Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 28/06/2023: NVK Update and Ubuntu EoL

  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • 9to5LinuxNew TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 16 Linux Laptop Gets NVIDIA RTX 4000 Series GPUs

        Featuring the same large, high-quality 16-inch WQHD display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 2560×1600 pixels resolution, the InfinityBook Pro 16 Gen8 laptop is powered by an Intel Core i7-13700H processor with 14 cores, 20 threads, 24M cache, up to 5.00 GHz clock speed, and Intel Iris Xe graphics.

        The Intel Core i7-13700H processor appears to be very well suited for all demanding use cases, such as gaming, but now you can order the InfinityBook Pro 16 laptop with a more powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics cards with 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM for unbeatable performance.

    • Kernel Space

      • LWNLinux 6.3.10
        I'm announcing the release of the 6.3.10 kernel.
        
        

        All users of the 6.3 kernel series must upgrade.

        The updated 6.3.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-6.3.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-s...

        thanks,

        greg k-h
      • LWNLinux 6.1.36
      • LWNLinux 5.15.119
      • LWNLinux 5.10.186
      • LWNLinux 5.4.249
      • LWNLinux 4.19.288
      • LWNLinux 4.14.320
    • Graphics Stack

      • GamingOnLinuxThe open source NVIDIA NVK driver is coming along well

        A project I have a very keen eye on is NVK, the open source NVIDIA Vulkan driver developed by the community (not NVIDIA), and it seems like progress on it is going rather well. Developer€ Faith Ekstrand wrote a bit on the Collabora blog, detailing work that has been done since the original introduction post back in October last year.

      • LWNEkstrand: NVK update: Enabling new extensions, conformance status & more

        Faith Ekstrand has provided an update on the status of the NVK Vulkan driver for NVIDIA GPUs.

      • CollaboraNVK update: Enabling new extensions, conformance status & more

        It's been a while since I've written about NVK. Rebecca, my intern, has written a couple of blog posts about her NVK work but I've been mostly quiet. Part of that is because I've been primarily focused on something else NVK will need but we'll get to that in a bit. That doesn't mean nothing has happened in NVK, though. Quite a bit has landed in the main NVK branch since October and we're long overdue for an update.

    • Applications

      • TecMintPowerline – Adds Statuslines and Prompts to Vim and Bash Shell

        Powerline is a great statusline plugin for Vim editor, which is developed in Python and provides status lines and prompts for many other applications such as bash, zsh, tmux, and many more.

        It enhances the appearance and functionality of the Vim editor by providing a customizable and informative status line at the bottom of the editor window, which includes current mode (e.g., normal, insert, visual), file name, path, line and column numbers, Git branch, virtual environment, and more.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • BeebomHow to Make a File Executable in Linux (2023 Guide) | Beebom

        Imagine a situation where you wrote an excellent script to automate a tedious task for you. But when you try to execute it in Linux, all you get is a “Permission Denied” error. Fret no more, as in this article, we will discuss two easy methods to make a file executable in Linux and avoid such permission-denied errors.

      • It's FOSSBash Basics Series #3: Passing Arguments and Accepting User Inputs

        Learn how to pass arguments to bash scripts and make them interactive in this chapter of the Bash Basics series.

      • LinuxTechiHow to Install PHP 8 on RHEL 8 / Rocky Linux 8 / CentOS 8
      • Linux HandbookTrap: A Shell built-in Command

        You might have come across a few shell scripts on the Internet, which are used in production, that use a keyword called trap. Naturally, you are wondering what the heck is this trap keyword, how is it useful and how do I use it in my scripts?

      • TecMint12 Ways to Find User Account Info and Login Details in Linux

        This article will show you useful ways to find information about users on a Linux system. Here we’ll describe commands to get a user’s account details, show login details as well what users are doing on the system.

        If you want to add or create users in Linux, use the useradd command, and to modify or change any attributes of an already created user account, use the usermod command via the command line.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Tim F. Brüggemann: (Almost) Bi-weekly GSoC Update: FlatSync GSettings Integration

          This post is going to cover the latest progress on FlatSync as well as my absence from bi-weekly updates and the project.

          # Absence From Blog and Project

          Normally, I'd write bi-weekly blog post updates regarding GSoC and FlatSync, but both my mentor and I have been very busy with university work in this month's first week, and after that, I've been ill and bed-ridden for a little over a week. As a result, development stagnated in this period, so there was just nothing to write about. I'm somewhat back on my feet though, so you can expect regular updates again.

          # Progress on FlatSync

          We were thrown behind quite a bit on schedule, but luckily, the still-open, expired milestone we wanted to catch up on turned out to be less work than originally planned, and we were able to fulfill it quite easily.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • It's FOSSExodia OS is a Linux Distro for Cybersecurity Enthusiasts

      Are you a cybersecurity enthusiast tired of using the same old Kali Linux or other popular distros for hacking?

      Well, then we have got an alternative for you that might pique your interest.

      Let us take a look at Exodia OS.

    • DebugPointWhy is Kali Linux Preferred by Hackers?

      Kali Linux is a Debian "testing" based Linux operating system created almost a decade ago. Over the last few years has gained significant popularity among hackers and cybersecurity professionals. With the ever-increasing dependency on digital infrastructures and ever-growing online threats, cybersecurity has become more relevant today for average users and businesses.

      Here are a few points why Kali Linux is used by most of the hackers and pen testers.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • OMG! LinuxLibreboot, the FOSS BIOS Replacement, Sees New Release

      Unlike other boot firmware, Libreboot is entirely free of proprietary blobs, is free to inspect, modify, and redistribute. It also boasts solid support for booting Linux-based distros, as well as OpenBSD and FreeBSD.

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Mozilla

        • MozillaSigning in to Pocket just got even more secure

          The Pocket app and web experience are trusted by millions of people everyday to stay up to date and informed on the topics they care about most, free from clickbait, fake news and the pressure and anxiety often felt while on social media platforms. Since being acquired in 2017, Pocket is part of the family of products made by Mozilla, the nonprofit-backed tech company building responsible technology that prioritizes people over profits, so internet safety and security are top of mind for our customers.€ 

        • MozillaChallenge the default with Firefox

          In our ever faster and more overwhelming online lives, we’ve learned to settle for the obvious choices — the ones we’re made to believe are practical and right for us. Our phones come with pre-installed apps, our laptops have their own browsers. But in real life, we can choose to go to our local ethical store, choose which school to send our children to, or decide to travel by train. So why should this choice be taken away from us online? Why can’t we pick technology that feels more like us and what we stand for?€ 

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • Peter EisentrautPostgreSQL compile times: Meson review

        In a recent article, I compared the compilation times of PostgreSQL using different compilers. In the comments, I was asked for numbers for the new Meson build machinery. Let’s do that now.

        (Of course, when we are testing the compilation step, we are not really using Meson much but rather Ninja operating on build description files produced by Meson.)

        We have to consider how we can make both build systems build approximately the same set of files, to make this a fair comparison. I’m going to use make world-bin on the make side, which builds the same things as meson compile on the meson side (that is, core, contrib, but not documentation). Also, I’m configuring with plain configure without options and with meson setup --auto-features=disabled, in order to get approximately the same build configuration. Finally, I’m running the configure and make build in a separate build directory, to match the meson build, just in case that matters. Beyond that, the methodology is the same as in the previous article.

    • Education

      • Raspberry PiJoin London’s hybrid Raspberry Pi live event

        If you attend or host a Raspberry Pi-focused meet-up that we haven’t yet listed, scroll to the bottom of this page to let us know some details and we’ll put out the Pi signal to alert others near you.

    • Programming/Development

      • HackadayA Browser Approach To Parsing

        There are few rites of programmer passage as iconic as writing your first parser. You might want to interpret or compile a scripting language, or you might want to accept natural-language-like commands. You need a parser. [Varunramesh] wants to show you parser combinators, a technique used to make practical parsers. But the demonstration using interactive code cells in the web page is nearly as interesting as the technique.

      • Geeks For GeeksRelative Importance Analysis in R

        A statistical method called relative importance analysis (RIA) is used to assess the relative contribution of independent variables to the variance of a dependent variable.

      • [Repeat] ButtondownMaybe Software Engineers could learn something from Linguistics

        Unlike most languages, Alloy has two notions of subtyping: a type (or “signature”) can be extended, which is exclusive, or they can be in, which are stackable. In this example, the source can be generic, a database, or a file, but not all three. The Step can be generic, an extraction step, a load step, or both:1 [...]

      • Jamie Brandon0037: dynamic mutable value semantics, interior pointers, uninterning, functionless effects, papers, books

        I worked through a simple implementation of mutable value semantics here (tree-walking interpreter, no optimizations). The main difference from swiftlet/val is that it's a dynamic language - demonstrating that nothing about MVS requires static typing.

      • RlangA Journey through Arrow in R

        Apache Arrow is a software development platform for building high performance applications that process and transport large data sets. It is designed to improve the performance of data analysis methods, and to increase the efficiency of moving data from one system or programming language to another.

        In this community call moderated by Stephanie Hazlitt, our speakers, Nic Crane and Jonathan Keane, will lead us through the Arrow R package.

      • Jay LittleDeveloping Custom Software is Probably a Bad Idea

        This post is the culmination of years of accumulated professional frustration. It will not be well received by some. That's okay. If you make it to the 25 year point of your dev career and you spent most of that time writing custom software for clients and you still disagree, feel free to write your own take and send it along to me. I will afford it my due consideration.

        That isn't me gate keeping or trying to make an argument based solely on an appeal to my own authority. I'm just pointing out that I have watched a lot of clients break themselves against the rocks of custom software development and over time the accumulated weight of their trials, tribulations and in some cases, overt failures, has begun to weigh upon my soul. The purpose of this post is to discuss some of this at a high level and explain why I now believe custom software is not a good option for most.

      • Python

        • Geeks For GeeksPython Array length

          In Python, the length of an array can be obtained using the len() function.

        • University of TorontoBelatedly remembering to use the two expression form of Python's assert

          Today I confessed on the Fediverse that I had somehow mentally overwritten what I once knew about Python's assert with a C-like version that I wrote as 'assert(expression)' (which I apparently started doing more than a decade ago). What caused me to notice this was that I was revising some Python code to cope with a new situation, and I decided I wanted to fail in some way if an impossible thing turned out to not be as impossible as I thought. This wasn't an error that should be returned normally, and it wasn't really something I wanted to raise as an assertion, so adding an assert was the easy way.

      • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

        • EarthlyNavigating Directories Like a Pro with Bash pushd and popd

          If you answered yes, then it’s the perfect time to learn two more bash commands: pushd and popd. In this article, you’ll learn how pushd and popd work, as well as a couple of alternative commands. By the end of this article, you’ll have added two more useful commands to your repertoire.

        • Linux HandbookRead File Line by Line in Bash

          You may find yourself in a situation where you want to use a shell script to read files line by line.

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Walled CultureTop EU court advisor says technical standards, like laws, should not be locked down by copyright

        One of the most pernicious ideas that copyright maximalism has spread is that preventing people from freely accessing creative material is not just a good thing to do, but should be the natural state of affairs. This has made questioning whether copyright is really the best way to support artists and promote creativity hard. Against that background, there’s an interesting opinion from one of the top EU court’s special advisers, known as advocates general, suggesting a situation in which copyright definitely should not be applied. The Court of Justice of the European Union’s press release explains the background: [...]

  • Leftovers

    • The NationSecret Histories

      An assassin works from a partial understanding of the world. If not literally a hashishi, as suggested by the word’s etymology, an assassin must nevertheless see the world in tunnel vision, his victim viewed through the lens of a scope. The vast, complex network of humanity to which he and his victim belong, with contending narratives and blurred individual motives, cannot be allowed to exist. To do so would be to fail as an assassin.

    • [Repeat] The StrategistFrom the bookshelf: ‘The ghost at the feast’

      America’s record as an ambivalent and erratic liberal hegemon has deep roots, as analysed by Robert Kagan in The ghost at the feast: America and the collapse of world order, 1900–1941.

    • Science

    • Education

      • The NationSchool Zone
      • David RosenthalThe Philosopher of Palo Alto

        As I was at the time a member of "staff in some other department" at Sun Microsystems and then Nvidia, below the fold I discuss some of the "practicalities" that should have been faced earlier rather than later or not at all.

    • Hardware

      • The AtlanticThere Will Never Be Another Second Life

        The virtual world, a strange cross between Burning Man and Neal Stephenson’s metaverse, marks its 20th anniversary with no true corporate competitor in sight.

      • DedoimedoThe Slimbook is dead, long live the Slimbook

        This be a short article for now, but I'll save the details for when the laptop actually arrives. I am happy to have bought myself a new toy, but the impetus for the purchase wasn't really a happy one, so I don't have this amazing, giddy feeling bubbling inside me. I also didn't spend a great deal of time reading reviews and comparing products, one because I like and know Slimbook's offerings, and two because I didn't think I'd come to any wiser conclusion than the one I already have. Linux-friendly systems are all much alike, they do cost a bit more than the generic off-the-shelf Windows-powered system, but hey.

        Well, now we shall wait. I do have a question for you though, if you feel like sending an old-fashioned email. Do you think I ought to re-use all of the Slimbook Pro2's user settings and desktop configurations, or simply start fresh, create a brand new setup, and then just copy the actual user data? If you have an idea or a suggestion, feel free to ping me. Stay tuned for updates.

        [...]

        But then, I noticed that the case was actually warped. The entire left side was thicker than the right side, and the abnormality was slowly, but steadily growing. I figured that my laptop's battery was bulging! As I've already told you in my recent Slimbook & Kubuntu 22.04 upgrade article, I was worried the battery may cause problems down the road. It did, and much sooner than I expected, and in a more destructive way than I'd have liked. As one does with devices with Lithium-ion batteries, I let it drain and powered the machine off. And then went searching for a replacement.

      • The Drone GirlHow these drones survey underwater — without actually going underwater

        With the Bathydrone system, a drone drags a small vessel on the water’s surface. That vessel is equipped with a commercially-available, off-the-shelf sonar unit mounted on its bottom.

        And it’s that sonar unit that has down-scan, side-scan, and chirp capabilities, making it possible to log data onboard the console, which is located inside the hull. After the drone’s flight and the sonar unit is retrieved, data can then be uploaded post-mission from the console.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Matt RickardDark Patterns

        Dark patterns are design tactics used in websites that manipulate users into doing something they didn’t intend to do.

        A list of dark patterns I’ve come across.

      • Pro PublicaInside the Secretive World of Penile Enlargement

        They wanted it because they’d just gone through a bad breakup and needed an edge in the volatile dating market; because porn had warped their sense of scale; because they’d been in a car accident, or were looking to fix a curve, or were hoping for a little “soft€­ware upgrade”; because they were not having a midlife crisis; because they were, “and it was cheaper than a Bugatti Veyron”; because, after five kids, their wife couldn’t feel them anymore; because they’d been molested as a child and still remembered the laughter of the adults in the room; because they couldn’t forget a passing comment their spouse made in 1975; because, despite the objections of their couples therapist, they believed it would bring them closer to their “sex €­obsessed” husband (who then had an affair that precipitated their divorce); because they’d stopped changing in locker rooms, stopped peeing in urinals, stopped having sex; be€­cause who wouldn’t want it?

        Mick (his middle name) wanted a bigger penis because he believed it would allow him to look in the mirror and feel satisfied. He had trouble imagining what shape the satisfaction would take, since it was something he’d never actually experienced. Small and dark haired, he’d found his adolescence to be a gantlet of humiliating comparisons: to classmates who were blond and blue-€­eyed; to his half brothers, who were older and taller and heterosexual; to the hirsute men in his stepfather’s Hasidic community, who wore big beards and billowing frock coats. After he reached puberty — late, in his estimation — he grew an impressive beard of his own, and his feelings of inadequacy concentrated on his genitals.

      • HackadayMIT Engineers Pioneer Cost-Effective Protein Purification For Cheaper Drugs

        There are a wide variety of protein-based drugs that are used to treat various serious conditions. Insulin is perhaps the most well-known example, which is used for life-saving treatments for diabetes. New antibody treatments also fall into this category, as do various vaccines.

      • HackadayDentist Tool Hardware Inspires Non-Slip Probe Tips

        Cross-pollination between different industries can yield interesting innovations, and a few years ago [John Wiltrout] developed some non-slip meter probe adapters. He recently used our tips line to share some details that you won’t see elsewhere, letting us know how the idea came to be.

      • YLENurse shortage eats away at ward beds

        Around half of the wellbeing services counties that took part in Yle's survey report closing some of their wards due to a lack of staff.

      • The Straits TimesJumbo problem: Sri Lanka's battle with plastic pollution

        Officials say a law banning single-use plastics may come into force within weeks.

      • teleSURUN Report Sounds Alarm on Surging Global Drug Use

        The number of people suffering from drug use disorders has skyrocketed to 39.5 million globally, a surge of 45 percent over the decade.

      • The AtlanticDear Therapist: I’ve Been Dumped by My Friends

        I thought our shared history would keep us close, but it hasn’t.

      • New YorkerHow Plastics Are Poisoning Us

        They both release and attract toxic chemicals, and appear everywhere from human placentas to chasms thirty-six thousand feet beneath the sea. Will we ever be rid of them?

      • New YorkerA Year of Change for a North Dakota Abortion Clinic

        After the Dobbs decision that reversed Roe v. Wade, North Dakota and thirteen other states banned most abortions. Emily Witt visits one clinic that managed to move across state lines.

      • New YorkerThe Perils and Promises of Penis-Enlargement Surgery

        One doctor’s Promethean quest to grow the male member is leaving some men desperate and disfigured.

    • Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

      • DroidGazzetteOutlook for the web outage impacts users across America

        Some South American users also say they’re having issues with the Outlook desktop application, which crashes when launched.

      • Windows TCO

        • Scoop News GroupTwo major energy corporations added to growing MOVEit victim list

          Since the Russian-speaking CL0P began publicizing its victims, state and local governments appear to have been heavily affected by the campaign as at least seven have been hit, including the nation’s largest public-employee pension fund the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. Over the weekend, around 45,000 New York City public school students had their personal data stolen which included information like Social Security numbers, StateScoop reported.

    • Security

      • IT WireAPRA takes action against Medibank over October ransomware attack

        “Since launching the 2020-2024 Cyber Security Strategy, APRA has repeatedly stressed the importance of an uplift in cyber security and continued vigilance to identify and address cyber exposures.

        "Unfortunately, not all entities are heeding these messages as we continue to identify poor cyber security practices and inadequate oversight from boards and management,” Smith said.

        In response, Medibank said in a note sent to the ASX that it had sufficient capital to meet the increase.

        It said after application of this requirement the company would remain well capitalised with unallocated capital remaining at 30 June 2022 levels: $148 million. Given this, the company said it would not reduce its target health insurance required capital ratio.

        Medibank chief executive David Koczkar said: "Safeguarding customer data is a responsibility Medibank takes very seriously.

        “Medibank has continued to strengthen our systems and processes to provide our customers with the security they expect and deserve. We will continue to work to enhance our systems and processes even further. Our company remains strong and well capitalised.

        “We continue to support our customers through the Medibank Cyber Response Support Program, which includes mental health and well-being support, identity protection and financial hardship measures.”

      • SANSThe Importance of Malware Triage, (Tue, Jun 27th)

        When dealing with malware analysis, you like to get "fresh meat". Just for hunting purposes or when investigating incidents in your organization, it's essential to have a triage process to reduce the noise and focus on really interesting files. For example, if you detect a new sample of Agent Tesla, you don't need to take time to investigate it deeply. Just extract IOCs to share with your colleagues. From a business point of view, you don't have time to analyze all samples!

      • LWNSecurity updates for Tuesday [LWN.net]

        Security updates have been issued by Debian (c-ares and libx11), Fedora (chromium and kubernetes), Red Hat (python3 and python38:3.8, python38-devel:3.8), and SUSE (amazon-ssm-agent, kernel, kubernetes1.24, libvirt, nodejs16, openssl-1_1, and webkit2gtk3).

      • TechCrunchLetMeSpy, a phone tracking app spying on thousands, says it was hacked



        A hacker has stolen the messages, call logs and locations intercepted by a widely used phone monitoring app called LetMeSpy, according to the company that makes the spyware.

        The phone monitoring app, which is used to spy on thousands of people using Android phones around the world, said in a notice on its login page that on June 21, “a security incident occurred involving obtaining unauthorized access to the data of website users​​.”

      • Silicon AngleAmerican and Southwest Airlines pilot data breached in hack of third-party provider

        Pilot data relating to American Airlines Group Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. has been breached following the hack of a third-party provider of pilot applications and recruitment. The breach involved the compromise of a company called Pilot Credentials between April 30 and May 1, with the airlines informed on May 3.

      • Bruce SchneierExcel Data Forensics

        In this detailed article about academic plagiarism are some interesting details about how to do data forensics on Excel files. It really needs the graphics to understand, so see the description at the link.

        (And, yes, an author of a paper on dishonesty is being accused of dishonesty. There's more evidence.)

    • Defence/Aggression

      • RIPEInsights from the World’s Largest Cyber Defence Exercise

        We spoke with Patrik and Tomas to find out more about the experience: how did it feel to work under that level of stress, what lessons did they learn, and what surprises did they encounter along the way?

      • New York TimesAfter Montana Banned TikTok, Users Sued. TikTok Is Footing Their Bill.
        The popular video service had deflected questions about its involvement in the creators’ lawsuit for more than a month.

        [...]

        While TikTok is funding the lawsuit, the creators said, the company is not paying them directly for their role.

      • QuartzThe US Supreme Court struck down a GOP effort to subvert elections

        Writing the majority opinion for a 6-3 decision (pdf), chief justice John Roberts wrote that the US Constitution does not “insulate” state legislatures from judicial review.

        The decision was an indictment of the independent state legislature theory, a radical interpretation of the US Constitution’s elections clause that claims state legislatures should have unilateral control over elections. The June 27 ruling essentially establishes that courts have the authority to weigh in on the legality of state election regulations.

      • HackadayEscalate The NERF Arms Race With Self-Firing Missiles

        NERF guns are a toy that appeals to adults and youngsters alike — if you’ve never had the chance to pelt your friends with safe and kid friendly foam darts in a surprise ambush, you haven’t lived. But just as with real-world weapons of the type superpowers put in shows of military strength, there’s an arms race in the world of NERF. Mere darts aren’t enough, and there’s a range of missiles for the bellicose youngster intent on skirting the brink of global foam dart annihilation. These come with a catch though in the shape of a lackluster launcher, and this has prompted [Joel Creates] to create a self-firing NERF missile with a secondary rocket motor.

      • New York TimesMurders, on the Decline

        The recent spike in murders already seems to be over.

      • New York Times14-Story Building Collapses in Alexandria, Egypt

        The collapse is one of a several similar disasters in Egypt in recent years. Rescuers were trying to determine if more people were trapped under the rubble.

      • Federal News NetworkCouple celebrating 50th wedding anniversary are stabbed to death

        Authorities announced late Monday that they had arrested a 41-year-old man in the weekend killing of a Massachusetts couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, along with another family member, in the small city outside Boston. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced police took Christopher Ferguson, of Newton, into custody Monday evening and charged him the killing of 73-year-old Gilda “Jill” D’Amore after an autopsy revealed she had died from a homicide. Additional charges were expected in the death of 74-year-old Bruno D’Amore and Jill’s mother, 97-year-old Lucia Arpino, Tuesday after those autopsies have been completed.

      • RFAAs US aircraft carrier docks in Da Nang, Vietnamese premier visits Beijing

        The events illustrate Hanoi’s flexible ‘bamboo foreign policy,’ expert says.

      • RFERLThree Kosovar Police Officers Released Following Serbian Court Order

        A Serbian court has ordered the release of three Kosovar policemen detained on June 16 along the border between the two countries in an incident that heightened tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.

      • New York TimesConditions at Guantánamo Are Cruel and Inhuman, U.N. Investigation Finds

        The report was the result of the first visit by an independent human rights investigator to the prison in its two-decade history.

      • France24UN experts say treatment of Guantanamo detainees is 'inhuman and degrading'

        With nearly constant surveillance, gruelling isolation and limited family access, the treatment of the last 30 Guantanamo detainees is "cruel, inhuman and degrading," UN rights experts said Monday as they reported on their first visit to the US military prison.

      • teleSURUN Expert Denounces US Torture of Guantánamo Detainees

        The U.S. Naval Base prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, opened in January 2002, during the presidency of George W. Bush.

      • Federal News NetworkFirst UN investigator at US detention center at Guantanamo says detainees face cruel treatment

        The first U.N. independent investigator to visit the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay says the 30 men held there are subject “to ongoing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law." Irish law professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin called the American government’s use of torture against them “a betrayal” of the rights of victims and survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States to justice. She told a news conference Monday about her 23-page report that the 2001 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that killed nearly 3,000 people were “crimes against humanity.” But she said the U.S. use of torture and rendition against alleged perpetrators and their associates in the aftermath violated international human rights law.

      • New York TimesA Grave Escalation in the West Bank

        Ultranationalist West Bank settlers who have recently attacked Palestinian towns and villages seem to want to wedge out their Palestinian neighbors.



      • New York TimesProsecutors to Seek Death Penalty for Idaho Murders Suspect Bryan Kohberger

        The top prosecutor in Latah County said the November killings met the standard for the kind of aggravating factors that warrant seeking the death penalty.

      • War in Ukraine

    • Environment

      • Energy/Transportation

      • Wildlife/Nature

      • Overpopulation

        • GizmodoWe Pump So Much Groundwater, We've Shifted The World's Tilt and Contributed to Sea Level Rise

          Groundwater is a pretty important source of water throughout the world, especially in the U.S. It’s used to provide drinking water and it’s a backup source of water when there’s drought. But there is such a thing as taking too much out of the ground. “Earth’s pole has drifted toward 64.16€°E at a speed of 4.36 cm/yr during 1993–2010 due to groundwater depletion and resulting sea level rise,” researchers wrote in the study. That’s a tilt of about 1.7 inches towards the east per year, or more than 28 inches (70 centimeters) in less than two decades.

    • Finance

      • Michael West MediaHand that (Cor)mann a cigar: Labor suddenly shy about multinational tax avoidance, 'sunshine' reform on ice

        Multinational tax avoiders and the OECD have won a reprieve from the Albanese government which has delayed legislation aimed at shining the light on tax avoidance. Jason Ward explains why the backdown is bad news.€ 

        The Labor government made an election promise, a budget promise, a legislative promise and held two consultations on landmark legislation to implement global tax transparency for multinationals. Now it has bent to corporate pressure. Landmark legislation for public country by country reporting was set to be implemented as of 1 July.

      • Michael West MediaWelcome mat put out for low-deposit home buyers

        Tens of thousands of hopeful buyers can secure a property with a smaller deposit by locking down a spot on the latest home guarantee scheme.

        From Saturday – the start of the next financial year – there will be 50,000 new places available for buyers hoping to jump on the property ladder with a smaller deposit, as the government guarantees a chunk of the loan.€ 

      • The Straits TimesHong Kong high-rise aims to become ‘village’ of the dead [Ed: Capitalism is turning corpses into business too]

        A basic two-person option for space at the columbarium is sold for $78,000.

      • QuartzThe race gap in US employment has disappeared for one age group: workers 65 and over

        The race gap in employment between Black and white US workers has nearly closed for people 65 and over, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

      • LatviaSmall shops still fight Latvia's deposit system

        For small rural shops, the size of which is more than 60 square meters, the Law lays down an obligation to accept empty containers for deposit, but€ shopkeepers have long been saying that there are issues with that, mainly space, Latvian Radio reported on June 27.

      • QuartzHigh-performing teams use this exercise to build accountability

        How many times have you been in a situation where a colleague said, “I thought so-and-so was going to do that?” or “Isn’t that your job?” It’s frustrating at the minimum—but on top of that, it slows down decision-making and makes teams less effective.

      • QuartzA tax scandal prompted PwC to sell a part of its Australian business for $0.67

        PwC is selling its scandal-ridden Australian government services business for next to nothing. The consulting firm yesterday (June 25) announced the sale to Sydney-based private equity firm Allegro Funds for the price of just $1 Australian dollar ($0.67).

      • Yahoo NewsSpain angers ride-hailing platforms and drivers with new regulation [Ed: Terribly loaded headline, painting those who try to guardian labourers from misuse like they're the actual problems]

        The Spanish government on Tuesday angered the ride-hailing transport industry by allowing regions to restrict their activity despite a ruling by the European Union's top court that had overturned a set of local curbs in Barcelona.

        Associations representing drivers working with app platforms operating in Spain, such as Uber, Bolt and local rival Cabify, said they would challenge the decision in Brussels and ask the European Commission to open legal proceedings against Spain.

        "We regret the aim is again to impose limits on business activity and not the users' right to get a quality service," Bolt said in a statement.

      • The Telegraph UK UK shares on longest losing streak since pandemic

        Domestic shares in the UK have slumped into their longest losing streak since the lows of the pandemic amid worries about the outlook for the economy.

        Although many global stocks are trading higher in a so-called bull market, the FTSE 250 index of Britain’s midcap companies dropped for the 10th straight day on Monday.

        The index, which is mainly made-up of domestically-focused companies, has fallen 5.8pc so far this year, worse than the benchmark FTSE 100, which is down 1.5pc.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • The Local SESwedish police give go-ahead to Quran burning outside Stockholm mosque

        Swedish police have given a man permission to burn a copy of the Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm on Wednesday afternoon.

      • Project CensoredBurying Information Down Under - Censored Notebook

        Timor-Leste is a tiny nation just to the north of Australia, also known as East Timor. In 2004, its newly independent government began negotiations with the Australian government over oil and gas in an offshore field between the two countries. To gain an upper hand in the negotiations, an Australian spy agency installed listening devices in Timor-Leste government offices during a humanitarian aid project.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • CPJLiberian journalist Winston Blyden attacked by politician’s bodyguards

        On June 6, 2023, Hanson Kaizolu, a member of Liberia’s opposition Unity Party, ordered two of his bodyguards to “flog” and “beat up” Winston Blyden, a producer and director with the privately owned broadcaster Bana FM, after he covered daily legislative proceedings at the Capitol building in Monrovia, according to a statement by the local trade group Press Union of Liberia and Blyden, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

      • AxiosSocial media news consumption slows globally
        Data: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023; Chart: Axios Visuals; Note: Respondents were ages 18+ from select countries, including UK, USA, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Ireland

        Social media has shrunk as a source for news, mostly due to Facebook's global pullback from news.

      • The NationJulian Assange and Arnon Milchan: The Lopsided Scales of American Justice

        The lopsided scales of the American justice system were on vivid display in England last weekend. In London’s His Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh—a fortress-like maximum security prison encircled by 18-foot water-stained concrete walls, balls of shinny razor wire and a dozen menacing guard towers—inmate A9397AY, otherwise known as Julian Assange, was into his fifth year of confinement. His accommodations consist of a plastic chair, a metal bed, and a steel toilet. That is where, for over four years, he has fought extradition to the United States on charges of espionage and computer intrusion in connection with the publication of hundreds of thousands of documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • ScheerpostSupreme Court Keeps Navajo Nation Waiting for Water

        More than 150 years after the Navajo Nation signed treaties with the United States establishing its reservation and recognizing its sovereignty, the country’s largest tribe still struggles to secure the water guaranteed by those agreements.

      • Site36Cracking of Encrochat crypto phones: Shockwave from Europol

        France’s secret service hacked the Encrochat crypto service and created a goldmine for law enforcement. Thousands were arrested. Doubts remain about the usability of the data in court.

      • Jacobin MagazineTo Stop the Race to the Bottom, Europe Needs to Recognize Platform Workers as Workers

        On June 2, the CEOs of Deliveroo, Uber, Delivery Hero, Wolt, and Bolt joined forces in a show of unity among gig-economy bosses. Their aim: to sabotage European Union attempts at regulating platform work.

      • TruthdigSolitary Confinement Is Torture

        There is a growing body of research that shows that solitary confinement as it is used today can cause a variety of severe psychological problems, including anxiety, depression, paranoia, hallucinations and suicidal thoughts. These problems can be so severe that they can lead to long-term disability or even death.

      • TechdirtWest Virginia State Police Sued Over Hidden Cameras Placed In ‘Junior Troopers’ Locker Room

        Law enforcement officers and sexual assault go hand-in-hand. Give someone enough power and they’re sure to abuse it. That’s just human nature. Only the best people should be trusted with this much power, but this nation tends to believe that only the most law enforcement will do. Consequently, our hiring practices — not to mention our disciplinary practices — are woefully deficient.

      • Pro PublicaSupreme Court Keeps Navajo Nation Waiting for Water

        More than 150 years after the Navajo Nation signed treaties with the United States establishing its reservation and recognizing its sovereignty, the country’s largest tribe still struggles to secure the water guaranteed by those agreements.

        Decades of negotiations with the state of Arizona have proven fruitless. The state has been uniquely aggressive in using the scarce resource as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from the Navajo Nation and other tribes, dragging out the talks while Indigenous communities await desperately needed water and infrastructure, a recent ProPublica and High Country News investigation found.

      • New York TimesWhile We Wait for the Supreme Court to Make Up Its Mind …

        The fine print is what really matters when it comes to affirmative action.

      • New YorkerAfter Affirmative Action Ends

        The next big question for school admissions will likely be the legality of “race-neutral” methods that are designed with the continuing goal of producing diverse student bodies.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • [Repeat] APNICState of DNS rebinding in 2023

        This update documents the state of DNS rebinding for April 2023. We describe Local Network Access, a new draft W3C specification currently implemented in some browsers that aim to prevent DNS rebinding and show two potential ways to bypass these restrictions.

        We also discuss the effects of WebRTC IP address leak mitigation, and DNS Bit 0x20 on DNS rebinding attacks.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Digital Music NewsWill.i.am Joins Hallwood Media for Solo Artist Management

          Will.i.am joins Neil Jacobson’s Hallwood Media for solo artist management, including his track ‘The Formula’ featuring Lil Wayne as the official song of the 2023 Formula 1 season. Producer, musician, and entrepreneur will.i.am has signed with Neil Jacobson’s Hallwood Media for artist management.

        • New YorkerJoanna Sternberg Is a Music Ninja

          Growing up in Manhattan Plaza, an artists’ housing complex, the singer-songwriter sat in with the Marsalis brothers and almost had Alicia Keys as a babysitter.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Reddit as a Hive of Trolls, Social Control Media Curated (Many Voices Censored and Banned) by Marketing Firm of GAFAM
Typical Reddit
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Delusion - Part III - Women Failing Women to Help Violent Americans From Microsoft
Summed up, SRA will gladly prioritise the "legal industry" over women strangled, raped etc
The World Gets Smaller, as Does Its Real Economy ('Human Resources') and So-called 'Natural Resources' (What Humans Call the Planet)
Don't talk about "AI"
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
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
 
Links 07/02/2026: Misinformation by Slop, Overrated Slop Causes Stock Market Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/02/2026: Diode Function Generators and Panic Over Buzzwords and Slop
Links for the day
A Can of WORMS - Part III - Envying the Influence and Accomplishments of RMS, Socially Deleterious Attacks on Popular Movements
the actions are deliberate and coordinated, not some 'organic' or grassroots behaviour
Crisis teams assembled as financial regulators anticipate Bitcoin implosion
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 07/02/2026: More White House Racism, "Europe Accuses TikTok of Addictive Design"
Links for the day
Silent Mass Layoffs: It's Not the Revolution, It's the Loophole and the Hack ("Low Performers" or "Underperformers")
Layoffs by another approach
Mark Shuttleworth (MS) Pays Salaries to Microsoft (MS) Employees
Canonical selling Microsoft
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
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
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
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
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
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