report said.

    "He visited schools, spoke to district staff, issued subpoenas, obtained student records and drafted criminal complaints" — all with the intent to secure felony charges for distributing harmful material to a minor, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.

  • Advance Local Media LLC ☛ Texas deputy constable tried to charge school librarians with felonies for distributing books - lonestarlive.com

    A North Texas law enforcement officer spent two years unsuccessfully trying to charge school librarians for distributing books he objected to, according to a NBC News and NBC 5 investigation.

    The report is the latest addition to the nation’s fight over the freedom to read, which has led to book removals, lawsuits and even death threats in the Lone Star State. In the North Texas town of Granbury, it also resulted in one man’s investigation into and pursuit of felony charges against librarians for doing their jobs.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Turkey’s linchpin role in the Russia prisoner swap offers a lesson

    Prisoner swaps between Russia and the West have an asymmetric quality: Arms dealers and assassins get traded for journalists and dissidents. Such is the moral calculus between autocratic regimes and those striving to uphold the ideals of democracy and republican governance. It is regrettable that such deals must be struck, but the cost might be quite a bit higher if truth-speakers in the dark spots of the world thought no one would bargain for their freedom in a pinch. So, the multinational deal on Thursday that returned journalists, political dissidents, and friends of the West in exchange for the release of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s cadres can be welcomed and regretted at the same time.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Bullets and teargas reportedly fired at journalists covering protests in Nigeria

    At least 50 journalists were arrested on Saturday during the protests in Abuja, Amnesty International Nigeria’s office said. Nearly 700 protesters have so far been arrested across the country while nine officers have been injured during the protests, now in their third day, the Nigerian police said.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Iraq’s Yazidis gather to remember the dead and missing, 10 years on from Islamic State genocide

    Shiren Ibrahim Ahmed, 24, from the village of Kojo, was among the thousands assembled. “They brought us, the women, from our village, in the institute here, and our mothers and grandmothers were then shot in this field,” she told the Observer. “We heard the sounds of guns, and we haven’t heard from them since then.” On the same day, Shiren was kidnapped and enslaved by IS.

    She was moved from Sinjar to Mosul and then to Syria, where she remained for four years after being sold to IS members of Moroccan and Saudi nationalities. “Tabqa, Deir al-Zour, Raqqa … I was sold in different provinces of Syria and only in 2018 I was smuggled back to Iraq,” she said. “The community paid $10,000 to have me back.” Her two sisters, now living in Dohuk, are also survivors of the IS sexual slavery campaign.

  • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Rep. Kim Hicks’ property vandalized with hate speech and racial slurs

    Her political signs, house and shed were all vandalized in the night by masked assailants and Hicks feels she knows this was a targeted attack

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Science Alert ☛ Just 15 Internet Cables Connect Australia to The Rest of The World

    These cables are typically no wider than a garden hose. They contain optical fibres wrapped in a thick layer of plastic for protection. They can transmit data from one end of the cable to the other at speeds of up to 300 terabits per second.

    For context, 20 terabits per second can stream approximately 793,000 ultra-high-definition movies at the same time. With a capacity of 300 terabits per second, the possibilities for handling digital data are virtually limitless.

    There are currently around 1.4 million kilometres of submarine cables in service globally. Only 15 known international cables manage 99% of Australia's data traffic.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • SANS ☛ Even Linux users should take a look at this Microsoft KB article.

    One issue with Secure Boot has been that not all boot loaders are necessarily properly signed, even if they are not malicious. In particular, open-source operating systems like Linux initially had problems with Secure Boot support. However, this has mostly been mitigated with major distributions like Ubuntu and Redhat (among others) supporting Secure Boot.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• India Times ☛ Apple asks judge to toss antitrust lawsuit

  Apple asked a US judge to dismiss a lawsuit by federal and state anti-trust regulators accusing it of illegally monopolising the smartphone market, saying the case would have a judge redesign its popular iPhone.

  Apple was accused of an illegal monopoly on smartphones, which is allegedly maintained by imposing contractual restrictions on, and withholding critical access from, developers.

• Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Nvidia to face US antitrust probe

  Investigators are looking at whether Nvidia pressured cloud providers to buy multiple Nvidia products, the report said, citing people involved in the discussions.

  The investigation is also looking into whether Nvidia charges its customers a higher price for networking gear if the customer wants to buy AI chips from rivals such as AMD and Intel, the report added. Nvidia commands roughly 80% of the AI chip market.

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • New York Times ☛ Meta in Talks to Use Voices of Judi Dench, Awkwafina and Others for A.I.

      The talks remain fluid, and it is unclear which actors and influencers, if any, may sign on to the project, the people said. If the parties come to an agreement, Meta could pay millions of dollars in fees to the actors.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Premier League Pirates Caught Offside as Police Raid Their Car Wash Base

    The Thai government's Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has carried out a major operation targeting the supply of pirated Premier League football streams, illegal gambling, and associated money laundering. A total of 21 raids, in five regions of the country, includes one that targeted an office hidden in a car wash.

  • India Times ☛ AI lawsuits: Music labels' AI lawsuits create new copyright puzzle for US courts

    The big record labels are worried too. Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music sued Udio and another music AI company called Suno in June, marking the music industry's entrance into high-stakes copyright battles over AI-generated content that are just starting to make their way through the courts.

    "Ingesting massive amounts of creative labor to imitate it is not creative," said Merritt, an independent musician whose first record label is now owned by UMG, but who said she is not financially involved with the company. "That's stealing in order to be competition and replace us."

  • Idiomdrottning ☛ The two copyright questions in practice

    Providing for artists is what I call “the first question” in my stance on copyright.

    There needs to be another way to make sure that artists—that everyone—has what they need to live. That way should be set up so that copyright isn’t relied upon, isn’t needed, and then we can remove it.