𝕿𝖊𝖈𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖘 Bulletin for Friday, November 27, 2020
┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅
Generated Sat 28 Nov 04:18:53 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):

QmY8CNiuBXEWgEde7biLS6voUiyGg6AsEAjFXJkFEqGUED
QmTpnBsAUeyBLJL2NGgLi6vhAmf6Kr6gWhTZYGrmt9U7hv
QmZ2hDQGLcFiBexEJSLeXytE1arKzw2acB1Tjz9a89V4Fa
Qmd6CkrB6BxvbpYc2A4inaPdP66KBtq72z4VXkuwzSMgkP
QmYfrMVyySrZF2SrDo83bXq8ZvCS5nvmuBRbTwmmUMwfmG
QmX8sx4qHQqTcXiwTPUfF5FJgwB17cRE94Vdq7o8aajWoB
QmNgrJVRJJYg75CzFXHMzwK5Qzc4TSeqDifwZp45So4rE4


╒═══════════════════ 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐗 ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
  Bulletin articles (as HTML) to comment on (requires login):
		http://techrights.org/2020/11/27/cannot-demonstrate-and-assemble/#comments
		http://techrights.org/2020/11/27/encrypt-with-e2ee-in-depth-article/#comments
		http://techrights.org/2020/11/27/free-speech-deficit/#comments
		http://techrights.org/2020/11/27/irc-log-261120/#comments
		http://techrights.org/2020/11/27/new-poem-figosdev/#comments

  Followed by Daily Links (assorted news picks curated and categorised):
		http://techrights.org/2020/11/27/cockpit-233/#comments
		http://techrights.org/2020/11/27/jolla-is-7/#comments


╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
****** 11.27.20 ******
***** The_Time_Coronavirus_Helped_EPO_Management_Prevent_Staff_From_Protesting
and_Going_on_Strike_(March_26th) *****
Posted in Europe, Patents at 12:56 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The suspension of the right to demonstrate and to assemble has negatively
affected many, even EPO workers
                           [Romano on Elodie Bergot]
Elodie_Bergot is still bullying EPO staff, sometimes_in_the_name_of_“diversity”
       of_course… (corporate surrogate or substitute for actual ethics)
Summary: “In view of the spreading of the New Corona Virus, the planned General
Assemblies have to be cancelled,” the Staff Union of the European Patent Office
(SUEPO) wrote in the wake of the crisis across Europe back in March (weeks
ahead of a planned strike)
OVER the past three weeks we’ve published a number of articles based on
internal EPO documents. We showed that a campaign is now underway (mass-mailing
management) and that António_Campinos dealt really poorly with risks and
moreover exploited a crisis for the same oppressive measures we saw — and got
accustomed to seeing — in the Benoît_Battistelli era. In simple terms, Campinos
puts workers at risk while at the same time crushing their rights, breaking
countless laws, and taking their money away. He’s a vicious dictator like the
ones his father proclaimed to have fought.
“The strike never materialised.”Today we’d like to share a document predating
the lock-down by not so much (depending on which country). At the start of
March SUEPO, the staff union, wanted to march (or protest by means of a
general, office-wide strike). It said: “SUEPO is now proposing a common Action
Plan for all sites. We had planned to put the Action Plan to the vote in SUEPO
General Assemblies at all sites. In view of the spreading of the New Corona
Virus, the planned General Assemblies have to be cancelled. SUEPO intends to
organise an electronic ballot among its members on the common Action Plan. The
local Executive Committees will inform SUEPO members accordingly in the coming
days. Tomorrow Friday 6 March an important meeting will take place, where the
future Salary Adjustment Procedure will be discussed with management. We will
keep you posted.”
This was almost 9 months ago. The strike never materialised. But that did not
alleviate staff anger, which only accumulated further.
With yellow highlights (ours), here’s what was circulated back then.
     05 March 2020
     su20009cp – 0.2.1
     **** Action Plan ****
     The SUEPO members
     Note_that
     - None of the issues listed in the SUEPO’s call for strike of 8
     November 2019 (successfully balloted on 28 November 2019) have been
     solved, nor has substantial progress on these issues been made;
     - Management, on the basis of a biased Financial Study, wants to
     erode the salaries and the pensions despite the very healthy
     financial position of the Office and irrespective of real future
     economic development; Management has failed to repair the NCS;
     - The discussions in the WG on Financial Measures followed by the
     technical WG on Salary Adjustment Procedure (GCC Sub-Committee on
     SSRP) do not show any sign of evolution towards an acceptable
     compromise with respect to the Salary Adjustment Procedure.
     Decide
     - To adapt their output/production in line with the (cumulated)
     losses endured as a result of the new Salary Adjustment Procedure
     (SAP), the NCS and the SSP financing.
     Decide
     - To go on a first day of strike_on_Thursday_26_March_2020, to draw
     the attention of the Administrative Council to the discontentment of
     Staff.
     Mandate_the_Committee
     - To inform management accordingly;
     - To organize all other appropriate actions, including
     demonstrations;
     - To consider, in cooperation with the SUEPO committees, submitting a
     new call for strike at the end of the period specified in Art. 4 of
     Circ. 347.
     Empower_the_Committees
     - To liaise between the SUEPO committees to accelerate or suspend the
     above mentioned actions (including strikes) depending on the progress
     of the discussions with management.
The staff of the EPO isn’t too happy or complacent about being robbed by EPO
management. COVID-19 has not only helped the rich_get_richer but also crush
resistance. █
“There’s been class warfare for the last 20 years, and my class has won.”
                                                                –Warren Buffett


╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
****** 11.27.20 ******
***** Guarding_Your_Privacy_With_E2EE:_Primer *****
Posted in Free/Libre_Software, Security at 11:48 am by Guest Editorial Team
End-to-end_encryption deciphered
                                [Lock and Key]
Summary: “As with all security, there is assumed risk no matter how careful you
are. There are no security guarantees but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.”
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is something that’s been in the news quite
frequently. Lack of education about E2EE is being exploited. Your fundamental
human rights are being violated. This article serves to educate the non-
technical person about E2EE and how it affects their everyday life.
Let us get a few fundamental things clarified, first. Without these basic
things, no proper discussion can happen around E2EE.
“Another important thing to note is that the sender sees the data that will be
encrypted in its unencrypted form anyway. Obvious statement but important to
remember.”What is E2EE? E2EE is a system in which data is encrypted so that
only one party can decrypt the data: the intended recipient(s).
Note that we used the word “system” in our definition for E2EE. This is done to
keep the scope of this article separate from any specific E2EE software.
Another important thing to note is that the sender sees the data that will be
encrypted in its unencrypted form anyway. Obvious statement but important to
remember.
Next, let us note articles 12 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR).
[Lock]Article 12 UDHR: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference
with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his
honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law
against such interference or attacks.”
Article 19 UDHR: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers.”
We’ll refer to these as A12UDHR and A19UDHR, from now on.
We’ve now established some fundamental definitions; we can move on to what all
this means in the context of E2EE.
Let’s now connect what A12UDHR and A19UDHR have to do with E2EE.
A12UDHR mentions privacy. Our data privacy is a form of privacy. Thus,
according to A12UDR, every human being has a fundamental right to data privacy.
The only way we can achieve data privacy is via E2EE.
“The only way we can achieve data privacy is via E2EE.”A19UDHR mentions the
freedom to hold opinions WITHOUT INTERFERENCE and to seek and impart
INFORMATION and ideas THROUGH ANY MEDIA (we’re paraphrasing here to highlight
information relevant to this article). Thus, according to A19UDHR, every human
being has a right to exchange INFORMATION THROUGH ANY MEDIA. End-to-end-
encrypted data (E2EED) is a form of information; thus A19UDHR gives every human
being a right to seek and impart E2EED over any medium they wish.
So, in summary, we’ve established the following as an inalienable right of
every human being:
Every human being has a fundamental right to use E2EE and seek and impart E2EED
over any medium they wish (Internet,
printed documents, etc.).
Now it’s time to consider the technical side.
If you go back to our definition of E2EE, you will see that there are strict
requirements about who can decrypt E2EED.
Many platforms (email, social control media, messaging apps, etc.) advertise
E2EE. They are pretty much all not E2EE. Why? They have the keys that can
decrypt your data. Go back and read the definition of E2EE again.
What are these “keys”? Good question.
Every system of E2EE is basically built on the idea of a pair of keys:
“Many platforms (email, social control media, messaging apps, etc.) advertise
E2EE. They are pretty much all not E2EE.”Public Key (PKEY): Just a file. A sort
of identifier. PKEYs are used in E2EE to encrypt data so that only the intended
recipient(s) can decrypt the encrypted data.
Secret Key (SKEY): Just a file. This is the (only) file which can be used to
decrypt the encrypted data.
There exists a mathematical relationship between a PKEY and a SKEY which makes
it infeasible to decrypt the encrypted data without access to the recipient’s
SKEY. When used correctly, E2EED is safe even from the quantum computers of
today.
You can refer to the end of this article for the technical details.
“You can willingly forfeit your privacy (and many do by accepting “Terms and
Conditions” of various platforms and services) but no body has a right to
forcibly take away your privacy.”The easiest way to decrypt E2EED is to get a
hold of the recipient’s SKEY or to catch the pre-encrypted data via some sort
of back door in the device being used to encrypt the data. The problem is, many
organisations already have your SKEY; they keep a copy for themselves, when
SKEY has been generated. So, these systems don’t actually satisfy our
definition of E2EE.
Remember: You have a fundamental right to end-to-end encryption. You have a
fundamental right to keep the secret keys used for your end-to-end encryption
software private. Nobody has the right to take these secret keys away from you
– no company, no government, no individual, no organisation. You can willingly
forfeit your privacy (and many do by accepting “Terms and Conditions” of
various platforms and services) but no body has a right to forcibly take away
your privacy.
“Complain to your local government representative about the attacks on
E2EE.”There have been repeated attempts (and will continue to be repeated
attempts) to outlaw end-to-end encryption. Governments want to spy on citizens;
companies want to spy on individuals to profit off their private data;
organisations want private data of individuals to make discriminatory decisions
about said individuals. All of these actions have negative consequences on
individuals: psychological abuse, economic discrimination, racial
discrimination, political discrimination, exploitative psychological
advertising (the list goes on and on).
So what can you do about this? You can raise awareness, first of all. Complain
to your local government representative about the attacks on E2EE. You can
educate yourself about which software gives you full control over your secret
keys.
“Note that operating systems and devices have constantly had back doors
installed into them.”Here’s a list of software you can look up which gives
users control over their secret keys:
1) GnuPG and Kleopatra (GNU/Linux, BSD, OSX)
2) Gpg4win and Kleopatra (Windows)
3) OpenKeychain (Mobile)
There are many books, videos, and tutorials about the tools above. They’re a
good point to start with.
Note that operating systems and devices have constantly had back doors
installed into them. The best way to use E2EE software is to have a separate
device for performing all E2EE tasks; said device should never be connected to
the Internet. This is too inconvenient for some but is worth considering for
those who want added level of security.
A note on hardware security tokens: Don’t believe in them. Most of them are
likely to have back doors in them which allow extraction of your secret keys.
Use an ordinary, general-purpose computer for all E2EE tasks; preferably one
that never sees the Internet. Old laptops make great E2EE machines; just turn
off the WIFI and don’t plug in any Ethernet cable. Devices like the Raspberry
Pi are also a good candidate for an affordable system exclusively used for
E2EE. You can use these devices with an HDMI cable, keyboard+mouse, and a USB
stick to move data to and from the device.
Does all your data need to be E2EED? Of course not. That would be overkill. But
data that you think needs to be private should be private. So use E2EE software
to protect your privacy, when you see fit. This includes pictures, videos,
legal documents, files containing passwords, etc.
“Old laptops make great E2EE machines; just turn off the WIFI and don’t plug in
any Ethernet cable.”Remember: E2EE is a system in which data is encrypted so
that ONLY ONE party can decrypt the data: intended recipient(s). Any system
which doesn’t satisfy this definition is not E2EE; don’t let governments,
companies, etc. convenience you otherwise.
**** Technical details ****
Say J wants to send a file F to M; J wants to encrypt F so that only M can
decrypt F. We’ll refer to the encrypted form of F as EF.
What would J need to do?
We’ll establish a few more definitions (sorry about this but it’s necessary to
maintain correctness).
J and M both have keys.
E2EE software : S.
Public key of J : JPKEY Secret key of J : JSKEY
Public key of M : MPKEY Secret key of M : MSKEY
(1) J and M both use S to generate their respective key files (JPKEY, JSKEY,
MPKEY, MSKEY).
(2) J needs MPKEY in order to encrypt F for M.
(3) M sends J: MPKEY, in advance (this can be done over any media as MPKEY is
not required to remain private).
(4) J now has the following: S, JSKEY, MPKEY, F. J can use these to obtain EF.
(5) J sends EF to M.
(6) M now has the following: MSKEY, S, EF.
(7) M can use these to obtain F from EF.
All of the above can be done with only one person. In, that case J = M. This is
when you want E2EED that is “for your eyes only”.
RSA and EDDSA are considered the most secure systems for E2EE today (2020). The
major weak points in any E2EE are: human error, hardware and software
backdoors, hardware and software bugs. E2EE is always evolving, so what you
read today may not be true tomorrow.
As with all security, there is assumed risk no matter how careful you are.
There are no security guarantees but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.
Be wary of any body that gives you guarantees. █


╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
****** 11.27.20 ******
***** A_Free_Speech_Deficit_Harms_Software_Freedom *****
Posted in Bill_Gates, Debian, Deception, Free/Libre_Software, FSF, Google at 8:
05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Planet Debian: only ‘happy’ stories permitted? Criticism of sponsors not
allowed? That would amount to censorship on sale (to those who try to ‘herd’
unsalaried coders).
                                 [Debian guys]
Summary: Free software and Software Freedom cannot possibly succeed if we keep
accepting or even just tolerating systematic censorship of opinionated people
in our community; failing to speak out on this matter (for fear of supposedly
offending someone, risking expulsion) is part of the problem — complicity by
passivity
THIS is 2020. Many people now conflate “free speech” with stuff like racism and
even worse things. Sometimes even whistleblowers who say the hard truth are
being denied a voice, under the false pretenses that this somehow “defames” a
project or employer (last night I read a document to that effect and it
astounded me).
“It’s quite likely that somebody out there can make an allegation that we
infringe some rules of violate some Code of Conduct; but so what, who made up
those rules? And whose interests are promoted/served by such rules?”Justice
requires freedom of expression and transparency. Introspection requires speech
without fear (of unwarranted consequences). Free software developers who cannot
safely express a political view — however unpopular it may be among some groups
— don’t really enjoy freedom.
Over the past year or two we’ve seen numerous high-profile people being
‘cancelled’ or partly gagged because they expressed an opinion, either about
bad code/conduct — sometimes inside the workplace (personal life) — or
something like a bribe in the professional context. It’s hardly surprising that
Debian outsourced some of the development pipeline to Google (check who the
biggest sponsor is), the Linux_Foundation flexed its muscles against the person
who ‘merely’ created Linux, and the FSF treats its very own founder like
“grumpy racist uncle/grandpa” who needs to be kept silent or read pre-approved
scripts. Notice how he (RMS) is not doing any interviews about Free software
anymore (hardly any since 2019) and it seems like he’s reluctant or actively
obstructed. I sometimes feel/sense he wants to do an interview with us and then
changes his mind because he’s afraid to (like someone else isn’t approving
that). The “social control media” mob and the FSF (especially Guix_petitioners
in_GNU) silenced our #1 advocate. In RT and elsewhere RMS only speaks (however
seldom) about cryptocurrencies, privacy etc.
Earlier this month "DMCA_Sucks"_released_this_old_video_of_RMS (almost 20 years
old, actually released two decades late).
https://dmcasucks.com/lasthalf.mp4
When tackling corporate crimes and a coup against your movement you’re bound to
come across as ‘abrasive’ while reacting. It is expected.
People who have read Techrights since 2006 (there are quite a lot of them; they
still follow and support us because we don’t self-censor and we value honesty,
facts, truth) very well know that we’re quite unspoken about injustices. It’s
quite likely that somebody out there can make an allegation that we infringe
some rules of violate some Code of Conduct; but so what, who made up those
rules? And whose interests are promoted/served by such rules? They might soon
tell us that the word “serve” is also dirty and that “servers” need to be
rebranded to avoid causing offence (some already refer to them as “clouds”)…
Under the guise of “manners” we have corporate and oligarchic censorship
imposed and enforced upon us.
[Bill Gates Paid MIT Through Jeffrey Epstein]Quite frankly, we need RMS to be
liberated. He needs to speak out freely, as he used to do until the Bill_Gates/
Epstein_scandal_in_MIT_made_the_press (so media distraction became more
necessary, both for MIT and for Gates). With few exceptions, the media right
now is cheerleader and salesman (vaccines) for the Gates_Foundation; it’s a
mouthpiece for truly awful people who profit_a_lot_from_COVID-19 while those of
us who rent an apartment after 30+ years of fighting for freedom struggle in a
pandemic. This isn’t justice, this isn’t right. █


╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
****** 11.27.20 ******
***** IRC_Proceedings:_Thursday,_November_26,_2020 *****
Posted in IRC_Logs at 2:48 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
 QmexrXC1doFLP2EqRzBN2pq4D12XWKmEED4MW9R9aYBhTp#boycottnovell    [HTML5 logs]
                                                (full IRC log as
                                                HTML)
                                                IRC log for
 QmQFjjApn1CFQFk6aL2aUcGC19cQjhm2ZGPhsdLyDTVSZz#boycottnovell    [text logs]
                                                (full IRC log as
                                                plain/ASCII text)
                                                IRC log for
                                                #boycottnovell-
 QmZUX77Mvv8QrRAzPXdZAfp2WTfh72d246iboQGnuk4yZSsocial            [HTML5 logs]
                                                (full IRC log as
                                                HTML)
                                                IRC log for
                                                #boycottnovell-
 QmasySaqavBhJaNQKwAKDcTPpSXF3ETQxNyj4dLa1fjF3bsocial            [text logs]
                                                (full IRC log as
                                                plain/ASCII text)
                                                IRC log for
 QmexbCAhtvWpo7da4eJBfathoSUWJiCd1sQAx6m2SusRMn#techbytes        [HTML5 logs]
                                                (full IRC log as
                                                HTML)
                                                IRC log for
 QmNi3FtQZc4KhVuVmJsKG89HWB5CS5Th62xGxwJNZsaFdF#techbytes        [text logs]
                                                (full IRC log as
                                                plain/ASCII text)
                                                IRC log for
 QmUt6MVLyP68mAQfG2ySntMAG4S4vuPB6nD1MyJTNHcitS#techrights       [HTML5 logs]
                                                (full IRC log as
                                                HTML)
                                                IRC log for
 QmPzHLbZQjxuQ6iiwbMLQMkRmF5YaVWy8HQ9sPXodY6bE1#techrights       [text logs]
                                                (full IRC log as
                                                plain/ASCII text)
[IPFS logo]
**** Bulletin for Yesterday ****
Local_copy | CID (IPFS): QmNgrJVRJJYg75CzFXHMzwK5Qzc4TSeqDifwZp45So4rE4


╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
****** 11.27.20 ******
***** Perception_of_Difficulty *****
Posted in Free/Libre_Software at 3:52 am by Guest Editorial Team
Poem by figosdev
                                  [Thank you]
Summary: New poem by figosdev
Measuring, mixing, timing, heating, eating–
Baking is easy, patience is hard.
[16x16 break]
Sketching, tracing, colouring, composing, contrast–
Drawing is easy, skill is hard.
[16x16 break]
Listening, feeling, tuning, singing, playing–
Music is easy, perfection is hard.
[16x16 break]
Lifting, leaping, running, throwing, catching–
Sport is easy, winning is hard.
[16x16 break]
Reading, writing, reviewing, considering, demonstrating–
Learning is easy, passing is hard.
[16x16 break]
Trying, failing, improving, helping, cooperating–
Working is easy, recognition is hard.
[16x16 break]
Searching, parsing, referencing, evaluating, retracing–
Coding is easy, developing is hard.
[16x16 break]
Watching, questioning, challenging, changing, evolving–
Freedom is easy, liberation is hard. █
Licence: Creative_Commons_CC0_1.0 (public domain)


╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ════════════════════════════════════════╕
****** 11.27.20 ******
***** Links_27/11/2020:_Systemd_247_and_Cockpit_233 *****
Posted in News_Roundup at 8:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
[GNOME bluefish]
**** Contents ****
    * GNU/Linux
          o Distributions
          o Devices/Embedded
    * Free_Software/Open_Source
    * Leftovers
    * **** GNU/Linux ****
          o **** Desktop/Laptop ****
                # ** TUXEDO_Computers_Enables_Full_Linux_Support_on_the_Intel-
                  TongFang_QC7_Gaming_Laptop **
                       At the request of numerous users, TUXEDO Computers
                       is now providing the necessary drivers and software
                       needed to enable full Linux support on the Intel-
                       TongFang QC7 reference gaming laptop, which is the
                       base of several laptops available for purchase in
                       stores across Europe and the US.
                       Some well known brands include the Aftershock /
                       LEVEL51 Vapor 15 Pro, Eluktronics MAG-15, MAINGEAR
                       ELEMENT, and XMG FUSION 15, the latter being now
                       offered by TUXEDO Computers on their online store
                       fully configurable and pre-installed with the
                       company’s in-house built, Ubuntu-based TUXEDO_OS.
          o **** Kernel Space ****
                # ** New_Systemd_247_Is_Out_For_Linux_Operating_System_As_Major
                  Release **
                       Systemd, a controversial system and service manager
                       for Linux operating systems, has a major version
                       release as Systemd 247.
                       Speaking of new changes, systemd 247 has added a
                       new service called systemd-oomd to monitor and take
                       action on processes when memory or swap goes above
                       the configured limits.
                       Systemd, a controversial system and service manager
                       for Linux operating systems, has a major version
                       release as Systemd 247.
                       Speaking of new changes, systemd 247 has added a
                       new service called systemd-oomd to monitor and take
                       action on processes when memory or swap goes above
                       the configured limits.
                # ** Systemd_247_Released_With_Experimental_Out-of-Memory
                  Daemon,_New_Credentials_Capability_–_Phoronix **
                       Systemd 247 is out today as the latest major
                       version of this Linux init system. Like most
                       systemd releases, systemd 247 is very heavy on new
                       features.
                       Systemd 247 most notably introduces the still-
                       experimental systemd-oomd as the out-of-memory
                       daemon with that Linux OOMD code originally
                       developed by Facebook and later adopted for desktop
                       use-cases. Once stabilized, the goal of systemd-
                       oomd is for improving the behavior when the Linux
                       system is low on memory / under memory pressure.
                       Beyond systemd-oomd, systemd 247 now defaults to
                       using Btrfs with systemd-homed and other
                       enhancements as outlined below.
                # ** OpenZFS_2.0-RC7_Brings_Better_ABI_Handling,_Reduced
                  Latency_For_Non-Interactive_I/O_–_Phoronix **
                       OpenZFS 2.0 is getting quite close to release but
                       isn’t over the finish line yet and this week brings
                       the seventh release candidate.
                       OpenZFS 2.0-RC7 is lighter than some of the past
                       release candidates so it looks like work may be
                       winding down. OpenZFS 2.0 is a big release with
                       Zstd compression, mainlined FreeBSD support,
                       various performance improvements, sequential
                       resilvering, persistent L2ARC support, and many
                       other changes.
                # ** AMD_Stages_More_Driver_Updates_For_New_GPUs_With_Linux
                  5.11_–_Phoronix **
                       While the Radeon RX 6800 series is now shipping
                       that was developed under the Sienna Cichlid
                       codename, there are other fishy codenames remaining
                       and are seeing more work for the Linux 5.11 kernel
                       that will officially open development in December
                       and then likely reaching stable in February.
                       AMD on Wednesday sent out more AMDGPU kernel driver
                       updates for Navy Flounder and Dimgrey Cavefish.
                       Navy and Dimgrey are for unreleased AMD Radeon
                       products that appear to be for additional RDNA 2 /
                       Radeon RX 6000 series parts. Nothing too notable
                       with the latest batch of updates, just more
                       enablement churn and more device IDs added in.
          o **** Applications ****
                # ** Blender_2.91_Released_with_Major_Improvements,_Including
                  New_Setting_Search_Feature **
                       A major update to Blender, the open source 3D
                       modelling software is out and it brings a veritable
                       pale-load of improvements to the creative table.
                       Following up the colossal Blender 2.90 release back
                       in the summer was never going to be easy but
                       somehow the Blender team has managed it. Blender
                       2.91 is crammed full of tweaks, fine-tuning, new
                       features, and thoughtful additions.
                       New features spotlighted by the project include the
                       addition of collision support to the sculpt cloth
                       brush and filter; new sculpting gestures designed
                       to speed up workflows; support for custom curve
                       bevels; and the ability to convert volume objects
                       into mesh (and vice versa).
                       A new ‘property search’ feature channels the old
                       Unity HUD. Press ctrl + f and start typing to
                       instantly see a series of matching settings —even
                       settings inside add-ons— returned, ready for you to
                       select and action. Fuzzy search support makes this
                       handy find-all feature even more useful as you can
                       make typos and still find what you look for.
                # ** Cockpit_233_—_Cockpit_Project **
                       Cockpit is the modern Linux admin interface. We
                       release regularly. Here are the release notes from
                       Cockpit version 233.
          o **** Instructionals/Technical ****
                # ** How_to_install_Mageia_Linux **
                       Mageia is an RPM-based Linux operating system
                       forked from the famous French Linux distribution
                       Mandriva. It is an open-source operating system and
                       is an excellent option for using Linux the RPM way.
                       In this guide, we’ll show you how to install the
                       operating system on your computer.
                # ** How_to_free_up_RAM_on_Linux **
                       Are you running out of usable memory on your Linux
                       PC? Are you trying to free up RAM space but don’t
                       know how to do it? We can help! Follow along as we
                       go over how to free up RAM on Linux!
                # ** [Older]_How_to_monitor_network_activity_on_a_Linux_system
                  –_LinuxConfig.org **
                       In this article we learn how to monitor network
                       activity on Linux.
                # ** How_to_Disable_Your_Webcam_in_Ubuntu? **
                       Find out these simple methods to disable webcam in
                       Ubuntu. We can stop the webcam driver to load in
                       Linux OS by modifying the configuration file.
                # ** How_to_install_Code_Blocks_on_Ubuntu_20.04_–_YouTube **
                       In this video, we are looking at how to install
                       Code Blocks on Ubuntu 20.04. Enjoy! For the command
                       and more, look here: https://
                       www.linuxmadesimple.info/2020/11/how-to-install-
                       code-blocks-on-ubuntu.html
          o **** Games ****
                # ** Amusing_adventure_game_HIVESWAP:_ACT_2_is_out_now_|
                  GamingOnLinux **
                       With no prior knowledge of the Homestuck web comic
                       series needed, the second part of the video game
                       adventure is out now with HIVESWAP: ACT 2.
                       “The artistry and humor of the golden age of
                       adventure games meet hand-drawn 2D animation in
                       this love letter to the point-and-click classics.
                       Bizarre, beautifully illustrated alien landscapes
                       and colorful characters make Alternia a joy to
                       explore.”
                # ** Gaming_Rack_Design_and_Construction_–_CubicleNate’s
                  Techpad **
                       I have collected a number of gaming systems
                       throughout my life and there is little point in
                       having them if they sit in a box or using them
                       takes an annoying level of set-up time, making it
                       fun prohibitive. I was then inspired by Perifractic
                       Retro Recipes video where the computer museum has
                       everything so nicely laid out. I looked at my mess
                       and decided that I had to do something about it
                       because my arrangement just isn’t presentable.
                # ** Theme_park_building_game_Parkitect_is_getting_8-player
                  online_multiplayer_|_GamingOnLinux **
                       With the second year release anniversary of the
                       great theme park building game Parkitect coming up,
                       Texel Raptor had a quite a huge surprise ready.
                       Releasing on December 8 is the free cooperative
                       online multiplayer mode. This is absolutely crazy
                       considering the type of game it is, and one I can
                       only imagine right now being ridiculously fun to
                       play online with others. Eight people in total too,
                       that’s a lot of building that can get done. Texel
                       Raptor mentioned you can see what everyone else is
                       doing, and it’s going to have a full online lobby
                       system it seems too.
                # ** The_DualSense_Is_Making_Even_More_Sense_–_Boiling_Steam **
                       As reported earlier this month, the DualSense
                       controller from Sony was already working great out
                       of the box on Linux. However, it wasn’t long after
                       that that Valve added support for the more advanced
                       features of the device.
                       Starting November 12, Valve updated the controller
                       to have basic input functionality with their beta
                       Steam client:
          o **** Distributions ****
                # **** SUSE/OpenSUSE ****
                      # ** MicroOS_&_Kubic:_New_Lighter_Minimum_Hardware
                        Requirements **
                             openSUSE MicroOS has been getting a
                             significant amount of great attention lately.
                             We’d like to thank everyone who has reviewed
                             and commented on what we are doing lately.
                             One bit of clear feedback we received loud
                             and clear was that the Minimum Hardware
                             requirement of 20 GB disk space was
                             surprisingly large for an Operating System
                             calling itself MicroOS. We agree! And so
                             we’ve reviewed and retuned that requirement.
                # **** Arch Family ****
                      # ** Connect_to_WiFi_Using_Terminal_in_Arch_Linux_and
                        Other_Distros **
                             This quick guide explains the steps you need
                             to set up and connect to WiFi using terminal
                             in Arch Linux and other distros.
                # **** IBM/Red Hat/Fedora ****
                      # ** World_Health_Organization_Embraces_Open_Source
                        Technologies_to_Assist_Healthcare_Workers **
                             Red Hat, Inc., the world’s leading provider
                             of open source solutions, today announced it
                             is working with the World Health Organization
                             (WHO), the specialized agency of the United
                             Nations responsible for international public
                             health, to create a sustainable open source
                             development infrastructure to support the
                             development of the Learning Experience
                             Platform (LXP) for the WHO Academy, the
                             organization’s new state-of-the-art training
                             center.
                      # ** DarwinAI_and_Red_Hat_Team_Up_to_Bring_COVID-Net
                        Radiography_Screening_AI_to_Hospitals,_Using_Underlying
                        Technology_from_Boston_Children’s_Hospital **
                             DarwinAI, the explainable artificial
                             intelligence (XAI) company, and Red Hat, the
                             world’s leading provider of open source
                             solutions, today announced a collaboration to
                             accelerate the deployment of COVID-Net—a
                             suite of deep neural networks for COVID-19
                             detection and risk stratification via chest
                             radiography—to hospitals and other healthcare
                             facilities. DarwinAI and Red Hat are also
                             leveraging the expertise of a computation
                             research group, the Fetal Neonatal
                             Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center
                             (FNNDSC) at Boston Children’s Hospital to
                             better focus the software for real world
                             clinical and research use.
                      # ** Emmanuel_Bernard_fell_into_open-source **
                             Hello, and welcome to developer’s journey,
                             the podcast, bringing you the making of
                             stories of successful software developers to
                             help you on your upcoming journey. My name is
                             Tim Bourguignon, and on this episode 127, I
                             receive Emmanuel Bernard. Emmanuel is a Java
                             champion, Distinguished Engineer, Chief
                             Architect for RedHat, open source contributor
                             to the Java standards, public speaker,
                             community leader, and among others, the host
                             of the podcast, The Cast Coders. Emmanuel,
                             welcome to DevJourney.
          o **** Devices/Embedded ****
                # ** Turing_Pi:_A_Plug-and-Play_Raspberry_Pi_Cluster_–_IoT_Tech
                  Trends **
                       The Raspberry Pi is a versatile and relatively
                       inexpensive single-board computer that you can use
                       in a range of projects. However, if you really want
                       to take your Raspberry Pi projects to the next
                       level, you may want to build a Raspberry Pi
                       cluster. This is where the Turing Pi v1 can come in
                       handy. It allows you to easily connect multiple
                       Raspberry Pis together to form a cluster.
                # ** Lidl_(Silvercrest_and_Livarno_Lux)_branded_Zigbee_products
                  for_Open_Source_users **
                       The LED strip worked immediately with my Domoticz
                       setup using a Zigate stick and Raspberry Pi. Notice
                       that the diagram is wrong, the arrow on the
                       controller must align with the VCC label on the LED
                       strip.
                       I opened up one of the gateways to see what it is
                       and whether it can be adapted to run free, open
                       source software. Inside, it is the Tuyo TYGWZ-01
                       white label gateway. On the board, there is a
                       Realtek RTL8196E router chip, radio module with
                       label 330010257 and part no. 2.22.46.00001 and an
                       EM6AA160TSE-5G DRAM chip.
                # ** The_MagPi_#100:_celebrate_100_amazing_moments_from
                  Raspberry_Pi_history **
                # **** Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications ****
                      # ** MuditaOS:_A_Beautiful_and_Minimal_Open_Source_Mobile
                        Operating_System **
                             MuditaOS is a beautiful, minimal open-source
                             operating system for mobile phones. Unlike
                             other mobile phone operating systems,
                             however, the developers behind MuditaOS are
                             not interested in smartphones. Instead, they
                             aim to take us to the era before the
                             smartphone craze that has lead to distrust
                             for big tech companies, but with a far cooler
                             style.
                             Developing this mobile operating system has
                             admittedly been a challenge to the team and
                             they are excited to have come up with a
                             beautifully designed E Ink OS, which they
                             have open-sourced to meet the modern user’s
                             desire for transparency without compromising
                             quality.
                             When the company developed and open-source
                             the operating system, they announced that
                             open-sourcing the OS goes along the lines of
                             their “You’re happy – I’m Happy” philosophy
                             and this makes even more sense when you
                             understand that Mudita is from the Sanskrit
                             word “Mudit” which translates to ‘Happy‘.
                      # ** Redmi_Note_8_and_Redmi_Note_8_Pro_might_get_Android
                        11_as_news_of_internal_testing_surfaces **
                      # ** Micromax_In_1b_2GB_RAM_variant_runs_on_Android_10_Go
                        Edition **
                      # ** Google_Hangouts_No_Longer_Supports_Group_Video
                        Calling_On_Android,_Web **
                      # ** Chrome_for_Android_might_soon_bring_back_screenshot
                        support_in_incognito_mode **
                      # ** The_single_best_Android_feature_in_2020 **
                      # ** Back_to_Basics:_Tips_to_improve_battery_life_on
                        Android_and_iOS **
                      # ** YouTube_starts_testing_8K_streaming_for_Android_TV
                        users,_claims_report **
                      # ** Our_favorite_8-inch_Android_tablet_is_down_to_under
                        $100_for_Black_Friday **
                      # ** Top_15_best_tycoon_games_for_Android **
                      # ** Top_15_best_arcade_games_for_Android **
                      # ** Get_Ready_for_2021:_Become_an_Android_Developer **
          o **** Free, Libre, and Open Source Software ****
                # ** Arcan_0.6_–_‘M’_–_Start_Networking **
                       This time around, the changes are big enough across
                       the board that the sub-projects will get individual
                       posts instead of being clumped together, and that
                       will become a recurring theme as the progress
                       cadence becomes less and less interlocked.
                       We also have a sister blog at www.divergent-
                       desktop.org that will slowly cover higher level
                       design philosophy, rants and reasoning behind some
                       of what is being done here. A few observant ones
                       have pieced together the puzzle — but most have
                       not.
                       This release is a thematic shift from low level
                       graphics plumbing to the network transparency
                       related code. We will still make and accept
                       patches, changes and features to the lower video
                       layers, of course — ‘Moby Blit’ is still out there
                       — but focus will be elsewhere. Hopefully this will
                       be one of the last time these massive releases make
                       sense, and we can tick on a (bi-)monthly basis for
                       a while.
                # ** Arcan_0.6_Display_Server_Adds_Network_Transparency,
                  XWayland_Client_Isolation_–_Phoronix **
                       For those with some extra time around the US
                       Thanksgiving holiday, the Arcan display server/
                       environment is out with a new release. This is the
                       interesting project that’s powered in part by a
                       game engine, offers X11 and Wayland compatibility,
                       ported to BSDs, and more recently has been
                       exploring VR and other desktop innovations.
                       Arcan 0.6 is the new release out as of this week.
                       Arcan 0.6 brings initial network transparency
                       support that the developers feel is more powerful
                       than the X11 network transparency (they dub their
                       protocol “A12″), support for on-demand client
                       debugging, KMSCON-like console support, XWayland
                       client isolation for better security, an improved
                       headless mode, and a number of other features.
                # ** 4_questions_about_AI_ethics_and_how_open_source_can_help
                  **
                       As a high school student, I’ve become very
                       interested in artificial intelligence (AI), which
                       is emerging as one of the most impactful
                       innovations of recent times. This past summer, I
                       was selected for the AI4ALL program, where we
                       learned how to develop AI systems using Python.
                       For my final project, I created an object-detection
                       program and integrated it with a virtual drone
                       simulation. Throughout the project, I was able to
                       use open source frameworks, including TensorFlow,
                       Keras, Scikit-learn, and PyTorch, to aid in
                       developing the object-detection machine learning
                       (ML) algorithm process.
                # **** Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra ****
                      # ** LibreOffice_7.1_Beta_1_for_Linux,_Windows,_and_Mac
                        is_here_—_get_the_FREE_open-source_Microsoft_Office
                        alternative_now **
                             Is LibreOffice better than Microsoft Office?
                             No, and it’s not even close. Say what you
                             want about Microsoft, but Office is in a
                             league of its own — the best productivity
                             software on the market.
                             Why would anyone not use Microsoft Office?
                             Well, for one, it costs money — potentially
                             hundreds of dollars. Secondly, it is not
                             available on all operating systems. Linux
                             users, for instance, simply can’t use
                             Microsoft Office (except the web version).
                             Not to mention, Microsoft Office is closed-
                             source software, and some folks only want to
                             use open source options.
                             So yeah, that’s why people use LibreOffice —
                             it’s free, open-source, and available on most
                             desktop operating systems such as Linux. With
                             all of that said, LibreOffice is actually
                             good software too — it just isn’t as good as
                             Microsoft’s offering. And that’s OK. We
                             should definitely be thankful that
                             LibreOffice exists.
                # **** Programming/Development ****
                      # ** Marmite_of_scripting_languages_PHP_emits_version
                        8.0,_complete_with_named_arguments_and_other_goodies **
                             Version 8.0 of the PHP scripting language is
                             scheduled for release on 26 November, which
                             coincides with the US Thanksgiving holiday.
                             PHP turned 25 earlier this year and its
                             latest iteration brings a variety of
                             improvements to those who enjoy the language,
                             which certainly isn’t everyone.
                             Type “is PHP” into Google Search box, in
                             Incognito mode, and the first two auto-
                             complete suggestions you’ll see are “is PHP
                             still used” and “is PHP dead.”
                             It is and it isn’t: PHP still ranks as the
                             eighth most popular language in the Tiobe
                             index, just below JavaScript. Nonetheless,
                             PHP has something of a mixed reputation among
                             developers.
    * **** Leftovers ****
          o ** Free-Dumb_isn’t_Free,_We’re_All_Paying_the_Price **
          o **** Science ****
                # ** Trump’s_“incompetency”_and_“anti-science”_views_will
                  plague_US_long_after_he_leaves_office:_expert **
                       “I don’t think any of us in public health would
                       have imagined a year ago, even with Donald Trump at
                       the helm, that this level of incompetency and toxic
                       messaging that we’ve seen with Donald Trump over
                       these last eight or nine months would have actually
                       been possible under any president’s leadership,”
                       Redlener told Wallace. “But here you have a
                       president who’s firmly opposed to science and
                       evidence in developing policies to deal with this
                       very deadly disease.”
                       Redlener added that even after Trump leaves office
                       in January, the type of “toxic messaging” he has
                       pushed during the pandemic won’t be going away.
          o **** Health/Nutrition ****
                # ** SCOTUS_Rules_Against_New_York_State’s_COVID_Limits_on
                  Large_Religious_Gatherings **
                # ** As_COVID_Devastates_Native_Communities,_Indigenous_Voters
                  Played_Key_Role_in_Defeating_Trump **
                       As COVID-19 rampages through the U.S., we look at
                       how the rapid spread of the disease is affecting
                       Native American communities, which have already
                       faced disproportionate infection and death rates
                       throughout the pandemic. We speak to Jodi
                       Archambault, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux
                       Tribe and former special assistant to President
                       Obama for Native American affairs. We also speak
                       with Protect the Sacred founder Allie Young of the
                       Navajo Nation.
                # ** The_Covid-19_Pandemic_Helps_Tell_the_True_Story_of
                  Thanksgiving **
                       At the time the Pilgrims landed, the Wampanoags and
                       their neighbors had been tested by the years they
                       called the Great Dying. An epidemic from 1616 to
                       1619—which may have been smallpox (there are other
                       theories)—had killed as many as 9 out of 10 coastal
                       Indians.
                # ** Hundreds_of_Thousands_of_Students_Traveled_Home_This_Week
                  Amid_COVID_Spike **
                # ** What_Thanksgiving_and_the_Coronavirus_Pandemic_Share:_As
                  Seen_from_Boston **
                       Perhaps more than any other day, Thanksgiving
                       embodies the underlying embrace of endless growth
                       and voracious consumption: normally the year’s
                       biggest travel day, its reliance on massive amounts
                       of fossil fuel makes the holiday a climate changing
                       event.
                # ** Why_are_millions_of_Americans_traveling_for_Thanksgiving
                  as_the_pandemic_rages? **
                       Then there is the immense confusion generated by
                       the mainstream media, whose presentation, day after
                       day, is that the pandemic is about to turn a corner
                       for the better. The New York Times, the editorial
                       voice of the Democratic Party, has been demanding
                       that schools remain open and insists that they are
                       safe even though more than one million children
                       have contracted the disease. And it was the Times ’
                       columnist Thomas Friedman who vocalized the slogan
                       of the ruling elite’s approach to the pandemic,
                       that the “cure cannot be worse than the disease.”
                       Finally, there is the abysmal state of scientific
                       education in America, the outcome of four decades
                       of attacks on public education, which has resulted
                       in a situation where significant sections of the
                       population deny the existence of the virus, refuse
                       to wear masks when in public and oppose the use of
                       vaccines to protect the population from disease,
                       ignorantly placing themselves and others at risk.
          o **** Integrity/Availability ****
                # **** Proprietary ****
                      # ** Introducing_Vivaldi_Mail_in_Technical_Preview **
                             It makes me very happy to share that we’ve
                             taken it a step further. In addition to the
                             email client, we’ve included a feed reader
                             and a calendar.
                             Whether it is the browser or any of Vivaldi’s
                             services – we build our software with you in
                             mind. We know that you are all individuals
                             with your own requirements and wishes.
                             Vivaldi Mail is about giving you the choice
                             to communicate online in a much more
                             organized way while having the comfort of
                             knowing that you are in control of your data
                             and choices.
                             We now need your feedback on our first
                             Technical Preview (TP) so that we can –
                             together – build this further into a
                             trustworthy option that will let you break
                             away from the dependency on the ecosystems of
                             the few big players today.
                      # **** Pseudo-Open Source ****
                            # **** Openwashing ****
                                  # ** Comparing_the_similarities_and
                                    differences_between_inner_source_and_open
                                    source [Ed: Inner Source is an_attack_on
                                    software_freedom] **
                                         Open source software (OSS) has
                                         been around since the 1990s and
                                         has thrived, quickly growing to
                                         become mainstream. It is now more
                                         well understood around the world
                                         than it has ever been before.
                                         Some refer to it as FOSS to
                                         highlight the Freedom part of
                                         open source (Free and Open Source
                                         Software). And in 2014, at OSCON,
                                         the term “inner source” was
                                         debuted, and people started
                                         talking about how to use the
                                         principles of open source, but
                                         inside of a company. It raised
                                         several questions for those
                                         unfamiliar with the term, which I
                                         hope to answer with this article.
                                         For example, what is similar
                                         about the two, what is different,
                                         the company roles involved in the
                                         two, is inner source taking the
                                         energy away from open source,
                                         etc. These are all fair
                                         questions, and as my organization
                                         practices both and is involved in
                                         both movements, I want to take
                                         some time to share insight with
                                         this audience as a developer, as
                                         a company, and as an open source
                                         enthusiast.
                      # **** Security ****
                            # ** Windows_REvil_ransomware_used_to_compromise
                              Argentina_portal **
                                   Argentina’s official country portal has
                                   been hit by malicious attackers using
                                   the Windows REVil ransomware who claim
                                   they have exfiltrated 50GB of
                                   information.
                            # ** Pipeline_–_The_Critical_Risk_at_the_Edge **
                                   We are at a critical decision point,
                                   but we do have choices. There’s no
                                   magic answer to adapt to the massively
                                   changing conditions that we’re all
                                   facing around the world. We can cling
                                   to old approaches and a fast path to
                                   extinction, or we can disrupt the norm
                                   and evolve as a global community to
                                   transform to next-generation
                                   strategies.
                                   At the forefront of these strategies is
                                   5G mobile network technology combined
                                   with highly distributed edge computing
                                   on cloud-native platforms. Everywhere
                                   around the globe, operators are
                                   aggressively testing and deploying
                                   innovative 5G and multi-access edge
                                   computing (MEC) technologies and
                                   solutions. As these solutions are
                                   rapidly being rolled out around the
                                   world, there is a compelling
                                   opportunity for them to have a sweeping
                                   impact on the entire economy.
                            # **** Privacy/Surveillance ****
                                  # ** Facebook_pays_fine_for_refusing_to
                                    localize_Russian_users’_data **
                                         The Internet giant Facebook has
                                         paid in full a four million ruble
                                         (about $53,000) fine imposed by
                                         the Russian authorities over the
                                         company’s refusal to store
                                         Russian users’ data on servers
                                         located inside Russia. 
                                  # ** Microsoft_productivity_score_feature
                                    criticised_as_workplace_surveillance_|
                                    Microsoft_|_The_Guardian **
                                         Tool allows managers to use
                                         Windows 365 to track their
                                         employees’ activity
                                  # ** Why_don’t_Facebook_and_Apple_like_each
                                    other? **
                                         Earlier this year, Apple
                                         announced it would introduce a
                                         feature called App Tracking
                                         Transparency, to give people more
                                         control over their data.
                                         Crucially, customers would have
                                         to opt in for their data –
                                         previously handed over by default
                                         – to be used by apps such as
                                         Facebook’s.
                                         That is a massive problem for
                                         Facebook, which sells targeted
                                         adverts to make eye-watering
                                         profits. It says openly that this
                                         will damage its business.
                                         Apple has postponed the proposed
                                         changes until next year, to give
                                         developers time to prepare.
                                         In a letter outlining why the
                                         change was delayed last week,
                                         Apple’s Jane Hovarth couldn’t
                                         resist a pop at Zuckerberg:
                                         “Facebook executives have made it
                                         clear their intent is to collect
                                         as much data as possible.
                                         “This disregard for user privacy
                                         continues to expand.”
                                         Facebook hit back, saying: “They
                                         are using their dominant market
                                         position to self-preference their
                                         own data collection, while making
                                         it nearly impossible for their
                                         competitors to use the same data.
                                         “They claim it’s about privacy –
                                         but it’s about profit.”
          o **** Defence/Aggression ****
                # ** Like_a_Rocket_in_the_Garden:_the_Unending_War_in
                  Afghanistan **
                       Late last week, I learned from young Afghan Peace
                       Volunteer friends in Kabul that an insurgent group
                       firing rockets into the city center hit the home of
                       one volunteer’s relatives. Everyone inside was
                       killed. Today, word arrived of two bomb blasts in
                       the marketplace city of Bamiyan, in central
                       Afghanistan, killing at least fourteen people and
                       wounding forty-five.
                       These explosions have come on the heels of other
                       recent attacks targeting civilians. On November 2,
                       at least nineteen people were killed and at least
                       twenty-two wounded by gunmen opening fire at Kabul
                       University. On October 24, at least two dozen
                       students died, and more than 100 were wounded in an
                       attack on a tutoring center.
                # ** A_Good_Deed_from_the_Wicked_Witch?_Actually_Ending_the_War
                  in_Afghanistan **
                       As a consequence, expectations for Joe Biden and
                       Kamala Harris to put America back on the path to
                       the Emerald City after a dispiriting four-year
                       detour are sky high. The new administration will
                       defeat Covid-19, restore prosperity, vanquish
                       racism, reform education, expand healthcare
                       coverage, tackle climate change, and provide an
                       effective and humane solution to the problem of
                       undocumented migrants. Oh, and Biden will also
                       return the United States to its accustomed position
                       of global leadership. And save America’s soul to
                       boot.
                       So we are told.
                # ** Investigation_ongoing_after_Russian_soldier_found_dead_in
                  Armenia **
                       A Russian serviceman has been found dead in
                       Armenia, the state news agency TASS reported on
                       Thursday, November 26, citing spokespeople for
                       Russia’s Southern Military District.
                # ** ICE_Seeks_Large_New_Cloud_Contract_Involving_Microsoft,
                  Amazon **
                       U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is
                       planning new large-scale expenditures on cloud
                       computing with Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com
                       Inc.’s Amazon Web Services unit. The deal, slated
                       for early 2021, could could reignite tensions
                       within the companies, where groups of employees
                       have objected to working with agencies that have
                       presided over family separations and raids
                       targeting undocumented immigrants.
                       [...]
                       Google decided against renewing one contract with
                       the Pentagon; other than that the companies haven’t
                       given in to pressure. In October, Google Cloud head
                       Thomas Kurian defended the company’s work with CBP
                       after documents detailing a $200,000 contract
                       became public, and all three companies have made it
                       clear at various times that they will continue to
                       work with U.S. government agencies. The internal
                       dissent mostly emerged in response to Trump-era
                       policies, and it’s unclear how they’ll fare once he
                       leaves office. But the tension could well persist.
                       Much of the federal government’s immigration
                       enforcement and detention infrastructure pre-dated
                       the Trump Administration, and Democrats have also
                       shown enthusiasm for technological solutions to
                       immigration enforcement, like digital surveillance
                       in lieu of a physical border wall.
                       It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how much
                       agencies like ICE spend on cloud services with
                       Microsoft and Amazon. Although federal agencies are
                       required to publicly report spending on many
                       government contracts, Microsoft and Amazon receive
                       most of their government revenue as subcontractors,
                       where reporting tends to be inconsistent.
          o **** Environment ****
                # ** Why_Agricultural_Carbon_Offsets_Can’t_Play_a_Role_in
                  International_Climate_Action **
                       Putting the responsibility of mitigation on farmers
                       lets companies off the hook for reducing emissions
                       along the entire supply chain.
                # ** Roof_of_the_world_is_home_to_microplastic_fibres **
                       Microplastic fibres have been found in the snows of
                       Everest. Pollution levels have literally reached
                       new heights.
                # **** Wildlife/Nature ****
                      # ** The_Last,_Best_Chance_to_Save_the_Northern_Rockies
                        **
                             Aldo Leopold, heralded as the father of
                             modern wildlife biology, wrote “The first
                             step in intelligent tinkering is to save all
                             the parts.” The sciences of conservation
                             biology and landscape ecology provide
                             insights vital to the viability of species
                             and protection of habitats essential to
                             native fish and wildlife. Among these are
                             that roadless habitat is better than roaded;
                             bigger roadless areas are better than smaller
                             ones; connected wildlife populations are
                             better than isolated ones; rivers and streams
                             are better free-flowing rather than dammed
                             and diverted.
                             A mountain of scientific research from across
                             the globe has re-confirmed that roadless
                             areas are the foundation upon which wild
                             ecosystems and viable populations exist.
                             Moreover, intact systems provide a buffer
                             against sudden change from climate
                             alteration, allowing native species to adapt
                             to new conditions.
          o **** Finance ****
                # ** Facing_Holiday_Rush,_Frontlines_Retail_Workers_Urge
                  Billionaire_Bosses_to_Share_the_Wealth **
                       Rina Cummings, who works at the JFK8 Amazon
                       Warehouse on Staten Island, feels like the
                       billionaire owners are sending this essential
                       workforce into the viral line of fire.
                       When she learned that the personal fortune of
                       Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had increased by $70 billion
                       since the start of the pandemic, Cummings had just
                       finished her ten-hour shift and was about to do
                       another hour of MET (Amazon-speak for “Mandatory
                       Extra Time”).
                # ** Thanksgiving_Is_Time_for_Reparations **
                       “Though lives cannot be brought back, the only
                       compensation for land is land.”
                # ** Amid_Public_Health_and_Employment_Crises,_New_Survey_Shows
                  Poor_Americans_Agree_on_Policy_Solutions **
                       People living in poverty across the country support
                       a “bold policy agenda for government to make work
                       pay and ensure that everyone has high-quality,
                       affordable healthcare, housing, and food.”
                # ** Leading_House_Dems_Demand_‘Full_Accounting’_on_Trump_Order
                  Allowing_Purge_of_Federal_Workforce **
                       “The creation of this schedule would be a dramatic
                       change in the composition of the civil service and
                       expose it to undue political influence and
                       intimidation,” the lawmakers wrote.
                # ** Russian_State_Duma_adopts_federal_budget_for_2021–2023 **
                       The Russian State Duma has adopted the law on the
                       country’s federal budget for 2021 and the planned
                       budget for 2022–2023.
                # ** Desperate_Need_for_a_Stimulus_Package **
                # ** Kremlin_spokesman_dismisses_‘Proekt’_investigation_into
                  the_wealth_of_Putin’s_‘close_acquaintance’ **
                       Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed
                       Proekt’s investigation into the close ties between
                       Russian President Vladimir Putin and secretive
                       millionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh as “unfounded and
                       unconvincing.”
                # ** It’s_a_Billionaire’s_Thanksgiving:_Wealth_of_Richest
                  Surges_Past_$1_Trillion_Since_Pandemic_Hit **
                       The combined wealth of U.S. billionaires has grown
                       34 percent since March 2020.
                # ** Britain’s_Class_War_On_Children **
                       A British family from the film Smashing Kids, 1975.
                       Photograph: John Garrett
                # ** Want_to_Be_Like_FDR,_Joe_Biden?_Make_Your_Thanksgiving
                  Proclamations_Rallying_Cries **
                       Joe Biden framed his bid for the presidency with a
                       pair of historically informed October campaign
                       speeches in evocative locations. Overlooking the
                       battlefield at Gettysburg on October 6, he recalled
                       a Republican president who spoke of America’s
                       better angels and promised in Lincolnian terms, “I
                       raise hope, not fear. Peace, not violence.
                       Generosity, not greed. And light, not darkness.
                       I’ll be a president who appeals to the best in us,
                       not the worst.”
          o **** AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics ****
                # ** American_in_Transition:_What’s_the_Hurry? **
                       “Clinched the presidency” is ABC News-speak for
                       “the media decided he won.” In point of fact, the
                       2020 presidential election isn’t over yet and won’t
                       be for another three weeks.
                       No, I’m not referring to Donald Trump’s campaign of
                       vexatious litigation, which is going, and will go,
                       nowhere.
                # ** Corporate_Media_Sources_Within_the_Democratic_Party_Lean
                  Toward_the_Right **
                # ** Republicans_Have_Held_On_to_Enough_Power_to_Influence
                  Future_Elections **
                # ** Controlled_Demolition_of_Political_Reality **
                       What’s new in our beleaguered country is not the
                       division of our house but its total fragmentation. 
                       The structure held deceptively intact for so long
                       by constant applications of partisan bullshit,
                       rhetorical spit, legislative baling wire and
                       executive duct tape, is now so fissured and faulted
                       as to be more standing rubble than viable edifice. 
                       We are not simply split in our politics, we are
                       pulverized, in every aspect of our reality.  Start
                       anywhere.
                       Economically, we’re the most wildly inequitable of
                       wealthy nations where 10% have more money than 90%,
                       three men have more than half of us, and the
                       richest take everything from everybody.  The bitter
                       resentment of each for the other is intensified by
                       being suppressed as impermissible.
                # ** Can_We_Build_a_Progressive_Future_If_We_Dismiss_a_Large
                  Part_of_the_Working_Class? **
                       But there is something I do regret about being
                       retired. That is the daily interaction with working
                       people from different communities, with social and
                       political backgrounds and outlooks often very
                       different from my own. Instead, like most MAPA
                       members, I spend almost all my time in liberal/
                       progressive social and political circles. I now
                       rarely have meaningful contact with people who do
                       the work – often overlooked and disrespected — to
                       make our society function.
                       I don’t idealize the working class. My co-workers
                       and I were fortunate to have union jobs that were
                       mostly highly skilled and relatively well paid.
                       These workers, who were overwhelmingly white and
                       male, could be selfish and individualistic. They
                       not infrequently expressed racist or misogynist
                       attitudes, though eventually not so much when I was
                       present. They often adopted a kind of narrow
                       patriotism that was tinged with white supremacy and
                       American chauvinism. Many of them had problems with
                       drugs or alcohol.
                # ** ‘We_Have_Won_Over_the_Occupation’:_Israel_Frees_Maher_Al-
                  Akhras_After_103-Day_Hunger_Strike **
                       The Palestinian father of six was released after
                       refusing all food and drink to protest Israel’s
                       administrative detention policy. 
                # ** Defeat_Trump._OK,_Now_Comes_the_Hard_Part. **
                       We must seize the moment. The vision driving these
                       movements, so long mocked and marginalized, must
                       enter the political mainstream and begin to change
                       the world.
                # ** For_Biden,_‘Building_Back_Better’_Should_Be_a_Global
                  Challenge **
                       U.S. economic recovery efforts will not succeed if
                       the global economy remains weak and serves only a
                       small rich minority.
                # ** How_a_Grassroots_Movement_is_Building_Political_Power:
                  Notes_From_Richmond,_California **
                       Richmond is a working class city of 110,000, 80
                       percent people of color, north of Oakland on the
                       San Francisco Bay. It is home to a major Chevron
                       refinery that has been the focus of political
                       battles about Chevron’s pollution, Chevron’s
                       special tax considerations, and Chevron’s political
                       involvement. The RPA’s 2014 election victory over
                       Chevron’s $3 million campaign for city council is
                       well known. Since that defeat Chevron has stayed
                       largely behind the scenes and depended on other
                       forces to maintain corporate influence in local
                       politics.
                       The three RPA candidates for city council this
                       fall, Claudia Jimenez, Melvin Willis, and Gayle
                       McLaughlin, won clear majoritiesin their districts
                       against a well-financed and powerful opposition.
                       The mayor of Richmond, a corporate neoliberal, kept
                       up a drumbeat of attacks in his newsletter, one of
                       the few sources of news of the city. The regional
                       newspaper denounced the RPA candidates. Corporate
                       liberals dominated NextDoor, the community social
                       media.
                # ** Yes,_the_Left_Should_Talk_to_Trump_Supporters **
                       Left Activism is Not the Same Thing as Left
                       Organizing 
                       If your version of political organizing looks like
                       you and your friends working only with people who
                       agree on virtually every issue, you’re not
                       organizing - what you’re doing is called activism.
                       While it’s true that activism and mobilization
                       function as strategic components of any successful
                       campaign or movement, it’s equally true that the
                       left has spent far too much time mobilizing people
                       who already agree with us.
                # ** Juan_González:_Mainstream_Media_Has_Missed_the_Real_Story
                  About_Latinx_Voter_Turnout **
                       About 160 million voters cast ballots in this
                       election, setting a new record, and President-elect
                       Joe Biden’s lead in the popular vote has jumped to
                       over 6 million. Much of the increased turnout was
                       powered by people of color, while the total number
                       of votes cast by white Americans barely increased
                       from the last presidential election. “The main
                       story is that in an election which saw historic
                       turnout, people of color — and especially Latinos —
                       had an unprecedented increase in voting,” says
                       Democracy Now! co-host Juan González. “After
                       decades of political experts talking about the
                       growing Latino vote, this year it actually
                       happened.”
                # ** Bree_Newsome_&_Prof._Eddie_Glaude:_The_Black_Lives_Matter
                  Movement_Helped_the_Democrats_Defeat_Trump **
                       As President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate
                       Kamala Harris prepare to take power, we continue to
                       look at the growing debate over the direction of
                       the Democratic Party. House Majority Whip James
                       Clyburn recently criticized calls to “defund the
                       police” and argued the phrase hurt Democratic
                       congressional candidates. “It is actually insane
                       that we would think the way to respond to the scale
                       of problems that we confront as a nation is to
                       harken back to an older form of politics that …
                       seems to try to triangulate and appeal to this
                       Reagan Democrat that they are so obsessed with,”
                       responds Eddie Glaude, author and chair of
                       Princeton University’s Department of African
                       American Studies. “It makes no sense that we would
                       go back to the politics that produced Trump in the
                       first place.” We also speak to artist and
                       antiracist activist Bree Newsome Bass, who argues
                       Black voters “are scapegoated when it’s convenient,
                       and then we are thrown under the bus when it’s
                       convenient. … That’s a dynamic that has to end.”
                # ** The_Collapse_of_the_Cuomosexual **
                       He’s baaack!
                # ** NPR’s_Shameful_Comparison_of_Stacey_Abrams_to_Donald_Trump
                  **
                       It’s very likely that Stacey Abrams is not governor
                       of Georgia today because in 2018, she and thousands
                       of the state’s voters were victims of voter
                       suppression that propelled then–Georgia Secretary
                       of State Brian Kemp into the governor’s office. She
                       wasn’t quiet about this, not just because the
                       shenanigans probably cost her the election, but
                       because the methods that were overtly employed to
                       suppress the vote were of national significance—and
                       echoed the racist tradition of preventing Blacks
                       from voting in the Jim Crow era.
                # ** Jacobin_and_Democratic_Socialists_of_America_promote
                  illusions_in_a_“progressive”_Biden_administration **
                       While tens of millions of people are on the brink,
                       facing a spiraling pandemic and an economic
                       catastrophe, Biden is forming a right-wing
                       administration of intelligence operatives,
                       militarists, financial executives and big tech
                       representatives. The Democrats have responded to
                       Trump’s refusal to concede the election and his
                       efforts to carry out a political coup by calling
                       for “unity” with the Republican Party, denouncing
                       “socialism” and preparing a government of austerity
                       and war.
                       In this context, Jacobin magazine, affiliated with
                       the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), is
                       playing an essential role in trying to keep
                       radicalizing young people tied to the Democratic
                       Party.
                       Throughout the 2020 elections, the DSA worked to
                       subordinate the growing anger of workers and youth
                       to the Democratic Party. This was done first
                       through the full support for the presidential
                       campaign of Bernie Sanders, who dropped out in
                       March and became Biden’s most enthusiastic
                       supporter.
          o **** Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press ****
                # ** Penguin_Random_House_to_Buy_Simon_&_Schuster **
                       The biggest book publisher in the United States is
                       about to get bigger. ViacomCBS has agreed to sell
                       Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House for more
                       than $2 billion in a deal that will create the
                       first megapublisher.
                       Penguin Random House, the largest book publisher in
                       the United States, is owned by the German media
                       conglomerate Bertelsmann. Adding Simon & Schuster,
                       the third largest publisher, would create a book
                       behemoth, a combination that could trigger
                       antitrust concerns.
                       The deal announced on Wednesday includes provisions
                       that would protect ViacomCBS in the event that a
                       sale is squashed by authorities. Bertelsmann would
                       pay what is known as a termination fee if the deal
                       does not go through.
                # ** The_real_threat_to_democracy_isn’t_Julian_Assange_—_it’s
                  the_espionage_case_against_him **
                       Beginning in 2010, we, the Yes Men, developed a
                       friendship with Julian Assange and a collaboration
                       with Wikileaks. In 2015, we made this short video
                       about it, originally for inclusion in our third
                       film, “The Yes Men Are Revolting,” but it didn’t
                       quite fit. We think it shows a charming, funny and
                       thoughtful side of the man, and so — despite our
                       more complicated feelings about him after 2016 —
                       we’re making it available now, given the dire
                       threats facing Assange and free speech more
                       broadly.
                       Assange is currently facing extradition to the
                       United States from London, for allegedly violating
                       the U.S. Espionage Act — marking the first time the
                       act has been used to prosecute the publishing of
                       information. If the extradition is successful,
                       he’ll face trial in a Virginia “espionage court”
                       that has never once absolved a national security
                       defendant. Allowing the Virginia court to try (and
                       most likely convict) him would be a disaster for
                       democracy — something even Obama’s Justice
                       Department believed in 2013, when they determined
                       that indicting Assange would mean having to
                       prosecute any news organization or writer who
                       publishes classified material. (They called it “the
                       New York Times problem.”)
                       Assange’s extradition hearing began in February
                       2020, with the second part delayed from May until
                       Sept. 7 because of COVID-19. In its apparent
                       eagerness to extradite Assange, the court has
                       committed some egregious abuses — such as
                       introducing new charges in June that Assange
                       couldn’t respond to — that are mentioned in this
                       summary by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and
                       this short film by Wikileaks collaborator Juan
                       Passarelli.
          o **** Civil Rights/Policing ****
                # ** The_Catholic_Church_Is_Responding_to_Indigenous_Protest
                  With_Exorcisms **
                # ** ‘Deliberately_Distorting’_Reasoning_for_Limiting_Large
                  Religious_Gatherings,_SCOTUS_Rules_Against_New_York_State’s
                  Restrictions **
                       “Free religious exercise is one of our most
                       treasured and jealously guarded constitutional
                       rights,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in
                       her dissent. “But those principles are not at stake
                       today.”
                # ** Trump_Rushes_to_Weaken_Environmental_and_Worker
                  Protections_Before_January_20 **
                # ** DOJ_to_Appeal_Judge’s_Injunction_Against_‘Cruel,
                  Unprecedented_Policy’_of_Deporting_Migrant_Children **
                       The Trump administration—which has denied the
                       severity of the coronavirus pandemic and seized
                       infants from their parents—claims it is acting in
                       the interest of public health and children. 
                # ** Free_Manna **
                       Moses killed the Minotaur And Egypt was a labyrinth
                       And as he had no ships he split The sea and walked
                       on gravel Like a lizard walks on sand and Wound up
                       in New Amsterdam Watching a sickle cell moon set A
                       jet on its way to La Guardia Passed right over Mars
                       above The trees of life and dogma In the center of
                       the garden one As life, as nature (or physis),
                       Appears as the physician; The tree of dogma,
                       custom, or The nomos, is the nomeus: Shepherd and
                       healer, the Janus of Jesus Where one tree will
                       flourish The other’s diminished —
                       Two trees, two forests One with its wood Which
                       builds weapons and prisons Money, pollution The
                       other pumping oxygen And free fruit, like manna
                # ** Saudi_Arabia,_MBS_Are_Benefiting_From_Trump_‘Silence,’
                  Says_Sister_of_Jailed_Activist_Loujain_al-Hathloul **
                       Hopes that Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain
                       al-Hathloul would be released by the kingdom’s
                       authoritarian government were dashed Wednesday,
                       when her case was sent to the country’s secretive
                       Specialized Criminal Court used to try terrorist
                       offenses and silence dissidents.
                       Al-Hathloul appeared in court looking shaken and
                       unwell, according to her family. She has been held
                       without trial for more than 900 days, in which time
                       she has allegedly been tortured, sexually assaulted
                       and held incommunicado.
                # ** Loujain_al-Hathloul,_Saudi_women’s_rights_campaigner,_has
                  case_transferred_to_terror_court **
                       Loujain, who rose to prominence when she advocated
                       for women’s right to drive, had been on hunger
                       strike for two weeks since October 26, her sister
                       said. She was among a dozen other female
                       campaigners to be arrested in May 2018, just weeks
                       before Saudi Arabia ended a decades-long ban on
                       women driving.
                       Other dissidents, including cleric Salman al-Awda,
                       who called on the country’s rulers to be more
                       responsive to the population’s desires for reform,
                       have also stood trial in the country’s anti-terror
                       court.
                       Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have
                       said that at least three jailed women’s rights
                       activists, including Loujain, have been held in
                       solitary confinement and subjected to abuse
                       including electric shocks, flogging and sexual
                       assault. Saudi Arabia has strenuously denied the
                       allegations.
                       Officials have not made public the specific charges
                       against Loujain, but last year the Saudi state news
                       agency SPA, said Hathloul and other detained women
                       were being charged with trying to undermine
                       security, stability and national unity.
                # ** Egypt’s_Sisi_Intensifies_Crackdown_on_Rights_Advocates_in
                  Waning_Days_of_Trump_Administration **
                       At last year’s G-7 meeting in France, U.S.
                       President Donald Trump called out loud enough for
                       several to hear, “Where’s my favorite dictator?” He
                       was looking for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-
                       Sisi, who led a military coup against the country’s
                       democratically elected leader in 2013, before
                       becoming president himself.
                       Trump’s offhand comment got at the uncomfortable
                       heart of what has been a long-standing relationship
                       between the United States and Egypt’s authoritarian
                       rulers—a sort of alliance-despite-dictatorship that
                       Trump took to new levels, often praising Sisi
                       publicly. But with Trump on his way out the door,
                       after losing the Nov. 3 election in resounding
                       fashion to Joe Biden, Sisi is taking advantage of
                       the Trump administration’s waning days to crack
                       down even harder on human rights advocates at home.
                # ** Biden_should_rethink_America’s_fraught_relationship_with
                  the_Saudis **
                       The U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia best
                       encapsulates the flawed U.S. approach to the Middle
                       East: the support of repressive regimes in service
                       to a superficial security umbrella at the expense
                       of the lives and livelihoods of their populations.
                       It is a policy outlook based on the false choice
                       between the stability of strong men and the rights
                       of the powerless. The coronavirus pandemic will
                       only make state-society relations in Saudi Arabia
                       and the Middle East generally more fraught and is
                       already providing the excuse for the region’s
                       autocrats to curb personal freedoms, crack-down on
                       journalists, and institute further emergency
                       powers.
          o **** Internet Policy/Net Neutrality ****
                # ** The_Broadcasting_Act_Blunder,_Day_Six:_The_Beginning_of
                  the_End_of_Canadian_Broadcast_Ownership_and_Control
                  Requirements **
                       While the largest broadcasters will hold out, they
                       will inevitably lobby the government to remove the
                       remaining restrictions, re-surfacing old arguments
                       about a “level playing field” and claiming that the
                       licensed system cannot compete against unlicensed
                       domestic and foreign streaming services that can
                       access capital from anyone in the world. This may
                       not happen overnight (much like the implementation
                       of this bill), but the future is clear: Bill C-10
                       not only spells the end of Canadian ownership and
                       control of the broadcasting system as a policy
                       priority, it opens the door to its end as market
                       reality as well.
          o **** Monopolies ****
                # **** Patents ****
                      # ** ‘Courts_cannot_shy_away_from_tackling_FRAND_issues’
                        –_Kluwer_Patent_Blog **
                             “We are at a junction where market players
                             lost all confidence on how they should
                             position themselves either as SEP owners or
                             defendants and prospective licensees.” That
                             is the opinion of Peter Chrocziel, partner at
                             Bardehle Pagenberg, specialist in SEP issues
                             and editor of the book ‘International
                             Licensing and Technology Transfer: Practice
                             and the Law’. Kluwer IP Law interviewed
                             Chrocziel, in the first part of a series of
                             interviews with authors and editors of its
                             publications.
                      # ** EPO-CNIPA_New_PCT_Pilot_Programme_Starts_On_1
                        December_2020 **
                             From 1 December 2020, Chinese PCT applicants
                             will be given the option to select the EPO as
                             their International Searching Authority
                             (ISA). According to the joint communiqué
                             published on the EPO website, this scheme
                             will be implemented as a two-year pilot
                             programme.
                             It is envisioned that this programme will
                             enable Chinese applicants to optimise their
                             international patent strategy, especially
                             when considering protection in Europe.
                             [...]
                             Although filing in English may not be a
                             particularly appealing option for Chinese
                             applicants, especially for those who already
                             file and prosecute international applications
                             at the CNIPA in Chinese, this option may be
                             beneficial for patent applications that are
                             intended to be enforced in English speaking
                             jurisdictions due to the relevant language
                             requirements with regard to publication. This
                             is due to the fact that in a number of
                             jurisdictions (such as the UK), certain
                             rights are conferred on the publication of a
                             patent application in a national language.
                             For example, it would be possible to seek
                             damages dating back to the earliest date of
                             publication of the patent application for a
                             granted UK patent, given that the earliest
                             publication of the patent application was in
                             English. As this also applies to granted UK
                             patents that are derived from international
                             patent applications that were published in
                             English, applicants may want to ensure that
                             the international patent applications were
                             filed and published in English so that any
                             rights conferred on publication in English-
                             speaking countries are available from the
                             earliest date possible.
                             In cases where the international patent
                             application claims priority from an earlier
                             filed Chinese national patent application,
                             both the Chinese national patent application
                             and the international patent application
                             would be published around the same time
                             respectively in Chinese and English, provided
                             that the earlier filed Chinese national
                             application is pursued concurrently with the
                             international application. Thus, there may
                             also be additional benefits in that relevant
                             rights are conferred at an early stage of the
                             application process for both languages.
                      # ** European_Union:_Priority_Entitlement_In_Europe_–
                        Current_Best_Practice_Following_Board_Of_Appeal
                        Decision_T844/18 **
                             The Technical Board of Appeal of the European
                             Patent Office
                             (EPO) issued its written decision in case
                             T844/18 on 6 November
                             2020. The central issue was whether the
                             patentees were legally
                             entitled to claim priority. If not, the
                             patent would be invalid for
                             lack of novelty.
                             The stakes in this case were high. The patent
                             covered a
                             game-changing development to the “CRISPR”
                             gene editing
                             technology, allowing gene editing to be
                             applied more extensively,
                             particularly to humans.
                             In their defence, the patentees challenged
                             the EPO’s entire
                             approach to priority entitlement, including
                             whether the EPO has
                             jurisdiction to examine the matter at all.
                             The Board refused to
                             accept any of the patentees’ arguments and
                             determined that they
                             had failed to comply with a fundamental
                             aspect of the law.
                             Consequently, the patent was revoked.
                             The case does not change the EPO’s
                             established practice
                             concerning priority entitlement. However, it
                             provides a sobering
                             reminder of the sometimes draconian
                             consequences of the EPO’s
                             approach and, perhaps, a timely opportunity
                             to reassess best
                             practice for applicants. The “Practical
                             Advice” section
                             at the end of this briefing provides guidance
                             of this nature. This
                             practical advice can be read either
                             separately or in conjunction
                             with the preceding sections of this briefing,
                             summarising relevant
                             EPO law and then providing a more detailed
                             discussion of the
                             T844/18 case itself.
                # **** Trademarks ****
                      # ** When_goodwill_in_the_business_is_not_enough:
                        clarifying_the_role_of_the_trademark_in_a_passing_off
                        action **
                             The respondent, Toh Yew Keat, started a
                             successful private tuition business marketed
                             as “TuitionGenius” (“TG Mark”). Subsequently,
                             he and a business associate entered into a
                             joint venture in the private tuition business
                             and incorporated the appellant, Tuitiongenius
                             Pte Ltd. Notwithstanding the joint venture,
                             the respondent continued to run his own
                             private tuition business under a modified
                             form of the TG Mark.
                             The appellant brought action against the
                             respondent inter alia for a claim in passing
                             off, alleging that, by using a mark that is
                             similar to the TG Mark, the respondent was
                             passing off his business as the appellant’s.
                             The appellant contended that the TG Mark was
                             distinctive of its business. Under the law of
                             Singapore, the tort of passing off protects a
                             trader’s goodwill in his business. To succeed
                             in a passing off action, a claimant needs to
                             prove the three elements of goodwill,
                             misrepresentation and damage.
                             At first instance, the Trial Judge dismissed
                             the claim on the ground that the TG Mark was
                             not used by the appellant to promote its
                             business. Accordingly, the appellant had no
                             goodwill in the TG Mark. The appellant
                             appealed the result.
                             On appeal, the Court of Appeal upheld the
                             Trial Judge’s decision to dismiss the claim,
                             but on different grounds. The Court of Appeal
                             held that goodwill attaches to the business
                             as a whole rather than the TG Mark itself.
                             The connection between the mark and the
                             goodwill was to be considered under the head
                             of whether there has been a
                             misrepresentation.
                # **** Copyrights ****
                      # ** Access_free,_high-quality_images_from_HDRI_Haven_|
                        Opensource.com **
                             An HDRI is a “high dynamic range image.” In a
                             single image, cameras struggle to capture
                             both the darkest and brightest parts of the
                             scene. This is why when you photograph
                             someone in front of a bright window, you’re
                             either going to end up with them being just a
                             silhouette or the window area appearing solid
                             white. An HDRI doesn’t have that limitation
                             because it’s composed of several photographs
                             of the scene captured at different exposures.
                             In the case of the images on HDRI Haven,
                             they’re full 360° panoramic images with high
                             dynamic range. In Greg’s words, it’s a means
                             of “copy/pasting” the lighting from a given
                             environment so you can use it in your 3D
                             scenes for realistic lighting.
                             The CC0 license is basically the same as
                             putting your work into the public domain and
                             “enables scientists, educators, artists and
                             other creators and owners of copyright or
                             database-protected content to waive those
                             interests in their works and thereby place
                             them as completely as possible in the public
                             domain, so that others may freely build upon,
                             enhance and reuse the works for any purposes
                             without restriction under copyright or
                             database law.”
                      # ** Researcher_Retains_EFF_To_Fight_DMCA_Takedowns_Sent
                        By_Proctoring_Company **
                             University student and security researcher
                             Erik Johnson is fighting back after
                             proctoring software company Proctorio sent a
                             series of DMCA notices to suppress his
                             criticism of its controversial ‘spying’ tool.
                             After his project was taken down from Github,
                             Johnson has now filed a counter-notice and is
                             prepared to appear in court, assisted by the
                             EFF.
                      # ** Tech_Giants_Protest_Nomination_for_US_‘Notorious’
                        Markets_List **
                             Several major US tech companies including
                             Facebook, Namecheap and Cloudflare, have
                             informed the US Trade Representative that
                             they shouldn’t be listed alongside known
                             piracy sites in the upcoming notorious
                             markets overview. The companies stress that
                             they have policies in place to deal with
                             copyright infringement, adding that the
                             notorious markets process shouldn’t be used
                             for US companies.


╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ════════════════════════════════════════╕
****** 11.27.20 ******
***** Links_27/11/2020:_Jolla_is_7,_Diffoscope_162,_MNT_Reform_Production *****
Posted in News_Roundup at 5:32 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
[GNOME bluefish]
**** Contents ****
    * GNU/Linux
          o Distributions
          o Devices/Embedded
    * Free_Software/Open_Source
    * Leftovers
    * **** GNU/Linux ****
          o ** A_Linux_Survey_For_Beginners **
                 So you have decided to give the Linux operating system a
                 try. You have heard it is a good stable operating system
                 with lots of free software and you are ready to give it a
                 shot. It is downloadable for free, so you get on the net
                 and search for a copy, and you are in for a shock.
                 Because there isn’t one “Linux”, there are many. Now you
                 feel like a deer in the headlights. You want to make a
                 wise choice, but have no idea where to start.
                 Unfortunately, this is where a lot new Linux users give
                 up. It is just too confusing.
                 The many versions of Linux are often referred to as
                 “flavors” or distributions. Imagine yourself in an ice
                 cream shop displaying 30+ flavors. They all look
                 delicious, but it’s hard to pick one and try it. You may
                 find yourself confused by the many choices but you can be
                 sure you will leave with something delicious. Picking a
                 Linux flavor should be viewed in the same way.
          o **** Desktop/Laptop ****
                # ** Master_boot_vinyl_record:_It_just_gives_DOS_on_my_IBM_PC_a
                  warmer,_more_authentic_tone **
                       Looking for something to do in quarantine? How
                       about booting DOS from a 10-inch vinyl record?
                       While booting an operating system nowadays usually
                       sees the software loaded from disk or flash memory,
                       some of us of a certain age recall the delights of
                       shovelling bytes in memory via the medium of tape,
                       such as an audio cassette sending noise into the
                       RAM of a home computer.
                       Tinkerer Jozef Bogin has taken things a little
                       further by booting an elderly IBM PC from a record
                       player.
                       Bogin used an old IBM PC and took advantage of a
                       boot loader that would cause the hardware to fall
                       back to the PC’s cassette interface should
                       everything else (floppies etc) fail. An analogue
                       recording of bootable, read-only RAM drive was
                       played through the interface, containing a version
                       of FreeDOS tweaked by Bogin to fit into the memory
                       constraints, a tiny COMMAND.COM and a patched
                       version of INTERLINK to shovel data through the
                       printer cable.
                # ** The_Homer_Car,_But_It’s_leinir’s_Laptop **
                       We are now into week three of me sitting in a
                       virtual machine on my better half’s laptop, while
                       we wait for my replacement Dell XPS 13 2-in-1
                       (2019) to arrive, after Dell conceded that they
                       could not fix the old one. Short version: The
                       graphics fan went wonky and stopped spinning, so
                       they sent an engineer out to replace the mainboard
                       (because everything is soldered on, including the
                       fan assembly), and then it stopped booting. So they
                       sent out another, and that also immediately failed
                       to post, and then decided that wasn’t worth trying
                       again, so they would send me a replacement laptop.
                       Three weeks later, and i have a tracking number,
                       with no updates for a couple of days, though it
                       also isn’t past the estimate they gave me for
                       getting it (two weeks for an in stock item, from
                       Ireland to England, nice…).
          o **** Audiocasts/Shows ****
                # ** How_to_install_Lubuntu_20.10_–_YouTube **
                       In this video, I am going to show how to install
                       Lubuntu 20.10.
                # ** Bad_Voltage_3×17:_Such_People_In’t **
                       Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia
                       present Bad Voltage, in which the reality
                       distortion field is strong in this one, the middle
                       name game continues unsuccessfully…
                # ** Linux_Gaming_and_Lonely_Noobs_(w/_Batcastle_of_Drauger_OS)
                  –_YouTube **
                       Welcome to the first in a series of conversations
                       with Thomas of Drauger OS, a Linux distro optimized
                       for gaming. Over the next few videos we’ll discover
                       his Linux origin story, hear about his new project
                       that aims to help ALL gaming-focused Linux
                       distributions, and learn more about Drauger OS.
                # ** LHS_Episode_#381:_Enter_the_Dragon_|_Linux_in_the_Ham
                  Shack **
                       Welcome to the 381st episode of Linux in the Ham
                       Shack. In this short topics episode, the hosts
                       discuss SpaceX, the spectrum around 5.9GHz, Open
                       WebRX, the non-free part of free software, the
                       latest release candidate of WSJT-X, Kali Linux and
                       much more. Thank you for listening and have a
                       fantastic Thanksgiving week.
          o **** Kernel Space ****
                # ** Linus_Torvalds_wants_Linux_running_on_Apple’s_new_M1_Macs
                  **
                       When Apple launched its new MacBook Pro, MacBook
                       Air and Mac Mini systems, there was much excitement
                       about the performance boost the M1 chips are
                       bringing to the table.
                       People who have been running Windows and Windows
                       apps on Macs, however, are less happy due to the
                       lack of support for Boot Camp, and the lack of M1-
                       ready virtualization software from the likes of
                       Parallels. But what about the prospect of Linux on
                       M1 Macs?
                # ** Lenovo_ThinkPad_Palm_Sensor_Support_Coming_To_Linux_5.11_–
                  Phoronix **
                       As part of Lenovo offering Linux pre-loaded on more
                       laptops and desktops, they have been working on
                       upstream improvements themselves along with their
                       partners at Red Hat and others. One of the latest
                       Lenovo-contributed improvements to the kernel is
                       palm sensor support for newer ThinkPad notebooks.
                       Palm sensor support is being contributed by Lenovo
                       to the Linux 5.11 kernel for their ThinkPad
                       hardware. This is similar to the existing lap
                       sensor support for the ThinkPad ACPI code and
                       allows detecting if a user’s palms/hands are near
                       the keyboard area. Like the lap sensor, the palm
                       sensor data is exposed to user-space via sysfs.
                       It’s up to the user-space for anything that should
                       be done if the user’s palms have been detected near
                       the keyboard.
                # ** Following_FUSE_&_CUSE,_Now_There_Is_“MUSE”_For_MTD_In
                  Userspace_–_Phoronix **
                       FUSE is well known to longtime Linux users for
                       allowing file-systems to be implemented in user-
                       space for where a Linux kernel port isn’t feasible
                       for portability or licensing restrictions, among
                       other factors. There is also CUSE for character
                       devices in user-space. Now being based on FUSE,
                       there is “MUSE” being worked on for MTD in user-
                       space.
                # ** Intel_Sends_In_More_DG1_Enablement_Code,_Big_Joiner_For
                  Linux_5.11_–_Phoronix **
                       Intel’s Linux graphics driver developers have
                       submitted their final batch of feature changes
                       targeting the Linux 5.11 kernel.
                       With Linux 5.10-rc6 upon us this weekend, it’s
                       basically hitting the cut-off of new feature code
                       to be sent into DRM-Next ahead of the Linux 5.11
                       merge window opening around mid-December. The Intel
                       pull request of their graphics driver work is
                       acknowledged as their last batch of feature work
                       for the 5.11 cycle.
                       Already from previous pull requests to DRM-Next
                       have been more Gen12 / Tiger Lake fixes, integer
                       scaling support, async page flipping, and other
                       changes.
                # ** Memory_Is_Not_a_File **
                       An advantage of this approach, he says, “manifests
                       when programs running on UNIX get a “file” to open
                       and, lo, it’s actually the name of a device. Most
                       UNIX programs will still work, provided that the
                       calling process has the correct authorization to
                       open the file.”
                       In the article, titled “Everything is a Punch
                       Card,” Garfinkel examines the origins of files and
                       file systems, as well as the related history of
                       punch cards and tabulating machines. He notes that
                       “English has had a difficult relationship with the
                       word “file” since the beginning. Sometimes the word
                       refers to the case or container for organizing
                       physical embodiments of information, sometimes it
                       refers to the objects put into that container, and
                       sometimes it refers to the information itself.”
                       Garfinkel also looks at one thing that is not a
                       file: memory. “Yes,” he says, “Linux systems have
                       devices like /dev/mem and /dev/kmem that let
                       programs access memory through the file system, but
                       memory is not file.” He compares the UNIX approach
                       with that of the Multics operating system, “in
                       which files are actually named segments in a two-
                       dimensional memory address space.” On Multics, he
                       says, “saving a “file” was really creating a named
                       memory segment and then persisting it to long-term
                       storage.”
          o **** Applications ****
                # ** Linux_Candy:_XScreenSaver_–_Framework_and_collection_of
                  screensavers **
                       Linux Candy is a series of articles covering
                       interesting eye candy software. We only feature
                       open source software in this series.
                       Some of the programs in this series are purely
                       cosmetic, frivolous pieces of fun. Candy at their
                       finest. But we also include some programs that
                       aren’t purely decorative.
                       There’s a diverse range of programs included in
                       this series. Programs such as eDEX-UI and Variety
                       are actually highly practical programs.
                       ASCIIQuarium has soothing and relaxing qualities
                       for your desktop. Other programs included in this
                       series (such as lolcat, cacafire) are included
                       purely for their decorative qualities. And then
                       there’s some really fun software that just raises a
                       smile or two.
                       Screen savers display an animation that
                       consistently changes so that a static image isn’t
                       left on the screen for any length of time.
                       Screen savers are a legacy from an earlier
                       technology. They are certainly misnamed in today’s
                       scene. They don’t “save” your monitor unless you’ve
                       managed to connect your PC to an ancient CRT
                       monitor. But they can still bring enjoyment.
                # ** Why_Every_Linux_User_Needs_To_Learn_Awk_–_YouTube **
                       Awk is one of those tools that every linux user has
                       on their system but they probably only use it for
                       fairly simple tasks, so today I thought I’d explain
                       not only what awk but why you should use it and
                       compare it some other Linux utils like sed.
          o **** Instructionals/Technical ****
                # ** How_To_Enable_Timestamp_In_Bash_History_In_Linux_–
                  OSTechNix **
                       How do you know the time at which the command was
                       executed? Easy! This guide explains how to enable
                       timestamp in Bash history in Linux.
                # ** How_to_install_Mattermost_Chat_on_Ubuntu_20.04_–
                  RoseHosting **
                       Step-by-step process on how to install Mattermost
                       Chat on Ubuntu 20.04. Follow this simple and easy
                       guide.
                # ** How_To_Install_Rust_on_CentOS_8_–_idroot **
                       In this tutorial, we will show you how to install
                       Rust on CentOS 8. For those of you who didn’t know,
                       Rust, commonly known as Rust-Lang, is a system
                       programming language that is developed by Mozilla
                       and backed by LLVM. Rust is known for preventing
                       program crashes, memory leaks, and data races
                       before it is compiled into binary, thus creating a
                       highly-productive and stable programming
                       environment
                       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 Rust programming language on
                       CentOS 8.
                # ** How_to_Remove_‘Show_Applications’_Icon_From_the_Dock_in
                  Ubuntu_20.04_|_UbuntuHandbook **
                       This is a beginner’s guide shows how to remove the
                       ‘Show Applications’ app menu icon from the dock in
                       Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10.
                # ** How_to_Install_OpenNMS_Network_Monitoring_Tool_in_CentOS_8
                  **
                       OpenNMS is a free and open-source network
                       monitoring and network management platform used for
                       managing enterprise networks around the world. It
                       is based on Java and is designed to manage
                       thousands of devices from a central location. It
                       has the ability to discover and monitor the
                       services or nodes automatically in your network.
                # ** How_to_play_Dark_Souls_III_on_Linux **
                       Dark Souls III is an action RPG video game
                       developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai
                       Namco. It is the fourth game in the Souls series
                       and the final game in the Souls trilogy. Here’s how
                       to get the game working on Linux.
                # ** Openstack_RDO_&&_KVM_Hypervisor:_Install_KDE_Plasma_on
                  SparkyLinux_GameOver_08/11_2020 **
                       At the time of writing KDE Plasma install on any
                       SparkyLinux 2020.09 might be committed via GDM3
                       installation right after KDE Plasma ( the last one
                       via tasksel or CLI ) due to after system reboot GDM
                       seems to be the only one DM on Sparky detecting
                       previously installed KDE.
                # ** How_to_install_VLC_on_a_Chromebook **
                       Today we are looking at how to install VLC Media
                       Player 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.
                # ** How_to_play_Dark_Souls_II:_Scholar_of_the_First_Sin_on
                  Linux **
                       Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is an
                       action RPG video game developed by FromSoftware and
                       published by Bandai Namco. In the game, the
                       player’s character becomes Undead, cursed never to
                       die, and becomes a hollow zombie creature with no
                       memories or purpose.
                # ** Create_your_own_Linux_ecosystem_with_Nextcloud,_DavX5_and
                  KDE_Connect **
                # ** How_to_Install_and_Use_Flatpak_on_Linux **
                       In this guide, we focus on how you can install
                       Flatpak and use it across various Linux
                       distributions.
                # ** How_to_create_a_Linux_RPM_package_|_Enable_Sysadmin **
                       You’ve written a great script that you want to
                       distribute, so why not package it as an RPM?
                # ** How_to_Install_PHP_8_on_Ubuntu_–_Cloudbooklet **
                       Install PHP 8 on Ubuntu. This guide let you learn
                       how install the latest PHP version 8 and upgrade to
                       latest on your Ubuntu 20.04 or 18.04 systems or
                       your Ubuntu server on any VPS or any Cloud or any
                       Dedicated hosting and configure it with Apache and
                       Nginx.
                       The latest PHP 8 is officially released on November
                       26th, 2020. It comes with a number of new features
                       and a few incompatibilities that you should be
                       aware of before upgrading from the previous
                       version.
                       This installation is tested on Google Cloud
                       Platform with a Compute Compute Engine VM Instance.
                       This set up will work on all Linux servers.
                # ** Full_Circle_Magazine_#163 **
                # ** How_To_Setup_Firewall_using_FirewallD_on_CentOS_8_–_idroot
                  **
                       In this tutorial, we will show you how to setup a
                       Firewall using FirewallD on CentOS 8. For those of
                       you who didn’t know, FirewallD is an alternative to
                       the iptables service, for dynamically managing a
                       system’s firewall with support for network (or
                       firewall) zones and provides a D-Bus interface for
                       managing configurations. Starting with CentOS 7,
                       FirewallD replaces iptables as the default firewall
                       management tool.
                       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 Setup Firewall using FirewallD on CentOS 8.
                # ** How_to_install_PHP_8_on_Ubuntu_20.04_/_Debian_10_–
                  LinuxH2O **
                       In this article, you will learn how to install the
                       latest PHP version 8 on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Debian
                       10, and their derivative distributions.
                       PHP is one of the most popular server-side
                       scripting languages. Most of the websites on the
                       internet are using PHP including Facebook, Yahoo,
                       Wikipedia. There are many frameworks that are also
                       built with PHP, like WordPress, Codeigniter,
                       Laravel, etc.
                       This article will guide on how to install the
                       latest stable release of PHP 8.0 on Ubuntu, Debian,
                       and their derivatives like Mint, MX Linux,
                       Elementary OS, POP OS, Zorin OS, etc.
                # ** [Old]_How_to_install_XRDP_(Remote_Desktop)_Server_on
                  Centos_8 **
                       XRDP is an open-source implementation of the
                       Microsoft Remote Desktop (RDP) that allows you to
                       graphically control your system. With RDP, you can
                       log in to the remote machine the same as you had
                       logged into the local machine. It uses Port 3389
                       for its connection. In this tutorial, we will look
                       at how to set up the Remote desktop Connection on
                       Centos 8.
          o **** Games ****
                # ** Dungeon-crawling_gesture-puzzler_The_Wizard:_WizHarder
                  Edition_is_out_now_|_GamingOnLinux **
                       The Wizard: WizHarder Edition is a brand new
                       gesture-puzzler dungeon crawling game from Hypnotic
                       Owl, designed as a new modern desktop remake of
                       their popular web game.
                # ** Godot_Engine_–_Dev_snapshot:_Godot_3.2.4_beta_3 **
                       While development keeps going at full speed towards
                       Godot 4.0 (see recent devblogs on GDScript typed
                       instructions and Complex Text Layout), a lot of
                       work is also being done on the 3.2 branch for the
                       upcoming Godot 3.2.4.
                       This new beta 3 build comes shortly after last
                       week’s beta 2 to fix some of the regressions and
                       bugs reported against that release.
                       The only big change is that the classical build for
                       macOS is now a universal binary, with both x86_64
                       and arm64 architectures included (to support the
                       new ARM-based Apple M1 chip natively). This update
                       also re-adds UWP templates which we missing in beta
                       1 and beta 2 due to a temporary buildsystem issue.
                # ** The_Red_Comrades_game_series_goes_supported **
                       Red Comrades is a 2D adventure game played from a
                       third-person perspective. The game’s protagonists
                       are from Dmitri Furmanov’s 1923 novel Chapaev:
                       historical Russian military figure Vasiliy
                       Chapayev, his aide Petka, and the machine gunner,
                       Anka.
                # ** GOG_are_doing_their_own_Black_Friday_sale_with_lots_of
                  DRM-free_games_|_GamingOnLinux **
                       If the Steam Autumn Sale and the itch.io sale
                       aren’t your thing, perhaps you might find something
                       you want over on the DRM-free store GOG.com.
                       This sale has GOG doing some extra discounts in the
                       form of time-limited Flash Deals. Each has a timer,
                       with a fresh set being put up once the timer runs
                       out. Some good deals going in those too like 85%
                       off Pillars of Eternity: Definitive Edition until
                       November 29.
                # ** Event-driven_game_engine_GDevelop_has_a_new_release_with_a
                  built-in_Asset_Store_|_GamingOnLinux **
                       Continuing to make game and app development easier
                       to get into, the event-driven free and open source
                       game engine GDevelop has an interesting new release
                       available.
                       The latest release tagged as 5.0.0-beta102 adds in
                       an easy to use free Asset Store, enabling you to
                       quickly pick from various public domain assets
                       (with full credit to authors and links) to include
                       in projects from sprites to particle effects. It’s
                       a wonderful idea, and makes prototyping even easier
                       to get into.
                # ** For_the_Black_Friday_2020_sale,_itch.io_are_giving_100%_to
                  developers **
                # ** Gravity_in_Space_might_be_the_most_unique_(and_weirdest)
                  space_shooter_I’ve_ever_seen_|_GamingOnLinux **
                       Currently in development with a release planned to
                       happen in 2021, Gravity in Space is a fully 3D
                       space shooter with six degrees of freedom.
                       This is not a traditional space shooter though,
                       it’s not an arcade-like experience either and not a
                       Descent-like either. You are in space, controlling
                       a strange little spaceship-ball with a peculiar
                       cannon on the top. The developer describes it as an
                       “ultimate synthesis of an astrodynamics simulation
                       and an action shooter”. Gravity in Space bounds you
                       to Newton’s laws of motion, making you think
                       differently to control your craft indirectly with
                       “no air resistance, no maximum speed, no limits”.
                # ** OBS_Studio_26.1_in_testing_with_a_Release_Candidate_out
                  now,_adds_Virtual_Camera_on_Linux_|_GamingOnLinux **
                       OBS Studio, the free and open source one-stop
                       solution for video capture and livestreaming has a
                       new release coming with the first Release Candidate
                       for OBS Studio 26.1 out now.
                # ** UNIGINE_Engine_2.13_is_an_impressive_upgrade_for_this
                  rising_game_engine **
                       UNIGINE might not be a name you hear often when it
                       comes to games but it is an impressive game engine,
                       one that supports Linux fully and it continues
                       advancing in major ways.
                       [...]
                       When you dive into the finer details, it’s clear
                       that the UNIGINE team have been hard at work to
                       keep up with the likes of Unity, Unreal and Godot
                       for bigger projects. Lots of new advanced rendering
                       techniques are included, along with plenty of
                       optimizations and there’s a couple of Linux-
                       specific fixes included too like correctly
                       importing paths for FBX assets.
          o **** Desktop Environments/WMs ****
                # **** K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt ****
                      # ** Plasma_Bigscreen_–_Updated_Beta_2_Image_Release_For
                        Raspberry_Pi_4 **
                             Plasma Bigscreen project is pleased to
                             announce the release of a newer beta image
                             for the Raspberry Pi 4. The beta 2 release
                             adds several new features and includes a
                             number of bug fixes.
                      # ** Please_give_us_your_20.12_releases_features **
                             The KDE release service will make another
                             bundle of releases next month on Dec 10th.
                # **** GNOME Desktop/GTK ****
                      # ** Do_not_use_librsvg_2.40.x **
                             Please do not use librsvg 2.40.x; it cannot
                             render recent Adwaita icon themes correctly.
                             The librsvg 2.40.x series is the last “C
                             only” version of the library; it was
                             deprecated in 2017.
                             During the port to Rust, I rewrote the path
                             parser to be spec-compliant, and fixed a few
                             cases that the C version did not handle. One
                             of this cases is for compact Arc data.
                             The SVG path grammar allows one to remove
                             whitespace between numbers if the next number
                             starts with a sign. For example, 23-45 gets
                             parsed as two numbers 23 -45.
                             In addition, the arguments of the Arc
                             commands have two flags in the middle of a
                             bunch of numbers. The flags can be 0 or 1,
                             and there may be no whitespace between the
                             flags and the next number. For example, A1.98
                             1.98 0 0015 13.96 gets parsed as A1.98 1.98 0
                             0 0 15 13.96 — note the two 0 0 flags before
                             the 15.
                             [...]
                             Please use at least librsvg 2.48.x; any
                             earlier versions are not supported. Generally
                             I keep an eye on the last two stable release
                             sets (2.48.x and 2.50.x as of this writing),
                             but only commit fixes to the latest stable
                             series (2.50.x currently).
                      # ** Pranali_Deshmukh:_GSoD_Weekly_Summary_9 **
                             The idea here was to consolidate all
                             documentation regarding the different
                             operational modes of the calculator into a
                             single section consisting of an overview page
                             along with dedicated pages for each of the
                             operational modes: Basic, Advanced,
                             Financial, Programming and Keyboard modes.
          o **** Distributions ****
                # ** Best_USB_bootable_distros_of_2020 **
                       Trimmed distros aren’t only designed for ageing
                       hardware. In fact, there are several lean distros
                       that have been pruned and tuned and optimized for
                       booting off of USB.
                       There are several uses for shoving Linux distros
                       inside a USB flash drive. For instance, they can be
                       quite handy when you need to use somebody else’s
                       computer. Or, perhaps you need to boot into a live
                       Linux environment to troubleshoot issues with your
                       computer, or perhaps to transfer data from a dying
                       disk.
                # **** Reviews ****
                      # ** Xubuntu_20.10_Groovy_Gorilla_review **
                             Let’s have some Linux testing today, shall
                             we. This autumn season I’m a reformed man,
                             with a new approach to my distro escapades.
                             Less emotional investment, lower threshold of
                             tolerance, neutral expectations. The new key
                             formula ingredient is fun. If I’m having it,
                             the review becomes super-long and detailed.
                             If not, then I’m stepping away, and you may
                             then decide for yourself what to do, or try
                             other online sources for relevant
                             information.
                             After Fedora 33 and Kubuntu 20.10, I want to
                             focus on Xubuntu Groovy Gorilla. For a few
                             years now, I’m under the impression that the
                             Linux desktop enthusiasm has shrunk greatly,
                             and this is quite apparent among the smaller
                             distros. Xubuntu is no exception. I used to
                             have a lot of fun with Xfce systems, but this
                             isn’t quite the case lately. Then, there’s
                             always a chance the next distro I try will be
                             a fresh turning point. Let’s see what Xubuntu
                             can do for us then.
                             [...]
                             Call me a bitter dinosaur if you like, but I
                             do believe my expectations are fairly
                             realistic – if not modest. I want a desktop
                             that has stability, consistency,
                             functionality – and good looks. Almost
                             impossible to attain in the Tux world
                             (lately). With Xubuntu 20.10, you get a bit
                             of this and that, but you really need to
                             invest effort in making the system behave. I
                             also don’t see a conflict between having a
                             classic desktop and a modern one, at the same
                             time. Integration with various online tools
                             and services need not impede on the standard
                             desktop formula and proven usage models.
                             Pretty does not imply inefficient.
                             Xubuntu 20.10 simply does not radiate pride,
                             quality and attention to detail that would
                             warrant investment from the user. I believe
                             it will find audience among people who really
                             want a no-nonsense 100% bullshit-free system
                             that works and behaves the likes of a classic
                             2010 box, but then, that also means
                             deliberately compromising on aesthetics as
                             well as some use cases that exist today and
                             that some people may require. No reason why
                             this should be the case, and yet it is. Since
                             I wasn’t having fun, I decided to bow out
                             gracefully. Perhaps you will have more luck,
                             but for me, this feels like a system trapped
                             in time and lethargy.
                # **** New Releases ****
                      # ** Why_MX_Linux_reminds_me_of_old-school_Linux–in_the
                        best_ways **
                             You might not know this, but according to
                             Distrowatch, MX Linux is currently the No. 1
                             most downloaded Linux distribution. You’re
                             probably thinking, “MXWhat?” That’s right, a
                             distribution that seemingly came out of
                             nowhere has shot up the ranks to the top of
                             the class…sort of.
                             MX Linux isn’t all that new. In fact, it’s
                             been around since 2014. MX Linux was created
                             as a cooperation between former MEPIS Linux
                             communities and antiX, a lightweight,
                             systemd-free Linux distribution. Although MX
                             Linux defaults to the Xfce desktop as their
                             flagship, you can download and install
                             versions with KDE or Fluxbox for either a
                             slightly more modern desktop (KDE) or a
                             throwback to old-school Linux (Fluxbox).
                      # ** Q4OS_4.2_Gemini,_testing **
                             An update to the Q4OS 4 Gemini testing branch
                             is immediately available for download as
                             64bit live media. The new 4.2 release is
                             based on Debian 11 Bullseye and features
                             Plasma desktop environment by default. New
                             visual Plasma themes have been added, they
                             are now available in system settings utility.
                             Debian Bullseye packages has been received in
                             their latest version, Q4OS specific packages
                             has been updated as well. New version of
                             Trinity desktop 14.0.10 is ready for
                             installation using the Desktop profiler tool.
                             Feel free to download live media for 64bit
                             computers from the dedicated Testing releases
                             site. Q4OS 4 Gemini will be in development
                             until Debian Bullseye becomes stable, and it
                             will be supported at least five years from
                             the official release date.
                # **** SUSE/OpenSUSE ****
                      # ** openSUSE_Tumbleweed_–_Review_of_the_week_2020/48_–
                        Dominique_a.k.a._DimStar_(Dim*) **
                             After last week being filled with problems,
                             this week felt like a ‘relaxing one’ – not
                             that there would be fewer changes incoming,
                             but we could focus on those changes instead
                             of cuddling the infrastructure. And so it
                             comes that we managed to publish 5 snapshots
                             during this week (1119, 1121, 1123, 1124, and
                             1125).
                # **** IBM/Red Hat/Fedora ****
                      # ** Red_Hat_Process_Automation_Manager_7.9_brings_Apache
                        Kafka_integration_and_more_–_Red_Hat_Developer **
                             Red Hat Process Automation Manager 7.9 brings
                             bug fixes, performance improvements, and new
                             features for process and case management,
                             business and decision automation, and
                             business optimization. This article
                             introduces you to Process Automation
                             Manager’s out-of-the-box integration with
                             Apache Kafka, revamped business automation
                             management capabilities, and support for
                             multiple decision requirements diagrams
                             (DRDs). I will also guide you through setting
                             up and using the new drools-metric module for
                             analyzing business rules performance, and
                             I’ll briefly touch on Spring Boot integration
                             in Process Automation Manager 7.9.
                      # ** Getting_started_with_Fedora_CoreOS **
                             Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) came from the merging of
                             CoreOS Container Linux and Fedora Atomic
                             Host. It is a minimal and monolithic OS
                             focused on running containerized
                             applications. Security being a first class
                             citizen, FCOS provides automatic updates and
                             comes with SELinux hardening.
                             For automatic updates to work well they need
                             to be very robust. The goal being that
                             servers running FCOS won’t break after an
                             update. This is achieved by using different
                             release streams (stable, testing and next).
                             Each stream is released every 2 weeks and
                             content is promoted from one stream to the
                             other (next -> testing -> stable). That way
                             updates landing in the stable stream have had
                             the opportunity to be tested over a long
                             period of time.
                # **** Debian Family ****
                      # ** Slimjet_–_SparkyLinux **
                             Slimjet is built on top of the Chromium open-
                             source project on which Google Chrome is also
                             based. It enjoys the same speed and
                             reliablity provided by the underlying blink
                             engine as Google Chrome. However, many
                             additional features and options have been
                             added in Slimjet to make it more powerful,
                             intelligent and customizable than Chrome. In
                             addition to that, Slimjet DOES NOT send any
                             usage statistics back to Google’s server like
                             Google Chrome, which is a growing concern for
                             many Chrome users due to the ubiquitous
                             presence and reach of the advertising empire.
                             Slimjet is compatible with all extensions and
                             plugins designed for Google Chrome available
                             from the Chrome web store.
                # **** Canonical/Ubuntu Family ****
                      # ** Canonical_Becomes_A_Docker_Verified_Publisher **
                             Canonical has teamed up with Docker to
                             distribute its free and commercial software
                             through Docker Hub as a Docker Verified
                             Publisher.
                             The collaboration will ensure that hardened
                             free and commercial Ubuntu images will be
                             available to all developer software supply
                             chains for multi-cloud app development.
          o **** Devices/Embedded ****
                # ** Raspberry_Pi_alternative_seeed_Odyssey:_Assembly_is
                  challenging,_but_it’s_worth_it **
                       I was recently sent a combination of the seeed
                       Odyssey single board computer and the seeed
                       re_computer case for review. I’ve always found
                       these types of computers to be an incredibly
                       valuable part of the IT landscape because they are
                       so versatile. Use them as a desktop or a kiosk.
                       IoT? Sure, why not? Cluster them together for a
                       small container deployment? Of course. Anywhere you
                       need a tiny form factor computer, you’ve got a
                       solution.
                       The Raspberry Pi is the gold standard of single
                       board computers. When seeed reached out to me, my
                       first inclination was, “You’re not Raspberry Pi.”
                       Then again, I’ve always been a champion of the
                       underdog, so why not give it a go?
                # ** Raspberry_Pi_finds_its_inner_PC **
                       We take a look at discounted Waveshare kits that
                       extend the Raspberry Pi 400 with an up to 13.3-inch
                       touchscreen and check out some RPi 4 kit discounts,
                       an overview of the RPi laptop scene, a Vulkan
                       driver for the Pi, and more.
                       The Raspberry Pi may be the most popular embedded
                       board of all time, but deep in its heart the Pi has
                       always wanted to be a PC. It was intended initially
                       as a low-cost educational computer that plugs into
                       a monitor via HDMI with some GPIO on the side for
                       learning embedded computing. Here we pass on a
                       sampling of news about the PC side of the Raspberry
                       Pi.
                # ** ASUS_Chromebox_4_features_Intel_Comet_Lake_processor,_WiFi
                  6,_up_to_16GB_RAM **
                       Chrome OS devices, be it Chromebook laptops,
                       Chomebox mini PCs, or Chromebit PC sticks, used to
                       be relatively low-cost devices designed to run the
                       Chrome browser. But over the years. the versatility
                       of the platform has increased with more powerful,
                       yet still with low-power consumption, hardware, and
                       improved software with support for Android apps,
                       the Google Play Store, and even Linux programs.
                       [...]
                       I could not quite remember what BC 1.2 meant, and
                       it stands for “Battery Charging 1.2” technology
                       meant you’ll be able to charge your smartphone or
                       other battery-powered devices faster through
                       compatible ports.
                # ** How_to_choose_a_wireless_protocol_for_home_automation **
                       In the second article in this series, I talked
                       about local control vs. cloud connectivity and some
                       things to consider for your home automation setup.
                       In this third article, I will discuss the
                       underlying technology for connecting devices to
                       Home Assistant, including the dominant protocols
                       that smart devices use to communicate and some
                       things to think about before purchasing smart
                       devices.
                # **** Open Hardware/Modding ****
                      # ** MNT_Reform_Production_Update_November_2020_—_MNT
                        Research **
                             Shortly after the conclusion of the Crowd
                             Supply campaign, we shipped 8 hand-built beta
                             devices and collected some last minute
                             feedback. Based on the feedback and our own
                             learnings during this last test assembly
                             phase, we further refined some aspects of the
                             MNT Reform design.
                      # ** uSVC_Arduino_VGA_board_–_a_portable_and_programmable
                        retro-gaming_console_(crowdfunding) **
                             Itaca Innovation previously launched uChip,
                             an Arduino-compatible board that has a Cortex
                             M0+ MCU that features 0.3” spacing between
                             rows. Now, next-hack joined Itaca Innovation
                             to come up with an expansion board for uChip.
                             The uChip Simple VGA Console (uSVC) Arduino
                             based retro-gaming console is open hardware
                             and is a programmable console. It will allow
                             creating and playing retro “9-bit” games with
                             standard USB controllers and keyboards.
                      # ** Arduino_Blog_»_Controlling_a_gas_convection_heater
                        with_a_custom_thermostat **
                             Redditor “Higgs8” had a gas convection heater
                             that is (or was) controlled manually, but
                             they wanted something a bit more. To
                             accomplish this, they came up with a small
                             Arduino-based thermostat.
                             This allows you to set the desired
                             temperature using a potentiometer, and it
                             senses the current temperature value via a
                             DS18B20 thermometer unit. It then adjusts the
                             formerly manual knob with a stepper motor and
                             custom gear reduction in response,
                             maintaining the desired comfort level.
                # **** Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications ****
                      # ** The_Original_Jolla_Phone_turns_7_today **
                             The first one is always the first one. Most
                             Sailfish fans remember the first ever device
                             to run Sailfish OS, the original Jolla phone,
                             or Jolla 1 as we sometimes like to call it.
                             This device, a trailblazer in its own field
                             at the time, was first launched on this very
                             rainy November day in Narinkkatori, Helsinki
                             exactly seven years ago. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jolla
                             phone!
                             Launching the Jolla smartphone back in 2013
                             was a truly memorable event for many of us in
                             the Jolla team, but also for the hundreds of
                             fans queuing to get their hands on the first
                             ever Sailfish device. For me, as one of the
                             founders of Jolla, launching this iconic
                             device was undoubtedly one of the most
                             exciting moments in my life, which I’ll
                             always remember. I trust many others share
                             the same feeling with me.
          o **** Free, Libre, and Open Source Software ****
                # ** Phoenix_CTMS:_An_Open-source_Clinical_Trial_Management
                  System **
                       Phoenix CTMS is a self-hosted cross-platform web
                       application which run seamlessly on Windows and
                       Linux server as well as local machines. It’s built
                       using Java technologies (JEE – Java Enterprise
                       Edition technology stack) and uses PostgreSQL as a
                       database backend.
                       [...]
                       However, We recommend using it with a virtual
                       machine with Debian instead of Windows.
                # **** Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra ****
                      # ** LibreOffice_Switch_Promotion_Poster **
                             Continuing Open Document and Learn
                             LibreOffice posters, here’s the 3rd colorful
                             educational poster to spread LibreOffice.
                             Everyone can adapt and share freely this
                             poster, for example, in schools with their
                             own language. I wish this helps people switch
                             from Microsoft Word – Excel – PowerPoint into
                             the better program, that is Free Software,
                             namely LibreOffice Writer – Calc – Impress.
                             Let’s share once again!
                      # ** Better_handling_of_cached_field_results_in_Writer **
                             Writer now has much better support for
                             preserving the cached result of fields in
                             documents. This is especially beneficial for
                             Word formats where the input document may
                             have a field result which is not only a
                             cache, but re-calculating the formula would
                             yield a different result, even in Word.
                             [...]
                             Collabora intends to continue supporting and
                             contributing to LibreOffice, the code is
                             merged so we expect all of this work will be
                             available in TDF’s next release too (7.1).
                # **** Programming/Development ****
                      # ** Arm_Neoverse_N2_Support_Added_To_The_LLVM_Clang_12
                        Compiler_–_Phoronix **
                             In September Arm began adding Neoverse N2
                             support to the open-source compilers
                             initially with GCC and now the support has
                             been merged into LLVM Clang 12 as well.
                             The Neoverse N2 “Perseus” core was outlined
                             in September as a follow-on design to the
                             successful Neoverse N1. The N2 aims to
                             provide 40% more performance over the N1 for
                             single-threaded performance. The N2 is
                             intended for use from the cloud to enterprise
                             networking devices to edge computing.
                      # ** Qt_6.0_RC_and_timelines_for_6.1_and_6.2 **
                             Hi all,
                             First of all, I wanted to thank everybody for
                             the hard work towards getting Qt 6.0 out of
                             the door. We now have a first RC out, so
                             we’re definitely getting very close to the
                             6.0.0 release.
                             With that and the fact that we now have a 6.0
                             branch, it’s also time to start looking a bit
                             ahead towards 6.1 and 6.2.
                             We have long discussed, that the timing of
                             our feature releases to be just before summer
                             and Christmas vacation is a bit unfortunate,
                             as we have little slack for delays without
                             going into the vacation period. Especially
                             the releases in December have sometimes been
                             difficult in that respect. So we’d like to
                             push the schedule a bit and move the minor
                             releases towards a Spring/Autumn schedule.
                             A somewhat shorter release cycle directly
                             after 6.0 is probably a good idea anyway, as
                             we will probably still need to do changes/
                             fixes that don’t quite fit with our policy
                             for patch level releases.
                             So the idea is to shorten the release cycle
                             for Qt 6.1 a bit and focus mainly on bug
                             fixing and stability for that release. We’d
                             aim for a feature freeze by the end of
                             January, and a final Qt 6.1.0 release end of
                             April.
                             6.2 would then also happen a bit earlier,
                             with a feature freeze in June and a release
                             end of September.
                             Content wise, I believe we’ll start seeing
                             more and more of the add-ons from Qt 5 being
                             supported over the next 6-9 months, and I
                             believe that with Qt 6.2 we will have brought
                             most modules that we supported in Qt 5.15
                             over to Qt 6.
                             Cheers,
                             Lars
                      # ** Qt_6.1,_Qt_6.2_Expected_To_Come_Sooner_With
                        Tightened_Release_Cycles_–_Phoronix **
                             Qt 6.0 is releasing in December and The Qt
                             Company is already drafting plans for the
                             release cycles of Qt 6.1 and Qt 6.2 LTS next
                             year.
                             Normally Qt is on a six-month release cadence
                             but next year’s Qt 6.1/6.2 releases will
                             likely be tightened up both to address a
                             long-standing gripe of the current timing
                             that often puts new releases around summer
                             holidays and the Thanksgiving~Christmas
                             holiday season. To try to move off those May
                             and November~December release windows, they
                             are looking at tightening up the cycles for
                             Qt 6.1 and Qt 6.2, with the latter being the
                             first long-term support release of the Qt6
                             series.
                             Lars Knoll is proposing that Qt 6.1 be
                             shipped by the end of April which would put
                             the feature freeze already at the end of
                             January. But for Qt 6.1 the emphasis anyhow
                             will likely be on bug fixing and stability
                             improvements after all the changes in Qt 6.0,
                             so a tightened up Qt 6.1 release makes sense.
                      # **** PHP ****
                            # ** Programming_language_PHP_8_is_out:_This_new
                              JIT_compiler_points_to_better_performance **
                                   The team behind scripting language PHP
                                   has announced PHP version 8.0, a major
                                   release that may require developers to
                                   review code for any breaking changes.
                                   This version of 25-year old PHP
                                   introduces an improved type system, a
                                   new JIT compiler in the PHP engine and
                                   some features borrowed from Python and
                                   JavaScript, such as named arguments and
                                   null safe operators.
    * **** Leftovers ****
          o **** Integrity/Availability ****
                # **** Proprietary ****
                      # ** Argus:_The_Linux_Commander_–_Manila_Bulletin **
                             If you are like me who uses a Mac to manage
                             Linux servers, then you may find this little
                             menu bar tool a little nifty. Argus,
                             currently on version 1.3, is a free download
                             from https://argus-app.net. Argus already
                             supports Big Sur and the new Apple Silicon M1
                             SoC.
                             Installing Argus is just like any other MacOS
                             application — drag and drop. Since this is a
                             monitoring tool for remote Linux servers, you
                             will need to add basic server information so
                             Argus can set it up and gather the data from
                             it. Argus creates an SSH tunnel to the
                             server, so it requires SSH credentials (of
                             course this means that the remote server has
                             SSH properly configured). You can use your
                             username-password pair, but I’d advise that
                             you set up your certificates first to make it
                             more secure (and easier).
                             Once you have provided the server information
                             and SSH credentials, Argus will connect to it
                             and start downloading the Argus daemon.
                             Installing the daemon will require root
                             privileges, so make sure that you have sudo
                             access, as your password will be asked during
                             the install.
                             Configure all the other remote servers that
                             you wish to monitor through the Preferences
                             pane.
                      # ** Jussi_Pakkanen:_How_Apple_might_completely_take_over
                        end_users’_computers **
                             Many people are concerned about Apple’s
                             ongoing attempts to take more and more
                             control of end user machines from their
                             users. Some go so far as to say that Apple
                             won’t be happy until they have absolute and
                             total control over all programs running on
                             end user devices, presumably so that they can
                             enforce their 30% tax on every piece of
                             software. Whether this is true or not we
                             don’t really know.
                             What we can do instead is a thought
                             experiment. If that was their end goal, how
                             would they achieve it? What steps would they
                             take to obtain this absolute control? Let’s
                             speculate.
                      # ** Additional_Linux_Power_For_SAP_Business_One **
                             The migration from ERP/ECC 6.0 to S/4 Hana
                             continues to be one of the main challenges in
                             the SAP community. It is worthwhile to also
                             take a look at SAP Business One on Hana in
                             this context.
                             It’s well known that more and more companies
                             of all shapes and sizes are taking the first
                             step towards S/4 Hana or are already
                             operating it. What’s not as well known,
                             however, is that Business One (B1), a
                             solution for smaller and mid-sized companies,
                             has been on a steep growth trajectory for a
                             few years now. Experts put the estimated
                             number of B1 installations at 100,000
                             worldwide.
                      # **** Security ****
                            # ** Security_updates_for_Friday_[LWN.net] **
                                   Security updates have been issued by
                                   Arch Linux (go, libxml2, postgresql,
                                   and wireshark-cli), Debian (drupal7 and
                                   lxml), Fedora (drupal7, java-1.8.0-
                                   openjdk-aarch32, libxml2, pacemaker,
                                   slurm, and swtpm), openSUSE (c-ares,
                                   ceph, chromium, dash, firefox, go1.14,
                                   java-1_8_0-openjdk, kernel, krb5, perl-
                                   DBI, podman, postgresql10,
                                   postgresql12, rclone, slurm, ucode-
                                   intel, wireshark, wpa_supplicant, and
                                   xen), SUSE (ceph, firefox, kernel,
                                   LibVNCServer, and python), and Ubuntu
                                   (freerdp, poppler, and xdg-utils).
                            # ** diffoscope_162_released **
                                   The diffoscope maintainers are pleased
                                   to announce the release of diffoscope
                                   version 162.
                            # ** Netfilter_virtual_workshop_2020_summary **
                                   Once a year folks interested in
                                   Netfilter technologies gather together
                                   to discuss past, ongoing and future
                                   works. The Netfilter Workshop is an
                                   opportunity to share and discuss new
                                   ideas, the state of the project, bring
                                   people together to work & hack and to
                                   put faces to people who otherwise are
                                   just email names. This is an event that
                                   has been happening since at least 2001,
                                   so we are talking about a genuine
                                   community thing here.
                                   It was decided there would be an online
                                   format, split in 3 short meetings, once
                                   per week on Fridays. I was unable to
                                   attend the first session on 2020-11-06
                                   due to scheduling conflict, but I made
                                   it to the sessions on 2020-11-13 and
                                   2020-11-20. I would say the sessions
                                   were joined by about 8 to 10 people,
                                   depending on the day. This post is a
                                   summary with some notes on what
                                   happened in this edition, with no
                                   special order.
                                   Pablo did the classical review of all
                                   the changes and updates that happened
                                   in all the Netfilter project software
                                   components since last workshop. I was
                                   unable to watch this presentation, so I
                                   have nothing special to comment.
                                   However, I’ve been following the
                                   development of the project very
                                   closely, and there are several
                                   interesting things going on, some of
                                   them commented below.
                                   Florian Westphal brought to the table
                                   status on some open/pending work for
                                   mptcp option matching, systemd
                                   integration and finally interfacing
                                   from nft with cgroupv2. I was unable to
                                   participate in the talk for the first
                                   two items, so I cannot comment a lot
                                   more. On the cgroupv2 side, several
                                   options were evaluated to how to match
                                   them, identification methods, the
                                   hierarchical tree that cgroups present,
                                   etc. We will have to wait a bit more to
                                   see how the final implementation looks
                                   like.
                                   Also, Florian presented his concerns on
                                   conntrack hash collisions. There are no
                                   real-world known issues at the moment,
                                   but there is an old paper that suggests
                                   we should keep and eye on this and
                                   introduce improvements to prevent
                                   future DoS attack vectors. Florian
                                   mentioned these attacks are not
                                   practical at the moment, but who knows
                                   in a few years. He wants to explore
                                   introducing RB trees for conntrack. It
                                   will probably be a rbtree structure of
                                   hash tables in order to keep supporting
                                   parallel insertions. He was encouraged
                                   by others to go ahead and play/explore
                                   with this.
                            # ** The_Peculiar_State_Of_CPU_Security_Mitigation
                              Performance_On_Intel_Tiger_Lake_–_Phoronix **
                                   One area not talked about much for
                                   Intel’s latest Tiger Lake processors
                                   are hardened CPU security mitigations
                                   against the various speculative
                                   execution vulnerabilities to date.
                                   What’s peculiar about Tiger Lake though
                                   is now if disabling the configurable
                                   mitigations it can actually result in
                                   worse performance than the default
                                   mitigated state. At least that’s what
                                   we are seeing so far with the Core i7
                                   1165G7 on Ubuntu 20.10 Linux is the
                                   opposite of what we have been seeing on
                                   prior generations of hardware.
                                   [...]
                                   On each of these Dell XPS notebooks
                                   were clean installs of Ubuntu 20.10
                                   with security / stable release updates
                                   of the time and on their default Linux
                                   5.8 kernel. The out-of-the-box /
                                   default mitigation performance was
                                   tested on each notebook followed by re-
                                   testing the same laptop and software
                                   stack after booting with
                                   mitigations=off.
                                   Here is the geometric mean of all the
                                   results before digging into the
                                   individual data points, but as you can
                                   see mitigations=off was of noticeably
                                   help to the older Kaby Lake R and
                                   Whiskey Lake processors, previous-
                                   generation Ice Lake was of some help
                                   but less given more hardware
                                   mitigations, and now with Tiger Lake
                                   the tables have turned where disabling
                                   the mitigations actually hurt the
                                   performance.
          o **** Defence/Aggression ****
                # ** Opposition_leaders_speak_in_one_voice_after_release_of
                  Bobi_Wine_–_The_East_African **
                       Presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi
                       Wine was on Friday released on a Ush1 million
                       ($270) bail, ending three days of tension in
                       Kampala. His arrest on Wednesday triggered protests
                       in the city and major towns, and were crushed by
                       Uganda’s security forces.
                       Bobi Wine was ordered to report back to court on
                       December 18.
                       Immediately after his release, five presidential
                       candidates jointly issued a statement raising
                       concerns that “the Electoral Commission (EC) has
                       been overrun by security agencies and is no longer
                       in charge of the elections”.
          o **** Environment ****
                # ** Kerry_Means_Militarization_of_US_Climate_Policy **
                       Howie Hawkins, the 2020 Green Party presidential
                       candidate, condemned the appointment of Cedric
                       Richmond to lead the White House Office of Public
                       Engagement with business and the climate movement.
                       “With the appointment of Richmond, Biden just told
                       the climate movement there will be no honeymoon
                       with the new administration,” Hawkins said.
                       Richmond has represented Louisiana’s second
                       district, which tracks the oil refineries and
                       plastics factories of Louisiana’s notorious Cancer
                       Alley between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. He
                       received the fifth highest total of oil and gas
                       industry contributions among House Democrats over
                       his ten years in Congress. He voted to approve the
                       Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline.
                       “Richmond’s role will be to pacify the climate
                       movement and minority communities with sweet talk
                       and token grants while the oil and gas industry
                       continues to frack the hell out of the country and
                       the Louisiana refineries and plastics factories
                       continue to poison workers and residents in his
                       congressional district.”
          o **** AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics ****
                # ** No_Victory_Dance:_Eight_Reasons **
                       Some Americans are getting ready to celebrate the
                       likely final collapse of Donald Trump’s openly
                       ludicrous and vile attempt to subvert the will of
                       the American electorate.
                       I get it. Trump’s chances of success are low. He
                       and his team of legal bozos shoot themselves in
                       their bog floppy clown feet every day. Underscoring
                       the pathetically petulant and Monty Python-esque
                       madness of his coup that can’t think straight,
                       Trump told reporters last Friday that “I won by the
                       way, but you’ll find that out. Almost 74 million
                       votes.”
                # ** As_We’re_Giving_Thanks,_Let’s_Resolve_to_Change_Our_Food
                  System_for_the_Better **
                       It’s a time of year to reflect not just on what
                       we’re grateful for, but how we can make the
                       abundance and blessings go around. Making our food
                       system fairer is part of that.
          o **** Civil Rights/Policing ****
                # ** Shirish_Agarwal:_Farmer_Protests_and_RCEP **
                       While I was hoping to write about RCEP exclusively,
                       just today farmer protests have happened against
                       three farm laws which had been passed by our Govt.
                       about a month ago without consulting anybody. The
                       bills benefit only big business houses at the cost
                       of farmers. This has been amply shared by an open
                       letter to one of the biggest business house which
                       will benefit the most.
                       Now while that is a national experience and what it
                       tells, let me share, some experience from the State
                       I come from, Maharashtra. About 4-5 years back
                       Maharashtra delisted fruit and vegetables from the
                       APMC market. But till date, the APMC market is
                       working, why, the reasons are many. However, what
                       it did was it forced the change to sugarcane, a
                       water guzzling crop much more than previously. This
                       has resulted in lowering the water table in
                       Maharashtra and put them more into debt trap and
                       later they had to commit suicide.
                       Now let us see why the Punjab farmers have been so
                       agitated that they are walking all the way to
                       Delhi. They are right now, somewhere between
                       Haryana-Delhi border. The reason is that because
                       even their experiments with contract farming have
                       not been good. This is why they are struggling to
                       go to Delhi to make their collective voices heard
                       and get the farm bills rolled back. Even the
                       farmers from Gujarat were sued, but because of
                       elections were put back, the intentions though are
                       clear. At the end of the day, the laws made by the
                       Govt. leaves our farmer at the mercy of big
                       corporations. It is preposterous to believe that
                       the farmer, with their small land holdings will be
                       able to stand up to the Corporation. Add to that,
                       they cannot go to Court. It is the SDM (Sub-
                       Divisonal Magistrate) who will decide on the
                       matters and has the last word. If this is allowed,
                       in a couple of years there will be only few farmers
                       or corporations who would have large hand-holdings,
                       and they would be easily co-opted by the Government
                       in power.
          o **** Monopolies ****
                # **** Patents ****
                      # ** Oral_Proceedings_by_Videoconference_–_some_light
                        reading_at_the_end_of_a_hot_debate **
                             So the consultation of the public by the
                             Boards of Appeal has ended today. It will be
                             interesting to see the results and the
                             impact, if any, they will have on the final
                             wording of Art. 15a EPC. In the meantime,
                             please enjoy these remarkable oral
                             proceedings before the Committee of Labour
                             and Social Matters of the German Bundestag
                             (in German only, but I’m sure you will catch
                             the drift).
                             A colleague of mine told me that this
                             reminded him of one of his recent “oral”
                             proceedings in the EPO. But never mind.
                      # ** German_parliament_passes_bill_required_for_UPC
                        ratification **
                             The draft legislation required for Germany to
                             ratify the Unified Patent Court (UPC)
                             Agreement and its Protocol on Provisional
                             Application received its second and third
                             readings in the Bundestag yesterday and was
                             approved by 570 members, so achieving
                             approval of more than the two thirds of all
                             the 709 Bundestag members, as required for a
                             transfer of sovereign rights. It was this
                             requirement that was not met for the previous
                             bill, leading to the successful
                             constitutional complaint. For the previous
                             bill, the vote was late in the evening and,
                             although approved unanimously, very few
                             members were present to vote. Yesterday there
                             were 645 total votes (72 voting against and 3
                             abstentions).
╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛