𝕿𝖊𝖈𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖘 Bulletin for Thursday, November 26, 2020 ┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅ Generated Fri 27 Nov 00:38:12 GMT 2020 Created by Dr. Roy Schestowitz (𝚛𝚘𝚢 (at) 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚣 (dot) 𝚌𝚘𝚖) Full hyperlinks for navigation omitted but are fully available in the originals The corresponding HTML versions are at 𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈 Older bulletins can be found at 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒕𝒙𝒕-𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 Full IPFS index in 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒊𝒑𝒇𝒔 and as plain text in 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒊𝒑𝒇𝒔/𝒕𝒙𝒕 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐒 ════════════════════════════════════╕ Previous bulletins in IPFS (past 7 days): QmQ4qcYbFg6RCtajMJBcgoESAn4Cj6wafngVaCsGFVmMTj QmY8CNiuBXEWgEde7biLS6voUiyGg6AsEAjFXJkFEqGUED QmTpnBsAUeyBLJL2NGgLi6vhAmf6Kr6gWhTZYGrmt9U7hv QmZ2hDQGLcFiBexEJSLeXytE1arKzw2acB1Tjz9a89V4Fa Qmd6CkrB6BxvbpYc2A4inaPdP66KBtq72z4VXkuwzSMgkP QmYfrMVyySrZF2SrDo83bXq8ZvCS5nvmuBRbTwmmUMwfmG QmX8sx4qHQqTcXiwTPUfF5FJgwB17cRE94Vdq7o8aajWoB ╒═══════════════════ 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐗 ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ Bulletin articles (as HTML) to comment on (requires login): http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/29000-blog-posts/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/another-reply-to-mogzagain/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/biden-transition-team/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/epo-real-estate/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/epo-reducing-it-to-paper/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/free-as-in-freedom/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/irc-log-251120/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/remote-examiners/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/team-upc-spin-thankfully-funny/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/to-german-greens-by-benjamin-henrion/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/unitary-patent-song/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/upc-pyrrhic-victory/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/zdnet-gutter-journalism/#comments Followed by Daily Links (assorted news picks curated and categorised): http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/blender-2-91-release/#comments http://techrights.org/2020/11/26/php-8-0-proxmox-ve-6-3/#comments ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** 29,000_Blog_Posts_and_Recent_Site_Improvements ***** Posted in Site_News at 11:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [Over 29,000] Summary: Over 29,000 blog posts have been posted here, but more importantly we’ve made the site a lot more robust and resilient, accessible in more formats and protocols (while improving_transparency, too) BACK in_August (just 3 months ago) we crossed the 28,000 posts milestone and last week we crossed 29,000, so 30,000 will likely be some time in late winter. “The more distributed we become, the more censorship-resistant we can get and the more attractive the leaks we receive, then publish.”Recent changes made to the site include unicode ‘art’ next to the menu items above, addition of text- only (plain text) IRC logs, revised layout for IRC disclosures, and various IPFS improvements. We don’t often ‘announce’ minor changes, but this time we can take note of the milestone and those 4 other things. Improving the workflows, the layout and the way we cooperate can sometimes take more time than working on articles. We hope that more people will embrace our_text-only bulletin (usually updated every day at around midnight, depending on factors like availability) and participate in IPFS to help make the site distributed, as in P2P and decentralised. The more distributed we become, the more censorship-resistant we can get and the more attractive the leaks we receive, then publish. █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** Making_Free_Software_Work_for_Users ***** Posted in Free/Libre_Software at 4:20 am by Guest Editorial Team Another Reply to Mogzagain. By figosdev. [Mushrooms] Summary: The latest reply to a non-developer concerned about software freedom; guest post by figosdev Hello again. As long as there is a possibility that something said here will benefit or interest the public, I will continue to make these replies public. If I decide not to reply, it does not mean you’re being ignored, only that I don’t have something interesting enough to add to what you’ve said. “The sad truth I’m afraid is that only so many developers are in it for the freedom of the user.”In my previous letter I made an effort to respond more or less point-for-point, but this time I will probably be more conservative. This is as much for your convenience as mine. I’m not even spellchecking this one, Roy might fix a couple things if they have a red underline. This is definitely more of a letter than an article, and I’ve spent (at least) four hours writing it. It will have to do, there are probably a fair share of typos. It was worth the four hours, at least for me — and this also includes eating and making tea. … “I understand what you’re saying regarding [Alex] Oliva [who] won’t fork, thus Linux won’t be fixed, and that integral large packages (perl, python) can’t be forked, and too few devs to fork halfbuzz, plus the Gnu Project aren’t making the effort to fork what they could.” I’m not sure if it’s whether they could or simply ought to, but whether they are able or not I consider it a problem that they won’t. In (very) slightly better news, there are rumours of Raku (Perl 6) leaving GitHub, which would help if it actually happened and GNU (particularly Automake) eventually moved from Perl 5 to 6. It’s far too early to get excited, but there is a glimmer of potential hope there. … “Stopping paying attention to users/devs who ignore problems, who don’t take things seriously, for example, is very uplifting to realise further, too; no more writing to some main linux youtubers (nb not gardner) and receiving no responses, for example! To read that you too are fed up with the attitude to users is very heartening, as nobody says this stuff.” The sad truth I’m afraid is that only so many developers are in it for the freedom of the user. We have known about Open Source for many years — I actually started as an Open Source advocate, falling for the hype that it was “like Free Software, but more reasonable” — but the “reasonable” part is false compromise with corporations that do not care about users — in fact they care more about maintaining control. Free Software tries to minimise conflicts of interest (or at least it did once) and Open Source replaces the “sacred cow” of freedom with the sacred goat of courting the interest of monopolies. They pretend that it is not about ideology, but their passivity and neutrality is a facade; you may insult users all you like, and they will not stop you. When you insult a corporation, the gloves will come off. Due to this manufactured divide (couched as so many are, as a call for “unity” — a unity where you are expected ignore your needs and values, and sacrifice them for the “greater good” of your opponent…) there are many developers who pretend to care about things that they clearly do not. They care about users, as long as users only speak when they are asked to. They care about users who toe the lie. Sadder than this is the fact that Free Software has failed to hold down the fort. These apathetic devs who are only interested in development (not freedom, or anything beyond creating software for the sake of whatever) are only the majority, they have moved into key places and even worked repeatedly to usurp GNU development. Free Software seems to find its hands tied when these problems arise. Among us there are a small handful of people calling this for what it is, but there are not many. … “No longer feeling like some kind of lone crazy person, lol. And when people see mirrored their own real feelings, they definitely feel they can relate, and it can move them to be part of things.” That is one of the best things we can do, is let people know they’re not the only one. If we work towards that goal, we may find that there are a few more of us than we counted so far. I’m not the only person talking about “Free Software 2.0″, and for me it’s not about “bigger and better than ever” (though that would be nice) it’s really about bolstering the defences that have failed along the way. It would be nice to see Free Software rise again like the phoenix. It would, however, require a certain degree of general awareness that I don’t think we have reached yet. You can still choose to be a pessimist or optimist about it. In my opinion we need pessimists, though it’s not difficult to make the argument for both. … “There’s been an unnerving journey of realising what’s going on, but, if the only people talking about this stuff are saying it’s all too rotten to fix, that has to be looked at seriously, along with my own experiences, observations and concerns to date.” Off the cuff, the first metaphor that comes to mind is dentistry. Dental medicine and the technology around it has come a long way. We can remove all of your teeth, if necessary, and replace them with implants. If your enamel is weak and the decay is bad enough, implants provide an ideal solution if money is no concern; in the States they cost thousands of dollars each, and if you are under 35 you could find yourself having to replace one or more of them even before you can retire. A more practical and much cheaper (not to mention less invasive) solution is dental crowns, but these have their own drawbacks. Like implants, they are not as durable as real teeth and even a habit of almond eating can cause a crown to come loose or even break. At several hundreds of dollars each, getting dental crowns means your bite will never be quite as strong ever again — and having to visit the dentist to glue your crown back in is inconvenient at best. Mostly people go with ordinary fillings when possible, but if decay settles in deep enough it can necessitate a root canal — which will often weaken the tooth enough that a crown is then required. If there is not enough tooth structure left to support the crown, you are left between the choices of an expensive implant, a partial tooth, or a hole. The best plan of action is really on a tooth-by-tooth basis, and the same logic applies to Free Software projects. The ideal would be to preserve and salvage every project — but we can’t afford it in terms of the number of developers we have on our side. Mono is a great example of this; in our dental metaphor, Mono is not so much a dental implant as a false tooth made of rock hard toffee and calculus. You wouldn’t want to surgically install such a thing deep inside your gum tissue. Wisdom teeth cause more problems than they solve, and when they are extracted nobody tends to bother replacing them with straighter or smaller implants. You’re simply better off without them. If we had enough developers, it would be like the ability to replace all of our teeth with implants. Instead, what we have is like trying to replace all our teeth while money is always tight before the fact. Developers are spread very thin, and many of those (as you’ve noted) do not care in the first place. People try to do things like move to GitHub to “gain more attention from developers” but they mostly gain the attention of people who will sacrifice more freedom, while caring even less about users. The point is that (just as a prominent example) Linux is not healing, it is in decay. If the goal is to salvage all free software, and we don’t have the budget (in terms of people who care) then I would argue that the best triage is to start with projects from developers who are NOT working against you and once our base is solid enough, build onto it by bringing in more of what we can manage. In other words, we start with the things that require the least amount of salvage work and build on from there. I have already pointed out that BSD is less trouble (for users, for developers) than trying to salvage Linux. The difference between my position and yours is that I start with how much trouble it would be to salvage, while you (seem to) start with how much trouble it is to use. I really do get that angle — but it takes me back to a time when I thought I couldn’t get GNU/Linux working so I had to use Windows. In fact if you go back not very far (less than a year ago) I was making the same argument about BSD — I want to use it, but either it’s not ready or I’m not. A friend of mine who may have already started to dabble with BSD, upon learning that I had finally cleaned Linux off the last PC it was running on said something to the effect of “Wow, I am NOT ready to do that.” Neither was I, so I worked on it. This is what I advocate, but I get that not everybody is ready to do it. I advocate it because it’s ultimately more likely to work. The more people complain about the direction Linux is heading in, the closer they are to throwing their hands up and switching. I’m acting as a scout here, while many others have already made it there and set up camp years ago. … “A main thing I live by is that there’s a time comes when stepping out and away from something becomes critical; that frees up energies for what is timely and important to move onto, and to not step away would jeopardize what CAN be safeguarded and built in the new space.” Exactly this. … “You asked directly what sort of hope I want to see … really clear bottom-line summary about how things are, which the letter from you is already covering more. Also, what people can do, and HOW (for non-techs), in order to maintain the freedom/privacy/values that are so important.” That’s an ongoing discussion for sure — and it’s such a big question “like ‘What’s the meaning of life?’” that there is no possible way that everybody is going to agree. I like big questions. If I were good at math, I would probably be interested in physics — both Richard Stallman and Bill Gates did extremely well in their Harvard physics classes, but both had other interests that kept them from becoming physicists. I’m terrible at math, so instead I approach the universe with philosophy — I have also tried to understand the world through the many various lenses of mysticism and religions (I’m agnostic). Modern science of course is essentially by definition uninterested with such methods, and probably should be. But scientists are people too, and Newton for example was very interested in looking at the world this way. Buckminster Fuller gives a long series of talks (you can find them on the Internet Archive) where he tries to derive rules for better engineering by staring with the entire universe and building laws from there. Both science and mysticism have toyed with the idea of an almost pantheistic- sounding “holographic” reality, where every single thing ultimately contains everything else — like a giant, fractal, permeable Klein bottle. To me, this is the conceptual “shape” we want for a community that’s capable of figuring_out_answers_to_big_questions. Not a rigid hierarchy, not a “flattened” hierarchy that pretends everybody is the same (but still has a few people at the top lording over them, just to be sure) but a sort of holographic flux. The good news is that long before people figure out what the hell I’m talking about, they will have already sorted out their own words to describe it. We aren’t_talking_about_a_utopia_so_much_as_a_society, where not_everyone_has their_thumb_up_their_ass. … “I don’t mean about coddling infants, as you reference, but those who don’t have any tech DNA yet want to get on the BSD ship/into the new place, to support free software, respect, privacy, care about users, but know they just can’t get their head around that without clear instruction.” Not only do I agree, but it’s actually built into the_ten_"THRIVE"_guidelines as number 6: “Without some greater commitment to the needs and education of users, Free software will soon lose too much ground to corporations that falsely pander to them. This is not a call to make everything ‘user friendly.’ As a user, you are free to develop on your own terms. There are still areas in which progress could be made regarding development.” When I say “This is not a call to make everything ‘user friendly.’” I don’t mean that making things user friendly is a bad thing, only that it can’t take over everything. This is a caveat; the essence of guideline number 6 is that we should give clear instruction to “non tech” people. However, lurking at the core of the “non tech people” issue is the true nature of the issue itself. Non tech people exist, and I’ve done a lot of work with them directly: pensioners, the iconic and stereotypical “grandma” everyone mentions, I’ve worked with literal grandmas — the homeless, so when people start talking to me about how x or y group can’t do z I at least have first-hand experience in such scenarios. It’s not a statistical cross section but then a lot of what we are dealing with here is the mythology of the non tech person, which places certain designs and developers in the role as savior. It’s not that non tech people don’t exist, it’s that they are used in an ongoing mythology that both opportunistic and sincerely well-intentioned people rely on as a guide for making things more “user friendly”. It’s a mythology because it is largely about storytelling and post_hoc justification — it is less about the real people in question. In short, we create designs and then we say it’s for non-tech people. Our first goal should be to find these non-tech people and better understand their needs. I’m using a GUI right now to type this. I could also do it from the VT, without a GUI. As it happens, my particular workflow seems to be at least as well suited to a simple, Notepad-like graphical editor than Emacs, Vim or even GNU nano. But it also has commands that I can type on the next line and run with CTRL-T — including shell commands. All the power is right there, in this very application, but if you don’t type shell commands and hit CTRL-T you probably wouldn’t even know it could do such a thing. It looks like a plain text editor, with a file menu, a little dialog box that comes up to open or save files, etc. It can’t just be about design though. It has to be part understanding, part design, part education. Most people who talk about being “user friendly” are cargo-culting the understanding part, and act like education won’t be necessary, so people still don’t learn. Ultimately users get dragged through one design fad after another, and this is what Microsoft calls “user friendly”. … “The corporate are dumbing people down by the year, ‘bread and circuses’, ‘leave it to us’, ‘we make your life easy’ (as we siphon off ALL your data and make money) … they want people’s energies, power, everything, whereas what I mean is what empowers people, the ladder that can get them into that place, where they can then do what they do best, contributing in other ways.” Again, you’ve got it exactly. “You can’t give a jet to someone and expect them to fly it, but if they’re a passenger on the jet, they could be a doctor, a lawyer, anything non-tech, but still play a critical part.” This is also true. But so is the fact that with the right technology, we could enable virtually any person to fly — with some sort of personal aircraft. This would lead to all sorts of questions about how to make the technology safe enough, and I’m certain it would have some kind of logic like consumer-grade drones already have to stay level and avoid collisions — but no Free Software advocate would propose that it have some equivalent of DRM that only the manufacturer could control. People would be able to change the programming, I’m less certain that they would be allowed to fly the craft in public without some recertification process. But people modify and build their own cars all the time. Getting back to your point though, do you have to code to contribute? Of course not. I even mentioned that in my previous reply. … “I see BSD is being pointed to as the ‘bunker’, but that is a big step for any non-tech people. Can there be a beginner series on running an easily installable BSD, to get non-tech people started?” Of course. I tried FreeBSD first, with a goal to try FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD. Most others are based on these, and most are sadly based on GitHub as well. FreeBSD develops its package management on GitHub, and NetBSD accepts donations via GitHub (though the NetBSD Foundation has other more traditional payment processing options). OpenBSD is the least GitHub-entrenched BSD, and I would recommend either NetBSD or OpenBSD over FreeBSD. Still, if you’re only able to install one of those three, go for it. I found the OpenBSD installed the easiest to use (that’s probably the opposite of what I expected) and the NetBSD installer is the most tedious. I actually kind of hate it so far. The first time I successfully installed BSD it was FreeBSD, but the first time I installed OpenBSD it was because FreeBSD wasn’t booting after installing it on a different machine. There are instructions for installing each of the three flavours of BSD on their websites, but anybody who has installed GNU/Linux by downloading an image and then running dd to copy it to their USB knows how. Unlike with GNU/Linux, with BSD I’ve never tried to install with only Windows as a platform for downloading and creating install media. I know some of them have CD or DVD images. The installer for OpenBSD is going to be pretty intuitive for most people who have installed GNU/Linux before. So the best way to get a friendlier install guide together is to get someone who is familiar with both easy-to-use GNU/ Linux installers and basic text mode installers to write a guide. But for you personally, if you can install GNU/Linux I think you can manage OpenBSD as well. My advice to people trying a new OS is not to do it on a machine they care about the files on, but to start with a machine they are happy to blank and experiment with. I started the journey on a server I had previously dedicated to sifting through GNU Project code. And I didn’t even technically install it. I just downloaded the image, booted to Tiny Core (any distro that could boot to ram with enough resources free for a ramdrive would have worked) and copied the image to ram, then used dd to write it to the drive. Then I rebooted. That was the “install”. Roy and Tom don’t “get” the idea of videos that show how to do this stuff, but I found them useful. I can talk to you in detail about installing BSD, but if you go to YouTube you can simply watch people do it. The video may not show the preparation, just the install itself — but then you know how easy that part is. Making install media isn’t that bad — you write a DVD or if you have dd (never had much luck with it from Windows, yes, there is a Windows version but Windows does some funny things) it’s basically like making install media for GNU/Linux. … “How many non-tech users, who deeply care about privacy/freedoms, read Techrights? Are most of them lurkers, since privacy/being offline is so important to them?” If you put an article on Techrights, it will probably get more views than if you put it somewhere else. If it’s distro-related or BSD related, and it’s not about the application, you MIGHT get more readers from DistroWatch? I’m not sure how many they get. Techrights may give you more readers, but Techrights also covers a much wider range of topics. With regards to lurkers, the number of readers is definitely not reflected in the number of comments. … “If a series were done, it could be shared all across the Linux places? So even non-techs, who could number far more than realised, can take part? adding important numbers of people who really care.” I think this is already happening increasingly. … “Don’t get me wrong; I’m talking about bringing more on board those who care about the values. I have no ability or desire to code, or become more tech … I want only to support the freedoms, values, respect, the space where people can be themselves and as happy as possible. That is the only reason I crossed over to Linux. I leave the technical aptitude to those who practice that so well, who have that DNA, while I do what I do best.” There really isn’t more to coding per se than breaking things down into steps and talking to the computer. Of course it depends on the language. But even if you can contribute without coding, being able to code just a little bit would help you better understand the issues around your advocacy. It would help you understand developers, and make you feel a bit less helpless. Naturally, Free Software is not only for people who can code. But everybody should still learn — it is not just a job skill. It is a modern form of literacy. Before you think that I’m going to try to get you to ever write an application, that’s not the idea here. Do you know how to make a peanut butter and jam sandwich? Can you break that down into steps? Can you express those steps in English? If so, you are already halfway there. The breaking things down into steps is the hard part, and functions make it so a lot of that is easier work that doesn’t have to be repeated over and over. The syntax is the part that looks hard, though it’s the easy part. Some languages are difficult, others are easy. 1. Put peanut butter on bread. 2. Put jam on bread. 3. Put two pieces of bread together. That’s the bug-ridden version. You need to open the bag the bread is in, take out two slices, put the slices down on something and make certain the jam side is placed over the peanut butter side. But the thing is, you know how to do it and if you had to explain it, you could “debug” such a program if the person you’re talking to didn’t make the sandwich the way you wanted it. The problem with this example is that nobody who is actually going to make you a sandwich is going to need such detailed instructions, so it’s nothing more than an illustration. A better example is telling a robot to draw a house: Go forward 5 units, turn right 45 degrees. Go forward 5 units, turn right 90 degrees. Go forward 5 units, turn right 45 degrees. Go forward 5 units, turn right 90 degrees. Go forward 7 units, turn right 90 degrees. Go forward 5 units, turn right 90 degrees. Go forward 7 units. /\ / \ / \ / \ /________\ | | | | | | | | |________| But those instructions get abbreviated to something like: fd 5 ; rt 45 ; fd 5 ; rt 90 fd 5 ; rt 45 ; fd 5 ; rt 90 fd 7 ; rt 90 ; fd 5 ; rt 90 fd 7 Functions make it possible to say things like: “drawrectangle 7 5” Without functions, we would have to say this instead: “fd 5 ; rt 90 ; fd 7 ; rt 90 ; fd 5 ; rt 90 ; fd 7” With functions, our program to make a peanut butter and jam sandwich becomes: makesandwich("peanut butter and jam"); If you want 20 sandwiches: repeat 20 makesandwich("peanut butter and jam"); next So what’s this do? repeat 10 makesandwich("peanut butter and jam"); makesandwich("egg salad"); next It makes 20 sandwiches, half of which are egg salad. This is pretty self-explanatory: repeat 10 makesandwich("peanut butter and jam"); next repeat 5 makesandwich("egg salad"); next …Makes 15 sandwiches. If people don’t know how to code, they likely weren’t taught properly. … “So many new users have come over in the last year. People who care and want to contribute tend to want a clear list to get on with, to know how serious things are, at the same time as beginner instruction on HOW to exit from Linux. They’re the sort of people we want, who care about privacy/freedom/respect/ values, so how do we get them to the ‘bunker’, even if that ‘bunker’ is e.g. at first a non-ideal BSD install, but at least a starting place to learn, and with clear tutorials as a main priority?” This might not even be the first step. Suppose for the sake of argument we had 5 billion dollars, and we decide we are going to pay 5 million people $1000 each to switch to OpenBSD. And we actually find 5 million people to take us up on this deal. Now we have 5 million new OpenBSD users. So that’s good, but most of them are going to be thinking: “Why is this better?” “Nobody was going to fork Linux anyway.” “Not even for 5 billion dollars?” Certainly this doesn’t make promoting OpenBSD any less worthwhile — it enables some of us to move away as quickly as possible — and anybody else who wants to come along in the quest for freedom is welcome to join us. But switching to BSD without knowing why is just a cargo cult move, and I’d rather people appreciate the goal of what they’re doing. The GNU Project wasn’t just a project to give people a free operating system; it was meant to give people freedom — and until people understand that, GNU helps though they won’t know (or care) why. If more people use OpenBSD, then more are available to help reboot the GNU Project on top of it. But if they don’t know or care about that, what are they switching for? And hey, it’s great even if their reason is “I know Linux isn’t going to get fixed and I want a fixable option”. OK, that’s a valid reason. But until they have that, at best we can give them an OS with less support for DRM and systemd. And if that’s enough, hey, great. So you said these people already care about freedom. That’s good. Do they already care about the specific problems that this is going to fix? If not, it would be ideal to find a way to make them aware. The Trisquel developers are not aware of the problem. They think they still care about freedom. Roy says that Stallman is aware, for example, of the problem caused by systemd. He says that Stallman is afraid of the trouble it will cause if he makes a fuss about it — I should just find the quote, but this is news to me. If we are hiding problems, and Trisquel developers (there was a time when Trisquel was basically the flagship of FSF-approved distros) are unaware of this, that’s a major problem. They’re going to keep telling people that any software under a GPL license is not a problem, since users already have the 4 Freedoms. They’re not the only ones. So we have these problems, we have people working on solutions, we have the original co-opting by Open Source and they completely misrepresent and twist Free Software into something it isn’t; we have former allies like Trisquel who used to fight for us but now (probably NOT deliberately) help sweep major problems under the rug, and pretend it’s business as usual – We have people like Stallman who still know important things that other Free Software advocates (who only parrot things he says instead of thinking about these philosophical issues for themselves) don’t know, but he’s in a position where he’s afraid to do the one thing we all know him for — which is tell us more about Free Software and how to make it work. And if he’s afraid to, few care as much as he does. All in all, I think it will help substantially to switch to OpenBSD, for the same reasons I said before; it’s less work to make OpenBSD fully-free (and even use it as a new platform for the GNU Project) than it is to fork or salvage Linux. But it’s still part of a larger picture, which is part of an overall advocacy of freedom and (vitally) autonomy, at the very least autonomy compared to the GitHub dystopia we have spent the past few years helping Microsoft to build. Switching to BSD is just part of that. If people are unaware of the other parts, the benefit will be smaller indeed. … “Get everyone who cares to the best place possible, where they can function and have a foundation that doesn’t feel like shifting sands; then the new can come through when possible.” That is the idea. But the foundation of free computing isn’t BSD, it’s the philosophy that the user should have control over their own computing. Over and over again, this comes back to advocacy and education. We need to rebuild that. … “I can’t possibly be the only privacy-conscious and non-tech person on Linux?! So please don’t mistake any of what I say as me trying to get personal help for me” No, it’s great, it’s seriously great that you care. I don’t think that you’re the only person who feels the way you do, certainly — as for going offline, there are many things that I simply won’t do — for example, I won’t date with an app. It’s not that I don’t have or don’t care about having a personal life; I simply find the idea of my personal life (including who I sleep with) ultimately dictated by software controlled by Google to be beyond the pale. If 95% of people (and I don’t think it’s that many) only found people to hook up with through apps, my criteria for meeting a person would include that it be one of the 5% who do not rely exclusively on apps to find people. To me this is no more “idealistic” or “Luddite” than not having Mark Zuckerberg managing and monitoring every friend I have. I consider not relying on Google for something that personal to be a point of sanity. (Which doesn’t mean that everybody who doesn’t use Tinder or the like is actually sane, of course). Still, “privacy” means so many things to so many different people. Fundamentally I don’t think it’s that complicated — but it is to them. I have never been against the idea of baby monitors, for example. Knowing how often they get hacked, I would never use an older one based on simple wireless technology, nor a new one based on home networking. If I had a baby right now, I would wire the baby’s room for sound. Is that privacy? No, it’s definitely a compromise — but it’s one that doesn’t make me uncomfortable. Putting a video monitor in the baby room goes too far though, because it teaches someone (even retroactively, if you hide the camera and they find out about it later in life) that CCTV surveillance is a natural part of life. I feel bad enough bugging the room, but it’s arguably safer than just checking up if something happens while people are outside of the ordinary range of hearing. You are after all, actually supposed to monitor your baby for their health and stay nearby for that purpose. But I wouldn’t be comfortable with a baby “fitbit” (let’s look up if those exist yet… God damnit..) or any other cattle- herding technology that seems retrofitted for use with humans. … “I’ve believed for a long time that there must be many users similar to myself, but who won’t speak up or ask … that’s been a theme in my life, and anyone’s life who can’t stand by and say nothing, when it comes to the crunch … and there’s always others afterwards who say they agreed! Those people can read and ACT independently, no head above the parapet stuff, via clear tutorials, and that shifts things away from the negative corporate who treat Linux as their resource to mine, and it really matters that the corporate, and corporate- supporting, lose the numbers and influence, and any kind of attention. Providing very clear tutorials would end up being very low-maintenance overall, once the tutorials are done.” Those are great points, and they’re probably not made often enough. I would venture to say “lurkers for freedom” (I’m exaggerating a bit, but you know what I mean) is probably a somewhat foreign concept to most people who are actively fighting (or think they are). So it’s good that you mention this. “Gathering those in one place is also very important, rather than lots of bits everywhere that may be old or new, accurate or not. I understand you will have your own life and commitments, so my question is an open one, about if there are people who would do tutorials.” Rather than say “in one place” implying centralisation, I would say “consolidated in many places” to distinguish it from the present state of being “scattered” or disorganised. I don’t think this is just a nitpick, as centralisation is ultimately the problem that GitHub has created. It begins as centralisation and finally becomes a leash on expression (Codes of Censorship and that sort of thing). So I get the idea of consolidating things so they’re easier to find, but let’s do that it more than one place. In other words, mirrors. … “To jump to covering the depression part a bit more … it is definitely not about avoiding the real truth, which ends up freeing people up to go where IS positive. If others are reading messages mainly pointing out what is depressing, they can get the message nobody else is going to do anything, and everything’s too difficult, which makes their fight harder, and makes getting involved just about impossible. It can seize them up. ‘Let’s all be depressed together’ doesn’t work, in this instance, except briefly at the start, to know we’re all on the same page.” Let’s not give people false hope, or treat them as more fragile than they really are. Denial is a real thing, and we have to poke at that to prevent people from being glib and pretending that problems aren’t real — which people do a lot, including many who should know better. We have to be able to fight that. If we can make any progress at all, people can find hope there and we can share both. Stallman and I are pessimists — Roy is the sunshine and happy days writer at Techrights. This is a funny idea if you know his darker stuff. Sometimes I find myself in a cheerful mood and try to share it with people, but eventually it wanes and lets me get back to worrying about more important things. I deliberately worded that paragraph in a way as to amuse myself. There’s plenty_of_truth_to_it,_but_it’s_also_a_bit_tongue-in-cheek. … “Rolling over and saying we’re defeated is what the corporate want … no freedoms, privacy, respect, happiness, stable space to function, etc. There’s loads can be done about shifting across to BSD, that can bring in a lot more people that normally can’t, or have tried, to be involved in the movement.” Agreed, and fair point. It’s definitely a good thing that we have people on board who think solutions are still possible! (We may_need_more_of_them.) … “Would expanding the range of articles be something useful to do? … focusing on other things e.g. those stepping away and how they’re doing it, those dropping big tech and how great that is, those who left working for big tech and how they’re doing better things now, how hyperbolaBSD is coming along/interview … after the critical tutorials about how to cross over! Articles from non-techs who’ve been able to go to BSD via the tutorials? How many more users does BSD have this year? By all means, the clear truth, but also articles that cover the features of the better place we all want to inhabit. Just throwing out some ideas, in case anything is useful.” All perfectly good ideas, though none of them are things I’m tracking at the moment. Some of them are slow-going, so tracking them is a bit like watching paint dry. However, sometimes I’m wrong — and ultimately we are looking for things to pick up. So for another person, it might be less like watching paint dry and more like the simple everyman’s parable of being patient enough for a fish to bite the line. If someone wants to sit and wait for a fish, I welcome them to do so. Some people find that relaxing. I don’t think they’re crazy for it. … “The tech sites that promote the corporate etc want us to believe there aren’t enough good people out there to make a difference, and such as Red Hat, showing their cards the very next morning like that, wasn’t very bright, so not crediting them with lots of real wisdom seems a wise thing to do!” Indeed. And you’re completely correct that we need people who are going to try no matter the odds. Subjugation is an inhumane state that we should be fighting for the sake of our own souls. Being agnostic, the concept of “soul” is very hypothetical and sometimes metaphorical or even a bit pedantic, but it is not meaningless. Certainly we can say that our alleged “humanity” depends on taking the idea of fighting subjugation seriously. … “It would be great to see the article about that, and maybe others reading, or just finding, TechRights don’t know about it also.” Try here. I can honestly say that you would be more likely to appreciate it if you were slightly less averse to coding. I watched people remaster distros for years, but it’s a very tedious process. They would start with a tool that was surprisingly brittle, so just to get it running you would need to have things installed that could be tedious to set up. This wasn’t always true, but it happened. Then it would open the distro up, or simply use what you had installed on your computer. To make a “new” distro you would: 1. Have to start with the specific distro(s) it was designed for. 2. Very possibly have to install the distro itself before you could remaster it. 3. Do a lot of tedious things like install programs, change settings, move files, copy/erase whatever. But if you wanted to change just ONE thing, you might well have to change ALL the other things on your list as well. If not this time around, then next time on the next distro. Instead, I wanted to make it so that anything I changed was something that it would change, unless you disabled it. most of these changes would still work from one version (of the distro) to another, or sometimes even across distros (but that depends). Taken to the extreme, what you end up with is basically an “.ini” file or a “manifest” of changes, and to prevent a change all you have to do is comment out or delete the line. Commenting out a line is as simple as this: # Commenting out a line is as simple as this. The “#” makes it a comment, so the line doesn’t run — it is just ignored, as if it isn’t there. It’s code you can turn “on and off” by changing a single character. Then again so is this: InstallFirefox = 1 I mean if you take a random remastering tool, remove Firefox, or take something where you can just change “1″ to “0″ and run an automated tool, the second one is definitely easier. But behind that “ini” file is a program written in fig — a language designed to be a friendly first language. And behind that fig program is Python — a mainstream language used in education at a wide range of grade levels. So you get a choice to work on the simplest ini level, the very simple but very powerful fig level, or the relatively all-powerful but more complicated Python level. You get to choose. At least that’s the idea. The problem is that even if you control every file in a GNU/Linux system, you’re still using Linux. That’s the thing about pessimism, incidentally: it’s difficult for the optimist to call someone a sellout or a traitor, even when there are many. It’s not so difficult for a pessimist, even if they’re trying very hard to be fair. I still like the idea of automated remastering, it’s not the same priority now that it was. I never set out to do it originally, you know. I was trying to make a simple demo program to analyse the contents of distros. It got so close to a remastering program that I changed it into one. … “The more I think about this, the more I think creating that place we need involves bringing in all types of user and very clear and basic documentation, as numbers and the how-to are integral to that creation. Potential new users today, who’ve just realised they need to make a shift, could see a set of BSD tutorials that are actually easier to understand than Linux documentation, and just go straight to BSD, for example. People need to be informed, included, and to have the tools…” True. “I agree that a non-corporate community/usergroup(s) is very important; no egos, no diversity, no PC, but just basically be decent, which I think would be there, when people are making effort to do something because they care about people being free and are all working together on the same page.” They won’t all agree, of course. I mean, there are things we can’t negotiate on — Open Source wanted us to negotiate heavily on whether freedom was really important, or incidental; that’s a deal-breaker and it should be. But some people are still going to want to focus on certain things, like bringing underrepresented groups into this. I actually have_no_problem_with that. “It is better to have communities divided over politics than to have software development and repos hijacked and repurposed by a single political faction.” Here’s an example: Roy is vegetarian, I’m not. Roy isn’t vegan yet. I don’t have a problem with GNU/LINUX/BSD people promoting vegetarianism or veganism, but if that becomes a higher priority than Free Software then it means that the movement is being hijacked for another cause. Vegetarians and Vegans don’t always agree on everything, and Free Software really doesn’t care whether you’re vegetarian or not. I appreciate sincere efforts to get underrepresented groups into Free Software. What I don’t agree with are some of the divisive tactics that make user freedom or software freedom a second priority to those particular tactics. Even if everybody agreed that diversity is important, making it priority one (“PID Ein” in Lennartspeak) ultimately puts someone in charge of free software that may not care about free software at all. The first priority for our cause really should be our cause. This doesn’t mean other causes are unimportant, even to us — it simply means that we won’t all agree to have everything we do hijacked and put under control of a different group of people (corporations in this instance) which is ultimately and cynically what has happened. People already get divided over these issues. Rather than have them divided into “Free Software” and “Go Fuck yourself”, I would like them more often divided into “Free Software A” and “Free Software B”. The problem is, that under the current regime, if I support both “Free Software” and include those who have found their way (not always under the most honest or transparent of “community” processes…) into the second group, now people want me to be in that second group for that “crime” which is only a crime according to a certain group of infiltrators. What you should be able to do is say you support “Free Software” without letting someone else come and redefine it in an incredibly divisive, co-opting sort of way. Not everybody has to agree, but it’s dangerous to let people come in and hijack the entire movement. We need a better option than that. … “None of your ‘giafam’s okay’ half-hearteds!” Sadly / NOT sadly, there is no simple reliable test for loyalty in this movement. We are far too welcoming for that. We probably should be. What we should not tolerate is ongoing, increasing betrayal. We aren’t all going to agree on that either, but for many years, Free Software and Open Source has sort of bled together into FLOSS, which really just means Open Source. It has successfully pushed freedom and basic human rights not like not being under mass surveillance off the table. That’s unacceptable. We need to have some way that we can extract ourselves from the farce of Open Source, knowing full well that it is extremely commonplace and impossible to have zero contact with. We need a way to be more about Free Software and less about Open Source, and that’s something I talk about all the time. But, there is no way to make a loyalty test work. I’m sort of thankful for that, because it would only create a very ridiculous mindset and make the whole idea less political and more cult-like. We should lean towards being careful, away from being paranoid; towards being political, away from being apathetic; towards some ideal, away from the most cynical sorts of so-called “pragmatism” that is really just (as Home of slated.org more or less put it) ceding to your opponent on the assumption that will for some reason do the same. … “It would also need to be solidly private/encrypted, so no big tech can get in and threaten or harm people.” That’s an ongoing issue that Eben Moglen has promoted for at least a decade, but if you make it a prerequisite we will probably need to wait another 10 years (maybe more) to get started. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, in much the way that I’m not saying interstellar flight is a bad idea. “I can’t access the Slated site, but understand what you’re saying about big tech’s agenda and the ways they try to take people’s freedom and power.” When I checked most recently, the_website_was_down. … “I haven’t heard Free Culture spoken of, and need to look up Lessig, for sure, so thanks for pointing me that way.” Sure. Lessig is great people, and Free Culture is a great idea, but I actually focus on the overlap between Free Culture and Free Software, namely cultural works under licenses that give you the equivalent of the 4 Freedoms in the Free Software Definition. Examples of licenses for cultural works that give you those freedoms are CC-BY, CC-BY-SA and CC0. On the other hand, I hate to promote works that have an “ND” (NoDerivs) clause, but Stallman is oddly enamoured with it. He and I have very different ideas about what he refers to as “works of opinion”. Then again he is correct that too many Free Culture advocates underplay the importance of Free Software. They do, and IMO, vice versa. Thankfully, Alex Oliva at least uses a Free Culture license on his blog. This implies (to me, maybe not to Oliva himself) that Oliva is more in touch with Free Culture than Stallman is. To be fair, a lot of criticisms of Free Culture by Stallman were helpful. “Anarch” is a just-released game by Drummyfish under a CC0 license. He is an advocate of both Free Software and Free Culture, and both his software and his other works are under a free and even GPL-compatible license (he generally uses CC0). … “From this self-advocator, who will never stop championing what enables people to have choice and freedom, and who doesn’t feel quite as out in the forest as I did, thanking you again for not being one of those who shunned, and instead is refreshingly direct and fair, signing off for now.” Keep doing what you’re doing. Long live rms, and Happy Hacking. █ Text in quotes is included as fair use; all else licensed: Creative_Commons_CC0 1.0 (public domain) ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** [Meme]_Trump_is_Out._Now_It’s_Time_to_Pressure_the_Biden_Administration/ Transition_Team_on_Software_Freedom_Issues. ***** Posted in Free/Libre_Software at 9:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Biden is not_our_ally, he’s just the “lesser foe” (compared to Trump and his swamp) [Biden and EPO] Summary: The Biden transition is in motion and tentative appointments are underway, based on news reports (see our Daily Links); now is the time to put pressure, e.g. in the form of public backlash, to ensure it’s not just another corporate presidency ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** Cartoon:_After_Gambling_With_Workers’_Savings_the_EPO_Can_Do_Real_Estate ***** Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:22 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [EPO animals] Summary: New EPO cartoon from EPO insiders (the one on the right certainly looks a lot like António_Campinos and the one on the left can be his EUIPO ‘import’ or Benoît_Battistelli‘s INPI ‘import’) ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** European_Patent_Office_(EPO)_Reduced_to_‘Justice_Over_the_Telephone’_and Decree_by_E-mail ***** Posted in Europe, Law, Patents at 7:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Chinese labour “standards” (from the back door) [The_EPO's_threatening_language] [Being behind bars] Summary: The EPO is trashing the EPC and everything that the Office was supposed to stand for, as it wrongly assumes demand for monopolies (typically from foreign corporations) comes before the rule of law and Europe’s public interest WE are gratified to see responses to the EPO regime of António_Campinos; after Benoît_Battistelli ‘kidnapped’ judges from their offices (“house ban”) Campinos places_staff_on_"house_arrest". Because “innovation” or something… “People’s general mood/spirit is already lowered by inability to travel (and see loved ones, exercise, meet friends); treat them with respect and dignity, at the very least.”What has EPOnia turned into? We’ve shown threatening if not menacing E-mails sent from management to examiners. Are they trying to shock people? Is the goal to induce stress and depression? People’s general mood/ spirit is already lowered by inability to travel (and see loved ones, exercise, meet friends); treat them with respect and dignity, at the very least. The problem is, today’s EPO isn’t run by qualified managers but a Praetorian Guard of Campinos. They bully anyone who dares to challenge their agenda, not their authority. Even if that agenda is outright illegal. In other words, people are given unlawful instructions and defiance of such unlawful instructions begets unwarranted bollocking. [Bars and dog]One might expect this sort of autocracy in Red China, not the red (logo) EPO. And speaking of China, this morning the EPO spoke_about (warning: epo.org link) the latest “discussion rounds” with China (and its smaller albeit patent-savvy neighbours to the east). When the EPO says “discussion” it means webchats rather than a roundtable discussions. And this one also misuses laughable buzzwords like “Artificial intelligence (AI).” (Or Hey Hi) From this morning’s EPO so-called ‘news’: “Several important topics and issues were discussed over the course of three days including amendments to law, cross-lingual search possibilities and the opportunities presented by Artificial intelligence (AI).” Notice the part about “amendments to law”; those “discussion rounds” aren’t permitted to change underlying legislation; that’s another branch, but at the EPO there’s no notion of separation of powers. If there was, a lot of that "new normal" would be blocked. Many things that the EPO did in the wake of the pandemic are completely illegal. Who’s going to be held accountable for it? Probably nobody. The ‘discussions’ (webchats) weren’t supposed to tackle underlying law but instead focus on this: “The discussion rounds provided a platform for direct interaction between users and experts on topics such as Asian data in Espacenet and keyword searches in Chinese, Japanese and Korean full texts.” Those are not affected by the pandemic because they’re less formal, almost informal. In fact, texts produced by automatic (machine) translation are technically and legally invalid. We can recommend to our readers this_one_new_comment on the latest_article_from Dr._Bausch, a European patent attorney. This one of many comments (over a dozen, with the original post now cited by SUEPO as well) correctly notes: “A reasonable interpretation of the term “oral proceedings” can only mean the physical presence of the parties before the EPO’s decision-making body. The terms “oral proceedings” are far from being ambiguous or obscure, let alone that their interpretation in good faith leads to a result that is manifestly absurd or unreasonable. [...] A videoconference is nothing more than a telephone conversation during which the parties can see each other.” Here’s the full comment reproduced: The Boards of Appeal regularly invoke the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) when it comes to deciding on how to interpret the EPC. The interpretation of Art 116 given in the explanatory note for the proposal of Art 15a RPBA is in manifest contradiction with the VCLT in its Art 31 and 32. According to the VCLT, a treaty has to be interpreted in good faith and if this interpretation should not lead to a result that is manifestly absurd or unreasonable. The mere assertion that “neither Art 116 nor any other article of the EPC or RPCR 2020 stipulates that the parties to the proceedings, their representatives or the members of the board must be physically present in the room”, amounts to ignoring the philosophy underlying Art 116. A reasonable interpretation of the term “oral proceedings” can only mean the physical presence of the parties before the EPO’s decision- making body. The terms “oral proceedings” are far from being ambiguous or obscure, let alone that their interpretation in good faith leads to a result that is manifestly absurd or unreasonable. Nowhere in the “travaux préparatoires” to Art. 116 it has ever been envisaged that the parties are not physically present before the deciding body, and that for instance it could be held by phone. A videoconference is nothing more than a telephone conversation during which the parties can see each other. What is said here applies mutatis mutandis to oral proceedings before examining and opposition divisions. Neither the Chairman of Boards, nor the Chairman of the BOAC, and even less the president of the EPO, have the power to amend the EPC in the way they are attempting to do. They simply lack the legitimacy to do so. The same applies to the AC. That in a period like the pandemic solutions have to be envisaged is not at stake. In exceptional situations, exceptional solutions can be envisaged, but as soon as the exceptional situation is over, then the exception should be stopped and the normal situation be re- established. In any case, the possibility of holding oral proceedings by videoconference should be left to the parties and not decided ex- officio, even in exceptional circumstances. As explained by Mr Bausch, the parties also have an interest to come to decisions and not unduly keep their files open. Once a party is opponent, once it is proprietor so that a fair balance can be stricken between contradictory requirements. Whilst I can have some understanding of Max Drei’s plea about representatives sitting at a distance from The Hague or Munich, I cannot fundamentally agree with him. When he speaks about the three members of divisions of first instance, I have to take away his illusions. See below. It is not for the Office and its Boards of Appeal to decide what is good for the parties. After all, the income of the Office stems from the contributions of the parties, so that the parties must have a say about the way they are treated. Presently it is with morgue and disdain. Under the pretext of the pandemic situation, both the EPO and the Boards want manifestly to dematerialise the EPO. This would in the long term allow to transfer its duties to national patent offices and get read of staff which is not as docile as the management would like to. If you think that there are discussions within examining or opposition divisions, please abandon this idyllic vision. In vast areas of the EPO the three men divisions of first instance are long time gone and only exist on paper. In some areas there have even been oral instructions that if the first member has signed, the two other have to sign as well. Consulting the register recently, I even came across a Form 2035 in which only the first member had signed! If you take on top the difficulties imposed by videoconferencing among members of divisions, this trend has rather increased. By isolating its staff, the EPO gains even more influence on it and concerted actions would be made more or less impossible. What a perspective for the head of (anti)personnel! That by dematerialising the office it would then be possible to even sell some buildings has been clearly envisaged by the management. The role of the EPO and its Boards is not to play Monopoly© but to offer an acceptable service to its users. Why was it then necessary to invest in rented accommodation for the boards when other buildings of the EPO are allegedly empty and can be sold? By the way, the EPO wanted to sell the latest buildings of the EPO (BT8) on the other side of Grasserstraße, but the city of Munich refused as it had a contractual say in the matter. For a while the EPO has become the playground of would be managers only having in mind juicy bonuses and relying on management methods from the 19th century. The EPO plays a big role in European IP, and it should not be left to the incompetent amateurs presently at its helm. If anything goes wrong, they can always rely on their immunity….. The fathers of the EPC must be turning over at high speed in their graves. If the EPO has no (real) physical location and it’s reduced to a bunch of workers across Europe (mostly based around two locations) granting monopolies from home and discussing those patents over E-mail/phone (serious data protection violations, including outsourcing to the United States), then what has it become? What “access to justice” is there, really? Those are the sorts of “hard questions” the EPO can only even attempt_to_distract_the_public_from, sometimes with the veil_of_diversity (which it lacks). There’s a severe crisis of (il)legitimacy when those who proclaim to stand for the law so routinely break the law themselves. █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** Free_as_in_Freedom_Should_Not_be_Associated_With_Cost ***** Posted in Free/Libre_Software, Microsoft at 6:48 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Sometimes being freer is more costly (in financial terms) in the short term [Free bicycle? No thanks] Summary: It’s important to remind people that so-called ‘free’ services (Clown Computing, centralised spaces that ‘farm’ their so-called ‘users’) aren’t really free; we need to advocate freedom or free-as-in-freedom alternatives THE fake Open Source ‘movement’ wanted us to think that the term Free software was bad because it implied “cheap” and “shoddy”; this straw man argument helped them sweep a lot of media attention over to their side and, in turn, promote monopolies and surveillance companies as “good citizens” that are “open” (because they upload some code portion to proprietary prisons/PRISM like GitHub). “They already whitewash Windows 10,” Ryan told us moments ago. “Wikipedia lists it as “partially open source”.” “GitHub is proprietary and “free of charge”; does that make it “Free”? Ask developers/projects such as YouTube-DL, which got terminated (along with all their mirrors) without even a warning; then, Microsoft reportedly threatened everyone else who ‘dared’ make a mirror.”Thankfully, more and more disillusioned people can now see that for what it really is. As we set aside some EPO affairs (we’re not abandoning that, we’ll carry on covering those matters at least once a day) we intend to focus again on advocacy for Free software. There seems to be a resurgence of it. Recently I’ve been seeing some truly encouraging signs for the #DeleteGitHub ‘movement’ or ‘campaign’, more so after the YouTube-DL debacle. Some high-profile projects have initiated their departure process (leaving Microsoft and GitHub behind). YouTube-DL and other projects (with almost no media attention paid to the latter take-downs, as Microsoft bombarded the media with face-saving PR about ‘defending’ developers) were the last straw to many. As Ryan points out, we should “also mention that after “byuu” left Higan, his successors moved it to GitHub, where it is at risk from Nintendo, who likes to abuse the DMCA as it pertains to emulators.” “Whether they’re in the right or not,” Ryan adds, “they have a history, and Microsoft won’t fight them, so the current Higan project is at risk of being black bagged and progress lost one day because of lawyers and Microsoft.” Free software (or libre, some say livre) is about freedom of users; that extends to things such as privacy and free speech, of course. We need to stress this point more and more. GitHub is proprietary and “free of charge”; does that make it “Free”? Ask developers/projects such as YouTube-DL, which got terminated (along with all their mirrors) without even a warning; then, Microsoft reportedly threatened everyone else who ‘dared’ make a mirror. So much “free”, eh? Like_"free"_food_in_a_slaughterhouse/abattoir. █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** IRC_Proceedings:_Wednesday,_November_25,_2020 ***** Posted in IRC_Logs at 2:38 am by Needs Sunlight [HTML5_logs] [HTML5_logs] #techrights_log_as_HTML5 #boycottnovell_log_as_HTML5 [HTML5_logs] [HTML5_logs] #boycottnovell-social_log_as_HTML5 #techbytes_log_as_HTML5 [text_logs] [text_logs] #techrights_log_as_text #boycottnovell_log_as_text [text_logs] [text_logs] #boycottnovell-social_log_as_text #techbytes_log_as_text Enter_the_IRC_channels_now =============================================================================== **** IPFS Mirrors **** CID Description Object type IRC log for  QmbXaZzgJDNhVSu2odySXoUMQXmqKx2EkZbQTS93PJnq2B#boycottnovell [HTML5 logs] (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for  QmepL3dd61CcNBW3XsQpSszGJHeUVqwmwNVKML7R4sf4bG#boycottnovell [text logs] (full IRC log as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for #boycottnovell-  QmXoVy1CVuEjHmGqi5Y4VUiUEMCNvMKyRMDZjcTShRhfrasocial [HTML5 logs] (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #boycottnovell-  QmQSLHTnWpFLEta14cg7QUxwdxfqZKQWPVPGL6DSYPK9V9social [text logs] (full IRC log as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for  QmT1a2ojm5nYNxNeQYweyoVdJmB2usDjq56hhXaeEAw3rj#techbytes [HTML5 logs] (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for  QmdaQbZJxg2o87s6FTjC7eE4CMFvt2nxjpZwo6HxTqLkmC#techbytes [text logs] (full IRC log as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for  QmdgYsDR65nsQobnvXZKizBJHhkCxApLryjdGpMs4mZueW#techrights [HTML5 logs] (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for  QmangzZjZfqA3iUJJAxRrYo6k8ssqvzHTwiiUd7YqwBSb9#techrights [text logs] (full IRC log as plain/ASCII text) [IPFS logo] **** Bulletin for Yesterday **** Local_copy | CID (IPFS): QmX8sx4qHQqTcXiwTPUfF5FJgwB17cRE94Vdq7o8aajWoB ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** [Meme]_One_Step_Away_From_Replacing_Patent_Examiners_With_‘Hey_Hi’_(AI) ***** Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [In the European Patent Office nobody knows if you're human] Summary: If it’s not legal for ‘Hey Hi’ (AI) to get a patent, why should it be legal for patents to be granted by those who are invisible (and sometimes in de facto_house_arrest)? ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** Many_Thanks_to_Free_Software,_the_Demise_of_Software_Patents_(in_Europe and_the_US),_and_So_Much_More ***** Posted in America, Europe, Patents at 5:59 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [Thank you] Summary: On a positive note we’re heading into the end of November, one month before Boxing Day; we take stock of patent affairs that impact software developers ACROSS the United States people celebrate a holiday that we do not have here in ‘Englandia’. Except of course the shopping-related offshoots (cyber Mondays and black Fridays — whatever they even have to do with holidays when we’re still in national/nationwide lock-down). “Enjoy the long weekend, don’t shop (“consume”) too much, and don’t believe anything Team UPC says.”This coming (long) weekend we’ll be doing some site housekeeping, having ‘earned’ some rest after 29,000+_blog_posts. We’re motivated, not tired. Exhilarated, not demoralised. What happened today in Germany was not a surprise; neither to me nor to Benjamin Henrion, among many others (we correctly predicted this outcome). Daily Links have some coverage from Team UPC, but we will write about the latest on the subject when the constitutional complaint comes (we’re rather certain it’ll arrive soon). Team UPC is, as usual, using Trump-style hype and premature victory laps in an effort to gaslight and demoralise otherwise rational people. António_Campinos of the EPO did the same in the afternoon, but even his own workers don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth. FFII is crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding a complaint and we also expect the famous Düsseldorf attorney/lawyer to say something. People expect a complaint from him, not just from FFII, and various other parties will likely step in (at some level or capacity). We expect to see some frustrating times for Team UPC ahead of us, e.g. get ready for the FCC… actually dealing with the actual substance this time around (a key Justice already publicly insinuated it would likely come next). Benoît_Battistelli is thankful to lobbyists (CEIPI has long wanted and attempted to profit from UPC courses, even if UPC does not exist) and those who think legislation can be magically retrofitted to bypass Brexit are in for a surprise. Also, those who think they can introduce a new court system to authorise software_patents_in_Europe (without the highest court in the EU getting involved) are simply dreaming. [Thank you]It was almost 24 months ago (2 years) that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) attempted to crush/bypass 35 U.S.C. § 101. Not only will Biden replace the current USPTO leadership (it seems inevitable); in the meantime the Federal_Circuit only doubled down on 35 U.S.C. § 101/Alice. Coons and his friends made no progress with a Congressional bypass and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continues to handle inter partes reviews (IPRs), habitually crushing American software patents. So we’re generally still in a good position. Not perfect, but not too bad, either. Enjoy the long weekend, don’t shop (“consume”) too much, and don’t believe anything Team UPC says. They’ve been lying to us all for well over a decade; it’s not like this week their lies miraculously stopped. █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** Open_Letter_to_the_German_Greens_on_UPC_and_Software_Patents:_Don’t Betray_Your_Voters_and_Your_Promises,_or_You_Will_Regret_it ***** Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:10 am by Guest Editorial Team By Benjamin HENRION, FFII [European Greens against software patents] European Greens against software patents Dear Members of the German Greens in the Bundestag, Dear Members of the Greens in the European Parliament, There is a vote this afternoon at 3PM on the ratification by Germany of the UPC. The software patent directive of 2005 was rejected at the request of multinationals, who preferred to push for a trusted patent court instead of modifying the substantive patent law. The Greens always had a clear position on this issue of software patenting at the EU level, and a clear position during the European Elections. We recommended to our numerous supporters to vote for the Greens during the european elections in each of their countries because the Greens were the only party with a clear position on this issue, as other political parties were split. IF YOU VOTE FOR THE UPC THIS AFTERNOON IN THE BUNDESTAG, WE WILL MAKE SURE YOUR ELECTORS IN GERMANY AND ELSEWHERE WILL BE INFORMED THAT YOU BETRAYED THEM IN NOT KEEPING YOUR ELECTORAL PROMISES, IN THAT THE TRUST THEY GAVE TO YOU BY VOTING FOR YOUR PARTY IS BROKEN. I will personally make sure this betrayal is well documented and in the media. We had a similar issue during the ratification in Belgium. Please read carrefully our open letter we sent few days back: https://ffii.org/is-germany-competing-with-hungary-and-poland-on-the-worst- rule-of-law-award-with-its-rushed-ratification-of-the-unitary-patent/ https://ffii.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/ffii-upc-bundestag-europe.pdf Best regards, Benjamin Henrion FFII e.V. “In July 2005, after several failed attempts to legalise software patents in Europe, the patent establishment changed its strategy. Instead of explicitly seeking to sanction the patentability of software, they are now seeking to create a central European patent court, which would establish and enforce patentability rules in their favor, without any possibility of correction by competing courts or democratically elected legislators.” **** Links **** * Remember_July_6th,_2005:_ICT_Industry_warns_MEPs_on_Unitary_Patent “As for the supposed reduction of costs pursued by the regulation : “the proposal will reduce the cost of registration but it will increase the overall cost of patent protection because litigation will become more complicated and expensive“ http://rememberjuly6th.wikidot.com/press-release:ict-industry-warns- meps * Patrick_Breyer_:_‘UPCA_should_be_abandoned_and_substantive_reform_at_EU level_taken_up’ Kluwer: Are you concerned German re-ratification will be pushed through parliament? Is there enough support for the UPC in Germany? Patrick Breyer MEP: ”This will likely depend on the German Greens. In the past they have agreed with the principle of a unitary patent system and voted in favour.” ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** The_UPC_and_Unitary_Patent_Song ***** Posted in Europe, Humour, Patents at 8:37 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [Little bo peep] Summary: On goes the UPC symphony, as the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is almost here, always coming “real soon!” UP on a hill There is a new bill The lawyers are shrill Confident they feel This is the year! This is the time! This is the moment! Oh, wait What is that? Again it goes splat No worry, coming next year! A year passes Constitutional bypasses Misled politicians Recruited for missions Courts get in the way For that they will pay How dare they say UPC is not OK Lobbying redirected Lambrecht erected No need to get elected The coup is enacted Constitutions in shreds Embarrassing the Feds Joyous the Reds Complainants emerged UPC is coming If not now Then next year And if not next year Then the year after that Or the year after next year Or the year after next next year Or next next_next_next_year It’s coming Honest! █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** [Meme]_UPC’s_Pyrrhic_Victory ***** Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [Is that a complaint? Maybe we need a restart] Summary: Contrary to what Team UPC says, what happened earlier today is hardly a breakthrough ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** Boycott_ZDNet_Unless_You_Fancy_Being_Lied_to ***** Posted in Deception, Free/Libre_Software, FUD, GNU/Linux at 9:02 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz ZDNet is in a race to the bottom in gutter ‘journalism’ [Formula 1 BAR Honda] Summary: ZDNet’s Catalin Cimpanu continues to lead the way with misinformation and lies, basically doing whatever he was doing to land that job at ZDNet (after he had done the same elsewhere) TODAY there was a new_article from Sam Varghese about Catalin Cimpanu, the liar and dramatist whom ZDNet hired to attack Linux with FUD, seeing how he had been doing that for years in another site. As Varghese put it, “ZDNet has a person on staff, Stephen J. Vaughan-Nicholls [sic], who knows the Linux very well. So why exactly the kind of dross that was published on 24 November was ever allowed to pass the editor’s knife is puzzling.” The “tl;dr” is that (quite frankly as usual) it’s not about “Linux” and it requires shoddy users/admins to help the attacker/s. “This got notably worse than ZDNet’s parent company collapsed.”What’s more puzzling to us is that SJVN continues to work there, even while bemoaning this Linux “security” FUD. Varghese already wrote a number of other pieces about Cimpanu’s lies, as did we and some sites that we’ve cited. Let’s face it; ZDNet isn’t really a news site but a propaganda apparatus. The above article was in Daily Links this morning, as was one piece of FUD derived from the ZDNet FUD. [ZDNet's Catalin Cimpanu]We continue to urge readers to boycott ZDNet. One year ago its parent company collapsed. Let’s make sure ZDNet collapses as soon as possible as well. It’s lying and provoking for traffic, in effect spreading Microsoft propaganda, defaming_Free_software_people, and using clickbait to annoy people who still value actual facts. This got notably worse than ZDNet’s parent company collapsed. █ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** Links_26/11/2020:_AV_Linux_2020.11.23_and_Blender_2.91_Release ***** Posted in News_Roundup at 2:14 am by Guest Editorial Team [GNOME bluefish] **** Contents **** * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * **** GNU/Linux **** o **** Audiocasts/Shows **** # ** Lubuntu_20.10_overview_|_Welcome_to_the_Next_Universe._– YouTube ** In this video, I am going to show an overview of Lubuntu 20.10 and some of the applications pre- installed. # ** Preselections_Unlock_BSPWMs_True_Tiling_Potential_– YouTube ** A little while ago I looked at bspwm receptacles which provided one way to do manual tiling and today we’re looking at another option in the form of bspwm preselections which let you turn bspwm into a manual tiler if you you really want to. # ** 201:_Interview_with_Tutanota_Plus_$6_Billion_IPO_for_SUSE? –_Destination_Linux ** Thank you to everyone who joined us LIVE to celebrate 200 Episodes of Destination Linux! We had an absolute blast during Game Fest and can’t wait to do another event in the near future! Thank you to everyone for helping us get to 200 episodes of the best darn Linux show on the planet. This week we have an interview with a representative from Tutanota, an open-source end-to-end encrypted email software and service. Then of course we have our popular tips/tricks and software picks. All of this and so much more this week on Destination Linux. # ** Unfettered_Freedom_Ep._12_–_Linus_on_M1_Mac,_Snaps_2020, Funtoo,_Sabayon,_Fedora_Pipewire,_Systemd ** Unfettered Freedom is a video podcast that focuses on news and topics about GNU/Linux, free software and open source software. # ** Smoked_Laptops_|_Coder_Radio_389 ** Mike buys a laptop live on air while Chris worries about the turkey. # ** The_Linux_Link_Tech_Show_Episode_882 ** thanksgiving, ardor, odin, ready player two # ** FLOSS_Weekly_606:_The_Future_of_Stuff_–_Digital_Ownership and_Rights ** In our conversation about The Future of Stuff with its author Vinay Gupta, we discuss the founding role of Free Software in the digital world. We’ll also talk about the need to list and protect human rights that were barely imaginable in the old physical world—and the radical ways we might make that happen. Vinay is the founder of Mattereum, a London-based fintech company using legally- enforceable smart contracts to enable the sale, lease, and transfer of physical property and other legal rights. He is a technologist and policy analyst interested in how specific technologies can close or create new avenues for decision-makers. This interest has taken him through cryptography, energy policy, defense, security, resilience, and disaster management arenas. He is perhaps best known for his work on the Hexayurt Project, a public domain disaster relief shelter designed to be built from commonly-available materials, and Ethereum, a distributed network designed to handle smart contracts. o **** Kernel Space **** # ** Tuxera_First_to_Bring_Network_Bandwidth-Saving_SMB Compression_Feature_to_Linux_Environments [Ed: Windows assimilation] ** # ** Tuxera_First_to_Bring_Network_Bandwidth-Saving_SMB Compression_Feature_to_Linux_Environments ** Tuxera, a world-leader in quality-assured storage management and networking software, announced that the company’s SMB server implementation, Fusion File Share by Tuxera, now offers transparent compression to platforms outside of Microsoft Windows. Compression is being rapidly and widely adopted in the storage industry as a feature in memory hardware, file system implementations, and also networking protocols such as Microsoft’s server messaging block technology (SMB). The ability to compress files inline during transfer can significantly reduce bandwidth and transfer time. Microsoft released the transparent compression feature to their SMB protocol specification in early 2019. However, Tuxera is the first to implement SMB compression outside of Microsoft Windows, bringing this highly in-demand feature to Linux environments in enterprises around the world. # ** Wake-on-LAN ** With Wake-on-LAN (WoL) it can be slightly easier to manage machines in-house. You can fire up the workstation and start the day’s compile jobs (to catch up with overnight work by the KDE community, say) while drinking an espresso downstairs and doomscrolling. [...] If all the administrative bits are in place, then the simple way to wake up a machine is wake . This requires root, since it sends specially-crafted (broadcast) Ethernet packets, which isn’t something that regular users can do. # ** AMD+SUSE_Tackling_Frequency_Invariance_For_AMD_EPYC_7002 CPUs_–_Phoronix ** Thanks to work by AMD and SUSE engineers, the Linux kernel could soon be seeing frequency invariance support for EPYC 7002 “Rome” processors for yielding greater performance and power efficiency. Over the past year we have seen a lot of Linux kernel work for dealing with frequency invariance but to now that on the x86 side has been focused on Intel Xeon processors. Now through the cooperation of AMD with patches led by SUSE, frequency invariance is being worked on for the EPYC 7002 “Rome” processors. # **** Graphics Stack **** # ** Intel_Begins_Landing_Their_Open-Source_Vulkan_Driver Ray-Tracing_Support ** This week marked the release of Vulkan 1.2.162 with the ray-tracing extensions now finalized. As such Intel’s stellar open- source team has begun landing their work around Vulkan ray-tracing ahead of the Xe HPG hardware availability that will support this functionality. Back in October I wrote about Intel preparing their open-source driver support for Vulkan ray-tracing ahead of Xe HPG and now with the updated Vulkan spec out there they are able to push more of their work. o **** Benchmarks **** # ** The_Performance_Impact_To_POWER9′s_Eager_L1d_Cache Flushing_Fix ** Last week a new vulnerability was made public for IBM POWER9 processors resulting in a mitigation of the processor’s L1 data cache needing to be flushed between privilege boundaries. Due to the possibility of local users being able to obtain data from the L1 cache improperly when this CVE is paired with other side channels, the Linux kernel for POWER9 hardware is flushing the L1d on entering the kernel and on user accesses. Here are some preliminary benchmarks looking at how this security change impacts the overall system performance. All the latest Linux kernel stable series are now patched with the new POWER9 behavior for the L1 data cache flushing when crossing privilege boundaries. As outlined already, that L1d flushing behavior is the default but can be disabled with new “no_entry_flush” and “no_uaccess_flush” kernel options to maintain the prior behavior of not flushing. o **** Applications **** # ** qBittorrent_4.3.1_Released,_How_to_Install_in_Ubuntu_via PPA ** The first update for qBittorrent 4.3 series was released today with some new features, bug-fixes, and web UI changes. # ** Blender_2.91_Released ** The fourth major release in 2020 is here to further improve the user experience, adding powerful new booleans, better cloth sculpting with support for collisions, volume objects modifiers, outline, improved animation tools and so much more. # ** Blender_2.91_Released_With_A_Multitude_Of_Improvements_– Phoronix ** Blender 2.91 is the project’s fourth and last major release of 2021 with a focus on enhancing the user experience and usability of this cross-platform, open-source 3D modeling software. There are also improvements to new tooling around cloth sculpting, animation enhancements, continued fine-tuning to the grease pencil, and much more. # ** Blender_2.91_Released_with_Better_Cloth_Sculpting,_Faster Video_Encoding_and_Decoding ** Highlights of Blender 2.91 include better cloth sculpting with collision support for the Sculpt Cloth brush and filter, a new Sculpt Trim tool for cutting and adding geometry using box or lasso gestures, new Simulation Target property for simulating cloth effects, and new Boundary brush for controlling the shape of mesh boundaries. To improve modeling, a new Exact solver is included in this release to handle complex geometry, along with better Intersect Knife and Intersect Boolean, the ability to use a collection as boolean, new options for the Subdivision Surface modifier, better loop select tools in UV Editor, as well as Split Viewport and Render Resolution in Ocean Modifier. o **** Instructionals/Technical **** # ** How_to_get_Linux_kernel_5.8_and_5.9_in_Debian_10 ** Debian 10 sits at Linux kernel 4.19. While this kernel version isn’t exactly the oldest release ever, it’s undoubtedly out of date. However, it is possible to install more modern versions of the kernel. # ** How_to_install_Reaper_on_a_Chromebook ** Today we are looking at how to install Reaper on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below. Reaper is a very powerful tool for audio editing, but it is difficult to learn, so please use their startup guide. You can also use it as a voice- changer, for discord, etc. # ** How_to_install_Lyrebird_on_Linux_Mint_20_–_a_Voice_Changer for_Discord_–_YouTube ** In this video, we are looking at how to install Lyrebird on Linux Mint 20, which is a voice changer for Discord. # ** Oracle_VirtualBox_–_how_to_clone_virtual_machine_terminal bash_command_line_–_how_to_tidy_up_snapshots_and_consolidate free_disk_space ** # ** How_to_Install_and_Use_Thonny_Python_IDE_on_Linux ** Thonny is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Python beginners. It is created with Python and released under MIT License. It is cross- platform and can run in Linux, macOS, Windows. # ** How_to_easily_install_git_on_Linux_|_2021_–_LinuxH2O ** This article is a quick guide on how to install git on different Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, etc. Git is an open-source, cross-platform version control system. It is used to track and maintain changes for a set of files. The tool is mainly popular with programmers for their projects. However, the tool can also be used for any sort of scenario that requires changes to files from time to time. Git was developed by Linus Torvalds in 2005 to manage the Linux kernel development. # ** How_To_Install_Redis_on_Linux_Mint_20_–_idroot ** In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Redis on Linux Mint 20. For those of you who didn’t know, Redis is an open-source in-memory key-value data store. It can be used as a database, cache and, message broker, and supports various data structures such as Strings, Hashes, Lists, Sets, and more. Redis provides high availability via Redis Sentinel and automatic partitioning across multiple Redis nodes with Redis Cluster. This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step by step installation of Redis on a Linux Mint 20 (Ulyana). # ** How_to_Download_YouTube_Videos_in_Linux_|_FOSS_Linux ** YouTube is one of the websites with the most videos on the internet (as of writing this post, it is number one on the list). For some reason, you might need to download some videos to watch later while offline. Situations like following a tutorial playlist about a project or listening to your favorite songs while offline requires you to download some of these videos. Whatever your reason might be, we will show you how you can download YouTube Videos on a Linux system. We will guide you through both the graphical (GUI) and the command-line way. Let’s dive in! # ** How_to_play_Minecraft_Bedrock_Edition_on_Linux [Ed: There are Free software clones that are not Microsoft's] ** Minecraft Bedrock Edition works on Linux with the help of the Minecraft Bedrock Launcher for Linux. It is an unofficial app that makes the game work on Linux with the Minecraft Android APK. # ** [Older]_How_to_install_Redis_on_Ubuntu_Linux ** Redis is open source software used as a database and cache that sits in memory, allowing for exceptional performance. When you’re ready to give this lightning fast program a try, the developers recommend installing Redis on a Linux system, and what better candidate than Ubuntu Linux? In this tutorial, we’ll guide you through the step by step instructions of installing Redis (both server and client) on Ubuntu. Then, we’ll verify that it’s connectable and configure the UFW firewall to allow incoming connections. # ** How_to_install_the_NVIDIA_drivers_on_Fedora_33_with_Hybrid Switchable_Graphics ** This is guide, how to install NVIDIA proprietary drivers on Fedora 33 with Hybrid Switchable Graphics [Intel + Nvidia GeForce] o **** Games **** # ** Steam_Autumn_Sale_and_the_2020_Steam_Award_Nominations_are now_live_|_GamingOnLinux ** Get your wallets ready and your votes as two big events are happening and live now on Steam with both the Steam Autumn Sale and the 2020 Steam Award Nominations. Firstly, let’s talk about the Steam Awards. This is the fifth annual event, where users all across Steam can vote for their favourite games across different categories. The final voting will take place in December, with nominations running until December 1 at 5PM UTC. # ** Metro_Exodus_is_still_planned_to_release_for_Linux_and macOS_|_GamingOnLinux ** 4A Games have confirmed in an official 10th anniversary update post today that Metro Exodus is still going to release for Linux and macOS as well. They gave a small overview in the post about what’s been going on like celebrating the first release of Metro 2033 which arrived back in March 2010. Not only that, they recently got acquired by Embracer Group who also control Koch Media, Saber Interactive, THQ Nordic and others. Specifically, 4A Games are now an independently run subsidiary of Saber Interactive. # ** 4A_Games_Still_Working_On_Linux_Port_Of_Metro_Exodus_– Phoronix ** While Metro Exodus can run on Linux right now via Steam Play, 4A Games is still working on a port of this popular game to Linux and Mac systems. Following the reliable ports of Metro 2033 and Metro Redux to Linux, we’ve been looking forward to the native Linux port of Metro Exodus since at least the earlier versions have been benchmark- friendly for our needs following the Linux port (complete with CLI switches, unlike the Windows version at least at the time). # ** Godot_Game_Engine_Has_Been_Backing_“Betsy”_As_A_GPU-Based Texture_Compressor_–_Phoronix ** The Godot Game Engine has been funding work on a GPU-based texture compressor to deal with the issue that importing textures to this leading open-source game engine can often be painfully slow. Betsy is the open-source project being worked on for the Godot Engine. Betsy implements BC6, ETC1, ETC2, and EAC algorithms among others using GLSL compute shaders. This compressor is implemented as GLSL compute shaders so the work can be offloaded to the graphics processor either via OpenGL or Vulkan usage as well. # ** Godot_Engine_–_Introducing_the_Betsy_GPU_texture compressor ** My name is Matias N. Goldberg, I normally maintain the 2.x branch of Ogre aka ogre-next and I wrote Betsy, a GPU texture compressor that runs on GPUs. This work was commissioned by Godot Engine through the Software Freedom Conservancy to solve a major complaint: importing textures is excruciantly slow and takes many minutes. Certain compression algorithms such as BC1-5 are quite simple and there are already fast high quality compression algorithms. However algorithms such as BC6, ETC1, ETC2 and EAC are currently taking the majority of time and thus considerably attention were given to these. Nonetheless Betsy implemented compute-shader versions for BC1,3,4,5,6, ETC1,2 and EAC algorithms. Betsy works as a standard Command Line tool which means it can be used like any other exe tool outside of Godot. o **** Desktop Environments/WMs **** # **** GNOME Desktop/GTK **** # ** GNOME_3.38.2_Desktop_Environment_Is_Out_with_Even More_Improvements_and_Bug_Fixes ** Coming two months after the first point release, GNOME 3.38.2 is here with better support for the GNOME OS project that lets developers and user test drive upcoming features of the popular desktop environment. This support was implemented in the GNOME Boxes software, which now comes with up-to- date download URLs for GNOME OS, the ability to install GNOME OS under the osinfo custom database, as well as updated recommended downloads for the latest Linux distro releases and improved handling of file extensions. # ** Friends_of_GNOME_Update_–_November_2020_–_Getting_to know_GNOME ** The Seattle GNU/Linux Conference took place online this year and we were there. Executive Director Neil McGovern gave a presentation titled “Patently Obvious” about our legal case with a patent assertion entity and how the settlement impacts all of FOSS. Strategic Initiatives Manager M. de Blanc gave a surprise talk that had nothing to do with GNOME, but discussed the Foundation nonetheless. We also had talks at Linux Application Summit and GNOME.Asia, which you can read more about below. o **** Distributions **** # **** New Releases **** # ** OSMC’s_November_update_is_here_with_Kodi_v18.9 ** Last month, we released Debian Buster with Kodi v18.8. While this version had the majority of fixes backported from Kodi v18.9 which was still in progress, we’ve decided to issue a final release of the Kodi Leia series in the form of an 18.9 point release. Our focus will now be on enabling OSMC support for Kodi v19 (codename Matrix) which is now in beta release. This new version of Kodi will bring a significant number of improvements. However — it should be noted that this new Kodi release will also introduce some caveats, and this is why we’ve chosen to polish the Kodi v18.x series of OSMC as much as possible, particularly as some users may need to stay on this version if there device is no longer supported or their add-ons do not work with the new version. Kodi Matrix upgrades its Python implementation from Python 2.x to Python 3.x. While the majority of add-ons have already been updated to support this new version, you may find that some add-ons do not work. Furthermore, Raspberry Pi 0, 1 and Vero 2 will no longer be supported, meaning that this release will be the final supported version for these devices. # ** Multimedia-Oriented_AV_Linux_Distro_Rebased_on_MX Linux,_Adds_New_and_Updated_Audio_Tools ** Based on the latest MX Linux 19.3 “Patito Feo” release, AV Linux MX Edition is here about six months after the last update to the project with many new and updated tools for audio production and musicians. The distro is still based on Debian GNU/Linux, but not derived from it anymore, but instead from MX Linux. This means that AV Linux now inherits many of MX Linux’s goodies, including the fact that it doesn’t ship with the systemd init system by default. Of course, it also includes the many great tools and utilities of MX Linux. # ** AV_Linux_2020.11.23_Released,_Based_On_MX_Linux_19.3 ‘Patito_Feo’ ** After more than six months of development, the creator and maintainer of AV Linux Glen MacArthur released a new version 2020.11.23. [...] Being a first build based on MX Linux, AVL- MXE comes in two separate editions for the x86_64 platform with Xfce desktop, Linux Kernel 5.9.1-rt20, and i386 platform with (Xfce plus) Openbox window manager, Kernel 5.9.1-rt19. Unlike the MX approach to provide trusted third-party repositories for software packages, AVL-MXE provides carefully selected repositories that are specifically created for users of Debian GNU/Linux. # **** SUSE/OpenSUSE **** # ** Presenting_Cockpit_Wicked_|_YaST ** If you are into systems management, you most likely have heard about Cockpit at some point. In a nutshell, it offers a good looking web-based interface to perform system tasks like inspecting the logs, applying system updates, configuring the network, managing services, and so on. If you want to give it a try, you can install Cockpit in openSUSE Tumbleweed just by typing zypper in cockpit. [...] Cockpit already features a nice module to configure the network so you might be wondering why not extending the original instead of creating a new one. The module shipped with Cockpit is specific to NetworkManager and adapting it to a different backend can be hard. In our case, we are trying to build something that could be adapted in the future to support more backends, but we are not sure how realistic this idea is. # **** IBM/Red Hat/Fedora **** # ** Got_something_to_say?_How_to_get_started_writing ** Well, I suppose after all this talk of how to find your story and then write your story, I should make a post about how to do just that. I’ve broken it down into three sections: how to find your story, how to write your story, and how to share it and get it published. During the All Things Open virtual event this year, I was invited to share my tips, and now you can watch that. It’s about 20 minutes with some questions and commentary at the end. [...] First, decide whether you want to self- publish, on your own blog or a place like Medium, or if you want to get your article published on a publication like Opensource.com or Linux Today. If you’re reaching out to a publication, try to find information about how they would like you to submit your article. Some have webforms, some want you to simply send them an email. Some, like us, have both. Let them know who you are, what you wrote about, and perhaps why you wrote about it. For example: My name is Jen Wike Huger. I’m a community manager and editor for Opensource.com, so my expertise is writing and working with authors. My article is about how to find your story, writing, and getting published. # ** Crunchy_Data_PostgreSQL_on_Red_Hat_OpenShift Container_Storage ** Deploying critical PostgreSQL applications in the cloud requires both consistent performance and resilience to protect essential data for business continuity. Together, technologies from Crunchy Data and Red Hat can help enable organizations to deliver data resilience for critical PostgreSQL applications. Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage plays an increasingly important role, letting organizations deploy reliable, scalable, and highly available persistent storage for their most important PostgreSQL applications. This single software-defined storage solution can be launched on premise, in the public cloud, or in hybrid cloud deployments—increasing agility and resilience even as it simplifies operations. # ** Red_Hat_Satellite_6.8.1_has_been_released ** We are pleased to announce that Red Hat Satellite 6.8.1 is generally available as of November 23, 2020. Red Hat Satellite is part of the Red Hat Smart Management subscription that makes it easier for enterprises to manage patching, provisioning, and subscription management of Red Hat Enterprise Linux infrastructure. # **** Canonical/Ubuntu Family **** # ** Canonical_Allies_With_Docker_Inc._on_Secure Containers ** Docker Inc. CEO Scott Johnston says this alliance with Canonical extends a verified publisher initiative that already spans 200 organizations. There are now 160 Docker Official Images available via Docker Hub, which is accessed by more than 11 million active developers, according to the company. On average, Johnston notes there are more than 13+ billion pulls per month from 7.9 million application repositories that reside within the Docker Hub container registry. Docker Hub container registry is at the core of the ongoing effort to recast Docker Inc. as a provider of tools that optimize workflows for developers building container applications. Currently it is the largest public container registry employed; however, there are now several alternatives to Docker Hub that cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) are positioning as platforms that have no rate limitations. Those alternatives, however, will only make it more complicated for developers to employ container images across multiple platforms, notes Johnston. o **** Devices/Embedded **** # ** Raspberry_Pi’s_V3DV_Vulkan_Driver_Now_Supports_Wayland ** Just yesterday Raspberry Pi fans were celebrating that the V3DV driver is now officially Vulkan 1.0 conformant for supporting this modern high performance graphics/compute API atop the Raspberry Pi 4 and newer. Today another milestone was reached with V3DV. The V3DV Vulkan driver for supporting the Broadcom VideoCore graphics hardware on the Raspberry Pi 4 and newer now works natively on Wayland too. # ** Raspberry_Pi_CM3+_gets_its_own_keyboard_computer ** Clockwork is pre-selling an $219 to $249, open-spec “DevTerm” retro AiO PC kit with a Raspberry Pi CM3+, a keyboard with gamepad, a 6.8-inch IPS screen, a thermal printer, and a battery holder. Future options will include RK3399 and Allwinner H6 models. Clockwork’s open source DevTerm Kit runs Linux on a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+ Lite (CM3+ Lite) housed inside a keyboard chassis. Unlike the Raspberry Pi 4-like, keyboard form-factor Raspberry Pi 400, the fully hackable, retro-game oriented DevTerm boasts an integrated display and even a thermal printer. # ** DevTerm_with_ClockworkPi_v3.14:_a_modular,_portable computer ** After the launch of ClockworkPi GameShell in Q4 2018, now ClockworkPi has come with yet another exciting product. DevTerm is a portable computer that comes with a 6.8-inch IPS screen, a keyboard with 67 keys, and a battery module, all connected to ClockworkPi v3.14 carrier board and a choice of core modules. It will also come with an optional built-in thermal printer. [...] It has integrated 5GHz WIFI (802.11ac) and Bluetooth 5.0 which makes it suitable for wireless communication applications as well. A high-gain antenna (HGA) increases the signal strength and provides a more precise way of targeting radio signals. This is very essential for long-range wireless networks. Other specifications include a Micro-HDMI interface, 3.5 headphone jack with a microphone input. As mentioned above, you have the option to choose a suitable core. Some of them include the A-04 series Arm 64-bit quad-core Cortex-A53 (likely Allwinner H6) coupled with 1/2 GB LPDDR3, A-06 series Arm 64- bit dual-core Cortex-A72 + quad-core Cortex-A53 (Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor) plus 2/4GB LPDDR3. To break it down, the A-04 series and RPI- CM3 are suitable for general purpose applications including writing, coding, e-mails, making indie- games, running most video game emulators, etc. While the A-06 series will provide you with a better solution for high performance, such as for AI/algorithm development and rapid prototyping of embedded devices. # ** Armbian_Linux_for_ARM_Devices_Switches_to_Linux_Kernel 5.9,_Supports_Ubuntu_20.10 ** Dubbed Tamandua, the November 2020 release of Armbian Linux is here and it comes about three months after the previous version, Armbian 20.08. The biggest news is the fact that most supported kernels (except for sunxi and mvebu) have been updated to the latest and greatest Linux 5.9 kernel series. On top of that, this new major release updates the U-Boot open-source boot loader for embedded devices to version 2020.10, which requires users to manually update it on their installations using the armbian-config tool. # ** Allwinner_H6_SBC_offers_dual_Ethernet,_four_display outputs,_M.2_expansion ** While the processor was introduced in 2017, there are only a few Allwinner H6 SBC’s on the market with, for instance, Orange Pi 3 or Pine H64 boards, and it never became as popular as solutions based Allwinner H3 processor. But Boardcon has now launched its own Allwinner H6 SBC targeting professionals with Boardcon EMH6 board combining a carrier board and a computer-on- module that can be integrated into products. # ** Automotive_Grade_Linux_Releases_UCB_10_Software_Platform with_Yocto_Long_Term_Support ** Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), an open source project developing a shared software platform for in-vehicle technology, today announced the latest code release of the AGL platform, UCB 10, also known under the codename “Jumping Jellyfish.” Developed through a joint effort by dozens of member companies, the AGL Unified Code Base (UCB) is an open source software platform that can serve as the de facto industry standard for infotainment, telematics and instrument cluster applications. # **** Open Hardware/Modding **** # ** Arduino_Blog_»_Control_a_wheelchair_using_an_EEG headset_and_Arduino ** In an effort to help provide paralyzed patients with an easier way to operate their wheelchairs, these makers have developed a system that uses an OpenBCI brainwave cap to collect electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) signals, literally from a user’s head. Data is then sent to a PC running OpenBCI software and passed along to an Arduino Uno via Bluetooth for control. # ** Arduino_Blog_»_A_military-looking_cyberdeck_with_a built-in_Geiger_counter ** Looking inside the rugged case reveals a Raspberry Pi 3 that provides computing power along with an Arduino Leonardo for a custom joystick input device. # ** Arduino_Blog_»_These_cornhole_boards_react_to_your bean_bag_tosses ** The lawn game of cornhole has seen a surge in popularity over the last couple of decades. But if you’ve ever thought about raising its cool factor, then YouTuber Hardware Unknown has just what you’ve been waiting for: light and audio effects that react to your throws. Hardware Unknown’s foldable boards each feature an Arduino Nano for control. A vibration sensor is used to tell when a bean bag hits the board, and an IR break-beam setup senses when one goes into the hole. # **** Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications **** # ** PUBG_Mobile_India_Now_Registered_in_India,_Initially to_be_Available_For_Android_Users_Only ** # ** Google_is_working_to_speed_up_installing_important apps_on_a_new_Android_phone ** # ** Google_TV_Android_app_is_mysteriously_blocking Netflix ** # ** Some_very_lucky_Android_TV_owners_can_now_stream YouTube_in_8K ** # ** [Update:_November_2020]_The_best_Android_phones_you can_buy_today ** # ** Bogus_Modpacks_for_Minecraft_Infect_1_Million Android_Devices_With_Adware ** # ** The_Best_Wireless_Chargers_for_Your_Android_or iPhone ** # ** Best_Android_phones_at_Good2Go_Mobile_(November 2020) ** # ** iPhone_Ringtone_MP3_Download_for_Android:_How_To Download_iPhone_Ringtone_On_Your_Android_Smartphone ** # ** Allwinner_H6_SBC_offers_dual_Ethernet,_four_display outputs,_M.2_expansion ** # ** Video:_Megi’s_multi-boot_image_for_the_PinePhone_ (with_17_Linux_distros) ** The PinePhone is designed to make distro hopping easy. Whether you order a model that comes with Ubuntu Touch, postmarketOS, Manjaro, or KDE Neon pre-installed, the phone is designed to boot first from any properly prepared microSD card. That means you can install an alternate OS on a card, insert it, and turn on the phone to try a different operating system. If you like it, you can use JumpDrive to install it to the phone’s built-in eMMC storage, which should bring at least a modest boost in speed. Just want to try out a bunch of different operating systems without committing to one or constantly flashing microSD cards? That’s where Megi’s multi-distro demo image comes in. The developer offers a single image with a bunch of different operating systems pre- installed. Megi released a new version of November 23, 2020 and it has 17 different operating systems crammed into a 6GB disk image. # ** Android_may_soon_get_new_emojis_without_waiting_for an_OS_update ** # ** You_may_soon_be_able_to_get_new_emojis_on_Android without_waiting_for_system_updates ** # ** Android_might_separate_emoji_from_OS_updates_so_you can_get_new_ones_faster ** # ** Android_may_soon_be_able_to_get_new_emojis_faster ** # ** Google_May_Separate_Emoji_Updates_From_Major_Android Releases ** # ** Android_Users_May_Not_Have_To_Wait_For_OS_Updates For_New_Emojis ** # ** Google_RCS_globally_announced_–_an_Android_version of_iMessage ** # ** Top_3_Gallery_Apps_With_Option_to_Hide_Photos_for Android ** # ** You_can_play_PS5_games_on_iPhone,_Android_or_PC_– how_to_use_Remote_Play ** # ** How_much_it_cost_to_develop_on-demand_Android_app development? ** o **** Free, Libre, and Open Source Software **** # ** Technology_as_it_Should_Be ** In Imagine a world without apps Shira Ovide asks “a wild question: What if we played games, shopped, watched Netflix and read news on our smartphones — without using apps? Our smartphones, like our computers, would instead mostly be gateways to go online through a web browser.” This question can be extrapolated into a larger question: “What do we want from our technology?” The power of control by Big-Tech in the app store is but a small example of exploitation of our digital lives. If you don’t control the software, the companies who wrote that software control you. You become a digital prisoner. [...] The ability to encrypt your personal data with your own keys on your own device ensures that you fully control your digital life. With this as the starting point, you can then choose (aka opt-in) to share what you want with the people you want. This right is rooted in personal property rights, and is one of the most egregious abuses by Big Tech and those that have influence over them. If manufacturers, operating system developers, and software developers took a Hippocratic-like oath, one area society would agree on is the right that your personal data is your personal property and something you must retain control over and consent to share before it leaves your possession. Without regulatory assistance to protect personal data, society is left to fend for itself against the pressure from a multi-trillion dollar industry to exploit that personal data. There is no way to resist that pressure without the market creating convenient alternatives that honor that right while completely avoiding Big Tech. Purism creates products that are increasing in convenience daily, that fully protect you, and these products are the market answer to the worst abuses of Big Tech companies. # **** Web Browsers **** # **** Mozilla **** # ** The_Talospace_Project:_Firefox_83_on_POWER ** LTO-PGO is still working great in Firefox 83, which expands in-browser PDF support, adds additional features to Picture-in-Picture (which is still one of my favourite tools in Firefox) and some miscellany developer changes. The exact same process, configs and patches to build a fully link-time and profile-guided optimized build work that was used in Firefox 82. # **** CMS **** # ** The_Best_21_Open-source_Headless_CMS_for_2020 ** A headless CMS (content management system) is a backend system which works the content available through API (RESTful API or GraphQL). It’s built to give the developers the possibilities to create what they want. The API-driven headless approach is trending right now especially for enterprise users and developers. Headless CMS programs can be used as a backend for mobile apps, static generated websites with frameworks like Next, Nuxt, Gridsome and Hugo which also supports server- side rendering. They can be also used to manage IoT (Internet of Things) applications. # ** 17_Best_Open-source_Self-hosted_Commenting_Systems ** Unlike the majority of content management systems (CMSs) which have built-in embedded comments functionalities (like WordPress), many systems don’t have comments by default, especially the newly trending static generators. As example this blog is powered by Ghost which is an open-source blogging system that comes with many functions and options except comments, also it does not have a plugin system to extend it with comments plugin. So, we are forced like many other users to find external options which was Disqus. # **** FSFE **** # ** Software_Freedom_in_Europe_2020 ** 2020 is a year to remember. While many may remember the pandemic, there have nevertheless been many positive changes in terms of Free Software in recent months. In fact, a lot has changed. You can now read in one document how busy our movement was in our annual report Software Freedom in Europe 2020. The EU and the WHO followed our arguments that publicly funded Corona-related contact tracing apps should be published only under a Free Software license. Several cities, including Munich, promised to rely more on Free Software in the future. We convinced publicly funded hackathons to publish their results as Free Software, and the largest conservative party in Europe, the German CDU, resolved to join the FSFE in demanding that software developed with public money should be publicly available as Free Software. # **** FSF **** # ** Help_in_the_fight_against_DMCA_anti-circumvention rules_by_December_7th ** The United States Copyright Office is now accepting comments in support of exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) anti-circumvention provisions, and we need your help by December 7th to ensure that every new exemption is granted. The DMCA has been making headlines recently for all the wrong reasons. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) recently was able to temporarily have youtube-dl removed from GitHub, via a poorly thought out take down notice. GitHub has now restored youtube-dl, but not before forcing some changes to the project. While the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA can have some use, it’s clearly an abuse for the RIAA to interfere with such a project — particularly given that part of their notice was a claim about some sort of violation of YouTube’s rights, not the RIAA’s, and was related to a different section of the DMCA, the section 1201 anti-circumvention provisions. Those provisions create legal penalties for avoiding Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), and even harsher penalties for sharing the tools to do so. This last point — the separate penalties for sharing tools used to remove restrictions — is especially important. Recently, Google demanded GitHub take down tools used to work around its Widevine DRM. This just underscores that users will be unable to take advantage of even approved exemptions, unless they are able to write their own tools from scratch to get the DRM out of their way. It’s like saying everyone is free to cook what they want in their own kitchen, but buying and selling stoves is illegal. # ** Support_UserFreedom_by_purchasing_gifts_from_the_GNU Press_Shop ** To celebrate this year’s thirty-fifth anniversary of the FSF, we designed and issued an extremely cool undersea-themed 35th Anniversary T-shirt. The initial run sold out faster than a weekend scuba diving trip, but we’ve reprinted them in a new color scheme worthy of Neptune himself — lots of these are in stock and ready to send to you. But that’s not all! So excited are we on the occasion of FSF’s coral anniversary that we also made new socks. Warm your toes with the brand new FSF thirty-fifth anniversary socks — crew-length socks whose coral, black, and blue color scheme will match your FSF 35th Anniversary Poster. Orders for these limited edition socks will be accepted on a “pre- order” basis until December 9th — we’ll collect customer orders, then print the socks, which I’ll then ship to you. Be sure to order socks within the above time frame if you want them, because we won’t have a lot of surplus after the orders are filled. [...] Finally, a note about shipping. The current pandemic places a lot of obstacles to buying and selling merchandise at FSF, so your order may be shipped less punctually than before — but it absolutely will be shipped. This time of year, many customers place orders hoping to have them in hand by December 25. If this is you, and you are in the United States, please place your order before December 4, in order to provide us with the necessary lead time to make sure that your gifts are shipped on time. In any circumstance, it’s advisable to place any order as soon as you can; I will endeavor to ship it as promptly as circumstances permit. As always, don’t hesitate to email sales@fsf.org with any questions or concerns about shipping, inventory, payment, suggestions for future items for sale, or anything else — this email address is the first thing I check every work day, especially at this time of year. # **** Programming/Development **** # ** Qt_6.0_RC1_Takes_Flight_–_Qt_6.0_Should_Be_Here_By Mid-December_–_Phoronix ** The Qt Company has just announced Qt 6.0 Release Candidate 1 as what should be the second to the last test build ahead of the big Qt 6.0 toolkit release next month. Qt 6.0 Release Candidate 1 has the latest batch of bug/regression fixes to the Qt6 code-base. The very basic Qt 6.0 RC1 release announcement can be read on the Qt development list. # ** Porting_from_Qt_5_to_Qt_6_using_Qt5Compat_library ** Porting from Qt 5 to Qt 6 has been intentionally kept easy. There has been a conscious effort throughout the development of Qt 6 to maintain as much source compatibility with Qt 5 as possible. Still, some effort is involved in porting. This short post summarizes some of the steps required when porting to Qt 6. In Qt 5 some of the classes already had existing replacements, and some classes got successors during the Qt 6 development phase. Therefore it might make sense to be able to compile your code with both the old and new Qt version. This can ensure that the amount of work where your code does not compile with either version is minimized, allowing your application or library to continue to work with Qt 5 and Qt 6. Another advantage could be that existing unit tests continue to work for most of the duration of porting, and regressions resulting from porting your code are easily distinguished from bugs introduced in Qt 6. # ** PHP_8.0_Ready_To_Ship_With_Many_New_Features,_Even Better_Performance_–_Phoronix ** PHP 8.0 is scheduled for release tomorrow on the US Thanksgiving day. PHP 8.0 brings with it many new language features on top of the opt-in JIT compiler support. Here is a look at some of the PHP 8.0 changes along with a quick look at the near final performance of PHP 8.0 on an AMD EPYC Linux server. PHP 8.0 is a very worthy successor to last year’s PHP 7.4. Besides the JIT compiler there is a ton of work incorporated into this big version bump. Among the PHP 8.0 highlights are: - PHP8 introduces the much anticipated Just In Time (JIT) compiler for further enhancing the speed of PHP scripts. More details on PHP’s JIT compiler via this Wiki page. # ** Going_from_Android_LinearLayout_to_CSS_flexbox ** Are you an Android developer looking to learn web development? I find it easier to learn a new technology stack by comparing it to a stack I’m already familiar with. Android developers can layout views using the simple yet flexible LinearLayout class. The web platform has similar tools to layout elements using CSS, and some concepts are shared. Here’s some tips to learn web development using your Android knowledge. # ** Software_Diagrams_Aren’t_Always_Correct_and_That’s OK ** Concretely, software is just bits in electronic storage that control and/or are manipulated by processors. Abstractions are the building blocks that enable humans to design and build complex software systems out of bits. Abstractions are products of out minds—they allow us to assign meaning to clusters (some large, some small) of bits. They allow us to build software systems without thinking about billions of bits or how processors work. We manifest some useful and generally simple abstractions (instructions, statements, functions, classes, modules, etc.) as “code” using other abstractions we call “languages.” Languages give us a common vocabulary for us to communicate about those abstract building blocks and to produce the corresponding bits. There are many useful tools that can and should be created to help us understand the code-level operation of a system. But most systems we build today are too complex to be fully understood at the level of code. In designing them we must use higher-level abstractions to conceptualize, compose, and organize code. Abstract machines, frameworks, patterns, roles, stereotypes, heuristics, constraints, etc. are examples of such higher-level abstractions. The languages we commonly use provide few, if any, mechanisms for directly identifying such higher-level abstractions. These abstractions may manifest as naming or other coding conventions but recognizing them as such depends upon a pre-existing shared understanding between the writer and readers of the code. # **** Perl/Raku **** # ** Perl_Weekly_Challenge_88:_Array_of_Products and_Spiral_Matrices ** These are some answers to the Week 88 of the Perl Weekly Challenge organized by Mohammad S. Anwar. # ** The_new_rules_for_Perl_governance ** The process of adopting a new governance model for the Perl project appears to be reaching an end; the new model is designed to look a lot like the one adopted by the Python project # **** Python **** # ** How_to_Convert_Integer_into_String_in_Python_| Linuxize ** Python has several built-in data types. Sometimes, when writing Python code, you might need to convert one data type to another. For example, concatenate a string and integer, first, you’ll need to convert the integer into a string. # ** How_To_Install_PyCharm_on_Debian_10 ** In this tutorial, we will show you how to install PyCharm on Debian 10. For those of you who didn’t know, PyCharm is an intelligent and fully-featured IDE for Python developed by JetBrains. It also provides support for Javascript, Typescript, and CSS, etc. You can also extend PyCharm features by using plugins. By using PyCharm plugins you can also get support for frameworks like Django, Flask. We can also use PyCharm for other programming languages like HTML, SQL, Javascript, CSS, and more. This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step by step installation of PyCharm on a Debian 10 (Buster). # **** Rust **** # ** This_Week_in_Rust_366 ** * **** Leftovers **** o **** Integrity/Availability **** # **** Proprietary **** # **** Security **** # ** Isovalent_Launches_Linux_Network_Enterprise Product,_Closes_$29M_Round_|_Data_Center Knowledge ** The startup’s networking platform Cilium runs inside Linux, instead of running on top of the OS. # ** ZDNet_and_Linux_often_provide_a_good_chance for_a_laugh ** The site’s security writer, Catalin Cimpanu, has form [1, 2, 3] in screwing up when he writes about Linux. And ZDNet has a person on staff, Stephen J. Vaughan-Nicholls, who knows the Linux very well. So why exactly the kind of dross that was published on 24 November was ever allowed to pass the editor’s knife is puzzling. To details. In this case, Cimpanu was writing about a botnet known as Stantinko, a new version of which has apparently been detected by the Israeli security firm Intezer and detailed in a blog post which was shared with Cimpanu before being made available to world+dog. Before I go any further, let me say that i have reported on Intezer at least thrice, and they are sound when it comes to their research. There is no hyperbole and when they say something, they have enough evidence to do so. # ** Security_updates_for_Wednesday ** Security updates have been issued by Debian (spip and webkit2gtk), Fedora (kernel and libexif), openSUSE (chromium and rclone), Slackware (mutt), SUSE (kernel, mariadb, and slurm), and Ubuntu (igraph). # ** Top_Tips_to_Protect_Your_Linux_System ** Linux-based operating systems have a reputation for their high-security level. That’s one of the reasons why the market share for Linux has been growing. The most commonly used operating systems such as Windows are often affected by targeted attacks in the form of ransomware infections, spyware, as well as worms, and malware. As a result, many personal, as well as enterprise users, are turning to Linux- based operating systems such as the Ubuntu-based Linux OS for security purposes. While Linux based systems are not targeted as frequently as other popular operating systems, they are not completely foolproof. There are plenty of risks and vulnerabilities for all types of Linux devices which put your privacy as well as your identity at risk. # ** Building_a_healthy_relationship_between security_and_sysadmins_|_Enable_Sysadmin ** Learn how to bridge the gap between operations/development and security. o **** Defence/Aggression **** # ** India_takes_aim_at_Alibaba_with_new_round_of_Chinese_app bans ** India has banned another 43 apps from operating in its territory. As was the case with previous bans, India’s Ministry of Electronics & IT (MEITY) said the prohibited apps are “engaging in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.” Just how the apps do that was not explained in the announcement of the new ban. The new list includes Alibaba’s apps for both buyers and sellers, plus an app named Alipay Cashier that facilitates AliPay payments. Whether India worries that Alibaba is misusing locals’ data, represents a threat to local payment schemes, or has been censured for otherwise behaving badly is not known. What is certain is that India and China have recently skirmished on a disputed border and previous app bans were interpreted as a de facto reprisals. India is also running a self-sufficiency drive that it hopes will increase local production to the point at which buyers beyond its shores consider it a viable rival to China as an offshore manufacturing destination. o **** AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics **** # ** Trump_lawyer_Rudy_Giuliani_heads_to_Gettysburg_as_advisor has_Covid ** Boris Epshteyn’s diagnosis came after he attended a news conference led by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. o **** Civil Rights/Policing **** # ** Women_state_in_India_and_proposal_for_corporates_in_Indian banking_–_Experiences_in_the_community ** But all hope is not lost. There have been a couple of good judgements, one from the CIC (Chief Information Commissioner) wherein in specific cases a wife can know salary details of her husband, especially if there is some kind of maintenance due from the husband. There was so much of hue and cry against this order that it was taken down from the livelaw RTI corner. Luckily, I had downloaded it, hence could upload and share it. Another one was a case/suit about a legally matured women who had decided to marry without parental consent. In this case, the Delhi High Court had taken women’s side and stated she can marry whom she wants. Interestingly, about a week back Uttar Pradesh (most notorious about crime against women) had made laws called ‘Love Jihad‘ and 2 -3 states have followed them. The idea being to create an atmosphere of hate against Muslims. This is when in a separate suit/case against Sudharshan TV (a far- right leaning channel promoting hate against Muslims) , the Government of India itself put an affidavit stating that Tablighis (a sect of Muslims who came from Malaysia to India for religious discourse and assembly) were not responsible for dissemination of the virus and some media has correctly portrayed the same. Of course, those who are on the side of the Govt. on this topic think a ‘traitor’ has written. They also thought that the Govt. had taken a wrong approach but couldn’t tell of a better approach to the matter. There are too many matters in the Supreme Court of women asking for justice to tell all here but two instances share how the SC has been buckling under the stress of late, one is a webinar which was chaired by Justice Subramaniam where he shared how the executive is using judicial appointments to do what it wants. The gulf between the executive and the SC has been since Indira Gandhi days, especially the judicial orders which declared that the Emergency is valid by large, it has fallen much more recently and the executive has been muscling in which have resulted in more regressive decisions than progressive. This observation is also in tune with another study which came to the same result although using data. The raw data from the study could give so much more than what has been shared. For e.g. as an idea for the study, of the ones cited, how many have been in civil law, personal law, criminal or constitutional law. This would give a better understanding of things. Also what is shocking is none of our court orders have been cited in the west in the recent past, when there used to be a time when the west used to take guidance from Indian jurisprudence sometimes and cite the orders to reach similar conclusion or if not conclusion at least be used as a precedent. I guess those days are over. o **** Monopolies **** # **** Patents **** # ** CNIPA-EPO_Pilot_For_ISA_Files_–_Intellectual Property_–_China ** China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and European Patent Office (EPO) launched a two–year pilot on December 1, 2020 aiming to give nationals or residents of the P.R. China the option of selecting the EPO as their International Searching Authority (ISA) and as their International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) when filing international patent applications in English under the PCT. The pilot is of particular relevance to Chinese applicants who intend to enter the European phase in the following three aspects: # ** EU_Pledges_To_Up_The_Stakes_In_Protecting_IP_Abroad ** The EU has announced plans to beef up its intellectual property protections, amid concerns that foreign nations are unreasonably appropriating European IP. In its new Action Plan on Intellectual Property, the European Commission says it aims to promote a global level playing field, improving IP protection and awareness, particularly amongst SMEs, facilitating the sharing of IP and improving the enforcement of IP rights. “Europe is home to some of the world’s leading innovations, but companies are still not fully able to protect their inventions and capitalise on their intellectual property,” says commissioner for the internal market Thierry Breton. # ** Action_Plan_on_Intellectual_Property_–_Questions_and Answers ** Why is intellectual property important for the EU economy and its recovery? Intangible assets such as inventions, cultural creations, brands, software, know- how and data are the cornerstone of today’s economy. Over the last two decades, the volume of annual investments in such ‘intellectual property products’ increased by 87% in the EU, while the volume of tangible investments increased by only 30%. Intellectual property (IP) rights are titles for patents, trade-marks, designs, copyright, geographical indications, plant variety rights as well as trade secrets which help companies and creators protect and valorise their intangible assets. # ** Second_medical_use_claims_in_pharmaceutical_patents –_sharp_sword_or_toothless_tiger? ** Discovering a previously unknown indication for a known drug is a common pattern in pharmaceutical research and development. Perhaps the most widely known example for the repurposing of a known drug is acetylsalicylic acid, also known as aspirin. Originally developed by Bayer in 1897 as a pain and fever medication, long-term low dosing of aspirin was later discovered to be an effective cardiovascular medication that can lower the chances of a heart attack or certain kinds of stroke. There are many other examples of successfully repurposed drugs. Pregabalin was originally developed to treat epileptic seizures and it was later discovered to be effective in treating neuropathic pain and generalised anxiety disorder. Similarly, sildenafil was originally developed to treat cardiovascular diseases and only later discovered to be effective in treating erectile dysfunction, eventually leading to Pfizer’s blockbuster drug Viagra. # ** European_Commission_unveils_new_IP_Action_Plan [Ed: UPC is dead, not "currently on hold pending German ratification of the UPC agreement." The delusionists are still pushing lies.] ** The EC supports a rapid roll out of the unitary patent system, to create a one-stop- shop for patent protection and enforcement across the EU (2021), currently on hold pending German ratification of the UPC agreement. [...] Pooling Following the patent pledges and pooling related to the COVID 19 therapeutics and vaccines, the Commission states to be “looking into ways to incentivise the rapid pooling of critical IP in times of crisis, for instance through a novel licensing system making critical IP available(…)”, including via compulsory licences as last resort. SEPs Recognising that SEP disputes currently seen in the automotive sector might extend to many other sectors, the Commission wishes to reduce frictions between SEP owners and implementers via industry-led initiatives, but most importantly, through reforms to improve the rules governing essentiality declarations, licensing and enforcement of SEPs, including a third-party essentiality check independent system. ╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ════════════════════════════════════════╕ ****** 11.26.20 ****** ***** Links_26/11/2020:_PHP_8.0,_Proxmox_VE_6.3,_UNIGINE_2.13 ***** Posted in News_Roundup at 3:45 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz [GNOME bluefish] **** Contents **** * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * **** GNU/Linux **** o **** Desktop/Laptop **** # ** Top_5_Linux_PC_Desktops_You_Can_Buy_in_2020 ** The year is 2020, and Linux-based operating systems have never been more popular. All thanks to their increased security and privacy, smooth updates, and open-source nature, everyone wants to at least give a shot to its multitude of distributions. Now we have already covered some of the best Linux-based laptops that you can find in the market as of now. With that being said, we get it that they are not everyone’s cup of tea, so Linux PC desktops are also something that you should be taking a look at as well. o **** Audiocasts/Shows **** # ** Does_Pulse_Audio_Deserve_The_Hate_It_Gets?_–_YouTube ** In today’s video we’re going to talk about Pulse Audio specifically how Pulse Audio gets a lot of hate for being a terrible linux sound system and whether a lot of this hate is actually very justified. # ** Ubuntu_Podcast_S13E36_–_Singing_at_the_dinner_table ** This week we have been playing DRAG. We discuss what we’ve been doing during lock down, bring you an extension of love, go over all your wonderful feedback and take a trip to ThinkPad corner. It’s Season 13 Episode 36 of the Ubuntu Podcast! Alan Pope, Mark Johnson and Martin Wimpress are connected and speaking to your brain. # ** BSD_Now_378:_Networknomicon ** Interview with Michael W. Lucas: SNMP and TLS book, cashflow for creators, book sale and more. o **** Kernel Space **** # ** Linux_Inventor_Linus_Torvalds_Wants_M1_Mac_For_Linux [Ed: Misleading headline, he does not want it, he says Linux isn't supported (when asked about it)] ** Apple caused a sensation with the introduction of its first Macs based on its own ARM SoC, as they seem to bring a rather unexpected performance boost. Linux inventor Linus Torvalds is accordingly enthusiastic and now wants a MacBook with Apple M1. # ** Tuxera_makes_SMB_compression_available_for_Linux [Ed: More Microsoft assimilation] ** Tuxera, a Finnish software firm, has introduced Microsoft SMB file compression to Linux. “We can open up entirely new use cases for enterprise customers – especially for hosted storage and software-defined storage vendors,” Heinrich von Keler, director of enterprise solutions, said. Compressing SMB files for network transfer saves transit time and bandwidth. Tuxera has added SMB compression to its Fusion File Share by Tuxera software. The implementation is based on Microsoft’s documentation, and the company said compatibility is seamless between Windows, Mac, and Linux environments. o **** Applications **** # ** The_7_Best_Wireless_File_Transfer_Apps_on_Linux ** Do you have some files that need moving between your Linux devices, or maybe between a Linux device and another platform, but you don’t have or don’t want a wired connection? As a Linux user, you have plenty of options. We’re going to highlight several apps, across several different file transfer protocols, that will let you connect to different platforms and painlessly transfer your files. # ** Blender_2.91_Released_with_Better_Cloth_Sculpting, Improved_Animation_Tools ** Blender 2.91 was released on Wednesday as the fourth major release in 2020. It features the user experience improvements, powerful new booleans, better cloth sculpting with support for collisions, volume objects modifiers, improved animation tools and more. o **** Instructionals/Technical **** # ** Add,_Delete_And_Grant_Sudo_Privileges_To_Users_In_CentOS_– OSTechNix ** A “sudo” user can run an administrative task or command which a normal user is not allowed to. This guide explains how to add, delete and grant sudo privileges to users in CentOS and other RHEL-based systems. The steps given below are tested in CentOS 8 minimal edition, however it should work on other RPM-based systems as well. # ** How_To_Install_Moodle_on_CentOS_8_–_idroot ** In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Moodle on CentOS 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Moodle is an Open Source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It has become very popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for their students. Moodle brings features to include assignment submission, online quizzes, wiki, grading, instant messages, discussion boards, and others. But since it’s modular software, it can be extended via plugins to add extra functionality. This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step by step installation of Moodle course management system (CMS) on CentOS 8. # ** Solve_error:_cannot_communicate_with_server_dial_unix_/ run/snapd.socket_–_Linux_Shout ** Then this is because, after installation, the Daemon of SNAP is have not started yet and needs to start and enable manually by the user. # ** Running_Multiple_MariaDB_Instances_on_Ubuntu_20.04_LTS_– Linux_Hint ** At times you may need to run multiple instances of the MariaDB database server software on the same computer/server. MariaDB has an official tool mysqld_multi to run multiple instances of the MariaDB database server software on the same computer/server. In this article, I am going to show you how to run multiple MariaDB database server instances on the same computer/server running the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS operating system. So, let’s get started. # ** Simple_guide_to_install_MongoDB_on_Ubuntu_–_LinuxTechLab ** MongoDB is an open-source general-purpose, document-based NoSQL database server which uses JSON documents. It is created keeping the current requirements of the cloud era & application developers in mind. It boasts many features, some of which are, Schemaless Provides replication Easy to scale-out index on any attribute auto-sharding Deep/rich query abilities, etc # ** The_Calamares_Series_–_everything_you_need_to_know_about Calamares ** Like always some of the videos contain more information than the title suggests # ** Everything_you_need_to_know_about_pacman ** # ** Orchestrate_event-driven,_distributed_services_with Serverless_Workflow_and_Kubernetes_–_Red_Hat_Developer ** Serverless workflows have gained renewed interest and usefulness with the rise of serverless architectures. Once seen as centralized and monolithic, they now play a key role in cloud-based event and service orchestration. Until recently, there was no vendor-neutral way to describe service orchestration, so developers were dependent on vendors and vendor implementations. We realized that we needed a common, standards-based language for describing serverless workflows. In this article, we introduce the Serverless Workflow specification, now in its 0.5 version release. Our goal with this project is to empower anyone to develop serverless workflow libraries, tooling, and infrastructure for modeling workflows across different cloud platforms. # ** How_to_Install_ElkArte_Forum_with_Apache_and_Let’s_Encrypt SSL_on_CentOS_8 ** ElkArte is a free and open-source forum software based on Simple Machine Forum. In this tutorial, we will show you howto install ElkArte with Let’s Encrypt SSL on CentOS 8. # ** How_to_Fix_‘Repository_does_not_have_a_release_file’_Error in_Ubuntu ** When installing software on Ubuntu, sometimes you may be required to add third-party PPAs. Adding PPAs enables you to access software packages that have not been included in official Ubuntu repositories. Sometimes, when updating your system or installing software packages, you may run into an error indicating that the added PPA does not have a release file. This error is quite frustrating as it limits your ability to manage software packages in an efficient manner. In this guide, we will guide you on how you can resolve this issue and go back to using your system without an issue. # ** How_To_Install_Dotnet_Core_on_Ubuntu_20.04_LTS_–_idroot [Ed: If for some reason you wish to help Microsoft] ** In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Dotnet Core on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, The .NET Core is a free and open- source software framework and open-source software framework. It is developed by Microsoft. It is developed by Microsoft. .NET Core is a very powerful framework. It is usually used to develop web applications. # ** How_to_install_steam_on_ArcoLinux_|_Arcolinux.com ** The motto of ArcoLinux is Learn, have fun and enjoy. This is the have fun part for sure. We install steam via the terminal. The desktop you install steam on does not matter. # ** How_to_manage_Linux_permissions_for_users,_groups,_and others_|_Enable_Sysadmin ** How to manage permissions and ownership for users, groups, and all others to resources such as directories and files. # ** How_to_set_up_DaVinci_Resolve_for_High_Resolution_displays in_Linux_–_Real_Linux_User ** The non linear video editor DaVinci Resolve on Linux is an incredible free tool, but does not give correct out of the box scaling for high resolution displays, so it will show an UI with very small icons and characters. Even on my 4K 32 inch monitor DaVinci Resolve is at first start up almost unusable, so if you have for example a smaller 27 inch monitor with the same 4K or higher resolution, the UI components are terribly small. In this short article I will show how you can change the scaling of DaVinci Resolve. So join me to see how to set up DaVinci Resolve for High Resolution displays in Linux. o **** Games **** # ** Bit_–_Animation_Editor_is_now_supported_on_Linux_and_it looks_seriously_slick_|_GamingOnLinux ** Bit – Animation Editor is a very interesting tool to help people compose and design animated pixel art. Created by the two-person Swedish indie game studio Morgondag, the team behind the 2015 chilled- out space odyssey RymdResa and the 2017 clicking- puzzler imprint-X. Morgondag try to set it apart from other tools, mentioning clearly it’s “not a drawing tool”. You’re not drawing pixel-by-pixel or anything like that. Instead, you bundle together all sorts of included assets to create something new and then export it ready for game engines for games, gifs and more. The example they gave when announcing Linux support to us on Twitter was somewhat amusing too… # ** Chaotic_track-building_co-op_game_Unrailed!_gets_PC_cross- play_with_the_Switch_|_GamingOnLinux ** Have a friend or two that mainly play on the Nintendo Switch? Here’s a good choice that you can now play with them with cross-play supported across Linux, macOS, Windows and now the Switch too. In a short and sweet announcement, Indoor Astronaut and Daedalic Entertainment mentioned that as of the small update released on November 23 it’s now all hooked up. So you can get building a train-track, chop down trees, do a little mining and have plenty of laughs with friends in Unrailed! For those who haven’t played it the idea is simple: build the track as far as you can, without letting your train fall of a get destroyed. It’s a lot more difficult than it sounds, as you’re against an ever-changing map along with various obstacles. As you progress you get to upgrade your train with better and more interesting parts like auto-mining, lights, faster building or more storage and lots more. The train gets gradually faster too, so the further you go the more challenging it is. # ** Kerbal_Space_Program_1.11_will_let_you_fix_up_your_craft during_a_spacewalk_|_GamingOnLinux ** Kerbal Space Program 1.11: Some Reassembly Required will be arriving later this Winter, with it some major new features and it sounds super exciting. With it comes a new EVA Construction Mode, allowing your Kerbals to repair and reassemble your craft while outside. Just like a real spaceperson, you will do spacewalks and get to work. You will have similar tools as in the Vehicle Assembly Building and the Spaceplane Hangar with place, rotate, and move and you can visualize the center of mass, center of thrust, and the center of lift for a vessel. There’s some obvious limitations like your range to parts, weight and more. The game is also not paused, so you have to try and not crash while doing so if your craft is moving. # ** The_fab_strategy_sim_Mini_Metro_now_has_full_Steam Workshop_support_|_GamingOnLinux ** After recently expanding the game with a free update with Nigeria and Chile, Dinosaur Polo Club have given users another reason to come back to their excellent strategy sim. This update comes six years after the original release, so it seems good things come to those who wait. Adding in Steam Workshop support, you can now make your own maps and share them with everyone. They also crafted detailed instructions on how to actually get map-making, which doesn’t seem to be too complicated. Everything is done through plain JSON files with no special tools needed. # ** Valve_updates_the_Steam_Linux_Container_Runtime_for_Proton 5.13,_helps_tools_like_MangoHud_|_GamingOnLinux ** With the Steam Play Proton 5.13 compatibility tool being a major upgrade, along with it now using the Steam Linux Container Runtime, it did come with some annoying issues that they’re now trying to solve. One of the problems was that since the Windows games are contained and isolated from your system, you couldn’t then run tools like MangoHud or the post-processing layer vkBasalt. Valve have now updated the container systems, to allow them to import Vulkan layers from the host system. # ** Unigine_2.13_Continues_Enhancing_Their_OpenGL_Engine_While Still_Porting_To_Vulkan_–_Phoronix ** Unigine 2 remains one of the most visually stunning game and simulation engines out there. That’s even with still using OpenGL (or Direct3D 11 also on Windows) while their Vulkan renderer remains in the works. Unigine 2.13 is out this week as their latest iteration of this visually incredible engine with first-rate Linux support. Unigine 2.13 adds a GPU lightmapper tool, adds subpixel reconstruction anti-aliasing, even better looking 3D volumetric clouds, performance optimizations, tessellation improvements, new samples, and a variety of other engine improvements. # ** UNIGINE_2.13:_GPU_Lightmapper,_Volumetric_Clouds_Upgrade, Better_Anti-Aliasing,_New_Terrain_Tools_Preview_–_Unigine Developer ** # ** A_pirate_quartermaster_is_a_very_quirky_game_about_pirate life_–_Linux_version_now_up_|_GamingOnLinux ** A pirate quartermaster from developer Ivan Armandy released back in October, and now it’s available and supported directly on Linux too. You’re not the captain here, instead your job is to put yourself in the shoes of a quartermaster, the first mate of a pirate ship. Really though, you’re responsible for everything and you will need to deal with the wishes of the captain and often contradicting their orders to appease the crew. The game has a surprising amount of everything, it’s quite a detailed pirating adventure that needs you to learn and fast too. It even teaches you a little about sailing, in its own quirky fantasy sort of way. From setting up gun positions, to organising your crew, there’s plenty of dialogue to read through and when it comes to ship to ship combat – it turns into a weird real-time typing game as you rush out orders to the crew. o **** Distributions **** # ** Best_forensic_and_pentesting_Linux_distros_of_2020 ** 20.04 LTS and uses the Xfce desktop, and is available as a single ISO only for 64-bit machines. In addition to the regular boot options, the distro’s boot menu also offers the option to boot into a forensics mode where it doesn’t mount the disks on the computer. BackBox includes some of the most common security and analysis tools. The project aims for a wide spread of goals, ranging from network analysis, stress tests, sniffing, vulnerability assessment, computer forensic analysis, exploitation, privilege escalation, and more. All the pentesting tools are neatly organized in the Auditing menu under relevant categories. These are broadly divided into three sections. The first has tools to help you gather information about the environment, assess vulnerabilities of web tools, and more. The second has tools to help you reverse- engineer programs and social-engineer people. The third has tools for all kinds of analysis. BackBox has further customized its application menu to display tooltips with a brief description of each bundled tool, which will be really helpful for new users who aren’t familiar with the tools. As an added bonus, the distro also ships with Tor and a script that will route all Internet bound traffic from the distro via the Tor network. # **** New Releases **** # ** Proxmox_VE_6.3_released ** we have just released version 6.3 of our virtualization platform Proxmox VE. This release now integrates the stable version 1.0 of our new Proxmox Backup Server so that you can easily back up and restore your VMs and containers. Also, the stable Ceph Octopus is supported, and you can select your preferred Ceph version during the installation process in the GUI. We hope you like it! # **** SUSE/OpenSUSE **** # ** GNOME,_KDE_Frameworks,_Mutt_update_in_Tumbleweed ** Four openSUSE Tumbleweed snapshots have been released since last Thursday. Only two packages came in the most recent 20201124 snapshot. Email client mutt had a version bump from 1.14.7 to 2.0.2; the new major release was not because of the magnitude of features but because a few changes are backward incompatible. There were some important changes highlighted like when using attach-file to browse and add multiple attachments to an email; quit can be used to exit after tagging the files. For the full list, read the release notes. The release also fixed a Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures that ensures the IMAP connection is closed after a connection error to avoid sending credentials over an unencrypted connection. The other package in the snapshot was the Ruby static code analyzer rubygem- rubocop. The updated 1.3.1 version offers multiple new features and fixes like reading the required_ruby_version from gemspec file if it exists. # **** Canonical/Ubuntu Family **** # ** Hands-On:_Adventures_with_Ubuntu_Linux_on_the Raspberry_Pi_4 ** With the introduction of the Raspberry Pi 4 series, with more than 1GB of memory, it has become much more practical to install and run Linux distributions other than the standard Raspberry Pi OS (formerly known as Raspbian). So it’s time for me to give Ubuntu a try again, and see how it goes. The first part of this task is simply deciding what version of Ubuntu to install – and that is nowhere near as easy as it sounds. Those who are familiar with Ubuntu and the RPi will know that the Ubuntu Mate project has had a Raspberry Pi version for quite some time, while the “official” Ubuntu Raspberry Pi distribution has only come out recently, and is only available for the Raspberry Pi 4. I will be looking at both of these. o **** Devices/Embedded **** # ** Pro1_X_smartphone_with_physical_keyboard_passes_$500,000 via_Indiegogo ** If you are searching for a smartphone with a physical keyboard you may be interested in the Pro1 X smartphone, a device capable of running a number of different operating systems including Android, Ubuntu, Lineage and more. Launched by Indiegogo earlier this month the campaign has already raised over $500,000 thanks to over 850 backers with still 16 days remaining. Early bird pledges are now available for the innovative project from roughly $679 or £507, offering a considerable discount of approximately 24% off the recommended retail price, while the crowd funding campaign is under way. If the Pro1 X Indiegogo campaign is successful and the project progresses smoothly, worldwide shipping is expected to take place sometime around March 2021. To learn more about the Pro1 X project review the promotional video below. # ** Embedded_Linux_for_Teams_|_Ubuntu ** Developer-friendly embedded Linux should just deliver apps to devices. Satellite companies don’t build their own rockets. They focus on building satellites and lease a rocket to deliver it as a payload. Many developer teams also have to “build the rocket” to deliver embedded applications. Developers would be more successful, if Linux vendors made it their job to provide and maintain the scaffold that teams need to deliver embedded apps. In such a world, teams would focus on creating apps. The resulting app-centric development cycle could boil down to booting, building and deploying. Building on top of vendor-provided scaffolds, developers would create a bootable image for their target boards. Teams would then develop apps. After testing, they will build a system image that delivers all these apps. Then burn, deploy, done. # ** Personal_Raspberry_Pi_music_streamer ** # ** Run_Pi-hole_as_a_container_with_Podman_on_openSUSE_–_SUSE Communities ** There is arguably no better way to protect devices on your local network from unwanted content than Pi-hole. Add a machine running Pi-hole to your network, and it will quietly scrub all incoming traffic from pesky stuff like ads and trackers in the background. As the name suggests, Pi-hole was initially designed to run on a Raspberry Pi. But if you already have a machine running openSUSE on your network, you can deploy a Pi-hole container on it instead. And to make things a bit more interesting, you can use Podman instead of Docker for that. Installing Podman on openSUSE 15.2 is a matter of running the sudo zypper install podman command. A Pi-hole container needs the 80 and 53 ports, so make sure that these ports are available on your machine. # ** MorphESP_240_ESP32-S2_board_integrates_a_1.3-inch_color display_(Crowdfunding) ** We’ve already seen ESP32 platforms with a color display such as M5Stack, but MorphESP 240 is kind of cute with a 1.3-inch color display, features the more recent ESP32-S2 WiFi processor, and supports battery power & charging. # ** Rockchip_RK3588_specifications_revealed_–_8K_video,_6_TOPS NPU,_PCIe_3.0,_up_to_32GB_RAM ** Rockchip RK3588 is one of the most anticipated processors for the year on this side of the Internet with the octa-core processor features four Cortex-A76 cores, four Cortex-A55 cores, an NPU, and 8K video decoding support. The roadmap shows an expected launch date in Q3/Q4 2020, but sadly the release date will be pushed back in the future. Having said that, the Rockchip Developer Conference (RKDC) is now taking place, and the company has put up a poster that reveals a bit more about the processor. # **** Open Hardware/Modding **** # ** Arduino_Blog_»_Arduino_psychic_‘magically’_guesses random_numbers ** Standard Arduino Nanos can be used for many purposes, but they do not feature wireless capabilities. Somehow, though, Hari Wiguna’s Arduino psychic system is apparently able to pass data between two of them. No external communication hardware is implemented, yet one Nano is able to recognize when a random number chosen on the other Nano setup is input via an attached keypad. As noted by Wiguna, it’s easier shown than explained, and you can see this techno-magic trick in action in the first clip. How things work is revealed in the second video, but can you guess how it’s done? # **** Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications **** # ** Micromax_In_1b_Base_Variant_Coming_With_Android_10_ (Go_Edition) ** # ** Nokia_2.4_launched_in_India_with_Android_10,_13MP dual_cameras:_Price,_specifications,_and_features ** # ** Android_11_update_with_One_UI_3.0_beta_released_for Galaxy_S10_and_S10+ ** # ** How_to_enable_split-screen_multitasking_in_Android 11_[Video] ** # ** Google_Hangouts_will_no_longer_support_video_calling on_Android,_web ** # ** This_beautiful_Android_12_design_could_lure_me_away from_the_iPhone ** # ** Here_Are_The_Best_Android_Games_For_2020_–_Ranked ** # ** Top_15_best_city_builder_games_for_Android ** # ** YouTube_for_Android_TV_v2.12.08_brings_limited_8K streaming_support ** # ** Best_Language_Learning_Apps_2020:_Learn_A_New Language_On_Android,_iPhone ** # ** Say_‘Ok_Google,_talk_to_Malaria_No_More’_on_Android devices_to_get_info_on_disease ** # ** Free_Fire_OB25_Advance_Server_for_Android:_APK download_link ** # ** What_to_do_(and_not_to_do)_if_you_get_your_Android phone_wet ** # ** Rockchip_RK3588_specifications_revealed_–_8K_video, 6_TOPS_NPU,_PCIe_3.0,_up_to_32GB_RAM ** # ** These_games_have_taken_off_on_Apple,_Android ** # ** Android_12_will_make_it_easier_to_deliver_some_OS updates ** # ** vivo_OriginOS:_Not_your_usual_Android_system ** # ** Nokia_2.4_launched_in_India;_promises_2_years_of Android_OS_updates_and_2-day_battery_life ** # ** Fake_Minecraft_apps_on_Google_Play_Store_make_your Android_phone_‘practically_unusable’ ** # ** Chrome_for_Android_now_lets_you_take_screengrabs_in Incognito_Mode ** # ** Bet365_App_review:_iOS_and_Android_download_guide ** o **** Free, Libre, and Open Source Software **** # ** 5_open_source_alternatives_to_GitHub ** Git is a popular version-control system, primarily used for code but popular in other disciplines, too. It can run locally on your computer for personal use, it can run on a server for collaboration, and it can also run as a hosted service for widespread public participation. There are many hosted services out there, and one of the most popular brands is GitHub. GitHub is not open source. Pragmatically, this doesn’t make much of a difference to most users. The vast majority of code put onto GitHub is, presumably, encouraged to be shared by everyone, so GitHub’s primary function is a sort of public backup service. Should GitHub fold or drastically change its terms of service, recovering data would be relatively simple because it’s expected that you have a local copy of the code you keep on GitHub. However, some organizations have come to rely on the non-Git parts of GitHub’s service offerings, making migration away from GitHub difficult. That’s an awkward place to be, so for many people and organizations, insurance against vendor lock-in is a worthwhile investment. # ** 8_Best_Free_and_Open_Source_Functions-as-a-Service ** FaaS (Function-as-a-Service) is a category of cloud computing services. It’s a fairly new development that originated from PaaS. FaaS is a cloud computing model that abstracts server management and low-level infrastructure decisions away from developers, but takes it much further than PaaS. FaaS is a distinct technology. All allocation of resources is managed by the platform, allowing applications to be developed without any thought of implementation, load balancing, or scaling. It allows developers to execute small snippets of code in response to events without having to build complex infrastructure. FaaS is often known as serverless. FaaS has been gaining popularity. The main advantage of this technology is the ability to create and run applications without the need for infrastructure management. In other words, when using a serverless architecture, developers no longer need to allocate resources, scale and maintain servers to run applications, or manage databases and storage systems. # ** Open_Source/Linux_Communities_To_Join_and_Enjoy ** Looking for user communities and online forums is one of the very first things any new open source user would normally do after making the switch. These communities can be useful either to provide technical help or just general discussion about various topics in the open source world. People simply like to share their thoughts and ideas with other people who are interested in the same topic as they are. And open source or Linux aren’t different in that regard. Let us together explore some possible online open source communities to join. # ** The_Few,_the_Tired,_the_Open_Source_Coders ** Sometimes open source coders simply walk away: Let someone else deal with this crap. Studies suggest that about 9.5 percent of all open source code is abandoned, and a quarter is probably close to being so. This can be dangerous: If code isn’t regularly updated, it risks causing havoc if someone later relies on it. Worse, abandoned code can be hijacked for ill use. Two years ago, the pseudonymous coder right9ctrl took over a piece of open source code that was used by bitcoin firms—and then rewrote it to try to steal cryptocurrency. No one’s quite sure what to do about open source burnout, but some think finding money for the coders might help. Programmer Ashley Williams is a member of the team creating the open source language Rust, and they’re trying to set up a foundation to support core contributors, or get firms to keep contributors on staff. (Some of the largest open source projects thrive in precisely this fashion; firms like Facebook or Google pay some employees to work full-time on open source code.) Eghbal thinks subscriptions could offer new ways to pay for the work. Others worry that injecting pay can deform how and why the work is done in the first place. But we need to rethink the very idea of what crowdsourcing is capable of—and understand that it is perhaps more limited than promised. The open source revolution has been carried on the backs of some very weary people. # **** Web Browsers **** # **** Mozilla **** # ** Querying_CRLite_for_WebPKI_Revocations_• Insufficient.Coffee ** Firefox Nightly is now using CRLite to determine if websites’ certificates are revoked — e.g., if the Certificate Authority published that web browsers shouldn’t trust that website certificate. Telemetry shows that querying the local CRLite dataset is much faster than making a network connection for OCSP, which makes intuitive sense. It also avoids sending the website’s certificate information in cleartext over the network to check the revocation status: solving one of the remaining cleartext browsing data leakages in Firefox. Mozilla is currently publishing CRLite data to Remote Settings four times per day, keeping a very fresh set of revocation information for the public Web. I’ve provided some direct details on how to get at that data from the CRLite FAQ, and I want to introduce one of my command-line tools I’ve used to analyze and play with the dataset: moz_crlite_query. I’ll introduce crlite_status in a later post. # ** Firefox_83_Introduces_HTTPS-Only_Mode ** According to Mozilla, “the web contains millions of legacy HTTP links that point to insecure versions of websites. When you click on such a link, browsers traditionally connect to the website using the insecure HTTP protocol.” With HTTPS-Only Mode enabled, Firefox will attempt to establish HTTPS connections to every website and will ask for permission before connecting to a site that doesn’t support secure connections. Even if you click on an HTTP link or manually enter an HTTP address, Firefox will use HTTPS instead. # ** TenFourFox_Development:_TenFourFox_FPR30b1 available ** TenFourFox Feature Parity Release 30 beta 1 is now available (downloads, hashes, release notes). I managed to make some good progress on backporting later improvements to the network and URL handling code, so there are no UI- facing features in this release, but the browser should use a bit less memory and run a little quicker especially on pages that reference a lot of resources (which, admittedly, is a lot of sites these days). There is also a minor update to the host database for basic adblock. Assuming all goes well, this release will come out parallel with Firefox 84 on or around December 15. I’ll probably do an SPR-only build for the release immediately following to give myself a break; this will contain just needed security fixes, and there will most likely not be a beta. # **** Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra **** # ** LibreOffice_&_Open_Document_Promotion_Poster ** Continuing LibreOffice Shortcuts poster, here’s educational poster I made to spread LibreOffice’s ODT – ODS – ODP to all people in all countries. These formats are known with the name Open Document Format and these are better than Microsoft’s. The goal of this poster is to invite people to change their habits of saving as DOC – XLS – PPT formats into saving as ODT – ODS – ODP formats which are better. This poster is an English adaptation of my Indonesian version few years ago. I encourage you to place this on your schools, offices, websites, blogs, social media, and other places. You are free to adapt and share it with your own language. If you are curious, download LibreOffice application here for Windows, macOS and GNU/ Linux. Okay, now let’s share once again! # **** FSF **** # **** GNU Projects **** # ** Music_Production_on_Guix_System ** The working title “Ode to One Two Oh” was an obvious choice, being a quasi- palindrome, and its five syllables suggested a time signature of 5/4. Where to from here? As I stared at my Emacs session with a Guile REPL (read, eval, print, loop) buffer I tried to recall what the letters “REPL” stand for. Clearly, in my case the “P” was for “Procrastination”, but what about the others? I had stumbled upon the chorus: a description of the Guix development process. Contribute as others before us have shared their contributions (Reciprocation), review patches and discuss (Evaluation), hack on something else (Procrastination), and repeat (Loop). The words suggested a simple descending melody, which would need to be elevated by a somewhat less simple chord progression. After trying out a few harmonies on the Grand Stick I remembered how terrible my memory was and decided that I would need to scatter the harmonies onto a canvas, listen to the whole progression, and adjust the lines as needed — all without having to build up muscle memory for harmonies and progressions I may very well end up discarding in the process. This is where my composition workflow probably deviates from most other people. Many would use a MIDI sequencer for that kind of approach, whereas I decided to hone in on the exact harmonies with an unlikely tool: the unparalleled music engraving application Lilypond. Lilypond sports a versatile language that covers primitive note input, the means of combining them to larger phrases and musical ideas, and the means of abstraction — it allows for musical ideas to be named and recombined in different shapes. For everything the language doesn’t account for with specialized syntax I can simply switch to Guile Scheme. No other notation software is as flexible and malleable as Lilypond. I let it generate both sheet music and a MIDI file — the sheet music is displayed in a PDF viewer in Emacs and the MIDI file sent to fluidsynth (because I trust my ears over my eyes). # **** Openness/Sharing/Collaboration **** # **** Open Access/Content **** # ** Good_News:_Academics_Can_Make_Their_Articles Published_In_Top_Journal_Nature_Freely_Available As_Open_Access._Bad_News:_They_Must_Pay_$11,000 For_Each_One ** Two years ago, Techdirt wrote about Plan S, an initiative from top research funders that requires all work they support to be published as open access. It’s one of the most important moves to get publicly-funded work made freely available, and as such has been widely welcomed. Except by publishers, of course, who have enjoyed profit margins of 35-40% under the current system, which sees libraries and others pay for subscriptions in order to read public research. But Plan S is too big to ignore, not least after the powerful Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation joined the coalition behind it. So publishers have instead come up with ways to subvert the whole idea of making knowledge freely available in order to maintain profits. The latest and perhaps most blatant example of this has come from Springer Nature, the publisher of the journal Nature, widely regarded as one of the top two science titles in the world (the other being Science). Here’s what Nature the publisher is doing, reported by Nature the journal: # **** Programming/Development **** # ** Qt_Desktop_Days_–_Day_1_–_KDAB ** If you missed Qt Desktop Days, you might be wondering what you missed. No need to worry! We’re going to give you a day-by-day summary of some of the cool things that were discussed, demoed, and explained. (We’re uploading all of the videos to our YouTube channel, but we’ll provide the direct links to each talk here as well.) # ** Qt_Desktop_Days_–_Day_2_–_KDAB ** The first session on day 2 was from Nyall Dawson who works for North Road but who is also a significant contributor to QGIS, the largest open-source GIS program in the world. Nyall explains why Qt is an awesome fit for this massive desktop application, and why he believes that Qt is partly responsible for its longevity and success. To understand exactly why QGIS is such a beast (over 1.5 million lines of code and over 500 code contributors), he explains what a GIS system is expected to do, like consuming and creating spatial data, creating high-impact and professionally designed maps, and doing geographical analysis – all with multiple coordinates, projects, and extreme accuracy. [...] Bluescape is a company that creates collaborative, multi-screen, multi-touch whiteboards – some pretty “Minority Report” type of stuff. Bluescape’s Romain Pokrzywka joined us to talk about how to really wrangle touch and pen input, and how to develop applications that need to live equally well across mouse and keyboard desktop, touch screen laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. Romain talks about the specifics of Qt multi- touch and pen support in both C++ and QML, gives us some of his hard-learned lessons about how to best develop applications that merge these features, and shares his tips and tricks on what works best (like what to do with those non-conformist mouse wheels). He also discusses what’s coming down the pike for Qt 6 when it comes to input API changes, including some long overdue changes. # ** Qt_Desktop_Days_–_Day_3_–_KDAB ** If you’re building a desktop application today, should you consider building the UI with Qt Quick? That’s the question that KDABian Shantanu Tushar answers in this session. He walks us through the pros and cons of Qt Widgets versus Qt Quick, and explains that although there are still plenty of good reasons to use widgets, there are a lot of advantages that you’re missing if you dismiss a QML-based desktop app out-of-hand. But desktop apps aren’t the same as mobile ones, and having implemented many desktop applications in QML, Shantanu knows what works and what doesn’t. He explains how desktop apps are often more complex than mobile, and how he manages to tame QML complexity with imports, assets, and namespaces. He also covers issues that desktop developers need to handle such as screen layout trade-offs and styling to match native controls. Shantanu also gives us real- life examples of why and how to mix designer screens and implementation screens in the same application. If you’re thinking about going down the QML route with your app, you should really watch this talk before you begin. # ** Qt_Desktop_Days_–_Day_4_–_KDAB ** If you need to play the widest variety of audio, video, or streaming formats on the planet, you probably know about VLC (the “cone player”). But did you know that VLC uses Qt? They didn’t always. Hear the history of this interesting project from Jean- Baptiste Kempf, one of the lead developers on VLC, a project started by rebellious French university students over two decades ago that is still going strong today. We learn from Jean-Baptiste some interesting platform constraints of the VLC project (like unbelievably, they still support OS/2!), and how their abstraction architecture has been able to grow and thrive without software bloat despite years of changing software, multiple new platforms, and loads of new features. We also learn what factors drove the switch from wxWidgets to Qt and what the team did to keep their high-performance video codecs working smoothly in their upcoming port from Qt4 to Qt5. If you’re tackling your own open-source project, the dynamic success of VLC as delivered by Jean-Baptiste might be just the inspiration you need. # **** PHP **** # ** PHP_8.0_Released ** PHP 8.0 is a major update of the PHP language. It contains many new features and optimizations including named arguments, union types, attributes, constructor property promotion, match expression, nullsafe operator, JIT, and improvements in the type system, error handling, and consistency. # ** PHP_8.0_Officially_Released_With_Many_Language Additions,_Better_Performance ** PHP 8.0 is out today as expected as a major update to this widely-used programming language for server-side programming and other purposes. PHP 8.0 introduces an optional JIT compiler, integrates the existing JSON support to core (no longer optional), and adds language support for attributes, union types, a static return type, and other additions. See yesterday’s article for some of the PHP 8.0 features and preliminary benchmark data with more performance tests forthcoming. # ** PHP_version_8.0.0_is_released!_–_Remi’s_RPM repository_–_Blog ** RC5 was GOLD, so version 8.0.0 GA is just released, at planed date. A great thanks to all developers who have contributed to this new major and long awaiting version of PHP and thanks to all testers of the RC versions who have allowed us to deliver a good quality version. RPM are available in the remi-php80 repository for Fedora ≥ 31 and Enterprise Linux ≥ 7 (RHEL, CentOS) and as Software Collection in the remi-safe repository. # ** Remi_Collet:_PHP_version_7.3.25_and_7.4.13 ** RPMs of PHP version 7.4.13 are available in remi repository for Fedora 32-33 and remi-php74 repository for Fedora 31 and Enterprise Linux ≥ 7 (RHEL, CentOS). RPMs of PHP version 7.3.25 are available in remi repository for Fedora 31 and remi-php73 repository for Enterprise Linux ≥ 6 (RHEL, CentOS). * **** Leftovers **** o ** Free_the_Plowshares_7! ** I first met Martha Hennessy a couple of years ago at a barbecue in Vermont, on one of those summer afternoons where the talk winds on and on as smoke from the grill floats lazily up to the heavens. With her grey ponytail and long loose skirt, she fit right in to our post-back- to-the-land community. Lifting her hem a little, she showed me the plastic electronic tag on her left ankle. She was out on bail, awaiting trial for her part in the Plowshares 7 symbolic disarmament action at the largest nuclear submarine base in the world, Kings Bay in Georgia, on April 4, 2018, the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. o ** ‘Another_attack_of_paranoia’:_Community_group_seeks administrative_charges_against_Moscow_school_for_allegedly violating_Russia’s_‘gay_propaganda’_law ** On November 23, Olga Baranets — the so-called “public commissioner for the protection of the family” from a St. Petersburg-based community group — filed a police report requesting that administrative charges be brought against the director of School Number 962 in Moscow for violating Russia’s “gay propaganda” law. Baranets claimed that teachers at the school instructed students in a fifth grade class to draw rainbows as an LGBTQ symbol. According to parents and teachers however, the drawings were part of a lesson marking the International Day of Tolerance (November 16) and the subject of LGBTQ people was never actually raised in class. o ** Diego_Maradona:_Comrade_of_the_Global_South ** The world mourns today the passing of Diego Maradona, the soccer god and revolutionary from Argentina whose play inspired all manner of poetry and prose. The best description of Maradona’s abilities came from the late Eduardo Galeano, who wrote of Maradona in his book Soccer in Sun and Shadow, No one can predict the devilish tricks this inventor of surprises will dream up for the simple joy of throwing the computers off track, tricks he never repeats. He’s not quick, more like a short-legged bull, but he carries the ball sewn to his foot and he’s got eyes all over his body. His acrobatics light up the field…. In the frigid soccer of the end of the century, which detests defeat and forbids all fun, that man was one of the few who proved that fantasy can be efficient. o ** Johnny_Depp_Refused_Permission_to_Appeal_U.K._Libel_Case, Ordered_to_Pay_$840,000 ** Earlier this month, the same judge ruled against Depp in the actor’s libel case against News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the tabloid’s executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article alleging he was a “wife beater.” In examining 14 incidents of alleged domestic violence allegedly committed by Depp against Heard, the judge ruled that 12 of the incidents did take place. o ** Working_from_home:_A_double-edged_sword? ** Few dispute the massive impact that Covid-19 has had on every aspect of our lives, including our work. Thousands of employees have switched to working from home, rather than spread the virus through shared workspaces in office buildings. Whether this work-from-home trend will continue, and what its long-term impact on productivity will be, is, however, far from clear. One of the most interesting aspects to consider is the potential loss of a multi-generational workforce as a result of the work-from-home imperative. Today’s workforce can include up to four generations working side by side – even a young 5th generation could be added. While this has its challenges, it also brings unique opportunities for symbiotic relationships from which all can benefit. o **** Science **** # ** A_New_Study_About_Color_Tries_to_Decode_‘The_Brain’s Pantone’ ** Now, Conway is suggesting a new method of organizing and understanding colors: by basing it on patterns of neuron activation in the brain. In a recent paper published in Current Biology, Conway was able to show that each color elicits a unique pattern of neural activity. In this study, he focused first on the brain’s response to a color, rather than on the color each of his study subjects verbally described. This approach reframes how neuroscientists typically try to answer questions about color perception. “Perception is usually taken as the known quantity, and then researchers tried to figure out the neuronal processes leading to that,” writes Chatterjee. “Here, the perceptual variable is taken as the unknown (this abstract color space), and they try to derive it based on the measured neuronal activity.” o **** Hardware **** # ** TSMC_completes_work_on_3nm_process_fab,_production_in_2022 ** The world’s biggest contract chip manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, has reached an important milestone with the beam- raising ceremony for its 3nm process fab at Tainan’s Southern Taiwan Science Park on Tuesday. o **** Health/Nutrition **** # ** Calling_for_End_of_‘Shadow_Pandemic,’_Rallies_Across_Globe to_Mark_International_Day_for_the_Elimination_of_Violence Against_Women ** “Men’s violence against women is also a pandemic—one that pre-dates the virus and will outlive it.” # ** 100+_Public_Health_and_Justice_Leaders_Call_on_Biden_to Reject_‘Global_Vaccine_Apartheid,’_Ensure_Doses_‘Free_and Available_to_All’ ** “The U.S. government has the capacity and the authority under existing law to treat Covid-19 vaccines as global public goods.” # ** A_Dangerous_New_Chapter_of_the_Pandemic ** # ** How_a_Turkish-German_Couple_Invented_a_Coronavirus_Vaccine ** The vaccine success of Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci – both with Turkish roots – is fuelling a new diversity discussion in Germany. In today’s Germany, women and men with a migrant background are still disadvantaged. This is supported by Germany’s right-wing press along with the infamous right-wing tabloid the Bild Zeitung being one of the key favourites when it comes to decades of racial abuse fired towards anyone non-German looking. Despite the daily racism, institutional xenophobia, and a rightist press of substantial proportions, the path of Ugur Sahin marks a human and an entrepreneurial success that cannot be seen without German racism. Suddenly, the pair is presented in a glorious light even by Germany’s staunchly conservative press. Ugur Sahin and his wife Özlem Türeci are pushed into the spotlight having produced Germany’s vaccine against the coronavirus as stock prices exploded, and congratulations poured in from around the world. # ** Good_Times_and_End_Times_on_26th_and_Folsom ** I’m standing near the sunny corner of 26th and Folsom, two blocks from my writer’s cave, across the street from the projects and down the block from my birthplace, in San Francisco’s Mission district. # ** Fauci_Says_He’d_“Absolutely”_Join_a_Biden_COVID_Task_Force ** # ** Doctors_behind_bars_Amid_the_coronavirus_pandemic’s_second wave,_medical_workers_in_Belarus_get_swept_up_in_the opposition_crackdown ** The opposition protests in Belarus have been ongoing for more than three months now, despite the fact that demonstrators opposing President Alexander Lukashenko are beaten, arrested, and fined large amounts of money regularly. According to civil society organizations, there are at least a hundred medical workers among the victims of the crackdown. At the same time, doctors are trying to fend off the coronavirus pandemic’s second wave. According to the official statistics alone, about 1,500 people in Belarus are falling ill daily, but healthcare workers maintain that the actual number of cases is much higher. Meduza recounts how the Belarusian authorities are persecuting healthcare workers amid the worsening pandemic and shortages of medical personnel. # ** Nurse:_“We_Are_Screaming_at_the_Top_of_Our_Lungs_and_So Few_Are_Listening” ** # ** Even_COVID-19_can’t_stop_antivaxxers_from_publishing crappy_“vaxxed/unvaxxed”_studies ** If there’s one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has taught me, is that, no matter what else is going on, antivaxxers gonna antivax (that is, continue to spread antivaccine propaganda). It’s certainly true that very early on during the pandemic antivaxxers formed an unholy alliance with pandemic deniers/ minimizers, antimaskers, anti-lockdown protesters, and promoters of unproven treatments for COVID-19, such as hydroxychloroquine—and QAnon. However, that new alliance, which, thanks to the pandemic’s being the all-consuming crisis and story of 2020, brought antivaxxers to arguably more prominence than they’ve ever achieved before, hasn’t stopped antivaxxers from continuing to do what they do to provide fodder for their disinformation blaming vaccines for autism and other neurodevelopment disorders, as well as all manner of other diseases and chronic health conditions. A favorite among these is what I like to refer to as the “vaxxed/ unvaxxed” study, and another such study was just published this week by antivax pediatrician Dr. Paul Thomas and scientist turned antivax crank, James Lyons-Weiler. # ** Donald_Trump_Is_the_Ultimate_Super-Spreader ** In the absence of anything approaching an actual plan, all he has given the country is performative messaging. And that messaging has been a disaster. Trump is the single largest driver of coronavirus misinformation worldwide. He called it a hoax (it wasn’t); he said it would magically go away (it didn’t); he told people to inject bleach (don’t); he mocked people for wearing masks (wear a mask); he said only older people die from the virus and children are immune (none of that is true). Even after he got Covid-19 and recovered—thanks to the socialized medicine taxpayers provided him—he refused to embrace basic science and reason; instead he ripped off his mask, parading about the White House balcony like some orange Übermensch. He ended his failed reelection campaign by barnstorming around the country holding superspreader events that are thought to have caused 30,000 infections and 700 deaths. And now? Now he hides out in the White House, nursing his bruised ego with Big Macs and revenge fantasies. He stokes his clown coup—tweeting, filing lawsuits, refusing to allow a smooth transition to the Biden administration—all the while allowing the virus to run amok. This is the real Trump surge: a surge not of mythical lost ballots but of flagrant, fast-replicating disease. Trump is a walking biological weapon. # ** The_Midwest_is_America’s_covid-19_hotspot ** Smaller hospitals suffer the greatest strain—not least because 130 rural ones closed across America in the past decade, putting pressure on those that remain. Ben Christians, an emergency-care doctor at one in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, says it has just experienced by far “the worst month” of the entire pandemic, eclipsing the outbreak in the spring. For the past two months “we’ve been functioning at over 100%” of ICU beds, and adding other sorts, he says. Finding enough trained staff is the biggest constraint. He admits patients from 80 sparsely populated but ever more afflicted counties, sometimes over 150 miles away. The smallest rural clinics, with just a handful of beds and a single dotor, are easily overrun. o **** Integrity/Availability **** # **** Proprietary **** # ** Thought_the_M3_roadworks_took_a_while?_Five_years on,_Vivaldi_opens_up_a_technical_preview_of_its_email client ** It’s been a while coming, but browser maker Vivaldi has finally released a public preview of its long awaited email client. “It arrives,” wrote Vivaldi boss Jon von Tetzchner, “just ahead of Thanksgiving as a way of saying ‘thanks for waiting’.” And goodness, it has been a while coming. Back in 2015, the browser makers confirmed: “A robust, efficient, lightweight and good looking email client called M3 is to be integrated into Vivaldi.” And the faithful waited, patiently. Over the years, various company representatives have confirmed to us that the client existed, but none would commit to a release date. And now here we are. # ** Vivaldi_Integrates_Email_Client,_Feed_Reader,_and Calendar_in_a_Browser ** The Vivaldi team announced that they are bringing an Email client, a Feed Reader, and a Calendar – all of these together in the latest Vivaldi technical preview release. The first technical preview of Vivaldi with these three features is immediately available for download and you can enable it with just a tweak (I explained how – at the end of this post). This is probably the best thing that happened to a browser with all three important information sources packed together in a browser for seamless integration. I mean, imagine – if you set up all your emails, feeds, calendar and sync with your Vivaldi account. You can access them anywhere, on any device, and even in Chromebooks. But I am skeptical about how the email is stored after retrieving it from the server though. Because email box sizes tend to be in terms of gigabytes for the majority of users. # ** Prolonged_AWS_outage_takes_down_a_big_chunk_of_the internet ** Many apps, services, and websites have posted on Twitter about how the AWS outage is affecting them, including 1Password, Acorns, Adobe Spark, Anchor, Autodesk, Capital Gazette, Coinbase, DataCamp, Getaround, Glassdoor, Flickr, iRobot, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pocket, RadioLab, Roku, RSS Podcasting, Tampa Bay Times, Vonage, The Washington Post, and WNYC. Downdetector.com has also shown spikes in user reports of problems with many Amazon services throughout the day. # **** Security **** # ** 5_Ways_to_Check_Your_Android_Phone_Hacked_or Not ** Do you suspect that your Android smartphone or tablet is infected with some malware or spyware? Well, there are several pointers that can indicate this is the case. For example, your device is unnecessarily slow and even freezes periodically, or displays popups. Experiencing these symptoms can mean that your device has been hacked but that is not always the case. Sometimes, devices act funny due to a handful of reasons including a security hack. In today’s article, we give you five tips on how to check whether your phone is infected with malicious software as well as how to ensure that it is safe/ protected. # ** Thanksgiving_security_updates ** Security updates have been issued by openSUSE (blueman, chromium, firefox, LibVNCServer, postgresql10, postgresql12, thunderbird, and xen), Slackware (bind), SUSE (bluez, kernel, LibVNCServer, thunderbird, and ucode- intel), and Ubuntu (mutt, poppler, thunderbird, and webkit2gtk). # ** Drupal_core_–_Critical_–_Arbitrary_PHP_code execution_–_SA-CORE-2020-013 ** AC:Complex/A:User/CI:All/II:All/E: Exploit/TD:UncommonVulnerability: Arbitrary PHP code executionCVE IDs: CVE-2020-28949CVE-2020- 28948Description: The Drupal project uses the PEAR Archive_Tar library. The PEAR Archive_Tar library has released a security update that impacts Drupal. For more information please see: CVE-2020-28948 CVE-2020-28949 Multiple vulnerabilities are possible if Drupal is configured to allow .tar, .tar.gz, .bz2 or .tlz file uploads and processes them. To mitigate this issue, prevent untrusted users from uploading .tar, .tar.gz, .bz2 or .tlz files. This is a different issue than SA-CORE- 2019-12, similar configuration changes may mitigate the problem until you are able to patch. # ** Financial_software_firm_cites_security, control_as_reasons_for_moving_from_email_to_Slack [Ed: Unbelievable stupidity; Slack is illegal mass_surveillance and it’s centralised proprietary software (whereas E-mail can be encrypted, e2e)] ** ASX-listed financial software firm Iress is moving away from email to Slack for communications and its chief technology officer, Andrew Todd, says this is because the app offers improved security and control. # **** Privacy/Surveillance **** # ** Airlines_call_for_new_app-based_air travel_controls ** During  its online annual general meeting this week, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) rolled out a  new proposal for an app-based system of control over air travel that IATA is proposing for use by its member international airlines and by governments. The scheme is being promoted as a response to the COVID-10 pandemic, but would institutionalize structures and practices with the potential for continuing and wider abuse. IATA is calling its scheme the IATA Travel Pass. As described in these slides,  it would require would-be air travelers to enter both personally identifying information (most likely passport or other ID-card details) and records of tests and/or vaccinations into an IATA  smartphone app.  The data would  be processed by the algorithms of a “rules engine” to detemine whether to issue an “OK to travel” permission message. The output of this algorithmic decision would be available for use by both airlines and governments. # ** Visa_Wants_to_Buy_Plaid,_and_With_It, Transaction_Data_for_Millions_of_People ** Visa, the credit card network, is trying to buy financial technology company Plaid for $5.3 billion. The merger is bad for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it would allow a giant company with a controlling market share and a history of anticompetitive practices to snap up its fast-growing competition in the market for payment apps. But Plaid is more than a potential disruptor, it’s also sitting on a massive amount of financial data acquired through questionable means. By buying Plaid, Visa is buying all of its data. And Plaid’s users—even those protected by California’s new privacy law—can’t do anything about it. Since mergers and acquisitions often fall outside the purview of privacy laws, only a pointed intervention by government authorities can stop the sale. Thankfully, this month, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to do just that. This merger is about more than just competition in the financial technology (fintech) space; it’s about the exploitation of sensitive data from hundreds of millions of people. Courts should stop the merger to protect both competition and privacy. A few years ago, when you saw a security camera, you may have thought that the video feed went to a VCR somewhere in a back office that could only be accessed when a crime occurs. Or maybe you imagined a sleepy guard who only paid half-attention, and only when… # ** Parler,_the_“free_speech”_Twitter wannabe,_explained ** Based in Nevada, the company behind Parler is run primarily by two people: Matze and Jared Thomson, who serves as CTO. Neither of them had a particular public profile before creating the app. Jeffrey Wernick, a bitcoin enthusiast and early Airbnb investor, serves as the company’s chief operating officer. But there are other people funding the app. Earlier this month, Parler confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that conservative megadonor Rebekah Mercer was the company’s lead investor and agreed to fund Parler only if it gave users control over what they saw on the platform. She recently declared in a Parler post that the site was a “beacon to all who value their liberty, free speech, and personal privacy.” Robert Mercer, who is Rebekah’s father and a billionaire hedge fund investor, previously invested $15 million in Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm hired by the Trump campaign in 2016 and excoriated for harvesting the personal data of nearly 100 million Facebook users. Rebekah Mercer served on the board of Cambridge Analytica. Another notable funder of Parler is Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and conservative podcast host with a very popular conservative Facebook page. Despite his apparent success on mainstream platforms — Bongino has nearly 3 million followers on Twitter and nearly 4 million on Facebook — he regularly urges his fans to join him on Parler. # ** Facial_Recognition_Technology_Is_Being Used_on_More_Campuses_During_COVID-19 ** However, the resume of David Rivero, the chief of police with the University of Miami Police Department, touts the university’s usage of a camera system that employs facial recognition. “One of the largest security project[s] added during Chief Rivero’s tenure was the creation of the new university- wide camera system,” reads Rivero’s resume, obtained by Teen Vogue. “The system now includes 1,338 cameras, recording 24 hours a day, and featuring video analytics, which is the use of sophisticated algorithms applied to a video stream to detect predefined situations and parameters such as motion detection, facial recognition, object detection, and much more.” In an October 4 interview with Distraction, a student magazine at the university, Rivero admitted to using facial recognition to catch “a few bad guys” on campus. According to the university’s statement, though, Rivero denies the use of facial recognition technology during the September protests on campus. Teen Vogue has reached out for clarity surrounding the matter, but has not received a response. # ** Introducing_another_free_CA_as_an alternative_to_Let’s_Encrypt ** Let’s Encrypt is an amazing organisation doing an amazing thing by providing certificates at scale, for free. The problem though was that they were the only such organisation for a long time, but I’m glad to say that the ecosystem is changing. o **** Defence/Aggression **** # ** ‘Truly_Grotesque’:_On_Way_Out_the_Door,_Trump_Prioritizes Bringing_Back_Executions_by_Firing_Squad_and_Electrocution ** “Over 2,000 Americans died yesterday and 266,000 are dead and the gangsters in this regime are focused on bringing back the electric chair and making it easier to spew poison in the air. The Republican Party is unfit to govern.” # ** Biden’s_Hawkish_Foreign_Policy_Picks_Are_a_Very_Bad_Sign ** Biden’s incoming team helped shape some of the most militaristic policies of the Obama administration. # ** How_Many_Syrians_Did_You_Vote_to_Kill? ** Syria was not an issue in the presidential campaign and there were no foreign policy questions in the two presidential debates. That won’t stop the Biden team from claiming a mandate to spread truth and justice via bombs and bribes any place on the globe. The Biden campaign promised to “increase pressure” on Syrian president Bashar Assad – presumably by providing more arms and money to his violent opponents. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris declared that the U.S. government “will once again stand with civil society and pro-democracy partners in Syria and help advance a political settlement where the Syrian people have a voice.” Northeastern University professor Max Abrahms observed, “Every foreign policy ‘expert’ being floated for Biden’s cabinet supported toppling the governments in Iraq, Libya and Syria, helping Al Qaeda and jihadist friends, ravaging the countries, uprooting millions of refugees from their homes.” # ** The_Unending_War_in_Afghanistan_Is_America’s_Shame ** People in the United States continue to pretend that the despair and futility we’ve caused isn’t our fault. # ** German_authorities_confirm_that_several_items_belonging_to Navalny_contained_traces_of_a_Novichok-type_nerve_agent ** Other items belonging to Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny — in addition to the poisoned water bottle found in his Tomsk hotel room — contained traces of a Novichok-type nerve agent, German officials confirmed on Wednesday, November 25. # ** Biden’s_Defense_Pick_Flournoy_Is_Part_of_the_Military- Industrial_Revolving_Door ** # ** Dutch_court_refuses_to_consider_alternative_explanations for_MH17_crash ** The Hague District Court has rejected a request from the defendants in the MH17 case to investigate alternative explanations for the plane crash, reports the Russian state news agency TASS.  # ** Fifth_Circuit_Denies_Immunity_To_Cops_Who_Beat_And_Tased An_Unresisting_Man_To_Death ** The Fifth Circuit is a bit infamous for allowing law enforcement to do what it wants without worrying about too much pushback from judges. This is due in part to the Supreme Court’s increasing insistence lower courts take a hands off approach to qualified immunity by encouraging them to avoid determining whether any rights violation has occurred. Instead, the Supreme Court has pushed lower courts to only determine whether or not a similar rights violation has occurred in the past, and whether past precedent justifies the stripping of immunity. # ** Skewed_Responsibility:_Australian_War_Crimes_in Afghanistan ** The Report goes into some detail about various practices adopted by Australia’s special forces in Afghanistan.  The initiation rites for junior soldiers tasked with “blooding” – the first kill initiated by means of shooting a prisoner – come in for mention.  “This would happen after the target compound had been secured, and local nationals had been secured as ‘persons under control’.”  “Throwdowns” – equipment such as radios or weapons – would then be placed upon the body.  A “cover story” would thereby be scripted “for purposes of operational reporting to deflect scrutiny.” A “warrior culture” also comes in for some withering treatment, which is slightly odd given the kill and capture tasks these men have been given with mind numbing regularity.  “Special Force operators should pride themselves on being model professional soldiers, not on being ‘warrior heroes.’”  When one is in the business of killing, be model about it. # ** Feminism_Not_Militarism:_Medea_Benjamin_on_the_Movement_to Oppose_Michèle_Flournoy_as_Pentagon_Chief ** President-elect Joe Biden has introduced key members of his national security team this week, including his picks for secretary of state, national intelligence director, national security adviser, homeland security chief and ambassador to the United Nations. Biden has yet to announce his defense secretary, but progressives are already raising alarm over reports that he intends to nominate Michèle Flournoy, a hawkish Pentagon veteran with close ties to the defense industry. If nominated, Flournoy would become the first woman to lead the Department of Defense. “She represents the epitome of what is worst about the Washington blob, the military-industrial complex’s revolving door,” says CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin. “Her whole history has been one of going in and out of the Pentagon … where she supported every war that the U.S. engaged in, and supported increases in the military budget.” # ** The_New_Humanitarian_|_MSF_and_aid_worker_safety_in Afghanistan ** Despite terrible losses, Médecins Sans Frontières has decided to keep working in Afghanistan in the name of a “humanitarian imperative” – and in contradiction of its own security policy. On 12 May, 25 people were executed by Islamist insurgents in an MSF-supported maternity hospital in Kabul, including two children, 16 mothers in their beds, and one MSF midwife. Five years before, 45 people were burned to death or cut to pieces in an MSF hospital in Kunduz by the US Air Force, including 24 patients and 14 MSF staff. These two massacres represent the worst killings in MSF facilities since the genocide in Rwanda. No other NGO has experienced such a level of violence against its staff and patients in Afghanistan. Since its inception in 1971, MSF has placed exposure to danger as an integral part of its identity; one of the four short paragraphs of its charter recognises the inherently risky aspect of its mission. This “chivalrous” spirit, however, was tempered by another principle: the rejection of sacrifice. MSFers were supposed to take risks, but to come back alive. o **** Transparency/Investigative Reporting **** # ** Kentucky_Judges_Reject_Proposal_For_More_Warrant_Approval Transparency ** Scrutiny of warrants and the judges who approve them has stepped up in Louisville, Kentucky after a no-knock raid ended in the killing of an innocent resident by police officers. The shooting of Breonna Taylor sparked protests, reform efforts, and at least one judge’s personal moratorium on no- knock warrants. # ** Roger_Stone-linked_group_urges_voters_to_write_in_Trump_in Georgia_runoffs_as_revenge_against_GOP ** A super PAC linked to longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone is calling for Republicans to write-in the president’s name in the upcoming Senate runoff elections in Georgia as retaliation after his re- election bid failed in the once red state. The Committee for American Sovereignty, a group tied to Stone which raised millions pushing disinformation during the 2016 election, launched a new website urging Republican voters to “crush” the “plot to destroy America” by “writing in Trump for the Georgia Senate runoffs.” o **** Environment **** # ** Trump_Races_to_Weaken_Environmental_and_Worker Protections,_and_Implement_Other_Last-Minute_Policies,_Before Jan._20 ** Six days after President Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection, the U.S. Department of Agriculture notified food safety groups that it was proposing a regulatory change to speed up chicken factory processing lines, a change that would allow companies to sell more birds. An earlier USDA effort had broken down on concerns that it could lead to more worker injuries and make it harder to stop germs like salmonella. Ordinarily, a change like this would take about two years to go through the cumbersome legal process of making new federal regulations. But the timing has alarmed food and worker safety advocates, who suspect the Trump administration wants to rush through this rule in its waning days. # ** Biden-Harris_Climate_Plan:_‘Not_Trump’_Is_Not_Enough ** # ** With_the_Planet_at_Stake,_Climate_Coalition_Pressures Biden_to_Reject_‘Corporate_Shill’_Ernest_Moniz_as_Energy Chief ** “Ernest Moniz’s ‘all of the above’ energy policies might be good for his friends in the coal, oil and gas industries, but they’re a death sentence for us and our planet.” # ** Radical_Climate_Centrists?_Say_It_Ain’t_So,_Joe ** Come on, man. For someone who talks so much about the need to be guided by science, why isn’t Joe Biden’s climate thinking guided by the scientific consensus. # **** Energy **** # ** Biden_Urged_to_‘Honor_Indigenous_Sovereignty_and Immediately_Halt’_Fossil_Fuel_Pipelines ** “Our leap toward a just recovery must start with honoring treaties with sovereign Indigenous nations and returning land back to Native peoples,” says a 350.org campaigner. # ** Western_Europe_cools_on_plans_for_nuclear_power ** As more reactors face closure, governments in Europe may prefer renewable energy to replace nuclear power. # ** Trump_Administration_Targets_Banks_Divesting_From Fossil_Fuels_In_New_Anti-Climate_Rule ** Although framed as an effort to ensure “fair access” for all businesses to major banks, the rule bars big banks from declining to do business with any particular sector or industry. The Trump administration proposal specifically cited efforts by banks to respond to climate change risks or to comply with the Paris Agreement, saying the rule would put those efforts off-limits. # **** Wildlife/Nature **** # ** Victory_for_Tribes,_Waterways,_and_Planet_as_Pebble Mine_Denied_Permit ** “Sometimes a project is so bad, so indefensible, that the politics fall to the wayside and we get the right decision.” o **** Finance **** # ** Keep_Calm_and_Just_Die ** Look, I know this world’s crazy. I know things are getting out of hand. It takes a lot to surprise me these days, and yet I am floored that the government in England is forbidding anti-capitalism teachings. That’s fucking insane. Capitalism — whether you love it or hate it or don’t at all understand it — is an economic system. It’s not a damn religion. The goal of an economic system is supposedly to allow a society to function efficiently and effectively. Does capitalism do that? First of all, no. Look at the table you’re sitting at right now. (If you aren’t sitting at a table, then get up, find a table, and sit at it. Otherwise, none of this will make sense.) You got it at Walmart. The wood was cut down in somewhere like Vancouver, it was sent across the ocean to somewhere like China or Bangladesh or some other place that I view as exotic but which the people living there view as boring. # ** COVID_Economy:_A_Deliberate_Disaster ** The economic fallout for the working class has been severe. In the US, unemployment has skyrocketed, with 45.4 million new unemployment claims since March 14. At least 1/6 of those with jobs before the pandemic are now out of work. According to The New York Times, “The economic downturn is shaping up to be particularly devastating for renters, who are more likely to be lower-income and work hourly jobs cut during the pandemic.” As many as 40 million, or up to 43% of renters, may be facing eviction by the end of the year. Breadlines not seen for generations now stretch for miles. Tens of thousands of small businesses have closed; millions more are threatened and may not survive. Strikingly, all of this was completely avoidable. # ** Stock_Market_Soars_and_Billionaire_Wealth_Swells_by_$1 Trillion_as_Food_Lines_Stretch_‘As_Far_As_the_Eye_Can_See’ ** “During the pandemic that has taken everything from millions, U.S. billionaires have now collectively gained over $1 trillion.” # ** Social_Security:_Something_to_Give_Thanks_For_in_2020 ** Our Social Security system is government at its best. Without it, the consequences of COVID and the resulting economic fallout would be far worse. # ** ‘Major_Test’_for_Soul_of_Biden_Presidency:_AOC,_Ilhan_Omar Back_Effort_to_Keep_Deficit_Hawk_Bruce_Reed_Out_of_White House ** “If the Biden administration is serious about protecting Medicare and Social Security, they must not appoint one of the biggest champions of cuts to lead their budget agency.” # ** Millions_Will_Lose_Unemployment_Benefits_in_December Unless_GOP_Senators_Act ** Unemployment claims rise for second week in a row. # ** 60%_of_US_Voters_Support_Biden_Canceling_$50,000_of Student_Loan_Debt_Per_Person:_Poll ** Economist Mike Konczal describes student loan debt as “an albatross around the neck of an entire generation.” # ** Mnuchin_Violates_CARES_Act_With_Plan_to_Move_$455_Billion in_Unspent_COVID_Funds ** # ** ‘Flat-Out_Sabotage’_Already_Underway_as_Mnuchin_Tries_to Put_$455_Billion_in_Covid_Funds_Out_of_Biden_Team’s_Reach ** “Burning it down on the way out the door. There is no reasonable justification for this.” # ** AOC,_Omar_and_Tlaib_Back_Effort_to_Keep_Deficit_Hawks_Out of_Biden_Admin ** o **** AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics **** # ** Trump_Leaves_Biden_a_Quarantine…But_Against_China ** On the national security front, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s swan song visit to Israel will complicate Biden’s effort to press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a two-state solution and to stop the illegal construction of settlements throughout the West Bank.  Pompeo used the visit to endorse Israel’s illegal annexation of the Golan Heights and to reinforce recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.  Pompeo also denounced the boycott movement against Israeli exploitation of the West Bank as a “cancer,” and denigrated anti- Zionism as anti-Semitic “by its very nature.”  Pompeo’s pressure tactics against Iran will make it harder for Biden to reestablish the Iran nuclear accord that Israel opposed. The Trump administration’s economic warfare against China over the past several years will make it particularly difficult for Biden to pursue the necessary adjustments for one of the most important relationships in the world, the Sino-American relationship.  For the past several years, Trump has pursued a trade and tariff war against China that has harmed U.S. farmers and consumers, and has restricted the profitable trade of technology with Chinese firms. # ** Barbara_Ransby_&_David_Sirota_Warn_of_Close_Links_Between Biden’s_Cabinet_Picks_&_Corporate_Power ** President-elect Joe Biden declared “America is back” this week as he revealed some of the people who will staff his administration in key national security posts, vowing to roll back Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy and embrace multilateralism. Among his picks are longtime adviser Tony Blinken for secretary of state, diplomatic veteran Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the United Nations, and former Secretary of State John Kerry for a new Cabinet post as climate czar. Historian, author and activist Barbara Ransby says Biden’s picks so far mostly come from the centrist establishment of the Democratic Party and lack progressive voices. “We need people who have compassion, who have accountability to the most vulnerable, who pledge to defend the planet, people who have a clear understanding and commitment to fighting white supremacy and police violence,” says Ransby. We also speak with investigative journalist David Sirota, who says Biden’s picks represent “an attempt to restore the old Washington.” Sirota served as an adviser and speechwriter for Senator Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign. # ** Bryan_Washington_on_Fiction_‘Outside_the_Bounds_of_Trauma’ ** The rare quality of Bryan Washington’s fiction is that he deftly explores the emotional lives of people from marginalized communities without foregrounding or telegraphing trauma or reducing them to their marginalization. In Memorial, his debut novel, two men, countries apart, assess the sum of their four-year relationship while trying to grapple with various forms of familial abandonment. Mike decides to go to Osaka, Japan, to stay with his estranged father, who is dying of cancer, leaving Ben alone in their Houston apartment with Mike’s mother, Mitsuko, who has just flown from Japan to visit her son. The book shifts between the two men’s perspectives as they clumsily form tentative relationships and learn to be vulnerable with the new people in their lives—Mike with his father, Eiju, and the sole employee and patrons of his father’s bar, Ben with Mitsuko and Omar, the older brother of a child at his day care job. That there are few white characters populating the novel and that Mike is Japanese and Ben is Black should not be even worth mentioning, and yet here we are. # ** Are_Cuban_American_Voters_Really_a_‘Special’_Case? ** A common question this election cycle, especially from non-Cuban Americans, was “How could Cubans immigrants possibly support Trump?” The question of Republican support among the Cuban diaspora in Florida has bedeviled Democrats for decades, including many in the community itself. # ** How_the_UK_Became_a_Chumocracy ** BoJo’s survival notwithstanding, he’s now having to self-isolate—again– as a result of meeting with a group of Tory MPs, many casual about social distancing and mask-wearing, who subsequently tested positive for the virus. BoJo’s self-isolation came at a convenient time for him. # ** Khabarovsk_City_Duma_deputies_backpedal_on_plans_to_leave the_LDPR ** A group of deputies from the Khabarovsk City Council, who announced their intentions to leave the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) just yesterday, have changed their minds, council chairman Mikhail Sidorov told TASS on Wednesday, November 25. # ** ‘One_More_Stain_on_Trump’s_Rapidly_Diminishing_Legacy’: President_Pardons_Former_Adviser_Michael_Flynn ** “One liar pardons another. What a disgrace.” # ** Trump_Was_No_Fluke:_George_W._Bush_Blazed_the_Trail ** His lies and incompetence created epic disasters that may yet sink America. # ** ‘Proekt’_investigation_reveals_how_Putin’s_‘close acquaintance’_became_a_multi-millionaire ** The investigative outlet Proekt has released a new report on the wealth of Russian millionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, revealing her ties to President Vladimir Putin.  # ** Trump’s_Election_Lies_Failed,_but_the_Damage_Is_Done ** Hopefully, by the time you read this, Donald Trump’s presidency will be in its end stage. But there will have been no graceful concession, no admission of defeat from a man so pathologically insecure that he would rather take down the country than be a loser. Instead, his failed coup d’état will have led, undoubtedly, to a scorched-earth lame-duck session. # ** Disdain_and_Disbelief_After_Biden_Claims_‘Significant’ Progressive_Presence_in_Administration ** Leftist politicians, pundits, and people also reacted with indignation after a Daily Beast article claimed progressives are satisfied with Biden’s selections so far.  # ** Noam_Chomsky:_Trump_Has_Revealed_the_Extreme_Fragility_of American_Democracy ** # ** Trump_Tweets_Bogus_Poll_Backing_His_Refusal_to_Concede ** # ** To_Prevent_‘Another_Right-Wing_Authoritarian’_Even_Worse Than_Trump,_Sanders_Says_Democrats_Must_Pursue_Bold_Working Class_Agenda ** The Vermont senator said Democrats in Congress and the incoming Biden administration “must have the courage to take on the powerful special interests who have been at war with the working class of this country for decades.” # ** Trump_Is_on_a_Death_Row_Killing_Spree_and_Wants_to_Make Firing_Squads_Possible ** # ** Pennsylvania_Judge_Grants_GOP_Request_to_Halt Certification_of_Election_Results ** # ** Georgia_Organizers_and_the_GOP_Square_Off_in_a_Fight_for the_Future ** # ** Corporate_Media_Begin_to_Acknowledge_GOP_Coup_Attempt ** Even though President Donald Trump had telegraphed his intent months in advance to steal the 2020 election, by planning to get judges, state legislators and/or the Electoral College to illegitimately declare him the winner—laying out a pretext by lying about widespread voter fraud—corporate media were slow to accurately convey the reality and significance of Trump’s election theft efforts. I’ve noted twice before (FAIR.org, 9/15/20, 11/5/20) that corporate media betrayed their journalistic responsibilities by refusing to report, outside the context of opinion columns, that Trump has been attempting a coup, despite all the plain evidence. # ** New_Poll_Shows_68%_of_Americans_Want_Senators_to_Block_Any Corporate_Biden_Nominees ** Progressives are calling on the president-elect to reject a “Corporate Cabinet” and instead pick “people dedicated to working in service of the general welfare.” # ** How_Mitch_McConnell’s_Do_Nothing_Republicans_are_Killing You ** The writing is on the wall. Do your job, Mitch McConnell. Our lives depend on it.  # ** Trump’s_Team_Is_Sabotaging_the_Transition ** Trump has yet to concede the 2020 election and quite likely will never acknowledge his loss. It’s not in his character to admit defeat. Instead, he remains diligently at work constructing a “stolen election” myth that will allow him to retain his pride while also building the rationale for a 2024 bid to return to the White House. But no concession is necessary so long as the administrative machinery of transition runs smoothly. # ** Rahm_Emanuel_Doesn’t_Deserve_a_Job_in_Biden’s Administration ** The president-elect often speaks of this nation’s ‘better angels.’ The former Chicago mayor isn’t one of them. # ** What_President_Biden_Won’t_Touch:_Foreign_Policy,_Sacred Cows,_and_the_U.S._Military ** While there were indeed areas where his ability to cause disastrous harm lent truth to such a belief — race relations, climate change, and the courts come to mind — in others, it was distinctly (to use a dangerous phrase) overkill. Nowhere was that more true than with America’s expeditionary version of militarism, its forever wars of this century, and the venal system that continues to feed it. # ** Hey_Joe,_Where_You_Going_With_That_Pentagon_in_Your_Hands? ** Warning and petitioning Biden to dissuade him from a Flournoy nomination probably have scant chances of success. But if Biden puts her name forward, activists should quickly launch an all-out effort to block Senate confirmation. As the Biden administration takes office, progressives have an opportunity to affirm and amplify the position that Martin Luther King Jr. boldly articulated when he insisted that “I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism.” In the present day, the pernicious and lucrative aspects of that madness are personified in the favorite to be Biden’s Defense Secretary. # ** US_needs_to_get_its_mitts_out_of_Australia’s_internal affairs ** If proof were ever needed that the US directly interferes in Australia’s internal affairs, US ambassador Arthur Culvahouse has provided it in spades, intervening in a dispute between Beijing and Canberra over a list of Australian actions which reportedly annoyed the Middle Kingdom. # ** Senate_Republicans’_Georgia_bullying_failed._But_Lindsey Graham’s_ethics_violations_stand_out. ** Graham denies this account and maintains he was merely inquiring into the standards for mail-in ballots. His denial is not plausible. CNN reported that a staffer for Raffensberger, Gabriel Sterling, said “he participated in a controversial phone call with Sen. Lindsey Graham and claimed he heard Graham ask if state officials could throw out ballots.” Sterling and his family have received death threats and are now under 24-hour police protection. # ** Zuckerberg_Flipped_Secret_Switch_Favoring_Credible_News Outlets_on_Facebook_After_the_Election:_NYT ** [...] The drastic shift, intended to fight rampant election misinformation problems, resulted in skyrocketing visibility for mainstream publishers like CNN and NPR and a downturn in engagement for hyper-partisan pages like Breitbart and Occupy Democrats. Facebook reportedly evaluates news outlets on a clandestine metric titled “news ecosystem quality,” which ranks the authority and trustworthiness of their journalism, and the shift in the News Feed system weighted organizations with high N.E.Q. more heavily. [...] # ** Facebook_Struggles_to_Balance_Civility_and_Growth ** Typically, N.E.Q. scores play a minor role in determining what appears on users’ feeds. But several days after the election, Mr. Zuckerberg agreed to increase the weight that Facebook’s algorithm gave to N.E.Q. scores to make sure authoritative news appeared more prominently, said three people with knowledge of the decision, who were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations. The change was part of the “break glass” plans Facebook had spent months developing for the aftermath of a contested election. It resulted in a spike in visibility for big, mainstream publishers like CNN, The New York Times and NPR, while posts from highly engaged hyperpartisan pages, such as Breitbart and Occupy Democrats, became less visible, the employees said. # ** How_Trump’s_conspiracy_theories_have_inspired_some supporters_to_boycott_the_Georgia_runoffs ** A faction of Trump’s base — including a PAC with ties to Roger Stone — has taken Trump’s conspiracy- mongering and attacks on Kemp and Raffensperger as a call to sit out the runoffs. Those rumblings have been significant enough that on Monday, Donald Trump Jr. felt compelled to weigh in with a tweet in which he dismissed talk of withholding votes from Perdue and Loeffler as “NONSENSE,” adding, “We need ALL of our people coming out to vote for Kelly & David.” o **** Censorship/Free Speech **** # ** Cryptocurrency_Giant_Binance_Sues_Forbes,_Driving_New Attention_To_Article_About_Binance’s_Corporate_Structuring ** Binance is one of, if not the, biggest cryptocurrency exchanges around. Its famously vocal CEO Changpeng Zhao (known as CZ) has positioned himself as a supporter of free speech, and even sees cryptocurrency/blockchain as a key element in that. Frankly, Binance is a fascinating company that I think is working on a some very interesting projects. And that’s why it’s incredibly disappointing to see the company sue Forbes over an article published last month, using lawyer Charles Harder (as you’ll recall, Harder was the lawyer in the case against us and has a reputation for filing sketchy SLAPP lawsuits to try to stifle the media when it criticizes the rich and famous.) o **** Civil Rights/Policing **** # ** With_Brutal_Memories_of_Standing_Rock,_Stop_Line_3 Campaigners_Wary_of_Rule_Barring_‘Counterinsurgency_Tactics’ ** “I’ve been followed for hundreds of miles along the line by different trucks,” said one Indigenous organizer. “I don’t know if that’s counterinsurgency, but it’s certainly surveillance.” # ** Zero_per_mill_Belarusian_doctors_spark_solidarity demonstrations_following_arrests_over_article_on_protester’s death ** A new type of solidarity protest has sprung up in Belarus, in support of a journalist and a doctor who were arrested on charges of divulging confidential medical information about Raman Bandarenka — an opposition protester who died after being hospitalized on November 12. The solidarity action, called “Nol promille” (Zero per mill), was initiated by doctors at the Minsk Emergency Hospital and has quickly been picked up by other opposition protesters, including journalists and students. # ** US_Civil_Rights_Pioneer_Bruce_Carver_Boynton_Dies_at_83 ** Boynton was arrested 60 years ago for entering the white part of a racially segregated bus station in Virginia and launching a chain reaction that ultimately helped to bring about the abolition of Jim Crow laws in the South. Boynton contested his conviction, and his appeal resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited bus station segregation and helped inspire the “Freedom Rides.” # ** ‘Unconscionable’:_ICE_Deported_33_Unaccompanied_Guatemalan Children_After_Judge_Ordered_Halt_to_Practice ** “It is not out of the power of the district court, if someone could raise the matter, to order ICE to return the children that it removed on that flight,” said one legal expert.  # ** Protest_Song_Of_The_Week:_‘Atlantic’_By_Haviah_Mighty ** In 2019, Haviah Mighty’s debut album “13th Floor” won the Polaris Prize, an award that goes to the best Canadian album based on artistic merit. She was the first hip-hop artist and black woman to win. The exceptional album touched upon many themes related to blackness and social injustices. # ** Indigenous_Groups_Vow_to_Keep_Resisting_as_Construction_Is Approved_for_Enbridge_Tar_Sands_Pipeline ** A massive fight is brewing in Minnesota against the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved a permit for the project this week. After years of resistance, pipeline construction is now set to begin by the end of the month despite the concerns of Indigenous communities, who say it would violate tribal sovereignty and contaminate the land and water. The controversial proposed pipeline would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to a terminal in Superior, Wisconsin, cutting through Indigenous territory in Minnesota and running under more than 200 streams. Construction could also bring thousands of temporary workers to Minnesota even as COVID-19 cases are spiking in the state. “It’s been a long, seven-year fight against this particular project,” says Tara Houska, an Indigenous lawyer, activist and founder of the Giniw Collective, who is Ojibwe from Couchiching First Nation. Minnesota leaders, she says, “are willing to put our children’s futures on the line to allow through a Canadian corporation to do as it wishes and to suppress the rights of our citizens.” o **** Internet Policy/Net Neutrality **** # ** Trump’s_FCC_Nominee_Asked_Fox_News_To_Help_Destroy_Section 230_To_Help_Elect_More_Republicans ** We’ve written a few times about Nathan Simington, who is currently nominated to take over Michael O’Rielly’s seat at the FCC. As you’ll recall, O’Rielly’s renomination was withdrawn after he dared to give a talk in which he noted, accurately, that the 1st Amendment means that the government cannot regulate how private companies handle content moderation. Simington, in contrast to O’Rielly, has been at the center of various efforts to force social media companies to host speech they do not wish to host (a clear violation of the 1st Amendment, which does not allow for the government to compel speech). # ** Ajit_Pai’s_FCC_Does_Something_Good,_Frees_Wireless Spectrum_The_Auto_Industry_Had_Done_Little_With ** While we’ve had no shortage of criticism for Ajit Pai’s facts-optional, relentless ass kissing of entrenched telecom monopolies, or his wholesale demolition of U.S. consumer protection, his agency has done a good job bringing more wireless spectrum to market. Doing so wasn’t particularly controversial, since everybody, consumers to big carriers alike, benefit from having access to more spectrum — especially valuable middleband spectrum of great use in 5G deployments. Still, it’s complicated and warrants kudos in an era when government often can’t tie its own shoes correctly. # ** The_Broadcasting_Act_Blunder,_Day_Five:_The_Narrow Exclusion_of_User_Generated_Content_Services ** The government’s position appears to be that those services do not qualify for the exemption since the exemption only applies to “online undertakings whose broadcasting consists only of such programs.” For the majority of sites and services – even those who feature some user generated content – there will be the prospect of facing the full regulatory model that includes registration, discoverability requirements, and even mandated payments. Yet again, the CRTC could exempt some of these sites and obligations, but Bill C-10 leaves open the possibility of extensive regulation, which may result in sites blocking the Canadian market for fear of facing new regulations. Rather than promoting innovation, greater choice, and new services, Bill C-10 discourages it. o **** Digital Restrictions (DRM) **** # ** Denuvo’s_Anti-Piracy_Protection_Probably_Makes_Sense_For Big-Selling_AAA_Titles ** A hacking team believed to have obtained data from gaming giant Ubisoft has published documents that claim to reveal the costs of implementing Denuvo’s anti-piracy protection. While the service doesn’t come cheap, the figures suggest that for a big company putting out big titles with the potential for plenty of sales, the anti-tamper technology may represent value for money. # ** Disappointing:_Netflix_Decides_To_Settle_With_Chooseco_LLC Over_‘Bandersnatch’_Lawsuit ** Well, it’s been quite a stupid and frustrating run in the trademark lawsuit between Netflix and Chooseco LLC, the folks behind Choose Your Own Adventure books from our youth. At issue was the Black Mirror production Bandersnatch, in which the viewer takes part in an interactive film where they help decide the outcome. The main character is creating a book he refers to as a “choose your own adventure” book. Chooseco also complained that the dark nature of the film would make the public think less of CYOA books as a result. Netflix fought back hard, arguing for a dismissal on First Amendment grounds, since the film is a work of art and the limited use or reference to CYOA books was an important, though small, part of that art. The court decided that any such argument was better made at trial and allowed this madness to proceed, leading Netflix to petition for the cancellation of Chooseco’s trademark entirely. This story all seemed to be speeding towards an appropriately impactful conclusion. # ** TPM_circumvention_and_website_blocking_orders:_An_EU perspective ** Website blocking orders in IP cases (mostly, though not solely, in relation to copyright-infringing websites) are routinely granted in several jurisdictions, whether in Europe or third countries. The availability of such relief has been established in case law, administrative frameworks and academic studies alike. The Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) expressly acknowledged the compatibility of such a remedy with EU law in its 2014 decision in UPC Telekabel. Also the European Court of Human Rights recently found that, although it is necessary that this particular remedy is available within a balanced and carefully drafted legislative framework which contains a robust and articulated set of safeguards against abuse, website blocking orders are not per se contrary to the provision in Article 10 ECHR. Over time, courts and other authorities (including administrative authorities in certain EU Member States) have dealt with applications which have: been based on different legal grounds; been aimed at protecting different types of rights; and resulted in different types of orders against internet service providers (‘ISPs’). An interesting recent development concerns website blocking orders in relation to websites that market and sell devices and software aimed at circumventing technological protection measures (‘TPMs’). TPMs offer rights holders an ancillary right of protection and are deployed to protect against infringement of copyright in works that subsist in multimedia content such as video games. TPMs are a cornerstone in copyright protection in the digital age where large-scale copying and dissemination of copyright-protected content is so prevalent. [...] In light of the foregoing, copyright owners appear entitled to seek injunctions against intermediaries to also block access to websites dealing with TPM- circumventing devices. The legal basis for that can also be, subject to satisfying all the other requirements under EU and national law, the domestic provision implementing Article 8(3) of the InfoSoc Directive. All in all, it appears likely that we will see more blocking orders in the future, including orders – issued by courts and competent authorities around Europe – targeting websites that provide TPM- circumventing devices. This is an unsurprising and natural evolution of website blocking jurisprudence. It also serves to show the very flexibility of this type of remedy and, matched inter alia with the loose notion of ‘intermediary’, its inherently broad availability. o **** Monopolies **** # ** France_goes_ahead_with_3%_digital_tax_on_big_tech_firms ** Despite threats of retaliation from the US, France has decided to go ahead with a 3% tax on big technology firms, asking them to pay the levy next month. # ** Comcast_to_raise_internet_and_TV_prices_nationwide_next year ** At the same time as these price hikes, Comcast also said this week it’d impose a home internet data cap of 1.2TB per month in more than a dozen states next year. If people go over this allotment, they’ll be charged $10 per 50GB, up to $100 in a month. That means it’s going to be an expensive year to be a Comcast customer. # ** Coming_to_Grips_with_an_IP_Business_Model [Ed: "AYE PEE" is a misleading propaganda term, not a business model (unless one's business is lying/lobbying)] ** To come to grips with a business model for IP is a dire necessity for any firm seeking to compete on the edge. The many business opportunities afforded by IP extend beyond its ability to protect and enable a firm’s performance. IP can in and by itself constitute a business opportunity. Particularly firms operating in forward looking technology spaces cannot ignore the business dimension of IP. The need to thoroughly establish a business model for IP is given by the sheer growth opportunities enabled in many technology sectors. [...] The existing body of IP management suggests that the role IP can assume in a corporate context can extend beyond this single value proposition. Patents can be used to block other market participants from entering the market, but they can also serve to enhance the firm’s reputation. Patent attorney often emphasise on the strategic function of patents to assure a firm the freedom to operate. Other than the important signalling function that IP can offer, it can also be an instrument of revenue generation. Often, this is achieved through the licensing and sales of IP. # ** India_vs_Pakistan:_Dispute_over_Basmati’s_GI_Registration in_the_European_Union ** Recently, the aromatic, long grain rice known as ‘Basmati’, became another source of conflict between India and Pakistan. It isn’t the first time that a European GI registration for Basmati has been in the news, nor the first conflict relating to a GI between India and Pakistan. In the past, the GI registration of Pashmina had been a contentious issue. In 2008, India had decided to register Pashmina as a GI domestically and a Pakistani body had opposed this on the grounds that Pashmina was also produced in their territory. (discussed here) Pakistan was open for a joint GI tag, but India stated that it could only be possible if it was proven that Pakistan’s wool was of the same quality as India’s. At the end, a GI was granted for ‘Kashmir Pashmina’ solely for India. More than a decade ago, in 2008, India and Pakistan had considered filing a joint application for registration of Basmati as a GI in the EU. However, it could not be realised due to rising tensions between the two after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Coincidently, on the same day, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (hereinafter ‘APEDA’) filed for Basmati’s domestic GI registration and in 2016, the GI was granted in its favour. In July 2018, India had applied for protected geographical indication (PGI) status for Basmati before the European Commission. This application for registration was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 11th September 2020 and can be opposed within 3 months of the publication, with a reasoned statement of opposition being required within two months of the notice. India’s GI registration in the EU will affect Pakistani exporters and Pakistan plans on ‘vehemently’ opposing this application. A formal objection will most likely be filed before the deadline. About 65 percent of the Basmati imports in EU are from India, while about 35 percent are from Pakistan. Indian government has stated that it has not claimed ‘exclusivity’ over Basmati. Pakistan would still be able to sell Basmati after EU’s grant of GI protection in favour of India, but the perceived value of their product may change. This post will analyse India’s application, practical problems that Pakistan might face in filing an opposition and the possible grounds on which it might oppose India’s application. # **** Patents **** # ** Back_to_the_Drawing_Board:_Indian_Courts’_Tryst_with Public_Interest_Principle_in_Pharmaceutical_Patent Infringement ** Recently, India and South Africa made submissions to the WTO seeking a pro tem waiver of rules governing certain IPRs including patents to, inter-alia, ensure affordable and adequate access to diagnostic kits, medicines and vaccines needed to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a development that once again brought to light the uneasy relationship that IPRs, especially patents, generally tend to have vis-a-vis access to knowledge goods. Much of this uneasy equation, including the tussle between the inventor’s interest and public interest, is well documented in patent literature. Quite unsurprisingly, the struggle to balance these competing interests is reflected in the application of the public interest principle in patent law by the Indian courts, especially when it comes to pharmaceutical patents. To be fair (to, inter-alia, Roscoe Pound!), there is a constant tug of war between two societal interests- one, suitably incentivizing the innovators in any society by what currently appears to be the best mode of doing so- the patent system and the other, ensuring that consumers have a real and meaningful access to innovations. Naturally, each society would like to (and should) fix this equilibrium as per its own specific technological and socio-economic realities. [...] It is clear that public interest, as it stands today in the Indian jurisprudence, is an etiolated principle in theory as well as in practice, and rendered subservient to the satisfaction of the three-factor test and/or the ‘credible challenge’ test. To be fair, an interim injunction cannot and should not be denied to the patentee in every single case of infringement of a pharmaceutical patent for that would defeat the very purpose of granting patents and would essentially leave the innovator companies without any real right. But public interest cannot be subservient to patent rights either. It therefore should have a greater role to play in deciding patent disputes in India, at least in the domain of pharmaceutical patents. A simple reading of the Statement of Object & Reasons of the Patent Act, 1970 reveals public interest as the cornerstone of patent law. A similar understanding is reflected in Articles 7 (“Objectives”) and 8 (“Principles”) of the TRIPS Agreement (to which India is a signatory) which recognise that protection of intellectual property rights must be “conducive to social and economic welfare” and “promote public interest in sectors of vital importance to their socio-economic development”. Undoubtedly, patent law is designed to balance competing interests– the monopoly rights of the patentee and the public interest in availing the consequent benefit from grant of such monopoly rights. Moreover, a first principle understanding of patent law makes it unequivocally clear that the role of public interest is to act as a check on any potential abuse of this monopoly right. Its purpose is straightforward – ensuring that the consumers are not deprived of the benefits of the patented creation by way of availability, accessibility or affordability. In fact, the monopoly rights granted under patent law are in lieu of the patentee working its invention and ensuring that the benefits thereof reach the public. In fact, Franz Xaver, Glaverbel and Sandeep Jaidka have expressly recognised that mere non- working of the patent by the patentee is in itself a sufficient ground for refusing interim injunction as such squatting is to the detriment of the public. Admittedly, ‘public interest’ is an extremely broad term, and it is therefore the court’s duty to define its scope, application and its limitations. A situation of clear and overwhelming public interest, backed up by prima facie proof that the patentee is failing to meet such public interest in the immediate foreseeable future, should in itself be a sufficient ground for the non- grant of interim injunction. # ** Around_the_Blogs ** In other German developments, JUVE Patent reported on the interaction between pharmaceutical and intellectual property law after Daiichi Sankyo won its case against TAD Pharma and Ratiopharm concerning a generic blood pressure medication before Cologne Administrative Court, achieving a further year of market exclusivity via its entitlement to data exclusivity. # ** Data_exclusivity_means_market_exclusivity_for Daiichi_Sankyo ** Data exclusivity could be the emerging battle arena for German IP lawyers in the fight over generic licences. Until now, this property right has been enshrined by pharmaceutical law, and been the domain of administrative courts. However, the case between Daiichi Sankyo and TAD Pharma could set a precedent in higher courts in Germany. [...] The reasoning is that generic companies do not have to prove the effectiveness and tolerability of their imitation products through time-consuming and costly studies and clinical trials. Instead, the ‘8 plus 2 plus 1’ rule follows a streamlined procedure to obtain a licence. However, the generic company may only use the study results of the original manufacturer following the relevant time period. In the case between Daiichi Sankyo and TAD Pharma, the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices in Germany had granted a licence to generic manufacturers TAD Pharma and Ratiopharm. However, the documents also contained a reference to a paper based on a study by the original manufacturer Daiichi Sankyo. Therefore, through a preliminary injunction, Daiichi Sankyo achieved market exclusivity and thus economic gain for another year. # ** [BREAKING]_Düsseldorf_court_refers_questions_on component-level_SEP_licensing_to_CJEU_in_Nokia/Daimler –_The_IPKat ** While our American cousins were waking up early to put their turkeys in the oven this morning, the Düsseldorf court announced that it will be referring questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the high-stakes patent battle between Nokia and Daimler [Katposts here and here]. The text of the decision is not yet available, but a press release issued by the court can be found here [in German]. The decision is likely to be the CJEU’s most important decision on the law of Standard Essential Patents [SEPs] since its landmark ruling in C-170/13 Huawei v. ZTE. Among other things, the CJEU will likely resolve whether holders of SEPs must grant licenses on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms to any company that asks, or whether they may choose to selectively license end- device manufacturers to maximize profits. This issue has received a lot of attention lately and the European Commission is investigating Nokia’s refusal to license Daimler’s suppliers separately in a pending investigation [here]. In a previous post [here], this Kat reviewed a recent article on the issue and tentatively supported Daimler’s position that holders of SEP’s should be required to make available licenses to all interested parties, unless the text of the FRAND-commitment gives rise to a limitation. # ** German_Bundestag_approves_ratification_bill_on_the Unified_Patent_Court_Agreement ** Welcoming the news, EPO President António Campinos said: “Today’s approval by the Bundestag brings us an important step closer to the much-anticipated implementation of the Unitary Patent package. Once that happens, European inventors will finally be able benefit from the Unitary Patent, giving them uniform patent protection and, what’s more, a unified system for litigation in all participating EU Member States. This will make Europe even more attractive for innovation and investors – and help with economic recovery in light of the COVID-19 crisis”. # ** Preparatory_Committee:_Unified_Patent_Court_an important_step_closer ** In an announcement on its website the Committee writes: “The goal of bringing the Unified Patent Court into operation moves an important step closer this evening with the news from Germany that the Bundestag has voted on and approved the legislation for the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court and its Protocol on the provisional application. The approval was given by a majority of over two- thirds of the Bundestag’s members, a requirement which had been set by the Federal Constitutional Court in its decision published 20 March of this year declaring the earlier legislation passed in 2017 void. After Thursday’s vote by the Bundestag the next step is for the bill to be presented to the Bundesrat for a second time in the procedure for a final vote which is expected to take place on 18 December 2020. [...] Less than an hour after the Bundestag vote, the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) issued a press release calling for “donations against Unitary Software Patent Trolls after disastrous Bundestag vote” to crowdfund a new constitutional complaint before the German Federal Constitutional Court, against what it calls “the third attempt to impose software patents in Europe, via the Unified Patent Court (UPC)”. # ** German_Bundestag_approves_legislation_to_ratify_the Unified_Patent_Court_Agreement [Ed: Bristows telling it like it's all done, but it is not. It remains to be seen how many complaints are now filed with FCC.] ** The German Bundestag has approved draft legislation to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement. 571 representatives support the UPCA, 73 voted against. It means the necessary 2/3 majority was easily achieved. There were three abstentions. The vote is an important step towards introduction of the Unitary Patent system, which can enter into force only after Germany has completed the ratification procedure. The draft legislation will now go the Legal Committee of the Bundesrat and could be voted on by the Bundesrat in December. It will also have to be signed by the Bundespräsident, before Germany can formally deposit its instrument of ratification with the secretariat of the European Council and finalize the procedure. # ** Bundestag_vote_for_Unitary_Software_Patents_Trolls, FFII_call_on_companies_and_open_source_community_to donate_now ** The Bundestag has voted today on the Unitary Patent, the third attempt to validate software patents in Europe. German Greens betrayed their voters by supporting the bill. FFII is calling on software companies all over Europe and the free and open source (FLOSS) community to urgently donate to crowdfund a constitutional complaint, as the UPC will promote patent trolls and job destruction, without the possibility for the CJEU to have a say in patent law. Only Constititional Courts can save us from the UPC and its Patent Trolls. German Greens have betrayed their voters, as the Greens was the only trans-national party in Europe which opposed software patents during the European Elections. The Greens was the only party that voted against the UPC back in 2012 at the European Parliament level, as the UPC creates a non-EU court, which is outside the European Union. CDU/CSU/SPD ate the propaganda of the “cheaper” patent for SMEs, while the UPC will increase the costs of access to justice for SMEs. The German Ministry of Justice Christine Lambrecht (SPD) refused to procure an “impact analysis” for SMEs, relying on an “outdated” and “full of errors” analysis from 2009, while the UPCA treaty was signed in 2012, and expensive court fees of 20.000EUR (validity) and 10.000EUR (infringement) will worsen the case of SMEs to access justice. [...] FFII is now calling on its supporting companies and on the open source community to donate to crowdfund a Constitutional Complaint in Karlsruhe. Stopping the UPC in Germany will be enough to kill the UPC for the whole Europe. # ** DEVELOPING_STORY:_Dusseldorf_Regional_Court_refers component-level_licensing_of_standard-essential_patents to_Court_of_Justice_of_the_EU ** The Landgericht Düsseldorf (Dusseldorf Regional Court) has indeed, as widely anticipated in light of the inclination the court expressed during the early-September trial, referred to the top EU court a set of legal questions regarding the right of component makers to an exhaustive component- level standard-essential patent (SEP) license. This news was first shared on Twitter by Benjamin Raetz (“Rätz” in German), an intellectual propety lawyer with the firm of Kather Augenstein, whose clients include Volkswagen (in favor of component-level licenses) and Ericsson (opposed). Here’s the tweet (this post continues below the tweet)… [...] EU competition commissioner Magrethe Vestager said at yesterday’s announcement of the Commission’s Action Plan on Intellectual Property that the EC wanted the parties to talk to each other and was seeking to keep these case out of the courts. That’s easier said than done. Judicial clarification is needed, and it will come. # **** Trademarks **** # ** Nike_v._Warren_Lotas:_A_Running_Timeline_of_the_Case Over_One_of_Nike’s_Most_“Iconic”_Sneakers ** Los Angeles-based brand Warren Lotas made headlines in September when it revealed that it had teamed up with noted Nike collaborator Jeff Staple for what both parties characterized as a “reinterpretation” of the cult-classic shoe that is said to have “catapulted sneaker culture to the masses” when Staple released it with Nike back in February 2005 to intense fanfare and what has since been characterized as a full-blown “riot.” Consisting of Nike’s classic Dunk silhouette and adorned with a stylized version of the Beaverton-based titan’s swoosh on the side, the $300 Staple Pigeon x Warren Lotas Reinterpreted OG Shoes swiftly led to litigation. In the “trademark and anti-dilution” lawsuit that it filed against Los Angeles-based Warren Lotas LLC (“WL”) and Warren Lotas in his personal capacity in October, Nike asserted that it is not in any way involved in the reintroduction of the infringing sneakers – including the Warren Lotas X Staple Pigeon OG, as well as “the Warren Lotas Freddy Broccolini Chanclas, the Warren Lotas Toxic Green, [and] the Warren Lotas Jason Voorhees Dunk Low” styles – and has not authorized WL’s release of them. Nike’s suit has swiftly heated up, with the sportswear giant seeking preliminary injunctive relief in order to bar WL from offering up and/or distributing any of the infringing sneakers, including the Lotas x Staple Pigeon, which Lotas offered up in a pre-order capacity in September, and Lotas responding with claims of its own. # **** Copyrights **** # ** IP_Reading_Group:_Inspiring_IP_reading recommendations ** Andrew Murray’s article introduces an inspiring analysis on internet regulation, which goes beyond Lawrence Lessig’s breakthrough thesis on ‘code is law’, bringing to the discussion the important role of communication and discourse in the implementation and effectiveness of any internet regulation. In his ‘Active Matrix’ doctrine, Murray argues that regulation does not apply to an individual alone, but to what he calls a ‘Habermasian opinion former’, which is a member of a community who gives or removes legitimacy from any regulation. Besides that, Murray highlights the key role of gatekeepers in this world of multiple overlapping matrices, being the internet gatekeepers that control the flow of the information, and the increasing reliance of regulators on internet gatekeepers as proxies in their attempts to control online activities. Finally, he argues that there are different kinds of gatekeepers and those that are more powerful have a greater gravitational force, making it harder for individuals to overcome their regulatory settlements. [...] Another book I would like to recommend is published in 1990 by Lawrence Levine. It focuses on the fabrication of the cultural hierarchy in America. The first chapter backtracks to how Shakespeare plays changed from ‘popular art’ to ‘elite art.’ Then, the second chapter reveals a sacralisation process of some art forms, such as orchestra and painting. The final confirmation of the cultural hierarchy by the end of the 19th century is discussed in the third chapter. Whilst not related strictly to IP, the distinction between culture superiority and culture inferiority portrayed in the book inspires us to regard culture as a dynamic flow, and enables us to discover cultural inequality in the law. # ** EU_Study:_More_People_Consume_Legally_But_Stubborn Pirates_Remain ** New research published by the European Union Intellectual Property Office shows that, in the EU, people more frequently pay to access online content. There is still a group of stubborn pirates who remain, however, but these often pay for legal services too. Affordable options appear to be the key to lowering piracy rates. ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛