Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 04/07/2022: StarFighter With GNU/Linux Preloaded, Ubuntu Touch on JingPad A1



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • OMG UbuntuStar Labs Tease StarFighter, a Linux Laptop with 4K Display

         This UK-based hardware company is finalising production details on StarFighter, an upcoming 15.6-inch Linux laptop that boasts a 10-bit matte 4K IPS 16:9 display (likely at a comfortable 3840×2160 resolution, which is great for 2x scaling) — the display alone costs more than the company’s StarLite Linux laptop.

        Additionally, Star Labs’ StarFighter will offer a choice of 45W AMD or Intel processors, up-to 64GB RAM, and up-to 2TB of storage (though Gen 4 SDDs will only be supported on models with Intel processors).

    • Server

      • The Wall Street JournalWalmart Amps Up Cloud Capabilities, Reducing Reliance on Tech Giants [Ed: Servers rebranded as "clown"; cui bono?]

        Walmart said on Thursday it has developed the capability to switch seamlessly between cloud providers and its own servers, saving millions of dollars and offering a road map to other organizations that want to reduce their dependence on giant technology companies.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Tips On UNIXInstall Darktable 4.0.0 On Ubuntu / OpenSUSE / Fedora & AlmaLinux | Tips On UNIX

        This tutorial will be useful for beginners to download and install darktable 4.0.0 on Ubuntu 20.4 LTS, Fedora 35, AlmaLinux 9, RockyLinux 8, and OpenSUSE.

      • MakeTech EasierHow to Resize and Optimize Images From the Linux Terminal - Make Tech Easier

        If you are a Linux user and prefer the Terminal than any other graphical applications, then you will be happy to know that you can also resize, convert and optimize your images directly in the Terminal with ImageMagick. ImageMagick is a suite of tools for Linux which allows you to manipulate images from the command line. It’s also the image processor behind many graphics-related applications. Here we will show you how to resize your images from the Terminal.

      • Ubuntu HandbookHow to Delay or Tell When to Update Snap Apps in Ubuntu | UbuntuHandbook

        Ubuntu automatically checks and updates all installed Snap packages 4 times every day. Here’s how you can delay or assign a certain time period for the automatic update.

        Snap is an Ubuntu developed universal package format that runs in sandbox. Few core apps (such as Ubuntu Software and Firefox in 22.04) and many software in Ubuntu Software are Snap packages. Unlike classic .deb package, snap updates all the packages automatically in the background silently without user intervention.

        If you didn’t block the Snap package, you must have some installed on your Ubuntu machine. And, to avoid conflict to daily work (e.g., online meetings, data backup), you may tell Snap when to do the updates.

      • ID RootHow To Install Plex Media Server on Fedora 36 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Plex Media Server on Fedora 36. For those of you who didn’t know, Plex media server is a self-hosted media player system to store your movies, shows, music, and photos. Plex Media Server is a great way to keep your digital media content organized and accessible. It is worth considering if you have a large TV or movie library. It supports a wide range of client applications and allows you to share your content with others.

        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 Plex Media Server on a Fedora 36.

      • H2S MediaInstall OBS Studio on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Linux - Linux Shout

        Here we will let you know how to install the latest version of OBS Studio on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy JellyFish including other similar operating systems.

        OBS-Studio is an open-source software you need for recording and Streaming (live broadcast) your audiovisual content be able. You can use OBS-Studio Screencasts including Screen recording (e.g. slides, Software, etc …), camera image, and sound records very comfortably and if necessary it can be used to start streaming the Content to various streaming services such as YouTube, Facebook Live, Mixer, Twitter and more for worldwide audiovisual transfer.

        Especially in the field of PC gaming, there are many streamers who inspire an audience of millions with their content. Open Broadcast Software provides all the necessary tools for the direct transmission of video and audio signals to the network free of charge. It is possible to stream the generated signals to your own server. In addition, the developers of OBS work together with well-known streaming and video portals such as twitch.tv, and Dailymotion.

      • RoseHostingHow to Install GlassFish on Ubuntu 22.04 - RoseHosting

        GlassFish is an open-source Jakarta EE platform application server. It was initially developed by Sun Microsystems, then sponsored by Oracle Corporation, and now it is being maintained by the developers at Eclipse Foundation. GlassFish supports JSP, Servlets, JSF, JAVA API, RMI, etc. With this tool, web developers can easily build scalable and portable applications. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install GlassFish on Ubuntu 22.04.

      • Trend OceansHow to enhance Firefox security with about:config tweaks

         If you are an advanced PC user and have been using Firefox browser for a long time, you might already be aware of about:config Settings. For those who don’t know, Firefox gives you a lot of customization by visiting about:config section.

        When you first visit it, you will be prompted by a warning screen saying “Changing advanced configuration preferences may affect Firefox performance or security.”

    • Games

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Programming/Development

      • Perl / Raku

        • PerlDebrief: Perl IDE Hackathon 2022

          I had a great time hacking on the Perl Navigator and Raku Navigator as part of the Perl IDE Hackathon 2022. Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time in person or remotely. Thanks especially to Brian for having many github issues ready for people to work on, and for helping so many people understand the concepts of Language Servers. I received compliments that the Hackathon was very organized but truthfully if people got that impression then Brian should get all the credit!

          As a community I feel we could do better at helping people getting started and involved, so my goal was to emphasize first time and one off contributions. Brian caught the vision on this and as mentioned, did a great job preparing github issues and spent much of his time getting peoples development environment running. Hopefully he will post a report on what got done in the near future.

  • Leftovers

    • Science

      • TechXploreA quadcopter that works in the air and underwater and also has a suction cup for hitching a ride on a host

        A team of researchers at Beihang University, working with colleagues at Imperial College London and Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, has developed a quadcopter drone that is capable of flying in the air and maneuvering underwater. It also has a suction cup for hitching a ride on a host. They describe their drone in the journal Science Robotics.

        Over the past several years, quadcopters have become a consumer product. And while the technology behind them is quite impressive, one drawback is their inability to survive a water landing. In this new effort, the researchers have not only overcome that problem, but they have also given their robot the ability to maneuver underwater and to hitch itself to undersea creatures.

      • Using Light and Sound to Reveal Rapid Brain Activity in Unprecedented Detail | Duke Biomedical Engineering

        Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed a method to scan and image the blood flow and oxygen levels inside a mouse brain in real-time with enough resolution to view the activity of both individual vessels and the entire brain at once.

        This new imaging approach breaks long-standing speed and resolution barriers in brain imaging technologies and could uncover new insights into neurovascular diseases like stroke, dementia and even acute brain injury.

        The research appeared May 17 in the Nature journal Light: Science & Applications.

    • Hardware

      • Venture BeatIntel announces silicon photonics advancement towards optical I/O [Ed: Intel is hype and waste of energy; in recent years it was also a force that bribes the media for puff pieces]

        Intel has demonstrated an eight-wavelength laser array on a silicon wafer. The research paves the way for the next generation of integrated silicon photonics products in the data center, such as switches with co-packaged optics and chiplets for optical interconnects.

    • Pseudo-Open Source

      • Openwashing

        • FOSS PostBe Wary Of "Fake" Open Source Software

          Open source software have become more important today than in the past. The benefits brought by using open source software for governments, organizations and commercial businesses can not be emphasized enough. This is why you’ll probably see an open source software running in every corner of the modern IT infrastructure.

          This, however, made the term “open source” somehow a buzzword. We started observing many companies which are calling their software “open source”, although in fact, it is not.

          Those companies do this because people are more motivated to use an open source software and include it in their infrastructure than a proprietary solution. They like the extra attention and free marketing they get when they simply classify their solution as “open source”.

          What is “open source“, anyway? The term was introduced in 1998 by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) as an alternative for the “free software” term to avoid the possible confusion between “free as in cost” and “free as in freedom”. They didn’t want people to think that free software is just software with no cost.

          The OSI definition is universally accepted as the one and only definition for open source, simply because they were the ones who crafted the term in the first place.

    • Security

      • LinuxSecurityComplete Guide to Using Wapiti Web Vulnerability Scanner to Keep Yo...

        Wapiti is a well-known tool that is widely used amongst security researchers, regular users, and even System Administrators. As Cyber Criminals continue to exploit new found vulnerabilities and even existing ones due to poor security management, Wapiti is the perfect solution to auditing your website and webservers. The commands and arguments are fairly simple to use, it is a powerful tool, and the report provided in HTML format allows for any user to see urgent issues and their possible solutions without having to sit, search, and create a solution. It provides you with a baseline understanding of your vulnerabilities and a baseline path to a solution.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • India TimesCERT-In rules: Data privacy and security not mutually exclusive

          Over the last few weeks, we have seen a significant new showdown over the Indian government’s internet regulatory ambitions. What sparked it off is the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) announcing cybersecurity directions in May without any previous public discussion or consultation. This has led to numerous Virtual Private Network (VPN) firms announcing removal of their servers from India, industry voices and Indian SMEs raising concerns about the challenges of being able to meaningfully implement these diktats, and civil society, cybersecurity experts, and technologists pointing out how they would harm cybersecurity while deepening government intrusion upon privacy and other fundamental rights online.

        • LinuxSecurityWhich Browser is Best for Online Security?

          While Tor has many features that average browsers can not compete with, its flaws can weigh it down for the average user. Users who will benefit most from Tor are people who are actively being tracked, such as militaries and people who know they are being spied on. For most users, a secure and private browser like Firefox, Brave, or even default Chromium, should be enough to stay safe, especially with safe browsing practices and software like VPNs or adblockers.

        • ACMUsing Makeup to Block Surveillance

          Nitzan Guetta, a Ph.D. candidate at Ben-Gurion University in Israel, was among a group of researchers who spent the past two years exploring "how deep learning-based face recognition systems can be fooled using reasonable and unnoticeable artifacts in a real-world setup." The researchers conducted an adversarial machine learning attack using natural makeup that prevents a participant from being identified by facial recognition models, she says.

          The researchers "chose to focus on a makeup attack since at that time it was not explored, especially in the physical domain, and since we identified it as a potential and unnoticeable means that can be used for achieving this goal'' of evading identification, Guetta explains.

          When the researchers compared an adversarial/anti-surveillance makeup algorithm with normal makeup that didn't have the guidance of the attack algorithm, "the results showed that the normal makeup did not succeed in fooling the facial recognition models," she says.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

    • Politics

      • July 4th Musings

        I am preparing my dog for the inevitable evening of terror as my countrymen prepare to celebrate the secession from the civilized world, due to the 'unfair' British taxes averaging 1.5%.

        [...]

        It seems that everyone I know either has or has had covid in the last couple of weeks. Myself included if I expand the range to a month. Most people get over it within a week (actually a couple of days seems to be the anecdotal average for healthy not-so-young friends). I got mine two weeks after a booster, just before Phizer pretty much admitted that it's not particularly effective for the Omicron strain. As far as I can tell, Omicron is currently close to a mild flu or moderate cold, as corona-viruses go.

        [...]

        The web is complete shit

        Beating a dead horse here, but I now use Tor and LibreWolf (when necessary) with Qwant search engine. I don't know what kind of bullshit Qwant is (some say it's total bullshit), but whatever. And Marginalia when that works.

        I am pretty upset about the fact that the internet is such shit. We had such high hopes about how it would change the world! As usual, it did, but in ways completely horrible.

        [...]

        If I ran a software shop today (my area of expertise), I would flat out prohibit any social media during work hours. If I see your post during work hours, out you go.

    • Technical

      • Markdown instead of LaTeX



        A Markdown → HTML + CSS → PDF pipeline has the benefit that I get to use CSS to fiddle with the output instead of relying on LaTeX class authors. I don't know whether that is a benefit. 🤔 Perhaps it's simply irrational on my part but lately more and more of my projects have been using this Markdown → HTML + CSS → PDF pipeline, I felt like I should migrate my existing projects while I still care.

        Well, one immediate drawback is that the things that cannot be handled by the simple Markdown processor needs to be added using HTML, and that in turn doesn't nest with Markdown, so I've added some post-processing using two Perl scripts. 😓

        Another drawback is that I spent the entire day doing it, and all I got to show for it are eight pages. That's super slow and frustrating.

      • Science

        • ACMCognitive Biases in Software Development

          Cognitive biases are hardwired behaviors that influence developer actions and can set them on an incorrect course of action, necessitating backtracking. Although researchers have found that cognitive biases occur in development tasks in controlled lab studies, we still do not know how these biases affect developers' everyday behavior. Without such an understanding, development tools and practices remain inadequate. To close this gap, we conducted a two-part field study to examine the extent to which cognitive biases occur, the consequences of these biases on developer behavior, and the practices and tools that developers use to deal with these biases. We found about 70% of observed actions were associated with at least one cognitive bias. Even though developers recognized that biases frequently occur, they are forced to deal with such issues with ad hoc processes and suboptimal tool support. As one participant (IP12) lamented: There is no salvation!


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Biggest "AI Companies" (Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft) Borrowed (Additional Debt) About $100,000,000,000 in a Year
Who will be held accountable for all this?
In 2009 Microsoft Was Valued at ~150 Billion Dollars, Now They Tell Us Microsoft Lost ~1,000 Billion Dollars in Value. Does That Make Sense?
Or Microsoft lost 700 billion dollars in "value" in less than two weeks
Microsoft Stock Crashed When Alleged Vista 11 Numbers Disclosed
And last summer Microsoft indicated that it had lost 400 million Windows users
It's Not About Speed, It's About the Message (or Its Depth)
Better to write news than to just link to news if there's commentary that the news may merit
Mobbing at the European Patent Office (EPO) - Part IV - EPO Can Get Away With Murders, Suicide Clusters, and Systematic and Prolonged Bullying by 'Team Campinos' ("Alicante Mafia" as Insiders Call It)
Nobody in the Council or the EU/EC/EP gives a damn as long as laws are broken to fabricate 'growth'
Jeff Bezos Isn't Just Killing the Washington Post, He's Killing Thousands of News Sites/Newsrooms (in Dozens of Languages) That Rely on It for Many Decades Already
Not just slopfarms; even the Ukraine-based reporters are culled by Bezos, who's looking to please the dictators of the world
Central Staff Committee Confronted António Campinos for Giving His Cocaine-Addicted Friend Over 100,000 Euros to Do Nothing, Just Pretend to be Ill, While Cutting the Salaries of Everybody Else
"On the agenda: Amicale framework & Financial assistance for courses"
How to Win Lawsuits in 5 Simple Steps
Keep issuing threats every week and send 60 kilograms of legal papers to the target
 
Links 07/02/2026: Windows TCO Rising, Lousy Patents Invalided
Links for the day
Microsoft Leadership: Stop Taxing Us, Tax Only Poor People
Does Microsoft create jobs?
In Case You've Missed It (ICYMI), Google's Debt More Than Doubled in a Year
Wait till it "monetises" billions of GMail users with slop
PIPs and Silent Layoffs at IBM (and Red Hat) Still Going on, It's "Forever Layoffs" (to Skirt the WARN Act)
American workers out
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 06, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, February 06, 2026
Stressful Times for Team Campinos ("Alicante Mafia") at Europe's Second-Largest Institution
Keep pushing
Growing Discrimination in the European Patent Office (EPO)
it's a race to the bottom, basically
Converting FOSDEM Talk on Software Patents in Europe Into Formats That Work for "FOS" and Don't Have Software Patent Traps
transcoded version of the video
Google News Drowning in (or Actively Promoting) Slopfarms Again
LLM slop is a nuisance
Gemini Links 07/02/2026: "Choosing a License for Literary Work" and "Social Media Is Not Social Networking (Anymore)"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/02/2026: Git and Email Patches; MNT Pocket Reform
Links for the day
Geminispace Net Growth in 2026 About a Capsule a Day
A pace like this means net gain of ~300 per year, i.e. about the same as last year
Benjamin Henrion Warned About the Illegal and Unconstitutional Unified Patent Court (UPC) in FOSDEM 2026
Listen to Benjamin Henrion
Economies Crashing Not Because of Slop Improving 'Efficiency' (That's a False Excuse) and 'Expensive' (Read: Qualified) Workers Discarded in Race to the Bottom
Actual cocaine addicts are pushing out moral people
IBM's CEO Speaks of Layoffs, Resorts to Mythical (False) Excuses
This has nothing to do with slop
Links 06/02/2026: Voter Intimidation and Press Shutdowns in US, Web Traffic Warped by LLM Sludge
Links for the day
Does Linux Torvalds Regret Having Dinners With Bill 'Russian Girls' Gates?
See, the rules that govern the Linux Foundation and its big sponsors aren't the same rules that apply to all of us
IBM: Cheapening Code, Cheapening Staff, Cheapening Everything
IBM's management runs IBM like it's a local branch of McDonald's. IBM is a junk company with morbid innards.
GNU/Linux Measured at 6% in One of the World's Largest Nations
Democratic Republic Of The Congo
Linux Foundation Operative Says We and Our Software All "Owe an Enormous Debt of Gratitude" to a Software Patents Reinforcer
The only true solution is to entirely get rid of all software patents
More Than 99% of "AI" Companies Aren't AI, They're Pure BS
We need to discard those stupid debates about "AI" and reject media that gets paid to participate in such overt narrative control (manipulation like The Register MS)
AI Used to Save Lives, Now "AI" is a Grifting Scheme That Burns the Planet and Will Crash the Economy
What the media calls "AI" (it gets paid to call it that) is the same stuff that could instead be dubbed "algorithms"
Living in Freedom When 'False Flag Operations' Like EFF Get Captured by Billionaires to Take Freedom Away
There are many ways to think of Software Freedom
Amutable is a Microsoft Siege Against Freedom in GNU/Linux, Just Like the People Who Brought You 'Secure Boot' Controlled by Microsoft
Do whatever is possible to avoid Amutable and its "products"
Growing Focus on Publication
Over the past ~10 days we always served more than a million Web hits per day
"Going to be a large number of Microsoft layoffs announced soon"
Everybody knows a giant wave of layoffs is coming Microsoft's way
End of the 'GPU Bubble' and NVIDIA Finally Admits It Won't Bail Out Microsoft OpenAI Anymore
circular financing (financial/accounting fraud)
Corrupt Media Won't Hold Accountable Rich People for Role in Pedophilia
Journalistic misconduct or malpractice is a real thing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 05, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, February 05, 2026
EPO Management ("Alicante Mafia") Not Properly Sharing Information on Scale of Strikes by EPO Staff
disproportionate (double) deductions in salaries against people who participate in strikes, which are protected by law
Gemini Links 06/02/2026: Slop/Microslop, Home Assistant, and Valid Ex Commands
Links for the day
Blackmail evidence: Debian social engineering exposed in ClueCon 2024 talk on politics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Bitcoin crash: opportunity or the end game?
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Changes at the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
SRA is basically a waste of money
Claims That IBM Will Lay Off 20% (or 15%) of Its Workforce This Year Unless It Finds a Way to Push Them All Out by Threats, Shame, Guilt
Where are the articles about IBM layoffs?
IBM Isn't a Serious Company Anymore, It's a Ponzi Scheme Operated by a Clique and It Misuses Companies It Acquires to Prop Up or Legitimise the Scheme
IBM seems like it's nothing but a "Scheme"
Google News Drowning in Slop About "Linux" (Slopfarms Galore)
Google should know better than to link to any of these slopfarms, but today's Google is itself a pusher of slop
Links 05/02/2026: EU Commission Gutting Net Neutrality
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/02/2026: NixOS Books and Monochrome Emojis
Links for the day
Links 05/02/2026: Canadian Government Uses US LLMs to Override Expert Opinions, NVIDIA Troubles Due to Enablement of Mass Plagiarism ('Piracy') Misleadingly Obscured as "Hey Hi"
Links for the day
Explaining the Letter From JUDGE SYKES FRIXOU, Threatening Me Around the Time GNOME's Nat Friedman Lost His CEO Job at Microsoft GitHub and His Best Friend Got Arrested for Strangulation
this letter (with annotation) is critical
Linuxiac Not Rehabilitated, It's Still Full of LLM Slop (Part of a Trend)
The Web as a resource/source of information is perishing
"Sponsored by Azul" to Write Fake 'Article' About Azul, Quoting Azul Itself
The "journalism" industry [sic] became so utterly corrupt
JuristGate is for sale: three billion Swiss francs for a domain name
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Like Microsoft and IBM, the 'Alicante Mafia'-Governed EPO Does PIPs Nowadays (at the EPO, It's "Professional Incompetence Procedure")
So "PIPs" are definitely in the EPO and we saw letters sent to staff
Time for Change, More New Articles, Less Curation
The oligarchy wants to gut the real press and replace media with slop and social control media (or social control media with slop in it, i.e. their own voices, mechanised)
Gemini Links 05/02/2026: Coercion, Antibiotics, and LVDT Project
Links for the day
Almost 1,600 EPO Employees Went on Strike Last Week
There is another strike coming 2.5 weeks from now
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 04, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 04, 2026