Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 06/09/2022: OpenWrt 22.03.0 Released



  • GNU/Linux

    • DebugPointUnix History: A Mighty Origin Story

      The world today runs on Linux. Billions of mobile phones and servers today run Linux. But before Linux, there was Unix, and without it, Linux would not have existed today.

      Unix's origin can be traced back to the moon landing days. In 1965, three famous institutions started a joint venture to create an operating system that could serve multiple users and share data and resources

      The history of Unix, and here's the brief chronology of events that led us to where we are today with millions of lives touched.

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • GamingOnLinuxThe Kubuntu Focus NX is a small and mighty Linux desktop

        The Kubuntu Focus team recently announced the Kubuntu Focus NX, a small but surprisingly mighty little Linux desktop. Nice to see more vendors continue to push out new Linux products, although Kubuntu Focus still only ships to US + Canada.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Linux HandbookHow to create a systemd service in Linux

        Since its introduction in March 2010, people have had various opinions about systemd. But one thing that you can not deny is that systemd is now present in almost all Linux distributions!

      • uni TorontoSupport for 'kill -SIGNAME ...' was added in 4BSD

        The Unix 'kill' command that we're familiar with (and that was standardized as POSIX kill(1)) accepts and even perhaps prefers to be invoked with a signal name, as 'kill -SIGNAME ...' (well, POSIX would like you to use 'kill -s SIGNAME'). For reasons beyond the scope of this blog entry, I was curious about when and where in Unix history this was added to kill. The somewhat surprising answer turns out to be in 4BSD.

      • Linux HintTouch Command in Ubuntu 22.04

        Every Linux distro has numerous commands, and many of them are astonishingly helpful. One is the “touch” command which has many uses but mainly alters the timestamp on any file, including access and modification time.

        This article will go through all the basic and advanced touch commands to help you change your file’s timestamp in Ubuntu 22.04.

      • TecMintHow to Monitor Website and Application with Uptime Kuma

        Uptime Kuma is a fancy self-hosted monitoring tool that you can use to monitor websites and applications in real time.

      • How to install Streamlit on Ubuntu 22.04 – NextGenTips

        In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to install Streamlit on Ubuntu 22.04

        Streamlit is an open-source Python library that makes it easy to create and share beautiful, custom web apps for machine learning and data science. This is a faster way to build and share data apps. Streamlit turns data scripts into shareable web apps in minutes.

        You don’t need to write the backend or frontend to define Streamlit, you only need to add widgets which is the same as declaring variables. This makes it easy to use and also deploy. Deploying your app is just a click of a button and your application is in the cloud.

      • Trend OceansAtuin: A Powerful Alternative for Shell History (SQLite Database) in Linux - TREND OCEANS

        Atuin is a powerful replacement for your existing conventional history command with an SQLite database, which will record extra context for your executed commands like log exit code, CWD, hostname, session, command duration, etc.

        In addition to that, you will also get the power to sync your history between all of your machines with end-to-end encryption. By default, Atuin provides its own server for synchronisation. However, you can deploy your own server and configure it with Atuin.

      • ID RootHow To Install CMake on Fedora 36 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install CMake on Fedora 36. For those of you who didn’t know, CMake is a multi-platform software designed for automated compilation on various operating systems. Additionally, CMake can generate wrappers and executables in any combination, making it very versatile.

        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 CMake on a Fedora 36.

      • LibreOffice 7.4 Calc Guide published - Taming LibreOffice

        The LibreOffice documentation team published a new user guide in August: LibreOffice 7.4 Calc Guide, available in free PDF and ODT. Low-cost printed copies are available from Lulu.com.

      • PC LinuxGIMP Tutorial: Make A Shadow Using Your Subject

        I saw this tutorial for creating a shadow, and thought it might be useful. Sometimes we want to create a different scene, but have some item we want to include. This may help. I saw a car in a parade that I thought might look good in a different scene, so I'll put it in. You can do this too.

        Open the background you want to use, and the car. The trick with mine was to cut the car out of the parade, and make sure everything was gone except the car. I didn't do the greatest job.... but it will work. I'm sure you will do an awesome job.

      • PC LinuxArt Project In GIMP 2022

        Recently, in the 'Camera Talk' section of the forum, TheCrankyZombie posted a great photo of the full 'Sturgeon' Moon. It had lots of great sharp detail, and most importantly, it was huge in the frame.

      • PC LinuxOTA Broadcast TV With Kaffeine

        As I promised last month, I'm winding up my series of articles on how to watch OTA (over the air) TV broadcasts on your PCLinuxOS computer. You will, of course, have to have the hardware (or access to the hardware … namely, a TV tuner card/dongle that's supported under Linux) to be able to receive these broadcasts, hooked to an antenna/aerial or cable TV input.

        In the July issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine, I covered how to use VLC to receive and watch OTA TV broadcasts. I included a bash script to make it easier to scan for the channel information and save it to a file that can be loaded into VLC at will. In the August issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine, I covered how to use MPlayer to receive and watch OTA TV broadcasts. I included two bash scripts with that article. One was to simplify scanning for channels, and the other was to make it easier to watch those TV stations with MPlayer.

        If you are one of those Linux users who prefer to avoid the Linux command line and/or bash scripts, you will be relieved to know that by using Kaffeine to view OTA TV broadcasts, you won't have to mess with any of that. By far, Kaffeine is the EASIEST to use to watch OTA TV broadcasts. All of the abilities are built into Kaffeine for scanning for the channels available in your area, and then watching them.

      • RGB on Linux with OpenRGB - Control Gigabyte RGB Fusion, Asus Aura, Razer Chroma, Nanoleaf, iCue from Linux

        Gone are the days of mounting cold cathode tubes and UV-reactive accessories in computer cases. Modern computer cases, motherboards, GPUs, fans, and even NVMe drives now feature integrated lighting by means of LEDs. Through the use of primary-color LEDs – Red, Blue, and Green – these devices can create nearly any color combination to illuminate computer components. With the addition on an RGB controller, whether smart or “dumb”, each individual LED (or sometimes “zone” of LEDs) can be controlled to create incredible patterns and effects, bringing more life and entertainment to computer components than cold cathodes ever could.

      • Install VirtualBox Guest Additions on Oracle Linux 9 - kifarunix.com

        Follow through this tutorial to learn how to install VirtualBox guest additions on Oracle Linux 9. VirtualBox guest additions “consist of device drivers and system applications that optimize the guest operating system for better performance and usability“. VirtualBox guest additions can only be installed after the OS has been installed on VirtualBox. In our previous guide, we learnt how to install Oracle Linux 9 on VirtualBox;

      • Linux Made SimpleHow to install The Pedestrian on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install The Pedestrian on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

      • TecAdminHow To Install MySQL 8 on Amazon Linux 2 - TecAdmin

        MySQL is a very popular open-source relational database management system that can run on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. It’s typically used as the back-end database for web applications, though it can also be used to store data for other software. You can use MySQL to store and organize data, retrieve it when needed, and transform it into a different format (e.g. changing it from text to numbers). It’s commonly used by companies of all sizes as the database for their websites and applications.

        This article will walk through the process of installing MySQL 8 on Amazon Linux 2. When you’re finished, you’ll have a fully-functioning MySQL database that you can use with either the AWS Console or your own application. You can also use Amazon RDS to configure other databases besides MySQL.

      • Linux HintSed Replace Newline With Space

        In UNIX/Linux, the sed command is a dedicated tool for editing streams. It can perform various operations on a text stream, such as searching, finding and replacing, and insertion/deletion. For the most part, however, sed is used to find and replace text contents.

      • Linux HintHow to Save Username and Password in Git

        Git is a freely available decentralized version control system used by multiple people around the globe. However, sometimes it becomes time-consuming and difficult to prove your identity whenever you want to interact with a Git remote repository for performing different operations. To make these operations more feasible, permanently save these credentials and connect the Git local repository with the remote repository.

        This study will briefly discuss the procedure of saving the username and password in Git.

      • Linux HintHow to Turn Off RetroPie Safely

        RetroPie is a software and an operating system designed for playing retro games on a Raspberry Pi device. It’s a perfect platform for gamers who want to play classic games on their Raspberry Pi system without requiring to update their outdated consoles. Besides, people enjoy playing games on RetroPie; they probably make one fatal mistake by leaving their RetroPie running in the background or turning off the device by removing the power supply. Doing this will cause severe issues to your Raspberry Pi, which may reduce its lifespan.

        In this article, we will show you how you can safely turn off RetroPie to avoid damaging your Raspberry Pi device.

      • Linux HintHow to Update Python on Raspberry Pi

        Python and Raspberry Pi OS are made for each other, as without Python, you will face issues while accessing your Raspberry Pi terminal or running other applications that require Python. There are other advantages of having Python on Raspberry Pi as well, such as ease of use, versatility, and freedom to access several Python libraries that are included in the Raspberry Pi libraries list.

        Since replacing the older Python version with the new one is a complex task because you won’t be able to remove the previous Python version as it will result in system failure. So, to help you out in this situation, we present this article to provide your guidelines on how you can update Python on Raspberry Pi.

    • WINE or Emulation

      • Its FOSSWii U Emulator Cemu 2.0 Goes Open Source With Linux Support

        Now, we have another exciting project to join the list, i.e., Cemu Wii U emulator.

        Wii U was one of the most loved video game consoles developed by Nintendo in 2012.

        Of course, Wii U games were popular back then, and now that it is no longer available as a new product, gamers use emulators to enjoy those games.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Updates On Space Actions Merge Request- GSoC'22 post #15

          I created a merge request to submit my additions for Space Home and Space Creation/ Editing functionality. The merge request can be found here.

          This merge request recieved a lot of helpful suggestions by Carl Schwan and Jan Bidler. I tried implementing a lot of them.

          There were a couple of UI fixes. Non privileged accounts were restricted from accessing options to edit child rooms of Spaces on UI.

          There were some syntax related changes too.

          Functionality wise, I will be creating a new list model for the child room editor. It will contain the rooms user is part of as well as rooms that are children of Space. I also have to set up connections to update Space home page whenever changes to Space settings are made.

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Crosswords 0.3.5: Border Styles - Jonathan Blandford

          It’s time for another GNOME Crosswords update. We’ve been busy since GUADEC and have managed to add quite a few user-visible features. We also fixed a bad bug where undo would break autosaving and added French translations. Buckle up, as this release goes to eleven!

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • New Releases

      • LinuxiacSalix 15.0 Is Here, A Ready-Made Slackware-based Desktop

        Salix Linux 15.0 is a desktop-oriented operating system based on Slackware 15, including Xfce 4.16 and built-in Flatpak support.

        Slackware is a legendary Linux distribution that seems to have risen from the ashes with version 15 after a long slumber. However, user-friendliness has never been one of its strong points.

        This is where Salix Linux comes into play – a lightweight, easy-to-use, with stability in mind Slackware-based desktop-oriented Linux distro. However, it is unlikely to be familiar to the average Linux user.

        So, if we can draw a parallel, Salix is to Slackware what Manjaro is to Arch Linux. Or, to put it another way, a more user-friendly and ready-to-use desktop.

      • 9to5LinuxSlackware-Based Salix 15.0 Released with Flatpak Support, Xfce 4.16, New Look, and More

        Salix is one of the oldest GNU/Linux distributions based on Slackware, and the new release, Salix 15.0, doesn’t disappoint fans. It comes with the latest and greatest Xfce 4.16 desktop environment that has received a fresh coat of paint with new default GTK, WM, and icon themes, new default wallpaper, and a dark mode.

        This release uses the light mode by default, but if you want to go to the dark side, you can now easily switch to the dark version of Salix from the Appearance panel. Another big change is that Salix now uses Whiskermenu as our default application launcher for Xfce.

      • [OpenWrt Wiki] OpenWrt 22.03.0 - First Stable Release - 6 September 2022

        The OpenWrt community is proud to announce the first stable release of the OpenWrt 22.03 stable version series. It incorporates over 3800 commits since branching the previous OpenWrt 21.02 release and has been under development for about one year.

      • LWNOpenWrt 22.03.0 released

        Version 22.03.0 of the OpenWrt distribution for routers (and beyond) has been released. "It incorporates over 3800 commits since branching the previous OpenWrt 21.02 release and has been under development for about one year". Changes include a new firewall implementation using nftables, year-2032 readiness, dark mode in the LuCI web-based administration tool, and support for many more devices.

    • Screenshots/Screencasts

      • Videodeepin 20.7 Run Through - Invidious

        In this video, we are looking at deepin 20.7.

      • Linux Made Simpledeepin 20.7

        Today we are looking at deepin 20.7. It comes with Linux kernel 5.18, based on Debian 11, and uses about 1.5 - 2GB of ram when idling. Enjoy!

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

      • PC LinuxRepo Review: Rapid Photo Downloader

        Rapid Photo Downloader is a handy tool to help you download and organize photos and videos from your digital cameras. It allows you to easily copy, rename, and backup all of your camera's important data, while supporting most common image and video formats, including RAW photos. Rapid Photo Downloader also has a very nice, easy to use interface.

      • PC LinuxPCLinuxOS Screenshot Showcase
      • PC LinuxFrom The Chief Editor's Desk...

        This month's cover, designed by Meemaw, celebrates International Bacon Day, on September 3, 2022. The "unofficial" holiday is celebrated annually on the first Saturday of September.

    • Red Hat / IBM

      • Enterprisers Project4 tips to make meetings more meaningful

        Between one-on-ones, coaching sessions, strategy meetings, town halls, and company-wide forums, IT leaders’ calendars can get filled up quickly, leaving little to no time to think before joining the next video meeting.

        But meetings are important – for those working remotely, it can be the only time in their day they see and connect with their peers. In a hybrid work era, leaders must take steps to rethink meetings to keep the benefits, minimize time-wasting activities, and preserve time in the day to get work done.

        We asked IT leaders who recently won a 2022 Seattle CIO of the Year ORBIE Award what they have learned over their careers about making meetings more meaningful and effective. Here are four tried and true tips you can use to reclaim some time in your calendar.

      • Enterprisers ProjectEdge infrastructure: 7 key facts CIOs should know about security

        The cybersecurity landscape is as complex as it is vast. And, sorry to say, growing adoption of edge computing use cases (and related technologies like IoT) isn’t going to magically simplify things.

        That certainly doesn’t mean you can’t build out an edge architecture more securely. It’s just a (big, in all likelihood) change to your threat model since by definition you’re moving infrastructure, applications, and data well beyond your central or primary environments.

        “Edge computing brings fantastic benefits to the user experience but comes at the cost of introducing fundamental security concerns,” Christopher Sestito, CEO of HiddenLayer, told us recently.

        Many of those concerns – access control and management, data in transit, loads of new internet-connected devices – should sound familiar. They’re not insurmountable in the least bit, even in highly distributed, diverse edge environments.

      • Red HatRed Hat Developer roundup: Best of August 2022 | Red Hat Developer

        It's officially September, and we're back with our monthly roundup to catch you up on the latest top articles and community resources featured on Red Hat Developer.

      • OpenSource.comApplying open organization principles to save factory energy

        The problem with energy costs is that most people don't think about them. They just look at their overall bill without considering how the energy was used. By monitoring and measuring energy use through sensors in very specific locations, energy waste can be made transparent and reduced.

        That's the premise of the book Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era, which offers methods to eliminate the use of fossil fuels by 2050 through energy waste reduction. It's also the premise of a story I began in an earlier article about two retired utilities salespeople-turned-consultants who started an open organization community to reduce energy waste in their region, which they call the "Reinventing Fire Community." Their work depends on the open organization principles of Community, Transparency, Collaboration, Inclusivity, and Adaptability.

        In that article, I talked about actions one of my imaginary consultants recommended for home and commercial building owners. In this article, I discuss the other fictional consultant, who sold electricity to factories.

        It may be surprising how much energy is wasted in factories. The fact is, there aren't enough energy specialists available right now, and most production managers have their attention on other things, particularly production volume. Too many top managers look at sales, profit margins, and gross profit and miss "boring" expenses. In addition, small savings are hard to see until they're multiplied hundreds of times.

      • OpenSource.comA beginner's guide to making a dark theme for a website

        Having a dark theme for your website is a common feature these days. There are various ways to add a dark theme to your website, and in this article, I demonstrate a beginner-friendly way of programming a dark theme for the web. Feel free to explore, make mistakes, and, more importantly, learn by manipulating the code in your own way.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

    • Devices/Embedded

      • CNX SoftwareTopton N1 dual-bay NAS features AMD Athlon 3050e CPU, four Ethernet ports - CNX Software

        Powered by an AMD Athlon Silver 3050e dual-core processor, Topton N1 (aka TP-N1) NAS comes with two SATA bays for 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drives, as well as four gigabit Ethernet ports.

        The system can support up to 32GB RAM, relies on M.2 SSD storage for the OS, and can provide up to 40TB of data storage through the two SATA bays. It is also equipped with an HDMI output port, several USB 3.x/2.0 ports, as well as a 3.5mm audio jack.

      • Linux GizmosESP32-S3 development board integrates OV2640 camera and mPCIe slot

        LILIGO’s T-SIMCAM is a development board featuring the ESP32-S3 System on Chip (SoC) enabled with Wi-Fi and BLE support. Additionally, this compact board features the OV2640 camera module, a SIM card slot and a mPCIe slot for T-PCIE SIM modules.

        The SoC found on the T-SIMCAM is the ESP32-S3R8 which features a dual-core LX7 Tensilica microprocessor with a maximum frequency of 240MHz. The T-SIMCAM also includes 16MB of Flash storage and up to 8MB of PSRAM.€ 

      • Linux HintIs Arduino a Microcontroller

        Arduino is a hardware and software programming platform based upon Atmel ATmega microcontrollers. It is an open-source platform which means all the codes and libraries are openly available and easy to modify by students, beginners, and experts in the Arduino community. Arduino is popular among people as it doesn’t need any external hardware for programming. It is a development board based upon microcontroller and easy to program by just using USB cable.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • NetzpolitikThe first time we encountered law enforcement malware

        Mikko Hyppönen is a security expert and author. In an excerpt from his new book “If It’s Smart, It’s Vulnerable” he writes about government malware and the techniques of law enforcers. He also reveals how he learnt about German law enforcement malware and how the Chaos Computer Club made sure that everybody could detect it.

      • Roberto FrennaRooting a Hikvision Indoor Station to set a static IP address

        Recently, I’ve been tinkering with a Hikvision surveillance system which includes an Android Indoor Station aptly named DS-KH9510-WTE1. Whilst this runs Android behind the scenes, it exposes a custom UI made by Hikvision that completely hides the standard Android screens and menus.

      • Old VCRWhat the KIM-1 really needs is bubble memory (plus: 20mA current loop for fun and profit)

        It seems like everything has flash. Flash mobs, flash photography, Flash Gordon, flash memory. (Other than the past couple years, of course, which haven't been very flash.) And, because solid-state-all-the-things, you can get flash storage devices for tons of classic computers where even the tiny microcontroller in the SD cards is probably more powerful than the systems they're being interfaced to. Why, you can even connect one to an MOS KIM-1, the famous mid-1970s MOS 6502 single-board computer. Now at last you don't need to rekey everything in or screw around with an audio recorder.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • MedevelAmusewiki is an Open-Source Wiki Engine for Publishers

      Amusewiki is a free and open-source wiki engine that also can be used as authoring, archiving and publishing platform.

      Amusewiki is also an amazing EPUB editor, viewer and authoring tool.

      Unlike many other wiki engines, Amusewiki uses Emacs Muse Markup instead of Wiki syntax, or Markdown.

    • Web Browsers

      • Chromium

        • MedevelView DICOM Images on Google Chrome with DICOM Image Viewer Extension

          Google Chrome properly is the most used web browser, it gains popularity as many users prefers it for speed and usability.

          With its vast ecosystem of extensions and themes, you can add more features or change looks to your browser just by heading to the Chrome store, search, and download the extension.

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • SQLite Release 3.39.35

        A complete list of SQLite releases in a single page and a chronology are both also available. A detailed history of every check-in is available at SQLite version control site.

      • PostgreSQLCall for New Members for the Community Code of Conduct Committee

        This message is being sent from the Community Code of Conduct Committee, with the approval of the Core Team.

        As part of the Community CoC policy, the Committee membership is to be refreshed on an annual basis. We are seeking up to three (3) volunteers to serve on the Committee for the coming year, October 1, 2022 - September 30, 2023.

        We are seeking people who reflect the diversity of the PostgreSQL community, with the goal to have members from multiple countries and varied demographics.

        The time commitment for Committee involvement varies, based on internal administrative work and the number of active investigations. We estimate an average of 5 to 10 hours per month, but that could increase if there is an increase in the number of incident reports.

    • Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

      • Open Access/Content

        • Unicorn MediaMonday Morning: Open Source and the War on Covid

          Although the phrase “open source” wasn’t used at all in NPR’s article (I’m sure of this because I have the transcript on screen as I write), it was obvious that the vaccine had been inspired by the open source development model, which had allowed it to not only be successfully developed, but developed at a price much, much lower that Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines, which don’t fit the budgets of most developing nations.

          The vaccine was developed using proven long established methods for developing vaccines that are no longer covered by patents, if they ever were, and with no new patents being added to the work that was done for this particular vaccine. This means there’s practically no licensing costs to biotech companies in countries like India, which means they can afford to manufacture the vaccine and get the locals vaccinated.

          It was also developed with an eye toward cultural diversity, another important aspect of open source. In this case that means the developers were careful to make sure that no animal products were required to manufacture the medicine.

    • Programming/Development

      • MedevelBuild a Kanban based project management tool with this Open-source React Dashboard

        Kanban is a framework and a method for organizing and implementing agile project management system for software development.

        It is originally developed as scheduling system for lean manufacturing Taiichi Ohno for Toyota to streamline automotive manufacturing processes.

      • Linux HintRedis ZSCAN

        As you all know, Redis sorted sets are derived from the regular sets where each member is ordered by its score value in ascending order. If two or more members hold the same score value, they are ordered by lexicographical order. Usually, the members and scores can be directly retrieved using the ZRANGE command. When you have a big sorted set with thousands of members, the ZRANGE command might block the server for a long time like the SMEMBERS and KEYS commands which is a drawback. So, Redis offers a special command called ZSCAN which is derived from the SCAN command to iterate over the members of a sorted set. Since the ZSCAN command inherits from the SCAN command, almost all the behaviors are the same as the general purpose SCAN command.

      • Linux HintRedis LSET

        A Redis list is a data structure that holds a sequence of string elements in the insertion order. It is based on Linked List. So, the insertion of an element at the head and tail is performed in constant time. The only downside of the Redis lists is that querying elements by an index is a bit costly, which takes time directly proportional to the index of the accessing element. The reason behind the Linked list-based implementation is to make the data insertion faster for a very long list of items.

      • The Forty-Year Programmer

        I’m not going to tell you what language or framework to learn. If you’re good at the basics you can learn anything you want. Until then, you can be bad at whichever one you want. That’s what I did, anyway.

        Instead I’ll talk about things that didn’t make sense to me when I started, and now they’re the guiding stars in my sky. That means it’s not about specific technologies. Technologies come and go. Languages come and go. They can’t be your sky.

        Let’s start with this: software is young.

      • Matt RickardLibraries > Languages

        What matters more? A programming language's ergonomics and features or the libraries available for that language? Libraries are often the reason why programmers adopt languages. Most programs contain much more third-party code than code you wrote Libraries create network effects, not languages

      • DEV CommunityI'm leaving Github

        I Am Using GitHub Under Protest

        Github's decision to sponsor me is so recent that I haven't been able to cash out the $550 payment yet.

        In spite of that, I can't leave the platform fast enough. I certainly do not have the spare-time to move hundreds of projects to a new home... but I'm getting started.

        GitHub is a proprietary, trade-secret system that is not Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). I am deeply concerned about using a proprietary system like GitHub to develop FOSS projects.

      • Terence Eden"Writing an app is like coding for LaserDisc"

        The web has none of that. The earliest websites are viewable on modern browsers3. Sure, sometimes they might render in unexpected ways. And you might hope the servers they run on have been updated with security patches. But a website from the 1990s still works three decades later.

        An app released a single decade ago is unlikely to run.

        Even if the OS had a compatibility mode, it still requires the developer to stay up to date with all the various changes to app store policies. App stores are a gatekeeper.

      • Red HatBuild trust in continuous integration for your Rust library | Red Hat Developer

        A demo of how to build trust into a Continuous Integration system for your Rust library. (Part 4 of 4 in the series covering Linux system libraries in Rust.)

      • Python

        • Linux HintTkinter Progress Bar

          You may update the client on the status of a lengthy process with a progress bar widget. The widget’s goal is to provide the user confidence that something is occurring. It has two different modes of operation. When in determinate mode, the widget displays an indication that travels in a predetermined direction. The widget is moved in an indeterminate state to allow the client an impression that something is happening. The signal oscillates back and forth between the extremities of the widget throughout this style. The usage of determinate and indeterminate progress bars in Python will be covered in this tutorial.

          Let’s start with the configuration of a Tkinter library of Python. After the successful launch of the terminal, try the following query to configure the Tkinter package. Make sure to have Python already installed before using this instruction.

        • Linux HintPandas Fuzzy Match

          Fuzzy string matching is the term that best describes the process of locating similar strings. We’re going to make use of the fuzzywuzzy library. Despite having a silly name, it is a widely used library for string matching. The fuzzywuzzy package offers a few strong functions that is helpful in fuzzy string matching, including calculating the Levenshtein distance. In this article, we’ll look at how to use Python to perform fuzzy matches on the DataFrame column in pandas. We can identify matches using fuzzy matching, which finds patterns in the target object or items even when it doesn’t match exactly. Search engines are built on fuzzy matching. Because of this, every time we enter a search term into a browser, we receive numerous recommendations or suggestions.

      • Java

        • Linux HintHow to Install Java in Linux Mint 20.3

          Java is one of the most widely used high level programming languages available in the market. Along with that, this programming language is extremely easy to learn and once you get your hands on it, it will help you a lot with the complex programmatic tasks. In this guide, we will learn to install the Java programming language on a Linux Mint 20.3 system together.

        • Linux HintHow to Use Regex Whitespace in Java

          Regex or Regular Expression is a set of special characters that combine to form a pattern to search characters in strings. In computer programming and software engineering, learning regex will be very helpful in finding information in any text. All kinds of text search, formatting, and text replacement operations can be carried out using regular expressions.

          This tutorial will guide you about using the regex whitespace in Java.

  • Leftovers

    • Björn WärmedalSneakernet in a Free, Developed Society

      Regardless, the coolness of the very idea of sneakernet is incredible. I just want to use one. For something! I don't even know what, just something. When I talk about "sneakernet" in this post I don't mean the occasional file moved on a USB thumb drive between friends once in a while (even though that technically counts). I'm thinking about organised sneakernets between several actors, be they individuals or organisations.

    • Computers Are Bad2022-08-22 preventing loss dot jp2

      Previously on Deep Space Nine, we discussed the landscape of common retail EAS systems: electromagnetic, acousto-magnetic, and RFID. I now want to extend on this by discussing some peripheral systems that serve as part of the larger retail loss prevention technology stack. I will follow up on that by saying a bit about why none of these approaches seem to end up working that well.

    • You most likely don't need metrics

      The main difference between my small home brew setup and a web platform is the scale. While I’m sending metrics once every 15 minutes, your platform will have thousands of requests every second (or at least, that’s the hope).

      A web platform will also need to track way more data than I need with my fermentations. There will be user agents, IP addresses, user IDs, and much more that you need to know about within your observability data to be able to properly investigate issues.

    • VarietySerena Williams Is Most Tweeted About Female Athlete Ever, Twitter Says

      Following Williams’ exit from the U.S. Open, Twitter Sports announced that the 23-time Grand Slam champion was the most tweeted about female athlete ever on the social network. Twitter launched in 2006, so obviously athletes whose active careers have played out within that window would be more highly represented. According to Twitter, 74% of those who tweeted about Serena in August and through Sept. 2 had not previously tweeted about her all year.

    • Science

      • AAASHuman speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

        Some languages were clearly faster than others: no surprise there. But when the researchers took their final step—multiplying this rate by the bit rate to find out how much information moved per second—they were shocked by the consistency of their results. No matter how fast or slow, how simple or complex, each language gravitated toward an average rate of 39.15 bits per second, they report today in Science Advances. In comparison, the world's first computer modem (which came out in 1959) had a transfer rate of 110 bits per second, and the average home internet connection today has a transfer rate of 100 megabits per second (or 100 million bits).

    • Education

      • Carl SvenssonThe Problem With Computer Analogies: On different kinds of literacy

        I therefore propose that such analogies (which I've probably used myself at some point) are if not dishonest, then at least poorly thought through.

      • FuturismAmerican Kids' Math And Reading Scores Have Plummeted Since The Pandemic

        The COVID-19 pandemic had drastic negative impacts on American schoolchildren , new statistics show. This week the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the results of a survey indicating that 9-year-old students declined five points in reading and seven points in mathematics compared to 2020. "This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics," the NCES wrote in its report. In a statement, NCES commissioner Peggy Carr said this is the first national report that compares student performance before and after the pandemic.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

    • Proprietary

      • Helsinki TimesThese iPhone models will no longer support WhatsApp following this month's Apple event: Find out

        Ahead of Apple's upcoming launch event where the new iPhone 14 lineup will be unveiled, a recent update from the company suggests that the instant messaging platform, WhatsApp, will no longer function on some older iPhone devices.

        Mashable India has reported that from October 24 onwards, the messaging app will reportedly discontinue supporting iOS 10 and iOS 11 devices, according to one of WABetaInfo's earlier sources.

      • [Old] Carlos FenollosaDo you feel like Google search results keep getting worse?

        SEO techniques try to reverse engineer Google algorithms to appear on top of organic searches. Everybody is gaming the system in their favor.

        It is a cat and mouse game where Google does its best to provide a good experience, but in the end, they are judge and jury. Because...

        Google is also the top advertiser in the world. Business use SEM to promote their services, and the incentive for Google is to promote SEM results, as they are the ones bringing money to the table.

        In the end, everybody is getting worse results. We see aggregator sites which add no value, webs optimized for Google instead of the visitors, and plain scams.

    • Security

      • PC LinuxShort Topix: New Free, Open Source AI Tool Can Fix Most Old Photos In Seconds

        Apple iOS users didn't escape the past month unscathed. According to an article on Lifehacker, security researcher Alex Kleber discovered seven malware apps hiding in plain sight. While initially appearing to be by separate publishers, Kleber discovered that the malware apps were all created by a single group of hackers in China.

        Here's a BIG oops! With the Google Pixel 6a hitting stores, reports have emerged about ANYONE'S fingerprint being able to unlock the phone … not just the user who registered their fingerprint, according to an article on 9 to 5 Google.

        Still think all of those so-called "smart devices" are worth the trouble or a great idea? Well, here's an excellent exposé from Lifehacker about how all of these "smart devices" and IoT (which I've always called I(di)oT) devices sacrifice your privacy all in the name of convenience. This is what I've been saying all along. Remember that there is a literal GOLDMINE available in the reselling of your data, so it's going to be difficult (without legal or legislative restraints) to limit ANY company from profiting off of your data by selling and reselling your data to other "interested" parties … whose only interest is in serving up advertising and other tracking information. Even metadata or anonymized data, given enough of it, can paint a pretty accurate picture of a user from bits of innocent-looking data. In aggregate, it's not so innocent. THIS article deserves your attention, since the markets are now inundated by smart appliances, smart bulbs, smart thermostats, smart speakers, etc. (when I recently purchased a new thermostat for my house, the "non-smart" thermostats were buried on the retailer's website, and harder to find than they should have been). Scary, scary times ahead concerning privacy!

        According to an article on BleepingComputer, another batch of 35 malware apps has been found in the Google Play Store. This latest batch of malware has been installed more than 2,000,000 times.

        Research from cybersecurity provider Kaspersky found nearly 7 million users being affected by unwanted software disguised as browser add-ons, with many being found on Google Chrome. As reported, 4.3 million unique users were attacked by adware sneaking their way onto systems, while over 2.6 million users were affected by malware, according to an article from Laptop Mag.

        "Bad actors" have been discovered creating false Google Ads in an effort to deliver malware to your computer, according to an article from Lifehacker. The "malvertising" disguises itself as a bona fide Google Ad to lure unsuspecting/less savvy users to a fake version of the site that's being searched for. We all knew ads were bad, but now they are even worse.

        If you haven't changed to Bitwarden to help manage your online passwords, you may want to after hearing this. LastPass, one of the world's largest password managers, has confirmed on a blog post that it has been hacked, according to an article on Forbes. LastPass, which recently switched from a free service to a fee-based subscription service, has about 25 million users. While user data was never compromised, the hackers did gain access to some proprietary LastPass technical information, and gained access to some portions of source code.

      • Bleeping ComputerMicrosoft Defender falsely detects Win32/Hive.ZY in Google Chrome, Electron apps [Ed: If Microsoft Defender actually worked, it would flag Windows as malware. This is spin from Microsoft's devoted booster Lawrence Abrams.]

        A bad Microsoft Defender signature update mistakenly detects Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Discord, and other Electron apps as 'Win32/Hive.ZY' each time the apps are opened in Windows.

      • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer)Illinois electric company, ComEd, changes to Microsoft Azure hosting, and now I can't pay my power bill in SeaMonkey. Lots of Microsoft corruption in Illinois state government. | BaronHK’s Rants

        The Illinois electric company, ComEd, changed to Microsoft Azure hosting, and now I can’t pay my power bill in SeaMonkey.

        In Firefox, I had to whitelist a bunch of Microsoft domains to run JavaScript to pay my power bill, but in SeaMonkey, it won’t even load. Just a permanent spinny beachball of death.

        The old site worked fine.

        That’s on top of something that Roy Schestowitz mentioned for me in passing the other day on Techrights, that is the Illinois state court system leans on people to use Microsoft garbage. In that case, they implied that you need Microsoft Edge to view/edit PDFs and if you edit them with anything but Microsoft Edge, an unnamed (but presumably bad) type of thing could happen to your case.

        In reality, you could view, edit, save, and “flatten” (print to a non-fillable form) when you were done with other PDF editors. I tried it out in Okular (KDE but runs fine in GNOME via Flatpak), GNOME’s Evince document viewer, and Firefox, at the least. So the court is simply putting up Microsoft spam.

        The United States Customs and Immigration “Services” makes you fill out an insane number of confusing forms, but I managed to file a case with them using only KDE’s Okular in 2021, and it was approved.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • CNETAre You Owed Money From Facebook's $90 Million Data-Tracking Settlement?

          You'll need to act soon, though: The deadline for filing a valid claim is just weeks away.

          Plaintiffs in Davis v. Facebook allege the social media giant was aware it violated privacy, communications and wiretap laws -- and its own contracts with customers -- by tracking logged-out users to sites that had Facebook's "Like" button on them.

        • [Old] The WireOne Year After Pegasus Project Revelations, the State of Israel Continues to Evade Scrutiny

          In the US Congress’s report, it was concluded that “Israel appears to have sold technical assistance on a regular basis… We believe that the Israeli government was fully aware of most or all of the trade.” But just before the report was published, to moderate the backlash, on March 13, 1987, the Israeli government announced that it would not sign new arms deals with the South African government. Although this did not prevent the continuing of existing arms contracts worth of billions of dollars right up until the end of the apartheid regime in April 1994, it was enough to moderate criticism of Israel in the US.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • CS MonitorEx-cop who attacked Capitol police officer on Jan. 6 gets 10 years

        Thomas Webster’s prison sentence is the longest so far among roughly 250 people who have been punished for their conduct during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The previous longest was shared by two other rioters, who were sentenced separately to seven years and three months in prison.

    • Environment

      • OverpopulationPopulation and the Great Transition

        In June, the Great Transition Initiative ran a month-long forum under the title The Population Debate Revisited. The collection of contributed essays is now accessible on the GTI’s site, and makes for interesting reading. We thought three of the essays held particular merit and will republish them here over the next few weeks. The first is the opening essay of the forum, by eminent Australian environmental scientist Ian Lowe.

      • Helsinki TimesStudy: Arctic lakes are vanishing in surprise climate finding

        The lake decline comes as a surprise. Scientists had predicted that climate change would initially expand lakes across the tundra, due to land surface changes resulting from melting ground ice, with eventual drying in the mid-21st or 22nd century. Instead, it appears that thawing permafrost, the frozen soil that blankets the Arctic, may drain lakes and outweigh this expansion effect, says Webb. The team theorized that thawing permafrost may decrease lake area by creating drainage channels and increasing soil erosion into the lakes.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • ScheerpostChris Hedges: Let’s Stop Pretending America Is a Functioning Democracy

        The political philosopher Sheldon Wolin in Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism calls our system “inverted totalitarianism.” The façade of democratic institutions and the rhetoric, symbols and iconography of state power have not changed. The Constitution remains a sacred document. The U.S. continues to posit itself as a champion of opportunity, freedom, human rights and civil liberties, even as half the country struggles at subsistence level, militarized police gun down and imprison the poor with impunity, and the primary business of the state is war.

        This collective self-delusion masks who we have become — a nation where the citizenry has been stripped of economic and political power and where the brutal militarism we practice overseas is practiced at home.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • JURISTSaudi Arabia court sentences woman to 45 years for tweets

        Al-Qahtani was tried and sentenced by the Appellate Division of the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) under Saudi Arabia’s Counter-Terrorism Law and Anti-Cyber Crime Law for “using the Internet to tear the [country’s] social fabric” and “violating the public order by using social media.” Her sentence comes on the heels of the sentencing of another Saudi woman named Salma Al-Shehab to 34 years in prison, followed by a 34-year travel ban. Like al-Qahtani, Salma Al-Shehab was sentenced for having a Twitter account and retweeting posts from Saudi dissidents and human rights activists.

      • VarietyInstagram Removes Pornhub’s Account

        Before the sex site’s account was removed from Instagram, Pornhub had 13.1 million followers and more than 6,200 posts. Reps for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, did not respond to a request for comment.

        The move comes one month after Visa and Mastercard cut off payment privileges of TrafficJunky, the advertising arm of Pornhub parent company MindGeek. That followed a federal court ruling in July rejecting Visa’s request to be removed from a case in which MindGeek is being sued for allegedly distributing child pornography and that alleges Visa knowingly facilitated MindGeek’s ability to monetize the illegal content.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • NPRIsraeli army says a soldier likely killed a Palestinian-American journalist

        The Israeli army said Monday there was a "high possibility" that a soldier killed a well-known Al Jazeera journalist in May, as it announced the results of its investigation into the killing. But it said the shooting was accidental and no one would be punished.

        Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in May while covering Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinians blamed Israel for the killing. Israel initially said she may have been killed by militant fire, but later said a soldier may have hit her by mistake during an exchange of fire.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Three Questions answere

        I used to have impostor syndrome in my job. I knew I was better at it than some people, but I thought that if I met the real experts I'd be out of my depth. Then one day, out of the blue, I thought "I'm good enough at this." And since then I've felt like it's ok for me to do it. I'm not an impostor.

      • I am culling those photos...



        I've uploaded the ones with decent stock potential to a photo sharing site, licensed under CC BY-SA. It doesn't solve the problem of taking up space on a hard drive in a warehouse somewhere, but this way at least they can be of use to another human being. Hopefully a non-evil human being.

        I wonder now if they should have been shared under CC BY or CC0. I may never use them, may never have them help me pay my bills, so why place restrictions on someone else being able to do something with it? Maybe this argument is moot. I'm sure if someone wanted to capitalise on those photos without crediting, they're gonna do it anyway most likely in such a fashion that I'd have no idea it's happening.

      • I can't believe I sort of like Frasier

        But this new job feels different. Just the couple of days I've done feel light years from where I was with the Psych Department. Maybe I won't feel the same fatigue. Maybe I can start bringing my diary with me to work and write in it on the way home if I take the Flatiron Flyer. Maybe I'll feel more like doing things like this (this Gemlog) and playing games and listening to music when I get home. That partly involves work, but also setting more boundaries with Trevor about what I/we do when we are home together at the end of the day. I'm hoping for more parallel play-type scenarios, since he only ever seems to want to be watching something. Maybe I'll just start sleeping for a couple of hours when I get home, that seemed to help my motivation Friday.

      • Wisdom brings patience, Patience brings wisdom,
      • arguments #0

        The moment when you're trying to explain something to the person, then that person keeps avoiding the topic by trying to compromise, just to wait for you to say one wrong word and cling into that instead of the argument itself.

    • Technical

      • NixOS Bento: new reporting feature

        Bento received a new feature, it is now able to report if the remote hosts are up-to-date, how much time passed since their last update, and if they are not up-to-date, how long passed since the configuration change.

        As Bento is using SFTP, it's possible to deposit information on the central server, I'm currently using log files from the builds, and compare this date to the date of the configuration.

        This will be very useful to track deployments across the fleet. I plan to also check the version expected for a host and make them report their version after an update, this should possible for flakes system at least.

      • What is it the Free Software Foundation *does*, exactly?



        The open source and free software movements undoubtedly stem from the philosophy and practices of the Free Software Foundation. The FSF champions the use of such code, and has written a handful of licenses in its over 35 years in operation to ensure the continued proliferation of code that is free to receive, examine, operate, extend, and share.

        There are few issues more central to the FSF’s mission than the log4j debacle. In yet another case among countless others, code released for free, by a handful of unpaid maintainers, has been spread across the entire world, literally. "Apple, Microsoft, Steam, Twitter, Baidu, and Cloudflare" are only a small (but critically important and valuable) handful of companies that rely on this code, according to TNW’s Ivan Mehta[1]. These companies, some of the most massive engineering organizations in the world, have built their software on top of a project maintained by a handful of people in their spare time, and now that the vulnerability has been revealed, those handful of maintainers have spent nearly all their time patching and testing security fixes while the whole Internet breathes down their necks.

        [...]

        It is long past time for the software development community to take a step back and try and figure out how the hell we got to this point. The FSF has been an integral part in ensuring that programmers don’t get paid for their work, and if they *aren’t* responsible for that, then I honestly can’t point to anything they *have* done, and their vaunted position in the software community—and the philosophy that has nurtured the climate we live in today as programmers and users—needs critical re-examination.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Welcome to my blog !

          My name is Masséna. I'm French, and I am currently a 2d animation student.

          I enjoy making smol games, and drawing smol stuff.

        • Writing about Gemini

          Taking a few to write up a little post on getting set up and using Gemini.

        • The Antenna Time Machine

          I'm sitting here, 7:13pm on Sunday, September 4th, looking at a link on Antenna dated to September 5th. We have a time traveler! I have so many questions.

      • Programming

        • Trying to Revive sml_tk

          After the previous post, I intermittently worked on sml_tk. In particular, as mentioned I wrote a usable .smackspec and .use files for package management and build system respectiely. Of interest is that I wrote the .use file to only expose core Tk functionality and not any of the test code or SML extensions.

        • LZR day one

          After writing yesterday's article, the itch of writing the successor to LZY came stronger. So, for a sleepless night, I put down the basis.

        • Looking back on LZY

          LZY is a small C game framework I built. It was meant to be used as an abstraction layer to help building games for two different targets at once; namely SDL2 and gint. I tried to keep it as simple as possible, while prioritizing ease of use and understanding.

        • Basic photo editing recipes for the command line

          When I started using Linux systems I was initially attracted to the free cost, its lineage of open source software, and the challenge and adventure of using new tools. I still like those things. But more and more I've come to realize that those feel closer to personal preferences than clear advantages. Sure, free is nice, but open source software is often maligned as kludgy - awkward interfaces, for example, or tools that don't quite work without fine tuning your system settings. To be fair, that does occasionally trip me up.

          But one of the huge advantages of Linux that I've learned over time is the composability of commands in the command line. With a few terse words you can coax out powerful tools rather than the amount of time searching in GUI software. And more importantly, you can by its very CLI nature automate repetitive tasks, even complex ones.

        • Just clone the source (part 1)

          It is natural for anyone who work with free software to clone git repository of dependency whenever there are any doubts or issues. Source do not lie. It could be more convenient, though. For example, to fetch source repository of "optics" haskell library, I have to open "https://hackage.haskell.org/package/optics" page (and wait for it to load), copy git repository url, open another tab in terminal emulator, type "git clone" and paste repository url. Not fatal, but annoying paper cut.

        • Standard ML in Production

          I have a small backlog of posts to get out, this is the first one.

          I've read and enjoyed several blog posts like this. In particular, Prolog was an eye-opener for me. I studied it in college, but didn't realise until long afterwards that there was an industrial-quality infrastructure and libraries beyond the fragment we learned, perfectly suitable for commercial software development.

          My minor contribution to the genre is for Standard ML. First, I recommend a book, it is much better than this post.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

The Web is Becoming Social Control Media Junk and Fake Text Crafted by Machines (Boosted by Social Control Media via Bots Which Game Visibility/Popularity)
The misinformation machines are being increasingly automated to promote dictators and bigots
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 26, 2024
When Social Control Media in the European Union is Controlled by BRICS
Who controls TikTok?
Links 27/11/2024: Zoom Waning (Stock Falls), More Microsoft Shutdowns, and European Commission Flags Bluesky for Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/11/2024: Disease, Vibrations, and Grief
Links for the day
Links 26/11/2024: Microsoft 360 Users Report Outages, Attacks on Journalists Plentiful Worldwide
Links for the day
Same Month Judge Suggests Selling Chrome (Compelling Google to Give It Away) Chrome Surpasses Two-Thirds of "The Market", Based on Surveyor
tackling Google's browser monoculture is still a priority
[Meme] Trying to Terrorise Critics
How Microsofters roll...
Illegitimi Non Carborundum
If you try to suppress our publication, we'll not just bark back but also bite
Why This Site Became "Simple" a Year Ago
Light is good, heavy is bad
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 25, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 25, 2024
Links 26/11/2024: International Microsoft Outages, Microsoft Mass Layoffs Bigger Than Reported Last Friday
Links for the day, Deutsche Welle and CBC focus
Gemini Links 26/11/2024: Not Pagan, Emacs Wiki, and More
Links for the day
Links 25/11/2024: Egypt Harasses Bloggers, The University of Michigan Has Become Like a Corporation
Links for the day
Links 25/11/2024: Climate News, Daniel Pocock Receives a Fake/Fraudulent €17,000 Electricity Bill
Links for the day
On Groupthink, Mindless 'Sheep', and Toxic Online Cults
This week, treat yourself to a life free of social control media
[Meme] Microsoft: Our "Hey Hi" Hype is Going So Well That We Have MASS Layoffs Every Month. Makes Sense?
Contradiction
Latest Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Are Confirmed, Bing and Vista 11 Losing Market Share
They tried to hide this. They misuse NDAs.
BetaNews is Run and Written by Bots That Make Clickbait
At least one author is doing this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 24, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, November 24, 2024
Gemini Links 25/11/2024: Purity and Cory Doctorow's Ulysses Pact, Smolnet Portal and SGI
Links for the day