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Links 2/12/2020: Multi-Touch Gestures in elementaryOS, DXVK 1.7.3



  • GNU/Linux

    • Server

      • Moving to a More “Open” Environment

        The expansion and proliferation of open source organizations such as the Linux Foundation and the OpenStack Foundation attest to how much open source projects have become mainstream.

      • Benefits of Hosting on A Linux Server [Ed: Is this a real article? No. It's borderline SEO spam, as the first link in it reveals.]

        One major benefit of Linux is that it doesn’t slow down over time as compared to Windows. As more and more programs and background processes are added the operating system gets addled with a lot of requests.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux 5.9.12
        I'm announcing the release of the 5.9.12 kernel.
        
        

        All users of the 5.9 kernel series must upgrade.

        The updated 5.9.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-5.9.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-s...

        thanks,

        greg k-h
      • Linux 5.4.81
      • Linux 4.19.161
      • Linux 4.14.210
      • Linux 4.9.247
      • Linux 4.4.247


      • OpenZFS v2.0.0 targets Linux and FreeBSD – shame about the Oracle licensing worries

        The OpenZFS project, formerly called ZFS on Linux, has released version 2.0.0 with major new features. The previous release was version 0.86 in October. Both Linux and FreeBSD are supported.

        ZFS is approaching 20 years old. It was developed in 2001 by Sun Microsystems, and open-source code was released with OpenSolaris in 2005. It was ported to FreeBSD in 2008, and in the same year the ZFS on Linux project started. In 2013 the OpenZFS project was announced. ZFS on Linux was an implementation of OpenZFS, but now that the project also targets FreeBSD from the same repository, it is called simply OpenZFS.

        Oracle Solaris also still exists and includes Oracle ZFS, though the OpenZFS project notes: "As Oracle's code is not open source, the OpenZFS wish to maintain compatibility with Solaris ZFS pool versions 29–35 is difficult to realize."

      • Developers boot Windows 10 and Linux via virtualization on Apple Silicon Mac

        Ever since Apple announced its custom ARM-based chipset for the Mac lineup, the Apple M1 SoC, modding enthusiasts have waited for the platform to be blown wide open. Users have theorized for a long time now whether it would be possible to boot Windows or standard Linux distributions on ARM Macs. After all, the mainline Linux kernel and Windows 10 are no strangers to the ARM world. All that’s left is the blood, sweat, and tears of developers interested enough in deciphering Apple’s custom ARM implementation. Now, thanks to the efforts of multiple developers, it is possible to boot Windows 10 as well as Linux on the Apple Silicon Mac, albeit via virtualization.

      • Graphics Stack

        • DXVK 1.7.3 Released With Fixes, Support For New DXGI Interfaces - Phoronix

          DXVK 1.7.3 is out as the latest stable update to this project implementing the Direct3D APIs atop Vulkan for accelerating the Linux gaming experience.

          DXVK 1.7.3 adds support for new DXGI interfaces recently exposed on Windows 10, an option for scaling the DXVK heads-up display on HiDPI displays, various fixes, and several optimizations. EverQuest 2 and Trine 4 also saw some targeted fixes.

        • Direct3D 9/10/11 to Vulkan translation layer DXVK 1.7.3 released | GamingOnLinux

          The open source DXVK project which translates D3D9, D3D10 and D3D11 to Vulkan for use with Linux and the Wine compatibility layer has a new release up.

          A little while between releases, since a lot of the current effort from contributors is going into VKD3D-Proton which is the D3D12 to Vulkan layer. Still though, DXVK isn't quite done and will see plenty of updates over time as and when needed.

        • X.Org Server 1.20.10 Allows For Larger Number Of Input Devices, Present Extension Fixes - Phoronix

          Following Tuesday's disclosure of more X.Org Server security bugs, X.Org Server 1.20.10 was released that provides those input fixes plus a number of other patches that have been back-ported and accumulated in the 1.20 series.

        • Microsoft Begins Landing Changes For Cross-Platform Support With Their Mesa D3D12 Code [Ed: Microsoft is interfering in Mesa development to make it more Windows- and Microsoft-leaning. See the comments: “Did they also include an option to uninstall the windows subsystem?” [...] “Is this worth celebrating? It means nothing for desktop Linux at all." […] "MS is firmly in the “Extend” phase of their conquest…”]

          Last month the Microsoft-backed Direct3D 12 Gallium3D driver was merged into Mesa 21.0. This is the driver for allowing graphics/compute APIs like OpenGL and OpenCL to run on top of Direct3D with Windows 10. That work to the Gallium D3D12 code has been continuing with the start of the cross-platform code now being merged.

    • Applications

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How to Create Abstract Desktop Backgrounds with Trianglify Wallpaper - Make Tech Easier

        Many people prefer using abstract desktop backgrounds as their desktop wallpaper since they allow you to stay focused on what matters: the foreground apps. It’s boring staying with the same wallpaper for months, but it also feels like wasting your time hunting down new abstract wallpaper. Why not try out Trianglify Wallpaper, an easy-to-use app that can make your desktop more exciting and somewhat dynamic?

        With Trianglify Wallpaper, you can manually create abstract desktop backgrounds based on triangular shapes and add color to your desktop. You can also set it on auto and let it loose to create and place new wallpaper on your desktop automatically. Let’s see how.

      • RHCE Ansible Series #10: RHEL System Roles
      • Linux Command Basics: 7 commands for process management | Enable Sysadmin

        If you're new to Linux and need help managing your processes, these basic commands are for you.

      • Upgrade Fedora 33 from Fedora 32 using DNF – If Not True Then False

        This is guide, howto upgrade Fedora 32 to Fedora 33 using DNF. This method works on desktop and server machines. You can also upgrade older Fedora installations (example Fedora 31/30/29) directly to Fedora 33.

        I have tested this method on several machines, but if you have problems, please let me know. Always remember backup, before upgrade!

      • How do i install MongoDB on CentOS / RHEL - LinuxTechLab

        It has been created keeping the current database requirement in mind for modern applications & the cloud era. MongoDB is very fast & has great performance when compared to the SQL database. MongoDB databases are very easy to scale & they also address various shortcomings that other SQL databases present.

      • Quickly Navigate Through Directory History In Fish Shell - OSTechNix

        Do you often work with large number of directories? I have a small tip for you. This brief guide explains how to quickly navigate through directory history using cdh, nextd and prevd commands in Fish shell in Linux.

        [...]

        A while ago, we discussed about pushd, popd and dirs commands which allows us to quickly navigate through a stack of directories. Unlike the normal cd command, the pushd, popd and dirs commands helps you to easily move back and forth between directories, without having to type the full path. These trio commands comes in handy when you are working with large number of directories and sub-directories. Today, we will learn three other similar commands namely cdh, nextd and prevd.

        As the name says, the cdh command allows you to change to the recently visited directories, the nextd command allows you to move forward through directory and the prevd command allows you to move backward through directory history.

        This set of three commands are available only in Fish shell and they are often used to navigate through the recently visited directories easily as well as quickly.

        The cdh, nextd and prevd commands are quite useful if you are often dealing with deep directory structure. You can quickly go forward or backward without having to the type the actual path of the directories. These triplet makes your CLI navigation better and faster!

      • How to Install and Setup Let’s Encrypt (Certbot) on Linux

        Getting an HTTPS certificate for your website is not anymore an optional choice. If you are a website developer, you might know that Google has already declared that those who have an SSL certificate into their website will get privileges to rank their website in the google search engine rank. Moreover, getting an SSL certificate makes your website secure, invulnerable, and trustworthy to the visitors. Now, there are many certification authorities to give your website an SSL certificate; the confusion is, which one should you use? While speaking of the SSL certificate, Let’s Encrypt is the most popular and free certification authority to grant your website an SSL certificate and make it secure. You can install and run the Let’s Encrypt on Linux and any other platforms.

      • How To Install Node Version Manager Tool - NVM on Linux System

        NVM is a cross-platform node version manager that can maintain a different version of nodes on your Linux system. Now, if you are familiar with working with Node.js, you might already know that there are plenty of versions of Node.js are available. NVM works with the help of the source-code of NodeJS and the Chrome V8 engine. The engineers of Google build the chrome V8 engine, and they made a collaboration with the NVM to offer the users a smooth and reliable user interface. You can install this tool on your Linux distribution to reduce the memory issue, to upgrade the Node.js file automatically on your system.

      • Free up Disk Space – Clear Systemd Journal Logs in Ubuntu 20.04 | UbuntuHandbook

        Going to free up Ubuntu system disk space? Try clearing the systemd journal logs, it may free up a few GB of space.

        By using the Disk Usage Analyzer tool, I found that /var/log/journal takes more than 4 GB system space in my Ubuntu 20.04.

      • Set up OpenStack on a Raspberry Pi cluster | Opensource.com

        In the year since the Raspberry Pi 4 was released, I've seen many tutorials (like this and this) and articles on how well the 4GB model works with container platforms such as Kubernetes (K8s), Lightweight Kubernetes (K3s), and Docker Swarm. As I was doing research, I read that Arm processors are "first-class citizens" in OpenStack. Since Raspberry Pi is built on Arm, I decided to test this theory by installing OpenStack on a Raspberry Pi cluster.

      • Vagrant beyond the basics - Fedora Magazine

        There are, like most things in the Unix/Linux world, many ways of doing things with Vagrant, but here are some examples of ways to grow your Vagrantfile portfolio and increase your knowledge and use.

        If you have not yet installed vagrant you can follow the first part of this series.

      • Verifying Linux Server Security: What Every Admin Needs to Know

        Linux is a widespread OS known for its robust security. That being said, vulnerabilities are inevitable in any OS, and Linux system administrators must be vigilant about monitoring and verifying the security of their servers on an ongoing basis in order to protect sensitive data and prevent attacks. After all, the majority of attacks on Linux systems can be attributed to poor administration.

      • Swap mouse buttons via key shortcut in Gnome - Lukáš Zapletal

        Gnome provides an easy way to swap mouse buttons which is a useful feature for left-handed people. I am right-handed, however I am trying to swap mouse in my hands to compensate and prevent injury. Swapping buttons via Mouse and Touchpad settings is slow and clunky.

        You will find many tutorials on how to swap buttons from the command line but these are XOrg or xinput remappings. I wanted to do it consistently so Gnome is not confused and also the Mouse and Touchpad dialog or other applications work properly.

      • Parsing sudo JSON logs: building a syslog-ng configuration - Blog - syslog-ng Community - syslog-ng Community



        The latest version of sudo, version 1.9.4 includes support for JSON formatted logging. Compared to traditional sudo logs, it has the advantage of containing more information in a structured way. While traditional sudo logs are also parsed automatically by syslog-ng, it is worth taking a look at the new JSON formatted logs.

        From this blog, you can learn how the new logs look like and also a configuration working with these logs. Instead of just posting a complex configuration, I try to show you how my configuration was built. Creating a new configuration in smaller iterations makes the resulting configurations easier to debug.

      • The 50 Most Useful Zypper Commands for SUSE Linux Users

        If you are a veteran Linux user like me, chances are you have come across the term SUSE Linux. It is one of the most powerful, enterprise-ready Linux distribution and is used by a plethora of companies worldwide. In fact, SUSE was the first Linux distribution marketed for businesses. SUSE has two variants – a free, open-source version called openSUSE and a commercial solution named SUSE Linux Enterprise. The zypper command-line utility is the de-facto package management solution for both of these variants. In this guide, we will provide some practical instructions on how to use this tool.

      • How to Install HTTP Git Server with Nginx on Ubuntu 20.04

        Git is a free and open-source versioning system developed by Linus Torvalds. It is used by millions of developers around the world. GitHub also offers free code hosting service. However, the free service doesn’t allow private hosting of the code. In this case, you can host your own code hosting server with Git HTTP server. This will give you full control on the server.

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install and configure Git HTTP server with Nginx on Ubuntu 20.04.

      • How To Install Virtualmin on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Virtualmin on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Virtualmin is a powerful and flexible web hosting control panel for Linux and BSD systems. With Virtualmin, you will be able to manage Apache, Nginx, PHP, DNS, MySQL, PostgreSQL, mailboxes, FTP, SSH, SSL, Subversion/Git repositories, and many more.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step by step installation of Virtualmin on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian based distribution like Linux Mint.

      • How To Use A Keyboard Shortcut To Toggle Always On Top On GNOME, KDE, MATE, Xfce and Cinnamon Desktops

        This article shows how to use a keyboard shortcut to set a window to be always on top, on GNOME, MATE, Xfce, Cinnamon and KDE Plasma desktops, as well as a generic shortcut that works with any EWMH/NetWM compatible X Window Manager (so this generic solution doesn't work on Wayland).

      • How to Check What GPU You Have

        If you have Linux, there are several ways to check the GPU it uses. Take a look at them in the next section.

      • How to install Go [golang] on Ubuntu Linux - nixCraft

        How do I install Golang on Ubuntu Linux for developing apps in Go?

        Go programming language (also known as “Golang”) originated at Google by Ken Thompson, Rob Pike, and others.

      • How to Install Node.js on Ubuntu 20.10 & 19.10 – TecAdmin

        Node.js is the popular language for frontend programming. A number of JavaScript frameworks available for quick build mobile and web application development.

        NVM is a Node Version Manager tool. Using the NVM utility, you can install multiple node.js versions on a single system. You can also choose a specific Node version for applications.

        This tutorial described you to how to install node.js on Ubuntu 20.10 and 19.10 system using NVM.

      • Linux ip Command Examples For Sysadmins and Developers
    • Games

      • Steam On Linux Marketshare Remained Flat For November - Phoronix

        Valve has just updated their Steam Survey results for November, showing how the Linux gaming marketshare continues to evolve during this pandemic-driven year.

        From August to October it was 0.89% to 0.94% to 0.90%... Generally keeping with the 0.8~0.9% average we have been seeing for quite the long while since the advent of Steam Play (Proton + DXVK) pushed up the percentages from the prior all-time lows.

      • Failbetter Games announce romantic visual novel Mask of the Rose, prequel to their others | GamingOnLinux

        Failbetter Games known for their fantastic games Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies and their popular narrative browser game Fallen London have revealed their next game with Mask of the Rose.

        Acting as a prequel to their other games set in the Fallen London universe, it's a romantic visual novel set in 1862 months after London was stolen by bats. Failbetter say the art style they went for is inspired by Film Noir, Victorian photography and Blitz-era Britain with it being an evolution of what began with Fallen London but with more detail and depth to the style.

      • Free and open source modern level editor 'LDtk' now ready for more users | GamingOnLinux

        Level Designer Toolkit (LDtk), which was originally known as 'LEd' has a huge new release out and the developer mentioned it's now ready for production. It's a modern, free and open source 2D level editor for indie developer with a strong focus on being as user-friendly as possible and it's being built by Sébastien Bénard, who was the former lead developer on Dead Cells.

        LDtk 0.6 rips off the Beta label and brings with it some huge features like a World Map, allowing you to organize levels in the project into different themes like a vast 2D map, a large grid system and also either horizontally or vertically.

      • Oxygen Not Included - Spaced Out! to enter Early Access on December 8 | GamingOnLinux

        Klei Entertainment are expanding their fabulous space-colony simulation game with the first full expansion in Spaced Out, which enters Early Access on December 8. I fear for my free time, as Oxygen Not Included sucks it away so easily.

        They've said like any normal DLC it will require the base game (it's not a standalone) and be priced at $14.99. When it leaves Early Access, the price of Spaced Out may rise based on the growing size of it.

      • The latest update to hybrid tower-defense sandbox factory game Mindustry is amazing | GamingOnLinux

        It's free, it's open source and it's absolutely awesome. Mindustry just had an almighty update bringing with it huge changes and it's just as awesome as ever.

        While the basics somewhat resemble Factorio for the factory building and production lines with elaborate supply chains of conveyor belts everywhere - that's really where the similarities end. It's much more about strategy and getting into the action of it all. It is quite easily my favourite open source game, as I wrote about before.

      • Tricky Towers is a really great game I've discovered far too late | GamingOnLinux

        After releasing originally in 2016, it seems Tricky Towers is one game that I just seemed to have forgotten all about and that's such a shame.

        During the recent Steam Autumn Sale, I decided to finally pick up a copy after it being in my wishlist for probably a very long time. As it turns out, this was a good idea because Tricky Towers is actually quite fantastic. Giving a warm blend of Tetris falling blocks, along with some physics and a touch of magic - it's a wonderful mix that keeps me wanting to come back for more.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Linux-Based PinePhone CE With KDE Plasma Mobile Available For Pre-Order
          After two weeks of the official announcement, pre-orders for the new PinePhone Community Edition (CE) with KDE Plasma Mobile has finally started.

          As you may know, this latest PinePhone KDE Community Edition is available in two hardware variant: the Regular edition (cost $149.99) with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of eMMC, and the Convergence Package (cost $199.99) with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC bundled with a USB-C dock to connect it to external peripherals like mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

        • KDE Plasma 5.20.4 Released with Bug Fixes and Improvements

          KDE team announced the 4th installment of Plasma desktop - KDE Plasma 5.20.4 with a month of bug fixes and improvements. This is what's fixed and new.

    • Distributions

      • Best Linux distros for power users in 2020

        The Linux power user is a celebrated breed, and one that does not simply burst fully-formed from the earth. All newbies must toil long and hard with their Linux installations before they can describe themselves as one.

        At the very least, the power user will have a great degree of skill concerning all things Linux, whether it's the kernel, Bash or package management systems – and they won’t be afraid to get their hands dirty in the name of configuring the system.

      • Multi-touch Gestures in elementary OS 6

        One of the most hotly requested features for years has been to have multi-touch gestures in elementary OS, and with 6.0 I’m excited to say that we will deliver. Like the dark style preference, delivering a great multi-touch experience is a little more complicated than it seems on the surface. There have been some 3rd party tools to detect touchpad gestures and then trigger actions after-the-fact, but it wasn’t until recently that we’ve had the technical ability to provide smooth, responsive animations that track 1:1 with your finger movement across a touchpad or touch screen.

        We’ve had the great pleasure of working with José Expósito, the author of Touchégg, on our window manager gestures. In elementary OS 6, we use Touchégg Daemon behind the scenes to capture input events and communicate them to Gala, our window manager.

      • elementary OS 6 to get great looking multi-touch gestures
      • Now and Then: The Fate of 15 More Linux Distributions

        A typical desktop Linux distribution consists of various software components including the Linux kernel, a broad collection of programming tools produced by the GNU Project, a graphical server, and other free and open source software.

        Due to Linux’s open source nature, there are many hundreds of actively maintained distributions or ‘distros’ of the OS. Linux distros are like Linux software in general. They come and (some) go.

        A few weeks ago we carried an article which tracked Linux distributions placed in the top 15 in 2006 on Distrowatch’s page hit ranking. The article proved popular, in part because it stoked controversy about the relevancy of the page hit ranking. We don’t use their hit ranking as a gauge of the popularity or usage of a specific distribution. But neither is there any evidence to show the page hit ranking is rigged. Instead, the hit ranking acts as a rough barometer of which distributions are attracting interest.

      • New Releases

        • Budgie 10.5.2 Desktop Environment Released with Support for the GNOME 3.38 Stack

          More than a year in the works, Budgie 10.5.2 is here with a wide range of changes, starting with support for GNOME Project’s latest GNOME 3.38 stack. However, Budgie still supports the older GNOME 3.36 stack to make it easier for Linux OS maintainers to backport it to older operating systems.

          The biggest new feature in this release is the new desktop icons implementation called Budgie Desktop View. While an initial release, it already supports single (default) or double-click for launching items. However, future releases will bring drag and drop support, keyboard navigation, and GTK4 support.

      • BSD

        • From Unix to Linux: Key Trends in the Evolution of Operating Systems (Part 2)

          According to the McKusick article cited earlier, BSD's popularity seems to stem from the cost-free distribution of the system, more than from any technical superiority over Bell Labs’ Unix. As I mentioned, AT&T had no scruples about folding BSD innovations back into Unix. The C code in BSD now looks dated and sometimes a bit scary, but the tools and operating system were production-ready and popular.

          When Digital Equipment Corporation brought out their VAX minicomputers as a replacement for the PDP series, the Berkeley crew grabbed the VAX Unix port from AT&T and built a new version of BSD on it. Mini-computers became a central part of the computing landscape in the late 1970s and early 1980s (before personal computers became commercially available), and BSD's popularity grew along with the VAX. A popular warning was, "All the world is not a VAX." This referred to bad habits that computer science students were picking up because the VAX helpfully did things such as provide them with zeroed-out memory if they failed to initialize the memory explicitly. If programmers relied on finding zeros in uninitialized memory, their programs would go horribly wrong when ported to other systems. This was now a world where programmers expected to move between computer systems, and take their programs with them. That world was created by Unix and BSD.

          BSD was also the impetus for the great eruption that brought Unix into the commercial mainstream: the founding of Sun Microsystems. Bill Joy and his colleagues took advantage of the permissive BSD license to sell computers with their enhanced version of BSD, called SunOS. Sun Microsystems’ workstations and mini-computer servers wiped out a generation of other mini-computer companies and started to set the standard for modern computing and networking—all based on SunOS, which meant BSD.

        • Most Reliable Hosting Company Sites in November 2020

          The most reliable hosting company site in November 2020 was New York Internet (NYI), which responded to all of Netcraft’s requests in November. NYI offers a comprehensive set of hybrid IT solutions across cloud, multi-cloud, colocation and bare metal in its US data centres. So far in 2020, NYI has appeared seven times in the top 10.

          In November, the top eight sites each responded to all of Netcraft’s requests and were separated by average connection time. Webair appeared in second place. The hosting provider has provided managed hosting solutions for over 18 years and offers colocation across North America, Europe and Singapore.

          Hyve Managed Hosting wraps up the podium places, in third. Hyve provides a range of services including cloud hosting for business with full management services. These services are complemented by 35 data centres across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia.

          Whilst Linux continues to dominate the top 10, FreeBSD makes an appearance in first place in November with NYI.

      • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

      • Arch Family

        • BlackArch Linux 2020.12.01 Released With 100+ New Hacking Tools
          As we’re heading toward the end of 2020, BlackArch team has released its second and last new snapshot of this year as BlackArch 2020.12.01.

          The latest version includes Linux kernel 5.9.11, updated system packages, config files, and tools. It has also added more than 100 new hacking tools, which lead to the total count of tools in BlackArch to 2608.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • The Best RedHat-based Linux Distributions

          Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a hugely popular enterprise-level operating system that supports a diverse range of open-source technologies such as Ansible automation, Hybrid Cloud, virtualization, and containerization.

          In this guide, we highlight some of the most popular and widely used Linux distributions based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Canonical Releases Major Ubuntu Kernel Updates to Address 14 Vulnerabilities

          A total of 14 security vulnerabilities have been fixed in these new major Ubuntu kernel updates, including a race condition (CVE-2020-0423) that may lead to a use-after-free vulnerability, discovered in Linux kernel’s binder IPC implementation. This flaw affects Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS systems, and could allow a local attacker to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code.

          Affecting all supported Ubuntu releases, this kernel update addresses a Bluetooth security vulnerability (CVE-2020-10135) discovered by Daniele Antonioli, Nils Ole Tippenhauer, and Kasper Rasmussen, which could allow a physically proximate attacker to impersonate a previously paired Bluetooth device.

        • Watch Live TV on Linux With Hypnotix: A New IPTV Application Being Developed by Linux Mint Team

          The rise of streaming services like Netflix made people speculate about the dim future of TV channels. While the newer generation might not watch TV anymore, TV channels are not out of fashion, yet.

          Many streaming services like Hulu and Hotstar include TV channels in their offering. TV channels are also utilizing live streaming to broadcast their content to viewers on the internet.

          Another way to watch live TV is by using IPTV. There are a number of TV channels available via IPTV so that viewers can use internet to watch the live broadcast. Some channels are available for free while some might require subscription.

        • Forecasting the future of cloud with OpenStack experts | Ubuntu

          OpenStack, the cloud computing platform, has proved to be a beacon of success for open source. It rounds off 10 years in existence this year, a period which has seen it reach nearly 200 countries, and we want to look ahead to what the future holds for the technology. We’ve spoken to a number of journalists and other leading experts, including the Open Infrastructure Foundation, the organisation which manages the development of the technology, to understand how OpenStack may develop in the future.

          While we’ve seen businesses of all sizes adopt OpenStack to embrace the cutting edge and engage with the likes of AI and containers, predicting its next steps is not such an easy question to answer. John Leonard, Research Editor from the UK’s Computing, explains: “That’s a little hard to say. Open source is now the default rather than the exception and there are many more open source collaborations now covering different areas, notably the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). I expect OpenStack will end up focusing on areas of IaaS less well served by Kubernetes, perhaps around serverless and storage innovations.”

          [...]

          Tytus Kurek, Product Manager at Canonical believes the foundational element of OpenStack will prove important; “Whereas the interest has long spread to other technologies, OpenStack remains the foundation of private cloud infrastructure across many organisations. In the following years we’re expecting to see continuous improvements around its stability, security and integration as well as supportability for 5G, AI/ML, edge and even more advanced use cases.”

          What’s vital though, is no matter how they grow over the coming years, OpenStack and its contemporaries remain true to the foundations and virtues of open source – ensuring that as many people can contribute and benefit.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • GNU Guix: Welcome our intern for the Outreachy 2020-2021 round

        We are thrilled to announce that Magali L. Sacramento (IRC: lemes) will join Guix as an Outreachy intern over the next few month.

        [...]

        Magali will work on adding a subcommand to Guix showing the history of all packages. This will facilitate the use of guix time-machine and inferiors, as it will add support to easily search for a given package version on all the defined channels.

        Simon Tournier will be the primary mentor, with Gábor Boskovits co-mentoring, and the whole community will undoubtedly help and provide guidance, as it has always done.

      • Outreachy Kicks Off Winter 2020 Round With Several Interesting Open-Source Projects - Phoronix

        Outreachy interns have been announced for the winter 2020 round. Selected participants are working on various open-source tasks from December through March in exchange for a $5,500 USD stipend to become involved with open-source.

      • Web Browsers

        • Mozilla

          • Taskcluster's DB (Part 3) - Online Migrations

            A few of the tables holding data for Taskcluster contain a tens or hundreds of millions of lines. That’s not what the cool kids mean when they say “Big Data”, but it’s big enough that migrations take a long time. Most changes to Postgres tables take a full lock on that table, preventing other operations from occurring while the change takes place. The duration of the operation depends on lots of factors, not just of the data already in the table, but on the kind of other operations going on at the same time.

            The usual approach is to schedule a system downtime to perform time-consuming database migrations, and that’s just what we did in July. By running it a clone of the production database, we determined that we could perform the migration completely in six hours. It turned out to take a lot longer than that. Partly, this was because we missed some things when we shut the system down, and left some concurrent operations running on the database. But by the time we realized that things were moving too slowly, we were near the end of our migration window and had to roll back. The time-consuming migration was version 20 - migrate queue_tasks, and it had been estimated to take about 4.5 hours.

            When we rolled back, the DB was at version 19, but the code running the Taskcluster services corresponded to version 12. Happily, we had planned for this situation, and the redefined stored functions described in part 2 bridged the gap with no issues.

      • CMS

      • Programming/Development

        • The 20 Best Matlab Books For Beginner and Expert Developers [Ed: Better to use GNU Octave, which is Free software and similar]

          MATLAB is short for Matrix Laboratory. MATLAB is the simplest and most profitable computing climate for researchers, scientists, and engineers. It incorporates the MATLAB language, the main programming language devoted to numerical and specialized computing. You can utilize MATLAB for a scope of utilizations, including Artificial Intelligence, signal preparing and interchanges, picture and video handling, deep learning, control frameworks, test and estimation, and computational science. Thus, in this modern era, it has become very crucial to learn MatLab, and for the appropriate guidance, an adequate set of MatLab books is inevitably important.

        • Why I love Emacs

          I'm a habitual Emacs user. I didn't choose Emacs as much as it chose me. Back when I was first learning about Unix, I stumbled upon a little-known feature in a strange application called Emacs, which was apparently hidden away on my computer. Legend had it (and was proven true) that if you typed emacs into a terminal, pressed Alt+X, and typed tetris, you could play a falling-blocks game.

          [...]

          That was my introduction to GNU Emacs. While it was frivolous, it was also an accurate indication of what Emacs is all about—the idea that users can reprogram their (virtual) worlds and do whatever they want with an application. Playing Tetris in your text editor is probably not your primary goal on an everyday basis, but it goes to show that Emacs is, proudly, a programming platform. In fact, you might think of it as a kind of precursor to Jupyter, combining a powerful programming language (called elisp, to be exact) with its own live environment. As a consequence, Emacs is flexible as a text editor, customizable, and powerful.

          Elisp (and Common Lisp, by extension) aren't necessarily the easiest languages to start out on, if you're used to Bash or Python or similar languages. But LISP dialects are powerful, and because Emacs is a LISP interpreter, you can build applications, whether they're Emacs plugins or prototypes of something you want to develop into a stand-alone project. The wildly popular org-mode project is just one example: it's an Emacs plugin as well as a markdown syntax with mobile apps to interpret and extend its capabilities. There are many examples of similarly useful applications-within-Emacs, including an email client, a PDF viewer, web browser, a shell, and a file manager.

        • Perl/Raku

          • Santa is pseudo packaging | Playing Perl 6␛b6xA Raku

            Santa needs to know where all the chimneys are. Thanks to schedule constraints, a single subroutine call has to do to query multies defined in a bunch of modules.

          • Development community that we can see to development of Perl Part1 - C language specification creating group | Yuki Kimoto Perl Blog

            The Perl core team seems to be looking for resources to help in language development.

            Currently, it seems the material in python.

            perlgov: the perl governance document

            I feel that Perl and Python cultures are quite different.

            It's also based on an improvised document in 2019 when the Python reader quit.

            I can understand how envious we are when we see Python attracting users(although I'm watching a lot of cheating at the same time).

            On the other hand Perl has long been a conservative culture.

            So, we can refer to the methods used by developers of languages, operating systems and tools that also have a conservative mindset.

            The first thing I would like us to refer to is the method used by the group that creates C language specifications.

        • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

          • Everything You Need to Know About Bash For Loops in Linux

            A bash script is simply a plain text file containing a series of commands that the bash shell can read and execute. Bash is the default shell in pre-Catalina macOS, and most Linux distributions.

            If you’ve never worked with a shell script before, you should begin with the absolute simplest case. This will allow you to practice key concepts including the creation of the script and its execution.

          • Re-format blah,YYYYMMDD,blah as blah,YYYY,MM,DD,blah

            This exercise was inspired by a recent article by Girish Managoli. He showed how to prepare a data table for machine learning using simple shell tools.

  • Leftovers

    • John Wilson’s Magically Poignant Urban Histories

      John Wilson rarely appears on-screen in his HBO docuseries How To… With John Wilson, despite being its star and namesake. When he does, he’s usually standing in front of a reflective surface like a mirror or a window, holding a camera, with his eye looking through the viewfinder, and staring straight ahead. The series documents his seemingly habitual need to film everything around him. He compulsively chronicles his life from behind the camera, observing his immediate surroundings and preserving an image of fluctuating New York neighborhoods. Wilson’s dual roles as a memoirist and archivist doesn’t typically place him in the frame, but his ubiquitous voice-over contextualizes and dictates everything we see. Eventually, some patterns emerge in Wilson’s footage: the piles of trash that fill New York’s streets, milling crowds circulating through Midtown Manhattan, NYPD officers either on the job or loitering about, and leashed dogs defecating on the sidewalk. But Wilson’s camera prefers to fix on people engaged in public in unguarded private moments, surrounded by strangers and with the specters of gentrification and urban renewal irrepressibly present. His gaze quickly becomes our own, and we see the world through his eyes, where seemingly everyone can be alone in a crowd.

    • Work & Home balance nonsense

      We need to recap a few things - so if you feel you "got the point" - don't hate me (just yet).

      If you are not a workaholic and simply feel you're a victim of a sub-optimized work environment you find yourself in, then bootcamp yourself out it. Set a schedule and then follow it. Strictly. If you waver from it, if you go back to smearing, it's your fault. In fact, if you actually REDUCE your work hours, you may discover the time pressure will help you keep focused. Because working against deadlines seems to motivate people, go figure.

      The mindblowing revelation is when you discover you can do your typical work load in just 3-4 hours, and then use the rest of the time to enjoy your home, fully and unreservedly and without glancing at your stupid inbox every 15 minutes for that "urgent" email. Relax. If your work is truly urgent, you won't be working from home to begin with.

      But ... but ...

      The second mindblowing revelation is when you realize your (bad) manager may realize that you have extra 3-4 hours spare time, and then they try to cram in more work for you, because why not have 2x results without paying 2x more! Golly.

      This is something that is very hard to fix. Bad managers are a pandemic of their own, and there's no vaccine.

      I've discussed that in my perfect IT team article. Giving magic solutions would be highly arrogant of me. Like I said, there's really no silver bullet solution here. The best you can do is to stick with your own schedule, not deviate from it, and try as much as you (as much as your reality tolerates) not to give in to more work and bullshit from people who have zero respect for your life and needs.

      In the end, it comes down to things you do control. You don't control your manager or other people. But you do control your home, your work. Focus on that.

      [...]

      The story of the work/home balance is not one of pandemics or realities where people suddenly find themselves working from home, and the boundaries between their office and home are blurred. No. That's just the manifestation of a deeper problem. The problem is the paradox of free time.

      For inefficient people with low self-discipline, free previously-work time will translate into work time, or they will allow others, like their managers, to dictate their schedule, both of which are self-made decisions. There is no golden formula that solves it, but keeping to a strict timetable can restore some of the so-called work/home balance, which, generally speaking, if you talk about it, YOU have a problem. Introspection. Step number one. We're done here. Now you can go back to pretending to looking busy - keep that IM icon all green and active.

    • Health/Nutrition

      • Appalachia’s Hospital Closures Are a Slow-Motion Health Care Emergency

        The ongoing struggle for racial justice. The future for immigrant families. The health and well-being of all Americans. The very fate of our fragile planet. The United States faces a crossroads in 2020. Seeking out the stories flying under the national radar, The Nation and Magnum Foundation are partnering on What’s At Stake, a series of photo essays from across the country through the lenses of independent imagemakers. Follow the whole series here. This installment was produced with support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.€ 

        Even before the coronavirus, America’s health care system was in crisis. Skyrocketing costs for patients, an accelerating work pace for nurses and other health care workers, and a tangle of private and public insurance bureaucracy throw up barriers to care for millions of Americans. But this doleful situation isn’t for lack of doctors, or lack of facilities, not really. At heart, what is strangling America’s health care system is that we still don’t count health care among the human rights to which we’re all entitled—we still largely view the health of our fellow citizens as another potential source of profit.

      • 268,000 People Died and Scott Atlas Shrugged: Trump's "Most Dangerous" Covid Adviser Quits

        Atlas brought no expertise in infectious diseases but plenty of misinformation to the position.

      • Going "Back to Normal" Is Too Dangerous to Even Contemplate

        If the underlying trends don’t change, after Biden we could have Trumps as far as the eye can see. And health and environmental crises that make the coronavirus another step toward Armageddon.

      • ‘The Ones With the Most Risk Are the Ones We’re Most Ill-Prepared to Reach with the Vaccine’

        Janine Jackson interviewed U Penn’s Ravi Gupta about vaccine infrastructure for the November 20, 2020, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

      • States With Few Coronavirus Restrictions Are Spreading the Virus Beyond Their Borders

        For months after Washington state imposed one of the earliest and strictest COVID-19 lockdowns in March, Jim Gilliard didn’t stray far from his modular home near Waitts Lake, 45 miles north of Spokane.

        The retiree was at high risk from the coronavirus, both because of his age, 70, and his medical condition. Several years ago, he had a defibrillator implanted. So he mainly ventured out during the pandemic to shop for food.

      • “Part of the Solution”: Meet the Black Doctor Who Joined a Vaccine Trial After Her Dad Died of COVID

        As the drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna seek emergency approval for their coronavirus vaccines, public health bodies and regulators are weighing how to distribute the vaccines and who will get access to them. The pandemic is disproportionately impacting African American, Latinx and Indigenous communities, exposing long-standing inequities and systemic racism in the U.S. healthcare system. These same communities are underrepresented in the clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines, due in part to centuries of abusive treatment at the hands of medical researchers. We speak with Dr. Chris Pernell, a public health physician in Newark, New Jersey, who is participating in Moderna’s vaccine trial, in part as a way to honor her late father who died from COVID and to ensure African Americans are included in the studies. “Being a public health physician, I needed a way to be a part of the solution,” she says. “I knew it was important for Black and Brown persons to participate if we were ever to get at a truly effective solution.”

      • Vaccine Ethics: Doctor Warns Against Paying People to Get COVID Vaccine as U.S. Preps Distribution

        As distribution of coronavirus vaccines draws near, a recent poll suggests that 42% of Americans are reluctant to take the vaccine. In response, some, including former Maryland congressmember and presidential candidate John Delaney, are pushing to pay people to get vaccinated, a move being discouraged by many, including Dr. Monica Peek, a physician, associate professor of medicine and health disparities researcher at the University of Chicago. She says there are major concerns about how to ensure at-risk groups get vaccinated while overcoming public doubts about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, but paying people to get vaccinated would be a mistake. “We need to have the public trust that this vaccine will be safe, and we cannot cut corners,” she says.

      • World AIDS Day Is Grim Reminder of an Ongoing Epidemic, with 700,000 Dead from HIV/AIDS in 2019

        December 1 is World AIDS Day, and as the world waits on an effective vaccine for COVID-19, we look at the ongoing AIDS epidemic and how the coronavirus has threatened treatment for those living with HIV. Author and journalism professor Steven Thrasher says the coronavirus has amplified racial, class and other disparities, just as AIDS has done for decades, and that treatments must have an antiracist and anti-capitalist foundation in order to be successful. ”HIV/AIDS has continued to kill way too many people. Almost 700,000 people died last year,” says Thrasher. “The problem is not just the drugs. It’s the conditions around people’s lives that lead them to become affected by viruses.”

      • Canada Is Now Paying the Price for Privatizing Its Vaccine Research and Production Lab

        Unfortunately, we’ve ventured a long way from the days when we had a publicly owned and medically innovative enterprise that dazzled on the world stage and kept Canadians at the front of the line for vaccines.

      • Tests Reveal Toxic 'Forever Chemicals' in Aerial Pesticide Showered Over Millions of Acres in US

        "These findings shock the conscience."

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Pseudo-Open Source

          • Openwashing

            • 5 collaboration tips for using an open source alternative to Google Docs

              ONLYOFFICE Docs is highly flexible in how you can store documents. By default, you can use ONLYOFFICE Docs within an ONLYOFFICE Workspace. This provides a productivity solution for managing documents and projects. It's the clear way to use ONLYOFFICE Docs because it's included; when you install one, you get the other.

              However, the full ONLYOFFICE suite can be integrated with ownCloud, Nextcloud, and other popular sync and share platforms. Helpful connectors are available in your sharing platform's official app store or on GitHub.

          • Privatisation/Privateering

            • Linux Foundation

              • Linux Foundation to offer new entry-level IT certification

                There’s a new certification that’ll help prove your credentials as you start your IT career. Designed by the Linux Foundation, the certification will help prove your proficiency in IT and can be used to join the workforce at an associate level or as a stepping stone to more advanced courses.

        • Security

          • Security updates for Wednesday

            Security updates have been issued by Debian (brotli, jupyter-notebook, and postgresql-9.6), Fedora (perl-Convert-ASN1 and php-pear), openSUSE (go1.15, libqt5-qtbase, mutt, python-setuptools, and xorg-x11-server), Oracle (firefox, kernel, libvirt, and thunderbird), Red Hat (rh-postgresql10-postgresql and rh-postgresql12-postgresql), SUSE (java-1_8_0-openjdk, python, python-cryptography, python-setuptools, python3, and xorg-x11-server), and Ubuntu (linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.4, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.4, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.4, linux-hwe-5.4, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.4, linux, linux-aws, linux-azure, linux-gcp, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-raspi, linux, linux-aws, linux-azure, linux-kvm, linux-lts-trusty, linux-raspi2, linux-snapdragon, python-werkzeug, and xorg-server, xorg-server-hwe-16.04, xorg-server-hwe-18.04).

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Some Liberals and Arms-Control Experts are Cheering for War Profiteers to Be in Biden’s Cabinet

        Rationalizations are plentiful, but the results are dangerous. It’s an insidious process — helping to set low standards for the incoming administration. Enablers now extol potential Cabinet picks who’ve combined pushing for continuous war and hugely expensive new weapons systems with getting rich as dealmakers for the military-industrial complex.

        As journalists have€ brought to light, Antony Blinken and Michèle Flournoy shamelessly teamed up to cash in while rotating through high positions at the State Department and Pentagon. At the same time, Blinken (the Biden nominee to be Secretary of State) and Flournoy (in the running for Secretary of Defense) have backed nonstop U.S. warfare.

      • The History of the Decline and Fall of the American Empire

        Or what it means to fall on a failing planet.

      • Dispossession and Imperialism Repackaged as "Feeding the World"

        In 2014, the€ Oakland Institute€ found that institutional investors, including hedge funds, private equity and pension funds, are eager to capitalise on global farmland as a new and highly desirable asset class. Financial returns are what matter to these entities, not food security.

        Consider Ukraine. The organisation Grain found that in 2014 small farmers operated 16% of agricultural land in that country, but provided 55% of agricultural output, including: 97% of potatoes, 97% of honey, 88% of vegetables, 83% of fruits and berries and 80% of milk. It is clear that€ Ukraine’s small farms were delivering impressive outputs.

      • Warning of International Law Violations, Rights Groups Demand Halt to Trump Weapons Sale to UAE

        "In Yemen, airstrikes by the Saudi- and Emirati-led Coalition are responsible for the majority of civilian casualties," 29 groups write in a new letter.

      • Don’t Expect Biden to Do Much About the War State

        In this mystifying moment, the post-electoral sentiments of most Americans can be summed up either as “Ding dong! The witch is dead!” or “We got robbed!” Both are problematic, not because the two candidates were intellectually indistinguishable or ethically equivalent, but because each jingle is laden with a dubious assumption: that President Donald Trump’s demise would provide either decisive deliverance or prove an utter disaster.

      • The New Humanitarian | Migrants in Bosnia face a harsh winter and growing animosity

        As winter approaches, concerns are growing among aid workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina about an acute shortage of housing and increasing hostility from authorities and locals towards approximately 10,000 asylum seekers and migrants stranded in the Western Balkan country bordering the EU. Since 2016, Bosnia has been an unintended waystation for people fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa and seeking a path to northern or western Europe through the Balkans after crossing from Turkey to Greece. The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, has recorded the arrival of nearly 68,000 people in the country since 2018. Most are looking to transit through to EU member state Croatia, and beyond, but end up stuck because Croatian border police systematically – and often violently – push asylum seekers and migrants back across the border, according to human rights groups.

    • Environment

    • Finance

      • House Democrats Demand Increase in IRS Funding to Go After 'Wealthy Tax Cheats'—Like Donald Trump

        "Millionaire tax dodgers like Donald Trump get away with paying little to no federal income tax in part because IRS funding has dropped over 20% since 2010."

      • #10. Revive Journalism with a Stimulus Package and Public Option - THE TOP 25 CENSORED STORIES OF 2019-2020

        Doubling the annual federal appropriations for public media over the next two years would require an additional $930 million. “This money isn’t for Downton Abbey reruns,” Aaron wrote. Instead, for example, it could be used to extend the successful model of using public media as an educational resource while students are home from school. In California, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the local PBS affiliate, KCET, have partnered “to offer instruction over the airwaves while kids are out of school, with separate channels focused on different ages,” Aaron noted. A congressional appropriation of at least $200 million could expand public media’s “Ready to Learn” initiative to cover all school-aged children. Any recovery package should also include direct support for daily and weekly newsrooms, including jobs at newspapers, community papers, and alt-weeklies committed to local news coverage. Just $625 million could help retain 25,000 newsroom jobs, Aaron reported. Congress could facilitate this investment by offering deferred or no-interest business loans and tax credits, such as Aaron’s proposed Emergency Jobs for Journalism Tax Credit, which would provide outlets with $40,000 per newsroom employee hired during 2020. COVID-19, Aaron wrote, provides an opportunity to “revive and reimagine journalism’s future.” Thus, as Aaron advocated, a future stimulus bill could include $2 billion for a “First Amendment Fund” that would support “new positions, outlets, and approaches to newsgathering.”

      • Tlaib Says Lack of Popular Stimulus Checks in Bipartisan Relief Plan Shows 'Disconnect' Between Senate and People

        "There may not be bipartisan support for an additional check" among Republican and Democratic lawmakers, said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, "but there is support outside of Congress."

      • Warren Presses Biden to Enact 'Effective Economic Stimulus' With Single Pen Stroke: Cancel Student Debt

        "All on his own," Warren said during a hearing with Fed chairman Jerome Powell, the incoming president "will have the ability to administratively cancel billions of dollars in student loan debt."

      • Open Letter to My Landlord: The Word of the Month is "Renegotiation"

        (Please forward to corporate, as far up the chain as possible.)

        First of all, in this household, we’ve long ago stopped responding to your bizarre annual surveys where you ask whether your tenants are content, without ever mentioning the elephant in the living€ room. € You give us options to rate how content we are, all of which are designed to reflect badly on your employees if we aren’t happy. € The reason we stopped responding to your survey is because€ it’s meaningless and pointless, but for the record, we think all of your employees are very nice, and you should pay them a living wage, too.

      • Russia’s Secret Service files $13-million lawsuit against businessman convicted of embezzling funds during construction of Putin’s residence

        Russia’s Secret Service, the Federal Protective Service (FSO), has filed a€ billion-ruble ($13-million) lawsuit against businessman Stanislav Kyuner, who was convicted of embezzlement during the construction of the presidential residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, RIA Novosti reports.€ 

      • #8. The Public Banking Revolution - THE TOP 25 CENSORED STORIES OF 2019-2020

        After California legislators enacted the state’s Public Banking Act, the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco announced plans to establish public banks. In November 2019, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy established a task force to create a business and operations plan for how a public bank could help meet the capital needs of the state’s small businesses, nonprofits, students, and affordable housing projects.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • We Know Joe

        Inauguration Day is the opening of a new front in the battle for the planet and those creatures who live on it. The Trump years were, more than anything, a forced retreat. The fascist and other reactionary forces unleashed by his occupation of the White House made major gains and they are determined to hang on to those gains. The eight years that preceded him were, in essence, not a forced retreat but part of a decades long retreat, nonetheless.

        It’s good that Biden is a conventional establishment politician. It is also bad. The history of the last four decades (with the exception of the Trump years) is the history of a nation ruled by conventional establishment politicians. It is good because we know their strategies and tricks. It is bad because those strategies and tricks can lull people into a political sleep.

      • Trump's Worst Crime Must Not be Forgotten
      • What Are We Gonna Do Now to Save Our Democracy?

        However, some people believe Trump may do a runner, seek refuge in a country without an extradition treaty with the US. Scotland’s out: They almost had an angus burger last time he was there. Maybe Turkey, Erdogan’d be willing; DJ could find a nice studio apartment, with views, near the Istanbul Red Light district and continue his pre-presidential pursuits. Or maybe he could slip into Papua New Guinea, start a cargo cult, blow a dogma whistle. There’s a South Pacific island what loves American militarism there and Spam has been a staple, ever since. And Trumpism is a kind of Spam.

        Meanwhile, there are practical, sane things we can do in America to save the Republic, before it degenerates into chaos and a previously unfelt ineffectuality brought on by a serious loss of face on the global stage. On that note, the ex-Singaporean ambassador to the UN recently put out a compelling scenario — Has China Won? The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy — that sees China taking advantage of the “chaos” in America, brought on by the Trump era, to seriously undermine the dollar as the global exchange currency. This would do some serious damage to the American economy and right-cross the glass-steagall jaw of the middle class, already reeling.

      • Russian state investigators deny reports of extremism probe over Navalny interview

        Media reports about the Russian Investigative Committee reviewing statements made by opposition figure Alexey Navalny for inciting extremism are untrue, the committee’s official spokesperson, Svetlana Petrenko, said on Tuesday, December 1.€ 

      • Don’t Fall for Pimping Pompeo’s Promises

        The extra-judicial assassination of Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist, is but another act of terror in an uptick in U.S. and Israeli military operations against the Iranian regime and its citizens. As the countdown to the January 20, 2021 deadline draws near, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and UAE’s window of opportunity to draw the U.S. into a war with Iran narrows.€  For the above-mentioned, there will never be another fifty-day opportunity to have a xenophobic megalomaniac unleash a “war like you’ve never seen before” on Iran. The sole purpose of this murderous assassination is to draw Iran into a military conflict with the U.S.

        Donald Trump’s four-year attempts to break Iran’s will have failed miserably; his vengefully maniacal regime of sanctions and verbal threats to impose a new, renegotiated nuclear deal (orchestrated by Netanyahu and the Foolish Gulf Arabs) is as dead as a nail. Having lost his second bid for the presidency, Trump has consigned himself to the sphere of denial, anger, and bitter rancor.

      • With Rent Due and Evictions Looming, Warren Rips McConnell for 'Disgraceful' Obstruction

        "McConnell and the Senate GOP still haven't reinstated the $600 unemployment checks, extended unemployment programs, passed rental assistance, or anything else in months to help struggling families during this crisis."

      • 'Utterly Arbitrary and Unlawful': Farmworker Groups Sue to Block Trump Wage Freeze

        An attorney for Farmworker Justice warned that, if allowed to take effect, the wage freeze would cause "grave harm to some of the most vulnerable workers in the nation."

      • How a Rahm Emanuel Appointment Would Hurt Biden and the Democrats

        An appointment for the notoriously abrasive former mayor of Chicago should be of even more concern to the new administration and the Democratic Party than it is to the left.

      • Trump’s Final Days: Who Stood Up to Him?

        The question after January 20, when Trump is gone from the White House, is how many Senate and House Republicans will find the integrity to stand up for America rather than bend to the conspiracy theories and hatefulness that will be the legacies of Trumpism.

      • 'All About the Grift': Trump Reportedly Raises Over $150 Million for Non-Existent 'Election Defense Fund'

        "Small donors who give to Trump thinking they are financing an 'official election defense fund' are in fact helping pay down the Trump campaign's debt or funding his post-presidential political operation."

      • #6. Shadow Network of Conservative Outlets Emerges to Exploit Faith in Local News - THE TOP 25 CENSORED STORIES OF 2019-2020

        The story of “[d]ozens of websites branded as local news outlets” in Michigan, a crucial swing state in the 2016 election, was originally reported by Carol Thompson for the Lansing State Journal in October 2019. The CJR report expanded on previous investigations conducted by Thompson, the Michigan Daily, and others, which had identified around two hundred sites in several states posing as local news outlets while publishing politically biased content.€ 

      • If Senate Democrats Are Sick of Losing, They Should Try Fighting

        The last three Supreme Court confirmation hearings have been a disaster for the Democrats. Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party were able to confirm all of Donald Trump’s nominees: Neil Gorsuch, alleged attempted rapist Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. These three justices now make up a third of the Supreme Court, and none of them should be on the bench.

      • Stacey Abrams
      • Can Democrats Really Win Georgia’s 2 Senate Seats?

        A vast multiracial coalition swept Joe Biden to victory in Georgia last month, with all racial groups turning out in record numbers, making Biden the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in almost 20 years. But a stunning 91 percent increase by Asian American/Pacific Islanders over 2016 exceeded expectations. Many were first-time voters; in Georgia’s Seventh Congressional District, including rapidly diversifying Gwinnett County, 41 percent of the AAPI residents who helped carry Democrat Carolyn Bordeaux to victory cast their first-ever ballots, researchers told The New York Times. Hispanic participation jumped an astonishing 72 percent.

      • The Future of the United States Is at Stake in Georgia

        The two U.S. Senate races there are a microcosm of America’s struggle to find a way forward.

      • Celebrating Another Maskless, Clueless, Death-Haunted, Staggeringly Hypocritical "Special Time of the Year"
    • Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

      • Establishment Journalists Are Piling on To Smear Robert Fisk Now He Cannot Answer Back

        Fisk was the constant reminder of just how much they had sold out. His very existence shamed them for what they were too cowardly to do themselves. And now in death, when he cannot answer back, they are feasting on his corpse like the vultures that they are.

      • ‘What we are seeing is unprecedented’ Journalists share firsthand accounts of the crackdown on press freedom in Belarus

        In Belarus, journalists covering the country’s ongoing protest wave continue to face arrests and even jail time. According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), nine journalists reporting on the protests in the fall of 2020 have been targeted with criminal cases, which threaten up to three years in prison. Several journalists facing charges are currently in pre-trial detention; others have fled the country. Hundreds of media personnel have been arrested, while dozens have been held in administrative custody or become victims of police violence. Press IDs and vests have long ceased to protect reporters — in fact, they’ve had the opposite effect, drawing the attention of law enforcement officers, who have started targeting journalists. The crackdown has even inspired solidarity protests in defense of members of the press. “Meduza” talks to journalists from Belarus to get their firsthand accounts of covering the opposition protests, facing persecution for their work, and resisting the pressure to leave the profession.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: We Must Rethink Our Society, from Policing to the Supreme Court
      • Tennessee State Rep Ask US Congress To Ignore Supreme Court Precedent And Outlaw Flag Burning

        Perhaps Tennessee State Representative Jay Reedy read the electoral room wrong on November 5 and thought his boy would remain president for another four years. Maybe he was just drunk on the success of securing his state rep position in the general election after a strenuous unopposed campaign. Whatever the case, Rep. Reedy is apparently hoping Congressional reps will return to Capitol Hill refreshed and ready to violate the Constitution.

      • These Visa Recipients Are Stuck in the US And Demanding Their Rights

        By mid-March, Mars was starting to worry. The 27-year-old was living and working in Little Rock, Ark., where the mayor had just imposed a midnight curfew. Restaurants and shopping malls were beginning to be shuttered. On March 20, Arkansas recorded the state’s biggest one-day spike in Covid-19 cases since the outbreak began.

      • Is the Nationalist Tide Receding?

        But it seemed on the wane after 1945, when the vast devastation of World War II—a conflict fostered by rightwing, nationalist demagogues—convinced people around the globe of the necessity to transcend nationalism and encourage international cooperation. Indeed, the widespread recognition of the interdependence of nations led to the creation of institutions like the United Nations (which established a modicum of global governance) and the European Union (which established a regional federation).

        Thus, it came as a shock when, during the second decade of the twenty-first century, a new generation of nationalists, invariably rightwing populists, made startling political breakthroughs in their countries. Feeding on popular discontent with economic stagnation and widespread immigration, nationalist demagogues like Matteo Salvini of Italy, Viktor Orban of Hungary, and Geert Wilders of the Netherlands stirred up mass support. In Britain, Nigel Farage’s new United Kingdom Independence Party spearheaded a campaign for a British exit from the European Union, leading to passage of a June 2016 Brexit referendum. In France, Marine Le Pen, leader of the neo-fascist National Front who focused on what she termed a battle between “patriots” and “globalists,” came startlingly close to election as her country’s president in 2017. Another flamboyant nationalist leader, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, campaigning under the slogan “Brazil Above Everything, God Above Everyone,” was elected his nation’s president with 55 percent of the vote in 2018.

      • #7. Underreporting of Missing and Victimized Black Women and Girls - THE TOP 25 CENSORED STORIES OF 2019-2020

        As Henry explained, a 2010 study of US media coverage of missing children found that “only 20 percent of reported stories focused on missing Black children despite [their disappearances] corresponding to 33 percent of the overall missing children cases.” The study concluded that missing persons stories involving Black children, and specifically missing Black girls, are reported on by corporate media less frequently than other missing children cases.€ 

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • Syscall User Dispatch Appears Destined For Linux 5.11 To Help Windows Games On Linux

        The Syscall User Dispatch support looks like it should be mainlined for the Linux 5.11 kernel. This functionality is important for modern Windows games running on Linux under Wine / Proton.

        Syscall User Dispatch has been in the works for a while as a kernel-level improvement for dealing with Windows games/apps that use system call instructions, bypassing the Windows API. Games avoiding the Windows API and performing system calls directly is an increasingly common occurrence by modern Windows games, seemingly in the name of Digital Rights Management schemes and similar protected modes. This though has been a problem for Wine (and Steam Play's Proton) when bypassing the conventional Windows APIs.

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • Not-Yet Filed Invention Rights [Ed: Dennis Crouch still calls patents "rights", which they are not, neither technically nor legally; those misnomers are nothing short of deliberately misleading propaganda]

          The Patent Act indicates that patents should be treated as if “personal property” and that both patents and patent applications are “assignable in law by an instrument in writing.” 35 U.S.C. 261. Section 102 also suggests that the claimed invention may already be “owned” prior to filing. 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(1)(C).

        • FOSS Patents: Federal Council of Germany has patent reform bill on agenda for December 18 session

          Just a quick procedural update on German patent reform: the Bundesrat (Federal Council) has patent reform on the agenda for its December 18 session--item no. 15 for the day. While I was pleased to see some improvement in early September, the legislative proposal that the German government (Chancellor Merkel's cabinet) ultimately decided to put on the table is worded in such a way that the courts would rarely even reach the question of proportionality, much less resolve it in a defendant's favor. I criticized various large companies for shooting themselves in the foot in this context.

          So what's the significance of that December 18 decision by the Federal Council going to be?

          The Federal Council is the co-legislative body in which the governments of the German federal states cast their votes. Just like in the U.S., patent law is federal law, not state law. Therefore, the Federal Council's influence is limited. Theoretically it could veto even a patent reform bill, but could then be overruled by a supermajority of the Bundestag (Federal Parliament). A veto won't happen here, realistically. Instead, the Federal Council will just express its views, which the Federal Parliament will then take into consideration.

        • Software Patents

          • Is it time to move on from the AI inventor debate? [Ed: Maybe the lawyers need to grow up and stop calling everything "HEY HI"; computer-generated patents reveal a flaw in the many assumptions about patents and the patent system]

            This Kat has long argued that the discussion of AI inventorship is premature (IPKat: The mirage of AI invention - nothing more than advanced trial and error?). However, the subject of AI inventorship remains (for want of a better word) trendy. Following the widely publicised submission of two patent applications purporting to have an AI inventor, the media and conference circuit was awash with discussion on the topic. However, in a welcome injection of realism into the debate, the majority of contributors to a recent USPTO public consultation on the topic (reported on IPKat here) were of the opinion that AI is not yet capable of invention.

            As previously discussed on IPKat, it is difficult to comprehend how an algorithm that is anything short of an artificial general intelligence (AGI), can be said to be capable of invention (IPKat: The first AI inventor - IPKat searches for the facts behind the hype). However, we are currently far away from anything that would approach an AGI. The capabilities of today's AI algorithms are restricted to narrow and well-defined tasks, as can be seen from a brief glance over Google/Deepmind's patent portfolio (see here). A major theme identified by the USPTO from the consultation results was that, based on the majority view that AGI has not yet arrived current AI could neither invent nor author without human intervention.

            [...]

            There are a number of ongoing consultations around the world on the topic of AI inventors and inventions, including a consultation by the UKIPO, which closes on 30 November 2020 (IPKat here). The hope is that results of these consultations will further help us to finally put the theoretical issue of AI inventorship to bed and allow the patent offices and national courts to concentrate on more practical issues.



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