Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 17/07/2023: Slackware Linux Turns 30, SparkyLinux 2023.07



  • GNU/Linux

    • 9to5Linux9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: July 16th, 2023

      It’s been a slow week for Linux news and releases, yet we had some great announcements this week starting with SUSE’s announcement about forking RHEL to preserve choice in enterprise Linux, Thunderbird 115 with its brand-new Supernova UI, and Linux Mint 21.2 “Victoria” with its cool new features and enhancements.

      On top of that, I tell you all about Star Labs’ new mini Linux PC and the end of life for the Linux 6.3 kernel series, and wish Slackware Linux a happy 30th birthday. You can read this week’s hottest news and access all the distro and package downloads in 9to5Linux’s Linux weekly roundup for July 16th, 2023, below.

    • Linux LinksLinux Around The World: Croatia

      We cover user groups that are running in Croatia. This article forms part of our Linux Around The World series.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Jupiter BroadcastingThe Clone Grift Wars | LINUX Unplugged 519

        Have Oracle and SUSE lost their minds? Plus, we dig into Fedora's proposal to add telemetry collection to Workstation.

      • GNU World Order (Audio Show)GNU World Order 521

        Community.

        shasum -a256=25db76af713e522f7bf917defdf969dafe24ebe579502b3dde4e7ec8b837cf2a

    • Applications

      • Linux LinksRadio – Simple Radio App written in Vala

        Why do we like internet radio? There are no sign-up or subscription charges. There are a huge range of stations available from around the world. If you like classical music, pop music, folk music, news, talk radio, and much more, internet radio has something for everyone wherever you live (providing you have a net connection). Internet radio offers every format that is available on traditional broadcast radio stations.

        Radio is billed as a simple radio with a clear and concise interface. It’s written in Vala and published under an open source license.

        We tested the software using the project’s Flatpak. That’s an open source containerized package format similar to Snap. While Snap relies on a central repository for software, Flatpak can be installed from different sources. The primary source is Flathub.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Linux CapableHow to Build NGINX from Source on Debian 12/11/10

        NGINX, a high-performance open-source web server, is celebrated for its stability, low resource consumption, and ability to serve dynamic web content. It’s also capable of handling high-traffic loads and acting as a reverse proxy.

      • Linux CapableFirewalld: Essential Commands for Linux

        Firewalld, with its dynamic nature and comprehensive control over network traffic, stands as the vanguard of Linux system security. It provides an abstract interface to define complex firewall rules without directly dealing with iptables.

      • Own HowToHow to Install LibreOffice on Arch Linux

        Do you need to create pdfs, documents, slideshows or work on other office related tasks on Arch Linux? LibreOffice is definitely the best choice when it comes to choosing an office suite software for Linux.

      • Own HowToHow to install a rpm package on CentOS 9

        In this tutorial, you will learn how to install a rpm package on CentOS.

        rpm is a package manager that allows you to manage rpm packages on your system. In this tutorial, we are going to use two methods to install rpm packages on rhel based distros, by using yum

      • Own HowToHow to Install Linux Lite 6.6

        Linux Lite is a Linux distro based on Ubuntu.

        Created on 2012 by Jerry Bezencon, Linux Lite comes with XFCE desktop environment as default Desktop environment, and kernel 5.15.0.

        To run Linux Lite, you need 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of space on your HDD, which makes it

      • Linux CapableHow to Install, Enable, and Configure SSH on Pop!_OS

        OpenSSH is a robust utility that provides secure access to remote systems over an unsecured network. It’s a widely used encryption protocol that establishes secure communication between two untrusted hosts. Despite the availability of numerous remote server access and management tools, OpenSSH remains a popular choice due to its versatility and user-friendliness.

      • Linux CapableHow to Verify if a File or Directory Exists in Bash

        When working with Bash scripts, it’s a common requirement to check if a file or directory exists before performing an operation. This guide will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how to perform these checks in Bash, focusing on the test command and its various forms.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Git on Pop!_OS

        In the sphere of software development, efficiency and organization are key. With projects often being handled by multiple developers across the globe, a system for managing changes and coordinating work is critical. This is where Git, a distributed version control system created by Linus Torvalds, comes into play.

      • Linux CapableWhat is the Python randint() Function

        Python is a versatile language with a rich library of functions. One such function is the randint() function, which belongs to the random module.

      • How to Extend Veritas File System (VxFS) in Linux

        Extending the VxFX file system is a routine task for a Linux/Unix administrator and this can be done online with a few steps described in the below article...

      • LinuxConfigFinding Your Raspberry Pi’s IP Address: A Quick Guide
      • FOSSLinuxWhat you need to know about login shells in Linux

        In the Linux operating system, shells act as an interface between users and the system itself, enabling the execution of commands and scripts. Among various types of shells, the concept of a 'login shell' often comes up. But what exactly is a login shell, and how does it differ from a non-login shell?

      • LinuxConfigInstall an OS on Your Raspberry Pi: Step-by-Step
      • LinuxConfigChecking Your Raspberry Pi’s OS Version
      • LinuxConfigBoot Your Raspberry Pi from a USB: A Tutorial
      • LinuxConfigEnabling SSH on Raspberry Pi: A Comprehensive Guide
      • Ubuntu HandbookHow to Share Virtual Extended Screen in Ubuntu 22.04 | 23.04 GNOME

        This simple tutorial shows how to enable RDP remote desktop for extended screen in Ubuntu 22.04 and higher with default GNOME desktop. Since Ubuntu 22.04, the default GNOME desktop has built-in RDP support. The function has feature to share screen in ‘extend’ mode.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Barry KaulerQtEmu GUI for QEMU compiled in OE

          There has been some great work posted to the forum on using QEMU in EasyOS. I reckon one or more GUIs would be nice, so have compiled QtEmu.

          This is QtEmu version 2.2. The original 1.x series last release was 1.0.5 in 2007, so is a dead project. It also requires Qt4. The 2.x version is a rewrite, for Qt5. Here is the homepage of the old 1.x version: [...]

        • Akademy 2023, Plasma 6 and Plasmoids

          During this week Akademy 2023 is going on in Thessaloniki, Greece. It’s always awesome, to see many old friends and getting together with that amazing hacker community which is KDE.

          There, me and Niccolò gave a talk about what;s happening in Plasma 6 and what will change, Noccolò on more visual things, about some changes we are cooking on the UI and on the visual themes. Here you can find a recording of the talk (alongside all the others of the day)

          I talked more about the work I’ve bein doing in the Plasma shell during the last couple of months: code rafactors and how the API for writing plasmoids will change.

          There were many things we were not quite happy about and now with the major release is the occasion for streamlining many things.

          Now, It’s very important those changes are are well communicated, and easy to do for developes, because there are *a lot* of 3rd party plasmoids on the KDE store, which people are using and enjoying.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • LinuxInsiderRhino Linux Locks Horns With Gnome, Xfce Desktop Design

      Rhino Linux takes an already fine Xfce desktop and blends in elements of the GNOME graphical interface to create a hybrid desktop design well worth experiencing.

      The combination does for me what few other new Linux distributions have done; it has me waiting very impatiently for the first non-beta release. However, since my initial interaction with this promising distro a couple of months ago, that wait has extended into the summer season.

      The resulting desktop retains the awesome flexibility of Xfce and adds some of the more useful conventions of GNOME with a few feature dashes based on in-house artistry. For Linux users clamoring for a touch of rolling release updates to a solid Ubuntu base, Rhino Linux checks all the usability and appearance boxes missing in other alternatives.

      Rhino is still a work in progress after resuming development where its predecessor — Rolling Rhino Remix — left off. That forerunner built by an otherwise nameless developer self-dubbed “http.llamaz” offered a rolling-release unofficial variant of Ubuntu.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Programming/Development

      • HackadayIllumos Gets A New C Compiler

        Illumos is an OpenSolaris-derived Unix system, and no Unix is complete without a C compiler or two. And with a name like Portable C Compiler (PCC), you would think that would be a great bet to get up and running on Illumos. That’s probably what [Brian Callahan] thought, too, but found out otherwise.

      • GentooWeek 7 report on porting Gentoo packages to modern C

        Hello all.

        First of all, I would like to give the good news of passing the Mid-Term
        evaluation. My mentor/s have provided me some valuable advice that I
        would like to incorporate in my work in the following weeks ahead.

        Coming to my work, as I said in my last report. I picked up where I left
        before week 6. Sent sent in some patches (no upstream unfortunately).
        This week I mainly worked with Juippis (my other mentor) on reviews of
        my already submitted PRs. We came across some challenges while doing,
        namely reproduction of a bug, the case being juippis and sam_ were able
        to reproduce the bug, but I couldn’t due. It was most probably due to
        compiler-rt. I still have to send in a proper fix for that bug. Which
        brings us the to second topic of setting up a test environment. Juippis
        has an excellent guide on using lxc containers for setting up test
        environment.

      • GentooWeek 6+7 Report, Automated Gentoo System Updater

        Progress on Weeks 6 + 7

        These 2 weeks were spent on the parser and the reporter. During this time, I’ve added many features to it, but there are still much more things left to be done. Due to limited time of GSoC I will implement additional features after the program end.

        Here is a list of features that were implemented so far:

        [...]
  • Leftovers

    • Ruben SchadeDaniel Jalkut projecting good

      From his Microblog yesterday

      Many people have responded to my assertion that Apple should do something good with the argument that they simply never would. My style of activism includes proclaiming unlikely outcomes. Like Phil Ochs, who sang in the midst of the Vietnam war: “I Declare the War is Over”. Optimism has its own power.

    • HackadayA Current Sensing Coil That’s Open Ended

      One of the joys of writing for Hackaday comes in learning new things which even after a long engineering background haven’t yet come your way. So it is with the Rogowski coil, an AC current sensing coil which is unlike conventional current transformers in that it’s open ended — in other words not needing to be closed around the conductor it’s measuring. [Weston Braun] has an interesting introduction to the subject, as part of his open source Rogowski coil based current probe.

    • Michael West MediaSun Cable to add wind as owners prepare to take charge

      Wind will be added to a territory-building, and potentially nation-building, plan to send Australian solar power to Southeast Asia through the world’s longest undersea power cable.

      But the completion of an asset sale agreement that would mark a clean break from Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s role in the $30 billion Sun Cable venture has been pushed out to early August.

    • Science

      • HackadayHalbach Array Makes Magnets Strong, Weak

        If you want a strong magnet, the obvious answer is to buy one. However, for a variety of reasons, you might want to combine several smaller magnets. There are a few ways to do this, but the Halbach array, as [wannabemadsci] explains, allows you to make an array of magnets where one side is very strong, and the other side is very weak.

    • Education

    • Hardware

      • HackadayBrute Forcing A Mobile’s PIN Over USB With A $3 Board

        Mobile PINs are a lot like passwords in that there are a number of very common ones, and [Mobile Hacker] has a clever proof of concept that uses a tiny microcontroller development board to emulate a keyboard to test the 20 most common unlock PINs on an Android device.

      • IT WireReasons for ending Foxconn-Vedanta deal are still unknown

        When iTWire contacted Vedanta for comment, a company spokesperson offered a statement that said nothing about Foxconn, only that it had lined up other partners to set up what would be India's first foundry.

        However, apart from this, the spokesperson also said that Vedanta would be holding its AGM on 14 July, adding that this meeting "should help clear a lot of the queries that we have received including yours".

        {loadposition sam08}A link to a live feed of the AGM on YouTube was provided by the spokesperson.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

    • Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • Security

      • HackadaySleuth Untrusted USB Communication With USBValve

        USB devices are now ubiquitous and, from an information security standpoint, this is a terrifying prospect as malicious software can potentially be injected into a system by plugging in a compromised USB stick. To help get some piece of mind, [Cesare Pizzi] created USBValve to help expose suspicious USB activity on the fly.

      • Severe Django ReDoS Bug Fixed

        It was discovered that in Django 3.2 before 3.2.20, 4 before 4.1.10, and 4.2 before 4.2.3, EmailValidator and URLValidator are subject to a potential ReDoS (regular expression denial of service) attacks via a vast number of domain name labels of emails and URLs (CVE-2023-36053).

      • GPAC DoS, Code Execution Flaws Fixed

        Multiple severe security issues were discovered in the GPAC multimedia framework, including a heap-based Buffer Overflow in the GitHub repository gpac/gpac before V2.1.0-DEV (CVE-2023-0760) and a NULL Pointer Dereference in the GitHub repository gpac/gpac before 2.2.2 (CVE-2023-3012). These vulnerabilities have received a National Vulnerability Database base score of 7.8 out of 10 (''High'' severity).

      • IT WireMicrosoft breach: sec experts say vendors should not charge logging tax

        Well-known American security expert Jake Williams has weighed in on the recent breach of Microsoft's cloud at a number of government agencies, saying that it was not acceptable that any security provider should charge a logging tax.

      • Tom's Hardware'METIOR' Defense Blueprint Against Side-Channel Vulnerabilities Debuts

        A research team with MIT has put forward a side-channel attack mitigation framework that aims to objectively and quantitatively measure the impact of certain known and unknown side-channel attacks. 'METIOR' aims to bring cybersecurity closer to the chip design space.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • Michael West MediaDeloitte employee sacked over information breach

          Senior Deloitte executives have confirmed an employee who shared confidential government information has been stood down by the consultancy firm.

          The executives told a Senate inquiry into the big firms the staff member had “inadvertently breached” Deloitte’s protocols by sharing the information while working on a government project.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

      • Teen VogueProtest at East Hampton Airport Over Private Jet Use to Shut Down Airport

        “These same rich people farting into the Hamptons on private jets are often the ones who make their money in industries that hugely accelerate the climate crisis,” Teddy Ogborn, action participant, and Planet Over Profit organizer, said in a statement. “As long as the 1% continues to needlessly poison our air and heat our earth, we will continue to escalate our actions against them.”

      • New YorkerBig Heat and Big Oil

        But, in Texas, the Republican-led legislature spent much of the past year at work on laws that would discourage the use of renewables and prop up oil and gas. In Congress and on the campaign trail, the G.O.P. is expending far more energy in defending gas stoves than in doing anything about this growing crisis. So far, there’s no real political penalty for that kind of reckless behavior. Indeed, Sawan told the BBC that, while there are not currently any plans, Shell wouldn’t rule out moving its headquarters from the United Kingdom to the United States, where oil companies get higher market prices for their shares. (Britain has also implemented a windfall-profits tax on energy companies. ) This suggested to him that the U.S. is more supportive of oil and gas companies, and, as he has told investors, he wants to “reward our shareholders today and far into the future.”

      • New York TimesAs Climate Shocks Multiply, Designers Seek Holy Grail: Disaster-Proof Homes

        As weather grows more extreme, geodesic domes and other resilient home designs are gaining new attention from more climate-conscious home buyers, and the architects and builders who cater to them.

        The trend could begin to dislodge the inertia that underlies America’s struggle to adapt to climate change: Technologies exist to protect homes against severe weather — but those innovations have been slow to seep into mainstream homebuilding, leaving most Americans increasingly exposed to climate shocks, experts say.

      • New York TimesFive Dead in Flash Flooding in Philadelphia Suburbs

        Sudden, torrential rains struck areas in Bucks County, Pa., trapping people in their cars. Much of the Northeast was experiencing periods of heavy rainfall.

      • Energy/Transportation

        • YLEFinland's average electricity price dips below zero Sunday afternoon

          The price of electricity turned negative at -0.06 cents per kilowatt-hour on Sunday, around 3pm, newspaper Iltalehti reported.

        • HackadayImproving Ocean Power With Static Electricity

          Water is heavy, so if you think about it, a moving ocean wave has quite a bit of energy. Scientists have a new way to use triboelectric generators to harvest that power for oceangoing systems. (PDF) Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are nothing new, but this new approach allows for operation where the waves have lower amplitude and frequency, making traditional systems useless.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • RTLVienna zoo no longer naming baby animals

          "For a long time, the focus was on the display of a single animal," he continued. Going forward, the zoo intends to shift its emphasis towards promoting the preservation of entire species, placing conservation at the core of its activities.

        • James GStarlight

          Like I experienced in Roman churches on vacation last year from looking up at frescoes on the ceiling, I found my neck feeling tense. The stars were captivating. I didn't want to take my eyes off them. I haven't seen so many stars in months, back when I was on a plane and was blessed with being able to look out the window and see stars from the sky while I was above the clouds.

      • Overpopulation

    • Finance

      • Michael West MediaFirst female RBA governor to bring 'reform agenda'

        The first female Reserve Bank governor is expected to bring a reform agenda to the institution as it moves to make its decisions on interest rates more transparent.

        Michele Bullock will take over as the head of the central bank in September, replacing Philip Lowe.

      • Michael West MediaAsia shares slip as China economic data underwhelms

        Asian shares slipped on Monday as a mixed bag of Chinese economic data were not as bad as some feared, but still fanned market impatience with the lack of major fiscal stimulus from Beijing.

        China reported economic growth of 0.8 per cent in the second quarter, above the 0.5 per cent forecasted, while the annual pace slowed more than expected to 6.3 per cent.

      • Michael West MediaChina's economy records frail Q2 growth

        China’s economy grew at a frail pace in the second quarter, although the annual figure was flattered by base effects, data showed with overall momentum faltering rapidly due to weakening demand at home and abroad.

        Gross domestic product grew just 0.8 per cent in April-June from the previous quarter, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

      • Hong Kong Free PressChina’s economy shows further weakness in second quarter

        China’s economy showed further signs of weakness in the second quarter as data Monday showed growth missed expectations and consumers remained cautious, adding pressure on leaders to unveil further stimulus.

      • New York TimesChina’s Second-Quarter G.D.P. Shows Post-Covid Rebound Faltered

        Government data shows gross domestic product growth slowed in the second quarter from earlier in the year, even though it rose over the same period in 2022.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Michael West MediaOne in three media women are thinking about quitting

        Australia’s media landscape is facing a tremendous loss as one in three women in the industry contemplate quitting their jobs.

        More than half of women in the media game are either unsure about or dissatisfied with their career progress.

      • Michael West MediaTreasurer keen to progress€ global tax deal at G20

        Treasurer Jim Chalmers remains optimistic progress can be made on multinational tax reform€ at a key G20 meeting.

        Dr Chalmers and Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe will meet with their counterparts in€ Gandhinagar, India, this week to gain a better understanding of the global economy.€ 

      • Michael West MediaBy-election, polling show federal Labor under pressure

        Support for Labor is at its lowest ebb since the 2022 election, with the coalition seizing on a by-election win as a positive sign.

        Labor’s primary vote has fallen two points to 36 per cent, according to a Newspoll published in The Australian on Monday – its weakest result since it won office with base support of 32.6 per cent.

      • Michael West MediaUnpacking the president's mien: just how successful was Jokowi's visit to Australia?

        He came, he went and in between he did€ what exactly? Duncan Graham unpacks the reality of last week’s visit to Australia by the Indonesian president Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo.

        Before heading to Sydney for a billed three-day visit — in reality, € just one full day — € President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo’s media team gave a select few Australian journalists the inside running on what the trip was going to yield: an EV batteries mineral deal yielding billions in investments, plus extracting major concessions on discriminatory travel rules.

      • Michael West MediaConsultancy firm issue worse than expected: Gallagher

        Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has admitted the over-reliance of consultancy firms in the public service was worse than expected.

        The comments came as senior executives from one of the big four firms will be asked to explain conflicts of interest at a Senate inquiry.

      • ScheerpostChris Hedges: Cornel West and the Campaign to End Political Apartheid

        The two ruling parties have destroyed our democracy. Voting for one or the other will not bring it back.

      • Michael West MediaPoll indicates voter backlash against major parties

        Support for Labor is at its lowest ebb since the 2022 election, although the coalition has failed to reap the benefits as voters swing to independents and minor parties, according to the latest Newspoll.

        Labor’s primary vote has fallen two points to 36 per cent, according to the poll published in The Australian on Monday – its weakest result since it won office with base support of 32.6 per cent.

      • AxiosTop progressive Jayapal’s comments spark backlash from fellow Democrats

        A group of Jewish House Democrats is circulating a letter denouncing Rep. Pramila Jayapal's (D-Wash.) since-withdrawn comments calling Israel a "racist state," Axios has learned.

        Why it matters: It's the latest example of Democrats' bitter divide on Israel bubbling up in recent days as several progressives prepare to boycott the Israeli president's speech to Congress on Wednesday.

        >
    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • New York TimesAs Iraq Tries to Chill Critics, Its Newest Target Is Social Media

        This crackdown on social media is relatively new, but is of a piece with a broader campaign to silence, sideline or co-opt those who publicly question or criticize the government.

        That wider effort traces its roots to the months of demonstrations in 2019 and 2020, when young Iraqis poured into the streets demanding an end to corruption, a reduction in Iranian influence in Iraq and a new era of openness. ​Those demonstrations eventually forced the resignation of the prime minister, who was supported by Iranian-linked parties in the government.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • AxiosRecord-breaking migration sparks backlash in U.S., Europe
        Data: UNICEF; Chart: Tory Lysik/Axios Visuals

        Waves of migrants taking dangerous, unauthorized passages to Europe and the U.S. are fueling a new rush of anti-immigrant policies and deepening political divisions in several wealthy countries.

      • JURISTHuman rights groups condemn Russia legislation targeting transgender people

        Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, released statements on Friday condemning Russia’s newly adopted bill that targets transgender people. The new legislation states that citizens who have already changed their sex will be prohibited from adopting children and their marriage will be annulled.

      • Michael West MediaTime short for voice 'yes' campaign to find right pitch

        Campaigners managing the ‘yes’ case for an Indigenous voice to parliament are doing a “disappointing” job, with a leading marketing expert warning time for a turnaround is short.€ 

        Newspoll shows national support for the referendum has dropped to 41 per cent, with 38 per cent of female voters and 45 per cent of men backing the constitutional change.

      • SecurepairsSecuRepairs to testify as U.S. House asks “Is there a right to repair?”

        The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet will hold a hearing on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. EST. The hearing, dubbed ”Is There a Right to Repair?,” will “examine the current legal landscape of the right to repair and related intellectual property issues, including potential future avenues for policymaking.”

        The hearing will also discuss laws and regulations at both the federal and state level, including Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the implications for a range of industries from automotive to software to consumer electronics.

      • ABCAndrew Tate accusers forced into hiding after online harassment from 'troll army,' lawyer says

        Pinter alleged that Tate's vast social media following has been turned against her clients, who are grappling with thousands of threats and relentless efforts to intimidate and undermine them. Supporters of the brothers have doxed private information of her clients and their relatives online, Pinter said, while at least two private investigators have also pursued her clients, digging into their past and showing up at their homes.

      • The HillNew technology, same problems: We need to ensure accessibility for everyone

        It took decades of challenging systemic barriers and exclusion for disabled Americans to secure their right to exist and participate fully in our society. Thirty-three years ago, Congress passed the American with Disabilities Act to protect people with disabilities from ableist discrimination. At its core, the law was intended to facilitate access to transportation and public accommodations, like restaurants and workplaces. Yet, people with disabilities still face a myriad of challenges that infringe on their right to survive and thrive in our society, and mass surveillance technology is only making the problem worse.

      • Hindustan Times‘No longer a Muslim’: Seema Haider's family in Pakistan doesn't want her back

        Mian Mithoo, a high-profile religious leader in rural Sindh, known for using his seminary to convert Hindu girls to Islam and even bandits, has openly threatened to punish Seema if she returns.

        His supporters have also threatened to attack Hindu worship places in Seema’s village but SSP Kashmore-Kandhkot, Irfan Samoo, assured Hindus and Sikhs they would be protected.

      • Deutsche WelleIran: Morality police return to enforce dress code in cities

        Iran's religious rulers have vehemently defended the dress code and see the hijab as a mainstay of the Islamic revolution that brought them to power.

        The dress code has been in force in Iran since 1979. Violators face fines or prison terms of up to two months.

      • VoxTeachers are striking for more than just pay raises

        In 2012, more than 25,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) included common good demands when they walked picket lines in front of 580 schools during a strike that lasted seven days; it was the first school strike the city had seen in a quarter-century. The teachers won salary increases and more job security — typical bargaining fare — but they also got more collective wins, like pushing back against the testing obsession of the education reform movement and fighting for more support staff, such as counselors and nurses, to serve their most marginalized students.

      • RTL'We were duped' by studios, says Hollywood actor union president

        Hollywood actors were "duped" into extending negotiations for two weeks by studios who wanted more time to promote their summer blockbuster movies, union president Fran Drescher told AFP on Thursday.

        The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) last month postponed their initial strike deadline, in the hope of thrashing out a deal with the likes of Netflix and Disney over demands for better pay and more protection against artificial intelligence.

      • CNBCThe media industry is in turmoil, and that's not changing any time soon

        Traditional TV is dying. Ad revenue is soft. Streaming isn’t profitable. And Hollywood is practically shut down as the actors and writers unions settle in for what is shaping up to be a long and bitter work stoppage.

        All of this turmoil will be on investors’ minds as the media industry kicks off its earnings season this week, with Netflix

        up first on Wednesday.

        Netflix, with a new advertising model and push to stop password sharing, looks the best positioned compared to legacy media giants. Last week, for instance, Disney CEO Bob Iger extended his contract through 2026, telling the market he needed more time at the Mouse House to address the challenges before him. At the top of the list is contending with Disney’s TV networks, as that part of the business appears to be in a worse state than Iger had imagined. “They may not be core to Disney,” he said.

      • Michael West MediaBenchmark renewable energy deal struck on country in WA

        One of the largest Indigenous-led renewable energy partnerships in Australia will build wind, solar, and battery projects in the Pilbara region.

        Under an initiative announced on Monday, the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) and Southeast Asian renewable energy giant ACEN will develop, own, and operate large-scale projects in an area covering 13,000 square kilometres.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Xe's BlogI don't know how I feel about email

        So recently I've been trying to use email and I just don't know how I should feel about it. There's a lot of core problems with it that seem to seep out to every part of the protocol, user experience, and the entire thing is just leaving me uncertain for its future.

      • APNICOpinion: On Internet centrality and fragmentation

        I attended a workshop on the topic of Internet fragmentation in July. The workshop was attended by a small collection of Australian public policy folk, some industry representatives, folk from various cyber-related bodies, and those with a background in Internet governance matters. It was a short meeting, so the perils of fragmentation were not discussed at length, as they often can be. Still, the concerns about the breakup of the essential bonds that keep the Internet together were certainly palpable in that meeting.

        On the other hand, there is a concern voiced in different venues at different times, that not only are the bonds that tie the Internet together too strong already, but these bonds are exclusively controlled by a handful of digital behemoths whose collective agenda appears to be based more on the task of ruthless exploitation of everyone else in the singular pursuit of the accumulation of unprecedented quantities of capital and social power.

    • Monopolies

      • IT WireUS FTC seeks temporary halt to Microsoft-Activision deal

        The US Federal Trade Commission is still seeking to stop the deal between Microsoft and games producer Activision Blizzard, requesting an appeals court on Thursday to put a temporary stop to the agreement soon after a federal judge refused a similar plea.

      • AxiosSony signs 10-year deal with Microsoft to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation

        But Sony executives questioned Microsoft's offer and terms. While those concerns were never clearly articulated in public, Microsoft could potentially use Call of Duty to hurt PlayStation even without pulling it, by offering it first or better on its own console (Microsoft has denied it would do this) or by offering Sony an unfavorable revenue split on sales of the game.

      • Michael West MediaCalls for big consultant firms to be broken up

        The former head of the consumer watchdog has called for big consultancy firms to be broken up, in a bid to reduce the risk of conflict of interest.

        Allan Fels, who previously oversaw the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, told a Senate inquiry the big firms should only focus on auditing, rather than consultancy work.



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They Tell Us Slop Replaces Workers, But the Reality Is, US Debt Has Surged 2,300 Billion Dollars in Six Months (the Economy is Collapsing)
Oligarchy already entertains the option of running away to (or colonising) some other planet without pitchforks and "unwashed masses"
Reddit as a Hive of Trolls, Social Control Media Curated (Many Voices Censored and Banned) by Marketing Firm of GAFAM
Typical Reddit
 
Getting the European Court of Justice to Annul the Illegal and Unconstitutional Unified Patent Kangaroo Court (UPC)
We're still working on it
Finland's Dependence on GAFAM (US) Needs to be Lessened, EU Must Follow This Path
It's unwise to make one's entire national infrastructure (computer systems) dependent on a regime which compares its black citizens to monkeys and assassinates nonviolent dissenters
Links 08/02/2026: Microsoft GitHub as Burden on Developers and "The Chomsky Epstein Files"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/02/2026: "Doing Not Much Tweaking" and "Reclaiming Digital Agency"
Links for the day
Forbes: BitCoin, Cryptocurrency pages removed from investment database, links stop working
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Bitcoin warning followed immediately by network outage
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Money Funneled to Protection of Software Freedom, But Nothing Really Lost
Crossposted from personal site
Mozilla Firefox Sinks to Just 1.5% in the United States
According to analytics.usa.gov
We're Still Fast
The site is even faster than the BBC's despite being on shoestring budget with only a small technical team
Gemini Protocol is Not a Waste of Time of Effort
We see more and more GNU/Linux- or BSD-focused bloggers turning to Gemini
Our Gemini Protocol Support Turns 5 Today
today is a rare anniversary for us
In Today's World, One Must be Tough and Principled to Get Ahead Morally
But not financially (sellouts)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 07, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, February 07, 2026
The Right Wing in the United States Does Not Support Free Speech, It Supports Its Own Speech
Free speech is often opposed by those who also oppose Free software
IRC is a Lot Better Than Social Control Media (They're Not the Same at All)
A good social analogy for IRC is, there are many buildings with a party in each building
Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' is 'Dead Meat'
Or 0xDEADBEEF as some geeks might call it
When Identifying "Low Performers" and "PIPs" Aren't About Improving Performance But Reinforcing a Clique in Your Company/Organisation
It's very troubling to see once-respectable brands like IBM and institutions like the EPO resorting to this
Slop and Flop (IBM), Slopfarms and Hybrids (Linuxiac)
Did Bobby Borisov assume he would never get caught?
Crowdfunding vs Bitcoins: donations are better investment than digital tulip mania
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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
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
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?
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 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
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
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
Microsoft Stock Crashed When Alleged Vista 11 Numbers Disclosed
And last summer Microsoft indicated that it had lost 400 million Windows users
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