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Links 24/06/2022: FidelityFX Free Software and a Look at PetaPi



  • GNU/Linux

    • Graphics Stack

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Peteris Krumins10 useful vim shortcuts

        I use these 10 vim shortcuts daily.

      • Jim NielsenDoing Well

        But how can you be certain you’re “doing well” if you don’t have a rudimentary understanding of these base layers of the web and how they translate to usable experiences? Or, for that matter, how can you know if you’re doing poorly? If you don’t understand how the underlying technologies of the web function you can’t anticipate how website experiences will degrade or fail and you therefore cannot build experiences that are resilient to those underlying layers.

        The good news is there's a beautiful, almost comforting, simplicity to making a website using the base layers of the web. All you need to start is HTTP, URLs, and HTML.

      • Chen HuiJingCan we enterprise CSS grid?

        Regardless of whether the title of this blog post is grammatically correct or not, this is a question that I’ve had the opportunity to tackle recently. And after meeting and chatting with a bunch of CSS folks at CSS Day, I figured it’d be a good time to organise my thoughts around this topic.

      • UNIX CopHow to reboot CentOS 9 Stream using the terminal

        Hello, friends. This short and simple post will help you reboot CentOS 9 Stream from the terminal. Let’s get started.

        When using a modern operating system, the process of rebooting, shutting down and suspending the computer can be done via graphical interface without much hassle. However, sometimes either via scripts or commands, it is useful to know how to reboot the system with another method.

        In short, we are talking about another method, such as via the terminal. Learning this can give us the opportunity to use it in configuration scripts or simply in the terminal.

        As you can notice, this post is oriented to beginners, but it can also help the more advanced ones to remember how to do it.

        Let’s get started.

      • ID RootHow To Install Apache Tomcat on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache Tomcat on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Apache Tomcat is an open-source web server that allows you to run web applications written in Java. Tomcat is a platform-independent tool and runs where Java is installed.

        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 the step-by-step installation of the Apache Tomcat on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Mirage on Debian 11 Bullseye - LinuxCapable

        Mirage is a fast and simple GTK+ image viewer because it depends only on PyGTK. If you want a decent image viewer and the ability to access it via command line, a fullscreen mode, slideshow mode, essential editing tools to resize/crop/rotate/flip, and a configurable interface, Mirage would be the most straightforward option.

        The following tutorial will teach you how to install Mirage on Debian 11 Bullseye using the APT package manager with the command line terminal.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to use modules from the Terraform Registry

        The Terraform Registry is a place where one can find different providers and modules (re-usable Terraform configurations) and use them with Terraform. In this tutorial, we will see how to use modules from Terraform Registry. We will see this by demonstrating an example of creating an EC2 instance on AWS.

    • Games

      • GamingOnLinuxSteam Summer Sale 2022 is live so prepare your wallet

        Another year, another big Steam Summer Sale. Time to load up your cart with all those games you will definitely get around to playing — right? Since this is the big event it comes with the usual fluffy extras like trading cards to earn, badges to craft and more. Really though, you all just want the sweet discounts though right?

      • GamingOnLinuxWith a quick script you can run Steam Deck Desktop Mode inside Gaming Mode

        We're going into ridiculous territory of tweaking now and the possibilities are seemingly endless on what you can do with the Steam Deck. You can even run the Desktop Mode inside of Gaming Mode.

      • GamingOnLinuxAlien Swarm: Reactive Drop devs detail their support of Proton and Steam Deck

        Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop, a community updated and expanded version of the free Alien Swarm originally by Valve continues to see lots of improvements. The developers also explained their clear support of Linux with Proton and the Steam Deck.

      • GamingOnLinuxProton Experimental gets Paladins working on Linux and Steam Deck

        Valve released a fresh upgrade for Proton Experimental on June 22nd which brings even more game compatibility to Linux desktops and Steam Deck.

      • GamingOnLinuxCyberpunk point and click adventure Born Punk is out now

        Born Punk is a brand new cyberpunk point and click adventure from developer Insert Disk 22. It just released on Steam on June 18th and now a Native Linux version is also available. Funded thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, it's nice to see a trickle of games still coming from the crowdfunding platform.

      • GamingOnLinuxFanatical offering a nice bundle of Steam Deck Verified games

        After some more games that should work great on the Steam Deck and so Linux desktop too? Fanatical have a fun looking bundle of games ready for you. Seems they took a hint from the recent bundle that Humble Bundle did. This is a sort-of build your own bundle, with the ability to add up to a total of 8 games from the selection with savings at 3, 5 or 8 picks.

      • GamingOnLinuxTeam Fortress 2 gets a surprise update fixing many problems

        Looks like Valve are getting back into fixing up Team Fortress 2, which has been a long-time coming and after fans have been campaigning to get Valve to do something.

      • GamingOnLinuxInscryption from Daniel Mullins Games now supported on Linux

        The mixture of a deckbuilding roguelike with escape-room style puzzles and psychological horror in Inscryption is now officially available for Linux with a Native build. Developed by Daniel Mullins Games and published by Devolver Digital, this very popular and well-reviewed game originally released back in October 2021.

      • MakeTech EasierWhat Is a Stream Deck and Should a Non-Gamer Buy One - Make Tech Easier

        If you’ve ever tuned into a Twitch stream, you might have wondered how a person manages all of the stuff going on in the stream while also playing a video game. The thing is, most of them are using a stream deck, and while they’re great for gamers, they’ve got lots of benefits for non-gamers, too.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Devuan Family

      • DevuanThe fight for Init Freedom: Devuan [PDF]

        [...] To start with, systemd is much more than an init system. Rather, as contributor dasein described on the Debian User Forums, “calling systemd an init system is like calling an automobile a cup holder”.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • UbuntuThe software operator design pattern: advantages – part 4 | Ubuntu

        The software operator is a design pattern. Its design is based on successful applications where this approach was found useful. In other words, it’s a proven approach that can be recommended to others. But like all approaches, it’s important to understand their advantages disadvantages. Software developers need to understand when the application of this pattern leads to a good solution and – perhaps more importantly – when it does not.

        [...]

        Installing a single application locally is straightforward in most cases. There are app stores and package managers for that. However, installing applications on remote servers is a more tedious task, which becomes more complicated as the number of applications increases. First of all, the login to these machines must be prepared and maintained. But manually maintaining logins does not scale very well. In fact, what is desired is an entity that controls the required provisioning of the machine and performs the required steps. The software operator design pattern, as a dedicated entity, can cover the execution of operational tasks and the remote login, at the same time.

      • systemd-oomd issues on desktop
        I have opened an upstream PR to implement this [1], and it seems
        upstream is OK with the idea in principle, but some more thinking
        needs to be done before it can be merged.
        
        

        Assuming we can push that change through upstream, service units will immediately benefit because .service files can configure the ManagedOOMPreference property. However, applications which are launched by gnome-shell or snapd run as transient scope units, which means the ManagedOOMPreference property needs to be set when e.g. systemd-run is invoked, as demonstrated in the example above. This means that a bit of integration work will be needed from snapd, gnome-shell, etc. to set ManagedOOMPreference=avoid on _some_ applications. This immediately raises new questions:

        1. Which services and applications should be given a setting of ManagedOOMPreference=avoid by default? 2. What is the interface to designate such applications? It seems to me that we would want to have a "single source of truth" from which gnome-shell, snapd, etc. can determine when ManagedOOMPreference=avoid should be set.
    • Devices/Embedded

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • Jeff GeerlingAnswering Questions about the PetaPi

        The first thing I tried was upgrading the firmware on the HBAs—four Broadcom 9405W-16i cards. I noticed they were on version 5, which was from November 2017. A lot has changed in the past five years, and HBAs and RAID cards see a lot of active development to fix bugs, optimize throughput, etc., since they basically run their own on-chip OS.

      • Jay LittleProof of Life: I Still Have Something to Say

        In fact the only downside of the Dev One is the shitty Realtek wireless card it ships with. If you buy one of these, I strongly suggest you crack it open and switch out the wifi card for an Intel AX200 or AX201. It is 100% worth it, especially as the machine does not come with an ethernet port. Despite the 5850U processor in the Dev One having a TDP that is 1/3rd of the TDP of the 4800H in the Pulse laptop, performance is about the same. Battery life is worse, but the Pulse has a 90+ watt hour battery whereas the HP has a 53 watt hour battery. Nevertheless I can get 6 to 8 hours on it with no problem, which is more than enough for me.

        In addition, the screen on the Dev One is beautiful. I honestly was scared shitless of buying this device because it only comes with a glossy screen and I have been using matte screens for so long that I wasn't sure how well I would be able to adapt. Nevertheless these fears proved to be baseless as the screen is phenomenal. In addition the laptop ships in a single configuration which is fine as the RAM, Storage and Wifi are all upgrade-able (provided you have a Torx T5 screwdriver) and yes I upgraded all of them. The free shipping is great as its overnight shipping. I literally ordered this thing last Monday and got it the following afternoon.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • YottaDBComparing YottaDB Web Framework Performance

        It is interesting to compare the performance of different web stacks and frameworks under simulated stress. To compare apples-to-apples, the database, the JSON string response to a REST query, and front-end load generator were the same.

        Of course, this end-to-end test only involves a single operation. Any real application consists of many operations at different layers in the framework, only a fraction of which are database accesses.

    • Programming/Development

      • D LangDIP1000: Memory Safety in a Modern System Programming Language Pt. 1

        D is both a garbage-collected programming language and an efficient raw memory access language. Modern high-level languages like D are memory safe, preventing users from accidently reading or writing to unused memory or breaking the type system of the language.

        As a systems programming language, not all of D can give such guarantees, but it does have a memory-safe subset that uses the garbage collector to take care of memory management much like Java, C#, or Go. A D codebase, even in a systems programming project, should aim to remain within that memory-safe subset where practical. D provides the @safe function attribute to verify that a function uses only memory-safe features of the language. For instance, try this.

      • Ted Unangsta brief history of one line fixes

        What do all these earlier mistakes have in common? First, they’re all exemples of “catastrophic loss of structural integrity” as I used to say in my Star Trek days. Second, they all date from before 2013. That’s how we know the NSA wasn’t involved.

      • Ben CongdonMental Model: Difficult Problems vs. Hard Work

        I think about this distinction regularly in the context of software engineering, though I think it probably applies to most “knowledge work”. At an intuitive level, I think we’ve all encountered this: there are problems that are solvable by throwing a lot of human-hours at it (“Hard Work”), and problems that are not a function of raw work hours, but rather require dealing with ambiguity (“Difficult Problems”).

        The more unpredictable the task is as a function of allocated effort to task completion, the more likely it is to be a Difficult Problem.

      • Python

        • Geeks For GeeksInstalling and Using Rich Package in Python

          In this article, We are going to learn how to install and use rich packages in Python.

          RIch is a python package for creating some awesome terminal formatting and logging. It has several features and functions that can make your application look nicer and even add a new look to your CLI application. We will be understanding the process of installing and basic usage of the RICH package in Python in this article.

        • Geeks For GeeksHow to Split a File into a List in Python

          When we want each line of the file to be listed at consecutive positions where each line becomes an element in the file, the splitlines() or rstrip() method is used to split a file into a list. Let’s see a few examples to see how it’s done.

        • Geeks For GeeksCreating a scrolling background in Pygame

          In this article, we are going to know how to create a scrolling background in Pygame.

          Pygame offers many advantages for developing basic infrastructure for many games. One of them is the scrolling background. Many of the popular games of all time required this feature of endless scrolling. This scrolling background helps to make the background more creative with less effort.

          In a scrolling background, one image is considered as a background that will repeat itself again and again. Thus creating a scrolling endless loop of images. Suppose in a Pygame shell we move a single image from one coordinate to another, thus shifting the pixel of one image to another. Now, these blank pixels can be filled by the other image.

        • Geeks For GeeksPyGame Set Mouse Cursor from Bitmap

          In this article, we are going to see how to set the mouse cursor from bitmap using the PyGame module in Python.

      • Rust

        • Sticky Notes and Learning Rust

          I got another itch to do some hobby programming this week, but to make things interesting I decided why not try to see what Rust is all about?

  • Leftovers

    • Science

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • NPRPFAS 'forever chemicals' are everywhere. Here's what you should know about them

        Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] put out a new advisory warning that even tiny amounts of some of PFAS chemicals found in drinking water may pose risks.

        Scientists are finding PFAS everywhere. When products like this end up in landfills, these pollutants seep into our soil, air, and drinking water. That's how PFAS are ending up in food, wildlife, and even our bloodstream.

        So, how do we navigate a world filled with harmful chemicals?

      • MeduzaWill Russia’s war in Ukraine lead to a global food crisis? Meduza weighs the odds.

        In recent months, politicians and experts from the UN have made clear that Russia's war in Ukraine threatens to spark a global food security crisis. According to Kyiv, at least 20 million metric tons of grain are currently trapped on Ukrainian territory. The lack of shipments from Ukraine has the potential to cause famines in faraway places and to send food prices surging all over the world. Turkey, on behalf of the UN, has suggested a new plan for getting the grain to global markets, but Ukraine rejected its first proposal; the plan would have called for the demining Ukrainian ports, opening a sea route for a possible Russian assault on Odesa. Turkey has since come up with a Plan B: taking the grain ships on a route that avoids the floating mines without removing them, a proposal that weakens Moscow’s previous claims that it’s not responsible for the grain crisis and that the only thing preventing shipments is the Ukrainian mines. Though Russia has promised not to obstruct any attempts to remove the grain, as long as there’s still a war going on in the Black Sea, it’s unlikely that the crisis will be solved anytime soon.

    • Proprietary

      • Six ColorsMail Merge returns to Pages after nine years

        The feature was originally included in Apple’s word processing software, but got the axe in 2013’s version 5.0, when Apple redesigned its iWork suite to give even footing across the iOS, iPadOS, and macOS platforms. In the interim, Mail Merge remained possible only via workarounds like Sal Soghoian’s Pages Data Merge app.

    • Security

      • UbuntuWeave Cybersecurity into your product design

        How important security is for your application and digital services? “Very important”, this is the answer we get the most often from Product Managers and Executives. Nobody wants the malware to take advantage of the vulnerabilities of their applications. However, any access point to the internet can be an entry point for hackers. Considering the ubiquitous awareness of the importance and risks associated with security, you may expect that security has been well embedded in all the aspects of digital product development, especially in the early stages of product design when costs are comparatively manageable.

        Unfortunately, according to a recent study by MIT, “cybersecurity is rarely considered among the criteria in the early design phase”. This study finds three reasons why this ignorance of cyber security happens in the early stages:

      • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

        • uni TorontoSigning email with DKIM is becoming increasing mandatory in practice

          There are people who don't like email forwarding, but I can assure them that it definitely happens, possibly still a lot. Unless you want your email not to be accepted by GMail when forwarded, this means you need to DKIM sign it, because forwarded email won't pass SPF (and no, the world won't implement SRS).

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • The HillAlexa to add voices of your deceased loved ones

          Prasad said his team “had to learn how to produce a high-quality voice with less than a minute of recording versus an hour of recording in the studio.”

        • BBCThe nation where your 'faceprint' is already being tracked

          If a person in Western Australia contracts Covid-19, they must remain in home quarantine for the following seven days – as do their close contacts. The police check up on their whereabouts by sending periodic text messages and require a selfie to be sent back to them within 15 minutes. The police use facial recognition technology and GPS tracking to determine if the person who took the selfie is at home. If they are not, they quickly follow up with a knock on the door and a potentially hefty fine.

          The G2G app by local tech start-up Genvis has been used by more than 150,000 people in the state since it was rolled out in September 2020. The same technology, albeit provided by different companies, has been piloted in the states of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Australia stands out as the only Western democracy to use facial recognition technology to aid Covid-19 containment procedures while other countries were pushing back against the idea of such surveillance.

        • NYOBSweden: Users are not party to their own privacy rights?

          The Swedish DPA (IMY) refuses to take a decision on a GDPR complaint, claiming that the user is not a party to his own rights. In essence, the IMY seems to take the view that the “right to a complaint” under Article 77 GDPR, which should give everyone free access to enforcement, is only a right to “petition” the authority. noyb files an appeal today to the administrative court in Stockholm.

        • India TimesShopify unveils new tools, Twitter tie-up to beat ecommerce slowdown

          More than a 100 new tools were unveiled on Wednesday, including ones to support its plans to push into business-to-business, for shoppers to connect their crypto wallets to a store and Apple's "Tap to Pay" feature on iPhones.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • HRWSudan: New Deadly Attacks in West Darfur

        The joint human rights office in Sudan of both the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) should prioritize securing regular access to Darfur to investigate and publicly report on abuses; all parts of the UN mission, the UN system, and member states should support their work and increase protection monitoring and reporting capacity, including by deploying a stronger monitoring presence in Darfur.

        The UN reported that the latest attack on civilians in the town of Kulbus and neighboring villages, in West Darfur between June 6 and 11, left at least 125 people dead, including five children, over 100 injured, and 33,000 displaced. Most of the victims are reported to be from the non-Arab Gimir community. The attackers reportedly burned homes and farms and looted livestock.

      • NBCKey takeaways of Jan. 6 panel Day 5: Trump wanted DOJ to promote his interests

        After four years in power, Donald Trump never grasped that government isn’t supposed to be a tool for promoting personal interests, the Jan. 6 committee argued as it presented evidence Thursday about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

        Witnesses described Trump’s desperate efforts to rope the Justice Department into a plot to overturn the election — trying at every turn to persuade government attorneys to act as an extension of his campaign.

        Senior officials whom Trump had appointed testified that they tried to explain the department’s unique role to him: They worked for the American people and represented the federal government. The message never stuck.

      • MeduzaClosing in on Lysychansk Ukrainian positions in Luhansk region under increasing pressure as Russian forces gradually advance

        The situation in Ukraine’s Luhansk region is “extremely difficult,” Governor Serhiy Haidai said in an interview on Thursday, June 23. Russia has captured most of the region and, according to Haidai, sent “all reserves” to storm Severodonetsk and the Zolote–Toshkivka area south of Lysychansk.€ 

      • MeduzaThe alleged murder attempt against Vladimir Solovyov What we know about the far-right ex-convicts accused of plotting to kill Russia's chief propagandist

        On June 21, Russian news outlets Mediazona and Baza both published articles about the men the Russian authorities have accused of attempting to assassinate Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov —€ a crime that, according to the FSB and the Russian Investigative Committee, was planned by neo-Nazis at the orders of Ukraine’s Security Service. The articles, which were prepared and written independently of one another, describe in detail what we know so far about the suspects, the majority of whom have been convicted of committing racially motivated murders in the past. Meduza summarizes the articles’ findings below.

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Rolling StoneRepublican Scolds Fox News for Daring to Ask About Her QAnon Posts

        CNN reported on Thursday that Flores also spread conspiracy theories about the Capitol [insurrection] last Jan. 6. “DC police let them through the gates! This was a set up! Antifa is definitely among this crowd!!!,” reads a deleted tweet that Flores shared. Flores also wrote, and then deleted, a tweet on Jan. 6 claiming the riot was “surely was caused by infiltrators.” CNN also uncovered addition occasions on which Flores shared QAnon-related hashtags.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The Vergehttps://www.theverge.com/2022/6/23/23180813/cryptocurrency-bill-cynthia-lummis-kirsten-gillibrand-github-trolling

        As of press time, Github users have commented on 24 issues in the bill and made eight pull requests – some of which have proposed meaningful additions to the bill. One user asked the senators to “increase the value of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies with a tax on mining.” Another thread raised concerns about algorithmic backing of stablecoins.

      • Neil SelwynEd-Tech is political … so what?

        Those of us working in the area of technology education should also not shy away from occasions when our contributions to discussions need to be overtly political – for example, offering advice to policy-makers, pushing back against corporate hype and profiteering, as well as standing up for marginalized and disadvantaged groups.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • NPRSome states are changing the laws that govern community libraries

        While some of these bills have quietly died in committee, others have been signed into law, and librarians worry that the increasingly partisan climate is making them vulnerable to political pressure.

        "We're seeing more indirect efforts to control what's available to the community or to put in laws that would direct how the library staff collects books," says Deborah Caldwell Stone, director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom.

      • Times Higher EducationMore students back firing lecturers who teach offensive material

        More than a third of UK undergraduates believe academics should be fired if they “teach material that heavily offends some students”, according to a survey that found that students appear to be a lot less supportive of free speech than they were six years ago.

        Thirty-six per cent of the 1,000 students polled by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) felt that lecturers should be dismissed in these circumstances, compared with just 15 per cent who took part in a similar survey in 2016.

      • The Sunday Times UKStudents want more restrictions on free speech

        he poll of 1,000 full-time undergraduates on free speech issues asked identical questions to a previous survey in 2016.

        Seventy-nine per cent of respondents believed that students who felt threatened should always have their demands for safety [sic] respected, up from 68 per

      • Stars And StripesAs China shuts out the world, internet access from abroad gets harder, too

        At the same time, academics and researchers have complained that the digital window into China seems to be constricting too. That compounds a growing concern for China experts locked out of the country amid deteriorating relations with the West. A tightening of internet access means observers will struggle to decipher what internal pressures China’s leader Xi Jinping may be facing and how to keep track of Beijing’s diplomatic, technological and military ambitions.

        Comprehensive analysis on whom China’s Great Firewall keeps out is scarce; much of the focus on the country’s internet freedom remains on domestic censorship. But many researchers who have experienced such challenges suspect that their limited access is part of China’s attempt to ward off what it sees as international meddling, and present its own tightly controlled narrative to the outside world.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • NBCUvalde's fury builds one month after school massacre as probe reveals numerous failures

        Four weeks later, more questions than answers plague Uvalde, lingering over the tight-knit community like a heavy blanket with little room to breathe. People struggle to mourn because they are too busy seeking accountability from their leaders.

        [...]

        “It’s disgusting — the lies, the betrayal. It just keeps getting worse,” Brown said.

      • The NationThe Supreme Court Strips Us of Miranda Warnings

        That is the essential difference between the conservatives on the court 20 years ago and the ones appointed this century. They used to do everything they could to bend or break the law toward the Republican Party outcomes they desired, but felt somewhat constrained by prior Supreme Court precedent and overwhelming popular will. Now, they push the law toward their preferred conservative outcomes without regard for past precedent or popular opinion. They have the votes, they have the power, to do what they want when they want to.

        The practical effect of this decision will be to unleash already brutal American cops to use even more intimidation and coercion to secure (potentially false) confessions than they already do. Paradoxically, this ruling will do more to deny the constitutional rights of people who are innocent than to infringe those of people guilty of crime. That’s because professional criminals, for the most part, know their constitutional rights. They know they shouldn’t talk to the cops; they know the only word they should say to the police is “lawyer.” You don’t have to tell a street-level drug dealer what to do if he gets held by the cops; he already knows. And you don’t have to tell a banker or a person accused of “white collar” crime what to do either: Those folks have their lawyers on speed dial.

      • NPRStarbucks fired 7 union organizers. The government wants a court to reinstate them

        In order to tamp down unionization efforts at multiple Buffalo Starbucks locations, the company raised wages and promised improvements such as centralized training and store renovations, according to court documents. CEO Howard Schultz said in May that all Starbucks employees were getting new benefits — including expanded training, improved sick leave and credit card tipping — but that stores with active union efforts would be excluded.

      • VOA NewsAt UN, Taliban Are Pressed to Reverse Rights Restrictions

        “If the Taliban wants to normalize its relations with the international community, it needs to reverse the steps it’s taken to exclude women from social, political and economic life – immediately,” said U.S. Acting Political Counselor Trina Saha.

        No country has recognized the Taliban authorities, who seized power in August as the United States and NATO troops withdrew from the country.

        While the human rights situation has deteriorated, the security situation is becoming more unpredictable. Initially, the end of conflict after the Taliban takeover led to a decrease in civilian casualties, but violence is again on the rise.

      • Outlook IndiaSex Ban At FIFA World Cup 2022: Football Fans Could Face Jail Time For One Night Stand In Qatar

        Sex outside of marriage carries a prison€­sentence of up to seven years in Qatar.

        Travelling fans also need to be aware that being drunk in public is a crime and face death penalty if they are caught smuggling cocaine to Qatar. But it was earlier reported that Qatar would permit alcohol consumption during the event and fan zones would be established.

      • ICCAt Least 10 Christians Killed in DRC Attack

        The attack occurred near the village of Makisabo, Beni. The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist extremist group, allegedly blocked the road, shot all the passengers, and set the vehicles on fire.

      • MedforthFrance: A man jumps out of a bush and attacks two police officers with a knife, shouting “Allah akbar”. He was overpowered and handed over to the authorities

        Although he seemed threatening to the two police officers and shouted “Allah akbar” from a bush, they were eventually able to overpower and detain him. [...]

      • Teen VogueTicketing Students at School: One Student’s Years-Long Fight to Clear Her Name

        Now, in a rare and dramatic example of the impact of school ticketing, the case is headed for a jury trial, with the next court date on Tuesday. As Naperville continues to prosecute the case, Amara and her mother have racked up far more in legal bills than the city’s highest fine would have cost them.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • The HillNetflix lays off 300 employees in second round of mass job cuts

        Netflix canceled multiple planned shows in the aftermath of the loss. The streaming platform sent a letter to shareholders when the loss was announced, saying that the company expected the decrease in subscribers to continue. In the letter, it predicted a loss of 2 million paid global subscribers during the second quarter of the year.

      • NBCNetflix cuts 300 employees in a new round of layoffs

        These new layoffs, which Variety first reported would be coming earlier this week, hit weeks after the streaming giant — which has a global workforce of roughly 11,000 staffers — made an initial round of reductions of similar size in May. At that time, Netflix laid off 150 employees, and dozens of contractors and part-time workers. The streamer indicated more rounds of layoffs would be coming this year following that first group, as the company tries to adjust for its heavily weakened stock price.

      • BBCNetflix cuts 300 more jobs after subscriptions fall

        The company also recently embarked on a series of price increases in the US, UK and elsewhere, which have contributed to its subscriber losses.

        The firm has said it expects its subscriber count to fall by another two million in the three months to July, after dropping by 200,000 earlier this year.

      • Hollywood ReporterNetflix Cuts 300 Employees in New Round of Layoffs

        The move comes as Netflix continues to grapple with and respond to an increasingly difficult streaming environment, where it is competing with tech giants like Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ as well as studio conglomerates’ platforms like Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, HBO Max and Discovery+. (In Nielsen’s April “State of Play” streaming survey, about 46 percent of respondents replied that “it’s harder to find the video streaming content that they want to watch because there are too many streaming services available.”)

      • The VergeNetflix cuts around 300 jobs after losing subscribers

        Nguyen declined to comment on whether Netflix plans additional layoffs in the near term. But co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos told staff that “we plan to return to a more normal course of business going forward” in an email obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Walled CultureWhat exactly is plagiarism? And does it really matter anyway?

          I think there are more interesting questions here than what exactly is plagiarism, which arises from copyright’s obsessions with ownership. Things like: did Koerner get paid a fair price by The Atlantic for all his work? If he did, then the issue of re-use matters less. It’s true that others may be freeriding off his work, but in doing so, it’s unlikely they will improve on his original article. In a way, those pale imitations serve to validate the superior original.

        • The VergeBungie sues Destiny YouTuber for sowing chaos with fake copyright strikes

          The complaint claims Bungie “brand protection” contractor CSC Global sent Minor a legitimate copyright notice in December 2021, asking him to remove music from the soundtrack of Destiny expansion The Taken King. Minor allegedly responded by creating a Gmail account that mimicked the CSC one and then filing similar requests with a bevy of other YouTube accounts — even hitting an official Bungie account. He identified himself as a CSC representative and demanded the accounts remove videos or face YouTube copyright strikes.

        • Torrent FreakBrazil's Targets 'Metaverse' Piracy in Latest "Operation 404" Crackdown

          Brazilian law enforcement agencies have announced the fourth wave of anti-piracy initiative "Operation 404." The authorities blocked or shut down 226 websites and 461 piracy apps, while making several arrests. The Justice Department reports that, for the first time, anti-piracy efforts were also carried out in the 'metaverse'; although it's unclear what that means exactly.

        • Torrent FreakDMCA Subpoena to Unmask Twitter User Hits Fair Use & Constitutional Roadblock

          A Twitter user who posted copyrighted photos for the purpose of criticizing a private-equity billionaire will retain their anonymity. The allegedly infringing material was taken down by Twitter but when a shadowy company tried to use the DMCA to unmask the user, Twitter mounted a legal challenge on their behalf. The court's decision is important for both fair use and freedom of speech.

        • Michael GeistMichael Geist: My Appearance Before the Senate Transport and Communications Committee on Bill C-11: The Senate Starts Review As Bill Receives House Approval

          The Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications started its Bill C-11 pre-study yesterday just hours before the the bill passed third reading in the House of Commons. The bill quickly moved to first reading in the Senate, though at this stage it would appear that there will be just one more hearing involving departmental and CRTC officials before the summer recess. The House vote was widely expected as the government received support from the NDP on several occasions to limit debate. The Bloc and Green MP Elizabeth May also supported the bill, while it was opposed by the Conservatives and Green MP Mike Morrice.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Site in Support of Richard Stallman Reminds People of the FSF's and Stallman's Support of Women
new updates
In Memory of Mike Magee (1949-2024) and Our Best Wishes to The Register, Which He Founded in the 1990s
Months have passed since Magee died
'Remote' (From Home) Tech Workers Are More Productive for a Lot of Reasons
The Bezos-owned media should disclose its conflict of interest here
Microsoft Ends Support for Vista 10, So Relative Share of Vista 10 Goes Up, Vista 11 is Down
For 2 months in a row already
Microsoft's Latest 'Novel' Approach, Trying to Prevent People Moving Away From Microsoft and From Windows
ads say a lot about their business strategy
Microsoft-sponsored "The New Stack" Publishing Microsoft Windows Articles in "Linux" Clothing
Just sayin'...
 
[Meme] Write Code, Not Social Control Media
don't forget to 'like'
Links 09/12/2024: UnitedHealthcare C.E.O.'s Killer Still Unknown, Syrian Regime Change Completed
Links for the day
Microsoft: Target the Young (Get 'Em While They're Young)
Then they say Free software advocates are "extremists" and "rude"...
As of December 8th (23 Days Remaining), the FSF (Free Software Foundation, Inc.) Already a Third of the Way Toward Ambitious Funding Goal
FSF's memberships (or donations) drive is going a lot better than we anticipated
Why Mike Magee Created and Was Involved in So Many News Sites About Technology
British legend
Tunisia is Android, Windows is Waning There
Windows was measured below 20% in Tunisia
[Meme] Jeff Bezos Working From Home
"B**** please, publish articles in Washington Post about how working from home sucks"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, December 08, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, December 08, 2024
No Wonder Microsoft's LinkedIn and Github Have So Many Layoffs, Permanent Office Closures
Traffic down, losses, probably never going to profit
When Python is Basically Run by a 'Microsoft-Friendly' Mole Who Ousts People That Actually Contributed a Lot to Python for Many Years
Removing some of the best people
Syria: Microsoft Windows Down to 8% "Market Share" (It Was 99% Just 15 Years Ago)
it was even measured at less than 5% earlier this year
Links 08/12/2024: Boeing Leaks and Bluesky’s Business Model Dilemma
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/12/2024: UK Winds and Ultraviolet Grasslands (UVG)
Links for the day
Links 08/12/2024: Conflicts, Misinformation, and Gutting of the Media
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, December 07, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, December 07, 2024
Czech Republic: GNU/Linux Jumps Above 4%
data from the Czech Republic for 2024
IBM Engagement Surveys "Are Usually Useful for the Executives So They Know Which Things to Ignore"
This impacts Red Hat as well
Did Microsoft 'Write' (by Chatbots) This 'Article' About WINE?
The Web is drowning in garbage
Dictatorship Formalised: Python Software Foundation Violates Its Very Own Code Of Conduct (COC) or Code Of Censorship
Incoming Python Software Foundation Executive Director, Deb Nicholson, allegedly uses COCs to get ahead while violating COCs
[Meme] 'Self-Checkout' (and Banking 'Apps'): Passing All Accountability to the Customers
Stealing
Gemini Links 07/12/2024: Leasehold and NNTP
Links for the day
Fun Statistics About Techrights (Almost a Quarter Million Files)
Here are some raw numbers
PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) as an Instrumental But Largely Hidden (From the Public) Extra Layer of IBM's Workforce Reductions
The morale at IBM is really bad
Microsoft Money: From Bribing Bloggers to SLAPPing Bloggers
Microsoft money, different strategy?
Belgium: Windows Falls to Quarter of the Market, Mobile Devices Outsell or Overtake Desktops/Laptops on the Web
Microsoft has no operating system for 'smartphones'
Links 07/12/2024: CALEA Back Doors Backfiring, Fentanylware's (TikTok) U.S. Ban a Step Closer
Links for the day
statCounter: GNU/Linux Rises Sharply to All-Time High in Republic of South Korea
Notice how sharp the rise is!
It's FOSS? No, It's SPAM.
Another sellout
Another Massive Blow to the Web
This is awful news and it neatly relates to topics that we covered this morning
All the Latest Five Blog Posts at OSI's Blog Are Written by a Microsoft Operative Salaried by Microsoft
"Open Source" no longer means anything
Legacy of a Dying World Wide Web
Many people truly believe they're "stars" in social control media
Google Does Not Have a Search Engine Anymore
Google wants to "retain" users for more "screen time" and influence over their minds; it does not save you time, it's manipulating you
[Meme] Automattic: Host With Automattic, We'll Handle Our Own Complexity for You
The RHEL modus operandi (more so with systemd)
Finding Peace With Less
There seems to be a growing consensus (speaking to other editors helps confirm this) that the Web is going in a very bad direction
Links 07/12/2024: DEI Chopped by University of Michigan, French and South Korean Governments in Turmoil
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 06, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, December 06, 2024