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Links 15/1/2010: Linux 2.6.32.3, Elive 1.9.56 Out



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • On Pi, Paper Penguins and FOSS' Regal Potential
    "M$ is already beginning to compete on price with the netbooks and XP," he told LinuxInsider. "In another year or two they will be competing on price for any PC, and their prices and share of units sold will be drastically reduced."

    The share of GNU/Linux reached the tipping point in 2009, Pogson asserted.

    "The avalanche has started to move slowly down the mountain, and it will pick up speed by the end of 2010 with thin clients and netbooks/smartbooks taking over the landscape," he predicted. "M$ has made a billion dollars a quarter less than is their 'natural right of a monopolist' in the client lately. Let us watch that continue as GNU/Linux grows share."


  • World’s Smallest Linux Computer and Linux Networking Server (pics)
    Do u know which is the worlds smallest Linux computer? Its the picotux 100 !! As of yet,the picotux 100 is the world’s smallest Linux computer, only slightly larger (35mm×19mm×19mm) than an RJ45 connector.


  • Ubuntu Surprises at Lotusphere 2010?
    The major Linux distribution providers — Red Hat, Novell and Canonical — are preparing to attend IBM’s Lotusphere 2010 conference (Orlando, January 17-21).


  • Canonical, IBM: Ubuntu Will Counter Windows 7 At Lotusphere
    Once again, The VAR Guy’s sources were right. Canonical, as our resident blogger expected, is set to announce some Ubuntu news at IBM’s Lotusphere conference in Orlando the week of January 18. The effort — which includes channel partners — will involve Canonical countering Microsoft’s Windows 7 push.




  • Server

    • Google Switching To EXT4 Filesystem
      An anonymous reader writes "Google is in the process of upgrading their existing EXT2 filesystem to the new and improved EXT4 filesystem. Google has benchmarked three different filesystems — XFS, EXT4 and JFS. In their benchmarking, EXT4 and XFS performed equally well. However, in view of the easier upgrade path from EXT2 to EXT4, Google has decided to go ahead with EXT4."


    • Sleepless Nights on Wall Street, Nightmares on Main Street
      In a day's worth of testimony, no one took issue with this happy scenario presented by the grateful bankers until Julia Gordon, a housing expert from the Center for Responsive Lending, took the stand and dove straight in.

      "The bankers touched upon their sleepless nights at the height of the crisis. Today, 6.5 million American are suffering sleepless nights, every night, wondering if they will have a home tomorrow." And it is not over: "our data shows that by the end of 2014, 13 million Americans will lose their homes," she said. Gordon testified that the banks were failing to modify loans at any meaningful rate and that they pursued modification procedures in parallel with foreclosure procedures. The result is that hopeful homeowners are often surprised at the door by sheriff's deputies ready to kick them to the curb.






  • Kernel Space







  • Applications





  • Distributions



    • New Releases

      • Elive 1.9.56 development released
        The Elive Team is proud to announce the release of the development version 1.9.56

        * 3G Phones: More than 300 new operators added * Internet Module: If you connect with a 3G phone, the configuration will be saved and you can set it to automatically connect at the boot * Icedove: When installing icedove, it contains by default a very nice elive-style looking template * Flash updated to 10.0.42.34


      • Clonezilla Live 1.2.3-24


      • Scientific Linux Fermi 4.8 is released
        Scientific Linux 4.8 has been released for both i386 and x86_64 architecture.


      • Webconverger 6.0


      • Frenzy 1.2 reincarnation (community release)


      • PelicanHPC GNU Linux 2.0
        * PelicanHPC v2.0 is available. Features:

        o based on Debian testing (squeeze) instead of stable (lenny). This means that most packages have newer versions. In particular, the kernel is at 2.6.30 and Open MPI is at 1.3.3. o has new MPI bindings for GNU Octave, developed mostly by R. Corradini, building off MPITB. The new MPI bindings allow use of Octave 3.2.x instead of 3.0.x, which gives some important performance gains. The new bindings are less complete than MPITB, but they provide all MPI calls used in the examples for GNU Octave. The Monte Carlo and kernel examples have been adapted to use these new bindings, the other examples of MPI usage within Octave still need to be updated. o Open MPI is now the only MPI implementation installed. o the Ganglia monitoring system is installed and pre-configured for up to 4 hosts. It is easy to add entries for larger clusters. Visit http://localhost/ganglia after having set up the cluster (pelican_setup). The ksysguard monitor is still available, too.








    • Red Hat Family











  • Devices/Embedded







Free Software/Open Source



  • Office Suites

    • New: OpenOffice.org 3.2.0 Release Candidate 2 (build OOO320_m9) available
      OpenOffice.org 3.2.0 Release Candidate 2 is now available on the download website.


    • A Pivotal Moment for Microsoft Office
      It's one thing to try software for free, it's another to shell out the dough and buy it. New pricing reported in the InfoWorld article suggests they have come down quite a bit from previous years, but why pay anything if you can get the functionality you need for free or a very reasonable fee?


    • User Experience Face2Face in Hamburg
      Last week Christoph Noack from the User Experience (UX) community took time out of his busy schedule to visit Hamburg and the Sun office for face to face (f2f) discussions on UX topics. Be sure to see his blog post on "day one" to hear what went on. Be watching for "day two" as well.








  • Databases

    • Big Blue rides Schooner to MySQL boost
      As countless crafty upstarts have learned time and again in the IT racket, it's tough to get a server vendor who makes a living peddling boxes to get excited about server appliances that get rid of banks of servers. But IBM has inked a deal with upstart Schooner Information Technology to resell its web-caching and MySQL-boosting appliances starting in early March.








  • GNU

    • International Workshop on e-Health in Emerging Economies
      The workshop promotes Free Software as one of the main pillars for a sustainable framework for providing e-health and education for the developing and least developed countries.

      There will not be parallel conferences. All delegates will be able to assist and participate in the workshops that they find of interest. Communication among delegates is key.

      IWEEE is a non-profit event organized by the GNU SOLIDARIO association








  • Openness

    • CES 2010: Open Source 3-D Printer Turns Designs Into Objects
      Wired.com checks out MakerBot's Cupcake CNC 3-D Printer. Using PLA, ABS, or HDPE plastic, this open source, $950 kit allows the user to fabricate small objects of virtually any shape.


    • Strengthen the Commons
      … The… current, interrelated crises in finance, the economy, nutrition, energy, and in the fundamental ecological systems of life … are sharpening our awareness of the existence and importance of the commons. Natural commons are necessary for our survival, social commons ensure social cohesion, and cultural commons enable us to evolve as individuals. It is imperative that we focus our personal creativity, talents and enthusiasm to protect and increase our social wealth and natural commons. This will required an eye on the goal to change some basic structures of politics, economics, and society.








  • Programming

    • Popular Languages of 2009
      The TIOBE index for 2009 says that Google's new Go programming language experienced more growth in popularity than any other language in 2009. The growth is quite remarkable given that the language became available late in the year. Is it all just hype? The Google brand certainly carries a lot of power and marketing capability with it. Based on TIOBE's system, Go and Objective-C had the biggest gains in 2009 with Java taking a slight hit, but remaining at the top. TIOBE calculates its index based on search engine hits.

      Go - Because of it's remarkable growth, Go was named "TIOBE's Programming Language of the Year." Go has been compared syntactically to Pascal, Python, and C. Although Go is a new language with its own share of critics, many people are interested in its concurrency capabilities and fast compilation. Erlang is another concurrent programming language that grew this year from 29 to 24. One thing's for sure, Google's Go is getting a lot of attention.








Leftovers

  • Rob Glaser: Pioneer Of Badware Leaves Real Networks
    I was glad to see Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York university publish on Twitter: "Rob Glaser steps down as head of Real Networks, and story after story fails to note he ran one of the most invasive malware companies ever."


  • Supreme Court Blocks Video Streaming of Prop 8 Trial
    This afternoon, the Supreme Court put the final kibosh on video streaming of the Prop 8 trial to five federal courthouses around the nation. The Court stayed U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's order permitting the broadcast. The stay will remain in force for the foreseeable future, putting an end to the controversy for practical purposes. The Court did not address the recording and dissemination of the trial on YouTube, viewing it unnecessary because Judge Alex Kozinski, the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit, had not approved Judge Walker's decision to allow Internet dissemination when the petitioners sought a stay.


  • Britain lures talent: sci-tech entrepreneurs move in
    It took only a few weeks of research for Romanian entrepreneur Emi Gal to decide where to base his digital media firm, and his choice confounds a fairly enduring set of stereotypes about Britain's global appeal.




  • Security

    • Security fears threaten smart meter plan
      The €£8.1 billion rollout of smart meters in Britain could be knocked off course unless the Government and Ofgem, the energy regulator, act urgently to convince the public that the information provided by the meters will be held securely.


    • POLICE TO EMPLOY 'WEB-COP'
      The officer, to be employed in the West Midlands, will also search for criticism of the police and use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Bebo to promote the force.


    • Orson Welles on police brutality
      With recent trends in police abuses being a topic of no small concern at BoingBoing as of late, I thought perhaps his little known broadcast should be remembered and shared, as it strikes a chord of similarity which is at once chilling and inspiring. Welles gives us a glimpse into a time and a setting in which a mere radio broadcaster spoke out in a fervor of disgust and revulsion against a terrible injustice, and was instrumental in bringing those responsible to bear for their crimes. If nothing else, it serves to remind us of what has come before, and what we can once more do and be again.

      With recent trends in police abuses being a topic of no small concern at BoingBoing as of late, I thought perhaps his little known broadcast should be remembered and shared, as it strikes a chord of similarity which is at once chilling and inspiring. Welles gives us a glimpse into a time and a setting in which a mere radio broadcaster spoke out in a fervor of disgust and revulsion against a terrible injustice, and was instrumental in bringing those responsible to bear for their crimes. If nothing else, it serves to remind us of what has come before, and what we can once more do and be again.


    • Meet Mikey, 8: U.S. Has Him on Watch List
      The Transportation Security Administration, under scrutiny after last month’s bombing attempt, has on its Web site a “mythbuster” that tries to reassure the public.








  • Finance

    • Obama Joins the "Repo the Dough" Coalition
      Here at BanksterUSA we are thrilled that the Obama team has joined our "Repo the Dough" campaign and urge it to apply a financial transaction tax to destructive stock market speculation.


    • Murder on the Orient Express?
      The independent Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission got underway this morning in Washington. The commission was authorized by Congress to get to the bottom of the causes of the financial crisis and produce an independent report, much like the 9-11 commission.

      The commission sent a strong message by first putting under oath the titans of Wall Street. They didn't pick the subprime mortgage lenders or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. They didn't pick the credit rating agencies. They didn't even pick the big housing or investment firms that failed. Instead, they chose the largest firms that survived the crisis and now are profiting off of it due to the extraordinary interventions of the U.S. government.








  • PR/AstroTurf

    • Obama staffer wants ‘cognitive infiltration’ of 9/11 conspiracy groups
      Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, co-wrote an academic article entitled "Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures," in which he argued that the government should stealthily infiltrate groups that pose alternative theories on historical events via "chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine" those groups.


    • Where's the Outrage Over Obama's Health Care Propagandist, Jonathan Gruber?
      What a difference partisanship makes now that Obama is president. In the Gruber scandal prominent liberals including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman have attacked the messenger, Marcy Wheeler and Firedoglake, rather than criticizing the lack of disclosure and the money changing hands, and digging further into the relationship between Obama and his paid health care advocate Jonathan Gruber. Who else is receiving convenient Administration funding while flacking 'independently' for Obama policies? In a democracy, we need to know and we have a right to know, no matter which party controls the White House.






  • Censorship/Civil Rights

    • Will Google stand up to France and Italy, too?
      Google's stand against Chinese censorship and surveillance – triggered by suspicions that China had been trying to hack activists' €­accounts – will be rightly lauded by defenders of human rights. But when it comes to upholding Google's vow not to "do evil" by its €­users, China is by no means the company's only headache. Before those of us in western democracies get too high on our horses about Google and China, we should remember that the Chinese are not the only ones putting pressure on Google in ways that are arguably harmful to freedom of expression, even when intentions are honorable. A growing number of governments – many democratically elected – share an attitude that internet companies should be expected to act as "net nannies" for their citizens.


    • Google 'scam' suggestion condemned by high court
      A Paris court of appeal has ruled against Google in a defamation case lodged by the Centre National Privé de Formation a Distance (CNFDI) in a suit which claimed the search engine's 'Suggest' feature linked the organisation to the word 'scam'.






  • Internet/Web Abuse/DRM

    • Tell the FCC: don't put a copyright loophole into net neutrality
      Tim from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "Last fall, the Federal Communications Commission proposed rules for "Net Neutrality" -- a set of regulations intended to help innovation and free speech continue to thrive on the Internet. But is the FCC's version of Net Neutrality the real deal? Or is it a fake? Buried in the FCC's rules is a deeply problematic loophole. Open Internet principles, the FCC writes, 'do not... apply to activities such as the unlawful distribution of copyrighted works.' For years, the entertainment industry has used that innocent-sounding phrase - 'unlawful distribution of copyrighted works' -- to pressure Internet service providers around the world to act as copyright cops -- to surveil the Internet for supposed copyright violations, and then censor or punish the accused users. Please visit RealNetNeutrality.org to learn more and sign EFF's open letter asking the FCC to remove the copyright loophole."








  • Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

    • 2nd Circuit Reinstates Antitrust Claim Against Online Music Providers
      An antitrust suit alleging price fixing by Sony BMG Music Entertainment and other producers, licensors and distributors of music on the Internet has been reinstated by a federal appeals court.

      The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday said the pleadings of music purchasers were sufficient for plaintiffs to pursue their Sherman Act claim against companies who control more than 80 percent of music sold as digital files.


    • OiNK Admin Explains Why He Thought The System Was Legal
      Now that the trial is ongoing, Ellis is explaining that he didn't believe that what he did in running OiNK directly was copyright infringement, even if users of OiNK may have infringed on copyright (he does admit to downloading works via OiNK, however -- but that's separate from his admin role, and he claims that he only used it to sample new musicians, and bought the albums of those he liked).


    • This Is Why We Worry About Net Neutrality Regs: Loopholes For RIAA/MPAA
      This is what we worry about. It's great that the EFF is catching this particular loophole, but as more lobbyists get their hands on net neutrality regulations, they're going to slip in more and more loopholes like this that will turn what may have great intentions into something else entirely.


    • Trademark infringement claim: "100 BOOK CHALLENGE"
      My initial feeling is that they actually have a case. They have a product (see http://www.americanreading.com/products/...) called "100 Book Challenge" and they sell it. They have a registered trademark for it. Groups on LibraryThing with the same name, and somewhat similar conceptual domains, could be a potential problem.










Week of Monsanto: Video



The Future of Food - Introduction

Recent Techrights' Posts

BILD is Apparently Covering Up Cocaine Use at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, the European Patent Office, as It's Based on Germany
Journalist contact details
 
Flagging or Labelling LLM Slop Meaningfully to Discourage the Practice
We're still refining the annotation for better contrast
LLM Slop is an Addiction One Can Quit
Sites that crossed over to "the dark side" (slop) can still return, and even fully regain the trust lost by betraying people with 'botspew'.
Techrights Site Search Pushed to 'Stable'
we've just added it to the navigation menu and footer
Situation Publishing's DevClass (Sister Site of The Register MS, Run by MS Tim) Has Been Abandoned, Microsoft's MS Tim Now Interjects Anti-Linux Directly Into The Register MS
Not only does this sell Microsoft; it's also googlebombing - as before - the real "maui" (or "MauiKit" in Linux).
Many IBM Workers to Become Unemployed a Few Weeks - Maybe Just Days - Before Christmas
as one last humiliating exercise IBM pimps/trots them out in social control media, telling "happy" stories
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, WebProNews, and Linux Journal (Slopfarms)
More fake articles about "Linux"
Links 15/11/2025: Openwashing of Kubernetes and Austerity Planned for Canada
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Links 15/11/2025: "Small Web, Big Voice" and China Cracking Down on Slop
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Links 15/11/2025: Science, Conflicts, and International Politics
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Annus Horribilis at the European Patent Office (EPO)
The article explains how the EPO "Cocainegate" scandal is turning 2025 into an Annus Horribilis for Campinos
Links 15/11/2025: Latest in "Component Abuse Challenge" and Qt Keeps Promoting LLM Slop
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Gemini Links 15/11/2025: Egoism, Misunderstood Universe, DeX, and "Why desktop Linux is growing"
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Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 14, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, November 14, 2025
Richard Stallman Talk Tomorrow in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress 2
It's not clear if a livestream of some kind will exist
Many "Last Days" at IBM on Allegedly the "Last Day" for IBM to RA People This Quarter
"Last day" is "social media code" for "got laid off", more so at IBM because they compel people to act like it's a happy departure with gratitude, photos and so on
Slopwatch: Almost a Majority of Google News is Now Slopfarms (Fake Sites, Fake Articles)
Google News is noise
Gemini Links 14/11/2025: Boredom, "Twenty Percent Cooler", and Moving From Windows to Artix
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Links 14/11/2025: YouTube's Trap for Publishers, Lack of Accountability a Growing Legal Matter/Concern
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Many Times in the Past We Said That Microsoft Lunduke Was Becoming a Spokesperson/Voice for - and Occasionally Weaponising - 4Chan. He's Proving Us Right This Week.
Stay away
The Register MS is Profiting From Pyramid Schemes Run by Americans
We cannot help but feel disgusted by what this publisher became
IBM: Hiring, Then Disposing of, Unpaid or Low-Paid European Staff to Spread or Play Up Buzzwords and Hype
Like Google With "Summer of Code", this seems like a low-cost marketing stunt more than anything substantial
Casual Reminder That We Also Publish GNU/Linux Stories and News Coverage in Tux Machines
Without trust in our robustness (including fearlessness, not just success in protecting stories and sources) we'd not have come this far, nor would I devote my life to it
The Europe Conversation: The EPO Has Cocaine at the High-Level Management and Isn't Denying It
Now we plan to ensure the matter is properly documented in European press
Links 14/11/2025: Goddard Space Center Abused by the White House, Jeffrey Epstein Scandal Expands (Cheetos Need Distraction)
Links for the day
Corporate Media Helps IBM Relay Vapourware (Misinformation/Fake News)
They compensate with words for a lack of compelling products
Hacking on Recipes
Maybe, in due course perhaps, we can also release some of our own cooking recipes or "forks"
Web Searches Far Too Polluted, Gamed by LLM Slop and "Plagiarised Information Synthesis Systems" (PISS)
old articles are already getting difficult to find in mainstream search engines, even if they are still online
Privacy-respecting Metasearch Engine SearX/SearXNG Still Jailed by Microsoft
The official site and code still sadly controlled by Microsoft
"AI" is a Lie. It Always Was. What They Call "AI" Is Not.
This MSM does no favours to the economy
Our First Week of Our Twentieth Year
My wife and I have had a very productive week here and in Tux Machines
Links 14/11/2025: Sleep Research, France to Suspend Pension 'Reform' Law, and Linux Foundation's Latest Openwashing
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Gemini Links 14/11/2025: KDE vs XFCE and Leaving the Web
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Google Admits It Lost Control of Slop (While Google Itself is Selling Slop, Currently Under the Name "Gemini" Instead of "Bard")
Slop is nothing to be celebrated
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 13, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, November 13, 2025
Mozilla Handed Over Control Over Firefox to Microsoft, Now Firefox is Preloaded With Microsoft Spyware and It's Proprietary
Who would still want to download Firefox?
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Brian Fagioli, and WebProNews
becoming a slopfarm is a site's suicide
"Sponsored Posts" in The Register MS
That's The Register MS in 2025
IBM RAs in India (Apparently)
IBM is a bad place to work
Another Richard Stallman Talk in Two Days
His talk will be a remote talk, as he won't be travelling to Argentina
Links 13/11/2025: "Fight for Control Over In-Car Technology" and "Climate Crisis is a Health Crisis"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/11/2025: Disbelief in the Moon Landings and Doom That Came to Scrolling
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A Month After "End of 10" analytics.usa.gov Says More People Use Vista 7 Than Use Vista 11
Does it get any more pathetic than this?
Links 13/11/2025: Ghost (E-mails) of Jeffrey Epstein Chases Cheeto, Uproar Over SLAPP Threats Against British Broadcasters
Links for the day
IBM Layoffs Seem to Have Reached Europe
Is it Europe's turn to fall on its sword?
A Lot of What's Left of the Online "Media" is Paid-for SPAM
How much of online media can people still trust?
Synopsys, Which Controls a Microsoft FUD Operation (Black Duck), to Lay Off Hundreds of Workers
Microsoft had plenty of layoffs this year, well over 30,000 in total, including at least two waves of layoffs last month
The EPO Has Spent Years Attacking European Media, Led by a Cocaine Addict (the EPO's Spokesperson)
The EPO silences critics
Prominent German Media Dares Not Mention Cocaine at the European Patent Office, Germany's "Cash Cow" (Seller of Monopolies for the Whole of Europe)
It seems like a case of the corrupt hiring the corrupt to bully those who speak about the corruption
Techrights Protects Against Collective Amnesia (Forgetting History the Rich and Powerful Want Us to Forget or be Misled About)
Keeping full access to our material with a good search facility is a priority for us
Mainstream Media Compliments Techrights on Its Work
Google isn't "the Web" and this site isn't "the Web" either
Microsoft-Sponsored FSFE is Exploiting the Success of Jean-Baptiste Kempf to Market Itself and Its GAFAM-Funded Messaging (While Pretending to be "FSF" Europe)
No doubt Jean-Baptiste Kempf accomplished a lot (not limited to VLC) in not so many years
A Week of Techrights Search
Tomorrow it'll be one week since we turned 19
LLMs Will Never Work, You Need to Type What You Know
Voice recognition is too imprecise to be practical or really save any time if you can type fast
Your Computers Are Work and Entertainment Tools, Not a Fashion Statement
If you're into fashion, find another job or keep cruft out of the workplace
The Federation? Almost 90% of Its Users Have Quit Participating.
If one counts offline (historic) instances, it's even worse than this
Under IBM, Red Hat Isn't a Linux Company, It's Sold to Clients as "AI Company"
IBM is sacrificing Red Hat for Wall Street (share price)
IBM Will Carry on or Carry Out Mass Layoffs Until Tomorrow, Based on Unverified Claim (Silent Layoffs Under Secrecy Clauses/Deals)
Red Hat (as a "company" with a Web site) will probably never announce layoffs again
It Looks Like Microsoft is Really Abandoning XBox (the Brand "XBox" Means Just an Online "Games Store" or Streaming)
Published last night
The Register MS Has Just Taken Money to Promote Microsoft Windows Under the Guise of "HEY HI" (AI)
Just 'consume' the ads disguised as "journalism" at The Register MS
Apple is Waning, Shows Data (Web Stats)
Is Apple doing as well as Apple-sponsored (paid to run Apple ads) claims?
IBM is a Buzzwords Vendor
Does anyone even pay attention to anything IBM promises these days?
It's Patently False That Apple Has Avoided Layoffs
be sceptical of people who say Apple hasn't got layoffs
IRC.com is Vendor-Locked (Freenode)
Web client
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 12, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Slopwatch: Spam, Scams, and Plagiarised Information Synthesis Systems (LLMs)
The way things are going, LinuxSecurity might become entirely inactive
IBM "Trying to Memory Hole the RA With Positive News."
it's clear they have no real plan, just vapourware
Gemini Links 13/11/2025: Pictures From the Aurora and Cryptography of the Internet
Links for the day