Leftovers

• Ruben Schade ☛ Joan Westenberg on complexity being a trap

  Her entire post is worth a read, as always (RSS feed here). But these lines in particular are spot on:

  Mastery isn’t adding layers. It’s peeling them away until only the essential remains.

• Ruben Schade ☛ Getting some scones in beautiful weather

  Australia is like Canada in the sense we have cultural ties to Britain, but we’ve also been influenced by the US. One link with the green and pleasant land is the humble scone, something we relished in partaking in during some very un-British weather in Sydney yesterday.

• Hackaday ☛ The “Unbreakable” Beer Glasses Of East Germany

  We like drinking out of glass. In many ways, it’s an ideal material for the job. It’s hard-wearing, and inert in most respects. It doesn’t interact with the beverages you put in it, and it’s easy to clean. The only problem is that it’s rather easy to break. Despite its major weakness, glass still reigns supreme over plastic and metal alternatives.

• European Commission ☛ Commissioner Lahbib's Speech at Egmont Institute & International Rescue Committee High-Level Discussion on Fragility

  A special thanks to the International Rescue Committee and the Egmont Institute for organising this important event.

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ Measuring Local Variances In Earth’s Magnetic Field

    Although the Earth’s magnetic field is reliable enough for navigation and is also essential for blocking harmful solar emissions and for improving radio communications, it’s not a uniform strength everywhere on the planet. Much like how inconsistencies in the density of the materials of the planet can impact the local gravitational force ever so slightly, so to can slight changes impact the strength of the magnetic field from place to place. And it doesn’t take too much to measure this impact on your own, as [efeyenice983] demonstrates here.

  • Science Alert ☛ Earthquake Swarm Mystifies Scientists as Greek Island Tremors Continue

    There is some good news.

  • Science Alert ☛ Study Reveals What Would Happen if You Were Struck by a Tiny Black Hole

    You might be surprised.

  • Science Alert ☛ Amazing Fossil Reveals Turtle-Like Scales on Jurassic Plesiosaur

    Details lost for almost 200 million years.

  • Science Alert ☛ Earthquakes Under Alaskan Volcano Could Be Sign It's About to Erupt

    It's 50-50 right now.

  • Science Alert ☛ 30-Million-Year-Old Hypercarnivore Skull 'Dream Find' For Paleontologists

    Terror of Egypt's lost forests.

• Hardware

  • CubicleNate ☛ The Tale of the Tinkering Tech | A Framework Fiasco

    The author recounts a weekend tech project involving cleaning a Framework Laptop 13's fan, which led to accidentally damaging the fan. With no immediate replacement available, they salvaged a fan from another machine, successfully restoring functionality. Lessons learned emphasize caution during repairs, the importance of spare parts, and separating tech tasks from cooking.

  • Hackaday ☛ A Forgotten Consumer PC Becomes A Floating Point Powerhouse

    [Michael Wessel] found some of his old DOS 3D graphics software and tried to run it on an 8088 PC. The tale of adding an 8087 co-processor to speed up the rendering was anything but straightforward, resulting in a useful little project.

  • Hackaday ☛ Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Cutting Board Keyboard

    Doesn’t this look fantastic? Hard to believe it, but the base of this keyboard began life as a cutting board, and there’s a gallery to prove it. This is actually [androidbrick]’s second foray into this type of upcycling.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Report: Broadcom and TSMC in talks to carve up Intel

    Chipmaking giants Broadcom Inc. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. are reportedly mulling deals that could ultimately see their rival defective chip maker Intel Corp. carved up into two separate entities.

  • CNX Software ☛ Wall-mountable defective chip maker Intel N100 mini PC features three HDMI outputs, three USB ports, GbE and WiFi 6 connectivity

    Mekotronics R58-N100 is an defective chip maker Intel Processor N100 mini PC whose main differentiating feature is its metal enclosure with four holes suitable for direct wall mounting. The computer supports DDR5 SO-DIMM memory and M.2 MVMe SSD storage.

  • CNX Software ☛ HaLowLink 1 Wi-Fi HaLow gateway turns legacy devices into Wi-Fi HaLow clients via Ethernet, USB, or 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi

    Morse Micro in collaboration with GL.iNet has recently showcased the HaLowLink 1 Wi-Fi HaLow gateway, which the company terms as Wi-Fi HaLow reference design and evaluation platform developed for long-range, low-power wireless connectivity for IoT applications.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ South Korean Actress Kim Sae-ron Is Found Dead

    The 24-year-old star, once a prolific child actor, appeared at the Cannes Film Festival and on Netflix, until a drunk-driving incident in 2022 derailed her career.

  • Science Alert ☛ Intense Flu Surge Gripping The US Is The Worst in Years, CDC Says

    Here's what we know.

  • Science Alert ☛ CDC Report Suggests Bird Flu Is Spreading Undetected to Humans

    “There are clearly infections happening that we’re missing.”

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 8-month-old Hong Kong infant becomes 2nd patient to receive organ donation from mainland China, gov’t says

    An eight-month-old infant has undergone heart transplant surgery after receiving Hong Kong’s second organ donation from mainland China, according to the city’s health authorities.

• Proprietary

  • Security Week ☛ Xerox Versalink Printer Vulnerabilities Enable Lateral Movement [Ed: Xerox has a history there. Proprietary drivers led to GNU.]

    Xerox released security updates to resolve pass-back attack vulnerabilities in Versalink multifunction printers.

  • [Repeat] Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel 8th, 9th and 10th Gen processors absent from Microsoft’s backdoored Windows 11 24H2 CPU support list for new OEM systems

    Microsoft has published its latest backdoored Windows 11 processor support lists for new OEM systems.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • New York Times ☛ South Korea Bans Downloads of DeepSeek, the Chinese Hey Hi (AI) App

      Regulators said they would suspend the app until they could be sure it complied with the country’s data protection laws.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Chatbot vs national security? Why DeepSeek is raising concerns

      DeepSeek collects information on “key stroke patterns or rhythms” to show how an individual interacts.

    • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea says DeepSeek removed from local app stores pending privacy review

      The app remains available to users who had already downloaded the app.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s Hey Hi (AI) chatbot DeepSeek removed from South Korea app stores pending privacy review

      By Hieun Shin Chinese Hey Hi (AI) app DeepSeek will not be available to download in South Korea pending a review of its handling of user data, Seoul authorities said Monday. DeepSeek’s R1 chatbot stunned investors and industry insiders with its ability to match the functions of its Western competitors at a fraction of the cost.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ South Korea pauses DeepSeek downloads over privacy concerns

      South Korea’s personal data protection watchdog has announced that downloads of the popular Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek have been banned in the country. The Personal Information Protection Commission said the app was removed from the local version of Apple’s App Store and Surveillance Giant Google Play over the weekend.

    • Security Week ☛ Downloads of DeepSeek’s Hey Hi (AI) Apps Paused in South Korea Over Privacy Concerns

      DeepSeek has temporarily paused downloads of its chatbot apps in South Korea while it works with local authorities to address privacy concerns.

    • The New York Times adopts AI tools with strict guidelines [Ed: The New York Times adopts LLM slop, so nothing it publishes is reliable anymore]

      The New York Times has approved AI tools for product and editorial teams to enhance tasks like social media copy and SEO headlines.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • The Straits Times ☛ Chinese minister meets Myanmar scam centre workers

      Public Security Assistant Minister Liu Zhongyi took a tour around the Mae Sot-Myawaddy crossings.

    • MJ Fransen ☛ This website is available without encryption, and yours should be too

      Over the last decade, the internet has seen a major roll out of encryption of the data transmission. Every website got a certificate and URLs suddenly started with "https".

      Encryption of the transmission protects against eavesdropping and provides a degree of trust that the party at the end of the connection is who we believe it is. For this, certificates are required, and encryption protocols must provide strong encryption.

      As always, this comes at a price. The implemention of encryption technologies not only adds protection, it also creates a barrier and shuts people out.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Atlas of Surveillance

      The EFF has released its Atlas of Surveillance, which documents police surveillance technology across the US.

• Defence/Aggression

  • NYPost ☛ Dictator congratulates US forces after airstrike kills ‘terrorist leader’ in Syria

    The airstrike took place on Saturday and resulted in the death of a “senior finance and logistics official in the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din (HaD), an Al-Qaeda affiliate,” according CENTCOM.

  • JURIST ☛ SCC dispatch: Canada’s top court questions the future of legal remedies for intimate partner violence

    Daniel Kim, Tyler Li, Drew Meetze and Christine Yang are law students at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. They filed this joint dispatch for JURIST from Ottawa.  We attended the courtroom at the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) in Ottawa last Tuesday and Wednesday to hear oral arguments in Ahluwalia v Ahluwalia.

  • New York Times ☛ German Election Spotlight Turns to Convicted Felon

    The American president’s foreign policy, and a divisive speech by his vice president, drew attention away from an attack by a refugee that some expected would fan political tensions over migration.

  • New York Times ☛ Top Social Security Official Leaves After MElon Team Seeks Data Access

    The departure of the acting commissioner is the latest backlash to the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to access sensitive data.

  • NYPost ☛ Acting head of Social Security Administration resigns after dispute with MElon’s DOGE: report

    Michelle King, a career federal worker who had been with SSA since 1994, quit over the DOGE disagreement Saturday and was replaced by Leland Dudek.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Dictator administration wants the Supreme Court to let the firing of whistleblower agency head proceed

    The Convicted Felon administration wants the Supreme Court to permit the firing of the head of the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers.

  • China warns Philippines of ‘red line’ in the South China Sea

    A former senior Chinese official said Manila shouldn’t be allowed to take disputed shoals.

  • China wants tunnel, basement rooms at planned London ‘mega-embassy’

    Architectural plans are redacted ‘for security reasons’ but show hugely expanded staff accommodation.

  • Defence Web ☛ DRC among four African trouble spots named by Guterres at top AU meeting

    Naming specifically the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), The Sahel, Somalia and Sudan, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the weekend high level African Union (AU) gathering the continent needed to push for peace, security and the alleviation of “appalling levels of human suffering”.

  • The Strategist ☛ Securing Australia’s interests in a Convicted Felonian trade world

    Australia must adopt a sophisticated and multi-layered strategy to engage the second Convicted Felon administration on trade and security. .

  • New York Times ☛ No Evidence of Hate Crime in Transgender Man’s Killing in Upstate N.Y., Investigators Say

    Law enforcement officials in upstate New York say that the torture and killing of Sam Norquist, 24, did not appear to be a hate crime.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Chinese, Australian military officials had 'in-depth' exchange of views, China's defence ministry says

    Chinese and Australian military officials had an "in-depth" exchange of views on bilateral and military relations, regional security and other issues of common concern, China's defence ministry said in a statement released on Monday.

  • LRT ☛ Foreigners would be subjected to lie detector testing under proposal by Lithuania’s MoD [Ed: Pseudoscience]

    Lithuania’s Defence Ministry is proposing to expand the list of people who could be subjected to polygraph testing by the authorities to include business representatives, candidates willing to become intelligence collaborators and foreigners deemed potential national security threats.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ Former Lithuanian FM Landsbergis becomes Munich Security Conference’s advisor

      Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s former foreign minister, has joined the Advisory Board of the Munich Security Conference, his spokeswoman Paulina Levickytė told BNS on Monday.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian MoD says Europe will raise military spending ‘without delay’

      In a radical change of heart, European leaders are now ready to significantly increase their countries’ military spending, says Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė after returning from Munich Security Conference.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian leaders maintain faith in NATO unity after shocks at Munich Security Conference

      Following explosive statements from American leaders at the Munich Security Conference, Lithuanian leaders maintain faith in defence cooperation between the US and Europe and call for ramping up military spending.

• Environment

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • New York Times ☛ Shark Bites Tourist Who Was Trying to Take Photo of It

      The woman, who lost both of her hands, was flown off the island to receive medical care, according to the Turks and Caicos government.

    • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Just Found The Perfect Disguise to Sneak Into a Termite Colony

      Your mission, should you choose to accept it.

    • Science Alert ☛ Most Birds-of-Paradise Are Secretly Biofluorescent, Study Finds

      The perfect look for a discotheque.

• Finance

  • NYPost ☛ ‘Save big bucks’: Shopper shares supermarket self-checkout hack

    A man has gone viral after claiming to have found a “loophole” in Coles’ self-checkout system that lets shoppers save money – and he insists it’s not theft.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Press Gazette ☛ Reach told by ASA to stop posting ad features on social control media without flagging

      ASA closes Hull Live case informally but warns problem must be fixed.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Hong Kong pollster to end public opinion research amid crackdown

    The move comes after national security police questioned family members of a former director in January.

  • JURIST ☛ HRW: Iran intensifies repression of Azeri minority amid crackdown on dissent

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday reported that the Iranian government is systematically targeting the Azeri ethnic minority through the imposition of “abusive” charges and severe prison sentences aimed at silencing dissent. The crackdown has intensified since October 2024, with at least two dozen Azeri activists imprisoned following unfair trials, according to HRW.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ New London newspaper launches with promise to revitalise Fleet Street

    London Daily Digital now has an 18-strong team working on Fleet Street.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Notts TV to close in November when licence ends

    News comes weeks after closure of London Live.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Digital Music News ☛ Jay-Z, Diddy Rape Accuser Drops Lawsuit After Numerous Inconsistencies Surface — Diddy’s Attorneys Promise ‘First of Many’ Dismissals Ahead

    The anonymous woman who accused Jay-Z and Diddy of raping her when she was 13 years old has dropped her lawsuit following numerous inconsistencies. According to court documents, the woman who filed a case against Shawn Carter (Jay-Z) and Sean Combs (Diddy) with accusations of rape has dismissed her lawsuit.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong nat. security police take in 3rd relative of wanted activist Carmen Lau to assist investigation

    Hong Kong police have taken in a third relative of ex-district councillor Carmen Lau, who has a HK$1 million bounty on her head for alleged national security law violations.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ Building a secure test environment for an IXP

    Guest Post: How to build a quarantine VLAN for enhanced reliability.

  • APNIC ☛ 2025 ISIF Asia applications now open

    ISIF Asia is accepting applications for the 2025 funding cycle. Applications close on 4 April.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Supreme Court Patent Challenges February 2025

    This procedural theme extends beyond Rule 36 to encompass broader questions about how patent monopoly cases should be adjudicated, with three petitions (BBiTV, Island IP, and Brumfield) challenging the Federal Circuit's approach to resolving factual disputes at summary judgment, particularly in patent monopoly eligibility cases. Impact Engine and Audio Evolution Diagnostics also challenge the eligibility framework, with Audio Evolution specifically questioning whether medical diagnostic machine patents should be considered abstract ideas under Alice/Mayo.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The Burden of Proving Prior Art Enablement

    by Dennis Crouch

    Federal Circuit recently issued a Rule 36 summary affirmance in Converter Manufacturing, LLC v. Tekni-Plex, Inc. (Fed. Cir. Sept. 9, 2024).  The case is now on petition for writ of certiorari to the US Supreme Court and raises significant questions about the burden of proving enablement of prior art references in patent monopoly cases.  The case also raises a challenge to the Federal Circuit's aggressive approach to issuing judgments without opinion. [Read the petition in 24-866]

    Converter Manufacturing holds a number of patents covering thermoformed plastic food trays with rolled edges. 

  • Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 for Eric Zautner entity, Conexus, web applications patent monopoly prior art

    Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 11,736,499, owned and asserted by Conexus LLC, an NPE and entity of Eric Zautner. The '499 patent monopoly focuses on monitoring web applications for potentially malicious code execution, employing a model of legitimate behavior to identify anomalies.

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Technology and Free Software

    • Internet/Gemini

      • Tiny Notes

        I've had a license key for this blog site for a while now, but have moved onto other apps. While I'm happy on Bear for regular blogging, I still want to use this space for something. It's meant to just write, and not be too image heavy, so maybe I'll make it a link blog, or a "tiny" blog.