𝕿𝖊𝖈𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖘 Bulletin for Monday, February 15, 2021 ┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅ Generated Tue 16 Feb 02:31:46 GMT 2021 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 Latest in 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒕𝒙𝒕 and 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 21 days, in chronological order): QmTQRxYHVWtx8S4dRVAHYdHRP68X7QJqhSACnocHbzgtyV QmQj6HW3vDTyY5hgmSKy5X8bf94tQFhVLakj16micbK9LZ QmRtM5chAUzYL92tBPtEGH1PaX3X7PknpoBDpieD7Um3bm QmV12ZGBVdUMW6U5EEeZ4GqN3ki8eyGRdhYmg8URmDL3ES QmS5ebD86kkZFvbHYCTtfDMvoFFJgwnSJWXmjyNgHnbtAd QmTaQKWDnKQjnncBkW27bEJ1GGNkg3c6HNrE8UBAeSXKg8 QmWHkvWHLK7bUAHNzFVwEU249WZjGTLksME3vdvSU7L1LE QmfJtQHWJNRCTuBWGXwerP6PJXD823gKT8N1kLhXWgoK6J QmUWhatshba3ApHxNCHhTuHS67XuS5vDbeysnCgk3EXonj QmTBzgC9a5YAvAGjNp4uExks66B8fPA9yw9FZoyzrcRKi3 Qmc7b55qCt5y3EP6hWT4ta1uAwTG6XzDPJGnk8W9ibgyxD QmUgLYU6NzYdsPwxzfBk5LNGHN4bRSojDJ1VPKWxUXJG5u QmTjTBLBBouevW5uzG3ohszqRAQEMvXhFjVBKUDKgFm5yV QmXi8EwkmKnaRgWZHgUjV5XejCSD4NExPP9D4NYZieagNa QmdhD5bZU2RWdYb9NVxAjrkp28mM45R8TTMEFzkukK8JWU QmRTYYDYWGusnRs1VNCbHotXnFPXSDYCGVCpks2kHY3LMV QmWRboy3r2TsVs4jD1ukWTvVuYKPfA7fAxMcZVPCw4JdaD QmS5kQC7XM7cx7EjP4hvTQPozshd2reueKci9cJCfnPRNd QmXEHK2QubTfVDK1uRnASYqfRg71omfujwZ1BL2hctbRKL QmcgJMK25sS8KvDP91WGCs8mnD3BshA4mPSR8uGCMM78po QmeidW7C3Nfeo5DgSCuymjXFCNx5k84CW3sDm1xEM1A2vP ╒═══════════════════ 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐗 ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ⦿ Cancel Canonical? | Techrights ⦿ Diversity, Elitism and Racism, When Google Expelled a Student From Google Summer of Code (GSoC) | Techrights ⦿ Matthias Kirschner, Jonas Oberg & FSFE: Paternity, Maternity, Sick Leave Hypocrisy | Techrights ⦿ Syndication, Feeds and Subscriptions in Gemini | Techrights ⦿ IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 14, 2021 | Techrights ⦿ Patents Over Parents at the EPO | Techrights ⦿ Open Invention Network (OIN) and Big Banks: Shared Agenda | Techrights ䷼ Bulletin articles (as HTML) to comment on (requires login): http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/cancel-canonical/#comments http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/expelled-by-google/#comments http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/fsfe-sick-leave-hypocrisy/#comments http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/gemini-subs/#comments http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/irc-log-140221/#comments http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/patents-over-parents/#comments http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/the-oin-delusion/#comments ䷞ Followed by Daily Links (assorted news picks curated and categorised): http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/gnu-linux-libre-5-11/#comments http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/i-love-freesw/#comments ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 65 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/cancel-canonical/#comments ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.15.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ ✐ Cancel_Canonical?⠀✐ Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Servers, Ubuntu at 4:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Video_download_link http://techrights.org/videos/canonicalsoft.webm Summary: Only days after Ubuntu/Canonical staff defended what_the_Raspberry_Pi Foundation_had_quietly_done_with_Microsoft (behind users’ or customers’ backs) we see Canonical under fire — yes, once again! — for privacy abuses, facilitated in part by Microsoft THE latest breach of trust (and breach of privacy) at Canonical isn’t going to help Ubuntu’s image. That’s a fact. The community that once existed in an orbit around Ubuntu is long gone, so what’s left to lose, right? Let’s get closer to Microsoft, thought Canonical… “The video above goes through some other ramifications and mentions some older privacy scandals implicating Ubuntu/Canonical.”The issue isn’t exactly breaking news; we mentioned this in passing in relation to the Raspberry Pi-Microsoft scandal the other day because the ‘news’ site The Register had_covered_the issue (it had also been mentioned in some podcasts and new_videos, social control media aside). Over at ZDNet, albeit days late (4 days after The Register), SJVN has just mentioned_this. “Bongiorni was a little more “frank” about his annoyance and surprise that a Canonical salesperson had tracked him down on an entirely different service and knew that he had just used Ubuntu on Microsoft Azure,” SJVN wrote. Microsoft is spying and this has long been a reason for concern about the Raspberry Pi-Microsoft blunder. That Microsoft also shares the private data with other companies is certainly noteworthy and it may merit a GDPR complaint. The video above goes through some other ramifications and mentions some older privacy scandals implicating Ubuntu/Canonical. █ ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 122 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/expelled-by-google/#comments ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.15.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ ✐ Diversity,_Elitism_and_Racism,_When_Google_Expelled_a_Student_From_Google Summer_of_Code_(GSoC)⠀✐ Posted in Deception, Free/Libre_Software, Google at 8:02 am by Guest Editorial Team Reprinted with permission from Daniel_Pocock In October 2016, one of the administrators of Debian’s Outreachy program informed the Debian Project Leader (DPL) and I that his_girlfriend_would_apply to_my_project. Four days later her application was withdrawn. If the DPL had any discussion with those people, it was done behind my back and I didn’t see it. I was reminded of this on Friday when France’s grandes_écoles were in the news again. It has been argued that these schools separate the ruling class from the rest of society. In negotiations with the gilets_jaunes_(yellow_vest)_movement, President Macron had agreed to shut them down, he has subsequently decided_to offer_diversity_scholarships_to_underrepresented_groups. Our previous GSoC/Outreachy admin and his girlfriend were French and they had both met during their time in one of these grandes écoles, ENS_Cachan. As reported in the article, over seventy percent of people in grandes écoles have parents with a similar education and social class. In this intellectual class, people struggle to relate to the outside world. President Macron graduated from the most prestigious of these schools. In 2018, at the height of the gilets jaunes conflict, it became clear how he was struggling to understand the working class when he made an appeal for calm while_sitting_at_a_golden_desk. In Debian, people gave said couple the benefit of the doubt. 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇President Macron, golden desk⦈ When something like that happens, it sets a precedent in the culture of the organization. Or does it? In 2018 Debian faced a very similar challenge involving an application from a student. I decline to identify the student. Nonetheless, in discussion with the admin team and other mentors, I informed people how Debian handled the case in 2016. When Stephanie Taylor at Google found out about this relationship, she was absolutely furious. Everybody up to the DPL feigned amnesia, nobody could remember how Debian applied this logic to distinguished volunteers from the grandes écoles. It was purported that this was my personal policy. I never advocated for such a policy, I simply explained this is how Debian handled it last time. This was one of those cases where people with sinister motives play word games, cutting and pasting your words into something you never wrote. Before asking any questions, Stephanie Taylor immediately expelled the student from the program. Why was there such a dramatic difference between the handling of the case in 2016 and 2018? Why did the Debian Project Leader cover up the 2016 case? This is the us-and-them mentality that separates social classes. Sinners in your class have a get-out-of-jail-free card. People draw the wagons into a circle and defend their own. This is why the gilets jaunes call for the grandes écoles to be closed, for_the_students_of_every_social_class_to_study together_in_the_larger_public_universities. 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇Indian flag half mast⦈ Why did Taylor act so dramatically, shoot first and ask questions later? In the latter case, the student was not from a grande école, they were from India. When you make a judgment about somebody without gathering evidence first, that means you are showing contempt for their status as human beings. Arbitrary punishment like that is well within the definition of harassment. Take a moment to empathize with how each student felt, the French student and the Indian student: the Indian student would have felt a lot worse after an experience like that. When such a dramatic difference occurs, the implication of harassment could well be racial harassment. Standing up for the same precedent, that our contributors from India should be treated to the same rules as contributors from grandes écoles doesn’t mean I endorse those conflicts of interest. I don’t. I resigned immediately after GSoC 2018 finished. Nonetheless, when I look at the difference between these two cases, I feel that talk about diversity is just window dressing and whenever a challenging situation occurs, impatience and intolerance reigns. █ Disclaimer: I was not party to any personal relationship with the students in this blog post, in fact, I never even met them. ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 236 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/fsfe-sick-leave-hypocrisy/#comments ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.15.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ ✐ Matthias_Kirschner,_Jonas_Oberg_&_FSFE:_Paternity,_Maternity,_Sick_Leave Hypocrisy⠀✐ Posted in Deception, Europe, Free/Libre_Software at 10:38 am by Guest Editorial Team Reprinted with permission from the_Free_Software_Fellowship 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇FSFE, Matthias Kirschner, student union, sexism⦈ Today the Fellowship is proud to leak to more messages from the FSFE proving the hypocrisy of Matthias Kirschner. To recap the sequence of events: 1. A fellow left a EUR_150,000_bequest_to_the_FSFE. 2. There was fighting about the money and Matthias Kirschner, President, fell out with Jonas Oberg, Executive Director 3. To avoid being sacked, Oberg took paternity leave while looking for another job. 4. Kirschner had a huge fit. He wanted to fire Oberg but he couldn’t. So Kirschner took paternity leave too, his message announcing paternity leave is leaked below 5. When Kirschner came back, he was still pissed off so he decided_to_remove the_elections_from_the_constitution. 6. The representative elected by the community resigned in disgust 7. Kirschner was angry that all the serious people quit and he had nobody to blame. So he spread rumours that the community representative, who had already resigned, is a spammer and pedophile 8. When the two female employees, Susanne Eiswirt and Galia Mancheva, spoke about wage equality, Kirschner sacked them. Finally, he got to fire somebody. Women. In particular, he_sacked_Galia_while_she_was_on_sick leave, he didn’t give her the same support that people gave Kirschner during his paternity leave episode. To summarize: the only people Kirschner actually sacked or expelled were women. All_the_serious_people_resigned_in_disgust_before_Kirschner_could_get_out_his knife. █ § Leak 1: Matthias Kirschner paternity leave⠀➾ 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇Matthias Kirschner, President, FSFE, paternity leave, sexism, baby⦈ Subject: [GA] New fork / MK off until 23 April Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2018 07:33:09 +0200 From: Matthias Kirschner To: FSFE General Assembly , FSFE EU core team This week my child Paul Benjamin Kirschner was born. We are all fine and enjoy those wonderful and unique moments of our lives. Until 23 April I will be offline to spent time with my family. I am very happy that the FSFE is in a state which enables me to take this time off, knowing that all day to day operations will be performed reliably by our volunteers and staffers. During that time some topics will be on hold, and I will not follow-up any e-mail discussions. Heiki and Patrick will decide if something is important enough to contact me. In case you have issues to discuss which are not absolutely urgent, I ask you to wait with bringing them up, until I am back again. Thank you for enabling me to enjoy the birth of my child and fully concentrate on my family for the next weeks. All the best from a tired but exuberantly happy, Matthias – Matthias Kirschner – President – Free Software Foundation Europe Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany | t +49-30-27595290 Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030 | (fsfe.org/join) Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner) – Weblog (k7r.eu/blog.html) § Galia Mancheva’s comments about her medical leave⠀➾ Does Kirschner’s wife, Kristina, know that Kirschner intruded on Galia’s home? [https://fsfellowship.eu/assets/galia-mancheva-baby.jpg] An extract from Galia’s_full_report: I suspected Matthias was preparing to fire me, and indeed I was on a clock. He needed to make sure he was re-elected FSFE president before he could get rid of me. It would have damaged his chances to have fired all the full-time women in the office in the two months leading up to the elections – an unnecessary risk – but once approved he would have another two years’ free reign. At this time my friends were starting to worry – the psychological pressure and lack of enough time off caused my condition was decline. I had to take a sick leave. Certain that I was about to get fired, my friends encouraged me to seek legal counsel, if so only to keep myself focussed on constructive tasks. Immediately after my sick leave announcement, Matthias fired me over the phone on a Friday night, and threatened me to immediately go to the office to hand over work-related items. Appearing in the office during a sick leave is illegal in Germany, so I refused. A weekend of non-stop calls followed, including from hidden phone numbers. He even texted telling me I should answer my phone, for my own better. Even after my lawyer warned him to terminate all attempts to communicate with me and send someone else to pick up my work laptop, he came in person to my house, and was very irritated that I was not alone. § Leak 2: Jonas Oberg paternity leave⠀➾ Subject: Continuation in volunteer roles Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2018 09:55:47 +0100 From: Jonas Oberg To: team@lists.fsfe.org Hi everyone, I just reviewed the mailing lists where I was subscribed for the FSFE, and wanted to give you a heads up about what you can expect from me in the coming months (and years!). From the 14th of February, I will be largely disconnected from the day-to-day operations of the FSFE, owing to my parental leave. I’m still a member of the association, and I still have an interest in many of our activities, so I will continue my work in some areas as a volunteer. Specifically, I will, as a member, remain subscribed and part of the ga@ and team@ lists, but I will read team@ less seldom and focus my attention to the much needed work in the GA. I will also remain as a volunteer for the following activities: – Our Legal team – The FSFE Nordic local group – REUSE In addition, I plan to volunteer time to oversee some of the work with the AMS implementation and system administration. It’s not conceivable we will manage a proper handover of all tasks in the time remaining, and I have a personal interest in making sure this is properly done. This all being said, you can of course always rely on my help or guidance if you need it for any other activity too. Just make sure that you ask me specifically (direct mail) about it, and understand that from the 14th, my ability to respond will be much lower during the days and I’ll catch up more infrequently, often in the evenings. In the coming months, I will also have two weeks when I’ll work full time for the FSFE; for the REUSE activities we will have at the Open Source Leadership Summit, and for the LLW in Barcelona. So you can expect more mails from me those weeks (w10 and 16) 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇:-)⦈ Best, – Jonas Öberg Executive Director FSFE e.V. – keeping the power of technology in your hands. Your support enables our work, please join us today http://fsfe.org/join 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇Susanne_Eiswirth,_Matthias_Kirschner,_Galia_Mancheva,_FSFE, workplace_bullying,_harassment⦈_ ⠀⠀⠀⣀⣀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣀⣀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⣀⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣀⠀ ⣀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣀ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⠛⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠛ ⠀⠛⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠛⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠛⠛⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠛⠛⠀⠀⠀ ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 465 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/gemini-subs/#comments ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.15.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ ✐ Syndication,_Feeds_and_Subscriptions_in_Gemini⠀✐ Posted in Site_News at 8:12 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Video_download_link http://techrights.org/videos/gemini-subscribe.webm Summary: The Gemini (gemini://) protocol is both exciting and functional; this video explains how it can handle requests from visitors and deal with subscriptions to capsules/pages WE have added 2019 archives (full) to our Gemini capsule, which is now self- updating (kept in sync with HTTP) every 3 hours. The capsule now has about 5,000 pages in it. That number will grow over time. The capsule’s address (URL) is gemini://gemini.techrights.org/ and the feed is at gemini:// gemini.techrights.org/feed (not RSS feed, Gemini does it differently). “We hope that more people will join us at Gemini (as some reader of ours already have).”This video explains the concept of “subscriptions” in Gemini and shows how this is managed in Amfora, a command-line client for Gemini (the GUI clients have their own means for maintaining subscriptions). We hope that more people will join us at Gemini (as some readers of ours already have). This isn’t some passing fad; Gemini is fast-growing and it has its place alongside the World Wide Web. █ ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 510 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/irc-log-140221/#comments ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.15.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ ✐ IRC_Proceedings:_Sunday,_February_14,_2021⠀✐ Posted in IRC_Logs at 2:51 am by Needs Sunlight 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇H 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇HTML5_logs⦈_ #techrights_log_as_HTML5 #boycottnovell_log_as_HTML5 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇H 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇HTML5_logs⦈_ #boycottnovell-social_log_as_HTML5 #techbytes_log_as_HTML5 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇t 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇text_logs⦈_ #techrights_log_as_text #boycottnovell_log_as_text 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇t 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇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  Qmcnf1hAFgWwTXu4ZMurDQqee5aLVvzEv5Po6KE3c8MG9j #boycottnovell 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #boycottnovell  QmUpGD6XnStY2SKDo56QrWjm9d5mpBLjdStEAkCGp6SLdR (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for #boycottnovell-  QmRJvG6jTNnvBKQL71X47q1wToWPLVDT4kHy3ZjbZxASXa social 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #boycottnovell-  QmXnMsNiPyiBTvyQAPzTt9DP4far92iHCkeZUS2VJspTcQ social 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ (full IRC log as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for  QmPMfJf2CGGyCc48zSYDroCSEZSp1hkaRw4gpKcZwzNhuA #techbytes 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #techbytes  QmRvscUtkXA6n5fxvG2JyZ2xXSrywwu9Y72VP5KVp6WoLn (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for  QmTp9Y2cXnne6t4bNiR8TuFYVFHruanGhnS8CovMo95aAH #techrights 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #techrights  QmVCaMsf1maCmEACYvZRVoUqc9Nd5VbqRccckUYiq3WLxM (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ as plain/ASCII text) 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇IPFS logo⦈ § Bulletin for Yesterday⠀➾ Local_copy | CID (IPFS): QmeidW7C3Nfeo5DgSCuymjXFCNx5k84CW3sDm1xEM1A2vP ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 623 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/patents-over-parents/#comments ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.15.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ ✐ Patents_Over_Parents_at_the_EPO⠀✐ Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:37 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Video_download_link http://techrights.org/videos/epo-vs-parents.webm Summary: Europe’s second-largest institution does not treat parents fairly; this jeopardises the standards of labour rights across Europe’s as a whole LAST night we posted some information about how parents — especially young parents — are being treated by Europe’s largest patent office (certainly no parent office). EPO autocrats like Benoît_Battistelli (with his grown-up daughters) and his “Orange_Man” think alike; EPO workers are just “spoiled”… after all, they do all the work. How dare they demand that their human rights be respected? “The EPO’s management is in fact not seeing much of a future, judging by the plans to lay off staff and the squeezing of the goose for its golden egg.”Further to last_night's_post we’ve produced the video above, which explains why today’s EPO cannot attract talent and won’t manage to attract any (in the foreseeable future). The EPO’s management is in fact not seeing much of a future, judging by the plans to lay off staff and the squeezing of the goose for its golden egg. Today’s EPO is self-destructive and it mostly serves monopolists that aren’t even European (they’re usually not law-abiding, either, but they have a grip on governments and patent offices). Here’s the document shown above, as text: Staff Committee The Hague Comité du personnel de La Haye Personalausschuss Den Haag 10 February 2021 § Childcare during the pandemic⠀➾ Shared effort: request special leave for childcare and home-schooling Dear Colleagues, Your Staff Representation has been made aware that an overwhelming number of colleagues struggled to cope with trying to balance work and home schooling or caring for young children during the lockdowns caused by the pandemic. These difficulties have been acknowledged by the President who announced the crediting of 10 extra parental leave days to all eligible parents1 at the beginning of 2021. Extra parental leave alone is however not sufficient as it creates a financial gap which can prove unaffordable. For a number of staff, the only solution presently available is to take annual leave to care for their offspring, thus depleting their annual leave credit, or work when their caring responsibilities are over, both of the above leading to physical and mental exhaustion2. Your Staff Representation hereby advises colleagues who need to combine their EPO duties with childcaring responsibilities during the pandemic to request special leave with a corresponding target adjustment for example according to the following pattern, which seems to be a common practice3, embraces the principle of duty of care and shows a genuine “shared effort” between the employee and the employer: in_the_absence_of_schooling_and_day_care_facilities_due_to_lockdown, quarantine_or_stricter_rules_relating_to_keeping_children_away_from said_establishments,_a_staff_member_taking_half_day_of_annual, parental_or_unpaid_leave_requests_half_day_of_special_leave_to_make up_a_whole_day_dedicated_to_childcare_or_home-schooling. Childcare centres and some schools have reopened but a third wave and lockdown are looming on the horizon. If they materialize, if your child(ren) is/are sent home because they or another pupil in the group have symptoms, or if they need to quarantine, please request leave according to the above distribution. ______ 1 N.B: For the sake of consistency with the Codex, any supplementary parental leave should be given per child rather than per parent – this is to avoid that families where both parents work at the EPO receive double the amount compared to families where only one parent is an Office employee. 2 Research shows the increased risk of parental burnout and pandemic fatigue: Parental Burnout and Child Maltreatment During the COVID-19 Pandemic, A, K, Griffith, J. Fam. Violence, 2020. 3 See for example KPN giving 4 hours leave for every 4 hours taken by its employees for childcare: “Betaald verlof en docent aan huis: zo helpt de baas zijn werknemers”, RTL, NL. For other examples of common practice in the matter, see “Zusätzliche Kinderkrankentage für Eltern”, Bundesregierung, DE and “Can I be furloughed to look after my children?”, BBC, UK. ===================================================================== The reasons listed for requesting special leave in MyFips - > Teleworking, time and leave -> Special leave do not include “force majeure” or “childcare during the pandemic”4, which is why we advise sending the template below to HR and your manager to request that the corresponding special leave days be credited to your leave account and your yearly target adjusted. Take care of yourselves and your loved ones, Your Staff Representation ______ 4 It should be noted that the list of reasons for granting special leave in Article 59 and circular 22, rule 6 of the Codex is not exhaustive. [...] If anybody at the EPO has something to tell us and requires anonymity, stay tuned as we might implement document-dropping (or tip-dropping) software over Gemini protocol. It’s a little project. █ ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 774 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/02/15/the-oin-delusion/#comments ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.15.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ ✐ Open_Invention_Network_(OIN)_and_Big_Banks:_Shared_Agenda⠀✐ Posted in Deception, Free/Libre_Software, IBM, OIN, Patents at 4:47 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Video_download_link http://techrights.org/videos/oin-and-banks.webm Summary: The press release and puff pieces from Bergelt et al won’t tell the public what OIN really does, in practice (which is worse than nothing at all) THE Open Invention Network (OIN) has been covered here since its inception, back when an IBM person (founding member) ran the whole thing and seemed mostly reasonable, even better than benign, at least at the time (much like the Linux Foundation, which is partly connected not just in the sense that sponsors and agenda overlap). Big banks aren’t our friends; they might be OIN’s friends. OIN isn’t our friend and these people often undo the goals of FFII and other groups that oppose software patents. “OIN isn’t what it seems or what it claims to be. It exists to serve and protect monopolists.”Nowadays many of us in the Free software world have already grown cynical and critical of the IBM-centric OIN. Adding Microsoft as a member did not lend legitimacy but mostly harmed it, especially in light of the fact that Microsoft continued to attack Linux — sometimes_with_patents — after it had joined OIN. The video above is a response to this_morning’s_press release. As we put it earlier on in Daily Links, OIN is not a community (the word “community” is used in the headline) but a front group of software patents proponents looking to openwash their monopolies and striving to make software patents look benign w.r.t. Linux. They say they were “formed to safeguard open source software (OSS)” (no “F” word, nothing about Freedom) and then they call themselves a “community” again. Nowadays companies like to portray themselves as “green”, “open” and even “communities”… Yes, nothing says “community” like ruthless for-profit corporations that help bomb people… Keith Bergelt is then quoted naming a bunch of buzzwords and name-dropping hype like “fintech” (one of the many weasel words that software patents’ proponents use). A few hours ago the ‘news’ site ZDNet did a_puff_piece about the whole thing, as usual. The video above only scratches the surface of what we know and what we’ve shown about OIN over the years. This is just more of the same. Not too long ago the Linux Foundation was greenwashing_big_banks, so why can’t OIN? The puff piece keeps mentioning “trolls” and “patent trolls”, but nowhere is it mentioned that OIN never stops trolls and moreover it hired_trolls_to lead_the_OIN. What a lousy piece of cheap propaganda. OIN isn’t what it seems or what it claims to be. It exists to serve and protect monopolists. █ ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 846 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ═════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.15.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ ✐ Links_15/2/2021:_Siduction_is_Back,_GNU_Linux-Libre_5.11_is_Out,_Canonical Spies_With_Microsoft⠀✐ Posted in News_Roundup at 2:21 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GNOME bluefish⦈ § Contents⠀➾ * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * § GNU/Linux⠀➾ o ⚓ Why_everyone_should_try_using_Linux⠀⇛ In 2021, there are more reasons why people love Linux than ever before. In this series, I’ll share 21 different reasons to use Linux. Let’s explore why anyone can try Linux. Linux can seem mysterious to the uninitiated. People talk about Linux like it’s something only meant for computer programmers or sysadmins, yet people also talk about running Linux on laptops or mobile devices. Tech sites list the top 10 Linux commands you need to know, and yet there’s just as much talk about how exciting the Linux desktops (plural!) are. o ⚓ PTV_Vissim_traffic_simulation_now_available_for_Linux_OS_as Vissim_Kernel⠀⇛ Traffic simulation software PTV Vissim, from PTV Group, is now also available for the Linux operating system, for analysis of complex multimodal transportation systems, with particular benefits for the automotive industry. PTV Vissim Kernel provides detailed and realistic simulations of the entire traffic environment, including the movements and interaction of different road users and modes of transport. Innovative concepts and services such as shared mobility, mobility-as-a-service and autonomous driving can be evaluated and verified in a virtual environment. o ⚓ Could_future_Chromebooks_with_native_Android_and_Linux_apps_run on_Google’s_Fuchsia_OS?⠀⇛ Since 2016 when it first appeared, Google’s Fuchsia effort has been shrouded in mystery. If you’re not familiar with Fuchsia, Google describes it as a “new open-source operating system” that can be scaled to run on small microcontrollers all the way up to traditional computing devices. Unlike Chrome OS, which runs on a Linux kernel, Fuchsia will have its own microkernel called Zircon. Up until now, I didn’t see Fuchsia having much future impact to Chromebooks. o § Audiocasts/Shows⠀➾ # ⚓ LHS_Episode_#393:_DUDE-Star_Deep_Dive⠀⇛ Hello and welcome to Episode 393 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, the hosts interview Doug, AD8DP, the author and primary coder of the DUDE-Star project. This project allows someone to use most of the VHF and UHF digital radio modes that have become all the rage: YSF, D-Star, DMR, P.25, NXDN and more. In the process, we learn much more about the M17 Project than we thought we would so stay tuned for an upcoming deep dive on that subject. If you want to dive into digital and not spend a lot of money, then DUDE-Star is for you! # ⚓ Linux_Action_News_176⠀⇛ Microsoft and Ubuntu’s relationship is under a new spotlight this week. Plus our rundown of the feature-packed 5.11 release, a Fuchsia surprise, exciting hardware news, and more. # ⚓ Josh_Bressers:_Episode_258_–_Stop_using_C⠀⇛ Josh and Kurt talk about the Google Project Zero report titled “A Year in Review of 0-days Exploited In-The-Wild in 2020”. It’s a cool report but we don’t agree on the conclusion. The answer isn’t to security harder, it’s to stop using C. o § Kernel Space⠀➾ # ⚓ Linus_Torvalds_Releases_Linux_Kernel_5.11:_Here’s_What’s New⠀⇛ As usual, after two months of development and seven release candidate, Linux creator Linus Torvalds has officially released a new stable Linux Kernel 5.11. The latest version, 5.11, contains several changes ranging from new hardware enablement (from both AMD and Intel), ARM hardware support, networking enhancements, to driver updates. # ⚓ Linux_Kernel_5.11_Released_With_Support_for_Wi-Fi_6E,_RTX ‘Ampere’_GPUs,_Intel_Iris_Xe_and_More⠀⇛ The development of Linux Kernel 5.11 has been going on in full swing for a while now. Finally, Linus Torvalds announced the release after endless testing and adding support for new software and hardware. [...] Wi-Fi 6E is the biggest update to the Wi-Fi standard in the last 20 years. The new standard aims to provide a new wireless band to the public, the 6 GHz band. This will help reduce signal drops on connected devices over a distance and can transfer more data faster across longer distances. With Linux Kernel 5.11, support has been added for 6GHz band / Ultra High Band (UHB). Support for Wi- Fi 6E chips from manufacturers such as Intel, MediaTek and Qualcomm has also been added. Other notable additions include, Fast Initial Link Setup (FILS) for the Qualcomm ath11k driver, Dual- Band Concurrent (DBDC) support for the MediaTek Mt7915 driver and various other performance improvements. # ⚓ Linux_5.11_is_out_with_AMD_and_Intel_improvements_(and Linus_Torvalds_is_happy)⠀⇛ The version arrived on Sunday’s Valentine’s Day with only a small amount of changes from the previous seventh release candidate (RC). It’s been in development since before December and brings support for Intel’s Software Guard Extensions (SGX), a hardware-isolated trusted execution environment for applications to store and process secrets in enclaves. # ⚓ AMD_users_should_immediately_switch_to_the_latest_Linux 5.11_kernel⠀⇛ The latest release of the Linux kernel features some impressive performance enhancements for AMD hardware. Released over the valentine’s day weekend, Linux kernel 5.11 fixed a major performance regression that impacted the AMD Zen architecture. Thanks to the fix, Zen-based processors such as Ryzen and EPYC have been benchmarked as being faster out of the box than on previous kernels. Also debuting in the release is support for AMD “Van Gogh” and “Dimgrey Cavefish” GPUs. The semiconductor company has recently put out a number of Linux-related job postings, and the improvements to AMD hardware in the latest release is further evidence that the chip giant is actively working to improve support for its hardware on Linux. # ⚓ Linux_Kernel_5.11_Released⠀⇛ Linus Torvalds released version 5.11 of the Linux kernel on February 14. This latest release, otherwise known as the Valentine’s Day edition, is the first major stable release for 2021. # ⚓ Linux_Kernel_5.11_Released._This_is_What’s_New⠀⇛ Linux Torvalds announced the release of the latest Linux Kernel 5.11 (“Valentine’s Day Edition”) with some interesting new features. We take a look at what’s new and how you can get the latest Kernel in your favorite Linux Distribution. # ⚓ New_Linux_5.11_Released,_This_is_What’s_New⠀⇛ A brand new Linux kernel is now available and in this post we do our very best to recap the core changes and new features you’ll find tucked up inside. # ⚓ Linux_Kernel_5.11_Released!_How_to_Install_it_in_Ubuntu_/ Linux_Mint⠀⇛ Linux Kernel 5.11 was released a day ago on Valentine’s Day. Here’ how you can install it in Ubuntu and Linux Mint based systems. Linus Torvalds announced the Kernel 5.11: “Nothing unexpected or particularly scary happened this week, so here we are – with 5.11 tagged and pushed out. In fact, it’s a smaller-than-average set of commits from rc7 to final, which makes me happy. And I already have several pull requests lined up for tomorrow, so we’re all set for the merge window to start..” # ⚓ Linux_5.11_Release_–_Main_Changes,_Arm,_MIPS_&_RISC- V_Architectures⠀⇛ Last time around, Linux 5.10 was an LTS release that added EXT-4 performance enhancements, improved post-Spectre performance, as well as the enablement of BCM2711 (Raspberry Pi 4) display pipeline, among other many changes. # ⚓ Linus_Torvalds_releases_Linux_5.11,_says_it’s_so_good_your significant_other_wants_you_to_test_it_on_Valentine’s_Day⠀⇛ Linus Torvalds has delivered version 5.11 of the Linux kernel to the faithful. “Nothing unexpected or particularly scary happened this week, so here we are – with 5.11 tagged and pushed out, Torvalds said in his weekly state of the kernel post. Big inclusions in this release include support for Intel’s Software Guard Extensions (SGX) technology that allows developers to use walled-off enclaves of memory in which it’s theoretically possible to get some work done without the rest of a system having any idea what’s going on inside. It’s a nice idea but SGX has been compromised on several occasions . AMD admirers get support for more silicon plus finer controls for power management and handling workloads as CPUs throttle up and down. The new kernel also improves Linux performance of some AMD CPUs. # ⚓ How_to_Install_Linux_Kernel_5.11_in_Ubuntu_/_Linux_Mint⠀⇛ Linus Torvalds announced the Linux Kernel 5.11 after seven weeks in development and available for general usage with new features, improvements, and better hardware support. As per Linus Torvalds for Kernel 5.11 In fact, it’s a smaller-than-average set of commits from rc7 to final, which makes me happy. And I already have several pull requests lined up for tomorrow, so we’re all set for the merge window to start. This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to install kernel 5.11 in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and LinuxMint 20.1 # ⚓ Updated_FUTEX2_Patches_Posted_For_The_Linux_Kernel_With_A Focus_On_Helping_Games⠀⇛ It’s approaching one year since the proposal of FUTEX2 for addressing shortcomings of the existing FUTEX system call and allowing the semantics to better match that of the Windows behavior, which is of use when running Windows games on Linux via Steam Play’s Wine/Proton. In the end the FUTEX2 system call can lead to lower CPU utilization and in turn allowing for greater Linux gaming performance. André Almeida of Collabora today posted the latest patches introducing the FUTEX2 system call though with these patches are still marked as “request for comments” (RFC) so don’t expect them to be merged to mainline in short order — plus the fact that it would already be too late for trying to get it into the now-open 5.12 merge window. # ⚓ AMD_Ryzen_5000_Temperature_Monitoring_Support_Sent_In_For Linux_5.12⠀⇛ Due to an unfortunate misalignment of the Ryzen 5000 series launch and the Linux kernel cycles, CPU temperature monitoring for Ryzen 5000 (Zen 3) desktop CPUs isn’t landing until now with the Linux 5.12 kernel cycle. The hardware monitoring (HWMON) subsystem updates were sent in this morning for the just-opened Linux 5.12 merge window. There is now Zen 3 desktop CPU temperature monitoring support within the existing k10temp driver. The patch just needed to add the IDs for the Zen 3 parts to the k10temp driver while the rest is unchanged. The two line patch didn’t come from AMD but a community developer and has been verified to work on the Ryzen 5800X / 5900X / 5950X processors to provide correct CPU temperature monitoring. # ⚓ AMDGPU_FreeSync_Video_Mode_Optimization_Updated_But_Too Late_For_Linux_5.12_–_Phoronix⠀⇛ Going back to last year there has been work by AMD engineers on an experimental FreeSync video mode optimization to avoid screen blanking around full- screen video playback. Basically avoiding an entire mode-set when changing the timing mode during video playback to bypass any screen flickering/blanking. That work has now been updated to its sixth spin while it’s being viewed as a temporary measure until a better solution can be devised. That FreeSync video mode optimization has continued seeing new revisions following the public code review process. The sixth version of the patches were posted this week but obviously given the timing is too late for possibly seeing it in the imminent Linux 5.12 merge window — it will now wait until at least Linux 5.13. # ⚓ There_Are_Big_Changes_On_The_Horizon_With_Linux_5.12_– Phoronix⠀⇛ Linux 5.11 should be released today as stable but we’ll see if 5.11-rc8 is decided instead given there has been an uptick in last minute changes for this kernel. This will mean either the Linux 5.12 merge window is kicking off at the end of today or could be pushed back by one week, but in whatever case there are many changes that have been queuing up for this next kernel version window. # ⚓ AMD_“Green_Sardine”_Firmware_Published_For_Linux_Users_– Phoronix⠀⇛ The open-source Linux graphics driver support for the Ryzen 5000 series mobile hardware has been developed under the “Green Sardine” codename. With the soon-to-be-stable Linux 5.11 kernel offering the initial enablement for the new hardware and Ryzen 5000 series laptops expected this quarter, the Green Sardine firmware blobs have landed in linux-firmware.git. On Thursday the necessary “Green Sardine” firmware binaries were merged into linux-firmware.git, the central repository for Linux harware firmware/ microcode files. All 11 binaries, which are required for working hardware acceleration with the open-source driver, were merged. Hopefully the major Linux distributions will all quickly pick up the new firmware files and thus when paired with a new kernel will allow for working out-of-the-box 3D acceleration with the new AMD graphics hardware. # ⚓ Google_Engineers_Propose_Adding_Linux_Kernel_Option_For_ARM SLS_Mitigation_–_Phoronix⠀⇛ Made public last year was the Arm Straight Light Speculation (SLS) vulnerability. SLS with ARM hardware can result in speculative executing instructions following an unconditional change in control flow. The Linux kernel may soon have an option for enabling the mitigation of the Arm SLS vulnerability. Mitigating the Arm Straight Line Speculation vulnerability involves using speculation barrier sequences following vulnerable instructions — either the Speculation Barrier (SB) instruction or the DSB+ISB instruction sequence. The GCC compiler added its support along with the LLVM Clang compiler handling of this vulnerability in the same manner. # § Graphics Stack⠀➾ # ⚓ Intel’s_Cloud-Hypervisor_0.13_Brings_Support_For NVIDIA_GPUs_With_Proprietary_Drivers⠀⇛ Cloud-Hypervisor 0.13 released this week as the newest version of the Intel-led open- source hypervisor that has also the involvement of other key organizations. With this v0.13 update there is broader VFIO device support, which most significantly now means that NVIDIA graphics cards are supported in conjunction with their proprietary graphics driver. The VFIO device support improvement is for devices not supporting MSI/MSI-X but relying on INTx interrupts as is the case with NVIDIA. # ⚓ Vulkan_1.2.170_Released_With VK_KHR_synchronization2⠀⇛ Heading out of Valentine’s weekend, there is a new Vulkan specification update with a notable new extension. Vulkan 1.2.170 is available this morning and includes the VK_KHR_synchronization2 extension. VK_KHR_synchronization2 is an update over the original Vulkan synchronization APIs. # ⚓ Updated_Linux_Kernel_Patches_Posted_For_Bringing_Up The_Apple_M1_SoC⠀⇛ Earlier this month Hector Martin and the Asahi Linux developers posted their initial Linux kernel patches for bringing up the Apple M1 ARM SoC platform for the mainline kernel with devices like the 2020 Mac Mini / MacBook Pro / MacBook Air devices. The second iteration of those Apple M1 Linux patches have now been posted. Hector Martin continues working on the Apple M1 Linux support via crowdfunding with the ambitious goal of getting Linux running well on these modern ARM-powered Apple devices. Linux is already booting on Apple M1 hardware but will be quite a while before it’s a polished, performant experience especially when it comes to accelerated graphics support on the M1. o § Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ Meet_Plots:_A_Mathematical_Graph_Plotting_App_for_Linux Desktop⠀⇛ Plots is a graph plotting application that makes it easy to visualize mathematical formulae. You can use it for trigonometric, hyperbolic, exponential and logarithmic functions along with arbitrary sums and products. Plots is a simple application inspired by graph plotting web apps like Desmos. It allows you to plot graphs of different math functions, which you can enter interactively, as well as customizing the color of your plots. Written in Python, Plots takes advantage of modern hardware using OpenGL. It uses GTK 3 and thus integrates well with the GNOME desktop. # ⚓ You_Won’t_be_Able_to_Recognize_VLC_When_Version_4.0 Releases⠀⇛ VLC 4.0 is probably one of the most anticipated software release with a major UI overhaul. # ⚓ Daniel_Berrange:_ANNOUNCE:_libvirt-glib_release_4.0.0⠀⇛ I am pleased to announce that a new release of the libvirt-glib package, version 4.0.0, is now available from https://libvirt.org/sources/glib/ The packages are GPG signed with Key fingerprint: DAF3 A6FD B26B 6291 2D0E 8E3F BE86 EBB4 1510 4FDF (4096R) o § Instructionals/Technical⠀➾ # ⚓ How_to_Set_up_RabbitMQ_Cluster_on_Ubuntu_20.04⠀⇛ RabbitMQ is a free, open-source and multi-protocol messaging broker software written in the Erlang programming language. A message broker is used to store messages for an application. When an application sends data to another application, the app publishes the message onto the message broker. RabbitMQ supports multiple messaging protocols and can be easily deployed in a distributed configurations. The message broker act as a middleman for various web application and used to reduce loads and delivery time of web application. # ⚓ How_to_install_Microsoft_Office_2007_on_Ubuntu_20.04_LTS_– Linux_Shout⠀⇛ Although we already have Libre Office out of the box on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, yet if you have a Microsoft office 2007 copy then you can install it on Ubuntu Linux using Wine; to use just like any other software… # ⚓ How_to_install_XFCE_desktop_in_Linux_[Guide]⠀⇛ XFCE is a lightweight, highly customizable desktop environment for the Linux platform. Many Linux users choose to use it over other flashy options as it stays out of the way and uses very little memory. In this guide, we’ll show you how to install it on your system. # ⚓ How_to_search_for_text_within_a_file_using_the_nano_text editor_–_TechRepublic⠀⇛ Nano is my text editor of choice on both the Linux and macOS platforms. How many times have you read my words saying, “open so-and-so configuration file in the nano editor, locate entry X and change it?” If that configuration file is a few short lines, you’d have no problem locating the entry in question. What if it’s 100+ or 1,000+ lines of options to comb through? At that point, you’d spend way too much of your precious time searching for the entry in question. Fortunately, the nano editor includes a handy feature to make this task exponentially easier. Said feature is, you guessed it, a search tool. With this search tool you can quickly locate those entries, no matter how big the configuration file is. How do you use the search feature? Let me show you. # ⚓ How_to_Install_PHP_8_on_CentOS/RHEL_8⠀⇛ PHP 8.0 is a major update released by the PHP team on Nov 26, 2020. It contains a large number of new features and optimizations over previous versions. To read more about read the PHP 8 change log. REMI and EPEL are the most popular repositories contains latest RPM packages for installation. It also contains the PHP 8 RPM packages to be install on CentOS/RHEL 8 systems. This article will describe you to how to install PHP 8 on CentOS 8 or RHEL 8 Linux system. # ⚓ How_to_Install_Apache_Kafka_on_Ubuntu_20.04_–_TecAdmin⠀⇛ Apache Kafka is an open-source, distributed event streaming platform developed by the Apache Software Foundation. This is written in Scala and Java programming languages. You can install Kafka on any platform supported Java. This tutorial described you step by step tutorial to install Apache Kafka on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Linux system. You will also learn to create topics in Kafka and run producer and consumer nodes. # ⚓ How_do_I_install_HTOP_in_Linux_?_–_LinuxTechLab⠀⇛ HTOP command is used to monitor our Linux system’s resources. It provides information related to system processes, system memory, Load average, etc. It is a cross-platform, interactive process viewer. It is quite similar to the ‘top’ command, which comes pre-installed with almost all Linux distributions. But the HTOP command is quite an improvement over the TOP command. # ⚓ Linux_101:_How_to_remove_legacy_communication_services_– TechRepublic⠀⇛ Linux is a very secure operating system, but it’s not perfect. No operating system is. In fact, any platform that’s connected to a network is, in many ways, vulnerable. Like all other operating systems, there are a number of steps you can take to help mitigate those insecurities. One thing you can do with Linux is remove the legacy communications services that can be installed by default, even though they are never used. Services like xinet, nis, tftp, tftpd-hpa, telnet, and rsh are not only unnecessary, they can pose security risks to your system. What do you do? You delete them. # ⚓ How_to_create_a_Bootable_USB_using_Rufus_for_Linux Distributions⠀⇛ When you have decided to switch from Windows 10 to Linux Distributions like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, or any other Distribution’s. It is a piece of cake to create a bootable drive using the Rufus tool. In Windows, one of the best tools to create a bootable Disk is Rufus. # ⚓ The_Reason_That_Web_Templates_Fail,_and_Why_Custom_Design Is_Always_Best⠀⇛ But the problem with designing pages this way is that you end up with a bunch of disparate objects that just float around without any coherent design system bringing them all together. In writing, this would be akin placing several paragraphs of text on a page without linking one to the next. The reader would lose the thread. In visual design, the user senses something is missing: a unifying theme that helps it all make sense. For me, this lack of cohesion in the page design negates any time or money saved. It doesn’t matter how elegant the delivery process is if the end result is lacking. This is standardization run amok. Upon realizing this, I iterated my processes once again. # ⚓ Blogging_is_futile/Axel_Beckert:_Starting_a_GNU_Screen session_via_SSH’s_~/.ssh/config⠀⇛ This is more or less a followup to this blog posting of mine about AutoSSH and GNU Screen from nearly ten years ago — which by the way is still valid and still the way, I use SSH and GNU Screen. # ⚓ Riccardo_Padovani:_Integrating_JetBrains_Qodana_with_GitLab pipelines⠀⇛ JetBrains Qodana is a new product, still in early access, that brings the “Smarts” of JetBrains IDEs into your CI pipeline, and it can be easily integrated in GitLab. # ⚓ [Older]_How_to_sort_ps_output⠀⇛ The ps command makes it fairly easy to sort its output by any column of data. Learn more about the –sort option and how to use it, plus how to pass ps output to the sort command. # ⚓ How_to_Install_PowerShell_on_Ubuntu_&_Other_Linux Distributions [Ed: Helping to spread Microsoft monopoly to rival systems is a really bad idea]⠀⇛ Developed by Microsoft, PowerShell is a powerful tool that is used for automating tasks and simplifying configuration management. You can use it to automate virtually any tasks on a Windows environment including installing roles and features and making changes to the Active Directory on a Windows server system. # ⚓ How_to_use_Cron_jobs_–_Anto_./_Online⠀⇛ A Cron job is a job that runs automatically after a fixed interval of time. A Cron job can either be a command or a shell script that you want to run periodically at a specified time. # ⚓ How_to_protect_backups_from_ransomware_|_Network_World⠀⇛ Backups can be defended against ransomware attacks by moving them offsite from primary systems, removing file-system access to the backups, and avoiding using Windows as a backup platform. # ⚓ ADB:_How_to_use_it_on_Windows,_Mac,_Linux,_Android,_or_even in_a_browser⠀⇛ If you want to do any number of things that require access to Google’s Android Debug Bridge (ADB) or fastboot tools for Android — sideload apps, install custom ROMs, take screenshots on certain Android platform versions, or access certain hidden features — you’ll need to get it up and running on your platform of choice first. Fortunately, doing so virtually anywhere is possible at this point — even from another Android phone, or a web browser. We’ll help you get set up no matter what platform you’re on in this guide. # ⚓ Installing_Nextcloud_20_on_Fedora_Linux_with_Podman_– Fedora_Magazine⠀⇛ Nowadays, many open source projects offer container images for easy deployment. This is very handy when running a home server or lab environment. A previous Fedora Magazine article covered installing Nextcloud from the source package. This article explains how you can run Nextcloud on Fedora 33 as a container deployment with Podman. # ⚓ Maxim_Burgerhout:_Wrong_colors_with_Solarized_theme_in shell⠀⇛ I like Solarized, but every now and then, I switch to a different theme just to check it out. Eventually, I’ll go back to Solarized, and run into the same problem over and over… # ⚓ How_to_install_Dart_on_Linux_and_set_up_VIM_as_IDE_– nixCraft⠀⇛ Dart is easy to use BSD licensed programming language to build mobile, desktop, server, and web apps. Google creates and maintains the Dart ecosystem. It follows C-style syntax. We can compile code either to the native platform or JavaScript. Flutter allows building iOS/Android mobile and desktop/web apps from a single code base. Let us see how to install Dart programming language on a Debian or Ubuntu Linux and set vim as IDE. This page explains how to install the Dart SDK on the Ubuntu Linux desktop to build Dart command- line, server, and non-Flutter web apps. # ⚓ How_To_Install_EPEL_Repo_on_an_RHEL_8⠀⇛ # ⚓ How_to_Add_New_User_with_Key_Pair_in_AWS_EC2_– Cloudbooklet⠀⇛ How to Add New User with Key Pair in AWS EC2. Learn how to create new user with new key pair and provide separate access to developers. Instead of using the default private key for all operations you can create additional users and share the corresponding private key to access the instance. In this guide you are going to learn how to create new SSH key pair with public key and private key and add it to your EC2 instance. # ⚓ How_to_Access_Remote_Windows_Desktop_from_Ubuntu_Linux⠀⇛ You must have heard about the Windows app “Remote Desktop Connection“. This application comes with default windows installation and allows you to access another PC or server remotely. It uses remote desktop protocol to establish remote desktop connection sessions. Some of the Linux distributions may provide you RDP clients to connect to the Windows system. However, for some linux distributions you may need to install RDP clients to establish remote desktop connection. As a Linux user there are some rdp tools available which you can install and use for windows remote connection. In this article we are going to explain how to install RDP clients on Ubuntu linux and use them to access (or connect) remote windows desktop. # ⚓ Emacs_remote_file_editing_over_SSHFS⠀⇛ Previous article described how to use emacsclient inside of an SSH session. While the solution mentioned there relied on TRAMP, I’ve confessed that it isn’t what I’m actually using. From my experience, TRAMP doesn’t cache as much information as it could and as a result some operations are needlessly slow. For example, delay of find-file prompt completion is noticeable when working over connections with latency in the range of tens of milliseconds or more. Because for a long while I’d been working on a workstation ‘in the cloud’ in a data centre in another country, I’ve built my setup based on SSHFS instead. It is important to note that TRAMP has myriad of features which won’t be available with this alternative approach. Most notably, it transparently routes shell commands executed from Emacs through SSH which often results in much faster execution than trying to do the same thing over SSHFS. grep command in particular will avoid copying entire files over network when done through TRAMP. # ⚓ [Older]_Beginner’s_guide_to_compression_with_xz_on_Linux⠀⇛ xz compression has been rising in popularity because it offers smaller file sizes than gzip and bzip2. You’re still likely to see all three on a Linux system, but you may want to start opting for xz if you want smaller file archives. In this guide, we’re going to introduce you to xz compression, starting from basic examples to more specific and advanced usage. If you’ve worked with compressed tar files or gzip compression (files with the .tar.gz extension, for example) in the past, you’ll find that xz feels very familiar. o § Games⠀➾ # ⚓ Godot_Engine_–_Guest_post_–_“Small_Team,_Big_Project”: Building_Moonwards⠀⇛ Moonwards is the experience of building a world together. That world is an advanced town on the moon designed on hard science and engineering. It starts with a vast set of habitats and infrastructure, and a detailed development timeline based on solid known technology. The community that takes up residence there – by making actual homes and offices – then brings it alive, fills it in, and advances it. Because this world depicts a future that is entirely feasible, it provides a unique reward – a sense that your participation influences the world towards a better future. For the same reason, it can call for support from a resource few games can – the industry devoted to building the future it depicts, that being the space industry. We need to draw in the many space engineers out there starving for the kind of space development they imagined when they chose their careers. Moonwards gives them a place to express those visions, but they will need help from game developers interested in providing the tools they need to do so in a game environment. The Godot community is clearly the best one for this. From the beginning, we’ve financially supported Godot as much as we can. As Moonwards grows, it will be providing a series of add-ons back to the community for any project to use, adapted from our code. Our architecture is also being designed to be a platform for game devs looking for a great place to test, experiment, showcase, or browse other developers’ ideas. Our three lovely devs can explain – Karim, Yael, and Zach. Read on… # ⚓ ComPressure_is_a_new_puzzler_like_something_Zachtronics would_make_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ Do we call this a Zach-like now? ComPressure is a puzzle game that has you design increasingly complex computation units powered by high pressure steam. You’re tasked with investigating the mathematical properties of steam, which appears to power an entire city from steam umbrellas to steam xylophones. Yes, really. I’m not sure why you would want a steam umbrella but that is apparently a thing in ComPressure. # ⚓ Inspired_by_Thief,_The_Dark_Mod_2.09_is_out_with_modern OpenGL_rendering_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ Mod which is a standalone free and open source first-person stealth game. Calling it a game isn’t entirely correct though. Well, it is, sort-of. The Dark Mod is really a platform for others to create with, it’s a big beautiful toolkit for developers to make stealth games and missions with and it’s quite fantastic actually. The Dark Mod 2.09 was announced today bringing in a big overhaul to the graphics rendering, thanks to it using more modern OpenGL. The team mentioned that all their changes “gives TDM some of the performance advantages of rendering using a low level API like Vulkan”. # ⚓ The_Dark_Mod_2.09_Released_With_New_OpenGL_Rendering Backend_–_Phoronix⠀⇛ The Dark Mod that began as a total conversion mod for Doom 3 but evolved into a standalone game making use of the open-source id Tech 4 game engine is out with a big update. This is one of the few open-source games making use of the public id Tech 4 code-base and with today’s v2.09 update is a large rewrite to its graphics back-end. This open-source id Tech 4 game has a new OpenGL 3.3 renderer that replaces the existing graphics back-end, which will be removed moving forward. ARB shaders have been gutted from the new back-end, an effort made to minimize driver overhead, and supporting other “newer” OpenGL features like bindless textures, multi-draw indirect, UBO streaming, and more. The graphics support is still dated compared to the latest commercial games, but a step forward for open-spurce games and again The Dark Mod being one of the few active open-source projects atop id Tech 4. # ⚓ Space-shooter_idle_game_SPACE_/_MECH_/_PILOT_now_available for_Linux_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ In need of a game to just click around in and idle for a while? SPACE / MECH / PILOT from October 2020 has been updated and is now supported on Linux too. Don’t see the point in idle games? It’s probably not going to be for you. However, if you do usually like them then it looks like another good choice to sink some time into. Positively rated by users too! “Hello (Hello), welcome to the SPACE/MECH/PILOT program, a idle-RPG clicker video game entertainment simulation unlike any other. With this exciting (and brand-new) SPACE/MECH/PILOT program, you get to fully live out the dream of being a totally violent space pilot, soaring through the universe, the stars, and through the broken chassis of your foes!” # ⚓ AI-made_maps_for_your_favourite_adventures?_Dungeon Alchemist_sounds_very_interesting_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ With an aim to release in late 2021, Dungeon Alchemist is an AI-powered mapmaking tool for both players and dungeon masters to use with your favourite Virtual Tabletop Application. Planned to support Linux, macOS and Windows through Steam the idea is that Dungeon Alchemist takes a map size, a theme and then lets you draw a few rooms which it then populates using AI. Pretty much everything is done for you, and you can then take the AI-made maps with you through PDFs or import it directly into something like Foundry VTT or Fantasy Grounds. # ⚓ WW2_Co-op_FPS_Projekt_Z_shows_off_more_impressive_progress |_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ Three months since their last devlog, 314 Arts have shown off some more footage on Projekt Z, their upcoming first-person co-op game set during the second world war on a mysterious island full of zombies. Inspired by the Left 4 Dead series, it’s going to offer a rather different and far more brutal take on it. There’s going to be multiple different game modes, along with a special hub area you build up as you progress through the game. Youalso have different characters with various abilities, along with plenty of realism sprinkles in like weapon malfunctions and a minimal HUD. With the latest devlog they show off one of the modes: wave-based survival. They mentioned it’s a good way to get plenty of gun-play testing to make sure it feels good. This mode sounds very much like the early Zombies mode in Call of Duty. Overall though Projekt Z is really shaping up to look good. # ⚓ The_Co-op_News_Punch_Podcast_–_Episode_26_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ The first GOL Podcast episode of 2021 is here, come get it while it’s hot and ranty as we cover a range of weird and wonderful topics in Linux, open source, gaming and more. Apologies on the delay with this episode but we’re back! As usual, it’s a very casual and frank chat between two friends (myself) and GOL contributor / Linux livestreamer Samsai about many different Linux-related topics. o § Desktop Environments/WMs⠀➾ # § K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt⠀➾ # ⚓ Latte_Dock_v0.10~_|_Templates,_templates…⠀⇛ Hello everyone, let’s improve our layout and view templates in order to make distros and users life easier when they share their Latte layouts and views. View in Latte stands for a Dock or Panel. # § GNOME Desktop/GTK⠀➾ # ⚓ Shell_UX_Changes:_The_Research⠀⇛ This post is part of an ongoing series about the overview design changes which are being worked on for GNOME 40. (For previous posts, see here.) Ongoing user research has been a major feature of this design initiative, and I would say that it is by far the best researched project that I have worked on. Our research has informed the design as it has proceeded, resulting in particular design choices and changes, which have improved the overall design and will make it a better experience for users. As a result of this, we have a much greater degree of confidence in the designs. This post is intended as a general overview of the research that we’ve been doing. I’m excited to share this, as a way of explaining how the design came about, as well as sharing some of the insights that we’ve found along the way. o § Distributions⠀➾ # § BSD⠀➾ # ⚓ Is_this_the_FUTURE_of_Operating_Systems?⠀⇛ # ⚓ A_Trip_into_FreeBSD⠀⇛ I normally deal with Linux machines. Linux is what I know and it’s what I’ve been using since I was in college. A friend of mine has been coaxing me into trying out FreeBSD, and I decided to try it out and see what it’s like. Here’s some details about my experience and what I’ve learned. # § PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family⠀➾ # ⚓ OpenMandriva_Lx_4.2_“Argon”:_First_Impressions_after Install⠀⇛ Please do not misinterpret me. I do not mean that I under appreciate the hard work of the OpenMandriva developers and community in making sure that everything under the hood of this distro functions smoothly; it’s quite the opposite. I, for one, truly value their commitment and effort. However, I cannot pretend to grasp the technicalities. I am one of those users who do not understand what “Qt Framework 5.15.2, LLVM/clang 11.0.1, systemd 247, Java 15, Calamares 3.2.35, binutils 2.36.1, gcc 10.2.” imply on the system. My perspective is, then, one of a non- technical user and this is what I have seen so far… # ⚓ OpenMandriva_Lx_4.2_has_Arrived⠀⇛ The latest stable version of OpenMandriva has been released and offers the newest KDE desktop and ARM support. OpenMandriva is a direct descendant of the not forgotten (and much-loved) Mandriva Linux, and was the first to ever make use of the LLVM toolchain by default. With the release of Lx 4.2, OpenMandriva brings to the table a few improvements, as well as the latest release of the KDE desktop environment, and some exciting ARM news. As for software, OpenMandriva improves the OM Welcome, which is an on-boarding tool that makes it incredibly easy for new users to do things like install software with a single click. Beyond the welcome app, OpenMandriva includes LibreOffice 7.1, Krita 4.4.2, Digikam 7.2, SMPlayer 21.1.0, VLC 3.0.12.1, Falkon browser 3.1, SimpleScreenRecorder 0.4.3, and much more. Also included with OpenMandriva is Desktop Presets, which allows users to easily customize the appearance of the Plasma Desktop to look and feel similar to other desktop environments. # § IBM/Red Hat/Fedora⠀➾ # ⚓ 8_Tips_for_reliable_automation_for_Linux_container builds⠀⇛ The basis for this list is multiple years of experience supporting automation for the upstream container-runtimes team (podman, buildah, skopeo, etc.). I will not take full credit, as many of these tips are based on an amalgam of evolved experience and individual contributions from a large community of users and developers. Most items below can be boiled down to a single principle: Eliminate or reduce complexity. This concept is based on a compound application of Murphy’s Law: The more “breakable things” you have, the more likely Murphy will show up. Here are eight ways to avoid those chance encounters. # ⚓ Integrating_Spring_Boot_with_Red_Hat_Integration Service_Registry_–_Red_Hat_Developer⠀⇛ Most of the new cloud-native applications and microservices designs are based on event- driven architecture (EDA), responding to real-time information by sending and receiving information about individual events. This kind of architecture relies on asynchronous, non-blocking communication between event producers and consumers through an event streaming backbone such as Red Hat AMQ Streams running on top of Red Hat OpenShift. In scenarios where many different events are being managed, defining a governance model where each event is defined as an API is critical. That way, producers and consumers can produce and consume checked and validated events. We can use a service registry as a datastore for events defined as APIs. # ⚓ The_NeuroFedora_Blog:_Next_Open_NeuroFedora_meeting: 15_February_1500_UTC⠀⇛ Please join us at the next regular Open NeuroFedora team meeting on Monday 15 February at 1300UTC in #fedora-neuro on IRC (Freenode). The meeting is a public meeting, and open for everyone to attend. You can join us over: # ⚓ Facebook’s_Linux_Desktop_Choice_Is_Fedora_But_Ramping Up_CentOS_Stream_–_Phoronix⠀⇛ Among Facebook employees while they are mostly using Windows and macOS on their laptops/desktops, for those using Linux the primary choice has shifted from Ubuntu to Fedora but they have begun ramping up CentOS Stream too. Michel Salim of Facebook presented at last weekend’s FOSDEM 2021 virtual conference on the company’s internal desktop fleet. While Facebook is known for their usage of CentOS on servers, when it comes to Linux on their employee desktops Fedora is the primary target but with growing support for CentOS Stream. # § Devuan Family⠀➾ # ⚓ Systemd-Free_Devuan_GNU/Linux_3.1_Distro_Released_for Freedom_Lovers⠀⇛ Devuan GNU/Linux 3.1 comes nine months after the release of the Devuan GNU/Linux 3.0 series to provide the freedom loving community with up-to-date ISO images in case they need to reinstall the system or deploy the systemd-free distribution on new computers. While Devuan GNU/Linux 4.0 “Chimaera” is still in the works, Devuan GNU/Linux 3.1 brings updated desktop-live, server, and minimal-live ISO images powered by the Linux 4.19 LTS kernel from Debian GNU/Linux 10 “Buster” operating system series. # ⚓ Devuan_Beowulf_3.1.0_point_release⠀⇛ Once again the Veteran Unix Admins salute you on this day commemorating six years since the first Devuan pre-alpha Valentine’s Day release in 2015! Devuan Beowulf 3.1.0 point release installer ISOs, desktop-live, and minimal-live isos are now available. Note that ARM and virtual images are not updated in this release. [...] We wish to thank all of you for the incredible support given to this development effort, which continues to make Devuan a useful and reliable base distribution. # ⚓ Devuan_3.1_Released_–_Debian_Fork_Now_Offers_Runit Plus_Sysvinit,_OpenRC⠀⇛ Devuan 3.1 is the latest release of this Debian fork/downstream while new to it is offering Runit as an init system alternative. Devuan 3.1 now supports the options of Runit, SysVinit, and OpenRC that can be selected from during the Devuan installation process. The Runit init daemon is also what is used by Void Linux, Dragora, antiX, and other platforms. # § Debian Family⠀➾ # ⚓ Debian-Based_Siduction_Linux_OS_Returns_After_Three Years_with_New_Major_Release⠀⇛ As far as I remember, Siduction offered monthly releases with up-to-date components and latest security patches for those who wanted to deploy the Debian-based distro on new computers. The last official ISO release of Siduction Linux was version 2018.3.0, announced back in March 2018. But the developers never quit working on the distro during this time, even with all the economic and social disruption caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, and they still generated updated ISO images for those who wanted to install the distribution on their computers without having to download hundreds of updates from the repositories. # ⚓ Introducing_the_Linux_Mint_Devuan_Edition⠀⇛ The Mint project has been a long-time favorite among Linux users who are mainly home users. Its friendly and common sense approach to a distribution appeals to many people who want to run something with the Linux kernel on their desktop. There’s ample testimony of this, from the inception and creation of the Cinnamon desktop as common sense, traditional but still sleek and modern alternative to the evolving desaster and dumbing-down assault from other desktops at the time to coming up with great little tools like the Warpinator for file sharing on a LAN, the Hypnotix IPTV app and other little improvements to make things just a little easier, for the average Joe and the Techie who just wants to get things done alike. For various reasons I am one of the very small percentile who happen to prefer the Debian Edition over the regular Ubuntu derived offering, which is almost identical in features though. For example, shortly after the release of Linux Mint 20.1 we saw all the small improvements and additions trickle down to LMDE4. Within days we received Cinnamon 4.8.6, including the new ability to add files and folders to Favorites in Nemo file manager which would be reflected in the menu and on the panel, Hypnotix, the Warpinator and new themes and backgrounds through the update channel. I think the newly refereshed icon theme was even trialled first in LMDE. It is definitely not a step child. There’s only one thing wrong with LMDE and that is that it’s based on Debian rather than on Devuan with its more traditional and predictable init. So I set out on a little experiment to build a LMDE-like system on top of Devuan and what can I say, it works very well. Steps are outlined here on the LM forum. # § Canonical/Ubuntu Family⠀➾ # ⚓ Microsoft_Azure_and_Canonical_Ubuntu_Linux_have_a user_privacy_problem⠀⇛ It was just another day for Luca Bongiorni, a security advisor for Bentley Systems. He’d just spun up an Ubuntu Linux 18.04 instance on the Microsoft Azure cloud using a corporate sandbox for testing purposes. Three hours later, on Bongiorni’s LinkedIn account he received a message from a Canonical sales representative saying, “I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure,” and telling him he’d be his “point of contact for anything Ubuntu-related in the enterprise.” Say what?? Actually, Bongiorni was a little more “frank” about his annoyance and surprise that a Canonical salesperson had tracked him down on an entirely different service and knew that he had just used Ubuntu on Microsoft Azure. “What the f*** is happening here? WHY [did] MICROSOFT FORWARDED TO UBUNTU THAT I SPUN A NEW VM!?!” Customer privacy, what’s that? # ⚓ Microsoft_&_Canonical_being_creepy_with_Ubuntu_Azure users⠀⇛ o § Devices/Embedded⠀➾ # ⚓ AmpliPi_–_A_Raspberry_Pi-based_whole_house_audio_amplifier_ (Crowdfunding)⠀⇛ Micro Nova has put together an open-source, whole house audio amplifier called AmpliPi based on Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+. It is capable of streaming four independent sources to 6 stereo output zones, expandable to up to 36 stereo output zones through daisy-chained extender units. AmpliPi specifically supports inputs from four networking streaming sources including AirPlay, Pandora, Spotify, and DLNA, as well as four analog RCA inputs for your media appliances. # ⚓ PinePhone_Devs_Finally_Decide_on_a_Default_Distro⠀⇛ PINE64 has announced Manjaro ARM running Plasma Mobile will be the default software preloaded on the PinePhone. This news isn’t too much of a surprise given the popularity and polish of Plasma Mobile, and Manjaro’s rapidly-improving ARM foundations. “We are very pleased to announce that the PinePhone will ship with Plasma Mobile on a Manjaro ARM base from this point on. We have a long-standing relationship with Manjaro and KDE Community, and both projects have supported us and our efforts since the dawn of PINE64,” writes Pine64’s Lukasz Erecinski in a February update. # § Open Hardware/Modding⠀➾ # ⚓ Arduino_CLI_0.16.0_is_ready_for_you_all!⠀⇛ Big news from the Arduino Tooling team: The new Arduino CLI version 0.16.0 has been released! You can now use arduino-cli core list –all to return all installed and installable platforms, including those installed manually in the Sketchbook hardware folder. # ⚓ The_popular_Olimex_ARM_OpenOCD_JTAG_programmer debugger_ARM-USB-OCD-H_gets_better,_now_has_a modification_which_works_with_targets_from_0.65_up_to 5.5V⠀⇛ Our engineers identified a couple of components which we could upgrade to support lower voltages. The final result was that the ARM-USB-OCD-HL new modification of the JTAG can now work with targets from 0.65V up to 5.5V. This pretty much covers all existing SOCs on the market. # ⚓ Why_no_one_should_use_the_AT&T_syntax_ever,_for_any reason,_under_any_circumstances.⠀⇛ You know what’s hard? Supporting all the operand encodings ‘SIB’ allows is hard. Writing a good register allocator is hard. Supporting a thousand different object formats used by different OSes is hard. Making a good macro system is hard. Creating a high-quality, correct mapping from assembly to a higher-level representation is hard. These are tasks which are hard for assemblers and compilers and decompilers and other tools which interact with assembly. Intel? AT&T? Completely irrelevant. # § Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ What_features_do_you_expect_to_see_in_Android_12?⠀⇛ # ⚓ Nokia_Android_11_(Android_R)_update_eligible devices⠀⇛ # ⚓ Review:_Android_10_on_the_Nintendo_Switch_is_just_as messy_and_awesome_as_it_sounds_–_GSMArena.com_news⠀⇛ # ⚓ Video:_Why_Do_Android_Phones_Ship_With_A_Tonne_Of Bloatware_Even_In_2021?_|_Elemental_Ep_25_|_NDTV Gadgets_360⠀⇛ # ⚓ How_to_Share_Wi-Fi_Passwords_Using_QR_Codes_on Android_|_Beebom⠀⇛ # ⚓ Sansui_introduces_new_range_of_Android_TVs_in_India starting_from_₹16,590_|_Business_Insider_India⠀⇛ # ⚓ Stop_phantom_message_tones_on_an_Android_phone_– StarTribune.com⠀⇛ # ⚓ Honda_Africa_Twin_1100_gets_Android_Auto_–_BikeWale⠀⇛ # ⚓ The_return_of_routines_doesn’t_fix_the_usability issues_in_Android_Auto_–_Ausdroid⠀⇛ # ⚓ MensXP.com_–_Content_Restricted_in_Europe⠀⇛ # ⚓ Which_is_the_best_voice_call_app_for_android?_– Tehran_Times⠀⇛ # ⚓ Nokia_8.1_to_get_Android_11_update_soon?_Re-appears on_Geekbench_with_Android_11_|_Nokiapoweruser⠀⇛ # ⚓ Motorola_G_Stylus_Android_11_update_yet_to_release, here’s_how_to_manually⠀⇛ # ⚓ Vivo_X50_Starts_Receiving_Android_11-Based_FuntouchOS 11_Update_in_India_|_Technology_News⠀⇛ # ⚓ Apps_Not_Updating_on_Android_10?_Here’s_How_to_Fix_– Gadgets_To_Use⠀⇛ # ⚓ Samsung_Galaxy_S21_Ultra_5G_review_–_the_best_Android smartphone,_yet_|_Business_Insider_India⠀⇛ # ⚓ Mediabox_Maverick_Android_TV_review_–_Easy_as_Pie⠀⇛ # ⚓ [Opinion]_Android_OEMs_should_allow_users_to uninstall_system_apps⠀⇛ # ⚓ The_In-App_browser_for_Google_Search_App_on_Android is_testing_a_shortcut_which_will_be_able_to_‘‘Read Aloud’’_and_‘‘Translate’’_instead_of_using_separately_a custom_tab_of_Chrome_/_Digital_Information_World⠀⇛ # ⚓ iPhone_13_could_finally_see_a_feature_Android_owners have_had_for_years_|_TechRadar⠀⇛ # ⚓ Best_Free_Android_Apps:_foobar2000_–_advanced_audio player⠀⇛ There’s a strict eligibility criteria for inclusion in this series. See the Eligibility Criteria section below. We recently recommended Musicolet, a small yet powerful music player which organizes and plays local audio-files stored on your device. While the app receives our strong recommendation, it has a startling omission, the absence of support for media servers. foobar2000 is an alternative to Musicolet and is better suited for anyone needing media server support. It offers support for UPnP/ DNLA media servers. o § Free, Libre, and Open Source Software⠀➾ # ⚓ OpenUK_Belonging⠀⇛ OpenUK is an organisation promoting open tech, come join us and belong. OpenUK Belonging video. # § Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra⠀➾ # ⚓ LibreOffice_Community_Member_Monday:_Steve_Fanning⠀⇛ LibreOffice has extensive documentation in many languages, thanks to the great work of our worldwide docs community. Today we’re talking to Steve Fanning, who has been working on the updated LibreOffice Calc Guide… Hi Steve! Tell us a bit about yourself… I live near Bolton in the North West of England with my wife and, sometimes, our adult son (he has recently been working in Australia for a year). I studied applied mathematics and theoretical physics at university and subsequently enjoyed a career mostly spent implementing and designing complex real-time software systems. Passionate about improving the documentation for the company’s systems, I moved into specialist technical writer roles during the last few years of my employment. I retired around two years ago and now enjoy indulging in my main hobbies, which are bridge, computing, reading and coarse fishing. I guess that some readers might wonder about coarse fishing – it is angling for freshwater fish for pleasure and relaxation rather than food (all fish caught are returned to the water alive). # § CMS⠀➾ # ⚓ about_wordpress_html_and_the_web_as_users_know_it_– top_20_cms_content_management_systems_in_2021⠀⇛ WordPress has no multi-million dollar marketing campaign or celebrity sponsors, but we do have something even better—you. If you enjoy WordPress please consider telling a friend, setting it up for someone less knowledgable than yourself, or writing the author of a media article that overlooks us. WordPress is the official continuation of b2/ cafélog, which came from Michel V. The work has been continued by the WordPress developers. # § FSF⠀➾ # § GNU Projects⠀➾ # ⚓ GNU_Health_Hospital_Management_component_3.8 released!⠀⇛ Dear community: I am very proud to announce the release of the series 3.8 from the GNU Health Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) component! Twelve years old, the GNU Health project has now become a Libre digital Health ecosystem, with different solutions to meet different realities, integrating them in the Federation. The year 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, has put our societies against the ropes, and challenging the public health system of every country around the globe. The GNU Health community responded swiftly to this formidable challenge. Within hours of the official World Health Organization announcement, we were able to deliver the new ICD-10 codes of the COVID-19 disease; Include the pathology in the person record when it was confirmed by laboratory and setting the disease as a notifiable disease so the Min. of Health could have uptodate epidemiological information. GNU Health has played a crucial role in many public health systems, not only by providing real-time observatory of COVID-19, but also, very importantly, study the impact of the socioeconomic conditions in both the incidence and severity of the disease on the underprivileged. Our community keeps growing! A notable example is that GNU Health is now also part of the KDE community! KDE has adopted MyGNUHealth, the GH Personal Health record. We are very grateful to KDE for trusting us! Most GNU/Linux users will have in their favorite GNU/Linux distribution a Personal Health Record focused on privacy and integrated with Libre devices and trackers. MyGNUHealth also runs on the PinePhone! # ⚓ GNU_Linux-Libre_5.11_Kernel_Is_Out_for_Those Seeking_100%_Freedom_for_Their_PCs⠀⇛ Based on the recently released Linux 5.11 kernel series, the GNU Linux-libre 5.11 kernel is now available for the GNU/Linux community seeking 100% freedom for their PCs with deblobbed drivers, but featuring the same new features and improvements as the upstream kernel release. These include support for AMD “Van Gogh” and “Dimgrey Cavefish” GPUs in the AMDGPU driver, support for Intel SGX (Software Guard Extensions), support for task-local storage in the BPF subsystem, suspend-to-idle support in user-mode, as well as a new “big block” mode in the virtio-mem mechanism. # ⚓ GNU_Linux-libre_5.11-gnu_(ilovefs)⠀⇛ GNU Linux-libre 5.11-gnu cleaning-up scripts, cleaned-up sources, and cleaning-up logs (including tarball signatures) are now available from our git-based release archive git:// linux-libre.fsfla.org/releases.git/ tags {scripts,sources,logs}/v5.11-gnu. Tarballs and incremental patches will also be published at . The scripts are unchanged since first published for this cycle, last weekend. This was a quite busy cycle. New drivers needed cleaning up in a broader than usual range of types of peripherals: qat_4xxx crypto, lt9611uxc dsi/hdmi bridge, ccs/smia++ sensor, ath11k_pci, nxp audio transceiver, and the mhi bus pci controller. The wimax drivers were moved in the tree, so the code to clean them up was adjusted. Other drivers that needed adjusting to deblobbing were wakeup m3 rproc, idt82p33 ptp clock, and qualcomm arm64. New blob versions had to be handled in amdgpu, btqca, btrtl, btusb, i915 csr. For up-to-the-minute news, join us on #linux-libre of irc.gnu.org (Freenode), or follow me on P2P or federated social media. Check the link in the signature for directions. Be Free! with GNU Linux-libre. What is GNU Linux-libre? ------------------------ GNU Linux-libre is a Free version of the kernel Linux (see below), suitable for use with the GNU Operating System in 100% Free GNU/Linux-libre System Distributions. http://www.gnu.org/distros/ It removes non-Free components from Linux, that are disguised as source code or distributed in separate files. It also disables run-time requests for non-Free components, shipped separately or as part of Linux, and documentation pointing to them, so as to avoid (Free-)baiting users into the trap of non-Free Software. http://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2010-11- Linux-2.6.36-libre-debait Linux-libre started within the gNewSense GNU/Linux distribution. It was later adopted by Jeff Moe, who coined its name, and in 2008 it became a project maintained by FSF Latin America. In 2012, it became part of the GNU Project. The GNU Linux-libre project takes a minimal-changes approach to cleaning up Linux, making no effort to substitute components that need to be removed with functionally equivalent Free ones. Nevertheless, we encourage and support efforts towards doing so. http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LinuxLibre: Devices_that_require_non-free_firmware Our mascot is Freedo, a light-blue penguin that has just come out of the shower. Although we like penguins, GNU is a much greater contribution to the entire system, so its mascot deserves more promotion. See our web page for their images. http://linux-libre.fsfla.org/ What is Linux? -------------- Linux is a clone of the Unix kernel [...] (snipped from Documentation/admin- guide/README.rst) -- Alexandre Oliva, happy hacker https:// FSFLA.org/blogs/lxo/ Free Software Activist GNU Toolchain Engineer Vim, Vi, Voltei pro Emacs - - GNUlius Caesar # ⚓ GNU_Linux-libre_5.11_Released_With_Many Peripheral_Drivers_Needing_To_Be_De-Blobbed⠀⇛ Building off yesterday’s release of the Linux 5.11 kernel, the GNU folks have put out their “GNU Linux-libre 5.11- gnu” kernel that removes support for loading closed-source kernel modules, stripping out drivers/functionality that are dependent upon closed-source microcode/firmware, and other sanitization work in the name of maintaining a fully free software system. # § Openness/Sharing/Collaboration⠀➾ # § Open Access/Content⠀➾ # ⚓ Hindawi_and_Maverick_announce_open_access publishing_services_collaboration⠀⇛ Hindawi’s publishing partnerships services, built upon its open source journal management platform, Phenom, are designed to run open access publishing workflows from submission and peer review, through to production and publication. The program offers publishers the option to retain editorial control and ownership of their journals while benefiting from Hindawi’s proven track record in delivering excellence in open access scholarly publishing. Current partners include leading publishers such as Cambridge University Press, SAGE and GeoScienceWorld. # § Programming/Development⠀➾ # ⚓ ENIAC_anniversary:_What_75_years_of_computer technology_have_delivered⠀⇛ Although such advances make it possible for everyone to have access to advanced computer systems, Thompson believes programming skills are being eroded. “We are not teaching people how to do things any more,” he said. One example is the trend for using low-code/ no-code tooling to lower the skillset needed to create useful business applications. But, says Thompson: “Tasks get automated that shouldn’t be.” In other words, automation does not necessarily help to grow programming skills. Glen Beck (background) and Betty Snyder (foreground) program ENIAC Unlike a modern computing architecture, the ENIAC did not use memory; instead, it comprised a series of modules for performing calculations. Recalling his experiences of programming, Thompson says: “I remember working on mainframes with 6MB of memory. We needed to code in obscure ways to get the most from the machine. “Today’s programmers do less coding than before. Memory is limitless, I/O [input/ output bandwidth] is not a problem. In a traditional sense, we are not doing data processing any more. Programmers today are building applications.” # ⚓ A_practical_guide_to_JavaScript_closures_| Opensource.com⠀⇛ In 4 reasons why JavaScript is so popular, I touched on a few advanced JavaScript concepts. In this article, I will dive into one of them: closures. According to Mozilla Developer Network (MDN), “A closure is the combination of a function bundled together (enclosed) with references to its surrounding state (the lexical environment).” Simplified, this means that a function inside another function can access the variables from the outer (parent) function. # ⚓ Don’t_be_shady,_deploy_your_JavaScript_source_maps⠀⇛ JavaScript source code minification is a beneficial tool for reducing download file sizes. However, the resulting obfuscation makes the code difficult to read, and reduces trust and transparency. Public source maps will help restore code readability and transparency. As a bonus, it enables others to learn from your code. The Web Almanac 2020 found that 99,5 % of JavaScript is minified. It’s a more popular data-reduction strategy than using transport layer compression, which is at only 85 %. However, the 2019 Web Almanac found that only 18 % deployed source maps. This last number should be much higher. # ⚓ [Older]_Ruby_gems:_Using_Linux/BSD_packages_vs._gem install⠀⇛ As a Ruby user and programmer, I thought that Linux distributions and BSD projects offered packaged versions of Ruby gems to add sanity and stability to a computer. The problem is that every distribution and project packages a different subset of all the Ruby gems available. I’ve always tried to use as many “packaged” gems as possible in the systems I run — chiefly Debian and Fedora Linux, along with OpenBSD. If you only need a couple of gems, distribution packages might be the way to go. But once you start to pile up the gems and get one or more with a LOT of dependencies on other gems, the whole thing can get a bit tangled. The documentation to my blogPoster project has included a lot on how to install gems with package managers like apt. I’m about to pull all of that out in favor of recommending that all Ruby gems be installed with Ruby’s own gem install program. # § Python⠀➾ # ⚓ Python_“tricks”_I_can_not_live_without⠀⇛ There is plenty of similar articles on the web, but I just thought that I can add my perspective on the topic, and make the “tricks” list more complete. The code fragments used here are somehow crucial to my workflow and I am reusing them over and over again. # § Rust⠀➾ # ⚓ Zeeshan_Ali:_zbus_and_Implementing_Async_Rust API⠀⇛ As many of the readers already know, for the past (almost) 2 years, I’ve been developing a Rust-crate for D-Bus, called zbus. With this being my first big Rust project to start from scratch done almost entirely in my spare time, the progress was rather slow for many months. My perfectionism didn’t help much with the progress either but also the fact that implementing a SerdeAPI for the D-Bus format was quite challenging. Then along came my old friend and ex-colleague, Marc-André Lureau who sped up the progress 10 times and soon after we had the 1.0 release of zbus. While my original plan (perfectionism again) was for the API to be primarily async, with the synchronous API mostly just a wrapper around it, it was Marc- Andre who ended up doing most of the work and coming up with nice high-level API and his use case was primarily synchronous so we decided to go with synchronous API first. I still believe that was the right thing to do, since neither of us were familiar with async programming in Rust and going with the original plan would have meant the first release getting delayed by at least another half an year. This may sound very disappointing to readers who come from glib programming background but a purely synchronous blocking API in a Rust app is not at all as bad it would be in a glib+C (or even Vala) app. There is a reason why Rust is famous for its fearless concurrency. o § Standards/Consortia⠀➾ # ⚓ SVG:_The_Good,_the_Bad_and_the_Ugly⠀⇛ I’m actually thinking about making a slim machine- focused vector graphics format (the name “SlimSVG” has been suggested :D) and writing my own human- focused Haskell graphics creation library with similar goals for my own purposes in the future, maybe as a student research project for the university. In summary: Decide whether a language is for humans or for machines and do one of those things. And do the one thing well instead of both, but badly. * § Leftovers⠀➾ o ⚓ This_Valentine’s_Day,_Celebrate_Love_as_Growth_and_Liberation⠀⇛ o § Health/Nutrition⠀➾ # ⚓ The_Growing_Vaccine_Corps_of_Medical_Students_Could_Aid Underserved_Areas⠀⇛ # ⚓ The_New_Humanitarian_|_Calls_for_fast_action_after_Ebola outbreaks_in_Guinea,_Congo⠀⇛ Two new outbreaks of Ebola in two weeks – first in the Democratic Republic of Congo and now in Guinea – have sent health teams scrambling to try to contain the spread of the deadly disease, ramping up contact tracing and medical support to local authorities. Guinea declared an Ebola epidemic on 14 February after three people died and four others became ill in the rural southeast of the country – the first reported outbreak in West Africa since a region- wide pandemic ended five years ago after claiming more than 11,000 lives. The initial case in Guinea’s new outbreak involved a nurse in rural Gouéké who died on 28 January, and the six other reported cases were people who had attended her 1 February funeral – with unsafe burials a known danger in Ebola transmission. o § Integrity/Availability⠀➾ # § Proprietary⠀➾ # ⚓ What_deserves_firing?_Asking_for_Excel,_or_ignoring the_alternatives?⠀⇛ The Idaho Statesman (IS) is a USA local newspaper, that is owned by a company called McClatchy. A few years ago, McClatchy decided to cut costs by, among other things, “doing away with subscriptions to Microsoft Office for new employees”. Consequentely, in late January 2021 McClatchy denied a request by a new IS reporter to have “access to Microsoft Excel”. Faced with resistance to get a software program as basic as a spreadsheet for a member of her staff, the IS top editor, Mrs Christina Lords, complained about this on Twitter. Eventually, it seems, the reporter was “granted access to Excel on her company laptop”. But Lords was fired, for violating McClatchy’s social media policy. [...] As far as I am concerned, I find nothing wrong in McClatchy’s decision to not pay anymore for Microsoft Office. What I find hard to accept is just their refusal to buy the most expensive variety of a software essential for daily tasks… without concretely encouraging all of their staff to use license-free alternatives, or at least allowing them. It is almost like saying “we won’t buy gold-plated Mont Blanc pens for new employees anymore, but even those employees must write only with gold-plated Mont Blanc pens”. Please tell me that there is more to this story. # ⚓ Report:_Microsoft_recently_sought_to_acquire Pinterest⠀⇛ Microsoft Corp. at one point considered acquiring the social network Pinterest Inc., according to a report today in the Financial Times. Pinterest had a market capitalization of about $51 billion prior to the publication of the report. The company’s stock price jumped more than 5% following the Financial Times’ scoop, after previously rising more than 600% since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The paper, citing people familiar with the matter, said that Microsoft had approached Pinterest about an acquisition “in recent months.” One of the tipsters was citing as saying that the negotiations are currently not active. It’s unclear whether the talks were shelved completely or simply paused. # § Security⠀➾ # ⚓ Arrests_in_Ukraine_hit_Windows_Egregor ransomware_gang⠀⇛ Law enforcement authorities in France and Ukraine have joined forces to arrest a number of people in Ukraine who were using the Windows Egregor ransomware to make money. # ⚓ NVD_–_CVE-2020-24074⠀⇛ # ⚓ CVE_–_CVE-2020-24074⠀⇛ # ⚓ Singtel_affected_by_cyber_attack_on_Accellion file-sharing_software⠀⇛ Singapore’s multinational telecommunications conglomerate Singtel has been breached by an attack on a file-sharing system from Accellion that is nearing its end-of-life, with the breach ocurring on 20 January, the telco says. # ⚓ Open-Source_Kernel_Security_Technologies⠀⇛ Lockdown is a relatively new security feature designed specifically for the Linux kernel. Part of the Linux kernel 5.4 branch, it is a feature that must be activated. Its default mode is off, simply because it can negatively affect existing systems. However, the primary function of lockdown is to prevent root account interactions with kernel code. By strengthening this divide, Lockdown counters potentially dangerous interactions that have been possible since the launch of the Linux OS. Once lockdown has been activated, there will be limitations on kernel functionality, but these will make it significantly more difficult for root accounts that have been compromised to affect the rest of the OS. # ⚓ Here’s_why_you_should_be_wary_of_installing anything_that_sets_SELinux_to_permissive⠀⇛ In the world of Android modding, people tend to regard root access as the cornerstone of all things. It allows users to take complete control of their devices and add features that aren’t always available in the stock configuration. But as they say — “with great power comes great responsibility” — it’s not wise to bypass Android’s security model unless you know what you’re getting into. For veteran Android enthusiasts on our forums, you are probably aware of the potential for backdoors to exist on your device, and you are more likely to be running a trusted root-enabled mod on top of the latest Android version with the latest security patches. Having said that, you might know a few people who don’t really care about what root tweaks they install so long as they seemingly work for them. This is why you can still find a truckload of mods that only work when SELinux is set to permissive, which, in turn, leave their users extremely susceptible to security threats. [...] For a user to get full root access on their own device running Android 10 (or higher) with SELinux set to permissive is shockingly easy to do: All you have to do is press install, and “Magica” will automatically gain root access in a service and install Magisk to the boot image. This is something far wider in scope than just tweaking your device. According to XDA Senior Recognized Developer and Magisk maintainer topjohnwu, any arbitrary app, including malware, can permanently root your device without your consent and permission by utilizing the PoC. # § Privacy/Surveillance⠀➾ # ⚓ Was_Social_Media_a_Mistake?⠀⇛ This entire post is a big pile of opinions. Please feel free to skip this one if you don’t want to hear it. It says so in the footer of each page, but I want to emphasize that these opinions are my own and not that of my employers (past, current or future). This is my subjective opinion. I cannot be unbiased about this topic (though I also doubt that anyone who has experienced it can be), so instead of trying to pretend to be unbiased in this article I’m just going to let the words out. I also don’t really have any solution to propose in this article. This is a problem that is way bigger than a single shitposter like me can really handle on their own. I am one person among an unfathomably large crowd. If this makes you think, then I have done my job. Buckle up, I’m doing a philosophy. # ⚓ Apple’s_App_Privacy_Labels — I_have Questions [Ed: Perpetuating the lie that #apple values privacy even though its CEO Tim Cook put the company in NSA PRISM. How quickly cultists delude themselves and forget. PR power.]⠀⇛ Apple’s privacy labels are a great start in letting consumers know what is happening with their data, but in my opinion, it is not clear enough in terms of how this data collection happens. # ⚓ Mozilla_Privacy_Blog:_Mozilla_Mornings: Unpacking_the_DSA’s_risk-based_approach [Ed: Mozilla spies on Firefox users, but it has something called "Mozilla Privacy Blog", which it adds "content" to, so they must be caring about privacy (not really). Posturing and posing.]⠀⇛ On 25 February, Mozilla will host the next installment of Mozilla Mornings – our regular event series that brings together policy experts, policymakers and practitioners for insight and discussion on the latest EU digital policy developments. This installment of Mozilla Mornings will focus on the DSA’s risk-based approach, specifically the draft law’s provisions on risk assessment, risk mitigation, and auditing for very large online platforms. We’ll be looking at what these provisions seek to solve for; how they’re likely to work in practice; and what we can learn from related proposals in other jurisdictions. o § Defence/Aggression⠀➾ # ⚓ US,_OAS,_Colombia_try_to_steal_Ecuador’s_election_from popular_socialist_candidate,_while_spreading_fake_news⠀⇛ # ⚓ The_Long_[Attack]:_How_China_Exploited_a_U.S._Tech Supplier⠀⇛ For years, U.S. investigators found tampering in products made by Super Micro Computer Inc. The company says it was never told. Neither was the public. # ⚓ Bloomberg’s_new_hardware_hack_tale_is_more_of_the_2018 brand⠀⇛ The new version of the hardware hack story floated by Bloomberg illustrates one thing: the English language is a glorious tool for obfuscating things and making the meretricious appear like the magnificent. # ⚓ The_New_Humanitarian_|_Displaced_Central_Africans_recount razed_villages_and_sexual_violence⠀⇛ Central African Republic security forces and their allies claim to have pushed back a rebel offensive seeking to topple President Faustin-Archange Touadéra. But a humanitarian crisis is far from over in the country, with hundreds of thousands of people still displaced and many more in need of assistance. In the town of Liton, 22 kilometres from the centre of the capital, Bangui, around 2,500 people have been living in a makeshift displacement camp since clashes between the government and the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) rebel group erupted in their villages in mid-January. On a visit to the camp, set up in the grounds of a local school, The New Humanitarian spoke to one person who described a relative disappearing, women who said family members had been raped by armed men in recent weeks – some by multiple men at once – and many others who said their villages had been damaged and looted. o § Environment⠀➾ # § Wildlife/Nature⠀➾ # ⚓ Thrillcraft_are_Taking_Over_Wild_Places,_More Wilderness_will_Help⠀⇛ Those were the days. In the 1980s, backcountry skiing out of Cooke City, Montana, provided access to endless untracked snow on moderate terrain. The snow falls soft and deep all winter in Cooke. I would go with friends every winter for fresh tracks and quiet mountain adventures. Equipped with leather telemark boots and 215 cm skinny skis we explored the ski potential of Miller Mountain, Mount Henderson, Crown Butte, Fisher Mountain, Mount Abundance and Scotch Bonnet Peak. We earned out turns with sweat and muscle power, and nearly every run was untracked and deep. The possibilities for more runs were endless. o § Finance⠀➾ # ⚓ CEOs_of_Reddit_and_Robinhood_and_‘Roaring_Kitty’_slated_to testify_in_GameStop_hearing⠀⇛ The Senate Committee on Banking also plans to hold a hearing into the “current state of the stock market.” The House hearing, which has the catchy title “Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide,” will stream live on its website beginning at 12PM ET on February 18th. # ⚓ The_‘Roaring_Kitty’_Rally:_How_a_Reddit_User_and_His Friends_Roiled_the_Markets⠀⇛ Roaring Kitty — who is Keith Gill, 34, a former financial educator for an insurance firm in Massachusetts — has now become a central figure in this week’s stock market frenzy. Inspired by him and a small crew of individual investors who gathered around him, hordes of young online traders took GameStop’s stock on a wild ride, pitting themselves against sophisticated hedge funds and upending Wall Street’s norms in the process. Their actions — pushing up GameStop’s price by buying so-called options contracts that offer a cheap way to bet on a stock’s direction — have shocked established investors because Mr. Gill and his online comrades are the antithesis of the Wall Street titans who have long ruled the stock market. o § AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics⠀➾ # ⚓ Opinion_|_Now_Is_the_Time_to_Really_Prosecute_the_Case Against_Trump—By_Pivoting_to_Real_Democratic_Reform⠀⇛ Any approach to moving forward must reckon with the fact that one of this country’s two major parties is no longer committed to multiracial democracy. # ⚓ Rural_Lament:_Wet_and_Waiting_for_Chicken⠀⇛ # ⚓ Postmaster_General_Louis_DeJoy_Plans_to_Roll_Out_Slower Mail,_Higher_Prices⠀⇛ # ⚓ ‘Fire_DeJoy_Before_He_Burns_Down_USPS’:_Postmaster_General Pushes_Plan_for_Slower_Mail,_Higher_Prices⠀⇛ “Biden should fire the governors of the USPS who appointed DeJoy, install new ones, and have them fire DeJoy. He should not be allowed to continue destroying the Postal Service.” # ⚓ Opinion_|_Who_Were_the_Republican_Senators_Afraid_of_When They_Acquitted_Their_Own_Attempted_Murderer?⠀⇛ At some point you have to wonder whether the bigger danger was the Capitol insurrection or the pusillanimous GOP reaction to it. # ⚓ Senate_Republicans_Vote_to_Acquit_Trump_in_His_Second Impeachment_Trial⠀⇛ # ⚓ GOP_Refusal_to_Convict_Trump_Is_‘A_Clarion_Call_for Eliminating_the_Filibuster,’_Says_Ro_Khanna⠀⇛ “Dear centrist Democrats, you couldn’t even get 10 GOP votes to convict the guy who sent a mob to kill you all. You think you can get them to vote on issues like immigration/climate? Come on,” said one progressive activist. # ⚓ Trump_is_History._It’s_Joe_Biden_Who’s_Changing_America⠀⇛ Congress is moving ahead with Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which expands health care and unemployment benefits, and contains one of the most ambitious efforts to reduce child poverty since the New Deal. Right behind it is Biden’s plan for infrastructure and jobs. # ⚓ Opinion_|_Democrats’_Shameful_Cave⠀⇛ Trials without witnesses are not genuine trials. # ⚓ Opinion_|_Trump’s_Global_Grim_Reaper,_Mike_Pompeo⠀⇛ The real reasons he was a shameful Secretary of State, and how Antony Blinken can do better. # ⚓ Republican_Senate_Retirements_Leave_Seats_Open_in_Three Swing_States⠀⇛ # ⚓ Hey,_Prosecutors,_It’s_Your_Turn_to_Try_to_Hold_the_Mobster Ex-President_Accountable⠀⇛ Saturday afternoon, 43 GOP senators betrayed both their oath of office and, more particularly, the oath that they swore to impartially hear and judge the evidence presented in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. They cavalierly discarded that evidence, laid out so meticulously by Representative Jamie Raskin and his eight fellow House managers, and they voted to acquit Trump even though the vast majority of them surely knew—and likely would have admitted in private—that he was guilty as sin. o § Censorship/Free Speech⠀➾ # ⚓ Google,_Facebook_Nearing_Deals_to_Pay_for_News,_Australia Says⠀⇛ Alphabet Inc.-owned Google and Facebook oppose planned Australian legislation forcing them to pay media companies for news, and Google has threatened to shut down its search engine if the law is enacted. Parliament will consider the legislation from this week, giving the internet giants an incentive to agree compensation terms for news companies before the law is passed. # ⚓ Seven_West_joins_Google’s_News_Showcase,_thanks_Frydenberg for_help⠀⇛ The Federal Government appears to be trying to remove the need for passing the news media code legislation by encouraging, and helping, media companies to join up to Google News Showcase. # ⚓ News_media_code:_Govt_may_yield_to_wishes_of_Google, Facebook⠀⇛ The Federal Government is likely to give Google and Facebook a major concession before it puts its news media code legislation up for a vote, with a clause that says the two companies do not have to cut deals with publishers under the law if they can convince them to sign up to their news products. # ⚓ Federal_government_concession_sends_tech_giants scrambling⠀⇛ However, industry sources, who requested anonymity to speak about the confidential discussions, said the government had indicated it was prepared to hold off on the designation process to give the tech giants more time to sign commercial agreements through their respective products: Google News Showcase and Facebook News. Google and Facebook would prefer these products to be allocated instead of search and newsfeed. # ⚓ Act_to_adapt_copyright_law_to_the_requirements_of_the Digital_Single_Market⠀⇛ A separate new law implements Article 17 DSM Directive and regulates the copyright responsibility of upload platforms. It also contains provisions on user rights and on remuneration claims of creators for uses on platforms (Copyright Service Provider Act [UrhDaG- E], Article 3 of the draft). o § Civil Rights/Policing⠀➾ # ⚓ Opinion_|_This_Is_Biden’s_Chance_to_End_ICE’s_Abuses—For Good⠀⇛ The systemic abuses of ICE make communities less safe—especially when they act in tandem with law enforcement through programs like 287(g), ICE detainers, and Secure Communities. # ⚓ Opinion_|_We_Must_Fight_the_System,_Not_Each_Other⠀⇛ Once I saw the connection between domestic and international injustices of our societies and capitalism, I found myself awoken after years of sleeping in the belly of the beast. # ⚓ Opinion_|_A_Reminder_of_What_Is_Possible⠀⇛ There is still a lot of work to do, of course. There is a lot of pain out there. But it feels so good to be hopeful. # ⚓ Couriers_delivering_for_Amazon_‘earn_as_little_as_£1.83_an hour_and_speed_to_hit_targets’⠀⇛ Drivers employed by courier companies to deliver Amazon goods are taking home as little as TWO pounds an hour, whistleblowers claim. Sub-contractors working for the tech giant are said to be pushing them to deliver up to 250 parcels a shift. But at the end of the day some self-employed couriers say they effectively take home less than the minimum wage after paying for van hire, fuel and other deductions. Now unions have accused the internet giant of turning a blind eye to alleged “slave labour” working conditions. # ⚓ ‘I_dreaded_the_whistle’_–_Gang_allegedly_abused_girl_at Walsall_Arboretum_and_in_backstreets⠀⇛ It was being caught smoking at the age of ten that Hannah says led to seven years of terrifying abuse by a grooming gang – including four relatives. # ⚓ Expert_harps_on_danger_of_Female_Genital_Mutilation,_FGM⠀⇛ UNICEF Programme Officer, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Imo State chapter, Chigozie Ojiaku has disclosed that about 58.1 percent of girls and women between the ages of 15 and 49 are at great risk of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Imo State. He stated this while addressing students of the Mother of Mercy Convent, Umunakanu-Owerri in the Ehime Mbano LGA of the state. o § Internet Policy/Net Neutrality⠀➾ # ⚓ You_shouldn’t_have_to_publicly_humiliate_AT&T_to_get_usable internet⠀⇛ It’s certainly good for Epstein that his ad worked, especially given how much it cost. But it’s been estimated that there are millions of Americans who don’t have access to any access to home internet at all, let alone broadband (which itself is arguably not fast enough), and they can’t all afford ads in the WSJ. Besides, that certainly seems like a trick that would only work once, especially given that it may only work for one household at a time — Ars Technica wasn’t able to get a straight answer about whether Epstein’s neighbors would be getting faster service anytime soon. o § Monopolies⠀➾ # ⚓ Antitrust_Legislation_Is_Essential_to_Racial_and_Economic Justice_in_Agriculture⠀⇛ # § Patents⠀➾ # ⚓ Buying_up_Overlapping_Patents_—_and_Double Patenting⠀⇛ This new petition asks the Supreme Court to chime-in on the judicially created doctrine of obviousness-type double-patenting. The basic rule is that it is improper for a patent owner to extend the term of a first patent by simply obtaining a second patent that is an obvious extension. You might ask – why do we need a separate double patenting doctrine here? Doesn’t Section 103 obviousness do the trick already? Evergreening via continuation used to be much more of a potential problem in days of yore when the 17-year patent term only began running at the the patent issue date. This would allow a patentee to receive a first patent in a family, and then receive a second patent extending out the patent term. And, that result was seen as an abuse of the system. The obviousness doctrine did not work for this situation because the first patent filing was not prior art to the second filing. Rather, obviousness-type-double- patenting and resulting requirement of terminal disclaimers were the solution. Although the change in patent term has reduced the potential dramatic impact of term extension via double patenting, the prior art exclusions under 102(b)(2) and generous patent term adjustments for PTO delays maintain a steady demand for the principle. In Sandoz, the patentee (Immunex) is attempting to extend its patent term with an arguably obvious innovation, but in a bit of a different way. The second patent is not a continuation or even a creation of the patentee. In addition, the second patent was not even one purchased or owned by the patentee. Rather, Immunex exclusively licensed the second patent from Roche. In its decision, the Federal Circuit held that obviousness type double patenting did not apply against Immunex because the company did not own both patents and did not even hold all-substantial-rights since Roche retained a “secondary right to sue” infringers. To be clear on this, the license appears to have been specifically designed to thwart an obviousness-type-double-patenting challenge. # ⚓ Board_of_Appeal_considers_the_legal_basis_and_effect of_the_EPO’s_2020_COVID-19-related_deadline_extension_ (J10/02) [Ed: EPO management again referring a case to judges_that_it_controls_and_terrorises (they’ll probably rubber-stamp whatever is at stake)]⠀⇛ Just over a year ago, the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic prompted an unprecedented extension of all deadlines at the EPO (OJ EPO 2020, A29) (IPKat). Subsequent announcements in the official journal (OJ) eventually extended all deadlines to June 2020. A recently published Board of Appeal decision (J 10/20) is the first to consider the legal basis and effect of these extensions. The case in question involved a series of missed deadlines dating back to 2018, the last of which fell within the period of the COVID-19 extensions. In the decision, the Board of Appeal (BA) is characteristically strict on the deadlines pre-dating the pandemic, but accepted the use of the COVID- 19 extension period for the final deadline. An interesting aspect of the decision is the consideration given by the BA to the legal justification for the COVID-19 extension. Reassuringly however, the BA concluded that regardless of how the extensions were legally justified, a user of the EPO should not be penalised without good reason for relying on notices published by the EPO itself. [...] The extraordinary measures taken by the EPO during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic have been criticised for not being explicitly allowed or provided for by the EPC (see, for example, the comments on IPKat here regarding ViCo oral proceedings). The reasoning of the Board of Appeal in J 10/20 seems to suggest that the COVID-19 related extensions of 2020 could possibly be accused of not having legal basis in Rule 134(2) EPC (although the BA pointedly leaves the question open). However, this Kat would be surprised if there were many who would argue that justice would have been best served by the EPO not providing the extension, just because the general chaos at the start of the pandemic did not necessarily include “a general disruption of mail”. Regardless of the merits or otherwise of these arguments users of the EPO can be reassured that, at the very least, the EPO considers itself legally bound by its own announcements. # ⚓ The_FRAND_Lectures_(Part_2):_which_Judge_can_order_a cross-border_injunction? [Ed: Interjecting toxic 'FRAND' (misnomer) agenda of patent monopolists]⠀⇛ For the second time, I will have the pleasure and the Honor of welcoming Professor Anne- Catherine Chriariny. Professor Chiariny teaches Patent Law and International Private Law at the University of Montpellier. She is notably the author of a famous doctoral thesis on international patent litigation awarded by the Prix Pierre Véron and published in 2006 and the Prix Montesquieu in 2007 (you can order it here) and has kindly accepted to offer us two brief lectures on issues relating to FRAND litigation in an global context: which Judge can fix a global rate (Part 1)? Which judge can order a cross- border injunction (Part 2)? Professor Chiariny, who answered to the first question two weeks ago, will address today the second one. Although the issue is less topical than the one dealt with the week before, the cross-border injunction is nonetheless a fundamental and recurrent question in FRAND litigation. Often the Netherlands, known for this practice, is considered as its preferred field (see recently here for instance). We will see hereafter that however this strategy is not specific to the “other cheese country” and can prosper just as well in the other countries of the European Union. [...] On the other hand, the effectiveness of a judgment given under a national rule of international jurisdiction – in particular by the French court which would have jurisdiction because of the existence of infringing acts in France – against a defendant domiciled in a non-EU Member State will be more uncertain, especially if the latter were to be executed in this state requiring compliance with his exequatur procedure . Moreover, the practice of anti- suit injunctions, which is common in Common Law countries, is likely to seriously delay the resolution of the dispute. However, such a practice cannot be formulated within the European Union since the Turner judgment[11], under the principle of mutual trust. Note that since Brexit, British courts have regained their freedom to accommodate these anti-suit injunctions. Hence the development of anti-suit and anti-anti-suit[12]… which will not be able to appease the numerous judicial battles in this area.” Eventually, in the light of Professor Chiariny’s analysis, one conclusion clearly emerges: contrary to popular belief, cross- border injunctions is not exclusive to the Netherlands and is no less conceivable in other European countries. # ⚓ Highlights_from_the_new_EPO_guidelines_for examination_2021:_ViCo_oral_proceedings,_description amendments_and_antibodies⠀⇛ The draft EPO Guidelines for Examination for 2021 (coming into force on 1 March 2021) have been released and can be read here. A controversial update to the guidelines this year is the new section on amending the description. The new guidelines also include changes reflecting the new norm of Examining Division oral proceedings by video conference, as well as new sections on antibodies and sequence identity that will be of particular interest to biotech attorneys. [...] It is becoming increasingly apparent that the EPO considers oral proceedings by video conferencing (ViCo) to be the new norm, at least during Examination (IPKat: The inexorable rise of EPO oral proceedings by video conference). The default to ViCo oral proceedings in the Examining Division is now made explicit in the guidelines, with the new guidelines specifying that “[a]s a rule, oral proceedings in examination proceedings are held by videoconference” (C-VII-5 and E-III- 1). Oral proceedings may be held on the EPO premises only if there are “serious reasons” for doing so. Serious reasons include, for example, a proven visual impairment of a representative. Serious reasons do not include “sweeping objections against the reliability of videoconferencing technology”. [...] The draft 2021 guidelines also include a heavily amended section on Examiner interviews (C-VII-2.1). Previously, telephone consultations with the Examiner were permitted during Examination. These procedures have now been formalised as “consultations”, to preferably be held by video-conferencing. The new guidelines also include example situations that might prompt such a consultation, including enquiries about the processing of a file, errors in an official communication and clarification of minor issues. # ⚓ The_Toolgen_Interference:_Broad_Preliminary_Motions List [Ed: Patents were never meant to be granted on nature and on life, so this whole case shows the absurdity of what some patent systems are letting themselves succumb to because of lobbying and corruption]⠀⇛ Senior Party Toolgen and Junior Parties The Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University (collectively, “Broad”) in Interference No. 106,126 and University of California/ Berkeley, the University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, “CVC”) in Interference No. 106,127 each filed Lists of Proposed Motions that the Board considered recently and responsive thereto will issue its rulings shortly (see “The CRISPR Chronicles: Enter Toolgen”). The Broad list will be the subject of this post. # § Software Patents⠀➾ # ⚓ Conference_&_CLE_Calendar [Ed: The patent profiteers and zealots who work for patent trolls teach “New Ways of Understanding the Patent- Eligibility of Software and Business Methods”, so they basically bypass the law]⠀⇛ # ⚓ TD_Bank_Group_Joins_the_Open_Invention_Network Community [Ed: OIN is not a community but a front group of software patents proponents looking to openwash their monopolies and striving to make software patents look benign w.r.t. Linux]⠀⇛ Open Invention Network (OIN), the organization formed to safeguard open source software (OSS) and now the largest patent non-aggression community in history, announced today that TD Bank Group (TD) has joined as a community member. Offering a full range of financial products and services to more than 26 million customers worldwide, TD is focused on constantly improving its operating platforms, and frequently uses OSS to do so. By joining OIN, TD is demonstrating its commitment to patent non-aggression in OSS. “The financial services and fintech industries are increasingly relying on open source technologies for building and integrating feature-rich platforms,” said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. “As the first major North American bank to join our community, we are pleased that an established leader like TD is committed to patent non-aggression in core Linux and adjacent open source technologies.” “We remain focused on leveraging the best technologies for our platforms and are excited to join the Open Invention Network (OIN), that supports protection from patent infringement claims for the greater good of the wider innovation community,” said Josh Death, Intellectual Property and Patentable Innovations Lead at TD. OIN’s community practices patent non- aggression in core Linux and adjacent OSS technologies by cross-licensing Linux System patents to one another on a royalty-free basis. Patents owned by OIN are similarly licensed royalty-free to any organization that agrees not to assert its patents against the Linux System. # ⚓ Top_banks_join_Linux_and_open-source_patent protection_group⠀⇛ When it comes to defending the intellectual property (IP) rights of Linux and open-source software, global leading banks aren’t the first businesses to come to mind. Things have changed. Barclays, the London-based global corporate and investment bank, and the TD Bank Group, with its 26- million global customers, have joined the leading open-source IP defense group, the Open Invention Network (OIN) [...] The sheer number of patent infringement suits filed by patent trolls has continued to grow over the past several years. Changes in legal precedent and the economic effects of the global pandemic appear to have further fanned the flames of the patent troll threat. Left unaddressed, the practice of asserting questionable patents diverts companies’ resources away from Innovation to costly defenses again trolls. Besides joining the OIN, Barclay is also joining the LOT Network. This is another fast-growing nonprofit group of companies that aims to stop patent trolls in their tracks. It has over 1,100 member companies and covers over 2 million patent assets. Lee Braine, Barclays’s Managing Director and CTO said in a statement: “By fostering a culture of innovation across the financial services ecosystem, we can help protect our future and better serve our clients. Spurious claims from PAEs to divert resources and investment away from true innovation and collaboration. We also recognize that a modern approach to technology development and innovation requires a level playing field around the use of open-source software. With membership of LOT and OIN, we are pleased to contribute to and extend the growing global community working together to prevent the PAE threat and remove barriers to use of open-source technologies.” # § Trademarks⠀➾ # ⚓ As_Givenchy_Campaign_Stars_Style_Themselves, Questions_of_Authorship_and_Ownership_Abound ⠀⇛ For his first ad campaign at the helm of Givenchy, Matthew Williams asked Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Playboi Carti, Anok Yai, and Liam Powers to “style themselves,” with the creative director telling WWD that his “ethos is about the luxury of infusing clothes with your own personality, not being worn by them.” Hence, the subjects’ widely- reported self-styling of Givenchy’s Spring/ Summer collection in the Heji Shin-lensed campaign, which aimed to elicit fashion editorials of the 1990s. Having models-as-stylists appears to have been more a creative choice by Williams than a COVID-19 restriction. However, this comes as brands have had to get creative in recent months as a result of pandemic-imposed challenges. In an April editorial spread for Vogue Italia, for instance, supermodel Bella Hadid posed in front of a white wall and doorway in strappy DSquared2 sandals, a camouflage-meets-animal print jacket, and itty-bitty bikini briefs, with a single prop in hand – err mouth: a blue balloon. The magazine spread had – quite notably – been shot via FaceTime, as models, designers, stylists, photographers, makeup artists, and all of the various essential assistants were shut-in at home due to the pandemic. # ⚓ Around_the_IP_Blogs_–_The_IPKat⠀⇛ TheFashionLaw blog addressed an interesting question of copyright ownership in fashion campaigns, which, due to the pandemic, are increasingly being shot through FaceTime, often by the models themselves, under the direction of a photographer who guides the shooting remotely. The blog looks at this recent trend of “models-as-authors” against the background of existing US caselaw on joint authorship # § Copyrights⠀➾ # ⚓ Microsoft’s_Edge_extensions_store_hosted_illicit copies_of_Sonic_and_Mario_Kart_64⠀⇛ # ⚓ Corrosion-proofing_the_UK’s_intermediary_liability protections⠀⇛ Consistently with that, in October 2020 the government published post-transition guidance, stating that it “has no current plans to change the UK’s intermediary liability regime or its approach to prohibition on general monitoring requirements”. Articles 12 to 14 provide limitations on the liability of conduits, caches and hosts for unlawful user information. Article 15 prohibits EU member states from imposing general monitoring obligations on those intermediaries. Whether and how long the government’s commitment to Articles 12 to 15 would survive was an open question. With nothing said in the UK-EU Trade and Co- Operation Agreement about online intermediary liability, there appeared to be nothing to prevent the government – should it wish to depart from its previous policy – from legislating in future contrary to Articles 12 to 15 – subject always to the possibility of a legal objection on fundamental rights grounds. There was a detectable drift away from the overt commitment to Article 15 with the publication of the government’s Full Consultation Response to the Online Harms White Paper, published on 15 December 2020. The Response strayed into proposing proactive monitoring obligations that could not readily be reconciled with that policy. That drift was also evident in the simultaneously published Interim Voluntary Codes of Practice on Terrorism, and Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, which are in effect a template for obligations likely to be imposed under the future Online Safety Bill. The Full Response was silent on the apparent conflict with Article 15. # ⚓ The_French_Supreme_Court_rules_that_Knoll_‘Tulip’ Chair_is_not_protected_by_copyright⠀⇛ In a judgment of 7 October 2020, the French Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal of Paris of 13 April 2018 that ruled that Knoll’s ‘Tulip’ chair is not protected by copyright in France. Under the reciprocity rule set out in Article 2(7) of the Berne Convention on works of applied art, the Court of Appeal sovereignly found that the famous Tulip chair is not eligible for copyright protection under the national law of the country of origin, i.e. US law, and therefore is not eligible for copyright protection in France. This rule of conflict is rarely used, which makes this case all the more interesting. [...] Article 2(7) of the Berne Convention therefore departs from the general system of national treatment set out in Article 5(1) of the Convention (i.e., equal treatment for foreign rightholders from a country of the Union), as it contains a rule of reciprocity under which a country of the Union grants national treatment only if the country of origin of the work also does so. Thus, there is a possible conflict between Article 2(7) of the Berne Convention and Article 18 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which establishes a principle of non- discrimination on grounds of nationality. In Tod’s, a 2015 case in which the defendant had raised a plea of inadmissibility under Article 2(7) of the Berne Convention, contending that the Italian shoemaker Tod’s is not entitled to claim copyright protection in France for designs of shoes that do not qualify for such protection in Italy, the European Court of Justice ruled that Article 12 EC (which has become Article 18 of the TFEU) must be interpreted as meaning that the right of an author to claim in a Member State the copyright protection afforded by the law of that State may not be subject to a distinguishing criterion based on the country of origin of the work. # ⚓ DISH_Secures_Patent_for_Blockchain_Based_Anti-Piracy System⠀⇛ DISH Network has secured a patent for a next- generation anti-piracy management system that’s built around a blockchain. The company envisions a universal and scalable solution that can be used by copyright holders and websites around the world. It’s not only cheaper but also more efficient than current anti-piracy options, DISH promises. # ⚓ Google_Lawyer_Bill_Patry_Has_a_Solution_to_Stop Copyright_Trolls⠀⇛ If there’s one thing you could change in US copyright law, what would it be? Bill Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel at Google, says he would revise the current system where copyright holders can demand up to $150,000 in statutory damages, as it enables a copyright troll industry. At the same time, the seasoned lawyer warns that copyright trolls will exploit the new CASE Act too. ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 4472 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ═════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.15.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ ✐ Links_15/2/2021:_Linux_Kernel_5.11_and_End_of_‘I_Love_Free_Software_Day’⠀✐ Posted in News_Roundup at 12:10 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GNOME bluefish⦈ § Contents⠀➾ * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * § GNU/Linux⠀➾ o ⚓ Why_programmers_love_Linux_packaging⠀⇛ In 2021, there are more reasons why people love Linux than ever before. In this series, I’ll share 21 different reasons to use Linux. Today, I’ll talk about what makes packaging for Linux ideal for programmers. Programmers love to program. That probably seems like an obvious statement, but it’s important to understand that developing software involves a lot more than just writing code. It includes compiling, documentation, source code management, install scripts, configuration defaults, support files, delivery format, and more. Getting from a blank screen to a deliverable software installer requires much more than just programming, but most programmers would rather program than package. o ⚓ 9to5Linux_Weekly_Roundup:_February_14th,_2021⠀⇛ This has been an interesting week for Linux news and releases, as we saw the launch of the highly anticipated Linux 5.11 kernel series, the re-release of the Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS desktop ISO images due to a bug in the OEM install, as well as the final release of the OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 distro and KDE Frameworks 5.79 software suite. I consider this a slow news week, so I had some time to take a first look at GNOME 40’s new design changes in the upcoming Fedora 34 distro, compile a top 10 of the best alternatives to Raspberry Pi OS, review Manjaro Linux ARM on the Raspberry Pi 4, and show you how to connect your Linux laptop to an external monitor via HDMI. o ⚓ Linux_Weekly_Roundup_#117⠀⇛ Hello and welcome to this week’s Linux Roundup. We had a full week in the week of Linux Releases with Ubuntu 20.04.2 and OpenMandriva 4.2. o § Audiocasts/Shows⠀➾ # ⚓ Feature_Complete_Or_Abandoned:_Which_Is_It?⠀⇛ Frequently I see people throwing around the terms feature complete and abandoned software without much thought about what would really define something as fitting into those categories. So today I’m going to be overly pedantic and try to narrow it down to a definition I’m happy with. # ⚓ This_Week_in_Linux,_#138:_20_Years_of_VLC_Media,_OBS Studio,_Lightworks_Video_Editor,_DevConf.cz_|_This_Week_in Linux⠀⇛ On this episode of This Week in Linux, we’ve got a lot of App News this week with the latest release of Lightworks video editor, Shutter screen capture project has returned, we’ve got updates about OBS Studio on Wayland and we’ll celebrate 20 Years of VLC. System76 announced a new project that will give people a chance to win a Thelio desktop. A 24 year old bug was found in the Linux Kernel and instead of the usual oh no! kind of scenario, this is more a testament to open source. Then we’ll talk about some upcoming changes to the email client space on the Linux Desktop with some announcements from Mailspring. All that and much more on Your Weekly Source for Linux GNews! # ⚓ GNU_World_Order_393⠀⇛ Listener feedback, and an email about some blog posts about CentOS. o § Kernel Space⠀➾ # ⚓ Linux_5.11⠀⇛ Nothing unexpected or particularly scary happened this week, so here we are - with 5.11 tagged and pushed out. In fact, it's a smaller-than-average set of commits from rc7 to final, which makes me happy. And I already have several pull requests lined up for tomorrow, so we're all set for the merge window to start. But in the meantime - and yes, I know it's Valentine's Day here in the US - maybe give this release a good testing before you go back and play with development kernels. All right? Because I'm sure your SO will understand. Linus # ⚓ Linux_Kernel_5.11_Officially_Released,_This_Is_What’s_New⠀⇛ After being in development for the past seven weeks, Linux kernel 5.11 is finally here as the latest and greatest kernel series for GNU/Linux distributions and anyone else out there who wants to have the best possible hardware support on their machines. Highlights of Linux kernel 5.11 include Intel SGX (Software Guard Extensions) support, a new system- call interception mechanism, support for task-local storage in the BPF subsystem, suspend-to-idle support in user-mode, big block mode support in the virtio-mem mechanism, and support for contiguous memory allocator in the RISC-V architecture. # ⚓ Linux_5.11_Released_With_Intel_Integer_Scaling,_AMD Performance_Boost,_RTX_30_KMS⠀⇛ What better way for open-source enthusiasts to celebrate Valentine’s Day than with the stable release of the Linux 5.11 kernel… Linus Torvalds even changed the kernel codename for the occasion to being the “Valentine’s Day Edition” kernel. While there were a fair number of changes merged this past week, Linus still went ahead today and released Linux 5.11 rather than going into overtime by releasing Linux 5.11-rc8. Included as part of this week’s fixes was the all important CPUfreq change to address the AMD performance regression. Now not only is AMD Zen 2/3 laptops/desktops/ servers recovered from that regression but often performing faster than prior kernel series. # ⚓ The_5.11_kernel_is_out⠀⇛ Linus has released the 5.11 kernel, as expected. “I know it’s Valentine’s Day here in the US – maybe give this release a good testing before you go back and play with development kernels. All right? Because I’m sure your SO will understand.” Headline features in 5.11 include Intel SGX support, a new system-call interception mechanism, the seccomp() constant-action bitmap optimization, the internal kmap_local() API, the epoll_pwait2() system call, and much more. See the LWN merge-window articles (part 1, part 2) and the (under development) KernelNewbies 5.11 page for more information. # ⚓ Monolithic_Hybrid_Micro_Nano_Kernel_OS_and_examples⠀⇛ “Most hybrid kernels start as monolithic kernels and begin moving components into user land, primarily as security to support 3rd-party components and drivers which may be malicious or buggy. An example of a hybrid kernel design may keep the VFS and bus controllers inside the kernel, but have the file system drivers and storage drivers as user mode programs. The advantage of this system that is you keep the performance and design principles of a monolithic kernel, but you allow untrusted users to load untrusted code for accessing their own storage devices.” (src) “XNU is a hybrid kernel, containing features of both monolithic kernels and microkernels, attempting to make the best use of both technologies, such as the message passing ability of microkernels enabling greater modularity and larger portions of the OS to benefit from memory protection, and retaining the speed of monolithic kernels for some critical tasks. o § Instructionals/Technical⠀➾ # ⚓ How_to_upgrade_to_LibreOffice_7_on_Linux_Mint_20.1_– YouTube⠀⇛ In this video, we are looking at how to upgrade to LibreOffice 7 on Linux Mint 20.1. # ⚓ How_to_Install_Linux_Operating_System?⠀⇛ In this article, We will let you through how to install the Linux operating system and have a feel for the process of using the Linux operating system. We will explain the installation process of the Ubuntu Linux server edition. This is open- source and free to use. Whether you will use Ubuntu for commercial or personal use, there will be no charges. Google and open up the website of Ubuntu and download the ISO file to install the Ubuntu server edition. Burn the file on a disk or load it up on a USB thumb drive. We hope you already know about the burning processor making bootable thumb drive. Since it is a server edition, there will be no graphical user interface on your screen. You will see a line user interface, which in simple words means a black-and-white screen. There will be a blinking cursor on your screen. You have to write commands to move further with your work, or you will be stuck. Let me answer the question that is popping up in your heads as to why the screen is black and white in the Linux operating system’s server edition. The biggest reason is safety. The server version of the Linux operating system has a line user interface because every function is like an attack vector for a black hat hacker. Any program that you install on your computer’s graphical interface gives a hacker a loophole to enter your system. As there is no graphical interface or external apps in the Linux operating system, the threat of hacking attacks is minimum. # ⚓ How_to_Install_VMware_Workstation_Player_on_Ubuntu_20.04_| Linuxize⠀⇛ VMware Workstation Player is a desktop virtualization software that allows you to run multiple, isolated operating systems on a single machine. With VMware Player, you can create and run your own virtual machines and evaluate software distributed as a virtual appliance from many software vendors available from VMware’s Solution Exchange . VMware Player is not open-source, and it is free only for personal non-commercial use. If you are looking for an open-source virtualization platform, you should try Oracle’s VirtualBox . # ⚓ How_to_install_Harrison_Mixbus_on_a_Chromebook⠀⇛ Today we are looking at how to install Harrison Mixbus 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_Format_a_JSON_File_in_Vim_(vi_editor)_–_Putorius⠀⇛ The vi editor has been around since the mid 1970’s. It is still the most widely used text editor on UNIX/Linux systems. In the early nineties vim (vi improved) was released as a clone for vi with additional improvements. With an abundance pf plugins and the ability to use external programs to further expand it’s capability, there seemingly unlimited potential. In this Linux quick tip we will be discussing how to format a json object in vim. # ⚓ How_to_Disable_Super_or_Win_Key_in_Ubuntu_20.04_or_18.04_– Linux_Shout⠀⇛ Many times we need to disable some keys, for example, recently I need to turn off the function of the Super key in Ubuntu while activating firefox kiosk mode. In a similar way, you may also have some situations where you want to do the same. # ⚓ How_to_Check_Linux_is_64/32_Bit_[CLI_and_GUI]⠀⇛ One of the most important tasks of the system administrators and IT professionals is to know about the system platform. If you want to install and run the new application on your system it’s better to check whether the application is compatible with a 32 bit or 64-bit operating system. This article describes how to find out whether the installed Linux OS is 32 bit or 64 bit. In this article, I have presented five simple ways to verify your Linux OS type. No matter whether you are using GUI or CLI-based systems, these commands work on almost all Linux operating systems including CentOS, Fedora, Redhat, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint etc. # ⚓ How_To_Install_phpMyAdmin_on_Manjaro_20_–_idroot⠀⇛ In this tutorial, we will show you how to install phpMyAdmin on Manjaro 20. For those of you who didn’t know, phpMyAdmin is a graphical MySQL/ MariaDB administration tool that can be used to create, edit and delete databases. phpMyAdmin provides the most useful functions to interact with the MySQL database. 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 phpMyAdmin on a Manjaro 20 (Nibia). # ⚓ How_To_Install_LAMP_on_Manjaro_20_–_idroot⠀⇛ In this tutorial, we will show you how to install LAMP on Manjaro 20. For those of you who didn’t know, LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, and PHP or Perl or Python. All components are free and open-source software, and the combination is suitable for building dynamic web pages. The LAMP stack is one of the most popular server configurations in the world. 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 LAMP Stack on a Manjaro 20 (Nibia). # ⚓ Geolocation_for_nftables_Brings_Simplicity_&_Flexibility_to Geolocation_Matching⠀⇛ What if you could block connections to your network in real-time from countries around the world such as Russia, China and Brazil where the majority of cyberattacks originate? What if you could redirect connections to a single network based on their origin? As you can imagine, being able to control these things would reduce the number of attack vectors on your network, improving its security. You may be surprised that this is not only possible, but straightforward and easy, by implementing geographic filtering on your nftables firewall with Geolocation for nftables. # ⚓ Adding_spice_to_your_sudo_session_with_a_lecture_file_on Linux_–_nixCraft⠀⇛ Despite some severe bugs in sudo, it remains the defacto tool to gain root shell or run command as another user on Linux, macOS, and Unix-like systems. The sudo command allows the system administrator to grant an individual user access to unprivileged commands. For instance, I can give developers the ability to restart the Apache webserver or PHP/Python process on a Linux server. Let us see how to remind developers and unprivileged users about the power of sudo for fun and profit. In this quick tip, I will show you how to add some spice to your sudo session with a lecture file on Linux or Unix. # ⚓ Monitor_Mikrotik_Router_with_Grafana_and_Prometheus_ (mikrotik-exporter)⠀⇛ We are going to deploy mikrotik-exporter to visualise Prometheus monitoring data for Mikrotik. # ⚓ Don’t_Use_Proposed⠀⇛ The proposed pocket is tha dangerzone here. The way I understand it, software which has been updated, lands in the proposed pocket before it lands in updates. This is so the person reporting a bug, or experiencing an issue, can install the update before it goes to the wider public userbase. If they report it works (via the Stable Release Updates (SRU) process) then it may migrate from proposed to updates and that update phases out to the userbase. The thing about proposed is that it’s inherently untested, that’s the point of it. The proposed pocket can also be used as a staging area. If there’s a bunch of packages which need to land together, but take a long time to prepare and compile, they can be staged in proposed. Then, when ready, they can en-masse be copied to the updates pocket together. This prevents “archive skew” and unresolvable dependencies when these large changes occur. [...] Today I am running Ubuntu Hirsute and foolishly enabled the proposed pocket. This pulled in an untested release of a critical package. Good work, popey! So I had to faff about a bit to debug and fix it. The reason I enabled the pocket was to get an early look at kernel 5.10 on Ubuntu Hirsute. My system seems to behave badly on 5.8, so I thought as 5.10 was “on the way” I could grab it. However, the stupid thing was, I added proposed (because that’s where 5.10 is baking) and upgraded all packages. Not just the kernel. Silly me. # ⚓ Install_Wine_6.2_In_Ubuntu_20.04_/_Linux_Mint_&_Fedora_33_| Tips_On_UNIX⠀⇛ The wine team released its new development version 6.2 As you know Wine is an application used to run windows applications on Non-Windows Operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS. This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to install wine 6.2 in Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 20.04, Fedora 33, and Linux Mint 20.1. # ⚓ Ubuntu:_resize_partition_[Guide]⠀⇛ Do you use Ubuntu and want to resize a partition on your computer and make it larger or smaller? Can’t quite figure out the right way to do it? If so, this guide is for you! Follow along as we go over how to resize a partition in Ubuntu! # ⚓ François_Marier:_Creating_a_Kodia_media_PC_using_a Raspberry_Pi_4⠀⇛ Here’s how I set up a media PC using Kodi (formerly XMBC) and a Raspberry Pi 4. # ⚓ How_to_install_Shutter_screenshot_tool_on_Pop!_OS_|_FOSS Linux⠀⇛ Shutter is a free, open-source, and feature-rich screenshot program available for Linux systems. It is developed using Perl and allows users to take screenshots of a specific area, window, your whole screen, or even of a website. Additionally, Shutter gives you an option of applying various effects on the images taken, like drawing/highlighting a feature or point and uploading them to an image hosting website, all within a single window. # ⚓ How_to_use_for/while/until_loop_in_bash⠀⇛ Undoubtedly the most useful feature of bash scripting is loop control. In any imperative programming language like bash, loop statements are commonly used along with conditional statements to perform repetitive tasks. In case of bash, three different types of loop statements are available: for, while and until. Each of these loop statements comes in handy in slightly different circumstances. # ⚓ How_to_generate_OpenPGP_record_for_DNS_(TYPE61)_|_Miroslav Suchý⠀⇛ Yesterday, I wrote how you could verify packages using GPG stored in DNS. You may wonder how you can store it in DNS? # ⚓ The_mysterious_change_of_a_checksum⠀⇛ Within KDE we have a service called the binary factory. It’s a Jenkins driven build pipeline which we use in the KMyMoney project to build certain binary installable versions of the project. For the generation of our AppImage version we package all dependencies into a large tar file so that we don’t have to rebuild them every day. Due to new versions of the online banking libraries we use, I updated some package information and let the service do its thing to create the tar file with the pre-build dependencies. This is usually a matter of a few hours. When I checked the progress after a while, I found out that the build had failed. # ⚓ How_to_Install_Java_in_Arch_Linux_and_Manjaro⠀⇛ This quick beginner’s guide explains the steps you need to install Java in Arch Linux and related distributions such as Manjaro. o § Games⠀➾ # ⚓ Nearly_Two_Decades_Later,_Wolfenstein:_Enemy_Territory Still_Living_On_With_ET:_Legacy_–_Phoronix⠀⇛ It’s been eighteen years since the game Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was released while thanks to the it becoming open-source along with the id Tech 3 engine, it’s still being advanced by the open-source community in 2021. As we have covered before, the leading open-source project around Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (and one of the few remaining viable id Tech 3 community projects) is ET: Legacy. The ET: Legacy client/ server remain compatible with the last of the official Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory releases while working on updating the engine for fixing bugs, security exploits, shifting to modern dependencies, graphics modernization work, and more. Ultimately they are still pursuing “Legacy” as their own mod with new features and improvements while preserving close to the original Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory gameplay. # ⚓ What_have_you_been_playing_recently?_Come_chit-chat_with us⠀⇛ It’s been quite a while since we had a community chat post for Linux gaming, so let’s get it going again: what have you been gaming on Linux lately? There’s so many games releasing all the time, along with cloud gaming very much being a thing that you can game across all sorts of Linux devices now. New isn’t always better though of course and I often go back to the comfort of a few “safety” games that I know I will enjoy. Lately, that’s been a likely unhealthy amount of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. o § Desktop Environments/WMs⠀➾ # § K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt⠀➾ # ⚓ The_Kate_Text_Editor_–_Valentine’s_Day_2021⠀⇛ Kate, KTextEditor and Co. did get a nice stream of updates in the first two weeks of February 2021. I will just pick a few things I really liked, if you want to have a full overview, you can go through the list of all merged patches. # ⚓ ISO_3166-1/2_Boundary_Polygons⠀⇛ I have been looking into extending the coordinate-based timezone lookup system we have in KItinerary, in order to ready it for being moved to KDE Frameworks. The first step however is finding suitable boundary data files for this, next to the timezone ones. # ⚓ KDE_on_FreeBSD_2021O1⠀⇛ I figure if we can write about “first quarter” of the year, then “first octant” also makes sense. So here’s the first six weeks of KDE-on-FreeBSD-in-2021 in a daemon- approved nutshell. The kde@ team is a half-dozen people or so, some of whom are committers, some channel updates through Tobias or myself. The things I describe below are not my work, but our collective efforts over an octant. # § GNOME Desktop/GTK⠀➾ # ⚓ Pranali_Deshmukh:_GSoD_Project_Report⠀⇛ Review and update the help documentation for a number of GNOME applications as tracked in https://wiki.gnome.org/DocumentationProject/ Tasks/ApplicationHelp. Even though GNOME is extremely user-friendly, it is a large and complex system, and thus, requires some learning to use to the fullest and to do so GNOME has provided some very useful documentation. This project proposed a review and updation of a number GNOME application Help documents. The status of these documents are tracked in the Application Help Wiki (https:// wiki.gnome.org/DocumentationProject/Tasks/ ApplicationHelp). [...] Currently, core projects like Boxes, Calculator and Contacts have been updated to GNOME 3.38 which was the target version of GNOME for the scope of GSoD. While most of the Merge Requests have been merged, some are still under review. Along with that I am going to continue my work on updating documents for GNOME and my next task is updating Evince. o § Distributions⠀➾ # § Reviews⠀➾ # ⚓ Review:_Laxer_OS_1.2_and_new_Linux_Mint_features⠀⇛ My search for new and interesting features in the Linux community took me to the DistroWatch waiting list this week where the Laxer OS project caught my attention. The project’s website describes itself as follows: “A beautifully crafted GNU/Linux operating system based on Arch Linux.” Judging from the project’s download archive, the distribution is updated every month or two. There is just one edition available which runs the GNOME desktop environment. Laxer OS runs on 64-bit (x86_64) machines exclusively and its ISO is 2GB in size. The project’s website suggests the operating system will not only look good, but offer performance improvements: “You will notice the significant performance boost on the first boot of your system.” The website’s description was a little vague on how performance and visual improvements were delivered so I decided to find out for myself. I downloaded the media for the project’s 1.2 release and booted from it. This brings up a menu where we are given the chance to boot to a live desktop normally or with “speech”. I believe the “speech” option runs a screen reader for people who are visually impaired. The live media boots to a graphical login screen where we are invited to sign in using an account called “liveuser” with no password. Signing into the live session loads the GNOME desktop and automatically launches the Calamares installer. At the top of the screen we find a panel with an application menu and the GNOME Activities menu in the upper-left corner. To the right of the panel is the system tray. I noticed early on there was a lot of network activity happening when I first logged in. This appears to be an automated check for software updates as a minute later a notification appeared letting me know 132 packages were available to be upgraded. # § New Releases⠀➾ # ⚓ LibreELEC_Upcoming_changes⠀⇛ The release of Kodi 19 is just around the corner and with it comes big changes that affects all media center hardware vendors. One of the most obvious changes, is the switch to Python3 (the programming language that is used by the Kodi add-ons) which is incompatible with the Python2 that was previously used. All add-ons have had to be updated to be compatible with Python3 so that they also work with Kodi 19, that has been completed successfully for many addons, but there are also many other add-ons that have not yet been updated, and therefore do not yet work with Kodi 19. The second big change concerns the methods of playing videos done by each of the hardware vendors. In the past there was no cross-platform standard under Linux, so many adjustments and different approaches were necessary, for example “Raspberry Pi” so that it could be used with Kodi. With the release of Kodi 19 – the standard video playback for Linux is used and the legacy techniques have been removed. This has required that the drivers support the standard on all of the hardware vendors that are supported by LibreELEC. # § BSD⠀➾ # ⚓ helloSystem_Releases_New_ISOs_For_This_macOS-Inspired BSD_Desktop_OS⠀⇛ There has been a lot of attention on helloSystem this week as a macOS-inspired operating system built atop FreeBSD with an emphasis on providing a polished desktop experience. Since we highlighting the FOSDEM presentation about it, there has been a lot of coverage on helloSystem and this weekend marks a new experimental ISO release. The helloSystem motto is being a “desktop system for creators with focus on simplicity, elegance, and usability. Based on FreeBSD. Less, but better!” The desktop utilities are written with PyQt5. # ⚓ [OpenBSD]_Catchup_2021-02-13⠀⇛ Recent noteworthy things commited to -current and not previously reported include: [...] # § Debian Family⠀➾ # ⚓ I_love_Free_Software_Day_2021:_Show_your_love_for Free_Software⠀⇛ On this day February 14th, Debian joins the Free Software Foundation Europe in celebration of “I Love Free Software” day. This day takes the time to appreciate and applaud all those who contribute to the many areas of Free Software. Debian sends all of our love and a giant “Thank you” to the upstream and downstream creators and maintainers, hosting providers, partners, and of course all of the Debian Developers and Contributors. # ⚓ I’m_not_opposed_to_nonfree_firmware_in_Debian,_but_I removed_it,_and_my_laptop_still_runs_fine⠀⇛ The debate over whether to include nonfree firmware in the Debian installer has emerged from the depths of the debian-devel mailing list under the title “Making Debian available.” The gist of this extremely long e-mail thread (and Debian is a mailing list culture, despite attempts to pull it into the 21st century is that the Debian Project is hostile to new users because its standard install images do not include nonfree firmware, and installations on most laptops will go poorly because the Linux kernel and free firmware might not support their WiFi or display systems. Images with nonfree firmware are available, but they are hard to find and aren’t linked on the main Debian web site. Even a search for nonfree firmware on the Debian web site isn’t much help.A Google search for debian nonfree takes you right where you need to go. I use the nonfree-firmware Debian images almost all the time. After my attempt at an in-place upgrade from Buster to Bullseye failed a week or so ago, I downloaded a nonfree image and used it to install Bullseye. I restored my user files from a backup (ALWAYS have a backup) and everything is now working. # ⚓ Steinar_H._Gunderson:_plocate_1.1.4_released⠀⇛ I made a minor release of plocate; as usual, https://plocate.sesse.net/ has the tarballs and such. o § Devices/Embedded⠀➾ # ⚓ Hands-On_with_Manjaro_Linux_ARM_on_Raspberry_Pi_4:_A_Gem!⠀⇛ Manjaro Linux ARM on the Raspberry Pi 4, where do I start? An amazing operating system for the Raspberry Pi computer, whether you want to use it just for fun or as a daily driver for your home office. Whoever did the Raspberry Pi port of Manjaro Linux ARM is a genius and knows what he’s doing. Don’t be scared away by the first-time text-mode configuration, because this Arch Linux and needs to be properly installed on the microSD card of your Raspberry Pi before you can actually use the system. # ⚓ DIY_PinePhone_keyboard_made_from_salvaged_Psion_5_PDA parts⠀⇛ An official PinePhone keyboard accessory is on the way. But some folks have been making their own DIY keyboard solutions for Pine64?s smartphone for a while. One hardware hacker decided to do that by pairing a bit of new tech with something old? but classic. In a pair of posts on reddit and imgur, /u/ AdmiralSym explains how they took a salvaged Psion 5 PDA keyboard and repurposed it as a Bluetooth keyboard companion for the PinePhone. The Psion Series 5 was a personal digital assistant released in 1997 which featured a 5.6 inch , 640 x 240 pixel widescreen grayscale LCD display, the EPOC32 operating system, and a clamshell-style design that allowed you to fold the device in half like a notebook. # § Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ Android_12:_Release_date,_previews,_betas,_and everything_you_need_to_know⠀⇛ # ⚓ The_Weekly_Authority:_Android_12_entices_already,_and more_–_Android_Authority⠀⇛ # ⚓ Vivo_X50_Android_Stable_Android_11-Based_Funtouch_OS 11_Update_Released_In_India_–_Gizbot_News⠀⇛ # ⚓ These_Android_smartphones_have_received_a_(security) update_–_week_6⠀⇛ # ⚓ Some_Huawei_phones_could_be_blocked_from_another popular_Android_app_|_Express.co.uk⠀⇛ # ⚓ Exclusive_Google_Pixel_features_heading_to_other Android_phones_–_but_you_have_to_pay_|_Express.co.uk⠀⇛ # ⚓ 15_new_Android_games_from_the_last_week:_The_best, worst,_and_everything_in_between_(2/8/21_–_2/14/21)⠀⇛ # ⚓ Give_an_Amazon_Fire_TV_Stick_4K_an_Android_TV-style makeover_–_Liliputing⠀⇛ # ⚓ Weekend_poll:_Do_you_have_an_Android_TV?⠀⇛ # ⚓ 5_Android_apps_you_shouldn’t_miss_this_week_–_Android Apps_Weekly⠀⇛ # ⚓ Android_11_on_the_Xiaomi_Mi_A1_via_Descendant_XI:_An interesting_ROM_with_a_few_unique_features_– NotebookCheck.net_News⠀⇛ # ⚓ Top_Stories:_Android_12_design_leak,_Pixel_Buds update,_more_–_9to5Google⠀⇛ # ⚓ You_can_now_port_Android_TV_to_the_2018_Fire_TV_Stick 4K_–_Gizmochina⠀⇛ # ⚓ Android_TV:_Sansui_introduces_new_range_of_Android TVs_in_India,_Telecom_News,_ET_Telecom⠀⇛ # ⚓ Slack_for_Android_users_should_change_their_password right_away,_here’s_why⠀⇛ o § Free, Libre, and Open Source Software⠀➾ # § Web Browsers⠀➾ # § Mozilla⠀➾ # ⚓ [Old]_Project_Tofino:_Introducing_Project Mentat,_a_flexible_embedded_knowledge_store⠀⇛ For several months now, a small team at Mozilla has been exploring new ways of building a browser. We called that effort Tofino, and it’s now morphed into the Browser Futures Group. As part of that, Nick Alexander and I have been working on a persistent embedded knowledge store called Project Mentat. Mentat is designed to ship in client applications, storing relational data on disk with a flexible schema. It’s a little different to most of the storage systems you’re used to, so let’s start at the beginning and explain why. If you’re only interested in the what, skip down to just above the example code. [...] Nick has just finished porting Tofino’s User Agent Service to use Mentat for storage, which is an important milestone for us, and a bigger example of Mentat in use if you’re looking for one. What’s next? We’re hoping to learn some lessons. We think we’ve built a system that makes good tradeoffs: Mentat delivers schema flexibility with minimal boilerplate, and achieves similar query speeds to an application-specific normalized schema. Even the storage space overhead is acceptable. I’m sure Tofino will push our performance boundaries, and we have a few ideas about how to exploit Mentat’s schema flexibility to help the rest of the Tofino team continue to move quickly. It’s exciting to have a solution that we feel strikes a good balance between storage rigor and real- world flexibility, and I can’t wait to see where else it’ll be a good fit. # § FSFE⠀➾ # ⚓ Join_us_for_I_Love_Free_Software_Day_2021⠀⇛ Today on the “I Love Free Software Day” we want to celebrate and share our love for Free Software. With this special day we say thank you to all the Free Software friends who supported, developed, campaigned, translated and worked for Free Software. On 14 February, let us show our love and thank all those people involved in Free Software. [...] For your listening pleasure we produced a new Software Freedom Podcast episode for this I love Free Software Day featuring Greg Farough, Greg Kroah-Hartman, Lyida Pintscher, Florian Effenberger, Miriam Ballhausen, Pamela Chestek and Polina Malaja. In this episode Matthias Kirschner and Bonnie Mehring talk about the background and the importance of the I Love Free Software Day for our community. # ⚓ Torsten_Franz:_I_love_free_software⠀⇛ Today is „I love Free Software Day“. And I also love free software for many reasons. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributes to free software. This happens in many different ways. Some write this software, some make sure that it is understandable, some bring this into the different languages, some support the use of the software and so on. They all contribute to making free software better. # ⚓ Matthias_Kirschner’s_Web_log_–_fsfe:_Shelter_–_take_a break_from_work⠀⇛ On today’s “I love Free Software Day” I would like to thank “PeterCXY” and others who contributed to shelter. Until recently I have used two separate phones: one for the FSFE and one privately. The reason is that I prefer to have the ability to switch off the work phone when I do not want to be available for work but focus on my private life. After the FSFE phone did not get further security updates for a long time I was facing the decision: should I get a new phone for work — but waste resources for the hardware — or should I continue to use the old one with the known security issues? # ⚓ agger’s_Free_Software_blog:_My_history_with_free software_–_a_story_told_on_#ilovefs_day⠀⇛ In October 2019, I went to Linuxhotel in Essen, as I had been invited to attend that year’s General Assembly in the FSFE as a prospective member. I had a very enjoyable weekend, where I met new people and renewed older acquaintances, and it was confirmed to me what good and idealistic people are behind that important part of the European free software movement. On the photo you see Momo, the character from Michael Ende’s eponymous novel – a statue which I was delighted to see, given that “Momo” has been one of my favorite children’s novels for decades. I first met the concept of free software at the university, as a student of physics and computer science in the early nineties. As students, we had to work on the old proprietary SunOS and HP-UX systems; we had to use the Emacs editor and GNU C compiler (thanks, Richard Stallman and GNU team!) as well as the LaTeX text processing system (thanks, Donald Knuth and Leslie Lamport!) # ⚓ Free_Software_–_It’s_about_much_more_than_zero_cost⠀⇛ Today we’re celebrating I love Free Software Day, where we say a big thank you to the developers and maintainers of free software projects around the world. You are awesome! One such project is LibreOffice, of course – but what does “free software” actually mean? Well, from a purely practical perspective, it means that you can get it without paying for it. That’s nice, but free software doesn’t come out of nowhere: certified developers in the LibreOffice ecosystem need funding to keep adding new features, and The Document Foundation (the non-profit that oversees LibreOffice) appreciates donations to manage the project, organise events and share knowledge. # § Programming/Development⠀➾ # ⚓ AST_Matchmaking_made_easy⠀⇛ C++ has multiple features which are designed to be simple expressions which the compiler expands to something less-convenient to write. Range-based for loops are a good example as they are a metaphor for an explicit loop with calls to begin and end among other things. Lambdas are another good example as they are a metaphor for a callable object. C++20 adds several more, including rewriting use of operator!=(…) to use !operator==(…) and operator<(…) to use the spaceship operator. [I admit that in writing this blog post I searched for a metaphor for “a device which aids understanding by replacing the thing it describes with something more familiar” before realizing the recursion. I haven’t heard these features described as metaphorical before though…] All of these metaphorical replacements can be explored in the Clang AST or on CPP Insights. Matching these internal representations is confusing and can cause incorrect transformations. None of these internal representations are matchable in the new IgnoreUnlessSpelledInSource mode. In the default matching mode, the CallExprs for begin and end are matched, as are the CXXRecordDecl implicit in the lambda and hidden comparisons within rewritten binary operators such as spaceship (causing bugs in clang-tidy checks). # ⚓ Steinar_H._Gunderson:_Idle_language_musings⠀⇛ PHP makes the easy things easy, and in the process makes the wrong things easy and the right things hard. C makes the easy things hard, the hard things possible, and in the process makes the wrong things just as easy as the right things. Rust makes everything hard, but the wrong things even harder. # ⚓ What_is_Decision_Trees⠀⇛ For classification we use Information gain where as for Decision Tree Regression, we use Mean Squared Error. Check out this link for Decision Tree Regression hyper parameters tuning in Python. We calculate for each parent and child, the mean squared error. We choose a node which has least mean squared error. That becomes the root node. * § Leftovers⠀➾ o ⚓ Science_Fiction_Since_1970⠀⇛ Science fiction, known by its shorthand abbreviation sci- fi, has a deep link with the socialist project dating back to the days of the Second International. Alongside the typical literary osmosis that occurs when authors absorb radical politics of their contemporaries, there is a distinct history of the genre’s texts serving as an imaginative laboratory for socialist/communist prepositions and/or propositions. The epistemological horizon of utopia invites these experiments in the imagination, sometimes resulting in practical consequences. For instance, Edward Bellamy’s 1888 novel Looking Backward: 2000-1887, one of the foundational time travel texts in the genre, catalyzed the creation of an entire political movement of clubs seeking to nationalize the means of production, hence their nomenclature as Nationalist Clubs. This trend has amplified in the last 140 years (though Bellamy might have been horrified to see how many forecasts have instead served a different side of class struggle). A persistent trend that amplified in this half-century period was the multi-media nature of the genre. Prior to 1970, there were niches within literature, film, television, and other visual art forms that fostered cottage industries. By contrast, in 2020, it was possible to look at multiple platforms and media types to see each contained sci-fi genres that not only were well- established but quantified as the largest financial successes in that given media form ever, case and point the Marvel Comics Cinematic Universe and the Star Wars franchises ranking as the two highest-grossing film series in worldwide box office history. Video games, popular music, comic books, collectible statuary, fashion, children’s toys, and many more forms of art now have distinct and prominent sci-fi artistic expressions. An entire cable television channel, SyFy, launched in September 1992 as the Sci-Fi Channel, remains a programming staple nationwide and has generated its own award-winning media. While a historical survey of the first half of the century describes a niche audience, this period describes a major centrifuge of capital accumulation within an increasingly-consolidated and deregulated multimedia market system. o ⚓ A_Frenchman_in_Texas⠀⇛ If there is a word to describe the France-born Parker, it is overachiever. Even if you are not a pro basketball fan, that is an admirable quality. The film traces his life from childhood to adulthood as a basketball player, beginning in France and wrapping up in the USA. Parker’s grit propelled him to be an integral part of the Spurs’ four-championship dynasty. o ⚓ A_Frenchman_in_Texas:_Tony_Parker’s_Game⠀⇛ If there is a word to describe the France-born Parker, it is overachiever. Even if you are not a pro basketball fan, that is an admirable quality. The film traces his life from childhood to adulthood as a basketball player, beginning in France and wrapping up in the  USA. Parker’s grit propelled him to be an integral part of the Spurs’ four-championship dynasty. o § Hardware⠀➾ # ⚓ Vacos_Cam_AI_Security_Camera_Review_–_Part_1: Specifications,_Unboxing_and_Teardown⠀⇛ # ⚓ New_STMicro_STM32G4_MCUs_target_cost-effective_motor control_systems_with_up_to_512KB_flash⠀⇛ # ⚓ Pico-ITX_and_Mini-ITX_boards_take_off_with_Tiger_Lake⠀⇛ Commell unveiled “LP-179” Pico-ITX and “LV-6712” Mini-ITX boards with Intel 11th Gen CPUs plus 2.5GbE ports and up to quad displays. Meanwhile, Aaeon has revealed some more details on its Tiger Lake based “PICO-TGU4” SBC. Commell announced two SBCs built around Intel’s 11th Gen Tiger Lake ULP3 processors. The LP-179 is the first Pico-ITX form-factor Tiger Lake SBC that we have seen, although Aaeon has just posted some preliminary specs and images for a PICO-TGU4 Pico- ITX board that we summarize farther below. The LV- 6712 joins 11th Gen Mini-ITX boards previously announced by ASRock and IEI. o § Health/Nutrition⠀➾ # ⚓ Legalizing_All_Drugs_Is_Just_the_Beginning_of_a Compassionate_Drug_Policy⠀⇛ # ⚓ ‘We_Won’t_Be_Intimidated,’_Says_NY_AG_After_Amazon_Files Preemptive_Suit_Over_Covid-19_Worker_Safety⠀⇛ “This action by Amazon is nothing more than a sad attempt to distract from the facts and shirk accountability for its failures to protect hardworking employees from a deadly virus.” # ⚓ Covid-19_vaccine_for_Africa_by_Africans⠀⇛ o § Integrity/Availability⠀➾ # § Proprietary⠀➾ # § Security⠀➾ # § Privacy/Surveillance⠀➾ # ⚓ How_to_Use_Signal_on_Your_Laptop_or_PC⠀⇛ Wondering how to use Signal on your laptop or PC? If you have a Signal account, the popular messaging app will let you sync your account between your phone and your laptop or PC with a few easy steps. Signal is increasingly becoming popular as an instant messaging alternative to WhatsApp. It lets you send and receive text messages as well as make and receive voice and video calls. It has also grabbed attention for its enhanced security that comes from the open-source Signal Protocol. Signal also offers privacy features such as disappearing messages, screen security, and registration lock. All these features make Signal complete against the likes of WhatsApp and Telegram. Signal, in fact, claims that all messaging that you access on your laptop or PC is private. o § Defence/Aggression⠀➾ # ⚓ The_armed_„Eurodrone“_is_also_to_fly_with_wiretapping technology⠀⇛ On its website, the German Ministry of Defence gives the impression that the mass production of an EU combat drone has already been decided. First, however, the Bundestag is to vote on it. The Social Democratic Party is thus faced with a decision of great consequence. # ⚓ What_will_your_city_be_like_when_Islamists_become_the majority?⠀⇛ In the spotlight ever since a philosophy teacher who paid homage to Samuel Paty must now live under police protection, the French city of Trappes is a laboratory for understanding how thirty years of multicultural ideology in the suburbs does not lead to cultural enrichment, but to the death of Western culture. The weekly Valeurs Actuelles gives us a glimpse of life in Trappes. # ⚓ A_woman_with_a_voice_is_a_direct_threat_to_patriarchy_and misogynists,_says_Saira_Khan⠀⇛ Women who use their voice unashamedly become “a direct threat to patriarchy and misogynists”, said British television personality Saira Khan in a post on her Instagram, days after receiving threats for being an independent woman. Saira Khan spoke of violence against women, as well as how she was a women “saying ‘I want to live my life on my terms’”. Her Instagram post carried a poem called “Anticlockwise” by feminist Pakistani poet Kishwar Naheed in light of the intimidation and threats she got for speaking about her beliefs in the United Kingdom. # ⚓ While_Europe_Slept,_15_Years_Later⠀⇛ Note: My book While Europe Slept was first published by Doubleday in 2006. Now the Stapis publishing house has put out a Polish edition, translated by Tadeusz Skrzyszowski. Given that the book is fifteen years old, Stapis asked for a new preface. Here it is. o § Environment⠀➾ # § Energy⠀➾ # ⚓ New_Study_Says_Appalachian_Fracking_Boom_Has_Done Little_for_Local_Economies⠀⇛ o § Finance⠀➾ # ⚓ Opinion_|_Taxes_on_the_Rich:_One-Sixth_of_What_They_Used_to Be⠀⇛ A new IPS briefing paper highlights the unique role of tax policy in wealth concentration. # ⚓ Opinion_|_The_Fight_for_a_$15_Minimum_Wage_Is_a_Fight_for Racial_Justice⠀⇛ Democrats need to stop playing games and use their majorities to pass a $15 minimum wage right now—we can’t wait any longer. # ⚓ Class_War_Intensifies_During_the_Pandemic⠀⇛ With millions of deaths, unemployment soaring, millions threatened with losing their homes and economies struggling around the world, the world’s billionaires are doing fine. More than fine. So fine that they have added trillions of dollars to their composite wealth. In other words, capitalism as usual. Or even better than usual, depending on your point of view and bank account. o § AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics⠀➾ # ⚓ Progressives_Urge_Dems_to_Call_House_Minority_Leader_to Testify_at_Trump_Trial⠀⇛ # ⚓ Under_Democrats’_Ethics_Bill,_Reps_Would_Have_to_Resign From_Corporate_Boards⠀⇛ # ⚓ Opinion_|_Federal_Court_Strikes_Down_Arkansas_Attempt_to Punish_Proponents_of_Boycotting_Israel_Over_Its_Treatment_of Palestinians⠀⇛ The anti-boycott laws are the ultimate in cancel culture. They are also un-American. # ⚓ ‘Sociopathic’:_New_Reporting,_GOP_Lawmaker_Account_Suggest Trump_Sided_With_Violent_Mob_During_Capitol_Attack⠀⇛ “Trump wanted those storming the Capitol to keep him in power. There is no ifs or buts about it,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar. # ⚓ ‘Subpoena_Kevin_McCarthy_If_You_Have_To’:_Democrats_Urged to_Bring_Witnesses_After_Bombshell_Report_on_Trump_Call⠀⇛ “As evidence of Trump’s behind-the-scenes sociopathy mounts, it becomes clearer that Dems must call witnesses.” # ⚓ ‘What_the_Big_Lie_Is_All_About’:_Sanders_Rips_Trump_Lawyer Over_‘Pathetic’_Refusal_to_Acknowledge_Election_Results⠀⇛ “Three months after the election, and 61 court decisions later, Trump and his attorneys still refuse to acknowledge that he lost the election.” # ⚓ The_Senate_Has_Failed_America⠀⇛ Every member of the United States Senate swears an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and makes a commitment to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” After the House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump for the incitement of insurrection that resulted in the deadly January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol of the United States, the duty of true faith and allegiance to the Constitution demanded that senators try and convict the 45th president for the high crimes he committed. # ⚓ Trump’s_Lawyers_Were_Terrible—but_Will_It_Matter?⠀⇛ Nothing exposed Republican duplicity over Donald Trump’s role in the January 6 violence like the unanimous support for awarding a congressional Medal of Honor to heroic Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman. At the end of a long day of impeachment trial lies, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell joined top Democrat Chuck Schumer in hailing Goodman’s bravery defending their colleagues on that bloody day, when both men had reason to fear for their lives. # ⚓ Mitch_McConnell_Tells_Republican_Colleagues_He_Will_Vote_to Acquit_Trump⠀⇛ # ⚓ ‘He_Is_Who_We_Thought_He_Was’:_McConnell_Tells_GOP Colleagues_He_Will_Vote_to_Acquit_Trump⠀⇛ “It is disappointing but not at all surprising that Trump’s worst enablers will stand with him.” # ⚓ Opinion_|_It’s_a_Myth_That_Presidents_Welcome_Movement Pressure—and_Biden_Is_No_Different⠀⇛ Politicians fear the disruptive power of a mobilized base, even when it helps them succeed. # ⚓ 43_Republicans_Condemned_for_‘Cowardice’_as_Senate_Votes_to Acquit_Donald_Trump⠀⇛ “The Republican senators who voted to acquit are cowards and fascists, and that is all their party stands for today,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones (D- N.Y.). # ⚓ ‘A_Complete_Capitulation’:_Outrage_as_Democrats_Abruptly Back_Off_Push_for_Witnesses_in_Trump_Trial⠀⇛ “This is retreat. White flag. Malpractice. Completely unstrategic.” # ⚓ New_Legislation_Would_Expose_the_Financiers_of_the_Capitol Siege⠀⇛ # ⚓ Statement_by_Ralph_Nader_and_Bruce_Fein_on_the_Senate’s Impeachment_Acquittal_of_Donald_J.Trump⠀⇛ Ms. Butler’s disclosing a conversation with House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) proving President Trump’s endorsement of his mob’s resort to lethal force and violence to unconstitutionally prevent a peaceful transfer of presidential power precipitated a surprise 55-45 Senate vote this morning, including several Republicans, to entertain live witnesses. Democratic Senator Benjamin Cardin (Maryland) appeared on NPR shortly before the Senate reconvened from a recess at 12:30 pm. The Senator declared that the impeachment trial would be continued for two weeks; and, that the only issue remaining for resolution between the prosecution and defense (then in private negotiations) was whether five witnesses for each side would be named or left open for later identification in a Senate witness resolution. Mr. Cardin was clueless of the Democratic capitulation, snaring defeat from the jaws of victory. The House Managers and Mr. Trump’s defense team agreed to a stipulation to admit into the record a mere written statement by Congresswoman Butler, not delivered in person under oath or via a deposition. Not a single witness would be called. # ⚓ Opinion_|_Impeachment_Trial_Is_Not_About_Convincing_GOP Senators—Many_of_Whom_Were_Trump’s_Co-Conspirators⠀⇛ The point of the impeachment trial is to determine how history will remember Trump’s anti-democratic presidency as well as the party that supported him—and media’s framing today will have a powerful influence on that eventual verdict. # ⚓ Senator_Chuck_Grassley_Pretends_to_Be_a_Principled Republican._Don’t_Buy_It.⠀⇛ Iowa’s family farmers are working harder than ever during this deadly pandemic. We’re trying to keep our families and communities safe. We’re collaborating with our neighbors, and we’re finding innovative solutions to the problems we face. # ⚓ ‘Some_people_are_saying’:_Google_adopts_Fox_News-style tactics⠀⇛ With the time for changes to be made to the news media code rapidly running out, Google, one of the digital platforms that will be affected, has turned to a Fox News-style tactic: using the “some people are saying” line to draw attention to what are claimed issues with the Code. # ⚓ Happy_Independence_Day,_Tibet:_Viv_Richards’_tweet_draws global_attention,_angers_China_[reactions]⠀⇛ The Tibetan community in exile residing in Dharamshala and all around the world surely must be celebrating this day, February 13, as their independence day, the anniversary of the five-point proclamation issued by the 13th Dalai Lama in 1913. The social media has been flooded with messages wishing the peaceful autonomous region on this important day despite the illegal occupation of China that dates back to nearly six decades. But among all, an interesting message by former West Indies cricket legend Vivian Richards on Saturday, lending support to Tibet’s freedom movement, has created a buzz on the internet. “Happy Independence Day, Tibet” Way To Go #FreedomForTibet,” the message from Richard’s twitter account read. # ⚓ Hearing_Held_for_Assyrian_Monk_Accused_of_‘Terrorism’_in Turkey⠀⇛ The new hearing in the trial of Assyrian monk, Fr Sefer (Aho) Bileçen, was held today at the High Criminal Court in Mardin. As in the previous hearing in early November, proceedings were held in camera with no journalists allowed. Fr Sefer faces terrorism charges. Prosecutors accuse him of aiding a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is outlawed in Turkey, by giving a piece of bread (story). The PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, has been in prison since 1999. o § Censorship/Free Speech⠀➾ # ⚓ Turkey_Halts_Celebration_of_Greek_Language⠀⇛ Turkey’s heavy-handedness in promoting pan-Turkish views in the region causes disdain for activity that allows for any other narrative. Promotion of the Greek language is viewed as a threat to their Turkish identity, and further linking the Greek language to Christianity prompts harsh backlash. Christians are often viewed as “indigenous foreigners” as cited in ICC’s joint report on Turkey. With a strong Turkish community in Greece’s Thrace region, Turkey closely monitors any perceived threats to its people and dominance. # ⚓ Twitter_seeks_dialogue_with_IT_Minister_after_order_to block_1,178_accounts⠀⇛ Twitter on Tuesday said it is seeking formal dialogue with the Information Technology Minister after the government ordered it to take down 1,178 accounts for allegedly spreading misinformation around farmers’ protests. The microblogging platform also noted that safety of its employees is a “top priority. # ⚓ BBC_World_News_barred_from_airing_in_China_–_regulator⠀⇛ British television channel BBC World News has been barred from airing in China, the National Radio and Television Administration said on Friday, a week after Britain’s media regulator revoked Chinese state television’s broadcast licence. In a statement issued on the stroke of the Lunar New Year, the administration said an investigation found BBC World News’ China-related reports had “seriously violated” regulations, including that news should be “truthful and fair,” had harmed China’s national interests and undermined national unity. The channel therefore does not meet requirements for foreign channels broadcasting in China and its application to air for another year will not be accepted, it added. # ⚓ Content_Moderation_Case_Study:_Valve_Takes_A_Hands_Off Approach_To_Porn_Via_Steam_(2018)⠀⇛ Summary: Different platforms have different rules regarding “adult” content, but they often prove difficult to enforce. Even the US judicial system has declared that there is no easy way to define pornography, leading to Justice Potter Stewart’s famous line, “I know it when I see it.” # ⚓ The_Copia_Institute_To_The_Oversight_Board_Regarding Facebook’s_Trump_Suspension:_There_Was_No_Wrong_Decision⠀⇛ The following is the Copia Institute’s submission to the Oversight Board as it evaluates Facebook’s decision to remove some of Trump’s posts and his ability to post. While addressed to the Board, it’s written for everyone thinking about how platforms moderate content. o § Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press⠀➾ # ⚓ Civil_Rights_Groups_Argue_That_Biden_Should_Drop_Assange Prosecution;_Noting_That_It_Is_An_Attack_On_Journalism⠀⇛ It’s easy to dislike and distrust Julian Assange. He’s done many things to inspire both reactions. Still, it’s important to separate out personal feelings towards the guy with the question of whether or not he broke US law with publishing the things he did via Wikileaks. For years, the Obama DOJ refused to indict him, in part due to the recognition that nearly all of Assange’s activities were similar to the kinds of things that journalists do all the time. The Trump DOJ had no such restraint (even as some prosecutors warned of problems with the idea), and as we and others have pointed out the indictment is a huge threat to investigative journalism and things like source protection. o § Civil Rights/Policing⠀➾ # ⚓ Opinion_|_Workers’_Groups_to_Biden:_Support_Equal_Rights for_All_Workers_to_Organize⠀⇛ Workers’ organizations call on working people to support Biden’s plan to create a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented workers and further demand Biden support equal rights for all workers to organize to strengthen workers unity. # ⚓ The_Capitol_Siege_Was_White_Supremacy_in_Action._Trial Evidence_Confirms_That.⠀⇛ # ⚓ Police_‘failed_Walsall_grooming_gang_victim_after_losing 30hrs_of_interview_tapes’⠀⇛ Police have been accused of failing a grooming gang victim after bringing no charges in seven years – and losing 30 hours of her interview tapes. # ⚓ ‘We_must_speak_up’:_In_conservative_Kuwait,_women_have launched_their_own_#MeToo_movement⠀⇛ Women in Kuwait are defying conservative norms and a culture of “shame” to speak out against harassment for the first time, in a social media campaign sparked by a popular fashion blogger. Dozens of testimonies about being stalked, harassed or assaulted have emerged online, focused on the Instagram account “Lan Asket” – Arabic for “I will not be silent”. # ⚓ The_Endurance_Of_Wife-Beating_In_Islam⠀⇛ The rise in domestic violence has highlighted the limited legal and financial support available for victims who often find themselves trapped in abusive households due to conservative sharia social norms that consider it shameful for women to leave or seek justice. # ⚓ Spain:_Leftist_Politician_Praises_Islamic_al-Andalus, Accuses_Spanish_Monarchy_of_‘Genocide’⠀⇛ If, however, Isabel Franco (pictured above) had been inclined to be honest, she would have plenty to apologize for. The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS, the first and only comprehensive history of the 1,400-year jihad phenomenon worldwide in the English language, shows that Muslim Spain was anything but a model of multiculturalism and coexistence. In fact, it was miserable to live as a Christian there. Christians could never be sure that they would not be harassed. One contemporary account tells of priests being “pelted with rocks and dung” by Muslims while on the way to a cemetery. The dhimmis suffered severe economic hardship: Paul Alvarus, a ninth century Christian in Córdoba, complained about the “unbearable tax” that Muslims levied on Christians. Nor could Christians say anything about their situation, because that situation was mandated by Islamic law, and criticizing Islam, Muhammad, or the Qur’an in any manner was a death-penalty offense. # ⚓ America_Through_the_Eyes_of_Sil_D⠀⇛ Rocky: Sil, you have so much wisdom to share with the world. I’d like to ask you some questions about the racism you experience here in Portland because I think it would help Americans to self-reflect on how we got here societally. One thing I don’t know a lot about you is how you got here to Portland. You were born in Kentucky, right? Sil: I was born in Kentucky in the 50’s. Kentucky is a boor state, which means it was neutral in the Civil War. In Kentucky, they do racism with civility, very similar to Portland actually. That’s where you put the sweet candy coating on top, but you still have that solid center. I got to Portland after all the engineering schools in California were impacted and I was unable to get access to school there. # ⚓ Reversing_Xenophobic_Trump_Policy,_Biden_to_Allow_25,000 Asylum-Seekers_Stuck_in_Mexico_to_Enter_US⠀⇛ “It remains a legal and moral imperative that the U.S. government abide by national and international refugee law and provide these individuals with an opportunity to request asylum.” # ⚓ Natural_Selection⠀⇛ Leaving the Northern Territory’s Charles Darwin University, by Jeep, Jean-Baptiste and Charles learned first hand about the tall poppy thing when a cabal of tertiary students saluted their departure together with a raspberry comment. “Poofters!” one of them yelled, but their backs were turned by the time Jean-Baptiste, on precious loan from the Sorbonne, took umbrage at such la haine remark. He knew what a poofter was — they had a similar observation in Paris: Egalitarians there would yell out “Boofter!”  They never let up on the Marie Antoinette jokes, which were about as funny as Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. As they drove off, another miscreant regionally nasalled, “Brokeback Mountain, mate,” and made a giddy-up click-click sound with his tongue. Again, Jean- Baptiste turned instantly, looking for eye contact to duel with — but, again, nothing. Charles laughed. And squeezed Larmarck’s knee.  “Don’t worry about them, J-B,” they went from ship mates to mateship in one generation. Jean-Baptiste moved Charles’s hand toward his crotch, at which point Charles gave up his larrikin larf and pulled his hand away. They were men, not to be trifled with by Falstaffian bawdiness. o § Monopolies⠀➾ # § Patents⠀➾ # ⚓ EU_parliamentarians_back_India-South_Africa_proposal for_COVID-19_vaccine_patent_waiver⠀⇛ European Union Parliamentarians have strongly backed India and South Africa’s joint proposal at the World Trade Organization for a waiver on intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccine patents. As many as 14 members of European Parliamentarians in a letter to EU leadership have called for a moratorium on the suspension of COVID-19 vaccine patents. The two-page letter on COVID-19 vaccine highlights: “South Africa and India sent a joint proposal to the World Trade Organization requesting an exemption from patents and other intellectual property rights concerning drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, personal protective equipment, and other medical technologies throughout the pandemic and this proposal is still pending.” # ⚓ Lawsuit_alleges_Apple_biometrics_infringe_patents, claims_against_Amazon_sent_to_arbitration [Ed: Apple is evil not just because of its mass surveillance agenda (it misleads the public by misusing the words) but also this whole extremist patent agenda, which it willfully facilitates]⠀⇛ Apple is being sued in a patent dispute by Gesture Technology Partners for allegedly violating five patents related to mobile phone cameras with its Face ID biometrics, according to a report by AppleInsider. The suit has been filed in the Western District of Texas, which has been identified as the newly-favored jurisdiction for non- practicing entities (or ‘patent trolls’) by industry organization Patent Progress. # ⚓ Core_One_Labs_Prepares_First_in_Series_of_Patent Applications⠀⇛ With the completion of its initial studies, Core One’s subsidiary has assembled the necessary data from its research and development program on biosynthetic psilocybin production systems in order to commence the process of preparing and filing its first patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). [...] The Company’s research team is continuing to develop new strategies to optimize expression of its proprietary DNA expression system that encodes the enzymes responsible for native psilocybin production in psychedelic mushrooms. # ⚓ Efficient_Infringement_and_the_Rule_of_Law [Ed: It is a disgrace that journals would print smear campaign and words like "Efficient Infringement" to insinuate some companies that strive for sane patent law are just guilty and reckless]⠀⇛ These comments were presented at the Federalist Society’s 2020 National Lawyers Convention at the panel titled “Intellectual Property Rights and the Rule of Law”. They address a trending narrative that casts opposition to the demands of patent holders as a form of lawlessness. This narrative specifically takes aim at a practice that has been termed “efficient infringement” – the idea that a firm may rationally decide to infringe patents either because it will be too costly for the patent holder to enforce its rights in court, or because it is happy to take its chances in court, where an asserted patent may be invalidated and where damages eventually assessed against the infringer years later will likely be no higher than the royalties that the infringer would have paid anyway under a licensing agreement. Reasonable people can differ over optimal patent scope and policy. Likewise, the PTO and the PTAB can issue and uphold more or fewer patents, and the courts can interpret the Patent Act in ways that we like or dislike. Reasonable people can also seek change through litigation, legislation and administrative channels. All of these mechanisms are organic parts of our tripartite system of government. We will never have a situation in which all partisan interests are equally happy with the rules or the outcome of every case – this is part and parcel of an adversarial legal system. But this is no reason to question the legitimacy of the system itself. So, far from a departure from the rule of law, what we see today in the patent system is the operation of a well-functioning legal regime seeking to address the interests of competing, but largely law-abiding, stakeholders. # ⚓ Webinar_on_Amendments_to_the_Israeli_Patent_Law⠀⇛ Reinhold Cohn and the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) will be offering a webinar entitled “Amendments to the Israeli Patent Law — A Call to the Public from the Israel Ministry of Justice” on February 16, 2021 from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm (Eastern) and 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm (Israel Time). David Gilat of the Reinhold Cohn Group will moderate a program consisting of the following three sessions: (1) a general review of the Ministry of Justice call to the public; (2) workshops in virtual breakout rooms, allowing participants to concentrate on subjects of particular interest; and (3) an open discussion for questions. # ⚓ FOSS_Patents:_Annotated_translation_of_referral_to ECJ_of_availability_of_preliminary_injunctions_over battle-untested_patents:_Munich_I_Regional_Court⠀⇛ Earlier this week I translated what, if affirmed (as I hope), will be a landmark antitrust ruling by the Munich I Regional Court against Google in the health information context. Last month I had already reported on another key decision from Munich: a preliminary reference to the European Court of Justice of a question concerning the availability of preliminary injunctions over battle-untested patents. Note that the reasons for the two occurrences of the word “preliminary” in the previous sentence are independent of each other: the term “preliminary reference” describes the presentation of questions of EU law to the bloc’s top court by a national court regardless of whether such reference occurs in connection with preliminary injunctions or (which is almost always the case) in a full- blown proceeding just prior to final judgment. “Preliminary” means that the ECJ answers the question, and then the national court resumes its proceedings and enters its judgment, as opposed to a traditional appeal from a final judgment. When I saw the question referred to the ECJ, I already noticed that it was very well written, and I wish the Dusseldorf Regional Court had done a similarly good job in that Nokia v. Daimler case (I agree with the Dusseldorf court’s intent, but in terms of craftsmanship, the Munich court’s work is–though I oppose its objective and had serious issues with that Munich panel last year over what I considered to be insufficient coronavirus prevention measures–hands-down superior by virtue of its clarity, structure, and focus). The companies and organizations advocating proportionality in patent remedies should think hard about whether this referral to Luxembourg presents an opportunity to raise proportionality issues under the EU directive in question. There may not be another opportunity to challenge Germany’s near- automatic patent injunction regime before the top EU court for years, given that I don’t expect any regional or higher regional court to refer a proportionality-centric question to the ECJ. A court of final appeal would theoretically have to refer questions of EU law to the ECJ, but practically there are reasons why that could also take many years or never happen at all, the most important one of which is that German patent cases are typically settled early on. # § Software Patents⠀➾ # ⚓ Canadian_Patent_Law_2020:_A_Year_in_Review [Ed: Canada adopting (or trying to adopt) what EPO "Mafia" used to push for software patents in spite of their illegality ("problem-solution"): "new guidelines to computer-implemented inventions"]⠀⇛ 2020 was an unusual year by all accounts. In this article we take a look back at developments in Canadian patent law in the past year, including the Government of Canada’s and the Canadian Patent Office’s response to COVID-19, the Canadian Patent Office’s new guidelines for patentable subject matter and some notable judgements from the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal. [...] The Commissioner opted not to appeal Choueifaty. Instead, the Canadian Patent Office released new guidelines on patentable subject matter and provided a set of examples demonstrating the application of the new guidelines to computer-implemented inventions, medical diagnostic methods and medical uses on November 3, 2020. # ⚓ A_Clearview_AI_Patent_Application_Describes Facial_Recognition_For_Dating,_And_Identifying Drug_Users_And_Homeless_People [Ed: Clearview are evil not just because of what they do but also the pursuit of fake patents using buzzwords like “HEY HI”]⠀⇛ Clearview AI, the facial recognition company that claims it’s scraped 3 billion images from the internet to power its face-matching system, has proposed applying its technology to everything from policing to retail to dating, according to a 2020 patent application that became public on Thursday. The patent filing was made in August — three months after the company said in a federal court that it would take voluntary actions to “avoid transacting with non-governmental customers anywhere.” The patent application, however, describes ways to apply its facial recognition software to the private sector as well as to law enforcement and social work, where it says it could be used to possibly identify people who use drugs or people experiencing homelessness. # ⚓ Of_‘Authorless_Works’_and_‘Inventions_without Inventor’_–_The_Muddy_Waters_of_‘AI_Autonomy’_in Intellectual_Property_Doctrine [Ed: Some journals would print fluff, buzzwords and hype wave like "Hey Hi" instead of talking in actual, technical terms]⠀⇛ Artificial intelligence (AI) has entered all areas of our life, including creative production and inventive activity. Modern AI is used, inter alia, for the production of newspaper articles; the generation of weather, company, and stock market reports; the composition of music; the creation of visual arts; and pharmaceutical and medicinal research and development. Despite the exponential growth of such real- world scenarios of artificial creativity and inventiveness, it is still unclear whether the output of creative and inventive AI processes – i.e., AI- generated ‘works’ and ‘inventions’ – should be protected under cop- yright or patent law. Current doctrine largely denies such protection on the grounds that no human crea- tor exists in cases where AI functions autonomously in the sense of being independent of and uncontrolled by humans. More recently, both the European Parliament and the EU Commission have put the topic on their agenda. Interestingly, their positions seem to contradict each other – one in favour of, one against creating new instruments of protection for AI- generated output. This and the rising debate in legal schol- arship (with equally contradictory positions) invites more analysis. A closer look at the doctrinal founda- tions and economic underpinnings of ‘work without author’ and ‘invention without inventor’ scenarios reveals that neither the law as it stands nor scholarly debate is currently up to the challenges posed by AI creativity and inventiveness. # ⚓ Program_on_Patenting_Artificial_Intelligence [Ed: Patent litigation and extortion zealots and profiteers are teaching how to get illegal software patents by calling these "Hey Hi" (AI hype)]⠀⇛ The Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago (IPLAC) International Relations Committee and Japan Patent Attorneys’ Association (JPAA) will be presenting a program entitled “Patenting Artificial Intelligence (AI) inventions in Japan and the US” on February 17, 2021 from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm (CST). Daryl Lim, Professor of Law, UIC/John Marshall Law School and Patrick G. Burns of Greer, Burns & Crain, Chicago will moderate a panel consisting of Takeshi Iizuka, Executive Director, JPAA; Naoki Okumura of Nakamura & Partners; Atsuko Miura of Tokai Patent Law Firm; and Ryan Phelan of Marshall Gerstein will provide a presentation about AI patents in Japan, a presentation about AI patents in the U.S., and a panel discussion with questions and comments. # § Copyrights⠀➾ # ⚓ Give_something_from_the_heart_to_the_public_domain⠀⇛ Did you know that most of the articles published on Opensource.com are licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0? One of the biggest reasons our editorial team decided on this license over 10 years ago is because we support the idea that the best content is shared content. As we strive to be open, our goal is for any many people as possible to have access to the information we’re putting out there to support our mission to help others learn and grow and to explore new open source worlds. So, what does this have to do with Valentine’s Day (or Friend’s Day in Finland)? # ⚓ Amazon_&_eBay_Make_Progress_With_Their_Pirate Streaming_Box_Problem⠀⇛ After being heavily criticized due to the prevalence of pirate streaming devices offered for sale on their platforms, Amazon and eBay now appear to be getting on top of the problem. While they haven’t been completely eliminated, illegal devices are now much harder to find. The same cannot be said of pirate IPTV subscriptions, however. # ⚓ Cox_Appeals_$1_Billion_Piracy_Damages_Verdict, Doesn’t_Have_to_Pay_Yet⠀⇛ Cox Communications has decided to appeal the $1 billion jury verdict in its piracy liability lawsuit against several major record labels. The Internet provider characterized the amount as “shockingly excessive” and successfully requested to delay the potential payment while appeals are pending. # ⚓ Police_Around_Asia_Crack_Down_on_Pirate_IPTV_With Raids_&_Arrests⠀⇛ Police in Taiwan say they have arrested nine people in connection with a pirate streaming operation that captured Japanese TV content and distributed it to pirate set-top devices. Meanwhile, police in Thailand raided five premises, seizing 100 receivers, decoders and satellite dishes believed to be supplying TV and movie content to an IPTV provider. ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ ¶ Lines in total: 7018 ➮ Generation completed at 02:32, i.e. 68 seconds to (re)generate ⟲